So hi guys I'm back from the unearthly trip.
Yawns, stretches, enjoying the comfort of civilization.
Ahem.
Day 1, 21st August
Reached school, waited a bit, talking rubbish as usual. Then 2 PRCs Da Chuan and another guy came late and got fined 10RM. Took a bus to Tanjong Pagar train station. Waited, took train.
Fairly straight forward.
At train station: bought ice cream.
On the train.. Played some hearts, taiti, ate marshmallows. And slept of course. Hijacked Yong Jing's seat so I could curl up in a horizontal position. The cold was really bad had to take out another shirt to prevent from freezing. Shivers.
22nd August
Reached Jerantut station. Walked over to the village hawker centre to wait for the bus. Some stall started frying some sort of char kway teow and we were all gazing longingly at the fire. It was 4am and breakfast wouldn't be until a few hours later.
In the end it was a darn van that came. 2 of em in fact. Brought us to yet another village, Kuala Tembiling. Oh. The vans couldn't store everyone in the end so about 3 people came in a few hours later, cos one van had to make a back track. But just as well cos we had to wait till daybreak for breakfast and the boat ride to Negara.
-left blogging halfway to a later date for a few days cuz I was lazy...
While waiting there was this kitten prancing around, amusing everyone by rubbing itself on our legs. Thought it was quite cute to an extent, but didn't let it rub its rabies and fleas and diseases on me. Played cards during the long wait. Then that kitten came and started scratching at my cards so I chased it away with the sole of my shoe. =D Sounds evil but I didn't hit it or anything, alright? So then we noticed the kitten going into the shop where we were going to have breakfast. Thing is we noticed it never came out again. So we deduced that it had been used as ingredients for our breakfast, which was quite delectable, consisting of fried rice, noodles, a fried egg and a cup of milo each. Ok we were just kidding about the cat, ok? Uhuh.
Then the boat ride. It was very relaxing, really. Just sitting there and watching the scenery go past and the swirling milo-water of the river. With the exeption of the splashes of water here and there it was tranquil. Ate pringles on the boat and slept. Lovely.
Sad thing that it was about the best part of the trip.
Arrived at the resort and everyone, almost, went to take a much needed leak as the ride was 3hours long. Went to our bunks. Two rooms of 8 and one with 6. Did not choose the one with 6 cos that was where the teachers were gonna be. Hmm. Roomates were as follows: Me, Kenneth, Yong Jing, Weiguang, Terence, Jun Jie, Zhen Yu and I-forgot-his-name. Yep.
Put down our stuff and proceeded with lunch then a hike. Was made in charge of the room key. Which was quite a bad choice on their part as I'm quite prone to losing stuff. But luckily I didn't lose the key so that's ok.
Trekked to this place where they had the canopy walk thingy. Some planks tied together with ropes hanging on trees. Claimed its the longest hanging bridge in the world.. But I doubt it? It seemed rather short to me. Hmm. And there wasn't much of a view.. Just trees and more trees. Saw parts of the river.. No wild-life whatsoever. I guess the best part of this was walking in rhythm coinciding with the frequency of the bridge so it'd rock really hard. Heh heh. Got stung my a bee on my fourth finger and it started swelling real big until my middle finger and half my hand was affected. But it healed in 2 days so that's that.
Continued with the trek. Met the river. The guide encouraged us to take a dip. But looking at the sewer-like milo-coloured water, I decided not to and went off back to the resort which was by this time really close. So it turned out we'd been on a circular trip. Anti-climatic.
Bathed and had dinner. Then it started raining. And we were all happy cos the night hike would be cancelled.
We were tired. Played cards and slept by 10:30pm.
23rd August
Woke to the sound of the people in the opposite room creating sounds like there was a mob going on there. Realised we had 15min to get ready. Leapt up brushed my teeth really quick but was still late in the end. 10ringgit.. Argh.
Took a bought to this place called Nusa camp? Another resort but ours looked like it was in much better condition. Went on to climb this blasted hill. It was quite hellish with slippery ground from the night before and steep terrain. Got to the top and the view was spectacular. We got to see the great blasted FOG of Taman Negara. Yep great view.
Went down the hill. Going down is always much harder than going up. Took boat back, lunch.
By this time was having goin abrasions. It was hell. Nvm.
Took another boat to another place. Climbed a bit of terrain to meet a settlement of orang asli. Pretty cute buncha people. Problem is by the time they reach adolescence they're already chain-smokers. Sad. The effects of contact with the modern world. Showed us how they made fire from rattan and wood. They'd take the rattan and, like a string, rub it against the wood until there was a little spark or something then they'd put wood shavings against the spark and voila. Fire. Then they showed us the blowpipe which was pretty cool. Let us use it too. I'm proudly one of the only few who managed to his the styrofoam target. But I guess its everyone else was too hygiene-conscious and didn't dare to put their lips on the blowpipe. Hah.
