Here's That Rainy Day

It has finally rained!!! After soooo long!!! Man... How I love the sound of rain every once in a while... Not too much though, if not it'll be super boring..... hee... like England!!! Hardly ever see any sun around.... It's on days like this I wish I could stay home and let my body rejuvenate... how therapeutic...

Had supper last night with Chang, Yado and Dan... Same old conversations... nothing interesting... haha... no offence you guys... I'm giving you chance... (personal joke between us)... Before that, the rehearsal for Mei Jian's musical was 4 hours long!!! Shack!!! Then after that it was Jennifer's prac... had to catch dinner at Caltex... I also think I'm getting fat... Why did I order the Tandori Chicken last night... hrmm... haha...

OH Oh!!! My new specs arrived!!! It's better than I expected them to be!!! I'm usually particular about the colour and designs and all... haha... spent like 1 hour in the shop just deciding... bleah...

Well, I've got nothing much to say for now... haha... I hear some of you going, "phew!"... Yea... my previous blog entries are uber long.... as Bryan Wong put it... haha... Anyways, I'm off to practice for the coffee club tonight... Chang and Jeremy might be dropping by... hrmm... Alex couldn't make it.... sigh.... Anyways... I'm looking forward to my photo shoot tonight too!!! haha... Can't wait... It's gonna be a late night again I guess...

Pitter patter pitter patter....

Night and Day

Sheesh!!!! I'm dead tired... all this work and not enough sleep... I'll start from last night...

Well, went to Marina's house to finalize all the songs and all for Friday... Had to wait 40mins at the Paya Lebar taxi stand for Roger to appear and take us there... That guy is perpetually late!!! He's a good guy though... Just very unorganized... Anyway... met up with a sound and light engineer, Jamie and we discussed the structure of songs and all... I don't know why but every time we go to Marina's house we talk about everything else except the music... Now if Marina wasn't on the phone the whole time chatting to her endless streams of boyfriends around the globe, we could have ended way before 12 midnight... for goodness sakes, she has a husband!!! Anyway... it's a good thing we chatted about our contracts and stuff with Roger, while eating the chicken and hokkien mee he had bought, together with Marina's meso... some tofu dish.. haha.. He'd better remember the photo shoot on Thursday... hrmm... gotta find something nice to wear... So in between Marina's emotional outbursts, we went through the show and all... and I found out that Lee Weng Kee is a perfectionist... tricky... hee...

After all that was more or less complete, Jamie made a move 1st... then both Weng Kee and me wanted to leave... but Marina's husband came back and so we stayed about another hour to chat or so... which is good too coz she was telling me about how she fell in love with Brandon, the bass player... ok, not that kinda of love lah!!! She was more or less expressing how Brandon was such a handsome young man who had a lot going for him... his bass playing and all... and how it was such a shame that he got involved in a motorcycle accident... well, he's alright now... but I still have yet to see him... He was my sergeant back in SAF Bands... hope he's ok... Anyway, Marina was also telling me about practising and stuff... and that the great jazz singers she's met save all their energy for shows... cos they don't practise... or something like that... but don't quote me on it... singers like Betty Carter, Shirley Horn and the lot... but she said I have to practise... and it hit me...

Now, this is at the risk of sounding egotistical but I'm going to say it anyway to help you understand better... I've been told countless times that I play well... for my age at least... and now when someone, or anybody tells you that a lot, you get de-sensitized and don't seem to think much of it... very soon you think you're ahead of your game and in a different league altogether... your humble self just fades away... call it human nature or what.. haha... So when I played for Marina the couple of times, I thought I was doing a swell job... of course I didn't say it to your face lah... hee... So now when Marina tells me I need to practise... it hits me quite hard... not in a bad way of course... it's more like a gentle slap to tell you to wake up and realise that you're inept cos there are so many better musicians out there... And I am grateful that she told me subtly that I was inept... Cos I need these wake-up calls every now and then just to keep me grounded... As Wynton Marsalis once said, "Humility engenders learning because it beats back the arrogance that puts blinders on"... Truth is, the humble always listen to what people have to say... and because they keep on listening and learning, the humble improve...

