I Love, Love, Love These Shoes

One (or two?) of the most wonderful treasure I'm blessed with this year. Helloooooooooooo, gorgeous!



Amen.

My friend, Angga, and his (newly wedded) wife, Diah, tied the knot yesterday, on the 25th of December.

It was one of the sweetest, tears-drenching stories of all-time memorable wedding days I’ve ever known. And everytime I gave it a thought, my heart goes oooh-aaahing, and I would sip my tea and milk, and I though about it again, and this time I would be aaaww-ing and writing a blog post.

[Oh, did I mention that there is a great, great, grrrreat possibility, probability, presumability (I made that word up), that the lovely Diah could be a distant relative of mine? Well, I think my mother once told me about that, although after I rechecked the fact with her again, she tapped herself on the forehead and poked me on the butt and danced the chicken dance (Naah. She didn’t do the last two businesses, although it would be hilarious if she actually did that, wouldn’t it?) and said that she totally forgot that she’d ever mentioned anything about it. No worries, Mother, I still love ya. You’re my rock star. ;) ]

All in all, Angga and Diah, I wish you two lovebirds all the happiness in the world, a flock of wonderful and healthy kids, and many blessing in the coming years of your jolly ride in the marriage lane. Rock on!

The Long Last Mile: Report. From Bali. Day 15.

The conference was supposed to end yesterday. But the last mile is indeed the hardest and the longest. So long it could take days to finish, especially if you are all wrecked and exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Today's conference conclusion is a perfect depiction of "nerve-wrecking".

It was one of those goosebumps and high drama moments.

When the frustration was floating in the room.

When our President and the UN Secretary General were throwing their heart-moving call to a standing ovation.

When those guys from China asked "why" and Yvo de Boer stormed out the room in tears with utter disappointment.

When the American delegates were booed and jeered. Also when they finally went forward with the consensus with the rest of the world.

When the EU people finally voiced their support for that imperative proposal and Rachmat Witoelar stood up holding back his tears when the rest of the delegates rose from their hot seats to give a big warm applause to the moment.

When the "Bali Roadmap" was finally adopted by the jubilant and tired delegates.

All eyes were watching Bali. After a weeklong of frustrating deadlock, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. The Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, joked that the "climate in the climate convention has changed."

And now planes are refueled, suitcases are packed up, hotel rooms are checked out and the Nusa Dua's sun is about to set. I feel a sense of shocking relief, the weepy pride and the hope swelling up everyone's throat, because tomorrow's earth will not be abandoned.

We shall wait and see.

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Hoo yeah. I'll be leaving this island by the end of the day. My plane is 3 hour delayed, but I'll live. Keeping in mind that planet Earth will live longer. So, I guess I'll be just alrite with my delayed schedule.

As 2007 Comes to An End ...

Where did you begin 2007?
~ In Jakarta
What was your status on Valentine's Day?
~ In a somewhat strange, disturbed, yet blissful relationship.
Were you in school (anytime this year)?
~ Nope. Lordie! *shudder*
How did you earn your money?
~ Work, baby, work. And the SPJs and all.
Did you have to go to the hospital?
~ Yes, I did. But it wasn't me. My boyfriend was really sick and feverish and he looked so helpless yet so cute.
Did you have any encounters with the police?
~ Unfortunately yes. I lost my wallet twice this year. Gee, thanks for reminding me of this.
Where did you go on vacation?
~ Bali (on a working trip) and back home in Solo.
What did you purchase that was over $1000?
~ None whatsoever this year. I think I'd faint should I see the number scribbled on my bank account book this year. And I'd faint gladly. Yes, please.
Did you know anybody who got married?
~ Oh, yeah. This year's marriage rate is like crude-oil price in 2007: it skyrocketed so unpredictably high and affects other stuff' prices in an instant moment.
Did you know anybody who passed away?
~ Yes. Sadly.
Did you move anywhere?
~ To another unit. *sigh* Although I sort of thought that moving to another planet might do better for my regular psychological check-up. And my cerebral one. And my dental one. And my urinal one. And, you know, that. No? Neither do I.
What concerts/shows did you go to?
~ None.
Are you registered to vote?
~ Nope.
Who did you want to win Big Brother?
~ Umm.. Let's see. I'll think about it for a sec. I can, can't I? Umm. What's "Big Brother" anyway?
Where do you live now?
~ Jakarta
Describe your birthday?
~ Huge bouquet of pink flowers. From him. *blushing*
What's one thing you thought you'd never do but did in 2007?
~ Blogging and photographing and photoshopping regularly from one day to the next. It sounds easy peasy. But. It's. Just. Not. And I'm pretty proud of what I came up with these days. Although most of them are just craps. -- Oh, and I never thought that I'd be answering questions like these.
What has been your favorite moment?
~ When I'm taking pictures. Although most of them are blurry. And dark. And abstract. And blurry. I did say that I took lots of blurry pictures, didn't I?
What's something you learned about yourself? About friends?
~ That I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was. And that I'm such a big-timed sucker for Photoshop.
Any new additions to your family?
~ Nog niet. (That's Dutch for "not yet", in case you don't understand. That's the only phrase I remember from the two Mevrouwen's class two years ago. Beside "tjonge jonge", which means "you pathetic turkey, you".)
What was your worst month?
~ October, maybe? Because I only posted very few posts. So there'd got to be something along the month, but I can't remember what it was. I think I'll check my PDA now. Oh, but I have to buy one first.
What music will you remember 2007 by?
~ This and that. Nothing special. (Does "Step by Step" from New Kids on the Block count?)
Who has been your best drinking buddy?
~ The mischievous boyfriend.
Made new friends?
~ Ah, yes. A few. One of them is Adobe Photoshop CS2. And Indra (Hai, Ndra!). And Endah (Hello, Ndah!). And Ayu Murti (Hola!). And some other cool new friends.
New best friend?
~ Adobe Photoshop CS2! And soon CS3!
Where will 2007 end for you?
~ Don't know yet. I hope I'll end up at a very good place. As where I hope you'll be at, too.

