So i guess the year is really coming to an end. I know that i wouldn’t be able to write this post tomorrow because i am counting down to 2017 with my clique , dental appointment and other rubbish too so i am writing this ahead.
I wouldn’t say i am looking forward to a new year, A new year may mean new hopes, new dreams and also even more problems ahead. I actually really just hate getting older. I know people will think , she is just going to write a post to commemorate the various memorable memories she made in the past year or her new year resolutions blah blah blah. AND YES , I AM GONNA DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE THINKING.
Just that maybe instead of really writing significant memories. I would really like to recall the memories that really made me grow or made me an even more horrible person. To be completely honest, i felt like 2016 has been a long and draggy year with nothing but problems arising every now and then. It has made me realised how childish and how emotional i can be sometimes.
My first experience crying in a shopping mall. This is honestly just a very personal thing that happened recently. And i guess what struck me was really pure despair, you know those scenes in movie when they exaggerate at how people actually blanked out while staring outside a car/bus. I always thought wow , does people really blanked out like this when they are sad? And it actually happened, i looked out of a window while i was on a bus for a long time and i couldn’t stop the sadness that was creeping in. When i reached the mall and saw my friend, i started tearing. I couldn’t stop crying for 15 mins straight. One EVENT can trigger the wounds that i created and hid in myself . What i wanted to say is from all these years , i never learnt to open up myself, i closed off myself, shut myself in and bear the stacks of emotions like Jenga pieces stacked together. But what i really need to learn is to let people help me, help me take each Jenga blocks slowly and help me lighten the burden in me. I tell myself this every year but yet i failed at it terribly again and again. I really hope next year can be the year to turn things around?
My first time really speaking out in a university tutorial. Public speaking is not my forte. I have this fear of lack of reaction by the audience which led me to lower my self confidence. The only time i really learnt to speak out was during my South East Asia tutorial, i honestly learnt absolutely nothing from that class but yet scored the best from it. When my tutor forced us to speak out our opinions on the topic of each week, I was honestly beyond terrified. Besides the fact that i never ever done any readings, i also slept in lectures, i was afraid that i would sprout nonsense and get those ” what the hell are you talking about ” look from my classmates. However, i actually find myself sprouting some useful stuff and ending up talking for a long time and seem like i knew my stuff. You know this made me gain self confidence when my tutor complimented me on the good points i came out with. What i learnt is that you will never know your potential till you try it , even if you think you are bad at it. Once you give it a shot, you are one step closer to your goal. And i hope to continue this mindset over the next couple years i have to conquer.
Just a last word before this post becomes draggy and long. Insecurities and fear is gonna consume day by day , especially in a new environment. I just see that behind every person , even the most confidence ones, they have that layer of insecurities hidden. Don’t be intimidated by them and feel inferior to them , they may be the best speakers, best at certain things but everyone has a certain weakness and strengths so we shouldn’t ever learn to think so lowly about ourselves.
2017 will definitely be better or will it?????
I am very used to adding a song at the end of every blog post. And this song can really represent how i feel about 2016:
This year has been about running away and escaping but its time to face the problems ahead and i guess it means we have to find the extra strength to conquer 2017.
Christmas is around the corner, more specifically , its tomorrow. I am sure unlike other countries, Christmas may just be another ordinary day for us in Singapore. There may not be a tradition to celebrate Xmas as opposed to other tradition festivals like Chinese New Year.
However, what is really stopping us from celebrating Xmas? we can still celebrate it by ourselves even if we don’t usually do. It is a festival of giving and loving furthermore it’s the holiday periods. There are a few things you can do to entertain yourself this Xmas.
1.Watching Xmas Movies. There are numerous great movies, From Elf to The Arthur Christmas. Watching Movies makes you have the Xmas mood and just liven up your mood in a way or another. Besides that, have some snacks with you would definitely make you happy , Screw diet, its holiday , just eat whatever you want. I have this tradition by myself ( I know sounds very sad ) but i would watch Mr Bean , the Xmas edition every year without fail. Its one of the happiest shows i watched and looked forward every Xmas. And maybe cause the TV always plays Mr Bean every year.
Just putting in down here if you ever wanna watch it. Trust me , its so good.
2. Listening to Xmas songs. I am sure many people done it already. Xmas is all about celebrating, carolling and enjoying the festive mood. And Xmas songs are a must. There are many famous Xmas song , of course the most prominent one is ” All i want for Xmas” , “Jingle Bell” . Just 2 years ago , i started watching Glee ( Binge watch actually ) and happen to watch the Christmas Episode ” Extraordinary Merry Christmas”. There are a few songs inside which sounds freaking good and i would recommend you to watch and listen to .
Extraordinary Merry Xmas ( All time Favourite)
This was an extremely touching scene.
