This the third straight day I spent the afternoons alone, doing just what I like. Went swimming on monday, cycling on tuesday and gymming today. Somehow, I'm not so sad tonight, and I surmise that the time spent alone made me think. Left to my own devices, I guess I normally think good thoughts.

They say your sense of smell is most closely linked to your emotions in your brain, and a good part of the eating experience is actually not taste, but smell. As I was eating korean ramen for lunch this afternoon, sweating over the spicy soup, I was brought back to those hall thirteen days where we would have dinner at canteen thirteen. Sometimes four or five of us, sometimes three, or sometimes just two... the memory of eating ramen in canteen thirteen is so poignant. We especially loved to have korean food on rainy days. No matter how dirty the canteen was, how noisy, all I remember are the friends who made my hall life such a treasured experience. I know I'm heading back to hall in a month, but things will never be the same again. After all, cindy and wy have graduated, and xh and hq do not have a hall place next semester. I reminisced not only about canteen thirteen, but also eating in the pantry, in your rooms, in the corridor. Thank you so much for being there for me in year two semester one. Though it was probably one of the most trying times of my life, what I remember from then are happy memories, most of which seem to revolve around food :p Cooking and sharing and whatnot. Sue was telling me to treasure my hall life cos 'working life sucks', haha well that is probably the most agreed upon sentence in the history of mankind. I am looking forward to returning to hall with my other friends next semester, but what does it mean to treasure the time we have left more? I guess it doesn't mean much except to enjoy my time with them and not take them for granted, nor kick up fights or anything like that (not that i've done so). haha.

And well good thoughts tend to be infectious. I know I should appreciate my family for their goodness, and forgive the bad. Just focus on the good...

At this moment, my parents have relented with regards to Vietnam, and I really appreciate that. *crosses fingers*

I went on a lazy exploration of tampines central this afternoon, strolled through the shopping centres, taking ages to decide on where to eat, then walking through the old tampines central on my way to the library. This place must have been the life of tampines before the shopping centres sprang up in this suburban powerhouse. Now it's a ruin of it's former self, with peeling walls, closed-down shops and littered walkways. But places such as these have a charm, not necessarily because of what they are, but what they mean to you. It's just another ordinary old-school town central, but because I spent some of my teenage years patronising this area, it somehow felt special to walk through. This is not another ramble about urbanisation and the sad state of these forgotten places. In fact, I'm gonna say that the addition of a new mall in tampines is pretty cool. Frankly, I'm not interested in century square and one tampines mall isn't enough. So I'd gladly welcome some novelty. Found a rather nice place to chill out at J.CO in tampines one, it was quite empty at 6 plus when I went there, had many sofa seats at my disposal and a full-glass view of the outside. The view is simply the street in front and hdb flats, my old block included. Anyhow, you could see the sky, and I enjoyed the pale blue gradually giving way to the darkness. Of watching the streetlamps flicker on, and the see-through glass panels suddenly awash with the bright lights from within. Night has arrived ;) Objectively speaking, one problem was the existence of noisy, fidgetive small kids whose parents appear to be blind and deaf. A three-year-old boy practically played leapfrog in front of me, leaping from chair to chair. And he had the luxury of leaping a few rounds before his mum stopped him. And a couple brought a crying baby girl there. That's the picture, haha. Bearable though :) This was where I was introduced to HCM city...

Some may bemoan the effects of consumerism and capitalisation, but it's inevitable. That's how our generations are gonna turn out. While the thought of our society basically becoming a clone of a western one is possible and disconcerting, I think some asian values can never be washed out of us. And there's no use worrying either, what will be, will be. And hopefully some positive western ideals can find their way here too, curing all of us orchids bred in this sterile environment.

This new generation of school-going kids are different from me. But we have one thing in common, our memories of the 'good old days' will include hanging out in these malls. Some may say malls are characterless and all just a money-driven imperative. True enough, but when they're dead and gone, replaced by god knows what greater and flashier things the future brings, they will be another fond memory for us.

When I saw group after group of kids in school uniform today, I thought to myself : they really should treasure their days, cos all too soon, they'll be able to wear anything they want..

And here I am, back to this tricky word called treasure. No structure whatsoever, no wonder I'm not a first class honours student.. haha..