il fait calm ici…
everybody’s gone home now… and I missed the crowd.
Back to real life now… setelah beberapa hari ini bersenang-senang. 
Berbagai kisah unik, sudden realizations, invaluable lessons and experiences, lovely surprises, good laughs and a couple of pouts these past five days have changed my point of view on certain things and lifted my spirit (not that I’ve found the courage to start studying again, but a nice mood is already a good beginning ^_^).
Mari kita mulai dari hal-hal nggak penting. I learned that, next to my cellphone, I can’t live without my glasses. Gue sempat kehilangan kacamata gue selama tiga hari. Even though I still had my soft lenses, it still felt as if I had lost half my senses. Never again would I leave my glasses above my aunt’s wash-hand basin.
Satu hal ngga penting lainnya (yang sebenarnya penting) gue dapat from one of my aunts. Untuk para cecewek, drink milk - lots and lots of milk - sebelum menyesal di kemudian hari. Untuk keterangan lebih lanjut, hubungi dokter. ^_^ Seriously, I don’t think any of you would like to have a stooped back when you’re only 40.
Gue juga belajar bahwa orang-orang (termasuk gue… d***) nggak kreatif when it comes to buying gifts buat cross kado. Kadonya nggak boleh makanan/minuman, bisa untuk cewek maupun cowok serta semua usia. And what do you get? Towels, mugs, frames, alarm clocks… Very very universal. (Secara peserta cross kadonya mulai dari kakek gue yang 79 taun sampe sepupu gue yang 1,5 taun. What else could you buy????) ^_^’
I got two favorite quotes during the weekend. One is taken from the movie Nanny McPhee: "… when you don’t want me, but need me, I would be there. When you want be, but no longer need me, I would be gone." (I think that this represents a lot of things in life - at least in mine). The other quote is taken from ym.com: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves."
I learned (again) that family is the most beautiful gift one can get in life. It’s love, happiness, boredom, excitement, tears, laughs, difficult lessons, ups and downs all in one package. And the best part of it is that you’ll never open the package alone. Whether you get something ugly or nice when you open it, there would always be someone by your side. As my cousin, Audi, puts it: tangan tu ginjaaang, loja deeeh… Intinya adalah I’m so grateful that I still have my family… komplit pake telor (emangnya indomie?)
Oh, and I learned that miracles do happen. The nicest gifts are given at the most unexpected moments. "… untuk segala sesuatu ada musimnya …"; all you need is patience and faith.
peace to all ^_^
Uncategorized | Comments (2)Explique-le moi, s’il vous plait.
I feel so tired.
So many questions; like cannonballs exploding in my head
I dare not ask…
Yet I’m dying to know the answer.
Am I just wasting my time?
Or are the stars really shining brighter on me lately?
Uncategorized | Comment (0)I know you’re somewhere up there… smiling at me.
Guys, here’s a story I’ve been working on since last week. As usual, it’s untitled (aahh.. I suck at making titles… hiks) ^_^ It takes place at one of my favorite places on Earth: the island of Mykonos. I’ve posted some photos of the island in my photo album. Go check them out, if you have time.
Hope you’ll enjoy the story. Please post your comments after you read. I have my own opinion about the story; I’ll post it later on. Thanks n c u.
“Gayle?”
I started and turned my head to Jason. He was a few paces ahead of me. His facial expression seemed to me like a big question mark. I must have lost my mind somewhere in the middle of our promenade and involuntarily stopped walking to gaze at a little hotel.
“What’s with you?” Jason asked.
I shook my head, partly to answer his question and partly to dismiss all the gloomy thoughts which had been haunting me since our arrival at Mykonos two days ago.
“Nothing,” I said.
Jason gave out his hand to me. I took it and we continued our walk. The weather was warm and gentle, and so was Jason’s hand.
This summer I had decided to spend two weeks in Greece, as I had always done every summer until two years ago. I’d always loved its islands, especially Mykonos. Not only because the island is beautiful and calm; but also because it was where I met my best friend, Rachel.
We met six years ago, when I was 17 and she 20. It was around 1 a.m. and I had just got out of a nightclub, holding a bottle of Stella Artois and feeling low. My friends with whom I had come to spend my vacation in Greece were still inside, probably planning to dance around until it’s time to close the place. I had got in a quarrel with one of them, so I decided to leave to calm myself.
I didn’t know where to go. I just walked until I reached the beach. The smell of the sea raised my mood a little. The night air felt cold on my skin. There was a low wall barricade along the coastline. I sat on it, facing the ocean, and started to drink.
