FS: Canon Pixma iP4760

Tada.. For $120.

For Sale: Balloon sculpting materials ($10)

I guess professional clowning is not the path for me.. Selling a half-pack of balloons and a pump. To test if they are still functioning, I tried a bit of sculpting. I call it 'dogs and mistletoe'.

For Sale: Physics Textbook, Serway & Faughn 5th ed. ($25)

Not sure if this is still applicable for the current A level syllabus though.

For Sale: Roadsign Australia ($3)

For Sale: FILA shades

I don't know what the market rate for shades these days are. So quote me!

For Sale: Marshall bass and guitar amps ($90 each)

Description:

Bass Amp:

• 15W
• Sound is not superb. Practice amp
• No noise

Guitar Amp:

• 15W
• Sound also not superb. Practice amp.
• Noisy with a background hiss, but drive/clean channels work fine.
• Very light, good if you wanna carry it around

SOLD! $90 Jim Dunlop GCB95 Wah

Description:

• Condition (sound): good, no noise.
• Condition (aesthetic): Battery cover's broken, so the battery will be dangling outside of the pedal. If you're like me and you use a DC brick/1-spot then it's not a problem.

SOLD! 11 copies of Modern Drummer magazine (2008-2009) $40

April 2008 - March 2009 (missing July 2008)

All pages intact. Half the copies aren't even open (that's another story about my subscription impulses)

For Sale: Yamaha 6-pc Stage Custom

Description:

• 1990s Stage Custom Made in Japan (you can't find this in Yamaha stores); Birch/Mahogany/Falkata
• Throne not included
• Kick pedal is not a stock Yamaha pedal
• 22 x 22 (kick); 10 x 8, 12 x 9, 13 x 11, 16 x 16 toms
• Snare drum is a 14 x 5.5 PDP maple snare (SX series. 6-ply)
• Hardware made in Indonesia (better than Taiwanese hardware, which is what you get in stores these days)

Condition: NO dings on the Yamaha drums, PDP snare has a little scratch on the shell

SOLD! $360 (price reduced from 500!) Yamaha G5A (5-string bass)

Description:

• Very versatile 5-string bass.
• Especially when the sound guys don't bother to EQ me properly, the onboard pre-amp gave me a lot of control on stage.
• I love its twang. The bass can be pretty heavy too.
• The scale length is 34". I'm not entirely sure about this, but I can say for sure that the low B string can get quite floppy. It's not a very tight B-string which a 35" would give you. I have to compensate for that in my playing
• Selling it because I'm upgrading to a Mike Lull! (more head room in its sound)

Condition (sound): 10/10. No noise. Fitted with new input jack about 18 months ago

Condition (aesthetic): 7/10. some significant dings (all in pics below)

For Sale: Holga ($70), flash ($35)

Philippines

I finally have the time to blog about my Manila trip in March! This entry will be a mix of my reflections on Philippines and tips (and warnings!) for you if you're going there. Firstly, Pinoys are real nice. Them and us - it's symbiotic relationship called tourism. They really have incentive to rob you. If you don't travel too flamboyantly, you need not worry about being robbed. Btw, they love to hang out. From late morning to evening the malls and streets are perpetually packed. So if you ever run out of ideas (which you most likely will if you're in Manila City for more than 2 days), ask the locals hanging out with their friends.

Taxi drivers may try to rip you off, so insist on having the

meter (rather than a flat rate) before he drives. In Manila City you can get around very conveniently and cheaply (7 pesos) on jeepneys. The taxi rides we took averaged about 100 pesos for a 3km journey. Jeepneys are pretty fun to ride too!There really is nothing much to do in Manila City. They've got a HUGE ASS mall by the bay (free wifi!) and that's probably a good first stop to stock up necessities (like a US plug converter and a map of Manila. Very handy.) Within Manila we went to Intramuros. We heard that there was a local troupe in town performing every night for 2 weeks but we missed cause we went in the da

y.

