Knowing you is a note unknown
A note that cannot be held onto or owned
And when you're gone the memory has shown
It lingers of a voice
Once heard never forgotten
Forever in my memory it echos
In my heart it sings
And in my soul it reverberates.
Being with you is like a song in the making
Each new day is a note joined in a melody
That resonates in spaces that cease to exist
Each time we touch and kiss
As each note fades and dies
Another begins and sighs
How and if the song will end is unknown
But know by your voice my mind has been blown.
Each day you sing to me
Is for me one more day of jubilee
We will never again be lonely
As our new notes meet in a symphony of our journey.
~ Adapted from Pawpaw's 'New Note'.
new note
four lions at state
Two weekends ago, the HAH had friends visiting from Singapore. The Sydney Film Festival was on at that time and catching one of the featured films at the majestic State Theatre was included in the visitors' itinerary.
It was my first time to the State Theatre and I was sufficiently impressed by the deco that I risked getting stared and tsked at by the other film goers to take some quick snaps before the film started.
View of the stage and screen from where I was seated - last row at the extreme left corner of the dress circle section. This is the price you pay for arriving late.
There were chandeliers everywhere you looked and the whole theatre was jam packed with people who were all dressed up in their Sunday best suits, frocks and expensive looking winter coats. I thought I was a bit under-dressed but who cares.
The main chandelier. Apparently it is the second largest on earth, weighing over four tonnes - not too sure how true that is.
We were there to catch Four Lions written and directed by Christopher Morris who has gathered a cult following for his television comedy work. This is an in-your-face comedy about four young male British jihadists who decide to become suicide bombers.
"The titular lions Omar (Riz Ahmed), Waj (Kayvan Novak), Barry (Nigel Lindsay) and Fessal (Adeel Akhtar) share a desire to take action against the mistreatment of Muslims but their rampant ideologies do not exactly cohere. Jostling conflicting ideas and egos, the four manage to break almost everything they touch. Featuring rib-cracking dialogue (two of Morris’s co-writers also shared credits on In the Loop, SFF 2009) and recklessly paying tribute to the Three Stooges, this is a film in which terrorists are people and people are ridiculous. The topic of terrorism makes everyone nervous; but Morris understands that taboo subjects, when mined for blackly comic effect, also reveal the most uncomfortable and important truths."
I was completely lost in the first 20min of the show as I couldn't quite catch the weird british+middle eastern accent but once used to it, I got absorbed into the storyline very quickly. Though hilarious throughout, I find it really depressing to watch; it's not something I would choose as a preferred film to catch for lightening up a bad day. It does on the other hand offer an interesting perspective on terrorism and human nature and triggers much thought.
As swept away as I was by the magnificence of the State Theatre's palatial interior, I found my virgin film-viewing experience there to be a rather unpleasant one. Yes blame it on us for arriving late such that we were shoved all the way to the last row which only allowed us a tiny slit of a view of the screen. There were just too many people sardine-packed into the theatre; I absolutely hate crowds. I was surprised to see patrons swaggling into the theatre with beer bottles and talking too loudly after the movie has started. Then there were the hostile-looking toilets that were dark and cold; I swear I could feel the winter wind draughts on my back in the toilet cubicles.
Having said that, I think it will be nice to catch a musical, play or opera there; maybe I was just unsettled because the whole terrorism theme didn't quite gel with the eclectic elements of Gothic, Italian and Art deco design architecture of the State.
custom bronzed aussie
I made up my mind to get myself a guitar for my upcoming birthday in July. Since I already have an acoustic Aria with nylon strings, I thought of getting an acoustic/electric one with steel strings that allows me to plug into an amp. So I spent the weekend hunting around to shortlist my options. My budget was $500 - $700.
First stop was the huge Allans Music store just down the road from my apartment. They are having a stocktake sale until 27 June. There, I shortlisted the Ibanez AEG20E (transparent red sunburst) $629, the Takamine EG5403SCVFT G-series (vintage sunburnt) $949 with a 15% discount = $806 and the Martin DCX1E $1795 with a 15% discount = $1525.
Then today I popped into the big-ass Billy Hyde store along Parramatta Road to check out their guitar range and found the Martin DCX1E going for $1199. I was pretty much decided on that one until I saw the custom limited edition Maton Bronzed Aussie that took my breath away. It was love at first sight. I couldn't not get it. Especially after I got the saleperson to test-play it for comparison with the Martin DCX1E both plugged into an amp. The difference in sound quality is pretty significant. You really get what you pay for huh.
The $6699 price tag and the after discount tag shocked me. I had to check with the salesperson to confirm it wasn't a mistake. The salesperson who is a guitarist himself couldn't believe it too and had to call the store manager/owner to verify. He was pretty upset he did not discover this gem before me or he would have bought it for himself. I'm not telling how much I eventually paid for it but I did get a freakin' unbelievable deal. So I now have one out of the only six of these beauties existing in this world in my room. :D
There is the outline of the Australian continent carved onto the fret board. That this new baby of mine is wholly Australian made has a special meaning to me at this stage of my life. It's even more symbolic because of the fact that I eventually started my guitar playing days in Australia after so many years of dragging my feet on it.
Now I need to save money to get an amp... I am so broke I have to survive on air and water for a few months. That's what you call passion.
sonnet xxx
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste.
Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanish'd sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end.
~ William Shakespeare
ultimate indulgence
Long weekend + sunny day + thick dark chocolate drink + chocolate souffle + waffles with ice cream = BLISS
what is this?
Saw this weird creature sitting on the couch when I visited a friend's apartment for the first time last evening.
Can anyone guess what it is?
The group of us found it hilarious when the owner finally revealed the identity of this plush toy.
The answer is in the comments.
bling bling hat and bunny ears
Remember the night we played dress up? Once we were satisfied with our outfit, we proceeded to Dug Out Bar under the Burdekin Hotel at Oxford Street for the Antarctica Erotica Pole Party. The fact that a friend's colleague Betts was DJ-ing that night was not entirely the reason for our decision to check out this place; there was reason to celebrate (hint: coo) and we were fascinated by the naked women swimming on the poster below and wondered at the 'Erotica' part of the theme.
Some glasses of whiskies and weird 'Polar' champagne later, we proceeded to steal bling bling hats and bunny ears off everyone we could find on the dance floor, which led to the series of photos below.
And I hooked up with a lone ranger policewoman. It almost seemed as if we were at a fancy dress party or something.
Van took the bunny ears home while I generously gave away the bling bling hat even though the owner assured me I could keep it. Double regret the day after! If anyone runs out of present ideas for my upcoming bday, you can consider getting the exact same bling hat as shown above. ;p
still dreaming
In my dreams, I'm always running
To somewhere, someone, somehow
From somewhere, someone, somehow
How do I stop?
In my dreams, you're always flying
To everywhere, but here
For everyone, but me
Why do I cry?
I'm walking along the edge of time
The heart and the mind - I'm losing both
Guardian Angel
Are you still with me?
virgin attempt at cooking seafood paella
As agreed with the Master last weekend on the laksa day, we gathered at the MCP and HAH residence again for another lesson on cooking - this time it was seafood paella. We engaged two kitchen hands in the form of Cat and Van for this round.
Some of the ingredients used as shown in the below pic are chicken stock, arborio rice, seafood, canned anchovies, chilli, dill, chorizo sausages, lime and fennel.
This huge bowl of seafood contains king prawns, small prawns, scallops, squid and fish. We also got mussels and crabs which are not in this bowl below.
A scene of the kitchen staff hard at work creating the perfect paella cooked with love and a lot of laughter. Fortunately we have a large enough island to lay out all the ingredients and still provided sufficient work space for all four of us to do the cleaning/cutting/chopping/marinating/frying/stirring.
We had to let the one and only man have the honour of cutting up the crabs; I can never bring myself to do it.
Nor can I clean out the squids, so again the only guy got to take on this sacred task. I find it extremely disgusting! Especially the part where you have to dig really deep inside to extract the beak or something... Eeeeeks....
Everyone got to do a bit of cutting and chopping including the Master as there was just too much stuff to be chopped up.
Cat spent the most part of an hour trimming the whiskers off the king prawns to make eating them easier and to massage butter onto each and every prawn. She was the main contributor towards the marinating of a dozen prawns for the garlic prawns dish to complement the paella.
Van was the garlic IC and the pot IC. I hope those tasks were not too daunting for her seeing how she rarely steps into the kitchen.
And for me... I had to juggle cooking the paella in two separate locations - a wok and a deep pot because we didn't have a big enough pan to fit all in - and stir fry the garlic prawns in a third pan.
Here's a shot of the paella in the cooking.
And a shot of the sizzling prawns in the pan.
I had to tiptoe most of the time to reach the bottom of the high pot. I'm sure my arms and calves got more muscular from stirring the wok/pot/pan-fuls of food on tiptoe for about an hour.
Approximately 2 hours after we started the preparations, we were ready for dinner. Again I had the honour of serving five huge plates of yummy paella and a plate of garlic prawns.
Cheers to the chefs and kitchen hands!
And finally a group shot including the photographer who was kept busy the entire night documenting the paella experience before we dug in. Itadakimasu!
to the blue mountains for the umpteenth time
Sometime around the Easter break this year, I went to the Blue Mountains again, this time with a few girls from work. I can't remember how many times I've visited this tourist attraction, but the last time was on the last day of year 2008 with the Sunshine Angel.
Did the usual - visited Echo Point for an obligatory touristy shot with the legendary Three Sisters, had flowerpot scones at Wayzgoose Cafe in Leura and shopped for scented candles at Moontree. Because it was a very cold rainy autumn early afternoon when we arrived, we had long romantic strolls along wet pavements filled with fallen autumn maple leaves dreaming of our own prince charming and of sharing a hot cuppa with our cold hands in his warm jumper pockets. It was all very silly and giggly.
The four beauties complementing the three sisters at the mountains.
Spotted these two cute Minis in Leura.
I couldn't stop gawking at the perfectly refurbished red Mini.
Check out the headlights!
Left: We had a very blue sky day at the Blue Mountains after the morning rain.
Right: We stopped in the middle of the road to pose with the glowing red maple tree.
I think I am quite done with the mountains although I still have the occasional craving for the piping hot scones with fresh cream and jam and wouldn't mind spending another half a day immersed in the many fragrances in the Moontree shop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
