November 03, 2007

scared of strange boys calling

It's happened a few times before. I'm just drifting off to sleep and my mobile rings somewhere in the bedroom. I scramble to pick it up, thinking it must be some kind of family or friend emergency, and it's some guy on the phone. I can understand if it's the wrong number; it happens, they apologise and go away.

But when they call and call and call again, that's scary. Please just go away.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:50 PM | Comments (1)

October 16, 2007

Design for elderly travel

At Milan's Centrale FS on my usual commute to Turin yesterday, I saw an elderly couple on the escalator parallel to mine. The man had on a blue batik shirt that caught my eye, and something about they were dressed and carried themselves gave me the impression that they were seasoned travelers. We chatted on our way to our respective train platforms; their train was next to mine.

The man had bought the shirt in Malaysia, he spoke basic bahasa Indonesia, and I was the second person in Milan that morning that had asked him about his shirt. They are Swiss Germans and were heading back home that day after spending time in Italy.

I love seeing older generations actively traveling; this couple seemed to be in their late 60s-early 70s and although they seemed active and healthy and independent, I wonder if in some ways they had needs still unfulfilled in today's travel context. Interesting subject to explore further. I hope when I'm their age, I'll still be traveling around like them.

In the meantime, I'll be digging up old posts on the elderly on the Putting People First blog.

Posted by Yasmina at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2007

my cousin D

On Friday night I dreamt about my cousin D. Gue ngga hadir di pemakamannya, dan gue belom pernah ke rumah ortunya, tapi this dream landscape is definitely one I've had before, dan dalam konteks yang sama yaitu rumah ortunya. Lucu yah, rupanya subconscious gue mempunyai sebuah image of what his parents' house is like, dan memori gue ingat bahwa I've dreamt about this before.

In any case, I couldn't stop thinking about D. He was my second cousin, and counting all the years I've been away, we'd hardly seen each other. My memories of him are few, but vivid.

Like that one rainy afternoon with a family party going on and I escaped the clutches of genuine-yet-choking family warmth, seeking refuge in the empty terrace overlooking the small fish pond (a malaria source, if anything!). Not long after, D came to join me. We didn't speak, much. We sat there in our silent understanding that family gets too much for us sometimes. I was glad for his company.

I remember the pitter-patter of the gentle rain, the light of the approaching dusk desaturating the colors of the day, our bare feet on the tile floor, the tip of his cigarette glowing orange in the semi-darkness, the smoke dissipating into the air like ghosts of our past, his white teeth as he smiled, the breaths we took almost in synch.

I wish I could have captured that moment, tangibly, somehow, and then D would be alive in more than just my heart and mind.

Posted by Yasmina at 05:02 PM | Comments (1)

August 20, 2007

Roadtrips with friends

Found these four sunset scans while I was looking for old project files. Karen had scanned them in for me.

It was us on one of our random roadtrips. João, Laszlo, Karen and myself. We ended up in Brugge and Zeebrugge this time. It was frikkin cold on the shore that day but the sky was eternally blue and Karen's jacket was so bright, this visual memory still freshly etched onto my memory. I had a very tasty French onion soup that afternoon, on a beachside bistrot.

I miss us. I do, I do.

Posted by Yasmina at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2007

so many

There's so much that happened lately and so much I want to tell but the words just don't come out. Gue udah lose the ability to form coherent story deh kayanya; apa karena kerjaan gue sehari-hari banyak involve storytelling and narration? Jadi kalo udah di luar studio, otak gue udah malas stringing the words and pictures to together. Ngga mau membuat content lagi dan maunya consume content :)

Memasak
Kemaren chatting sama Mas Ote yang memang sudah lama ngga ketemu. Paling saling ketlisut di forum saja. Chatting sambil masak, seperti biasa. Kalo musim panas gini biasanya appetite kita menurun; too hot too eat jadi kita banyak makan yang light aja, seperti salad, sandwich, kadang zarusoba. Banyak makan gelato juga sih.

Gue kangen makanan Indo. Pengen makan rawon. Pengen makan gudeg. Pengen makan daging empal. Mmm, apa lagi ya? Ketoprak sayur. Ini kok masakan Jawa semua ya? Kadang gue pikir bahwa I would probably be better at cooking Indonesian food if Robert had been Indonesian, then he'd want me to cook Indonesian dishes.

Little green dots
So Skype was down this week, but it wasn't what I was really missing. Everyone's gone off on holidays, and I miss my "dailies", the people I work with, usually translated into little green dots and Growl notification bars. Andrea and Tal (who I miss physically too, because the three of us made up the 'Milan team'), the terrible twins Dona and Halli, and oddly enough, Mark.

Gue juga akhir-akhir ini kan sering ngobrol sama Gaya dan Karen di London. Walopun ngga lama, dan isinya paling cela-celaan tentang orang lain tentunya, ahahaha doang, the words across my screen provides me dengan semacam emotional tanda sayang.

It was getting depressing, so in a way I was glad Skype went down and I didn't have to think about the gaping void that was my main communication and presence channel.

Teenage kicks
Pernah liat film 'The Virgin Suicides' ngga? I think the opening shots captured perfectly moments dari summer kita di tahun 1992. Masa-masa angsty, tapi full of lust for life, awakening, discovery.

Gue ngga tahu apakah gue merasa flattered, touched, awkward atau gimana, ketika someone from my blurry past mengatakan bahwa dia selalu berharap akan bertemu gue lagi ketika gue pindah dari US, Gue ngga tau apa mungkin dia punya unresolved issues atau memories yang membuat dia confess itu semalam. Anyway...

We lay on our backs in the grass
Silently watching the rain clouds move by far too fast
You said it was a night where anything could happen
But nothing was gonna last
And we're doing fine now yeah we do
We don't feel sad or bad or blue and you know
We ain't never defeated
Not broken inside all that is fine
Yeah all that is fine
- Beth Orton, Daybreaker

Posted by Yasmina at 12:17 PM

May 05, 2007

Labour Day Weekend

A bit of a delayed post since this week the handsome-and-talented husband and I were both working away from Milano.

Tuesday, May 1st was Labour Day so we ran away to Riomaggiore for a 4-day adventure on coastal fishing villages. We didn't do much. It was a weekend of waking up late, having coffee, orange juice and croissants on our large sunny terrace that looks down on Riomaggiore's main square, then going down the smooth pebble beach for sunbathing and swimming in the sea for the entire day, before heading home and dressing for dinner, either taken in our balcony again or at the quiet trattoria by the train station.

How wonderful it is to swim in the sea! I'd forgotten how nice it is to plunge into cool blue waters, how the salt crusts on hair and how afterwards our skin would smell of salt mixed with sun lotion. For three days, we parked ourselves on large smooth boulders on the waterside, so we could lie with our feet in the water and watch crabs mating.

On Tuesday, our last day, the sea was the clearest it had ever been. I could see straight down to the rocky sea floor, and see the fish swim in between my feet. By this time, Robert had turned a lovely shade of brown, his eyebrows slowly turning blond. He's all shiny and smooth, swimming between the boulders, like an oversized otter, and he struggles to climb on the jutting rocks only to dive into the cool waters again.

Unfortunately this week it was back to rainy, gray weather in northern Italy. Robert was in Germany for work and I was in Torino working for three days until Friday. It rained almost non-stop and this depresses me; after a lovely weekend full of sun and love, it was hard to be away from Robert and having awful weather.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:33 AM | Comments (1)

March 23, 2007

sementes

I found this on Flickr whilst looking for papaya images. See sometimes, when I'm hit with a certain memory, I have to quickly get a visual reference and savour the emotion.

In this particular case, I was IMing with a friend in Indonesia, talking about fruit and I remember the breakfasts my father would make for me.

My father would slice papayas into blocks in a bowl. Sprinkle a little bit of sugar and squeeze fresh lime over it. Sometimes he does this before I even wake up, so he chills it in the fridge. Sometimes the bowl of papaya is already waiting for me on the dining table, but nothing really beats this feeling of opening the fridge and discovering there is this delicious bowl of papaya specially made by my father for me.

Oh man, I'm really homesick right now.

Posted by Yasmina at 02:54 PM | Comments (1)

March 06, 2007

got.the.bug.must.travel.

Oh man, I have to leave Milano. For the past couple of days, I've been looking for Easter-Pasqua getaways (a bit late for that, actually) and I was really hopeful on getting a long weekend in Sicily. I thought of flying to Palermo, and taking the ferry to Cefalu, or the autobus to Trapani. Or fly into Catania or Reggio Calabria and get a ferry to Messina.

Ma non trovato(-re?) speziali offerti Pasqua, boo hoo!

Another option was to take the trains on the Milano-Venezia-Firenze-Milano route, which I could find for cheap. However, the accommodation prices are ridiculous for that Easter-Pasqua weekend, and being dependent on Trenitalia means we can't stray far from the centro historico.

I think we'll end up renting a car and driving down to Toscana. Yeah, Toscana would rock our socks.

Then, I started to randomly click and Google destinations and started looking at tickets prices for Indonesia. We're planning to go sometime in August-September. After our Hungary and Turkey trips in June, we figure we still have 20-25 holiday days so we were going to spend 4 weeks in Indonesia, where 2 weeks is spent with family and going to the mountain house, and 2 weeks can be spent elsewhere.

It's always hard trying to decide between a cultural experience or a beach holiday. We'll skip Bali this time and head straight for the white-sands-clear-blue-sea of Lombok. My dad had always wanted to take us to the Bromo crater; Unfortunately, it always erupted shortly before our visits, so no tourism allowed. I also want to take the handsome-and-talented husband to the Borobudur temple.

