Day 17

Sydney - Qantas Club - just waiting for the Dash 8 back to Canberra - boarding in five.


Well it turned out to be a bit more than that - good on you Qantas, I think you take the Canberra market for a mug - I certainly am glad I flew Garuda to Indonesia after this morning's little fiasco.


Anywho - home now, so ciao from this blog.  Back to VickersinAustralia for now

Day 16

Homeward bound


Allow 2 hours to get to the airport in a taxi and pray that nothing goes wrong - Friday night traffic here is notorious.

Its been a blast.  Jakarta is an amazing place.  I did my final walk back from work to the hotel - hot, muggy, suit jacket on and a bag over my shoulder - arrived to the air-conditioned fortress just before I melted - its super smoggy today as well - and then one last time through the security.


Highlights?  The sheer intensity of the place; finding great people to work with; meeting a Sultan; and possibly the most "never to be repeated" experience: being whisked through the crowded chaotic streets in a motorcade - sirens, flashing lights, going on the wrong side of the road, powering through deceptively impenetrable traffic - that was a weird experience - not one I want to repeat, but one I am glad I had.

Days 14 and 15

Work to the power work - some interesting experiences, nothing extraordinary, but not really blog-able nevertheless.

• A successful landing on a short runway at Yogyakarta
• A grand old hotel
• A dinner at a temple
• A novel driving experience
• A successful work outcome

Back in Jakarta now.

Day 13

Work!


Hope to fit in a swim in the pool tomorrow early before it starts again.  Nice pool:

Hmmm, its almost 2am, I suspect a 6am swim might be a hard call.

Day 12

Monday

Domestic flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta today.  Stunning views of a number of volcanoes from the window on the one hour flight.  In a new hotel room getting organised for tonight and meetings tomorrow - the next three days will be the hard slog.

Day 11

Sunday

Staring skyward from poolside

- kids free sleep in (check)
- morning swim (check)
- Tour de France Prologue bit-torrented (check)
- buffet breakfast eaten (check)
- back poolside for a few hours to read through next week's briefings (check)
- pink but not roasted (check)
- evening TV planned - Anthony Bourdain followed by Jamie Oliver (check)


Just the time to do one more read of the key briefings for next week before white wine o'clock rolls around.

Day 10

Saturday


A day off.  Unfortunately no surf trip this weekend - I will have to come back.


After a few hours trawling through work documents this morning, I decided to take the afternoon off in style.


So, it was off poolside with a book for a couple of hours to work on the tan.


Then back to the hotel room for a classic Saturday in.  Unfortunately, I have not yet worked out how to watch the Tour de France live here but as all three Lord of the Rings films were on the TV I thought I should make a virtue of a necessity and nerd out for the weekend.


White wine chilled in the bar fridge, daggy hotel slippers on, pizza ordered - the battle of good versus evil has never been so comfortably bourne.