ETERNAL MELODY ABOVE THE RAINBOW

Norway, the degree was almost 2°C. Snowflakes were melting, a 16 year old girl was writing on her diary in her room and sometimes took a glance at a painting, her painting. Indeed, she is also an amateur painter. Well, she begins her words with;

Music, Fairies, Humans and World. Are they related to each other? Well, some people said that fairies do exist. But I was a sense one who didn’t believe in those things. Until these twins appeared before my naked eyes.

3 MONTHS EARLIER

“Paloma, come on. We could be late, it is time for a winter, let’s meet our friends, they are ready for the orchestra” said Picollo, a little blonde fairy formed like a mini size of human surrounded by a sparkling light around him with his sharp ears and transparent wings. This little creature was not even bigger than a volley ball.  He was Paloma’s twin brother. He played a flute. Flute had an element of wind. So when all flute fairies played the ensemble flute altogether, then camea howling wind.

“Wait a second, I’m not done with my harp” said Paloma. She was a little purple- haired fairy. Unlike her twin brother who was quite, warm and disciplined. She was so cheerful but disorganized and reckless. She rarely practiced. However, they still loved each other, even though they sometimes had a different point of view almost in everything. Paloma’s element was water. Then it came a rain, when harp fairies played the ensemble.

All fairies, about 38 fairies played the orchestra to change the season. They usually played above the clouds, although they actually lived on flowers in a beautiful marigold and rose gardens. When they were all ready for the orchestra, they would fly together to the clouds. And, in a special occasion, when they ought to play after the rain, and if they played perfectly, there would come a rainbow. And after that, they will happily slide on the rainbow and back to the garden.

They performed the sonata today on clouds almost perfectly. They realized that there was a little out-of-key sound coming from a harp. However, the snowflakes began dropping to the ground. After that, they flew back to the garden, when Paloma was chatting with her beloved friend, Sofia, a violin fairy through flying. She accidentally dropped her harp into a middle of nowhere. She gasped, her eyes were wide awake and she lost all of her words to speak. But she was too afraid to break a line and go down to the ground. So she continued to follow the line and let her harp fall.

In the evening, on the branch of a frozen oak tree, Picollo was practicing with his magical flute. The wind was howling a little, it was more like a breeze. Paloma approached her with her plan to talk to him about her harp “Hey, how are you? Doing something?” She started the conversation, “Fine, I’m practicing. How about you? When will you start your practice?” “Well, I guess I will not practice tonight because...” Paloma hadn’t finished with her words then Picollo just blurted out “What’s on your mind? I couldn’t understand you. You realized about your performance today. Didn’t you  learn something of what have you to do for next? I do care about you, but this is not the first time I’m lecturing you, isn’t it? Or this is what you want? Ruin our performance?” Paloma didn’t realize that one tear just poured on her soft cheek. Hopeless, she was disappointed with those unexpected words. She lost all of her words to reply or even tell the truth. “I’m sorry I disturbed your rehearsal. I guess I’m going to take a rest. It’s a little bit cold here, I am freezing” She must have her body rested inside the tree hole. But, she walked into the opposite direction. She went to the edge of leaf, gained her courage, and soon her wings flew her high and high and left the fairy garden.

Lefoton city, the sky was dark.Everything almost was covered by the snow.The little fairy had arrived in a crowded city. There was a brunette teenage girl in her red coat walking through the side street with a painted canvas in her goody bag. Paloma hadn’t gone for more than 2 hours looking for her magical harp, when she took a glance at the girl and her canvas. And she realized that a canvas was painted a harp resembled like hers. Since she was small and not all people can see her. She went into the goody bag but unfortunately didn’t findthe harp. She decided to stay inside the bag, she was pretty sure that the girl had her magical harp.

