Today's the last day of my physiotherapy (not because my ankle's fine, it's just that my insurance ran out and I don't want to pay $60 every visit), so my physio just gave me a bunch of exercises to do and told me that I would probably be able to start going back running (just running!) around 2 weeks. After getting home, my housemate and I cleaned the house, then I went to aikido, and now I am here, with a clean room and an extremely fatigue body typing this piece.
The neutrals. Oh boy, this one's tough. Some of the things that I will say sounds kind of very good, or very bad I think, but I don't know, for my case, it's kind of neutral. I don't think it would be long list too, it would probably just me rambling.
Ugh, it's been rough. As stated in the previous post, I'm just playing the waiting game now. I'm waiting for next semester to start, I'm waiting for a reply from the Canadian Immigration Agency (and hopefully good news with it), waiting for my ankle to fully heal. Basically, I feel like I do not have control over my life. This Man vs Time thing is no fun.
That being said, I have lots of time now. So, so, so much spare time. Spare time is usually a good thing yes? The problem is I just don't feel like doing anything. I kinda force myself to get up and do stuff. Constantly cleaning, tidying, reading, watching, finishing my assignments 1 week before the due date. I never did that! I usually wait till literally the last few hours, only then I have the motivation, but now I'm just floating around, doing nothing and also doing something. For the first time, I feel like the extra spare time is going against me.
I've been waking up at 7am recently. I am trying to foster a good habit of waking up early because I'm trying to prepare for next semester's class schedule, where I have classes early in the morning. Because of this, I'm also going to bed rather early (by my standards), latest 12am I think, usually around 11pm. The down side of this is kind of related to the spare time thing. I do not have early classes or anything now, so when I do wake up, it feels empty. I don't want to wake up but I force myself up. The days where it rains in the morning is the most depressing, I don't know why, it just is. I feel empty when I hear the sound of rainfall when I wake up. I think this is more of a now thing, it's not always like this as I always has loved the rain, but this time it's different (it has also been raining a lot in the morning, and the rain stopped when people actually leave their home ~8am).
The other thing is that recently, there's lots of friends that visits my home/I go to a friend's home. It's nice, I like the social part of it. Unfortunately, it feels like I enjoy the first 30 minutes, but then I feel like retreating cause it feels super draining, but I can't. If they come to my house, I would feel like a bad host (my housemates isn't really helpful in this part), I feel obliged to stay, and then it gets less fun, and more of a chore. But then the times when I really do stay in my room, I feel sad too. I wan't their company too, but I don't want to be there, but also I do. It's super annoying. When I do visit a friend's (they love to bake, and always have some pastries for us), I often bring a book (WHO DOES THIS?!) so that I could just retreat myself to some corner, read for awhile, then rejoin the group. It feels super rude, but I don't know man, it's tough. The best times to visit my friend's is when they're studying I guess, because the time when we converse is usually their break from studying, so when they do go back to their studies, I stay and read in the same corner. The cons of this is that when they're studying, they do usually do not want guest at their home because you know, that's not how you treat guests. I want to tell them it's okay, cause I don't wanna be in my home anyway but it's a hard concept to convey. I sound like the worst guest eh, heh.
If anyone's reading this, you might think: "Hey, it seems like you need someone to talk to, you could talk to me and stuff" something like that, but it's not that easy for me. I'm not as open as my housemates, who seems to be able to just walk into my room and go like "Hey Jerry, I wanna talk about something". I can't do that. People seem to be able to open up to me, they would just come up to me and honestly, I would genuinely listen; but I can't do the same as what they do to me. There's some kind of complex going on there and It's a box that I do not want to open.
Not only that, in all honestly, I don't think I would be able to speak about the contents of this blog casually to anyone. I guess this is one of my coping mechanism? I know it's strange, that by typing this, theoretically, anyone could read it: my family, someone else's' family, the Kremlin, some complete stranger or even an acquaintance that I don't really know but they somehow stumbled here and actually somehow curious enough to read till here. So maybe, this blog is just a way of talking to "someone" while also not talking to an actual person. Genius right? Of course this isn't everything, I ain't gonna pour my heart in public.
Tuesday, 31 July 2018
Saturday, 28 July 2018
2018: From then to now
After the zen week that is the post-exam Carbonear trip, it was back to class. In order to graduate in time, I took a few classes in the summer. They're all intersession classes, which means that these classes are only 6 weeks long rather than the normal 12 weeks long, which means that a week is super tight! I'm just going to bullet point it out what happened this whole time.
- Intersession starts, which means I'm in university most of my day time. I have classes from 10am to 5pm with only an hour break in between. Sometimes, we don't even get the break in order to prepare for our term exams. There was also only 5 people in my class, so it's pretty chill in terms of socially, but the course material was a lot to digest in a week.
- For the rest of my free time (in the day), I took up a part time job, which means the only time I am free is literally in the night. But since it's intersession, I only have to endure this for 6 weeks! No problem!
- I'm trying to get back into sports, so not only that I have my routine Aikido and Dungeons & Dragons thing, I started going for me weekly football games!
- When all this is happening, I guess my relationship was strained. I had no time for her and the only time I do is when she's asleep already (because time zones). We rarely had long talks anymore and stuff.
- It's also interesting to note that everybody in my house basically broke up with their partners one week of May. It was huge mess. There were parties constantly trying split the group of friends and there was this whole drama and stuff. The worst part is that one of them basically cheated on with the neighbours downstairs, so we basically still have to see both of them all the time.
- Queue the worst week of my life. In 48 hours, I had sprained my ankle during football, to which I am still trying to rehabilitate it. I will be taking my intersession final exams, which means mentally, I got to study and prepare for it. Lastly, she broke up with me, I must admit the relationship wasn't going well, but I'm not going to lie that I was super excited to finally give her more attention after my exams are done, since it was just right around the corner, that day never came.
- The problem with getting your hopes up is that right after the exams, I have lots and LOTS of free time. I was really hoping to spend time now but it never happened. So Jerry, why don't you go out and do the things you love? Isn't that routine post breakup thing to do? Oh yeah, I know. There's just thing huge problem that is my left leg, so I guess I'm stuck in my own home, trapped in my own depressed mind for the next few weeks.
- Obviously broken, I couldn't study that weekend, or even just staying in my room. I called a cab and went to my weekly Dungeons & Dragons (I was preparing not to go that day, because I have my finals the next day). Lots of worried looks and stuff around, but whatever, the mood wasn't there anyway for anything, I just want to get out of the house.
- The next week I am constantly asking for rides. It feels absolutely horrid. The good news is that I get to hide my sadness behind the pain. I told myself I wouldn't cry until after my exams are done, and I didn't! Funny thing is, right after my exam I have work to attend to, so I went to the office. Sat there for like 15 minutes and I could feel my tears welling up. So I told my boss :"Hey, I think I need some time for my leg, mind if I go home early?" Yeah they let me out early, I left home and cried.
- The next few week was just me sitting down in my room, constantly asking my housemate for assistance to do things such as my laundry. I believe going down the stairs took me a whole 5 minutes.
- After that, a more interesting thing happened I guess. For the first time ever, I hosted my first ever couchsurfer. She's a lady from France backpacking across Canada. She came to Canada two months ago @ Vancouver, and she slowly worked her way to the East. She came just in time to celebrate Canada Day with us. She barely stayed on our couch the first few days because she's always out drinking and then falling asleep somewhere else. The last few days, she settled down and stayed home. We didn't do much together, but we did went to Canada Day together, and I brought her to Jack Axes to throw axes (she isn't good at all). What she is good at is Mario Kart. She's a sneaky one. She feigned ignorance at first, VIDEO GAMES? HUUHHH OK I'LL TRY IT OUT. I think she got first place for the first round of the Grand Prix, then she revealed that she played it all the time in her office back in France (what a cool office!).
