A day in the life ......

It is worth eating more healthy food. Eating pizza and KFC will make you fat or fatter. If you feel fat then it is probably of eating American fast foods. I embrace local food and rarely eat  fast food . Staying slim is best and you don't sweat all the time. Also, looking like a fat westerner in Asia is unattractive.

Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork.
I hate pushing paper with a passion, but I still have a load to do.

Seriously, the number of trees that must have been chopped down over the last couple of years so I can give copies of the same document to the same agency a dozen times, and the same stuff to other related agencies at least once or twice is crazy.

Indonesia needs a central database accessible by all government agencies so all can see all appropriate documents at a glace.
I wonder if I should send the suggestion to Pak President's email address.

What a day.
We've all got a stomach bug of some sort, so we're all buggered to some level, my daughter being the worst.
My computer printer has been pumping out copies of the same stuff like crazy, 4 lots of exactly the same stuff, one for each level of the local admin in order to get my new KTP.
There goes another tree.
As luck has it I popped external ink wells onto my printer so at least the bumf is cheap to print.

My 2 year old is smartphone mad, especially taking video of whatever and playing it back; that and games.
He's got a run and jump thing that he's getting pretty good at and thing where you have to live by buying food and so on.
He hasn't got the hang of it yet, but he's working on it.
His latest word is "buy" as he goes through the game but he hasn't worked out the value of money yet ... sounds like my wife .

Many hours of queuing up, a medical, lots of paperwork and a bit of cash got me an extension to my SIM A yesterday, them I thought I'd improve the day by watch Logan at the cinema.
The queues waiting for the licence were preferable to film, a pathetic pile of total rubbish that substituted extreme violence and many killings by a 9 year old girl for decent acting and a script writer with talent.

I might well take a stroll into Jakarta tomorrow for election day.
I don't get a vote but I would like to take a look around so I can see for myself who is up to what.
If I don't post again after tomorrow, they got me.

My old S5 was a nice phone but it was getting a bit long in the tooth so I decided to buy a new C9 pro with 64gb on board memory, 6gb of RAM and I stuffed my 128gb micro SD in there until I can get a 256 one from wherever.
Most people have a good play with their new toys but I'm as nutty as a fruit cake so I always try the wild side.
This thing will do an OK google voice search from any screen so I thought I'd give it a go.
"What time is it?", and the thing told me the time.
"What time is it in London?", and the thing told me the time in London.

"Where can I find a prostitute in Jakarta?", and the thing directed me to a bunch of hotels and L.J. Hooker estate agents.

This site isn't built for adverting but this post is about recommending.
I booked a hotel with Agoda.com, one of the hotel discount companies but there was an issue when the family we were going with cancelled.
Ringing such companies tends to be a pain but not with these people.
The rep was quick and efficient, removing my headache without the slightest fuss - Fantastic stuff.

That said, I will now offer this brief advert for Agoda, suggesting posters seriously consider using them next time you book something, not because of price, they tend to average out about the same as the rest, but because their customer service makes like easy when a problem crops up.

I'm very pleased.

I'm terrifically handsome as anyone who has met me with testify to but I look really bad in my passport photo.
We all go new passports a short time ago but the photos are awful.
My wife looks like a bag lady, I look really old and my eyes look like I borrowed them from Fester Adams. My daughter looks like a meth addict but my son looks fine.
25% success rate but I'm most concerned about mine because anyone who sees it might not fancy me.

My life is unusual.
Normal people go for a walk and have chance meetings with old friends or Joe from just down the road, not me.
Yesterday's walk saw me meeting the ambassador of Myanmar, a bunch of asylum seekers from Afghanistan and a crazy dude being shifted by the cops because he was in the way of Obama's motorcade.
I try to live in the normal world but it just won't let me in.

There is one other thing I must mention.
The asylum seekers have nothing much but they asked me to sit with them as share their bread.
I was humbled.

Talk about a bad tech week.
Last Monday saw me plug in one of my Intel sticks only to see a little power light but no picture ~ seems Intel don`t repair them, simply replace under the guarantee. I switched to the cheap Chinese stick ~ dead as a dodo.
The other Intel stick still works fine but the software is a bit clogged up so that needs factory resetting to clean it up.
Last night my newish HP netbook died, that leaving me with a tablet only and that doesn`t have HDMI so I have no backup if the stick fails me.
I think I will go ad live in a cave with no tech at all.

