Back from Jogja

Again, another short post because life is whipping by so fast as Dale and I cram as much into each day as is humanly possible. We've just returned tonight from the all-you-can-eat gourmet buffet at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, a favourite but expensive (and worth it) restaurant of ours. About 20 other people from our school joined us in celebrating Tris having finished his Masters Degree in Educational Technology. Once I have regular access to my computer again I will post photos.

Dale and I returned from Jogja on Thursday evening, only 10 minutes into the American Idol finale (yeah, Kris won!!). In only 3 days and 2 nights we had multitude of "storytellable" experiences, including a becak ride in a torrential downpour (we felt bad and paid the cyclist-driver triple), the worst, most unprofessional (and most expensive in Indonesia, I'm sure) pedicure ever, the greatest prices on jewellry and clothes and knock-off Gucci/Louis Vuitton bags/purses (and the like), my face-to-face accidental meeting with an albino python (unexpectedly...just about peed my pants...again, photos to follow). It was a great trip and we had a lot of good laughs and experiences. Our most "memorable" will probably be our return flight to Jakarta, where the weather above the clouds was so bright we had to pull down the little window shades. Once we descended a bit, however, the weather turned sour and the plane started to bump around a bit. At one point one of the flight attendants got on the loud speaker and announced our arrival and all of the bits of information that go with it. Obviously, when I felt the plane bump along the tarmac, we had landed. At least that's what I thought, until I looked out the window and the rooftops and trees below us were still very, very tiny. No big deal, at least not to most of the passengers. There were a few ladies, however, who were not quite so sure about the lurching and rolling of the plane, and one of them was clicking what looked maybe like a prayer counter (like rosary beads in a clicker) with her eyes shut tight. Her lips were moving quickly and it sounded like she might have been praying. Again, not a big deal, until the two ladies behind us started to cry and sob, and then the clicker lady got in on the crying action as well. Three ladies around us were sobbing away and it was very disconcerting. We weren't sure if they knew something that we didn't know, but now, today, we are thankful that we landed safely and nothing came of the turbulence.

Tris and the kids have only 3 more weeks of school left. I don't have any mission-type plans in the near future. For my birthday Tris is buying me a plane ticket to Singapore for 4 days, where I'll accompany Judy Comrie on a WWII tour of various sites and museums. I am very, very excited to go on this trip; I've seen North American sites but never Asian ones. Hopefully I'll get a different perspective on what I already know and I'll gain more information on WWII and its players in general. As for the next week, Dale, the shopping queen, will have at least 3 days of shopping opportunities. We're heading into Jakarta on Monday for the day and up to the mountains to Puncak Pass and its tea plantations this Wednesday and Thursday. I think Puncak Pass is one of my favourite places because it's in the mountains.

I've been really bad about remembering birthdays on this blog, but I would like to wish my sister-in-law Laura, my niece Nathalia, GG, Ruth Fox and Ruth Graham and my nephews Josh and Elijah a Happy Birthday, and Tris and Sunny (my parents-in-law), Laura and Paul, Jen and Christian, and TJ and Tanya all Happy Anniversaries for the month of May. May is a busy month and I know I probably missed a ton...

Thanks for reading.