lol

What's the purpose of having a blog?

Blogging is essentially keeping a digital diary - and however much you wish to reveal, it can be accessed by the whole world. Or part of the world who knows the url of your unlisted blog, or the password to a decryption. Whatever.

Anyway, my main purpose of keeping this blog for 5 years - and counting, hopefully - is so I can type out my experiences of my (said) life and not forget them a few years down the road. I choose to believe the adults who tell me that the schooling years would be the best years of my life, so I should document all the funny moments in class, my feelings behind every choir production, outings with friends, how studying is killing me, the opportunities outside of class that the school has given me... and when I am all old and stress is in the tangible form of wrinkles on my face, I can read these entries and reminisce about those times. (and realise they were better times than my horrible adult life and I should have cherished the years of awkward teen self) (?)

It's true, 岁月不饶人, time passes way too quickly. The children are growing up, our parents are growing older.

Ramblings aside, I already regret a little for my future self that 80% of year 4 has passed, and I haven't had the time to touch this blog at all. It is a bit of an inconvenience for me to access this blog account (due to boring reasons) and.... I don't understand myself because today is a Sunday and I'm in the midst of my last junior high EOYs, with chem and math 2 coming up next and yet I can blog (??) To be honest, I think you can do whatever the heck you want at any time of your life. I think I have been consistently prepared for my tests, and I really don't believe in cramming stuff minutes before a test, like millions of my peers who would bring materials down to flag-raising and back up. I have been more chill about tests this year - I went to a choir concert on the night before math and geog CT, went for a MUN on the weekend between CT2, go do CIP/for choir practices during the EOYs period... really, spending time on these stuff "instead of revising" didn't have a bad impact on my studies, in fact it kept me going, it kept others going (for instance, the people I am supporting in the choir concert?) and I feel really... calm. You know, 2 hours isn't going to magic out an A+ for you. Worse still, sometimes you get distracted and don't even study - so why not do something else instead.

Have been spending EOYs studying with peng at compass point and it has been great so far. It's near home, affordable and we have done so much. Just 2 days ago, I also took the last physics paper of my life (why did't I inherit my father's engineer genes) BUT FYEAH, GOODBYE PHYSICS. Soon, GoSH! would begin and I really cannot believe 2/3 of dhs life would be complete and we would become jc students. :(

Perhaps I would still do a run through of events throughout the year, and I guess I'll list them out to see how far we've come...

• CCA orientation
• March choir camp - it was overnight!!!
• Gala concert
• Choir showcase - Aladdin and Frozen the musicals (: daresay biggest event of the year
• BSP camp - yes, I went back as a facil
• Ventured into the mun world with IMUNC
• My own handover :'(
• Natl day at Maju camp - army life is super interesting
• SDYC - second (official) mun, and unexpected prize

Yes, quite far. But the journey never ends.

x

Hello world.

Happy New Year!! 新的一年，新的开始 :D I can't believe it's 2014 already. I'm already into year 4, but year 1/2 felt like yesterday? I'm already going to experience handover. My brother's taking his psle. I'm taking my Os for hcl. Oh, 2014. It's gonna be one hell of a ride.

Anyway, bro's starting school tomorrow (wait, later today..) on 2 Jan (HA!) While I laugh at his sorry plight, I couldn't help but feel quite relieved as well because I would probably drown in my own tears right now if school were to start tomorrow. For starters, I have 1.5 more subjects worth of homework to complete still...

I was just printing out a worksheet at the printer just now and I couldn't help but think of a few things that made me want to type this post. It's about midnight, and I'm the only soul still awake at home, and I'm crossing my fingers that my noisy printer wouldn't wake anyone up. Then I did some paperwork by turning on the lights in my room with the knowledge that my bro is already fast asleep (yeah, he sleeps on the floor beside my bed at times!) and I couldn't help but think that I am going to spend a lot of 2014's nights (or wee hours of the morning, however you see it) doing this. Printing things in darkness and being the only room with lights on, doing serious stuff, of course.

