Perfect Strangers

Today was a very unusual day.. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Okay, here goes :

- The 1st event :

I was in the tube on the way to Oakwood to go riding this morning (in some unearthly hour early in the morning, when the whole world is still asleep)... I was sitting next to this elderly man, wearing glasses and jumper,reading a thick novel. His apperance reminded me of a lecturer or a professor in a university. He looks like the nice, grandfatherly type. We boarded the tube in Kings cross together. I fell asleep..and woke up quite panicky cos i thought i had missed my stop. He must've noticed the worried look in my face as i tried to find out what the next station is. Then to my amazement, he said "Don't worry, I was planning to wake you up when we reach Oakwood anyway". Me,"Oh how do you know I was heading to Oakwood??", him "I can tell from your clothes that you are going riding", me "Oh thank you that was so kind of you". No, I didn't miss my station cos we're still like.. 2 station away from Oakwood. And yes, anyone can definitely tell i am going riding due to the fact i'm wearing my mud-covered boots and carrying a lethal-looking long riding whip. Anyway, after that short conversation above, we didn't talk anymore and we both got off in Oakwood and parted there. It was strange but nice, to think that he even thought of waking me up so I didn't miss my stop.

- The 2nd event :

It was around 11pm.. late morning. I finished riding and was waiting for the tube to come. I was standing in the platform...soaking up the morning sun (yes it did get quite nicely warm today in the morning). When I was just about to sit down (cos the tube took ages to come), a lady came and asked me, she "Did we just miss the tube?", me "yup, but i think the next one should be here in five minutes or so", she "Did you have a nice time riding today?", me "Yes, very much indeed..blablabla..". That was what started our almost 1/2 hour long conversation in the tube later on. Her name was Nasrni. She is from East Africa, came to UK 15 yrs ago, and now she's married with two kids. Her appearance was something like a housewife/working woman mixture kind of look (i think she's in her early 50s). We talked about general things. I mentioned to her about my studies and my liking in horses. She has a friend who just graduated from Imperial too. Then a few other general stuff about living and studying in England, work opportunities for foreigners and stuff. She runs her own accounting consultancy company of some sort. Turns out she lives just right across Trent Park Equestrian (that's the riding school where i went) and used to take her boys to ride there when they were younger, but their interest in riding only last for a short while. We talked all the way in the tube, until we parted ways in Kings Cross as I got off to change for the Victoria line. She gave me her business card too.

- The 3rd event :

It was just now, tonight. I was on my way home from work. I just came out from Pimlico tube station when i saw two lost-looking asian girls, backpackers, trying to use the public telephone. One of them catches my eye at the same time, and she called me over. She "Excuse me", me "Yes?"(a bit wary at first), she "Do u know why this telephone doesn't work?" (showing me the telephone and coins). Me "ermm no..why? can i help you?" (err..yeah i have no idea how to actually use the public phone. true). Turns out they wanted to give their friend a call to ask him directions to his place. So, I lend them my mobile. I do aware that that was quite a stupid action of me, i mean..hello, lending ur mobiles to some random stranger you met on the street? (this is Irma's reaction when i told her). I don't know, i am usually very wary and suspicious to strangers, even though they're friendly and all (due to the fact that i live in jakarta, where we naturally learn since young NOT to be trusting as thieves and pickpockets and muggers have 1001 ways to deceive you). Ok, story continued, she showed me the number, i dialled it in my mobile, ringtone, a guy answered, then i pass the phone to her. She talked to him, figure out that they needed to get to Vauxhall bridge, the riverside. I drew them a map how to walk there (its not far from pimlico tube really, 5-7 min walk). Then i said goodbye and left. They were japanese, around my age i guess. but that's all i knew, we didn't chitchat or made any other small talk at all.

Okay, after this third event.. I was really puzzled. I must've still looked a bit dazed when i get back home, cos irma asked what happened. I mean, i do meet strangers once in a while..chitchat..interact and stuff. But this one, THREE PERFECT STRANGERS in a day! Is this some kind of sign from Above? but what does this mean? (okay im just talking crap, pls dont listen). Anyway, ya the point is..it is just so unusual. Three..three..in one day. And its in london! i mean, if this happens while i was travelling or somthing, then it wasn't unusual. but this is london, where people are usually didn't take notice of others. Busy and rushing everywhere. No eye contact, no hellos, no good mornings were ever heard between us, the city commuters, during the the rush hours when we boarded the tube. This is London.

What an unusual day.

Tiredtiredtiredtired :(
and i will lose 1 hour sleep tonight cos the clock moved back one hour ..
but i will be riding tomorrow!
and heading of to the states on the day after tomorrow!

started packing.. making sure things that needed to be done is done.. and a few other gazillion stuff. At least flat is clean, ready for irma's parents when they come. Got us dollar/pounds sorted. Booked hotel for mum n dad already done too..
what else..
hmm..electricity meter to b fixed, washing machine (still), bathroom fan, tv license, sim card..
Will stop writing now before i actually turn this blog of mine to an agenda of to write down my to-do list.

