Hari ini saya dan temen-temen berkumpul untuk latihan Nasyid Idul Adha. Ancur-ancuran semuanya. Alhamdulillah setelah 12 kali latihan dan 2 orang korban (dipecat karena suaranya terlalu 'indah' untuk sementara makhluk) nyanyian kita udah mulai berbentuk.. abstrak he he he.
Hope everything will be ok during Idul Adha, and nobody will have cold feet in the stage.
05 January 2006
17 December 2005
Trans-Siberian Railway
Buat para "train enthusiasts", yang seneng traveling dengan kereta, perjalanan dari Lisbon di Portugal sampai ke Ho Chi Minh di Vietnam merupakan perjalanan paling menantang dan paling panjang yang mungkin dilakukan dengan kereta api. Saya pertama kali membaca mengenai perjalanan ini sewaktu saya masih SMP, dan sejak itu jadi salah satu impian saya untuk melakukannya, tentu saja kalau ada rejeki, waktu, umur, ijin, dan lain-lain :)Sebetulnya nggak pernah sih bener-bener serius mikirin soal ini, sampai kemarin waktu saya sedang bersantai di Borders book store (yah, toko buku adalah tempat favorit saya untuk ngabisin waktu kalau nggak ada kerjaan... what a nerd I am, aren't I?), mata saya tertumbuk pada buku sebuah keluaran Lonely Planet berjudul Trans-Siberian Railway. What the..!?
FYI, lonely planet adalah penerbit yang spesialis ngeluarin buku buat yang suka travelling, berisi informasi mengenai satu tempat beserta bagaimana cara kesana, apa saja akomodasinya dan berapa perkiraan biayanya.
Bagus juga Lonely Planet ngeluarin buku mengenai perjalanan kereta api, Trans-Siberian pula! Biasanya yang mereka terbitkan hanya mengenai negara atau wilayah tertentu saja. Tiba-tiba perjalanan dari Lisbon ke Ho Chi Minh ini kok jadi terasa real dan memungkinkan ya? Udah deh, saya beli aja buku ini. Siapa tahu suatu saat nanti saya punya waktu, kesempatan, dan biaya :)
10 December 2005
Dammit
This damn thing just can't commit to what it said it would!
A promise has already been made, but with nothing delivered, it's just drive yours trully crazy. Yet if there is a good reason of why - the true one of course - there might still be a little bit of acceptance.
But with these lame excuses transmitted everytime a promise was not going to be delivered? Hate that mate, hate that! Just don't make any at all, if not sure. A responsibility to others is what it takes.
Oh shoot, I think I just broke out some precepts from my last post.....!
A promise has already been made, but with nothing delivered, it's just drive yours trully crazy. Yet if there is a good reason of why - the true one of course - there might still be a little bit of acceptance.
But with these lame excuses transmitted everytime a promise was not going to be delivered? Hate that mate, hate that! Just don't make any at all, if not sure. A responsibility to others is what it takes.
Oh shoot, I think I just broke out some precepts from my last post.....!
02 December 2005
Words of Guidance
I have a piece of paper that hanged gracefully in my cabinet door, with excerpt of wise words from The Book. It contains general guides for conducting my life. I thought I’d like to share some of these words with you.
Some of the lessons from The Book that apply to our general living
Respect:
- Respect and honour all human beings irrespective of their religion, colour, race, gender, language, status, property, birth, profession/job and so on [17/70]
Communicate:
- Talk straight, to the point, without any ambiguity or deception [33/70].
- Choose best words to speak and say them in the best possible way [17/53, 2/83].
- Do not shout. Speak politely keeping your voice low. [31/19].
- Always speak the truth. Shun words that are deceitful and ostentatious [22/30].
- Do not confound truth with falsehood [2/42].
- Say with your mouth what is in your heart [3/167].
- Speak in a civilised manner in a language that is recognised by the society and is commonly used [4/5].
- Do not be a bragging boaster [31/18].
- Do not talk, listen or do anything vain [23/3, 28/55].
- Do not make mockery of others or ridicule others [49/11]
- Do not defame others [49/11]
- Do not insult others by nicknames [49/11]
Justice:
- Ascertain the truth of any news, lest you smite someone in ignorance and afterwards repent of what you did [49/6].
- Do not follow blindly any information of which you have no direct knowledge. (Using your faculties of perception and conception) you must verify it for yourself. In the Court of your Lord, you will be held accountable for your hearing, sight, and the faculty of reasoning [17/36].
