Photostory Friday - Sexy Shorts

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Here's a definite case of a stitch in time saves nine thousand!

This pair of shorts had a full strip of blue down the sides. They had a few holes in them but I just let them be. I got a twisted kick out of taking him for walks in that pair of shorts. People would discretely look at the holes but were probably too polite to say anything. Anyway, I didn't count on him digging his fingers into the holes and picking at it until it looked like this. Guess we can't wear it out anymore.

Thursday Thirteen - Headlines

Even though I rarely read the papers here, we do get it delivered daily for the driver. Anyway, he left it out a few days ago and headline #1 caught my attention. I was quite surprised by it but maybe it does reflect the mentality/attitudes of the people here. I flipped through the papers from the past week to see what else is out there.

#1 & #2 : Its sad to see this sort of attitude towards the gay community.


"Being Gay is like being a drug addict."


"A pair of homosexuals caught Karaoke-ing." The body of the article was somewhat descriptive and even I could understand the part about "their lips were still wet...". Isn't that just too much and also unnecessary information?

#3 :


"13.8 tons of pangolines to be destroyed." No, not live ones. There has been illegal smuggling of pangoline meat to China and recently, they've started doing something about it.

#4 :


"Entertainment venues at hotels may open." The month of Ramadan starts next Tuesday and all "entertainment venues" (inclusive of cafes, karaoke bars and my foot massage place) are closed except from 9pm-12 midnight. No enjoying yourself for one month!

#5 :


"MSG is safe in moderation." You wouldn't believe the amount of MSG that is used here!

#6 :


"Use your minds and instincts to vote". Thats the gist of the headline. The literal translation would be something like "Use a healthy mind". There will be elections for the governor of southern Sumatra next Thursday.

#7 :


Here's a picture of Hilary and Chelsea Clinton but no mention of what the Democratic convention is about or what had taken place.

#8 :


I don't know what "gelar" means but the article was all about how Honda is conducting classes to teach people how to ride their bikes "responsibly". I wonder how successful they will be because the bikes here are just CRAZY!

#9 :


"John Doe's Body Bitten by dogs" I found out that John Doe here is called Mr X.

#10 :


"Debt not paid, child taken as collateral". Supposedly, this is quite a common occurance.

#11 & #12 : Both of the following articles mention something about Ramadan coming up. Maybe the police are doing some sort of "cleanup" before the month of abstinence starts.


"Tens of couples apprehended". They mean unmarried couples that are getting together, presumably for sex. Not allowed!


"8 sex workers and hundreds of bottles of hard liquor snared". "PSK" translates literally to Naughty Woman and is the term they use for prostitutes here.

#13 :
After reading about all the "clean up" activities prior to the start of Ramadan, I came across this advertisement.


"Psst! My husband went for three rounds last night" There's more there but I find it too crude for me to translate! Just go imagine.

Who wants a big house?

My mother always says that even if she was given a huge mansion, she wouldn't want to live in it because there would be too much cleaning to do. Sometimes I think that way but then again, if you could afford a house like that, I'm sure you'd be able to have people do the cleaning for you.

So, would I want to live in a big house? YES! At least for a short while so that I can comment on whether or not its all that fun.

The house that we live in now is spacious and has more than enough room for us but as I walk around the neighborhood, I can't help imagining what the inside of some of these houses are like.

The area we live in is fairly old and the original houses here all have some problem or other. Instead of fixing these problems, many of these houses are being torn down and new gigantic houses are being built in their place. Unfortunately, they're all built in such a way that its impossible for me to catch a glimpse inside. Damn! I need to make friends with some of these people but......you also never see them.

Anyway, its fun to imagine what a big house is like. Here are some photos of them. I'm just not good enough a photographer to show how much bigger they are to the original houses in the area.

Here is the house that I blogged about last year when the construction was just starting.



And here are a couple off the other newly completed constructions.

How did he do it?

Aaron is so much better today. Everything seems to have dried up. The bad news is that I've now got whatever he had. I knew I would get it. Ever since he was born, my immunity has been so low that I catch anything that anybody around me has.

How did he manage to carry on the normal toddler day yesterday? His naps weren't any longer. He didn't run around any less. He wasn't quiet or content to sit still doing calmer activities like drawing. He was up and about as if there was nothing wrong.

Meanwhile, all I can think of today is how much my throat hurts and how badly I'd like to just crawl into bed and stay there. Of course, he's as chatty as ever and all my short answers just make him want to engage me in a conversation more.

