Getting older, I decided, is a gift
For all of you that have been with me over the past few years, will know that I have endured a lot of challenges and heartbreaks, struggles and tough times. And you will also know that at this point in my life, I have come through on top, and I am at my happiest ever.
This email was sent to me, and brought tears to my eyes as it both described my life and me now
I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. I sometimes despair over my body, the wrinkles, the grey hair and the baggy eyes (suitcase). And often I am taken aback by that older person that lives in my mirror, who looks like my mother (not by all means a bad image, grateful), but I don't agonise over those things for long.
I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family or my experiences for less grey hair or a flatter belly?. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.
I don't hide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?
I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love .. I will.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength, understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived enough to have my hair turning grey, and to have my youthful laughs and sorrows be forever etched into grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver
As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.
So, to answer your question , I like getting old. It has set me free. I like and love the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time anytime on what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)
I once read,
Courage is all that stands between the person we are, and the person we are actually meant to be.
NEVER BE AFRAID PEOPLE, EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON THAT WILL LATER BE REVEALED
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
UPDATES
going to the beach this weekend coming
BEACH, BIKINI, BOTTLE OF MALIBU AND FINGERS CROSSED NAKED MEN (MMMMM) REALXING DRINKING AND SUNBAKING my style ohhhh cant wait. thats another story
Went to jakarta on sunday on the express upper class train. Armpits in my face from the people standing up. I tell you, there is no polite way to stand in front of an australian chick who is sitting down. im either looking at your arse or i have my face in your crutch which is great and not, all at the same time. off the train and cattle herded down the ramps to catch the bus. Bought a ticket and stood in que yeah right like we que over here haha. the doors to the bus exit were closed as the bus had not arrived yet but the fuckers behind were pushing us forward regardless. i turned to Pauline and asked he politely to pick me up off the floor afer I faint. then on the bus we got seats as started at the beginning of the route. An old lady at the next stop hit me in the head, i guess she was asking me to get up and give her my seat. get real i probably paid more since im a bulee (foreigner) A few stops later someone had the most vial b.o ive even smelt in my life. i almost dry reached. at this point i have once again got arses and groins in my face, I have to laugh or cry. We have no idea where we are going im hungry and will pee myself if we hit any more HUGE potholes. something funny happens and sets us both off laughing in histerics. Oh the old lady got her arm caught in the folding door, i tried to help but she would not give me the shopping and she needed to let go in order to get her arm out, she was going off at the door and yet, she would not let me help. Eventually i pushed to door open off her arm and she escaped. (thank you she said to me NOT)so we got to the shopping place and headed underground. mmmmm i was in heaven as it was like china,stalls everywhere over crowded and chaos. we found the closest toilet and as Pauline said it was the worst smell she has ever smelt and coming from china that says a lot ,HEY MUM AND ALISON hahahha I was not going in there to find out. We headed across to the handicrafts market and this was huge. We could have shopped there the whole day and not seen it all properly. I bought a few gifts from here.up a back street a guy talked us in to eating at his place and after eating her charged us like triple what we pay back in bogor. At this point I am not happy being a bulee and yet being paid their wages and still being charge heaps. Then rang a mate to meet him and he told us to get on bus 609, we walked around in squares to find the bus depot and got a little help on the way, helps having confused faces on and being 2 female bulees, haha the security guard put us on bus 69 to go to cinere mall which is where we asked about, they kicked us of that bus 2 minutes into the ride, we found bus 609 and jumped onto it to get about 5 minutes along and told wrong bus ladies. get off and he wouldnt give our money back either.
Luckily a local that spoke english seen us with the map out and helped us onto the correct bus and off we went. I swear this bus had a square wheel and the arse was about to fall out of the bus. shit was falling on us from the roof and so many rattles. I only have little boobs but man they nearly were hitting me in the face bouncing so hard. the noise and clanging and banging was scary I was horrified for the first 10 minutes and then it was hilarious to be in this situation and actually sitting there waiting for it to fall apart. man can i get myslef into some scary situations of what. an hour later we reached our destination to meet the guy and his sis to take us back to his house on another form of transport..... motor bikes. this is the guy that we met at the waterfalls a few weeks ago and have kept in contact with him a bit. with offerings of pot and booze, we were off. yipee
i could make the sequel to planes trains buses and bikes.
we stayed there for a few hours meeting the family and eating and drinking.
HENCE AND EXPECTED. WE MISSED THE LAST BUS AND TRAIN back to bogor, haha
We then jumped on the back of the bikes and they took us back 1 hour and half ride. I was laughing at the whole day and saying to myself about having this guy in between my legs and ive not a clue his name.
He spoke no english except three sentences
1 What is your name. cool an introduction after my legs have been wrapped around him for half an hour
2 How old are you and i knew what the third was before he even asked
3 Are you marrried. I answered before he finished his sentence.
getting used to these local men wanting to marry me.
must say i woke this morning with an unusual feeling of either too much on top sex or a few hours in the saddle. much to my disappointment neither was the reason :-(
So I should update a few funnies in the last few weeks.
My house mate is on holidays in aussie and while sitting around dinner one night we were talking about my horendous phobia to spiders and how lucky ive been and bec would save me. Holy shit was all I could say when I got home that night and a huge fucking spider was on the lounge wall. I grabbed the little broom we have and fought him tooth and nail. I won and was shaking and sweating so much afterwards. not funny at all. that night pauline went home and had to fight a scorpion now thats funny haha.
umm Lukes 30th was a hit, after a few jugs of beer and vodkas, I asked him if he was interested in coming and seeing the 1000 islands just off jakarta with us. now luke is not serious at the best of times, so when he put on a straight face and replied "oh i only want to see one or two" i almost peed my pants right there and then. they are called the 1000 island there is only a few there. oh my god it was funny
Our favourite hang out after work has awesome milkshakes, so I order a strawberry one religously? see i have a religion in this country, anyways
some nights I can have a strawberry milkshake, but i cant have a smoothie. And others I can have a smoothie and not a milkshake. Same ingredients but i dont get it.
we went to a new place where you have a hut in the treetops and eat up there and pauline ordered a cup (single) of tea. sorry mam you can only order two at a time. they would only serve a caraffe not a cup. what the????
you can buy vodka here in the dodgy shops where it is hidden behind all the stock. WELL pauline and I had a bottle one night that i swear and would bet you that it was nail polish removal and paint thinners and metho all mixed together. I felt like the enamel was being stripped off my teeth right before my eyes. hence we get our vodka from the guy that has links with the american embassy now mmmmmmmm lesson learnt
haha I invited the new teacher around to check out my place and for dinner and stuff wink wink. Well after talking for a few hours, actually less but anyways, I decided that there was no chance and we will be just friends haha I hinted on several occasions that the angkots would finish soon he should go he was like no no its ok ill go by ojek (motorbike) well after a few hours and hinting the whole time i had to go to bed he insisted he would stay and go in the morning. I was so over it all i said yeah whatever. well he woke me at 2 something when security knocked on the gate. they do that so we know that they are actually working and we are getting our moneys worth so after explaining that i went back to sleep to get woken at 430 when the mosque called prayer, with trace trace what the hell is that. i was soo shitty by now, that when he woke me at 530 when the hawkers started walking the lane with trace trace what is that, i could have smashed him. i got up at 7.30 to get out of the room with him. shitty as, he expected me to make him breakfast and he had been slagging off at farouc expecting things from me. I showed him the kitchen, where he cooked HIS breakfast and left me the dishes. all morning i was telling him it was time to go and he kept saying i will wait and we can go together. WELL i offered him the shower first which he took and after getting out of the shower, proceeded to tell me that he had broke the tap and couldnt turn off the water. fuck fuck fuck. so i had to trun the water off to the whole house have no shower and go to work for my 1oclock class. needless to say i was shitty with him all day.
I had to ring bec and tell her what happened and that we had no water to the house.
