Happy Holidays

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ We Wish You a Merry♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Christmas♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ We Wish You a Merry ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪Christmas ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ We Wish You A Merry ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪Christmas ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ ...And A Happy New Year! ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪...

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ♥ ♥ ♥♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

Christmas Eve and Day 2008

Due to the unusually cool weather, I decided to cook a roast pork dinner for Christmas eve.

Oh my goodness it was good!

Quiet a few of our friends from Jakarta are holidaying in Sydney over the Christmas break. We were honored to be able to show our German friends what a hot, Australian Christmas is like. The kids were ecstatic to have their friends here .

After the best roast pork, ever, the kids performed a music extravaganza for us. The piano got a work out as did the recorder, harmonica, drum sticks as well as some tribal dances and a good rendition of the Hakka.

We had a wonderful feast, good company and food made for a lovely Christmas.

Santa was very generous to all and managed to keep the stash to luggage sized proportions....he is very organized.

Manly to Circular Quay ferry

We took the kids for a ferry ride across Sydney Harbour. I think it was their first trip across Sydney Harbour! It was a perfect day for it.
I grew up close to Manly and a favourite teenage activity was to catch the ferry across the harbour during rough swells.....
We had lunch at the The Harbour View Hotel

I got to love all over this gorgeous 12 month old boy!


Ben refused to co-operate for any family photos, as usual lol.


We then got to walk through the great weekend markets at The Rocks.


A wonderful day was had by all!

Sydney and Alzheimer's.

The kids and I are in Sydney and are juxtaposed between the joy of fresh air plus western supermarkets and the anguish of living with Alzheimer's. It is really tough to put it mildly.

I am stuck in the suburbs this week...I have not been to a mall in many weeks :(
Next week I should have a hire car and have some time out with the kids:)
And maybe some shopping time............

To end on a positive note, I got my uni grades:- two High Distinctions (the highest grade) and one Distinction (2nd highest grade). I have added a Science Communication major to my B.E.D degree, I will eventually be able to teach science and information tech/communication from year 1 through to year 10 as well as all primary teaching.

Sambolo Sanitarium

We just got back from a wonderful 4 day weekend at Sambolo.
We had Christmas carols, decorations, crackers and dvds!

I really needed a chill out!

Jakarta has been driving me crazy the last few weeks, probably why I haven't written too much on the blog lately......

• The lack of any wine under $50 a bottle,

• alot of imported foods gone,

• Exponential price rises across the board,

• The blonde tax.........times the price by 1000 for the 'bule' (westener) mentality,
  

• Trades people who fix a leaky toilet by painting the ceiling.

• Doing all the washing, cleaning, ironing, cooking etc in a 3rd world country while working part time and studying full time----very different to doing it in Australia.
  

(yes, I have no staff........January I will be looking for some help)

I do not like to feel so negative!

I need a break so I can come back and rediscover all the joys of Indonesia!

The kids and I will be spending a few weeks in Sydney over Christmas, we all can not wait to go to a supermarket and gaze at all the available foods (we will feel at home as the local fruit shop sells imported tropical fruit including durian!)

The six seasons!

I mentioned back in November that we were starting class focus on the six seasons...yes there are six seasons, well at least if you are in my classes lol.
Here in the tropics, it is hot and wet or hot and dry. For the kids who have grown up in this part of the world, spring, autumn and winter are unknown seasons.
We have had the best fun learning and researching about seasons and making our display.
It is a big concept for the kids to grasp that December is winter in the Northern hemisphere and summer in the Southern.

Our next bit of end of year fun was 3d snow flakes. I found the instructions on Becks blog last year, but I can't find the link now:(

Here are instructions from another source)

I can not tell you how many of these cute things I have made, how many instruction sheets I have handed out, how many have been made in the playground or at kids homes.........but I would guess at thousands! We have found that using recycled paper makes a great looking snowflake; woman's magazines and newspapers work well. In Australia we will be buying some red and green paint and splashing old newspapers to make snowflakes then decorating with them.

The great Wii saga.......

