When I look back on my ordinary ordinary life.....

I was flipping through my latest album, compilation of pictures I took from my recent holiday, with my new DSLR. I stumbled upon other albums in this tedious process and this ended up with me browsing through the old photographs. Jamie Cullum's song accompanied my mind as I flipped through the pages of the album; the part where he sang,

"When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,

I see so much magic though I missed it at the time".

It is so true. Photographs can be an evidence of how we sometimes take life for granted. Friends who we promised to keep in touch but somehow rather did not manage to do so, due to the paths in life we have taken that had kept us busy and out of each others way. Some of them in the pictures looked happy beside me and we swore that we will never let that euphoric fire of friendship dims let alone die. It's amazing how sometimes, we make promises we know deep down we will never keep, even as we hear our mouth muttering the very words of "let's keep in touch".

Boyfriend who have better relationship in the future as your ex boyfriend. Your child who you thought will never grow taller than you. Your pet that taught you that although cats have nine lives, not necessarily it means the rest of the 8 will be with you.

The fashion back then that makes you go..."what the.....". I think Alleycats did not change their fashion simply because they did not have the time to look back on their earlier photos, but their vocals made up for that.

Alleycats dulu....

Alleycats, sekarang....well, not exactly, may you rest in peace Logan...

The same goes with some tunes. Just like the photos they have the power to transport you back in time into the corners of your mind, into memory-ville..

Alas! Life is short. And as we grow older, we loose some friends along to the way to the natural process of the universe; death, sickness. Only when I look back at those photos I wonder, what happened to the magic of friendship? Have materialism engulfed the simple need for companionship?

Does it have to be that way? Or is it best that we go our own separate paths and only meet each other during class alumni, of which some may use this as a portal to show off how well they are doing just for that one night?

Then again, when we were kids, we were carefree. As we grow older, we change and although the essence of us may stay eternal, our life style may be a hindering factor of being comfortable with each others' company on day to day basis.

So yes, when I look back at what I thought to be just another day captured by the camera, sometime in the future, I may not have seen it as magical at that moment, the way I see it today. You cannot help but note, that the moment may have stayed eternally frozen in the photograph, but the people in it had long moved on.

I guess that is the beauty of photography......

Her name was written on a photograph,
Right next to her red, sunburnt face,
It all had happened in that long tall grass,
About a mile from her old place,
I can't remember how it started
And if it lasted that day in the sun.

We said that we were going to study hard,
We held our books instead of hands,
She held a blanket over cans of beer,
I can't deny I was so full of fear.

It's just another story caught up
In another photograph I found.
And it seems like another person lived that life A great many years ago from now,

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.
When I look back on my ordinary ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

And there's the first time that I tried that stuff,
I think I look a little green,
I remember throwing up behind a bush,
And I found it hard to use my feet,
And who's that easily led
Little boy who's really off his head?

It was the same night that I kissed that girl,
The tall one with the auburn hair,
I remember laughing coz to kiss me,
She had to sit down on a chair!
She tasted like the schnapps she'd drunk,
And the cigarette she'd stolen from her mum.

And it's just another story caught up in another photograph I found.

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.
When I look back on my ordinary ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.