Race throught the last month

The last month has been very, very hectic... Hong Kong for 4 days, our maid sacking herself (don't ask, a very long and winding road leading to nowhere), a week of being 'mummy-maid', capped by almost 2 fabulous weeks in Japan. Am in the process of downloading the photos. And when I do, it'll be skiing, Disneyland and FOOD!! From now on Japan=Food. Till then...!

I have also come to a conclusion... It is virtually impossible to satisfy your family. No matter what you do as a stay-at-home mom, it will never be enough. When we didn't have the maid, it was endless complaints of laundry taking a long time, missing items, stuff not cleaned up to standard, me being tired, me being in a bad mood (Kiddo devised a 'mood monitor', with 4 options for angry, so she wouldn't have to ask me how I felt 'cause sometimes mummy, your face is just like that, not happy, not sad...' *slap forehead*)... When we DID have the maid, it was complaints about the maid misplacing things, not doing something or the other... Sigh... I give up. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Sometime I really want to do the whole Exorcist head spinning thing, then maybe I won't get bugged so much!! Arrrggghhh! As a friend said to me, 'They get used to being pampered and having you deal with everything.' Well, the new maid just started work today. From now on , if I get anymore complaints, I shall say, 'Tough. Do it yourself!'

By the way, I DO love my family...

Update on the new place

We've been in our new apartment for a month now. I LOVE it!! Wish we had moved in right from the start. Having said that, I may not then have gone on a 3 month shopping tour of Jakarta and found all the shops I did. Nor picked up the various hobbies I have... On the other hand, there are good friends living here that I wished I had met earlier. Still, regrets are pointless. I enjoyed our 2 years in Kemang, and it certainly allowed me to fully appreciate what we now have here.

The complex holds free exercise classes ranging from pilates and yoga to step and cardio. The instructors are good and the classes tend to be full. I have to admit, having the classes right below me makes it very easy to pop down. One of the problems I've always had with exercise classes in the past is the effort involved in getting there. More often than not, I just give up.

If those classes are not enough, then there are also additional classes that one can pay for. Lots of language classes, then taekwondo, ballet etc etc. The choices are endless. Kiddo elected to take additional swimming and piano classes. Maybe I'll take violin classes... never got around to it in the past. Hmmm...

All in all, this place is the bees knees. Everything is so convenient. Unfortunately, it's still subject to the vagaries of Jakarta traffic. Took me 1.5hours to get home today. Reason? Maybe because it's a Monday... Maybe the wind blew wrong...

Back to reality

It's been an amazing Christmas holiday for us. But we're finally back to real life here in Jakarta. One could argue, though, that we are definitely not living in 'reality'. After all, how real can it be when I expect to be picked up and dropped off right at my doorstep? Or, I get annoyed that I have to carry the kid's bags to the car myself? Sure, if one were a billionaire it would be second nature, but we're just normal people... Hard to imagine just a few days ago I was loading and unloading shopping trolleys at carrefour all by myself, and driving around KL looking for parking spaces.

Anyway... We're back to our usual routine, and I shall remind myself that it's totally normal if clothes don't reappear in the closet the day after I chuck them in the wash basket.

Yesterday was kiddo's first day of school. Why a Wednesday? No idea. Except it gave me an extra day in KL, which is always welcome. Waking up was a real chore. Bleary eyes, incoherent speech, uncoordinated limbs... That was me, by the way. The kiddo was so excited with her new alarm clock that she practically leaped out of bed when it rang. Oh, to be young again and actually look forward to alarm clocks!

She also signed up for extra swim classes at the apartment we live in. 'But it's soooo much fun mom!' and also piano classes. 'I looovvveeee the piano!' Yes, we seem to have entered the age of exclamations...

I've come back to my crafty little haven. 3 weeks with no supplies and I was definitely suffering withdrawal symptoms. Eventually made a paper mache bowl just for something to do. Pathetic. At least now I'm back to having a whole bunch of new things to fiddle with. Thanks to finding supplies in the most unexpected places. Craft-haven on the 1Utama 2nd floor promenade would count as a big find this trip home. Together with the online store scrap-n-crop... Who says if you can't do, teach? If you can't do, SHOP! Hee.

Things I need to get on with now... Blog about Werner, restauranteur extraordinaire; finish my crochet projects before the japan trip; photograph my crafty things BEFORE giving them away, penguins...

The hidden gem of Cibubur

Blogspot has just gone funny and I can't move my photos, so here it is: top is kiddo in her outfit, bottom is our haul for USD75...

From the title, you would assume that I'm referring to some fantastic natural wonder or ancient monolith. I'm sorry to disappoint, but although I'm fairly certain that there are nice landmarks around there, what I went for was winter apparel shopping for our ski trip to Niseko (Japan) next February. Yup, that's right, you didn't mishear at all. Winter apparel shopping. I know, I know, winter is not the first thing that crosses your mind when you think of Jakarta, but seeing as a lot of western clothing brands have their factories in this part of the world, would you be surprised that there are lots of outlet stores too?

The store in Cibubur is called Upscale and is located in Cibubur Times Square (CTS for this post). Opens at 10am. Before you think of spending some time wandering around CTS, let me warn you that CTS is a far cry (more like a whimper) from NY Times Square. Apart from a pretty large ACE hardware, it's practically deserted. So don't bother thinking you could kill some time in the local Starbucks while you wait for it to open. There's a McD's off the toll road and a petrol station KFC nearer CTS. More than that, you would have to go explore...

Walking into the store, you are immediately confronted by lots of lightweight clothes, and only a couple of racks of winter stuff. Thump goes the sound of your heart hitting the floor as you think of all the unnecessary calories in the KFC meal just consumed and the amount of money just spent in impulse buys from the ACE hardware that opens at 9am (Yes, yes, guilty...)! Well, not to worry, head upstairs and be amazed! Racks upon racks of ski jackets, heavy duty winter stuff, sweaters, ski ensembles... Even the cutest little onesies for the little ones. I went totally crazy. My friend KP and I must have tried on at least a dozen items each. Downside was the 'what you see is what you get' policy. If it doesn't fit, move on. Don't bother asking for sizes. Usually it's just the one available. The other thing of note is that sizes don't always correspond with what is printed. So try everything. There's a reason some items are factory rejects...

Well, after an hour of rummaging, I walked away with a jacket, ski pants and a body warmer for kiddo, and a jacket and body warmer for myself. I wasn't really supposed to be shopping for me, but couldn't resist the prices. The whole haul cost me about USD75. Considering my ski jacket and pants bought in London during the sales cost GBP129, it was a definite bargain.

I raved about it to my Dad today, and he's just given me a shopping list for himself! He's also headed to Japan next February, except it's a little earlier and he's doing a eating tour of Hokkaido rather than a ski trip. In any case, I shall take it upon myself to deck him out in unmissable in the dark ski jackets!!! Just kidding... Yes Dad, I heard you, only darks...

Bazaar No.1 done

Bugs in blogspot, can't organise the pics. Sorry. Top: Me behind my stall. Couldn't stand up straight, so figured peering from around the rack looked better than hunched over the table. All other photos: pics of my haul. Excepting the bear. The bear is kiddo's. She just felt it looked better with he new tutu on...

Today was the first bazaar of the Christmas season for me. Organised by the BWA (British Womens' association). It was held in the Grand Kemang Hotel. Lest anyone think I'm an insatiable bazaar hopper, I actually go to flog stuff for charity. This time it's the Panti Asuhan Pondok Taruna orphanage. With the thought of them needing 70kg of rice a day (costs about Rp500,000/ USD50 per day), I went there totally prepared to be the barracuda salesperson of the year. No taking 'no' for an answer! Everyone who pauses has to buy! Buy! Buy! I say!! Well, within an hour of arriving at the venue (6am for set up!! Ugh!), this barracuda became a minnow... I stupidly bent over to pick up a box forgetting that it was heavy and that I generally have a dinky back. No prizes for guessing what happened next... My back locked up big time, and I was left squirming around trying to pretend that I was looking for something inside the box when in actual fact I could neither fully straighten nor fully bend! I eventually plonked myself onto the sample bean bag I was selling since it allowed me to wriggle into a non excruciating position in order to unpack the offending box. No surprises that everything ended up on the edge of the table. It was as far as I could reach. An emergency call to my co-vendor, who luckily, was only due in later netted me a couple of lifesaving panadols. She was very apologetic about not having anything stronger, but at that point, I would've gratefully settled for anything, even a hammer to my toe as distraction from my back.