Oh man, I am so excited about all these trips and I'm annoyed that we can't go earlier. Well, at least next weekend our friends K&D are coming down from Germany and together we will spend a weekend in Torino for la grande festa di cioccolato! Yippee! I am so looking forward to that.

Posted by Yasmina at 06:36 AM | Comments (2)

February 06, 2007

Pastry-Eating Frenzy

I love the pastries they make in bakeries here... I swore off pastries for this week but then Eva came over this afternoon with a plateful... How can I resist?

Nearby our flat are a couple of really great panificio/pasticceria/bakeries, where we usually stock up on fresh bread (if the husband doesn't feel like making his own), get our focaccia for our soups and salads, catch a morning coffee with a freshly baked brioche, and getting seasonal pastries.

I love the selection of seasonal pastries, like chiaccere (sp?) which is a crispy fried dough sprinkled with powder sugar that you can find only during carnaval season. As well as pastries and pies that use seasonal fruits like mirtillo (blueberries) and fichi (figs) and lampone (raspberries).

Posted by Yasmina at 10:03 PM | Comments (1)

February 02, 2007

VOX QotD: Next On My Itinerary

What's the next country you want to visit? Submitted by Schomer.

Braziland India. Japan is pretty high on the list, too.

However, this year, we are already planning+booking trips to:
1. Hungary in June: I've been here before, but the husband hasn't been, and we're going for the wedding of our friends, Laszlo, who's Hungarian and Lesh, who is British-Indian.
2. Turkey in June: we both have never been here, so we're excited to come; also for the wedding of our friends, Anton, who's British-Turkish, and Kata, who is Hungarian.
3. Indonesia in August: family visit to fulfill our duties as daughter and son-in-law, but we are also hoping to travel a bit rather than just seeing family and friends in the city.
4. Singapore stopover in August: how can we go to Indo without visiting friends in Sing?
5. India in November, still tentative: the continuation of the Hungarian-Indian wedding of Laszlo and Lesh.

Sounds like a good year.

I wish every year I can visit at least 2 new countries. It's hard because we're in Europe now and we've been to most places here. I am getting a bit sick of Europe, although I love Italy. Scandinavia is definitely interesting, but I see them as more of city-weekend breaks, rather than a place for holidays.

I feel terrible about Brazil because one of my good friends, João, lives in Rio di Janeiro and he comes to visit us nearly every year. The visiting score right now stands 4-0. We keep putting off Brazil for other travel plans. I really hope we can go soon to Brazil for a vacation there and see him.

Posted by Yasmina at 04:34 PM

January 29, 2007

idlehands

Milan is a great city to live in if you're working hard, and you love your work, and afterwards you and your friends go to apperitivo-dinner-dancing to celebrate or commiserate.

Milan is not great when you don't have anything to do. There's only so many times you can go to the Triennale or other galleries. Not to mention that my social life has shrunk in epic proportions since everyone graduated and buggered off to their next destinations. My friend M has started a Tuesday night get-together to exchange information on the intersection of design and culture and prototyping (he's a technologist), so I'm starting to go to that and meeting new people that way.

I did spend a couple of weeks lost in transition but that's all over now. I spent some time working on my good friend Kathya's website; she's a photographer. It was fun to do, and I'm just finishing things up. I've also been talking to a few prospects on possible collaborations and they've all been mostly positive. Work is starting to snowball around me... Exciting, and I'm feeling really positive, energetic and enthusiastic towards anything that comes my way.

Posted by Yasmina at 06:58 PM

January 14, 2007

lost in transition

I'm getting used to seeing friends on Skype and knowing that I won't be seeing them for lunch, or apperitivo, or Sunday movie night. I'm getting used to being able to just work on my own projects (namely, knitting, *which is going horribly* and soldering robots and electronic kits *which I'm better at*). It's been a week since we got back to Milan and it's a new kind of daily routine that I'm trying to get used to; even if only for a little while.

Last week, I was updating my website, and talking to some people about possible collaborations. I can't talk too much about that yet, only that I'm fortunate to know so many people who are happy to open their doors for me. In the meantime, I am keeping myself busy with new ideas and projects, and making new friends.

I'm glad we are staying in Italy for longer. I like my life here, with Robert. Hooray for 2007.

Posted by Yasmina at 05:18 PM

December 17, 2006

it's done!

So last night we had an informal graduation ceremony, and the final exhibition. It was packed and soon I was tired of talking about my project; I should have prototyped a repeat button with a voice recording on it. Oh, it felt, somewhat anti-climactic.

My Arduino blew up at 3 am that morning (after I thought everything was done), and without my knowledge, Robert had taken the spare Arduino to his office in Monza. So in a panic I had to email Massimo and Giovanni, asking whether they had a spare Arduino lying around at the studio.

Luckily, everything turned out OK. Here's some photos... taken by Hector and Mika...

We skipped out of the exhibition early. Giovanni, Robert and I went to Rosso Pomodoro to celebrate with Napoli-style pizzas and beers. It was delicious! I'm glad Giovanni was there to celebrate with us. Afterwards, we were supposed to party with the rest of the graduating class at Trattoria Toscana but dinner didn't finish until half past midnight and we were knackered so we went home. :-)

Yay me! It's over! It's been an amazing year, learning so much, meeting creative people... I'm sad because everyone is leaving and thinking about life in Milan without them is painfully unbearable...

Another chapter begins, I guess... :-)

Posted by Yasmina at 01:29 AM | Comments (5)

November 02, 2006

Musical Neighbours

Ahhh... finally. The piano kid living in our building learns a new song to play. For weeks, I've listened to the soft sounds of Beethoven's Für Elise in the distance, somewhere in the building. I thought the kid lived upstairs, but now we actually think the kid is downstairs and the awesome rock guitarist lives upstairs.

The kid often practises on Sunday mornings, not too early, around 10 am, and sometimes during the weekday evenings. The rock guitarist plays mostly on evenings; sometimes we don't hear him for a while, but then he/she would play a couple of nights in a row, around 8 pm.

You might think having a piano kid and a rock guitarist in the building is a hassle and makes a noisy living space, but we actually quite like listening to them (within a repetitive threshold).

And what song has the neighbour kid learned to play this time, you might ask? Heart and soul, of course.... ;-)

Posted by Yasmina at 07:25 PM

October 18, 2006

Guitar Guy

Most days on my daily commute to school, I see him, jumping metro carriages every two stations, toting his guitar and his paper cup with change. He's probably my age, South-American looks, long dark hair tied into a ponytail; sometimes he looks sad or nostalgic but his voice always carries clearly, floating across the carriage, above the din of the train travelling on rails in the underground.

His eastern border on the green line is Lambrate FS, my stop, and he would exit the northeast-bound train, cross the platform and catch the train going back into town. In the other direction, I've seen him as far as Porta Genova station, also my stop.

The thing that drives me a little bit crazy about him is that he's always either singing "La Bamba" or "Guantanamera". Just those two numbers. Nothing else. Or at least, I haven't heard him sing any other tunes. It's getting to the point of recognition when I put a coin into his cup and we'd smile, nod, an acknowledgement of presence, and I swear he looks embarrassed sometimes, as if thinking, "Oh, she heard me sing that song, again..."

Anyway. I haven't spotted him since school started. I hope he's okay.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:10 PM

October 09, 2006

Trespassers of Social Boundaries

Referring to this post of mine, I ponder upon ideas of social boundaries and its trespassers in online communication channels.

In response to the above post, A talks about giving 3 strikes before they're out... My good friend, M, once talked about only continuing friendships only with people who keep up the same effort and block out the others... My final project talks about the emerging behavior of scopophilia (combination of voyeurism and exhibitionism) in social networking and developing solutions for revealing, concealing and camouflage: opening up, closing and hiding communication windows.

All deal in some ways with trespassers of social boundaries...

The more I analyse it, the more rules and exceptions I come up with in social interaction, specifically in my case of last week: like, I don't expect a reply when I send out a mass email with general news or so, but I expect something when it is an individual email with specific personal questions.

Also, if the online relationship mirrors the offline relationship, upon which the online contact is based, I tend to be more forgiving. For example, my friend L is terrible at returning calls when we were living in the same city, so it's OK if he doesn't reply to my message now that we're in different countries. But when it's someone who is dependable and constant with the offline relationship, and their online behavior is the opposite, I become puzzled and stumped. Especially with the ease of emails/Flickr/IM these days, it's easier to offend by a non-reaction.

During the Applied Dreams workshop this year, one of the teams came up with a project on Social Boundaries, certain rules that apply and get broken. Shame I can't find it as reference for now, but if I find it, I'll link it.

OK, back to the project drawing board.

Posted by Yasmina at 10:31 PM

October 03, 2006

Herd. It could sound like 'Hurt'.

Crossposted from Vox.

Jillian is probably a pro at analysing this kind of thing. I'm just beating myself up on why some of the people I knew back in the Netherlands haven't replied to my emails. Even with all the easy communication channels, there's been no initiation from the other side. Amazing. In a really weird and pathetic way.

Forget asynchronous communication; this is like person-to-brick-wall communication. Maybe they've got that whole swarm, herd behaviour going on: once I'm out of their immediate circle and vicinity, they go and herd elsewhere.

