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!
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