Daily life in Jakarta

Different things one might see in day to day life in Jakarta;

1st up motorbikes, now the indo's use motorbikes for transporting almost everything, this guy is carrying chickens in a specially designed motorbike chicken carrying box i was on my way home from work when i got this bike.


and here is how one keeps sun off your face while travelling in the back of a pick up.


this is how they deliver ice to shops and so on. On the back of a treadly, he then hacks off large chunks for each shop or vendor, i find that i get the squirts every time i drink anything with this ice in it for some reason.


goat satay shop (sate kambing).... just behind my boy in the background were 2 legs of goat hanging .....

Keystone Cops Situation

In quite a number of countries around the world, particularly Asia, the process of schools and teachers getting all the right approvals and permits can be a lengthy one. Quite often a teacher has to start working before they are strictly 'legal'.

Yesterday a rather comedic situation developed at my school. We have about half dozen new teachers whose work/residence permits, called KITAS in Indonesia, have not been fully processed as yet.

Some officials from one of governement agencies arrived (I don't know which one). A message was sent to the few teachers without the KITAS and they had to go and hide in the staff housing behind the school.

Then the officials found a phone list of various teachers and their internal extension numbers, so wanted to know who the missing teachers were and where they were......

so the office staff have also been running around hiding so they don't have to answer questions!

**someone told me I should video this, speed it up 3x and then play benny hill music in the background! :) **

The officials remained in the reception area for a number of hours, turns out that they wanted to speak to our head principal (for a hand out, no doubt) .

Last year some guys arrived and demanded an amount of money (special tax for foreigners workign at our school) - according to them we had 40 odd foreigners working, we said no, how did you get that number? They had merely counted all the white faces in the department photos on the wall not realising that a number of staff were counted twice because they teach in more than one department......

I guess our white faces all look the same! haha

Need a workman...part 2

As a follow up.

They did come, they looked at it and went "Ooooh"

I suppose that's a bit of a warning sign.

Then they asked me if I had a step ladder? WTF ? Didn't they come prepared? silly me! They arrived on a motorcycle. 2 technicians one motorcyc - I guess not much room for tools to do the job.

anyways, they poked around abit, asked me to sign a report saying they had seen it and they'll check with the owner again .....

and left.

Need a workman...

In general, getting a homehandy man or repairer around in Asia is much easier and quicker, not to say cheaper than in Western countries.

However, it can have some difficulties also, the 2nd floor bathroom has been leaking water through the ceiling into the living room, I discovered this wednesday evening.

So I asked one of the secretaries at work to ring to get it fixed the next day, a numpty came out looked at it and said broken pipe in the wall.

No shit sherlock - fix it will ya?

He decided they'll fix it Monday - no - i need it fixed now.

So eventually we arrange them to arrive 8.00am Saturday morning - cos i'm going out later to watch the rugby.

8.00am I get a call - what time do i want them to come over. NOW, I says, oh umm ok the technicians will be there at 9.00

9.15 i get a call - the technicians will be there after lunch

Not good enough i said come now!

The water is dripping through an electric light. The ceiling has a metre sized wet patch around the light - i don't want it collapsing in.

anyway - they said they'll call back in 10 mins.....

hmmmmmmmmm.

still waiting.

They did call back, 40 minutes later, this time the technicians will be there, umm, err (I'm sure she is just making up a time from the top of her head) maybe about 11.00am

Is this ok?

Now i wanted to scream and shout and say "NO, it is not ok, whatever happened to 8.00am?"

but that would only have a negative effect.

So I politely sigh and say yes.

She apologised about the times.

Lets see what happens now.....

Hobbies...

Hobbies.....

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Well, more of a project really. As a kid I used to love making plastic model air planes and tanks etc.... I used to always say I'd love to make a wooden model ship one day. And so, one day my wife bought me a kit for my birthday. I have been working on it for years ..... . drilling, hammering, gluing, sculpting etc. I find that I work on it in short bursts.... and other times don't touch it.

Apart from some of the metal pieces, I pretty much need to build, cut to length and shape and generally construct everything.....

Really enjoy it - and it looks good (IMO)

Anyway - last week or two I've been excited again about it - so thought I'd post some piccies. (dont have them all from the beginning tho....)

here is the oldest pic I have - the hull has been completed (internal ribs plus 2 layers of planks) - some pieces on the decking have been built and added.Building the masts.....
building and adding the spars to the rear-most mastan action shot.... me working on the boat.I've been working on the rigging and netting .....will add more as I go, but dont hold your breathe ...haha - this is already a 4 year project!

............................................

some updated pics, i've added the sails for the backmast,

and now began to fashion all of the remaining cross mast pieces!

Be careful with Language

My school is currently looking at implementing a new house system and part of that involves naming the various houses. The teachers involved have decided to allow the students to choose the house names eg Indonesian Islands, Indonesian folk heroes, etc.

The student bulletin this morning there was a note from said teachers that said some of their best entries so far are related to birds, 'Garuda', 'Cendrawasih' and 'Burung Enggang'.

What they did not realise is that Burung is also Indonesian slang for 'penis' ........

I think that is 1 point to the students and 0 points to the expat teachers.

lost in translation or helpful harry

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There has been a number of house robberies around these parts lately, in one case a mate had everything in the house taken, including his shoes and the chocolates in the fridge....

So when I went away last week (for 2 weeks) I didnt wanna tell the newspaper guy to cancel my newspaper for 2 weeks, bit like advertising you're gonna be away and for how long.

