Who am I kidding?

Came to a realization today.

A new student's husband escorted me out to the bus stop (yep, I got another mummy student) half an hour ago and while we walked, he asked me if I taught full time. I replied yes and he commented that I was lucky, it's a good job. Trying to be modest, I said all jobs had its pros and cons. He said, "at least you love what you do." Yep, full stop, not question mark.

Whoops.

Maybe I should stop hyperventilating and behaving like a bunny on meth the next time I teach.

P.S I never knew Canon in D could seduce kids into learning the piano. Yes, SEDUCE! I played a very simple version of Canon in D (transcribed to C) and mummy student's son wanted to learn. Nice. Got myself another student.

Thank you, Pachelbel.

---

Yes, it's just me, but life's been getting a bit mundane, repetitive. Time to start learning something new. Been playing with the idea of learning a martial art, and passing through the darkness of private housing with weird people loitering around confirmed that.

I think I shall pick up Aikido.

Rich face?

This is the second time my student thought I lived in a bungalow or a condo. We were talking about a cousin who wanted to learn the piano but didn't have one at home, so:

Me: She can come my house learn piano if she wants.

Student: Where you live? Condo ah?

Me: Er no?

Student: (Very excitedly) Bungalow ah?

Me: HDB la, at Hougang.

Student: Ohhh... I thought you live at bungalow, got big big piano.


Do I seriously look that rich? Speaking of look, how do one 'look' poor? Teach me, I could do with some tips.

(Maybe I should start going to teach in pasat shirts or something, then they won't haggle for cheaper fees. Heh.)

Monkey see Monkey do

Feeling rather bleh, I dragged a friend out to Zouk yesterday night. After hanging at the bar and having a little too much to drink, I spied an empty table and so we sat down to rest our aching feet.

Yes, it's been a long time since I wore such high heels.

While we were cam-whoring, having a bit more to drink and giving ratings on looks for every guy who passed our table, suddenly, two ang-moh guys popped up and we invited them to joins us. (For awhile, anyway.) After some introductions and chatting, my friend and I slipped out to smoke, and while we headed towards the smoking area, suddenly, guys near us started trying to pick us up.

Huh?

While we were sitting at the table, the crowd was not particularly friendly to two single gals and after two ang moh joined us, we were different?

Defintely a case of monkey see, monkey do.

P.S We dropped those ang-moh guys anyway because they were being a little too 'friendly'. Typical.

Bah

Concussed at 12am yesterday, the next thing I knew, Joyce was calling me at 10.30 am. My piano lesson was at 10am. Furious with myself, I checked my alarm clock.

It got stuck at 4.30 am.

OH MY EFFING GOD!!!!!!

Yes, I feel terrible, for Joyce.

Shopping list: New batteries.

---

I'm sick and tired of people. Everyone is all the same, either they refuse to change their way of thinking, to accept that sometimes, just sometimes, what they see is not what they get, or, they think they are so right, they are blind to everything else, and last but not least, they have so much pride, every three sentences that they utter contains a sentence cloaked with contempt for you.

People, stop laughing at others and laugh at yourself.
Stop complaining about every little bit of your miserable life and tell others the funny bits of your life.

Fine, I'm getting too old to be nice.

Ah, no wonder

I had fallen in love with Lacrimosa from the first beat. I've never heard of the singers, a group called Kalafina. So, I went to Wiki them up.

"Kalafina is a Japanese band formed by composer Yuki Kajiura in 2007 to mainly perform theme songs for the anime Kara no Kyoukai."

Ah. That explains a lot. Kajiura. I love the way she mixes strong beats with Gregorian chants, piano and violin solos coupled with orchestra. Beautiful.

I had Canta Per Me, A song of storm and fire and Materialize on my songlist for close to years now. Heh.

Time to check out the rest of the Kalafina's songs.

