A day in the life ......

Wife - Gym - Me - Audio shops.

I had to suffer the usual 'Bule' price hike but, as I usually do, I checked likely prices before I set off. Pop filters on the internet vary from cheap ones at around 30,000, to the best at 4 to 5 times that, so I was armed with a reasonably good idea what I should pay.

First shop - Rp250,000 (Thanks - I'll look around)
Next - Rp300,000 (Sod off - slightly more politely - not that much)
Last Rp100,000 minus nego = Rp80,000

Exactly the same unit each time.

Many shops assume 2 things
1 - Bule are rich
2 - Bule are stupid

It bugs the crap out of me but my low sugar diet is doing wonders for my ability not to tell them to *&%*& off and stick it up their rectum.

I buy equipment from time to time, so the last shop, because they were fair, have gained a customer. Not many millions, but the profit from what I will buy is going to be a lot more than the first two persons of uncertain parentage would have made by ripping me off.

The unit is now installed, tested, and lovely. It's taken away all the popping I got on Ps, bobbing on Bs, and highs on Hs (Candle - My fair lady).

I needed to book a train at short notice, that usually meaning you can't be fussy what seat you get. I took the only type left, a posh one at the front of the train.
Powered reclining seats, TV, GPS, waitress service, and pretty much everything else you'd expect in first class.
I could get used to this.

Just looked. They have a coffee bar as well.

Hello,Om Fred

Apa kabar
.

Bidara sary wrote:

Hello,Om Fred

Apa kabar
.

Hi - How are you?

I'm great , thank you 😊.

Bloomberg has a financial expert talking about death. His name is Thanos.

I had to chuckle.

We've all been feeling pretty grim with a cold, maybe coronavirus, for a couple of days but we're getting better now so are unlikely to join the death stats this week.
We're off to panic buy a load of stuff later, maybe 10kg of rice (we usually buy 5), a pack or 2 of dried egg noodles (we usually buy one a month), and at least 4 small tins of baked beans.
We don't use bog roll but we could use a couple of packs of snot tissues, that's way more than the usual one or two per month.
Since all the places I work have closed down, I'm remote working from home for the moment, but perhaps will get laid off. That would be quite nice as I dislike the job.

I have donned a facemask, cut the bottom off an aqua gallon to fashion a simple helmet, and I'm out panic buying useless rubbish.
In order to get ready for the massive shop that will require me to hire a small fleet of lorries, I'm sitting in a Chatime enjoying a coffee with my wife.
We have brought extra long straws with us so we can drink without removing our protective headgear.
I'm considering panic buying a second coffee, partially because we may not get out again for weeks if we all die of corona, but mostly because their coffee is lovely.

Just panic bought a Chatime apple smoothie, less sugar, of course.
Once that delicious drinkie is finished, we're off to panic buy piles of stuff in the supermarket.

Good Afternoon, every one

A got a pair of barber's trimmers by mail order, then put them to work on my son's hair. His hair was way too long and messy but, like most kids his age, he was scared of the idea of a haircut. I took him outside where the flowing, and falling, locks would be too much f a worry, then got stuck in with the 9mm comb attached.
Hair all over the back garden, and a son that looked in the mirror, said, "I don't like it", then said nothing but that for several hours.
I assured him it looked great, as did mummy, then I bribed my daughter to go down and say the same. She laughed as she said it, but he decided to believe her.
All is well .. well, almost.
My boss is a blithering idiot.
As we're all aware, a crown of a virus has come to town, a lot of town, but I'm pretty chilled, electing to take care by avoiding gatherings of any sort.
However, my boss is a moron that has decided to call a meeting in Jakarta of all the staff. The idiot, for there are few words that describe his moronic self properly, doesn't know I'm the unresigned, soon to be the resigned after payday.
I don't mind stupid people as long as they stay out of my way, but I loathe having to deal with utter cretins.
Cash isn't much of a problem and I'm working more to keep lethargy at bay than I am for the cold, hard stuff, so unemployment isn't much of an issue.

I'm sitting in a Scottish sounding place having just noshed on something that claims to have chicken in it, now drinking a coffee.
I fully intend to go to the toilet in a short while, probably taking a sip of the bowl water in order to get rid of the taste.

