A day in the life ......

Hey uncle Fred!  I just spotted that awesome photo of "anak Fred."

Thank God he gets his looks from Ms. Fred!      

Seriously, SELAMAT to you both!

And, speaking of the day…

SELAMAT HARI RAYA IDUL FITRI!

I've been reading the food thread on the India forum, and I'm getting desperate for some serious authentic Indian food.
Seriously, I'm watering at the mouth, and went into a fit when someone mentioned crab curry.

I want addresses of really good Indian restaurants in Jakarta - I'm going to start a thread.

I defenestrated my brain, then went to watch Antman with my daughter.
I enjoyed the film, and the sausage and chips I ate in the cinema.
We drove home.

The maid hasn't returned from her holiday.
This would commonly be considered bad news, but I'm pretty happy about it.
Frankly, she was a lot thick, and couldn't do anything right.

Sulis will find another, or we'll get one when we go to the old village next week.
We're going there because my mate's daughter is getting married, so we really should visit, and there's Zalie Nasi gila not many miles away.
I'm going to try that again if I get half a chance.

I've hardly used my motorbike in months, the last two trips being about 3km each, so I'm thinking about selling it.
OLX, the sales site, is showing loads at around 7 or 8 million, but I suspect they're optimistic.
It seems loads of people bought new cars and bikes to go home for the holiday, all on credit, and now they're wondering where the heck the first payment is coming from.
I've noticed a drop in stock displayed in electronics shops' windows over the last couple of years, and I'm expecting a crash in the near future.
House prices have gone to stupid, shop rents are beyond crazy, but salaries haven't gone up.

I'm guessing I'll get 6 million when I finally get around to doing anything about selling it.

Shouldn't this be posted in Blogs? It's a blog, right?

Wrong - it's musings, and anyone is welcome to post their thoughts on their day.

Very well. Sounds like a good idea.

Well, I'm a teenager who lives in Bekasi, and I just graduated middle school, so I got a really long holiday, and I decided to take French courses for the holiday, because living in France is my dream. So anyways, everyday, I have to wake up at 5, then get ready and stuff, then I ride my bike to school. Near my school, there's a bus station, and the buses there go to Jakarta. I take the ones that go at 6.00 A.M. sharp.
I arrive at Jakarta approximately at 7.30, and my French course is from 8 A.M. - 12 P.M.
The bus that I take can only go as far as to near the Polda busway station, so I take the busway from Polda to Sarinah, because that's where the French Embassy is, and right next to it is my French course.
I often arrive late, but I'm too bothered to wake up anymore earlier just to attend a course.

I used to live in a village near Wonosobo, central Java.
On Friday, we drove down to Purwokerto, staying the night in an Aston hotel - a very, very nice place.
The room was so clean and tidy, I honestly thought we were the first people to stay there, but the hotel is three years old.
Saturday saw Michelle and I go swimming in the hotel pool, then we went for breakfast in the hotel restaurant where I did my best to empty the unlimited buffet - That was also excellent.

After that, we drove up to Wonosobo, this time staying in a lesser (but free hotel) just south of the city.
That was a small room with very little of anything and a squat toilet.
However, it was reasonably clean and tidy, so no complaints, especially as it was free.
Wonosobo is cold, so we had a lot less need for air conditioning, and a lot more need for a blanket.
The wedding was a traditional Javanese thing, with all the trimming you'd expect from a classing wedding of that nature. The Saturday session was a gathering of close friends and families, the Sunday saw the wedding in the local mosque, with Monday seeing the general thing, complete with 2,000 guests.
Photos when I get a moment.

A day in the life.......

8 August 2015 was a day I would remember for the rest of my life.
My first experience of having storm raging my night.Yes,on August 8 Taiwan was hit by the most powerful typhoon of the year which already battered Saipan USA. Although I had seen typhoon many times since I stayed here but yesterday was the most terrifying and awfully scary one ever.
Wind blowing so fast , heavy rainfall, black out. It was a total horror listening to the windows sounds like going to be blown away anytime.
The name of typhoon itself is Soudelor, a strange name I can say.
The aftermath was even terrible with tree strewn all over the road, windows shattered,garbage at doorstop and water invaded the house.

One thing is sure we are safe thanks to the government's warning 5 days ahead before the typhoon reach the island.

With 6 died around 30 people are still missing and more than 200 hundreds injured, still much better than 6 years ago.



Taipei

Bidara

Bidara sary wrote:

A day in the life.......

8 August 2015 was a day I would remember for the rest of my life.

Bidara

We read about these things on the news, but a personal account colours in the outline picture the press feed us.
Thank you.

