Buying coffee by the pound

…I’m not, but the general sentiment of the song is fitting.

I get up early
I look around me
I’m buying coffee by the pound
But when I’m sleeping
I’m so deep in it
I can’t keep myself awake

–Keep Myself Awake, Black Lab

Funny how I’m full of plans when I running around working, but when I get home, all I want to do is sleep. Or stare lethargically at the computer screen. Blogging, organising my photos, backing up things, sorting out my new music, tidying my room, even reading… peh.

Which is why I’m glad that I have one column’s worth of books already read and that Doreena is contributing one column. That gives me roughly 2 weeks to get reading. I just started The Devil Wears Prada, but a few pages in, I realised I’d rather be watching the movie instead. Not because the book is bad, but because I’m tired of reading at this time. I’m hoping this can be cured whem my salary finally comes in and I can go splurge on books at Book Castle.

Ramadan is here and we in the media industry knows what it means: fewer events to attend and a lot of buka puasa everywhere!

Last night, I went to Hotel Grand Continental to try their buka puasa menu. Martina was a little indignant because I came alone, but nobody else wanted to come. Ramadan may mean a lot of free food for us, but most of us would rather go home!

Zack showed up at some point with a colleague (his name escapes me). After I was done, Martina and I joined them, planning to bid them a good night. I ended up staying much longer than I planned. In fact, I stayed until Martina and Zack’s colleague left, and we were joined by Azreen, Mac, Jerome and Iain.

I think what made me stay is that Zack and I were actually having a conversation.

Couple of days ago, I was dispatched to a Ramadan food bazaar of my choice to do an article about what it’s like. I picked my old stomping ground – Satok. I used to work in the area, and frequented the bazaar every year. I missed last year’s.

The result of my excuration can be seen here, where Webbie at CatsCity reposted it. With the exception of two minor editoral errors, I’m rather pleased with it.

One of my favourite photos is below. You can find the rest here. (Yes, I think it’s safe to say I’m a Zooomr convert.)

Idle Nights – The Post Mortem

Now that Idle Nights is over, I need a new project!

But honestly, organising-wise I only did a small part. Gerald handled the venue and related logistics. British Council brought Francesca over. I only did what I’d normally do anyway… find people and coax them into doing something they may not necessarily want to do!

It was such an awesome night, I’m still shocked. One of the things I regret not doing that night is hand out a feedback form or at least, a sign-up-for-notification list. When I meet people who attended, I want to ask them how they found out about the event and what they thought.

My ex-colleagues, who came solely for the purpose of cheering me on, admitted that they were planning to slip out when things got boring. They didn’t get a chance. They ended up sitting there all night, stunned by how much they were enjoying themselves.

My other regret is that we didn’t think to engage a videographer!

Overall feedback has been positive. I think every performer has their share of people who liked them and people who didn’t. The pattern is pretty clear – some only liked the poetry, while others preferred the stories. But at least we got a good mix of the two!

Everybody loved Francesca Beard, of course. There’s really nothing not to like. As the press release from British Council promised, she broke down “old perceptions of poetry and how it is presented”.

What most of the audience members probably didn’t realise is that just hours before the show, she sat down to listen to us newbies read during our dry run. She was very generous with her praise, made some helpful suggestions on how to present our work and told us to read to the group again. If you thought we did good, you should have heard us before!

Maclean, who is no newbie at reading to a crowd, also had some reassuring words. He is a serendipitous find and I now remember how it happened. I was looking at my counter referrals and one of the incoming was a google search for Songwriters Round at MOJO. I clicked in to the search page and one of the hits was Maclean’s entry on the very first Songwriters Round when I met him for the first time. I clicked around and found his writing.

It was also great that he was more than happy to join us at such short notice. If he heemed and hawed at me, I would have just moved on.

Overall, it was a fun night… probably more fun that most people anticipated!

To those of you who shared the first Idle Night with us, thanks for your support! We’ll see you next round, eh?

These people were there:
* CatsCity Forum
* Robin
* Blog of Zack
* Samantha
* Yi Hong
* Aaron

Blogged about the event too? Comment!

Some of my photos are here.

Feeling Idle?

This is a reminder that Idle Nights is this Friday and you’re all invited to watch me make a fool of myself to come support the local talent and get awed by Francesca Beard.

First ever performance poetry and story reading event in Kuching. You get bragging rights about being there when it happens.

Admission is free.

I recorded myself reading some stuff for practice earlier today. If you want a sampler, leave your email.

Am I nervous? Hell, yes. It’s been years since I was in front a mic alone.

So, are you coming?

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