We know how to focus light and technology does that in all different ways, right down to tiny laser beams…but what about sound? Even if you stand behind the loud speaker or the megaphone, you still hear the sound. Sound goes all over the place whether you want to hear it or not.
Ever wish you didn’t have to listen to the kids playing their latest music at top volume when you would rather turn on the opera? (Or vice versa?) Well, soon you can. Very soon you will be able to sit in your car and listen to your own music, while the kids listen to theirs in the back seat – and none of you will be wearing earphones. And yet you won’t hear a single note of what the kids are listening to, because the sound will play right next to their ears – and nowhere else.
I love this website that tells me lots of cool stuff like this, in all sorts of fields. So take a look at:
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design so it covers everything from science to creativity.
I guess the biggest surprise for me was how green everything is. As Java is one of the most densely populated places on earth, I expected high-density living to be more obvious, but that wasn’t the case. Seen from the air, there are still trees everywhere (although thick tropical rainforest appears rare) and of course lots of ricefields.
Even in the city, many streets are tree-lined and gardens grow.
The city does not look poverty stricken or dusty or dirty – so toss out all those pre-conceived ideas – just pretty much like Malaysian towns, I suppose, except a little more unregulated perhaps. More motorbikes. And beca (pron. bay-cha) aka trishaw, and horse-drawn carts.
And the flags? It is coming up to the Presidential elections, so political flags were everywhere.
Right, there’s the story. Just got back home after four days away. I went to join my husband in Yogyakarta in central southern Java, Indonesia. He flew in from Perth, and joined up with his university colleagues for a seminar at the Islamic University. I went basically to see Java for the first time – ridiculous, I know, but forty plus years based in Malaysia, and I had never been to Java. Yogya is just over two hours flight away.
I was particularly interested in Borobudur (spelled, alike Yogyakarta, in numerous ways) and yesterday that was where I was. What I didn’t count on was being a sort of celebrity… Poor husband, he was ignored while I was feted.
It seems that having your photo taken with someone who is obviously exotic is a cool thing to do for a start, but just to make it even more imperative, at least one school – maybe more – sent their students off to interview native-English speakers for their exams. All this meant I was in great demand, which was enormous fun. At least the conversation was. Not so sure about all those photos…
The students were delightful and made me regret that I no longer teach teenagers…
And of course, there was the wonderful backdrop of Borobudur. More about that tomorrow…
Patterns from above, paintings done by nature using salt and soil as a medium, through the means of rare flood water, on a giant’s canvas…
And then there is a sunburnt land. Yes, that’s the true colour. Wear white socks out there and the turn red and remain pink forever, no matter how many time they are washed.
And the winds play games with the dust…
And the towns are isolated…
And the mines are deep…
Watch out how I have used many of these things and turned them to something magical and otherworldly in my newest trilogy…
The sign asks you to check your tyres for double gees and to put them in the bin (they are trying to wipe the damn things out). If you are from the Eastern States, you may know it as three-cornered jack or Spiny Emex.
Looks like quite a large tribute to the animal. Just how large you can judge in the next photo. Yep, that’s a picnic area under the animal’s rather impressive family jewels.
And here’s the underside – just look at those suckers. These guys are climbers.
My husband is in Western Australia at the moment. In fact he is visiting Laverton, of all places. Believe me, that’s a town that doesn’t exactly have a thriving tourism industry, being somewhere N.E. of Kalgoorlie. (Congratulations if you can find it in your atlas!)