Thursday, December 31, 2009

Doggy Sitting



Look at the adorable little faces. A friend had to go back to Indo to visit her ill grandma, and these little ones had nowhere to go. So we turned the kitchen-dining room into a nursery. To be honest, I don’t like having animals in the house. Dogs, cats, hamsters, snakes, fish, you name it. Personal beliefs aside, I suppose I’m a bit like an auntie to Sasha and Linus, and I could not turn family members away.

Of course, they are a lot like three year old humans. Whether barking or talking, I don’t understand either one. Tired them out with long walks and they would give you a couple of hours of peace and quiet. And for dogs, that means less pee and wee in the house. Give them enough food and drinks, and a few treats here and there, and keep them (reasonably) clean. Actually, reasonably should be in capital letters. Why? Linus is not toilet trained. I let him into the living room once in a while, and now we have three pee marks on the living room carpet, despite the wee mat that I placed nicely in the corner. The sandal in the background marks the last puddle, so no one would step on it. Yesterday Sasha had a poo stuck on her backside so she sat on the floor and dragged her bottom around a bit to unstuck it. It looked really hilarious, until I realise I had to clean the floor again, and her bottom too. And if you look at their little feet in the photo, you could see that they are not exactly pristine. That’s because we just had a long walk in the field nearby. Yes, we are only REASONABLY clean at the moment, including myself. And by the time Mumum gets home from Indo, the puppies would probably be brown instead of white.

In the photo Sasha is sitting on a small cushion. There is supposed to be a small sofa under it. But Linus had found a small tear and last night he was busy at work all night.This morning I found pieces of foam all over the floor. The poor sofa had been gutted. I had to move it to a safer place.

I have evacuated myself to a quieter place so I could work in peace for a few hours. Walking the dogs twice a day and not being able to sleep in peace for more than a week now has made me lose 7 kilos. Amazing. I don’t know how moms can do it. Or why people have pets. And as I’m writing this, I wonder, gosh, what are they going to do next?

Friday, December 18, 2009

Halo. Bisa saya bantu Bu?

Iya. Saya cuma mau tau apa sebaiknya saya kasi anak saya tau tentang hasil tesnya.

The lady on the phone was HIV positive. She got it from her husband, who was being treated at the hospital. Her daughter didn’t know. Didn’t even know that Mom already took the test. And so our conversation continued. The hospital wanted to know how she was feeling. She wanted to make sure the hospital didn’t tell her daughter that she already took the test. Not that she didn’t want her to know, but she didn’t want the daughter to think that she lied to her, or tried to keep secrets from her.
Us humans, we’re so illogical and difficult to understand. Here was a lady, carrying a disease for which no cure had been found. And what she worried most was for her daughter to think that Mom lied.

Iya Bu. Kata susternya sudah selesai. Mudah-mudah cepat beres ya... (Oops, this was what I usually said to clients who were applying for visas. It’s sounded so wrong.)

Apa? (*Rising intonation, not comprehending)

Maksud saya mudah-mudahan Tuhan melindungi. (This didn’t sound right either. Kinda too late for God’s protection, don’t you think?)

Iya. Makasih. Saya ketularan dari suami, jadi yah... saya pasrah aja.

Sabar ya Bu.

Iya. Saya kuat kok...

Iya. Bye.

