SHINING SHANTI

Ya ampun….!

Hati-hati lho menghadapi wanita hamil kalau lagi ngidam. Lihat saja…

Mama waktu ngandung aku, suatu kali melewati daerah mayestik dan minta dibelikan martabak telor oleh Bapak. Bapak yang mungkin saat itu lagi capek (atau malas barangkali) menolak dan mungkin juga membujuk untuk membeli lain kali saja. Pada akhirnya nggak kebeli! Dan pada akhirnya pula….aku jadi suka Martabak Telor. Banget…banget dan banget!

Mama waktu ngandung aku, sempat ditinggal tugas Bapak ke Korea Selatan. Dan pernah berkata pada kakak2ku suatu kali dulu, "Tau nggak kenapa Shanti itu paling putih diantara kalian semua? Soalnya Bapak dulu ke Korea…mungkin terlalu sering lihat orang-orang sana hahaha!!" Dan pada akhirnya pula….aku jadi suka film Korea Selatan. Banget…banget dan banget!

Footnote:

Cerita ini baru kuketahui dari abangku tempo hari. So….there you go!

Just My Lucky Day

Minggu sore yang cerah, 28 Agustus 2005, abis plesiran tempo doeloe museum saya en temen2 merasa perlu udara segar tempo kini, jadi kita putusin pergi ke Pasaraya, Blok M untuk maksi en ngupi2. Sampailah kita masuk ke Soeryo Cafe yang cozy en menunya cukup enak, tapi…of course, setelah lebih dulu cari maksi-masuk-tea-time di KFC demi hemat. Sambil srot srot caramel frappucino, kita ngobrol, renungan, ketawa/i plus…foto2!

Lagi asik kecentilan photo session, masuklah suatu sosok hitam manis yang bikin saya hampir beku. GLENN FREDLY!! Oh, mi God…mi God. Tenang. Tenang. Exhale…inhale…Saya cuma bisa terpana and bengong mandangin dia yang baru aja duduk di meja ujung untuk makan. Temen2 saya juga cuma diem aja, ntah malu atau nggak peduli.

Wait a minute…think, Shanti, think! Kayak lagu Madu dan Racun, ada kamera di tangan kananku, Glenn di tangan ki…well…pojok ruangan yang sama dengan saya. What else do you need??? Foto, you stupid! Tanpa ba bi bu, saya langsung bangkit en…

"Selamat sore, Glenn….Boleh foto bareng gak?"

Dia dengan lesung pipitnya yang manis, "Oh, boleh…boleh!"

Sambil lingkarin tangannya di pinggang saya. Duh, jadi deket en dia…wangi pula! *Waduh semoga aja Glenn nggak baca ini, since he’s in my friendster’s friend list!*

 Mungkin karena gregory saya yang kebangetan, alhasil di foto saya senyum ‘pantekan’ atau senyum kaku seperti dipantek paku. Huaa….

Akhir perjumpaan *eeheem* pingin sih bilang, "Can I have your phone number, Glenn?" atau "Will you have a date with me?", tapi setelah pikir2 saya harus ngantri dengan berjuta2 wanita se-Indonesia dan cewek disebelahnya itu *wah sapa tuh??*…saya cuma bisa bilang, "Looking forward to your next album, ya…"       

Padahal lagu2 di album sebelumnya pun belum apal semua *doh*. Selebihnya saya sudah nggak inget lagi, karena tiba2 nggak bisa nginjek bumi. Houston, we have a problem!

The Art of Plesiran

sekelumit gambar dari Plesiran Tempoe Doeloe Sahabat Museum, Minggu, 28 Agustus 2005, Museum Bank Mandiri

my lovely chandellier…

soedoet museum. 

shadow chaser.

stained glass on the lobby.

very very old version of Computer today

brandkast

10.10, when the time invented

Reminds me of San Fransisco…I left my heart in…Jakarta

      

kecapean muter-muter….

photography : Shanti. Art Design : Shanti. Location: Museum Bank Mandiri, Kota. (c) 2005

WORDS OF WISDOM…

"Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand"

     Thomas Carlyle

basically the point is : udah deh kerjain dulu baru mikir macem2…Good point!

"Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you gonna get…"

                                                             Forrest Gump 

ain’t he cool…?? A guy with no ambition, yet he always succeeded.

"Mau pergi kemana kek, ke ujung dunia kek…segalanya ngomong/bilang!!"

        Mama & Bapak

I didn’t realize they got good point back then, now I say it’s true…

Mother How Are You Today?

Mother how are you today?

This is a note from your daughter

with me everything is ok

oh, mother how are you today?

EVERY TIME I listen to the song, I often burst into tears. I wonder how my mother is today. Maybe she is singing the same song for me from above with a different title. My mom liked to sing, except she only sang this traditional Malay song that made all my siblings and me giggled, yet sometimes bored us. Funny is that now we miss that song a lot. My eldest sister even sings the same song to her children who fortunately like it that they sing it pretty often as well.

Mom was a strict mother that she instructed us all to sit and eat together at dinner at seven sharp! For she thought that was the only time we could face each other and discuss or tell our days. Good Point. She would refuse to give me allowance to buy some food, but willingly gave me one to buy books. She adored books (my Dad also) that she gave every thing for her children to do the same. I guess I know where my passion for books really comes from.

One thing she despised was lying. If she found out that we gave her a lie, she would give us a 2-hour preach on how bad lying is (and any other preaching stuffs, of course). 2 hours? Well, 2 hours was lucky enough, as it often took 3 hours!

Yesterday, when I was at work, I remembered it was her birthday. I stupidly forgot to visit and bring flowers to her at her grave, her ‘homeland’ now….Out of guilt, I brought of a birthday cake home, in hope that at least some of my family would be at home to ‘celebrate’ Mom’s birthday. My nephew and niece were so excited that they kept telling and repeating to everyone that the cake was for eyang mama…the grandmother they never met.

I miss you Mama…so much.

So, how are you today?                                                                                         

An Ordinary Life of An Extraordinary Woman *WAHOO!!*

So here it goes…

07.00 - Woke up by my TV alarm showing infotainment. Forgot to take my Subuh prayer…OMG! Rushed to the bathroom, as I had to be prepared within an hour to go to the office with my sister and hubby by their car.

08.00 - Apparently they took a day off that I had to take a cab, whose driver was nice, by the way. Hardly see nice people these days…

09.00 - As soon as ariving at the office, got a belated birthday present from my co-worker. So sweet of him, since he is well known for his judes-ness. LOL.

10.00 - Internal meeting with several members of the office. One minute, showed this cool and serious intelligent look (although I had no idea what they were talking about), and the next, just had a secretive chitchat with a person sitting next to me.

12.00 - Teeng!! Lunch time! Had a small portion of nasi rames, and certainly nibbling here and there. Recapping celeb gossips from the morning infotainment with a bunch of celeb story enthusiasts haha.

14.00 - Doing some works from my superiors, as well as of course having a sneak peak to this chicklit I am reading, again with a cool and serious intelligent look, pretending to be SO busy (nice tip for young professionals) haha.

15.00 - Got an urgent call from a friend! Asking which DVD I wished to buy…so urgent, ha??!!

15.30 - While still "installing" the LOOK and (truthfully) doing the works, got a call for a meeting, although…this time was held by the underground-ers to discuss late afternoon talk, you know…regarding salary increase, bonus, who’s bad, who’s not and all those stuffs.

16.00 - Chatting through msn messenger with a co-worker, discussing this annual competition of the office held at the end of the month. Got claimed by my ‘roomie’ for the loud sound of my radio…apparently not my radio! Fiuuh..

17.00 - Got news that the father of my co-worker who gave me the said present, just died. Shocked. My heart goes for him…

19.00 - The whole office paid condolence to him at his father’s house. Cried to see him and his family. Remembered my own….

