the gate had not opened yet. (i got there very early.) so i did what other people did. sitting outside and looking at people passed by. that day was the day the gardeners changed the fake florals around the waiting gate areas. and i was sitting beside one. so when they plucked the old flowers (orchids i think) off, the smell of the fertilizer lingered in the air but not for long though. which was a relief! then later, a 'young' grandfather settled himself beside me. he was dressed in long-sleeves, black long pants, black shoes (which still didn't shine, even though he polished it every now and then), and a stretched band over his shoulders to keep his pants up (i think??) in place. which was totally unsuitable for him. imagine a man with a tummy with that on?!? it only made him look more toot. i never expected him to make a conversation with me until few minutes passed. he told me about himself at first for politeness i think. a graqndfather of a baby boy. had daughters studying overseas in 4 different countries. one married in NY. one in UK. one in Singapore. and the youngest in Jkt. after that, he asked me about where i was heading. inside, i thought. 'duh. isn't it obvious that everyone here is going to Jkt?' but to be polite, i delivered my answer out nicely. 'Jkt.' there. short and sweet, right? (=
then he said, ' you know that Jkt is flooded now?'
what?!?
i didn't know a thing about what'd been going on over there at the motherland. so later, he explained to me everything. in between conversations, ako called me to say tat her flight's been delayed to later in the afternoon. i hang up the phone with my mind racing wildly inside my head. i did not know what else to think, but one thing's for sure. i will arrive earlier than ako and pris at Jkt. alone with noone else that i know.
then the man said that our flight was delayed as well to 11.15am. and that was like 1hr plus more of waiting and i was starting to get the cold feet already. so i got myself together and headed to Times bookstore to relax myself. i did not want to just sit there, worrying about things like whether i will be kidnap later, or whether or not if i were to panic later... i know that if i were to begin thinking about one possibility, it would just become worse and worse. so idled around among the bookshelves, with the arrays of novels, magazines and even self-enrichment copies which businessmen-look-a-likes love to browse through at. i went round and round, finding not a single one that catch my eyes. but i did not like the idea that i had just wasted my time (i would definitely love to say 'entire morning' but that would be lying --') just to go there. so i grabbed US Weekly magazine and the book titled 'Who Moved My Cheese?'. i heard from many that it's useful handbook for our life. maybe after reading finish the current book 'Size 12 Is Not Fat', i will try to gain sth and everything that's SO important from it. (which may take up another half-a-month like 'Match Me If You Can') so i reversed back to gate 44. but i did not return back to my original seat. to tell you the truth, i was a little scared of the old man. all around people were looking at us both talking, and i was not really comfortable with that much attention i was getting. so i prefer to sit at a further away place, reading my book and turning on my cd player. i was getting pretty comfortable with the surrounding, when a pair of shoes appeared right in front of mine. it was none other than the old man himself. shock me! why of all people he came to find me?!? it felt as if he's my father/ family member which is never never. so i felt quite awkward with him after that and at the waiting room, i sat at somewhere in the middle. then he also follow, taking the seat beside of me. argh! i was too afraid to speak. and soon after, (i guess he understood how i'm feeling then) he moved to a place opposite of mine. phew!
and guess who i saw in there?
my family members!
gocim and gocek!
thank God they were there! if not i will be all alone. and i hate loneliness. company is better. =D
so i was not that quiet anymore, sitting all by myself, staring blankly at the tv screen that was showing 'Biggest Loser'. and my aunt? she talks a lot! which is good in a way. and she asked me questions about my studies and future (like what all my other aunties and uncles are discussing about now). i always hate it when it comes to the part when they asked me what i want to be next time. last time, it was a straight-out answer- paediatrician. but now, it was like a pendulum in my mind. paediatrician? or accounting? grr. i always have this fear inside of me that i cannot achieve sth big because mainly i lack the confidence and secondly, the discouragements that i get from my parents. which isa great deal for me! hey! if my parents were not supportive of my choice, then what's the point of doing it? this dream of mine will then be only short-lived, right? and i wanted to see myself still be able to do it 10 years down the road. and if both most precious people in my life were to oppose to this idea, then sooner or later, all my efforts will go down the drain when they stopped paying for my tuition fees and living costs, etc. so i pray to Lord that i can make up my mind a.s.a.p. because it has been a very long time already since i ought to have done it. this goes to show that i am an indecisive person right? bad sign to be a doctor. wrong calling.
unfortunately, i sat far away from them, at the last row, last alphabet E (F was empty). and the plane's full too. at first, i thought the lady seated on my left (D) was a very serious person as could be shown from her facial expression. so i got ready myself for the worst each second i was on that plane, before that ice-breaking event. on the plane, passengers were served these orange juices, which was packaged in those type of mineral water that funerals always had. you know the small sized ones? then you have to poke the cover with the sharp end of a narrow straw? hmm. in singapore, these are rare now. but in indonesia where i live, it is very common, especially in saloon, shops, etc. so this lady, who looked like she's a few years older than me only, had trouble opening hers. after countless efforts, she almost gave up but that's when i came in to help her. i just repeated what i did to my own and pop! i did it! haha. so that's when we started talking about our background first, then to the hot topic in Jkt- flood! she was sent, by her company in Jkt, to work for a while in Singapore. and i can tell by her english and stumbled words that she's not english-educated. but at least she's making the effort to try improve. which is good! we laughed together, which i never thought would happen. overall, i had a pretty good time with her. (=
went to the toilet immediately after my arrival. sakit perut! when gocim and gocek offered to wait for me, i felt so relieved but at the same time, worried. what if they were to wait too long for me? then i will feel so bad to let the older generation wait. what a horrible niece i was! at the chop-chop machine, there's this one male officer who was a bit flirtatious. but i realized that i became very grogi around cikopeks. this was an extract of the conversation that happened that time~
man: dari mana dek?
