A lovely winters day in Brisbane

We recently had a wonderful day catching up with Lisa and her gorgeous new baby boy Beau. The weather was absolutely glorious; warm, balmy and perfect for socialising on the deck. Usually when we visit, Ben strips off and runs down the steps and jumps straight into the pool......As he is not use to Brisbane's winter (Jakarta has no winter, it is always hot on the equator ) he had no idea how cold the water would be...and we didn't think to mention it either.

He dived in and came up spluttering in shock........he even refused to get back in for me to take a photo lol.

Kite flying, Jakarta

Georgia made this kite at school at the end of last year.
It has been up a few times before, but yesterday the wind was perfect and it soared to never before reached heights.

The girls had a fabulous time flying their kite.

GJ jinxed us again

GJ struck again yesterday.
He made a sweeping statement of "the rainy season is over"....................

This is similar to the time touring around central Java he decided to take a shortcut through a village. He turned around after five minutes and said 'What are you worried about, this road is great!" Two minutes later we were driving the Serena up the inside of a rough creek bed that was supposed to be a main road LOL.

Yesterday, after picking up the girls, we made a quick stop of at Hero, the local supermarket. It was pretty dark for 3.30pm but no more than the usual afternoon clouds. We were inside Hero for about 8 minutes when we heard the thunder and the rain start.
We spent about 15 minutes in the shop and then loaded the car up in the pouring rain.

As we left the car park we were driving through about 15cm of water which was rising rapidly!
We found that the road was closed, the river was over the road and there was only one way out and that was to power across the intersection through one foot+ of water.

We drove through a posh part of Kemang looking for streets not flooded so as to get home, this was after 10 minutes of rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The girls were screaming with joy, yelling out "cepat cepat" to Yadi, which means faster faster! They thought they were in a speed boat making a huge wake.

I was busy rummaging through my hand bag for my camera. I try never to be without my small compact, but alas no SD card or battery and I couldn't get my hand phone on as little madam Georgie had changed some settings!

We finally got out of the suburb Kemang and were nearly home. We had to cross one more river before we got there and were amazed to find it breaking its banks. The river had risen over 2.5 feet in about 20 minutes of rain.

We were ringing GJ telling him to leave the office now!
Get a taxis and try and get home asap.........This was a 4.05pm.
Yadi's home was already thigh deep with water through the ground floor and we wanted GJ home.

I remember years ago trying to describe how heavy the rains were in sub-tropical Queensland compared to Sydney or Melbourne...

There is no way to describe the ferocity of an Indonesian rain storm!

GJ made it home at 5.35pm...and wanted to know what the fuss was about....not much traffic, great trip home and the river a good one foot below its banks............

Adapting to Jakarta's climate.

I am sure I have mentioned quite a few times that Jakarta is hot, stinkin' hot actually!

And it is usually stinkin' hot 365 days a year.

Jakarta is VERY close to the equator.

We have two seasons here, hot and wet and hot and dry.

We are presently in the very, very, VERY wet part.

It is particularly wet at the moment and something strange has happened, it is not stinkin hot, just hot and I am getting cold...........I know, me cold, in the tropics!

I had not noticed it as much until Jakartass (famous Jakarta blogger) mentioned how cold he was.

It was only about 27 degrees Celsius yesterday (80.6F). That is cold when Jakarta is, 99.9% of the time, over 32C during the day (90F).

I have had the A/C off for the last week, well except at night.

I like to keep my bedroom at a Canadian winter temperature.

I have been wearing a jacket to work and to the supermarket to keep the chill out of my bones.

All the kids at school are turning blue and shivering after their swimming lessons.

The smog and haze seem to cut out a lot of the suns warming rays on pools here, I was so surprised to see how much cooler the water is here compared to Queensland.

Next time I complain about being stinkin' hot perpetually please remind me that it is possible to feel cold in Jakarta.

Jakarta rains......

The big wet has started again..........

It has not stopped raining since yesterday.
Already the roads are chaotic.
School has been let out early.
The pool is overflowing and the river near us will soon break its banks.


I have more than enough food and water and have just got 2 new gas bottles.
If the power goes out we will have no tap water (need power to operate well pump) or air conditioning....

We live on the top of a hill so we will be dry, unlike many other residents of Jakarta.

hopefully the rains will stop soon................

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.

A stunning candlabra or not?

Georgia won this candelabra at the school bazaar......She thinks it is divine, me ummmmm not!

We compromised on placement, it now decorates our outdoor table with pride.
It just doesn't seem to be liking the heat though......LOL.

