Back then, I used to make New Year Resolution. Two times, the most, if that’s still count as ‘used to’. Because I’ve never actually fulfill it, or even looked at it, I pissed off and quitted lah! (It’s Singlish I don’t want to adopt, but after hearing and speaking and even reading about Singlish, some sentences do feel more appropriate with lah etc. Kekekeke).
So, I’d be grateful instead. I’ve led good life, maybe I’m stuck into something routine already, many times I questioned myself, why on earth I’m not as adventurous as I want to be? Sometimes I feel bored too, but actually, boring life is good life. Can you disagree with that? Boring life, in normal term, means that your life is good; we don’t have adrenalin rush of something bad happens or things like not having enough money to buy food, ‘being fired’ because you lose it with the boss etc ‘, so I’m grateful, very grateful indeed.
Although it feels that long, or too fast, BAM I am ALMOST thirty, please let me say it now that I STILL can, I hope I can recall my last ten years, at least. I have limited memory now.
1996.
Er.
Oh, maybe my highlight of this year was to join Kapa and met many new friends, friends that I liked to be with because they had seen me high and low, the shower-free and the over-done of me. I gained many good new friends and enjoyed great activities. I even went rock climbing with somebody from Boedoet. Who doesn’t know that school? They have their graffiti everywhere.
That time, everything; Endurance? Wet? Crazy? Bring it on. My body regenerated every few days and no back pain could stop me. Aha! Good ol’ days.
1997.
- And I went for quite an unforgettable journey with my Mom to visit my Dad in the middle of Borneo juggle. Before that, we stayed for a few days in hotel, my home town, and hung out with my lifelong friend. Some Satpam jerk thought we were some kind of ‘happy’ girls, because we rode motorbike and went in and out hotel. Lost my temper, lucky my peaceful friend was more sensible. I was ready to punch some nose, capable or not, I couldn’t think.
Be a co-pilot. : ) of an eight-seater plane.
Stayed in crazy house. It was a company house, the one my Dad stayed. But it was creepy, creepiest house of my lifetime. Picture these;
Mosaic and blood-maroon exterior (those mosaic Chinese like to use for tomb) with two gigantic statues. Blood maroon interior, funny smell and various dried animals hanging here and there.
House was multilevel; it had with two dark empty rooms facing living and bathroom.
Bathroom came with water tub that I couldn’t see the bottom of it.
Upper floor and bedroom with no false ceiling, we actually had to sleep with bats hanging up there, red mouthed with their fangs and tiny eyes. Some very friendly ones flew down to my pillow during midnight. I didn’t actually feel uncomfortable sleeping under the bats colony, but the dark room disturbed me more, couldn’t look at it and wouldn’t sit in front of it. After us, the family who stayed there found their daughter passed away one day sitting in the living room with eyes open looking at the dark room.
Huaah!
We were glad we forced my Dad to move out.
- Went to the gigantic Borneo jungle to see Orang Utan (hihihi) up close and personal, while surviving Malaria (?), nobody knew and I was too clueless to tell what I was having, what’s that, red spot, extreme cold and fever? I thought Oh, it’s the weather.
Being few meters away from the huge floating black crocodiles, but they were sleeping, at least, that’s what we thought. The local said, Crocodileee on the left… as casual as Kondektur said Tukang Sayur di kiri…
Anyway, they won’t eat anybody unless you fall into the water, which is unlikely because the boat side was high (half a meter, blink blink).
1998.
- If I got it right. It was the first time I came to Sinciapo. I was impressed to be somewhere foreign, but I was impressed more with the rudeness of the people that time too, and the language. My positive memory was with the MRT system, of course, compared with the one I used to take Depok-Kota. Here, we don’t need to take care of ourselves.
Unless you are super careless, there is almost no possibility for you to fall between the carriages, or position yourself in the middle of the track while the train is approaching (We actually did it for the sake of not missing the next train, few minutes away or just to be able to cross the track to reach to the opposite road (Is it Indonesian braveness, independence or stupidity? I also don’t know : ). Sometimes I just can’t help to think whether my Singaporean friends can survive riding the Jabotabek, infamous train in Indonesia or even my sworn-with-car-since-young Indonesian friends), or went back to retrieve the slipper caught in the middle of the track. (It was early Monday morning, had gone two hours worth of journey from home to hostel, only to realize that I wore Dad’s slipper when it fell from my feet while I was crossing the train track. Stu- Stu- Stu-))
- Riot in Indonesia.