In any case, there was selling to be done and people to meet. I love doing the bazaars. Every time I do, I meet someone new, or an old customer. And you never know when you're going to meet a great friend. Like my co-vendor today, V. I met her at the last bazaar a few months back and we got to talking. Now she's a fab friend that I cannot imagine I've only known for a really short time. Even funnier, our girls both have the same name! And we both love crafting... Not to mention we're going on holiday together in 2 weeks and moving into the same apartment complex in 3 weeks. Before you suggest it, no, I'm NOT stalking her...

Well, if there's shopping to be had, I'm the one to call. I can ALWAYS find something to buy. Picked up some lovely little batik covered boxes for gifts, as well as some cutesy little things for the kid. Turns out it's lovely having a co-vendor because we can take turns shopping while the other person mans the stall. And V is as great a shopper as me, which is saying a lot...

All in all, it was go, go, go from the moment the doors opened. I've never been in a bazaar that has been this busy. Barely had time to shop for myself!! *wink* For the first time, I also won a raffle prize! I only know it's to some restaurant. The main thought flowing through my head when going up to get the prize was, 'Suck it in!! Walk upright! OWN the pain! Don't limp!'. Hilarious that as we were walking around the hall, V kept trying to carry my bag. Geesh...!

Back pain or no back pain. A preliminary accounting shows that the orphanage will get Rp1,750,000 (about USD175) from today. That's about 3 days worth of rice or 60 chickens. Rather pleased with that I have to say. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come for the next few events.

PS will post some photos when my back unlocks enough for me to focus my camera higher than my knees...

One man's food is another man's poison

It has come to me, rather uncomfortably tonight, that while avoiding shellfish is well and good (I have a horrendous shellfish sensitivity. Gives me heartburn like you wouldn't believe!), I should also, perhaps, be more cautious in scarfing down foods that are somewhat out of my usual menu.

While at Aladdin's cave (Kebayoran Market) yesterday, my maid asked if Mister and Missus would like to try cumi-cumi (cuttlefish). Being Malaysian and generally rather fond of my grub, I immediately said, sure, we'll try anything once... Except innards. I draw the line at that.

Well, IbuI stir-fried up a delicious plate of cuttlefish with chillies and 'stuff' (ginger and something else, I think). It was really yummy. Unfortunately. Because that meant I didn't realize the heartburn was coming on till I stopped for a breath and thought, 'Ooohhhh... My stomach definitely does not like that.' In fact I felt like I had swallowed a pot of chilli padi (for those Western friends who are prone to being the butt of practical jokes by Asian friends, if someone dares you to eat this cute little chilli, SAY NO! It's dynamite!). Totally unexpected. Cuttlefish isn't shellfish is it?!? Poor hubby. He's off to Hong Kong for work tomorrow and instead of some quality time with wifey, he has to put up with my moaning and groaning. Gaakkk...

Moral of the story, if you have ANY sort of food insensitivities/ allergies, BE CAREFUL! Especially if it's a food that you don't often eat. As some supermarkets back home sometimes post 'Come one, come all!' I shall now take myself and the towering inferno that occasionally doubles as my stomach off to bed...

Kebayoran Market

Following on from our recipe book acquisitions at the Indo Book Fair, my maid declared that the only place she could get certain ingredients (namely a duck for Bebek Bengil) was at a market. The largest one near us being the Kebayoran market. Neither one of us had been there before, and it fell to Mr.D, to take us to the market. Who needs the Jakarta Shopping Guide when I have a walking, talking version!

1st stop, ducks. There were big ducks, little ducks, super fat ducks (called 'entok'. Don't ask me what it means. Apparently it tastes the same, just fatter). All looked the same to me. My maid IbuI, seemed to do this weird squeezy, pokey thing and would reject some with a scoff and accept others for further consideration. These were live, flapping ducks, mind. They would then be presented to the totally useless money banks (that would be me) for perusal. The vendor would gleefully ask me to personally 'feel' the duck to see how fantastic the meat was. Uh. No. I could see them wallowing in their own poop. No feely for this missy... In any case, 2 ducks set me back Rp80k (about USD8 / RM25). I also bought 3 kampung chickens (free range chickens) for Rp135k. Cue the whole, 'Pegang aje Ibu. Bagus s'kali!!' (Hold it madam. Very good!) again. As I said just 2 minutes ago, NO HOLDING!! Or touching, or pulling of feathers. I ran off when I saw the guy whip out a machete the length of a saber to do the nasty. I insisted on taking home meat instead of a live animal lest my little sunshine decides to adopt dinner. Left D and I supervising the sectioning. My only request... Keep the duck livers. I want to make pate.
Ibu I doing whatever it is she does to get a good duck...

The fowl (foul too!) defeatherer. Birds are dipped in boiling water and tossed in this device. The little rubbery protrusions spin around and smash all the feathers off. Perhaps also adding a tenderizing effect? Out of the holes ooze icky blood and pulverized feather. Note to the curious, don't stand within 5ft of the thing, you'll get covered in the stuff.

After that it was spices, fish (1/3 the price of Hero!!) a wok (yeah, mine's not the right size apparently), some weird looking round, green eggplants for sambal, some tempe, and we were done. Tried to get a photo of the ginormous rat that was slinking around the fish seller, but it ran up a pipe before I could whip out my camera. I would say it was the same size as the rat that came by our place for a visit last week except it's fur was more, well, ratty. Perhaps the food it steals in the market is not quite as good as what is finds in the compound...The fish alley. Thank God for Crocs and a recent dry spell. Merely somewhat 'pongy'... But the ground was still a little fish gutty... No nice shoes here.

We walked past people selling hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, birds, eels... The was a man challenging people to beat him at chess in 3 moves. He had the king and a castle, the opponents virtually the whole board. It was something along the lines of if you won, he paid you 10k, if you lost, you'd pay him 10k. I wasn't going to pay someone to humiliate me, so onwards we went.
The chess player waiting for his marks...

The coconut grating machine. Watching them do it, I would suggest anyone who wants to eat grated coconut from the market makes sure that it's cooked very, very thoroughly. Goodness knows if the machine is EVER washed...

On the way home, IbuI and I were animatedly discussing the market when we realized that Mr.D was rather conspicuously quiet. Turns out he was amused at us raving about the market because he had only taken us to the periphery of the market as he felt the main bit was too hot and too crowded! What a man!! Sounds like something MY man would've done. Well, IbuI and I were not stinting on the abuse we heaped upon his head! So much more stuff to buy! We probably missed it all! Next time, we're leaving him with the car!! His point was that everything inside can be found outside. Why go in? But, but... What if there IS something different?? 'Nggak lah, Madam. Semuanya same aje...' (Nah Madam. It's all the same) Grrr... Even sounds like something 'Mister' would say.

All in all, I'm hot, sticky and tired. The distances weren't far, but dodging hand-drawn carts can be a rather athletic experience. By the time you hear, 'Permisi!!' (Excuse me), the cart can be practically on top of you. Couple of times, torn between the options of getting run over or cozying up to a bucket of slithery, slimy eels, I opted instead to stand with one foot parallel to the path (so the cart didn't lop off my toes!) and the other suspended over the bucket of eels. Lots of strange looks, but they saw my camera, so most just ignored me.

