Summer has set in. ♥

Sunshine, freedom and a little flower.

Right in the eye of summer (: June came and went, then came July; and now it's almost on it's way out! Time has this tendency to fly right by you just when you're trying to savour the best of it huh? It's now just slightly over 50 days to England and I, am fucking psyched. (: I can't wait to get started on assignments and term papers, getting involved in the Innocence project, studying in the library, getting pumped up on caffeine, the cold frost in the early mornings and everything that has to do with being a law student in England. Haha... my tone might change a few weeks into school as I start to grumble about having to wake up at the ass crack of dawn and having to make the long trudge to class, but I'm fairly certain the thrill of reading law will last for a long time to come. ;)

That aside, summer thus far has been pretty awesome (: Our trip to Bangkok and Koh Tao was a blast and we met some cool people too (and lots of crazy english lads :D). Managed to get my Deep Dive and Night Dive certification this time round and clocked another 9 dives in my log book so I must say that I felt pretty damn accomplished. Haha.. It's a pity though that I did not get to see any sharks this time round. Though I did see a couple of huge rays. OH! We saw a ginormous school of barracudas! It was awesome! I managed to spot my favourite yellow box-fish a couple of times too (: With that, I don't know when I'd be able to dive again but I hope I'll be able to make it to PNG in the near future because Paul's pictures look fuckin amazing. Anyway, a few captured moments of our summer trip:

Of fire stunts and pretty sunsets (:

♥

Koh Tao was amaaaazing. For 5 days, we did pretty much nothing but dive, hang out, read, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat. (: Waking up at 630am for the morning dives was an awesome way to start the days and I miss it soooooo damn much already.

The topic of life as a dive instructor came up on a few occasions as we lamented about how awesome it must be, to wake up every morning knowing that you will be doing a job that you love. Yet I thought it must start to feel different, once that hobby becomes an obligation of sorts.. Since with a job, comes responsibilities and rules that you probably never really had to give much thought to when you were just diving for fun. It's like married life, you know. Once the kids (jobs) come, there are just some things that you can no longer freely do, because you have the responsibility to make sure your kids (students) are taken care of. Hah.

Then on our very last night, while talking to sneaky about working as an instructor, his story of going from feeling like the luckiest person in the world to constantly having to reinforce to himself the notion of "Luke! You're so lucky!" made me laugh because while I could totally relate, it also made me think back on a post I had previously wrote, about how sometimes, contentment can so easily become such an inadequate sense of satisfaction. Which, can be seen as a natural progression since we're constantly being exposed to so many different aspects of life that we can't possibly expect our sense of contentment to remain static for an extended period of time. I guess if one were to live life fully, it would then mean that contentment would never suffice?

Right... pardon my ramblings. Anyway!

Audeee and me.

Did my first couple of dives with Audeee and she, is super cool. Haha (:

So after we bid Koh Tao a sad sad sad goodbye, we headed back to Bangkok where Maine and Manda attempted to buy half of Bangkok back with them. There were many moments of "It's only $5! I might as well..." Haha. Though I have to admit that there really were a shit ton of good steals.. If I had not been on a budget, I am pretty sure I would have gone bananas too. (:

Got my visa settled the moment I came back from the trip too! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it gets approved soon. That would be an awesome awesome birthday present ;) and yesss I'm turning 24 in a couple of days! It's a travesty, I am almost a quarter century old now... to think I feel like I just turned 16 yesterday. Haha.

Alright, swedish lesson to end this off.



Live fully

and you'll have no fear of death.

Penning from an internet cafe here in Penang, Malaysia. (Wi-fi is pretty much non-existent.) Flew back here this weekend as relatives from my paternal side gathered to accompany Grandma on her final stretch. It's been pretty melancholy the last day but still interjected with sporadic laughter as Grandma tried to speak to all her children and grandchildren. We're not particularly close to the paternal side of the family, coming back to visit maybe once or twice every two years during the Chinese New Year; but there's still a connection that's difficult to put into words. Grandma used to come visit us in Singapore too, a couple of years back, before she fell ill. I remember how well she could cook and having her with my Grandma from mom's side together always meant quite a delicious feast (:

I never knew how difficult it was, to watch a loved one suffering from an illness, coughing their lungs out and groaning in pain. It was the sense of helplessness as one stood by, not being able to do anything at all to relieve the pain, that was hard to handle - because all you can do is hold her hand, and be there for her.

The idea of death scares me. I know people say to just live life fully and if death comes, let it come. Yet there's only so much you can accomplish in a day right, you always always want to do more ;] We never know when the reaper's gonna come and cut us short.. As the saying also goes, we always fear what we don't understand, what we don't know. So.... what then? Guess it just comes full circle doesn't it. - Live fully, and you'll have no   minimal fear of death. Haha.. at the very least, you know you lived to your fullest potential and you went out with a bang (no pun intended).

On a brighter note, 79 days to the BFF's return! (: Rooooobbban's also coming back this July. I must remember to request Fanta-free. Haha. I've also booked my flight for England!!! (: Managed to get it preeetty cheap since it's 5 months early ;) Have I mentioned that I can't wait to start school? Because I am! (That's prolly gonna change 3 months into school...... but you know ;] )

My time's almost up and god this internet cafe is awesome. I'm accompanied by teens playing DOA and random shouts of hokkien vulgarities every 2-3 minutes. I feel like my ears need to be soaped out. Haha.