Posted by Yasmina at 04:20 PM

July 11, 2006

disjointed

Oh, I don't know. So much happened, emotions running high, so many thoughts to visualise, verbalise, but they don't come out. The colors are so bright. The asphalt is starting to melt, motorbikes and scooters leaving their mark in the black, that I wonder why the bike companies don't put their branding on the bottom of the bikes' kickstand. A sidewalk imprinted full of Ducati-Vespa-Yamaha logos.

Tragic things in the metro
Men in polyester suits. Ugh. In this summer heat. Dirty toenails in flipflop feet. Cowboy boots. Girls who don't shave their armpits, leaving wispy strands of underarm hairs and wearing tanktops. Smelly, sweaty people during rush hour. I'm still trying to get over the people who wear their sunglasses in the metro. Why?

Amazon interaction problem
Does anyone know how to merge Amazon wishlists? I somehow ended up with two: one at Amazon.co.uk, and at Amazon.com. I want mine to be centralised at the UK site since I get things shipped from there. I can't figure out how to do this. Perhaps I need to ask my dear friend Sahala if it's even possible.

Happiness are new T-shirts for the summer
I forgot I had $42 worth of Threadless points, so we got new T-shirts. We got Miss Yasmina in the Studio with the Bubble Gun, this one, that one and this really cute one.

Saying things out loud
Something is missing between my brain and my mouth: I say things out loud, things that are not meant to be spoken out. Random things. Silly things. Occupying-my-mind kind of things. Robert laughs at me because this week, whilst washing the dishes, I said, "Random ping generator" completely out of the blue, with an emphasis on the "ping". I also end up muttering things like "chaos", "ubiquity", "facial" and "superduper gelato".

Missing people
We've broken up for the school "focus period" and summer break. After six intense months with people at school, I'm ready for a break. On one hand, I miss my-before-Italy friends. All those people, all those lives, where are they now.

On the other hand, I want to melt and disappear until everyone forgets about me.

Posted by Yasmina at 01:47 AM | Comments (3)

April 26, 2006

random stuff before leaving

I'll be back in Europe this weekend. Singapore stopover should be long enough for es kachang and katong laksa with Indrani, Thal+Ari and Yos.

Arriving in Amsterdam on Queen's Day of all days. I'll be sure to wear my orange Nike Waffle. If I can leave the airport, I'm either partying with Ally&co in Amsterdam centrum or I'll be hanging out with Gerard at his parents' and playing in the lake.

I want I want a Love-Hate T-shirt.

I'm going to miss my mom and dad and sister and little Xavie.

I'm all giddy from the thought of seeing Robert again :)

Posted by Yasmina at 07:15 AM | Comments (7)

March 30, 2006

ibunya nelpon...

So, bayangin aja kalo Anda seorang ibu, yang anak laki-laki yang udah dewasa, dan dia tinggal sendiri, dan Anda tahu bahwa dia ngga punya pacar tapi lagi nyari dan sering nge-date. Suatu hari, jam setengah delapan pagi, Anda menelpon anak Anda. Dan yang mengangkat telpon rumah anak Anda adalah seorang wanita, yang mengatakan, "Oh, si dia baru saja berangkat ke kantor..."

Apakah Anda akan berpikir negatif mengenai wanita tersebut? Misalnya, asumsinya adalah si wanita tersebut nginep di rumah anak Anda semalam. Apakah Anda juga akan berpikir something is going on antara anak Anda dan wanita tersebut?

Abis... gue kan paling males angkat telpon disini, tapi si Gerard suka bete kalo gue ngga ngangkat telpon rumah kalo dia yang nelpon *telpon aja ke HP gue dong!* Sekalinya gue angkat, nah kan, bener kan, nyokapnya yang nelpon... Huhu, dan dari nada suara ibunya sih, kayanya si cowok dodol itu ngga ngasihtau ibunya kalo minggu ini gue nginep lagi disini... Huhu...

Mana besok malem dia ngajakin gue main ke rumah ortunya untuk kenalan lagi... Adziggg... Hihihi, rasanya lucu, seperti mau ngenalin pacar... OMGLOL...

Posted by Yasmina at 02:46 PM | Comments (1)

March 18, 2006

soal menjadi interaction designer

Nah loh... Gue masih pengen jadi interaction designer ato ngga yah?

Kemaren, setelah curhat kepada Mr.S di Seattle dan Mr.H di Miami, gue ngerasa better about myself *why are my friends living so far away?!* tapi kok yah gue masih ada sinking feeling? Kaya'nya, sejak gue mulai kuliah lagi, bukannya gue menambah ilmu, tapi gue ngerasa jadi semakin nyasar! Hahaha... nah loh...

Well, menambah ilmu juga sih, karena reading list yang semakin panjang, dan yang jelas, gue sekarang bekerja dalam interdisciplinary teams yang jurusan dan pengalamannya beda jauh sama gue. Hasilnya? Banyak diskusi, banyak mikir, banyak translation dan re-definisi karena persepsi kita yang beda-beda. Tapi jadi bete juga, soalnya kayanya gue lebih banyak ngebakar sel otak dalam berkomunikasi sama anggota tim yang laen daripada mikirin solusi desain.

Gue harus belajar mengontrol ekspresi muka gue deh. Belajar poker face gitu. Udah beberapa kali gue diprotes dosen dan sesama mahasiswa karena selama mereka presentasi, ekspresi muka gue seringkali berubah dari tampang tertarik, intrigued, bingung, tidak percaya, bosen, skeptis, sinis, dan bermacam ragam ekspresi lainnya. Ekspresif sekali kan? Mendingan ekspresif dong, daripada tampang ngantuk... ;)

Robert agak doubting soal kuliah gue ini. Mungkin dia udah capek dengerin uneg-uneg gue. Mungkin dia udah capek restoring kepercayaan diri gue. Mungkin dia ngerasa gue, dalam kapasitas gue sebagai desainer, udah bagus banget dibandingkan dengan mantan kolega kita di Belanda, yang udah kelamaan kerja di satu tempat jadi kerjaannya gitu-gitu aja.

Setidaknya, sejak gue pindah kesini, gue tau bahwa dunia itu ngga hanya kantor gue doang. Waktu kerja di kantor gue yang dulu, rasanya seperti di dalam boks. Dan kita ngga ngeliat apa yang diluar boks, cuma apa yang di dalam boks doang. Kayanya banyak kolega gue yang takut untuk melihat dan menemukan hal-hal apa aja yang ada diluar boks.

Makanya begitu banyak diantara mereka yang horrified pas mereka tau gue dan Robert akan cabut ke Milan. Bukannya bilang "Congrats" kek, ato apa, mereka malah nanya, "Kenapa?!?!" Aneh ya mentalitynya. What's wrong with studying? Bukannya menambah ilmu itu suatu hal yang positif?

Hal yang gue ngga pernah pikirkan soal kuliah adalah: bagaimana kuliah bisa membuat gue nyasar dan kehilangan identitas dan memikirkan lagi soal kapasitas gue sebagai designer *gue good designer ato bukan sih?!* ... Hahaha... Gue jadi mikir nih, apa gue masih terus pengen jadi interaction designer, karena gue mulai sebelll sama kata-kata interaction design, hahaha...

Anyway. Hari ini gue bakalan jadi ibu rumah tangga. Nanti malam temen-temen pada mau datang untuk cooking and dining together. Eeek! I have to clean the house!

Posted by Yasmina at 11:24 AM | Comments (8)

January 08, 2006

don't panic [me at my most vulnerable]

bones, sinking like stones, all that we fought for, homes, places we've grown, all of us are done for. and we live in a beautiful world, yeah we do, yeah we do, we live in a beautiful world. oh, all that I know there's nothing here to run from, 'cos yeah, everybody here's got somebody to lean on

i'm listening to coldplay's "don't panic" that i've just bought from Apple Music Store and i'm still uploading content into my new video ipod. thank god i didn't get the ipod nano because there is just no way that my music would fit in there... i totally didn't realise how much music i had on my powerbook and in our home server. thank you to my former colleagues who presented me with an Apple Store cadeaubon. :)

i was talking to my advisors last week: gerard, who was on business trip to hong kong but responded to my message anyway, which puts him on the list of "people to call in the middle of the night to help bail you out if you're wrongly jailed for drug-trafficking in thailand" and joão in rio de janeiro. both men convinced me that i was not going to die without robert in milan. :)

i know i'll be going out and meeting new people and enjoying my life in milan. i can deal with missing robert. it's just that i wish i could share this milan-and-domus experience with him. me running around in milan, new people, new projects, fun and creativity, photography, extreme silliness, yummy food, all those bars and restaurants that i've got to try... i want robert to "get it", you know?

ah well. i guess we'll all float along anyway. i'm really looking forward to starting classes next week! :)

Posted by Yasmina at 01:40 PM | Comments (6)

December 31, 2005

happy new year 2006!!!

i couldn't ask for a better year than 2005: getting married (twice, to the same amazing guy!), beautiful honeymoon to bali, fantastic trip to kalimantan, getting accepted at DA/Ivrea, getting a scholarship, leaving my job, moving to italy into a great apartment. there is not a day that i am not grateful.

here's to an equally, if not better, fantastic 2006 for everyone! xoxoxo, yasmina

edit: wow! the above image made it to Flickr's Interestingness page for December 31st 2005. yayness! sweet way to end the year, this is my second Interestingness frontpage :)

Posted by Yasmina at 02:20 PM | Comments (6)

December 28, 2005

loving milan

i am probably still in honeymoon phase.

but i don't think i can ever leave.

