recently, i keep
listening to mayday song, 第二人生, second round. i feel
the lyrics literally describe how i am living my life right now. what is my
second round? >_<
even though this song was released 2 years ago, their songs have the magical power to hit the hearts
of their listeners at different stages.
finally,
i completed my dream board! this had been nagging at the back of my mind, ever
since my mastermind group suggested creating our own dream board a few years
ago. that time, i did created one but it was not up to my satisfaction. i
attempted to redo for a few times after that but never got to complete, until
recently. a few months back, i was attending a master class, an extension of
the money & you programme which i took in april 2015. the 4-days
programme taught about a number of generalised principles, which were useful
and applicable to both personal and business aspects. the master class was
meant for the participants to apply the principles taught, through a series of
exercises. during one of the sessions, the trainer wanted us to create and
complete a personal project by the end of all the sessions. i immediately
thought of my incomplete dream board and decided to set this as my personal
project. this seemed quite achieveable within the next 5 weeks.
firstly,
i arranged to learn photoshop from jada after work (had wanted to learn this as
well), intending to use the software to create my dream board. in exchange, i
would teach her on excel, barter trading of our skill sets! she was
patient to teach me and shared that the important thing was to visualise what i
want in my dream board and create it into reality with photoshop. sounded
simple yet difficult.
the
most challenging part was to search for pictures which i could relate to and
able to represent who i am. i dived into looking though hundreds of pictures in
google, selecting the most appropriate pictures to put into my dream board.
with the photoshop skills i learnt and arranging the pictures in the best
manner, my dream board began to form. the final result turned out to be a
wonderful mix of my favorite colours of blue, yellow and brown, with each
picture carefully selected, of certain significance to me.
"be
free", of birds flying, a state i wanted to achieve, freedom in mind, body
and heart, living my life free of limitations and worries. i included a picture
of the still-incomplete sagrada familia church, located in barcelona,
spain. the church was designed by the late architect, antoni gaudi, which began
construction in 1882 and estimated to be completed in 2028. i was totally
amazed by the architecture and would want to personally see his masterpiece in
future. antoni gaudi had designed and built other great buildings such as park
guell and casa batllo. definitely looking forward to be immersed in his works.
i would want to see the original painting of the starry night by vincent van gogh
as well. the painting was currently located in museum of modern art,
new york city. there was a van gogh museum in amsterdam, netherlands, with the
largest collection of van gogh's paintings and drawings in the world. another
museum on my list to visit. i chose a meaningful quote by buckminister fuller,
which was shared during the money & you programme and i resonated with it.
i always only had a inkling feeling about my true purpose and the words,
"your significance will remain forever obscure to you..." just hit
me, like the hard truth being put right into my face. "fulfilling your
role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest
advantage of others.", something for me to chew on. i chose a photo of me
at poon hill in nepal, with the unforgettable mountain view and the sense
of peace i felt when i was there. sometimes, i would visualise myself at poon
hill, like my energy spot to recharge. the centre message of "when
was the last time you did something for the first time?" was to push
myself to keep stepping out of my comfort zone and do new things. coffee and
books would always be part of my life. the love balloon was to remind myself to
love myself, in every and any other way. lastly, i had to put a photo of
christina and me, a very dear friend close to my heart. she had been with me
through my ups and downs and always put a smile on my face whenever i recalled the
wonderful moments we had together.
i
was jokingly telling jada that my dream board was worth S$800 (the cost of the
master class). if not for the master class, i wondered when i would complete
it. all worth the effort!
today was 6 november 2013 and it was a perfect day. i decided to take a day off from work to celebrate my 33rd birthday this year. i had planned for a date with myself and waited in anticipation for the day to come.
that morning, i woke up feeling excited! after breakfast, i got busy trying out the dresses, tops and shoes which i recently bought from zalora. after working in zalora for more than a year, i finally shopped over the website. out of the 5 items i bought, i decided to keep 2 dresses, a black and a white, comfortable to wear and looked great on me. =p
around 10:30am, i changed into my pink top with jeans and headed out. i first went to h&m at ion to return a dress which did not turn out as flattering as i thought. there were some complications in the return process and i ended up with a return merchandise card of equivalent value to the price of the dress. i could use it to buy other items at h&m within the next 1 year.
after h&m, i travelled back to plaza singapura to catch a movie called “about time”, a romantic comedy film revolving around time travel, where a young man kept travelling back to his past to change for a better future. the movie was awesome, with great story line and cast. the essence of the movie was about love and being present to every single moment in our lives. i was touched by a few scenes and tears just burst out from my eyes. definitely one of the best movies i had watched this year.
i left plaza singapura and decided to walk over to liang court to have lunch at tamoya. i had been craving for their cold zaru udon and thought this would make a great birthday lunch to myself. as it was past lunch hour, the restaurant was rather empty. i ordered and sat down to enjoy my cold zaru udon. the tangy udon with the sauce, coupled with seaweed was heavenly, satisfying my taste buds! contented with lunch!
