Life is so different

Matthew being grabbed by a tree-vine on the way home; luckily he had a machete in his back pocket and so he cut his way out. Life here is very dangerous at times, but it keeps Matt on his toes.

There are so many times that it just hits me that life is so much different here. I wrote about our gardener and his employees; they came again yesterday and turned over the clay-dirt, preparing it for the end of one week of Idul Fitri holiday (end of Ramadan and fasting). Once it's over they'll return to put in compost and then the grass. We, our family and our readers, can watch it grow together. Isn't that something to gasp about?!

I went to the mall and bought a 'berry-licous' smoothy; it contains black/blue and raspberries and so is my source for something I rarely find here. During Ramadan, to bring in customers, the booth offers a free cup of ice cream with your smoothie. I asked for 'take away' (which means take-out) and since they don't normally do this, they accommodated me by finding lids that fit, taping them on, bagging the little cups of ice cream in ice and double-bagging so it didn't drip on me on the way home. Takes about 5 minutes, but I just love the customer service. Sometimes it gets so frustrating to do business with someone, but when it comes to little things like bagging items or finding a parking spot, there's always someone on hand to help you out. Sometimes there are 3 people helping you out, actually. Sometimes there's a crowd watching, too!

I visit the Senior School library quite often (I told them I feel like the library mouse and I think the name has stuck); I sneak in and out, usually spending about 1/2 hour studying Bahasa-Indonesia and chatting with the 2 main librarians, Ibu Risma and Ibu Franscesca. You THINK you are being inconspicuous, but the other day as I was heading to my class (yeah, I get to go to school too!) a maintenance fellow asked me in broken english if I was heading to the library. He wanted to let me know that it was closed. I always forget that we kind of stand out in the crowd here; it's sure nice to know that people are looking out for us even if we have no idea who they are. Isn't that bad???!!!

Today I splurged big time and had a pedicure at a local, reputable hairdresser's salon. The proprietress is Chandra, and she speaks English; her prices are great and so her clientele numbers are quite high. Just before I left Canada I had a wonderful, relaxing 'girls' day' with Aunt Sam and it was the perfect start to a new move. I am estimating that the pedicure we had was approximately $60 (or more), and I only tell you this to give you a comparison. The pre-Indonesian pedicure came with a foot scrub, a glass of juice in a lovely wine glass, and excellent music; the company of course was supreme. Today, in comparison, I was offered a plastic bottle of water (no complaints intended) and some '80s music. I had a great pedicure companion, Diane Fennel, who is always great company to be with. I had a foot bath, foot scrub, almost 35 minutes of foot attention (very meticulous!) and for an extra 50 cents I got to have my nails painted, too! The best part of the whole one hour session was the leg/foot rub. In all my pedicure experience, I have never had a leg/foot massage included in my pedi, even when advertised as such, at least not like this! Needless to say, when Aunt Sam ventures over to our neck of the woods, we're headed to Chandras as often as our feet cry out. You ready for the price? Five dollars (that includes the price of the polish). Is this incentive to come and visit??

By the way, in my last post I mentioned that I miss my mom's roast beef. I stand by that comment and I am not changing it; although I have had flack on the comment, remember: Food Is Love!

As I write, Abby is coaxing a hamster out from behind our computer desk. Our friend/neighbour/fellow SPH teacher is having her house 'fogged' for typical creatures around here...not uncommon...bugs of all kinds I believe...and we're housing her 4 lobsters (probably will be three when she picks up, by the looks of them), houdini hamster, her dog Bella and her 6 puppies for a time. Bella was secretly pregnant for most of her gestational period; when

I asked her owner said she wasn't too sure, and next week, she gave birth under her owner's bed! Mama Bella is small and long with short legs, kind of corgi-ish, and she's a real sweetheart of a dog. I have permission to pick her up during the day and take her on my walk, and today we went out for the first time. Not sure about poop scooping here but I'm pretty sure it's not a law!

If you look at the pictures of Matt and Abby, you can see the obvious question in their minds. The obvious answer to Tris and I is NO! We have access to someone else's pets and I think that that, and the pet rat in our ceiling, is enough for now.

Thanks for reading.