Friday, April 09, 2004
Hihi! Its my very first blog! Hmmm... 9th April 2004....
Anyway, I performed at Esplanade yesterday. It rocks! Not the concert though, but the time spent with the band friends and my favourite Sec 4 seniors.... :D
We went to Esplanade at abt 8.45am. Then we were brought to our respective dressing rms. DRESSING ROOMS! Yes, like the 60s "Long Piao Piao" kind of dressing rms. The euphonium section shared the same room with the horns section! Yeah! For the eupho-horn relations! We put our bags and took our instruments to the main concert hall... Our dressing room was number 08 btw...
And went to practice the concert pieces at abt 9.30. It was definitely incredibly big! Even though I have been there for once but i still enjoyed the feeling of performing in such a classy place ("Simon, you dunnoe ke-las!!" quoted by Fantasia Barrino). Then Sharon, a Euphonium JC2 nice-nice girl sat beside me. She is very sweet and nice, kept talking to me one... Like her a lot like a sister. She looks nice as well... except she a little short lar... Hahaz...
Kun Won also sat beside me... Then he goes "Bang" most of the time... Sighz... alreadi got used to it liaoz... But then, he keeps shootin' me... Wonder how long i can handle this psychological "war"... We practiced the songs for until 12.30 when we were given our lunch breaks and free time until like... 5.30pm!! 5 hrs of free time! Yeah!!!
Originally, I thought of tagging along the horn's section as they are not that lame like my euphonium section. By the way, if u do not know me very well or you are kept under the spiritual caves of Timbuktu for 10 whole years, yes, i am playing the euphonium (a mini-size tuba). But HaoQuan, my eupho sec 4 stopped me from going out wif them. We quarrelled at Burger King's with the Trumpet's, Tuba's and Horn's sections eating and looking at us.. Then, when the whole section was present (w/o Donaphan, Yan Ting and Sharon), we decided after going to Cavana, to return back to Burger Kings to have lunch... Sigh... St00pid planning.... I had BK Chicken Sandwich btw @ $6.00!
After eating, we separated ourselves from the Horn's section as the trumpet section and eupho section went to the bowling alley at Marina Square, Level 2. I bowled for 2 games only as my fourth finger hurt a lot after the first game. The 2 sections played on separate lanes, so there wasn't so much interactivity goin' on. Then I received a SMS saying that the Horn section has gone back to Esplanade to do homework... SIgh... poor sec 4s...
My first score was 104 and the second was 98... Not bad for my usual standards... Luckily i am not that rusty after all... :D It costs me $5.40 for the 2 games and the shoes... Then, Hao Quan, Wui Siong( my SL) and I went to the arcade beside the alley and played para-para... Twas fun though, even if I looked stupid and monotonous as I was playing the easiest dance of all... :) Then I played the Machi Bachi game, the machine where there are various games to choose from with the red, green and blue buttons... Get it? Yeah! I impressed the sec 1s (tt originally dun quite lyk me cos i am in Vocal Ensemble) of my quick response beating the computer by 20 odd points in a colour-matching game!!! Yes! Looks like the $1.50 on that game was worth it for some popularity!!! Oops...
Then we went back to Esplanade with Ivan, Terence and Kun Won... I met Sean (Horn Sec 2), Bernard (Trumpet Sec 4, Quartermaster of Band) and Dion (expected Drum Major of next year, Trumpet Sec 3) changing shoelaces and Sean seemed a little out of sorts. But anyway, I asked my section to go back first while I walked with the others back to Esplanade a lil later. When we reached the entrance of Esplanade, we saw Mrs. Lam Poh Ling (Band teacher i/c) and Seng wee Peng (Councillor wadeva I/C) and they asked us to carry the 1000 concert pamphlets to the theatre entrance.
After a few wrong turns, we FINALLY arrived at the entrance. We put the pamphlets and guess who were saw next? Adam Chong! The secretary of SUST 2003, Band flutist 2003, supposingly sec 3 now!! He emigrated to Australia bcos his brother is studying in Keys or some University. His family is so very rich lor... He looked so nice yesterday with the sunglasses on his head, so lyk un-singaporean!!!
Then I went back to the Dressing room, saw Terence (Eupho SL next yr), Sean, Ivan (Eupho Sec 3) and Wui Siong playing Bridge, wadeva is that, i dunnoe how 2 play, rather popular card game in band. Alfred (Horn Sec 4 - 2nd fave senior) and Daniel (DM of Band, Horn Sec 4, Favourite Senior in Band) doing their hw, Dion playing wif Daniel's handphone and Harrapan (Horn Sec 2) studying. I popped in and said Hi to them and took out my discman and began my usual routine singing of Camile Velasco's "Son of a Preacher Man" and Jasmine Trias' "Run To You" and "Inseparable", my favourite songs from the American Idol. Btw, Camile is out alreadi this week! Three cheers. Alfred and Daniel oso watch AMI as well! Yeah! More common topics.. Daniel called Camile "chio" before the finals, but now he calls her some funny names due to her wacky dress sense and so on... Anyway, to my surprise when I was singing, Daniel and Alfred suddenly joined in as well...
Hmmm ... Seems that i distracted them from their work as we actually began to talk to each other, laughing and having fun.... More senior-junior interaction.... No wonder they are my favourite seniors... Wonder how my life would be without them.. :S
5.30... Changed clothes to black blazer, black long pants, black socks... Had yucky dinner from the green plate store.. Onli the chicken was nice... Passed by some HCJC seniors.... Most of them exclaimed with joy and shrills "Ohh... So Cute.. That boy is sooo adorable"... Oh pls.... Then i took some photos with my sections... Then went to the concert hall at abt 7.00, when the audience began filling in the seats.
Waved to my mother and father... So happy tt they were there yesterday... Saw Mr. Edmund Teo oso, wearing a white casual shirt with his usual long khaki pants, like a preacher or sth... Anyway, then turned my head around to the gallery seats... Erm... no familiar faces... Wait! Isn't that Tai Boon and Alex? Anyway, it was 7.30pm. The lights dimmed. The MC spoke. Mr. Lim, our conductor came in...
We played our first song "Overture for Spring Festival" composed by Mr. Lim himself (email me if u want the MP3), went horribly bad, but who cares? The audience clapped. Then we played "Sound of Music", sounded okay. More clapping.... Then "Latin Sun" with Samuel (Saxaphone Sec 4) dunnoe him very well, solo. SOunded quite nice... Then we played "Beauty and the Beast" (get the MP3 from me as well if u want), very ballady, Terence's solo was well-received and smooth. Then "Souvenir Cirque' renz", with Si Yao playing the mallets solo, very well received as well.... Then finally the finale "Fate of the Gods" (dloadable Mp3 from me oso), not bad lar.... At least I got most notes correct.... :D Then the concert had an interval before the String Orch performs.
Break time = more singing. Then when the string orch performed, all of us have to keep quiet due to the awesome acoustics of the esplanade concert hall.. After that at abt 11pm, the concert ended. Went up stage again to clap for conductors and Choo huey, waved to parents and tai boon again... Then, we packed up and took a bus back to CHS. We were then dismissed and went home.
So there I was, exhausted, smelly and filthy. I, of course, bathed and went to sleep at about 12.30pm..
Signing off,
KX
8-4-2004
4/09/2004 09:07:00 PM
