Wherein I pass my driving test the first time round !!!

Amongst the more exciting things that have happened since the concerts that I've attended weeks ago, I've been sick and I've passed my driving FIRST-TIME round.

I didn't go to see a doctor until I was almost recovered. I had a horrible throat infection you see. The doctor prescribed antibiotics, flu medicine and cough syrup. I got a nasal spray for my allergies (FINALLY). Doctors I've seen before told me that I didn't have asthma and only were prepared to give me pills for runny nose or the breathing difficulties I sometimes experienced. They say that my breathing passages constrict but not excessively enough to deem it as asthma. They always asked for me to monitor my situation.......BLEAH

I finally got it this time and it was quite expensive, costing $25. The whole trip to the doctor cost me $50+. Super painful for me since I am trying to defray costs. However it seems that every month I must experience unexpected one-time-off events that have nothing to do with food, transport or even the spending allowance I set aside.

I over-spend every month.

OUCH !!

Oh of course the driving licence is another 50 bucks this month and it is barely one week after pay day.

Sigh.....sometimes I wonder why money just disappear so fast.

Of course on driving. I was exceedingly grateful that I got through the first time. I wasn't nervous, in fact I was as calm as I could be. I have more skirts and shorts than jeans, what to mix and match? In fact having heard how the gentle half of the population got through by wearing mini-skirts, I wonder if I should just wear whatever I want and look good so that I will feel good. Almost immediately, the idea was trashed in favour of more practical clothing. it was a dilemma between looking good and getting a confidence boost or comfort for practical purposes. I calmly reasoned that the more comfortable I am, the better I would be at presenting my driving skills which should be exhibited. I was somewhat feeling quite secured.

Everything went quite smoothly during the trial except for tagging too closely and failing to check blind spots etc...

During the test.....

I struck the kerb once during vertical parking and I failed to park a straight car into the lot even after the tester gave me another shot at it. I was going.. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit" in my head because I couldn't tell if I had mounted or struck the kerb. If I had mounted the kerb, it would be an immediate failure and I thought I felt the car go up....

The tester gave rapid instructions and kept reiterating his instructions when I fail to respond within 2 seconds. He would say turn left and then turn right and then if within 2 seconds the car that had veered left had not veer right, he would repeat for the car to turn right.

Believe me ......if it was anybody else issuing orders in that tone, I would have smacked him.

Oh then my car stalled in the feeder lane.

I went "Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit" again in my head but I took heart in the fact that he cannot fail nor give me demerit points for the stalling of the engine.

Everything else went quite all right.

The tester followed me after we got out of the car to the briefing room. I was quite strickened because I still didn't know if I had mounted that kerb !!! He refused to say anything and I was too in fear of him to ask. He seemed quite unfriendly.

And then after we sat at the table in a little booth for him to brief me, he started off telling me that I have struck the kerb. I was pursing my lips the whole of the test after the vertical parking segment and I gave him a woebegone face but I heaved a sigh of relief within. He then proceeded to inform me that my engine had stalled.

I bit my lips. He asked me if I knew where it had stalled. Being treated like an errant child, I couldn't help acting like an errant child. "Errr...erm...outside the school...er...the filter lane there..."

"Why did it stall?!!"

"err...let go of the clutch too soon?" I offered in a small voice.

He turned his attention to the evaluation paper and calculated the marks. When he wrote a brisk 16. I couldn't help but broke into a smile. He asked if it was my first driving test and I said yes.

He signed the paper and said, "Ok lah.. driving not too bad..proceed to the first floor"

I couldn't contain my excitement and before I left, I thought I saw a hint of a smile tugging at his stern lips.

Chups - passed driving the first time round !!

The same as the father and the cousin-uncle. It runs in the family !!

Of course the father still doesn't know I've got my licence, though the mother knows.

Now...to indulge in more interesting activities closer to the heart!!

Concerts and Music

(SUPER BACKDATED)

上个星期......陈绮贞
这个星期......巫启贤
下个星期......张震岳

Cheer Chen:

Initially I was disappointed at the simplicity of Cheer's concert. It had a relatively small audience. $80 seemed too steep a price to pay. However as the night went on, her music gave me a certain peace that I haven't experienced in a while. Cheer's concert was surreal. I loved her music and her 'indie' music worked the crowd. People stood up and sang along with her. I stood on the chair. The amazing thing was because everything was so simple. No fanciful stage elements, no charismatic talk to work the crowd, just her continual singing for two and a half hours.

Plus a five time encore.

It was the first concert I've been to where the singer came out to give an encore after the lights came on. Nobody wanted to leave nor did I want an end to the night. I've always known I have an unexplicable love for her music and that night the love, together with the inability to reason that love, deepened. The end of the concert filled me with a tinge of sorrow. Her music calls out to me, despite my recognition that her music is not pretty nor fanciful. I know why I like certain music and how I could see them and feel them, like the wind, like the tinkling drops of the rain, like brilliant summer days or gentle warm sunsets. I know why I like colourful music or simple monochrome ones, why I like swinging bossa nova ones or discordants ones, why I like decorum classicals or oriental Chinese music. Yet sometimes, I cannot understand Cheer's songs. I cannot translate it through any of my senses. Her music are like pieces of white paper that I do not understand and sometimes I think it is the unknown that draws me so closely.

