Why Jakarta has better roads than Melbourne

3 years ago with Sang Kotak

I remember the first time I ever drove in Jakarta. It was a great experience. I loved honking my horn in my husbands Suzuki Karimun, or as I like to call it 'sang kotak' ('the box'). The local school kids were amazed at the sight of a white girl driving in their neighbourhood and began to wave at me. Usually the closest they get to white people is seeing them on the television.

I never feel unsafe in Jakarta. I have more often than not felt unsafe right around my neighbourhood here in Melbourne. 

I believe Jakarta's roads are not only safer, but also, in some ways, much better all around. I'm not talking about the quality of roads - definitely not. We once hit a rock in the middle of a broken road and I had to direct traffic. The fact that I was white did not add to the novelty for all the angry Indonesian commuters.

Here are some reasons why I think Jakarta is not just safer than Melbourne for driving:

Source

1. Jakarta roads are safer because there are no high speed crashes
On a good day, it can take 1 hour to drive a kilometer. Basically, how can you have a high speed crash if you never get the chance to go high speed? The term for this is macet meaning congested. My favorite saying for this is macet total!

2. Trying to park your stretch limo? No worries!
There's an unwritten rule in Jakarta. You just flash your headlights and somebody will come and direct you to park your car. They shout a set of instructions from "terus" (keep going) "kiri" (left) "kanan" (right) "lurus" (straighten up). This service is about rp 15.000 (20 cents) and is available in most shopping centres - big or small.

3. Dehydrated? Not a problem!
On the side of many roads closer to the centre of Jakarta are people selling peanuts, bananas, newspapers and water. And on those days when the traffic just wont move, you can always jump out and there's bound to be a street seller not far away!

4. Roads are so safe, you barely need rules
You don't need a car seat or seatbelts in the back seat. A family of four can ride a motorbike with no helmets.

A banci in Bandung
Photo courtesy my Sister

5. The roads can be entertaining
Often there will be people playing their guitar or performing some kind of act. In Bandung we see lots of she-males. We call them banci.

A boy offering his services

6. The roads create jobs.
People give themselves work by getting in the middle of traffic and starting to direct it. Basically if they let you give way, it means you give them money. I also once saw kids offering to get into cars so that the businessmen could go down the express lane as they needed more than one person in the car. When they make or repair roads, they make them so they aren't good quality, so that when they are continuously unroadworthy (pardon the pun) they can go back and fix them all over again to get more work.

7. Fuel saving traffic lights
I used to wonder why they had traffic lights that counted down - it's so that you can turn off your engine while waiting. Not only does this save fuel, it also helps to cut down emissions. A win win all around!

So where would you rather be?

tomatoes are fruit and other stories

A few days ago I noticed a few days ago that Luke had two tiny teeth pushing through. While he is no more cranky than usual, he has definitely turned feral. He seems a bit more restless than usual. And he talks a lot more as his coping mechanism. So much for me last week boasting to toothful babies parents about me not getting teeth until 9 months and that meaning I had better teeth.

This morning I woke up and forgot to make my husband lunch. I quickly scrambled some ingredients together as he finished getting ready and offered to take him to the train station. I really wanted to take him to the train station as it meant I could go and get a coffee before a lady comes to my house at 10. Yep, I'm starting another mothers group. With the Department of Education. One minute I'm abandoning all chances of working with them again, the next minute I'm voluntarily involving myself!

A trip to get coffee also is a chance to go to Coles and get any ingredients I may have missed due to forgetting to take the shopping list with me to Knox yesterday.

While in Coles I was looking for chopped onion in a can - because like many Aussies I hate cutting onion. I became angry that the canned tomatoes were in the vegetable aisle - tomatoes are a fruit. No canned onions anyway - in hindsight maybe I should have checked the canned fruit aisle.

I approached the express aisle with an onion, two carrots and three litres of milk. There was one lady on the whole checkout and because it was 8am it was very quiet. The lady was actually a young girl. I'd say it wouldn't have been long since she had left school. She didn't want to engage with any conversation. As I handed her my FlyBuy's card I asked if the whole $5 would actually count at me.

"I dunno!" She moaned.

I tried to make a joke about "tapping" my card on the eftpos machine to which she basically just rolled her eyes. Hey, I don't care if you don't like my joke, but cheer up. I'm the customer and you should provide me with magic moments that make me want to spend every day in your silly supermarket. Lucky I didn't pull the tomatoes-are-fruit-why-are-they-in-the-canned-vegetable-aisle on her.

I went to collect my bags and noticed she had put milk in one and the two VEGETABLES in another. Coming from the bagless state my recycling tendencies kicked in.