Side Track a lil, You know Glee is actually freaking nice. You should really watch it. i finished watching 6 seasons in 1 month and love Santana. She can really sing and dance and she is SO FREAKING SAVAGE AND I LOVE IT HAHA. ( I know this is sadistic)
3. Giving back to the Society. I am no saint or what but i always felt like no matter who is it, they deserve to have a happy time during the holidays. There are a few times when i see people celebrating with Orphans, Elderly when their family couldn’t make time for them. They would cook a small meal for them, sing and dance together , watching movies together. It felt so heartwarming to see people doing that. Just felt like, if you have nothing to do during Christmas, it is always nice to volunteer , making people happy sort of makes you happy during the process so give it a thought.
4. Spending it with Family and Friends. If your family doesn’t celebrate, then organise it yourself. Have the initiative, even if its just a small cooked meal or sitting down and watching TV together while chatting. It gives you some time to bond and talk. Every Singaporean Kid know how hard it is to actually have dinner together with their family with school work hindering family time. So let the holiday be an excuse for you to relax and talk about what they missed out in a whole year, Its never too late. For me, i don’t celebrate Xmas at all , my mom used to always planned to cook a meal but end up ditching me for her work Xmas party and my brother would just do nothing all day. It was actually just another typical day for me. But i would try to meet up with my friends and talk and play. So the day doesn’t actually turn out quite badly. This year , in fact just yesterday, for the first time in my entire life , i went to Gardens by the Bay Xmas Wonderland. Honestly, i wouldn’t say it was impressive and all and it was rather pricey too. But i actually enjoyed walking about looking at the lights , plus people were singing along with the light show. It felt really good. I guess the bad thing about it was that it started pouring and everyone was running into the shelters and we did the same. But then just as we wanted to leave, Karen said she wanted to see JAB JAB ( Some hi 5 character hahaha ) and we stayed on and we actually got to watch the light show , i stood there and the weather was actually good , it was windy and i love the rain. It was magnificent and i actually felt like perhaps the 8 dollars was worth it. The whole process was fun, from braving the rain together, walking together under one umbrella in our diamond formation to shelter everyone, it was pretty amazing to celebrate with my friends.
Jas, Karen and Joey
Lucky for Jackets
Everything Rainbow is Beautiful
So i just wanted to say, there is absolutely nothing to hate about Xmas and there is plenty to do even if its just another typical day . Even if you are just dancing alone to Christmas songs, eating chocolates and snacks all by yourself, reading a good book or watching Shows on TV. Don’t make it feel bad but enjoy it cause it just happens once a year right. Buy yourself a present cos you deserve it, buy a freaking expensive Xmas tree if it makes you happy. Eat more than you should , laugh more and just let yourself go. You deserve happiness even if its just a day. So Merry Xmas Guys and have a Happy Holidays.
As the year comes to an end, its the moment where we look back and see how some things changed your life one way or another. Of course as you have seen from the title, i am gonna talk about some of the best songs that was produced this year. Be it mainstream music , indie or classical music. Each genres has a certain effect on different people. The few good songs that i heard this year might be different from the few songs that you enjoyed but honestly it is personal preference and so lets start shall we.
Not according to order or any sort
Water under the bridge by Adele
It is from her most recent album 25. I actually first heard a cover of this and really liked it. That cover was more soothing as compared to the faster pace , lighten track.
This was the cover that i first listened to by Sara Farell. This song i guess is to put down the things in the past and leave it behind. As we know Adele used to have some troubles in her life, with the alcohol addiction that affected her singing career and had to cancel her world tour. Her failed grammy performance which made her cry after but i guess the song was meant to be written for her to get over the past and look forward to future.
2. Thinking about you – Ariana Grande
I mean everyone knows i love Ariana so how can i not include Ariana in my playlist. Thinking bout you is the last track on her 2016 album Dangerous woman. This song was rumoured to be a song about her ex or her current boyfriend due to their hectic clashing schedule. Ariana’s whole album is really the first album where i love all the songs in it. There are many soundtracks that top the charts such as ” Into You” , ” Side to Side” . But the melody of this song is what captured my attention and is honestly one of the few relatable songs for me. Talking about the album, i must thank Yuemin for buying it for me. I mean i kept pestering her to buy for me but i was really joking, i mean i would get it myself but she really bought it for me. Yay thanks love ya haha.
3. The Greatest- Sia
This is the second time i am talking about this song but this song is absolutely stunning. This was from the 2016 album This is Acting by SIA. We all know SIA has unique style of performance with the repetitive usage of Maddie, first discovered from Dance Moms. As i mentioned in my previous blog post, this was a song dedicated to victims from the Orlando shooting this year which was devastating. There were different versions as to why SIA chose to cover her face when she performed, firstly was due to her fear of anxiety when performing on stage when facing a crowd. Secondly was to include an element of mystery in her performance with the usage of dancers instead of focusing on her instead. Regardless of what reasons she has, her performance has always been spectacular and beautiful especially with Maddie by her side.
