A Wild Grass Flower

Is she really so ordinary?

"See heaven in a wild flower", says William Blake.

August 2012

You Tube, Uploaders Make Us Very Rich

You Tube, Uploaders Make Us Very Rich

I never thought I could ever see the old film The cranes are flying again. I’ve sought DVD.s, VCD’s in the malls. I now have watched it in You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0yO6Q9NQyg 

Skip the add.

I’m so grateful to You Tube, the uploaders, having uploaded this beautiful film and so many other beautiful, invaluable things. And I mused, is it so wrong, a sin were someone transgessing the copy right of a beautiful old piece of art in order to share it with the world, for everyone to ever enjoy, rather than have it for ever lost?

We haven’t to go abroad, visit the concert halls, the Louvre museum, see films in the theatre, visit the seven wonders of the world, ... by just visiting  and enjoying them in You Tube. What a lot. Amazing. As though it were ours.

You Tube, the uploaders make us very rich.

August 2012

Whom Should I Envy?

Whom Should I Envy?

Opa Johan can enjoy a lot of what’s just in front of him.

 

Though, he just can afford to buy himself a bike, yet, he, over 80 years by now, still enjoys his biking travels some 50 km, into the country. Into paradise, he says.

 

He enjoys satai kambing (goat’s barbecue grilled on sticks), eating, sitting on the pavement along the road, a dish of petai (stinking beans), rather than a grand dinner in a restaurant. More over, being happy, healthy, hungry and free turns even the simplest food into a heavenly meal, he asserts.
 

 

He enjoys singing in a small amateur church choir.  Old agers without proper music, vocal education of over 70 years by now, while the choir conductor doesn't conduct the way professional conductors do, but his eyes and his hands were hypnotizing, N.B. courageously, proudly staging, recording their own choir concerts for a very small church congregation and upload it to You Tube. To be preserved for eternity, he said.
 

 

Imagine them singing as Mein schoner Stern, Der Nussbaum, Auf dem Wasser zu singen, Someday my prince will come, Ave Verum, Sei nun gnadig milder Himmel, ... certainly not easy for them, yet they really enjoy it, though not as well, not as beautifully performed as by professional artists. Sure, an old age marathoner never could outrun young athletes, he comforts himself.

He is so grateful as he needn’t buy DVD’s, CD’s today, since he still can find and watch it in You Tube, far more than what he already has.

Once he talked to me: “I enjoy, appreciate a wayang golek show (Indonesian puppet show) in the open air on a starry night. No tickets, invitations needed, come by microlette, sitting on a mat or a news paper somewhere on the ground, draw my feet up on to the seat were there a bench, wear a T-shirt, shorts, slippers, buy me tahu pong (fried soybean cake), a drink of sekoteng (warm gingerly drink). I can leave any time when it’s boring.”

Wayang Golek

 

“I’m so free,” he said, “rather than stiffly sitting in a five starred concert hall you know? I don’t have to come in full dress, shake, clap hands, feign to listen in awe, have clever talk, stand up in standing ovation, even were it a poor performance so weary and tiring.  I don’t have to endure such tortures. Ha. Ha.  Trick, fool your teacher, professor into believing that all the audience really enjoy the music which is not always easy to the ear."

Then Opa Johan whispered with mischievous eyes to me:

“A pedicab driver is sound asleep though in a noisy, traffic jam on the road in his pedicab rather than a king sleeping in his royal bedroom, you know?  The pedicab driver is king, not a servant, he has no master to obey, while the king is the people’s servant obeying the people’s desires, wishes.”

“Sure” I said.

“Besides, my feet are worth more than a Mercedes, my brains worth far more than a space station, my mind travels into the past, into the future, tours the heavens, the stars, the universe to outer universe. Whom should I envy? Ha. Ha.”

August 2012

What Would You Prefer?

What Would You Prefer?

It certainly is a joy when you get many “likers” of your posts but as I got more and more, you then become satiate, exasperated, frustrated were you to read all their blogs, while reading them during your leisure time is a joy, except, unless you have “likers” that have no blog.

I would certainly like a lot of “likers” but read just only one new one “liker’s” blog at a time, at random and at my ease.

August 2012

Dear Little ...

Dear Little ...