Posted by Yasmina at 01:40 PM | Comments (3)

December 06, 2005

untitled

robert: you should update your blog, you know.
me: why? i don't feel like writing i don't have anything to write.
robert: well, people have been asking me why you haven't updated in like, 3 weeks. they thought that you've disappeared off the face of the earth.

it's true. i am stuck in this 'i don't feel like writing' phase. i have things to write about, i guess. like, going to see tim burton's 'the corpse bride', and seeing 'harry potter 4', and oh, joão was here! he was here for almost two weeks, but he was in london for almost a week and he was staying at laszlo's in rotterdam. we went out for drinks a few times, but i still feel like we hadn't spent enough time together. maybe i'm just selfish and want him all to myself, hahaha.

it's my last week in NL. mid-week next week i am moving into my new apartment in milano. :-)

then, people suddenly realise you're going to be gone so they all want to meet you for drinks/lunch/dinner/socialising. which is nice! sometimes i wonder how i will be missed.

Posted by Yasmina at 08:51 AM | Comments (7)

November 03, 2005

eid ul-fitr'

happy end of ramadan! happy eid ul-fitr' everyone! minal aidin wal faidzin! from my most sincere heart, please forgive everything in the past. may Allah give us the most beautiful eid al-fitr' ever.

*selamat lebaran yaaa... mohon maaf lahir batin. gue dan robert mohon dibukakan pintu maaf yang sebesar-besarnya atas segala kekhilafan. kalo ada kata-kata di blog ini yang bikin pembaca sebel, maaf yaa.*

here's a pick of muslim-related images from flickr. image credits, left to right: "Getting Centered" originally uploaded by BidWiya, "The Holy Quran" (Macro) originally uploaded by Jasem, "The Blue Mosque" originally uploaded by Madeeha, "The Masjid Mosque" originally uploaded by RTQ.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:40 AM | Comments (5)

November 01, 2005

getting nervous about the MA course.

i found a few people who are going to do the course with me. one is a fresh graduate of a design school in india. we've emailed and spoken over YM/MSN and he seems nice enough, certainly a curious guy.

another person is a furniture designer based in NY. and a colombian girl currently living in glasgow (?) or somewhere in scotland.

i'm feeling a bit nervous. i feel like i've been working too long, even though it's only been 5 years. i feel like i'm molded in a certain way, and i'm curious to see how i will adjust to the study environment again.

i'm insecure in the sense that the fresh graduates will be more creative/innovative/skilled than i am. that's what i think, anyway. also, the tutors might expect a lot more from me, simply because i've had a lot of industry experience.

daunting thought, really. well. i guess i'll just dive in there.

p.s. there's always cooking school, right? mmmm, alimento delicioso

linky: see more progress on: get a masters degree

Posted by Yasmina at 03:37 PM | Comments (3)

October 17, 2005

school. daydreaming about.

so a group of us were having lunch together last week and ramon asks me, "when do you move to milan, anyway?" to which i responded, "what? physically?" everyone else laughed and made jokes about me daydreaming and being already in milan in thought.

after that lunch, i really got to daydreaming. about the promise of a new life in milan. how nice! i got my routine down. i'm off in a cloud of daydreams...

how my daily school routine would be:
i take the metro in the morning to get to school *it's 14 stations, non-stop, from our apartment, i checked*, listening to music on my iPod *which i don't have, and am hoping to get at christmas, heheh*, reading the free metro newspaper to improve my italian, observing people and maybe even making Metro Daily Commute sketches in my moleskine. this is in the winter, of course. in the summer, in good weather, i will cycle *it's only 8.8 km, i checked* to school.

i get to school, attend the lecture or the workshop. in my imagination, my classmates would be an international mix of young designers, with various design experiences. i like design workshops :) you can say that i am a bit of a workshop whore. boy, did i swoon when i read that five-months of the course would involve workshops on various interaction design themes. woo hoo!

i don't like presenting so much, i don't know how the hell i manage to do presentations to clients in my current job, but i do anyway without big blurps or bleeps, however i think i can improve on my presentation skills. in my daydream, after months of practice, i am the perfect presenter ;)

in the afternoons we may do group assignments or projects. i like this as well, although i need to work on the chemistry... group dynamic is all about chemistry, isn't it? and i have to say that i don't get a "spark" from everyone i work with, so i'd need to work out how to motivate myself when the spark isn't there.

group assignments/projects would take us out of school. we'll be at the library, or doing mobile working, wirelessly from our powerbooks in a coffeeshop *mmmm, smell the italian coffee*, and visiting places of context to our projects: old-people's homes, local schools, cafes, public spaces, malls, etc.

how my desk in the studio would be:
at ravensbourne, we had an open studio with desks. everyone could just claim a desk and work there all year. my desk at DA would have lots of natural lighting, and i sit near a window, so i can look outside and daydreams some more.

knowing me, the desk would be messy, piled with my trusty toolbox from ravensbourne years, spilling with drawing pens, steel ruler, stanley knife, tape, modelling clay, screwdrivers, paint samples, etc. other stuff on desk: design magazines, clippings of articles, prints, photographs, boards with sticky-notes depicting flowcharts, design books, a hardmodel or two, stickers, etc.

i also like to pick up odd bits and pieces from construction sites or vintage shops, so i might have the top part of a mannequin on my desk as well. maybe a cool homemade lamp i made from spare parts.

what's in my bag:
every day i will bring my baby Sputnik (my faithful powerbook), digital camera + lenses, moleskine sketchbook (reporter's edition i love best), ID cards, pens, Metro pass and reading book in my school bag.

*i interrupt this daydream to bring sad news*

my orange messenger bag broke. the seams at the back burst and it's irrepairable. i'm so sad. i bought it at Gap for really cheap, like £15 in 1997, so it's lasted a really long time and it's served me well. it's great for carrying all your stuff around, because the sides can be expand to double its capacity. it has lots of compartments inside and outside for easy access, is easy to clean, it's not too big and it's orange :)

i'm trying to find its replacement, but every bag i see seems to:
a. have a huge logo splashed across the flaps *makes a walking ad for diesel/puma/etc*
b. too big/bulky/heavy *knocks me in the butt when i am walking*
c. too small/cute *my camera fits but my pbook doesn't, or vice versa*

eek! help! at the moment i am looking at:
- this bag which comes in orange, yay!
- this bag which doesn't come in orange, but i like the shape.
- this bag which is the bulkiest, but is on sale ;)

how my life-outside-school would be:
everyone at work keeps asking what robert is going to do, and they don't believe me when i tell them, "we don't know yet." i wish they'd fuck off and leave me alone. seriously. ideally, he comes to milan. if not, that's okay too. we can do the long-distance thing. i'm prepared for both.

if robert is not there...
i'll live in the apartment with a flatmate. the apartment has two bedrooms, anyway. my flatmate would be called eva, who is also indonesian. she is also a student. she studies industrial design at the milan politecnico. she did her undergrad in london. just like me!

we take turns cooking. and we do homework together. and gossip. and do girly things like painting our nails in front of the TV. i'd bitch and moan about missing my husband, she'll bitch and moan about missing her boyfriend (it's not clear where said-boyfriend lives, but it's not in milan, or italy).

we shop together for food and clothes, and we see our friends. we have different sets of friends because we go to different schools, but we know other indonesian students in milan. we both have part-time jobs. i freelance at a design company somewhere in the city, and she works at an interiors shop, so she can get freebies for our flat, yippee :)

on weekends, robert comes to visit me. we're out and about in milan, seeing friends, exhibitions. but sometimes i have to work on weekends, so he cooks me dinner and makes me lunch and does my laundry, hahaha, dream a little dream :)

if robert is there...
i come home to my husband every day and all is well :)

Posted by Yasmina at 07:00 PM | Comments (7)

October 03, 2005

bali bombs :(

my heart goes out to the victims of saturday's bali bombings, and their families, and to all those affected. what a tragedy.

i'm sick of all this violence; violence everywhere, not just indonesia. i'm sick of all the religious groups or individuals justifying their actions in the name of religion or whatever cause, and playing God to everyone else with different beliefs and opinions. where is the humanity?

*gila yah, di satu tempat, kita berusaha menyelamatkan nyawa orang, dan di tempat laen, orang malah buang-buang nyawa orang laen*

Posted by Yasmina at 03:18 PM | Comments (3)

September 28, 2005

dutch. indonesian. italian.

so robert and i decided to make thursday nights as our italian night. when we would only speak italian to each other. errr. right. that would be the night where we speak the least amount to each other then.

we had attempts at language before. we started with dutch. one night a week, we spoke only dutch to each other. robert went round my apartment, tagging everything with yellow post-it notes and the names of the objects in dutch. singular and plural forms. i cheated and call everything with a "-tje" so i don't have to figure out whether it's a "het" or a "de".

when we got engaged, robert wanted to do an indonesian night one night a week. he thought he could impress my family by making the wedding toast in bahasa indonesia. haha. i told him to start the speech with, "bapak dan ibu haryono yang terhormat, jangan kuatir, saya sudah disunat."

robert resorts to his indonesian magic word of "apa?!" whenever indonesian conversations get beyond his level. repeat that a couple of times and people will leave you alone, thinking you don't speak bahasa or are totally deaf.

so now we are at italian. let's see how well we master this. at the moment i am better at vocabulary than robert, simply because of my linguistic knowledge of french, spanish and portuguese. pain, pan, pão, pane. chien, perro, cão, cane *humm, not good example, spanish was the odd one out*

oh well, back to the rosetta stone CD for me...

