Saturday, November 8, 2008
Life is short...treasure....
I took for granted some things in life. It was just so easy to take things for granted until you sense that the danger is near....
Recently dad fell real ill....after the recent operation, he could only take liquid stuff and most of the time porridge....I tend to regret not bringing him to places too many to taste the large variety of food he would have liked....albeit he's the lazy type to go places just to eat good food. He can patronise the same coffeeshop everyday to eat the same thing he likes. But I recall bringing him to eat the Hainan Chicken Rice @ Purvis Street....He like it except for the waiting time as he lacks patience.
I took almost 2 to 3 weeks leave just to be with him by the bedside, accompany him through the pain barrier even though he is the one feeling the pain and not us...But deep in my heart, it hurts far more than I can ever imagine. I missed the period where he was supposed to go through another scope which he dread in spite I telling him I'll be with him through it....
I failed to make it but am not going to give any mention on how I was refused time off to be with him through the crucial period and can only say that there are indeed people who does not deserve a single bit of respect. But I'm not bothered, all I ask for is time to be with him. Everything in the world is termed 'urgent'...You can receive calls,sms, mails stating this or that is urgent....But in my pretext, nothing is more urgent than my dad.
Giving special attention to him would also meant taking care of my mum who is equally drained out physical and mentally through this period. I even took her for shopping @ IKEA just to take her focus off the incident. Wify was another person whom I had to pay attention to...she took leave to accompany mum to temple to pray, and then back to SGH to accompany my dad....no complaints at all....so when she hinted to watch HSM3, I told myself that I must keep myself awake and accompany her for the movie. No way will I say NO no matter how tired I am. Luckily I kept myself awake through the show though showing signs of fatigue along the way. As a matter a fact, I quite enjoyed the show and it did took my focus of the incident as well. My brothers were down with me @ SGH during this period too so the bonding got even closer.....
It may sound crude, but it is indeed after this incident that the bonding within the family got stronger. But isn't it sad that it has to be strengthened in this way? Dad was thrilled to see each and everyone of us and both he and my mum had nurtured us into what we are today...filial........It may run in the blood as well since my relatives from M'sia who came over for my Bro's wedding rendered help beyond anything you can imagine and let us recuperate during this crucial period.
I have not been sleeping well, eating well, thinking well, driving well, talking well for the past 2 weeks.......seriously slimmed down a little...couple of colleagues whom had not seen me in a quite a while said that....I would love to slim down to a healthier body but not this way.....
Things are improving on the front for the family but at the expense of my dad's health. This is a painful lesson that I've learnt and shall ensure that my children in the future inculcate this values as well.
Life is short, treasure your loved ones....
JIRO
Monday, October 6, 2008
Our First Wedding Anniversary
Acc my dad for massage, pack up old stuffs @ our old house, quick swim @ our new house, dinner @ Kopitiam, celebrate with Beyond, SUPERBAND Finalists, MayDay, past year SUPERBAND Finalists @ Mediacorp...
Usually wedded couples would spent the wedding anniversary in a romantic way but for wify and I, we end up spending half of the day at our old house packing up stuffs to be brought over. That was before we send my dad to a nearby chinese physician for massage. We managed to have a quick swim @ the pool middle noon though before we dolled ourselves up for the visit to Mediacorp in support of my friend's band 'San Yue'....Wify wanted to try out 'Botak Jones', so we went over to the nearby outlet, she was sceptic of the quality of food taking into consideration the amount payable. However, the first bite she took proved her wrong. It was good.
After the meal, we rushed off to Mediacorp for the grand finale of the Superband. I told her to bring camera along...why?? Because BEYOND was one of the guest performer..I'm going skip the competition as I'm still feeling gutted that 'San Yue' didn't make it to the final 2! When a competition goes down to 100% voting, the results may not favour certain crowd. I made countless SMS votes though, but it proved fruitless as some bands somehow had fan-base so strong that thousands of votes were cast in compared to ours'.
