we played for the last time at the Esplanade for the SYF Instrumental Presentation on 9 July.
it was right after the CTs so we only had 2 days of intensive practice.
no doubt everyone was a bit rusty.
so the performance wasn’t really that great as it should have been.
but nevertheless we had lots of fun!
firstly, this is my first (& maybe only) time performing at the Esplanade.
i thought the dressing room was kind of cool!
we spent hours in it, waiting for our turn.
meanwhile we took photos! and sang songs! and mugged. haha.
then we got bored, so after dinner we went to take photos around Esplanade (:
molly’s so cute! (:
then finally it was our turn to perform.
the Recital Studio was real small.
and like 940 said, we were stuck at the Esplanade for 10 hours jus for 10 min of performance.
不愧是:台上十分钟,台下十个小时功!
yup so that was our last ensemble piece.
then it was back to school.
we presented the notebooks with our notes to Miss Ho and Miss Lam.
oh and Miss Ho said that
a pity we were having CTs and couldn’t go :(
[but VJ choir had their CTs postponed so that they could go leh. diff sch diff treatment.]
anyway, there was this really funny incident of JH in shorts + court shoes! HAHA!
after that we went for supper at Macs.
where we talked about our SYF Day again!
and that reminds me,
i havent posted about our SYF Day!
shall do that now (:
haha here are the few photos we took on the SYF day!
but dont have me :(
WHY DIDNT WE TAKE MORE PHOTOS?!
- was it because we were too hungry? :P
haha actually i think it was more of no mood bah.
we were so sure we’re going to get silver lor.
haha ok let me slowly recount what actually happened on that day itself.
it was quite an eventful day – at least for me it was (:
we reached school @ 6am.
the moment i reached i heard this loud voice coming from outside the audi that had to come from either yiwei or 940 or somebody.
we practiced a bit, then there was these ppl from the SC student welfare ppl who came and gave us some sweets in individual packets.
i can only say it’s the thought that counts.
then we carried our weapons up the bus and began our long bus ride to Republic Poly.
even if we were anxious, our anxiety was probably shown through our excitement bah.
we were jus being usual noisy selves on the bus, but it was a tad too noisy for Oxy who was there to accompany us.
so we sort of got a “warning” speech from her – she told us to concentrate on thinking about our song…
it was rather exasperating for her (she said so on her blog), but i guess it was our way to de-stress bah.
oppz. that wasn’t exactly a good start.
we were the 1st school that was supposed to play for the morning
[YAH! SUPER STRESSFUL RIGHT]
but we we reached TJ was alr there! – theirs was 3rd slot.
we sort of walked past them and we could feel the rivalry aura there. quite scary. *shiver*
we tried to tune our guitars and practice a bit, but unfortunately we got scolded by the ppl there.
we were quite pissed off, cos TJ has been practicing there for a super long time yet they scold us who only jus started?!
that was not the worse.
we were waiting to go into the tuning room – that’s 10min before the actual.
when Hwa Chong (finally) came to line up behind us. – they were 2nd slot.
what could be worse is that they were wearing the exact same colours as ours! - 撞colours: maroon + black.
just that theirs were black blazers + maroon gowns, compared to our shirt & pants. >.<
worse still, their conductor came to shake hands with Kevin.
after the formalities, she ask: “So what songs are your school playing?”
Kevin replied “Mountains In Autumn and La Partida”
then she was like, “Mountains In Autumn?” *Snigger* then turned and walked off!
WHAT IN THE WORLD.
we felt super insulted! but we’re not going to let that affect our performance.
yah so that wasn’t such a good omen either.
the impt 10mins in the tuning room went super fast!
and most of us thought we sounded good in the tuning room.
we then proceeded to wait behind the stage, and was joined by Hwa Chong shortly after.
we had to wait to start.
those were the longest minutes ever.
then it was our turn!
we were the 1st ones up, so there wasn’t many ppl in the audience.
except for the judges: Kelly Tang (the band set piece composer) & the chairman of the European Guitar Teachers' Association among them.
MIA sounded real soft. – maybe it was due to the RP Cultural Centre?
