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Sunday, July 08, 2007

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#-A packed schedule is not necessarily bad

Wow I haven't blogged for a long time. Looks like things have really been busy lately, plus alot of other happenings, so I've been too lazy and tired to post anything, but I figured I should update about what I've been up to and what has been going on.

I can't even remember what I wrote the last time, so I had to refer back to the last entry so see which event I stopped at. Ok let's see...

Now that NDP parade rehearsals are only on Saturdays, it leaves my Wednesdays free! Finally I don't seem so busy anymore. But the rehearsals have been so lousy and annoying I don't really care much for it anymore. Twas' supposed to be a big performance for me, but looking at how the stage is and how bad the entire show and organisation of the event is, I'm starting to lose interest. Last week was the 1st rehearsal at the platform. They drove the 3 tonners (which are the stage) onto the platform, which really look like floats from a parade. The problem is that the space is just so crammed we hardly had space to move, and at the same time had to worry about falling off the side of the stage and down the stairs. All these while having spastic smiles on our faces as if we enjoyed doing it.

Then there is the link between 2 of the tonners where the stage joins. Last week it wasn't linked properly, leaving 2 different levels. Try dancing and keeping away from that. This week they left almost a 2 inch hole in between the stage, but at least they were of the same level. So much fo professionalism of the SAF and the committee. To add to that, because the stage is mounted on vehicles, with tyres, it wobbles everytime someone steps on it, and since there are 6 dancers jumping around vigorously on it, keeping our balance was quite a feat. Last week I screwed up the last lift, and almost fell backward because of the stage wobbling, and this week the music started before we even got on stage, so we had to rush on, and I screwed up my direction, but hopefully it'll be better the next 2 weeks.

Feri's wedding yesterday was rather amusing. Not only was the sermon in Chinese, but the translation was quite hilarious (think grammar errors). But the food was nice and the company was good too.

And then after the NDP rehearsal yesterday, I rushed down to Sentosa for Jazz By The Beach with Thomson. I was so shagged I must've made a million mistakes, but the amplifier was so muddy that I doubt anyone heard the notes I was playing. haha. Think I finally get what TzeChin said about rhythmic tension and how the bass always plays ever so slightly ahead of the rest of the band, in such a way that the drums provide the basic beat, the band plays slightly behind, the soloist plays slightly ahead of the band, and the bass leads the pack. This creates a constant sort of tension in terms of rhythm. Cool huh.

Before I went on for Jazz By The Beach, my family went to Rasa Sentosa to eat dinner. Being part of the Shangri-La group, we were expecting at least some sort of standard in terms of service and food, but boy were we dissapointed. When we walked into the cafe, we were greeted by an oily floor and a decor that looked like a low-class restaurant in Malaysia. Then the utensils were dirty and the air-con was probably faulty, because the exact heat we hoped to seek respite from followed us into the "air-conditioned" cafe as well. To add to that, my brother ordered Mee Goreng without beansprouts, but not only did it come with beansprouts, but the waitress did not even bother to apologize for the mix-up, and it wasn't as if the food was anywhere close to the 5-stars it supposed to represent. So after dinner, my Mum refused to pay service charge.

Somehow now I'm a little thankful I don't have to play for SJO at Sentosa, considering how crap I felt yesterday. I'd reckon the Delifrance there would serve better food than what we had last night.

Went to Debra's place last Wednesday to rip all her music. Managed to only do all the "soft-core" jazz by the end of the night. But that was still 7GBs of them. Tomorrow, I'm going to get my hands on the rest of the "hard-core" jazz she has. And then another day I'll get my hands on ShouJie's stuff as well. I love my 320GB hard-drive. haha.

We had a 05/06 RJC Jazz gathering today, thanks to Debra's effort and idea. Even Karl turned up, considering how MIA he was. haha. But it was all great fun and good to catch up with all these people. Yizhe's going to do medicine in NUS, Yihan law there and Zara science. Melvin is going to SMU for business and Nicholas is on scholarship to Duke for biomedical engineering.

Sin has been hunting me down lately, but I know people are praying for me, and I'm not going to give up, because God has great plans for me. I know that He wants this out of my life as much as I do, so I'm working hard to get rid of it too. Do continue praying for me, and thanks!

Hmm what else have I been up to?

Oh the UK administration is rather questionable. They said they needed my original A'level results slip as they could not confirm my results with UCAS, due to me taking my exams the previous year, which means I had to send it over there to get my unconditional offer. But at least I have a mail I have to go collect from the Post Office. I think that's the official letter, so I'd have to go make my visa soon.

SJO will be backing a New York based singer on 29 Jul 07. We'll be playing at the Botanical Gardens, and I have to play during the combo section, which means I had better play well. TzeChin kind of quit the orchestra due to some quarrel with Derek, but I think Ruth Ling is going to replace him, and she's really good.

Ok I think that's quite a long post. Tomorrow will be back in camp for me, but I think I covered most of the things I did recently.

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