PS. I copied these quessies from a post in the Bulletin Board in Friendster. And ho boy, is it tiresome answering all these questions. I'm completely exhausted and I think I'll turn my computer off in a minute and crash to bed. And I'll wash my teeth. And brush my face. (I think I just screwed up my activity order, but I'm too drowsy to hit the backspace button). And then I'll drink my chill pill. And faint.

Today's Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore was coming to town.

Dita and I left our troop headquarter this afternoon and darted our asses off to the very venue of the distinguished conference of climate change as soon as we found the information out.

The 13 days of getting stranded in this island have finally paid off.

I sat along with Dita and hundreds or maybe thousands (okay, I was probably exaggerating it, and I like doing it, but I can get very giddy and hyperactive in times like this) of delegates, journalists, government officials, non governmental organisation representatives, related company representatives (and stranded tourists?? Hehe. I don't think so, due to the "no ID, security officer no likey" policy there.) and Emil Salim, Rachmat Witoelar, and this year's Nobel Peace Prize co-winners: Al Gore and Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change's Rajendra Pachauri.

Awesome is a way too modest to describe the atmosphere in the room.

I think the guy really deserves the Academy Award and the Nobel Peace Prize and all the glare of publicity he gets these days. He stands for all of the definition of "eloquent", "well-informed" and "passion". He flew all the way from Oslo, Sweden from the Nobel awarding ceremony to Nusa Dua-Bali, to share with the rest of the world through Bali, all facts and thoughts that he has gathered on the climate change issue and everything in between.

The next thing I knew everybody was giving him a standing round applause and the room was showered with camera flashes, making the room brighter than supernova.

I'm probably exaggerating it (again) but I was surely stunned. I was eyeballing my friend Dita, as my jaw dropped at the whole scene.

I also noticed that the plethora of limelights above the podium where he was standing at were a sweat-inducing, calorie-burning hell for Mr. Gore, that when he finished the whole speech 45 minutes later, he was all drenched in sweat. Sweet goodie.

Another thing that I still remember from his speech -- and I hope that others will also, too -- is his last punchline on his expectation for the future global path-making efforts in dealing with the climate change issue, that "political will is a renewable resource". Beautiful.

I had this really stiffy goosebump because the speech was 10.000 times so much better than those in "Commander in Chief" or "The West Wing" or those in my speech writing classes. (Ahahahahah.)

I do hope that his optimism will spread out to the corners of the world, starting from that room.

So, enjoy my showed-off pictures. Sorry about the blurs. I forgot to take my chill pill.

Here is Mr. Gore shaking hands with Dr. Pachauri. Congratulations, Sirs. Hello, my name is Esti and I think you two guys rock.


That's Prof. Emil Salim on the far right. He has a funny, yet warm smile. I like him.


Hello. That's the largest flock of shutterbugs and cameramen I've ever seen with my own four eyes (bwahahahah.. ugly pun intended).


And hello! Who are you, again? But I like the dude too alrite.

I've given up and sorry that it didn't work out.

A weird (I think) thing happened to the Yahoo! Mail system today and I could do nothing but laugh out loud.

-------------------------------
Here is notification #1:

Can't talk now. System's down.