Well, yea... so much for that deep thought... haha.. Don't take it lightly though... I ended up sleeping at 130am last night, woke up at 930am and replied to my dad's email... he still wants me to scan a copy of my transcriptions... after I sent it to him yesterday... hrmm... uni deadline I guess... but I'm blessed to have such a dad that cares for me like that... even though he's seem a bit naggy at times... haha... I actually wanted to blog earlier this morning but people on msn kept messaging me... like 5 or 6 people!!! had to entertain them for awhile.... haha... and I finally wrote a testimonial for my sis.... hee... hope she writes one back... soon.... my friendster is working again!!! yay!!!

Okies... I'm going to go for lunch now and after that write some more songs for Mei Jian's musical.... meeting her later... Also going for Jennifer's worship prac tonight... haha... it's the 1st time she's leading... after I sortta stepped down from the music ministry... oh... I still have yet to write that letter to Nikki and learn Fiona's song... need to get some practice time in too before Thursday... Playing at Coffee Club, and then the rehearsal and photo shoot after... Friday would be the performance already... and Saturday I need to teach Hazel and Victor and go for that Worship Leader training.... Wow, I don't think I'm going to be sleeping much this week... It's day in and night out for me... hee

Manic...

What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?

Well, if it isn't you again reading all the private moments of my life to satisfy your voyeuristic needs... haha... sorry... been under a bit of stress lately...

Went to Mei Jian's house last night and completed a few more songs... started at 6, ended around 10pm... the cake was nice... thanx Mei Jian!!! There were some really inspiring moments too... haha... I've got to perform that Dorothy and Leo song at coffee club sometime... Oh and yes... had dinner there too... Chicken pie and cream of corn soup... was trying to be polite so I downed a bit of the soup... for those of you who know I don't eat veg!!! Anyway, during that time, Mei Yen popped in to say hi, Chang called me to see if I wanted to watch Hitch with the guys... man, wish I could have gone... but when inspiration comes you don't wanna lose it... so I passed... sacrifice number 1....

We stopped at 10 something coz Mei Jian wanted to watch desperate housewives... ok I confess... I love that show too!!! Hee... and hey what do you know I caught a cab with TV mobile inside... what fortune... haha.... anyway... I went back and watched the rest of it... then watched Las Vegas, Fraiser and Arrested Development... Interesting shows.... haha... slept at one...

Woke up this morning at 830... feeling tired... had to hand copy some transcriptions for the uni application... got fed up and photocopied them instead... sent in the originals with my essay.... Hope it gets to UK soon... Man... it's $36 for express delivery and air mail.... sheesh!!! yea... anyway, I got back and did the songs for the Leslie Cheung gig... rehearsal tonight at Marina Xavier's house... wonder how I'm going to get there... Tanjong Katong Gardens of all places! After I did that I typed out the songs Mei Jian and I worked on last night... makes it much easier to read than those little scribbles... haha... both of ours... I'm still sleepy... sacrifice number 2....

WAHEY!!! I finally got the song from Fiona!! "God gave me you" It's her favourite song and she's been wanting me to learn it... but I have never been able to find that song on google... So now I have the mp3 and it's kinda nice... If she pops by the coffee club sometime, man, I'd better be able to play that song! haha... Also checked friendster... this is the 4th or 5th time something has gone wrong with that site... all my testimonials are gone... last time it was all my friends who were gone... why did I ever join this wonky thing in the 1st place? haha...

Hey, you know what, all the above paragraphs start with the letter w... interesting... ok... I'm going off on a tangent... was talking to Alex over msn just now... she's working as a talent scout for some company... haha... searching for models... funny job... the rest I leave up to your imagination ;)

Anyway, I'm thinking having a nap... hrmmm... oh wait... I still have to write that letter to Nikki... arghh.... sacrifice number 3.... no sleeping early or entertaining myself tonight either.... sigh....