All in all, a rather interesting experience. Next time though, I will stand 10ft away from IbuI and pretend not to know her. I'm sure (and she agrees) that despite the prices being rather low, they were still artificially inflated when the sellers realized I was the person actually paying. Somehow, they can always spot an expat at 10 paces.

Indo book fair 2009

Book fair=No money... I should just leave it at that.

The 29th Indonesian Book Fair started yesterday the 4th and will run through to the 8th. I went with rather low expectations of everything being in Bahasa and me not finding anything to buy, but since the entry fee was only Rp5,000 (USD0.5), I figured that even if I only found 1 book, it would still be a bargain... Yeah, right, like I've ever left a bookstore without buying more than 1 book.

In any case, I was there bright and early at 945am waiting for the 10am opening. Walking in I thought, 'Wow, I didn't know there were so many book sellers in Indonesia.' The English books were mostly outside in the foyer. Well represented by some standard shops, Periplus, Aksara, Times. However, compared to some of the others, their selection was pitiful. It was like they had brought out all the trashed up, totally not in demand titles. Periplus was better than the other 2, at least I managed to pick up some craft books. The Times stall was truly dismal, I had vouchers to spend and after going through everything twice eventually walked off with 'The enormous crocodile' by Roald Dahl for kiddo.

The inner hall was filled with offerings from local publishing houses. Never heard of 99% of them. But I DID find the Femina magazine stall that was selling their recipe books cheap. Yay!! I bought books on Manado, East Jawa, and Minang cooking, Street food, banana and corn recipes. Matter of interest, I found a recipe for Bebek Bengil!!! Had a whole discussion with the maid on where to get the ingredients. She reckons we have to buy the whole duck from the market. I'm totally ok with that as long as she doesn't come home with one still quacking. No doubt kiddo will adopt it, and there goes my Bebek Bengil.

I also figured that since I was there, I would look out for some Bahasa books for the staffs' children. From speaking to them, it doesn't sound like they can afford leisure books. Wandering around, everything was 'cinta' this and 'cinta' (love) that. Ugh. I ended up at the Islamic book store being served by a goateed little guy who was amazingly helpful. He picked a few books and gave me a synopsis of them. Apparently, the titles often have nothing to do with the content, they use words like 'cinta' only to catch the attention of teens. He also suggested 2 books on avoiding celebrity chasing and girls not looking for early marriages. That gives you an idea of the issues affecting local teenagers...

All in all, it was a morning well spent. Very, very satisfied with my haul, though in retrospect I should have grabbed the other 2 art books I was looking at. Sigh. The only downside was that the Comtec fair was bigger and noisier and right next door. So traffic was pretty bad. Although nothing like for the bazaars. Conclusion being books and tech stuff are less popular than fashion, home dec and kid stuff?

Anyway, I'm off to try my hand at some of the crafts featured in the books I bought. Tin foil here I come!!!

Halloween party

Kiddo and I attended our 1st ever Halloween party today. Costumes required for all attendees. Parents included. Being cheapo mummy, I decided to make my own. After all, why pay loads of money for something I would only ever wear once? My home made fairy costume cost about US$10 and 2 hours of time. It will now be cut down to kiddo size. Voila!! More money saved on costumes.

The morning was spent helping N carve pumpkins at her place. Great fun. The kids played all morning and then some, but that meant we were free to unleash our artistic abilities (google images is great!) without interruption (or not much anyway)... After multiple different knives and tools (some of which names I couldn't even tell you on pain of death) including a drill set, we had our 7 carved pumpkins. N was initially thinking 20, but just the 7 took us from 930am till 2pm to complete. With a short lunch break, of course. At that point, we realized 20 was clearly unmanageable. All in all, pretty proud of our efforts. No injuries either, bar a small nick on my left thumb that probably happened as I was trying to stab a hole with the knife angled towards myself. D'oh!! Still, it didn't bleed (or was pasted shut by pumpkin goo), hence forgettable in my books. Especially since I only just noticed it while hitting the space bar rather vigorously after the computer hung (AGAIN!!) as I was trying to upload photos...Photos taken by kiddo before any knives or drills were put to use.

The fruits of our labour. Far left is a cat. Middle small is hello kitty, on top of the medium beigy pumpkin on right is my version of a 'pocket God' pygmy (You really have gotta be playing iPhone games a lot to get this one)
All lit up. For some reason, the hello kitty candle kept blowing out. Oh well. No one could be bothered to keep relighting it...

After that, it was nap time for kiddo and mummy. Daddy is in Bali on some team building thing so no tag team parenting this weekend. Monster mummy's just begging to emerge. Safer if everyone gets lots of sleep. Then hopefully it'll just be growling instead of screaming and raving... I hope...
The dressed up mummies. That's me in the pink fairy outfit (with the cheapo skirt) in the middle...

By 530 we were dressed and tiara'd up. For the 1st time ever, I pulled out my green and blue eyeshadow. I was aiming for the whole glittery butterfly look, but to be honest, I couldn't see the difference between that and using my normal brown eyeshadow. That shows you how little skill I have for applying makeup. Later I found out that in order to make the colours more vibrant, I should have started with a layer of concealer. Too bad, I don't own any. Should have just gone for kiddo's face paints.

The party was a riot. Sat down and margaritas started magically appearing in front of us. The kids were wonderfully occupied by professional entertainers. And parents could eat and chat to their hearts content. Funny how all the men just ended up propping up the bar. We had a surfeit of vampires tonight. One of them was so artfully made up by his wife that his kids wouldn't go near him. Even after all the red lippie complete with faux dripping blood was wiped off. Hilarious. The girls, by and large, were princesses and fairies, with the boys generally superheros of some sort. Not very up to date on superheros I must admit, though I could probably recite the cast of pixie hollow given a chance.

Later, we had a modified trick or treat session. Parents brought tents and sat inside while the kiddies came around. I'm pretty certain I handed out stuff multiple times to the same kids, but who cares, it's not like we're going to eat the sweets. Kiddo doesn't like sweets (weird, but I'm certainly not complaining), so her stash will be carefully examined and subsequently redistributed to our staffs' kids.

I scooted off with kiddo at 9pm. 2 hours past her usual bedtime. She was still going strong. But if I waited till she was tired, no doubt fairy princess mummy would have morphed into evil fairy princess mummy. As it is, grumpy fairy princess mummy was definitely in charge, despite several margaritas (exactly how many I couldn't say, the barman was a fantastic topper-upper). Hopefully by tomorrow calm mummy will be back in charge...

Here we go again

It coming up to the end of our 2 year lease on our Kemang house. We've been here officially for 2 years now. The search for a new place begins again...

Here in Jakarta, leases are signed for at least 2 years with payment in advance. That's the full 2 years rental upfront. No moolah, no house... Thank goodness for employers that pay first and then deduct monthly.

So, 2 years in a house. We've decided that our next place will be an apartment. The house is lovely, but the Kemang traffic is soul destroying. As Mr.D, my go-to guide is fond of saying, there will always be traffic jams in Jakarta. It's a fact of life. But Kemang traffic is not only unpredictable, but so bad that if you come out and there's no congestion, you feel a little suspicious that you're the only one missing some huge event.

Another thing about houses is the staffing issue. The staff have their separate quarters. That's just standard for Jakarta houses. In this current house, the staff area is downstairs, and I rarely go down. Occasionally I will pop my head down only to be greeted by strange male voices. Yikes. I freely admit I'm not the most courageous of people. When I worked in London, I was the only A+E doctor I know who ran away from a patient who's fist seemed to have an attraction for my face (ok, so he was drunk). Anyhow, strange men in my home freak me out. When I call the maid up, it's always 'my husband', 'my son', 'my other son' blah blah... Enough already! At least in an apartment you can tell security not to let anyone but the maid up. Big plus point.

