13 Jan 2012

The Architect




It was a rainy afternoon.
And a thin fog covered that silent, old city. The old, stone made bookstore, the smell of coffee from the cafe behind her, and the raindrops on the flower in the florist beside the cafe. She knew it was raining, but she left her apartment and stood there. Under the rain. With her old blue umbrella. She always stand there when it's 5 pm.
The black suited man, in a coat, also use an umbrella, suddenly appeared. A suitcase in another hand, and the sketch book in his arm. He just passed her by. Without looking.
She never see this man before, but she's not interested. And she enjoys the rain again.

It was a bright afternoon.
A sun almost set in the end of the road, the birds' chirp, and again, the smell of coffee from the cafe behind her. The afternoon sunshine shone in the flowers in florist. She was standing there, whistling the old song she loves. It is almost 5.30 pm, and she watched the sun began to fall down.
That black suited man from yesterdays, still holding a suitcase, and a sketch book. Again he just passed her by. Without looking. She's just curious. Not with that man. But with his sketchbook. And, she enjoys whistling her lovely old song again.

It was a cloudy afternoon.
She's back standing there, in front of coffee cafe, bookstore, and the florist. She's just standing there biting her sour, green apple she got from the florist girl.
That black suited man. And now he's walking and 'reading' his sketch book at the same time. Ignoring the woman who slowly stop her biting on apple. Just passed by, and again, disappear in the down of the road. She has decided. She will talk to him the next meeting.

It was a heavy rain stroke the afternoon.
She's now wearing raincoat, with a candy in her mouth. She can't smell the coffee's aroma, she just can smell the water.
He didn't pass through like the last days.
She waited until it was 6, and no, he didn't come.

It was a drizzling afternoon.
Again, in the front of cafe, she was standing. Feeling nervous for a reason. She found a sketch book. Lied on the ground, the place she stand every day, enjoying the afternoon. She took that sketch book, didn't have any courage to open it, just embraced it with her arms. And standing there. Not like the usual, she's standing quietly, without any move, protecting the sketch book from the tiny-little rain pouring in that bright afternoon.
A drizzle in the bright afternoon.
She waited the man with the black suit come to look over his sketch book.
It was 7 pm.
The drizzle has stopped. The lamps are turned on, the florist has closed, the bookstore become lonelier, but the cafe became more busy. Some lovely couples would like to have a cup or two, to accompany their romantic laughter.
She waited the man with the black suit, still hoping he would come to look over his sketch book.

It was the 6th afternoon since she found the sketch book.
He never come back.
This afternoon, she didn't go out. She was in her apartment, admiring the sketch drawn in the sketch book. She finally have courage to open it.
Buildings. A lot of building.
Parks. Bridges. Roads. Shops. Cafe. Florist. Bookstores.
She admired it, page by page, and come to the last page.
It was her.
With a note in the below page.
"You may not know me. But I know you. Let me show you the world you have left, an art of architecture. Follow your dream, you know what you want"
And she cried, the depressed architecture student, who left the college 3 months ago.







note:
I don't know much about architecture :p
Just wanna write, filling the spare time, and practicing English.
I wanna post the illustration! Wait =)
I'm not a good writer :p

6 Jan 2012

Taman Pelangi


Ummm, I went to this first, before the Ullen Sentalu trip, but didn't think to post this to blog........but let me share =D =D
Taman Pelangi (if I translate it into English, maybe it is become a Rainbow Park) is actually a park with hundreds lamps and a lot of lantern, in any shapes. From the cartoon creatures, animals, and so-on. I found the Donald Duck, Spongebob and Patrick, zebras, dragon, mushrooms, fishes, even the Angry Birds lantern.
As far as I know, Taman Pelangi opens on the night time, around 7 pm, maybe (I don't know the exact time, and I don't know the admission fee, as I went there by 9 pm, maybe it is too late to the gatekeeper to watch the entrance gate =D ) and in the day-time, Taman Pelangi is Monumen Jogja Kembali's park (but I also never been there -.-)
It is a nice park, but not too interesting (for me hehe) as the far you can do is to enjoy the park and take some photoshoots, the park arrangement itself is not too fine, maybe because it was new and still under construction.


the rainbow lantern

4 Jan 2012

Intermezzo

Siang ini gerimis lagi. Seperti siang tiga minggu kemarin. Argas duduk di teras rumahnya. Puluhan warna bunga-bunga yang bermekaran dengan kilauan air memang terlihat menyejukkan. Segelas cokelat hangat menantang hawa dingin yang menyergap tubuh. Ingin rasanya berdiri di taman dan berkebun, menyiangi rumput-rumput liar yang mulai rimbun, dan memberi pupuk pada bunga-bunga yang kelaparan itu.

Siang ini gerimis lagi. Seperti siang tiga minggu kemarin. Bunda Argas datang membawa sweater, majalah untuk dibaca, dan setoples kue kering. Diletakkannya semua di meja, dan diberikannya sweater itu kepada Argas.
“Begini saja sudah cukup, Bunda. Sudah cukup hangat,” Argas merapatkan jaketnya, “sudah tidak perlu sweater.”
Bunda bersikeras.
“Iya, nanti aku pakai, Bun…” Argas akhirnya menyerah menerimanya. Bunda Argas tersenyum dan masuk ke dalam rumah lagi. Menatap Argas dengan penuh kasih sayang.