Oh well, music's something I chose to do when I was 13... sacrifices are just part of it I guess... I might as well get used to it... After all, I'm going to be doing it the rest of my life...

I'm out...

Just Friends

Wow!!! So many things have happened over the last 3 days I don't know where to begin... haha... Let's see how many things I can remember... hrmm...

Ok... Good Friday... went to set up early in the morning... around 7am but the door was locked... so I spent like half an hour worshipping outside the Concert Hall with my guitar before the security guard came to open the doors... Never seen him before... must be new... ok after that I put on the Unspeakable Joy CD and sang as I set up the instruments and all... the worship team started to filter in around 850... Tow Yong was the 1st... bless Him... haha... a few people were running late as usual... not that it mattered... I'm kinda laid back about these sorts of thangs.. hee... We had a wonderful time of worship that morning... Right at the very end of service as we sang the last note to When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, it became evident to me that the presence of God was soooooo strong... and I was reminded of His sacrificial love for all of us, His death of the cross and it was just beautiful... I thought to myself, "Amazing Love, how can it be? That you my King would die for me" Awesome... Nobody wanted to leave that place that morning... there was such a stillness... even the worship team and the pastors wondered what to do at the end of service... You should have been there to see it...

Well after that, we packed up... and I went for lunch with Dan, Chang and Yado at Chang's country club... there was this new drink I was trying and it had a cherry in it.. I tried to get it out with a straw, then 2 straws and in the end I spilt the entire drink all over table after my last attempt to get it out with a fork! How embarrassing... Anyways... after eating, we went to Dan's house to work on the props for the "Blessed" evangelistic outreach... Or at least attempted to... haha... I think all of us were tired so we slept most of the time... ok... then we wanted to watch Hitch but all tickets were sold out at Plaza Singapore and Great World City so we went to have dinner in this Japanese restaurant at Grand Copthorne... The food quality was excellent... but the portions couldn't even feed a refugee!!! ok... maybe I'm exaggerating... but the whole bill came up to be $136 or something like that... for 4 people!!! my goodness... anyway.... we went to play pool at Bukit Timah Plaza after dinner... I'm probably like the worst player in pool history... Yado kept snookering me... Dan gave me chances as he foxied the pool balls in... and Chang just cleared the entire table without giving me a chance to hit even one ball... aiyah... but it was good fun... haha...

Ok... so now Saturday comes along and I'm dead tired from Friday... Had to wake up early to teach Hazel and her dad, Victor in the morning... You know what... Saturday didn't even feel like the weekend... it just felt like and extra day you had and you didn't know what to do with it... hee... anyway... Uncle Victor has improved so much since the last time I taught him... he's really hardworking... but I should have guessed as much when I saw that he didn't have enough space to put all his badminton and whatchamightcallit trophies in his cupboards... He had to line them up against the wall all the way up 3 flights of stairs... I think... it's a lot lah... haha... Had fun teaching Hazel too... She can absorb so much stuff and understand things really quickly...

Well, I had lunch there and they kept feeding me with chocolate stuff... chocolate ice cream, cake, chocolate itself... haha... rich... feeling woozy... I was talking to Hazel's mum Natalie too... She was going on about the dance or rather the creative arts ministry in church... and it was shame she hadn't told me sooner if not I would have gotten them to dance at Easter Service the next day... Rev Juliette wanted dancers but they were all involved in "Blessed"... sighz... But Uncle Victor and Auntie Natalie started dancing together as I sat at the dining table... it was so touching to see a couple dance together and have their joy in the Lord... Cute...

Anyway... I had to go to church to help Mei Jian with her songs for the Nanyang JC musical... So they offered me a lift but I said I didn't have to go that early... In the end I got a lift from Hazel... As she was getting changed and all I was talking to her mum... Auntie Natalie told me to try and encourage Hazel to go for this YAM movie at Barker that evening... She told me Hazel hasn't been to a small group since she came back from UK and all so get her into the YAM small group to meet new people and stuff.. haha... oh well... Hazel's parents went shopping after that and I waited for Hazel... Then we talked in the car and I asked her if she was going for the movie... ok cut a long story short... it was more like.. "if you go, I go" sortta thing... so she dropped me a Mei Jian's house and went off shopping...

