It's just hours away from year 2009 now.

After reading Teryne's blog, I still can't understand what's so interesting about a beautiful name. A few people went quiet after that remark was made and had a shocked expression. Was it that strange?

This year has been a great year for me. I think.
I will miss the girls from 2C1 2008 and their wackiness. I will also miss Ms Li and Mr Tham. Ms Li has got to be the first teacher to stand on the table to introduce herself. Maybe it's her height.
I have also given up on growing taller as I think my height is quite alright after all.

For this year,

Our class had the absolutely crazy Amazing Race that took a long time and a huge effort to plan.
Thank goodness it was successful although the participants came back all tired and hungry.

There was also the trip to Sentosa where we had the water bombs and games.

Then there was the memorable kueh-gorging session I had with Deborah during the Learning Journey trip.

Singing Christmas songs in the middle of the year with Pam.

Falling down on almost all the slopes within the school compound - I only have the service road left to trip over.

Learning the African Pantsula dance. I really miss dancing actually. It was really fun.

I will also remember History lessons. Whereby I will just stare blankly at the screen, till Mr Tham had to ask if I'm alright as I looked really blur.

Suet Yi and me sleeping through Geography lessons. Ms Sim would always knock on our tables as we were sitting right at the front. She didn't really get angry since I did well for the subject though.

A new school rule was made, stating that no girls are allowed to use the Gents in school.

I grew 2 cm taller.

There is now wii in the canteen.

The plastic spatula melted while I was frying an omelette. I kind of forgot that it was made of plastic. My mum got me a new spatula since then. And my cooking is actually quite nice, just that there a minor accidents every now and then.

I had a great time with the people at WYCF. Yibin and Evangeline will say this too I suppose. And I still have the songs playing in my head at times. I also managed to embarrassed myself there too. From choking on water during a workshop to hyperventilating over a trivial matter.

The choir managed to find out something from Yibin. At least they are enthusiastic in learning the set piece 'The White Horses' now.

Labels: Birthdays, choir, Christmas, classouting, Crez chorale, New Year, School Days, WYCF

Merry Christmas!

I don't really feel the Christmas mood this year though. Maybe it's because I've just painted my house and the furniture is in quite a mess. Or maybe it's because I have yet to complete my homework. I'm working on it, thank you. 陈老师may have said that this year's homework is easy as we only need to type out a minimum of four substantial journal entries on the Koobits software. Sure, it does sound better than book reviews and such but as I was trying to do my Chinese homework on Christmas Eve, I realised the standards of my Mandarin. Oh well.

My mum got an Ipod nano-chromatic for me! Plus a little soft toy chick. It's just really great of her to get me such nice things. =D
I bought her perfume and gave her a hand-made card plus a drawing which I took two and a half hours to do. I had to use so many markers, pigment pens and colours to just draw that Christmas tree. Thank goodness my mum loves the Christmas tree piece. I haven't been drawing for some time and I was worried my designing skills have all but drained away.
Thinking about it, this Christmas has not been that bad either. Sure, my best friend is currently ignoring me. But I made new friends from the festival this December and I became braver so much so as to add people online.

The 6/9 gathering was made up of seventeen people out of the past forty-three. Anyway, I met Jolene and Chan Qy at Simei MRT station and we were walking towards some faraway bus stop when we had to backtrack to the station once more. Daniel suddenly called up and asked to meet us at the station. Somehow, we managed to find our way to Kelly's house. Jolene was leading the way most of the time.

We also found out how vain Daniel and Benedict are since they just can't stop worrying about their hair. Once we reached the house, they zoomed to the mirror and arranged their hair once more. It was also hilarious when Daniel actually mistook a shaver for a house phone.

We were the first few to arrive so time was spent just sitting around to wait for the others to come. Next came Avelene and after Christel, Tabitha, Beth and Priscilla reached the place, we started to pool the DVDs together and choose which to watch. Prisicilla declared that we should watch the NC16 movies since she doesn't get to watch them at home.

We started with Wall-E which is so much more innocent compared to the rest of the shows. While we ate the pizza, Iris, Cally and Kai Ho arrived. Some people left during the second show I think. Next up was Wanted and Tropic Thunder. Wanted was kind of nice if you exclude some parts of the movie. Tropic Thunder was funny in a really sadistic way. Both movies were really bloody.
In the end, only the girls and Kai Ho were left. Our Movie Marathon only had three movies and lots of junk food. But at least the gathering was kind of successful since almost twenty came.

Labels: 6906, choir, Christmas, WYCF

I just read this forum that was on 'Which section is the best?'

I definitely will always side the First Soprano since we are the usually the melody and a song wouldn't sound nice without us most of the time. We are also always heard and hit the high notes. The question is kind of common (Mr Terence Toh asked us that question during the bass-soprano sectional) but there can never be an absolute answer. Mezzos can sing both the high and low notes, altos are really strong since they need to sing harmony for their part. Tenors are really good since they are superb in singing falsetto, basses are the lowest and like altos, are really strong on their part and they are like the foundation for the higher voices. Baritone is also considered great with the same reason that was stated above for the Mezzos.

