tratakkaaism

Why is everyone coming clean with me these days? Not that it is a bad thing, but both of them in the same week, pretty timely. The whole picture is much clearer now, and I’m glad that, for myself, I closed both cases so long ago that I am unhurt from what usually might hurt. These things always give me somewhat of a contented feeling :) I am relieved for all.

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This has been one of the most terrible weeks of the year. Muse felt so long ago. With post-Muse Tuesday spent at home and pre-Funorama Friday spent preparing for the funfair, I’d say it was a pretty short week with only 2 days of school. Even so, it was draining. Toiling through this past week, I feel like I’ve survived an emotional disaster (can’t think of any other description) at the start of the week and wasted the rest squeezing my brain juices dry.

Wednesday Lunch with Priscilla, later joined by Daryl and Amos, extended till 6ish. I guess half the time went to going back to school (to get my bag) and getting bubble tea from Dover Market for the guys. Dinner and coffee, where I met Jefri, Ms Guo, Sathis and Ms Ho. Thursday was uneventful and yet inspired many thoughts. Sectionals followed by Subway dinner and Frolick yoghurt with Mel and Puaybing. Friday was all Funorama preparation and no lessons, a pretty good change I guess. Spent the morning cutting up monopoly money (I love triple digits) and doing up the food stall by stringing up the paper MisterPotato’s and paper yoghurts. We aligned the third row of MisterPotato’s so it was quite eerie and almost haunting to see a row of more than ten similar smiling potatoes with the same hand sign. -shudder- Anyway, the 2AA4 Band Girls (Gerd, Mich, I) went to buy groceries (toppings for yoghurt) at Bedok ShengSiong and had a really really big lunch at Bedok Hawker :D Took a bus down to Joy’s house from the interchange and did toppings: MichTan makes great Oreo POWDER :P and cutting up marshmellows in 8 divisions is tiring. Gerd and I were sick of the colours Orange, Pink, Yellow and White after all that marshmellow cutting. (Btw, is marshmellow, marshmellow or marshmallow? I always thought it was E.) Got down to the mashing after that, and boy I hate potatoes and the colour Yellow. I think I can do a lot of inclined pull-ups after mashing the night away LOL. We finally finished about 8ish, my dad came to fetch Gerd Mich and I.

Looks like quite a lot of money right? :D

Triple digits. Just holding it makes me feel rich heehee! :D

Potato Fo’ Sho’! My class’ food stall (Can you spot the eerie MisterPotato’s!)

Funorama 08!
Reached school at 7ish and was stationed at the food stall for 4 hours of duty till noon. The funfair only started to heat up around 9plus, and then everyone started grabbing everyone to buy their food/play their games. I bought all three Limited Edition Collegiates for $80, so there goes nearly all my coupons. Business for Yoghurt was really good, we sold out our first batch around noon and had to call in the caterer for a second batch, which sold out before I returned to Funorama. Mashed potato wasn’t doing very well, and Baked potato not well at all. Thanks to Weiling, Wenyao and Mr Loh (My primary school teacher! ZOMG! He bought both yoghurt and mashed potato!) who came to patonise my stall :D After my shift I left school for Jenn’s to visit the Y5s baking. Spent about 3 hours there rotting/playing the piano/chatting/using the computer. Back in school, I bought another $30 of coupons to make up $50, which I spent on buying a hell lot of food for the BB and Oliver Bevan Nicole Zhanyi AmosTan WengFong, and sending Dwayne Kahwei Daryl to play my class’ game (Grab Your Money) LOL, seriously too much money, should’ve saved $20 or something ): After visiting the Hall to buy AC merchandise, we went to Dwayne’s food stall to sit/eat/slack. Countless bowls of shaved ice + syrup, with extremes like too much syrup (nearly died from that 1 spoon of it) and absolutely no syrup (Kahwei: ‘Lychee flavour, try it! Damn nice!’). And I realised that Grab Your Money isn’t that easy LOL. Funorama ended, cleaned up the place and surprise surprise, I had a cup of yoghurt waiting for me (that I apparently reserved) yay! :D Rushed over to IB once we got dismissed and just my luck, the back gate was locked up so I climbed the guys’ side (albeit with less scratches than the first few times), yoghurt and all. Gave the yoghurt to the starving Mel and went to bathe at the IB toilets (ZOMG, WARM WATER, ZOMG I’m going there for Band Camp man) in record time, like 5 minutes maybe? Managed to enter CPA2 before Centrestage started (late). The acting that night was really not bad, Great Job to all those who participated. I liked the first two better :) Swensen’s Supper at HollandV after that, then my dad fetched the BFF and I home.