Lacrimosa

暗闇の中で睦み合う
絶望と未来を
哀しみを暴く月灯り
冷たく照らしてた

君のくれた秘密を標に
蒼い夜の静けさを行く

Lacrimosa
遠く砕けて消えた
眩しい世界をもう一度愛したい
瞳の中に夢を隠して
汚れた心に
涙が堕ちて来るまで

幻の馬車は闇を分け
光のある方へ
夢という罠が僕たちを
焔へ誘う

空の上の無慈悲な神々には
どんな叫びも届きはしない
Lacrimosa…

僕等は燃えさかる薪となり
いつかその空を焼き尽くそう

Lacrimosa
ここに生まれて落ちた
血濡れた世界を恐れずに愛したい
許されるより許し信じて
汚れた地上で
涙の日々を数えて

---

2nd ending of 黒執事. The last episode aired last week. Not sure if I enjoyed the anime series, many times I preferred the book, the characters being less dodgy in it. Loved the ending of the anime though. Heh. Now I like Ciel in the anime. Muahaha.

What a lucky day!

No, I'm being sarcastic.

I pride myself in being a fairly considerate person. I rarely or don't litter. Today, however, was the bomb.

3rd day of my best friend. Female friends will know what I mean. It's one of those days that all you want to do is lie in bed, with a hot water bottle and go to sleep. But, it's a Wednesday, one of the busiest days of my week.

Feeling particularly cramped and pissy, I bought a pack of Sampoerna. (Decided to forgo the chocolate this week.)

So there I was, puffing away outside the bus interchange in one secluded corner. Finished, I looked around for a bin. Interchanges no longer have bins thanks to the terrorist shit, and the nearest one I could see was 3-4 mins walk away.

I threw the butt into the drain.

Boom! $200 fine.

I'm never, never, ever smoking again.

Darn it. There goes my book money.

Simple rules of money and itches

Oooh! That is IT! Enough is enough, I've had it with people who keep saying I am rich and yet they earn more than I do. If they say that and leave it, it is okay, but every single one of them will slip into this self pitying, envying mode that makes me want to fling them out onto the road.

Spending, is a very simple piece of logic that people don't quite seem to get.

If you spend on what you DON'T need, you won't be able to spend on what you WANT.

For example. I can drop $20 a pop for a book when I want to because I never take cabs. (Unless for emergencies.)

Not clear enough?

A few more examples.

My handphone bills are never over $50 (again, unless I am overseas.)

I don't have a car. (Seriously, do you NEED one in Singapore?)

I buy a bottle of wine to enjoy at home when I feel the urge to drink.

Restaurant going happens only when I have additional money to spend.

I think thrice before buying something. Need, Price and Need. (With the exception of books of course.)

And guess what? I'm happily living on an income of less then $30,000 per annum!

So don't say I am rich. Evaluate on how you spend instead.

In fact, unless you don't have
-A handphone
-A car
-A PC with internet access
-A PSP/PS2/PS3/Xbox
-A credit card
-an monthly income of more then $1000,

you are not POOR! Calling yourself poor is an insult to poor people out there.

SO WAKE UP! And stop complaining/bitching.

P.S I've never called myself poor. Just occasionally broke, because, like all humans out there, we sometimes overspend :P

---

Speaking of overspend, there are so many sales on this weekend! There's the Kinokuniya Cardmembers 20% off 12-15 march, Charles and Keith Warehouse sale at 21 Tai Seng Road 12-15 march, and the IT fair at Suntec over this weekend. Thank goodness I have been thrifty for the past two weeks.

SEE! Save when you need to and you can spend when the time comes! I call it smart shopping.

A new itch: The new super duper mini iPod Shuffle with 4GB memory.

I want one! This little toy is $128. Nice price for the mini-ness and the memory. My Sony Ericsson W910i has been taking quite a beating from me. I think it's dying. Or, I should just wait 'til my contract ends before signing for a new plan with an iPhone. (See?! Decide carefully by thinking ahead!)

Now I'm starting to show the world my thought processes. -.-'''

Batam Pic?

Was just going through the weird pics and vids we took when me, Fi, Kat went to Batam last week. Stumbled on one I took myself and it reminded me of Amelie.

Amelie

The weird pic

No, really, I swear it wasn't on purpose!

A pic from our room balcony, (you can see construction going on the left, they are building a new wing)
Me likey the pool~

My most hated sentence

I think I have figured out which sentence I hate to hear students say, from a teacher's point of view.

"Huh... it's so hard/difficult!!"

Especially when they utter it even before trying to play it. I've heard this sentence at least ten times today and it's seriously starting to irritate me.

I'm gonna ban all my students from saying that sentence.

How can it be hard when you haven't even tried it?!