Who Needs Grass?

For those of you that have been reading my blog for some time, you might remember me saying that there are absolutely no parks here in Palembang. There isn't a place where little kids can really go to just run around in the grass.

So, there are no parks here AND it so happened that we rented a house with no grass. Many houses here do have a nice lawn in their gardens. Unfortunately, we don't have a single blade of grass. The soil we have is very much clay and even weeds don't grow well. I'm amazed that I managed to have such healthy four angle bean plants.

It hasn't rained in awhile and all the sand/dirt has become extremely dry outside. Aaron has been having an hour of fun or more outside each morning.

Some days, he makes 'cement' by mixing in water with the dirt and stirring it around. He then transfers it from one place to the next doing what he calls construction work.

Other days, he gets his big machines out to do the heavy duty work. He becomes a complete mess by the end of it all but its so worth it. I find that I've been becoming increasing slack on the cleanliness levels here for the sake of fun!

The lack of grass is turning out to be a blessing in disguise after all.








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Photostory Friday - Determination & Team Work

I really wish I knew how to take a better photo of this. It was fascinating to watch. Seriously! Even Aaron was interested in them.

We've got the ant situation enough under control so they don't come to the kitchen or onto the dining table. BUT, for food dropped anywhere else in the house, they're the super cleaners.



This little army of ants worked on two good sized crumbs for over 12 hours. As you can see, the hole they were trying to take them down was way too small. They just kept maneuvering in and out, backwards and forwards, left and right, over and over again. I wonder what they were saying to each other the whole time??

I noticed them around 4pm the other day. A couple of hours later, I noticed that they were still at it. Thats when I took the photos. As we watched TV that night, they were still hard at work.

I saw them drop the crumbs numerous times but they just went back down to the floor, picked it up and started all over again. I checked on them before going to bed and they were still working at it.

The next morning, they were all gone! Crumbs too! I'm sure they didn't figure out an alternate route. I think they nibbled as they worked and finally, it was small enough to take down that hole. Talk about determination and team work!

Here's a link to some interesting ant facts. I've cut and paste a few of them here:

If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse.

Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight.

An ant brain has about 250 000 brain cells. A human brain has 10,000 million so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as a human.

Some worker ants are given the job of taking the rubbish from the nest and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump.

The Slave-Maker Ant raids the nests of other ants and steals their pupae. When these new ants hatch,they work as slaves within the colony.

Some ants sleep seven hours a day.

Some ants care for and "farm" other insects.


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Knocked Out!

Aaron was such a terrible sleeper as a baby that until today, I am still amazed to watch him sleep. This is especially the case if he falls asleep outside his bed.

We took him to a huge indoor playground at a mall recently. That place was any child's heaven! There were ramps, tunnels, multiple ball pools and best of all, the slides looked like they were 3 floors tall.

Aaron was non-stop in there for nearly three hours. He really wasn't faking it when he told me that he couldn't walk out to the car. We no longer use a stroller with him and he's too heavy to be carried so the best I could offer was a shopping trolley.

Literally 2 minutes after I put him in there, this is what I see...



Oh, the pink striped socks? The playground insisted that all kids and parents wore socks so, they were the cheapest pair I could find in the nearby shops. He didn't seem to mind.


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An 87 Year Age Gap

Aaron is one lucky little boy to be able to enjoy time with his great grandparents. Here he is with his great grandfather.





There may be an 87 year age gap between them but they still manage to have evening walks together. One of them is getting hard of hearing and the other still has problems pronouncing some of his words but that doesn't stop the chats they have.

It is the hope for moments like these that I often end up extending my stay in Ipoh for.


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Its Time To Sit Back

These few weeks has seen a surge in Aaron's independence. Little by little each day, he has started to make up his own games. All these photos were taken today. After waiting over two and a half years for a day like this, I didn't know what to do with myself so I just watched at first then thought I should capture the moments.







