GARGANTUAN steps
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
all play and no work
Fon and me
It was practically impossible to get to hospital except going on my own two legs. And that was ten miles long. I spent most of Monday morning waiting to see if transportation would ease up and once it was past lunch, I decided not to waste anymore time waiting and I went into Central London to take the day off instead.
Tuesday wasn't any better. Transport was slightly better, but I decided instead to enjoy my birthday and a little of my lost childhood by going to Hyde Park and "stomp on some snow", as Ben Loh put it. He enticed me to go early in the morning and I was thinking, I might as well do something fun and memorable on my birthday instead of trying to bash my way into hospital! That wouldn't have been memorable!
I was joined by dear friends Ben Loh, Ben Goh, Hocks and Fon for an afternoon of snow fights and snow man building! We starting rolling a huge gigantic snow ball that took all of us to push in the end! After about 1 metre cube of snow has been rolled, it gets almost impossible to continue rolling it by yourself. This snow ball that we made was as tall as Fon, and we couldn't lift the torso onto it, so we decided to build a fallen snowman, which was much more morbid. But it was all good fun in the end!
Fon and our first snow man!
Ben Goh, Ben Loh, Hocks and Fon building the fallen snow man
Rest in peace
Fon and me
Praying over our fallen comrade, T
Meanwhile, it has been an enforced weekend, which was thoroughly enjoyable! Haven't had so much fun in ages. Snow brings out the uncivilised yet social nature of people. You start getting into snow fights with random strangers, yet everyone is smiling and laughing away. It's been an awesome birthday, and to top it off, an awesome present!
My new Liverpool jersey
Labels: Birthday, Liverpool Football Club, London, Snow
Thursday, November 20, 2008
trumpet praise
Fontane recently turned 23 (last Friday in fact) and we celebrated her birthday with some of her friends at C&R Cafe in chinatown. This is a Malaysian cafe that serves local (Singapore/Malaysian) food, since it was the request for the night. Dinner wasn't that spectacular though. I once ate at the C&R Restaurant in Bayswater and the food was much better, and I recall having fish head curry back then (which happened on my birthday two years back with my medic friends)! We proceeded to a pub nearby and amazingly, managed to find a table to gather nine of us around. Fon had two shots of vodka and an additional cup of rum and I shall let the pictures tell the rest of the story for the night.
Meanwhile, I can't believe that the weeks have just been flying by. School is going to break for christmas in less than four weeks time, and it is time to work hard for the upcoming examinations which are before the holidays (finally one before holidays instead of after). More or less planned out my itinerary to Prague and Vienna, just left choosing a concert to go to in Vienna. Still no news back home about my the tour to Jordan and Israel, but hopefully that will materialise. Already dreaming of where to go to in Easter (perhaps Malta or Portugal?) and in Summer (Germany and possibly India?). Been reading up quite a bit on China (which I've been before back at the end of JC2), but I would like to go again, this time with the interest.
I'll be going for a jazz concert this sunday and the performance is by Chick Corea. Quite excited to see him live, but I've got the choir seats (which are behind the stage and the acoustics apparently aren't that great) but hopefully the view will be spectacular. Talking about jazz, just thought back to the times when I played my trumpet more regularly, and I quite miss practising it. Tried playing it back in Singapore, but I totally lost touch. Will probably need to go back to square one again. Perhaps, when I'm back in Singapore more permanently.
Yaocong (Fon's junior), the birthday girl herself and Wei Wei
Fon with her landlord's girlfriend, Carol, and her landlord, Lawrence
(the two of them then left early and Fon went home to find a 20kg bag of rice in her room, delivered by her landlord as a birthday present)
(the two of them then left early and Fon went home to find a 20kg bag of rice in her room, delivered by her landlord as a birthday present)
fRED, Fon, Lap and Mandy
Lap is one of Fon's old friends, from way back in Dunman High. Fred is his current house mate and barely halfway through his rum and he looked like an early christmas tree decoration. Mandy is one of Fon's new housemate, currently studying at Royal Academy (if I'm not mistaken).
