gorgeous!!!
Monday, July 31, 2006
Gili Gaga
Well I am home in Adelaide - arrived back to a delightful 9 degrees - hard to believe that 3 days ago I was sitting having this photo taken.
The Gili's were fantastic. Imagine snorkelling 10 metres of a beach and seeing sea turtles, tropical fish of every imaginable colour and drifting one Km on the current as the sea world passes you by. So cool!
Another thing about the Gili's is the hilarious combination of Europeans who stumble their way across Indonesia and find themselves in paradise. I hardly met any Australians there - on the other hand - Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards, Slovenes, Belgians, Swiss, Irish & British were there in abundance. The vibe is so remarkable relaxed, it is impossible to stress about anything while you are there.
I travelled there with Sam, and Alana joined us a few days later. Accomodation was great value, and so were the drinks. Aduh - just writing this I was wish I was still there. I even managed to get a tan!
So now I am sitting at the computer in my parents new house, wearing 7 layers of clothing and with the central heating cranked up, scouring the net for employment opportunities and contemplating scholarship options for a Masters next year. Talk about jerking me back to reality. :-)
But its all good. Will gradually catch up with my mates this week and sink back into the groove. Plan my next move and freeze in the process.
Sigh, so I bid Indonesian farewell. Had a great 6 months. Met amazing people. Did crazy stuff. Fantastic. Hebat.
The Gili's were fantastic. Imagine snorkelling 10 metres of a beach and seeing sea turtles, tropical fish of every imaginable colour and drifting one Km on the current as the sea world passes you by. So cool!
Another thing about the Gili's is the hilarious combination of Europeans who stumble their way across Indonesia and find themselves in paradise. I hardly met any Australians there - on the other hand - Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards, Slovenes, Belgians, Swiss, Irish & British were there in abundance. The vibe is so remarkable relaxed, it is impossible to stress about anything while you are there.
I travelled there with Sam, and Alana joined us a few days later. Accomodation was great value, and so were the drinks. Aduh - just writing this I was wish I was still there. I even managed to get a tan!
So now I am sitting at the computer in my parents new house, wearing 7 layers of clothing and with the central heating cranked up, scouring the net for employment opportunities and contemplating scholarship options for a Masters next year. Talk about jerking me back to reality. :-)
But its all good. Will gradually catch up with my mates this week and sink back into the groove. Plan my next move and freeze in the process.
Sigh, so I bid Indonesian farewell. Had a great 6 months. Met amazing people. Did crazy stuff. Fantastic. Hebat.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Bali Dreaming
Well just a short post to say I am in Bali, staying with Alana - and the three of us are having a great time!
In a little while Sam and I are going up on a bike to Ubud to have lunch with Alana and her mum, and then tonight we are going to stay at a beach called of all things Dreamland.
After that I will be off to the Gili's on Monday, and I don't think there is internet there, so you might not hear from me. So if not, I will write again when I get home.
Yay! Sun!
In a little while Sam and I are going up on a bike to Ubud to have lunch with Alana and her mum, and then tonight we are going to stay at a beach called of all things Dreamland.
After that I will be off to the Gili's on Monday, and I don't think there is internet there, so you might not hear from me. So if not, I will write again when I get home.
Yay! Sun!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
A Shadow In Sosro
Well, it is my second to last day in Yogyakarta. My Exit Permit will be ready tomorrow, and I am fairly confident I will be jumping on a plane tomorrow afternoon and heading over to Bali.
I am staying in Jalan Sosrowijayan, which is one of the two tourist- areas in Yogya. My losmen is costing about $6 a night and it is really nice. I am so happy I decided to try and see Yogya from a different perspective because I have noticed new things in the last few days, even though I have driven down this street countless times.
Today I am going to go to Kota Gede, the silver city, to try and pick up a nice souvenir. Later I am going to head over to my old kos and get rid of some of my stuff. I have a ridiculous quantity of luggage - all books. And because I was an idiot and flew Qantas, the letter I have from my University asking for leniency RE weight of luggage, doesn't have any effect.
Anyhoo, thankfully, I was nowhere near the Tsunami/Earthquake that happened the other day. I left Jakarta three hours before the ground shook again. Some of my office friends said they felt the shake on Level 23 of the Jakarta Stock Exchange. I am not sure how well I would have coped had I been there......