"Oh, it's okay, I don't need two bags!" I said as I started taking the vegetables out and putting them in the other bag. She completely ignored me and started serving the other customer and plonking more bags next to mine. She then snatched the empty bag away and tossed it in the bin under her register. So much for my effort to save the planet.

I felt so annoyed by this lady. Something I really value is good customer service. There are so many people, and might I add decent people, who are not fortunate to have a job in times when they are so scarse. I was thinking to complain about her to management, along with the fact that the canned tomatoes are in the wrong aisle. Instead I just walked out of Coles and felt really robbed of my shopping experience.

I was barely metres from the exit when I could hear a little voice behind me.

"Excuse me!"

I turned around and there was a little girl chasing after me.

"You forgot your purse".

And sure enough there was my big red wallet in her hand. I'm so lucky I only ever taught once at the school next to Coles so that kids can't remember the clumsy teacher.

My philosophy on this morning's events:

- Just because I teethed at 9 months doesn't give me another 3 months grace with Luke.
- I'm smarter than whoever it is that decides where things go in Coles.
- Don't dwell on negative things such as moody check out chicks - you might forget your wallet.
- For every moody check out chick in this world there is a sweet child wanting to make a difference.

Five Minute Friday: Grasp

Fridays are usually for rejoicing. Friday is the day I often will take Hendrik to the station and pick him up again as we swing by and get take away. Friday I usually get a cute picture of Luke and put it up on instagram with the hashtag #tgif.

This morning I woke up and the weather was gloomy. Typically Melbourne, yesterday was sunny. By 9:00am there were thunder storms and in the afternoon torrential rains.

The weather in Melbourne really sets the mood today.

For someone who perhaps isn't up to speed: today they found the body of Jill Meagher, a lady who worked for the ABC who was abducted, raped, murdered and then dumped on a backroad out of town. Only 24 hours ago I would have driven so near to that place as I went on the freeway to a Uni catch up.

I don't live in Brunswick. I don't even know the lady. But this has hit me so hard. Listening to John Faine on the ABC, then watching the memorial on Sydney road, the people breaking down who also just don't know her.

Watching the news this evening I can feel tears swelling up in my eyes. I can't believe this could happen or who could have the heart to do something so brutal to someone so innocent. Luke is asleep on my lap. He wakes up, and I hug him tight.

There's nothing I can do but pray. Even though I am so distant from everything and don't even know the person, I can't help but feel so incredibly moved.

RIP Jill Meagher. I'm thinking of everybody.

Choking on an Apple of disappointment

The 8th photo I ever took on my iPhone 4

Almost two years ago I took up a job. I was teaching a grade 5/6 class in term 4. I had 23 students and they had had enough of school, and were simply not interested in having a new teacher. On top of the struggle for me to get them to relate to me, I had to write their end of year reports after only getting to know them for 6 weeks.

As a reward for my efforts, once I had finished my report, I went straight to our local shopping centre and signed up for an iPhone 4. I really liked this phone. I still do.

My husband was jealous of my flash new smart phone and wanted one too. He opted for a Samsung Galaxy S. Not S2, Not S3. Just S.

I always thought he was silly getting that phone. Actually I still do. Not only was iPhone cooler, but it obviously ran better too. I came home from work one day and he was proudly 'rooting' his phone. As English isn't his first language, I don't think he understood 100% my amusement when he said he was 'rooting' his phone. (for those who don't know, 'rooting' means 'jailbreaking' your phone - so the user has full control of the operating system)

I used to mock him as he obsessed over Android devices and how he claimed they were so much better than Apple. The two can't really be compared as one is open source and the other isn't.

I considered getting an iPad. What put me off was they were horribly expensive and I simply couldn't justify spending a great amount of money when I already had an iPhone and we had a baby on the way.

I did, however, have a fantastic idea. I could get an iPad. I could buy eBooks. Picture eBooks. Instead of having a caseload of books in my boot as I went from school-to-school teaching a different class every day I could store them all on my iPad. I'd be known as the awesome relief teacher who read books from an iPad. That and it would be a tax benefit. Win all around.

Then Steve Jobs passed away. Shortly after the iPad 3 was released and I felt disappointed. There wasn't much more to it apart from some resolution improvements. Compared to the iPad 2 it even overheats... and is thicker and heavier too.

Then the iPhone 4S came out. Apart from some spec improvement and the silly Siri addition, it didn't "wow" me.

I was also annoyed that I couldn't use flash on my Apple device. Some websites I want to view have flash, and I also watch online TV which requires Flash to operate.

