A new blogger in town lets us know how the other expats live, those with expat, rather than Indonesian, partners. Presumably he's in for the short haul as he doesn't identify blues belter, long-time resident here (and a former colleague of Jakartass and Indcoup), Sue B. in his photo of a night out.
Our drivers have base salaries of (Aus) $120 per month for a 5.5 day week, but because they work a lot of overtime, they end up making probably double that each month, since overtime is $1 an hour, and they also get an extra meal allowance (80 cents) if they work more than 2 hours overtime. If they work before 5am or after 9pm they get an extra $1 for bus fares or gas for their motor cycle. Driving is a plumb job, since when they're not driving they just hang out with other drivers in parking lots, watch TV or sleep.
.............
Indonesians have really good personal hygeine and grooming, but their plumbing systems and quality of their bathrooms stink. Literally.
The other drawback about using an unfamiliar bathroom here is that toilet paper is not always available. Many toilets are "squat" style - hang your trousers up on the hook on the wall, and put your feet in the "footprints" on either side of the hole in the ground, then let rip. If you're lucky there will be a tap with a hose attached to it that you can use as a bidet, wiping with your left hand (which is why you don't eat or hand anything to a Muslim with your left hand), or maybe there will be a tub of water that you can use to "clean up". So, always carry a few squares of toilet paper just in case.
My fellow blogger probably carries a supply of designer paper bought online from this emporium.
MonogrammedOnly $7.95 a roll
And now for something really fascinating - a Coathanger Museum. Seriously, this is a well-researched history delving back to 2000 BC.
wd-100aDesigned by Michael Rice, Sheffield, England, 1947.
Produced by King's Steelworks Ltd., Sheffield, England.
In 1914 Ambrose Rice had come up with the revolutionary concept of reclaiming spilled molten steel from the factory floor to make wire coathangers. The outbreak of the First World War had halted production, and afterwards Rice was unable to find a factory willing to continue with the project. He died in 1940, a broken and embittered man.
Rice's youngest son, Michael, vowed to avenge his father, and began work as soon as he was demobbed from the army in 1945.
His design was based closely on his father's original, the Stella pt308, but advances in technology in the intervening years meant that he was able to use galvinised steel wire, rather than the remolten spillage of his father's model. The novelty of a wire coathanger, plus its inexpensive production ensured its popularity, and by 1950, the wd-100a was a standard feature in most low rank hotels, bed and breakfast establishments and hostels. And Jakartass Towers.
And does my fellow blogger use this one?
Designed by Gustav Van Noys, Paris, France. 1931.
Produced by Foris & Co., Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, England.
Produced by Foris & Co., Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, England.
The epitome of 1930's style and sophistication, The Paris was originally developed for the Swiss Pavillion at the Helsinki Expo of 1931. Hand-crafted from a single piece of edible blonde hawthorn, its decadent, sweeping lines and soi-disant aspect received so much admiration that its creator, Gustav Van Noys, decided to make it commercially available, awarding the contract for its production to Foris & Co., probably the best known of all the Essex coathanger manufacturers.
