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Great Aunt Sophie's Message
from the Colonies - the current update of what is going on in the Dutch East
Indies for Alex, Sophie and Elizabeth McCall.
Indonesia
This section is all about
living in Indonesia. We all know about the orang-utans of Borneo, the diving
in Sulawesi and the golden sands of Bali, but what is it really like to live
in Indonesia, and especially Balikpapan?
By guiding you through
some of the simple day-to-day tasks facing the average expat in Balikpapan,
we hope to give you a real idea of life out here....
- Images
- You may be forgiven for thinking that Indonesia is a dirty and
difficult place to live, after all I don't often show you the beautiful side.
So here it is - a selection of photographs of Indonesia, taken by amateurs
and professionals, to show you why we have stayed here for over 3 years.
- Kartini
Kecil - The
little girl celebrated Kartini day by wearing her batik. Kartini day? Find
out all about it here...
- Tua
& Baru - Balikpapan is a-changing. We may have lost Wisma
Patra, but what we have instead more than makes up for it. This page is dedicated
to all expats who have lived in Balikpapan, but who have now moved on to a
different civilisation.
- Flying
- A few too many trips to Singapore and Bali have reminded me that flying
in this part of the world is not the same as back home.....
- Money
- 'Money, money, money... Must be funny... In a rich man's world... or Indonesia.
- Nightlife
- A feature from an expert - Alex. Although you can have a good time drinking
in Indonesia, it's just not quite the same as popping to the pub in the UK...
- Having
a Baby - Some things are the same the world over....but Balikpapan
often introduces a few twists. Nowhere is this more true than for expats having
babies!
- Roads
- I am convinced that the roads of Balikpapan say something about the town...
but I don't think it is a very positive message!
- Selamat
Natal - Meaning 'Happy Christmas'... Christmas cards are thin
on the ground, but we found these fantastic cards in the Plaza, featuring
the sights of Balikpapan - mostly the oil refinery.
- How
to Work - As Alex will be happy to tell you, working in Indonesia
is not the same as the UK!
- Chez
McCall - A virtual tour of Utara 11, otherwise known as McCall
Mansion.
- How
to Eat - A guide to Indonesian food... for those occasions when
you are confronted with an Indonesian buffet, and there is no more chicken
satay.
- Giving
Blood - Or should this be in RWYA?
- How
to Expat - Or how to survive with the endless holidays, household
staff, tropical climate... another G&T please!
- How
to Talk - For when hand gestures are not enough. Fluency is achievable
with only 45 words (55 if you include numbers!)
- How
to Shop - Back in the UK, we take Tescos and Sainsburys for granted.
Trust me, we do!
- How
to Drive - Or getting from A to B, preferably without too many
crashes...
Travel
This page is dedicated
to all the places we have visited during our expatriation... from Indonesia,
through South East Asia and into Australasia.... we
even managed to get to the US!
- Borneo
- Yes I know we live on Borneo, but Balikpapan doesn't really have the exotic
images you imagine when you think of Borneo. So off we went to Kota Kinabalu,
on the other side of the island in Malaysian Borneo (Sabah), for 10 days of
taking it easy and discovering what Borneo can really be like.
- New
York - When you've already flown 8000 miles around the world
to reach the civilisation of the UK, another 8 hour flight across the Atlantic
doesn't make that much difference...
- Oz
- Just a short five-week break to Australia, taking in Perth, Sydney, Cairns,
Adelaide, the Indian Pacific train journey, some cricket....oh, and a total
solar eclipse.
- Marian
and Bill - Not so much a travel destination, but some of the
things we did when Auntie Marian and Uncle Bill came to visit us in August...
- Confinement
- An old expression, but who cares when you have to spend two months of it
in Singapore?
- Malaysia
- As the BBC World adverts say, 'Truly Asia!' A brief visit to Langkawi
and Kuala Lumpur.
- Turning
30 - A girl doesn't turn 30 very often (and discover she is pregnant
on the same day!) so we celebrated in style, in the second best restaurant
in the world.
- Derawan
2 - A second visit to this paradise island, in the company of
some French expats.
- Australia
- Our first trip 'Down Under', incorporating Perth, Rottnest Island,
Ayres Rock and Sydney... Just don't ask about the waterfalls.
- E&O
Express - Another trip of a lifetime, travelling from Bangkok
to Singapore on the Eastern & Oriental Express. The credit card can't
take anymore!
- Myanmar
- Aboard the 'Road to Mandalay' cruise boat along the Ayeyarwaddy River. And
if I see another pagoda....