- Beyond that, nothing really interesting happened. I tried to get back to Aikido, but I couldn't do all the moves yet. My left leg might be "repaired" but not to it's original glory. It's mobility reeks due to the lack of use, which means I have to do some physio exercise everyday to get back it's mobility and sense of balance, or else I'll just injure myself again. I never did got back to my weekly football games though. Football is still too rough for my ankle. The worst part is the weather suddenly got super nice and sunny, so I'm constantly walking by some football fields, jealously watching people play. Not only that, my football WhatsApp group was just constantly buzzing, there's constantly games to play because the weather is so nice but I could not go.
- As this is my last year as a student in Canada (hopefully), I'm also having lots of stress in terms of my legality as a student here. My permit and visa is expiring and there's lots of steps and process and some bureaucratic red tape and stuff to do. It cost a lot of money and effort, and I absolutely hate the waiting game. Right after I submitted all the documents and stuff, all I could do is sit here and wait.
- My housemate got a Nintendo Switch, so I've been playing games with him to fill in the time. Lately, we're playing a lot of "Enter the Gungeon". The mechanics are very similiar to a game I played lots of (Binding of Isaac), so I got in way quicker that he did, but I'm still in no way good because it's a different game after all.
There are some ups and downs (albeit way more downs) from then to now. I want to get better, I want to feel better, but right now I can do nothing but wait. Wait for the next semester to start, wait for my ankle to recover, wait for me to think nicer thoughts perhaps, wait for me to feel better, and wait for the immigration agency to finally approve my application. I hate waiting, but all I could do is wait. So right now, I am here, just typing out stuff. I guess I'm going to write up the Neutrals next as promised, and maybe that's the last time I'll do some introspection. Until then, to whoever that is reading, have a nice day, take care of your ankles, and don't forget to floss.
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| Figure 25.1: Sending my couchsurfer off |
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| Figure 25.2: A pair of snails |
Tuesday, 24 July 2018
Things I Love: Rock Music
So uh, I love rock music. I love all kinds of rock music, no matter the language, as long as it sounds nice, I probably will love it.
Back when I was a young boy, I listen exclusively to boy bands. Backstreet Boys, Westlife, 911, and many many more. Also whatever famous popstars that were famous around the late 90s/early 2000s. The Britney Spears, the NSyncs, Five, etc.... I believe my first encounter with rock music is when my brother bought a bootleg album of Blink 182's self title album. (Of course prior to that, I've listen to some Queen, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, whatevs, but it was usually from those compilation album so there's really no cohesion in the album, just a bunch of rock superhits one after another)
The opening of the album still gives me chills. It also gives me a warm comfortable feeling, because I'm so damn familiar with the album already, and it is one of the things in the world that I know I truly love. The self title album is also one of the only 6 albums I listen to sleep. Strangely enough, I don't listen to those soft classical music to sleep, but rock instead. Those albums are:
After that, it was the emo phase I believe. The My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boys, The Used, Panic! at the Disco, all those kind of things. Honestly, they kind of come and go. I don't listen to them as much as I used to, maybe just their hit songs here and there.
Around my secondary school years, I started watching lots of British TV series. From there, I got introduced to lots of them British bands. The Inbetweeners used the intro of Fluorescent Adolescent in of their episodes. I don't really recall what other bands are there, but from here on now, I discovered what I think is peak Rock n Roll. I know what I'm about to say would be sacrilege to some, but I think the sound of Oasis is what Rock n Roll is. My housemate, who's a fan of Queen would probably hate me just from stating that, and whoever else that read this line I guess, but it's just what I feel. I don't hate Queen, or Guns n Roses, or whatever other superbands of the pre millennium, heck I do listen to them, I find them really nice, but Oasis to me is just on another level. I tried to find more music that is similiar to Oasis but It just eludes me.
Until one day, I started watching anime. Personally, I think FLCL is as special as the anime movie, Your Name. I know that's going to sound weird, but hear me out. What these two have in common is that the soundtrack is entire composed by a rock band. The Director of both of these shows also change the scenes according to the music. So instead of picking music that fit the scenes, they pick the scenes that fit the music. It's a small difference but it plays a huge major role in execution. This means that scenes and the music are in sync, as though they were kind of made for each other. And Unlike Baby Driver (where the movies are also made to be in sync with the soundtrack), the soundtrack of these 2 animes were solely made by one artist (respectively); The Pillows and RADWIMPS. So not only there is a certain cohesion in the scenes, there's also cohesion in music in terms of the whole series. FLCL the anime itself is a mess (the good kind of mess). Anybody who says they understand what the hell is going in their first viewing are liars, it was deliberately made to be a mess, but the music though, it's basically Japanese Oasis. Strangely enough, the songs I love most from them are not those that sound like Oasis, but like a hybrid of Oasis and some other band, so the video underneath, what I believe, is a mix of Oasis and The Strokes.
Of course, these are not just all the music I listen to. In between, I listen to loads of alternative and indie rock. During secondary school, Britrock is not the only rock I've encountered. Thanks to FIFA 13 and the new app at the time, Spotify, I listen to loads and loads of indie. Vampire Weekend, Two Door Cinema Club, Bombay Bicycle Club, lots of clubs I realized. As you can see, I was "That Guy" back in secondary school. But you see, seeing as I'm not from the West, "That Guy" does not exist from where I'm from! Which makes my social status in secondary school even more muddled, because I don't fit in perfectly in most of the groups. My oh my, if only there were movies telling me that young adults doesn't have to be sorted in specific groups around that time, oh well.
After that, in College it was the rise of EDM and Psychedelic Rock I believe. College was the time where Avicii, Zedd, Hardwell, and that one 3 Swedish EDM band that was constantly on the radio, Swedish House Mafia. These are the more mainstream ones that were played in the radio. Psychedelic Rock that was popular around that time was Tame Impala. I don't know the rest because Tame Impala was the top and anything else was just like secondary music bands that people kind of look for themselves. Tame Impala never made it to Malaysian radio I believe, but it was one of those bands that everyone knew. It's considered the cool kids music at the time I guess. Car rides are usually blasted with the hard beats of Steve Aoki and immediately followed by the mellow beats of Tame Impala. And of course there are other genres of music, most specifically, that indie pop Lorde-esque music that shot up around that time. I never really got into the Tame Impala craze, because I think it got too repetitive. They repeat the chorus like 4 times rather than just ending the song, I know it's a bit hypocritical for me to say this because Oasis have songs where they repeat the chorus for like a whole 3 minutes continuously , making the song 9 minutes long, but who said that was one of my favourite songs?
I want to embed either my favourite Vampire Weekend song or my favourite Two Door Cinema Club song, but I guess I'll just embed one of them and link the other one. Just click on the band's name if you wanna hear the other favourite song of mine from the other band.
Anyway, speaking about Spotify... Around that time, I've constantly listened to only the bands I knew. I wanted to know more music, but I don't want to listen to whatever random music, I wanted to listen to new music similiar to the music I listen to! Queue Discover Weekly. Upon following my own Discover Weekly playlist (Your weekly mixtape of fresh music. Enjoy new discoveries and deep cuts chosen just for you. Updated every Monday, so save your facourites!), my oh my it's a whole new world of indie and alternative rock.
There are so many amazing songs I didn't know exists. Oh yeah, I know it's a bit late, but before you click on any of these links for music, for the best experience, it's TIME TO PUT DIE EARPHONES ON-
I don't know why too, my Discover Weekly started having songs from other language and countries. From there, I started listening to some Spanish music, some French music, some Italian music... Not all of them are rock though, but those that are rock, most of them I absolutely love them. If you're interested in hearing them, I'm gonna link it to you in this bullet list.
Now going back to some English rock tunes. I wanna talk about the Arctic Monkeys. No, I'm not going to talk about their latest album "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino". Instead, I'm going to talk about their least popular album, "Suck it and See". Suck it and See was pretty unfortunate in my opinion, in that it is a follow up of an extremely great psychedelic rock album "Humbug". Humbug to me feels gritty, visceral, kinda primal in a way, like there was no leash. When I say unleashed, I don't mean like a BEAST MODE 200bpm heavy metal track of sorts, but more.... or better yet, less civilized of sorts? The lyrics could be kind of stalker-y and the vibe it gives off is not the most comfortable. It's a strange feeling but it's absolutely amazing. That album gave us what I think is AM's best track, Cornerstone.
