Category: Diary

My original plan of a Chinese New Year holiday was as such: take 3 days leave and enjoy a 9 days holiday in Hong Kong. Didn’t work out because my work prevents me from doing so; my wife’s work prevents her from doing so.

Then I was thinking of spending Chinese New Year in Bangkok. After much consideration, between trying to kill 3 days on my own in Bangkok while my wife is working and me having 2 days of public holiday in Singapore, I kind of more leaning towards the second option. Afterall, I have been to Bangkok too many times. The greyness and the foreign land in a Chinese New Year … not quite my kind of celebration.

So, I am going to spend Chinese New Year alone at home. That, is new to me. Like I said, it’s going to be an interesting holiday for me.

When I left Hong Kong to study in UK, my uncle has given me a golden necklace and my mother given me a piece of jade to go along with the necklace. According to Chinese belief, jade is a good indicator of the wearer’s health as well as taking the damage for the wearer. (Now you know why granies give jade wrist bands for new born babies).

I have been wearing this necklace since 18 and for the past 8 years, I had no idea where it has gone.

And today, as I packed the blankets that my mother and sister used during their visit in my home into the wardrobe, I have spotted two wooden treasure boxes that I bought in Jakarta (and I have spotted a new bolster that has been hidden for the past 4 years too together with two very nice little clay jars!). My necklace was in one of the boxes.

Surprisingly, the gold was as shiny as ever. I thought it was be tarnish like silver. Now, I see the value of gold. As for the piece of jade, I brushed it using toothpaste and old toothbrush. It works!

When I left Hong Kong to study in UK, my uncle has given me a golden necklace and my mother given me a piece of jade to go along with the necklace. According to Chinese belief, jade is a good indicator of the wearer’s health as well as taking the damage for the wearer. (Now you know why granies give jade wrist bands for new born babies).

I have been wearing this necklace since 18 and for the past 8 years, I had no idea where it has gone.

And today, as I packed the blankets that my mother and sister used during their visit in my home into the wardrobe, I have spotted two wooden treasure boxes that I bought in Jakarta (and I have spotted a new bolster that has been hidden for the past 4 years too together with two very nice little clay jars!). My necklace was in one of the boxes.

Surprisingly, the gold was as shiny as ever. I thought it was be tarnish like silver. Now, I see the value of gold. As for the piece of jade, I brushed it using toothpaste and old toothbrush. It works!

Today (Thursday 13th) was bizarre. Perhaps it was too much Vodka I drank the night before. It was so surreal. First, my computer crashed this morning – after quite a while of false sense of stability. And I was full of sarcasm on virtually every topic. Next, I needed to work till midnight that voided one of my less than glorious plan (not going to elaborate, sorry and plus the computer crashed that disable me from retrieving the needed info). On my way back after a drink, I have nearly overshot a police car travelling at 90km/hr while I would have caught driving at 110km/hr had I not jam brake. According to my friend JT, the police starred at us. Exited from the highway, we were met with a police block which is kind of unusual and I swear my face was all red due to alcohol effect. I was holding my breath till the police let us go.

Eventful day …

Back to work after such a long hoilday is kind of surreal. Meeting everyone in the office and perhaps it was the festival mood, people behave differently. Better mood or just changes due to … new year resolution? Or just too much party over the weekend?

Anyway, I was happily surprised with the Christmas gifts that my colleagues have placed on my table. Kind of bring a warm feeling to my heart. (see photo on left)

The problem is that I am never good at getting gifts for my friends. I guess I will have to think of something else.

Perhaps my new year resolution is to observe more on what may have been a perfect gift to my friends.

This is so cool! Google rocks! I haven’t even submited my website to Google (and I did submit to Yahoo! and still waited for it to crawl to my website).

I am a happy man …

This is so cool! Google rocks! I haven’t even submited my website to Google (and I did submit to Yahoo! and still waited for it to crawl to my website).

I am a happy man …

Finally, I have collected 24 Heineken Beer Caps that are qualified to exchange for a set of small glasses. Considering that out of 6 bottles of Heineken beer I bought each time, I have an average of 4.5 qualifying caps, I must have drank 32 bottles of Heineken beer. That, is a whole lot of beer for 2 to 3 weeks.

The entire day has just gone and I wish that I could have done more. In fact, I could have done more had my day was not so unproductive. Can’t and don’t want to say much about work and by the time I got home, it was already late. Recording bass guitar for the two Christmas songs was not at all easy. It is so hard to correct bass guitar mistake (using punch-in) and I ended up recording the entire track again and again.

