Rambut Lego

Semakin panjang rambutku, akan semakin lama waktu yang kubutuhkan di depan cermin setiap pagi, sebelum berangkat keluar rumah. Tujuannya, bukan sekedar kegenitan mematut-matut diri, tapi untuk merapihkan rambut, atau untuk mengaturnya agar tampak sesuai dengan kostum yang dikenakan hari itu. Maksudnya, kalau sekedar pakai t-shirt dan jeans doang, ya dibuat sedikit acak-acakan seperti orang yang baru bangun tidur langsung berganti baju dan keluar rumah, tak mengapa; tapi kalau sedang ada schedule khusus dan musti tampil rapi karena harus bertemu klien atau dinner di tempat-tempat eksklusif bersama pasangan, tentu saja penataannya juga harus disesuaikan.

Namun belakangan ini jarang sekali aku bisa mengatur tatanan rambut sesuai keinginan dengan cepat dan mudah. Masalah utama adalah karena kondisi rambutku yang kering dan kasar, sama sekali bukan tipe yang layak untuk dijadikan model iklan shampoo. Mungkin saja ini akibat pengaruh sejak zaman dahulu kala, selalu berpanas-panas nyaris tak pernah pakai topi ketika sedang melakukan aktivitas di luar ruangan, dan paling malas merawat rambut di salon, karena di kamar mandi pribadi saja benda yang namanya conditioner itu lebih sering tidak ada.

Jadi teringat salah satu foto jaman masih kanak-kanak dulu, rambutku yang ikal (curly & wavy) bila dibiarkan tumbuh panjang akan mengembang sedemikian rupa, sehingga apabila dilihat dari jarak jauh lebih mirip pentul korek api atau seorang anak yang sedang mengenakan helm. Bahkan di awal tahun sembilanpuluhan, ketika sedang berkunjung ke rumah Kakek dan Nenek, salah seorang kerabat jauh mengira bahwa anak kecil yang sedang ribut pukul-pukulan dengan seorang anak lainnya di hadapannya saat itu adalah seorang anak perempuan tomboy, berkat kondisi rambut yang megar mengembang membahana. Padahal anak kecil yang ribut itu aku. Ugh!

Tadi pagi, sebelum akhirnya berangkat menuju kantor, kuputuskan untuk mengatur rambut rapih saja, dengan belahan di samping kanan seperti anak sekolahan atau mereka yang bekerja di sektor formal lainnya, meskipun hari ini sebenarnya aku mengenakan t-shirt dan jeans dan sneakers. Sesungguhnya, a very casual look. Penataan rambut belah samping, sedikit berponi menutupi dahi dan teratur rapih yang seringkali kusebut sebagai model rambut Lego. Dan bila mengingat seperti apa warna aseli rambutku, tentunya gaya rambut seperti ini akan semakin membuatku tampak lebih tua lagi daripada umurku yang sesungguhnya.

Sigh.

Note: image courtesy of squarecircle.

In The Land of Lego

Reminiscing of the things past as a kid who loved constructing things just to tear it down with much satisfaction, and then rebuild another - usually buildings or the whole town blocks - and brought them down again with quite much planned details as much as a preschool kid could have imagined (like an attack of a vicious gargantuan lizard i.e. Gojira, stormed by a foreign troops invading LEGOLand, or struck by a deadly natural disaster), it seemed very much appropriate when our parents gave me and my younger brother a LEGO set to played with.

It was only a small set designed to be built as a 2-storey house. Perhaps it was the least complicated set, and maybe also the cheapest. But as little kids with broad imaginations, we rarely took it as barriers. Instead, we made it into many variations of sets to support our story-telling powerhouse.
Other than the aforementioned stories, we did a 'play' on our version of soap-opera kind of Dynasty, or as a murder-mystery crime scene that was Murder She Wrote, or as background for a micro-sized reconstruction of last night Amazing Stories.

And when we finally fed up using it as a mere house just like it was intended to be on the first place, we challenged ourselves and constructed many other things instead. It became a thing like trailer-home towed by a plastic 'Made in Taiwan' truck, an exotic shrine for some kind of ancient occult built deep in a dark-mysterious jungle (which translated from our unmowned lawn), or a spaceship created to explore the inscrutable Mars (i.e. my sisters' room).

Oh, boy!

Even when I'm recollecting these years old, previously forgotten memories, I still recalled the fun and cheerful moments we had back then.

That was why I spent almost an hour at Senayan City's atrium last December when LEGO made a new national record in building the biggest miniature city super-blocks ever, complete with skyscrapers, suburbans, a port and an airport (ships and a miniature jumbo jet included).

Admiring the displayed details very much, I was rather more impressed when an older guy looked happily toying with a bajaj LEGO! It seemed that without my knowledge, LEGO has gone local. Wow, that's amazing!

I wonder what other localized models it had produced in the past decades and are already available in stores.

And then I smiled to myself seeing this guy's wide grin as he proudly exhibited the orange three-wheels vehicle - miniature model of the silent witness of the old Jakarta - to his son.

Now I believe that I'm not the only mature guy who still loves playing around with his childhood toys once in a while ("Am looking at you, Eri!"). And certainly, I'm not alone in wanting to congratulate LEGO on it's 50th Anniversary.

"Happy fiftieth anniversary, LEGO! I'll heart you always!"