Wow, it's been far too long since I updated - the past couple of weeks have been crazy!
School is fine and dandy, but last weekend I was tied up all day Saturday and Sunday on a teaching conference down in the south of Jakarta on reading strategies and assessment - it was good fun and I learned loads but it meant that I didn't get a weekend so there was no time to update. This past week has been crazy busy with dreaded parent conferences, which actually all went really well, thankfully! All my kiddos parents' seem to be happy with how their 10 year old's are being taught so all is well in my little world!! Oh, I do have to tell a (not so, I suppose,) funny story though. My second parent on the first day of parent conferences was the mum of one of my little boys who is ADHD and has all sorts of other social problems (he likes to fart in people's faces etc etc), not to mention that he eats four lunches each day and is spoilt rotten. (He does have a kind nature sometimes though), and she walks in, her skirt barely covering her crotch and her face is full of makeup and says:
"Mrs Beck! It's so good to meet you...well, I have to say, you're very pretty, but it's a shame you're so fat."
She then handed me a six pack of donuts as a gift.
Yeah, that'll help with my fatness. I'll just go and cry into it shall I?!! I'm glad my feelings don't get hurt very easily!
Needless to say, my jaw dropped for an instant before I smiled, shook off the not so subtle comment and shook her hand!! She is a famous (apparently...I've never heard of her) model in China. What a lovely woman.
Apparently, a Korean mother the same night had upset one of the other teachers here - she is a friend of ours from Canada who is a red head and freckly. The Mum sat listening to Kelly for a while, and then out of the blue said, 'You know, Ms. Donaldson - you can buy wonderful bleaching creams that would get rid of those ugly brown spots on your face..."
Obviously our parents are into letting it all out here!
Friday night, we went out to a poker night at a friend's house. All the kids of the adults that went came over to our house and were babysat by a few nannies, and so we went out to party!! It was a great night although Andrew got absolutely sloshed really quickly (I think he'd only had about three beers - the lightweight, three pot screamer! - no idea why he got so drunk) and by 9pm I was looking at him across the poker table and thinking 'Oh, God, what an embarrassment!' especially as he was sitting next to our big boss and almost every other word coming out of his mouth had the words 'F&#k' in it. Oh well! I dragged him home about 11 and spent the night sleeping with the girls in their bed as he was farting and snoring all night long!! Hah!
The girls had a ball all together with their friends for the evening, although one girl, Leah, managed to lock herself in our downstairs loo and the night guard had to break the door down to get her out so we now have a broken toilet door.
My friend, Teresa (9 months preggo) was looking pretty crappy at the Poker table and although she didn't think she was, I told her that I bet she would have the baby the next day - and guess what? 5.30am the next morning she rang and said she was on her way to the hospital as she was having contractions every 5 minutes!! Her little baby boy, Zach, was born 5 hours later!! Ha ha! So today, we went down to the south of Jakarta to visit her and Sam in the hospital to welcome baby Zach. Absolutely gorgeous. Made me very broody again, but have to keep remembering how tired I am with two!! Maybe in 5 years or so...
The girls and I getting are colds, I think, and feeling pretty sorry for ourselves (we didn't touch the baby today just in case! Andrew did all the snuggling!) and I have had a really bad back for the past week which is moving down my leg to my foot at times - Andrew says it's sciatica. I don't really care what it is but it is painful!! I feel like an old woman - perhaps this is a sign that I'm actually getting old. Now, that's a depressing thought.
Yesterday, Annalise and Juliette went to their very first ballet class. It was very cute, but Juliette clung to me most of the time and Annalise, after the first 30 minutes got bored of being told what to do and had a good old hearty cry. The teacher wasn't particularly enigmatic and there was too much talking by the teacher and not enough music and dancing. I don't think it helped that there were more parents there than the kids themselves, all taking photos (me included!) and videos! Annalise wants to go back next week though, so we'll see! She's definitely got the moves for it! It only costs the equivalent of 7 pounds per month (classes are once a week) - things are sooooooooo cheap here!!
Down in the South today, we went to a duty free alcohol shop and so I bought up on cheap whisky and wine - it's really, really difficult to get alcohol other than beer here - up in the North, you're paying minimum of 15 pounds per bottle of not very good wine, and spirits are almost impossible to find, so now I'm laughing!!!! Yay!!! I can have my whisky and sodas again!! Beer is cheap as chips though and can be bought everywhere. Perhaps the Muslims here don't consider beer alcohol...?
