Jillieofthevalley’s Neighborhood

Note on photo above: Choc Albatross was sitting around a pile of sand in an Orang Asli community.

And never would you find a more unlikely trio.  And yet each so perfectly balanced in their own chaotic energy that they cancel out each other’s potency.

Note on photo: And this nawaby looking butterfly was its companion.

And this is exactly what happened last weekend when I was in KL to celebrate my Big 30. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on photo: I encountered the same unmarked butterfly in FRIM.  The photo Record 3 is not the same butterfly as the one in the swinhoei photos.

I went over to visit The Bear of The Past, whom I’d known for 10 years.  In order to prevent The Bear from mauling me back into the memories of The Past, I decided to bring shooting/photography buddies who would decidedly prevent any 2 person scenarios where forced flashbacks were likely to occur.

Note on photo above: The Royal Assyrian wouldn't cooperate.  It's one beautiful butterfly!

I sent out at least 10 sms-es to people from various everywhere, including Mushroom who wanted to travel, Dr Plant who likes to go to KL, Alien from KL who doesn’t mind going back to KL, the trio of girls I hang out with on a regular basis who only go to KL to shop … and The Boy.

Note on photo above: This butterfly wouldn't stay put.  It eats on the move.

And everybody had something else on… except The Boy.

So it came to pass that The Boy, The Bear and The Butterfly were fated to be in the same car driving on a highway in KL with The Bear muzzled up politely upfront in the driver’s seat playing old rock favourites, The Boy in the backseat tapping the Butterfly on the head persistently, giggling to himself like a mad man, completely and pointedly ignoring The Bear and The Butterfly ready to fly out from her front passenger seat to take her chances with the hard asphalt road.

Note on photo above: I can't ID this damselfly.  And don't want to just slap it with a wrong identification with lousy guesswork.

The Bear’s purpose was blunted.  I had written a lot more about this purpose.  But realised 3 days after drafting the blog entry that it didn't mean anything to anyone.  Not The Bear.  Not to me.  .   

Note on photo above:  The red spot on the wing makes me hesitant to say that this is the Fenestrella.

To sum it up neatly and then forget it again, I finally saw him accurately as the person that he was and is with all his strengths and all his flaws without the childish veil of knights in shining armor.  But I also saw this through the perspective of an irrelevant entity, watching a nostalgic black and white movie.

For it seems that the best of things never happen with the ones gifted and attuned with understanding, but with the ones that claw and scrabble at the gate, that talk at you with strangled muffles through a screen… the ones that can never get close enough to even seem human.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on photos above: Why did the tail-less chicken cross the road?  To distract 3 men from their winged subject.

And the best of situations are given under the compulsory condition of such uncomfortable sieges.  While the impossible lay somewhere beyond the practical realm of reality, lingering just a sliver off from within reach, flitting into and out of presence like the butterfly.

 
Something to behold.   Never to be held.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on photo above: I got leech bites.  The stockings were not sheer enough.  Sigh.  Also photo of the friendly staff at MNS.

Enough of all that human interacto- blah blah.
This time in KL, I didn’t go to the usual FRIM region.  Acting upon a KL-ite’s recommendation, we traipsed around an Orang Asli village near Gombak instead.

A stream passes along the small village and it was here that I got my second and third leech bite (the first was in FRIM.  I didn’t get bitten in Langkawi, Endau Rompin or Sarawak… how cool is that?  The forest has been merciful).
LC handed me some tobacco to put over the bites.   You’d be surprised at how effective it was.  The bleeding stopped almost immediately and it didn’t itch during the night either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on photos above:  Check out the fire over which the locals cook Lemang... a type of tasty glutinous rice.

KL’s weather was just as variable as Singapore’s.  It rained quite heavily on both shooting days.  But unlike the dead silence in the fields here after a heavy downpour, the patches of sunlight don’t take long to be re-speckled by butterflies.

