Thursday, June 12, 2008

Jakarta International airport

I have found something good about Jakarta International airport........I know, what a shock!

There is a great little hole in the the wall shop that does reflexology.........

45 minutes of excruciating bliss for about $8.

It is just as well as I had a great experience as I have had a bad one at Singapore......

I was supposed to have a 1 hour stop here BUT I have been here for 3 hours already and still have another 2.5 hours before my flight. My flight got canceled.

I was scheduled to sitting just behind business class; but I have been bumped back to the very last row.........

A direct flight from Jakarta to Sydney is about 7.5 hours if you go Qantas.......this little jaunt will be 24 hours door to door. OMG. Usually Singapore Airlines is so good.

Nobody had better upset me, because I will be/am very tired and cranky.

A boy centric party.....

We had a wonderful stress busting party on Sunday night. It was to be my last chance to catch up with our bloggy friends , Shannon, Dave and Co before they head off on their next posting to Germany.
As it was a school might for all the kids (and me!!!) we started and finished early.
It is a great feeling to go to bed and feel like you have had a long fun filled evening and find it is only 7.15pm.


The girls were in for a shock though....for the first time they were outnumbered!
There was 9 fun filled exuberant boys running around

And only 4 girls. This is the girls after too much exposure to boys...they locked themselves in the toy room for some time out. Look at the grumpy faces,
The girls have coined a new phrase for ALL boys-"Jack-Jack". This is from the Pixar movie The Incredibles. Jack Jack is the angelic looking baby that turns into a flaming demon.....the girls view on All boys.
I wonder how long they will think that for???????

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

GJ got the drill out


I have had a few things framed over the last six months and GJ finally had time to get them all hung. Most of this is in our bedroom, I have run out of wall space downstairs.
The batiks are old, sourced from around Indonesia by my regular dealer Pak Anis.
Anis attends most of the ladies bazaars around town and can do a private showing if needed.
The little acrylics are from a street vendor in Jogjakarta, I think I paid 14 000Rp each, around $1.55. They are exquisite and quite textured.
The little shelf is from ibu Sabine and is just perfect next to my desk.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Thin bookcases

I have had some bookcases made, and I am most impressed!
Roberts furniture made them for only slightly more than road side vendors quoted. They are made from aged teak and come with a guarantee.
I have made them the exact size for books and DVD's. No wasted space or dust collection areas.
The cases are only 20cm deep and shelves are 25cm apart for paperbacks and DVD's, 30cm for hard covers.

Short vowels


My focus for this school term has been short and long vowels.
We have been doing a variety of crafts to match the English sounds to short vowels.
This is my classroom....LOL it is a little sun room at the end of the library and I think it is the best spot in the whole school.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Sydney here I come....

I have just booked my flights for a trip home to Sydney. I will be gone 19 days...I don't think I have ever left my babies for that long! My sweetie friend has found me a nanny for the kids while I am away...(GJ has begged him to, so they can go out while I am away....).

My mum is not doing well mentally.

The dementia has hit a new level and she now doesn't recognize hunger. Breakfast is a deeply ingrained habit but lunch has now gone, as well as dinner if my sister is late home from work. Grooming and time frames (ie what day, what week, what month) went last month. We are moving in to winter in Sydney and we have the added worry of the gas heater........

My sister is stretched to breaking point.

Mum is a self funded retiree, ie no pension. This means accessing the governments program of aged care services is harder. We have to be assessed by a geriatrician Dr....who I booked in March and has canceled the appoint 3 times....... before we can even begin to get on the government programs.

Tanya is the sole carer of my mum and she works full time in the city......

I have also morphed into the boogie woman. As I am the one who has to be blunt about the dementia, who has to push the boundaries about aging and moving, I have been the scary change person.

Mum has now decided that there is nothing wrong with her and she is not moving into a retirement home....she decided this when she heard that I was coming again.

Change is scary when you have dementia, being forced along is even more scary. It is far easier to blame the person that is pushing rather than face reality.

Some of mums friends think the move might be too much for her; it will.
We know it will lead to the next stage of dementia.

We have no choice.

Tan needs a life.

She has no social life at the moment, she works full time and is a full time carer the rest of the time. We have looked at options of bringing mum over here to live with us, but logistically it is just not possible. She has friends and a boyfriend in Sydney and would be lost in such a different country.

So I am going home to help out and to deflect the defiance of a 4 year old trapped in my mums body. I am mean and cruel and forcing her to do things that she thinks she doesn't want but it is the right thing to do.
I know all my family in Heaven are looking down and nodding. It is the right thing to do, but it is so hard to be thought of as a pushy, ungrateful, mean, eldest daughter.
There is the grand total of three on my side of the family...Mum, Tan and I.
Every one else has died.
I want the best for my mum as well as my sister.

So this has been a very stressful last few weeks....
Most know when there is not much blog action it means I am stressed.
I have these 3 huge pimples on my face...I am 32+++++ whats going on...stress.

So some good points
With in a week I will have shops filled with cold champagne which actually have bubbles in them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( Duty free (bottle) shops are in an on off again prohibition style lock down here).
I will be freezing......oh my this is so exciting, I haven't been cold for nearly 3 years!!!!!!
Tonight we am having a party at home.....I love parties!

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Computer cables


I am swapping over office desks at the moment.........
I gazed in disbelief at the horrible mess of cables and cords that sat behind my computer...
Surely there must be an easier way to connect a pc, laptop, printer, speakers, web cam and cable modem etc than this...........

note...if you look closely you can see where the wall sockets are coming out of the wall, they have from before we moved in...this is the norm here.......

Monday, June 02, 2008

Ben, a cat and a hamster....

The kids had a sleep over at a friends house on Saturday night.

This family has a pet kitten (nearly a cat) and a hamster. The hamster has an impressive two story cage-mansion. The cat is very curious about the hamster and looks lovingly at all the hamsters neat toys.

Ben thought that the cat wanted to play with the hamster so opened the hatch and let the cat into the hamsters cage....and then got distracted and left.

The mother of the house (moth) came downstairs at some horrendously early time on Sunday morning to find the cat thinking hard about how to go down a cage level to get the hamster.....as well as freaking out about being in a cage.

Luckily Moth came down just in time to rescue all.
All it took was a little tail pulling......

GJ, having a very, VERY strong aversion to rodents and cats asked Ben why he didn't drag the cage out to the pool and let the animals have a swim......


Wait till I tell GJ that the cat got into bed with a sleeping Ben and he snuggled him because a mean daddy decided not to let him take his puppy and blankie...