Piecemeal notes before the weekend

It's Friday.  Thank (insert your divine being of choice here) it's Friday. This was one of those long, dragging weeks.  It's not really that anything went so wrong.  The kids weren't worse than their norm.  I didn't have extra duties.  It simply felt like a long week.

I don't think I've mentioned but I'm involved in a radio show here.  It's Smartfm and sponsored by the US Embassy.  It's a learn English program as part of their "Smart Up Your Life" series.  Last year it ran for six months broadcast in Jakarta.  This year there is a year contract and we broadcast throughout all of Indonesia.  We get calls from Pekan Baru, Surabaya and Medan, all on other islands. Generally, Julia and I alternate weeks with the regular Indonesian host, Eka.  Since Julia has headed home for a month, I had this weeks show plus the next four.  We broadcast live from 5-6pm on Tuesdays and the station plays a repeat on Saturday.  Since I leave work at 3:30, I have to book it straight there for our pre-show rehash. The pay is absolute rubbish, covering transport and a coffee.  My reasons are that I enjoy it, hope it will put me in touch with new and different people and finally that it is one more skill I can add to my CV/resume.  Its funny that in the last 24 hours I've mentioned it to my business class and a co-worker at school.  Both used the word celebrity, which made me cringe.  Celebrity, publicity, etc was definitely the last thing I'd want to come from this.

I did the show on Tuesday, and was ready to go to my business class on Wednesday.  All I can really say is that it's a small group of lawyers at a prestigious firm in Jakarta.  Everything else is teacher-client privilege.  I always dread the class until I get there.  They have great senses of humor (sense of humors?) and ask poignant questions. The pay is worthwhile, especially since I can get there by bus for 7,000Rp and thirty minutes. My only complaint is that it makes Wednesdays really, really long.  This week they asked to move class from Wednesday to Thursday at 4pm on Wednesday.  No possibility to take care of things on Wednesday and it ruined Thursdays plans.

Courtesy of ihes.com.  Sort of like this but Indonesian students.  Incidentally, this is an academy in Barcelona where a good friend of mine teaches, MWJ!!!

Thursday I went to meet Donna as she leaves for summer on Sunday.  It took me and hour and a quarter in a taxi to get to her, and another hour and a half to get from her to the lawyers. I was a bit delirious by the time I made it to my lawyers.  Throw us in a conference room that was about a thousand degrees and I was toast by the end.  I was in bed all of ten minutes before I passed out dead away.  I haven't managed to get more than six hours sleep any night this week, and although I've slept like the dead, it hasn't been enough.   I complain but feel bad since BoT has gotten even less.  His insomnia has kicked in full force.  I think, he, I and half of Jakarta are all fighting the same head cold.  Bleeeehhhhhh.

It's Friday and I'm not going out.  I am really really looking forward to a quiet night in, cooking for BoT and just relaxing.  We haven't managed to see each other much lately, definitely not during the week anyway.  I am putting my social butterfly self on the shelf for tonight and pulling the cocoon around tight.


As a post script: I am blown away by the number of blog views I've had this week.  The last three days individually were 88, 46 and 70.  Today, at midday there have already been 24 views.  I'm not sure what to attribute the explosion to.  I'm not exactly going away free puppies on here. Thanks for sticking around all the same!