Saturday, December 10, 2005
2:30 PM
o joy. its almost 1pm in the afternoon. and i just woke up for this saturday afternoon. blarrs. and my whole room floor is full of home clothes and all those stuff which i havent cleared yet since BEFORE the trip and FROM the trip. boooo.update update on trip (:
careful. i'll go into details. so VERY long post ok. ((:
first day.
yokelian and most of the juniors came to send us off. and yokelian cried. lol. thanks liyana for the card. (:
s'pore security confiscated my scissors. and i didnt even know it was in my bag. boo. sat with junice in the plane. and she's a REALLY crappy/funny sec 1. haha. what 'plane need to do wheels warm ups' and stuff like that. its ok. people with surnames which are 'NG's are like that. LOL. o ya. mr lester lim came with us also for this trip, just like the malaysia trip. ha. cathay's pacific's flight isnt that bad. the food is good but i still ended up putting 4 packets of salt and pepper on the chicken rice. blah. hongkong's airport really big and nice. we even had to take the train to get from our gate to the customs counter.our 3 tour guides were veryyy nice and helpful. i wanted to take my luggage down and my bus's guide would be like 'leave it here! i'll do it for you!" to everyone. hongkong's scenery is beautiful. the mountains may not be as nice as those in europe but having mountains is good enough for me. somehow, hk looks a bit like singapore. so oh well. but the shop streets and stuff are like WOAH. big and flashy neon lights. just like those hk shows i watch on tv. muahas. anyway, we stayed at the YWCA. (not yMca. ok.) and it was like just walking distance from a primary school, middle school, high school, and 'nu ren jie' which is like s'pore's orchard road. HA. lucky us.shared room with xinying. room 904. but for our floor, we all had to share one communal floors unlike those in higher floors, so yeah. it was like band camp. lol. got to shopped at 'nu ren jie' and at their supermarket. blah blah. then dinner at the hotel cafe. and there was this singer. and we kept clapping whenever he finished a song so he was really happy and gave us a chance to pick our song. jiahui picked STAND BY ME and he started to ask jiahui loads of qns on stage. muahas. (:
second day.
breakfast at the cafe. then took the bus to the Hong Kong Institue of Education which is at the mountain peak. and it was freezing. 8 degrees when its supposed to be like 14-17. a really unexpected sudden drop in temperature, the tour guide and the professor told us. so we had to perform a lunch time concert in the open air and o boy. i couldnt even move my fingers. some people were so cold till we had to cover them with like 10 jackets. boo. i like the cold air but i dont like sudden drops. blahs. the concert was ok but it could have been much better. lunch at the school cafe and i got bullied into eating more vegetables than i had ever had in my life. mean! haha. then got to go to the HongKong Academy of Performing Arts. which is like our NAFA or Yong Siew Toh that sort of thing. got a tour from the professor and that place rocks. haha. what instrument practice rooms, ensemble rooms, music theory lecture halls and that sort of thing. and we watched their wind band's ensemble rehearse for their upcoming concert. plus the hongkong philharmonic's tuba principal player came to play a solo for Tuba Concerto. I LIKE THAT PIECE! WAHA. jordan asked mr lim to buy that piece. haha. phylis said one of their clarinetist was doing circular breathing. ahh. i didnt see. boo. their combines and rehearsals are like once a month or something i think, and they'r really good. muahas. dinner at cafe again and blah. at night, had section meeting in victor's room till curfew.
third day.
breakfast at the cafe. felt that if i ate one more western set i'll vomit. o well. had a morning tour around hongkong. went to the beach, temple, moutain tops, that sort of thing. lunch at some restaurant. and me, sean and kexin divided every single food plate item into everyone's bowls so everyone was eating everything. haha. our table rawked. ha. then had an exchange cum concert at a high school, HKCWCC (real long). and everyone's really friendly. started the concert with their school band, then string ensemble, and choir, followed by us. concert was much better. the teachers said our merry widow was very good. and i thought so too. the audience was really the enthu type too, cause when we performed Hawaii 5-0 for the encore piece, everyone clapped and their school's principal face TOTALLY lit up cause she recognized the piece. lol. then got to talk to their band during refreshments and they have a 15 year old male clarinetist who is taller than weijie and victor. LOL. and he rawks so i took most of my photos with him. HA. (leading to the "rebecca has a crush!" by siying. zz. lame) so when we fell in at their basketball court, they were rather impressed. maybe cause their band has a different way of falling in. o well. hotel. section meeting again. at victor's room. this time we went all the way to 12am and didnt know. LOL. muahas.
fourth day.
