junk

It's finally time to move to the house we going to live in. All the boxes and furniture were out of the blue container, and now the house full of boxes. We moved from spacious 4 bedrooms house in Perth into cozy 3 bedroom house. We kept some our belonging in the storage, in Perth. But still, we brought too many things here in to the island. After a week, the boxes still here and there in and out the house, endless unpacking....

It is quite frustrating to see the house messy and desperately want to unpack everything as soon as possible, but it's just to many thing to unpack and no place/space for them. This is the time when I think we have too much un-necessary stuff and regret that we have them. I kept saying to myself every time I open a box and unwrapped the paper, "oh... another junk" or "we don't need this" or "why do I keep this thing?" or "i should have thrown this years ago", and it going on and on and on...

I and hubby are on the same boat over treating 'stuff'. We like to keep 'stuff'. Old, broken, dirty, unnecessary, you name it. No particular reason. We just don't like to throw them. When I think more, the most possible reason is probably just for the sake of sentimental memories. So you can imagine two people have the same odd hobbies who live as nomads, have to put up with one of another stuff every time we move. MADNESS !

Hubby is better than me in some area, though. He would easily throw away his old clothes and shoes, except the one he really really like and has good sentimental history (which are not too many). But he keep almost everything related to computer, gadget, games, DVDs and CDs. Also ornaments and pictures.

As for me, I rarely throw away my clothes. I still have my jeans I wore 12 years ago, I still have t-shirt i bought in high school. I didn't remember ever throw bags, shoes, and accessories/jewellery. So I got dozens of shoes and bags, accessories and jewellery neatly saved in dozens of boxes. They are definitely still wearable, still in a good condition, because I always treated them well. But no doubt lots of them are old, out of date, and I might never wore/use them again. But I kept them anyway! Crazy,... I know ! :D Besides this, I also still keep my old diaries, photo albums/pictures, letters, and cards from many many years ago. Total crazy? I agree :D

Good thing is I and hubby never argue or complain, we are peacefully willing to put up with each others mountain of junk we collected.

We totally understand each other on this matter. :)

Last night in perth

Last night evan cough a lot. And today he coughed lot more. I managed to have lunch with winda n met hubby's colleagues and friends at his farewell lunch in his office, which was good. 

But evan didn't look good at all, he basically didn't stop coughing, had short breath, and threw up couple times. And we have to wake up at 5am tomorrow morning to catch the flight! 

After dinner we decided to take him to children hospital and thankfully got a proper and quick treatment for his cough n breath. Another long n tiring day, but i'm glad Evan looked better n he got medicines to take. We got back to the apt about 10.30 n had to do some packing too! Soooooo tireeed..... (*sigh*) 

All packed

Now evan is sleeping at the back of the car, snorring. Poor thing, he was busy bossing around one of the removalist guy that he chose to call him 'man'. He followed this man everywhere n insisted to call him man eventhough he knew his name is john. So evan would say 'hey man, pick the box!' 'where is man?' 'slowly, man' ' carefull, man!' etc etc 

We were all tired. It was wet rainy gloomy day today. Made the move a bit slow, but about 4pm finally everything's packed in 2 big containers. 

The weather so gloomy, made me more gloomy and sad when we really have to leave the house. Who knows when i can see the house again, who knows where the future will bring us. 

Cant believe we are moving again, but we are. We are going to have 2 night sleeps in a serviced apartment in perth city just accross the road from hubby's office. Then we are going to have a week holiday at hubby's parents before we start our new journey. 

Express

Last week was a big week for us. That was when we finally landed in WA, a place we planned to live in hopefully indefinetely. We were agreed it's the time to settle in one place, and so it means the time to own a house. So the new experience of looking houses to buy began. We've done some research over the internet in the last 5 months and decided on location, what kind of house we wanted. We started to look houses on day 2 after we got here. After looking around 10 houses, we were both fall in love only on 1 house. On day 5 we decided to put an offer and it accepted the next day. And that's it. We bought a house!