The other thing we miss is the sense of community. This particular compound doesn't seem to have many kids at all. And they're either much older, or much younger than little miss. There's also a limit to the number of times I can wander over to AL's house. She hasn't started drawing the curtains when I walk up the driveway yet, but let's not risk it...

In a nutshell, my 'current' top 3 issues in apartment hunting : Security, community, staff problems.

Our lovely agent T took me round some houses today. Gorgeous in the typically overblown, lavishness of Jakarta houses. One was not too bad, 3 bedrooms, a large sitting room, large extra multipurpose room (craft room, of course), large open kitchen-dining room. Huge garden with lap pool. Only downside was only the master bedroom has an onsuite bathroom. Meaning kiddo would have to go through 2 doors to reach the bathroom at night. While bypassing the stairs AND the master bedroom door. A detour to either is NOT ok at 3am.

The next house was totally a show piece The agent told me with a grin that it is a good house to look at, but she didn't think I would be renting it. HUGE. 3 levels plus roof garden. Pool on a deck outside the living and master rooms. Downstairs wet kitchen connected to upstairs dining room (that has it's own dry kitchen!). Looked around for the little tinkling bell Victorian ladies used to summon 'cookie' but I guess in a house like that an intercom would be more the thing. Not to mention the entryway (which I thought was the living room except, ugh horrid electrical box on the wall!) and activity room that were both the size of my KL living room. Whew. One way glass windows all around... Something like 8 bathrooms. Every door that looked a little out of place was a bathroom. It's almost like the owner just shoved bathrooms in spaces so they wouldn't be empty. Under the stairs, between oddly aligned walls... Still, if kiddo were 10, I would seriously consider it. The rental was not that much higher than the apartment we looked at. And imagine, sunset, walking from the bedroom straight to the pool with a G+T in hand, billowing white kaftan... Sigh. The fantasy kinda sputters out there 'cause other houses and the contractors on the house opposite can see right onto the pool deck. So no white kaftan or G+Ts from the bedroom in any case. Oh well.

The quest shall continue...

The ongoing mozzie battle

Jakarta = mosquitoes. No escaping that undeniable fact. There are days I sit on my bed at night and point out all my bites to The Man. Usually he's reading his Triathlon magazine and isn't even listening... But so far, the record is 27 bites. Yup. I counted them all twice to make sure. Kiddo's record so far is 15. That was when we first arrived here. Hence our ongoing battle...

We've tried most remedies, including the esoteric ones you read about on the net. Some actually do work! But as I sit here scratching my fifth bite of the evening , I realize that my goal is actually to protect the kiddo. I've pretty much acknowledged that the mozzies have me beat. 'Sweet blood' the folks say. I'm probably the best mozzie repellent you could have. Put me anywhere within 5 feet of you and I guarantee none will bite you. They'll all come for me.

Anyway, getting back to anti-moz solutions. I've tried to include everything that worked for me. If anyone has anything else, please, PLEASE speak up. As they say in Defender Chronicles, 'We may have lost the battle, but we can STILL win the war!!' (Yes, I agree, I'm somewhat obsessed with that game)

Checking the house for stagnant water
When we first moved here, we used to get attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. Nothing we did worked. Nothing. I looked over the whole house, but there were no empty flower pots or buckets. I was stumped. Then came the water leak into the service area. It was eventually traced to the air well that we weren't using. When they scooped up the pretty, white, decorative stones, I saw 6 inches of soaking wet mud. Yes, MUD! Cue swarms of mozzies headed straight for me. Well, Madam legged it straight for the car yelling, 'Tak mau batu!! Buang semua batu dalam rumah!! Lumpur juga!!' (Don't want stones! Throw away all the stones in the house! Mud too!) For sure they thought I had lost it, but hey, no way was I sticking around to see if the mozzies would pick me over the work men... Well, no more swarms after that, just insidious sneak attacks mixed in with some lightning strikes.

Electrified mosquito bats
This is sanctioned violence at it's best. The bats are rechargeable, and when you hit an insect it gives this really satisfying pffffsszzzttt sound accompanied by a mini explosion (the more blood sucked, the bigger the explosion). Hah! Die you bloodsucking spawn of evil, die!!! In Hubby's hands though, it's a weapon to rival a light saber. Witness the lunging and swiping as he attacks the little blighters... mosquitos, flies, whatever... bring 'em on. Then he bounces (flies usually) them on the bat a few times... pfffzzt, pffzt, fzttt, zzt... spark, spark, spark. And looks up with this beatific smile. 'I got one, Babes' Huh. I'd be cowering under the table by then... People, word of warning, it bloody HURTS to get hit by one of those things!!! I DON'T CARE if it's an accident!!!

Mosquito repellent
For kiddo we use Zwitsal, which contains citronella. DEET free. Slather it on many, many times a day and usually there won't be many bites. But you have to keep up with it. Advantage is it soothes the already existing bites too. For us adults, we used to use Off. But it contains DEET. Jungle formula, if you can get it, is great. There are various roll on formulations. Generally they're quite effective if you remember to keep applying. I didn't like the idea of having kiddo slathered in chemicals all day, so the search went on for something else.

Mozzie patches and bands
Right now, this is our method of choice. I stick a MozzOut patch on her uniform before school and it keeps her bite free there. Although the patch supposedly stays effective for 8 hours, I've found that a new one after school will take her through to bedtime. So I reckon 5-6 hours max. They cost about Rp50,000 for 24. Available at Dharmawangsa Square. The band I bought at Mothercare also seems pretty good. It's bright pink, so kiddo's more than happy to wear it. Around her wrist, or ankle, or dangling from some toy... Smells really strong though (not unpleasant, just eye wateringly strong). I'm pretty sensitive to smells, and it was just too strong for me.

Sound wave pest repellents
In KL, there are these little gadgets for sale, apparently they emit a sound wave that humans can't hear, but that disrupt the nervous system of pests. Including rats! Well, we have them everywhere. It seemed to work really well in KL, but I'm less convinced it's actually beneficial here. No real difference to my spot count with and without. Ditto for the key chain version that you can hang on yourself when you go outdoors. We do it anyway, just in case, but even when I forget, there aren't any more or less bites on the kid.

Mosquito nets
There is no doubt these work. You can get beautiful drapy ones that hang from the ceiling and make your bed look all princessey, but beware the dust trapping, mozzie trapping, and tripping that can happen. Also if it doesn't hang well, the mozzies can get in anyway. Totally not an option for dust sensitive, asthmatic kiddo. Until we found the Javan bed canopy... This is the ultimate!! A tent-like mozzie net that folds into a circle (yay for holidays!) and springs out like a tent (yay, no folds to trap anything!). It sits snug on top of the bed (single, queen AND king sizes), is accessed by zippered openings on each side and has the added advantage of stopping a restless sleeper from hitting the floor. Although I'm sure if you rolled fully against the side, the floor would be the final destination anyway, though perhaps a prolonged sinking rather than a crash. Initially we had some toilet emergencies while kiddo got used to the whole zipper system, but we seem to be over that. So now I might only occasionally hear the zipper through the monitor as she's goes about her way in the middle of the night.

Light bug traps
Another fantastic invention. Varying sizes. Usually a uv light followed by a fan underneath and a bug reservoir. They're great. You can get super big ones, or cutesy animal ones like kiddo has in her bedroom. Doubles as a night light too. We empty them out periodically, and although I would say kiddo has the most mozzie free room in the house, we still get at least a dozen or so in there at every check.


Plug in chemical emitters
These are the ones where you plug the liquid canister into the wall or use the hot plate and chemical mat. Kiddo is sensitive to the liquid ones. They were effective, but she kept wheezing. So no go. She's ok with the vape mat, so that's also on in her room every night.




Blocking doorways
I really have no idea if the mozzies fly under the door to kiddo's room. Perhaps I give them too much credit for strategy and planning. But just in case, I sewed up a long tube, filled it with prefrozen green beans and plugged the bottom of the door. At least it keeps the air conditioning in...




