this whole dnd performance thingy and everything else that comes with it is already stressing me out.. and den there are two ppl who totally irritated the hell out of me..
one is bimbo gal... btw she has nothing to do with bimbo club she had no contribution apart from turning up for dance prac and costume fitting.. we told her to try one set of the costumes to see if she is comfortable with wearing sth like that.. instead she "CHOPPED" the prettiest one in the lot... den later she kept complaining that the bottom of the skirt had a lobang.. and her heels kept getting trapped in it.... i asked her to show me her dance move and obviously she wasnt doin it right thats why her shoes got stuck....
anyway we told told her that we will be mending it... but she jus went on and on and on and i really cant stand when the guys kept echoing wat she says like hellllooooo i can understand english perfectly and i dun need to hear the same thing a gazillion times... plsssss...seriously i m not deaf... well she din turn up for dance prac yest and we couldnt alter the length and waist area of the skirt until tmr....
on another note... another team member of the inter dept perf decided to finally speak up today which is 3 days after our last dance prac session that he aint comfortable with one of the move throughout the whole practice session and i clearly remember when i suggested that move, i kept asking if he was comfortable doin it... he said it was okie.. didnt utter a word... and now 2days b4 the show he tells me that he cant do that part w/o giving any constructive suggestions to try and salvage ... i asked why didnt he bring it up last wk or even during the last prac where we tried to thrash things out? he cited that WE did not having many moves as reason... i dun deny that i dun have a whole library of moves to pick out and execute anytime.. but i told him that if he had sounded the alarm earlier, i would have gone to youtube or ask my frens for suggestions
for this yr's dnd, i will be involved in 2 performances..one is the committee performance and the other an inter dept talent contest..
i m quite excited and nervous at the same time.. esp for the committee performance cos it is more complicated than wat we did last yr...
on wed, we had our first lesson with the choreographer..and when she played the song for us to hear... our jaws dropped and faces turn pale... hahaha... the song was really fast and when she showed us the moves... omg... so much more complicated .. BUT by the end of the first lesson we almost got the whole routine right... the teacher was very pleased and surprised too.... we were quite surprised ourselves :)
the dance has a combination of flamenco and tango...paired with the costumes we got... great!
i kinda came up with the concept and choreographed the dept performance thingy... 4 of us involved...there is singing, dancing and acting... we have bling costumes too .. i think this performance will have quite a good visual effect...
this grp has quite good chemistry... i have confidence that we will put up a good show :) we started first rehearsal on tue and by thur everything seem to fell into place :D now we will jus need to refine the moves... i m hoping we can get into the top 3 position... hee~~
my dad was asking my mum to dig out all his olddd photos cos his company dnd committee wanted to play the 'guess who' game....and all the bosses had to submit their younger days photo....
back in the 60s my dad was already in skinny pants, black framed specs and skinny ties!! we are totally goin back to the 60s!
my dad was old SJI boy... i think those pretty gals in the photos muz have been that of the CHIJ gals! hahaha.. there was this photo he took with a classmate... they had somewhat like a moehog hairstyle can! so happening!
(picks out one photo) dad: you see last time my younger days i very handsome
me: ya
dad: really you see i very handsome
me: ya ya handsome
dad: really i m not lying
me: (-_-)lll i saw some of the pics of your frens oso quite handsome.. do u think they have handsome sons too? if have you let me noe ... :p
this is the pic.... this muz have been the neoprint back then...
as part of the dnd this yr, every dept is suppose to do a grp performance. Initially when my colleague approached me to join 2 other colleagues to form a grp to perform, i rejected her.... so i suggested another colleague R who i was told is a very very good guitarist... until i heard him play yest... not exactly captivating nor outstanding...
anyway, this R told my colleague that he needed someone to play the keyboard to back him up... and den she asked me again to join in cos if i dun play R doesnt wanna play which means we cant send in a grp bcos the criteria is min3 in a grp... so i thot okie i can TRY... i have neva played e keyboard in my entire life... i only played the piano.. (i made this disclaimer but they insisted that it's the SAME)
we decided to have the first practice last nite... and in prep for that i stayed up till 2am to look for the scores online and dug out the tracks so that we could listen to them during the trial rehearsal to see if our plan could work.. and i was already tired from tango that evening...
