One of the great services that cinema has done for mankind is to provide a vision of the unseen. Whether that be intricately-detailed recreations of our distant past, explorations of societies and natural wonders as they exist today or exciting glimpses into an imagined future, movies have given life to landscapes and journeys of which most of us can only dream. Filmmakers have had plenty to work with when constructing these images - historical records and documents, modern camera technologies, scientific indicators. There is only one true frontier that is entirely open to artistic interpretation; one final, vast landscape that every living soul contemplates but which only a select few have seen and lived to tell of the experience - the afterlife. 

                                                                                                                                                                                      –Simon Foster

Japanese films are always a delight to watch. I stumbled upon this gem of a film when I was seventeen and I haven't gotten tired of re-watching this film since then. Director Hirokazu Koreeda tells a story in a quiet, unassuming way and his films are all humanistic in their own right. The premise of this film is a simple one. The newly departed find themselves at a gateway to heaven, where they are given a week to select a memory that is most meaningful or precious to them. There is a time limit of three days to select a memory, after which the staff will do their best to recreate the memory on film. Every saturday, the films are screened and as soon as someone has relived their memory, they will move on, spending eternity with only that memory with them. The film raises interesting questions about the afterlife and challenges us to think about things that we usually set aside in our everyday lives. If you had to choose one memory to spend eternity with, what would you choose? What truly makes us happy? Afterlife has provided us with a vision of the unknown. What happens after death comes to take us away? Perhaps spending eternity with nothing but a single treasured memory is an ideal depiction of what heaven will be like.

Studying abroad gave me the kind of freedom I could only dream of back home. Freedom was something intoxicating and I was drunk on it at the age of seventeen. In the years that followed, I met new people, travelled to new places, and fell in love with the curl of someone's hair and the vastness of the Australian land. Time is measured differently when you're away from home and everything is your own personal responsibility. Knowing how to manage your time effectively was considered to be half the battle won. Before I knew it, I was in my early twenties and transitioning into adulthood. Growing up was mostly an unconscious process. Responsibility became a heavy weight on my shoulders and I realised that I had merely been playing make-believe all this while. 

We adapt to new places. We meet strangers and forge a connection with them. We establish a routine and things which once seemed so new and exciting gradually loses its shiny veneer, fading into the mundane and normality of everyday life. The streets remained the same but people drifted in and out of my life like characters in a book. We mustn't depend on people for happiness because everyone leaves at some point. When do we realise that it's truly time to let go? It's a gradual process, falling in and out of love with people and places. There's a sense of disconnect that grows slowly with time. I learned that we will never be able to get to know a person completely, it's a constant effort and it's easy to forget for the most part that people are made up of many different facets. You know you have come full circle when you meet people from your past and see nothing but a stranger gazing back at you.

Expectation is truly the root of all heartache and somewhere along the line, I found myself becoming the kind of person I had hoped I'd never be. Sometimes we can't help but make assumptions and take things for granted. We take comfort in the familiarity of what is always there that we tend to forget to count our blessings. We hurt the ones that we love, but forgive them anyway is a mantra that I kept repeating to myself. But I'm beginning to understand that whatever this is with you isn't a friendship. Not really. I have finally reached the end of the road with you. I have never felt as lonely as I do now, surrounded by millions of people in this city. It's really time to go.

A love letter to sydney

                            

                            

                            

                            

                            

                            

I'm trying out the blogger app on my iPhone so here are some of the highlights of the semester thus far.  Missing home has become second nature but the wedge's affogato, black flower patisserie's panda macarons, brickfield's custard tart, and extreme gelato's deconstructed kaya toast concoction makes it all better. Discovering hidden food spots scattered all over sydney. Buying fruits and vegetables that are twice the size of the ones back home. Waking up to eggshell blue skies in the day and watching the sky awash with swatches of pink, red and orange in the evenings when the sun finally sets. Spending time with friends that have gradually become part of your extended family. 

The reality is that assignments and papers have been taking over my life, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been a good four years. I'll always be in love with you sydney x

The Hood

Being sick has its perks; I stumbled upon these pictures taken around my neighborhood last spring and finally got around to editing them. I have always been a dog person but these pictures have possibly convinced me to become a cat lady instead.

Wise words

(For anyone who strives for creative work): This video is great for days when I question where I'm going with my life and whether I should just give it all up for a 9-5 office job.

Hong Kong Visual Diary

“Every inch of space was used. As the road narrowed, signs receded upwards and changed to the vertical. Businesses simply soared from ground level and hung out vaster, more fascinatingly illuminated shingles than competitors. We were still in a traffic tangle, but now the road curved. Shops crowded the pavements and became homelier. Vegetables, spices, grocery produce in boxes or hanging from shop lintels, meats a dangle - and markets everywhere. To the right, cramped streets sloped down to the harbor. To the left, as we meandered along the tramlines through sudden dense markets of hawkers' barrows, the streets turned abruptly into flights of steps careering upwards into a bluish mist of domestic smoke, clouds of washing on poles, and climbing. Hong Kong had the knack of building where others wouldn't dare.” 

― Jonathan Gash, Jade Woman

1. Tea at the airport before our flight. 2 & 3. Quick snaps of the hotel room. 4. My favorite place in HK. 5. Iced milk tea and freshly baked buns whilst waiting for dinner to be served. 6. Pork chop and tomato baked rice at Tsui Wah. 7. After years of friendship, I finally had the opportunity to visit Andie in Hong Kong. 8. Shopping around at Monki, Langham Place. 9. Mango goodness at 許留山. 

1. Buildings around the Mong Kok area. 2. Walking around Central market. 3 & 4. A trip to Hong Kong is never complete without dim sum! 5. Complimentary magazines available outside a cafe. 6. The former central magistracy, a monument of Hong Kong. 7 & 8. Exploring the central area. 9 & 10.My friends are obsessed with Hainanese chicken rice; I am obsessed with their peanut butter toast drizzled with condensed milk <3 11. brief stopover at a HK souvenir shop. 12. Tired faces after walking all over town. 13. Cute coasters. 14. A trip to Tai Cheong bakery for their famous egg tarts! 15. Plain sponge cakes that taste really good. 16. Christmas decorations at IFC. 17, 18 & 19. Dinner at Tsui Wah. 

I've finally gotten around to uploading pictures taken from my trip to Hong Kong...last December. Dad and I stayed at Pacific Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui which is conveniently located along Canton Road, so the MTR was just a short 10-minute walk away from the hotel. Suffice to say, three days was not enough to even scratch the surface of the Kowloon area. I'm also finally convinced that densely populated Hong Kong, truly is one of the busiest cities in the world. Buildings remained lighted up and massive amounts of people loitered around the busy streets even late into the night. Till my next visit HK, I would love to pay a visit to chaiwanese and explore the city's other nooks and crannies!