I always talk to my wife after a long trip, today being as usual. I heard my son asking for a comb for his new haircut so I'll buy him one on my way home.

OMG - I went to the bog, saw a member of staff leave without washing his hands = Hello, manager.
That's not a lot of good so I dropped him in it.

I'm now sitting in Area 57 on the toll, specifically in Starbucks - The staff are really nice.
I stop at this one regularly as it's the first after the elevated and just after a traffic jam, that making 57 a very handy place to stop. I think I'll make this Starbucks one of my regular haunts for a rest.

Quick unashamed advert for starbucks 57 - The lady who served me was a great ad for your company, as were the other staff. Their pleasant attitude made my very nice coffee all the more enjoyable.

Seems I have to stay in hospital as I'm near death .. well, assuming the security guard that just checked my temperature got his 32 degree C reading right.
Strangely, I feel fine and not at all as I did last time I got hypothermia.
However, I'll finish the shopping then dash to a hospital.
Hang on .. maybe it wasn't Horsepittle, but more like bull$1t

Not dead so the security guard's thermometer was probably inaccurate.
He was so happy I hadn't got a high temp, but totally failed to miss my serious, life threatening, hypothermia.
I wonder if the car's AC blasting in my face just before I was checked had anything to do with it

Yippee

My wife and I have been out shopping for some shelves, and found them at a very reasonable price. Ants can be a big problem in Indonesia so we tend to keep things in the fridge that don't need to be there because ants get inside the wrapper and ruin the food. However, as a very clever chap, I bought some small bowls (the sort restaurants use for sauces), put them under the rack's legs, then filled them with a light oil.
The ants can't get up the legs so the food is safe.

My small fridge has been repaired so that and the rack means I have a lot more cold storage space.

YIPPEE, I can get some serious panic buying done.

Woke up early with a headache so messed on the internet, read a load of online newspapers, ate a delicious curry for breakfast, now chilling out.
I have a minor project to look at so I'll be working on that later.

I decided to panic buy a pizza ... err, 3 pizzas ... errr, 3 pizzas and a salad.

Pizza hut delivery is really handy, and the pizzas are delicious.

Fred wrote:

I decided to panic buy a pizza ... err, 3 pizzas ... errr, 3 pizzas and a salad.

Pizza hut delivery is really handy, and the pizzas are delicious.

Tried PHD recently, not sure if its just me but they taste 10 xs better than normal PizzaHut

Virus non-panic is sweeping the nation so the street are empty, but Mudik (The big homecoming) is marching up on use, so I may panic buy an extra 5kg of rice in case the outbreak gets bad.

Here we are a while in to the no anything not lockdown and I have managed to get loads done. All those little jobs I've been putting off are looked after, and I've had loads of time to start a larger project a group of use are considering. It can't go much further at the moment as it requires meeting and other stuff hat's difficult or inadvisable, but much of the basic stuff is sorted out.
We have three gas bottles, the last one being put on yesterday then today, as if by magic, a new entrepreneur the area came into the estate selling gas bottles. He also had sugar and cooking oil, but we only needed the gas.
Handy service at exactly the right time.

My wife won't go out for the last possible coffee at a time when social distancing is possible (and won't let me out on my own in case a pick up a hot chick and take her out for a coffee) so I'm stuck in the house desperate for something to do.
I got to the stage where I actually decided to have a blitz on my office, sort out all the papers, pens, whatever, and even throw away all the old boxes.
I keep boxes until the thing that came in them goes out of guarantee or, in the case of things like printers, I just keep the boxes in case they need to be transported, so I opened every box, checked the sales receipt (I keep the paperwork in the box so it's never lost). then tossed everything out of guarantee.
You'd be amazed how much space I've created, how many rats I found, and how much my wife shouted at me.

