A Replacement to Writing? 2005/2006

1st X-winds Performance; camera; sticks

22 October 2005
Performance at XMS school hall today at 7pm for the annual XMS alumni dinner. This year is special because it's Xinmin's 60th anniversary! Yay!

We saw Mr Lee Hak Boon, our previous principal; my uncle, who is a former student and who was sitting at the table 2 metres away from the band but who didn't notice me anyway; Mr Yeo, our ex-discipline master; Mr Tan, the D&T teacher; and the very first principal of Xinmin (I think) who flew all the way from China to be present at this dinner. No matter what people say, I am very proud of XMS ok!

Seriously though, the emcee was . . . to put it nicely, very good at talking.

So we played the school song, I will Follow Him, Memory, Rong Shu Xia. I can't do an analysis because I told you that my hearing has deteoriated to such an extent that I cannot hear the difference between the wind chimes played using the mallet or using the hand, as we tested it out today. I swear I regret letting myself let my hearing ability be reduced to such a level. It is an insult to myself and my previous conductor. Although I suspect it is also partly because of that period of time where my ear itched horribly and I kept digging it. I read somewhere that the hair in the inside of the ear aids in the sensitivity of one's hearing. I think I practically removed all the hair on the inside of the ear (I think it's called "canal") when I was digging it. Ok, sounds gross. Aiya, not you, you don't understand how I feel lah, I damn fed up with myself, I tell you. Sometimes I just want to give up and don't play anymore because my hearing is so bad, but I can't bear to. Especially when I go for alumni then I see my fellow percussionists. And all those other damn good percussionists, and all those aspiring budding ones.

Anyway, according to Kah Siang and Daniel, we played horribly. There were 18 of us, by the way. Because of the positioning of the band, the french horns had their bells facing the wall and the sound just reflected.. and reflected.. and reflected.. (exaggeration here, but you get my point), while the rest of the band was really soft comparatively because there were no walls to reflect the sound. Sounded really unbalanced from the back of the hall, or rather, diagonally across the hall, because we were seated at one corner, all 18 of us, so that we were facing diagonally across the rectangular hall. The winds cannot hear clearly, not even me at the back of the band can hear (but then I am always concentrating somewhere else). I don't know if can hear the drumset and glock across the hall, but I have a feeling the accessories must be really soft. Poor LY.

FYI, there were like 30+ tables, each table got about 10 people, so there were more than 300 people there tonight.

Oh, Yizhen played drumset for I Will Follow Him and Rong Shu Xia, I played basically snare and bass for Memory and school song, Pearlin was stuck at mallets and LY was stuck at auxillary (I shall use this word instead of accessories). Poor them. They added in Rong Shu Xia like last minute, on Friday, when I had diarrhoea and couldn't go. So I sight-readed it today, practiced it perhaps 3 times, and then it was performance time. How nice. At least it sounds much better than the other song we were playing. God, it had those songs "shi shang zhi you ma ma hao" and "da dian hua" in it ok! If we were playing that tonight, I think I will wear a paper bag over my head or decide to learn the ways of the ostrich.

I am so proud of Yizhen! Because she can play drumset! Next time no guys, we will bully her into playing! Yay! Poor Yz now! Haha... No lah, we won't be evil. But I cannot don't be evil, because I know if all the guys are not there, then Yizhen is not there, then all my beloved percussionist friends will collaborate and push everything to me lorz! You think I don't know you all ah? Ok, next time LY play! I will have diarrhoea for 2 hours if it ever happens! Haha.. just kidding! I so nice, where will diarrhoea for 2 hours? 1 hour max only. I will just turn up late for band... =D

Anyway we got a "hongbao" from the alumni, very happy! Our first band fund! Don't know if I can disclose the amount here or not, so better not, but we went out for dinner after that instead of staying at school for the dinner they supposedly provided for us because there were not enough seats!

Feel so cheated.

So anyway, we ate at ah, Pow Sing Restaurant, I think. Ate chicken rice lah! The rice was nice! But I was so damn full because I had a cheese waffle before that. Why? Because I have gastric problems and clever me forgot to bring my gastric pills. So for fear of getting gastric pains before or after performances, as I usually do, I opted to eat a waffle before the performance. Didn't finish it at that time, so ended up eating it after the performance. Then I had to finish the dinner for that night. Wah, so full! But nice! So I was bored, and started taking a few pictures. Only a few. Regret never take the picture of the table full of food.

That is Kah Siang in the foreground and Daniel in the background.

Both of them talking about serious stuff, I think, can't remember what it was le. Something about the money, or is it about the menu?!

A rather spectaular view of the table before the "ah char" was finished by yee sin and the forks and spoons were used. But it is a bit too bright, I apologize. I don't have very good phototaking skills and I set the EV too high.

This is Shuping, holding the menu in her hands. I took this picture when she was totally unaware and only knew when I showed her the picture. I really like this picture, because it is bright enough (for me) and she is the focus of the picture, which was my intent. When you look at the picture, you will notice her expression and all that. So proud of myself! haha... Oops, I realized there is this man at the back staring at the camera. Or perhaps he was staring at our all-black ensemble.

By the way, quite a number of people were staring at us because all 18 of us were dressed in black. The waitress asked why we were wearing that and one of the diner asked us before she left why we were dressed like that. =D I thought it was really amusing. But it was nice to be thought of as special, you get what I mean. And Shuping said that next time another person ask, we should say that we are from the Black Society, a direct translation from 'hei she hui', a chinese term for the underground society or gangsters, which was really clever.

This is when they caught me snapping photos of them. Eh, I don't know the name of the girl beside Shuping! Those who see this and know her name tell me can! She damn funny! I call the two of them, she look around to see who it is I was calling, that's why she was facing somewhere else when I took this. And SP purposely block her face one lah!

I wanted to take a photo of Pearl and LY and Yizhen, but they don't let me take! They took a stupid photo of me instead which I refuse to put up here because it looks so stupid! Instead, I put this in place of the photo of me:

The glass of lime juice I drank.



This is after majority of us have finished dinner, and Daniel and Kah Siang decided to pose. Daniel is feeding Kah Siang!


Group photo! Asked the waitress to take a photo for us. The 2nd one is super blur. This time not only my camera's fault! The auntie's hands were shaky! I refuse to believe this could be the work of my camera! My camera is Shiro's. It sucks. Don't buy it. It is super cheap (relatively speaking), around $200 range. The top photo is so much better, can see clearer, except that Daniel is not in it. That's why the waitress say take another photo! So in the 2nd photo the person on the extreme left is Daniel. Never mind lah, got his photo at the top already, so... heh... Sorry ah, Daniel! So suay, the only person who brought a camera was me and I own a lousy camera.
Ok, don't degrade my camera too much in case it gets insulted and decides to go on a strike. It still has some good features. It is only at night when the lighting isn't good, and your hand cannot shake... yar, well...

Anyway, it can do this :

Normal


Sepia effect

And I thought I would just post this:

2 birthday gifts, 1 farewell gift. Birthday gifts : 1 from my AJ percussionists, 1 from Pearl and YZ. Farewell gift : AJ percussionists 2005/2006.

This is the full picture of it. Not artistic, I know. Who cares! SD1 sticks and multi-purpose percussion sticks (I think it's called that, something to that extent).

posted by tstar @ 12:55 AM