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Monday, February 28, 2005
TWE
went for the TWE (Toshiba Wind Ensemble) practice on friday nite... on the whole, it was a great nite. initially really cannot make it.... the first blow of my clarinet, only got 1 weak sound come out... sounded more like a sneeze actually haha... after some warming up, finally got a bit better, though the sound is still rather thin, esp the upper registers.. the high notes from e onwards, wah cannot make it! haha...
it helped when not many members turned up for practice, so won't xia suay that much. they just had their annual concert 2 weeks ago, so just like in singapore, the members slack a bit and skip subsequent few practices.
the setup of the band is very interesting. the band doesn't really have a resident conductor. they do have 2 conductors who are players as well (not called concert masters or student conductors, just conductors), so they take turn to conduct every friday. Once every month on a saturday, they have a professional conductor (who is a horn player) come and conduct the band. all members need to pay membership fees, ard 1500 yen/mth (S$24) and for the annual concert, need to pay ard 15000 yen (S$240). the monthly fee is to pay for the hiring of the professional conductor and other miscellaneous such as instrument repair. the concert fee is for the hire of the concert hall (so that the concert will be free for all). not only for this band, all other community bands also the same... haha if this is in singapore, i think nobody will join liao... so pls be more appreciative of band practices next time!!
anyway since the turn out wasn't that much, we practised in a circle formation instead of the normal semi-circle one.... so everybody can see and hear everybody. first piece played was the inn of sixth happiness i think. it had the "this old man, he played one...." tune in one of the movements... quite interesting.. anyway plus me, there were only 3 clarinettists, so we played scissors papers to choose parts allocation. i won the first rd, so i chose 2nd (got solo 1st and 1st)... hehe....
but the next rd not so lucky... i lost, so i had to play first for alvamar overture (groan....) never play first before for this... then so long never play macham have to run all those high notes... super jialat... haha obviously cannot make it, and did not make it =p
3rd round i lost again, but was fortunate... cos they played 1st suite in e-flat (holst)... haha confirm 切! 1993/4 played this piece so much that sleep also can play. so even when i was given the solo first part, also no prob. the only prob was my embouchure giving way... no stamina liao....
4th rd got the 2nd part, but can't remember what piece it was liao... but it was pretty easy.
after the practice, we went for a welcome party for me. had lots of good food, and great company... best of all.... free.. haha... went back via the last train...
i guess the reason why it was so enjoyable was the people. having to live with japanese who keep to themselves all the time for 4 months, it was refreshing to meet a whole bunch of japanese who actually is interested about you, want to talk to you, and is proactive about it. as 堀内さん, the conductor, said, "music は境界がない..." (music has no boundaries) indeed he is right.
as such, i thoroughly enjoyed the band here, and think i will be taking part in their activities from now on! =) gotta improve my clarinet playing though!...
go carrie underwood!
winston, out!
posted by winz at 2:27 PM
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hina matsuri
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Friday, February 25, 2005
ｓのｗ...
yesternite, 雪が降った.... so it was pretty 白い ard this morning... weird... snow again when spring is supposedly here... 2 days ago, had 16 degrees, then yesterday went down to 4....
anyway going to check out the Toshiba Wind Ensemble tonite.. hehe.. gonna try playing the clarinet... so long never touch liao.. hopefully will be still good enuff for them! bought 2 reeds during lunch time... vandoren 3.5... costed me 209 yen each.... wish me luck!
posted by winz at 5:17 PM
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up and running...
all thanks to chin heng!! =) turned out i had to set the MTU to as low as 1300. 1400 was the lowest i tried before... anyway, this is good... and will be posting photos here as well as at my ofoto site soon! by this weekend i promise =)
met up with yuko, my jap fren back in ntu days, and her fren for dinner yesternite... had a great time, finally having some jap who can understand my lazily-phrased english (ie. singlish) haha... btw, she was an exchange student for 1 year in ntu, and i knew her becos she played the euphonium in ntu band. cool... wish her all the best in her job hunt!
update: pics!!