La Pa was, ok i guess.
but i knew i didn’t play my best. :(
and the songs sort of sounded bad from the prime area.
and it was all over before we knew it.
immediately after we got of the stage,
we, or at least i, could feel doom slowly descending on us.
it couldn’t help but think that all our efforts sort of went down the drain and all our intensive practices were for nothing if we were to get a silver.
it was this doomsday mood that engulfed us, and prevented us from having a good phototaking session.
my friends from the other ensembles came to look for me, there was YinHong & Eunice
but was feeling so dejected that even when they came over to say hi i was in no real mood to reciprocate >.<
and i saw the RJ ppl, who hadn’t went on stage, but i was in no real mood to even go look for Ma :(
we went to eat @ the RP canteen,
but we were in no real mood to eat also :(
esp YaChi, she really looked super emo putting her head on the table :((
then Dejian was saying dont talk abt it leh, cos we’re only making it worse.
so we took a few photos, and wanted to go take more at the nice RP pond, when it started raining.
we were late for the intermission, so had to wait to get in.
we caught quite a few schools, before and after the intermission.
and that scared the world out of us.
they all had like, big exaggerated movements, loud percussions (some a bit too loud), even really long solos! (some a bit too long)
but still, they had a lot of elements that we lacked.
and they were much louder! – they have like 50 members when we have like, 27.
we barely filled up the 2nd row can. T.T
and i remb saying to yiwei & kim “oh no looks like we are one of the worst ensembles.”
then Kim was like, “No, we are THE worst!”
then yiwei & i were like >.<
the rest had the same sentiments.
we were talking on the bus: molly was like, Bronze lah! or COP!
the teachers & Oxy were trying to comfort us by saying that from the audience’s view, we sounded good - Oxy was saying, at least Gold Standard.
but still, we were not convinced.
the skies were grey, reflective of our mood.
we reached sch.
we treated ourselves to Choco Waffle!
when ppl asked how was it, we just answered, “like dat lor, it wasn’t our best nor our worst”
and i decided to not go for math.
we went back to the room to wait for results.
meanwhile some of us tried reading notes, while the rest tried to play old concert songs + sing random songs.
very quickly it was 3.15!
there was a call from the people who went to hear the results.
we anxiously waited, all of us crowding around Suat’s phone.
then we heard it:
“DAY 6, AM SESSION. CENTRAL JUDGING OF GUITAR ENSEMBLE, JUNIOR COLLEGE SECTION.”
then we all screamed.
no amount of words could describe it.
if i were to use one word to describe, it’ll be “AHHHHHHHH!!!!~” – cos it was the only word that was audible, if you even consider it a word at all.
then we heard it:
WE WENT MAD.
if you could just imagine the previous scene, now just imagine it 3 times louder in volume + tears + hugs.
everyone was just running about screaming, crying or hugging someone else.
basically it was just madness.
people started bashing through the guitars that were lying on the floor.
we opened the door and screamed in Genevieve & YuRu’s ears – i believed they got quite a shock.
then everyone basically just ran out towards the canteen, screaming on the way.
[ yes even Grace who sprained her leg! i heard she ran the fastest somemore! HAHA (: ]
i believe the whole senior high block heard us.
jenny + dejian could hear us from the 4th floor!
and the teachers came out of the staff room to find out what happened.
and yujia said my whole math class heard us.
oppz.
we called them to confirm that we didnt hear wrongly on the phone.
alicia + 940 + jx + kevin + oxy + miss ho confirmed our GwH!
and they brought additional news: HW got bronze.. VJ silver.. and we were
omg that let off another stream of screams.
we went “parading” in the canteen – except Esther, JingHuan & YaChi. they were probably the only ones who didnt lose their senses.
we met the earlier bunch of ppl and told them the good news!
then jenny met us. she was crying!
then we went back to the guitar room to continue our *闪亮亮* effect (:
we were imagining how Dejian would have this urge to jump up halfway during his CSC lesson! HAHA.
before long the ppl who went to listen to the results came back,
and that let of another stream of screams.
they were telling us how they were also quite unable to register the news of us getting GWH too!
and they had to confirm with the other audience that they didnt hear wrongly also. haha (:
it was sad that there was only 5 of them there lor,
their screams couldnt be compared to ours: in the music block, senior high block, and the canteen! (:
Oxy messaged all the Year 7s alumni – they are all in the army except Oxy & Valerie (:
and Oxy called Valerie and we said our thanks.
and HongSheng read out TienLeng’s msg.
and then Esther & I had to go for hist rev class.
and that was a BEAU-tiful ending to our SYF journey despite the few hiccups in the morning.
and like Kim said,
THE LEGACY HAS BEGAN! ((:
i really think we rock.
i <33 guitar peeps!
((: