All that Drama.

You know, things you anticipated for a long period of time just flashes before you eyes; before you could get another glimpse of it, its long gone. Well all you get is pictures of it.

Its already Monday, yes I anticipated it all, but I wasn't much excited. Running away to play music 3 times a week was my only escape from Prison. I was tired, but at least I had a night off. I didn't play well, but I get compliments. I keep the pretty things, I run away from messy things.

Anyway year 3's will be missed. Marks another year of people coming and leaving oh so fast. That's probably one of the worst feeling ever (besides Regret), of people leaving; we don't get to keep the person, only the memories. That's what you get for being in the group a year earlier than most of the peers your age- people one year senior leaves and you don't really know the people of your batch besides the few who are in the same boat as you are.

Despite it all, glad that couple of friends were so willing and enthusiastic about this concert :) The amount of supportive wishes wasn't expected too, now I know more people are listening to Classics!

Glad that I somehow managed to level up, although I didn't play up to my expectations.

Why have them expectations when it seldom hits satisfaction but only disappointments?

I don't know what's install for next season; all I know that I have to work extra hard for v1 on my part if I want to be part of the next concert. But I don't mind it. In fact I might just be the type of person that loves that lifestyle. Sometimes I feel that its better to sit behind a desk and play all day- more fulfilling than sitting like a robot in front of CAD.

:(

monday morning angst cured by adam levine.

dangg.

Youthful Days.

I might have been complaining about the music being too loud, the lights and smoke too thick and distracting, and blaming myself for being such an Old Lady when I haven't yet hit the second decade of life- but I experienced what Freedom and real Joy is.

CRIT MANIA

Wednesday Morning Session Critique.

Had to swap my Awesome-Last-Person-On-Last-Day-Of-Crit time slot with Michael with a simple reason of not wanting to get caught up in the foreseen massive jam at the causeway on Friday evening.

After the the major submission on last Friday, I was looking forward to the first ever concert I would be participating in on the following Sunday. Architecture work? Was it as fun as playing music with a group of awesome people who don't swear because of the SSS (Studio-Stress Syndrome). Was it really that stressful for the first year in Architecture school? I thought I've seen worst cases. Anyway, in practices all I get is "Wa. Sit down whole day also can develop muscle on one side of the back." That kind of random nonsense :)

I hope after reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry's concepts of life will not linger in my head for long. I know its bad, but, I'm probably at the best age in life. It's the age where you step out into the adult's world and realized there's so much ahead of you. The age where you could decide what you want to be, how you want others to perceive you, and enjoy that unwrinkled skin and optimum health. Like they say the professional tennis players reach their peak around the age of 25 (except Roger Federer who's still going strong at 28XD). It's the phase where people around you would shape how you would be like in the future, the lifestyle you live with now would probably be stuck with you till you start finding wrinkles on your forehead, and then will the community around you stick around you?

Well, point is, after Friday's submission, I had a random feeling that I was done with Architecture school. What shall I study next?

I'm young, I could do anything I want.

Or to make things clearer, after finishing a year in Architecture school, shall I switch my major to something else?

Why do I like to do everything, and not the determination to complete one thing at the time?

Jack of all traits, master of none.

***

Anyway, I kinda love this part of the whole thing. Some get really crushed, but, Enjoy.

Its a space where your mum sends you to sit in for an hour when you're naughty.

I won't go there to read in front of a wall, I'll probably go there to chant.

Dry kitchens are for angmohs where they do fake cooking. Warm up their maggi mee and stuff.

A kitchen doesn't have to be an enclosed space even though HDB has been doing that for the past fifty years.

What's that yellow strip? Like lemon paste. Eggtart.

Like an army of Frodo and elves. So disconnected. Wow. I'm levitating.

Why is your rendering like a Doomsday scene?

Like handyplast.

What's that orange thing there? Like the room's on fire. Somebody burning alive in there.

You know what is diarrhea? That, is diarrhea.

What's that rectangle doing down there? Is it the client's coffin?

-sarcasm ends here-

lalala-Quit architecture school if you don't want your ego crushed-lalala

Let's call it a Day.

The day passed really, really fast. Before we knew it, it was all over. Anyway since I'm constantly getting older, my 24 hours always feels a fraction less than the day before. Therefore, a day passes without any feeling that I physically went through it. You must think that I have some paranoia, keep thinking that tomorrow will be the shortest day of my life because I'm the oldest living thing on earth, eh. My friends told me yesterday that I had a paranoia of the bow strings falling off in the midst of playing - no, they were dropping their bows right before the concert startedXD

2010 doesn't really feel new to me, just another day really. Maybe because I'm still tied down on my final project since the second semester of Year 1 - in architecture school. Year 1 hasn't ended yet, but it'll end soon, the end of February. That's when March shall mark the start. I love Spring.

Hectic whole semester it was, with the final submission last Friday. But I've been through it. A whole day in the studio without seeing the sunlight, I rush off to the farthest end of the campus to attend night classes (and now I feel smarter than my classmates :P) Tuesdays the same, only that I normally attend the Christian Fellowship meeting but not for the fourth term - where I'll be rushing off to attend sectional practices, sometimes until 10pm. Wednesday I'll grab the chance to work on the finals the whole-day long. Thursdays the same studio hours, with an exception that I'll be looking forward for the night to come - it's call music therapy.

Well, we had to work it out. The people from the Strings Ensemble are a pretty decent bunch of people, never heard a single swear word before; unlike in the studios where I have to mute off the infinite amount of vulgarities with my earphones. The more often the computer programme screws up, the higher the frequency of vulgarities. Anyway, we had our academics and the upcoming concert to juggle with - such frequent practices and homework in between, very common. Its the final term, all the more work has to be done for our academics - but simultaneously, we strive to get the notes and learn the score right.

I've been marking the concert date on the calendar since September last year, when I was 5 months younger, and then it came, and pass, like the wind. The night was over, before I knew it. I was looking forward to it, never played in a concert like this before, let alone shifted to the first desk because of the player who was not being able to play 0n the day of concert. Felt rather unworthyXD

We knew where we went wrong, probably not to be receiving every word of 'good', or 'beautiful' from Mr Yang for every single piece we played. Still, the audience was gracious enough to have gave a good job, thumbs up. Second violinists, good effort! For the little background of violin playing we have, weren't perfect, but certainly a good improvement since day one I joined the ensemble :) Thanks to ♥all of you who sent me wishes before the event!! Thanks to all my lovely people who attended and supported the event ♥mum, ♥dad, ♥cousin yeelin, ♥roomie shannon, ♥old buddy jon, ♥archi work-shadowing buddy dan, awesome archi peeps ♥ahdada, ♥mandy, ♥yinleng, CF penangite ♥andrew && ♥♥SPSE♥♥all of ya!

Ole Ship Magic!

There and back again, the return of Doulos puts a mark on the timeline of one's life journey. Except that every time we meet this good ole ship, the people on board are different- a new batch of crew comes to live on the ship and the previous batch leaves, usually, in a two year cycle. I'm glad to see it still.. alive and sailing!

It must take a humbling process to commit at least two years to live on board the ship, with no pay at all, nada, the colourful, international crew are a happy, well, and really talented bunch! Recently last night, they took the effort to put on a colourful event, the International Night, showcasing the different cultures they have picked up from 50 countries; at the same time, a silent moment to remember the countries who have been struck by natural disasters, poverty, diseases.

The End is nigh.


***

Oh well.
I've managed to look fat in the various pictures I took with the international crew HAHA; while some were hysterical about an American boy who had Zac Efron hairstyle; I am still scratching my head wondering why Shannon chased the Mascot for a picture like a little girl :3

Shall not post any here x) Initially I had notions of taking pictures of the stage activities, but after jojogaw's right hand and a digital cam appeared in pictures repeatedly- I scraped the idea and sit back to enjoy the show lol. Anyway, interesting stuff, I'm very sure you can search for them on Fb.






"Even God can't sink the Titanic."

"By God's grace, we're still sailing."

C'est la vie!

The Week had been exciting. What a stark contrast, compared to my post-SPM holidays, man. School, has started but I'm running around like this.

Tragedy, Celebration, all-in-one.

Sunday, 19th July.
Church, played the keyboard in Children's Church in the morning.
Stole some sleep in the afternoon then woke up to meet Sara and Mercy in the evening-
boarded a taxi to Roost's Cafe to meet Yi Th'ng, Cal, Li Ying and Ser Min for Yi Th'ng's 'farewell' dinner.
Boarded another taxi with Sara and Mercy to Jotic to catch Kakehashi Ensemble's performance organized by Johor Arts Festival. - nice repertoire for the slow Sunday evening, Poulenc, Glinka, Mozart.
Followed Mercy back to Singapore where her dad was kind enough to drop me off Jurong East.

Realized Something was Missing.

Had retired to bed with a mess in my head.
And rise up earlier than intended. Still fretting.

Monday, 20th July.
Still fretting, still holding on to some hope.
Submission.
Aaron receives a call in the studio itself, across my desk.
I trembled, lost my lunch appetite, planning how to disclose this to my parents, searching all over the internet for solutions.

Lied on my desk and settled down for forty winks.

Woke up, rubbed my eyes, got myself together, planned for the week ahead. Emails my mum. Made an e-report to the police. Continued with school work.

Tuesday, 21th July.
Accepted the truth.
Interim Crit day, mine was the last on the list - like always. More work to do now.
Met Joel for violin lesson at 6pm, finished the Beethoven piece before the last piece in book 2; headed to T7 for CF, dinner, home, late.

Wednesday, 22th July.
Woke up early for early CADP class, messed around with 3Ds Max the whole day.
Then decided to run to prayer meet in CF room with QL before my friends drag me out for expensive lunch=p
FC1 instead, but my bowl was yummy and affordable!
Walked QL through my studio before heading to T14 to play some strings, while waiting for the HIV/AIDS talk to start at 3.10pm.
Home, facebooked a little, until QL said: "Let's go for a jog!".
After dinner I started on my presentation speech essay that was to be prepared before tomorrow's OC class. Ah, trains it was, I had lots to learn! But I'm a railfan! =D
It was darn late when I finally finished it, and had some urge to check the SSO website again..

Then, there was the open rehearsal I could attend the next morning.
With only students tickets left.
Life skills programme was 1.30pm the next day. Li Yundi's rehearsal starts at 9.30am.
See how it fits? Then came the planning to get tickets before the concert without missing any classes, tennis, and ensemble practice on Thursday.

Thursday, 23th July.
Woke up a hour earlier so I could walk to IMM to get SISTIC tickets. Checked. I'm GOING TO SEE LI YUNDI LIVE x)
School, some case study until 3.30pm, then I wrote my prepared essay for OC.
Rushed over to the tennis courts for the last elective programme - the test! I think I'd lost some touch after one week of no Wednesday training. Still, I passed with actually the highest score among the elective students of my group- thanks to Wed trainings.=D
Headed to ensemble practice at 7pm, where we played pirates and brandenburg. Again. Nice and fun pieces yet to be perfected.
It was passed 10pm when I reached home, but heck, tomorrow is going to be a fine day.

P.S. Federer posted on FB that he and Mirka had gotten TWIN GIRLS! =D They'll be tennis princesses!!

Friday, 24th July.
Woke up at 7pm to travel to City Hall! Am I a rich kid who goes for concerts before classes? LOL, no, this is Li Yundi's rehearsal. Its exceptional, with a talent so great to be missed out on? Nahh.

Its my first time listening to classical music in a proper concert hall actually, as I've been to places like the RTM auditorium, a blown-up tent in the middle of dataran bandaraya, Jotic auditorium- nothing beats a real concert hall.

I moved into my seat at C4. The left side of the stage, 3 rows from the front.
I was near the violins, didn't actually get the view of the winds and brass from my seats. But heck, this seat is awesome considering the Piano concerto next.

Pretty as the architecture speaks, the acoustics was crisp.


SSO started with Goldmark's Rustic Wedding, a piece written in the romantic period, it contains many variations depicting a colourful wedding. Indeed, there was a variety in styles and a certain freshness it possessed. The conductor Lan Shui went through the piece once, and then picked a few phrases to work on.

Intermission came. The people went out for toilet breaks. The workers stacked up some chairs.

And then they pushed out the glossy, shining Steinway 3 meters in front of me.

My expression then = O.O


I took out my pocket camera from my bag, just when I was about to press the snap button, the security officer beside me said :"Sorry, no taking pictures."

Why not, they're not playing yet. hey.

There was a sound from the Steinway. Since when did Li Yundi came on stage??

He was in a simple black tee, some loose cargo pants and blacks canvas shoes.

His fingers ran through the keys, phrases from the big piece he's about to play next with the orchestra.

Before the intermission ended he was gone from the stage.

A cheery girl came and sat in the empty seat next me. She was trying to get pictures from this angle instead- so I was quick to make friends with her and exchanged emails so she could send me pictures she took today. ahah! =D

The orchestra returned, Lan Shui and Li Yundi walked out to the middle of the stage. The audience applauded. The moment was exhilarating.

French horns flooded in the opening bars of the First Movement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1, followed by the big octaves chords from the piano. Allegro Maestoso!

I wasn't in too much awe of his skills tackling this massive piece, this time round, sort of satisfied with what was played although I admit I heard 5 wrong notes throughout the 3 movements with less musicality than what I've always heard in the recordings. Consoling myself that this is only a rehearsal.. No.1's definitely an awesome piece to showcase his talents, with the variety of power chords to the delicate chromatics filled with expressive dynamism.

I crowded in front of the mid stage with the little crowd there, just for the heck of it after it all ended x) People were snapping photographs of the pianist while the security couldn't quite handle the little 'rock concert' crowd happening in the Esplanade concert hall itself!

