Monday, February 04, 2008

A Family Affair

I have mixed feeling from my trip home last week, but still i'm just happy to meet the family.
this is gonna be a loong entry now that i write this on word while waiting for my flight - 3 more hours to go ...

- Thursday, 31 Jan 08
Landed at 9ish we decided to go straight to my nephew’s school as it’s in ancol and mom’s just afraid of the traffic if we go home first. We reached his school not even at 10 so we had to wait for 3 hrs. They did have a break at 11.30 and by 11 you can see loads of activities going on in the waiting room, parents or maids came with food for the children.
Come recess we didn’t see my nephew so we tried to take a peek in his class. Apparently he’s having his meal there. When asked why not have it outside, he said his mum asked to eat inside the class. Haha, well at least he obeyed his mum. Recess over and I was just tired of waiting in the room we went back to the car and waited there.
Reached home to meet my nieces. i decided to play with them instead of sending my nephew to his mandarin class. I was quite surprised to see my youngest niece as I didn’t expect her to have a lovely eyes and eye lashes than goes all the way up. she’d look so surprised in all the pictures as I tend to take it closer and she’s always at awe with the flash.
- Friday, 01 Feb 08
The plan is to meet juwi for lunch and come what may. i almost screwed the plan as I learnt only today that mum will be doing the cooking for tomorrow. For 150 people, mind you. Normally we cater but mum wanted to promote her briyani and stuff, hence the cooking. I felt bad for leaving that I told juwi I could only make it in the evening. But then mum asked me to continue with my plan ‘cos she’d only start cooking at night and after helping a little bit here and there I told juwi that plan goes on. What do you know, it was raining darn heavy I couldn’t call a cab. At the same time juwi was having transportation problem until she texted me (or was it me calling her?) telling me that busway terminal was closed. Long story short, we cancelled our meetup and she went home instead. I felt a pang of guilt as I was the one asking her to take ½ day leave but then again thank God for her taking ½ day leave, else she’d be stranded in the road just like my nephew.
Poor nephew of mine were stucked in the traffic for 9ish hours. He left his school at 12 and called home at 3 about the traffic at jembatan tiga. Called saying they’re now at jembatan besi then he called again at 4ish telling us he’s now at hotel ciputra. Around 5 he called saying that he has done all his homework and they’re still at hotel ciputra area. By 6ish he called still from the same position. Apparently he also called his dad and mum complaining that he’s tired and hungry. There was once he called saying that the driver said he wanted to leave the car due to the traffic. Haha, I’m sure he must be afraid being left alone there. By 7ish and when they’re still in the same location, my bro-in-law and sis decided to pick him up after asking the driver to make a detour to tanjong priok hoping that they could take another way home. I followed my sis and bro-in-law to pick him up. Problem is the driver isn’t that quick that we had difficulty determining their exact location. Anyways we managed to intercept them at cempaka mas and by 9.30 my nephew was carried back to our car while the driver was asked to rest before driving the car home. Poor boy, he was hungry yet sleepy at the same time that he only had few spoons of rice and went to sleep. What a mess Jakarta is during raining season.
- Saturday, 02 Feb 08
The reason I went home, my youngest niece’s shaving ceremony. As usual we followed the Indian practice, putting some money on the head and let people cut her hair and take the money as a token of appreciation from the parents. It was quite a successful event considering the flood around Jakarta. Few of the invitees couldn’t make it though as they’re busy with the water in their house. It was a little tiring but fun. Sent my nephew to his wushu practice in the evening. 2 hrs of waiting but it was fun seeing the kids practicing especially those green belts with the swords and stuff. my nephew is still holding a white belts, but it’s still fun seeing them trying hard to get the basic movements right.
- Sunday, 03 Feb 08
Together with my sis we went to have hair treatment while her hubby and son played basket ball. Went home and spent another day with my nephew and nieces. helped my nephew with his sempoa (abacus) homework though i ended up learning how to count with sempoa instead, gave up and check the result with my normal math's knowledge.
Poor niece of mine wasn’t feeling well in the evening that my sis had to send her to see a doctor at night. I spent the night feeling a little bit uneasy though after hearing news about the closure of the expressway to airport. I couldn’t afford not to go home on Monday since I have a class to teach at night and it’s closing tomorrow!! My nephew of course was hoping the flood got worst so that I’d be stranded.
- Monday, 04 Feb 08

Afraid of the traffic, I left home with dad at 7.30 when my flight is at 12.20. didn’t get a chance to see my niece as she was at the doctor again after having diarrhoea the night before. After saying goodbye to my nephew and youngest niece I left home. Sending dad to office I was then sent to the airport. Tada…expressway is opened, water is still there but no longer 80cm and I reached the airport at 9ish. Checked-in, I spent my time from one eatery to another. Had bakso malang and teh botol, I spent time browsing their magazine before going out to get some snacks. Sat awhile before heading down to hoka hoka bento from some shrimp roll and another round of teh botol. After having enough of it I decided to go inside and sit one corner, writing all this up so that I can copy and paste it at home.

now i'm home, back from my class. tired but still need to do my laundry. i better get my axx up to take a shower before doing some house chores. nite nite ..

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