Karaoke Saturday...

I'm post call today...was squatting in the doctor's room in female neurosurgery ward yesterday...since i'm still car-less...Becky came to send me home from the hospital this morning...then i continued sleeping till about lunch time...and Elaine came to pick me up for lunch and karaoke...Christine was joined us but unfortunately Flora was busy...

Siang Lin joined us for lunch at Secret Recipe and we were talking about his 1st locum OT experience...after that we went to K-box for our tuition/concert session...Elaine was commenting about Khalil and how he hasn't been asked to act in any movie...we spent about 3 hours singing and Christine had to go home to get her baby...so they sent me home and i logged on to FB...and what do you know? i saw a link to Khalil's page which reported that he'll be acting in a Wang Leehom directed movie which will be filmed in Shanghai...how cool is that? definitely will be waiting for the movie release....

Now i'm stuck at home...and feeling a little empty...and an idle mind is the devil's playground..since there's no one online to chat to, i guess i'll continue reading the book i borrowed from big boss...might write about it once i'm done with it...it has been very educational....dang!! tomorrow i'm on call again...and i won't be getting my car back till Tuesday...

Chinese Tuition Session

I was post call on Independence Day…it didn’t feel anymore sweeter than usual…my call wasn’t too bad…finished my last case at 2am plus…but didn’t sleep till about 5.30am…hehe, the net addict struck again…finally went to sleep…and a houseman woke me up at 6.30am to post an appendicectomy…I asked the HO, what time was patient admitted…the reply was.. “1am, but my boss asked to post the case at 6.30am…” Bloody hell!! so I called the case, informed the OT nurses to call me when the patient’s in OT…I slept back..and woke up again at 7.20am..only to realize that my nurse hasn’t call me…WTH??!! So I called the OT and was told the patient was not there yet…fine! I knew the surgery MOs weren’t going to do the case…they had already plan to pass over the case to the next on call MOs…the patient finally arrived at OT at 8am…breakfast for the next GA MO on call…not my fault…I didn’t purposely delay the case…

And I’m off to get Elaine from the cafeteria…she came from Kudat early morning…but no one was home to let her in..so she waited for me at the hospital so that we could go home together..came home, collapsed till about 10.30am…didn’t want to get up but hey, we’ve got plans today…so dragged my stoned body off the bed and bathed...feeling much more refreshed, Elaine and I went to 1 Borneo..i let her drove…coz I was too lazy..hehe…

Had a quick lunch at McDs…then the shopping began…didn’t buy much stuffs…just followed Elaine around while she checked out some accessories at the new Parkson…I wanted to buy new bed sheets but didn’t find one that I fancied…Elaine went for eyebrow trimming while I watched in fascination the skillful hands of the lady who managed to tame Elaine’s bushy eyebrow…the result: definitely a better looking Elaine…that’s not all…Elaine also went to the Clinique counter to check out their sunscreen…after some recommendation and testing by the sales assistant, Elaine bought a foundation with SPF 15 protection and a lipstick…the sales assistant tried the foundation on Elaine’s face and the result was a more radiant and even complexion without looking like being painted with a layer of Nippon Weathershield…since Elaine got RM20 vouchers from her Clinique purchase, we decided for another round of scouting to use up the vouchers…I ended up buying a pair of purple earrings to go with my outfit for the T Music Festival…

Finally left 1 Borneo about 3pm plus…went straight to K-box in town…by the time we started singing it was already 4pm…we’d lost precious time for our Chinese tuition session ;P…coz the afternoon package session was from 2-7pm…so we only had 3 hours to practice our Chinese..so the 2 ah lians launched right into their singing session…Elaine picked her songs…and then I picked mine…as usual, my songs were mostly Khalil’s songs…I practically sang all the songs that are listed under him…hehe..i think I overdosed Elaine with Khalil’s songs again…of course we also sang LeeHom’s songs…and Lee Sheng Jie’s songs..We also sang Ji De (Remember)..but it’s the A-Mei’s version lah…couldn’t even find JJ Lin’s version…by 7pm, we managed to finish our repertoire…but we cut short a lot of the songs towards the end…and didn’t manage to sing my last 2 songs..duets by JJ Lin and Jin Sa…namely Xiao Jiu Wo and Qi Dai Ai…

