Bless our cotton socks, we’re a great nation to get introduced to an idea and run with it. Thirty years ago, I was a sticky happy kid, sitting in the back of the car at the dump, watching people fling bags of rubbish out of the boot like it was a national pastime. Radios, leftover food,…
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…
When thinking of emigrating there are a few questions worth asking. Is there a direct flight to Dublin? Is it a Muslim country? Are women allowed drive? For all the obvious reasons each of these has significant effect on the life as an expat and can help you choose between say, Doha or Dubai. But…
Everybody knows that a trip to the Far East, Indonesia not Wexford, requires vaccination against various diseases and infections. Prior to my voyage east, my awareness of the severity of these illnesses was limited. I imagined that worst case scenario was a dose of vomiting and diarrhoea which would last a couple of days and…
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…
Indonesia, fair play to them, recognise all significant days in the calendar. Muslim days of significance, obviously, as Indonesia is 80% Muslim and home to the largest Muslim community in the world, along with Hindu, Buddhism, Catholicism, All –Irelands, County Finals, come one, come all. So I wasn’t surprised when I learned that Good Friday…
Ok, so no-one ever arrived in Jakarta and expected there to be a well-stocked Super Valu with a clean and colourful fruit and vegetable section. Or a neatly displayed meat counter hygiene certificates hanging on the wall and your reflection on the glass, a dairy corner that’s brimming with freshness and dry foods aisles logically…
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…
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…
Hardly Adi Roche, but having spent one hour in the company of people living in a Kampung in Jakarta, I have found myself calculating how many chickens I could buy for the price of a Kenneth Cole dress. It was my Christmas Charity Deed, (Act one, Scene one) we had packed all our unwanted clothing,…
thereluctantemigrant 