Does it sound easy? I heard it took months for peope to find a house they really like. I still not believe myself. But I guess everything in our live pretty much happened just like that. I just hope it was a right decision.

Can't wait to move in to the new house. But of course we have to wait for banking, paperworks, legal, and any other stuff before we move in. It might takes a month, maybe less, can be more. I just need to be patient.

I get mix feeling about this. Happy that we finally got a house, a home of our own. Excited to make up the house, shop for the house, and be the queen in it. And in the other hand also feel uneasy to commit on having a long-term credit, something i never have or done before. I'm kind of person who always pay-off credit bills. I don't like to have debt and pay interest. But to get a big thing like house we have no choice, like many other people but take a mortgage. Days ahead might be a survival, but we'll just take it easy. Enjoy the new town, new lifestyle, and the house with the boys, that's all I will do.

Hello!

yeah, just to say hello to make sure i'm still alive. :) live has been once again rolling up-side down here and there like a roller coaster since we move from amman in june. We are now still living in our suitcases with limited internet connection. So many words to tell but have to wait. Our 2 months 'supposed to be' holiday in jakarta and gresford has ended. Only 3 of us again now, in a very new place, that we hope to finally be call a home. New chapter of our lives has begun. more stories to come for sure.

On The Move

it's finally the time to move again! After 2 years n 2 months full of adventure, we are now have to be ready for the bigger challenge in our lives. Have to say that i enjoyed the posting, its lifestyle, and culture. What i treasure the most was the sincere friendship and knowledge about life from friends i met there. Dont forget i had the biggest change in my life by having my first son during that period. it was all overwhelming as well as a great experience in overall. I felt very lucky.

It's official that we are living in suitcases since we moved from our apt in amman in mid june. departed jordan on the 3/7, we flew for 18 hours to jakarta. Business class flight from amman to abu dhabi went well. Evan had lots of fun. The hassle started after 6 hour transit and when we finally got in to the plane at 3.30am. we r all very tired. very dissapointed with seating model and arrangement of the business class of the airlines we flew with. It was way not comfortable especially if travel with infant. Anyway, we arrived jakarta safe and sound. I was tired, my back sore, but happy to land on the place i know.

Jakarta oh jakarta... How i miss this poluted city. my last visit was 2 years ago. I thought it didnt change much, but as i went along i noticed all the changes which sometimes surprised me. Evan was of course the centre of attention everywhere we went. He enjoyed that so much, i believed. Our plan to go to jogja, puncak, and anyer were cancelled. Too hard with and without the bub. so we made lots of trips only to the malls in town. The bad news was that evan got sick, the first time in his life. jakarta germs might be too strong for him. But he certainly had fun too and get better few days before we flew to sydney. the highlight of this trip was that we got to get together for my mum's 60th birthday and had the family photo session together. the high school reunion i attended was also a great fun.

Trip to jakarta has never been long enough. despite of the heat and evan's sickness, i always love the town n the people i know. After 3 weeks spoilt by my mum, it's the time to go to the kangaroo land. We spent another 4 weeks in hunter valley, nsw, where evan saw and walk on the grass for the first time. :) the flight was ok, we had a little problem with lugage though. we have so many bags! Anyway, again, we didnt do much there but enjoying the fresh country air, the stars, and silence. We had fun catching up with families and prepare few things for our final move to WA.

early september we finally landed in perth. I realised we are really on our own now. Our long holiday has finished, and new adventure is ahead, hopefully a great one.

What Has Happened

Here is what has happened in the past few days

Unpack our stuff (of course!), which packed in 71 boxes, weight more than 1400 kg.

Taking out things from the boxes are easy. It finished in 3 days. But arranging and tidy things up around the house, that does took more than a week.

House is more like a house now. No more echoes because of empty big space. All drawers and cabinet filled. I’m surrounded by things that familiar to me. Even the smell of the house changed. Smell like our house.

