garden

went home for the second time this year. with a handful of things to do, things to say, things to remember and things to forget.

people to meet and people to greet. rendezvous of hearts, joyful days to celebrate, surrounded by relatives and friends.

the mandates i was tasked to carry and fulfil. the assignments entrusted upon me to complete. as a second secretary, and as a restless bee. trying to make sense of it all:

how long does it take for flowers to realise that the sun is shining and that the season is right for them to bloom?

bosphorus

six hours by the bosphorus, feeling an extreme comfort of a steaming cup of mehmet efendi, which tasted quite like kapal api with one sugar. the silhouette of the minarets, the unfinished report, the bridge crossers, commuting between anatolia and thrace, all fit to the tune of ommadawn's chorus. oh well, the songs of the distant earth remain the same after all these nine years.

red fridays

i think this is an ideal december should be like. haa..!

with red fridays decorating the calendar and filling our hearts with gratitude.

thankful that we have long weekends.

i can go home and fill my days reading my unfinished books.

(friends and relatives can have their wedding parties organised, hoho).

will is here too; he comes from lemgo.

this past weekend we had islamic new year holiday; next week, christmas; and the one after that, new year. oi oi oooi... so nice.

meanwhile i am back to the tales from the arabian nights nowadays. i am reading them again. one tale each night. and i am still impressed by every ending of each tale. such creativity and unthinkable twist are refreshing, you know. some of the tales seem new to me, which is great.

i hope you also have a good time this december. may you fall on the side of the luck, may you be surrounded by friends and family, and if none of these is yours, may the blessings find you in your solitude.

always

may you get well soon, boss.

may your leg recover swiftly and may you start kickin' again immediately.

the holiday isn't a holiday without you around.

in our green house, now that the gentle wind is blowing in from the window,

the coffee cup is half-full, i am home with abundance of refreshing ideas,

absorbing whatever a week long vacation in the city of flower can give me.

but this is incomplete.

i will visit you tonight,

bringing for you the violin.

may you get well soon, boss.

and may soon we will ride together again.

"we got our own roads to ride and chances we gotta take,

we stood side by side, each one fightin' for the other;

we said until we died, we'd always be blood brothers."

(blood brothers, bruce springsteen)

home by summer

back in my hometown. feel the familiar environment again. and ramadan the fasting month is here. i am happy to had a small reunion with closest relatives. this is a time i really treasure. before i left jakarta, i intentionally let my schedule free. i didn't fill my days with appointments. in that way i have the liberty to sleep. to read or not to read. to stay away from the heat on the street. to chat with anyone about any subject anytime. and to say 'yes' to spontaneous invitations offered by aviv.

well, tomorrow at five in the morning i will be seating in the train again, going from bandung back to jakarta. i will most likely sleep during the 3 hours journey. and then maybe i will dream about home. about people i met in days long ago. about moments, events, places, well you can tell. another week of work is ahead of me. monday to friday, with some more in between. without lunch breaks.

yesterday morning, on the way from jakarta to bandung, i sat on the right hand side seat in the train. from around 6.30 to 8.00 am, i saw pretty landscape of java island outside my window. with paddy fields, green and yellow; hills and mountains; rivers and villages. at sunrise they looked absolutely beautiful. i was grateful to see them. such picturesque composition of nature made me stay awake although i was tired and sleepy. i didn't want to miss a thing, steven tyler said. well, it was similar to my situation. accompanied by a stranger next to me, who listened to music from his ipod, i found the travel from jakarta to bandung yesterday was an enjoyable one.

unlike my habitual practice, i took a bus from the train station to my home. one of the slowest means of transportation in my hometown. but still, if i had another weekend like that, i would certainly do it again.

la maison ou j'ai grandi

the harbor lights were shining, the moon was at its high. the captain said, "thank god, we're home! we've drunk the barrels dry." the mizzen mast was shaken, and the lanterns all burned low, i'd never thought we'd make it, but we've twenty leagues to go. so blow your southern trades, and guide me safely to the shore, i'll never gonna sail the seven seas no more.

i don't want to miss the sand in my hair, the roll of the tide and the salt in the air. deep inside it's true, i'm a home loving man, comin' on home to you. i don't want to miss the wind in my eyes, the shimmerin' light when the seagull flies. lo, i've traveled far, i'm a home loving man, and home is where you are...

so here i am, back to the green house, bandung, la maison ou j'ai grandi.