'Tis the Season

Again during this holiday season many area malls have decorated for Christmas and you hear Christmas themed music everywhere. This mall's theme was Golden Christmas. Everything was golden!

 At another mall the theme was Winter Wonderland I believe:

At the mall across the street from us the theme is Holiday Season and includes an Eiffel Tower and trees spotty with cotton and blue lights making them look like blue trees.

But wait there's more... Last weekend there was a Christmas carol performance by a group of Victorian costumed singers. During the performance, "snow" dropped from a higher floor. You have to look closely to see the "snow." Nice effect but the "snow" didn't seem to make it all the way down. I don't believe it was any sort of snow making machine. It could have been broken up feathers because they floated more than dropped.

About the Christmas trees... They seem to sell every color of tree here: blue, yellow, red, black, white, silver, purple. What ever color you want. In this case, some are also flocked.

And we actually saw a lady decorating a small artificial tree in a store. She was unwrapping ornaments and placing them on the tree she was going to buy. The tree was only 2 feet tall, if that, but she seemed determined to make it perfect.

And then there is this! Probably a show was going to start soon. Quite the interesting cast of characters on the escalator in front of us. One went down the escalator on roller skates. We checked, roller skates didn't seem to be on the forbidden list for the escalators. We also saw a green jester on tall stilts and several jesters on high-tech shorter stilts, 2 on unicycles...and of course Santa!

On the home front here's a pretty picture from one of our two trees in the apartment. These are hand beaded by artists for a local charity. The ball form itself is made from newspaper—probably a lot like paper maché. The beads are not glued on but are created using beading line and beads one row at a time. Each year they do ornaments in what I would call the traditional colors but also an annual theme color. This year's theme color is lavender. I couldn't really see that on my trees but last year they had cobalt blue and white as a theme. Those were pretty. We have purchased quite a few of these, all different in red, white, green, gold.

And here are a couple of photos of our two trees- each without lights turned and with lights on! The wider one is about 5 feet tall. The skinnier tree is 6.5 feet tall and is flocked. I made about 3 dozen ornaments to add to the ones we purchased.

Fabric

The Mini Quilt of Bali Batiks
With a friend leaving this month, my stitching group decided on the perfect gift. We would all contribute mini quilt blocks. What size and type?  2 inch ( finished) square blocks done by a technique called paper piecing using bright Bali batik fabrics. I'd never done it before, so there was researching to be done.

Mine turned out OK I think.

One member of our group finished the mini quilt complete with center larger embroidered and appliqued squares:

The mini quilt was then beautifully framed and presented on Thursday. The recipient loved it! Another member of our group is also leaving early in 2016 and we simultaneously created one for her but hopefully she does not realize it.  Everyone was pretty careful with emails about the mini quilt project.

Javan Batik

The second fabric topic is because of a gift B received. He received a 3 meter piece of batik fabric from the renowned collection of Iwan Tirta. (Go look him up, you'll get no help from me.) The gift includes creation of a shirt made from the fabric. The tailor will come to B's office to measure him, at his convenience, and then make the shirt. Yeah... yeah... yeah... —it's a hard life!  Note: This will not be a $2 US shirt! The fabric was packed in a very nice black box,wrapped in tissue paper, and the box was tied with a black bow. Very elegant presentation. There is a certificate of authenticity and a brochure. I will repeat, this will not be a $2 US shirt!

Here's a close up of the print. The diamond shapes are approximately 8 " diameter. It will make a gorgeous shirt.

My Painting Class

Finally the day arrived for my Explorer group tour—the one I arranged— a painting class with artist Pak Sutanto. Nine of our group were able to attend. For me, leading a tour was a lot of work. I fretted over everything beginning with the initial contact —by phone as my email went unanswered.