Found a scale from one of the boxes. Found out I put on weight. 2 kg. (oops!). Exercise! I need exercise!

Had gain another bad habit. Lucky if I can sleep before 2am. Then I’ll get up very late and feel tired the whole morning. Will feel better and have more energy around 5pm onwards, and less and less dream! I found this very very strange.

Had enjoyed a few drinks since I've been here but no allergy reaction. Yay! But I drank the most poisoned cocktail I've ever had last week, one glass of vodka with mix fruit juice. Not only it calm me down (very strangely too “calm”) (*grin*), but also gave itchiness for a week. The worst I've ever had!

Attended the weirdest wedding I've ever been to. For the start, reception started at 8.30pm (which make me eat something before we go) Women guest placed in different room with men guest. Then the meal didn’t come out until 11.30pm (glad I’m smart enough to have noodles before we go). Few big round tables and chairs, big video screen screening what the couple’s doing before and at the reception, a decorated stage for bride, cheerful and romantic music with a blast sound system, and dance floor in women’s room. Only tables and chairs in men’s room, but they got appetiser first. The strangest thing was that men’s guest can’t see the bride! What’s the point to go to a wedding if you can’t see the bride and groom? But apart from all odd, we are glad we were invited. I was lucky enough to be in women’s room as I could see both bride and groom. The Bride was beautiful and gloomed. The Groom looked happy. They danced on the dance floor so romantically, like they were the only people in the world, whilst guest and cameramen were busy taking pictures and video. They looked very relax, happy, and in love! I’ve never seen anything like that in a wedding party. I almost burst in tears! We wished them a happy new life together.

Had been hearing lots of ‘local’ top-40 music. I think my brain and ears have finally agreed to accept peculiar melody, beat, music, and language local music have. Simply to say that I didn’t have headache anymore when I hear them and I started humming some of local songs now. ;p

Had abandoned Peter Carey’s “My Life As A Fake”. I think I’ll give it a break and shift to Harry Potter, since Harry Potter season is here. New movie and new book just came out. Harry Potter is everywhere. It reminded me that I haven’t read the last book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Good time to be back to reading routine.

New Home

After enjoying bit of relaxation and luxurious of the 5 star Hotel in Amman for 4 days, and slowly recovered from the jetlag, it’s time to move (again). This time is from Hotel to the apartment, where we going to live in for 2 or 3 years. It’s a huge and cool furnished apartment in West Amman. I meant it’s really huge! 3 big bedrooms, 1 small bedroom, and 4 bathrooms, 1 restroom, 2 living rooms, 1 big dining room, massive modern kitchen plus small dining area. I wish there was a swimming pool and gym too. ;p But as long as it has a cable TV, which has more than 100 channel I can browse, and has all my favourite TV channels and series, I’m pretty happy with it. Though it only has standard furniture (I doubt it will fit all of our stuff - ours are actually better), so it feels empty. But it also completed by white goods and AC and heater, which is super.

About the neighbourhood, what can I say….. pretty much the same like South Jakarta. Small local shops where I can reach in 3-5 minutes walk are pretty good. There are groceries shops, fruit and vegies shops, laundry, cake and pastries, bakery, kebab, café, Italian restaurant, and many more.

If I want, I can walk further, about another 15 minutes. I’ll reach a famous shopping area. Compared to Jakarta, this complex much more like Kota and Pasar Baru, where shops are spreaded in stand alone buildings and stores, where people have to wonder around in the open air before get into the shop. It’s a big complex, providing many things, from supermarkets to restaurants, from art and jewellery shops to shoes and boutiques, from bookstores to gym. I was thrilled to see few branded chain shops like CK Underwear, Zara, Geox, G2000, Mango, Bossini, Women’s Secret, Tony and Guy Salon, and Starbucks. Those which I even can’t locate in Darwin. ;p

Other than busy unpacking our suitcases, investigating more about the new apartment (such as trying to work out how the washing machine and dryer works – the manual is not helping as it is in German!), try to sit in every corner of the house finding the best location for me to sit and do my hobbies), and try to adjust to the new life style, all is good.