Right after Suck it and See is the absolutely boss AM. The one with "Do you wanna know?" and all that jazz. The one most people are familiar with. Suck it and See kind of went with the Rock Ballad direction. The lyrics aren't really like, Humbug, where it's kind of maybe rapey? It was sappy, there wasn't any spectacular riffs or awesome hooks. I admit that the entire middle tracks of Suck it and See is my least favourite songs of all of Arctic Monkey's music (excluding Tranquility blah blah blarghhguhh), but it starts and ends amazingly. I totally recommend listening to the last three song of the album as though as it were one song. To me, it feels like it continues the story of the previous songs that way. A few of the songs in the album has acoustic versions that comes in the form of a soundtrack for a movie that the lead made the soundtrack for. Most of the album I think should be heard continuously, and not as a single track. Just feels better that way. But if there is a song, I think it should be Black Treacle.
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This is a damn long blog post, I think I could even talk more but I think it's time. This is something, as you can tell, something that I absolutely love. I wrote this blog post while listening to the songs I linked and embed here, and most importantly, I wrote this post with a smile on my face. I hope you guys would give these songs a listen. I want you guys to experience something I truly love, and hopefully you'll fall in love with it too. If you don't like it, I don't blame you, it's probably not for you, but all these are kinda me? I don't know, I don't do this often? What is this? I don't know too, but THIS. AAAAHHHH, it's hard, it's difficult, but I digress, I hope you enjoyed this piece, as this piece was truly a piece of me.
Isn't it strange that throughout this entire piece, you should realized that Oasis plays a big part in my life (in a way), but there's not a single Oasis track linked? Yet, not even a "So here's Wonderwall" joke. Well then, I try not to disappoint, so here's not Wonderwall.
Back when I was a young boy, I listen exclusively to boy bands. Backstreet Boys, Westlife, 911, and many many more. Also whatever famous popstars that were famous around the late 90s/early 2000s. The Britney Spears, the NSyncs, Five, etc.... I believe my first encounter with rock music is when my brother bought a bootleg album of Blink 182's self title album. (Of course prior to that, I've listen to some Queen, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, whatevs, but it was usually from those compilation album so there's really no cohesion in the album, just a bunch of rock superhits one after another)
The opening of the album still gives me chills. It also gives me a warm comfortable feeling, because I'm so damn familiar with the album already, and it is one of the things in the world that I know I truly love. The self title album is also one of the only 6 albums I listen to sleep. Strangely enough, I don't listen to those soft classical music to sleep, but rock instead. Those albums are:
- Blink 182 - Blink 182
- Green Day - American Idiot
- Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
- Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
- Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See
- Arctic Monkeys - AM
In all honesty, there's only 3 band right there, and American Idiot isn't exactly a soft rock kind of sound like Suck It and See.
The first original (not bootleg) rock album me and my brother owned I believe was Linkin Park's Meteora. Oh yeah, by the way, back in my home country, bootleg albums are extremely common. These copies are like 10% of whatever CD stores are selling, so they cost as cheap as a bowl of noodle soup, while an original disk would cost as much as 10 bowls of noodle soup! So logically, as we're both little boys at the time, our parents wouldn't buy us some expensive CDs, because obviously we kids cannot appreciate such things. (We already owned the bootleg copy of Hybrid Theory by the way)
At the time, my brother and I were huge fans of Linkin Park (and still am, RIP Chester Bennington, you will be missed). We watched lots of MTV and channel V (another music channel), but we watch mostly channel V, because even back in the 2000s, MTV has more tv shows than music. We did watch lots of Punk'd and Pimp My Ride though! But I digress, I believe it was around 2003? I was just on one of these music channels watching music videos while listening to them, when suddenly an extremely foreign music video showed up. It was Linkin Park's "Somewhere I Belong". I was screaming at the living room, screaming for my brother to come. At that time, I have no idea that bands would release singles before they release the albums, so I was super excited and also super confused. Also, the Pts.Of.Athrty music video is really cool. My little boy brain can't handle how cool it is, and I still find it super cool.
After that, it was the emo phase I believe. The My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boys, The Used, Panic! at the Disco, all those kind of things. Honestly, they kind of come and go. I don't listen to them as much as I used to, maybe just their hit songs here and there.
Around my secondary school years, I started watching lots of British TV series. From there, I got introduced to lots of them British bands. The Inbetweeners used the intro of Fluorescent Adolescent in of their episodes. I don't really recall what other bands are there, but from here on now, I discovered what I think is peak Rock n Roll. I know what I'm about to say would be sacrilege to some, but I think the sound of Oasis is what Rock n Roll is. My housemate, who's a fan of Queen would probably hate me just from stating that, and whoever else that read this line I guess, but it's just what I feel. I don't hate Queen, or Guns n Roses, or whatever other superbands of the pre millennium, heck I do listen to them, I find them really nice, but Oasis to me is just on another level. I tried to find more music that is similiar to Oasis but It just eludes me.
Until one day, I started watching anime. Personally, I think FLCL is as special as the anime movie, Your Name. I know that's going to sound weird, but hear me out. What these two have in common is that the soundtrack is entire composed by a rock band. The Director of both of these shows also change the scenes according to the music. So instead of picking music that fit the scenes, they pick the scenes that fit the music. It's a small difference but it plays a huge major role in execution. This means that scenes and the music are in sync, as though they were kind of made for each other. And Unlike Baby Driver (where the movies are also made to be in sync with the soundtrack), the soundtrack of these 2 animes were solely made by one artist (respectively); The Pillows and RADWIMPS. So not only there is a certain cohesion in the scenes, there's also cohesion in music in terms of the whole series. FLCL the anime itself is a mess (the good kind of mess). Anybody who says they understand what the hell is going in their first viewing are liars, it was deliberately made to be a mess, but the music though, it's basically Japanese Oasis. Strangely enough, the songs I love most from them are not those that sound like Oasis, but like a hybrid of Oasis and some other band, so the video underneath, what I believe, is a mix of Oasis and The Strokes.
Of course, these are not just all the music I listen to. In between, I listen to loads of alternative and indie rock. During secondary school, Britrock is not the only rock I've encountered. Thanks to FIFA 13 and the new app at the time, Spotify, I listen to loads and loads of indie. Vampire Weekend, Two Door Cinema Club, Bombay Bicycle Club, lots of clubs I realized. As you can see, I was "That Guy" back in secondary school. But you see, seeing as I'm not from the West, "That Guy" does not exist from where I'm from! Which makes my social status in secondary school even more muddled, because I don't fit in perfectly in most of the groups. My oh my, if only there were movies telling me that young adults doesn't have to be sorted in specific groups around that time, oh well.
After that, in College it was the rise of EDM and Psychedelic Rock I believe. College was the time where Avicii, Zedd, Hardwell, and that one 3 Swedish EDM band that was constantly on the radio, Swedish House Mafia. These are the more mainstream ones that were played in the radio. Psychedelic Rock that was popular around that time was Tame Impala. I don't know the rest because Tame Impala was the top and anything else was just like secondary music bands that people kind of look for themselves. Tame Impala never made it to Malaysian radio I believe, but it was one of those bands that everyone knew. It's considered the cool kids music at the time I guess. Car rides are usually blasted with the hard beats of Steve Aoki and immediately followed by the mellow beats of Tame Impala. And of course there are other genres of music, most specifically, that indie pop Lorde-esque music that shot up around that time. I never really got into the Tame Impala craze, because I think it got too repetitive. They repeat the chorus like 4 times rather than just ending the song, I know it's a bit hypocritical for me to say this because Oasis have songs where they repeat the chorus for like a whole 3 minutes continuously , making the song 9 minutes long, but who said that was one of my favourite songs?
I want to embed either my favourite Vampire Weekend song or my favourite Two Door Cinema Club song, but I guess I'll just embed one of them and link the other one. Just click on the band's name if you wanna hear the other favourite song of mine from the other band.