I just can’t forget the way my friends made fun of the TV footage showing the looting came together with the riot. Maybe I could see the horror they had yet to see because I was super worried about my family, house and shop at home. But we were extremely lucky, except the material lost; nothing matters more than life and dignity. But to put it dramatically, I never look at human being the same way again, I came to know what they are capable of, I guess, Chinese in Indonesia also never look at life in there the same way again. It’s the scar nobody ever able to cure.
The irony is, somehow I could understand the so-called motivation, jealousy maybe in extreme way, and the lack of wisdom as the most dangerous fuel. Pasca riot, when I looked at those looters, one image, a woman with a child on her lap, sitting on the road pavement, selling her ‘catch’ on a piece of plastic sheet. I was mesmerized to see how ordinary she was, but at one moment, she turned into a beast, she might break something, she stole, she might slit a throat, she might scream murderous words. What drove her? Poverty? Jealousy? Or simply being provoked? Lack of wisdom? Or, at the peak of some anger, lack of brain? Stupidity? The thirst of blood?
Not a better thing, I saw the new hate and anger from the riot victims, I heard them cursing, crying, mourning, which was something every person with sense would do, but the dangerous thing was, they aimed their hate and anger to particular race and religion group, which is something…similar.
Somehow, in my own world of thinking, I guess our creator never suspect that when he made us with variety, with different skin and hair colors, could result to endless stupidity and conflict that lasts forever. But again, I guess, even if we all look the same, we will still find something different we can argue and kill for.
I suspect we were created with too much brain, if not, we could just run around naked, live in the burrow, mate twice a year, and kill only when we were hungry, at least, hungry for food is the better reason? Huh?
1998 was a scary year, but no year is bad as long as I still have my family together.
1999.
Final year at the University. Busy but memorable. Staying at the University, fought through the nights to finish the final assignment. Sleeping bags, pajama, emergency pantry and ‘bedroom’, our thoughtful Korean friend who brought supper for us and smoke-ridden computer to help us finish the year.
Had Christmas miracle where I actually got better GPA than what I was thought (apparently I just miscalculated). If I had known I would miss the suffering moment during the sleepless night, I would appreciate it more. But I did appreciate it, I did celebrate it. It’s tiring, crazy, exhausting, stressful, but we had same reasons to laugh.
Damn new generations who use computer for everything, you don’t know the fun you miss of making a simple mistake can cost you.
2000.
- Graduation!
Maybe it’s the first and the last time I wore those Kebaya, the traditional Indonesia clothing. You need to wear a layer of don’t know what, then sarong and the flowery external blouse. The good thing is, you don’t need stocking for that! The bad thing for me was, during midday, on the way to family photo shoot, the inner layer made me itch like crazy, it was like bitten by the mosquito on the palm, itchy but you can’t do anything, and a kilogram makeup on the face looked terrible under sunlight. I looked at my friends, who were all dressed the same, and saw the brick colored face and heavy eyelashes and purple eye contour, I was terrified and all the more, I looked the same too. But at least I was lucky enough to use my own hair for the hairstyle, rather than those who had to use the big ball of heavy wig. Freaky. But it was once in the lifetime, so okay, one day of suffering as a closure for four and a half years of memorable…youth? Mhehehe.
- Move to Batam
Although I had many considerations, from the beginning, it was a GO. I always had a feeling that I would work somewhere far away and I had that chance.
It was a blast, meeting new people, new place, a job. I guess, young spirit beats it all, I was eager and fearless to try everything. Although the negativity from friends around affected me, I had never actually feeling down or gave up, never entertained the thought of going back to Jakarta, no matter how hard the life was. I thought if I went back, I’d be taking a step backward, although it shouldn’t be that way. I’m glad I made that decision. To be honest, it was fun, although miserable, I was happy. There are not many opportunity to enjoy our heart out with many great friends with same level of craziness, and to play multiplayer war game with the supervisor, who was and is also a close friend.
- Big brother’s marriage! Strange. We were growing up fast.
I feel comfortable with my sister in-law, maybe in some ways, we are quite alike. I’m glad I don’t need to sweet talk; she is frank, independent and fun to be with. It’s good that all my sister in laws are normal girls. The first sign of abnormal girl, in my point of view, is the one who speak with fake voice, sweeten, soften and manja version. Argh, it’s just too much to bear. That voice only restricted to couple, not public, not friends.
2001.
