RADIOHEAD: "Lotus Flower"

Out of mud, the lovely lotus blossoms.

周杰伦 : 稻香 (Jay Chou : "Fragrant Rice")

There’s no shame in dying; there’s only shame in not living. Make love to life as if all you will ever have, will be a one life stand. Be a child without being childish and seek the unknown, only to find out later that it contains much of what you know already.

The old man waves at me like a palm tree in the winds. Careless. Inviting. An open door. The smile to a stranger is the beginning of a new lesson. Don’t look away, but look him into the eyes and strike a conversation. Be daring, you will be rewarded. We teach as much by listening as we learn by talking.

You will find happiness if you can live in a manner that is close to who you really are. There won’t be any discrepancy between what you say and what you do; there won’t be any difference between what you want and what you need; there won’t be any deception for not achieving what you expected. Taking part in life means to part from where you come from, just to go back from where you started. Life is a circle, not an infinite line going nowhere. Happiness is not an ever-ascending line on a chart. It’s a moment of vibration in the wind.  And it is only real when it’s shared. Unions are lasting, only when they are connected.

“Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting”, I read somewhere. And today luck is a bundle of sunlight on a silver lake, filled with water that has splashed for centuries, in which emperors have bathed and warriors perished, from which birds sipped and flew off again to shelter in the shades of cypresses. I smell like morning and the morning smells like roses. An empress squeezes my hand. She came in without knocking. I read a poem in her eyes and write promises in black ink with a brush on the tiles. When you hear the truth, your soul recognises it to be so. And when you feel it, you pinch also.

ENRIQUE IGLESIAS: "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat"

We write our testimony for the world each day, not in the final stages of our life. Our legacy is made of memories; and our own memories ultimately become memories of others to ourselves. We build up a capital of memorable moments throughout the years and our good deeds yield interests that do not appear on a bank statement. Time is short so you better use it wisely. Life is nothing more but a series of heartbeats, an ending sequence of breaths, so inhale each single one of them for a cause that’s worth it, exhale each single one of them for someone who deserves it.

FRANK SINATRA: "Moon River"

Even the winds lack the courage to howl at the skies. I stare into the distance, out of sync, out of focus. The city sleeps at my feet, and I sleep with it.

MILEY CYRUS: "From The Very Start"

The swishing of your hands
Balms my bruised thoughts
Scarless are the lands
Far the ghosts I fought
Take one little step to love
And love takes a hundred steps to you
For the distance to the heart
Is measured from the very start

LADY & BIRD: "Blue Skies"

I must look like a grazing cow, my face only ten centimetres away from the grass in this lush hotel garden. It’s early morning, and there’s not much human cattle around, let alone other mammals performing arm balance poses like me in the chilly zephyr that rolls over Manila Bay. I smell the green, where my nostrils inhaled the salty blue of waves just now. The ladybird that strolls over my mat does not even bother to look up as I gaze at him, as if it were a tall slender princess parading along Sunset Boulevard. My morning mind is an unspoilt beach, pleasantly pristine before the noisy crowds will flock to its warm sandy skin. In silent sincerity, we talk to ourselves. We can talk many words, but only the true ones will be remembered. A breeze caresses my hair, but goes unnoticed.

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: "Quick And To The Pointless"

In forgiving closeness
We fondle our memories
And cuddle fun-filled pillows
Of undefined horizons
Time points to pointlessness
As we escape from it -
Flying fishes through the net

OWL CITY: "To The Sky"

Marina Bay Sands (Singapore)

BON JOVI: "Bad Medicine"

Quod medicina aliis, aliis est acre venenum.
("What is medicine to some, is bitter poison to others.")

HUEY LEWIS: "Power Of Love"

“When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.”   
 (Honoré de Balzac)