- Avoid suspicion and guesswork. Suspicion and guesswork might deplete your communal energy [49/12]
- When you voice an opinion, be just, even if it is against a relative [6/152].
- If you do not have complete knowledge about anything, better keep your mouth shut. You might think that speaking about something without full knowledge is a trivial matter. But it might have grave consequences [24/15-16].
- When you hear something malicious about someone, keep a favourable view about him/her until you attain full knowledge about the matter. Consider others innocent until they are proven guilty with solid and truthful evidence [24/12-13].
Treating others:
- Treat kindly: your parents, relatives, the orphans, and those who have been left alone in the society [4/36].
- Take care of: The needy, the disabled, those whose hard earned income is insufficient to meet their needs, those whose businesses have stalled, and those who have lost their jobs. [4/36].
- Treat kindly: your related and unrelated neighbours, companions by your side in public gatherings, or public transportation. [4/36].
- Be nice to people who work under your care. [4/36]
Treating yourself:
- Do not be jealous of those who are blessed. [4/54]
- In your collective life, make rooms for others. [58/11]
- Eat and drink [what is lawful] in moderation. [7/31]
- Fulfil your promises and commitments. [17/34]
- Keep yourself clean, pure. [9/108, 4/43, 5/6]
- Dress-up in agreeable attire and adorn yourself with exquisite character from inside out [7/26].
Being sincere
- Do not follow up what you have given to others to afflict them with reminders of your generosity [2/262].
- Do not expect a return for your good behaviour, not even thanks [76/9].
- Do no try to impress people on account of self-proclaimed virtues [53/32].
Being an example:
- You should enjoin right conduct on others but mend your own ways first. Actions speak louder than words. You must first practice good deeds yourself, then preach [2/44].
- Correct yourself and your families first [before trying to correct others] [66/6].
Avoidance:
- Leave to themselves those who do not give any importance to the Divine code and have adopted and consider it as mere play and amusement [6/70]
- Sit not in the company of those who ridicule Divine Law unless they engage in some other conversation [4/140]
I try to follow those words all the time. But reflecting what I have achieved and done so far… O Allah… how disgrace I must be in front of You. I think I haven’t even done a tiny bit. O Rabbi, would you give me strength to follow Your way?
19 November 2005
Pengamen Melby
Saya tinggal di Kota yang dijuluki 'four seasons in one day'. Emang bener banget. Kota ini memang cuacanya nggak konsisten sangat. Bahkan sampai ada pameo di sini: "if you don't like Melbourne's weather, just wait for ten minutes!" ha ha... how true! Contohnya beberapa hari lalu cuaca kota yang terkenal (nggak konsistennya) ini kembali menunjukkan taringnya, temperatur udara berubah dari sekitar 27 ke 15 derajat... cuma dalam 10 menit! Puih.. gimana nggak rusak ini badan. Dua orang teman saya jadi korbannya, terkapar dirumah karena pusing setelah kena panas lalu dingin kaya gitu.
Namun saya lumayan suka kota berpenduduk lebih kurang 3.5 juta ini. Disamping arsitekture bangunan-bangunannya yang indah, kota in nggak terlalu ramai seperti kota terbesarnya negara ini, tapi juga nggak terlalu sepi juga seperti ibukotanya negara ini. disini semua serba teratur karena memang sistem dan peraturan yang berjalan dengan baik. Kalau kita ingin keramaian, tinggal jalan ke downtownnya, tapi kalau anda ingin agak sepi, dengan naik tram sedikit saja ke suburbnya, pilih salah satu dari puluhan garden atau park yang ada kalau mau menyepi. Untuk soal yang satu ini kota ini memang nomor satunya. Nggak salah kalau semboyannya seperti yang sering terlihat di plat mobil-mobilnya "Victoria the Garden State". Ruang terbuka memang sangat diperhatikan oleh pemdanya.
Salah satu feature yang juga saya suka dari kota ini adalah para pengamennya atau biasa disebut street artist. Disini yang namanya pengamen (ngamen musik, ngamen lukis atau ngamen pertunjukan) sangat menghibur dan sangat profesional dalam berseni. Terkadang saya mikir juga, kemampuan mereka begitu bagusnya.. ngapain juga mereka ngamen. Mending terjun ke dunia pertunjukkan yang sesungguhnya.
