halloween '15

mes amis and i dressed up as bank robbers for halloween. or rather, we tried to. we ended up looking like a mere sextet wearing matching striped shirts. we were missing those scary ski-masks that bank robbers of the cinema wear in action, as well as actual bags of money. but hey, we tried.

it was my last halloween with these idiots – it feels like a routine now, checking off everything one by one off this list of last things i will do for a long, long time.

i keep thinking how this time next year, everything will be different: for the first time in 10 years, i will be in a different country when school starts, surrounded by people i have never met, living by myself (and having to feed myself, eek!), and going through an entirely new routine. no more waking up at 6:15 am every weekday to shower and eat and get on the bus at 7:30 to head to school. no more eating questionable cafeteria meals with my friends at 13:05 every monday-friday. no more returning home to my parents and relating to them everything that happened that day in school, significant or not. this is scary. so scary. i'm excited at the change that will happen, but also scared.

i hope this fear goes away soon.

over and out,

alexius.

hat-shit crazy

lately i have been nursing an unhealthy obsession with headgear.

i tend to have strange, fleeting obsessions, and sometimes they last for weeks, sometimes they last for days. this headwear fixation has been fully fledged for a month now and i am curious to see how much longer it can last.

here are some hats that i am really liking:

soft loafer cap

cherry + strawberry pink cap

niles cap

fishing cap

i've begun to realise how random this blog is becoming. i dedicated a post to japanese cars and now i've created an entire post about hats. this space is turning into such an accurate portrayal of the inner workings of my mind.

over and out,

alexius.

big bang - made world tour

on july 24 i saw big bang live in kuala lumpur and it was a beautiful night.

i have been waiting for a really long time (3 years) to see them in concert and i've always missed it because if they were going to china, i wouldn't be in the country, and it was the same with if they were in malaysia. but when i found out that i'd be in malaysia at the same time as them i freaked out and just had to buy tickets (much to the sadness of my dad and his wallet).

i watched it alone, so it was a different experience from the three previous concerts i've attended before with my friends. yet it wasn't just the fact that i was by myself that made it a different experience - big bang's stage presence is unlike any other. i love how they alter their songs to make it different from the original, track version. i love how colourful their set is. i love their energy, the vibe they give off. it's indescribable.

daesung is adorable.

the section where i was seated was actually pretty decent, and i'm really happy with how my photos turned out. but when they would come over by the side-stage-thing, the people in  the first row of my section were the luckiest, as they were on the same level as the band memebers and could make eye contact with them (!!!)

after the concert the taxis started charging us (parents + i) crazy prices for a not-so-long ride home, and a girl and a guy who were together approached us, asking if we wanted to split a cab. naturally, we said yes as we were desperate to escape the liverpool crowds (there was a liverpool game happening in the arena just beside us). the girl was in the rock zone during the concert, and were crazy close to big bang, and she airdropped me a whole bunch of g-dragon photos (because we both love him very much). we fangirled over the concert and the band and had some pretty interesting conversations and it was really nice to be able to bond with a stranger over a mutual love for five korean guys.

  

it was the best night of my life. and i'm not exaggerating when i say that.

over and out,

alexius.

also, i apologise profusely for that horrendous, lopsided layout above. i'm a nightmare with html (meaning: i don't understand jack about it) and i do not know how to solve this problem so bear with me.

london '15

i came back from london yesterday morning after a wonderful ten days in the city. i visited london three summers ago, during the summer of the london olympics, and i fell in love with the city. flash forward three years later and a second trip, and i've fallen even more in love with it. i love the little things: how it's normal to talk to strangers, how they hold the door open for you, how there's no shoving or pushing regardless of how busy the streets are. i love the eclectic atmosphere, the buildings, the food, even the extreme squeezing in the tube with countless business people returning home from work.

on a train from london to cambridge.

queued five hours in the sun for wimbledon to watch one game: wawrinka vs. estrella-burgos. it was too quick, but an intense game nonetheless.

then a visit to the ucl open day, where i found out it was the only place i wanted to spend my three years after graduation.

all photos taken on my iphone 6.

over and out,

alexius.

post-exam fête - a playlist

exams are FINALLY over, and to celebrate this wondrous event (and to take my mind off the fact that i completely failed my chemistry paper ii), i have created a playlist.

now all i have left to do in the week is my tok presentation, history presentation, chemistry ia and biology ia.

ib is going to make me so smart. if it doesn't kill me first.

over and out,

alexius.

the cars of okinawa

so i'd been wanting to do a post on the cars i saw in okinawa ever since the day i arrived there, but here i am writing this post weeks after i've come back because i am a master procrastinator.

i don't know if the cars are all like this in japan, or if it's just more prominent in okinawa, but seeing as how i went to tokyo when i was 7 and don't really remember much of it (so i can't compare), i'll just assume it's more of an okinawan thing to have adorable cars until someone tells me otherwise.

bear in mind, many of these were taken really hastily because my reflexes are not faster than a moving car, so forgive the weird composition and angles of some of these photos.

till next time,

alexius.