Simply Inspirational

Its amazing, how 3 letters can push a person to greater heights... that word is CAN.....

And what is even more amazing, how much a 4 letter word, LOVE, can push people to greater heights, to achieve what was thought not possible.... All this, very apparent in the link below, which someone had forwarded me earlier this afternoon....

http://storiesinspirational.blogspot.com/2008/04/father-and-son.html

Thought I'd just share....

A Sudden Burst of Change

I've always found cutting my hair to be quite stressful, simply because I have no idea what I'll look like at the end of it.... Though the number of surprises are few and far in between as I usually go to the same Indian barber, this time, it was different.....

This time, I allowed myself to be persuaded to change my erm, hairstyle, I'm still not sure how it happened.... I finally got around to it after 3 weeks of hassling, and having never gone to a proper salon to do it, I had no idea where to go, how much it would cost, and ultimately, how stupid I'd look....

It was quite an amusing experience indeed, from the time I started looking for a place to get it done.... I had chosen to go to Midvalley and had surfed the net for places to go, and thought A Cut Above and Jantzen sounded like safe bets.... I was horrified at the ludicrous prices plastered on the glass wall of A Cut Above, and duly proceeded to Jantzen, where I failed to see any pricelist displayed..... A verbal quote of RM40 was given to me, which was around the most I was prepared to pay for anyway.... I was told a week later that the prices were displayed on the other side of the lot.... Which was a good thing as there no mention of RM40 anywhere on the list I was told :)

I was led to a seat, where they put me on a fancy chair as opposed to the ones I'm used to at the Indian's barbers..... I was also bemused at what the "hair stylist" had to say, and that I needed to straighten my hair, to rebond my hair..... Obviously I was having none of that, and I was in a hurry.... Maybe next time I said.....

I cant say I took too kindly at first to the way he shaved my hair off, I felt like a lamb brought in to have its fleece sheared off..... The amount of hair floating down with each upwards stroke was unnerving to me.... After a lot of shaving, a few snips here and there later and finally we were done.... Or so I thought..... The hair stylist called a girl over, he mentioned to me my hair was to be gelled into place as my hair was too "soft" to stand on its own..... right.....

She was putting a lot of what I thought was gel into her hands, and slapped it onto the top of my head, and started rubbing it quite vigorously.... So imagine my surprise when white foam started to form, and I then realised she was shampooing my head!!! While I was sitting upright!!! While I was still in my clothes!!! How absolutely bizarre!!! And she was washing my hair for so long, I would have been able to wash my hair 3 times over if I was doing it myself!!!

I guess this is why girls like to cut their hair when stressed, the pampering did feel nice.... I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I wasnt rushing off for dinner.... The gelling of the hair finally came, and as hard as I tried to see how the girl did it, I could not re-produce the way she shaped my hair....

What was most amusing about this whole episode, were the reaction of everyone.... Myself included.... I thought I looked like an arse, but everyone else thought it was a huge improvement.... I looked a lot younger (but people already said I looked younger than my age), it looked good, some girls said it was cute.... now I take exception to the word cute, as its usually defined as ugly but adorable..... now you can call babies cute, dogs are cute, but me cute? I cant say I liked that....

But not everyone liked it.... My sister said it was ugly, my dad called it ridiculous and absurd.... I lauged after washing my hair that night, I thought I looked ridiculous too!!! Oh well, I now get to style my hair to whatever mood I'm in, that should make my mornings more interesting!!

The rubbish that my ears are subjected to!!

The stuff that comes out of the radio these days…. You cant call it the jukebox anymore, or the boombox, or whatever other fancy name that has been given to the radio…. Simply because nothing nice comes out of it…..

Its bad enough that things have gotten sooo commercialised, you hear more ads than anything else…. And irritating ones at that too…. Coupled with the annoying DJs, who more often than not either have the most annoying voice, an exaggerated “foreign” accent (or so they think), and lousy songs that hits the airwaves….

Well, not all DJs are bad, a small handful of them aren’t too bad…. There are some who I don’t mind listening to, though it helps that it takes me a mere 12 minutes to drive to work, hence my limited exposure to the radio…. But on days when it rains and I’m caught in a jam, without any CDs of my own in the car, then I’m in trouble….

The songs that are being churned out these days are simply too painful to the ears…. Well, my ears anyway…. Gone were the days when the melody was good, and the lyrics were smart and meaningful…. Now, its all about a catchy beat, it doesn’t matter what the song is all about as long as you can dance to it (this may not even be the case these days either!!!) while you don’t need to have a voice or talent, as long as you show off enough skin….. the state of the music these days is just disgraceful….

