I'm tired

Last Wednesday:

Irfan came, took him to Hamleys, Covent Garden and British Museum. I had good chinese buffet dinner at Kowloon at Chinatown. The beginning of the end for my feet.


Last Thursday:

Prish, Shankari and Imeshi came, I feel asleep waiting for them, too groggy to say hi properly. Rested my feet. Girls seemed happy to be in London. Irfan crashed in my small room.


Last Friday:

I gave them a tour of central London. I'm quite proud of the route I chose that day, we went to three different parks, Harrods, the palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliment Building, Oxford Street and Bond Street. Dinner at Khan's near Bayswater, followed by a one hour walk past Tower Bridge along the river. Irfan slept on the floor again.


Last Saturday

Aik Wye, Wen Yuen and Jassie came, along with the three Eugenes and Audrey (whom I just met) Girls went shopping, we went for donuts, bummed around St James' Park till dinner at Four Seasons, where we bumped into Nick, Angie's BF. Hong Yuen let me crash at his place.


Sunday

Aik Wye and Wen Yuen missed the train. I went to the bookstore at 10 a.m. forgetting that it opens on 12.30 p.m. on Sundays. There was a line of people outside LV half and hour before it opened.
I went to Andrew AY's place. We played Wii until his mom brought us out for Royal China Dim Sum. I got home in time for dinner and bed.


Monday

I went to Denmark Street aka music shop street. Set myself to 300 pounds maximum for one guitar, which I thought was plenty. After one hour, only liked one guitar selling for 350 pounds. Five hours later found my perfect guitar. This experience I will write in detail:

I have already spent a few hours trying brand new guitars without much success of finding one I can really enjoy playing. I tried the second hand and vintage guitar shops, saw a few good Martin guitar and stayed far far away from the Gibson ones. Nothing that I particularly liked though.

I went to a second shop of the same kind out of desperation as the sun was beginning to set. The acoustic guitars were all the way in the back of the shop where i met the friendliest guys of the day. One Scottish, One American and one British bloke. American was shopping the other two were working.

I told the Scottish guy about my lousy search for a guitar and he made me realise that every guitar has so many characteristics that finding the right combination can take a really long time. He showed me lots of guitars. I found two that I thought was close to what I wanted and I told him, "somewhere in between these two". He picked us this really old, cracked guitar and I found exactly what I was looking for. I was so impressed by him and so happy to just sit down with it.

A few minutes later, I looked for the brand and read 'Gibson'. I checked the price and my bliss abruptly ended. 1500 pounds for a 7 year old guitar. Sigh, I thanked him, told him it was way way out of my budget and left.

I went to all the shops I visited before and I asked about the amazing J-160E. It costs 2000 pounds brand new. I also found another guitar, the J-45 Rosewood . . . so beautiful. It's slighty cheaper than the J-160E, due to lack of some electronic stuff, but the tone is soo good. Gibsons really are the best. But their prices are the worst.

I went to meet Quain, Aunty Janice, Sue I, Andrew AY and two of his friends for dinner at Mandarin Kitchen. Aunty ordered lobster noodles for us. It got a little late and Aunty Janice let me stay at their place for the night. I dreamt about the freaking guitar that night.


Tuesday

Woke up earlier than the others to research the two guitars and I became lost in all the technicalities of the guitars. Couldn't find the guitars for any cheaper, even in Singapore or Malaysia (I called them up). Aunty Janice cooked brunch for me and Andrew and we played golf and tennis on the Wii till I left for tennis practise, which made me stop thinking about it for a few hours, I had so much fun playing tennis. Got home and my feet really hurt from a whole week of fun. I looked up the guitars some more till I slept.


Wednesday

Blogging now and after watching youtube videos and listening to the sounds of the guitars, I like J-45 rosewood better.


Oh yeah, I kinda got the week off.


*Update: I bought it. Pictures here