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!