Fragments

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognising and appreciating what we do have.

When life starts to offer nothing more than pressure and boredom, we try to remind ourselves the need for an outlet. An escape. Things that would keep you refreshed. Actions that would make you smile. While we continue to live with this mentality, we realised nothing has changed once we look back at the time we first made this resolution. All we wanted was an external change.

Because the truth is, we are hopelessly stuck in this quagmire of pressure that we start losing fragments of ourselves that would keep us happy. We live on each day thinking that true happiness will come someday when everything is over. But nothing in our lives will ever be over. We have difficulty remembering the last time happiness felt real. Little do we realise true happiness never had a real definition.

We are discontent because we choose to be. More often that not, test scripts offer undesired grades; work deadlines offer no real meaning; people offer unpleasant remarks. And our loved and trusted ones didn’t act out the way we wished they were. We try to fix and force pressurising situations to suit our way. Yet in the end, it was ourselves that allowed discontent to manifest.

Maybe it’s about being content with less rather than acquiring more. Be appreciative and accepting than trying to change those we treasure. Pause at the times we turn manipulative and start thinking of the good things associated. Start enjoying the simplest things in life.

Perhaps its time to redefine our yardsticks of contentment and pick up the fragments we have lost.

Friends

There are big ships and small ships. But the best ship of all is friendship.

It’s Valentines today. They say it is a day to tell people they are special. I started to ponder on the things I have done to show my appreciation. In fact, I have not done so much after all. I have rarely been the one to send birthday messages on midnights to anybody, or the one to write some nice comments about anyone.

I blame it on my incapability with words. I’m not the kind that can sustain long conversations. I’m not the one to say “Thank you” everytime because sometimes I take things for granted; or “Sorry” everytime because I’m so bad at apologizing. In the end it’s just myself.

I realised how much I needed everyone. Attending campfire night with the class yesterday made me feel really excited and blessed. Seeing the juniors perform, singing and dancing with the class brought back memories of the best times I had in school. Maybe my life would have been different in some way if I had known one less friend.

Nobody can be the perfect friend. But that is simply why we always try to be better.

Baby steps

I don’t know how to describe the past year for me. I had quite some fun, met a cool bunch of friends and experienced a lot I’d never expected. At the same time, I felt really exhausted at times and I didn’t know if these were all that I really wanted. There is this part of me that felt I have never moved an inch closer to the goals I set for myself a few years back.

I’m not a big fan of new year’s resolutions. After all, if there are 364 better days to make a change to your life, why make it only at the start of the year? But some steps still have to be made, and it’s better than not making any step at all. I’m not asking myself to make life-changing decisions — I still have to keep focus on ‘A’ levels even if I don’t want to.

So here’s a list of small steps I think I can do to make myself live better, most of which I have already started some time back. Hopefully, I can work on them for as long as I could, or all these would just be plain rambling.

1. Spend time on my favourite things. I have to make time for it. All I had done for the past year was to surf design blogs and bookmark interesting tutorials, leaving the actual hands-on behind. In the end, I’ve collected a whole list of bookmarks with no actual design being done. And I start to fill up my remaining time with dramas, which doesn’t produce any results.
2. Be more productive. Yes, I check my Facebook and read other feeds pretty often, because I place my laptop right beside my pile of work. This is stupid. I’ve got to focus.
3. Stay healthier. Eat less junk. Run more. Play more. But it’s hard to swim more when the school starts :( Of course, sleep earlier.
4. Think positive. Most of the time I’m feeling down because I’m thinking negative. Perhaps this is one of my worst habits. I’ve always been trying to get over some stupid thoughts, and I should work harder on this.
5. Be a better friend. I don’t exactly know how, but I’m sure I can be better (:

This list shouldn’t be exhaustive, but I don’t want to make it difficult for myself to start. Most importantly, I hope all these can work out (:

A trip to down under — Sydney

The Harbour City.

No doubt there are the main attractions like the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, it seemed like the rest are just avenues to generate revenue from tourism. In short, it’s just another modern and busy city with an extensive public transport network. Luckily, there were still some bit of fun left when I tried sandboarding and hopped on a dolphin-watch cruise. I thought Blue Mountains would be great, but it didn’t turn out to be as spectacular as Great Ocean Road was.

Yet, the best part, which cannot be found in Melbourne or any tour itinerary, was the New Year’s Eve celebration at the harbours. Known to be one of the best fireworks display in the world, I definitely couldn’t miss this one. By 5pm, we already started waiting at Circular Quay, which was quite near the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Lucky enough, the area was denied further entry minutes after we enter. Somehow, we seemed the least prepared when people around us brought mats, chairs and cards to spend their entire evening.