I haven't used my motorbike for two weeks, and hardly the two weeks before that.
It's coming up to three years old in December, so I think I'll sell it now.
I never keep a vehicle for more than three years anyway, so I'll sell soon and see if I miss it.
I suspect I won't.
I'm told there's a kredit macet at the moment as everyone bought a load of new cars and bikes on credit for the big drive home, and now wondering how the heck they're going to pay the monthly.
Perhaps I should hang on a month or two when I'm likely to get a better price.

Not that I use the car much either, but I'm thinking of selling that and buying a mini bus.
Charles's pram takes up most of the luggage space in the Ayla, so shopping is a bit of a pain, and a  Grandmax or Luxio would be a serious bonus on long runs.
My wife wants to take weekend trips to the coast - I can't find a reason to object.



.

I rarely bother mentioning a retail business unless I've been really pleased, or they might be handy for other expats.
These Syrian dudes fit both.

The shish kebabs were delicious - As Arnie often said - I'll be back.

Food court, Teras kota, BSD.

That's it - it's going.
After yet another week without turning the motorbike's engine on, save to run it up so it stays good, I'm going to get rid of the motorbike.
I'll pop a new headlamp bulb in, wash the thing, then it's getting a "dijual" sign hung right over its mirror.
No - I'm not going to sell it on the forum, there's already several people interested.

In other wild and exciting news, my wife is looking for a new maid, but I'm still handsome and sexy, so she'll find another ugly one to save all the messing around with a divorce.
I'm unsure how her advert will go, perhaps, "Maid required - Must be old, ugly and smell".

What a wild ride I've had today.
I've been considering a new school for my daughter, and found a very interesting one this afternoon.
I've also been considering a new van, a Daihatsu Luxio, and been offered a potentially acceptable deal on one.  One fly in the ointment, I don't really want to wipe out a 144 million of my tiny savings in one splash,
Still, you only live once, and you can't take it with you - and I like driving vans far more than cars.
My wife wants to wander to the beach at weekends, and it'll be far better than the little car we have at the moment.
That and the shopping will fit into the thing, something we have a problem with at the moment.

Oh, I sold the bike in a few days - I think it must have been too cheap as others still came after it had gone.
I can't see me replacing that at the moment, but I'm keeping the SIM C up to date as you never know what'll happen in the future.

Been busy.
I decided my little car isn't big enough any more, so I've ordered a Luxio van ... hoping it's here next week because Michelle is off school so we can take a long weekend at the beach.
Because I don't know when the swap will happen, I'm not filling the car up as usual, just popping Rp50,000 in as required.
All the Pertaminas around here are always jam packed with queue you really don't want to wait in, so I use one of the foreign petrol stations, usually the same one - I'm not going to name it because the lad could get into trouble and I'm not upset by him, even if he shouldn't do what he's up to.

I wandered in for the first time on my motorbike about a year ago, and the lad clearly had eyes for me, but he didn't actually say anything, even if his stare made it very clear what he was interested in.
Now, the girl that is commonly there could remove my trousers whenever she wanted, and my eyes made my sexual preference very clear, but the kid doesn't give up easily.
Today saw him step things up, telling me he loved me.
I said, "Thank you".
The girl was trying not to laugh, but we both epically failed.
It did make me wonder what the girl thinks when I totally fail to hide what I'm thinking about her amazingly sexy body.
It also made me consider a sharp pair of my wife's scissors and my sausage meeting one dark night if I ever wandered.

What a week and a bit.
My dear old mum has ended up in hospital, and it isn't good, and my kid's teacher has snuffed it at only about 30 years old.
We just thought, "F^$^& it" and went for a break.

We went on holiday, or a long weekend.
I'll tell you about the hotel later (The big white building in this video), but the speedboat ride was fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lup8ATx … e=youtu.be

We went to the coast last week, but without booking a hotel in advance.
We dropped on this place, the hotel Persona Krakatau in Anyer.
The place was on the main road, had an Indomaret 20 yards up the road, and the 24 hour security patrolled car park was easily big enough to cope with the guests' cars.
The swimming pool was clean, free from sand and rubbish, and the deep end was well marked to avoid accidents.
There wasn't a life guard at any time I was there or walked past.
The restaurant was clean and tidy, and I saw into the kitchens several times, noting they were equally clean.
However, much as it looked good, the breakfasts would have been considered poor in a Rp150,000 hotel, so were atrocious in a medium expensive place.
The first morning wasn't great, suffering from a lack of much choice and less than delicious food, but the second morning was disgusting.
The orange juice was missing, and the fried rice was really lousy; I didn't bother eating much of the stuff.

