What a ONE hour it was

God is amazingly surprising. Yea that's what i wrote on facebook just awhlie ago ... i woke up feeling lousy due to the frantic poslaju honks by the postman outside and me ignoring those phone rings outside while mom was at work.... so finally woke up late and ate lunch .After lunch i called the Prometric Language Centre to enquire about the TOEFL exam ... and the lady said the next exam date is only on july 25 because the earlier ones are all fully booked. I put down the phone feeling slightly disappointed having to hear that and went online to quickly set up a profile account on the web and made the necessary call to register for the exam.

Another lady picked up the phone this time , and when she checked the next ASAP exam date .. to my surprise she said

THIS COMING SUNDAY June 7

I replied

GREAT !

And after much talking and thinking i decided to just sign up for the coming Sunday instead of waiting for the next one in Aug 2 which i thought will be too late.... don't want to wait any longer but the setback is i have to pay extra USD 25 for late registration... nevermind i thought , i don't have a better choice. Not knowing how the exam format and sample questions are going to be , i just signed up and although my heart was aching for the cost of the exam fee but i still think GOD is with me and i should just go by faith. The timing this Sun is just nice though , since i do'nt have replacements to do , (Coincidently parents cannot come) and don't have C.H class , i thought w hy not?!

After signing up through the phone , i thought to myself OK I"VE NEVER BEEN SO GUNG HO before in my life .... and it's really a test of FAITH but i shall just go with the flow anyway. I still have tomorrow evening to study as much as possible online. Then i put down the phone and saw an sms from cher. It says ,

"Come to Tmn Tun , Ark Studios check online for direction . You record here , at 3 30pm try to come a bit early . Thanks"

Another SURPRISE! I thought .. ok getting a double WHAM is a bit too much for me to take in few minutes .. Then i quickly search for directions online but to no avail ... i only know it's a very nice studio with a great mixing sound engineer who won some awards before doing albums. So i sent some more sms-s to cher asking for address.. and finally after getting dressed around 2 30pm i got the direction and left for my FIRST studio recording session. =)

Arrived in Tmn Tun and found the place by 3 30pm .. reached there but didn't know how to get in ... the door seemed pitch black like a piece of spread out wall .. so i was just basically staring at the black thing wondering how to get in.. i just saw Cher standing outside there waiting for me awhile ago when i passed by to look for parking so i mustn't be wrong! Suddenly i saw a petite size lady waving at me showing me the opening of the door and she seemed to recognize me from cher's house jam session last week. Their friend ,i guess.

When i got in , saw Vincent and Julian sitting there and cher was standing in another room ... we exchanged greetings and vincent asked me to wait for adam to finish his drumming stuffs... so i entered into the room where adam was and sat there waiting for him to finish recording ... when these guys work they're super serious man ... some brushes , snare , tambourines , and even whistling were recorded seperately ... and after much waiting , finally it was my turn after i briefed Vincent what to do with my Black Nile.

Cher directed me to the piano and it was a Yamaha baby grand ... nice to play on. And so after adam's done it was my turn .. and me being the newbie not knowing what the procedure is like recording , just sat there trying out the piano and my intro .. and while adam was in another room obviously i can't hear his drumming .. so i saw headphone on the piano top and i asked if i had to put on those and Vincent said "YEA if not you can't hear the drums". STUPID ME ... so i put it on and after that we went through once .. which i THOUGHT was recorded but it wasn't , apparently .. hahaha such a joke.. i asked for a second shot but the engineer said THAT WASN"T TAKEN so now we record. Hahhaha i was pretty nervous and tensed but it eventually kicked off i n the 2nd try off.

It was so cool , hearing myself on the headphone with the bass and drums .... and although i had a slip in the middle of my solo but the rest was fine. I tried as hard as possible to relax so i could play with good feel but just didn't turn out so well ... the ending was cool , although Adam kinda missed it a little .. but after that take i asked to listen to it and when i heard it played back i went

WOOW... sounds clear! Finally i can hear myself on the piano! hahahaa

Julian gave me some positive comments and i'm encouraged. I thought we were done but Cher asked me to do record my Very Early too since i'm already there. Solo piano ... ok fine. Luckily i brought the Bill Evans book too and so i played through only once but it wasn't perfect either. I know some of my pedalling were no good and the ending had some slips but it's ok the guys said there's no perfection in recordings ... so i accept that.

We were done in approximately half hour and so after the recording i went to pay the guys .. (yes cher and i discussed and i think it's appropriate to pay them since they're professionals) it's not a BIG price but it still is quite tough on my side just this 2 months because of other issues and bills i had to settle .... but anywya GOD IS FAITHFUL and i believe HE PROVIDES. So first i went to adam and paid him when he saw my money he said

"OH NO! NO NO don't need to ! Keep that .... it was just like 5 minutes ! "

And i was shocked and so we argued and finally i gave in and we end up chatting a little while .. what a nice guy. I'm blessed. Then i went to vincent and we had a chat and i told him when do i want the recordings and bla bla .... finally before leaving spoke to the last heng dai i haven't met .. Julian. Hahaha.. yea the man in New York. He is another nice bloke ... some great words from him too. He looks really good now .. with the long hair and youthful looking image ... then i left for work which i had to drive super far to reach Melawati and catch a real quick dinner ... thankfully didn't have to cancel my first student's class .

What an experience i thought ... and i cannot thank God more for providing and blessing me with such great learning opportunities and a blessed teacher!

The sad thing is i didn't bring my camera because i was in such a rush didn't think of it so couldn't capture my memorable moments down .... well , my songs are done. Just gotta now settle the TOEFL exam (which i'm still worried for being so gung ho!) , and get the necessary documents ready and i'm done. After Sunday , i can fully concentrate on Eerth and practicing the EL like HELL. I promised Richard and i will do it. Not for him , but his plenty encouragements motivated me more than the thoughts of wanting to go Japan.

I've lost my EL hands but i want to gain it back again but i know i only have 3 weeks left before the Finals and even reading the schedule email yamaha sent to me just now almost gave me heart attack. I am really fearful to go on stage if am not ready musically. suck. Anyway that's EF. We'll talk about that later.

For now , i can only praise GOD for HIS greatness and amazing surprises i had today. Let's see what's next from here. THANK YOU JESUS! = )