Shhh don't tell this story to my in-laws and Robbie in Brisbane. I will explain why later.



We decided to enter the game console market this Christmas and after much MUCH discussion we decided on a Nintendo Wii and then let Santa know.

The reason we went with the Wii is that the operator has to move, there is not much sitting down and vegging in front of the screen. There is a sensor that picks up movement that sits on or below the TV screen. The kids play golf, boxing, bowling dancing and many other games and they are moving at all times!


We started to investigate units here in Jakarta and found 2 types, the Japaneses model was cheaper but set up was all in Japaneses, although games played in English. There was an US console which was far more expensive and requires a power thingy as the power was different to Indonesia. With all these products I would have no idea whether or not I was buying an original licensed product, that worked and had a warranty.....



Then there was the good old Target Australia Christmas special games bundle. We went with it, Dear in-laws family A purchased it for Santa and Robbie delivered it to us, sans any clothes because there was no room left in his luggage after loading up 3 large boxes......


The kids were delighted!!!!!!!!!! they had a game console...Santa was VERY clever.
We soon ventured out to get some more games, the unit only came with 2. We stocked up and found out that no games in Indonesia play on our unit.....real or copies.

It has something to do with Pal/Nstc regions........or gobbledygook. My options were to give my unit over to one of the shops and leave it with them for a few days to "modify"it and then hope that the games would work.


Based on previous experiences in Ratu Plaza I was not overly fond of that option, who knew what I would get back!
Plus there was no guaranty that any games would work.


I checked up on the trusty Australian Target web site and found games retailed between $50 and $100+ EACH. Even the original, authentic games in Indonesia cost much less than that.
To buy 4-5 games in Australia would be the same as buying a new unit.


So we have been sitting on this information for 2 weeks now not knowing what to do.
We finally made a decision yesterday on what to do...


This is the bit where you can't tell SHHHHH

My in-laws gave up a Sunday morning to face a CROWDED Westfield Mall 2 weeks before Christmas to purchase the unit.
Robbie gave up clothes in his luggage to deliver unit.....


I went out and bought a whole new American unit yesterday, and games and dance mats and power converters...we now have a Wii that plays games and that the kids are ecstatic with and a forlorn Wii that will sit in a box in my cupboard until I can work out what to do with it.

I feel cranky and sick about the wasted time, money and effort and I want to blame in on someone or have a hissy fit. But who?

Pasaraya Grande

I have a really feel-good story about Pasaraya Grande.


We had a small shopping marathon with Tan, Rob, GJ and myself just before Christmas. We split up; Tan and I one way and the men the other.
As Robs ankle was still very tender we thought that the boys would be finished way before us (we actually thought we could do Seneyan City as well).
After about 1.5 hours Tan and I were laden down with just a few bags…LOL….we met up with the boys and gave them our shopping bags as they were taking the car and going home. After another hour we ran in to the guys (they were still drooling over the mens shoes…any one that knows these two would understand how out of character it is for them to be shopping let alone drooling over shoes!
We all had lunch and went home to view our great sale purchases. I had a few pairs of SENSIBLE shoes ( I love Rockport!) and Tan with half of this years collection of ladies Polo shirts….or so she thought!
Tan had finally managed to find the ultimate blue pin strip ladies business shirt in her size (we had searched most of Jogjakarta and Jakarta for said garment).
When we arrived home we found a bag missing, the bag that contained the ultimate Ralph Lauren shirt….
The guys shrugged and denied all responsibility…..but we knew, girls do not loose shopping bags of on sale merchandise.
Two days later we head back to Pasaraya Grande to repurchase the ultimate blue pin striped ladies business shirt and on a off chance check with the section to see if it had been handed in. It hadn’t but they referred us to customer enquires who didn’t have it either but referred us to customer service who DID have it!

There was much hand shaking and thanks going on in this room (we did stop off on our way home from a champagne brunch at the Ritz Carlton).
It was so nice to have our faith in honesty reaffirmed.

