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Monday, September 18, 2006
strings attached while going solo
freedom. peaceful. no worries. no stress. tranquil resides deep down inside, just as the cool breeze brushes the face. the wonderful experience of going solo...
dua hari yang lepas, tanggal 16hb september, aku telah selamat pulang menjejakkan kaki di tanah singapura. alhamdulillah, segalanya berjalan dengan lancar tatkala di solo - jawa tengah, malah jauh lebih baik daripada apa yang aku jangkakan. keramahan dan kejujuran jelas terpancar di wajah dan tingkahlaku mereka dalam menyambut kami sebagai tetamu. tersentuh hati kecil ini bila melihat begitu besar iltizam mereka dalam meraikan kedatangan kami. they actually renovated the barracks just because we were coming over. looks like resort sia... no joke.. i was very awwed the first tyme i saw the bunk conditions. felt guilty sometimes seeing how much they did for us. already they are very warm and welcoming, they still treat us like princes. but they haf one weird habit which i noticed - the 1st Qn they'll ask is "kamu asli mana?" - "where do u originate?" they'll ask ur name only like halfway thru the conversation. hehehe. but they are nice people seriously. humble n sincere.
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2nd and 3rd day was R-n-R. went to borobudur, jogja and malioboro on the 2nd. ntg much to shop, and i didnt haf any idea wat to buy. my mum and aunts dont wear batik anymore, so no point buying. eventually i only bought siti's vcd, freakingly cheap at abt less than SGD$6. original mind u. the following day, we went to solo king's palace. it was so wow! the guest dining hall was grand to the max!! and i simply lurv the food!!!!!!! the sherabi was super super super nice!!! didnt manage to find it though at pasar klewer. i only bought shades and billabong truck cap. ivan, im still waiting for my pics. kikiki...
oh ya, one thing must mention is that, the military gets the top priority over there. other road users must clear the traffic for us to pass thru. and our drivers kept honking at them. try do that in singapore, surely kena f*^#=%+ oreidi!!! and the bus drivers were speeding like nobody's business. back in spore, while on the way back to camp, i was like "so slow sia"... hehehe.
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the weather is slightly diff from spore. the mid afternoon was scorching hot while the night and early morning was chilling. desert-like huh? hmm why am i talking abt the weather?? coz hasif said it might be the weather that caused me to get hungry easily. yeap easily!! imagine after i ate dinner, i went to the canteen to eat noodles and ice cream. when i returned back to my barrack, i ate the night snacks. not enuf one box, i ate like 2 - 3 boxes of it. my oh my, i'll grow back to my original size should i stay there any longer...
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made frens wid some of the soldiers - pak agus, pak alimudin, pak taufik, pak eko. we address them as "pak" as a form of respect. furthermore they are older than us too. tanx to pak agus, i manage to bring back buah salak for my mum. pak alimudin is one guy that i can relate to. he loves to write poems in times of serenity, solitary. and before we parted, i gaf him a poem which i wrote while i was there. he was actually smittened by it and he could appreciate and apprehend it well. he's one humble, down-to-earth, soft-spoken guy but with great, soothing singing voice.. on the last night, he pluck the guitar while i sang menghitung hari wid him.. will remember dat moment sia.. pak taufik will always be remembered as "the guy whom me n aiman bought our prepaid card with". hehehe. nice guy too, down-to-earth. speaking of him, i forget to mention earlier that my barrack is just opposite the camp's mosque. what a blessing!! the azan acts as my wake-up call.. back to pak taufik - on the last day, the dawn prayer call waked me up. so i went to the mosque to pray. there was only 3 of us - me, pak taufik and one soldier. i tot pak taufik is the imam coz he's the muazzin that morning. unexpectedly, he requested me to lead the prayer coz he got pain in the leg. hehe, nervous sia. firstly, it was so the last minute and unexpected. 2ndly, im not used to be the imam for outsiders. if family members and frens oklah. nemind, once in a lifetime experience. after prayers, pak taufik invited me to his house. hehe, we exchanged our military t-shirts. but i didnt stay long coz the rest of the platoon woke up oreidi.. hmm pak eko, i met this guy during our frenship nite. he prefers to be called just eko. dats becoz i told him to call me just by my name. i told him too dat in spore, among the privates we just call each other by our name. for them, it's diff.. if u're a second class private, u must salute and respect the first-class privates and address them "mas" or "abang". i didnt quite expect eko to come to my barrack on the last night. hehehe, i tot he was from another unit. so after a short chat, we exchange t-shirts and i gaf him my fav balck "newbie" t-shirt. and yest nite, i was so surprised to receive sms fr him.. i hope the frenship among my new-found frens will last.
"this frenship will last, that's how it must be
comrades in arms across the sea
through thick and thin, we strive to keep
the bond that stands the test of time
this frenship will last for all to see..."
(safkar indopura song)
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<3
12:13 PM