Not only does he play by himself, he's able to get himself a drink and later on, go pee as well. I know I won't be out of a job anytime soon but it looks like I might be able to take on some other jobs soon. Or maybe, I can start delegating things like folding the laundry. He seems interested in that!


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Two Cars And A Rope

Very often, we see one motorcycle pulling another one along with a rope. Recently, we saw two cars doing the same thing. I don't know enough about cars but wouldn't it ruin the gearbox or whatever thingi in the car if you just drag it along on all four wheels?

The traffic moves so slowly here that having these two cars on the road didn't slow things down noticeably. There is always lot of traffic, a lot of motorcycles in between and a lot of huge potholes so, everyday speed here is about 40km/h. When we hit 60km/h, I start to feel like we're speeding!

I circled the rope in white but its still hard to see. If you click the photo and see it in its original size, you can see the rope quite clearly.




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Facebug

This is Facebug. Or maybe I'll call it "Smelly Facebug" because its defense mechanism (apart from that warrior like mask) seems to be an awful stench that hangs around long after it has left.



We found him outside in the garden but it moved too fast for me to get any decent photos. So, I put it in this container for a little while to get a better look.

Actually, we often come across different looking bugs (although this is the first colourful one) but I never know their names. I should make more of an effort to find out what they're called instead of just making names up myself.


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p/s: My next post will be on Tuesday because we're going to Jakarta for a long weekend. YAY!

Photostory Friday - Great Grand-ness

Everything is back to normal now. My mother and grandmother went back to Malaysia this morning. Things feel a little quiet at home but we'll get used to it soon.

Usually, Aaron is constantly on the move and bouncing from one activity to the next. It surprised me that he was able to slow down his pace to match his great grandmother. He seems to know that he has to be more gentle with her and cannot demand the same sort of high energy games. Sometimes, when we're out, he insists on "helping her" and tries to provide some sort of support when she walks.

I'm thankful that the both of them have been able to spend so much time together. I took this photo of the both of them when Aaron was about 8 months old.



And here they are, two years later.




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Indonesian Language Lesson

The word for today is "Bingung". This is a word that I hear very often over here and it means "confused".

Sometimes, I hear people say "Saya bingung" and it means "I am confused".

I also hear people say "Bingung saya" and I think it also means "I am confused".

Today, I was bingung-ed by this shirt. By the way, there is no past tense to words in Indonesian so the -ed was just me using the English past tense on the Indonesian word. (Not part of the lesson :P)




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Photostory Friday - About Me

I've finally changed my profile picture.

For those of you who don't remember what it was - GOOD.

For those of you who do, start forgetting NOW.

When I started this blog a couple of years ago, it was right after a trip to Bali. I just grabbed one of the only photos of Aaron and I together and slapped it up there.

Anyway, I think its time for a change to something a little more subtle. This photo is from the same trip to Bali. Now you can look at my back instead.




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Photostory Friday - Where Is The Rewind Button?

I couldn't believe the amount of work Aaron brought into my life when he was born. At that time, I was looking for the Fast Forward button.

Now, I want the Rewind button. There are so many moments that I'd love to revisit. Instead, I get similar situations with a significantly different Aaron in the picture to remind me not to waste the moments I have with him now.

This was taken almost exactly two years ago in February 2007. I occasionally fed him snacks by the pond.





Most mornings now, Aaron tries to clean the fish pond. AND, he even tells me to go inside and not watch him "work".

Photostory Friday - When Dad Is In Charge

I'm always grateful when its Richard's turn to watch Aaron. I get a chance to do things uninterrupted. Its great!

Saying "Richard's turn" makes it sound like watching Aaron is a chore. Its definitely hard work but its not a chore. Anyway, Richard sees so little of Aaron during the week that he is more than willing to spend the whole Saturday afternoon and Sunday playing the hands on dad.

But look what happens when I don't pay attention to what the two of them get up to. I hope that paint is what it claims to be - NON toxic.




