Warning! Long Post Ahead.

Ok, so this is gonna be a freaking long post cos it’s been such a long time since I last wrote and a lot has happened. Let’s start chronologically.

Saturday: Varsity Voices 2009: Musica Moderna

Right, so last Saturday (21st Feb) was the choir concert. It was really great that the com had pushed back the meeting time cos I was like freaking tired. The day started out kind of bad cos I got baby powder in my eye. Omg! It was freaking uncomfortable. Thought I might not have been able to wear my contacts cos of it. But it cleared eventually. However, if I go blind, you’ll know why. Then, on the way to school, I had to stop to change bus right? The bus stop there was raining like heck. Got wet as I boarded the bus. As usual bad luck would have it, the rain cleared immediately after the bus left that stop. Grrr! To make bad luck worse, the weather was clear UNTIL the bus reached school where it was raining like heck yet again. Shared umbrella with Norma but still got soaked anyway. It was kind of embarrassing walking into the UCC backstage wet cos my Crocs made very very very loud squishing noises all through the corridors. I had to change into my orange skirt so that I could go dry my berms in the toilet. THEN! I discovered that the hand dryer in the toilet on my floor was not working! Had to trudge upstairs to use the toilet up there to dry them. :p

Anyway, there wasn’t too much rehearsal singing. Took some photos but couldn’t take much because, due to the later meeting time, there wasn’t much time to do anything except what was strictly necessary. We gathered, did warm ups, technical run through, then it was rush rush to go and eat dinner, change and make up for the night. Lucky me, I didn’t have to do my hair cos it’s so short already (all hail short hair!!) and I’m used to putting on the make up by now. There wasn’t as much chaos as there usually is, probably cos they separated the sections very small. As in, instead of all the Altos in one room, we split Alto 1 and Alto 2. And the rooms were the big dressing rooms too! Haha! I peeked into the Sopranos room – it was the small ones. So anyway, we had plenty of space. It was a very welcome change.

Then it was time for concert! Omg! Freaking excited. My last concert with the choir as an NUS student. Me was standing at the side this time instead of the centre like I usually do. That was nice. It was very much noticably cooler at the side than at the centre. I figured out why at every concert I’m usually drenched in sweat by the third song or so. It’s cos at the centre position, the lights are all focused there and that makes it so hot. Whereas at the side, it was very comfortable, so you could say this was possibly my most pleasant concert ever. Still couldn’t figure out Ecce though I think I managed to smoke my way through it. It was a full house, even opening up the circle seats. First half went well then it was rush backstage again to change for the second half. Again, there wasn’t much rush cos there was a lot of space and, surprise surprise! we were told we didn’t need to put on our heels for the second half. Could go on barefoot. Yay!! So we went on and sang. I think it went really well. Victoria JC and Victoria Chorale were our guest choirs and man were they good! VJ is like the best choir in SG lor!

Anyway, been hearing good stuff about the concert. Best compliment heard was that our repertoire didn’t put people to sleep as it usually would. Sumi our first half sacred pieces, saying that it had more feeling to it. The bro liked Kyrie, surprisingly. Daryl thought Kyrie ended too abruptly. I totally agree with him. I think Nelson shouldn’t have cut short that song. It just creates an anticlimax. Gloria had generally not too good reviews. Haha! No surprises there anyway, nasty song. The second half was also mixed. Daryl thought Five Hebrew Love Songs were good. Sumi thought the songs got a bit too monotonous after a while and thought the paper fluttering at Little Birds was cheesy. Oh well, blame Eric Whitacre. But Cloudburst had rave reviews all round. I loved Cloudburst too! I wanna do it again!!! The thunderstorm part was just fabulous.

Nelson thought we did really well and I agree with him. This is definitely the best concert I’ve had in four years and I can see how the choir has matured since I was year 1. Nelson complimented our This Marriage and was apparently crying during Linden Lea. I think Terrance was getting emotional too. He was standing with the basses while we sang it. Although I didn’t see it, I definitely felt the feeling behind Linden Lea. It was good. Pity this is the last concert though. Rumour has it that next year would be performed at the Esplanade cos it’s Varsity Voices’ 30th anniversary and Nelson has huge plans for it. It’s gonna be a blast! The Lalas were saying that we should come back and sing as alumni. That’s a really tempting thought. Oh well. We’ll see.

