Bliss 33, the JFKL library, and Piano

We had a brief get-together on Tuesday afternoon with the rest of the gang who was able to attend: me, Wai Hong, Ding, Andy, Shawn, Heng, Jess, and Sarah. After WH picked me, Jess, and Sarah up, we went to Taipan to meet up with the rest.. and then all 7 of us squeezed into Shawn’s car wtf (Ding drove separately too).

We went to this newly opened cafe at USJ 2 called Bliss 33 (odd name choice imo), and we chose to dine upstairs where we had to trod up a precariously-designed set of steps that creak on every step we took. They had way too much variety of food imo, that ranged from Western food like pasta and steak to Asian food like fried rice, nasi lemak, etc – which made it tough for us to pick. Price-wise, it’s typical of cafes within the same stratum, so depending on what you order, food goes from RM5.90 to RM15+, while drinks, served in fancy-looking glasses, are at about RM2.50 minimum if memory serves right.

Sarah, Shawn, and Jess sipping their drinks.

WH and Andy eating.

Eventually I had my dish picked out on seeing that Ding’s Shanghainese fried rice didn’t look too bad. Mine was the last to arrive (took them ages enough) despite the fact that Andy and I ordered the same thing as Ding’s.. which meant that the foreign waiter (who spoke reasonably good English) missed my order. -___- It was a decent meal though.

Hahaha I like Jess’ expression here damn candid.

Group photo! I’m a sucker for group photos wtf.

WH and I then went to The Japan Foundation’s library again to return the books we borrowed, while I borrowed some new ones again: two Doraemon comics (one in Japanese, and another one published by Shogakukan English Comics in both Japanese and English, which I thought was simply brilliant for Japanese learners), one ancient-looking Read Real Japanese by Janet Ashby, and two CDs for the Shin Nihongo no Chuukyuu textbook.

I asked the lady at the counter, after she was done doing the necessary process of allowing me to borrow those 5 aforementioned stuffs, if I could snap photos of the library because “cantiklah itu tatami corner”, I told her, and she unexpectedly and kindly allowed me to do so. :D

The pleasantly warm ambience of the tatami corner for manga-reading only – mentioned before in a previous entry that if you read newspapers or any other books on it, you’d be reprimanded for it wtf.

That’s the counter at the far end, and when we entered earlier, there was a pair of Japanese gentlemen sitting on the ergonomic blue chairs who seemed to be animatedly discussing about serious things (no clue what that is though.. sigh can only pick up snippets of stuffs).

The audio-visual corner (doubt it can be called a room since it doesn’t exactly have doors or any concrete enclosure) which you can use to surf the Net or listen to CDs or watch videos on their computers.

There’s a fairly large range of Japanese books available here – ranging from geography to history to children’s books, not comprehensive of course, but well it’s better than nothing, plus you only have to pay RM10 yearly for the membership fee as compared to Alliance Française’s library, which, according to my French teacher, told me that you’ll have to pay RM100 WTF.

WH then dropped me at Jess’ house, where Shawn, Andy, and Sarah were still there, then after contenting ourselves with watching silly Youtube videos (like the failures of Malaysian Idol wannabes) and playing with Alex, we all went back at about 5pm plus.

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It’s nearly the end of the year. Time is like a slippery eel that seems to be whizzing by so fast that I couldn’t get a proper grip on it, that I feel that the past month and a half has been filled with non-meaningful activities. Not entirely true, of course, but if I have to hazard a guess as to why I’m feeling this way, it’s because I didn’t satisfy that travelling hunger that seemed to be growling passively in me day after day. Since I started backpacking last year, my not doing anything this year seemed to make me feel.. restless. And bored. But I don’t think I can afford to travel every bleeding year anyway. :/

Speedwing had replied to my enquiries via e-mail (very elaborately too, kudos!) but for some reason, it didn’t manage to convince me to do a WHS at New Zealand – it didn’t make much financial sense, at least to me. The entire cost of doing it for 6 months would be around RM15,000 to RM17,000, while I’d only be earning a meagre sum of NZD$1200/month assuming that I’m paid the minimum wage of NZD$12/hour. I’d also be most likely working for only 3-4 months (6 months is a little too long and might get a tad bit tedious, I dunno, I’m not there yet).

Sighhh I dunno! Am I looking at this from the wrong angle?

This will seem like a clichéd annual end-of-the-year rant but I can’t believe that I’m going to start my college soon in.. three weeks! Registration is in two, and other than a short holiday in Kampar, I’m craving for moreee.

I don’t know if I can stand the fact that I have so many external classes I managed to take up during the holidays to extend right into my soon-to-come college days, so we’ll see if my time-juggling skills would shine then.

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Among my favourite piano songs that I love to play:

– Largo (also known as Going Home), a small part from The New World symphony by Dvořák that lasts about 30 secs but sounded so serenadingly peaceful – a quiet sort of calm grows inside me when I play this particular piece. No I actually have not listened to the actual symphony yet.. but you can easily Youtube for it. OK SCRAP THAT YOU HAVE TO YOUTUBE AND LISTEN TO IT, IT’S FREAKING AMAZING I TELL YOU!! (Just Largo, without the actual full symphony.)
– What Can I Hear?, I have no idea whether this is an actual piece of some popular pianist, the title is as I typed
– When the Saints Go Marching In, actually this song is way different than I envisioned it to be because the only version I know was from Flintstones (from watching too much Cartoon Network last time wtf) and it sounded horribly rockish. Just learned this yesterday and it’s quite complicated (for me lah anyways) and I kept messing up my chords (also only learned a new F chord yesterday which is used in this song, after G7 and C, fuyoh I make it sound so pro when it’s probably quite basic >_>) because my note-reading still sucked.

My piano teacher, Nicole, kept comforting me that it’s natural for me to make such mistakes ‘cause what kids learn in Grade 1 for 2 years, I’m trying to pick up in.. like 2 months wtf. Which is why my note-reading seriously sucked to high hell, and my eye-to-hand coordination is jumping all over the place sigh.

I’ll probably make a video of me playing Largo (damn simple only laaa don’t expect anything great) just because I love that song so damn much and post it here in the next entry.. or something, plus ‘cause a GameFAQs’ private board KGB’s member encouraged me to lol. Plus I think none of you have ever seen me playing piano yet.

Here’s hoping I can make some of you girls (and.. maybe guys wtf) swoon over my piano-playing skills in the future.