Sunday and today were interesting days. On Sunday I met with HT, a good friend of mine whom I haven’t seen for almost two years. He’s one of my best friends when I was in junior high school. I can still remember those long chats on the phone when he and I were still in Bogor. Then one day in July 1999, he went to Batam as his parents had to move there for work reasons. A few months later I had to go to Singapore to continue my education. Letters exchanged and phone calls ensued, but for one reason or the other everything we built slowly vapourised into thin air–we almost lost contact.
It was rather recent–about two years or so–that I managed to re-establish contact with him. And it was really good to see him one more time before I go back to Singapore this time. We went to our old junior high school–marvelling the vast changes that have been brought upon the school after our respective departure from the school. We watched in awe at the newly-built classrooms–a very great deal much better than that we used back in the days of our junior high.
We had lunch at Hoka Hoka Bento, a local Japanese food chain, where we exchanged even more stories of our lives. Pity that Grandma had to go to a function, and so the meeting had to end much earlier than we would have liked.
Today was also an interesting day. I met up with HS, SDH, and AH. It’s been half-a-year since I last saw HS, and a couple of weeks since I last saw SDH and AH–both are also currenly studying in NTU.
I met with HS and SDH first in front of our high school and then we proceeded to the warung opposite the junior high school.
Oh, maybe I should also tell you that the junior high school is in the same school complex as the high school–the Regina Pacis school.
A short chat accompanied with es teh manis, jus alpukat and kopi panas later, we proceeded to Ekalokasari Plaza to, well, walk around. We visited the Karisma bookstore where I bought two Christmas greeting cards for Sis. Well, not for Sis, but rather for Sis to give to her friends.
We went to Disc Tarra afterwards, where I had this sudden urge to get some DVDs–an original one costs around SGD 15 here. Luckily HS managed to stop me from spending all those hard-earned $$$ on these, and suggested me trying to rent the DVDs from elsewhere. And of course, reminding me not to forget to make a pir… backup copy of those.
Oh yeah, pirated copies of VCDs and DVDs here is ridiculously cheap. HS told me that a DVD containing two movies can go as cheap as IDR 3000, or SG¢ 55. That’s not a typo, that’s fifty-five Singapore cents. Ridiculous, isn’t it?
We met with AH, and had lunch at Popeyes, which is something like KFC albeit cheaper and not as nice.
Then after this, being real bookworms that we were, we went to the Gramedia bookstore, where I bought a book on hacking and SDH bought some books on music. Nerdy bookworms can’t find any better place to hang out, can they?
Well, we can.
We went to a café somewhere downstairs–I think it’s called XPresso Café or something like that. A short chit-chat later and off we went on our way home.
Not quite.
While AH went home, the rest of us went to Video*EZY at Bogor Permai so that I could rent the movies I wanted to rent. Unfortunately for me, the signing up process wasn’t as easy, because they required me to supply two identification cards when I only brought one. To make it worse, they didn’t want to let me rent any movies because my identification card says that I’m staying in Sukabumi–they said they didn’t want to take any risks.
Oh, c’mon, I’d only rent out five different movies and somehow forget to return them, that’s all…
But anyway, being rational nerdy bookworms that we were, we decided to be gentlemanly and thanked them and walked out of the shop. That’s when HS, being a nice rational nerdy bookworm that he is, he offered to sign up and let me use his card to make the rentals. I hesitated at first, thinking that it won’t be nice to ask so much of him. But what can I do, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak, so I gave in and let him sign up. It was really, really nice of him! Thanks a lot, man!
After the trouble-free sign up process, we started hunting for movies. That’s when my heart sank–apparently Video*EZY in Indonesia is still so new that they don’t carry any DVDs at all. I’ll repeat this one more time so you can feel my horror as I stood there inside the movies store as the world spun mercilessly around me. Slowly.
They.
Bloody.
Don’t.
Bloody.
Carry.
Bloody.
DVDs.
Grrr.
Well, what to do. Anyway I can take a look at it on the bright side. It’s so much easier to make pir… backup copies from VCDs than DVDs. In fact, as I’m typing now I’ve already copied my first movie. Mwahahahahaha….
So I settled with 50 First Dates, Phone Booth, Kill Bill Vol. 1, and The Ring (no link as I’m not sure which one to link to. It’s the original Japanese version of The Ring). Not bad for IDR 20000–approximately SGD 3.65. I wanted to get School of Rock and Arisan!. I don’t usually watch Indonesian movies but I just wanted to know how the movie is like since it seems to have won some awards and people seem to recommend it a lot. Pity that both weren’t available at the time. I also wanted to get Four Weddings and A Funeral, but it wasn’t available in the store either.
So that ended my journey today. It’d be another semester that I’m going to meet HS, and a couple of days before I meet SDH. We’d probably meet during the Christmas Mass at my former junior high school and anyway we’ve planned to meet again on the day of my departure to Singapore.
By the way, it’s merely a couple of days before I have to return to Singapore. It’s a day I look forward to. Can’t wait to be back in Singapore. 
bcc
PS: Any claims of us being nice, rational, nerdy, or bookworms may not be entirely correct.
