They say, when someone had entered old age, they would have reserve thinking; they would start to think like children again. That is the reason why someone said their boss started to act like a child, stubborn and persistent, and therefore, made some decisions that he viewed not as wise, in echo of agreement from others. To my surprise, they are serious.
Is that so? Maybe it is.
I like one advertisement; I guess it’s from Mercedes, about a life that starts the other way around. I tried to write a story about it, but I don’t think I made it well. So human born old, and get younger everyday. They become fitter, healthier, better looking and happier the more they live.
One more, insurance will cost less when we buy it ‘older’. And we are pretty looking by the time we are ‘old’. People like to take care of cute baby rather than old wrinkle elderly.
Isn’t it a great concept?
One flaw though, human has to grow from tree, otherwise, it’s hard to bear an elderly. I hope I made myself understandable.
I don’t think I fit into old age yet, definitely not, no, no, no, but I like simpler things nowadays, because life around the world is more complicated than ever. I do remember a low budget movie called Human Time Bomb, and we were like, Gosh, a very daring and original concept, who would want to blow themselves? But today, we can watch news about another, another and yet another real cases. If Nazi raised everyone’s brow and caused the world to curse them, there were still another Rwanda genocide and around the world riots.
And pageants! The programs we watch when it’s too hot to go outside or the remote control run out of battery, they are still the same, with the same type of faces and fake smiles waving to the camera. Since we are more into reality shows nowadays, why can’t those Beauty Pageant Queens walk the way they wish, answered questions without being politically correct, laugh, frown or kick fellow contestants when they lose? Why the image of a beauty queen waving around with big fake smile gave me nightmare?
I’m sorry; weekend’s program is so crappy that I didn’t have other choices than to watch an Encore, of a Pageant. Brrr.
I watched a cute movie titled Little Manhattan. It’s not a masterpiece, or something spectacular. It’s just a movie about two kids, ten and eleven, and they like each other. That simple. But the movie is very smooth, funny and crisp from a child point of view. And the child actor is excellent with priceless expressions. It’s good just because it’s very real and fresh.
And I watch a kind of weird Mandarin movie called The Shoe Fairy. It’s weird, it’s a quiet movie, it doesn’t have the best plot or originality, but somehow it’s nice. Very nice, imho.
_________________________________________________________________________________
First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down.
- George Burns
USA Today has come out with a new survey: Apparently three out of four people make up 75 percent of the population.
- David Letterman.
I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time". So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.
- Steven Wright
A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
- Groucho Marx
My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.
- Jimmy Durante
Monday, July 24, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
Kunyuk-kunyuk Kota
Kemaren gue sempat ngintip buku pelajaran anak SMU sederajat, sepertinya Matematika.
Emang dimasa rada2 tua ini kadang2 gue pengen sekolah lagi, atau mengingat-ngingat masa-masa sekolah yang indah-indah aja, bahkan disaat paling gila yang muncul sekali pas gue lagi jalan2 ditoko buku, gue hamper beli buku Matematika anak sekolah buat sekedar iseng2 dan ngetes berapa banyak sel otak gue yang udah mati, soalnya katanya, memasuki umur tertentu, tiap tahun berapa juta sel otak akan mati.
Begitu.
Ngeliat soal matematika anak itu, buset deh. Satu soal setengah halaman buku gede, dan pertanyaannya aja gue kagak ngerti. Mengenai probabilitas dan apaaaa gitu, dan satu soal aja beberapa hal yang harus dijawab, jenis yang, kalo jawaban pertama salah, yo weis. Udah itu banyak istilah2 aneh yang bahkan gue kagak tau kalo itu adalah sebuah kata.
Udah itu, menambah-nambah suasana tragis, tuh anak ketiduran dengan tangan megang pensil dan jidat hamper nabrak ke buku. Kacamata tutup botolnya menggantung dihidung dan bibirnya maju karena gravitasi (kan mukanya ngadep bawah).
Pas distasiun sentral, banyak banget orang pada turun. Tuh anak terlonjak kaget dan nengok kanan-kiri dengan panik. Dispeaker ada disebutin nama stasiun, tapi kayaknya dia gak denger, nengok keluar juga gak keliatan nama stasiun karena kita digerbong paling terakhir. Trus dia ngedumel dan ngomong kumur2 tapi mukanya gak ngadep gue, jadi gue gak bisa denger ngomong apa. Kayaknya sih ngedumel dia ada dimana. Gue mau kasih tau, bingung, karena dia gak nanya dan bahkan gak ada kayak tanda2 minta dikasih tau.
Benernya, gue bisa aja ngasih tau tanpa ragu2, cuman kelamaan tinggal disini, gue jadi males nyampurin urusan orang. Dan hubungan antar manusia disini udah bisa dibilang individual banget. Loe urus gundul loe dan gue urus jidat gue. Dulu, pas gue jalan dengan teman, kita melihat nenek2 dengan gerobak ngangkat banyak banget kardus bekas, trus kardusnya berjatuhan. Otomatis gue bergerak membantu, tapi temen gue sempat narik tangan gue, katanya, “Jangan, nanti kena kepret.”
Cuman waktu itu gue kasihan banget dan tetap gue bantuin, dan nenek2 itu senang banget. Gue ngerti apa yang dimaksud temen gue karena kita sama2 pernah nawarin bantuan ke orang yang jelas2 memerlukan, tapi sebagai balasan kita dikepret atau disalahin, terutama untuk kalangan yang agak tua yang ngomelnya aja kita gak ngerti bahasanya. Kena omelan nyelekit padahal maksud kita baek bisa banget membuat orang jadi kapok dan gak pedulian, dan gue juga kadang2 milih untuk menghindar.