yuko (left) and ayumi (right)
posted by winz at 9:40 AM
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Thursday, February 24, 2005
詩人 谷川 俊太郎
河童掻っ払った
河童ラッパ掻っ払った
トッテチッテタ
河童菜っ葉買った
河童菜っ葉一把買った
買った切って喰った
全てひらがなで：
かっぱかっぱらった
かっぱらっぱかっぱらった
とってちってた
かっぱなっぱかった
かっぱなっぱいっぱかった
かってきってくった
面白いね～
English translation (by yours truly):
Kappa* stoled (something)
Kappa stoled a trumpet
"totte..chitte..ta" (sound of trumpet playing)
Kappa bought greens (ie. vege)
Kappa bought one bunch of greens
(It) bought it, cut it, and ate it
*Kappa is the name of a water monster in Japan. Most famous as its cartoon representation, as shown below (the green one):
posted by winz at 3:23 PM
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日本語で。。。
俺の友達は日本語を読みたいから、今日はブロッグを日本語で書いた。
寮ではインタネットはまたまだ使えていなくて、とてもやばい～～
今晩日本の友達に会いに行く。ちょっとナーバス。シンガポールにいる時、友達とあまり喋らないから。
posted by winz at 3:04 PM
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Wednesday, February 23, 2005
end of day liao....
BUT STILL NO RESPONSE FROM ISP!!!#$#%!
Better not expect me to pay for bills starting from 21st man!! sian....
posted by winz at 4:46 PM
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元宵
差点忘了，今天是元宵节。
这里没有人庆祝，也没有汤圆吃。不过，还是像祝福在世界各地的朋友们，今年最后一次的新年快乐。且祝有情人终成眷属。
=)
posted by winz at 10:28 AM
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no improvements...
my internet connection still tak boleh... sigh... hope the isp get back to me real soon! i can't send emails from dorm now, neither can i access my blog account... wanted to upload photos but, well, too bad...
posted by winz at 10:10 AM
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Tuesday, February 22, 2005
只为那爱我愿
原我能把华初之光点燃 愿黄城之爱与心中滋长
愿友谊能把你心温暖 原我有完成心愿的力量
没有瀑布与岩石的阻挡 溪水就没有悦耳的歌唱
不愿途中无泼浪无挑战 愈经挫折生命愈灿烂
只为那爱我愿与你同行万里路
只为那爱我愿与你携手向前迈步
短暂的和聚多急促 既然碰上了又岂能虚度
只为那爱我愿与你同行万里路
只为那爱我愿与你携手向前迈步
黄城两载多短促 既然爱上了又为何不付出
黄城两载多短促 既然爱上了又为何不付出
posted by winz at 10:33 AM
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£$%£$ pppoe
sigh... yesterday my isp upgraded their lines and changed to a broadband DSL, using pppoe now... was supposed to be a good thing... but... i using win2k got problem.... cannot access many webpages, including my blog, and even msn also cannot log on... sigh... any techno-shens can help me??
super super sian... what a great bdae present. =(
posted by winz at 10:05 AM
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Monday, February 21, 2005
overdue payday...
anyway got my pay liao... muahahahahahahahaha!!!
posted by winz at 11:05 AM
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bdae V(^o^)
hihi
first and foremost, thanks for all your well wishes, the great dinner together, the nice birthday cake and thoughtful presents!
yesterday went for a concert at muza symphony hall, by the tokyo philharmonic ochestra. the layout of this very new concert hall is pretty cool, as my fren puts it, it looks like minas tirith, in the sense that from the stalls all the way up to the 3rd floor circus seats, there are steps and seats round and round the dome-shaped hall. achitecture-wise more interesting than the esplanade, acoustic-wise, also better... and of course ochestra-wise, sso confirm no fight. repertoire wise, the highlight were mendelssohn's violin concerto no. ? in e minor, with a 19 year old cutie in solo. and is she good or what... 2nd half is the all-so-popular pictures in an exhibition... nice nice nice... 2 thumbs up! going again for another concert in 2 weeks time hehe...