Anyway, speaking about Spotify... Around that time, I've constantly listened to only the bands I knew. I wanted to know more music, but I don't want to listen to whatever random music, I wanted to listen to new music similiar to the music I listen to! Queue Discover Weekly. Upon following my own Discover Weekly playlist (Your weekly mixtape of fresh music. Enjoy new discoveries and deep cuts chosen just for you. Updated every Monday, so save your facourites!), my oh my it's a whole new world of indie and alternative rock.
There are so many amazing songs I didn't know exists. Oh yeah, I know it's a bit late, but before you click on any of these links for music, for the best experience, it's TIME TO PUT DIE EARPHONES ON-
I don't know why too, my Discover Weekly started having songs from other language and countries. From there, I started listening to some Spanish music, some French music, some Italian music... Not all of them are rock though, but those that are rock, most of them I absolutely love them. If you're interested in hearing them, I'm gonna link it to you in this bullet list.
- Some French Canadian rock
- Some Italian indie rock
- Malaysian rock baby!
- Some Mandarin Rock
- A legendary Cantonese rock song
Lately, I've been watching loads of anime, which means my Spotify history has lots of those poppy anime music. A few months ago, my Discover Weekly has been filled with poppy bubblegum J-pop. But as time goes on, Spotify somehow realized somethings, and started having more J-rock. Thus, a new era has dawn. I'm listening to lots of new J-rock now. I think maybe it's cause of how Japanese words are made up, which makes the inflections in their songs more similiar of those Mandarin songs I listen to back when I was young, but the rhythm and the music is still very much rock. A common misconception among my friends is that all Japanese songs are from anime, therefore its totes uncool and totally for weebs and stuff. Well some of them might be, but not all of them are. This song is not from any shows from what I could find, but I absolutely love it. I think it's one of the most played song on my playlist for this year right now. Sure, I may not understand what on earth the guy is singing about, and I don't think I successfully found any English translation of the lyrics, but you could feel it. Just give it a try.
While this other one is from an anime called "The Tatami Galaxy". The art style of this anime is not conventional anime (none of those moe eyes). My housemates thought I was watching a YouTube video rather than an actual show, because I must admit, it does look some YouTube animation kind of video. But whatever, check out this song which is the OP for this show.
Now going back to some English rock tunes. I wanna talk about the Arctic Monkeys. No, I'm not going to talk about their latest album "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino". Instead, I'm going to talk about their least popular album, "Suck it and See". Suck it and See was pretty unfortunate in my opinion, in that it is a follow up of an extremely great psychedelic rock album "Humbug". Humbug to me feels gritty, visceral, kinda primal in a way, like there was no leash. When I say unleashed, I don't mean like a BEAST MODE 200bpm heavy metal track of sorts, but more.... or better yet, less civilized of sorts? The lyrics could be kind of stalker-y and the vibe it gives off is not the most comfortable. It's a strange feeling but it's absolutely amazing. That album gave us what I think is AM's best track, Cornerstone.
Right after Suck it and See is the absolutely boss AM. The one with "Do you wanna know?" and all that jazz. The one most people are familiar with. Suck it and See kind of went with the Rock Ballad direction. The lyrics aren't really like, Humbug, where it's kind of maybe rapey? It was sappy, there wasn't any spectacular riffs or awesome hooks. I admit that the entire middle tracks of Suck it and See is my least favourite songs of all of Arctic Monkey's music (excluding Tranquility blah blah blarghhguhh), but it starts and ends amazingly. I totally recommend listening to the last three song of the album as though as it were one song. To me, it feels like it continues the story of the previous songs that way. A few of the songs in the album has acoustic versions that comes in the form of a soundtrack for a movie that the lead made the soundtrack for. Most of the album I think should be heard continuously, and not as a single track. Just feels better that way. But if there is a song, I think it should be Black Treacle.
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This is a damn long blog post, I think I could even talk more but I think it's time. This is something, as you can tell, something that I absolutely love. I wrote this blog post while listening to the songs I linked and embed here, and most importantly, I wrote this post with a smile on my face. I hope you guys would give these songs a listen. I want you guys to experience something I truly love, and hopefully you'll fall in love with it too. If you don't like it, I don't blame you, it's probably not for you, but all these are kinda me? I don't know, I don't do this often? What is this? I don't know too, but THIS. AAAAHHHH, it's hard, it's difficult, but I digress, I hope you enjoyed this piece, as this piece was truly a piece of me.
Isn't it strange that throughout this entire piece, you should realized that Oasis plays a big part in my life (in a way), but there's not a single Oasis track linked? Yet, not even a "So here's Wonderwall" joke. Well then, I try not to disappoint, so here's not Wonderwall.
Saturday, 21 July 2018
The Winter of 2018
As the Giantess leaves and the semester starts, this is the first time where I took a full course load and also work part time. Obviously, my life got really hectic and busy. And I guess when life gets busy, one tends to neglect the other stuff. Unfortunately, I kinda neglected the Giantess throughout the semester. Not only I am taking advance level courses (which means I have to spend lots of time on them to even get it), the time differences between us plays a huge part too I guess. The times where I am finally free (which probably around 9pm) also means that she's no longer awake of sorts. Time differences sucksssss.
A few nice things happen though. This semester is the semester when I began some of my favourite routines. I am now a member of the MUN Aikido club, and I regularly play Dungeons & Dragons. There was also this one post-exam trip to Carbonear. There was not much to do there, all we did is stay home and watch old VCR movies and eat those store-bought frozen ice cream cake. Sure we could do this in our own home, but it's different. At that moment, there was no other distractions. We were in some ghost town gouging down junk food while watching corny 90s films. It's pretty zen.
A few nice things happen though. This semester is the semester when I began some of my favourite routines. I am now a member of the MUN Aikido club, and I regularly play Dungeons & Dragons. There was also this one post-exam trip to Carbonear. There was not much to do there, all we did is stay home and watch old VCR movies and eat those store-bought frozen ice cream cake. Sure we could do this in our own home, but it's different. At that moment, there was no other distractions. We were in some ghost town gouging down junk food while watching corny 90s films. It's pretty zen.
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| Figure 23.1: Aikido |
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| Figure 23.2: Dungeons & Dragons |
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| Figure 23.3: Carbonear staycation |
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
2017: ¡Tres!
So this part is post-Sweden. I guess three huge things happened in the final moments of 2017. I could separate it into three parts but nahhh, it's not that long anyway.
The first is that my housemate and I moved. So I touched down, got to my house, did not unpack and went to sleep in my housemate's room, because the next 24 hours is just more packing and moving of things. I didn't sleep much in that 48 hours, and apparently the house has loads and loads of junk. We were packing as we were moving. I think we started early in the morning and we finally finished moving the next day at around 4am. I believe I slept on the floor that night because I haven't unpack yet and I didn't want to sleep on an un-sheeted naked mattress. I also did not shower as I was just plain knackered. The next few days after that is just a bunch of unpacking and assembling of things we disassembled during the move or some new furniture we bought. Turns out, as really cheap students, we don't have lots of the high end tools that made the assembling easy. Luckily though, we moved into a more "family" neighbourhood, and they have a bunch of amazing tools that we borrowed.
The next big thing is more of a lifestyle change than a physical one. This is also the part where I got knee-deep into anime. It all started with my friend recommending me Doki Doki Literature Club. It was free, and I heard it was short, so I decided to try it out. The game isn't even made by Japanese, it's just a Japanese visual novel style game made by some American dude who plays Smash Bros. That was the impetus needed for me to give anime a second chance. (I used to watch anime on TV back home, but the constant advertisement breaks, horrible timing, lousy choices of anime, and horrible Malay dubs made me lose interest in anime)
I've heard Kill la Kill was good. I've always seen and heard reference of it, so I decided to give it a try. Even right now, I believe I use more Crunchyroll than Netflix.
Lastly, at the end of the year, the Giantess came and visit St John's for a week. The weather was a mess, but it doesn't matter because when in St John's, it's the company that counts. We couldn't do much due to weather constraints and basically, the lack of activity to do in a snow stormy St John's. But it was nice! Despite that, we try to do our best with the hand that we were dealt with, and I had lots of fun! We celebrated the new years together and there we go, time for 2018!