Posted by Yasmina at 06:48 PM | Comments (6)

September 25, 2005

tiring but inspiring

Well, I'm still recovering from this week's events. First, at work, we've had a week-long annual meeting with designers from the other branches in Asia, Europe and USA. Workshops and symposiums and meetings from 9-5, every day for five days, then afterwards followed by social events.

The main topic of the event was Design Sustainability and I found the symposium speakers to be really inspiring: David Kirkpatrick of Fortune.com, Prof. Anil Gupta, and Bob Adams of IDEO.

The social events were great as I got to meet a lot of colleagues from the other global branches. We would start off with dinner first, then had parties in the Klokkentoren, Clock Tower, in Eindhoven. I was happy to be meeting so many interesting people. Although I am really looking forward to going to Milano, it kind of made me sad because this is my last two months at the studio and I realise I am really going to miss working with some of the great colleagues I have here.

This week was also the Philips Simplicity Event at L' Espace Grande Arche in Paris. I've worked on the Next Simplicity concepts for a good part of this year and we were finally able to implement and exhibit here. So we came over for the exhibition and the book launch. Yippee! Everything looked fab, and worked fantastically and the public's feedback has been wonderful! So we are really happy :)

Posted by Yasmina at 02:30 PM

September 13, 2005

twenty-four-and-a-half

this is laszlo's light in his livingroom, isn't cool? we went over to his place sunday night to see his holiday pictures, and eat a lot of moroccan take-away food from bazar. he and lesh went to morocco for a couple of weeks.

morocco through laszlo's eyes is just gorgeous. laszlo just bought a D70 camera and i think he is still learning to get to grips with it. his photos of marakesh and essaouira reminds me of tunisia, actually. i need to scan in my negatives from my tunisia trip and show them to robert. i'd love to return to tunisia with robert.

anyway.

so today i find out that i still have 24.5 holiday days left. omg. omfg. that's a lot of days. that's practically 5 weeks off! and i have no idea where the half day comes from, but it's really weird, maybe it's because i changed my working hours back to full-time, plus i had the sabbatical leave this year.

i had to recheck twice to make sure i got the right amount of days, and it's really true! so now i have to see what i'm going to do with my days off. :)

robert only has 10 days left this year though; he had 1 month in indo last march and 1 week in august for the dutch wedding. so we were thinking we could have a short one-week break at end of october and another in december, getting out from work early for the christmas holidays.

i'm really happy. can't wait to get away with robert for a little while. he's been so busy and working so hard lately; it would just be nice to travel together someplace. any suggestions?

Posted by Yasmina at 08:00 PM | Comments (5)

August 24, 2005

the one about self-isolation

i'm speaking more and more dutch these days. oh, it's far from perfect, and i'm sure robert cringes behind my back as i slaughter the dutch language, splitting the plural verbs, confusing the tenses and making direct conversions from english sentences into less-comprehensible dutch ones.

my brain's processes for speaking dutch:
- thinks in english
- makes sentence in english
- find and replace all english words with dutch
- if dutch word is unknown, keep the english word
- send command to mouth

in a way, i don't want to be fluent in dutch. i like the self-isolation i make for myself in public spaces. i still need a certain degree of concentration to understand other-than-basic dutch and i like that. lose the concentration and the rest of the world disappears for me.

being back in london or in indonesia bothers me a lot, because i can understand everything. that's just an overload for my senses.

here, i can read peacefully on the train without getting involved in other's conversations. i can listen better to other more interesting sounds: sitting outside sipping a cold Hoegaarden in amsterdam's negen straatjes, i can hear the neighborhood sounds of people cooking in their kitchen, a baby crying somewhere, children playing together, children singing, someone playing the piano, the sax.

why was the baby crying? what are the people cooking? are they having friends over? is someone going to have a performance soon? how long have they been playing the sax? all these thoughts fly into my head and i'm off in my own cloud of stories of how these people came to be.

i wonder how long until i understand dutch and it starts to drive me crazy. i wonder if this will spark me to continue moving until all languages are exhausted.

Posted by Yasmina at 10:35 AM | Comments (8)

August 19, 2005

never the patriot

sometimes i don't know how to be indonesian. i spent my life following my dad on his tour of duty around the world, in the name of indonesia, the indonesian people, the indonesian government. along the way of representing my nation, i forgot how to be indonesian.

what is it to be indonesian, anyway? i never really understood when people told me i was too westernised. i've been thinking about it a lot and it bothers me. maybe i should write something for the blogfam August 17th event, one of which is a blog entry competition on the subject of being indonesian, reflecting upon 60 years of independence.

mbak retno posted a nice entry about the indonesian independence day and how it was to be indonesian in another land. her blog is one of my regular stops for reading :)

have a good weekend, everybody! i'm meeting my parents tonight for a couple of hours as they are on stopover from portugal to jakarta, and then spending the weekend in amsterdam with robert. birthday party to go to tomorrow night, then sunday remco is buying us dimsum lunch in namkee :)

Posted by Yasmina at 10:03 AM | Comments (4)

August 02, 2005

letter to vientiane: praise you

Fat Boy Slim got it right with his words:

We've come a long long way together,
Through the hard times and the good,
I have to celebrate you baby,
I have to praise you like I should

You know who you are. We've come a long way, baby, as Fat Boy Slim would say. Twenty years of friendship, spanning three continents, and you were always around the corner. I would not be here if it weren't for you.

Thank you.

For everything.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:22 AM

July 08, 2005

london, inevitably

last year i was over in london, visiting my former housemate james. he had received a job interview request, somewhere in west london, fulham or something. james complained to me that he didn't want to travel on the tube for fear of terrorist attack.

i laughed at him. i guess by living in the netherlands for some years, where there's generally less fear, i didn't know what to think of james and his fear of terrorist attacks. this is not the london i used to live in: i roamed the city freely, going wherever i pleased.

at the time, this was what i told james: "look, london is going to get hit no matter what. you won't know when or where or how, but it seems inevitable. you can't live in fear all the time, you just got to believe that god would guide you not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

now that all of this has happened, it's really scary, and i don't know what to think. if i think back to what i told james, it's a pretty terrible place we live in when i take bomb attacks as something that'll inevitably happen to my hometown. :(

Posted by Yasmina at 12:18 PM

May 20, 2005

someone trying to tell me something

this week i had a couple of reoccurring dreams about gerard, strangely enough. in essence, he's been complaining that i don't invest enough in our friendship.

so i've been trying to dissect my dream as usual. i'm thinking that gerard in the dream represents certain person(s) who feels neglected or feels a lack of attention from me lately.

could it be my dad? does he feel neglected now that i am married?

well, whatever it is, i've been scrutinizing my relationship with almost everyone now. maybe i should declare the month of june as 'friends and family' month and blog about the special individuals in my life.

have a good weekend everyone.

Posted by Yasmina at 05:36 PM | Comments (2)

May 18, 2005

fleamarket + man at the jazz concert

we were walking through the center of den bosch last sunday, after we'd been to the fleamarket. i was looking for old medium-format cameras at the fleamarket, maybe i'd get lucky and find a treasured rolleiflex or yashica, and there were a couple of fodors in not-working order and polaroids and lots of super8s but nothing interesting otherwise.

i bought a wasabi-green 1950s zenith bowl for a tenner, bargain... also got a couple of 1960s/70s droste chocolate tin cans, with these lovely graphics on the sides.

in den bosch, a jazz festival was underway and the city was packed. we were squeezing our way through the busy streets when i had to pause and wait for denise and robert to come through the crowd. i noticed a well-dressed man standing near me by the heineken beer caravan.

he wore a smart corduroy blazer, in a navy blue that reminded me of my sister's school uniform in london. under the blazer, a cease-free white shirt, striped with thin blue and brown lines. his trousers were neatly pressed, shiny brown leather loafers.

dark blond hair, ruddy face, clean-shaven, maybe in his early forties, he had the face of a well-fed, preppy guy who probably was private-school-educated, whose parents owned a brownstone house on one of amsterdam's central grachts, and probably drove a bmw z3 (such a hairdresser's car, says robert)...

he held his pint of beer in front of him and his hands were really really filthy. his fingers was streaked with dirt, dirt under his nails, the skin dry and cracked. and the thing is, it looked as if he'd washed his hands, not like the dirt was fresh, not that he'd had to change a flat tire on the way to the jazz festival.

i wondered if he was a housepainter like robert's dad, whose hands are generally clean but permanently calloused and quite rough to the touch, or if he was a gardener or landscape artist, or just generally someone who worked with his hands, if he liked to sculpt with limestone or wood or maybe he'd been installing a new kitchen for his wife at home.

anyway. just my thoughts. i realise i miss working with my hands. i wish i made more stuff, designed more tangible things.

