January in Jakarta

 Not really much going on so some ramblings and things to write in general.

I actually think the days of being approached to buy watches, perfume, girls or offers of illicit taxis and hotels at the airport are almost over. In the 8 times I have been there (yes 8 times already) this year I have only had to deal with some strange man calling me boss while waiting to meet a teacher and telling the Diamond Taxi man at T3 to go away as I would never take a Diamond anywhere and certainly not from the airport thats for sure. How on earth that company got a stand there I will never know. Still I could rant about crap taxis here all the time and all it will do me is make me more annoyed so I will stop there.
I do like my trips to the airport but really only when I am flying away. Meeting people is ok as it involves sitting in a car and then getting back in a car and leaving again.
The porters do irritate me, they want 50,000 rupiah just for lifting a bag into the car. Happily they settled for nothing as go away often works wonders. But the sheer cheek of them asking is unreal, but again I can imagine tired and jet lagged people just saying yes and paying it. I remember one guy told me the 5000 I offered him would not buy him a cigar. He left rather sullenly with nothing. Cigars.....
I also got to the airport in under 20 minutes on Sunday. And yes we were going fast, far too fast to be honest and it not like we were in any hurry. Getting back was equally as fast although we went back through Kalideres and then Dann Magot to Puri Indah. The new toll from Puri is good and always empty. I need to get some photos of the part of the toll that just ends as if the constructors ran out of money. I would imagine they ran out of land ownership and could not go any further. However the toll way is great thats for sure.

So thats the trips to the airport done for now and I hope the next there is so I can fly away somewhere. Anywhere really!

The rest of the week was spent inducting a new teacher and I am doing the same this week which is fun, although there is so much to go through that I have to be careful not to over load them all. I finished my last contract on Friday and despite having the weekend off, did do the teacher pick up on Sunday. I started my new one today.
Saturday was spent shopping and relaxing in FX mall not doing much, which is my kind of day off and fun as well. The city was fairly quiet and not too busy.

Not sure what's going on with the weather as its just been cloudy through the week, very few blue skies and the only bad weather was on Thursday and then only for a few hours and then it went back to normal. In the papers there is comment that this will remain for a few more weeks maybe months yet and now dengue is become a problem because of the rain and puddles and damp. So have to be extra careful not be bitten.

I have actually had my first normal week in Jakarta since leaving for England and it has taken awhile to get back into some of the old routines. It was my first weekend here since December as well which was nice and I think it is nice to get back to normal. I will be back working Saturdays again from this weekend as well and so that will be good as I like my Saturday mornings at the center as I can get lots done in relative quiet.

I have been intending to start up a picture blog, taking different pictures of things I see every day but I seem to be very busy and forget too every day. I think it might be put on ice for a while until I become a little less busy and everything calms down again.

Time for an adventure into the city and to do something different........