Once you reach Intramuros, there will be guides on horse

carriages who will offer to show you around. That's ok, maybe unnecessary, but hey it gives to their income and economy. (Ok here comes the warning about Intramuros) They'll probably show you the epic places like the Catholic churches and Spanish colonial houses. But after the second church, everything was pretty much on repeat mode. We checked out the Intramuros (a particular fort which the Spanish built and the Americans seized) which was really nothing but a lot of walls (circular walls, flat walls + a lame golf course and a lame pond). So I recommend that you quit the tour after the first 3 stops. (Btw that's my lovely companion for the trip on left, outside a catholic church)

By the third day, we already ran out of things to do near where we stayed (Manila

int'l youth hostel) Very good location, near the airport, near a major road [think it's called Airport Road] which links you directly to the megaassmall, intramuros, etc. Why I mentioned this is because this hostel has a particular cook whose husband is an artist, and also a tour guide. So we asked him to show us around, and he took us on a day trip to Taal Lake. It was a 3 hour bus ride (20 pesos) to Tagaytay City, a 20 minute bike ride and a 40 minute boat ride. Local guides on motorbikes with a carriage will drive you downhill on their Kawasaki to the sea level.

The bike ride was my FAVOURITE part of the trip. All the way down, the smell of the earth invades your nostrils and your neurons keep firing. It's not like a cologne you wear which you stop noticing once you get acclimatized. Just when I thought I got enough of it, I take another deep breath and I feel awed all over again. I could sit there all day breathing the earth.

So when we got to the coast, the boat took us (sadly not to Pinatubo, which grandly erupted in 1991 saving us all from global warming for 2 decades) bu

t to Taal Volcano. After we landed on the island of Taal Volcano,we had to walk or ride on a pony. (Another warning) The lady told us it'll be a 2-hour walk, so we

decided to take the pony. But on the uphill sections my conscience was struggling nearly as badly as my pony was, so I got off at long uphill stretch (which turned out to be the last uphill stretch). It would not have been a 2-hour walk. An hour at the most. So, just. don't. take.

the. pony. Peddlers will try to sell you water, masks, hats, souvenirs, umbrellas. Usually at 50 pesos (about SGD$1.60), defo overpriced.

This is a badly stitched picture by me. When we reached the top, overlooking Taal Lake, we enjoyed the calm for about 2 hours. If we had been able to afford a whole day, we could have gone down to the lake and bathed in sulphuric water. I'm quite sure it would have been fun trekking downhill (really) so maybe if we ever go back, we'll set off earlier. (Warning again) There's no need to sign up for tour packages cause they areway overpriced. It's really much better to handle it piecemeal, just get to Tagaytay City, and haggle your way down to Taal volcano.

We returned on the boat and the bike to Tagaytay City, by then the weather had turned to a cool 20 degrees Celsius. That night for dinner, we headed to a hotel named Island Cove, which looked like 4-star to me. The seafood was ok (7/10) but the MUSIC was insane. I would have thought that Beyonce and Taylor Swift were all there that night if I only had my ears to judge.

On our 4th day, we went to Ayala Museum in Makati City

. On our way out of our hostel, we saw the Baclaran flea mart. My lonelyplanet guidebook tells me it's an 'exotic' local flea mart. It doesn't seem like it at all. Maybe erotic's the word (cause there were quite a few porno dvds on sale haha) Anyway I think 'exotic' is an European Orientalist construct. Life is life. Nothing is really 'exotic' if you live in it everyday. It has become a cliche and a stereotype of the East. Life can be beautiful, or it can be damned with exploitation from the West or local elites -but it is not exotic.

So, back to Ayala Museum. I have to say Philippines has so much talent for art. Oil, canvas, parchment, pen, watercolor... I'm no art fart, but the artwork in the gallery was so captivating I could just watch the re-creation of beauty on canvases all day.

Serendipitously, there was a German jazz trio playing that night at the museum. Most OUT music i've ever heard (more out than chick corea or hiromi, maybe not harmonically but defo rhythmically.) They're c

alled Hyperactive Kid, and they really are.

We went back on the 4th night to our hostel, where I wrote my essay and Karen checked out her photos on my MBP (and was so tempted she bought her own haha) while waiting for our departure time.

Pleasant trip, great companion, itinerary that was somehow filled up (thank God, really). I have to say though I think the services there are intentionally made inefficient to increase employment (I had to go through 4 stages and 4 employees to get my AA batts for my camera). When you look at a country screwed over twice, first by the Spanish, and again by the Americans for over 80 years (from 1898 with the Filipino-American war that killed 600,000 Pinoys to supporting the corrupt martial dictator Marcos up till 1980s), you can't help but hope that a political Ip Man will rise up and be a voice for the Philippines. (Yes, I'm quite inspired from watching the second half of Ip Man 2.) To save them from politickers and people who labour for power and oppress if it does not compromise their power, to establish a state that truly enriches and satisfies everyone. Utopian? Maybe in this world.

Yes, welcome to the inside of my head.