Seperti dikereta kemaren, menyesal juga sih gue gak kasih tau. Sebodo amat kalo dia gak butuh. Yah gitu, saking gak peduliannya orang, mungkin mereka yang butuh juga malas minta atau malas nanya.
Pernah juga dikereta yang agak penuh tapi gak rame dengan beberapa orang berdiri, tiba-tiba GEDEBUM ada satu cewek jatuh pingsan dilantai. Jatuhnya gak mulus ala pake dengkul dulu atau gimana, tapi kejebrak begitu aja kayak pohon tumbang dengan ipod hancur berserakan dimana-mana. Gue yakin mustinya nih orang gak usah pingsan kalo dia berani minta tempat duduk. Tapi begitulah, dalam keadaan kayak dia dulu, gue juga milih keluar untuk duduk distasiun daripada daripada.
Gue pernah liat satu kakek dan satu encek2 jelek berantem di food court. Kalo berhasil menerjemahkan dari bahasa yang mereka pakai, kakek2 tukang beres2in piring itu dituduh kerjanya lambat dan gak beres ama orang jelek yang punya stall makanan. Cuman, rese banget! Orangnya jualan diujung sana, dan dia sengaja dateng ke ujung sini buat nyela-nyela sikakek. Udah itu si kakek itu rematik-an, udah tua banget dan lemah, gerak-geriknya juga udah lambat. Tapi dia masih dibentak-bentak, dan bentakannya itu benar2 jahat dan rese. Giliran ada orang laen yang ngebelain si kakek, dia juga kena dibentak-bentak. Cuman orang jelek ini nyalinya segede upil, sikakek yang udah sebel deketin dia (dengan gerakan lambat padahal) dan dianya menghindar dan tereak2 doang sambil menjauh, begitu juga kalo dideketin orang yang ngebelain (yang juga udah rada kakek2). Kalo didenger dari bahasanya yang sepotong2, tuh orang cuman ngulang2, jenis kampret yang paling nyebelin kalo diajak debat. Debat kosong gak intelek yang paling norak dan hebohlah yang menang. Dan saking sebalnya sikakek itu nekad deketin mungkin pengen geplak tuh orang.
Kan kasihan, kenapa sih tega aja nindas orang tua dan lemah gitu, padahal juga urusan sepela yang gak disengaja. Gue cuman nyumpahin dia kena karmanya dan kalo dia lewat meja gue baru bisa gue sengkat kakinya biar bacotnya yang rese cium lantai.
Gitu deh. Gitu deh.
__________________________________________________________________________________
When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
- Jean Harlow
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
- Noel Coward
Most fools think they are only ignorant.
- Benjamin Franklin
I don’t think I understand people very well. I only know whether I like or dislike them.
- Edward Morgan Foster
Life didn't promise to be wonderful.
- Teddy Pendergrass
Emang dimasa rada2 tua ini kadang2 gue pengen sekolah lagi, atau mengingat-ngingat masa-masa sekolah yang indah-indah aja, bahkan disaat paling gila yang muncul sekali pas gue lagi jalan2 ditoko buku, gue hamper beli buku Matematika anak sekolah buat sekedar iseng2 dan ngetes berapa banyak sel otak gue yang udah mati, soalnya katanya, memasuki umur tertentu, tiap tahun berapa juta sel otak akan mati.
Begitu.
Ngeliat soal matematika anak itu, buset deh. Satu soal setengah halaman buku gede, dan pertanyaannya aja gue kagak ngerti. Mengenai probabilitas dan apaaaa gitu, dan satu soal aja beberapa hal yang harus dijawab, jenis yang, kalo jawaban pertama salah, yo weis. Udah itu banyak istilah2 aneh yang bahkan gue kagak tau kalo itu adalah sebuah kata.
Udah itu, menambah-nambah suasana tragis, tuh anak ketiduran dengan tangan megang pensil dan jidat hamper nabrak ke buku. Kacamata tutup botolnya menggantung dihidung dan bibirnya maju karena gravitasi (kan mukanya ngadep bawah).
Pas distasiun sentral, banyak banget orang pada turun. Tuh anak terlonjak kaget dan nengok kanan-kiri dengan panik. Dispeaker ada disebutin nama stasiun, tapi kayaknya dia gak denger, nengok keluar juga gak keliatan nama stasiun karena kita digerbong paling terakhir. Trus dia ngedumel dan ngomong kumur2 tapi mukanya gak ngadep gue, jadi gue gak bisa denger ngomong apa. Kayaknya sih ngedumel dia ada dimana. Gue mau kasih tau, bingung, karena dia gak nanya dan bahkan gak ada kayak tanda2 minta dikasih tau.
Benernya, gue bisa aja ngasih tau tanpa ragu2, cuman kelamaan tinggal disini, gue jadi males nyampurin urusan orang. Dan hubungan antar manusia disini udah bisa dibilang individual banget. Loe urus gundul loe dan gue urus jidat gue. Dulu, pas gue jalan dengan teman, kita melihat nenek2 dengan gerobak ngangkat banyak banget kardus bekas, trus kardusnya berjatuhan. Otomatis gue bergerak membantu, tapi temen gue sempat narik tangan gue, katanya, “Jangan, nanti kena kepret.”