went to HKIE again. temperature was 18 degrees so it was like the aircon and so. hmm. rehearsed in their hall all the way and it wasnt a good hall cause it was really really dry. not that it was anyone's fault, its a LECTURE hall, what do you expect? haha. and had a break. so during the break, the other 4 bands came in to rehearse. lalala. then practice for mass band. so i got to sit in with people from the mixtures of other bands. and everyone except for the singapore band was speaking in cantonese so i was like HUH most of the time, especially if they tried to talk to me. and there's this Eb clarinet player sitting with me and she has a buffet Eb clarinet! ha. funny thing was that she had the Eb Small World score and i didnt have it back in singapore. o well. she played really loud. like she was challenging me or something. but on the other hand, she's like a tutor, so yeah. her tone would be really good right? yep. so the concert starts. first was the HKIE's band, then some middle school band, mostly p5s that sort of thing. real cute. and they performed with their choir. so it was really adorable. haha. then it was one of the more advanced bands. then followed by some high school band, Citywinds i think, and they were REALLY good. like some st andrews' thing.then our band. and we did well. (((((:
according to our tour guide, he said when he asked another guy sitting near him what he thought of our playing. and that guy happened to be some musician from dunno where. and that guy said every band which performs get better and better, and at us, it was the best. i dunno how true that is, but i can truthfully so that you can hear regent and bedok north's sound. muahas. i liked it. and victor's solo finally was on time and everything. and guess what. he was like. "of course. i already know mah." victor is so childish.mr lim gave this sort of speech. and it was really good. cause everyone was happy and you get the idea. bus ride was crazy. hotel, we went to victor's room again. some section thing we have. lol. victor is so childish, he keeps telling all those kiddy stuff to siying. (AHEM.) and thanks yangbin for the puzzle. (: slept in my room with felicia and cecilia. lol. i dont know how. x)
fifth day.
ate at some dim sum restaurant with siying, sean, jiayin, cecilia and felicia and junhao. so we actually walked pass streets and streets and some lady brought us to this restaurant which was like almost across the YWCA. gosh. so we walked rounds for nothing. booo. ha. couldnt really read the menu, so we just told the waitress to recommend stuff. blah blah. then checked out. went to hotel and stuff like that. plane ride, got to sit with junice AGAIN and eliana. and guess what. 40-year-old virgin was on screen. o my. and to think in singapore it was like M18. lol. (:
went home. and to find out that my sister has my phone and when i called her to ask for contacts she just KARP my phone. wth. so i called her back and scolded her so badly you would have thought blah blah. o yeah. that was what i was mad about. dunno why i cried too. i got too agitated maybe. lol. o well.
anyway. here's some credits. (:
thanks to :
bedok north band.
without all of you working with us the regent band, this trip would be impossible. and i think your teachers rock a lot especially that male one cause he's so nice. haha. will miss the cheers and the hotel and stuff. (:
the combined clarinet section.
no clarinet section, no merry widow. we worked and played hard, and yes, we crapped a lot too. the photos, the playing, the everything will be missed. thanks Victor for your going-through of scores, Siying for doing the souvenirs. WeiJie for your constant nagging, Farah for your help in section orderliness. Valerie + Karen + Agnus + Grace + KeXin for being so crappy and funny in our section, Cecilia + Felicia for being blur-blur and being the cutest regent sec 1s, Amy + Syharah for being the important bass clarinetists, Jennifer for the best cinema paradiso starting melody. (:
three tour guides, especially Mr Ken.
very good and HELPFUL tour guides. dont know what we will do without you all. and yes. i heard what three of you said at the lobby, and at the carpark. thank you 3 very very much, i've just been re-motivated and inspired. and i will do just that. ((:
congratulations to :
the sec 3s.
probably like what mr lim said, our last tour with the band as a regent band member.
the sec 2s.
most of you came for the trip. joy joy. and i realised people like karin and xinying can actually talk more than me. HA. so yep. next year sec 3 already! streaming over and stuff like that. so must work hard for the next SYF. i want to go SYF 2007. sob sob. but what to do? retain ah? lol. lalalalala. must take care of Gang Yuan ok! cannot bully him. grrr. people like him worked so hard to go up to the next stream to be with you all can?! ho hum. and good luck Gang Yuan too. you'r always in OUR batch. ha. ha. ha. (:
the sec 1s.
congratulations. especially to those who have been on the trip. i can rightfully say that those who went for the trip has matured a lot faster. and i seriously mean it. through the trip, some of you all cried because of tiny little stuff you all are worried about, this all showed me you care a LOT for your band. a lot. and i'm impressed. but hey, those who didnt went for the trip did so too. through all the orientation and banner stuff, you all took time to do, to plan, to study the layouts and stuff. all this needs hardwork and time. yep. next exchange is coming up soon, and you'r going to be a senior soon, so work hard and step on the pedal a little bit more. accelerando. lol. all of you are definitely not the 'old' sec 1s i use to face, but the new 'old' ones. jiayou! (:
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and its 2:30pm. woah. those who didnt read all this posts had better read it. i type so long for nothing huh. lol.
random: i'm so warm. why cant we have hongkong's weather. argh.