Then trekked to a cave called Gua Telinga, which means "Little Cave" or something along those lines. But in my opinion it should be called the Bat-shit Cave. Yes, it was small. And it was slippery. We had to crawl on all fours and or with our asses kissing the floors. Problem is the ground was covered in shit, literally. Shit from the hundreds of bats presiding inside the cave. Me, Yong Jing and Kenneth got lost in the cave and went in circles but finally found our way out under the directions of a tour guide from another group. Thought we came out totally dirty and stinking, I guess it was quite fun, crawling through everything and wading throught the water. Yeah.
Groin abrasion was killing me. Went back to camp. Had dinner. Then it rained and we all gave thanks to God cuz the night-hike was once again cancelled. Bathed, played cards then slept quite early again.
24th August
Woke and was late once again. But I had to be the last right?? I had to lock the room right??? Oh well. Breakfast.
Split into two groups. One would take a boat ride to some location then trek back. Another would trek to that location and take a boat ride back. Chose the latter. Which was a great choice. The former group had to wait for about 3 hours for us. So anyway the starting of the hike was quite screwed. Barely gone a good hundred metres into the forest when a swarm of bees attacked us. I was wearing shorts but didn't get stung a single time. Really really really lucky. Then there was another swarm of ants. And another one after that. And the leeches. Slippery, muddy, filthy ground. But we pulled through. Came to a point where I couldn't even be bothered to pluck the leeches off myself. They'd always somehow find their way back again.
Finally got to the river bank and boat took us across to that location where the other group had been waiting, doing nothing all the while. Had packed lunch, and watched the other group disappear into the jungle. Skipped a couple of stones, caught a couple of butterflies. Then left for the resort.
Got there bathed. Then slacked. And slacked. For the rest of the day. Fun. Played cards. Then dinner. Guide didn't show up so once again no night-hike! Woots! Watched some video on Taman Negara. Or rather, slept through. Bought lotsa snacks at the mini-mart after, and then it was party time for the last night.
Woke in the morning, had breakfast then took a boat to some deserted resorted. It was totally run-down. But it was pretty cool. Saw the biggest ants I've ever seen in my life.
Went back to the resort and checked out. Forgot to return the key to the management. But apparently so did Jezreel so passed him the key to return for me. =)
Took a boat across the river to some village. Had lunch there then slacked around for hours. Went souvenir shopping too. But I didn't waste any money. Finally the bus came. Apparently it'd broken down halfway.
Arrived back at Jerantut. Had dinner. Haha. Nasi Briyani. And lots and lots of satay which was really cheap, 30sen. Whee.
Played cards and chess for hours at the station until the train came at 2am.
Really funny thing that happened on the train is that we met up with the people who went Gunung Tahan! Haha. Saw Teck Huat and all other classmates who went. Apparently their trip was fraught with dangers and life-threatening situations, no kidding, but that's their story to tell. =)
Departed from woodlands checkpoint. Poor Yong Jing had to go all the way back to Tanjong Pagar Station, THEN find his way back home, which was in WOODLANDS cuz he couldn't contact his parents to vouch for him.
Walked around and asked directions from a security guard and found the bus stop with 170. Homeward Bound.
=)
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Hello. I'm leaving for Malaysia later. I hope it'll be fun. But I guess the fun will be as much as I make it out to be that way right.
Anyway.
About SNYO concert.. It was 5th July. What can I say. Well I guess it was more or less a forgettable event. I mean. We didn't play as well as we wanted to, and it was quite worrying because we would bring that standard to Vienna. But thank god vienna was a completely different story. So the concert was just done, not many memories, plainly forgettable, yeah.
Then next the performance at Shangri La. It was pretty fun lah. I mean meeting everyone after the Vienna trip.. Played blue danube, dance of yao and radetsky if I don't recall wrong. Well. Good old Zhaohan forgot to bring Radetsky scores so me and Wenyi sacifriced ours for him and YiZhe and half faked through the piece. Dinner was frugal. Just some rice. The bean sprouts looked rotten, but all the same we gobled down the food. Then hanged around a bit talking, drinking orange crush I got from the reception area. Oh yes, and me YiZhe and WenYi and Ms Cheong got lost in a maze when we wanted to go from the ballroom where the performance would be to our waiting room! Were all joking Ms Cheong was a violist too. Well. About the performance it was nothing special. Everyone was busy eating and talking anyway. Not really listening, just like any normal dinner gig lah, nothing more to be expected. Remember the National JC choir singing too. Thought they were quite good, except the male soloist was a bit off, but he had great tone, seriously great.