The first is that my housemate and I moved. So I touched down, got to my house, did not unpack and went to sleep in my housemate's room, because the next 24 hours is just more packing and moving of things. I didn't sleep much in that 48 hours, and apparently the house has loads and loads of junk. We were packing as we were moving. I think we started early in the morning and we finally finished moving the next day at around 4am. I believe I slept on the floor that night because I haven't unpack yet and I didn't want to sleep on an un-sheeted naked mattress. I also did not shower as I was just plain knackered. The next few days after that is just a bunch of unpacking and assembling of things we disassembled during the move or some new furniture we bought. Turns out, as really cheap students, we don't have lots of the high end tools that made the assembling easy. Luckily though, we moved into a more "family" neighbourhood, and they have a bunch of amazing tools that we borrowed.
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| Figure 22.1: Our last meal in our old home |
The next big thing is more of a lifestyle change than a physical one. This is also the part where I got knee-deep into anime. It all started with my friend recommending me Doki Doki Literature Club. It was free, and I heard it was short, so I decided to try it out. The game isn't even made by Japanese, it's just a Japanese visual novel style game made by some American dude who plays Smash Bros. That was the impetus needed for me to give anime a second chance. (I used to watch anime on TV back home, but the constant advertisement breaks, horrible timing, lousy choices of anime, and horrible Malay dubs made me lose interest in anime)
I've heard Kill la Kill was good. I've always seen and heard reference of it, so I decided to give it a try. Even right now, I believe I use more Crunchyroll than Netflix.
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| Figure 22.2: Where it all started |
Lastly, at the end of the year, the Giantess came and visit St John's for a week. The weather was a mess, but it doesn't matter because when in St John's, it's the company that counts. We couldn't do much due to weather constraints and basically, the lack of activity to do in a snow stormy St John's. But it was nice! Despite that, we try to do our best with the hand that we were dealt with, and I had lots of fun! We celebrated the new years together and there we go, time for 2018!
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| Figure 22.3: Bad bad bad weather |
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| Figure 22.4: Downtown St John's |
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| Figure 22.5: Uncanny valley fried egg |
Saturday, 14 July 2018
2017: ¡Dos! ¡Sverige!
I guess it's time for the meat of the part two of this three part three part thing!
For the first part of Sweden, I guess I am mostly studying. Sure I went out with people from time to time, for drinks and what not, but mostly I go out because of uni.
Luckily, during my stay, I was able to attend lots of the days, such as Easter's or Midsummers, and also, my birthday! For Easter's, the giantess even treated me to a movie she does not care about. It's a movie about cars fighting a submarine or something like that. There's also something about a baby and Jason Statham.
One of my more consistent going-out activities during my stay would be watching Juventus games with some Italians. I guess that year, we got till the finals, that's why we get to have this thing going on for so long.
Somewhere during my stay, the Giantess went to Estonia for a week long teacher's thing. I don't know what is it called and I'm too lazy to elaborate. It's not really a vacation as it's a university thing.
That week is also the same week as Valborg. I've been constantly hyped up about Valborg, a day in which you go to a park, and eat and drink. Her friends invited me out to the park, and boy oh boy, Swedes do love their sunshine and beer. We just sat around and talked. At times like this, I don't know, if I should have went with some of the other exchange students or not. For one, it's super nice that they invited me out and stuff, but I was the only one who does not speak Swedish. Feels kind of bad that I kind of had to make the entire group (there's like 6+ people) speak English. But for what it's worth, I had fun. After 5 months of living with someone, it feels super strange when they're suddenly not there anymore. I simply just walk around the apartment and do stuff.
Most of the activities are done after the semester is done (because there's more time duh). One of the activity I really liked was going to the nearby airplane museum (or war museum? It feels more appropriate). One of the coolest thing I find about the airplane museum is that they have these time rooms thing, where you enter these part of the museum and they redecorated the place to look like an average home of that time period. Especially after WWII, pretty much all of the West are in the Cold War, and obviously Sweden is stuck in it too. Sweden is situated pretty close to the Soviet Union, so there's always that threat. Not only that, Sweden was (and still I believe) not part of NATO, because of some reasons that I can't remember, so reading whatever English pamphlet they had was super interesting. Also, I suck at airplane simulation games.
A month after that, we did this journey thing where we went to Jonköping, Gothenburg, and the hometown of the Giantess, somewhere between Växjö and Ljungby. Apparently, Jonköping has some amazing ice cream but we didn't get any from the famous stall because the line was extremely long, so we just walk around the place and stuff. It was also really hard to find parking. We went to Gothenburg after that. I'm amazed I didn't take any pictures in the Universeum, I absolutely love that place with all the animals and stuff. The tropical part of it is so humid that it reminds me of home and showers. We also went to Liseberg in which I dumped so much money into this candy gambling thing and I won nothing, but she did! We also rode this spinny card ride thing that my parents will definitely not ride. The spinny ride thing was apparently her favourite ride in the park. I didn't bring contact lenses and I was afraid of my glasses dropping off, so we didn't go to the roller coaster ride unfortunately. BUT, I DID FIND AN ARCADE! I can't believe they have a DDR machine! My pockets were basically jingling with coins and stuff!
We also visited the Botanical Garden. I also like gardens. They're nice and soothing (but don't forget to bring a bottle of water!).
After that, we then head down south to her hometown. Over there, we had one of the more peaceful trips. It was also very sunny, so most of the chocolate we (or more accurately, she) got from the candy gambling thing in was in a semi-melted kind of state. It was peaceful, I met some of her extended family and helped fixed a chair. We also went geocaching but had to turn back because of fear of rain. Also, I am afraid of snakes. We went to this lake place where lots of locals were swimming and I almost immediately noped out when I saw a water snake. Unfortunately, I saw the water snake when I was on a platform that is a distance away from land, so I got kinda panicky. Somewhere in the middle, we went to this museum thing and now this song is stuck in my head forever.
We went back to Linköping and spent most of our time there. We had some day trips, and as my trips is getting close to the end, I sold my bike, and we went to Stockholm for a few days and bid each other farewell. Kind of sad, there may or may not be tears, and then I flew and she had to rush back for work. And thus, my Swedish journey ends. There may be some stuff happening in between but I don't wanna bore ya.
Picture time!
For the first part of Sweden, I guess I am mostly studying. Sure I went out with people from time to time, for drinks and what not, but mostly I go out because of uni.
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| Figure 21.1: Why is it all Asians? :hmmm: |
Luckily, during my stay, I was able to attend lots of the days, such as Easter's or Midsummers, and also, my birthday! For Easter's, the giantess even treated me to a movie she does not care about. It's a movie about cars fighting a submarine or something like that. There's also something about a baby and Jason Statham.
One of my more consistent going-out activities during my stay would be watching Juventus games with some Italians. I guess that year, we got till the finals, that's why we get to have this thing going on for so long.
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| Figure 21.2: Watching a game |
Somewhere during my stay, the Giantess went to Estonia for a week long teacher's thing. I don't know what is it called and I'm too lazy to elaborate. It's not really a vacation as it's a university thing.
That week is also the same week as Valborg. I've been constantly hyped up about Valborg, a day in which you go to a park, and eat and drink. Her friends invited me out to the park, and boy oh boy, Swedes do love their sunshine and beer. We just sat around and talked. At times like this, I don't know, if I should have went with some of the other exchange students or not. For one, it's super nice that they invited me out and stuff, but I was the only one who does not speak Swedish. Feels kind of bad that I kind of had to make the entire group (there's like 6+ people) speak English. But for what it's worth, I had fun. After 5 months of living with someone, it feels super strange when they're suddenly not there anymore. I simply just walk around the apartment and do stuff.
