New Beginnings

Wow, I didn’t know that the last post was almost 1 year ago! There’s always the problem of not really knowing what to write after such a long lapse…

I guessed after I started work in April last year, coupled with wedding preparations, days passed just like that. I didn’t have much inspiration or time to post here. The period from mid-Nov all the way to our wedding on 14th Jan was really tiring, with to-dos every night… I’m glad everything went smoothly on the actual day and that those sleepless nights are over~

We went on our honeymoon to Japan the day after our wedding and returned about 2 weeks ago. Planning to post the trip photos sometime in the future…and wedding photos…and 2010 Europe trip photos…ok, let’s take it one at a time.

I’ve been feeling so lethargic ever since we got back. If such a thing is possible, I’m still burned out from our wedding preparations and I think it is also due to the lack of exercise. Well, given that I fell sick and took about a week to recover, technically it’s not 2 weeks. In any case, I must really get my act together from this week onwards!

The next to-do for us is to decide on our semi-permanent accommodation plans for the next 2 years before our flat is ready in mid-2014. Hopefully, we’ll work this out by April or May and I’ll feel more settled then.

Personally, I started taking an instructor course for Pilates matwork last November. The idea to take such a course was formed back in late 2009 and I finally took it after 2 years!  The factors were mainly the cost and whether it is practical. I decided to go ahead to take the course since I’m really interested in Pilates and don’t want it to be something which I regret not doing in the future.

So far, I’ve taken 2 modules and the last one is next weekend. And that’s not the end of it since there are hours to clock for self-mastery, practice-teaching and observation of classes!

It may not have been the best time to do it because I didn’t have any time at all to go through the course materials for the past 2 modules due to wedding plans and everything is just piling up! However, I registered because  I might have to wait 6-12 months for the next matwork course as the schedule depends on whether there is sufficient interest to organize the course. Anyway, I think it is still very possible to catch-up as long as I focus my free-time on it.

I am still unsure if this is a suitable direction to move in but I figured that even if I don’t actually teach Pilates classes, I shall view this course as a personal enrichment and I believe I can apply my knowledge in some kinda way to help family/friends in terms of improving movement or core strength. That said, I’m still very keen and excited at the prospect of teaching so that others can enjoy the benefits of Pilates! I think I can see real job satisfaction in there…we’ll see how it works out!

days of CD gone by

I can’t remember the last time I played a CD, do you? Or perhaps, the question for you is when was the last time you bought a CD?

I was organizing all my CDs to put them away inside a cupboard so that they will not collect dust out in the open. It is no longer practical to have them in CD racks since I’m playing all my music on my computer now.

So, as I was doing that, it reminded me of a period of time (circa 1990′s) when I frequented music stores simply to browse the latest albums or look at the album ranking charts. Most of the time, you didn’t know the tunes to the album tracks except the overplayed ones that you’ve heard via the media. So, you buy the album in order to listen to the other songs! There were no alternatives…hmm, well I guess, you can borrow the album from a friend.

And, usually I ended up buying an album. That is followed by endless looping of the CD while I squinted at the lyrics on the CD sleeve and tried to sing along. Sometimes it was a good buy, but not always.

Then we had the big music stores like Tower Records and HMV entering the market and introduced the concept of allowing customers to listen to newly released albums for free. In fact, that was almost an activity to do when going out with friends. I remembered that the listening points for the popular albums were always occupied and you had to wait awhile for your turn.

Nowadays, if I want to browse or sample music, I hit Google. Moreover, I would usually have listened to all the tracks of the album before buying it. The purchase of an album is more for keepsake purposes rather than for listening purposes.

I kinda miss how it used to be~

Anyway, I made the decision to buy Jay’s latest 跨时代 album because I have all his previous albums! And I have not yet bought Mayday’s 後青春期的詩 that was released 2 years ago, although I loved that album – will buy it one day…maybe together with their next album for convenience sake and also buy Jay’s at the same time too.

I’m also tempted to buy Deserts’ albums. I’m hesitant about Sodagreen’s previous 2 albums – rather nice tunes but not overly excited about owning them.

The next time I visit Japan, I’ll probably get a copy of GReeeeN’s album.