Last night at the hotel.

We are checking out of the hotel tomorrow!!!!!!!

The Internet is still not connected, I hope it won't be long.

Furniture only took 1hr to deliver. It is amazing at how quick 25 men can unload 4 trucks.

Now the big job begins.

My House keeper,Ibu(Mrs) S starts tomorrow, and the man she has worked with for the last 14 years is starting on Monday. Pak(MR) S will look after the pool, garden and heavy cleaning which means I will be able to get rid of the current pool person (the one who wants to charge me over 1million rupiah for part time work).

I felt strange vibes from the current pool guy. He lives at a micro house at the bottom of our road. We live in a dead end street and have to drive past him to get home. He knows when we are there and immediately comes over and hovers. He sat and watched every piece of furniture come off the trucks like he was preparing a mental catalogue. I feel pressured to employ him and provide for him and his wife. I am going to trust my instincts on this one and pay him off. I don't think that it will be the end of it-I hope I am wrong.

We had to pay costs for storage of the shipping container on the docks, but NOTHING ELSE.
No under the table payments!
What a pleasant surprise.

When I got back to the hotel I received an email from a new Internet friend advising me of the tipping and food/refreshments etiquette. Unfortunately I got it too late.....I did show the supervisor where the toilet and water cooler were.

Motor bikes in Jakarta

Here are some snaps of a typical morning on the way to school.

I took these shots to show how the motor bikes ride on the footpath if the road is clogged.

I am spending all my free time at the new house cleaning. I think my house keeper is waiting for me to finish before she starts work for us. The house has been "Brand New" for about 12 months. Although it has never been lived in it still has a DEEP, DEEP layer of dirt covering everything. Even after a through vacuum it still turns to mud when I mop.
The bad news is that I won't be finished in time........Our furniture starts to arrive tomorrow....

This is the fantastic news which cancels out the bad news!

The first load comes at about 2pm. They company can not get a truck with a 40ft container into our suburb, so it will be delivered in small truck lots.
We might be able to spend Friday night there!


I added the pictures so nobody notices how slack I have been with my blog this last week. LOL
I am feeling a little better. The antibiotics are doing a good job at killing off the bad bacteria that have cause me so much grief.
I had a very low key birthday, no fun to turn 32.5 years old (LOL, LOL, LOL)when you are sick. But boy oh boy did I get some lovely pressies........To be continued.

Schenker

I received an email late yesterday from the Indonesia partner of our removalists. The Australian branch have managed to make a major error in the documents resulting in a need for a huge amount of paper work and confusion at this end as well as a FULL customs search of our entire container.

Insert a tirade of swear words if you are inclined.....

I had noticed while the company was packing that all the documents were in my name. I thought that by the third round of emails and invoices that they had got it right; as per my repeated requests to put everything in GJ's name.

Unfortunately I was wrong.....(idiots)

GJ is the person with the work visa, I only have a trailing spouse visa and as such can't receive the goods.

This is what I need:- (of course the letter was sent to GJ only, as obviously I am not allowed to receive emails either LOL)

1. Your Wife's Original Passport
2. Your Original Passport
3. Copy of Matrimonial Certificate
4. Your Original Stay Permit (valid for 1 year)
5. Your Original Work Pemit (valid for 1 year)
6. Original Authorization Letter stated that you give authorization to your wife to receive the shipment from Australia to Jakarta, Indonesia.
7. Original Authorization Letter from Mrs. Jenny XXXXX to PT. Kotaisan Prima Transindo to do the customs clearance (FYI, we will prepare this letter and your wife will only sign on it).

And please be further informed that your shipment will be going through full customs inspection and examination during the clearance process. As such, please let us know if you wish to be present during the examination, so that we could arrange to get the permit from the seaport authority for you to enter the examination area. However, without the present of yourself during the examination is applicable


Do I go and get hit with bribes, or do I not attend and hope that I get everything back with out strangers hand prints over everything?

How long is this all going to take?

Everything else was going so smoothly, I suppose it is time for a little hiccup....

Luckily I have nothing in my container that I shouldn't have. They might get a bit funny with a years supply of children's panadol and runny nose medicine as well as a 2 years supply of tampons (not readily available in Asia).

I only bought a few food things, Vegemite (of course), Moccona coffee and GJ's favorite extra hot chili pasta sauce.

The thing I miss the most besides my clothes and shoes, is my washing machine and iron.
The hotels travel iron, with no steam, is useless compared with my wonderful, steamy Aussie one and as I have mentioned before the hotels washing machines suck and are super expensive.