New Years Eve 2007 to 2008

I sort of missed it……

I mentioned before that I wasn’t feeling too good after Christmas, I was worried that Typhoid had returned. But luckily it hadn’t!
I was a tiny bit taken aback when the Dr chuckled and started to joke about how many different types of bacteria I was playing host to. So yet another course of antibiotics were needed, this time I have found some pro-biotics and multi vitamins to assist in my recovery.

I can’t not remember ever being as sick and in pain as often as I have since Sept 1st (broken ankle day).
It is lucky we love living in Indonesia and can easily forgive all the health atrocities it has inflicted.

So New Years Eve…….I missed out on a ring side seat to a magnificent fireworks display, great company, nice food and quite a few bottles of Moet champagne………
I stayed at home…with four kids (GJ had a great time at the party next door but forgot that 4 kids can’t look after themselves). Don’t worry, he is not in trouble for wrongly assuming that those 4 kids (age 4 to 9) would just go to bed unassisted like he told them to do at 10pm………Ben finally agreed to get into bed with me at 11.30 so I could sleep (no idea what those 3 girls did…LOL).

So 2008 started with a fizzle for me , LOL. But I have high expectations for the rest of 2008.

I am looking forward to Bali in mid January, Sydney and Brisbane in March, and one other exotic new adventure in the summer holidays.

I have reduced my working to two days a week this year and hope to pick up a few courses at JICC just for me. Cooking, painting, languages, things that are creative and fun.

I am still contemplating going back to uni and completing a teaching degree ( I am a work place trainer ie adult educator, plus I have speech therapy background which I use at the kids school in return for fee relief). None of my diplomas are recognized as credit points for teaching so it would mean 4 years full time long distance education, which I don’t know that I want to commit to. This might be a 2009 project.

So 2008.…..bring it on!

I can’t wait to learn more of the language of Indonesia ands explore some of the other islands.

Anatolia Turkish restaurant, Jakarta

We had a great night out at Anatolia Turkish restaurant last Friday night. It was the first time we had been on a weekend night and we caught the belly dancing show (8.30 & 9.30pm). The food here is divine, no wonder it wins so many awards!
It is not cheap at all..very similar in prices to top Sydney restaurants BUT oh so wonderful food and decor!

Mom had a ball, she got up and danced with the beautiful belly dancer (Tan and T were both too shy!) The dancer was gorgeous, a really pretty sweet face and she danced wonderfully. The music was unusual; more Bollywood than Turkish.

Our Christmas Day in Jakarta

Christmas day started later than in Queensland....we weren't downstairs until 6.30pm...two whole hours later than usual LOL.( the sun doesn't rise here until about 5.45am)
Santa was very generous to all!

This is Janny's antique silver horse, Ben's connector thingy set and the girls Wii.


Lunch was a lovely selection of cold meat and seafood, and a little Moet!
There was the new Christmas tradition......table top dancing

The evening wound to a close with family reading. We all received a plethora of fantastic books


And then off to bed for a good nights sleep after a wonderful family day.

Rob's Christmas in Jakarta.........

The kids were so pleased that their favourite pool toy of all time came to visit!
Yet again I managed to get Rob the perfect gift that he didn't know he desperately need! I always try to get him something practical that when he opens I am sure he says in his head "what........". Last year it was an electric toothbrush. A week later he told me he was in love with it. This year I was almost stumped until he arrived and I realized that he can't fit his swollen ex broken ankle in shoes. He is now the proud owner of 2 pairs of Crocs! And he is a convert.....the poor thing has resisted getting any of these very ugly shoes for years, but now knows how supremely comfortable they are LOL.

Here we are comparing broken ankles.

Unfortunately I don't know if he will ever come back to Jakarta.....

On his first trip in June Rob picked up a Bali belly bug on his 2nd day. This trip Rob picked up a chest infection that left him as sick as I have ever seen. He and GJ only emerged briefly on Christmas day for presents and then food.

I will have to get him a big plastic disinfected bubble to walk around in if he ever comes back!
Luckily he is improving fast and is enjoying the last week in Bali.

(where we are going in mid January yipee!)

Things Tan Tan saw

Its great to have visitors and see things with fresh eyes.

