Belated Greetings from Singapore 2!!!

So I have been meaning to do this for a while now! However, I had net issues. Blogger is blocked at work, which means I can't even read blogspot blogs while working either! Secondly, I thought I was in luck when I found an unsecured network in the apartment complex, yet that turned out to be very very sporadic to the extent that i'd be walking around the house with laptop in hand trying to get connected, and then when connected i'd try and finish as much as possible on the net before I get disconnected, which wasn't very long at all. Sigh. Thirdly, I found out that stealing internet from someone else's unsecured network is a criminal offence in Singapore. Shit. I wasn't planning on stealing forever. I promise! Since we're only in the country for 6 months, we only could get a contract with 1 ISP, M1, whose broadband was over a wireless GSM network using a GSM modem, rather than an ADSL modem. I thought that would be ideal cause we don't have to buy a router or modem, as it came free with the package, and we'd have broadband connectivity at 2Mbps immediately. After having paid a S$200 deposit for being a foreigner with a temporary visa, I took the device to my remotely located condo, only to find out M1 hasn't got great coverage where I live, even though they swore upon their mother's brownies they had me covered. So to cut a long story short, I took it back, argued, got my connection money back although my deposit is going to take a month to get to me! Bummer. Work finally arranged a connection for us through their own ISP, Starhub. Boss gave me a router and a modem, the ISP came to our office to arrange the contract (instead of us having to go queue up at starhub, which is a minimum wait of 30 mins) and there you have it, finally i'm connected legally at home!!! So anyway, I spent most my time while not at work walking around Singapore and exploring. Every corner has a food court/hawker market. Every second corner has a mall. Every third corner has an ice cream vendor who sells ice cream on slices of bread that look like ribbon cake. While exploring, I came across this. Classic. My work place for the next 6 months is in Raffles Place, which is the heart of the business district. It's a great area to be in for many reasons, especially since I'm 2 mins away from Boat Quay and this view. Finally picked up my tickets for Incubus AND KT Tunstall. Next Friday is Incubus, and I've been waiting for this a long time. Should I take half a day off from work and join the queue early? Boy am I excited. Let me do a bit of a Darwin and put a pic of the tickets just so I can brag a lil bit;) More on the Lanka Lions, Lisa Fitzgibbon at a very unfriendly Prince of Wales pub in Little India, soon.

Greetings from Singapore

Hello and welcome to Singapore! It's such a nice place, especially when I find an unsecured wireless network at my apartment, when i wasn't expecting to have internet for a week! The flight was delayed as usual by 45 minutes at BIA, but it eventually arrived at the brand new terminall at Changi airport, which was built especially to accomodate the A380. The terminal is beautiful. The A380, i'm not so sure, as I couldn't get a glimpse of it anywhere on the tarmac! I must say the roti parata meal on the plane certainly lifted me up from my leaving blues, and prepared me for what's to come. What did come? An apartment that needs lots and lots of cleaning. But even that is ok, now that I have internet. So after a meal of Chicken Rice at the local food court and 2 hours of cleaning the kitchen and a bathroom, here I am catching up on what i've missed in the last so many hours since I've been online! Plenty going on at Darwin's, fuelled by a plot by a bunch of bearded buggers' to assassinate the makers of dilbert. (Darwin - my sincere apologies for not being able to reply. As you can see, I was stuck in mid air!) My only gripe about that whole scenario is that I wish people would live and let live when it comes to sensitive issues such as race, religion, sex, sexuality, etc. Anyway, it's bed time, or at least it feels like it even though it's only 8:45pm back home in CMB. There's plenty more cleaning to be done in the morning. p.s. The album has reached 300 downloads!

Sunday Jams

Sunday is a night i'd want to relive in my memory forever. So there we were, the final sound check before our last gig together as this line up; Jim on drums, Aadhil on vocals and guitars, Sarani on Lead, Uvindu on bass and myself on guitars. It was 7:30pm, but we knew no one ever came on time, so we took our time perfecting the sound. If at all, it sounded a little echo-ey, but once the people started trickling in that problem would be solved. It was sounding nice, we were pumped and ready to go, so we left our stuff and sat down. Sarani, Uvindu and I got there early. Real early! 4pm to be precise. This was our own gig, and the club had given us permission to do whatever we wanted. So there we were, the three of us redecorating the furniture arrangement at Zanziba while the sound people set up. This involved a lot of pulling, pushing, lifting, grunting and heaving before falling flat on the couches, tired of exhaustion. But we were happy with the end result. Around 9:15pm CC took the stage along with Vidhu, Nuvina and Sarani. It was a great little set from them, however I was disappointed that they didn't play Micheal Jackson's Earth Song as promised. But, as usual, CC was ever competent at wooing the crowd. Next up were us! We were looking at 2 sets and 15 songs in total. It was the first time ever that I had to play that many songs, and boy did it feel good. There are no words to express the feeling you get from playing live. Maybe RD can help there! But to see the crowd moving to your music gives you a wonderful kick! Although we only played 3 covers on the night, the highlight for me was our version of Matchbox 20's How Far We've Come. In the middle of the song I looked up to find Aadhil on the floor, belting the chorus out! The whole band was tight on the night. Jim is an amazing drummer, but I've never seen him play any better, and I could see the crowd just staring at him open mouthed and in awe. Sarani just blew the roof off with his lightening solos. Uvindu was just happy to be himself and play his funky grooves. I could tell Aadhil was just having the time of his life, and I was standing there with my guitar trying to soak it all in. It wasn't a huge crowd, but it was a lovely crowd! It was also the first time that the audience took the stage and jammed. We were entertained by Magicbox Mixup, Cynosure, Anil, Ranil, Spy, Star 69 and a host of others! What's this post getting at? Well, I'm not really sure. But it was a great experience playing with these guys. All of them have a lot more experience than me, and I enjoyed a wonderful learning curve. So thank you, and I hope we can jam again sometime, somewhere:) Thank you to all who came, including fellow blogger themissingsandwich . Hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did.

Sunday, bloody Sunday

So we're gigging again, but I gotta tell you, it's damn hard work! It's doubly hard this time cause we're doing an entire show by ourselves, which involves preparation for 2 sets over 2 hours! Good lord! The daily routine has been killing. Work during the day, practice at night. But I must admit, the songs are taking a completely different shape with the addition of Sarani. RD, i'm guessing Sarani's our version of what young Rich is to Mimosa. This guy is fabulous, and definitely soon to be one of Colombo's best! Now i'm no Santana, but he makes me feel like a 7 year old with a guitar when he gets going. Definitely a god on guitar! The gig's on Sunday night at Zanziba. Free entrance too, so if you're in Colombo please do come, as RD did the last time round. We're having CC (TNL Onstage Solo winner) performing with us on the night too! And a week from Saturday, it's off to Singapore.

Download Link

Pic by Lindsay MS3: After the Rain is available for download here. In other news, no frigging sms till 12? How am i supposed to wish uncle Mahinda? More abt the trip to Unawatuna which was cut short by Jazz Unlimited which was cut short by Deyata Kirula which was cut short by recent bombings, soon.