My Blue Heaven

Holiday Season

Tuesday and Wednesday will again be all about relaxation – with massages booked in on both days. Firstly a two person synchronised massage (yes two people massaging you at the same time – I’ve had this before there and it is AWESOME), and secondly a honey oil massage (really nice and great for the skin too!) We’ll spend heaps of time in the thermal pools and saunas too (yep getting nekkid with the germans). I love it there.. it is so relaxing, de-stressing, peaceful and really re-energising. I always feel so much healthier afterwards.

On Thursday I’m gonna get my hair cut at my usual hairdresser in Frankfurt called Obscura – they’re great and sooooo much cheaper than London. And finally to finish off our holiday, the last two nights will be spent in Cologne, visiting the christmas markets, the huge dom (cathedral – image above) and beautiful Rhine river.. and of course Frühstück at the luxurious Hyatt Regency (image below) where we’ll be staying. :). Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up with AericWinter too as he’ll be at his home town which is nearby that weekend. Should be really nice.

*sigh* I can’t wait! I totally don’t feel like working now… just counting the days.. hours.. minutes..

Whenever I start feeling too fed up, depressed, frustrated, stressed and downright annoyed with living in shitty London… it is these moments that I get to spend on the european continent that remind me why I’m here.

Weekend

Geez my post titles are getting boring. I can’t seem to think of anything witty or interesting for them these days. Anyway as Ella meows at me in the background, I just wanted to make a quick update about the weekend.

I had a rather nice weekend, spending quality time with Kwai. Also, most importantly, I slept in. 🙂 On Saturday, I had a follow up massage (following my acupuncture treatment last Thursday that I had because I was suffering big time from a recurring neck/back injury pain). Then afterwards we went out to see a movie – The Golden Compass. I was interested in seeing it not only because it was based on a fantasy book (and you know how I love my fantasy books), but also wanted to see what the controversy was about. I enjoyed the movie, even though the direction was pretty crap.. typically as happens when they make a movie out of a book.. it just jumped from section to section missing out probably great chunks of important background and depth that would have been explained in the book.. but as I have not read the books, I didn’t have that assumed knowledge. So it all felt a bit disjointed.) Anyway, I still liked the story, though I can also understand why it caused controversy, if you want to look at it in a certain way. But I don’t think it was that bad.. maybe just coz I’m used to fantasy storylines so I know how to read them – as fantasy!

Anyway that was a bit of a tangent. Back to my weekend. It was just a leisurely nice weekend.. as if we getting into holiday mode.. but I still managed to get some important stuff done – sorted out some finances, cleaned up at home, made some final holiday arrangements and bookings, went to the gym today, watched Heroes, and spent quality time at home with Kwai.

Thought of the day

How many times have I learnt in my life that I should never try to be somebody I’m not. Yet how many times have I put myself into situations where I compromise who I am in order to fit into what people pressure me to be, in order to please them or fit in (and why am I always about pleasing others anyway)? It is probably one of my biggest weaknesses, yet knowing what my weaknesses are doesn’t really seem to make a difference or change anything. And people take advantage of it. It always starts bit by bit.. tiny incremental compromises.. and before I know it, I just find myself miserable because I feel chained inside this fake persona that I’m not really carrying off very well to begin with.

Meh. My life has a tendancy to go to crap whenever I start pretending. So I think I should stop. I am who I am and I am happy with that.

Updates

So last Friday my probation period at work officially ended. W00t!!! 😀 It’s good to know the hard work and effort was worth it. After all the early starts.. getting up at 6:30am every morning to get in for 8:30am.. being willing to stay late until the job gets done. I’ve completed this hurdle and I think my boss seems happy with things. I’ve also been put on a new project!! I was gonna approach someone to try push for it, but looks like I didn’t have to.. it just sorta landed in my lap. It will be cool to do something different.

I’m feeling more settled here – getting along well with people I think. I went out twice the other week to the pub with work colleagues – and both were quite late ones. It was great. I’ve never really done the going out to the pub after work with the colleagues before.. but I guess it does help the bonding. Even if I don’t really drink much (as I never have), it’s still good fun.

