What a glorious day for royal...Final day synopsis

So I got to the match around 10:30. The overnight pair had already added 50 runs and were cruising along nicely. As I got there I was flabbergasted by the magnificent stroke play. 4…6…4…6…The ball was constantly on the other side of the boundary rope. The Royal fans were going absolutely mad! The booze was flowing freely. The songs were sung lustily. The cheers were straight from the gut. The thomians were holding their heads in their hands looking rather tearful. Then Fernando reached his 50. 5 balls later so did Tantrigoda. Lunch! Can we actually save this? The pair had obviously been given striking orders at the lunch break and boy did it show during the session right after. Having surpassed the Thomian score, the Royal batsmen put on a further 120 runs but lost 2 more wickets in the process. Declared at tea, and the game was on! The Royal fielders came out to the blaring sounds of the papare, the deafening cheers of the crowd and blue and yellow smoke bombs going off everywhere. The Royalists, who were down and out in the morning, were sensing something good was about to happen. 20 overs. 120 runs. 10 Wickets. The thomians lost their first at 20, giving the royalists some hope. Then 2 quick wickets. 12 overs later the thomians were reeling at 79/7 with just 3 overs left. Light was offered, the thomians took it. And then I woke up…

Musicians Wanted!

I've been looking high and low to find ppl to jam with since i got back. It's not easy to find musicians who are more than just copy-cats. Does anyone want to meet up and jam, even if it's just for fun? I'm looking for open-minded, easy going folk. I'm no brilliant guitarist. So i'm not fussed about your ability at the instrument at all. As long as you've got your own style and you're willing to try new things, that's really all that matters. My influences are quite varied: Goo Goo Dolls, Incubus, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, Muse, Nirvana, A perfect circle, Audioslave, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Lifehouse, Gin Blossoms, Snow Patrol, etc etc. Whatever instrument you play, or even if you're a vocalist, if you're interested, please let me know.

Roy - Tho, 1st day

So the day belonged to thora. Impressive performance. Peiris (161) and Mazahir (162) put on god knows how much for the 3rd wicket. Amazing partnership. Unfortunately i missed seeing it first hand as by the time i got to the ground peiris had gone, mazahir was just leaving, along with 3 other thomians. Half an hour after i got to the SSC thora had declared at 374/7. Top stuff. Very good declaration i thought. Royal started well: thanks to the extras i must add. When the score was at 28/0, the opening pair were 2 and 6 respectively. The openers went pretty fast. I thought royal made a big mistake by sending 2 night watchmen. Tantrigoda went for 0, defeating his purpose. So we start tomorrow morn at 40/3. Long road ahead. I just hope the match lasts till saturday. The crowd was at about 50%. After nearly 4 years it was so damn good to hear the sound of the papare and see everyone having an awesome time. Gave me goosebumps. I dont think anyone could feel as excited as a Royalist or a Thomian during this time of the year. It's hard to explain the meaning of this match... it's not just about rivalry either...It's good to be back. Win or lose, the baila beat goes on!

Of dickheads behind desks and fucktards behind the wheel...