What a cowing week!

The computers died so I ended up having to buy a new laptop as a stopgap to keep me working then, on the way home, the silly security guard from our place pulled out right in front of my car leaving me the choice of an emergency stop or slamming into him.
I'm unsure the stop was the best choice because a motorbike was far to close behind me so that slammed into the back smashing the bits of plastic attempt at a bumper.

No idea what that's going to cost but the daft guard can ruddy well pay for it.
I'm waiting until he denies it but the dashcam vid will sort that out.

I'd just let it go, I mean I wouldn't charge him for the repair. Indonesian security guards don't earn an awful lot compared to westerners Fred. Making him pay could easily take away a big chunk of his monthly salary, whereas it would be nicer to absorb the cost yourself. Plus, you'd surely piss him off which wouldn't be good.

A few months ago an Aqua delivery van swung open his back door and it banged the front of my car and made a chip in the paintwork. The guy asked me to call his boss who said to let him know the cost of the repair and that he'd deduct it from the guys salary. Of course I told him nevermind and to just tell the guy to be more careful in future.

Probably should but I'm really miffed at him. Maybe giving him a serious telling off will have to do in place of cash.

Went to KFC

IMG_9561 by Indofred, on Flickr

A chillin out sort of day with a nice chicken curry and some rock music at a volume that's going to register on the USGS computers as a minor earthquake.
Art exhibition in Jakarta tomorrow.

Waiting my Monday to finish, almost 8 pm and we are still in meeting room. Wonder if tomorrow they finally release my transfer letter, or the day after tomorrow or next week..,I have been waiting this “letter” more than a month and this letter had started to become a unicorn. Will my life change drastically when they let me move to capital city ? I promise in myheart to give my astor snack can to junior colleague when its time to move out

Nice day.
I have three LED projectors but I'm not using one at the moment so I brought it home and set it up with a bluetooth speaker to give me a jolly nice TV for the bedroom.
The 3 yard (108 inch) picture is very nice for watching episodes of Doctor Who.

My first Monday in Jakarta. Not as bad as I thought it would be. Yes I left office almost 8:30 pm here but it was better situation than my colleagues back home, I bet they were still in meeting. I am happy to arrive hotel less than 30 minutes, opened the door and found clean room. Will enjoy this luxury until next week, before office move me to boarding house. Will try to enjoy Jakarta mmmmmmm

Thanks for sharing your first day in Jakarta. Please keep us updated.

A week has passed in a new office and new city. I am trying to remember people’s faces and names. And soon routes, streets and places.

Speaking of that, few nights ago I arrived hotel. When I entered the hotel’s gate, the security guy called me in high tone and arrogant face, “hey where are you going ?”, honestly I was a bit shocked. I told him I stay here and showed him my keycard and he let me walked away. Two nights later, it happened again with the same security guy.

It would have been nice if he said “Sorry Miss, where are you going ?” Was it because I dont have supermodel looks and got off from GOJEK and it made me not “eligible” to stay in a nice hotel ?

Mmm, let me finish my breakfast and forget that security guy. Good morning  Jakarta

What a fun day I've had. My McD breakfast was sugared up (Did you know sugar starts with an F?) because they're renovating the local place and they don't seem able to organise a pee up in a brewery, much less manage to serve a chicken muffin in less than fifteen minutes.
The first part of the conference was rubbish as the speaker was a boring git without a clue but I switched rooms and found another trainer who wasn't boring and had a gold mine full of top quality clues.
The black pepper beef for lunch was a serious bonus, more so because I went back for seconds when I thought no one was looking.
The traffic coming out of Jakarta was a pig and a dog, worse because two people wanted me to drop them off at Lebak Bulus and the traffic down there is a mess.
I used my best Indonesian swear words on several angkot drivers.

Not a bad Sunday

Went to Central Park for office family gathering event. I had the same event back home 3 weeks ago, we watched Kahitna with their 90’s songs. Today I saw RAN with their recent songs. I didn’t win the motorcycle grand prize but I got e-money card League of Justice series. The company rented Jakarta Aquarium for whole day, not as big as Seaworld but I am happy to touch and put a giant starfish on my palm for the first time in my life   and I saw real alive piranhas too, they didn’t seem dangerous at all.

