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It's the last day of May! Can you believe it. It's June tomorrow and soon half of 2018 will be gone. This year, as usual, has been the fastest year ever haha. Every year I seem to say the same thing. Perhaps I'm just growing old and we're all running out of time. Uh huh. Anyway it's also half of Ramadhan, which always means it's crunch time for me! Hope all things go smoothly.

Alright to end off this month, I'm going to share with you the great music of May!

Great Music of May:

- Cold Fire EP by PREP

- Community by Favela

- Love Is Dead by Chvrches

- Hunger by Florence and The Machine

- Queendom by Aurora

- Deadwater by Wet

- Leviathan by Tom Day

- Girlfreind / Damn, Dis-moi by Christine and The Queens

- Cucurucu by Nick Mulvey

- Mountains To Move by Nick Mulvey

- Helvegen by Wardruna

Song of the month: Medals by Favela

Three awesome albums are released in this month, three albums that I've been waiting to be released! Yes they are: The second EP from PREP - Cold Fire, Favela's debut album - Community and Chvrches' 3rd album - Love is Dead! I think they are all awesome! I'm particularly in love in Favela's debut because I've been waiting for it for a long time. When he announced that he was releasing a debut album in 2018, I was over the moon! And it definitely doesn't disappoint. Review in a previous post of mine! :)

PREP's second album is pretty good too. I feel like it's a sequel to their first EP Futures. Futures is kinda more chill EP. Their second EP is more up-beat and it's just a feel-good EP. I'd like to describe it in this way: Futures is the album to listen to while you're traveling on your way to a city. And Cold Fure is the EP to listen to while you're walking around the city. Something like that.

Chvrches's 3rd album is also another great album! Although to be honest I am not a huge fan of the singles that they released (I only love like 2 of the singles, Get Out and My Enemy). I was thinking that maybe they're going on a very different direction from their previous two albums this time round, and I might not like it. But when the album was released, I gave it a listen from top to end and it's actually a great album! Yes it sounds different from EOE and Bones. But still great nevertheless.

This album is more "brutal" and definitely their most pop album. Also I think the addition of Jonny on drum is an excellent choice. I am actually going to see them live in Jakarta in July! Hope all goes well and man I'm so excited to hear their new songs live eeeep.

Aurora released hew new song "Queendom" and it's such an empowering song! I am excited for her new album cause I watched a few videos of her performance in Brazil on YouTube and the new songs sound fantastic. I like the whole "feel" of the new songs! Florence and The Machine also released a new song from her new album which will be released in July! Hunger is such an incredible song. Florence is such an amazing and talented song writer. I'm excited for High As Hope.

Christine and The Queens also released a new song, which is in both French and English, and it's such a good song! I love the whole beat and it definitely makes you wanna dance as well haha. Same, I'm so excited for hew new album as "Chris". Tom Day also released a new album and I love one song from it: Leviathan. It's such a chill and calming song. I've been enjoying listening to it before sleep and also on my way home in the car. Especially on rainy evenings.

I discovered a few new artists and bands this month too! They are Wet, Nick Mulvey and Wardruna. Wet appeared on my recommended tab as usual and wow Deadwater is such a beautiful song. Kinda sad too though if you read the lyrics. I discovered Nick Mulvey from The Easy Vegan channel on YouTube. In one of his videos, I randomly came across him said that Nick released a new album! And I checked Nick out and wow, I feel like I discovered a gem! I love his songs. 

Last but not least, I stumbled upon a video of Aurora and Wardruna performance of Wardruna's song "Helvegen" in Norway. It's such a beautifully haunting song, and Aurora's voice just matches the song wonderfully! Although the song is translated to "The Way to Hell" (it's based on Norse mythology), I think it's a beautiful song that gives me a feeling I can't really describe. A feeling of strength, hope and also at the same time... Sadness? Forlorn? Not sure where to point it.

Alright that's all for this month of May! I discovered so many music this month I don't even know where to start. Pretty excited for June with FATM new album in the end of the month, and more music discovery I hope! A few of my favourite artists and bands are like in the process of recording new songs and albums, so I'm pretty excited as well. To be honest I lost track of who is releasing what and when haha. I need to write them down on my album list soon.

