Ok. Compiled everything.

There are other things I wanna blog on, like HCI concert and SNYO concert. All long overdue but one at a time. Vienna really took the hell outta me recalling and reliving and typing. Enjoy.

7th July

Went to school in the morning. Knew of people who didn't but with my parents like mine its wishful thinking not to. Haha. Just as well. I remember going to school and climbing the stairs to class when I bumped into Mr Tieu and he was like, "Oh my gosh, Tiap Yang what the hell are you doing here?"

"Err.. Uncle, I leave only at night............"

-.-"

I can't remember now what happened during school. But it being a Thursday, I guess it was just slack cos of the 2hr assembly period right in the middle of it? I just remember that after school I went to the staffroom to meet dear Mr Tieu again to collect my physics paper. Well. He hadn't marked it yet so I did so in front of me. I did quite well to my standards so it was the best farewell gift I could ever receive.

Went home.. Blank.

Ah, then went to the airport. You know I almost ALMOST forgot to bring my CAMERA!!! Like. Oh goodness. If I really didn't then I'd be so void of memoirs now.. Phew, luckily brother reminded me! Anyway arrived late by 15min or so but it didn't really matter. Was quite blur at the airport and clumsy with my suitcase, hand-carry and viola. Well. Checked-in my luggage then hung around the departure entrance, talking with people's parents, talking with friends, wishing my family goodbye.. I remember Alan dropping his phone, the tour officials especially Mr Goh hollering at people to collect their passports. Also, Andris' mom and mine were yakking away with each other and my mom considerately pointing out all my embarassing moments the irritating way parents always do. Haha! Oh and of course, ZhaoHan's mom fussing over him. Boy, that was funny! =) Left the crowd halfway with Jonathan Koh to some security counter that was empty to untune our violas.

Then we went in. I wanted to call people with the free phone service thingy so I got Ming Tse to follow me. So yeah after waiting a while I got a phone and started talking really really long for like more than an hour and everyone was asking me who I was talking to but I was talking to no one in particular! Just all those friends that mattered quite a deal to me. Lenard, ZhiXiang, Tiff.. Haha and a few others who were currently messaging me.

A group of people went to eat at Burger King, lucky them, cos I got really hungry on the plane.

Went to some waiting area and just sat around, taking a few random photos, feeling excited. Then they opened the door only to SNYO members. And it was there that I first felt the intimidations of racism. The Austrians who were waiting with us weren't exactly happy about it and they went, "What the hell is this???" Yeah. I felt quite afraid at the time, you know but happily, my fears weren't realised. =)

On the plane, met YiXin and Rachel for the first time. I mean, yeah, I've seen them around of course but I didn't even knew their names! Haha, yep. Found out that they were pretty nice, cheerful people. Sat right in between both of them cos YiXin wanted the window view, and Rachel wanted the easy access to the aisle and toilet. So I remember that the entertainment system was screwed cos it got overheated and we spent the first part of the trip sleeping? Can't remember what was for dinner exactly but I remember I chose chicken. Watched The Incredibles when the system came back on and I don't see why Lenard Cheng has such a crush on Jack-Jack. As far as I'm concerned, Jack-Jack has the least powerful abilities of the family, the best being Violet. I mean with the force-field thingy you'd be practically invulnerable wouldn't you. And if that weren't enough, you;d be invisible too. Oh and I remember the whole SNYO team cheering as the plane took off as well. Pretty funny.

8th July

Then we landed.. And I remember passing my stuff to good old Jon Lee to hold while I took a much needed leak. Never really trusted airplane toilets. Think I'm a bit claustrophobic. Haha. But anyway, Jon stuck in the middle of the queue and waited for me even after everybody had gone through the arrival check in!! Great guy. We collected our luggage, then went to meet our guides. And walked from the airport to a multi storey car park some few hundred metres away. They'd forgotten to bring a lorry that we ordered for instruments and that got Ms Cheong pretty pissed.

Then we went on a city tour. But that'll have to wait cos my hand's feeling numb from the plethora of typing.

