Vanuatu
During the term 3 NSW school holidays, Pia and I made our way into the Pacific Islands to a place called Vanuatu. As luck would have it, we were caught in the Virgin Blue computer problems on the way there. We were delayed over 4 hours and our only compensation was a $6 food voucher each. I even had to pay an extra $2 to get our two beers on the plane. It was pretty humid when we first got out of the plane. We were greeted by some local music at the airport/immigration, probably got ripped off on the taxi ride to the resort and our booking was apparently not on the system when we checked in - fun fun.
Vanuatu was pretty laid back but I was busy for 3 days. We did three tours. Hideaway Island (snorkelling), Abseiling at Mele Cascade Waterfall and a cultural tour at some village. Our other free days were spent chilling at the resort drinking our 3000 VT New Zealand wine, playing pool, going to downtown Port Vila and my favourite bit - 1 1/2 hour Thai massages!
Gershwin Prelude 1
Recorded after the Albury Eisteddfod. A few slips here and there (hey I'm human right?). Looking forward to play this at the Wagga Eisteddfod. Hope it all goes well!
Chopin Black Keys Etude
Just had a little tinker on all the ebony keys (only one single ivory in the right hand during the entire piece!) after the Albury Eisteddfod. Now that I watched myself play, I could be a little brisker with the tempo I think...
How to get your Facebook status updates as an RSS feed
Took a bit of searching around until I found out. I used this feed so I could write a script to automatically update my blog's tagline with my latest status update.
- Log into Facebook
- Type in: http://www.facebook.com/notifications.php
- Right click on the link "via RSS" in the Subscribe to Notifications section and copy the url
- Paste the link into your browser and replace notifications.php to status.php
The link should look something like:
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=xxx&viewer=xxx&key=xxx&format=rss20
Eisteddfod update
The Albury Eisteddfod went well this year. I was really happy that some friends came to add to the crowd on the Tuesday night, otherwise I would have been playing alone! My performances went really well on Tuesday but I need to work a bit more on my Black Note Etude for the Wagga Eisteddfod (haven't played there in years!). So now that there's a bit over a month until then, I can get back into my fitness, which is pretty much just for tennis. Anyone know of some good Fitness News sites for me? Every time I think about exercising these days, I think back on when I would find ways to lose weight the easy way - quick fix solutions like tablets or simply go to the gym but eat Maccas afterwards haha! I never would have looked at changing my diet back then...the hcg diet or hcg drops would have looked interesting though. I'm sure there would be some skeptics that are against the hcg diet, just like my Powerbalance band too (another story about that later 
)
July Update
The last few weeks of July and early August brings the eisteddfod to Albury-Wodonga. I've noticed that my contemporaries has slowly faded away from the competition (everyone getting older or I just don't want to grow up?). I still enjoy playing because it's probably the only time in the year where I get to perform what I've been working on. I'm going to enjoy listening to the others in the Chopin Piano comp though. The age bracket for the section I'm in is 14 years and over, I think there are about 4-5 other competitors. So anyway, apart from the practise and my nervous wait for next week, I'm also entered in the Wagga eisteddfod. I haven't been there in a while so it will be great to here what other talent and hardworking musicians are out there in country NSW.
July also brought my 1 year work anniversary. The place is awesome and I've good people. I even managed to score an invite to the social club function last week. Meeting colleagues outside the workplace is always fun and gives you a chance to interact in a different environment. So anyway, I leave you with a few photos of the evening and my eisteddfod pieces (along with youtube links to my favourite performances).
Bach BWV 848
Chopin Trois Nouvelle Etude No.1 in F minor
Gershwin Prelude 1
Khachaturian Toccata
Chopin Nocturne No. 20 in C # minor
Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 5
Social Function
I love Paddies!
I guess we were tired?
June Update
Time does fly quick. I'll be at my current job for a year at the end of this month. I can still remember my old stamping ground very fondly. I do still keep in contact with some of my ex colleagues, it's good to see how time changes things. Probably the highlight of this month was the MIA Open Tennis at Griffith, NSW. Brandon Vescio, from Albury, took out the open mens title after a 5 year break from the game! From the grapevine, he played a lot of juniors in the generation that Bernard Tomic played in. The Area News has a little article on his achievement.
Andy won his first round in the opens but losing to Kyrgios in the next round 6-2, 6-2. I had an interesting 1st round. I won the first 6-1 (great I thought!), the next set was a series of service breaks until I eventually surrendered my serve to give the set 6-4. The final set, I was up 3-0...I couldn't keep focus and play as strong as I did in the first. Too many errors and I lost the 3rd 6-4. Well I guess that sets back my goal in getting any AR points this year (or ever!).
Final draws at 92computing.