Bye.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

How to live as a an asylum seeker never occurred to me until I met one. He said he was from A***. I know it used to be turbulent region. Mom and Dad used to live there in the beginning of her marriage. From her window my mom saw an old Chinese got beaten up. I vaguely remember her saying somebody got beheaded. She also mentioned some Javanese ladies got raped. Mom believes the tsunami was a punishment from God. Well, everybody is entitled to believe what they want to believe. So, my knowledge of that area is really limited. I know the national heroes from that area. I heard the ladies used to carry a small knife with them wherever they go, just in case. I was told they add a secret recipe to their dishes (the leaves that can make you go high). I tried A*** noodles at the food court. That’s about it.
And this young man, who was polite and a bit shy but chatty and a lot confused, got me confused too. Didn’t seem like somebody who would get involved in politics. Wasn’t cunning with shifty or nervous eyes. Just a nice village boy with some education. Was a member of a traditional dance group. So, how did he end up like this? I really itched to ask him, but I didn’t. Anyway, the CO came and asked us to follow him. Amir (not real name) got more and more confused because the list of questions included do you own a boat, do you invest in shares, and things that he seemed to find ridiculous. He left everything he owned. His wife and kids were in hiding in the forest and he was worried about them.
Amir was an asylum seeker. He didn’t speak English. Is he still a part of our country folk’s society here? Would he be afraid that somebody would report him to the consulate? Would he get into trouble here because of his status? He seemed like such a nice boy. Did he ever kill anyone or was it just politics? Will he get together with his family again? I’d like to think that he will, and that he will learn English and start a new life here.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Linus





It's not possible to get a clear picture of Linus with my camera, not when he is awake. This was Linus a couple of months ago when he was a few weeks old.

Bathroom Art


I took this picture in bathroom in the old apartment, just because the lighting was best there.

Too Close to Nature III

I’m always to tired (lazy) to do the dishes at night. It’s a bad habit, I know. But I just don’t want to end a long day doing the dishes. That morning, as usual, I went to the kitchen to clean whatever was in and on the kitchen sink. I put on my favorite purple gloves and prepared the washing liquid. I picked up the sponge from the plastic container and I saw a piece of mushroom. I don’t remember having mushrooms the day before so I was a bit suspicious. I poked the “mushroom” a bit with my finger. It didn’t move. OK, good. I filled the container with water, still no movement. Wonderful. Just a piece of mushroom from one of the dishes that we bought. I poured the water out, the mushroom landed on the strainer. Two tiny antennas poked out. The mushroom wiggled. A SLUG!!! I dropped everything and did the mysterious tribal dance in the kitchen.

Too Close to Nature II

Our small back yard could use some weeding, but I didn’t have the proper glove, so I used the kitchen’s plastic glove. After a long sweaty weeding session, the glove was soaked through on the inside. I washed it with water and hung it outside to dry. Later in the evening I took it in. The next day, I got it out to finish the unfinished business with the weeds. There was a hole at the tip of the index finger of the glove. I didn’t remember seeing it when I washed the glove, but maybe I just didn’t pay attention. I slipped my finger in, thinking how could I did not see such a big hole, and through the it, out crawled a huge locust. Of course I freaked out and did an impromptu mysterious tribal dance in the backyard.
I’ve bought a pair of gardening gloves, and I always pat them a bit before slipping my hands in. The $%^@ locust had mentally scarred me for live.

Too Close to Nature I


I must say, I love the new place (so far). Lots and lots of trees, that I love, and creepy-crawlies, that I hate. Let’s start with those and save the nice parts for later. The first night that we spent there I killed a cockroach, a big hairy spider and a slug. By now, a few weeks later, I’ve seen more species of spider that I care to, and cockroaches of all sizes and colours and stages of development.
One evening, while my niece and I were watching TV, we were startled by a very strange noise. It was like the sound of an alarm of some sort. But it was not regular, so it could be organic, and probably a bug. I hated to think about the size of the bug that made such a loud noise. We couldn’t watch TV with that kind of racket just outside the window, so we checked the small bushes outside. We also checked if there was some kind of alarm system that we didn’t know about. I shook the leaves, the noise stopped. We got in, it started again. We got out again armed with a flashlight, an umbrella and a thong. My niece finally found it. It was huge. And it wasn’t afraid. I shook the branch vigorously, it wouldn’t budge. I didn’t have the heart to spray it, partly because I didn’t think it would kill it immediately and would just cause it a lot of pain, so in the end I took out a pair of scissors and BBQ tongs. I held the branch where it perched and cut the branch off with the scissors. Then very carefully I took the branch to a small flower bed by the roadside, which is quite a distance away, and left it there. Later on my niece googled it and we found out it was a cicada.