Excuses

I was planning on catching up with this blog today. Not to be, even though I start my day when Michael's alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m.

Let's see. How did it get to be 3:30 with so little to show for it, especially when I don't have to do any of the cleaning here? First thing in the morning I always answer emails that have come in the night before—or those still languishing in my inbox from busier times. Today I also needed to process the online VAT activation code that Kieron and Jo (a thousand blessings on their heads) forwarded when it finally arrived at our London flat. Mind focused once again on matters British, I also checked bank accounts and activity on the UK mastercard we're using here. Tick, tick, tick: so far, so good.

Quick breakfast—corn flakes with strawberries and one of Indonesia's fabulous lemon-flavored tiny bananas plus fresh-squeezed orange juice from Kem Chick's—then out the door to pick up a laptop cooler for our new Sony Vaio and various odds and ends at Lotte Mart, the Walmart clone we discovered in the basement of Ratu Plaza on Saturday. Home for lunch (Australian camembert, Scandinavian crackers, and Granny Smith apple) and encounters with two of the charming young boys who clean our apartment each day and the mechanic who arrived to replace our defective washer/dryer. Soon....

Interruption while another maintenance man appeared with a tube of silicone adhesive to replace a marble tile that fell off the skirting board as the new appliance was being installed.

Yes. Soon—as in ten minutes—I have to leave for Michael's office, where the SIM card in my Blackberry will be replaced by one that allows me to access the internet. I'll hang around studying my Indonesian phrasebook until suami saya (my husband) is ready to leave. The cleaners were very impressed by my language skills (anda belajar cepat—you learn fast) until I revealed that seventeen years ago I had lived in Jakarta for three years. Then they probably wondered why I wasn't better.

Tomorrow is another day. I hope to get some of our photos downloaded then.