Pejaten jam

Leading a peripatetic life does lend itself not only to moving country to country, but also moving frequently within a country. I had enough and moved house. It was quite unexpected.  On Saturday I returned home from lunch with a friend at the mall to the remains of a flood.  The water had dissipated but the scum was left behind.  That and my still five days later soggy books. Luckily there wasn't much on the floor to get wet but what was there got soaked.  After a single week that contained two power outages, a power spike that ruined my phone and ipod, two days without water for a shower, two days with cold water for a shower the flood was the last straw.

Pretty much like this.  courtesy of ehow.com

My friend Carla immediately jumped to my aid with an offer of her extra bedroom.  She lives in Pejaten, an area of town part way between my old place and work so more convenient in that aspect too. We'd planned that I would move my stuff there over Christmas break and when I returned I would get a studio in her building.  This just moved the schedule up. I am still planning for my own digs in February. It is heaps nicer than my old place.  The building is brand new and still mostly empty.  This also means the furnishings are new.  I can cook again since there's a small kitchen and Carla's maid handles laundry, cleaning and some of the cooking.  When I got home yesterday after moving on Monday Yanti (the maid) had ironed and refolded all the clean clothes I'd brought.  We ate the fried rice she made for dinner (I had it again for lunch today with the fruit salad she put together).  As I'm barely accustomed to someone doing my laundry, this entire service package might take a little getting used to.  Or none at all and then I'll forget how to take care of myself like the Indonesian kids that grow up waited on.

This is not Yanti, she's older and without teeth but very very sweet.  Courtesy of topnews.com

The old kost was surprised on Monday when I just showed up with a moving truck and friends to move out yesterday.  It was the 29th of the month so perfect time to move out.  It's always been month to month so I didn't feel bad about not giving not notice. The owner, a Chinese woman with bad teeth but a good heart,  kept saying " I miss you" and apologizing for the flood. She asked why I didn't give her notice and I said it was a surprise, I hadn't been planning to move so quickly. I couldn't have accomplished it so quickly without Julia.  She met me in her car with her driver and kids.  They'd rented a truck so we all drove over to my place.  The advantage of renting a truck here is that there's driver who drives but also helps load. It was definitely worth the 300,000 Rp.  We got to my old place at 4.  By 6 o'clock everything was into Carla's place.  It was amazing.  A very different experience than the parade of friends helping me drag, pull and slide things along Madrid's streets, through the metro and into a new flat.  Also better than cramming myself and Jen into a taxi a couple months ago to make a move in from a northern suburb.

I am without internet at this apartment for the time being but it was the move that explains my blogging absence.  I'll write next week about the area, post a few photos and a new chapter in my minimalistic dissertation about the ins and outs of transportation in Jakarta.