So when Beyond came on stage, in fact even before Paul and Ah Wing came up and I'm screaming like I'm the same age as the fans of 'Tu Zi' standing on the left of me.....I feel young once again, chasing after idol days, hoping the idol would have some eye contact with me.....
Coincidentally my outfit yesterday was similar to Paul so when he had some eye contact with me, he kinda smiled alittle...I sang along with them for the 2 songs they played and when they went into the second song, I lifted up my hand showing the peace hand sign and waved along with the song.....Best part, people around me (All the Beyond fans lah) joined in and wave along.....That moment was cool!! I swear I've never dreamt to be so up close to them in my life and till now it still felt like a dream to me. Dream come true I should say...The feeling was so surrreal when they had eye contact with me when they are singing, talking or hearing the cheers from me...I WILL BE AT THE CONCERT. Although Ka Kueng will not be around but our support for music/ Rock 'n' Roll don't just stop here. Ka Kui would be glad to hear all Beyond fans give support and appreciate music not for the way it is but for the way it should be.
P.S.: Lucky that I was standing at the centre of the mosh-pit cause that was the spot allocated to 'San Yue' fans, so when Beyond took centre stage, I 'squeezed' my way to the front row and was speechless as Wify, Xiao Xin and me stand just 2 arms away from our idol.
See that, Ah wing was looking at my direction as Ah Paul waved the peace handsign which I was waving throughout their performance...and even until their performance had ended...My bro saw me on TV and pondered how I managed to get this 'First Class' standing position for that...lol...
One other point to note from the day was also the performance by Mayday.....I thought no one would notice it but both Xiao Xin and her sis also shared the same sentiments as wify that Stone looked like me...Worst still, the way he places his hands while waiting for the results to be announced...I'll post those photos on Facebook for all to view la...though not much cause my priority remains Beyond only...keeee
Till 8 Nov 2008.....See all Beyond Fans @ Indoor Stadium...I will be there, hope to see you there too...
Let's carry on the Rock 'N' Roll Dream~!!!
~Jiro~
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Filial
I personally find it hard to define the word...or should I say categorise people under this word. Wify is one who brings the word to good name. Last night she was suggesting to catch a movie as its' been sometime since we last step into the theatre. However, when we reached home and notice my dad's health ain't that good.....She immediately called off the idea of the movie but instead we went NTUC to buy some stuffs for him instead.
No mention on the rest of the family members though but the understanding of wify on this matter touches me very much. Would most daughter-in-laws had done the same thing if they were in her shoes? Would those people had preferred to carry on lives within their own world, being chauffeured around in spite the other half's poor health condition, at the expense of the other half's career just to be by her side??
I hope not...I really hope not.....Anyway, have been rather disturbed by dad's health and yet have to put a strong front to everyone thus the going is tough on me...I get agitated at the very minor instance and its' like I'm worst than Hulk, practically any minor hiccup can get me turned green!! Thankfully wify being understanding, didn't flare up but instead comfort me to stay strong. I'll be fine....I'll be stronger mentally, physically so as to better myself for the future. Not just personal, my worklife is giving me some hell as I go through the ordeal which I went through last year again. I hate it when I have to go through this, in particular this time round things are really different. Scenario stays the same but the people taking on the roles had some minor changes, that makes it much more difficult than ever before. All these things are making me less vocal these days and kinda makes me have those short term memory thingy...I'll easily forget some important or non-important things said to me within the last 2 hour or so...Hopefully all things shall make a turn and I'll turn over the tide and enjoy the success and joy Liverpool is going through now....I'll carry on the spirit shared by the famous rock band, Beyond which is never to give up!
Talking about that, 2 of the members are in town this weekend to promote their concert on 8 Nov 08 and they'll be guests at the Superband final tomorrow which OF COURSE I'll be attending. Seeing them is secondary for tomorrow as I'll definitely be going to the concert, the primary role for me is to support 'San Yue'....I have no doubts they will emerge winner, I'm just being there tomorrow to witness it... Jia You~!
Love & Peace
Jiro
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Houseman....After turning *9 on 25 Sep 08.....
