PULP FICTION

Happy Birthday August Babies!

2009-08-09T23:34:00.004+08:00

Today marks the start of my 'rural' life without internet. Thus, I feel a mandatory need to wish my friends who were born in August, a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (In particular: Dina Darling, Wes, Khoo, Kenne and Avilyn)

Have a blast and eat a slice of cake for me!

Moving

2009-08-07T06:46:00.005+08:00

I'm moving out tomorrow! Crap.. i hate packing.. Not going to have regular internet access, but oh well.. it's less than a month before I have to leave for Beijing. (Apologies in advance cause I'm gonna be slow in replying mails and all)

I'll survive with lotsa food, good company and Danish tv. :)

Summer.

2009-07-24T22:29:00.008+08:00

Have been enjoying the summer holidays so far. Chillin a lot and practicing very little... feels good to do absolutely nothing productive once in a while, but I still feel that occasional tinge of guilt. BITTERSWEET.

Still kinda regret not going to Roskilde. Missed alot of cool bands and djs.. coldplay, oasis, 2 many djs, röyksopp.. boohoo. The tickets were expensive though.. Damn.. It sucks to be poor.

Anyways, the weather has not been kind lately. It's been raining!! Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that it'll be sunny again in August, especially since I'm on bike now. The only healthy part of my calorie-indulgent lifestyle... eating a whole lot of junk, sitting down for hours with beers, doing nothing, sitting down at parks eating and drinking, snacking in front of the tele.. not doing wonders for my weight and health.

Gonna watch Kaiser Cheifs later tonight. Heard that they're good live, so I'm looking forward. RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY!!

2009-06-08T20:13:00.005+08:00

Now comes the worst time of the semester: EXAM WEEK… and I wasn’t even prepared for this in the first place. My Brilliant dictionary meaning: unusual and impressive intellectual acuteness, definitely unusual marked with a capital B school in China just suddenly decided that I had to have exam results if not risk doing another year. NICE…

Had to bug the conservatory in Denmark and fortunately, they were flexible enough to make this possible. Which means, I had to do exams without any mental preparation whatsoever. The only consolation being: Thank goodness I practice regularly.

2 subjects (Piano and 2 music history papers) down. Form Analysis (not scheduled yet.. which leads to another headache) and practicals for my main subject coming up.

Practicals are the best and the worst I would say. Best because it’s what I’ve been spending most of my time on and the exams would be a good chance to showcase it + it’s really good practice to perform on a regular basis.

Worst because it’s your main subject.. You get really stressed out and then there’s the problem of battling bouts of what we call “Panica Nervosa”. Every musician’s terror of getting blackouts, forgetting notes, large amount of wrong notes, and all that bull crap that comes along, affecting your performance and in the end, the final delivery is only half of what you can actually offer.

Anyways, from now till Friday, I still have 4 DAYS to practice the shit outta myself and TRY to make it work! SHUDDERS~

R.I.P

2009-04-03T23:23:00.005+08:00

My classic i pod is dead..The sound jack is screwed up, so there's no sound when I plug in my headphones. Somehow, I seem to develop a special relationship with my electronic devices. Prolly due to the fact that I'm super dependent on them.

10GB worth of great memories (long waits, walks, train, bus, plane rides).. crazy songs and playlists..

I guess it's time to say goodbye. :(

Learning in Unexpected Places

2008-12-10T21:09:00.008+08:00

I was taking a shit at a friend’s place and snooping around his stash of magazines, newspapers and books for something to read. Was told millions of times that reading while shitting is a bad habit that might cause “piles”.. But in my case, shitting can be difficult at times, and reading something while at it just makes it a whole lot easier.

Back to the main thing…I chanced upon a small book that contained the teachings of the Dalai Lama. There was a page that said this:

“I think that leaving aside how the endless pursuit of romantic love may affect our deeper spiritual growth, even from the perspective of a conventional way of life, the idealization of this romantic love can be seen as extreme.

Unlike those relationships based on care and genuine affection, this is another matter. It is something based on fantasy, unattainable and therefore maybe a source of frustration so on that basis, it cannot be seen as a positive thing.”

Makes A LOT OF SENSE when you think about it.

Talk about being enlightened in the toilet!

Living away from home

2008-12-08T06:55:00.011+08:00

I had a girl’s night out with the rest of the students from the percussion section. One of my classmates was nice enough to invite the percussion girls for a nice dinner cum chill out session at her place. The food was awesome and we were entertained by her baby daughter who was such a darling! We had Bosch soup, salad, salmon and potatoes with hollandaise sauce with some red wine. Desert was chocolate and vanilla ice cream, LOTS of potato chips, coffee and some baileys. (I could go on and on with food…) So it was a fantastic evening with great food, drinks and of course great company. It was nice to finally sit down with the rest of the girls and have a nice chat about everything.

Recently, I kind of realized that the only way to get to know about a place is NOT to just go to all the touristy places and buy souvenirs and take lots of awesome photographs..(the list goes on..)

