Kencan Singkat Pagi Hari di Pengkolan Kemang

Saya punya bakery favorit di Jakarta, namanya Authentic French Bakery. Tempatnya di jalan menuju Hero Kemang. Dulu, waktu pertama kali buka, lokasinya di kios-kios kecil deretan toko bunga, di sebrang Hero Kemang. Kecil sekali tempatnya, tapi menyenangkan. Begitu masuk langsung disambut wangi roti, dan sebagai pecinta roti, saya langsung naksir berat sama tempat ini.

Pertama kali kesini, saya berdua Aidan saja. Beli beberapa jenis roti untuk coba-coba, dan macaron. Semuanya enak, gak ada yang gagal. Kemudian Witri memberi tau saya kalau brioche-nya enak sekali, dan cepat habis. Saya pun coba, dan setuju. Brioche-nya juara, dioles pake apa aja enak! Nah, akhirnya bakery ini sering jadi tempat kencan kilat saya, Witri, dan juga Rahmi - yang rumahnya bisa dijangkau dengan sepeda dari sana.

Suatu pagi, setelah saya yoga, saya janjian menemui Witri disana. Waktu saya datang Witri udah duduk manis di satu-satunya meja di dalam bakery, menghadap jendela. Kami iseng tanya Rahmi lagi apa, siapa tau berminat kencan brioche. Gak lama Rahmi muncul, pakai sepeda. Bertiga kami berdempetan di space sempit di depan jendela, dengan cafe latte hangat dan berpiring-piring roti. Hari itu saya pertama kali coba canele, dan langsung nambah-nambah. Canele ini wujudnya emang gosong-gosong gak cantik, tapi rasanya enak banget. Brioche yang tinggal 2 langsung di-book oleh saya dan Rahmi untuk dibawa pulang. Langit mendung, roti hangat, dan cafe latte sambil ngobrol-ngobrol gak jelas. Andai saja pemandangan di luar jendela adalah jalanan cobble stones di Perancis atau Itali. Bukan jalan aspal dengan deretan bajaj. x)

Lalu terjadi pembicaraan absurd ketika melihat foto-foto hari itu. Ini waktu kita kuliah di Paris itu kan? Ini yang di deket apartemen kita itu, lho.. Dua pengkolan dari Eiffel. Hayuk lah kita ke Paris besok, kangen udah lama gak liat kampus. :)))

Sekarang French Authentic Bakery geser sedikit tempatnya. Lebih besar dan lebih banyak meja-kursinya. Tapi lebih ramai juga. Kami antara sedih dan senang sama tempat baru ini. Haha. Tapi kami tetap berkunjung terus, sekedar beli roti untuk take away, atau untuk kencan singkat di pengkolan Kemang, sambil berhayal kami ada di dua pengkolan dari menara Eiffel. 

It Really Really Really Could Happen

Blur was on top of my concert wish list. Absolutely. So you could only imagine how ecstatic I was when I heard that they're playing at Big Sound Fest in Jakarta. And when May, 15th finally came, they have arrived save and sound in Jakarta, I had no song wish list. I don't really care what song they were going to played, I'm just too happy. I know their songs by heart, anyway.

If they'd came to Jakarta 10 years ago, I would probably be with those people waiting at their hotel. But since that wasn't the case, Syarin, Ocha, and I just got to the venue as soon as our job allowed us. And the tree of us sure had lot of fun, singing our heart out to the tunes of Blur. 24 years of waiting, as Damon said, but it was so worth it.

You ask me again about that concert wish list, Blur will still be on top of it. Have a great year, you 20th century girls & boys. Dream big. Dream of Damon, Graham, Alex, & Dave. :) 

Every paper that you read
Says tomorrow's your lucky day
Well, here's your lucky day
It really, really, really could happen
Yes, it really, really, really could happen
If the days they seem to fall through you
Well, just let them go 

I Dream of Hyde Park

Oh how I wish I was there. The one in 2009 or the one in 2012, I don't really care. Watching the videos of Blur's reunion concert in Hyde Park always gave me goosebumps. It was epic, truly. First, it gave us fan a slight hope of another Blur record. Second, the crowd. That many people singing Blur's songs together. The concert in 2012 to marked the end of Olympic was marvelous too. I got the CD, but still haven't got my hand on the DVD. The gig was rumored to be their last, ever. But I guess it wasn't true. Rite? :)

Oh Mr. Albarn

*Fangirl Squeal*

quotes pic taken from here.