Turned *9 years old on 25 Sep....Enjoyed my Birthday in an unqiue way to say. First, went for a dinner in a cosy environment with wify..The food was nice but unfortunately, the lady boss seems to be more 'polite' to those ang moh guests that comes in after us...Nonetheless, the place is very relaxing for people like me and I thought my godfather would like the music played there.
After the dinner, we went for a short walk along a familiar yet forgotten place for me...Orchard
Road..this place made me look very 'young'.....
Next up, we went over to L Cube located @ Tanjong Pagar to meet up with a band whom I got to know via SOFT...They were looking for people to play Beyond's songs and of course I'm interested to have a go at it. I don't really know what got into me and I end up at the wrong jamming studio....near Central...and got told off by wify as she recalled L Cube was not along that stretch...She was right...I was utterly wrong....Haa......Finally we reached the studio, went in and I tried to blend into their play without getting my vocals warmed up..first up, 教坏细路.....Not the most often played song during my time but I do practise it during the ITE days where I let my fingers fly on the Bass Guitar. Then they played an oldie which I'm not quite familiar with the lyrics...haa...for once, their song I'm not familiar with the lyrics...永远等待 was the track...In fact I only started to like this one after Beyond did a re-mix that made it sound much more heavier...had difficulty reading the lyrics they printed out cause it is all lumped together.....
Final song before we end the session was another favorite track of mine....灰色軌跡.... I loved this as one of the best song from their 91 Concert where Ka Kui played the acoustic solo on his guitar...I managed to sing this 3 songs as they started the session earlier and I could not jeopardise my dinner with wify.....Of course wify was ever understanding to allow me to go for the session after the dinner....keee....Next Thur is the following session and I shall be doing my homework before going for the session this time round. It does feel odd that I'm merely holding on to the mike and nothing else....especially without holding my favorite guitar to sing Beyond's songs seems a little odd and uncomfortable for me. Will try to get use to it and try to blend into this band...
Somehow, this year I spent my birthday feeling much more relax...without much things to worry upon. Probably like what wify said, this year I do not need to worry about the band performance for our wedding..Haa...
Finally, would like to thank all whom send their wishes to me for my Birthday and apologies to those I might have forgotten to reply to.
Oh oh....forgot to mention on the part of the first word mention in title...Houseman.....
Went wet market with my mum earlier and was picking the shops to buy fresh meat, vege, etc... And I'm excited that this wet market at Admiralty MRT has much more choices for us to choose from...Haa...Houseman?! I'm not going to transform into that so soon....I Hope....
Love 'N' Peace..
JIRO
Sunday, September 14, 2008
I'm blogging from my new home!!!!!
Have finally shifted over to the new house. And finally I got the Internet access up and running from our home so I can finally blog from home while viewing the big pool in front of me, or should I say beneath me. It took me quite a while to get things up and running, getting used to driving to work from north to west. It's a brand new responsibility for me now that I'm running a house of my own and of course with the support from wify. But its the added responsibility that spurns me on to think and plan things in a new direction and manner. Although my parents are still living with me which is one of the greatest treasure, I have take into consideration them leaving their comfort zone in the west to a new place where they are total strangers to. Things didn't help with dad being ill for the past months and that cue me to take that additional days of leave to be home to accompany him. Sometimes, what elderly need is just a person to have breakfast with 'em...chat a little, watch a bit of weekend soccer and they'll feel very much satisfied.
Taking part in the recently concluded in-camp did enriched me with massive knowledge which not only applies to my daily work but in fact can be applied to any part of my life. At the end of the camp, they have the feedback where everyone gets to give a fair share of comments on each member of the group and I thought it would be nice to share what the rest says of me here. Though part of it maybe 'beautified'....Most were saying that I should be more decisive and not to be too nice...Probably it's my character, I tend to be more concerned about what people might think then to be confident in myself that whatever decision I make will be accpeted by my peers. Think too much, maybe...Change my style of working, quite hard but I'll try. Being Mr. Nice @ work is something I had wanted to change, not to be Mr. Nasty though but have to be a little firm and reject 'helping' everyone but myself.. Shall work on that.
