Pictures

Hm. Nice picture uploading program =) Any objections to me uploading post concert people-pictures? Requests for particular photos can be entertained if no one minds... cos I do realise that this is a rather public blog -_-

Let's Begin Again 04: Classy, hmm? Flowers from beloved friends and our concert programme booklet to remember the precious day by =)
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Pre-concert syndromes

Stressed. Jeez. I just get sudden waves of panic washing over me and I get really freaked out. Mostly when I wake up in the morning with songs ringing in my head, or late at night when everyone's asleep.

The concert is too close for comfort, and there're no more pracs in between.
Help.
Must calm down, must calm down.
*sigh*

Not that it should bother me so, except for the fact that it does mean a lot to me, this concert. I wish it wouldn't end so quickly, so abruptly. It's like, no practice next week? Huh?

I want it to continue. The pracs. The dinners. The lunches. The get togethers. The taking-for-granted-that-you're-gonna-see-everyone-again-next-week.

Cadenza hadn't brought about such an onslaught. Cos we do know that, duh, we'll see you when school reopens, what's there to miss?

Too many sudden changes. Not quick enough to process everything, and that throws me off, the slips in control.
Darn.
Nvm. We'll wait and see. Wait for all these school stuff to blow over then must go mug my scores. Uh oh oh oh.

Tedious, tedious shopping...

While a bit of time away before I start calling schools again. Five more minutes. For the teachers to walk from their classroom to their staffroom.

I have squashed all inclination to shop ever more--or at least for the rest of this month--after the Big Hunt for the Huay Huay Dress with my mum on Tuesday. Don't ask me to look at clothes again. No more, no more. Having accidentally stumbled into a shop with an overenthusiastic auntie insisting that I try on every piece of those... those... those... LOUD! coloured! sequined! glittering! painfully huay huay dresses, bulldozing all my protests-- "No girl, you must try! You don't know how you will look until you try!" After dress number 2, of which she took much pleasure in playing dress-up with me, pulling here and tucking there, I was quite done with the entire affair. Told her, with much vigourous head shaking, that I really really do not fancy this kind of... uh... clothing... no offense to the tastes of that designer son of hers who thinks that ooohhh-how-sweet-you-look-like-a-perfect-little-barbie-doll-princess, which is exactly what I do not want to look like, because I am by no means skinny enough to carry it off nor mature enough to look go in extremely oriental-flowered-styled-sequinted-shimmering-figure-wrapping-front-dipping-back-baring designs, thank you very much. *shudder*

Very tedious, going in and out and in and out of all these random shops in town, trying out weird combinations of clothing that one does not usually consider wearing. It does get remotely amusing, however, then whenever my mum or I pick up a huay huay top the salesgirl nearby would instantly approach my mum--"Would you like this in your size, mam?" only to be told that "Actually, Miss, we're looking for something for her." "Oh." *momentary silence* "How about the plain tops, Miss?" *sigh* "No, actually, I need a flowered top for a performance..." "Oh! For dancing?" Goodness. This must have been scripted, I tell you... Wonder which is more tedious... trying on the same kind of flowered dresses from different shops all over town or answering the same questions from different people all over town. -_-
Anyhow. I got my dress. After a four hour walkathon. So I shall stop whining about it and spare everyone a earful =P Was out with Shell the following day and my eyes were automatically straying to anything that's remotely flowery. *cringe* But at least this time we were out to scout for nice plain tees... Ended up with mugs and earrings and things like that but no clothes. Hm. But anyhow it was good to see Shell again, even if it's only for a couple of hours. =)

Frivolous pursuits aside ;P Was reading my weekly newspaper a couple of days ago, and came upon a really really good article. It's actually a prize-winning commonwealth essay piece entitled What the Modern Woman Wants. It's a very local, very perceptive, very beautiful piece of writing... Do go and read it--P24 of Sunday Times. Goodness, it's been so long since I've read a narrative essay, and such a poignantly moving one as this. Gives you space to ponder upon her story--how it reflects our life, our pursuits, our values... I quote:
Now her daughter was too clever for her and the old woman wondered why she had prayed like that. The gods had been faithful to her persistant prayer, but the wealth and success that poured forth so richly had buried the girl's roots and now she stood, faceless, with no identity, bound to the soil of her ancestors by only a string of orgami banknotes.....
Her daughter often mocked her for worshipping porcelain gods... But her daughter had her own gods too, idols of wealth, success and power that she was enslaved to and worshipped every day of her life... All the wants her daughter had would slowly suck the life out of her, and leave her an empty soulless shell at the altar... Gosh. Let this be a reminder that this is what I must never never be, in this horrifically materialistic, success-oriented world =( If there is one thing I cannot bear, it is the sheer emptiness of... of... well, of purpose, of love, of living, of life. The girl in the story will never find true happiness until she understands that it is the intangible things that truly matter, that which is firmly planted in the depths of our hearts. Like her mum's self-sacrificial love for the daughter who wouldn't even care.

*blinks* Oh well. Just go read it, and tell me what you think. And reflect... it might work wonders for the following prac when we do 'Seasons of Love' =) Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear... so often do we tend to squander them away, so recklessly. *sigh* Time to work it out and piece things together again, girl. Every minute, every moment, to be woven into your life, to fill up the little empty holes... To make for a more wholesome rather than hole-some life, yes? =)

Dress

Oh, and I found my second half dress yesterday... so yay to that, too! I like it... huay but not awful... ahaha... Just don't ask me how much it costs k... It's a sEnSiTiVe issue...

