At Long Last, My Novel

Finally received the excellent cover art for my novel.  You can purchase it here:

You can also find my short story collection here:

New Year's Eve

With Christmas in the books and 2011 behind us, it was time to focus our efforts on closing out the old year and bringing in the new one.

We received such great feedback for our Halloween party, we were hoping to host a smaller, but just as fun, New Year’s Eve party for those who did not return to their home country. Unfortunately, only one other couple was able to commit far enough in advance for us to make proper arrangements, our two families decided to book rooms at the Shangri-La in Jakarta and attend the New Year’s Party at the hotel club BATS (Bar At The Shangri-La).

No sooner had we booked the room and purchased our non-refundable tickets then the inquiries started coming in. What are you guys doing for New Years? Are more tickets available? Can we bring friends? Our party of five quickly ballooned to a party of 19….a great size for a hosted New Year’s Eve party that would have saved us all money on hotel rooms and tickets to the club.

For my family, the hotel needed to accommodate three adults and three children (my wife’s cousin from Idaho was joining us). My booking was for a suite with an adjoining deluxe room with a baby cot and additional bed in the suite. When we arrived, we were told the rooms were already setup with the additional beds and were on separate floors. I objected, showing them the confirmation on my reservation. Forty minutes later, they had moved us to a new location, but said they would have to give us keys to the adjoining room later because it was “dirty” and needed cleaning.

The family we originally made reservations with sent me a text notifying that they were at the hotel and in their room. He complained they had moved them from their first room because something was broken. I asked what number he was in. He said they were being asked to move again because of an “engineering issue” in their room, then told me the number they were currently in. It was the adjoining suite! I knocked on his door and said: “You’re moving because you are in my suite. You must be the ‘dirt’ they were referring to.” The hotel apologized for the mix-up by providing them with a $300 bottle of champagne with which to bring in the New Year.

After settling into our rooms, my wife and her cousin went shopping for a dress to wear that evening and I took the kids to the pool. My son amazed me by jumping from the wall into the pool and swimming to me. He hadn’t shown the capability in the past and, once he realized he could do it, he spent the rest of the afternoon doing it non-stop. My daughter amazed me with her patience. I couldn’t entertain her and catch my son at the same time. She waited until he was tired and ready for a break, then her and I went and swam together for a while. A thunderstorm finally drove us inside.

We ordered the kids a room service dinner and got ourselves ready for the night. We were meeting friends for drinks at 8 then heading down for a 9 PM dinner. The kids ate and we got them ready for bed. Then, the beds for the kids never showed up. The second time we called, they told us they had none to bring us because they were sold out.

We left the kids with our nannies at 8 PM and went to the Club Lounge for drinks prior to heading down for dinner. The club lounge is for guests in suites and those who have paid extra for access to the floor. They have a special concierge for these VIP guests. I explained our bedding situation and asked them to rectify it quickly because our kids were ready for bed. I showed them the confirmation and said I wanted them to fix it even if they had to take a full size bed out of another room and go to the store to buy a new crib. Twenty minutes later they came back to tell me everything was fixed and they gave us a bottle of wine for our troubles. I love companies that recognize when they make a mistake and apologize for it. A strong track record before this incident, and the way they handled this one, are why we will continue to use Shangri-La hotels.

After finishing our drinks and meeting a new couple who would join us for the evening, we headed down to BATS for the evening’s festivities. Dinner was great, and they special ordered me a few items because of my allergies to seafood. Most people had a first course of Shrimp, followed by a lobster bisque, then a Salmon main course. I had a garden salad, tomato soup, and a nice steak. After dinner a live band covered the major hits and introduced the New Year. I made a fool of myself on the dance floor and we were all ready to crash when we finally went to bed at 2 AM.

The next morning we woke with the kids at 5:30. We waited until 9 to go down for the buffet breakfast, only to find ourselves standing in a very long line. We changed our mind and instead went back up to the Club Lounge and had breakfast there (both were free to us).

After breakfast we returned home and spent New Year’s Day fighting to remain awake while the kids played.

 

Christmas

It’s difficult to make Christmas feel like Christmas in Jakarta. I imagine people who grew up in Hawaii wouldn’t notice a difference, but for those of us who grew up in the Midwest, or even in Arizona, Christmas here is very different. The malls still decorate with big trees, have carolers singing, and some even have snow fall from the ceiling, but the city doesn’t feel Christmas like cities do in the US. That doesn’t stop us from trying, though.

This year, Santa decided to introduce our family to his “Elf on a Shelf” program. With this program, he assigns an elf to each child in the family (except the babies) and the elf watches them all day and reports back to him each night. The elf arrives while you are sleeping, finds an observation point for the day, and changes location each day. You are required to name your elf, and you may talk to him or her, but touching is absolutely forbidden and could result in the forfeiture of all of your presents. It is important the elf does not see you misbehaving and deliver a bad report. And they move every day because half the fun is trying to find their new hiding spot!

Our kids must have been really good because Santa brought some cool new toys. The toy kitchen I’m sure required several hours of hard work with inferior tools and misleading directions to assemble. I’m not sure Santa was thinking of the parents when he gave our toddler a toy drum, but it has turned out okay nonetheless. Gifts from family were overwhelming for everyone, but, thankfully, they all arrived on time (at least from those who sent them on time).

We continued our tradition of hot chocolate and cinnamon toast for breakfast, and the kids enjoyed playing with their new toys all morning….then got bored with them, as they are wont to do. Mom and dad got cool gifts, too. I got a pogo stick and enough books to keep me occupied through February (finished half already), and my wife received I Love Lucy DVDs and the electronics I mentioned in our Singapore post. Santa had a few choice consumables for us in our stockings, too, but our kids ended up eating most of them.

The hardest part about Christmas in Jakarta is being away from the rituals, the culture, and the company of family. Exchanging gifts via DHL is not the same as playing the Gift Trade game where we steal and exchange gifts in a free-for-all fight of luck, timing and team strategy….ahhh, good times. Saying thank-you in person is always better than sending a note….requires less effort! And I hate not being able to veg-out in front of the TV watching football. Holidays are just not the same without watching grown men maul each other in the hopes of holding up a trophy at the end of the year.

But mankind is nothing if not adaptable, and we adapted to Christmas in Jakarta….so long as there isn’t another one.

 

 

 

Singapore

As the end of the year wound down, I found myself with vacation and travel allowance balances I needed to use before the end of the year. I reserved a few days for when we had visiting family, and we booked a four-day weekend in Singapore with the balance.

When we visit Singapore, we typically stay in the city and walk to nearby attractions or take the subway to Universal Studios or Sentosa Island. This time, we decided to stay on Sentosa Island intending to have a relaxing beach vacation. I booked us a suite at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort, right on the beach. Unfortunately, weather did not accommodate our plans.

In my prior post, I related the travel experience. The key lesson there: they will let you travel with an expired passport, but it will be a trying experience. I elaborate on our stay in this post.

We arrived on a Friday and awoke to overcast skies on Saturday. We had our large breakfast buffet then took a walk on the beach before heading to Chinatown for some holiday photos of the kids. That required most of the morning, and it was raining by the time we returned to the hotel. We had lunch, hoping it would stop raining, but it didn’t. We decided our best option was to complete the shopping we needed to do while in town, so that’s what we did. We loaded up on supplies for the kids, and I bought my wife her Christmas present from me (a Macbook Air) and from our kids (a new digital camera because our daughter broke the last one).

After a room service dinner, we passed out from exhaustion of travel and wandering the city all day. We awoke Sunday morning to more rain. We hoped it would clear after breakfast, but it never did. Not knowing what else to do with the kids since all of the activities we had come there for were outdoors, we suggested she try the kids club run by the hotel. She was reluctant, but agreed to try it. We didn’t see her again, except at dinner, for the rest of the trip. She absolutely loved the activities they offered. Thank you Rasa Sentosa!

That left us with the two boys. The baby is easy to entertain. Feed him, change him, hold him and let him observe and he’s happy. Our 2 year-old was a little harder. Sunday, we tried the toddler play area, but that only took up an hour. We tried playing in the room, but that didn’t last long either before he became bored. During a few breaks in the rain we did manage to go for a swim or watch the boats in the ocean, but the day just seemed to coast by in boredom for everyone.

When Monday greeted us with more rain, we knew staying at the hotel was not an option. We dropped our daughter at the Kids Club and took our sons across the street to the Aquarium. It’s small, and the weather shortened the one sea lion/dolphin show they have to a mere fifteen minutes, but the kids enjoyed viewing the big fish and watching daddy pet the sharks in the wade pool. The aquarium only ate up a few hours, but the rain had slowed to a mist when we finished, so we walked further up the street to Fort Siloso and took a tour. It is an interesting tour with good history of the Japanese invasion during WWII, but difficult to do pushing a stroller and under slick conditions. I nearly slipped off the wooden bridge as we maneuvered our way down the hill. The signs warning us to watch for poisonous green tree snakes did not contribute to our enjoyment in the least.

It is unfortunate the weather was so poor. The hotel was great and would have been even better had we been able to enjoy the beach, the sea water activities, the pool and the water slides. The resort is built with families in mind….though I would have preferred a hot tub that was actually hot. Even the stray monkeys jumping from balcony to balcony in search of food and mischief were scarcely seen due to the weather, though we did manage to get pretty close to them when they meandered by our room.

I hope we get an opportunity to go back. I don’t think we obtained the full enjoyment we could have from the experience.