The most recent case in point has to be Paula Abdul…. I remember her fondly for the songs she gave us in the 80s, but her latest, “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” is just downright horrible…. She can no longer sing, the tune is non-existant, and the beat is downright annoying…. And to think she’s a judge on one of TV’s most popular reality show….. Do singers these days think its enough to speak into the mike, with a background beat to give the song its rhythm and timing?

I hate to live in the past, but the music in the 80s had the best rhythm and beat, whereas the 90s R&B has got the most soul in it…. The last noteworthy artiste that has emerged in the past 10 years has to be Craig David, I loved his 1st album, with catchy songs and incredibly smart and witty lyrics to go along with it…. But even he has fallen short of the lofty standards set by his first effort…..

So fed up am I that I have resorted to listening to various Spanish songs, which are more likely, jazz and lounge music when I feel tired and in need of something pleasant to listen to…. I hope when we enter the second decade of this century, the artistes will wake up and come up with better music…. I sure feel sorry for my kids who have nothing to look forward to otherwise…..

Bravo Idris Sardi

It was a wet night indeed, with the rain pouring, as it usually did on a daily basis in today’s rainy season…. The many puddles of water that I had to skip across on my way from the car to the entrance of Istana Budaya, where my family and I were to watch the performance of Idris Sardi, a renowned violinist from Indonesia….

The night did not began well, when I had to wait behind a queue of 5 people, and we were not moving… The ticket attendant was using only 1 computer to serve people buying as well as collecting tickets (like myself)….This despite having an additional 2 computers, which were idle, and obviously caused much irritation, myself included…. I later found out that the server was down due to the lightning, and that only 1 computer was functioning…. If only they had put up a sign, informing us of their difficulty, I’m sure we would have all showed much more patience while trying to get our tickets…. The idiot trying to keep us off the red carpet (a lot of us didn’t notice as we were all lost, trying to get tickets, trying to buy merchandise and CDs, trying to find a place to put our wet umbrellas, finding out way to the right entrance closest to our seat, etc) for the pending arrival of some VIPs also didn’t help our mood… Again, signs or clearer announcements would have been more than welcomed…..

Luckily, the performance itself was enjoyable, and the inconveniences faced earlier in the night were soon forgotten as the orchestra was introduced, and Idris Sardi himself strolled in….. They had projected scenes of a village backdrop, or still pictures to suit the mood of the songs throughout the performance…. While the music was a little loud, and the various musical instruments were competing to be heard, one instrument clearly stood out, that of the violin belonging to Idris, who turned out to be a true maestro….

While there was clearly a western influence to the intro of all his music (very Hollywoodish in my opinion), there was no mistaking the Malay flavour (he is after all Indonesian) which made you think of the countryside, and the kampong way of life… and the richness of his music, and the different emotions triggered by the melodic tunes from his violin, I never did realise you could have such a wide spectrum of feelings being expressed from one musical instrument…. A guest appearance by friends playing the flute and traditional drums (for ignorance of its actual name) only made the performance even more unforgettable….

His musical compositions were very interesting, and ranged from the slow full of emotion piece, to the happy and very danceable joget number.... He also displayed his versatility in the music that he played, belting out snippets of Besame Mucho, Yellow Bird and a dangdut song which I was not familiar with…. But it was his tribute to P Ramlee (he played 7 of the legend’s songs) that got the loudest applause…. We also got an insight to Idris Sardi the man, when he spoke at great length about himself (errrr, close to 30 minutes actually), of his opinion of the music that he plays, how his father (who was also a very accomplished violinist himself) had influenced him, and made him wake up at 5 in the morning to practice….

I’m glad my dad had asked me to join him for the show, and while I’m sure the Salsa Congress over the weekend would have been a blast, I must say I have no regrets attending Idris’s wonderful performance, if anything, it has opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Malay music!!!

What bonds us together....

Nothing brings people closer together than the death of a loved one…. Which is ironic, considering the fact that we need to lose one in order to get the rest of us to bond and unite….

Which was exactly what happened, when one of my uncles passed away… A mere few hours after his death, family and friends gathered at his residence, my family included, and we have not been to his new house since he moved in 4 months ago…. And a nice new house it is too, it was horrible though that we had to go to the new house under such circumstances….

Most of my cousins were there, you could feel the sadness in the air…. My uncle was only 57, and my dad and cousins of his generation who were much older probably felt it the most… My uncle’s death was so sudden, it just reminded us of how short and unexpected life can be….

This sad episode brought back memories of one of my close friends from school, when his mum passed away, and the rest of us, who have not been in touch since we left school all assembled at his house to pay our respects….

In current times, and considering how busy we are, we really should take more effort in staying in touch with those close to us…. Because you just never know when's the last time you'll get to see them….