Sunday

Took a break on Sunday. Too sleepy to get up for morning mass, especially after the last few late nights from choir. Woke up at about 10 I think and watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that we recoreded like a million years ago. It was a lovely show by the way. I really enjoyed it, despite that it took three whole hours. I think I’m doing too much Narrative Structures cos as I was watching the movie, I was thinking, omg, is this like for real or is it still part of the story that the father is telling his kids? Totally irrelevant questions, a product of my thinking too much. Didn’t do much on Sunday. Lazed around. Went to church in the evening. The evening mass choir is pretty interesting. They’re not good in the way of a pro choir but they’ve got interesting songs and are more or less in tune too. Haha! Then at night, watched The Pianist on Okto. Finally got round to watching that. It was… disturbing? I’m not sure what’s the right word for it. Didn’t really like it. But no denying it was a powerful movie. And I was mesmerised by the piano playing. Can human fingers really move so fast?

Tuesday

Monday I was supposed to start work but I didn’t so there’s nothing much to talk about. Basically I did nothing on Monday, something which I regret now.

Tuesday went to the Science Centre with some of the EL people. That was fun. Saw a chick hatching! Went to the magic exhibition too and saw a magic show there. The magician was being freaking cheesy. Wonder how he did all his tricks. Then there was this exhibition called iSpace (I think). It had all these really really REALLY cool gadgets like new media stuff. Futuristic stuff. We saw a computer thingy like Minority Report. You know, when Tom Cruise was using his hands to control the screen rather than a mouse.

Went for the Ash Wednesday mass. Not quite Wednesday, it’s the one on Tuesday. Anyway, that was normal. Nothing much to report except the damn communion minister poked my eye when he was doing the anointing of ashes thing and he didn’t apologise or anything. What the freak!

Wednesday

Wednesday was a fun day!! Went to Sentosa with the girls. We were supposed to meet at Harbourfront at 9 but by the time everyone arrived and got started was 10. :p $39 for the package thing. We took the new Sentosa Express over. It was a bit depressing having to pass by all the construction before we actualy got to the island. First stop was the beach! Omg! The beach is so beautiful and clean. Such a huge difference from East Coast. The only other place I saw such clear water was in Pattaya. The water as so nice and cool. But as usual, the presence of construction work marred the scene. Saw a few cute ang moh guys too. After the beach we walked over to Fort Siloso where there was a photo taking frenzy. Haha! Duan was having fun with the sephia setting on her camera. Mine was colour all the way. Had fun at Fort Siloso, not just taking pictures but exploring the place. The ‘underground’ tunnels were spooky and especially since me had been watching ghost videos on youtube which more than once talked about ghosts at old forts. There was this outdoor place too that had swings and stuff that looked like the Outward Bound school stuff. Played there for quite a while.

After we had tramped all over Fort Siloso – well, not exactly all of it, we were a little pressed for time. We made our way over to the central area for lunch. Walked through the Nature Walk. That was a disappointment. It used to be really nice, with sculptures of dragons and mythological creatures but I think they were doing refurbishing so there was nothing to see. The only ‘dragon’ we saw was covered in a brown sack cloth with plants on it. And it started to drizzle so we all took out our umbrellas and trudged through the mud. TY looked like Lara Croft in her all shorts and tank top and wide belt. Haha! We had lunch at Subway after we finally made it out of the jungle. Then went for the 4D Magix show. It was a 3D pirate show with an extra twist. They had these gadgets or something that simulated the environment that was happening on the screen. Like when they were showing scenes on board the ship, a cold wind would be blowing. Or when the pirate got attacked by hundreds of crabs, there was this whipping thing at our legs. That was scary at first. It really felt like hundreds of crabs were nipping at us. It was scary also when there were scenes of the bees and bats cos the 3D effect made it look like it was right there in front of us. Loved that one.

Then we went to the Butterfly Park. That was nice. There were so many colourful and pretty butterflies flying around the area. Lots of photo opportunities. I think the best part was was a butterfly landed in Duan’s bag. Then going back inside, there was this ‘museum’ place we walked through that showed us about the butterflies and *shudder* other insects. We had an impromptu lecture at the exhibit where they were showing about gynandromorphism (I think that’s how it’s spelt).

See the middle butterfly? The one whose wings were a split between the one on the right and the one on the left? Pity the picture isn’t too clear. I didn’t realise I was using the outdoor setting instead of the indoor one until much later. We were all actually really curious about this split look of the butterflies. But then a worker at the park came and explained it to us. It’s actually pollution that caused it. So he went on to treat us to a long lecture about the hazards of pollution and the merits of clean pure healthy living. Apparently the one in the middle is a freak, neither male nor female and it’s a genetic dead end. It cannot survive in the world cos of it’s gender confusion and something about it being messed up inside. The guy was saying that it’s a sign of extinction. Pollution causing these freaks of nature and if there are to many, it means that extinction is imminent. He claims that that’s what happened to the dinosaurs too. This strange splitting that caused the genetic line to die.