However, once I'd spoken with Pak Sutanto on the phone, he did respond to my emails. I made a site visit to the gallery in the week before our class. I wanted to introduce myself and meet him. I also met his foster parents. He stated at one point that the foster parents had given him the opportunity to pursue his art. Once I'd met him in person, everything flowed much better. Most things work here because of relationships and this experience really demonstrated that. Two things happened that relate to the "relationship" notion.You see small tubs of water with small straws everywhere here. This was one of the items provided during the class. There was a pile of these little water tubs by the snacks and coffee. I'd barely finished one and another one appeared at my station. No need for me to actually get up, walk over to the snack table and get it myself. Also, early in the class Pak Sutanto came over and set up my easel himself.  (Note: As these things happened I looked around to see it he was doing this for everyone. He was only doing it for me. Call me special!)

Notice that the classroom is an open veranda adjacent to a beautiful garden. Many Indonesian homes are constructed this way.  I recommended bug spray to the rest of the group once I saw the layout—just in case. It was surprisingly cool and comfortable on the veranda and not too many mosquitoes.

After coffee and snacks, Pak Sutanto spoke briefly about his art, then it was our turn. He had drawn our project on each of the fans we were going to decorate. Here's my finished fan!

I think all of the ladies had a nice time. I received quite a few thank you's for organizing it.

Often on these tours, the group will follow up with a lunch somewhere. In this case lunch was  provided by Pak Sutanto's foster parents. Typical Indonesian fare and very good.

Before we left for the day we had a chance to shop a little in the gallery.  I just had to pick up a Kleenex cover! Kleenex are mostly sold in plastic bags, not boxes, and only on rare occasion are they anything but a basic industrial design. The Kleenex pack in the living room now has a very attractive cover. Yes, there are giant beetles on the Kleenex cover. What would you expect from us? Does anyone remember Clyde the ancient mask Kleenex box where the Kleenex exits through the mask's nose?

Cafes, a Green Drink, HDMI Cable Shopping and a Tube Slide

Sudden trip to France or Italy? Nope. We stopped in for drinks at a new cafe and couldn't resist a couple of baked goodies while we enjoyed the Christmas decorations in a central area of the mall. (More on that in another post.)

We recently enjoyed tea and lunch at the local TWG. They set a fancy table. Utensils as well as the tea strainer are sterling silver. The tea?  Yin zhen white tea. Steeps 3-4 minutes.

A green drink? I know you've been waiting for the next one. This one is called the "Super Green." It contains spinach, kale, mint and green apple. B said it was pretty good.

We had a new experience at the electronics store recently. We needed an HDMI cable.Sounds like a simple thing except that they were "locked" onto a display hook. Apparently the guys on the floor don't have the key. The clerk had to totally remove the entire hook and take it to the cashier to have an HDMI cable box removed from the hook so we could purchase it. I believe we actually paid for it before the item was removed from the hook. They did get the key and we were able to purchase the HDMI cable. We were not able to mencoba (try) the cable, however. With most things they do suggest you try them to see if they work. Turns out this one didn't really work, at least not where we wanted to use it.

This topic doesn't fit anywhere so...

One night at dinner we went to a new spot and saw a giant slide tube. We didn't manage to find the start as place has many, many floors but wanted to share this with the daredevils out there. Come visit and we'll take you to this place to try it out! I won't be doing any sliding but perhaps B would give it a shot?

In the Sky

We have had some dandy storms of late (remember, while you all are experiencing winter, it is the rainy season here).  Along with the storms we've had some very interesting looking skies. The first photo looked ripe for a tornado, but they don't really have tornadoes here.

But there is more than weather in the skies. The other morning I saw a drone flying around across the street from the apartment. This might have been employees of the electronic store out playing with a new toy or maybe not. If it was taking photos of me, the photos will include me taking a picture of it!

Water, Water Everywhere

Last week some work was done on the apartment to attempt to stop one of the leaks. Seven workers including the head of the engineering department, 3 holes, 2 ladders, waterproof cement patch, no buckets, no tools except for a hacksaw blade to cut out the ceiling holes... Not enough rain, yet, to test the repair, but it was interesting to watch.

