mama

thank you mom.

everyday day
i pray to be
strong
and practice
to prepare
myself for facing
that very moment.

with eyes closed,
i always pray.

mom, i love you.

act two

in the morning hours in kuala lumpur i sat staring at the white pages of my life. i know time can't be frozen. and neither can it be rolled back.

i thought that if one's life was like a play, then mine is about beginning its 'act two'.

the storyline narrates about you, your meaning to me, and my responds to you. the things you offered me generously struck me as beauty in many emanations. be it a being, an object, a situation or a landscape. these things have a powerful effect on me as they probably do on everyone else.

i found the things we do simply decorate life with detailed motifs. full of sounds and colours expressed to the world in a totally metaphorical language.

happy to see your pink and blue dresses shine like crazy diamonds. my sailor's hat and flannel shirts remain as my company.

---

p.s. i'd like to thank my friends for yesterday's impromptu surprise in cikini street. a simple birthday party in tan ek tjoan store meant a lot to me.

nikivina

glad to see aviv and his wife vina shining as a new couple in surabaya last sunday. glad, because i was able to be there. simply because of that. it was a happy occasion with relatives and friends. tammama was also present. she came from flores island, her second home where she lives the life of a kelimutu dentist.

now, we are back to our duties. everyone has a work to do. and i'm not an exception. for me, it will be about resuming my movements from dot to dot. creating a web of ideas and travels, while inwardly hoping that there might be a pause, so that one could sketch a clearer picture of the landscape i am roaming around. i'm back working with wonderful team. and you know, it's rewarding to see that in your work some of your ideas are manifested into reality.

well, tomorrow i should be on my way to kuala lumpur. i've never been there before. it will be a new land to visit for me. and i'm looking forward to it, although i'm not packing yet.

how can i pack? i'm still here, writing this note... oi oi oi.

for oii

God please give courage to her family in their loss.
a friend, remembered for her kindness, now left us.

we love you, oii.

"...your talent came flowing, through the stories they tell
and through the faces of those who loved you so well
your life gave them a treasure, a piece of themselves
something they carry, and still serves them well..."

(B. May)

turn in the corner

in these days i'm having a hoarse voice; and i long for a remedy.

but wow. how glad i was when i heard his voice again, and learned that he sounds happy when i called him.

now i know that there is a plan. or two plans, perhaps. one his; another His.

it's been more than a year since i arrived in that train station, visiting him in his small town of lemgo. we tried to be punctual back then; but failed to make it. being on-time was too much a luxury to afford, wasn't it? haa...

having a quality time with him, for small talk, play ps three, or just watch a good movie, is always fun. my best wishes to him, and that may he make a ladder and climb on its every rung to reach his brightest star.

once a jolly swagman...

along the harrington street, further down the australian avenue,to reach sydney harbour and the opera quay. still impressed by the street lamps at night. i walked on...

"who'll come a-waltzing matilda with me?"

change in changi

'people in between', roaming around with their bags and tickets to fly again. all meet here, some for a short transit, others for a few hours wait, in this state-city of merlion.

i am certainly one of them.

if you have a few singapore dollars left in your pocket, why not try to taste the delicious food they serve up there, on the dock near the balcony from where you can get the view of landing airplanes, and close to a garden with a vast collection of cactus' green.

i dont. thus i prefer to stand here, in front of this bright yellow sign that says: "free internet"; and so i write this. well, anyhow, soon i must go again. and tomorrow, should things go well, these boots will take me to a new land.

time to jump!