Fantastic

Had a weekend off and so it was spent being very busy on Saturday and very relaxed on Sunday. Recently we haven't really done much due to Jeremy and work and because the weekend is really devoted to time with Jeremy I choose not to do much else.

But this was at the movies:

Care of www.britbound.co.uk

and being a JK Rowling fan, we took time out to see the movie and good it was too. And now the long wait for the next one.

However, before that, we took Jeremy to McDonald's at Kemang so he could play in the playground there. He has been there before and so was excited about going there again. We took him on the bike between myself and Yovita. He held on for dear life but then we all do that and he loved the trip, talking incessantly as he does about everything and anything.

After a McD breakfast (which is always welcome) Jeremy ran off into the tubes for about 45 minutes until he got frightened after getting into the top cube and not being able to get down. So dad got into the thing and forced him down. After some milk, and a chance to cool down he was raring to go. But we went back home and he can visit there again sometime soon.

Never more happy than when he is running about and climbing and the play set at McD is fairly quiet and just about big enough for him to exercise some of his energy away.

After getting back we took a Grab to Setiabudi 1 which is a small plaza with coffee shops and restaurants in and a 4 screen cinema. And with it being Saturday lunchtime it was nice and quiet so on unlocking the doors we were first for tickets and pick of the seats and for 50,000 each it was a good place to go. there had to be leas than 30 people in the entire cinema which was nice. 

Then on the way back we decided to stop and buy something for Jeremy and so we got him this.

Hot Wheels Dead man's curve, which as he likes ghosts and spooky buildings was exactly what would keep him quiet for a few hours. I believe Jeremy is totally impressed as he has even tried to take to bed to sleep next too and when I woke up Sunday and this morning, there it was next to me and he was already playing with it. 

Good job Mum and Dad.

Still its Lego for Christmas

Sunday saw us relaxing in a coffee shop for a hour or so and then after shopping playing with said toys and me trying get Jeremy focused enough to look at letters and begin to learn the alphabet, but it didn't go well so we did some colouring instead.  

After the storm

On Friday there was a huge political demonstration involving around 100,000 people who were gathered in Jakarta to protest about the current governor and his use of a word or phrase from the Quran. With the governor not being Muslim and misquoting the Quran he tipped the scales and has ended up in rather hot water with people demanding his arrest, he is put in prison, death and other things. That and they don't like a non Muslim being in charge.
So much so the president has demanded it gets sorted out and quickly.  Anyhow as a result, a load of hardliners, and other militant and peaceful Islamic groups from around the whole country met up in Jakarta, made the place come to a standstill and after 6pm (the time when the demonstration was legally meant to end) some of the less tolerant ones started kicking off resulting in a riot and lots of fear. Not really helpful because the rest of the day had been very well controlled so the riot only served to prove that there cant be a demonstration here without violence.

On Sunday, we decided to go to the National Monument and park with Jeremy so he can run about a bit and Yovita could go running and I could get up early and enjoy the park. So we did. After the usual farce of not getting a taxi to the house because no one can find it, we found one ourselves and headed to the Monas. It was very crowded for a change but it was also car free day and I guess people wanted to go out after the Friday issues.

Jeremy loves to run and in the grounds he can do just that and its great because I can get to chase after him and it keeps me fit too!

So we ran around the place until we saw buses and he wanted to go and look at them and then from there I saw a some police vehicles and many police men still around just in case there would be any further trouble around the area, so went to look at them and he became fascinated with the images from his shoe treads after walking on the wet grass for a while until Yovita came back and so we went off for breakfast.

As usual we took the wrong gate and then the wrong bus so we got off the bus, and then took an Bajaji to McDonalds and ate there. We wanted to go shopping after the walk so we had the taxi take us to the local supermarket but we couldn't park as  it was keep fit and full of sweaty women stretching so we went to another one and eventually once the shopping was done got home.

Memories

I recently was lucky enough to be able to visit my first school where my adventure in Indonesia and Jakarta began; EF Cengkareng. It was the first time I had been back to this part of the city for a good few years and getting there soon brought so many memories flooding back to when I was a teacher and school and area I lived and worked in.

The center itself had been completely updated and it is now nice and modern and for me still has a great feeling and environment. The teachers room had not been touched too much and so my old spot was still there and again the room felt the same as it did when I was a teacher.

New and shiny inside

It used to look like this

Back in 2007

My old working space today 

Last surviving part of the old DoS office, the window

Unsurprisingly little had changed. Being out west there is a lot more space and green than where I live now and the pace of life seems a little less frantic. The traffic was its usual self as I remember it but everything was still the same basically around the center. Gone was some stores and hairdressers next to the EF and the Giant and AW had turned into a big Super Indo and I was told Pizza hut had moved as well. But the Dunkin Doughnuts was still there as was the dodgy car park booth and access.

Still pretty much the same now as it was then

From outside in 2007. Nothing really new except the sign is now Magenta (Pink)

Sometimes it is nice to go back  somewhere and spend time there and just enjoy the memories of the place. It never made me want to return and stay but it made the day more fun.

