Tea Time!

i know moths and butterflies suck nectar. just don't know that they also like tea!

last night after watching Teater Koma's Sin Jin Kwie (it was 00.15), i agreed to sit and have tea with Rahma, Mada and Iie. Tea in beer glass as usual. I stirred the long tsp to dissolve sugar and then i put it on the table, "sunny side up".

Minutes later flew a moth: brown, ugly, hairy. uninteresting. It walked toward the tsp and then putting his long tongue to the bowl of the spoon.

There was virtually no liquid in the spoon. but it put its tongue there and stood for like five minutes. perhaps it was sipping traces of the sweet liquid.

then Iie took a spoonful and pour it into the spoon.

the moth stood motionless. i thought the warm liquid must have burnt its tongue. So i blew it gently...the moth flipped its wings repeatedly, never to leave the spoon. it turned out that it was sucking the sweet tea and seemed enjoying the spoonful!

Swarovski Studded Squid

I "came across" Tony Wu's blog while "diving" (not surfing) on the internet. he's a keen UW photographer. a lucky photographer. he's so passionate abt marine life.

Lovely Grass that Is Rice

This rice, planted to complement the view of this one particular restaurant in Bandung. Sad. This rice will not fill anyone's stomach. they're purely ornamental....

Serumpun Padi(by R. Maladi)

Serumpun padi tumbuh di sawah
Hijau menguning daunnya
Tumbuh di sawah penuh berlumpur
Di pangkuan ibu pertiwi
Serumpun jiwa suci
Hidupnya nista abadi
Serumpun padi mengandung janji
Harapan ibu pertiwi

Out of the Dead Wood

spring this colony yellow beauties (Sumedang, 3 Jan 2010)

Morus Pocus (the Joy Mulberry Brings)

love mulberries. nothing beats the joy of sticking purple tongue at friends and laugh together. this morus tree I saw at warung Stroberi (?) in highlands off Bandung brought me back to Lawang. There near Polaman lived a family. The father worked the land best. the small boy i was had to walk slowly 10 m from the gates to the door for he eyed the mulberries. he would act nice so they would let him and friends climb the bush. his daughters was friends of ours. it was routine until i was about 10. everytime i passed their house i remembered them.

I'd climb the wall near Frateran back in SMPK to pick the bright deep red and deep purple berries. i knew exactly what Eve felt when she saw the forbidden fruit tree!

happy i am everytime i pick the berries!

Remorse of The Remoras

one thing i noticed when i saw the pool of beige sharks and colorful sea creatures on that "Bandeng Island": remoras!
how they arrived at the tank is one question. did the fishermen caught them with their "hosts" (sharks and mantas or other marine mammals)?

The inhabitant of the pool have a distinctive look: their pad-like, sucker-like organ. they're as big as the beige sharks, the biggest species in the tank. i bet they're in the state of frustration, trying to find new hosts. or can they be independent?

Butterfly lovers

Last week when i went to that shop for groceries, it played a traditional Chinese music over the speakers. I thought, oh next week is Chinese new year! that's why.

It took me a minute to recognise what song: Butterfly Lovers Concerto! It was a version i never heard. Before, I only knew Vanessa-Mae's version: an orchestra backing her solo violin. It's one of my fav piece of orchestral music.

Then I remember Fiona ever mentioned this: Butterfly Lovers? That's Sampek Engtay!

Ah really? So I, as always, consulted Wikipedia: It's about a boy met girl. A Romeo, a Juliet. They were Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. In our dialect, they became Sampek Engtay.

I checked this video. this vid is cool. amazing. it makes me think of how a hundred legs become six and a wingless body become winged. that's the wonder of fasting, eh?

Is it Possible?

is it possible to save our biodiversity?

Copenhagen, I Love You

Just watched NYIOU for the second time. Yeah, the first time I did the movie gone out and made a lot of scratching noise and it happened on the kinotheather :)

so when I read this article, it's about time that every city in the world gets its long awaited I Love You (I think of Paris Je T'aime).

The results of Copenhagen.

No Cooking Rice

Wow! think i can bring it for camping. I'll be boiling a litre of water. when it boils, i will pour it for my coffee and then the remaining will go for the rice. The meal is ready!

here's the good news from AP: Scientists invent rice that doesn't need cooking

Mon Feb 8, 6:29AM PT - AP 2:10 |

Agricultural scientists in India say they have developed a variety of rice that requires no cooking and can be eaten simply after being soaked in water. (8 Feb 2010)

Crab love

(photo courtesy of Maria Gode)

Crabs always bemuse me. i always have pleasant 'encounters' with them: fiddle crabs in Sanur, burrowing crabs in Banyuwangi, a mimicry crab in Sanur and Semak Daun, armored crab in Ujung Kulon, yummy crabs Mami cooked for me, and a white, palm-sized white crab that bit my toe last December. The latter might not be pleasant but it’s okay. It looked funny.

Last week I returned to Semak Daun for the second time since 2006. I spotted a green crab on the pier (I suspect there are more and more species I can discover on the island) And its legs are hairy.

I called it opal-shelled crab. Maria named it army crab. well, I agreed with her :)