The girls have been counting down the hours to their guitar class, and meeting the new teacher, of course. We had no idea who he was or if he was going to be meaner than Mr Mean Goat himself *shudder*.

Well, I’ll let Raine and Skye tell you, in their own writing words (unedited):

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Raine, my 15 year old:

He’s better than stupid cranky old Mr Mean Goat. He’s an okay sorta guy who doesn’t keep asking stupid irrelevant questions and he doesn’t smirk nastily at us when we do the wrong thing. Plus, he can really play the guitar and he didn’t make us play stupid baby games.

Except.. he went a little too fast. He was like, “Okay, E minor is here. C is here. No, this way. Now G chord. This finger over here. This second finger on this string. And now D for donkey.”

OMG. :O

I felt like I was in an advanced program going 150miles per hour. And my poor fingers were switching from chord to chord like some freak and at times I didn’t even know which finger I was using. I thought my first finger was the third and stuff like that.

Boo hoo. Gonna have to ask him to slow down to above snail pace.

Skye, my 12 year old:

Newt (new teacher) is alright, I guess. He asked a few questions and started the lesson. He taught us the E minor chord, C chord, G chord and D chord.

He went too fast. Well, at least, he didn’t laugh at us like Mr Mean Goat or go, “See! Hah! See!”. He just told us if we were wrong and corrected us.

Newt played some songs when teaching us. But I was hardly interested in that because I was busy trying to correct my fingers and ignore the lines on my fingers. It hurts but I guess it’ll go away. Sooner or later.

Back to the point. He didn’t even mind when we asked him how to place our fingers for whatever chord that is for the hundredth time.

Psst! Newt said we could play some songs in a few weeks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So I’m happy and the girls are happy. Sore fingers aside, it looks like they’re still as enthusiastic as ever. It’s happy days and I’m looking forward to hearing some funky music soon .

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Raine’s classmate is working at McDonald’s. If it were any other guy, I’d have said so what? But this is the young man who is sorta Raine’s unofficial ‘brother’ at school as he shares the same last name as us.

He likes to ‘bully’ Raine and the other girls at school, splashing water on them, snatching their food, pulling their hair, stuff like that. And he’s also the one who says I’m one hot mama.

Naturally I was curious. This cheeky 15-year-old, I have to see!! So when Raine suggested we go to McDonald’s to ’stalk’ him and give him a hard time with our order, I happily played along. Hey, I’m a sporting mom .

Turned out he was the guy making the french fries, not the guy at the counter so things didn’t go as we planned. Still we had lunch and spied on him from our corner table.

His seriously over-salted fries aside, he didn’t look like a bully to me at all. Maybe his behavior has to do with his parents being divorced. He lives with his dad and sister, and is pretty much left to his own devices. I can’t imagine how his dad could let him cycle on a major highway to/from school every day.

Not having a mom also means no homecooked food, I guess. Maybe that’s why he likes to pinch the girls’ food. There I go playing shrink again ! The more I looked at him, the more I felt a soft spot for him. Coming from a broken home myself, I can see myself in him.

Anyhow, he finished his shift shortly afterwards and the girls suggested we follow him as he set off at a deadly speed on his bicycle. We spotted him at the traffic lights way ahead of us.

Since I had to turn off to pick up Steev from college, Raine wound down the window and shouted to him while I leaned on the horn. Whee, that was fun! Poor guy probably didn’t have a clue who he was waving back at. We laughed all the way to Steev’s college. That was such fun!!

Today I made two big pans of pasta bake. Yeah, when you have 3 teens, you think B-I-G! Figure we’d bring French Fry Guy a slice over to McDonald’s. But Raine was too shy to give it to him as there was another guy from school working there.

First thing this morning, I grabbed the girls and the classical guitar and headed straight back to the store.

I spoke to one of the staff (not the girl from last night) and right away, she agreed to let us exchange our classical guitar for an acoustic.

Wonderful! She showed us a few but we zoomed in on this one. It’s a Yamaha, very light woody color which is far more cheery than the maroon one from last night.

There was a really nice older man at the store too who threw in a discount and free picks for us. Not bad, huh?

This guitar cost me a hundred plus dollars more than what I paid for the classical guitar.