Most of the activities are done after the semester is done (because there's more time duh). One of the activity I really liked was going to the nearby airplane museum (or war museum? It feels more appropriate). One of the coolest thing I find about the airplane museum is that they have these time rooms thing, where you enter these part of the museum and they redecorated the place to look like an average home of that time period. Especially after WWII, pretty much all of the West are in the Cold War, and obviously Sweden is stuck in it too. Sweden is situated pretty close to the Soviet Union, so there's always that threat. Not only that, Sweden was (and still I believe) not part of NATO, because of some reasons that I can't remember, so reading whatever English pamphlet they had was super interesting. Also, I suck at airplane simulation games.
A month after that, we did this journey thing where we went to Jonköping, Gothenburg, and the hometown of the Giantess, somewhere between Växjö and Ljungby. Apparently, Jonköping has some amazing ice cream but we didn't get any from the famous stall because the line was extremely long, so we just walk around the place and stuff. It was also really hard to find parking. We went to Gothenburg after that. I'm amazed I didn't take any pictures in the Universeum, I absolutely love that place with all the animals and stuff. The tropical part of it is so humid that it reminds me of home and showers. We also went to Liseberg in which I dumped so much money into this candy gambling thing and I won nothing, but she did! We also rode this spinny card ride thing that my parents will definitely not ride. The spinny ride thing was apparently her favourite ride in the park. I didn't bring contact lenses and I was afraid of my glasses dropping off, so we didn't go to the roller coaster ride unfortunately. BUT, I DID FIND AN ARCADE! I can't believe they have a DDR machine! My pockets were basically jingling with coins and stuff!
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| Figure 21.3: Night lights @ Liseberg |
We also visited the Botanical Garden. I also like gardens. They're nice and soothing (but don't forget to bring a bottle of water!).
After that, we then head down south to her hometown. Over there, we had one of the more peaceful trips. It was also very sunny, so most of the chocolate we (or more accurately, she) got from the candy gambling thing in was in a semi-melted kind of state. It was peaceful, I met some of her extended family and helped fixed a chair. We also went geocaching but had to turn back because of fear of rain. Also, I am afraid of snakes. We went to this lake place where lots of locals were swimming and I almost immediately noped out when I saw a water snake. Unfortunately, I saw the water snake when I was on a platform that is a distance away from land, so I got kinda panicky. Somewhere in the middle, we went to this museum thing and now this song is stuck in my head forever.
We went back to Linköping and spent most of our time there. We had some day trips, and as my trips is getting close to the end, I sold my bike, and we went to Stockholm for a few days and bid each other farewell. Kind of sad, there may or may not be tears, and then I flew and she had to rush back for work. And thus, my Swedish journey ends. There may be some stuff happening in between but I don't wanna bore ya.
Picture time!
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| Figure 21.4: Valborg! |
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| Figure 21.5: Airplane museum, with those rooms thing in the back |
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| Figure 21.6: Jonköping |
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| Figure 21.7: Spinny car ride |
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| Figure 21.8: Botanical garden |
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| Figure 21.9: Some place around her home |
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| Figure 21.10: My trusty bike (has no gear though) |
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| Figure 21.11: Alvastra Abbey |
Thursday, 12 July 2018
The Good?
This is a follow up of "The Bad". I bet one of the things you are wondering is, "why the '?'?" Well, what I believe, is that if you are to compare the content of this and the other one, you may feel like: "Hey, this isn't really good.... it's like superficial good! Like, feeling good after watching a Disney movie, only to go back home to your mountain of assignments, kind of good." Well, I do what I can, if you have read the other one, you probably would understand more.
The thing I will list is very.... as I said... superficial. But, as my physio said, "your outer muscles have to recover first, only then we can work on your inner muscles." So let's just stretch what she said and interpret it as, "we gotta fix the outside first (the physical part), then we can move on to the inner part (emotional, mental, I dunno.... not physical?)
Well, for starters, I got a Polaroid camera. I've always wanted a Polaroid, I've been researching it for months. I guess maybe it's like an impulse buy or something to try and soothe myself but hey I love it, and now I have it.
I guess the other thing that keeps me sane is my room. Over the past few weeks, I've been constantly working on my room. Cleaning, tidying, getting rid of stuffs, and more tidying/cleaning. I have considerably little material things (for a university student at least). Ever since my exchange in Sweden, I have picked up the habit of living with fewer things. I realized I don't need that many things to be happy. (Kind of cheating in the 21st century, as the computer can do so many things, which makes me not require much other stuff)
Due to my ankle injury, I'm kinda chair-bound, which means I have been reading a lot. My "to-read" pile of literature (books/comics/whatevs) have finally seen more progress in this past few weeks, in comparison to the whole year. I bet some of you might think, "hey, you're just trying to distract yourself/block yourself from whatever inner pain you're enduring." Well, you're mostly right, but I am still reading, and reading is good.
I've also began to try and pick up Python (the programming language). I've been looking up on jobs in which my degree is acceptable (BSc in Statistics), and I noticed that many of these job offerings want candidates who knows Python. This at first, made me regret that I did not pick Computer Science as my minor, then I think back and actually, I had lots of fun with my German minor. My German minor helped me made lots of friends, I learnt some new physical language, and most importantly, I had lots of fun during those classes! So no! No regrets there!
I know that lots of these are activities, but hey, it's what I need. Next up would be the neutrals then. I wouldn't call them neither good nor bad, but it's more of they're both good and bad for me.
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| Figure 20.1: My room! |
Tuesday, 10 July 2018
The Bad
So, I've been not in a very nice place lately. Many things has happened so maybe I thought by writing about it, it would help in one way or the other.
Where to begin, it started around a month ago. Assignments were piling up and exams were coming up. Not only that, I sprained my ankle horribly during my weekly football games. It was so bad that I couldn't stand, and needed 2 people to carry me around my own house. I didn't change or brush my teeth or anything that night, I could not physically do it, that's how painful the ankle was. The next day, my girlfriend broke up with me. The day after that was exam week. It was a well coordinated three-pronged strike between my university, my ex, and my body I guess. I didn't stand a chance.
I did not break down immediately though. I told myself: "Jeez, what a weekend. If I were to break down, I'm gonna do it after the exams." So I went through the exam week as normal, except with one less habit of speaking to someone beforehand, and also on crutches. Boy oh boy do crutches catches people's attention. My professors and employers were super nice and accommodated my condition. I was given the seat right next to the door and my work does not involve any of the "mobile" parts. I finished my exams and went to work. Not 30 minutes into it, I could feel it creeping up. I told my boss that I would like to go home and rest (having crutches helps misdirect whatever emotions I'm feeling). I called a cab home (I spent so much on taxi that week), and just weep.
After that week, mysteriously, the traditional summer came. Hot weather, no rain, no SNOW, sunny skies, etc. Oh, what did I do in my previous life to deserve this? People say that exercise is one of the best thing to do after a break up, but I couldn't do it as much as I want to. Every time I limp by a football field and see people playing on it, it makes me sad. I want to run around chasing a ball and stuff too. It's an extremely emasculating feeling, that after a break up, you literally could not physically stand up, that you need someone's help to even go down the stairs. It was horrible.
I don't know how well you know me, but I tend to keep people away with a "stick" of sorts. I tend to not get too chummy with people around me. Trust issues or something? I don't know, but that's just how I roll. The only people that I kind of not poke them too hard with the "stick" I guess is the people I date, and with that gone, not only it gets kind of lonely (obviously), I don't really have anyone to share this kind of sorrow with. I know some of you might think, "Hey, just go talk to your other friends" or "Come talk to me!", but it's not that simple. It never is that simple.
And till this day, my ankle and myself has not yet fully recovered. Although I can walk, my physio (and myself) advised me not to do any sports first. All I could do is walk. I couldn't even do those fast walk, because that would hurt my ankle. Every time there is a stinging pain, it reminds me of the break up. All I'm doing is sitting down indoors in a sunny day, living an extremely sedimentary lifestyle. I feel absolutely worthless. Like I'm this fat pig who couldn't move on (physically and emotionally) or something. I have not went to sleep with a smile (or even a neutral face) in a while. It's the absolute worst.
I'll try to write some good things about my life in the moment, but I guess that'll take some time.
