Imma gonna study

Haha had an... "interesting" first week of the holidays.

Well considering the holidays started off with the end of one of the most important things to happen to me so far, the 30th students council, perhaps I could say it was a double blow that my school band "career" closed its curtains on me last Tuesday. *sob*

Yea I can't believe I originally wanted to sit out of the concert. I guess with all the stress and other stuff going on pre-syf I was kinda wanting to relax and slack off, but I'm just so very glad that I got the chance to enjoy music making again. Because after all Band isn't about SYF to me, its not a competing CCA, its a performing arts group. So we perform.

Yea so anyway I kinda came an hour late for practice on Monday cos I remembered the wrong meeting time sian. Not that I wanted to though I was actually preparing ot come early but coming early late still kinda didn't cut out haha. Oh well I was supposed to move the chimes with my friend but too late so he moved it with some other people la so he was pissed off with me. But honestly I think he should relax a bit la like I really really didn't intend on being late I wanted to be early somemore, and the job was done, like I reached the band room to move whatever stuff during the moving time before the warm up and it was already gone, not as if I just went straight to the PAC rite... I mean I'm the type of guy that looks at character and intent, and it was very clearly not my intention on being late and not following my responsibility heck if he hadn't decided to move the chimes without me I would have made it on time to move the stuff with him in the end lor. Yea but of course I would understand that he was a bit upset but what I can't stand was that he said something like "its because of people like you that we can't start on time" like so its suddenly my fault. And we actually did start on time so... Oh well its over and I don't really care la just let it be haha. Yea so we practiced and that's that.

Tuesday was THE DAY TO PLAY (music)! Yea quite stupid la cos we were planning section lunch and I fought very hard to Northpoint cos I was like I can be there in 10 mins and its so close to my house I could walk if I wanted too haha (more sense to direct bus though) yea and when I finally got it settled I was like YEAH! Then I remembered I had a meeting in the morning in school regarding house CIP. So I would have to go from Khatib to Marymount, then back past Khatib to Yishun, then back to Marymount again. Oh well self jack haha. But ok la the meeting was quite productive basically dissemination of work and talking nonsense haha. Then I wrote buddy book and wore my contacts and read some notes and it was off to Yishun.

[Speaking of contacts, wow its been ages since I last wore them haha. But I was very surprised at how fast I managed to put them on lol. I think my eyesight got worse though :( Anyway I got complimented on my specs-less face, and someone told me my specs makes me look nerdy )8 really? haha]

Yea lunch was quite good, ate at the Jap foodcourt thing jap seafood! The scallop type not the messy must dirty hands type haha. And the mango yakult was ok la quite cool. Then we finished on time except for my section leader who was the earliest to come but finished last and made us all late haha (section leader somemore). The warm ups was quite stupid la cos we warm up so fast then stop for strings to prac effectively killing our lips. Rehearsal was all about octaving down haha, then it was time to last min prep for concert! Dinner was fine, then I did booth duty, and my brother bought me KOI! Yay. Haha then after a toilet break it was time for bands performance! Honestly, while I enjoyed myself I think we could have done better. Like overall the band screwed up a bit, and our sections lips all died and couldn't whack anything lor haha. But the pieces were fun la and the audience enjoyed it in spite of some brilliant people who decided to turn off the PAC aircon and zaoing home leaving the audience feeling warm and disgusting and the performers sweating like animals under the stage lights. Haha then came the talking to friends bit which I enjoyed cos of the nice reviews haha oh well its great to know that people enjoyed your performance rite haha. And I'm glad they came to support :)

Yup then it was post concert movement which was the most disgusting haha. I packed up quite fast and was like the second guy back at the PAC. And I decided to single handedly move the chimes back to the band room with the exception of help to move it for 2 flights of steps, well because I didn't want to waste time, and because I wanted to prove that one could be helpful and dedicated and well do extra stuff without complaining/making noise/you-get-what-I-mean lar haha. And finally we were done! Following that, some friends and I rushed down to Orchard to catch our midnight kungfu panda 2 movie! Which was great and nice. Then came the cab back home :)

Well I missed band farewell so the stepping out of the bandroom kinda meant the final goodbye for me, I'll never step into the bandroom the same I guess. Well while I really enjoyed the experiences in band, I guess I'm a little disappointed inside about my incompetence at playing music, well I did hope I would be better at the trumpet but oh wells, I guess I still can practice and improve with my own trumpet. But for what? Personal goals aside, I've let myself down for too many concerts. Sigh.

