This is our second week in Jakarta, my second week as a full time housewife. I've gotten into some sort of routine :

0540 : Solat subuh
0550 : Walk around the neighbourhood with Saiffuddin, gawk at the achingly beautiful houses full of old money
0650 : Buy Kompas from a midget (really, a midget! I'll take his picture later. He's a nice midget)
0655 : Buy bakwan goreng/tauhu sumedang/pisgor/sukun from a corner jajan guy.
0700 : Have breakfast with Saiffuddin and yell for the kids to have breakfast, too since they would invariably be slumped in front of the TV or computer.
0730 : Join the kids and slump in front of the TV, until Saiffuddin yells : "Mummy! What am I going to wear?", and then get up to pick out a nice shirt and tie for the man, who appears to have been able to dress himself just fine when I was not here.
0745 : Lie on bed with Saiffuddin while he smokes and listen to him complain about work, and the fact that they don't sell Salem cigarettes here.
0800 : Kiss Saiffuddin goodbye, and then stand on the kerb with the kids in pyjamas and shout "Bye-Bye Daddy!!!!" at the top of our voices. (Our house is in front of a main road)
0810 : Watch TV to catch up on Indon celebrity gossip, or read the papers, while the kids swim. Sometimes swim, too.
0900 : Take a nap
0945 : Take a warm shower, which includes hair treatment and avocado lulur (a jar of lulur is just 4,ooo rupiah -- less than 2 ringgit). This shower, however is optional. It may be delayed until 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
1030 : Go grocery shopping at ITC Kuningan. Gawk at gorgeous togs but do not buy because all money has gone into furniture, baked beans and cereal.
1200 : Reach home, and cook lunch (That is, if there is no demonstration that day. The trip home from Jalan Casablanca to Sultan Syahrir can take anywhere from 10 minutes to one and a half hours)
1300 : Shower and solat zuhur
1330 : Eat lunch with the kids, and help them with homework. Arbitrate arguments.
1430 : Check email and contemplate blogging, if I can wrestle the laptop away from small hands surfing through Barbie and Strawberry Shortcake and WinxClub, or big hands surfing through addictinggame.com and youtube (to watch wrestling highlights)
1530 : Solat Asar. Cook stuff for tea and dinner, while the kids sit through tuition.
1630 : Serve tea to tuition teachers and the kids. If there is no tuition that day, the kids and I take a walk to nearby Taman Suropati and gawk at the tanks in front of the Vice President's house.
1730 : Take a shower and solat maghrib. Set table for dinner.
1800 : Wait for Saiffuddin to come home. Have dinner.
1900 : The kids get daddy time.
2000 : Walk to Starbucks with Saiffuddin and over double shot espresso, triple shot Americano and cigarettes, listen to him complain about work some more
2100 : Solat Isya', and then the whole house goes to bed. Okay, so maybe Saiffuddin and I would sneak out to the pool and the front garden once in a while.

That's about it. My exciting day. I suppose I can get used to it.

I think.

Two things bother me though, and they are major. One, I don't get to earn my own money and not having money in Bargain Land is like being a eunuch at Playboy Mansion. Two, I am terribly bored. When Saiffuddin comes home in the evening, I cringe listening to the things I tell him about (Like, the girls get kentut breaks during tuition and I can see the both of them rushing out to the porch and tungging bontot.)At SSO I get my daily dose of drama, and I'm always working on exciting new projects, but here, all the way out here and far from Kelana Square, the most exciting endeavour is buying baskets from Pasar Cikini, and getting a discount from the bajaj man. My highlight of the day is waiting for the jamu woman to come by.

I suppose sooner or later, I'll get Elida back. I have a job writing for Anjung Seri and other publications, and that would give me some moolah, hopefully. But for me to be really, really at home, mak perlukan kawan-kawan pondan.

Masya Allah.