so last nite we tried out plan A which is to sing/play medley of songs from popular musicals like phantom, cats etc.. and that was the FIRST time i touched a keyboard and oso the FIRST time i m playing the score.. since i was young, my teachers already told me i can sight read pieces quite well.. this means that i can take a piece and play once through with the timing and tune more or less there... but this does not mean that i can play flawlessly at the first instance...
i started learning when i was 6 or 7 and stopped at grade3 but continued to play for my own leisure till today.. and i m no prodigy, maestro nor professional pianist... but still i can play many songs and they sound decent.
and there i had R and T (another colleague who decided to pop by and disrupt our practice) ... i tried to practice on the keyboard... but i had trouble getting used to it cos the keys are plastic and light... when i hit it hard to get a good accent it doesnt have the effect compared to the piano... and i m a slow learner whether in dance or watever... worse thing i had to stand and play... so my arms were in an awkward angle that i was totally not used to...
i tried my best nonetheless to sight read the pieces.. and for the first time in my entire 25 yrs on this earth.. the 2 guys MOCKED at me and said i should use FEELING and not look at the score... excuse me... this is the first time i m looking at the score... i m no prodigy who can listen to mp3 once and play out the whole music at the first instance... how to play if i dun look at the DAMN score...
den they tried to teach me by pointing out that i m hitting the wrong chords... fingers on the wrong key.. when they did not even take proper lessons to learn how to play the piano.. i have been reading scores in treble and bass clef for the last 20yrs.. i can well read my notes correctly and i know which keys are wat on the piano
they insisted i follow their timing which ended up with 6beats in a 4 beat bar... (-_-)lll and one of them even exclaimed that he doesnt noe what the diff notes mean... essentially diff notes denote diff beats... in that case dun teach me abt timing and rhythm... you cant always play by FEEL... sure, after getting the basic music right... you can improvise and inject more feel and stuff into it... but thats when u are familiar with the song already....they just kept LAUGHING at me like i m so stiff and trembling while playing the keyboard... stiff mayb cos i couldnt really switch to a diff playing style .. but for sure i wasnt trembling.... they just took me as a big joke...
that wasnt the end... they wanted me to transpose the key fr C major to G major (on the spot, immediately) and play that cos it is a more comfortable key for my colleague to sing.. sure but i m NOT a transposing soft-ware... so i tried... managed to identify a few chords for them... but they kept insisting that i was wrong... i was really pissed already... i sang out the note, hit it on the piano, they still couldnt get it on the guitar.. so much so for them thinking they were brilliant... oh and btw they were not really familiar with the repertoire of songs... and they wanted to advise me on the tune...how ironic...
and by the way... i used to play the french horn for 6yrs while in sch... that is the most diff instrument to play bcos you need to have good hearing and pitching.. in the past we had to be auditioned to see if we could play the french horn... not trying to brag here but i m very sure that the aural aspect i m def much better than them..
i am VERY upset over this whole thing... fine if you want to call me petty... but i dun think anyone will like being mocked and laughed at esp when it is those that were mocking and laughing who are the REAL donkeys.. it is extremely frustrating when ppl who are not better than you correcting you for a mistake you NEVER made...
anyway, i know i will not be able to get used to the keyboard in 2-3practices....so i suggested that we could use a plan B.. again i stayed up till 2am to come up with another concept.. which i now think i should not have done... i should have jus told them "sorry i m backing out... too bad, find someone else" ...
