contacts! still feels weird poking my eyes every morning, will hopefully get used to it.. got new glasses too! =)

the gig at bodega went great =) markus sang a few tunes as well! congrats! tried on a new song too (the scrunched up paper on the chair next to mine has my lyrics =p)

and btw thanks alda for introducing me to nick! if everything goes well, i would’ve recorded my acoustic ep by the end of the week.. wow. exciting! watch out for this space! i’ll let you guys know.

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copa iba 2006 had it’s goods, bads and uglies, having seen everything much clearer from a referee’s perspective. i don’t think i’m at liberty to discuss what happened, but suffice to say that if the spirit of ‘sport’ can be used as an excuse to behave in such an ungodly manner, then i believe that the devil has certainly mastered it as a tool to negotiate with believers and non-believers alike.

if this were to go on, it will certainly do more harm than good.

but on the other hard, there were many precious moments that put a smile on my face, when players went to great lengths to observe the rules, play and lose fairly, and still shake each other’s hands with smiles on their faces after the match. (thank you, life chapel!)

this is what really makes copa exciting! since when was copa iba really about ‘sport’?!

just came back from watching the match with markus, bentay, nigel and ray.. the aussies were definitely 100% on par with italy, but to concede a dodgy penalty at the 90th minute, and have it almost saved a few inches from schwarzer’s fingers? not sure whether there’re words to describe how cheated they should feel.

lucky italians.

today i’m truly a socceroos convert! will get a bresciano jersey when i’m back

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btw i’m playing on 8pm, 2nd july at la bodega, tengkat tong shin, kl on sunday the 2nd of july with markus and nigel.. thanks guys for your support by asking me when the gigs are and offering to show up =)

and i’ll be travelling up to genting with the impressions on 10th july to perform in the 6th international christian creative arts conference opening ceremony in malaysian-asean style.. so we’ll be playing songs with a chinese/indian/malay twist.. haha can’t wait

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oh btw i realise that i owe a few memes =p will do them soon!

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i miss you baby.. nothing feels right without you here with me. =(

- there’s no better welcome home than the insanely sticky weather.. why do i still feel like crap right after i shower?!

- great to see everyone again! came home to our youth captain ball training, and was totally outplayed by the youth who are all growing taller than i am.. lol! embarassing, but i guess it showed that the training actually works.

- both my taylor and kathryn are in horrible playing condition, ironically the seagull which i deliberately left out of the case is in its best! how frustrating. had to borrow benjamin’s guitar to play with. thanks ben!

- gig was pretty alright, sang to a small but decent group of 20 great listeners at the alliance francais =) sunday’s gig at klpac’s cancelled though =( i was rather looking forward to that one..

- booked for sunday night, 2nd july at bodega though. nigel, markus and i (the three blind mice haha will fix our tails, put on sunglasses and) play a few songs

- driving is exhiliarating!

- imo socceroos had a great game against brazil.. admirable effort, who would’ve thought they’d give brazil so much trouble! probably didn’t deserve to get nothing out of it. and bresciano’s final shot on goal was brilliant! 2-0′s a fair result i suppose

edit 23rd june – WHAT WHAT WHAT? AUSSIE MADE IT TO THE LAST 16?

thanks babe for going to the city to eat with me at such a crazy hour in the morning =) went to notturnos and it was closed, then to chilipadi, then to chinatown and finally to this dodgy restaurant on swanston.. had a sloppy burger, but we managed to catch the last 20 minutes of the england match! =D =D just in time to catch the 2 goals =) totally made my day!

didn’t sleep.. might as well stay awake i guess, i leave for the airport in an hour =) thanks for everything darling.. i’ll miss you everyday.

A friend once said that saying goodbye is an art, cause for all you know, that could be the very last time you see that person.

True dat!

And so before I leave, well inspired by the thoughts of John Cage, allow me just to say

Hi yeemeng! It’s been 1000 (wow, that’s a big number) days since you joined Xanga… won’t you support us by going Premium?

Thanks, but no thanks. Friends were saying that Premium were rather useless.. And I bought it for them too!

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6 more days till I’m home.. The plan was to gig till I lose my voice and can’t feel my fingers, but about 10 emails later, only 2 were replied. One to say there isn’t any room, and the other to just come for the open mics anyway.

Sigh. *deep breath* No problem, let’s start over then!

17th June – Fete de la Musique, Alliance Francaise, 15 Jalan Gurney, KL.
18th June – Troubaganger/Open Doors, KLPAC

This will be my third Fete, the past few were never any good or worth remembering.. Hope this one will be different. Will have to make sure I progress with my new material in the 3 weeks that I’m home, and try to get hold of a decent engineer/producer for a few recordings I have in mind.

And fix my guitar. She’s rather ill. =s

And we’re still planning for a huge youth rally in on Friday, the 7th of July. Might or might not happen, all depends on the next few days.

And yep, my exam isn’t over yet! My practical’s on Tuesday =) Just a Bach prelude and fugue, Moszkowsky study and some scales. No biggie.

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Practised for 3 hours straight!! I think I finally realised why I’ve been so lethargic during practice. All’s looking good! 3 days more! Let’s see what happens..

“why love if losing hurts so much? we love to know that we are not alone.” - c.s. lewis

we’re always never not alone, so we can’t avoid being hurt time and time again; and yet it’s meaningless to merely exist and not love either.

so it’s either we wear our hearts on our sleeves, enjoy a few moments of being complete and prepare to be tormented by love’s insecurities; or live a lonely, meaningless, miserable yet painless life.

Group photo of friends in church camp back home.. I miss these guys. *pensive*

Exams start in a few hours (and ends in a few hours haha!)! I have another practical exam next Tuesday but I’m not too worried either. Kat and I went to watch STOMP last week, amazing stuff! Will blog some more maybe soon..

Just came back from watching The Lion King, the broadway musical in Regent Theatre (amazing venue) on Collins with Clare and her family.. She had a spare ticket cause her mother wasn’t well. Thanks for the ticket!

Me: Hmm I think I’m the only Asian dude watching this musical.
Clare: I think there’re some Asians here! *pause* Ah but they work here.
Me: Hmm.

The picture’s just 3 of the 25 kinds of animals that were represented..

The props, staging, costumes and music were jaw-droppingly impressive! The puppets and costumes were so painstakenly detailed; and the music was the most incredible live fusion of western classical, pop and world percussions I’ve ever heard! I’ve never heard anything as impressive played live!

Every scene change was perfect (as opposed to the 2 minute scene changes in Union), and every scene was perfectly staged.. I still don’t understand how they did half of it!

My first proper musical (apologies to the ones I watched in Union House) and I was totally blown away! =) Definitely the highlight of my semester. Looking forward to the next!