Everyone has made good progress today. The garbage has been cleared away from the old place. Ibu S has cleaned the upstairs. She's amazing: strong, quick, and focused.
Even the laundry room is empty and clean.
My article's outline gets a good start, too. Tomorrow is another day.
Tuesday - Happy Chinese New Year
First, a meeting online. And breakfast? A chocolate/sweet potato mousse (recipe below), banana bread, and yogurt. With tea, of course.
Then a walk. The 3-storey wall on the other side of the lane has cracked. The ferns and other plants that were allowed to grow this last year are removed. The tall wall is made of stacked, mud-mortared bricks that get plastered over. Two men chip out the cement skim where it has cracked.
Then they start the laborious work of filling those enlarged channels with new plaster.
I take Juno along and leave the others. PakG will walk with them. I don't have the energy to be pulled off balance when Anton sees a cat. There are many cats on this walk.
We inspect the old house. Both helpers are here: one has told the other, "You must come, even if it's a holiday. I need help!" There's one to two days of cleaning and yardwork before we lock up and leave for good. Friends of the owner live behind the same gate. They come and go at all hours, day and night. So there's always someone watching.
I dither until mid-morning and then get down to work. My desk is the table on the Porch today.
An online search churns out "scholarly data with citations." Oh yeah, helpful but ...? Now to check for accuracy before I dive into the data. I read journal articles, skim books, and scan statistics from various archives. It's absorbing, this learning what others know. I love it. My task is to write a summary essay, collating information that others have gathered. I must cite sources.
The new recipe is Sweet Potato /Chocolate Mousse. This morning, I tuck it into the freezer after chilling it overnight. Doesn't that combo sound awful? Surprise!
At lunch, the helpers and I sample it. They love it as much as I do. Very EASY to make. Don't be too precious about measuring, either,
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes, baked or steamed, peeled, and mashed
1 small dark chocolate bar, cut or broken into pieces (75-110 gm/3-4 oz)
1/2 c boiling hot water
Instructions:
1. Steep the dark chocolate for a few minutes in the hot water. Then use a hand blender to froth it together.
2. Add the sweet potatoes and blend until fluffy.
3. Divide into ramekins = 3 big or 6 medium *portions.
4. Refrigerate at least 1 hour (or freeze for a healthy chocolate 'ice cream').
*I used a silicone cupcake tray and filled 6 sections half full. That's PLENTY. It's a rich-tasting, low-calorie dessert. (Average size: 150 calories; big size: 300 calories)
I play my one daily song on the very good keyboard that isn't a piano. I promised myself to play every day. After one song, I'm done. I played for church since I was 9 and later got an associate degree in piano performance. But without a "real piano," there's little motivation to play. With headphones on, I tell myself that it almost sounds the same. (Almost.)
Wednesday - Ash Wednesday
It's the first day of Lent. We'll be reflecting on the beauty and terror of the salvation Jesus won for humanity. How can God love us so much that he is willing to pay the penalty of our sins to satisfy his justice?
A new kind of orchid is blooming where the yardman fastened it to a tree a few weeks ago. Apparently, it's happier there than where it sat for 3 years without flowers.
At the old place, the yardman finishes trimming. The garden is returned to its original state with the addition of a few fruit trees.
There's more privacy than when we came. We planted the trees to prevent neighbors from overlooking the yard or porch. (This is how it looked when we lived there.)
We're swapping this stunning view.
For this park-like yard. We shifted most of the garden over and planted a low "grass" during the two months before Christmas. It is just starting to fill in.
Years ago, we moved into a 2-bedroom basement flat with 3 kids under 5 years of age. It took a year for W to complete the masters degree he'd started and dropped (pre-kids). That Vancouver yard had no trees. When I asked why, the homeowners explained that they wouldn't plant anything "because we don't plan to stay here long."
Even for a short stay, I'd break up a boring yard with growing things. Who knows, maybe you get lucky and enjoy 11 years of a flourishing garden, as we did in LIPI. Or ... that plain lawn may host you for a decade, like the yard in Vancouver did for those owners. I've been tempted to drive past to see if the next occupants put in a little sliver of paradise that was waiting to happen.
At our old place, the barbecue area is emptied of hanging chairs, swinging bench, and cooking equipment.
The next person will put their own stamp on it, just as we did.
I send photos of the cleaned inside and trimmed outside to the owners. The next step is collecting keys from everyone who has a copy.
I walk across the main street into a whole new series of villages on the other side of our hill. Imagine if this were the staircase to your front door.
Or what if you had to climb down every day to reach your home? Many locals have knee trouble in old age - the steps are steep, uneven, and necessary when you live on the side of a hill.
Houses are crammed into every available space.
Some extensions sit on pillars mortared into streambeds that channel run-off from the hillsides.
Making up for not hiking this week, I climb a 4-flight stairway to the neighborhood above. Without dogs, focus is easier and the walk is faster - no sniff stops or potty breaks needed.
It's off to work when I get home. The day flies by. I take a short nap in preparation for the wake-up call that will resound from speakers in every neighborhood tonight around 3 AM.
Ramadan comes next. The chanting wakes someone in the household (usually a woman) to prepare food. The meal must be eaten before sunup. Fasting commences during daylight hours. The elderly, the ill, and kids are excluded. Luckily, Indonesia sits near the equator, so day and night are pretty even. Countries in the southern hemisphere have long sunlit days in February, so the obligation is more arduous. (When Ramadan falls in the northern summer, it's the same deal.)