Tapi ya sudah pilihan mereka kaya gitu, mungkin mereka merasa lebih bisa berekspresi kalau ngamen di jalan daripada di tempat yang komersil. Alhasil, publik kota ini beruntung bisa menikmati karya mereka dengan sedikit uang sedekah saja. Atau kalau nggak malu, nggak ngasih juga nggak apa-apa (huh emang maunya gratisan muluk!).
Disini saya postingkan beberapa aksi karya mereka:
Seorang pelukis jalanan (literary) sedang melukisi jalanan. Lukisan yang dia buat biasanya akan hilang setelah beberapa bulan karena terinjak-injak para pejalan kaki atau di gerus cuaca. Setelah itu sang seniman ini akan membuat karya-karya baru yang dengan tema lain yang nggak kalah bagusnya.
Kadang-kadang para pengamen ini juga sudah mengeluarkan CD rekaman mereka yang di produksi secara independen, dan di jual sembari mereka bermain di jalan. Seperti gambar pemusik Didgeridoo diatas, tas terbuka di depan mereka itu adalah CD rekaman mereka yang dijual langsung di tempat.
Kalau soal seni jalanan Melbourne memang surganya. Sebetulnya nggak cuma di jalan sih.. berhubung keterbatasan kantong saya, sementara ini saya nikmatin seni jalanan saja dulu deh.
Namun saya lumayan suka kota berpenduduk lebih kurang 3.5 juta ini. Disamping arsitekture bangunan-bangunannya yang indah, kota in nggak terlalu ramai seperti kota terbesarnya negara ini, tapi juga nggak terlalu sepi juga seperti ibukotanya negara ini. disini semua serba teratur karena memang sistem dan peraturan yang berjalan dengan baik. Kalau kita ingin keramaian, tinggal jalan ke downtownnya, tapi kalau anda ingin agak sepi, dengan naik tram sedikit saja ke suburbnya, pilih salah satu dari puluhan garden atau park yang ada kalau mau menyepi. Untuk soal yang satu ini kota ini memang nomor satunya. Nggak salah kalau semboyannya seperti yang sering terlihat di plat mobil-mobilnya "Victoria the Garden State". Ruang terbuka memang sangat diperhatikan oleh pemdanya.
Salah satu feature yang juga saya suka dari kota ini adalah para pengamennya atau biasa disebut street artist. Disini yang namanya pengamen (ngamen musik, ngamen lukis atau ngamen pertunjukan) sangat menghibur dan sangat profesional dalam berseni. Terkadang saya mikir juga, kemampuan mereka begitu bagusnya.. ngapain juga mereka ngamen. Mending terjun ke dunia pertunjukkan yang sesungguhnya.
Tapi ya sudah pilihan mereka kaya gitu, mungkin mereka merasa lebih bisa berekspresi kalau ngamen di jalan daripada di tempat yang komersil. Alhasil, publik kota ini beruntung bisa menikmati karya mereka dengan sedikit uang sedekah saja. Atau kalau nggak malu, nggak ngasih juga nggak apa-apa (huh emang maunya gratisan muluk!).
Disini saya postingkan beberapa aksi karya mereka:
Seorang pelukis jalanan (literary) sedang melukisi jalanan. Lukisan yang dia buat biasanya akan hilang setelah beberapa bulan karena terinjak-injak para pejalan kaki atau di gerus cuaca. Setelah itu sang seniman ini akan membuat karya-karya baru yang dengan tema lain yang nggak kalah bagusnya.
Seorang pengamen dari Iran dengan alat musik tradisionalnyaKalo nggak salah nama alat musiknya 'Santoor' atau apa. Saya sempet nanya tapi dasar nggak dicatet. Saya paling suka kalau sedang jalan di Swanston street dan orang ini sedang ngamen, saya diam sejenak mendengarkan musiknya yang menurut saya sangat indah. Saya sempet bilang ke dia kalau alat musiknya dia soundnya mirip dengan kecapi sunda. Tapi emang lebih bagus yang ini sih. Sumpe!
Pak tua dengan accordeonnya. Waktu tau dia mau saya foto, langsung deh masang topinya en nyengir ke kamera. Biar ngamen yang penting gaya kali yah?
Komedian jalanan. Orang ini sangat interaktif dalam menghibur. Seperti gambar diatas, dia melibatkan anak-anak yang diambil acak dari penonton.
Kadang-kadang para pengamen ini juga sudah mengeluarkan CD rekaman mereka yang di produksi secara independen, dan di jual sembari mereka bermain di jalan. Seperti gambar pemusik Didgeridoo diatas, tas terbuka di depan mereka itu adalah CD rekaman mereka yang dijual langsung di tempat.
