Saturday, December 30, 2023
We walk up to Nara for breakfast since we missed it earlier this week. As we relax, various to-dos drift through our minds, sent via WA and texts as we sip oolong tea. What a restful setting for catching up.
Tomorrow is Round Table Sunday. Not much is blooming in our garden. Can last week's scraps be rescued? There's almost nothing left.
Aren't there new IKEA glasses in storage somewhere? I grab 12 and cut an old oasis into pieces, pressing it into the glasses.
Drooping carnations and greens are tossed into a basin to soak for an hour. The sink is a mess of stem bits and old leaves when I finish trimming.
It's not bad = 12 little bouquets of this and that, just right for small centerpieces.
I load the arrangements into two tubs to take to the hall.
PakG takes the "leftover" oven to IbuA. She keeps hinting about hitting retirement age (oh please, not yet!) This investment in her future means she could run a baking business from home. I send along ingredients and the recipe for her first batch of chocolate cookie balls.
Bailey gives his approval to the new oven, which is the same height though not the same width or brand. It's functional but looks weird. 2 gas canisters sit behind the ovens. Movie night and other big events require cooking on every available burner and in every oven.
We walk through the neighborhood to DrH's Christmas palace, decked with decor and festive color. She's wearing a Bangladeshi red outfit from her days working there with WHO. She's recovering nicely from surgery earlier this week.
Her treats and tea are so good that we don't want lunch until 2:00. W orders from McDonalds. His BigMac comes without sauce so he slathers it in mayo, mustard, and Thousand Isles dressing. Must have newbies in their kitchen over the holidays.
Sunday, Sylvester Abend or NY Eve
It's Round Table Sunday, typically the lowest attendance of the year. Some friends are here from IES Jakarta. It's nice when "sister" community people join us.
The worship team has the privilege and responsibility of leading in music and adoration. Around the tables, we evaluate the good things of 2023. Most of us are ready to move on.
Around midnight, the Bandung skylines explode in lights and bangs - the racket goes on without pause for over half an hour. Before and after the unbroken crashes, fireworks explode in bursts. (That goes on for a few nights until fireworks are used up.)
New Years Day, Monday
It's a quiet day with the helpers on a day off. We walk almost alone in the dawning day. I spend much of the day setting up a bullet journal (visual diary) for the next month - I've wanted to do this for a few years but have never had headspace for it. It's satisfying to track habits and checklists in one place.
The rain comes pouring down most days. Look at this gutter, overflowing onto our roof and into the house. The back guest bedroom has morphed into a storage room over the years. There's a generator for when we lose power, freezer and fridge for events, and extra linens. Sigh. Several boxes are ruined, soaking wet on the floor.
I send a note to the neighbor. We don't want to worry her if she hears us cleaning the leaves and vines off the common wall. By the time W gets to it, it's been cleared out. What a good neighbor! and not just in this. Susi is a wonderful neighbor, living back to back.
Tuesday
We're all back to work, cleaning, trimming, and organizing. We call family and friends around the world. All is well.
When I open the door, Bailey darts outside to bark at the gate with the big dogs. Afterwards, he's not excited about being on the wrong side of the window - he gives me the unblinking poodle stare to come back inside.
I make a solo trip to the IKEA in the next city. Oh the luxury of wandering around without a clock ticking! Families make it a day out, checking out chairs, sprawling on beds, and examining the barang-barang (various stuff). Groups of kids bounce around the children's displays with dads nearby, while their mothers browse the store.
First stop is AS-IS, where I find 3 rattan baskets for the Kallex bookshelf. Why do they look familiar? Oh yeah, we've had those those in my home office in Seattle for 15+ years. Here they're being discontinued.
I want to buy 4 baskets. "We are out! Those were the last 3," says the head of AS-IS, tipping goods out of them. I buy the 3 and then find many similar baskets in the displays.
Those baskets don't exist, according to IKEA records. I take one from display to the checkout. For comparison, I tear a price tag from one I've purchased.
"Maaf, keranjang yang habis (all gone)," says a young clerk, who takes me from check-out to AS-IS. "There are no more. Our system says they're out of stock. You have to go to Decor and have them put display items into the system."
Ok, I'm willing to do that. Two guys walk me to Decor where I'm told the same thing. I show them that I'm holding the basket in my hand, hand over the price tag, and say, "I just bought 3 and have another one right here. You are not yet out." After an hour's work and multiple calls to the manager, we walk to AS-IS together where the 4th basket is given to the manager of AS-IS.
He hands it to me. "OK, one more left." Could I have saved them the hassle by paying with an already-priced basket at check-out, instead of handing over a display item? I didn't think of it and want to use the proper procedure.
Sigh. Same outcome with lots more work for the team. It's worth sending a 5-star review to customer service for them: Agung, Martin, and Rifki. Thanks, guys.
Wednesday
The five-year-old lovebirds on the porch watch the sun rise. They scold me in the early morning light.
PakG and Areya help Alice take down the Christmas decorations and store the trees at the hall.
I check with Alice to sort out what comes home and what belongs to IES Bandung.
The New Year provides a fresh look at other things lying around. A drum kit? We haven't used it for 4 years. No sense in it getting ruined by creatures. I call someone looking for used instruments: "Want the drums?" They'll come by later to check them out.
Breakfast at Nara involves our usual order before we head back to the hall to check on progress.
Later in the day, I indulge myself with setting the dining table. We host many buffets but few sit-down dinners. At supper, we celebrate friendship and a birthday.
The day flies by with podcasts, a paper to edit, a sermon to write, and piles to sort in my home office. Satisfying. Tomorrow will be even better when the Christmas things get packed away until next year.
Read more:
*When you return to the Lord your God, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you. Deuteronomy 30:2-3
*I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Isaiah 44:6
*(Jesus said,) Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Matthew 6:9
*The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. Mark 1:15
*But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2:13-18
Moravian Prayer: Our Father in heaven, with our whole being we worship you. In your name, we offer our petitions and supplications. In the assurance of your great mercy and love, lead us forward with courage.
Merciful God, we confess our shortcomings and stubbornness in our behavior and actions. Help us to conform to your will in our thoughts and how we live. In your name, we pray. Amen.
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