Out and About

This post could also be entitled "Miscellaneous." It includes a variety of topics.

Sometimes you forget about American holidays while living here. It's nice when a mall puts out some seasonal decorations like this Halloween display at an area mall.

We are already seeing some Christmas items showing up in the Ace Hardware and I'm wondering if it is too early to put up my Christmas tree(s). Note: The trees are still not up!

A development group is planning on building a new city considerably east of here. There are plans for rail systems that will connect this new city in the future but I don't believe anything is really in the works yet. I have no idea on the timeline but I'm sure this won't all be completed during our stay.  They did, however, top off one tower recently so apparently they started building this quite a while ago. The new city's name is Meikarta. According to the advertisements there will be schools, hospitals, hotels, multi-level roads, an Indonesian Silicon Valley, an international convention center, public transportation, parks, and all the recreation you could possibly want.

The website states:

Meikarta surpasses anything this country has ever seen, epic in its scale and vision as a truly integrated city of the future. Not only does Meikarta redefine what a modern city should look like and feel like, it sets the new standard for a world city in Southeast Asia and beyond.

With a total development of 22 million square meters [~85 square miles], Meikarta has more than enough room to expand and grow. This perfect balance of space and form is a hallmark Lippo Group development, just what you’d expect from Indonesia’s premier property developer.

Underpinned by Rp 278 trillion [$ 20.5 million US] in direct investment, Meikarta is a 500-hectare [1,236 acres] development with 100 hectares [247 acres] of open green space, 250,000 units of prime residential property [all tall apartment towers I believe] and 1,500,000 square metres  [16 million square feet] of prime commercial space.

A local Lippo mall has dedicated most of the open space on the entry floor to promoting Meikarta.

You can put down Rp 2 million [$150US](fully refundable) to secure yourself some space! I will be watching this develop. If you wish to learn more about this giant project, just Google it.  

I inherited a peace lily from a friend who was downsizing from a house to an apartment 2 years ago. If I remember correctly, it did bloom a few times when it was first on our apartment balcony. Then I put it in a larger pot. The pot was small and I thought it would probably get knocked over by the high winds we get. It never bloomed again until a couple of weeks ago. There are 2 blooms! 

In the same mall as the Meikarta displays, I noticed this sign on a juice stand. Cute. "Saving good people from bad juice."

Lastly, a couple of comments on nature of late. Here is a recent storm photo. We have entered the rainy season but it hasn't rained that much and we haven't had any serious flooding issues yet. We do see some interesting skies. It often appears that a giant black umbrella cloud is being held over the business district where we live. Of course, it is raining under the big cloud "umbrella." B comment - this was taken at 1 PM!