Right, time to go and keep pretending to be a tourist!
I am staying in Jalan Sosrowijayan, which is one of the two tourist- areas in Yogya. My losmen is costing about $6 a night and it is really nice. I am so happy I decided to try and see Yogya from a different perspective because I have noticed new things in the last few days, even though I have driven down this street countless times.
Today I am going to go to Kota Gede, the silver city, to try and pick up a nice souvenir. Later I am going to head over to my old kos and get rid of some of my stuff. I have a ridiculous quantity of luggage - all books. And because I was an idiot and flew Qantas, the letter I have from my University asking for leniency RE weight of luggage, doesn't have any effect.
Anyhoo, thankfully, I was nowhere near the Tsunami/Earthquake that happened the other day. I left Jakarta three hours before the ground shook again. Some of my office friends said they felt the shake on Level 23 of the Jakarta Stock Exchange. I am not sure how well I would have coped had I been there......
Right, time to go and keep pretending to be a tourist!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Last Day (Pretending to Work)
I'd like to pretend that I wasn't just posing for this one, but then, that would be lying.
Indian MTV
I just flicked on TV to get my sporadically required fix of Indian MTV, and by some bizarre coincidence (or tasteless joke), or cultural quirk, they are screening India’s best ever “Rail” tracks. Given what happened in Mumbai this week it seems like a strange choice of special feature, but I am not sure whether I am more surprised by the fact that there seems to be a genre of music in India devoted to music about trains. I just watched two film clips- one with a Bollywood star who I see every time I turn on the channel, running along the roof of a train, and another one with some happy looking guy hanging out the side of a train and smiling at all the girls picking tea. Of course, I can’t understand anything that they are singing about, or what the VJ’s are saying, but if anyone can provide an explanation on this apparent love affair Indian MTV has with trains I might be able to go some way toward actually understanding why the hell they would be screening this crazy stuff in the same week that a bunch of trains got blown up. Aku lagi bingung.
Anyway. I had my last day in the firm yesterday, and was kinda sad to finish there. The people have been so absolutely lovely, from the “office boys” to the partners, they were all very welcoming to me, as well as patient and kind. I got some good feedback on my project from my Supervisor – it is going to be made into a guide for the office on Broadcasting in Indonesia, and apparently I even get my name printed in it, which is kinda cool. It is tradition in Indonesia to buy cakes, or noodles or something on a special occasion like birthday, last day or whatever, and I bought some nice sponge cakes from a shop nearby. It was amusing to see some of the lawyers that I had never seen before emerge from their offices to eat it. Hehehe!
I then had dinner with my fellow “magangs”, that is interns, as well as Ryan and Rizky, at my favourite restaurant so far in Jakarta- the Italian restaurant Trattoria at Pondok Indah. It is the closest service I have come to that is reminiscent of Australia, and even better, they give you free appetizers and a chocolate liqueur free for dessert. I had warned them all that the dinner would be “Australian” style, i.e. I would not be paying for their food, because for that kind of function here it would also be usual to pay for your guests. However when the bill arrived and for the 12 of us who ate the bill was like about $120 including wine and beer, I decided to bring out the card and pay for everyone. Being on occasion a bit of a dunderhead, I didn’t realize that they didn’t accept credit, and ended up looking silly because I only had enough cash to cover about a third of the bill.
Luckily, one of the partners had showed up late to eat dinner on his way home (which by the way was also cool because it was just us interns there) and he put in another third of the bill, leaving the rest to be split between the others. In true Indo style, or perhaps true Australian style, the Indonesian’s left leaving myself and Ryan (mate from Yogya who is also here) to sit at the bar and drink a quiet beer. We started talking to the owner of the place and the chef, who from the looks are maybe a tiny bit older than me – and they gave us some more free beer. I highly recommend that place to anyone who comes to Jakarta. Fabulous food.
So we finished the beer and went on to that old favourite bar of mine Second Floor. Ryan and I got another beer, took a seat at some random table and within about 10 minutes were drinking Chivas Regal…..gratis. Rizky showed up a while later and we hung out with his friends, who were also buying us drinks. To cut a long story short, I had a headache this morning which is from a combination of over-consumption and hitting my head on the sink in my bathroom before I went out yesterday because the electricity was dead and I am unco. I stayed in bed for a long time today feeling sorry for my head and watching the Lost marathon, and now I am about to go out and watch Rizky’s band one last time.