Kahwei and Daryl grabbing their money! :D YAM IS A CHEATER, YOU SEE HE SQUAT DOWN TAKE ALL THE MONEY ON THE FLOOR HAHAHA, damn funny.

Stay Home Day today. Woke up at 10 and fell back asleep while waiting for Jenn and Yam to reply my messages. Woke up at 11plus and they were already at my house door :P We did homework till 2ish and cooked noodles for lunch, then sent the BFF off for tuition before continuing our work. Yam left about 6ish. Bathed, dinner, work.. And I explored Facebook for the first time. Conclusion, I am a Facebook noob. Gah.

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I feel like this week has been some sort of limbo for me. Like I’m stuck. Between Muse and Funorama, I haven’t done anything to justify myself. Haven’t been studying, haven’t been sleeping, I have no idea why either. But this is it, I’ll have to pick up the pieces from tomorrow onwards. Its a new day, new week, new start. It actually feels like Term 2 already. Time to start working real hard :)

Hoping for a half day off tmr! :P

My shift ended at 12 and I’m at the BFF’s house waiting for the BB and Y5s to go back to Funorama. They baking.

Yoghurt = Great business! :D Limited Edition Collegiates are damn pretty. And expensive.

Centrestage tonight and then brewing :D Updates about this terrible week soon.

Amos and Bevan says Hi. (Retards)

• 09:27 cutting up multicoloured monopoly money for funorama games stall.. even though its just paper it makes me feel rich heehee :D #
• 19:25 mashing potatoes is madness. whoever’s coming for funorama tmr better try the stupid mashed potatoes cause we died mashing them. and the … #

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Done by my dad with a Creative Zen Plus. Quality’s not too good but decent enough I’d say. Excuse the occasional zip sounds, I have no idea why my dad is so obsessed with zipping his bag in the middle of a piece. Grr.

Done by Sean’s friend sister with his Creative Zen. Quality is much better but endings (ie. applause) are rather abrupt. WARNING: They are all in .WAV form. If you want them in .mp3 form to put into your phone or whatnot, please approach me.

ACJC
LOTR – Gandalf & Journey in the Dark
LOTR – Hobbits
Blue Horizons
Armenian Dances (Part I)

ACSI
Blue Shades
Persis
Turandot
With Heart and Voice

Combined Bands
Feng Yang Hua Gu
Charming Asia

Any problems tell me :D

Thursday night, we saw a rainbow halo around the moon.

It was almost midnight and the moon was really, really bright. The halo was huge and the colours of the rainbow spread from inside out. It was God’s work, a beautiful beginning to Good Friday.

