Why I love our Indonesian holidays
There are many reasons why I love our Indonesian holidays.
We love being at the airport.
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| The children still enjoy weighing themselves on the belt at the check-in counter. |
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| We would always need to empty our water-bottles, and our bladders, just before entering the boarding gate. |
We love taking the plane.
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| Elias is reading his comics now, but before that, he will read the safety instructions. He never fails to read the safety instructions each time we take the plane. |
We love the people.
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| The “out-going” maid, who is going back home to deliver. She speaks to my grandma in Bahasa, and my grandma speaks to her in Hokkien And they understand each other… |
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| My grandaunty and mummy. |
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| “Mrs Pastor” came to visit. She visits my grandma faithfully every fortnight, praying for her, and teaching her praise songs. |
We love the food.
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| The breakfast longtong which I LOVE. I eat it as often as I can each time I go. This time, I ate it three times. Yum… |
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| This pancake supper is full of chocolate, butter, peanut and sugar. Tastes oily and delicious. Worth every calorie. |
We love the fun things that we do.
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| This is at a seafood restaurant, where you pick your own food. Elias held a squid for fun. We didn’t eat this one. |
We love the simple daily fun even more.
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| This is our bedroom. When the boys were younger, we used to nap with them. Jakarta was where Edmund and I used to catch up on lost sleep. |
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| Now the children no longer take naps. They play much more in the room. |
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| We don’t do very much in Jakarta. We just have leisurely breakfasts, lunches and dinners. |
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| And my grandmother (not in the picture) simply enjoys having her family with her. She fusses over us, worried about whether the children have enough to eat. |
We love it that we have the time to “play toys” and read.
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| I always bring lots of small games for the children to play with. This is “River crossing”. It is a rather intellectual game. Samuel started liking it recently. I think it is the brother’s influence. Just like how he likes to “play Gor Gor Elkan’s chess”. |
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| Jigsaw puzzles always works for Samuel. |
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| The older boys enjoy reading, so it is easy to keep them quiet and occupied. |
We love it that we too have a grandmother (like many grandmothers you read about, or see on TV) who has a fruit tree for us to pluck fruits from.
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| The starfruit tree is fruitful but my grandmother would always stop harvesting them weeks before we visit, so we have lots to pluck! |
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| Everyone enjoys plucking fruits. The stick which we used was designed and made by my grandmother. I think she is a genius. |
I love the shopping.
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| The prices and variety are good. The best thing is, the malls are so empty, and we have all the time in the world to shop. (We do, in Jakarta, what most families do in Singapore on weekends. Eat, shop, eat, shop) |
And I love seeing my Ah Mah, who at age 83, still cooks such delicious dishes.
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| Hello Ah Mah! (I love you :)) |
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| She is weak, and can’t see well, but still has that special “touch” |
We love it because the Indonesia trips have become part of our life – our memories, and the children’s roots.
We have done it for 12 years now.
Many of our activities have changed. Sometimes it is due to physical changes (We used to bring the children to a playground nearby, but the equipment has rusted and is no longer safe). Sometimes it is because some people are no longer with us (One of my granduncles used to bring us out for Dim Sum – he has passed on). Sometimes it is because the children have grown up (Edmund and I can no longer leave the children napping at my grandmother’s house and go for massages).
There are also things that have become a permanence. The children expect to go to Indonesia every year in June. They expect to pluck star fruits, eat the pancake supper, and play in our cosy bedroom.
The older I get, the more I realise, that many things do not last forever. That has caused me to cherish the things that stay the same, no matter how small or simple they may be. And I cherish every moment, because I know, the next time, something will be different, and what I am enjoying now, would have become just a memory.
