Public holidays! I love them: everybody is out of town. It’s quiet on the deserted streets of Jakarta, the air is much better and the ambiance is not the same quick-run-quick one. The last thing never bothered me, but it’s not something I am missing this week.

Public holidays! I hate them. While I say everybody is out to their kampung, I mean most of the people. And especially the ones that help me fulfill my needs are. The maid has permanently left, as I told before. The office boy has his days off, and even the security guards are not here to hang in their chairs all day long. I am all fine with that, but I was kind of bothered around lunch. I didn’t need more than once to learn that it’s better to bring your lunch in the official public holidays (last Monday till yesterday), but I didn’t expect the warung next door would still be closed today. I do miss Christines’ Nasi Bogona and my Nasi Campur, (she always gives me extra :) ). It was kind of sad to find out that she is still closed, and that she probably will not open again till Monday.

Rudi, my colleague from Belgium, didn’t mind much; we would just call the delivery service of the Pizza Hut for some hot steaming pizza (with the CheezBurst sides, nice!). We didn’t care that it probably would take half an hour to deliver, we were hungry and didn’t feel like waiting till after office hours.. I could do the ordering, I practiced my insufficient Indonesian skills enough the past week. I tried to call a couple of time but didn’t get to talk to someone on the other end of the line. The phone must either have been off the hook or there was no reply on the other side of the line - berlibur.

Our last rescue should have been the 24 hour delivery service of Mc Donalds. The phone was answered by a polite lady telling that all the lines were busy at that time. With an accent in her English that I could not quite place, she kindly asked to try again later. Rudi tried for quite a few times, but eventually gave up; no lunch today. Although Rudi was hungry, he didn’t feel like making the 5 minutes ride to the nearest mall, neither did I. This week Jakarta is on holiday, and now we knew it: the empty stomach kept reminding us.

My boss came in around 2. He slept in late today (I was not surprised, last night he was still watching movies around 4 - he didn’t answer my question if he would still get up for work when I asked him this morning). Since he didn’t have breakfast lunch yet he wondered if we wanted to join him at the food court in Taman Anggrek. Of course we would ;) . Arriving at Taman Anggrek I suddenly understood where all the cooks, phone operators and other people were; ice skating in Taman Anggrek. For the people not familiar with the mall, especially those in my freezing home country: yes, people like to do ice-skating here while it’s boiling hot outside (probably around 35 degrees at the afternoon). When I arrived I didn’t expect people in tropical climates to be able to stand foot steadily. A stupid assumption I guess, just not something I did expect.