The fine lines

Hello World.

After tuition tonight, I went to buy a cup of bubble tea thinking that, well, I did not have one in the longest time ever and also kind of hoped that it will help me stay up later to do some homework. But right now at about 1 a.m. in the morning, screw it, I thought. Not like the solutions to the numerous scary questions I have been staring at in the past week will come to me suddenly. Also, spent the whole day otherwise ticking things off my agenda list so I'd really appreciate a break.

Shall begin with my experience with the Atelier choir first :D

11/12/13, Wednesday
What a beautiful date and day! Truth be told, I was very excited upon hearing about such an opportunity since September when I saw it in the programme booklet for SYC's concert then, We Are Singapore. Afterward, preparations for the atelier choir began and I was really glad that I am able to go for it! This experience really means the world to me. How else can I improve myself as the chorister, perform at such a location (dream come true) and do what I love at the same time? :)

After crazy five-days-in-a-row rehearsals (ONLY), it was showtime. Of course, I was quite pleasantly surprised that in just 5 days of practice, we are able to pull off 5 songs with some kind of expected standard due to the nature of this concert. I'm pretty sure this efficiency is due to the fact that we are all like-minded individuals, or should I say choristers?

Walked from Bugis to SMU for pre-concert prep with my dhschoristers, had (the most effective) stretches, warm-ups and run-throughs before we went for lunch at Yoshinoya. It was really funny because we argued a lot on where to go to; we firstly wanted to get to Plaza Sing (The Cathay was visible from where we were standing, omg) and then while walking in that direction, we passed by a group of atelier people and found out that they wanted to go to City Hall, which made a lot of sense because Esplanade is walkable from there. This made us debate yet again on where to go to, so we decided to follow them after all and walked in the opposite direction. But somewhere along the way due to some intercommunication issues some of us thought that we were still going to Plaza Sing, so we ended up taking the circle line from Bras Basah to Dhoby. This frustrated the hell out of one another because of all the time we had wasted! u_u

After lunch, we chilled at Plaza Sing for a little as we had a lot of time left. Nothing much happened, except that we went into this cute vintage shop, watch teletubbies dancing on stage (SO amusing! My junior, Bryan, and I laughed so hard at that) and then went to Daiso so that the guys could get last minute bright ties and Bryan bought a xmas hat. Made our way to the esplanade stage doors and soon we were having final rehearsals, costume change, dinner and showtime.

Steeping out of our dressing room one last time, which has a toilet, lockers and dressing tables. Did I mention? The backstage of Esplanade is a maze of rooms and aisles which leads to its four main performing areas. In fact, we reached a general consensus that it looks like hospital aisles, design and all, but the rooms remind us of hotel rooms. At around 7 pm, we were waiting in the room and the PA system went: The stage is live. The stage is live. Do not cross the stage. Do not the cross the stage. Haha, professional much?

The SYC had a few songs to perform before us, and we were all waiting and watching them from the live TV backstage. I don't really have stage fright, but I was quite anxious because I am really afraid of this one song called My Soul's Been Anchored In The Lord, and I'm singing S1 -pales- yeah, if you heard the youtube recording, you would know what I mean... -pales even more- Really afraid of not living up to expectations, you know? When I first got onto stage I did freak a little and wished that I had flats instead because I "cannot get a grip" in my court shoes suddenly, and took a little while to find my voice for our FIRST tagalog song and only sops sing the melody/lyrics. No pressure there at all...

But all is well and our 5 songs passed in a blink of an eye. After Paskong, we had intermission where the Atelier needs to run out from the backstage and enter via audience entrance to catch the second half of the concert - as an audience. See, this is really the best of  both worlds. But me, being a rather sentimental AND thick-skinned person, decided to lose all my face to stay back and ask for Mr Velasco's autograph while everyone went off. Thankfully, he did not reject my request and I now have yet another reason to LOVE my Paskong score! I was so happy I skipped down the steps!

