Saturday, August 04, 2007

The Saturday with ...

... Rista!!! Woke up real early just to meet her today. I've been waking up earlier all of this week and to think I can sleep more on Saturday, it wasn't happening. I woke up even earlier today. I slept rather early last night and set my alarm clock to 05:55 am (yes, I like to set my alarm with nice numbers like that) The plan was to tried taking the train to Changi, but as I just finished getting dressed she called me to announce that she had arrived (at 06:45 am, her plane was on time). So with the taxi I went and since we (the taxi driver and me, in case you are wondering the we) were heading to the east, I got to see the sunrise and I was thinking it was pretty awesome because there was this big orange ball and the sky was lighted up with an orange shade. I think the word orange just couldn't justify the view, because it was just so beautiful. Anyway, so I arrived, wondering if we could meet each other successfully. Smart her called me again and we arranged our meeting place nicely and while I was waiting I sent an sms to La Gioia to wish her a good trip (she was getting ready to board when I arrived). Aaahh...I wish I can also have a break.

So I waited for Rista and I kinda saw her running looking left and right and we were just happy to see each other. It was quite a funny coincidence that we were wearing pink. I have to admit she looks different than I remember her. The hair was a big difference. The her I know back then always sported short hair. Let me tell you a bit about her. I guess we were 15 when we first meet (a decade ago!!! My God! How we really do get older). We met in high school. She was never a classmate of mine. She was a classmate of a friend I had back in junior high and their class was next door to mine in my first year. I wasn't independent and so introvert back then I suppose that I stuck to the people I knew and I stuck to my junior high friend who sat with Rista in class and hence I got to know and be friends with Rista. She's not a native of Jakarta, only moved in to the city after her childhood and somehow I guess that made her more independent because she had to adapt quick with the changes. Though she may say her 3 older brothers do play a role in making her a stronger girl. Anyway, I always see her as a strong and friendly open girl. She makes friends easily. I can't remember much now but I'm pretty sure we had much fun and laughter, sneaking to the malls and all

Her strong character was further reflected when she chose to study mining in university (a field of study which I think Singaporeans are totally oblivious of, no offence). I admitted to her today that at that time when I heard she chose that, I was thinking what she was gonna do with it. I think the university only accepted around 40 people in 1 batch and out of the 40, there were only 3 girls! She stuck to it and I suppose fell in love with it. Her dream now is to try to work in different types of mine. She graduated and showed again how strong she was when she accepted a job at Freeport in Papua. Papua for God sake! The most east of Indonesia, think of New Guinea people to imagine it. I was stunned hearing her move there. I don't think I could make that leap but she did. I guess partly because she also knew that if she wanted to do and apply what she studied then her options weren't much. After some wiki search, I found out that she was working in the largest gold mine in the world! Grasberg. She sent me a picture of the place once, but I think I lost it. I was so curious and was planning to make it to Papua one day and see her and see how's the place is. Alas, it's not gonna happen because she made her way to Australia around 7 months ago to work in a metallurgic metal mine. She is really a testament of what I believe, that if you want good and big things to happen to you, you have to be willing to endure the trial and tribulation of reaching to that place. I seriously believe this, I seriously think you gotta earn your place and it's really not a matter of showing it to people around you because ultimately it is God that makes your paths so it is about showing to Him that you can withstand the challenges thrown at you. We often dismiss this as luck, but luck is also within God's hands.

I kinda envy her successful life now though she thinks that I am already in a good state myself. I think her life is totally cool though I'm not so sure about living in such a small city where you can see kangaroos and emu hopping and walking about but I guess eventually you could fall in love with the place. She is loving the place, her company, her life now and the whole new world she's experiencing and somewhat that makes her understand what I am feeling. I guess I've known many people who are okay about their life now. None really have that urge to see and experience the other parts of the world. They think they have a good life, they can buy stuff, they are living in a good place and those notions are not wrong. They are right but I just feel it's such a dead end. Seriously, there are places to see and try and it's not about going for holiday, it's about immersing yourself to these places on other parts of the world. Isn't it exciting? Ah, if I think about it, I get frustrated because I'm still here. But here is also a blessing I suppose. I made it out and maybe it will be sooner than I expect (maybe I haven't deserved that break yet) that I can get out again. We both agreed that we have much to be thankful about.

Back to the day today, so she arrived so early that I think Singapore was not totally awoken yet. We headed down to the city with much talks, many many stories. I saw some places that I hadn't seen for awhile of haven't seen at all. Breakfast was at Starbucks at One Fullerton, her treat and I loved my chunky pear tart. We had much talk, much laughter and at some point I was thinking if the few people there thought we were too much noise for their early Saturday relaxing coffee but seriously there were just many stories to tell. I think she managed to brainwash me more than any other people have attempted all these times. She despite of being a priest' daughter is having a good time experiencing all the nightlife there. I asked her if she didn't find it wrong and she said no because it's never in excess, though this is still not something she talked openly with her mother and she encourages me to be more open about it and I do have to say it is food for thoughts Other talk involved relationship, her abang and the people in my life. She is voicing out reason to a certain predicament which is floating in and out of my brain lately. I say float because at times I am so sure and at times I am an idiot. Eventually I guess it will sort itself out but I guess she, Ms. J, and the Mr do not want me to be entangled and get hurt. They are right but there are times when your emotional state rejects logic and reason.

Moving on with my day with her. Obviously you cannot miss Orchard if you are in Singapore, so we went there. I actually bought more stuff than her. We saw the Indonesian Exhibition in Takashimaya, not bad but we couldn't linger much. Lunch was at Tambuah Mas because I needed nice food. I dragged her for Indonesian food despite of her on her way to Indonesia. She just laughed about it. We couldn't identify which part of Indonesia comes up with tahu telor but she said maybe Surabaya? Then it's off to the Changi again because she needed to catch her plane home. 3 glorious weeks in Jakarta, how I envy that. How I wish I can do that. I can but I have too much restraint in me. We spent around half a day together and it's not really enough. There are still many stories to share and I really hope it's not 5 years from now when we see each other next because it was maybe 5 years ago when I saw her last. I think I only saw her one time after we graduated from high school. She thought how good it was that we can still click and talk happily eventhough we hadn't seen each other for a long time and we don't actually keep in touch through emails. Yeah, I think it was really cool of us We are still friends and we are still very comfortable to say anything.

I have a really good day. A real good one and I feel happy and thankful about it because I had a really bad week, whose effects I foresee will still haunt me for days to come. The worst thing to add to all the unfortunate events that I had to endure was that I felt I was judged unfairly. If you had talked to me in the middle of this week, I would have been more explosive than now but since I had a good day today, I'm kinda more easy about it. Doesn't mean that I forgive and forget though because God knows I am not that kind of person. Let me leave you now with a small picture from today (Singapore is a good city) and a quote that Starfish gave me this week. Ah...he and Rista were so nice because they actually stopped me when I was talking about them and said, "okay enough, now about you". They really do care. Anyways, these quotes come from Coelho's book Like the Flowing River which I gave to Starfish and I have a copy of. Page 183. Hearing the page I exclaimed loudly (in msn), it's fated!!! He said it's a sign He said he straight off thought of me when he read that. Ah, perhaps I almost always look miserable. Sorry people if I make you worried. I'm okay really

As we pedal towards our goal,
we must make a point of asking ourselves:

'What is beautiful about today?'

The sun might be shining,
but if it happens to be raining,
always remember that this only means that
the dark clouds will soon have disappeared.

The clouds do disappear;
but the sun remains the same,
and never goes away.

In moments of loneliness,
it is important to remember this.

:) eKa @ 10:07:00 PM •