Lego!

We've been out exploring places near where we're hoping to live and one of the shopping malls close by currently has a lego exhibit that really caught Eamon's interest so I thought I'd share some photos for others who like the little blocks of joy!

Eamon spent ages checking out all the lego models, playing with the lego they have available and eyeing up all the sets that he wants for his birthday! My favourite was the airport/rocket launching site above.

And then there was the almost life size formula one racing car! Very cool!

Car-free Sunday

Every second Sunday, Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Thamrin, two major roads in Jakarta, are taken over by pedestrians and cyclists in car-free day. Conveniently, these roads are around the corner from our hotel, so we ventured out this morning to take a look and let Eamon to go for a ride.

 

The streets around the hotel were noticeably quieter, the usual chaos of cars and motorbikes replaced by throngs of people, stalls and street vendors selling all manner of tasty- and not so- looking food. Several fun runs or rides seemed to be organised with various groups in event shirts or race numbers. As we neared Jalan Sudirman, stacks of bikes of all shapes, sizes, colours and types could be seen, single speeds, road bikes, a tandem bmx and many with huge numbers of spokes, and spare wheels on the back!
The main road, 4 lanes each way was separated with lanes for pedestrians, slower riders and beginners and faster riders or experts. Volunteer marshals assisted at intersections along with the ubiquitous police officers. Several events were in progress with prize draws, giveaways and even bouncy castle - although it was too crowded to get anywhere near. A carnival atmosphere permeated.

Although many people were out enjoying the occasion, the road was still remarkably empty and completely rideable. Eamon had a great time zooming off and was quite unique on his balance bike while we followed along with Rory in the stroller. A few hundred metres down the road we turned about and meandered back, pausing for ice blocks to help us cool down.

A nice way to spend the morning and something we hope to do many more times!

Going Solo

Kieran had to go to the university for the first time today so I was on my own with the kids. We've been checking out possible preschool options for Eamon and he went to a summer program at a Montessori preschool yesterday for a couple of hours and liked it so much he wanted to go back today. So, at 8:30am I loaded up the boys and with addresses and Bahasa Indonesian crib notes tightly clasped, headed off in the rental car with Fanto, the driver. Getting to the preschool wasn't too bad since Kieran had pointed Fanto in the right direction, but once there I was faced with my first dilemma - Rory had fallen asleep in the back - so, leave him be or wake him for the trip upstairs to drop off Eamon? I pointed to the sleeping baby and mumbled "tidur" (sleep) to Fanto who responded with something that I hoped indicated he would look after Rory and park out front, and headed inside.

Woodlands Montessori preschool and kindergarten seems pretty nice. It's clean, tidy, the staff are friendly and organised. It's main drawback is it's on the 12th floor of an office tower, so as you can imagine, outdoor play space is rather limited - as in non-existent. They do, however, have a basic indoor playground so I guess that's something. It portrays itself as Montessori and does follow some of the ideas/methods, but disappointingly misses some of what I thought were rather good parts of the philosophy (there is a "proper" Montessori school further south, but the positives would be outweighed by the horrors of the commute).

Drop-off completed, I headed back down and out the front to see.....nothing. No car, driver or baby in sight. It was at this point that I also realised I had left my crucial notes, along with the driver's phone number, in the car. Oh crap.

<moment of suspense>

Luckily within a time-dilated minute, the car came back into view - I guess he'd been moved on and gone around the block or something. He may have explained, but not in words I understood. Oh well, move on to next errand.....ANZA is the Australia & New Zealand Association, an expat. organisation that does a bunch of social welfare activities and fundraising for the local community. It also has a playgroup on Wed mornings and seemed like a good place to go to find other people I could chat with. (As it turned out, since school is currently on holidays, there weren't many people at the playgroup. In fact there was just one, but that was ok). Anyway, recite next address to Fanto, sit back and enjoy the view.....which changed very slowly as we crept through traffic for the next 40 minutes and then drove around, stopping periodically to ask for directions from random vendors, security guards or whoever else was beside the road and looked like they might know where they were.

I should add at this point that Jakarta's streets are fairly random. Blokes (or gals) who don't like asking directions will not like this town. Street signs exist for the bigger streets, but most go unmarked and the naming convention, while seemingly sensible albeit different, (for example we were trying to find Jalan Erlanggen V or Erlanggen Street number 5 - yes, they have multiple streets with the same name), is in fact incredibly obscure as streets that are named sequentially aren't always located consecutively, nor do they necessarily run parallel to each other.

We eventually found the right street and the right gate and I was able to enjoy a short sit down and chat, and Rory a chance to escape the car seat or stroller, before heading back to pick up Eamon.

By this stage I was feeling rather successful. I had negotiated two different locations and even passed a few pleasantries with Fanto regarding, I believe, whether I had ever been to Bandung and where the new elevated road being constructed was going. I had even made it back to the preschool on time for pickup. I should have known things couldn't continue this way.

Our next task was to acquire lunch and do a reccy of the Embassy Dr's clinic so that we would know where to find it if we have to go there in a hurry. In incredibly bad Indonesian I managed to determine that Fanto thought it would take 40 minutes to drive there (despite being very close in distance) which put a bit of pressure on so Eamon, Rory & I zoomed into the mall ("zooming" at 3yr old, ~45cm long leg speed that is) to find food. Note to self....strollers in malls are severely speed reducing as they limit the user to utilising elevators which are invariably overcrowded, slow, and surrounded by people to whom letting those already waiting go first is a foreign concept.

