mishmash: These Days

Last week was tough and great at the same time.

I found it hard because it was the first week for me being in town after spending 9 months in Jayapura. It takes a while to adapt with the time difference.

I know that Eastern Indonesian Time (or WIT/Waktu Indonesia Timur) and Western Indonesian Time (WIB/Waktu Indonesia Barat) only bear 2 hours of difference, but seriously for several days, I went to bed at 07.30pm WIB and woke up at 03.00am WIB -which equals to 09.30pm WIT and 05.00am WIT, my normal sleep span according to WIT-.

It was upsetting, but I’ve been trying to cope it by doing things or go out around that time, so my body would learn to handle few more hours of activity.

On the other hand, for a person who’ve been idle from driving and traffic deadlock, it was dreadful for me to face that nowadays, the traffic is FRICKIN’ crazy, it is nearly impossible for not having traffic jam even though it’s weekend.

I reckon that there are thousands more motorcycles and cars than before. However, this is not surprising because there’s not much change and development in public transportation service. It sucks, still, thus leaving no option for the citizens but to buy their own vehicles.

More vehicles equal more air pollution. And to make it worse, every square of vacant lands in this city have turned into giant all-in-one mall-office-apartment constructions. They’ve just seemed to erect buildings like there’s no tomorrow, without thinking the problems they may add. All the greeneries have turned into solid buildings. And at this point, I think the government just didn’t do much to overcome these shits.

I guess one day, we will all drown in a sea of cars, motorcycles and buildings, and we will all suffocate from the tainted air.

God have mercy.

Enough about the cruel reality, let’s talk about some excitements.

I met miss Laras on Friday to accompany her finding stuff for the dowry. We were also looking for presents for our bestfriend’s kids birthday.

I miss her so much I really enjoyed the chats and the shopping.

We had lunch at Yoshinoya, and it was my first time eating at this beef bowl chain restaurant. I ordered the beef bowl, which for me tasted a bit salty. It was okay, though I can say that I’m not a big fan of it.

On Saturday, I went to a gig with miss Dindiepop and monsieur Julian of Mikisi.

Gotta tell you that attending gig is another thing to be grateful about being home.
I fancy watching bands playing live. And there was no such thing as good gigs in Jayapura, so imagine how excited I was to attend the ‘2nd Music Gallery’ that had tens of awesome local bands on their list.

I went there also to see my friends Swimming Elephants playing, but I was late because of the traffic. By the time I parked my car, it was the moment they played their last song ‘Sarah’ (I could hear them). Too bad I couldn’t watch them.

My highlights of the night were The Adams, Pure Saturday, The Upstairs, and White Shoes And The Couples Company. FYI, I haven't seen the first three bands playing for ages, so I was extremely excited.

The Adams played some tracks such as ‘Halo Beni’, ‘Waiting’ and closed the performance with ‘Konservatif’, the band’s big hit back in 2005. I enjoyed it very much. I danced to my self and sang the lyrics enthusiastically.

Pure Saturday was AWESOME. ‘Desire’, ‘Coklat’, ‘Elora’, ‘Kosong’, not to forget the ‘Don’t Look back in Anger’cover which I can assure you that everybody in the room who was born in the 80s sang every words from the lyric as if it's a mantra.

The Upstairs,... Well I never really follow them. I only listened to the 1st album and never remember the song titles, but I was very entertained with the band’s performance that night. Jimi the vocalist dressed normally. No more striking-colored pants and tight shirt. I like him better that way.

They opened with a synth-dominated track that sounded exactly like Joy Division, and closed with ‘Matraman’, where I, together with hundreds of same generation peeps, sang the lyrics out loud.

White Shoes And The Couples Company was AMAZING. They played acoustically, which managed to soothe the audiences’ ears that have been nicely tortured by noise and sound of the previous bands performed.

Some of the songs they played were one of the earliest single, ‘Runaway Song’ which appear to be one of my favorites (thank you for playing it), ‘Kapiten dan Gadis Desa’, ‘Aksi Kucing’, and ‘Matahari’.

I love their performance. They’re always great. And the sound is always neat and nice too.

It was past midnight when Whiteshoes finished their set list, and Gugun Blues Shelter (GBS) took over the stage. Again they’re not my cup of tea, but I quite enjoyed it.

I watched GBS while sitting, because my feet just couldn’t take another hours of standing. Maybe it’s age. Maybe it’s the wrong shoes. Maybe I was just plain exhausted.

I went home at 2 in the morning, driving along Thamrin-Jatibening. It was tough and required extra sanity to keep myself focused. It’s been ages since I went out past midnight and I think my body tried its best to adjust. I got home at 2.30 and went asleep instantly.

The next day, I woke up with severe migraine. I always have this fucking headache if I don’t have enough sleep. And to make it worse, the lack of sleep also triggers the allergy symptom to appear. So my Sunday started with a combo of headache and mild hives rash.

I gulped Stugeron and Loratadine that morning before hitting the car and heading to Ciledug for my best friend’s kid birthday party. Thank god my friend Andi was driving me, so I can rest a bit.

The trip was thankfully traffic-less. We got there at 11-ish and I was so happy to see a lot of little kids in there. They were so cute and it was so nice seeing them smiling and laughing that somehow the stress inside me seemed to be diluted a bit.

Few of my best friends were there too, and we had total fun. We chatted, we joked, we laughed so hard.

It was wonderful.

In the afternoon I met my future-trip-companion, Reo. We had a meeting to talk about the itsies bitsies of the preparation. Mmmmmm probably I havent’ told you, but I'm planning to have a 2 weeks trip to Lombok and Komodo island. Supposedly, I’m going there with Ambon & Reo, but unfortunately Ambon couldn’t join the trip due to some reasons. So in the end, there are only Reo and moi.

We’re leaving next week, and we really cannot wait to see the beautiful beaches!

Phew, I didn’t notice that I typed too much for this post :p

I guess I’d better stop now.

Until then, dear comrades.