21.30 - Arrived home and caught this fave snack on the dining table. Grab it. Grab it. Be patient, grasshopper!

22.00 - Got sms from someone I know, shared information for sure! Headed for the bathroom to wash up. Byuurr!

22.30ish - While thinking what "uniform" I would wear tomorrow, switched on my computer and logged on Friendster and..voila! Here I am.

Epilogue:

Upon a relief feeling, Shan went to bed and hoped things would be better tomorrow. Although it would be an ordinary day, yet it’d be of an extraordinaire woman. You bet!

The End.

"PENTING"

Kemarin sore ada sms masuk dari temen bilang minta ditelpon karena ada kabar penting. Jujur…tiap kali aku denger ada yang bilang kata "penting", hati selalu deg-deg karena sering berakhir dengan kabar buruk. Waktu mau telpon temenku itu pun seperti dibarengi suara detak jantung sendiri. Bip…bip…bip. Oh, sori…ternyata ada sms lain masuk. Fiuuh.

Ternyata dugaanku kali ini bener, ada temen lain yang kecelakaan di jalan tol ke daerah Balongan, tempat dia kerja. Aku enggak inget lagi temenku diseberang ngabarin apa, tapi hanya suaraku yang kedengeran gede "HAAAHH???." Setelah melalui proses tanya-jawab, akhirnya hati bisa sedikit tenang, temenku selamat, walaupun mengalami beberapa luka.

Tapi enggak selalu semua berakhir buruk. Terkadang kalau temen-temen dari seberang partisi di kantor meng-intercom bilang "Shan, sini deh…penting!", itu bisa buat aku jalan secepet Flash ke area pergosipan yang cuma makan waktu beberapa detik, tapi serasa bermenit-menit! Enggak tahunya mereka kadang cuma mau konfirmasi tanya bos-ku kemana hari itu. Mau ngamuk tapi mereka keburu kompak ketawa ngikik. Dasar….

TGIF 13th

Why Friday 13th is considered as unlucky day? I didn’t quite notice that today is Friday 13th until I made the avatar mood on my msn messenger as TGIF and a friend in my contact list commented that I was thankful for a Friday 13th. Why not?

Urban Legends

The reason why this particular time is regarded as bad luck day is obscure. Many believe that 13 is a number bringing no good luck, even the elevators in the building I work at have no 13th Floors. It is some sort of a superstitious element. As to the Friday, I assume that this day is when all the spooky and superstitious events occured back then in the old days of western culture or history. I guess western culture started this legend of the day. Hollywood even made a horror movie with the same name, with a character of Jason Voorhees, a hockey-masked killer slaughtering highschool kids with his chainsaw. It got so popular that I almost believed as a kid that this Jason legend did live and would show up every Friday 13th…in my bedroom!

Thank God It’s Friday 13th

Despite of all the legends of Friday 13th as an unlucky day, I surprisingly experienced otherwise today, this one-of-a-kind day. My boss whom I always consider as a person of no mercy, unexpectedly made a very fine gestures. He didn’t bother me with those silly instructions as he often does. No "I do the talking, you do the work, Shan" for me today. That’s rare! And in the morning, an old friend, whom I haven’t met for a year or so phoned me to ask to meet. We did. It turned out I had a great and fun conversation during lunch that we planned to make it a regular agenda and planned to have a vacation together soon. I came back to the office with a full stomach and two boxes of brownies that my friend gave me. Thanks vi…

As I just stepped into my loving little cubicle, I was surprised by a news from the Accounting Department that our three-week suspended transportation and meal allowances were issued and ready to be withdrawn. For me, during this mid month with less money in my pocket, receiving an extra ‘wealth’ was a truly bless. My friends at work even got so excited that they actually jumped around, as if winning a million dollar lottery. Poor babies….