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The week leading up to Muse was not a good one. Received Terms results (which isn’t anything surprising, although I am secretly disappointed in my Music History essay). In response to my twitter updates, I fell asleep on the bus on Monday and had to ask my dad to fetch me from somewhere in the middle of Pasir Panjang LOL, that was how bored/tired I was. And photosynthesis in class means having the sun’s piercing rays upon your back while doing Math sums. Its sort of the only time in my life that I have to use an umbrella in class. Pretty amazing, I’d say. Anyway, with all that visiting to the school next door I feel like I am an IB girl (and actually got mistaken as one, ho ho ho – ‘Are you going for auditions today?’ LOL). Oh, my electone teacher called off lesson because I was having an eye infection then (the usual from lack of sleep, what’s new?) and an almost-sore throat, so I wasted my trip to Clementi. Dinner with the trombones at Dover before band prac which started and ended late. Thankfully there was Good Friday to recuperate, and well spent: I went on a supermarket search for my Alphabet Macaroni for concert gifts, travelling from Vivo Cold Storage Natural to Vivo Giant to Bugis Junction Cold Storage, where I finally found it. Dropped by SweeLee to buy alto sax straps before heading to Kallang for Clarinet lesson with Ben. We brought Zhan along so we could ask Laoshi to help tune the three of us for Hobbits 131. Lesson started and ended late, the boys went to meet band ppl at Lido while I met the BB minus the BFF plus Zhanyi for Daiso and Spotlight shopping before Pastamania dinner. Cabbed home with Kahwei. Saturday was a long day: Exco meeting, going over to ACSI to collect a bassoon, Sectionals, McLunch, Combined in the hall, Combined Bands (KW and Daryl Lo! <3), RUNTHROUGH (ZOMG), announcements and packup. The last three drained me very much. I was pleasantly surprised that the BB plus Nicole came over to wait for me instead of going for dinner first, and we ended up Swensen’s-ing instead of the usual Brewing (stupid birthday parties). Passed yoghurt and walked Nicole to the MRT and the BFF home. Much travelling done on Sunday, first to Aljunied to fix the clarinet at Windworks (Thank you Sean!!), then to Plaza Sing to do more Daiso and Yamaha shopping. Caught Ben and Stuart at Yamaha in the act of buying concert gifts HAHA, then we went to MOS Burger for lunch before heading to Carrefour to buy more stuff, then to Spotlight and Times. Stuart left for church while Ben and I bused to Raffles where he met his mum and I did more shopping. Walked into MPH and had the sudden inspiration to look for books by local writers (particularly Catherine Lim, my favourite) and couldn’t find any interesting ones, hence decided to walk to Bugis National Library to read some books in an obscure corner. I must have been mad really, I don’t usually do much bookworming. Borrowed 2 books and bused home, then did concert gifts (got my fingers all stained red blue yellow and smeared with disgustingly hard wood glue)/wrote notes/polished instrument into the night.

