李宗盛 《既然青春留不住》- 一场与我同年龄层的人不太懂得欣赏的演唱会

为什么我说这是一场与我同年龄层的人不太懂得欣赏的演唱会呢？

原因其实很多，也很简单，如下：

• 他上了年纪，是个老uncle了，没什么动力；
• 他的歌声没有特别的好，也没有特别的吸引人；
• 他不唱快歌，没气氛，很闷，会睡着；
• 他长相平凡，外观没有什么吸引人，没有那些日韩偶像明星般的亮丽；
• 等等等。。。

以上只是举几个简单例子，发现到共同点了吗？相对于以上的原因，正是为什么现代的偶像歌手这么红的原因。现代人听歌，注重长相多于歌声，注重外表多过内涵；一些完全不懂音乐或五音不全的所谓偶像歌手，竟然被称为“歌王”，“一哥”还是什么的。真困惑。。

我常说，我与我同年龄层的人很不一样，我很跳tone- 其他人喜欢的东西，我不太感兴趣；我喜欢的东西，他们却感到不屑与不解。或许我在意内涵与细节多于表面与肤浅吧！

也就因这些原因，我不禁感到庆幸。我想看的演唱会，都没有多少个人会与我抢票。直到最后一天买，都不见得有多大的问题（但他的情况没比陈绮贞来得可怜）。中国大陆与台湾的演出好像是场场爆满，这里究竟是发生什么一回事啊？

看男人的演出，一定得看老男人的。这些上了年纪的男人一定要够细腻，除此之外，他们也应该有着不少的人生经历或某种程度上的人生历练。这样的男人演出才会是一场值得我去看，值得我去去听得一场演出。正如他所说的－男人五十岁以前，没什么好写的。。

李宗盛算是达到了这些条件吧！（不然我也不会去看他的演唱会）

是的，他没比那些偶像歌手长得帅，没比那些歌姬唱得动听，不比那些动感乐团来得厉害搞high气氛。但，他享受音乐，陶醉在音乐的国度里。他写的歌其实很有趣，也很有意思。与其说他是在写歌，不如说他在写一个人的故事，描述一个人的人生，这样我个人认为更加贴切。

这样的演唱会，用耳朵听是不够的；用心去听，听众将会得到不一样的感觉。他的歌，用词简单，却带着一定的深度；用乐平凡，但却扣人心弦。我个人其实很喜欢那种“简单的吉他声+平凡的歌声”的感觉。越简单，越不花桥的表演，越容易把人带入歌曲的意境。真希望我有一天能做到这个境界！

这是一场音乐享宴。我蛮喜欢的！

演唱会标题《既然青春留不住》也的确为观众带来不少沉思与遐想。我也是其一。。

(Picture taken from internet)

 

陈绮贞《时间的歌》演唱会- 一笔我个人觉得非常值得花的钱

我自认不是一个对钱非常概念的人。很多时候，我会把钱花在一些无谓的或不应该花的东西上。可能生活压力太大，不经意地花钱去平复或您可说是抵消一点精神压力吧!

很多个月前，我傻傻的一口气买了两张陈绮贞《时间的歌》演唱会门票。当时也没想这么多，也不知道有谁会愿意陪我去，毕竟陈绮贞不是那些每个人都会喜欢的歌手- 喜欢她的，会疯狂；不喜欢她的，就会一点感觉都没有。我不敢带着任何奢望，只是单纯的不想一个人去的心情，买了两张演唱会入场券。当然，我有back-up plan。我跟我的好buddy说：“如果我找不到任陪我去，你得陪我去。”结果是真的，我周遭的朋友都不怎么对她感兴趣。没办法，只好可怜了我的buddy了。

带着充满期待的心情进入演唱会现场- 新加坡室内体育馆。一进去，一眼望下去，座位感觉有点空，我想是我们来得太早了吧！过了一段时间，无意间发现到有好一些被盖起来的座位，看了有点沮丧，票的确没卖得很好。不一会儿，有对情侣莅临，就坐在我们的旁边。那女的很自然的，带着无奈的语气，一针见血的杀到：“陈绮贞好可怜哦！人这么少。”我不禁地嘴角往上扬了一下，好想回她说：“现代人太视觉系了，没什么会欣赏这些有内涵的东西了。”但我决定把这些话留在心里，只是一笑而过。

