Musical Interlude

I had the opportunity tonight to visit the school where V works. It's an all girls school, so guys like me aren't usually allowed on the school grounds except with some sort of special invitation. I had one of those. She's a member of her alumni choir and there was a Christmas/school tribute concert tonight. The building that currently houses the school is being torn down and rebuilt, so they were reminicing and paying homage to the old school.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of choir music. It's not really my cup of tea. But, her choir is quite talented and overall quite enjoyable. Much like always, I felt slightly out of place there tonight. Firstly, because regular guys like me aren't usually allowed in there. Not sure why that made me feel weird, it just did.

Secondly, the school is a christian private school. Not being christian, I felt more like an outsider than I already did. The only thing I did recognize was part of Psalm 23: 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.' Not sure why I know that, I suppose it just sounds cool in my head. Still, I had a good time I think, there was a xylophone dealie that was pretty cool.

But, I think the best part of the evening was at the end when they asked us to sing a few songs with the choir. Now, once again, I'm not familiar with hymns, but I figure once I figure out the melody, I could probably fake it. Or at least mouth the words to look like I'm singing. At the concert, there was this guy sitting beside me. Not sure if he knew the words to the hymns, but what I do know, is that guy liked to sing. Nay...that guy didn't just like to sing, he wanted to marry and have the song have like a thousand of his babies. He wasn't a bad singer by any stretch, he was just all over those hymns like a fat kid on a Smartie. But, that's not the joke. The funny part of the whole thing, was when we were singing the hymns along with the choir, didn't matter what part, he seemed to always be one word behind where everyone else was. It was really quite hard to follow along with him belting out those hymns in my ear, but always like half a step behind where he needed to be. It was quite amusing.

It was like the time Mike, Mel and myself went to the GBS concert at the Malkin Bowl at Stanley Park. There was this guy who was dancing along with the music. Let me clarify this a little. He wasn't so much dancing, as he was erratically convulsing half a beat behind where the music was. It was quite disconcerting to try to listen to the music and watch his body twitch offbeat to the music.

Anyway, we're back at V's house now and there is a little girl upstairs practicing piano. V tells me she practices a lot. The problem is, she never seems to get any better. I don't know about that, but sitting here listening to her play is like watching the spastic white guy dance or listen to the Chinese guy sing hymns one word behind everybody else. I recognize the song she's practicing, and the speed at which she plays is always like two or three notes behind where the song should be. I'm sitting here listening to her play and I'm like cheering her on like she's the little engine that could.

Oh...I almost forgot. I went to have a suit made for me today. The whole getting a suit made thing is foreign to me. I've never had a job that required me to wear suits. But, it wasn't anything too complicated. What was complicated was trying to get to the tailor. We were meeting a friend of V's, Raymond. He told us to meet him at exit M1 of the TST subway station. (TST is an area in HK, full of shopping and restaurants. It lies on the mainland peninsula side along the water.) So, after a light lunch, we headed into the maze of tunnels and caverns that make up the underworld of the TST subway station. We entered the station and proceeded to find the M1 exit.

Let me just cut to the punch line here. Turns out there is no M1 exit. The story gets funnier as not only is there no M1 exit, but the exit where we eventually met Ray and the entrance where we came in were literally like half block away from each other. In order to get to the false M1 exit was a huge loop around inside the tunnels of the subway station. I found it quite funny, I think V was annoyed with the misleading signage that lead us around in a huge circle.

Anyway, that's it for today. Laters.