As highlight of the day, I had a wonderful and boisterous dinner with a bunch of friends, and followed by going to the cinema on treat of one of them. We almost didn’t want to end the night, but I decided that was enough. I had so much to get - good things - in a day that I can say, Thank God It’s Friday…13th. It is not always a bad luck day after all, you think?

Full House Addicts

For a couple of weeks, I have been brainwashed by people discussing this high-rated Korean TV series, Full House, which I have already seen last mid year. Already too old, I thought. In spite of this, I cannot say I got weary of the flick; I still put an effort to include it in my collection. I admit I am a big fan or addict of Full House as well.

Based on the Korean comic book of the same name, Full House or in Korean pronunciation Pul Hawooseu, tells a cheerful and gloomy sides of a romance between an ordinary naive girl and a famous egocentric pop star, which both of them attempted to win over the house first belong to the girl by having a marriage deal.

Victims or Addicts?

The series was aired and hit big time last year in South Korea and has attracted more than 50% of all viewers in the Ginseng country. It has here now for sure! Even one of my anti-Korean-TV-drama series guy friends has fallen for its charm, or maybe he got karma by making mockery of my liking of oriental cinema, I don’t know. Using his wife as his excuse for watching this drama, he said that the story was humorous and comical, and a must for him is it has a happy ending. "…and the girl was cute," he said. To my surprise, he finished watching within 3 days! Quicker than I did! I finally discovered that he got so addicted - never admitted though - the next day he re-watched some episodes that he claimed he missed seeing, and spare special time in the office browsing the net to find out about the female leading role. Alrighty mister!

Another friend of mine gave testimony that she rarely cries in real life, yet she easily burst into tears over the series. She got so affected - addicted, I may say - that mellowness developed into a theme for her in the following days after watching the series. My orang rumah even asked me, or I should say urge me to borrow or buy the VCD/DVDs for them. They smiled, but gave me such look saying don’t you come home till you get the VCDs. No wonder during the "one precious on-air hour" from 17.00 o’clock onward, I had difficulties phoning home. My guess was they were glued to their seat to watch the precious show. Probably literally using Power Glue. Mon Dieu….

Ibu kita Kartini, putri sejati
putri Indonesia, harum namanya…

Waktu kecil lagu ini trmsk salah satu lagu wajib apal di sekolah setiap tanggal 21 April, sampai-sampai sempet jadi lirik favorit, gara-gara smangat ikutan lomba vokal grup kelas 3 SD buat tampil di Hari Kartini itu. Tak lupa juga pasti ikutan sibuk milih baju daerah atau kebaya demi memenangkan lomba mirip Ibu Kartini, yang kalo dipikir hadiahnya cuma buku tulis, tapi bisa sampai ngrepotin mama untuk jahitin or cariin baju keramat. Sorry Mom. Semuanya demi ibu Kartini. Icon emansipasi wanita Indonesia.

Tapi…sejalannya waktu, aku lama-lama jadi lupa lirik lagu di atas – yang untuk masukin ke blog ini pun mesti kerja keras ngapalin, pdhal cuma 2 baris hehe – seiring pula nyaris dilupakannya tanggal ini sebagai (salah satu) hari keramat bangsa Indonesia itu. Ibu Kartini simbol emansipasi wanita lhoo….gitu kata orang, tapi ada juga yang bilang “ngapain dipuja, emang Ibu Kartini buat apa?!”

Penting diinget gak sih?

Well, banyak pendapat. Gue pribadi sih ingin mengingat hari ini sebagai hari kenangan, dimana aku dulu harus….yaa seperti yang kubilang di atas. Seru-seruan demi lomba! Hahaha. Dan pagi ini aku terpaksa menyaksikan lagi proses seru-seruan Nadya, ponakan aku, sama mamanya ngributin acara lomba disekolahnya. Déjà vu! Yah, mungkin beberapa tahun mendatang Nadya akan bicara hal yang sama dengan aku tentang hari ini. Hari Kartini.