When Imagination Meets Reality

So it's not like I've been doing nothing for the best part of five months (five months of no blogging...oh the shame) I have been doing so much stuff, some of which is still on-going, finger majorly crossed, but the high point was the visitor I had over Chinese New Year! The best-friend-from-home-not-seen-in-two-plus-years.

We are just too cool!

Whilst the major downside of living abroad is that you can't take your friends and family with you, these are the very same people who give you the greatest joy when they visit you and you can proudly show them around the place you call home. The Best Friend and I have had our ups and downs, but even now she is back in the old U of K, it feels as if she's just the same old bus ride away (and I do still miss a good old Glasgow - Edinburgh bus journey). Some things really do never change! 

Her introduction to Asia was a crazy one. It just so happened that SHINee had their concert tour in Hong Kong the same day she arrived. I posed the option of going to a concert to her, without telling her who we'd be going to see, and with her (half) consent, I got us tickets: 

It was brilliant. We didn't know what was going on half the time, she was jet-lagged and we had a double language barrier (Korean and Cantonese and yet we still managed to answer half the questions - we got skillz...), but blimey are these boys good live and my K-Pop love was nicely indulged! This is an excellent representation of how we felt: 

Credit to the genius who made this!

What followed was two weeks of awesomeness, including a mosy to the Big Buddah, playing Guidebook or Ritz in Ozone (highest bar in Asia, dontcha know!) and enjoying the sun of Chinese New Year (which descended into a bitterly cold February but that's by-the-by). One of the most amazing things we did was go to Tai O. I'd been meaning to go for Yonks and just not done it however I'm so glad I waited to go with Le Pal. No one else could suitably understand just how inspirational of a place it was. For us, it was perhaps one of the closest realities we'll get to out imaginings of our brain child. We have spent hours on end picking apart what certain places look like, and wandering around Tai O, land and water, suddenly one of those places was physically in front of me.

 Picture SPAAAAAAAAAM! I'm now off to go and battle with a plot and try and find a way of fitting everything I want/need into the epic. Somehow I will find a way of getting it all in there... somehow!

Keep Calm and Drink Tea!

I'm having a moment... my first moment in 18 months... and I'm having a decent sized wobble. I seem to be powering through it fairly quickly now that I've screwed my head back on. I've been thinking about good times I've had, which in turn has been making me think of all the hypothetical good times there are to be had in the future... What's that thing people say? Tomorrow is a new day... Even so, here's a wee list of the things that are the source of some mighty fine memories.

• late night bus journeys from Glasgow to Edinburgh
• (or by train)
• Scotland in general
• late night Potter chats
• Chicken Casserole
• Fighting crime in dark corners!!
• Cafe Nero (I mean Pacific, you're good, but it's not the same...)
• laughing till your stomach hurts
• COLD WEATHER!!!
• dancing like a lunatic in a box, no matter who's watching
• putting a smile on someone's face when you hand them their morning coffee
• "To the outside world it looks like bullying..."
• classical music and coffee in the snow
• studying in a library - there is nothing better
• lectures! 
• Midday Pints! 
• PIRATES (because really, Pirates!)
• "What if  your train was an ACTUAL train!!!!"
• a proper pub
• watching rugby at a reasonable hour
• sitting on the windowsill in the architecture studio
• a salad that doesn't cost the earth!
• The Hive (R.I.P.)
• talking out ideas
• a hug, when you need it
• Mighty Boosh evenings
• having someone to sit with - conversation not required
• cafe's in bookshops
• Mamma Mia a la Flatmate and Wine!
• WEEKENDS
• Radio 1 (I miss waking up to this, even if I have to listen to Nick Grimshaw - that's the state we've got to!)
• People being a phone call and a short distance away, rather than a phone call and half the world away.
• Cones on statues
• Christmas lights on Buchanan Street
• Rowing on the Clyde
• Daft Friday - Oh what a night! 
• A 2 hour journey to the homestead as opposed to 24! (worth every minute though, even a lay-over in Dubai!)

But,despite all that, and today's sadness, I've got me a supply of Earl Grey tea, for as some wise person somewhere said: 

"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy tea, and that's kind of the same thing!"

Well said Sir, well said!

Sad Songs Say So Much

Yes Elton, yes sad songs DO say so much. Not that I have anything against a happy song, far from it, after all there's a time and place for everything! But a sad song can evoke a wider variety of emotions. I've been listening to the same song and it's not even a sad one, the sentiment is incredibly sweet and heart warming, but today it's had me in tears. Every so often, when you're feeling emotionally fragile, a song comes along and completely floors you. Great!! Just great!! - Thanks John Legend for writing beautiful music and reducing me to a sobbing mess (it really is a great song though - really, go and listen to All Of Me.)

Love in the Future is actually a great album from John Legend! I loved Evolver and then wasn't greatly enamoured with anything that followed (Ordinary People is a good song, but just didn't do it for me!) - he's making up for it now though, despite my tears!