Siang ini gerimis lagi. Seperti siang tiga minggu kemarin. Pemandangan pegunungan yang indah dari teras rumah Argas tidak terlihat, sekarang tertutup kabut. Biasanya, siang begini terlihat deretan pinus diseberang bukit, batu-batu yang kokoh dan tegar memagari jurang, dan air terjun yang mengintip disela gelapnya hutan. Argas selalu menikmati pemandangan itu, sejak dulu, sejak dia kecil, sebelum dia melanjutkan sekolah di kota besar. Harum alam selalu membawa nostalgia kedalam memori terdalamnya.

Siang ini gerimis lagi. Seperti siang tiga minggu kemarin. Masih tidak beranjak dari tempat kesayangannya, kursi rotan dengan bantal-bantal di teras menghadap kebun bunga. Tulang punggungnya patah, Argas tidak bisa beranjak kemanapun, maka duduklah ia di tempat favoritnya, ketika tidak bisa kemana-mana bukanlah suatu masalah. Kebenciannya yang lagi-lagi meluap. Perenggut kaki kekasihnya, seorang pelari, yang dengan segala mimpinya untuk berlaga di olimpiade, kandas. Kecelakaan itu.

Siang ini gerimis lagi. Seperti siang tiga minggu kemarin. Masih teringat air mata Nala, yang lebih deras dari gerimis ini, dan lebih hening dari lembah ini, ketika tahu kakinya lumpuh. Rengkuhan Argas yang tidak terbalas, dan luka yang tidak akan sembuh. Mulut yang kelu, dan mata yang sendu. Kelebat memori yang merayu, membuat Argas hampir tidak mampu membendung air matanya.

Gerimis mulai mereda, namun justru ada yang mengalir deras di pipi Argas, ketika melihat sesosok wanita berkursi roda, dengan payung di tangan seorang lelaki kekar, Ayah wanita itu, tersenyum ke arah Argas. Seketika dia berteriak kepada Bundanya untuk dibukakan pintu pagar. Gerimis mulai mereda, seperti di siang tiga minggu kemarin.

A Little Trip - Ullen Sentalu Museum



Finally, a little vacation!
I have a week-off-before-the-finals started from Dec 31st, and at that day, me and two others (Irnanda and Mentari) decided to go took a vacation. Can't go far away, because, yes, finals will come a week ahead. So, here we go: Ullen Sentalu, Javanese Culture and Art Museum!
It is located on Kaliurang, the upper part of Yogyakarta, Boyong Kaliurang Street, to be exact, Opening hours from 9am to 4pm, closed on Mondays. (as seen on its official website). We must pay an admission fee, each people 25000 rupiahs.
Sooooo, here it begins!
I don't know before, the museum tour is guided! I think it was like walking around and looking everything we like just like another museum I've ever been, but it's not. (I forgot the tour guide name -.-) and we took tour with 4 others people, 3 middle-aged women and an old man, we thought they were Sundanese accent :))
The tour itself told us about the Hamengkubuwono Families and the Story of Kesultanan Yogyakarta and Solo. (My bad! I don't remember the whole stories, lets take a peek on the website, and try to remember all hoho!)

1. Dance and Gamelan room
This room has a Gamelan sets, a grant from Kasultanan Yogyakarta Prince, and there were some beautiful painting about the traditional dances, the one I remember, there was a Tari Topeng painting (maybe it is Masked Dance in English) painted beautifully.

2. Tineke's Poem Room
This room showed the messages, letters, mails, to Tineke (her actual name was GRAj Koes Sapariyam (the daughter of Sunan PB XI, Surakarta)). As long as I can remember is, the tour guide said that the letters were from the cousins, best friends, aunties, and relations that cheering Tineke up because she wasn't allowed to marry the guy she liked, and they were cheering her up for almost 10 years. The letters were originally written in Dutch, but there were Indonesian and Japanese translation.

3. Putri Dambaan Room
This is a room, fully displayed about GRAy Siti Nurul Kusumawardhani (or known as Gusti Nurul). The room displayed the documented photos about her, from her childhood until she's 81 (she officially launched this room, she's still alive, now 90, and live in Bandung). This princess inspired the Mataram princes to not to do polygamy. She liked to ride the horse, which is not common in her era.

4. Batik Room Vorstendlanden
This room is displaying Sultan HB VII - Sultan HB VIII from Kraton Yogyakarta and Sunan PB X until Sunan PB XII from Surakarta (Solo) Batik collection. The things I learned is the difference about Yogyakarta and Solo batik pattern. While Solo's has a small, rigorous pattern, and having a darker color, like dark brown, brown, and Yogyakarta's has a bigger pattern, and lighter color, as white, yellowish. There were such a nice batiks, and they have own philosophy, as the 'Udan Liris' (if I'm not mistaken) told about the wealth, and the one I really can't remember that told about health, the older covered the sick people with batik in that pattern and believe it can heal the sicks.

That were some I can remember after seeing the official link
The sad truth is................we were not allowed to take a photograph inside the museum, we can only take it outside. But, well, we took a lot of. Hehehe.
Now, talking about the place.
It was SUCH A BEAUTIFULLY NATURAL! Tress are grown everywhere, make it quiet and calm, the building was built by the stones, and the cold sensation because the museum was built in the foot of Merapi mountain.

here are some pics!


unnamed statues before the exit



me, on gate haha