23 miles down south on a circular highway

Ok. I vowed to myself I WILL finish Vienna blog today and move on to other things. Ok. I won't change site, I won't! I'll just stick to this webpage and type type type..

Ok, I just swtiched to microsoft word to type it out first before pasting onto blogger.. Winword’s much more reliable anyway. =)

8th July

So yes, we landed we went on the city tour. The first thing we got introduced to was an oil refinery I think. Or maybe a water refinery. Or maybe both, I can’t be sure. But all I know was that it was really really close to the airport, like just beside the highway toward the city. I remember the guide telling us that it refines the water from the alps, and dumps it into the Danube River. Sorta ironical isn’t it, supplying a river with water.. Haha.. We saw thing’s like their Ferris wheel, which is actually one of their national emblems! Sorta a weird thing for an emblem but oh well I guess they have their reasons. Passed by a few Danubes. Apparently, there’s more than one Danube. The extra ones are man made to prevent flooding and all that. Haha. Then we stopped at this building. I dunno what they call it, but apparently it was the place where they announced Austria’s freedom after quite a few years of foreign occupation, after the second world war. Remember the guide reenacting the scene, how the minister went onto the balcony and shouted, "Austria is freigh (free)!!" And how the people stood and applauded for hours. Quite a touching moment… Anyway it was raining at that time. But it didn’t dampen our spirits though. The place was beautiful lah, along with everything that was in Vienna? Everything’s just so pretty. I don’t know how to describe it its like living in some fairy tale you know?

Anyway back to the point. There was this park around the building, and there was a great pond in the middle of it and there were people jogging around in the cold rain!! Haha.

Next stop we went to this place where they sold souvenirs like the mozart chocolate (ahem) balls and other stuff. But all so very expensive.. Only thing I bought was a bratwurst. And I daresay it was really worth my money. German sausages rock!

Next we trooped off to the Schonbrunn Palace. Pity we couldn’t take photos from inside.. But it was a nice quaint place. Said to people I wouldn’t mind staying there all by myself! Haha! Oh and Ms Cheong was complaining about being an umbrella girl cos she was carrying all our wet umbrellas in a black thrash bag! Haha! Was feeling the real effects of jet lag in the palace tour. When we finally got out we had some time to tour the palace gardens. Really pretty.

Then we went to our hotel!! A nice 18th century style building. Got our keys and after lunch went to our rooms to rest a bit. Those few hours we had were pretty welcome. We really needed the rest since we’d been off the plane and about since 4am!

And about the lunch, it was disgusting. Rotten apple with bacon sandwich with rotten lettuce. A packet of juice and a packet of chocolate wafer. We had this packed lunch thingy everyday, unless otherwise stated.

My room was the only one with 4 roommates, me, Zhao Han, Jon Lee and Joshua.

Took out our instruments to retune and fiddle around. Who really cared about no practicing in the rooms anyway? ;P It was about this time that the passacaglia craze started to manifest itself. From that day onwards, everyone would start playing it every night. Hee.

And another thing about the room was that all the rooms on my wing were connected by the balcony and we’d just climb over the rails and into our rooms if we ever lost the key. Haha.

After dinner, we had a rehearsal. Every one was nodding off and we were grateful when it finally ended.
Apparently Stephanie and YiXin went missing during dinner and rehearsal. Everyone was really anxious until they walked into the basement where we were rehearsing and found out they’d been sleeping in their room. Haha! =) Went back to room and played on ZH’s Gameboy until I couldn’t take it anymore and fell asleep.

I still have his gameboy with me you know. =)

9th July

Woke up early in the morning for a rehearsal at the Austria Centre. What can I say. I never really had a good ear for accoustics but I guess it was a pretty ok place.

After lunch we watched some Israeli wind orchestra perform at the opening ceremony. I guess.. We were expecting much much more since we were at an international event. Don’t wanna sound ego, but I just wanna say the truth. Their performance gave us a ray of hope that we could actually win this competition.

