The Hooded Cyclist on a Green Bicycle in Downtown Surabaya

I've had just enough time...   to have an encounter with the hooded rider of a green bicycle

Caught this hooded cyclist in downtown Surabaya

In the busy street of Surabaya

Competing with trucks and cars

A thick hooded cyclist

On a green bicycle emerged

Face masked against

Spurting fumes of

Noisy vehicles all around

Who is he?

What are his thoughts

What makes him what he is?

I would have run after him for answers

But I was not, and he disappeared

Into the traffic leaving questions

Hanging like smoke in the polluted air

I was in a car squeezing through the afternoon traffic in downtown Surabaya when from nowhere I noticed a hooded cyclist. That is very rare in a tropical country especially it is made of thick clothes as the one he wore. Must be very hot and sweaty under that. With the hood and the mask he wore, one cannot even make out his features. His attire is different from the locals and he wore heavy boots and rode a green bicycle. With the cars moving slowing due to the congestion, he whizzed through the traffic and disappeared in front of us. He is very interesting and I found I wanted to know more regarding this strange character. So if anyone recognized this hooded cyclist of Surabaya, be sure to drop me a line and satisfy this itch-like curiosity.

The Statistician’s Dilemma

I've had just enough time to...   throw away my calculations

Taken in a back street of Surabaya, Indonesia where...

The statistician attended a birthday party

The princess got a Barbie and a pony

Everybody was supposed to be happy

The parent looked on anxiously

The statistician took a trip overseas

Wandered through streets that tourists miss

Watched children played in the underbelly

Where no one is supposed to be happy

Crunch his figures, do his maths

Calculate probability

Found no correlativity

Happiness is not measured in toys

It may be measured against something called love

But love itself cannot be measured against anything…

After visiting the Chinese temple in Surabaya in the last two posts, I walked through the back streets adjacent to the temple. I liked walking through the back streets if I perceived it is safe for I can discover many things one will miss in the main streets. This is how the residents of the city actually lived and you get to have a glimpse of the families going about their daily affairs which I always find very interesting.

I came across a few kids sitting on the floor with the eldest in school uniform holding a work book and explaining something to two younger girls while the youngest looked at me with interest. When they realized I’m taking their photos, they reacted by covering their faces with their hands and book. They were incredibly cute and innocent. Unlike mine, their lives look uncomplicated and happy.

these innocents shielded their eyes from a foreign devil... :)

A Child Is To Play

I've had just enough time to...   play

 

A child looking for play...

I remembered as a child

Searching for the meaning of Life

Then went outside to play

When the head gets too heavy

Leaving the thinking

For another day

I was always confident

There is time to be wise

But the play is not going to wait

To start another day

Now only I realized

How wise I was as a child

So I am putting down my books

To go out and play…

while grown-up prays...

I saw this small boy in his bicycle outside the same temple in Surabaya. He was just looking for someone to play with. I contrasted him with the old man I saw sitting forlornly in the balcony upstairs and feel kind of sad. I identified more with this boy and think back to my youth and is envious of him. In the end, I turned out alright but due to poverty and due to the well-meaning but misplaced worries of adults, I lost a large part of my irreplaceable childhood which is why a part of me will never grow up but I’m blessed for that. Life works in mysterious ways.

the Gods stays...

away from the affairs of man...

Waiting For The Dragon Boat

I've has just enough time to...   not wait for the dragon boat

Still waiting for the dragon boat to come to shore in the Jade Emperor Temple, Surabaya, Indonesia

I waited

For the Dragon Boat to come

And take me away

But I waited too long

Under the motionless cloud

And faded rainbow

The Dragon Boat never come to my shore

For I had waited too long…

And I can do nothing now

But wait some more

For I had invested too much of my youth

For it not to come true…

So I must wait a little longer

And can do nothing but wait

For the Dragon boat

To come to my shore

I  wandered into this old Jade Emperor Chinese temple in my visit to the China town of Surabaya, Indonesia. In the upstairs balcony, I discovered an old faded but beautiful relief wall painting in cheerful blue. In it under was a vast sea and a dragon boat coming to shore under a rainbow, cloud and the palace of heaven. A man was sitting forlornly on a long wooden bench in front of the faded scene. I don’t know but to me it was a very poignant scene of time losing its purpose.

To take me to the Valley of Peach Blossom

Jailed For Their Songs

I've had just enough time to...   sing my songs in jail

Taken of the jailed song birds while walking in the street of Surabaya, Indonesia.

They were jailed for their songs

Their sins were they sing too sweetly

Where is the crime in that?

You asked.

You asked the wrong question.

_______

By a lonely prison wall,

I heard a young man calling

Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free

Against the famine and the Crown,

I rebelled, they cut me down.

Now you must raise our child with dignity.

Low lie the fields of Athenry

Where once we watched the small free birds fly

Our love was on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing

It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry.

Dropkick Murphys - Fields of Athenry

Nature in Disarray, Diamonds Everywhere.

I've had just enough time to...   see diamonds everywhere.

Taken outside Surabaya, Indonesia on the way to Mount Bromo.

Nature in disarray

Diamonds every where

Gold has fallen

Greens on the rise

The waves swept everything

Off the casino table

The ball rolled and

Was snookered into the corner

It found the net

When there was no keeper

Yet the score was kept

In ticketed paper

Don’t talk in whisper

Don’t talk at all

Don’t listen to the echo

Bouncing off the wall

The wall went up

The wall came down

It went up again

Mile high off the ground

The man must be crazy

To build it on sand

It looked like a castle

Just beyond the bend

The tide won’t come in

It was stopped by the King

Who sang his last song in Neverland

Time swing on the pendulum

But who stopped the swing?

The clock paid no attention

It has its own intention

Shelter me under the umbrella

The sun is hot today

Frying eggs on the walkway

No cars on the freeway

I’m going anyway

I hitch a ride on the comet’s tail

And fell into an unknown galaxy

Where birds rule the day

But nights are not for slumber

Turning the pillow over

Upsets the universe

Spirit spirits roll the dice

If it comes out eight

The fisherman shall die

What is the use of ships?

When the sea has collapsed

Into itself with an explosion

The world reborn

Again! Again! And Again!