after lunch, i walked through clarke quay and took a bus to bugis street to shop around. there were many small fashion/shoes/accessories/food stalls and i was hopping to get some nice clothes or shoes. after shopping around for a while, i got hungry. as i was thinking where to grab a bite, i vaguely recalled a café along victoria street. thankfully, i did not have to walk too far to find the café, called artistry. the interior décor was simple, with a big communal table in the centre and chairs around, complemented by a couple of sofa seats at two sides. they had outdoor sitting area as well. i found out later that artistry served as a space for local and international emerging artists to hold their performances and exhibitions, thus explaining the artistic photographs hanged on the wall. i ordered a cup of flat white and sat at one end of the communal table, facing the counter. cafés had always been my choice to relax and be present with myself. the café ambience and the coffee, made it perfect for one to slow down and take a pause in life. as i sat there, i started to reflect and present to how much i had grown over the past 4 years. i became stronger and more at ease with myself, more patient and love myself more. most importantly, i was present to the many great friends that i had known over the years. they had always been supportive and encouraging, accompanying me through my ups and downs. i felt blessed to be surrounded by them and would want to deepen our friendships in the years to come. l learnt to treasure whatever i had and appreciative towards myself and the people around me. i felt warm and fuzzy in my heart.
i left the café at around 6pm to have japanese dinner with yufen and bili at nex, before ending off my birthday celebration.
this year's birthday has been amazingly perfect, a day well spent and reconnected with myself. i felt a sense of happiness and gratitude throughout the day. many thanks for all the well wishes from my friends! happy birthday to me, with many great years to come! = )
after waiting for more than a year,
mayday would be back in singapore on 15 june 2013 for their now here (诺亚方舟明日重生版) world
tour at the indoor stadium!!! they were in town last year but i was not in the
right mood to enjoy the concert then, despite getting the most expensive ticket
and standing at the second row from the stage. this year, i wanted to go and enjoy
myself thoroughly. i told coly and she was interested (she went with her friend
to last year’s concert as well)! the last time we went to mayday concert together
was in july 2009 at shanghai (entry dated 21 july 2011). a good 4 years had
passed and we were just as excited to see mayday concert together again!
the concert tickets were on sale through sistic as early as february 2013. on the first day of sale, i went to office early, getting ready to purchase the tickets online. their tickets were
known to snap up within minutes in other countries. true enough, the sistic
website was loading very slowly when i was choosing the seats and making
payment. there must be an influx of mayday fans trying to buy the
tickets at the same time, jamming up the sistic system. after a few attempts,
the payment went through and i got the tickets! what a relief! i survived another nerve breaking
experience of buying the tickets. >_<
four months passed and the concert
day finally came! coly and i met up early at the indoor stadium to get the concert stamp and redeem the light sticks. this was the first time they were giving out
light sticks for the concert. after which, we went off to catch up with each
other over dinner.
when we were back at the indoor
stadium, the crowd was gathering outside. pk came along with her friends and the
3 of us were busy taking photos together! when the concert time was nearing, we
queued to go into the indoor stadium. coly and i were seated at the balcony, getting a
bird’s eye view of the stage and seats below. the audience were gradually walking
in, filling up the seats. around 8.10pm, the lights went dimmed. the audience began
screaming and waving their light sticks. the concert was starting! a female artiste, 家家, from the same record company came on stage to perform. when the lights went dimmed again, mayday
finally took the stage! the audience went high with their continuous screaming and waving
their blue light sticks (blue was the band’s colour). they never failed to
arouse the emotions of the audience instantly!
they sang songs from their past 8
albums, a mix of classic and recent songs, fast and slow songs, as well as taiwanese songs. their classic
songs such as 温柔, 拥抱 and 爱情万岁 were just as nice even after so many years. their taiwanese songs like 轧车, 叫我第一名 and ok 啦 were authentic
and great for hyping up the audience. i was glad that they sang one of my
favourite taiwanese songs, 憨人 towards the end. i read somewhere in
the facebook that they did not sing any taiwanese songs at the previous day
concert. their fast songs like 离开地球表面 and 第一天 got us standing on our feet and
jumping to the rhythm. coly and i were singing out loud and waving our light
sticks. their slow ballads like 知足, 突然好想你 and 你不是真正的快乐 transformed
the indoor stadium into a huge ktv room, with everyone singing along with 阿信. he
was in his top form, being able to sing the high pitches of some difficult songs perfectly! powerful! he really knew how to sing! the interesting part of the concert was the light sticks which could be centrally controlled to change colours according to the mood of the songs. we could see uniformed colours of red, blue, green and yellow as well as in various colours, engaging the audience at every minute.
in the middle of the concert, each
member greeted the audience, like catching up with old friends. 冠佑 was cajoled to tell a not so funny joke with
his straight face, which nevertheless got the audience laughing away. with no exceptions, he was teased by other members this time too. hahaha!
they ended the concert with their new fast beat song, 伤心的人别听慢歌 at 11.30pm. for the past 3 ½ hours,
we let go of ourselves and immersed in a night full of fun, excitement and laughter. their songs reminded us to keep pursuing our dreams and be true to ourselves, just like them. everyone was constantly energetic and uplifting throughout the concert. although the concert ended earlier than last year, i truly enjoyed myself. great company, great band, great performance, great visual effects, great audience and great mood! thank
you, mayday! i am already looking forward to their next concert! by that time,
they might be holding the concert in the new outdoor stadium! till then, mayday
continues to rock! 摇滚万岁! = )
