A Spoonful of Fluffy Cuteness

Soft Shelled Eggs

Yesterday, I found an egg on the ground in the chicken coop. The White's kids' coop.
The girls already start laying: tiny eggs. I'm not sure if it'll improve its size with time - but I don't mind the size, they're perfect size for Nara.

Back to the egg on the ground, I notice it has a more pinkish hue. I thought the girls just fighting for the nest, so one of them just lay eggs anywhere.
Once my staff handed the egg to me, he said "The eggs is bad"; I held it in my hand and felt the eggs is actually fell rubbery - just like tortoise eggs! Poked it, and it's just dinted.
I was actually worried it's actually a snake's egg! Could it be?!
Hahahha, showed to Dad, and he said it happens sometimes, so it's OK to get soft-shelled eggs once in a while.

Since the egg was fresh, and I don't think it'll last for long in the fridge, and plus I was curious what it looks like inside.
Here're pics of me opening up the egg

Notice how rubbery the shell is? I actually "tearing" it rather than "cracking" it

Oh, how it tasted like? It's taste just like normal eggs.
I pour the egg into a steaming hot rice congee for my breakfast. Nice :)

Black Chicks are Here!!!

Mrs.Black started to lay eggs last month, around the same time as Mrs.White.
I don't want more white chicks, so when Mrs. White started to get broody, I swapped her eggs with Mrs. Black's.

Here is the picture on the "Eggs Swapping Day", Mrs. White was a little reluctant when I removed her and did something to her eggs. Hahaha... Look at her expression, that fierce penetrating eyes!!!

Finally she thought "mmm... the eggs are still there, I'll sit on them". 

And she officially a surrogate mother to Black's eggs.

The pic was always in my phone, I just don't wanna jinx it. Haha

Anyway this morning, I was trying to check on Mrs. White, she wasn't very friendly, I got pecked a few times before I retreat. I don't wanna upset her.

And then, when I came back again, I realised there's black thing moving under her. 2 eggs were hatched!!!
Mrs. White did it!!! What a good mother :)

I dunno why these 2 have different feather, but both their bodies are black. I never let the White and Black together, so I can assure there's no way they inter-breed.
I am waiting for more chick to arrive. I hope... I hope, there'll be more...




PS: Now I know although the Mr. and Mrs. Black seems to fight all the time, at least they "did" it :)
#ayam cemani #ayam hitam #ayam indonesia






And what happened to Mrs. Black when I removed her eggs? I swapped them with some golf balls, so she doesn't think the nest suddenly empty. The trick worked. No sign of her getting upset.
Until today, Mrs. Black has laid 20 eggs in total, not stopping yet, more to come :)

White Chicks are Growing Up!

Top - Bottom:

1. Male: black face and body, bigger build than Dad, big floppy maroon comb

2. Male: red face, pink flesh. Smaller build than bro. Bright red, standing and well shaped comb

3. Female: pink face and flesh, Mom look-alike

4. Female: black face and flesh, big pompom on her head, smallest build of all - looks like a pigeon

5. Female: black face and flesh, with a lil' bun on her head

6. Female: pink face and flesh, messy feather, with a lil' bun on her head

7. Female: black face and flesh, messy feather -- really looks like a Silkie breed

8. Female: pink face and flesh, messy feather, smooth head.

They are growing so fast. In only 3 months, the chicks are as big as their parents. Well, some are bigger.
So big that we built a new bigger coop for them, it's just way too crowded.

I plan to give them away, but I really wanna make sure that they won't be slaughtered and made into fried chicken. Still looking for foster parents who can be satisfied with just fried eggs. Haha





Below are the pic of me and two of naughty kids (both flew out from their coop and I had to chase them)

These  two is a perfect clone of their parents. The male one exactly look like Mr. White, only with bigger built and a comb that flopped to left.
The female one, exactly look like Mrs. White, once she started to lay eggs (thus more fluffy butt), I'd have difficulty to tell them apart.

LR: male, female

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...

