Recent Things That Made Me Mooing

Movie
The Boat That Rocked. Invite your friends, grab a beer (or four) and rock your weekend with this supercalifragalisticexplialidocious movie.

Food

Daddy's Kitchen Restaurant's Green Noodle and Lao Ta Pudding.
Have a bite at Jalan Puputan Niti Mandala Renon (next to Suranadi & Warug Babi Guling Renon)

Stepper Machine
Post-modern torturous device to kill off extra bulge on your thigh. Try it at your nearest gym.
Extra pain and muscle spasm guaranteed. Weight loss at your own risk.

Before sleep Talk Show
Mata Najwa. Every Wednesday night on 23.00 WIB at Metro TV. Let the gorgeous and super-smart Najwa Shihab stimulate and lull you to sleep. Never before news can be so fun.

Latest obsession when grocery shopping
Lemonade from Berry Juice. Best served chilled when outside is 35 degree celcius.

Treasure found upon blog walking
www.lonnymag.com

Christmas wish list
I hug and kiss thee, my generous Samaritan.

Embracing escapism by reading
The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende.

Favorite new salad bar
Zucchini on Jalan Laksamana 37, Seminyak

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What The Little Blue Bird Can Do

I finally found the perfect template for sapimalas. After what seemed like an endless search, I found this beautiful template in btemplate and wonderfully designed by Insight. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Don’t you just adore the gleeful pin-up girl in the corner?

While we are in the topic of blogging, I found myself lately in the restless mood. I got so easily distracted by ehem, twitter and information flood inside that tiny micro world. I kept clicking over links from newspaper, latest updates from favorite artists and sale info. I kept refreshing the page and skipped lunch so I can just re-tweet or reply comments from friend (which, by the way, is online at moment with me in the messenger). How sick could you get? It’s really is the new addiction. Does twitter kills blogging?

I’m so afraid I would be this tweeting/ blogging/ status updater maniac, I banned smart phone from my life. I know myself and what I’m capable of. Trust me; I will be really out from real life if I get my hands on that thing. Anyway, I still love the old fashioned meeting up with friend over coffee and have a real talk, real laugh which doesn’t involve L.O.L. Is it too much to ask?

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Say Hello to Terminal 3

Despite valiant government's effort of finally developing Soekarno Hatta International Airport and built the new so-called green terminal, it lacks some of essential touches. The most noticeable failure in the new terminal is the echo from flight announcement. It was almost impossible to comprehend what was being said since the voice was bouncing all over the place. However, I had to give a light applause for the coffee vending machines, drinking water pumps, smoking room, etc. which was God's given miracle if you found yourself stranded there for six hours like I did. Design-wise, there was nothing you were not expected in any international airport. Still a long way to go to keep a tally with Changi, but well, it's a start.

P.S: A big applause for Bakmi Gajah Mada. You just saved many starving travelers from cold tasteless soto ayam.

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Daddy Dearest

First.

There was disbelief.

You, your solid chest, the safest place I know

changed marble cold.

Your pair of big fingered hands,

always delicate and fixing things

turned limp and blue.

I bathed you as you did so many years ago

to my slippery child body, lovingly.

I inhale your scent, hungry and wish I could frame it for infinity

soon, it was too robbed from me

replaced by cold cold hand of death

Second.

There were people.

People smile. People cry. People mourn. People remember.

People ask. How, when, where.

I answer, a wrecked cassette all tangled up inside.

Be strong, they tell.

Be brave, they hearten.

After all, what other things can they possibly say?

Third.

It was a beautiful day to say goodbye.

It was raining during the whole way (I’d like to think the sky also cries).

I held your framed picture as we passed the familiar streets of our life.

That’s the place where you went to check your car’s wheels.

That’s the restaurant where we shared our favorite noodle.

That’s where we bought our tiles, right Dad?

The last time I pass this street with you.

Fourth.

Your sixty year old body goes up in ashes.

I watched the entire time.

When it was done, I held your whole being in a small terracotta jar.

For all you’ve been, a father, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a friend, you fit in a jar.

I scattered your ashes into the sea, a place you loved so much.

The same sea where you taught me to swim and you windsurfed so many decades ago.

Fifth.

I’d like to think of you now, back to being young

Windsurfing in all ocean of the world

Eternal brave Odysseus, as you’ve been during your life

Sailing ahead to Ithaca

When you watched us from afar

living the life to make you proud.

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In a Hope for a Good Samaritan

If I learn one thing these past few months, is to never say never. So here is my wish list. I kiss and hug you virtually, my Good Samaritan.

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I Would Kill For This

A collection of 100 postcards, each featuring a different and iconic Penguin book jacket. From classics to crime, here are over seventy years of quintessentially British design in one box.

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Books That Nearly Broke My Back

Recent purchase on latest trip to Jakarta:

1. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (hardcover & on sale for a mere 100.000 IDR)
2. Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang
3. More About Nothing by Wimar Witoelar
4. Oeroeg by Hella S. Haasse
5. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
6. A Version of the Truth by Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack
7. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
8. Middlemarch by George Eliot

and it was only a week trip.

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