A day before D-Day

Yesterday 26/2/2005

It was NY band practice as usual. Only difference was that Mr Chiang was not here because he has to go on tour with SSO. So Mr David Wong, from the SAF central band, took over. We played Hot Latin and S'pore Rhapsody. Both were rather simple songs. Ended at about 12pm but we were not allowed to leave until we finished the MST, which I must say, was not very necessary.

Went to HS straight after and noticed that the band was not dismissed yet. Quite unusual because they usually end at 12pm and the fact that I arrived there at 1:30pm. Anyway, the band EXCO, which includes the alumni members, the NCOs and the Band Majors, all had a meeting straight after in Long John Silver at Hougang Green. However, after about an hour or so, we found that the place was too noisy so we decided to find a quieter place. There was no place we could find, so willingly, I suggested my place and they all immediately agreed. Haha, that was very spontaneous!

The group of 10 included: Mr Lee, Miss Chang (both teachers)
Joel, Hasniza, Shamin, Perseus (Band and Drum majors)
Benjamin, Pei Jun, An Chun (NCOs)
Fong Yee, Eve and myself (Alumni)

Hence, we all boarded 156 at the nearest bus-stop. Upon arrival at my house, most of them were rather surprised at the size of my house. Yes it sure was big! Haha.... I even showed them Mr Borkari's house and they felt it was quite nice too. So I led them to the dining area and brought them some extra chairs while they were served some drinks. We discussed a whole range of issues from band related ones to gossips. At about 6pm, they all left. What a fun filled time it has been! For me, it felt really good as it was the first time anyone of them had visited my house!

Highlights from the meeting:

1: Instill a positive attitude in the band
2: Redoing the cheers as it is being seen as a chore rather than for motivation
3: Problem people
4: Band Camp (possibly on the first week of June, Thur, Fri and Sat)
5: Band Camp related activites and rough outline (e.g amazing race)
6: How to improve on sectional practices (help from Alumni, section leaders to take responsibility etc.)

Today

Tomorrow is D-day. Don't know what to say here. Just hoping for the best for myself and the school. At 2pm tomorrow, my fate will be decided. At 2pm tomorrow, HS's reputation will be known. But right now, HS's reputation hangs in the balance. It all depends on us now. Will Mr Chia be happy? Will he be smiling? Will his hands be trembling when he collects the results from MOE at 9am tomorrow? More importantly, will I do well?

I hope those out there especially my Christian friends and the Lifegroup, will be praying for me.

CNY, what a week!

CNY is here once again! Had a marvellous celebration at NY JC last Tuesday morning although I felt that the concert was way too long, lasting almost 2 hours! Anyway, good performance by the 4 different factions.

Went back to HS straight after the celebrations. Saw quite a lot of HS alumni members, most of which were from 4E1. After chatting for sometime in school, Aloysius, Huan Yu, Derrick, Kelvin and I went to Mac Donalds to have our lunch. Had my family reunion dinner at about 8 that day. Auntie Linda, Uncle Simon, Darren, Denise, Auntie Julie, Uncle How Choon, Soon Chuan, Wan Yan and my family were present at this festive ocassion.

Visited the cousins and aunties on my mother's side the next day and the following day, it was my father's side. Collected quite a lot of red packets within these two days, almost 300 dollars if I'm not wrong.

Friday was like two days cramped into one day because I had to go to school that morning and after school, it was back to the chinese new year mood again. At least 4 people in my CT did not turn up for lessons that morning. Anyway, went to Auntie Siew Noi's house that evening for dinner. Dinner was good, bascially it was mee siam and some other delicious food. Played Boogle with the LG people and even gambled. Haha, not real gambling as in using real money, but we used fake money instead. Money from the game Monopoly. Must say their house is really really big! Three cars could easily fit into the front patio, one behind the other. The interior was quite large as well, especially the second floor.

Will mention more about the weekend visits in the next entry.

NY JC band concert

Saturday 5/2/2005

Yes, that's right, today is a big day for the NY JC band members in particular. I wasn't feeling pre-concert jitters though, it was just like any other ordinary day for me except that I was going to perform later that day.