Hello from Dubai

Finally, we landed in the other part of the world. United Arab Emirates, Dubai! Arrived at 5.15 AM . From above, Dubai city looked dim and gleamed from the city and street lights. This view combined with yellow-orangey colour in the horizon from the sunrise. Nice! The Dubai Airport was massive. It huge and extremely busy! We even got lost at one stage. ;p maybe it was because we haven’t really awaken. And all the airport staffs seems busy and we had to queue in the information centre. However, without asking Information Centre we managed to get into the right place. The other thing about this airport is I could see lots and lots of Duty Free Shops. It’s like a mall! Was so excited, but I had to go to the hotel for half day check in. But I made it clearly to hubby that I want to look around the shops before we fly to Jordan this arvo. :D
I saw people from all over the world there and pretty crowded. And not surprisingly, I saw few groups of Indonesian and Sri Langkan who apparently are domestic workers. I was hoping I could see my ex-maid in Jakarta who resigned because she wanted to pursue her career as maid in Middle East.

We were not sure how the system works, but apparently as Business Class passengers we entitle to get a Limo for taking us to the Le Meridien Hotel. Yay! Well, here I am at the hotel, supposed to fresh up and sleep. I need it as I only had 3 hours sleep on the plane. Plus the time difference,… I am too confused to count how long I actually lost my sleep time. I don’t care, and I can’t sleep now. Maybe I’m too excited. I am officially in one of the country in Middle East!

I feel pretty tired and hungry now. We gonna grab breakfast soon. Till later!

Resmi

Akhirnya selesai juga packing semua barang-barang. Dari yang paling kecil sampe yang paling gede. Sebagian dikirim ke dunia antah berantah tempat kita nanti berdomisili, sebagian di simpen di gudang. Hari ini mulai bersih-bersih apartemen secara kita mau ninggalin apartement yang kita sewa selama ini. Peraturannya kita harus ninggalin apartment itu dalam keadaan baik dan bersih (which is fair enough). Karena kita dah cape 2 hari packing, akhirnya kita bayar professional tukang bersih-bersih. Tapi pas diinspeksi, dimulailah cerita amarah membara. Pertama si agent sama sekali ga ada ramah-ramahnya. Terus nilai ini itu masih ga bersih dan kita musti bersih2in lagi on the spot. Mulai dari finger print di tembok sampe minor spot di dalem cover lampu. Dia dah kayak ndoro dan kita bedua dayang-dayang. Hiih. Emang sih mungkin dia berasa punya power, karena dia masih pegang uang jaminan kita. Tapi apartemen itu jauh lebih bersih sekarang daripada waktu kita masuk 1,5 taun yang lalu. Untung Andrew cukup sabar. Yang pasti tampang gue pasti dah gak sedap dipandang. Ilang deh tuh manis-manisnya gue. :D Plus keluar deh sinisnya. Hmmm….lagi-lagi gak puas sama pelayanan dan sistim di Negara ini. Unbelievable. Gak tau musti kesel sama si tukang bersih-bersih yang katanya "profesional" atau sama si "bossy" agent. Tapi anyway, semua beres sekarang, mobil pun dah kejual. Officially gak punya tempat tinggal dan gak punya mobil. Resmi homeless dan jadi nomad.

Moving Distress

Do you know that moving house is the third most stressful things in life?? I've heard that, and it's damn true!

We are leaving Darwin on Monday next week. We are counting the day. Time is ticking. 6 more days! And the tension is getting high. Not that we did not know what to do from earlier time. Not that we are too lazy to do it earlier. But a lot of things just can be done on the last minute. Don't have a lot of choices.