afterwhich, waited for some frens to come to kawasaki to have a bdae dinner together.. had some chinese food which was pretty good, paled in comparison with the company of course =) later went for nikai to some other restaurant dunno what name, had rounds of drinks and began to discuss chinese 歇后语 and 词语.. haha... just for the fun of it... guess it started from the 干柴烈火 =p that's another story between fiona and ivan/calvin altogether haha... although no karaoke, we each sang a song too... best was calvin's rendition of 但愿人长久... had to pay a high price for his rendition too... thanks for all who made it.. really had a great time =)
went back dorm and had a sangai, with guys coming to my room with a bdae cake... sadly not tiramisu... but was still good nonetheless.... they gave me a great present too! by not saboing me... hehe...
had some well wishes from singapore via icq... though the best must be a fren who long long time no msg me liao but msged me last nite... thot she was going to wish me happy bdae... but instead asked me to promote her business for her! #'$"& haha... just joking.... dun mind of course.. so here it is... guys, anyone interested in getting an antique safe? pls email me, and i will direct you to my fren =)
here are the pressies i got this year for my bdae, in chronological order...
first up, a book from 颖彬姐, thanks a lot! will read this soon! knew english books are hard to find here, so got me one... so thoughtful! so touched.. really love it, thanks!!
(title a bit too hard to miss =p)
next up was another surprise. found a package taped to my door when i got back last nite... from fangyi. thanks! really loved the song before this, but didn't know the title and didn't know how to find... 真是踏破铁靴... thanks!
Mika Nakashima - 中島美嘉 - 桜色舞うころ
next is a pressie from calvin, old buddy old pal... knew i loved eva cassidy, so got this cd for me... so nice rite? thanks!!! really love this too! it is my aim to get ALL her cd's!! i am a step closer to my goal now =)
Chuck Brown & Eva Cassidy - The Other Side
hope to post all the pictures i promised you real real soon! =p
Update:
In the evening, a great pal of mine from Uni days called me from Singapore! So touched! Ms Tan, thanks for remembering, and it's really great hearing from you! =)
During my conversation with my family at night, they said i never write in my blog the presents they gave me... ok, so to set the records straight, my mum knitted a scarf for me, its really pretty and i really like it. keep showing off to my frens asking them nice or not and telling them my mum made it =) thanks mum! of course there's these pair of nice shoes that my sis bought for me, which i have mentioned earlier... thanks again sis!
update 2: pics!!
muza symphony hall
bdae - from left: ivan, sps, tshush, ore, jianrong, damien, james(covered by calvin's hand), ck, calvin (siownan is the guy at the bottom left of the first photo)
posted by winz at 10:09 AM
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Friday, February 18, 2005
busy busy busy
today has been a busy day....
the whole of morning was spent searching for accommodation for my may trip... then lunch time went to play table tennis... after lunch spent some time doing my jap homework, due tonite... den replied some emails, searched for some info regarding Toshiba choir and band... then now posting blog....
wah super super busy.... =p
posted by winz at 3:41 PM
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Thursday, February 17, 2005
work is great!!! =p
got this article from a link in my fren's blog..... think i better stop bitching about my job and praise it more often! haha... ;)
my work is great! i feel so good at work! there's soooooo much to do, and sooooo interesting!!! lol!
posted by winz at 9:57 AM
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japan... sigh... what can i say?
today came to office, then got down to my daily routine of reading some news over the web. was particularly sad and disturbed by 2 local news. 1st one was that of a shinto priest "molesting" a gal but was found not guilty. there have to be some boundaries to religious activities rite? i bet if the catholic priests were all in japan instead of england and the states, they would also be let off man. jialat...
2nd piece of news is much worse... 15 university boys sexually abusing (incl gang raping) a 1st year high school gal (a minor) for 7 hours... happened in december. you know what was their sentence? 1 year in prison, suspended for 3 years. ie. they escape jail term. why? because the judge thinks they show remorse.. a great joke the judiciary system in japan is... and coupled with a previous case where a foreigner was sentenced i think for 8 years for raping a gal here, this just shows how unjust and biased the judicary system is.
gals, beware of japan! japanese can do pretty much anything they want and still get off!
posted by winz at 9:40 AM
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Wednesday, February 16, 2005
earthquake? what earthquake?