 

 

 

Kids Update

Most of the content of my blog focuses on life as an adult, with minor glimpses into the life of an expat child. This entry will be more about life as a child….or at least, the lives of my children.

 

Our 5 year-old daughter began kindergarten this year at the major international school here in Jakarta. None of the friends she made in pre-school transitioned with her, so she had to start making friends from scratch – something she’s done every year since we arrived. Some stayed at her original school, others went to a different international school – German, New Zealand, British, etc. Luckily, our next door neighbor attends the same school and is in her class. On the one hand, the experience of starting over will help her when we move back to Phoenix. On the other, continuity of friends is a fond memory I have from my childhood, and I’m sorry she hasn’t experienced that yet.

 

As expected, she has thrived in Kindergarten. So much so that she is sad and upset on days she doesn’t go to school. She looks forward to school. The school she attends includes students from K – 12. It’s where I used to play rugby on Thursday nights (something I’ve long since stopped doing). We originally drove her to school each morning, but now she takes the bus, which picks her up in our driveway. On days she does not have after school activities, she takes the bus home. In Phoenix, she’ll be walking to school each day, so riding the bus is a limited-time experience for her.

 

She has a teacher with an assistant for her primary lessons – math, reading, writing and general behavior - and a separate teacher for art, gym and music. After school she has Tae Kwon Do and Dance on different days of the week. She really enjoys Tae Kwon Do and has already advanced from beginner to her second belt! Now she’s teaching momma how to kick properly – “use your heel, thrust from your hip!” In December, on the last day of school, she had her Holiday Program and sang and danced for all the parents in attendance.

 

Moving away from our old home at Kemang Club Villas has made it more difficult to stay in touch with friends and spend time outdoors, but we’ve found ways to make it happen. We’re on our fourth nanny, but believe we have a good one now, and the kids really like her, too, which is important.

 

Our 2 year-old son started his first school last year, too. He’s attending the same Montessori our daughter did. We started him with just a few days a week, but he enjoyed it so much we extended him to full-time. His language skills are advancing rapidly as a result. We’ve invited a few classmates over on play dates and for his birthday party, but we’ve stopped doing it because he ignores them. He prefers to play with his big sister and her friends or with momma. I’m sure that will eventually change.

 

He is really interested in things that move – cars, trucks, buses, airplanes – always calling them out when we pass them and playing with his toy versions of them. He also mimics his sister like an echo. If she doesn’t like something, he doesn’t like it. If she likes something, he likes it. At 6:30 every night, when Disney’s Jake and the Neverland Pirates are on, he cheers and shouts like his sister does, even if she is not in the room. He even sings the theme song now.

 

We’re starting to get glimpses of his personality, too. He is persistent, brave, and very curious. Nothing stops him, nothing scares him, and he wants to be involved in everything. A few anecdotes:

1. Sunday afternoon and momma and sister are getting their nails done and I’m watching the two boys. We go out back to get some playtime outside. The 2 year-old sits in the chair next to me and says “Talk to me”. I nearly laughed out loud. I asked him how he enjoyed school and he rattled on for a good two minutes about his teacher, singing, and funny stories. Of course I only understood about half the words he said, but I got the gist of what he was saying.
2. Earlier this week after dinner, on a night both children were denied dessert for different reasons, our daughter was on the couch eating a second helping of home-baked fries. Our son, who also likes fries, thought this was dessert and approached us asking: “Dessert me too?” We assumed he was reminding us he did not get dessert, either, and we agreed. He then walked back to the couch while my wife and I remained at the dinner table in conversation. Soon, he shrieked in frustration, our daughter yelled at him, and he came screaming into the dining room clutching a fry. He points to his momma and says “Dessert me too!” I called him over, took the fry from him, and said: “Did someone give this to you?” “Yes”, he replies. “Who gave this to you”, I ask. “Me”, he replies. Hilarious!
3. A few days ago, he climbs on the chair at our home office and announces “My chair.” I say: “No, that’s my chair.” He replies, “No, my chair. Sit on my lap.” “I can’t sit on your lap”, I reply, “I’m too heavy.” “No, I’m strong”, he says. So, I sit on his lap, slowly putting more and more weight on him, waiting for him to say I’m too heavy. He never does, so I stand up and he says “See, I’m strong.”

Last but not least is the baby. He’s nearly six months old now and he is by far the quietest baby we’ve had. He seems very content to just watch the world around him. He’ll cry if he’s hungry, and occasionally when bored, but nowhere near the frequency or volume of our first two. He’s sitting up on his own, and he isn’t yet crawling but he spins himself in circles on his stomach. We’ve just started transitioning him from liquids-only to rice and baby food. He finds his older sister absolutely hilarious and also laughs when you make noise by blowing across the open mouth of a water bottle – not sure what that means. He hasn’t had a hardy, sustained laugh, yet, but we’ll video and post it the moment he does.

