A day in the life ......

I'm just so English .... sometimes.
This morning, my lovely wife cooked chips, so I added two slices of bread and a load of HP sauce.
This will give you the idea, but add a lot more chips and the brown sauce.



Chip buttie - great.

Mr poor wife is in pain with a seriously pulled muscle or cramp.
Not sure which, but the upshot is she can't walk much, and it hurts like crazy when she does.
That means I did the shopping and even changed a nappy this morning.
It also means I've been in the house most of the weekend because, as a great husband, I kept her company.
I wandered into Jakarta on Thursday morning, so that'll have to do me as far as going out is concerned.
I managed to get a few interesting photos, and my passport sorted out.
I have to visit my tiny sister in law today, and take her biscuits and snacks, as well as give her the usual weekly allowance of Rp50,000.
My wife has been going with me the last couple of weeks, but I suspect I'll be going alone this week.
I'll take my cameras with me and use the scenic route, in the hope of getting a couple of interesting snaps.

Other things I've done.

I bought a prepay toll road card. I no longer have to queue at the toll booths, just go to the automatic ones and you're pretty much straight through. So much better than fighting for position in the lines.

I registered on Domino's pizza website.
I no longer need to queue to order, just pump the order into my smartphone, and wander down there 15 minutes later to pick it up after my shopping.
If I'm at home, they'll deliver it .... and I can get the two for one offer any day I fancy a pizza.

mas fred wrote:

Mr poor wife is in pain with a seriously pulled muscle or cramp.
Not sure which, but the upshot is she can't walk much, and it hurts like crazy when she does.
That means I did the shopping and even changed a nappy this morning.
It also means I've been in the house most of the weekend because, as a great husband, I kept her company.
I wandered into Jakarta on Thursday morning, so that'll have to do me as far as going out is concerned.
I managed to get a few interesting photos, and my passport sorted out.
I have to visit my tiny sister in law today, and take her biscuits and snacks, as well as give her the usual weekly allowance of Rp50,000.
My wife has been going with me the last couple of weeks, but I suspect I'll be going alone this week.
I'll take my cameras with me and use the scenic route, in the hope of getting a couple of interesting snaps.

May your wife get well soon

She's already getting better. Just been to a local plaza for dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant.
Lovely hot and sour soup, and the sweet and sour chicken was well worth the Rp30,000 as well.
Top floor, Bintaro exchange, but I forget the name of the place.

Funny old day.
My son is now able to hold his bottle with both hands, even when there's 90 ml of milk in there, and he's trying to crawl.
No, I didn't believe it either, but I put my hand behind his legs to give him traction, and he managed about a yard without any other help.

For the first time in a long time, I went out with the sole intention of getting a few interesting snapshots.
At 5.30, a took a shower (Hope that thought turns a few ladies on), then on my motorcycle with three cameras and a Samsung S5 (It had a very nice camera).
I'd heard a few of a nomadic tribe had camped in BSD so, with more hope than reality allows, I tried to find it.
As you'd expect when trying to find people that camp on night in the woods then move on, I failed miserably, but I did managed to get a few interesting shots.
My breakfast was taken in KFC, Serpong - A small but delicious chicken thing and a bottle of Aqua.
I went for a last little wander before I went home, and was glad I did because I saw something interesting.
You'll see it on my picture thread in a few days.

23 dec 2014

Christmas and the new year is almost with us, so I had a bath and went for a wander.
6.30 saw me leave to house with a weak excuse about taking my motorbike for a service; something that was true, but I really wanted the wander.
I drove around, eyes open, looking for interesting things to snap, and was rewarded.
I'll post them over the next week.
My motorbike was a mess, rear brake very dodgy, speedo cable broken, and about 5,000km since the last oil change - I usually change both oils every 2,000.
A bunch of other smaller faults later, and my excuse about the service was vindicated.
Whilst the dudes were sorting out the bike, I wandered into a village, and met some very interesting people.
Home at 11.30, slept for a while because I was totally shagged out, then kicked in the ribs by my wife, a sort of alarm clock to say my lunch was ready.
Curried fried rice - excellent.

