Violin Strings: Evah Pirazzi (Gold)

Strings by Evah Pirazzi (Gold) is my latest new favourite! It is a little pricey compared to other strings but its sound is fantastic! They are also quite durable! Buy it when Gramercy has a sale! 

The G string is Gold, D is Sterling silver, A is Aluminium and E is stainless steel. G string being gold, gives a mellow, rich and warm tone. E being stainless steel isn't too bad. The tone is still sweet. I like the tension on all strings and the sound comes out easily.

The ends are golden yellow with black stripes for G, D and A strings. The heads is brown for G, pink for D, dark blue for A and green for E.

Nirwana Resort Hotel Bintan

Bought this from Groupon and went on a short getaway with Ivy. We had lots fun and girls' talk over there, especially in the pool at night. 

It was a really relaxing time over there, all minds off work. 

Upon reaching, we headed for a full body massage. Then to the hotel, food and to the beach. After dinner, we chilled at the pool. At night, we indulged in our own Korean drama. The next day, we had an early breakfast and then headed for the pool again. We went for another leg massage before heading back to Singapore.

The infinity pool facing the beach and sea.

Breakfast: Provided

WIFI: Free

Address: Jalan Panglima Pantar, Lagoi 29155, Bintan Resorts, Indonesia

Tel:+62 770 692505

Website: http://www.nirwanagardens.com

Haze in Singapore

I still remembered that in 1997 we had a similar situation. However, the situation now is much worse than the previous. The air smells bad and I have been tuning on my air-con for the past few nights. When I wake up in the morning, I feel choked. The highest PSI reading so far is today at 12 pm at 401, defined as very hazardous.

The skyline is blurred, the skies are grey, and it feels so hot. The particulate matter must be "trapping" the heat like what greenhouse gases do.

Citizens are all on a frenzy mode in purchasing all kinds of face masks. It's out of stock everywhere, even the cloth type from ArtBox is also sold out. Stores are bringing in stocks and my friend saw a box (of 20s) of N95 selling for S$100!

McDonald's and KFC have suspending their delivery service. Many outdoor activities have been cancelled too. 

As for me, I feel my eyes are teary and feel something along my airway while I breathe. 

Bring back the blue skies. I promise I will take three deep breaths in the morning and appreciate clean air.

Along ECP-AYE on 20th Jun 2013, 1330 hours

New Violin

I finally made up my mind in getting a really good violin since I'm quite sure I'm getting very serious about violin. I got the help of my conductor in the selection. It's a 1925 German violin. It has a warm sound and I'm growing to love the sound of it. Isn't she a beauty?

Next up will be a Paul Goh's bow.

Violin Polish

This is the violin polish I'm using now. I find it very effective. 

You pour a little polish onto the sponge and then use the sponge and polish in a circular manner. Then polish off with the soft yellow cloth. 

The wood will become shiny instantly, looking freshly varnished!! 

LUSH products

After five months back from Sydney, I finally opened the tubs and use them!!

I tried the Wobbly jelly and Rub Rub Rub today! I put the jelly into the fridge in the morning and took it out before using. Wow, it was really refreshing and smells super good on the skin!!! It was more soapy than I thought! 

Rub Rub Rub is a body scrub and it was also soapy!! Have yet to try Turkish Delight but I'm sure it will not disappoint!!

When I was at the shop, there were so many people and its stocks were selling out very fast! There were some really nice fragrances but didn't manage to get them. 

It was only when I came back that I found out that there's a shop in Singapore!! I can easily get them here:

Wisma Atria, 435 Orchard Road, Singapore 238877 (Unit No. B1-13)

From Lush Times:

The wobbly shower jelly gives a refreshing, stimulating excitement as it is best used straight from the freezer in a hot-as-you-can-take-it shower. It is citrus packed - grapefruit, lemon and lime and rosemary. 

Rub Rub Rub is sea salt rich and it polishes all those dead skin cells away. It is fragrant with mimosa scent.

Turkish Delight consists of almond oil and cocoa butter to moisturise and soften the body with rose oil. It is rich in rose and jasmine, surely to leave a delightful soft and perfumed skin.

LUSH Believes:

We believe in making effective products from fresh, organic* fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics.

We invent our own products and fragrances. We make them fresh by hand using little or no preservative or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients, and tell you when they were made.

We believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not commission tests on animals and in testing our products on humans.

We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products and making our mums proud.

We believe in long candlelit baths, sharing showers, massage, filling the world with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.

We believe our products are good value, that we should make a profit and that the customer is always right.

Rosin and Peg Paste

Right now I'm using Andrea's violin rosin. It is dark olive green. This is the best rosin in the market and probably the most expensive one. But I didn't regret buying this as it gives a really smooth playing experience with the correct resistance on the strings. It isn't too sticky. The sound made is very much smoother.

Pirastro Goldflex rosin is much drier and much more sticky. When playing on the G and D string, I did not need to exert too much pressure and the sound can come out very boldly. 

This is the peg paste I use - W. E. Hill. It is applied on the part where the peg is in contact with the holes near the scroll. It is a lubricant as well as a resistant. Doesn't it work wonderfully? My teacher said his last him a lifetime. So it means unless I lose this, I'll never have to buy this again.

Larsen Tzigane (Blue Packaging)

This one has a lower tension than it's Virtuoso strings. 

The D and A strings are not very impressive. I'll update this post when I changed to this G and E strings.

Larsen Virtuoso Strings (Red Packaging)

I have been changing different brands of my strings and rosin and decided it's time to write down to remember them.

Gold coloured tips

Yellow gold ends on G D A and sky blue on E

So here it is. My A string broke one day suddenly inside the case so I decided to change the whole set since it was more than 6 months ago that I changed my strings. I started out changing the A and E first. I only changed G and D two days later so that I won't tax on my bridge too much. The last few times when I changed my strings together, my bridge always bent forward.

It was easy to play after changing, and the strings did not go out of tune too much on the first few plays. The tension was surprising good! 

The sound was not too metallic and was quite sensitive to articulations and vibrato. The G string gives a deep tone. Just a pity that the E string was not gold-plated. Otherwise, I think the sound will be sweeter.

19th June 2013:
The D string is about to snap any moment now. The remaining strings are also going out of tune very easily. The life of the strings are low, barely more than a month. 

It's Not Goodbye

Heard this song while I was in a shop trying on a new dress. The lyrics and tune are nice and describes what I'm feeling these days over someone.

Some people leave for the betterment for themselves. We should feel happy for them. Till then, it's "Hello" again and not "goodbye" now. I guess this is how I can feel better now.



All the best and wishing you success!