The time-gap between my posts is getting longer. Well, it's not like I have readers who check on this site regularly anyway. But here I am, trying to breathe some life into this place. Or type some life, in this case. This is an awfully long post, by the way. 

I went to watch Super Junior Super Show 3 - 3D Movie with my mum this afternoon. I didn't attend the actual concert when they came to Singapore in January. Mummy offered to pay for my concert ticket but I chose not to go since I couldn't find anyone to go with me anyway. Not to mention the fact that I spent quite a bit of my savings while in South Korea last year. I miss that place very badly, by the way. I wish to go back sometimes.

Anyway, before I go off tangent, it was great watching the movie. We got good seats too - second row from the back, right smack in the middle. I had to resist squealing each time Sungmin or Kyuhyun appeared on-screen. Seriously. I settled for clenching my hands or clamping them over my mouth. A few girls in the cinema could not resist squealing too - their favourite member was Yesung or Donghae, I think.  

Watching it in 3D makes it much more realistic than on DVD. Although they only showed a few parts of the entire concert, I think it's worth the $60 I paid for the tickets (it's $30 for one ticket). It's great that they even included an epilogue featuring Kangin who is in the army at the moment. I miss the days when it was all 13 of the boys onstage. That seems like a long time ago now. It's amazing how I've been a fan for so long.

Oh, and it's 추석 (Chuseok) now! Here's a song for the holiday! (Sungmin looks so cute in the yellow!)

I'm sorry if I haven't been updating this blog for a while (if anyone actually comes here at all). The bulk of my CAs are done. I just have two more to tackle and hopefully, I'd be able to do well for all my modules. 

It was my turn for Show and Tell last week and I sang 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'. My voice isn't as strong before. Probably due to the lack of practice. I miss singing so, so much. Even more than that, I miss performing on a stage. There's nothing better than being able to perform to an audience, bringing an artform to live and showcasing a masterpiece. I miss that. 

It was a relief that my classmates didn't mind my singing. I'm not exactly a great pop singer. I seem to sing choral pieces more comfortably as compared to pop songs. Unless it's classical pop. Anyway, I'm glad that they were alright with what I sang. 

Moving on, Stella showed two parts of my favourite movie 'Spirited Away' during lesson last week! Too bad it was the English-dubbed version. The Japanese version with all the original seiyu was so much better! I ended up watching the movie the seventh time that night, since I realised I forgot parts of the movie while watching the two short segments in class. That's just how much I love the film.

I also found out how great anime OSTs can be, by the way. I'm using four anime tracks for my VC CA10. I know most are using pop songs but I find instrumentals easier to convey emotions. In fact, I was listening to Joe Hisaishi's compositions on loop while writing my CSM CA10 piece. It keeps me focused and more importantly, inspired. Hopefully, my story would be given a good grade. I wrote about self-esteem. Part of the story is true actually. It's up to those who have read it to guess which parts are true and which parts are not. 

I'm not too sure how I should end off since it's been such a long time since I last blogged. I just saw this quote on Twitter a few minutes ago though, and I thought it kind of relates to my story:

It's true. The most painful thing in life is that sometimes we lose sight of who we are because we value others' opinions way too much. We forget that we're special in our own ways too.

Why is everything placed on a Wednesday? This wouldn't be the first time I'd be skipping French lesson when I think I really ought not to. But the leadership training session seems important too. There is also the briefing for the leadership camp going on at the same time and I need to hand in my registration form for that too. I'm just glad that my dilemma isn't as complex as Wai Meng's, who has so many more events to go for tomorrow. 

Guitar lesson on Sunday wasn't exactly good since I didn't practise. We are doing Christmas carols now.

Choir has been alright I suppose. The French school exchange was really fun albeit it being far too short. We had only one and a half hour to mingle with each other. There were not many chances to speak to each other too since we had to utilise that short period of time to the maximum by singing.

When I entered the school, I wondered if we were still in Singapore. It was my first time in an international school and the campus looked really different from our usual school compound. The students also didn't have uniforms and you could see them walking about. When we got there in was already mid-afternoon so most of them were heading home. It really seemed like a school scene from those European shows.

Everyone took quite a while to settle down in the auditorium. Partly because we couldn't understand their conductor initially. Well, at least I was confused. She calls the sections by different terms and I wasn't used to sitting in once whole big block, I guess.

I stood in the first row, in between two girls from the French school. The girl on my right was Julia ( I think that was her name ) and the one on my left was Ariane. When Julia told me Ariane could speak Mandarin I was actually kind of surprised since I didn't really expect to find Asians in the school. Ariane told me that she has been in the school since she was five and her mum is a Taiwanese. After Ariane knew I can speak Mandarin, she started speaking in Mandarin to me and I think she is more fluent in the language that I am if I were to be frank.

