Happy Eid Mubarak

for all of you.

maaf atas segala kesalahan dan semoga semua bisa dimulaikembali dengan hati yang ikhlas.

 

cerita lebaran kemaren.

well, nuthin special actually. back to Bekasi, where things so silence and still.

hanging out with family, entertained my grandma altho since she has dementia she oftenly asking my name in the middle of conversation. so sad, wondering how would i be on my 80s? surely i wanna be around to see my children and grandchildren grow up but will it possible not to forget them?

Lebaran in Jakarta felt like another holiday… no traffic jam for sure, which is the only good thing about having the festive here.

well… so on Tuesday afternoon i packed my bag, kissed my cats goodbye ( ) locked my flat, and take cab back home. You know, altho the traffic is very good, the taxi fare cost me almost the same, blah… blame the distance.

the moment i get there, after chit here chat there…i almost died in bored face. i finished reading “Behaving Badly” and got nothing more to do. all the preparation is done for Eid. then i wandering around the house and decide to buy Yoghurts as an excuse to go out.

At the Alfamart nearby i found VCD “Radit ♥ Jani” been wanting to see this movie, another labour of love of Upi Avianto & Vino G Bastian.

went back home, and watched “21″ the movie is interesting, althou i think “Good Will Hunting” is more thrilling. i can’t really catch the genious actions of Jim Sturgess when he cheated on Black Jack table. He looks preppie and nerdie, yes. But, i need more actions on the table. overall the movie is good and entertaining. and, i love Jim Sturgess, he’s hot.

after the movie, i cannot sleep on my own room, weird.

i turned off the light, and watched the fireworks from neighbours backyard flying high in night sky thru my window… beautiful.

as always… things so silence and still in this house.

The Eid morning is quite fun, bermaaf-maafan dan ngobrol2 sma seluruh keluarga, secara langsung juga telefon jarak jauh dan email-emailan.

on the afternoon, me and my sis went to Metropolitan Mall to buy groceries for home. i don’t understand how everyone can live with only green sands and vegetable in fridge. i bought fresh salted fish, more vegetables, snacks and snacks and snacks. i don’t want waste my gym membership fee for all those Eid food in coconut milk. No Way.

The second day, i went to my Datuk’s house. it’s my father side of family. Wow, almost everyone that live in Jakarta was there, i even got a chance to meet cousins i never seen in years. among them, i look so chinese, my father is Indian, all of the family married also indian. They have big eyes, tanned skin color, and full figure. sumhow, i got 2/3 of my mother. but everyone there said i looked like my father a lot. yeah, everyone in my mom’s family said, i look more like my mom day by day. whatever.

after that, me and my sis escape to mall again huheuehue. we tried Bekasi Cyber Park since my childhood friend make fun of me about it. I didn’t understand when he said BCP..BCP, he said it only shows how rare i went home. well…yeah…

BCP, is dissapointing… didn’t found anything interesting there, and i do not want to east another fast food. so, we go back to Met Mall.

O my God, in Met Mall was very crowded. tried to wandering around but i almost got panic attack for having so much people around. No Air bo hihihihi

finally, my sis dragged me to 21, may be we can find interesting movie, she said. well, i doubt about that, but i dun’t have another options.

She picked “Chika” since i already saw Laskar Pelangi the week before, and “Suami-Suami Takut Istri” is abviously not an option!

The movie is okay….well, nothing new, another teenage candy movie from Soraya Intercine Films. The cast is not special, the storyline is so-so, and Soraya Intercine Films still sold “living Indonesian Dreams” things in this movie. you know, big fancy houses, fancy cars, pretty girls meet handsome boys, the world where girls made of cotton candy, chocolate and all the sweet things.

oyea, before the movie start, i got a chance to go to AH and ordered “Mini Double Chocolate” i really missed this cake.

well, after my tongue contaminated with Bakerz-In, Gelato Bar, to be honest AH’s DOuble Chocolate doesn’t taste so good anymore but it brings back old memories. The restaurant is very crowded, feel uneasy, after finishing our cake, i dragged my sis to Gramedia.

Accidentally, passed the buckets where old vcd was on sale. i flipped them back and forth with no effort and guess what i found? “THE ELEPHANT” i screamed instantly. i’ve been looking for it everywhere! and i found it here? in a mall far-far away hidden in discounted shell? am i lucky or what?

after the movie, i remember i passed ”Eaton” on my way from Gramedia to 21. well, i must say, this is the first time i eat in Eaton where it doesn’t feel right at all.

The food is awful, the table smell weird and the service is so-so. we ordered Fish Pooridge, Fried Seafood Kwaytiow and Fried-oh-whatever that thing.

I remember Eaton in Taman Anggrek, not really a good comparison with this one. It’s like David and Goliath.

Good thing i have chance to stop by in BRead Talk, i need a re-bound. We went home and watch Radit and Jani in my room. Luckily i charged my laptop battery while we were out. The Movie is beyond my expectation, i hve this ugly cry at the end of the movie hehehehe.

Fahrani doesn’t act stunningly, but good enough, Vino Bastian well… he’s quite good. The storyline is amazing! i love how they used dirty words effortlessly. However, the dark punk situation they tried to visualized, to me is a bit “out-of-nowhere”.

Well, that’s all the folk.

