Author / Eileen 配仪

by Eileen 配仪

What is a hobby?

A hobby was not for enjoyment but a performance of perfection. I must be perfect before I can engage in something. I carried this belief with me from when I was a child.

It is utterly stupid and illogical. I did not know how I arrived at this conclusion. If someone had described this ludicrous notion and ascribed it to me, I would politely reply, “How interesting.” The conversation would turn to some other topics. I couldn’t see this was my practice. When I was little, I enjoyed writing during English composition classes. I gained a reputation for being good at it. I started feeling that I could not publish something until I was good. It was impossible for me to write a story. I couldn’t get it perfected. If I wrote a story, nobody ever read it. I only manage to get one story published. The main character was also a person who managed to be perfect without effort. I enjoyed drawing but when I discovered that my drawing teacher didn’t think I was good, I lost interest. I write discovered as if it was a fact but it was more like an inkling of a suspicion. Overnight, heated by the suspicion of imperfection, my interest evaporated. This strange notion extended to activities I didn’t enjoy – piano practice and school work. It’s one thing to know I have this illogical quirk. It’s quite another to persuade myself away from this usual thought process that I have to produce something perfect out of the time spent. Is a hobby to produce a perfect product or is it a journey of attaining perfection?

by Eileen 配仪

Frugal but vain

I am not a naturally frugal person. One thing I have been very proud of my success is cheaper and better alternatives with regard to skin care and makeup.

Prior to learning DIY skincare, I was purchasing off the shelf drugstore brands. It was a difficult adjustment for me. I was still trying out if a certain cream work or did not work. DIY was amazing. I was using skin care products that was comparatively inexpensive and my skin no longer clogged. I manage to eliminate all spending on facials because I didn’t need it. I also decided during my learning, to stick to ingredients that were proven to be effective or possibly shown to be effective in some studies.  I’m not great at expanding my DIY repertoire. I stick to a couple of things I always use because experimenting is about buying another hope in jar.

There is an advantage to clear skin. I have lesser interest in the pursuit of perfection of my skin. I am no longer interested in whitening and ensure optimal hydration. If something is not quite right, it is obvious if it is diet, or poor health. It made my life simpler.

Another thing that made my life simpler was going back to my skin tone. When I was 16 I was analysed as a winter. Recently, I came across this colour analysis and ever since then, I no longer needed a myriad of eye and lip colour. I used the same colours daily. It was lovely being boring. It simplified my options. I no longer have to try out looks or eye colours for an occasion. I used the same colours – slightly darker and more dramatic – than my work make up.

 

 

 

by Eileen 配仪

Weird things post baby

The funny thing about after giving birth is the odd changes after delivery that doesn’t go away. Like my previously straight hair is now wavy. My nose stopped enjoying fresh citrusy scents and now seek comforting sandalwood smells.

I walked into Penhaligon’s. It was fun to talk to the sales people in the perfume line about different smells. I tried a few scents and they were mostly very floral and I was seeking a deeper smell. The lady gave me Elixer which was very pleasant Frankincense smell. It strikes me as very manly at first from the spicy note. It felt more feminine 2 hours into the wear. I think it’s the rose? They seem to love flowers there. CK Tangs carry Tam Dao. It smells of creamy sandalwood. Very feminine, soft scent. It doesn’t become something else – which some perfumes like to do. It’s just a simple sandalwood smell. I would buy if not for the $201 price tag. I tried to work on my own perfume of sandalwood, white amber and a rosy . It is too much synthetic rose – which I don’t quite enjoy. The sandalwood alone makes me think of a wooden cupboard. Perhaps for my birthday ‘edition’ I would mix sandalwood and white amber alone.

by Eileen 配仪

Playing by ear

For my record

digitus08's avatarThe Piano Chronicles

Here is an interesting recent PW thread on playing by ear. The response that really caught my eye was from Gyro. Below I quote in full what he wrote. Something simple to start with and to build on. No music theory needed! 🙂

Practical by-ear playing is not that difficult. Starting on the C one octave below middle C, and going up the white keys, play the 7 four-note chords using every other white key:

CEGB, DFAC, EGBD, FACE, GBDF, ACEG, BDFA.

This is the foundation upon which all chords for by-ear playing are built. (In some songs, particularly older songs and rock and country oldies, sometimes only 3-note chords are used: CEG, DFA, EGB, etc.)

Note that each of the 4-note chords above can easily slip into a second chord without changing the first two notes: for example, CEGB can slip easily into CEFA, or CEGA, etc. This is…

View original post 623 more words

by Eileen 配仪

How Teresa Carreño gets practice time

This is funny.

digitus08's avatarThe Piano Chronicles

One of the books that I dip into from time to time is Arrau on Music and Performance, written by Joseph Horowitz. Just today I picked up something that I missed when reading it the first time around, and that is Arrau’s reporting of a comment made by the great Venezuelan pianist Teresa Carreño. She had five children with three husbands and a common-law partner. Arrau met her after one of her concerts, and she said, “Oh, with all the children we have it’s so difficult to practice. I have a loaded gun on my piano. And I have threatened all my children—if they open the door, I shoot.”

View original post

by Eileen 配仪

Hiromi Place to Be (Easy Version)

Practiced in a rental room yesterday after sorting out some important paperwork. I took a while to get use to the piano (Cristofori). I did not enjoy the instrument and I felt it was difficult to express the dynamics of the music. It also took a while to get better accuracy and a consistent speed. I changed some of my fingering in LH to improve accuracy. Took a break to listen to Hiromi playing it and to goof around with some children’s songs. Went back to practicing the two pages. By the end of the lesson, I felt I was more fluent in it.

by Eileen 配仪

What? I have to match clothing for our family potrait?

 Design-seeds website is gorgeous and makes everything easy. My problem is that I don’t have a lot of clothes I have maybe 16 dresses and out of those, only 4 (plum/pink, kelly green, navy blue and black ) are in a single solid colour. Most are prints or strips, which I’ve read is very distracting. C has a beige dress, a navy blue dress (small flower prints) and a white dress  (pink giraffe prints). Mr TCM and A. has a lot more clothing. I wish I have more clothing so its much easier to do this. I manage to find something I could put together

CitrusBrights

Blue dress shirt for Mr TCM.
Orange/Mud long pants for A and a beige top
Navy blue dress for C
Black dress for Me (or the blue dress in bold diagonal stripes? I’m going to do stripes because I saw someone’s picture has it. It means it’s okay!)

 

Flora Brights

Purple T shirt, beige bermudas for Mr TCM.
Beige pants for A and ? Top
Beige dress? Or Pink Giraffe dress for C (Maybe pink because too much beige)
Plum/Pink dress for Me

 

Props:  Bubbles and something to eat