As girls we fixed the tap later that night and had water back on. GIRL POWER
I have learnt that lesson too, he often invites himself around and I state "no thanks"
the boys dont often invite me to play pool anymore with them as i kick there arses each time. oh well, I play pool with Farouc most weeks and he whips me. Im not a sore loser so its all good. He finds it strange, and funny that i dance around the table singing and am totally not serious and yet i play so well.
umm ill try be a good girl and update more often, oh speaking of not being good
my bad points living in Indonesia,
I am 31 and not married strike 1
I dont have a religion so this is illegal here strike 2
I drink strike 3
i have tattoos strike 4
i wear a tank top showing that i have boobs god forbid strike 5
i wear a skirt above my knees strike 6
i have piercing in lots of places strike 7
i wear nail polish which is dirty strike 8
and my latest
oh noo I practise yoga. this is the devils excersie as it improves sex strike 9
I LOVE LIVING HERE
LOVE YOU ALL CHEERS AND "GOD BLESS"
BEACH, BIKINI, BOTTLE OF MALIBU AND FINGERS CROSSED NAKED MEN (MMMMM) REALXING DRINKING AND SUNBAKING my style ohhhh cant wait. thats another story
Went to jakarta on sunday on the express upper class train. Armpits in my face from the people standing up. I tell you, there is no polite way to stand in front of an australian chick who is sitting down. im either looking at your arse or i have my face in your crutch which is great and not, all at the same time. off the train and cattle herded down the ramps to catch the bus. Bought a ticket and stood in que yeah right like we que over here haha. the doors to the bus exit were closed as the bus had not arrived yet but the fuckers behind were pushing us forward regardless. i turned to Pauline and asked he politely to pick me up off the floor afer I faint. then on the bus we got seats as started at the beginning of the route. An old lady at the next stop hit me in the head, i guess she was asking me to get up and give her my seat. get real i probably paid more since im a bulee (foreigner) A few stops later someone had the most vial b.o ive even smelt in my life. i almost dry reached. at this point i have once again got arses and groins in my face, I have to laugh or cry. We have no idea where we are going im hungry and will pee myself if we hit any more HUGE potholes. something funny happens and sets us both off laughing in histerics. Oh the old lady got her arm caught in the folding door, i tried to help but she would not give me the shopping and she needed to let go in order to get her arm out, she was going off at the door and yet, she would not let me help. Eventually i pushed to door open off her arm and she escaped. (thank you she said to me NOT)so we got to the shopping place and headed underground. mmmmm i was in heaven as it was like china,stalls everywhere over crowded and chaos. we found the closest toilet and as Pauline said it was the worst smell she has ever smelt and coming from china that says a lot ,HEY MUM AND ALISON hahahha I was not going in there to find out. We headed across to the handicrafts market and this was huge. We could have shopped there the whole day and not seen it all properly. I bought a few gifts from here.up a back street a guy talked us in to eating at his place and after eating her charged us like triple what we pay back in bogor. At this point I am not happy being a bulee and yet being paid their wages and still being charge heaps. Then rang a mate to meet him and he told us to get on bus 609, we walked around in squares to find the bus depot and got a little help on the way, helps having confused faces on and being 2 female bulees, haha the security guard put us on bus 69 to go to cinere mall which is where we asked about, they kicked us of that bus 2 minutes into the ride, we found bus 609 and jumped onto it to get about 5 minutes along and told wrong bus ladies. get off and he wouldnt give our money back either.
Luckily a local that spoke english seen us with the map out and helped us onto the correct bus and off we went. I swear this bus had a square wheel and the arse was about to fall out of the bus. shit was falling on us from the roof and so many rattles. I only have little boobs but man they nearly were hitting me in the face bouncing so hard. the noise and clanging and banging was scary I was horrified for the first 10 minutes and then it was hilarious to be in this situation and actually sitting there waiting for it to fall apart. man can i get myslef into some scary situations of what. an hour later we reached our destination to meet the guy and his sis to take us back to his house on another form of transport..... motor bikes. this is the guy that we met at the waterfalls a few weeks ago and have kept in contact with him a bit. with offerings of pot and booze, we were off. yipee
i could make the sequel to planes trains buses and bikes.
we stayed there for a few hours meeting the family and eating and drinking.
HENCE AND EXPECTED. WE MISSED THE LAST BUS AND TRAIN back to bogor, haha
We then jumped on the back of the bikes and they took us back 1 hour and half ride. I was laughing at the whole day and saying to myself about having this guy in between my legs and ive not a clue his name.
He spoke no english except three sentences
1 What is your name. cool an introduction after my legs have been wrapped around him for half an hour
2 How old are you and i knew what the third was before he even asked
3 Are you marrried. I answered before he finished his sentence.
getting used to these local men wanting to marry me.
must say i woke this morning with an unusual feeling of either too much on top sex or a few hours in the saddle. much to my disappointment neither was the reason :-(
So I should update a few funnies in the last few weeks.
My house mate is on holidays in aussie and while sitting around dinner one night we were talking about my horendous phobia to spiders and how lucky ive been and bec would save me. Holy shit was all I could say when I got home that night and a huge fucking spider was on the lounge wall. I grabbed the little broom we have and fought him tooth and nail. I won and was shaking and sweating so much afterwards. not funny at all. that night pauline went home and had to fight a scorpion now thats funny haha.
umm Lukes 30th was a hit, after a few jugs of beer and vodkas, I asked him if he was interested in coming and seeing the 1000 islands just off jakarta with us. now luke is not serious at the best of times, so when he put on a straight face and replied "oh i only want to see one or two" i almost peed my pants right there and then. they are called the 1000 island there is only a few there. oh my god it was funny
Our favourite hang out after work has awesome milkshakes, so I order a strawberry one religously? see i have a religion in this country, anyways
some nights I can have a strawberry milkshake, but i cant have a smoothie. And others I can have a smoothie and not a milkshake. Same ingredients but i dont get it.
we went to a new place where you have a hut in the treetops and eat up there and pauline ordered a cup (single) of tea. sorry mam you can only order two at a time. they would only serve a caraffe not a cup. what the????
you can buy vodka here in the dodgy shops where it is hidden behind all the stock. WELL pauline and I had a bottle one night that i swear and would bet you that it was nail polish removal and paint thinners and metho all mixed together. I felt like the enamel was being stripped off my teeth right before my eyes. hence we get our vodka from the guy that has links with the american embassy now mmmmmmmm lesson learnt
haha I invited the new teacher around to check out my place and for dinner and stuff wink wink. Well after talking for a few hours, actually less but anyways, I decided that there was no chance and we will be just friends haha I hinted on several occasions that the angkots would finish soon he should go he was like no no its ok ill go by ojek (motorbike) well after a few hours and hinting the whole time i had to go to bed he insisted he would stay and go in the morning. I was so over it all i said yeah whatever. well he woke me at 2 something when security knocked on the gate. they do that so we know that they are actually working and we are getting our moneys worth so after explaining that i went back to sleep to get woken at 430 when the mosque called prayer, with trace trace what the hell is that. i was soo shitty by now, that when he woke me at 530 when the hawkers started walking the lane with trace trace what is that, i could have smashed him. i got up at 7.30 to get out of the room with him. shitty as, he expected me to make him breakfast and he had been slagging off at farouc expecting things from me. I showed him the kitchen, where he cooked HIS breakfast and left me the dishes. all morning i was telling him it was time to go and he kept saying i will wait and we can go together. WELL i offered him the shower first which he took and after getting out of the shower, proceeded to tell me that he had broke the tap and couldnt turn off the water. fuck fuck fuck. so i had to trun the water off to the whole house have no shower and go to work for my 1oclock class. needless to say i was shitty with him all day.
I had to ring bec and tell her what happened and that we had no water to the house.
As girls we fixed the tap later that night and had water back on. GIRL POWER
I have learnt that lesson too, he often invites himself around and I state "no thanks"
the boys dont often invite me to play pool anymore with them as i kick there arses each time. oh well, I play pool with Farouc most weeks and he whips me. Im not a sore loser so its all good. He finds it strange, and funny that i dance around the table singing and am totally not serious and yet i play so well.
umm ill try be a good girl and update more often, oh speaking of not being good
my bad points living in Indonesia,
I am 31 and not married strike 1
I dont have a religion so this is illegal here strike 2
I drink strike 3
i have tattoos strike 4
i wear a tank top showing that i have boobs god forbid strike 5
i wear a skirt above my knees strike 6
i have piercing in lots of places strike 7
i wear nail polish which is dirty strike 8
and my latest
oh noo I practise yoga. this is the devils excersie as it improves sex strike 9
I LOVE LIVING HERE
LOVE YOU ALL CHEERS AND "GOD BLESS"
Saturday, May 9, 2009
going ons
so once again where to stat when i leave it so long.
My finger nails are WAY to long to be typing so i most probably willhave a few errors. youll understand.
So yesterday pauline and i headed off to the hairdressers. As you all know that i had a lot of BAD hair styles from china so this was being verybrave on my half. Four hours later, as is the normal drill in the aisan countries, i have the redest hair ive ever had a few blonde and copper highlghts. A little surprised but hey, i have had a hell of a lot worse. its ok and i will get used to it.
So Bec came and met us at the hairdressers and we took of for lunch. I am liking this restaurant near work that you take shoes off and sit on the floor at the coffee table. waterfalls around nice lush green grass and tranquility to the max, awesome food too. After a few hours of relaxation after relaxing at the hair salon, bec was heading to the gardens while pauline and i were, yep you guessed it, haha going shopping. this is my country. We got to the shopping mall when my phone rang, didnt know the number buy answered. it was Faruk. He mixed up his schedule and instead ofsunday had saturday off. i had planned this day with the girls so that sunday i could spend with him. Then the dreaded question was asked. WIll you come to karaoke tonight. silly me again says yes, except since i have met the uncles i think that i should be able to bring pauline and bec. all good they can come this time.
