My family

Perhaps this posting would be of no importance to you, but i really want to write about my family in this blog. I am a bit homesick i think.

First, about my mother. I call her "IBU", which means "mother". This word "ibu" is known in several languages: malay, indonesian, javanese, and many other local languages i suppose. Among my cousins, most of them also call their mother by this word "ibu". Only a few use "Mama". My mother was born in Surabaya, and then moved to Jogja with my father. In Australia, my mother worked in STC, Standard Telephones and Cables, an electronics company in Alexandria NSW. I wasn't born yet when Ibu first worked there. Before that, Ibu worked in a Pharmacy in Jogja. Now Ibu works in Balai POM Yogyakarta (Food and Drug Agency Yogyakarta Branch).

My father is a lecturer in Pharmacy, specializing in food and drug analysis. Ask him anything about spectroscopy, organic chemistry, whatever, he will be delighted to answer. I call my father "Bapak". Bapak took all of his postgrad studies in UNSW, just like me now :D :D :D

I have a bigger brother, his name is Dhani and i call him by his name, unlike the traditional word "Kak" or "Mas" or "Bang" which means 'brother'. I don't know how i could end up not using an ethical way to call my brother, but huhh.. don't know. He's in Banda Aceh now, working for the Forestry Department. His office is the Kreueng River Conservation Authorities or whatever. He survived the 2004 tsunami. We used to go to Kensington Public School together, close to where i live now. There's too much memories with my brother in this neighbourhood i'm staying now...

My smaller brother had just turned 19 years old last week. He's studying medicine in Gadjah Mada University and he's the only member of our family who can't speak english very well, although he was born in Darlinghurst, Sydney :D He's a bit annoying, but... okay i miss him too. I wonder if he would choose to become an Australian citizen or permanent resident one day, if that is possible....

That's all about my family. Have a good day.

Subuh

Wow, tnyt udah lama gak melihat suasana subuh seindah ini.

Langit gelap mulai membiru, tapi gemerlap bintang masih jauh lebih banyak dibandingkan untuk ukuran jam segini di Jogja. Bulan sabit bersinar terang banget di timur, dan tetep aja bintang2 kecil lain di deketnya keliatan. Malahan di sebelah kiri bawah bulan ada bintang yang terang sekali. Sepertinya bintang itu terlihat agak sabit juga. Huh, wish i had a telescope so that i can make sure.

What shocked me the most was: THE SOUTHERN CROSS WAS NOT UPSIDE DOWN ANYMORE!

Weird, this is very weird. The southern cross is the only star pattern i have known since childhood, because it's too obvious: it's on the south, and it's like the flag of Australia! Usually these stars are not upside down, it should have an upright position like the southern cross in the Australia's flag.

But since summer, i was a bit amazed by the fact that the southern cross was upside down, where it usually was just tilted a bit to the clockwise direction. This still happened until a few days ago.

I've been thinking since this subuh, could it be possible that at these days of the season, the southern cross stars will actually rotate from an upside down position at dusk to an upright position the next dawn? Or have it been like that all the time? Hmm... i don't think so, i believe it's just recent.

Enough about the moon. This subuh was amazing. The sky was very clear, and it was a bit colder than the days before. Horses were walked out from Randwick Racecourse to somewhere i have no idea, passing my old Kensington Public School as usual. Randwick Council Grafitti Buster truck also passed Doncaster ave this morning, hmm i wonder if the randwick council guys do actually work at this time? Cool.

Hhh... i should have woke up this early and get out more often.

Keterangan:
- subuh = dawn
- southern cross = a formation of 4 bright stars and 1 smaller one, located on the south.
- Randwick = Kensington is a suburb in the Randwick City, New South Wales

(nb: please don't ask me why i'm posting more and more in english now than in bahasa indonesia. probably this is a side effect of living alone without adhika staying at the room to talk with. spending most of my time of the day at school might have affected this as well.)

School again

Today is the first day of O-week. Week zero. Orientation week. Whatever you wish to call it. And the uni is back to life once more, after several months of hibernation.

No more holidays, no more fun. It's time to go back to school guys. Keep the spirit, and all the best!

Wajah Lama Kota Sydney: Kendaraan

Sudah dua abad lebih sejak koloni pertama di Sydney berdiri. Bermula dari sebuah pemukiman orang2 buangan, narapidana, dan bbrp petugas keamanan dan pejabat pemerintahan dari Inggris, kini Sydney telah menjadi metropolitan kelas dunia.
Dua abad bukan waktu yang singkat, tapi juga tidak terlalu lama. Untungnya, kita masih bisa melihat peninggalan2 lama kota Sydney.

Artikel kali ini menampilkan wajah lama Sydney dari segi kendaraan2 tempo doeloe yang masih bisa dilihat sekarang.























Kapal layar berlabuh di dekat The Rocks, Sydney Harbour.



















Mobil patroli jaman dulu, sebuah Holden kebanggaan Australia.
















Bus double decker yang masih dilestarikan. (sayangnya bus2 ini hanya dioperasikan pada Australia Day 24 Januari)

Out of Comfort Zone

When people move from one place to another, some kind of discomfort will probably occur to him or her. This is especially true if the person moves out from their own comfort zone.

