I love music since I was a little boy. However, growing up from a not so wealthy family, I did not have the luxury to learn any musical instrument and listening to music on the radio was my greatest pleasure.

Going into my secondary school life, I was a hardworking good student. Focusing on study through the night but awaiting the right time to record songs on the midnight radio programmes at the same time. As time went by, a strong skill of doing multiple things at a time was gradually developed, which is beneficial to my academic and career development.

Time for listening to music dropped significantly after I went to work and somehow I only listened to music while I was driving. In the recents years away from my career life, I seldom drive but taking public transportation instead. It turned out that I have more time to listen to music by myself.

自小已很喜歡音樂，遺憾當年家境不太富裕，沒有學習樂器的機會，從電台聽歌便是我最大樂趣。

中學時期我是個勤奮好學生，一邊挑燈夜讀，另一手吼準機會按卡式機錄電台歌曲，漸漸訓練出心有二用的技能，對日後學業、事業發展有莫大裨益。

工作後空閒時間不多，聽歌時間更少，到後來只會在駕車時才會聆聽。沒有工作的這幾年較少駕車外出，反而喜歡一個人搭公共交通工具，亦多了用耳機獨自聽歌的時間。

My iPhone XR came with the wired EarPods which delivered reasonable sound quality. However, with years of Apple wireless experience plus the little perfectionism deep inside me, I’m tired of tidy up the EarPods wire after use it. A pair of small wireless earpods sound promising to me.

我的iPhone XR原廠已附上EarPods有線耳機，質素不太差，但近年已習慣了無線的自由自在，再加上自己也算是個完美主義者，每次要整理那條耳機線都覺得有點煩，便想起要添置一對小巧的無線耳機。

Apple AirPods family are some good choices for me, However, with a selling price from HKD 1000 to 2000, it is definitely hard for me to justify the purchase. Given that my main objective is to listen to music and I am not a die-hard Apple fans, a reasonably priced earpods/earphones with middle-of-the-road sound quality should serve my need.

With some research work, I finally got my Creative Outlier Air from Amazon for slightly under HKD 400. It came with 10-hours of operating time, moderate noise-cancellation feature and sound quality in par with conventional headphones.

One point to note, noise cancelling EarPods actively reduce/eliminate those external noise nearby, probably making user less alerted and so be careful with it.

Apple的AirPods其實是一個很好選擇，但千多二千元的售格又未免太高了。考慮到自己只是用來聽歌，又過了追隨品牌的年紀，一對價格相宜，音質不太差的無線耳機應該便可以了。

做了一輪資料搜集後，最後在Amazon上用了不到400港元買了Creative的Outlier Air。10小時的使用時間，不錯的抗噪功能，音質亦輿傳統的頭戴式耳機相若。

但有一點要注意，抗噪耳機會抑制週遭的噪音，令大家對身邊環境的警覺性減低，使用起來要小心。

Outlier Air just released its latest edition and probably that’s why I got mine with such an attractive price.

Outlier Air剛剛出了新版本，難怪我買的上一代款式價格這樣吸引了。

I went out early this morning, bringing along my new Outlier Air with me.

On my way home, I looked out from the bus windows. A view of those commercial buildings and hotels on the other side of the harbour, sparkling brilliantly with Lion Rock – icon of Hong Kong people, appeared right in front of me.

A symbol of prosperity.

今天早上要外出辦點事，我的Outlier Air當然要隨身。

回程坐上巴士，在陽光普照的日子，看著遠方東九龍矗立著的商廈、酒店，與代表著香港人的獅子山互相輝映。

眼前是好一片繁華景象。

However, a song that haven’t been heard for quite a while suddenly came through my new Outlier Air – 時代的顛覆者 (Subversive of the times).

First released in 2014, this song had got a lot of attention, particularly among those political celebrities.

Composers and producers of the song, the Chung’s Brothers had the following response :

The song not only depicted the current situation in Hong Kong, but would like to explore how we can break through from the difficult times ?

然而，我的新耳機卻傳來一首久違了的歌曲 – 時代的顛覆者。

歌曲在2014年推出時帶來極大迴響，亦獲很多政界名人所推介及轉䀡。

包辦曲詞及監製的鍾氏兄弟有這樣的回應 :

歌曲除了描繪這個城市的社會現象，更希望探討我們可以怎樣走下去？

Frankly speaking, what really impressed me other than the dream team of artists and the excellent arrangement, is the lyrics:

這麼多年來我被這首歌深深地吸引著，除了是那超強的演譯陣容，極度出色的編曲外，便是那震撼人心的歌詞：

講不出的控訴 不聽媽媽勸告
再次上街 竭力去宣告
政策有問題 前途沒法預告
我也不斷尋求 但始終找不到…
(始終找不到)

憶當初赤子心一顆 今天的社會輕看我
我理性分析 你卻話偏頗
奮勇去抗爭 想不到 換來是現實的煎熬
如何能逃離 這腐朽制度

思想給清潔了 顛覆者不見了
街邊的乞丐 暗地裡苦笑
看透世途 文明是個玩笑
這裡安定和諧 但聲音消失了…

Well, hearing this song at this moment of time, it’s really hard for me to express my own feeling !

2020年的今天，再次聽到這歌，那種滋味真是非筆墨所能形容！