Sleeper

Anyone of you have songs or pictures that hold so much memory and meaning, it brings you back in time to a place or moment you can relate that song to?

Whenever I listen to Funeral’s In Fields of Pestilent Grief album, it always brings me back to the days I was working in Page One bookstore in Vivo City. I first discovered that album during that time and unsurprisingly it showed up pretty frequently on my playlist. Whenever I alight from the bus stop and walk through Vivo to the bookstore, I will always remember the feel of the barely opened shopping mall in the morning, with streaks of sun rays spilling through the windows and embracing us with its morning breath. Sometimes, it can be so intense, I can even observe the dust in the air rising and whimsically floating around for the keen observers to notice. These are memories whenever I listen to songs from that album.

My submission ended 2 days ago. Throughout the whole week that led up to my submisson, I always start my playlist with Eluvium’s Sleeper. I’ve had this song for ages, okay well, 6 months at least. But it is the soothing sounds that just calms me and reassures me, enabling me to focus on my tasks ahead.

Sleeper also does bring me back to a memory, which was the first time I visited the Tamar Island Wetlands with Andi. I never played that song for the longest time back then, but just walking through such a placid scene reminds me of this song. Its low cello-ish legato backing sound feels like the wind caressing my face, while my eyes set sight upon the low tide and the peaceful earth so visible during that time of the day. It’s droning yet alluring piano-ish melody fixates my eyes upon the sunset, the black swans in the sky, the tall grass fluttering to the rhythm of the wind and its lulls in between.

Such memories, such calmness.

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Sear Me III

Come to me
Comfort me
Take my hand

In your arms
In your eyes
I will be
Forever yours
Bring me down
To your bed
To your dreams

Take my life
Take everything
Through those meadows
Of heaven
Where we ran forevermore
I wish, oh, how I wish again
With you. Oh, to be with you

So lay me down
Close to you
Hold me now my lover
I kiss your tears
My sweet one
And kiss again, my love

-My Dying Bride, Sear Me III

Gloomy start to the day, getting worried about assignments. The weekends are here, though there isn’t much difference to me since I only have classes on Monday. Heck, it’s even more worrying now that the weekends are here.

Will pull through this.

I miss the old days, yet I crave for new days. Ambitious thoughts and dreams are drowned out by desparing nostalgia.

Anyway, today has been one of those days where I feel nothing, yet everything at the same time.

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Seawinds Call

Okay enough with my mumbo jumbo thoughts of life and all that jazz and I’m going back to start talking about life itself.

(I initially created my Tumblr because I wanted somewhere where I can post stuff without friends knowing. Though effective at first, I’ve let friends eventually follow me there to prove that no matter what you find out about me, I’m still the same guy you knew before you find out more about me. WordPress was overrun with friends, as well as Livejournal and Blogger, which was good, but it restricted my postings.

Funny, now it has inversed as few people I know still do these blog things. Haha. Still, WordPress is a good place to recollect my thoughts, actions, moods and ideas.)

I went to Hobart…… TWICE! Which was kinda my… 5th and 6th time to Hobart respectively. Heh heh. Anyway!

I went to Mount Wellington twice in a week. Lol. Still as beautiful since the last time I came up here. It is always pleasing to bring friends who have never been here before. It’s like how when you take an awesome photograph or come up with a new kickass song and when people here it for the first time, they are like, ‘Whoaaaaaa’? Yeah it’s the same with such august landscapes.

More Mount Wellington photos. 😀

Had an interesting experience that night as well, but I shall save that for later. We headed to the Tasman Peninsula the next day. It was somewhere I wanted to go since last year but never had the chance to. Lei Kuan and I kept talking about visiting the Tessellated Pavements but we never got to it. Turns out I went there in the end. Oh btw, here’s a pic of us in Hobart last year. Haha.

Photo: Logen

Anyway! Tessellated Pavements and the surrounding lookout areas were amazing. The rain got to us halfway though, a bit potong steam, but we managed to wait it out in a cafe (with free wifi!) and enjoy the rest of the day exploring. More photos:

Ended off the day at Dunnalley Bay.

Oh yeah, we actually went to Hobart for a site visit as well LOL.

Honestly it was the first time in quite awhile I had such an enjoyable road trip. I think only the previous Hobart trip and my Sydney Jam trip topped it. Anyway! Off to the second Hobart trip which I drove there alone while my friends came from the East Coast. I enjoy driving alone sometimes. You can play whatever music you want and can be with one with your own thoughts. Heh.

This was the only photo I took HAHA. Which was why I asked Logen to send me his photos as well.

Didn’t do much during the second trip honestly. It was more talking with people and getting to know each other. These are moments I really cherish all my life. You can’t get closer to people if you don’t share these moments.

Honestly, this year hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. I was so reluctant to return to Tassie despite loving this place. I had friends back in Singapore and my friends here have all graduated. It was tough too at the start of this year back in Tassie where I literally spent the first week and a half alone without any friends as I came back pretty early to settle my car problems. My friends back in Singapore as well as graduated UTAS friends assured me that I will make new awesome friends and I was doubtful as last year was a great year for me in terms of friends and it would take quite some beating. Right now though, I realized that this ain’t some competition shit. It’s about getting through life with the people around you. And I also realized, that doesn’t have to be physically, if you can connect with friends online as well, even better.

So this is my 3rd year here in Tasmania, kinda like an old fart among my friends already lol. Still, there were experiences I never had before as well. A few weeks ago, I paid a visit to the circus which came to town. I have honestly never been to a circus in my life before and you have no idea how enthralled I was. I was literally watching with my eyes as wide as the horizon and my mouth gaping for an eternity. At times I was even more scared than the performers themselves. The ticket was $50, but I paid $60 for the front row VIP seats. It was worth it as I saw everything upclose and with the action so close to me, it was no wonder I rarely blinked.

I also did pay a visit to the Hobart strip club after Mount Wellington. Singapore does not have any strip clubs or anything similar (that is legal) due to Singapore being such a conservative country, her art scene can almost never reach out beyond her granny panties. Anyway anyway, the girls there really knew how to work the pole and they were all really nice. I had a 30min chat with one of the strippers and we talked about a wide range of topics, from weather to social media and a lot more stuff I can’t recall right now. Coincidentally, she also told me information that would be useful for my research assignment (which was unfortunately over already, got a Distinction though teehee). She then later gave me a private lapdance. Well, I paid for it. It was $75 for no touching and $100 for touching. Since it was so expensive, I chose the latter lol. Now I know that strip clubs are like fight club, no one talks about it, but I am recounting this becuase I really felt that the main experience I took away from this isn’t about how sexual they were, but it’s about social labels. Strippers, or prostitutes, or sex workers in general are often labelled in a degrading way and are looked upon with disgust. Society tag them with words like ‘whore’ or ‘slut’. Honestly? They are just doing their job. They are happy to chat with you like normal human beings if you treat them like one. Upset that you can’t get in their pants afer the show? Too bad, they actually don’t want to sleep with you. You don’t expect a waiter to serve you water at your house either.

New experiences and new friends make this year brighter. Keeping in touch with old friends illuminate my days as well. I hope I will have more indelible memories this year. Cheers, to new friends, and the old.

PS. I have never spent so long on a blog post in about 2-3 years I think. But I feel better writing all these down.

PPS. Autumn is here, it’s getting colder again.

“Wither like in autumn
waning yon the veil
You concede the pain is nonpareil
Wither like in your life
waning like your days
I concede your pain is nonpareil”Sirenia, Lethargica

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