I'll be going for a jazz concert this sunday and the performance is by Chick Corea. Quite excited to see him live, but I've got the choir seats (which are behind the stage and the acoustics apparently aren't that great) but hopefully the view will be spectacular. Talking about jazz, just thought back to the times when I played my trumpet more regularly, and I quite miss practising it. Tried playing it back in Singapore, but I totally lost touch. Will probably need to go back to square one again. Perhaps, when I'm back in Singapore more permanently.
My trumpet and its case
(the autograph to the left is by Arturo Sandoval and the autograph to the right is by Wynton Marsalis)
(the autograph to the left is by Arturo Sandoval and the autograph to the right is by Wynton Marsalis)
Wynton and me
I still remember attending all three performances by Wynton way back in JC2. On the Saturday afternoon session, I remember paying peanuts to get the ground floor seats and I sneakily brought in my empty trumpet case and a camera. Back then, the Esplanade didn't do stringent security checks at all (perhaps they did after I did this to them). I think Amanda (my sis) came along, and I can't remember who else, but it might have been Kenneth. Wynton was doing a talk about Charles Mingus and when he walked by the aisle where I was seated, I asked him if he could autograph my trumpet case, and he told me to stay back after the performance for that. After the performance, he went backstage and disappeared for a good fifteen minutes and I was afraid that he wouldn't come out. The security guards were trying to get rid of me too but I told them that I was waiting for Wynton. He came out in the end, and happily autographed my trumpet case. I also asked to take a photo with him, and he duly obliged, and though the security guard tried to stop me, Wynton just told him to stay away and my sis helped me to take the photograph. Just awesome! He then told me to keep blowing that horn!
My main aim is to go to New York one day and watch him perform, hopefully at the Village Vanguard, and perhaps autograph this photograph of mine!
Labels: Birthday, Trumpet, Wynton Marsalis
Sunday, February 17, 2008
27 days later
Haven't updated my blog for the past few weeks (27 days to be exact) because I haven't had any idle ramblings in my head. Not that I'm going to go on a rampage now, but here's an update of my life since a few weeks back.
Had a floorball tournament 3 weeks back that was a Jekyll and Hyde performance, playing exceptionally well and beating teams against the odds, and then losing the next week playing absolutely pathetically. So much for all the London Vikings' trainings that I keep going to every Monday. Had a bust up with one of them where he kicked and tripped me dirtily after play had stopped and I just wouldn't sit down on that one. I don't mind being roughed up during play, but he lashed out and kick me after play had been called to a stop, so I gave a good piece of my mind. Don't think I would have won in a fight against him though, though he's much more gravity-challenged, but they all think Chinese people have an innate ability for martial arts, thus things get any worse.
Celebrated my birthday that weekend too! Had a nice Korean tepanyaki dinner with Fon, Ben Loh and wife, Zhijing, Ben Goh and Han Yan. Brought my camera out but forgot to take any photos unfortunately. Uncle Joe brought me out for dim sum on the actual day itself and then Fon topped it up by bringing me to Gaucho for an excellent steak dinner! Gaucho is definitely high on my recommended list for eating steak, if anyone is interested!
Meanwhile, Amanda and her fellow exchange student Eric came down last weekend. It was good to see her again, though things didn't turn out the way I expected. I was highly amused by the endless opinions that Eric had, from how sushi-rice had much more resistance when biting down on it as compared to normal rice and also how horse mackeral sushi melted faster in the mouth than just normal mackeral sushi. Also, I must always remember how one must request for vinegar when eating 'xiao long bao' (steamed dumplings) during dim sum so as to be truly authentic 'xiao long bao' gourmets.
Valentine's day was just a few days back and unfortunately, the Japanese restaurent that Fon and I wanted to eat at Ealing Common was fully booked on that night. We did have a succulent meal at another Japanese restaurent a few doors down, and not in the least superior at all! Meanwhile, happy friendship day to one and all back home and also in Manchester! Know I haven't been talking much to you guys but life is really hectic (lousy excuse...haha)!