Cuman waktu itu gue kasihan banget dan tetap gue bantuin, dan nenek2 itu senang banget. Gue ngerti apa yang dimaksud temen gue karena kita sama2 pernah nawarin bantuan ke orang yang jelas2 memerlukan, tapi sebagai balasan kita dikepret atau disalahin, terutama untuk kalangan yang agak tua yang ngomelnya aja kita gak ngerti bahasanya. Kena omelan nyelekit padahal maksud kita baek bisa banget membuat orang jadi kapok dan gak pedulian, dan gue juga kadang2 milih untuk menghindar.
Seperti dikereta kemaren, menyesal juga sih gue gak kasih tau. Sebodo amat kalo dia gak butuh. Yah gitu, saking gak peduliannya orang, mungkin mereka yang butuh juga malas minta atau malas nanya.
Pernah juga dikereta yang agak penuh tapi gak rame dengan beberapa orang berdiri, tiba-tiba GEDEBUM ada satu cewek jatuh pingsan dilantai. Jatuhnya gak mulus ala pake dengkul dulu atau gimana, tapi kejebrak begitu aja kayak pohon tumbang dengan ipod hancur berserakan dimana-mana. Gue yakin mustinya nih orang gak usah pingsan kalo dia berani minta tempat duduk. Tapi begitulah, dalam keadaan kayak dia dulu, gue juga milih keluar untuk duduk distasiun daripada daripada.
Gue pernah liat satu kakek dan satu encek2 jelek berantem di food court. Kalo berhasil menerjemahkan dari bahasa yang mereka pakai, kakek2 tukang beres2in piring itu dituduh kerjanya lambat dan gak beres ama orang jelek yang punya stall makanan. Cuman, rese banget! Orangnya jualan diujung sana, dan dia sengaja dateng ke ujung sini buat nyela-nyela sikakek. Udah itu si kakek itu rematik-an, udah tua banget dan lemah, gerak-geriknya juga udah lambat. Tapi dia masih dibentak-bentak, dan bentakannya itu benar2 jahat dan rese. Giliran ada orang laen yang ngebelain si kakek, dia juga kena dibentak-bentak. Cuman orang jelek ini nyalinya segede upil, sikakek yang udah sebel deketin dia (dengan gerakan lambat padahal) dan dianya menghindar dan tereak2 doang sambil menjauh, begitu juga kalo dideketin orang yang ngebelain (yang juga udah rada kakek2). Kalo didenger dari bahasanya yang sepotong2, tuh orang cuman ngulang2, jenis kampret yang paling nyebelin kalo diajak debat. Debat kosong gak intelek yang paling norak dan hebohlah yang menang. Dan saking sebalnya sikakek itu nekad deketin mungkin pengen geplak tuh orang.
Kan kasihan, kenapa sih tega aja nindas orang tua dan lemah gitu, padahal juga urusan sepela yang gak disengaja. Gue cuman nyumpahin dia kena karmanya dan kalo dia lewat meja gue baru bisa gue sengkat kakinya biar bacotnya yang rese cium lantai.
Gitu deh. Gitu deh.
__________________________________________________________________________________
When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
- Jean Harlow
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
- Noel Coward
Most fools think they are only ignorant.
- Benjamin Franklin
I don’t think I understand people very well. I only know whether I like or dislike them.
- Edward Morgan Foster
Life didn't promise to be wonderful.
- Teddy Pendergrass
Monday, July 17, 2006
Insurance ?
I had quite a plain weekend. But weekend is never boring, even though we didn’t do anything but listened to an insurance salesman. (?!?) Regardless what, weekends always pass very fast, and the dreaded day, Monday, is here again.
Cracked from a rusty head, I decided that maybe this is time for us to buy insurance. Maybe a bit too late for some, but the idea of all the hassle and paperwork, and salesman, and monthly premium is not really our preferred activity. Until, yap, we are this old. And looking at the relatives of us who fell sick and spent hundreds of millions..no kidding.. Human sounds more fragile than ever and money sounds like important thing!
And insurance indeed is more expensive than being a club member; it’s that expensive that we haven’t signed up, yet, Ugh.
July is also the most boring month in a year. It is mid year, without any Public Holiday, and the hottest time of the year. Because of that, it’s not easy to drag our feet to go out. Hot weather is only suitable for living near the sea, while in the city, hot and humidity can be like dummy for hell. We walked out from air-conditioned mall, and the burning road with all the flaming heat whooshed up and wrapped the body like a bubble of waterproof sheet. Right. I just don’t know how to describe it.
So when we went out on Sunday we rushed back home like a kanchiong spider or dancing ant. To explain my metaphors,
When I was young, I liked to observed ants especially in the cemented front yard. The dark brown small little ones, not the ugly big one or the ugly small ones (and I proud with my knowledge of ant species!) I was wondering one day why no ants was on sight outside in the yard, I just built a mini outdoor garden and I wanted some occupants or prospective buyers. So, again, I found an ant in the house and put it outside. To my surprise, the ant ran like crazy and ngiek, it was dead. Because it actually damn hot and it was like walking on the burning stove for it because it didn’t wear any slipper. And it died because of a curious giant..eh, and blame the hot weather.
Kanchiong spider is the term I borrow from the slang here. It means exactly the way it is, so if a spider has panic attack, it looks more busy than other animal because it has eight long legs to make happening situation, if a centipede panic, it looks busy too, but centipede can only move one way or in slow motion, so panic spider looks much much more agitated. I learnt the term when my colleague, being called by our lady boss, the Empress Dowager, and he was running here and there like crazy, diving into pile of papers, caught his hand in the printer and almost spilled his coffee. Then my other colleague looked at him with flat eyes and said, “Kanchiong spider.” She explained when she saw my blur expression.
