The Trains

The trains have many cabins of which each can store like what, 20, 25 people maybe? I dunno. We walk into trains at different times of the day but one things for sure we know where we wanna go and as much as it it is a destination, we experience a journey.

Sometimes the trains are jam packed and we feel so tired and stressed that we either step out of the train and wait for the next, or hang in there and feel alot more space as time goes by, stop after stop. Sometimes, we step in to trains where there a a handful of people and maybe a few catch our eye. MAybe sometimes, you see familiar faces. Sometimes a pretty face that catches your eye even although we most of the time just look afar and let an opportunity slip. Sometimes of course, we step into a train where there are totally no people and that mkes one a lil lonely and impeded.

Someitmes, we take the trains with our friends and we get off the same sop at times, some stop before or after you, some dont even need to take the train. Yet it is the same, as you are in the trains, countless people, significant or insignificant, walk in and out of the cabins because their destination is reached.The trains move fast although it seems slow, the stops are sometimes close to another while another destination might seem farther and yet there is nothing you can do to control it. No way to control the crowd or to make the train go faster. Sometimes the train takes one minute to come, sometimes it takes 7 minutes.You get people who totally oay no attention to you, these of which either are reading a book or thinking about whats for dinner what programme there is on tv later, or how they're gonna vent their frustrations when they get home. As much as you like to be noticed, sometimes, noone cares. Not even your friends.

They might be sleeping on their way home with you. Sometimes, even we sleep and fail to notice whats happening around us or who is besides us.

When you miss a stop, its ok. Ur able to get off the train get on the one in the opposite direction and head back to where you were without paying more. Sometimes, the train stops longer at certain stops either due to more people or a fault in the train or maybe the driver is chatting up with one of the staff outside on the platforms. Whatever it is, whether it is damn crowded and unbearable or totally free and alone with a loved one, the train will move on and that is inevitable. No matter what, the train will move on . it will not stay stuck at that moment nor will it suspend for a day . It will move on .

Lets not forget the gruelling part of boarding the train, it waits for noone. If we take our own sweet time while making way to the train, it might shut on us and hence causing us to miss the train. it could be the last train, but whatever it is, once we dont take hold of the open door, it shuts on us. Yeah, i guess that sucks pretty much when about to board the train if you ask me. ANd yet the trains and the stops they stop at are always the same, they do not take different routes or skip any stops. The announcer is always the lady announcing stop after stop. Nothing changes and the train always looks the same with us boarding it the same way, goin gthe same direction taking the same route. But one things for sure, the trains are never going to be extinct. these trains awill always be there to board and to alight, ONe thing for sure, the trains keep coming and coming be it at 1 minute or 7 minute intervals.

The train is as such life.

In life we know where we wanna go although we dont know how long it'll take. Sometimes in life we feel so stressed that we just wanna give up or take things alot slower although it wastes time. Sometimes in life we persevere and hang in there which pays off as we reach our destination faster and easier with no wastage of time. Sometimes in life, we see opportunities (pretty face) and although we see it as a good one, we often let it slip past. Sometimes, in life we feel so empty and alone just because we are too afraid to try.

Also in life sometimes, we have people coming in and out of our lives beit friends or celebrities or strangers or even idols. They all come and go. Life is also unpredictable and something we must accept something we must adapt like the heavy crowd coming into trains or longer journey times frm one stop to another. Like life, certaing things jus cannot be controlled.

Also in life, we do our best and hope to be noticed, although sometimes we get the attention, sometimes people just can be bother but life still moves on as such the train as much as they are sleeping or doing whatever , the train still moves. Also in life, we also fail to notice ( sleep in trains) the importance of others even if that someone is right besides you. Sometimes in life, even your friends and family get to preoccupied with their own things they fail to notice you.

As such missing a stop and going back , life also offers that. And that is called a second chance , nowhere is too far for we can always go back if we want to and if we're alert enoughin life. Again in life, whether times are bad or good, it will pass, and time will not stop for you as such life. Like trains moving on , life will not stay stuck in the past or in that moment, it will move on.