Just as Mr Nice and I were sorting out the payment for the price difference, Mr Mean Goat, the guitar teacher walked in.

Noticeably shocked at seeing us there again so soon after the first lesson last night, he asked what the problem was. The staff explained to him and right away, he blew his top. He ticked us off for being so disrespectful as to sneak back in and exchange the guitar he had recommended with one of our choosing.

In doing so, he barked, we were doubting his competence as a teacher, bla-bla-bla… He went on barking like a mad dog whose tail is on fire, and just before he marched back in, he made it clear he no longer wanted to teach my girls!

Well, alleluia, and let me tell you one more thing, Mister, if you want people to respect you, you’d better start earning it! Can you even believe this guy?!!!

We signed up for the acoustic class, not the classical that he was trying to force on us, and us exchanging the guitar has no bearing on his competence as a teacher at all. Well, now it does!

Come to think of it, he’s not fit to be a teacher if he blows up like that! And I’m glad he won’t be teaching my girls any more because he’ll likely kill their interest in guitar-playing forever!

Mr Nice was apologetic afterwards and immediately arranged for my girls to work with another teacher. From his expression, I could tell it’s not the first time Mr Mean Goat has blown his top with his students.

I think they should just fire Mr Mean Goat before he chases all their students away with his arrogance and unreasonable behavior.

The girls were all excited, couldn’t wait for their first guitar lesson tonight. We got there a full 15 minutes early with high hopes!

The teacher picked out a classical guitar for us on the premise that the nylon strings would hurt less. At that time, I had no idea it was a classical guitar.

It was all hastily done because we were already 20 minutes into class time. No time to think, no time to ask questions. He said that guitar was what we needed and I just took his word for it.

Over dinner later, the girls were telling me how they didn’t quite fancy the teacher because he’s mean and tried to make them look stupid and laughed at them when they made mistakes.

I agree the teacher had struck me as less than friendly and had a certain bitterness about him that could’ve resulted from being locked up in that music room too long! Nonetheless, I comforted the girls by saying maybe he didn’t mean it, bla-bla-bla and that it’ll be okay.

Then of course, it was only when Skye questioned why we’d bought a classical guitar that it made me realize, OMG, didn’t we sign up for the acoustic class? Isn’t that what the nice lady told us the other day? So why did Mr Mean Goat make us buy a classical guitar?

After dinner, we doubled back to the store to reconfirm. Mr Mean Goat had left so we spoke to one of the staff who told us, no worries, there’s no difference between a classical and an acoustic guitar. Huh?

We did some research on the internet later and of course, there are differences! Duh! True, a classical guitar has nylon strings which are easier on the fingers but it also has a wider neck and a more mellow sound.

The acoustic guitar, on the other hand, has steel strings, a pick guard under the sound hole and more of an upbeat sound which would be perfect for pop music.

That just says one thing. We most likely got conned - firstly, being made to take a classical guitar class and buying a classical guitar when we signed up for acoustic; secondly, being told all guitars are the same when they’re not!

Okay, so it looks like we may have trouble on our hands! Frankly, I was more concerned about the girls’ feelings about the class than having bought the wrong guitar.

As you know, the girls want to learn to play the guitar and we’ve been wondering if they should try to learn it on their own or go for lessons. Well, we finally got them signed up for lessons after checking out two music schools.

The first school we went to is a very small store tucked away in a corner of a mall. They have music rooms in the back where they conduct lessons.

The lady was really nice and took the trouble to explain which class the girls should take.

Classical guitar involves mostly plucking (or was it picking?) which is more technical, and the electric guitar, well, it’s not for beginners.

With the acoustic guitar, the emphasis is on rhythm and chord and involves strumming. So it’s more suited to those who are learning for fun, for singing along to and as an accompaniment to other instruments.

I’m not sure if I got all this right but I think this is roughly what she said, just before I fell asleep on my feet, she was just going on and on.

The second school is a much larger store and much more established. But they seemed more interested in getting us to sign up than to answer our questions about which course would be more suited to beginners.

The old man, who strikes me as an overzealous money-face, kept shoving the registration forms in my face and trying to elicit a response from me in Mandarin.

I tried my darnest to look intelligent but I had no idea what he was blabbing about most of the time . Sadly Mandarin isn’t my forte.

