mouse in the house, Boso JowoJuly 4, 2008 1:30 pm

ing sakwijining dina, aku karo kancaku mlaku-mlaku ning Salatiga.

ana kompleks pertokoan sing diarani "Malioboro Mini", hehehehe. sak jane lucu, wong aku wis suwi manggon ning Jogja, ning kethoke yo ora mirip.  sebabe diarani Malioboro Mini ki amarga nek bengi emperan tokone digawe lesehan, dodolan ronde, jagung bakar, sega goreng, karo lawuh-lawuhan ngono.  salah sijine, ana gelaran sing masang spanduk "Gemak Goreng".

la, kancaku kuwi banjur takon aku, "Eh, gemak ki sing kaya apa to? Ndak kaya dara?" Aku banjur mangsuli, "Dudu.  Kuwi rada luwih gede timbangane dara, ning yo cilik-cilik ngono nek ditanding karo pitik." Photobucket

wis rampung mlaku-mlaku, jebule kancaku kuwi isih penasaran.  banjur arep tuku.  yo wis, sisan dienggo mangan bengi, tuku telung iji.  bareng tekan omah, langsung dibukak terus diserbu, la wong pancen wis luwe…  

banjur aku takon kancaku, "Wis ngerti sing jenenge gemak, saiki?"

wangsulane,"He eh, ning kok mirip karo puyuh yo gedene?"

langsung aku karo bapakku ngguyu kemekelen…. "O alah Jeng, gemak ki yo puyuh kuwi…. mosok pas cilikan kowe ora tau mangan endog gemak?  La kuwi endog cilik-cilik kuwi lho, endog puyuh…" 

Gemak…oh gemak……..

*gemak tanpa screen shot adalah hoax, maka nikmatilah gemak mekingking ala Salatiga….* 

 
tapi amarga wong Semarang ki panganane ngeri-ngeri, yo wajar yen ora mudeng ‘gemak’ ki apa… bayangke, mosok menungsa kok mangan "BADAK", hehehehehehehehehe….. 

fragments of life, mouse in the house, Bahasa IndonesiaFebruary 19, 2008 3:32 pm

Aku kok tiba-tiba inget dengan cerita satu ini ya…entah dari mana asalnya, mungkin karena kebanyakan browsing foto-foto binatang yang lucu-lucu (lumayan, bisa ngilangin stress…..sorry ya guys, gue masih pada tahap tertarik sama foto bayi binatang, belum sampe bayi manusia….hueheheh….). Anyway, jadi inget pengalaman aneh bin agak ngeselin waktu main ke Frankfurt pertengahan Oktober tahun lalu.

Ceritanya aku dan MP (alias my partner) mampir ke Frankfurt, ke rumah salah satu sohibnya dari jaman kuliah dulu. Namanya juga mampir, kami cuma nginep semalam di situ. Berhubung si teman baik itu baru aja pindah ke apartemen baru, ceritanya juga diisi dengan penasaran gitu… gimana apartemen barunya, soalnya dari e-mail kayaknya keren abis. Walhasil dari stasiun kereta bawah tanah jadilah kami menyeret-nyeret koper yang guede. Berhubung waktu itu salah satu onderdilku masih dalam masa perbaikan,  jadilah jalan pelan-pelan. Karena injury time itu jugalah kami cuma bawa satu koper, tapi gede dan koper logam gitu…pokoke kalau di Indonesia semua bellboy yang angkat tu koper wajib dapet tip lebih gede dah..hehe…

Tengak-tengok kiri kanan, ternyata oh ternyata, gedung apartemen itu ada di ujung lain dari jalan itu, alias kami harus jalan sampe hampir ke ujung baru deh nomornya mulai mendekati alamat yang dituju. Kayaknya memang daerah itu daerah residential gitu, jadi kiri kanan emang isinya bangunan apartemen yang rata-rata tingginya 3-4 lantai (ga termasuk basement lho ya…)

Pas udah hampir sampai di gedung si teman, MP langsung nunjuk ke salah satu jendela bangunan di seberang jalan, sambil ketawa. “Wah, itu pasti apartemennya!!” baru abis itu dia nyadar jendela yang ditunjuk itu di mana, “Wah, di lantai 3, kamu bisa nggak?” Yah…bisa ga bisa deh… tapi aku penasaran, kok dia bisa nebak yang itu apartemen temannya, kan dia belum tahu tepatnya?

