Categotry Archives: Mention Monday
Happy 4th!
I’m off to watch fireworks. Happy Independence Day my US friends. To everyone else, what have you been up to? I learned a new grilling thing. You can make a modified chili relleno by putting the chili pods on the grill. They skin much better that way. Then stuff them with cheese and put right back on the grill just long enough to melt the cheese. It makes a very tasty no-batter chili relleno.
Monkey’s on the Road
The morning after meeting the shadow puppet master we left Ubud and headed for Lavina. Along the way we stopped at a wayside where monkeys were known to wander. And wander they did.
Happy Memorial Day
I had planned on putting up a post with this title and pictures of Indonesian graves. They do things a little different there than you might find in USA. Didn’t happen. Part of it might have to do with the day job, but a lot of it had to do with my hosting company – Blue Host. My web site was dead in the water for the better part of the week. It seems to trace back to a new […]
Forest Fire Season
Forest Fire Season has already begun. Who knew? Apparently the fires started to the East of me. Normally the wind will blow them further East along with the jet stream, so it isn’t too surprising I hadn’t noticed the smoke building up in the valley. The surprising and scary part is that the fires started in February. It seems the central part of Montana had an unusually warm and dry winter. 50 deg. F in the middle of February? Yeah […]
Truckers
The other day I was trying to drive from a gas station to the left lane of a four lane on a right turn. A very long line of cars had me sitting idle for a loooong time. When the light turned red for them, a dump truck pulled forward enough to totally block my way. Although regretable, I didn’t worry about it. I assumed I would catch a break eventually. The truck driver, was another matter. He waved for […]
Sunless Worshipers
At one point a tourist asked our guide why so many of the people in Java wear masks when on motorcycle. We thought it was a reaction to pollution. Not so. They are trying to avoid getting tans. Dark skin is a sign of low income and education. Those who ride motorcycles are particularly likely to get “too much” sun. If their helmets don’t have dark face plates, then they will often add a mask of some sort. In a […]
Telemarketer
I’m rude. When a telemarketer calls – be it human or machine – I cut through the chit chat to say “take us off your calling list” then hang up. Well, normally. But a particular number kept coming up wanting to discuss “issues of concern to your location.” The actual human on the other end wanted me to answer two questions. Only two. 1)Who did I support in the upcoming primary. 2)How firm was my decision. There was no follow […]
Independence Day
From the moment we arrived in Jakarta until we left Indonesia entirely we saw flags and bunting. This was three weeks of flags and bunting to celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day.
Art Restaurant
Most of the places where we were treated to dinner had an old world feel to them. It might be a Dutch heritage, or it might be the gentility of classic Asian ambiance. Either way, there was a sense of timeless elegance with now and then a rural paradise thrown in. This time we had lunch in a place that might have come from down the street from me. The walls where a cheerful yellow, and all four walls were […]
Breadfruit and Tea
We stopped off at the shop run by the wife of Mah Ri Jah on Mount Merapi for a quick snack. The snack consisted of breadfruit and tree bark tea. They cut the breadfruit into slices that are about a sixteenth of an inch thick then fry it up. A sixteenth of and inch might not seem like much, but it’s more than three times as thick as your average potato chip. Except for the huge size of each chip […]
The Martian
I caught this on video recently. Loved it! In the movie, this astronaut named Mark Watney gets left behind when a mission to Mars has to be scrapped because of a storm. The whole rest of the movie is about both him trying to survive and – once they realize he’s actually alive – NASA’s efforts to retrieve him.
A Home Visit
It was a very long day. After seeing the temple, going to a hidden restaurant, and dropping in on batik factory, we split up into smaller groups and went to the homes of some locals for dinner. I consider myself very, very lucky in the family that took us in. First, we were warned that not everyone would speak English, but at least one person would. In our case, everyone did – and we are talking over a dozen people. […]
