post holiday syndrome

I had a fantastic time is Adelaide, a much needed holiday. I am glad that I was able to spend time with some close friends and had a blast doing stupid things with them especially the good old orange boys. Also glad that I was able to celebrate aunty Chiew Har's birthday with her in person. I am glad she liked the handbag we bought for her. It was great catching up aunty Chiew Har in Adelaide, this is one lady who has inspired me so much with her strength and wisdom and together with her passionate trash talking full of fire husband brought me to that "next-level" in my spiritual walk and my service to ministry. It is this husband and wife team, one of my greatest inspiration and influence in my life.

One of the biggest highlight of my trip here in Adelaide, I mean either than catching up with friends was off course as mentioned in my earlier post was The U2 Concert. I wasn't the only excited one about the concert, the whole Adelaide was in the U2 euphoria. The whole 16th November Thursday, radio stations played nothing but U2 songs and even after the concert, they played back the concert live on radio. It was the biggest event in Adelaide in decades and the biggest rock concert ever in Adelaide. I've never seen a traffic jam in Adelaide all my life until that day. Everyone was jamming to the AAMI Stadium. It was like "you too?? going for U2??" and everyone was in that mood that even business entrepreneurs was on this bandwagon to promote business.

It was a long 2 hour wait in the freezing cold for U2 to come out on stage in fact it was too cold a night for a rock concert but what the heck, once U2 came on stage and opened with City of Blinding Lights, we were spelling C.O.L.D as B.O.N.O.

The crowd in the stadium was massive and as you can see from my shot, that's how far I was from stage. People were camping the night before at the AAMI Stadium so that they can get a good standing space when the door opened. I just thank God the place I was in may not have had a good view, but at least the sound was good. Every single detailed of The Edge's tones could be heard. I started to warm up most to the concert when Beautiful, Vertigo and Elevation came on. Even from so far away, the energy from stage could be felt from where I was, 400 m away.

My only disappointment for that night had to be that I was way too far from stage. Bono and band looked liked walking black peanuts from where I was. But thank God for the fantastic arts display used. The massive giant screen served as an animated backdrop. The graphics and animation was sensational.

Every time I watch a U2 DVD live in concert somewhere, some how always feel very "sthim", so I am always concern that will I ever be able to differentiate U2 anointing with Worship Experience anointing? Well the answer is yes. I can differentiate when there's God in a concert and that itself is a big difference factor between a U2 Rock Concert and a Worship Concert. Yes, I felt chills running down my spine when U2 sang Where the Streets has No Name and With or Without You. But it was a different type of chill, it was just a chill of "they are playing my favorite song" and "sensational tones" but nothing touches your heart. It was there that i understood what really is The Heart of Worship.

What you see on DVD is really what you get man. Everything was the same, Bono brought a little boy up on stage when he sang Sunday Bloody Sunday and asked him a whole load of questions and giving us a "sermon", this time preaching to us how Abraham caused the fall of unity between the Christians and Muslims and kept chanting "Jesus, Mohamed, Co-exist". He also brought up a chick from the grounds when he sang With or Without You.

Overall, it was a sensational concert. A dream come true really, being able to see U2 live in concert with my own 2 eyes. I can now say that I experience a U2 concert myself, seeing my idol Adam Clayton play the bass, he is seriously good. A true example of a simple bass player but a good band player. I really should have had the guts to run up to him in Rundle Mall and thank him for inspiring me to play the bass. Seriously, when I first watched people like Marcus Miller, Flea, Nathan East, Billy Sheehan and Abraham Laboriel play the bass, I didn't want to pick up the bass but it was after watching Adam Clayton play that you know a simple bass player goes a long way too. In fact I think he is one simple bass player that has gone all the way. If you read his history, he wasn't sure of his role in the band and one day Bono bought him a bass and asked him to try out the bass for the band and he hasn't looked back since. From being forced to pick up the bass at such an old age now look where he is. Indeed, my my bass hero.

Another great highlight of my trip in Adelaide was off course hanging out with the Orange Boys and we did do Asian Disconnect 2. But it's too good that it can't appear on this block as I realised that I have viewers age below 18 visiting this blog. Well, maybe Orange lane guest star Ian Chong might post something on his blog about it. It has something to do with Texas Hold-em poker.

Gosh, I hate Monday blues...............