Stopping by various small cul de sacs of wild vegetation, we could already spot 3 different species of skippers skipping around in the wet weeds, 1 very large iridescent topside-blue restless butterfly and your ubiquitous yellows, browns and rings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The area is spotted with huts and you can find some tasty rice treats along the way such as the Lemang, a glutinous fragrant rice snack cooked over a fire and eaten with spicy chicken (see pic below):

Farm fowl roam free around the premises and even on the roads, mingling with an assortment of half-domesticated strays.  The people who live in these huts are extremely friendly and very photogenic.

Now I would write more.  But I'm going to bed.  There will be a Part 2.

~

When I left DC on Thursday the temperature was in the 40's (below 10 C)......    when I landed in Sydney, Saturday morning, it was 100!!  (38C). 

I got heat stroke walking from the terminal to the car -  of course we walked further in the sunny car park than necessary because my son forgot where he parked. 

His car does not have air conditioning.......

I spent Saturday afternoon lying on his couch trying to cool down.

I spent a hot & balmy Saturday evening with my 3 children and my daughter-in-law-to-be and fifty of her closest relatives.

Sunday (still hot)  I spent with a friend I have known for over 40 years, in her air conditioned apartment.  We drank gin & tonics and laughed a lot.

Today I drove an injured friend around in his stick shift car.   I have not driven a stick shift in over 10 years.  I only stalled it twice.

I just learnt that, whilst the manservant is winging his way to Australia his bag is still in Chile.......  he arrives on Wednesday.  He is told his bag will arrive on Friday.  The wedding is on Saturday. 

My son has a 20 year old computer and internet connection slower than dial-up.  He has an iPhone so he doesn't care.

 

 

Dina spent the first 2 and a half years in an orphanage waiting for the red tape to clear so her mommy and daddy could bring her home. She is loved and pampered and 18 years in the making :)

I love the way the sun turned Juliana's hair to gold. This was cookie day at the B's.

 

This may be utterly boring to those who care nothing about house decoration on a shoestring budget, or don't celebrate Thanksgiving, or don't like good food, so be warned up front.

 

I haven't done much to my place since I bought it 4 years ago, and I woke up one day not too long ago thinking I didn't have any purpose besides work, so I married those two thoughts and decided to finish decorating my house. Granted, it's a goal that is potentially endless, but that's what makes it attractive to me. Here we go.

 

I decided to start with the dining room. I had dining room furniture, but the way it was positioned, it gobbled up (*snort*) all the floor space (it's a little house) and it was hard to get to the window side chairs:

 

 

If you can see in the upper left corner, there's a little round lamp table. I also have some cane back occasional chairs that I'd picked up for $25 each, and I have them here and there, and straddled on either side of my little compact dry bar.  Remember this old pic of my bar top that I used to post as my answer to most QoTD?:

 

 

I decided to start with the bar. I replaced the "Brand" bottles with some funky and quirky decanters I won (one at a time) on eBay. I think the most expensive decanter was about $20. It was like Christmas each day I would find the package on my porch, LOL! And so, here it is now; I still have to find a decanter I feel is fitting for the Jack, but otherwise it's complete. It's hard in this pic to see how beautiful the cobalt crystal decanter (full of Absolut) is, so I may add another pic later. I don't think it broke the thoroughbred race horse theme too much. I have a leather riding crop coming ($3.99) that I will hang below the pic and above the decanters.:

 

I turned my dining room table 90 degrees to allow better access to the chairs, and in doing so, it opened up enough floor space to arrange a second little dining bundle at the end of the room -- well within conversational reach of the main table. I used the little round lamp table and two of the cane back chairs:

 

And here's the main table in its new position; I had the tables set for dinner:

 

And since I borrowed the two cane back chairs from the bar, I purchased two 24" stools (2 for $99) that take up much less room in the traffic area, look better with the bar, and can be used at the end of the dining room table if you need to seat another guest.:

 

 

So now on to the food. It's become tradition in my tiny family unit to cook a turkey and a duckling, so that's what I did.:

 

 

They were delicious if I say so myself, and so was the gravy for the turkey and orange sauce for the duckling...not to mention the dressing, corn, roasted carrots, celery and onions, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, and yeast rolls. (My oldest son's girlfriend made a variety of genuine Mexican salsas and chips, too.) What a feast! We had to wait a couple of hours to even think about breaking into the pumpkin and pecan pies:

 

Here's a close-up of most of the food:

And the best part of the evening is retiring to some comfortable furniture and listening to some good tunes (oldest son and gf pictured):

 

 

No Urban-dweller's home is complete without her bicycle in the living room, safe from thieves, and parked in front of the music media center. Heee!

 

 

I hope all of my celebrating Voxer friends had a great Thanksgiving, too! The shoestring decorating/rearranging in this little house in the city continues today. Thanks for looking. =)

 

 

 

 

~

I love tourists ... really I do because they help my local economy but.. 

-  please stand to the right on the metro (train) escalators so that we locals, with things to do, can walk past on the left.  There is even a sign asking you.

-  and when you get to the top, or bottom, of the escalator please do not just stop there while you figure out where to go next.  There are 50 people about to trip up behind you.

-  Oh - and if a machine has a diagram of how a ticket should be inserted they really want you to insert your ticket that way!  

I think someone needs a drink ....... 

***

I wish all Americans a Happy & Safe Thanksgiving - even the tourists! 

For the past days my nose has been as drippy as my window pane. This morning we had about 20 minutes of sun. I climbed a stepladder to hold my hands out of the hopper window in my bedroom, just to feel some light and warmth on my skin. I felt like the Count of Monte Christo after years in his dungeon. Don't listen to me, this is the whining of an ill head. I am returning to my couch, to pile damp hills of Kleenex around me. Sniff.

~
The population of Washington DC is around 592,000.  (and there are an estimated 12,000 homeless).

According to the DC MPD website there have been  127 homicides since January 1st 2009  (to  Friday 11/19). 

On top of those Homicides there have been  6,529  "Violent Crimes"  which cover Sexual Attacks, Assault with a weapon, Assault without a weapon and Robbery (against a person).

In addition there have been  23,718  "Property Crimes"  a group which includes Burglary/Theft,  Stolen Auto and Arson

Those are pretty shocking figures!!

Recently on a walk along 16th Street I was amazed at the number of churches in a 2 or 3 mile stretch -  many different denominations.   

I guess having all these churches does not make all of us more law abiding or likely to follow the Ten Commandments. 

If you can't make it to church the bus will come and get you:  

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More churches around my area (by no means an exhaustive list): 

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Another Small Window Of Blue

Today was another small rare window of sunshine.

And Mother Nature's rare birthday gift for old undeserving me were some of my favourite skittlebugs on melastoma icky sweet sticks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally got another photo of the Commander.  Unfortunately still without being able to isolate the butterfly completely in the photo.  But at least it hung around... like lollipop on a stick... colourful, bright and immobile... for a few minutes... while it drank greedily from the fruits.   

To add to my happiness, the Pandita Sinope Sinope also condescended to play lollipop on the same bush as the Commander.

And even allowed for both upperside and underside shots... even though it did make us work pretty hard for them, circling and circling again.

Also, the hoary palmer decided to show up while we were heading back.  Yay.  Record shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend was really great.  A lot of the butterflies I've always wanted to shoot turned up.  Like the topside-green arhopala which I'd spent so much time tracing before on a different trail. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm just a little sad I'm 30 (about 8 minutes ago).  It's my birthday! *sad yay*

Even the usually skittish malay baron turned up in pairs to celebrate.  And the male even cooperated to have a nice clean shot taken.   

Where did the 20s go?  Probably the same place where the extinct butterflies of the world flitter about happily in the sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SIGH!

I just kinda wish sometimes that Mum was still here to celebrate it with me.  And all the dreams of possibilities that now lay sleeping in the past.

But then again it's not like I hate being 30.  I just like being 20 better. :P