The conclusion - Nice and clean, but the food wasn't up to the standard of the rest of the hotel, so I don't believe it was value for money.
I wouldn't go there again unless they did something with the menu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8859Sd … e=youtu.be

I got the Luxio, and the bike has long gone, now being used as a Gojek somewhere in Jakarta
One thing I didn't consider, there's nowhere to park my van outside my favourite barber's place, so I'll have to find a new barber.
I went for a walk this evening, paid the massive Rp75,000 per month security/rubbish collection bill, then went down the road looking for a place to get my lovely locks chopped.
I found one - bit expensive at Rp20,000, but I'll splash out this once.
I have one problem I can't solve.
I walk a lot with all the camera kit, so I commonly get back ache - It isn't bad, just unpleasant, and a massage from a good therapist sorts it out.
Problem is, I walk into the massage place and they always parade a bunch of girls out, all dressed in belts they're using as skirts.
Much as any red blooded man likes to see pretty ladies, I only want a massage, not the plus plus.
I'll find a real place one day.
The luxio is great. I still don't really want a car, but I have to and I really like driving the van. It's surprisingly light to handle and being high up makes driving easy. I'm thinking this was a good move.

I wandered into Jakarta last week - Didn't get many snaps, but I got a couple of interesting ones. They'll turn up on that thread in the next day or two.
Other than that, same old same old.

My Indonesian is getting much better now, but I could use some lessons, maybe a language swap with someone around here.
I met some teachers a couple of weeks ago, so maybe I can find something there.

Tempe goreng is a fermented product, commonly deep fried in batter, and it's very nice.
My wife cooked ice cream goreng a moment ago.
Very very nice.

Four more days and it's my son's first birthday party.

We've considered buying him a fire extinguisher, but he seems to like the flames.
However, even with his cloven hoof deformity, he's started to walk, and has managed his first full sentences, "Your mother cooks socks in Hell, Karras", and "Bye bye daddy".

What a week.
I've actually used my van twice already, and I'm off out in it tomorrow morning.
I bought a Luxio from Daihatsu in Bintaro, and it's a cracker.
The people at the showroom were great, making and keeping all their promises, and doing a little better than they said on a couple of points, leaving me feeling like a happy little bunny.
As for the Luxio, yipeeee, I love it.

I'm still not actually bothered about a car, but needs must, and the replacement for the town car had to be pretty big to meet the needs I have with a wife who wants weekends away at the coast, two other (smaller) monsters, a pram and a maid.

I'm proper chuffed at the excellent service, and equally pleased with the vehicle.

I'm in an Indian resaurant stuffing food with names I can neither spell nor pronounce down my face...and I'm loving it.

I've decided I really do need an Indonesian language teacher, but for oral work only at the moment.
I'll look at the written form another time, but I have to get better so I can hold my own in a more complex conversation.
I can easily look after the usual day to day stuff, shopping and the average experiences, but I'm aiming higher now, intending to get fully fluent in the language.
That mostly means vocabulary, but some of the grammar points still escape me so I need a serious teacher to get me moving.
I try to learn a few words every week, and I'm doing it, but I need a crash course in order to really become totally independent when I need to discuss anything and everything and I'm out alone.
I should add, this isn't an advert for a teacher, and I never mix forums and personal life, so skip the PMs asking for the job.
In other news, not a lot is happening.

My wife is asking if I fancy a move back into Java, possibly Purwokerto, Jogja or Semarang, and I'm not opposed to the idea.
I've been looking at the possibility of getting work of some sort, maybe opening a small private English school or doing a bit of non contract freelance in a variety of places.
We intend to have a couple of days around some of that area next month, so I'll take a look then.

My internet is rubbish, and has been for a couple of weeks.
I'm an understanding sort of chap, and I realise technology can have problems, but I can't stand liars, and that company are.
The engineers come, assuring me the fault is at the centre because all the gear here checks out and the whole area is slow.
The office say it's local to me, totally neglecting to mention a long string of complaints from other subscribers in this area.
Well, those who engage in selling media first, you employ liars.
12 mbps second, announces the salesman - 300 kbps to 3 mbps announces speedtest on 3 different computers and a Galaxy S5, results spread over the last couple of weeks.

on holiday ... more later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv-4U30 … e=youtu.be

I waddled off to ICE, BSD to take a peek at the motor show. It was all very nice, but this concept car really took my fancy.









That thing really puts the TOY in Toyota.

Many think of Indonesia as a third world sort of place, but all the western luxuries are available .... if you have the cash.

No country is perfect, including this lovely one.

One of Indonesia's problems is preman, thugs that will do anything but work for a living.
Most make their cash by threatening anyone they think they can get money out of, or just begging at traffic lights hoping someone is daft enough to believe their sob stories.
A man I noticed today did not, and I'm guessing he was less than polite about informing them of this. The gangster hit his car - a big mistake.
The driver dude, who was seriously well built and bad tempered by Indonesian standards, got out of his car.
The gangsters, like most snivelling cowards, didn't know what to do when confronted, so they tried ganging up on the driver - another bad move.
The driver had the lot at bay, even when their pals came running up from the traffic lights.

