Where Did You Go

It's the last day of November and... I can't believe it's December tomorrow. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the past three years just keep going faster and faster. It's so crazy to think and see how fast time is moving as I grow older. It's just a weird feeling to be honest. I don't think that time is flying as fast as this when I was still in Poly and Secondary School. Hmm.

Nevertheless we're entering the last month of the year. Where I will automatically go into reflective mode haha. I've been thinking a lot about the year and its ups and downs. I must say 2017 has been a very weird year. But it unfolded into something more comprehensible I guess?

I realised I haven't been doing my TIL series in this blog for a few months. I might save it for next month haha. I hope to do more blogging and reflecting in December. And talking about that, I'm not sure if I should do what I did in 2016! Which was blogging everyday in December haha. Although to be honest I didn't really enjoy the process because I feel very "forced" to do it.

But anyway I didn't break my promise and goal of blogging ten posts a month. And even if I did break it in June, that was when I went to Cambodia, I made up for it in July. I hope I can keep this up next year cause I'm pretty sure I'll get busier too. Hopefully not! :P

Well well let us all end this year beautifully. Wishing you a delightful December ahead. It's the most wonderful time of the year~ And get your reflective hat on guys mwahaha.

Today and Forever

My goodness it's the 2nd last day of November already. One more month till the end of 2017! I swear the year keeps on going faster and faster the past three years heh. Alright anyway lets talk about some great music I discovered in this month! Lots and lots of them, so hooked to them now.

Great Music of November:

- Shed by Kiasmos

- Jarred by Kiasmos

- Buka Hati Buka Kembali by HMGNC

- Sedikit Waktu by HMGNC

- Today and Forever by HMGNC

- Entah Ingin Ke Mana by Danilla

- Ikatan Waktu Lampau by Danilla

- Kihei by Mesita

- Ms Right Now by The Endorphins

- I Know by Bayonne

- Going Down Slow by Exmag

Song of The Month: Kihei, Buka Hati Buka Kembali, Ms Right Now (I can't decide!)

Alright there are lots of albums I got this month! They're actually released like in October but only got the chance to get them this month heh. Let's start with Kiasmos! I think the new EP by Kiasmos "Blurred" is an awesome EP! I just love Kiasmos music because they're really unique. I think Olafur and Janus share an awesome chemistry and you can feel it in their music.

Next we have two wonderful Indonesian albums! The self-titled album by HMGNC is such a fantastic album to be honest. They are one of Indonesia's finest electronic musicians really. Been following them back in 2013 and I'm always eager to hear their music! This album is just a really wonderful album. From the lyrics, the music and the beats. I am obsessed haha. Buka Hati Buka Kembali is my favourite song from the album followed by Sedikit Waktu.

And we also have Danilla who released her second album. Danilla is one of my favourite female singers! She has such a unique voice that's both heavy and soft at the same time. It really compliments her jazz music. Her first album Telisik is a wonderful album too. I still haven't had the chance to see her live. I hope to do so one day! She's a really talented singer.

I also discovered a couple of new music thanks to Majestic and Wave of Good Noise on YouTube. Ms Right Now by The Endorphins is such a wonderful song! Love the vibe of the music so much, I wish I discovered the song earlier. Such an awesome summer song. And then we have Going Down Slow by Exmag, which is a wonderful synth-pop song. Love the feel of the song and the 80s vibe from it. Also another perfect summer song really.

Discovered Bayonne from WOGN and he's an incredible artist too! Love how he uses different instruments and sounds to form a cohesive song that's just so catchy and so nice. It's really like a nice craft that he creates in the form of music. Last but not least Mesita released his new song Kihei! I am in love with this song. Such a feel good song and I just wish I can see him live one day and sing my heart out to this song with the rest of the audience. Must be so good!

Alright that's all for this month's wonderful music discovery. One more month to go! It feels like yesterday when I'm sharing the great music of January. Now here we are in December. I feel 2017 has been a great year for music. Lots of wonderful albums and music. Although I think I didn't discover much artists as compared to last year. Well I'm already excited for some albums in 2018!

See you soon in the 2017 review mwahaha.

Buka Hati Buka Kembali

Really random post but I'm currently hooked to this new song by one of my favourite Indonesian bands, HMGNC! Very meaningful lyrics and really nice theme about impermanence? Hope you like it!

