BREAD – awesome variety

Nowadays one takes everything in Jakarta for granted. The enormous variety of food and restaurants, the products and services available, the white goods and kitchen utensils, cutlery, glasses, plates, chef's knives, bed linen, fitness centres and exercise equipment, LED and LCD TV sets, cars—yes, Lamborghini and Ferrari have their dealerships in Jakarta—and of course traffic and gridlock. It's all there, it's all part of normal life, and very much in demand.

It is of course nice that Bentley has a showroom in one of the upscale malls, and seeing a Ferrari on the road is worth a second look, and a smile when caught in the same gridlock in the middle of Kijangs.

But very quietly, almost unnoticed, has been the transformation of the bakeries, the providers of that so very common food item: bread. Where some three decades ago breads and pastries were available in a limited range only, the present choice includes the full range from French baguettes and batard, to kraftkorn, nine-grain, German rye and sourdough bread. Then one had to visit Hotel Indonesia hoping that the Deli still had a rye bread, or try one's luck at Sari Pan Pacific. Now the outlets selling this great variety of daily fresh breads are almost within walking distance… I mean one can't miss them even if one doesn't look for them.

Forget the five star hotels for the moment though their number also increased dramatically, it all started with Vineth. Mid-80s! The Jakarta Post published an article on one William Wongso who had travelled around the world collecting recipes for bread. If I'm not mistaken Tahiti was, for onstance, on his itinerary, too, and there he learned to make a real baguettes—those thoughtful French made sure they were never without their favourite bread! On his return Mr Wongso had to convince his family that investing in his dream of a new-era bakery would bring great fortune. That sounds like the I Ching, and maybe the uncles and aunties did consult the Book of Change, but the money was made available and bread-lovers like myself were immensely grateful. Vineth is available in quite a large number of outlets, eg, Hero, Kem Chicks, Ranch, and of course their own shop on Panglima Polim Raya No. 63-65.

And then there appeared a fair number of others. Lees and Chef's Kitchen and Daily Bread, and the in-house bakeries at Kem Chicks (Kemang) and Ranch (Pondok Indah). All baking beautiful tasty bread. But for me the best tasting bread is baked by MeTro Sky Garden, a bakery and restaurant/bar at the German Centre BSD, some 30 minutes west of Jakarta. I buy their bread and pastries in Hero Kemang—I have not found other outlets in my shopping area (Jakarta Selatan). Their sourdough bread is incredible and for a cookie try the Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies.

PULSE READING – some more

A first reader to follow my advice. Medical advice, that is. Good on ye, girl. When mainstream medical-men cannot do more than prescribe an aspirin, but you yourself know and feel that there is more to it, and moreover anxiously suspect that it might even be serious, it is time to look for an alternative second opinion. And you did. Good on ye.

So this is what happened.

After creating a lot of question marks in the mind of the registration nurse—you are taking birth control pills but you haven't had your period for over two months. ???. Yes, I'm on a three-month cycle—you can tell the doctor (what acronyms does he carry behind his name, as he is a GP, an acupuncturist, a herbalist, and bases his diagnosis on pulse reading) what's bothering you.

He comments that not being able to play tennis without wanting to throw up if you have eaten less than four hours before playing, is rather strange. Normally one hour should be sufficient to prevent that. And from his pulse readings he concludes that both your breathing problem and the nausea are stomach related.

Note the fact he does not use a stethoscope, there is none around his neck either.

Two needles are inserted, one just below the breastbone and the other one in the lower leg… Lower leg… for stomach related problems? Grand! Alternative, outside of the box methods, is what keeps the world turning. And to complement the process, herbs are added. Seven packs. One a day. And come back next week to check on progress.

All other readers in Jakarta and surroundings. Remember the clinic: O CliniC, Jl. Prapanca Raya PIII No. 20, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta. 

TODAY – it's Friday and the date is 02/10

The morning has been bright and warm. I played my usual hour of tennis—twice I crawled back from 0-40 down to win the game—and am now confronted with an unwilling internet. It must be the provider as none of the four, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Firefox, are able to get me on. The weather has turned, a spectacular thunderstorm and driving rain are cleaning the street of motorcycles and filling the gutters, too. Police sirens in the distance… not unusual in a city of this size.

The Friday routine of the area is quite likeable. Early morning at seven the school across the street is dragging the kids through their weekly morning exercise—satu-dua-tiga-empat…to eight, and then again and again. The sound system is turned up when the music accompanying the fitness exercises starts. The music is from various regions in Indonesia. This morning I heard for the first time a song from Papua, but I suspect that it has been composed fairly recently in a melodious effort of nation building.

Then at midday it was time for Friday prayers. About an hour before, Koran verses are read. In this part of town, Kebayoran Baru, the amplifiers are not turned up full and the reading is pleasant to listen to. One of these days I will make a recording for playback when no longer here. Could it be that in this very upper-middle class area inhabitants are conscious of potential sound pollution. Smaller mosques in less prosperous areas are turning the watts up till the speakers screech.

And then after the prayers the school holds a percussion class. From the sound of it I think they use traditional drums and tambourines. One of my boyhood wishes… to become a drummer. Never got past my father's objection, or maybe I didn't want it strongly enough.

It is now late afternoon and the light is fading, even without the thunderstorm which has drifted over.

And today of course is Lonne's birthday. Happy Birthday, son.

 

DREAMS – wee little critters

Last night it happened again. I was woken up by an itch in my left nostril. Each time I exhaled something  tickled that external part of my nasal cavity. I felt around for a hair that might vibrate on the airwave, or a sliver of dried mucoid matter. Nothing. And after rubbing my nose vigorously I tried to get back to sleep… only to feel the same tickle on the third or fourth breath. 
And then of course I start telling myself that it can't be anything but a hair or a sliver of dry snot… or can it! 
If smelly armpits are caused by the excrements of minute organisms living in its pores, why could then another type of little beasts not live in the nose? One or two would take midnight stroll to watch the world beyond the nostrils… and tickle me awake.

And so I once again tried every nose-picking trick I could think of. I had just cut my nails and thus faced a bit of a problem in dislodging dry slivers. Index finger… no result! little finger, no results either… whatever and however much I tried.

Trying to sleep again. On the third exhalation the little critters continued their midnight stroll… Very fed up I snorted explosively and pressed my thumb and index on the forced-out breath…

And that is when I felt something, right there between my fingers. 

I released the pressure a bit and yes, definitely something there, something small and hard and sharp, sporting an exoskeleton most likely. And when I carefully very, carefully indeed, opened my fingers, there it was …

Lacking a macro lens on my BlackBerry recording my catch was a bit difficult, but the rendition below comes pretty close.