Broadband!

Yay! I got broadband! *sings* Happy happy...

Busy Thursday

I tried to change my html. Keyword: Tried. After going to 'view source' from three other nice blogs and not understanding how the horrendously jargonised stuff works I decided I shall not continue for now, and opt for an easier alternative, ie, coming here to whine about it. Haha, no, it's not constructive, I realised ;o)

Yesterday was a good day, which puts me in a good mood for today as well. I accomplished quite a few things! 1) Went back to NY to collect my cert, 2) Went for my medical exam 3) Applied for my concession tix 4) Spent the remaining time buying concert shoes with Maria and Dyana (Okay, that was probably the one main thing I really looked forward to doing, the former accomplishments being really good excuses to let everyone feel better about it, but nobody needs to know that, right? ;P)

Hm. NY has become throughly old-student-unfriendly. We spent more than half an hour walking rounds and making detours because of the humongous construction going on. But then again, what's new? It's quite ironic actually. Last time we used to make so much noise about finding a way out when we're trapped inside the school, and now we're making noise about finding a way in when we're trapped outside. Hee... Anyhow there is only one main way into the building now, what with the side doors locked fast and the hoardings sealing off various other exits. Oh, the staff room has now installed this auto-locking door system, a replica of what they have at MOE--you need an electronically coded card for access, without which you would need to intercom in to ask for someone in there to receive you. Hey, I've got more than a fair share of waiting outside glass doors and running to catch the doors before they shut back at MOE--Madhu used to say that it's become a distinctly instinctive reaction for me -_- So we didn't have access into the staff room also, but I did get to speak to Mr N and Mrs T... oh, and to advertise for the concert, too. Got the "leave your number with me, I'll contact you again" reply, which wouldn't have been so bad a response had I not heard it twice over from teachers and office staff alike from 11 other schools. Whoa. Not that I was bothered much by it, because I know they are a lot more likely to reply than the unknown teachers, but the phrase just struck me as creepily familiar. *shudder*

Shopped for shoes with Maria and Dyana! It was madness... we did a lot of walking that day, from the detours all round NY to Serangoon station to take train to NUS when we got down at the wrong bus stop to the medical checkup point to the bus stop where we took another wrong bus to the MRT to all around town for two pairs of shoes. Bwahahaha... I think we ought to get our directions right first before we wander about so avidly =P Anyway after two hours of moving from one shoe shop to another we did manage to find covered shoes to match D's and M's outfits... and they were very pretty! They got two different colours of the same design... one pink and one white... hee I was debating whether I oughta get the beige pair or not, so that we'll all turn up in the same kind of shoes, albeit in three different colours ^_^ But I didn't lar, in the end. It was still an amusing thought though. Anyhow it was there was a tremendous sense of accomplishment--two thirds of our party got their shoes!--so at least we won't be returning home empty-handed after an entire day out =P As for me--I found my pair of shoes after turning out our shoe cupboard at home. Amazing--I could still fit into them after three? four? years... So for now there's no need to fret. I only need to reach a conclusion on which blouse-and-skirt I ought to choose out of my sole two huay-huay tops.

Met up with my mum after that to go watch a dance concert with her, a combined effort by an association and a CC. Uh... I didn't exactly like it very much. Not just because of the fact that my mum has a rather intimidating friend--very cheena, with her very crisp vocabulary, very polished, very perfectionist, very pointed in speech and rather pompous, although, granted, she was friendly enough... There's just something unreadable and unreachable that put me somewhat ill at ease...

Kk I digressed... back to the concert. It started about twenty minutes later than the stated time, which kinda annoyed me already, having walked my feet to bits the whole day and was already in the stoning stage... then the minute the emcees came out to speak I was--bleah. Totally miserable. Don't know about the rest of you, but it really really aggravates me when the Masters of Ceremonies don't deliver their speeches as they should. Goodness... all the slanging and the swallowing of consonants and the distorting of vowels and the mispronounciations and the wrong translations... both the Chinese and English versions for their speeches. Reminded me of certain assembly mornings when Shell and I will hiss simultaneously under our breaths and cringe -_- Ouch.

That wasn't the main point, I guess, though it bothered me enough randomly throughout the show. The dances were... okay, I guess. It seemed a very... solo... kinda thing, you don't feel the synchonised movement of the groups along with the music, but more like everyone is focusing on dancing her own part. So the fluidity was kinda disrupted. But they do have some pretty admirable pieces--the dances with a livelier theme and a more relaxed mood have a much higher energy level and more exuberance, which felt good to watch, even though it was still a bit luan. All in all, I daresay, it was still not bad an effort... A performance is not always easy to put together, afterall. So must appreciate a bit more, though I was admittably sore at certain points =X

That should be about it for the day... oh, and just a sidenote-- it did feel good to be back in the VCH vicinity, even though then show was held at the theatre-- it's a pleasant feeling to be back on familiar grounds again. The place simply tingles with choir-y memories... More to come, I guess, in a couple of weeks from now. So till the next time, take care, drink more water, leave more notes, and update, people! =)

Japanese Name

My japanese name is 吉国 Yoshikuni (good fortune country) 三千代 Michiyo (three thousand generations).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Wow. So patriotic. But "Charmaine" means something totally different though.

My japanese name is 原 Hara (wilderness) 歩 Ayumi (walk, deeper meaning: walk your own way).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
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Ohoho. Lo and behold that one day when I can finally "walk my own way"... Though I sincerely hope it won't be in the wilderness...