I then have to beg nd grovel to pauline to come, and being the great friend that she is , she gave in. haha. We then had to hoof it back home as he was coming to pick us up at 6 from my house and we had a little time spare that we could have a few drinks before he came. So on the angkok and my phone rings, where are you, im on my way, oh, we are there.
SHIT no time for a shower or more importantly a drink. Karaoke sober again. Threw on a shirt, as a tank top is not really suitable and a pair of jeans, shower from the can and in the car we jumped.
i already had a sore throat and loosing my voice, but we had an awesome time and left with no voice. pauline also really enjoyed herself and Faruk took photos so ill post them once i get them.
YOU CAN ALL SEE HIM
i found ot last night that his mum is from arabia, so that is why he does not look like a typical indonesian. he is HANDSOME
on a bae note, fridays class for my last one was an exam and my last class with these students so they had to do a questionnaire. They are notorious for speaking indonesian in class so i walked in and said "Andrea (the main offender) no Bahasa in class english only" Well didnt she crack it, spoit brat. And then i handed out the questionnaire.
WELL i am a dissapointment to the school as a teacher and she has wasted her money and i have taught her nothing and over all she is very unhappy with the teacher.
I was hurt i must say that she could be soo shallow that up till this class she was teling me i was a good teacher and she liked comiing to class. i stewed for a while, while they were doing there exams. and i thought fuck her, just cos she cracked it because i cant teacher her if she speaks indonesian.
ill see what happens when i go to work on monday. see if they take notice to the students thoughts.
My classes all change this week to. i teach from 4 30 till 9 every night and on saturday i start at 9 till 1 with a 4 HOUR BUSINESS ENGLISH CLASS.
i cant be too bad a teacher if im teaching business english and i know jack shit about business. lol
The other bad thing is that over the last four weeks with the same students i have sussed out my 8 year old monsters and we have a ball. playing monkeys in the barrell and basketball. I bribe them with giving me answers, and taking shots at the hoop. works wonderfully. Well now i have to give them to another teacher and replacd with 3 new classes. so i start all over with someone elses 8 year old monsters. And I also have 2 adult classes.which i kind aenjoy more. Learning all new names and personalities and researching what dianamics the class has. going to be a full on week whis week as i have the 3 new classes monday wednesdays and fridays. tuesdays and thurdays are 2 new classes also but they are new to the school so i start totally from scratch with them. mind boggeling for me and i work there so dont know if you understand it.
my week, well monday i was waiting for my lounge to arrive but received a text to say tha tsince it is now being made out of velvet it would take till thursday. ok thanks for telling me before i had to wait. not instead i then had water delivered and becs curtan installeed. tuesday i headed into work early as i was marking exams and getting certificates ready for the finishng classes. no prep for these as the were sitting exams. and there last class they had asked to watch dvds. Have i mentioned sometimes my job is SOOO EASY. my wednesday class took me out to dinner for a realia class. (lessons that are real life situations)
my nights this week. ali the new teacher from england is cool. we have clicked. we play pool and are about the same level. he wins i win and we dance around and sing and carry on. like you do. he is a little touchy maybe this is howhe is, going to wait and see. On our boot camp last week we sat together for dinner and laughted an dmucked around the whole time. He then thanked me for our DATE and asked for a second. he even kissed me good night. scary. dont really want to get involved with a teacher in that way. havent been out since wednesday night with him ashe had the singapore run and this weekend is in bali. Had a feeling he was wanting to ask me to go to but,ah avoided the topic after that. Faurk and all.
he is cool though.
Today is sunday, and meeting up with pauline. we are going to have that coffee and cake that we didnt get yesterday and do the shopping that was interupter
Had a small thought that i am too spontaneous. Should I have said no and continued with my plan. Then again when you plan they always change. Am i too leanient, BUt if we had not have gone we would not have had the ball that we did.?????
If these are my only problems, what am i complaining about hahahaha
by for now kiddies
take care and keep in touch
xxooxxooxxoo
My finger nails are WAY to long to be typing so i most probably willhave a few errors. youll understand.
So yesterday pauline and i headed off to the hairdressers. As you all know that i had a lot of BAD hair styles from china so this was being verybrave on my half. Four hours later, as is the normal drill in the aisan countries, i have the redest hair ive ever had a few blonde and copper highlghts. A little surprised but hey, i have had a hell of a lot worse. its ok and i will get used to it.
So Bec came and met us at the hairdressers and we took of for lunch. I am liking this restaurant near work that you take shoes off and sit on the floor at the coffee table. waterfalls around nice lush green grass and tranquility to the max, awesome food too. After a few hours of relaxation after relaxing at the hair salon, bec was heading to the gardens while pauline and i were, yep you guessed it, haha going shopping. this is my country. We got to the shopping mall when my phone rang, didnt know the number buy answered. it was Faruk. He mixed up his schedule and instead ofsunday had saturday off. i had planned this day with the girls so that sunday i could spend with him. Then the dreaded question was asked. WIll you come to karaoke tonight. silly me again says yes, except since i have met the uncles i think that i should be able to bring pauline and bec. all good they can come this time.
I then have to beg nd grovel to pauline to come, and being the great friend that she is , she gave in. haha. We then had to hoof it back home as he was coming to pick us up at 6 from my house and we had a little time spare that we could have a few drinks before he came. So on the angkok and my phone rings, where are you, im on my way, oh, we are there.
SHIT no time for a shower or more importantly a drink. Karaoke sober again. Threw on a shirt, as a tank top is not really suitable and a pair of jeans, shower from the can and in the car we jumped.
i already had a sore throat and loosing my voice, but we had an awesome time and left with no voice. pauline also really enjoyed herself and Faruk took photos so ill post them once i get them.
YOU CAN ALL SEE HIM
i found ot last night that his mum is from arabia, so that is why he does not look like a typical indonesian. he is HANDSOME
on a bae note, fridays class for my last one was an exam and my last class with these students so they had to do a questionnaire. They are notorious for speaking indonesian in class so i walked in and said "Andrea (the main offender) no Bahasa in class english only" Well didnt she crack it, spoit brat. And then i handed out the questionnaire.
WELL i am a dissapointment to the school as a teacher and she has wasted her money and i have taught her nothing and over all she is very unhappy with the teacher.
I was hurt i must say that she could be soo shallow that up till this class she was teling me i was a good teacher and she liked comiing to class. i stewed for a while, while they were doing there exams. and i thought fuck her, just cos she cracked it because i cant teacher her if she speaks indonesian.
ill see what happens when i go to work on monday. see if they take notice to the students thoughts.
My classes all change this week to. i teach from 4 30 till 9 every night and on saturday i start at 9 till 1 with a 4 HOUR BUSINESS ENGLISH CLASS.
i cant be too bad a teacher if im teaching business english and i know jack shit about business. lol
The other bad thing is that over the last four weeks with the same students i have sussed out my 8 year old monsters and we have a ball. playing monkeys in the barrell and basketball. I bribe them with giving me answers, and taking shots at the hoop. works wonderfully. Well now i have to give them to another teacher and replacd with 3 new classes. so i start all over with someone elses 8 year old monsters. And I also have 2 adult classes.which i kind aenjoy more. Learning all new names and personalities and researching what dianamics the class has. going to be a full on week whis week as i have the 3 new classes monday wednesdays and fridays. tuesdays and thurdays are 2 new classes also but they are new to the school so i start totally from scratch with them. mind boggeling for me and i work there so dont know if you understand it.
my week, well monday i was waiting for my lounge to arrive but received a text to say tha tsince it is now being made out of velvet it would take till thursday. ok thanks for telling me before i had to wait. not instead i then had water delivered and becs curtan installeed. tuesday i headed into work early as i was marking exams and getting certificates ready for the finishng classes. no prep for these as the were sitting exams. and there last class they had asked to watch dvds. Have i mentioned sometimes my job is SOOO EASY. my wednesday class took me out to dinner for a realia class. (lessons that are real life situations)
my nights this week. ali the new teacher from england is cool. we have clicked. we play pool and are about the same level. he wins i win and we dance around and sing and carry on. like you do. he is a little touchy maybe this is howhe is, going to wait and see. On our boot camp last week we sat together for dinner and laughted an dmucked around the whole time. He then thanked me for our DATE and asked for a second. he even kissed me good night. scary. dont really want to get involved with a teacher in that way. havent been out since wednesday night with him ashe had the singapore run and this weekend is in bali. Had a feeling he was wanting to ask me to go to but,ah avoided the topic after that. Faurk and all.
he is cool though.
