'Dance, Subaru!' is a touching movie about a woman's passion for dance and the many obstacles in her path. It may sound cliche but I think the characters were portrayed very well in all aspects.

I vaguely remember a younger me pleading in vain with my mother in my bid to become a ballerina. Pity the only response I got from her was that I was too fat. I stopped any valiant attempts at unleashing my inner dancing self since then. Dancing is still an enjoyable activity when I get the rare opportunity to do it though.

Saturday's lunch at Shokudo thereafter ended on a sour note unfortunately. My mother was displeased with the staff's serving etiquette. I could only smile sympathetically while the poor guy listened to my mother's complaints. Her complaints were not totally unfounded however. It took them twenty-five minutes to take our orders and another twenty minutes to serve us. The waiter also forgot to give us our cutlery and we did not get any serviettes. Most appalling fact was that they forgot to serve us our dessert after the main course. Which was why I did not try to help or argue with my mother while she unleashed her frustrations onto the poor soul. It was the wrong person she scolded though. The one who 'promised' to serve us vanished after that and we had to get another person to take our order. That poor guy had many other orders and if I'm not wrong, he'd asked his colleague to take over. Someone who displayed a suitably unprofessional working etiquette that caused my mother to start fuming. The least they could do was to apologise profusely and deduct the service charge from the total cost of our meal. At least their food was good.

Guitar lesson yesterday was alright I guess. I somehow managed to miss that 'F' note in the last few bars though. The teacher also taught us how to tune our guitars by the ear even though he went through that two years ago if my memory serves well enough. This was the first time he tested us on it though. I took some time because I kind of got mixed up and ended up tuning to the wrong string although I got it sorted on my own in the end.

I immediately proposed for us to start from the other end of the class instead so that I could buy some time before my turn. Cheng Meng's rasgueado was really good. And Gabriel was also pretty good at it and could play it at the normal tempo. He really is good I guess, since he is supposed to be one grade above all of us. I did alright at my turn although I got lost halfway and had to start all over again. Tammy had a little difficulty with the 'aggressive' sound thing that applies to all flamenco pieces. Somehow, Soon Yee and I could not stop laughing once Ji Xuan (I think that's his name) played. It was such a contrast. He was playing it too aggressively in my opinion. I was a little afraid that the strings would snap. I felt kind of bad for laughing though.

I also went to Bugis after this morning's classes with Mandy and Jolene. With more than two hours to kill before the movie, we went to Takashimaya after buying our tickets. Also, due to the limited choice of movies to watch, we ended up watching 'Monsters VS Aliens'. Lunch at Mos Burger was going along pretty much normally until Mandy almost threw down the plastic basket that Mos Burger provides for its set meals. She didn't know they were not disposable and were reusable, much to our chagrin.

A huge portion of time was spent at Kinokuniya, whereby Mandy held a great internal debate as to whether she should buy the new manga.

Although we were initially shocked at our choice of movie too, it must be said that the movie was nice to watch. There was a great sense of humor in the plot and the dialogue between the characters. Especially the last part whereby the blue blob was confused as to who Derrick first dated. Pfft.

Labels: guitar, Movies

Yesterday's concert was good. ACJC choir has always been good from what I heard therefore it was not surprising that they performed well last night. And their concert booklet's cool! With the cover being lightly embossed at the side, it looks really stylish.

I spent the day doing homework at a snail's pace while chatting on MSN. Dinner at TCC with Yibin and Claudia was nice. The sandwich was really delicious albeit a tad too filling.

As for my guitar lessons, I was prepared to be relieved when we finally finish the entire Romance D'Amor piece - only to be intimidated by the new flamenco song we are required to learn. Rasgueado has always been my weakness. I am also dreading learning tremolo since it seems even more difficult to muster than rasgueado. And after doing rasgueado in most pieces, my fingernails are all scratched from the strumming since we are using the back of all our fingers instead of our index and thumb in normal strumming. I have a feeling that after this Sunday, we are going to move on to tremelo, finally, after one year. I must must must try my best for my rasgueado. It's the main reason why I always dread flamenco pieces. Hopefull my rhythm will be alright since I always get thrown off at each new bar. Good bye, my pink, flawless nails. Hello, scratched torn nails. My fingernails have always been my sacrifice for classical guitar playing and I think it's pretty much the same for the rest of those who are learning too.

I was overjoyed upon learning that we are learning 'You Raise Me Up' by, one of my favourite singers, Josh Groban!! Of course, we are singing the choral and not the pop version and hence the rhythm is quite different. But it is indeed a much better song to sing than 'Kalinka' since we still have problems with the dynamics for that song.

Labels: choir, guitar, School Days