Before you get any wrong ideas, I'm not referring to those lovey-dovey sort of memories shared between lovers. Instead, I'm referring to the normal movies or songs that hold a special place in your heart (and your heart alone) to remind you where you've been or what age you were at that particular time. I've to thank my dad for he was the one who introduced the concept of linking a song or movie as a way to remember the past.
Right now, I'm a working professional (or at least I would like to think) but Bon Jovi's 'It's My Life' will always bring me back to my 17 year-old self. Back then, I was a lot chubbier being whose understanding of shoes was confined to that of Bata school shoes. I was also the girl who had to sleep early and wake up in the ungodly hours to put in a few hours of revision daily. At that time, I honestly felt my life was heading nowhere. SPM was the exam that would roughly determine where's my path gonna be. It doesn't matter how many A's I got for previous exams. If I fail SPM, the hurdle becomes much more intimidating. With the stress of constantly having to answer 'How many A's will you be getting?', it was not a moment I wanted to remember. And to keep my sanity, I kinda relied on the song (I know it's cheesy but that's the truth) to keep me going. Perhaps it was the catchy beat or the lyrics but what was playing in my head was the 'It's My Life' part. The words seemed to put some life in the dreary textbooks that I had to read. And when I got my exam results, apart from thanking the usual suspects, I did include a silent thanks to Bon Jovi for coming up with the song at that crucial time.
Another song that's very close to my heart is Lighthouse Family's 'High'. I may be driving my car to work but the moment 'High' plays on the radio, I will no longer be in Malaysia. Just like the Charles Dicken's immortal 'A Christmas Carol' where Ebeneezer Scrooge met his younger self, my mind will rewind images of my 14 year old self at the end of 1997. My body may remain strapped to the car seat but my spirit will be in Cardiff, Wales. The song reminded me so much of the cold windy days I spent walking with my family between our house at No. 1, Bedford Street, Cardiff to the Queens Street mall. We spent many happy hours of afternoon teas at the Hayes Island in front of the St. David Hall. I could see myself trudging against the chilly winds for the comfort of those warmly heated shops and buying a nice Greggs apple pie fresh from the oven along the way. I could hear my sisters' laughter as we walked past the JW Smith bookstore or during one of our constant tour of David Morgan (which is no longer there). Best of all, I remembered entering the Clinton card shop near Argos and asking the staff of the name of the song which was playing on air. It turned out to be 'High'.
Natalie Imbruglia's 'Torn' and Janet Jackson's 'Velvet Rope' are also songs that remind me of Cardiff. Along with those 3 songs, my mind will automatically focus on Cardiff everytime I watch 'Titanic' or listen to Titanic soundtrack. I'm no fan of Leo DiCaprio or Kate Winslet but as I've written before, Titanic was the movie I watched with my dad in a small cinema at the end of Queens Street.
I will always remember Pierce Brosnan's first outing as James Bond because that movie was the only movie I watched with my maternal grandfather. It was also in Cardiff where I went for a cinema outing my grandfather and my elder cousin brother.
I watched 'Quantum of Solace' with my sisters in a cinema near the Olympic Park in Seoul. Frankly, I was not interested in James Bond but as there was no other movies showing (which we have not seen), we watched it anyway. Given our long flight from KL just hours earlier, I dozed off in the cinema a couple of times. From the way I see it, one can afford to sleep during a Bond movie because there's not much plot going on in the first place.
My most recent movie-moments were in Australia. Together with my sister Syazwina, we managed to catch a movie each in Melbourne and Launceston. The Melbourne part was exceptionally interesting (it is for me. You're free to think otherwise). The movie outing was the end of our second day in Melbourne. Earlier in the day, we went out for a short tour of Melbourne with our cousin. She pointed out that she would often watch movie at 'Melbourne Central' and being movie buffs, my sister and I planned to catch a movie. The only problem was 'when'. That problem was solved soon enough. Our cousin had to leave early and we returned to 'Melbourne Central' on the pretext of getting our dinner before heading home. We checked out 'Hoyts' (their movie cinema), saw the ticket prices and our jaws nearly dropped. It's a cool AUD17 for a movie ticket. Convert it to RM and that basically dampens our spirit.
We then saw a nearby restaurant which offered movie tickets at AUD 10 if customers buy set meals at around AUD7 plus. Now, it doesn't seem that bad because for AUD17, we get to eat and watch a movie. We bought 2 set meals and 2 movie vouchers which we planned to use the next day which was a Friday. While eating, I read the terms and conditions on the vouchers and almost choked. Apparently, the vouchers are only valid Monday-Thursday and we'll be leaving for Launceston the day after Friday. That basically means we have to watch a movie that night itself or forfeit it altogether.
In the end (and to avoid wasting AUD20 already paid for the tickets), we settled for 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief' show at 9 p.m. The movie was fantastic but we soon realised that once the movie ends, we must sprint from Elizabeth Street to the nearest tram station on Williams Street or risk finding our way home on foot (which would not go down well with our host as Melbourne was hit by a sudden flood). And sprint we did because we managed to catch the second last (if not last) tram back to Brunswick West at approximately quarter to midnight. Until today, both my sister and I thought we must have been crazy (or dangerously stupid) that night! We were not at all familiar with Melbourne and yet, dared to watch a late movie and catching the last few trams on the very day most Melbourne trams suspended their service due to flooding.
Melbourne Central's Hoyts. The tickets that could have gotten us in trouble.
Valentine's Day in Launceston. Note that the tickets have no seat numbers. We watched it on a Tuesday which is 'Supersaver Day'. Hence, the AUD10.50 instead of the usual AUD17 =)
No comments:
Post a Comment