More shopping today.
Went to a mall next to the Tangerang and new toll roads (I forget the name), ate a kebab for lunch, and had a wander around.
Just by way of a note, I love the kebabs at Donner kebab shops. Tasty yum yum.
Anyway, the place wasn't up to much as my sister in law was after cheap clothes, so we went Tang city mall.
Dunkin donuts was far too nice to resist, so we took a seat.
My wife found a BB phone. Being an honest chap, I dug out the numbers, calling a couple to find out who it belonged to, but no one picked up.
Ah, thought I, it's a BB - I'll message someone, so I did.
Anyway, that bloke passed on the details and, after some messing about, the dude got his phone back.
The first bloke then went on to attempt to convert me to Christianity.
I refused by ignoring the offered details.
Why do some people try to convert everyone they meet?
That happened with my daughter a while ago. We were looking for a reasonable school for her, so I popped into a Christian school I'd heard was good.
They said they'd convert her, so I offered a finger for them to spin on.

That brings to mind a day back in the old country when Jehovah's Witnesses came knocking on my door.
They do that sort of thing a lot in England and, being at a loose end, I decided to play.
There was I at the door, looking at a woman in her 40s, and a younger girl, probably about 18 or 19, looking like she wanted to be doing anything except knocking on doors, and being told to sod off.
Being evil, I decided to mess around, attempting to convince the woman I was a Satanist, and she should convert to the one true religion, accepting the anti Christ.
The silly woman took it hook, line and sinker, but her daughter realised immediately, sniggering.
This went on to me suggesting, as I couldn't convert the woman, she leave the daughter with me for conversion into my Satanic sect, involving doing extremely haram things, in several rooms.
10 commandments, I could have broken a few if she'd hung around.
Well, the Witness was going crackers, trying to summon all her prayer to save my immortal soul from the fires of hell.
The daughter was trying to save her underwear from pee pee stains, by suppressing her extreme mirth with her hands over her mouth, holding back the laughter the previous snigger had converted into.
I'm so naughty.
I'm pretty sure the girl would have hung around if she'd had the chance, she would have had a lot more fun than door knocking.

Sunday, or maybe Wednesday - I'm never really sure what day it is, but I do know it's new year's eve.
This morning saw me go for a run on the motorbike at just after 5am.
That can be an interesting time of day as you see different things.
I managed a few snaps, but nothing that'll blow anybody's socks off.
In reality, with a house full of girls and women, I wanted out for a few hours.

The use of the the motorbike got me thinking about the car, and how little I use it.
The thing is due another service at the end of January, and it's still only done 4,000km.

breakfast meeting at kempinski, meeting at mega kuningan, meeting at cikokol tangerang, back to office for internal meeting, doing Expat.com while smoking ice blast marlboro. not a very entertaining routine.

I've been out and about all day, taking a moment to visit a friend at his school.
He's asked me to look out for a new English teacher for his place, but I have no real clue where to find one.
I suppose, if any local English teacher wants to work at a Junior high in Bintaro 8, you could PM me.
Other than that, I'm hot.
Sexy, yes, but I mean panas sort of hot (honest), so I'm sitting own under an AC at full blast, trying to cool down.
I've wandered all over the place and, even though most was on my motorbike, I still overheated.
All that messing and travelling, but not a single decent photo. Nice ice cream, but no photos.

Odd day.
Started with a call from a mate, ended up in South Jakarta, back to school to pick my daughter up, then home, another call to meet some more people (in McD, so I didn't argue - then home, watch a Doctor Who, then a chip buttie for tea.
The taxi going out of Jakarta broke records. I asked him to be a bit quick, so he got me out of Sudirman, Jak to the Lkr luar toll road in just over 10 minutes.
Mad as a spoon, but it got me to my daughter's school on time.
All of that, but I only managed one photo - hope it comes out ok.

