I can see clearly now

Right now, I can actually see where I could be in three, four, five years' time.

I've never been able to do that before.

Planning could never keep up with change, but I've mapped this out in my head, and I'm a little in love with all the possibilities.

Now I just have to make this a reality.

Yumcha cravings

Suddenly regretting not eating yumcha to my heart's content everyday while I was in Hong Kong.

Really... want... good... yumcha...
But alas, none within easy reach and distance.

I guess that's another one of the perks of finally being able to drive solo in less than two months' time.

I want a photo of the moon.

I always have.

But I have no tripod, and my lens doesn't get me close enough to it.

One day.

As it was.

In Year 9, we completed an 'Independent Learning Project'. Told to pick any topic we liked, my fourteen year old self scurried off nursing a half-formed idea. I called it "The Beauty of Simplicity" and collated photos I'd taken over the years (especially from a recent trip overseas), stories and quotes I'd come across into the likes of a portfolio.

In the introduction, I'd spoken of a desire to keep this up, and I suppose that was when the idea of this blog was planted. It just took the better of seven years to gradually take root, and now finally sprout.

The way of the world

First saw this, and thought it quite remarkable.

When I walked into the study a little later to a marvellous sunset, I all but sprinted for my camera again.

But even in the thirty seconds it took for me to get ready, the clouds had already shifted, and obscured much of the view.

Ever-changing and ephemeral.

That's how it is.

I don't suppose I'd ever fall out of love with sunsets.

More warm and fuzzies

I heard Dad banging around in the kitchen around noon, but didn't pay much attention until he came into my room with lunch. For me! :D

I really do love it when family and friends make and bring me food.
Makes me feel so "幸福".

Warm and fuzzies

Waking up to notes and breakfast ready made for you is one of the best feelings.

Whimsical Snaps

Took me so long just to figure out how to put photos side by side... haha.

Finally finished my mid sems, which means I can rest for a while!
(Actually, make that a few days, the next round is in less than 3 weeks...)

Playing tourist.

We had over an hour to kill until our next class at VCA, so spontaneously decided to visit the NGV.

It'd been quite a while since my last visit with school. The foyer was as I remembered it to be - of course, the deco had changed. There used to be a children's cubby house you could explore. It looked as though they were in the progress of change.

Inspiration hides in nooks and crannies. I should not always expect to find parcels on my doorstep. How many times had I traversed St. Kilda Road over the past 7 years? Countless. Every day of high school, and now weekly for my class at VCA. I could have easily diverged paths earlier for a short visit, but as it is, humans are creatures of habit, and I am no exception.

Not today though.

With plentiful time and weather-induced carefree attitude, this fine Autumn day turned out to be quite different after all.

It's very different, looking at Melbourne from a tourist's perspective. Drawn to the visitor's centre and souvenirs shop, I fell naturally into exploration mode, and in the heart of this bustling city, I found what I was looking for. What I missed. That ability to leisurely sidle my way through albeit small shops and discover all that other's have to offer: their ideas and thoughts. Wasn't that what I was after?

I left with half-formed ideas for future projects and a lingering feeling from the unique combination of freedom from routine, ample time and patience.

I should do this more often. Stray from routine and find inspiration from everything else I encounter. It's not that Melbourne has nothing to offer, it's that I haven't been looking. My arms are not wide open. Inspiration was on my doorstep all along, but I failed to recognise it. I have sorely neglected this beautiful city I now call mine.

"Do something daring every day," I used to say.
Well now, perhaps it's now time to take the road less travelled. After all, "not all who wander are lost."

Do You? - Yiruma

Falling in love with this piece, over and over.

Wanderlust

Seized by a sudden desire to move back to Taiwan and establish myself in Taipei.

I'm replaying recent memories from the week spent there last December and now I just can't wait to go back.

I really do hope everything works out and that I'll find myself boarding a plane to Seoul, Korea at the very beginning of next year. I have a feeling that would be an amazing experience.

5 Centimetres Per Second - a film

Photo credits: iifatree.blogspot.com

Language, for to all its subtleties, are not easily translated. For that, I truly wished I could understand the dialogue of this film first hand, rather than through an interface. There are so many minds out there to be explored, so much to grasp, yet all at once limited by my meagre capabilities.

Every time I walk into Eslite Bookstore, I leave with a new reading list. Yet always, I will be drawn to the other books. Those are ones I would have to forge through. The ones that would now take me days to read and understand. The ones not easily beget, not due to scarceness and rarity, but that I could not easily obtain from where I am. The ones publishers have put enormous effort into translating from Japanese and Korean. Or even other foreign, non-English books. The ones I would pick up and have an immense desire to read, but other constraints will come calling - time, family, commitment - and I'll be forced to put it down.

I have never been able to find the same environment as Eslite in Australia. Maybe because I haven't looked hard enough. But with the closing of Borders in late 2010 due to changing reading cultures, the little window of exploration and opportunity just seemed to have completely disappeared.

I miss that. I miss wandering through bookstores, picking up books here and there and reading snippets. I look at the books written in Chinese on our family bookshelf and wonder how I ever fell out of the habit of reading them. How had I ever? How could I? Not knowingly, slowly gave up on those other worlds out there.

I'm rambling and nothing makes sense, but after watching 5 Centimetres Per Second, all these feelings mixed with my experiences have surfaced. As always, I wanted to write it down. If not as a record, as a means of better understanding myself. Even now, I'm still trying to figure myself out.

That said, I absolutely loved, loved the scenery in this film.

Yu-u

So many hidden treasures within Melbourne I'm yet to discover and try.

http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/food-and-drink/directory/restaurant/yu-u

That was before I knew what it meant.

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Upon first reading, I immediately fell in love.

I've been standing on the springboard for far too long.

I always make pacts with myself. Do this. Try that. Then, either those fleeting thoughts are carried away by the passage of time - lost, forgotten - or the project is shelved away in one of the dusty corners of my mind. My resolve never seems to generate enough momentum to carry these projects through.

Not this time.

It may have taken the better of seven years.

But I'm seeing this through.

It was always going to be you.

New camera arrived yesterday!

After a spontaneous decision to finally purchase it two Sunday evenings ago.

It's definitely been more than three years since the idea of owning a DSLR first got into my head, more than a year since I settled for this range, and I've monitored the gradual decline in price of the Canon 600D for at least six months now.

I take my time making decisions, okay?

Here goes.
Another start.