In Song 2005: A Night to Remember

~ Curtains fall ~
We wrapped up In Song 2005: Perfect Fourths at 9.40pm last night.
Something to describe my feelings 24 hours ago::
*Hee!*…
…*Yea! YAY!!*…
…*phUUew* … …

We reached the climax of the concert towards the end when we performed our repertoire of percussive Indonesian folklore, and the audience loved our last song, Kerrapan Sape - I could feel it - it was a blast! (I get a kick out of singing this song myself too..haha. *Hey! Hey! Hey!* And nelson’s and terr’s last pose was really zai3..haha!) The crowd cheered and shouted Encore.. it was a truly rewarding experience to see the smiles on their faces and know that they enjoyed our singing - it was all worth it =)
---> *Hee!” = Big smile to the audience as a show of my appreciation to them for being here with us this night

Our concert wouldn’t be successful without a few people whom I wish to thank here. Getting our notes and lyrics right are already very effort-consuming, but these people also had to juggle other miscellaneous stuff at the same time, so they really deserve a pat on the shoulder! Thanks to Sandy and Minyi, who saved our lives by helping the girls with our troublesome saris..they are just like our tie1 xin1 nannies..helping us take care of all the nitty gritty stuff..hehe.

Thanks to the ex-co and pub comm for helping to organise and put the whole concert together. Our bleak sales must have caused them to lose sleep over the possibility of the choir singing to a half-empty hall and as a result, make losses out of the concert. It has been a struggling time for the choir in the past week, needless to say the pub comm, BUT last night, the crowd grew as every minute passed and the hall looked so packed! We sold more than a thousand tickets..which is really great news for everyone! Wow! The miracle (in my earlier entry) has come true..good job, ex-co and pub comm!

Thanks to all our conductors again, esp Nelson..I think he really makes magic and brings music to life. Yea, Joyce and I will agree on this..we’ve seen the difference for ourselves..it’s real~ I think we wouldn’t be able to sing the songs as well as we do than without his guidance and advice. Thanks Nelson..you really are a musical genius! And our 3 dear conductors in da house! I think they all looked so shuai4 on stage when they were conducting last night..so much style they have got~..hehe ;P And not to forget the choreo ppl who squeezed their brain juice dry to think of actions that will look good on the choir, and helping to perfect our moves..well done folks!
---> * Yea! YAY!!* = We have made it, finally! 20 songs to a good show! And look at the crowd in the hall! 3 cheers for VC!

Well frankly, our singing may not be anywhere near perfect last night; we went sharper..AND sharper, but we (esp the sops) still hung on and sang as best as we can. There surely are many places where we (and myself) can improve on, but it was undeniably a beautiful performance we have put up, and surely a night to remember for all of us onstage together last night. I know it isn’t easy to have everyone come together and put up a performance like this, especially since VC is an entirely voluntary thing, so I really cherish this chance to sing with everyone. I enjoyed every minute of the performance onstage. Sis was there on my right, offstage..and shue, peishan and bell was to my left. Thanks for coming down to watch me, it kept me going. :)

Thinking back, it has been a wonderful experience preparing for this concert with VC this year. There were numerous funny moments, like when someone sings the wrong note or made an early entry, and everyone will burst out in laughter uncontrollably. Sundays were also a lot of fun when we practised our choreo..the girls would come up with funny indianish choreo and poses to match with our sari costume..it was really hilarious~ And of course there were frustrating times as well when we couldn’t get things right and done, but these will all be valuable memories for me to keep. :)

So after all the cheers, laughter and thank yous I wanna say, it’s finally time to relax and..rest! Practices after practices have tire us all out, coming two weekends will be a well deserved break for all of us to recharge and prepare for the next biggie!
---> *phUUew* = Now I can wake up late on sats/suns and can still afford to nua and tu2 as much as I like..haha.

Till this morning, the songs are still ringing in my head… *hashiru, hashiRU..HASHIRU!...*

Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding……….. *bobs head from right to left..to right..to left…to..*

Be Bewitchedd~

Haha..I went to catch the movie “Bewitched” with my colleagues @ PS today, that’s why. =P It’s the kind of light-hearted show that I like to catch nowadays especially, it lifts your spirits and gives you the “feel-good” feeling after the show. ;) And my favourite Hollywood actress, Nicole Kidman didn’t disappoint me too; she brought the character (Isabel Bigelo) alive with her superb acting skills and certainly added a lot of colour to the show. She’s one charismatic woman who shines with style and radiates confidence..I absolutely love her! Well. the movie overall was not bad, I’ll give it three stars out of five! =D

Besides getting a good laugh out of the 2 hour show, I learnt some interesting lessons for myself from ths story too! (Ya this was a surprising reward, I had expected nothing more than a good laugh actually.=p ) Isabel’s strong desire to be normal was rather thought-provoking for a normal person like me, watching the show. Besides the fact that the story is purely fictitious, it does provide a brand new perspective from which we can view our lives with, which is very much different from the way most of us normally do. Also, it serves as a useful indicator for us to reflect on our attitudes towards our lives once in a while..

Isabel wishes so much to be normal, but to normal people like us, we probably cannot appreciate what’s so good about that. And this teaches us something important - that no matter how ordinary we might be, we are still luckier than someone else in some way. We may not know it now, but it stands true; that you will always have something that someone else doesn’t, and this something is what we ought to be thankful and happy for - simple things that make us a happy and contented person. =)

Getting into a quarel with someone, like your friend, colleague or loved one. Or trying to get some work done only to get stuck and you have no idea how to pick up the mess. Or simply having a bad hair day. These are just some examples of some of the last things we would want for ourselves. while the list goes on. We DON’T enjoy them, we hate them. But apparently Isabel thinks that these are the real blessings in life (well, that’s because she’s a witch so she doesn’t get to “enjoy” all these wonderful stuff!)