I fly out of here Monday morning (I lost my paper ticket at the office– so I have to practice the dramatic “Oh dear I must have left it at home” thing), after I stop off at the office one more time to say goodbye to the head of the firm, an Aussie, who was in China last week. I will then be arriving in Yogya midday-ish, dropping off my bags at a Losmen (cheap hotel) in the tourist area, and get to Immigration so that I can get my exit permit within the week and head to Bali to join Alana.
It’s all action. I am gonna do Yogyakarta like a (budget) tourist this time. See all the things I missed last time, and see how things are going after the earthquake.
I am not exactly sad to be leaving Jakarta, I think it would be hard not to look forward to less traffic and fresher air. However, I could easily have stayed here longer if the opportunity had arisen. I have really liked my kos, maybe because I haven’t been in it a lot (I still haven’t really met anyone else who lives here, I have come to the conclusion that they are either ghosts or werewolves) but having cable has been fun. I will be very unhappy not to be able to watch Lost, Project Runway, Rockstar Supernova and CSI whenever I feel like it. On the other hand, perhaps I should stop rotting my brain and start reading, or having intelligent conversations, or pondering on life’s mysteries.
Ok, enough, rambling rambling rambling. See some of you soon, and others of you sooner.
Anyway. I had my last day in the firm yesterday, and was kinda sad to finish there. The people have been so absolutely lovely, from the “office boys” to the partners, they were all very welcoming to me, as well as patient and kind. I got some good feedback on my project from my Supervisor – it is going to be made into a guide for the office on Broadcasting in Indonesia, and apparently I even get my name printed in it, which is kinda cool. It is tradition in Indonesia to buy cakes, or noodles or something on a special occasion like birthday, last day or whatever, and I bought some nice sponge cakes from a shop nearby. It was amusing to see some of the lawyers that I had never seen before emerge from their offices to eat it. Hehehe!
I then had dinner with my fellow “magangs”, that is interns, as well as Ryan and Rizky, at my favourite restaurant so far in Jakarta- the Italian restaurant Trattoria at Pondok Indah. It is the closest service I have come to that is reminiscent of Australia, and even better, they give you free appetizers and a chocolate liqueur free for dessert. I had warned them all that the dinner would be “Australian” style, i.e. I would not be paying for their food, because for that kind of function here it would also be usual to pay for your guests. However when the bill arrived and for the 12 of us who ate the bill was like about $120 including wine and beer, I decided to bring out the card and pay for everyone. Being on occasion a bit of a dunderhead, I didn’t realize that they didn’t accept credit, and ended up looking silly because I only had enough cash to cover about a third of the bill.
Luckily, one of the partners had showed up late to eat dinner on his way home (which by the way was also cool because it was just us interns there) and he put in another third of the bill, leaving the rest to be split between the others. In true Indo style, or perhaps true Australian style, the Indonesian’s left leaving myself and Ryan (mate from Yogya who is also here) to sit at the bar and drink a quiet beer. We started talking to the owner of the place and the chef, who from the looks are maybe a tiny bit older than me – and they gave us some more free beer. I highly recommend that place to anyone who comes to Jakarta. Fabulous food.
So we finished the beer and went on to that old favourite bar of mine Second Floor. Ryan and I got another beer, took a seat at some random table and within about 10 minutes were drinking Chivas Regal…..gratis. Rizky showed up a while later and we hung out with his friends, who were also buying us drinks. To cut a long story short, I had a headache this morning which is from a combination of over-consumption and hitting my head on the sink in my bathroom before I went out yesterday because the electricity was dead and I am unco. I stayed in bed for a long time today feeling sorry for my head and watching the Lost marathon, and now I am about to go out and watch Rizky’s band one last time.
I fly out of here Monday morning (I lost my paper ticket at the office– so I have to practice the dramatic “Oh dear I must have left it at home” thing), after I stop off at the office one more time to say goodbye to the head of the firm, an Aussie, who was in China last week. I will then be arriving in Yogya midday-ish, dropping off my bags at a Losmen (cheap hotel) in the tourist area, and get to Immigration so that I can get my exit permit within the week and head to Bali to join Alana.