Music
Music continues to be part of my life and I'm trying hard not to stop playing guitar, be it acoustic guitar, electric guitar or bass. There's a couple of plans along the pipeline to carry on where I stopped and I'm going to work hard towards that. On a seperate note, if you happen to see me on national TV, Channel U...It's because I'm supporting my pal's band 'San Yue' as they went into the Semi-finals of the SUPERBAND Competition. Let's support them together.
Music for Life...
JIRO (^.^)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Don't waste $$
In this case itself, I decided not to waste the money and tried my best to visit the gym there every alternate day (whenever possible)....Trying to slim down and keep fit for the upcoming GLP Camp which I have no idea how well-received I will be by the helpers whom are adamant to 'torture' me.....Mr Sim, the lead helper is so enthuse about the camp that I guess he'll be planning loads of obstacles for me to tackle....Great, the sight of me being tortured gives him maximum satisfaction....#%$%$^#^%^#$%%
Doing quite a handful of night shifts this days also ensured that I save a little bit of money since I'll wake up late in the morning for the day and take a brunch before packing my stuffs or plan my new house stuffs before taking an afternoon nap before dinner. That'll ensure I skip lunch and wake up feeling energetic for the night. Apparently I've been blogging on my night shifts lately...Of course I'm taking out my acoustic guitar from the storeroom for some practise again..Time to brush up my skills if I were to even consider playing music again. Don't really have much to blog about worklife at this moment as I'm solely focused on getting things right for my new house ahead of anything else. I understand now the crunch period is round the corner where any wrong move will kill off the employee and I would definitely want to avoid that. Nonetheless, my last year's contribution did not equal to the end result anyway...hee.....Not going to feel sour towards last year's unsatisfactory result but instead look ahead and carry on working as hard as possible and hope I'm reaching the end of the tunnel where there's some light..
Amidst all the stress from work, house, band, I'm still able to take some time off to go support Marku @ Mediacorp for SUPERBAND. Tickets are obtained through Kokoro of course and although I'm not so hype up like the rest of the fans but I truly support them all the way. you know, when the young ones are like jumping up and down with the boards and blowing their lungs out on the whistle.....I'll just try to act cool. The just passed Monday witnessed them almost ousted out of the competition as they were the among the last two to be left on the chopping board and I know the other band has a very very strong fan base. A relief that they made it through and I hope that I can continue to grace the event @ Mediacorp probably until the final.
~*** Cheers ***~
Love & Peace
Jiro
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Stubborn
Had some disagreement with Dad over sale of flat. Not gona elaborate much on it but the bottomline is he did not adhere to the initial mutual agreement reached with the current agent which with the upcoming evaluation report could fetch us more rewards. He was adamant to sell it at a lower price to a national which I'm not comfy with and plus a verbal agreement that the comission to the agent will be given by the buyer. I don't like that at all but regardless, the deal is being firmed up and persuading my dad won't help since he claim that no one is home to assist him when potential buyers are touring our house. CASE CLOSED. Not going to comment further on this issue else our relationship might be affected.
Fatique
The many running here and there to settle house stuff is seriously taking a big toll on me. Plus my additional duties on night shift, it is quite taxing on me. I'm vexed enough over the house stuff thus I'm seriously taking a hands off approach over the sale of the current house since Dad is that stubborn. Not in a good mood to blog further, shall close now.
JIRO.... :-(
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Remarkable Achievement
Sunday, July 6, 2008
別了家駒十五載...海闊天空音樂會
Was viewing through youtube on the upload by fans in HK who attended the concert. All was well until I see the three of them singing 海闊天空, can't seem to hold back my tears....also when 家強 sang 祝你愉快 to 家駒 as a birthday song....