Anyway life otherwise has been pretty busy. Went to dance class last Saturday for the first time in over a month. Wish I could keep it up more regularly, but still it was nice to get moving again. And my back actually felt better the next day.. sore muscles and all. It was a good pain rather than the bad pain I’d been struggling with for the past week and half. Guess I should keep it up. Still need to go see an osteopath though… once the damn health claim gets sorted. Music college has been good – already coming to the end of first term now – its been exhausting! Next week will be the final performance week for my Tues night class. Its gonna be recorded and assessed. Ack! And I gotta get the full score done to hand in for that week too, also for assessment. Then over the christmas break I’ll have my first assignment for musicianship class – a full transcription of an original piece given to us by our tutor. They keep telling us it will be hard. :/

But there is light at the end of the dark tunnel. I’m going away to Germany for a pre-christmas holiday. We’re going to Frankfurt (6 nights) and Cologne (2 nights) to visit the christmas markets (I LOVE the German christmas markets.. totally beats the crappy over-commercialised over-crowded christmas here in London). Also will be catching up with our friends in Frankfurt, eating lots at Frühstücks and just CHILLING out and relaxing at the saunas (oh the bliss). Can’t wait! I so totally need a holiday.. just been way too stressed lately. Plus we’re staying in a pretty swanky hotel on the last two nights in Cologne too – the Hyatt right on the Rhine river opposite the Cathedral. Nice.

Music makes my world go round

I’ve been getting a rather large dose of music lately. Be it listening to music, performing music, watching people play live music, learning more about music, writing music, arranging music or playing music. And it’s been rather hard work sometimes, especially with trying to balance a full-time demanding career, but I gotta say I’m really, really enjoying it so far. Every aspect.

This week is London Jazz Festival, and I made sure I made the most of it over the weekend by attending two (very different) gigs on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night was opening night, with a fine concert named “We All Love Ella” which was a tribute to the great Ella Fitzgerald – my favourite jazz singer. It was held in the swanky new Royal Festival Hall on Southbank of the Thames River. Me and Kwai had box seats (WAY cool!). There was a full orchestra and big band, and a host of various singers performing songbook Ella classics. Saturday night we went to see Larry Harlow and the Latin Legends of Fania (from New York) perform at the Roundhouse, near Camden Town. The crowd was very, very south american oriented.. the majority seemingly from Columbia (judging by the mass reaction everytime Columbia was mentioned), with smatterings of Venezuelans, Spanish, Brazilian and Cubans I’m guessing. Basically.. the whole gig was pretty much in spanish. The band spoke mostly spanish, with the audience responding in spanish!! I felt like I’d been transported to another country really! But the atmosphere and vibe of the gig was very awesome. Everyone there was just SO into it, and there was heaps of interaction between the band and crowd. There were even people in the crowd with percussion instruments – like shakers and claves. Oh, and this crowd had rhythm. There was no clapping out-of-time simple 4/4… no this crowd could clap not just on the beat, but expertly managed 3-2 clave! I took video from both gigs, so hopefully I’ll get around to uploading something at some point so you guys can get a bit of a listen and looky for yourselves. 🙂

I’ve also now played TWO gigs in London! Yep.. I had my first official gig on Sunday 28th October, 2007. So it wasn’t paid, just a friend of a friend’s party, it was only 4 songs, and I played a bit crap coz the sustain pedal wasn’t working and there were a few stuck keys down the bottom of the keyboard, oh and it was only 67 keys.. but hey, its a start! I got it on video – check it out:

My 2nd gig was another friend of a friend’s party, the weekend before last, but I felt much happier with this one. For a start we had a pro double bass player playing with us – made SUCH a difference. I hate playing without a bass player. We also had a singer for some songs, who also played congas on other songs. AND the venue had a beautiful grand piano for me to play on…. just lovely. We also played about 8 songs this time.. so a much longer gig. I have heaps of video footage, but I still have yet to edit it coz the venue was really dark.

And finally, I’m also really loving music college at Goldsmiths University of London. I’m doing a part time, 6 hours over two nights per week course called Certificate in Music Studies. Its quite cool – I almost feel like a uni student again, except I have full time work on top. But yeh.. it is great.. I love what I’m learning, the teachers are awesome and I’m meeting heaps of great people from all walks of life.. fellow musicians with a common love for music, who are just so supportive and encouraging. It’s really heaps fun, even with the cramming – homework – on – Sunday – night – at – 10pm each week. I mean, the person I’m gigging with at the moment, I met him through Goldsmiths at my Jazz Improv Class last year. So it’s good for networking too! So this year the two classes I’m doing are Musicianship Level 2 in Jazz & Pop and Performance Ensemble in Jazz & Pop. They work really well together – and I actually really enjoy the musicianship class.. probably more so than the Performance Ensemble, even thought the Perf Ensemble is meant to be a more practical class. I actually enjoy the homework for musicianship.. no it’s not boring theory.. it’s basically been all composition.. or various aspects of composition. Writing simple 12-16 bar pieces of jazz & blues music (following certain guidelines which we learnt about in that weeks class).. and I’m loving it.