I was satisfied (meeting my piano superstar why yes), although wishing for more, I had to return to the studios for the Life Skills Programme - whey the Civil Defence thought our class First Aid, CPR, various lifts and ways to deal with fire and victims. For a moment, my studio turned into a happy clinic! =) St John memories came flooding back too, and I sat and observed what they had to teach us - all in 4 hours, we even get to play, literally play, with the Carbon Dioxide Fire Extinguisher.

After everything I headed home, smiling to myself, what a busy week with hills and valleys along the journey.

Saturday I'm gonna spend the day sleeping, I told myself.

Retired to bed really early with little piano practice for the day.
At 12pm Jon gives a call :"Why so strict...Chris got extra Hillsong ticket wanna go.."

Hahaha. I was sorry, you know how one reacts when they're awaken from deep, good, sleep.
x)
After replying a few messages, I couldn't get back to sleep so soon and ended up online, downloading more albums to my iTunes collection.

Eventually I had to force myself to retire, 'cause the next day IS going to be Long - just when I thought I could use the Saturday paying back lost sleep when Youth meet was off.


Saturday, 25th July.
Again, I forced myself out of bed to practice scales.
And then I lacked time to practice the pieces, as Miss Loke rings the doorbell.

Ah. I knew lesson's not going to be so good, my head's spinning and big eye bags showing up s0 clearly showing my tiredness.
Straight after lesson, Joanna picks me up to church for worship practice.

Then I headed back home, cook myself instant noodles, and headed to customs. Yes, less than 24 hours ago I was traveling in the opposite direction-

Thanks to my curiosity, I sat in the bus more than an hour to reach Queenstreet. I had let 170 replaced my normal yellow causeway link bus to town. Curiosity kills eh.

Expo finally at 6.30pm, I found my buddies, snapped some photos and waited for the concert to start.


My first time at a annual youth conference like this, The Zone Youth Conference 2009 was definitely an event to remember. Having live worship with the Hillsong United band and the whole massive hall singing praises; plus a youth pastor from Seattle who cracked the whole hall up was really, really awesome. Everyone did had a great time there, looking forward to 2010's!

Traveled back with Esther and reached JB at 12 plus. Retired at 1 plus.

Sunday, 26th July.
Morning yet again I had trouble waking up early. Worship leading Children Church with Nao, I had lost my voice a little and had problems singing on the higher keys =p

Soon after church I packed up and left for Singapore, Again, with QL for the last concert of the week: SP Symphonic Band's 27th I Believe in Music Concert.

Bands, they play little or none classical music. Tunes they played were contemporary and Broadway like, or even musicals. Nonetheless, it was very enjoyable, especially when they slot in various unimaginable sound effects. 'Godzilla Eats las Vegas' was my personal favorite!

My salutes for the band, lots of effort from the whole team could be observed despite being so talented themselves! Jazz band's performance was superr awesome too! (seriously speaking I didn't expect them to be that good) =D



Went home, happy, at the same time lazy to start another busy week.


And well, I've broken my personal record, living without Something for a week now.
It's very possible to survive without It.



VIVA to the week ahead!

Gurus.

Although its Teacher's Day and I know that I can be excused from school (no class, heh) but somehow I managed to attend the last Teacher's Day in Secondary School.



Wanted to get some good sleep after going through a few insomniac-nights.

Lets get things clear, I don't do hardcore studying.
I'm just going through coffee symptoms. All kinds of it.
I drink coffee at night, and I force myself to sleep at 4 plus.
Heheh.

The only reason I go for coffee at night because I don't know how my day pass so fast with me doing nothing useful. School books stare back at me in the day but somehow when the day is quieter, at night, then it will be the time I can stare at every word in the book =D



SO teachers day huh.

I slept in the stuffy hall during the speeches. Wanted to hear what Fann said during her speech but sadly, I was asleep in the stuffy, dark hall once Encik Azmi started reading the PPD's head of Department's (whatever his name is) speech.



After the speeches the teachers sang a few songs.

1. Guru Malaysia (? , nice name)
2. Standing in the eyes of the world (or whatever the name is, its an Engrished-Malay song, lol)
3. (And the very famous) Lemon Tree. (Don't even know why we had to sing this song in the morning during assembly once in a while, and now popularized on teacher's day =S)



These teachers were cute though. For once acting like kids. (Except my Physics Tuition teacher who seems like a kid every week we meet him for lessons)

Then there was this concert thing where the students can perform an item on stage.
I have to admit that the lower secondary kids are becoming bolder, in the fact 60 percent of the performances were done by them. Unlike our batch and the pass years, lol. Seniors were the one performing.

