My Life is A BIG Adventure

Akhirnya, aku & suamiku pindah ke flat yg dia beli. Proses pembeliannya bener-bener lama sekali. Segala detail dicek pengacara-pengacara suamiku. Polusi, development, macem-macem dech. Laporannya tebel banget. Skripsiku kalah tebel. Akhir November’06 resmi kami dapat kuncinya. Renovasi & dekorasi tertunda sampai awal January karena kebentur libur Christmas.

Waktu kami pindah akhir January lalu, kami pindah dengan segala keterbatasan yg ada. Tapi bahagianya minta ampun. Gak berhenti2 rasanya bersukur. Sejak kami nikah September’06 kami tinggal dirumah mum & dad. Numpang ceritanya J. Simbiosis mutualisme juga. Suka dukanya numpang? Rasanya banyak sukanya… mum & dad baik sekali… we make a good team. J Terutama awal2 aku migrasi. Mum & dad banyak membantuku untuk beradaptasi.

Gak ada dukanya sama sekali. We just feel happier to have our own house to live in and decorate it as we want to. We miss mum & dad for sure… Their jokes, their laughter… Tapi ini yg kami mau. We chose to live in our own place. Alhamdulillah kami mampu J. Kami bahagia dan bangga, dengan tidak mengecilkan teman2 yg memutuskan untuk tetap tinggal dengan orangtua-nya setelah menikah. Masing-masing punya alasan & pilihan kan J.

2 bulan setelah pindah ke flat…

Aku udah ngedaftarin diri ke dentist & health centre setempat. Waktu ngedaftar sih kebetulan ditemenin suamiku. Tapi check up-nya sendiri. Aduh…!!! Aku paling gak suka ke dokter sendiri. Even Cuma check up. Gigi-ku sih cuma dibersihin plus di-X’ray. Dokter giginya baik & cantik. Senyum2 aja liat gigiku banyak tambalannya. He3x…

Proses ngedaftarin diri ke health centre juga sama. Isi formulir, buat appointment untuk check up 2-3 hari kemudian. Dokter-nya juga baik banget. Aku konsultasi segala macem sebelum general check up-nya dimulai. Dari makanan2 yang aku konsumsi, birth control, dsb. Dokter G juga tanya sejarah kesehatan keluargaku. Alhamdulillah hasil check up-nya aku cukup sehat kalau mau memutuskan hamil. Lagian I don’t drink, I don’t smoke.

Urusan sampah kami gak perlu ngurusin ke parish council. Baru kami rencana kesana nanya2 jadwal collecting-nya eh, duluan dapet surat pemberitahuan plus brosur jadwal untuk sampah yg mixed, botol2 & kertas. Jadwalnya terpisah untuk kepentingan recycle.

Apalagi yah??? Oh hairdresser. Kalau ini Sabtu weekend pertama sejak kepindahan kami dah aku survey ha3x… aku jalan2 seputar desa sendiri Aku minta brosur ke beberapa hairdresser. Dirumah, aku baca brosur2 itu dan langsung buat appointment ama hairdresser yg aku pilih. Because this is how it works here. Kebanyakan hairdresser buat cewek kudu buat janji dulu. Aku udah check 6 hairdresser. Harus buat janji dulu J 

Sabtu siang aku memang selalu sendirian Suamiku kerja sampai jam 4, liburnya Minggu-Senin. Biasanya abis sarapan aku bersih2 rumah. After lunch, kalau cuaca cerah, aku jalan2 ke toko2 didesa kami, Hassocks. Ada aja yg dibeli, bunga atau kebutuhan rumah tangga… Atau kalau gak ada yg perlu dibeli, aku jalan ke taman desa. Bawa novel/majalah/koran dan sebotol air & snack. Duduk2 nikmatin sinar matahari sambil baca. Atau kalau gak, aku jalan2 ke kota sebelah. Flat kami Cuma 15 menit jalan dari stasiun KA. Jump on a train, ke Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath atau Brighton (Baru berani ke yang deket2 aja dan yg aku udah kenal betul areanya J). Windows shopping dewe atau janjian ma temen. Kadang juga Mum jemput aku ngajakin jalan atau lunch out bareng. Jam 4 aku selalu udah dirumah, nunggu suami dateng J Pernah juga sih seharian dirumah aja. Kadang males aja mau keluar.Yah gitu dech pelan tapi pasti aku mulai settle di rumah dan daerahku yang baru J J J 