The girl went to her room, she lighted the pink room. The room was completely neat, tidy and looked very comfortable. There was a single bed, a desk with a light lamp on it. She put her good bag on the desk. She took out the canvas and she froze for a while when she found a little creature lying in the goody bag. “Who are you? Hmm... What are you? And how could you be here?” said the girl. Paloma flew and floated in front of the girl’s eyes “You can see me? I’m Paloma, a little fairy from Marigold and Rose Gardens. I’m here to take my magical harp.” “I’m sorry I don’t believe in such things...  alright I didn’t since you’re here floating before my eyes and your harp that I found stuck on my window.” The girl smiled to the fairy “I’m Irina, nice to meet you, Plo.” Paloma raised her eyerbrow and she laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry, It’s Paloma, isnt it? I just nicknamed you. Anyway, I’ll get your harp.” Irina walked towards the desk and pulled the locket. Then, she took the harp and gave it to Paloma. “You dropped it, didn’t you? And I’m the one who kept it safe. Can I make a wish then since you’re a fairy?”, asked Irina. “I’m sorry, Irina. I only play the harp to pour the rain. I’m a season fairy. However, rain only will come If I play the notes perfectly” she said worriedly, “ But, Thank you for keeping my harp safely.” Paloma gave her cute smile to Irina. “ Oh I see, since you can’t do a magic, besides dropping waters from the sky. Will you stay here for awhile? I never thought fairy would be so pretty like you, little Plo. I’d like to paint you with your harp. Please?” “Sure, I would love to. It seems more fun than praticing.” She answered cheerfully.

They had a lot of fun during the painting. They felt like they had been bestfriends, or even sisters, since long time ago. Paloma really enjoyed her time accompanying Irina to wherever she went since then eventhough no one could see her except Irina.

Meanwhile in the Marigold and Rose Gardens, everyone panicked after Paloma was gone. Picollo was drawned in guilt. He felt that he was the one causing Paloma to leave the gardens. After the last time he had that incident with Paloma, he really wanted to apologize if it really hurt her feelings. Well, she had gone with no trace. Picollo then decided to search his twin sister alone without any permissions.

 He actually had no idea where he could find her. He flew almost all over Norway days and nights in winter. It had been 6 days, He had been freezing, even fairies could feel the temperature. Usually, in summer, spring and autumn they stayed on flowers, leave, or branches. However, in winter, they warmed themselves by staying inside the tree hole.

Picollo just arrived in Lefoton when his sparkling light was vanishing. He chilled, his body was trembling, but he was still flying even though he almost lost all of his energy. His face turned into blue, A few more hours he touched his feet on the pavement and started walking. He didn’t know where else to go. He stopped by the bush, he breathed heavily, he had no idea, except he played the flute so Paloma might hear him, just for a couple minutes.

Paloma and Irina were laughing out loud after they played tic-tac-toe,when Paloma heard Picollo’s flute playing somewhere. She asked Irina to accompany her finding where the sound came from. Irina had been told everything about Plo’s twin brother and also the last moment with him when he was angry to her. Well, she was also excited to meet him. When they were out and followed the voice, suddenly the music stopped.

“ He must be around here. I could clearly his playing”, said Paloma. “ I could feel the wind was howling from the east. Let’s go there! Irina then ran to the park with Paloma flying beside her head. Then they found a bush where there was lying a body of freezing Picollo.

3 MONTHS LATER

Irina was writing in his dairy, she took a glance of a painting, two little twin fairies. One was purple-haired girl playing her harp, and the other was a blonde boy holding his flute. They both looked cheerfully happy.

Paloma had went back to Marigold and Rose Gardens, the place on which her twin brother lying peacefully there. She never came back to Lefoton since then and started practicing more often. When the summer came, all the fairies flew to the sky and started playing the orchestra. She played the tone perfectly, the melody was so beautifully played although they had  just lost one of the flute sound. When they finished, there came a rainbow. Paloma believed it was a rainbow for his beloved twin brother.

Chewing, Chewing All Day Long!

Have you ever tasted bubble gum? Bubble gum is one of a kind of chewing gum. It was created by Walter E. Diemer, an accountant who was experimenting with new gum recipes in 1928 for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia, USA and named as Dubble Bubble originally. The gum is designed to be popped out from the mouth as a bubble for many times. The first bubble gum was made less sticky and stretched more easily with pink as its original colour, because Diemer only had a pink dye on hand and it was also his favourite colour.