Next up, I want to go and watch Speed the Plow, which is a play with Kevin Spacey (of Kaiser Soze fame) and Jeff Goldblum (think he acted in Jurassic Park) acting in it! It has been higly rated too! Also, there is a Chinese New Year lunch (how many are there!?~) at Trysha's place tomorrow with all the medics and some others too! I'm contributing can longans and lychees and also glutinous rice balls with peanut/red bean filling! We have to plan for an after-exam holiday too, not too sure where yet though, but I'm quite looking forward to that! And also my upcoming trip to Russia. I've got my visa settled and so I'm more or less waiting to go, just waiting for time to come along!
Meanwhile, will have to get my work plan sorted out too. And I'm highly interested in researching for a few places to go on holiday - Germany, New York, Israel, Peru and fascinatingly enough, Iran. Got to thank my brother for that last one there!
Had a floorball tournament 3 weeks back that was a Jekyll and Hyde performance, playing exceptionally well and beating teams against the odds, and then losing the next week playing absolutely pathetically. So much for all the London Vikings' trainings that I keep going to every Monday. Had a bust up with one of them where he kicked and tripped me dirtily after play had stopped and I just wouldn't sit down on that one. I don't mind being roughed up during play, but he lashed out and kick me after play had been called to a stop, so I gave a good piece of my mind. Don't think I would have won in a fight against him though, though he's much more gravity-challenged, but they all think Chinese people have an innate ability for martial arts, thus things get any worse.
Celebrated my birthday that weekend too! Had a nice Korean tepanyaki dinner with Fon, Ben Loh and wife, Zhijing, Ben Goh and Han Yan. Brought my camera out but forgot to take any photos unfortunately. Uncle Joe brought me out for dim sum on the actual day itself and then Fon topped it up by bringing me to Gaucho for an excellent steak dinner! Gaucho is definitely high on my recommended list for eating steak, if anyone is interested!
Meanwhile, Amanda and her fellow exchange student Eric came down last weekend. It was good to see her again, though things didn't turn out the way I expected. I was highly amused by the endless opinions that Eric had, from how sushi-rice had much more resistance when biting down on it as compared to normal rice and also how horse mackeral sushi melted faster in the mouth than just normal mackeral sushi. Also, I must always remember how one must request for vinegar when eating 'xiao long bao' (steamed dumplings) during dim sum so as to be truly authentic 'xiao long bao' gourmets.
Valentine's day was just a few days back and unfortunately, the Japanese restaurent that Fon and I wanted to eat at Ealing Common was fully booked on that night. We did have a succulent meal at another Japanese restaurent a few doors down, and not in the least superior at all! Meanwhile, happy friendship day to one and all back home and also in Manchester! Know I haven't been talking much to you guys but life is really hectic (lousy excuse...haha)!
Next up, I want to go and watch Speed the Plow, which is a play with Kevin Spacey (of Kaiser Soze fame) and Jeff Goldblum (think he acted in Jurassic Park) acting in it! It has been higly rated too! Also, there is a Chinese New Year lunch (how many are there!?~) at Trysha's place tomorrow with all the medics and some others too! I'm contributing can longans and lychees and also glutinous rice balls with peanut/red bean filling! We have to plan for an after-exam holiday too, not too sure where yet though, but I'm quite looking forward to that! And also my upcoming trip to Russia. I've got my visa settled and so I'm more or less waiting to go, just waiting for time to come along!
Meanwhile, will have to get my work plan sorted out too. And I'm highly interested in researching for a few places to go on holiday - Germany, New York, Israel, Peru and fascinatingly enough, Iran. Got to thank my brother for that last one there!
Thursday, November 01, 2007
all saint's day and a happy birthday~
Happy All Saint's day to everyone, and it's my brother's 26th birthday too! Unfortunately, he's spending it on the other side of the hemisphere in Queensland on an all important military exercise. I think he's been there for about one and a half weeks, and still about three more weeks to go! And when he's back, it'll be time for him to come over to Greece where we can meet up!
