Thousands and thousands of children and across Ireland are back to school next week, thousands and thousands of parents are getting ready to exhale. They are delighted to have the kids back, the old routine restored, They’ve done all they can with the children over the summer holidays and now having picked up a school…
Everyone than can, leaves Jakarta in summer, for a week, a month or for good. Arriving in Ireland from Jakarta is like, well it’s like arriving in Ireland from Indonesia. The doors of the plane fling open in Dublin Airport and the fresh air envelopes us. Glorious sunshine just about to break through as the…
Like 99.9% of expat wives this week I was looking forward to going home for the summer months. Delighted to be escaping the pollution and smog of Jakarta for a few weeks of fresh air and good food in vermin free surroundings I was beginning to daydream about the long evening walks, concerts in the…
It’s that time of year again, every weekend, double and triple booked with parties, parties, parties……..going away parties. The end of the school year always sees an exodus of the expats. Homeward bound or back on the merry-go-round not knowing which destination to jump off at next, people are coming and going all the time.…
Owing to the population density and massive pollution problem in Jakarta, much of daily life is spent indoors. Although the torrential rain, thunder and lightning doesn’t start until about 1.45.p.m. the mornings can be unbearably warm and sticky making a trip to the swimming pool the only feasible outdoor activity for kids. Forgot long walks…
After a long hot winter, the Easter break couldn’t have come at a better time. Many may think that life in Indonesia is followed by one sunny day after another but the truth is, it’s only gloriously sunny in the mornings, for six months of the year the afternoons consist of torrential rain, thunder and…
The butcher, the baker, the exterminator, all the usual suspects that make up a community can be found here in Jakarta. Unfortunately the exterminator has featured most in my life since my move to Indonesia. Not being from a background in Ireland that was used to living with animals, although I doubt even the most…
The lack of over-the-top rules and regulations in primary school in Jakarta, Indonesia, is refreshing to say the least. Unlike Ireland where having a child in national school suddenly heightens your awareness / paranoia of child abuse to mania level. The teacher cannot tend to a sick child without there being a witness. The teacher…
To talk about Jakarta and not mention its rampant prostitution problem/habit/solution would be a lie by omission, of sorts. Prior to my move to Jakarta the word “Prostitution” always conjured up an image of a desperate situation. A lonely, misunderstood man and a clapped out, down in the mouth lady, coming together as a consequence…
It takes a couple of moves and a period of time before the realisation dawns, you’ve become an expat wife. The wife part was dropped like a bomb and arrived with the same alacrity as it does to everyone who gets married at a music festival in Edinburgh with a couple of strangers off the…
thereluctantemigrant 