Now in Singapore

I just realized it's been ten days since my last post.  With all the activity in the next few weeks, this gap will probably be too common until we return to Jakarta.  So, I'll try to catch everyone up on the activities as much (and as succinctly) as possible.

Pre-Singapore.  Monday through Wednesday of last week I was still in Jakarta.  Monday I packed because I knew I would not have time on Tuesday or Wednesday.  My wife gave me quite the list and I spent much of the night locating everything on the list.  Tuesday was my regular Futsol night and the last one we'll have for a while because two of us are leaving Jakarta to add to our families and two others are going on vacation for a month.  Wednesday, because we won't be able to play in July, we had a night of poker.  We usually only play once per month, so this was quite a treat...even though I was on tilt most of the night because of how slow we were playing.  Thursday evening I flew to Singapore.

Friday.  When my wife was pregnant with our daughter, we began the tradition of taking pregnancy pictures.  We have continued this tradition with each subsequent pregnancy and this Friday I took the day off of work so we could make the pictures for our final pregnancy a little more special by doing a location shoot on Siloso Beach at Sentosa Island.  After the shoot we spent the day at the beach and finished with a dinner at Mucho's on Clarke Quay.

Saturday.  In the morning, I had a consultation with a "no baby doctor" to clarify a few questions and discuss appropriate timing - before the birth, after the birth, etc.  That went well and I learned more than I ever hoped to.  In the afternoon, my wife and cousin wanted to feed their shopping fix with a visit to Chinatown so I took the kids to an indoor playground.  We finished the evening with dinner at California Pizza Kitchen where I amazed everyone with my ability to consume large quantities of ice cream.

We also witnessed one of the more interesting spectacles I've seen in Singapore.  After leaving the bus we had to cross the street underground via the subway station.  From a side door, two women dressed in showgirl costumes entered the subway with a blindfolded man in pink skirt in tow.  Initially, I thought someone lost a bad bet.  Then I saw the writing on his chest and the eagerness of the women to display him to everyone.  This was a shaming.  I'd heard of these rituals in Asia, but this was the first one I've seen.  Written on his chest was the phrase:  "I don't care for people".

Sunday.  Friday night my daughter and I played the game of memory and she beat me fair and square 12 matches to 8.  She made a bet with me before the game, her first bet, and if she won I had to buy her ice cream and take her skating at Marina Bay.  I took care of the ice cream at CPK.  So Sunday, we went "ice" skating.  We thought it was on ice, so we wore jeans.  Turns out it's some new way of skating on plastic with some type of Teflon coating.  It was actually very similar to skating on ice, only it wasn't cold if you fell (which my cousin did once and my daughter did frequently...I didn't).

After skating we went to the Singapore Science and Arts museum which is in a lotus flower shaped building in front of Marina Bay.  We saw exhibits from Dali, Van Gogh and a showcase of the Sunken Ships of Asia.  The Van Gogh exhibit was really interesting.

Monday.  Monday I turned 36 years old.  Two activities we had considered doing earlier we intentionally delayed because it would be free for me to do on my birthday.  So Monday I left work a little early and we went to Sentosa Island to do the zip line from the top of the island to the beach.  My daughter, strapped to me, and my cousin all flew over the treetops down the zip line.  My daughter was excited up until she looked down at what we were about to slide down.  Then she screamed and said she was too scared.  I made her do it anyway and one second after we pushed off from the platform her scream turned to a laugh.  When we finished she asked if she could go again, just as I anticipated.

After the zip line we spent thirty minutes in a taxi to do the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo.  My free entry also entitled me to free ice cream at one of the restaurants.  This meant we ate dinner first....I don't pass up ice cream.  We had a scare at dinner when our food orders arrived in reverse order and I took a full bite of chicken thinking it was tofu.  For those of you who don't know, I discovered in my early twenties I am highly allergic to chicken.  This one full bite is more chicken than I've eaten in more than ten years.  Thanks to a few scares in my mid-twenties, we always carry benadryl with us when we go out to eat.  I took a pill and finished my meal then we went on the safari.  The safari was as good as it was the first time we went.  The more amazing part of the evening is that I had absolutely no reaction to the chicken.  Usually my mouth and lips still swell and itch even though the benadryl prevents the more dangerous effects.  Oddly, nothing happened.  This is so odd I'm considering seeing an allergist again to determine if my allergy is now gone.