The Black Monster

I once visited a friend at our neighbouring country. I stayed at her place for a couple of days there.
Once day, she took me to mall for sightseeing...
And suddenly, her 2-3 years old baby girl shrieked "MONSTERRR !!!"
My friend quickly gave her baby a hug and say... "Yes! Black Monster... It's OK, mommy is here"
They were referring to a Bangali cleaning service guy - whom were busy mopping the floor and did nothing to scare the baby.
Apparently, my friend has been teaching her daughter "to-hate/ to-be-scared" those Bangali people. The code name is "MONSTER"... "If u not eating your food, Mommy'll call the Monsters to catch you (pointing at a Bangali worker)" or "Don't run, walk with mommy, later got Monsters, how??" etc etc
The sad part is, almost all the family members named those people as "Monster". Even the grandma told me proudly "Since very young, she already don't like those Bangali. Smart girl, you know. Those Bangali are scary and filthy, like Monsters, right?". So wrong.

In my neighbouring country, it's very common to see South Asian immigrants doing "unwanted" job, ie. Cleaning service, janitor, construction worker, etc. Although, you can find some other races doing unwanted job too.

But teaching a toddler to love and hate a certain race by judging skin colour is so wrong. 

She's so young, and they started to feed her unnecessary fears. And these kids will keep in their minds and develop hatred for ridiculous reasons for the rest of her life.

Why "RESPECT LEVEL" is inversely proportional to a "MELANIN LEVEL"?

Though seems trivial, these "RACISM" issue may cause a bigger problem in longer run. Learn from us, please :(

Look, In Indonesia, despite being colonised by Dutch and Japanese for centuries, I never seen any local Indonesians hate them as much as they hate Chinese. Odd, isn't it?  (Although, I believe those jugun-ianfu will have different opinion about this)
And vice versa, Chinese hates locals. Looking down on them.

I don't know how people in the pasts whipped out this hatred. Some said, the Dutch used to give more benefits to Chinese, so the locals got envy. Some said it's the sin of our former President Suharto. I dunno how true it is, but it seems to be deeply infused until today.
And sometime it blew up, just like 1998 incident.
Both races' morons fought for someone-else's victory! They don't even realised they are being used for military for a coup trial. Stupid...!

Yet it still happens...
Local kids will call Chinese by "mocking" names. Local government official will anyhow ask for more ciggy-money form Chinese, anytime, anyhow.
When I was young, my parents forbid me to speak Chinese in public, they are scared that locals will harm me by showing Chinese traits. I think, no matter what I speak, my skin and my eyes already shows my race. Being mute won't help much.
I don't understand Indonesian Chinese either. Those super hard-core ones (I met some who can mistreat and swear about locals' race) are hardly "Chinese". I mean, they are 3rd-6th generation Chinese that no longer speak Chinese, they know nothing about China, and they never ever set their foot in China. What's China about them is merely diluted gene and their cheap mobile-phones!!!

I won't teach my younger generation to hate someone based on unchangeable things, like: you can't change your skin colour.
Ehm... (I see what you do there... OK OK, I'll rephrase it)
I guess, the proper way to say it, it'd be better not to hate anyone or anything :)
Easier said than done. But let's give it a try, shall we?

White Chicks

I really love this pic, I think Mrs.White looks like a very cool and elegant mom

Mrs. White finally hatched her own babies!!!

She successfully hatched 9 chicks out of 12 eggs

3 eggs are rotten (according to my staff: he shook the eggs and heard watery sound - meaning the eggs didn't develop)

The next night after they hatched, was raining so hard... and they didn't sheltered well, maybe due to the windy rain. The mother and chicks were soaking wet, and 1 chick died due to hypothermia (I supposed). But look at the bright side, 8 chicks survived. My Dad blow-dried each one of them (Dad, You are the best!).
I wasn't in town when the whole event happened :( I wish I was there to keep them safe and sound

Anyway, the 8 survivors can be classed into 3 types:

1. yellow chick with yellow feet + yellow beak

2. yellow chick with black feet + black beak

3. brown chick with black feet + black beak

Most of them have hairy legs too :) cute don't u think?

Since we don't really know Mr. & Mrs. White pedigree, it's quite understandable that these tiny chicks turned out to be colourful.   

I let them play outside in the morning, just before the sun become fiercely hot. 

And here are the pics when the mother teach them how to have sand-bath. 

This time, I have to sacrifice my flower bed.... it now has big patches from digging the bath

PS:
My last post about Mrs. White eggs... The first clutch didn't survive. She had 3 still-born chicks, all died in half-opened shells. And the rest of the eggs are watery, meaning they failed to develop. She sat on them for nearly a month! Even her little comb looked pale.
I guess Mrs. White is a quick learner, she quickly regained her health and began laying more eggs, which are the cute tiny chicks we have today.