The Time Traveller’s Wife

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

 

 

 

 

This morning i opened my Friendster’s profile intended to edit my profile on Fave books section. I Wrote down my very own “Life Changing Books”, as soon as i put “The Time Traveller’s Wife” in it, i realised i haven’t write any review yet on this book, what a shame.

Here it goes.

The prologue is unforgetable, the momen i read those first pages i knew it was a great book.

CLARE: It’s hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he’s okay. It’s hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way.

I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone. I take walks. I work until I’m tired. I watch the wind play with the trash that’s been under the snow all winter. Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love intensified by absence?

 

Henry: All my pleasures are homey ones: armchair splendor, the sedate excitements of domesticity. All I ask for are humble delights. A mystery novel in bed, the smell of Clare’s long red-gold hair damp from washing, a postcard from a friend on vacation, cream dispersing into coffee, the softness of the skin under Clare’s breasts, the symmetry of grocery bags sitting on the kitchen counter waiting to be unpacked. I love meandering through the stacks at the library after the patrons have gone home, lightly touching the spines of the books. These are the things that can pierce me with longing when I am displaced from them by Time’s whim.

And Clare, always Clare. Clare in the morning, sleepy and crumple-faced. Clare with her arms plunging into the papermaking vat, pulling up the mold and shaking it so, and so, to meld the fibers. Clare reading, with her hair hanging over the back of the chair, massaging balm into her cracked red hands before bed. Clare’s low voice is in my ear often.

I hate to be where she is not, when she is not. And yet, I am always going, and she cannot follow.

This -partly romance, partly science fiction-novel is warm, witty, passionate, sensual, simply imagine yourself in a rollercoaster. A ride thru time and life that deeply moving. I have to fought tears several times, soppy i know. Altho the story jumped forward and backward you won’t get lost. It takes no effort for all it’s twisting timeline crossing. From time to time, Henry and Clare always found each other, try to live their life to the fullest at the moment while waiting for Henry to unavoidly jump to another timeline. An abnormal gene caused it.

This book shows you that Love, is not easy cos when it’s easy it’s just a forgetable fling.

 

aaaannndd…the Movie is coming! oo yea, i really wanna do the Chandler dance when i found out about it. Rachel McAdams will play Claire Abshire and Eric Bana as Henry de Tamble. I saw in IMDB that the movie will be released on Dec 25th 2008 in USA, hhh…just wondering when will it hit theatres in Indo.

Lolita

Title       : Lolita

Author   : Vladimir Nabokov

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is the cover of the first edition published by Olympia Press Paris in 1955. It’s been years i’ve been wanting to read this masterpiece, for it’s been titled as one of the three most influenting novel in 20th century and TIME 100 Best English-languange Novels from 1923-2005.

So last week was the time, and i must say, there’s a part of me changed after reading this book, the same feeling i had when i read “The History of Love” by Nicole Krauss.

The center of the story is Prof. Humbert whose obsessed to a 12 years old girl, Dolores Haze. His obsession with young girls is a result of his lost of his childhood sweetheart, Annabel Leigh whose died from Typhus. Annabel Leigh, i believe, is named after “Annabel Lee” a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe which is happens to be one of my fav poem. that’s why i instantly recognized the similarity. Part of their young love seems to borrowed from the poem.

Humbert rent a room in Dolores house (later refer as, Lolita) to get close to his muse and later marry her mother to fulfil his wild fantasy to the teenager.

after Charlotte Haze died in an accident, Humbert takes Lolita moves from state to state and bribes her for his sexual needs. Lolita, alone and frightened has no choice but to accept HUmbert into her life on his terms.

We read the story from Humbert point of view, as if it is his personal journal. altho what happen in it is an obsession of a pedophile, you won’t find explicit description about the sexual activities.

HUmbert, who is supposedly disgusting sumhow i found his character as sad, loner, and in eternal pain which makes me love him for some reason. as always, i love a villain with a lot of side that writer share with reader. It makes bad person a human, and we found ourself in some of their minors. well, not the pedophile of course…..

Where can i find the Movie? please, really want to see it. desperately…. The novel was filmed twice, on 1962 and on 1997. Based on my browsing, the 1962 version is more to it. it Granted Sue Lyon Golden Globe Award (as Lolita)  as the Most Promising New Comer and Vladimir Nabokov nominated for Oscar on best screenplay adaptation.

The Wednesday Letters

Title      : The Wednesday Letters

Author  : Jason F. Wright

 

“The Wednesday Letters” is one of two my-last-week book. Yay! cheers for me, i’m back on track, reading two books in a week.

However, i must admit that i’m shallow by picking up this book from bookshelves in Gramedia Grand Indonesia, based on it’s oh-so-cute cover and a little noteable note that it was a New York Times Best Sellers. yea, i’m weak and easily believe New York Times picks.

The cover is very unique, shaped as an envelopes with replica of stamp on behind and on the last page there’s a white envelope contained pages of handwrited letters. I skipped reading it, saving the best for last.

“The Wednesday Letters” tells a story of three siblings, re-united on their parents funeral, trying to catch up and forgive each other. later they found thousands of Wednesday Letters their father wrote to their mom from their wedding day to the last day of their life. The letters reveal not only the warm and pure love but also a disastrous secret that may destroy the family bond. It’s a story about family value, love, forgiveness and honor. Jason F. Wright wanted to convince us that love and magic does exist.

As for me, the story is beautiful and entertaining but just not “wow” that i would include it to my very own “Unforgetable books” list. But definitely, it’s a must read book.