...big book by big book.

Y'see, after my friend treated me for lunch as a birthday treat, I headed over to our country's arts-dedicated library for one sole reason.

*Pretend you didn't read the above first phrase*

The second 'Y'see' I have to tell you is that even though I'm in holidays for two weeks, there is no rest for the student laden with assignments.

And when one assignment requires you to research on a composer of choice - a classical composer of choice - and it was too difficult to get Mozart, I decided to get Gershwin - George Gershwin, the cool guy who composed and played Rhapsody in Blue and 'I Got Rhythm' from An American in Paris.

And it requires hardcopy resources.

So I l went over and got me a very heavy stack of books. The heavier the better, I was hoping.

Six books, each as thick as a fist, were read through and analyzed in a matter of three hours - including kicking out irrelevant details, taking notes of relevant material, thinking of how to put the point across to the class and so on.

After three hours, I was not sitting on the high bar-top table but standing on my two feet because of that prickly sensation after a loss of blood. I was swaying on my two feet.

But the research was done - at the cost of my depth perception, balance level, and state of consciousness.

It was so bad that when I went to the ice cream parlour to get something to alleviate the swirling head, I was visualising the words that the waiter said to me. I nearly flipped - but staved off the swaying till I got some strawberry shortcake ice cream into the system. I felt so much better.

Gathering the Gershwin was actually quite fun, though. I knew a lot more about the composer and read all the musical comedies that he wrote. And I read off a section of Rhapsody in Blue that I've memorized. Ooh, I can't wait to try it...

Once I get all that information for the three hours down into powerpoint... Ow...