Another girl came along and sat a few inches from me, her back to the ocean. She had very short hair and pale skin.
For a moment, we were quiet; each of us absorbed in our own thoughts. Suddenly the girl moved and handed me a cigarette.
“No, thanks,” I said.
She shrugged and lighted the cigarette for herself. “The night sucks, huh?” She said, turning to face the ocean.
I didn’t reply, just continued to drink.
“You in vacation?”
“Yep,” was my answer.
“You have a name?”
I began to feel uneasy but gave her my name anyway. “Gayle.”
“Rachel. From Holland.”
“I’m from London.”
There was a moment’s silence.
“My mom just yelled at me on the phone because I left my daughter with my ex in Holland to go here,” Rachel said suddenly.
I turned my head and looked at her in wonder. She let out a little laugh. “I’m sorry if I shocked you. I tell you, I’m not like that to every people I meet.”
“Okay…” I said.
“Oh, um.. that was why my night sucks. What about you?”
“My friend kissed my boyfriend and didn’t feel guilty about it.”
“… and you still call her your friend. Unbelievable.”
I handed her my quarter-filled bottle. “Want some?”
We stayed there talking until 4 a.m. Rachel told me that she was 20. She had a 3 year old daughter named Charlotte whom she raised alone. Charlotte’s father, Damien, proposed to marry her right after Charlotte was born but Rachel refused. She was intimidated by the idea of committing to one man for the rest of her life. Rachel had to leave Charlotte with Damien for a couple of weeks that summer, because she wanted to visit her current boyfriend in Greece.
At the end of our talk, Rachel invited me to have lunch with her the next day. She said that it was as a recompense for the time I’d wasted that night listening to her stories. I just laughed at her words but promised to come the next day. I didn’t feel like hanging with my friends anyway.
It turned out that Rachel and I get along really well even when I’m not drunk :). We went out again together a couple of times during our stay at Mykonos. She even introduced me to her Greek boyfriend. His name is Paolo and they met on the Internet.
I was the first to depart from Greece. Rachel and I managed to keep contact afterwards. She visited me once in London with her daughter. When I first saw Charlotte, I thought of her as a little princess. She was very sweet and resembled her mother a lot.
The next summer, I spent two weeks in Greece with my friends as usual. It happened that Rachel also planned to visit Greece, since she was still dating Paolo. She brought Charlotte with her then.
“I think we should do this again,” she said while we were on a boat heading to Santorini. Charlotte was sleeping on my lap and Paolo talking to a tourist couple at the other end of the boat.
“Do what?” I asked.
“Rendezvous at Mykonos every summer. You told me that you always come here every year with your friends and I will have another reason to get here besides seeing Paolo.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“I think we make a great pair of friends.”
Thus was decided that meeting at Mykonos in the summer would become a ritual for us. Even after her break up with Paolo a few months after, Rachel still insisted on making Greece our place of rendezvous. I had no reason to decline, for the country had been my summer getaway since I was 15.
The more I got to know Rachel, the more I respected and adored her. She was never judging. She never hesitated to try new things or express her thoughts no matter how uncommon they were. At times, it troubled me when people stared at us upon hearing her exclamation. Whenever I complained about it, Rachel would laugh and say, “Come on, the world would be boring without noisy people like me. Besides, I’m offending no one.”
Our fourth summer would be a turning point in my life. Rachel didn’t bring Charlotte with her. She was curiously more vigorous than usual. Unlike our past summers, that year we met at Athena instead and spent three days there before taking a ferry to Mykonos.
“You know what, it must be nice to die in a beautiful country like this,” Rachel casually said as we were having coffee in a restaurant at the beach.
I looked at her disapprovingly. “It must be nice to live here,” I corrected her.
“Yeah, sure. What I had in mind was spending one’s last moments in life here.”
“Where did you get that idea?”
Rachel looked at me straight in the eyes. “From myself. I’m gonna die this summer.”
“What?”
Rachel then told me that she had been ill for five years. Her doctors had predicted that her life wouldn’t last any longer than that year. She couldn’t even explain to me what her malady was, since it had been one complication after another which started from an abnormality in her blood. She related her problem to me in a careless way, as if she was telling me a casual story of her neighbour’s children.
“How come you never told me?” I nearly screamed. I felt sudden pain throbbing in my head. I sensed something bad was about to happen, and I started to panic.
Rachel let out a little laugh which stressed me even more. “Sweetie, I didn’t want to spoil your summer by delivering bad news.”