Mei Jian has a great voice!! If you don't believe me, go hear her sing!! Amazing! Yea.. but her piano was out of tune so it was a bit funny and all... we worked on the 1st opening number and that one got done pretty fast... the inspiration was there... when we finished that... Mei Yen, her sister, popped into the room to say hi... chatted for a bit... ok... after that Mei Jian and I were finding it hard to write the last song so we sortta wrote down a temporary version of it as I had to rush off when Hazel called me... Good thing Mei Jian lives like a 30-second sprint away from church... haha... I said bye to Mei Jian and headed for church...

Okies... met up with Hazel in the lift!!! of all places... haha... we saw Cherene and her boyfriend coming late too as we were walking to Wesley Hall... Actually, all of us weren't that late... the group had just started ice-breakers and stuff... Saw a couple of new faces too... Ok... then the movie was like super long... The Gospel of John... we had more snacks there was well... Mia's muffins were spectacular.... I dunno who she is though haha... anywayz... A lot of them had to leave half way.... Hazel had to meet a friend for dinner... I stayed on and caught up with Yu Chang, Suyin, Cheryl, Melissa, Cherene and got to know 2 new guys Kenneth (Cherene's bf) and Halim (dunno if that's spelt correctly... haha...)

Yea... so we went for dinner at Adam road... had a very fun time there... Fiona called me halfway... said she couldn't make it for the carnival the next day and asked when I was going to learn her favourite song... "God gave me you"... By the way... does anyone have that song? Send me... haha... but Fiona's been busy... oh well... works for me cos now I can play captain's ball on Sunday!!! yay!! whoops... hee.... ok after dinner Melissa sent Cheryl home 1st then dropped me off at Junction 8... Got their numbers and had to delete some numbers from my phone cos it's got no spaces left free... hee... slept at 1145...

Easter Sunday!!! I woke up at 530am!!! So I was contemplating going for sunrise service... Actually took a cab down... and saw that the Concert Hall doors were opened so I started to set up instead... I could hear the service from outside anyways... Ben came after the sunrise service... helped me set up the drums and all and started warming up... he's improved sooo much!!! freaky... hee... next one there was Tow Yong... at around 845... then again... people started to filter in... It was a good thing Wyman was there too... helped with making the overall sound so much better... not that John isn't good at what he does... but with both of them there... they make an invincible team...

The service was good too... Rev Juliette was pleased that we sang "Church on Fire" that day... but I'm more concerned that God was pleased.... She kept asking us to sing it slower hahaha... tricky.... Ben was whack!!! He was having so much fun... Actually all of us were... we didn't wanna stop... We took some photos as well... the whole worship team, choir, pastors and sound crew... Then Chang called me to go for lunch with Dan and Edmund.... Deanne called us from America as Edmund was driving... She was visiting Jess and Yaozhang... Ok... Edmund parked at Great World City but we had lunch opposite at Zion road... The guys had Bak Ku Teh and Rojak... I chose roasted pork rice... I met Auntie Lee Ong and her grandmom there too... Just said hi... didn't talk much... I messaged Alex too and she said she might be coming to watch me play at Raffles Place MRT Coffee Club this Thursday... well, let's see what gives...

After that we went to Dan's house... again... haha... just to chill cos we really didn't know what to do... wanted to watch Spartacus on star movies but all of us ended up sleeping... far as I can remember... haha... when we woke it was 430pm and drumline was on... wasted... only saw bits of it cos we had to go for captain's ball at church at 5pm... Dan's cousin dropped by and we left for games after that...

Captain's ball was quite fun... but I had holes in my socks and was getting blisters... haha... Daniel had to burn his weekend in the office so the jazz outing that night was cancelled... I messaged Marina Xavier too to tell her me and my friends weren't going...