It’s all action. I am gonna do Yogyakarta like a (budget) tourist this time. See all the things I missed last time, and see how things are going after the earthquake.
I am not exactly sad to be leaving Jakarta, I think it would be hard not to look forward to less traffic and fresher air. However, I could easily have stayed here longer if the opportunity had arisen. I have really liked my kos, maybe because I haven’t been in it a lot (I still haven’t really met anyone else who lives here, I have come to the conclusion that they are either ghosts or werewolves) but having cable has been fun. I will be very unhappy not to be able to watch Lost, Project Runway, Rockstar Supernova and CSI whenever I feel like it. On the other hand, perhaps I should stop rotting my brain and start reading, or having intelligent conversations, or pondering on life’s mysteries.
Ok, enough, rambling rambling rambling. See some of you soon, and others of you sooner.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Burn Your Rubbish
How is it that I once more sit writing this blog post in my kos, having just eaten pop-mee and watching the Crows play again?? And this afternoon I will once more be going shopping…. Weird.
Anyways, am about to enter my final week of my time in Jakarta. I gotta heap of work to finish before I finish my internship, which I have a feeling is going to entail several later than usual finishes. But the good news is, there is a silver lining on the horizon – very soon I will be in Bali/Gili Islands getting a tan, so that I don’t get back to Australia and have to face your incredulous questions about where I have been living because of the enduring whiteness of my skin!
So anyway, today I am going to tell you about something that amuses/dismays me everytime I ride along Jalan Casablanca on my way to work on the back of the motorbike with a scarf tied around my face to block the pollution.
Jakarta has some of the worst air quality in the world, it also has some of the worst traffic in the world. The government, having in it’s wisdom decided that these two things may actually be connected, in an effort to ease the congestion in the CBD, implemented a law that says that between certain hours of the day any car on the road must have a minimum of three passengers.
Ok, cool. But because some people just couldn’t care less about complying with the spirit of that law, that is by organizing for example (shock horror) ‘car-pooling’, a few enterprising young souls realized that they could earn some spare cash by standing on the side of the road, and jumping in the cars of the law-breakers, earning probably the equivalent of a dollar or less, and then jumping out when the risk of the driver getting a fine has passed. It looks to me like the kids who stand on the side of the road, and who by the way are probably homeless/unemployed/orphaned or all three, have regular “customers” who pick them up everyday. Good on the kids I reckon, but in the meantime, absolutely nothing is being done about the pollution problem.
That is one thing that gets to me about Indonesia. Everything comes wrapped in 27 layers of plastic, people look at you like you have three heads when you say you don’t need a plastic bag, and the idea of throwing rubbish in for example, a bin, as opposed to the street or a public waterway, is quite a foreign concept. Burning rubbish is also contributing like mad to the poor air quality. Even many of my exceptionally well-educated friends that I have met through the internship don’t quite get the idea of taking care of the environment. Nonchalance about the environment is systemic, endemic, epidemic, call it what you will. Sadly, the Western world can put their shopping in recyclable “green” bags as much as we want, but while this kind of ignorance prevails in the developing world, it seems hard to see anything improving. Of course, this is all anecdotal and based on observation only, as opposed to facts and statistics, but I am pretty most people who have lived here will understand what I am saying. And my the way, I don’t attribute blame toIndonesian people generally. In the absence of a government that prioritises the environment, and strong civil society with influential and well-resourced NGO’s, it is probably not surprising.
Ok, enough ranting. One thing I realized the other day is how little I have mentioned the importance that music has had for me while I have been here. Right now I have a minor obsession with Gnarls Barkley, who I saw on MTV two weeks ago (that song Crazy…) and as yet, have been unable to find the CD. I bought the new Keane album the other day though, and that is very good. What else have I been listening to here?? Madonna-Confessions on a Dance Floor (yes I am a remarkably daggy Madonna devotee, still), Peterpan – Alexandria Soundtrack, Jamie Cullum, Neil Young and James Taylor, Tiesto, Pete Murray, m-FLO, Joanna Newsom, Kanye West- Late Registration (I still can’t get sick of that hip-hop masterpiece), Ween, John Legend, Goodnight Electric (of course), Kyoto Jazz Massive, Radiohead (of course), a Coldplay MP3 CD that I bought and has about 200 songs on it, and Nihtin Sawnhey! And a heap more of course, but there are some of the particularly important musix that now have memories of Indonesia embedded in their choruses and hooks. ;-)
Anyway, I’ve had my whinge. Time to go an upload this baby onto the blog. And if anyone can tell me more about Gnarls Barkley I will be, forever in your debt. Oh and btw, I am going to add a link to vimeo to my blog soon, which will let you see my video’s. I haven’t made many, but now I can share them I will make more. Sip!