Kalau soal seni jalanan Melbourne memang surganya. Sebetulnya nggak cuma di jalan sih.. berhubung keterbatasan kantong saya, sementara ini saya nikmatin seni jalanan saja dulu deh.
09 November 2005
Phototravelog, The Flinders Ranges
A couple of months ago I had a chance to travel to the Flinders Ranges, one of nature wonder of Australia, about 400 kms north of Adelaide. If you'd like to catc a glimpse of Australian outback, here is the place. We managed to get to Flinders Ranges and back to Adelaide, IN JUST ONE DAY! That's about 800 kms journey in a day. It took us about 6 hour to go there and 6 hour to go back with our rented car, since speed limits applied in South Australia (damn! :) ). Anyway, here I post some of the pictures.
A typical road on our way to Wilpena Pound, the visitor centre of the Flinders Ranges. I think this was between Hawker and Wilpena, not sure!
That's the Flinders Ranges outback, near Port Augusta.
The Southern Flinders Ranges, a breathtaking scenery...
The Castle Rock, a weird structure resembles ruins of a castle. But it is actually shaped by nature.
Meet this little cutie. A weird creature. I think this kind of dessert lizzard can only be found in Australia.
Actually, within the caves of this hill you may see many indegenous Australian paintings, which dated back from thousands of years ago. But we did not have a chance to go inside.
The Gate of Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges National Park... finally we're here.
Inside the range of Northern Flinders Ranges mountains... it's beautiful but hard to catch it by my camera, you have to be there yourself to feel it.
Another side of the Northern Flinders Ranges mountains.
It was a fun trip. I really enjoyed it. But this enjoyment was almost ruined when our car almost run out of fuel On the way back to Adelaide, and no fuel station openned in all towns we passed. Well, what do you expect? It was around 9 pm, of course most of fuel stations in the small towns of Australia won't open after 5 pm.
Let me tell you about small towns of Australia. Population is usually between 50 (Fifty!) to 1000. Any population figures bigger than 1000 is usually considered as big enough towns. COmpare that to the population of a small village in Java which usually comprise of thousands in population. Ironic isn't it?
Well, Australia is big continent country with only 20 something millions population, and almost half of them live in just four cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. No wonder many inland towns have only such a small population.
Anyway, we were fortunate that we still had enough fuel to detour our journey to the nearest big town called Port Pirie, halfway between Port Augusta and Adelaide, and lucky there is one fuel station that was still open at that hour. I couldn't imagine what will happened to us if we cannot find a single station and stranded in the middle of nowhere in the Australian outback.
A typical road on our way to Wilpena Pound, the visitor centre of the Flinders Ranges. I think this was between Hawker and Wilpena, not sure!
That's the Flinders Ranges outback, near Port Augusta.
The Southern Flinders Ranges, a breathtaking scenery...
The Castle Rock, a weird structure resembles ruins of a castle. But it is actually shaped by nature.
Meet this little cutie. A weird creature. I think this kind of dessert lizzard can only be found in Australia.
Actually, within the caves of this hill you may see many indegenous Australian paintings, which dated back from thousands of years ago. But we did not have a chance to go inside.
The Gate of Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges National Park... finally we're here.
Inside the range of Northern Flinders Ranges mountains... it's beautiful but hard to catch it by my camera, you have to be there yourself to feel it.
Another side of the Northern Flinders Ranges mountains.It was a fun trip. I really enjoyed it. But this enjoyment was almost ruined when our car almost run out of fuel On the way back to Adelaide, and no fuel station openned in all towns we passed. Well, what do you expect? It was around 9 pm, of course most of fuel stations in the small towns of Australia won't open after 5 pm.
Let me tell you about small towns of Australia. Population is usually between 50 (Fifty!) to 1000. Any population figures bigger than 1000 is usually considered as big enough towns. COmpare that to the population of a small village in Java which usually comprise of thousands in population. Ironic isn't it?
Well, Australia is big continent country with only 20 something millions population, and almost half of them live in just four cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. No wonder many inland towns have only such a small population.
Anyway, we were fortunate that we still had enough fuel to detour our journey to the nearest big town called Port Pirie, halfway between Port Augusta and Adelaide, and lucky there is one fuel station that was still open at that hour. I couldn't imagine what will happened to us if we cannot find a single station and stranded in the middle of nowhere in the Australian outback.
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