Pagi kan terbenam, gelap kan menerang // Selama dunia berputar, jangan berhenti berharap

Rain and Epiphany

It's been raining really hard for the past two days. In fact it was raining for almost 14 hours (from 4 PM on Sunday to 6 AM on Monday) yesterday! Well I love it when it rains at night, especially when I'm about to sleep because it really helps me sleep haha. The sound of the rain, the cold temperature and just the whole cozy feeling of being on a rainy night. Although ironically, if it rains heavily, I find it more difficult to sleep. Slow rains are my kind of rainy nights. Not too noisy, not too quiet.

And now, it's been raining since 9 PM last night till now! (It's 4 AM currently)

I was blogging last night when the song Epiphany by Pixel Apartment played on shuffle. This is one of my favourite writing songs ever. Although it's kinda short and I wish it can be longer. I usually put this on repeat when I'm in the mood of writing haha. And this song really reminds me of my nights in Singapore. Especially rainy nights like last night! I was feeling really sentimental last night.

Last night reminds me of rainy Sunday nights in Singapore. When I would be blogging at night, with a dreaded feeling of Monday blues coming my way. Those rainy nights where I would hear the sound of rain outside of my window. The rustling of the leaves of the trees outside my block. And the sound of wind pushing against the windows. Coupled by the same song, Epiphany.

It reminds me of how I would snuggle on my bed under my blanket listening to the same sounds, noticing them as I try to fall asleep. Usually with the TV still on, as its sound always helps me to sleep. I would dread Monday which was coming in a few hours time. And I would fall asleep, only to find myself feeling groggy and annoyed as I struggled to get out of my bed.

It's very funny house memories like these, from 5 years ago, are still fresh on my mind. The feelings, the sounds and everything else. And I can't help but to wonder if I would still remember this rainy night 5 years later. And what will I be doing 5 years later that would remind me of tonight.

No one knows.

Words and Speeches

About a few weeks ago, my dad's friend (who's also one of our suppliers) came and we had a chat. He commented on how people of my generation speaks less words than we type on our phones. Which is a very interesting statement to make, and also I think that this applies to me as well. Although he meant it in a more negative way, by referring to how we don't talk as much to other people, and that we're too engrossed on our phones. Either on WhatsApp or social media.

I'm not gonna lie but yes I spent a lot of time on my phone. But I only look at it when I'm doing nothing. When I'm occupied with things to do, I get my phone away from me. Either in my pocket or on my table etc. Basically if I'm not interacting with people. Because... Well it's the only thing that I can do other than staring into blank space right haha. Also I hate it when people are on their phones when they are talking to me. Like seriously just use your phone first I won't mind.

My dad also made a comment once about how people nowadays prefer communicating via text/Whatsapp/email rather than by calling them directly. Personally, I prefer this too. Because I feel that text is a more accurate and safer way to deliver your information to the other party? There are a lot of times where I call someone, and they interpret my message wrongly and boomz.

I remember back when I started helping out at the farm, I would call my customers to ask them for their orders. And then I would call them to reconfirm their orders. And then I realised there are a lot of wrong information conveyed either to me, or to them. So I started texting them from then on. It's clearer and also easier for me to convey the message to other people if I need to!

Words and texts are visible and easy to understand. Speeches on the other hands, are not so easy. Unless you have a super duper good pronunciation and articulation. Also I'm cadel (AKA I can't roll my Rs) which makes speaking Indonesian a bit incomprehensible to me.

I do feel the same sentiment as the two of them above though. As we progress, the human touch is getting lesser and lesser. I remember when I was in secondary school, I would still call my friends to ask about homework and tests. Which sometimes would evolve into an hour conversation about the most random things we can talk about. Or how we would even teach each other about topics that we're unsure about, before a test! All done on a phone call.

But as I got myself a smartphone, I ditch the calls away and just text my friends. And I feel it's more convenient this way actually. Also to be honest I'm more of a words than speech guy. It's easier for me to convey my feelings through written words than to just talk to people. When I went to Tibet, I gave everyone a card before we all bid farewell. I don't know, it's easier for me than just talk to each of them, thanking them of the wonderful days we had in Tibet!