Just now, I took the risk to ask my colleagues about insurance, and all of them turned into agents in no time. They tried to be helpful of course, by giving me all the information about insurance and investment. When I told them I only want insurance and not interested in investment, they thought I am weird. Because I don’t want to put my money for investment, money that I have to set aside for a looong time, how if I became an unemployed one day, or a pure housewife, but they said it’s ridiculous for me to think the worst. It surprised me because for me it’s a very real thing that can happen. I can’t be employed forever, I can’t have a safe job forever, I can’t have the same lifestyle or no additional needs in the future, what are not real in this matter? Is it wrong to think that I better have a little bit of money but I would able to use it when I need, or have more money in the paper but money that I can’t touch when I need and I have to look for loan shark instead? They said it’s impossible for me to have that scenario or running out of money one day. But why? I can quit my job now; go for Nepal for three months and left with nothing. It’s real. Huh. I have to scream here because I couldn’t get through their reasoning. After tried to explain for five minutes, I decided it’s useless to talk when we were not in the same page. Blah blah blah, Or, maybe I really don’t understand these kind of thing. Argh.
_________________________________________________________________________________
I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and that's to get rid of all my other desires.
- John Cleese
More and more these days I find myself pondering how to reconcile my net income with my gross habits.
- John Nelson.
Money is something you have to make in case you don't die.
- Max Asnas.
Money can't buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.
- Spike Milligan
Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
- Benjamin Franklin
Cracked from a rusty head, I decided that maybe this is time for us to buy insurance. Maybe a bit too late for some, but the idea of all the hassle and paperwork, and salesman, and monthly premium is not really our preferred activity. Until, yap, we are this old. And looking at the relatives of us who fell sick and spent hundreds of millions..no kidding.. Human sounds more fragile than ever and money sounds like important thing!
And insurance indeed is more expensive than being a club member; it’s that expensive that we haven’t signed up, yet, Ugh.
July is also the most boring month in a year. It is mid year, without any Public Holiday, and the hottest time of the year. Because of that, it’s not easy to drag our feet to go out. Hot weather is only suitable for living near the sea, while in the city, hot and humidity can be like dummy for hell. We walked out from air-conditioned mall, and the burning road with all the flaming heat whooshed up and wrapped the body like a bubble of waterproof sheet. Right. I just don’t know how to describe it.
So when we went out on Sunday we rushed back home like a kanchiong spider or dancing ant. To explain my metaphors,
When I was young, I liked to observed ants especially in the cemented front yard. The dark brown small little ones, not the ugly big one or the ugly small ones (and I proud with my knowledge of ant species!) I was wondering one day why no ants was on sight outside in the yard, I just built a mini outdoor garden and I wanted some occupants or prospective buyers. So, again, I found an ant in the house and put it outside. To my surprise, the ant ran like crazy and ngiek, it was dead. Because it actually damn hot and it was like walking on the burning stove for it because it didn’t wear any slipper. And it died because of a curious giant..eh, and blame the hot weather.
Kanchiong spider is the term I borrow from the slang here. It means exactly the way it is, so if a spider has panic attack, it looks more busy than other animal because it has eight long legs to make happening situation, if a centipede panic, it looks busy too, but centipede can only move one way or in slow motion, so panic spider looks much much more agitated. I learnt the term when my colleague, being called by our lady boss, the Empress Dowager, and he was running here and there like crazy, diving into pile of papers, caught his hand in the printer and almost spilled his coffee. Then my other colleague looked at him with flat eyes and said, “Kanchiong spider.” She explained when she saw my blur expression.
Just now, I took the risk to ask my colleagues about insurance, and all of them turned into agents in no time. They tried to be helpful of course, by giving me all the information about insurance and investment. When I told them I only want insurance and not interested in investment, they thought I am weird. Because I don’t want to put my money for investment, money that I have to set aside for a looong time, how if I became an unemployed one day, or a pure housewife, but they said it’s ridiculous for me to think the worst. It surprised me because for me it’s a very real thing that can happen. I can’t be employed forever, I can’t have a safe job forever, I can’t have the same lifestyle or no additional needs in the future, what are not real in this matter? Is it wrong to think that I better have a little bit of money but I would able to use it when I need, or have more money in the paper but money that I can’t touch when I need and I have to look for loan shark instead? They said it’s impossible for me to have that scenario or running out of money one day. But why? I can quit my job now; go for Nepal for three months and left with nothing. It’s real. Huh. I have to scream here because I couldn’t get through their reasoning. After tried to explain for five minutes, I decided it’s useless to talk when we were not in the same page. Blah blah blah, Or, maybe I really don’t understand these kind of thing. Argh.
_________________________________________________________________________________
I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and that's to get rid of all my other desires.
- John Cleese
More and more these days I find myself pondering how to reconcile my net income with my gross habits.
- John Nelson.
Money is something you have to make in case you don't die.
- Max Asnas.
Money can't buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.
- Spike Milligan
Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
- Benjamin Franklin
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
A Star In The Sky
Kami cuma ketemu Fangky beberapa hari
Tapi dia telah menyentuh kehidupan kami
Dengan keramahan, kesabaran dan persahabatan
Kami masih ingat, tiap kali sehabis menyelam,
Dia tidak pernah lupa menawarkan biskuit, pisang dan minuman hangat
Dia tidak pernah lupa mengingatkan kami untuk berhati-hati di jalan yang licin,
mengingatkan kami untuk memakai tutup kepala dan berhati-hati bila air laut dingin dan tidak ramah.
Dia menunjukkan bagaimana keindahan dalam laut harus dijaga dan dihargai selain dinikmati.