Anyways, am about to enter my final week of my time in Jakarta. I gotta heap of work to finish before I finish my internship, which I have a feeling is going to entail several later than usual finishes. But the good news is, there is a silver lining on the horizon – very soon I will be in Bali/Gili Islands getting a tan, so that I don’t get back to Australia and have to face your incredulous questions about where I have been living because of the enduring whiteness of my skin!
So anyway, today I am going to tell you about something that amuses/dismays me everytime I ride along Jalan Casablanca on my way to work on the back of the motorbike with a scarf tied around my face to block the pollution.
Jakarta has some of the worst air quality in the world, it also has some of the worst traffic in the world. The government, having in it’s wisdom decided that these two things may actually be connected, in an effort to ease the congestion in the CBD, implemented a law that says that between certain hours of the day any car on the road must have a minimum of three passengers.
Ok, cool. But because some people just couldn’t care less about complying with the spirit of that law, that is by organizing for example (shock horror) ‘car-pooling’, a few enterprising young souls realized that they could earn some spare cash by standing on the side of the road, and jumping in the cars of the law-breakers, earning probably the equivalent of a dollar or less, and then jumping out when the risk of the driver getting a fine has passed. It looks to me like the kids who stand on the side of the road, and who by the way are probably homeless/unemployed/orphaned or all three, have regular “customers” who pick them up everyday. Good on the kids I reckon, but in the meantime, absolutely nothing is being done about the pollution problem.
That is one thing that gets to me about Indonesia. Everything comes wrapped in 27 layers of plastic, people look at you like you have three heads when you say you don’t need a plastic bag, and the idea of throwing rubbish in for example, a bin, as opposed to the street or a public waterway, is quite a foreign concept. Burning rubbish is also contributing like mad to the poor air quality. Even many of my exceptionally well-educated friends that I have met through the internship don’t quite get the idea of taking care of the environment. Nonchalance about the environment is systemic, endemic, epidemic, call it what you will. Sadly, the Western world can put their shopping in recyclable “green” bags as much as we want, but while this kind of ignorance prevails in the developing world, it seems hard to see anything improving. Of course, this is all anecdotal and based on observation only, as opposed to facts and statistics, but I am pretty most people who have lived here will understand what I am saying. And my the way, I don’t attribute blame toIndonesian people generally. In the absence of a government that prioritises the environment, and strong civil society with influential and well-resourced NGO’s, it is probably not surprising.
Ok, enough ranting. One thing I realized the other day is how little I have mentioned the importance that music has had for me while I have been here. Right now I have a minor obsession with Gnarls Barkley, who I saw on MTV two weeks ago (that song Crazy…) and as yet, have been unable to find the CD. I bought the new Keane album the other day though, and that is very good. What else have I been listening to here?? Madonna-Confessions on a Dance Floor (yes I am a remarkably daggy Madonna devotee, still), Peterpan – Alexandria Soundtrack, Jamie Cullum, Neil Young and James Taylor, Tiesto, Pete Murray, m-FLO, Joanna Newsom, Kanye West- Late Registration (I still can’t get sick of that hip-hop masterpiece), Ween, John Legend, Goodnight Electric (of course), Kyoto Jazz Massive, Radiohead (of course), a Coldplay MP3 CD that I bought and has about 200 songs on it, and Nihtin Sawnhey! And a heap more of course, but there are some of the particularly important musix that now have memories of Indonesia embedded in their choruses and hooks. ;-)
Anyway, I’ve had my whinge. Time to go an upload this baby onto the blog. And if anyone can tell me more about Gnarls Barkley I will be, forever in your debt. Oh and btw, I am going to add a link to vimeo to my blog soon, which will let you see my video’s. I haven’t made many, but now I can share them I will make more. Sip!
