Celebrating Christmas

This year, like last the decision was made to stay home in Jakarta and have Christmas day in the city. Whilst not ideal it still sounded like a good idea and in fact it was.
However, unlike last year, I did not stay in a hotel for Christmas rather leaving that to a few nights a night later (another post on that to follow, I am sure) and so we settled down to enjoy the festivities er on TV?

Christmas Eve started with lots of hope and expectation and I wanted to enjoy a decent English breakfast so we headed off to Bangers and Mash in Kemang only to find that it was closed, so from there we went to Citos or Cilendak Town Square and ate in a German restaurant which was excellent.
Getting back home in the late afternoon, beer and rubbish TV was the order of the day and whilst I waited for midnight to come and Christmas day to arrive, I decided to follow Santa as he delivered his presents across the world with the Google Santa Tracker app on Android. I had already downloaded the Norad application and with them both running Santa seemed to be going to different places at the same time and then as it neared 11pm or midnight in Bali, Santa had magically delivered all the presents for Indonesia and was off to Singapore. Now as a believer I was stunned to see that clearly someone or thing had forgotten how silly and odd the time zones are in Asia with Bali being on the same time as Singapore but Bangkok is not as it is the same as Jakarta.... Still.

If you look at the bottom right hand corner it says 23.06

Christmas morning was up early and into the presents and it was a great experience and definitely a Christmassy moment in otherwise lacklustre season. Lacklustre because despite the malls and restaurants ramping up the season greetings with trees, music and Santas etc, the streets and mood  around had not moved at all. This was not helped by one of the largest Moslem movements in the country declaring it was 'haram' or forbidden to say happy Christmas or join in in any Christmas celebrations if you were a muslim. What a happy place. Someone commented that it is OK and acceptable to give to Muslims when they are celebrating  Ramadhan etc but not for them to do the same when another faith has a major festival. I am generalising with that statement because despite the information from this governing body, everyone I met regardless of faith was wishing me happy Christmas, so I guess the general population can clearly make its own mind up about what is correct or not to say at Christmas but the overtones about lack of tolerance again is worrying. (Read more by clicking the link)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/12/24/mui-nixes-christmas-sby.html

Presents opened, New shirt on, Yovita and I headed again like last year to Eastern Promise in Kemang for Christmas lunch with some friends.

The lunch was fantastic again like last year. It was also a plated affair not a buffet like the year before. Turkey, gravy, Stuffing, all the beer we could drink and a most splendid afternoon enjoying ourselves whilst outside was thundery and raining very heavily.
The day could not gone any better and it was for me one of the best Christmas days for many a year.

Top menu, top food and a decent price as it  was tax included.

The girls decided that they wanted to go to a mall for 'decent' coffee and so we left EP and headed towards Pacific Place where they could drink coffee in a cafe called Liberica and the boys went to De Burse for more beer and cheer.

This is the one in Central Park, I am told they all look the same

Finally around 9pm we left the bar and headed our separate ways. Mother phoned to wish us all a merry Christmas which was nice and I hopefully was not too drunk talking to her, if I was then it wont have been the first time.

So Christmas Day in Jakarta this year was well spent and was lots of fun. It wass a national holiday here but out in the streets it certainly did not feel like it as well, life goes on.  Next year? well that remains to be seen. I would like to be somewhere else for the day but where, that I don't know yet.

Happy Christmas

Dear Readers and visitors to my blog.

A short note to wish you all a very merry Christmas. I hope the season is peaceful and joyous for you all regardless of faith or creed.

For me Christmas is a time to be with family and loved ones and enjoy our time together. Giving gifts and eating and drinking far too much.

So,

 and 

to all

December Floods

Sat about in the Epicentrum having beers and pizzas on Saturday afternoon after crawling through the Saturday afternoon traffic and watching quite in amazement as the sky went from white puffy clouds to a black menacing storm, it began to rain and the wind began to howl and the apartments opposite the mall were lost in the fog of torrential rain for about 2 hours. The rain was so severe that the mall itself was flooded and so we settled in a coffee shop and waited for it to all die down.
And it rained and rained and the wind pushed the rain in to all the corners and the gaps causing more places to leak.
Unbeknown to us the city itself was enduring its worst flooding this year and that was after the big rain we have had all week.

