because the draft i prepared has disappeared when my computer hung, i'll just have to type everything here. which is a severely abridged version cos i don't remember
hope the title caught ur attention! haha! it's true you know. had a dinner date with some of the 4/6 girls. jac, poornima, feng cai, jessica, jeanette, huiling. haah! go figure the rest yourself. went to parkway for dinner at mos burger, gossip sessions (universities, sch, internships, pri sch teachers, slippers etc etc). then hanging out around parkway and taking lots and lots of photos (which i'm waiting for the photos to be uploaded). which is probably not anytime soon since the rest of them are playing pool till next year. or playing sparklers at ecp till next year too. haha!
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anyway, the main purpose i wanted to do this post before the new year is to reflect on what happened last year. the good, the bad, and the rest.
-caught dengue fever
-stayed in hospital for the first time
-worked as a door to door salesperson
-worked at john little
-saw a very overweight woman with a china doll hairstyle in nothing but lingerie (traumatised)
-went swimming
-went on a cruise
-organised a chalet
-shared a bed with a girl twice
-swore in public
-ponned choir
-conducted a choir
-went without a bra in public
-maintained a blog
-went gaga over a celeb
-cantored acapella
-watched a horror movie
-went to thailand
-almost handed in a blank exam paper
-fought depression
haha! all for now. can't remember anymore. but what a year! loved and hated it. sad to say, it deviated more towards the hate. but, hey! next year'll be better!!!!! see you then!
*goodness gracious, great balls of fire!*
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Friday, December 30, 2005
MJC alumni dinner
lets see, what to talk about. just got back from the dinner. it was ok. can do. lets see, i was supposed to meet duan hui at 6.30. but ended up waiting till around 7 cos she overslept. but that was ok. didn't wanna go in so early by myself anyway.
performances by the choir, band and guitar ensemble. choir and band were good. really enjoyed them. wanted to give a standing ovation for the choir but we were unsure of when they were going to do their last song. so missed the opportunity. never mind. next time they have a performance, we'll all go and cheer them on! the guitar ensemble was SO boring. they played "the entertainer" and "pink panther theme". but we were fighting off sleep as we listened to them. thank goodness miss lai didn't give a speech.
the juniors ran off the minute their performance ended so we had to run to catch them for photos. sigh. they could have stayed. the band stayed and gatecrashed the dinner. anyway, not much worth mentioning. oh ya, naresh was around. haha! for once. saw dr s, miss ho, mdm heng. yup. talked with mdm heng for a while. not much. none of my classmates were around. so me, myself and irene, was the only A101 there. sigh. the turnout was quite small. all the prominent people like nuha and denise weren't there. my guy was though (more on that later).
yup, so the usual photo taking sessions. dr s had to run off quite early for a family dinner. so sadly she didn't stay long. lucky we caught her as she was running off. we were sitting, eating in the dark on the bridge thingy (for the tables there) and we saw her with howard as her escort. we were saying, howard should lay the red carpet and open the car door for her while we cheer her on and give her a Royal farewell from the bridge. haha!
right. not much else to talk about. bit disappointed that none of my classmates turned up. i expected at least bra to show up. but .... sigh.
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all righty, been dying to talk about my guy (it's just habit that i'm calling him that). just to get him outta of my system for a while. today was the first time i saw him in a year. and he didn't act like i was invisible, like he did the last time. but he was definitely avoiding me. i was avoiding him too. so maybe it's mutual. afraid of the awkwardness. and as usual, i was watching him from afar. my girlfriend said that he was looking at me too. anyway, i should have gone and talked to him. there was a perfect opportunity when he was standing all alone by himself. i could have just gone up and like "hi (insert name)! nice to see you again. how's life?" you know? small talk. at least then, i'd get some insight into what' s happening on his side. i miss him. i've never denied that. but i wanna respect his decision.
but i don't know what he's thinking. maybe i'm just nursing a pipe dream. this time last year, after i told him, he said that he'd write to me in reply. but he never did. maybe he never planned to. there was a time when my girlfriends entertained the possibility that he did write and the letter got lost. some even contemplated asking him outright, confronting him but didn't in the end. of course, if u still wanna ask him, go ahead, be my guest. but don't say i sent you.
maybe it would have been better if i didn't see him tonight. not let him give me hope that a friendship would still be possible between us. then maybe he'd just remain a figure of my fantasies. now, today, after seeing him again, i'm thinking, should i reopen communication with him? nothing direct lah. maybe just email. but i remember telling him that if he decides that i scare him too much (he's kinda shy) i'd leave him alone. i've left him alone for the past year. he never told me his decision. someone tell me what should i do?
sigh. such crushes are crazy. i should just find myself a boyfriend and forget about him. maybe that's why i'm going gaga over clay and romantic comedies. maybe i'm just trying to fuel my romantic inclinations and live through other people's romances. it's a sad life i know. and i don't expect to find anyone special anytime in the near future. haiz. complicated.
if life's a stage, then who's the director and why won't he call a cut and rewind to edit a scene?
performances by the choir, band and guitar ensemble. choir and band were good. really enjoyed them. wanted to give a standing ovation for the choir but we were unsure of when they were going to do their last song. so missed the opportunity. never mind. next time they have a performance, we'll all go and cheer them on! the guitar ensemble was SO boring. they played "the entertainer" and "pink panther theme". but we were fighting off sleep as we listened to them. thank goodness miss lai didn't give a speech.
the juniors ran off the minute their performance ended so we had to run to catch them for photos. sigh. they could have stayed. the band stayed and gatecrashed the dinner. anyway, not much worth mentioning. oh ya, naresh was around. haha! for once. saw dr s, miss ho, mdm heng. yup. talked with mdm heng for a while. not much. none of my classmates were around. so me, myself and irene, was the only A101 there. sigh. the turnout was quite small. all the prominent people like nuha and denise weren't there. my guy was though (more on that later).
yup, so the usual photo taking sessions. dr s had to run off quite early for a family dinner. so sadly she didn't stay long. lucky we caught her as she was running off. we were sitting, eating in the dark on the bridge thingy (for the tables there) and we saw her with howard as her escort. we were saying, howard should lay the red carpet and open the car door for her while we cheer her on and give her a Royal farewell from the bridge. haha!
right. not much else to talk about. bit disappointed that none of my classmates turned up. i expected at least bra to show up. but .... sigh.
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all righty, been dying to talk about my guy (it's just habit that i'm calling him that). just to get him outta of my system for a while. today was the first time i saw him in a year. and he didn't act like i was invisible, like he did the last time. but he was definitely avoiding me. i was avoiding him too. so maybe it's mutual. afraid of the awkwardness. and as usual, i was watching him from afar. my girlfriend said that he was looking at me too. anyway, i should have gone and talked to him. there was a perfect opportunity when he was standing all alone by himself. i could have just gone up and like "hi (insert name)! nice to see you again. how's life?" you know? small talk. at least then, i'd get some insight into what' s happening on his side. i miss him. i've never denied that. but i wanna respect his decision.
but i don't know what he's thinking. maybe i'm just nursing a pipe dream. this time last year, after i told him, he said that he'd write to me in reply. but he never did. maybe he never planned to. there was a time when my girlfriends entertained the possibility that he did write and the letter got lost. some even contemplated asking him outright, confronting him but didn't in the end. of course, if u still wanna ask him, go ahead, be my guest. but don't say i sent you.
maybe it would have been better if i didn't see him tonight. not let him give me hope that a friendship would still be possible between us. then maybe he'd just remain a figure of my fantasies. now, today, after seeing him again, i'm thinking, should i reopen communication with him? nothing direct lah. maybe just email. but i remember telling him that if he decides that i scare him too much (he's kinda shy) i'd leave him alone. i've left him alone for the past year. he never told me his decision. someone tell me what should i do?
sigh. such crushes are crazy. i should just find myself a boyfriend and forget about him. maybe that's why i'm going gaga over clay and romantic comedies. maybe i'm just trying to fuel my romantic inclinations and live through other people's romances. it's a sad life i know. and i don't expect to find anyone special anytime in the near future. haiz. complicated.
if life's a stage, then who's the director and why won't he call a cut and rewind to edit a scene?
i couldn't resist...
i checked up project runway.
