Ho Ho Ho (2022)

Pic: STFB

It's that time of the year - bonding, feasting, merry-making. Loads of fun & laughter as we approach the year end. It's a second downcast December for me & I look forward to exit this bleak episode soon. You are not really acquainted with reality till you have nothing & life has to go on. 

Wishing everyone a good long weekend, enjoy the holidays ✌

Year-end specials @ Swee Lee

Looks like Swee Lee is not waiting for Black Friday for some good deals. Do visit their homepage & discover what's on good discounts for your shopping pleasure. 

Black Friday...?

This is Black Friday week. Traditionally, the final Friday of November will see commercial entities exploding with offers & discounts before the year ends. It's interesting to see if the local music stores here will take part in this event considering prices would go up come 2023 in light of the GST hike so it kills the buying enthusiasm. If there's a good time to make people buy stuff in anticipation of price changes, the time is now. Already, SV Guitars are making their intentions known, hopefully, others will follow.

Lights... 2022

To those celebrating - best wishes. To the rest of us - nothing beats a long weekend.

 

Eid-ul Adha 2022

Blessed Eid greetings to all Muslim friends & blog readers. A quiet celebration on the brink of inflation & possible uncertainty. Especially hard for me running on unstable income & still fighting to recover & paying bills. Taking time this Eid to be grateful I'm not worse off; just thankful I've not fallen behind on anything. To rest of us out there - happy long weekend. Stay safe, folks.

V-day 2022

Another long weekend here. To many of us, it's an opportunity to catch up with Eid visits. To the rest, it's a much deserved day of rest. Take care, everyone, stay safe.

Eid Ulf Fitr 2022

Warmest Eid greetings to all Muslim blog readers. Finally, a breathable Eid after a couple of years under pandemic restrictions. Personally, I can feel the difference this time round, more crowd at festive shopping venues, more preps all round as well. Please forgive all my short-comings & oversights & have a good time with your loved ones, 

City Music: Founder's Day SALE 2022

City Music's Founder's Day sale is now happening & it's gonna be the last time any sale will be happening at the current Peace Center showroom as they prepare to move out. For the 2022 edition, they will open on Sunday (27 March) to accommodate the special demand. What were your fond memories of the Peace Center showroom?

ESP '22

These are perhaps the initial batch of new ESP releases. No, I do not consider the LTD releases as ESP releases; do you equate Epiphone releases to be Gibson releases? Looks like the Snappers are leading the way; seen above, the Snapper CTM. Swamp ash body, SD pickups - Hot Stack Plus (n/m) & 59/Custom (b).

There's a bunch of 7s as well, this here is the Snapper 7. Alder body for this one, the SDs here are - Custom Staggered (n/m) & Custom 5 (b). Nothing really ground breaking with the initial batch.

Pics: ESP International

Ibanez 2022 (1)

As per 2021, Ibanez chose to update their new stuff on the first day of the new year, prompted by the absence of NAMM. Looks like they are releasing / announcing stuff in phases. The Andy Timmons AZ model gets the Premium version this year but it's a full humbucker in the bridge position (DiMarzio AT-1).  The bridge is also the more affordable WV6-SB. The coil split switch only affects the bridge humbucker, which could have been addressed by a traditional 5-way switch but they wanna make it different for this guitar.

Why is there a new JEM Jr when Steve Vai is moving in the PIA direction? No DiMarzio pickups (expected at this price range) & an in-house Ibanez dual action whammy bridge. There are other worthy Ibanez models to consider, really.

It's 2022

Dear blog readers, here's wishing you a Happy 2022! Thank you for supporting me through this cancer year. It's been tough. 

It's gonna be tougher this year as I have resigned from work to give myself more healing time for the first few months or so before moving on. I have difficulties getting enough rest from the rigour of my previous employment & taking time off to go to the hospital for treatment was an issue as well, compounded by the COVID-19 situation. I was issued a home isolation notice & two health risk warnings that prevented me from entering the hospital to get treatment & consultation. That's not a fair deal for me. I did not ask to be in such situations, I merely turned up for work. 2022 is also the year, according to the government, when things would return to normal as much as possible. You wonder where they get this assurance from. Utility charges are going up this month & the GST hike will take effect as well. If you have any compassion for the people at all, know that their wages are not going up in tandem with this supposed healing of the economy. People are still struggling & I won't be a brief one.

As I embrace unemployment & zero income to feed the family & pay for bills & medical treatments, I wish you all the best for 2022; may we all overcome our hardships & emerge as better individuals in every way. Take care 👋