Busy bees at Sydney airport

I think I completely miscalculated just how many people come into Australia. Sydney airport was buzzing at 6 am and the queue to pick up our luggage was incredibly long. The passengers from the previous flights were halfway through picking up their luggage before ours came through. 3 more hours and we are in Melbourne!

Selamat jalan

Goodbye Jakarta, it was fun and tough and unpredictable. You brought us together amongst all the craziness that is city life. I will miss your turbulence weather, perfect sunsets, delicious hand-made foods and lots and lots of smiles.

We are on our way to Australia but here are some pictures of Jakarta life circulating on the Blackberry that I have received throughout this year. Enjoy.

The new Macbook

In line for Justin Bieber tickets

Watching the Luna & Ariel sextape scandal

Selling gold and looking for a wife also...

A new way to fasten your seatbelt on a flight perhaps?

Making sour cream kampung style

My cousin's kid waiting to break fast during Ramadhan

My cousin's kid praying...he was obsessed with that helmet

"Succ sees"

In a Bluebird taxi...

Cheaper than buying the food on the plane

"Turn off your wife when not in use"

At the airport fighting the big fight against ojeks, self-made porters and in-between personels so you cannot cut the line at immigration

Handy service centre

Cause that's how we DJ in Jakarta

At a Shell petrol station

The long drive to the airport

Our driver who was quite sad to see the husband go...but unfortunately he wasn't so emotional to see me go...

The husband signing our driver's last shift log

Jakarta gave us some parting scenery. The traffic jam. Flying out on a Friday evening after work is never the best time but I think we were both too exhausted to realise. With the husband working round the clock to tie up some loose ends at the office and myself packing for our 2.5 weeks stay in Australia and making sure we had enough stuff for our first few months in Germany until our container comes, we were truly exhausted. Thankfully we had our driver to take us otherwise I think we would have probably gotten into some minor accidents along the way.

Gran Mahakam

We stayed at the Grand Mahakam as our apartment has been officially packed away. Actually we wanted to stay here yesterday but they were fully booked so we stayed at our semi-packed place instead. Ooooh it was so nice to have things prepared for you instead of living with bubble wrap and eating on boxes.

Hotel Gran Mahakam
Jl. Mahakam I No.6
Blok M
Jakarta Selatan 12130
Tel. +62 21 720 9966
Fax. +62 21 725 2011

Packing our lives away

These guys were fast so I really had no time to look at things sentimentally and ponder on what life would be like for us had we stayed another year. It was like one minute I turned away and the next, a piece of furniture was in a box, then the next minute, it was being carried away downstairs never to be seen again. I suppose it was a good thing but we'll have to see at a later date.

sometimes it's more about the Stop than the Go

Choosing your local Stop 'n Go is like choosing which branch will you want to be ripped off from.

What I have found about this chain-store is this:

1. They are pretty much the best when it comes to repairing your shoes (with the exceptions of those guys walking around the side of the street with their own portable shoe repair kit, but when you don't know the street price for fixing shoes then sometimes they can charge you double than the chain-store, or if you are lucky, you can just get your pembantu to do this!)

2. Every store don't really have a price list posted up in the store so you don't really know how much a repair really cost

3. Which leads to my next point, some store will charge differently according to who is repairing it (and when they make up a price, this goes into their pockets and not the company)

4. Depending on which branch you go to, the prices do differ greatly.
- Plaza Senayan (expensive as there are alot of Indo wives wanting to get their designer handbags and shoes fixed)
- Senayan City (not too bad and quite fast as their location is not the best)
- Pondok Indah Mal (a little bit on the expensive side, many of the expat wives go here)
- Pacific Place (they have everything as most of the working locals come here during their lunch break and their prices are not too bad)

Oh and sometimes they also turn down jobs "tidak bisa" or tell you that it will be done in a week or whatever so that they don't have to do the job so you also have that to look forward to.

Earrings

Remember the amethyst rocks I bought a while back at Rawa Bening to make into earrings? They are ready! They couldn't do these claws that you would normally have on stones are they are not a smooth and even surface so they put a gold band around it and glued the stones onto the band.



I also bought a few things...
pearl clumps studded earrings 35rp

pearl intertwined bracelet 40rp

small black pearls on a string 70rp (which I made into a necklace)

large black pearls on a string 90rp (which I made into a necklace)

Mirror mirror

Baroque anyone?
This place must be creepy at night

We chose and bought a mirror here a couple of days ago as the husband always wanted to get one from Jalan Pejompongan. I'm not a big fan of this street for mirrors as the mirrors here tend to be distorted ones but the husband was harping on about it so I figured, well we will need a mirror so I supposed why not.

We decided on a less than Baroque style mirror that is about 90cm by 160cm for 750rp and this morning we picked it up. The shop...if you can call it that...is by the side of the street and looks a little like a children's cubby house, the lady and her family lives upstairs. Her collection of frames were not as Baroque-esque at the others on this street so we knew we could choose something decent.

Sumber Rejeki
Jl. Pejompongan Raya No. 5
Jakarta Pusat
Tel: 0878 83224693

Koi does it best for brunch

It is our first somewhat relaxing day in a while...only because it is a long weekend holiday and half of Jakarta is enjoying Bali. As much as I would have enjoyed a Bali getaway myself, having Jakarta all to myself is even better.