i saw R's email response to my new concept ... he said "u muz be joking, we are halfway there already" TWIT.. we only had a trial last nite to determine if plan A would work .. how can we be HALFWAY there?????????? and den he insisted tt we should borrow 2 colleagues who are not in the corp dept to play with us.... although he doesnt spell it out ... i could tell that he wanted to play band style... and even if the competition allows... i jus feel there is no meaning if you get ppl from outside the dept... in his email... he said that he, T and another colleague will FIGURE OUT the songs and sort out the arrangement and i jus play like how i played last nite (WHICH WAS TOTAL CRAP.... I HAVE NEVER HEARD MYSELF PLAY SO BADLY IN MY ENTIRE LIFE) i said umpteen times that the keyboard DOES NOT work for me... he still insisted... i dun wanna go up the stage and make a fool of myself... to make sure that the keyboard really doesnt work for me... i went home and played the whole repertoire on my piano..i sounded fine
unfortunately my other colleagues in the grp will have to decided if they want to go with plan A or B... if stick to A i will back out... if B... R will back out... honestly at this point i dun mind dropping out... why should i bother? why should i compromise?
Mr R doesnt noe who he is dealing with ... i dun wish to show my nastiness unnecessarily....
11:23PM - PATCHWORK & QUILTING PROJECT 1... IN PROGRESS
spent the whole wk trying to finish up these 4 circles for tmr's class... why it took alot of time is bcos i had to trace and cut out all the pieces and den hand sew... no cheating... cannot use sewing machine :p
tmr the teacher is gonna teach us the next step of putting them together... i chose to make a clutch/handbag..while some of my classmates wanted to make pillow case, coin purse etc... but in view of the timeline..i felt that the pillow case is too big of a project and will take too much time.. on the other hand, the coin purse too small to learn much... so i decided that a small baggie should be somewhere in b/w
the teacher will also intro us to our 2nd project tmr... we are expected to finish 4 projects in 8 lessons... so alot of homework to be done! but i get a great sense of satisfaction when i start seeing the stuff slowly being pieced together
had a dept retreat 2 days ago at macritchie... though it was called a retreat... it was not exactly err fun... but sitting in a few grp discussions and sat thru quite a few unexpected presentations
okie thats besides the point... what i really wanna say here is i have a very nice colleague who i worked with to so called plan this retreat... he offered to give me a lift to macritchie tt morn so that we can go early to do set up as all the stuff were in his car... also bcos he usually drops his maid off at his mother in law's place which is near my place
so he told me to wait at the roadside 8.10am... knowing that ppl dun usually come on time... i went out at 8.20am... den he buzzed me and told me to walk to the bus stop.... so i walked to the bus stop.... and before i reached he buzzed me again and asked where i was... den i said i was approaching the bus stop den he say oh it is the other bus stop (-_-)" so i ran like 200m to the bus stop.... when i got into the car... i saw the wife and i was like "oh no" cos the wife works in tampines...
den he said... "i m sending my wife to work and den pick up katty (our colleague)" OMG lah!!!! so i went from yck to tampines den up the PIE to paya lebar / kallang... blah blah before goin to toa payoh/braddell/thomson area and to the reservoir...
honestly he really should have sent his wife from his home in punggol via the tpe to tampines and den come down to yck to drop the maid off and pick me up and den to macritchie.. this is a more logical route... seriously he should have jus told me all these when he offered to gimme a ride... i would have gone to macritchie on my own in a cab and reach in abt 10-15min.. instead of goin round the east for 45mins ....
i really appreciate the offer to gimme a lift... ermm but i really dun like surprises
i think these days my patience level seem to have dropped quite a bit... this morn my colleague totally irked me in a meeting by asking qns abt things that we jus mentioned... obviously he wasnt listening its like the moment we finished talking abt it... he asks... arghh...it reached a point... i turn and told him... 你真的是慢五拍。
not surprising, i was the youngest student in class... i think the only under 30... there were 4 new students including me and the rest were regulars..... some of the regulars brought their past works to show us.... goodness they were totally awesome! at least i m quite sure that when i retire i can do all these craft work to keep myself occupied...
there is no limit to the things that u can create with patchwork.. and this is prob the only time when u can put all sorta cloth with diff design, pattern, colours together and they actually look gd.. this is one of its unique characteristics... and btw ppl, all hand sewn okie... not zoom with the sewing machine...