I've just had a lovely breakfast.
Yesterday, I put one of those external ink thingies on my printer - they cost less than a pair of cartridges, and cost less. The refills are sod all and a bit.
Even if the whole thing dies a death, I just pop new cartridges in, and I'm back to normal.
That was just before Michelle vomited, but after the shopping for baked beans and stuff.
I bought some pitta bread, so I'm going to have a couple of chickens murdered later, then I can make chicken kebabs.

Back to breakfast.
I cooked two home made burgers, added a tin of baked beans (With the vomit washed off the can), some BBQ sauce, chilli powder, black pepper and pineapple.
It was delicious.

Hi Fred,
I have previous experience in teaching English in a Secondary School in Singapore...as well as School Management experience for 5 years also in a secondary school. I'll be relocating to South Jkt from Singapore in a month's time. Wonder if I'd be eligible to apply?

Faz.

"Life, don't talk to me about life", said marvin the paranoid android.

How wrong can an android be? life is great, a dream come true.
However, there are tiny downsides, mostly with the odd bad nut case of a person.
There am I on the train, minding my own business, when a steaming great turd walked up to me and prodded me hard in the stomach, presumably looking for a fight.
15 years of tae kwon do means my middle, whilst a little padded with more than a little McD's, is as hard as rock, so he hurt his fingers.
He spent most of the rest of the journey staring at other people, trying to provoke a response from them.
When a seat finally did become empty, he pushed a few people out of the way and grabbed it.
By this time every bloke in the carriage was looking at him, and love wasn't in their eyes.
I tweeted his photo.

Another odd dude this afternoon. A bloke came begging for rice, accompanied by two women, both dressed as black dustbin liners. I think they were going to a fancy dress party.
Much as I have no personal objection to dress code, that is more than unusual out here, and they're commonly viewed with suspicion. I try not to prejudge, but this dude was odd in the extreme.
The maid opened the door but, upon the dude seeing me, he refused the rice and buggered off.
As a note, right or wrong, a woman dressed in that manner out here is commonly referred to as "a terrorist's wife".  With behaviour like that, you can understand where that idea comes from.

I had one some years ago in Purwokerto - a dude dressed in full Muslim kit called me an unbelieving dog - an insult as serious as it is stupid. I said Shahada, then left him to whirl the cogs in his idiotic brain, trying to work out what went wrong with his hateful stupidity.

I see it this way - the world has a whole pile of problems to cope with, so people who deliberately create more are a waste of perfectly good oxygen.

Bubur ayam (Chicken porridge) is as wonderful as it is common in Indonesia.
It's a rice porridge, with a sweet ketchup, some chicken, a variety of other bits and pieces, all with optional sambal (chili).
No option for me - I love Indonesian sambal.

We haven't been in this house long, so we don't know the good vendors from the bad yet, but we know a really good bubur man now.
It was delicious.
Later sees me at the airport to pick mum up. The old lass has just turned 80, so we'll start with a small birthday party, maybe in pizza hut.

A really busy week coming up.
Mum just popped over from England, so we're going to be really busy doing heavy shopping in malls, then hanging around at the beach, or in the hotel's swimming pools.

I would like to thank the fantastic staff of Indonesia's Soekarno-Hatta airport for their fantastic help.
Mum is 80 and gets seriously confused at airports, can't use stairs, and is scared of escalators.
Without their very helpful attitude, and terrific customer service, the old girl would have had problems.
Seriously, they were great.

Thank you.

