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Showing posts from December, 2016

Jakarta Jaunt

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A couple weeks ago I went back to Jakarta for work.  The flight up turned out to be quite an interesting one.  I decided to use some points to upgrade and got to sit in the business section.  It was a nice treat to have a seat that reclined in all different directions and to be waited on throughout.  But unfortunately I didn't get to choose my neighbour.  From the minute I sat down he was saying "ay ay ay" really loudly.  He was 78, Egyptian, and just on a different level.  When the meals came out he spilled his first glass of red wine all over.  I handed him my napkin, and he started praying for me and then made me clink glasses with him over the barrier once he got a refill.  Later on, I got up to use the toilet but had to pause when I lifted the lid.  There was something odd at the bottom of the bowl, so I got the flight attendants so I didn't make the situation worse.  My crazy neighbour dude had just been in there and had fallen in the aisle on the way back to h

Halfway There!

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Today we reached a big milestone in the house building journey - the land settled.  As of 2 pm today, we became 20% owners of this beautiful block of weeds!  All thanks to some fluke timing and a chat while looking at a display home, some texts, and a large pile of money. Our lovely little pile of weeds It's funny how painless and straight forward buying the land was compared to finalising a house design.  We're still working with the custom builder on potential house designs.  We got the preliminary design the other day, and it made me feel like we had taken a few steps backwards again.  The dream kitchen layout was missing, and we seemed to have gained a laundry room and lost a bedroom.  The way this builder prices the house by the square meter means the extra space that doesn't make sense gets quite spendy.  So we had a meeting with the salesman and draftsman and sent them back to the drawing board.  I'm hoping the next iteration is more in line with what we&