JAY WON!!!!!!
haha!
p.s. everyone fingers crossed that i'll get my psych module. more later
JAY WON!!!!!!
haha!
p.s. everyone fingers crossed that i'll get my psych module. more later
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Aloha Oe!!!! whatever.
supposed to be planning next sems modules. still missing one. but i'll blog a bit. i've decided that i'm a night owl. it's midnight now but i'm not really tired yet. maybe it's just the eucalyptus and peppermint air freshener i'm using. heehee.
tonight's st stephen's feast day thingy was ok. not exactly a qualified disaster but kinda close to it.
prepare for lots of complaints.
we were supposed to turn up at 5.30 to practice with uncle james, who didn't show up till 15 minutes later. so didn't practice. he did go thru some stuff with the congregation. anyway, the mass music was kinda weird. cos there was very very very little coordination between choir and uncle james. and the aunties that were in the choir and us were kinda like fighting for air time. someone behind me sounded out of tune (cf the boy with special needs singing at ihm). the offertory was weird too cos uncle james seemed to be wanting to drag the song as long as possible so he kept playing looooonnnngggggg interludes between verses. but that only made a really draggy song sound even more draggy. gloria was bizarre cos every time it came to the verses, uncle james would just quit playing or minimal playing. lamb of god was a disaster i think. choir had no idea about the tune (which was something really complicated that he taught just 10 minutes before mass), and for some reason, he skipped to the 'grant us peace' after just one 'have mercy on us'. communion hymn was sung by a sitting down choir cos we had no idea when he was going to start. he didn't signal or anything. i thought he was playing background music then suddenly he started singing into the mic. so we were all like, "should we stand?" when he was already partway through the song. some of the aunties were still kneeling so...thanksgiving wasn't too bad but uncle james ended up singing his own conclusion to the song cos we had no idea what he was trying to do. recessional started out ok but i think he skipped a verse for some reason (or maybe i was just blur). and that isn't a good thing when the song is supposed to be sung as a whole, not in parts where the verses can be skipped around. (kinda like that "let there be peace on earth" song that just goes on) then at the end, after we thought he had finished, playing the ending and all, he suddenly jumped back to that verse and went through the WHOLE song again. oh well, i've seen worse. oh ya, and fr khoo was his usual boring self. i don't even remember what happened in the homily. there were 5 priests. khoo, lu, paul staes and 2 china priests that popped up out of nowhere to concelebrate. and 13 alter servers. me and marion counted.
moving on, after mass, all went for dinner. well, supposed to be all but i ended up with andrew, elvin and marion, eating ba chor mee with mushrooms at the hawker center. that was ok. no idea where the rest of them went. then came back and hung around. the usual chinese dinner entertainment. the kids were pretty good for their dance. fr paul and the sisters sang a 'sister act' song. there was this hawaiian dancing competition that parents somehow ended up in. haha! mum won.
the choir's piece was just short of a disaster. for one, we were the very last item. and it was after everyone was done with dinner. so we were there squeezed onto that mini stage singing to people's backs. even if we didn't sound that great, it's only common courtesy not to walk out so obviously ya? singaporeans these days are so rude. can't they see that there's a bunch of people on stage that has spent damn long practicing and getting things right JUST FOR THEM? we're not supposed to be background cocktail music. how sad is that? anyway, dawn was forced to cut short our songs. parents say that we should have sung catchier songs. and they had no idea that anyone was playing accompanyment for us. ya well, i guess it was our bad luck to be right after the dance competition. people expect something more fun than a choir performance. maybe if we all dressed in grass skirts and did a hula dance, people would have stayed and watched. sigh. what's over is over lah. what's new anyway? thank god the whole shebang's over. if it means anything, I think we were good. :D it cost a lot not to just walk off that stage. so, well done guys!
anyway, just for the heck of it, for those who don't know, i'll put st stephen's story here. he's the patron saint of my church and the catholic religion's first matyr. quoted from my bible, acts 7:54-60.
"Now when [the chief priests] heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth against [Stephen]. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting to his death."
moving on. another thing i wanna complain about that's kinda stupid i know and completely unrelated. i'm watching 'project runway', like people probably know already. and according to that advert for that new reality show, (which i'm hoping is wrong) wendy won the thing. what?! how can that bitch win??? ok, i admit, she designs well. but her attitude has much to be desired. today, after watching my favourite austin get booted, it was so nice to see the disgusted looks on kara saun and jay's faces after wendy walked backstage leaving austin marooned on the runway. if you wanna know exactly what i think of wendy, ask me. (in case wendy's lawyers find this blog) all i'll say here is that if and when i find out what's wendy's label, i will boycott it.
on a more sober note. today's the first year anniversary of the tsunami disaster.
tonight's st stephen's feast day thingy was ok. not exactly a qualified disaster but kinda close to it.
prepare for lots of complaints.
we were supposed to turn up at 5.30 to practice with uncle james, who didn't show up till 15 minutes later. so didn't practice. he did go thru some stuff with the congregation. anyway, the mass music was kinda weird. cos there was very very very little coordination between choir and uncle james. and the aunties that were in the choir and us were kinda like fighting for air time. someone behind me sounded out of tune (cf the boy with special needs singing at ihm). the offertory was weird too cos uncle james seemed to be wanting to drag the song as long as possible so he kept playing looooonnnngggggg interludes between verses. but that only made a really draggy song sound even more draggy. gloria was bizarre cos every time it came to the verses, uncle james would just quit playing or minimal playing. lamb of god was a disaster i think. choir had no idea about the tune (which was something really complicated that he taught just 10 minutes before mass), and for some reason, he skipped to the 'grant us peace' after just one 'have mercy on us'. communion hymn was sung by a sitting down choir cos we had no idea when he was going to start. he didn't signal or anything. i thought he was playing background music then suddenly he started singing into the mic. so we were all like, "should we stand?" when he was already partway through the song. some of the aunties were still kneeling so...thanksgiving wasn't too bad but uncle james ended up singing his own conclusion to the song cos we had no idea what he was trying to do. recessional started out ok but i think he skipped a verse for some reason (or maybe i was just blur). and that isn't a good thing when the song is supposed to be sung as a whole, not in parts where the verses can be skipped around. (kinda like that "let there be peace on earth" song that just goes on) then at the end, after we thought he had finished, playing the ending and all, he suddenly jumped back to that verse and went through the WHOLE song again. oh well, i've seen worse. oh ya, and fr khoo was his usual boring self. i don't even remember what happened in the homily. there were 5 priests. khoo, lu, paul staes and 2 china priests that popped up out of nowhere to concelebrate. and 13 alter servers. me and marion counted.
moving on, after mass, all went for dinner. well, supposed to be all but i ended up with andrew, elvin and marion, eating ba chor mee with mushrooms at the hawker center. that was ok. no idea where the rest of them went. then came back and hung around. the usual chinese dinner entertainment. the kids were pretty good for their dance. fr paul and the sisters sang a 'sister act' song. there was this hawaiian dancing competition that parents somehow ended up in. haha! mum won.
the choir's piece was just short of a disaster. for one, we were the very last item. and it was after everyone was done with dinner. so we were there squeezed onto that mini stage singing to people's backs. even if we didn't sound that great, it's only common courtesy not to walk out so obviously ya? singaporeans these days are so rude. can't they see that there's a bunch of people on stage that has spent damn long practicing and getting things right JUST FOR THEM? we're not supposed to be background cocktail music. how sad is that? anyway, dawn was forced to cut short our songs. parents say that we should have sung catchier songs. and they had no idea that anyone was playing accompanyment for us. ya well, i guess it was our bad luck to be right after the dance competition. people expect something more fun than a choir performance. maybe if we all dressed in grass skirts and did a hula dance, people would have stayed and watched. sigh. what's over is over lah. what's new anyway? thank god the whole shebang's over. if it means anything, I think we were good. :D it cost a lot not to just walk off that stage. so, well done guys!
anyway, just for the heck of it, for those who don't know, i'll put st stephen's story here. he's the patron saint of my church and the catholic religion's first matyr. quoted from my bible, acts 7:54-60.
"Now when [the chief priests] heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth against [Stephen]. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting to his death."
moving on. another thing i wanna complain about that's kinda stupid i know and completely unrelated. i'm watching 'project runway', like people probably know already. and according to that advert for that new reality show, (which i'm hoping is wrong) wendy won the thing. what?! how can that bitch win??? ok, i admit, she designs well. but her attitude has much to be desired. today, after watching my favourite austin get booted, it was so nice to see the disgusted looks on kara saun and jay's faces after wendy walked backstage leaving austin marooned on the runway. if you wanna know exactly what i think of wendy, ask me. (in case wendy's lawyers find this blog) all i'll say here is that if and when i find out what's wendy's label, i will boycott it.
on a more sober note. today's the first year anniversary of the tsunami disaster.
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there.
I do not sleep.
I am a thousands winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there.
I did not die.