Dia selalu sabar menunggu untuk memperlihatkan temennya binatang-binatang laut yang indah, membagi rahasia alam dan cerita-cerita di baliknya.
Selama menyelam bersama kami, dia menjaga dan memastikan agar kami senang dan tertawa, agar waktu-waktu kami lewati dengan pengalaman berharga.
Kami terkesan dan saling bercerita tentang langkanya seorang penyelam yang begitu mencintai dunianya dengan rasa tanggung jawab.
Frangky merupakan contoh dive master panutan kami. Walaupun tidak ada kesempatan untuk menyelam bersama lagi, kami akan mengingat semangatnya, pribadinya, kenangannya dan panutannya serta cintanya kepada laut seperti kami.
Dunia telah kehilangan seorang lagi anak manusia yang baik.
Doa kami untuk keluarga dan anak-anak yang ditinggalkan, semoga mereka diberi ketabahan dan kekuatan serta tumbuh menjadi pribadi-pribadi yang berkesan.
P.S :
How can I forget that both/three of us waited for ten minutes beside beautiful creatures in limited visibility just to make sure everybody else came and saw them too.
How can I forget that you were always the first one who asked us whether we are okay in difficult times and how you took care of us.
It’s something that never going to be easier.
Tapi dia telah menyentuh kehidupan kami
Dengan keramahan, kesabaran dan persahabatan
Kami masih ingat, tiap kali sehabis menyelam,
Dia tidak pernah lupa menawarkan biskuit, pisang dan minuman hangat
Dia tidak pernah lupa mengingatkan kami untuk berhati-hati di jalan yang licin,
mengingatkan kami untuk memakai tutup kepala dan berhati-hati bila air laut dingin dan tidak ramah.
Dia menunjukkan bagaimana keindahan dalam laut harus dijaga dan dihargai selain dinikmati.
Dia selalu sabar menunggu untuk memperlihatkan temennya binatang-binatang laut yang indah, membagi rahasia alam dan cerita-cerita di baliknya.
Selama menyelam bersama kami, dia menjaga dan memastikan agar kami senang dan tertawa, agar waktu-waktu kami lewati dengan pengalaman berharga.
Kami terkesan dan saling bercerita tentang langkanya seorang penyelam yang begitu mencintai dunianya dengan rasa tanggung jawab.
Frangky merupakan contoh dive master panutan kami. Walaupun tidak ada kesempatan untuk menyelam bersama lagi, kami akan mengingat semangatnya, pribadinya, kenangannya dan panutannya serta cintanya kepada laut seperti kami.
Dunia telah kehilangan seorang lagi anak manusia yang baik.
Doa kami untuk keluarga dan anak-anak yang ditinggalkan, semoga mereka diberi ketabahan dan kekuatan serta tumbuh menjadi pribadi-pribadi yang berkesan.
P.S :
How can I forget that both/three of us waited for ten minutes beside beautiful creatures in limited visibility just to make sure everybody else came and saw them too.
How can I forget that you were always the first one who asked us whether we are okay in difficult times and how you took care of us.
It’s something that never going to be easier.
YAHOO
Last week, early in the morning, as usual I met my ordinary ‘same time’ colleague including one new colleague. They were talking about football and I found out that Italy entered the final. So I was pleased and did the YAHOOOO thing.
For a brief moment I realized they had that kind of sourly and pissed off looks.
“Oooops…you are supporters of Germany, aren’t you?
Yesss. I’m inside the country where most of them are fans of English League or whatever, German, and France. One of my lunch colleagues even bet his head out for whoever against Italy on the final. So I bet with him, and I won free lunch.
Other than finally having a ‘real’ betting, I found some part of my life has been deteriorating, or maybe I live for a different objective now. While I didn’t hesitate to try new things or be a different person or the first one to try, now I waste my time more for decision, decision and consideration. Or is it the world of adult? Where we have to see things not from a blank of thinking, but to look at it upside, down, right, left, southwest, northwest, yea, what the hell, I still like new things though, I promise I will still do different thing or even crazy thing others don’t want to do in the future, but I will also be more patient and less emotional, I hope, like you care, like you understand. : )
WEE’ ;P
Happiness is much more equally divided than some of us imagine.
- Charles Coleb Colton
In the child happiness dances; in the man, at most, it only smiles or weeps.
- Jean Paul Richter
You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.
- Al Capone.
They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad that I'm going to miss mine by just a few days.
- Garrison Kielor.
All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
- Spike Milligan
I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
- Steven Wright
For a brief moment I realized they had that kind of sourly and pissed off looks.
“Oooops…you are supporters of Germany, aren’t you?
Yesss. I’m inside the country where most of them are fans of English League or whatever, German, and France. One of my lunch colleagues even bet his head out for whoever against Italy on the final. So I bet with him, and I won free lunch.
Other than finally having a ‘real’ betting, I found some part of my life has been deteriorating, or maybe I live for a different objective now. While I didn’t hesitate to try new things or be a different person or the first one to try, now I waste my time more for decision, decision and consideration. Or is it the world of adult? Where we have to see things not from a blank of thinking, but to look at it upside, down, right, left, southwest, northwest, yea, what the hell, I still like new things though, I promise I will still do different thing or even crazy thing others don’t want to do in the future, but I will also be more patient and less emotional, I hope, like you care, like you understand. : )
WEE’ ;P
Happiness is much more equally divided than some of us imagine.
- Charles Coleb Colton
In the child happiness dances; in the man, at most, it only smiles or weeps.
- Jean Paul Richter
You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.
- Al Capone.
They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad that I'm going to miss mine by just a few days.
- Garrison Kielor.
