Water in The Bottle

Check this youtube video about the The Truth of Bottled Water

The idea of Selling bottled water might sounds silly, who would buy things that are free and available abundantly around us? What's next? Even years and years ago Dr.Seuss have predicted something dodgy yet promising to sell when the environment collapsed, it's written in the Lorax. Bottled water, done. Does it mean next gonna be a hip bottled air, just like O'Hare advertisement?
Get a well-known celebrities to endorse ridiculous products, create an illusion that your life would be incomplete without it. And kaboomm!!! The product will be a hit!

As someone who spend almost 50 gallons of refilled drinking water per-week, I feel very bad watching the video above. Though, I think it's not as bad: I mean, we are not disposing the bottles right away, they get refill-ed (the 20L size that get chucked into a water-dispenser). Why we choose to buy bottled-refillable-water is about it's actually cheaper to buy rather than to boil tap water. Note that in Indonesia, our tap water is not ready-to-drink, we need to boil it to kill all the bacteria; the good thing about it is not-much-chlorine-in-it.

About those tiny bottled water that I could finish up in a few gulp. Gee, need to remind myself to always carry my water bottle. Save the environment, save the future.

He is ...

He is...

Helium

and I couldn't believe I thought of something else

Guinness Book of Record: The Longest Centipede Procession (蜈蚣座）

To celebrate 福德堂/HokTekTong/Himpunan-Tjinta-Teman/HTT's 150 years anniversary, a series of events were held to celebrate it. One of the most anticipated one was The Centipede Procession or Sepasan or 蜈蚣座.

The achievement was awarded by Guinness Book of World Record and MURI (Indonesian Record) as the Longest Centipede Procession in the world, they broke the previously held world record by 金门 KinMen County, Taiwan, by having 223 kids on boards, total length of the construction is 250m, number of people participated in carrying the centipede was 1500 people, taking a route of 3.9km (basically circling Padang's Chinatown).

The procession was carried completely on human strength, without wheel and engines; all by 100% human strength. Of course, HTT has 5000++ members, they sure can carry a bit this. Noting that, HTT member carried coffins almost on regular basis.

Although there were a bit of light shower in the middle of the procession, it ran quite smooth and elegantly. It's a success! Very proud to see the young kids to behave very well, it's a big thing, since the kids were 2-5 years old and they were dressed in complicated costumes too. Even some foreign kids participated in this procession, ignoring the language and cultural barriers.

Apparently the procession has always been carried out years and years ago. The term Sepasan (Centipede in Minang language/Padang local dialect) was a translation of 蜈蚣. Looking at the similarity of the wooden construction with KinMen County, there's a big probability that both originated from the same source: somewhere in FuJian, Mainland China. 

FuJian Chinese Immigrants started to come to Padang-Indonesia sometime in Qing Dynasty (Canton Chinese came a bit later), a conclusion roughly taken by reading some of inscription left in HTT. In the same time, I guess, some of them went to somewhere closer to FuJian: Taiwan. It's amazing that this particular tradition is well preserved until today.
The only difference from KinMen version is the Head part. Padang's Centipede has evolved into a Dragon (always been as far as my memory goes); while KinMen's Centipede is still looks like a Centipede.
Used to wonder why this dragon called as Sepasan? Now the mystery is answered.

You can watch a report on our local TV station here (in Chinese)

Here are some pictures of the glorious procession

The original name of HTT-福德堂 was 建德堂. Looking from the name, you'd probably able to draw a family-line to some South East Asian areas. The early immigrants didn't aim for one particular places, they spread to a different places, carrying their unique cultures that deeply infused until the very day. The brother-organisations can be found in cities of Malaysia and Myanmar. Some more are yet to be discovered, the world is all connected after all.

Blue Yabbie Pet

Apart from my chickens, I have another pet: Blue Fresh-Water Crayfish / Yabbie
Didn't purposely get it for a pet. What happened is, Mom saw some live ones in the market. Obviously they were intended as food.
Out of compassion, Mom bought some to release it in wild.
Then Mom and Dad realised that they can't just throw those crayfish in ponds, waterways or anywhere. They can be a scary predator. Crayfish can ruin natural habitat, so they end up to be my pet.
I dunno how long I'll keep them, until they all die I think. I've been keeping them for nearly 2 years now.
Somehow they do not reproduce any little babies for me
They are not much fun as pet, cos they always hide in their burrows (made from PVC pipes) - what a shy creature...

Big Balloon - Failed

the giant balloon of the "Gateway of India" - Bombay

Look how cool this giant balloon is.
All I think about when I saw it that it'd be so cool for Nara's 1st Bday.
I imagined to tied up those giant balloons on his waist and it'd look like Disney Pixar's UP.

So, I bought a pack of ten (and WAS regretting not buying more of them. Not anymore now)

the length of the tile is 60cm

On Nara's Bday, I really brought up the balloon. And to my big disappointment, it never turn out to be what I expected. I wanted to be as big as the vendor's!!! 

I guess I've been fooled.

Should have asked the vendor "Are these balloons gonna turn out to be as big as what you have now???"

I also googled about this Bombay Balloon, see if anyone succeed... Not much luck. 

But I found a lady wrote something about Big Balloons of Bombay here.

Who buys them ?  ---  me?

How much do they pay? --- around 50 rupee if I'm not mistaken

What do they do with them? --- Blow it?

How long do they take to blow up? --- not long, see this youtube clip. I tried using my mouth too, it tooked 5 mins, I guess

Why? --- cos giant balloon is cool