Where to begin, it started around a month ago. Assignments were piling up and exams were coming up. Not only that, I sprained my ankle horribly during my weekly football games. It was so bad that I couldn't stand, and needed 2 people to carry me around my own house. I didn't change or brush my teeth or anything that night, I could not physically do it, that's how painful the ankle was. The next day, my girlfriend broke up with me. The day after that was exam week. It was a well coordinated three-pronged strike between my university, my ex, and my body I guess. I didn't stand a chance.
I did not break down immediately though. I told myself: "Jeez, what a weekend. If I were to break down, I'm gonna do it after the exams." So I went through the exam week as normal, except with one less habit of speaking to someone beforehand, and also on crutches. Boy oh boy do crutches catches people's attention. My professors and employers were super nice and accommodated my condition. I was given the seat right next to the door and my work does not involve any of the "mobile" parts. I finished my exams and went to work. Not 30 minutes into it, I could feel it creeping up. I told my boss that I would like to go home and rest (having crutches helps misdirect whatever emotions I'm feeling). I called a cab home (I spent so much on taxi that week), and just weep.
After that week, mysteriously, the traditional summer came. Hot weather, no rain, no SNOW, sunny skies, etc. Oh, what did I do in my previous life to deserve this? People say that exercise is one of the best thing to do after a break up, but I couldn't do it as much as I want to. Every time I limp by a football field and see people playing on it, it makes me sad. I want to run around chasing a ball and stuff too. It's an extremely emasculating feeling, that after a break up, you literally could not physically stand up, that you need someone's help to even go down the stairs. It was horrible.
I don't know how well you know me, but I tend to keep people away with a "stick" of sorts. I tend to not get too chummy with people around me. Trust issues or something? I don't know, but that's just how I roll. The only people that I kind of not poke them too hard with the "stick" I guess is the people I date, and with that gone, not only it gets kind of lonely (obviously), I don't really have anyone to share this kind of sorrow with. I know some of you might think, "Hey, just go talk to your other friends" or "Come talk to me!", but it's not that simple. It never is that simple.
And till this day, my ankle and myself has not yet fully recovered. Although I can walk, my physio (and myself) advised me not to do any sports first. All I could do is walk. I couldn't even do those fast walk, because that would hurt my ankle. Every time there is a stinging pain, it reminds me of the break up. All I'm doing is sitting down indoors in a sunny day, living an extremely sedimentary lifestyle. I feel absolutely worthless. Like I'm this fat pig who couldn't move on (physically and emotionally) or something. I have not went to sleep with a smile (or even a neutral face) in a while. It's the absolute worst.
I'll try to write some good things about my life in the moment, but I guess that'll take some time.
Sunday, 8 July 2018
2017: ¡Dos! Trip with Mom
Throughout her life, my mom has always wanted to visit Europe, or more specifically, London (funnily, she has been even further west, to the States and Canada, but not Europe). And now that I'm here, I constantly coaxed my mom to come to Europe. After many weeks of deliberating, she finally accepted, and here she comes!
She came for 2 weeks. The original plan was for her to visit Sweden, Denmark, the UK, and Finland. That idea was immediately shot down by everyone but my mom (more specifically, Finland). We all think that Helsinki is a bit too far (and troublesome) for a 2 weeks trip, if we still want to visit the rest of the places I just mentioned. So, the itinerary is: Stockholm > Copenhagen > Linköping > UK > Stockholm. I went to Stockholm and meet up with her at the central train station, and then off we go with our adventures!
We are only in Stockholm for 2-3 days. I believe the main point of this part of the trip is to let her settle in to the time zone, because she is probably jet-lagged. We didn't do much touring in this 2-3 days, just walking around the touristy area and eat. We get to our airbnb pretty early and sleep pretty early. I do know she sleeps around 7pm and wakes up around 4am in these days, so that kinda sucks. Anyway, after that, then off we go to Copenhagen (by train)!
We spent a few good days here (4 I think). We visited lots of the main attractions of the place. We even checked out the Carlsberg museum/factory, rode horses, took those hour long boat tours. I drank lots of beer in this city, because I like to experience all these new kinds of beers. My mom likes to drink too, but she controlled herself and only take a few sips from my pints. She says she's no longer in that age to drink like I can anymore (all the more reason to skip Helsinki!). This trip was mostly walking around and faffing about, nothing much too. We then take the train back to Linköping, introduced the Giantess to my mom, stayed there for just a night I believe, and then off we go to the airport!
Apparently, we came in the hottest summer in the recent history of London. It was floating around 36-40 degrees Celsius everyday. Our little "hotel" has 1 power plug, extremely poor wifi, and a bathroom with no vents I believe, but hey, it's cheap! For the first time in awhile, I get to eat some proper Chinese food! The Chinatown here has some really delicious Chinese food (and I believe ALL of our meals in London was at Chinatown). I missed that part of town very much already. Anyway, we did some mini excursions to some other cities while we're at London. We went to Oxford and Bath. Bath was my personal recommendation, I believe my mom wanted to go somewhere else but I insisted we got to Bath instead. No regrets for me! We went to Oxford but we didn't really visited the university grounds (ex: that Harry Potter place), because we didn't want to pay for the entrance ticket. We decided to go to the Oxford botanical gardens instead. My mom really loves to look at flowers, so we spent lots of time there.
Some other day, we visited Bath. We checked out the Roman Baths, the Royal Cresent, and just simply walking around the place. In the evening, I attended Bath's Comedy Walk. Boy oh boy was it funny.
When in London, of course we did the tourist thing such as visiting the museums, checking out a Broadway show (Wicked). Funny thing about Wicked, my mom didn't want to go. She said that her English is not good enough to enjoy all these things. While arguing, I kinda led us to the place where they sell tickets. And since we're there, we might as well just ask about it. Tickets was extremely expensive, but there was this last minute ticket, right at the front row, for like £10 each? Really cheap! We got it and the show was that night itself. Turns out, my mom has no idea what the hell is happening, but she enjoyed it very much. She said she was just enjoying the choreography, music, and the costumes. If she likes it, she likes it.
I also recommended the Camden Market (or at least, the Giantess recommended it to me). I figured, "hey, if she likes this place so much, it must be cool!". Camden Market is not a place for a conservative Eastern mom to visit. She felt extremely uncomfortable during our entire stay there. I think we were only there for a few hours before she wanted to bounce. A funny thing happened though: there's this really techno-rave thing in the market. It has a giant robot decoration outside and all the things. I honestly thought it was an arcade, I was so psyched that I could finally play some arcade games. The place where you go in has like people dancing in cages or something up there (oh yeah, my mom did not follow me in), and they were selling lots and lots of accessories, like, hardstyle shuffling accessories those kind of things. I'm like ok, where's the arcade? So I kept on going down and down, and it gets more and more fluorescent/TRON-y, until I reached the most bottom floor, still looking for the arcade. It seems like I have entered the area where they sell some BDSM, kinky stuff. I did a 180 and basically speedwalk back out.
After the London trip, we went back to Stockholm, stayed for awhile, and then I send my mom off. And thus, the trip with my mom ends. Here are some pictures:
She came for 2 weeks. The original plan was for her to visit Sweden, Denmark, the UK, and Finland. That idea was immediately shot down by everyone but my mom (more specifically, Finland). We all think that Helsinki is a bit too far (and troublesome) for a 2 weeks trip, if we still want to visit the rest of the places I just mentioned. So, the itinerary is: Stockholm > Copenhagen > Linköping > UK > Stockholm. I went to Stockholm and meet up with her at the central train station, and then off we go with our adventures!
We are only in Stockholm for 2-3 days. I believe the main point of this part of the trip is to let her settle in to the time zone, because she is probably jet-lagged. We didn't do much touring in this 2-3 days, just walking around the touristy area and eat. We get to our airbnb pretty early and sleep pretty early. I do know she sleeps around 7pm and wakes up around 4am in these days, so that kinda sucks. Anyway, after that, then off we go to Copenhagen (by train)!