My husband was so proud of my child bearing efforts that he wanted to reward me with an iPad as I spent a lot of hours up breast feeding. I told him that I was disappointed with the iPad and would rather an android device so that I could watch streaming TV when I was up in the middle of the night. For mothers day he bought me an Asus transformer. I really liked it but unfortunately it was a little bit dodgy from an eBay seller and was returned. We then saw that Aldi had a tablet for sale and purchased it, but that too was dodgy.

The Samsung Note fulfils my creative tendencies 

So I haven't had a lot of luck with devices. However, I still have my trusty iPhone 4. It still works, however I can't upgrade to the new iOS 6 because I need to free up some space.

I was semi-excited for the iPhone 5 release, but knew deep in my heart I was going to be disappointed. I was tossing up between getting a Samsung Note 2 as my next phone (but may just go for the first edition due to finances).

I woke up early on the morning that the iPhone was released to find that it was not all that it was cracked up to be, and upon having a play in the Telstra Shop, I can safely say, once my 4 dies, I will not buy another iPhone. Granted, iPhones are very user friendly and smooth, but I feel like I am limited with them and want something more.

So I am going to go with the Samsung Note when the time comes. It saves me buying a tablet and will be better on my eyes when I am up in the middle of the night feeding the bub.

Dishwasher duty {Day 12}

Today's tasks:

- Clean the dishwasher

- Declutter/organise the bathroom cupboard

- Make a habit of checking your diary before you sleep

- Take the rubbish out of your car

Okay, so the dishwasher. Let me introduce you. This is our dishwasher:

Now to let you in on a little secret. We have never used it. And we never will. We have been using it as storage space:

This is where we keep our plastic containers. Quite honestly, for us, it is quicker to wash things than to run the dishwasher. Also, it would probably mean putting the dishwasher on only every few days and I don't really like that feeling. Did I mention I also loathe loading and unloading the dishwasher? No thank you.

So I made a decision to relocate these plastic containers into an actual cupboard today.

See this cupboard? I've decided that this cupboard is perfect for plastic containers. I'm planning to buy a thing for the other doors that are together so that Luke can't get into them when he is on the move (which will be really soon! The other day I caught him unplugging the antenna from the TV). Someone suggested that there can be one cupboard that's safe for the kids to get into if need be. Plastic to me seems pretty safe. My Mum calls it the Tupperware cupboard... even if it's not actually tupperware!

This is what was in the cupboard:

Pots and pans and clanging things! They obviously didn't stack well so now....

They stack perfectly in the dishwasher!

Luke even 'helped' me out in this process:

So now, here lives the plastic containers. Look how nicely they are stacked!

In the process I found some cool things. Check this out! This is a microwave egg cooker. I bought it for hubby as he loves eggs.

Here is a container I wrote on in permanent texta once. It says "wash before eating".

Now onto the bathroom cupboard, I had actually already done this close to when I moved in:

I have boxes in the cupboard so 'stuff' isn't stringed everywhere. There's a box for Hendrik, a box for me, a box for electricals, and a box for spares (we do all our supply hopping in Indonesia once a year.)

Cleaning the car can wait - I want to wash and vacuum when I have an extra pair of hands!

As for the checking the diary before I sleep, oh how I should do this! I forgot I had a lady coming to look at the silly smart meter attached to my TV. She was coming at 4:00pm and at 3:30 I decided to go out a coffee. 

While I was sipping away I got a call from the lady, "where are you? I need to use your toilet!" 

Lifting the laundry dust {Day 11}

Over the weekend a friend suggested a blog called 'the organised housewife' which was very inspiring. If any of you read my blog while I was in my nesting phase of pregnancy you will find that this would have been right up my alley.

Friends, past house mates, colleagues, ex boyfriends and current husbands would probably testify that I was never a clean and tidy person. When I met my husband I made a big change in myself. But I had never been the one for grot. I can't stand mould and foul smells. Admittedly, I have had a problem with clutter, and that's probably because I am a hoarder. When I left Bendigo for Melbourne I probably threw out or donated 80% of my 'stuff'. I had a 2 bedroom house in Bendigo, I was downsizing for one small room in a sharehouse of 5. From then on I quit my hoarding and even though now that we have a big home in the outer suburbs I want to keep it that way! 

When everything feels cluttered so do I!

Ah, so back to the blog that I've discovered. There's this thing called The 20 Day Challenge to Organise and Clean your Home. Unfortunately I've only discovered it at day 11. But never fear, I still want to join in. I could start at Day 1 but then I wouldn't have the daily motivation of getting things done and will end up on the back burner, and, yes. Burn.