And that's that.
Now. On to HCI Strings Concert. Oh man. It was great lah, another one of the best.
Well. It was on 8th August. So we arranged and managed to skip the lame N-day celebrations. Which was a huge blessing in disguise cos apparently my class screwed up its performance really badly I shall not include details as they are rather.. Embarrassing.
So yes woke up in the morning and started practicing my quartet scores. Was feeling a bit nervous then. So failed to coach juniors then who wanted to meet up with me in the morning for extra tuition. Then went to school at 11:30 for a bit of quartet rehearsal. Then it was time to leave. Everything was in a mess but in the end everyone got on the buses and left. Wai Peng (the birthday boy!! yes it was his b'day.) and some other people went to buy viola strings first before going.
Then we got Esplanade Rec Studio. There was a mix-up of drop-off points so walked over to the box-office to collect the other people who came later in the other bus. The bus I was on went into the cargo area and everyone could take the lift to Rec Stud easily. The others had to walk in through stage door through a long winding way through Esp backstage.
Oh I had lunch on the bus. Shared 2 macs EVMs with the quartet cos Calvin Wong was supposed to buy but apparently he didn't >=(
After managing to fit people into the rooms, Mr Chan came and we went for a rehearsal. It was then the quartet realised we hadn't practiced our mendelssohn quartet parts but oh well.
Ok. Then after that dinner.. Used the comps in the Green Room a bit. Then changed, rushed to Rec Stud entrance to pass tickets, then rushed back, just in time. Everyone was out already. So me and Lenard sort of made a grand entrance of our own. Haha.
Then realised I hadn't written bowings on the score for poor YiHan. So just rushed out a bit for the Mendelssohn 3rd movement.
The concert: Well. Let's just say everything went great, with the odd mistake of the violas here and there (esp. in Shosty 1st movement.). Yes. Mendelssohn was great, the quartet part went well even though we didn't practice it in the end. For the violin concerto we didn't really follow the conductor much, but I guess Alan covered all our asses with superb playing.
Intermission
We just started and ended the quartet movements, with Mr Chan looking on. Yeah. Then it was show time.
Dvorak:
Well. I'm really happy with our performance. And that's it really. I feel the 4 of us did everything we could to play this piece well and we pulled it off. With a few embarassing moments on my part, esp. the 1st movement where I got completely lost for 4bars. But that's about it. Really happy about it.
Then Bach. Well. It was ok. Shostakovich. It rocked. Seriously. Except the viola solo in the 1st movement which we screwed up pretty badly, but the 2nd movement covered up everything really. This is what we would have done at SYF.
Of course, Gustav's St Paul's Suite for an encore. Haha. Only 3 rehearsals, and we pulled it off. Really happy, really.
Yes. So that was it. I mean, I'm rushing like crazy. But what I really wanna say is I'm really proud about what we've done and it totally makes up for our loss at SYF. All the shame is gone now, we've shown what we're really worth.
Bye then. Hope I don't get screwed by some wild boar in Negara.
Anyway.
About SNYO concert.. It was 5th July. What can I say. Well I guess it was more or less a forgettable event. I mean. We didn't play as well as we wanted to, and it was quite worrying because we would bring that standard to Vienna. But thank god vienna was a completely different story. So the concert was just done, not many memories, plainly forgettable, yeah.
Then next the performance at Shangri La. It was pretty fun lah. I mean meeting everyone after the Vienna trip.. Played blue danube, dance of yao and radetsky if I don't recall wrong. Well. Good old Zhaohan forgot to bring Radetsky scores so me and Wenyi sacifriced ours for him and YiZhe and half faked through the piece. Dinner was frugal. Just some rice. The bean sprouts looked rotten, but all the same we gobled down the food. Then hanged around a bit talking, drinking orange crush I got from the reception area. Oh yes, and me YiZhe and WenYi and Ms Cheong got lost in a maze when we wanted to go from the ballroom where the performance would be to our waiting room! Were all joking Ms Cheong was a violist too. Well. About the performance it was nothing special. Everyone was busy eating and talking anyway. Not really listening, just like any normal dinner gig lah, nothing more to be expected. Remember the National JC choir singing too. Thought they were quite good, except the male soloist was a bit off, but he had great tone, seriously great.
And that's that.
Now. On to HCI Strings Concert. Oh man. It was great lah, another one of the best.