That's what I am at now. Getting on the upper level of the stress. These are only few of things I have to do. Sorting everything we have..., decide and arrange which one go where; to our luggage or to international container or to storage (that's the hardest and the most time consuming). Start to clean our white goods, wash left over linen such as towels, bed sheets and table clothes, iron left over clothes (as many as I could - as they going to take our iron tomorrow), deal and finish other things such as bills, banking, car, etc.....

Tomorrow, they are going to start taking our stuff away. The home PC, which connected to the internet will be one of them. You know what's that mean, don't you? No more easy internet connection. No more online all day :(

But, don't forget .... I have Sitobi! So I hope I'll be able to touch 'net' world from public places, maybe from other part of the world.

So I guess see you all again soon! Be in touch, don't hesitate to drop the line. ;p

Long and Winding Road to Darwin

Continue ....

Catatan ketinggalan di bulan Januari......

Waktu itu sekitar awal bulan Desember 2005, di Adelaide, dimana Andrew dapet kabar bahwa ia mendapat promosi pekerjaan di Darwin. Dengan segala pertimbangan akhirnya kami memutuskan menerima posisi tersebut dan pindah ke kota yang notabene "baru" buat kami berdua. Karena baik saya maupun Andrew belum pernah mengunjungi ataupun tinggal disana. Dan artinya kami juga harus memboyong semua perabotan ke sana. Setelah repot mengurus ini itu mulai dari administrasi kepindahan, bayar tagihan2 tersisa, dan packing barang seisi rumah, etc etc... akhirnya pada hari Kamis, 12 Januari 2006, jam 16:00 berangkatlah kita ke kota yang katanya beriklim tropis itu. Naik.... mobil! Iya, Andrew memilih untuk nyetir sendiri, dari Adelaide ke Darwin. Dibutuhkan waktu 4 hari 3 malam. Tidak heran, karena kami harus menempuh jarak kurang lebih 3.033 km dari ujung selatan ke ujung utara benua Australia.

Ngomong-ngomong tentang nyetir antar-kota, jangan dikira nyetir antar kota disini sama dengan nyetir antar kota di pulau jawa yang jalanannya cenderung berkelok-kelok, turun naik, berlubang, etc, harus kerja keras salip sana salip sini, serta pemandang rumah-rumah penduduk disepanjang jalan. Nyetir antar-kota disini bisa dibilang kurang tantangan. Selain jalanan yang cenderung lurus, hamparan tanah kosong di kanan dan kiri jalan, dan minim tetangga sesama kendaraan memayoritasi perjalanan kami. Sepanjang 4 hari perjalanan, paling-paling ketemu atau papasan dengan 1-3 mobil doang, malah lebih banyak gak liat mobil/truk sama sekali. Kalau saya yang nyetir, sudah pasti bakal ngantuk tuk tuk.... Tapi gak begitu dengan Andrew. Dia asik-asik dan nyantai aja tuh, nyetir sambil dengerin (and nyanyi2) lagu-lagu kesenengannya dia,.... dan kekeh gak mau digantiin nyetir. Ya okelah..... sedangkan saya, kalo gak nemenin dia ngobrol, saya dengan santainya tidur-tiduran atau nyemil-nyemil sambil liat-liat pemandangan yang sebenernya gak bisa dibilang 'beautiful'. Kalo dipikir-pikir sekarang syerem juga kali yaa... the only mobil - in the middle of no where... kalo ada apa2 gimana atuuh...Anyway, malam pertama dalam perjalanan itu kami stop dan menginap di kota Port Augusta (liat peta). Mulai dari Port Augusta sampai Darwin kami akan melalui salah satu jalan terpanjang di Australia, yaitu Stuart Highway .