Well, technology has its perks and also its disadvantages. We lose some, we gain some. I think all in all the most important thing about this whole issue is to never forget being a human hah. Our phone may make our life easier, but we should always remember that in the end, we, humans, are the ones operating and using them. So don't forget that we are all a human being after all!

Our Bodies

Hello, it's a lovely Saturday night and I'm currently spinning Coldplay's Kaleidoscope EP on the turntable and sipping earl grey tea mmhmm. My kind of Saturday definitely. Anyway I wanna talk about something today, it's about taking care of our bodies, this only place we have to live in.

One of my favourite quotes is by Jim Rohn, which says take care of your body, it's the only place you have to live. I think this quote really makes us think about our bodies and health in general. Cause it's true, this is the only body that we are given in this life. This is the body that lets us do many things. Chase our dreams, and do the things that we want to do before time runs out.

As someone who spends a lot of time with people who are older than me (like in their 30s-50s), I realised many people are kind of ignorant of their own health? I know people who are in their 30s and they have high cholesterol/triglyceride levels, high blood pressure and so on. Most of this are caused by their diet (nasi padang ftw!) and of course lack of exercise. But the funny thing is, they just brush it off easily. Or they would just say there's medicines I can take!

Or the most classic reason is "I'm still young and I think I still have time to enjoy my food"

Well a few weeks ago I came with the thought, do we need like 50 years to finally learn how to take care and love our bodies? Okay I'm not a perfect young man either. I haven't been exercising, and sometimes I eat a lot of junk food (like chocolates and sweet drinks). Thankfully being a vegetarian doesn't leave me with a lot of junk food options hahaha. But yeah I am becoming more conscious of my health and my body. This is one of the reasons why I decided to become a vegetarian.

Although like I said above, I'm far from being a "perfect" vegetarian.

My idea is that do we have to wait till we're old to start taking care of our bodies and health? Like okay we need to start eating healthily when we hit 40 or so. I think we should start young hmm. Well recently I realised I've been gaining weight as well haha. Okay don't blame my diet, blame it on my lack of exercise and eating too much rice heh. Which I've been limiting now.

So far my blood test levels are doing very fine. I haven't done any test this year though but I'm thinking of doing it every year to see how I progress. The last time I checked I even asked to have my iron levels checked and it's doing okay too. I want to try to live healthily from now till I grow old. Hoping that my health won't be so miserable when I'm old heh.

And not only about health-wise, but injury wise too! Small things like being aware of our surroundings, and to be aware of our actions so that we don't hurt ourselves. Similar thing to the above point, a lot of people only started to be "more careful" when they are old. Okay this is true because as we grow older, it takes harder for us to recover and heal.

So perhaps we should all start becoming more alert and aware of the things that we are doing to ourselves as well, so that we can avoid getting injuries when we grow old. I once watched a documentary about this man who does this - he trains himself to become more agile and alert by doing exercises every day, and he even made an "obstacle course" that trains his cognitive alertness and skills. In the documentary he was 60 years old. And he's very fit and agile!

Well to be honest, my parents are such people heh. My mum for example, she gets stomachache whenever she eats spicy food. So I always told her not to eat chili and other spicy food but well, beyond my control, she always eats them (and get stomachache later). My dad likes brave himself to go to places that are dangerous to go to, even though he's 60. And when things go wrong, he'll regret it. But a few weeks later he'll do it again. Ah well, like I once said, 

Your parents will one day be your children. 

I can't understand why people always constantly do things that damages their health. And I always land on the question, do we need 50 years to finally learn how to take care of our own health, and to love our bodies? Even though our bodies have been showing signs of things that they like and do not like. Do we constantly do things that our bodies don't like? Until one day our bodies say "enough" and things start to go really wrong. When, will we learn to love this place we live in?

Alright that's all for this really random post. Just a random thought that came to my mind. November is coming to an end really soon. I hope it has been treating you well! Let's end 2017 beautifully.

Solitude On Sunday

 Run, music, sky, wind

After the lunch and drinks that I had with Vithya two Saturdays ago, I went to the bus stop opposite of Star Vista to catch 106 back to the hotel. We passed by the running track along the Pandan canal. It was the running track that I used to run along every Sunday for my weekly run! Also it is the route that I take if I decided to walk home from SP. That place brought so many memories!

