The 5 Senses

Sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. We make use of our 5 senses all the time. Isn't it amazing how a certain sense is linked to your memories? For instance, tasting a plate of hokkien mee may remind you of the time you sat down at a hot and stuffy kopitiam with a group of friends for supper after training. Or having someone walk past you and leaving a trail of Hugo Blue, allowing you to think of a certain guy who used to wear the same scent. Right now, I'm more interested in sound. I always listen to my MP3s on the computer unless I have work to do. I used the "shuffle" mode and as different songs are played, I start to reminisce. Here are some songs and how they trigger old memories constantly.

How You Remind Me - Nickelback
I 1st heard this song in a coach during Year 2 of my Poly days. I was with my team and we were on our way to NUS for the IVPs. The captain (PST) was playing this song on repeat and blasting it on his speakers. It was an extreme situation. I was nervous yet excited for this was to be my 1st competition. I was in a bus with people whom I was close and yet not close to. I remember the egg mayo sandwiches, the spaghetti Pam cooked for us (which was a nice gesture but does not change my opinion of her), sitting and cheering for our school outside the courts, having my respect for Alex drop to negative, growing closer to the girls because we had no one else to depend on and partnering Manda and losing every single match. Yup, plenty of memories tied to this little song. There was the usually quiet Phyo yelling like a madman, PST getting insulted by the high-and-mighty NUS player, Sam and Pam playing the ding-dong game and making us the last group to leave 1 night.

Go West - Pet Shop Boys
Melbourne 2005. Taking the day tour to see the little penguins and the Great Ocean Road. We had the same tour guide for both days; really a coincidence. Go West also happens to be the name of the company which organised the tours. He played this song on his IPOD at the end of each tour when he was sending us back to our respective homes. I shan't elaborate too much on this, you can read it from my previous post.

M2M
The songs from their 1st album reminds me of L. He lent me his M2M cd and I listened to it constantly until I could almost memorize all the songs. The songs are especially vivid because I had the biggest crush on him back then - until I realised what a jerk he was. I couldn't understand how I could have been so blind when everyone else around me knew him for the bastard he was. It took me a year to figure this out. At least it's all over now.

The Reason - Hoobastank
Starhub. My ex-colleague. Playing it over and over again without getting sick of it. Work every day, taking and making phone calls. Having to go "Good morning, Starhub" or "Hello, Starhub". Taking orders and being responsible for sending the phone and SIM card to the customer. Filling up never-ending forms and forever chasing customers to send in their documents for processing. Getting yelled and and cursed by unhappy and unreasonable customers. Feeling professional and satisfied when you close a sale and the customer goes away happy. Hearing it over the phone when I was chatting to her at night. It held a special meaning for her and now, there's a special meaning for me too. I don't listen to it anymore though. It's no longer in my computer.

I'll add more songs to my memory list bit by bit. Almost every one of my songs has a memory attached to it. I'd like to share it because memories are useless when only 1 person knows about them.