多年前的我其实对她的歌是没有什么感觉的。但不知从何开始，我爱上了她写的歌。总觉得她写的每一首歌的背后都会有一些故事，好像是在对聆听者叙说着一些什么似的。可能随着自己的年龄逐年增长了，看东西，听东西，多多少少都会用心去感受一下了吧！她写的曲给人一种舒服，没压力的感觉。听似简单，其实一点也不简单。

其实在这之前，我没去过任何演唱会。原因？没多余的钱，没什么兴趣，最主要的原因是因为演唱会总让我有一种不安的感觉- 我很可能会失望而归。但为什么我会如此冲动去买她的演唱会呢？因为我坚信她不会让我们失望。她对音乐的要求，对音乐的执着，对音乐的细腻，给了我这种的信念。她不断地探索，不断地求新，不断地为她的音乐注入新元素，让她的音乐更多元化。这对一个音乐人来说是需要无比的勇气的。

整场演唱会看下来，整个感觉就是- 果然没错！她的却没让我们失望。她非常享受音乐，现场实力非常棒！我有点感动。经过了这场超值的演出之后，无可否认的，我更爱陈绮贞了。期待她下一次的到来，真希望到时候能找到一个伴陪我一起去！ 🙂

FIRST TASTED: Ling Nam Kedai Kopi (嶺南咖啡老店), Paloh

Every once in a while, I will be doing something that might sound silly to many, but I adore doing- drive hundreds of kilometers to sightseeing around and eat around. This time round, I went to Paloh to try out the coffee shop that I wanted to go for quite a while- Ling Nam coffee shop.

Paloh is a small town located around 20 minutes drive away to the north of Kluang. It’s not as developed as where I stay, but I adore the simplicity of the Kampung feel. People who live here are somewhat kinder than those living in city. Instead of going highway, I chose the more twisty and bendy road to come to this place, which was brilliant, despite some potholes on the way up north.

After a short 1 hour plus of driving, we arrived at this historical coffee shop- Ling Nam kedai kopi. Looking from far, the outlook of this coffee shop is not different from those traditional kopitiam that we see every day. Once we stepped into the shop, there’s a surge of instant classiness can easily be felt.  It’s not hard to notice that this shop has been operating for countless years; in fact, the current boss is the third generation since his grandpa.

         

The decorations (or you can call them antiques, as some of them are indeed older than either of us) drew my attention away quite a bit. Those are the memories. If you’re like me (getting attracted by those items), that simply means that your childhood was as awesome as mine.

   

Besides those antiques, there are some meaningful & informative words hanging on the wall. I suppose they were written by calligraphy, they are simply amazing!

Once we were done appreciating all the art works, our coffee and toast were served. Some said the water to make this cup of coffee was from a well, I don’t really bother as long as it tastes nice. So, was it good? It was good enough- smooth, gentle and there’s no sign of sourness from the beginning till the end. Slightly stronger would be perfect.

How about the toast? The bread was made by another traditional break maker in Paloh. It’s soft, fluffy and bubbly on the inside. The taste and texture are very much similar to the one we have in Kulai. The Kaya was handmade too. It’s at the right color, right sweetness, right taste and right fragrance.

It looks as if the kaya is over flown, but don’t be fool! The kaya wasn’t being spread onto the bread. In fact, the kaya was being squeezed onto the gap between 2 halves of bread. The combination of everything was good, but it could be better if the bread was charcoal toasted.

So, would I come back to this coffee shop?

I would if only I happen to pop by here. I won’t come all the way here just for this coffee and toast. It’d be worthwhile for the first time, but silly to do it again. I personally prefer Kluang railway coffee slightly more, as it is equally good with more choices of bread and food to offer.