- Bangkok
- Oriental city? Who cares - the hotel we stayed in had a TV in the bathroom!
- Yogyakarta
- Cultural Centre of Indonesia? Maybe, but definitely home to Borobudor.
- Mahakam
- Where the oil is, and so the main reason why we are in Indonesia.
- Komodo
- The journey to Komodo, in search of the legendary dragons, aboard the Ombak
Putih.
- Bali
- Is this paradise? The first of several visits to the island of
the gods.
- Derawan
- Our first diving trip to a small island a few hundred miles up the coast
of Borneo
- Singapore
- Civilisation at last!
RWYA
"RWYA" stands
for "Remember Where You Are", and is accompanied by a four fingered
salute. After a very short while in Indonesia (or Australia!), you stop being
surprised at anything out of the ordinary, but instead raise the four fingers
of your right hand, and "Remember Where You Are...."
- Indonesia
- The original RWYA, and a reflection of just how difficult or unpleasant
a simple task can be made...
- Expat
- For all expats who have ever said or thought "Oh, we have a maid who
does all that sort of thing" - that is, most of us!
- Australia
- Dedicated to all of the wonderful Australians, who refused to let a pair
of whinging poms ruin their day, by saying "no worries" to each
and every request that befell them....
Elizabeth
This is Elizabeth McCall's
World.... the best place to see all the baby photos, statistics and a perspective
on life from someone who is still in nappies...
- 15
Months - What is life like when you are a toddler? No more crawling,
just endless walking, playing and creating havoc...
- Statistics
- This page contains all Elizabeth statistics and milestones from her first
year of life... her height... her weight... her first smile... and any others
as they come along.
- Baptism
- And not just a baptism! Father Peter - the priest who came all the way up
to Aberdeen to marry us - invited us to his parish in Lingfield to baptise
Elizabeth. And afterwards, we celebrated in style, for a little girl who has
reached her first birthday!!!
- Back
in the UK
- A few weeks after coming back from Oz, and Elizabeth has picked
up the travel bug again.... Oh well, it's off to the UK, clocking up a total
of 24 weeks away from Balikpapan (out of 52...) and a tiring 36 aeroplane
flights!
- First
Christmas - And so back to Elizabeth's birth-place - Singapore
- where we celebrated the little girl's first Chistmas.
- Aussie
Bub - Elizabeth has her own perspective of her trip to Australia
- she doesn't care much for eclipses, cricket or trains - she just wants to
hang out and look cute! Oh - and 'bub' is Australian for 'baby', in case you
didn't know.
- Angel
- Sometimes it is difficult to imagine Elizabeth as an angel (especially when
she wriggles free on the changing table, or she flicks the contents of her
spoon everywhere at dinner-time...), but very occasionally, the little lady
can look angelic (with a little help from her Auntie Miranda's sewing)
- England
- Elizabeth finally took a trip to England, where she met grandparents,
cousins, aunties and uncles, and discovered swings, xylophones and bunny rabbits....
- August
- August saw Auntie Marian and Uncle Bill visiting Elizabeth, and you can
find out about their stay at Marian
& Bill, or click August
for some more pictures of Elizabeth!
- July
- A busy month for Elizabeth, with lots of things going on!
- June
- Look here to find out all the things that Elizabeth has been doing
in June!
- Bali
Baby - If you want to see some scenic pictures of Bali, click
Bali.
If you want to see pictures of Elizabeth looking cute on her first holiday,
then click Bali
Baby!
- Black
& White - A selection of black and white photos, some taken
when Eliabeth was between 7 and 9 weeks old, and some more when she was 5
months old.
- One
Month - Elizabeth made it to one month on the 19th April, and
to celebrate, we asked a friend to take some photos....
- Back
home - Back home to Balikpapan, with all those new clothes to
wear and toys to play with! These photos are of Elizabeth, aged between 3
and 6 weeks.
- First
Weeks - A selection of pictures of Elizabeth from her first weeks
of life in Singapore.
- PLC
- Look here to find all the information from PLC, or for those not in the
know, Elizabeth before she was born!
Recipes
- Soups
- Tomato & Bean, Carrot & Ginger, Pepper & Tomato, Tomato &
Pasta Broth.
- Starters
- Prawn & Avocado Crepes, Avocado al Pesto, Prawn & Avocado Pate,
Hummus, Tiger Prawns in Garlic Butter, Bruschetta with Salsa, Guacamole.