Just imagine yourself as a successful young worker. You have a nice job and a friendly working atmosphere. You have a great vehicle and a nice place to live in. You have a bunch of friends and most importantly your family are always there to support you. You have a healthy diet, and your salary is just fine.

Then try to picture yourself, suddenly you have to leave all of those and start living in a new place where you had never been before. You are determined to do such a drastic step in your life because you believe that your choice is utterly beneficial for your own future as well as your family's well-being.

Try to imagine that just in a matter of hours, you suddenly find yourself rather helpless. You have no permanent place to stay. You even cannot speak the local language of your new place very well. You don't know where to go for shopping and you have the slightest idea of how to travel using the public transport.

You start to regret your decision to move. You keep feeling homesick and sad, perhaps you will lose some weight as well.

I am not talking about myself, though there may be some similarities with my own case. But what drove me to write this article is the sadness and shockness of some of my new friends who just came here from Indonesia. They cannot hide these feelings from their faces. They definitely miss their families and their loved ones back home. All of the sudden, they had to live in my other friends' flats as temporary accomodations. They had to immediately accept the fact that almost anything here is 5 times more expensive than usual. They must not complain the different food and meals served here, although more and more Indonesian restaurants are opened nowadays.

All of these are just temporary. I am sure they will be just fine in no time.

Ternyata i am not a good speaker :(

Aku baru nyadar e. Jadi selama ini tu, i was not a good speaker in any language. Bahasa Jawa ku gak beres, bahasa inggrisku masih belepotan, dan yang paling parah bahasa Indonesia ku yang baik dan benar pun gak lancar2 amat.

I speak Jowo and english with my brother, and with my parents as well. Tapi dah dikit banget, cuma utk kata2 tertentu aja seperti, "wasn't me". Percaya atau tidak, bahasa inggris malah aku pakai ke orang tua ku kalo aku merasa harus meminta dengan sopan :D Termasuk juga kalo pas agak marah2an :(

Tapi masih lah, masih campuran dgn bahasa Jawa dan Indonesia ;)

Kalo sama adikku, aku nyuruh2 dan marah2 nya pakai campuran boso Jowo dan bahasa Indonesia, tapi banyak bahasa Indonesia nya.

I call my mother "Ibu" and my father "Bapak". I call my bigger brother just by his name and without "Mas" --yes, i am not a good adik :(--, and i call my smaller brother "Adnan".

I know this is not a good excuse, but i think this pretty much explains why i have terrible communication skills...

a bloke lost his phone

Eh, aku boleh dikit cerita ya? Tentang seseorang yg bernama Barbara yg tinggal di Daceyville, deket Kingsford tempatnya Ida. Alkisah pada suatu pagi di hari Minggu, a bloke was running to his friend's flat, Ida's flat. Being in such a hurry, he did not realize that something very important dropped from his pocket while he was running and jumping and running again. His old Siemens M55 fell on the soft green grass, not far from his friend's flat.

A few moments later, an old lady saw the thing lying on the grass. She knew instantly that the thing was indeed a mobile phone! But she didn't know how to use it. "Perhaps i should just throw it away", thought the lady. But no, she did not throw the thing away. Instead, she brought it to her neighbour, Barbara, especially after the thing had red lights flashing on it. This flashing light is a sign that there is a missed call or an incoming SMS. But ofcourse, she knew nothing about these stuff.

Barbara is a blonde Australian woman. She is not young, but if you talk to her on the phone you would think that you are talking to a beautiful young Aussie girl. In fact, Barbara is just as old as the old lady who found the lost mobile handset.
After inspecting the phone, amazingly she managed to call a missed call number on the handset, which happened to be the owner's friend mobile number, Rini. She told her about the situation and then she left her own phone number to Rini. Now Rini must tell Irfan, oops no, i mean the bloke who lost his handset, about this. But how? She knew he lost his phone, so how can she call him?

(Hihihi sori memanjang2kan cerita :D Jadi keasyikan cerita soal nya)

Rini lives in the same flat as Ida, and she knew that the bloke went out to city with Ida and her other flatmate, Selly. So she called Ida instead. A male voice answered the call. Noticing a bit of confusion on the other side of the phone, the bloke immediately explained that he borrowed Ida's phone for the moment because he must go home first so he couldn't come with Ida and Selly downtown.

Rini quickly understands, and then she told him about Barbara. Not long after, the clumzy bloke called Barbara's number.

(Cerita nya dipendekkan aja ah, dah mulai bosen bgt e)

Unit 7, 4A Astrolabe Road, Daceyville. That's where Barbara lives, and that's where the bloke is heading for. It was getting a bit dark already. The bloke brought some fruits for the lady who saved his Siemens M55 for him. The lady got happy with the fruits he gave, and the bloke was even happier, because he got his Siemens M55 back.

And the Siemens M55 lived happily ever after. The End.

Keterangan:
- Bloke (UK, Aus) = Dude (US) = orang (cowok)
- Daceyville and Kingsford are names of suburbs in Sydney NSW