Printing 3200 Photos

Yesterday (09/09/2007) I spent almost 7 hours in the "Seni Abadi" photo studio which is a small (not exactly small, but smaller than Jonas) located in the corner of Jl. Merdeka and Jl.... (I forgot) and next to the railway. Let's follow my day chronologically:

I came to the photo studio at about 12 pm, sat down at the digital photo section which was on the left of the entrance door, talked to a smiling lady who welcomed me right away and asked her how much is it to print some picture. She told me that it was Rp.800 for each 3R (postcard) photo printed. I asked her to give me at a lower rate. She insisted that she couldn't give a lower price, still with a smiling face, and said they only give lower price to special customers.

"I will print more than 1000 photos.", I told her.

She paused and get the manager right away.

After a negotiation with the manager of the store, I got the price that I wanted... Firstly he gave me Rp.750,00, I asked for less.. He then give me Rp.600,00, I asked for Rp.500,00... and it was a deal right away.. =D

My job doesn't stop there, because in my laptop I have so many photos that my Dad asked me to print, and they weren't sorted. My next job was to sort out those pictures. It was meant to be really a tedious job staring staring at the computer screen for that long time, along with one of the staff there, sorting out the photos like deleting blurred ones and fixing red eyes and choosing each ones, but it wasn't really. I got to have some flashbacks of "my life with my family" for the past four years and realising that my Dad SLR camera actually came into use (I kept thinking Daddy bought that thousand dollar SLR camera to look cool because he doesn't knows much about photography - sorry Dad =P). I got to laugh together with the staff seeing my sisters making funny faces camera and had fun sharing stories about our family holiday skiing at Mt.Buller, Melbourne and my parents' "2nd honeymoon" in Cambodia & Bangkok (in which they didn't get any of us to come, sight), and the renovating of my grandmother's house in a village at Klaten, and so on. Hours passed with a headache and hurting eyes for staring at the computer screen for song long and lots of fun.

I am glad finally about my Dad's little obsession on documenting events. We sometimes get embarassed when our Dad kept insisting to stop and take photos so often on so many occassions, but hey it's all worth it. Seeing those photos again make me tremendously happy to feel all the memories of what we had been through this time and realise how precious all those time we spent together (even though I somehow get irritated to realise how hideous I used to look 4 years ago).

One time my Dad asked me and Amanda (my sister), "If the house burnt down, what would you save first?"

We answered, "Money, passport, important documents, expensive electronics etc etc"

Then my Dad said, " No, what you are supposed to save first are photos and other products of memories. Money you can regain, Important documents you can remake, expensive electronics you can rebuy. However, photos and other things with a value that cannot be found anywhere else cannot be regain.."

Fair enough, now I remember what to save fist when our house is on fire: My postcard and letter collection from friends, scrapbook made by my Aussie friends along with other albums, last not least the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" ( I will want to save the whole shelves if possible though)