Monday, December 26, 2005
of cruises, blogs, christmas and other stuff
long one.
well, this one's long overdue. went on superstar virgo for cruise on 18-21 dec. it was ok. not the best holiday but still...not one where i'm expected to learn or win something back. no photos here cos i didn't take many nice ones. sorry. the ship was really something. btw, my first time on a cruise. well, it took some getting used to. could feel vibrations all the time from the engine/movement of the ship. me shared a room with ah ma and popo. well, let's say, no comment about it. slept on a sofa bed. it was horrible. the thingy was so narrow and small and thin. could feel every single wire through the mattress. it was so narrow that it was impossible to shift position at all without falling out. darn. so you can expect that i racked up a HUGE sleep debt. and the longest time ever without my specs. yup, i forgot to pack my specs and had to wear my contacts for forever. first night, had karaoke (damn expensive) and watched "hitch". no stars out. dark night.
second day, arrival at penang. breakfast at bella vista had mixed reactions. on one hand, the food was good. on the other hand, the restaurant on a kinda low deck, i could feel every little movement that the ship did. ;p stoned on the balcony for a while. then, took the lifeboat (aka tender boat) out to shore. it was ok until the boat entered the jetty. rocking like heck. and so stuffy. so darn seasick. parents had signed up for shopping trip in penang. erm...well...i don't remember much of it. cos shopping is darn boring to me. oh ya, i bought my choir's black strappy heels. and there was a police raid on illegal vcd shop while we were in the shopping center. woah. first time i saw a raid. all the vcd shops suddenly closed as the warning spread that police were raiding. yup. the tender back wasn't too bad cos got some idea of what to expect liao. got back, was supposed to watch some kungfu show, but decided against cos wanted to go to the "beyond broadway". it was so worth it. the guy that sang "memory" was so good! pity my recording wasn't good enough. but it was such an enjoyable show.
third day, arrival at phuket in time for sunrise. so beautiful. ok, can't resist putting photo here.
patong beach is just the most beautiful beach i ever saw. so sad that it was the site of the tsunami last year. anyway, went on the shopping tour again. got a sting ray skin pouch. i don't think i'm gonna use it for anything specific but it's the only souvenior i got from there. know why? cos the tour ppl cheated us. took us to totally useless places to shop. and the guide tried to teach us how to bargain in thai, but she just made things worse cos the shopkeepers obviously didn't want to trade with asians. they were targetting angmohs. ya, so i just got some necklaces for the church ppl and that's that. the food was not bad though. :D that night was the gala dinner. dress up nice and all. parents booked bella vista for the dinner (to my dismay). the dinner was nice but the ship was moving so the restaurant was kinda 'moving' too. and to me, it's very sea sick causing. so me didn't enjoy dinner as much as i would have liked. watched "charlie and the chocolate factory". which was darn boring cos it was my 2nd time watching it. and i was bored the first time already. so why watch it again? cos dad didn't watch it before and cos it's free.
last day, back home! yay! i had traded beds with andrew cos he had the king size sofa bed and i desperately needed sleep. was ok i guess. not much happened. hmm...oh ya, had a huge chocolate icecream concoction at gelato cafe. ran through my carols (without much success i must add). stoned in the room for a long time. shiok. yup, anyway, back to singapore and i got sick at home. for some reason, once i got home and settled down to sleep, i got really really dizzy and had to go throw up. maybe i got used to being at sea, so being on solid ground kinda threw my internal system off balance. whatever. wanna go cruise again. maybe the one to alaska. haha!
moving on. recently i put a shoutout about not reading other people's blogs if you're depressed. well, in response to a comment i had, no, i wasn't specifically arrowing a specific someone's blog. it's just that, on that day, there was bad news all over the blogs that i read. death, arguments, sicknesses, bitching, etc etc. it was just depressing lah.
other stuff. christmas time. well, it doesn't feel anything like christmas. sadly. i feel like that girl in "how the grinch stole christmas": "where are you christmas? why can't i find you?" the whole shebang this year feels so much like a chore. so busy this year. no time to do much christmas stuff. the most christmassy thing i've done (i think) is listen to christmas carol cds instead of the radio. ya well, not much to say on the subject. another christmas come and gone just like any other holiday in the year.
went for 'christmas party' with LC this year. well, it was ok. dragged on for an hour after i had planned to leave but what to do? some folks went for the midnight mass (reporting that it wasn't exactly up to midnight mass standard). haha! hope fr khoo realised his 'mistake'. anyway, the cab back cos $5.95 (including surcharge). maybe we should have walked back at 2am. it would have been much healthier and cheaper. family 'celebration' when we got back. finally got to go to bed at 3am. pimple outbreak sia.
woke up 4 hours later to get ready for mass. sobsob. want to sleep. mass wasn't too bad i think. my first conducting stint. :D :D :D i think it went better than i was prepared for. yay! randall's psalm wasn't too bad, considering the drinking that went on the night before. and the stupid mix up of dawn and day mass. and btw, no i didn't practice at home. it's called beginner's luck. ;D plus years of watching other conductors.
went for lunch with the family. janice was her usual cute self. sweet. haven't played with her for so long liao. now she's fun to play with now that she's more aware of what's happening. love seeing her laugh. she with her missing teeth. :D jonathan and linus gave me this teddy bear that's practically as big as janice. they just love giving me huge toys.
didn't go for nus carolling. too tired. throat hurt. so i called in sick. sad though. i would have loved to go. but sigh...maybe next year ya?
watch dvd of "narnia: the lion the witch and the wardrobe". me rating: 4 stars of 5. it's good. the thing reflects the book's content very well. but not as good as i imagined it when reading the book. *spoilers ahead* aslan wasn't as impressive as i thought he should be. his mane was kinda scrawny. the stone table had a strong resemblance to stonehenge. again, the stone table isn't as impressive. a little trivia item that i think isn't too right. peter was riding a unicorn into battle. in one of the other books, it's stated that riding a unicorn is taboo. a unicorn isn't a common horse. btw, the unicorn's horn was puny. anyway, i think tilda swinton deserves an award for her performance here. beautiful working of the white witch. the battle scenes kinda resembled lord of the rings sequences. so it was a bit predictable. anyway, conclusion, this movie's worth catching. and buying the dvd. :D
anyway, i've finally realised the full impact and implications of me taking over the church choir. for one, and the biggest problem, there'll be no organist next year. dawn and daryl are both leaving. me and marion (the only other people who can play the organ) are no where near their standards. possible solution: request uncle james to play until we can train up well enough to handle it. or just look for another organist. there's got to be someone somewhere in the church who can play. another problem is my drastic lack of administrative skills. i'm assuming that my first 'solo' mass is gonna be next sunday, feast of the holy family. and i haven't got anything at all prepared yet. sigh. just thinking of planning for the rest of the year's masses seems an immense impossibility at the moment.
well, anyway, this post has gone on long enough. let's think some happy thoughts. erm...i passed everything for my uni sem 1 exams. haha! what a great achievement. although EL wasn't what i expected, the rest of it was not too bad. especially my cultural studies. i wish i could see my script. i have no idea what i wrote in there that prof phillips could have found worthy of a B+. to me, it was 6 pages of crap that i handed in. oh well, after a sem with him, i should know that he's a weird guy with even weirder thinking. so... :D
btw, did i mention that i hate bluetooth?
well, this one's long overdue. went on superstar virgo for cruise on 18-21 dec. it was ok. not the best holiday but still...not one where i'm expected to learn or win something back. no photos here cos i didn't take many nice ones. sorry. the ship was really something. btw, my first time on a cruise. well, it took some getting used to. could feel vibrations all the time from the engine/movement of the ship. me shared a room with ah ma and popo. well, let's say, no comment about it. slept on a sofa bed. it was horrible. the thingy was so narrow and small and thin. could feel every single wire through the mattress. it was so narrow that it was impossible to shift position at all without falling out. darn. so you can expect that i racked up a HUGE sleep debt. and the longest time ever without my specs. yup, i forgot to pack my specs and had to wear my contacts for forever. first night, had karaoke (damn expensive) and watched "hitch". no stars out. dark night.
second day, arrival at penang. breakfast at bella vista had mixed reactions. on one hand, the food was good. on the other hand, the restaurant on a kinda low deck, i could feel every little movement that the ship did. ;p stoned on the balcony for a while. then, took the lifeboat (aka tender boat) out to shore. it was ok until the boat entered the jetty. rocking like heck. and so stuffy. so darn seasick. parents had signed up for shopping trip in penang. erm...well...i don't remember much of it. cos shopping is darn boring to me. oh ya, i bought my choir's black strappy heels. and there was a police raid on illegal vcd shop while we were in the shopping center. woah. first time i saw a raid. all the vcd shops suddenly closed as the warning spread that police were raiding. yup. the tender back wasn't too bad cos got some idea of what to expect liao. got back, was supposed to watch some kungfu show, but decided against cos wanted to go to the "beyond broadway". it was so worth it. the guy that sang "memory" was so good! pity my recording wasn't good enough. but it was such an enjoyable show.
third day, arrival at phuket in time for sunrise. so beautiful. ok, can't resist putting photo here.
