Selamat Tahun Baru

What a year.... If I have to describe it in one word it would have to be "What-the...?!?" (OK technically thats two words but note the hyphen). What a year, what a ride.... So many reflections lately that sometimes I find myself doing a running commentary in my head 'ala Carrie Bradshaw' while doing the housework, for example (not that I do that much here in the land of maids, nannies, supirs, pak kebuns etc - more on that later)... that I finally decided that I should pen something down, anything, because time is so fleeting these days, and that when too many interesting things happen at the same time you may end up losing the individual memories and just see the whole thing as one big chaotic mess. Which would be a shame.























I am encouraged as well by one or two kind souls who actually volunteered to be my readers when I meekly suggest on Facebook that I start writing my Jakarta Journals...thank you Shitah & Lelerke - the rest of you, thanks a lot! (notice the difference. I jest...)

So My Jakarta Journals is thus conceived. But not before having to self-learn the prenatal 'how-to- blog' - boy do I feel outdated - so do excuse the standard layout, standard font, standard colours of this blog page. And the occassional misalignment - I still have to figure out how to insert pictures without screwing up the whole page. Hopefully I will have time to make it pretty later.

This blog, though is called My Jakarta Journals, is not intended to be Visit Indonesia Year promo stuff. I will write a bit about the places I visit, things I see (yes I've been here almost six months, no I havent been to Bali) albeit with some dose of honest review which my huz and I discover are actually what most people think, but not necessarily say...(more on that later too). But more than that, hopefully I will write about what Jakarta invokes in terms of reflections about myself, family, people, the world, and life in general..... Anything really, because, well, after all, I am the editor-in-chief here. Hey that feels kinda good.




























To start off, let me wish all of us A Happy New Year (Maal Hijrah 1430 as well as 2009) - though thinking of the current tensions around the world at the moment, sometimes I prefer the Bahasa version "Selamat Tahun Baru" - a "Safe New Year", Bismillahirahmanirahim.