almost lover

Went on a day trip yesterday with a rented car and CDs provided by one of the roadtrippers. Almost Lover caught my attention out of the 30 odd songs in a CD compilation we played a million times throughout the entire trip. It's such a sad sad song. First video below is the original version and the second a remixed version which I prefer. Went to search for the guitar chords the moment I got home. Hopefully I'll be able to play and sing it soon enough.

spending nights with jack

I made a new friend Jack who is a perfect gentleman. We've spent a few really cosy evenings together as you can see from the pics below.


Left: Mr Gentleman Jack. Totally untouched. I broke his seal.
Right: The Lady Jac with the Gentleman Jack. A perfect match.


Gazing at Jack with love.


Sudden possessiveness out of desire for Jack.

Oh when can I meet Jack again?

ah boy's 21st at chat thai

Our current intern affectionately known as Ah Boy turned 21 late March. The girls at work, with their natural motherly instincts, couldn't bear to see him swing into adulthood all alone in a foreign country without friends and family. Hence, we all got together for a sumptuous birthday meal at Chat Thai, Haymarket. The food was extremely yummy and I'm tempted to go again soon.

Below are pics of some of the dishes we had:


Thai fish cakes.


Fresh spring rolls - filled with smoked fish sausages, shredded poached chicken, cucumbers and shallots wrapped in fresh rice paper. Dressed with a sweet tamarind sauce.


Skewered and char grilled lean pork marinated in galangal, lemongrass and garlic.


Green curry.


Dessert (my fav!) - sweet glutinous rice with fresh mangoes and coconut flavoured ice cream.

Round two after the satisfying meal was an induction for Ah Boy into the drinking scene in Sydney. Below is a series of pics showing how the girls went through the steps of enjoying a Tequila shot complete with the best ways to lick the salt and suck the lemon.


They started off by demonstrating that the salt can be licked off any human skin surface.


Left: A round of Jaegerbombs to start off.
Right: Anticipation for the first shot.


Ah boy did all the steps right in the proper sequence. Lick, drink, suck. Well done.

Well, we sure hope Ah Boy had a great night with all of us Sugar Mummies!

puppy cake

Puppy cake sighted in cake shop at World Square. Comes with complimentary chocolate puppy bone. Check out the doggie's strawberry tongue! How cute is that?

changing the strings

Attended my fourteenth guitar lesson yesterday, learnt to change the strings, and successfully replaced all five (my tutor did one as a demo) of them without drama. ^^v

flickrmail from team mentos

Saw this when I logged in to Flickr today:



The photo they are interested in is this one:



And if you're interested in becoming a fan of Mentos US, the facebook link is here.

noob guide to playing sweet home alabama

In addition to the video posted in the previous entry on learning to play Sweet Home Alabama, I've found another useful video - see below. This guy beginnersguitar has some really cool and easy-to-follow tutorial vids for guitar noobs such as me. Check out all his youtube videos here. I find his tutorials on strumming especially useful. I have in mind to learn Stand By Me next. Seems easy enough on his vid. It's amazing how the interwebs has made self-learning so much easier.

sweet home alabama

I went for my 13th guitar lesson today. I had a hard time refreshing myself with the fingerings and catching up with the standard course progress the last two lessons because I didn't touch the guitar for an entire month when I took a holiday back home. I'm glad to say I'm back on track now following a few days of forced daily practices despite the fatigue after a long work day.

Today, my teacher taught me to play the guitar intro to Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd (what a name!). Because I am still such an amateur, we had to do it really slowly, like really really S--L--O--W--L--Y note by note such that I couldn't even tell it was the intro to this song. Hopefully I'll be able to string the notes all together at the normal speed and rhythm soon. Oh, I also learnt to do a 'pull-off' and a 'hammer-on' today. I let out a loud OOH and AAH and WOW and YAY when I successfully executed them which led to my teacher having a small giggle at my idiotic face - I couldn't help it; I was just so thrilled to be learning new tricks!

Here's a vid of Lynyrd Skynyrd performing the song live.



And here's a vid I found that teaches you how to play the intro. Useful.



Oh and did I update that I can now pluck and sing at the same time a whole two verses of Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron and Wine right up to the chorus? Next I need to figure out how the strumming for the chorus goes. ^^