we had to buy this special ruler and it cost me a good $27.. this is prob the most expensive ruler that i have bought in my entire life..... but okie lah i m sure i will use it for a long time... it is a special ruler with parallel lines and other things... bought thread and needles and cloth from the teacher too... save me the hassle of goin to look for all the stuff..
we will be learning to make 4 diff items during this 8-wk course the first item i have decided to make is a clutch... selected 2 diff cloth one floral and the other pastel green.. wanna do sth more vintage, old english... hee...so look out for it in the next few wks :)
i cant stand ppl who think they have contributed jus by replying to an email stating the obvious and not attempting to offer any constructive suggestions...
dun ever expect me to wake up at 7plus on a weekend for anything else.... well i kinda figured that i have been rather busy this yr and have not volunteered much.. so when the email came in to request for volunteers, i did not hesitate :) i did the shift today from 9am - 1pm selling merchandises for fund raising.... the 2010 diaries and calendars are out so remember to grab them at our roadshows ard the island! for more details: www.spca.org.sg
volunteers doin all the preparation work b4 the doors are opened
this is the sales booth i was manning
ppl starting to stream in
look at the amt of ppl at the pound looking at the doggies that were up for adoption
the SPCA mascot
we even got a robot! look at the emcee on the top left hand corner of the pic... he was the one controlling and giving the robot a voice.. quite an interesting thing
there were many ppl of all ages and race who came to support our cause... one gal left a great impression... she looked like she was prob still in pri sch... she came by the booth and told me that she wanted to get a calendar but she said she only had coins... so i told her well it doesnt matter... and she took out her coin purse and emptied them on the table... it muz have been most part of her piggy bank savings... it was really heartening to see alot of these younger kids playing their part for a good cause...
i think since i was 10..when spca went to sch to do a sch talk, i already wanted to help... but i was still young and penniless.. but i was quite adamant abt helping so i bugged my dad to let me sign up for the membership which was only $5 per yr... when i got to sec sch and beyond, i saved up my pocket money to pay for the membership fees... and last or sth, i decided to fork out a few hundred dollars (since i now have the money) to sign up for the life time membership...
been doin volunteer sales and sometimes outreach for abt 6yrs... and after each session i jus feel good :) it has to come from the heart... ppl who say "i think i will go sign up to be a volunteer instead of jus donating money" well usually i dun see them doin anything abt it.. so far at least... w/o passion and not feeling strongly for a particular cause... it is impossible to sustain... i think for me.. without love i still can survive... but w/o things like this (and my family, frens and hobbies i love), my life will no longer be meaningful... i know i cant have the best of both worlds.... so, i would rather give up love if having it means i have to forgo sth...
anyway.... i hope that i can do more sessions in the comin yr as work has been rather busy this yr...
also i m only hoping that the SPCA will have a nicer premise when they move out of the current place in abt 2 yrs time i think...
mooncake overdose! well remember the last time i mentioned abt the increase in weight... strangely.. the scale has "tuned" back to my usual weight... hah~~
thanks to ker, aunty bee and i got ourselves new shoes! apparently ker ordered a pair of boots from victoria secrets (guys,, they not only sell lingerie if you are wondering) but when the order was sent to the house, there were 3 items (1 pair of boots, 1 pair of peep toe and a pj) that she did not order... the boots she ordered was no where to be seen...
seems like they mixed up her order... so VS resent the right stuff to her and since it was not worth it for them to ship the stuff back.. they told her she could do watever she wanted with the stuff.... so she gave the pj to her cousin... as for the boots and peep toe... she held a 'see who can fit in the shoes' session cos the shoes were US 6.5 .. too small for her.. lucky me and bee, we each set our eyes on the peep toe and boots respectively and we could fit in! wat luck!
