Help!

One of the many luxuries of living in Indonesia or anywhere in Asia is having domestic help. We were spoilt in Phnom Penh for 6 years because we had 2 housekeepers. Our last one Sokha was the best.....

We have been in our house now for a couple of months and we still dont have one. I love the look I get when the subject of housekeepers comes up in conversation amongst friends, especially when I tell them that I dont have one - YET! Im sure half of them think Im crazy. Having domestic help is one of your keys to surviving in Jakarta. Simple as that. Imagine coming home to a clean house, clean and ironed laundry, homecooked dinner. Its Bliss! You can go out whenever you want if you have a nanny for your kids. Its quite affordable to have domestic help.

You see its kindve unheard of for an expat not to have some sort of domestic help, I know a couple here who have 7 staff and there is only the 2 of them!!!

There are days both Mike & I wish we had one.... especially those days where you notice the laundry basket is overflowing and so is the ironing basket! The other week was especially crazy and everything to do with the house was getting out of hand.. the kitchen had flooded after a rainstorm and the laundry had gotten wet as well!

Sitting at lunch the next day looking a bit frazzled I shared my predicament with friends who suggested I just grab all the laundry and take it to the drycleaners!! Drycleaning is really cheap here!!

Yes we were desperate!! We just needed to be ontop of something in our house and it was the laundry! So off we went with our laundry under our arms.

I guess I will eventually get a housekeeper/cook, actually we did trial one and she was great but she kept getting things out of our garbage to take home and she never gave us change from groceries she was asked to purchase.

So its back to the drawing board again!

Meet the new addition!!

We have a new addition to the Johnston Household...

The still to be named kitten. So at the moment its stuck with " Here Kitty Kitty"

I havent got much to write about him/her yet as I still have to pick him/her up from the people who found her walking along the road.

She/He is only 4 weeks old and fits into the palm of my hand - yes Im such a sucker for all things cute!!

I will try and keep you posted over the kitten saga...

Mike's busy week!

In one week Mike had been to Yogayakarta for a meeting where he stayed at the Hyatt and enjoyed these beautiful views of the hotels golf course, came home for a day and then flew out to London for another conferance where he was one of the guest speakers on their panel.

He had the chance to stay at the beautiful newly refurbished Luton Hoo Hotel in London. So unfair Im telling you!! Business class all the way and then 5 star accommodation, I think I got the short straw on this one!!

Luton Hoo opened as a luxury five-star hotel with 18 hole golf course, magnificent spa and more than 1,000 acres of parkland and gardens.

Besides being bitterly cold he enjoyed his trip over as it was a complete contrast to being in Asia.

nat & becka's new beds!

Here are your beds that we had made last month - pretty cool huh. They were such a bargain at USD$500 for the both of them. They are made from teak at a local furniture shop. Now we just have to decide what kindve bed we want made - believe me its not as easy as it sounds!!

If you dont have a picture of what you want made then you have to start from the basics. What style you want, what colour, what size, everything!! So at the moment we are still sleeping on our mattress on the floor!

Bali

A few weeks ago Mike & I went on our first trip to Bali. Mike had a conferance there so we decided to take a few extra days before hand to make the most of it.

Bali was great, Kuta was your typical beach town, it had all the shops, markets, restaurants & of course tourists.

We stayed 2 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel in Kuta and then transferred over to the Laguna Resort & Spa in Nusa Dua.

This was one beautiful resort with 7 lagoon type swimming pools on the grounds.

We also had the chance to enjoy a great dinner at a restaurant called Ku De Ta in Seminyak. Ku De Ta is popular with expats for their cocktails at sunset. They have beach lounges facing out towards the beach so you can relax and watch the sun go down and then after the sun has gone down they have a spotlight shining out to the sea. So romantic!!

We will definately spend a few more weekends in Bali.

Heritage Society / Explorers Group

A few months ago I joined a group called explorers through the Jakarta Heritage Society. Once a week we do a tour that we have pre chosen at the beginning of the season.

So far we have done a number of them from pottery, visiting a stained glass factory, learnt about Islam, and visited an orangutan sanctuary and more.

The orangutan sanctuary was a hoot... as cute as they were one felt it upon himself to stalk me and one of the other ladies. There was no hiding from this one as he grabbed your hand and crawled up the side of you so that you could carry him. He was darn heavy!! There was no hiding from him.

Below are some photos of the trips that we have done this season.