Majapahit Day
I thought I had long morning because lunch was at 12:00. I was wrong. I was almost late because no rush. Photo upload to blog-post took longer unexpectedly, e-banking took longer than usual, MBO came over to drop off gudeg (local dish) from Yogya, and an hour chat with RAD over phone. Suddenly I remembered that I hadn’t ironed my top and wrapped the small gift for RK, the host.
Today RK, the H chairwoman, threw an appreciation lunch for those who had helped to realize the Majapahit - Trowulan book for Museum Nasional. The book is a compilation of short description on excavation findings in Trowulan site. It’s written in Indonesian and translated into English. My contribution was small, the description of piggy bank! Printed in limited number, the book is giveaway for VIP visiting the Museum for the Majapahit exhibition. Very nice lay-out and printing.
About twenty persons from different fields have done the translating, editing, lay-outing, and of course proof-reading. Most of us worked thru internet so we never actually met. The editors were only familiar with names. We toasted with champagne to mark the ‘unofficial’ book launching. The dress code was any color that matched the cover of the book (shown in photo). I wore red top with grey-red-green batik. Later I knew, it was more orangey than red. Different computer-monitor led to different color interpretation :-) Many who had seen the actual color were able to match the color. It was fun.
We made group photo and had Indian lunch to match the Majapahit theme (Indian influence). Very nice. I chatted with ladies from the Museum, two former H chairwomen, and senior members of H. I knew most of them well for long time, only the Museum team I hadn’t met.
RK hugged me and said that she would like to involve me in the next project which starts as soon as next week. Another book. Anything, it must be interesting. I left just in time to meet KAT in the club by the apartment. I handed her my skirt she wanted to copy. KAT was excited to get the skirt and invited me to have lunch with MNE next week. I grinned.
Meanwhile, RAD had waited in DS to have coffee. It was perfect time-arrangement, I got DS exactly at 15:00. RAD took an off-day as she wanted to have a look at the material for next week’s exam. She decided to ‘get a life’ by taking post-grad class for two years. Very brave lady. I appreciate her spirit.
We talked in a coffee shop. Hilarious talk as usual. Our main topic was the invasion of privacy by friend. It’s a never ending discussion because living in the culture we have to spare such understanding which is almost inapplicable for metropolitan living. We become more individualistic. Tight schedule has formed us.
In front of us was a row of vendors selling woman stuffs and we sat just the opposite of a batik stand. I watched the vendor selling batik and showing the potential buyers how to wear batik. I learned from afar about three new ways to wear batik :-) Later when we approached her, she taught us more style to wear batik as top and dress. Very creative. RAD was close to buy one, my recommendation, but we didn’t have enough cash because she only accepted cash and the money-machine was in service. We laughed a lot because we had to ‘live’ with whatever we had in wallet. Even we had to really count what we ate. Many shops don’t accept payment by credit card under certain amount (read: small amount).
We also tried out some of tests from RAD’s book for next week's exam. It’s interesting case-test but it’s hard to understand because of the ?Indonesian. I thought they made the test based on the answer so it’s not easy to work on the question. I really liked the test, it’s challenging ‘easy’.
So we talked, discussed, tried batik, solved case-test, had two dessert,… then moved to have dinner. We talked about gay world over dim-sum. Another interestingly-complicated topic we exchanged. A reality we face and have to deal with nowadays.
My Majapahit day ended ten hours later. RAD enjoyed her off day. I enjoyed my rest of the day. Time just flew.