Went to HS in the morning first to pass two tickets to Eve and to observe their band practice. They happened to have already bought their tuners, each member having one each. Good that Miss Wong encouraged each of them to buy a tuner as it would help in improving their sound. The HS band played Fate of the Gods for almost the entire band prac, during which, the band conductor stopped them on numerous ocassions to correct their errors. At about 11am after having 'breakfast' with my Juniors, I was given a 'farewell ceremony' by Ridzwan, Ben, Shamin, Perseus and Jonathan.

Arrived in NY JC slightly after 11:45am, I was slightly late! They were already loading their instruments so I immediately put down my bag and helped load the last Tuba. The bus arrived soon after and we were on our way to SCH. We reached SCH at about 2pm and we all assisted in moving the instruments up to backstage. Mr Chiang arrived shortly and for the next 3 hours, we rehersed all the songs, only certain parts of every song though.

At about 6pm, we were given a 1 hour break. So much better as compared to the HS combined concert last year where we were only given 15 mins to eat and another 15 mins to wash up. During this hour break, I happened to meet up with An Chun, Jonathan and Daniel who were already waiting outside. So I chatted with them while having my dinner. After which, I changed into the all black concert outfit and went out to greet more people. Saw Eve, Aishah and Xiaoming waiting outside as well.

Soon after, the concert started. Happened to see Ridzwan, Shamin, Mr Lee, Miss Chang, and Ben in the stands. Started off with Nimrod followed by Multitude. Played quite ok for both the songs except that the band wasn't that settled yet. Noticed that the Tuba section were going sharp as well, a bad sign as the other instruments would follow and the entire band would sound sharp to a trained ear. Next on the list was Song of Lir and Phantom of the Opera before we had a 15 minute intermission, during which I met up with my HS friends. Many told me that the Phantom of the opera scared them because the lights all went off and back on again. There was screaming(yes, a band member was made to do that) during this short, few seconds, interval. This woke them up from their 'dreams' I believe.

The second half of the concert started off with the percussion ensemble, which according to many of my friends, was lame but funny. It was more like a band concert and stage performance all fused together. Quite brilliant, but definitely a little overexaggerated. They could have cut more of the crap and played more music instead. Anyway that aside, the next piece was a solo vocal performance by Mr Mark Lim, accompanying him was the band on the song 'someone to watch over me'. The killer piece was next, A Movement for Rosa followed by Animation Medley (my favourite song) and Pirates of the Caribbean.

We played Festive celebrations as our encore piece where two 'da tou wa wa' snatched the baton from Mr Chiang and he had no choice but to conduct using the bamboo fan. After our concert, we took a picture of the whole band before packing up.

Too bad Mr Nizam couldn't make it for my concert, but that's alright. He has a busy schedule. I was surprised to find out that Mr Nizam knew my band conductor as well, since both are in MWO. Found out that Ramu came to HS band before to assist under Mr Tan, HS band's former conductor in 2001-2002. Couldn't really remeber as that happened long ago.

Overall, it was a success! Cheers!

A day before the big day

Yes, NYJC band concert is tomorrow. What a day that'll be, I hope we will give a good performance. Found out that anyone who hasn't bought the tickets yet can purchase them outside SCH. Haha, fantastic, then maybe I can encourage more people to come for the concert!

Anyway, played soccer during the break today with all the guys in my CT. Had a great time playing against one another in the netball court and later on the running track. We divided ourselves into teams of two, each team consisting of 5 players. Jeremy, Alvin, Zi Hao, Kang Wei and Zhen Yong were on one team whereas David, Joshua, Derek, Zhao Han and myself were on the opposing team. In the end, the score was 4-4, typical of the Zidane-Ronaldo charity match held sometime last year. I even scored a hatrick, something I've never achieved before, so having gotten a hatrick for the first time was wonderful! Cheers!

Band prac was the next thing on my agenda. Practised a variety of songs with Wei Ming and Bin (trombone). Went through almost all the concert pieces, did not play through every song completely however. We only played certain key areas where we had the melody. Managed to get the remaining two tickets from Jing Jie as well, so now it's complete. Sold a total of 12 tickets, not bad for a JC 1 band member. Heard that Phil Jin (Saxophone JC 2) sold 30 odd tickets. That's truly amazing!

The past few days and week has been quite hectic. Mainly band prac and promotion and selling of band concert tickets.