yesternite ard 5 am there was a earthquake of magnitude 5.4 (highest is 7 in the jap scale) at the epicentre. over here where i am it was a magnitude of 3. best thing about the whole thing - i slept through it.
earthquake magnitude map
today on my way to work, and during work, i felt so left out.. thing i was the only one who slept through it... sob... so sad... heard it was shaking quite badly... ah well.. 不知是祸是福... strongest we felt so far over here... check the report here for more details...
posted by winz at 9:23 AM
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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
feb 15th
63 years ago today was the day when Percival (I think) surrendered Singapore to the Japs, thus marking the beginning of the 3 years 8 months of suffering... heng not born yet haha... now that i am in japan, obviously this day is insignificant here, as it is significant in Singapore. hmmm... maybe i should tell the japs and demand them to treat me lunch today.. haha
yesterday was a pretty boring valentine's day for me... went matsuya again for dinner, and then played a little time crisis 3 before heading back home. afterwhich had an early nite... haha no dates what to do? one of my frens gave a v-dae card to a jap colleague he has never conversed with b4, and asked her for lunch together... haha... so steady... me? tak boleh man.. no can do... unless a bet is on! haha... =D wonder how he is progressing now =p
posted by winz at 9:41 AM
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Monday, February 14, 2005
V-day, Sis' trip and Maeda Sensei
happy v-day to all! well, my first 寂しい v-day since a long time ago, think i gotta jio some guy frens to watch movie or something together... just like the good old days in hall 6, used to have a movie nite for those without partners to get together...
my sister came last thursday and left yesterday.. sob sob... it wasn't until she left that i felt the full extent of how much i missed her and my family... suddenly felt so lost and lonely after she left. Sis, if you are reading this, thanks for visiting again and hope you come again soon!
She arrived on Thurs afternoon, her S$2k+++ Fendi bag was drenched because some guy's waterbottle spilled in the overhead compartment. so after checking in, we went to Tokyo's biggest Fendi boutique at omotesando to seek help. thank goodness, with the miraculous use of rice paper, the water was sucked out, and from the outside, no visible stain can be seen. i had a nice little yellow fendi paperbag which was stuffed with extra rice paper... and i can see more gals looking at me cos of the Fendi paperbag! haha... guys, if you wanna attract gals' attention here, you now know what to do!
Fri, together with some of my frens, I met up with Maeda sensei, our japanese teacher from bunka language school, who was back here visiting. had a great buffet-style lunch, during which we were mainly interrogating her about her Singaporean boyfren hahaha... boy, did that guy move fast or what? Guess the highlight was when asked if she missed her family and came back to visit them, she replied, "no, for shopping", with a sly smile on her face... haha.. good old maeda...
afterwhich, i met up with my sis again, and we headed for ginza, where i had my first 500 yen coffee in a nice coffeehouse right in the heart of ginza. total for 2 was 1500 yen i think, not too ex for jap standards, but for me, S$24 for coffee for 2 is plain gross... but it was a nice experience nevertheless... as expected, with my sister, i will definitely have some experiences with her that i will never get alone or with my frens here... nice... i also became a shiseido member, after my sis splurged 2150 yen (S$35) on a shiseido facial cleanser for me. she got me a new pair of shoes for 12000 yen too (S$192), this time as my birthday present.
we headed for odaiba afterwhich, and had a nice birthday dinner with a fantastic view of tokyo bay. dinner at Rin Creative Dining (6F AquaCity) cost nearly 6ooo yen (S$96) which I thought was really cheap considering the great food, nice ambience and scenery (although portions are small). The waiter offered to give us free desserts after learning about my upcoming birthday, but we declined as we were already fillled to the brim!
on sat, we headed for hakone for some onsen... first for me. set off late because of sleep haha... whole day turn out to be train train and more trains... anyway the onsen exp was good.. just a little not used to looking at tools of different shapes and sizes all around me... wonder how it will be like in the gals' side.. hmm... my sister said she was surprised at how well-endowed the jap gals are... hmmm..... guys, stop fantasizing! haahahaha...
