back! easter!

alrighty. :D for the moment, there's no video cos i can't find one that i like enough to put on. so, just watch that space.

easter triduum has ended. thank god. it was such a roller coaster. gosh. prepare for long lor-sor stories.

maundy thursday. went for the mass, late. cos was waiting for andrew to get ready. ronald's choir was very amusing. cos they had to cut music after the gloria. so they had problems with the singing. only could hear ronald, diana and sr enrica. the rest was just mumbling. the 'our father' was a mess. they started something and the congregation continued to sing, only to realise halfway through the thing that the choir was singing something completely different from the congregation. *rolls eyes* and during the consecration, there wasn't supposed to be bells. so for some reason, there was a 'rattle' thing. oh. my. god. what an ear sore. please lah. keeping quiet during that time isn't a bad thing lor.

anyway, that was the mass. after that, went church visiting around town. that went as usual. nothing out of the ordinary. BUT on the way back, i was at that busstop outside the armenian church. and i saw THAT guy. *jaw drops* and he got onto the same bus as me. *jaw drops further* anyway, i said hi, then he said hi back. k. didn't talk much on the bus yet. then, abt 2 stops before he alighted, he came over and started friendly chitchat. *excited screams* it was great to know that he's no longer treating me like i'm invisible. :D

then...went back to church for the adoration. was early so hung around with some of the others in the canteen. the guys were getting high on a medley of hymns. so we sang for a while. then went up for adoration at 11.30. last slot. gosh. that was late. anyway. supposed to be praying and keeping jesus company. so ya. did that. or tried. i admit. i began stoning halfway through. lucky for me tho, there was an empty chair in front of me. so i tried this thing that i read. about pretending that jesus is sitting in the chair. not that it worked very well. but, at least i didn't fall asleep.

next day. good friday. the guy messaged me bright and early to wish me a "happy good friday! christ has risen". erm...do protestants have a different thinking from catholics? to them, does jesus rise on good friday??? happy that he msged me. (he still has my number after so long. *g*)

anyway, good friday. our turn for the mass. no. not mass. service. ok. so came early to practice 'the reproaches' and the psalm. well, more for the reproaches. actually, i don't remember, did we really take 2 hours for just that? oh ya, we also did the 'our father'. it RAINED. such a heavy thunder lightning downpour. why does it always rain on good friday? but moving on. the service itself was ok. a bit confusing at times. mrs sylvia yeoh's husband is such a great lector i think. and fr khoo was being his usual s-l-o-w self. he 'screwed' up the veneration of the cross. cos, usually, after the "this is the wood of the cross..." thing, is the veneration. so, khoo did the thing, set up the cross in front of the altar, he, lu and paul staes went and did their veneration, then the younger altar servers, then the sisters. and at the back, the older altar servers were bringing out other crosses for those at the side. the choir was getting ready to do the veneration, then... khoo goes back to the altar and says, oh we'll do the communion first then later you can do your veneration cos we want to save time etc etc. *freak* why does he always do weird things like this??? anyway, ya so for a while the church was a bit stunned cos we ALWAYS do veneration first. but, he wants communion first, he gets communion first. etc etc. anyway, so, the veneration finally happens, choir does their 'reproaches'. it was ok. much better during the practice but i guess, cos the church was full, and we were thrown off by khoo's weird change of ritual. we had to cut it short cos the church was getting really empty liao. but randall was so good!!!! seriously. it's a waste that he doesn't solo anymore.

and then. cos it's raining, so we couldn't go back to my place as planned. we had to relocate downstairs cos khoo says that no music allowed in the church from maundy thursday till easter vigil. fine. understand. it IS good friday after all. so, we went downstairs and struggled through the vigil repetoire with my pitch pipe. which went kinda ok considering we were all tired, worn and hungry by then.

saturday, easter vigil. me couldn't find my nice white blouse to wear. it's mysteriously vanished into the depths of my closet. thank god i had another one to wear. anyway, everyone was on time for practice!!!! yay! so, ya, warm ups and all. things were going well till khoo came along and told us off for playing the organ. cos we can't play music till the vigil. *rolls eys* so, we relocated downstairs to the car park. cos wanted to test out projection. someone switched on the spotlight for us, so there we were, standing in the spotlight, the carpark our stage. fr paul came along in a taxi and said we sounded good. :D i thought i saw ian, but he kinda vanished after that one glance.

