Everyday Life - Spinning Plates and Dragons

This weekend was Chinese New Year, something I wouldn't normally pay much attention to, but Jakarta has a large Chinese population and red and gold decorations have been turning up everywhere of late. It's a good chance for the boys to experience snippets of another culture, so when we heard the beating drums at the local mall on Saturday we decided to go for a look.

 This isn't a great photo, but it shows the larger of the dragons that were wandering around. There were also smaller gold and white furry dragons cuddling up to shoppers! Eamon thought it was great, if a little noisy.

The same mall had a free show of 'Spinning Plate Acrobats' from Beijing which sound too good to miss. Eamon was a little disappointed that my description of people throwing plates into the air didn't actually eventuate but still did a good impression of a stunned mullet watching the ladies do various rather athletic feats while holding six sticks with spinning plates apiece. Personally I was especially impressed by the headstand on top of someone else's head trick (while continuing to hold aforementioned spinning plates!).

Not bad for an afternoon trip to the mall to buy sandpaper (and a small saw - $1.89 AUD for a small coping/mini hacksaw, can't really go wrong!).

Oh, and my excursion back to Tanah Abang in the morning also netted a chinese dragon wandering through the place.....must have been looking for some new threads...