Subliminal Typo

During writing about traditional roast turkey, I was meaning to write "jeroan" (animals' intestines), but what was typed by my confused fingers spelled: "j-e-r-o-e-n".

Ah that name is so last year!

This time last year, I was so looking forward to welcoming a big jar painted in typical Delft porcelain motif containing glorious Verkade (Dutch cinnamon cookies). But sadly, the story between myself and the cookie jar carrier ended before I even got to eat the last bite of the cookie.

Blame It On Their Youth

If eyes are the windows of the soul, then I say that Friendster is the window of how juvenile green someone actually is.

Without having to look at the age field in the profile, when reading such names as NaDz LiCiouS, DyaNz, SoOpaFly, '-dheedhee-', - NoVaMaNieSz - , or -YuLLee- , 9 out of 10 chances are, the bearers of the names mentioned can't exist on Planet Earth for more than 25 years old of age.

What's with the combination of capital and small letters? And what's with the rewriting the names in the manner of R&B singers from the ghetto? It's still fine if that ludicrous combination of letters is used only for the names. Some people have a hidden agenda of killing those reading their profiles by writing every field using the DreaDFul lEtteR cOMbin4TIon.

And what's with the insatiable hunger to get testimonials and more friends on the list by begging people to 'add me: so and so at so and so dot com'? How I have the itch to scream at their face that like respect, testimonials are earned, not expected!

Maybe I should scream at myself that between tight deadlines, I still have plenty time on my hand to observe the so-called YouTH MisDemeAnOR.

Happy Ending

* Spoiler Alert*

I sat next two girls during watching a British movie "Dear Frankie" at Jakarta International Film Festival.

It's a movie about a 9 year old deaf boy who has never known his father but his mom keeps lying to him by writing him letters as if they were from his sailor father. One day he hears that his father's ship is going to stop in his city and as a child who yearns for a father figure, of course he wants to see the man who writes him letters and tells him things about foreign countries. The mother has no choice but keeps lying to him by paying a stranger to act as the father. This stranger then falls for the sweet child and instead of agreeing on having one day with his fake child, he prolongs it into another day. On the second day they spend time together - Frankie the child, the fake father and the lying mother, not only there are scenes that depict how the fake father is genuinely keen on Frankie, but there are also sparks between the handsome stranger and the Demi Moore look-alike mother.

But this ain't a romantic movie, though there is a long kiss when they say goodbye. Hollywood may have turned it into some hot love story with some A-list stars.

But I'm glad this ain't a Hollywood product when a long kiss doesn't necessarily a promise of a life happily ever after, that when a good looking man looks into the eyes of a bodacious babe, there are more possibilities than ending up having steamy sex.

The two girls sitting next to me shrieked in disappointment when the movie ended without bringing the fake handsome father and mother together. The final scene only pictures Frankie and his mother sitting on a bridge in a very foggy morning. Just the two of them against the world once again after the fake father has left.

Simply no happy ending.

Fanatic Fan

I have a fan.

No, not that fan you use as an attempt to get rid of heat, usually at some party. But a fan every celebrity has. It makes me feel like Angelina Jolie indeed, only even better, for I don't have to do nude scenes to gain recognition.

This fan - a mother of teenage children who also has passion for good food - is an avid reader of my travel and food columns. She has kept calling me to meet up but since my hectic traveling schedule, I still haven't been able to meet her.

I should have met her last week, though, but Jakarta International Film Festival with all the 12 tickets I had bought made me have to cancel the appointment. I did some white lying to her saying that I was assigned to cover the event for the newspaper. It's not a very nice thing to do to my first and perhaps the only fan I would have in this life time, of course. But on my defence, I've never had any fans that I don't know how to treat them properly.

However, she didn't give up so easily. Some time last week she called me again and asked where would I watch the movie on Saturday night. When I told her I was gonna be at Jakarta Theater, never had I thought she would really follow me there. And eventhough she had said that she would, I didn't think she would really be there to see me for a short while before the movie.

Little did I know about fans, apparently, though I've seen examples from the death of John Lennon to the act of some lunatic fan who during 26 years of age has gone through 30 times of plastic surgeries for the sake of having a famous face.

When I was frantically chewing a pizza between movies at a small cafe located few flights down the theater, my cellphone rang. It was her. Picking it up, she told me she was already at Jakarta Theater and asking where I was. Oh my, she was really there! Instead of rushing to finish my pizza, I took my time at that little Parisian cafe chatting with a friend and smoking the minutes away. Until another call from her urgently asking why hadn't I gone up to the theater.

What a demanding fan!

She also asked what movie I would watch. She mentioned a title, but when I denied it's not the one I was going to watch, later I only found out that she bought a ticket for the same movie I did. When I went up, she - along with a bundle of a teenage kid and a husband - were already waiting at the end of the elevator.

She was surprise of how young I was, because according to her, whenever she read my writings, they seemed to be written by an old lady. (Thank you very much!) We didn't have the chance to talk much, for the movie had started that we had to hurry going inside the cinema. But all through the movie and before we said goodbye that night, she reminded me again to keep my promise to meet her some time to eat out.

Till now I still can't hold my grin whenever I recall the fact that I have my very own fan who stalked me. It's just hillarious! At least one day I can tell my grandchildren: "I remember the day I had a stalking fan..."

Unplanned

As I get older, I have less and less guts to do things unplanned. I've become a sort of person whose mindset forcing me to not only have plan A's, but also plan B's- and sometimes the alphabeth goes as far as Z - to anticipate should things not work. Funny, just when I thought I belonged to sanguine category when it comes to character.

How important are plans and back-up plans in this world offering no guarantee?