Quiet Sunday for me.
A bit of swimming with the kids just after a bit of McD with the kids.
Then it rained so we stopped swimming in case we got wet and went to a small shopping center where I got a USB power supply.
We went home so I cooked a super duper mixed Hawaiian curry.
That's with prawns, chicken and beef (and lots of onions) but I bung a ship load of pineapple in so I can give it a tropical sounding name on the off chance I ever open a restaurant.
I went to bed at 8, enjoying a disgusting dream that would make most vicars   either vomit or get eaten by the green eyed monster (the two vicars in the dream must have been circus performers, thus explaining the animals).
Today is another day, an undiscovered country.

I checked out from hotel today. Office’s driver picked me and my colleague (he stayed in a hotel next to my hotel) in the morning and we dropped our luggages at company’s boarding houses. My place is 7 km far from office, my colleague’s place is 1 km closer.  No more free breakfast no more private bathrooms.

Oh this morning when I had my breakfast, I saw ex minister coming to the hotel’s restaurant, apparently he owns the hotel. His reserved table was behind my table only 1 meter apart. But then he ordered the manager to prepare VIP room. Maybe he would get sick watching me eating sunny eggs in front of him. I wish I could post the sunny eggs picture here,  the best sunny eggs I’ve ever had.

I am in my new room now, this room is bigger than my room back home. The AC is too cold, we don’t have AC at home so I am not used to AC, even when in hotel I always turned off AC.  Wish me sleep well tonight

Had an awkward moment today.

Yesterday, I went to PIM2 for my back pain shockwave physiotherapy, i wanted to try the PiM2 clinic branch because its less than 2 km from my boarding house, normally I visited CP branch. When I got there, I found out the therapist was a nice gentleman. I canceled my backpain therapy and did other treatment instead. I thought that I would do the back pain therapy at CP later on Saturday, their therapist is a very kind young lady and i dont mind to take off shirt.

Today, at the CP clinic, a gentleman greeted me, “hi, we meet again, do you want to do shockwave today?” I said, yes today I want for my right elbow pain. And I was already a bit shocked.

I like a good massage from time to time but it's really hard to find a place that isn't a weak cover for prostitution so I've pretty much given up trying. I thought I'd found a place in BSD some while ago until they trooped out a load of very fit women in skirts like belts for me to choose. Lets face it, it hardly matters if the lady looks like the back end of a bus if a massage is your goal.
I walked out.

Back to my week, and it's been a crappy week, partially because of my inability to deal with fools.
Drivers here tend to use whatever route they can in order to move, and if that route happens to be a pavement, they'll use it anyway.
A motorbike slapped my arm with is mirror, wobbled a lot and almost fell off. Don't know if he hit the car he was undertaking or not but I wasn't hurt so I ignored it.
Within a few yards a blue bird taxi's mirror also slapped my arm as I walked next to (not on) the road. That did hurt but there was no damage to my arm so I walked on. I have no idea if it smashed his mirror or not but I sort of hope it did because he was driving like a twit so deserved it.

Other than that, work has been stressful for no good reason and lots of silly reasons so I'm not enjoying my job at the moment. The actual work is fine but the extra parts of the job are proving difficult because no one will get off their fat backsides and do their jobs properly.
I have this thing where is you're going to do a job, you ruddy well do it properly, not mess around like a useless prat. The upshot is I don't like dealing with pointless people.
One volunteer part of my work is covering our activities for social media, time consuming but I can only do so much without help or at least a flow of information. Seems we have a major event coming up but I wasn't informed at all, only seeing it by accident. Such a thing should have landed on my desk as soon as it was decided on, not left alone for me to find out about accidentally. That rubbish makes it almost impossible to do that part of my job properly and that bugs the merry do dar (Spell 'do dar' with an F). The same happened last Monday so I missed a load of stuff I should have covered.
Anyway, since I dislike not doing a job properly and this silly stuff has been going on for two years, my patience is wearing thin so I'm giving some serious thought to moving jobs.
Four looked at so far and I have advantages as not many experienced and energetic people are available without a work permit and visa.

For the first weekend in way too many I've done nothing, absolutely nothing at all that is anything to do with work.
I'm so chilled out at the moment you could paint me white and keep beer in me.

Busy, busy, busy and more busy.
I don't think I'm going to get much of a holiday as I have massive piles of work to sort out for January.
Maybe it's time to look for a new job. I wonder how much call there is for a native English speaker that doesn't need a KITAS or work permit.