Aftermath:

After visiting this old-timer coffee shop, we headed to one famous curry noodle stall in Paloh (next to the Capitol Theatre) for a bowl of eminent curry noodle. It has the traditional taste that I like and the portion is very generous indeed. It’s mild and not surprising, but good enough to fill your stomach if you feel like having some curry.

   

Something about Tyres

It’s been a while since I last wrote automotive related stuff..

Today, I would like to share something about the thing that I have just replaced on my little puppy (the name of my car) a couple of weeks ago- The Expensive Rubber.

Before I get started, I would like to send my best regards to our beloved government, chiefly the ministry of transportation. If there haven’t been so much of “nicely” paved public roads, whereby the potholes are as easily available as the speed trap cameras that they are implementing in the country and mended as cheaply as KANGKUNG, otherwise you wouldn’t get such an important piece of information from me.

The above photo shows the predicament I was in (indicating that I could go sideways?). The lucky bit was that this tyre didn’t explode right at god-knows-where I hit pothole, which gave my some time to do some survey on tyre selection.

There are a few things we need to look at while choosing the correct tyres- type, size, brand, and of course price. And I will discuss each of them one after another.

Type:

Generally, there are 3 types of tyres- performance tyre, comfort tyre, and normal tyre. Performance tyres are for those drivers who like driving fast on the road at any conditions, be it wet, damp or dry. Comfort tyres are for those people who appreciate peacefulness and comfort while travelling and can’t be bothered to go very fast on roads. And the normal tyres are for normal people.

Size:

Most of the cars in the market would not have any issue with size, as those standard sizes are easily available in the market. My little puppy is going a bit extreme. The rim is the maximum size my car can possibly fit in, to keep the fender to tyre gap as small as it possibly could. That’s just a joke. Having the biggest rim in the world for this purpose is what those ah bengs like to do and I am not one of them. To me, bigger tyres simply mean tons of grip and better handling. For this very instance, size matters when it comes to tyre selection. I have to go very low profile to avoid tyre rubbing against fender. The tyre size that I looked for was 215/40 R17. This size is super odd and not easily available in the market. I was having hard time to look for one; hence, I decided to downsize a little bit to a more standard size- 205/45 R17, for better quality tyres. This size is only 5mm per side narrower and a couple of millimeters taller.

Brand:

Brand is important. Different manufactures produce tyre differently. The products that they are offering give different characteristic and driving experience (only sensitive people could tell the differences). Ones have to try out each brand to know which brand is more suitable to them. My tip on this- always go for reputable brand, even it costs you slightly more.

Price:

Pricing is highly dependent on the aforementioned factors-for the types of tyres, performance tyres tend to be the most expensive, as it requires some serious engineering design on them; follow by the comfort tyres which require some not that serious engineering design and then follow by the normal tyres which don’t require much engineering. While for size, bigger and wider tyres tend to be more expensive and vice versa. Brand wise, reputable brands (such as Pirelli, Michelin and etc.) tend to be more expensive.

I hope this short and concise article gives you the details that you would like to know about tyres.

So, what did I choose in the end?

My choice is Michelin PS3, which is best known as the performance tyre that doesn’t compromise much on the ride comfort. It’s slightly more expensive than other tyres, but I hope it’s worth it. After a few weeks of running it, I can conclude that the PS3 is softer and grippier than the previous tyres it was running. Now, it’s down to how long these goodnesses can last to prove if it’s worth the price…

FIRST TASTED: The Balcony Bar & Restaurant

Last weekend (that has just passed) was one of those precious super free weekends that I always want to have. I was so free till I got the free time to fiddle around with my computer, indulged in the photos that I shot over the past few trips, chose a couple of good ones and printed them out myself.

Look at The work of art… 🙂

A primary school mate of mine has just opened his bar & restaurant, named The Balcony Bar & Restaurant, a couple of days back in Bukit Indah. It just so happens that one of my friends turned 25^th last Saturday. Well, I could see where this is going. Patronaging my friend’s newly opened restaurant on another friend’s birthday seemed like a very good reason for a C@li M@k@n session!

