Prelims have ended and I rejoiced by spending Friday with Soufi my hippie girl. We went out to look for an outfit for the Lykke Li show(in three days!). We met in the afternoon and headed for Haji Lane first. On the way there we stopped by the window of the antique/junk store at Golden Landmark and pressed our faces to the glass. I've seen some pretty cool bags in there but never really taken a closer look. The owner had gone out for prayers and the elderly caretaker of the store asked us to come back later. We left for Haji Lane.
One of the first few shops we went to was Collage. The owner was really friendly and he knew Soufi, and we had fun trying on stuff and deciding almost instantly that we had found our outfits. He gave us 10 bucks off each item we bought and I am so satisfied with the sheer blouse and romper I got, both in black. They fit me perfectly too. We walked around for a bit and then we shared a bowl of ban mian at Banquet before we headed back for the junk store. The kind old man unlocked the shop for us and let us in to be engulfed by the chaos. There were piles and piles of trinkets, knick-knacks and old film cameras whose past owners were probably dead by now. There was a bowl of old tobacco pipes that went for $40-50, lots of retro-looking plastic sunglasses, random binoculars everywhere, Polaroid cameras (dunno if they are still working), a single cowboy boot, riding helmets, and lovely but expensive little bags. There was barely any space to move but we spent a lot of film on goofy pictures with pipes and oversized Versace sunnies. Left with a $15 pair of sunglasses. The old man was too sweet to leave behind without buying anything.
We left for Orchard then, wanting to go to Far East Plaza and H&M. We were distracted along the way when we stopped to donate some cash to a hippie couple from Japan. They were a travelling band and they were setting up their equipment, which was really just a ukulele, tabla and a mic, in front of Sim Lim Square. We walked off, but later came back to watch them play. Well, you know how Soufi and I are dreamers, desperate to live our peaceful hippie life~~~~~ Hahaha so it was exceptionally exciting to meet some real-life hippies, who have been travelling around Asia playing music on sidewalks and are going to be married soon. We sat down to revel in their simple, light-hearted music. Bun sang in Japanese and played the ukulele, slipping in an arigato gozaimas into her song everytime a passerby dropped some money in their box. Shoujh held the tabla between his legs and played it with eyes closed and with so much soul. I have never seen people look so carefree and happy and peaceful. It was inspiring. A few more people came to sit with us and we swayed to the music and it felt amazing.
After a few songs, we went up to talk to them again. We asked if they could sing in English and Bun went, "Hmm, Bob Marley?" in Japanese-accented English. I immediately went yes!!! and they started to play Three Little Birds. We sang and danced with them. At the end, we hung around and had a really cute conversation. We asked if they smoked weed. They looked at each other cheekily and nodded. Then they asked if we did, we told them we were gonna do it after our exams. They were surprised and leaned in close and asked if it was easy to get hold of it in Singapore. So cute. They've been travelling down from Japan, stopping in China, India, Malaysia and Singapore. They've been here for three weeks. I'd love to spend six months in India too! We learned that Shoujh was 24, Bun 30. They were surprised once more when we were only barely 16 and kept saying kawaii. We exchanged aishiterus. Shoujh was so adorable, pleased that we had a film camera because he has only seen digital ones in Singapore and insisted on taking a picture of us with Bun. At the end we hugged them. Bun shyly said "smell" at first because they are unwashed hippies but we hugged her anyway and honestly, she didn't smell at all hahaha.
Bun is beautiful. Not in the perfect, flawless, immediate-eye-candy way, though. She was more.. stunning imperfections and peace-radiant and lovely, demure body language. Shoujh is humble, very smiley and extremely sexy. They make a perfect couple. Almost 15 minutes long was our conversation and we left for Orchard with so much wonder and gratitude for life. We sang Lykke Li all the way to the YMCA bus stop and made up our minds that we are going to have a hippie busking band after our weed party. Took a bus to Orchard but missed our stop and had to walk down deserted roads to get back to people. We made it and we sat on the steps in front of Ion, finishing up our roll of film and being happy. Then we went to H&M until it closed and ended the night in a sombre mood in front of 313. Saw Khalis for a couple of seconds too.
My Friday night was amazing and I know I sound really pretentious and my head is in the clouds but I shall not apologise. I want more amazing adventures with Soufi. Singapore isn't that boring a place :)
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