Ternyata setelah kuliat juga ke jendela yang dimaksud…. ada seekor kucing nongkrong di atas tumpukan kardus-kardus…. Nongkrong aja gitu si kucing, sambil ngeliat ke luar jendela yang belum ada kordennya. Yak tul, ternyata itu tandanya. Kata MP, ”Dia tu suka banget sama kucing, dan punya dua kucing, dan kan dia baru pindahan, jadi pasti banyak kardus yang belum dibongkar. Jadi, cocok kan?” Iya juga ya…

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Setelah berjuang mendaki 3 lantai…ternyata, apartemennya emang keren abis…lantainya kayu dan ornamen di pintu, dll…asik punya… Dan ternyata betul juga, bahwa tu kucing emang nangkring di atas kardus, tapi tau nggak, kardusnya nangkring di atas lemari!! Ya ampyun deh.. Yang keliatan dari jalan sih emang kardus sama kucingnya doang… Dan ternyata juga, di situlah jatah kami nginep, di atas sofa yang bisa dibuka-buka… Ngobrol punya ngobrol, makan, ndengerin musik, ngopi segala macem, tibalah saat untuk say good night. Si teman ini dengan setengah becanda bilang, ”Tenang aja deh, kali ini kucingku ga bakalan pipis-pipis lagi deh…”

He?? Ternyata sekitar 1-2 tahun lalu, waktu MP mampir ke apartemen mereka yang lama, bantalnya pernah dipipisin sama si kucing itu. Aku cuma ingat satu aja namanya Minu, satunya siapa ya…aku kok lupa…Soalnya si Minu itu caper buanget…lari ke sana ke mari, manjat-manjat jendela, nabrak kursi…pokoke kucing yang hiperaktif… Gitu deh, pokoknya dengan wanti-wanti bahwa kamar mandi luar yang ada di seberang kamar tidur pintunya dibuka dikit kalau malam (soalnya toilet kucingnya ada di situ, biar mereka bisa keluar masuk gitu…), dan sekali lagi meyakinkan bahwa ga akan ada kejadian aneh-aneh lagi…masuklah kali ke kamar masing-masing. Udah cuapek buanget…rasanya cuma pengen tewas. Tapi harus tepuk sini tepuk sana bersihin bulu kucing yang nempel di mana-mana.

Si MP mau ambil sesuatu di kopernya, tiba-tiba dia tanya, ”Kok kopernya basah ya? Emang kamu naruh apa?”

”Basah? Aku kan ga bawa minuman di situ… botolnya ada di ransel kok…”

”Iya juga ya… Wah…JANGAN-JANGAN…..” dengan penuh rasa was-was ditempelkannya ujung jari ke idung…..”Scheiße!! Koperku dipipisin!!!!…..lagi….”

Waduh…..terpaksa malam itu kami dia (aku tewas…) nglembur abis ngelapin semua barang di dalam koper pakai tissue basah dan kering…buku, majalah, (untung pakaian dimasukin ke tas-tas plastik…), sepatu, CD, DVD…..halah….

Paginya si empunya kucing shock abis ketika diceritain…. Soalnya 2 tahun lalu kan alasannya, mungkin karena mereka masih kecil, nah sekarang udah gede kok teteup…. Sekarang sih pembelaannya…mungkin mereka (kucingnya, maksudku…) pikir itu toiletnya yang baru…(yo’i coy…ceritanya mereka baru aja dibeliin toilet baru, jadi mungkin belum apal bentuk toilet yang barunya gimana…plis deh…) Tapi ternyata yang dipipisin berulang ya cuma si MP, selama ini ga ada kejadian mereka pipis sembarangan gitu….

