Half a pound of treacle

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Adenium Premsup Yellow - pretty, easy and showy

Adenium Prem Sup Yellow (or Yellow Prem Sup) is a Thai Adenium hybrid that has been around for some time. This is an Adenium hybrid that I feel every Adenium lover should have. They are tough, floriferous, have amazing colours and always blooms in a cluster of three or more flowers.

Lovely Adenium Prem Sup Yellow.

The blooms start off as a light canary yellow, which quickly takes on a blush pink edging in the tropical heat. Over the days that it blooms, the flowers acquires more blush pink tones until the flower is somewhat pinkish with yellow undertones at the end of bloom lifespan. So you can get two colours in one with this Adenium hybrid. Contrasting well with flowers are the glossy, green leaves with prominent white veins.

They are easily available in South-East Asian region as Thailand mass produces them for export. However one should be vary of Thailand's mass produced Adeniums as plant sanitary practices are not so well practiced, thus some plants may be virus infected.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015 - Feeding of the Heavenly Army on Day 3

Day 3, 6 and 9 sees the feeding of the Heavenly Army at Ampang Nine Emperor Gods. This is where they put buckets of food out for the Generals and Heavenly Army of the five directions. On the 3rd day, they will also plant the five directional flags on the perimeter of the temple, signifying the Heavenly army and their generals standing guard over the temple at the four corners and in the centre.

The medium in a trance self-immolates and overseas the feeding of the heavenly army with the Taoist priest.

No, he is not going to issue you summons for parking haphazardly - the medium going around the temple inspecting the temple ground and getting rid of any 'evil' influences that might have sneaked in

After a short break, the medium trancing the Nine Emperor God will also make an inspection round of the entire temple. The fun part is to watch him inspect the dorms (where we had no idea which way he would come in or out from - kinda like a guessing game) and also of the opera stage, where he does a little twirl at centre stage.

The Emperor God and his royal entourage of priest, assistants and RELA personnel.

Presenting the Ampang Nine Emperor Gods production of.... the Nutcracker Suite.... NOT. The Nine Emperor God dances as he goes through the opera stage.

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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Ampang Nine Emperor Gods Festival 2015 - Day Two

The second day of Nine Emperor Gods Festival sees the invitation of the Finance Minister at Ampang Nan Tian Gong temple. This procession mirrors that of the Nine Emperor Gods invitation ceremony on the 12th of October, with the difference being the Finance Minister, Tian Fu Yuan Shuai is the deity invited this evening.

Fishy... Chinese love their fish. Here there are many fishes and a phoenix flying to the temple.

The other difference to this procession compared to that of the first one is that the energy levels seemed to be very high, and everyone seemed to be anxious to get the Finance Minister back to the temple. Well, who wouldn't want to be in the good books with the money guy? Especially in times of economic hardship, everyone must be praying hard that Tian Fu Yuan Shuai will bless them with money and more money...

Sushi or shashimi...

The cutest dragon and dragon dancers in town...

The palanquin leaving the temple.

The outriders for the gods do not have sirens nor flashing lights, just these plaques.

Hi ho, hi ho.. is off to the invitation we go. The ladies trooping down the road at the start of the invitation ceremony.

The number of visitors were much more too, due to the public holiday, as well as photographers, making it a mad dash for the best spot to see the happenings in the temple. So for those who prefer to see the procession at Ampang Nan Tian Gong Temple with less maddening crowd, the invitation ceremony for the Nine Emperor Gods is a far calmer, more restrained and regal in a way as compared to the invitation of the Finance Minister.

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