One of the best Sundays I've ever had

No, it's not a late post. It just happened last week, August 24th exactly. That was one of my best days ever. Why? Because, finally, I had a chance to see Ellie Goulding's live performance!

Ellie Goulding.......Ellie oh Ellie... Really, I don't know what I have to say about this young lady, this great singer, this great songwriter, she's truly an amazing woman. I knew her when 'I Need Your Love' was released, her single featuring Calvin Harris. At that time, honestly, I thought "This song is so weird.....really weird." I deleted that song immediately. And as we all know, karma does exist. This year, I started to love her songs. Since I heard "Burn", I began to listen to all of her albums, and man she's brilliant.

Then BOOM!! A promotor announced that there would be a concert, but it's more like a music festival I think. They call it We The Fest, #WTF14. There would be some artists from around the world, including local artists, from my country, Indonesia. I was so fckn excited when Ellie was announced to be on of the lineup. Maaaan, it was like WOW I just started to love her and suddenly she was going to come to my country. It came to my thought "I HAVE TO GO NO MATTER WHAT".

It's not always as easy as I thought. I mean, yeah, you know, in a music festival. It would be a lil bit difficult to focus on one performer. There were a bunch of another artists, such as Banks, Havana Brown, Timeflies, Miami Horror, RAC, Lala, Sore, etc. To be honest, I didn't have any idea who they are. I only knew Ellie Goulding, only her. That made me change my mind, I thought I wouldn't make it. I didn't have anyone to go there together indeed.. So, yeah, I gave up.

A week before the concert, my officemate asked me if I would go to #WTF14 or not. And at the moment, I was like "YES SURE YOU WANNA GO TOO, DONT YOU??". Then I bought the ticket. Lucky me, I got a ticket from someone who had a leftover and she sold it in a cheaper price. Thank God.
We couldn't wait till the weekend come. I barely could get my self focused on my works haha.

The weekend finally came. There were two stages, Crown Chella & Banana Palooza. It sounds familiar, isn't it? It's like coachella and lollapalooza haha. I and my friend chose to stay at Crown Chella stage because it was full of DJ set at another stage. We don't really like DJ set. So, we arrived there and saw a first performance by Maliq N D'Essentials, a cool band from my country. But we were bloody hungry at the moment so we went to the food town, they called it the food town. After we finished the foods we got back to the crowds when Timeflies were doing their performance. They're great, I like the vocalist, he was really get along with the audiences. He's very interactive.

After Timeflies, Miami Horror came up to the stage. Hellyeah, we were waiting for them, we wanted to see them so badly. Their music sounds like Vampire Weekend, Two Door Cinema Clubs, and MGMT sometimes. Yeah, sort of that. It was a lil bit disappointing because they didn't talk much. BUT the vocalist was really really crazy haha. He's really good at dancing, with his own crazy style! And one more, the keyboardist!!!!! He was jumping all the time while he's playing the instrument....for the whole performances. It was like everyone talked about seeing him weirdly lol.

We decided to skip Azelia Banks's performance because we didn't really know her. We were just hanging around, get some drinks, sitting on the grass........and the best part was Bungee Trampoline!! We pushed our nerves to try. That was really really amazing. However, it was pretty hard to move my legs in order to roll my body when I reach the top. There was a foreign man who could roll his body seven or eight times a row. That's crazy.

Banks came up after Azelia Banks. I knew her but not really listen to her songs. Her voice sounds unique. Her music style is somehow dark and gloomy. But she was really good on stage. I thought I love her live performance more than her recorded songs. She's great. And her voice when she's talking is very cute, really different when she's singing. We watched her from far, sitting and laying on the grass..enjoying her on stage.

It was almost 11 PM when Ellie Goulding came up. We used to wait her for like an hour since Banks got down from the stage. The preparation was bloodyhellyeah.
My body was like trembling, with excitement, when she showed up on stage. First song was 'Starry Eyed'. I was really happy to see her, she looked gorgeous!! Such a goddess. She perfectly did it. I was at a loss for words. Everyone was jumping around and singing along.

I didn't know that she would sing my favorite song 'This Love Will be Your Downfall' OMG I was almost crying I swear (well it's too much haha). My favourite part was when she did an acoustic performance of 'Guns and Horses', that was perfect! How could she do that eh????

She didn't talk that much actually. But there was a funny part when she said 'OMG guys you are so quiet, I really don't know what to say' haha. Yeah indeed, it was not really as loud as a concert should be. All people right there were like just enjoying her songs, clapping their hands, swaying their body. I shout her name just a few times, I couldn't do it because people around me were.......quiet. But I love that kind of atmosphere, I could focus on the music, the songs, and her beautiful voice.

Encore was always the best part in every concert, it should be. The last three songs were 'Anything Could Happen', 'Lights', and of course 'Burn'. Everyone jumped and sang along and raised their hands in the air. I felt like I was in the other world haha...cool. At the moment, I thought I would've regretted it seriously if I hadn't gone there. Man, it was the best concert I ever had.

