Rainy Season Continues?

The weather folks here keep pushing back when we'll see the peak in the rainy season. We might finally be near peak now. This year the peak is very late. Many times, we get such fantastic looking skies with these storms.

The other night we had a storm that kept everyone we know up most of the night. Everyone was talking about it. There were so many extremely long thunder bits. Intense, rolling thunder and lightening. Wow!

There has been a little bit of flooding now.

Yesterday we had big storms hit in two areas of town and caused flooding in both areas. We got nothing where we were or where we live. We think the rainy season is peaking or has peaked. The sky is overall less clear so we think we're heading out of the rainy season and into the DRY!

The rainy season has continued to bring leaks to the apartment. The building has now hired an outside team of experts to try to figure things out and stop the leaking. They are going high-tech and using infrared thermography. Note: Between the time I wrote this post and published it, the thermography team decided they do not want the job and a second company was brought in to look things over. They looked in the ceiling holes and then left. No follow up yet.

Chinese New Year

I thought Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, Imlek was just one day. It turns out it's really 2 weeks and here the outside decorations and mall decorations go up before that.

At one of the area malls we caught part of a traditional lion dance. I won't detail the history of this here but just say two performers demonstrate a lion's movements and/or martial arts abilities. There are different dance styles. In this mall's show there are two lions. To me their movements seem more like a puppy than a lion but it's fun to watch.  It is tradition at these shows to write down a wish for good luck throughout the year and place the note in the mouth of the lion. We were several floors above the action at first so we weren't close enough to see if they are handing the note to the performer in the "head" or if there is some special slot for the note or how it works exactly. However, in the first photo you can see a guy with an envelope giving the "lion" an envelope.

Also at this time of year we see the dragon dances. Dragons are helpful, important creatures and these dances are performed to drive away evil spirits.The cast to control the dragon was very large so they could switch out often. Quite the workout. In reducing the video file size some resolution is lost but hopefully you will be able to see enough to get a sense of the dance. (Remember you may need to be on a desktop or laptop or some tablets in order to view the video.)

Our mall around the corner was decorated for Imlek as well—inside and out. 2016 is the year of the monkey.

On Saturday, Feb 20 we attended an Imlek party hosted by Ibu and Pak PP of Barito Pacific Group.
At this small affair there were ~100 guests, two emcees, karaoke performances, a comedian, and more. There was also a 10 course traditional Imlek Chinese dinner.

The first course is a bit of an event. Ingredients I can remember are: shredded carrot, salmon with lime juice, giant cup of oil, plum sauce, cinnamon, pepper, thinly sliced glaceed green and red cherries, bean sprouts, a very thin sort of Frito chip, and noodles.  The base of the course is brought to each table. One selected guest then adds the remaining ingredients one at a time. After all the additions, all of the guests at the table mix the stuff on the plate with giant chop sticks all at once.
(Same suggestion about viewing the video as mentioned above.)

The rest of the menu was as follows:

Here is a group shot of some of the important people at the party. You might recognize one!

Still on the topic of Chinese New Year, oranges are typically given as gifts. At the grocery a couple of weeks ago I saw a case of srikaya fruit all ready for gifting for the new year.  But look at the price! Rp 1,229,000 ($92 US) for 6 srikaya.  This fruit 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. It makes a very interesting jam that's more like a curd or "butter."

Reuseable Grocery Bags & "Blanket"

Finished!

Back in the US, we always used reuseable grocery bags. Seeing the excessive amount of plastic bags as trash just about everywhere here made me want to use reuseable bags here, too. I procrastinated way too long but finally we purchased some fabric to make long lasting, washable bags. In part I was spurred into action by a new regulation requiring shops to charge customers for each plastic bag they use when making purchases. There seems to be daily reversals and changes regarding this new regulation so at the moment we are using our own bags and waiting to see how this all shakes out. The only trouble is that now we will have to buy bags for trash when previously we would re-use the grocery bags for that purpose. The purchased plastic bags are quite a bit more costly than the bags at many of the grocery stores. Hmmm. We must have plastic for the trash. I can't find paper. My hope is that they will start to use biodegradable bags as per another regulation.