            In addition to make it popular and increase the selling, Diemer taught the salespeople how to blow bubbles so they could teach the customers. Dubble Bubble remained the only bubble gum until Bazooka entered the market in 1950s.

In modern, Bubblegum uses butadiene-based synthetic rubber as the materials, including methyl phenylglycidate, isoamyl acetate fruit extracts and also other secret ingredients remain mystery to the customers. Gums that use vanilla, coconut, peppermint and almond extract are also available. These materials effect longer- lasting flavour, better texture and also a reduction on tackiness.

            The flavours of bubblegum in modern can be tasted as blue raspberry, lemon, strawberry, apple, cherry, watermelon, cinnamon, banana, peppermint, cotton candy, grape. Most of the flavours are made from chemicals such as Malic acid for making apple flavour, allyl hexanote for pineapple, ethyl propionate for fruit punch, cinnamic aldehyde for cinnamon and acetophenone for cherry. More unusual flavours include berry, cola, lemon lime, peach, tropical fruit, pineapple, orange fruit punch, bacon or popcorn are also available. But children tend to prefer strawberry or blue raspberry than other complex flavours. Because these flavours make them want to swallow the gum rather than continue chewing.

Bubble gum also made some contributes in records. In 1996, Bubblegum once has been blown 23 inches by Susan Montgomery Williams of Fresno, California and holds Guinness World Record. Another record is held by Chad Fell, the record for “Largest Hands-free Bubblegum Bubble” at 50, 8 centimetres, achieved on 24 April 2004.

Nowadays, there are some chewing gum brands such as:  Big League from Ford Gum Company in 1980, BigBabol from Perfetti Van Melle Company, Ice Breakers from Hershey in early 1960s, Maple Leaf Chewing from Maple Leaf Company and more than a thousand brands available at the stores around the world.  So, bubblegum is easy to get with cheap price, and can be tasted from everyone whose teeth are still be able to chew. 

Adapted from www.wikipedia.com

Homemade Gumdrops

Most gums are not allowed to be swallowed, but gumdrop is special. You can taste the sweet, chew it, and you can swallow it. And also you can make the gumdrops in your own kitchen. Here is to make the homemade gumdrops.

Equipments you need:

·         4 Small Bowls

·          Baking sheet

Ingredients you need:

•  4 tablespoons of gelatine
• 4 silicone of candy moulds (If you don’t have candy moulds, you can use ice cube trays)
• 1/4 teaspoon of flavoured extract
•  3-4 drops of food colouring
• Cooking spray
• Sugar
• 1 cup of cold water
• 1 1/2 cups of hot water

How to make it:

1.      Pour 1 cup of the cold water into a large pot

2.      Add the gelatine to the cold water and stir for 5 minutes until it dissolves

3.      Pour 1 ½ cups of hot water into a pot

4.      Then, boil the gelatine

5.      Prepare the candy moulds or the ice trays and baking sheet

6.      Spray the surface with cooking spray

7.      Stir the gelatine in the boiling water

8.      Slowly pour 4 cups of sugar

9.      Stir the mixture in over-medium heat for about 25 minutes until it’s bubbling

10.  Pour the mixture into 4 small bowls, and it is time to pour the different food colouring and flavour extract each and stir them

11.  Slowly pour the mixture to the silicone candy moulds or ice trays

12.  Then, put the silicone candy moulds or the ice cube trays to baking sheet a

13.  Chill it in refrigerator overnight

14.  Pull the candies out from the moulds, ad if you use ice trays, you should spray a knife with a cooking spray and cut the mixture into dices

15.  Roll the candies into the sugar until they’re fully covered

16.  Put those candies on a paper-lined baking sheet for 2 days until they crystallize

 After two days the cute colourful gumdrops are ready to be served!

Adapted from www.homemadesimple.com

The Gum Tragedy

No one is perfect. Well, one of my obvious traits is that I am too reckless. I hope that I could be more detailed, but it was like my nature comes at some unpredictable moments.