So, after a lecture about pollution, we went to the Carlsburg Sky Tower. Or Tiger Sky Tower, I don’t remember which one it is now. That was alright. Went for it before so it wasn’t anything new to me. It was just a 50 storey high observation tower that rotated round and we took photos and all. It was getting pretty late by then so we just decided to go. Took the cable car. Ok, so that really freaked me out cos I really don’t like heights, especially when it’s so unsecured as travelling in that little metal box so high up. But I survived.

Went over to TY’s place for cup noodles for dinner and for the lemon chocolate cheesecake tart that she made. She’s really such a talented baker I think. Saw a rainbow as we were walking to her house and that was just lovely. It was a full arc rainbow too. Pretty! Played with her dogs for a while. Still trying to convince my parents to get a dog, especially since TY was tongue in cheek (I hope) talking about how she’d love to give away one of her dogs. Haha! Poor little Creamy. I’d take her if I could but mum’s still scared of dogs.

Thursday

Had to go back to school on Thursday cos Lionel wanted to give a test. :p Sucky. For the record, I did study. Even if I didn’t study that much, I did know my stuff. But, the test really sucked cos it was focused on just one reading. The Rip Slyme one. Means that if, like me, I only know sketchy details and not indepth argument of what happened there, I probably wouldn’t do too well. Smoked my way through it. Hope it worked out though. After the test, went to photocopy Haegeman’s book for Syntax. That’s such a pain. Don’t know why Kim doesn’t just order in the damn book. Anyway, I probably wouldn’t pay $50+ to get the book that I’m only going to use for a few months and never touch again in my life. Haha!

It rained again as I was going home. When I was changing bus at Macpherson road area, this damn woman… grrr… It was already raining heavily and the tendency for everyone is to board the bus as quickly as they can. Now the bus entrance, there’s a divider separating the right and left side to enter. So this woman was next to me and I assumed, based on her position, that she would be using the left side to enter. So me took a step forward to enter on the right side. This woman changed lane in the last minute and blocked me, leaving me standing in the rain to get wet whilst she took her own sweet time digging for her card. Damn! I hate that! Have some bloody consideration for other people lah!! I ‘tsk’ really loudly but I don’t think she heard.

Watched Fellowship of the Ring at night. Been wanting to watch that for a while now. I think I also want to buy a soft cover copy of LOTR too. I’m afraid to read my hard cover copy cos pages are falling out. Anyway, FotR was nice. It’s my favourite of the three movies. Now when I watch it, I always remember flying back from London cos I watched it on the plane too. Got emotional at the end with Boromir’s death. That’s got to be one of the best scenes in the movie. I was noticing a lot of little details that I never noticed before too. Can’t remember what they are now but I know I noticed them. Was watching a blooper reel too on youtube. Very funny.

Friday

Friday I had to really get down and do some work. Can you imagine?? Suddenly it’s Friday!!! Omg!! Where did the week go??! And I hadn’t done anything to catch up with my work whatsoever. So, I did (or tried to do) my readings for Contact Ling. It was freaking boring and I think I skipped a lot. Think I’ll do badly in Mie’s weekly quiz. Tried to study a bit for Universe module too but didn’t get too far there.

Skimmed through Twilight movie in the afternoon. By skimmed through, I mean fast forwarding to bits that I like and skipping the rest. Haha! Such a freaking cheesy movie.

Then evening, went to the UCC to watch Eng Kwang’s Jazz Band concert with Norma and Sumi. It was fun. I think my knowing nothing about jazz contributed to my enjoyment of it. I’m always surprised that jazz is not just those background, cry into your alcoholic drink, music. I think it was slightly more fun that last year though. The singers weren’t too good when they were singing together though. They were better doing solos. But it as fun anyway and an enjoyable evening for me. I know the theme of the NUS arts festival is Arts and Environment but all the environmentalist references were completely disjointed from the repertoire and frankly, the concert wouldn’t have suffered any from omitting those references.

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So… I suppose that’s that. I’m kind of hoping that I’d get a move on with Syntax today but I doubt I’ll get very far. Not in the mood to study at all, least of all to study Syntax. Yucky thing. I’m kind of toying with the idea that I don’t really care about my CAP any more and what’s the damn point of struggling hard against the system that’s designed to make students do badly?

Oh well. That’s life. And if you want to see more photos of those events above, go check out Facebook. My inbox has been flooded (literally) with millions of notifications from FB about photo tags and comments. It’s really annoying. Haha!

~ by mezzogal on February 28, 2009.