Btw, Mrs. Black has been laying some eggs too... abit much. She has laid 34 eggs non-stop and hasn't show that she gonna stop anytime soon. We have no clue why she laid so much. Is it normal at all?

Piglet in my arms

Sometime ago, I went to visit a pig farm. Yes, the pigs are raised for meat.
The farm is (dunno how big) but it is quite clean compare to what I always see on TV.
Basically, I always thought pig are dirty, sleepy, greedy and stupid

From what I see there, they are not dirty
They confined a mother-pig in a pen which has a area for babies (with light bulb as incubator)
Since the babies are very small, the space is quite spacious from them. They never pee and shit on their playground
They always do their dirty job somewhere in corner of the pen, somewhere furthest.
We all assume they are dirty cos we confined them in small area, they are forced to defecate at wherever they stand at; just like a human being locked up in a room unable to move around nor get out, won't you pee and shit in the room too?

Are they sleepy and greedy?
Well, they do have their nap time. Hehehhe...
About greediness, well, when you are locked up with 30 or 40 other people, and there's only a table of limited food. Won't you all hit the table?

And they are smart, I saw one trying to open up his own pen. And they know the way to their own room. They are smart animals.

I witnessed the births of some piglets, they are so fragile, beautiful and cute.
After a 3-months 3-weeks 3-days gestation period, a bunch of tiny piglets arrive in this world
Some will only live for a few weeks before turning into a roasted suckling pig
Some will live a few more months before arriving on your plate
Some will be preserved long after they are gone, in the form of jerky, sausage or bacon
Some will be allowed to reproduce for a couple of years, and still end up on your plate - yet, they are considered as lucky ones.

They don't slaughter them there. The owner sell them alive.
I know it may sounds odd, but the owner does care about the animals there.
The pig have access to clean water, not a puddle, but a systematised & filtered clean water system
The pigs are being showered 4x a day, floored scrubbed every after-meal, and a 24-hours worker to guard the delivering mothers.
I dunno if I should turn vegetarian, kinda feel lucky they dont have any slaughter unit there.

The Shiny Black Rooster

Mr. Black is finally looks more like an adult rooster. Look how beautiful (or maybe I should say "handsome") he is. This's what he looked like when he was a juvenile.
His comb finally grow huge, making him looks man-ly /rooster-y. The comb is getting larger and larger that it flops on a side; well, not as bad as White's. I wonder how those rooster in the picture can have such big comb yet unfloppy.

This picture below show how beautiful his feathers are... shiny black with a greenish hue.

Mrs.White's Great Expectation

Mrs. White laid her last egg on 1 April, and started to go broody. She laid total of 12 eggs. Mom took 4 of it, leaving 8 eggs for her to incubate. Apparently, my parents and my staffs worry that Mrs. White is too small to incubate so many eggs. She's so tiny, afterall.

This morning, when I was feeding the chickens (gave something different for a snack: Barley, they love it).
So cute, Mr. White was always guarding her. What a responsible Daddy.
Then, Mrs. White left her nest for feeding and bath, so I got a sneak peek of her babies in progress. So excited to have little chicks running around my yard.
Too bad I won't be here when the chicks hatch :(
Gonna miss out on their growing up stage. Hiks.

The White & The Black

Here are my cute pets: a pair of Bantam White Chicken and a pair of Super Black Cemani Chickens.

Been keeping them for a couple of months now. 

They reside near my Jambu tree :) made a coop with some old angled-steel. They also have a playing area about 3-4msq for each pair. 

Mr. & Mrs. Black

Mr. & Mrs. White

Why didn't we mix them?
First, I wanna don't wanna have hybrid chicks.
Secondly, the White once visited Black's residence; they end up fighting. Mr. Black won, despite having a mature rooster as sparing partner; Mr. White shorter and smaller body is his main weakness. Mr.White's comb was quite bloody. It's so painful to see his white face was stained with blood. But he was quickly healed, he was wiped with betel-leaves water.
Lucky, our garden have the right first-aid-kit. Hahaha.

Mr. White when his comb was still perfect

Yesterday, Mrs. White was acting quite weird; she was "talkative" and  was walking back and forth. My guess was right, she was about to lay eggs. She did! She laid 1 tiny little egg in the afternoon. Hopefully, she'll lay more eggs and then I'll have cutie-pie little chicks soon.

the 1st egg from Mrs. White

Despite their tall and big appearance, Mr.& Mrs. Black are much younger than the White. So, I need to wait for a little more for little Black chicks.

So exciting!