His autograph, my ticket and not in this photo, my stage pass. Needless to say, the rest of the concert was awesome and I loved all the Tagalog songs. I enjoyed myself so much, some parts were so funny! Christmas spirit, guys~

Snuck a prohibited photo of the Concert Hall while seated. Wish I did so while I had the POV of a performer.

This event practically wraps up my eventful 2013 year. To be honest, I am both looking forward and dreading next year. If things do go as planned, next year will be a pretty eventful year as well - with what is probably a lot of commitments. I also have many personal goals in mind that I hope I can slowly develop in the coming year.

Lately, I have also been browsing through winter boots, windbreakers, coats and outwear (online shopping is unhealthy, guys) and I really couldn't help but want to go overseas :( somewhere cold, preferably. Hopefully my family will go on with our plans for Japan after my brother's psle.

With this post, happy new year.

Christmas Without End

It's 12.31AM - It feels extremely surreal, because my performance is just 19 hours away. I am overwhelmed at how we executed 5 pieces in just 5 rehearsals, and tomorrow we will be facing at 1000+ audience at Esplanade. It is a really really rare opportunity and I cannot believe that I will get to experience this performance! Such a great honor as a chorister! :)

This concert is titled Pagdiriwang, which means "celebration" in Tagalog. This is because our guest conductor is Mr Velasco from the Philippines. After having his masterclasses with dhschoir in 2012 and 2013, I was really thrilled to meet him once again! His sense of humor never fails to crack us up, and I had really benefited from him, like I became much brighter.

I'll end off this post by sharing one of the Tagalog songs we are presenting this concert (haven't been sharing song lyrics since last year.) It is a combined piece known as Paskong Walang Hanggan, and its translation can be found in the title. I am immensely blown away by the melody and upon knowing the english translation of the song, I just fell in love with it once more because the melody really brings out the atmosphere of this song! (Help - becoming a choir geek...)

Play and read at the same time! :)


Tinanong mo sakin kung ano ang gusto ko
You asked me what I want for Christmas,
Upang mapaligaya ang aking pasko
so that my Christmas would be happy.
Bakit mo pa kaya sabihin sa akin yan?
... why did you have to ask that?
Para namang kasi hindi mo pa alam
As if you didn't know.

Ang aking araw-araw ay iyo nang iniba
You have changed my life,
Mula pa noong ikaw ay aking nakilala
from the moment I knew you.
Pinasayaw ang ikot ng aking munting mundo
You changed every turn of the world, 
Binigyan ng dahilan ang bawat oras at minuto
You gave me a reason for every hour and minute.
Ang bawat kong pangarap iyong pinalitan
You changed all my hopes and aspirations.
Binigyan ako ng lakas, tiyaga at tapang
You gave me strength and courage,
Na harapin ang bawat tanong at pag-aalinlangan
to face every question and every doubt
Dahil alam kong ikaw ay katabi ko lamang
because I know that you are right here beside me.
At sa tuwing pagsikat at paglubog ng araw
At every sunrise and sunset,
Nagsisimula at nagwawakas sa salitang "ikaw",
every day begins and ends with the word, "you".
Kaya’t huwag mo nang itanong kung ano pa sa akin ay kulang
So please don't ask me what I still need,
Dahil bawat araw kasama ka ay Paskong walang hanggan
because every day I am with you feels like Christmas without end.

The happenings of Taiwan'13 (PART 1)

I just came back from Taiwan (yes, again) but it's a school trip this time round. I don't blog often but I feel an overwhelming urge to document my experience - I wish that I will never forget about the experiences of this trip. Looking at the photos that Mrs Ong just shared with us I really couldn't help but wish that we spent a longer time together in Taiwan and make more wonderful memories together. Why do all good things come to an end? :(

I remember day one when we gathered at Changi. It was really quite awkward at first because unlike STEP, when our student group met so many times to do research, plan performances and stuff that the trip itself was as if spent with old friends; we barely met enough for this trip and except for classmates or friends, I didn't really know the rest of the people. Walked around airport with my mum for awhile before we took group photos and entered the departure hall! 