Today is sunday, and meeting up with pauline. we are going to have that coffee and cake that we didnt get yesterday and do the shopping that was interupter
Had a small thought that i am too spontaneous. Should I have said no and continued with my plan. Then again when you plan they always change. Am i too leanient, BUt if we had not have gone we would not have had the ball that we did.?????
If these are my only problems, what am i complaining about hahahaha
by for now kiddies
take care and keep in touch
xxooxxooxxoo
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
the mugging
Long time no blog I know in getting a little slack, or settled
firstly, I need to say that last tuesday I was mugged by a guy on a motorbike so all those that are texting my aussie phone STOP I am not getting any of your messages Ill let you know when I receive another sim and give you the number.
I am fine. I have gravel rash up my leg and a hole out of my knee and my elbow and then gravel rash up my arm. The silly thing is that I would not have this if I have just let go and given the asshole my bag, but instead I guess instinct kicked in and I held tighter, threfore I was pulled over to theground and dragged a small distance. So I then had torun back to work and see if anyone was still there. As I didnt even have the 20 cents to catch the angkok home. Two teachers were luckily still there and took me inside to wash out the gravel and torture me with betadine. The gave me some cash to get home, but then the security guy said he would take me on his bike. As I didnt even have keys to get inside and with no phone and no numbers, I didnt even know if bec would be home. She was but since she was watching a dvd and didnt hear me, I climbed in the wndow that we had broken the latch to earlier that day. So basically anyone could rob us, but the other bad thing is the the asshole now had the keys to my house and saved on my phone was my address. SHIT so after climbing in the window I put the ironong board across and put the chain on the fron door.
AMAZINGLY I slept like a log. I wrote a note for bec explaining wht had happened for her to read in the morning.
I was up early the next morning to do the dreaded phone call to mother duck. It was quick and no details at all. “mum, my bag was stolen last night can you ring telstra and all the banks to inform them. Thanks cheers chat later. It wasnt till the afternoon that I emailed mum and told her I was mugged and dragged, but fine otherwise
I took off early to hopefully get my salary early since I had no money and no access to any either, and to go and get a new phone. Pat my supervisor expected me to walk in and resign and be on the next plane back to oz. I was like Pat it happens there too, ill just have to be more careful. So after getting some money the office boy took me to the depatment mall to get a phone. I am being so soilt by everyone not wanting me to be alone. And at night the guys are all walking me to my angkok stop.
Thursday was pay day for me so I had to then walk home with 5 million on me and the next day I got my flight reimbursement money so again had 6 million. I was escorted tomy stop and came home and hid the money all over the house.
I HATE HAVING TO BE AFRAID.
Saturday we were told we were off to a team building adventure. All teaching staff security office boys and the recetion were told they had to attend. So after being up early to go shpping for a new paddlock for the front gate and a new barrel for the lock I went to wok with a towel and a change of clothes (we were told me might get wet) We were then told once on the bus, BOOT CAMP was where we were heading. We were placed into teams. Give drills excersies to get us ready and then taken to the adventure park. Yeah right. Our first drill was getting across the horizontal ropes about 4metres up and then getting down but with getting on a team members shoulders, no jumping.
Next crawling on our stomachs about 4 metres with the ropes just above ours heads. No touchng the ropes or all back to the start. This was also muddy. They had poured buckets of water tohelp us slid through. This was great for my elbow and knee, but I couldnt let that stop me. A rope swing to get from one side of the pond to the other, not a problem, throwing and catching balloons filled with water over the volley ball net, catchng a fish from the pond with just a net. Blindfolded and walking up steps down steps and over a plank bridge 5 metres above the water. No safety standards over here haha.filling a pipe about a metre tall filled with holes using only a bucket filled with holes too. We had to cover the holes so the ping pong balls would flow over the top, then walking across a bamboo pole with ropes above us and half on one side then passing each other in the middle. My problem here was some of the ropes I was on tippy toes to reach and then hang out the side to let the others pass me.
ANYWAYS at the end of the day my team WON the champions. Excellent.
So after a cold shower and dousing my cuts and sores in dethol, we headed off to dinner. Man after 5 hours of that I was starving. We went to a fancy restaurant an dwork shouted us a feed. Back on the bus by 10 30 to head home. We were suppose to go to the afari park but it was too late by that time. Since I was heading home at night one of the office boys was instructed to take me home on his bike and make sure I was safe inside.
I think that I was mugged to put theothergirls back on alert that shit does happen. have all be extra careful and dont carry all their money at once and not all their cards together. I might have been made the point as I can handle it. Im amazed that I am emotionally not effected at all. I was angly at first but only for the fact that it was a pain to cancel things and not have access to mymoney.
Today I have fixed the tap from the bathroom that was not working, I have unscrewed latched from windows to put on other windows to hold the window open. Fixed the leaking tap out the front garden, changed the barrel in the front door lock and brought gas for the hot plate. Man im super woman fix it. I also attempted the toilet that does not flush, but I think we need a plumber.
Thats enough fixing for today.
Bec has just come home fromjakarta and im just waiting to meet up with Faruk.
So ill call that a day of excitement and since ill have the net tomorrow night at home ill be able to keep up to date more frequently
cheers
trace
firstly, I need to say that last tuesday I was mugged by a guy on a motorbike so all those that are texting my aussie phone STOP I am not getting any of your messages Ill let you know when I receive another sim and give you the number.
I am fine. I have gravel rash up my leg and a hole out of my knee and my elbow and then gravel rash up my arm. The silly thing is that I would not have this if I have just let go and given the asshole my bag, but instead I guess instinct kicked in and I held tighter, threfore I was pulled over to theground and dragged a small distance. So I then had torun back to work and see if anyone was still there. As I didnt even have the 20 cents to catch the angkok home. Two teachers were luckily still there and took me inside to wash out the gravel and torture me with betadine. The gave me some cash to get home, but then the security guy said he would take me on his bike. As I didnt even have keys to get inside and with no phone and no numbers, I didnt even know if bec would be home. She was but since she was watching a dvd and didnt hear me, I climbed in the wndow that we had broken the latch to earlier that day. So basically anyone could rob us, but the other bad thing is the the asshole now had the keys to my house and saved on my phone was my address. SHIT so after climbing in the window I put the ironong board across and put the chain on the fron door.
AMAZINGLY I slept like a log. I wrote a note for bec explaining wht had happened for her to read in the morning.
I was up early the next morning to do the dreaded phone call to mother duck. It was quick and no details at all. “mum, my bag was stolen last night can you ring telstra and all the banks to inform them. Thanks cheers chat later. It wasnt till the afternoon that I emailed mum and told her I was mugged and dragged, but fine otherwise
I took off early to hopefully get my salary early since I had no money and no access to any either, and to go and get a new phone. Pat my supervisor expected me to walk in and resign and be on the next plane back to oz. I was like Pat it happens there too, ill just have to be more careful. So after getting some money the office boy took me to the depatment mall to get a phone. I am being so soilt by everyone not wanting me to be alone. And at night the guys are all walking me to my angkok stop.
Thursday was pay day for me so I had to then walk home with 5 million on me and the next day I got my flight reimbursement money so again had 6 million. I was escorted tomy stop and came home and hid the money all over the house.
I HATE HAVING TO BE AFRAID.
Saturday we were told we were off to a team building adventure. All teaching staff security office boys and the recetion were told they had to attend. So after being up early to go shpping for a new paddlock for the front gate and a new barrel for the lock I went to wok with a towel and a change of clothes (we were told me might get wet) We were then told once on the bus, BOOT CAMP was where we were heading. We were placed into teams. Give drills excersies to get us ready and then taken to the adventure park. Yeah right. Our first drill was getting across the horizontal ropes about 4metres up and then getting down but with getting on a team members shoulders, no jumping.
Next crawling on our stomachs about 4 metres with the ropes just above ours heads. No touchng the ropes or all back to the start. This was also muddy. They had poured buckets of water tohelp us slid through. This was great for my elbow and knee, but I couldnt let that stop me. A rope swing to get from one side of the pond to the other, not a problem, throwing and catching balloons filled with water over the volley ball net, catchng a fish from the pond with just a net. Blindfolded and walking up steps down steps and over a plank bridge 5 metres above the water. No safety standards over here haha.filling a pipe about a metre tall filled with holes using only a bucket filled with holes too. We had to cover the holes so the ping pong balls would flow over the top, then walking across a bamboo pole with ropes above us and half on one side then passing each other in the middle. My problem here was some of the ropes I was on tippy toes to reach and then hang out the side to let the others pass me.
ANYWAYS at the end of the day my team WON the champions. Excellent.