Here we are- The Balcony Bar & Restaurant. Below is the quick review on how I feel about this newly opened restaurant.

Food:

There were 6 of us, and so we could order more things to share even though we already had our dinner.

First to be served was the Potato Cube. As the name suggested, it’s literally potato being cut into cubes and deep fried. Judging from the color, ones would think that it’s charred. Fortunately, it didn’t taste like so. Anyway, it’s a simple dish that didn’t amaze me nor let me down. Always eat with the chili sauce, it will never go wrong.

Next up was the Chef Special Meat Ball. One bite onto the meat ball, it’s hard on the outside, soft on the inside. The texture of it was somewhat similar to raw minced meat, whereby the tendon couldn’t be broken easily. I took a closer look at it, wait a minute, the minced meat still looked pretty raw. I thought it’s supposed to be a bit raw till I asked one of the bosses there and he said it’s not supposed to be like that. He got us a new plate of meat balls. Second round of it tasted more normal, I don’t know what they have put into the minced meat in order to make these meat balls, but they were good after the horrifying first round experience.

After the scary yet satisfying meat ball, the Classic Pork Carbonara Pasta was served. To me, carbonara pasta is always the safest choice of all pastas, as it will always be covered by super thick and creamy sauce. This one was no exception- The identical taste that you’d get out of the entire plate of carbonara pasta, the crispy bacon chips could be a bit of a surprise or add-on to the bland carbonara pasta though.

The last to be served was the highly recommended Pork Knuckle. A good pork knuckle should have crispy skin, tender and juicy meat. In addition to these criteria, this one had lean meat exposed to the outside (not covered by the skin), which was a bit dry and tough. Overall, it’s not bad a pork knuckle, eat it with the side dishes (mashed potato and sour cabbage I suppose?) would surely whet the appetites of the eaters. To be frank, most of the pork knuckles that I have tried were pretty much similar, it’s never been a terrible one, and so is this one.

Ambient/ Environment:

The arrangement and decoration of this shop is simple, ones could glance through everything upon stepping into it. The lighting was neither too bright nor too dim. The table was nicely spaced out. It’s a good place for a few buddies to grab a few drinks. It’s peaceful enough a place to catch up or chitchat with friends all night long.

Services:

Some of the waiters and waitresses didn’t know exactly what they are supposed to know. The greatest disappointment of the night was that wrong drink was being served (half a dozen of Tiger Lemon instead of real Tiger!). Tiger Lemon tastes disgusting, avoid it at all time!

So, would I come back to this shop again?

I’d say yes. There isn’t much places in Johor serving decent food and drinks at decent price at the same time. I’d say this one is kind of like an all-rounder, whereby most of the things was decent enough.

The overall experience was not bad at all, despite the raw meat ball and wrong drinks being served. I hope all these will not happen again on my next visit…

25th

Before I get started, may I ask: “What does birthday mean to any of you?”

Of course I have to answer this question myself first. To me, it’s just another day, an ordinary day… My family doesn’t really have the habit to celebrate this kind of so called “special occasions” to many. But this year, it was kind of special, chiefly because this was the first time I had my birthday in the country outside Singapore and Malaysia. Well again, it was still another day (maybe a slightly special one), but that’s not something which I would get too excited about, really…

Having been living in this world for quarter of a century is something I really should proud of… You might ask: “how hard can it be to be able to live more than quarter of a century? It’s not really a challenge even if it’s half a century, many has just done it without realizing it!”

Well, let me explain why…

First of all, I personally don’t think I have a very healthy lifestyle… I eat, as long as the foods that I am eating taste nice. Cholesterol, fat and whatever indexes come along with those foods are just numbers to me. As you all know, good foods normally come with very high side of these indexes; I drink without a limit sometimes, until I couldn’t take it, but I’m quitting now (trying hard); I used to drink four to five cups of coffee until one of my friends scolded me nuts for doing that (you know who you are!), now I am controlling my caffeine intake to maximum of 2 cups a day. Is that the reason why I am pretty much alive, sitting down here and crapping with you all now? 🙂