I still wanted to record the Jealousy song using my 12-string but don’t know why, I just can’t play well today. Perhaps I am tired. Perhaps I shall train my finger strength more …

CD therapy for such an unproductive day.

Hmmm … I have suddenly had an intention to keep track of when and what CDs I buy each day. All in the order of purchase. I will keep updating this page till it is too long.

Date: Before Apr 19, 2005

Will Smith – Lost and Found – Big time Will Smith fan … besides, the review is good too
Mai Kuraki – Wish You The Best – My friend bought for me in Japan … cost me S$50 …
Alison Krauss and Union Station – Lonely Runs Both Ways – Finally a local version … was waiting for the price to come down
Date: Before Mar 22, 2005

Moby – Hotel – It’s Moby … must get right?
Megadeth – The Sytem Has Failed – Heard Dave did this album on his own … respect
Stereophonics – Language, Sex, Violence, Other? – Reminded me of U2 while sampling the music at HMV
Depeche Mode – Remixes 81…04 – Always wanted to get this
Metallica – Some Kind Of Monster – Live version of some of the Metallica songs. Cynthia probably can appreciate this better than I do
Rachael Yamagata – Happenstance – Listened to this a while ago, too expensive so did not buy. I was with TK and we bought it together
BoA – Best Of Soul – Hottest Korean singer now … no idea why I bought it
Do As Infinity – Need Your Love – Big fan of DaI …
Love Psychedelic – The Early Days – Greatest hits with some new songs … how can I resist?
Date: Mar 3, 2005

Tori Amos – The Beekeeper – It’s Tori Amos! So I bought the CD without even listening to it
Donnas – Gold Medal – Caught Donnas’s video while Jason and I was in Cineleisure. All girls band and when I wanted to try their CD at HMV, the saleperson was so keen and he pinpointed which song I shall listen it. Loving it!
Sun 41 – Chuck – On MTV, I was surprised by one of their songs. I thought Sun 41 is all about punk pop but in that video, they sounded mature. So I tried in Tower Record the other day. Pleasantly surprised. At times not sure if they sound more like Linkin Park or Metallica. Doesn’t matter. I like both
Date: Mar 1, 2005

Stina Nordenstam – The World Is Saved – Not sure why I bought this one. Probably drawn to the darkness of the music and the girlie voice
KT Tunstall – Eye To The Telescope – I do like her middle voice a lot and the music with nice guitar strumming
Missy Higgins – The Sound Of White – Smoothing music with a very honey like voice. First listend in Tower Record couple of days ago
The Mars Volta – Frances The Mute – Very intense music. When I first listened to the album playing in HMV, I was with Jason and he could tell that I have immediately fallen in love with the music
Date: Feb 7, 2005

Erasure – Nightbird – I am a huge fan of Erasure. What can I say?
3 Doors Down – Seventeen Days – 3rd album from the group. I kind of like the acoustic stuffs
Good Charlotte – The Chronicles of Life and Death – New discovery. Very unique styles.
Date: Before Jan 30, 2005

Depeche Mode – Black Celebration – This album is 20 years old and it’s probably the best album by Depeche Mode. My ex-girlfriend has it. It’s good that I finally have one too.
Do As Infinity – Do The Best + DVD – Another J-pop album. A true rock album.
Date: Jan 8, 2005

Eriko Imai – Single Collection ~ Stairway ~ – I have to admit that the cover does look very good. Apparently she came from Speed and neither Speed nor Eriko was in my radar. But hey, I am constantly seeking to expand my radar range right? I tried out a couple of the songs and it sounded great. Fast beat and the recording company is avax trax. So it can’t be that wrong right?
Date: Jan 6, 2005

Bon Jovi – 1000,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong … – A box-set with 4 CDs and 1 DVD packed with their previously unreleased materials as well as demos. I was not that keen at first but people’s review from the Internet seems to mention that the quality is high. A closed to S$70 investment.
Date: Dec 22, 2004

Ayumi Hamasaki – My Story. I am a big Ayumi fan. Could I not have bought another album from the Queen of J-Pop?
DJ Tiesto – In My Memory. I love the song Close To You and my trip to HMV was very focused. I was getting this album.
DJ Tiesto – Just Be. I chanced upon this new (or relatively) piece from him. And I took a risk.
Date: Dec 16, 2004

P J Harvey – Rid Of Me. I have always wanted to get another P J Havey album because I draw so much inspiration from her. HMV either does not have it or it is too pricy. So I bought the CD at Gramophone instead.
Nirvana – Unplugged In New York. Didn’t know that this great album was realsed in the year of 1994. So long ago! Jason impressed upon me that there are some great recordings, especially some of the cover songs, and I just couldn’t resist getting one.
Tiesto – Parade Of The Athletes. I bought this trance album without even listening to it. Lyndis has introduced to one of the greatest song by Tiesto called Close To You. I am impressed with Tiesto’s talent and I gambled. I enjoyed the album so far.