It happened when I was in 5th grade in elementary school. My family moved in to another city. Therefore, I became a new student in Puspiptek ES, South Tangerang. Some of my new friends were nice to me, most of them were girls. But some of the boys sometimes made fun of me. They often yelled at me as I was a girl from another city and had a little bit trouble with the culture shock. In the previous school, it was allowed to bring girls magazine, of course the teachers were happy because we had an interest in reading and also we knew a lot about new issues, but it wasn’t allowed here to bring entertainment stuffs, including magazine as an entertainment book. Then, I got more trouble when I brought one. One of the boys found me reading it, and he started yelling at me and reported it to the teacher. Then I just felt like I wanted to move to any other schools but not this one. So here it is, one of the unforgettable experiences when I was there. But I must tell you first, this experience that I want to share with you basically not because of everyone’s fault but mine. You know, about being reckless.

One day, my mom bought me a new jacket. It was white, easily stretched and looked very cool. Well, I always like my mom’s taste, her taste never falls. That’s why I sometimes wear my mom’s clothes for some occasions. Her style is not like mothers, it is more like teenagers. That makes me sometimes feel embarrassed because my taste is not as cool as hers. From then on, I usually wore the jacket to school.

One morning, I went to school with my lovely jacket. As I walked in the corridor, many students had big pink bubble on his mouth. Soon after, the bubble popped, and stuck to their face. Well, at that time, one of the gum brands was very popular, because it was cheap and also gave a tattoo as a bonus. Many students bought one or more gums every day. They tried to blow it as big as they could. I also bought one, and started to hold a blow contest with my good friends. We held a contest day by day and of course I never won since I had not had any talents in blowing the bubblegum.

After the bubbles popped and the sweet completely gone. We had trouble to throw it to the dustbin. It was very sticky. We needed tissues or paper, or something to stick it to. Well, one of my friends never forgot to bring a pack of tissues for all us. But, not all of the students, some of students just stuck it to anywhere around them without considering the consequences of what they did. Because there were many gums stuck to some schools equipments, such as tables, chairs, even on the wall. Since, it became a habit at the school. I began to stop caring about the environment, and started to spit the gum anywhere whenever I was finished. The teacher was very angry at us once and insisted us to stop buying the gums.

Well, the consumers of the gum had decreased since then, but the environment of the school still had some sticky gums everywhere.

It was break time. After buying some of my favourite snacks and then leaving the canteen, my friends and I went to the ladies room. I was wearing that lovely white jacket then I took it off and left it on the washbasin. After a couple minutes, I went back to the washbasin and then gussied up. As I finished with the mirror and so my friends did, I put on my jacket and we went ahead to the class.

At the class, my friend noticed something on my jacket. “Hey, what is that on your jacket?” she said. “What? OH NO! A big gum stuck on my jacket” I shocked. I hastily tried to remove it from my jacket. But it was quite difficult. My friends tried to help, but some boys started to yell at me and my jacket. It was like I wanted to stick the gum on their faces. Finally, I took my jacket off, and put it on my bag.

Then I went home, and I grabbed the jacket. And guess what? The gum dried and more stuck to the jacket. I asked my maid’s help to remove it. With a knife, she successfully removed it. But unfortunately the gum left a big stain on my white jacket. The maid tried to remove the stain by washing it. But it looked like it was stained permanently. After doing some efforts to remove it, we gave up, since then I stopped wearing the jacket to school.

My mom wondered what exactly happened to the jacket, since I had begun not wearing it to school. Then, I explained to her about the gum tragedy. She was quite upset “You should mind your surroundings before you place something on some places!” she said. And yes, it’s not completely the one who stuck the gum’s fault. But it was mine. I was too reckless to mind my surroundings.

I had my lesson that day. I had to lose something special before I learned something important, there were to mind my surroundings and not to be reckless. And of course after chewing the gums, I have to stick it to the paper first and then throw it to the dustbin. No more sticking to the walls, chairs or tables because I don’t want to lose another my favourite stuff again. But, sometimes things are never same as we planned. I’m still reckless until now, but I try not to be too reckless. Like I said, no one is perfect.