The thing with the rain is that firstly every taxi disappears, then the buses fill up, the rats run out from the drains and then the roads fill, the rivers burst and then everything else grinds to a halt and it did and in a quite spectacular style. Happily I was not affected by any of this as we never went any further into the city than Rasuna and so it rarely floods there and when we got home, the rain had pretty much stopped and the roads were starting to dry up.

Several places in the city were flooded out and by up to 60cm in places, which not only shows how much rain actually fell but how bad and poorly managed the drainage system is here because despite there being many drains and run offs, they run off into waste clogged pipes, rivers or the access points to the drains are clogged with dirt and rubbish preventing the water from moving away. In England they have the same with the rivers after the rain and the floods are blamed on the lack of  green space around rivers which is meant to soak the excess water up. Sadly Jakarta has not enough green space to allow water to be soaked up and clearly no-one has thought about how to manage the floods that appear every time it rains in the same places causing the same problems.

This is the information from the Jakarta Post from Saturday:

Heavy rain hit Jakarta on Saturday, inundating the majority of the capital and crippling the traffic all over the city.

Commuters are advised to avoid these inundated spots, as reported by tempo.co:

North Jakarta:

- Kapuk
- Semper
- Pluit Lama
- the 23-kilometer point of the Tanjung Priok toll road to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

Central Jakarta:

- Hotel Indonesia traffic circle
- Kebon Sirih (50 centimeters)
- In front of the Senayan apartment (60 centimeters)
- In front of Senayan City shopping mall (60 centimeters)
- In front of the Atmajaya University (40 centimeters)
- In front of the BRI Building on Jl. Jend. Sudirman (50 centimeters)
- Around Bank Indonesia on Jl. Thamrin (40-50 centimeters)

South Jakarta:

- In front of ITC Fatmawati shopping mall (40 centimeters)
- Casablanca underpass (30 centimeters)
- In front of Ramayana department store in Ciputat (40 centimeters)
- In front of the Australian Embassy on Jl. Rasuna Said (20 centimeters)

West Jakarta:

- Jl. Kyai Tapa (40 centimeters)
- In front of the Indosiar Building on Jl. Daan Mogot (30 centimeters)
- In front of Citraland shopping mall on Jl. S. Parman (40 centimeters)
- In front of the Ibis Hotel (20 centimeters)
- In front of the Menara Peninsula Hotel in Slipi (25 centimeters)
- Pesing (20 centimeters)

Interestingly enough most of the major flooding occurs in high volume traffic spot, outside malls or near to rivers.... but I can't say why that would be I leave that to those that have more knowledge than me about these things.

And here are some photos from the rain

                                        

Pluit area

Somewhere near Monas

Thamrin - Sarinah Mall

                                                         

                       I have no idea how he got there or where got his special underwater bike from

There is more rain forecast and if it rains like that up in the hills and mountains of Bogor then the city will be a bigger mess for longer thats for sure.

The links

http://www.thejakartapost.com/channel/jakarta

http://www.tempo.co/

Weekend in Jakarta

Been a long weekend for me but not in a bad way but in a good way.  If we consider that the weekend starts on the Friday night then it has been a long weekend, which naturally consists of working and then play. I work most Saturday mornings due to the nature of my job and I am more than happy with that. Back in England when I was working, I used to have to work all weekend from early Saturday until late and then the same again on the Sunday, so working in Education out here means none of that nonsense and that is fine for me, also because I am 'trained' to work on the weekends I don't mind. I also actually like working Saturday mornings as it allows me time to plan for the week ahead and ensure everything is finished off.

So after a productive morning at work, I get back home and then out we go to find a new Motorcycle helmet as mine is cracked and worn out. 

There are a fair few types of Helmet in Jakarta from the cheap to the silly price and from plastic hats to the full on road safe.

Being western and big finding a new helmet here is a challenge that's for sure. The last one I purchased was in a hurry as I had the one previous stolen so I had to get one very quickly. That was back in 2010, so it has lasted a long time and been dropped enough to warrant a replacement.

Yovita and I set out on the bike to a helmet store to choose a new one. The store was not far from the house so it was a quick trip and it has an impressive range of helmets both full face and half from small to extra large. Clearly I need an XL helmet so after trying on a few it was decided I needed an XXL helmet if I was to get a new one. The trouble with the sizes here is that they are for Indonesian heads not western heads so not one fitted.

The range was from GM, KYT, MAZ, MDS, INK and BMC. My helmet is NHK and they did not sell that brand, so its off to Citraland this weekend to see if I can find one there.