The rains have arrived

The rainy season has started...one day it was still dry and the next rain...and it has rained just about every day since.
Grime has washed away....it is slightly cooler (higher humidity has got here yet) and everything is so green and lush.




I am still running around like a headless chook.....my google reader got up to over 1000 last week. I deleted everything....but it is creeping up again LOL. I still haven't answered many emails, I will I promise......just don't know when!

Weather in Jakarta

I have had a few people ask my over the last few weeks if it was cooling down in Jakarta yet?

Well in a word....... NO

It is always hot in Jakarta, 365 days a years.

Always over 32C degrees during the day
Yesterday it peaked at about 37C for about an hour....(nearly 100F)

Once it rained so heavily the temp dropped to 27 C for about 5 min..then it was back to stinking hot with the added bonus of high humidity.

Sometimes if you are lucky the temp will drop to about 24C at 3-4 am.

So weather in Jakarta is:-

• Wet season- hot and humid.
• Dry season- hot and dry.

Thank goodness for air conditioners.......

Rain storm in the dry season, Jakarta

The kids had a great time last week when a huge storm came through.
It was like they had never seen rain before......
They were screaming for joy, except for when HUGEMUNGOUS thunder claps sounded, then they were really screaming.

Friday 18th May


We are having a four day weekend this weekend. It was a public holiday on Thursday for Ascension Day and the school decided to close on the Friday for a bonus long weekend. GJ had meetings scheduled for Friday so we don’t have any major plans.
Today I went to Carrfours and just got home in time for the most magnificent storm. As we left the supermarket the air was so oppressive and heavy; we knew we were in for a BIG one. The rain started 5 minutes from home and the roads were covered with 30cm of rain almost instantly. The thunder was so loud it was shaking the car, which as we have a mini van style of car and the rain was deafening, was no small feat.
The rain lasted for a good hour, the pool was overflowing, the fish pond at the front was filled up and the river close to us rose at least 4 feet, it was nearly over the banks.
Our phones decided to work this morning for the first time in a week, and now with the rain they are out again………At least I have the technician here for this. The BLOODY INTERNET is still not working, tomorrow they have promised me yet again………
I left my camera at home this morning which is disappointing because I could have taken some great storm shots. I haven’t had any Indonesian photos on my blog lately; I will try and get some interesting shots for next week.
We are having Beef Rending again tonight. Sarinah saved all the spices in the freezer so all I had to do was buy the meat. The smell coming out of my kitchen is SO amazing.

MySpace, Skype.

I have embraced new technology at my niece and nephews request...
I now have a My Space account, same name as everything else....jenjenqld.

If only it came with instructions........

At least now I can see their blogs and photos.
Did you know that MySpace puts your age on the page.........I had to take a creative option on my year of birth.

I have also downloaded skype; I also need lessons, a microphone and web cam for this new venture.

I have had today off as Ben has a cold and diarrhea....a three year old with body fluid issues is not wanted at kindy.

He is having his rest now in raptures as when he wakes up Mr Yadi will have bought him two big bags of sand for his new giant sand bucket and I will have filled up his giant water play bucket.
This is the most FANTASTIC thing for a three year old boy besides sitting on the guards motor bike and beeping its horn.

Here are Bens new giant buckets. He has decided that red is for water and blue is for sand. Mr S is currently washing the sand before play time starts, I think that this is very prudent considering where we live. Ben has gone through the kitchen and selected the best of all my things for use. I will be able to drag the sand in each night to keep out all the cats, and the water can be emptied to keep out Dengue Fever infected mosquitos.




We have a nice new guard this week. My busy-body, pushy, moody guard pulled his last stunt last week. When he again left his Kris/knife (not a butter knife, a fighting knife!!!!!!)on a low coffee table in the garage. This is the same place that Ben and his friend Indry play in. The girls hated that he would come round and stare at them in the pool and I hated him being constantly late....
I didn't realise that he upset every one as the whole house hold cheered when they found out he was to be reassigned. GJ's company pays for a team of three security guards working on a roster at our home. With the five of us, and depending on the time, up to five other people in our home it is important to have every one happy. Calm has been restored.

There is one downside though.....The ex guards wife works at my favourite hair salon, GJ is teasing me that if I go back I will come out bald with a fungus infection.....



GJ has jetted off again, this time to Surabaya (lucky bugger) and in two weeks he is off to Thailand (lucky bugger!!!!!!).