All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
- Spike Milligan
I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
- Steven Wright
Friday, July 07, 2006
A Star In The Sky
We had just received the news about Frangky, our DM when we were in Menado.
Tonight is the ceremony of the third day since he passed away from a motorcycle accident.
Although we had known him only for the few days of our stay, we feel the great lost and sadness. He had touched our lives and crossed our path in special way.
It still fresh in our memory the way he talks, the way he is always helpful and the way he loves and takes care of the nature.
I’ll keep the memory that way.
Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before,
advanced a stage or two upon that road,
which you must travel in the steps they trod.
- Aristophanes (448-380AC)
Tonight is the ceremony of the third day since he passed away from a motorcycle accident.
Although we had known him only for the few days of our stay, we feel the great lost and sadness. He had touched our lives and crossed our path in special way.
It still fresh in our memory the way he talks, the way he is always helpful and the way he loves and takes care of the nature.
I’ll keep the memory that way.
Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before,
advanced a stage or two upon that road,
which you must travel in the steps they trod.
- Aristophanes (448-380AC)
Monday, July 03, 2006
Pulau Tioman
Pulau Tioman (30th June – 2th July 2006)
We had only been diving in Tioman twice, when we did our Open Water course and when we visited the further site from live onboard trip with Kaleebso.
It was only eight of us in this trip, including Joshua, the lone operator. We had two Singaporean, two Malaysian, two Indonesian, one Japanese and one Polish, it was a multi-racial weekend and it was fun meeting new friends.
This trip we didn’t stop by Project, the place where divers always gather for toilet break, food break, quick dinner, tidbits shopping because since the end of 2005 monsoon, the favorite Project had been changed into Seven Eleven, and they didn’t have much to offer nor they have the ‘Diver’s Kampung’ ambience. So we stopped at one eatery with row of shop at another end. They had many type of food to offer, since we had our dinner already, we just grabbed few stick of satays. We also bought mangosteen as tidbits.
Because of low tide, we had to take transfer boat, we could see anything at night, only a few flickering lights from afar, which came from a row of boat parked together waiting for passengers brought by transfer boat. We boarded the exact same boat that we took during our last trip to Pulau Dayang, we also slept on the same spot. The sea was very rocky and rough, soon I reached the boat, I needed to lie down to calm my stomach. We waited for the other group and tried to sleep. The night was rocky, we were cramped having to share a bed for three but I slept quite well, although the aircon was uncomfortably blew right to the face, I was quite well hidden.
We reached Tioman island around 5 am, Tioman has this long concrete pier. The water looked clear along the way, we walked to our resort. It was a long, long, long walk. We passed by the place we stayed during open water, and it was only one third of all journey. We needed ten-fifteen minutes walk and finally we reached the resort. It was generous that everyone of us had twin sharing, it could be considered as rare luxury while we usually stayed in bunker for eight or four. The room condition was the best along the history of our weekend trip. We had this comfortable bed and big toilet with a lot of place to hang clothing and towel, another luxury. We dropped our backpack, and slept.
Around seven am, there were noises coming from outside. It was a group of noisy diver, very very noisy, such as aunties from market or hungry birds. Our room was next to the dining area. We only need to gather around nine, so we tried to sleep again. It was quite a great sleep to make over the night on boat. Nine o’clock we had gathered for breakfast and nine thirty we boarded the boat.
We shared the boat with another group consisted of six divers. Another rare occasion, we had spacious space on boat. We did deep dive on Chebeh for the first dive. I did not expect much for weekend trip, but now I realized that Tioman actually still has quite a nice coral life. The coral looked healthy enough and there were many variety of species, much better than Dayang dying life. There were gigantic seafan in Seafan Garden with colorful soft coral. Although the visibility was not really good, the dives were relaxing. It was cold and the surface was very choppy at times, made it difficult for us to board the boat when we surfaced, although our group considered lucky to get in board at the right time while others sometimes had to endure minutes in surface without the possibility to get in.
I liked the coral formations, seafan, colorful alcyonarians, lettuce coral etc. For the fish, we saw black grouper and marbled grouper, pair of humphead parrotfish, jacks, bloody huge titan (lucky it was not in the mood to attack, but of course, me and hubby avoided it like a pest). We saw one oversized weird looking shrimp on the sea whip. It was larger than the diameter of the sea whip, so when it tried to hide, it didn’t help much. We found the nice colorful looking blenny standing on the coral and looking nervously at us. It had a very funny looking face, with monyong lips and eyes moving to us, to its right, to us again, as if thinking, should I run or not, but it had big confidence that we didn’t see it. I missed it already. We found four mating nudibranches crumpled together, it was a black and white, we called it tuxedo nudibranch. We watched them but suddenly the current from Joshua’s fins separated them. We gathered them, they started to crumple again, and again, Joshua’s fins blew them away all over the place. Gee..! We lost our invitation for the wedding ceremony.
After the third dive, we sat around in the restaurant next to the pier to enjoy the scenery and ice cream. Just being away from the city itself was already nicee...this made it even better..
Night dive we went down at the jetty, while on the surface, I had feeling that I had been brushed by something a few times, although I suspected it came from the bubbles inside my wetsuit, I felt weird though as it never happened before. It was sandy bottom below the jetty. I didn’t enjoy the dive at first because it was too crowded and the sand stirred up by fins made the visibility dropped. I also didn’t feel comfortable with the loud boat sound above my head and kept checking my depth to make sure we were far from surface. It was actually quite relaxing if we made it slow to check the tires and things beside the pier structure, but somehow we moved a bit fast. At the end, we saw an octopus sticking on one of the structure. It was rare, very rare thing to find there. So it was quite a lucky dive. We surfaced, gathered our regs and walked, long, long heavy walk to the room. My allergic started to take over, my skin was itchy and uncomfortable, so taking a shower was my first priority, much much important than long awaited dinner.