Global warming jadi topic pembicaraan dimana2. Di Inggris, dimana aku tinggal sekarang, nurut mereka terasa banget. Karena winter kali ini bisa dibilang cukup hangat. Suhunya berkisar 0 -12 C. Sesekali aja -1C atau -2C. Buat aku yg baru migrasi ke negara 4 musim ini, menguntungkan sekali J. Aku ingat betapa aku kedinginan banget waktu aku ke Washington DC winter 2000. Winter 2005 juga pertama aku ke Inggris, Bbrrrrrr…. Hari pertama nyampe udah -6C L. Tapi serem juga sih kalau benar ‘hangat’nya winter kali ini karena global warming. Seremnya nurut aku; kalau winternya semakin anget tiap taunnya, gimana summer? Bakal semakin panas kah???

Bunga2 udah mulai mekar. Yang keliatan banget daffodils. Kata mereka sih bunga2 ini mekar sebelum waktunya saking hangatnya cuaca dan banyak kena sinar matahari. Katanya, hi3x… katanya muluk yah… namanya aku juga baru tunggal disini. Jadi aku gak tau percis he3x… Ok, balik lagi… katanya biasanya baru bunga2 yg kecil2 mekar, daffodils biasanya akhir Maret baru mulai berbunga. Iya juga, aku inget pertengahan Maret tahun lalu aku kesini for a visit tuh bunga baru nongol menjelang aku pulang. Hm…

Padahal daffodils dihalaman rumah mertuaku udah bermekaran awal Maret. Minggu akhir January daun2nya dah bermunculan dari bulb-nya Global warming?!?!….

Spring nurut kalender sini baru mulai officially 21 Maret. Itu kenapa aku post a shout out “Spring seems earlier”. Seneng sih, ngeliatin bunga2 aneka warna mulai mucul. Biasanya cuma rumput2 aja yg bertahan hijau selama musim dingin dan beberapa pohon (gak tau jenis apa) yg tetap hijau sepanjang tahun. Dibalik rasa seneng juga ada rasa ngeri, serem dan sedih campur aduk. Apalagi kalau nonton TV yang ngebahas tentang global warming yg juga nunjukin bukit es yg mencair aduuuh…. Kalau dah ada acara macem gini, aku ma suamiku nonton sampai abis. Biasanya, diakhir acara mereka kasih saran apa2 yg bisa kita lakukan agar global warming ini gak semakin memburuk. Dan kami coba jalanin.

Chatting ama temen2 di Indonesia, mereka cerita gimana cuaca di Indonesia juga. Hujan yang telat dateng, angin dll. Apa ini juga karena global warming??? Wallahualam. Cuma Tuhan yg tau. Tapi gak ada salahnya mulai sekarang ayo rame2 coba selamatkan bumi kita yg udah tua J

We cancelled our trip to Amsterdam as it wasn’t easy for me JUST to get an appointment to apply for a visa. We called the embassy 5 times for about 20 minutes each, and one minutes they charge 1 pound. Always end up with "please try to call from a land line"… It is a land line. I am an Indonesian. That’s why I need a visa to go to most countries in the world. Anyhow, tired of trying to call the embassy and don’t want to spend more money for a phone call that might be ended the same way I told my husband to just cancel the trip. We lost our money for the tickets. Never mind. Instead, I asked my husband to just show me around England. My adopted country. Because we had booked our days off to our employees. Bath was our choice before Surrey (as my husband friend Al & Becky would get married on the 10th of March in Surrey)

A week before our holiday we were browsing on the internet, checking for any hotel to stay in both places and things to do there. Suddenly, my husband got an idea to go to a warmer place. We need to fly at least 4 hours away from here. Turkey, Spain and Morocco were places we thought. As we found out that no visa required for us to go to Morocco we decided to go there J.