So after a cold shower and dousing my cuts and sores in dethol, we headed off to dinner. Man after 5 hours of that I was starving. We went to a fancy restaurant an dwork shouted us a feed. Back on the bus by 10 30 to head home. We were suppose to go to the afari park but it was too late by that time. Since I was heading home at night one of the office boys was instructed to take me home on his bike and make sure I was safe inside.
I think that I was mugged to put theothergirls back on alert that shit does happen. have all be extra careful and dont carry all their money at once and not all their cards together. I might have been made the point as I can handle it. Im amazed that I am emotionally not effected at all. I was angly at first but only for the fact that it was a pain to cancel things and not have access to mymoney.
Today I have fixed the tap from the bathroom that was not working, I have unscrewed latched from windows to put on other windows to hold the window open. Fixed the leaking tap out the front garden, changed the barrel in the front door lock and brought gas for the hot plate. Man im super woman fix it. I also attempted the toilet that does not flush, but I think we need a plumber.
Thats enough fixing for today.
Bec has just come home fromjakarta and im just waiting to meet up with Faruk.
So ill call that a day of excitement and since ill have the net tomorrow night at home ill be able to keep up to date more frequently
cheers
trace
Thursday, April 16, 2009
SINGAPORE
Tuesday was my visa run to Singapore. You cant apply to a consulate in Indonesia you have to leave the country and re entre on a 12 month working permit.
So at 3 am Tuesday morning both alarms went off and i opened my not so keen to be open eyes. I cant beleive I have to get up. I definitely was NOT having a cold shower at this time of the morning. ( i am turning into "that" feral cos I shower less and less the more I stay here) Anyways, I got dressed and double checked I had all the paper work passport phots etc. Onece Twoece haha.
I strolled down to the school where the driver was picking me up Its about a 30 second walk and quite scary and eerie at that time of the morning. I waited, and waited. This driver was a new one and I had not met him before. I ended up calling Joanne, from work and asking her to call the driver as he has not shown up yet and its 10 to 4. shit that sound horrible to even type. he arrived about 5 minutes later very apologetic, hope they dont fire him for being late. So I thought that I would sleep on the way but no not even for a 30 second long shut eye. I stumbled my way to the check out and immigration and towards the waiting room. The plane left about half an hour late, so not really a good start to my day.
I think that I had a 30 minute kip after breakfast. I woke as we were landing and felt a little better for it.
So back through customs and immigration and off to the blue free call phone.
This is where i feel like im in a James Bond movie. I call the mobile number I have for the agent. He says"whos this"
Tracy Shevlin i replied. Do you have the papers. Yes I have the papers. Do you know the meeting point. Yes i have the address. Ok see you there
That was our conversation over the phone. I then jump in a cab and pass him the address. We cruise off to maccas, next to the hilton Hotel.
Singapore is the brisbane of Asia. in my opinion. The streets are 100 % cleaner and the place is soooo modern. Parks and trees everywhere and traffic all in order. haha
So he drops me off at the hilton and I walk towards maccas. I am to met the agent and give him my passport. This is itself is TOTALLY against what I want to do. I slowly walk down the steps looking for a guy with a lot of papers, he is the agent im loking for. He waves me towards him and says "are you tracy" Yes tracy shevlin I replied. He invites me to sit while HE fills out my application form I sign the piece of paper, he sticks the photo on and ask "do you have the money" I handed over 260 singapore dollars. he takes my passport from me and says "be here at 4pm" then waves me away.
nooooooo
I cant beleive it went down like that.
So its like 10 in the morning and I have 6 hours to kill without getting lost and not wandering too far to be late. I walked across the road to the chemist. Pat from work asked me to get her nicorete patches. The 3rd chemist had them but since the pharmicists was not there she could not give them to me. I had to wait till a pharmacist came on line so she could ask me all about them, then take photos of the lady giving me the packets, and me signing that I agreeed to accept them from the lady via the internet. WEIRD
I then had to go o the atm and take out singapore dollars.
Man, my bank must wonder what the hell im doing travelling all over the place.
Then, what does anybody do when they are in singapore.
Tracy, of course gets her nails done, hahaha, and a reflexology foot massage, and a neck and shsoulders massage. I then went on the look out for a hair dresser. I second thought this idea, because in china sometimes it would take 3 or 4 hours and by now I was on a time schedule. So I went to maccas and ate lunch and off to an internet cafe to update my blog surf facebook and chat to peoples.
I was back to collect my passport at about 3.30, could not be late everyone kept telling me. HE WAS LATE Nervously I sat around till about 4.30 and once he arrived I pounced. withe my passport in my hand and the correct visa inside, i tailed it to the hilton and grabbed the next cab tothe airport.
I AM TOTALLY RAT SHIT BY NOW
all I want to do is lye down and close my little eye lids
Oh a bonus about singapore is they sell TWISTIES, so i brought a pack(ive eaten them already)
i checked in to garuda and skipped onto the gate for my departure. oh I should say that here is where a litre of malibu jumped into my posession and about 2 kilos of chocolates. mars bars bountys snickers mmmmmmm
I sprawled out at my gate. I was the only one there and I had a 2 hour wait. On goes the mp3 player and i layed out flat. ahhhh. realxing
onto the plane andhad some dinner. its about an hour and a half back to jakarta.
It felt GREAT to walk passed the 100 or so waiting for their visa on arrival and skip straight through to immigration. It also felt great to walk past all the guys calling "taxi taxi"
I was like no thank you I have a driver, haha. I met beau out the front of arrivals and happily plopped myslef into the fron seat. Jakarta is about 45 to an hour depending ontraffic jams. I arrived home about 10.45 that night, immediately took of my stinky sweaty clothes, and yep, slid into the sheets and I reckon my eyes closed before i even settled my head onto the pillow.
confirming to all you people. yes, I do do some crazy shit in my life and even I am starting towonder at what point will I actually say nah, thats going too far.
oh well. I am now legally allowed to work inIndonesia and im here for the 12 month stint. and I must say, I am extremely happy to be here.
xxoo
So at 3 am Tuesday morning both alarms went off and i opened my not so keen to be open eyes. I cant beleive I have to get up. I definitely was NOT having a cold shower at this time of the morning. ( i am turning into "that" feral cos I shower less and less the more I stay here) Anyways, I got dressed and double checked I had all the paper work passport phots etc. Onece Twoece haha.
I strolled down to the school where the driver was picking me up Its about a 30 second walk and quite scary and eerie at that time of the morning. I waited, and waited. This driver was a new one and I had not met him before. I ended up calling Joanne, from work and asking her to call the driver as he has not shown up yet and its 10 to 4. shit that sound horrible to even type. he arrived about 5 minutes later very apologetic, hope they dont fire him for being late. So I thought that I would sleep on the way but no not even for a 30 second long shut eye. I stumbled my way to the check out and immigration and towards the waiting room. The plane left about half an hour late, so not really a good start to my day.
I think that I had a 30 minute kip after breakfast. I woke as we were landing and felt a little better for it.
So back through customs and immigration and off to the blue free call phone.
This is where i feel like im in a James Bond movie. I call the mobile number I have for the agent. He says"whos this"
Tracy Shevlin i replied. Do you have the papers. Yes I have the papers. Do you know the meeting point. Yes i have the address. Ok see you there
That was our conversation over the phone. I then jump in a cab and pass him the address. We cruise off to maccas, next to the hilton Hotel.
Singapore is the brisbane of Asia. in my opinion. The streets are 100 % cleaner and the place is soooo modern. Parks and trees everywhere and traffic all in order. haha
So he drops me off at the hilton and I walk towards maccas. I am to met the agent and give him my passport. This is itself is TOTALLY against what I want to do. I slowly walk down the steps looking for a guy with a lot of papers, he is the agent im loking for. He waves me towards him and says "are you tracy" Yes tracy shevlin I replied. He invites me to sit while HE fills out my application form I sign the piece of paper, he sticks the photo on and ask "do you have the money" I handed over 260 singapore dollars. he takes my passport from me and says "be here at 4pm" then waves me away.
nooooooo
I cant beleive it went down like that.
So its like 10 in the morning and I have 6 hours to kill without getting lost and not wandering too far to be late. I walked across the road to the chemist. Pat from work asked me to get her nicorete patches. The 3rd chemist had them but since the pharmicists was not there she could not give them to me. I had to wait till a pharmacist came on line so she could ask me all about them, then take photos of the lady giving me the packets, and me signing that I agreeed to accept them from the lady via the internet. WEIRD
I then had to go o the atm and take out singapore dollars.
Man, my bank must wonder what the hell im doing travelling all over the place.
Then, what does anybody do when they are in singapore.
Tracy, of course gets her nails done, hahaha, and a reflexology foot massage, and a neck and shsoulders massage. I then went on the look out for a hair dresser. I second thought this idea, because in china sometimes it would take 3 or 4 hours and by now I was on a time schedule. So I went to maccas and ate lunch and off to an internet cafe to update my blog surf facebook and chat to peoples.
