ALL HOPE IS GONE

Just listened to Slipknot's latest album on Youtube. From the sound of things, their music is going to go downhill from here on, like how it was with Korn and Take a Look in the Mirror. Downhill though, only in the sense that they are no longer that thunderous wall of sound that they used to be. In place of that is melody - evident in tracks Snuff and Till We Die - which actually brings out the best in Corey's now-limited vocals.

Just checked out the upcoming acts in London. And this is all happening in only the next few MONTHS. hoho

Sep 3 Serj Tankian
Sep 18 Gym Class Heroes
Oct 3 Dragonforce, Kaki King
Oct 4 Disturbed, Dragonforce
Oct 13 Queen
Oct 15 3 Doors Down
Oct 16 Oasis
Oct 30,31 Unholy Alliance Chapter 3 Feat Slayer + Trivium + Mastodon
Nov 20 Opeth
Nov 22 Motorhead
Dec 1 The Darkest Tour: Filth Fest feat. CRADLE OF FILTH
Dec 1,2 SLIPKNOT
Dec 12 Apocalyptica, The Prodigy
Dec 15 Coldplay

Sojourn

It's no secret that I have this thing for orientation camps. Maybe I happen to be a very disorientated person.

By the time this one came around, however, I was already pretty tired of camping. Serves me right. Good thing the camp was slow-paced, giving us bonding time rather than be engaged in activities which ultimately have little value in forging friendships. It's hard not to realise that when you've been to 4 camps. Take Union Camp for example. We may have worked well as a team, sometimes getting really intimate with each other in the process, but we never really got to know each other.

At the end of the first day I went over to New Majestic Hotel for Colin's farewell/birthday bash. The suite was fantastic. (and a tad kinky) Two storeys - a TV and two bathtubs right smack in the middle of the first storey, and a bed on the second. The toilet and shower doors were only ever so slightly frosted. Colin had his hands full all night, flitting here and there like a hummingbird in an attempt to divide his attention equally among all groups. Sara was no end of entertaining.

Woke up early the next day to reunite with the campers. We played amazing race - not all that remarkable but fun nonetheless. Charles, Daniel and I ran off after the finale that night to watch Liverpool vs Middlesborough at Bikini Bar. We caught the last twenty minutes of the game, just in time to see Liverpool work its magic in coming back from a 1-0 deficit in the space of..5min? We then rejoined the OG for a trip to 7-eleven. While they played drinking games, the 3 of us decided to be antisocial again and made our way to the beach at 530am. We talked mostly about our future in PUB, till the sun rose. I tried to catch some last min sleep and failed, so I joined another OG for a round of lame camp games. (at which, I must add, I am a veteran) It would be the last time I played one of those for a long time. School's starting soon.

In all the previous camps, I'd feel this constant sense of detachment and resignation to the fact that I'd leave all those friendships behind when i left. Sojourn stood out from the other camps in this one respect.

Sleepover at Celine's

This was gonna be one of those crazy things you look back on in five years and laugh. Cabbed over to Celine's place after a looong day which had earlier saw me 1) attempt to apply for a VISA and fail 2) meet up with Gerald Jay and Hian Liang for a brief chat about times old and new 3) open an intl account with HSBC 4) meet up with the IBN interns for a quick dinner.
By the time Celine and Colin greeted me at the gate I was already damn shack but, as I'd come to realise after spamming NUS camps, our bodies are capable of amazing things when running on adrenaline (and prata) So what ensued was a night of mahjong, heart-to-heart talks, ice cream and wedges, prata and pillowfights. Driving over to the prata shop was especially memorable - the same prata shop we visited when I'd first come over to paint with Colin. The nostalgia feels especially thick when you end where you first began.

Just tried the Laksa mix from Primataste, and I must say it's pretty convincing for something processed and packaged. I imagined what it might be like in a few months' time, where a piping hot bowl of laksa would be a treasured commodity. I imagined myself preparing the dish alone in the confines of cramped quarters, looking forward to the rare treat.

The past few weeks have been about meeting up with friends who are flying off to the States, each of them so eager to savour one more time everything that they have loved about this place, to do justice to everything that has built up to this. Everything that we'd known to be in abundance - the company of our families, friends, our homes etc - we are suddenly deprived of, and we long for. A bit of regret probably sets in at this point as well - regret that we didn't treasure the moments here enough.

I have yet to find myself in that position though. With a little less than a month and a half left I suspect the sheer magnitude of the change that will take place has not entirely sunk in yet. Colin and I agree that it never sinks in until you're at the airport with your bags and you think to yourself, "Oh f**k."