The first time I saw this lake, which was located right in front of the mall where I worked out, it was already enclosed in a fence. Not tall enough a fence to keep away those determined to get in, for I still saw people on raft spreading their nets to fish. But it was quite a deterrent for most people. To reinforce the fence, some warning boards were put in place. One of them looks like the following picture:
An old, crumbling house. Alone, in the middle of a wide green patch, separated from the cluster of other houses. The house is locked inside an encirclement of concrete slabs stacked on top of each other to form a tall fence. Sturdy concrete fence is in contrast with the dilapidated brick wall of the old house. There is a crack on one side of the fence, wide enough for a person to slip through, but not for a car, through which a path connects the house to the slum located a few hundred meters to the northeast.
Recently I stumbled upon a site featuring English translations of the Bible from various epochs. My curiosity takes me to browsing them, from the earliest until the latest. It’s quite interesting to see how English evolves. English as we know it today is a mixture of a handful of languages: Celtic, Germanic and French being the major ingredients.
The following are the first 3 verses from the Beatitudes, Jesus’s sermon on the hill, in Old English from the year of around 1000. By then the Germanic tribes had invaded some parts of England, but the Normans were not there yet.
I was born in Malang. I also spent my formative years in Malang. A little city which no one knows, hidden behind tall mountains on the eastern tip of Java island. Having said Malang, and mountains, I am now tempted to rant about how beautiful this city is, but I will save that for another blog post.
I always had a very diverse interests. When I was at school (SMA), I used to have a very deep interest in orchids. I spent most of my meager pocket money to buy orchids. I collected mainly orchid species native to Indonesia. That hobby of mine survived until my college years.
Bahasa Indonesia