On a happier note, I can simply say that band was ultimately the best thing that came out of my year 1-6 years. Yea council was awesome too, prob the best thing that came out of the past year, but band was the main thing for the previous 4 plus years cos RIPB just well didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to I guess (it was great too and I learnt a lot from it but the H1N1 outbreak and everything spoilt a lot of the experience). Yea I still remember when I joined RI I was already intent on joining band. Haha cos I wanted to play perc after learning the drums for one month and after I saw the band perform spanish fever one day I was like yea this is so awesome I wanna play drums yea! Lol then I got into band (not that difficult since it was my first choice anyway) and then I was placed into... euphonium. Oh well I was quite disappointed at the start and contemplated switching instruments but in the end I decided that oh well I must be in euphos for a reason, MO must think that I'm more suited for it so I went along with it. And so I began learning the eupho and practicing with it, really trained a lot of foundation like air support etc. Especially helped that I was very enthusiastic and positive about some of the boring practices haha. And then came Sec 2. Lol my SL thought that my tuning was very lousy and everything and didn't think I was a good player I guess until he tried my eupho and realised that it was super screwed up lol like each valve is out of tune so can't correct it. But I pulled through my first SYF and got a gold so I was quite happy. Malaysia trip was very fun too, really helped me bond with my batchmates. Then came sec 3. Taking over my previous SLs instrument really helped me and boosted my standard haha. I also got the chance to like support my SL for solos during prometheum and play nice songs yea. And Japan trip was very great like I'm very glad that I had the opportunity to go, one to see the band culture in Japan and be impressed and inspired, and two well for a nice holiday :) Then came the end of sec 3 where I was given the drum major post. Well since Sec 1 I wanted to be top 2 in band well because I was passionate and really believed I had the drive, responsibility and enthusiasm for it. Yea so when I didn't get RD in sec 2 I was quite sad about it so I really worked hard for it. Yea as in not that I work for the position but I wanted to work hard to deserve it, to be a good eupho player and prove to myself and others that I deserved it. And I dare say I'm one of the few who would actually go for extra practices on non CCA days since Sec 2. Yea ok back to the story. So I got the chance to take part in NCO camp, a real eye opener for me. And then came my band break for OIP and 2 weeks later I got transferred to trumpets! Yea my conductor wanted it so well I was like half hearted about it because I really liked the eupho and I felt that if I stayed on I could be quite a good eupho player but well if the band needed me to switch and support another section I would do it, especially since I had a role and responsibility above myself. So there I was in trumpets, and within the week I had bought myself a mouthpiece already lol. So came SYF, which was quite messed up thinking that the only played trumpet for 5 months guy was the one conducting quite a few sectionals and playing solo parts and blah blah. And then we got silver. Which was very disappointing. Haha maybe I'll talk about my theory as to why band isn't as good as what it used to be. One day. Haha then came RSB. I made the decision to stay in trumpets cos 1. I liked trumpet music and the fact that it was a more versatile instrument 2. I already bought my own trumpet 3. There were like 3 batchmates in eupho already so it would be quite stupid to have more euphos than trumpets. Yea sometimes I feel that I should have went back to eupho cos I would have definitely reached a standard higher than my lousy trumpet playing now but I don't regret sticking on to trumpets one bit. Yea there was play'10 and then somewhere around that time I made the decision to run for council, and I got in, knowing that it meant band was gonna have to take a backseat. Still, there was A Tempo, SIBF, National Day, Teachers Day...... so much memories and experiences I owe to band forever. And then came 2011. Well during the initial pracs for SYF I was quite MIA I'll admit because of ISLE and Open house and Orientation and IHC and Musicfest and everything but well I tried to make up for it by working hard during pracs, so in terms of knowing the score and practicing my part I was like just on par with the basic expectations. But somewhere near the last 2 weeks of SYF the stress and everything woke me up I guess and somewhere inside I turned on the band mugger streak and I really started focusing and analysing my part pretty hard, and well I guess it should have been something done a long time ago but I managed to settle whatever I needed to do and how to play it in time. And SYF came and we got a Gold. Considering that one 1 school got honours it was a very good achievement, a nice sweet ending after I got silver 2 years ago in an SYF with like I dunno around 10 honours? Yea. And then came concert which I talked about already.

