I can't stop singing the Anne Murray song "Hippo in the Bathtub", because of a funny thing that happened a few weeks ago (before I left Bali for 3 weeks in the field in Papua).

I was working at home, quietly clicking away at my computer... when the cleaning lady, ibu, came running out from our bedroom/bathroom, screeching... "Angelina, Angelina," (she like to call me Angelina - I'm not quite sure why, but I tell myself it's because of an uncanny resemblance to another, perhaps better-known Angelina), "Ada Komodo di kamar mandi!" (There's a komodo dragon in the bathroom!) This of course, was accompanied by a string of other exclamations, most of which I didn't actually understand... except the "aduh, aduh, aduh", which translated, basically means "oh dear, oh my, my gosh".



So we rushed back in together (ibu cowering behind me, in fear), and sure enough, there's a HUGE monitor lizard scrambling back out over the partial bamboo wall! (Relative of, but not the same as, a Komodo Dragon) He was too quick for me to grab my camera, but the above is a picture of a similar species that I took last year, so you get an idea of what kind of creature we're talking about here. Anyway, he escaped on his own, no problem - but he left me laughing, and singing this song!


Here are the lyrics to the song for those of you who didn't have the pleasure of growing up with it!

Hey, Daddy, there's a dragon in the driveway.
Momma, there's a grizzly on the lawn.
You better come quick-there's a hippo in the bathtub,
And it's going down the drain. Oh, no! it's gone.

Well, the minds of little children,
They go round and round and round,
Hearing giant's footsteps,
When I never hear a sound.

I just hear:
Hey, Daddy, there's a dragon in the driveway.
Momma, there's a grizzly on the lawn.
You better come quick-there's a hippo in the bathtub,
And it's going down the drain. Oh, no! it's gone.

Well, you never know if they really saw
All the things they have you believe.
But if there's dragons in this neighborhood
Then we're going to leave.

Hey, Daddy, there's a dragon in the driveway.
Momma, there's a grizzly on the lawn.
You better come quick-there's a hippo in the bathtub,
And it's going down the drain. Oh, no! it's gone.

And it's going down the drain. Oh, no! it's gone.

Pandan

Pandan leaves come from the Screwpine tree, which can be found throughout the tropics.


(This is actually not my picture. Even though, as it turns out, I have seen this tree all over Indonesia, it took me a long time to put together the fact that this tree was the source of the bright green foods!)

Pandan leaves are often used as flavouring and colouring in cooking in Indonesia (and apparently the rest of Asia and the Pacific as well), much as we use Vanilla. The most popular pandan specialty is the grass-green Pandan cake, which the first time I saw, I honestly thought must contain heaps of artificial colouring... but no! Pandan really produces that colour naturally! The sweet unique flavour is also used in rice and flavouring curries.

You can even get it now in packaged cake mixes!




The Screwpine tree is also said to have medicinal properties, and its uses include the tree bark as a diuretic, the roots used for their anti-diabetic properties, and the leaves are used for treating dermatological diseases.

And of course, true to the tropics, the whole tree has a use... in ancient times the leaves were also used for making grass skirts and thatching for roofs as well as woven baskets. The flower was used to make perfume as well as desserts and sweets.