We flew to Marrakech on Sunday, 4 March’07. We planned to just stay at Marrakech. We arrived at Marrakech airport about 6 PM. It was quite warm about 25C. Got a petit taxy (that’s how they call it) to Amine hotel through the pink city J as all the walls dominated with pink color. Well, it is not really pink I think. It’s a natural hue of earth. Ah, by the way, local people will greet us "Bonjour or bonsoir". Most of them speak French. Lucky my husband speaks Arabic though very little but very useful for our trip there. We checked in, unpacked, had showers and went to ‘Jemaa El Fna’. It is a big square. Lots of open-air restaurant where we can snack on anything from snails to sheep’s head. The orange juice is very juicy. Lots of attractions as well. We had dinner at Chez Chegrouni. Sitting on a rooftops terrace with a view of the Jemaa El Fna.

The next day, we had sun bathing by the pool at the hotel after breakfast. It was very nice and warm but the pool is freezing. It is not like in Bali, feeling hot after sun bathing we can just jump to the pool. There, I entered the pool slowly. Seemed they did not heath the pool. And it could be very cold at night in Marrakech, maybe that’s why. Around 3 o’clock we went to Koutoubia Mosque and the square again, the Jemaa El Fna, to see what it’s like during the day.

If Paris has the Eiffel Tower, London has Big Ben and Marrakech has Koutoubia. Its square, towering minaret is the most recognizable icon. It is also one of the city’s oldest structures and believed to be the first thing ever built there. The minaret of the Koutoubia Mosques is only 77 metres or 252 feet hight. But as it is forbid to build any other building to rise above the height of a palm tree, it towers majestically over it’s surroundings. Therefore, the minaret is the first thing that any visitor sees when approaching the city from afar.

While in the square (Jemaa El Fna) there were lots of attractions as usual. The open-air restaurant were not opened yet. We saw a snake charmer, had local snacks that tend to be so sweet, ice cream and tried the mint tea at Argana restaurant. Then we went to the souks, on the north of Jemaa El Fna with alleyway upon alleyway of tiny shops. The overwhelming number of shops is offset by the fact that most of them seem to offer exactly the same non-essential goods; such as canary-yellow slippers, embroidered robes, rugs, spices, etc. We eventually found a rug that may look nice in our lounge J.

Walking back to Jemaa El Fna, we ended up in one of the open-air restaurants. Having lamb kebabs, salads and orange juice. It was not any cheaper then the terrace restaurant at all. Yet, the dinner was worth it.

On Wednesday we went to Majorelle Gardens. the gardens was created in the 1930s by two generations of French artists, Jacquest and Louis Majorelle. The color is striking, blue offset with soft yellows and terracottas. there’s a fine little Museum of Islamic Art that before it was Jacques Majorelle’s studio. the plantations are bamboos, great palms tower over all, water lilies etc and they are all is clearly labelled. Later on we got a horse-drawn carriage taking us around the town. Back to Amine hotel, we were having a siesta awhile before walking up to Mohamed V Avenue for windows shopping.

Thursday we may say as our last day in Marekech. We went to Ben Yousseff Medersa. A Medersa is a Koranic school that was still in use until as recently as 1962. There are over a hundred tiny students chambers on two floors. on the center is a water-filled basin. the surrounding facades are decorated with tiling, stuco and carved cedar. It’s wonderful and peaceful there.

The second place we visited is Musee de Marrakech. the building itself is fantastic, colorful tiling, roofed over and hung with an enormous chandelier.

Across from the Ben Youssef Mosque is the Koubba El Badiyin that is also known as Qoubba Almoravide. After visited the Koubba we went to a tannerie. Our guide handed out some springs of mint to hold under our nose to block out the smelt. Yet, it didn’t really help. My stomach a bit rebel. We were back to the hotel after lunch for sun bathing and just relaxing at the hotel.

Friday morning we walked to town again to a small coffe not so far from Amine Hotel (I forget the name) as my husband likes the coffe they served better than the one our hotel served. It was a nice small coffe by the street that we could sit in the sun. Two hours later we were back into Amine hotel packed then headed to the Marekech airport by a petit taxy. Spending our last coins in a small gift shops at the airport and flew back to England… Home…