:: SAFE AND SOUND ::

Hey people! I'm currently half-dead... Today was such a tiring day that the yoga class just now didn't help much on relaxing myself. I wanted to wake up at 2.30am for the Germany v.s. Italy match but I had to stay back for school's matinee and I was sure I needed more sleep or else I would be like dead fish performing on stage. Right, about the matinee, I'll write about that some other day because I have too much to update! First of all, I'M JUST PLAIN DISAPPOINTED IN GERMANY TEAM! How could they actually LOSE to Italy? It sounds wrong, it's impossible, it's miraculous. I've been supporting them since ages ago and I know it's just... URGH STILL, HOW COULD ITALY EVER DEFEAT THEM??!! Initially I was so looking forward to the finals as I was pretty certain that Spain and Germany would be able to make it to the finals. Okay, if I were to continue typing about how disappointed and pissed off I am, this is going to be endless. 

Last last Saturday was prize-giving and speech day. There were performances and I was also involved in performing. I just joined the school ensemble (which I expected it to be a huge group with different strings instruments a.k.a violins, violas, cellos and so forth but there were only violinists, wait, just 10, or fewer) and we performed You Raise Me Up with the choir. We merely had to play a few bars and the notes were so simple that I was already pretty sick of the song. Every single time we practised, all we did was to stand there and wait for the bars to come and after that, we stood there until their second song (Just the way you are) ended. I know right? It was so odd. My mom was one of the audience and she said 'I fetched you here early in the morning and what I heard was one or two notes.' and yeap, she couldn't stop complaining about how little I played to my dad when we reached home. However, the people in the ensemble were really nice, like Syona and Indy from international stream, the first two who talked to YingYing and I. 

Anyway, violin exam is officially over! The exam was normally held in hotels like Marriot, Hilton, Sheraton, but for this time, the exam was held in my music school's hall 'cos the facilities of the hall (stage, grand piano, spacious, huge, AWESOME :D ) were able to reach Trinity's requirements. I reached there at 8.30am to practise and you seriously CANNOT imagine how nervous I was. I felt like there were infinity of butterflies flying in my stomach that I couldn't even smile properly when my piano teacher wanted to take a photo with me. I was practising the pieces and my teacher said practising it wouldn't help much 'cos at that moment all I could do was to warm up and do some finger exercising - scales :*( horrible, terrible, ugleh. So, when I was sitting outside the hall, I could feel the 'steam' (pressure) from inside, I could hear how the candidate before me played so fluently and professionally, I could see how my teacher was waiting for my turn, I FELT LIKE IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD. 

When it was my turn, I went in and greeted him and he said 'Woww, so many beautiful ladies today! I must be a good boy!'. I guess he could see through my eyes how scared and nervous I was, being afraid that I would get stuck in grade 8 for the FOURTH year (arghh, how shameful). So, his name was Michael Shelton, from UK, pretty old, but cute :) . I started with my 1st piece (an allegro assai - very fast and lively piece) and  when I finished, he said 'Okay, you can have 10 seconds of break. Your fingers must be really hot now!'. Then, I continued with the so called 'love song' by Andre Previn. I was trying so HARD to make him feel the love through the song and my expressions, and a little bit of glidings here and there. Just wondering if he enjoyed it -.- , wait, nobody on this planet earth would ever ENJOY this stupid love song. For my last piece,  I was quite satisfied of my performance... Scales were not as good as expected but sight-reading was good. He gave me the score and I got so freaked out when I saw the alto clef, so I stood there wondering 'Am I supposed to transpose it before I play?' Then, I realized he was grinning at me with the kind of PUNK'D face and I asked 'Is this not for viola?' and he screamed 'Caught 'ya!'. It was funny but DO YOU KNOW HOW SCARY IT WAS? Man, I understand how much he loved to see flummoxed faces. Last but not least, aural was the best. There was one session where he played me a piece and in few sentences I had to describe thoroughly about the articulations, dynamics, style, timing and blahblah of that piece. I was describing and describing non-stop that he had to stop me 'Okay LAH, enough LAH'. You should see how I stunted for a while when he attempted to fit the word, LAH, in his words. That was, hilarious. And yeap, that was the end of the exam. 

The day before the exam, I baked chocolate cupcakes for my piano teacher / violin exam's piano accompanist as it was her birthday (Sighs, I'm too lovable. I can't control myself :D ). They said the cupcakes were perfect, but the frostings (vanilla and chocolate frostings) were way to sweet, but it was still bearable. To be frank, where can you find students who bake for their music teachers? But she's a really awesome teacher and I don't mind baking more for her! She talks like a friend, she teaches with techniques, she's motherly, well you how how she rolls! 

Who are we? Sri KL school band! Where are we? Port Dickson! What are we? THE BEST! Yeap, that was our motto during our leadership and motivational band camp in Port Dickson last Friday until Sunday. It sure was a blast and I have to say that it was the BEST camp I have ever been to so far! I got to made new friends (well to be precise, I've known everyone in band already! And don't forget, I'm a new member!), I learn about unity, leadership, teamwork and cooperation. There were two very awesome pawsome facilitators named Rajan and Moira. Both of them have done a great job leading us, teaching us, making the entire camp a whole new thing to us! On the first day of our band camp, we were all divided into few groups and I was so fortunately put into the SNAKESSSS group! The members in my group were friendly and helpful. Celene (a form 5 girl who transferred in last year), HockLeong (a very funny guy), FungShyan (responsible captain and a really good speaker), Bryan (cute and helpful) and TzuKen (artistic, courageous) were great and I definitely felt like the luckiest girl getting to have them as my group members!

There were plenty of activities and I'm actually pretty lazy to state everything out but there was one which I MUST mention! It was the *drum rollssssss* TRIBAL DANCE! We were given really little time to prepare and it must not be less than 5 minutes. We know, we must do our best and reveal our 'dancing talent' and .... WE WERE THE CHAMPION! One of the reasons why we won was the african words I created during our practice. It went like this - Amaria, Alikasoya, Ashakalakalaka, Amaria! So we were practically running in a circle like mad people screaming those words after the captain. And sooooo, my african words got famous and they loved it, WHICH I REALLY FEEL PROUD OF!

Band, is like a family. A family that I will never want to leave. I guess, anything to do with music will eventually win my heart. I love being a part of them to make good music, GRAND music. Band festival is in one month's time and we can definitely be the most outstanding team come what may! This is a must and we can do it! BRING IT ON PEOPLE!!

Most of them thought I was form 1 'cos my closer friends are form ones.

Eunice the rich and chubby girl.

Watching some really silly korean programmes.

Feels odd to be the only one older than form 1...

OUR POSTER RAWR!

What we have learnt from Geography - LAGOON.

LALA attempt epic failed.

Celene the awesome one!

Getting our story posters done in really short time!

FIRST

SECOND

Tribal dance was simply unforgettable.

The main ingredient of stardom

is the rest of the team.

xoxo