Like whats mentioned in the fourth paragraph, like trains, life waits for noone . As the saying goes, time and tide wait for no man. if we take our own sweet time and take life for granted that chances will always be there(door will always be open waitng for us), we will soon have regrets and no chances. Like trains, life will shut on us. And finally, like life, it follows a system. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It does not follow differently and certain things like time and exams and age follow a system. Like trains that always take the same route.

However, life is what you make it. Although like life, trains on the outside take the same route and seem to be doing the same thing , it is all superficial. Like life, as much as we follow a timetable life is indeed what you make it. You could be reading a book in the train on monday , and studying on wednesday or chatting with a friend on saturday.Even so, we are dressed differently and waering something different seeing different people on the train. LIfe is how you think its like. Like what ever you do on the train, you can choose to idle and do the same thing like sleepin, or make it different byu reading a book or chatting.

Whatever it is, life is something that we can relate to. And although it seems like groundhog where everyday is the same. It really isnt. Life is what we make it to be and we are the ones that we are dependent on. we set our goals and our destinations and throughout that journey, we make something. We make life. Our life as we see it, as we feel it and what we make it to be.

Night people.

Have yourself a merry merry christmas

And as the streets lighted up with all colours and faces of joy and celebration, Christmas was drawing near. Young Lucas Wilkie was jus yet another boy covered in snow all the time with insufficient cloth and warmth. Not to mention, a home that only had himself. Yes, Young Lucas was an orphan with often no family around him. In his clattered coat and a towel as a makeshift scarf, night was falling soon with the sun being called home to rest. And as he paced through the countless christmas trees at every block of the street inside every cosy home, the feelings inside him enveloped a sign of sadness and envy. It was brittle yet unbreakable the feeling he had inside, such that was immune.

Lucas WIlkie had one lucky touch though, this year he had a touch of love. Yes thats right, Lucas had fallen in love with a girl. Jessie Turner wasn the tallest girl in class but had beautiful curled hair which made her so mysterious everytime it covered the side of her face. She was your girl next door with an angelic voice as Young Lucas would recall during her choir performances at the carols.

As popular as he was though , Lucas always felt empty. I guess Jessie filled that void. It was christmas once again and everytime they strolled down to that snowy path on route to home, it was joyous yet sad as it always seemed short though they took the longest way home and did so much as trudge home . IT was on this day , 23rd December that Lucas was to be called in to his first ever Christmas dinner, with Jessie's family. The young man agreed gallantly as he gave her one of those i'll see you tomorrow pecks before letting out that smile.Life seemed good and well on the way as he made his way back home that only had himself and a roommate he never spoke to. Yeah, you could say all was fine and dandy.

One thing he never figured out was why his roommate whom he cohabited for almost 5 months with never uttered a single word although he occasionally took the mail for him. It was an unsual relationship they had although life was still normal and everything else was still ubiquitous. Their time together never seemed like it had to work, whatever took place jus happened without notice or system like time itself, it was incessant. His roommate was forever an enigma, one he thought he'd never be able to figure out.

December 25th and boy was it a great affair. It wasno more groundhog days where all seemed oh so stagnant. It was instead waking up to tunes of let it snow by frank sinatra, John Lennons, Harry Connick jnrs, and of course , that Santa Claus is coming to town. It was alien to Lucas but he was getting used to it. Lucas's mother had died when giving birth to him and his dad died not long later in an accident. To Lucas, noting worst could happen but never did he expect the best to befall him. It was luck he was new to. He had gottentogether with Jessie for about a week or so and that was good enough. But i guess the best news for him was a christmas dinner, the feel of a family.

He put on his best looking shirt accompanied by long khakis pants that complimented his shirt really well with of course, his old shabby chuck taylors that still made him look good. Lucas felt welcomed into a world he was unfamiliar with . He was being welcomed to a world that was merry and joyful. That was love. Love is something too, thjat is ubiquitous. In the airports, when friends lovers or reltaives embrace, or in coffee houses when people talk their days through, or a day at the library spending time with books that they loved so very much. Life was suddenly colorful for Lucas and he couldn understand why. However, he knew that "man up there" works in mysterious ways. He knew that whatever happened, God would make a way.
On his way down , he met his roommate all dressed up and he hence greeted, " Looking great i see, Merry Christmas mate!"

