faraway

Just five minutes’ walk from my parents house is the Donlands Parkway. This system of pathways traces the Don river’s path as it winds its way southward through the Bayview Village neighbourhood. It is a beautiful and tranquil retreat from the suburban traffic along Finch St. The pathway has been upgraded since I left Toronto and it’s great for biking and walking. The City even built a pedestrian bridge across the Don so now we can make a long circle around the neighbourhood. The kids love the walk and hours can be spent there (as long as we bring plenty of snacks!).

A rural oasis hidden in the middle of Toronto just off the Don Valley Parkway. Pastoral peacefulness and lots of cute animals for the kiddies. Jacob liked the animals but loved the freshly baked cookies that were on sale at the canteen even more.

Last sunday, for the second time, we went for wall-climbing. Two weeks ago, on Sunday, Jerome had an idea to try the wall-climbing in Pondok Indah Mall. Since four years ago, we really wanted to try the wall but we did not know why we never tried before. A month ago, Zach saw the wall and started asking us to try it.

Anyway, we did it and we had fun. Zach really loved it.

Usually, there were so many kids who climbed the wall in the weekends. We were surpraised that many small kids were good on climbing. Jerome and I tried the hardest one with a big overhang, meanwhile Zach tried the easiest one, usually for kids. Firstly, he was afraid and after he climbed three or four steps he would ask to go down. He liked to look down. I kept telling him to look up and concentrate with the rock and his legs. He liked when he went down, he tried to push the wall with his legs.

Last sunday, Zach could climb higher, half of the wall length. That was good. At least, he started to feel comfortable when he climbed. I think also because so many kids could climb higher than him and he felt to do better than him. He liked to compete with other kids.

Jerome and I liked it too eventhough the wall was not as big as the one in Vancouver. At least, we could do little bit exercises for strengthen our body muscles. We would like to do it more often. We are thinking to buy climbing harnest and shoes someday.

Today was a lovely day. We decided to swim at downstair and enjoyed the weather. We have not used the pool for ages.

Today is Jake's first swim in Indonesia. His first swim was at Jerome's parents's house in Toronto when he was two months old. At that time, he did not cry at all, he laughed a lot. Maybe because the water was warm. But here the water was colder, there is no heater. When Jerome put Jake's body in the water, he started to cry. Jerome tried to hug him and slowly they together went into water. After a while, he got used to it and started to enjoy the pool.

As usual, Zach enjoyed playing in the pool. He played with his noodle, and sometimes pretended to be a dinosaur.

I just watched all my men in the pool, read my newspaper, and of course took some pictures which you see here.

Galuh

Last Sunday, our friends Angela and Dan invited us to visit them at Canada House, the villa maintained by the embassy in the Puncak. It’s a beautiful property with an expansive view of the Puncak valley framed between the massive triangular shapes of two volcanoes. Red is the predominant colour of the villa and decorative maple leaves are everywhere. Kitchy, but for Canadians away from home, it's nice.

Angela arranged for a pony-ride for our kids. She has two kids, Kai and Takeo. The horses and their handlers came to the villa to pick us up. Angela, Court and I came along. Zach was very excited.

The handlers suggested we make the trek to a nearby waterfall. It was an hour and a half walk there. Okay, we decided to be ambitious. I suppose it ended up being more like a two hour walk almost entirely uphill and an hour back. The kids had fun on their horse while the adults laboured up the hill in the hot sun. What parents won’t do for their kids! Actually, despite the sweat and sore feet, it was great hike. The road to the waterfall, Curug Panjang is beautiful. We passed many beautiful villas, several villages with curious onlookers, forests, fields, look-out points over the valley, and even a Police Training Center. Outside of the occasional motorcycle and the clip-clop of the pony hooves, the road was quiet. Why can't Jakarta be like that?

We finally arrived at the waterfall; paid the "foreign entry" fee (the kids, horses and handlers got in free) with a bit of grumbling. Just past the gate, we parked the ponies. The kids ran down a narrow dirt path, forded a brook that ran down a cliff and across then path, and across a bamboo foot bridge. Past the bridge was a green valley with a short waterfall that tumbled into rapids over big round rocks. Some families were having a picnic and a group of youths were camped out along the side of the rapids. The three kids hopped down to the water and Kai and Zach immediately wanted to jump in. Being the protective Dad, I fluttered nervously around Zach as he hopped around in the shallow water. Court was splashing his head in the cool water and Zach vaguely imitated.

The walk back was much more pleasant since it was all downhill. Angela, Court and I munched on pathetic skinny peanuts that I had picked up at a roadside kios. It began to rain and I didn’t mind getting wet since I was so hot. The kids were real troopers and they didn’t seem to mind the rain either. I put on Zach's red Roots vest that Galuh had teased me about bringing: "you bring so much stuff!" To which I had responded as the erstwhile boyscout: "It's better to be prepared!" She grew up in the topics, I in the temporates. That's our difference.

Anyways, the rain changed the colour of everything; all the greens were darker. It almost seemed like a different road on the way back. Takeo became very sleepy making his handler very nervous. Occasionally I would call out to him, “Takeo, keep a lookout for ice cream!” He would suddenly straighten up, his eyes would grow very large and he would make a valiant attempt to fight off the drowsiness, before drooping again into sleepiness. It was very cute and he made it back without falling off his horse.

We made it back and Dan had a great lunch prepared which we devoured on the patio overlooking the Puncak valley. Zach was pleased with the pony-ride and was asking when he could do it again.