But the memory of my Sunday runs is the most vivid one for me. Because it reminds me of something I missed the most about my life in Singapore - Solitude.

How every Sunday evening I would change to my running shirt, put on my shoes, play some music and just run. To be honest I really miss running haha. It feels pretty awesome to just start running to wherever I choose to go then. I would either go all the way to the end of Ulu Pandan Road, turn left, and then into the track and run about 5 KM. Or I would run along the houses and condos near Pandan Valley and then into the track, which would start on the 500m mark.

Or I would run to Ngee Ann Poly and then back. Sometimes I would run all the way to Holland V and back again. I don't like this route cause there's red lights and I hate stopping haha. The craziest route I've done is to Ngee Ann, then sixth avenue and back home! There was also once where I tried running to Sixth Avenue but then it started raining so I stopped halfway. Also the route is quite steep and it really made me feel breathless and lazy hahaha. Those were the days.

One of the things I loved a lot about running is the idea of being left "alone". It's just me and music, and the evening sky. I just run till I feel like it, but usually I have a certain distance I am determined to cover. And then also I really enjoyed the walk home after the run. Just me, the evening breeze and music. It's a moment for me to just contemplate and sort of calm down before another week begins. 

If there is anything I miss about my life in Singapore, it would be solitude. The ability to be alone whenever and wherever I want. It feels like a time where I can not care about the world for a little while? I know it sounds selfish but I kinda miss how good it felt. I remember that day where I just decided to go to Labrador Park and stare towards the sea until the sun sets and it was dark. It felt so blissful. Okay it was also depressing because I messed up my data calculations for FYP haha.

But yeah. I miss that ability. I mean I can do this here too, I just don't know where I should go. Sometimes I have that crazy idea of just driving all the way to the beach alone on Saturday or something but that would be really crazy. I'm not a good driver either so yeah.

Those were the good old days.

Musical Delights

 Memories

The 16th of November has always been a bittersweet day for me. Since 5 years ago that is. 16/11/2012 was probably the last band concert that I'll ever perform in. Although I always hold on to the hope that it won't be my last, looking at the rate my life is going right now, it's probably gonna be my last! Haha. Well no one knows how our lives will go, but you know what I mean right.

Well joining a band has been a childhood dream of mine. I wanted to be in an orchestra but there isn't one in Tanglin so band was it! And also band is also a wonderful platform to share my love for music with other music-loving bunch of people. I'm very glad that I decided to join band again in SP. And I'm ever thankful to have the opportunity to perform in Esplenade. It's a dream come true!

Nothing can ever describe the feeling of playing music. Or to be more exact, performing music in front of an audience. Concerts/performances are really a platform which we show our passion for music to other people. It's an amazing feeling to just play your heart out to other people, especially after months of practices and rehearsals. Just for a 2-hour concert! Music taught me a lot about discipline.

I will never forget MD36. The sight of the grand Esplenade concert hall in front of you. The sound of people clapping after the concert. And a sound I will never forget in my life will be the sound of bells ringing through the concert hall during Overture 1812. It's one of the most incredible sounds I will ever hear. It feels like a proper send-off for me 7 years band journey.

Well I don't know when I'm going to perform again. I still play my ukulele and the piano sometimes. Though I'm finding it more difficult now cause I'm getting really busy. But when I grow up and have my own house, I'll definitely buy a piano and play my heart out more often. Till then, I'm just going to enjoy music by listening to them! Spinning my records, sipping my tea.

I can never imagine life without music. Happy November 16th everyone. Special mention to my wonderful clariboe section. I hope one day we can all play together again! :)

11.11

So apparently today is Single's day? Well in China only I think haha but I remember seeing an article once that it is celebrated because the date, 11-11 looks like singular people together. Anyway, happy single's day to all the single people out there. Including me! HAHAHA.

Which makes me want to talk about something today. Something I rarely talk about - love.

I have a confession to make. Maybe most of my friends know this. I'm 25 now, and I've never been in a relationship. Zero, none haha. I've never even tried to sort of "try" to go into one? I do have crushes, but that's all heh. And especially after I returned home, it's even more difficult for me to find my significant others. Also I'm working now, and thus I'm less free as compared to when I was still in school, as a student. And hmm. I feel okay with it to be honest.