“Well, why is this summer an exception?”
“Before it’s too late…” she murmured.
“What?”
“Nevermind. Hey look, I love their shirts,” she pointed to three people taking pictures at the beach. They were wearing dark blue t-shirts saying “Life is short. Drink faster” in white.
“You think they bought those somewhere on this island?”
I groaned. I would have loved those shirts if only Rachel hadn’t told me that her life wasn’t going to last long. Rachel obviously didn’t want to discuss her malady anymore, while I still have thousands of questions in my head. What if something happened to her this afternoon? Tonight? Should I call Damien? Or her mom? But Rachel acted as though she had never said a thing about her health, so I didn’t bring up the subject anymore that day.
Rachel collapsed the next morning. I was so unprepared for her breakdown. I didn’t even know what she had! Each second, each hour of my waiting in the hospital passed like a ghost. I was unaware of anything. All I could feel was fear. When I was told that Rachel had passed away, it seemed like my heart had stopped beating too. My whole body just froze. I couldn’t cry; I couldn’t even blink. I just stood motionless in front of the doctor.
“Would you like to see your friend?” the doctor said softly.
“Would you not leave me while I see her, please?”
Rachel’s decease strongly affected me. It was as if half my spirit had gone away with her. I had always loved her as a sister. I felt sorry that I had never told her about it.
I left Greece with a broken heart that year. It seemed like nothing could cheer me up. I sent a message to Damien once, to see if Charlotte’s doing fine. He told me that there was nothing to worry about and that I could visit her if I wanted to. Although I cared for Charlotte as much as I did for her mom, I chose not to see her. I couldn’t bear being in contact with anything that reminded me of my best friend.
I changed my summer destination the next year. I headed for Spain. Alone. My friends felt sorry for me, but couldn’t do anything to help me. They passed their vacation in Greece. I came back from Spain feeling better and happier. I thought that I had finally moved on.
I met Jason then. We had a lot of fun together until he told me that his cousin lived in Greece and offered to go there together the coming summer. Whenever he asked me whether or not I wanted to go, I always said no. And every time he asked me why, deep inside my heart I asked myself the same question. I realized that I hadn’t really got over my grief.
… Mais je m’ennuie, moi …
It’s almost 8 p.m. I’ve been watching a certain film on TV since 7 p.m. and I can’t stand it anymore. I need to type out something to calm myself.
People, what’s happened to our TV industry????
Terlepas dari selera masing-masing orang, gue suka heran ngeliat sinetron2 di TV masih pada laku aja ditonton. Gue sama sekali nggak terhibur dan nggak merasa terdidik nonton film aka sinetron di TV. Yang ada, gue jadi emosi nyaris darah tinggi dengar dialog en nonton kelakuan tokoh-tokohnya (I’m starting to think that “sinetron” is bad for your health ^_^).
Kekerasan rumah tangga, rencana-rencana jahat, ngeracunin orang, ngebunuh, punya istri dua, materialisme, cinta setengah mati ampe kehilangan akal sehat,…
Call me naïve, but that’s not the world I know. Emang sih, when we watch a movie, we expect to see something out of the ordinary – something we don’t encounter everyday. Tapi bukan hal-hal super jahat seperti yang kebanyakan ditayangin di TV. Worse, most of them are on air between 7 ‘til 9 p.m. Akibatnya, kalo gue lagi pengen nonton TV, pilihan gue jadi terbatas… kalo ga SuPerDeaL, ya.. Metro TV. Bagus sih, tapi lama-lama bosen juga, kali??
…
Well, now that the movie I was watching is over, I’ve nothing else to say. Gonna continue a story I’m planning to post soon.
Il est temps de faire la fete!!!
I’m in the X’mas mood. It’s one of my favorite events of the year, other than my birthday, new year’s day… and every other day of the year (-Life’s about enjoying every second you have- ^_^).
Nothing compares to the fun hunting for Christmas presents, sending cute cards to people, putting up a Christmas tree, decorating every corner of the house, listening to Christmas carols, baking beautiful little cakes, dressing up to go to Church on Christmas Eve,… I get so excited, that it feels like I’m sent back to childhood.
The most gorgeous part of the moment, is the feeling of hope that burns in your heart. The hope to celebrate X’mas with your family, the hope to find a little gift under your X’mas tree in the morning, the hope that this Christmas will refresh your heart and soul, give you warmth to face the coming days and shower you with new hope until the next Christmas comes.
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