Seek, and you shall find...

...something least expected. A modelling opportunity!

I found myself in the premises of an Old School campus in Clerkenwell, on a Thursday afternoon, for a 15 minute interview.
A volunteer opportunity for this year's London Jazz Festival at the Producers.

15 minute is short to tell 2 people a story about why you want a job for free, how to ace an interview with very little relevant experience (in hindsight, I could've listed lots more) , so I injected them with passion. My little mind ticking everytime I am in a theatre, what kind of shows will get bums on seats, whether modernisation of classical sets were the way to go, how much to pay artists, attract talent, marketing. The bottom line of my thoughts, I told them, is because I was trained as an accountant. I also said I played the saxophone, and that got their attention, and had their colleague to come in and let me in on their latest project...

Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon - 26th October, I found myself in the Portico rooms of Somerset House. In Concert Musician Black. With a room of other saxophonists. There were chatter, everyone was unloading boxes.

Real cool. We filled in the forms, got paid, and filed into the room which looked like a setting for a press conference - with London 2012 logo and many of the sponsors too. We were to pose, but not play. How to stop horn players from tooting away? Some chose to not insert a reed. Some had their mouthpiece covers on. I came prepared with earplugs from Deafness Research charity that I had been volunteering that morning, thinking there will be musicians letting loose. But it didn't happen.

in the drizzle, we went down into the courtyard - and were asked to form into a shape of the union jack. 'The Asian lady, stand here'...the photographer hollered from the balcony..yes, who else but me. I got into position, looked up, no one asked to smile. Tried to look natural. Same as everyone else.

There were a few other poses. inside, on the stairs. Photographers wanted to know how many girls were there - we were certainly in the minority and had to be mixed around to provide variety to the mix. Diversity as a theme of the Olympics I reckon.

the stairwell , im 3rd up on the left on the stairs. some saxophonists refused to dangle their horns over the railings - these were precious instruments.

We finished off with a final shot outside looking like we were playing behind water - being the River of Music theme.

We then were dismissed - back in the room, undid our mouthpieces, commented on the niceness of each other's horns, how they got into this photoshoot, and what they are going to do with the money. An assembly of players on a weekday afternoon, and who would be free to do this? Only when opportunity presents itself unexpectly.


A day later, some of these pictures were to appear in the press release and further photos. Spot me - pretty obvious I would think! :)

Andy Shepherd (front left) is going to hold an event with 200 saxophonists closer to the Olympics and we would be notified in due course...it would be interesting as it was absolute torture for almost 30 players to gather that day and not make music. It would've been a good jam session.

I didn't get the volunteer role at the London Jazz Festival this year. Which means I will now make my impact as the audience again, analytical mind ticking, wondering how many bums on seats and which ones would've emptied out halfway before the show is done. Perhaps this will free me up for better things that are coming this way?

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

This afternoon, we were in BestBuy
Trialling photobooth
Here, there, different backgrounds.
"Move away from the screen"
The screen says.
When we did, the rollercoaster moved
Ahh...a stroke of genius!
I picked up the MacBook air
Thinking, can I make my next laptop, an Apple?
Thinking of my shares in another laptop manufacturer
And incompatibility with the work of any conventional employer

But ....The lightness, the Smoothness.
Intuitive funky graphics,
The Apple of my eye
Has a higher price to buy

The Apple family that's changed my life, from Nike+, to Podcasts to FaceTime to iPad HDMI videos..as it has for many others too.

The news came that the founder today has died.
Goodbye Steve, hope you've had the time of your life. May you Rest in Peace.

Sent from Bonnie's iPhone4 (not quite waiting for an iPhone5, like many others, but the day will come)

Knife Skills 101

Knife skills, why need them?
Don't we already know from picking it up and using it, from home economics classes in high school, or from the amazing mandolin salespeople in department stores?

I spent a worthwhile saturday morning at Central Market Houston (our local for all fresh food) as a student again, back to the basics, Knife Skills 101.

Armed with my Messermeister knife bag and a few of the Wusthofs in our 'touring collection',

I set off onto the first floor of Central market, to a classroom with groups of tables and a demonstration bench. I always look out for the number of demonstration benches to get a feel for how hands on the class is, and this time, they had chopping boards lining up the front bench with chef's knife for everybody (we were encouraged to bring our own).

Our class started promptly at 10am. Chef explained to us that Knife Skills were essential to greater efficiency in the kitchen, and proceeded to give us some theoretical background on types of knives, safety, uses, maintenance, and then got us all to work at the benches.


We had good practice on slicing, dicing, julienne, supreme ( a technique to use only the soft bits in citrus fruits) on various vegetables - onions (no goggles required although some of us did get emotional), tomatoes, garlic (smash and mincing), potatoes (making fries was that easy?), basil, oranges, grapefruit and pineapple. I love it when instructors explain why we add salt onto garlic before mincing (to draw out the moisture) , or take seeds off tomatoes for pasta sauce (seeds were bitter), as the best way to learn is to know why and to proceed with it.




The fruits of our labor became dinner - was the line on the course description. I had wondered why, but found the answer at 12pm when we settled in our groups with a meal and glass of white to taste the products of our knife work - thanks to all the assistant chefs around.

The key to perfecting knife skills is practice, practice, practice. Equipped with refreshed skills, I can make myself more useful in the kitchen, with more efficient techniques in food preparation. Sharpening the Saw, Woodshedding.....practice makes perfect.


Another thing we were taught, if we drop a knife (even if it is worth $1000), let it drop. It is not worth losing 4 fingers over $1000). Glad to report that no fingers were lost during the class :)

Insightful, and essential. What a class. And with the perfect excuse to tour Central Market in its busy-ness on a saturday lunchtime, all the fruit/food tastings...the chef's world is more than an oyster, when it includes chopped fruits and vegetables.

I am looking forward to more kniving fun in the future.  :)