I was back to collect my passport at about 3.30, could not be late everyone kept telling me. HE WAS LATE Nervously I sat around till about 4.30 and once he arrived I pounced. withe my passport in my hand and the correct visa inside, i tailed it to the hilton and grabbed the next cab tothe airport.
I AM TOTALLY RAT SHIT BY NOW
all I want to do is lye down and close my little eye lids
Oh a bonus about singapore is they sell TWISTIES, so i brought a pack(ive eaten them already)
i checked in to garuda and skipped onto the gate for my departure. oh I should say that here is where a litre of malibu jumped into my posession and about 2 kilos of chocolates. mars bars bountys snickers mmmmmmm
I sprawled out at my gate. I was the only one there and I had a 2 hour wait. On goes the mp3 player and i layed out flat. ahhhh. realxing
onto the plane andhad some dinner. its about an hour and a half back to jakarta.
It felt GREAT to walk passed the 100 or so waiting for their visa on arrival and skip straight through to immigration. It also felt great to walk past all the guys calling "taxi taxi"
I was like no thank you I have a driver, haha. I met beau out the front of arrivals and happily plopped myslef into the fron seat. Jakarta is about 45 to an hour depending ontraffic jams. I arrived home about 10.45 that night, immediately took of my stinky sweaty clothes, and yep, slid into the sheets and I reckon my eyes closed before i even settled my head onto the pillow.
confirming to all you people. yes, I do do some crazy shit in my life and even I am starting towonder at what point will I actually say nah, thats going too far.
oh well. I am now legally allowed to work inIndonesia and im here for the 12 month stint. and I must say, I am extremely happy to be here.
xxoo
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
week in bogor
SHIT ihave missed a week already.
last thursday was a public holiday for election day. I slept in till my eyes woke up which was about 11 30 i think. Had been pretty exhausted from all the social things I had been doing in the mornings and working late then going out to dinner after work.
Oh yeah wednesday nights in the go to "pockets" the pool hall and play with all the teachers from the other schools too. Pauline and I went there after dinner with the public holiday and all, why not. oh and i also knew that Faruk was back in town because of the holiday and I could bet a million rupiah he would be there.
he was
After discussing with pauline the alcohol situation she took of to the warong out the front. ( thats what they call those stores on the side of the roads) most warongs will sell vodka illegally that is hidden behind all the things on the shelves. Pauline bargained from the 12000 bottle which this warong was selling for 24000 he was not happy but hey, we were dry so she paid the money and came back in.
OH, MY GOD
this is the first time that i think i have actaully dranken paint stripper and metho and nail polish remover. Man, no amount of lemonade could change the taste and afterwards it felt like i had a layer or two off my tongue. I think I will pass next time on the vodka from the warong. haha
they boys played their games of pool and I was last to play. I hesitated and got up to play. I said only for one game and then to go and see Faruk, well, after beating them all and about 7 games later they all refused to play me, so I resigned and headed to see Faruk. He is kinda a professional at pool and I get whipped by him so he is always happy to play me.
Pauline had left early to catch the liverpool soccer match and the boys all left around 1 ish but not without passing by our table and to warn Faruk to look after me and take care of me etc etc. So too all you people worrying, all the teachers are looking out for me all the time. I told them not too worry that I actually have been out with him before.
We finished up about 2 30 and Faruk then dropped me off at home on his mobile, which is indonesian for motor bike lol
Hence the sleep in till my eyes opened.
Thursday I met Pauline and a few others for lunch as Pauline was heading on holidays to Lombok near bali. After catching up with them I headed home to some air con as it was very hot and energy draining. I was also going to the movies with Faruk later and didnt want to wear myself out.
Im eating dinner tonight at the balinese restaurant across the road from my kost. (bed and breakfast) I ordered shredded coconut with chicken and rice.. hence I have shredded chicken and shredded coconut served in a palm leave bowl and rice on the side. ALSO the not spicy at all is killing my lips and my tongue is hurting from the fire in my mouth.
anyways, Faruk picked me up about 4 to head to the movies. we watched fast and the furious which i loved and then he took me home again. Thats all folks.
Friday, oh luke and i spent the day at the Botanical gardens, yep e wandered around for like 4 or 5 hours. it was peaceful and green and trees. very nice to have done once and now I have seen the world famous gardens. yeah.
Luke then walked me to his kost so I knew where he was living.
I have never met a male that has SUCH BAD SENCE OF DIRECTION
He had no idea that the same road that maccas was on was the same one the school was on, because it kinked in the road and curved around. He was always saying and pointing to maccas and saying "no that road" and I would say its the same road, after a few days it clicked. he understood it kinked and came around the corner. He says I live on the corner of mp restaurant but actually he gets the restaurant name mixed up and confuses me until I get where he is talking and say no it ...... and he says oh yeah thats what i mean. I cant get my head around him most days
oh well, so after we went to his place we had dinner at "death by chocolate"
the worst carbonarra ive ever had in my life. I think the sauce was made with off cream or something, even luke turned his nose up and he will literally eat anything. These guys actually sell chocolate. They also turned off all the lights after dinner and had gouls walk around scaring people i guess. Headed home after a big day and watch some more tv series.
SAturday I had to be up early and meet the owners of the house. They had finished painting it I wanted to inspect before giving them the money. All good well asian good anyways, i gave the nod and headed back to meet luke for coffee. See how patient I am, i can stil meet him for coffee although I think he understands that I am not exactly happy before coffee and he can irritate me so much easier.
This is where i stepped out of the angkok with the style of a 3 drunk 3 year old. tripped, hit the concrete gutter and scun my knee while smashing it aagainst the egde. NOW i am really not happy
Luke came down and met me at maccas where we headed to the chemist to get something to kill anything that might take up residence in my knee. I get a coffee and all is well again. We trek off to the traditional markets for the day. They are dirt floor, clothes that look second hand and around the corner is thelive animal markets, at this point I tell luke im done and cant be here with this. We twadle back home but mind you we have probably been there for around 3 or 4 hours.
Get my next sentencce. On a Saturday night I tell luke im going to stay in and "wash my hair" haha which i actually did do. Not sure if your aware but i dont have hot water in my kost. So some mornings i go without a shower, this is possibly why when you see me on the web cam I look like shit first thing in the morning, jilly bean. When I have time I boil the water in the kettle which takes about half an hour, fill the bucket and use this to have a shower. My hair is totally neglected and getting washed about once a week. So hence the stay in and wash my hair statment. My hair thanked me for it.
Sunday I was up again early to go and pay the owners the rent money for the year. 16 million plus the million deposit since saying I would take the place. WOW, did I hate walking around that morning with all that cash in my bag. I was soooo supper sensitive towards the people around me. I signed the piece of paper called the contract and organised to get some curtains made, which today they tell me they are ready. Normally takes a week but for me 3 days. I LOVE LIVING HERE
have no idea what I did that after noon.
monday i strolled into work and prepared for my classes. The schedule has finished for the last month so I get all new classes with me as their first teacher. Heaps easier to establish rules and relationships when its from the start. Lucky e I
ended up with the 6 8 year old monsters. NEW RULES KIDS. I have had 2 classes with them and they are great. my little monsters i call them with a smile on my face. I had complete control today for the whole 1 20 minutes and we palyed games and they actually listened and learnt new things. I had 3 awesome classes today thats probably why I am typping tonight.
Tuesday was my day insingapore for the visa run.
It totally felt like I was a Spy but ill tell you about it in the next post
good night all my lovelys and talk soon
last thursday was a public holiday for election day. I slept in till my eyes woke up which was about 11 30 i think. Had been pretty exhausted from all the social things I had been doing in the mornings and working late then going out to dinner after work.
Oh yeah wednesday nights in the go to "pockets" the pool hall and play with all the teachers from the other schools too. Pauline and I went there after dinner with the public holiday and all, why not. oh and i also knew that Faruk was back in town because of the holiday and I could bet a million rupiah he would be there.
he was
After discussing with pauline the alcohol situation she took of to the warong out the front. ( thats what they call those stores on the side of the roads) most warongs will sell vodka illegally that is hidden behind all the things on the shelves. Pauline bargained from the 12000 bottle which this warong was selling for 24000 he was not happy but hey, we were dry so she paid the money and came back in.
OH, MY GOD
this is the first time that i think i have actaully dranken paint stripper and metho and nail polish remover. Man, no amount of lemonade could change the taste and afterwards it felt like i had a layer or two off my tongue. I think I will pass next time on the vodka from the warong. haha
they boys played their games of pool and I was last to play. I hesitated and got up to play. I said only for one game and then to go and see Faruk, well, after beating them all and about 7 games later they all refused to play me, so I resigned and headed to see Faruk. He is kinda a professional at pool and I get whipped by him so he is always happy to play me.
