Food, glorious food …

It’s my third day here in Indonesia, and so far I have had great food … nasi uduk, nasi Padang, nasi Bali, sate ayam and empal. Oooooh yummo! I still want to eat many more old favourites before I return to Australia – I am yet to eat martabak manis, combro, batagor, siomay … sheesh, even thinking about them is making me hungry.

Yesterday I went to Kelapa Gading Mall, and walked around the mall for a while – at the end I only bought some Italian biscuits and a bottle of shower gel because the one that I brought over with me doesn’t agree with my sensitive skin. I spent a great deal of the day channel surfing and watching some thrashy Indonesian gossip shows, covering similar material about artists having arguments with one another, and so forth. There was also a major tragedy in Java Sea yesterday when a ship carrying hundreds of passengers was burned around Kepulauan Seribu. 16 dead with many more suffering from burns, etc. *sigh*. Indonesia certainly has its share of calamities, eh?

Today, I spent some time reading the novel that I have been reading for a couple of weeks, Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Namesake“. The book has been made into a movie so I want to finish the book before I watch the movie (if I ever get to watch it). Apart from that, I also went to my third sister’s house and sorted through my old stuff. I used to stay at her house when I worked in Jakarta for 5 years. At the en, I threw out most of the stuff and kept only a bunch of printed emails and some photos. I also got to see the impact of the flood around the housing complex – the brown streak lining the gates and a mountain of rubbish of broken and soiled household goods.

Anyway, I’m going to watch some more thrashy TV … hahaha. It’s nice to do nothing for a change – to really relax and have a time off, rather than busy planning what to do every day. I’ll be off to Bandung tomorrow, to finally meet my parents and the rest of the siblings. We’re going to have Papa’s birthday party tomorrow evening too – I’ve been told that it’s going to be a big event with more than 100 invitees … huge, eh? It would also give me a chance to see and experience sibling quarrels and bickerings up close … ahhh, the joy! *grin* 🙂