Hi Days and holidays

One of the best things in Indonesia is its love of national holidays supported by everyone having holidays and time off.
So what better day to have off than a Tuesday. It gets Monday out of the way and one less day to worry about and so can spend the day relaxing and doing my favourite thing. Nothing.

So off to the mall then!! Meeting Yovita at Semmangi for lunch and then she had to continue studying for her exams which are this week. The city was nice and quiet and so it was a good way to relax and not be at work. Getting paid not to be somewhere is a wonderful thing.
The rest of the week at work kinda got better. One of my teachers left the country and headed home and my newest started teaching. There seems a lifting of the pressure somewhat for some reason and so that feels nice.
I had to interview for a new class outside of the school in a local bank and so that was fun. I had 12 staff who spoke no to little English and they probably had never spoken to a white man or a 'bule' before so it was all giggles and shyness from the girls and crazy smiles and embarrassment from the men but it got done and that was good. I look forward to it being part of our schedule. The teachers will love it.

Rainy season must nearly be over which is good but it is getting hotter and dustier with more smog and more coughing as the days go by, but it is still sunny and warm all the time so I cant complain. When I get to it, I will take some photos of the plants which have started to flower.

My week is a good one. Another reason to like Indonesia, always expect the unexpected and so its all going well and everything is good when I find out that the payments for my new motorbike failed to be paid through the post office computer system so to prevent my bike being reprocessed I had to make another payment by the end of Friday. You me and money this year are sticking together like oil and water. So here is a thing I have $120 USD paid to the bike company through the post office and its lost in a transaction somewhere. So I have to pay that amount again and in 10 days time I will get a refund. (Coincidently in 10 days time it is time to pay the bike installment again, so I dont actually lose or win). So another week strapped for cash due to financial minefield that is Indonesia. If this happens to me what horrors happen to the locals here. It cant be easy unless I am doing something wrong. Anyway lesson learnt and will now pay through bank as it is more reliable and there internet cant fail so that has to be good.

I like the idea of having money, it seems however, the gods are plotting against me and sending me on a series of financial adventures to test me out.

The week apart from those little gems has been a very work focused and cant afford now to do much affair and this weekend was no exception.
I stayed home Saturday after work and did the least, which involved some tv and sleeping an awful.

I met Yovita on Sunday at Sarinah for lunch as she was studying in Starbucks there and from there we went to Care Cartel where the pasta is ok and the Philly Cheese Steak is poor but edible. Pricey and empty and a packed Burger King, I know where I want to be next time as they are selling triples now!!! and for a lot less.
We watched the movie Green Zone at the cinema there. 25,000 for the weekend and the sound, screen and the place whilst small is comfortable and relaxing.
The movie was great and I do like a Matt Damon film as they are under whelming whilst full of action at the same time.

So thats a thumbs up from me.

A short blog possibly a relief for some and not for others. My friend Jon finally joined Facebook after all this time of protesting and I know in a few weeks he will be hooked, Twitter is next!!. If he disagrees he can comment on here.
Mum says the daff and crocuses are up, so please send me some photos I know some people that have never seen them and would love the English spring flowers in all there glory.
And thats that. Except why do I get a Malware warning everytime I open the Jakarta Post?