What a  ... week, or maybe month ...
Today I managed to save the wifi router from my son's climbing about, then moved it to a better place. I don;t much watch TV so I bought quite a simple one for the living room (Mostly for my son) and hooked an old tablet up to it. It works fine and does nicely for Thomas the tank engine.
My daughter's school has been rubbish during the remote learning with just one lesson per day, and totally failed to run the Cambridge assessments - She's moving school in the new year.
My son's school, the KG section of the same place has also made a pig's ear of remote learning, the only two people we can't see or hear properly being the two teachers. The school won't let them work from the building, and won't provide them with the Rp2 million tablets and a Telkonsel sim card that will easily cure the problems.
I'm going to shout at the principal later, but the lad will also move schools, but maybe after he's finished KG.
Their KG is pretty good when they are actually in school, but the covid thing has really highlighted their inability to care about much more than school fees.
Yes, it's a business, but a business relies on its customers, and a lot of the parents are having a good old moan.
I've been taking a look at what other international schools are doing, and none are that crap.
Looks like we made a mistake when we chose the place, but that's easily corrected and not so bad when you consider the kids' ages.

On a brighter note, it's a lovely day and this past week has seem me complete all the little jobs I've been hoping to sort out, just the car's A/C to clean and I've about done ... but I'll probably find some more.

I've just checked the computer in my office, finding the WIFI has improved dramatically. Looks like moving the router was a good move.

What a strange day.

It started pretty normally expect it was at 3am for breakfast, but I haven't been sleeping well because the air conditioner needed a service. That was booked and they turned up exactly on time. Any brass monkeys entering our bedroom now will ned to remember their welding kits - Lovely.

My youngest did his remote  lesson, a bit of mandarin, some social whateverthehellitwas, and some writing, then I hung around for the AC dudes whilst my wife and youngest hid in the from room, my daughter (as usual) being a teenager and hiding in her bedroom.

Then off we drive to the eldest's school for her graduation photo. Everything is cancelled so they had to go to school one by one (crono-social distancing) and get snapped in their graduation cap and gown. A small jam held us up and Michelle got to see her first ever drug puddled idiot - a glue sniffer that was completely off his head and, if he'd hung around, very likely beaten up. He was pestering  women on motorbikes for money and showing off his glue sniffing - even sitting in my car, I could see other drivers and riders getting very worked up - I suspect he was a minute away from a mob attack he probably wouldn't even have noticed.

Well, another week of unemployment with not that much to do but listen to seriously cool rock tunes at a volume level that even dead people get up to complain about (Scares the crap out of our security dude when they walk down our street). I tend to find Scorpions, AC/DC, Sabbath, Rammstein, and a bunch of other classical groups relaxing, and that's handy for stressed out people.
I don't give a flying rat's bum about much but I play it anyway because I like it.
However, I believe in the death penalty for people that make crap covers of proper tunes and anyone with anything to do with K-pop - Harsh.

If the virus is getting you down, either physically or just because it's naffing up your week, take a peek at this

https://youtu.be/ZkW-K5RQdzo

Note - Volume must be set at a level your otolaryngologist will make money from.

Stuff injecting bleach or using handwash, 'Highway to hell' at the right volume level will cure you before you can say, "Hell's bells", but that's a good thing to type into YouTube next.

I rediscovered an old PC USB sound card I bought many years ago in England but never used here - It rocks!
I plugged the thing into my Samsung Tab 5E, not really expecting it to work, but it's an absolute dream when I bung a set of reasonable headphones into it.

Other than that minor joy, life is pretty average, only saved by Pizza hut delivery's Rp15,000 six inch circles of wonder.

Not had a pizza in ages, but lots of coffees have passed my lips.
I found some rice crispies, and lots of cornflakes, and even got hold of some orange marmalade - yummy.
Teaching s right out of the window at the moment so I've been exploring options. I made a few quid doing a little something for an English entity, and a bit more doing something for some Indonesian dudes, but I could use something more regular. I'm not really worried about cash, but I do need something to stop me going mad.
I'm sitting in  J.Co typing this utter rubbish, then it's off for lunch when the last of the coffee has gone down my throat hole.

-

-

Mr. Fred, I'd like to tell you my experience, which I have experienced two years ago.
It was about christioning process in Bali, in Kuta beach.
And you know, people who did it, was foreigners in Bali, which have lived around Kuta Beach. Very surprsing!

