stoked

Let's see..went to Navy Open House on Friday and got sunburnt, met up with Lin Yan that evening but was so tired I had to cut the meeting short :( so I went home, zonked out and continued slacking around Saturday morning.
Went all the way to Tovya's house at Bukit Timah for an informal band prac with Tov, Ray and Elaine. It's been a long time since we last played together, and Runaway sounds as epic as ever, even on acoustic. Also tried doing My Hero by Paramore, which turned out great. If everything goes well, we're gonna do an acoustic set at Ben n Jerry's on 16th June for some bone marrow donation programme or something. Hope this gig is for real. I've seen the instruments at BNJ but never actually saw anyone play there before, so I'm pretty stoked about it.
As for the rest of the week..
Monday: Gym with Soon, then Ajitei with Soon, ZH and Colin followed by Mud Ooze at Ms Clarity. It was, I'm afraid, one mud ooze too many. Gonna lay off it for a long time, if not for good. Went Chinatown with family and finally tracked down RANOR RAMLY BURGER which is not just any Ramly burger. Get this- patty sliced in half, a dash of curry powder, a bit of margarine and a slice of cheese, topped with mayo, Worchester/BBQ sauce and wrapped in egg. Heaven for $2.50.
Tuesday: nothing at all. gee.
Wednesday: rejected by med, went Big Fish for dinner. Fish & Co. still reigns supreme.
Thursday: Had a rather brief gathering with primary school classmates-ended up playing xbox 360 the whole time. And then-here I am in office.

Got nothing lined up for tomorrow, but saturday's gonna be band prac at Tov's house again. Even though I really should go for practice with Ken and Ruiyang and company because 1. my amp's still with him and without it I can't do anything 2. they're practising with a pro singer and I want to meet her. But I suppose Mr Pink's the priority now cos we actually have a gig coming up.

post mortem

I'd rate the gig at ocs air wing social nite 3/10 i.e. we flopped! haha not that I didn't expect it anyway. My dad rushed me to Furama and I arrived at the ballroom all flustered..and I still hadn't a clue how to play I Believe in a Thing Called Love and That Thing You Do. After soundcheck we rushed down to Bras Basah to buy guitar straps and picks and dinner, then rushed back to the hotel an hour before the gig and I still had no idea how to play. So I had a crash course at the lift lobby with Ruiyang's acoustic. And then Kenneth's sister and her friends showed up to pile on the pressure..(not that I felt much pressure anyway-one of the perks of being the bassist) Oh and one of us-i forgot who-very helpfully mentioned that 75 girls were watching us. (150 tables-each OCT had a date)
So the time came and we went on. There were mistakes galore-missed cues, missed beats, unbalanced sound levels and of course terrible playing from yours truly who wasn't too familiar with the songs anyway. Halfway through they were flashing slides of the OCTs fooling around, during which me and Ken were very distracted. At least they probably weren't too bothered if we screwed up. Disaster struck however when they asked for an encore, and we launched into something WE HADN'T REHEARSED and I HAD NEVER HEARD (okay sounded slightly familiar but still..) so I had to play by ear.
It didn't even occur to us to replay one of our earlier songs in the set.
Because of this suicidal venture Jensen flared up backstage at Kenneth after the whole thing, and boy it was looking pretty serious till we stepped in with the usual "we'll learn from it" and stuff. So things cooled down and Jensen and Ken left, leaving Ruiyang, Nelson, Kenneth and myself to pack up.
Back outside, Tim Ho and Kenneth's sister told us that it was actually not bad, but there was some idiot OCT at the back making snide remarks and making out with his date. I'm so glad we had a couple of 2LTs on our side who were perfectly capable of making the lowlife OCTs' lives a living hell if not for sheer compassion. On that note, Ruiyang and Tim pointed out that Air Force OCTs tend to have that holier than thou air about them-which was actually kind of true..
oh and then there was this girl who was dressed like a Playboy bunny sans bunny ears - tube top, hot pants and stockings*myeyesmyeyes!*

Last min gig

I'm performing at this OCS event tonight at Furama Hotel with a band I only just joined 6 days ago..and I still haven't heard one of the songs before. It's called believe in a thing called love by the darkness. What? Oh well we'll see how it goes..at least the jam session on Saturday went fairly well.
I'm playing bass at a performance for the first time, which is a good thing cos well..bass is nice and obscure and in-the-background. Been such a long time since I last performed on stage-only just got reminded of the pre-concert jitters and the struggle with the heavy-as-hell equipment =/
Not to mention the jam sessions where patience is running low, especially when the gig date draws nearer.
They're apparently giving us $300 for doing a half hour show, which is good money however you look at it. Hope it doesn't take as long to reach us as the $100 which the CC STILL OWES US FOR THE GIG LAST..I DUNNO..MARCH?!!

