guy vs gal

Recently, I went for a date that got all my colleagues hot and bothered. And why not? With no male colleague in sight since the last one left like what seemed ages ago, you can imagine how a whole bevy of women (single/married/attached) can be like.

And frankly, though the questions poured like a tap bursting with water, I really appreciated their initial hysterics and, later on, level-headed philosophies about human relationships. After all, they're all trained counsellors. How much more advice can I get right?

I think sometimes people think it's really that easy to make a decision over something that seems so very trivial. And I wish I could be guy enough to say yes is yes, and no is no. Just like my boss' husband, who provided what he called "free consultation" to me when he was waiting to fetch my boss home, only to have his "extreme" views attacked by his wife.

He said: "If you're not interested, just tell him. Simple as that. What for waste time?"

My bro nonchalantly proffered: "If you want, then go. If don't want, then don't go. Very easy what."

The females, on the other hand, say: "Maybe you should go out once more to give it a chance. Because if you strip away XXX, you actually don't mind going out with him again right?"

One friend said I was no longer a teenager who should make a judgment based on how cool I thought the date was. On hearing that, I immediately thought of Wong Li Lin's comment in 8 Days some time back: I'm not a spring chicken anymore.

I know I'm not a spring chicken anymore. But I think I deserve the dignity to cluck about what I don't like. However, you know, as I say that last line, I wonder if I really should compromise? After all, I really am NOT a spring chicken anymore. But you know what? It sucks to have to compromise.

Seriously, I never thought that I would come to such a stage where the ticking of my biological clock would blare this loud. It's quite crazy.

When having to go out on a second date with this person feels this pressurizing, is it a sign that it's not meant to be? I actually hope so. So, maybe that's my answer. If I'm willing to take it as an answer, that is. 

Mayday 回到地球表面 Concert 26 April 08

Mayday concerts are never lonely affairs for me. Because somehow, I will always discover a friend who would be at the concert as well. My phone would ring, and I would always end up standing next to my seat, waving my hands in the air, so that some friend sitting somewhere far away would locate me.

This time, I did say that I wanted to sit throughout the concert because I was tired. I WAS TIRED. But when the audience got high and crazy, I seriously felt left out seated. I made a choice to stand, and am I glad I did it. Of course, I sat during some of the quiet songs (I lao liaos lah), but that was only for a while. This year's concert was so much better than last year's, in terms of flow. I don't know how to describe it, but it just flowed and rocked man. No time was wasted, the band really interacted with the audience, and everybody went home satisfied.

I think for me, there were a few moments - some exciting, some poignant.

1. Two parallel runways were erected, linking the stage to an "aerobridge" opposite the stage. Imagine the two runways, "aerobridge" and stage forming a rectangle. Hence, when the band members took turns to run the length of the runway to the "aerobridge", everyone went crazy, especially those who were sitting just next to the runway. There were fans clamouring to tap Ashin's shoulders and back. I mean seriously, if I were sitting there, I would have touched his back, plonked my face next to his back and got someone to shoot a picture of me. Haha. It was THAT CLOSE.

2. Stone performed solo a song dedicated to his one-year-old son. It was just him on guitar singing, accompanied by the pianist. I mean, he went out of tune a bit lah, but whad'ya expect, he's not the lead singer. Nevertheless, it was just really touching seeing a hard-rocking electric guitarist singing a lullaby-like song for his kiddo.

3. Frankly, it was only when I looked at the videos I took (which have really bad quality by the way, I need to change my dinosaur of a camera), that I realised how well the band rocks the crowd. People are just swaying and jumping to the music, it's incredible. Yes, Ashin, tho you are pitchy (to quote the American Idol judges) at times, Mayday still rocks the crowd man.

My $131 ticket was worth every cent.

Watch two videos here:
The band rocks the crowd

The crowd is moved

so "haps" man

Today, after work, I decided to meet Porn for dinner and to check out the Singapore Art Cafe's xinyao open mic. As I was walking out of the office, my colleague suddenly said to me: "Your love language must be quality time, because you're always meeting your friends for meals!"