they were from the brand colin stuart... the shoes cost abt 80-90++ USD... and we got it free :D
i finally overcomed my "fear" of using a sewing machine my mum bought this for my bday this yr as a gesture to support my entrepreneurship... haha
i have not touched a sewing machine since the time back in 1997 when i jus tried using the sewing machine in sch to try sew a vest (not that i wanted to but thats in the syllabus) and ended up spending 3/4 of the lesson trying to unpick the thread that zoomed across the cloth due to my inability to control the stupid machine... the teacher was so pek cek with me cos for a few lessons i spent 1min creating the mess and 3/4 of the lesson unpicking ... that she decided to sew and complete the assignment for me :)
but now i have come to realise that it was not my fault cos the sewing machines in those days were damn complicated... i finally played ard with the new machine... it is soooo easy to put together now! the wonders of technology... this is prob the only time i will say thank you to engineers.. cos they have been making life difficult at work... :p not all the time but most of the time...
anyway the machine is totally awesome.. it comes with 35 diff programmed thread patterns that u can use with a turn of the knob... and the cloth pretty much goes thru in a straight line w/o me having to keep adjusting.. so idiot proof! sewing a straight line aint as difficult as i thot it would be..
i shall attempt to do a trial item this sat ;) watch out for it!
this afternoon i brought a crew from thailand to mb cos they needed to get some shots for their documentary...
to date i think i have met crew from france, germany, canada, japan, hongkong, thailand, russia, china,
sidetrack abit... on my way there in a cab... jus wat the cabbie called the gahmen this time round? GANGSTER... ahhaha.. so happen his wife called him to tell him that someone they knew passed away... so we were on the topic of burial and all and he said the gahmen ask the chinese to go for cremation cos they needed the land... den he said when they sell the land to developers and make money they keep quiet.... hahaha...
anyway the bunch of thai ppl were quite nice.. 3 crew and this other thai gal who was their local coordinator... was talking to the gal and found out that she is from nus arts too.. the diff is that she is still an undergrad... :p and she thot i was like her too... and she said i look like i graduated in jul 09... :D
(yang: see i m not trying to act young... this is an unbias comment!)
i muz say we hit it off quite well and she was telling abt how singapore is so safe that she feels scared when she goes back to thailand during the holidays... and she wants to stay here after she graduates...
i think i m quite glad to be born here... although there are not many sights and sounds to see and hear... no country side to travel to... but at least it is quite safe to move ard on your own and not having to worry much abt demonstrations, war etc .... we dun have natural disasters, famine, etc...
over here it is easy to move ard... lotsa food to curb your hunger pangs at anytime of the day... everything else is pretty much a stone throw away... cos we are a small island.. prob the only comment i wanna make is that we should have shorter working hours like the ppl in uk and aust... den we will have more family and personal time... :)
after keong's wedding lunch on sunday... i decided to skip chacha class for fear of being tortured again... i was kinda exhausted oso anyway.... so decided to get an extra tix to join Ker and Mien to catch the movie FAME at GV bishan...
i m glad i pontang dance class cos the show was quite good in my opinion... i mean if you like music, dance, singing den you i think you might enjoy the movie... again i m saying this.. guys who can sing WELL make me melt... totally~~
okie thats besides the point... just felt the show was quite inspiring and it oso showed how tough it is to be part of the performing arts the effort you have to put in... and how some ppl jus have or dun have the talent for certain things... and really the road to fame is neva easy....
after getting all inspired... and waited long enough for my frens to ding dong and still not decide..... i dragged yang along and we will be starting tango class on 13 oct :D let me know if anyone of you are interested...
will oso be signing up for patchwork and quilting at one of the CCs to equip myself with more variety of sewing techniques that i can use to create my works... :) class starts next monday.. any ladies wanna join me? not trying to stereotype but if any guys wanna come along... u r most welcome~
this oso means that my whole gym schedule needs to be adjusted.. it is already 29 sep and they still haven posted up the schedule for oct onwards...
anyway cant go for yoga today... bah.. need to go look after mascot at our event tonight...
excited
infuriated
irritated
pleased