Since many English teaching jobs require that you must be a national of one of the five countries where native English speakers are supposed to come from, as an Indonesian citizen do you think it will be easy to find an English teaching job?

Also, do you think you can still obtain an expat salary or more likely to be offered a local salary similar to that of other Indonesian teachers since you are not an expat nor foreigner?

Hopefully you haven't changed your name to Adi or Bambang.

I have advantages in that I'm an extremely creative chap with more get up and go that most space rockets, that and any institution hiring me doesn't have to mess around with all that immigration bumf.
I still have my old UK passport  (cancelled and the corner chopped off).

I have years of classroom experience and I've invented techniques that are unusual but proven in the field. I read articles from Cambridge that suggest the possibility of trying what I've been doing with great success for many years. I've mixed performance art with English language training and used a load of other wild ideas the students love.
Basically, I'm great!

And get this- I'm extremely handsome so all the lady teachers get eye candy.

I wonder how many critics were paid to write nice things about the new Star wars rubbish.

One mentioned the film could be cut by 15 minutes without any loss to the plot, but I would contend the writers or whoever totally lost the plot, adding as much total crap as they could in the hope of getting it up to two and a half hours, probably going for the record of the most pointless rubbish into a film without the critics slating it.

A good 30 to 40 minutes should have hit the cutting room floor, especially all the pathetic tripe where Luke wanders up hills in the rain in an attempt to catch fish (Yep, he goes up a hill to get to the sea) or, in the bits they never bother explaining, likely uses an outside toilet a very far far way from the houses because the last fish he stabbed was a bit off.

As for the new Darth, the actor is rubbish, his acting is rubbish, his lines are rubbish and his costume is rubbish. Other than that he's a great addition to the film. One question, why did he buy a helmet that he could break so easily?
It reminds me of young motorcyclists that buy the cheapest helmet they can find, totally ignoring how important their head is to the rest of their body. No loss as it was a lousy helmet, as pointless to the film as the scene where he smashed it.

That get's me on to the mega bad guy who didn't need make up as he was clearly a normal Hollywood actor with a botched facelift.
His persona was also rubbish, as was his acting. The bit where he described crap darth's lightsabre moving was seriously rubbish, like the supposed all powerful baddie who can see the whole universe didn't notice the guy who he'd been insulting all the way through the film didn't fancy chopping him in half.
Pathetic acting out of a pathetic plot.

Finn's girlfriend is also rubbish, but the little droid wasn't too bad, it's acting being far far better than new Darth, even when its head fell off.

As for Princess whatsherface, the actor is dead, ironic as she killed the part with her pathetic acting and minimal attempt to do anything interesting with the terrible script some 12 year old wannabe writer seemingly had stolen from his blog by the film's producers.

The woman that took over when our intrepid princess went to sleep seemed asleep, or at least must have been asleep in acting school.
Her flat, poorly delivered lines were as dead as a rat that just held a lunch meeting with an articulated lorry's wheels.

The two and a half hours felt like at least four and I'd run out of nibbles to chomp on half way through so I have to classify the thing as boring crap and a "Must miss" film.

I recall the first one where we were all sitting on the edge of our seats, totally gripped by the red hot scenes in front of us, but this was a case of hanging onto my seat lest I fell off when boredom sent me to the land of nod.

I was once offered a sexual encounter with an old prostitute for a quid, refusing on the grounds I didn't fancy her and I didn't want a diseased sausage, but this took twice the money and I still feel like I got f.

Battery recharge time so we disappeared to a nice hotel with a nice swimming pool, a nice private beach, and nice food.
It was nice.

Christmas day so I got up early, messed around on the internet, didn't sing any carols, didn't open any gifts (Didn't get any) and had last night's leftover pizza for breakfast.
Not much happened until 10.30 (That's when Burlington Burtie arises) when we all scarpered to a shopping centre, parked up, had sweet and sour chicken for Christmas lunch, bought my mini Freda a toy she's been asking for for ages, then went home after letting mini Fred climb an inflatable cliff face a few times.
I worked on my computer the rest of the day except when I was messing around on this forum.
Tea time was bananas and ice cream because I was far too lazy to cook anything, I like them anyway and my wife was asleep so I couldn't beat her until she cooked for me.
I will now do a little more work.