i prefer working at haggan- dazs in the weekends. for the first time, i worked on a sunday.the streets of orchard road become more vibrant with different sorts of colors. there are many more people to serve ice cream and smile to. it is better than standing around, idling in a weekday morning, and trying to occupy ourselves by sometimes eating and re-tasting the ice cream in front of us. most of the customers in orchard road are tourists. seeing them in their casual outfits has definitely stirred the nomadic spirit within me again. i want go traveling again. but first, i want to travel in my own country. God knows how many interesting places and corners i am ignorant of. i want to get myself a bus guide soon, and start wandering around on foot as well, taking photographs.Is this place a labyrinth, or just an uncomplicated world filled with straight roads? i will find out soon.

last saturday, i did get out of my country just for a day, the first time since my trip to Shanghai. i was asked by a friend of mine to perform, along with some others, for an annual event held by the singapore bible college. we played mendelssohn's lobegesang and psalm 52 in a small ensemble to accompany the choir. we played for the Malaysian audience in johor bahru.it was really nice to re -connect with old friends in the ensemble i have not seen for ages. The picture above is my violinist friend playing with his own shadows.

i love Rachmaninoff piano concerto 2. i still can't forget the concert early in october, when the ad-hoc orchestra i was in accompanied Tedd Joselson (an American pianist living in Singapore) as he gave his wild interpretation of both Rach's piano concertos 2 and 3. He made me fall in love with the music again. There is definitely a difference between merely listening to it on recording and actually playing the music. Joselson has such an erratic and unpredictable way of playing that i find very appealing.at the same time, he also helps connect me with the music emotionally. so today, i read up a bit about the piano concerto number 2 online. It was actually composed during the recovery phrase of Rach's depression and was dedicated to the psychiatrist who successfully helped him. well, that is the official view. There is an alternative family report which suggests that the secret inspiration behind his music was actually the psychiatrist's daughter and it remained a "shadowy presence during the composer's subsequent married life." This report is regarded with skepticism by scholars. However, i do wonder if it is possible for Rachmaninoff to compose this piece without having the feeling and agony of having fallen helplessly in love with somebody? There is also another interesting website, whereby a person creates digital images as he hears the individual movements of the piano concerto. The images are kind of wierd. However, the process seems interesting to me. Check it out at http://www.parkenet.org/jp/contests/series/o0.html