Outdoor burners
You can get lovely burners and torches for citronella oil in most stores here. They look great, smell great too. But I don't think they work. I don't like smelling of smoke, so perhaps I'm just not near enough. Mozzie coils work well, but beware the feet. Accidentally brushing against one is funny only to your mates as they watch your frenzied leaping about.

Dishwashing liquid
I got an email from my mom. There was this article floating around saying that if you put lemon (only lemon, not lime or anything else) dishwashing liquid in some water in a WHITE dish, all the bugs would fly in. I did it. Bugs of all sorts did go in. Can't say it changed my life any though. Apart from having to avoid dishes of water in the room. If you do this, be prepared for very strange looks from your staff. Trying to explain it to my maid didn't work very well. Could be perhaps because she already thinks I don't play with a full deck.

Listerin spray
Another email gem. Dilute original (original 'cause the other flavours apparently leave a sticky residue) flavour listerin half and half in a spray bottle and spray around all entryways and where you're sitting. All I can say is if it's a hot day, the evaporation of the Listerin pretty much guarantees all living organisms in the vicinity end up rather dopey. Humans included! I ended up feeling like I'd had a couple of glasses of wine (I was VERY liberal with the spray). Maybe I was bitten, maybe not... Dunno. Hee... Couldn't even see straight... Suppose it could be effective in the open where the fumes are less likely to overpower you.

So far, that's all I've tried. Since I suppose you can't really avoid all bites, I have tubes of Eurax (see photo above), the most effective anti-itch cream around, all over the house. At last resort, there is also the pool. Our water supply comes from underground, and maybe it's the minerals, maybe the temperature (it's usually freezing even at noon), maybe both, but it works wonders at reducing the redness and swelling of bites.

Again, if anyone has any other methods of mosquito prevention, PLEASE TELL ME!!! I'll happily try (almost) anything...

Beat the traffic blues

I hate car journeys. I absolutely detest being stuck in the car for any longer than 30mins max. It's worse when I have to listen to the kid fidgeting and moaning. Endless 'are we there yet' and 'how many minutes more'. Grrr... We'll get there when we get there!!! For self preservation, I now do the following...

1. Have a decent sized bin in the car. Or at least one that fits the kid's bum. No matter how conscientious she is about peeing before we go out, Jakarta traffic means that sometimes, we get caught out. A friend uses left over diapers, gets the kids to go into the back row to pee in them. But it doesn't solve the occasional poop problem. 'Nuff said... Adults, you're on your own...
2. Teach the kids to have meals in the car. Was totally against the whole eating in the car business till we moved here. Now she's up at 630am, in the car and breakfasting at 7am. Pick her up at 1pm, and she finishes lunch in the car. It takes over an hour to get home, so if we wait, it's past 2pm by the time she eats.
3. Have wet wipes, hand sanitisers, tissues, spare newspapers, spare bin bags. This is really to facilitate the above.
4. Have small bottles of drinking water in the car. Even if you're not thirsty when you start your journey, after 3 hours of being stuck in the car, even the most stoic of passengers will be in need of a little something. The snack issue I leave to your own discretion. Food in the car sometimes means uninvited passengers like cockroaches...
5. Pack a bag of books before you go out. We've worked out that rainbow fairy books last about 45mins. So a minimum of 3 of those if we're going down the road for dinner. You never know. Traffic jams here can appear out of the blue for no reason known to man.
6. Pack a pillow. At the very least you can hide your head under it if the whining gets too unbearable. No, no... don't smother the kid/ husband, they're really not (I hope) trying to be difficult...
7. It's an advantage if you have a third row and/ or seats that recline. Believe me, no matter how much you adore your hubby, after 3 hours (or 3mins if he's particularly fractious that day) of sitting next to a fidgeting, complaining, overgrown kid, you would pay ANYTHING to have a back row. You're never too old for time out.
8. Some people swear by portable DVD's. For us it's the iPhones (GO APPLE!!!). With daddy in the car too, it's 2 iPhones. Someone has to do without, but it's never the kid. Her whining is worse than fingernails on chalkboard. We're waiting with baited breath for the Apple tablet thingey. Ooo... Defender chronicles on an A4 sized screen...
9. Books for adults too. I'm generally pretty prone to motion sickness, even the kiddy rides in the amusement parks can make me green. But traffic being what it is, sometimes I can get through 2 full length novels a day.
10. Remind yourself that despite the traffic, there are other fabulous things you get for living in Jakarta... maid(s), driver, cheap craft stuff, good food, nice house, good friends, endless malls... If all that fails, get out and take an Ojek. (Just KIDDING!! Unless you're a good deal braver than I am)

You know you've been in Jakarta too long when...

The following list is what I've noticed in no particular order...

1. You forget how to open and close doors.
2. You forget that going down to the corner shop shouldn't take 30mins.
3. You forget that you can actually walk 10m to the shop next door and not take the car.
4. You stop feeling self conscious at being greeted by rows of bowing sales people if you are the 1st person in a shop that morning.
5. You start to believe that traffic lights are advisory and not mandatory.
6. People saying 'tergantung' (depends) doesn't make your blood boil anymore.
7. You don't notice when people drop 'kok' into their sentences.
8. You don't lurch around the back seat in alarm anymore when you see oncoming traffic in your lane or people driving on the kerbs.
9. You think tipping more than Rp10,000 (USD1) for anything is a rip off.
10. You automatically assume everyone is nice and smiley, and feel very miffed if someone isn't.
11. You fantasize about playing a round of golf without once touching your golf ball (that came from The Man. Obviously)
12. You forget that there is a boot attached to the back of your car. Or that you need to load or unload it. Shopping magically disappears into it...
13. Your kid forgets what clean up means.
14. You feel a twinge of nervousness every time the maid goes off. Then another twinge on Sunday night thinking she may not come back.
15. You're the go to person whenever someone wants to buy anything esoteric.
16. You've run out of shopping centres to while away the school hours.
17. You now have a 'face' you have to put on every morning (moisturizer alone doesn't count)
18. You forget that you have house keys.
19. You go on holiday and are horrified when offered tap water to drink.
20. The signals and horn on your car are to be used as frequently as the brakes.
21. It no longer surprises you to see 1 kid, 1 nanny, 1 driver, 1 car families.
22. Bali as a holiday destination no longer excites you.
23. You stop being able to live without your (social not work) Blackberry.
24. You get used to reconnecting your internet 5 times an hour.
25. When you order something and are given a delivery date, you automatically add at least a week (a month for furniture) to it and are amazed if it is completed earlier.
26. You take for granted that trips to the immigration office take only 15mins.
27. You start to carry wet wipes in your travel cases not for kiddo, but to wipe off the chalk marks on your suitcases that customs put on to indicate a further check is warranted.
28. Your kid sings Bahasa songs as adeptly as standard nursery rhymes. Understanding is a different matter though.
29. You get used to schools having indoor tennis courts, swimming pools, multiple football fields, indoor basketball courts, multilevel auditoriums.
30. You realize that after writing the above list of 30 things, that it's just the tip of the iceberg, but are too tired to write anymore...

I *heart* my phones

All my adult life, I've been the proud bearer of whatever free or cheap phone came with my mobile subscription in London. Nothing fancy, not too many fancy geegaws if you please. Just phone and texting. Maybe the odd game thrown in for boredom busting during those long tube/ train journeys. Phones were for communication, little else. Then, we moved back to KL, and for whatever reason, I upgraded. Then again. And again. Finally ending up with the Samsung dual chip (1 chip for KL, 1 for Jakarta). I was honestly quite happy at that point. The Man had a blackberry (work), iPhone (social, but I was the only one who had the number!), and Palm Treo (KL). So mine were for communication, and his iPhone for the occasional games. Everyone happy right? So you would think.