I remember nothing much other than.. 1) While we made a stop for the toilet, some of the guys came out and when Mr Ong saw them, he went "Huh, you took the banner into the toilet?!" 2) Sherlyn appeared to be mad and said that "she is already sad that this trip is going to end" and asked "am I normal? Is this weird?" Time later was spent mostly waiting for our turn to board the plane. I ended up sitting at the very last row of seats with Sherlyn and Joyce and it was honestly very entertaining because Joyce was super paranoid about taking the plane. Having taken her last flight about 3 years ago, Joyce was convinced that the plane will crash and paid immense attention during the flight safety video to locate all the life vests and emergency exits. Anyway, I spent the flight watching "The Internship" which Angie and I were supposed to watch but tickets were sold out fast that day. (It was good!) Then, by some unknown reason I decided to go check out 步步惊心 because I never ever finished watching the series - I was left with the last two episode, but have seen spoilers before during our y2 chinese RS meetings. Afraid that I had forgotten the plot, I decided to watch from ep 33 and was surprising able to recollect most of that episode. Just when I was about to begin watching ep 34, which is "new" to me, my show was interrupted countless times to tell us that landing preparations will begin soon, so it means that the in-flight entertainment system will be switched off. Really now? :'( *why did I watch ep 33* *ugh* *angst*

Plane mates

After landing, the line to the immigration counters was really long so we queued for quite a while. The BSP people were in the line before us and we just took the chance to meet them at turning ends of the queue to chat and say hi. After being allocated to an immigration officer/counter, we had to queue yet again and there is this red line which said "Please stay behind the red line", followed by the chinese translation which involved the word "線" (in traditional chinese.) Huizhi then made the best remark I had heard all day "Oh... why do they write niao (尿) on the floor ah?"

I think the people around her (myself included) only laughed/facepalmed in disbelief for 5 minutes.

And then Huizhi claimed that there was strong resemblance between those two words and it was not her fault at all for not knowing how to read the word correctly. While waiting for the tour bus at the waiting area, Huizhi was trying to get free airport wifi while I looked around and was greatly shocked when I heard a loud cry followed by wild laughter. The cry came from Sherlyn and I actually caught a glimpse of her trying to take a group selfie and she reached so far that she fell off the edge of her seat. Apparently, she was just trying to take a picture of the people around her. But seriously, falling off your seat was just so ridiculous and extremely funny (and hence I am documenting this for future blackmail.)

Later upon reaching the hotel room, Sherlyn and I, being somewhat paranoid... decided to do things such as knocking before entering our room and making a promise that we will only say nice things after entering (heh heh heh.) We were soon distracted by how pretty the room design was! Afterward, we went on a field trip to the convenience store which is about 10000x better that what we have in sg. Heck, every convenience store in Asia is better than what we have in sg. I think if given a whole day there, we would still not have enough time to explore every nook and crook of the store. They have everything, at cheap prices, and even Joyce was carrying her scientific calculator while walking around. I bought some milk tea (including green tea milk tea!) and an umbrella. Others bought instant noodles and tea eggs, which were heavenly!

Afterwards, we were told to "gather at Mrs Ong's room to receive something" but I already knew that it was actually to celebrate yw's birthday. It was a small celebration which involved a fruit cake, birthday songs and super fail candle placement (apparently, they bought 1 and 5 candles but the one wouldn't stick, so Mr Ong had to hold it, and yw made a huge fuss out of the wishing and blowing out the candles part that it was very amusing. It was also, the bestest cake I have ever eaten - super rich cream, and for once the fruits don't taste worse than how they look. :')

Alright, there should be a part 2 coming up because I ought to sleep soon (there's choir tomorrow) and this is quite a long blog post. Thanks for reading!

x

What this year means to me

Hello World.

School's out! I can't believe that the year is almost ending for all of us. Yesterday, I received my results slip and I guess I was pleasantly surprised because (a) I didn't calculate my GPA at all and (b) I guess I got slightly more than what I had expected? Anyway, I do not feel that my life revolves around results, not that I can produce perfect scores anyway. I guess that I try to put in effort in everything I do...

