Cumi-cumi (c is pronounced ch) is Cuttlefish. Little old lady arrives with polystyrene box of squid. milked of ink there are 4 squirming about in a dark grey soup pulsating and changing colour as squid do. Amanda selects a reasonably small one and hands it to one of our boatmen, Botak, to remove the bony core - if only we had a budgerigar. Back in the kitchen Amanda stares at it for a few minutes while deciding what to do. Poking it to test if it's still alive, the tentacles sucker themselves to her hand which she immediately withdraws and jumps back in terror. Fair play to her as she steels her nerve and goes in again - this time with more determination. "OK, I think I'll start by removing the skin". This turns out to be a relatively simple operation except for the fact that the eyes keep looking at her. We now have a nice fillet and some left over squidgy bits (and of course the eyes, which are probably a delicacy - your mum would say they're the best bit). Amanda, now feeling very pleased with herself, makes 2 piles of white splodge, one for the freezer and one for this evening's gourmet treat. "Fried or boiled?" she asks, the blank expression on my face says it all.
The lumberjack has arrived to deal with 2 trees we have to remove to make way for the extended patio. Earlier, the boys trimmed the foliage, removed the minor branches and felled the trees so the lumberjack just has to chop them up into useful sized pieces. Please note the extensive use of safety equipment: barefoot, no eye or ear protection, not even a high-vis jacket or safety cones to cordon off the danger area. This photo was taken using a 600mm telephoto lens from miles away and not (as it looks) from a few feet. Another tree earmarked for removal requires a different lumberjack, this one trained in aerial surgery - you can tell because he is wearing boots. Most of the upper branches are removed using the one-handed chainsaw method, the incoming mains cable you can see is used to break their fall. Bits of string are extensively used to tease the rest of the big lumps down onto the boys below.
I have another photo of an Indonesian daredevil/nutter. This one is fiddling with our wireless internet connection (so it'll be three days before I can post this). Note the un-tethered (or guy-less or stay-free or some other tehnical term - help Al) tower which is designed to hold, oh let's say, 10 kilos of antenna and repeater not the 65 kilo muppet who is currently gaily swinging around up there poking a screwdriver in his ear wondering why it isn't working. Is that a safety line I see? no, that's a bit of string for him to lower his screwdriver down with. These and any subsequent photos courtesy of our land-based camera until such time as we a: cut back on the 'restaurant game' to earn lots more Bok and b: get enough time off to find a decent camera shop or c: a kind-hearted philanthropist sends us a Canon S95 with u/w housing.
Peter D: This is Indonesia, normal algebraic logic does not apply.
Peter H: I'm afraid Hannah can't come to playgroup until she learns to stop biting.