Posted by Yasmina at 08:48 AM | Comments (4)

April 27, 2005

10 years

wow, i didn't realise it but last march marks my 10th year in europe. i really have not lived in indonesia for a decade. *fyi, i lived in ch 79-84, usa 88-92, uk 95-00, nl 01-05, indo in between*

by "live" i mean, actually residing in an area. so for example, i wasn't living in indonesia this year, because it was just a sabbatical leave from work, all my stuff were still here, etc. and as with my parents being based in portugal, i didn't officially "live" there because i didn't hold a portuguese residence card.

let's see, in those 10 years, i:
- graduated highschool (london)
- moved out of parents' home
- got into a really cool art school
- met some of my best friends (you know who you are)
- started smoking
- worked in sushi bar (london)
- worked in pizza restaurant (london)
- fell in love (many times over)
- graduated university (london)
- became financially independent (no liabilities, yay!)
- quit smoking
- moved to NL to work for this company
- got design patents for several products
- got some of my designs produced and launched into the market
- travelled europe, africa, asia and us
- got to work with some of the most creative, inspiring designers ever
- met, seduced, fell in love and got married to the delightful mr k ;)
- became an auntie to the cutest bulin babyboy ever

*edit* in those 10 years, i also:
- learned to rely on myself
- realised that friends are the new family
- reached the point in life where i want to reconnect with long-lost friends

this event reminded me that i should report myself to the indo embassy this year, otherwise i'm on the verge of losing my nationality *again?!?!*, which would be a really big oeps...

robert and i are thinking we would stick around europe for a few more years before moving to indonesia to start our indo design domination (haha!) and build our empire... :)

actually, on a more practical level, robert says it is better if i am pregnant in indo, so it is easier for him to get me the food i'll likely be craving *pempek palembang, soto mie, duren and asinan bogor probably* and i'll be close to my parents. i thought that was a really funny thing of him to say!

Posted by Yasmina at 06:09 PM | Comments (6)

April 11, 2005

the homesick post

ugh. i'm at that phase where i wish i hadn't gotten on that stupid plane to amsterdam. why oh why did i come back here?

i miss my family. i miss the crickets at night. i miss the frogs after the rain. i miss the fresh slices of papaya for breakfast, the fresh fruit juices. i miss bubur ayam medan topped with cakwe, lovely crunchy ifumie and soto mie and pempek kapal selam and nasi tim ayam and kue serabi. i even miss the sticky heat, only because we can cool off in the pool afterwards or take a cold shower.

last week was really tough at work. tight deadlines to meet. plus, getting back into work mode after 2 months' leave was super hard. you know there's something wrong with your job if you've been back a week and are already stressed.

my only consolation is seeing my lovely friends again. natalie was here from london, visiting her boyfriend in rotterdam, so we went for witbier met citroen at loo's and then a sushi-and-gyu-don dinner at fugu. we partied together in london during our undergrad days; i used to hold her hair back if she needed to throw up, haha.

thursday, judith and marnix came by for dinner and looked at the videos and photos we made in indo. they travelled to southeast asia from november to february and were in indo around the same time, although we didn't get to meet. next time, we'll come round theirs and see their documentation of their journey.

friday, drinks with michael after work. bitching and moaning about work, so what else is new?

saturday, rotterdam with laszlo, lesh, anton and kata. we watched the wedding dvd and photos on anton's beamer on his wall. pizzas and snacks and mint tea. it was great, i love anton's flat; cozy, with people you know, and i felt like a million miles away from here, in another place.

sunday we were watching the rotterdam marathon in our pyjamas on laszlo's balcony, having a really great breakfast. robert's brother jeroen ran in the marathon but we didn't manage to see him there. we went for a coffee and chocolate-truffel cake *yummm!* with robert's dad at cafe dudok before rushing off to steenbergen to see jeroen and his wife, carolien, for her birthday dinner.

knackering weekend or what?

Posted by Yasmina at 01:36 PM | Comments (3)

March 30, 2005

welcome home

god, we have the most thoughtful friends ever. we came home and the fridge was stocked with food, the apartment was full of balloons with attached welcome home messages from people. thank you so much!!! we were a bit sad to leave indo but now we feel at home again here... :-)

p.s. michael, thanks for not glueing the furniture to the ceiling, xoxoxo, yasmina

p.p.s. i'm having problems accessing my site, the only subdomain i can open is http://stories.bananeira.com, i can't even open http://www.bananeira.com, the visual blog and the portfolio site... is anyone else experiencing this?

Posted by Yasmina at 02:54 PM | Comments (6)

February 16, 2005

sadness on wednesday

my parents' new house in bogor lakeside is in a very green, hilly residential area. we don't have very many neighbours, so it's pretty quiet, cool breezes sweep through the house all day, we hear frogs and crickets and sometimes birds at night. it gets very dark at night so it can get creepy, but security guards patrol the area regularly, and you feel pretty safe.

public transport is scarce in this area; everyone drives their own cars and no one ever comes here unless you live here, or visiting someone here.

as soon as you leave the private property of the housing complex, just a few hundred meters down the road, you will see small wooden roadside stalls. in these simple buildings, people make their living, selling food in warung nasi, or pondok bubur ayam, or simple warung selling basic goods, like flip-flop sandals, kerupuk, cigarettes, aspirin, matches, fruit.

this morning when i drove by to get some bananas at the fruit stall, they were still standing. however, a few hours later, when i drove into town again, everything had been torn down. the wood of the stalls and zinc plates of the roofs were all lying in a heap. on some of the buildings left standing, yellow police lines were put up to mark off the area.

the only thing that was not destroyed was a couple of stalls, selling plants and flowers. i suppose because it wasn't really a stall, it was a bench with a roof, kind of like a gazebo and the plants the man was selling just blended into the roadside, a pretty natural display.

i saw cooking utensils, boxes of goods, and other belongings all on the side of the road. people were still poking through the remains of their shacks, i suppose looking for anything else they could salvage. they looked really sad. it was really hard to watch; a guy was collecting his things and handing them to his wife who stood nearby and watched with an uncomprehensible expression on her face.

i felt so so bad for them. the shacks were probably illegal, built on the side of the road like that with no trade permission. still. the people were trying to make a living. they weren't bothering anyone. actually, i can imagine the security guards of bogor lakeside finishing their shift and grabbing something to eat at the warung nasi before going home. or students from universitas pakuan nearby having their meals there.

i dunno. it just bothers me. i mean, in general i hate these roadside stalls that block the street or the sidewalk so cars and pedestrians need to swerve out of their way. they create traffic jams and leave a lot of trash behind. but these guys were really on the side of the road.

*well, ok, so they should pay a small fee for trash removal and using public property*

i hope they are getting moved elsewhere in the city, and not just getting removed and having their shops taken down. :(

Posted by Yasmina at 07:13 PM | Comments (3)

February 10, 2005

life under the bridge

i thought i saw a wooden man today. or rather, i mistook a man for being a piece of wood. i was looking out the window of the car and saw him lying on the grass, on a patch of green on the side of the road. he was lying on his side, not a young man, an old man, his body wrinkled and sinewy. he was dark brown and shiny, like polished wood, and lighter brown on his joints and where his bones protruded under his skin, his ribcage, his hips.

i remember thinking, what a beautiful carving. then i realized it was man, not wood. he appeared to be sleeping. then i also noticed he was naked. i wondered if he was working and got too hot, so stripped naked and took a nap. or whether he was insane. or whether he was homeless. or both. i didn't even know if he was alive.

anyway, it made me sad. life under the bridge.

we were under the inner circular ring road that circled jakarta. the ring road around jakarta is a raised toll road, about 25 meters off the ground, allowing dual traffic on the toll road and on the road beneath it. so it's not really a bridge as such.

when you're driving on the toll road, you're presented with a view over jakarta; that is, if the smog doesn't get too thick. you can see the rooftops of the dilapidated wooden shacks, the office buildings, the gleaming towers of the financial district.

the road beneath is a lot more interesting. people build their shelter beneath the road, simple wooden or cardboard shacks. street peddlers at the traffic lights, selling everything from cold drinks, cigarettes, plastic globes, gorilla masks, etc. motorcyclists weaving in-between cars. they're a pain in the ass, motorcyclists, they search for death, and they're one of the reasons i don't drive in indonesia.

beggars and street musicians also gather at traffic lights. when i got to indonesia in 1992, i couldn't get used to seeing them. their eyes bore holes through the car, i felt. i didn't know how the others, my cousins, my family, could wave to them away nonchalantly; now i find that i do the same.

sometimes you see more interesting people though. the other night, there was a transvestite, dressed in a dress so tight it was like second skin, his makeup applied more expertly than when i put on make-up (!!!), his hair teased back into a bouncy puff. asian men make perfect transvestites; smaller body build, less facial and body hair, beautiful arms.

he danced in front of cars, playing a tambourine and sang along. he would get turned away, but occasionally, a car window would scroll down and a hand handed him some money.

anyway, anyway, anyway. life is good. been busy. doing family stuff, wedding stuff, and eating indonesian food, glorious indo food. it's a little bit overkill actually.

so yesterday, after getting measured for my wedding costume, i was craving a nice big fresh salad. my cousins drove me to pizza hut pondok indah nearby where i could binge on their salad bar.

i'm going to get ready to go out now. my sister turned 24 today. hooray! we're going out to celebrate... hooray! :-)

Posted by Yasmina at 04:15 PM | Comments (2)

January 28, 2005

midweek entertainment

moving to rotterdam is probably the best thing laszlo did last year. because that way we get to go out in rotterdam and sleep over. haha!

last night we went to see this performance at the de doelen. indian classical music is complicated. i sat there trying to understand and read the tune and where it was going, the conversation between singing, hand tapping and the instruments.

the violin was strangely soothing, in a cloying, sticky-sweet way. the drum was very similar to the indonesian gendang and it reminded me of street musicians at festivals during my childhood. there was a string instrument, similar to the indonesian rebab without the bow, and this provided the repetitive base notes.

the voice was so rich in intonation and so free. it's haunting in a way because when i close my eyes, the voice feels really ancient, something that reaches out to me across the centuries. it reminds me of the songs that come during latihans; they must come from the same place.

