Chasing time on Thursday, June 29th, 2006...
Disastrous to say at least for me, heard comments that the first erhu performance was just horrible :( Hopefully it would have improved over the week haha. But it was fun, and we had to lug around our own keyboard; watched the singers and dancers do their stuff; got locked in a one way door; today's a Quality Control rehearsal haha where the people would gather to make sure that the contents are suitable for the Minister of Defense. Went well, a bit of rearrangements led me to play the Godfather's Theme as well, which I guess goes well with my idea of erhu, stun them so much that they wouldn't notice how lousy your playing is :p People like things unknown, don't they... a natural urge to discover what they don't know, and doing something strange is useful to pique interest and not turn people off directly.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:59 p.m.
Chasing time on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006...
In preparations for the DSTA ceremony 2 weeks later, Terence Iris Manling and I met up over at Holland V at ML's place to coordinate the musical parts we play. Terence and Iris were supposed to play something but due to trumpeting issues much later on and henceforth the dropping of the song, I forgot what it was! Manling and I tackled Liang Zhu, and unfortunately required a prerequisite skill much beyond me; had me playing endlessly the one minute solo portion over and over again for the next week, I've never played so much in my life, minute for minute! Although still not up to scratch at the end, the recordings made were still acceptable, so I guess all ended well, with me an increased appreciation of LZ.
Hindsight blogging is good, but leads to unnecessary branchings yeah?
Anyway, we headed to Swensons and had some nice icecream before leaving for home again.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:59 p.m.
Chasing time on Sunday, June 25th, 2006...
Prayers at Si Ma Lu Guan Yin Miao, lunch with CO bunch, Jiamin's surprise, and a surprise for the TCHSCO who against all odds were roped in into action again. Sat around chit chatting till about 4pm, where we then proceeded to move around in search of better enteratainment, but found none and continued home.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:59 p.m.
Chasing time on Friday, June 23th, 2006...
19th to 23th June, OBS Punggol
It was wonderful, sailing all over northern seas of Singapore haha, seeing malaysia, enjoying the lazy monotony by injecting the atmosphere with our own conversation, games, and words. Of re-realising how much I still had to change; to be mentally quick, to be able to effectively lead. There was an appraisal form, of which up till now I've yet to read - dare not read.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:59 p.m.
Chasing time on Sunday, June 18th, 2006...
Karaoke at Chinatown Kster; followed by dinner at the street stalls.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:59 p.m.
Chasing time on Friday, June 16th, 2006...
Held over the days 14, 15, 16 June.
Day 1 - Intro to DSTA
Day 2 - Grooming Course by Coach Luke
Day 3 - SHATEC
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:59 p.m.
Chasing time on Thursday, June 15th, 2006...
Grooming course by Coach Luke at Holiday Inn in the morning, followed by an uneventful Jingying concert; and the first tchsco erhu karaoke outing haha.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:59 p.m.
Chasing time on Wednesday, June 14th, 2006...
Arranged to meet at 6am, now with the newfound freedom of cars courtesy of Chris and Horse. Still stuck in the old mentality, that if I were to be at the airport by 6am I'll either have to 1) catch the last bus and stay overnight, 2) taxi. :p
Send off pretty unremarkable, but WZ's star power is made apparent when she managed to get two stars (not that I recognised them, I suppose I'll just define stars as what the majorities perceive them as), and well you get people turning heads as the whole group trooped about. Breakfast on the house haha, but I had to rush like a maniac back for DSTA's first day orientation programme. Sadly, I was late as I had a stomachache, and a mad taxi rush coincided with my first contact with the rise in taxi's ERP charges (THREE? exorbitant la!). Not the last, thankfully lol. Managed to end up in a pretty nice seat where I met my two buddies and knew a few from BMT.
Lectures, tea, lectures, lunch. Lunch was where we met our mentor, and some directors walked around to join the various tables and to chat with these new scholars.. I wonder if they're ever disappointed by the crops :P They might be, they kept worrying if we thought A* was a better scholarship choice to us :)
Then followed by a bit of games, first was where we were separated into our various districts, then had a bit of games which I forgot the content. Then we were given sheets where we walk around and try to find others of a certain characteristic, and then get them to sign it. Then we had to discuss what are the problems we're likely to face in uni, and broke off into countries, and come up with some kind of chart.
Then we had a mentor picture presentation woah they printed them fast; where we then made our commitments as mentees and mentors :)
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 06:30 a.m.
Chasing time on Friday, June 09, 2006...
Trip to Aussie, from 19th May 2006 to 05th June 2006.
Bangkok Trip: 6th June to 9th June.
Currently at Bangkok. Had expected the 3 day tour to go slowly as 2 young cousins are tagging along, and hence brought my laptop along so I could perhaps tag the photos taken in Aussie. Perhaps it's just the sheer size of the task, or the holiday mood that has snowballed over the past 3 weeks, but I'm completely unable to decide how to manage the 400 photos taken over 17 days, efficiently. Just as I've decided on a naming and arrangement scheme that'd allow easy modifications by code, in my haste to clear the slate I cleared the photos off the computer too -_- Now I'd have to get home to start work :( All the trouble lugging the computer here and extra grey hair from worrying over the security of the laptop for nothing. Ach. Oh well, I'll try to blog some then.
Perhaps it's the long break from keyboards and screens, but the current feeling of fingers flying over the keyboard is quite shiok, heh :p
Indeed, the Aussie trip is 3x the cost of the Vietnam trip, but it definitely allows you to experience more things. Besides the general city sightseeing, we've managed to impose on 3 groups of people haha saving us a total of 6 days of room, experience the various transport systems implemented as we head up north, and lessons on brand awareness as we trawl Aussie for deals. The more tangible ones, ie those that cost money haha, include the day trips to the scenic Blue Mountain, 4WD biking at the sand dunes in Newcastle, continuous free wine sampling at Hunter Valley and appreciation, understanding that Kayaking and waterrafting does not always involve going distances but also can be used to catch waves in a pretty exciting manner. Surfing (or almost surfing) at Surfer's Paradise. Movie World, with the unforgettable Superman Escape ride and various intriguing exhibits.
Discovered hitherto unknown allergy to alcohol, a sensitivity made worse by serious overdosing on wine during the Hunter Valley tour :p
Higher minimum wage, more work? Fast food workers have been noticed to multitask much more than expected of our local counterparts. We've seen one manning counters, then proceeding to do mopping and table clearing, while handling phone orders using a remote headset.
And on the plane trip back, during the intervals between the movies, I just felt compelled to sit back and face the deluge of emotions that comes rushing in, not unlike the endless pounding waves of Surfers. Of fear, you know. Of insignificance. On the wildly divergent paths of us all. The world suddenly seemed more distant after this revelatory trip, when you realise everyone seem so different and so.. distant.
...panting, staring bleakly ahead at the dust trail, and gave up at 11:59 p.m.
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