So I asked the maid to get next doors maid to collect my paper each morning.....the 50 cents for a paper not read each day sounded like good insurance...

turns out she explained the entire story to the delivery guy on his push bike and told him to just push the papers each day under the door instead....

Thanks Pembantu!

PS - but lucky i didnt get robbed , this time.

A visit to the Dusit zoo in Bangkok

We visited the Dusit Zoo last week, now, despite living in Thailand for a number of years I had never been here before. It is in central bangkok on Rama V road, maybe a 70 baht trip in a taxi. 100 baht for me and 50 baht for Ryan to get in. It was certainly interesting enough, the cages were not too small (for a zoo in the centre of a large Asian city) .

It also had a large lake (hire paddle boats, of course), fountains, shady trees etc, so can also be a good escape from the noise and heat of Bangkok.

Enjoying an icecream on a rather hot day!

Fried Bananas in an Orange Caramel Desert

Orange Bananas Desert

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Here is a real quick and real easy dessert to cook up. All you need is some bananas
Oranges
flour
Butter
Brandy
Dark Sugar
Raw Sugar
Brandy
Ice cream or cream

Start by grating the zest of 2 oranges, then squeeze the juice outta them also.

Melt a great hunk of butter in a decent pan ( about 50 or 100 grams, I guess)

Lightly dust the bananas in the flour

Place bananas into pan for about 5 mins on a low heat.

Pour the sugar into the pan over the bananas ( about a handful each )

Allow the sugar to melt and then once it starts to caramelize ( you'll see it bubbling ) pour the orange juice into the pan along with the orange peel.

Allow the sauce to thicken - add a splash or too of some cooking brandy, not too early mind, you dont want to evaporate the alcohol all away...

It should take about 15 mins or so.

Add to a pan, pour sauce over top, add icecream to taste and enjoy.

NB : the maid or wife can clean the mess now.

more airport trouble...

travel agent had booked me on a 7pm flight - i arrived that day at about 4ish.... a few days before I emailed him to confirm which airport I flew out of.... Don Muang

- so he then rescheduled my flight to the 9pm flight so as I wouldnt miss it if traffic was bad etc.....

An hour before i was leaving Jakarta he sent me an email to say he had rebooked me for the 7pm flight for some reason.

OK. I arrive, travel directly to DM. get to the check in desk and the girl asks me what time is my flight?

I said 7.00pm, (it was now 6.30) - she replies with "that flight leaves from Suvanamhumi airport not DM."

What??? Oh no. you are kidding!"

fortunately - she managed to rebook me onto the 9.00pm flight which did leave from DM, so a few boring hours at the airport.

PS - and just to make life interesting the ATM swallowed my card, and the hotel had lost my booking!

Welcome to Thailand!

Siam Parrots Chiang Mai Cricket report

Sat. morning and the CM boys pick us up at 9am. Out to Prem school. Weather lovely and cool with rain looking likely. Parrots only had 7 and borrowed 3 CM fellas. Won the toss, Vick suggested batting first and then the rain will come. Good plan. 35 overs each

Badsheila and Sledge to open. BS out first over tryingg to hit the ball to Burma. Sledge takes a pounding on the body, hits a four and is eventualy out in about the 9th over - 9 runs, highest score for the parrots - bloody well batted!. I come in and score bugger all, out off the glove down leg side again! Prez strolls in and looks like he last batted yesterday, not 6 months ago, timing straight drives, flicks off the legs and a glorious back foot cover drive. Can't remember how out but a lovely 25 odd - all class. Nick leaves the first ball and thus attains his best score at Prem. Gets hit flush on the box with a very loud slap of leather on plastic which brought fits of laughter from all. Batted well before being caught behind. Only had 10 players and all out for 145.

Looking at a comfortable defeat I reckoned - well, at least we'd have our work cut out for us anyway

CMCC paid for our lunch - wicked spread

Vick and Nick open the bowling and bowl great lines and toke 2 wickets each including Coombesy and 2 other dangerous "Irishstanis". Bowled their 7 overs straight and we're back in the game.
Who to bowl next? look around and see Badsheila (maybe), Prez (sure), Tom K (told me he doesn't really want to bowl) Ring ins (didn't seem to be too trustworthy, best to go with Parrots), Me (shlt, might have to. Wait there must be someone else...) ...Sledge -
" Prez, you're bowling next and Pete you're taking the gloves!!!"

Prez gets a wicket in the first over and we're running around like a very excited Parrot team does. I buy a couple of wickets and when the Prez's height guidance system packs in and they start reaching Goodchap at head height on the full, we use one of the ring ins to try to get the last 2 wickets for victory while they need 22 runs - very exciting!

History will show that we lost by 2 wickets but it was tempered by the fact that 2 home grown local Thai lads calmly and cleverly got Chiang Mai home (including a massive six off yours truly) and secured the first ever Town and Country Challenge Trophy. The Thai boys did what the others were struggling with. It was very fitting.

Throughout the game I was fantasising about how sweeter this day would have been with the likes of DC, Scully, Justin, Strunky, Slatts, Raja, Princy, Neil - hell all of the Parrots actually. For one we would have had a full 11 and secondly we could have put on a good parrot performance on a beautiful wicket and ground during a rainless day in the mid 20's temperature wise. It was a very entertaining match with a close finish in bloody pleasant conditions. We all want to get back up there in December when the weather is perfect.

Tom K brought some Vodka from Ukraine and the Prez gave the President's award to Deano. Sledge failed to deliver vodka yet again and Wally nearly throttled him when he offered a bottle of 100 pipers instead!!!