Badhead

So far I've not really stayed in touch
Well you knew as much it's no surprise that today
I get up around two from a lack of anything to do

And I might as well just grin and bear it

'Cause it's not worth the trouble of an argument

And you have not really stayed in touch
Well I knew as much it's no surprise that today
I get up around two with nothing to do
Except get a touch of flu

And I might as well just grin and bear it

'Cause it's not worth the trouble of an argument

And in any case I'd rather wear it

It's like a badhead in the morning

And I might as well just grin and bear it

'Cause it's not worth the trouble of an argument

And in any case I'd rather wear it

It's like a badhead in the morning

I know

Top 10 Blur Songs.. Kinda..

Oh this would break my heart, even more than when I listed down my top 10 Radiohead songs.  But again, if  someone pointed a gun at my head and force me to make a list of my top 10 Blur songs, I guess this would be it:

1. To The End

2. Under The Westway

3. This Is a Low

4. The Universal

5. Badhead

6. Country House

7. End of a Century

8. Parklife

9. It Could Be You

10. For Tomorrow

Then I would beg the guy with the gun to my head to let me add 5 more songs:

11. Out of Time

12. Sunday Sunday

13. Charmless Man

14. Tender

15. There's No Other Way

And then, I might have to tell him to screw it, since I still had to add She's So High, Tracy Jacks, London Loves, On Your Own, Coffee & TV, No Distance Left to Run, Trimm Trabb, and a whole lot more. There's no way 10 is enough. :)

To The End

All those dirty words

They make us look so dumb

Been drinking far too much

And neither of us mean what we say

Well you and I

Collapsed in love

And it looks like we might have made it

Yes it looks like we've made it to the end

What happened to us

Soon it will be gone forever

Infatuated only with ourselves

And neither of us can think straight anymore

Well you and I

Collapsed in love 

And it looks like we might have made it

Yes it looks like we've made it to the end

                

               

              

A Week of Blur

I will always remember last night as one of the best night of my life. I finally saw Blur, on stage, live. Woohoo!

I was so excited when I got the news that Blur going to perform at Big Sound Festival in Jakarta, on May 15th 2013. I even got more excited when I finally bought the ticket. I listened to all their CDs back to back every single day up to the day of the concert (still going on rite now, by the way). I was planning to dedicate a whole week of Blur in my blog, but then I was so afraid that I was going to jinx it if I got too excited. Didn't want to repeat another bad experience like the canceled Foo Fighters concert in Singapore last year, I guess. So I'm going to do my Blur week now, after the concert. Brace yourself. :)

Everyone who knew me well would know that I'm a die hard Blur fan since I was in Junior High. And Mr. Damon Albarn was my very first (real human) love. Well, the first 4 was Kenichi, Gogle Black, and Peterpan. It was the Brit-Pop era, and I'm so glad I was born at the right time so I could enjoy those era. My besties, Putri and Ocha, and myself, we were so in it, we would hang out at Putri's place after school, just to watched MTV and Channel V, listened to CDs, and looked through imported music magazines. 

Then one day there they are, black and white on the TV screen, crooning To The End. And I fell in love. With Blur, with Damon Albarn, with To The End, which remain my most favorite Blur song.

I bought the Parklife album, swallowed the whole album and loving every tits bits of music in it. Since Parklife was my starting point to Blur music, I then listened to their 2 previous albums, Leisure and Modern Life is Rubbish. And it was a real pleasure. Great Escape was a marvelous experience too. And the rest is history. I never stop listening to their music. The only 2 posters that was hanging on my wall throughout my teen years was of Blur and the other was of Mr. Albarn himself. I took them off the wall when I have to move to a bigger room when I got married.

Watching their live show video is a pleasure I kept on doing from time to time. I still remembered how I always thought to myself how happy I would be if I could watch Blur live on stage at least once in my life, and how absurd and impossible that was.

But I proofed myself wrong. You gotta dream big. Because I just experienced the absurd and the impossible last night. I watched Blur, on stage, live. Yes, it really really really could happen. 

Killer Breakfast, Dexter Style.

In my opinion, Dexter opening sequences is one of the best ever, the song included. And I had been obsessed with Dexter's kind of breakfast for a while now. A couple of days ago Pak Teddy and I finally prepared our breakfast Dexter style. Of course there was some alteration, since we don't eat pork and bloody orange, the kind of orange used by Dexter, couldn't be found in Jakarta. I figured that the meat on the scene was either pork chop or ham, so we used thin cut of beef sirloin steak instead. Bloody orange replaced by sunkist orange, and we used the only kind of coffee that available at home, grinded Italian. I used a press pot to make the coffee, of course. The easiest part had to be the egg. Add some sauce, and  there you go, a killer breakfast, Dexter style.

              

Again, I like them.