Dear Diary, today I'm marrying my 11th cousin in front of billions of people. I'm a bit sad that I couldn't invite Obama but grandpa might call him a monkey, so they decided to invite some tyrannical dictators instead. I do hope people send lots of donations to the aidsy people in Africa - that would be the best wedding present ever! Kate wanted a pony but I vetoed it.

I do hope she still puts out for the honeymoon, she didn't look pleased, but I said we have to think of the little people first. After all there are people out there that don't have enough for a riding helmet, let alone a pony. I explained this to Kate, but she just pouted...she is kind of cute when she does that, but it does make me feel guilty. Oh well, guess I better finish this entry now. Big day today.

W

I spent part of Friday and Saturday being filmed as an extra for a show on the ABC called Hungry Beast. It's a spoof musical tourism ad for my home town Canberra.

I appear at 0.21 dancing on the fountain
0.38 in a Adelaide Crows football uniform (AFL)
1.02 on the right in a suit
1.23 in a suit again
and right at the end 1.28 in a suit yet again standing next to my dad.

I had the craving for red meat today but not the motivation to do a steak. So instead I invented the Taco Burger. The recipe for this orgiastic feast of artery clogging delights is below:

The Taco Burger

Serves 3 or one very hungry person (I had two, I was starving)

Ingredients:

500 grams beef mince
3 burger buns
2 shittake mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
2 Italian tomatoes (though any will do - the adventurous might try drained sun-dried tomatoes)
1 packet of Taco seasoning
1 head of lettuce
1/2 a small onion
Olive Oil (enough to just cover the frying pan)
Thousand Island Sauce to taste
Margarine if you want some extra fat to clog your arteries

Directions:

Dice onion, garlic and shittake mushrooms finely then fry in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Mix onions, mushrooms and packet of Taco seasoning into mince (you might need to add a little water as the taco seasoning tends to dry out the meat). Once these ingredients are thoroughly mixed make the mixture into patties about the size of your burger buns and 1.5 - 2 cm thick (oh come on you know what they look like, if not visit hungry jacks/burger king you utter hermit).
Sear both sides of your patties in oil to seal in the juices and then cook through out.

Spread your burger buns with marg, add your patty, add sliced tomatoes, lettuce and a dollop of Thousand Island Sauce.

There you have it. It takes the best of the taco and the burger and combined it into one. Oh and one of these everyday will almost certainly kill you with cholesterol poisoning - so goodness all ‘round!

Notes:

If you like you can mix your beef mince with pork - though some may need to renounce their religion first.

You might like to add a ton or so more of shittake mushrooms.

Vegetarian alternative:

Eat a fucking salad you hippie!

Freudian interpretation:

This meal may represent a breast fixation or other tendencies as buns are a somewhat suggestive shape. God know what the Thousand Island Sauce means but it probably means you are very sick in the head and should seek help immediately.

comment and I will:

a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something -- a fandom, song, color, photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask you something I've wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favorite userpic from your list.
g) In return, you need to post this on your own livejournal.

I might have mentioned that my dad used to be in a steelband called "Trinidad Tripoli Steelband". They toured with Liberace for 4 years. Clips of Tripoli are now up on you tube. IN the clip below you'll see my dad playing the scratcher (this case two at once). At that stage my dad didn't play the steelpan himself. Check out the dance moves!

MOre clips are on youtube, just type Trinidad Tripoli into the search thingy, my dad is in most but not all of the clips.

ETA. Woops wrong clip, he isn't doing much in that. This is the one I mean:

Woah, man alive, I'm the worst bloody updater in the universe.

As you may have guessed I'm back from my stint in Indonesia.

It is funny how your view on an experience changes after the fact. I was really stressed and somewhat depressed at some points. I had some fun too but it was mostly work, work, work.

Now I think it has been a really important experience to have. I am really grateful for all the people I have back in Australia. Not only do I appriciate the people in my life more but I also realise the effect I have on other people. I sort of find it hard to believe that my existence has any consquence for the those around me. I know this intellectually of course, but it takes going away and coming back to realise it in practice.

I've been writing a travel diary and perhaps I will share some entries in the future. In summary Jakarta is a very different place. Despite its westernisation it still has many aspects that kind of put an outsider off balance.

In a way everyone in Jakarta is just trying to survive a city that seems to be put together more by trial and error than by any forethought. Society seems to be hugely influenced by the gap between the rich and the poor. Indonesian culture is sort of based on the "rich guy pays" priciple. This is probably indirectly responsible for the amount of infidelity in Jakarta. There is a sense of the everyone looking for the "Bigger, better deal" in terms of a partner.

Any foreigner can pick up in Jakarta. This apparently can leads to a somewhat unwarranted boost in ego among those who "couldn't even pick up a hooker" back in their own country.

Jakartan foreigners (otherwise known as bule (Bu - lay) ) seem to get slotted into a few distinct archetypes which represent their various coping mechanisms.

Some pretend they never left home, they avoid learning the language, avoid traditional markets etc.
Others cling on to home a bit but also go a tad feral and take on some of the less endearing local qualities...like business ethics. Others get married to Indonesians and learn the language and sort on meld right in. They tend to travel via ojek (motor cycle). Others still go native for a while but then switch back to denile mode after getting married.

The rest spend their life in a state of perpetual shock....which is kind of the mode I'm slipping into. I think maybe it is the best way to have an experience. I don't WANT to get too used to the shit that goes on here. Of course it is unavoidable to an extent, but to truly not bat an eyelid I think would mean to lose a bit of your humanity. Jakarta is a city that can steal your soul if you let it.

Wow, I've gone a tad pretenious here and I don't think I can truly do Jakarta justice in one measley entry.

Well it is coming to the end of the school year. I have heaps of reports to write. I am stressed out and missing my family and friends.

I'd write more but I'm at school marking and planning and getting distracted by the internet!

I am so glad that John Howard FINALLY got voted out by the way. Good job Australia.

Leave messages, I miss you!