Whatever you want.

Earworm: The Way We Were

arms, legs, neck sore from Thursday's bouldering, which was a total disaster for me. all i got was blisters and one huge bruise on my left knee in all its technicolour glory. meh.

Friday, 27th May
jol hurrying me to go down for breakfast in the morning. checking frantically whether i forgot any costume.. white outfit, check, blue tie, check, black long sleeved shirt, check. court shoes.. in mel's locker. spare clothes.. check! mum and sis coming all the way down for guitar concert! sweet... then i get to spend a nite with em coz they're going home the next afternoon.

the morning was spent going thru the concert, SYF pieces, soundcheck, technical run thrus... after lunch had full dress rehearsal. snapped some photos along the way. silver shawls, black hats, bandannas given out. disaster: brit's alto string broke! had to blow balloons before we're being released. mel accused mar of having failed as a human being coz she can't blow balloons to save her life! lol... mar was the balloon lady instead, holding on to balloons lest they fly all over the place and burst.

dinner at hawker stall opposite school. sucky noodles. mar indulged in her current sea coconut craze. girls had to go put on makeup, brit already has natural foundation.. lol! i think i slathered on a bit too much foundation, look like a ghost under the terrible lighting of the audi toilet. but helen put more colour back onto my face with blusher. mel repaired my unevenly applied lipstick. hopeless at makeup!

all too soon, senior ensemble had to line up outside the audi, wishing each other good luck, mel going round hugging people... listening to a1's I Still Believe backstage, which was actually the music for our slideshow. initially wondered why they got such a cheesy song but realised the bittersweetness of it all when the song finished with It's not the end, let's start again, I still believe... and it's our cue!
i totally messed up The Way We Were, fingers frozen at the slow part even, so disappointed with myself. i think we were also nervous that our playing was very soft because we were afraid of playing the wrong note! Chim Chim Cheree (from Mary Poppins) was messy also. SCREW IT! felt like our practises gone to waste. but then it was only about 2-3 weeks of practise for the SYF ppl? vowed to do much much better for SYF performance later.
the junior ensemble played Always With Me from Spirited Away and another song from Jap drama Under One Roof. heard from Pat later that they were much calmer than us. played better too. happy for them but sad for us.
Other performances were by NTU guitar club. didnt get to see them during full dress either. Father and son from Toa Payoh guitar club... which i was completely blown away by the 7 year old prodigy during rehearsal. he played like a pro! every note rang loud and clear, his fingers did all the fancy sliding, pull-offs, hammer-ons with such ease. i was so impressed! oh his father was not bad too =p
erm.. also dubious performance by Temasek Primary 5 kids, singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. yeah, the cuteness wore thin during rehearsal coz i don't think they can sing. must be collaboration between the twin prez.
Chief Instructors performed La Carmencita (sp?) dun think they rehearsed enough but given the time limit, i suppose they did ok.
During interval, Wen, Chibix and YY came over and gave me this huge bouquet of flowers! A white lily surrounded by individually wrapped pink roses and some small white and purple flowers adorning them, all wrapped in yellow and blue gauze tied with blue and pink ribbons! i was sooo touched.. my first time receiving flowers ya know... =p thanks guys!
After interval was the band performance. Sam, Marcus, Kent on guitars and Ming Xiu on drums. Clara lead vocals. her voice is totally suitable for cranberries songs. padme also added a nice touch as backup vocalist. During Dreams, Miak geared all the guitar seniors to take placards and glow sticks to cheer for the band. had ROCK ON DUDES formed by glowsticks pasted on cardboards. (Miak reproached Clara later for saying 'this is spastic' into the mike when she saw us lol-- have the rock diva attitude as well) sang along to the chorus of At Your Side. felt a tad embarassed at the looks we're getting for shrieking. then when the song is ending felt very extra standing in front of the stage and clapping our hands!
After that was small group of year ones performing Please, Mr. Postman. thought that song had a lot of potential when they played for us in the recital room. but again, lack practise i suppose.
Then, it was us with the SYF pieces. Dance of Yao was very well received. *huge sigh of relief and beam of pride* The audience tickled by the cymbals and burst into applause right after we finished. Yh later remarked this was the only song with expression tho. and Besame Mucho was too fast, too short.
Finale was Mexican Hat Dance. someone came in before the bass! but dont think the crowd noticed hehe... OLE! after a few 'encores' we did the TJ cheer and Thunderation, where kent was squealing for us to watch out for the guitars! angel gave me a rose from her and fc, jol, yh, ck, gorilla gave us roses too. KY had this cute card made for me. fung also gave a rose together with scandalous partner zen =ppp THANKS!
after all was over, speeches made by YT and meng, rushed to put my guitars back in Mozart Room so i can go off with my family. Brit saw me in a hurry and was a true gentleman (haha im surprised!) and carried two of my guitars! with his in tow, but i didnt stay to see how he managed to lug three of them upstairs hehe.
Had supper at newton circus since staying at Asia Hotel which is near newton MRT> introduced sis to stingray. later in the room looked thru the pix taken and the video of the concert. in silent mode tho, since there were no speakers.. weird looking at myself. reminded me of kindergarten days when my dances were videoed. actually hate looking at myself with a blur face. cringe when they keep focussing and zooming in on me. ah well, dad msged the next day to say he and grans were much impressed by the performance. so it's all good.

still one more performance for guitar during SYF closing ceremony... really dun wan it to end...