Hehehe……mungkin si kucing pengen menandai si MP kali ya….atau jangan-jangan merekanya marah karena si MP mungkin selalu tidur di tempat biasanya mereka tidur….hehehe….jadi balas dendam dah….

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Pokoke ampun deh….ga tau lesson learnt-nya apa…

never to bring a suitcase that looks like cat’s toilet…atau…

never enter a cat’s territory without your things sealed in individual plastic bags and some highly useful packages of wet tissue…   

fragments of life, mouse in the house, English, Bahasa IndonesiaSeptember 19, 2007 3:14 pm

bapak final? apaan tu?

beberapa malam yang lalu, entah malam yang mana…sebelum mengucapkan selamat malam dan selamat tidur, kami sama-sama mengintip TV yang sedang menyala. entah rangkuman berita apa, kalau nggak salah sesuatu semacam sports highlights.

salah satu item berita adalah tentang pertandingan final tenis lapangan, berhubung aku bukan fans pertandingan olah raga, tentu saja aku tak paham lah…event-nya apa…hehe….emoticon

 

di layar TV muncul dua pria bercelana pendek lari-lari ke sana ke sini mengejar si bola ijo mungil…sambil si narator berita berceloteh…

"Dalam babak final tersebut, finalis dari…….bla…bla…bla…"

teman baikku, si orang asing itu, manggut-manggut sambil sekilas menatap layar TV.  setengah mengantuk, aku nggak terlalu peduli ketika liputan berakhir dan jeda komersial berseliweran di sana…

tapi….

"What did the news say? Is that the final match?"

"Yes."

"I see, so "bapak final" is the final match for men."

Gubrak……. 

segeralah aku tertawa terbahak-bahak…..

"That is not "bapak final", that is "BABAK FINAL", wiseguy…"

"Oh, I thought it was "bapak"…" dianya nyengir tanpa dosa.

"So, female final would be "ibu final"?"

"Well, why not?"

iya juga sih…why not….tapi not gitu loh……. 

fragments of life, mouse in the house, EnglishJune 29, 2007 7:53 pm

 

the cat…myth and reality…

are you familiar with the Javanese belief (at least the Javanese, that is the only thing i can state, maybe other cultures also believe in it, too…) that if your vehicle hits a cat, especially kills it, then you and your vehicle is doomed for bad luck? If you ARE familiar with this, let´s talk about something a little bit more "extreme"..

 

our "cute" Acehnese driver has a profound belief on cats and bad luck.  profound…i mean…profound…strong,deeply rooted and has never failed to come to surface whenever the opportunity permits…and somehow, he is living, and driving, in a wrong place, if he has this dread of cats. hm, maybe i was not being accurate when i said that he has this dread of cats…that´s so not true…what he hates, and fears, is the way they stroll calmly and gracefully right in front of car, since somehow, there are lotz and lotz of cats in Banda Aceh. i don´t know why, maybe because there is a lot of left-over fish that they could feed themselves with, good city for cat breeding ground, or i don´t know…but all these cute, plump cats and kittens seem to be everywhere…

each and every time a cat happens to stroll gracefully across the path in front of our car, he would hit the steering wheel and curse under his breath.  the first five times when it happened, i stopped and asked him why. and he went into lengthy explanation that what i was about to hear was not a myth, it is a proven formula for failure and disappointment…TO HAVE A CAT CROSSING YOUR PATH ON THE WAY SOMEWHERE…

 

whenever it happens, he would say "Sh*t, i will not meet the person i want to meet today, so will you…" Hah? since he drives me to work in the morning, that is not exactly the prophecy i would like to hear at the beginning of my day. and sometimes he would even relate to some stories he told me earlier during the week, like for example, "Do you remember when i told you about this girl (blind date - note) two days ago? that i planned to see and did not manage to see? well, as i drove out, there was a cat crossing my path…see, it is proven. it is not a myth…"

