Monday, March 28, 2011

Thanks to lent...

... I'm blogging again. I have come off Facebook until after Easter, replacing one addiction with another. I'm surprised at how much FB obsessed I am, and how I'm now considering how to replace this vast and shallow involvement in the lives of others with simpler, deeper friendships. I do miss Facebook, but I wonder if I'll go back. In a way it's freeing being away.

Despite all my rage...

We had a rat in the classroom today. Pandemonium. This adds to the list of critters we have had in our room.

1. Snake
2. Bat
3. Rat

I don't think any of these top the baby kitten a colleague had in her ceiling a few years ago. It spent a good amount of time mewing before security "efficiently dealt with it."

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

"Jakarta is a nice city offering a high standard of living"

This was a headline from the Jakarta Globe's Opinion page on March 27. Here is the actual quote with a bit more context:

"[Jakarta] is a very nice city offering a high standard of living. Of course we all know about the two or three major negative aspects: the pollution, traffic and floods. I was trapped in a traffic jam yesterday and it took me almost three hours to get home because it was raining."

A brilliant line by the Tunisian ambassador to Indonesia, being interviewed about living in Jakarta. This should really be used by Jakarta's travel bureau.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

So it's late...

... and I really should be in bed, but as my friend Becky said, I haven't updated my blog lately, and I had an indo-moment I thought I'd share.

Becky and I went to Bistro Delifrance, which is one of many restaurants in our community. I like it because it has good coffee and good breakfasts.

So, we went for a quick dinner. She ordered some chicken sandwich thing. I ordered "Riz au bouef" (I tried to pronounce it the French way, but the waiter corrected me: "Rizobeef") Anyhow, the Riz au bouef was supposed to be a beef stew type dish over delicious oven-baked rice. Sounds good, no? Anyhow, the server mentioned it would take about half an hour. We thought this alright, and ordered appetizers. Everything came quickly, except the "Riz au bouef". We waited half an hour, chatted about politics (specifically Obama's inauguration tonight) and leafed through newspapers.

Riz au bouef: nowhere to be seen.

We talked about school, about the workshop Becky was at and summer holidays... pretty soon an hour was up since we ordered.

Riz au bouef: yet to arrive.

So we talked about the people who might be leaving indo, and the people we want to come back (hint: Liz Borchardt) and pretty soon an hour and a half had passed. I waved to the waiter.

"Would you like your bill?" he asked

"Bill?" I responded in alarm. "Where's the Riz au bouef?"

The waiter turns pale and has a glazy stare. He darts into the kitchen, followed by Indonesian curse words. A few minutes pass and he comes to our table with 5 'complimentary' slices of baguette with jam and butter.

He then smoothly saunters through the restaurant, out the front door and into the restaurant next door.

"This isn't going to be good," I tell Becky.

A few minutes pass, and the waiter walks past the window with a plate of white rice. A waitress meets him at the front door and covers the rice with a paper serviette. The man then walks through to the kitchen.

Minutes later I'm served Riz au bouef on a plate of plain white rice.

The Riz au bouef was nothing to write home about, but at least the story was.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Boycott Christmas!!!


I posted this last year, but feel it's relevant again at this time of the year.

www.adventconspiracy.org

Spend less on gifts.
Give more presence.
Love like Jesus.