patong beach is just the most beautiful beach i ever saw. so sad that it was the site of the tsunami last year. anyway, went on the shopping tour again. got a sting ray skin pouch. i don't think i'm gonna use it for anything specific but it's the only souvenior i got from there. know why? cos the tour ppl cheated us. took us to totally useless places to shop. and the guide tried to teach us how to bargain in thai, but she just made things worse cos the shopkeepers obviously didn't want to trade with asians. they were targetting angmohs. ya, so i just got some necklaces for the church ppl and that's that. the food was not bad though. :D that night was the gala dinner. dress up nice and all. parents booked bella vista for the dinner (to my dismay). the dinner was nice but the ship was moving so the restaurant was kinda 'moving' too. and to me, it's very sea sick causing. so me didn't enjoy dinner as much as i would have liked. watched "charlie and the chocolate factory". which was darn boring cos it was my 2nd time watching it. and i was bored the first time already. so why watch it again? cos dad didn't watch it before and cos it's free.
last day, back home! yay! i had traded beds with andrew cos he had the king size sofa bed and i desperately needed sleep. was ok i guess. not much happened. hmm...oh ya, had a huge chocolate icecream concoction at gelato cafe. ran through my carols (without much success i must add). stoned in the room for a long time. shiok. yup, anyway, back to singapore and i got sick at home. for some reason, once i got home and settled down to sleep, i got really really dizzy and had to go throw up. maybe i got used to being at sea, so being on solid ground kinda threw my internal system off balance. whatever. wanna go cruise again. maybe the one to alaska. haha!
moving on. recently i put a shoutout about not reading other people's blogs if you're depressed. well, in response to a comment i had, no, i wasn't specifically arrowing a specific someone's blog. it's just that, on that day, there was bad news all over the blogs that i read. death, arguments, sicknesses, bitching, etc etc. it was just depressing lah.
other stuff. christmas time. well, it doesn't feel anything like christmas. sadly. i feel like that girl in "how the grinch stole christmas": "where are you christmas? why can't i find you?" the whole shebang this year feels so much like a chore. so busy this year. no time to do much christmas stuff. the most christmassy thing i've done (i think) is listen to christmas carol cds instead of the radio. ya well, not much to say on the subject. another christmas come and gone just like any other holiday in the year.
went for 'christmas party' with LC this year. well, it was ok. dragged on for an hour after i had planned to leave but what to do? some folks went for the midnight mass (reporting that it wasn't exactly up to midnight mass standard). haha! hope fr khoo realised his 'mistake'. anyway, the cab back cos $5.95 (including surcharge). maybe we should have walked back at 2am. it would have been much healthier and cheaper. family 'celebration' when we got back. finally got to go to bed at 3am. pimple outbreak sia.
woke up 4 hours later to get ready for mass. sobsob. want to sleep. mass wasn't too bad i think. my first conducting stint. :D :D :D i think it went better than i was prepared for. yay! randall's psalm wasn't too bad, considering the drinking that went on the night before. and the stupid mix up of dawn and day mass. and btw, no i didn't practice at home. it's called beginner's luck. ;D plus years of watching other conductors.
went for lunch with the family. janice was her usual cute self. sweet. haven't played with her for so long liao. now she's fun to play with now that she's more aware of what's happening. love seeing her laugh. she with her missing teeth. :D jonathan and linus gave me this teddy bear that's practically as big as janice. they just love giving me huge toys.
didn't go for nus carolling. too tired. throat hurt. so i called in sick. sad though. i would have loved to go. but sigh...maybe next year ya?
watch dvd of "narnia: the lion the witch and the wardrobe". me rating: 4 stars of 5. it's good. the thing reflects the book's content very well. but not as good as i imagined it when reading the book. *spoilers ahead* aslan wasn't as impressive as i thought he should be. his mane was kinda scrawny. the stone table had a strong resemblance to stonehenge. again, the stone table isn't as impressive. a little trivia item that i think isn't too right. peter was riding a unicorn into battle. in one of the other books, it's stated that riding a unicorn is taboo. a unicorn isn't a common horse. btw, the unicorn's horn was puny. anyway, i think tilda swinton deserves an award for her performance here. beautiful working of the white witch. the battle scenes kinda resembled lord of the rings sequences. so it was a bit predictable. anyway, conclusion, this movie's worth catching. and buying the dvd. :D
anyway, i've finally realised the full impact and implications of me taking over the church choir. for one, and the biggest problem, there'll be no organist next year. dawn and daryl are both leaving. me and marion (the only other people who can play the organ) are no where near their standards. possible solution: request uncle james to play until we can train up well enough to handle it. or just look for another organist. there's got to be someone somewhere in the church who can play. another problem is my drastic lack of administrative skills. i'm assuming that my first 'solo' mass is gonna be next sunday, feast of the holy family. and i haven't got anything at all prepared yet. sigh. just thinking of planning for the rest of the year's masses seems an immense impossibility at the moment.
well, anyway, this post has gone on long enough. let's think some happy thoughts. erm...i passed everything for my uni sem 1 exams. haha! what a great achievement. although EL wasn't what i expected, the rest of it was not too bad. especially my cultural studies. i wish i could see my script. i have no idea what i wrote in there that prof phillips could have found worthy of a B+. to me, it was 6 pages of crap that i handed in. oh well, after a sem with him, i should know that he's a weird guy with even weirder thinking. so... :D
btw, did i mention that i hate bluetooth?
Friday, December 23, 2005
in shock
i passed all my modules!
and the biggest *shock* of all...
CULTURAL STUDIES RECEIEVED THE HIGHEST GRADE!!!!!!!!!!!!
prof philips must like crap.
at least i don't have to worry about repeating any of the modules.
thank god sia.
and the biggest *shock* of all...
CULTURAL STUDIES RECEIEVED THE HIGHEST GRADE!!!!!!!!!!!!
prof philips must like crap.
at least i don't have to worry about repeating any of the modules.
thank god sia.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
quick rant
haha! i'm back!!!! yay! miss my bed.
lots to talk about for the cruise but just lazy to do so.
busy lah. lots to do. (sort of)
1. learn nus's carolling repetoire. (top of the important to-do list)
2. prepare to conduct st stephen's choir on christmas day. (yikes!!!!)
3. buy presents for exchange
4. buy presents for family and friends
5. prepare for next sem's module bidding (urgh!)
6. clean the junk yard in my room.
7. figure out how to use the stupid bluetooth device
i am SO not looking forward to christmas this year. sigh.
lots to talk about for the cruise but just lazy to do so.
busy lah. lots to do. (sort of)
1. learn nus's carolling repetoire. (top of the important to-do list)
2. prepare to conduct st stephen's choir on christmas day. (yikes!!!!)
3. buy presents for exchange
4. buy presents for family and friends
5. prepare for next sem's module bidding (urgh!)
6. clean the junk yard in my room.
7. figure out how to use the stupid bluetooth device
i am SO not looking forward to christmas this year. sigh.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
something not to do if you're depressed
do NOT blog surf when you're on the brink of depression.
reading about other people's angst will NOT help.
end of story.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
BELIEVE by Josh Groban
Children sleeping
Snow is softly falling.
Dreams are calling
Like bells in the distance.
We were dreamers
Not so long ago.
But, one by one
We all had to grow up.
When it seems the magic slipped away,
We find it all again on Christmas Day.
Believe in what your heart is saying,
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste,
There's so much to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside,
And give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need
If you just believe.
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste,
There's so much to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside,
And give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need
If you just believe.
Trains move quickly
To their journey's end.
Destinations
Are where we begin again.
To their journey's end.
Destinations
Are where we begin again.
Ships go sailing
Far across the sea.
Trusting starlight
To get where they need to be.
Far across the sea.
Trusting starlight
To get where they need to be.
When it seems that we have lost our way,
We find ourselves again on Christmas Day.
We find ourselves again on Christmas Day.
Believe in what your heart is saying,
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste,
There's so much to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside,
And give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need
If you just believe.
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste,
There's so much to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside,
And give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need
If you just believe.
If you just believe
If you just believe
If you just believe
Just believe
Just believe
If you just believe
If you just believe
Just believe
Just believe
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
A Voyage of Song (Shah Alam 9-13 December 2005)
just got back from KL. what a blast! (warning, LONG post)
first day friday, got up nice and early at 5am and got a lift from ah-ku to cfa. was one of the first there. but the rest started coming. we were a bit irritated that the bus was late. after all their threats about leaving us behind, they were late! anyway, the choir com bought mcdonalds breakfast for us to eat. lots of people were carrying trolley bags. evelyn's bag was HUGE. but that's cos she was going back home after the competition. anyway, we finally got underway, went by the 2nd link. by then, it was fully light liao. sat with felicia. there wasn't space for our duffel bags in the baggage compartment so we had to hold on to it. and the darn bus didn't have a luggage rack on top. anyway, we made it to the checkpoint. zhang zhe forgot to bring down his student card so the official detained his passport and sent him back to the bus to collect it. but no problems other than that. felicia hung her gown from the luggage rack after we changed bus at the m'sia checkpoint and it was like a door for our little private compartment. haha!
