Chuffin' Hell It's Cold! - UK Trip February 2015 part 1

I was thinking about my parents the other day. Things with Dad's cancer are deteriorating and Mum is Dad's nurse, which obviously isn't easy even with the help they get from the amazing Herriot Homecare girls, the wonderful sitters who allow Mum a few hours respite each week, Macmillan nurses, and the doctor. Additionally, I haven't seen my parents since October last year and whilst Skype is great, it doesn't make up for seeing someone in the flesh. So I spoke with Uchiel and we decided that a trip back to the UK was a good idea.

Next step was resolving work issues and I asked Katherine how many holiday days I had left. If I was living in the UK I guess I could travel to Leyburn on a Friday after work, spend the weekend and then maybe even travel back home on a Monday morning. But living 8,000 miles away needs a tad more planning.

It turned out that I had three days left to take before the end of my contract in June so, with the use of the Saturdays at either end as my 'Saturdays off' and Nina very kindly allowing me to take a couple of days unpaid, I went ahead and booked the flight.

Last October, Uchiel and I flew with Lufthansa and they managed to lose one of our cases for four days. Because of this, I was reluctant to use them again as I planned on bringing some perishables back so I booked with KLM, one of the better prices on skyscanner.co.id. As it happened, two days after booking the flight I received a telephone call from Lufthansa with a most generous offer of 250 Euros as compensation for the situation with the lost luggage. In light of them doing that, it certainly made up for the experience and I would now happily book with them again. (I know that sounds a bit nonchalant, but in my opinion the offer more than made up for a) the loss of the bag and b) the three months of waiting for some resolution to my complaint!).

Anyway, I was now booked with KLM meaning I would travel with their flying partner and Indonesian national airline, Garuda, from Jakarta to Amsterdam, and then on to Newcastle. The return leg would include an extra stop in Singapore and all this for 15 million Rupeah. The original price on Skyscanner was 13.2 million but I waited a few hours before booking and the price went up and then there were the "administration costs" for the company Skyscanner forwarded me to. (it's also interesting to note that the flight actually cost 6 million, the other 9 million was tax and admin costs!)

The Soekarna-Hatta to Schipol leg of the journey would take twelve and a half hours with an extra ninety minutes to get to Newcastle. Added to a layover in Amsterdam of three hours this was still going to be the fastest I had ever done a trip to the UK. The reality was a one hour delay in reaching Amsterdam but a thirty minute reduction in the time to Newcastle due to a very nice tailwind meaning I shaved half an hour off of an already quicker trip. Result!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Uchiel gave me a lift to the airport where I needed to check in at about 10pm. We left with enough time to navigate the complicated entry to the airport, caused by works to create a new MRT terminal, and to get something to eat together. Having parked, we made our way to the new Bakmi GM restaurant in Terminal 2's arrivals section, pushed my case into a redundant space next to a table for two, and off I went to the counter to order the food. I'd only been stood there two or three minutes when this Indonesian guy wearing a Songkok started having a go at me for bringing my case into the restaurant. I'd previously noticed this guy when we arrived as he was loudly complaining to a waitress about something equally inconsequential so I new he wasn't anything to do with the running of the place. I was also quite taken aback by his attitude, as it's really unusual for outbursts of anger, especially over something trivial.

I admit I wasn't in the best of moods as travelling to the aiport is a grating experience. From the amount of traffic on the road to get there, the unnecessarily complicated entry to the airport that I mentioned earlier and the attempts to park the car which are always stunted by the inability to drive of a significant percentage of the population, I was just looking forward to a relaxing bowl of fried rice with my wife, not having to put up with this git.

For a few monents I stood there in two minds. I'd already verbally established, in a defiant manner, that I wasn't moving my case a) just because he'd told me to and b) at least not before ordering our food, but it was his final demand that I was to just make sure that I "do it!" that left me with the indecision. Part of me wanted to just leave the queue, gently take him by the throat and nut him. Another part of me wanted to continue the debate, regardless of the gawking onlookers. Thirdly was the choice to allow others to accept that this guy was some sort of FPI-following, Westerner-hating imbecile and just ignore him. I really was livid at this point and I quickly left the queue, went back and collected Uchiel and the case,and explained to waitress on the way out that due to the behaviour of said gentlemen, they wouldn't be receiving any of our money. She was so apologetic and the sneaky grin on his fifty year old face that he made no attempt to hide nearly caused me to lose complete control.

Five minutes later, sat with some chicken and fries in the nearby A&W, I'd had the chance to calm down and we got to discussing normal stuff. But in the back of my mind I couldn't get over the guy's behaviour and that it is also the first time in six years that I've experienced it....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 2014

There aren’t that many things I don’t look forward to really. There are the obvious things of course, like dental appointments or the first day of every month when the mortgage payment goes out, but apart from that I like to think that I’m an optimistic and forward thinking kind of chap.Christmas has always held a particular fascination for me and everyone from my parents to ex girlfriends will tell you that I used to get into....well let’s call it a state of hightened anticipation.

This year would be my first Christmas in five years that would be spent in our own house in Indonesia. Well, rented house, Yohana and I will have to wait until December 2016 to spend it in our very own. In 2009 I went to East Java, in particular rafting in Probolingo, climbing the active volcano that is Mount Bromo and chilling in Bali, 2010 was spent visiting my parents in the beach resort of Goa, India, 2011 saw me back in the UK whereas 2012 was our honeymoon in Bali. Finally 2013 was Uchiel’s first experience of Christmas in the UK.

It was on that last trip that we bought a Christmas tree. Prices on Boxing Day, the name for the 26th of December in the UK, always drop to embarrassingly low levels for anything Christmas-related with stores trying to improve their cash flow and as such we ended up with a 6ft, black, fibre optic lit tree with an incredible array of decorations for next to nothing. This waited patiently in the UK until our most recent trip back in October when we were able to bring it back with us in what amounted to a large golf club bag.

To help decorate, we invited a few friends round on the 30th November with a little-needed ruse of providing food and drinks. The surprising result, considering the amount and variety of alcohol available, was that both the house and the tree looked fantastic, right down to the snowman on the front door!

The bottom of the tree was gradually filled with a number of presents so that when Christmas Day finally arrived, with blue sky and sunshine and a much appreciated 28 degrees at 8am, It made for a truly memorable Christmas Day morning. It’s impossible not to think of family at the most family-orientated time of the year, but Skype is a marvelous thing and, if the connection is good, can nearly make you believe you’re having a face to face conversation.

Christmas Day lunch was originally going to see us cooking for a couple of friends who’d chosen to stick around Jakarta, but a change of plans saw us heading for the definitely-not-Christmassy-at-all Tony Roma’s steak restaurant in Jakarta. Back home for the evening, those same friends arrived bearing wine and New Zealand beer (courtesy of Colm’s recent trip there) and a great evening was had supported by loads of cheese and finger food.

Indonesians, even the Christians, don’t seem to see the holiday season in quite the same way as Westerners do. The feeling that the season is just a marketing event is as unavoidable as it is becoming back in the UK and obviously the lack of snow doesn’t help. But Australians have been celebrating Christmas on beaches for long enough and I too am happy to forgo the snow and bad weather. I Just wish the family could have been here for it.....