Change of Thought

"Oh, you're still here!"

I smiled sheepishly at the manager, no doubt returning from his break. Considering how we've sat in Oriental Teahouse for the entire afternoon, talking about everything and anything, I was starting to wonder if they kicked people out.

I'll tip them or something... For four hours of non-stop refilling of our teapots.

Drafting epic travel plans, hoping for the best, figuring things out and thinking about the future...

I couldn't help compare it to the last time we were there like that.
Sombre - is, was the word for it.

Much has changed in last thirteen months.
But what stuck me most was the change in attitude.

We've finally lived our days into unanswered questions.

It was late, and we were tired.
We assumed there would be more nights.
Anna's breathing started to slow, but I still wanted to talk.
She rolled onto her side.
I said, I want to tell you something.
She said, You can tell me tomorrow.
I had never told her how much I loved her.
She was my sister.
We slept in the same bed.
There was never a right time to say it.
It was always unnecessary.
The books in my father's shed were sighing.
The sheets were rising and falling around me with Anna's breathing.
I thought about waking her.
But it was unnecessary.
There would be other nights.
And how can you say I love you to someone you love?
I rolled onto my side and fell asleep next to her.
Here's the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar.
It's always necessary.
I love you,
Grandma

        -- Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

"And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away."

- John Steinbeck on Falling in Love: A 1958 Letter

Tea for two

Or rather... three.

This much anticipated trip to the Dandenong Ranges meant once again visiting 'the tea place'.
(I know how to get there, I know what it looks like, I just have no idea what it's called. I even tried googling it.)

I used to always associate tea with 'old people'. I was 100%, a coffee person.

Well, look who's getting old.

Adorable teapots, tea cups and salt and pepper shakers.

We then headed to Cloudehill - a nursery, garden and restaurant.

The owners are lovely people, and I love the intimacy of their restaurant.

Despite not getting my way and not eating scones with jam and cream at Miss Maple, I enjoyed this outing immensely. Solo driving is much, much sweeter than I ever imagined. I've been warned that it fades, but for now, I will revel in my newfound freedom.

Cloudehill Restaurant & Nursery

89 Olinda Monbulk Road
Olinda, Victoria

http://www.cloudehill.com.au

有緣，在相見。

當時 沒有繼續和你來往是我的不足

現在 偶而還會想起你

Travel Plans

My recent employment means I am close to 80% sure I want to return to Taiwan at the start of next year.
It also means Korea is fast becoming more than a possibility.

Oh, there's so much to do!

When cameras were cameras, and phones were phones.

I still can't quite grasp the immense technological changes and advances in the past 3 years, let alone in the past ten.

Throughout high school, I carried my point-and-shoot to 'major' events.
Now, it's all unnecessary. Smartphones do everything.

Printed photos at Officeworks the other day using wifi. Wifi. Scanned a barcode, then the phone and kiosk linked and did everything. Ah. I still remember memory card and USB uploading days. I had a 256MB USB. My first. And I used to use floppy disks, dammit.

Wishlist

Source: Holga Direct

Liking this more and more.
Time to pull out my dad's old cameras?

Refractions

Going through old photos, expect an influx.

Unfurling

Spring is coming.

Written in the stars

And if I told you I wanted to publish my thoughts?
All that I've accumulated under the title of Errant Thoughts.

To make it into something I can leaf through.
Something to keep.

Would you laugh in my face and tell me it's folly?

One step closer

Stargazing
I've planned it in my head. The trip I will take. It will be a late-night adventure. I will turn up at your house. (Who you are I still am not sure of... but I know this will happen. One day, when I can drive, for one, because that's part of the plan.) Then I will drive us to a beach. Ideally, it would have little light. It doesn't matter if it's far away, because I'd like to spend time with you, and driving somewhere in the middle of the night is very appealing to me. I will have prepared sleeping bags. Once we arrive, we will run to the shore (safety first). It will be a calm night. The stars will be out. Light winds. Not too chilly. The moon will be beautiful. Oh my God, I just imagined watching the moon rise and set. That would be amazing. Clair de lune. That's what I picture in my head, all the time. That story told to me - it was fabrication, yes, but it has stayed with me forever since. The reason why I want to play cello. I know why. I know the exact moment that desire began, and how it was set in concrete. I'll need to know a friend who plays cello now, won't I? Then after we run to the beach, we will gaze at the stars. Maybe the ocean will lap at our feet. Then we will get out the sleeping bags and lie on the beach. We will gaze at the stars, cuddle up, and pass time under that little piece of infinity.

This will be.

What I dreamt up one sleepless October night last year.

We will fall asleep under the stars.
Bonfire and marshmallows.

And I will relive the year I fell asleep under shooting stars.

蘇打綠 sodagreen -【我好想你】

I love the cinematography of this MV.

Never thought I'd have need nor want to take videos in the past.
Now I want to take snippets of everything I see.

Something changed in the past few months, and I think it's for the better.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

Rereading birthday cards, letters, long messages and emails from friends never fail to make me happy.

And I am reminded of my fortune, to have met and loved such amazing people at my tender age.

Fallen stars

I want to visit big cities. I want to see the lights. I want to stand amongst the clouds at dusk and look down. At the ever-blinking lights. At the fallen stars. Remind me how many people there are in this world, how many I will meet, and from there, how many passing strangers will become an inseparable part of me?

看燈火模仿墜落的星光

I never understood this sentence until I looked down from the viewing deck of Taipei 101.
Now I miss it more than ever.

I've never wanted this before.
Something's changed.

Strawberries & Cream

Wonderbao

Roast Pork Belly Gua Bao

So good.

Now I'm battling cravings for Peking duck, and the desire to learn how to make my own soya milk.

Wonderbao
Shop 4, 19-37 A'Beckett Street
Melbourne
www.wonderbaokitchen.com.au

Panda!

It's not every day that you see a panda reading in a courtyard at your university.

I craved, therefore I made.

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there, I do not sleep

I am a thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond light on snow

I am the sunlight on the ripened grain

I am the gently falling autumn rain

When you wake in the morning hush

I am the swift uplighting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight

I am the soft starlight at night

Do not stand at my grave and cry

I am not there, I did not die.

                                    Mary Elizabeth Frye