The Escalator

Thursday, 9 Oct 08, 8.35am at MacDonnell Room

Good morning, my little diary..
This morning is such a bright morning! HK was always cloudy since I came, and today finally I can see HK more clearly under a strong sunshine. As you know, my current apartment has no windows, I mean it has windows, but I can't open them, so I can't dry my clothes outside. I have no choice, I just hang my clothes on the window since I really need to dry them. I think now I can understand why orang HK suka menjemur baju di jendela2 sehingga membuat pemandangan kota jadi terlihat seperti ehem.. seperti.. seperti itu. It's because they have no other choice! Rumah mereka bener2 kecil banget sampai balcony pun mereka gak punya!

Sabtu kemarin aku pergi liat2 apartment yang nggak ada balconynya, trus aku nanya sama si property agentnya "Gimana kita jemur bajunya?". Dia jawab "Well, there are 3 alternatives. Pertama, di situ ada jemuran baju (dia tunjukin jemuran baju tua di luar jendela, kalo mau njemurin harus melongokkan kepala ke luar dan ada resiko baju jatuh sampai ke lantai dasar untuk orang2 clumsy like me). Alternative kedua, beli mesin cuci yang udah ada dryernya. Alternative ketiga, beli jemuran baju yang berdiri, korbankan 1 ruangan untuk taruh itu jemuran, dan jemurlah pakaian di situ." Hiks. You know what, I tell you honestly now, concern pertama aku takut hidup di HK itu karena aku takut jemuran baju mereka!! You may laugh now. You may think I'm so unreasonable. Tapi bener2 jemuran baju mereka tuh mengerikannnn... rumah jadi terkesan berantakan, tua, kotor, dan horror! Kalo jalan-jalan di luar pun mesti sempet2in melongok ke atas, untuk jaga2 kalo ada durian runtuh baju jatuh. But I guess now I've been changed after my first week living here. I do the same now. Well, bathok (rumah) kura2 pun bertumbuh menyesuaikan tempatnya, begitu pula dengan cara pandang manusia, ya nggak?

Yesterday I went to post office to post some letters to Singapore. I took the hotel free shuttle bus. Hihihi.. I like free stuff. Near the post office, there is a supermarket too! I'm really happy to find a supermarket near my apartment which I can take free shuttle bus to. Isn't it so perfect? Well, actually the transport fee here isn't so expensive but free is still better than paying, rite?

After 1 week living in HK, I observe one difference between JP, HK, and Indo culture on how the people take the escalator.
In JP: they all stand on the left side, the right side is for those who want to walk up the escalator for quicker way.
In HK: they all stand on the right side, the left side is for those who want to walk up the escalator for quicker way.
In Indo: they all stand side by side, both left and right side. For those who want to walk up? Take a normal stair lah..

Talking about escalator, I remember one stupid thing happened to me when I was in Jakarta airport last week. It happened on the way from domestic airport to international airport, we had to take an escalator down. We saw one escalator and we just jumped onto it. But, the escalator was not moving! So my hubby who walked in front took the initiative to just walk down the escalator. I followed him. He had successfully finished his steps and was waiting for me who was still busy stepping down the escalator with my 9cm-high-heel-shoes. I had to make sure that my heels would not stuck in the small holes on each step of the the escalator because it happened many times before. So, I took my time walking down slowly by carrying my laptop bag on my hand and one plastic bag on my other hand.

But, unexpectedly, the escalator was suddenly on! I could feel it was moving! I still had 4 more steps to go. At first, I was happy that I didn't need to finish my steps, then suddenly I realized that it was moving up!! I was walking down and the escalator was moving up! Since it was just 4 steps to go, I put all my efforts to walk down faster but the escalator was running faster so I had to run faster too. I was so panic! I could hear voices from bapak2 porter airport yang duduk di samping escalator. They were cheerleading me "Ayo mbak, jalan lebih cepat lagi, lebih cepat lagi!" And another voice "Ati-ati mbak, nanti jatuh, sepatunya tinggi banget". And the other voice "Cepet dikit mbak, udah ampir sampai tuh." And some other voices like "Hiyaaa! Hiyaaa!" and "Ayo! Ayo!" and some bapak even stood up in front of me and tepuk tangan untuk menyemangatiku while I was still running down. I really wanted to see their faces and melemparkan pandangan mata sinisku ke mereka but I had to keep running, I had no time to even look at them. I was so embarrassed and I screamed at my husband who was standing downstair "Say, tolongin akuuuu!!" My hubby was just looking at me, dengan sesekali geleng2 kepala. I felt like a hamster who's running on the round wheel. And the bapak2 porter airport are like us who enjoy pemandangan hamster yang sedang lari2 dari luar kotak kaca dengan senyum2. Finally I finished my steps dengan diikuti sorakan si bapak2 "Hiyaa! Selamat mbak. Selamat mbak." I had no other choice than saying "Makasih" sambil senyum getir banget. I felt stupid. I felt clumsy. But it was totally not my fault, rite? Now I was wondering if one of the bapak2 itu dengan sengaja ngidupin escalatornya? Atau karena censor system escalatornya yang lagging? But why it happened just soon after my hubby finished his final step? Why only me became the victim?? Why my hubby is always able to maintain his charming image? And me always maintain my clumsy image?? It's not fair!

-Abbie-