Jen-erally bad news

Luxurious lie-in today, not getting out of bed until 11.20. Having showered, feasted on cereal and suchlike, I feel a little better. Today really I am thinking more of poor old Jen though. I rang her up this morning to ask if she wanted to meet up sometime and she had some very, very bad news ... :(



Everyone in our group should know what I'm talking about soon...

a comfortable bed matters

Lazy day. Still reading Family Matters, albeit in bed.

musical parametrices

Managing to start a technical exercise for Composition, on the "total serial method". Each pitch is assigned a particular set of musical parameters which can only be used when that pitch is performed ... or something.

making life taste better

Tried to get myself a job and failed, largely because Sainsbury's didn't have any applications in-store, so they took my name and promised to send me one. Also my local Chinese restaurant are looking for a delivery driver, paying £30 a night, (that's peanuts when you subtract mileage costs) and some work that my local temp agency might have. *sigh*

playing it by ear

Learnt Randy Newman's I Think It's Going to Rain Today. Also picked out the last bits of With or Without You by the ephemeral U2. Good progress.

concerning my unconcerned things

Qualifying and Webber came 2nd, splitting the two Ferrari's. Typically Malaysia is very very hot at this time of year (I should know) so the Michelin tyres should have a performance advantage over the Bridgestone-shod Ferrari's. Yet Ferrari seemingly have the most amazing luck all the goddamn time. Qualifying was 12 degrees cooler than the preceding practice period. (39 in quali, 51 in practice) If, of course, you can call 39C 'cool'. I have placed money on both Alonso and Raikkonen, since my dad has money on Button. I have calculated it in such a way that I will win some money if Alonso OR Raikkonen wins, or if either one or the other gets a podium finish. Tomorrow we shall see. But I am going to bed shortly, because the race is at 6.30am tomorrow. I did not go to bed till 3.30am this morning due to GT3 playing. This does not concern me in the slightest, which in turn makes me concerned.

my two likes

Spent most of today playing GT3...I am seriously hooked. I spent ages completing the IB and IA license tests, and then raced the Honda Type-R cup in beginner league twice to buy the most powerful Lotus Esprit in the game. I turboed this up with leftover money and was left with a 1020hp supercar. I then entered the 150 mile endurance race, won a Corvette CR5 for my troubles (another hour gone, not to mention my thumbs) and entered the CR5 in the same endurance race to win a Falcon V8 car...so now I am ready, in every sense of the word, to shit on the computer cars at everything. I have at least 3 950+hp cars at my disposal! :)

Oh yeah, Clare's fine. (You can tell I have my priorities straight by looking at the comparative length of the last two paragaphs, right? ;))

un-Buttoning the wallet (groan)

Drove home just in time for the Malaysian GP this weekend - have yet to check the odds. Button and Alonso look pretty good bets. I'm laying my money off the McLarens till their performance improves...

the trappings of a poor boy, and the rewards

We have to orchestrate a piece by Sorabji, which doesn't even have a title. To make things even weirder, Sorabji himself imposed a world wide ban on performance of the piece, and some of the bars don't even add up. So Mic has got a postgrad student to completely 're-compose' the piece, and we have to orchestrate it for string orchestra. So in effect we are arranging an arrangement. *sigh*



I was supposed to be going home this evening, but I decided to go out drinking on account of how it was the last night I'd be in Leeds for a month or so. Managed to end up at The Terrace at 6 or so ... met lots of funky random ppl, got bored. (sorry if you're reading this, Dave.) Anyway a couple of my mates from music were in the school disco downstairs, so I met up with them after paying the requisite fiver, only to have them let me know that "it was crap" in no uncertain terms, cos there were only about 10 ppl in there. This is why we ended up at Creation. One of the guys (a friend of a friend) was rather worse for wear (he might've been stoned, in fact) - when we arrived at Creation, we tried to get the lift to the VIP floor, but the silly bastard wrenched the doors open before the lift arrived ... and of course we found ourselves staring at a wall. So I got trapped in a lift for 20 minutes with a very scary person. My evening had achieved the remarkable aim of going from boring to very boring, not to mention a futile waste of a tenner on 2 club entrance tickets, so I had enough and walked to the bus stop by LCT to go home. (It was about 1.15am by this time.)