Tuesday.  The original plans for my birthday was for my wife and I to enjoy a quiet dinner and movie alone while my cousin watched the kids.  We did this on Tuesday instead.  First night out alone we've had in nearly two months.

Wednesday (today).  Today is a holiday in Jakarta (Ascension of Mohammad), so I had the day off.  Unfortunately, it was a day of medical appointments.  My daughter has complained of stomach aches for the last six months, including yesterday.  The pediatrician we saw said she probably has Giardia, which means we have to take stool samples to a lab within an hour of them occurring.  Guess what I did after lunch?  We also scheduled dentist appointments.  After my first visit to a dentist in Jakarta, I won't do a second.  Once I arrived in Singapore for an extended period I made our semi-annual appointments.

I'm back to work tomorrow (Thursday) while we await the arrival of our son.  The only day he's not allowed to come is 1 July.  My cousin leaves at 11 AM and my mom doesn't arrive until midnight, so we have no kiddie care if he decides to make his appearance on Friday.  Wish us luck!

A Lazy Day to End a Busy Week

It's Sunday today.  Father's Day, to be precise.  And, due to my unfortunate travel schedule, I am spending it alone - though I did just have a wonderful Skype conversation with the family in Singapore.  In four days I'll be transitioning myself to Singapore and won't return to Jakarta until after our new son is born.  I'm spending today as lazily as I can.

It was a rough week, and a full week.  I'm an insomniac, by nature, and when external events disrupt my sleep routine, I'm not able to defeat my insomniac tendencies.  This meant a week of sleeping just five hours per night.  I probably would have been okay were it not for the first night alone:  Sunday. 

With the family in Singapore, I leave my computer on and open all night in case my wife goes into labor and needs to contact me.  At 2 AM, I woke from a dead sleep to the sound of someone (or something) typing on my keyboard.  Naturally, all the early talk of ghosts living in my house shot through my mind in the few seconds I was regaining consciousness.  By the time I had adjusted my mind to where I was and why it was dark and why I was surrounded by a thin white net (the mosquito netting), my heart was pounding and adrenaline was surging through my body.

My vision is bad in daylight without glasses.  Throw in a dark room with odd shadows and it is even worse.  Even so, I could see there was no person or apparition sitting at my computer making use of the internet.  It wasn't until I heard the familiar sound of quickly scurrying feet and the distinct, squeaky call that I realized one of our ubiquitous tiny house lizards had just run across the keyboard of my laptop.  Of course I was then up for another ninety minutes.

I went through my week as a zombie drinking more coffee during the week than I had in my prior 36 years of life.  Literally.  Futsal on Tuesday was tough, but far better than the prior week when only three of us showed up.  Yoga on Wednesday knocked me flat.  My legs just didn't have enough energy to hold most of the poses.  I fell down three times. 

Thursday, due to peer pressure, I participated in the only event I'll be around for in this year's company Olympics:  Futsal.  I was hoping to participate in Futsal, Golf and Bowling, but when I saw my schedule in Jakarta would only permit me to participate in the first Futsal event, I was planning to just skip the olympics this year (like all the other expats).  My team insisted they needed me, however, so I played.  It didn't help.  The other team cleaned the floor with us 6-1.

I closed out my week celebrating a big event with a friend.  He has just accepted the job as head of the Wealth Management group for a large Indonesian bank.  Pretty big deal.  And if anyone is interested, he's highly recommending you get out of anything that is US currency and move it to Singapore or Indonesia until the market settles from the major shock that will hit at the end of June when the Fed stops buying US Treasury.