5 months of 2018 gone. Ramadhan is coming to an end. Here's me wishing all of you a splendid remaining seven months of the year ahead! Hope you're all doing well, see ya and take care :)

Happy (belated) Vesak Day!

 Bayon Temple, Cambodia 2017

Happy Vesak Day!

Right Vesak was actually yesterday but I was really busy with work at night so I didn't have the chance to blog. Oh well but here's me wishing you a happy belated Vesak day! May all living things be happy and may wisdom radiate from within them! I got the latter phrase for Tergar Indonesia. I've been looking for the right words to "May all living things be more wise? Get more wisdom?" Hahaha. That phrase is well put! Yes, may wisdom radiate from us within, and may we radiate them to other people too :)

Anyway it was a pretty okay Vesak day for me. Quite happy because I get to do a few meditations throughout the day weeee. Did one in the morning, then in the temple, then another one at night. So yeah felt quite accomplished. Vesak day is not only a day where we contemplate the life of the Buddha, but to me, it is a day where we contemplate how we can be a better Buddhist, and ultimately a better human. I'm quite thankful that I found this "path" I guess?

Like I said in a previous post, I was never a good Buddhist. I always called myself a Buddhist but I don't know much about Buddhism! Haha. I never practise meditation, mindfulness and so on. But well yes I'm happy that I decided to look further into these practices 4 years back. I would really say that meditation is a core practice in Buddhism. Or heck, you don't even have to be a Buddhist! Heh.

Buddhism is a religion that has ruined my life - but in an extremely good way haha. It has shattered all the things I once believed to be true. It has shed some light, it has told me that life may not be amazing every day but I've learned to see the beauty of each moment through mindfulness. Yes in Buddhism, life is indeed a suffering. But we can learn how to go through this suffering worth suffering for!

I once read that the more you learn about Buddhism, the emptier you'll feel about life and Buddhism in general. Not exactly trying to say that the more "meaningless" your life becomes. But somehow it helps you to stop giving "meaningless definitions" to things in life. If you get what I mean.

Well I will continue to do my daily meditation. It really helps a lot for me, I feel like I'm a changed person than who I was 4 years ago before I start meditating. And I will continue to learn more about this beautiful religion. Sometimes it's not even a religion, more of a philosophy?

Alright I'm going to stop here for now. Can't believe May is ending tomorrow. 

32 Hours

Right, I'm gonna blog a bit about my recent trip to Singapore - my super short trip! In fact it was just 32 hours spent on the sunny island haha. Err not so sunny actually, it was raining pretty heavily in those two days heh. Nevertheless it was a great super short two days spent with some lovely people!

So I arrived in Singapore at 1 PM on Friday. I went to my hostel first to check in, only to realise that check in time is at 2 PM. So I waited inside the hostel till the owner came and checked in. I stayed at Spacepod @ Com at Kallang. I love the hostel cause it's super simple and nice. What I love the most is privacy! Each pod that we slept in has a curtain so we can be shut from the outside heh. Sorry I'm an introvert and I truly love this feature. Since most hostels I stayed either come in the form of bunk beds.

12 years (Y)

As usual I didn't catch any sleep in the night before so I crashed for a while. Met Neal at JEM at 5 PM, then came Jeslyn and we rendezvous with Ade and Meng Fung at Tradehub21 to eat at Kimly Seafood, which Neal has been craving for their assam fish haha. Well I had some tofu and 3-eggs spinach which was really nice too. Also I ate the curry. Oops. Anyway after that we went for durian! Okay I've never eaten that much durian in my life before. So awe-struck to see you all able to eat that much haha.

 Durian Feast

It's pretty crazy to think that we're all in our mid-twenties now. When it felt like yesterday that we all just met in Tanglin haha. Well, I wish we can all stay young, I wish we can all be like secondary school kids again. But looking at all us, at where we are now, I'm just proud to see how far we've come! I hope we can all keep in touch till we grow old. It will be so cool to have a reunion again in out mid thirties, fourties and so on. Okay maybe not that long, every point of our life maybe? :P

That's all for day one! It was rather short but reuniting with them is always a good time.