What type of music do you listen to? Rock? Pop? Support only one band and reject any others?? 家駒's vision is to support musicians....There are many potential bands(HK) out there like Soler, Kolor just to name a few...Support these musicians, appreciate the music they created...support rock 'n' roll....I used to listen ONLY to Beyond and reject all other bands....I shall stop being so subjective and start to open my ears to more variety of bands...
A minute silence in memory of 家駒.........
~LOVE & PEACE~
Jiro
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Quick Updatezzz
Saucony Run 2008
SUPERBAND
I did not expect my air time for the 1st episode of Superband to be this much....(-.-).....
There I was adjusting my tie when wify came over and try to help me adjust. CAUGHT~!!
One camerman came running towards us to insist on us re-do the scene again as it looked so 'sweet'......In a bid to ensure I would not go on air, I gave the most pissed face while they re-do the take a couple of times....I strongly felt that it would not go on air, but to my astonishment it came out early into the show and my handphone did not stop sounding after that. My Kokoro~chan also got quite a bit of air time oh, with her sister in as well...Our 'job nature' insist that we should not go under the limelight that often thus we thought we could go a little low-key on this....Anyway, we didn't look that bad on tv so not bad eh...
EURO 2008
Euro is coming to an end this monday morning and as expected, spain is one of the finalists. I'm not going to give any predictions but I do hope that they'll lift the trophy after their amazing feat to break the penalty shoot-out jinx.....
Until my next entry....cheeers~!!
Jiro
~Love & Peace~
Monday, June 9, 2008
A Tribute to The Soul of Hong Kong Rock Band, Beyond ~ Koma

It was said that the manufacturer will come out with a normal edition to be rolled out for sale and hopefully I can get my hands on that version if it hits the streets....Hopefully.....
That's all for now, time to take my shower and go pick up wify..... My next entry will come real soon as I have some things up my mind that I want to share.
~Jiro~
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Long weekend applies to me??
Went for a game of soccer organised by my eldest bro's co. at the Cage. Ventilation is much more better now and I felt that I could still run somemore after the game was over. Did the recent short jogs helped? Scored an individual goal when I got hold of a loss ball, shrugged off one opponent and hit a screamer pass....my bro....keee.....Alright, he insist that he let his hands off but I was sure that it was more of the case of he couldn't react in time as I hit it real hard. Had a few tries before that but all hit the woodwork, so I was adamant to hit one in which fortunately I did else I would have let the rest of the team down. Bruce, my second bro was pulled down for the game with us, though he have a few touches here and there but it was obvious he lacked fitness. I guess I'll have to bring him down for more games to beef up his fitness and get him shape up abit as he is planning for wedding next year...It's been a long while since we last played soccer together and I truly enjoyed that hour. We then dropped over at one of Bruce's managed Mr. Bean outlet for soya beancurd and chat a little before moving off as I have to collect my race kit for the Saucony Run next sunday.
Queue at Novena Square for the collection of the Saucony Run is incredible, I was a little worried when I saw the crowd but luckily it took me only half an hour to collect the stuffs. Gonna go grab some rest before doing 'Ahmad' duties...
Jiro (-.-).......ZZzzzz.....zzzz
Thursday, May 29, 2008
SUPERBAND Part II
This year, I joined another band 新类乐团, comprising Xiao Xin a.ka. 'Ang Kong Lao Shi' as the female vocal, Dennis as the guitarist, Alex to drums and the Eunice on keyboards cum band leader whom I always call 紫菜. We got ousted in the first round which a couple of our friends thought we didn't perform that bad to be sent packing, there were people who did horribly on Day 1 of the competition and yet amazingly went through. The nature of such competitions is always so cruel and there is no way we could understand what was on the judges' mind. Wify was wondering if some of the bands whom made it was due to the fact that they had close relations with people within the organisers....Hmmm....Sometimes I agree yet at times I beg to differ. 紫菜 's Cousin was one of the sponsors to the competition so if there's some favoritism, then we would have made it through right? Anyway, it was fun playing with this band cause I feel young again playing with them and was enjoying our every week's practise prior to the competition cause they were fun to be with. Hope that we can continue playing music again and don't feel bad about leaving the competition so early, we still have other chances as long as we don't give up.