we were saying we should hang a 'do not disturb' on the own cos so many people were playing with it. traditional stop at yong peng. yong peng was the usual smelly and gross place. the toilet could not flush. lots of people were already buying chewing gum from the shop there. we arrived at shah alam in time for lunch. checked in to concorde hotel, room 611. first thing that i noticed when entering the room, i thought the previous guests had forgotten to switch off the tv. got 'musical' sounds. (later on i realised that it's the mosque broadcasting the prayers through the loudspeakers) second thing i noticed is that there's only one queen size bed and 2 of us. muahaha! me and felicia shared a bed for the whole stay. anyway, on observing the view, the most prominent feature is...drumroll...t
he JEDI TEMPLE! aka Masjid Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah. beautiful building. HUGE mosque. we could see grand blue wave (GBW) in the far off distance. switched on the tv and channel surfed for a while, waiting for Boss (KK) to phone in instructions. i have never watched so much mtv in my life. well, instructions were to have lunch and then meet for warm-ups. so me and felicia went next door to shah alam center (which is a really pathetic shopping center) for lunch. met paulus and group at the Chicken Rice Shop. the food was ok. the chicken was more 'natural' than singapore. teasing paulus about his ordering barbecued sweet honey chicken noodles, with soup. which turned out to be chicken that wants to be char siew. btw, found out that a pair of guys also got a double bed in their room to share. which sounded a bit wrong. i mean, girls sharing a bed is ok, but guys...saw mj when we came back. and also shok li from singapore poly. haha! didn't expect to see her here. she really slimmed down a lot. couldn't recognise her at first. dinner sucked. by the time we reported, at the time we were told to report, there was hardly any food left. we were picking stuff off dharini's vegetarian plate that's specially prepared for her. only the desserts were good. anyway, went to GBW for the opening ceremony. and the first thing that caught everyone's eye in the grand ballroom was the Estonian Television Children's Choir (ETVCC). big bunch of pretty angmoh all girls choir sitting in the first few rows. but NUS choir had to take balcony seats. anyway, the usual opening ceremony. ETVCC performed. and they were breathtaking. they were even better than Novo. we're already predicting who's gonna be grand final winner. Fingerprints Malaysia also performed (they with their strange "alleuia" being pronounced as "ah-le-lu-ee-ah"), and singapore's combined secondary school choir sang the "voyage of song" song. funny that they didn't mention zacheriah goh toh chye who wrote the song. the other choirs were ok. the star of the night was ETVCC. oh ya, the judges. the usual bunch, jonathan velasco (philippines), leon tong (hong kong), meng da peng (china), jennifer tham (singapore), cristo burger (south africa. but not black) and artistic director nelson kwei. mc is this mark tan from VJ. he looks darn familiar but i just can't remember where i think i saw him before. anyway, ya, the usual opening ceremony speeches etc. then back to concorde. but couldn't sleep. tossing and turning all night. the reception for my hp suddenly came on and the smses started coming in just when i was falling asleep. and when i finally got to sleep in the dawn hours, the mosque starts praying and wakes me up again. thought it was just me, but felicia tells me she couldn't sleep either.
second day saturday, morning call at 6am. so reluctant to drag ourselves out of bed. but have to. so we get up and go down for breakfast. again sucky breakfast. only got coffee and tea. really dry fried rice, bee hoon, porridge, scraps of scrambled egg (finished liao and they hadn't topped it up). had some free time after warm-ups so went over to giant to buy food for next day's breakfast. ran into lots of choir ppl at giant also buying food. bought baby biscuits. :D back in the room, me and felicia had a make-up dry run. as in, we both did our hair and make-up to 'try' out for the next day's competition. not bad actually. mei nus on parade! haha!
anyway, in the afternoon, we went back to GBW to watch some of the competitions. watched the childrens' choirs. that was sheer torture. some choirs were good, for eg the one that sang the jazz song with the hats, and the CHIJ-OLGC choir (the barbie doll choir cos of their pink dresses). but others were so bad, it couldn't get any worse. they were so soft, we had to strain to hear them. it was so draining just listening to them. their cuteness isn't enough to cover their horrible singing. after that we watched adyll and wei wei with the TPJC male chorus. FINALLY some good singing.
something fun during practices after that. yan ting made us do this tribal dance thingy to fine tune our coordination skills. we sang by the swimming pool. must have scared everyone there. but it was fun singing there. the "adus bareng" was particularly good i think, cos there were kids playing in the pool live. so no need to imagine the images. same for "lily". the water part was obvious. anyway, after the practice, me and felicia went to mei si, dharini and winnie's room for mei si's makeover/makeup dry run. at first, mei si put up some resistance. but we triumphed. 
haha! it was a fun girls' night. dharini was telling us about indian wedding customs and we were relating all of it to "dong dong kui". and then we were taking photos in their bathroom, and bathtub. and laughing and talking loudly way past curfew time. and Boss's room was just next to theirs. haha! so scared that they might carry out their threat and check on us. but luckily they didn't. anyway, we came up with an excuse in case they find us; we are borrowing their make up. ;D just a note, slept much better the second night. probably cos we were so exhausted by then.
third day sunday. competition day! me and felicia decided to skip the hotel breakfast (sucky anyway) and eat in our room. instant noodles. and juice and milo that we got from giant. and then, rush rush down to warm ups. did the tribal dance thing again. back to the room to do makeup and dress. i think cos of our dry run the day before, we were quite fast. when we went up to mei si's room to kaypoh, they were not ready at all. just did the hair and wore the top. anyway, had to go hui jun's room for QC aka checking that everyone's makeup is thick enough. the 2 of us were ok. haha! at least don't need to use brown eyeshadow anymore. used my blue one. although it didn't really match my green skirt. but i don't have green eyeshadow. and i refuse to put on green eyeshadow. what'll it look like sia. 
anyway, the sops looked like they had too little makeup on. it was barely there, compared to the altos. after everyone had passed QC, went down to the lobby for another short warm up, and on to GBW. saw mj there. all the best, all the best. went into the holding room, yan ting made us 'meditate' for a while to settle ourselves. we were the last choir to perform. saw mj sitting in the balcony. scary sia. i think it went ok. it sounded a bit off at first for "wayang kulit" but i think it went ok later on. "dong dong kui", yan ting's pitchpipe malfunctioned, gave off a weird note. but i think we ended on the right chord. i think it went ok. but later on, feedback, from mj, said that we were out of tune, the girls' pronounciation was bad, sharp. lunch at GBW. the food is so much better than at concorde.
back to concorde to wait the few hours before open mix. took photos with some of the mj juniors. 
went back to the room to slack. watch tv. freshen up. no QC this time. went down for wei wei's warm ups. listen to all the brainwashing that he's trying to do. back to GBW. holding room again. amusing thing, wei wei made us meditate also. and suddenly, all the lights in the room suddenly glowed really brightly. wei wei was giving this oh-my-god-the-room-is-haunted look. we had a long long time to wait. almost an hour. charlotte fell asleep and almost toppled onto the floor. finally it's our turn. "sweet honey sucking bees" went ok. "lily" wasn't that bad. "dokin" was ok for me until the repeat part. it was kinda awkward for me. didn't get the chance to talk to shi yun about this one. but the general consensus was that it's ok.
back to concorde again to change for the friendship concert. sucky dinner. eating lots of yummy chocolate cake and blueberry crumble. :D cfa gave us little merlions and "uniquely singapore" pins to give to whoever we make friends with who may not be from singapore. the merlions looked like mer-rats. we all thought it was hamster toys before iris gave them out. and the mane was moulting. me and dharini exchanged merlions. :D in the end, i don't think any of those merlions left to other countries. cos we ended up attaching them to our jeans and performing with them on. anyway, the friendship concert. 
nus and ETVCC were the first choirs there. so nus had front row seats! there was some issues before the concert began that ended up with adyll crying. something about the choir and the management of the choir and the seniors. anyway, ETVCC did the first item. there was 3 soloists singing a song, holding candles. 
then the whole choir sang 2 (supposedly estonian) songs and danced! they danced "all i want for christmas is you". and they brought the house down with their performance. (3 guesses who's getting into grand finals) felicia recorded their performance with my cam. so everyone was very very very high when suddenly, mark tan announced that nus choir is going next. what da?! how come so fast? anyway, we went up, and sang "linden lea" and "dong dong kui". which i think was just short of a fiasco. i mean, it's impossible to look and sound good after ETVCC performs. but we survived. another choir that performed was NYJC. they did this cute tribal thingy that had rainforest sounds. everyone was imitating them after their song was done.
the barbie dolls (CHIJ-OLGC) sang too. they had a soloist elvina who sang "Pie Jesu". oh. my. god. she's charlotte church incarnate. and i don't think she's any older than 10. keep in mind that she's a primary schooler. and she's outsinging everyone in the hall. nus choir was thinking, "yan ting in the making." elvina got a few minutes long standing ovation. must have been the best moment of her life. wonder how it feels. and they sang "that's what friends are for" also. the whole grand ballroom was swaying and singing along to it. expect them to win gold in their category. then at the end, mark tan was pressurised into singing a solo for us. he did. he sang "hey jude" with his own piano accompanyment. and got the whole ballroom singing the "na na na" line over and over again. he's got his own fan club that guy has. cos after the concert, we saw him sitting on the conductor's podium posing while a huge bunch of primary schoolers queued up to photograph him. ;D still very high so we were singing christmas carols in the bus on the way back to concorde. btw, there was some fella that kept shushing people during the concert everytime they tried to clap and sing along to the music. party pooper. after that, back in the room, watching mtv, clay's "invisible" was on! what a nice end to a relatively nice day.