Back in the car and on our way again with basic sustenance in hand (Eamon must be loving his diet at the moment!) I realised two things - the driver had no idea where we were going, and I had broken the unspoken rule of life in Jakarta again - never try to do more than 2 things in a day, preferably 1. Rory spent the next 40 minutes protesting vigorously about being back in the car while I sat behind him trying to feed and console him while also trying to get directions from the clinic for the driver.

In the end we made it and Kieran met us there, but it took an hour at a cafe afterwards before I could face the drive back to the hotel, and I have absolutely no faith in finding the place again, let alone under pressure! Oh, and Kieran found out he is going away before dawn tomorrow for "team building" exercises until midday Friday...

Macet!

Jakarta is often characterised by its hellish traffic - it's definitely ranking in the top three worst cities in the world (currently beaten by Mexico City I believe, but it's working on it). I've often been regaled with tales of five hour trips to the airport, 90 minute excursions to the restaurant 2km away and the imminent threat of complete gridlock. Given this, my expectations were pretty low, and granted, we haven't ventured out all that much, but I've been a bit surprised to find that while certainly irritating, it isn't as terrifyingly awful as I had imagined. Yet.

Motorcycles are everywhere, their nickname of "mosquitoes" very apt as they duck and dive through the cars like gnats, most with passenger perched on pillion, some with entire families, kids sandwiched between mum & dad. Others carry cargo - multiple trays of eggs, large boxes or ?? balanced on the back. Traffic flows slowly, or not at all. Main roads are multi-lane, but observance is cursory at best - cars just move wherever there are gaps and nose in where there aren't. Smaller roads spontaneously change from two-way to one way according to vehicle density and intersections and or driveways often have a traffic "dude" who heads into the fray, whistle blowing, to allow cars to exit or turn.

Pedestrians need a certain level of bloody-minded optimism in order to get anywhere as stepping into the road and assuming everyone will either stop or avoid you is the only way to make progress. As this method is widely employed, it is generally successful although it is rather disconcerting to see young children darting across busy streets with only an outstretched hand for protection.

Venturing out requires a certain degree of preparation combined with modest goals, as trips inevitably take significantly longer than expected. With a baby and preschooler in tow this means a good supply of food, drink and entertainment and some careful timing in order to avoid prolonged screaming bouts when a ten minute drive turns into an hour long ordeal. Our first experience of this left me vowing never to leave the hotel again (something I acknowledge is somewhat impractical). I'm pretty sure the driver must have been wondering why I didn't just pick up the baby and feed him (car seats being rather uncommon here)!

Since avoiding driving (or more accurately, being driven) around for three years seems infeasible I guess I will need to develop strategies for dealing with Jakarta's traffic jams (or macet) without losing what little cool it is possible to maintain in the heat.

Cowboys!

Activities have been a bit hit and miss the last couple of weeks due to moving countries but I've been trying to grab moments here and there when Eamon isn't too tired. This week we started looking at Cowboys and talking about the wild west. Eamon thought this was great and was really happy with the cowboy costume he made!

Of course a cowboy needs a good horse, so here's Eamon with his.

We also talked about the wild west and what it was like (Eamon now talks about the wild west of Australia), what you might find there....things like sand and cacti....and how the pioneers who moved there lived (in wagons, cooking their food on campfires). Here're a few more things we made.

Activities

As a way of keeping Eamon occupied and avoiding having to play yet another game of "birthdays" or "eggs on spoons", I have started engaging in more structured play - what we are calling "Activities". We are roughly following a preschool curriculum called Fireflies from Funshine Express which contains lots of craft, songs and games (mostly because I'm too lazy to make up everything myself). When we have the opportunity, I also put out trays of things to do for Eamon which change every week or so (inspired by a great blog - Counting Coconuts).

Jakarta Here We Are!

A week ago today we bid goodbye to frosty Canberra and headed north and west for the sun, smog and smells of Jakarta, Indonesia. While Kieran has been here many times, I haven't and it's a definite first for Eamon and Rory. Our flight up was a respectable 6.5hrs - longer than the hop over the Tasman to NZ, but not a real long haul. Eamon was quite happy to remain glued to his TV screen despite my efforts to distract him with a series of little presents including a Meccano dinosaur and some WikkiStix (which I recently discovered and think are kinda cool). In the end I gave in to the inevitable, left the rest for another day and tried to give Kieran a break from Rory who is a less experienced and definitely less than enthusiastic flyer.

Arriving in Indonesia is mostly the same as any other airport I've visited with the useful exception that porters are available in the baggage hall - a definite plus when you're travelling with an overexcited, overtired and generally over-it 3 year old, a baby who refused to nap for the entire flight, twelve suitcases, two carseats, a stroller and 3 carry-on bags!

After finding the driver sent to pick us up and loading his car up with the bags (we did say we'd have a dozen bags!) we were left at the taxi stand to make our way into the city and the serviced apartment that will be our temporary home. A surprisingly quick trip (30mins - I've been told on occasion it can take up to 4hrs to get to the airport!) and easy check-in and we reached our rooms - a nicely appointed (if not totally child suited) 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom apartment, complete with marble floors, small kitchen & laundry and maid's quarters (a very short bed + basic shower in with the dryer). It's right in the centre of Jakarta, across the street from a couple of the bigger, fancier malls, and several kilometres from the nearest green space. Welcome to Jakarta!

Two and Two more - a beginning

Ok, I've decided to write a blog in order to record in some form the funny, interesting and bizarre things that (will I hope) happen in the next few years.

I will say from the outset that I'm no where near the world's best correspondent and have never really got into journal writing so this may not last (or be very good!).

We'll see how it goes...