Harveena and Sara's group choreograph dance for Interact's I.U. Day was called up to perform, without notice, after a group of lower secondary girls perform a dance with the same song they used for their dance.

Me, I'm just happy for them. Really. Although I don't dance, this is what I call a good one. An interesting one.
*claps*
(Because I saw many Terrible and Boring ones too, and I'll be one of them if I ever enter that world LOL)

Hope I'll get the video of it Real soon.

As when some boring fellas were performing on stage, Sarah Wong was doing Sudoku, and I was struggling with some add maths questions, at least I utilize time.

Then the teachers and some students played telematch.
The balloon bursting part was nasty.
I personally hate balloons bursting in my face. lol.
And the Musical Chairs.
Woah. Somehow its a very fun game to play. Really.
Especially if you win, its totally satisfying. I did win a few timesXD
The teachers played like any other kids who would want to win in a musical chairs game. heheh.

After that we went to our classes for some food, and then headed home.
That's about teacher's day this year. Guess its nothing much different compared to the previous years, least that's all I can rememberXD

I think I need to say a really big 'Thank You' to a few teachers whom I remember well and who really helped me in any way during my Secondary School journey.

(Not in order)
Puan Geetha - Physics Form 5, PK Kokurikulum.

Cik Masliana - St. John Teacher Advisor.

Mrs Ignitius - Interact Club Teacher Advisor, St. John Teacher, Add Maths Form 4.

Mrs Lee - Maths Form 3, Add Maths Form 4, Add Maths Form 5.

Auntie Lee Fei - Science Form 2, Science Form 3, Maths Form 2.

Teacher Karen - Intensive one month PMR Malay

Mr Hor - Chem Form 4.

Mr Lim - Chem Form 5.

Mr Yip - Physics Form 4, Physics, Form 5



Speaking of Mr. Yip. =P
Fann and I agreed that his an eccentric person, although very good in physics.
Lol.
He walks in class with a cute knapsack. Like how a little standard one boy would walk into school.
Sometimes he comes with a shoulder bag.


And once got wrongly accused of being a gay person by my mum, but of course she wasn't serious about it. Lol.
And the students must be familar with his quirks during teachingXD
From the view from our seats, I can clearly see what he uses to clip his microphone to his shirt collar.

a green bird clip.



So I was contemplating on whether to give him these:

"Thanks for being a good Physics teacher....cool clips for your mic!"


LOL. Fann said she'll share it.
So it's on. =D


This will be my last year calling someone who teaches me 'teacher' or 'cikgu'.
Next time it will all be 'sirs' and 'professors'. (yes, if I managed to qualify for tertiary education that is.)

It isn't easy to become a good teacher.
Its hard.

So to all the teachers out there, big or small,
Thanks for your hard work.
Otsukaresamadeshita.
And Happy Teacher's Day.

coming seasons.

christmas is coming. well almost everybody gets exited about it. Escpecially lil kids. if you ask me why, I'll just say, they want presents. okay.. not forgetting the performance. ah. yes. nobody goes on without it.

So yesterday night, I dropped by Danga festive mall to see what have my church people done so far for, yes, christmas. Ohya, why is it called festive mall in the first place, maybe the mall itselfs celebrates. yea. ok. crap. sorry back to topic.

when I reach there, some big blue dolphins came to greet us with balloons. hahah. ok. I ran away. Didn't want any big blue dolphins to attack me with their friggin balloon. I grab a chair and park my butt there.

The program kicked off with. Guess. It was a midget band. Heard me? yes midgets.




another screenshot here. Look like there are MORE midgets behind the front ones. LOL.




then our famous CCC dancing troup came out and presented us with their, yea, dance. hahah.




After that the perasanted MC's took the stage. THe posing game.




I wonder why they hired a country girl. Someone who deals with cows.




Then the CCC Christmas Choir came out. Sang us some carols.




I spotted, yet another midget.




ohya, the youths had a short skit. At first they looked like real lepak kings.


But no doubt, smooth sailing for their performance.


My oh my. Yet another ballet dance. I'm starting to get sick of ballets. Btw I never liked it before.




Gosh. I can't believe my eyes. The big blue dolphin actually had a part in it. Dont' forget, dolphins deserve place on the stage, too. LOL



ok wow. These lil kids sure know the old school way.




Not forgetting a punk trying to be a kindergarden teacher. Leading the kids their -old-school- . wuahahah




yea. Great job people. perhaps its time we see a santa claus driving in an aston to the stage. Surely it'll turn heads. Sure to AA. attract attention. Next year, no?