…that if you get at least two people of any age or nationality in a room together, they will know at least one Beatles song.

I’ve just returned from a fantastically entertaining afternoon, jamming with workers at a car radio factory.

This is my life out here.

TK - a fortysomething regular at the bar, and the person who kindly loaned his driver to show me and V around the island - had told me that he had a music room at his company’s factory here in Penang. “The managers can take music lessons on work time,” he explained. “And every Friday between 4 and 7, we open a few bottles of wine, and have a jam session. We’ve got full recording facilities, guitars, a drum kit and a piano”.

He was right. Except he forgot the cello.

So there I was at their factory and offices this afternoon, which looked liked something out of a 1980s Hollywood movie (possibly Nine To Five?), ie. this:

And after a quick tour, which included seeing various cars kitted out with ridiculously impressive car stereo systems (including one with a DVD player and surround sound. Yes, full cinema surround sound as you sit in the back of a car), we made ourselves at home in the music room. Which looked like this:

Apparently not all the regular, music-making managers were around this afternoon - but there were enough of us to have a very enjoyable session. At least two of the three guys could play several instruments really well - one is even a whizz at bluegrass guitar - and together we played and sang some jazz standards that they knew.

As I sat plonking a few chords (and I was definitely plonking) while I sang, I realised that I’ve never actually played any jazz piano with other people - only alone, at home - and I loved it, even though I was utterly, utterly terrible. It’s inspired me to think of possibly taking jazz piano lessons when I get back. I’ve known for a while how good it would be for my singing; now I know how much fun it would be, too. <Grins>.

And, yes, to return to my initial, scientific fact: the jam session took an even better turn when a Japanese marketing guy picked up a guitar (and how many stories start like that, eh) and began to play and sing the first of many, many Beatles numbers. Eight Days A Week, Norwegian Wood, And I Love Her, Michelle, Blackbird, Get Back, The Long And Winding Road, Here, There And Everywhere… You name it, we played and sang our hearts out to it. It was really quite moving, to be having this much fun with total strangers (actually I can think of quite a few stories which start like that) and I even felt a rare surge of patriotic pride over this music we were making together. “You can say what you like about Britain,” I said at the end, “but it did give the world The Beatles.”

I’ve just uploaded the pictures from another afternoon excursion - this time to a great little cafe/restaurant in Georgetown called Eco Cafe; and then to the Khoo Kongsi, a Chinese clan house in the centre of town.

The Eco Cafe is run by a friend of CC’s, and with its white tiles, pink walls, and old French music being piped out of the speakers, it was a haven of simple food (pasta, sandwiches and salads) done in a nicely laidback, slightly Western, sort of way. We met an American writer who’s boarding there, and the owner - who was happy to let me snap the surroundings (such as here and here), and who proudly showed off his new wood-burning oven, which he had built out of local clay and cow dung. Fancy.

We then went to an exhibition of German photography at CC’s old university - a former army barracks up on a hill (it’s surprising how similar an army barracks is to a campus university, in fact) - and then back into town to see Khoo Kongsi.

Khoo Kongsi looks like a temple - and in fact partly is a temple - but it’s chiefly a clan house, ie. a place where people from the same clan would meet and, erm, do whatever clans do. And it looks something like this:

There are lots more photos taken in and around the Khoo Kongsi here. Most of which are of lanterns inside the hall, or of the houses you pass as you make your way to the courtyard. Such as here:

And here:

Who says that tourists are always looking up?

Tuesday 29th April.

In fact, it’s more important than the previous Very Important Date.

Mainly because it, erm, replaces it.

Yes, the date of the Oxjam gig at the EDT has now moved to the 29th of next month.

Please put it in your diaries (again!). More details coming soon…