Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri!

First of all wishing all of the Muslims around the world a happy Hari Raya Idul Fitri! Or Eid as you call it! Hope you had a great day with your family on this special day :)

It's the first day of Lebaran here and well it's a pretty quiet day as usual. Well after a night of Takbiran, usually people are tired haha so the night was especially quiet today. Also me hometown was also rather empty on this day as usual. Cause people usually do house visits!

Had a very chill day today, but mostly was spent out with my dad, sister, brother in law and my nephew. Can you believe it, my dad actually went to the supermarket with us! I think the last time he stepped inside the supermarket was like... Ten years ago? Or even longer. He never goes out anywhere haha so it was such a surprise that he joined us today. Maybe it's his grandson who asked him to go so he can't say no right. And then we spent the rest of the day on a waterpark. Just walking around tho!

It was truly a chill day, like any other lebaran day of the year. It's always quiet and slow.

I think it's pretty funny how during normal days, we wish that we can have a holiday. But once we are on a holiday, especially those that we spent at home doing nothing, we don't know what to do! Hahaha. Well for me I support John Lennon's words of "Tim you enjoy wasting is no wasted time". As long as you know that you're "wasting" your time by doing nothing, it's not wasted time! Haha.

So yeah I spent today, apart from being outside, just lazing around watching YouTube videos heh. Or like right now, blogging. And also I was reading articles just now. Which isn't exactly "doing nothing" right. But yeah, I think if I gotta "do nothing" for 3 consecutive days, I will go mad! Nevertheless, not having work is already something I enjoy and love. Ooh la la.

Alright I'm gonna stop here now. We're going to do prayers for my grandpa's 26th death anniversary tomorrow! So some of my aunts and cousins will be coming over. More gathering I guess! See ya :)

See you again, Ramadhan

 Goodbye Ramadhan

It's the last day of Ramadhan today, and the sounds of Takbiran are echoing around my town now! I've always loved and enjoyed this atmosphere, although I'm not a Muslim and I didn't fast for one month heh. But this day, this night, has always become sort of a "checkpoint" in life? Especially during the year. It's like oh it's Lebaran. And with this break, it is sort of a time of contemplation of what I want to achieve in the rest of the year, and what can be done better.

The echoing of Takbiran is also a bittersweet sound for me, because it reminds me of how fast time is flying! Like another Ramadhan come and go, I've experienced this almost all of my life, except when I'm in Singapore of course. But since young, I've always listened to this at night. Back when I was small, I always have my cousins and family gathered together on this night. 

Now that we're adults, we don't do it anymore. And it's fine.

I kind of realised that a lot of people here always "send off" this holy month by saying something like: "May we be reunited with the next Ramadhan". Because truth be told, no knows when we will leave this earth. And of course, we may not make it till next Ramadhan. Just like how last night I received the news of the passing of the mother of someone my family is close with, on the night before Takbiran. And about 3 days ago, the mosque near my house announced the passing of 2 people in one night.

Perhaps we should take this chance to really treasure what we have, and the time we have in this life. We don't exactly know how long more we have here heh. It's kinda the same for the temple in my hometown. We usually have a last prayer session on the last month of the lunar year. And before we go home, the temple head will say like I hope we can all gather together again on the last lunar month of the next lunar year! And everyone just nods off in agreement.

Well I don't want to ruin this festive mood. To all of my Muslim friends, and all Muslims out there, I hope you had a blissful month of Ramadhan! Eid Mubarak to you and your family! :)

Shut Off

Hello hello hello! I'm back again and now the holiday has officially started! Mwahaha. Yesterday was the last day of work at the factory, and today was the start of the yearly Hari Raya holiday. Today was a pretty chill day. Went for a haircut and... Wait, it wasn't exactly a chill day, cause I decided to finish all the work I have to do hahaha. Well I have a list of things to do before the holiday. I wanted to do it last night but I still had some things to do so I was determined to finish them today. And I did! :)

No actually last night I decided to give myself a break, and nua the whole night off heh.

Anyway I still have a list of things I want to do during the holiday. The usual monthly stuff, which is nice cause now I have lots of time to do it. Nothing else to do anyway! I'm definitely looking forward to spending the next 10 days or so just chilling and relaxing. Most importantly - recharging.

I don't have any travel plans this year during the long holiday. Well I did the same thing in 2016 and it was quite a pleasant thing to do actually. To just relax and chill in the long holiday. But I do have gigs plan in July though heh heh. I'm looking forward to a music-licious July indeed.

Alright I'm not sure if I should blog everyday here for the holiday. We'll see! But I will definitely blog more. I have a couple of things I want to blog about. Alright see you soon. To Indonesians out there, have a great holiday! And to the rest of you, have an awesome remaining month of June :)

Intense

It's been an intense first nine days of June. Every night, every day, I have things to do! Spent the whole of last week's nights settling the yearly bonuses, settling the parcels for my customers, and so on. Thankfully I finished everything by Wednesday, and I'm just taking this night off. A well deserved night off I guess, after days of just constant work. But I'm not done yet! One more hurdle to go.

We're already starting the great harvest of 2k18 and we're targeting to be done by tomorrow night/Monday morning. Before we send the flowers off on Monday night. To be honest it's been an anxious Ramadhan for me because the flowers were blooming way too early this year. Perhaps it's due to the fact that the greenhouses are new and that the soil condition might be better.

We learn new things every year I guess.

Phew, it's been a tiring month. Emotionally and psychologically. I hope I can rest once the Hari Raya holidays are here next week. Looking forward to spending my days chilling and just relaxing. Also I'm thinking of challenging myself to blog everyday during the holidays! We'll see.

Community

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.