A Head Full of Dreams

 The wonderful albums I've been collecting for the past 10 years

So on Thursday, I received my copy of Coldplay's latest album A Head Full of Dreams! I know this sounds crazy buy I actually bought three copies of it HAHAHA. Okay here goes the story. I pre-ordered my album via their online store and it was delivered and stuff, but when I checked the status it reads "bad address, package sent back to centre" and then it reads again "package en route to delivery". 

I'm not sure what's that supposed to mean. But last week I found out that the guy whom I always buy my music from was selling the album. I couldn't wait to listen to the album so guess what. I bought it! As for the third copy, I bought another CD from the Coldplay fanbase here in Indonesia, which includes T-Shirt and some other goodies. So yep. I have 3 copies (2 coming soon) mwahaha. Don't worry I'm giving one for my cousin Febi, who's a Coldplay fans as well. The other copy... Maybe to someone.

I gave the album a proper listen on Thursday night and I really love the album. I've been watching videos where Chris was talking about the album. After giving it a proper listen, I think the album delivers what the band wants to album to deliver. About not giving up, about being happy (and thankful) of being alive. At the end of my first listen, I felt happy, blissful and energised. It's such a wonderful album!

Although well... I wouldn't say this is the best album from them. I still feel A Rush of Blood To The Head is their best album, followed by Mylo Xyloto. But from all of their albums, AHFOD gave me a feeling I never felt before from their previous albums. Well to me Coldplay songs gave me this indescribable feeling. Bliss is how I would describe it. Although the song is a sad song, or a happy song, Coldplay has the ability to give me a feeling of bliss in their songs. I don't know how to describe it.

I've known Coldplay for ten years now. I remember the first song that I listened to was "Clocks". It was after PSLE and I would go to my cousin's house to play my late aunt's keyboard. One day my sister cam and let me hear Clocks and asked if I can play it on the piano. Well after a few tries of playing by ears, I found the melodies and played them. Then I asked my sister what song is that, and who's the singer. That's how my Coldplay journey began. From then on, I've been following them!

Although by the time I discovered them, they have already released 3 albums. I bought them one by one across the years. And then they released Viva La Vida and I was so excited. I love that album a lot. I remember first listening to the song on 98.7 FM in Singapore and I was like "OMG it's Coldplay!!" and the next weekend, I bought their album haha. And Viva La Vida accompanied me throughout the end of my sec 3 life, and dragged across the middle of 2009 I think.

Coldplay has accompanied me throughout the past ten years of my life. And their songs have soundtracked some of my life's great moments. Just to name a few, Viva La Vida was my studying music in sec 3 and 4 haha. I listened to Paradise a lot when I was training for my Mt K trip, and also during the trip itself. And also Paradise has always been my running song. For a lot of my races in 2012. A Sky Full of Stars would remind me of my Iceland trip as it was playing everywhere back then.

I can see their latest album soundtracking awesome moments of my future life as well. This album gives me lots of hope! Well one of my life's to-do list is to catch them live. They're going for a tour next year and I am really hoping and praying that they will come to Indonesia. We have a lot of Coldplay fans here. I really hope that we'll be able to see them live here! If not at least come to Singapore.

Well here's a cheer to (in my opinion) the greatest band of our generation. Who accompanied me throughout the past ten years of my life, and soundtracked some of my life's great moments.

Thank you Coldplay.

Terrified

Today is one of the most terrifying day of my life. It felt like a movie, seeing everything unfold. 

So one of the machine at the factory caught fire and well it was quite huge. Thankfully the fire only happened on the machine, and it didn't spread anywhere. Somehow it felt like a miracle, how the fire only happens on that one spot. But the fire was quite huge. It's my first time seeing such a huge fire.

Thankfully apart from damages, there are no victims. And that's the most important thing.

We called the fire brigade and they came in less than 5 minutes (wow!) and while waiting for them to arrive, the workers and I tried our best to extinguish it. And also to get whatever thing that might catch fire out of the building. To be honest I was very awed by the workers. Everyone just came and rush to help, they just helped one another and it feels awesome to see them do this. Not even the factory workers but workers from my mum's shop and my sister's shop came as well.

Not only the workers, but people around the factory came to help as well. Bringing whatever they can bring to help extinguish the fire like hoses and buckets of water. Although lets be honest, the fire was so huge it can't be extinguished with these things heh. But their gestures, are just so amazing.

The fire was put out in less than an hour. It was long because they were trying to cool this heated component of the machine which was pretty stubborn to cool down to heh. But after about 45 minutes they stopped the spraying and the fire was put out completely. 