Let me start with the dickheads. Having recently moved to a new place, i'm dying to lay my hands on an ADSL connection. Reason being that my former neighbour who was so freely providing me with access to his wireless net connection (unknowingly of course) having forgotten to secure the darned thing with a password. Too bad i couldn't find him a place close by. So i go to SLT yesterday, pick out the form "new ADSL applicants", fill it out and go to the guy that's sitting at a desk who is obviously free. Guy-at-Desk (hereinafter GAD) - "no sir, u need to go talk to the lady sitting over there" (points finger towards a lady) Since the lady has two ppl with her i patiently wait 10 minutes next to GAD. At 10 minutes on the dot this is what followed... GAD - "sir, don't worry i can do it from here" (why in fucks sake didnt u say so in the first place?) So i hand him the application. GAD - "what do u want?" (It boldly says "APPLICATION FOR NEW ADSL CONNECTION" on the form) Me - "err...new ADSL connection" he types in the tel no into the system. GAD - "sir, number is registered to someone else" Me - "yes i know i just moved in there" GAD - "cant give connection" Me - ???? "why not?" GAD - "not ur house" Me - "I just moved in there 3 days ago. The connection might be in his name but from now i'm paying the bill" GAD - "doesnt matter. cant give connection" at which point the lady he originally pointed out to comes along (let's just call her P. Vesi, for her name should've been that) P. Vesi - "whats the problem" GAD explains situ P.Vesi - "cant give connection" (wtf, are u guys inserted with the same broken record when u join SLT?) Me - "madam, i've just moved in there, i'm the one who will be paying for the connection charges as well as the monthly fee. i will also be paying the telephone charges for that line. This guy the phone is registered to doesn't live there. Even if u give the connection in his name and i decide not to pay for it, then ur in trouble coz u cant get me to pay for it! Can't u see it's better if u just give the connection in my name? it's better for u? (bills get paid) it's better for slt? (new customer)" If i was her right now, i'd be like "yeah sure sir no problem, i'm sorry abt the confusion, if it's a new connection u want that'll bring us money that we're not earning right now yeah u can have it" P.Vesi "cant give connection". Me - "i need to speak to a manager" Points me to Fat lady who obviously struggled to get behind her desk, and struggled even more to sit at her chair which has two arm rests. Her intricately over padded love handles now rest on them with a sigh of joy for her, with a heave of horror for anyone who walks past. She sits there with a look that says "customer is king, but i'm the queen bee, bitch" So i nervously go up to her Me - ...ah fuck it, i just explain to her the scenario Queen - "cant give connection" at this point i'm convinced those three words are what is in the SLT manual for new employees under the insightful heading "Customer Service for Dummies". Me - "lady, if i decide not to pay, u can't force me to if the connection is in his name....It's in ur best interests that it be in my name...dont u comprehend? tu estupido? tum paagal ladki? thamuseta hukana molayak nadda oyyy!?!" Queen - "cant give connection" At which point i get up, laugh in the bitches face for i'm convinced those are the only 3 words they all know, pick out another form and leave. I'm gonna fucking put my name down the way they want it (in the other guy's name of course), sign it, and go to another outlet. Are the majority of Sri Lankans incapable of thinking outside the box? Maybe think "hey this might be a good thing after all" instead of following the rubbish that is dished out to them? AGH! On the bright side, i'll have ADSL soon anyway. Under my new alias of course. Was going to post about the fucktards on the roads. But they don't even deserve a bloody mention. But if u do meet em, pass the msg "pls drive straight, don't cut into my lane coz u see a small enough space thats only big enough to fit ur puny dick, don't give me shit when u fuck up, and finally RED MEANS FUCKING STOP! boy...lots of angst in me...that felt better.

The mother of all big matches...

It's officially Royal-Thomian week. The one week where the boys of both schools are officially encouraged to do fuck all. If that isn't reason enough to be happy, the week ends with Colombo's largest gathering of lads, lasses, booze, papare bands, and, as of late, burly security guards, which adds up to the best carnival experience that Sri Lanka has got to offer! Ah i wish i was back in school again. Tuesday would be the day where the prefects would take on the teachers in a softball game and the whole school would be there to shout and (j/ch)eer their favourite teacher. Tuesday is also the day for the highly entertaining Royal - Thomian debate, which usually starts off on a topic of relevance but quickly moves on to mudslinging of the highest order at which point the old boys are allowed to join in too. Wednesday is the day we used to play cat and mouse. The boys would be both : When the boys want to be cats, the mice are the poor students of all established girls' schools in the city(who i'm told actually enjoy being preyed upon. Is that so?). When the cops decide they want to play as well and decide that they want to be bloody cats at that, well the tables get turned. Ah the joys of the cycle parade! I've religiously gone for every single match since i was 5 years old. Thanks to uni, i missed the last 3. So i trudged to College on 2 hours of sleep at 9 am on the 24th of Feb and made sure i got the tickets i wanted for this years match. Now i need to figure out how i can slip off work early on thursday and friday. Nevertheless, Saturday promises to be nothing short of brilliant - if the match lasts that long. Both teams have had a mixed season (a nicer way of saying "unreliable" for all the dimwits and blondes out there). Apparently the scales tip slightly in the favour of Thora, but that's bollocks ok? Take my word for it. So while the other schools kid themselves that their big match is the best, Colombo is getting ready for the biggest party yet!

Moving again...Where to boss?

In the last 10 years i've moved house a whopping 8 times! It's not that i'm trying to get the police off my trail or that i pissed some minister off and i don't want him to find me. I think i owe most of the numbers to my uni days: Moving once at the end of the academic year, and once again after summer. Well today is going to be the 9th bloody time! This time it's my whole family. This time too its more or less my fault. The appartment was a good size apparently until i decided to come back home. Not that i'm a bucket of lard so big that i knock into everything while at home. Far from it actually. Furthest from it that anyone can be as a matter of fact! Anyway, i came back, settled my self into what was the family room. After a while they couldn't handle the fact that i'd complain that i was woken at 7am cause someone wanted to watch tv, or better yet, at 6 am when the phone rings! (don't ask who calls at that ungodly hour cause i don't give a shit). So it was finally decided we need more room. Mum asks me whether i'm sad to leave the appartment. Heck no! I've barely lived in it. I'm also immune to moving. Done it too often. I left today for work from the appartment. Going home to a house in Nawala. Now atleast i don't have to worry about waking the neighbours too much cause they don't live above, below and to every side of me anymore. Now i can turn my amp up loud and begin to play! (sorry paul simon, didn't mean to steal your line).

