A New Attraction in Jakarta

It's hard to believe but we have a world class amusement park in Jakarta now. It a water park with about ten different pools with numerous fountains/ slides / waves /etc... . It has a Disney look to it and we were all pretty impressed.
The park is called OCEAN PARK and it opened in the first week of December.
On Friday we checked it out with a group of friends (and of course the kids) and it was great. You can tell that it's not all totally finished and the food and beverages supply was pretty poor....but hey....who is complaining? Not us!
This park will be a big hit for sure and we know what we will be doing during a lot of our weekends. On Saturdays and Sundays they open at 7AM. We reckon if we go there from 7-10 in the morning, it will still be ok before the Jakarta herds will stampede into the park.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !

Yes!! Our holiday has officially started. Yesterday was our last working day and we don't have be back until Monday Jan.15

We decided not to travel far this year for christmas. Flying long distance with little ones is not exactly the 'funnest' thing to do, so we are staying in our part of the world for a change.
We will actually stay here to celebrate Christmas at home in Jakarta. On Christmas day we will go to a x-mas brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel with our friends the Murnanes and Grahams.

The day after x-mas we will fly to Singapore and stay there for a week. Singapore looks great and very festive at this time of year and we always like going there. On New Years Day we will fly then to Perth. We will try to meet up with Butch and Lorly before driving south to Margaret River, a popular holiday town in the forests close to the beach. We have been here 3 times before and we love it there.
Not sure if I will be able to update the blog about our holiday adventures until after we come back on Jan.11.

HAPPY HOLLIDAYS to all of you and the best wishes for the New Year !

Another Birthday!

On Monday December 18 it was my birthday. Yes believe it or not...... I turned '29'........
Since we had to work on Monday we decided to have a pool party with some friends and their kids on Sunday.
We had about 16 adults and 8 kids over and all had a good time.
Of course when it's your birthday you MUST have a birthday cake , according to Noah.
It was so nice to see him walking out of the kitchen towards me, singing 'Lang zal hij leven' by himself , with a bit of support from Rob, our half Dutch friend ( he is actually from Limburg, a part of Holland that most of us consider to be Belgium...)

Thanks to those who called/emailed, who came to the party and thanks for some awesome gifts!

Fantasy League

On Saturday nights we (the guys) often get together to watch EPL football matches, to have a few cold ones , to eat haute cuisine snacks and to spend (and sometimes win) money by betting on the games.

Matt Merritt, who was the founder of the JIS Fantasy League is unfortunaly not with us anymore, but his spirit lives on and he still looks over our shoulder ( see picture....the ugly guy wearing the stars and stripes shirt) to check if we do everything by the book. Yes it's true..... even Americans can learn how to play this FOOTBALL knowledge game.

In this league you pick 11 players every week from the EPL games . Your players can get you points for scoring goals, getting assists, keeping clean sheets or even minus points for cards, etc.. It makes watching the games a lot funner and even a boring ficture like Shefflied vs.Reading can suddenly be an appealing prospect.

So far the champions were Matt 03-04, Butch 04-05 and Jur 05-06.

Needless to say that the wives and girlfriends are not always thrilled about these Saturday night male get togethers. But hey..... they shouldnt complain.... it keeps us off the streets and far away from possible Blok M temptations.....

Introducing our friend Scotty 'ADOLF' Graham

This is a recent picture of our friend Scotty Graham. He used to be a well respected friend and colleague. A man we could all trust and rely on. However, that was until he began his blog and talked us into starting ours.
He now has developed a severe case of Bloggonitis. In case you dont know....people who suffer from Bloggonitis are dictorial, can't stand people who are different and ruthlessly exterminate problem cases . He has been threatening us to 'delete' us when we don't update our blogs on a regular base. Can you believe that?

Our friend Scotty Graham is no more, it's Fuhrer Scotty from now on.

JIS Christmas Party

HoHoHo ! Christmas is almost here. Last Saturday the annual JIS Christmas party was held at the house of our friends Scott and Dunja Chamberlain. This was , I think, the fourth time that they had organized it for JIS teachers with families and small kids. This year there were about 50 kids there. Yes it was crazy, yes it was a zoo, but still it was a special get together.

Neither one of our kids dared to sit on Santa's lap and Ayla actually screamed her head off when I tried to get her close to him. Poor girl, I just hope that I haven't traumatized her for the rest of her life....

Just one more week to go until our x-mas holiday starts!

Noah Turns 4 Hiep Hiep Hoera

Last Saturday on December 2nd our little man turned 4 years old! It is hard to believe that it is already 4 years ago, that he was born in Singapore.

On Friday he celebrated his birthday at school and all the kids received nice goody bags and of course they all ate Noah's favorite cupcakes.

The party at home was great. Noah had made the guest list himself and it included: Maia, Liam, Taj, Yohanes, Felix, Shayna, Sabine, Kyle and Rob (he was actually the only adult who was invited, the others just came with their kids....)

The only one who was sadly missed was Emily, who left Jakarta last June and who was the first of Noah's 'baby group' to leave town.

It was a morning pool party with sandwhiches for the old folks and pancakes for the party kids. The kids loved it with an early swim , some art and crafts and of course choclate birthday cake, the highlight of the party.

As expected Noah was spoiled rotten by his friends and his family and he has enough presents now to last him til his next birthday. Thank you all for your generous gifts!

