Sleeping on Buses

Awake, asleep, drifting between these 2 states while cocooned up in a corner of the upper deck.

The air conditioner didn't seem to be working very well. There's a pimply gangly guy sitting next to me, engaging in an enthusiastic conversation with 2 guys opposite the aisle.

Me, I'm drifting. With my earphones on. Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing was playing on my MP3 player.

About 7 years ago when I was 14 I used to take this very same bus home after programming lessons in Singapore Polytechnic. Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing was one of the few albums I was hooked to then, whick I listened to on my way back. 8 years later and some thing's don't change. I still like that album. But I now listen to it on an MP3 player, not a shabby old CD player.

And that time, there were very few air-conditioned double decker buses. Only old rickety ones that swayed side-to-side whenever it hit a pothole. But the bus route never changed a single bit. Things change, things stay the same, in the end, what power do we have to control what goes and what stays?

And me? I guess I've changed too. For the good or the bad? I dunno. I guess the me of age 14 never expected me to reach where I am academically. But I'm sure he would have thought that I'd lost alot of my creative drive since.

He'd be quite mad about it.