Beautiful Stranger

Ugh, I almost forgotten this beautiful encounter.

After our trip in 花莲 - HuaLian, me, Ls and X2 departed for 高雄- KaoHsiung using a train.
A mixed events made us moved from our compartment 10 to compartment 11.
Making me X2 sitting with a stranger grandpa, and me with Ls.
At first, everything was OK. X2 was busy watching her latest Taiwan drama series on her cell-phone. Occasionally, the grandpa made some conversation with X2. They were speaking Hokkian (a dialect that I am very poor at), while me and Ls were busy chit-chatting.
Until a snack cart passed by offering us some bento - boxed meal; I ignored the Bento-man, I didn’t realize that our train was changed to the non-express one. (I still thought I could catch a dinner at KaoHsiung)

The cart kept moving to another compartment. When he came back, the old grandpa said "Can I have one bento?" His voice was so faint that the Bento-man didn’t hear him, just kept on moving.
X2 was asking the grandpa, "You want bento?", and he said "Yes.  Hungry"
Poor guy, I thought, so I chased up the Bento-man. Damn, he walked fast. I caught him in the end compartment; he didn’t have any bento left, all gone. A cleaning-guy asked me if I was really hungry, I told him: "No, the old grandpa is" So, he told me to get some when we made a brief stop at next stop.

So, on the next stop, I ask X2 to get a bento for grandpa. X2 jumped off to get only one box of bento (I still think I do not need any dinner). So we just get one... for the grandpa. Of course, he insisted to pay, but it was only NTD70, it's nothing. And the sweet thing was, the cleaning-guy was actually buying another bento from grandpa too. So thoughtful of him.

Oh btw, the grandpa was talking along the way. He talks about his family, his beautiful wife, his successful sons, and his grandsons - which he thought will be good to be introduce to X2 but he is in New Zealand  for uni now.

Me, Stranger Grandpa and X2

The grandpa is super cute. He was abit loud cos he thought he couldn’t hear us, actually... it's not that he is losing his hearing; it's us trying to make conversation in poor mixed Hakka, Hokkian and Mandarin all together, and he only understands the pure Hokkian language.
I guess the grandpa never realized that we were foreigner.

We also helped the grandpa about his stop at 屏东-PinTong, he was so nervous that he'll miss the stop, so we helped him when we reached there. I even gave him some mochi as a gift.
He was picked up by his son; I guess the son must be surprised, "Why these girls carrying grandpa's bags, cheering and waving goodbye??? Who are they? Hahhahaa"
The whole trip was really cute.

The super-kind cleaning guy

I dunno if this writing can express how cute it was, but I find it  really cute.

Even the cleaning guy came to us after we sent grandpa off "You are foreigners, rite?  You don't speak the same language, yet you all can chit-chat for so long. Bravo!"
He said it with a big smile. Cute!

I was really touched by the cleaning-guy, I dunno how much he is making in a day. but he was so caring about the grandpa, isn't it amazing that a train-cleaning-guy actually buying dinner for the passenger?
So kind and thoughtful of him. My respect to you :)




Oh... Another fellow passenger even scolded us rudely!!! cos being too loud (the grandpa was loud, but not that loud... it was normal). and she even tried to video us too using her phone. Damn it, old auntie... your manners really stain Taiwan hospitality campaign, k?
And btw, I was expecting the video to be posted on tv. Hahhaha

Note:
Why I kept on emphasizing that we just got a box of bento - which is for grandpa? Cos we end up being hungry. We thought we'll arrive just in time for dinner, the fact was... we arrived on bed-time :( cry cry cry

Tail-less Pui (part 2)

The latest news about Apui's condition is "Apui is recovering, and he is a happy doggy"

WARNING:
The following writing contains pictures that some may find to be disturbing. Reader Discretion is Advised.

Tail-less Pui

WARNING:
The following writing contains pictures that some may find to be disturbing. Reader Discretion is Advised.

A couple of days ago, I saw A-Pui hiding under a car. Usually when I call his name, he’ll greet me with wagging tail, but this time, he just looked at me, curling his body without getting up. I saw a wound on his butt, it was dark, I couldn’t really tell how severe the wound is.

The next day, I asked my staff about A-Pui, he said maybe someone run over the dog’s tail. My brother asked me to get a vet to give him a check. Just in case it was serious.

Lucky Monkey

Early this month, I had to attend a meeting in Bali.

Of course, they also arranged a short tour for us there. 

