bye bye 2006. hello 2007.

about 20 minutes ago, i sat down to blog about my achievements in 2006. 20 minutes later, i realised i didn't have much to write home about. i waited for a rush of things i had achieved this past year to come into my mind, i mean, it was 365 days worth of living.

but nothing came.

all i could think of was: i brought my mum on a trip to hongkong using my own hard-earned money. the first ever.

then i thought about jo's husband buying his parents a pair of first-class air tickets to singapore by the time he was my age.

that kind of put my achievement into perspective.

what happened to me in 2006? what did i do? did i just waste one entire year of my life away? when i thought back to this year that just passed, all i remembered was that i took each day as it came. not in a living-each-day-as-though-it-was-my-last or seize-the-moment-carpe-diem way, but a oh-god-just-let-me-survive-this-horrible-day way. a most depressing realisation. i honestly hope this is cos' of the melancholic mood i'm in now.

i've always wanted to live life to its fullest. but when it came down to the actual living, all i want to do is curl up in my bed with a book, occasionally fantasising about my object of affection. i'm such an escapist.

there are things that i'd like to do though. but i'm finding them so hard to:

1. i wish i had more confidence in myself and my beliefs.
2. i wish i really knew what i want to do with my life. i do so envy those people who do, and are honestly passionate about what they do.
3. more than anything in the world, i wish i had the guts to take 6 months to a year out to just travel and do nothing. i wish i did not constantly worry about holding a good job to justify my expensive overseas education / building a career / saving enough money, so on and so forth, and how a long hiatus from working would affect one or more of the above.

i guess if i had the first one, 2 and 3 come easily. but life's about overcoming all these "obstacles" i suppose, and moulding yourself into becoming the person that you'd like to be.

2007's probably a good year to try and make a head way with these "obstacles".

happy new year everyone.

first impressions.

how accurate are first impressions? i've been thinking about this since i heard my friend's first impression of me yesterday. long story short, he thought i was a "si gi na" (i would translate this loosely as immature) when he first met me.

i am very quick to judge, and to form first impressions of people. whilst my vibes about people are usually pretty accurate, there were times when my judgements have been very wrong - thus proving just how wrong first impressions can be.

i hated one of my closest and dearest friends on sight. when i first met her, she was very quiet, very sullen, and very curt. qualities which i found a major turn off. but beyond her moody exterior, mich is an extremely good listener. she was always there when i needed her to be, and always said the right things at the right time. at the same time, she's a mad, mad woman, and was always up for a good bitching / gossip session.

i met jo when i was a teacher. my first impression of her was a carefree tai-tai who spends her husband's money on branded apparels and accessories. wrong. jo is one of the toughest and shrewdest businesswomen i know. in addition to running her own business and helping out with her husband's, jo is a full-time mother. she's capable beyond belief. every cent she's spent, she's earned it.

my first impressions of some of my closest friends were completely wrong!

but often times, i am the misunderstood one. "si gi na" being one of them. i'm sure a part of me will always be a "si gi na", but i don't think it's who i am. i've been thought to be arrogant, cold and unfriendly. hello, i'm like how friendly can? BUT, i'm not a social whore. i actually do feel a little shy and nervous in an unfamiliar social setting. for some reason though, people laugh when i tell them that. i feel so maligned.

i guess first impressions aside, you really have to give a person some time to find out what he / she is really like.

homeboy, who? mayday i say!

i attended a concert organised by abc stout last night. the tickets did not come easy - 28 bottle caps for a pair of tickets - but thanks to shoe slut and her 江湖朋友, i didn't have to drink a single bottle.

i arrived at the concert at about 7.00pm and managed to snag very decent seats in the centre block, just behind the rock zone.

chen sheng opened the concert with quite a few of his more well-known numbers. his performance was a lot more entertaining than i had expected, mainly cos' i knew more songs of his than i thought i did. pin guan was up next, and whilst our malaysian boy had a really nice and soothing voice, he was very frankly, quite boring.

last but definitely not least, was chinese rock group, and the reason for my attendance, mayday. the energy that ran through the stadium before they even stepped onto the stage was amazing, and my heart just started pounding harder in my chest. i rather pity pin guan who probably knew that he was just preparing the audience for a much bigger act that would follow his. mayday finally took the stage, and opened with the fast number "孙悟空", and followed it with the equally "high-inducing" song, "john lennon", a tribute to the long-deceased beatle. i was up and standing by this time, bobbing enthusiastically to the songs, and singing with the band. the idiots behind me chose to remain sedate and act cool by sitting down (honestly, it's a rock concert!), but i really could care less if i were blocking their view of the stage. my cousin tried to "act cool" too but after a while, she couldn't contain herself and started bobbing together with the rest (and the best) of us.

the band then took a break from singing and spoke briefly about, and toasted drummer guan you's new baby daughter, guitarist stone's impending fatherhood, and lead singer ashin's birthday. long story short, they were just using all these recent developments in their lives to drink on the job. next up were the very effervescent "恋爱ING" (pronounced "lian ai eye-ern-gee"), the mayday classic beng song "轧车", the soothing love number "温柔", the inspiring and motivating "倔强" as well as some other songs which i don't remember. an encore was (naturally) called for when the band left the stage, and they finished off with a relatively less performed song "透露". chen sheng and pin guan then came on stage to celebrate ashin's birthday and of course, more stout had to be drunk.

i was quite disappointed that the band didn't perform the song which made them famous "志明与春娇" but all in all, the concert was mind-blowingly fantastic! i couldn't have asked for a better concert considering it was free, and it went on for 3.5 hours with mayday performing at least a good hour and a half of it. i left the concert on such a high i had trouble winding down and getting to sleep when i got home.

i recently watched a concert by my favourite homeboy, lee hom, and whilst that was an awesome concert, i must say i'd watch mayday over lee hom any time, any day. lee hom is mesmerising when he plays his musical instruments, but the pure energy and charisma exuded by mayday when they perform is simply unbeatable. their concert has to be experienced to be believed.

AWESOME.