Story of my voice

I have a really deep radio talk show host voice now. how did I get it? It all started when I fell sick last wednesday, popped pills and then recovered just in time for the medicine interview. So i thought I'd recovered, and celebrated with a bag of potato chips, which quickly ensured that my sore throat would make a comeback on Tuesday. It apparently didn't bother me, cos I then went ahead and had cajun chicken and wedges at Aerin's on Wednesday, aggravated it with fries, garlic crusted dory and a mud ooze on Thursday and finished off my vocal chords yesterday by screaming my head off at Rock AC. It is hence a miracle that I can still talk today.

Aerin's. I'd been waiting to eat there for a loong time now ever since the dainty fountain caught my eye. So I went with Dior and ordered a cajun chicken, while she had grilled snapper, and we shared the trademark dish, apple rhubarb pie or something like that. The cajun chicken tasted almost exactly like how it's done downstairs art eBlackBoard, only more chicken-ey. But at 3 times the price, there's no question who I'll be running to for my cajun chicken fix from now.
wow this new keyboard's really nice to type on.
Anyways the apple rhubarb pie was good, but in all honesty nothing to write home about. Clarity's mud ooze- now that's something to write home about, maybe even deliver one back in an express package. I believe that it was possibly the mud ooze that was solely responsible for the pitiful state my voice is in now. More on that later.
It's been ages since I last met Dior. I didn't know she had a boyfriend! But she didn't know about my relationship that came and went either, so we're even. Aerin's is an overall nice place to dine at I suppose, but the bill for that evening came up to $58. go figure.

Now seeing as the slightly burnt chicken, potato wedges and dessert had failed to deal any significant damage to my throat, I decided to put it to the test at Miss Clarity's Cafe the next day. That would be my fourth trip. The dilemma I was faced with involved whether or not to indulge myself in a piping hot Mud Ooze, and in a moment of sheer courage I'd resolved to forego it that evening. But when Benison (yes, he was serving us) came around to take orders, I just had to. Mumbo jumbo (fries with cheese, black pepper sauce and sausages - shiok!), garlic-crusted dory and a mud ooze proved too much for my throat to handle, and I found myself booming at everyone in this really low voice for the rest of the evening.

I tried to salvage the situation Friday morning, by inhaling snake grass water and wintermelon tea. This provided a little respite for my poor battered throat, but the worst was yet to come.
I went for the MOE interview at 3:40, somehow managing to remain absolutely calm all the way, which is really unusual when it comes to me and interviews. I met this really nice ACJC girl, Nadine while waiting. So we talked while time went way past our scheduled interview times. By the time I went in it was half an hour past the scheduled time of 4pm.
It was way harder than I'd imagined. They asked questions on MOE's policies and the direction Singapore's education system was heading. I curry favoured all the way, while my voice gradually degenerated. I stumbled out of the room in a daze, feeling very little of the tide of relief that always accompanies the end of an interview. But at least it was over, and from that point on I could not care less if I could only manage a croak. Which incidentally was more or less all i was capable of doing. Which is not a good thing when you are going to attend a concert.

I headed for ACJC after dinner and sneaking a quick glimpse at the old RJ campus. It looks nice and lived-in now, and since Dunman people are all really nice, i'm sure the building is in good hands. Anyway, the concert. I was supposed to meet up with Clarissa whom I've never met before. So even though she'd stated very clearly where she was, i somehow managed to make eye contact with her and then walk right past. She must have a brilliant first impression of me now. So anyway we went up to the hall where everything seemed hip and happening as expected. We met up with Charlene-who was looking totally punk rock-for a brief moment before going in. She was totally oozing confidence this time, all fired up and ready to go. And when it was her turn to go on she went out there in full force. And basically put on a wonderful show. The irony, like she pointed out, was that back when she was a bundle of nerves, the audience was supportive and all that; now that she's all fired up, the audience is dead. I screamed my head off inside, but I don't think I was audible at all. Anyway she makes us so proud. Pretty darn smoking hot (:; I'm sorry we were such a miserable audience though.
The second band sucked, period. The other items weren't even bands. But it was still a decently crazy evening, even without my voice..

and that concludes a week of laryngeal masochism. it was real fun while it lasted though (:

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