Just before end of the day, just before I was heading off to have a drink with my colleagues, my old neighbour from my old department called me if I was interested to have chilli and pepper crab with her and her girlfriend. Absolutely! Besides, my old neighbour is going to leave Singapore for good and return to Canada and I was going to have dinner alone anyway. My neighbour and her girlfriend was known as someone who is absolutely spontaneous. Joining the club, at least for one night only, I was also absolutely spontaneous.

They took me to somewhere near the Singapore Stadium. Absolutely enchanting place. The night view of Singapore could not have looked any better. The restaurant called No Signboard is built right on top of the water. How cool is that?? Eating right above the sea! We had chilli crab, white pepper crab, drunken prawn, stuffed seafood, and veggie. Just for the 3 of us!

On the way back, my old neighbour commented that today’s temperature is between 24 to 28 degree. Wow, did not realise it. It must be winter in Singapore.

Seems to me that this month is the month of criticism with the latest one comes from work. It is as though this unknown force has a quota to fulfill before year end.

Anyway, I have decided to move the contents (and any future ones) that are more geared towards my life out of No Eye Candy website and into my own website. It is kind of comforting to hear from Jeremy that I shall leave these contents in our band website because they are part of what we are (and from Jason that we shall just re-organise the articles). But I guess I have got a lot more to write about my life that is probably beyond the band. Like some of the short stories I write for instance. (And the Singapore Motor Show field trip report has nothing to do with No Eye Candy, right? Unless I end up writing a song on that … hmmm) Looking at the writing habits, it seems to me that I am the only one that is contributing most on writing. Never intended to skew the site content that way.

Besides, it is always cool to be able to post songs in my own website, songs that are sung by me as a songwriter. I guess that way, it is more forgiving to have less than professional vocal track because after all I am a songwriter, not a professional singer. As for No Eye Candy, Cynthia will take the vocal track whenever possible.

Another good point about posting those songs onto my own site is that these songs may not find their ways to the No Eye Candy site which is okay. Because, No Eye Candy is about the band and is about songs that we all love to play. This shall remain the same.

Another thing is that for the songs I am going to post in my own website, they will not be played using my 12-strings. Partly because I want to sound different from No Eye Candy. But mainly because most of the songs that I have written are being created using a classical guitar. Hence, the orignal sound must retain.

And these days, it just strikes me that I need to return to my root, as in just me and my classical guitar, as in writing songs from my heart rather for anyone else. Back in the days when I was working in Paris, I was used to write short stories based on my daily encounters and sent them all to my friends via email (the ancient spam? or blog?). I bet there were some if not many who did not enjoy what I have had written (and they are kind enough not to let me know ;p). But from time to time, I do received a few encouragements and these were enough just to keep me going.

Back to my songwriting and my singing hobby. Over the years, I have had my share bit of criticism on both topics. But I never cease to write. Well, perhaps that is indeed my true passion for over 10 years. I just keep on writing and singing and writing and singing.

Blessed I am now with a band with members whom I look up upon. So, whatever I do must be for the benefit of the band.

Now, that brings us to the second part of this blog – retail therapy. Today I visited the Dave’s Guitar shop for some new strings for my classical guitar. My true intention was to look for a cool new classical guitar preferably with electric pickup (back to my root thingy, remember?). The pretty shop assistance recommended one from Takamine (without pickup) that is selling at $675. If I am to add in the pickup, that will be up to near $1,000 region. I then asked, why don’t I get one that come with Takamine original pickup? (And by the way, the guitar sounds awesomely warm.)

Back to the shopping mode. Now I begin to understand why musicians keep spending money on guitars. And if I am to look for signs, I wanted to buy high tension string for my classical guitar and when I told the shop assistence that I am using a (cheap) Yamaha, she recommended medium tension. Guess what? After I restring the guitar, part of the bridge (how shall I called it? the metal part) came out. I don’t think I can keep my guitar for long. The strings have too high a tension for my guitar to take …

Retail therapy …