William Chong

At the start of the year, Dennis and Sonny invited me over to work on this song. I had penned it originally as a slow ballad with intros, but then upped the tempo and enthusiasm to turn it into a more Foo-fighters, inspirational rock anthem feel.

 

 A Life Less Ordinary [3:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

A Life Less Ordinary – WILLIAM CHONG
Is your life plain
Plain in the sense that you shuffle to work
slumped in the throne of mundaneness
The ebb and flow of this generation means nothing to you
Apathy rules

Is your life stale
Stale in the sense that your smile’s not the same
The radio singing a little strained
Westlife crooning in vain means nothing to you

Could you picture a life less ordinary
Is your preference a life less ordinary

Then brighten it up, lighten it up
It’s less plain with me
Make that unexpected step in my direction
So brighten it up, take a look
at your changing scenes surprising
More than ever, you’ll soon find
that it’s less plain with me

Is life a mess
A mess in the sense that your reason to live
Is obscured by the pain of your endeavours
The rolling tide before you seems to beckon you in
Where to begin…

With me you know there’s no such thing as a regular day
Every day is just one fine day with me
A guy like me you see won’t be indifferent to you
Tell me the truth: would you play with me?

This year I’ve found many things.

I’ve found that living at home this year has really tested and challenged me. Who I am, who I want to be. Who are important to me.

I’ve found that people make time for others only if they really mean it, and there’s no sense in routine for the sake of it. I’ve found that if you seek to satisfy yourself, your friends won’t tell you about it but you will still see that you are left behind. I’ve discovered my love for music currently exists not as a passionless career but a careerless passion.

I like it that way – there is no expectation of fitting a marketable mould and castrating your sound for the sake of selling it. I write music when I can, and I enjoy it. I can record a tune that no one but myself enjoys, and that is my prerogative. This year I’ve had more time to pursue other challenges in my music – ATCL, CCM, other acronyms that translate to metaphor and melody, a tapestry of love and care.

This year I chose to be more of a pragmatist. My dreams are not rock-star fashion, not even town hero. I want a house and a family, to lead and to serve. I tell myself my fantasies are frivolous, and that these are things worth working for, earning a salary for.

This year I learned Chinese. I may not remember my vocabulary, but I remember my heritage.

This year I enjoyed building up friends and family. This year I churned through house and life-work, trying to balance keeping a fractured family reasonably together yet holding firm to who I was and who I stood for. This was hard and sometimes I wished I had more strength and resolve to challenge those around me.  But slow and steady wins the race, and when others fall by the wayside, perhaps you accept they alone chose that path.  So this year I was sad to watch them go.

This year there was great fun in cooking. Gastronomic awareness is a life-long journey, and there are no limits save your wallet and appetite. I am happy to say that I can cook and I would have loved to have cooked my mother dinner.

If you read this, I would encourage you to make one meal. Just one. For your parents, your mother, your father, your step-parents, your bio-parents, your sister, brother. Try it. When you cook for someone else you think of who they are, what they would like. Do they like pepper? What about those tomatoes? You craft a personal serving of humility and servitude for another.

I would have love to have cooked her something today.

As others have pointed out, Jesus is the reason for the season. That’s my Christian plug.

This year I have grown to love the life ahead of me. I like my friends. My family. Writing and singing. Cooking and cleaning. Working, phasing between social circles. People love to be listened to. We all need each other.

This year I have lived.

————————-

Sitting in my room. It’s a gradual transformation, moving from the bunkroom of my youth to a new beginning, a new space.  During the three weeks of internet-free living, I have:

reorganised my wardrobe
moved furniture around
set up my own office/studio space
earnt half a grand in transcriptions
sorted through CDs and DVDs
started and finished Christmas shopping
completed a medal test
uploaded 2 songs
gone to Mangawhai on holiday

———————–

Yep. Life is pretty good so far.

Sylvia Park is like a warzone today. Saturday shoppers strike.

—————

Still no internet, leeching. It’s been 2 weeks, but yea Richard will whip those ISPs into shape. Season’s greetings everyone, don’t forget reason for season.

————–