MusICian

this entire week (all weekdays, day and night, except friday afternoon and night) is dedicated to band and primary school kids. teach in a primary school band and you will get a taste of how horrible it can get. for the past 2 days i’ve been stuck in FSPS the whole day doing sectionals and recruits and what-nots. for the next 2 1/2 days i’ll be stuck in RVPS doing combined, sectionals and what-nots. by friday, i should be so ‘deep fried’ that i become ‘crispy’ (chui).

and i’m all set to stay in RVPS for the next 2 nights as well.

i hope all turns out well! i hope my training plan works out; then i can have one less thing to worry about. i’ll worry about one thing at a time since i cannot multi-task as well as women

my dear leaders at NCHS, if you’re reading this, please remember to send both mr png and i a set of your proposals for our internal program by thursday night! i really need to confirm details as soon as possible and also look through what we can use and what we cannot use. so all relevant departments, send us the proposals; including those for the games. in as much detail as possible. darren and yenling, work hard on your conducting! remember that before you can show something musical, you need to have the musical thought in your mind. talk with your hands!

we might need to talk with some of you before the event. maybe through the phone or something. just to get you guys mentally prepared.

ciao everybody, i’ll be ‘missing’ for the next 2 1/2 days!

你Band了吗？:P

on wed night, just as i was about to switch off my lousy laptop and go to sleep, my brother came to me and asked if i was available for a floorball match on thursday morning. since i had planned to exercise anyway, i thought i’d give it a go. my brother needed a replacement for his team mate who couldn’t make it at the last minute; i warned him though, cos i have never played floorball in my entire life, and anything remotely close was hockey in PE class back in my JC days (7 years ago now). so ok, just go for the workout, and see how things go.

the match turned out to be a tournament which lasted from 11 till about 4 plus. i had no idea what was going to happen, just went in when needed and played my heart out. we originally had 7 people in our team; 6 players and 1 substitute, but i heard one of our star players went over to help another team who suddenly had a shortage of players. so there we were, with no subs, playing game after game. 2 games were played with only 1 game’s length to rest in between, then a very long break, then we played. we won all 3 of our league games, going on to the semi-finals. we fought to a draw in the semis and went on to penalties, which we won. then RIGHT AFTER THAT was the finals and we were all exhausted already! fought to a 2-1 loss and my team mates were really unhappy about the way the opponent played during the finals.

you can’t win all the time. but i must say, my team really has loads of fighting spirit. just look at their team sheet: with me on the list, it’s gonna be tough. haha. i played with soccer tactics and pure enthusiasm; i must be the least technically achieved but most irritating player on the court. i didn’t think of anything but to just disturb (keep trying to tackle, and not any other methods you might be thinking about :P) the opponent whenever they get possession. there was only one good goalscorer from our team and the rest also just played with their hearts. so i think that getting to the finals was really a huge huge reward for our team

and then i began to feel the effects on fatigue.

my body is now aching all over due to my crazy workout yesterday. i could hardly walk properly! i guess i must really admit, my stamina isn’t that good. and perhaps i shouldn’t have pushed myself so hard during the tournament! but i was determined not to let the team down lah. now i’m wondering if i’ll be ok later; gotta meet dear in tiong bahru. haha. my poor muscles!

when i recover i want to start training. time for IPPT again

many thanks to khaiyuen, who sacrificed his study time to upload the photos and vidoes. and of course, here’s the link to the video of Elisabeth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efw6q0MdNh4

enjoy!

yes, sunday marked a successful performing debut on the cornet. even though i didn’t think i played well, but at least now i know i can hit notes better, and that has really boosted my confidence! 1 1/2 months of practising in between events, band teaching, resting at home etc, it’s paying off. i shudder to think how i’d sound on the clarinet now; i shouldn’t be that far off lah. but anyway, i’ve got much to improve too, since my range is extremely limited (low and middle registers, occasionally an F) and my pitch is not that stable yet.

Leonard thinks i’m brave to play cornet with my students. haha. for all i know, maybe my students have already laughed at me behind my back for daring to play even though i sound so crappy. haha!

these few days have been really tiring for me. sometimes i really don’t know why. perhaps it’s because i’ve been travelling to too many places to teach and to do other things. travelling drains me out. oh well.

ok, guess that’s all the concentration i have left. more updates later. i’m beginning to love playing the cornet! but the clarinet is still my favourite lah

today marks a fulfilling end to a not so fulfilling week.

sweetie fell sick on sunday night, monday was just very tiring (and i don’t know why, post Da Capo blues?), tuesday was a bad day meeting my bro’s principal and also a bad day at work, wednesday was a bad day with a not so good interview (in which i was totally stunned and demoralised) and quite an ok time at work (though i wish i had more energy; must’ve been affected a lot), thursday was just strenuous work the whole day and then had to unwind at NUSWS playing the trumpet, yesterday was a super demoralising day; saw the disastrous state of my band.

and so i thought for a moment the heavens was giving my resilience a test.

if i gave up there and then i’d be such a useless bugger. so i decided to just complain it off to sweetie who was such a dear agreeing to meet me even though she wasn’t fully recovered. so we had dinner, had a long chat and had a long walk to city hall mrt, and then i sent her home. felt so much better after that; despite the back of my head pounding like crazy (must’ve been too tired).

today is just a very good end to a bad week!

reluctantly got out of bed at 6plus, rushed down to NCHS for their open house event. settled them in their performance area, ran through some parts of their program with them, then we played some stuff to entertain the crowd in the canteen (even though most of them were NCHS students at the other CCA booths). as expected, In The Winter of 1730 was the favourite. well, they played it best, i have to say, even though i’m not a fan of the composer. performance today was good; we decided to chuck in some faster pieces at the last minute to cater to the crowd. off went peacock dance, chrysanthemum stage and bossa nova breeze; in went old comrades and pirates. and i guess the combi worked well. at the very least the members enjoyed performing (i hope!)!

some of the alumni were back, and also some sec 4s, who graciously played with the band. thank you so much!

so the whole event went well, without major hitches, and i guess everybody’s happy with the whole thing. lunched with a few of the band ppl, then had my cornet lesson at 5 plus. learnt some good stuff, but lesson today was shorter. new things to practice! and some good new knowledge i can apply in my teaching. had dinner with my parents downstairs at the seafood place. didn’t take crab! but we ordered sheng mian and hor fun and we couldn’t really finish. too much food! haha. it’s a good feeling having a meal with my parents

so yeah, great end to a bad week. i hope my days ahead will be more fulfilling!

i’ll learn from my mistakes