 

i was just sitting there, calmly holding my smile back because i didn´t want to offend him.  for the first FIVE times. after that, i started smilling, and now, i simply burst into giggle or laughter…no offense meant, it is just amazing for me to see, that EACH and EVERY time it happens, he always reacts the same way. never for once he failed to react with such agitation. always this low S word, and the omen following it.

but…but…wait a moment, still according to him, the nice "Abang" who is actually younger than me…, that if two cats cross your path, then the bad luck is undone.  cool hmm? you know, there is always remedy for "almost" anything, including the bad-luck-carrier-cat…

i thought it would stop at that. no…no…no…

one day, driving out of the office compound, i saw a cat two meters ahead was getting ready to cross our path from our left side to our right side. i kept my smile checked, waiting for that usual swear and thump, and the familiar routine. oh yes, the S word, oh yes, he hit the steering wheel…but then, "Hm, i forgot what it really means. if a cat crosses our path from the left side to the right side, is it good luck or bad luck? or is it the other way around…?hmmmm…i just can´t remember it…"

WHAT?? not only the omen could be undone, the direction could actually revert the meaning of the omen…?? oh gosh, this ancient wisdom is simply too much to bear…

no offense. but i hope you understand why i think my brain is too small to accomodate such knowledge. and knowing that i don´t have ,yet, enough "knowledge" about these things…i will wait and see on more lessons that i can learn from sharing the car with our driver…

"oh Mak, kucing!!"  

Banda Aceh, June 29, 2007 

fragments of life, mouse in the house, EnglishJune 8, 2007 2:06 pm

first, i don’t know what language will come over me as i am typing this story, so excuse me for my mixed and upside down style of writing…

you might remember that a couple of months ago I made a page on this blog related to my friend’s daughter.  an old friend of mine from my highschool years was blessed with a baby daughter, unfortunately, she had (well, still has…..) problems with her stomach.  so since she was 9 days old (imagine that..) she had gone through surgeries…

anyway, just two, or maybe three (?) days ago, my Skype button lighted up, and a familiar name popped up on the corner of my screen…and my partner asked me, "Hey there…Could you tell me the name of your friend’s daughter, again?" since my e-mail had just crashed…(oh yeah, just when I needed it…emoticon) and all the details were there, I had to rack my brain, and I typed, "Hm…maybe Mariana, or something like that..Why?"

he went on to tell me that he had just received an e-mail via a mailing list, from a German, in German, of course…sharing about a little girl by the name of Marina, with health problems.  the story was so close to the one I told him about my friend’s daughter that he was curious, "Could it be Marina?" "Hm, maybe."

I asked my partner to check with the German guy, with a set of names and details on my friend, and he said, "It is the same girl."

I checked with my friend via SMS, and yes, this German guy is a good friend of his. he even sent me my partner’s name via SMS and asked,"So you must have known…..? Who is he?" so I suppose his best friend was quite surprised to receive a mail from a German in Banda Aceh with his complete name and all….and checked with him.

imagine THAT.

this guy was a friend of mine, whom I met like hm….ten years ago…as we were waving goodbye to our school and boarding rooms to "explore the real world". did not really hear any news on him, until early this year, I guess it was March, when another friend wrote in the highschool mailing list that his daughter was about to go through a surgery. and then came his own recount of what had happened. then I contacted him. 

look at that.  old friend. highschool. 10 years. baby.

look at the chances that I happen to have a German partner.  look at the chances that this old-highschool-friend-of-mine has a German bestfriend.  look at the chances that this German guy and that German guy actually subscribe to the same mailing list that mainly focuses on Indonesia. look at the chances that Banda Aceh, Semarang, Germany, 10 years and the internet made the whole thing seems …hm…like a weird fairy tale…

just hoping, like any other fairy tales….that by the end of the story of epic journeys and connections and efforts and bravery….Little Princess Marina Gabriela lives happily ever after…with the Prince Charming (well, let’s face it, maybe not-always-so-charming…emoticon) waiting on her doorstep as she steps into adulthood.

prayers and support for my friend and his family…and I’m eager to see how the story unfolds.