I'm Too Old For This...

It has been a pretty frustrating week...

I just took some time off to relax by keeping the computer turned off and then getting my hands to do some work.

What is the result of my hard "work" and fingers burning with pain due to the size of these blocks?

You'll have to wait for a while to find out more. :D

Yeah... Yeah.. Some folks may say that playing with such toys doesn't suit an old fart like me but hey, they made some of these toys for adults!

I Missed an Entire Month!!

Yes.. I didn't blog for an entire month.

A whole stash of photos from February to March are still waiting for me to process...

I was a little lazy but also was caught up with some stuff at work which for some reason now, doesn't really need my attention anymore. So, will have to realign my priorities. One of it is to get back to taking care of me and spending more time with my camera. ;-)

Another is to think about getting all my certifications done.

Anyway, will share more in the coming posts. One of it was the major disappointment I encountered on last Friday which had me going for some minor retail therapy over the weekend...

I Can't Get Justin Bieber Out Of My Head!!!

Ok ok.. I'm too old to go lusting over some small boy but... I've been suffering from having to listen to Justin Bieber's song - "Baby" in my head for the past few weeks.

It is a catchy song but you know that there are a category of songs which just irritate you to the point that you like it? Well, this is just one of those songs.

Anyway, when I first heard the song, I thought it was a girl singing but turns out to be a young lad of 16. So, I pictured in my head an image of a boy who pretty much had the same class of looks like Aaron Carter (back in the day).

When I saw the video... I didn't know what to say... Is it a boy/girl or girlish boy or boyish girl? LOL!!

Enjoy the video. I present to you the Evil song "Baby"... You can't get it out of your head. :P

Enjoy your Friday!

Oh.. Do remember to submit your taxes and make any payment before 11pm as the Tax E-Payment system shuts down by then... :P

Fishing...

There are days when you wish you can get away to "fish". In other words, we wish to just take some time off to relax....

Anyway, Friday is fast approaching and I'd guess everyone is just waiting for the weekend to begin!

Hope that everyone will have a great weekend ahead... (^.^)

Musical Nights...

I know... I know... I've neglected my blog some what.

Well, between work and recovering from my bouts with the cough, cold, flu (errr... no H1N1...), I've had enough material to blog about for the next 5 posts!! Hehehe...

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending a couple of musical performances with friends and family.

The first one was with my family, to attend the famous Lisbon Chamber Choir concert held in my church in Subang Jaya. The performance was to raise funds for the church building fund. We've already attended the special screening of the movie "Man for All Seasons" previously and this time, with a famous international choir in town, we could not pass up the chance to miss it!

We were entertained by the KL Children's Choir and they sang beautifully for their young age. I especially loved their rendition of "Chan Mali Chan", a traditional song.

There was also some cultural performances by youth from a nearby church too. They danced to the song "We Are One Body", which was pretty good.

Finally, we had the Lisbon Chamber Choir perform some music for us. It is just amazing how the human voice can convey such angelic tunes without any accompaniment of a musical instrument. I was blown away by the range of sounds from the deep baritones to the high pitch sopranos.

We also had a church member to perform that night as well. She came back from the US to sing for us. I can't recall her name, unfortunately, but felt that her voice was suited to classical music. She sang two songs, 1 classical and the other a more contemporary song.

The choir was so fantastic that the crowd held out for encores and the choir performed a few more songs which included a song in Chinese. I definitely enjoyed myself that night.



Then, a couple of weeks later, I joined a group of friends to attend a Jazz performance at the Dewan Philharmonik Petronas KLCC. My friends had always suggested that we attend a concert together and after looking at the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra season, we found out that Jazz band from New Orleans would be in town.

Being a lover of Jazz, especially being a great fan of Louis Armstrong, we could not miss this performance from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band or PHJB.



Although we sat right at the back of the hall, the acoustics was so fantastic that we could hear every single note clearly. The music was so lively, you could not help but to dance in your seat. We tapped our feet, clapped our hands, whistled and howled when the music got going.



The best part of it all, my friends and I joined in the Second Line for the last song of the night, the evergreen classic, "When The Saints Come Marching In". We ended up being on the stage of the hall, dancing away until the band left the hall to end the performance for the night.

It was AWESOME!!!

It certainly has fueled my determination to visit New Orleans in the future. To visit the historic French Quarter, Bourbon Street and yes... Even to go down to see PHJB again.

P/S: The videos posted of PHJB showcased some of the songs I heard that night.

Some "Me" Time

I've been longing for some "Me" time lately... Yes, spending some time alone to do my own stuff, contemplate life, bla bla...

Well, I wouldn't go THAT DEEP... LOL!!

Sometimes, I just want to have some "Me" time to do stuff which I like, i.e. go look at books or just sit around and look at people... i.e. LEPAK?

It's good to take a breather now and again - especially when you have a lot of daily stresses from a very very demanding project.

In one banking project a looong time ago, my PM used to say to us, "come, let's go minum" after we've had a very long (& absolutely stressful) day at the client's site. During that time, we would just sit, have a bit of tea; and just keep quiet. He would just sit quietly and study folks as they walk by the stall or sit nearby. Of course, he will "cuci mata" (oggle) but it was subtle, so much so that you can't notice it at all!! He was one cool dude, the epitome of grace under pressure.

That's probably one quality I find hard to master... Probably because I have a short fuse and am a perfectionist, I am my own nightmare at times.

So, I should take a lesson from Snoopy - just sit, relax and just stare out into space. Yeah, you might fall asleep in the process but then, taking naps is good for us!

Inner Peace

Friday is here!! Well, sort of... It is past midnight anyway.

Snoopy is the master of Zen...

I've mentioned in my last few posts that things have been hectic at work. Well, it can't be helped as I'm in the midst of a project.

There are some ups and downs but the important thing is, the entire team is in it together.

As such, within all the "madness" going around, I strive to search for that inner peace by just taking a deep breath from time to time. It is so easy to be overwhelmed.

One colleague practices deep breathing techniques in the morning before he comes into the office so that he can face the madness. It's actually a pretty good technique. I've neglected it for a while and now that the stress is starting to build up, it's time to get back to those exercises!

Besides that, spending a little time with God each day will help alleviate the stress too...