In the end, I think everyone asks the question because they just want to tell others how proud and how much they love their sections - not because they want to prove themselves to be the best. Ironic isn't it? It is a question that doesn't even need an answer but gives you an opportunity to tell others how great your section is. Every section also makes up the choir; therefore each can be counted to be equally wonderful. I think.

My house was in the midst of being painted last week. However, my skin is a tad sensitive to the door paint. I was painting my room's walls last Thursday and the door of the room swung back, hitting my arm. Since the door had been newly painted, so my arm had a blue imprint on it. It started to get red after a while.

My fourth aunt, uncle and cousin Ivan came to help us paint our house too. It's really nice of them to help, especially when I have a penchant for getting paint onto myself instead of the walls.

I realised that I only gave a very broad idea of WYCF in my previous posts after reading other fellow WYCF people's posts. Therefore I decided to edit my posts in order to give a better description.

There is also the 6/9 gathering later at 1pm and I still don't know where on earth Kelly’s house is. I think I will just get on the bus and ask the bus captain later. However, I will have to miss TK's Christmas party since it's starting at 2pm and I guess it will end quite early.

I think Sean was the only one who noticed that the date set for the gathering was wrong since Kelly said it was 23rd November instead of December. He was telling me that it's impossible to go for the gathering unless the time machine has been invented. Well, I admit I can be quite slow at times but I don't think anyone spotted the little blunder in the month.

Yesterday was spent on the recording of Mama Mia for next year's campfire. Juniper was trying to get us all fired up so that we can attract more than half the level next year. Well, I think it will be fun to sing at the campfire I guess. I'm hoping that it will rain though since the smoke is really suffocating.

After the break, all of us got down to business and our section managed to learn the whole of The White Horses. I take back what I said earlier about the song as it actually sounds nice to me now. Unfortunately, I have no idea why I kept singing in minor key. I felt so guilty for singing wrongly.

Labels: choir, Christmas, Crez chorale, WYCF

Much as I don't want it to end, WYCF did end this afternoon. It was pretty sad. I made a lot of friends over there. With the duration being just a mere two weeks ... the whole camp was not long enough!!! Especially not with so many fun people.

It really is kind of an empty feeling - knowing that the whole two weeks of hard training and crazy moments have ended. Although I'm always sleeping during the break times in the auditorium since I only go out if I want to eat or meet Evangeline and Yibin, I still had lots of fun.

There's Michelle bunny who is always so hyper and cute. She's also the most friendly actually.

Kim, who can be considered one of the most rational of us and is my 'uncle'.

There is also Sarah, the really friendly person. Unfortunately she had to go overseas so didn't see her after the first week.

Agnes, my 'mother' and 'grandmother' of Ms Yin, I think. I still remember what she said: “因为我要子孙满堂”. And I think everyone from SSA knows her birthday.

I will always remember Alyssa as the girl who draws great manga sketches. She was also one of the first few that I introduced myself to on the first day of the SSA soprano one sectionals. And also the one I'm always standing next to for all performances.

Sheena, who is always really friendly and has the Elmo keychain.

For the slightly more senior ones, there is Yvonne, who is our section leader. She is also the willing 'wife' of Melvin, who is at least four years younger than her.

Amanda (Yar-mahn-dah) the senior one but she doesn't need to worry since she looks young. Haha, she will get sad if someone talks about her real age.

Yee Ching, the next SSA Sop One section leader who is also our dear soloist for Mieli. She is a really great singer.

Shirley the considerate person who will wake me once practice starts otherwise I will just sleep on. But I will wake up once someone plays the piano so that doesn't happen often actually. =P

Wendy who always offer to take photos with her phone

Samantha who is quiet but will talk to you if you take the first step.

Zi Xin, I'm sorry that I sometimes get you mixed up with another girl and you're a really nice person.

Melvin, the only boy in SSA and is doted on by the Soprano Ones as he's the youngest too.

Then there is Josselyn, who is really helpful.

Aisha and Charlotte who are always together and they really take a lot of photos with almost everyone.

Melissa, Wan Xin's and Agnes' friend from SSA alto who is as friendly as Agnes too =]

And there's our Ms Yin who has helped us incredibly during the pre-festival period. She saved the Soprano Ones from giving up on ourselves for Ah, Dolente Partita. Ms Yin also made the Sop Ones refrain from 'attacking' all the high notes with warm ups in the dance studio that include singing insanely high notes in pp. Ms Yin and Ms Angila pushed us on everyday and yet never hesitated to show their support for us.

Ms Angila who did the Mary had a Little Lamb and Happy Birthday exercise with us. Not to mention the German pronunciation for Shreight or something. I just remember the three fingers for the Shi-righ-teh thing. And the posture classes including the bending down part which you asked us to do with SATB too. It was kind of tiring doing the posture thing but we know you just wanted us to look good. I think.