We celebrated his new success at a local Jakarta club....which meant we left the house at 11PM and arrived home after 3 AM.  Of course, now that my body is accustomed to 5 hours of sleep, I was up at 8:30 this morning.  Here's hoping I'll get a nice nap later today!

We Found Bagels

A prominent complaint of my wife's, ever since we moved to Jakarta, is the absence of bagels.  Even Starbucks doesn't have bagels.  Of course, the local restaurants, even the chain restaurants doing business locally, cater to local tastes.  It's good business.  And Indonesians don't seem to have an affinity for eating bread for breakfast.

An associate of mine recently became a partner in a Jakartan bagel business called Bagel Bagel.  The week they opened, I purchased enough bagels for everyone on my staff to try one.  That is when the comedy began.

I watched as many of them took their first bites.  The look of sheer confusion on their faces as they bit into the bagel expecting the taste of donut and tasting, well, something much different than a donut, was absolutely priceless.  I offered up the cream cheese, in two flavors, and watched with amusement as the bagel beginners spread the cheese on top like frosting on a cupcake.  It was then I felt it appropriate to explain the finer points of bagel consumption:  cut it in half, spread the cheese on the inside, and either eat it like a sandwich or like toast.

Then the questions began:  "Is it supposed to be hard on the outside and soft on the inside?"  Yes, it is.  "Do Americans really eat this for breakfast?"  Yes, we do.  "Why isn't it sweet?"  It isn't supposed to be; it's healthier that way.  One said to me:  "This will take me an hour to eat.  It's very heavy."

I thought the bagels were delicious and ate four of them, over-consumption counterbalancing the healthiness of bagels compared to donuts.  The owners were smart to put the bagel shop in an expat community and offer free delivery in the Kemang area.  Expats will eat this stuff up!  I hope Indonesians will also begin to appreciate bagels.  I don't think they'll ever get past the requirement of rice being part of anything considered a meal.  Much like pizza, I think bagels will eventually become one of Indonesian's favorite snacks.

Weekend in Singapore

So I just realized I never posted about my short trip to Singapore last weekend, so I'll do so now, much later than intended.

I left work around 2 PM Friday for my 5 PM flight to Singapore.  That should have had me arriving in Singapore around 7:30 and at the apartment by 8 PM.  Unfortunately, my flight left 45 minutes late, and then the only "bag" I checked - a stroller my wife wanted to swap with the one we initially brought - didn't show up on the baggage carousel because it was considered "bulky".  I didn't arrive at the apartment (getting my first look at our recent upgrade to a 3 bedroom) until 9:30.  I was happy to see that the kids fought through fatigue and were awake to greet me when I arrived.  After reading stories and spending a few brief moments with my wife before she returned to her Casey Anthony Trial addiction, I went to bed.

The next morning, Saturday, was my daughter's birthday.  We had the party with her friends prior to moving to Singapore but still wanted to make her actual day a special one.  It started rather inauspiciously.  I, along with my cousin, took the kids on a 15 minute walk to a nearby park.  Storm clouds approached as we walked there and, after ten minutes of playing, the storm unleashed its fury with torrents of rain and abundant lightning.  We too shelter under a pavilion at the park hoping to wait out the rain and then walk home.  Nearly an hour later, it was still raining, but not as hard, so I decided to try our luck at hailing a cab and going home.  Thankfully, I snagged one as soon as we reached the street and we clambered our wet selves (myself being the worst because four could not fit under the umbrella) and took the two minute ride home.

The birthday cake was still baking when we arrived so I went and bought a Subway lunch.  After lunch, we watched "Hook", the Robin Williams Peter-Pan movie.  My daughter loved it and even my son was able to watch it for long stretches, though he was much more interested in crashing his toy cars.