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| Figure 18.1: Copenhagen! |
Apparently, we came in the hottest summer in the recent history of London. It was floating around 36-40 degrees Celsius everyday. Our little "hotel" has 1 power plug, extremely poor wifi, and a bathroom with no vents I believe, but hey, it's cheap! For the first time in awhile, I get to eat some proper Chinese food! The Chinatown here has some really delicious Chinese food (and I believe ALL of our meals in London was at Chinatown). I missed that part of town very much already. Anyway, we did some mini excursions to some other cities while we're at London. We went to Oxford and Bath. Bath was my personal recommendation, I believe my mom wanted to go somewhere else but I insisted we got to Bath instead. No regrets for me! We went to Oxford but we didn't really visited the university grounds (ex: that Harry Potter place), because we didn't want to pay for the entrance ticket. We decided to go to the Oxford botanical gardens instead. My mom really loves to look at flowers, so we spent lots of time there.
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| Figure 18.2: I think this is the botanical garden |
Some other day, we visited Bath. We checked out the Roman Baths, the Royal Cresent, and just simply walking around the place. In the evening, I attended Bath's Comedy Walk. Boy oh boy was it funny.
When in London, of course we did the tourist thing such as visiting the museums, checking out a Broadway show (Wicked). Funny thing about Wicked, my mom didn't want to go. She said that her English is not good enough to enjoy all these things. While arguing, I kinda led us to the place where they sell tickets. And since we're there, we might as well just ask about it. Tickets was extremely expensive, but there was this last minute ticket, right at the front row, for like £10 each? Really cheap! We got it and the show was that night itself. Turns out, my mom has no idea what the hell is happening, but she enjoyed it very much. She said she was just enjoying the choreography, music, and the costumes. If she likes it, she likes it.
I also recommended the Camden Market (or at least, the Giantess recommended it to me). I figured, "hey, if she likes this place so much, it must be cool!". Camden Market is not a place for a conservative Eastern mom to visit. She felt extremely uncomfortable during our entire stay there. I think we were only there for a few hours before she wanted to bounce. A funny thing happened though: there's this really techno-rave thing in the market. It has a giant robot decoration outside and all the things. I honestly thought it was an arcade, I was so psyched that I could finally play some arcade games. The place where you go in has like people dancing in cages or something up there (oh yeah, my mom did not follow me in), and they were selling lots and lots of accessories, like, hardstyle shuffling accessories those kind of things. I'm like ok, where's the arcade? So I kept on going down and down, and it gets more and more fluorescent/TRON-y, until I reached the most bottom floor, still looking for the arcade. It seems like I have entered the area where they sell some BDSM, kinky stuff. I did a 180 and basically speedwalk back out.
After the London trip, we went back to Stockholm, stayed for awhile, and then I send my mom off. And thus, the trip with my mom ends. Here are some pictures:
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| Figure 18.3: Dim sum = Asian Tapas |
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| Figure 18.4: Streets of Copenhagen |
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| Figure 18.5: The first fried chicken I had since entering Scandinavia |
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| Figure 18.6: Copenhagen |
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| Figure 18.7: At Oxford. Kids chilling under a tree |
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| Figure 18.8: Buckingham Palace |
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| Figure 18.9: The Queen! |
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| Figure 18.10: Assyrians got no chill |
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| Figure 18.11: Defying gravity |
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| Figure 18.12: The Masonic Museum @ Bath |
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| Figure 18.13: Tea and scones @ Bath |
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| Figure 18.14: Our tour guide for the comedy walk |
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| Figure 18.15: Notting Hill Market |
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| Figure 18.16: The Royal Djurgården |
Saturday, 7 July 2018
2017: ¡Dos! Italy & Spain
So part 2 is supposed to highlight what happened in mid 2017, but too many things happened mid 2017, so I'm gonna split part 2 into 3 parts. It's a bit convoluted but it's my blog!
Now that I'm residing in Europe, I believe it was a good opportunity to finally visit Turin, the home city of Juventus FC. There are no cheap direct flights to Turin, so I have to stop by Milan Bergamo. It's this quaint little city outside of Milan, not really big, but really beautiful.
I know that Italians don't really speak English, but I was not expecting this. Pretty much NOBODY speaks English (unless you're in a tourist area, then prepare to pay). It was a horrible "social" experience, where I could not communicate with anyone at all. All I did was walk around, smile, and take pictures, like a typical Asian tourist.
So I spoke almost to no one in Italy, except for like gelato people and McDonald's staff (McDonald's has and will always be a safe haven). It's pretty cool that the McDonald's here has an espresso bar. People come in, drop €2 or €3 on the counter, take a shot of espresso and leaves. Usually these people that take the shots are working class people (I assume because they usually wear business suits).
After that, then off I go to Madrid! Madrid was not really a planned thing. There was also talks of meeting up with this friend, Maps. Maps was studying in Strasbourg, and was constantly asking me to visit her there. Fortunately, she went back home to Madrid for the summer, that's when I decided to pay her a visit. She brought me around the city of Madrid, and just like Italy, no one speaks English. Thankfully, I have her as a translator.
She brought me to visit the sights such as the palace, some church, the Bernabéu, and other stuff. She introduced me to this magical summer drink called "Horchata", it's one of the greatest non-alcoholic drink I had during my stay in Europe. We hung out, ate food, and stuff. Maps, if you're reading this, sorry for flooding your handbag.
This Italy-Spain trip is a very short trip, in which my main goal is simply just: visit Juventus Stadium, visit Maps. This isn't one of those highly planned, super precise kind of trip, more of a "eh, sure" kind of trip.
Some pictures:
Now that I'm residing in Europe, I believe it was a good opportunity to finally visit Turin, the home city of Juventus FC. There are no cheap direct flights to Turin, so I have to stop by Milan Bergamo. It's this quaint little city outside of Milan, not really big, but really beautiful.
I know that Italians don't really speak English, but I was not expecting this. Pretty much NOBODY speaks English (unless you're in a tourist area, then prepare to pay). It was a horrible "social" experience, where I could not communicate with anyone at all. All I did was walk around, smile, and take pictures, like a typical Asian tourist.
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| Figure 17.1: Thankfully, due to life experiences, I know Patata = Potato |
So I spoke almost to no one in Italy, except for like gelato people and McDonald's staff (McDonald's has and will always be a safe haven). It's pretty cool that the McDonald's here has an espresso bar. People come in, drop €2 or €3 on the counter, take a shot of espresso and leaves. Usually these people that take the shots are working class people (I assume because they usually wear business suits).
After that, then off I go to Madrid! Madrid was not really a planned thing. There was also talks of meeting up with this friend, Maps. Maps was studying in Strasbourg, and was constantly asking me to visit her there. Fortunately, she went back home to Madrid for the summer, that's when I decided to pay her a visit. She brought me around the city of Madrid, and just like Italy, no one speaks English. Thankfully, I have her as a translator.
She brought me to visit the sights such as the palace, some church, the Bernabéu, and other stuff. She introduced me to this magical summer drink called "Horchata", it's one of the greatest non-alcoholic drink I had during my stay in Europe. We hung out, ate food, and stuff. Maps, if you're reading this, sorry for flooding your handbag.
This Italy-Spain trip is a very short trip, in which my main goal is simply just: visit Juventus Stadium, visit Maps. This isn't one of those highly planned, super precise kind of trip, more of a "eh, sure" kind of trip.
Some pictures:
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| Figure 17.2: You know it |
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| Figure 17.3: My Italian cousin? |
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| Figure 17.4: Streets of Turin |
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| Figure 17.5: Graffiti of Turin |
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| Figure 17.6: Lovely little road of Bergamo |
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| Figure 17.7: Ditto |
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| Figure 17.8: Bergamo |
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| Figure 17.9: I THINK this is the royal palace of Madrid |
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| Figure 17.10: 100 Montaditos. It's a great place, hard to find a seat though. |
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| Figure 17.11: I didn't go in, wasn't willing to spend €30 just for the entrance. |
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| Figure 17.12: Now you know what's GoT in Spanish |
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| Figure 17.13: Refugees Welcome |
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