fourth day monday. day of reckoning. results day! we slept till nearly 9am. and then ate baby biscuits for breakfast cos we missed the hotel breakfast. supposed to do prepare some blogging and plan for the church choir while felicia went to the gym. me ended up doing a nameing exercise cos i was preparing the labels for my photos. anyway, later went shopping at the center next door. when we left the hotel, everyone was looking for wei wei (the girl) who apparently went missing. me and felicia ran into hui jun and wei wei (the guy) all over the center. felicia wanted to buy toiletries which are so much cheaper than in singapore. then went to "the reject shop" where they sell those great second hand clothes. i was so tempted to buy, but control remembering that i'm going penang and thailand next week. but really tempted cos the clothes were so nice and cheap. anyway, ran into a big bunch of them at the pizza hut. nearly half the choir was there. but me and felicia wanted to save money so we decided to eat in the hotel. and the food was not bad actually. so later on we were teasing the others that they missed a nice lunch and had to spend so much for ordinary pizza. social hour with the philipino girls at lunch. took photo with shok li. then back to the orchard room for more brainwashing session. blissfully unaware of what was coming. 
back to GBW for the announcement of results. mj got gold C for both categories. nus also got gold C. *shrugs* it was a bit disappointing. can tell that we were disappointed. no one cheered when the results were annouced, just mechanical clapping. i admit, i was disappointed. cos despite all our hard work and belief in ourselves, we only just scraped a gold C. i was expecting gold B at least. sigh. at least we got gold lah. but...sigh. the only choir in the entire competition that got gold A is ETVCC. and they were category winners for 2 categories. wow. adyll and wei wei's TPJC male chorus also went on to the grand finals. back at concorde, at the debriefing, we discovered that for open mix, we could have gotten gold B. all the judges but one marked us for gold B. only jennifer tham marked us down. darn her. shi yun says that she marked them down also. folklore was a definite gold C from all the judges. ok. some of the seniors were crying during the debrief. the journey back from GBW was markedly subdued. oh well, that's that lah. it's over liao. no use crying about it. could feel that the morale of the choir suddenly dropped to an all time low. little thing, when we were alighting at concorde, i think it was renee that was alighting from the bus when the driver decided to move a bit more inward. so he warned, in chinese, not to alight cos he's going to move the bus. naturally, renee doesn't know chinese so she almost fell off the open bus. then the driver scolded her. and evelyn scolded him back that renee doesn't know chinese. i heard that the driver had a astounded look on his face when evelyn snapped back at him.
went back GBW for the grand finals. all of us knew that it wasn't going to be much of a challenge. we all knew who was going to win. it was obvious. anyway, when mark tan was announcing the judges, you could tell immediately which judge the choirs hated and liked. the applause level was so different for all the judges. first choir to perform was TKSS. loved their songs. wish i could do those songs too. especially the one that got the clapping and stamping. cool. then there was ETVCC. i don't remember their first song. but i remember their second. "Aglepta". that song was ScARy. really. for those who don't know, the song is mostly sounds, it's a curse for enemies. SAc tried to do it once and failed. ETVCC did it so well. they acted out the song. it was freaky, they looked like they were possessed. there was a very very nightmarish quality about that song. i could sense stunned silence in the audience. anyway, moving on, TPJC was ok. adyll's solo sounded like he came in too early from the rest of the group, couldn't tell that it was a solo. the other 2 choirs were ok. i don't remember the one whose name started with 'D'. i think they did this song "elijah rock" that was good. the sops went super high. very nice song. the other choir, Fingerprints Malaysia, the one that beat us in open mix, didn't sound so good to me. the soloist sounded like karaoke queen. and the beginning song sounded like it was going to fall apart any second.
well, like i said, no surprises who won the grand prize. ETVCC. nus won the recognition for the best interpretation of the set piece "sweet honey sucking bees". whatever lah. at least we got a trophy to bring home. but it did cheer up the choir a little. after the finals and closing ceremony, we were all waiting for the bus and wei wei. until we were the only choir left in the ballroom. haha! party time for us. the philipino girls were dismantling the judges' flowers on the table. 
yan ting was having karaoke session by the piano. felicia and jenica were having an impromtu dance lesson, language 1000 level lessons to learn the "please stand behind the yellow line" message in malay and tamil. :D went back to concorde where the party went on in huai zhi's room. practically half the choir gathered there. after packing, first to come was me felicia and the philipino girls. the girls brought sardines, which looked a little gross inside the glass when we didn't know what it was. then the rest of them drifted in. 
so there was a group playing 'gambling' card games, 
another group playing 'intellectual' bridge, another group in front of the tv (watching "miss world" and "miss congeniality 2), another group eating cake. quite fun actually. felicia and jenica went out to the lift lobby to continue their dance lesson. me and felicia left at around 1 plus. would have loved to stay but too tired.
last day tuesday. the morning call was at 7. but we slept till 8. then rushed down for the last remnants of breakfast. which was quite nice. nasi lemak, scrambled egg and sausage. and orange juice (not fresh tho, syrup). checked out punctually at 9.15am after reluctantly dragging ourselves away from the extreme sports competition on tv (boarding, biking etc). bus left at 10 sharp. the bus was spanking new, but the seat was darn hard. imagine TIBS bus kind of seat. slept most of the way back. dharini said that she didn't sleep at all, she was at huai zhi's room till the party broke up at 6am when huai zhi kicked them out so that he could sleep for a while. yup, quite an uneventful ride back. erm...they were teasing joseph cos he chased iris away from sitting with him, we were asking him who he wants to sit with; J, R, A or K (the philipino girls). and kk broke the trophy at the singapore checkpoint cos he was juggling too many things in his hands. 6 hours after leaving shah alam, we reached nus. yay!home sweet home!
Thursday, December 08, 2005
before going to KL, a very musical post
in less than 24hrs time, i'll be on the way to shah alam. so just some (hopefully) quick points. parents have gone to malaysia to visit popo. me and andrew have the whole house to ourselves! of course, i still have my packing to do, which i haven't even started. muahaha!
sat in for the church choir practice last night. omg! they really sound good. (with the exception of "jingle bells" in which they sounded very unsettled.) so proud of the guys' "o holy night". i expected them to cleanly forget the whole thing. but they surprised me by remembering it! :D looks like they're really serious about wanting to do the SATB version of it. next year ya? and no, taking the guys' sectionals wasn't such a pain as i expected. of course, i definitely was talking a little too loud cos my throat was really sore when i got home. and the originally half hour practice mutated into a full 2 hr prac. lucky fr khoo wasn't around and fr lu close 2 eyes (and ears) to us. some other feedback i've got about the choir, that isn't so good i'll save till after KL. wanna think about how to put it first.
other music stuff, nus choir had the shortest of short siglap practices yesterday. ended at 1pm surprisingly. when kk said, ok, we can go, we were all wondering, go home or go for lunch. anyway, kwei made us go to the 'garden' outside to sing. and he stood on the 2nd floor to listen. and tp was hanging around to listen as well. and kwei said it was good. better than the previous time anyway. and this is on top of the fact that none of us warmed up properly. haha!
for fun's sake, here's a pic of the nus altos going for competition. (L to R) felicia, me, jenica, mei si, joanne, charlotte, hui jun, winnie, li yi, hui yin. at the theatrette at CFA.
and anyway, heard that novo concertante manila will not be going to shah alam this time. sad. they were so good the last time. wanted to hear them live again. but apparently, the conductor of novo is bringing another 2 of his choirs for this one. so maybe they have a similar sound.
another thing, as i was listening to internet radio, i heard something really cool. the trans-siberian orchestra! i heard their "christmas eve sarajevo" piece. they DO NOT sound like a conventional orchestra. for one thing, they've got electric guitar doing that electric sound in their song. it sounded so good that i downloaded it. and i was tempted and succumbed to temptation to get some other christmas tracks from them. gosh! i wonder if they have a cd in singapore. i want to buy it!!! LISTEN TO IT!!! turn the volume up REALLY loud for a grandly shiok feeling. glad i managed to find somewhere to host it so i can upload it.
alrighty. bye for now! see you all back on the 13th!