 

Trains

Last weekend I went to Bogor. I went with a good friend out here, Peter and for safety and comfort reasons, we went by train.  Trains are pretty good in Jakarta and the more you use them, the more you will realise how easy they are.

So we met up at Palmerah Railway station near Senayan and then purchased the railway card and fare to Bogor (16,000 rupiah for card and one way), asked which platform and got on a train. Not using trains very often we got to the next station of Tanah Abang and sat on it while everyone got off.  Still thinking it would continue onward, we were amused it went back to Palemerah where we started so we asked for the next train to Bogor, and then jumped on that one when it arrived. All this took about 20 minutes as trains are very frequent.

Signs inside the train and a very clear map of the network over each door

The advice mainly given is that every train stops at Manggerai, a major station in Jakarta and then you need to catch the Bogor train from there. However, all trains go through this station Bogor, so that is not necessary. So we stayed one right train and about an hour later we were in Bogor.

The last time I was there, it was a terminus and nothing more. Since however, it has been revamped and made larger. Getting in and out is a struggle but other than that it is pretty good.

These are from 2010

These are 2016 and really dont show the changes! but they are there...

In Bogor, we walked up to the Botannical gardens for wander, again this place too has been tidied up and made better. The fee is now 15,000 for Indonesian and 23,000 for everyone else.  Inside the gardens we headed to the Dutch cemetery and then to the Zoological museum for the stuffed animals, faded butterfly collection and the blue whale skeleton. After a while and a few more trees, we ended up in a cafe for lunch before getting back to the station to catch the next train back to the city.

Inside Bogor Gardens

Lunch time view

The station as normal was full as there not enough (probably never will enough) ticket machines. The ticket cost 6000 because we had already purchased the card and so we got on a train back to the city. Each train from Bogor goes to a different part of the city, so it really does not matter to start with because all trains stop at Manggerai. So we got out there, then boarded another to Tanah Abang and then another for Palmerah.

Lots of trains and a good chance to catch up. Trains are cheap and easy to use. They can be be full and I would not want to use one for work but for a quick trip out and about it was good. 

A few days

I had one of those days on Friday thanks mainly to the fact that someone decided to steal my Tab and Phone when I was not looking leaving me me worried and anxious about everything and more paranoid than normal.

Watching this person wander up to my stuff, look about and then take it considering it was not even in plane sight was really depressing. I have wished him, his pets, his family and everyone else connected to him an uneasily death. Prolonged and painful. Ironically the tab is in a protective cover which is broken so it just slides out if you were not careful (where as I don't know anymore, nor care, just angry) and falls on the floor. It happened a couple of times to me so I hope it happened to the prick that stole it and broke. So that was the tab. My phone, whilst not my day to day phone was used for banking so I was more concerned about someone breaking into my online banking and then from there, stealing what money I had.  Both were less than 6 months old.

So after some frantic minutes of doom and gloom I changed all my passwords for Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others that I use including my work ones . Then set about to be generally pissed off all day. 

Keeping with the conspiracy theories, my work email has been hacked recently through my passwords (according to the IT guys at EF) and so that would mean someone who knew me doing this. So perhaps this is all part of the same conspiracy or just coincidence. 

Still no one took my money. 

The Google find my phone option doesn't work without a sim card so there was nothing I could to trace them or block them so I have given up. 

Saturday I made the trip to the Network 3 store to enquire about a new sim with the old number so I can continue banking online. That could be done. For reasons that escape me I have registered this number before and updated the sim so they had me on file. 10,000 rupiah later my online banking was back, which is a great thing.

At the end of the day I am poorer but wiser and more suspicious of everyone. As a good friend said on Sunday as we were on a train 'what did he look like?' To which I said 'Everyone on this train that is not a female, a child or us'. So an Indonesian male, brown skin, black hairs, dark eyes, with a rucksack wearing a jacket in 30 degree heat.

Bastards

Out and About

September has almost gone. The rains are setting in. The floods are here and on sunny days its really skin burning hot. So nothing new really.
I have been getting used to longer days again and travelling across the city early in the morning and well after 5 years, its not that hard anymore. There is still something nice about Jakarta at sunrise as the city is still waking up and the streets are becoming busier and busier and the sun is looming large as it rises from 6am.

Back to St.Ursula I go and finally I have left Dunking Doughnuts. Their running out of coffee routine is not a good routine. Now there is a Starbucks next door to the school. A brand shiny new one which opens at 7 but the doors are open earlier so nothing is ready but the staff are still happy and smiley. So that's good.

I get to sit there for a bit and relax (even further) and then take a short walk to the school.

Walking to school I go past some historically important parts of the city, namely Pasar Baroe, The Istiqlal Mosque, St Mary Cathedral and I am short stroll from this fellow

The Irian Barat Statue

Here are some pictures of the school I am lucky enough to be in

The pictures are from the Elementary school

Jeremy has been busy too and made a new friend who was visiting from Australia. So he was lucky to spend a few days talking incessantly in English to another little boy. Guided by his aunt I am sure their days were full of mischief

And here is one of us in a lightning storm last Sunday at 7.30 at night.