Well. It was on 8th August. So we arranged and managed to skip the lame N-day celebrations. Which was a huge blessing in disguise cos apparently my class screwed up its performance really badly I shall not include details as they are rather.. Embarrassing.
So yes woke up in the morning and started practicing my quartet scores. Was feeling a bit nervous then. So failed to coach juniors then who wanted to meet up with me in the morning for extra tuition. Then went to school at 11:30 for a bit of quartet rehearsal. Then it was time to leave. Everything was in a mess but in the end everyone got on the buses and left. Wai Peng (the birthday boy!! yes it was his b'day.) and some other people went to buy viola strings first before going.
Then we got Esplanade Rec Studio. There was a mix-up of drop-off points so walked over to the box-office to collect the other people who came later in the other bus. The bus I was on went into the cargo area and everyone could take the lift to Rec Stud easily. The others had to walk in through stage door through a long winding way through Esp backstage.
Oh I had lunch on the bus. Shared 2 macs EVMs with the quartet cos Calvin Wong was supposed to buy but apparently he didn't >=(
After managing to fit people into the rooms, Mr Chan came and we went for a rehearsal. It was then the quartet realised we hadn't practiced our mendelssohn quartet parts but oh well.
Ok. Then after that dinner.. Used the comps in the Green Room a bit. Then changed, rushed to Rec Stud entrance to pass tickets, then rushed back, just in time. Everyone was out already. So me and Lenard sort of made a grand entrance of our own. Haha.
Then realised I hadn't written bowings on the score for poor YiHan. So just rushed out a bit for the Mendelssohn 3rd movement.
The concert: Well. Let's just say everything went great, with the odd mistake of the violas here and there (esp. in Shosty 1st movement.). Yes. Mendelssohn was great, the quartet part went well even though we didn't practice it in the end. For the violin concerto we didn't really follow the conductor much, but I guess Alan covered all our asses with superb playing.
Intermission
We just started and ended the quartet movements, with Mr Chan looking on. Yeah. Then it was show time.
Dvorak:
Well. I'm really happy with our performance. And that's it really. I feel the 4 of us did everything we could to play this piece well and we pulled it off. With a few embarassing moments on my part, esp. the 1st movement where I got completely lost for 4bars. But that's about it. Really happy about it.
Then Bach. Well. It was ok. Shostakovich. It rocked. Seriously. Except the viola solo in the 1st movement which we screwed up pretty badly, but the 2nd movement covered up everything really. This is what we would have done at SYF.
Of course, Gustav's St Paul's Suite for an encore. Haha. Only 3 rehearsals, and we pulled it off. Really happy, really.
Yes. So that was it. I mean, I'm rushing like crazy. But what I really wanna say is I'm really proud about what we've done and it totally makes up for our loss at SYF. All the shame is gone now, we've shown what we're really worth.
Bye then. Hope I don't get screwed by some wild boar in Negara.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
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 *
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 *
Today's strings rehearsal.. How do I describe it. I guess I never really said anything to the orchestra in such detail and with such emotions and feelings before. Most of the time its just cracking an odd joke or two. But yeah. I've been with them 3 years. Its a lot of time. And its a lot of effort too. I don't know. I wish I could say I did the best I could to push us all to higher standards, not only in performing, but in character and relationship building as well. I guess if I look back all I can say is that I've been pretty much a forgettable section leader. Just one who came to orchestra, played his viola and didn't really give much of a damn about anything else, like conducting sectionals properly for instance. Did I help out with committee planning? Training juniors? I guess all I knew was to saw away at my strings. And that's about it. I wish I could go, feeling good about the things I've done, but I guess not. Its just things like this that remind us how much life is worth and how much we all take things for granted until the final moment when we see everything just evaporate away from us, gone forever.
And I guess I'm a hypocrite as well, telling others to cherish their time and to give their all, when I'm hardly doing so myself. Hmm.
And if you guys ever read this, take me for as example yeah? And don't ever end up like me now. Really, cherish it and hold on. You never miss the water till its gone you know.
Sigh.
Sorry.
And I guess I'm a hypocrite as well, telling others to cherish their time and to give their all, when I'm hardly doing so myself. Hmm.
And if you guys ever read this, take me for as example yeah? And don't ever end up like me now. Really, cherish it and hold on. You never miss the water till its gone you know.
Sigh.
Sorry.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Hell yes! All tests this term are over. I'm finally like. Free man!! Hahaha! ;) Annual camp to Taman Negara next week. Not my idea of an ideal camp but hey it'll suffice. Just pray hard I won't like slip and fall and twist my ankle all over again maybe this time in the clockwise direction. Heh heh.
