Old Friends, Old Times

Just before arriving at the shops on Boxing Day, I received a text message from my friend Dave:

"hi fi, merry christmas to you and j :) sorry i've been so bad at trying to meet up this year. anyway, if you're free me and my mates are having a bit of a musical jam tomorrow at my parents place, [address]. 11 onwards :) cheers"

How random was that!

Dave and I go way back to the days when we were both year 8 students at Caulfield Grammar School (CGS), over a decade (!!!) ago. You know what's scary about that one? Chris, who was with James and I at Carols by Candlelight on Sunday night, graduated from CGS only last year!

Dave and I first met in math class. I sat next to him, initially because he was smart (still is - he's a doctor now!) and I could get help with my math, but eventually because we were (still are) friends. Thinking back to those days, I think that he might have thought I was smart too, but all the rest of us knew he was (still is) the smartest, even if he didn't (probably still doesn't) know that himself.

Dave is one of the only people from CGS that I am still in touch with because after I moved to Hong Kong he was one of the few who kept in touch with me. That was back in the day when email was not as prevalent (I'm dating myself aren't I?) and snail mail was the main form of intercontinental friendships. So I was delighted to discover yesterday that Dave has a blog! And just like his letters, his blog is heartfelt, witty, highly intelligent and definitely a read recommended by me.

Dave, you were always several years ahead of me in maturity, and your writing shows that you still are. ;-)

Needless to say, I didn't need much convincing to join Dave and his mates yesterday.

It is at this point that I have a confession to make: I must have become too Australianized or something because I was totally expecting Dave's mates to be Caucasian and thus found myself internally reacting with surprise that everyone at Dave's place was Asian. Then again, maybe it was the use of the term "mates". Do Asians have "mates"?

James' comment to this is that maybe I'm racist... hmm, wouldn't that be an interesting dilemma to find myself in every time I look in the mirror.

Funnily enough, I should have felt like I fit right in, considering that for the first time in a long time I was not the only Asian person in the group. Instead, I felt like the odd one out. Do you want to know why? Because everyone there had black hair except me, so I felt like I didn't look Asian enough! LOL.

After a while, this didn't matter, because it became evident to me that Dave's main intention in inviting me to said "musical jam" was to get me to sing stuff. Yes... stuff. This exercise quickly unveiled my sorely lacking knowledge of music in general. I often know a song, but can't sing any lyrics, let alone tell you what it's about or who sings it. However I can hum or "la" along.

This is why I don't want to try out for Oz Idol ~ choosing a song to sing every week would just be way too stressful, and anyone who watches that show knows how often Mark Holden stresses the vital importance of good song choice. Waaaaay too stressful.

The result yesterday's hanging out in Dave's parent's garage stuffing around (ah... how cliche... and what I would give to be 17 again... ) was this one song recording. Not an original, just a cover. Yes, yes, I know you want to hear it. The link is on Dave's blog.