Sights of Ramadhan

I know I posted a few shots of the HUGE displays of fruit flavored syrups and cookies last year during Ramadhan, but I just had to post some again this year. The displays are like mushrooms in the lawn during a wet summer- they just pop up everywhere.

And the displays go up in the malls...

The speed of the workday slows tremendously during the fasting month of Ramadhan. Some workmen taking a break.

But things really seem to pick up at the neighboring police station. This is especially true in the days leading up to the end of Ramadhan and the celebration of Idul Fitri. In this shot there are about 30 full-sized buses in the parking lot in the back of the photo. I don't know if people came in on the buses or left on the buses, but this event snarled traffic quite a bit for several hours. They closed off the lot to entering traffic so folks parked all along both sides of the street around the site- where we live. What a mess. The second shot is an example of the various officers all lined up one morning.

Idul Fitri this year was July 6 and July 7, the end of Ramadhan. There are signs all over! In terms of traffic, 28-30 million Indonesians travel before and after Idul Fitri. In fact there were few people left in town, B got home from work in about 3 minutes on July 8. The motorcycle and scooter brigades left in town feel obligated to speed because they can!  On a relative scale the place seemed deserted. 

Pretty Sunrise Photos

Sunrise, June 30.

Time stamp: 5:38 am

Time stamp 5:54 am

Crafts Update

Much of my time lately seems to have been spent watching technicians work in the apartment trying to fix various things. Also, I had to do the research and get up the courage to update both our laptop and desktop computers to Windows 10. However, in addition to those tasks I had a few minutes for crafting.

I have finished a mini afghan (or large shawl)- maybe I should call it an afshawl? B says shawfal??? There are times when I need a little something to take the chill off. This is especially true in the car because you know who keeps it set to 19C. Brrrr.

What better way to photograph this latest project than on the balcony in 93 degree temps?

Bananas!

We can buy Cavendish bananas here. Cavendish bananas make up 95% of bananas sold in the US so you've probably seen them in your market.

I don't know where the ones sold here come from, but they aren't like the bananas commonly found in the markets in the US. We used to buy 10 pounds of bananas weekly, but B just didn't care for the Cavendish bananas sold here. He says they have a tough center so we haven't bought a lot of bananas—until now!

During Ramadan I noticed a lot of the tiny banana bunches in the markets. There were usually a few, but during Ramadan they are a favorite snack to break the daily fast. Recently I picked up a mini bunch. Ibu Tin called them pisang mas— golden banana. If you are looking for this type in US markets, they are sometimes available. Chiquita sells the pisang mas as "baby bananas." Dole also sells a baby type of banana- called either a Ladyfinger or an Orito. They taste better than the normal banana. About 3 of the pisang mas are equal to the large Cavendish type.

During Ramadan, I noticed signs for quite a few types of banana .

The second time I purchased the mini bananas there weren't any mini bunches just sitting around. I was kind of disappointed. Ibu Tin said she'd take care of it. A fruit man got a small machete and asked me which ones I wanted and he hacked them off this large banana branch suspended from the ceiling. That was a first. I've never purchased bananas right off a branch before.

If you manage to locate some of these luscious bananas, leave them to ripen until they are fairly streaked with brown for the best flavor and sweetness. I personally don't wait that long and they taste great. I just hope they continue to carry them after Ramadan ends. Yum!

What's a Batch of Postings Without Some Drinks?

First, a disclaimer...nothing green here. I will have to find something green for next time. To tide you over, here is a recent experiment with the juicer: carrots, cucumber, lemon, melon, ginger. Quite good, but, alas, not green.

The other day I also made another interesting concoction: Mangga gedong ( a peach flavored mango), carrot, watermelon and possibly lemon. It was quite good as well, but again, not green. 

While it contained only one green element (a slice of lime), I recently enjoyed a Blue Ocean- lemonade and blue curacao alcohol free syrup and seltzer.

Upsizing our Freezer Space

The price of some grocery items increases tremendously beginning the month before Ramadan. What's a person to do? In a perfect world, one would stock up before the price increase. But what do you do if you have a tiny freezer?

I mentioned (well, I complained) one day with friends that we were considering asking our apartment owner for a larger refrigerator. To install one, some wood trim would have to be removed from under the cabinet located above the refrigerator space. As it is now, the fridge is jammed in the spot and is up against the trim. We have plenty of room width-wise. A friend said, "I know someone who is selling a chest freezer!" I asked a couple of details and my friend was madly texting the owner. Finally my questions got to be too much and she said, you can just call her yourself. I didn't realize it was another friend who was selling it. I could have been asking the questions myself. Friend #2 was re-patriating and so she was selling things. She accepted our offer and a couple of days later it was delivered to our apartment. It was super cheap to get it delivered! We did not plug it in until we returned from our time away. We now have a small chest freezer! My friend says in a pinch, it will hold at a lot of medium turkeys. Did I mention she was the president of the Canadian women's group and they put on an annual Thanksgiving dinner?

Plants at the Pool

Shortly after we moved into our apartment I met another tenant at an event in town. She was telling me that she and her husband would be away for extended periods of time and that the building staff would take care of her plants. They would move them downstairs near the pool and keep them watered.

This information was filed away until recently. Under normal circumstances, our helper Ibu Tin would be here often enough, or we would be gone a brief enough time, the plants would manage. But with a 3 week trip, I asked about the plant day care at the apartment! Yes, they were happy to do it.

Shortly before we left, a team of technicians arrived at the apartment and took the plants to the pool area. Later that day, a photograph was sent of the happy plants in their new location. The tenant relations manager let me know he would text us if there were any issues while we were away.

The next morning I went down early in the morning to visit the plants and check out the site. It looked like a good set up for them and I took a photo myself. I've added a closeup.  They are just barely visible in the background to the left of the stairs into the pool.

We returned near a weekend, but on Monday the plants were returned in decent shape and are now happily back on the balcony.

We've Been Away

If you were wondering why you haven't heard from us in a bit, it's because we were traveling. We got to enjoy fresh air, perfect temperatures, pretty skies and pretty scenery and... oh yes, got to visit with some of the family. I must have said, "Look at that sky!" 50 times! B managed to work in a week's trip to his old plant in KY while we were in the US. The whole thing was a bit of a whirlwind. Here are just a couple of pretty pictures.

I was able to scratch my gardening itch a bit in NY. I did a lot of trimming of shrubs! My arms looked like I'd tangled with a cat. Did I mention the shrubs had thorns?  In our free time we worked on a little puzzle project. We weren't able to complete it so hopefully someone else has stepped up! Send photos please. You know who you are!

Note: I don't want to forget to mention a recently published book you may want to read. It's called Bitter Spice. The author is Harm Stevens. This is the history of the Dutch and Indonesian "relationship" beginning with the Dutch quest for spices. It sounded like a really interesting book. Just thought I'd pass it along in case anyone would be interested.