 Saeyeoh's cool camera! Sorry our photos are shot in film haha

I went over to Holland the next day for brunch with Saeyeoh at Hatched! Thanks for meeting at Holland cause I really miss this place haha. Had a (rather bland) brunch at Hatched and a really nice deep talk with Saeyeoh about life. The future, the past and the present of course. We then went for a super impromptu photoshoot at the nearby HV blocks! I love Saeyeoh's Hasselblad oh my goodness. Can't wait for our films to be developed! I hope the photos I took look nice heh.

 Acai with Tacy

Next I met with Tacy at Acai project. Passed her some Indonesian sauces cause she kindly gave me some vegetarian soup bases/curry paste the last time we met in April! I've been a vegetarian for almost 3 years and I've seen many vegan instagrammers and YouTubers have acai bowl for breakfasts, and I've been wanting to try it! It was pretty good, I will definitely come back and have it. And had a great time reminiscing about the past as well. Thanks for the meetup Tacy! :)

 Gonna miss this woman :(

And then I went to meet Vithya for a drink! Well it was pouring really heavily the moment we stepped inside the bar and... Can't believe we all drank like 6 bottles of beers in... 1.5 hours HAHAHA. Always a good time with this woman! Talked about a lot of things - about how seemingly similar our lives are haha. Man I'm gonna miss her when she returns to Brisbane. I wish you all the best for the future! Take care and I hope to see you soon in the future <3

 Reunion of the student conductor, BM and QM of TSMB'09 haha

To end this short weekend off, I went to meet Cheryl and Brenda for dinner at Din Tai Fung at Raffles City! I was meaning to try their truffled mushroom xiao long bao but sadly, it is only available at their Paragon branch. No worries! I had some steamed veggie dumpling which tasted amazing too. Man, the last time the three of us met was probably err back in 2009? I remember we were all still in secondary school. Glad to have the reunion of the student conductor, band major and quartermaster of TSMB'09! We're all adults now, it's crazy to think about it :l

Thank you for the meet up to you both! I hope we can meet soon. And special special thanks to Brenda for helping me get the vinyl I stupidly left in the Grab car I was in last month. So sorry for the trouble and everything else. I definitely owe you a lot Brendy.

And with that, I headed off to the airport to go back home. Whew, it was truly a happening 2 days, or even 32 hours in Singapore! But I'm glad that I make this trip. It was an amazing time reminiscing about the past with these lovely people, and also talking about the future. I'm not sure when I will return to Singapore. But I'm always looking forward to that day. What a great way to mark the 5th year that I'm back from the sunny island haha. I'll miss all of you!

To everyone whom I've met, thank you so much for the meet-ups. I wish you all the best in everything you do and please take care of yourself okay. I will see all of you soon.

Five Years

 

Sometimes I don't know where I'm going.

I just know with all my heart, that I'm going somewhere. 

I'm supposed to blog about this last Friday but I actually just got back from Singapore last night! And yup I went on the 25th, thus I can't blog hah. Anyway yes, Friday was the 25th of May - it marked the 5th year that I'm back from Singapore. And what a great way to celebrate this day by going back to Singapore haha. Anyway I was back in Singapore to catch up with Neal who's back in Singapore for a littler while. So while he's in town, I went back there to meet up with the rest :)

Alright before I blog about that short trip, let me blog about my thoughts about the 25th of May.

I'm not gonna lie but the past 5 years have been probably the most confusing 5 years of my life. And I truly hope that the next 5 won't be as confusing as this. I felt like it's been such a long five years that felt like ten. A long, arduous, emotionally draining years. But nevertheless, it's been also a triumphant 5 years, where I learned a lot. And most importantly, I've grown a lot. 

As a person, a young man, an adult and ultimately a human being.

I've let myself be exposed to a myriad of experiences, thoughts and lessons. So much, that I learned so many thing from. So much, that they shaped my view on the world and kind of gave me a better understanding of how this world works. I've let my heart be exposed to a myriad of emotions. I let my heart feel everything life has made me feel. The joy, sadness, grief, relief and triumph. I've let myself plunge into the dark abyss which at times comfort me, in a dark way.