Another day, another public holiday...

One of the things I have come to love about autumn in Hong Kong is the number of Public Holidays (not that you can really call it that, it's not really autumn without the leaves turning brown, the clocks changing and the frosts beginning to set in, but that;s by the by). After three months straight of one day off a week, a run of three public holidays is just what the doctor ordered! That's not to say that the days don't also have their downsides! 

I enjoy these magical days off when I stay at home, or at least in my local area. Venturing into crowded areas on a Public Holiday is only going to cause more harm than good, especially when the pedestrian rage comes in to play! I have discovered that while I don't have a people problem per-se, I do have great difficulty with masses of people with little-to-no spatial awareness and an uncanny knack of stopping in places that make it impossible for you to dart around them. If anything, spending time in Hong Kong makes you a master weaver when it comes to maneuvering along pedestrian crowded pavements! (British People Problems Abroad anyone...!!)

This is the last Public Holiday before Christmas, and while I feel I should be making use of it, I am instead going to stay holed up in my local area doing my usual thing - the biggest debate is whether I get myself a sewing machine to occupy my time or not... The pro's and con's of sending fabric home, or manipulating it into a wearable form so it can make it's way home in a suitcase. Knowing that the burners for the job hunting engine are about to be reignited in the not too distant future, a more versatile and more "me" working wardrobe needs to be concocted and with even more capsule qualities than before. Without doubt, Pinterest is about to become my closest Allie (like it wasn't that before). In fairness the decision is most likely to be swung by the fact that my after school activities were majorly limited by the horrendous post-run shin splints that had me hobbling around like a granny for three days - I gather this was great fun to witness, even if I was in my own personal world of agonizing pain! Have to provide the humour somehow!

So ends another random waffle, tailing off into the distance and losing it's pace as I get ever tireder as the clock winds down on today's proceedings! I'm about to hit the 18 month mark (good lord, when did that happen) but I am no more used to 6 days weeks and the lack of That Friday Feeling - I can count only one in the last 18 months - ONE!!! One thing is for sure, I appreciate two days off in a row far more now than I ever did before, and in celebration of such an event happening this weekend I shall leave you with some celebrating penguins - what's not to love!

Sometime you just need to start so you can keep going!

FINALLY!!! Short Stories From The East has a new post!! Hallelujah! And about time too, if I do say so myself! It has been a long, dark and empty time. I've had more than a little bit of doubt and more "can I do this" moments than are really healthy for a writer, but I'm back! The determination is flowing and I am itching to write on every scrap of paper that stays still for long enough (believe me, though I am surrounded by the stuff, it is in constant motion!)

It turns out I just needed to write something, no matter how random the waffle was, just to have something new and posted. It feels good... like I've got a little of myself back. It seems I've been weirdly out of kilter since the changeovers and due to Summer... It's all coming good!

This is a short one - I am now off to filter my inspiration. There are so many stories to tell! In the meantime, I'm going to leave you with this beauty... joyful!

When it comes to music, language is no barrier!

I have always had my ipod's recently played playlist capped at 250 songs. This is out of age old habit (I haven't altered it in the six years I've had an ipod) and because it generally allows for a decent turn over of songs. At the end of every month I used to save the playlist so I could go back and listen again, sadly that ipod died a heroic death and the playlists were lost *sobs quietly into consoling cup of tea*. That is something I should probably start doing again... I digress.

What surprised me when I scrolled through the playlist this morning was how the majority of the songs are not in English. There is currently an extraordinarily large amount of K-Pop, a bit of J-Pop thrown in, a fair whack of French music some German tracks and even a lone Spanish one floating around, covering a vast range of genres. There's reggae, some indie rock, pop of various guises, a little R&B and much in between! 

I speak none of these languages fluently, but when it comes to music I have found that this has little-to-no impact whatsoever. The music and the voice alone are enough to convey the message of some songs, and sometimes understanding the lyrics is surplus to requirements (although when the odd word or phrase in English is thrown in, it adds a whole new aspect to working out the meaning of a song - especially when you pick up on incorrect grammar!). 

All that said, one of the few track on the playlist that IS in English is 'I Miss Her' from Jessie J's new album, Alive. While it's not going to win an accolade as the greatest song ever, the lyrics connect on such a deep personal level that I can't help but love it. It's a song that put one of my worst fear's to music, but that in itself makes the prospect OK. Music has always been part of who I am, I associate places and people with music. There are songs I associate with Lower School, some with Upper School, some with 6th From, and more than a few that remind me University! I wouldn't have it any other way. Music has this way of transporting you back to the best (and occasionally the worst) memories. It can fire up your imagination, comfort you when you're sad and celebrate with you when you're happy. You can love, laugh and cry to music. It can fix you when you're at your lowest, even if you don't speak the same language. 

In the end, music is universal.