Worrying about tv license..
...
........
... and a few other things.. :(

Laundry day

I feel very very proud of ourselves :)

Today me and irma went to the laundrette..dragging four humongous laundry bags filled with our laundry (which had been piling up since 1 1/2 months ago, due to our broken washing machine and another series of misfortunes that follows). We literally couldn't stop laughing cos we just looked hilarious, like santa claus with black rubbish bag and the concord-white-laundry bag slinging from our shoulders, walking down the road. And the dread of putting our clothes into the huge, not-so-very-clean and ancient looking public washing machine.. and keeping our fingers crossed while we literally stuffed the machine full to the brim. It works! even though it made loads of loud and worrying noises. and NOW OUR CLOTHES ARE CLEAN!!! :) :)

yippe..

On the other hand, our whole living room now looked like ..some kind of clothes shop, as we covered every single surface with clothes/sheets/towels to let them air-dry.

Oh i'm so very proud of ourselves!

Since we moved in, we had overcome so many things to sort out..starting from flat-hunting, making offers, then our non-working internet, setting up our phone line/electricity/gas bills, then all the incidents (fallen glass/door came off/broken washing machine/broken fan), etc etc..I must say, can't do all these without her :)

I feel like i'm being quite anti social nowadays :)
but i do like my being alone these days.. very peaceful and also productive.. cos this is the way i am used to spend my free time since i was young, being an only child it is. These days very nice, i went to the stable 3-4 times a week. When the weather was nice, i just put on my riding clothes, slip on my boots, then took the tube to the stable and ride Loki out to the woods. The exact same thing i always do whenever i'm free for this past 13 years, go and spend it with the horses :) Being alone is good when i have lots of things to do and errands to be done. After i finish all those, the feeling of satisfaction will came and i will feel very proud of myself. I guess me being a perfectionist and a multi-tasker will never change, no matter how i say i've becoming more and more lazy nowadays. Anyway, studying with irma was good! very productive i must say. Since my room was cold and hers didnt have big enough desk..we were commited to study in the living room together most of the time. I like to spend time in a comfortable silence like that..or silence in any kind. I prefer silence because that way i can feel the presence of time much better.

I'm running out of time..AGAIN.
what have I been doing all this time? argh :(
i should stick to my priorities better and resist temptations!
on the other hand, its only 4 more days to and NY here we come!! :)
excitement before the start of travelling..and all the errands that needs to be done. So little time left. Time, i have to manipulate you and not the other way around.

Another march birthday

Chocolate fondue!!! heavenly :)

Before attacking the chocolate fondue..

The birthday guy :)

Above are pics from last friday's kote's bday party :) ! at our flat. It was a nice, small, cosy celebration. Nice catching up with them as well. Alex and james also came, which was even nicer cos we rarely met them at all these days. I realised that i quite like having house parties..hehe its fun to invite your friends over, eat, talk n play silly games. I haven't laughed out loud so much for some time, thanks to richard's idea of one of this game, in which whatever we did should always be off the record except for kita kita.haha. Me and irma were thinking of having some more parties/gathering sort of later on before this year ends. Its funny since we live together, now i knew she's very good in sorting out electrical equipments and stuff (washing machine, wireless internet, lamps, phones etc) which im really really crap at lol. i realised this when yesterday we tried (again) to fix the (now) NEW washing machine (which still) does NOT WORK! Im still the best in cleaning though, and keeping things tidy haha. Im the cleaner, and she's the electrician :). We made a good team.

Sometimes my thoughts are all so jumbled up..especially when i couldn't sleep and feel restless like now.. in the middle of the night, when everyone's asleep.

Makes me wonder the existence of certainities. Do things really exist or is it all down to fate? if only we can figure out what lies ahead, it might make the journey easier. but at the same time, unexciting. Not knowing has its advantages, but who am i to say that we will prefer one over the other? sometimes i can't help but wonder, where this road will take me. Hoping that when i reach the destination, there will be a helping hand there :)

One's life does not need to have any meaning, because the meaning of life itself exists in every little thing one's do. Those small little pieces that scattered along the way is what makes the journey worthwhile in the end.

Wave of sleepiness

Oh no..
the more i revise, the more i mix up all the vocabs!! :(
and now all i wanted to do is sleep..
in which is not good at all
cos tonight definitely cannot study, since got kote's bday party at my place (yay! so happy later will meet all my dear friends again). Been doing nothing much since morning. Took Loki out to the woods again, and since i left my house at 5.30 am, i actually back already ard 10am! thats damn early really, but its good. Ate nasi lemak, then started revising.. took naps in between. And thats about it. Hmm worrying really..