The best way to go is to hang out with the locals or people who have been living there. That’s the best way to really get to know a place, the culture, their habits. It really gives you a lot of different perspectives and insights about the place you’re in. One gets a lot more knowledge about a place from talking to people because you get to hear of the “real life” not the façade you see in tourist places or postcards or whatsoever.

It’s like if you think about Singapore. Lots of tourists hear Singapore and they say “Yeah.. it’s a really clean and nice place with a nice zoo and I really like the white tigers” and then they’ll be a whole lot of other comments that it’s quite a boring place if you stay around too long. But seriously, which one of us locals would go to the zoo and look at the white tigers. I for one haven’t seen the white tigers. If any friend comes to visit, I could bring him/her to the zoo only upon request, and spend a maximum of 2 hours there. Then, we’ll hit 85 for ba chor mee, satay, chicken wings and otah and hit geylang for durians and tau hwey.

I tried this in Stockholm and I had a super awesome time. I didn’t manage to check out every museum, but my friend Shu and I were hanging out with a lot of the locals, some were her friends and others were just strangers we talked to on the train, at bars, and almost everywhere and I have to admit, we had such a wonderful time!

Do what the locals do, that’s the only way you can maximize and enjoy your stay in a particular place. I might be wrong, but for now, that’s the way I want to experience Denmark. So, for that I’ll make an effort to hang out and stuff and by the time it’s time to leave this place, I won’t think back and say “Oh yea Denmark, it was pretty much school and home and the things are really expensive..Yea, I've seen the Queen's castle, the statue of Hans Christian Andersen and the Little Mermaid” These things are very superficial in a way, and somehow forgettable.

I need to spend time here learning new stuff in school as well as learning about life in another perspective. I’ve been told to make good use of time here, because it’s not as if I get this kind of chance everyday.

I’ll heed this advice and I’m hoping to say at the end of my stay that I made the right move and have grown from this experience, not only musically but also as a person. :)

Science of Blogging.

2008-11-16T06:11:00.010+08:00

Sorry that there weren’t any updates so far. Blame my alter ego; the procrastinator, then again always remember that procrastinators are the leaders of tomorrow. :)

The title of today’s blog was inspired by a movie I just watched, titled The Science of Sleep. Very interesting movie directed by Michel Gondry, who last did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind.

In summary, Science of Sleep was about the subconscious mind of a guy named Stephane, played by the talented Gael Garcia. The story was fairly simple, but the way it was executed was whimsical, and Garcia’s character was portrayed in a quirky and eccentric manner which was perfect.

The mise en scene was brilliant, cleverly using low-budget materials. The sets mixed with clay mation and stop motion, ideally portrayed Stephane’s dream world. There were also interesting items in the movie like a 1 second time-machine and a forest in a boat, which was like a vegetarian noah’s ark.

In all, I would say the movie wasn’t exactly of woo-wah calibre, but it was a simple one that kept you amazed and thinking. The kind you watch when you’re not expecting a lot of action. I like the concept of reality actually being dreams and vice versa. So when you’re awake, you might be dreaming, but when you’re dreaming, that might be reality. Lately I find myself being mildly confusing which makes my thoughts go round in circles. Same same but different..

Personally, I enjoyed it pretty much and it was worth my Saturday night. Hell, it was in English, French and Spanish… so why not.

There was this line in the movie which I particularly like.

Randomness is very difficult to achieve. Organization always merges back if you don’t pay attention

This post shall end with something I stumbled upon while reading Yahoo! News. It’s about a woman who suffers from a disorder called “Foreign accent syndrome”. Some american woman wakes up in the morning and finds out that she now speaks with a Russian-Swedish accent.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=10658663&ch=4226723&src=news

Wonder how that would feel like…

Scandinavia!

2008-10-15T20:51:00.001+08:00

Copenhagen is FUN.

Stockholm is FUNNY.

:)

Leaving on a jet plane.

2008-09-04T00:57:00.005+08:00

Do away with the 'emo' entry. Instead, I've decided to make a list of TOP 10 THINGS I'll MISS.
(not in order of preference)

1. Buying pirated DVDs that cost below 10 kuai each.
2. Shopping at wu dao kou.
3. Getting into clubs without paying cover & drinking 4 kuai tsingdao on the streets.
4. Taking the subway(2 kuai only!) regardless of distance.

5. Crappy, noisy, gossipy, FUN-LOVING friends!! (I know you guys will miss my shit. There will be no one to look for when you can't sleep at 2am. No more noisy ban gu, xiao luo and endless blasting of loud music from 520)

I'll miss you guys..take care, work hard and please have lots of fun when i'm gone! :)
6. 5 kuai fruitime (read: fruiti-me) The cheapest crack drink ever.
7. Squat toilets. Especially the public ones that have no doors and no place to wash your hands after business. You don't always miss the good stuff only. HAHA.
8. Practising and hanging out in the practise rooms till late.
9. Yang Rou Chuan, Man Tou Pian, Huo Guo and Jiao Zi.
10. Chinese Music!! (I'll have to live with marimba tunes and snare drum rolls for 2 sems.. I'll prolly get an orgasm when I hear "Ye Shen Chen" or "Chun Jiang")

Surprisingly, I've grown quite accostumed to Beijing. Went through hard times, but had lots of GOOD moments. Hopefully, 1 year later, this ever-growing city still has a small space for me. :)

Signing Off and Missing Beijing.