Thankful for everyone's help and hard work. This is one of the things I love most about my country and her people. That in times of difficulties or disaster, people will just help no matter where they are. There are lots of time where I was helped by random strangers without even me asking them to. So yes, thank you everyone. Terima kasih sebanyak-banyak nya :)

Well I was in a state of shock after the whole incident, for a few hours. When I saw the fire I went panic mode really, cause like I said I've never seen such a huge fire before. I was both in a state of helplessness and panic. Helpless because all I can do is to wait for the fire brigade to come, panic because... Well there's fire! I was panicking for people's safety, and also worried if the fire will spread.

2 months ago, the market at my hometown caught fire and the fire was so huge that it could be seen at my house. If I'm so terrified seeing a fire at this scale earlier today, I really can't imagine the fear that the victims of big fire disasters have. Let me be honest with you, I was feeling shocked the whole evening. It was really terrifying, even though I know the fire has been put out and that there are no victims. That fear and thought linger with me through the night. It's so weird.

Today taught me two things, firstly how wonderful the people of my country are and secondly, that things can go wrong anytime. But we have to be prepared for it. Perhaps it was really human's negligence that caused this. Or maybe it was pure accidental. I don't know but well, life is life. I just hope that none of this will take place in the future again. Ever again.

What a day. I'm just glad that everything was okay in the end (except for damages of course). Whatever happened, has happened. And I believe this happened for a reason. Perhaps it was a wake up call for us to be more careful. Or a painful lesson to learn to make us better human beings.

Catching Up

It's been a very rainy December so far. Like it literally rained every single day over here. It was bright and sunny yesterday when I woke up. But 30 minutes later, the sky was a sexy 50 shades of grey and then it just rained again. Well, we're in December. There's nothing I can do with this yearly phenomenon. At least we're still with nature where December is a rainy season. After all, it didn't rain for almost 6 months here. It's been a crazy El Nino year for us here. Hopefully it will never repeat.

Well when it didn't rain for months, people are fighting for water here. Thankfully we have enough water where we could share with the surrounding people. Now that it rained everyday, it's pretty stressful too cause the flowers take longer time to bloom! I really have a love-hate relationship with the weather.

The rain has been pretty nice sometimes, cause December is one of my favourite times of the year. The rain definitely adds to the mood to contemplate. To think about life, and everything else I didn't have the chance to think of because well, life happened. Somehow time seems to move slower, and our mind seems to grow wider in December. I am able to think of a lot of things, somehow. 

2015 has been a very weird year for me. In a neutral way. I suppose it's just a year where I am in an age of growing up. Like I am no longer a "kid" and not an adult yet. So things have been feeling weird somehow. I like to take it that life is catching up on me. Sometimes I feel that when we're young, when we're still in school, we're somehow ahead of life. Because we study for the future (right?). And we don't really come back to the present moment. Basically, to the present life.

I mean when we're studying, say for a test, we study for the test so that we can do well for the test which will add up to our GPA and help us move forward to the next semester. So in a way we're not really "studying" for the present moment. We're in a constant move to move forward. And it seems like we're always ahead of life. We study hard for the future, to chase our dreams, to land in our dream job.

I suppose when we leave school and start working, life forces you to be in the moment? Like there's no way you can "work" for tomorrow because on a daily basis, lots of things happened that make us stay in the present moment. A bad colleague that ruined our day, scoldings from our boss, when things don't work out, etc. Or maybe we have a successful meeting, a great client deal, and so on. All of these things, will be brought back to our home. And we'll deal it the next day. Not the next semester.

So you can say that the "nearest future" when we're working, is tomorrow. The next day from today. Or maybe next week. I suppose one day, life will catch up on all of us. When it does, you better be ready for it. It won't let you run away from it anymore. You either walk with it, or slow down, so that you can walk with them again. It's not a bad thing. Sometimes we just forget about life for too long.

Million Years Ago

 25

Right, moving on to talk about how I feel about Adele's new album, 25! :)

I discovered Adele back in 2011. After her hit-song "Rolling In The Deep". I've never heard of her before this but I definitely have heard of her when I found out that she's the singer of "Chasing Pavements". Cause I remember listening to that song while studying for O Levels back in 2009 in radio. So I was like oh so this is Adele heh. I really fell in love with her voice. She has such a strong vocal and I just love her personality as well. So I went ahead to buy her albums 19 and 21.

I really love 19 and to be honest I think 19 is a better album than 21. I truly admire and love how simplistic and honest 19 is. Especially the song "Hometown Glory", which to me is still the best song that she has written and sang. 21 is also a fantastic album, and I think it's a pretty honest album too. Especially after reading her stories about her previous relationship. And when she explains about the story behind "Someone Like You" in her Royal Albert Hall concert. It's so heartbreaking :(

That's why Adele songs have the ability to remind you of the ex you never had before HAHAHA.