To his much anticipated feel, it was to no avail. The roommate, he knew as Spence Trevors, gave a lifeless smile only to move on although he looked his best with a polo and slacks that matched his sunken look almost all the time. Anyways, Lucas shrugged off whatever was on his mind and sped on pacing far ahead of a slowly trudging Spence.

He was greeted with the warmest of smiles, And the best of dinners. Lucas felt warm and as he sat down on the couch, playing with the house dog, with the family during gifts exchange, The atmosphere was cosy and comfy. The snow pouring down accompanied by jazzy christmas music that now enveloped no envy, but warmth, and love. But yet as Lucas peered out into the window and outside of a street opposite the home, he saw himself. He saw a boy standing in the cold alone stepping out of a random 7-11 smoking cigs. But that was past him and with that he turned back to The girl that made him realize everything else in life was important as of now. He embraced Jessie and continued with a family that seemd like his.

The boy smoking cigs turned back at that very moment when Lucas turned away. That boy was Spence Trevors. Alone he was but seemed unaffected although filled with envy.

Its so funny how not every single being is happy on christmas day. Life is a cycle, irregardless of who you are. I know that i had little to be joyous about in the past but now i know i have everything in my hands with a warm family and lots of love to give and have. Like lucas, he had found warmth. But yet as i am typing this in a manner that i feel very much lucky and elated, there is Spence , out there somewhere in a state of melancholy and a tinge of rancor. As we embrace what we have in life, we need to realise that out there someone isn clothed, someone is eating and that someone is alone. In the meantime, we remeber a moment of grace and remember that we are comfortable with our loved ones. We cherish what we have been given and we ask of nothing more in return. So as the tunes play and my christmas tree lights at 530 am in the morning, i come to you here hoping that all of you have yourself a merry merry christmas.

Enjoy.

I can never thank the ppl in my life. But i have Xin Zhan, Wenhao, Zihao, Genesis, Phoebe, Ice, Erica and Shuqin to thank.

In that ,i have my brothers Yi En Darren Kuangwei and Benjamin to thank for they have never shown disbelief and i really honour what we have.

But most of all, i have a girl that i can soon call my own because she has thought me to treasure whats in front of my eye. I have a girl that makes me feel new again. I have Jamie to thank for being existant.

Thank you, to all of you and to Hans, im especially sorry but i cannot do anything about the past. What i have is now and that is something i can change

The passage of time has sorta left me to realise how damn tough it is to complete the book . So its been shelved. Well, not exactly shelved, i will work on it but meanwhile ive decided to fill all of you in with more entries so here goes the first one in a long time.Nothing fantastic but just a thought.

Theatre

The movie consists of actors , plots, settings, dialogue and what have you, the movie consists of popcorn, ideas and reviews but the cast are not immersely involved as one group of people. These group of people get set into the mood not realising they are part of the movie, they feel aligned with the actors and the plot, they feel alone and outside of a world they enjoy. These people are us and that one place makes it all happen for us, thats the theatre. The theatre is like an escapade to realism, such that we do not feel our world coming in to place with the reel world. And as you bask into the seats of the cinema, you can't help but be involved that you tend to forget whats happening on the outside. The cinema accompanied by not only sound and picture but also darkness and atmosphere, makes one feel alone in a world and that isnt a bad thing. People forget who you are and in that nobody cares. The idea of a cinema is not a genius one in its effects but a genius in its psychological feel. Its something that goes so very unnoticed like an unsung hero.Last night, as i sunk into my seat feeling ever so comfortable, i couldn help but feel bemused when the lights came on. The cinema jus didn't appear something ubiquitious anymore.

The cinematics of movies wasn't just based on the intent to convey but to experience. Many a time we wonder why we cannot be the lead or why we cant live in world like theirs where we can be cool , or even generous and the best part is people can see everything and you will never go unrecognized.I think its time that we fathom the fact that we actually are part of the movie. Even then, as you bask in your seats and view whatever genre of movie, the part that we fail to recognize is the importance of the one beside you. And even in saying that it is not the movie you are watching but you being part of it at the very least of your realizations that really astound us.