Indonesia is a wonderful country, a country where the toilet seat is always warm and people are generally very friendly.
My mother popped over for a week, them pooped over when she got a stomach upset, but that didn't spoil her holiday.
We went to a very nice Aston hotel at Anyer beach, then a couple of shopping days in Jakarta's many malls.
The old lass is really knocking on a bit at 80 years old and, whilst she can walk on flat ground, she can't use stairs and is scared stiff of escalators, meaning we have to use lifts.
The airport doesn't have lifts at the arrival gate, so we have to detour via the departure area; not an easy task, impossible alone, meaning you have to have an official guide.
Of course, non flyers aren't normally allowed into the airport, so you have to get special permission from the officer in charge, then beg a lot at various security points in the place.
I have to publically thank the staff at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport who were extremely helpful to my mum, who would never have managed to get through arrivals and departure without their help.
Thank you Soekarno-Hatta, terminal 2.
One small incident last night whilst at passport control.
A very silly dude, Australian I think, but hard to be sure through his drunken slur, was in the queue behind us.
I hadn't really noticed him, except the fact his eyes displayed clear signs he'd been knocking booze back in copious quantities.
As long as he shuts up and does as he's told, he'll fly.
That little event came very close to not happening when a local guy of Chinese extraction asked him a question.
There were two queues for the passport desks, and the drunk had placed himself in the middle, edging his bets as to the shortest queue - a minor nothing of a problem.
The local guy very politely asked the drunk which queue he was in, or if it was a double to one line - polite and a reasonable question.
Abuse, naughty words, and aggression.
These are things no one should engage in in any airport, but absolutely not in Indonesia.
The immigration supervisor came over and, very clearly (with an unspoken but obvious threat) asked the drunk which queue he wanted to be in.
At this point, the drunken idiot realised he should shut his fat trap and behave, but not totally.
He was trying to justify himself to me, so I told him what was what, explaining he should shut up if he didn't like detention cells.
He grunted, mumbled, then buggered off.
The local dude remained polite - 10 out of ten and a gold star for great behaviour in the face of a moron.

The Aston hotel at Anyer beach was quite nice.
Close to the sea and the swimming pools were a reasonable size.



Breakfast was a very nice buffet with lots to choose from.



I'm working on editing the video, but time is short at the moment.

Moan, moan, moan.

I'm getting seriously sick of this Lenovo computer. The bag of junk keeps hanging.
I've searched various sites, most confirming it's the computer that's a lump of junk.

I bought it a few months ago, but I can see it being dumped as soon as I find something better.
A DX33 with Windows 3 with a floppy drive would fit that bill.

The bright side (I always try to see gold in poo) - I love new toys.

My phone rang, a mate from Java.
He's coming to Jakarta tomorrow, so it's find a restaurant and have a bite later.
I'll take the car; last time we met, a load of us ended up having lunch in Living world.

What a day.
Up before the sun, no breakfast, then a quick shower and off to the train station.
Got off at Tanah Abang, walked to Sunter, watched a bus driver get into trouble with the cops.
They were really bugged because they were watching TV, and that mess made them miss it.
I made a point of wandering around ITC Mangga dua, my electronics heaven.
I bought a neoprene case for my camera so I have less to carry as I walk around.

I had a KFC riser with an orange, a coke and a small bar of chocolate in 7/11, then a sandwich.
Not even close to enough for me.

All the way I was snapping stuff - hope a few are good ones.
The Express taxi driver was crazy with a really big C, driving like a total madman on the toll in heavy rain, with no lights and way too close to the cars in front.
I was starting to wonder if I would get home alive.
I did, but I didn't give the twit a tip.

My feet hurt, and I may not to able to walk tomorrow.

We set off for Giant, the big one in BSD, nice and early - I bought the pasta I use in my chicken soup and a couple of tins of baked beans. We also picked up a couple of bags of nappies for Charles.
After that, to the quite nice park in BSD, the one they're in the process of renovating. They're doing a nice job of it, adding all sorts of stuff from circuit training things to kids' rides. It's getting nice.

Whilst there, I checked out the cinema times for cinema 21 in Living world, noticing Mad Max was on a couple of hours later. I bribed my wife by giving her some cash to buy clothes, then up there to buy tickets, sending the old girl off around the shops.
I went crazy, buying a premier screen ticket.
Nice.
Powered reclining seats with footstool, waitress service and even a little side table for your popcorn.
I was impressed.
The film was two hours of totally uncalled for violence, with some really creative ways to destroy vehicles and kill lots of people - I was especially impressed by the way they took half of a man's head off with a hook and chain attached to a truck - nice blood splatter.
This isn't a film for 7 year old primary school kids.
Then home and a chicken soup.

