Independence Day

Monday this week was the 70th anniversary of Independence here. The city was highly decorated with all sorts of lights, lanterns, etc. In fact, more flags were added on Sunday night only to be removed by Tuesday night. Very near us on Friday night was a huge party with very loud music. There were ceremonies we could see going on at the bank across the way on Saturday and Sunday and on Monday morning at 5 am the band (think marching not rock) started playing. We gave Pak Oky the day off Monday so we were mostly at home that day but there were parades and ceremonies all over town. Brad tried to capture the night time ambiance around the time of Independence celebrations.

The Association

My duty to publish the email newsletter for my women's association is now twice as much work for me. Activities are infrequent during the summer so we published only every other week. It was a nice and easy schedule so I could get the hang of the job. Now that the summer is winding down, I'll be publishing every Friday. In addition, as an IT assistant to the VP,  I have fixed a problem where the membership software archived 2/3 of the members. There are still some issues that need to be addressed by membership but we'll get that all sorted out hopefully.

I had another Board meeting this week. I was asked to act as secretary for the meeting. While I was waiting to be picked up by our driver Pak Oky, I discovered a srikaya shrub on the association property. I think I've written about this strange fruit before. This plant is in the same group as soursop and cherimoya. Other names for srikaya are sugar-apple, custard pineapple, sugar pineapple and sweetsop.  Inside is the consistency of pudding with floral notes.

Lights and fans

While in the US, we shopped for a lot of "stuff" we can't get here. We needed small clip on battery operated fans for use in the fitness center. The place is apparently air-conditioned though first thing in the morning the system doesn't seem to operate. Sorry, no pix yet.

Another thing we found was a set of 2 battery operated lights with a remote control. The wet kitchen (if you don't remember what this is, look back at posts from when we first moved to our apartment) has no windows and the light switch is behind the door which is always kept shut if Ibu Tin is not here. These lights worked out perfectly. I mounted them under the upper cabinets on each side of the cooktop. The remote control sits outside the kitchen door. When there isn't enough light to see, you can just pop on these lights and, if you're just going for water, be in and out of the kitchen without having to fumble in the dark. Yay!

At the movies

B and I finally attended a movie together. We first saw "Serena"- an odd little movie in the "normal" , but still very nice, theater. We sampled both the sweet and caramel popcorn. The third variety offered is salty (more like traditional theater popcorn in the US).

Last weekend, we saw the new "Mission Impossible" movie in the premiere theater- B's first time!  I don't know if this is true at all premiere theaters but at this one there is a separate lounge for premiere guests before the movie begins. Nice, huh? You can order and eat now, or you can order for during the movie and they will bring your items to you when the movie starts. We opted for the second method. We wouldn't have been hungry at all but the first showing was sold out on our arrival so we hung around the mall for several hours until the next show. By then it was well after lunch and we were hungry. And we discovered at this theater they do a popcorn combo of all three types: sweet, salty and caramel. We also tried yet another green drink-- the Super Green. It looked sort of like an avocado smoothie. We could taste pineapple for sure but this one must have some veggies in it as well. It was really good. Excuse the photo. It was taken in the dark because they didn't deliver it until the movie had started and we didn't want to use a flash.

B also shot a photo of this premiere theater seating. The theater seats 24.

Green cake?

Yes, green is very popular here. This is a green tea velvet cake. Quite good, though we couldn't figure out the fruity taste's origin. And I do wonder about the chemistry of the food coloring I presume is used to achieve this shade of green.

More green drinks

Things are back to normal in the city. Those who traveled to their villages have returned to take their rightful place in the traffic queues. Restaurants are once again in normal operation. We have resumed our search for more green drinks. It's really hard to believe we are still finding so many new ones. Here are quite a few, but remember, we've had weeks to locate them.

Slipi Blue- passion fruit plus something blue to create a green drink on mixing.

Jittlada Surprise- ______________

Iced Mint Latte- Yummy but drink too much at once, brain freeze!