although a little short of time, we pressed on to gotemba to check out japan's outlet shopping scene. we managed to have only 1.5 hours there (after traveling for 1.5 hours there), and of course time wasn't enuff.. acc to the shopping specialist, it looks spookily like those in america, which i also agree.. however the price wasn't very much cheaper than normal... america's outlet shopping (and canada's i must add) still have the best steals... the whole atmosphere was very nice and warm, maybe because it looked like america instead of japan hahaa... to top it up, it started snowing a bit... cool...
sun was the day of departure for both her and maeda sensei. since i was sending my sis off at the airport, i said sayonaras to maeda sensei as well. after check in, my sis and i went off to have some bite before she departed. coincidentally, we went to a restaurant where maeda was! ha. she was like just seated with her parents 3 tables away. didn't say hi then, cos my sis told me not to bother their private time. afterwhich, we walked a bit, and proceeded to the check in counter to say bye to maeda sensei. that's when i met her parents. my sis proceeded to go through immigration first since time was almost up, when maeda was still in line for check in. it was crazy, as although her flight was supposed to be at 1730, only at 1725 did she manage to check in, and there were still many ppl in line behind her. anyway all she had time for was a quick goodbye to her parents and she left through immigration too....
afterwhich, since her parents were heading home towards shibuya, we took the train ride back together. boy did i have a scary time or what? on the train, i was asked to sit in the middle of them, so we could talk better... so i was like bombarded from left and right in japanese... haha.. super sweat! best of it all was that the train ride was 70 mins long! free jap lessons according to Maeda-san, sensei's mother haha... fortunately, her mum can speak good english, because she studied in london for 5 years when she was young. her dad can speak french, after studying it for 4 years. as much as i tried recalling my french so as to speak to him, i couldn't... sigh... too long out of touch... must go and pick it up again soon! had some revelations of maeda sensei from her parents... must say i am pretty impressed by her now...
as usual, photos later =)
updates: pics!!
sis and i
maeda-sensei and me
altogether - from left: calvin, fangyi, yuhui, tsutsen, maeda asako, jianrong, eng hong, watashi
altogether again
sensei and me again
posted by winz at 10:49 AM
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Thursday, February 10, 2005
long weekend ahead
although we don't have CNY holidays, and have to work these 2 days (which sucked big time), at least we have a long weekend to look forward to. tomorrow is their 建国纪念日 (i cheated by typing in chinese hehe), which i think is some sort of national day bah... so we got off from tomorrow until sunday.. hehe...
anyway my sis will be arriving tokyo in 5 hours time =) didn't really maintain this blog these few days as i was busy searching for hotels and what-have-yous for my sis' stay here... busy work man... made me so busy at work which is a pretty rare sight! hehe... so think i will be writing my next blog only next monday.
so stay tuned, folks! till then.... =)
posted by winz at 10:02 AM
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
新年快乐！！
在世界各地的朋友，祝您新年快乐，年年有余，身体健康，万事如意，升官发财，学业进步，心想事成，恭喜发财，百年好和，多子多孙... ok getting out of point =p
花随春到遍天下
福同岁至满人间
才华上
posted by winz at 9:08 AM
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Tuesday, February 08, 2005
dad's birthday today!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!! =) wishing you happiness and best of health for years and years to come!!
My sis is coming to Tokyo this thursday! kewl... =) can't wait for the weekend to arrive =)
posted by winz at 1:48 PM
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Monday, February 07, 2005
toray pan pacific open 2005; reunion dinner at tsurumi
beginning of new week, but already looking forward to the end...
weekend, me pal, calvin and i went to the tokyo metropolitan gymnasium to watch the toray ppo women's tennis tournament. we tried getting the tickets earlier on a few weeks back, but it was sold out. but we decided to go on saturday anyway to see if we get lucky.
the stadium was at the sendagaya station (千駄ヶ谷駅), which is quite close to harajuku. when we reached there at about 1130, what greeted us was a huge crowd waiting in line to get inside. undaunted, we went towards a booth marked at ticketing. a nice family-looking man came and talked to me near the booth. turns out he had tickets he wanna sell, charging the face value only. this was because his family couldn't turn up. so we happily helped him out by getting two 4000 yen (S$64) from him. Poor guy, he looked like he had a few more than 2 tickets extra. hope he manages to sell off everything.