I've also tryed to fly to the heavens, the sky and its eternal bliss. The sea of emptiness that lets me float to bring me to places I should be in. And also lets me float away from places that I shouldn't be in.

I've let the universe guide mt ot the path that it's giving me signals to walk on. I'm still wishing that it would continue to conspire with me to guide me on the path that I want to walk on to. I learn to put my seeds of the future in the universe. And let it sprout to a fruition. 

It's been a challenging five years. Yet life has been guiding me. But like I always believe:

In the most amazing way, life will always find a way.

Five years gone, more years to go.

Medals

 "So help me see through why, they only focus on medals.

I don't want golden medals, I don't want golden medals"

Medals by Favela

This is an appreciation post I would call it? An appreciation post to Favela who just released his debut album yesterday, called Community! It's such a beautiful beautiful album and definitely worth the wait. The two singles he released in the past month were really promising. And his English Letters EP last year as definitely my favourite EP of 2017. And 2 of its songs, are the most played songs of my 2017!

It's Nevermore My Temples Leave and English Letters by the way.

Anyway, I discovered Favela back in 2015. And it was purely such a serendipitous moment stumbling upon him. I remembered I was listening to a song on Soundcloud back then, and when I pressed next, it was his song "Easy Yoke". I fell in love with this song right away and searched YouTube for it. I chanced upon the song which was posted on Majestic Casual channel. 

I really love Easy Yoke, it's such a melodious and melancholic song. I also love the lyrics and the beat! It was definitely one of my most played songs of 2015. Back then there was no other songs from Favela but I was really excited for more new music from him! Then he released the Future Visions EP and I fell in love with Gong and Future Vision! And then it was hiatus.

He would post some photos here and there on his Instagram. I was really excited for more new music from him because Easy Yoke is such a great song. And then in 2017 I saw him change the profile and cover photo of his Facebook page and he posted new music coming soon. I was over the moon! He then released Nevermore My Temples Leave last year and it's ooh so good. Worth the 2 year wait!

And then he posted that there's more coming. But it wasn't until early 2018 I think that he posted teasers to his new album. And yup, time moves on and here we are! Community is out, and it's such a fantastic record. Definitely the best album of 2018 for me thus far. My favourite song is Medals. Slowly, Armour, Featherlight and Fierce Lion are my favourites too. And also thank you for releasing Easy Yoke! I've been recommending that song to my friends but they have to buy the whole Majestic Casual album for it haha. Well thankfully there's Spotify. But now the world can get it! :)

Alright that's all for this appreciation post. Congratulations once again Favela for your album release. It's such an incredible album and I truly hope that I can see you live one day. Also I'm always looking forward to more of your new music. You're one of my favourite producers and singer-songwriters! :)

Time Goes By

It's another Friday. I swear May flies by really quickly, I have no idea why. Although to be honest ever since I got back here, weeks seem to fly quickly and quickly. It's another Friday, another Monday, another June, another December and so on. And now: It's another Ramadhan!

Yes Ramadhan started yesterday and the call for Sahur is here again! I don't know why I always feel excited whenever I hear them, even though I'm not fasting haha. Although Ramdhan is always another time of the year that reminds me how fast time is flying. Also it's crunch time for me, lots of things to be done before the end of the holy month. Thus, I'm sharing this month with fellow Muslims around the world to be train myself to be more patient haha.

Anyway wishing all Muslims around the world a blissful month of Ramadhan ahead! :)

This week has been a pretty confusing week for me... Mentally. Just that with the recent terror attacks in Surabaya, in 4 churches and a police station, and a recent one in Pekanbaru, I am just so confused with the world and humanity. It's a very weird feeling, whenever I came across the news on my timeline and so on, I can't help to think but why? Why do these people do this?

I always tell myself that we shouldn't let them conquer us with fear. Because it is when we lose our faith in ourselves and humanity, that they win. So with a brave front I just convince myself that there's still good in this world, even though things are looking bleak these days.

Always choose love and compassion. It's what keeps us going further and further.

Why?