Mr Turunen helped to lessen our phobia of Ah, Dolente Partita and challenged us with all the dynamics in all the songs - especially for Der Wassermann and Mieli. There was also the emotion part whereby we had to think of our feelings for the song since three out of four of the songs were related to love and passion. There was this girl from Alto that asked him about it. Since we were too young to know what is really love, he said

"Just think of the boy you like. How you want to be near him, and see him. But you don't have the courage to tell him or talk to him."
"Sir, what if the boy doesn't like you and wants you out of his sight?"
"Erm, but you still want to be near him, don't you?"

Well, we did manage to do the songs well during the real thing. Except for Joiku. It was interesting singing a different version of Joiku. We had to change our voices to sound like five-year-olds and sound like forty-year-olds at the end. Our clapping was shaky but it was really good considering that crescent choir took one whole month to do the clapping perfect without a single mistake from everyone. I think the Um-pe-e-ci-ka part was also nice since I taught the Sopranos how to do it =DDD

And thank you Juniper, for shouting that I rock after the SSA choir performed. I was really surprised but happy. Thanks! I don't know if I missed out anyone but there were really many people who were really great from the festival. Most of them are from my section though.

I love all the songs that we have learnt in such a short amount of time, with so many other great and passionate people. We learnt vocal techniques through the lectures and workshops. We had combined rehearsals in the morning with Mr Bob Chilcott and our own SSA, SATB rehearsals after lunch at CCAB for the whole week. SSA was conducted by Mr Kari Turunen who, like I mentioned, helped us a lot for Ah, Dolente Partita. He's a great conductor who gave us all the confidence to tackle the difficult songs.

Mr Chilcott is also a fun conductor who stresses on the importance of dynamics. He will do anything just to let us sing better, from dancing to trying to express the gentle feelings in The Goose and the Swan. That was my favourite song by the way.

I really like all the different conductors. It was really fun getting to know different conductors and their different styles. I got to make so many friends and got lucky this year. I really hope we can get together again to perform or at least meet up once more. If you ask me to describe how this experience has been for me, I would just say that it has been incredibly wonderful, and I shall cherish the memories of the past two weeks.

Labels: choir, WYCF

This whole week has been about choir. And I can say now that I really love WYCF 2008. Especially the pre-festival camp period.
Somehow, I even got a family there. Agnes is my 'mother', with Michelle (bunny) as her husband and many other people being tied into it. XD
Everyone was great and spontaneous and made new friends. I think after this ends I will be at lost with what to do with my time.

It's the first time I've been crammed with nine songs to learn within a week. Each morning will bring a new song to learn and scores to read. It was also really great meeting so many people who are passionate about singing and so friendly to each other.

Although it was only until Thursday that SSA needed to combine with SATB for the combined songs, I didn't really get to mix with Evangeline and Yibin. We go for lunch together though. And Yibin has developed this strange fascination with mayonnaise.

Saturday's combined rehearsal with SNYO for the theme song was cool. We got to see their own rehearsal with Mr Lim Yau and they are really good. Their discipline is also the best I've ever seen actually. Anyway, for once I could sing my very loudest as we were all trying to sing louder than the orchestra. Ms Ong always asked me to sing softer so it felt liberating to sing so loud.

Sunday's guitar lesson was fine and I did some advertising about the festival. Somehow I don't think anyone understood what I said though. Kai Ming just had this really amused expression on his face while the others just looked blank.

After that my mum and I shopped for my concert attire. I managed to get a white blouse before we met Auntie Shirlene and Auntie Clara for a dinner buffet at the Holiday Inn. The buffet was somewhat limited unfortunately. After dinner, we went to look for my skirt and managed to find a black skirt pants at Robinsons. I still find that skirt pants a little weird since I'm not used to such...wide pants.

By the way, if anyone is interested in watching us perform, please get the tickets at $11 from Sistic. I heard that visitors can drop by to watch us rehearse at VCH in the mornings too. =]

Labels: choir, guitar, WYCF

I was kind of apprehensive before going for the WYCF pre-festival camp today since I will be the only Sop1 and girl from my school. But I think every choir's soprano ones are always the crazy group because my section is made up of really great people. Somehow I find that our section is the noisiest.

Michelle and the other Sec3s got a shock when they realised that I'm not a sec3 student. They said they thought I was older since I am tall. Haha, and when I said that I'm considered short in my class and told them the height of the tallest person in my class, they were like, 'woah!'

Sectionals were okay. It's the first time that I encountered a boy in my section and in a SSA choir. I know that there are male sopranos but I'd always thought they would go to SATB (not that there is any huge difference) but it's just strange since SSA choirs are usually female choirs. And Melvin's first reaction could be heard in the whole auditorium I think. He looked so freaked out when he realised he's the only boy in our choir. Anyway, he sure can sing in falsetto well.

Der Wassermann is a beautiful song - however sadistic it is. German is really difficult to pronounce though. I still pronounce 'tanzten' as tungsten.

Labels: choir, WYCF