In the end, we had dinner at Adam Road... again (for me at least)... and all of us didn't know what to eat... haha... I went with the roasted pork rice... man... I'm so boring... hee... Was having dinner with Dan, Sandra, Dorcas and Rachel... Edmund, Joo Teng, Chang and Yado came to join us after for a little dessert... same place.. BOOooooring....

Somehow after joining us... the atmosphere became kinda insane!!! Rachel showed us her magic pencil and we were going on about talking sausages and talking gorillas and how to be an African and stuff... haha don't ask... my dessert actually went flying across the table as I said "HI DAN!!!" Fooomm.... and there you go.... little old klutzy me... the whole table burst out laughing... Anyway... I think it all ended a bit too soon... Afterwards... Edmund sent me home with my guitar and amp... Slept like a baby... :)

Hrmm... I finished my essay this morning... the hand-written one... had a tough time trying to cram all the words into one page... I still needa get those transcriptions of scores done, write Nikki a letter and listen to the songs for the Leslie Cheung gig... Mei Jian just messaged me... I think I'll be going to her house tonight... Phew... I'm glad this weekend is over... it's been fantastic journey...

And when I look back at how I was being so confused and indifferent about life on Thursday last week... I begin to realise that there's actually more to life than being so self-absorbed in your own little world and so selfish to think that you've got problems nobody's ever gonna understand.... In fact, I'm thinking of this song right now...

I cast all my cares upon You
I lay all of my burdens down at Your feet
And anytime I don't know what to do
I just cast all my cares upon You

Jesus is my comforter and my friend and when I think about the blessings that He's poured into my life.... things don't seem so bad anymore... You just have to open your eyes to the blessings He has bestowed upon you... family, friends and all those little thangs that make your life more worth living... My life doesn't seem so bad after all...

I thank God for all of you friends in my life...

Seriously...

Desafinado (Slightly Out of Tune)

Haha... Interesting... day 2 of my blog and I'm still feeling bored... Sortta anyway...

Spent the earlier part of the morning getting a blog counter... whee... and looking at my family member's blogs... only my sister's been constantly updating hers... hrmm... which reminds me... I haven't talked to her in ages... anyways... I wanted to go for a haircut too... before Good Friday but the barber was closed... dang... so I came home an started plonking away on my piano... oh shoot... that reminds me... I HAVE to find that song I wrote... yea.. was practising scales, arpeggios and all and trying to learn some new jazz standards... or at least attempting to perfect the ones I've already learnt... so I did that all for about 2 hours or so... normal practice time... haha... I've haven't been practising much really.... as in SERIOUS practice... oh well...

Anyway, I've just come back to my room... Did some quizilla test... what kind of emo are you?... haha.. quite interesting... then I thought... hrmm... maybe I can put it on this post and see if it works... that person in the pic is not me!!!! hahahaha....


Closet Emo. You pretend everything is fine and work
hard to not be an outsider but still are. You
try too hard and every once and awhile some one
finds out you really are weird. You want
nothing more then to fit in so you hide it all
on the inside, secret suicide is so much more
romantic. You prefer to choose one or two
people to cry to instead of the general public
and sitll can't figure out ... Why don't they
like you? Why don't you fit in?!?!

Go check it out at www.quizilla.com

hahaha... for your information... I just started learning how to blog and all... yea lah! I'm super slow... hee... Just got MSN and Friendster like less than 6 months back! Oh well, thinking of putting some pictures up here... but no promises yet... haha... see if I can learn how to do so 1st and if I have enough time too... haha... yea... I'm kinda hungry now... so I think I'll go and eat lunch soon...

I'm probably gonna be handwriting... yes HANDWRITING.... my uni essay... can't believe they want it hand written... bummer... oh... and I also need to get a few transcriptions of scores done too... Arghhh... and the songs for the gig next week and the songs for Good Friday and Easter... Oh man... that's actually quite a lot of stuff to do... ARRGGHHH!!! Also remembered! I haven't written to my pen pal, Nikki whom I met in UK 4-5 years back... oh and I need to prepare the piano and drum lessons I'm giving Hazel and her dad, Victor. That's on Saturday... hrmm... oh yes.. and meeting Mei Jian to do songs for her JC musical... Man... I'm like the world's greatest procrastinator!!!... hahaha... hrmm... good thing I'm not playing at the Coffee Club tonight... wonder why they keep postponing it... haha... stupid management... sighz...