Pauline had left early to catch the liverpool soccer match and the boys all left around 1 ish but not without passing by our table and to warn Faruk to look after me and take care of me etc etc. So too all you people worrying, all the teachers are looking out for me all the time. I told them not too worry that I actually have been out with him before.
We finished up about 2 30 and Faruk then dropped me off at home on his mobile, which is indonesian for motor bike lol
Hence the sleep in till my eyes opened.
Thursday I met Pauline and a few others for lunch as Pauline was heading on holidays to Lombok near bali. After catching up with them I headed home to some air con as it was very hot and energy draining. I was also going to the movies with Faruk later and didnt want to wear myself out.
Im eating dinner tonight at the balinese restaurant across the road from my kost. (bed and breakfast) I ordered shredded coconut with chicken and rice.. hence I have shredded chicken and shredded coconut served in a palm leave bowl and rice on the side. ALSO the not spicy at all is killing my lips and my tongue is hurting from the fire in my mouth.
anyways, Faruk picked me up about 4 to head to the movies. we watched fast and the furious which i loved and then he took me home again. Thats all folks.
Friday, oh luke and i spent the day at the Botanical gardens, yep e wandered around for like 4 or 5 hours. it was peaceful and green and trees. very nice to have done once and now I have seen the world famous gardens. yeah.
Luke then walked me to his kost so I knew where he was living.
I have never met a male that has SUCH BAD SENCE OF DIRECTION
He had no idea that the same road that maccas was on was the same one the school was on, because it kinked in the road and curved around. He was always saying and pointing to maccas and saying "no that road" and I would say its the same road, after a few days it clicked. he understood it kinked and came around the corner. He says I live on the corner of mp restaurant but actually he gets the restaurant name mixed up and confuses me until I get where he is talking and say no it ...... and he says oh yeah thats what i mean. I cant get my head around him most days
oh well, so after we went to his place we had dinner at "death by chocolate"
the worst carbonarra ive ever had in my life. I think the sauce was made with off cream or something, even luke turned his nose up and he will literally eat anything. These guys actually sell chocolate. They also turned off all the lights after dinner and had gouls walk around scaring people i guess. Headed home after a big day and watch some more tv series.
SAturday I had to be up early and meet the owners of the house. They had finished painting it I wanted to inspect before giving them the money. All good well asian good anyways, i gave the nod and headed back to meet luke for coffee. See how patient I am, i can stil meet him for coffee although I think he understands that I am not exactly happy before coffee and he can irritate me so much easier.
This is where i stepped out of the angkok with the style of a 3 drunk 3 year old. tripped, hit the concrete gutter and scun my knee while smashing it aagainst the egde. NOW i am really not happy
Luke came down and met me at maccas where we headed to the chemist to get something to kill anything that might take up residence in my knee. I get a coffee and all is well again. We trek off to the traditional markets for the day. They are dirt floor, clothes that look second hand and around the corner is thelive animal markets, at this point I tell luke im done and cant be here with this. We twadle back home but mind you we have probably been there for around 3 or 4 hours.
Get my next sentencce. On a Saturday night I tell luke im going to stay in and "wash my hair" haha which i actually did do. Not sure if your aware but i dont have hot water in my kost. So some mornings i go without a shower, this is possibly why when you see me on the web cam I look like shit first thing in the morning, jilly bean. When I have time I boil the water in the kettle which takes about half an hour, fill the bucket and use this to have a shower. My hair is totally neglected and getting washed about once a week. So hence the stay in and wash my hair statment. My hair thanked me for it.
Sunday I was up again early to go and pay the owners the rent money for the year. 16 million plus the million deposit since saying I would take the place. WOW, did I hate walking around that morning with all that cash in my bag. I was soooo supper sensitive towards the people around me. I signed the piece of paper called the contract and organised to get some curtains made, which today they tell me they are ready. Normally takes a week but for me 3 days. I LOVE LIVING HERE
have no idea what I did that after noon.
monday i strolled into work and prepared for my classes. The schedule has finished for the last month so I get all new classes with me as their first teacher. Heaps easier to establish rules and relationships when its from the start. Lucky e I
ended up with the 6 8 year old monsters. NEW RULES KIDS. I have had 2 classes with them and they are great. my little monsters i call them with a smile on my face. I had complete control today for the whole 1 20 minutes and we palyed games and they actually listened and learnt new things. I had 3 awesome classes today thats probably why I am typping tonight.
Tuesday was my day insingapore for the visa run.
It totally felt like I was a Spy but ill tell you about it in the next post
good night all my lovelys and talk soon
Monday, April 6, 2009
smooth sailing
Where do I start once again haveleft it for a few days and chaos has been let loose.
Backwards will work to start with. Today was my first actual day of teaching my own classes, well the ones taken over from the teacher whojust left. I went in about 2 30 ish since I was starting at 4.30 and wanted to make sure I kinda knew what I was up. All off theclasses that I had today were on final testing so I knew it would be kinda easy. WOW was I wrong. First up I had 6 boys aged 8 and all they wanted was to playing shooting each other and run around chasing and fighting. They sat still for the test and we self correted, which took all of half an hour. THEN THEY RAN RAMPID monsters to the max. I gave up after about 15 minutes and let them run aroundplaying games. The shit is that I have them for 1h 20 on wednesday and they have requested for their last class to play guns and chasy. Im looking forward to that day. The next two classes improved wit age. 11 and 12 years where the second class and 16 years olds for the forth. All tests so nice and simple.
Sunday: I got up early, well for me, and met luke for coffee at the kedai kita cafe. The best coffee in Bogor. Oh luke got asked to leave the place im staying at as we are not married and this is against the owners religion so he is staying in a hotel around the corner. So met him for coffee and caught an angkok to this place that I had organised to inspect. The owner was going to be there from 11 till 2. Easy nice ride and found the place like id been here my whole life. We looked around and checked there was no water leakages and stuff, Luke agreed that this place was heaps better than the other place that we had looked at with bec the aussie chick had lined up.
I called the indonesian lady that is helping with translating, she met us there straight away and we started the negotiating. It was originally 18 million as is, I wanted 16 million and I would organise toget it painted, which would cost about 1 million. We agreed on 17 million and she wil ge tit painted. Fair trade all around I reckon. After setteling all the crap I left a million deposit and she will get it sorted and ill take over in a week. This place has a bath tub, as you all know this is my santuary place.. mmmm...... im in heaven.
I then had to meet Pauline for a massage and manicure. I didnt know which angkok to get on so I just walked, bit longer than expected but about half an hour. Stripped off to have my massage which was awesome. They are wither getting better or I am getting used to the roughness. The strangest things then happened, she smothered me in a body scrub and started scrubing my tan off. Shit it hurt and was nasty. It wont be happening again. I then popped off to have my body steamed and then into a nice hot shower. I haven thad one of theses for about a week, so I wan lapping that up for sure. My manicure was nothing out of the normal. My nails are thriving here in indonesia and are long and strong. Pauline and I then heading into botany square which is the biggest shopping centre here for dinner. I had organise earlier that I was going to meet Faruk, the indonesian guy that I had meet on the first night here. So I text him and told him my plan and oranged to meet him at 8. So dinner with pauline and a coffee and donut from the donut heaven shop. Im getting addicted to their donuts. Pauline came along to meet me with Faruk, we walked into the pool hall, and I had explained to pauline I might not actually be able to recognise him, but there was only a few people there and once we walked throught that door we had all eyes on us. Of course all his friends were there and waiting for me. I was half an hour late so they were all anxious to see if I would stand him up again. We played pool and I had a few drinks, get this in a muslim country where alcohol is kinda forbidden, ive been out drinking 3 or 4 times in a week. Craziness. Anyways, as I discovered, Faruk does not drink or smoke andprays 4 or 5 times a day. This is going to be interesting and a learning curve for me. I really like him and hes soooo cute that hey, im up to give it a go. We have second date already in the making. Oh he works in Jakarta during the week so not until Saturday.so after a full on day AGAIN he dropped me home on his motorbike and we said our goodbyes.
SATURDAY up nice and early again to meet sue and richard for coffee and DONUTS haha and they then took me to see there house. They loive a little more out of town for about the same price but a mansion of a house and in excellent condition. The drive from work came to pick me up from there place to take me around to a few more places and that is when I seen the place that I went back to on sunday and will move into. This is a very time consuming activity and exhausting too. Around 4 pauline text to invite me to a party, as did christa and sue and richard. It ended up being the same party so off I went. It was adams birthday party and he is from new zealand. We had a bbq and beer and a true aussie style shin dig. I MEET EVERY EXPAT living in Bogor im pretty sure of it. Nothing too dramatic happened just mixing with every one and hearing all there stories. Was great. On my walk to get an angkok home the guy walking with us flouent in indonesian, pulled up the maccas delivery guy and I got a ride with him to my place. The maccas here deliver toyou home, and also deliver you to your home. So once again I am on the back of a motorcycle hooning around the streets, and I know its bad, but no helmets here either. So after getting home around 12 30 and after abit of tv, I was asleep by around 3. So my life has not changed much in the fact of burning the candle at both ends. Once I get into my house, since I wont be house hunting every day things chould settle down a bit.