Don’t worry about the difficulty you encounter of opening my Post I e mailed, shared with you. Were you to succeed, you wouldn’t become the richer, the wiser.  Were you not to succeed, you wouldn’t become the poorer, the foolisher. Ha. Ha.

Wont see you again. Bye-bye

The Scarecrow

August 2012

Do You Like This Better?

Note:
Do you like this Post with pictures and videos better than the former without? 

Joys And Delight Of A Picnic Just To UI Depok

I started from home walking still dark in the morning, then took a microlette to the train station. The driver got no passengers, you know? I asked him, how much? Two and a half. I gave him a note of five. Keep the change, I said and I got a precious happy, grateful smile for free besides.

The train fare, so cheap just six to Depok. Anyone would gladly pay, even he’d to stand, hanging on the rings and not grumble. And it was still so cold of the AC when there were but few passengers, so anyone was drawn to visit the toilet while there’s no toilet. Imagine, what torture, what a relief when I could get off in Depok, what, were I to wait as far as Bogor?

I got a lovely smile from a university girl student passing by in the campus. What a present to a scarecrow. Don’t you be piqued, you jealous wife.

Then I visited the river. It was so serene at the river side of the UI (University of Indonesia) campus. It was Ramadhan, the month of the fast. Fortunately there were no city’s noisy visitors who often leave their garbage carelessly behind. And I thought of the agony of having to hear, to share badly, noisy performed music, speech, a noisy crowd, ... , but this was so peaceful.

Picture me on the shady side where I’m sitting having my picnic on the trunk of a tree, feasting my eyes on what’s just around me. It was as though owning a private park which I never bought.

I watched the soft rippling surface of the river,

the lovely waving grass flowers near my face,

the beautiful flowers of a tree in front of me, felt, enjoyed the wind so cool, so calm, ... And I waited for the birds to return to capture them with my camera but they didn’t and as I saw something writhing on the grass, it was a cat fish that still survived after having been left a long time which I rescued. Am I not a good man, husband?

I could watch far away, cars and motor cars passing by through the trees, intriguing, captivating like ants, almost noiselessly. I didn’t care to go any further. How I longed to get all these in my home page soon lest I lose, forget it, though poorly recorded.

On my way home in the as usually overcrowded train in Depok, a kind man took my arm and have me sit in his place while I watched a little child playing, trying to make his father wink by clapping in front of his eyes. As he didn’d succeed he took his father’s face, pinched his cheeks and nose and ears, ...

In the microlette back home I was sitting next to the driver and imagine, I enjoyed watching a scarecrow making faces at me in the car’s side mirror. Ha.Ha.

Wow! What a lot I’ve got. Though I didn’t tour the world. I’m so rich. Don’t you envy me? And what’s so special is that I haven’t to stand on ceremony to hold up my social standing, my appearance, as I travel uncombed, just in shorts, you know?

And on top of all, this is now to pay my debt for the picnic, you, dear little fool, prepared for me, as Opa Johan kissed his wife.

August 2012

Joys And Delight Of A Picnic Just To UI Depok

Joys And Delight Of A Picnic Just To UI Depok

I started from home walking still dark in the morning, then took a microlette to the train station. The driver got no passengers, you know? I asked him, how much? Two and a half. I gave him a note of five. Keep the change, I said and I got a precious happy, grateful smile for free besides.

The train fare, so cheap just six to Depok. Anyone would gladly pay, even he’d to stand, hanging on the rings and not grumble. And it was still so cold of the AC when there were but few passengers, so anyone was drawn to visit the toilet while there’s no toilet. Imagine, what torture, what a relief when  I could get off in Depok, what, were I to wait as far as Bogor?

I got a lovely smile from a university girl student passing by in the campus. What a present to a scarecrow. Don’t you be piqued, you jealous wife.

Then I visited the river. It was so serene at the river side of the UI (University of Indonesia) campus. It was Ramadhan, the month of the fast. Fortunately there were no city’s noisy visitors who often leave their garbage carelessly behind.  And I thought of the agony of having to hear, to share badly, noisy performed music, speech, a noisy crowd, ...  but this was so peaceful.