It hadn't occurred to me that I was in exactly the same place at exactly the same time a week on from when I went to Library then Fab with a mate - we ended up getting a cab with some girl, as it transpired she was going about 2 roads away from me.......and who should be there but her again, toting a huge Guinness hat ;)



And that's how I met Clare.

nullus

Nothing spectacular.

some food to love

Went for dim sum earlier. Very crowded inside the restaurant but we managed to find seating just as it began to rain outside. We ploughed through 13 amazing dishes, including tsu mae, ha gao, won ton mein, vietnamese spring rolls, and more. Delish. Managed to earn the role of kwai ka when I accidentally opened the car door straight into my sister. Oops.

My new Mazda RX-7 (430 bhp with sports suspension, tyres, variable differential controller, and twin-turbo engine) is managing to drag me in £10,000 a race, compared to the previous rather measly £5,000. Half the races required to buy a new car now...plus I'm planning a turbo upgrade to 508 bhp when I've raised £42,000 extra. I have been playing this game far too long.

In a generous mood today so I have published below the lyrics to the first verse of my song Someone to Love. If I find them nicked by anyone, beware ... copyright law is very favourable to artists ;)

You said you'd be there, but then you left me, standing in the rain, and it made me feel, torn up inside, and I knew that my hurt feelings, had no place to hide. And you said, "I love you", but that's a term that gets thrown around. I thought that you were different, that true love had been found, I was wrong, so wrong. Now I'm singing this song to get over you.

"this book is shit" (my dad on my 1960s set work)

Lots and lots of wasted time. Opted to go to the airport to see off my Aunty Jan, (lucky lady's going to Vancouver for a while ... travelling all these places courtesy of Uncle Wong!! (But I would too)) which meant I couldn't take my sister for induction at Chessington. When she inquired as to why, I told her I preferred the concept of eating a Burger King at the aiport over having to drive her to work and come home to cook for myself.

Learnt a Jamie Cullum and Katie Melua piece, so that's half the petrol money earnt back. Yay! My dad started reading my key text for the 1960s module, titled The Sixties, strangely enough, and pronounced it dull and unreadable. This is coming from a man who was a teenager in the 1960s. The incentive to read the damn key text has therefore suitably diminished.

Also, some fucking chav in a clapped out, one-step-away-from-scrapheap-material Vauxhall Nova almost hit me as I drove to the video rental store. We have rented Bulletproof Monk on DVD, and so far it looks naff. The beautiful wire-work is wasted on Western audiences. If I had a penny for every time some dickhead in the audience of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon shouted "people can't do that ... I'm outta here", I find it very convenient on his part that he is inevitably overlooking the almost certain fact he chose to believe Superman, or X-Men, or Street Fighter, or whatever. Anyway. I'm tired.

It started off so well; you said we made the perfect plan. I clothed myself in your glory and your love, how I loved you, how I cried. Years of carrying all my fears, are nothing but a sham, it seems. Years belie the truth tonight, I'll love you till I die.

Chopin vs Sony ... hmm ...

Spent most of the day playing GT3 at home. I have managed to buy half a dozen cars with my latest efforts. The dull monotony of having to repeat races to buy them has really annoyed me, but as I have had nothing better to do, bar (ho ho) a Chopin prelude online for Analysis, I have contented myself with regressing to childhood video-game playing. In abundance.

and this one time, at band camp...

I got to see my mum for the first time in ages, and we went out for dim sum at Tai Tung in Croydon, along with my Aunty Jan. She couldn't believe that my mum traded the Polo for a Smart Coupe.... haha. She actually got to sit in it when they returned to Croydon later for shopping ... the look of disbelief on her face was just pure classic! After dim sum, we went home for tea, cake, and general lounging around in front the telly, played a few of my songs for the ladies, and then back out to Croydon for the late night shopping. Ironically I thought Aunty Jan would buy loads of stuff but when I found her at our meeting place she was carrying nothing, whereas I'd spent £50 my mum gave me on 2 pairs of jeans, and a new book. (which is really excellent, by the way: Rohinton Mistry's Family Affairs, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2002) I do feel kind of dumb for doing all this pleasurable reading whilst completely neglecting the key texts and set reading for my music modules, but what the hell, you only live once.



I have been harassing Chessington about the status of my application, and the very least they have been able to do is promise to forward my application to the head of Retail, where I worked last year, for a closer examination. However I'm not too hopeful of my prospects there as they have allegedly had a huge number of applications this year. What the hell's it all for ... my job will most probably go to some chav now. Never mind. I have backup solutions:

1. A US voluntary summer camp style affair, with accommodation, food, and return ticket paid for; (I could be a band camp instructor!!!!!!)