Green apple and celery- really delicious. I'd make this if I had a juicer.

Travel to the US

We had the opportunity to travel to the US to attend a wedding. In late July, our nephew Ian married lovely Amanda at a beautiful setting adjacent to the Boulder Creek in Boulder, Colorado.

We had a chance to spend some quality time with family we don't get to see often enough and also to meet and spend some time with Amanda's family.

It's a "short" trip to get from here to Boulder, Colorado. Much shorter than the trip to get from here to say upstate New York. Approximately 10 hours shorter. We were able to make it from here to Denver in two long flights and then a drive from Denver to Boulder. That only added about 45 minutes. I think it took longer to get the rental car than to drive between the two. Not too bad!

We arrived several days before the event to have a chance to shake off jet-lag and spent some quality time with family and I spent several days looking at the bluer than blue sky!  I did read in a promotional brochure about Colorado that the skies are bluer.

We visited quite a few spots in and around Denver, Boulder and Golden Colorado.

We were able to meet a docent friend at the Denver Botanical Garden which was really nice.  Hi to Deb and her husband Ray for taking the time. We were so glad it worked out. As I write this, a corpse flower is blooming at the DBG. Glad to have missed that. There was a sculpture exhibit in the DBG at the time. Deborah Butterfield's "The Nature of Horses" is a collection of horse sculptures located throughout the DBG which are cast bronze and painted. Look like driftwood, don't they? Fabulous.

In Boulder, we visited the Chatauqua National Historic Landmark site. Chautauqua history in brief: In the late 1890s, a group in Texas wanted a summer school for teachers in a cool climate. The Chautauqua Movement was such a powerful and popular cultural force in the United States at the time,they partnered with a railroad company, packaged the school with a chautauqua. Boulder and the Texas group came together! The site for what originally was called the Texas-Colorado Chautauqua was expressly chosen for its spectacular mountain setting and its health-giving environment. Located at the base of Boulder’s Flatirons and one of only 24 National Historic Landmarks in the state of Colorado, the Colorado Chautauqua is one of only a few remaining chautauquas in the U.S. It is considered THE western representation of the cultural movement that swept the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is the only site west of the Mississippi that has been in continuous operation since its founding and with its original structures intact and used for their original purposes.

 Some more pretty pictures:

We traveled to Golden as well. I say again, bluer than blue skies!

It turns out that Buffalo Bill Days was happening. We arrived too late to watch the parade but by the number of people in town, this is a huge summer event in Golden. I didn't remember this, but Buffalo Bill died and is buried on Lookout Mountain in Golden. Since the 1940s or so there has been an annual celebration.  Near the police station we saw this interesting sign.

While in Golden, we visited a small quilt museum. As someone new to quilting, I was fascinated by the applique work but equally by the decorative and artistic quilting done to create a beauty like this. All of the quilts incorporated animal shapes and other natural elements into the quilting pattern (though some did incorporate quilting such as stippling) after finishing the applique work, etc.  Gorgeous.

Along the road on one of our outings we saw multiple cars parked at the side of the road with lots of people staring off at something in the distance. We simply had to stop to investigate. What were they looking at ? A lady moose!

We did not see any elk, except this sculpture in downtown Boulder.

In the evenings in the summer there are street performers all about in Boulder. We had the chance to see several guys juggle lit torches.

The wedding was held on our last full day in Boulder. The couple was sent off on their honeymoon with a serenade of cow bells! All the best to Ian and Amanda!

The morning after the wedding, we left Colorado to visit more family in New York. We had just a short visit and then it was time to get back on planes and return home. The flight back: 34.5 hrs and days of jet-lag to follow. I haven't figured out the secret yet.

Where have we been?

Yes, the blog postings sort of stopped, didn't they? Haven't written in nearly one month. Shame on me.

We've been pretty busy and although the need to update all of you was ever present, the time in which to accomplish the task was not.

Today's the day I start working on it.