me: dari padang pak.
male: lo. kok bukannya dari singapore?
me: eh. iya la dari singapore. tapi orangnya dari padang.
male laughed after that/.
man: padangnya di mana dek?
me: di sumatra barat sana.
man: lo. bukan itu yang ditanya kok. (laughed again! --')
i was not happy for long though. gocim and gocek left me as soon as ce ping2's driver came to bring my luggage to the car. so i was left alone! ako ad pris would be only reaching Jkt in 1 hour time. so i went to KFC to wait for them. bought a cup of regular coke for myself. Rp 5,500 only! tt's like a dollar plus only! the time felt like it was passing by so slowly. furthermore, the two men behind me were puffing their cigarettes and adding pollutants into the air! i had to move 2 times in order to avoid the smell that stunk very much! then suddenly pris sent me this message through her hp. which seemed so real for me.
Mary. Guess wad. Sad news for you.You have to wait in kfc til tomor. Cos the plane cancel. I know its scary mary but you still have to wait..remembe dont talk to stranger ok. oh ya. You have the supir to company you.. He cant drive back home cos to reach home will be very late. Maybe the enxt day ready. Due to the flood. Sorry mary. But you know what. (get ready for this) All this is just a prank. We will reach there at two.
a prank?!? it almost gave me a heart attack!!! oh man! i was so ever relieved to see ako and her in the KFC later. we also bought fried chicken for lunch after that. ako treat! (= ate in the car. yum yum~ but we were disappointed at KFC cause they gave us the wrong order! we ordered fries instead of rice dude! =X and when the converter maneuvered its way out into the city, that's when we all got the shock out of our life! (i shall copy this out from panu's testimonial as it summed up almost everything..lazy re-type)
man! u should see Jkt flooded with dirty-brown water. even the canals and the road are of the same height already. while travelling in the car, i saw bubbles forming in the middle of the road, which bring in more water to e traffic. kids sit at the side of the road to experience water being sprayed over to them, as cars whizzed past the curb. and they did not cry nor do they shout. but they screamed with joy and triumph over their new-found 'toy'- which is the water spray. that is not the only way they get in touch with the water. also, they swim inside like ducks, with their head tilted and maintained above the water for breathing. then people also canoed and made rafts so that they could travel across the affected & damaged areas of the city to higher grounds. reporters in tv news even went to extent of submerging themselves in the water so viewers can know that they have actually been to the flooded areas. but who cares right? they could have just stood at the side and talk instead! (to be cont'd)
i heard from pris that due to the heavy rain, one of the dams was damaged and that's why so much water was flowing into the city. been the past 6 days already now. from ce ping2's apartment, i could see the city of Jakarta from a bird's eye view. a brown patch here and there with traffic jams on the higher roads and lanes. people had smiles plastered on their faces, instead of tears and frowns. reported on news, a boy died- drowned, by the strong current that's rushing into the village!
so we spent the first day in ce ping2 hse. doing pretty much nth actually. only going to the lobby to grab some pictures of the tragedy. so dumb! some parents even made their children stand near the flooded area to take a picture, with him posing a PEACE sign! can you believe it? some parents were just out of their mind these few days. they couldn't seem to think clearly anymore. disasters were all that's left them thinking i think. me and pris also looked from the gym to capture some great angles. then we ended up with making full use of the gym facilities by exercising there. we had our shoes off so the person-in-charge looked at us with a puzzled face when he came in to take something. pris found this vibrating machine meant for body slimming. we took turns with it, and pris ended up with a blue-black on her stomach! wahaha! (gosh i am being mean again...) pris later changed to the trackmill while i cycled. (= we came back for dinner after that. we watched korea drama the whole evening and night. played with jaslyn (ce ping2's new-born baby girl) and i will never ever forget her laughter and her chubby cheeks! XD *pinch* at night, were told that we would be moving to sicek's house the next day and our john robert power course was cancelled because of the worsening flood condition. haix! we packed all for nothing in that case. so early in the dawn, we woke up and packed all our belongings into the luggage. pris and i had to squeeze our primary most important stuff into one small baggage. but there was no real need for it actually. because when we reached kebun jeruk, si cim told us to go back Kuningan and get the rest of our stuffs back. WOW! what a 'fun' day it had been! packing and packing non-stop. thanks to the natural disaster! =X in the evening, si cim brought pris to take her pass photo for her china visa at puri Plaza so i followed too. after that, we went to gramedia. pris bought some aerobics video which can make us slimmer. (and it was not at all a waste of money ecause later that night, we tried following it and we sweat a lot! so happy! and our body felt very fresh!) i bought some comics and a cookbook. haha! gonna plan to cook for CNY in Singapore with mum. ^^ haha. besides that shopping mall, we went nowhere else. stay cooped in the house all night long, til the next dawn. while me and pris were packing our baggage, which was in a terrible mess due to all the rush, all the adults including ako cu-in and ako cu-mei gathered in the room. one by one, everybody started talking and laughing at how messy we both were. so mean! --' so i felt uncomfortable and i dared not talk a single word at all until pris and i were outside. she was on the phone
(to be cont'd tml in singapore)
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