my doom smiles at me

there’s no other way:
8 or ten poems a
night.
in the sink
behind me are dishes
that haven’t been
washed in 2
weeks.
the sheets need
changing
and the bed is
unmade.
half the lights are
burned-out here.
it gets darker
and darker
(I have replacement
bulbs but can’t get them
out of their cardboard
wrapper.) Despite my
dirty shorts in the
bathtub
and the rest of my dirty
laundry on the
bedroom floor,
they haven’t
come for me yet
with their badges and their rules and their
numb ears. oh, them
and their caprice!
like the fox
I run with the hunted and
if I’m not the happiest
man on earth I’m surely the
luckiest man
alive.

~ Charles Bukowski

Down Came the Rain

It rained so much yesterday that the traffic in Jakarta literally came to an absolute standstill. There were so many places flooded that traffic was stuck in gridlock for hours. I spent 3 hours trying to get home. We had to keep trying different alternative routes because all the usual routes leading home were flooded, with flood waters up to chest-height. Many people resorted to trudging through the waters but couldn't get anywhere as the cars were so tightly packed that it was difficult to even weave around the cars. It was a complete mess! There was so much rain that our swimming pool overflowed and our backyard resembled a rice padi field. I've seen it flood in Jakarta but never this bad.

Check out the supermarket that I usually buy groceries from. It's located just 5 minutes from our place. Most of it was underwater yesterday.

Hokkien Dog

Task for the next 4 weeks: Teach Cooper Hokkien so that he can blend in better!

I Hate Pizza Dough!

It didn't rise and I have no idea why...! It's 7:45pm, I've prepared all the ingredients and I'm just sitting here waiting for the dough to rise so that I can slap everything on the dough! It's like watching paint dry. Not going to happen in this lifetime. Think we'll have to order take-away tonight. What a bummer... :(

Update: I made a 2nd batch and it turned out fine. Yay. By the time I was done with the 2nd batch of dough I was so tired that all I made were Magherita Pizzas but they turned out pretty good. Finally..!

Minstrel Man

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter
And my throat
Is deep with song,
You do not think
I suffer after
I have held my pain
So long?

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter,
You do not hear
My inner cry?
Because my feet
Are gay with dancing,
You do not know
I die?

— Langston Hughes

Jinx-ed!

I've gone and jinxed myself declaring on the blog that I like it here in Jakarta. Silly silly me! I still do like it here which makes what we're about to do all the more difficult. Ahh well... life is never easy nor fair.

C'est la vie.

Jakarta Update - Has it already been 5 months?

Well to be exact, it's been 5 and a half months since we moved here to Indonesia. The initial couple of months were tough going because of the hassle of moving, of setting up house, adjusting to a new country and a new way of life. However, lately I'm maybe beginning to enjoy living here. I've made some friends and have also learnt to cope better with having so much time on my hands. Over the last few months, I've been doing things that I never had time for. I've been spending time with Cooper (trying to make up for neglecting him over the last 2 years and leaving him at random boarding kennels every couple of months), cooking (been doing lots of this), baking (not so much of this since I realised that I'm not cut out to be a baker), reading (whenever I can get my hands on an English novel), learning a new language (which is really satisfying when I realise that I can hold my end of the conversation with a local), learning to paint (let's just say I'm no Picasso) and going for long lunches with my girlfriends. Just the other day, I caught myself thinking - I could get used to not working!

So it's been pretty alright thus far, despite the fact that there are still blackouts every other week, despite bad traffic where a 10-minute journey can turn into a torturous hour-long car ride, despite getting constantly ripped off, despite the loneliness. On some days, it still can be challenging living here in a foreign place, with hardly any friends and no family around. These are days when I just feel like packing up and going home but days like these are fewer and further in between now.

Like I said, I might actually like it here in Indonesia.

Yummy Brunch

We went to Table 8 at Hotel Mulia over the weekend for brunch. Delicious food, fantastic decor and ambience. We ate and ate and ate for 3 hours straight. Oooohhh I really like the restaurant! If you ever do visit us in Jakarta, remind me to bring you there for brunch.

I took several photos at the restaurant with my iphone but the photos turned out really crappy (or rather I looked dreadful!) This was the only decent shot.

Pine Nuts!

In order to make pesto sauce, I needed pine nuts. I couldn't find it in the supermarket that I usually frequent so I had to go to Ranch Supermarket (which in my opinon is the place to shop for groceries when you have money to flush down the toilet). I bought a tiny bag of pine nuts for about SGD$15! I've never bought pine nuts before so I don't know exactly how much they usually costs but $15 of 100g for nuts?! Come on!