Goofy orange teeth

need I say more?

Brewin' - part 2

After a few weeks stinking up memere's room.. I mean, fermenting in a cool place.. the beer was ready to bottle.  And Zeric was ready too.  After lots of scrubbing and sterilizing.. the dark brown elixir was carefully transferred to about two cases of bottles.  Then capped. 

Now, it's back in the cold room (less stinky this time.. which is good because memere arrives in two days) for a few more weeks until it's ready to sample.  We will keep you posted!

 

Gugun Blues Shelter - jazz!

Last weekend, one night, we jumped on our Vespa, met Jacqueline and Marc who had jumped on their Honda Scoopy.. and we zoomed around south Jakarta.  We ended up at Red and White Jazz Lounge and got lucky - Gugun Blues Shelter was playing! They are quite well-known and a lot of fun to listen to.  See their site for lots of info and video clips! http://blues-shelter.com/

 

Fun in the pool

The crappy things about living in the tropics are floods and tsunamis, but the good thing about living in the tropics is that you can have birthday pool parties year round. This one was a good one.. it was the 9th birthday of the big sister of the twins Chloe and Andrea in Eben's class.  The kids had a blast!!

Velma the Vespa

Truthfully, she has been grouchy lately.. and has had a lot to say about Zeric putting the wrong oil in her tank.  But, she is still very pretty and people like to hang out with her.

 

Including Jaffa and Eben and their new friend Angie.

Zeric is making Vespa friends all over Jakarta. 

Soon, I'm sure I will be paying annual dues to the Vespa Club.  Not even kidding.

Moza and Pita

We met Ibu Zizi our second day in Indonesia as she is one of the secretary's in Zeric's office, and she is fabulous.  She has helped us with a million things, and she is just a lovely person.  AND - she invited us to her son's wedding!!!  We were so excited to get dressed up and go hang with her and our friends.

the processional.. Ibu Zizi is the one behind the groom

 

Moza and Pita

(and Ibu Zizi on the right, the husbands were there.. just somehow got cut out of this picture!)

 

The USAID DG Office (and families) with bride and groom

 

onlookers

 

Breslar-Smiths decked out!

 

 

Jakarta floods



a gutter in our neighborhood, about 3 feet deep.. here already full to the street and rising

 

As most of you have heard, this is the year for flooding in Jakarta. It happens every 5 or 6 years.. so we were bracing ourselves last year (not knowing what we were bracing ourselves for), but learned that those were just heavy rains. It's amazing how inadequate the infrastructure is for something that is this predictable. And so very sad how many people have lost their lives or lost their homes. Fortunately, there is a lot of support.. from the Government of Indonesia and from all kinds of charities and non-profits and corporates.

Still, when it starts to rain hard, it only takes about 20 minutes for the water to rise enough to take over streets and make them impassable. It's fast, and it's scary.

 

I found some really good (okay, illustrative) pictures here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9809569/Monsoon-rains-trigger-floods-in-Jakarta-Indonesia-paralysing-city-of-14-million.html