MUSE 08
I wonder if it was a good thing that I decided to put off everything and just concentrate on the concert. One of the rare days you see me without my file and PENCILBOX haha. Only went for Econs lecture, then lunched and soon it was time to go. Brought the stuff on the bus, checked for missing things, etc etc, left school, reached Esplanade. The nice bus uncle helped with moving the instruments down the bus :D Entered Backstage, got into rooms, changed into no.1s, warmed up and went for Combined Bands soundcheck. Kahwei, Daryl Lo and I kept getting separated D: We had no where to sit initially, then Kahwei got into the second row while Daryl and I got into the fourth (which I was pretty happy with, to sit with the BFF and also a first time for clarinet to sit with horn), then Kahwei got pushed back into the fourth with us! Finally, we all moved back into the second row due to changes to the flutes’ seating. Yay! :D Btw, Daryl says KW and I look alike while Teow says Daryl and I look alike. So guess what, we all three look alike! :D ACJC soundcheck after that which was terrible, and I would say it was the very thing that caused us to stumble and fall. Break after that, gave out concert gifts, took photos, had dinner, warmed up, went on stage for tuning, offstage, then onstage and it was time to shine. LOTR was pretty bad, generally. Many screwed up. On the other hand, personally, Gandalf was decent, Journey was almost terrifying when the horns came in early and disrupted my counting of rests, Hobbits was… my lover and enemy. 131 will be etched deeply in my mind forever. Just those 8 bars. Months of tuning, and yesterday night, finally, you get to hear a Selmer Paris Signature clarinet and a Buffet Crampon Prestige clarinet play as one. (That’s Ben and I.) Forgive my ignorance, but it was of the perfect tone, perfect quality, perfect flow. That A, that open hole, ugly, throat note. We conquered it. YES!! :D So much tears for that note, for that phrase, for the whole hymn. Band camp, Soundcheck, Tuning, and I cried listening to it on recording. Almost giving up before the actual performance. But we did it in the end. Ben and I did it :D Blue Horizons was terrible too, on the whole. I never liked the sudden transition into the Blue Whale. I think we just didn’t exploit the techniques of this piece. As for Armenian Dances (Part I), it was pretty alright for me but the ending was horribly messy and basically screwed up as well. On the whole, I’d say everyone just kept screwing up for all our three pieces. That explains a lot about the live performance factor and our confidence that comes along with it. Although its not something I can change, I am disappointed. Perhaps it was overconfidence from just that tuning note. But whatever it is, we did terribly, and we’ll have to accept that. And improve. I am worried. Moving on, Well Done to ACSI for the great performance! Great job to Teow and Amos for the Blue Shades solos!!! (Excessive punctuation always means extra emphasis.) The two of you better come to ACJC hahaha :D The other pieces were great too, but I’d claim Blue Shades as my personal favourite :) As for Combined Bands, I felt as though the two cultural pieces justified our entire concert. Feng Yang Hua Gu felt great, Charming Asia even better. I would say I felt in touch with my cultural roots when I played it, and of course I was super happy to be able to sit with Kahwei and Daryl (after so much moving around LOL) :D I almost flew off my seat when playing Korea :P After that it was all rush! To pack things, to get out of rooms, to chase people out, to check rooms, to settle QM stuff, etc etc. Boarded the bus and couldn’t get off to meet a friend (Sorry XT!) Ryann was my saviour, I drank half of his water away when I finally got to quench my thirst on the bus back. Post-concert rush always dehydrates me :\ Unloaded the instruments when we reached school, unpacked and tidied QM stuff, changed into school uniform, talked with Zhan in the QM room until we were the only ones left. Cabbed home and slept with my hair wet despite having a bad headache. Woke up at 3PM today and edited recordings, uploaded them, received Sean’s recordings and uploaded them. Basically spent the rest of the day slacking/blogging. Some pictures for memory (: The rest’ll be in my Flickr soon.

THE Department (heh heh)

The section girls (I’m blessed with 4 female J1s!)

2AA4 Bandits: Gerd, I, Mich, Ed :D

Owner of Stonefish! Lalayuen <3 Crescent Powerrrr

Daryl Lo, my lookalike/husband! (If he become the next President – prediction by KW and myself HAHA)

THE BB! <3 Amos, Daryl, Jenn, Kahwei, Samho :D

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You know, when you receive that, part of you just dies. Instantly. I guess you don’t know. It felt like a death sentence. What with all the talk about wasting efforts? Ironically, have you ever considered, HOW HARD? Well, probably not. So hear it. Listen to it and tell me how you lost your faith. Tell me, because once you lose yours, I lose mine. We lose ours. Instantly. If you are intending to do this once more, in Switzerland, in Singapore, tell me now. I will give those 8 bars up.

I’ve never met anyone else who has this great ability to make me feel, so useless, in an instant. I don’t know if I ought to be angry or upset. Because of you, I don’t know what I want anymore. You have made me reconsider my entire life.

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Isn’t it ironic when people say yesterday feels so long ago and yet something from long ago felt like it was just yesterday? Ironic, but yes. At the Esplanade yesterday, going to school felt like weeks ago even though we departed only hours before and yet being at the backstage again felt like One ACS Christmas Concert only occurred yesterday.

Perhaps life is moving at a pace too fast for my liking.

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You are so brave. And yet I feel so sad for you. Perhaps this feeling will not go away for a long time.