Happy Chinese New Year!

Unfortunately I am a slacker and failed to take pics of any of the beautiful Chinese New Year decorations that were posted everywhere.  So you are stuck with the one below, from the window of Gap Kids, that someone else took.

Chinese New Year is a wonderful thing because it gives you a fresh chance to start doing the resolutions you set back on Jan 1 but haven't gotten to yet.

In order to help hold myself accountable, I'm going to share just a few of my resolutions for the year here.  Most of which haven't actually yet gotten off the ground:

• Exercise 6 days a week
• Learn basic bahasa indonesia
• Go on a major bike tour
• Do at least one significant trip a month
• Cook more (I'll spare you the detailed metrics)
• Trek in Nepal
• Try at least one new thing each week
• Learn to swim laps in a pool
• Visit at least 8 new places in Indonesia before I leave
• Be a conduit of positive energy 

New Year, take two.

Eat This: Fortune Apples

Chinese New Year is pretty big here.  Themed decorations abound.

Even in the grocery store.
Even on apples.

How'd they do that?

I'm not sure this will keep the doctor away.

I have no idea what's going on here

Last night I came home from work and found some odd characters erected outside my apartment building entrance.  Since I'm now a seasoned traveler and expat, I followed standard procedure for stumbling upon an unusual site of unknown or under- understood significance.

I posed for a photo in front of it.

Me and...  a character that just happened
to appear one day in front of  my apartment

By the next morning, the characters had accumulated many, many friends.  Some of whom were (pretend) fighting with real knives and swords.

Needless to say, I was a little late to work.
Sometimes you just have to pause and try to take it all in.

This never happens outside my house in the States.

Ceiling Tile Invasion

They other day I had the awesome pleasure of listening to a guy talk about the requirements for a secure data server center. I was mostly tuning it all out,  but I do distinctly remember him pointing to the ceiling, a standard office dropped tile ceiling, and noting that people could easily move the tiles and crawl in from another unit. That thought had never really occurred to me.

Nor had it occurred to me until two days later, that, unlike all the other rooms, the bathroom in my apartment has this very same type of dropped tile ceiling.

Until I came home and found a footprint on my toilet.  A footprint that was not mine.

Home invader beware:
Your footprint has now been published on the internet.

Luckily, there was no other disruption and nothing was missing.  I discerned from the unbearable noise that awoke me the next morning that major renovation was underway in the neighboring apartment. I'm assuming someone crawled into and/or out from my bathroom to mess with pipes or ducts or something of the sort.
When I walked in the bathroom to take a shower after returning from the gym I looked up and noticed several tiles were slightly ajar and I could hear every word of conversation that seemed to be taking place only a few inches away.  Of course I couldn't understand it since it was in bahasa. However when a screw or nail was dropped, I could hear it roll.

I pondered various options.
I could drag in one of my dining chairs so I could stand on it and position the tiles fully back in place.
Nope, the chair wouldn't fit in the sliding shower door.

I could try to text my boss this entire story so I had an excuse to just go back to bed.
Nope, have an important meeting.

I could go to work without showering.
Nope, 30 intense minutes on the treadmill means I don't smell very pretty.

I could just not give a shit and take my shower like usual.
Ding, ding, ding. That's the winner.

If you ever come across my pic on a voyeur website, please do let me know.
The tiles are still ajar.

What are the odds someone's looking down?
I decided I don't particularly care.

Feral Cat Goes Shopping

There's not much else to say here. The standout part of my day was watching a cat walk off the street into a shopping mall.  I was the only one in the immediate vicinity who seemed to find this noteworthy in any way.

Meow.

Fire in the Sky

People always look more glamorous in dim lighting.  Apparently cities do too. Even really sprawly, filthy, congested cities. 

Evening and nighttime views of Jakarta can be absolutely stunning.  I am regularly blown away by the flaming orange sky view from my balcony in the evenings.  

This is what it looked like today:

Now if only that giant skyscraper were a mountain.

Return to Jakarta

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm back in Jakarta.

No better way to end a great holiday than 36 hours of transit.  Followed by the immediate need to break out the mop and bucket because your apartment flooded while you were gone.

No damage, but a huge mess to clean up.  Somehow, even though I live on the 21st floor, gallons on water and filth managed to make its way from the outside to the inside via my balcony.  Along with ten billion ants of varying shapes and sizes.
Yay! I love this place.

This phone pic fails to do the mess justice.
Plus, you can't see all the ants.