Making Dim Sum High Above Jakarta

I spent most of my weekend shopping for the usual new-apartment essentials like shower curtains, trash cans and condiments, while Haviva spent hers editing the final copy of her magazine. We took a break in order to attend a dim sum cooking class, which was Haviva's birthday present from me. The class was held at Cilantro, an Asian fusion restaurant at the top of the tallest building in Jakarta – sort of Jakarta's equivalent of Boston's Top of the Hub restaurant. The restaurant gets generally mixed reviews and it's pretty pricey, but this is a city pretty bereft of cooking classes so it was worth a shot.

It was far from the best cooking class we've attended, but it was a lot of fun – a very Indonesian experience. We were the only foreigners in a crowd of about 20 or 25 people, which meant we were always asked to be the volunteers. We learned to make three different kinds of dumplings, each with a different wrapping and shape.

In a strange cross-promotion, people from the local Crocs shop were there to reward prizes for the best dumplings. I'm very proud to say that I won the first competition (which was easily the most difficult with the ornate crimping and creasing needed). And they didn't pick me just because I was the white guy - it was a pretty dumpling! The prize was a 350,000 rupiah gift certificate for Crocs - shoes I have previously sworn I would never wear. Maybe I'll find a pair of Crocs flip-flops or something less objectionable than their standard design.

Life is returning to normal here. After 3 ½ months of being homeless we have moved into our new apartment. The struggle isn't quite over yet – no hot water in the new place at the moment – but it's nice to have a place to call home again. We'll put together an apartment touring video once the boxes are cleared from the living room and the oodles of tchotchkes that the owner left around are removed.

Last weekend was our big annual Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Bali. A good time was had by all. There were 7 teams – Jakarta (2 teams), Singapore (2), Vietnam, Hong Kong and Saipan. I co-captained the Jakarta B team, which was a lot of fun. We went 0-6 but played great and had a lot of fun. We also won the party by having 6 players in attendance for the sunrise beach ultimate game after a long night of partying Saturday night. Sadly, Haviva and I were in bed around 5AM. Maybe next year.

The theme for the party was "tropical" but that was somehow missed by the fashion designer/teammate who traditionally costumes the team. He dressed Haviva in a lovely sequined latex number with American flag stars, while I was given a watermelon shirt (not watermelon color, but actual watermelons, mind you) and a cool pair of jeans with green pockets and trim. At some point in the evening I also acquired a ridiculous pair of sunglasses and a fantastic wig. Clearly, a good time was had by all.

Photos of all the fun are at http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/BaliTournament2008

It has mostly been work work work for us these days - after all we have a magazine to get out! - but we were blessed with a long weekend the other week in honor of Nyepi. Don't worry if you have not heard of the holiday, it is a Balinese Hindu holiday, and despite it's niche market we got Friday off.

We headed up to Puncak, the same place you saw my feet dangling from the skies on my paragliding trip, back to the same fabulous Canadian Embassy villas with our friends Chad and Joya. It was a pretty miserable weather weekend, but the rest and relaxation was fabulous, as was the company of several other Canadian diplomats. We did not do much more than eat, drink and play many rounds of Settlers, although there was a brief (and sad ending) adoption of a street cat and an attempt at paragliding thwarted by weather.

We did manage to stop at the great antique furniture shops that line the road to and from Puncak and Howie and I purchased our first, very cool piece of Indonesian furniture. We were shopping for these cool lamps they sell, but this perfect piece caught our eye and we just could not resist. Our new place (which we have still not moved into) does not have a coffee table and the driver was coming back to pick up some things Chad and Joya were buying so, really how could we say no?

Now we just need a home to move the thing into. Should be happening this week, along with a visa run to Singapore, a final deadline for High End Teen and a trip to Bali for the Ultimate Tourney.

Fake it till we make it

As our last post hinted, we have decided to spend some more time in Indonesia. Just as we were about to ship the last couple boxes back to America, we were both offered editor positions with a new magazine that should be coming out in the next month or so. Haviva will be the managing editor of High End Teen and Howie the Sr. editor of High End Special Editions. It is pretty exciting on the whole - the impossible task of starting these magazines from basicly scratch has the whole place buzzing. We are working with a great staff and every minute has been very go go go.

To really build a buzz, we had a pre-launch party this past week mostly to schmooze with potential advertisers and the stars came out: There were two Indonesian Idol stars (one actual winner and one runner up), a few Miss Indonesias, the Ryan Seacrest of Indonesia (host of a big show here called Mama Mia and one of the top emcees in the country) and several people described as "socialites". To help us fit in, I was given quite the make-over and a special black jacket to wear and Howie was given a black dress shirt and gold tie. Very High End, but we still stuck out like sore thumbs which we think might have been part of the point.

The event was held at an upscale Indonesian restaurant with not enough alcohol to make me forget my aching feet in my high heels. We were paraded in front of the crowd, handed many a business card (we could hand none over ourselves as ours are not ready yet) and really enjoyed the buffet (even though our Indonesian colleagues all had Hoka Hoka Bento - a fast food Japanese place that is very popular amongst locals and equally despised by expats - before the event and then ate nothing.) It was a bit surreal, but at the same time, kind of fun.

So, now that we have been paraded, it looks like we are staying - we move into a new place this week, we have gotten one pay check, and signing a contract seems imminent. Who would have thought? Certainly not us...