Depending on how you look at it, looking back on times past this New Year is either highly inappropriate, or very apt indeed. And, by the title of this post, it's obvious which side of the camp I am on.
Yeah. Sentimental me. I can't even get rid of that old candy wrapper Junyu gave to me - although I only have a vague idea where I stuffed it. Which goes a long way in explaining why my room is in a perpetual mess.
And not from lack of trying, too. Today I embarked on another over-ambitious endeavour to give it some semblance of neatness and dustlessness, but was waylaid by so many of my own distractions over whether to clean this corner or that first that I ended up back-and-forthing between my computer table, my desk, the book shelf behind my desk, and pretty much everything else in between.
In the midst of all this sneeze-inducing work, I chanced upon an old relic that I (yet again) hadn't gathered enough nerve to throw away even though it had, through my overworking it, ceased to operate. That was a solid year and a half ago, at the very least.
My old Panasonic portable cd player. Yes, staring at me obstinately in all its obsolete glory. I decided I had to give it one last chance before relegating it to the bottom of my Mustafa Centre plastic bag, all agape in await of its latest, and most covetable, item.
Gingerly, I placed two 'AA' batteries into the old dame, grabbed the topmost cd lying on top of my cd player (which happened to be another dusty blast from the past - an Alex To compilation album) and inserted it in. I pressed play, and waited.
Nothing happened. The display screen defiantly flashed multiple zeros . Then, miraculously, it sputtered to life, sending the vibrations of the rotating cd into my hands.
I lowered myself slowly amidst my possessions and cleaning tools, put on my headphones, and juts soaked in the moment. I knew I had to. Looking down at the player, I recalled that day I bought the player, happier times with the person who tagged along with me, and the early days of my Varsity years, which coincided with the buy and which it also accompanied me throughout - those humid days and lonely nights I spent on buses absorbing module texts, mugging last-minute exam notes, pondering life and deliberating over relationships.
The songs of this once-adored singer, though now a faded star in the Chinese music scene, will always hold some emotional weight - for they played a part in bringing an innocent romance to a tentative start.
They say its Out with the Old and In with the New, but somehow, the old never really left me, even though the physical reminders may go. For the new is always connected in some way with the past, and somehow things always seem to come full-circle. Yes, 2007 is here (dare you believe it), and I am resigned to it rather than welcoming it with open arms. As I recollect the past year gone by (wasted) and consider the direction that I'm headed in the future (none whatsoever), it feels good to know that I have something to fall back on, that I can hide in the past and reminisce, just for a bit, if there's ever a need to, before heading out into the world again and forging ahead, knowing I can because I always have been.
Yeah. Sentimental me. I can't even get rid of that old candy wrapper Junyu gave to me - although I only have a vague idea where I stuffed it. Which goes a long way in explaining why my room is in a perpetual mess.
And not from lack of trying, too. Today I embarked on another over-ambitious endeavour to give it some semblance of neatness and dustlessness, but was waylaid by so many of my own distractions over whether to clean this corner or that first that I ended up back-and-forthing between my computer table, my desk, the book shelf behind my desk, and pretty much everything else in between.
In the midst of all this sneeze-inducing work, I chanced upon an old relic that I (yet again) hadn't gathered enough nerve to throw away even though it had, through my overworking it, ceased to operate. That was a solid year and a half ago, at the very least.
My old Panasonic portable cd player. Yes, staring at me obstinately in all its obsolete glory. I decided I had to give it one last chance before relegating it to the bottom of my Mustafa Centre plastic bag, all agape in await of its latest, and most covetable, item.
Gingerly, I placed two 'AA' batteries into the old dame, grabbed the topmost cd lying on top of my cd player (which happened to be another dusty blast from the past - an Alex To compilation album) and inserted it in. I pressed play, and waited.
Nothing happened. The display screen defiantly flashed multiple zeros . Then, miraculously, it sputtered to life, sending the vibrations of the rotating cd into my hands.
I lowered myself slowly amidst my possessions and cleaning tools, put on my headphones, and juts soaked in the moment. I knew I had to. Looking down at the player, I recalled that day I bought the player, happier times with the person who tagged along with me, and the early days of my Varsity years, which coincided with the buy and which it also accompanied me throughout - those humid days and lonely nights I spent on buses absorbing module texts, mugging last-minute exam notes, pondering life and deliberating over relationships.
The songs of this once-adored singer, though now a faded star in the Chinese music scene, will always hold some emotional weight - for they played a part in bringing an innocent romance to a tentative start.
They say its Out with the Old and In with the New, but somehow, the old never really left me, even though the physical reminders may go. For the new is always connected in some way with the past, and somehow things always seem to come full-circle. Yes, 2007 is here (dare you believe it), and I am resigned to it rather than welcoming it with open arms. As I recollect the past year gone by (wasted) and consider the direction that I'm headed in the future (none whatsoever), it feels good to know that I have something to fall back on, that I can hide in the past and reminisce, just for a bit, if there's ever a need to, before heading out into the world again and forging ahead, knowing I can because I always have been.