Zip a dee do dar.

After 4 months of messing about, I've finally managed to get my KTP, and I got my wife's as well.
I'm finally on the family card, but alone and my wife is on another.
A word of explanation, and they'll sort out the cock up, and add my name to my son's birth certificate.
All the mess was down to local officials who just didn't know what do do, even after I printed off the laws and gave the copies to them.
I set off just after lunch, and got home 5 hours later, including photocopying.
Now I can start the WNI process.

Pizza.
I love pizza so much, I should have been a ninja turtle.
Today, in a fit of madness, I ordered a pizza from Dominos - a BBQ chicken one.
"Delicious" is like saying chickens have feathers, it was ball bouncingly great.

Apart from that, nothing even close to interesting happened, except I almost washed my motorbike - Almost, I'll get round to it another time.

I still haven't washed my motorbike, but I did get around to a couple of other little jobs.
I bought a pair of ladders, so cleaned out the aircon filters and reset the curtain rail that was looking a bit dodgy. Yesterday saw me go to Jakarta in the late morning, all intent on having a great time looking at gadgets in the gadget show, and set on buying that little computer I've been after.
Sadly, I was most disappointed as the show was much smaller than Id expected, and there was absolutely nothing there to interest me. That was a waste of the Rp15,000 entry fee and the Rp4,000 I spent on the train journey, not to mention paying the ankot drivers - almost.

When I got totally fed up with the show (after about ten minutes), I wandered down to Ratu plaza, a place known for being stuffed to the brim with electronic goodies.
I saw a whole new way of carrying my largest camera but, as a Yorkshire lad who doesn't believe in wasting cash, I looked at the design and decided I could make one for about a million less than they were selling them for. I did it with the Gopro rucksack mount, and I believe I can do it for the big Fujifilm camera.

I did see something very interesting, a very nice drone that is capable of taking my Gopro into the heavens, so getting some fantastic shots I have no hope of at the moment. At Rp5 million, it's far cheaper than the well advertised ones, but does everything I'm after.
With my birthday so close, it seems very tempting.

Many years ago I used to pistol shoot (I'd tell you how I got into that game, but I'd have to kill you), and yesterday I found a gun club.
I was pretty good with a Browning 9mm, so I wonder how I'd do with the Glock I have the opportunity to play with.
If you're in Jakarta, don't get worried as I have no intention of "popping a cap into anyone's ass", more trying to get my averages up.
It doesn't come cheap as hobbies go, but I really want to have a blast.

Almost forgot - I finally managed to set up the projector in the bedroom.
As Charles would be disturbed by the noise, I have to use headphones, but the 4 meter screen still looks pretty cool.

I've just been the victim of an acid attack.
Acetic acid sprayed directly at e, and threatened with a nasty looking pair of sharp objects.

After a struggle, I managed to defeat the intruder by popping him in a plastic bag and tossing him outside.

Baby Fred is growing up fast.
He can sit up on his own, move around a lot, but can't quite crawl. He's trying to talk but he sounds a lot as if he's been drinking that dodgy illegal alcohol you can get around here.
He's ..........

Mini Fred - Lion tamer

Lovely pic Fred...  

Treasure your time with him as they grow up fast.

My printer died yesterday, or so I thought.
It turns out it was a printer equivalent of coughing up blood, but easily curable with the electronic version of a doctor. So off I went to ITC in BSD, where I knew there was a repair place that doesn't charge the white dude's price for their work.
Whilst there, my wife has asked me to buy a cheapish Android pad for her sister's eldest boy as a gift on the occasion of having his sausage trimmed. As I rarely buy cheap crap for myself, I thought I'd check out the prices first, so a trip into that well known French supermarket was in order.
After getting a good idea of what I was likely to pay, I asked around all the shops, trying to find an honest one.
I managed after about 15 places, so I bought the thing from a Chinese speaking dude at that stall.
Off to get my printer back - it works a treat now - I hope the same can be said of the kid's  sausage after the chop.