Ok I should stop rambling coz its nearly midnight, and I’m going to an Ajax training conference tomorrow (which I was at today too). And I have class tomorrow night. Ugh.. Monday and Tuesday’s are always a killer for me.. I’m always totally shattered by Wednesday, and often fall sick too. I was got sick the wed before last, and have only just recovered. *sigh* Methinks I may have too much on my plate. Haven’t even been to dance class in a month (though I still am going) nor have I done much exercise (but I have recently joined the Virgin Active gyms near work and home using corporate discount.. w00t w00t). I just need MORE TIME in a day!! And my body ain’t getting any younger… 8 hours sleep a night is becoming more and more a necessity rather than just a “nice-to-have”. On that note.. good night all. 🙂

Feeling more european

So myself and my aussie colleague made an impromptu visit to the inaugural St Pancras International Eurostar terminal tonight after work whilst en-route to dinner. I’d forgotten it just opened today, so it was rather good timing. Gawking like tourists, our camera phones clutched in hand (just like the other hundreds of people there) we admired the grandeur of the restored St Pancras station. I was rather impressed with the station actually.. the huge dome roof, that unmistakable dents clock and romantic statue of an embracing couple. It was pretty cool. Also the longest champagne bar in europe (with the longest line to get in it seemed) and random performers weaving through the crowd breaking out into dance or artistic posing with music permeating from a DJ’s setup (presumably part of the special opening day).

But just seeing these people arrive on the Eurostar, when only two hours earlier they would have been in Paris or Brussels etc.. really made me feel like jumping on the next train to Pah-ree! It just felt very.. international… and that much closer to mainland europe. I can’t wait for my next holiday to the continent (coincidentally in only 1 months time).

So here I am at home, ready to post my photos on my new blog. And what do I discover but that the folder where my photos are normally saved on my sony memory stick in my phone was, for some unknown reason, set to read-only. Spewin! Oh well.. guess I’ll just have to steal someone else’s.

B-Girl

Last night I went to my first breaking (otherwise known as “breakdancing”) class! It was totally AWESOME! Seriously I had so much fun, I haven’t been this excited about a new thing since.. I tried surfing for the first time a few years ago. I think I’m addicted and I’m definitely going back next week. As much pain as I am in today (and boy is my body in pain.. like.. everywhere) I really loved it! As this was my first lesson, I learnt the foundations – the basic Toprock, Uprock and 6-Step. Very cool stuff. 🙂

However my body is definitely paying for it today. See, I had also attended a 1 hour pilates class just before the 1.5 hours breaking class. So now my quads, hammies, calves, butt, arms, shoulders, back, neck, wrists, abs.. yeh pretty much everywhere.. are feeling reeeally sore. I need a massage. :/

Meez

Heehee.. spending way too much time creating new Meez. I even have one of me breaking! Lol! NB. Click on each picture to get the full size animated version!

Work and Play

Wow it has been a while since my last blog entry. Where to begin? So much has happened in the past month or so. Most recently, I’ve just started my new job – it’s my 2nd week here now. It’s been pretty exciting so far and I’m based in Farringdon in central London (great location with heaps of good food around). The company itself is a leading international interactive agency, and has been described as “a recognised pioneer and innovator, their work is amongst the most influential in the world” and having “paved the way for many agencies and is considered to have “written the book” on digital marketing and e-commerce, without ever having actually written a book”. They have won heaps of awards for the work they’ve done, as well as general awards like “Creative Agency of the Year” or “Interactive Agency of the Year” and most recently awarded “Digital Agency of the Decade” by Revolution magazine. So… erm yeh.. that gives you an idea of how stoked I was to have been headhunted and hired by them!!! 😀

Ok work aside, I’ve also been away on holidays. I spent a wonderful 2 weeks with Kwai and my bro driving through Italy and Germany (as well as passing through Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and France). We started by flying to Cologne, hiring our car there and driving through Germany and Austria to arrive at Venice VERY late in the night. After 2 nights there, we drove to Florence (me and Kwai’s 3rd visit here!), and also took advantage of the Barberino Designer Outlet shopping village for some discount designer clothes, before driving into some proper tuscan countryside. We spent most of the holiday in Tuscany (oh how I LOVE that place) exploring the Chianti and Siena regions (stopping for lunch at the BEST restaurant of the trip in a tiny town called Lamole which is on top of a huge hill with amazing views over the whole chianti region as far as San Gimignano), then stayed overnight in a farmhouse overlooking the beautiful San Gimignano. After a brief visit there we drove down to the southern tuscan town of Saturnia (my favourite destination of the whole trip) for some absolutely amazing food (what is it about Saturnia and great food – incidentally they also produce my favourite olive oil) and much needed relaxation at the local thermal springs (at the Terme di Saturnia. Then we headed to the meditterranean coastal town of San Vincenzo and explored the nearby Baratti gulf (simply indescribably gorgeous – the clearest, bluest waters to swim in) and natural park of Rimigliano, and stopped off at a small town called Suvereto to pick up a WHOLE proscuitto at the local market (yes a whole one, bone and all, yes it was heavy – I think 5 kgs?).