Other than things that are going into my mouth, things that are coming out from mouth could be deathly too. I can be extremely straightforward and vicious (or evil, I think this is a much appropriate word to describe it) when I am in the mood to do so. I hurt people sometimes, be it intentionally or unintentionally. I am quite pleased that I haven’t met any real bad guy that might bash me in my face yet. Also, I am quite surprised that my super hot temper hasn’t gotten me into something real big yet. I am working real hard to control it and those who know me well should know my temper is not quite explosive as I used to be anymore. I believe when ones grow older, their management skill tends to get better somehow…

In addition to mouth, hands and feet could cause problems too… Those who used to be sitting in my car before should know my driving is no slouch compare to many others on any roads and I drive quite dangerously sometimes (but still not match to tutu cars in Thailand), if I am honest. There are a couple of reasons why I am doing so- I cannot really drive slow, as I cannot maintain the car straight when I drive slow (weird, but it’s proven, to my mum); driving dangerously somehow makes me feel alive, I have a pretty dull five-boring-working-days-a-week life, this is one way to bring some thrills to my life and I enjoy doing it. Of course, I know where the limit is and I will never go beyond that; Also, nowadays many road users tend to forget the basic theory (that they have learned during driving course), violate rules and regulations or even not bringing their common sense while using the public roads, which causes me have to be delinquent sometimes just to stay away from them. They are simply too dangerous… I am glad to not getting involved in any major accident yet… To double the happiness, our dearest PM had just made a little announcement to increase the RON 95 price by 20 cents, effective the midnight of my Bday. While many people are complaining, I, on the other hand, thank him for doing that. I am now very optimistic and always look at the positive side of the issue. Since fuel price hikes is something that I cannot control, I’ll have to control my right foot. That simply means I won’t be driving at dangerous speed, and this prolongs my life indirectly. I thank him for that, truthfully! God bless him!

It seems like I have met many criteria that might make this “Living more than quarter of a century” thingy looks a bit of a challenge, but somehow somebody just came into my life and balanced it. Anyway, I think it’s about time to be mature and forgo the silly things that I have been doing in the past…

I suppose I have pretty much completed the first milestone of my life in flying color- I have completed my first degree, I have a job that I don’t hate, I have my own car called “wirari” (Proton Wira in red), I have a bunch of people whom I care and also care about me. Albeit many bad things happened along the way, I will take them as motivations for me to move forward, since I cannot rewrite the history or change things that had already happened anyway. The only part that I am still lacking of now, I guess, is a life partner, which I wish I could find “the one” real soon…

All in all, I’m blessed and I know it! 🙂

Newbie in the town!!

Hey there!!

As promised, I registered myself a BLOG and plan to have a go with it. This is pretty unusual to me, because I am neither a very good writer nor a great speaker. So, bear with my poor English and you are free to correct me if I’ve made any.

I suppose the first post is best to do some introduction on who I am and what this blog is all about. For those who do not know me at all, this is a very good chance to know more about me! Stay tune! (Starting to promote even before it gets started… ^^)

Hmm… Something about myself… This is a tough one. I believe not many people know themselves very well, so do I… Well, all I can say is that I am just a common guy, born and raised in a simple town, trying to have an ordinary life and enjoy my life as much as I possibly could…

I love good food, but I can’t really eat much nowadays (used to eat a lot when I was young…); I adore properly built cars, but I don’t drive fast; I always think, but ends up at the wrong side of it most of the time (I can be quite pessimistic sometimes…); I like to travel, but I feel tortured to sit on the plane (I am 6 feet and 50-50 distribution… :p); I enjoy music, but I know nothing much about that (just started my classical guitar class few months back); I respect the people who deserve it, for those who are not, sorry about that… Other than that, I am sentimental, hot temper, impatient, straightforward, having split personality sometimes and I cherish everyone around me. Get to know me in person, you will know that I am not too bad a guy…

This blog will all be about me, my life and the things that I adore (above-mentioned items, such as cars, food, travel, thoughts, inspiration and etc.). Let’s hope I can really keep this going!

Your comments are mostly welcomed!