2. Am soon to send Adecco my CV as they said they are likely to have summer work available soon;

3. Accept that damn call centre job at GE Capital in Leeds, (but I really don't want to)

4. Go round the shops in the high street tomorrow or this weekend before all the schoolkids do.

Jamie Cullum concert

Jamie Cullum concert



After driving for 5 hours straight on the motorway finally I found bloody Shepherd's Bush, and the Empire. The tickets online were £18.50 but as we had none, my dad arrived at 5pm to blag two tickets for £50 each. It still turned out to be worth every penny. Cullum is an exceptional talent, and one hell of a showman. If there is any justice he will achieve more than Elton John. He certainly has the talents at his disposal. (At one point he split the audience into two for some two-part harmony singing while he ad libbed on top ... it was ace! He wanted us to clap along to keep time but only about 3 ppl in the whole venue did, and the other 2 stopped shortly after, and he looked straight at me for ages!!!!)



In some ways he is very like me. He draws on influences from all over the musical world - at one point he was playing Radiohead's High and Dry, then a Nat King Cole song (How Deep Is the Ocean) before an interlude where he explained how RATM and Nirvana also ranked amongst his other influences. An incredible concert :) And I might add, refreshing also to be at a concert where the average audience age is below 65. What I didn't know was that Cullum arranges most of his stuff, which I guess seems pretty obvious in hindsight as 90% of his output isn't his own compositions. But he has acoustic AND electric bass in his lineup, as well as double bass, tenor sax, Bb clarinet, trombone, and the requisite percussion. He also performed some fairly unorthodox (some might say "postmodern" (Mic!!!!!!!)) techniques on the piano, like percussive qualities of the strings, the actual woodwork, kicking the underneath of it, and so forth. Very interesting to see a musician exploring the full harmonic capabilities of his instrument. Ok, enough raving about him. Haha.

2nd road trip to Liverpudlian land

The Beatles Museum, Liverpool



Well, I only had one class today, Composition, at 1pm, and the tutor didn't even have the courtesy to email us and tell us all it was cancelled. So I wasted money going in. Fortunately my 1960s presentation group were also on campus, so Katy drove us back to my place, where we left for Liverpool at about 2pm. We reached there before 3 (how fast was I going, officer??!) and had a good few hours to look around. It was incredible. Really detailed stuff, and I was hoping fervently for some acoustic headphones like they have at the Roman ruins in Bath and Fishbourne. But no joy. We have now got enough detail to probably do 2 presentations, so that's sorted. The only small irritation is the Easter holidays getting in the way, and disrupting teamwork. But never mind, there's always email. God bless the Internet, as Finch said in American Pie.



Where were you while we were getting high? On a champagne supernova in the sky

perfectly diminished

Jemma asked me to drop Ash off at the train station just gone 1pm, which is when I got up today. If she hadn't rang me to ask then I would probably still be in bed now. As it is I have had some breakfast and am trying to do my 'inverted harmonies' exercise for Composition. It's not bad, and I've found a genius melodic thread where I transpose one part down a minor 3rd, whose corresponding inverted harmonies form a perfect diminished 7th! Yay :) (Musicians will tell you that there is no such thing as a 'perfect diminished', but never mind.)

the hours

Sod all. The F1 was on, what a crappy race. Really boring and processional. Fell asleep disillusioned around 5.30am, only to have to get up at 10.45 for badminton from 11.30-2.30pm. My hours are all wrong ... *sigh*. I hope I don't fall asleep in the concerts in a few days time. Picked up Siobhan from the train station later.

getting some friends

Watching end of series 3 of Friends. That girl with the shaved head sure is ugly. I get quite torn up over the whole Ross/Rachel thing and I don't know why. The newest series is airing at the moment of course, and it seems weird-but-not-too-weird that Rachel almost hooked up with Joey, but will probably get back with Mr Geller after 6 years. And then I question the level of testosterone in my body, realise it's a damned sitcom, and life returns to normal. Haha.