 

Overall, we couldn’t be happier with or more proud of our kids. It’s a blast watching them develop.

 

 

 

 

Simple Way to View US Financial Woes

Let's see if I can simplify the US Deficit/Deb situation using the numbers provided here:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/tables.pdf

 

2010 Tax Revenue:  $2,163,000,000,000

2010 Expenditures:  $3,456,000,000,000

 

2010 Deficit:  $1,293,000,000,000

2010 Debt:    $9,019,000,000,000

 

2012 Budget Cuts:  $38,500,000,000

 

Remove 8 zeroes to bring this down to what a household budget might look like:

 

2010 Salary:       $21,630

2010 Spending:  $34,560

 

2010 Amount added to debt:  $12,930

2010 Credit Card Debt:  $90,190

 

2012 expense reduction we're proud of:  $385

Filling a Void

There are no poems about Expats,

At least none of which I'm aware

Doctors, soldiers and athletes

All seem to have their share

 

But there are no poems about Expats

It's like they don't even exist

Not wanting this void to continue

I've written the world this.

December was a whirlwind!

December was quite the busy month for us in Jakarta.  There didn't seem to be a free night, weekend, or afternoon anywhere.  January is starting in similar fashion, so I'll give a brief summary today and circle back with pictures next week.

 

Illness.  The Flagyl worked and I hope I never take it again.  It wrecked me.  Tired, nauseous, constant headaches - it was almost worse than the disease it was curing.  Once I finished the cycle, I then had to fight a bacterial infection with a different set of antibiotics for another week.  If I ever find the food preparer who didn't wash his or her hands before cooking my food, I'm going to force them to wash their hands until the crack and bleed.

 

Events and more events.  My daughter had her end of semester Christmas program.  I always enjoy watching my kids perform on stage.  Proud is an understatement.  As long as she's having fun doing it, we'll always be there to watch.  I could do without some of the other kids, though....especially the ones that like to draw attention away from my daughter!  Are those other parents really there to watch their own kids??

 

When school completed for the term, we hopped on a plane for a four-day relaxing vacation in Singapore.  Only it wasn't that relaxing.  They almost didn't let us out of Jakarta, and then they almost didn't let us out of Singapore.  Why?  Because my wife's passport expires in May.  Singapore requires six months eligibility to enter the country.  The airline wasn't going to allow us to board the flight, but in the end, decided to allow it.  Singapore immigration didn't even mention it.  Same problem leaving Singapore, only this time, I had to spend forty minutes convincing them that because we were Jakarta residents with resident visas it wouldn't be an issue.  Indonesian immigration didn't care, either - but I had someone from my office meet us there to help grease the wheels a little.  The trip itself wasn't that great, either.  It rained non-stop the entire four days we were there.  Thankfully the hotel - Rasa Sentosa - had a kid's club.  Our daughter enthusiastically spent all four days there while we tried to entertain the two boys.

 

When we returned, we had several dinners and events to attend.  First was a going away party.  Two expat couples are transitioning.  One is taking a job with the United Nations in Kuala Lumpur, the other is taking a job in another city in Indonesia.  At the party, we thought they would both be leaving Jakarta, but it turns out the one taking a job in another city will be able to continue living where he does today and just commute.  That was good news.  After that party was a dinner party with my staff and their spouses.  This is an annual event we do around the holidays each year.  The next day was our 8th wedding anniversary.  We finally broke our fondue tradition and instead ate at a French restaurant far too pricey for the size of the food (which means it was a typical French restaurant).  We were one of two tables so service was impeccable.

 

A few days after Christmas, my wife's cousin arrived for a two week visit.  We made the requisite trip to Taman Safari the next day, followed by a tour of the famous historical sites in Jakarta the following day.  We're now capable of being tour guides if anyone else wants to use our services.

 

Holidays.  Of course the major events of the past few weeks were Christmas and New Year's.  Santa paid us a visit and left behind hours of work for daddy and days of fun for the kids.  I don't know why Santa bought our two year old a drum, but I'll have to be move involved in HER gift selection process next year.  That thing is loud.

 

For New Year's Eve, we originally planned to host a party at our house.  When we couldn't get enough people to confirm in advance, we instead decided to get a suite at the Shangri-La in Jakarta and go to one of the events they were hosting.  Another couple joined us.  Then another.  Then another.  Eventually, my reservation grew to 19 people.  I informed them we all could have saved a bundle of money if they had just confirmed attendance at our party.  We still had a great time.  The food was excellent, the band was phenomenal, and the companionship of friends was the best.  We finally returned to our rooms at 2 AM....only to wake with the kids at 5:30 the next morning.  Ugh!  Sunday afternoon naps are awesome.