Funny stuff we get to see.

Now that walking around here is getting to feel normal we are starting to notice a lot if interesting little tidbits. I will start carrying a camera everywhere because some of this stuff is just too funny to describe accurately.

Ecstasy fish balls- Walking through the Wal-Mart equivalent called the CarreFour I noticed little 'candies'. They were white with little faces on them. There were others shapes like stars, moons and various types of balls. I then noticed that they were made of fish. Truthfully, you don't want to know the parts of the fish. I will make sure I get some and tell you what they are like. No Xmas turkey- might as well have Xmas fish balls.

Looking for a little something for Caden to play with there was a great 'literal' translation for a child's toy. In bold letters, this toy announced that it provided "Infinite Pleasure!!". I looked around to see if I was in the right store. Marni assured me it was false advertising.

I apologize to any Muslims that may be reading this but your bathroom rituals are entirely too complex. I wont go into details but you might as well crap with a fire hose beside you. But, now I have seen it all. In a mall bathroom, beside the urinals there were hand sanitizers. Not too odd, except that the 'lotion' was not intended for your hands. Really, how dirty does it get down there? ......but, when in Rome......

Aunt Rhoda's Gnome

My mom has this little gnome that belonged to Aunt Rhoda from Winnipeg. Rhoda used to say that it moved around the house. She would put it somewhere, then later, it was in a different play in the cupboard or shelf.

Mom doesn't know this, yet- but before I left I stole her little Irish friend. I figured if the little guy did actually move around the house the least I could do is show him around here, a bit.


Here he is on the first leg of his journey in Hong Kong's airport.

Here, nestled in the bosom of some traditional dancers. Trust me, though- they were not THAT traditional. I don't think they normally dance with a ghetto blaster.


This is the little guy enjoying his time on the beach of Palau Putri. He was a little skiddish of the live, wild Komodos lurking around the island. No lie, they were everywhere.

Old town

Here are a bunch of pictures from the 'Old Town'. I tried to take a bunch of pictures of the people and surroundings. I won't add any captions but you can get the idea.

The house across the street.

Ihave written many times about how they build stuff around here. I have also mentioned about how someone is getting a house built across from us. I figured I would post a few pictures of the work that has been done. Nothing has been happening, lately. We think it is because of the holiday.
They were placed in out of order and I am not going to straighten them out. So I will just give you the order.

The top right hand pic was taken on August 1, followed by the bottom one on the 18th of Aug. The middle row, right hand was a couple of days before the middle row LH- you can see the walls up in the back. The top LH picture was taken last week. They have beams up and well as places for doors.

They are using tufa (I think). It is very light, can cut with a hand saw, but gets harder when exposed to air. Many of the Chateau in France are made of the same stone.

Happiness and Sadness

Today is the first day of Indul Fitri. It is, basically, Muslim Xmas. So, we get ourselves 5 days off. Yay us! A well needed break after about two weeks of hardcore teaching. Okay, so it hasn't been too bad but the computers were down which caused me some discomfort. It could have been some bad chicken, too.

Marni, the kids, and I are heading to Putri island. It is one of the thousand islands (and home of the salad dressing, too) just north of Java (where we are). Hopefully, Caden can see a shark. The island has glass bottom boats, an aquarium and snorkeling. Unfortunately, we are learning that traveling is not as cheap as we were lead to believe. In fact, nothing is as cheap as we were lead to believe, except food and service type costs (massages, cabs, nannies).

A bus ticket may cost you $15 return from another city, but the buses may not run on any sort of schedule. Plus, the machet (traffic) is so bad it could take you days to get somewhere. Obviously, machet is the root of 'machete' which is what you want to kill everybody with when you are caught in it.

Anyway, we looked into getting a hotel in the city just to get away from the school. However, over the Indul Fitri weekend all the places are packed. But, you would think that they are filled with tourists. Oh, no- they are filled with locals.

During Indul fitri, like Xmas, it is important to go home and celebrate with family. That said, all the nannies, maids, drivers, etc. are gone. So, all the local rich people are moving into the hotels because they truly have no idea how to take care of themselves. They would have no clean clothes, food or people to drive them around. One of my students send his driver to McDonalds because he didn't have any breakfast. The cooks went home and no one made him food. I am sure food exists in his house but nobody has any idea what to do with it. Sadly, a whole new form of helplessness.

My solution would be to hire half Muslims and half Christians. That way, all your bases would be covered.

God and other stuff

We went for a walk on Sunday to see what was in our neighbourhood and we found some very interesting things. Not far from here is a huge Christian church. Marni, being the good Catholic peered inside and came back and mentioned "It is more of a show then church.". After checking out some posters, the minister is your 'Billy Graham' type of guy. There was a lot of whiz-bang and he was building his ministry here in Jakarta. Being in a very Chinese area, there is a lot of them that are flocking to Christianity. With the church came a college, private school and a Cathedral being built an one large complex. Very impressive. But, according to the pictures on the glass, if you don't listen they kill you.

We continued on our walk and found, what seemed to be a public garden. Very beautiful. Tucked in behind the garden was an open air market. Lots of fruits and veggies out for display. They also come with a healthy portion of flies. Being privy to the 'chicken jump' on the farm, nothing surprised or phased me.

Just a couple of funny ideas- here are a few things you can learn in Jakarta.There is always room for Christianity and Media technology.

Another thing; what does this say about the people showing up when it's closed? They didn't know what the sign said when they sat down.....sure.

Used clothes

Marni, the kids and I were walking in an area called the "Old Town" last weekend. It has a bunch of the Dutch colonial buildings and reminds you of a small European town. Kind of interesting. But, even more interesting is that it is close to the wharf and shipyards.

Having never really wondered where things like waterproof bags and tarps come from I was floored to see people-on the street, sewing these huge rolls and lengths of tarps. I guess someone has to do it. There were people sewing what looked to be, sails. There were ropes that were as thick as my legs. It was very interesting.

Even more interesting is that we saw a kid wearing a t-shirt with the Alberta 75 logo. That was the logo that was used when Alberta turned 75.....in 1980. I wondered where this kid would get a 30 year old t-shirt from Alberta. Then it dawned on me, what happens to all those old clothes that we donate to the Salvation army? I am sure that the stuff they don't sell gets donated somewhere else. I guess it has to go somewhere. I am sure there is someone wearing an old Lanny McDonald flames jersey around here, too.