こんなに近くで

 

I just finished watching the first season of Nodame Cantabile anime! It’s so incredibly sweet and I like it so much more than the drama (which I really like to begin with)! I got hooked onto it ever since Anime Soc screened the first episode last Saturday. It was such a pleasant surprise that they chose this anime as the random one to show for the week! That kind of happiness is almost analogous to.. Receiving 1 pound Oxford-London return coach tickets out of the blue (which really happened at Freshers’ Fair)! Just when you least expect it. A dear friend of mine will be pleased to know that “Natsume’s Book of Friends” is on their selected list of animes to be screened weekly! The entire Nodame anime soundtrack is simply amazing. Classical music aside, I really like this particular song, ‘Konna ni Chikaku de’. The sung version is nice and upbeat.. And this piano rendition is nothing short of beautiful:

The best thing is.. I just realized that the composer of this song (and the entire soundtrack) is the same person who composed ‘Toki wo Koete’ – the theme song for Be With You! It’s no coincidence that I feel so much affinity towards the song! He’s 松谷卓!! I love his musical style. His compositions are always so poignant and they have this uncanny element of sentimentality that draw me to listen to them over and over again. It makes me wonder what kind of character he must be, to be able to infuse such emotions into his music.

This is one of my favourite scenes in the anime; when Nodame realises that she has fallen in love with Chiaki! It’s so adorably sweet.

I am so tempted to continue watching the remaining seasons! This first season ended perfectly. But the knowledge that there are these two seasons around provides enough impulse to make me continue. It will be difficult to find time to watch more of it now though.. School is getting busier and busier, and there are just too many things happening every single day. Maybe this is why the days are beginning to flash by. Time is passing by too quickly, once again, and being conscious of this doesn’t slow things down in any way at all. It’s been almost 4 weeks since I arrived in Oxford and started a new chapter of my life here. Between then and now, I’ve matriculated into this school, and have also concluded my chapter at Imperial College with graduation last Wednesday. I am still in disbelief that it has been three years. The memories of those three years still feel so near, and so close to me, こんなに近くで. It’s mystical, isn’t it, how time just slips by and you reach the end, always before you know it. Exactly like how today has just flown by in a whirl and it’s now time to sleep.

Cycling in Oxford

Presenting.. my very own bike! It now has a cool basket installed in front as well! I’m using my laptop lock to lock my bike for now; I wonder how much of a theft deterrent it really is.. I’ll get a proper lock soon!

Today’s the first day I cycled to and fro the hospital! When I told some friends, they thought I had purposefully chosen the hospital as my destination so it would be easier to seek medical help if I were to get into an accident. Seems like no one has any faith in my cycling abilities! (Actually, me too.) The truth is, my lectures are all based at the JR hospital in Headington – which is quite a distance away from my college accommodation in the city centre. I’ve been taking the bus there for the past couple of days, but I guess I’ve found a better means of transportation there now! The bus tickets are just too expensive.

I’ve actually bought my bike a couple of days ago from a random guy on the internet. He sold it to me for 40 pounds, which I find is a really good price for a second hand mountain bike, and it does ride very well! Nonetheless, owing to the numerous phobic and disastrous experiences I’ve had on this two-wheeled piece of metal, I didn’t have the courage to venture out on the roads immediately after I got the bike. Today my friend offered to cycle with me so I felt so much more safe and secure! Thankfully, nothing major happened! After I got used to cycling alongside cars and buses and gigantic trucks, it got really fun too! And it was somewhat endearing to be cycling along those tracks with many other cyclists. There is just this killer upslope that we have to go past on our way to the hospital, and it is so tiring to go up that.. But there is always the upside that the journey back home is completely effortless and thrilling! Maybe even euphoric. It feels so good to just look forward and ride on the cool autumn wind; whizz past all sights and sounds, without having to move any part of your body at all.

Here’s my super cool one-of-a-kind bike lock.

For some unknown reason, I’ve always been excited by the prospect of cycling to school. Now that I can finally do it here (and hopefully keep myself safe at the same time), it’s like my dream has come true in Harry Potter land and I just feel so happy!