Volcanoes, Clouds and Death on the Road

It’s amazing what a bit of rain can do, probably for the first time this year the sun was shining and lo and behold, the silhouettes of the volcanoes that surround Jakarta were clearly visible in the distance to the south.

White fluffy clouds skirt the city and the almost unheard off blue skies set the morning off just nicely. Another rarity in around this neck of the jungle is the need to wear sunglasses! Normally pollutants haze the sun so that its normal appearance is a muted overhead glow. Not so this morning with an untold radiance spilling down over the city.

Unbelievably, from Jakarta Seletan (South Jakarta) the spires and towers of the central business district can be seen (another rare occurrence) with the reflections from the sunlight sending shards of light beaming over the skyline like Star Wars laser beams. Mornings like this make it all worth the normal grey and gloomy existence here.

Needless to say, this idyllic scene will not last long. The usual morning scramble to work sends out a noxious exhaust plume which shuffles into the stratosphere to hover for the rest of the day bringing the normal pallor to the city.

There are of course negatives to the scene described. The fact that the “fluffy clouds” are around merely serves as a warning that later in the day they will marshal their forces and send yet another deluge into the metropolis, once again causing the havoc which is typical of the rainy season here.

The storms of Saturday and Sundays demonstrated that although seemingly sound, my house is a veritable colander with more leaks than Watergate. The minions who arrived to assess the problem seemed less than overjoyed as in order to identify where the problem lies there would need to be a major examination requiring removal of roofing tiles. Not a happy bunch of campers. This roof-ectomy has not yet been scheduled, however when it starts it is bound to bring many opportunities for the kind of stupidity at work which only South East Asia can provide.

As I write this in the car on the way to work, the prospect of a pleasant day is destroyed by, you guessed it “traffic”. With only another 10 km to go, everything ground to a halt, gridlocked on the toll road and no sign of any movement faster than snails pace. Once again the problem is asinine behaviour with the tailback apparently caused by a truck who decided to change lanes without indicating, promptly taking out the central barrier and spilling his load of aggregate over the road. With the weight of the load making it impossible to move the truck, minions are despatched to shovel the shit from the back until the truck is light enough to move. The front end of the truck was totalled and judging by the look of things there will be another horde of motorbikes with yellow flags escorting the driver to his planting later today.

Ah, just another day in paradise……..