...Simplicity review

My second attempt at my own blog. Hopefully this time it'll last. This time though, thanks to a few ideas, there is some purpose behind it. Hopefully this might even produce some results. The other night i found my self enthusiastically heading towards Mount Beach hoping to catch some good live music. Left home late expecting things to kick off at 8pm Sri Lanka time (i.e. ... well you definitely know that it's not gonna start at 8). Got to Mount at around 9:15pm. Finding parking was a nightmare. Think i ended up down every street headed towards the beach on Hotel Road. After 20 minutes of looking (longer than the actual drive) for Palm Beach Hotel and then parking I was trudging along towards where it all happened. After 10 minutes of wading through the sand and 10 minutes more of saying hi to friends the damn show had still not started! It finally got under way closer to 10. Was an impressive line up on paper. Jada started off with a Paul Simon cover. A usually impressive lot, i wasn't surprised with their song selection. Well same went for a lot of bands on the night, cause as expected all most of the songs that were played were covers that you would expect to hear from a local "rock band". So anyway, lets cut the crap and give you some of the highs and lows of the night. In no specific order. Cannot help but start with HollowPoint Halo who played two of their own and a cover of Tool's The Pot. Ranil and Marsh were absolutely brilliant. Well we could sense the crowd only expected such brilliance as they moved in right up close to the stage when HPH were setting up. I was left speechless and with my jaw playin with the beach sand on the floor for the two of them conquered the sheer complexity of each piece they played. Absolutely brilliant stuff. Fuzz Mechanix did a beautiful version of Stevie Wonder's "you are the sunshine of my life". They also did a few incubus covers which were nice. Nothing extraordinary. But their bassist is absolutely amazing. He plays with such a vibe about him that you're just content to sit and stare at the way he caresses his guitar. The lead vocalist/guitar is also in a class of his own. I didn't quite take to the way they sounded usually, but this acoustic set, i believe, brought out the best in them. Shaun (from the old Jacob's Ladder) did a nice version of 45 and also a very refreshing version of Billy Jean. LONR left a lot to be desired. Magic Box Mixup fell short of the brilliant performances that they usually put up. Sad that they will be on an extended break though. Adil left much to be desired, although he did try to play originals which should be commended. His final song 'Underground', from his days in the Brass Monkey Band, was super though. The others didn't make much of an impression on me i guess although there were a few nice performances here and there from the likes of Virginia, GINT (I think thats right), etc. I think the main reason why the show fell well below expectations was that the bands more or less took it for granted. The covers were too obvious. You could've written a list of the songs that you thought you might hear at such a night and 9 times out of 10 you'd have been right. If they had tried to make the covers there own it would've been so much better, i.e. what HPH did with the TOOL cover they played. When you resign yourself to playing mediocre covers and putting up mediocre performances, it gives reason for the crowd to go home at midnight, which was the case. Ideally I personally would've loved to see more originals being played. Would've brought out the real musicianship of the performers rather than their ability to read chords or tabs over the internet. No one wants to pay 500 bucks to see rubbish. I'd much rather download the music for free, albeit illegally. It also got me thinking, most of the bands lack the ability to "entertain". My parents come back from the Cliff Richards show and they were wowed. Why can't i come back from a gig in Colombo and feel the same? What i'd like to see is more bands like HPH, BrassMonkeyBand (can't believe they're more or less over). I'd like to see musicians play like the bassist from Fuzz Mechanix - like they actually love what they're doing. Tall ask? Maybe if this could be achieved we'd have a better following of music in Colombo. At Simplicity the majority of the crowd sat on the beach staring out to sea. Probably because most of the bands were all out at sea! Then again, i'd also like to see less of the crowd at the next gig. I hate seeing people who want to be there just to be seen, not because they like the music. There's this little run down place called the Adelphi down DeGrey street in Hull, England which has hosted bands such as Radiohead and Oasis long before the bands became famous. Recently Paolo Nutini did a free gig their too. Picture a badly lit 2 car garage. Picture posters on the walls of gigs that have happened there. Picture graffiti everywhere, an almost broken down stage and a bar in the corner. An old man named Paul who has run the place for 20 years, never making a profit. He does it only for the love of music at the threat of being closed down too. I had the rare opportunity of seeing some inspirational musicians there who used to play like they loved what they do. More importantly, i had the honour of experiencing the audience that would grace that place - they were all there coz they wanted to hear live music. They'd all clap and cheer even if the musician was shit, just to support the guy on stage. They wouldn't walk out just because their friend had finished playing. Music lovers they truly were. I'd only wish for such an audience in Sri Lanka. Some day...