My reply: "Hmm...well, yes, my love language is quality time, but I think I'm meeting friends for meals so often cos I'm not attached!"

Then later on, I speak to ethan mummy over the phone, and she says I'm so "haps", going out again. Frankly, recently, I've been doing so many things because (1) they all suddenly just piled on and (2) I just wanted to destress from work. But the irony of it all is that I'm getting more and more tired, especially since I felt so emotionally abused by a client from hell yesterday.

I think I'm burning out. This Saturday, I'm just going to sleep in and slack, veg, whatever. Before the Mayday concert at night. And frankly, Mayday concert doesn't seem so appealing after all. Maybe for the first time in 6 years, I might just sit during their concert.

Tired.

me time

Recently, I've been feeling that everyone wants a piece of me.
Students want to talk to me.
Mothers want to talk to me.
Teachers want to talk to me.
Colleagues want to talk to me.
Friends want to talk to me.
Frankly, I want to talk to myself too. I really do.
But I don't have time to catch up with myself.
I seriously need some talk therapy.
I seriously need some me time.
Badly.

Ethan says the noise is too much for him!

Ethan watches the live recording of You Are The One at the Mediacorp TV studio. He was there to support Uncle Louis Fong, who is one of the contestants in this show that aims to find the face of Channel U. But the screaming fans prove too much for him to bear...

kindly unspoken

Kindly unspoken, a song by Kate Voegele.

Some things should definitely be kindly unspoken. Like at this point in time, it would be best left kindly unspoken. Thank you very much. I know you don't know how much I appreciate your unspoken discretion, but I do I do I do.

Yes, I really do.

just six words

I DO NOT HAVE BABY ENVY.

Wu Jiahui (伍家輝）: more than 一人一半

On Sat, I attended Wu Jiahui's "listening party", or what they call 試聽會, a mini gathering where you get to sample songs from a soon-to-be released album. You might be thinking...Wu Jia WHO??? Yes, Wu Jiahui, the unknown singer of 一人一半, that famous mandarin-hokkien ditty that made Royston Tan's movie 881 so famous (that's how I like to think of it!).

Now, how did I even come to be invited to such a "listening party"? Well, being quite a fan of the music of songwriter/musician Eric Ng, I keep track of the happenings of his indie music label Funkie Monkies Productions. So yar, then I attended the event lah! At first I felt a bit out of place, cos I went alone and many females (of the 30plus pple present, only 3 were male!!!) were pretty much groupies! I was like oh man, so groupie!!! Ok if you think I'm bad, I think they're so much more ON! Haha. But every celeb needs such groupies lah, so it's good for them :)

Anyways, we had to rate the four best songs we liked of the 10 (was it?) songs we sampled. Our feedback would actually be considered by the label in their decision to promote certain songs. So yeah, it's really quite cool to have your opinions valued :)

The album is really good by the way. Jiahui's compositions are solid, and I especially like his fast numbers. He's got really good groove on his guitar too! Not your typical Chinese pop album, something really refreshing, memorable and catchy. I'm gonna buy it when it's released on 14 April. In the meantime, read more about him here.

(Some people feel he sounds waaaayy too much like a girl, but well, his voice grew on me...so...)

ladida

I don't really know what to blog nowadays. Have bits and pieces of thoughts in my head, but they're not enough to pen down. Well, I guess lots of trivia's happening in my life. Life's not exactly boring, but it's not exactly that eventful too. There's that gnawing feeling that I could be doing something more interesting, but I don't know what. Weirdness. I'm currently writing a new song, an English Christian one this time, somewhat in the style of Caedmon's Call. I imagine it to be acoustic, guitarish and simple. Had my first songwriters' collaboration with a friend from church, and it turned out pretty fun. He asked me so many questions that I'd never thought about, but yeah, like iron sharpens iron, hopefully we can come up with some good songs. Ah, I still can't play my guitar and piano well tho, shucks. So it helps that he can! At least with the guit! I do like these brainstorming songwriting sessions. Keeps the creative juice churning. Yeah.