2 years on. I now carry a blackberry AND an iPhone (Hubby's discard. He now has the new iPhone 3Gs or some such alphabet combo). Here in Jakarta, most folks go, 'Ya? What's your berry pin?' In KL, (usually from my parent's) the reaction goes something like that, '2 phones?? What for? You can only use 1 at a time! Not like earrings where you hang 1 on each ear!' (Last bit from my dad who carries an obsolete Nokia and gets furious if you change his ring tone 'cause he doesn't know how to change it back) Others say I should be in one camp or the other. Berry or iPhone, and never the twain shall meet. Well, the twain are meeting very well in our little family. Both daddy and mommy have Berrys and iPhones. In fact, I adore both my phones.

Initially, before I got my berry. Hubs and I had a little discussion weighing up the pros and cons of it. Seriously, why on earth would I need a Blackberry. Well, here in Jakarta, you can have unlimited data services using several of the prepaid providers. Mine is Telkomsel Simpati and I pay Rp180,000 (about USD18) for a month. In KL, I had to activate berry services on my Maxis postpaid line, and for unlimited data, it was well over RM100 (about USD30+) a month. Still, compared with about Rp60,000/month for only phone services, it was 3x the price... The unit itself cost Rp4.7mil (about USD 470) though, so not really more than my previous Samsung. So this is what we came up with in that little discussion: (assuming the package is unlimited)
1. Messaging between berry users is free
2. Messaging photos between berry users is free. Great for sending daddy photos of the stuff kiddo gets up to during the day. Sometimes I don't have my camera with me, but my phone, always.
3. Unlimited surfing all the time. Think 3 hour traffic jams and you begin to see how it might be a clincher in this discussion.
4. Most of my friends are on it. Makes it much easier to communicate. Especially since there is a status option that lets you post short messages. Saves the overseas roaming charges if your friends know not to call you when you're out of town.
5. My email goes straight there. No more missing important bank stuff because I couldn't be bothered to check my email.
6. Connection problem happen only rarely. So no cursing at the computer for disconnecting out of the blue.
7. Better relationships with family/ friends who live in other parts of the world who also carry berrys.

Ok, so there you go. I got me a berry... Now for the iPhone. Yes, yes, you're rolling your eyes. Still, I need something to stick my KL chip in, and since Hubby was upgrading to his iPhone alphabet soup, I might as well take his old iPhone right? See... Logic at it's best. Anyway, I love my iPhone too! Loads of fun applications to download from iTunes stores. Some free, some a couple of bucks. Lots of stuff for kids. I just downloaded a math program for kiddo that does addition and subtraction (Kidcalc). So what if I have to sit through endless kiddy voices saying, 'Twelve. Pumpkins. Minus. Three. Pumpkins. Equals. Nine. Pumpkins'...Kiddo likes it. And since math is really not her strongest subject, I guess it's good she's playing and learning at the same time.

As for me. I have my Defender Chronicles and Fieldrunners. 2 tower defense games that are so addictive it's not true. Think 2am fixed, bloodshot, stare at the little iPhone screen waiting to see if your 15th strategy of the night will keep the little scurrying enemies from reaching your home. Initially I would stare at them so hard that my lids would stick together if I tried to blink. Ugh. Let's not go there... Then there is the hypnotic game Enigmo, where you have to make all these little droplets of water bounce into a pot. And to cap it off, the puzzle game where you have to make a ladybird push boxes across the screen and avoid getting squashed by spiky balls (Ynth). Ooo... not to mention the penguin game where you crash penguins into polar bears (crazy penguin catapult) or the one where you have to milk your cows before they explode (milk panic)...

It's amusing at times when Hubby and I have to gather up all our phones and juggle them with other bits of paraphernalia just moving from one part of the house to another, but that's a tiny price to pay for the sheer enjoyment we get out of our phones...

Nanny diaries

One thing I really had to get used to when we first got here to Jakarta was the '1 child 1 nanny' policy many of the families here subscribe to. I personally have nothing against nannies, in fact The Man and I do use a part time nanny on occasion when we feel like an evening out. The problem arises, though when families stop being able to function without their 'pengasuh', or when the kids actually prefer their nanny to their parents. Walking around the malls you will see dozens of uniform clad ladies. From what I can tell, their job is to feed, entertain, carry and supervise their charges. You will frequently see a poor beleaguered nanny chasing a kid around who has never been taught that meal times mean sitting in your chair till you're done! I have shivers every time we eat out, just anticipating a disaster where some waiter dumps hot food onto a kid. Whose fault will it be then? The waiter? The nanny? The kid? Surely not the parents...!?

A local friend of mine (an aberration who only uses her nanny to do the school run and when she's working) once said to me that nannies here try and foster the child's dependence on them. Their version of job security. If neither you nor your child can function without them, then you're never going to get rid of them are you. And it gets worse as the kid gets older. Witness the number of kids in restaurants still being spoon fed by their nannies. Yeesh. The way I see it, if a kid is old enough to use a PSP, he/ she is old enough to feed themself. According to another friend, she caught her nanny feeding the kid when she specifically asked her to let the kid do it himself. When confronted, the reply was, 'Dia tidak mau...' (He didn't want to). Ookaaayyy... who's the boss here? The other thing that really gets to me is the constant shoving of food down the gaping maws of chubby kids. Chicken or egg scenario... Are they chubby because food has been used as a pacifier, or do they eat like walking garbage disposals because they're already chubby and need more fuel? It really gets to me. PEOPLE!! No need to feed your kid out of meal times!! A snack occasionally is fine if you anticipate a late meal or if the kid has been very active, but there is no need to offer food every time the kid stops talking, or gets whiney, or gets tired, or gets bored, or simple behaves like kids do... Especially not with sweeties and chocolates anyway. All you end up doing is conditioning your kid to need and crave the sugar high. Not to mention the bad teeth. And the childhood obesity... If necessary, use fruit. I hesitate to even say kiddy biscuits because considering the volume I see consumed, just give them spoonfuls of sugar, why don't you...

When I dropped the kiddo off today, I saw some bigger (at least my height, so they would have had to be at least 10) kids who were accompanied by a companion. 2 kids in the back, 'companion' and driver in the front, who then rushed out of the car when it stopped to help unload the bags and stuff. OY! Do it yourselves!! The staff are NOT your slaves no matter how much money your parents have!! I overheard one parent agitatedly insisting that her nanny be allowed into the boys changing room during school hours to help her 7 yr old change into his swim trunks. Please spare me... That's just too much. Swim trunks!!! Not even the full body suits some of the other kids use. You mean to tell me he can't even put his briefs on himself?!? 7 and the nanny is still dressing him from the skin up?? School policy is NO ONE is allowed on the premises during school hours without a very good reason. That, is NOT one... I mean, bad enough that all the schools I've seen have special staff areas for nannies AND drivers to wait. Yes... Some families do the '1 nanny, 1 driver, 1 kid' thing too.

Ok. Enough ranting. Hubs and I just get really annoyed when we see kids running roughshod over their nannies while their parents just ignore everything going on. Nannies are well and good, there is definitely a place for them. But parents still need to be involved, right?! We did consider getting a nanny to do the school run (which takes me 3-4hrs everyday), but in the end, forget it. Sink or swim kiddo.. sink or swim...

PS I've found that for now, I actually quite enjoy the school run. If and when I get fed up of it, I think the marvelous Mr.D will be able to cope admirably on his own. Good man...

PPS Just to end with a little anecdote... A friend of a friend once took his 3 kids out together with the nanny to give his ill wife a little break. This chap was totally against the use of nanny uniforms, especially since they had little labels on the arm saying 'nanny' or 'governess' (not kidding! Not much governing goes on though...). He felt they were demeaning. Well, nanny dearest tried to pass the kids off as her own and daddy as her Bule (white) husband. Not realizing that 'mister' understood Bahasa quite well though never spoke it. You can guess what happened next... Poor recovering mummy was instructed to go out immediately to get a uniform (you can buy these in any store) for the upstart. On top of that, he wanted 'nanny' embroided onto the back too!