sat in for the church choir practice last night. omg! they really sound good. (with the exception of "jingle bells" in which they sounded very unsettled.) so proud of the guys' "o holy night". i expected them to cleanly forget the whole thing. but they surprised me by remembering it! :D looks like they're really serious about wanting to do the SATB version of it. next year ya? and no, taking the guys' sectionals wasn't such a pain as i expected. of course, i definitely was talking a little too loud cos my throat was really sore when i got home. and the originally half hour practice mutated into a full 2 hr prac. lucky fr khoo wasn't around and fr lu close 2 eyes (and ears) to us. some other feedback i've got about the choir, that isn't so good i'll save till after KL. wanna think about how to put it first.
other music stuff, nus choir had the shortest of short siglap practices yesterday. ended at 1pm surprisingly. when kk said, ok, we can go, we were all wondering, go home or go for lunch. anyway, kwei made us go to the 'garden' outside to sing. and he stood on the 2nd floor to listen. and tp was hanging around to listen as well. and kwei said it was good. better than the previous time anyway. and this is on top of the fact that none of us warmed up properly. haha!
for fun's sake, here's a pic of the nus altos going for competition. (L to R) felicia, me, jenica, mei si, joanne, charlotte, hui jun, winnie, li yi, hui yin. at the theatrette at CFA.and anyway, heard that novo concertante manila will not be going to shah alam this time. sad. they were so good the last time. wanted to hear them live again. but apparently, the conductor of novo is bringing another 2 of his choirs for this one. so maybe they have a similar sound.
another thing, as i was listening to internet radio, i heard something really cool. the trans-siberian orchestra! i heard their "christmas eve sarajevo" piece. they DO NOT sound like a conventional orchestra. for one thing, they've got electric guitar doing that electric sound in their song. it sounded so good that i downloaded it. and i was tempted and succumbed to temptation to get some other christmas tracks from them. gosh! i wonder if they have a cd in singapore. i want to buy it!!! LISTEN TO IT!!! turn the volume up REALLY loud for a grandly shiok feeling. glad i managed to find somewhere to host it so i can upload it.
alrighty. bye for now! see you all back on the 13th!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
well, i guess this'll be one of the last posts before i leave for KL on friday. excited! haha! going for competition. almost done with the intensive practices. we're getting much better. i heard the recordings wei wei posted. it actually sounds not that bad. :D but today's performance was bad. kwei said we were too agitated, esp during "lily". and our "sweet honey sucking bees" was too fierce. like wasps. or hornets. haha! but the folklore is good. i think we're almost there. they definitely want to go onto the grand finals. well, remembering nus choir's reputation, naturally lah. hui yin says i've improved for "sweet honey sucking bees" yay! but bit ironic since immediately after, for "lily", i cracked. the "linden lea" we're learning for the friendship concert is so nice! love it. the most 'relax' song we're going to be singing in KL.
anyway, little note that isn't too good about the nus choir. i think sometimes, in the bid to be excellent, they forget about the ren qing part. like today, the situation with dharini. both the SL (section leader) and another senior (not mentioning names) kept 'snapping' at her cos she isn't getting it quite perfectly as they would like it. to the point that the SL told dharini not to sing at all during the sectionals for "lily". dharini walked out of the room and she was crying when she came back. she said wanted to pull out of the competition altogether cos she thinks she isn't good enough, that she'll pull down the entire choir. which is complete BS imo.
point is that, we want to be perfect and excellent and grand finalists and all, but the process is a bit, maybe a lot, brutal. people are going to be darn demoralised after all the brutal treatment. li yi tried to talk to her and kept asking all of us if we're ok, do we feel demoralised. i think she's scared that we'll become like dharini. but at least she's concerned enough. she's one of the better seniors, despite her weirdness and fake fierceness. the SL didn't bother, maybe she doesn't even know this is happening to her section. she's really impatient with those who are weaker, and, well, i kinda feel that how she handles it when we don't perform up to expectation is not right. her tone when she reprimands us reminds me of mrs quek's i-don't-understand-why-you-don't-understand line, only much harsher and not funny at all. i hope i never become like this. if i do, feel free to slap me.
saw mj's performances. not bad actually. my altos sound so good. but sometimes they're good to the point that they're overpowering the other sections. which is surprising since altos weren't ever that loud during my time. but i'm proud of them! eugenia, cass, and even that crazy girl with the super exaggerrated expressions. haha! their "sweet honey sucking bees" is so different from ours. kwei says that theirs is better. maybe not so aggressively fierce hornets but sweet honey sucking bees. ;D me and paulus crashed their practice for a while. and later on, paulus revealed that mr yong doesn't remember me anymore. mr yong was asking him who am i. *pout* next time i won't bother so much with mj liao since i'm so easily forgotten. *grin* tp was singing "gloria" that we did for la risonanza last year for their open mix piece. haha! nostalgia. i like mj's interpretation of it better tho.
anyway, bit of an update. duan hui, i said i would blog about that meeting with khoo (yes, i do talk about church issues with my non-church friends outside of my blog's air time). but i don't think i'll ever get the full picture. every attempt at talking about it with those present turns into a khoo/ronald/elders bashing session. so ya, the less said, the better i think.
moving on. i realised that sometimes, well maybe most times, my posts are really really really damn long. and i just realised that it may be a bit difficult for people to read. see, the problem here is that i would like to keep my posts precise and concise (as naresh would say) but when i get started, as you can see, the precise and concise post mutates unrecognisably. on one hand, i feel like saying, heck lah, this is my space! i'll do what i want with it! on the other hand, i want readers to be comfortable reading and not feel like they're reading academic papers, plowing on just cos they're my friends and are therefore obliged to read what crap i blog. ya, so feedback? do i bore you all? or are you ok with my style?
talking about feedback, i did the module preference exercise. i registered for french and psych. go ahead, call me crazy for thinking that i'll survive french. whatever. i've decided on my modules except for the cross fac that i'm planning to take next sem. fyi sumi and jas, IF general bio requires lab time, which i heard takes HOURS, i would rather take calculus as cross fac. i really love maths and i'd miss having no maths at all in my life. but this is assuming that, and i'll check this one, calculus makes use of numbers instead of alphabets.
oh ya, forgot to mention, something i wanted to ask for a while. do other people have this problem too? my computer folders, it's on details view. you know usually the font for the icons is black right? well, for some files, the font is BLUE!!!! why????!!!!! anyone know to tell me why? i can't figure it out myself. is there something wrong with my comp?? *scary* this comp has to last me till the end of uni. if mother finds out i somehow managed to screw up my comp, all hell will break lose.
to end off, funny thing i saw on the clayboard. clay wears penguin slippers to rehersals! haha! maybe he's a penguin fan too! there'a alot of talk about him and a penguin called pedro. no idea where it (clay and penguins) came from tho.
and no, i do not like penguins just because clay maybe likes them. i've liked them long before i found out that he wears penguin slippers. haha! btw, in case people have forgotten, penguins are evil too. they're trying to infiltrate the highest ranks by acting so cute and to ultimately TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!! the clayboard's sudden obsession with penguins just cos clay wore penguin slippers has proved this. it's a CONSPIRACY!
*goodness gracious! great balls of fire!!!!!*
(just a note, i got another clay thing to talk about but i'll spare you for now. resist until after KL. it isn't exactly a good thing anyway. but it'll be interesting to discuss.)
till next time!
anyway, little note that isn't too good about the nus choir. i think sometimes, in the bid to be excellent, they forget about the ren qing part. like today, the situation with dharini. both the SL (section leader) and another senior (not mentioning names) kept 'snapping' at her cos she isn't getting it quite perfectly as they would like it. to the point that the SL told dharini not to sing at all during the sectionals for "lily". dharini walked out of the room and she was crying when she came back. she said wanted to pull out of the competition altogether cos she thinks she isn't good enough, that she'll pull down the entire choir. which is complete BS imo.
point is that, we want to be perfect and excellent and grand finalists and all, but the process is a bit, maybe a lot, brutal. people are going to be darn demoralised after all the brutal treatment. li yi tried to talk to her and kept asking all of us if we're ok, do we feel demoralised. i think she's scared that we'll become like dharini. but at least she's concerned enough. she's one of the better seniors, despite her weirdness and fake fierceness. the SL didn't bother, maybe she doesn't even know this is happening to her section. she's really impatient with those who are weaker, and, well, i kinda feel that how she handles it when we don't perform up to expectation is not right. her tone when she reprimands us reminds me of mrs quek's i-don't-understand-why-you-don't-understand line, only much harsher and not funny at all. i hope i never become like this. if i do, feel free to slap me.
saw mj's performances. not bad actually. my altos sound so good. but sometimes they're good to the point that they're overpowering the other sections. which is surprising since altos weren't ever that loud during my time. but i'm proud of them! eugenia, cass, and even that crazy girl with the super exaggerrated expressions. haha! their "sweet honey sucking bees" is so different from ours. kwei says that theirs is better. maybe not so aggressively fierce hornets but sweet honey sucking bees. ;D me and paulus crashed their practice for a while. and later on, paulus revealed that mr yong doesn't remember me anymore. mr yong was asking him who am i. *pout* next time i won't bother so much with mj liao since i'm so easily forgotten. *grin* tp was singing "gloria" that we did for la risonanza last year for their open mix piece. haha! nostalgia. i like mj's interpretation of it better tho.
