Random thoughts in Jakarta

The school tailor has finished the kids uniforms at last, the delay was due to the flooding. Here they all are in their new uniforms. Ben had a good 4 inches taken off the length of his polo shirts, they were like a dress on him. The girls are pleased to have found matching hair accessories, because you know it is VERY important to co-ordinate your hair accessories with your clothes! LOL





This is a picture out our unit's window, there is two men climbing up this tower with absolutely no safety apparatus! The lower man was descending after carrying up the thing that was as big as him, which is now strapped to the other man. That is not blue sky behind them, it is storm clouds.....

I am becoming immune to the sights of multiple passengers on motor bikes. It almost standard now to have two or three people on 1 bike. But, yesterday morning I was struck speechless.... A baby, no more than 4-5 months old strapped in front of the driver with a cloth belt. The driver was driving so nothing was securing this baby but a mini sarong. This is in peak hour when the pollution is horrendous.




The girls and Ben are already starting to change the names of things. They now ask for "ketchup" instead of tomato sauce at restaurants (we eat at very high-class places), they want to "pee" instead of going to the toilet and lollies are now "candy".


The school encourages the kids to be very active which is great. The girls do inter house competitive sports during lunch (this is for fun) as well as after school sport and Tae Kwondow on Thursdays. The teachers told me that alot of the kids have the latest computer games and PlayStation's etc and nannies, so are very inactive at home.
Which is just as well as lunch box snacks are SSOOOOO cheap. Little candy bars, mini chips, biscuits etc are all about 5-10c a packet.
Similar types of products use to cost about 80c up to $1.50 each. With 3 lunch boxes a day, five days a week they didn't often get bought snacks (or popular ones that tasted fantastic and were full of sugar).
They still get their sandwich and a piece of fruit (which they must eat first!!!!) but now they get some great treats as well. Here is a link to our lunch boxs in Australia.


I have noticed that there are hardly any birds in Jakarta. We were so use to seeing and hearing birds all day and night in Brisbane. I hope I can encourage some to visit when we are in our new house.

It looks like we won't be in our house for the another three weeks. The boat arrives tonight, BUT customs needs GJ's passport for 4-5 working days and he is flying off to Singapore on Sunday for a week. So it looks like anywhere from March 11th onwards assuming that there is no delays and bribes are paid quickly. I will be having my birthday in the hotel. GJ will have to bring me some champagne back from Singapore. I have not had a drop of bubbles since my arrival in Indonesia (don't worry I have found a few substitutes....)

We are hoping that Janny, Tan Tan and Robbie are coming at the end of March as the kids will be on a two week holiday. We will be in the house by then!!!

Positive thinking, positive thinking.....