afterwards, on the brisk cold walk home, laszlo and i had a nice chat on the ramayana and mahabarata epics, since he'd just finished reading them. i grew up on these sanskrit legends and for a long time believed that they were of indonesian origin because they were so often used for wayang kulit or indonesian shadow puppets.

it triggers a notion in me: when robert and i are in indo, i will take him to the temples borobudur and prambanan in java and besakih temple in bali. and i will tell him the stories of kunti, and surya, and karna, and the five pandawa brothers, and their one-hundred kurawa cousins, rama and sita, hanuman.

i will tell robert of semar, petruk, gareng and bagong. we'll walk around the temples, and we'll read the stories depicted on the reliefs on the walls of the temples, and we'll play a game where we have to find the erotic reliefs or the kama sutra reliefs, hihi ;)

*yasmina goes off in a cloud of her own imagination of how the trip to indo will be*

Posted by Yasmina at 11:46 AM | Comments (1)

January 24, 2005

shoeprints in the snow

it snowed a little bit last night and as i walked to work this morning, i looked at other people's shoe prints in the snow. i think i found a mother wearing pointy-toed, square-heeled boots, walking with her child, wearing round-toed ecco boots or shoes. i imagined the mother was on her way to her office, and was walking her child to the daycare center, and they were holding hands so that they would not slip on the icy snow.

i trailed them from the sidewalk near my apartment block, up until the town hall. the sidewalk was being warmed up by the sunshine, and the snow had melted, so i lost my mother and child. :(

then i saw a cyclist abruptly stop cycling and abandon his bicycle on the sidewalk as he went running into a parking lot. my view was being obscured by a fence so i did not see that an old woman had slipped on the ice in the parking and the man went to help her up and walked her to safety.

it made me happy to see that spontaneous, kind act. i smiled at him as i walked by and he told that he'd fallen off his bike twice this morning already whilst cycling to work, so he knew how painful it could be. we wished each other a safe journey and i continued on my way to work.

last day of work *i hope*. yay! then i am off to indo for 2 months! :-)

Posted by Yasmina at 10:58 AM | Comments (4)

January 07, 2005

not sleeping well

haven't been sleeping well. some nights i'm awake, silently thanking god for protecting judith and marnix on their sumatra trip, for keeping my family safe from harm. i have recurring dreams of my rafting trip, the one where i fell into the rapids and nearly drowned.

at times, i kick myself for being here and not there. i can't stand this feeling of helplessness.

i spoke to tante isti this week. she has cut short her trip to porto. she has left the children, em and luke, with my sister and hamid, and she is going to aceh, with the portuguese team of 2 nurses and 6 doctors. they will be there for one month, going to the remote areas of aceh. *take me, take me*

*sigh* i wish i could do more.

linky: http://indonesiahelp.blogspot.com/

Posted by Yasmina at 11:52 AM

January 04, 2005

not looking back in anger

2004 my mission was to get happier, be more positive and creative. i felt that in recent years i'd been dragged down, more negative, less creative, and i miss having this joyous bubbly feeling i carried inside me.

i moved in with robert, and we learned to live side by side and get on each other's nerves. during this time we also decided that we want to be together now, tomorrow and hopefully many more days to come. so we're getting married this year, yay!

i started working 4 days a week instead of 5. i didn't have to get up early on mondays anymore, and that made me happy. on my day off, i'd go swimming, meet friends for coffee and lunch, go to exhibits and museums, and work on small, fun projects like charity websites, school idents, portfolio of friends.

i discovered godote's forum where all indonesian designers have been hiding. i met lots of amazing indonesian talents, who make inspiring and refreshing work. i even got to contribute to the GF Offline book.

sweet, funny valentine xavier was born and i'm officially auntie'd. he's a lot of fun and i can't wait till he is older so we can take him to the park, play ball, finger-paint and go swimming.

it took a lot of crying, arguing and disappointments, but i learned the importance of family, how to love one another as is. my parents retired and moved to indonesia, and i realise now that i can't just "pop over for a long weekend." we drive each other crazy if we spend more than 3 weeks under one roof, but i miss them when they're gone.

this year i also dearly missed good friends monica, karen, and alexis, who moved on with their lives to chicago, berlin, and london respectively. joao and his girlfriend denise came over to NL. twice.

i had the chance to work together on a really cool project with joao, who specially flew over from rio de janeiro to NL. patricia moved to sweden from colombia, and she came over to visit, along with karen. girly night out in town, dancing, with monica, karen and patricia; one of the best night-outs in a long time. and for a moment, it seemed like things were like they were 4 years ago.

really, i've been blessed. thank you so much. goodbye 2004. hellow 2005.

Posted by Yasmina at 08:16 PM | Comments (2)

December 31, 2004

ending the year

... on the fifth day of christmas, my true love gave to me, five golden rings ... new year = new kind of relationship? big question, big yesss :)

have a really good new year, everyone! i hope 2005 brings you all more joy and happiness and beautiful creativity than all the previous years. see you on the other side!

Posted by Yasmina at 01:31 AM | Comments (7)

December 30, 2004

it makes me soooo mad...

i was reading the news on the asia quake disaster when i came across an article on an indonesian site about the looting that is occurring in banda aceh.

it makes soooooo fucking angry when i hear about this. the survivors on aceh are obviously very traumatized over the quake-tsunami disaster, and some schtoopid idiots have taken advantage of that by shouting, "water! water!" and causing public panic of an incoming wave.

an example of this was when a row of people were queueing for gasoline and food. shouts were heard, warning of incoming water, and everyone scrambled off. then the looters would take whatever they could. i read that the looters even stole a TV that was half buried in the mud.

the army soldiers have had to tighten security around the area to stop the looters from stealing and creating public panic. i'm just amazed that some people have the heart to loot and steal at such a difficult time like this.

Posted by Yasmina at 11:54 PM

December 16, 2004

tea with james and dan

so i'm working from home this morning, and i made myself a cup of tea. except the only tea we have left in the house was the english blend. so i made myself a cup, with milk and, unusually, two sugars. i almost never take sugar in my tea or coffee.

being back at my desk, working, reminds me of james and dan during our last year at ravensbourne. at the time, we were living in a house together, in bromley. by the third year, we hardly went into college at all; we had our dissertations to research and write and our final projects to finish.

james, dan and i would be working in our individual bedrooms, and it was a important to have tea next to us, cups within reach, yet out of the "danger zone" where a spill would mean a fizzled harddrive and running ink on paperwork. we would take turns making tea, each of us knowing exactly how we take our tea: yasmina milk only, dan and james milk and two sugars. delivering the teas to its respective drinker, allowed us small conversations between heavy bouts of dissertation writing or flash-coding or storyboarding.

every couple of hours, we would have tea breaks, snacking on whatever was in the cupboard, and smoking our marlboro light cigarettes and bitch and moan about the work and how we were looking forward so much to graduation.

*yes, i used to smoke back in college, it was a good companion for those late-night sessions or all-nighters*

so that's why this morning i miss james and daniel. i wonder if they're in london now, sitting at their desks, drinking tea, remembering those final days of our degree.

Posted by Yasmina at 11:41 AM | Comments (3)

December 13, 2004

lost and found: part 1

wow! this week 2 long-lost friends have found me! that is soooo cool!

six degrees of separation says we're related to everyone else in the world through six social ties, so i guess you can always find the person you are looking for. i grew up moving around every few years, and we didn't have email until i was in high school in london, and before then, my way of preserving these ties, should they be cut off, was making more links to individual relationships.

i have this habit of introducing friends to family members or other friends in my social circle, so in case that they do hit it off, i can always go back to these links to contact my friends. sometimes it backfires, where my friends think my cousins are more interesting and would rather spend time with them, than with me, or vice versa.

for example, aji, the highschool friend who mailed me this week after years of silence. i moved to london in 95, so in reality we only had about a year of school together. i introduced him to my family, he befriended my cousins, and during the holidays was a regular at my aunt's place. aji even lived in one of my dad's houses while the family was based in europe. you would think that i had all these different ways of getting in touch with him: old schoolmates, his family, my family. but we still lost touch.

when i was in jakarta last summer, i spread word through my extended family that i was looking for aji. i even tracked him down to his last know address which was in malang. no such luck. my cousins hadn't heard from him in months, i'd lost his family's number, the other highschool friend i had was not a friend of aji's and didn't know any contact info. i know i'd heard from him sometime, eventually, but it saddened me that we were no longer in direct contact.

the other guy who found me was andy nwoye. andy and i went to ravensbourneat around the same time for about a year, he graduated earlier, in 1998. now, andy is harder to find than aji. indonesian friends tend to be easier to track down, also because a lot of my indo friends are the children of my parents' friends.

i could really only find andy through college friends. i know about 4 links that would get me to andy:

yasmina >> johanna raupach, ex-ravensbourne, former housemate, viscom, london >> andy (maybe)

yasmina >> charlotte elfdahl, ex-ravensbourne, interior design, london >> richard piggott, ex-rave, broadcasting >> andy (maybe)

yasmina >> flemming lund, ex-rave, broadcasting, copenhagen >> person X from ravensbourne broadcasting school >> andy (maybe)

yasmina >> boris mang, ex-rave, broadcasting, berlin >> person X from ravensbourne broadcasting school< >> andy (maybe)

*note: the above schemes are perfect except i'm not really in touch with flem, boris, charlotte or johanna*

andy mailed me today and said he randomly google'd me after looking at some old college photos. he's at michigan state university *omfg, brrrr, cold* and he still remembered that i had a crush on his best friend, adrian. omg!

omg! adrian! i met him during a party at my old student house, and he came in from somewhere, drunk, collapsed on my bed and wrecked it. when we got to be friends afterwards, he was really embarrassed and sweet about it. haha, yay, adrian! i'm in touch with adrian again! thanks andy, love you loads, keep in touch ;)

p.s. just kidding, andy... and yes, i totally remember you, you cooked me dinner at your house, remember?