After the movie it was time to get ready for the evening's big event:  The Lion King musical at Marina Bay Sands.  Through our apartment, we arranged a baby sitter for our son so the rest of us could enjoy the show sans screaming baby.  Our daughter donned her princess crown and a lovely dress and we went to the hotel for dinner prior to the show.

Marina Bay Sands is heralded as one of the new man-made marvels in the world.  It has received mention in all of the international press and even been featured in a Discovery Channel special.  It doesn't disappoint (see pictures below).  It even has an indoor ice skating rink.

We ate at an Italian restaurant.  Our daughter obviously recognized we were at a very fancy restaurant as she was on her best behavior and made sure to sit properly and quietly with her napkin in her lap.  After dinner we attended the main event.  Even though our daughter had seen it once before in Phoenix prior to our departure, it had the desired effect:  She loved it.  They must change it slightly for each of the markets in which it plays, too, because it was a little different from how I remembered it, with some local reference (ie, Merlion) thrown in.

It was nearly 11 PM when the show finished and I carried our daughter to the taxi stand.  The excitement of the night finally over, she fell asleep on the short walk there.  The line was extremely long.  Luckily, Singapore has a policy that pregnant women and the elderly get priority, and I'm not too proud to use this benefit, so we cut to the front of the line and were home shortly after 11.

Sunday I had to leave for the airport by 4 PM, so we made a return trip to the park - this time with mom and without rain - and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming.  It was a good trip, but far too short.  I'm glad my next trip there I won't leave until we all return as a family of five.

 

 

Bachelor life sucks when you're married

I normally try to post to my blog on the weekends.  My weeknights are typically busy with activities, and weekdays with work, so weekends are the only time to post.  With the family in Singapore, I have a lot more time for posting....but a lot less worth talking about.  It's pretty bleak living in a large house when the family is somewhere else.

My days are as routine as I can make them.  I go to work at the same time, I come home at the same time.  I even have tried to make my evenings resemble my normal routine...but the wife nixed the at-home massage while she's gone, so my Monday nights leave me wanting for an activity.  Last week, my yoga teacher confirmed our session and then cancelled five minutes later.  It was her birthday and her friends surprised her.  That axed my Wednesday night.  Thursday was a holiday, so no rugby.  My week wasn't very routine.

Even the help is off schedule.  Not wanting to pay our nannies for two months of not working, I set a schedule where the two nannies and our maid split the weeks.  So they come at 5 PM and leave at 7 PM.  Just long enough to clean, do a load of laundry, and make my three meals.  Not sure the laundry is working out so well.  All my clothes smell like mildew.

The family, at least, is enjoying Singapore....at least the apartment in Singapore.  My cousin doesn't know where to go and my wife is too pregnant to have the energy to really go anywhere, so they seldom leave the apartment.  On the plus side, Great World City upgraded us from a two bedroom to a three bedroom!  They said it was because we were repeat customers.  I think it had more to do with the fact that we kept asking them to remove furniture to make room for kids beds (cribs, etc) and they didn't have anywhere else to put it.  Whatever the reason, they are awesome and we really appreciate it!  This is how to run a company.  I wish I could say we will use them again, but I think the opportunity is unlikely.  If the opportunity presents itself, however, we would definitely return.

On Friday I'll rejoin my family in Singapore.  Saturday is my daughter's birthday and nothing is stopping me from being around for that.  I bought us tickets to the Lion King musical (which, oddly enough, my daughter already saw in Arizona when she was three) as her birthday present.  We will all go on Saturday night...minus the little guy.  They would let him, but I don't think we'd get to enjoy the show if he was there.  It's past his bedtime.