For this project we found very heavy fabric, perfectly suitable for grocery bags and bought a ton (B comment in reality, 9 m).

One of the bags is missing in this group shot. (B comment: P tells me that these bags are GREEN with some brown trim and not the reverse.  Get it??)

 The maiden voyage of the new bags:

The bags are strong and hold a lot. Here's just a part of the groceries, most of the produce!

At the same time we purchased fabric to make the 9 "grocery" shopping bags, we also bought a more sedate fabric for a pair of other shopping bags. B says he likes them more because they have a military look.I don't know about that, but they are less flashy which is what I wanted: med/dark olive on the outside and red on the inside. We call them the "twins."

On the second outing of our green/brown grocery bags a lady inquired where we got them. She was speaking with Ibu Tin while I finished paying for the groceries. Bu Tin explained "Mrs. had made them." The lady then asked if they were for sale. I said, "Tidak. (no )." These are a huge step up from what they sell as reusable bags in the shops.

There was one more little project I finished- the "blanket." We bought a very nice piece of cotton, 2m long. I finally got around to squaring it up and doing a tiny folded hem all around the edges. I am calling it a blanket because there are times when I am chilly sitting on the sofa in the living room and the temp in the room is 26 or 27C (78.8-80.6F) so I needed a lightweight blanket. Hard to believe I could be chilly at that temp, right? Nonetheless, it's true. The answer? cotton voile. It's a very interesting print full of lots of colors.

B demonstrates how sheer the blanket is. It's the perfect weight.

New Furniture & AC Maintenance

We finally made a trip to IKEA to purchase two important pieces of new furniture.  First was a bookcase for the living room. As you can see we have lots of room to fill, but we needed a place for things like books.

We also purchased for my office & sewing room a cupboard with half glass doors. The plan is that I neatly fold and display some of my batik fabrics in the top part. It will look nice when I get around to doing it. Currently, the fabric pieces are just piled on the shelves with no rhyme or reason.

Once again we had our 6 air conditioners cleaned and maintained. It never ceases to amaze me how they work: bare feet, climbing without the help of ladders. 

Coffee Cupping

Coffee cupping is coffee tasting with special techniques and procedures. This was another of my Explorer Group activities. It was all about coffee. This is the classroom directions for coffee tasting. We also had a score sheet divided into multiple categories to rate the coffee. I would share my score sheet but it was a mess!

What did I learn during the 2 hour class? I learned that when I taste coffee all I taste is coffee. Confused? What I do not taste is any of the following: chocolate, vanilla, fruit, citrus, mushrooms, garlic, onions or any of the other notes people detect in coffee. (B says I only have this kind of palate for chocolate). Here's a closeup of the taste/aroma chart. These are things you might experience. You are free to suggest other tastes and or aromas as you "grade" the coffee based on your perceptions.

I was able to detect differences in aroma and fragrance.  (Yes these are  two different things. I could also sense a difference in what they call aftertaste. It's not so much about the taste of the aftertaste but how long it lasts. I still don't know what my favorite type of coffee might be. We only tasted 3 types of coffee. I can sense what I like and don't like but don't understand yet the why part. Of the three tasted, I preferred the Toraja. I have also found a Java coffee I really like.

For the cupping, you sample the coffee first by smelling it.To 8.25 g of ground coffee you add 150 ml of less than boiling, low mineral water. I don't remember the exact temperature we used in class. You "brew" it 4 minutes. After testing it for fragrance, the procedure has you taking two spoons and scooping the floating coffee grounds off the top of the liquid. Now you are ready to taste the coffee hot. You taste it later after it's cooled down slightly. To taste the coffee you strongly slurp a spoonful into your mouth so it assaults your tastebuds with gusto!