Anyhow we went back to the hotel early before the ceremony ended. Put down our stuff, changed and went for dinner, and after that went to Volksgarten Discotheque. First time ever in a disco. Well.. What can I say. Noisy, smelly from cigarette smoke and just really dim lights so we can’t see around much. I guess I didn’t exactly enjoy myself the way those people who joined in the dancing did but hey, its still interesting to watch. Heh heh. =)

Hmm. But you do see things you don’t want to see in other people.

Anyway. We left at like.. 9pm? Went back to hotel.

Don’t know whether we slept or played cards!! I think we slept pretty early? Can’t be too sure.

Anyhow. Mom is seriously irritating. I’ll continue another time…

9th July

Woke early in the morning and went to Austria centre for the competition. Had a little rehearsal in some small little room where everyone had to squeeze real tightly. Remember Ms Cheong giving us all a nice touching speech as well. Can’t remember the details, but it’s the thought that really counts right? Yeap. Then maybe it was before or after, but we went through some technical stuff and a run-through of the Brahms Academic Festival Overture (I think I shall put it as blog music soon), of which I was faking half the time cos I’m absolutely hopeless at remembering scores (and I remember playing the final chord so darn fricking out of tune that Ming Tse a couple of metres away was staring at me with a distorted look on her face), in the area outside the entrance of the hall. Goodness that was probably the longest sentence I’ve ever made.So then we went in.

We were all smiles and really confident, at least on my part. I mean I guess when you reach a certain threshold of technical efficiency in music, what comes next is really subjective to an individual’s interpretation of the music? Yeah. I mean there’s only so much you can improve so that you can play all the notes right. What you have to work on next is.. I’m not sure. Stage presence? The radiance of the joy obtained through blood, sweat and tears? I have no idea really.

Well anyway.

Brahms Overture was absolutely fantastic. Everything went so so well.. I mean its things like this that really make performing so addictive.. Yeah. Everything just went right and fitted in. And I could really feel the elation from everyone. But I guess it got to our heads. Beethoven was sort of a disappointment. But we picked up. Though Metamorphosis was as always an awful piece to listen to, we all tried our best to make it sound the best it could you know? And of course Dance of The Yao. It was great lah I really can’t find the words! Yep yep. It all passed in a blur for me.. Everything just came and went. And after we got off the stage I was still in a stoning mode. Mind was just absolutely blank cos I didn’t know what to think, didn’t how well we did and I think, anxious about the decision the judges would make?

Packed our instruments. They were stored in this small little room with a narrow corridor connected also to the warm up room so it was pretty congested. Packed our stuff and watched other people in the competition. There was this American String orchestra. Played some piece by Barber? And tchaik’s string serenade finale. They took the serenade real real slowly! Haha.. But it did bring fond memories of playing that piece in the HC & RJ combined.. Haha.

Left and went back to our rooms to don the SNYO shirt again. It was disgusting, really. Cos we had to where it at the airport, and that was like already almost 24hours. Then we had to wear it again at the rehearsal, and now the Pottsching concert. Oh well.

Took a real long bus ride to the town. When we got there we were a little apprehensive. Our performance venue was some ex-cowshed with gravel for flooring. Bought some ice cream before setting up our chairs and stands and instruments. And when we did start to rehearse a bit, man. The sound was great. I mean. A cowshed?? And it produced such great sound?? It was really unbelievable. We put all our cases and stuff into some room. Haha. Apparently its someone’s house. I looked around in all the rooms and saw a computer on with google running.
Haha! So trusting, really.

Then we went for dinner and announced Ms Cheong’s birthday!! Haha.. I remember this time’s dinner! Sphagetti and some apple drink I think and there was ice cream for desert, not forgetting the salad for appetizers? Every dinner we had consisted of 3 courses, the salad, the main thing and the desert. Couldn’t take the salad cos they put the sour dressing and its really hell on you if you have an ulcer, like I did.

So then our concert started. Man. It was really really really one of the best ever concerts I’ve ever played in, if not the BEST. This time we really played the best I’ve ever heard us play before. And topped off with the really appreciative Austrians who gave us such a standing ovation I could never imagine.. I guess dreams really came true in that cowshed.

* sniffs *

Bought one last ice cream before hopping on the bus. You know the villagers actually came to the road and waved us off with their hankies and all that. It was really so sweet.. Ah ah ah.

