17 Sep 2008: A pleasant and industrious day at a cafe

Flowers blooming in Australia, spring-time. May they brighten your day.

After the Backstage Tour, I headed back to the hotel to take a short break. Time had flew very fast, it was already my second last day in Sydney by then. I was scheduled to leave Sydney on 19 Sep 2008 in the early morning, at 7 a.m.

Reflecting, I am thankful that I was wise enough to realise that the time with treasured friends would be more precious than spending time touring any place in the world. Furthermore, I had already travelled the key places in Sydney that I had wanted to visit, i.e. the Sydney Opera House, the Blue Mountains and Darling Harbour. As such, I decided that I shall just set the rest of 17 and 18 Sep 2008 to spend time with my friends in Sydney. If I were to do any form of sight-seeing, that would be a bonus that I could do without. Setting one's priorities right is more important than doing a lot but not getting anything out of everything.

It was a very good choice on 17 Sep 2008 to choose to meet up with one of my most cherished friends, XS, for the second time of my trip in Sydney. If asked to choose again, I would still give up all sight-seeing opportunities to meet her that day. On the way to meet up with her at a cafe, I saw flowers blooming. Spring had certainly arrived.

As I didn't eat most of the meat from the Big Aussie breakfast that was served to me during the earlier Backstage Tour that I had attended, I ordered a Bircher Muesli. It was my third serving of breakfast for the day! Anyway, breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. The Bircher Muesli tasted good. It was just that I had too much breakfast that I ended up only finishing three-quarters of it.



At the cafe, I got to know a new friend, F, too. It was interesting listening in to him conversing in a foreign language with XS. It was a pleasure to know F and to realise that he is a good friend to have. F subsequently left early.

It was a nice feeling to be at the cafe, feeling as if I had all the time in the world to sit down, to watch time go by and to work on music theory papers. I had brought along one of the past year music theory examination papers so that I could study music theory where time permits. The cafe was a more peaceful place than my own home in Singapore. XS also had things to work on. So in the end, we were working on each of our tasks at the cafe. Possibly, one way to spend time with a friend would be to spend an industrious day working alongside each other.

While my friend was working on her tasks at the cafe, she shared briefly with me her perspectives of what makes her choose to do things in certain ways. I had a different way of looking at things. Whatever it is, I hope that her goodwill will eventually be appreciated and paid forward. Why? Because my friend is a good person.

***

It is a pleasure, I realised, to perceive that one has all the time to while one's time away (yes, by doing music theory papers while on holiday), yet actually doing something that is of great significance, i.e. to spend time with good friends.

The measurable news was that I had finished at least four music theory question while I was at the cafe. More importantly, I hope what I have gained that was immeasurable, was the chance to hopefully foster a slightly stronger friendship with my friend, simply by spending time working alongside each other, and listening in to the amusing and insightful remarks that she had.

Maybe the seemingly simple things in life are what truly matter?