Olé! Argentina!

2008-08-19T23:44:00.005+08:00

Argentina beat Brazil 3-0 with lots of speed, skill and amazing flair.

1st half was pretty exciting. Messi played like there was no tomorrow..deluding the Brazilians with his footwork and getting pass them by sheer speed. Argentina gained possession most of the time and their strong midfield tired out the Brazilian side. The second half came to a quiet start but the excitement started again when Aguero scored a Maradona-esque goal in the 53rd minute. The second goal was beautiful team play by Messi, Garay and Di Maria, delivered with ease by Aguero. Ronaldinho had a shot from a free kick, but it was so "accurate", it had to hit the post. :P The last goal was a penalty taken by Riquelme.
By the second half, the Brazilians were tired and desperate,.Ronaldinho was fast, but his team mates couldn't keep up with his pace. And as if trailing by 3 goals weren't enough, they couldn't leave themselves with some saving grace by keeping 11 men on the field. tsk tsk.. In all, GREAT match. Only regret was that Messi didn't score prolly cause he was marked crazy. Di Maria was also surprisingly good.. undertaking the role of play maker along side Messi. (I'm biased I know, but all fans are biased, so please forgive us)

It's been a while since I've wanted a team to win.. only caught a few matches of Euro 08 and Italy has been really painful to watch. Their U-23 no better. 1 Giovinco cannot save the team, but he looks promising, so I'll keep my toes crossed. I hope he doesn't grow up to be another Inzaghi. For now, it shall be Argentina. (I'll need to thank Kerng for this). And Lionel Messi is really GOOD, I don't know how not to love him. I think I found a substitue for my "super-sub baby-faced assasin". This time YOUNGER and BETTER.. :)

Nemesis

2008-08-16T06:25:00.003+08:00

I need to stop partying.... really. My biological clock is officially screwed.
Holidays are EVIL!!! :P

Finally.. a medal for us~

2008-08-15T23:22:00.006+08:00

Singapore has FINALLY been guaranteed an Olympic medal in table-tennis. It's been a 48 year drought since we got one for weight-lifting. Although the players are imports(which means finals = china vs "china"), I'll still have to give them credit for going so far. (No matter what, they train in SG and carry Singapore passports!) So, even though I don't usually watch table-tennis, I'll prolly drop by some public place to catch the match on Sunday and stir some trouble amongst the Chinese supporters. Now...we're still missing out on people count and flags. haha. Seriously, I don't think we'll win.. but let's cross our fingers for now. :)

Super Fun Time!

2008-08-14T04:20:00.000+08:00

Summer holidays have been GOOD so far!

Been busy eating, people-watching, clubbing, meeting new people, going around.. just basically having FUN, which I haven't had in quite some time. I'm totally basking in Olympic fever now.. Although a few weeks back, I was still complaining about the 'side-effects' the games would bring us. The closure of our favorite clubs, cheap shopping places and the endless crowd in the subway. I even had the idea of going home if I could. Lucky thing, it seems like I was wrong!! This month had been filled with so many reasons to party.. party and PARTY! Not to mention, I managed to get tickets to a handball game (Denmark vs. Korea & Germany vs. Iceland) and it was AWESOME. Of course, it would be really great if I manage to get tickets for soccer.

P.S: I'll post pictures of the architecture in Beijing soon~Before signing off, I need to give Brien credit for the fun time I had the past week. Thanks for visiting dude! It was great having you around~ Not to forget, Emma and Avilyn (My fellow 'white dengue' peers) for dancing non stop, the makan sessions and all the eye-candy oogling times. Only in Beijing will we be as crazy to take a subway to a club, dance the night away till the sun comes out, go to 7-11 for breakfast and take a subway back. HAHA. Will miss ya guys lots when I leave. PARTY FOR ME WHEN I'M NOT AROUND!! :) Hasta la vista amigos!

Post Primero

2008-08-06T04:23:00.000+08:00

FINALLY... I have decided to start blogging! Although I really don't know how long I can keep up with this. Hah.
Have been taking a long awaited summer break, hanging out around town. Beijing has been crowded lately due to the Olympics (the amount of people in the subway is an obvious sign, I almost suffocated to death in the train), guess it'll only get worse when the games open next week! The weather was great today though; something for a change, sunny and clear, probably cause it was raining the past few days. Hope it stays that way. :)

Regards to all the peeps in sunny island! Miss ya all~