In the eight weeks we have been living out of a single suitcase each , both girls have outgrown most of their clothes. I did a quick buying spree for them. Instead of the usual Target fashion, here we can afford Barbie and Osh Gosh originals! The were ecstatic to do a little fashion parade for GJ on Monday night. I picked up their school uniforms today, I don't think that they will want to parade those for Daddy!

They are such girls LOL

Dear Sarah (Gorgeous eldest niece)

( Hello equally gorgeous youngest niece and gorgeous only nephew)

With each outfit the girls would come out and say "Sarah would LOOVVEE this" oh, and the girls found the perfect red top that you apparently need!


Love you all, say hello to your parents!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

A huge fortnight, part one

I just don't know where to start, there is so much to tell.
I will start with the words and add photos later.

• Last week at our house

This was a blur, it was a chaotic mix of wonderful time with family and friends and fiendish packing. I had a accident with cleaning products and have burnt the skin on my hands and arms. Something must of got into my gloves as I was in a cleaning frenzy. My hands are still red raw with these pox like lesions which burn, sting and itch simultaneously. It looks pretty gross. I learnt allot from the professional packers, its much quicker to pack if you don't think, sort or organise. They are so quick because EVERYTHING is picked up and chucked in a box. There was a few times that I was very tempted to ask the men to pack up the kids for a nice LONG cruise with our container....LOL. Because of my hands I had to ask the cleaner to finish off the house (small silver lining!). I went back just as he was finished and it looked great, so big and fresh. I fell in love with my home all over again, I hope the tenants love it as well and look after it.

• Week with Rob

I packed a face mask and a hair treatment for our stay at Robs, thinking that it would be 9 days of relaxing on the deck and drinking champagne......It was a whirlwind of fun, mess and good times with lots of champagne. Rob was listing his house for sale, with an open house 4 hours after we left for the airport. He has installed the most glamours hard wood floors with a lovely gloss finish which could be scratched by toys and children....this was a huge stress for Rob and I. He has updated his web site with before and after shots, he has done a wonderful job. Rob is the CEO of a company that does whizz bang high tech computer stuff. He took me in for a laptop lesson with the owner of the company. I think that Rob had a moment of apprehension after I spent a lot of time with the couple that owns his company. Lola and I got on so well. Their two girls played so well with ours and Lola and I had huge chat sessions. We solved all of Robs problems. We have decided that he needs a new car, it is time to dump the baggage that his first wife dumped on him and move on etc etc. All of this was solved over coffee and wine. The girls were so sad to say good by with their new friends. I can see why Rob would be worried, his boss and closest friends ganging up on him! He must be slightly pleased that we are so many miles apart. I can now burn DVDs....I am so sick of the kids scratching expensive DVDs with in hours of buying them. Robs mate' Ken is seeing a lovely lady with two young girls who happens to be a trendy inner city hairdresser. Rob and Ken dragged me over for a make over....It is basically the same but a lot more edgier. I have had lots of new hidden streaks and am supposed to be channelling the "Victoria Beckham" look.

• The airport

We had the best surprise at the airport.. GJ's two sisters and all the family came to see us off. The kids were in heaven that their cousins came. We all had a lovely loud breakfast before it was time to bid a teary farewell. We had a new person at the check in counter and was confused that we were immigrating to Indonesia, so wouldn't let us check in our cabin baggage. We had 5 cabin bags (luckily on wheels), a pram, a handbag, a back pack, a laptop and three kids to get through immigration and down a narrow isle of the aircraft. I can really understand my blog Buddy's, Ace comment that we would of looked very scary to strangers. We were again fortunate to have exceptionally well behaved kids on the flight (constant supply of lollies and treats works well). We had a two hour stopover at Singapore before the last leg of the journey to Jakarta. By this time we had been on the go for 16 hours...
We got a little uncertain at the airport . We were in one of the many HUGE queues waiting to go through immigration, when a serious guard came up to us and said, "all of you come with me...." It turns out that he was opening a new counter and took us through because of the pram, we must of saved at least 30-40 minutes of queuing.
He got our heart racing again when he told GJ and the kids to go and wait in a corner while I dealt with immigrations. Luckily we weren't up for full body searches etc, he just wanted to make more room as we and all our luggage were taking up too much space. He was being very nice, but his harsh face and barking tone confused us at first. The company forgot to send two cars to the airport to collect us like last time, so the driver and porters had to creatively squeeze all our luggage plus two car seats into the car, then we had to get in. GJ and Georgia shared the front seat, Chelsea, Ben and I shared one seat in the back. We all had to hold the stuff to keep it in place. We finally got to the hotel after an hours drive to find that we did manage to get a non smoking room and that we had a renovated room, which was much nicer than our last visit. We have a three bedroom serviced apartment in a hotel with a few restaurants, gym, pool etc which is very nice.