* Sniffles *

11th July

Note: I wish I could write down EVERYTHING about Vienna. But there’s always an odd thing or two that I’ll miss out everytime. There’s only so far that your memory can reach. That’s why we always look back with such longing I guess. The experiences we relive through memories will never ever be complete. Haha. Oh well.

Anyway we went for some excursion to Vienna woods. Main thing we saw was this monastery that really looked like a mosque from the outside. But as usual, it was breathtaking. The grandeur of all those prolific buildings can never be described in words. There was that fountain where they apparently had their baths in? The chapel with the huge organ where, I think, Schubert plonked around. Then we went to some village and I bought jelly beans (!!!) and a few boxes of chocolate to bring home. Souvenir problems were solved after that. =)

Ran to some park cos I heard it was real nice and I haven’t been there yet. Rachel Shen followed even though she’d already been there but I needed company! Haha! =D It was this day that LiJia found a real worm in her sandwich. It was really a cute little thing crawling about on the floor when it dropped off. Haha! =)

Then we played in some school hall called Messern, Mehrzweckhalle. It wasn’t as memorable as the one we had in pottsching. I mean after we’d experienced there all other concerts really pale in comparison. Some guy, maybe the headmaster or something gave real long introductions in German before every piece. Called home for the first and only time. They gave us free drinks after the concert. Pretty generous huh.

Then we rushed off for dinner part one. Grabbed some bratwurst sandwich, downed the coke and left for the Musik Verein for some Mozart concert. We were still late in the end, and the ushers weren’t really happy about it cos the seats that a few of us managed to get were really good ones. Lucky me. =) They were all dressed up in the period costume and looked rather dumb, but all in good spirit I guess. It was quite an entertaining concert I guess and the solo bassoon gave me new respect for the instrument. The violists looked like they were ready to kill someone during Blue Danube and I wouldn’t blame them. Viola scores are really agonizingly boring. The percussionist was impressive! Handled everything himself with this drumset that really made him look like we was from some rock band or something. Me and Jonathan were laughing and joking about people who we spotted dozing off or mock-conducting and other crazy crazy stuff. Really really funny. =D

Then we went to eat dinner part 2 and went back to the hotel.

12th July

Note: Sigh. I keep remembering stuff. But I can’t place them at the correct times.

The major thing about this day was our first prize!! Oh man.. That was really really awesome. I was so so proud really. But it started off with us playing dance of the yao. I thought it was a darn rehearsal you know, so I didn’t put on my bow tie until suddenly Rayner was whispering at me to put it on. Haha! Oh man. Great, as usual.

Then we went to the buses cos we left our cases and stuff there. The whole cello section sat on this ledge and started busking and soon everyone was joining in, playing all the pieces.. I didn’t join in but I helped take the video with Alan’s camera. Haha! The tour guide started waltzing with some guy! Haha! That was real funny.

Went back in and caught our contenders, BeiJing Goldensails Orchestra in action. I don’t know but I for one thought their conductor resembled a mad chimp at a zoo exhibition and all I heard was sound really. There were no emotions, feelings, passion or anything. Just pure sound. Yeah.

Then came the most unnerving part, the presentation ceremony. We all cheered as dear Mr Lim went on stage. =) He made Jipson do drumrolls everytime he announced a prize, poor him huh. And when he announced first prize for symphony orchestra "The Singapore National Youth Orchestra!!!", we erupted with joy, elation, pride and every other feel good thing you can think of. Really. Oh my gosh I shouted myself hoarse and hands and arms were flying everywhere in hugs, handshakes and back-slapping. The winds on stage were in complete ecstasy too. But yeah we’d joint prize-d with those mainland chinese. They were waving their darn flags like the whole hall belonged to them which was really irritating but oh well. I guess we really pissed them off my joint-ing with them. =D Then our winds and their strings played the Brahms. Oh man what I’d have given to play along too. It was really breath-taking.

Then we took tonnes and tonnes of photos, and everyone wanted to hold onto the trophy for as long as possible. It was here that we took the group photo that the newspaper published, and also the singing of the Majulah.
Haha.

