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.