Some New Apartment Art- Wayang!

We finally found a piece of art to hang on a very large empty wall. We were browsing one of our favorite spots for interesting items and came across this:

It's a grouping of several Wayang puppets. We have no idea which story this might be representing but we liked it anyway. It will hang on the hallway wall between the guest bedroom and my office.

On the Road- Taman Safari

After our little delay while visiting a spot in Puncak, we were off to Taman Safari. Perhaps I should describe Taman Safari?  There are quite a lot of parts to this place. Here is list of the things we did not see or do:

1. Attend animal presentations: tiger, lion, dolphin, sea lion, birds of prey
2. Splash around in the water park
3. Jumbo Jungle adventure where you ride elephants to view a portion of the animal collection
4. Ride any other animals like ponies and camels
5. Have our photos taken with baby animals ( though we saw how they do it)
6. The other activities not listed here but found at the park

What we did do:

1. Safari Adventure: Pak Oky drove the car around the trail that winds through a large area where animals can be seen "in their natural habitat" (well, sort of) and you can interact with the many free ranging animals from the safety of your car. This includes endemic animals as well as endangered and rare animals from other parts of the world.
2. Animal presentation: elephants

There is one very strange thing that goes on at this animal park. There are rules printed on the map and on signs at the entrance that you MUST NOT FEED THE ANIMALS, you MUST KEEP YOUR CAR WINDOWS CLOSED and you MUST NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR.

Ok, so let's examine these points. Starting in town as we approached Taman Safari we began to see shops and stands selling bananas and carrots. Hmmm.

And on the final leg of the road that leads into the park just the first of many roadside stands. This one is selling carrots ( next to the white sign).

As we got closer, the stands were no more than a few meters apart and all the vendors were hawking their wares: carrots and bananas. Hmmm.

 Finally we are here. This is the entrance.

Pak Oky had never had the opportunity to visit this place so he was excited to escort us here.

As you drive through the habitats, you come quite close to most of the animals as you can see. Between our time in Puncak and at Taman Safari we took 372 photos between us. These are just a few we took on the Safari Adventure. I will confess that we did roll down the windows at times  (well, a lot if I'm being honest) because shooting through the darkened glass would have comprised the photos. We did not buy or feed any animals, and we did not touch any of the animals though we were approached by many because they are clearly used to being fed from the cars. Hmmm.

 They had both Bactrian and Dromedary camels.

 Pak Oky was not a fan of the lamas. He would roll up the windows.

The critters were blocking the road until they got fed by the car in front of us. 

In the big cat section section, the signs were firmer that you must stay in the car and keep windows CLOSED!

 After the drive, there were a few areas we walked through. This was more like a traditional zoo experience.

Well,,, does anybody else see Jack Benny above? By the orangutans there was a more stern warning against feeding the animals. However, that did not stop folks from throwing food into the exhibit.

 Ah, my favorite! Bali mynahs.

 This was a nocturnal exhibit.

We did see the area where you can have your photo taken with a baby animal. Interestingly enough, the price is the same for everything except a baby orangutan.

I mentioned earlier that we did watch an elephant presentation- a little too "circusy" for my taste, but it was interesting that during the show, an audience member was asked to lay down on a blue mat and the elephant would lay down sort of around the mat so it appeared to lay down on top of the person.

There was also some interesting signage at this place. For example, there were graphics (aka pictures) to indicate what a given animal would include in it's diet as opposed to just a text list. It was more effective than just a text. And this large diagram about elephant birth.

We couldn't stay longer because we wanted to be back on the road by 1:00pm if possible. Heading back the traffic had increased substantially.

We stopped at the Cimory (a large dairy producer with a restaurant)for lunch and then headed back home. I think it took us 1 hour to drive there and 2 hours to drive back.