Monday, May 25, 2009

back...with some awful news...

Sowwy for being away for so wong, I'm finawwy back.
But I come back with some awful news to bwing you all again, sigh...
Mine Mummy, she is going off to Hong Kong again on 10th June. And after that she's going to go to Yunnan in China.
Mine Mummy says she is so wooking forward to going, but has she spared a thought for handsome genius me?
Bwegh! I'll have to stay home, wight here, with That Whiny-Stinkybag-Thing! Bwegh!
And mine Mummy is going to be gone all the way until Juwy!
I am totawwy so not happy!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Indonesia...

Phew....that was tiwing!
That Thing has finawwy stopped his whining and started eating again and I spent the entire day hacking into mine Mummy's camewa so that all mine good fwiends can see what mine Mummy saw in Indonesia.
Now, I think I deserve a nice wong nap without That Thing bugging me.
Ok, here are the pictors.
Earwy earwy on Thursday morning, mine Mummy woke me and That Thing up and made us eat bweakfast because she had to catch the pwane to bwing her to Indonesia. Why she has to catch it, I'm not vewy sure, because even though I have never been on a pwane before, fwom what I heard fwom others, the pwanes usuawwy sit there waiting while beans go onto it. Maybe mine Mummy's pwane was a bit special and twied to wun away, so mine Mummy had to
catch it.