Day 4 : Still husbandless

Off to church we went today. Kiddo loves Sunday school. Yay!! Our church is called the Jakarta International Christian Fellowship (JICF). It's housed on the 2nd floor of the Graha Niaga building right in the middle of the central business district. Good atmosphere, good speakers and they have a really good children's program. It took us ages to find it, but once we did, we knew we were staying. There's either a 8.30am or 10.45am service. For reasons of HIS running, we can only ever make the 10.45am service. Today they had children from YWAM (the Panti Asuhan Pondok Taruna orphanage) singing a few songs. JICF members contribute about 50% of the orphanages running costs and the kids come from all over Jakarta. A couple of them are actually at Uni. Inspiring to see that happen.

After church, we popped into the Penang Bistro near Senayan for lunch. This is the kid's favourite eating place because of the feather light roti canai. The other stuff is a welcome taste of home too. Prices, however are in line with the Jakarta culinary scene and a meal for 2 is very unlike to ever be under Rp150,000 (about USD15 / RM50). I can see my Malaysian friends sputtering already...! For that price, you do, however get air conditioning, mood lighting, drinks with fancy names and (so far), no flies. The last being a major bonus in my book! The Hainanese chicken rice is very tasty, but the chicken portions are tiny (in general chickens here are about as scrawny as you would ever see. Something about people not trusting fat chickens to not have had hormones injected. perhaps by serving skinny chickens they are indicating the quality?), probably a quarter of the size of a portion ordered at the Jalan Gasing chicken rice shop in KL. Just another thing to get used too... The laksa and curry noodles are certainly approaching KL standard. In fact, the prawns are about double in size as you would get in KL. I leave it to you to weigh up, less chicken vs larger prawns. Hmmm... The nasi lemak tastes really good too. But I've never eaten it like that in KL. Usually hubs picks some up after his run and it's wrapped in banana leaf with a hodge podge of stuff thrown on it. Here everything is nicely displayed and separated. Gotta give it to them, they know their food presentation.

Am just waiting now to see if 'some people' will write to them saying they're breaking copyright laws by using the word 'Penang'...

Day 3 daddyless : Kidzania mania...

Since kiddo and I were at loose ends today, we jumped at the chance to go to Kidzania with a friend and her kids. 2 moms, 5 kids (2 were my friend's nieces), a WHOLE lotta screaming.... Result : utterly exhausted moms with hyper kids.

Buying the tickets was an experience in itself. You queue like you're checking in at the airport. Trust me, it was as crowded and noisy as Soekarno-Hatta on a Friday. Then they give you a ticket that looks exactly like your Air Asia plane ticket, and a wrist band which is colour coded depending on whether you're with a party, an unaccompanied kid etc. There are 8 categories. More on that later. The band is used for logging them into various activities. Yes, parents get banded too... No, you can't participate no matter how much you beg. All the doors have 'no adults allowed' signs. I was rather disgruntled as being only 5'1", there were kids there much taller then I am...

Top : Kidzos , Mid : bank card, Bot :
drivers license, L/R : back and front
of tickets

On entering, you first come to Main Square, where the food is. Very wide selection but don't expect Cordon Bleu. With time pressing (5 hours is waaayyyy too little time), you just want something quick. The kids didn't eat much anyway. Probably had 15mins before they were off to the next thing. There's a 'Metropolitan Theatre of Kidzania' where the kids can stage a magic show or Peter Pan. Kids imitate the staff, so there's not much memory work needed. Best of all, a plaque displaying the 'Independance Declaration of Kidzania' sits in front of this huge monument to kiddy emancipation! One of the statues looks like it's casting off chains! I kid you not!! Someone PLEASE tell me I'm wrong...!

For kids, it's great. Wonderful atmosphere. No need to speak softly or tip toe around adults. For adults, it's P.A.I.N.F.U.L. Noise, noise and MORE noise. For someone who already has hinky ears, I couldn't hear nuts. Kiddo had to yank on my arm every time she had something to say. Every hour on the hour, they play the Kidzania theme song. Ouch. The kids can join a marching band, ouch. That's in addition to the welcome song and dance and the farewell song. Everything being played at MAXIMUM volume. Also sirens for the fire engine, ambulans, police (kids have to catch an escaped felon while being coordinated by other kids in the 'control room'. He has tattoo sleeves and breaks out of the prison that has rubber bars. Hilarious...) OUCH.

All the different activities are in their individual sound proof rooms. Each room takes 5-12 kids and lasts 10-30mins depending on what the activity is. You MAY NOT help your kid. Which is why I hope the KL version will be more English based than this one. The default language here is Bahasa, unless the majority of the kids need English, they will conduct it in Bahasa even though the other kids can speak English. You get payed in Kidzos ('local' currency. Upon starting you are given a 'cheque' you have to bank in. Kids either use the 'bank card' issued or withdraw Kidzos from the ATM to buy things) to do certain things like, wash windows, be a dentist/ scientist/ doctor/ tax agent (Huh??) or pay for services. Eg. getting your photo taken... Some activities have minimum ages, like being a tax agent (8. Huh x2??), some have minimum age suggestions, like being a scientist in the Yakult lab (6. Free Yakult included in the job...). Others are ok for all ages. Usually the food related activities (eg ice cream factory, cookie factore, Aqua plant etc) will give you a free sample of that item. Little tip from my Kidzania veteran friend, C : get your kids to do the pizza/ burger making activity and the Aqua bottling activity just before lunch. See! No need to pay extra for food!

The cutest thing there is the driving activity. You have to drive around, get fueled up at the pumps, go through a car wash (no water moms, don't worry). But in order to do that, the kids need, wait for it, a DRIVERS LICENSE!! To get this they need to get a medical check up (not real moms, don't worry), go through a driving lesson, and pay 20 Kidzos. Check out the photo above, it looks and feels real! With this, they can also do a go kart like racing activity. Kiddo was not interested in that, though looking at it, those go karts didn't seem all that go to me. More like, amble karts...

All in all, it was a fabulous outing. Moms had to crash at the Times book store cafe with some rejuvenating beverages for bit (actually so long the staff kept wandering by looking at us) while kiddos had some down time reading. As kiddo said at bedtime, 'I had an amazingly, fun time mummy. Let's go again!' For sure, apple of my eye. Let's just wait till mummy can hear again shall we...

Miscellaneous information

Tips from today's experience and C

1) For first timers, don't bother rushing to the bank when you arrive to get a bank card and cash your cheque. You can quite happily go around without it till later when it quieter.
2) Check the age/ height limit before q-ing. No point standing there for ages then getting told your kid is too short/ young.
3) If you have 2 parents, while one is waiting for the kids, the other can scout out an activity that is finishing. That way, less waiting for kiddos and they get to fit more in.
4) Head upstairs early. People tend to stay downstairs for a long time before going up. Early on the 'factories' upstairs tend to be quieter.
5) Get there early. You will need EVERY second of your time there.
6) Wear comfy shoes. Parents do A LOT of running around.
7) Don't bring a lot of extraneous stuff. There aren't many seats around for adults so by the time 5 hours is up, you may feel like your glamorous Prada has morphed into a deformed saddlebag. Next time I'm bringing a backpack and foldable chair...
8) Call ahead. If avoidable, you don't want to be squeezing with a whole bunch of school kids. My experience thus far is they don't really have a good grasp of the concept of a queue. Also there are no roped off areas to form the q, so unless your kid is good at standing up for themself (mine isn't), they can get totally shoved to one side.

Toilets

Clean and easily used by unaccompanied kids. Kiddo is about 105cm (what can I say, pint sized like mummy), and had no problems going on her own. Even the sinks had 2 levels. Low and super low. Best of all, the sinks are outside, so if you're a hand washing freak like me, you can personally supervise the soaping (provided) and scrubbing.

