On birthday's eve

As I stand and watch the fireworks in front of my eyes,
with a heavily pregnant friend of mine
In the crowds, bonfires and smoke surrounding
I realised what it's all about.

Thirty something years ago
My own mother was in the hospital ward
Pushing, waiting for the moment her first born comes into the world.

The start of a lifetime of opportunities and fun experiences,
The dawn of new hope
Worrying if she would cope

Yes, celebrations, year upon year upon year.
Big, small, cakes, candles, the crowd comes and goes.
Some stay, and always will.
Not the ones because of what you have/don't have,
Not the ones because of where you live and whether they have better places to be seen at.
But the ones who brought you here, those truly grateful that you came into their world. Those precious few.

It's not about the presents -
Be it to brag a bag from Tiffany's or a star from Michelin
It's about presence - advancing another year with learnings from experiences past.
A new year for yourself, to advance and learn.
Of nuturing treasured relationships, less of those that slash and burn.

Deterioration being the inevitable criterion
Do we hasten its pace, or stop the race?
To enjoy at one's own pace
In real, nature or in virtual space.

Happy Birthday,
We age and reflect in time this time every year, but it's really just another day. ;)







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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.  :)

Killing time whilst on the road

Our journey home last night was delayed by around 4 hours (started driving around 4pm and only got home by 1130pm (incl a brief stop at Maccas to update ourselves via free wifi) due to this chemical spill on the I-10

It's the first time i've ever seen traffic come to a standstill on a freeway like this.No one knows what is really happening. local radios have proved themselves uninformative, stating only a diversion.

Stop. Start. Stop. Start.
 

How do people kill time on the roads  on these long commutes? 

STOP
You might see some get off, go to the back to their coolbox, grab some beers, and 'watch' the action (such as news reporters (as pictured). Truckies emptying plastic water bottles of yellow liquid out their windows, and then bottles of clear liquid afterwards..hmmm.

START
Whilst on the move, the roads are straight and pretty much uneventful (apart from the occasional rogue lane-changers, and the usual desire to overtake trucks, and then being overtaken by the huge 4WDs again).

Some drivers choose to slow down and talk on the phone (dangerous!) ......... but Podcasts are our answer.

In fact, we've almost exhausted our selection on yesterday's run (the time taken could've easily taken us from Louisiana to Atlanta and beyond). With a bit of preparation, they keep you awake, they are informative, amusing, and can bring you to anywhere in the world. Here are some of our favourites:

Freakonomics Radio (US) - the hidden side of everything, very well researched and a good hour's worth of

Restoring the Balance (Australia) - an extreme take on the Australian economic and political scene, views of young Liberal and young National personas , incredibly funny

Friday night Comedy (UK) - a satirical take on the week's news.


Marathon Talk  (UK) - keeping me motivated with news and celebrities from the running world.


and because they are free, and easy to subscribe to and update using iTunes, we're always trying new shows, and shut off those that make you go off to sleep (before you do). Lots better than the car radio, and good for when we've outgrown our music collection on the iPod.


The road ahead may be dark and lonely, but with more than just music in your ears while your hands and feet are preoccupied with driving, it might not be all too bad (with a bit of a laugh).

All done before sunrise!

Managed to get myself out of the door at 5am, the same time as my marathon training pacer, and glad to be back home, dipping my feet into the pool, all before sunrise (7:10am)!

Just short of 11 miles before sunrise, at times when it was still really dark, and we were seeing people running and cycling with headtorches/lights. Houston is a crazy place to train for sports, if one gets out at around 7:30 (like I did last week), it would be too hot, and too humid. On top of that, most people will be out and about, the roads will be dustier. My newly washed trainers have luckily escaped the dusty restoration by my early start this morning.

Saw this signpost on the home stretch of my run this morning, which echoes my last post on the LIFO/FIFO concept in God's books  :)

 

This can surely be applied to the need for speed in our daily lives.  The rogue drivers I see rushing about on the I-10 West every friday afternoon, cutting and chasing through from the slow lane across to the fastest without indicating, and some copycat 'chasers'....what's the point? Occasionally we see them pulled aside somewhere ahead of us by a cop.  In the distance running world, we are constantly reminded that we should start slow, to finish in good shape. True enough, from VLM 2011, I've encountered a few cases of 'hitting the wall' (myself included in the 'starting too fast' category). Is it worth blasting to pieces? and at the end of the day, does the record matter? This week, we've gathered that Paula Radcliffe's World record in the 2003 London Marathon has been scrapped. Similarly, I've written to RunBritain too as my sub-2 half-marathon PB @ Dorney Lake in Feb this year cannot be counted into my handicap as it was not an accredited course. All it matters at the end of the day, is that you have achieved a result that you have worked hard enough for. Recognition can only be external. 

Now waiting for my pacer to come back for breakfast. After all, he's going to be the last one in this morning as he's doing another loop round the bayou!

Matthew 20: 1-16

Hi from Starbucks in  Broussard, Louisiana. Trying to blog on a MacBook Pro whilst sipping a Pumpkin Spice Latte - just like the creative types do :P 

Finally finished reading the 48 days book (although it did take me longer than 48 days, at least I got there!) So here begins my 'Countdown to the Work I love' - (the name of the activity section after each chapter).

What I found interesting with one of the activities is 'read Matthew 20:1-16'. Not having touched the Bible too much since my school days, I turned to my rather less frequented Bible iPhone App.
What has it got to do with job searching? In a nutshell it refers to workers of the vineyard getting the same pay for a day's work regardless of the time of the day they were hired. The parable implies that in the Kingdom of God, everyone is treated the same regardless of when they chose to join. Or rather, the master of the house can choose to compensate the workers in whatever rate they think they are worth, or treat everyone all the same.

Is it the same in the real professional world?

The 48 days book provided examples of those who were able to negotiate for more than their worth, but at the end of the day, it is really up to the employer, and to the employee, whether they are being paid more than just can be measured by cold hard cash. The recipient can choose to be happy about it, or otherwise.

Food for thought for those seeking more, or having a love to boast the % raise they have had since they last signed onto something. It is all relative.

I've posted a link here of the parable for those who may be interested.