But the choice was pretty clear even from the start. We picked the first school, hands down. It’s small, it’s personal and I liked that they explained things to us and helped us decide which class to take.

So here we are, all set for the big day - first day of class !

I got my nails done, woo-hoo and just in time for the long weekend too! Like ‘em? Wicked, huh?

No, I didn’t spend hours having my nails painted on at the nail salon. Neither are they press-ons. Guess what? A laser printer did this for me !

As you can see, I have a different floral design on each finger. I’m wierd that way, always the rebel. It’s pretty cool actually, I picked a different .jpg file for each finger and the laser printer did the rest.

You would’ve thought my hand was a freaking sheet of paper being fed into the printer. The printing itself only took a few minutes and voila! I absolutely love this crazy idea !

If you want to have yours done, find out where you can go. Offer is only on this weekend.

Good morning *stretch*. I can’t believe I’ve been up all night blogging non-stop . Yes, I’m still up at 4:30 am blogging for charity. At Day of Blogs 2008, I have to blog every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. No breaks. No rest.

But it’s all for a good cause so I don’t mind. In fact, Raine (aged 16), Skye (12) and me had lots of fun laughing away and making a lot of noise last night. The girls have gone to bed but they’ll be up soon to make breakfast. We’ll be blogging kinda in shifts.

Last night, we made a half-hearted attempt to go to the Daughtry jamming session at 1 Utama. Well, we hadn’t really planned to go. And besides, we had to start our blogging marathon at 9:00 pm. So we dropped in after dinner to see what’s up.

But when we saw the smokers and the whole polluted atmosphere and the rain, we decided to give it a miss. No big deal. We’re not that crazy about Daughtry anyways. Okay, I got to go wake the girls up. I’m seriously hungry here . Haven’t eaten since dinner.

I got tagged by mott on this like days ago but conveniently forgot about it. Not that I can find time to read much any more, considering how busy my days are. But I’ll go ahead and give it my best shot, okay?

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
In my early school days when I was 7 or 8, my dad used to take me to the children’s section of the public library where they had these low tables and chairs, and wait patiently while I rummage through the shelves looking for I don’t know what.

What are some books you read as a child?
That was the next thing I was going to say. Don’t ask me what I read in that library. I don’t remember except that the books were old and stinky .

As a teen, I was heavily into books about religion, captivated by the stories and teachings of the major religions. I especially loved the Lobsang Rampa series.

What is your favourite genre?
Thrillers, chick lit, cookbooks, um, that’s three, maybe more.

Do you have a favourite novel?
It’s hard to name just one. I love the classics like Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Dorian Gray.

Where do you usually read?
Just about anywhere, I guess, I just have to get hooked, then I can’t stop.

When do you usually read?
Wherever I can find a cozy spot which isn’t very often.

Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
You kidding me? If I can’t find time to read one book, where would I find the time to read two?

Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
I don’t know, do I?

Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
When I take my girls to book sales, I may pick up a couple there for myself. Other than that, I do most of my reading on the net, heh! Not books but articles.

Do you keep most of the books you buy?
Yes, I guard them jealously and I’m glad I hardly gave any away because my modest library turned out to be my kids’ treasure trove.

If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them?
My two girls are bookworms. They’ve long ago read all of my antiques - Famous Five, St Clare’s, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Robinson Crusoe… And they introduced me to Roald Dahl and Meg Cabot .

Were they some of the same ones you read as a child?
Yep, they’re also done with the classics I mentioned earlier.

Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?
Nah, who’s got time for that?

What’s next?
My plate is nice and clean.

What books would you like to reread?
It’d be fun to read some of the old classics I read as a kid.

Who are your favourite authors?
Polly Williams, gotta love her book, “The Rise and Fall of the Yummy Mummy” and Ridley Pearson who wrote “Parallel Lies”. I’m sure there must be more but I can’t think right now .

Whew, that was a long list but I had fun with it. Let me pass the tag to all the mommies whose names begin with “M” — Marsha, Montessorimum and Mommy to Chumsy. If you guys haven’t done this tag before, now’s your chance pretty please.

I knew it!

I knew I should be sleeping with curlers in my hair and following dear hubby around like a little lamb singing praises about everything he’s doing wrong and darning my children’s socks endlessly with a smile on my face!

39 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!