Yup so as I reach the end of my journey I really have to thank MO, my teachers in charge mainly my RIMB teachers who I had to work very closely with in sec 4, my batchmates especially Johnson, Kirk, Yifan, Linjin... my bandmates too and everyone la. I'll definitely continue to prac my trumpet and I really don't want anything memories and experiences to fade although I know it'll prob happen someday :'(

I think it sucks that it's only after things end that we realise really how much more it meant to us than what we previously thought

Yup there concludes my band post and on to my holiday. Wed was a break day, and then came thursday and friday - H3 field trip to Jurong Island. Thursday was ok la, my friend pangseh-ed me so I had to go alone with AJC, which could actually be a blessing in disguise cos I was forced to interact with them and I must say I really enjoyed talking to them and learning about them and their school. They're really a bunch of cool people. But program wise the first day was boring. Then came the second day which was more fun cos there was actually an activity and through it I managed to know not only the AJ people but the AC people more too which was nice :) And seeing the labs in action was cool too.

Then came Sat and Sun where I was supposed to have band farewell but I couldn't go because of family holiday. Well I guess I'm quite sad I had to miss farewell but well I forsook (is there such a word) family too many times already for important things so things like farewell which was kinda more fun oriented cannot already la. Yea so family trip went like this:

Slept late cos of last minute packing. Then frenzied rush to ferry terminal cos Dad's car spoilt and Taxi pangseh-ed us. Yea ferry terminal really brought back fond memories of CCAL camp last year haha :D Then off on the ferry to another ferry to the cruise ship. Which turned out to be a floating casino in the open waters. Seriously all I saw was gambling machine after gambling machine. And I don't gamble so it was quite reatarded. My entire family just spent the time on the cruise eating at the restaurant (and the food wasn't good even lor) and at the lounge watching performances. I, in celebration at my recent 18th birthday, ordered a Singapore Sling. Which sucked. Seriously I didn't like it the alcohol was really quite strong and left a disgusting feeling in my throat. But I decided to finish the whole glass anyway beating my Mum in the process haha. Didn't get drunk though, but I guess the alcohol helped me sleep on the 1 hour plus ferry back to shore in Malaysia which was good la. And then it was bus to dinner and bus to hotel, ending the tour for that day. Slacking in the hotel room was ok, watched some retarded animal movie haha and ate snacks and played mono deal and won for the first time yay. Yea then it was back to sleep. Morning was quite late for breakfast then checking out and off to lunch and then shopping! Yay I made the wise decision to ask my Mum if could split up so I headed off with my brother and bought stuff I usually wouldn't have bought if my Mum or Dad was around like bought quite a lot of T shirts and stuff. Of course they were on offer la haha. Then shopping was over, off to dinner and back to sunny singapore, except it was at night so no sun and I found out that in the day er orchard was flooded again so yea haha lol. And then we had late night movie watching X Men! That was fun.

Yea so that ended my first week of holiday, and now its time for me to study! Yay hope I will too haha. Ok bye!