Culture Differences Work Both Ways

Over the past year, my company has been working on a major project involving all facets of the business, including technology.  This is a global project managed and driven from our corporate headquarters.  The project has afforded several members of my staff to make their first ever trip to the US; for some, it was their first time ever leaving Indonesia.  This week, I held a team meeting to announce some promotions and hand out awards for a program I initiated at the beginning of the year.  We took the opportunity to ask our global travelers to share anecdotes from their trips to the US.  Here are three of the funnier ones:

1)  In Indonesia, like Britain and Australia, traffic drives on the left side of the street, not the right.  This is more pervasive than you would ever imagine.  For example, next time you're walking towards someone in the hallway, move left instead of right and watch their reaction.  It isn't natural.  One of my staff had a layover in San Francisco and needed to catch a shuttle bus to the hotel.  He stood on the curb for nearly an hour and didn't understand why the bus wasn't coming.  Then he realized, he was on the wrong side of the street.  Similar problem when he walked up to the bus and didn't understand why there wasn't a door.

2)  Live in Phoenix long enough and you're sure to hear someone complain about how bad the traffic is.  Having a twenty minute commute is often grounds for bragging rights at a social event.  By US standards, Phoenix traffic is bad.  It's usually in the top 10 of national surveys for bad traffic.  One of the things that EVERY member of my staff said the liked so much about Phoenix?  No traffic.  When you are comparing it to Jakarta, where a 7 mile drive can take 90 minutes on a good day, Phoenix traffic is heavenly.

3)  Language is another interesting challenge.  My good friend, Pete Faur, discusses on his blog the difficulties foreigners have with the word "fix".  Add the phrase "to go" to this list.  In Jakarta, if you plan to eat somewhere other than the restaurant, or you want a doggie bag, you use the phrase "take away".  One of my employees approached the counter at McDonald's and placed his order.  As is customary, the person behind the counter asked:  "Here or to go?"  He had no idea what she meant so he replied:  "I want to eat.  If not here, where should I go?"

I feel their pain.  It's also why I have much more sympathy for the immigrants who come to our country and struggle to learn our language. It isn't easy.  It's so idiomatic, so full of slang, even when you think you grasp it, you don't.  And when it comes to something as important as legal rights, medical care, or the democratic process, I would prefer new citizens to have the option of fully understanding their rights through use of their native language.  I don't think this is too much to ask.

International Trade

Spending three days in Singapore reminded me how much there is to like about the city.  Some, like cleanliness, are quite basic.  Others demonstrate thought processes advanced enough that we should view Singapore as an example to the world of how a nation can be run.

Below are three things I would import from Singapore:

Grocery carts.  It is difficult to imagine, indeed, that something as mundane and uninteresting as a grocery cart would be worthy of global emulation, yet it is so.  All my life I have heard comedians mock the one wheel of the grocery cart that wobbles when in use.  In Singapore, and in Jakarta as well, the wheels rotate 360 degrees.  In a society that heralds community, that grocery carts possess the ability to quickly move out of the way of someone navigating down the aisle should come as no surprise.  But Singapore takes it one step further.  In several of the books I have read, most notably those by Gladwell, there is mention that supermarkets are always looking for ways to cover the cost of corralling grocery carts after customers bring the groceries to their cars.  Paying lot attendants to gather them periodically throughout the day costs grocery stores millions of dollars per year.  How does Singapore address this expense?  Much the same way as airports do luggage carriers.  To use a grocery cart, a patron must place a $1 coin into a slot do dislodge it from the other carts.  Upon return to the cart corral, you can then retrieve your dollar by reconnecting your cart to the others gathered there.  I would love to see the US grocery stores implement this using a quarter.  Give the homeless something to do other than ask me for change as I exit the store.

Assigned seats in movie theaters.  If you've ever attempted to see a blockbuster movie on opening weekend, you know the importance of not just buying your ticket early, but also standing in line long before other customers to have your choice of seats.  If you are a late arrival, be prepared to sit separate from your date (God forbid anyone slide to the center) or sit in the second row and leave the show with a sore neck.  Singapore theaters have solved this problem by requiring you to select your seat at the time of purchase.  This is such a simple difference that I am surprised that no theaters (of which I am aware) have begun to do this in the US.  As we push more and more people to buy their tickets in advance online, having them select their seat at time of purchase is an idea whose time has arrived.