Life has been EXTREMELY hectic recently. School work is absolutely crushing, and the way the course for Neuroscience and Mental Health is being conducted is really depressing. They seem to be rushing through everything without much thought and explanation and I think it'll be much better to stay at home and read a text book than coming to school. I am really struggling with this course and I think I need a few days off from school to sit down and get my act together. All I need is time, since the lecturers aren't really doing much to help us. So much for paying over-exhorbitant school fees.
On top of that, I am busy with sorting out the floorball teams for the upcoming Nottingham Games next Saturday. A recent major withdrawal by a player has left me with a rather difficult task of finding a decent replacement. This is really causing me a lot of distress. On another note, I must say that my fitness, skill levels and game-play have gone up another level and I am playing rather comfortably. I think it must be all the training sessions at London Vikings that I have been going for. Hope to keep that going.
I have also been busy helping Fon with her upcoming charity concert in January. It's called Rainbow of Sound, in aid of all the children at Rainbow Centre in Singapore to receive Music Therapy. I have been given the title "Ticketing Officer" and I have been busy coming up with a design for the ticket. Think I've finally managed to come up with something decent and acceptable.
On a final note, I am finally going to fulfil my dream of going to Anfield to watch a match! My friend managed to get tickets for me to watch the Liverpool Besiktas Champion's League match which is happening next Tuesday! Amazingly, I have no school on that day too! I think it must be a sign. So, I am off on my journey to Anfield next week and I am going to take loads of photos! But it's going to cost me a bomb. Possibly my last time going there for now - it's just too expensive.
Life has been EXTREMELY hectic recently. School work is absolutely crushing, and the way the course for Neuroscience and Mental Health is being conducted is really depressing. They seem to be rushing through everything without much thought and explanation and I think it'll be much better to stay at home and read a text book than coming to school. I am really struggling with this course and I think I need a few days off from school to sit down and get my act together. All I need is time, since the lecturers aren't really doing much to help us. So much for paying over-exhorbitant school fees.
On top of that, I am busy with sorting out the floorball teams for the upcoming Nottingham Games next Saturday. A recent major withdrawal by a player has left me with a rather difficult task of finding a decent replacement. This is really causing me a lot of distress. On another note, I must say that my fitness, skill levels and game-play have gone up another level and I am playing rather comfortably. I think it must be all the training sessions at London Vikings that I have been going for. Hope to keep that going.
I have also been busy helping Fon with her upcoming charity concert in January. It's called Rainbow of Sound, in aid of all the children at Rainbow Centre in Singapore to receive Music Therapy. I have been given the title "Ticketing Officer" and I have been busy coming up with a design for the ticket. Think I've finally managed to come up with something decent and acceptable.
On a final note, I am finally going to fulfil my dream of going to Anfield to watch a match! My friend managed to get tickets for me to watch the Liverpool Besiktas Champion's League match which is happening next Tuesday! Amazingly, I have no school on that day too! I think it must be a sign. So, I am off on my journey to Anfield next week and I am going to take loads of photos! But it's going to cost me a bomb. Possibly my last time going there for now - it's just too expensive.
Monday, August 13, 2007
the good, the bad and the ugly
The weekend passed pretty smoothly until a pretty serious discussion was held last night, which sort of put me down again. I shall try not to read too much into it, but I always dislike it when things have to find some way to be ruined when all seems fine.
I'm currently planning a trip to Greece/Turkey in December 2007 (which means that I won't be back in Singapore for Christmas for the second year running, sadly). I will be going with Fontane and we will be meeting up with my bro and his girlfriend in Athens before we do some holiday travelling! Quite looking forward to it, although the logistics are prooving to be really quite a chore. Having to balance between taking the safe but expensive option or the cheap but risky option. I know currently, my risk management is in the negative side of the scale. The main reason is that my bro and his girlfriend are travelling along, and there is an overnight train from Thessaloniki to be taken into Istanbul, but the risk is that I can't pre-book the ticket online. Furthermore, the journey is extremely long and involves crossing the border. I pray that I'll be able to sort all these out in time. I still have to plan the accommodation, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The highlight of my Saturday was the inevitable start of the English Premier League season. Sopcast has proven to be a convenient and cheap option watching football, but nothing beats watching it with friends on cable tv. It was back to the good old times, heading to Andy's place at Tanjong Rhu on a Saturday night and getting ourselves all hoarse and excited and upset and thrilled again. Football is pretty emotional, and it is highly probably that I will die from a myocardial infarction one day just watching Liverpool. But the good news is, we won 2-1, which is always a good way to end the week and also, start the next week.