Sinterklaas Comes to School

On December 1st the children at the NIS were all very excited and nervous. This was the big day that Sinterklaas and his 'Zwarte Pieten' were coming to vsit the school. For Noah this was an extra special day, because this was also the day that he brought treats for his birthday to school. At 7:30 all the kids were outside the school on the stairs, at the school entrance, anxiously awiting Sinterklaas' arrival.

At 7.45, after singing lots of songs he finally arrived by BECAK ( a 3 wheel bicycle taxi), which was pretty hilarious and unfortunately I could not get a picture of this .

Everybody moved then to the school gym for an all school assembly with performances from all the kids. Noah loved it and was very much involved singing the songs and trying out the dance steps. After the assembly all the kids had to go back to their classrooms and the Sint and his Zwarte Pieten came into the classrooms for a little chat and to give the kids pepernoten and presents.

What a great day for the kids and I already feel bad for Noah (and myself) that he will not be able to celebrate Sinterklaas like this again. Next year he will be at JIS. Oh well...can't have it all!

Happy Thanksgiving

Every year we have a thanksgiving dinner with a group of friends. This group was mainly made up of people who arrived in Jakarta with us in 1997 ; Lissie and Jamie Wellington, Matt and Liz Merritt, Helen Arnold, Loreto Keary, Sally Oxenberry, Tom Bartlett, Butch and Lorly Koltai and us.

As the years went by, people left Jakarta and the group became smaller and smaller . So this year, the old timers Butch, Tom, Sue and myself decided that it was time for some fresh blood. We invited our friends the Murnanes and the Grahams to join our group and to keep the tradition going.

We hosted the dinner this year and we had a great time. Especially the kids loved it.......swimming.......running and screaming....the bird.....cranberry sauce.......dancing....ice cream........and beers (for the adults)

What more can you wish for?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everybody!

The Puncak

Once a year we get to go away for the weekend, to stay at the school cabin in the Puncak. This is a beautiful hilly area at about 1 1/2 hours from Jakarta. It's is usually a lot cooler, it rains a lot and it has FRESH air. The cabin is in a park with tennis courts, swimming pool and lots of trees.

For the kids the main thing is nearby Taman Safari, which is an outdoor animal park with many special attractions for kids.

This year we only got to stay for 2 days, since we had to be back in Jakarta on Sunday for our Thanksgiving dinner.

On a different note, I finally bought a bike. Can you believe that I have lived here for 9 years and never had a bicycle? What kind of Dutch boy is that? Well, I am sure that horrible traffic and terrible pollution had a lot to do with that. Anyway, since we live in a quiet neighbourhood with little traffic I decided to go for it ( inspired by Butch, who bought one last week) and got a nice mountain bike with kid's seat. The kids love it and fight every day over who gets to go on first.

Sinterklaas Arrives in Jakarta

Sinterklaas came early this year to Jakarta, on November 18 he set foot on Jakarta land. The whole thing was held at ISCI (International Club) and organized by the NIS ( Dutch School).

Needless to say that all the kids were very nervous in anticipation of the arrival of the old bearded man and his black helpers.
Noah told me in advance that this year he was going to shake Sint's hand this year to get more pepernoten (candy) and he did....

Sinterklaas will also visit the kids at the NIS next week and will stay in the country until his birthday on December 5th. Until then kids can put their shoe out at night and if they have been good, they may find a present in their shoe the next morning.

Unfortunately Ayla and Sue couldn't be there because of a birthday party of one of Ayla's friends.

Halloween

On October 28th we were invited by Kristan and Uwe to attend their annual pumpkin carving party for Halloween. It was a great party with tons of kids, who were all very busy carving their pumpkins. Noah loved it! It looked like Kristan bought up all the available pumpkins in Jakarta. It was a very pretty sight to see all the pumpkins, when they were done lit up by candles.

One of the things that Noah loves to do is to get on a bike ride with Sumardji, Sofie's husband. Often he waits for him to come home and then the poor man has to drive Noah around the block again, again and again......

Noah wore a tie for the first time last week, when he took his mother out to the JIS UN Day performance. What a handsome boy!

October Break

In October we had a week off and we went to Bali for a short ( 5 day) holiday. We stayed at a resort in Nusa Dua and we liked it a lot. For the first time ever we took our nanny with us. Yes, very decadent! It was great to have her around and to have the freedom to go out at night, knowing that the kids were in good hands. The kids had a great time in the pool and at the beach.
During this break, called Idul Fitri, everybody in Indonesia travels and roads and airports are crazy busy. That's why we decided to come back to Jakarta early, before the real madness, of people coming back home , started. In fact it was really nice to be home for a few days without anybody at the house, but us. All our staff were away and I don't think that that has wever happened before.

Welcome

This is the first post of our family web site. We will try to keep you all updated about our lives in Jakarta and of course about our travels in Indonesia and abroad.

What have we done so far this school year?

Well...first of all we moved house. We live in the house of our old friends the Merritts now, who moved back to the States. The house is spacious and very comfortable and we all love it.
The kids especially love the pool!

The only thing that we miss about our old place is the garden space. We don't have much of that here. Oh well, you can't have it all....

Sue has gone back to working full time ( after 3 years part- time) and that has not been easy for her. She really misses spending time with Ayla and Noah.

Noah still goes to the Dutch school (NIS) and will probably switch to JIS in January. This is when Ayla will start going to NIS.