As you saw in the press movie (On this thread), I've been taking note of how the cameramen work, and how they get the shots we eventually see on TV.
I've seen a few of their tricks, and tried to copy them.
For instance, if you want to make a small number of people look like a large crowd, get in close. If you want them to look like a tiny bunch of twits with chips on their shoulders, shoot from a distance and try to add a couple of candid shots, maybe one picking his nose.
Get as many shots as you can manage, then pick the best when you get home.
My camera, a Fujifilm HS55, is a Jack of all trades sort of machine, quite reasonable at everything, but not fantastic at any of them. However, it remains the perfect machine for me as it's so versatile. That long 42 times optical zoom is amazingly handy.
To get the audio, I added a far better microphone.
This vid came from my Gopro, which I often use to get film when it would be unwise to use the very overt Fujifilm, or when I'm on the bike (as you saw in the road video). It was set wide on this occasion, so you can see how few people were taking part in that demo.
I used to Gopro this morning as there were a couple of shots I needed to be covert, one of an old lady, the others of gangsters. These are part of a video about begging I'm working on.
These are all poor quality vids, mostly just for fun and youtube, but I'd love to get into doing something more serious. However, time doesn't allow at the moment as Charles is keeping is very busy.

How I did it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i462aR_ … e=youtu.be

Thursday saw me at the new(ish) driving licence centre in Serpong. I got there nice and early so I could be at the front of the queue. That worked well, so I was out, brand new motorcycle licence in hand, in an hour or so. I wandered to the bank to get my new ATM card, one with my name and a long number so I can pay for hotels on the internet.
Yesterday was Terminator day - red hot film - so I bought my ticket and had a wander around the shops until film time. I was rather pleased as I found a class 10, 64 gb micro SD card at a very reasonable price.
After that, shopping and a pizza from Domino - their BBQ chicken is amazing.

What a terrible day.
One of the car's tyres was making an odd noise, but no obvious physical damage could be seen, so I decided it was best to change it anyway - safety first.
The cost isn't that much, and a lot less than whatever an accident would likely cost, so changing is best.

No problem, directly to a tyre shop and changed in minutes ... except they put the wrong tyre on.
When they removed my tyre, I examined it, finding a ruddy great big bump inside. The dude explained how these tyres were really crap, only regretting this statement when he found out they sold it to me, and that's all they had in stock.

The darlings at Daihatsu, in what must have been a fit of drunken stupidity, sell the car with 155/80/R13 tyres, something almost impossible to buy in the Bintaro and BSD areas, even from Daihatsu's own places. I've been to 3 Daihatsu places, and every tyre shop I can find in those towns, and all I can find is a cheap, seriously crap thing I bought last time, but lasted less than 2,000 km.

I have to be honest at this point - I regret buying the car from Daihatsu (BSD).
The car itself is fine, but the initial problems with the lousy service, lies, false number plates, no insurance and absolute refusal to pass my complaints uphill have really pissed me off.

I'm going to try one last telephone call tomorrow morning but, if that fails, I'm going up to their head office and letting go of my temper.

I'm still after a stick computer, and I think I may have found one.
I'm off to Jakarta in a while to hunt it out, but to Daihatsu's head office first.

I'm still fancying a go for the Guinness book of records as the loudest shouter - I'm going to practice at their office.
Last time I tested myself, I was well over 120db - about the same level as a jumbo jet taking off, and in with a shot at the record.

It's the big holiday tomorrow, but not for everyone.
The homeless don't have homes and families, and the next door neighbour died this morning, so the funeral will be tomorrow.
The lass was two years younger than me.
Outside is a large crowd of people, all visiting the family - we'll go round later to pay our respects.
Their holiday is a mess.

Hey uncle Fred!  I just spotted that awesome photo of "anak Fred."

Thank God he gets his looks from Ms. Fred!   

Seriously, SELAMAT