Friday, July 07, 2006
Child Squeezing in a Capital Market
Am at work, its Friday night, and I think I am about to turn off the lights and leave at the conclusion of my third week here. This is notwithstanding the fact that half of the firm is stuck in a professional development seminar about capital markets, and from the sound of their laughter, something about the purchase and sale of shares is tickling their sense of humour.
Am going to see Goodnite Electric later on tonight with a bunch of work people. They all just got bonuses (well the Associates did) so apparently I will once more be getting my drinks bought for me which is always nice ;-)
Anyway, this week have been up to my elbows in Indonesian Broadcasting Law, and I can’t resist but share with you this little gem from a translation of a law relating to broadcast advertising;
Article 46 3) e) – Commercial advertisement broadcast shall be banned from exploiting a child aged less than 18.
Ok fair enough, but the elucidation of this article then goes on to say........
“Exploiting a child shall be, for instance, the act of employing, using or squeezing a child in order to obtain personal, family or group gains.”
Employing, using, or squeezing. What the hell does that mean?
So all ye exploitating “child-squeezers” out there beware, no broadcasting of such abhorrent behaviour shall henceforth be permitted in Indonesia.
And for your information, the correct translation is something along the lines of blackmailing.
Will write more on Sunday!
Am going to see Goodnite Electric later on tonight with a bunch of work people. They all just got bonuses (well the Associates did) so apparently I will once more be getting my drinks bought for me which is always nice ;-)
Anyway, this week have been up to my elbows in Indonesian Broadcasting Law, and I can’t resist but share with you this little gem from a translation of a law relating to broadcast advertising;
Article 46 3) e) – Commercial advertisement broadcast shall be banned from exploiting a child aged less than 18.
Ok fair enough, but the elucidation of this article then goes on to say........
“Exploiting a child shall be, for instance, the act of employing, using or squeezing a child in order to obtain personal, family or group gains.”
Employing, using, or squeezing. What the hell does that mean?
So all ye exploitating “child-squeezers” out there beware, no broadcasting of such abhorrent behaviour shall henceforth be permitted in Indonesia.
And for your information, the correct translation is something along the lines of blackmailing.
Will write more on Sunday!
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Be Patience Darling
I received the above message in an SMS from my fellow intern Amel this morning. Don’t you think that’s a motto to live by? Be patience.
Anyway, handed in two pieces of work to my supervisor this week and haven’t heard anything back yet, so I am going in to ask him on Monday. I hate not getting feedback. Even if he says “that was rubbish, do it again” it’s better than hearing nothing.
Aside from work this week I did some pretty cool stuff.
On Monday I went and watched football at a bar that was absolutely chocca-bloc full of Aussies. On reflection, probably not the safest place to be in Jkt. I don’t think I will go there again. A) It was an average bar and b)if I am going to hang out in a bomb-target there are plenty of better ones in Jakarta. Hehehe. (Mum, Dad- I am being deliberately provocative- santai! Relax!) Anyway, bad result- absolutely unbelievable finish. But if we had made more of our opportunities when Italy went a man down, we wouldn’t have lost like that. And by the way- how the hell did Harry Kewell get gout? Can someone please explain that?
On Wednesday I caught up with my Japanese friend Kenta from Yogya. He is also doing an internship up here. We went to my fave Japanese restaurant so far in Indonesia- Sushi Groove in Setia Budi. It was another one of those occasions that freaks out Indonesian’s- one of the “why the hell are those to foreigners communicating using our language” moments! Anyway, Kenta is a champ- we had a good conversation about whaling- and agreed to disagree, with respect to each other’s points of view.
On Friday, I finished work at about 8pm and was invited by several colleagues including 2 of the partners to go to a bar to watch the Germany v Argentina match. Little did I realize I was the only girl, until one of the Associate’s friends showed up. Meanwhile this bar was like a relatively high-class escort establishment- i.e. not somewhere you go for a girl’s night out! I had been warned it was a bit seedy, but in the end it didn’t matter. The rule is if you go out with the partners they have to pay, so I got to drink a couple of glasses of lovely Western Australian Cab Shiraz. If you had asked me 6 months ago if it was lovely, my answer may well have been different- however given the fact I have hardly drunk wine here my palate is back to basics I think. Aduh.