4. Miss you – Gabrielle Aplin
This was only recently released as a single. Gabrielle Aplin is an amazing indie singer. Her famous tracks are ” Salvation” and ” Please don’t say you love me “. In this new single, it was evident in the change of style in her music. It is going towards pop and i am surprised that this song is not as popular because this song is extremely catchy. However she did record an acoustic piano version of the song which was a little heartbreaking because it is so sad. I mean if it makes you feel so emotional , it was probably a good cover, admit it.
5. On Your Side – The Veronicas
This is a more recent song as well by The Veronicas. If you don’t know who are they, they are a pair of Australia twin who debuted pretty long ago. The twins are Jessica and Lisa and if you remember, their popular songs are ” In my Blood” and ” Untouched”. But recently this song is so good plus the video is a bonus. The video was produced and directed by Ruby Rose who is currently dating Jessica.I mean who doesn’t like anything Ruby Rose does , she is awesome. The story is like a sad tragic story about a lesbian couple, i mean typical storyline but it was portrayed really well. I don’t want to spoil the video for you peeps so just go watch yourself.
6. Let Me Love You – DJ Snake ft Justin Bieber
I know , who haven’t heard of this song yet right. I may be a little bias in choosing this song because i was once a belieber. I actually cried cos my Mom didn’t allow me to go his concert when he came for F1 concert. This is actually a track from DJ Snake’s Album Encore featuring Justin Bieber. I felt like the songs that was recently written by Justin was really meaningful, such as ” Purpose” and ” Love Yourself”. Well its rumoured to be a song about Selena but guess what thats what they say about every song he written. And i really think people should get over Jelena , lets just say its several years ago, we should let him have his own space and just enjoyed the great music he is producing now.
He sang this during the Live Broadcast of him at his Purpose Tour for the AmericaMusic Award. Please don’t say he can’t sing again cos he can.
7. Nothing Else Matters – Little Mix
I know bias again cos i freaking love Little Mix. This is another track from their recently released album Shout Out To My Ex. The common trend of LM’s songs is to teach girls to love ourself and to represent ourselves proudly which is one of the reason why i love them so much. They really represent powerful woman who is able to defend themselves and let them grow from pain and be where they are now. Nothing else matters is a song that may not be as popular as other songs in their album such as ” Shout Out To My Ex” and ” Power”. However this song really taught me to learn to care about myself more instead of degrading myself and hate myself so much. And sometimes we should just let loose and live life a little. This album is honestly a great album despite Gigi Hadid saying they are childish for writing an album who i guess is mainly targeting Zayn Malik but i guess its just a way Little Mix is showing their support for Perrie. I have never seen such a great bonded girl band such as them who would defend relentlessly for their girlfriend.
8.Bad Decision – Ariana Grande
Another Ari song. Its also from her latest album Dangerous Woman. I basically just like how catchy it is. I think most people will like it too. Okay by now i think you can guess i really like Ariana Grande. And side track a lil bit, she is performing Hair Spray Live on the 7 dec and it is freaking awesome when i watch a preview of it from the Macy’s Parade.
She comes out at 2:13. But she is a super good singer and i like a singer based on her songs and i guess slowly find out what else they are good at. Apparently, she is good at impressions and honestly her character is top -notch despite the donut incident which was super long ago and really who in this world is so perfect and wouldn’t make mistakes. We are not perfect people so even Celebrities make mistakes as well.
9. Love Myself – Hailee Steinfield
We all know Hailee from Pitch Perfect as The Legacy. But did you know she was nominated for Emmy’s , Oscar’s and BAFTA. I had no idea she was a more experienced actor than maybe half the cast in Pitch Perfect. But she recently debuted as a singer and Love myself was her first single from her album HAIZ. Her album actually consist of many top songs but this song is especially good because once again it taught us about self loving, i think self explanatory from her song title. Maybe this year was really all about rediscovering myself and learning to accept myself and people around me. These songs seem to appeal to me alot.
10. Ain’t My Fault – Zara Larson
Zara Larson is a Sweden singer and she is rising in fame after her famous songs ” Never forget you” and ” Lush Life” . She seems like an all- rounder, she can dance, sing and rap. Its so hard to find a singer who does well in all these aspects. The song was produced by MNEK who she previously worked with and this song was actually about a girl stealing someone else’s boyfriend but she refused to sing this unless they twerk the lyrics because she was afraid it would hurt people’s feelings.
Side track again but i think this was really cool : it was the different versions of lush life based on the different lipstick colours by Clinique.
So i guess this is it. The top 10 songs i really loved so far. Its not the end of the year so more new songs could be released and i might add more into my list. I guess there is just so many more songs i really like and it you happen to like the songs up there. You can check this playlist out for some other songs i liked:
rêveur 