I'm off to bed for a few minutes. When he wakes up, I'm just going to be lazy and put a DVD in. He can have a treat so that I can snooze. I'll be back with some new photos of my neighborhood tomorrow.

His nose is flowing like a river

Its really strange how certain songs will pop into your head at the weirdest times. There's always a connection but sometimes, its just a very unlikely one.

Today's song is "Peace is flowing like a river". Actually, I'm not sure if that the name of the song. Maybe its "Let if flow". In any case, perhaps its better to call it a hymn since its a song sung in church. Anybody else knows this one?

Peace is flowing like a river,
Flowing out to you and me,
Spreading out into the desert,
Setting all the captives free.

Let it flow through me ..... etc

Yesterday afternoon, Aaron woke up with a really really runny nose. From the time he woke up at around 3pm till NOW (27 hrs later), it hasn't stopped. Its getting everywhere. All over him and all over me as well! Where is it all coming from?? He's never had it this bad before.

I think he has a cold but I'm not totally sure. Aaron is one of those kids that get runny noses when he's teething. He's due for more molars so maybe its them trying to come out.

The good that has come from all this is that he has got the hang of reaching for his handkerchief and wiping his nose. The problem with that is that he's just smearing it all over his face. We started out with tissues but he kept getting it stuck on his tongue somehow.

Anyway, as I was saying, its strange the songs that get associated with situations. So, today it is:

His nose is flowing like a river,
Flowing out to you and me,
Spreading out around the house,
Sending everybody out.

Photostory Friday - Palembang Train Station (Part 2)

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

It was exactly a week ago that we went to check out the Palembang Train station. In last week's Photostory, I showed a deserted train station. This week, its the complete opposite. All the trains leave before 10am in the morning so thats why I didn't see anybody last week.



The place was full of travelers this morning. Thank goodness I didn't decide to try the economy class train to somewhere far away. Those carriages aren't air conditioned yet they had windows that were all half closed so, you can imagine the noise, heat and smell in there.

We took a ride on the new student's train to UNSRI (Universitas Srivijaya). Thats the one and only stop that the train makes and is only for students.

The two things I'll remember from the ride are: Firstly, they keep the doors open for half the journey! Two big doors on either side of the carriage, wide open, even when the train is running at full speed. I have no idea if they do this when the carriages are packed with students though.



The second thing is strange. The train reaches this little "stop", drops a man off and then reverses about 200m. The guy climbs a fence and goes into a little two story building to where the controls are I suppose and changes the rail alignments so that the train can go left to UNSRI. I don't know "train speak" so forgive me for all the inappropriate terms I'm using. We didn't pick the guy up afterwards so, I wonder if he just stays there for the rest of the day.

Here's what the scenery is like 2 mins out of Palembang. Its mostly paddy fields but they did have a few rubber estates in between.




OK. I just have to add this. I tried my best not to drink too much before leaving the house but I had to go to the restroom at the UNSRI stop anyway. To my surprise, it was clean but it must surely be the smallest restroom in the world! I swear, the width there is only the width of my shoulders. You can use the normal sized bucket at the bottom of the photo for reference.



For those of you who have never seen a toilet like this, its a squatting one and very common in Asia.

Thursday Thirteen - 13 Questions

Maybe some of you out there in cyberspace can help me with these.

1) What do you do with shoes that are still "good" but hurt your feet?

2) What do you do with the lily plants (still in the ground) after the flowers have wilted and dried up? The stems and leaves still look so healthy!

3) Which burns more calories? The treadmill or the elliptical machine?

4) What kind of bugs are these and how do I get rid of them? They were on my Winged Beans plants and I had to get rid of all my plants. Now, I see them on my guava tree and I'm worried they'll fly onto the new Winged Beans I'm trying to grow.



5) How do you floss a 2 yr old's teeth?

6) At what age do children have their first visit to the dentist?

7) What is this yellow part of the train called?



8) How would you teach a 2 yr old who is "I" and who is "You"? I've tried "Aaron is I and Mama is You" but stopped after a couple of attempts because its confusing when I (the Mama) suddenly say something like "OK, you give it a go".

9) Why is my laptop always low on Virtual Memory even though I've been ruthlessly deleting unwanted files?

10) How do I clean the lens on my webcam? Its producing a really "misty" picture. I've tried tissues and also the piece of microfiber I use for my glasses. Not working.

11) Why is the Netherlands also called Holland? And why are people from there called Dutch?

12) What sort of a hand signal is this boy giving me?



13) From Aaron: "Where is the end of the rainbow?" Out of the blue, he suddenly asked me that while we were playing this morning.