Leaving on A Jetplane 2007

Hmm.

So it has arrived at last. The day when I can embark upon my journey to a foreign country and fce any unexpected experiences head-on. Much like what happened whn the family went to Italy last year. I suppose it was both fantastic and bad at the same time. Let's hope we're not any more dysfunctional as we were a year ago.

That said, I'm absolutely psyched about this trip. I'm sure you guy are tired of me saying this, but for once we have a superb camera to record down the images for this trip, and I will be exploiting every feature of this camera to the best that I can.

Apart from that, I've done my research and I know exactly which places I would want to visit in our first destination: Paris.

Paris. Ah, some of you might already be musing to yourselves... the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum etc etc. Well I'm glad that at long last I'm going to visit these places in person, and I promise yoi that I willtake good pictures. You can depend on that.

Well, still have loads to do. Au revoir!


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

The gig was okay

Hmm.

Last night was the 2nd of three evenings I am playing at Molly Malones Irish Pub since Gerry went away on holiday with Mags. Tonight will be the third and final evening.

Well the first evening (Friday) went pretty well, a friend / ex-colleague of mine popped by with her friends, and I sang "Desperado" for her. I suppose the shriek than came from the corner when I sang the first word was a scream of joy. Nice girl.

So last night. It was okay I guess... the pub was pretty empty for the first set, and by the 2nd set, a bunch of caucasian folks waltzed in and started dancing and singing along, which was great. Their zest for more songs caused me to only break after the 2nd set for only 10 minutes before I had to dive right into the third set.

Boss was very kind to lend me a top-of-the-line Maestro Custom Dreadnaught 1 guitar to use for my gigs both last night and tonight. Speaking of which, I do hope that the pub on Wednesday evenings will be much more populated than last night's meagre below-20 head count. The guitar sounded fantastic, and I arguably sang much better because I felt more comfortable knowing that I was playing essentially the best dreadnaught guitar that Maestro could offer at the point of press.

Was browsing through some blogs, and FrianGraham's post about interracial couples caught my eye. I have to say that it is true that somehow the desirability of chinese guys seems to be deteriorating amongst the less oriental-inclined female demographic. I mean... if they're not exactly orientally-inclined.. they would obviously be leaning more towards non-chinese guys.

It's not to be marvelled at. As the saying goes, "the grass is always greener on the other side". That is until the parents find out that their precious daughter is dating a non-chinese guy and oh wells. My stand on the issue is that love should and ought to transcend race or culture. However I am still somewhat uncomfortable that somehow guys like myself might actually have to look beyond the boundaries of the chinese population when it comes to dating.

Would I make such a move? I have absolutely no idea. I have yet to be over-the-top, physically or mentally attracted to a female of a different race. But I'm not exactly crazy about girls who only speak chinese. And I'm pretty sure none of that mainly-chinese-speaking demographic would be remotely interested in an individual such as myself. Obviously due to my lack of prowess in the chinese language.

That said, I'm confident in my usage of the English tongue. Would that be an attractive feature?

What the heck. I'm entering Tekong in about 52 days, I'm going for a (hopefully) good vacation in France, I'm in a band that's actually making music, I might be in love and I'm going to sing tonight for good money. Life seems to be alright for now.


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

Going to France

Hmm.

Ok, so on the 29th of April, I will be flying off to France for a nice 13 day holiday. Most of the preparations have been done, even to the point where my dream of purchasing a solid, decent camera has been realised. When I mean solid, decent camera... I mean the Nikon DSLR D40. Yah think big, black, chunky, long... hehehe it's pretty much an entry-level professional camera. I even briefly flirted with the salesgirl during the purchase (oops).

Ok ok you guys just chill ok? She was making eyes at me, and I just humoured her slightly. She seemed the think that my reason for purchasing such a high level camera ("just for general usage") was pretty impressive in the way that I was specific about the quality of shots that I desired.

Anyway. The camera is simply fantastic. I took a shot of my brother's face I could zoom in all the way until I could see the hairs on his face. It also has this fantastic macro function which does a very good depth-of-field effect. Will definitely be taking very good quality shots of the France trip :)

Tomorrow is the 2nd of 3 gigs at Molly Malones. Kindly drop by if you have nothing better to do or if you wish to hear some old fashioned tunes sung by a semi-professional singer/guitarist. First evening was very cool.

Having hot dates on Thursday and Friday evenings. Can't say anymore except that Thursday's date is with an ex-coursemate and Friday is with an ex-colleague. Will not reveal anymore except that I feel good and I'm going with the flow XD


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

RANT!!!

Hmm.

