expiration date 

i was going to buy a round trip ticket to go to Singapore for this weekend. it’d be nice to spend time with ari there… we haven’t spent enough quality time together since we arrived here in Jakarta.

well, i didn’t. i got a call from the port telling me that they’re about to leave to my home to bring my container. but they don’t know the way, so i had to go there and they’ll follow my car. now, let me explain the distance and traffic situation here in Jakarta. the port it on the north edge of the city. my home is on the south. and Jakarta isn’t a small city either. the call was around rush hour… and the traffic is nuts! one way trip to the port will take me around 2 hours, and probably 2 more hours back to my house.

on the way to the port, i got into a the rush hour traffic. my car practically parked in the highway. we moved for about 30 yards within half an hour. typical Jakarta’s rush hour. since we took so long, the truck driver got impatient and decided to leave the port and meet us up on the way to my home… which is about a mile away from my house (see, they actually know the way, but they wanted me to go to the port to pay some grease money).

my parents and i had dinner in a little restaurant around my house, and then wait on the side of the street for the truck. i think it took them around 3 hours to get to my house… along the way, it scraped things here and there and snapped 2 telephone cables that hang above the street. this area isn’t meant to have a big container truck around….

the six of us (the drivers, 4 other guys and i) moved the boxes and stuff from the container in to my garage in the rain. thank god it was dark already… i can’t imagine doing it in this hot weather under the sun! and i’m so thankful that those guys would help me moving the stuff… i wouldn’t know what to do if they weren’t there to help.

so, this weekend, i’ll be counting the boxes and make sure nothing is missing (a few boxes were opened during the custom check, 1 boxes is half broken with the stuff spilling out of the box, 1 boxes does not have a box anymore and the stuff is all over the container). then, when i have time, i would like to move some of the boxes, if not all, to the apartment… that way, the cars can get into the garage again.

i’m so glad that my stuff has arrived. you have no idea how stressed out i was waiting for it to get here and dealing with corrupt people in the port.

ps: happy birthday, ticia!