- It might be the first time I’ve ever thought, How if I gone? What would I regret for not doing? That was because I was having quite an interesting and shitty day during my first job interview here. I had swollen ankle, as a result of failing from staircase (this staircase wouldn’t pass any safety regulation), I spoilt my umbrella (the wind blew it up and broke all the bones), so I had to run with swollen ankle in the heavy rain clutching folders, files and bags, with 20 dollar in my pocket in foreign country, and I had no idea where the interview place was, I only knew it’s across the country from the point I stood. Then when I rode the ferry back to Batam, the storm was very rough and the ferry rocked like crazy. I didn’t think of those stupido ‘near-death’ experience but at that point I made some decision that I shouldn’t delay something for the sake of proper timing of a relationship.
- Got a job here!
During all the paperwork process, we worked freelance with the boss, travel to and fro every weekend, but our life was getting better, we didn’t need to worry about how to make the ends meet and able to spend on better things, shopping (which we hardly do at all) and afforded the flight back to Jakarta for the missing @%$%*# paperwork. My lecturers came as angels to me, I remember many of them did some good effort to advice me and helped me obtain some paperwork from the university.
During the weekends, and a month, we stayed in our boss’s house. He was a great person, it’s quite unimaginable to stay at boss’s house, his wife cooked for us and they treated us like family. Our friend also helped us during the process.
Good to know, nice people are everywhere when you need them.
We officially moved our life here around August.
- 9/11, I guess it was a shock to everyone. It was sad to see crying family of victims in the TV. Words, sms-es, emails were flying around between friends asking about others who live far apart. It was a breakthrough of everything. Every time a thing happen, a revenge almost always follows, for the wrong reason, for the wrong target. That's the limit of human brain.
Educated people or not: Indonesian, American, Australian, British, Chinese, etc, we can always see the ugly and stupid side of everyone in the name of races and religions.
2002.
- The company was falling apart as it expanded too soon. From a great prosperous beginning, it turned to a disaster, with supervisor from hell, I was relieved to go out too.
Got new job, move to another house.
- Bali bombing. It was sad because it was few months apart after our visit. I had never liked Bali from the words I heard, but when I went there, I fell in love with the spirit of freedom and modest people, it reminded me somehow with Jakarta before the riot.
- First time I met my nephew when he was visiting with my brother and wife. He was the cutest, the liveliest and smartest kid for his age, 6 months, it was very very fun to have him in the house. At least, he didn’t afraid of me, which I thought most kids would.
2003.
Busy, busy, busy year.
- Getting married, officially 3 times. Registration here, Church Ceremony in Batam, and Wedding Party in Jakarta. Busy busy busy. Move to another house and went back again to Jakarta for my younger brother’s wedding. It’s amazing how words can sum up all those things.
- Crazy Sars outbreak. I was actually feeling very scared and helpless at one point of time. So, this is how fragile human being, one day you are able to drop dead just like that. We took all the precaution we could, everyone became a cleaner person and monitoring temperature became a daily must. People were aware of each other health because of the contagious dissease.
2004.
- Went for honeymooning to OZ; Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sidney. It was good to see different country and different lifestyle. Feel in love with the hospitality of the people. They were very friendly and helpful. It was a very enjoyable and best three weeks.
- After postponing it for a year, we finally took Open Water Course, gained great friends along the way; most of them become our regular dive companions until now.
- Tsunami Boxing Day 2004, it was the first time I felt so depressed about something that didn’t affect me directly. The crazy and unimaginable living situation of the survivors disturbed me the most. Lucky, the world was lending a helping hand, too bad; most of the fund went into the wrong people, the most despicable act from people who had the heart to corrupt the food and sanitation money from those struggling with lives. Idiot!
But Kudo to friends who jumped directly into the site to make sure things are delivered to the right hand, and we could have an ease of mind that we didn’t contribute to fatten the heartless pigs.
2005 & 2006, I had my brain backup-ed.
So I had good years, always, hopefully will always. : )
With all the good wish, good hope and good will, let's close this year with big smile and thanks, and:
Happy New Year 2007!
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It’s only possible to live happily ever after on day to day basis.
- Margaret Bonnano
People who say that money isn’t everything in life are usually broke.
- Malcolm Forbes
Life is extinct on other planet because their scientists were more advanced than ours.
- Anonymous
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
- Oscar Wilde
I think that people want peace so much that one of these days the government had better get out of their way and let them have it.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
- Samuel Johnson
A pessimist is one who feels bad when he feels good for fear he’ll fear worse when he feels better.
- Anonymous
If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other causes for prejudice by noon.
- George Aiken
I never believe in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.
- Dick Gregory