After our fruitful lessons, we went over to Warisan Square for dinner at Secret Recipe with Flora…while waiting for her to finished up her chest tube insertion, Elaine and I wiled away our time at CP..bought a new pair of knee-length spandex pants…for my workout sessions… finished dinner about 9pm plus…was getting quite tired by then…came home, gossiped a bit with Jasmine (hehe, Jasmine always brings back the latest gossips for me), went online for a while…then hit the sack..had morning locum from 7am to 2pm the next day..working pm shift in OT….

Drowning our sorrows in music...

Elaine and Siang Lin came to KK on Thursday evening...they were going back to Muar for Elaine's friend's wedding...and so ngam, i'm post-call and pre-call...so when the two ah lians get together... no chance that we would miss a karaoke session...hehe...

Jasmine and i went to meet Elaine and Siang Lin at Warisan Square's Secret Recipe for dinner...ate till about 9.30pm...and thus started our karaoke session...only Elaine and i...and we still managed to sing till 1am...had to go coz they were closing..hehe...not bad lah hor?..3 1/2 hours...and i'm happy to say that my repertoire is expanding...i've learned more of leehom and jay chou's songs...and also some other singers whose songs i like...

Really, good music is therapy to the soul...hehe, Khalil's songs will always be the soothing balm for my ailing soul...i think if you've read my past few posts...you can sense that i'm edging nearer and nearer to a breaking point...but work is something i can't escape from...i chose this life...and i don't regret it...but when things get a bit too overwhelming, i can always find solace in music...i wonder if that's how it is with musicians....i always think that they're in their own world when they're playing music...like they are sharing something among themselves that the audience can never really appreciate...

I should get some sleep...going to church later...haven't been to church in a long time...though i actually don't think my heart will be in it though my physical body may be there...sigh...how did that happen? when i was in uni, i made a vow to myself...i'll always go to church at every opportunity i get...no matter how tired i feel...i guess i'm not really a person for keeping vows huh? once again, a disappointment....

Improving my Chinese...

Last Thursday, while Elaine was still here in KK, and i was post call...the 2 of us 'ah lians' went to K Box again for our Chinese tutorial..hehe..guess we didn't have enough of it in Miri...we asked Suet Lai along but she only came for a while...so the 2 'ah lians' who can't really read Chinese were singing Chinese songs for almost 4 hours..with only few toilet breaks in between...Elaine commented that we can open a concert already...yea, we'll just fill in the blanks (i.e. words we can't read) with la la la...

When i was younger, i went to sekolah kebangsaan where the teaching medium was Malay language and second language was English...so i never had formal Chinese education...my only exposure to Chinese lessons was when i was in kindergarten...even back then, learning Chinese was a nightmare to me...i couldn't remember the characters that were too complicated...well, for me that is...coz even 我 (me, I) was too difficult for me to write...yea, i'm that dense...

But about a year back, i started listening to Chinese songs on Chinese radio...so i started to learn how to sing Chinese songs...initially i had difficulty looking for the lyrics in pinyin form...then Kok Wei introduced me to an add-on in Mozilla Firefox called Chinese Per-akun....it's a very useful and convenient tool for me...coz now i can use it to read chinese...and then i found a website www.mojim.com which i think, has a non-exhaustive list of lyrics of any Chinese (or even English) singer you're looking for...that's how i learn the lyrics to Khalil Fong's songs...now i'm widening my scope to other singers also...as to improve my repertoire the next time i go for karaoke again.. hehe...

Don't ask me why the sudden desire to improve my Chinese..i mean i've lived almost 2/3rd of my life knowing only very rudimentary Chinese and i've never had much problem...and it's definitely more difficult to learn Chinese than French..but i guess it was time to dig deeper into my roots...i am Chinese after all...