So, on that fine afternoon, we all went visit a pura at Uluwatu. Before we reached the pura, our tour leader warned us about monkeys (Balinese Macaques) there. They are quite naughty, they like to steal glasses, hats, cameras, or any loose items.

We were all quite cautioned about the thieving monkey. But of course, accidents happened; a friend's glasses was grabbed by a monkey. Not to worry, the monkey did it on purpose; he just wants us to threw a banana, in return he'll throw the glasses back. 

After the glasses incident resolved, I told a friend, a myth said that if a monkey climbed on your shoulder (or head), it'll bring good luck.

Everybody thought it was a nice joke, I did too, actually.

a bonding moment with my little friend. He's not the one that attacked me :)

Not long after I threw the joke, A MONKEY JUMPED ON ME!!! Was on my shoulder for like 10 seconds. I was shocked, but not scared. I wonder what he likes from me, I didn't have any food or glasses on me. Anyway, the guard around Pura shoo-ed the monkey away.

My regional manager then joked that he waited to see what lucky stroke I would get by the incident.

At night, we had a fancy company dinner at Bebek Bengil. The company invited singers/game-organiser from Padang; the game called KIM - similar to BINGO, but the singer would sing out the picked-number spontaniously. She'll just create the song's lyric on the spot. Cool huh?

Anyway, there were quite a few round of the game, and the prize increases by the night. For earlier games, seriously I hardy get 4 numbers (we need 5 numbers in a row to win).

Before the last game (biggest prize) started, my regional manager teased me that the monkey that climbed me that afternoon didn't bring me enough luck, cos apparently I haven't win any.

I just laughed - well, I read about the myth in Benny and Mice's comic. I have no clue how true the myth is.

Plus at that night, I had an argument with someone dear to me, was really upset. Really wanted to go back to hotel and cry. Who cares about the prize, all I wanted was to clear the mess up.

BUT soon after that, I got 4 numbers, and voila, 5 numbers!!! BINGO!!! I WON!!!

I won the biggest prize of the night. Worth around USD1200. Wohooo!!!

So I guess the myth was right.

Next time you go to Bali, try to lure the monkey to climb to your shoulder. It'll bring luck. It's proven :)

Green Orange Beauty

One of the beauty living in the country-side is that I can see many plants and insects.
I found this cute fella yesterday when I was checking my snake-skin fruit plants.
She was happily munching its leaves there.
Isn't it odd? The leaves are hard and doesn't seems juicy at all, but she loves it.
Munch munch munch...
Anyone know what kind of caterpillar is this?

Spider and a Lotus Bloom

Yesterday was the first day of Lotus Bloom, I saw a tiny green spider hiding inside the almost-bloomed lotus flower.
Took my camera, and he gave me a few cute poses.

This is the first lotus bloom at my garden. I planted it from a seed a year ago, finally, she gave me some flowers (see the video slide!!!)

And the Spider says "Good night, I wanna stay inside the bloom tonight"

Puppies Adoption List

The four puppies of Chocolate will soon up for adoption. Maybe in about 3-4 weeks time, when they are fully whelped from their mother.
All of them are un-named, except Petir (so I just emergency-ly name them; their foster parents will rename them); here they are:

Petir

1. Petir
Petir means Thunder, was named so, 'cos the mother was in labour when there were big thunders.
He has all white fur except on his head, as if he's putting a mask
He is the bravest, most playful among all of the brothers; not scared of humans
He will be adopted by my neighbour, afterall he is the rightful owner of Chocolate

Brownie

2. Brownie
He has all brown fur, except on the tips of his toes.
He is a shy one, often get bullied by his brothers, they like to bite his hind legs
He will be adopted by local bank's security guard. He'll grow to be a tough boy!

Erick

3. Erick
He is the chubbiest among all. The fastest to get milk from his mom; he somehow got a trick to kick his brothers away while drinking milk.
He's kinda moody, he can be friendly at one time, and being ignorant for next second. Apart from eating, he loves sleeping too, anytime, anywhere.
He will be adopted by Erick, a friend from temple.

Harry

4. Harry
An auntie fell in love with this pup cos of his pattern, it reminds her of her late dog, Harry: the white line on his forehead & his big white collar
He is the shy-est among all. He often run to his box ignoring his brothers who are busy playing or eating.
He likes to hide in small, hidden places and get stuck! Then he'll cry for help.

Feeding Frenzy

Chocolate and her 4 boys. They are about 1 month old now.
Cute, huh?