Right, now that I remember that I ACTUALLY have stuff to do... I'd better get going.... but 1st...

Chow time...

Birth of the Blues

Hmm... let's see... is this thing actually going to work? Super bored now... Actually I was thinking of starting a blog sometime ago but never really got down to it... until now... this is what boredom does to you!!! arghh... hahah... amongsnt other things... for those of you who know me... well.... you should know...

Anyways... let's see... what can I write here... er... right now... i'm feeling indifferent... yeaps.. you heard right... with all the things going on in my life right now... it's just a whirlpool of emotions... maybe starting this blog is just another form of escapism.... who knows... I'm gonna keep this short cause there's like tonnes of things I can go on for hours on... but I wouldn't wanna waste your time now would I? haha... As if i'm that interesting to read about... hee... ok here goes...

The most recent thing that has happened... hmm... well, there's this girl I think I like but I'm not sure anymore... I think there was a spark but then again... I'm beginning to feel lost... that's all I can say for now because I don't think it'd be right if I filled in all the names of the people involved here... for their own privacy, i'm keeping them anonymous... and not gonna say much about the events that happened... All I can say is that... I gave up on love a long time ago and it came back to haunt me recently... hrmm... not a good analogy... I dunno, maybe I just closed my heart... oh well... now it's sortta like semi-opened... ok... wadever... hee... I love running free... maybe I still do... maybe I don't and need someone to run with... oh well... update you more on that...

Anyway, on a lighter note (no pun intended), I went to Marina Xavier's house last night... discussing some contract about a Leslie Cheung show and stuff with this guy called Roger and another freelancer named Lee Weng Kee... That was kinda fun... 5 hours of catching up with Marina, eating chicken rice, getting the keys of songs right and playing the piano as Marina sat beside me trying to learn new songs... In CANTONESE!!! Hahaha... that was pretty funny... yea.. we jammed till 1145 at night i guess... in between the rows she had with her maid and stuff... SCARY.... was dead tired... still am...

Guess what! The university of my choice finally replied! After like 2 months! whoo... yea.. finished an entrance essay yesterday morning... on top of writing the songs for so many projects... like the Sound of Music parody with Abigail Chay and Daniel Than last week... What a laugh... haha... Only 2 half hour-shows a day and 5 hours to kill in between... gosh... and I must tell you something... Abigail, Daniel and even Marina are really nice people... when you get to know them... beneath all the different facades lies beauty hidden within... and after all these experiences I had with all of them... I realise they aren't bad people... although at 1st glance society seems to think so... maybe they are just misunderstood... cliche as that might seem... hrmm... where were we? I think I got lost in thought there... hahah... oh yes...

So it turns out... I might be going back to UK in june now!!! whoohoo!!! coz the student visa applications aren't supposed to be done that early... one more month!!! extended stay!! yay!! Right time to go back too coz it'll be the holiday season where everyone can see me off... haha ok... my little narcissistic side is coming out there.... yea... Marina's also wanting me to record a Christmas album with her... wonder why.. cause she can get so many other better musicians to play for her... oh well... I'm not complaining... hahah...

Wow... this is turning out to be longer than I thought it would be... now I know why people spend so much time blogging... Anyways... I have a date on Easter Sunday... haha some Christian music carnival another girl invited me to... Just needa figure out how to get my guitar home, go for the carnival, captain's ball then hang out with my friends at night at Jazz@Southbridge... yea... hmm... come to think of it my life ain't so bad after all... maybe i'll stay single for the time being... this freedom totally rocks!!! Although it would be nice to share my life and all those good thangs with someone I love... Any takers?

Later...