I know its LATE, but I just wanna say this. Vienna rocked! I'm so in love with the city now.. Seriously. Looking upon it like some crush now.. Just wanna go back and live with/in her but urgh!! Oh well. At least I have memories. And photos too. I have time now, so I'll do what I promised to do.
I know its LATE, but I just wanna say this. Vienna rocked! I'm so in love with the city now.. Seriously. Looking upon it like some crush now.. Just wanna go back and live with/in her but urgh!! Oh well. At least I have memories. And photos too. I have time now, so I'll do what I promised to do.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Another flower has wilted, a life come and gone. So many beautiful ones have passed me this year, each being smothered by the applause before I could appreciate it enough.
Some feel the applause is the best part of every performance.
I think not.
Applause signifies the end. Then its over.
Just like that.
Heh.
Oh wells. Thanks everyone.
Some feel the applause is the best part of every performance.
I think not.
Applause signifies the end. Then its over.
Just like that.
Heh.
Oh wells. Thanks everyone.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Hello everyone. I'm just back from SNYO rehearsal. Just slacking around. The past week has been hell on earth for me, with so much studying and working. Now I just wanna let go and slack and play my music till my heart's content. And of course, sleep. Yeah that's important too! Hee.
Playing hearts on yahoo now.. Seem to be addicted to this game.. Haha. Good ol' Vienna days I've yet to update about them but I guess I just don't have the time and will do so some time later.. Ha. Well all I can say now is that it was fairy-tale like. It was just like a dream you know? Except a dream that you really lived. And darn it I've fallen in love with Her you know? I just wanna go back again to that time and live those moments till life fails my body. Yeah. Wow. That's the whole thing summed up in one word: wow.
Anyway. I gotta go. Parents want me to sleep but that's as well cuz I've been sleeping at absolutely crazy times these few days and I gotta take care of myself. Sigh.
Mind games, control.
Covering weaknesses, hiding flaws.
Hinting yet denying, caring yet ignoring.
Convincing myself that I am my owner.
Keeping within
The beast of my heart.
Telling the world
The joy of this art.
But when it all comes
To me face to face
I am but nothing.
A disgrace.
Playing hearts on yahoo now.. Seem to be addicted to this game.. Haha. Good ol' Vienna days I've yet to update about them but I guess I just don't have the time and will do so some time later.. Ha. Well all I can say now is that it was fairy-tale like. It was just like a dream you know? Except a dream that you really lived. And darn it I've fallen in love with Her you know? I just wanna go back again to that time and live those moments till life fails my body. Yeah. Wow. That's the whole thing summed up in one word: wow.
Anyway. I gotta go. Parents want me to sleep but that's as well cuz I've been sleeping at absolutely crazy times these few days and I gotta take care of myself. Sigh.
Mind games, control.
Covering weaknesses, hiding flaws.
Hinting yet denying, caring yet ignoring.
Convincing myself that I am my owner.
Keeping within
The beast of my heart.
Telling the world
The joy of this art.
But when it all comes
To me face to face
I am but nothing.
A disgrace.
Monday, August 01, 2005
Friday, July 29, 2005
Gays: Born or bred?
It is in my belief that the issue of homosexuality is not a biological issue, but a mental one. Imagine this: A man has been living in confinement his whole life, and the only company he has ever had is that of the male gender. He has never seen or heard or come to the knowledge of the existence of any other gender. Who would cater to his biological and emotional needs? Needless to say, since no other option existed to him, he would naturally emerge
as a homosexual.
Perhaps this man did finally come to the knowledge one day that there miraculously existed not only one gender, male, but another most intriguing one called "female". Would he then concede to the laws of nature and partner a female? He could CHOOSE to, or not to. However to choose TO would be a difficult feat of will power, as he would then have to abolish every notion of sexual orientation that he once had. You have to recall that he has been living in the companionship of only males. Hence, as male was the only choice of partnership to him, for all that time, it would be instilled firmly within him that homosexuality was how things worked. But bear in mind that the privilege of choice was made accessible to him
Let us apply the above analogy in the context of the present day. I assume that there exists no single individual who is unfortunate to live in an environment where only other individuals of his or her gender existed. Hence, as they by default had the privilege of choosing the gender of their partners, it can be thus concluded that homosexuality is bred, and not born
Sng Tiap Yang(19) 4K
It is in my belief that the issue of homosexuality is not a biological issue, but a mental one. Imagine this: A man has been living in confinement his whole life, and the only company he has ever had is that of the male gender. He has never seen or heard or come to the knowledge of the existence of any other gender. Who would cater to his biological and emotional needs? Needless to say, since no other option existed to him, he would naturally emerge
as a homosexual.