"The further you are able to look back to the past, the further ahead you will be able to look forward in the future."

-Sir Winston Churchill-

(the first thing that crossed my mind when i read this quote was : a giraffe .. cos they have long necks right, so they can turn around almost 360degree too look back).

Terkubur di bawah timbunan tugas

Omg these few days ..
the amount of work..
that needs to be done
is INSANE!

I haven't been out of the house at all since monday, except going to college/jog/sainsburys. Yesterday was a bit of a breather cos i went horse riding (rode Goody! cute cute brown pony for jumping! still a bit green though, but i helped her balance herself over the jumps). Okayy at least now the only thing i have got left are revising chinese & read some photosynthesis papers. At least it helps that irma also been doing the very same thing since monday.. so the usual day will start something like : both of us woke up, go school, came back after lunch, jog/food shopping, then..do nothing but work work and more work until 2-3 in the morning. We motivate each other hehe..cos if i see her work hard, then i also work hard. Its a shame cos the weather been fantastic these past few days! it literally feels like proper spring now. (a big BUT.. cos according to BBC weather forecast : on Monday its going to go down to 5-1 C and it will SNOW). This is just crazy, global warming :(

Eko and ijal..the brothers
Sheep trying to kill gorilla with a stick xp

Afterwards :)

I just realised that i'm really bad in looking at bigger pictures of the whole situation. I'm usually stuck in the small, unimportant details. Spending too much time. Until someone pokes me in the back and said 'why the hell are u talking about those things? that's not what the question asks..'
argh :(

btw, above is the pic from yesterday's indonite. I should be doing my lab report instead of uploading pics! double argh :( :(

i want to sleep. now. today is too good to be true, but being lazy got its consequences.

Ramayana

omg aku senang! bsok jumat akhirnya dibales juga tu email yang gw tunggu2 dari jaman jebot.. senang tapi serem juga.Akhirnya! kynya bisa aja dia uda sebel kali gara2 gw email mulu uda bbrp kali gara2 ga dibales2.huhu. keren..gile tadi gw liat research dia, trus dia banyak ngeluarin jurnal yg menarik abis. oh well, ada banyak list of things to do yang mesti gw selesaiin sebelum jumat!
1.selesaiin tugas mt
2.lab report
3.blajar blajar (yg ini harus n mesti!) ttg area research nya dia.. kalo ga matilah gw kalo dia nanya2 n gw ga bisa jawab apa2.
Ayo semangat ..pokoknya gw ga boleh males2an utk bbrp hari ini!

Indonite yesterday was ok, i think last year's better (or maybe cos last year i was performing haha). We (last year's crew) was reminiscing yesterday, and how good it was that this year we can just sit back and watched our juniors performing. The play went rather er spicy this year. Due to certain actors which just seems to make the story line a bit rather diverged from its intended path haha. It was quite enjoyable, not to mention especially for the guys. Met few ppl whom i worked with last year, and realised i didnt actually ever saw them since last year's indonite. But oh well, i must say that good job for all the guys. Baim,abang,ijal,vandy,ardi etc.. you all really entertain us with your performances :) ! and long time never heard irma sing too! irma.bubu.kresna, really very nice songs you all sang and played too :)

This afternoon ,my flat is currently filled with people singing and playing acoustic guitars.. literally :) so so nice. live music background while memorising chinese characters. hehe

Yesterday morning was one of the perfect mornings that can really refresh me :) well, of course its bcos of horses :) Me and Loki went for a long long hack out to the woods. The sun was just warm enough, with a slight cool breeze. Very nice, only the two of us and the lush green trees, winding path, and bright blue sky. I talked a lot with him too, I know he listens cos when u talk to horses.. they always listens. We found a new route, which was nicer cos it has a lot of straight, smooth path so we can trot and sometimes canter. A sweet escape :) plus the weather so nice nowadays too. Hmm..can't wait to go US and then mom n dad r coming! 1 more week.. of school...impatient.

