my once in a blue moon blog

here I am again.. after one trip and one gig.

Been wanting to blog on shanghai since I came back.. but i won't be posting everything about it here, nor all the photos, because I like to be mysterious ya? =P

I must say... that the trip to shanghai was a really really fun one, although I was going there for work. My task was basically just one thing, so I didn't have the type of headache I would get while I was working in Singapore. Life was straight forward... and in between, we would squeeze out time for eating, shopping and meeting old colleagues who had already left our company (to me, they're new friends rather than old).

In general, I just met lots and lots and lots of people... from hongkong, china, taiwan, malaysia and singapore. encountered a culture unlike ours.. and saw things from a different point of view (literally) for the first time.

So here goes... a simple photo blog of what I saw while in shanghai =)

Departing from Singapore.. my first time overseas for work. So gotta take a photo of the not very interesting LCD screen. Pardon me =P

When we landed, it was raining quite heavily and the air was misty. The 'fun' part of it all was, everyone was given a yellow raincoat upon leaving the plane. Why? Because the moment you step out, you get drenched. Why? Because the plane doesn't connect to an aerobridge.. and so the raincoat is supposed to keep you dry as you run down the stairs with your luggage and run into the already crowded bus of people in yellow raincoats.

Anyway, this photo is a view from the bus we were on (heading for our hotel).. shows how gloomy the weather was that day.

Some pictures of the hotel room and the view from our window. Pookie, our well-travelled friend, very kindly offered to be model in these 2 photos.

The '7 No's as you will see are:
1) Do not spit
2) Do not litter
3) Do not destroy public property
4) Do not destroy greenery
5) Do not jaywalk
6) Do not smoke in public areas
7) Do not use vulgarities

I think we probably need some of these here as well? =P

Hongkou Stadium.. kinda reminded me of Shi Li in tw.. just that this one has very fierce security who like blow their whistles at people for stepping on the grass =_=. How precious is the grass... or do they have not much on their hands to do actually?

I'm not me if I don't take photos associated to food haha. The 2 photos above show a contrast between 2 places that I ate at... one for the lower class and one for the upper class of Shanghai. The setting for the high class restaurant was of course more comfortable, but I must say that I enjoyed the simple but tasty fare of the little roadside stall much much more. Sorry I didn't photograph the food itself.. because when food comes, I forget about my camera hahah.

Where's the food? Here's the food! On the left is the dessert.. mango pudding that we had during breakfast one day.. yummy. And on the right.. a big feast of ma la huo guo. This was not lunch, not dinner, but supper! After a hard day's work that day.. we were definitely hungry and the food was excellent.

Our flight home =). Didn't have the chance to take a photo of the plane, the day we landed.. so had to seize the opportunity now haha. It was bright and sunny.. contrast to when we arrived. Yet, our plane was delayed... but nonetheless, it was fun playing scrabble with uncle Z.. all the way from shanghai back to sg, although I had to shake him off eventually because I wanted to sleep.

Now, I'm looking forward to the next trip at the end of the month to genting.. and thereafter, it'll be some time before the next one.

Upcoming gigs

For the benefit of the mafia.. I'm gonna post it here =)

(If you guys dont' mind the repeated songs, you can come again haha.. because we have no time to prepare for new ones.. Just that the drummer may be different this time round)

14 June (wed) - 9.15pm Cineleisure
17 June (sat) - 8.55pm Plaza Singapura

My luggage to Shanghai

Kindly packed by Mr SH....


From top left to right:
1) My doraemon umbrella from taiwan
2) A stitch plush toy given by sh
3) A pookie plush toy given by sh (that we cruelly separated from Garfield)
4) Elvis mag with Ashin on cover (give by shir)

From bottom left to right:
1) My trusty box of tissue that helps me stop my runny nose
2) My new black jacket that I bought for this trip
3) A mini doraemon cushion given by sh

Ultimate Burnout

But its was definitely rewarding =)

The past 4 days was a non stop life.. of playing music and singing. Work of course is music, but its not the same as being a musician and having direct contact with your listeners.