Cheers~!
*~Jiro~*
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
花瓶
How does it then relate to me? Was uploading the pictures taken by Wify from her close buddy's wedding yesterday and noticed that all photos were taken with either the sisters gang or if not with her old JC mates whom were sitted at the same table with us..If you have access to her profile you can take a good look at the sequence of the pictures I uploaded, starts off with the sisters gang...With individual pic with her close pals, and the last one with JC mates...And me....the typical 花瓶 which you would expect to be doing no more than nothing, probably once in awhile I'm involved...Things like, get the pens from the car, the box for the red packets, go draw $$ for the red packet...I do enjoy the minimal involvement though cause it is heavily draining as helpers to wedding so I can imagine how tired wify was at the end of the day.
Done with the 花瓶 joke, am on leave since yesterday till tomorrow to take a short break as well as to run some errands. Errr....other than my haircut in the morning, I practically did nothing. But that was not that I didn't want to and a matter a fact due to the bad weather that restricted my movements...I did went for a light jog at 11am though, grabbing any possible sun light to go for outdoor activities...Saucony Run is next Sun and yet I did not do any training which is very dangerous considering my lack of sports activities these days thus resultant in slow recovery to my muscles. Last thing I would want is to go through the post-Full Marathon Run again where I took more than a week to fully recover...
I'm listening to B6 recording of 真的爱你 and all my old fond memories jamming with my bandmates flashed back like it was just yesterday. I've always emphasised the need for recording of whatever songs we play so that we can play back and review on where we went wrong, although I always get some violent objections from mickey...Nonetheless, persistence pays cause not only were we able to improve on our mistakes but also these recordings will be kept with me forever. I do not want to give up on playing music but am finding it hard to carry on as most of my bandmates venture on their personal career or should we say a source of income. I do not blame them as I myself has at times failed them due to my work committments. The recent hype stirred up over the upcoming《别了家驹十五载》has motivated me and I shall not give up playing music, be it playing cover songs or original ones. The bottomline is my love and passion for music is still there, there were times when I dreamt of playing at a platform solely on Beyond's songs. Be it at a pub or any small confined place...For me, to influence another individual to listen to Beyond is a great sense of achievement. Even better if the individual picks up guitar or any music instrument because of this. Music is a wonderful thing and we should appreciate it.
Let's continue this dream of rock 'n' roll..........
~~Love & Peace~~
JIRO
Monday, May 26, 2008
Brand New Beginning~!
Was interrupted by wify halfway through my entry as she consult me on some games she's helping her close girlfriend who is getting married to plan for her big day tomorrow. Wify seems lost after a tiring day and can't think that well...Heee...it just took me a second to give her the model answer..
Back to my blog entry, Note that practically everything in my blog evolves around green.. Why green? In one of my previous blog entries inside my Friendster Blog, I explained that before and it is in relation to my idol whom inspired me to pick up guitar and devote totally into music during my last few months of secondary school days...at the expense of failing my combine science with flying colours..... Anyway these are yester years stories which I'll like to skip upon. You want to, may read up my old blog at
http://jackyloh.blogs.friendster.com/my_life_on_blog/
I'm still thinking of what to document in my new blog as I type and I guess the introductory blog should end with a picture, a pretty nice one.
At work, things ain't going smooth for me as usual but I've since decided against throwing in the towel but instead prove my mettle by staying strong amidst all the storm that is stirring up.
Personal front, I'm more than happy with wify by my side everyday and ever supporting whatever decision I make (recently I made a considered big move which she gave her blessings and assurance of vote). And I'm giving her suggestions on what accessories to match her attire for tomorrow's morning session. Haaa...ever so cute.
Got to catch some sleep as I'll be driving wify over to Yishun early in the morning while routing over to CCK to pick up another 2 of her gang along the way...
As promised, a pretty pic to conclude the first entry........
This was taken at our XX anniversary.
**~Love & Peace~**