Although they did not seem familiar with the combined pieces at all I was struck by how earnest they were in their singing. Julia told me that they only learnt the first few pages of Why We Sing and sang 大海啊！故乡 using the syllable 'la'. They also performed two Swedish pieces for us afterwards and during our turn, we performed around half of our December concert repertoire.

It didn't really matter whether their standard is as good as us, or worse than us. In my opinion, their enthusiasm and willingness to learn had already won me over from the start. I really like Julia too, she was really friendly.

At the end we gave each of them our choir badges and a bouquet of flowers to the French conductor. Let's hope we will get to have a combined performance with them soon!

By the way, the journey from the florist near my house to Redhill was a little awkward for me. It wasn't the first time I was carrying a bouquet while taking the public transport. The first was with my mum. We were going to visit Aunt Rachel at some hospital after the birth of her daughter. So my mum and I got this bouquet of teddy bears for Aunt Rachel. And for the duration of the journey there, I had plenty of stares. Yesterday was the same too, just that it was a bouquet of lilies instead. A lady asked me about it on the way too. She spoke to me in Mandarin; I guessed she was a Chinese/Taiwanese tourist since she didn't appear local and she had a luggage with her.

Wow! Who gave you those lilies? Your boyfriend is so sweet/romantic!
Nonono, I'm giving these flowers to someone else. They are not for
me.
How much is it?
Around $55 for a bouquet this size.
Ohh...Still, so sweet of him to give you lilies. They smell great!

My arm went numb from cradling the lilies on the train. The florist told me that I must not crush the lilies and must cradle it gently. Somewhat like how parents carry babies I think?

Dinner at Yoshinoya went well. Lots of people couldn't make it unfortunately. Our group of nine went to Bishan Library (I didn't know there was a library there) after eating. I nearly walked into a glass panel there. It has been proven repeatedly that I should not have too many glass panels at home if I were to shift. Otherwise, I think I will have plenty of chances to walk into them.

I went to watch the movie Disney's A Christmas Carol last weekend with my mum. The three ghosts that visited Scrooge at midnight seemed scarier than the ones I saw in previous versions of the same story. The last version I watched was the English version, I think. And it wasn't an animation so there was a limit to how dramatic the ghosts appeared. There wasn't the journey to outer space in the old version I guess. But the animation was as heartwarming as all earlier versions. After all, the main plot is still the same, carrying along the lesson to be learnt by Scrooge. Charles Dickens' stories are good.

Should I go for the carolling even though Yibin won't be with me? D:

This year's birthday has been a great one.

My mum celebrated my birthday with me a day before as it falls on a choir practice day. We went to Plaza Singapura and walked around the place. The first place we shopped at was Cotton On. The branch there was almost twice and a half times bigger than the one in Tampines Mall. More clothes were available too. I bought two skirts and my mum bought a sweater for herself.

Next we went to the upper levels and went pass this baby spa outlet. They wrap this float thing around the baby's neck and let the baby dangle precariously in a circular tub that is at least one metre deep. My mum was really intrigued by the whole process and just stood at the window staring into the shop. I don't really fancy being dunked into the deep water with just a float loosely taped around my neck if I were the baby however. It just isn't my idea of fun.

I do love showering and bathing though. The longest bath I took was near two hours. When I was that baby's age, I was playing with toy ships in my own shallow tub of water at home. It was those tubs that were also used for soaking clothes which are meant to be hand washed. Actually you can just create a tub at home and soak your toddler in some hot water. Funny how people actually spend so much money on their children even when they can just do it on their own. Then again, maybe when I become a mother in the future, I may just do the same.

Dinner was at some Japanese cuisine outlet. I had curry omu rice. It was delicious. Then again, an omu rice lover like me will like the dish as long as there is omelette in it. My mum and I later shared a pretzel from Auntie Anne's. I didn't really fancy the oily taste though.

We later watched the Korean movie, My Girlfriend is an Agent. It's a really hilarious romantic comedy. I could hardly keep from laughing.

The following day, I went to school for choir practice and was greeted by many wonderful presents and cards from my great friends. Maybe it's because I now have a Facebook account, but I also received many birthday greetings. Oh, and Yibin, I will try to reduce the number of posts spent on Kpop. =]

Sungmin has just recently gotten a kitten, Hyaku. And the kitten is most probably a Siamese, one of my most favourite cat breeds. I think Russian Blues, Siamese, Japanese Bobtails and Ragdolls are really pretty cats. Ah well, I don't think I can ever care for a pet till I can get rid of my zoophobia. I wouldn't have the time to be truly responsible for one either. And there will be added expenses to worry about, plus the problem of fleas, rabies and other health problems.

It's late, therefore I will post about my class gathering later.