Well, she was there bwight and earwy in the morning. And she caught the pwane, and was comfortabwy sitting on it alweady when those beans who made the pwane fwy told all the passengers to get off the pwane again!
There was something in this pwane which didn't want to work and so they had to find another pwane for mine Mummy to catch.
And so mine Mummy had to wait for another 2 hours at the airport so that she can catch the other pwane to take her to Indonesia. If it were me, I would just go home and snuggle with handsome me and that whiny stinky-bag Thing, but did mine Mummy do that? No! She foowishwy sat there and waited 2 hours to catch the next pwane! Sigh...beans can be so siwwy sometimes.Finawwy, over at Indonesia.
In the dwessing woom.
No, that is not mine Mummy. Mine Mummy is too wazy to iron cwothes. She takes pictors instead.Performers putting on make-up.This is the Western string ensemble gwoup which twavelled with mine Mummy.The hotel woom.
They booked a vewy nice hotel for mine Mummy to stay in.After the performance, it was vewy wate at night. Mine Mummy had supper and it was alweady 2am. And mine Mummy had to get up at 4am to go to the airport because she was going to fwy to Yogyakarta together with 3 other beans.The fwight to Yogyakarta.On the stweets.This is the guesthouse mine Mummy stayed in for the first night at Yogyakarta.There were horse cawwiages.Busy morning stweet and market.Wunch at a woadside stall.The kitchen.Visiting the sultan's pawace.
This was the pwace where the sultan held performances.Gweat hall for gamewan (twaditional Indonesian music) performance.Making batik.A gate weading to...another gate.to the sultan's swimming pool.These openings were built so that concubines had to stoop to enter. It was a way of showing submission to the sultan.The pool which wooks....YUCKS!
Well, I'm sure it must have wooked much nicer duwing the sultan's times.This is the sauna woom.Stairs. Upstairs was the head concubine's woom.Yummy chick-hens!The well which is still functioning now.What is this HIISSSSSS cat doing in mine Mummy's camewa!?On the way to the underwater mosque.This mosque was fully submerged and the windows had gwass panes to bwock out the water. Over the years though, the water weceded and now the mosque is up above gwound.Devastation fwom earthquakes.
Indonesia has many many volcanoes and suffers earthquakes vewy fwequentwy too.After the sultan's pawace, mine Mummy went to visit the wuins of Pwambanam, the oldest Hindu temple in Yogyakarta.
Over the years, this temple has fawwen and been webuilt and fawwen and been webuilt countwess times due to the earthquakes.Mine Mummy didn't do any special effects to this pictor. The wight just natuwawwy shone on the figure of the hindu god. The architects of the olden times must have weawwy taken gweat pains in designing this temple.The soil there was gweyish bwack fwom the nearby volcanoes.Gamewan!When mine Mummy was doing her degwee in music, there was a subject she had to take on gamewan music. But after sitting for the exam, mine Mummy has given evewything she wearnt back to her pwofessor. Now she cannot even wemember what this instwument is called. (She scored an "A" for the exam!)
What a "good" student mine Mummy is indeed.Wook cwosewy at these pictors!
Vishus deer!!!!Baaaa....
The feet bewongs to the shephardess.More baaas....Did you guys notice, there never fails to be steps to cwimb in all of mine Mummy's twavel pictors.The sun behind the piwwar.The chick-hens here are scwawny. But these chick-hens taste nicer than chick-hens who stay cooped up in coops because they got to wun and exercise their muscles.A sowitawy gate. How wonewy.The sun setting.The stweets of Yogyakarta at night. There is not much night wife there. Shops usually cwose at 9pm.Bweakfast at the guesthouse.This thing wooks wike That whiny stinky-bag Thing! But more muscuwar!Obviouswy he didn't care a hoot about mine Mummy.Weird Indonesian figures.This is a school. The students have just finished wessons and are going home.Awong the stweets.A push cart sewwing Mie Bakso or meatball noodle soup.The shopkeeper of this shop could speak a few words of Mandarin which was vewy much welcome after days of using sign wanguage. The wocals here don't even understand vewy basic Engwish and mine Mummy's spattewing of Malay wasn't enough even to save her wife.A woofie!!!! Wook here Mummy, I don't weawwy appwove of the pictors you take!Wice with beef and soup, and wots of chiwwi.Beef, egg, and soup.Hot owange without sugar. Yes, it's not just warm, it's boiwing hot! And it surpwisingwy doesn't have even a tinge of sweetness. All in all, it tastes
special.This is a vewy cosy pwace to while a wazy afternoon away. They serve coffee, and there's shelves and shelves of books! And even fwee wirewess access.
Nice pwace.Walking back to the guesthouse where mine Mummy stayed for the second day.Nice enviwonment eh?These wooden figures overwook the swimming pool (which contains more dead weaves and bwanches than water). The javanese are vewy good woodworkers and stone carvers.There was a performance at the Borobudur temple that night. It happens onwy once evewy few months and mine Mummy was vewy fortunate to be able to catch the show this time.
Ticket to the show (which mine Mummy suspected having been conned by the beans) came with dinner.
These were the performers who performed while mine Mummy was having dinner.
(Of course, she has forgotten what those instwuments are called as well.)The performance under the stawwy night in fwont of the temple of Borobudur.The highwight of the performance, weal wife ducks!And goats.Not having attended enough wehearsals, these ducks were not certain of how their dance steps ought to be and they decided to impwovise and come up with their own steps. Which incwuded twying to walk over to the audience.Chasing the ducks.The gamewan ensemble with one monk who pwovided the chants.The weal temple of Borobudur wights up behind at the end of the show.The legend of Mahakarya Borobudur.The next morning, mine Mummy visited the temple.
It had been covered with volcanic ashes when the volcano Merapi ewupted many many hundweds of years back. Then in the wast centuwy, archeowogists started digging it out and now the whole world can see this ancient temple.Mine Mummy attempted to cwimb a hill because she thought she might get better pictors of Borobudur up there.But at the top, this is all she can see of Borobudur.
What a disappointment.Ewephants!Wayang Kulit.Pwetty fwower.Nice scenewy.Finawwy back at Yogyakarta airport for the fwight back to Jakarta.Mine Mummy's fwight fwom Yogyakarta to Jakarta was dewayed, and when she weached Jakarta, she had to wun all the way fwom Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 to catch her pwane back home again. I wonder why mine Mummy keeps on having to catch pwanes. Other beans' pwanes are more well-behaved and stay there.Wuckiwy, mine Mummy weached the boarding gate with 5 minutes to spare and she could be home to snuggle with me and That Thing.