The Rain and Rubber Time

This will not be the first time for me to speak about the Indonesian concept of rubber time. To be completely harsh, it's a total disregard of other people's time and such a selfish thing to do, but alas... Jakarta traffic can be a real bitch. Due to El Nino and other climate changes, the rainy season is starting quite late this year. The city has been bathed in heat and unbearable striking hot sun for longer than usual. Come Oct-Nov, the people of Jakarta has to deal with pouring rain that resulted in a bit of flooding and then heavy traffic jam.

I was meeting my family for lunch as today is my mother's birthday. My dad insisted on meeting at 12 and yet he rocked up 40 minutes late. My brother was close to an hour late. "Traffic" was the excuse they all used. Maybe it was not an excuse, maybe there was really traffic. And today it rains like cats and dogs. Rubber time!!! I hate rubber time!! ... but it's the rain... All of a sudden you have to understand.

My new job does not require me to be mobile. Today is an exception and I was really proud of myself for being able to schedule all my outside meetings in one day in perfect order. I did not factor in the rain though. As a result my second meeting was delayed by an hour (luckily, the other party was also late...) and now, I have to wait out 3 in 1. By the way, 3 in 1 is a car pooling system where you need to have 3 people in 1 car between 0700-1000 and 1630-1900 whilst traveling on certain main roads.

And once again I have to understand that once the rain pours in this city, it's act as an automatic switch to rubber time. How flexible time becomes would depend on how much rain pours. Sigh.