Cepat Pulang, Cepat Kembali Jangan Pergi Lagi

I often found myself being bothered by songs about coming home/homesickness/missing a travelling person. [500 Miles]. Firasat. [Rumah Kita]. This is most probably related to [my desire to travel]. And as such a person I revere songs on travelling. [Freebird] being the [most prominent example].

The post title translates roughly to “quickly go home, quickly return and don’t leave again” from Marcell’s Firasat (Hunch?), which I heard being performed by one of the guest band in today’s Indonesian Diaspora Gathering in Bristol. BTW I and some other Indonesians in Cardiff also performed there.

Home is where your heart is. So bring your home as you travel.

Slice of Life 12 2 2017

The last days have been cold. Not cold cold, but pretty cold for Cardiff.

So I moved house. To somewhere closer to the coach station.

I am going to London in March. Let’s see what I can see there.

And work has been tough. I knew it would touch interoperatibility but I didn’t expect the intensiveness.

Seagulls

So I did it.

I probably should have written it earlier but anyways it has been about 1.5 months since I travelled to Cardiff. The trip took 1 whole day, and I needed to switch transportation modes a few times: taxi to Changi – air flight to Frankfurt – air flight to London – coach to Cardiff.

Well things have been interesting here. I need to adapt to the harsh(?) cold winter that I had never experienced. I need to cook for myself. And my BRP was late to the point that it raised some administration issues—but nonetheless almost everything is settled now.

Indonesians often complain that Singapore is boring because of its minuscule size. I did share that view. However during my 8 years of stay there, I found living in Singapore to be convenient. Too convenient actually. That I don’t need to cook, I can buy hot food almost everytime I want, even supermarkets and convenience stores near my apartment are open 24 hours, whereas here there are no food courts let alone hawker centres, food in restaurants are expensive, and the buses are not as frequent, not to mention the Brexit issue always sitting around the corner. So I am grateful for this experience. I quit my comfort zone to move here, and I look forward to seeing more interesting stuffs and continuing my career here while better taking care of myself.

The title is from the kind of birds I often see flying here. Those big white birds. Actually not sure what they are. Maybe seagulls, albatross, or something else? But their sound reminds me of that the squawks of seagulls in the psychedelic section in Echoes. It’s a nice sign that I am actually in the UK.

Fire of Joy and [???]

Fire set up in the city of happiness!
Its citizens indulged on the mass-feast to celebrate the reign of the new sultan.

Hoorah, long live to our blessed sultan!

I was just a guest to the small city-kingdom, but I was overjoyed
as the citizens were warm and welcoming
and all from every walk of life, native or foreign, were invited to the feast.

And all my worries in the past seemed unfounded.

…

As I called it a night,
my heart was filled with two contradictoru feelings,
one of joy, one of which I cannot recognise.

It was the feeling that one feeling was supposed to be there, was expected to be there, but it was not there.

The journey is still long.

Melangkah Masuk Bagian III

Angin misteri membawaku terbang menuju dekat Al-Sa’ada
Kota penuh tanda tanya yang dulu membuat berpikir delapan, delapan juta kali
Dan yang dulu kuputuskan untuk kutinggalkan untuk sementara

Barangkali besok aku sudah bisa sampai di gerbangnya