Medical system.  Last, but certainly not least, as I've mentioned several times before on this blog, the US should implement Singapore's medical system.  So much health care debate in the US centers around what it would cost to insure everyone.  People assume that, if everyone is covered, the country would go broke.  A 2004 Kaiser commission study concluded it would increase existing government expense by $48 billion.  The study neglects to recognize what a CBS investigation found in the same year:  hospitals charge 2.5x more to uninsured than what they charge insurance companies. 

In reality, as Singapore demonstrates, insuring everyone will drive costs DOWN, not up, especially if we use the Singapore system, for two reasons.  First, medical facilities, specifically those who, by law, cannot turn anyone away, set prices according to their ability to recover.  Most hospitals, in addition to providing care, need to make a profit.  They are bound by the same laws of economics as a traditional business - marginal revenue must equal marginal cost.  This means those that CAN pay, will pay a price high enough to cover for those who CANNOT pay.  Otherwise, hospitals go out of business.  When everyone CAN pay, marginal cost (the cost of servicing one more patient) will drop, which will cause the price to drop. 

The second reason is the result of a more fundamental law of economics:  supply and demand.  Today, because copays hide the actual cost of service from anyone with insurance, we live in an environment with what is known as a "moral hazard".  Meaning, we will consume as much as health care services as our ability to pay the copay amount:  we're price insensitive.  Think of it this way, if you had insurance for purchasing diamonds, and you only ever had to pay $25 to buy a diamond, would you stop after you had purchased the two you needed for your earrings, or would you load up?  Singapore's universal coverage also has a copay, but in a different way.  Each person, according to their income, has a medical expense cap.  Once you've reached that cap, the government picks up the remaining cost of services.  This approach removes the moral hazard and forces patients to be price-sensitive.  If you know that you have to spend $2,000 out of your own pocket before the government picks up the tab, are you having your procedure at a facility that charges $100 or $50, assuming equal quality?  Obviously, you'll go to the $50 facility - it's your money.  When medical providers compete on price and quality, instead of paying marketing expenses to get on the "preferred vendor list" of an insurance company cost of service goes down and quality goes up.  It's really quite simple.


Unfortunately, I don't think any of the above will occur in the near future.  The medical changes, especially, are unlikely.  Medical insurance is a multi-billion dollar industry, with a very strong lobbying presence, and politicians who want to gain re-election don't walk away from that kind of funding.  Doesn't stop me from hoping.  Who knows, if enough of us write letters to our representatives, maybe we can make it happen.

Moved the Family to Singapore

Saturday, a few hours after the conclusion of our daughter's school program, we flew to Singapore.  As always, the flight was uneventful and we arrived in Singapore on schedule.  Upon our arrival, I challenged my cousin.  She hasn't traveled internationally before, and her flight home includes exchanges in some fairly complicated airports, so I said we would follow her.  She did fine once she realized we needed to go to "arrivals" not "departures".

A $50 van ride later we arrived at our home away from our home away from home - Great World City Apartments in Singapore.  The gentleman checking us in remembered us - from nearly two years ago!  He said it was because I have a unique last name.  I guess in SE Asia, full of Ho's and Wang's and Minh's, my last name would be fairly unique.  Something tells me that in Western England or the southern US no one would bat an eye.

The first thing we had to do after dropping our bags in the room was eat dinner.  And, when we're in Singapore, tradition dictates that our first meal - or one of our first meals - must be at Subway.  So I stayed with the kids in our new apartment (which is half the size of our house in Jakarta) and my wife and cousin went to the mall and bought us Subway dinner and water from the grocery store.  I had hoped they would also buy cereal for the next morning's breakfast, but my wife had other plans (she's sneaky that way).  After eating, I tried to go buy breakfast, only to find everything had closed at 10 PM.  That meant, according to my wife's plan, we ate breakfast the next morning at Starbucks....where she was able to get her beloved bagel and cream cheese.