• Jakarta

I have run out of time, I will have to continue later. We are loving it so far and really feel relaxed about the move. I can't wait to get it all down.

Removalists are coming!

I might have to disconnect the modem today. I will be lost.
Removalists will be here in 2.5 hours. As it is only just 5 am I don’t mind wasting a few minutes on my blog

We had a great weekend full of packing and friends.

De and the girls came up for the weekend
Rohan and Deb came over for dinner on Sat
We had all the neighbors over for Sunday afternoon drinks on the deck
Ben has a fever and a runny nose…..perfect timing.
We have to fly to Sydney for the day on Friday to get our visas.





Here are the little darlings after an afternoon of swimming and playing. The five of them tried to watch a dvd in my bed, I think that they were snoring within a few minutes.


Poor little sick boy Ben. He had his rest out in the family room with the aircon on as it was stinkin hot yesterday.

Scary photo

All of us will have to cope for up to 3 months with what I can jam into these bags.....


We also will have to work out how we will get all this to the airport, plus a car seat and a pram.
We will also have to work out how we will maneuver through airports with all this, a car seat, a pram and three children.

A Very Scary Photo and thought,
yet strangely very exciting!

Special things, part 1

We had a great day yesterday at my friends De house. We took down a trailer load of toys clothes and kids stuff etc for her and had a lovely lunch by the pool with some other friends.
The kids had a great day playing and swimming. We also exchanged Christmas presents for the kids, just in case we don't have time to catch up in December.
We have now cleared out a lot of the bags and boxes of stuff that have been piling up in the foyer.
We now have to order our storage container and when it arrives I will be able to stow all the things we are not taking to Jakarta. I have just found out that our local council needs to be notified if you put a container on your block (we live on 1.5 acres, 6000 msq) and a $165 fee.
Once all the storage things are packed we should have a few weeks of normal living. I have one more quote from a shipping quote to come through and then the company can choose which one to use. The good thing about the removalists is that you do nothing ( if you pack it can't be insured) you just leave everything and they go to work.
Our property has been listed on the Internet for rent, as they have listed our address I can't supply a link, but I will upload the photos I took later.

I am about to start on packing up my formal lounge room. I am not taking anything from this room. I have been guided by the thought of " could I bear to lose this". If something got lost or we had to leave suddenly, I could replace most things; they are after all just things.
A few things I want to have always and for the kids to inherit one day.
I am going to take photos of them to remind me of my treasures while I am away.

This is my Dad's mother's China cabinet. Catherine died when my dad was very young, so we have very little information about her. Mum had this china cabinet in her lounge for years and never really liked it. She gave it to me when GJ and I were first married. We changed the ugly original gold and khaki flocked fabric on the backing and have loved it.



On the top shelf is the beautiful Shelley coffee set that my Maternal Grandfather bought my Grandmother at the start of their marriage. It was bought just after the Depression and was considered to be wildly extravagant at the time. When we were little, very occasionally we would be handed one piece to hold and admire, but never to use. It is a art deco style. When we were packing up my Grandfathers house after he died, Mum turned to me and said "put this in your car". I was in shocked, delighted and awed all at the same time. I knew how much she loved this set, yet she gave it to me. It has had pride of place in my china cabinet every since. I have never used it. I firmly believe in using things, but this is too special to risk breaking.
The wine glasses on the sides at the top and bottom were engagement and wedding presents. They are hand painted around the edges.
The middle shelf has a lovely selection of lead Crystal that GJ'S dad has given us. GJ's mum loved and collected Crystal and when she died GJ's sisters inherited it all. My FIL has been giving us sets for special occasions.
The bottom shelf has GJ's collection of Carlton ware that he inherited form his maternal grandmother. I opened the cabinet the other day and left the door open for a minute...my little helper was straight in it picking everything up and pulling it out...My first reaction was to bellow across the room, but I didn't want to give Ben a fright in case he dropped something. I casually walked up and took the things off him, he was very sheepish, he new he wasn't allowed to touch.


Here are GJ's precious things LOL. We can not take any alcohol with us to Indonesia. GJ has been getting quality bottles of scotch and Cognac duty free as gifts for quite a few years. He enjoys a quality "scotch on the rocks". GJ is not much of a drinker though, he only drink 2-3 times a year, so his collection has been building steadily. I think it tastes like medicine, very uncultured I know LOL. Tan Tan and Robbie are going to help him taste test over Christmas, but the rest will have to wait for us to return.