Perhaps this man did finally come to the knowledge one day that there miraculously existed not only one gender, male, but another most intriguing one called "female". Would he then concede to the laws of nature and partner a female? He could CHOOSE to, or not to. However to choose TO would be a difficult feat of will power, as he would then have to abolish every notion of sexual orientation that he once had. You have to recall that he has been living in the companionship of only males. Hence, as male was the only choice of partnership to him, for all that time, it would be instilled firmly within him that homosexuality was how things worked. But bear in mind that the privilege of choice was made accessible to him
Let us apply the above analogy in the context of the present day. I assume that there exists no single individual who is unfortunate to live in an environment where only other individuals of his or her gender existed. Hence, as they by default had the privilege of choosing the gender of their partners, it can be thus concluded that homosexuality is bred, and not born
Sng Tiap Yang(19) 4K
Monday, July 25, 2005
Hey on to continue the previous post. Heh. So anyway I conked out and missed breakfast. After breaking camp we went for another lanning session and then it was off to SNYO rehearsal for me. Whee. Missed the RJC Alumni concert that day cuz I was just too tired.
Hmm.
Oh camp was frm 16th-18th June btw. AGES ago huh.
Next was some audition with the octet again. For another performance that we'd regret. But I'll touch on that a real long time later. We screwed up a bit of the 3rd movement up so there was this period of silence. General Pause huh. Haha. But I think we did really well. That was 26th June.
Haha. I'm remembering all the dates and stuff that happened cuz I've stored everythin in my phone. Rocks huh. Yeah man.
Then school reopened. It was really hectic. Cuz we had so many gigs and stuff. There was this School Zone thing which our strings had to play for. And it was at NYGH Auditorium. Haha. Lousy place for a performance but it does bring back memories of last SYF. But I'll come back for more later.
MRP. That's why I'm on a blogging spree. Haha. Kk. Now I really gotta settle myself down and work. Been slacking around for 2 hours already. Haha.
Actually. I realise the reason I put down all the details are for myself. So that I can look back and remember.. My past, my history, my life. Yeah. Cya.
Hmm.
Oh camp was frm 16th-18th June btw. AGES ago huh.
Next was some audition with the octet again. For another performance that we'd regret. But I'll touch on that a real long time later. We screwed up a bit of the 3rd movement up so there was this period of silence. General Pause huh. Haha. But I think we did really well. That was 26th June.
Haha. I'm remembering all the dates and stuff that happened cuz I've stored everythin in my phone. Rocks huh. Yeah man.
Then school reopened. It was really hectic. Cuz we had so many gigs and stuff. There was this School Zone thing which our strings had to play for. And it was at NYGH Auditorium. Haha. Lousy place for a performance but it does bring back memories of last SYF. But I'll come back for more later.
MRP. That's why I'm on a blogging spree. Haha. Kk. Now I really gotta settle myself down and work. Been slacking around for 2 hours already. Haha.
Actually. I realise the reason I put down all the details are for myself. So that I can look back and remember.. My past, my history, my life. Yeah. Cya.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
This blog's almost dead huh. I just don't have the time..
I'm listening to Beethoven 8th symphony again. Oh man the memories. Argh. Okay it just ended I'm switching to Brahms. Academic Festival Overture.
Anyway. A plethora of stuff has been happening since 14th June. Yeah? Haha!
I guess I won't go into detail. I can't. I just can't remember. Just All those thoughts and memories swimming around in my head. I dunno..
Strings camp. Fun. So much lanning involved. Whenever we had time we went over to coronation to lan. Haha. The first day we had banner painting and then a mini-water bomb fight. Some idiotic Sec1 put soap into the bombs. No brainer. Haha. Anyway. People who defied the rules of the game got pelted by everyone. Hmm. Seniors didn't really participate. After all we didn't want to get wet. After everything Dun Jie got all of them to stand in a line with their backs to him, and he just flung a bucketful of water at them. They chased he ran. God knows what happened to him. Hahaha! Then we gave them some impromptu performance thing. They had a 5hour interval to prepare for a performance at the drama center that night. Evil on my part. But its to train the new committee. Yeah. Anyhow, sec4s went lanning and left them to thei own accord. =D I went a bit then went for SNYO rehearsal. Tried to collect a few seniors to go back with me after but failed. Got back just in time for their performance. Goodness. Haha. I'd say it went ok lah. I mean how much would you expect anyway. Their recording sounded much better on Bao He's Zen Touch. Hmm. Then movie screening at LT 2 Spongebob Movie!! Hahaha it was hilariously mindless! Haha! After we walked over to the 7-11 beside HCJC and ate cup noodles. Bought super big gulp which would last me till the next day. Slept at probably 3plus or so. Heh.