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Photostory Friday - The Roof Over Their Heads

I had to go fix my visa at the immigration office yesterday. It was located right on the other side of town, in the outskirts of Palembang. The drive, as usual, was interesting.

Here are some homes directly opposite the office.






We purposely turned around again to get this photo because I was too busy staring and imagining what it must be like to live in that little back portion. Forgot to take the photo the first time around.




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Photostory Friday - No Expectations

The girl in the bottom right is my grand aunt. I found this photo in her house. In comparison to her two older sisters standing at the back, I thought her young face looked full of happiness and expectation of a bright future.



This is my grand aunt now, at 70. She married my grandfather's brother when she was in her 30s and he in his 50s. They never had any children and she now lives alone in the little house he left her.



I'm pretty sure her life turned out to be very different from what she expected it to be when the first photo was taken. I don't have all the details but I'm sure it wasn't an easy life. Yet, she is one of the most contented people I know. While she doesn't have a lot of money and hardly any visitors she is seemingly happy and very healthy. Not-jumping-for-joy happy but she definitely accepts everything in her life.

I think the secret to her contentment is the fact that she has no expectations. She has no children, very little family left and hardly any friends so she doesn't expect anybody to visit her. She has no income and lives on her meager savings so she doesn't expect to own or do anything fancy.

I'm not saying that I want to live the life she's living when I'm 70 but I hope that I will be as contented as she is. In comparison to many other old people I know (who have families and even live with one of their children), she seems to be the one most comfortable with her existence because she does not expect anybody to do anything for her. Its sad, but its also very admirable.


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Photostory Friday - Food I Didn't Eat

Chinese New Year didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned it. The day after my last post, I got the most horrible stomach bug that ruined the next few days. Eating is a big part of the festivities but I hardly got to eat anything. I just sat around most of the time, being envious of every one else.

This Photostory is all about the eating I didn't do.

Here's everyone mixing a sort of Chinese New Year salad. The aim is to toss it all as high as you can without spilling it off the plate and it will bring you luck and prosperity throughout the year.


This was at my father's cousin's house. There were several delicious curries here that I didn't get to try. She's a great at making Nyonya dishes.


And here's breakfast with Richard's family at a Dim Sum restaurant.


These are just the formal meals that I didn't gorge myself on. I didn't have the heart to take photos of all the cookies and cakes that I just stared at.


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Photostory Friday - The Painter

We're grudgingly signing the contract to rent this house for another two years tonight. There is nothing else in the area worth moving to and the lease has run out so we'll just have to stay put. The weird thing about Palembang is that you pay your rent for the full two years UP FRONT!

I like the space that this house gives us but like all the other houses in the area, it is old and in need of lots of repairs. The landlord wouldn't do any and even tried to increase the rent! Anyway, I have my own handyman now. He's starting work on painting the gate, windows and even the trees!








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Photostory Friday - The World On His Head

My biggest complaint about Aaron is that he is a very poor sleeper and has been from the start. Apart from being extremely difficult to put to sleep when he was an infant, he is also an incredibly light sleeper.

Apart from the obvious things like flushing the toilet or making too much noise when closing a door, he has also been woken up by the neighbor sneezing and my father stirring his Milo a little too enthusiastically downstairs.

After two and a half years of practice, he's getting better. There are bad days and good days. On a bad day, he'll wake up if you put the slightest amount of pressure on his mattress. On a good day, amazing things like this happen:

The entire world map had come unstuck and flopped down on him!



He was still in the same position that I left him in. AND, he went on to sleep another hour. I couldn't believe it!!!


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Photostory Friday - Family Heirloom?

Look what I found on the top shelf of the broom closet. I know that sunglasses like these have made a come back recently but these aren't from this century! My mother wore this pair in the early 1980s, making them nearly 30 years old. Its mind boggling to think that she was in her 30s then. Seems like yesterday that she told me she was 36....




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