I do have a conversation with a few of my friends about this issue. Okay back when I was young (like in secondary school/early poly era), I always have the thought that I need to find someone else who will be my significant other. I want to get married, live together etc etc. But as I grow older, the thought of leading a solitary life seems to be okay with me. Don't get me wrong, I still am open with the idea of finding that someone. Just that if I don't, I'm okay with it too.

A few of my friends were telling me that maybe we have entered that comfort zone of being alone? So comforted that we are "against" the idea of being attached. I'm not sure, it maybe is; since I've lived a majority of my life alone when I was in Singapore. Hence I'm totally used to, and I'm okay with doing things alone. I mean I eat out alone, I watch movies/concerts alone, I cool alone etc. 

So in all honesty, I can see myself growing old alone too hah. Okay in this context, what I mean by alone is without a partner. I'm pretty sure I won't be -totally- alone when I'm old.

Also I have this belief that you'll never find true happiness until you've learned how to create it by yourself. Many of us have this idea that like our partner is a source of our happiness. Yes I believe in that too, that couples should be able to "complete" one another. Be a source of comfort and happiness when times are rough and so on. But we should never solely rely on them to be happy.

I kind of realised that there are two kinds of people in this world. There are people who are in their 30s, single, and they are feeling okay. And there are people who got stressed and worried because they are not married/attached. See what I mean? Some people have that belief that they need their other half to be happy to have a lesser stressful life. But can they?

Sometimes I feel annoyed when people are questioning why I'm still single, or why I don't seem to find interest to find someone else. Because personally I don't feel the need and rush to do this. I mean I'm only 25, and also I strongly believe that love shouldn't be forced? Especially if you are not ready! And I really see nothing wrong with not being attached yet. Like why are we rushing to be attached? 

I don't get some people to be honest.

All in all, I just wanna say that I see nothing wrong with being single. Because really, there's more to life than just "rushing" to find that special someone in your life. But at the same time yes, it's alright to have someone too. I guess one of the good things about being single is that you'll have more freedom? And one of the bad things about being single all your life is that you can't relate to the myriads of heartbreaking songs out there hahaha. Unless we're talking about our crushes.

Well happy single's day to everyone out there. Don't rush things, I hope we'll all find someone. And if not, I hope you'll find happiness and a peace of mind by yourself too.

Reunions

Alright let me blog about my trip to Singapore last weekend! Though I went for three days, it really felt like I only went for one. It was an awesome weekend after all, meeting people I haven't seen in ages. And definitely a fun one too, everyday seems to be packed. Alright here goes!

So I went to Singapore on Friday, my flight got delayed! I just realised this fact after seeing the clock at Changi when I left the plane. It was 3 PM, when I was supposed to land at 2. So I rushed to the hotel, checked in and rushed back out to meet Vithya! Gosh it's so long since I've seen her, almost two years! So good to see her again :) And we headed out to.....

Get myself a tattoo. More about this in another post!

So because of my flight delay, everything on Friday got pushed back too. Felt guilty to the people I met on Friday. Firstly to Ash, the tattoo artist who did my tattoo for being late for my appointment, and to Candy, whom we're meeting for dinner! So sorry guys, should have planned my time better and calculated my delays and stuff hah. But yup then we went to Holland to meet Candy!

Had an awesome dinner at Fat Boys burger restaurant. Thank the vegetarian god cause they serve portobello burger haha. Felt awesome being reunited with Candy and Vithya again. Kai couldn't join us as she had plans at work. Really reminds me of our poly days where we would hang out at Holland for drinks on weekends. Back then we were complaining about FYP and now we're talking about work and being adults. Crazy, time flies so quickly.

 Trying to fill their glasses ahaha

After dinner we went to Three Crowns for more drinks. It is out go-to place at Holland, even after all these years haha. Had an enjoyable night with them, trying to pour more beers from the tower to their glasses haha. It was all fun until... It was pouring hard. Bleah, what a way to ruin our night! So we went to call it a night. Despite the rain, it was still an awesome Friday evening!

Went back to my hotel and got knocked out right away cause I only had about 2 hours of sleep throughout the day? Didn't get much sleep on the plane sadly!

