Independence Day — Red-and-White Dress Code, Can Lifting, and a Doorprize

Indonesia’s 81st Independence Day, and the warehouse became an arena again — this time starting in the afternoon and finishing after dark.

The costumes got judged first. Red-and-white dress code, and the winner was not the tidiest one: a skirt made of red-and-white plastic strips, a wide hat cut from red plastic sheet, and one competitor who added a Santa hat and sunglasses. Second place turned up holding two red LOVE balloons.

The games themselves were best where they were simplest. Can lifting: one tin can in the middle, five strings out to five people, and the team has to get it off the floor together without touching it — some lay flat on the concrete, some worked it from a crouch. Next to that, the cup relay: a red ball passed from cup to cup, each cup gripped in someone’s teeth, hands out of it entirely. And the balloon stomp, one big circle taking up most of the floor.

Prizes: flasks and towels for the can lifters, a vacuum flask set and JMP-branded wall clocks for the cup relay, an iron for the ball-catching champion.

The doorprize came after dark, the maroon line (carton box) facing the blue line (polybag), everyone holding their box up — a pan grill, a 16-inch stand fan, a water dispenser, a blender.