Goodness that's only ONE DAY!! Talk about not going into DETAIL.
Second day.. Woke up and immediately had the Amazing Race. Or rather Search for The One Ring, you know, LOTR? Haha! Corny idea by yours truly again. Anyway participants had to chase after Fellowship and Nazgul. Everytime they caught either, participants do a forfeit. Then the caught one would reveal himself as FS or NG. FS would give them a clue, NG would give them nothing. Yep so they were to collect clues until they had a map to an unknown location to find the Ring Bearer. Ring bearer would be accompanied by another NG. FS and NG were at East Coast. Miles away huh. And secret location was a few hundred metres form Lenard's house. Naturally I was the RB, and he was the remaining NG. Cool. Cuz I got to stay at his house while waiting and play DOTA. =D Man the forfeits were hilarious. Asking strangers for phone numbers and everything. Quite surprised we didn't get arrested for rioting. Haha!! I personally wanted : "make an old man swear at you with hokien vulgarities" Ha! Too bad it was disallowed ;) anyhow mine in the end was to play a chess game with me and would gain or lose points according to how well you played so that you could redeem yourself even if you didn't find me first. Game was had a points system see. So yeah. After that thing was dinner. And lanning again.
Oh then water bombs. Shaun and Jon Ong came over to play. Yep it was fun. Seniors completely gobbled everyone else. I had so many frags!! Yay! By backstabbing. =D Shaun and Jon went back after that. Oh Shaun fell and cut himself quite badly. Sigh.Then played card games like IDIOT and that kinda thing till really late. Haha. I was the idiot. And forfeit was.. I crept into the orch room where everyone was sleeping and shouted "I'm the idiot lah" followed by a very severe expletive. Heh. Fell asleep while people were still cracking jokes and stuff like that.
Next day, broke camp after breakfast at KAP. Skipped breakfast cuz I was too tired.
I'm listening to Beethoven 8th symphony again. Oh man the memories. Argh. Okay it just ended I'm switching to Brahms. Academic Festival Overture.
Anyway. A plethora of stuff has been happening since 14th June. Yeah? Haha!
I guess I won't go into detail. I can't. I just can't remember. Just All those thoughts and memories swimming around in my head. I dunno..
Strings camp. Fun. So much lanning involved. Whenever we had time we went over to coronation to lan. Haha. The first day we had banner painting and then a mini-water bomb fight. Some idiotic Sec1 put soap into the bombs. No brainer. Haha. Anyway. People who defied the rules of the game got pelted by everyone. Hmm. Seniors didn't really participate. After all we didn't want to get wet. After everything Dun Jie got all of them to stand in a line with their backs to him, and he just flung a bucketful of water at them. They chased he ran. God knows what happened to him. Hahaha! Then we gave them some impromptu performance thing. They had a 5hour interval to prepare for a performance at the drama center that night. Evil on my part. But its to train the new committee. Yeah. Anyhow, sec4s went lanning and left them to thei own accord. =D I went a bit then went for SNYO rehearsal. Tried to collect a few seniors to go back with me after but failed. Got back just in time for their performance. Goodness. Haha. I'd say it went ok lah. I mean how much would you expect anyway. Their recording sounded much better on Bao He's Zen Touch. Hmm. Then movie screening at LT 2 Spongebob Movie!! Hahaha it was hilariously mindless! Haha! After we walked over to the 7-11 beside HCJC and ate cup noodles. Bought super big gulp which would last me till the next day. Slept at probably 3plus or so. Heh.
Goodness that's only ONE DAY!! Talk about not going into DETAIL.
Second day.. Woke up and immediately had the Amazing Race. Or rather Search for The One Ring, you know, LOTR? Haha! Corny idea by yours truly again. Anyway participants had to chase after Fellowship and Nazgul. Everytime they caught either, participants do a forfeit. Then the caught one would reveal himself as FS or NG. FS would give them a clue, NG would give them nothing. Yep so they were to collect clues until they had a map to an unknown location to find the Ring Bearer. Ring bearer would be accompanied by another NG. FS and NG were at East Coast. Miles away huh. And secret location was a few hundred metres form Lenard's house. Naturally I was the RB, and he was the remaining NG. Cool. Cuz I got to stay at his house while waiting and play DOTA. =D Man the forfeits were hilarious. Asking strangers for phone numbers and everything. Quite surprised we didn't get arrested for rioting. Haha!! I personally wanted : "make an old man swear at you with hokien vulgarities" Ha! Too bad it was disallowed ;) anyhow mine in the end was to play a chess game with me and would gain or lose points according to how well you played so that you could redeem yourself even if you didn't find me first. Game was had a points system see. So yeah. After that thing was dinner. And lanning again.