Tan loves the flower stalls in Kemang as well as the 3 wheeled baja's.

On the bottom row are some goats along the side of the road waiting for Idul Adha

The Ritz Carlton Jakarta, Sunday Brunch

We have been kicking up our heels again at the Sunday brunch at the Ritz Carlton. It truly is a great place for meeting up with friends and VERY kid friendly.

There is always a free kids club for the kids, which they love.

Over Christmas, the kids club had a special theme of "Lunch with Mrs Claus". For a slightly exorbitant fee the kids got to play with Mrs Claus, decorate HUGE ginger bread cookies, receive photos and a goodie bag. As well as music, fun activities and story time. The kids participated on our first visit and just did the free stuff the next week.

These are the photos from the lunch with Mrs Claus, Tan loved how the kids lunch was served on a bain marie at kids height!
Here is some other photos of around the Ritz. We take K, our sweet junior maid with us (1st picture with my Mom)She makes sure Ben doesn't get into mischief. The kids club is through the foyer and across the hotel from brunch...I don't think that management would approve Ben running through to check on me LOL. I am pretty sure that K likes the food at the Ritz as much as we do.

All these photos are from two separate brunches we went to in December.

Ben is treated like royalty here....after drinking melted chocolate from a bowl (scooped from the chocolate fountain) a lovely waiter brought over linen napkins and gently wiped his grotty face!


The best thing about writing this is that I have already booked the next visit!

Blogging will resume today

I have been told by numerous sources that blogging HAS to recommence ASAP!

Today I will.

Do not expect greatness as the dreaded Typhoid has returned.
Silver lining......I have now lost 7kg (15.4 lb). Hope it stays lost.

I also need quiet a few hours to sort through the nearly 2000 photos I took in December!
Expect photos...many, MANY photos

Mangga Dua shopping

I had my first shopping experience at Mangga Dua last week. Mangga Dua is suburb in the northern section of Jakarta. It is renown as being a bargain shoppers paradise. It also has a large electronic and computer centre.

This centre was 7 stories high, packed to the rafters with EVERYTHING! There is not much fixed pricing, you need to bargain HARD. My friend Sharon took us and she gets her driver to come and help us bargain.
The array of fake designer handbags and shoes was enormous.

We finished the day off at Sharons favourite nail salon.....a quick manicure and pedicure for all.
The salon was KooKoo in Keb. Baru. It was a great place, not the cheapest but very professional.

Christmas carols at home

The girls treated us to an impromptu performance of Christmas carols the other night.
They were so cute!
Georgia, her friend AJ and Chelsea.

A big, HUGE night out in Jakarta

I had heaps of sentences planed for this post......
for starters...... what a fun family night at Amigos and how it developed into an all nighter......




BUT as I type GJ, ACE, JP and Tan and now CJ are off for another all nighter..............



Yes this this is the elusive Ace T
...having fun with my sister and my friend Jo


This is at 6am when they have arrived home and after I have grounded them.........

GJ was slightly tired.....
I did not let Tan tan sleep...we had to pick up CJ from the airport ( I didn't know what he looked like) so absolutely no sleep for her.

Here is Tan Tan and Janny at Tamman Anggrek after a quick shopping trip before getting to airport. Tan completely missed a nights sleep.

As I type this they have all just head out again for another night on the town.....they do have to be home by 3.30am as we have an early start for our Borobudur adventure....


I have the flu now...yes typhoid was not enough, we need to add the flu as well......

We are off to Jogjakarta tomorrow at an VERY early hour then we will be back...I am sure we will have LOTS of photos.

I am SSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sick, this is so hard to type.

Please read this now...I am sure I will come back from Jogjakarta and be mortified by my spelling and grammar mistakes and delete this post,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Flash flood in Kemang

A 5 min deluge flooded Kemang Raya for about 15 minutes this afternoon.

Here is Tan Tan on her second day in Jakarta.

First guests have arrived

Jan and Tan have arrived!!!!!!!!

Mom and sis got in late last night!

Now I have the internet access, but no time to post LOL!
Will have lots of photos soon.