From Jarrow to Java (on a beer scooter)
Joe Writeson
The Beer Scooter Itinerary
On yer bike ... prefaced by an intro describing how I ended up in Indonesia, a brief comparison of Jarrow to Java … and exactly what is a beer scooter?
1. Do you speaka my language?
2. Can you hear can you hear the thunder?
3. Ladies in Red ...Green, Blue, Yellow
4. A Loan Again ...Naturally
5. There's a Riot goin' on...or is there?
6. The House of the Rising Son.
7. Life in the Farce Lane.
8. Hey Budi can you spare a dime?
9. The Teddy Bear's Picnic.
10. Let's stick together.
11. I'm getting married in the morning...I think!
12. Hello...Statue?
13. Don't let me be Misstoodunder
14. With or Without You.
15. Killing us swiftly with her song.
16. Born to be Wild...ish
17. A Good Year for the Roses
18. Can buy me Love
19. Fangs for the Memory.
20. Jailhouse Ruck
21. Off to Suzi's Wedding
22. The House that Jock Built
23. Latifa Goes to Hollywood
24. A Man with Emission...
25. Money for Nothing.
26. Shadappa yaface
27. Island of Dreams
28. Road to Nowhere
29. Forever in Johnny Foreign Fields
30. Beer Scooter Owner's Manual
Prologue...On yer bike!!
Jarrow, where I was born on the Banks of The River Tyne in the North East of England, once the home of a World renowned and thriving shipbuilding industry. Now the riverside is bare, forlorn and badly landscaped. Nothing is built there anymore, not even hopes or dreams...
Java. The most heavily populated island in Indonesia. Home to a vast array of cultures, landscapes, flora and fauna. The rapidly increasing population plus the development of fabrication, petrochemical and electronic assembly industries throughout the island means there is a huge demand for reliable electricity supplies. Coal is one of Indonesia's main natural resources and therefore the majority of IPPs (Independent Power Plants) are coal-fired. Japan, Korea and China are three of the main investors in construction and operation, employing numerous foreigners in engineering, supervision and QA/QC positions.
Many travelers build their hopes and dreams here...
Beer Scooter. A wondrous means of transport that carries the rider wherever he wants to go, no matter how much beer he has consumed. He is magically whisked in and out of airports, aeroplanes, through immigration formalities, customs checks and baggage claims, and then is invariably deposited at any one of the best bars and clubs in town filled with the most amazing visions of loveliness.
Afterwards he is safely checked in to a hotel and wakes up the next morning with no idea of where he is or how he got there.
The Beer Scooter Journey starts here. I ended up on a huge onshore construction project in East Java via a farcical sequence of mishaps and coincidences. An offshore job in Brazil overran by three months and came to a halt on the same day as a helicopter pilots strike started which meant demobilising by crew boat which ran aground because the Captain and crew were suffering the after effects of a major binge inspired by their football team's success in the Copa de Rio the previous evening. Flights and connections were missed and when alternatives were sourced I found myself on a flight to Paris and upgraded to Business Class then asked to move seats to allow a lady traveling with a baby more room. I found myself seated next to a recruiter for an international manpower employment agency who desperately needed someone to mobilise immediately to a project in the Far East to replace a man who had quit without notice.
The job description and my skills were a perfect match. Karma? Kismet? Serendipity? Fate? Who can say?
But the posting was to change my life forever.