We had the most exciting storm yesterday. It was such torrential rain, you could not see in front of you at all. The sky was black and green and the walls and windows were shaking with every enormous thunder clap. There was so much water across the school car park that we waded up over our ankles. It is not a low lying area at all, its just the rain could not move any where quick enough. The water was refreshingly cool. These mega storms always seem to reach their peak just as the school bell rings and I have to get the girls LOL.
The river near our road rose at least 3 feet inside 10 minutes, which unfortunately meant that Mr Yadi's home got wet. He assures me that it is OK as it was only a little flooded, for a little time and his wife got home in time to move everything!

I can now hear thunder in the distance, another storm is coming. I wish I could send it over to Australia....Jakarta has flooding and Australia is in severe drought.

Here is my little man as Spider man....

He doesn't like the mask over his mouth so we roll it up and get this cute look.

What does this picture say to you?

As we stood looking at the alligator display at Sea world it suddenly occurred to me that different people can interpret things in many ways.

I saw icky critters where as a certain family member would see

HANDBAGS, BELTS, SHOES, AND PURSES......

We took the kids to Ancol (pronounced aRnchol.....I found out after no one knew what I meant..) yesterday for an outing to the sea side. We visited sea world and fantasy world and had a great time.

I took loads of photos and will post it all, I am still only a third of the way to posting about Janny and Tan Tans visit. I have Bogor, Handbag Heaven, Kinara and Easter to come.

Fantasy world (just like dreamworld on the Gold Coast) was great; BUT it was SO SO SO very hot.

A high light of the day was the girls and I learning to use the Indonesian style toilets whilst wearing hot sweaty jeans.........

Lots of photos and descriptions later (not of the toilets though!)

More rain in Jakarta

We woke up to another big thunder storm at 4am this morning with more rain. I decided to keep the kids at home again and GJ started to rant. I will leave it to your imagination but it boiled down to “it is just a little rain, the floods are gone, don’t be ridiculous……….”
As we were walking out the door I grabbed a new DVD, just in case.
Thank goodness I did, because of course the school was closed, of course roads were flooded and of course it took 2.5 hours to drop GJ off at his office. Then we had to turn around and head back to the hotel….a lovely round trip of 4.5 hours.
In my head I am doing the childish “Ha Ha, I told you so” dance, and have decided that next time I think that school will be canceled to stay in bed !

When we ordered the company car there was a free bonus of a car DVD player with three screen. It is perfect for Jakarta’s traffic snarls. Today we watched Spy Kids 3, TWICE. It is a shame cars in Jakarta don’t come with toilets!

We got to one street where the water was gushing across the street and rising as we watched. Mr Yardi decided against crossing and we turned around a found another way. The weather reports are predicting more heavy rainfall until the end of February.

One good thing about working at the school is that I am getting a good idea of the kids strengths and weakness in regards to their education. We have discovered that although Chelsea is extremely advanced with her reading she is quite behind with her maths. She has been put into one of my groups of remedial classes, 4 mornings a week. We have found some math’s problem books here in Jakarta and are doing a bit of work at home. When our shipment arrives I will have all our books and computer programs which we will be able to work through as well.

Ben is loving the kindy. I was having second thoughts about enrolling him, thinking that the money would be better spent on other things, but am pleased that we did. The Kindy room has a lot of resources, with a very experienced teacher and two full time teachers aides. The kindy’s outside play area is a lovely court yard with a huge shade tree over it all with heaps of bikes, sandpits tents and playhouses. Inside there is a permanent water play table set up as well as a table with play dough. Books, toys, blocks and CARS!!!! are all neatly arranged and ready to be played with. There is a curriculum designed to introduce learning concepts and pre literacy skills and guide the children into formal schooling.

We always get to school very early, as GJ needs to get to the office. We usual arrive just after 7 am (yes we leave the hotel at 6.30 am!!!!) and play until school starts at 8 am. Only once has Ben forgotten himself and started to speak to me while we were playing. The teacher and aide were stunned to learn that he really can talk, LOL.
Ben is an extremely good talker. He is very articulate and eloquent, in short he never shuts up. He has opinions on everything and insists on being right all the time; I wonder where he gets that from (we are family of experts LOL) No one would ever know this as Ben chooses not to talk to strangers or acquaintances.

The rain has started again outside…I think we are still going to have a few days at home this month.

In the care package I made I put in some things that are universal to all women, a nice soap, hand cream, face moisturizer, shampoo, little girls cologne (Mr Yardi has two preteen girls) tooth brushes and tooth paste etc. GJ can’t understand why any one would be interested in these types of things when their home is underwater. Food, clothing and shelter have been organized but sometimes it is the little extras that make all the difference.
I suppose that this is just another example of the difference between men and women’s way of thinking.