Note to potential visitors to Jakarta - bring in bottles of spirits from duty free when you come !!
Needless to say, my jaw dropped for an instant before I smiled, shook off the not so subtle comment and shook her hand!! She is a famous (apparently...I've never heard of her) model in China. What a lovely woman.
Apparently, a Korean mother the same night had upset one of the other teachers here - she is a friend of ours from Canada who is a red head and freckly. The Mum sat listening to Kelly for a while, and then out of the blue said, 'You know, Ms. Donaldson - you can buy wonderful bleaching creams that would get rid of those ugly brown spots on your face..."
Obviously our parents are into letting it all out here!
Friday night, we went out to a poker night at a friend's house. All the kids of the adults that went came over to our house and were babysat by a few nannies, and so we went out to party!! It was a great night although Andrew got absolutely sloshed really quickly (I think he'd only had about three beers - the lightweight, three pot screamer! - no idea why he got so drunk) and by 9pm I was looking at him across the poker table and thinking 'Oh, God, what an embarrassment!' especially as he was sitting next to our big boss and almost every other word coming out of his mouth had the words 'F&#k' in it. Oh well! I dragged him home about 11 and spent the night sleeping with the girls in their bed as he was farting and snoring all night long!! Hah!
The girls had a ball all together with their friends for the evening, although one girl, Leah, managed to lock herself in our downstairs loo and the night guard had to break the door down to get her out so we now have a broken toilet door.
My friend, Teresa (9 months preggo) was looking pretty crappy at the Poker table and although she didn't think she was, I told her that I bet she would have the baby the next day - and guess what? 5.30am the next morning she rang and said she was on her way to the hospital as she was having contractions every 5 minutes!! Her little baby boy, Zach, was born 5 hours later!! Ha ha! So today, we went down to the south of Jakarta to visit her and Sam in the hospital to welcome baby Zach. Absolutely gorgeous. Made me very broody again, but have to keep remembering how tired I am with two!! Maybe in 5 years or so...
The girls and I getting are colds, I think, and feeling pretty sorry for ourselves (we didn't touch the baby today just in case! Andrew did all the snuggling!) and I have had a really bad back for the past week which is moving down my leg to my foot at times - Andrew says it's sciatica. I don't really care what it is but it is painful!! I feel like an old woman - perhaps this is a sign that I'm actually getting old. Now, that's a depressing thought.
Yesterday, Annalise and Juliette went to their very first ballet class. It was very cute, but Juliette clung to me most of the time and Annalise, after the first 30 minutes got bored of being told what to do and had a good old hearty cry. The teacher wasn't particularly enigmatic and there was too much talking by the teacher and not enough music and dancing. I don't think it helped that there were more parents there than the kids themselves, all taking photos (me included!) and videos! Annalise wants to go back next week though, so we'll see! She's definitely got the moves for it! It only costs the equivalent of 7 pounds per month (classes are once a week) - things are sooooooooo cheap here!!
Down in the South today, we went to a duty free alcohol shop and so I bought up on cheap whisky and wine - it's really, really difficult to get alcohol other than beer here - up in the North, you're paying minimum of 15 pounds per bottle of not very good wine, and spirits are almost impossible to find, so now I'm laughing!!!! Yay!!! I can have my whisky and sodas again!! Beer is cheap as chips though and can be bought everywhere. Perhaps the Muslims here don't consider beer alcohol...?
Note to potential visitors to Jakarta - bring in bottles of spirits from duty free when you come !!
Annalise & Juliette are busy at their school preparing for a UN concert at a big shopping mall here next weekend - Annalise's class is singing a Korean song and they have all been given Korean National costumes to sing in, and Juliette's class is singing a Chinese song, I think. Annalise has also been asked to sing a solo 'Edelweiss' to represent Switzerland......Why Switzerland, you may ask? I don't think the Swiss part of it signifies anything other than they like the song 'Edelweiss' , but I do think it's a bit more propagandarish than just because she has a great singing voice which is what they told us - more a case, I think, of white-faced, blonde-haired little girl selling the preschool to potential clients!! But regardless, she thinks it's great and is being given a special Austrian National dress to wear and she gets to sing all by herself on the stage with a microphone - think she'll be in her element, unless she gets an attack of the nerves and has complete stage fright!
The first couple of photos are of the girls riding mechanical animals around the mall here - they have loads of things for kids to do here in the malls - making up for the lack of parks, I think.
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