I heard from everybody, apparently there was a great barracuda around during the night dive, dang, I missed it again, it happened many times before, so I have to live that every time I dived with great barracuda, I didn’t know it was there. Creepy, but I appreciate the gesture of it not to say hi to me at unexpected times, although I can’t help to think about the brush on the surface.
We had a late dinner, so my gastric started to act and left me uncomfortable. After we had dinner, we walked to the restaurant near the pier and had our delicious roasted chickens. It was a very happening night in Tioman, there was a big projector and big big screen for those who enjoyed football. Where is the best place to enjoy football match except beside the beach with friends, beers and giant screen? But for us, who are not really football fans, sleep sounded like a better option, although I liked the ambience. I can’t help but to say that I really enjoyed Tioman this time. Yes, It is commercialized, but it’s a place that at least made me feel like holiday are around me on very short given period. For two years we visited Dayang and Atlantis Bay and it was relaxing, we had nothing to do but eat and sleep. In Tioman, we had ice cream and we saw a lot of people, sun tanning tourists, naturalists, hiking tourists, blur tourists while in the other island all we saw were divers, divers, divers. So I must say I’m really impressed to be here again this time.
We had a long night sleep and boarded the boat around 9 am, to our surprise, there was another big group joining us, and the whole boat was full of equipments. So after we prepared our gear, we had to get out on their way and suntanned at the deck. It was bloody bloody hot. Tioman pier has a nice concentration of small fish swimming around the pier, many many of them, so we just enjoyed the view while our skin started to grow reddish. After all the chaotic preparations, the boat started the engine and we went down for briefing.
For this trip we had few tasks in our hand. We managed to reduce the number of weight we needed to carry down and finally, we could use our high volume mask, after it failed and kept fogging times and again in the past, so we can consider this as a fruitful trip.
On the way back to Mersing, it was a torture. To avoid the aircon blowing to our face, we slept upside down, and our head was lower than our body. After half an hour, I felt worse. The boat was rocking like crazy from right to left. Finally I had enough and went out, just in time, to empty my stomach. I had to sit on the boat side during the journey to keep myself from getting sick again. There were times when it was so bad that everything on the floor just moved to another side and the tip of the starboard touched the surface of the ocean, there were quiet times also, not much, but enough to enjoy the hunting birds on the surface. Overall, what a rough sea!
We boarded the van in Mersing jetty and straight away went to the restaurant. We visited the restaurant last year and the food was good, but this time, the chef was not available, so we had to buy some tidbits to stuff the tummy first and off we went for a long journey to our next stop. I had a great sleep during two hours, and we had great, cheap, good and delicious seafood dinner.
The was a long jam through the Malaysian checkout point, but funny the immigration counters were empty, so we had a fast past. The weather was annoyingly humid, both of us were dropped at Kranji MRT and we took our ride home. Reached home at almost midnight, washed up the gears and emptied the backpack, we went to bed at one.
We had never feel as tired as this before, not even after our long trip, starting from yesterday, we also had muscle cramp and sore joints, but,
it was a good weekend.
_______________________________________________________________________________
We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.
- Robert J. McCracken
We had only been diving in Tioman twice, when we did our Open Water course and when we visited the further site from live onboard trip with Kaleebso.
It was only eight of us in this trip, including Joshua, the lone operator. We had two Singaporean, two Malaysian, two Indonesian, one Japanese and one Polish, it was a multi-racial weekend and it was fun meeting new friends.
This trip we didn’t stop by Project, the place where divers always gather for toilet break, food break, quick dinner, tidbits shopping because since the end of 2005 monsoon, the favorite Project had been changed into Seven Eleven, and they didn’t have much to offer nor they have the ‘Diver’s Kampung’ ambience. So we stopped at one eatery with row of shop at another end. They had many type of food to offer, since we had our dinner already, we just grabbed few stick of satays. We also bought mangosteen as tidbits.
Because of low tide, we had to take transfer boat, we could see anything at night, only a few flickering lights from afar, which came from a row of boat parked together waiting for passengers brought by transfer boat. We boarded the exact same boat that we took during our last trip to Pulau Dayang, we also slept on the same spot. The sea was very rocky and rough, soon I reached the boat, I needed to lie down to calm my stomach. We waited for the other group and tried to sleep. The night was rocky, we were cramped having to share a bed for three but I slept quite well, although the aircon was uncomfortably blew right to the face, I was quite well hidden.
We reached Tioman island around 5 am, Tioman has this long concrete pier. The water looked clear along the way, we walked to our resort. It was a long, long, long walk. We passed by the place we stayed during open water, and it was only one third of all journey. We needed ten-fifteen minutes walk and finally we reached the resort. It was generous that everyone of us had twin sharing, it could be considered as rare luxury while we usually stayed in bunker for eight or four. The room condition was the best along the history of our weekend trip. We had this comfortable bed and big toilet with a lot of place to hang clothing and towel, another luxury. We dropped our backpack, and slept.
Around seven am, there were noises coming from outside. It was a group of noisy diver, very very noisy, such as aunties from market or hungry birds. Our room was next to the dining area. We only need to gather around nine, so we tried to sleep again. It was quite a great sleep to make over the night on boat. Nine o’clock we had gathered for breakfast and nine thirty we boarded the boat.
