hometown on film

I finally developed two rolls of film when I went to Wan Chai to apply for a Chinese visa.

On the day before Chinese New Year, we went out for breakfast and handpicked some sea snails back for lunch.

And I went home again to vote for a change in May.

She's one of the people that made me not give up living.

the visit (4 years ago)

20/08/2013 was the day when I saved this post. I wasn't satisfied with the colors of the photos, but I didn't have the time to redo this post. 

Again, I left them in the drafts since 30/7/2015. Moments of four years left behind untouched. I still go to the same places whenever I head back, but we definitely have grown differently.

family on film

Should've turned on the flash, should've gone closer, should've shot more people with film.

two months

It's been nearly two months since the end of my final semester as an undergraduate. I remember how I was nervous, indecisive and busy preparing for my FYP, job hunt as well as application for postgrad. It was pretty late when I started considering doing a masters, hence my current university became my one and only choice as it doesn't require a lot of documentation and communication was easy. As you can see, the whole point here was 'easy'. However, I chose to take on the difficult route and went through many job interviews and in the end secured a position that has a lot of potential yet little salary to offer. I was really pleased with the company I applied but it wasn't my ideal kind of job. I talked and talked to many people and in the end gave up the job and opted for masters as a way of giving myself another chance. It can be pretty frustrating to start over again in a different field, but it's not like I am doing better in my own major. Oh god, what the heck.

Here's two months' worth of memories according to the iPhone. Feel free to stop or skip anytime you get bored. (too comfortable yet v guilty with my current life gaming at home)

Two and a half weeks left till the end of summer holidays. So grateful for a long break at home!

morib / 2016

31.7.2016

Photos from last July. I didn't know what was I doing that took me a year to unearth these. 

My mother's brothers decided to hold a ceremony for my late maternal grandparents who have both passed away way longer than I could remember. I was pretty surprised to first hear about this ceremony, which apparently is a tradition for the Hokkiens. The ritual is named 做功德 in Mandarin, meaning to do good deeds for the deceased. People believe performing this ritual -which includes large amounts of offerings in the form of joss paper, papier-mâché clothes, houses, cars, toiletries, electronics and servants- will give the deceased a better afterlife which may be returned in good blessings to the family. To be frank I am not a strong believer of the thought of afterlife, but I had to respect this tradition and am grateful to be given a chance to learn about it. The ceremony was held by a beautiful beach in Morib, so I took it as a short getaway and brought my camera along.