The next day was my grandma's 86th birthday, which was celebrated at my Aunty Lucy's place. Nothing spectacular happened, but like every family, lots of politics and cans of worms hidden all over the place, threatening to spill over. I find this terribly disturbing, and I hope I won't ever have to face such problems when I grow old.
The other highlight of the weekend was me finally playing some serious floorball in our match against Road Warriors, who actually should be renamed Rogue Warriors. I totally dislike the amount of physical aggression that floorball is played with in Singapore, but I know it comes with passion and desire to win. I can play that way too, scrapping for every 50-50 chance, but I do not play dirty. At the end of the match, I was quite bruised and I also had a slap which sent my spectacles flying a few metres away. That really got me quite worked up. Thankfully, we won 9-0, if not, the feeling will be even much worse. I had one assist, which is pretty bad by my standards, but playing in Singapore is a whole different style. The players here are extremely extremely fast and fit, but are not as skilled as those in London. You hardly get time on the ball before you are tackled and you really have to think doubly fast. Still, I enjoyed myself and I look forward to the next game with much anticipation. I'll be much more prepared this time. At least I don't think I was too out of place in this team, which I'm quite happy about.
I wish I could run away and hide from the world.
I'm currently planning a trip to Greece/Turkey in December 2007 (which means that I won't be back in Singapore for Christmas for the second year running, sadly). I will be going with Fontane and we will be meeting up with my bro and his girlfriend in Athens before we do some holiday travelling! Quite looking forward to it, although the logistics are prooving to be really quite a chore. Having to balance between taking the safe but expensive option or the cheap but risky option. I know currently, my risk management is in the negative side of the scale. The main reason is that my bro and his girlfriend are travelling along, and there is an overnight train from Thessaloniki to be taken into Istanbul, but the risk is that I can't pre-book the ticket online. Furthermore, the journey is extremely long and involves crossing the border. I pray that I'll be able to sort all these out in time. I still have to plan the accommodation, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The highlight of my Saturday was the inevitable start of the English Premier League season. Sopcast has proven to be a convenient and cheap option watching football, but nothing beats watching it with friends on cable tv. It was back to the good old times, heading to Andy's place at Tanjong Rhu on a Saturday night and getting ourselves all hoarse and excited and upset and thrilled again. Football is pretty emotional, and it is highly probably that I will die from a myocardial infarction one day just watching Liverpool. But the good news is, we won 2-1, which is always a good way to end the week and also, start the next week.
The next day was my grandma's 86th birthday, which was celebrated at my Aunty Lucy's place. Nothing spectacular happened, but like every family, lots of politics and cans of worms hidden all over the place, threatening to spill over. I find this terribly disturbing, and I hope I won't ever have to face such problems when I grow old.
The other highlight of the weekend was me finally playing some serious floorball in our match against Road Warriors, who actually should be renamed Rogue Warriors. I totally dislike the amount of physical aggression that floorball is played with in Singapore, but I know it comes with passion and desire to win. I can play that way too, scrapping for every 50-50 chance, but I do not play dirty. At the end of the match, I was quite bruised and I also had a slap which sent my spectacles flying a few metres away. That really got me quite worked up. Thankfully, we won 9-0, if not, the feeling will be even much worse. I had one assist, which is pretty bad by my standards, but playing in Singapore is a whole different style. The players here are extremely extremely fast and fit, but are not as skilled as those in London. You hardly get time on the ball before you are tackled and you really have to think doubly fast. Still, I enjoyed myself and I look forward to the next game with much anticipation. I'll be much more prepared this time. At least I don't think I was too out of place in this team, which I'm quite happy about.
I wish I could run away and hide from the world.