A real store selling helmets and giving useful advice

Side of the road trade, real helmets most likely, price can be bargained

So after that little trip out, it was time to get ready to attend the annual EF SWARA teachers quiz night which is held every year at Eastern Promise but this year it was held in De Burse which is a great but quiet little bar near Pacific Place under the Equity Tower.

My role it was revealed was to mark the answer sheets while a fellow DoS recorded the scores, another read out the questions and the organiser sort out the Powerpoint for it all. 

It was a good night as, well they always are with much drinking and shouting and lots of happy and chilled out teachers enjoying time together.

De Burse is a nice place to sit and drink for an evening or afternoon and it was nice to be able to sit and chat and drink before and after the quiz. Yovita came with me but disappeared into Pacific place with some girlfriends for gossip and no doubt coffee.

De Burse is owed by the same people as Eastern Promise so you can be assured it is a good place to go. For more information go to EP website or this one: 

 http://www.jakarta100bars.com/2011/06/cafe-de-burse-jakarta.html

So this morning was spent healing a hangover, which was done rather quickly by eating chicken nuggets and chips for breakfast (there was literally nothing else in fridge) and then going out to the Epicentrum cinema to watch the Hobbit.

Its long and the first of 3 movies but worth seeing.

The Hobbit was good and whilst tells the story of how Bilbo Baggins gets the ring and has his adventures, it is not as intense or serious as the LOTR films. We watched it in 2d as the cinema at Epicentrum was not showing the 3d version. However with some 5 year behind me kicking my chair for the first 30 minutes (he soon stopped when I turned around and spoke to him and his mother) it felt more like 4d! However it was a good 3 hours spent and I look forward to the next one. 

For more information about movies in the city click on this http://www.21cineplex.com/nowplaying. You should know that whilst Cinema 21 is a chain the movie theatres all charge different amounts. For example, Epicentrum charge 35,000 a ticket on a Sunday where as Pejaten charge 50,000. 

Expat Blog

Very surprisingly I have been nominated for 'Blog of the month' by the kind people at Expat-Blog.com. I am delighted with this because it is the first time my blog has been promoted by any website.

Expat-blog is a site for expats and locals for all countries to share and give advice etc. and it is a friendly and easy to use site.

http://www.expat-blog.com/newsletter/top/191_december-2012.html is the link to my interview and

http://www.expat-blog.com/ is the link to the site.

The long week

Holidays are coming but for now I still have to wait another 9 days before I can unplug my computer, turn off the AC and leave the office for a whole 10 days for the Christmas break. I can't wait.

Living in Jakarta I really can't seem to get my ahead around peoples view of Christmas and the lack of spirit or excitement that it brings balancing that with the over the top Christmas decorations and attractions dotted about all the malls at the moment.

For example:

Citraland has Rabbit Island
Central Park 'is the 'Christmas city'
Semanggi has Mr Bean for the kids
Gandari City has Hello Kitty
Taman Anngrek has the 'warmth of Christmas'

Central Park 2011, I have not had opportunity to take a recent photo at night since I moved.

I could go on but I won't, but here are some websites which will....

http://www.lippomalls.com/
http://www.gandariacity.co.id/index.html
http://www.taman-anggrek-mall.com/index1.php
http://www.centralparkjakarta.com/v2/
http://www.grand-indonesia.com/

However, they all lack that certain element of Christmas for me, the spirit and the excitement from those inside shopping.

Last weekend whilst at Central Park in the blazing heat I saw a Santa who was wearing a grey shade of facepaint to make her less Indonesian. In Kuningan City, the Starbucks ( therefore all the other Starbucks in the city ) was belting out 'Let it snow Let it snow'. Centro in Semanggi had Christmas tunes, lounge style which was laid back but still somehow wrong.

I guess I miss the hustle and bustle of shopping in England at this time of year. Queueing in Argos for that last item of stock. Fighting my way through the supermarket with my bag of sprouts and frozen turkey and of course standing in line in Superdrug with some cheap perfume and a selection pack on Christmas eve as I forgot something for someone.

I can't see that happening to me this year as I have already finished the shopping, sent the cards, sorted out dinner for Christmas day, got the hotel booked for a few nights stay over Christmas. I guess I have already changed my approach.

Still, Christmas morning will be fun as there will be kids and presents and I am sure something strong to drink to start the day....

Party Mix, The essence of Christmas Parties.....