So anyway, this is the lyrics of a song by Michael Wong 光良...the title is 'you shou bian'...or right hand side...i love this song..very touching...I'm going to attempt to translate it as best as i can...

静静的坐在　你的身边　还会有多少　这样的时间
(Sitting quietly beside you, how much more of such time do we have?)
我要迎着车窗外的光线　牢牢的记住　你微笑的侧脸
(I want to welcome the rays of light from the window, remember firmly, your smiling face)
＊我说了离别　不会伤悲　这是我对你　唯一的欺骗
(I said our parting will not cause grief, this is my only lie to you)
　因为我最喜欢你的双眼　那么美　不适合　掉眼泪
(Because I really like your eyes, so beautiful, not suitable to shed tears)

＃你要好好的去飞　不需要对我想念　我会默默的留下　右手边的座位
(You must go on and fly, please don't miss me, I will silently keep the seat at my right hand side)
　有一天　当你看过世界　再决定　你降落的地点
(One day, when you've experienced the world, and decided your place of landing)
　而我也会继续的　奔驰在这长长的街　左手边是我的心　右手边没有谁
(And i also will continue to run down this long road, at my left hand side is my heart, there's no one on my right hand side)
　为了你　再寂寞我都可以成全　因为我相信　说过了再见　一定会再见
(For your sake, i can bear this loneliness, because i believe, we've said see you again, then we will meet again)

Another karaoke session...

Elaine was in KK last weekend for diving classes..as a rule, if Elaine comes to KK, we'll have a karaoke session no matter how busy we were..hehe..so since i was on call on Sunday, we went karaoke-ing on Saturday night (had locum in the afternoon)...i finished locum at 7pm and went straight to K-box to meet them...Flora was there already...so we had our buffet dinner while we waited for Elaine and her friends (they finished diving classes quite late too)...

So after dinner, we were ready and full of energy to sing our hearts out...my repertoire is quite limited to Khalil's songs...and some of Jay Chou's and LeeHom's..oh..and Stef Sun's Yu Jian...so i practically selected all of Khalil's songs...apparently, i was the only one who sings Khalil's songs...Elaine knows a few songs only...so it was kind of like syok sendiri...and i definitely did not do justice to Khalil's songs.. sigh...i wished he was next to me and singing to me instead...>_<

We only had 3 hours to sing and there were many of us...so had to skip some of Khalil's songs.. and Elaine commented that we were getting Khalil overdose already...;P but anyway, it was fun... practising Chinese and all...but Elaine will be leaving soon to Singapore...so this would probably be our last karaoke session together....well, i can always go visit her there and go karaoke-ing there... and if and when Khalil goes to Singapore, at least she can update me so i can fly to Singapore to see Khalil..:)

Karaoke session...

Elaine and Siang Lin came down from Kudat yesterday morning..Elaine lamented that this was the only weekend she wasn't on call and could finally come down to KK...which was why I've been looking forward to this weekend..our karaoke session..hehe..

Anyway, i did my first saturday locum OT yesterday...would rather have slept in on a saturday morning instead..but well, i just thought i'd give it a try..that was quite uneventful...met up with Elaine and Siang Lin for lunch...then we went for our karaoke session...it was also our chinese tuition class...coz we'd sing chinese songs that we knew how to sing...yea, no prize for guessing whose songs i'll be singing mostly...i've been learning Khalil's songs dilligently for the past few days...so i could sing them even without Mozilla's add-on to help me read the chinese words...but much to my disappointment, most of Khalil's songs couldn't be played by the karaoke machine...bummer!!! it's like a bloody conspiration against me singing his songs...well, still it didn't stop us from singing for almost 4 hours...phew!!!

Oh, Siang Lin went to get a haircut while we were singing our hearts out...and he came back with his new hairstyle a la Khalil Fong...hehe, Siang Lin actually looked more fashionable...though personally, i thought that look on Khalil makes him look a teeny bit too nerdy, hehe...but then again, Khalil can look however he wants, his voice and music will still be as good as ever...