We shared the boat with another group consisted of six divers. Another rare occasion, we had spacious space on boat. We did deep dive on Chebeh for the first dive. I did not expect much for weekend trip, but now I realized that Tioman actually still has quite a nice coral life. The coral looked healthy enough and there were many variety of species, much better than Dayang dying life. There were gigantic seafan in Seafan Garden with colorful soft coral. Although the visibility was not really good, the dives were relaxing. It was cold and the surface was very choppy at times, made it difficult for us to board the boat when we surfaced, although our group considered lucky to get in board at the right time while others sometimes had to endure minutes in surface without the possibility to get in.
I liked the coral formations, seafan, colorful alcyonarians, lettuce coral etc. For the fish, we saw black grouper and marbled grouper, pair of humphead parrotfish, jacks, bloody huge titan (lucky it was not in the mood to attack, but of course, me and hubby avoided it like a pest). We saw one oversized weird looking shrimp on the sea whip. It was larger than the diameter of the sea whip, so when it tried to hide, it didn’t help much. We found the nice colorful looking blenny standing on the coral and looking nervously at us. It had a very funny looking face, with monyong lips and eyes moving to us, to its right, to us again, as if thinking, should I run or not, but it had big confidence that we didn’t see it. I missed it already. We found four mating nudibranches crumpled together, it was a black and white, we called it tuxedo nudibranch. We watched them but suddenly the current from Joshua’s fins separated them. We gathered them, they started to crumple again, and again, Joshua’s fins blew them away all over the place. Gee..! We lost our invitation for the wedding ceremony.
After the third dive, we sat around in the restaurant next to the pier to enjoy the scenery and ice cream. Just being away from the city itself was already nicee...this made it even better..
Night dive we went down at the jetty, while on the surface, I had feeling that I had been brushed by something a few times, although I suspected it came from the bubbles inside my wetsuit, I felt weird though as it never happened before. It was sandy bottom below the jetty. I didn’t enjoy the dive at first because it was too crowded and the sand stirred up by fins made the visibility dropped. I also didn’t feel comfortable with the loud boat sound above my head and kept checking my depth to make sure we were far from surface. It was actually quite relaxing if we made it slow to check the tires and things beside the pier structure, but somehow we moved a bit fast. At the end, we saw an octopus sticking on one of the structure. It was rare, very rare thing to find there. So it was quite a lucky dive. We surfaced, gathered our regs and walked, long, long heavy walk to the room. My allergic started to take over, my skin was itchy and uncomfortable, so taking a shower was my first priority, much much important than long awaited dinner.
I heard from everybody, apparently there was a great barracuda around during the night dive, dang, I missed it again, it happened many times before, so I have to live that every time I dived with great barracuda, I didn’t know it was there. Creepy, but I appreciate the gesture of it not to say hi to me at unexpected times, although I can’t help to think about the brush on the surface.
We had a late dinner, so my gastric started to act and left me uncomfortable. After we had dinner, we walked to the restaurant near the pier and had our delicious roasted chickens. It was a very happening night in Tioman, there was a big projector and big big screen for those who enjoyed football. Where is the best place to enjoy football match except beside the beach with friends, beers and giant screen? But for us, who are not really football fans, sleep sounded like a better option, although I liked the ambience. I can’t help but to say that I really enjoyed Tioman this time. Yes, It is commercialized, but it’s a place that at least made me feel like holiday are around me on very short given period. For two years we visited Dayang and Atlantis Bay and it was relaxing, we had nothing to do but eat and sleep. In Tioman, we had ice cream and we saw a lot of people, sun tanning tourists, naturalists, hiking tourists, blur tourists while in the other island all we saw were divers, divers, divers. So I must say I’m really impressed to be here again this time.
We had a long night sleep and boarded the boat around 9 am, to our surprise, there was another big group joining us, and the whole boat was full of equipments. So after we prepared our gear, we had to get out on their way and suntanned at the deck. It was bloody bloody hot. Tioman pier has a nice concentration of small fish swimming around the pier, many many of them, so we just enjoyed the view while our skin started to grow reddish. After all the chaotic preparations, the boat started the engine and we went down for briefing.
For this trip we had few tasks in our hand. We managed to reduce the number of weight we needed to carry down and finally, we could use our high volume mask, after it failed and kept fogging times and again in the past, so we can consider this as a fruitful trip.
On the way back to Mersing, it was a torture. To avoid the aircon blowing to our face, we slept upside down, and our head was lower than our body. After half an hour, I felt worse. The boat was rocking like crazy from right to left. Finally I had enough and went out, just in time, to empty my stomach. I had to sit on the boat side during the journey to keep myself from getting sick again. There were times when it was so bad that everything on the floor just moved to another side and the tip of the starboard touched the surface of the ocean, there were quiet times also, not much, but enough to enjoy the hunting birds on the surface. Overall, what a rough sea!
We boarded the van in Mersing jetty and straight away went to the restaurant. We visited the restaurant last year and the food was good, but this time, the chef was not available, so we had to buy some tidbits to stuff the tummy first and off we went for a long journey to our next stop. I had a great sleep during two hours, and we had great, cheap, good and delicious seafood dinner.
The was a long jam through the Malaysian checkout point, but funny the immigration counters were empty, so we had a fast past. The weather was annoyingly humid, both of us were dropped at Kranji MRT and we took our ride home. Reached home at almost midnight, washed up the gears and emptied the backpack, we went to bed at one.
We had never feel as tired as this before, not even after our long trip, starting from yesterday, we also had muscle cramp and sore joints, but,
it was a good weekend.
_______________________________________________________________________________
We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.
- Robert J. McCracken
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