Security

Everyone is tagged in one of 8 colours. Once the kids are in, they cannot leave the premises unaccompanied. Dropped kids are picked up by their guardians at a designated place and the adult has to bring some proof of identity. When we were leaving, the security personnel were going around asking blue tagged kids if they had call their pick ups etc. The are also constantly on walkie talkies at the exit relaying information on how many blue tagged kids were still inside. Really impressive. I don't now how fool proof the system is though. C's nieces came later and were blue tagged, and yet were allowed to leave with us when we said they were part of our group.

From R : Party; responsible
adult for the party; School
group; Responsible
adult for the school; Accompanied
kid/ Adult (that's us); toddlers
aged 2-3yrs; Unaccompanied kids;
Babies/ Adults >65

Location, price and timing

Pacific Place 6th floor.
021-5154 222 / 021-5154 888 ext 101, 191, 192
www.kidzania.co.id

Mon-Thurs : 0900-1600 (7hrs) - 2-3yrs Rp5ok, 4-16yrs Rp130k, +16yrs (that's us, moms) Rp90k
1100-1600 (5hrs) - 50k / 115k / 75k

Fri, Sat, Sun : session 1 0900-1400
session 2 1500-2000
50k / 115k / 75k

View from outside Kidzania

Holiday season : session 1 0900-1400
session 2 1500-2000
100k / 155k / 155k

NB : if you're a grandparent >65 with 2 or more grandchildren in tow, you get to go in free... Otherwise it's the standard fare. Hmm, I wonder i one can get away with 'borrowing' grandchildren...

As many stations as I can remember

Theatre, magic show, hp art studio, ponds sunsilk beauty saloon, burger place, pizza place, window washing, cosmos electrical shop, indomart, BCA, tax office (hee hee), yakult lab, archeological site, hospital (couple of different things there, there's a pretty lifelike surgery station), dentist, photo studio, fire station, construction site, wall painting, police station, telkomsel workshop, news station, radio station, Aqua bottling plant, Kapal Api factory, Walls ice cream factory, biscuit factory, cookie factory, milk production plant (box milk ok!! Not human!), baby nursery (kids are the nurses learning to diaper and clean baby dolls. Good for moms wanting to see if their kids might help with a younger sib??), Flight simulator, go kart track, driving track, driviers lessons... Waxworks pending... I definitely haven't got it all. Let me know what I've missed. Oh, and if the kids get tired, there are mini blue/ silver bird taxis and buses to get to their next destination... Pay in Kidzos please. Other currencies not accepted... Forget it big people, apart from the driver, no adult allowed. Check out the photo, the 'cab driver' can't even sit up straight!!

You say to-mah-to, I say to-may-to...

Everyone knows that Malaysia and Indonesia are neighbours and practically share an identical language (no, I am NOT getting into the politics of it). Even so, the differences make living here an incredible adventure... After many blank looks and 'uhhhh...'s I have had to change the way I speak bahasa. I know I'm improving because I don't get so many blank looks now... Also the multi-talented Mr.D is an incredible walking fount of all things Indonesian.

I thought I'd share some common things that tripped me up in my early days here in Jakarta. I get into lots of trouble because I tend to chat to everyone. As Hubs likes to say, I speak more to our staff in 5mins than he does in 2 months... Then again, he doesn't go much beyond, 'buat kopi, ya' (make coffee) and 'pulang rumah' (go home).

One of my hobbies is shopping. Not quite a shopaholic, but I loooovvveeee browsing. Jakarta is great because there is a mall for every walk of life selling anything and everything. My source of all things money related, ie The Man, once told me that he read somewhere that Jakarta has the most number of malls per capita than any other Asian country. There are close to 30mil people in Jakarta. That's more than the WHOLE of Malaysia. That's mind boggling... So, there I was, a newcomer to Jakarta, and I thought I'd pop into this store and get something for kiddo. The lovely shopgirl (they're ALL nice, All beautiful and actually know their job!) asked me if kiddo was a boy or a girl. Except she didn't say, 'laki atau perempuan?' like we do in KL. It was 'cewek atau cowok?' On seeing my blank stare, she then said, 'boy or girl Ibu?' I definitely know I'm not the only one who has had these encounters. Occasionally they will say 'putra' (prince) or 'puteri' (princess). That at least sounds better. Somehow 'cewek' and 'cowok' just sound to me like they're describing bodily functions of some sort. Ok, they've worked out it's for a girl, umur 5 (age 5). Then comes the 'rok' (skirt), 'celana' (trousers), kaos (shirt), 'blos' (blouse), dress (YES!! that's the same! But I think it's for my benefit. Haven't mustered the energy to ask what it is in BI yet) discussion. All I can say is I'm glad I generally shop when the stores first open at 10am as I usually get about 3 or 4 sales people around me and between us I have so far always been able to get what I want.

Oh and shoes are 'sepatu' not 'kasut'; fridges are 'kulkas' not 'peti sejuk'; rabbits are 'kelinci' not 'arnab'; frogs are 'kodok' not 'katak'; glue is 'lem'; carrots are 'wortel'; motocycles are 'motor', cars are 'mobil' not 'kereta', 'kereta' is short for 'kereta api' which is train. I remember Mr.D's predecessor insisting that there were no 'kereta' in our area when we were plainly stuck in the middle of a traffic jam... Which is 'macet' in BI.

The list goes on and on. My staff are great. If I say something weird, they just laugh and tell me the correct word to use. Latest discussion was on sentence fillers... I've worked out 'dong' and 'sih', but 'kok' (!!!!).... Sorry, I just don't think I will ever be able to just drop 'kok' into a sentence with a straight face.

Mr.D: A law unto himself

Since I wrote the last post, I thought I'd do one on Mr.D our driver. He's worked for us for 2 years, has 3 kids all 7 years apart and is genuinely a very nice guy. Just as a quick example, when the Ritz and Marriot bombs went off a few months ago, he had actually just dropped Hubs at work and was on his way back to the house. Upon hearing the news, he did an about turn and went straight back to the office calling Hubs to say he was waiting downstairs if Sir wanted to go home straightaway. Unfortunately Sir didn't. Sir also missed his plane back to KL that day leaving madam fuming! But that's another story...

So, yes, Mr.D, wonderful chap. But he has some really strange interpretations of traffic law. Most baffling is how he uses traffic lights. How difficult can that be? I hear you say. And 'he uses'? Must be a grammatical error, you say again. Under usual circumstances I would agree. I mean, red=stop, amber=stop asap (or go faster if you're Malaysian), green=go. Basic highway code. Not for Mr.D!! For him, traffic lights work like this... Red=Stop if it's convenient. But go if it's a jam, otherwise you'll never get a chance to go anyway. Go if there are no cars because there's no point stopping anyway. Oh, and it doesn't apply if you're turning left or if you're turning either direction while on a one way street. Amber=go. Green=go. In other words, go as and when you like. It used to have me at the edge of the seat yelling, 'Berhenti, berhenti!!' (Stop, stop). But now, after many months and much futility, I have decided that I shall just ignore it. He just laughs at me anyway.

The next thing is the whole flashy high-lights thing he does. If the car in front stops, he flashes the lights. If he thinks they should be going faster and aren't, he flashes. If they slow down, he flashes. If he's in a hurry and joins the back of a queue, he flashes. I tried counting how many times he flashed the head lights for one 10min journey. Lost count. Couldn't keep up. I have to say though, all the other drivers on the road do it too, so it's hard to say if it's just him or a Jakarta phenomenon. You have to get used to the 'chicka-chicka-chicka' sound pretty quickly though, or go crazy. At least it's not the horns....

All in all, despite his little foibles. We haven't any serious dings on the car. The Man put a couple on there, but they are NOT TO BE SPOKEN OF. Got hit by a golf ball while driving past the golf range, but one can hardly blame that on him. So... Carry on Jeeves, or in this case, Drive on Mr.D...