Finally we drove up to our last destination in Italy to spend a few days in the Sestri Levante and Cinque Terre region, staying in a small town called Riva Trigoso. The first day in Cinque Terre, me and Kwai did almost the whole hike across the 5 towns (skipped only Vernazza to Corniglia but we did the hardest bit by far which was Monterosso to Vernazza – lots of steps and narrow dirt paths along the cliffside with AMAZING views!). We then spent the next day on hired scooters exploring the Sestri Levante to Portofino stretch… unforunately we only got as far as lunch in Zoagli before my bro had a scary accident where his scooter met a wall on a blind hair-pin turn along the windy, hilly coastal roads.. fortunately it wasn’t too serious as no cars were around and so no bones were broken – we did however get a ride in the ambulance to the local hospital in Lavagna where we spent the next 5 hours waiting before he was released with some painful looking scrapes) – it was dinner time by then so we decided to stay in Lavagna where me and Kwai took the opportunity to have one last swim in the mediterranean sea as the sun set behind the distant mountains, and then got some yummy takeaway pizza from the local piazza where there happened to be a music festival on and an awesome band played some really nice contemporary jazz mixed with tango/classical featuring a violin and piano accordion. Finally we bade a sad farewell to Italy and with heavy hearts drove that loooong journey up to Frankfurt, Germany (via some SPECTACULAR scenery in Switzerland – in fact we stopped in Switzerland for lunch in a town by a huge lake) where me and Kwai stayed 4 nights spending lots of time at the wonderful saunas and thermal pools of the Taunus Therme and also catching up with old friends of Kwai’s. Finally our wonderful holiday almsot over, we drove off towards London, our car loaded with olive oils from various regions throughout Tuscany and Liguria, some pasta, and that proscuitto ham.. only stopping one night in Brussels on the way.

And that was our wonderful summer holiday, planned 3 months in advanced, over. *sigh* It was wonderful and amazing and we had gorgeous HOT weather the whole time. And I can’t wait to do it again!!! I’ve noted places I wanna revisit, and learned things to do and not do the next time round. In fact I just wish I could move to Italy! I love the culture and life and land and food and everything there. I loved how we were able to avoid a lot of the main touristy things and go a bit “off the beaten track” into places visited only by local Italians, where we were the often the only foreigners (we got a few stares lol), where we were able to get a glimpse into the local culture and life… towns where families were born, raised, worked and lived for generations. What an experience it was.

(Lots of photos and videos to come).

Just to fill in the blank space

Um.. yeh.. been a while since my last blog entry. Life has been a whirlwind of activities. Many of which can be found on various web 2.0 community web sites. Biggest news of the moment is that I got a new job offer from one of London’s top digital agencies. I’m pretty excited about this as I’ve been wanting to work for them since I contracted with them for a few weeks in 2005. They have some really big name clients and the work they produce is always of the highest quality and cutting edge in technology and design.

Ok enough about work. I’m going on holidays soon! Yay! In July, myself, my boyfriend and my brother will be heading off on a big self-drive holiday round Italy. Starting off with flying out to Cologne, Germany then driving down to Venice, then to Florence, then into the Chianti region staying at the World Heritage listed San Gimignano, down into south Tuscany to the hot springs and fine restaurants of Saturnia, then up the Mediterranean coast to the summer holiday town of San Vincenzo, then further north to the Liguria and Cinque Terre region staying a few days at Riva Trigoso, and finally back up to stay in Frankfurt, Germany and visit some old friends. I can’t wait! Italy is my absolute favourite european destination (and not just because of the awesome food). And I really need a holiday!!!

I’ve also been really getting into my piano playing. We had our final performance for the year for my jazz improvisation class last week. I thought this was my best performance and solo out of three we had. I recorded it again and made another video which you can watch below.

I’m also going to be (most likely) starting part time studies at Goldsmith college next academic year. I’m going to be doing the Certificate in Music Studies, which is a modular, part time course equivalent of the first year of a degree in Music. I figured, I would do the modules anyway as I continue to do courses here, so why not get a cert out of it whilst I’m at it? Gonna have to ship my keyboard over here though first.. bit hard learning without a piano or keyboard at home to practice on.

My VisualDNA Profile