Suatu hari nanti, Tuhan akan bertanya kepada kita "Kenapa?". Dan sampai ujung waktu, kita tidak akan bisa menjawab pertanyaan itu // One day God will ask us "Why?". And until the end of time, we will never be able to answer that question. What a heart-wrenching Sunday for Indonesia.

Unfathomable

Today there were three bomb explosions in Surabaya. And another one in Sidoarjo. A city near Surabaya. My timeline was filled with the news. People condemning, people sharing sad stories of the deceased, and so on and so forth. News was filled with the coverage of the incidents. It was quite a heart-wrenching day for me to process all of this. Because.... I'm just so confused.

I will never get why people kill one another, for no reason. Or for absurd reasons.

Sigh, rest in peace to all the victims of this incident. May their family and friends be given strength and peace in this troubled times. To everyone else, take care wherever you are. Choose. Love.

Here Comes The Sun

I have no freaking idea why, but whenever May arrives, I started getting insomnia. And no, like I said in a post once, this has been happening for the past 7 years actually. Even when I was in Singapore! I'm not sure if it's placebo (in Indonesian we have a term called sugesti, which is like placebo, a term used when something happened because you think/feel such a way), but yes. It's annoying.

Like I would go to bed as usual at 5 AM. But my eyes will stay wide open until about 7. This week has been horrible because for example, I slept at 9 AM on Wednesday "night". That is ridiculous. I'm going to start drinking chamomile tea again, hoping it will help. Once again, I don't think it's the tea, becaue I'm okay in the past 2-3 months ish, drinking black tea before I sleep!

Anyway May has been a pretty happening month once again. I don't know why but I feel that I'm just being pre-occupied with lots of things every day. And same goes for my mind too. The hustle is going to begin once June arrives, because Ramadhan is here next week and it's always crunch time for me! But well, I think I'm prepared better this year hehe. I hope so. Oops. No, I can do this!

Today was a pretty chill Saturday. I went to get a haircut cause it's been more than one month since I had one. I can't stand long hair, don't know why. Wanted to go to the farm but my dad decided not to. So I spend the evening doing the weekly room clean up and also my plan was to nua, but nope, I decided to do work and now I'm pretty done with the list of things I need to do teehee.

Alright I'm stopping here for now. Just a disclaimer I might not blog often in the next coming weeks but will try to. Funny how I have a bunch of things to talk about, just doesn't have the time. See ya!

Infinity

Today I had the wonderful chance to go to Bogor to catch The Avengers: Infinity War! Mwahaha. Believe it or not, today was the first time in 3 years that I went to a cinema to catch a movie. Yes, three years. The last movie I watched was Insurgent back in 2015 during RSD. It was also a super impromptu decision. I went to a mall to have lunch before going back home, but found that there's a cinema in the mall and just bought a ticket right away haha. Whew.

This is the perks of not having a cinema in your hometown I guess.

Anyway I went to Bogor with my sis, her husband and my cousin. We went via train! Killed off some time as we reached super early in Bogor. Had lunch at Marugame Udon. Which I just realised halfway that the udon soup uses Dashi! Which means it's not veggie friendly heh. Oh well, I really forgot this, I thought it was shoyu based. Lesson learned I guess. After that we went to watch.

I would say the movie was really awesome! Despite the fact that the last Avengers movie I watched was The Avengers, thus I don't really know half of the characters in the movie haha. Well I'm not exactly a Marvel fan either. And also like I said above, I rarely have the chance to watch movies. Nevertheless thankfully they did explain bits and pieces about the infinity stones, and the history of some of the characters. So I can follow the plot of the movie.

I can't wait for part 2 which airs next year I guess! I hope my hometown will have a cinema by then.

After that we just went back home after buying some stuff back. It was a short but fulfilling day I guess! I seriously wish that we have a cinema here so that I can catch some movies without having the need to go to a neighbouring town. It's such a hassle haha. Ah well no worries.

Alright that's all for now. Sorry no photos because I'm too lazy to upload them onto my computer. I might share some of them here on a separate post. Had some nice ones from the train ride! I'll see you soon. Hope May has been treating you well, and may it be a Marvelous May for you :)