Hari kedua, Jumat, 13 January 2006, perubahan suhu udara mulai terasa. Pelan-pelan suhu semakin panas. Kami mampir di kota kecil yang namanya Coober Pedy untuk makan siang. Suhu saat itu sekitar 40 derajat! Tapi kota ini cukup unik. Penghasilan utama penduduknya adalah batu opal (penambang, pengolah, dan penjual). Uniknya, kebanyakan rumah disana adalah rumah dibawah tanah, atau tepatnya dibawah batu. Kayak Flinstone gituuu... Kami makan siang di Underground Restaurant. Memang ternyata dibawah tanah udara terasa dingin, tanpa AC. Cukup amazing bagaimana mereka bisa bikin lubang dibawah batu untuk tempat tinggal lengkap dengan aliran listrik dan air dibawah tanah atau batu seperti itu.

Anyway, hari itu juga kami akhirnya mencapai perbatasan antara South Australia dan Northern Territory. Yay !! Malamnya kami berhasil mencapai Alice Springs, dan menginap di salah satu hotel di sana, yang ternyata jelek abis! huuu huuuu..... AC gak dingin, dan bed sheet nya bau! yucky! bete banget. Mana udah cape seharian di jalan :(

Keesokannya, Sabtu, 14 January 2006, perjalanan tidak semulus hari-hari sebelumnya. Kami sempat mampir di Devil Marble, tempat rekreasi turis untuk melihat batu-batu besar yang terbentuk secara alami di daerah tersebut. Tetapi kemudian cuaca mulai tidak menentu. Kami terhadang oleh badai pasir, yang rada-rada nakutin. Awalnya dari jauh kami melihat langit di kejauhan berwarna merah dan berkabut, lalu ketika kami mulai mendekati tempat tersebut, baru kami sadari bahwa itu adalah badai pasir. Kami berhasil melewatinya dengan selamat ketika kemudian hujan mulai turun. Hujan kemudian menemani sepanjang perjalanan kami hari itu. Menjelang sore, kami hampir saja menabrak kanguru yang dengan polosnya nyebrang tepat di depan mobil kami! Stupid kangoroo! Saat itu sudah gelap dan hujan. Untung aja Andrew cekatan :) Pemandangan sepanjang jalan hari itu juga mulai berbeda jauh dari South Australia. Gersang, coklat, rumput kering, atau rawa-rawa.... dan di sepanjang pinggir jalan, banyak sekali gundukan tanah yang tinggi-tinggi hingga merupai istana semut atau lebih mirip batu besar (belakangan baru saya tau kalo itu adalah Termite Mound). Akhirnya kami mencapai kota Katherine malam itu, dan menginap disana. Ketika sampai di Katherine kami mulai menyadari kalau perjalanan sudah cukup dekat ke kota tujuan. Aneh rasanya melihat pohon-pohon tropis di sekitar hotel tempat kami menginap. Pohon kelapa, palem, akasia, kamboja, dan ... kolam renang! Mirip hotel di Indonesia. Hmmm......

Hari ke-empat, Minggu, 15 Januari 2006, Akhirnyaa.... kami sampai di kota Darwin sekitar jam 2 siang. :D What a trip! Dan Andrew sudah harus mulai kerja keesokan harinya. Berada di kota ini, terasa sedikit aneh....dibandingkan kota-kota lain di Australia yang pernah saya datangi, kota ini sangat berbeda. Udara terasa panas dan lembab meskipun hujan turun rintik-rintik. Pohon kelapa dan palem serta pohon bunga kamboja (frangipani) memayoritasi pemandangan di kota ini. Rumah-rumah berpagar tinggi, dan bertingkat, dan kami melihat jalan di city yang mirip jalanan di Bali karena banyak turis dan bar di sepanjang jalan. Serasa berada di suatu kota di asia! Bukan itu saja, beberapa orang saya liat bertelanjang kaki alias gak pake alas kaki. Beberapa dengan santainya jalan di bawah hujan tanpa payung atau jas hujan, alias ujan-ujanan. Beberapa orang saya lihat berpakaian aneh... gak matching atau berpakaian ala hippie. Dan yang paling mencolok adalah banyak 'orang asli' berkeliaran... yang menurut saya cukup menyeramkan.

kota yang aneh.....

The End