FRIDAY I met an aussie chick who has been here for about 3 weeks and still no luck in finding a decent home, so we met and decided we would move in together. I told luke that even if he stayed in Bogor I would not be living with him, and from here I have a new house mate. She seems pretty cool and I think that we will be fine together. We looked at a house together which took around 3 hours after taxis angkok and getting lost etc etc. it was a really exhasting experience and was happy that my company is taking me and actaully helping me. She is away for 2 weeks so I told her I would keep an eye out an dhave us a place before she gets back. So my end of the bargain is good as gold.
THURSDAY luke and I met Pauline and went swimming in the morning at a hotel that allows you to use its facilities for payment. Swam for a few hours and had lunch at kedai kita, then I headed to work. Cant remember much else.
So this weekend is easter and we have thursday and friday as holidays and saturday and sunday off for me. James the guy from guangzhou but brisbane has been in contact and is coming to indonesia for a holiday. He is landing on another island but could be cruising down my way. I have told him that I have long weekend up my sleeve so yeah I can come and meet him where ever he is. My other option is furniture shopping all weekend. I need everything and I would love to have all this organised and delivered before I eve move in there. The option that I would REALLY LOVE is to go to bali for 4 days. But at this stage im paying out 17 million as bec is not here to pay her half. I have to leave a deposit with work of a million when I go to singapore in case I am not coming back they need reassurance. And I would love to stop talking millions out of my aussie bank. Looks like im heading to singapore on the 14th, not the 16th but hey they will probably change that a few more times before its set in concrete.
So thats about all I can think of for tonight, just finished sucking out the strawberry filling of a chocky frog. Once I get an address guys you are all free to post me chockies and chips when ever you get the chance.
Love yous all and will keep you in the loop
Ohhhh the roller coaster at the moment is steady no sudden ups or more importantly no downs in way shape or form. Smooth sailing bout time ay
xxooxxoo
Backwards will work to start with. Today was my first actual day of teaching my own classes, well the ones taken over from the teacher whojust left. I went in about 2 30 ish since I was starting at 4.30 and wanted to make sure I kinda knew what I was up. All off theclasses that I had today were on final testing so I knew it would be kinda easy. WOW was I wrong. First up I had 6 boys aged 8 and all they wanted was to playing shooting each other and run around chasing and fighting. They sat still for the test and we self correted, which took all of half an hour. THEN THEY RAN RAMPID monsters to the max. I gave up after about 15 minutes and let them run aroundplaying games. The shit is that I have them for 1h 20 on wednesday and they have requested for their last class to play guns and chasy. Im looking forward to that day. The next two classes improved wit age. 11 and 12 years where the second class and 16 years olds for the forth. All tests so nice and simple.
Sunday: I got up early, well for me, and met luke for coffee at the kedai kita cafe. The best coffee in Bogor. Oh luke got asked to leave the place im staying at as we are not married and this is against the owners religion so he is staying in a hotel around the corner. So met him for coffee and caught an angkok to this place that I had organised to inspect. The owner was going to be there from 11 till 2. Easy nice ride and found the place like id been here my whole life. We looked around and checked there was no water leakages and stuff, Luke agreed that this place was heaps better than the other place that we had looked at with bec the aussie chick had lined up.
I called the indonesian lady that is helping with translating, she met us there straight away and we started the negotiating. It was originally 18 million as is, I wanted 16 million and I would organise toget it painted, which would cost about 1 million. We agreed on 17 million and she wil ge tit painted. Fair trade all around I reckon. After setteling all the crap I left a million deposit and she will get it sorted and ill take over in a week. This place has a bath tub, as you all know this is my santuary place.. mmmm...... im in heaven.
I then had to meet Pauline for a massage and manicure. I didnt know which angkok to get on so I just walked, bit longer than expected but about half an hour. Stripped off to have my massage which was awesome. They are wither getting better or I am getting used to the roughness. The strangest things then happened, she smothered me in a body scrub and started scrubing my tan off. Shit it hurt and was nasty. It wont be happening again. I then popped off to have my body steamed and then into a nice hot shower. I haven thad one of theses for about a week, so I wan lapping that up for sure. My manicure was nothing out of the normal. My nails are thriving here in indonesia and are long and strong. Pauline and I then heading into botany square which is the biggest shopping centre here for dinner. I had organise earlier that I was going to meet Faruk, the indonesian guy that I had meet on the first night here. So I text him and told him my plan and oranged to meet him at 8. So dinner with pauline and a coffee and donut from the donut heaven shop. Im getting addicted to their donuts. Pauline came along to meet me with Faruk, we walked into the pool hall, and I had explained to pauline I might not actually be able to recognise him, but there was only a few people there and once we walked throught that door we had all eyes on us. Of course all his friends were there and waiting for me. I was half an hour late so they were all anxious to see if I would stand him up again. We played pool and I had a few drinks, get this in a muslim country where alcohol is kinda forbidden, ive been out drinking 3 or 4 times in a week. Craziness. Anyways, as I discovered, Faruk does not drink or smoke andprays 4 or 5 times a day. This is going to be interesting and a learning curve for me. I really like him and hes soooo cute that hey, im up to give it a go. We have second date already in the making. Oh he works in Jakarta during the week so not until Saturday.so after a full on day AGAIN he dropped me home on his motorbike and we said our goodbyes.
SATURDAY up nice and early again to meet sue and richard for coffee and DONUTS haha and they then took me to see there house. They loive a little more out of town for about the same price but a mansion of a house and in excellent condition. The drive from work came to pick me up from there place to take me around to a few more places and that is when I seen the place that I went back to on sunday and will move into. This is a very time consuming activity and exhausting too. Around 4 pauline text to invite me to a party, as did christa and sue and richard. It ended up being the same party so off I went. It was adams birthday party and he is from new zealand. We had a bbq and beer and a true aussie style shin dig. I MEET EVERY EXPAT living in Bogor im pretty sure of it. Nothing too dramatic happened just mixing with every one and hearing all there stories. Was great. On my walk to get an angkok home the guy walking with us flouent in indonesian, pulled up the maccas delivery guy and I got a ride with him to my place. The maccas here deliver toyou home, and also deliver you to your home. So once again I am on the back of a motorcycle hooning around the streets, and I know its bad, but no helmets here either. So after getting home around 12 30 and after abit of tv, I was asleep by around 3. So my life has not changed much in the fact of burning the candle at both ends. Once I get into my house, since I wont be house hunting every day things chould settle down a bit.
FRIDAY I met an aussie chick who has been here for about 3 weeks and still no luck in finding a decent home, so we met and decided we would move in together. I told luke that even if he stayed in Bogor I would not be living with him, and from here I have a new house mate. She seems pretty cool and I think that we will be fine together. We looked at a house together which took around 3 hours after taxis angkok and getting lost etc etc. it was a really exhasting experience and was happy that my company is taking me and actaully helping me. She is away for 2 weeks so I told her I would keep an eye out an dhave us a place before she gets back. So my end of the bargain is good as gold.
THURSDAY luke and I met Pauline and went swimming in the morning at a hotel that allows you to use its facilities for payment. Swam for a few hours and had lunch at kedai kita, then I headed to work. Cant remember much else.
So this weekend is easter and we have thursday and friday as holidays and saturday and sunday off for me. James the guy from guangzhou but brisbane has been in contact and is coming to indonesia for a holiday. He is landing on another island but could be cruising down my way. I have told him that I have long weekend up my sleeve so yeah I can come and meet him where ever he is. My other option is furniture shopping all weekend. I need everything and I would love to have all this organised and delivered before I eve move in there. The option that I would REALLY LOVE is to go to bali for 4 days. But at this stage im paying out 17 million as bec is not here to pay her half. I have to leave a deposit with work of a million when I go to singapore in case I am not coming back they need reassurance. And I would love to stop talking millions out of my aussie bank. Looks like im heading to singapore on the 14th, not the 16th but hey they will probably change that a few more times before its set in concrete.
So thats about all I can think of for tonight, just finished sucking out the strawberry filling of a chocky frog. Once I get an address guys you are all free to post me chockies and chips when ever you get the chance.
Love yous all and will keep you in the loop
Ohhhh the roller coaster at the moment is steady no sudden ups or more importantly no downs in way shape or form. Smooth sailing bout time ay
xxooxxoo
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