So I'm stating at Day 11. And if I miss a day, it's alright!

Here were todays tasks in a nutshell:

- Clean the washing Machine

- Declutter under the laundry sink

- Reorganise the linen cupboard

- Create a 'one in One' out system

For more details check out day 11.

Our laundry is very unorganised, and I think it comes from a lack of cupboard space. I decided to tackle the whole laundry and skip the linen cupboard, as I had tackled that when I was nesting.

Here's how it went:

As you can see below, random things were chucked on top of the washing machine. The fake flowers where from a year 2 student who would now be in year 4. There's a broken door knob, detergant, the washing machine manual, rolls of wipes...

And tadaa! I left the flowers there and a little saying thing. I added a little bin because my theory is if it's not there I'm more than likely to leave tags and tissues just lying around. I've left the detergent there as I have it in a particular spot whereby I just tip it and it goes straight into the dispenser. 

Now the inside of the machine. I didn't bother doing the whole clean through cycle as it's not really that bad but I did give the dispenser part a clean out as it was getting festy. (I never use prewash, how is it that it's gone mouldy?)

And onto the cupboard. There had been build up down the bottom so I got in and scrubbed that off and got rid of the dirt that was building up in creases. (I want to get in and give it a good scrub next time).

And a general de clutter of the bathroom, here's a before and after:

But what about that box? Well inside it was full of shoes I haven't worn for 2 years. I'm going to go through them and send some to the op shop.

And as for the fate of the box? It's a temporary Luke box. I mean toy box!

Kath & Kimderella

Okay don't disown me, but one of my guilty pleasures is definitely Kath and Kim. I went through high school watching it and now that I live in the Kath & Kim side of Melbourne I appreciate and understand the jokes so much better. I remember I was in disbelief that Fountain Gate actually existed!

When I heard they were doing a movie, I joked that they should have the film premiere at Fountain Gate, where they base their shopping trips at. A day later I found out that they did indeed have the film premiere at Fountain Gate. I was so annoyed with myself for not stalking them.

I was really keen to see this movie, and to see it at Fountain Gate. Obviously, it's hard to take Luke to the movies and there is only one 'Mum's and Bubs' screening every Wednesday morning and the morning that the Kath & Kim movie was on I was going to be getting my fit on.

My awesome PJ's.

So I convinced my neighbour to come with me. I prepared Luke early enough that we could catch the 8:30 screening. We wore our Pyjamas so that when we got home we could go straight to bed! I was very tempted to have my muffin top out and a G-String hanging out my backside, but I thought the whole Pyjama thing made me enough of a hornbag/foxy moron as it was. (If you've never watched Kath and Kim that last sentence probably makes no sense to you at all). I sat next to two middle-aged ladies who were obviously Kath & Kim fanatics. They snorted when they laughed (really loudly) and sung along with every song.

I forgot how noisy the cinema is. I am used to things being on the quiet side now that I have a baby so seeing something big and noisy was a change for me.

This is my KeepCup!

Watching the movie I couldn't help but think how Kath & Kim-esque my life is now that I live in their 'territory'. The opening scene is Kath strutting her stuff down her street (which is some kind of very strange powerwalk) with a KeepCup. I have a KeepCup! And I think I drive my local coffee shop crazy with it!

Kath walks into the driveway of her house, which I have recently discovered is located in Patterson Lakes (so I shall stalk the house later) and I try to read whether the Wheelie Bins are from the City of Casey. Today I discover, no. City of Kingston. I get now why she lives in the fictitious suburb of Fountain Lakes - it's a mix of 'Fountain Gate' and 'Patterson Lakes'.

Suddenly Kim pulls into the driveway after doing some quite dramatic driving down the street. Funnily enough it's almost the exact same car I came to the cinema in. Kim leaps out of the car wearing barely anything (why does this remind me of that party-boy Corey who also lives around here) and demands Kath to do her washing for her, which of course Kath refuses.

So Kath and Kim are there having their argument when the neighbour is caught staring. Kath shouts out, "oh, hello, Mandy! Yes, why don't you take a picture - it lasts longer!"- Oh my goodness! I also have a neighbour called Mandy!

OMG there were Vespas in this movie!!!

Anyway, that's the first part of the film. Although there were some pretty dodgy special effects the movie was, well, noice, different, un-yews-ew-al... To say the least. And I enjoyed the big belly laugh and the fun of it all.

(I assume all of my artsy fartsy Melbourne friends are now shaking their heads at me! Shame, Sammy, Shame!)