Birdcage

Ratatouille with spatchcock
a heart-shaped cappuccino
downstairs...
upstairs...
I've been meaning to take the husband here on a date but we have never really had the time and seeing as we are really short on time here in Jakarta I figured today would be as good day as any to take him here. We were the only ones here for lunch so the staff were kind enough to put some love songs on the stereo but not kind enough to lower the volume...ah well it's the thought that counts. Would have loved to have come here more often, the food was quite a treat to see and taste.

Birdcage
Jl. WIjaya 9/23
Kebayoran Baru
Jakarta, 12160
Tel: 62217392430

Cushions

You wouldn't know it driving past but this shop is quite delightful. I've been coming here over the years but only now have I posted about it because I kind of wanted to keep it my little secret for a while. But ok seeing as we are leaving I suppose I should pay it forward. This place would probably have to be the best place to get cushions made, sewn, custom-made. We have gotten our dining chair cushions made here as well as sofa cushions etc etc for a significant fraction of the price anywhere else (and believe me I have looked and tried elsewhere). I went for a little visit here to buy some sofa cushions for us for Germany and took some quick snaps of the store front. They are usually pretty upfront, and as a seller here in Jakarta it's quite rare. When they are busy or is unable to do the job they will say in the beginning and as soon as your order is done they call you in the morning and either arrange to have it sent to your place free of charge or you can pick it up onsite but either way, they will always call.

Anyways so I picked up a couple of large sofa cushions made of dacron, I'm not sure what it is but the lady told me that when the cushions get flattened as they do over time, I only need to leave it out in the sun for an afternoon and they will fluff out as good as new and they only costed me about 60rp each.
custom made beds, pillows, cushions you name it, they probably have it.

The lady behind it all. I think she owns the place, I call her "Chi-chi" because everyone else called her that and I wanted to blend in. She is as the Australians would say "tough but fair"..if you press her hard enough she usually gives you a lower price

any kind of cushions at any strength and material.

you can either choose some materials here or bring your own. I normally buy some fabrics either at mayestik or ikea whenever I go back to Aust and get stuff made here.

another day another goodbye

We had yet another farewell tonight. He is going back to Berlin for good and soon we are also moving on. Sad, sad.

Rawa Bening

Stones anyone?

uncleaned and unpolished amethyst

uncleaned and unpolished ruby

polishers hard at work

The last time the husband's relos came to Jakarta, they were in search of some stones at Blok M and the sellers there always mentioned Rawa Bening. We didn't get a chance to go here last time but I was curious to see what it was, so two busways and an ankot ride later I was there! It took an hour and for a place that was on the way to Tanjung Priok, that is pretty good. Wasn't really planning on buying anything for myself, just a peek but when I went upstairs I noticed a young guy with a tray of rocks in front of him. Obviously he was waiting for his boss to show up to work so curiously I asked him what it was. He said they were amethyst taken straight from the rocks and haven't been polished yet so they are worthless but when I saw them they were such a pretty purple that I couldn't help but buy a couple of rocks to make as earrings. I asked if I can buy a couple and he looked at me strange and said...but they aren't clean yet, they are worth nothing...but I got some anyway, each weighing 2.8gr each. He sold them to me for 45rp and I asked if I can get them for 30rp and he agreed. Afterwards I saw he had a whole bunch of ruby trays too but I thought I should try it out with the amethyst first. I will post some pics of the ready earrings when they are done!

Jl. Bekasi Barat No 2
Jatinegara
Kelurahan Rawa Bunga, 13350
Jakarta Timur

Hours
Mon - Sun: 8:00am - 5:00pm

Photo albums

So I have been meaning to get my wedding albums done for us but have never really gotten around to do it (yet) and a few days ago I worked up the effort to go to Adorama in Kemang to maybe get my lazy bones into gear and had a different idea instead.
We take alot of pictures (bless digital cameras) and throughout our time here we have taken many so I figured instead of printing hundreds (because I never know which ones to print) and having loose photos lying around the house, I thought I might make some mini albums of our time here.
Again it took a while (about a week of stalking Adorama and nagging them) to get these four albums made. They are A5 in size and quite heavy, 22 pages back and front, stuck together with mounting paper in between and coated with a matte finish so it will last longer. They are quite chunky but I prefer them to have the old fashion album look. You can also get books done but I decide these were nicer and in one colour.

By the way it took me an hour to get back from Kemang to our place (normally 20 mins)...on an ojek...dang that new tol they are building, it is really killing me to get anywhere.

Warung Mbak Jingkrak

After alot of organising through the Blackberry (having 20 people giving you ideas about what to do for our farewell is a little overwhelming) we all settled on a traditional Indonesian warung called Mbak Jingkrak Warung in Blok M. Quite fitting I reckon to be going for a meal in a warung as our last get together. Surprisingly everyone of my relatives living in Jakarta came, a rarity, as not all are close to others. It felt like our wedding again and in the end we were quite nostalgic.
Oops didn't realise I was sitting at the men's table...

So hard to get a picture of this kid!

My cousin's son who gave the husband his new nickname "Om bule"