Jerome

Yesterday, on Saturday, was a busy day for Zach. In the morning, he went to the Lawrence Rowland’s 4th birthday party and in the afternoon he went to aHalloween Party. It was his first “trick or treat.” The Halloween Party was hosted by the Jones’ family (Casey and Courtney) at Executive Paradise. Actually, it was their 4th Annual Hosting of Trick or Treat. We were invited through Stephanie Lynn, Lawrence's mom. Thanks Stephanie!

Zach wore a Dash Costume from the Incredibles. We borrowed it from Lawrence Rowland. Firstly, Zach wanted to be a cow, and we had to order a comstume there was no time. Anyway, he was quite happy with his costume even though there was no mask.

The party was well organized. When we arrived at the Jones’s house, there already were many kids (of course in their costumes) and their parents (some in costume). They were waiting for starting the “trick or treat”. Then, we started to do the “trick or treat” around Executive Paradise. The neighbours were ready with their candies and chocolate. Zach was really excited, everytime he went into the somebody’s house he would say “trick or treat!” and asked for candies. Because of he is too small, sometimes the host did not see him and he would ask “how about me? Give me candy please!”. He was really cute! Jerome and I followed him and sometimes helped him to bring his big bag. He had the biggest bag of all the kids but only got a little bit of candy.

Unfortunately, after we went to 8 houses, it started to rain. A really heavy rain! Casey asked us to come back to his house. I think most of the kids enjoyed the rain, including Zach and Jerome. At Jones’s house, the food was waiting. Because of the rain, we felt very hungry and for those who were fasting it was the time for breaking their fast. Jones’s family had prepared Pizza, pumpkin cookies, bat cookies, chips and sate for us.

Look at Zach and Jerome, they look like they really enjoy their dinner. Yummy Pizza hah!

For Casey and Courtney, thanks for having us for Halloween and surely, next year we won’t miss your Halloween party. It was a lot of fun (despite the rain or maybe because of it!). We had a great time!

Galuh

Our weekend this week was fulled with socialization with friends.

Firstly, I would like to mention here that at the beginning of July we finally bought a car, Nissan X-Trail. We call it “our first big investment”. After we saved money for 4 years, finally we could afford it. Jerome is very happy with that car and me too since I also contributed my saving too. And as you can guess, this car has been the focus of our private lives for the past four weeks. Of course, this car has kind of changed our lives. Getting around is easier and we are much more easier to go out of town. Well, Jerome promised that he will post a story about our car include the pictures someday.

As I mentioned before, this weekend we were very busy. In Friday night, we attended a 14th anniversary of YAPPIKA at Hotel Cemara. The party was very entertaining, the presented their documentations about their journey in past 14 years and during the dinner they entertained us with music. We met our old friends. We also met Eep Syaifullah and his wife, Sandrina Malakiano. Zach was very enjoy the party and wanted to shake all people that he met. He said “Hi, I am Zachary.” He was really cute. He tried to imitate us.

On Saturday, we went up to Bogor. Jerome’s boss, Paul and Stephanie, invited us to come to their rented-villa in Desa Cilember. Nice villa, the building seems like dutch-style building with old-antique furnitures. It had three big beautiful bedrooms with big bathrooms. There was outdoor-swimming pool with beautiful views (rice-paddy fields, villager houses, and river). Of course with fresh air, no pollution. Hm … unfortunately we forgot to bring our camera, we can not show you how beautiful that place.

Except us, Tom and his dog (Hurley) also came and they stayed overnight. Then, we spent our time chatting, lunch outside, swimming, playing with kids and hurley, and playing billiard. Zach and Lawrence (Paul and Stephanie’s son) was very good when they played together. They shared the toys. Zach was really like the pool (read : billiard), he tried to play it but the stick was very big for him so he just played with the balls.

In the late of afternoon we decided to go back to Jakarta. During our way back to Jakarta, Courtney called us. He just got back from Canada and Yogyakarta and wanted to get together on Sunday but fortunately we got an information from him that Maggie was going back to Toronto on Sunday morning. So we decided to have dinner with them, at least for saying good-bye to Maggie. We picked them up and then we went to Plaza Indonesia. We decided to eat sushi at Sushi Tei Restaurant. We instantly finished all the foods, maybe because we all were hungry. At 9.30 pm, we decided to go home and of course we wish Maggie with good luck for her future in Canada. Seemed that she was little bit nervous for going back to Canada. Anyway, good luck Maggie for your new lives in Canada and hopefully can see you in January next year when we visit our family in Toronto.

On Sunday, we woke up very late, at 9 am!. Then we had our breakfast and afterward just hanging around in the house. I read my book (Petir by Dee), Jerome played his new game in his new work laptop, and Zach played with his dinosaur toys. At 2 pm, Courtney came and then they (Courtney, Jerome and Zach) went swimming at downstair. I just read a TEMPO magazine when they were swimming. Then we had a chat while Zach was still swimming by his self. We stayed at the pool for 2.5 hours.

And then, Jerome and Courtney went to the Darmawangsa Squire to buy our weekly necessities and get our dinner. Meanwhile, Zach had his early dinner before he went sleep. After his dinner, Zach immediately fell asleep. He slept through the night.

Jerome and Courtney bought special beers (I can not remember the brand). They drank it during the dinner. After dinner, we just had a chat about games, work, and our friends. Courtney left our house around 10 pm. After he left, I watched Oprah show. It was about Jon Steward, the host of Daily Show. He is very cuteeeeeee and funny.

That was a story about our weekend. Very tired but fun!

Galuh, 8 August 2005 at 5 pm