They ended up leaving in the back of a truck, tails between their legs, and I suspect a couple had aching jaws.

The other gang I noticed at those lights are as likely to attack you as a kitten that happens to be busy playing with a ball of wool.
A group of men appeared, shoeless and penniless, but happy as Larry because they don't care about either.
The Badui are a reasonably common site around BSD, but no one ever bothers them in any way because they have nothing to steal and the cops know they don't have an identity card, or even speak Indonesian.

These guys are chilled out like you wouldn't believe, making most Buddhist monks look like football hooligans who's team has just lost 10 - nil and had five players sent off by a bent ref.
They also have a reputation for the best honey in Indonesia, something I tried to get hold of, but they had none with them.
Downer.
You can't buy the honey because they don't use or care about money, but you can barter for it.
I live in hope of a future encounter with more of these chilled dudes, hopefully when they have honey in their packs.

Cinema 21, Mall at Alam Sutera, Tangerang.

A large and very fat bule was in front of me in the popcorn queue, and he was being extremely rude to the young guy who was doing his best to serve a pointless idiot with a head the size of a planet and a brain the size of a pea, but very well balanced as he seemed to have a massive chip on both shoulders.

The flat fool wasn't doing much to enhance white dudes' reputations in Indonesia, especially when he gave the lad the 'gila' cut sign.
This nasty excuse for a man left the young lad upset.
Came my turn, the lad clearly expecting another rough time ... ner, not my style.

I can't stand arrogant idiots, so I used my most polite Indonesian, starting with a very polite apology for my poor language skills, even though I can easy cope with standard conversations now, moving on to the most polite order the lad must have heard all day.
I dislike total idiots on a power trip because they have a bit of cash, more so when they're as nasty as that steaming pillock.

The last thing any immigrant needs is other immigrants making us all look stupid and nasty.

I might have been a shade angry, but further silly words were going to do no one any good, so I decided polite was right.

The smile on the lad's face suggests I was correct.

Be excellent to each other, dudes.

May of 1977 saw me go to the Scala cinema in Rotherham, South Yorkshire to see the brand new much advertised Star wars film, and I loved it. The fourteen of December 2016 saw me at the very nice Cinema 21 in Bintaro exchange mall to watch the latest release, and I loved it.
The film is very "Star wars" in every way, but had a rather sad ending because ...... ner, watch it and find out.

I will tell you two things, the good guys sort of won and the audience clapped, the first time I've ever seen that at a cinema.

Ho ho ... oh, it's Christmas day, but I hardly noticed.
Christmas is celebrated by less than 10% of the population here so it doesn't mean a lot to most people.
I started my day with microwaved pizza from yesterday, went to the toilet then out for a ride on my pushbike. I saw a lot of people totally ignoring the fact it's Christmas and some people dancing.
I came home, chilled out a while, then made a video with my daughter.
I have decided to become a professional youtuber and make a lot of money for doing nothing.
Here we go with, "Barbie, the morning after".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWqNwcf … e=youtu.be

I had some fruit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhfGoVX … e=youtu.be

I'm taking Michelle out in a short while to watch fireworks, but I thought I'd play on the internet for a while first. I saw this very serious news story.

http://indonesiaexpat.biz/featured/fake … -priority/

The flood of fake news in Indonesia is severe enough to make it a top security priority in 2017, along with terrorism.

Chief of National Police Gen. Tito Karnavian vows to improve the department’s ability to track, monitor, and eventually clamp down sources of fake news and ‘half truths.’

Half truths can be a really big issue, totally changing the face of a real news story.

I clicked on a link

http://indonesiaexpat.biz/topreads/6-2- … akes-bali/

A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit the country’s tourist hotspot Bali, panicking residents and tourists alike at 6:30a.m. Friday, December 30.

No major fatalities or damage have been reported so far, and no tsunami alerts were issued.

They printed a photo with the story that gives the impression of serious damage.



Sadly, the photo is an image of an another earthquake, so it's possible it's a half truth .. or perhaps a lie, but I'll leave that for you to decide.

This appears to be the photo, but it's been used a lot.

LINK TO GOOGLE

Just seen The Doctor's Christmas special.
Missed 24 years, but that was only one night with Song.

All capitols, or note the capitals?

I was trying to decide what to have for lunch.
A prosperity burger from McD sounded tempting, then I thought of a KFC, or maybe a fried rice from a very nice local place.
I got home, read the news and realised I hadn't considered Fitsa Hats.

Google it.