* sigh *

Then we went back to hotel. Had some free time and for me I walked around a but outside the hotel. Got bored and went back to the hotel room to passacaglia with Jun Hong, I think.

Dinner, then Volksgarten again. I’d already gotten used to the dim, noise and stink. Watched people dance for a while (pretty pro too, like YiZhe and Stephanie) then proceeded to card games again.

Soon we left and went to some film festival which was quite boring. The chairs were all wet from the rain and the films seriously consisted of explicit content. So we walked to some huge cathedral, I think, sat down at the entrance with marble flooring and started playing cards till it was time to go.

13th July

We went Salzburg! Beautiful place, with really amazing buskers. Remember real clearly this guy with a glass harmonica made of champagne glasses and water. Oh man he was just great lah, would have spent more time listening to him play but time was short.

Decided to go to the Lichstenstein castle. Man the climb up was horribly tiring. Decided to take a lift up instead and had to walk all the way down again. Haha. Mr Goh and gang decided to climb by foot so we all wished him good luck. =D Well it was worth all the effort and money. The view was really breath-taking and that’s really all I can say about it. Wow.

Sadly we didn’t manage to go to mozart’s house with treble clef flowers, not enough time.

I think its on this day that me and eileen spent 50cents each on the machine where you put in a coin and turned a knob and a rubber ball comes out. I got an orange one and gave it to Christine. Eileen got some pink one with an engraved skull and she said it sucked but I said it looked real cool so she gave it to me! Its on my study table now. =)

Went back and had dinner along the way.

14th July

The fact that we were going to leave soon really started to kick in today. It was just free time, but due to circumstances, Ms Cheong decided that we’d have to stick in a group. So yeah. Just walked along the streets looking at pretty stuff that would burn too much of a hole in my pocket, through window panes.

Went some music shop and looked at all the of pieces I knew I’d never ever be able to play. Saw other amazing buskers as well, like this trio that had their own cd. Violin, cello and oboe. I was really really impressed by the cellist, and the violinist looked like Oistrakh!!

15th July

Yeah well. Time to go. Checked out everything. Left my calculator in the safe. Yep, guys its still in Vienna maybe being used by the receptionist right now or something. Haha..

Didn’t really have time to say goodbye to all those people on the other flight.. But yeah. Tears of farewell and everything just came. It was really sad business.

Transit through malaysia was interesting. We had this lounge all to ourselves it had a buffet! Chinese food! Haha! A real treat to half-starved Singaporeans. But we only had like 45min in the lounge even though we spent a few hours at the transit. The malaysian check-in staff weren’t even present and we wasted quite a lot of time just whiling the time away with our baggage.

The moment I got on the Malaysian plane I just knocked out. I guess I was just plain tired and maybe the vomit smelling seats didn’t help much. It would have been really awful if I’d been awake, with the headache I had.

Arrived at airport, met parent and left without much being said.

Other Miscellaneous Stuff:

The pigeons there were really really fearless, quite unlike the ones here in Singapore which fly off everytime you come within a 5metre radius of it. Haha! I guess they were quite cute. Though yes I sweared at them when they woke me up in the mornings.

Breakfast at the hotel always consisted of the same buffet. But it was great lah. The scrambled eggs and bacon. And the orange juice too.

Nights were really fun. We’d play cards into wee hours of the morning. People went missing here and there but oh well it doesn’t matter.

Learnt of a few scandals, and witnessed already on-going ones.

Never touched alcohol except for the odd sip. Only drank in bulk the bitter lemons me and Joshua bought at the supermarket. I ended up coping a few of his bottles. =D

Made a lot of friends, strengthened a lot of friendships.

Thanks to:

Everyone. All SNYO members. This trip was made such a memorable experience cos of your love, passion and strength. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for everything

Of course Catherine our guide. You'll always be in our hearts.

Disclaimer:

My hand in pants episode was unintentional and I was definitely one hundred percent not drunk or feeling horny at that point in time.

And that’s it, everyone. That was Vienna.

* sniffs *