Ronan

this story all starts two weeks ago...

...so as usual i stopped at the petrol station to fill up and get my weekly mars bar when after a long deliberation between mars and snickers, i finally chose my treat. in a sugar induced trance i stumbled out of the shop and saw a rather large poster with a photo of Ronan Keating on it and a sign that announced that he was doing a gig at the olympic stadium a couple of weeks later.this sounds fairly trivial, i know, but you must understand that no international artist has ever played in cambodia, this is by far the largest and most publicised event the country has seen in recent years. so after a few days joking around with jeni that we should go along, iu started to think seriously that i would actually really like to go. note the strong sense of sarcasm in my writing yet beyond it there is an element of truth. when the day came round i nearly forgot about it then suddenly remembered in time and off we went in the pouring rain to see if we could get some tickets. not only did we get tickets but we got ushered through to the front where only the people who had paid lots more than us were sitting. after enduring three awful khmer pop songs from some girl Ronan himself and the band strutted onto the stage to an unbelivable throng of screams and kicked off in a rather unexpected rock and roll jig. much to my surprise and after a few songs of feebly waving my glow stick and clapping along i started to really enjoy it, obviously jeni was loving it and at one point stood on her chair to throw some underware up on the stage. it was just a shame i didnt know any of the songs to sing along, until he pulled out a few boyzone classics which i only recognised come the chorus but heartly sang, in my head, along to. it is funny how something you associate with the west, even though i would never go to see ronan keating in england, can remind you of home. just the atmosphere of a live concert and the songs in english was a welcomed break from the terrible khmer pop ive grown accustomed to. aside from all the joking, i did really enjoy the gig. one thing to say is that the band were incredibly good musicians. the guitarists between them had about 8 guitars and at one point ronan himself played, he clearly wasnt playing along because he was changing chords in all the wrong places, i could tell! and the drummer had some serious skills. one thing to say about pop is that you really cant beat the melody, that was all i could think afterwards. even though the words are soppy and the song names cheesy, the melodies are fantastic. it was then and there in that moment that i realised the point of my life, the reason i am here on this earth...to write love ballads. i wish! after several years unsucessfully trying to write a good meaningful hymn ive decided to turn my attemtion to writing love ballads. i can unleash all my obvious charm and wit to fashion some songs to melt the hearts of sweaty cambodians and their western husbands. the otherthing was the hoards of embarrising dads that were present at the show, only they wernt with their kids, they were with their asian girlfriends. ughh. and their moves were literally unbelievable. i think jeni has some good photos that hopefully she will post on her blog, so keep checking it. good times.

this whole blog and the concert started off as a joke but i really feel like i have meaning and a direction i have finally found my role in society. if only i was irish.

Ronan...opps i mean Ben.