Golden morning

Waking up on a Sunday morning feeling depressed - guitar was the answer. A quick re-string, fretboard conditioning & tinkering with pickup height did it for me. 

Folks, it's important you have something to fall back on when feeling down. Intoxication & suicide are never the answers to life's challenges. Get help if need be, never do something that would jeopordize others.

Here's the situation - I'm currently on contract employment. My employment days are usually lesser than my unemployment days so every opportunity for me is gold. My current employer did not disclose some terms of the employment, if they did, I would have walked away for sure. Then again, this is my final employment opportunity for the year. It will end at the end of this month, after which, I will be unemployed till 2024 when the next contract opportunity becomes available again. As such, I dread Sunday, as it is my final rest day of the week before the rot begins again. Hope this gives a better understanding as to why buying a new guitar won't happen any time soon for me. When everyone goes away at the end of the year with their bonuses in hand, I have nothing. December is a very miserable month for me. 

Hello October 👋

Weekend acquisition

How the Saturday went:

• John Mayer. Not exactly a fan but he's one of the most formidable songwriter out there so it's worth the time & money. Had been listening to his motivational talks lately so checking his music out. He went into a blues phase which puts me off so those songs got quickly deleted from the playlist. More into his pop sensibilities & compositional approach.
• Obscura. Awesome as ever. Checking how the new Kiesel is working out for Trujillo but with  that much gain in action, it sounded like his former Ibanez adventure. It's about the music, not the brand name. 

Yes, I'm still buying CDs. I don't do downloads. 

The weekend

The weekend comes & goes. For many of us, work encroaches our weekend for a simple reason- we let it happen. I have a strict work-rest principle: Work stays at work. I'm the type who makes sure rest days remain work-free. Rest days are for my guitars but this Takamine here isn't mine. However, it's a regular visitor to my residence; the EG510. It's given a fresh set of .011s & it's fretboard re-moisturized. I started work yesterday but was drawn to some DVD time so the final bits of work ended this morning.

Then came some ME time & I chose to play through this 1W-er; my Marshall JCM800 anniversary model. There was a strong urge to plug into something bigger but restraint triggered some ideas so it was worth it. All this done before lunch. 

The rest was family time, naturally. My family understands my inclinations so it's only natural that I return the understanding. Nothing fancy, lunch in town which concluded with some ice-cream. Those of us who do not have family commitments (yet) might indulge in excessive guitar time but once family comes into the picture, I urge you to include family as & when they require your presence.

Family time includes spending time with the cat as well. This is my cat, Lisa. I used to own a cat years ago but it passed away the week before I got married. That was a depressing moment in my life; the loss of a family member. Yes, my cat is family because both cats came to me. They were neither bought nor picked up from the streets; they literally came into my life. Lisa was an abandoned cat at my work place. I started noticing her & fed her after seeing how hungry she was every Monday- nobody fed her over the weekend. We decided to trap her one day for a sterilization programme but the vet said, upon inspection, she's already sterilized. I arranged for her to be sent over to my residence after hearing that the work place would be closed down by the end of 2014. It would mean a total uncertainty for Lisa in terms of food. Lisa was already toilet-trained so that surprised us & re-inforced the fact that she's an abandoned pet. So here she is, a family member for life. 

If you respect life, never abandon your pets. They are living creatures like the rest of us & would be subject to trauma once left behind. Only humans are heartless enough to abandon a living entity by choice so that puts us lower than animals but we don't take time to reflect.

Enjoy the final moments of your Sunday. If you feel cheated by now, chances are, you didn't understand what 'weekend' means in the first place. Cheers!

KL weekend

It was a quick trip to KL last weekend, did some shopping & headed home. Saw this cat upon arrival. Cute.

No, we didn't go in search of some exotic cuisines, it was convenient dining for both days. Subway was still the healthier consensus, more importantly, the food was tasty but some of us find the non-fried meat a little bland. Carl's Jr is a blatant reminder to all fast food joints how their servings shrunk in the name of profiteering. If you miss the the huge burgers once served by Burger King & had long despised the blatant offerings of McDonald's, head to CJ, please.

The sight of this set my pulse racing (ok, maybe not much)- do they have the Ibanez-Uniqlo RG in store? (Click here if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about: DUH). Of course NOT.

Because Bentley is just round the corner, it was an inevitable stop. By the time you read this, their mid-year sale is over. Took a quick look around & left.

Bentley has an in-house tech handling non-sales, technical issues only. Maybe stores here should consider this as well...

In the evening, I simply enjoyed sipping my drinks while looking out of the window; it's an urban setting, quite removed from the usual beach front, holiday moments. That Red Coq there is a local alternative to Red Bull. It's an apt representation of the kampung heritage of the motherland but a potential catalyst for heated misunderstandings, imagine this daughter-mother dialogue:

Mother: Girl, where are you going?

Daughter: I'm gonna go get a Red Coq, be back in a jiffy...

Mother: ... (fainted)

 Or this student-teacher incident which is best avoided:

John: Miss Lina, you look weary...

Teacher: Yes, John, I overworked myself during the weekend.

John: Let me share my Red Coq with you then, it'll help rejuvenate yourself

Teacher: (Stood up & slapped John. He was hospitalized thereafter. Miss Lina never got married)