Leika Sari Islami wrote:

Mr. Fred, I'd like to tell you my experience, which I have experienced two years ago.
It was about christioning process in Bali, in Kuta beach.
And you know, people who did it, was foreigners in Bali, which have lived around Kuta Beach. Very surprsing!

I'm unsure what you mean but think you're talking about a bunch of people trying to convert strangers to Christianity.
If so, I came across a bunch of American fools in white shirts, all calling themselves Elder before their names, and out to convert Muslims to Christianity. I warned them they were putting themselves in danger, but religious extremist tend not to listen. I enjoyed my stroll home, but I hope they only wasted their time.
I suppose the same bunch could have set up shop in bali as well.
The McD in Bintaro 9 (Love their coffee shop) saw me accosted by a a Jehovah's witness gang trying to push their stuff my way. I saw what they did to my uncle so I suggested they sod off before they found themselves unable to sit down because of the rolled up copies of Watchtower I was about to ram up their arses.

Religion is lovely (My preference being Islam, however, each to their own), but religious ranters and extremists are a waste of oxygen.

I've taken to spending a hour or two of every day in a local J.Co branch.
I get more work done here than I do in several hours at home, and their coffees are pretty great - Bonus.
I'm at it now, searching the internet for information in the hope of doing the impossible. Maybe I'll drop lucky, but I can see this one failing  in the same epic a way as the afore mentioned Jehovah's witnesses trying to convert me in McD did.
However, the medium Caramel jcoccino is a perfectly good reason to try from here.

Fred wrote:

Leika Sari Islami wrote:

Mr. Fred, I'd like to tell you my experience, which I have experienced two years ago.
It was about christioning process in Bali, in Kuta beach.
And you know, people who did it, was foreigners in Bali, which have lived around Kuta Beach. Very surprsing!

I'm unsure what you mean but think you're talking about a bunch of people trying to convert strangers to Christianity.
If so, I came across a bunch of American fools in white shirts, all calling themselves Elder before their names, and out to convert Muslims to Christianity. I warned them they were putting themselves in danger, but religious extremist tend not to listen. I enjoyed my stroll home, but I hope they only wasted their time.
I suppose the same bunch could have set up shop in bali as well.
The McD in Bintaro 9 (Love their coffee shop) saw me accosted by a a Jehovah's witness gang trying to push their stuff my way. I saw what they did to my uncle so I suggested they sod off before they found themselves unable to sit down because of the rolled up copies of Watchtower I was about to ram up their arses.

Religion is lovely (My preference being Islam, however, each to their own), but religious ranters and extremists are a waste of oxygen.

There are extremists in every religion, and they are all annoying, so I wont point my finger on just One of them, It will put me on the same side, specially if I state to follow one of that religion.

Marcello Manganese wrote:

There are extremists in every religion,.

Correct, and they're all arseholes. The vast majority of non-extremists I've met from every religion have been pretty nice, or at least neutral.
Extremism comes in various varieties from bombing people, through ranting on, right down to bugging the merry poop out of me by trying to convert me to their version of the truth. The witnesses are especially bad from my point of view because of the way they turned my uncle from being a decent bloke to a blithering nut job.
The twits in white shirts just mildly annoyed me - not a lot more. That isn't to excuse or lessen the seriousness of the bombing people types, but they tend to get hammered in Indonesia, so are less of an issue here.

Fred wrote:

Marcello Manganese wrote:

There are extremists in every religion,.

Correct, and they're all arseholes. The vast majority of non-extremists I've met from every religion have been pretty nice, or at least neutral.
Extremism comes in various varieties from bombing people, through ranting on, right down to bugging the merry poop out of me by trying to convert me to their version of the truth. The witnesses are especially bad from my point of view because of the way they turned my uncle from being a decent bloke to a blithering nut job.
The twits in white shirts just mildly annoyed me - not a lot more. That isn't to excuse or lessen the seriousness of the bombing people types, but they tend to get hammered in Indonesia, so are less of an issue here.

Agree, and I think that after the bombs in Kuta the anti-terrorrism task force Is doing a great job fighting that bombing people and preventing more attacks.