Ellie you are great, you are amazing, everybody loves you!

Menikmati Masa Tua

Wait, it's not about me, of course. Saya hanya ingin berbagi cerita tentang seorang bapak yang saya temui di bus saat perjalanan saya ke Jakarta dua minggu yang lalu. Beliau duduk di samping saya. Karena kondisi arus balik yang sangat padat hingga macet berjam jam, kami sempat mengobrol cukup banyak.

Beliau asli dari Purbalingga, namun sudah menetap di Bekasi sejak lebih dari 30 tahun yang lalu. Beliau merantau demi mendapat pekerjaan di Jakarta. Kalem, baik, ramah, itulah kesan yang saya dapat dari sosok beliau.

Sebelumnya si bapak bekerja di salah satu perusahaan soft drink ternama di Jakarta. Beliau mengatakan, "Saya ambil pensiun lebih cepat Mbak." Jabatan terakhir yang dipegang oleh beliau adalah supervisor di bagian Sales & Marketing.

Awalnya beliau bekerja sebagai helper. Helper adalah asisten dari salesman. Beliau cukup lama bekerja pada posisi tersebut. Tugas helper adalah membantu salesman untuk mengangkut atau mengeluarkan rak rak botol minuman dari atau ke mobil box pengangkut barang. Ya intinya mah bantu bantu apa aja, namanya juga helper hehe. Tapi jangan salah, tes untuk menjadi helper ternyata tidak mudah karena helper harus memiliki ketahanan fisik yang kuat.

Setelah beberapa tahun bertugas sebagai helper, beliau naik jabatan menjadi salesman. Sebenarnya tugas salesman  tidak lebih ringan dari helper. Untuk mengirim produk ke toko toko atau warung, salesman dan helper pergi keliling menggunakan mobil box atau pick up. Nah, tugas salesman adalah menyetir, menawarkan produk, mencatat, ya pokoknya semua mua dia yang urus. Sehingga salah satu persyaratan menjadi salesman adalah mempunyai SIM A.

Saat diangkat menjadi supervisor, beliau membawahi empat orang salesman. Katanya jadi supervisor itu ribet, apalagi kalau harus menghadapi anak buah yang "bandel".

Dari awal merantau ke Jakarta, beliau tidak pernah keluar dari perusahaan tersebut. Bayangkan berapa lama beliau bertahan, dari seorang helper sampai menjadi seorang supervisor.

"Tadinya saya sudah mau diangkat jadi manager tapi saya tolak, mending pensiun saja...."

NAH. Saya sempat kaget dan heran.

"Lho Pak, bukannya itu kesempatan besar? Kenapa tidak diambil?"

"Tanggung jawabnya besar Mbak, jadi supervisor aja saya udah pusing, repot, kewalahan..."

Saya mencoba berpikir positif, mungkin beliau memang ingin menikmati masa tuanya mengingat usianya yang sudah tidak muda.

"Sekarang saya jadi sopir pribadi Mbak, nganterin anak sekolah. Sebelumnya, setelah pensiun, saya pernah nyoba jadi sopir taksi."

NAH. Saya sontak kaget lagi. Bapak ini sudah pensiun, sudah dapat pesangon yang jumlahnya lumayan juga, kok masih nyari kerja??

"Walaupun sudah tua, saya nggak bisa diem Mbak orangnya. Kalo nggak ngapa-ngapain malah jadi capek, ntar malah jadi penyakit... Ya Alhamdulillah sekarang kerjanya juga nyantai, rumah majikan saya deket banget sama rumah."

Subhanallah.. Beliau yang sudah usia lanjut saja masih semangat bekerja, saya yang masih muda gini kadang masih suka males-malesan hehehe.

Begitulah cara beliau menikmati masa tuanya, menjadi sopir pribadi. Anaknya yang terakhir masih berada di bangku SMA kelas 3. Beliau mengatakan bahwa anak tersebut sangat pandai, rangking 1 di kelas. Biaya sekolahnya ditutup dengan dana beasiswa, beliau tidak perlu pusing-pusing memikirkan biaya sekolah. Terlihat wajah berseri beliau, pasti beliau sangat bangga dengan anaknya. Beliau berharap kelak anaknya mendapatkan beasiswa untuk mengambil pendidikan di perguruan tinggi. 

Selama mengobrol dengan beliau, saya belajar banyak hal. Hidup itu nggak usah dibikin susah, asal kita menikmatinya dengan ikhlas, mengerjakan sesuatu yang memang kita senangi, tapi yang paling penting harus tetap bertanggung jawab pada diri sendiri, orang tua, keluarga, teman, dan orang-orang sekitar. Materi atau uang bukanlah tolak ukur kebahagiaan yang bisa kita dapatkan, melainkan bagaimana kita menjalani hidup dengan cara yang kita senangi.

Pengen kaya? Boleh.

Hidup nyaman dan bahagia? Harus!

Just do what you love and enjoy the life ♥