Monday, February 05, 2007
catch-22
Birthdays have always been quite a non-event for me, and I quite enjoy them passing by at a slow relax pace, and just a simple meal with my family and the day's done. Not that I don't enjoy spending it with friends, but the celebration of my existence places too much self-importance on me that can be overly-embarrasssing. I don't like to be in the limelight. I would rather much like to just spend it with those closest to me, and I suppose I got my wish this year~
My birthday celebrations began on Friday afternoon where my IC Medic friends treated me to a nice lunch at C&R restaurent, which is a Singapore/Malaysian restaurent! The food was pretty good, and it's been quite a while since I had fish head curry, which I enjoyed tremendously. Together with the buttered prawns and tofu and kang kong belachan, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
My birthday celebrations continued that night, with me cooking curry for Fon and my cousin, Jai (whom I just discovered existed when I came to England - he's my dad's brother's wife's nephew, and not exactly blood related). The origin plan was that I was going to my Uncle's place for dinner and catch a movie, but the plan was changed, which caused me considerable distress. Furthermore, my good friend Lap was suppose to come with a mahjong set which I was totally against because I didn't really want to play mahjong on the floor with two other people (my cousin was going to leave early).
Little did I know a conspiracy had been planned out by Fon, and I was ambushed by my Medic friends once again as they crashed my room with a cake this time! It was indeed a nice surprise and I am really appreciative of everyone for turning up. Being caught like a kangeroo in floodlights due to this sudden influx of personnel, I was still a bit stunned when I took the next few photos, but do have a good laugh!
My birthday celebrations began on Friday afternoon where my IC Medic friends treated me to a nice lunch at C&R restaurent, which is a Singapore/Malaysian restaurent! The food was pretty good, and it's been quite a while since I had fish head curry, which I enjoyed tremendously. Together with the buttered prawns and tofu and kang kong belachan, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
My birthday celebrations continued that night, with me cooking curry for Fon and my cousin, Jai (whom I just discovered existed when I came to England - he's my dad's brother's wife's nephew, and not exactly blood related). The origin plan was that I was going to my Uncle's place for dinner and catch a movie, but the plan was changed, which caused me considerable distress. Furthermore, my good friend Lap was suppose to come with a mahjong set which I was totally against because I didn't really want to play mahjong on the floor with two other people (my cousin was going to leave early).
Little did I know a conspiracy had been planned out by Fon, and I was ambushed by my Medic friends once again as they crashed my room with a cake this time! It was indeed a nice surprise and I am really appreciative of everyone for turning up. Being caught like a kangeroo in floodlights due to this sudden influx of personnel, I was still a bit stunned when I took the next few photos, but do have a good laugh!
My IC friends!
Me and Jai - the cousin I never knew I had till now~
Me and Fon - the mastermind behind it all~
We played 4 rounds of mahjong before calling it a night. It was a pretty instructive lesson, with less than half of us actually having a good grasp of the concept behind the game. Fon's slowly training up, so we can all have a go at it back in Singapore!
Meanwhile, I woke up pretty late on my birthday itself, not before an early morning call from my parents from Singapore! Think birthdays should be celebrated for them for bringing people like us into life, and I'll always treasure all that you've done for me! Fon and I adjourned to a nearby pub to catch soccer, which was an extremely disappointing goalless draw between Liverpool and Everton, and worse still was being drowned in an endlass fog of smoke. There are two things in life that should kill people faster - one of them's smoking, and the other is AIDS.
From there, Fon and I met up with Lap for lunch at Mawal, which is a Malaysian restaurent nearby, before we parted. I was to meet up with Fon for dinner at Victoria for dinner later that evening.
Dinner was at a Thai restaurent called Mango Tree, and the food and service was really excellent! They even threw in a birthday pudding for me together with an instant photo for Fon and me, which I can't digitalise for all to see! But here are photos of the evening there~
Fon and her scallop
Fon and me~
My birthday celebrations weren't over yet! There was still one final destination to make, and that was to London's top jazz pub, Ronnie Scotts! Fon managed to get tickets to watch the jazz guitarist, Martin Taylor and his band, Fraternity, and I must say, there could have been no better present than this! Excellent food and tantilising music, how could I not be contented?
~you made my day~