After going on a hiatus after Skyfall, I do read on the internet that she was working on an album which is due to be released this year. And then there was no news about it. So I thought well maybe it's gonna be postponed to next year. But then on one fine evening I saw OneRepublic tweeted "Adele :)" and I went nuts haha. Then I saw Buzzfeed showing a link about Adele giving a preview of her new song through a mysterious clip on X Factor in the UK. I clicked on it and.... Felt heartbroken.

Heartbroken not because it's a horrible song, but because the first few words from her single "Hello" is so heartbreaking oh man. But days after that she announced the new single, when the album is going to be released, and notes about her album. And I was so excited to give it a listen. Because I feel I am going to feel connected about the album. And well, I felt such a way.

I remember the first time I gave the album a full listen I was just in awe. By the words from the lyrics, the melodies and everything. Especially the song "Million Years Ago", which when I first heard its preview, felt that it was kind of a weak song? I was expecting it to give a feel-ride in the same fashion as Hometown Glory. But it was accompanied with a very subtle guitar ballad. But no, the words! The words are so true, the words just stabbed my heart haha. It is definitely one of my favourites.

I also love "When We Were Young". A song which she co-wrote with Tobias Jesso Jr. I can definitely "hear" him in this song heh. I really love how wonderfully crafted the lyric of the song is... Like you look like a movie, you sound like a song and the chorus let me photograph you in this light in case it is the last time that we might be exactly like we were. Beautiful aren't they?

My favourite songs from the album are: Million Years Ago, Water Under The Bridge, River Lea, When We Were Young, Love In The Dark and of course, Hello. But overall, I think 25 is a great album. Probably her best album. But so far no songs have taken the position of Hometown Glory :P

Alright that's all from me now! I am still waiting (very) patiently for my Coldplay album to arrive. It should arrive next week or the following week. It's okay, worth the wait I suppose. And oh, my order of Szymon's Tigersapp vinyl has arrived yesterday too! It's so beautiful. But uhh I need to get myself a vinyl player first hahaha. Well yes I've decided to start collecting vinyl now! But unlike CDs, I'm just going to buy vinyls of album that I really really feel a deep connection and have a deep love for. 

Brenda has also bought for me Chvrches' EOE vinyl for my birthday present. I can't wait to play both! :D

Alrighty see you again! I hope you enjoy these albums as much as I did too :)

Diamonds On The Water

 Dark Sky Island

Alright as promised, this is my review of Enya's latest album, Dark Sky Island! Okay this is not a review, just how I feel about the album. Let me begin by telling you about how I discovered Enya!

So as some of you might now, the first time I discovered Enya was through Pei Tong's Angklung and Kulintang ensemble. I remember the first song I know from her was "Only If" (It was the first song I played with the ensemble). I didn't know who Enya is, I never heard of the song before. So back then I can't even do an internet search heh. I asked my sister to search for Enya's music. I can still remember downloading it from Kazaa, which was the 90s music downloader heh.

And then I went to HMV with my sister and we bought her album. The first album I bought was "Paint The Sky With Stars", which I'm thankful of buying first because it introduced me to a lot of her great music. There was Orinoco Flow, Caribbean Blue, Only If, Watermark and so on. That album really made me fall in love with her music. And across the years, I saved some money to buy her discography. Which I sadly lost in the middle of 2003 - 2005 either back at home or in Singapore.

From then on, Enya has become one of my favourite singers and artists. And my favourite new age artist ever. I followed her discography since then. From Amarantine in 2005, then And Winter Came in 2008. And then... She went for a hiatus with no news of any new album. Until in October when I saw her changed her Facebook's cover photo and I was just so happy! Pre-ordered the album, and waited for an extra 2 weeks after its release to receive it here and give a full listen. It's an amazing album.

Across seven years, I am glad that I'm still "listening to Enya" in this album. Dark Sky Island still has a lot of Enya's characters and trademarks. Although yes, this is her first album that she released in the age of social media. Where people can criticise her freely and happily through Facebook, YouTube and so on. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I love Dark Sky Island! Every track from it.

I think Enya mentioned somewhere that the album has the feeling of returning home after a long time, or something like that. And yes I definitely feel this! I am glad that the album is released in November because I feel it's such a special and wonderful album to listen to in the year end. Just like her song from her last album, Last Time By Moonlight. I've been listening to her songs from this album ever since it arrived. There really is a special feeling listening to them. At this time of the year.

My favourite tracks from the album are Diamonds On The Water, The Humming, Echoes In Rain, The Loxian Gate and Pale Grass Blue. The album itself is a beautiful album. The instrumentation, the layering of voices and the lyrics really blend in very well. And I feel that Enya music are timeless. Like you can listen to her songs 50 years later and still sound amazing. Because she has been pretty consistent with her music all these years. Not something many people do nowadays.