Sorry for the holdup. Looks like a temporary glitch in our network has part of Yahoo! mail down, so you're briefly without service. Rest assured the alarms are blaring in the basement and our team is working frantically to get you up and running ASAP. Again, the snag is on our end — so there's no need for you to do a thing.

Back to it,

Yahoo! Mail Team
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And here is notification #2:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com. I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

Yahoo! Mail Team
-------------------------------

Good thing is I like the way Yahoo! and other www companies create their notification in such a relaxed and laid back kind of way, and make it more personal rather than formal.

But on the more imaginative side, especially on the latter, it now ends up looking like a breaking-up note to me. Oh, and the "Sorry it didn't work out" part really tugs my heart string and makes me want to weep because it sounds so desperate despite all the efforts given.

Hang on strong, Chuck, hang on. Don't give up. Don't let her let you down mentally, physically, practically, psychologically, obstetrically, gynecologically, urinarily and intellectually. Show her the real man in you and I'll guarantee that she'll never look at you the same anymore. I mean in a good way, Chuck. (Oh dear, I'm not helping you at all, wasn't I?)

You'll live, Chuck. Just ignore those guys at Yahoo! Mail.

Report. From Bali. Day 11.

I found this wee sand truck right with a small plastic bucket, parked under a palm tree on Kuta Beach. The truck looked abandoned. I didn't see any kid anywhere within the perimeter of this awesome colorful truck. Well.. *tapping fingers*

The truth is, I've always wanted to get myself a toy sand truck. With a small bucket and shovel, of course. Because all I got when I was a kid was my father's broken camera for me to crash it even worse. Well, my mother was too busy perfecting her doughnut recipe to buy me a kitchen set or a Barbie. So she got me heaps of beads for me to make necklaces and bracelets. Which would break apart in no time because I sucked big time at tying the knots of these precious jewelry of mine. So at the end of the day it was beads under the cushion, beads in my pockets, beads inside my father's broken camera film loader, beads adorning my mother's doughnuts, and with a bead-bead here and bead-bead there and here a bead there a bead, everywhere a bead-bead: our house was old MacDonald's bead farm.

[I was kidding with the beads atop my mother's doughnuts, but still, just imagine the damage I might have done! Which is pretty cool. (Too much sugar in my childhood diet?)]

Anyway.

How I wanted to steal the truck away and build a sand castle. Or a sand car. Or a sand jacuzzi. Or a sand burger. Or a sand statue of James McAvoy. But that would be a ridiculous project because I would've needed more tools than just a toy sand truck to make a James MacAvoy. Which is a great sand artist. Which is definitely not me. Besides, the truck is not even mine.

Oh, how I really need to drag my sorry butt out of this island. And soon would be nice, thank you.

Report. From Bali. Day 10.

Back to work. I typed hundreds and hundreds of words that I never know if they have certain, if not important, meaning or would make difference to the world's problem whatsoever.

Not to mention the fact that I can get distracted easily.


The memory of yesterday's stroll to Kuta is haunting me and I can not concentrate on what I'm doing on this desk (more like, on this dinning table, actually).

I want to go back to the beach, just wearing a tee and shorts and my comfortable flip flop and with a bottle of Aqua and a really nice state of the art camera technology and getting some really nice tan and good pictures to go back home with.

Life is too good to pass with un-fun stuff. Especially in a place like Bali.

Report. From Bali. Day 9.

We were having a blast today. strolling the city and the beach the whole day long. Without having to worry about work or catching a flight schedule.


And enjoying the mind blowing sunset. Finally. After all these years.

I feel so romantic. But the fact that my mischievous one is away at another beach far away in Makassar, felt like a bloop in the whole scene. Darn. I miss the silly guy.

So here is Dita, my ndutapimut companion, in a couple of frames I took along the beach.

Report. From Bali. Day 8.

This is my friend, Dita, and I. We're "trapped" here in Bali since Dec 1, and haven't been able to free ourselves from piles of work.

I mean Bali and work? They do not make a good combination. It's just ironic.

While everyone was jumping in elation imagining that we're here in Bali at the end of the year for some flip-flop moment, beach-side cafes, and walking down the street of Kuta with a pair of hot sunny that scream "coolness", and savouring the sight of red-head six-packed surfers whom I don't even know whether they really know how to surf or not, and stroll out for some necklaces and bracelets made of mother-of-pearls, and maybe for some silver works, and a pair of silly flower print shorts, and thick layers of sunblocks with ridiculous SPF, and be a surfer chick for a day (or not), and...

Where was I? Oh, work. The truth is we barely see what's going on outside this hotel wall.

But God bless Google News and You Tube and cable TV. Amen.

So, if you'll excuse me, I still have tons of summary waiting to be done on the other window of my computer screen. *Gulp*