The cheers from the crowd, horns from the ships, written messages by planes in the sky formed one whole atmosphere I’ve never experienced before. Sadly, we decided to leave after the 9pm fireworks because we weren’t hyped up enough to wait for the midnight one. I countdowned in my hotel room, watching the brilliant fireworks on television which I could have experienced it for myself :( The one thing I’m sure of, however, is that this is the best time to have a holiday in Sydney.

As such, this concludes my holiday posts (:

A trip to down under — Melbourne

The thing I loved most about Melbourne is the mix of Victorian and contemporary architecture, plus the serene and well decorated gardens. Spending an evening to walk by the modern banks of southern Yarra river was also a pretty cool experience — modern buildings, street performances, cooling riverside. Besides that, Melbourne has the most extensive tram network in the world which added on to the uniqueness of the city, though I didn’t have a chance to ride on it :(

Besides the city areas, we also toured the outskirts of Melbourne. We picked strawberries at a huge strawberry farm, tasted some wine and visited this garden maze and lavender farm which is a really sweet place for a picnic. The more notable one was the Penguin Parade, where you get to see flocks of wild penguins return shore during late evening, and watch them waddle up the boardwalk. But they were so cute that you aren’t allowed to take photos of them.

Of course, the best part and a must-go for a Melbourne trip would be the Great Ocean Road, because the views from the beaches and cliffs are simply impressive. The locals would be windsurfing by the beaches while tourists like us would tour the Twelve Apostles, London Bridge, and Loch Ard Wreck site. Aside from the breathtaking view from the top, the sea breeze is extremely strong but cooling. In all, its just the best way to spend your day out of the city.

As such, I shall let the photos below do the talking. Meanwhile, you can view my entire photo collection here and wait for the Sydney post (:

A trip to down under

I’m finally back from down under!

Definitely had a great experience there, with all the breathtaking sceneries by the countryside and the relaxed city life. Sydney & Melbourne are especially tourist-friendly since there were maps all over the streets and public transport there is just as extensive too. Yet, the cities aren’t so crowded, especially since I arrived there during the holiday season, which makes touring around pretty enjoyable. Even with the cheaper currency now, items there can still be twice as expensive as Singapore’s. One thing I didn’t expect though, was the large number of foreigners there so they are just as multicultural as Singapore is.

Night life there was pretty dismal however — the sun sets slightly after 9 while shops close after 8, which meant early return to the hotel. Pay-to-use Internet rendered my laptop useless other than photo-editing at night. The tour-group style of travel was disappointing since it meant only around 40 minutes per attraction, which made touring really superficial. After all, I spent more time taking photos than to really appreciate the attractions there, which was quite sad :(

I shall cut down on the rambling and move on to more photos and descriptions in the upcoming posts (:

Sweet Seventeen

I knew my birthday this year would be much better than previous years, and it definitely was.

This wonderful day kick-started with a treat to Subway by my mentor (I’m starting to like Subway somehow), and a long chat about career paths in Singapore. After all, the main point of these pre-university research attachments and projects are supposed to help nurture more locals to take on research in the future. The fact is, however, I can barely find a local while walking through their workplaces. Many local students take up science and engineering courses, but their career paths turn otherwise. The point I’m trying to make here is — I may fit the description of the sentence before.

Cutting the long story short, I went to Hu Yuan’s house to lug his beloved Guitar Hero set to my house and we took quite some time to set it up. The party was pretty much of Guitar Hero, Dota and movies, but I’m glad I spent at least some time talking to people I haven’t really met for some time. I guess that’s the point of the stayover somehow, besides celebrating my wonderful birthday (: By the next morning, I was already in a “zombie” state so I can only remember I took a short nap after sending everybody off.

Later in the evening, I attended Mr Vincent Tan’s Christmas party which had better catering food and over 50 people squeezing into his condo’s living roon >< Haha, but besides that, we played some games, watched a video and sang Christmas carols. The cooler part though, was the sharing sessions of Mr Tan’s church friends having turned into Christians and their life after that. It was my first time attending a Christmas party, but what I can really say is that the people there are really friendly.

These two days have been great and I would want to thank everybody for their well-wishes, be it the midnight-kind or during the party. Thanks for all the presents because I haven’t received so many presents before. Thanks for coming for the stayover because it wouldn’t be complete without you :D

Just in case you didn’t know, I would be leaving for Sydney & Melbourne (Yay ^^) on Christmas night till New Year’s Day so if you do want anything special from there, tell me now. You can call me if you miss me too (: