It sure felt like the old times, riding in the double-decker service #157 bus, going down Dunearn/Bukit Timah Road, just like in the good old days when I was still studying at Chinese High/Hwa Chong.

But, so much has changed--all the chaos of the construction work around the Jln Anak Bukit double-layered road interchange has disappeared, with the completion of the massive tunnel/flyover project at the Bukit Timah/Dunearn/Clementi Road junction interchange; the old row of shophouses at the junction of Sixth Avenue and Bukit Timah Road has given way to a refurbished row of shops, the overpasses at both Chinese High and Hwa Chong are now fully sheltered, and so on, and so forth.

It sure felt like a homecoming journey, taking the bus ride that I've not taken in such a long time, down the road I've not travelled in that fashion for such a long time; yet, nothing was the same anymore--not just the buildings, but the feelings and all have changed too--all that's left are the memories of those youthful, innocent times, black&white motion pictures of days gone by complete with scratchy soundtracks and jerky images.

I felt awkward, as I got up to alight from the bus at my stop, just one down the road from the usual Hwa Chong bus-stop; it felt like the old days, as though I was just going to school, for a moment; yet it felt odd--I no longer am the student I was, but neither am I anything else immediately identifiable--not a university student, not a working-class adult.

It feels odd, awkward, this period of limbo of two-and-a-half years; I used to dislike the fact that I would be lagging behind my classmates, schoolmates of the fairer sex by two years in the world of academics, in my career, etc--it just didn't feel fair; but now as I look back in hindsight at the year gone by, I'm thankful for this two-and-a-half years, this breathing space it's given me, this opportunity it's given me to explore and develop myself, with no worries, no concerns, whatsoever.

But, it's a 飘浮不定的非常时期. It feels weird.

Where have I drifted to? I can no longer seem to identify with the once-comforting harbours of the places where I spent the best years of my youth creating the best memories I've had thus far; but, they are but passers-by in my life, long gone, and I've been lingering around too long, and it no longer feels right; I guess, after such a long time, I've fully pushed off from the shore.

My coherence is wearing thin. Perhaps it's because I haven't written here for too long a time.

Goodnight.