mass itself. was a bit messy at first cos we had absolutely no idea what they were doing at the back of the church. the only thing we could hear was the occasional "amen". but i love easter vigil. love the way the whole church is in darkness and gets lit with the candles. thank god that khoo didn't nag about dripping candle wax like he did during the meeting. fr paul did the "christ our light" thing and sang the easter proclaimation. nice. then, the liturgy of the word. damn i was never this nervous before a psalm. verena went and did great. dawn next and was perfect. then me. shit. i should have did something to make it sound better. or i should have practiced more. the original thing already sounded zhao-sia enough. nerves were making it a WHOLE lot worse. btw, the psalms were all done acapella. which is an even bigger problem. sigh. i should have practiced more.

anyway, after my horrible psalm, did the gloria. one of my fav parts. true, khoo screwed his part as usual. but the choir was beautiful! first time i'm sitting apart and hearing them, they leading the congregation, and the church bells ringing and all. *huge smile* then, was the epistle reading. and the acclaimation. the animator had said that "the priest will intone the alleluia". so dawn played the intro. silence. and more silence. i look at khoo. he look at me. i look at him back. he FINALLY realises that he's supposed to to the intoning. *rolls eyes* it's in the instructions that he gave me and he told me before that he'll do the intoning. anyway, i redeemed myself with the acclaimation psalm. thank god.

fr paul did the gospel and homily. that went as usual. then, was the baptism part. verena went to do the litany of saints. very nice. there were 5 to be baptised this year. pretty good. pathetic considering st mary's 99, but still quite good for our standards. took darn long for that. nothing much noteworthy there. then, the 'i saw water' and nick's first solo! it went very well. he had a very pop-ish sound. as in, the complete opposite of a choral sound. but it was ok. it worked. as usual, khoo just zoomed down the middle aisle. at least fr paul went through the sides also. the mike died during the general intercessions. so the animator was so flustered. khoo had to finish the intercessions for him. i later found out that in his state of mind, he switched off the mike by mistake. *rolls eyes* that guy is so blur. but i won't criticise him here cos we're all stressed and nervous and kan cheong on that day.

nothing noteworthy for the offertory hymns. hmm...the usual flow until the thanksgiving "christ be our light". we printed out the easter text for that. i loved it. that was possibly our best song of the night. it was so good that during the chorus, when we really got into the song, i could feel the reverb from our voices. and the congregation was singing also...beautiful. wish i could have taped it. *g* then, long stories from khoo again. at least he mentioned the choir being good and helping to provide a good atmosphere for the celebration. long story about the church renovations. long story from one of the newly baptised guys.

btw, the animator asked me if there was not going to be a recessional hymn. hello? why do you think i put up the number 254 on the board with the word REC next to it? anyway, knowing the blurness of our elders, i told him we're doing number 254, 'easter song'. he didn't believe me that the title of the song was 'easter song'. *gasp* which planet did he come from? 'easter song' is a staple in the easter period. choirs all over singapore (and the world probably) have been singing it for forever and a day. anyway, we did the recessional. could see the congregation being surprised with the small group part then the 'real thing' later on. andrea's dad (i think) said that it was a nice, refreshing touch to the song. :D beautiful. the choir really did so well that day. all the hard work paid off. :D time to celebrate. and they did that at the potluck downstairs. ;D

easter sunday. ronald was doing the mass. so at least we didn't have to do it. went to dawn's place for house warming and house blessing. not bad. gossiping a bit with uncle paul about the church stuff. nice food, nice house. lots of people. oh ya, during the blessing, fr john-paul tan (i think that's his name) sprinkled holy water at the altar, and instantly extinguished one of the altar tea lights with one well placed drop. ;D they blessed jingle also. cute. heard him comment that this was a nice quiet house blessing, with no shrieking or any weird stuff. reminds me of that time at aunty brenda's houseblessing where the priest told stories of seeing/sensing openings to the spirit world. anyway, me, steffi and ruth were telling ghost stories about our schools. the guys were playing "spartan". left early cos it was going to rain. uncle paul gave us a lift back.

came back and mum catered food from punggol seafood. and invited janice over. :D long time no see her. still her same cute self. her hair's a bit longer now. curly at the back. sweet. she's still so attached to my dad. she discovered the joys of drawers now. my dad's to blame. mum's gonna take care of her in the mornings now. well, not now, but pretty soon. wants to teach janice english. kinda like those play school things. teasing mum that, morning she teaches janice, afternoon she teaches jonathan, might as well open her own childcare center lah. :)

and i forgot to mention. jonathan and linus got baptised on easter vigil night at st mary's. :D

kk. i'll spare you anymore details. haha! happy easter y'all! christ has risen!!




mood: tired
listening to: more to this life - clay aiken