*Disclaimer* At the point of posting, the blogger was in a relatively foul mood due to the presence of 3 ulcers in the user's body: one on the lip, one on the gums and one at the back of the throat. The blogger was also very harassed by his mother and father due to an undisclosed issue, one that involves alot of planning and talking to higher educational authority. All in all, blogger just feels very sensitive and in a need for a very big defecation session.


I was just browsing through my friendster account, and I could not help but notice how someone posted multiple postings on the board with titles like "I'm 80% male, 20% female!!!", or "I'm mature now!!!". Begging your pardon, but seriously, if you're so conscious of your damn sexuality just go and be with whoever you go out with and stay straight. And about maturity? If you were so damn mature you wouldn't even be posting such fucking horseshit on the friendster board in the first place. Grow up, yeah?

And now one of my former bandmates has joined the company I'm working for. You know, as a keyboardist he was fine, but the shit had already started when the bugger masqueraded himself initially as a drummer (cannot keep the beat to save his skin), then as a bass player, but the worst part was that during that whole tenure of him being in a band with me, he kept asking me to refer potential keyboard or bass students to him.

I mean, seriously, fuck you. Out of the few times we jammed together he was always late and not even remotely ashamed of his lack of consideration. Then he wants me to refer people I might have a history with to let him teach them an instrument? Kiss my blues, rock and roll, country, oldies pop-influenced ass. I walked into the store today when he was on duty, he was still the same old bugger. Just as greasy, shady and dodgy as the day I met him. God, the thought of his face just makes me shudder.

So today I gave my first lesson to a new student. Lesson went very well due ot the student already having some experience with the guitar, there was literally no blank stares like "uhh, could you explain that one more time?", which is arguably what students should be asking but anyway she was a very nice person (older by at least 5 years and caucasian so not remotely interested) and a very willing and energetic student. For once my lesson 1 materials became obsolete within the first 15 minutes.

Also gave Colin the tip-off for a job interview... Boss seems to be ok with him, but no confirmation yet. Didn't even eat lunch before the lesson and only reached home at about 4pm, so had very late lunch. Considered it to be "teanch" (tea+lunch) which did'nt seem to go down quickly enough due to irritating presence of the 3 ulcers.

*stalks off to take a shit and a shower*


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

Guitar teacher, moi?

Hmm.

You know just 2 months ago I only dreamed of being a guitar teacher, and when I joined Maestro guitars my dream was answered in more ways than one.

My first student was thankfully a fast learner... however due to her studying commitments, she had to fly off within 11 days of the 1st lesson, and that was kinda funny because she did all 4 lessons in 2 weeks.

Anyway, after that student had finished her lessons, I was soon assigned to teach 4 little indian expatriate girls. Now, if you think any girl below the age of 14 is a handful, imagine someone like myself trying to handle all four at one shot.

I mean.. me.. cynical, short-tempered, grouchy, prone to outbursts of annoyance. All of the sudden I have to tame myself and tame my students as well. It has not been easy, particularly since they keep jostling for attention amongst themselves and trying to make me pay attention to each individual, individually rather than collectively. However, I guess it's only fair / divine intervention that each week one girl would be missing, so I only need to tackle 3 girls at any one session.

The good news is that they understand english very well. And the accent is very much kept under control.. if not I'll be speaking in an Indian accent even if I didn't want too. For those who have heard me mimicking the accent, yeah it's funny.. but I'll be damned if I was stuck having to speak that way. No offense to the Indians however, because I honestly find it hard to take folk who have a thick accent (regardless of race or origin) seriously.

Anyway, my 3rd set of students is a pair of guys who are wayyy older than me. Put it this way, they're even older than what people have often mistook me to be. So they're taking electric guitar lessons from me... One guy has been MIA for 2 weeks now, and the other guy... is willing to learn, but just can't seem to stop bashing the damn strings. I keep emphasising "finesse", "dynamics", but I guess all he wants to do is just wank away indescriminately.

My 4th set of students just had their first session with me today, which went surprisingly well despite the fact that it's a mother-and-daughter combo. No, don't get any funny ideas, both female specimen aroused nothing but a sense of professionalism on my part to try and impart as much knowledge as I can within the first few lessons and take it from there.

So I do hope that my lessons can continue as smoothly as possible, and for my gig on the 24th and 25th to both be successes.


Cheers,

Crawldaddy

eleven-oh-five

Hmm.

Hi, new song just arrived. Titled "11:05", I wrote it as kind of like a kick-back to the days when I used to get up and play some guitar after my shift was done, usually at 11:05pm on friday evenings.

It's not perfect, but I think it's rawness has an edge. Kinda. Hope you like it.


Cheers,

Crawldaddy