Oh then water bombs. Shaun and Jon Ong came over to play. Yep it was fun. Seniors completely gobbled everyone else. I had so many frags!! Yay! By backstabbing. =D Shaun and Jon went back after that. Oh Shaun fell and cut himself quite badly. Sigh.Then played card games like IDIOT and that kinda thing till really late. Haha. I was the idiot. And forfeit was.. I crept into the orch room where everyone was sleeping and shouted "I'm the idiot lah" followed by a very severe expletive. Heh. Fell asleep while people were still cracking jokes and stuff like that.
Next day, broke camp after breakfast at KAP. Skipped breakfast cuz I was too tired.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The thing I'm most wary about is this:
No one's there for you.
Absolutely.
No one.
That's what hurts I guess. Knowing that in the process of giving so much of yourself to someone, you know you're never going to receive as such that you've bestowed. And you see the people closest to you flying away to their goals, aspirations.
Their freedom.
While you're stuck. Tied down by the chains that you entangled yourself in in the process of giving, caring and loving.
That's what's scary.
That's why I'm wary.
Amen.
No one's there for you.
Absolutely.
No one.
That's what hurts I guess. Knowing that in the process of giving so much of yourself to someone, you know you're never going to receive as such that you've bestowed. And you see the people closest to you flying away to their goals, aspirations.
Their freedom.
While you're stuck. Tied down by the chains that you entangled yourself in in the process of giving, caring and loving.
That's what's scary.
That's why I'm wary.
Amen.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Been a long long time.. Been watching time slip through my fingers.. Its never coming back that's what hurts. But I just want time to indulge, to enjoy the freedom of nothingness.. Life seems to be accelerating exponentially, never letting you stop to enjoy the simple things offered to you, to smell the flowers, feel the wind, hear the birdsong.
Sigh.
Endless mires of trouble keep seeming to end up at my feet pestering me for attention. I wonder when it will ever be my turn to hurl them around. Not that I'll ever need the chance but. I do wonder who would stop for me, who would stay if I needed it?
No one did.
Not that it mattered but its nice to wonder.
Many nice things have been happening.. Things that I want to remember.
The HC concert. I had lots of fun. Octet and everything.. Its set a new benchmark for entertainment during chamber practices and things just never seem to be the same after that. American seems boring all of a sudden. The post-concert party was a flop though. I don't feel like blaming people. I just want to forget all about it.
Hilary Hahn concert. She was fantastic, jawdropping. What I'd give to play just half as well as her. Ah the evergreen dreams of musicians, always fantasizing for perfection. But anyway I loved Rachmaninov's symphony as well SSO played its best I've ever seen. Maybe its because I never go for theur concerts on a regular basis? Hmm. Oh and Hahn played in 2nd violins for the symphony. Only noticed at the end of everything.. Was really funny arguing with alan about it. Also. Had ticket trouble before the concert and missed the first piece. But most importantly caught Hahn in all her glory. Shared jelly beans during the intermission. Helped people take pictures after the thing tried to buy a CD and an autograph but they ran out of stock.
There was the Chinese drama play? It was really amusing really funny. The dance choreographer did a crap job but it was really fun cracking jokes at the back and everything screaming "Dong Dong" after the show. It was fun come to think of despite all previous forebodings. Also had the end-of-term activity that day.. Chose Hip-hop dancing out of everything. It was the cheapest and half the class chose it so went for it. The instructor was a faggot. Really couldn’t stand him. He’s a beng, so I guess that explains it. But I guess it was still fun anyway after everything.. Hmm. Wonder if I still remember my dance moves.. Doubt it. Took away ban mian for lunch.
Yesterday.. Went to sentosa with the strings for the balloon hats festival CIP rendezvous. It was a total flop. We sold about one balloon. But you couldn’t blame us it was FIVE dollars. Walked around for one hour trying to sell. Hopped on a moving tram and got scolded by the driver. Nice stunt though. Mmh. Attracted lots of staring. Heh. So after that hour we had free and easy for the rest of the time but we’re still going to count as 6hours plus. Haha. Played cards, threw some ball, walked around siloso beach, bought food at seven-11. Just lazed around. I think it was fun. I like lazing around anyway. Went to uncles house after that for a bbq. Was too full to eat much. Got bored and fell asleep on the sofa.
I wish I could help. I wish I wasn’t such a weakling.
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