so we went in, booked ourselves some seats (4000 yen are free seating tickets at the furthest end of the stadium), filled up some lucky draw coupons, got some yuckysoba for lunch, and waited for the matches to begin at 1pm. it was the semi-finals on sat, and the first match was between sharapova and shinobu asagoe.
the japanese are crazy about sharapova (who wouldn't be?) but i guess national pride came first, as no one cheered for sharapova during that match, and instead many were urging asagoe on. but of course, maria won.
won't bore you guys with the tennis write-ups, so in short, sat events ended at around 6+. would have been later if not for one of the gals pulling out due to injury, and hence a walkover for one of the doubles matches. this was my first live tennis tournament, and it is indeed a great experience. think this is better than my nba experience, although the crowd is more subdued here.
after that, i went to tsurumi to meet up with some guys and gals at the gals' dormitory. we had an early reunion dinner, with lao yu sheng too! the gals' dorm, although far away from their train station, is much bigger, better equipped and on the whole, seems a nicer place to live in than our dormitory. ah well, i guess the grass is always greener in tsurumi. we had a good fill, and there were plenty of left overs =) more on this dinner can be seen here at my fren's blog... hehe...
on sunday, we went again to the toray open to watch the finals. just couldn't get enough of sharapova.. i mean tennis... =) this time we got tickets from the booth. apparently there were still quite a few tickets left unsold. this time it costed us 4500 yen each (S$72). First i thought maybe the japs are cheapskate like us, 2 matches compared to 4 matches, that's why dun come to watch on that day. then calvin pointed out that no jap players on sunday tt's why. i guess this is the more plausible reason.
anyway, 1st set sharapova won with ease. davenport then called for a medical time-out. jialat... worry worry... what if she decided to pull out, then the day will be over (since she was also involved in the doubles finals). so hoping that our 4500 yen will not last only 30 mins, i prayed for her return.
and return she did, but it was evident she could not run and chase down balls. we expected a 1-sided situation in favor of sharapova, but since she returned from treatment, she did not drop a single serve at all. seems to me that when a part of the body is not working well, other parts function better =p. anyway she was hitting aces like nothing.. kewl... she broke sharapova once to claim the 2nd set. final set, both held on to their own serves and went all the way to a tie-breaker. sharapova finally won the tie-break.
sharapova won... 嬉しかった... but not as happy as i would have been if it had been a fair match. that being said, the results might have been totally different without the injury. well, anyway... =) report is here. more photos on the tournament can be found here. i must add that the amount of pics on sharapova is biasely huge compared to others. not that i mind of course =p
oh yes, calvin won a bath towel from the lucky draw too.. lucky guy...
lindsay and maria
some observations about the japs during the tournament. well they are supposed to be a polite race aren't they? after the singles semis, when sharapova won, they promptly interviewed her and all. but when 4-time champion, world no. 1 davenport won her semi match, they didn't do anything at all. i mean talk about favouritism and courtesy. obviously they have lots of the former, but lack the latter. another thing, the japs are weird in the sense in cinemas, during the credits after a movie, they will sit through the credits politely, no sound, lights still dark and everything, as if the movie is still screening. i guess you can call this being polite as well, appreciating the efforts of the backroom staff of the movie. but, when it comes to prize giving ceremony in the tournament, they all were rushing towards the exit noisily. talk about ill-manners man. seems like winning the doubles match isn't important to the local crowds at all. if i were the champ, i will feel damned insulted by the japs... ah well... another case of insensitivity and mannerisms-a-lacking in the japs.
went to shibuya after that for dinner. when we reached there, we saw a mob of ppl surrounding somebody, everyone with their camera phones were clicking away. wondering who the hooha was about, we went to crane our necks for a look. i thought it might be sharapova =p, but it was a shorter blonde gal. her back was facing me, but when i caught a split second glance, i thot the gal looked a bit like reese witherspoon. calvin said he saw her face and she looked like Anna Feris. we don't know for sure, the crowd was crazy. some jap guy went up to her and grabbed her, while having his fren take a pic of them. i guess that was the last straw for her, as she and her mate high-tailed out of the street into some alley, presumably back to their hotel... gosh another example of rude japanese. anyway as i was reading bryan's blog today, kelly clarkson was in town this weekend, so it might be her too... hell.. all blondes look the same from the back!