Preparing for the coffee tasting is similar to the way coffee is traditionally prepared. It's called kopi tubruk. I asked my helper Ibu Tin about kopi tubruk and she said she makes it by dumping sugar and coffee grounds into the cup, she adds the water and lets it sit a few minutes and then drinks it. Maybe if the grounds are fine enough they all settle down quickly? She says she does not need to skim anything off the top apparently. Here are some of the ladies during class.

Museum Wayang

Another Explorer group tour. B and I had visited this Museum ourselves as well, but this tour included a mini Wayang kulit (also known as a shadow puppet play). I will explain what that is again later in this post. There are giant Wayang golek at the museum entrance.These are much too large to be used in performances and are merely decorative items at the museum. Adult human-sized Wayang golek are used in performances. Our guide was Pak Aldy, a 4th generation puppet maker and puppeteer.

The golek are most often made of lami wood. It is a medium weight wood.

The Wayang golek are three dimensional figures. These figures are not backlit during plays.

The Bima character represents strength. Notice the snake. Story goes that Bima was going to kill the snake but the snake asked to not be killed and promised in exchange he would help protect him. Bima and the snake became friends.

Side Note: At one time, puppet faces resembled human faces to a great extent. Once Islam arrived, Javan puppet faces could no longer resemble human faces. Bali puppet faces still resemble a human face we were told. For me none of these puppets has what I'd call a human face.

The museum has puppets from many parts of the world. Often, a puppeteer was given a local puppet following a performance of the Wayang Kulit. Those gifted puppets made their way into the museum. Puppets have also been gifted directly to the museum by foreign dignitaries.This first puppet is from Bangkok. I don't remember where the other three are from.

The Wayang kulit are 2 dimensional figures  and are backlit during performances. Both types of Wayang require a dalang (sometimes spelled differently), or puppeteer, to perform the play. Yes, just one puppeteer. For a full scale production he may have a helper or two. There is a post from May 2015 if you care to read more about it.

Our guide showed us the highlights of the museum then in his nearby studio walked us through the production of each Wayang kulit and then performed a 15 mini play for us.

Note: How do you tell a male Wayang kulit character from a femaleW ayang kulit character? The female characters are smaller and have flatter heads.

These puppets have so many individual parts. This is a labeled part chart.

The most interesting step in the Wayang kulit production is that the water buffalo hide is hand sanded from pretty thick and opaque to thin and semi-transparent. This is very labor intensive.  It can take weeks or months to create one puppet. Water buffalo is chosen because it is the only material that stands the test of time. Puppets can be hundreds of years old and even the colors applied are still bright. We also learned that you can't make any mistakes in cutting the pattern in the buffalo hide. It can't be repaired. You must start over. Why color it at all if the shadow is the "cast member"? Colors help the dalang identify the various characters. The casts of these plays is enormous.

This is a"life" puppet.

It's used to represent life, the natural world and more. Pak Aldy shines a flashlight onto the puppet and it casts a shadow on the ceiling.

The mini play was the story of Rama and Sita(or Sinta). Traditionally these plays lasted 9 hours. Ours was a brief summary in only 15 minutes.  A romantic tale: boy has girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back with the help of a devoted friend. It was described to us as sort of a Romeo and Juliet but with a happy ending. Our play had only a few characters instead of the many in traditional plays. Pak Aldy says he has mastered 22 voices but some dalang can do 100 voices. The play was done in English and Pak Aldy threw in a lot of European and American references relevant to at least part of my group.

I also shot a very brief snippet of video during the play. At this point, Rama has proposed that he and Sinta marry. Rama says, "According to fortune teller, after I marry with you, my face will change.  I become handsome guy like Tom Cruise."

Additional fun fact: Whole nutmeg is often used as an insect repellent in a container of sugar.

Out and About

On our way to IKEA for furniture we could not use our normal road as it was completely blocked. The road was blocked by Mini-Coopers. From what we could see Mini-Cooper was filming a  TV commercial or video for some purpose.

Many areas are undergoing drainage repairs to the storm water system to more effectively carry away water so flooding is reduced. Here's a shot of a typical worksite.

It's no wonder you frequently see and/or read about a car or truck with part of it in an open hole.