Her songs are imbudded with quiet strength, like wildflowers that nobody recognises nor adore yet like wildflowers which dots the valleys and brings life, sometimes I think that her songs are life itself; inexplicable, mysterious, filled with inner courage and strength that transcends beyond words.

Sometimes, I just wish I could allow myself more respite and remain in another dimension, not having to face up to reality.

I didn't want her concert to end.

巫启贤

To tell the truth, I had second thoughts about attending the concert. It was so far away.. at the other end of the island and KH had organised a trip to a fish farm owned by the father of a member for a belated mid-autumn celebration and word has it that it would be gone soon as they are going to have to move.

Such a dilemma.

In the end I decided to attend after all.

I thought the turnout would be average. I asked Nana how many tickets were left and she said 100. Next I asked about the seating capacity and I was told it was about 5000. I was stunned. And to think I was wondering if I should regret my decision.

I met Nana and her teacher Peter 老师 and it was my second time meeting him after the movie premier of 881 in July. It was pretty sweet that he remembered me. I guess because he is related to the entertainment industry and all and he must see lots of people very frequently so I didn't expect him to remember people he cross path every now and then.

Our seats were good. Centre block, middle of the third row. Mr Liang Wen Fu sat two rows directly in front of me. Li Fei Hui sat at the other end of the second row. His family and close friends took up the first two rows and Eric Moo's brother was a hunk !!!

After the concert, I could see girls actually rushing to take pictures with him.

Eric Moo's concert brought back a lot of memories. I was very moved as I listened to the old songs and we sang and sang. At certain points in time, I actually put a hand to my heart because I remembered the past so vividly and I was so moved as the scenes came to me one after another.

While we listened, while we sang, I caught the eye of a woman sitting diagonally in front of me. Her daughter slept in her lap. It was a very special moment when we held each other's gaze and we smiled.

Music is just so strong.....in bonding people, in evoking shared memories of the good old days. It doesn't matter what kind of memories you had. The past...it means the same to all of us.

Anyway I think the family and friends took notice of us because we were so exuberant, not to mention, young. When Eric Moo said to give him 30 seconds to prepare, we counted down. People in front turned back to look at us and laughed. We sang along. We cheered, shrieked, clapped and shouted for encore.

There was even an auntie who claimed she was part of Eric Moo's clan in Taiwan and asked for our numbers. Nana and I looked at each other and she hurriedly said that our emails will do fine too...In the end we gave her our emails, not that she has contacted us anyway... haha

After people didn't leave and continued to crowd around the front despite how the packing of the instruments have already started.... and the lights were all switched on...and Eric Moo finally came out in T-shirts, bermudas and sport shoes...having already changed out.

I think he intended to just thank the crowd for our enthusiasm but someone passed him a microphone and there was an uproar from the crowd upon seeing the microphone in his hands.

In the end he gave an encore with only his voice.

I gave Nana a hug and thanked her for letting me go with her. I love music so much that I am always extremely grateful to Nana for remembering that.

On the way out, his CD's were sold out and then someone passed me a poster of him.

It was an emotionally fulfilling night.

张震岳

Initially, the concert wasn't impressive. In fact it was almost disappointing. The first few songs that he started with seemed to sound better on CD.

And the crowd was weird. Somebody brought posters with the chinese character 站 (stand) and eventually everybody stood. The crowd was like so dead and it was the first time I've seen someone actually succeed in working a dead crowd and the result was a robotic crowd.

Don't get me wrong. I have no doubt that everybody enjoyed the concert, they were just so passive that even after being made to somewhat display enthusiasm, passive enthusiasm is the result.

I remembered the last time 张震岳 came with MC Hotdogs, they were good ! Ok, he gradually sounded better. I guess it was due to the nature of the newer songs which sound better with simple acoustic guitars, and the simplicity of the event didn't allow for too much back-up.

The new songs were good and it's strange but Zhang Zhen Yue and Cheer always seemed like the voice of Taiwan more like anybody elses'.

The general feeling of Zhang Zhen Yue I get is images of long winding mountain roads with the sun brilliant and the wind blowing through my hair.

It feels as though I should even swagger a bit when listening to him.

I like him because I like his songs.

I like his songs because I could see character and mayhap a bit if 'thumbing up' in them. I like his songs because of the edge to his songs.

I bought his CD and got it autographed !! *beams

I am uber happy !!

Thanks Uncle for being so gracious to allow little me to go wih him........

Ok that's the end of my being sweet.. PUI PUI !!

Luckily Uncle got me to bring him to the venue plus I provided entertainment lor. I lost count of the number of times I suffered from his malicious attacks for self-entertainment ...*sobs...

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I really really love music.

I love the way it can resonate through my entire being and the centre of my chest, the place next to my heart vibrates. It becomes music that I can actually physically feel.

Sometimes the hunger gets so bad like now that I don't know what to do with it. Only then I will realise that my need for it is so intense. Music in all shape and form makes me feel so much, I can liken it to experiencing the awe of seeing a painting like the Mona Lisa for the first time, each and every time and I really crave it.

I cannot live without music.

If you ask me, would I choose sight or hearing, I would choose sight. Because I would not know how to function if I am blind. I would rather be dead than to be without pride.

But if you ask me, would I choose to see without colour or hear without music, I would choose to see live in a monochrome world. Because even if I am able to hear, I would not be whole without music.

..and then....there is still tons of unfinished theory homework... (>.<)