Space you need to breathe before the curtain call. Lightning leads the way before you hit the wall. Mountain that you climb, just to take a fall, for blind among the blind and I said, ah, there's an ego round my heart, dragging me down, beneath the waves and silence I heard, there's a halo above my head, spinning me round, cos I don't know if I'm alive or dead, there's a dagger in my head, bleeding me dry.

fresh air escapes me

Did a lot of work, surprisingly. Advanced from 2 bars out of 28 in Birtwistle to 15. Score! (no pun intended.) Went out clubbing later with some of the others at LMU, but the music/ambience wasn't anything special really, just an excuse to get out the house for some ... un-fresh air. Hmm. And then I pegged it back at 2am for the F1 Australian GP qualifying only to discover that fucking CD-UK was on, and the F1 was delayed till 2.30. My beloved McLarens have qualified lousily in 10th and 12th (out of 20!!) so there's £5 I'll never see again ... Button's in 4th though and I've just checked the bookies online, who have Button down to win the race at 16-1, and podium finish at 16-5. So he has to gain a single place to get those odds. I slapped £5 each way on him for me and another £5 e/w for my old man....should stand to win £106 each if he does so!!! *fingers crossed*

mistrust-of-pensioner syndrome

Morning: Came back from the house in Headingley. Had a really good crack with Ben, one of the guys there. He told me he was worried about his body image, and that he might be fat. So I told him, just to gloss it over, call it something else. In fact I think my words to him were "you're horizontally beguiling." So James (another future (?) housemate) says, "horizontally beguiling? The fuck's that? I'm gonna have to look that up." So I reply, "you don't have to, dude , it's sitting right across from you..." Aw it was ace. Went out to their local for a bit too. Almost managed to eat a Pog in my monster munch, which I'm not happy about. Perhaps I will ring their freephone careline and complain in a distinctly un-English voice to annoy someone.



Evening: OAP home. Arrived 30 mins late due to taking someone to the train station. Not bothered about it, because I wasn't in the mood to play particularly well or come over as particularly artiste or inspiring. In fact today I don't give a flying fuck if the pensioners hated me playing. I'm just pissed at everything. The best thing about the OAP home tonight was tricking a pensioner into thinking it was 10.30pm when it was 7.30. She looked really worried, muttered something like, "oh dear, I'm up far too late, my bowel movements are going to be unsynchronised now" before rushing off ... presumably to go to sleep. It's sad. I never want to be an OAP in Britain, where the highlight of my day is either

1. counting the number of bowel movements I make in any given week,

2. feeling the adrenaline rush as you get a bigger trolley than normal while at Safeway's, or

3. realising the bus driver overchanged you and you didn't tell him



In fact just on the subject of buses OAPs are the biggest hypocrites ever. They're forever moaning about how the current generation has no respect for authority, no morals, blah blah etc., but hmmm??? I wonder who it is that's always stood up there at the front of the bus perched on his/her zimmer frame chatting away to the driver like a monkey on Prozac. Fuck's sake....



Well I've got some scattered pictures lying on my bedroom floor, it reminds me of the times we shared, makes me wish that you were here, cos now it seems I've forgotten my purpose in this life. All the songs have been erased, guess I've learnt from my mistakes.

the meteoric (hyperbolic) rise of slang in educational institutions

Was all right. Our tutor for Analysis happens to be in China at the present moment so his geeky understudy took us for the class. God he's annoying. Always trying to come over as funny and witty and failing spectacularly without fail. I observed with huge distaste that this reminds me of myself.



Badminton was good, a better turnout than I would have expected for a Wednesday ... in fact, it was like Sunday today, if that makes any sense. In turnout terms. And my final class of the day was shifted, because we get a choice of brass band or Sorabji (string orchestra) and, having plumped for the latter, was told that only brass band would be 'happening' today, and Sorabji was cancelled the following week as well. Meaning we won't even get to start the final orchestration of the year until after the Easter break ... it really is time to get the work skates on. Tonight should be a laugh as well.



Classical musicians should not use street slang like 'happening'. It is disparaging, encouraging to scallies, and unnecessary. (And now the world wonders why we're commonly perceived to be such an elitist bunch of bastards...)



I only dream of you cos my life's such a bitch, but you can change it. I asked you to dance at the disco, but you said no. The whole world was watching, and laughing, on the day that I crashed and burned at your feet.

fruit and the fruits of hard work

Was more fruitful in terms of work productivity than usual. I have realised that beginning to work now will drastically reduce the number of all-nighters I will inevitably put myself through later on this semester...

mission completed

Gave my (11 point) work in. Feel relieved that the assignment is over, and a little defeated, as I surely didn't do as well as I wanted to.



The car passed its MOT today - 2 minor problems concerning headlight alignment and the relative thinness of the power steering fluid, which cost me an extra £25 to rectify. I suppose £67 for an MOT isn't too bad, though. I thought I needed new brake pads as well...buggered if that had happened...going to make some cannelloni. Quite hungry.