it's the NEW YEAR!

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WHAT A HOOT

and i'm gonna spend it doing nothing.
it's been a while since i did nothing.
finally i have time for myself again.

spent new year's eve's eve with weips alia thec and sherise.
had dinner at hooters watching waitresses walk around in bright orange grandma panties.
there was one that looked like she was in charge and she was wearing polo T and long pants.

"Do you think they get more clothes as they rise in seniority?"
"and that one just made a mistake. so less clothes for her!"

if you order prawns they actually offer to shell them for you.
as in, not in the kitchen, but right in front of you. the waitress will shell the cooked prawns.
i've never heard of that before.

we ordered hot wings and 911 wings. After you have the 911, hot wings are tasteless.
go for the 911.

As we chomped on the wings by the riverside,
we made a list of impossible new year resolutions.
be happy, skinny, and married. ("and rich!" sherise quipped.)

"in that order too yea guys. happy first, and then we'll be unhappily skinny and married"
"and next year we'll be sitting here eating wings and grumbling abt unhappy married lives! like what the hell did we do?"

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After dinner we popped by Liang court for some KTV.
the rooms there have really cheesy brightly lit light changing table tops.
it's so cheesy it's really funny.

and there we sang till 2am.

"i have work tmrw guys!"
"what's the problem? you reach home at 3, you still get 3 hours of sleep!"
"i'm gonna give you a call once i wake up so we can ALL wake up at 6"

KTV was a real workout.
i don't recall anytime singing with Weips that we didn't start jumping on the sofa.

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the COUNTDOWN

A good new year's eve for me is one spent in the peaceful quiet of home.
squeezing with the crowd in some countdown party is not my cup of tea.

As it turned out,
2008 is a special year.
not only was i at a countdown party (and had fun), i was PAID to do it.

it was quite a blessed gig really,
and perhaps it's a reward for returning the unexpected payment from the church kid's service for doing a little demo for them during christmas.

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even that was a comedy of errors.

i did a little demo for them, completely voluntarily.
and then they sent me a token of appreciation for it.
i was pleasantly surprised and quite tempted to take it,
and while telling it to my mom she told me i shouldn't keep it.

now this, coming from "i-am-more-particular-abt-money-matters-than-u-are" mom,
cleared the doubt for me.
If even she, who is more particular abt money matters than i am, says it's not right to take it,
then it's probably not right.

so i returned the money, with appreciation.

and then now mom tells me "oh you mean it's organisation money and not personal money? then you should take!"

anyway,
i'm happy i returned it.
Because i feel that the countdown gig that dropped from the sky (extremely last min) was truly a blessing.
the payment for it was twice my normal rates, and i didn't even ask for it.

"how much do you charge?"
"so-and-so per hour."
"ok..erm...hmm..can i pay you (so-and-so x 2)?"
"Er..ya sure!"

thnx for being so honest mr agent! (if he's reading this!)
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So i went down to the countdown event,
and walking through the place and squeezing through the crowd made me shake my head.
it's gonna be sooo hot and claustrophobic i thought.

and it was after a 2am night out and a full busy day at work too.
(after which, was rushing home, grabbing a maggie mee dinner, and rushing out again)

but after i met the agent and got brief-ed,
the gig turned out a lot easier than i thought.

we would be waiting in an air conditioned room,
and would do 2 entourage walks round the place.

i love doing entourage walks because it's really fun.
the percussion band gives you nice beats to juggle too,
and you walk through the smiling crowd and you pretty much just juggle what you want.

we had cabaret girls and stiltwalkers and the percussion band and a few jugglers.
so great.
i love the dressing room feel of the waiting room.
it's one of the highlights of performing,
being backstage and waiting your turn. i like it as much as being on stage.
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the gig was supposed to end at 11,
but got extended to midnight (of which i got even more payment for!).

and near midnight, the organisers had time to kill on stage so they got the whole entourage up on stage.

so for the first time i think ever,
i counted down ON stage at a huge countdown party as a performer!

and the last ice-ing on the cake?
i was quite reluctant to do gigs till midnight on new year's eve as going home would be hell.
there's no public transport and you can't get a cab and the roads are jammed.

but then they told me the trains had extended hours,
and it was a straight ride to my place too,
so i got home in half hour. :)

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so that was a really fun, unusual and unexpected way to cap the end of the year.

there's an article on "Mind and Body" today on the pursuit of happiness.
Page 17.
the author reviewed a book by a 13th century philosopher, forgot his name.

his conclusion?

Like Aristotle, the 13th century guy believed that the meaning of life is to find happiness.

pple seek happiness in wealth, in body (beauty etc) and in soul (friendships etc).
But pple will never find true happiness in this lifetime because created things are always imperfect, and because they are always imperfect, humans will always have the feelings of desire.

and because we always have a desire for something, we can never attain complete happiness.

Complete happiness can only be found in perfect things, and only God is perfect. So happiness can only be attained when we have union with God, in the next life.

and if you dun share his religious views, then understanding the concept of "not being able to get true happiness in this lifetime" can actually free you of the struggles of seeking true happiness.

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have a great year ahead brown cows!