- Main
Courses - Salmon & Broccoli Tagliatelle, Tomato Herb Chicken,
Pot-Roast Chicken, Toad in the Hole, Chicken Dopiazza, Lemon Chicken Kebabs,
Spiced Chicken, Turkey Olives stuffed with Mushrooms, Nasi Goreng, Lamb &
Bean Hotpot, Beef Fillet with Red Pepper Sauce & Broccoli Mash, Moroccan
Beef, Italian Meatballs with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Haggis in Whisky & Mushroom
Sauce.
- Veggie
- Mexican Enchiladas with Cheese, Pasta & Avocado Salad, Spicy Bean Wrap,
Veggie & Chilli Bean Stuffed Peppers, Felafels.
- Desserts
- Raspberry Roulade, Treacle & Ginger Tart, Frozen Yoghurt, Tarte Tatin,
Rice Pudding Ice Cream, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Fool-proof Cheesecake, Banoffee
Cheesecake with Toffee Pecan Sauce, Strawberry Shortcake, Custard Tart, Miniature
Choc-Ices, Orange Catalonian Creme Brulee.
- Cakes
- Millionnaire Shortbread, Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake, Oatmeal Chocolate
Chip Bars, Ginger Cookies, Petite Pecan Pies, Dried Fruitgums, Balikpapan
Flapjacks, Muffins, Sutarmi Cookies, Low Fat Carrot Cake.
Books
John O'Farell: The Best
a Man Can Get; Scottish Girls About Town - A collection of short stories; Irvine
Welsh: Glue; Ben Elton: Dead Famous; Nick Hornby: How to be Good; Peter Moore:
No Shitting in the Toilet; Mick Inkpen: Honk; Stephen Fry: The Stars' Tennis
Balls; Amitav Ghosh: The Glass Palace; Pete McCarthy: McCarthy's Bar; Maggie
O'Farrell: After You'd Gone; Michel Faber: Under the Skin; Matt Beaumont: e;
Zadie Smith: White Teeth; Michael Crichton: Timeline; Adele Parks: Playing Away;
Joseph Gallaway: Oi Ref!; Isla Dewar: Giving Up On Ordinary; Nick Hornby: About
A Boy; Tony Parsons: Man and Boy; Alex Garland: The Beach; JK Rowling: Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire; JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkhaban; JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; JK Rowling: Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; Joanne Harris: Chocolat; Martyn Bedford:
The Houdini Girl; Jane Green: Bookends; Tony Hawks: Playing the Moldovans at
Tennis; Tony Hawks: Round Ireland with a Fridge; Helen Fielding: Bridget Jones
The Edge of Reason; Helen Fielding: Bridget Jones's Diary; Geoff Nicholson:
Bleeding London; Ben Elton: Inconceivable; Mark Eveleigh: Fever Trees of Borneo
Services
Whilst on the Oriental
Express train, we had our palms read and were told that we would both be going
into business.....
To fulfil
this prophecy and keep up the rate of dot com failures, Alex and Sophie are
launching: KKN.COM - products and services for the discerning dot comma. It's
early days, but we have four products, which we are ready to bring to you exclusively.
Click on each of them to find out more, and get those orders flooding in!!
- Living Doll
- Out Focus
- Balikpapan Bridgeclimb
- Red Rock Resorts
Survey
From time to time, we
like to consult our readership to provide the answers to some of the hardest
questions known to man....
- Orang
Utan - A test of your powers of observation. Can you pick out
which picture is of an orang-utan?
- Daddy's
Girl - The results are in, so is Elizabeth Daddy's
Girl or Mummy's Baby?
- Boy
or Girl? - Just what is the sex of PLC?
- Vlad
- Is Alex a Russian spy, and in fact Vladimir Putin in disguise?
Map
When we were asked if we
would like to go to Balikpapan in Indonesia, we had to look for a map. Indonesia?
Borneo? Our geography classes didn't cover this!
Contact
Details of how to contact
us by phone, post or email.
Links
Borneo Online; Living in
Indonesia; Derawan Dive Site; Ombak Putih; Balikpapan Orang Utan Survival Foundation;
Orient Express Company; Amnesty International; Sydney BridgeClimb; Friends Reunited;
Seti at Home; Red & Proud; Adeyhost; Tusker Trail & Safari Co, Indian
Pacific; Barmy Army; Uncle Brian's Fun, Falls & Forest; Gambar Panjang;
Lowry Educational Site; Pam's Website; Beagle 2; Shangri-La Hotels; BBC News; Anything Left Handed -
Anything Left Handed
Offers a huge range of Left Handed products,
lots of information
and FREE newsletters,
the original left-handed shop since 1968.