... erm, or maybe I had changed to think like the above meme?? Nah, I still believe that you should not give anything lesser than your best in whatever you do.

Speaking about changes, I do feel that I had changed a lot since 2011. As I looked at my GPA, I couldn't help but note an abnormal trend in my results - I actually scored highest this year. In year three, the year that every teacher had assured us that "it is perfectly normal to see a drop in your results", "it will be extremely tough trying to juggle 8+ subjects -goes on to promote taking 7 subjects-", "you guys will have to juggle CCA stuff alongside with your academics!", ironically, had been a year that I am happy with my results. (I guess it really attributes to choosing subjects that you really enjoy studying for!) Meanwhile, in year one, aka easiest year to breeze through in your dhs life, I ended up scoring top 75% and I really cannot help but cringe when I look at my year 1 results. I failed a chinese test because I missed a whole text and threw away 20 marks like that, stuff that I can score full marks in such as 成语,听写, pop quizzes, and more, I knew I didn't even try. Seriously, what was wrong with me then?

I know what was wrong with me - I was distracted. My studies, my only responsibility as a student, was neglected. Compared to how I study for things now, I bet I can say that I "did not study" in year 1. I was someone that I was not proud of, if at all. After living through my year 1 days in a blur, I only suddenly realised at almost the end of the year how much of a disappointment I was and finally woke up. It was a tight slap across the face, and it was changing for the better that was the worst. I will never want to live through those days ever again.

Okay, I don't know what was that rambling for. Anyway, on a lighter note, I did things that were rather lame to drive myself to become a better person. I lengthened my skirt, changed my spectacles, removed my.... fringe, cut away my hair (it used to be LONG!)... are you laughing/ mentally going "say whaaaaat" yet? I know, I guess I am a rather sentimental person. These gestures do mean something to me. In all, I'm glad I have my priorities straight today. *glances at year 1 records* *still cringes in disgust*

I am really excited for this holiday because it is really fully packed. I can feel the excitement already! Choir concert is coming up on 30 november, so there is a lot to learn, perfect and plan for throughout November. Meanwhile, I be away for Taiwan trip. After I come back, I will enjoy myself at concert and then go for Atelier choir concert practices, we are going to collabrate with SYC and Mr Velasco, and are potentially singing at the place which gives out $50 entry passes *hypes* not to mention in the meantime, there will be class and choir chalets!! I really cannot wait but most of all, I don't want this to ever end.

:(

Sincerely, drowning in holiday homework.

It's that time of the year

when we are all doing last lap of revisions in preparation of EOYs.

It's 3.14am as I type this - strangely, I do not feel sleepy at all. (Maybe it's because I drank coffee and you know, I don't do coffee, so it has huge effects.) Anyway, I'm involved in an event later which requires me to leave my home by 4am and I'm probably staying at ECP till 2pm. I'll make it back by 3pm, and I have math tuition. Basically, I am not sleeping at all and I wonder what will happen to me during math. This will be interesting.

Also, my whole family is asleep, including my dog; and I have not thought of how to even open the lock of my house gate without waking my dog, which has strong and fiercely loyal instincts. If he barks... Lol, I am so screwed.

Anyway I spent my caffeine-influenced night doing my Macbeth revision and I had to say that it is productive, but I am very reluctant to repeat this again because I don't wish to screw up my body clock during school days. Especially when EOYs are coming. LA paper 1 is in 4 days? ... You now, all I ask for is a pass... is that too much to ask...? (IT RHYMES!)

I am frankly quite scared of what is about to come because it seems like none of my revision is fully complete, and I have only done like 50% of everything. It scary because EOYs take up 60% of your overall grade, and everything you had done in the past 9 months are simply the 40%. So it is quite big of a deal. And then again, I had passed and survived through two EOYs.

Jiayou, and I hope to see you all after October 17, but much happier.