Day five of Jakarta flooding 2007

We awoke on Monday night to the most violent thunder and lightening storm. It was shaking the building with the booming cracks. I have always enjoyed a theatrical storm, but last night I was so preoccupied by the thought of all the poor homeless families sheltering with their children in makeshift accommodation. It must have been terrifying for them. Unfortunately the storm was followed by heavy rain which has not helped the flooding.

The kids and I went to school on Monday, but as less than a third of the other children were there we all left with Ben at 11am. The teachers were listening to the radio as there was reports that gates in Bogor were going to be opened which could intensify the flooding in Jakarta.

Our driver made it to work on Monday. GJ got the HR manager to translate to find out how his family was faring. His house is still underwater with all his families belongings, including clothes. GJ took him aside and we gave him a months salary as a gift. I am getting a care package together for his wife and daughters.
In Indonesia it seems that even though he is a full time employee, he doesn’t get paid if he doesn’t work. So in the midst of this disaster Mr Yardi still comes to work. GJ and the HR manager are padding out the company budget in order to offer assistant to the affected employees.

Because of the heavy rain last night I decided to keep the kids home from school. I had an appointment with our Real Estate broker at 11am which we decided to keep. What a loooooong day. We drove two km to collect Ms Linda (a wonderfully sprite Indonesian lady in her seventies), then 3km to the fabric shop where I spent 8-10 minutes selecting the fabric for curtains (cream sheers with lining), and then back to our new home which is 400m from Ms Linda’s home (where we collected her from at the start of the day). This took 5 hours, I kid you not, absolutely no exaggerating - 10.15 am to 3.30pm.

Most of the roads were gridlocked with cars and motor bikes. This was our first glimpse of the flooding and the effect it is having on the city. In some spots you would not know that there was any problems, people were going about their business as usual. Then a block later you would look sideways and see a street totally submerged or homes with all the bedding piled outside to dry.

I realize at moments like these how very fortunate we really are. I would love to be more proactive with helping out but am too new to know where to go or what to do with my kids. At least in Australia I could go back to the Red Cross (where I used to work) and step right in.

At the moment the sun is shining through into the apartment and you would have no idea that less that 3km away there are streets flooded and 340 000 are homeless. Here is a link to some images.

Floods in Jakarta

The floods show no sign of receding. It is very hard to get any information about the current situation here in Jakarta (in English). I am getting most of my updates from the big western online news groups.
Our hotel is fine, we must be in a high spot. I don't know if we will be going to school or work on Monday. I am hesitant to send the kids off in case the situation changes and we can't get back. The suburb where we will be living and where the school is in is a flooded area.
I don't think we are that close to any flooded areas, but I am not game to venture out for a look.
The electricity has been turned off in many areas to prevent electrocution. I read one report of a person getting burnt skin from wading through the toxic water. This is one of the main issues with the flooding, the amount of raw sewerage and filth combining with the muddy flood waters creating an appalling smelly health risk. The news papers are reporting on the shortage of fresh drinking water.

These two photos are from "The Jakarta Post"
The below photos are from Yahoo News

Crocs

Our devotion to colourful, plastic footwear.

I have a major milestone birthday coming up in a few weeks....I am in complete denial about it though. I have realized that I am getting old. Last weekend when I had my kid free shopping time I was overwhelmed with the choices for shoes. I was admiring all these glamorous colourful, WONDERFUL shoes and all I could think was "OHH they are SO nice but they would be uncomfortable after a few hours....if only Crocs were prettier". I did end up with 3 new pairs. One comfortable pair that my Mum would wear ( see, I am getting old-sensible shoes!), one cute denim high heels and a pair of Crocs mary-jane style.




I went to the Crocs web site to get links and a photo and blew my knickers off in excitement. There is a whole new range coming out in March. I can have the best of both worlds, sensible, comfortable and not too daggy.







We are having a long weekend.....Most of Jakarta is underwater. Our poor driver is sitting on his roof as his home is 7 foot underwater. School has been canceled and GJ's office complex is underwater as well. So it will be a quiet day at the hotel.

I can't seem to find any web site that will let me know what traffic/road/weather conditions are.
The road outside our hotel is normally jammed packed with cars at this time of the day. Today there is hardly any traffic. It does seem very quite. I am so pleased I got magazines from the AWA. It is going to be a day of rest and reading.


Edit, here is the link to the latest CNN item on the floods