Posted by Yasmina at 11:53 AM

December 10, 2004

what have you done?

not done a lot this week apart from the usual 9-5, and domestic stuff, although some exciting things have happened, which some of you may already know. :) for those who don't know, i assure you that it's all good. i just have to put more effort into putting my thoughts in order and my thoughts into words.

so, i'm posting this as a filler. stole this from amy. bold the things you've done before:

01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain</b>
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said "I love you" and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights

<b>16. Gone to a huge sports game</b>
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
<b>18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables</b>
19. Touched an iceberg
<b>20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby�s diaper</b>
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
<b>24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity</b>
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
<b>27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight</b>
29. Bet on a winning horse
<b>30. Taken a sick day when you�re not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight</b>
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
<b>34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can</b>
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
<b>39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking</b>
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
<b>46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for your computer</b>
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts
<b>51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country</b>
55. Watched wild whales
<b>56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip</b>
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government�s official in that country to avoid notice
<b>61. Midnight walk on the beach</b>
62. Sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
<b>64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love</b>
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger�s table and had a meal with them
<b>66. Visited Japan</b>
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
<b>69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to �Let�s Get It On� by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain</b>
79. Gone to a drive-in theater
<b>80. Done something you should regret, but don�t regret it</b>
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who�s not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
<b>83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better</b>
84. Started a business
<b>85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class</b>
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
<b>92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn�t have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy</b>
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
<b>98. Made cookies from scratch</b>
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
<b>102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on</b>
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an �expert�
<b>105. Got flowers for no reason</b>
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don�t remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
<b>109. Performed on stage</b>
110. Been to Las Vegas
<b>111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark</b>
113. Had a one-night stand
<b>114. Gone to Thailand</b>
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
<b>119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off</b>
120. Been on a cruise ship
<b>121. Spoken more than one language fluently</b>
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
<b>123. Bounced a check</b>
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report
126. Raised children
<b>127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy</b>
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
<b>131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did</b>
132. Called or written your Congress person
<b>133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over</b>
134. �more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
<b>136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn�t stop when you knew someone was looking</b>
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn�t have survived.
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
<b>145. Broken someone�s heart</b>
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
<b>157. Ridden a horse</b>
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
<b>163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours</b>
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
<b>167. Eaten kangaroo meat</b>
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
<b>170. Eaten sushi</b>
171. Had your picture in the newspaper
<b>172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime</b>
173. Changed someone�s mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one �important� author who you missed in school, and read,
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183. �and gotten 86?ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
<b>184. Taught yourself an art from scratch</b>
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
<b>186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language</b>
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
<b>191. Thought to yourself that you�re living your dream</b>
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn�t know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
<b>196: Dyed your hair
197: Been a DJ</b>
198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
<b>199: Written your own role playing game</b>
200: Been arrested

Posted by Yasmina at 12:10 PM | Comments (1)

October 11, 2004

stranger in a strange land

sometimes i can tell indonesians from the rest of the nationalities i see on the street, simply because indonesians tend to stare at me for a bit longer than a regular person would.

*dan gue yakin bahwa pada saat itu tampang gue lagi ga aneh2 spt rambut ungu disasak, dan ada upil nongol di ujung idung*

when i'm in town, and i feel a pair of eyes watching up and my eyes flick up and sure enough, it's an indonesian man, woman, or often a group of indonesians doing their shopping or whatever. they look at me curiously, unspoken words hanging in the air. i smile, politely, usually and carry on my way.

i don't know if they look at me so longingly and curiously because they are searching for something we may have in common; a language, a hometown, a green passport full of stamps.

last year in milan, i was sitting in the grass of the castelo, enjoying the sun and waiting for robert to come with our ice creams. i was wearing my sunglasses so maybe the two guys next to me could not tell whether i was sleeping or not, and they <b>started talking about me, in front of me, in bahasa indonesia</b>.
cowok 1:</b> eh eh liat deh tuh cewek. indonesia bukan yah?
cowok 2:</b> iya kali, ngga tau ya. ngga jelas dari sini sih, pake kacamata item sih.
cowok 1:</b> jepang kali ya. ada unsur jepangnya tuh cewek.
cowok 2: yeee, tanya aja dong.
cowok 1: kok gue? elo dong yang tanya!

***english translation***
guy number 1: see that girl there? do you think she's indonesian?
guy number 2: hummm. maybe. i can't tell, her sunglasses are in the way.
guy number 1: she could be japanese. she looks japanese from here.
guy number 2: why don't you ask?
guy number 1: why don't you ask?
***

how silly. it crossed my mind briefly to roll over lazily and tell the two guys that yes, i am indeed japanese, but i can speak indonesian, so please if they want to ask me something, just ask or otherwise shut it.

then robert came over with ice cream and the two guys started a conversation about him! eeek, i quickly dragged robert off to another part of the park where we could eat our ice cream peacefully.

Posted by Yasmina at 05:08 PM | Comments (2)

September 22, 2004

one-legged man on bike

i see him most mornings on my walk to work, going in my same direction into town, on the other side of the street, on the bike path. he cycles rhythmically, waiting for the right-side pedal to come up and he'd bring his right foot down forcefully on it, and it makes another round, and he stamps it down again.

his crutches are attached to his bike, underneath his saddle, lying lengthways parallel to the bike's body. i wonder if he ever gets in a mood to put his crutches perpendicular to his bike, just to drive everyone else off the bike path.

monday i was walking to work and he cycled past me on the opposite side of the street. ahead, the traffic light turned red for cyclists. i could see him slowing down. just as he came to rest, he tittered, unbalanced.

if he fell to the left side, he'd be screwed, as he only has a four or six inch stump on that side. unless he put out his arm to brace his fall.

my heart pumped wildly for the split second that he lost his balance. my mind thought fleetingly about plasticman, the comic character with extendable limbs, wishing that somehow i could reach my hand out from this distance to provide somewhat softer landing than the pavement.

at the last moment, he regained his balance, tilting to his right side and leaning on his right leg as he waited for the traffic light to turn green again.

phewwww!

Posted by Yasmina at 08:43 AM

September 19, 2004

gift ideas, anyone?

so next weekend, robert and i are flying over to london to attend richard's wedding. we don't have a wedding present yet. richard and len don't have a wedding list or anything because as the invitations stated, "As we are planning to buy our first home together, monetary contributions would be greatly appreciated (although <b>not</b> compulsory)."

i much prefer giving gifts rather than cash certificates or cheques. i like putting together gift packages, so it's a combination of something i made myself like a photograph, and something purchased, like the frame. anyway, i want to get richard and len a really special personal gift, since richard and i have been good friends since A-Levels. however, i have never met len (richard didn't bring her when he visited me last year) and i have no idea what she is like, other than friendly on the telephone.

so far the ideas we had was:
1. a handsome, leather-bound photo book, with their initials engraved on the cover (robert says i could put my dodgy photos of richard in the album)
2. initialised jewelry box (bit too girly?)
3. dutch cookbook, dutch photography book, and a pair of clogs with their initials on them (robert's idea of getting something dutch, i think it's neat)
4. a painting we made together (omg, we better make something quick)
5. a set of beautiful painted chinese ceramic serving plates and bowls
6. a pair of beautifully-glazed noodle bowls, chopstick rest and chopsticks with silver connecting chains

omg, i think i'm going to call alan and adam in UK to ask what they're doing for presents.

Posted by Yasmina at 11:35 AM

June 08, 2004

a guy and his sunlamp

so i find out robert owns a sunlamp. sunlamps are a 'bule' thing as much as whitening creams are to indonesians i guess; both something i don't completely get.

i mean, i think indonesians want fair skin because darker skin implies that they work in the fields or outdoors instead of inside an air-co office. and for europeans, dark skin shows you can afford expensive holidays abroad. something like that anyway. i am not sure.

i was fairly amused a couple of weeks ago when robert's mother told him he was looking pale and, has he been under the sunlamp lately? i was even more amused when we got home and he actually went under the sunlamp. it's his ritual before bedtime these days. set the timer and then the bedroom would be awash in UV-bright goodness.

for a 'bule', robert's skin tone isn't actually that pale, as of my former housemates' in the UK. on holiday to italy last year, ok he did get a sunburn on the first day, but by the end of the week, he was my glowing bronze god.

so last night i watch him get under the sunlamp again. he accidentally burned himself a bit over the weekend. i start a conversation.

"you know, you're not that sunburned anymore."

"did i tell you i accidentally sunburned my butt once?"

"how? did you sunbathe nude on the balcony? the old ladies in the other building must have loved that."

"no, i set the sunlamp on too long and it was aimed at my butt."

omg. that is going straight into my blog. ;)

Posted by Yasmina at 08:32 AM | Comments (1)

June 05, 2004

going brown

so robert says my hair's getting lighter. going brown?

at least i am not going gray. although some indonesians might think i am "kurang gizi" because of the gradual lightening of my hair. now that he has said that, i really envy the girls in the 'Sunsilk' shampoo commercials. well, i always have before, but now it really bugs me that my hair isn't as dark as it used to be.

Posted by Yasmina at 09:01 PM