This afternoon on our way to City suddenly I popped out a suggestion to visiting Point Cook neighbourhood instead, so we went to the town centre and library and we were quite happy to observe the surrounding (we are now considering two choices between Caroline Springs and Point Cook for our future house, the whole process isn’t easy which inspire me to write this post). I love the spontaneity and flexibility to explore new places and things here in Melbourne than when I was still in Jakarta.
In Jakarta, due to very bad traffic, we always have to decide an exact destination before we went out from home. Changing mind thus our route in the middle of road was not best idea because it’d take another ‘long winding road’ (another hour or more, depend on how bad the traffic is). Ridiculuosly, a route that was supposed could be reached in merely 20 minutes could become 2 hours or more due to very high volume of vehices in street and insufficient road infrastructure (this was based on my personal experience taking an example of a trip from Pluit to Thamrin on early Sunday morning -7am, that is- compared with during weekdays particularly peak hours). Still, car dealers and credit card companies were competing in giving lowest installment, making it easier for ‘everyone’ to own a car. Oh well, there’s so much story about traffic madness in Jakarta. So inconvenient it can be one of reasons I moved to Melbourne.
Oh, by the way, talking about reasons I chose moving here, I’m reminded by a note I once typed in my Blackberry (around August 2012 perhaps) when I was still in Jakarta which I shall re-typed here just for a purpose of being nostalgic:
“Why I want to live in Melbourne?”
1. I get a privilege to take care of Aimee by myself without a nanny; I can treasure watching, seeing, enjoying and learning her growth day-by-day as was opposed with only being able to see her 12 hours at night during weekdays (minus 8 hours of the sleeping time!)
2. Love the surrounding, neater, tidier (government, streets, rules), cleaner environment and weather
3. We can enjoy various activities especially outdoors other than only going to malls for leisure time (beach, park, playground, mountain, etc)
4. MUCH LESS TRAFFIC!!!
(I did type this in capital plus three exclamation marks haha.. I guess going through the traffic madness everyday from and to my workplace in the central Jakarta during weekdays and yet, still be crammed in the road during weekend even in the “comfort of” my own surrounding neighbourhood really could make me spew just by imagining it now lol)
5. I still consider Bethany International Church (BIC) as my ‘home church’, easier to go to the cell group (again, traffic honestly had a great impact for life in Jakarta), I also prefer the cell group’s atsmosphere here (much stronger family bond and openness).
6. Less individualistic (for my own personal development)
7. Easier to cook and bake, love the supermarkets
8. I had been living here for 8 years, and I enjoyed it. So why wouldn’t I now? Especially when now I have my husband and daughter (“home is where your heart is”)
At that time as much as I wanted to move here, I didn’t want to force my own will and not be able to enjoy my life in Jakarta so I was trying to be rationale and sincere by also including things I treasure in my home country in the note:
“Things I treasure at Jakarta”
1. Less tiring because we have a nanny (she’s a very great help in taking care of Aimee especially when I was already so tired coming home from work) plus she didn’t mind helping us in cleaning up our apartment and ironing our clothes
2. Going out with my mom and dad, moment of togetherness spent with them (although this is a very very rare opportunity…)
3. Weather is only sunny and rainy (not “4 seasons in a day” as in Melbourne, Melbournians must know best about this statement lol)
4. Authentic yummy Indo food which can only be found here
5. Lots of mall compared with Melbourne (more entertaining for window shopping perhaps, although malls seem to be the only major destination people go on weekend’s leisure times or holidays…)
6. Relatively easy to manage things and get what you want as long as you have money, status, and position (applicable in certain places only though). In Jakarta’s “jungle life”, money surely does talk – a lot!
Nonetheless, in the end of my note I also wrote these:
Things I don’t enjoy living in Jakarta:
1. TRAFFIC! (a “quite road” only happens “once in a year”, which is during month of Ramadhan)
Quite road outside that term will put the cosmopolite in great wonder even in suspicion that a demo or riot is happening in the city ^^”
2. Bad-mannered, ignorant and “unprofessional” people (in office, in street, in malls)
3. From family and social background where I come from, status is very significant (sometimes this is not favorable). Many people judge you by your house, car, clothes, bags, shoes, etc etc when simply you just want to be “you”
4. “An absurd family”
Oh well…. just for the sake of being nostalgic. So, as much as I am tempted to write more comments as I re-type those points from my note one by one, I won’t deliberate more… I guess each point can be another main topic of my blog entry and I don’t have that much time because soon Aimee will wake up from her nap! lol.. but the point is, I just have to enjoy every moment wherever God places me. Sometimes it takes effort to “simply grateful”, but in the end I always believe God knows best of which kind of circumstances is able to shape more of my characters to be more like Him…
By the way, for some of you who may be wondering just how bad traffic is in Jakarta, visit one of my blog posts from last year (go here). These two Australian women living there described it very well, I couldn’t help not to laugh while nodding in agreement at how true their statements really were haha…
Ups! I’ve heard that sound of crying! Really gotta go, BYE!
🙂
My Thoughts... My Life... 