anyway, bit of an update. duan hui, i said i would blog about that meeting with khoo (yes, i do talk about church issues with my non-church friends outside of my blog's air time). but i don't think i'll ever get the full picture. every attempt at talking about it with those present turns into a khoo/ronald/elders bashing session. so ya, the less said, the better i think.
moving on. i realised that sometimes, well maybe most times, my posts are really really really damn long. and i just realised that it may be a bit difficult for people to read. see, the problem here is that i would like to keep my posts precise and concise (as naresh would say) but when i get started, as you can see, the precise and concise post mutates unrecognisably. on one hand, i feel like saying, heck lah, this is my space! i'll do what i want with it! on the other hand, i want readers to be comfortable reading and not feel like they're reading academic papers, plowing on just cos they're my friends and are therefore obliged to read what crap i blog. ya, so feedback? do i bore you all? or are you ok with my style?
talking about feedback, i did the module preference exercise. i registered for french and psych. go ahead, call me crazy for thinking that i'll survive french. whatever. i've decided on my modules except for the cross fac that i'm planning to take next sem. fyi sumi and jas, IF general bio requires lab time, which i heard takes HOURS, i would rather take calculus as cross fac. i really love maths and i'd miss having no maths at all in my life. but this is assuming that, and i'll check this one, calculus makes use of numbers instead of alphabets.
oh ya, forgot to mention, something i wanted to ask for a while. do other people have this problem too? my computer folders, it's on details view. you know usually the font for the icons is black right? well, for some files, the font is BLUE!!!! why????!!!!! anyone know to tell me why? i can't figure it out myself. is there something wrong with my comp?? *scary* this comp has to last me till the end of uni. if mother finds out i somehow managed to screw up my comp, all hell will break lose.
to end off, funny thing i saw on the clayboard. clay wears penguin slippers to rehersals! haha! maybe he's a penguin fan too! there'a alot of talk about him and a penguin called pedro. no idea where it (clay and penguins) came from tho.
and no, i do not like penguins just because clay maybe likes them. i've liked them long before i found out that he wears penguin slippers. haha! btw, in case people have forgotten, penguins are evil too. they're trying to infiltrate the highest ranks by acting so cute and to ultimately TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!! the clayboard's sudden obsession with penguins just cos clay wore penguin slippers has proved this. it's a CONSPIRACY!*goodness gracious! great balls of fire!!!!!*
(just a note, i got another clay thing to talk about but i'll spare you for now. resist until after KL. it isn't exactly a good thing anyway. but it'll be interesting to discuss.)
till next time!
p.s. haha! first time i upload photo onto blogger and it works!
Friday, December 02, 2005
small comment
regarding the meeting the youths had with fr khoo the other day, which i did not attend cos i was stuck in school with the crazy choir. i don't know the whole picture, (which i would really like to know). all i know has been garnered from blog reading. and i only have one reaction about what i saw fr khoo had said. about his singing 2 octaves. BIG DEAL. so can practically everyone else who can carry a tune. *rolls eys* the sarcastic part of me wants to snap back, "ya so? 2 octaves? piece of cake. on good days, i can do 3." i know of real people (not mariah carey) who can do practically the entire SATB scale. elvin, for eg, proves all the time that he's one of those people. *rolls eyes again*
but since i wasn't there, and i don't know what happened, i can only talk here. anyway, khoo just sounds like his usual narcisistic self. so what's new? there are people like him whose only purpose in life is to boost his own little ego. being proud of something so common. whatever lah. pachyderm.
anyway, before i get sued for defamation or something else, i better shut my trap till i find out exactly what happened.
and this was a long time ago but, just to mention, 12 november was the first year anniversary of my blog! haha!
but since i wasn't there, and i don't know what happened, i can only talk here. anyway, khoo just sounds like his usual narcisistic self. so what's new? there are people like him whose only purpose in life is to boost his own little ego. being proud of something so common. whatever lah. pachyderm.
anyway, before i get sued for defamation or something else, i better shut my trap till i find out exactly what happened.
and this was a long time ago but, just to mention, 12 november was the first year anniversary of my blog! haha!
Thursday, December 01, 2005
created my first ever montage. started in june, ended recently. not that i got a lot of time on my hands lah. need to do something un-academic. (hope the link works)
click HERE!
moved up to first post.
click HERE!
moved up to first post.
the worst paper of all time
just came back from school. physically and mentally drained. what a bad day. physically cos of choir. mentally cos of my exam. read on!
very sad about my cultural studies. it was horrible. really. seriously. it is without doubt my worst paper ever. in my life till now. you know exactly how bad it was? i'll tell you. i opened the paper, looked at the questions. 5 qns choose 2. and i couldn't understand a single one. really. i looked at all 5 and i was thinking, shit, what's this mess?! and for the first time in my life, i considered handing in a blank paper. *sobsobcrycry* it was that bad. here's a sample of the questions (the 2 that i finally crapped up an answer for anyway. thank god it was an essay.)
1. John Fiske claims that, for Cultural Studies, Culture "is neither aesthetic nor humanist in emphasis, but political" (Fiske). With reference to one or more cultural object(s), discuss the political emphasis of Cultural Studies.
4. Michael Schudson notes that Cultural Studies has been responsible for revising the notion of popular culture entirely. The result, he argues, has been "a salutary new evaluation of popular culture combined with an undiscriminatingly sentimental view of it" (Schudson). With reference to any cultural object show how you would discriminate between sentimental celebration and critical evaluation.
what. da. hell.
ok, it doesn't seem that much of a mess now. but it was then. i didn't know how to approach the thing. and i was so tempted to use kafka or ionesco to answer qn 1. i ended up using george orwell's "animal farm". total crap lah. i have no idea what i wrote. i think i ended up with a highly GP-ised answer with references here and there to my cultural objects. and if i'm going to fail anything, it's this. it didn't help at all that the column next to me was doing advanced macroecons and had HUGE stacks of notes all over their desks. nor that some guy taking CS left the hall 40 minutes early. even the genius kevin said that it was not at all what he expected. poor jean was sitting in the front row, eyeball-to-eyeball with AP philips and ma shao ling. wan yun left early too. but don't know how it was for her cos didn't see her after the paper.
prof philips lied btw. he said, no need to study, we can do it. *rolls eyes* choke on pears man! this is one module that desperately needs a tutorial. the lectures are so deceiving. and he never ever gave us any practice at all. in fact, i don't think he ever discussed how we're supposed to be tested (the content that is. he went through the format) so the first time we're ever writing a cultural studies essay is during the exam.
*goodness gracious! great balls of fire!!!*
hello F!
very sad about my cultural studies. it was horrible. really. seriously. it is without doubt my worst paper ever. in my life till now. you know exactly how bad it was? i'll tell you. i opened the paper, looked at the questions. 5 qns choose 2. and i couldn't understand a single one. really. i looked at all 5 and i was thinking, shit, what's this mess?! and for the first time in my life, i considered handing in a blank paper. *sobsobcrycry* it was that bad. here's a sample of the questions (the 2 that i finally crapped up an answer for anyway. thank god it was an essay.)
1. John Fiske claims that, for Cultural Studies, Culture "is neither aesthetic nor humanist in emphasis, but political" (Fiske). With reference to one or more cultural object(s), discuss the political emphasis of Cultural Studies.
4. Michael Schudson notes that Cultural Studies has been responsible for revising the notion of popular culture entirely. The result, he argues, has been "a salutary new evaluation of popular culture combined with an undiscriminatingly sentimental view of it" (Schudson). With reference to any cultural object show how you would discriminate between sentimental celebration and critical evaluation.
what. da. hell.
ok, it doesn't seem that much of a mess now. but it was then. i didn't know how to approach the thing. and i was so tempted to use kafka or ionesco to answer qn 1. i ended up using george orwell's "animal farm". total crap lah. i have no idea what i wrote. i think i ended up with a highly GP-ised answer with references here and there to my cultural objects. and if i'm going to fail anything, it's this. it didn't help at all that the column next to me was doing advanced macroecons and had HUGE stacks of notes all over their desks. nor that some guy taking CS left the hall 40 minutes early. even the genius kevin said that it was not at all what he expected. poor jean was sitting in the front row, eyeball-to-eyeball with AP philips and ma shao ling. wan yun left early too. but don't know how it was for her cos didn't see her after the paper.
prof philips lied btw. he said, no need to study, we can do it. *rolls eyes* choke on pears man! this is one module that desperately needs a tutorial. the lectures are so deceiving. and he never ever gave us any practice at all. in fact, i don't think he ever discussed how we're supposed to be tested (the content that is. he went through the format) so the first time we're ever writing a cultural studies essay is during the exam.
*goodness gracious! great balls of fire!!!*
hello F!
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