And then, in the continuing theme of being given little choice as to whether I will embarrass myself in front of my colleagues, I became a cheerleader for the firm at an inter-law firm tournament. Every year 15 law firms across Jakarta take part in a sporting tournament, and yesterday morning was the opening ceremony as well as the opening of the women’s futsal tournament. I have already uploaded the relevant photo’s. I even suited up for futsal however because I hadn’t trained the coach wouldn’t play me. Nice waste of time!
Last night (Saturday) I stayed home- I can hardly believe it- but at 7pm I thought “I will just have a little nap” and then woke up at 10.30, ordered McDonalds home delivery (shame on me- but it’s so easy!) watched England lose on penalties and then fell asleep again.
Which brings me to today – it’s ¾ time in the Crows v Geelong match – the first Adelaide Crows game I have watched all year – I am typing this blog – eating Pop-Mee that is, instant noodles (I swear – I usually eat more nutritional food!) and then I think I am going to head out with my pal Riri to the Zara sale. Jakarta shopping is seriously fabulous. And I love Zara. It has to come to Australia soon.
Speaking of coming to Australia soon. At this point in time looks like I am coming home late-July. And after that, who knows???
Anyway, handed in two pieces of work to my supervisor this week and haven’t heard anything back yet, so I am going in to ask him on Monday. I hate not getting feedback. Even if he says “that was rubbish, do it again” it’s better than hearing nothing.
Aside from work this week I did some pretty cool stuff.
On Monday I went and watched football at a bar that was absolutely chocca-bloc full of Aussies. On reflection, probably not the safest place to be in Jkt. I don’t think I will go there again. A) It was an average bar and b)if I am going to hang out in a bomb-target there are plenty of better ones in Jakarta. Hehehe. (Mum, Dad- I am being deliberately provocative- santai! Relax!) Anyway, bad result- absolutely unbelievable finish. But if we had made more of our opportunities when Italy went a man down, we wouldn’t have lost like that. And by the way- how the hell did Harry Kewell get gout? Can someone please explain that?
On Wednesday I caught up with my Japanese friend Kenta from Yogya. He is also doing an internship up here. We went to my fave Japanese restaurant so far in Indonesia- Sushi Groove in Setia Budi. It was another one of those occasions that freaks out Indonesian’s- one of the “why the hell are those to foreigners communicating using our language” moments! Anyway, Kenta is a champ- we had a good conversation about whaling- and agreed to disagree, with respect to each other’s points of view.
On Friday, I finished work at about 8pm and was invited by several colleagues including 2 of the partners to go to a bar to watch the Germany v Argentina match. Little did I realize I was the only girl, until one of the Associate’s friends showed up. Meanwhile this bar was like a relatively high-class escort establishment- i.e. not somewhere you go for a girl’s night out! I had been warned it was a bit seedy, but in the end it didn’t matter. The rule is if you go out with the partners they have to pay, so I got to drink a couple of glasses of lovely Western Australian Cab Shiraz. If you had asked me 6 months ago if it was lovely, my answer may well have been different- however given the fact I have hardly drunk wine here my palate is back to basics I think. Aduh.
And then, in the continuing theme of being given little choice as to whether I will embarrass myself in front of my colleagues, I became a cheerleader for the firm at an inter-law firm tournament. Every year 15 law firms across Jakarta take part in a sporting tournament, and yesterday morning was the opening ceremony as well as the opening of the women’s futsal tournament. I have already uploaded the relevant photo’s. I even suited up for futsal however because I hadn’t trained the coach wouldn’t play me. Nice waste of time!
Last night (Saturday) I stayed home- I can hardly believe it- but at 7pm I thought “I will just have a little nap” and then woke up at 10.30, ordered McDonalds home delivery (shame on me- but it’s so easy!) watched England lose on penalties and then fell asleep again.
Which brings me to today – it’s ¾ time in the Crows v Geelong match – the first Adelaide Crows game I have watched all year – I am typing this blog – eating Pop-Mee that is, instant noodles (I swear – I usually eat more nutritional food!) and then I think I am going to head out with my pal Riri to the Zara sale. Jakarta shopping is seriously fabulous. And I love Zara. It has to come to Australia soon.
Speaking of coming to Australia soon. At this point in time looks like I am coming home late-July. And after that, who knows???
pompompompompom
As you can see, i am not averse to embarassing myself, especially where there are pom-poms involved!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