I'm not very much of a performer nor a very excellent performer, but I do love the feeling having myself heard and just entertaining people with what i do best.

Thursday was the start of the marathon where we met for our 3 hour long jam session with K (the keyboardist) and Piyo-Piyo (my nickname for the very fun loving drummer) whom we've roped in to help us for the upcoming gig.

I left that session with a stuffed ear (because Piyo-Piyo does play the drum super loudly, but he's definitely a great drummer).. and aching feet because of work the day before and having to stand throughout the jam session.


Friday... we were due to jam again. By this day, I was already aching all over. Like I said, my company had a big event on Wednesday which really took a toil on me and my entire body. Plus the fact that I had to carry my heavy guitar for the 2nd day already (each day, it just felt heavier).

Didn't eat much that day either, so I was stuffing springrolls into my mouth quickly in between songs. And again after a 2 hour plus jam session, I headed for the far away mrt to make it for the last train home. And to prepare for the early soundcheck the next day. Needless to say, my body was aching even more than the day before and ears even more stuffed up haha.

Saturday. Woke up at 830am.. the time I usually wake up everyday to go to work. Its a saturday! of course.. I groaned as I woke up thinking how every weekend is always burnt away somehow. But off I headed for dg...

Reached a little past 10am and only YJ was there. Soon the rest arrived, as we were melting away and we were done with our soundcheck in quite a jiffy. Almost fainted when we heard of the big names who were gonna play in this same gig. But we stuck with it in believing that firstly... we're the only chinese band and we're fronted by girls (consolling ourselves? heheh maybe.. but I believe that we still have something different about us)

We then headed down to FT where we booked the studio from 12-1pm for a short jam before our gig. Had a light and happy breakfast at a nearby eatery.. it was fun and Piyo Piyo was always as entertaining as ever.

The jam session was actually a pretty good one.. everything sounded good, I could even hear my voice clearly.. which was properly why I felt disoriented when we finally got on stage later on and all the sound balance was different.

2pm.. the actual performance. It was simply very very very hot and I was perspiring all the way.. couldn't focus very well and i was forgetting lyrics here and there... missing out on certain parts that I was supposed to play, plus struggling with the balance of my guitar.

But things still went on pretty smoothly nonetheless.. and we got quite alot of good feedback, despite us being disappointed with ourselves. We knew we could have done better, just as we always play in our jam sessions.. but I guess what we learnt is that in gigs, we've got to learn how to adapt better to imbalances and sudden mishaps (like snapped strings.. hehe).

2 more gigs to come after I return from shanghai.. hope I won't be out of touch with my guitar after being away from it for almost a week. Gigs are tiring.. but they're definitely quite an experience =).

If you are thinking this is the end of my post... no its not because it goes on to Sunday!

Sunday... the day were I go busking with hx. its an assigment that we've got.. the rest I guess I'll reveal later hehe. We were tasked first to get the busking license just like any other busker (and yeah we got it), so today... off we went to orchard and singapore river, to 'test' out various spots. And yea, we did busk and earn some money.... a whopping.... $8.70!

We definitely fail as buskers haha but then real buskers don't just stay in one spot for 20mins and move to another. We covered a total of 7 spots... earned the most from the most comfortable place we could be in... and the least at the place where we were both melting away.

It did feel weird just standing there, her playing the guitar and me singing. Especially when she ended up with a 5 string guitar, plus the fact that we were doing this with no amps, and no mics... but just an acoustic guitar.

By the end of the day... we were completely drained. She was playing out of rhythm and I was singing like a chicken haha. And my comment to her was... after 4 days of singing like this, I must have a super diaphragm now. Really good training I must say...

Having a migraine now... legs feel soft too.. but this week and the weekend has been a journey unlike any other weekend.

Right now, i'm looking forward to the next 2 weekends too. Next week, I'll be in shanghai..

And the following week, our other gig.

I'm burnout... I wish I could have more sleep... but I simply cannot deny that all these have been the experience of a lifetime that I can look back to smile on.

Thanks especially to hx and yj for giving this to me. And of course, sh plus the mafia who are always around clapping and cheering for us =)