Kilas balik

Beberapa hari trakhir ini gw lagi nonton film seri silence, mungkin gw mst brenti ntn film2 kya gitu kali ya krn yang ada juga malah bikin gw jadi mikir knp utk saat ini..gw masi ngrasa ga bisa nrima yang harusnya uda bisa gw trima dgn lapang dada. Sjauh ini sih gw bisa2 aja tp kdg2 rasa itu masi ada.. muncul disaat2 yg ga disangka, dan itu bikin gw ga suka. ga bgt deh.. uda jauh lbh gpp siy skrg ini. Hidup gw skrg ini uda lbh balik k hidup gw yg sama spt taun lalu, pas gw masi taun pertama. Gw sering spend time sndiri.. dan bener2 gw nikmatin banget. emang kadang2 malah bikin gw ngrasa anti sosial gt sih, tp gw sadar..utk diri gw, kalo gw lagi ada masalah, sometimes gw lbh milih utk sndiri. mengurung diri di dlm dunia gw sndiri sampai gw bisa nerima kenyataan yg ada, dan baru saat itu gw akan mencari temen2 gw. Aneh ya kalo dipikir2, kmaren gw baca2 journal gw dr taun2 lalu... gw sadar, betapa gw yg skrg ini uda beda bgt drpd gw yg pertama kali dtg k inggris, hampir 4 taun lalu. Berubah.. bisa dibilang iya, bisa dibilang engga. Gw rasa selama gw dsini, gw jadi makin kenal sama diri gw sndiri.. karena disini, gw cuman punya temen2 gw..dan diri gw. Kalo dulu pas masi drumah, di indo.. gw sibuk..sibukk bgt tiap hari dgn 1001 kegiatan pas jaman smp dan sma.. tapi kalo dipikir2.. smua itu membantu gw utk kenal berbagai macam pribadi temen dan orang2. but now sejak gw dsini, gw punya jauh lbh banyak waktu utk jadi lbh kenal diri gw sndiri. Macem2 kejadian dan emosi yg gw ga perna tau kalo gw punya di dalam diri gw.. kelemahan dan sisi diri gw yg gw ga pernah kira gw punya..setiap hari, satu demi satu, smakin jelas dan bisa gw bilang, gw suka dgn diri gw yg skrg. Mungkin ga sempurna, yg ada juga skrg sbenernya gw akuin gw jauh lbh males.. as in bener2 males dibanding gw yg dulu..tapi di berbagai hal yang lain, yg dalam hidup ini banyakk bgt yg lebih berharga dibanding sukses dan uang.. gw sadar kalo gw bener2 beruntung. Gw punya temen2 yg bner2 bisa dibilang sama kaya keluarga gw dsini...gw masi punya bokp nyokp di indo yg sayang sm gw.. dan more things kaya gitu. Yah, gw ngrasa lega aja..biarpun kadang2 gw masi ngrasa diri gw egois, tapi utk skrg, gw ngrasa bersyukur :)

Sometimes not speaking is perfect
Sometimes not advising is perfect
Sometimes not pushing is perfect
Sometimes not gossiping is perfect
Sometimes not holding on to the past is perfect
Sometimes relinquishing your agenda is perfect

just re-reading my blog entries from last year.. Just realised how much i have changed since then. Funny. A year is a long time, yet time seems to fly by so fast.

March

Haven't written here for some time :)
hmm updates.. here goes, went to Paris last weekend wt alex. I love paris! its really comparable to London, same level.. but different in a way. If i can describe paris in a few words, it will be relaxing, bonjour, chocolate croissants, metro and grand. I'm going to go back there again someday.. 2 days was barely enough to scrape the surface of Paris :) Eiffel is really pretty at night. Louvre is HUGE...Monalisa is unimpressive (or mostly cos im just not artsy haha). Montmarte is nice. and french onion soup is just divine. Met thia too, but didnt have time to talk much with her. Hmm yes next time i'll go visit her in Lyon then go Lille, Nice, and other parts of France :)

Workwise, i think our manager is getting weirder and being fairly unreasonable nowadays. I dont like the changes now, same goes with most of my colleagues. This is quite sad, but cant help it.. what to do,we're quite powerless *sigh. More and more ppl are thinking to quit soon, which is even more sad. The company dont pay us well from the beginning, but for me its always been a enjoyable place to work to bcos of the people..which is the reason why i came back too :(

This week started off pretty well for me :)
After paris, yesterday had dinner with riding ppl. TGI Fridays got lots of yummy cocktails ! then today went for dimsum lunch to celebrate Meiting's bday :) happy 21st sweets hehe. I feel more focused to do work nowadays, which is good. And i think the old hardworking me is coming back..due to the fact tht i really felt i was slacking so much more now in 2nd yr. I like. Hope it stays. Its nice not to have a goal, but just trying to do my best. I feel at peace nowadays. yays :)

Highlight at work for the day

omg OMG, today PRINCE WILLIAM came to the cinema!!!
ok.. it was damn quiet today..then suddenly my customer asked, 'is that prince william?' (pointing to meiting's till)..then i was like, hm looks so much like him. So i walked closer and yeapp its him! Meiting served him and his girlfriend. They ordered food only.
He's cute!! so exciting!! we all bcome excited after that :) :) hehehe...
everyone also got excited! including our manager and colleagues.
Finally after so many years here, i can see him!! :)
i told my mum just now and she was jealous hehe..
..a very nice surprise indeed, otherwise today will be a very very boring day at work..yays!