J_34: Failed interviews and a better but less kostly kos

Jumbalayah, loved ones.

I don't actually know what that means, but it makes me think of 'gumbo', which incidentally will be the name of the first child I have, should I ever have any (God forbid). "Gumbo" I'll yell into the peaceful summer air of the neighbourhood "Come inside, I'm making stew..."

Today was a wee bit of a fail, redeemed by a trip to Sarah's kos.

The failure part had a lot to do with the fact that last night was a really restless night spent thinking about completely pointless topics. I finally drifted off to sleep about 4:30am and was up at 9:30 to get to an interview with Jakarta's head urban planner, which I had arranged the day before. I successfully navigated a taxi, but when I arrived (ten minutes early, I might add), it was to find that he had decided to meet with someone else and flag my interview. Um. Thanks for telling me?

I returned to the office, fuming, having negotiated with the secretary, who spoke very limited English and kept saying "Oh my god" to demonstrate this, that I would return at 2pm to interview this #@*^(% guy. After a morning spent reading Penny Arcade (not even going to pretend I did work, here) I rang the office at 1pm, being a little more savvy this time around, and was told that actually the planner was busy at 2pm as well, and that I should come in on Friday. Now wise to this snake-like secretary's ways, I insisted she check this was okay first, to be told that actually actually he was busy all week and would I fax my questions through so they could arrange a time with the English speaking members of the office? I know this trick from way back, and after I dutifully faxed the questions through, I appealed for help to the journo who originally gave me the planner's number, who very kindly rang him and arranged a meeting for me on Monday afternoon in a matter of minutes. BLOODY. HELL.

Then it was an afternoon spent feeling sleepy, drinking tea, and fudging around on Facebook, homestarrunner.com and Hark, A Vagrant! I headed home around 4pm for an epic nanna nap, and woke up around 7pm to head to Sarah's kos, which I still haven't seen. I walked with Izzy and Josh, the Australians from downstairs, having purchased my pot luck contribution (chips and Tim Tams, classy, I know) and thanks to the very detailed map Sarah had drawn me (complete with little squares labelled with things like 'Abandoned field with loads of rubbish') we made it to her kos, which is down a series of windy little roads, and over a bridge, and is just really nice - big, A/C'd rooms, balcony, quiet, clean - sigh!

We had dinner with Sarah, Becky and Elise, and caught up with everyone and their doings, then loaded up the live feed on ABC about Cyclone Yasi and proceeded to feel very worried about everyone in Australia, and very sorry for them. I headed home about 9:30pm to do some more thinking, and watch Youtube videos of Vin Diesel talk about D&D. Who would've thunk it?

Fingers crossed tomorrow is more productive, and I make a decision about Jogja!

LESSONS LEARNT 34:

- Thinking too much is tiring

- I miss my family

- I like hanging out with people every night - flatting can be a lot of fun

- I want to live near a river (but NOT a dengue-carrying mosquito-infested one)

- The net in our kos is AWFUL - but only a week and a half more now, uwah!

- Being a journalist is pretty dang awesome