Sunday we took my cousin, a professional shopper, to Orchard Road - the world's largest mall.  It's really about twenty different malls, lining both sides of the street each with 5-10 floors of shops, but because they are all connected by subterranean tunnels - which also have their own shops - I consider them all one big mall.  Needless to say, she fell in love and now wants to move to Singapore on a permanent basis.  I'm sure her folks will be sending me thank you letters for that one.

Monday we had another visit with our obstetrician who assured us that, contrary to our Indonesian doctor's belief, our baby was not on the large side.  In Singapore, they actually take into consideration the parent's nationality and measure your baby's growth according to the averages of your home country.  In Jakarta, they compare your baby to other Indonesians.  Compared to Indonesians, our son is big; compared to Americans, he's just another average baby.

An hour or so after the doctor's appointment I kissed everyone good bye and left for the airport.  I'll be in Jakarta the rest of June, making a trip back to Singapore for the weekend of my daughter's actual birthday, and then returning on a more permanent basis at the end of June.  Then we'll all come back together, new addition in tow.

Week before Singapore

In our final week before moving to Singapore for two months, we wanted to show my visiting cousin more about Jakarta and pay one last visit to a favorite place of our daughter.

Saturday closed out the birthday party and the adults needed rest.  Sunday, usually our "day without staff", we instead went to Kidzania.  They've added new activities and move others since our last visit, so it was like being there for the first time again.  Our daughter tried activities she hadn't done before - making cookies and bottled water, and then did some old favorites - getting a tattoo and watching the Peter Pan play.  She wore the tattoo for well over a week.

No trip visit to Jakarta is complete without a trip to Hacienda, so after Kidzania, we took everyone there for a late lunch.  This was, amazingly, the first time we brought my cousin to the restaurant.  She's not a spicy food eater, but she was a trooper and tried the Jalapeno Poppers.

The other culinary experience we try to offer our visitors is traditional Indonesian food.  We had yet to do this with my cousin, too, so I found a day during the week that I could take a long lunch and we went to a local restaurant for traditional Indonesian fare.  We sampled Rendang (beef cooked in coconut milk and pepper spices), Sate (beef and chicken on a stick), a salad with sweet peanut sauce dressing, and a broccoli and beef dish.  The desserts were the most bizarre for our visitor.  Ever had cooked mushed banana flavored with a strong cheese?  She has.  It's a local favorite.  It has a unique taste that I can tolerate but don't truly enjoy.  When compared to the other local favorite - Durian - I wonder why Indonesians like desserts that smell like rancid trash instead of that smell sweet.

Our week ended with the reason for us remaining so long in Jakarta.  My wife is 34 weeks pregnant.  With our first son, we moved to Singapore when she was 32 weeks.  Airlines don't like pregnant women flying past 30 weeks, and we have to obtain a note from an airline approved doctor to do so.  Our daughter's school program, something she spends six months preparing for, was on 28 May.  There was no way we were moving to Singapore before she was able to perform.  Saturday was her performance, and, as always, she did great.  The theme was sea-life, and, in one of her five scenes, our daughter was a seahorse.  The underlying message of the program - which followed the travails of a great white shark trying to make friends with sea-life other than sharks - was to celebrate your own uniqueness and also not be afraid to be friends with those who are different.  Our daughter's one line, which she said when the shark asked if he could be their friends, was:  "Great White Shark, are you crazy?"

As with the prior two shows, parents, in their attempt to get the PERFECT shot of their little scion, were rude and inconsiderate of those around them.  My wife tried to take a few pictures and got nothing more than the backs of the people standing in front of her blocking her view.  She eventually joined me upstairs - a location I knew from the prior two shows was the only place to video the performance - so she could actually see.  Five must also be the age at which rivalry begins.  One of my daughter's "friends" made fun of the way she gave her line, saying she mumbled it.  What I am learning very quickly is how much kids, especially at a young age, are a reflection of their parents.  Forces me to be on my best behavior.