I mean a bit of experimentation is never wrong. But neither is being consistent eh.

Alright I guess that's all from me now. I recommend you getting a copy of Dark Sky Island. It's a wonderful album to listen to at the year end! See you soon, with Adele's review next :D

25 Dark Sky Islands

25 and Dark Sky Island

Mind the title, I was just thinking of a nice title for this post where I'll be talking about Adele's and Enya's new album haha. Okay not in depth but... I REALLY LOVE THE ALBUMS 

So anyway, I pre-ordered both albums like I mentioned in my previous post. This is the first time Amazon is on-point with delivery time haha. Well the expected delivery date is 3rd December but they both arrived on the 4th. No worries! At least they both arrived safely here. I'm still waiting for a few albums to arrive though. Like Coldplay's AHFOD, Grimes' Art Angels and Szymon's Tigersapp vinyl!

On Friday night I gave both albums a listen. And I just fell in love deeply with them. I think Enya's new album is definitely worth the 7 years of wait. I am glad that I am still "listening to Enya". Her character is still there, in every song of the album. Enya is the first artist that I became a fanboy of. I have been listening to her since I'm ten and till today, her songs feel truly special to me whenever I listen to them.

As for Adele's 25, oh my goodness. Almost all of her songs just stroke a string in my heart. I remember when Adele announced the release of her album back in October I think, she posted on Facebook "25 is about getting to know who I've become without realising". And I knew that this album is going to become something that I can definitely relate to! Well, it is.

I remember when I first listened to "Million Years Ago" on my discman, after the song, I just paused my discman and stare on the wall. I just felt like every word on the lyric speaks about the feelings and thoughts that I've been having for quite some time now. So... Thank you Adele haha.

I am going to write a more in depth review of both albums in another post! :)

I think 25 and Dark Sky Islands are one of 2015's best albums. I can't really seem to connect with Adele's songs cause like I said, I have never been in a relationship haha. But this album is different. It's really about getting to know who you are, and to mend a broken heart too. I really love Adele. I love her voice, her character and personality. If there's one artist that I wish I can have a conversation with (actually I want to do this with all my favourite artists heh) is actually Adele! I think she's so fun to have a conversation with. And there are so many questions that I want to ask her :P

Alright that's all for me now. More in-depth review of both albums coming soon!

Busy Bee

I just finished listening to Coldplay's gig in London which was streamed at BBC Radio 1! It's such an amazing gig and the band is sounding awesome as always. I am super excited for their new album which is going to be released tomorrow. I've pre-ordered them so I'll just have to wait for it to arrive (I don't know when). Coldplay is my favourite band seriously. I love Sigur Ros a lot. But Coldplay has stayed with me since I'm young! So they're very special to me.

Well Coldplay and Sigur Ros are to me, the best bands on earth haha.

Anyway sorry for not blogging again! I've been pretty busy the whole week, after my sis' wedding. Lots of things to do heh. And today I was just determined to finish up all the remaining work I have to do. It's kinda annoying cause work is piling up and I couldn't find the time to do them cause... I have more work haha. But nevertheless I'm done now weeeee. That's the reason why I can comfortably listen to Coldplay's stream and blog now. The past 3 nights I've been busy with work.

And guess what, this is my 100th blogpost for the year!! Hurrah. This is the first 2015 resolution that I achieved - to maintain the blog post number for the year in 100 (at least). Although I will definitely have lesser blog post this year than 2014. It's alright! I managed to hit 100.

I wanted to blog like everyday for the month of December to break my record again. But I don't think it will be possible, and also I don't want to "force" myself to blog just to exceed the number of posts as last year. Well I suppose life has caught up on me this year, and I can't blog as often as 2014. I do have plans for next year to revive this blog of mine again. I really love blogging. I love writing. Although no one reads my blog (except for a few loyal followers), I still enjoy reading my blog (self-praise).

Nothing beats the joy of re-reading your own thoughts really.

Oh well, December is here now! I seriously can't believe 11 months have went by just like that. I'm so excited for 2016. I don't know what will happen and how they year will be. I'm pretty sure it's going to be an exciting year for me, somehow. Every year, I learned a lot of new things from the events I went through and the people I met. And well, I'm always looking forward to meeting the new year.

It's so funny how when I'm still in school I always dread the new year because of the things that were happening inside it. Like streaming year, O Levels, FYP, and the year in which I was returning home for good. But I suppose once life has caught up on you, you won't dread any year, any month or any day. You have learned the rhythm of life, and you're just playing alongside with it.

We're all growing old I suppose.