Moonless night

Despite how romantic the bloody title above may sound, this post is definitely not...

(I had to edit and re-edit this post after re-reading it and finding it so full with anger . ha ha i couldn't imagine how pissed i was that night when i wrote it)

So here we go... tomorrow morning (or later this morning, rather, since it's 3am now) there is a pretty huge meeting taking place in Jakarta which some senior people in my bank will be attending. There will be so many senior managing directors including our top boss in Asia flying down from Singapore on the first available flight at 7.50am....

And of course, as is with any other important meetings, the books to be prepared had to be inch-perfect both in content and in presentation quality - We just had to work bloody late the night before. well it's 1.30am in the morning and the book is finally done. But it's not over yet. I'm just halfway done. Being the most junior and the only analyst in the Indonesian team, I gotta bring these 8 important color copies to one of my bosses house in the morning so he can take them with him to the airport for his flight and share with the others to read in the airplane.

It sucks to be at the bottom of the pile. Moreover, I was a nervous wreck.

Now, here i am 3am in the morning in my room, with the 8 books, weighing up my dilemma..

I made a mistake once, a few months back.... i worked real late one time, and missed a crucial flight the next morning to the Philippines. Needless to say my boss was super-pissed and i became sort of traumatised on the whole thing. Fact #87 on Ivan: I can't reliably wake up on time. no exception... i sucked

So.... finally deciding that it's for the best that i SHOULD NOT sleep... i decided to spend the rest of the night browsing the net, learning new songs, reading my books, watching TV, ordering mcdonalds deliver (since i'm so damned hungry)....

let's see how this goes.... i'm gonna be so tired tomorrow it's gonna suck.. i just know it

well.. i'm not taking any chances. i know my weakness....

A chance meeting with a Gallagher

Sometimes an event is just too significant or important to pass without being written down. So here it is.

I was on a weekend trip to Bali to attend one of my colleague's weddings. I remember this was a saturday night (Perfect timing for me since I had to be back in Singapore by Sunday night). This was a typical banker wedding too - lots of champagne (good ones I have to admit), martinis, and what have you. I saw several high profile guests. I think there was Lee Hsien Loong there (Singapore PM), James Riady (or was it Stephen?), Sofyan Djalil, as well as some famous artists including Diana Krall (famous Jazz musician/singer), and some TV show hosts. They were having this party at the marina you see, and there was this yacht race or something similar.

That was when I noticed him sitting all alone at the bar sipping his whisky. The rock and roll icon Noel Gallagher himself.

Now i met Noel several times already in the past. In London a few years back when he did a local gig, we caught a couple of drinks down at the local pub after the show ended sometime around midnight. And then another time was in Singapore. But I never struck any real conversation. In the past I would probably hesitate to start a conversation with someone so important. But heck, when else will you ever get a second chance for these kind of things right?

"Hey" I said as I pulled my chair. What is a rock and roll icon doing in a Bali in a banker's wedding party on a saturday night all by himself? Anyway this was a chance for me to ask him everything that I've always wanted to ask....

"So how did you write your songs? Some people like Cobain said Melody first, then Lyrics. But for others it was the other way around"

"Melody. Chords first. Never was another way around"

"I noticed you like using the chords G, D, Em more than any other keys. Wonderwall, Live Forever, you name it." (what the heck, why did i even ask this question)

"Yeah mate. You know Beatles was our inspiration" (well well.......)

He didn't seem bothered with me asking all these crappy questions. I think it's because i could sort of connect with him? or maybe he was just a little drunk and feeling mellow or something...

I couldn't remember the rest of the questions, but it was all good. I was so lucky to have this conversation. How many people had the chance to meet Noel himself huh? I know a young Ronnie O' Sullivan once did, he wrote in his biography. Noel's a real nice guy.

Maybe one day I get to meet him again.

Second post ever

Second post ever! yeah!

ok until i actually found a good subject worth posting, i will keep doing this lolol

First post!

First blog ever ! yeah!

Nevermind that i came 10 years too late into the scene....