Picture me on the shady side where I’m sitting having my picnic on the trunk of a tree, feasting my eyes on what’s just around me. It was as though owning a private park which I never bought. I watched the soft rippling surface of the river, the lovely waving grass flowers near my face, the beautiful flowers of a tree in front of me, felt, enjoyed the wind so cool, so calm, ... And I waited for the birds to return to capture them with my camera but they didn’t and as I saw something writhing on the grass, it was a cat fish that still survived after having been left a long time which I rescued. Am I not a good man, husband?

I could watch far away, cars and motor cars passing by through the trees, intriguing, captivating like ants, almost noiselessly. I didn’t care to go any further. How I longed to get all these in my home page soon lest I lose, forget it, though poorly recorded.

On my way home in the as usually overcrowded train in Depok, a kind man took my arm and have me sit in his place while I watched a little child playing, trying to make his father wink by clapping in front of his eyes. As he didn’d succeed he took his father’s face, pinched his cheeks and nose and ears, ...

In the microlette back home I was sitting next to the driver and imagine, I enjoyed watching a scarecrow making faces at me in the car’s side mirror. Ha.Ha.

Wow! What a lot I’ve got. Though I didn’t tour the world. I’m so rich. Don’t you envy me? And what’s so special is that I haven’t to stand on ceremony to hold up my social standing, my appearance, as I travel uncombed,  just in shorts, you know?

And on top of all,  this is now to pay my debt for the picnic, you, dear little fool, prepared for me, as Opa Johan kissed his wife.

August 2012

Dear Little Donkey

Dear Little Donkey

I’ll send you just one post at a time. Were I to reveal my blog address, you might read them all and you would be too smart. Ha. Ha.

Wont see you again

Opa Johan

August 2012

Opa Johan On The Olympics 2012

Opa Johan On The Olympics 2012

I missed the relay of Bolt’s phenomenal run on TV. However, I didn’t repent it, instead I got the beautiful gold medal sailing boat race of women, you know? What excitement, what a joy, delight to the eye. And I thought of skiers sailing on snow, ballet dancing on ice and of sailing in the sky among the clouds with hang gliders.

But worst, most stupid of all is the walking race - if it still exists -, as it forces the athletes to walk unnaturally, clumsily.

And there were the charming,  dreamlike little fairies dancing on the floor, bars, ..., mermaids diving from the springboards, dancing in the water.

And there was a close up view before the start of a lovely smiling girl, Sarah Attar of Saudi Arabia. And I saw a forced smile that turns into a grin on a beautiful face, but hers was so natural, she was unaware of it.

She ran the 800 m and was left so far behind. But she persevered while it were much easier to drop out. She ran, as I picture her, - in long sleeves, not in shorts – not an athlete but a lady in full dress with her scarf as jilbab to reach laughing the finish last. Yet, the audience welcomed her with standing ovation in honor of her courage.

And I saw the champions raised, hugged and kissed. What about the fallen heroes in the fiercest battle? Do they, does she not earn, deserve a kiss and a hug? Even more so. Don’t you think so?

I could feel, share their joys were they winning a gold medal or not winning any medal at all and the pride of them to participate in the Olympics. I could love any athlete, any country but most of all as I saw this unnoticed small girl who played table tennis among many other lovely participants, saw her poor, plain appearance, her uncombed hair but her eyes were shining so determined, she never gave up, ...  And I saw myself pictured in her.

And in praise of, ... no, not her, Ding Ning, but me, I’ll tell you, you little fool, of - from the outside -, a scarecrow, yet from the inside am I a prince. Ha. Ha. Aren’t you very proud of your husband? So now kiss me. That’s what you owe me.

August 2012

On Blogger's Liking

On Blogger’s Liking

Would you like (them) more, were they to like your posts in return? Would you like (them) less were they do not return a like on your posts?

When downhearted, I’d always return for comfort to my own blog with fond affecton.

August 2012

Are You Asleep?

“Are You Asleep?”

“Yes, you little fool” said Opa Johan.

August 2012

Opa Johan On The Cramps Of His Wife

Opa Johan On The Cramps Of His Wife

“I got the cramp twice during sleep. How terrible it hurts.”

“Sure that’s God’s punishment for your sins, terribly hurting me, dear little fool. Ha. Ha.”

August 2012

You can fool people but you can’t fool your innermost self.

August 2012