again... more pics later...
update: pics!!
outside of tokyo metropolitan gymnasium
posing with trophies
side view of centre court
lovely sharapova (sorry, i don't have a 10x zoom...)
davenport
trophy presentation (the gal in kimono is the toray bikini model 04/05... or so they announced... wonder what she was doing in a kimono then...)
sharapova's acceptence speech
maria and lindsay
last pose with the court (for this year at least!)
posted by winz at 10:20 AM
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Friday, February 04, 2005
ミルク！
お早う！今日は金曜日から、とても嬉しい！^^
yesternite after work, went to play ping pong. then when the others went for lesson, i went back to motosumiyoshi to makan and stock up on my coke... hehe... and since i got a fridge now, and am underutilizing it, i bought meself some milk too!
now drinking a van houten cocoa milk drink. taste just like a normal choc flavored milk... reminds me of the good old primary school days when most of us subscribed to milk drinking in school, then everyweek got six pack of milk to drink... hehe.. i'm sure u guys have similar experiences rite? those were the days man.. wow.. how much we have grown...
posted by winz at 9:46 AM
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Thursday, February 03, 2005
congrats to a gig well done!
tb, felix, derek, jac, congrats!! good to know that ur gig was so successful! =)
some excerpts from jac's column, "...just got back from the gig. everything went pretty smoothly...except for some minor parts here and there. But we're satisfied. i'm happy. it felt especially good towards the end, while we were just jamming freely..derek suggested we do can't take my eyes off you, and boy was that a good choice. oon's got a good voice for frank songs, plus we were all really in the mood for it already. we were playing it and then people started coming out to dance...young, children, even aunties and uncles! it feels good to see people dancing to your music..even better when you see the joy on their faces. i saw this old couple dancing to the song..it was really sweet, age-old love..."
the last time in singapore i saw ppl dancing to my music was back in year 1992, when i was still a sec 1 kid, playing with the saints band outside raffles city, the then sogo. some caucasian backpackers took off their backpacks, and started dancing to our music rite there! so yes jac, i know what you mean that it feels good to see people dancing to your music. this experience is probably gonna stick with you for life =)
to think back, one of the biggest thing that i find really hard to part with when i decided to come to japan was this band and this band of ppl. felt that i was forsaking them or something. but now, i know, perhaps my departure was a blessing in disguise - they got a better singer now, and moved on to better things... for me? well i'm cool... tb suggested that i can do backup/play sax or flute... haha if i am deemed a surplus, maybe i can try to look for some ppl to form an a capella group when i get back... i always think that when few sounds from musical instruments combine together, it is a wonderful thing to behold... more so when few voices come together... ahh... that's really the most beautiful thing on earth と思う... songs from jewel's christmas album come immediately to mind... you can try listening to the samples here... check out "rudolf" and "i wonder as i wander", both, if i am not wrong, by jewel and her mum. absolutely beautiful...
posted by winz at 11:03 AM
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good quotes
was reading this blog posted by my fren, man! i have to quote him!!
"... Of the things foreign... they accept what they can assimilate, but reject what they can't. As quoted by Bruce Feiler from a Japanese article,`The Japanese are good at absorbing foreign culture, but decisively lack the capability to coexist with it.` Perhaps that's why Japan is so charming in its ability to hold on to its traditions, but come on... maybe its time for her to grow up and get out of her siege mentality."
for those who haven't visited his site yet, u can do so soon.. recommended, cos he is more detailed in the account of things we actually do... whereas for me, i tend to grumble and lose track sometimes =p hehe...
posted by winz at 10:43 AM
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well again...
hi, well again, although felt sick the moment i stepped into office =p
in addition to the photos in the previous post, photos at my ofoto site are up too... check it out! for the link and the userid/password, pls refer to the sidebar =)
posted by winz at 10:29 AM
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photos extravaganza!!!
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