Woke up pretty late the next day. Did some work before leaving to meet Vithya for lunch. We were also out to get some stuff for my parents and grandma. And before we left, we had more drinks! Haha. Oh goodness sorry to my liver for overworking you last weekend haha. But it was such a pleasant Saturday afternoon spent with Vithya, talking about a lot a lot of things over pints of beer and a wonderful lunch. I'm gonna miss her, for I don't know when we'll meet again :/

 Gonna miss this woman :( Hope to see you again Vithya!

Oh well all the best in your new chapter ahead Vithya! We'll meet again for sure :)

Went back to the hotel to drop my stuff. Got changed, and then headed out again to meet the GT for dinner! I met with Candy and Kai first for dinner, followed by Vivian! And then we went over to Scapre for drinks as recommended by Azmi. Azmi came and then Jess! Oh and Candy's boyfriend hi Hong (is that how you spell it?) joined us too. Went for a drink at Al-Capone and wow the price of the booze was so so affordable. Got myself Guinness and some Heineken mwahaha. 

And then, Kai suggested we should go... Club! Okay I am very open to any suggestions, after all this is like a "proper weekend" that I had in a very long long time. Also all of us are here in Singapore so lets do it! So yup, we head over to Attica to end a night. Okay first of all it's been almost two years since I last clubbed (last time was Zouk with Brenda and Jeslyn in.. 2015?). It was a crazy night. Couldn't really remember what happened LOL. I knew we went for supper after that.

 Thanks for the great night! <3

But nevertheless, thank you Candy, Kai, Vivian, Jesslyn, Azmi and Zhi Hong for the awesome night! Like I said above, it's been so long since I last enjoyed a proper weekend. Thank you so much for meeting up, and for the awesome night. Special mention to Vjie's brother and mum for sending me back to the hotel. Which I knocked out right away after that. Whew.

Woke up the next morning to a really bad hangover. It was so bad. And also my fault cause I didn't have any water after reaching back. I should have flushed all the alcohol away but I didn't! So I was just bearing with it till noon. Packed my luggage and bag, checked out and met Brenda for lunch! Jeslyn was supposed to join us but she was down with fever :( Hope you're ok now!

 Awesome bandung popsicle!

Felt really bad to Brenda cause I was really feeling out of the radar in that lunch. But felt so much better as the day progresses. Had a great lunch with her, talking and catching up with out lives. Crazy to think we've known each other for 11 years now, and are still keeping in touch <3 Headed over to a place nearby to get some popsicles. We got the bandung and lychee one which was really good! And then it was time for me to go to the airport. Man, what a great weekend!

Thanks Brenda for the lunch! <3

Yup. That was all for my short but crazy good weekend in Singapore! Felt really happy to see a lot of people that I haven't met in a long long time. It's insane to think how much we've all grown up now. I mean, we are now proper working adults haha. Felt like yesterday when we were all still in poly. Well I'm happy to see all of you again, and I wish all the best in your careers!

To be honest I don't know when I'm going back to Singapore again. But whatever the case is, I'm always looking forward to the day that I'll be on the sunny island again, meeting all my friends. Thank you once again to everyone I met, I hope we can meet again one day! :)

Back Again

Hello! Haven't been blogging since November began and yes, cause there were so many things happening in the past 6 days! I just got back from my trip to Singapore like last night haha so yep. Returned to Singapore on Friday till Sunday to catch up with some people! Especially Vithya who's returning to Australia in January, so seized the chance to see her before we're so far apart again. 

It's been almost 2 years since I last saw her can you believe it!

And I was just catching up with work in the past 2 days. I even brought my laptop to Singapore to do work there hahaha. Busy busy man I've become. But it helps, at least I don't have to rush to finish them once I'm back eh. Also I managed to squeeze some time to do them. While waiting at the hotel, and even while waiting to board my plane at the airport yesterday. 

Well just wanna say it was an awesome weekend meeting some people I haven't met in years. Also it was a good short break, the past 4 months have been pretty intense. And the last break I had was my trip to Cambodia so yep. I deserve this I suppose? :P 

Okay just a quick update before I blog about the whole trip. Hopefully tomorrow! Here's me wishing you a neat November ahead! See you soon :)