Well, “wonderful” as it is, this idea does sound strange and maybe alittle illogical, but I think it’s fresh and I really like it! All these little little episodes are part and parcel of life, we’d definitely experience them at point in time. We see them as BAD things, and yes this is true to a certain extent since they are really not-so-desirable things. Though they may be frustrating for a moment and we complain/grumble to let it all out, maybe we should also recognise that these are the things that spice up our lives, and we learn to cope better! If everything in life is so smooth-sailing, it’ll be soo BORING. It’s nice to look at life from this angle and be bewitchedd. We start brand new, and we learn to love BOTH the ups AND the downs in life..all of them! ;P

Victoria Chorale Presents …

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In Song: Perfect Fourths

Catch us LIVE! @ Esplanade Concert Hall
On: 28th August 2005, Sunday,
At : 7.30pm

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Yes, we’re back again…stronger, and even better! It’s going to be VC’s big day of the year, and this is my 2nd In Song with the choir… boy(!) am I looking forward to Sunday! Terr, Xuhao & Zhihong have worked very hard with the choir, and we have practised hard from the beginning of this year for it. Kudos to the conductors! *applause applause* Kudos to all VC-lings too! *another round of applause* This very night will witness all these months of effort put in by every single choir member; this is the night that we have all been working towards to, and we’re just one week away from it now! =D

Hmm.. maybe before I get all excited about concert day, I better start worrying about my costumes.. badly need to fix a metal pin to my organza, and tack all the pleats neatly for my 2nd-half constume (well, maybe I shouldn’t say what it is here and now..heeh heeh ;P). I know I have been delaying it for ages..I’m just too tired & lazy after work to sit down and patiently do all these, and weekends have been taken up by practices. Yea man, I ought to get them all done up these few days before I start panicking the day before the concert right..

There are some of my friends who have accepted my invitation to attend my concert, and I wanna sincerely thank them here for coming down to support the choir, and to give me a chance to share with you something that’s special in my life. And bell is coming to my choir concert for the 1st time! Really, I appreciate it a lot. Coz it is not at all easy to have people really come down on that day, unfortunately. There are just too many concerns that vary across each individual. Prior commitments arranged. Unable to find company to go for the concert. Too ex. Not interested.. just to name a few.

I know that it is impossible to gather everyone I hope to get, to come down to VC’s concert. I mean..even for an occasion as big as National Day, also not everyone will want to go down to Padang to watch the parade – again, for various numerous reasons - and needless to say, for a choir concert. From my personal experience, choral music is still very unfamiliar to Singaporeans. It seems as if to some people that singing in choir isn’t a very ‘normal’ (or conventional’, you might say) thing to do. After all, choral music is not like pop or hip-hop that can easily appeal to the masses, but personally I feel that choral music is so beautiful that it’s a pity not to know how to appreciate it. And for most part of VC music (and for In Song this coming Sunday), the only instrument is - the human voice.

For people who haven’t had any response since I smsed them days ago, not even a “no, I’m not interested” or “no, I can’t come” reply, I duno what happened to them, or to my sms. I shan’t dwell on that. But there are two people that I want to specially thank. First is my dear sis. She was the first one to tell me she will come, even before the tickets were out for sale. Sis had been wanting to go BKK with her friends and they finally managed to decide on a weekend that could accommodate everybody’s schedule, only to realise that it clashes with my concert day. So she had to push back her vacation plans because of me. Though I very much want Sis to be there for me on this important night, I felt bad (and good thing her friends never chop me up ;P), but sis told me she promised me she will come, and she will. Thanks cheh, love ya! =D

The second person I wanna thank is Shue. When I first told her 1-2 months back that I have an upcoming concert, she said she’d like to come and see how good our choir is. I thought she meant that as a casual remark, so when the tix were out I asked her again. This was what she replied in her sms in her exact words, “Hee 28th u got concert? Cool. It’s a sun? Ok I’ll go support you.” I was very touched after I saw her reply. She agreed, on the spot. No questions asked. She didn’t even asked me how much was the price of the tix, she only made sure that she had nothing on on that day. Wow. I couldn’t thank you more, Shue, for your faith in me, and the amount of encouragement you gave me by promising to come watch me at my concert. Thanks a million!

We are eager to sing for everyone, but sales aren't doing good even till now, sad to say. I've tried approaching my friends but frankly, my effort is really minimal, considering the size of the concert hall which can accomodate 1600 ppl. *sweat* I wish I have the power to have a huge impact on our ticket sales, sigh. I pray hard that a miracle will happen. We just have one more practice to brush up whatever we can for our songs, and we’re ready to put up a good show..for a large crowd I hope. And I hope that 28th will be a memorable day for all VC-lings, and the audience will enjoy our concert as much as we do singing for you onstage!

Happy 40th Birthday, Singapore!

It started pouring early this afternoon but I knew the rain would soon go away, because today is an important day for all of us, for Singapore. True enough, the rain stopped after a while and soon after the sun was out. The vibrant sunshine was back to dry up all the wetness and get us all ready to have a good time, coz we have a party to attend! It’s the biggest party ever, everyone’s invited to join in the fun, including myself! It’s the only party where everyone puts aside our differences for a moment and all come together to celebrate for a special someone. It’s a holiday! It’s Singapore’s party today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE!!!

I joined in the party from the comfort of my home, as I always do every year. By 5.30pm, I was sitting comfortably on my sofa, ready to catch the 2005 National Day Parade Live on my home TV set. I think the hosts at Padang today did a great job in lifting the spirits of the audience and getting everyone involved in the celebration. The mass dance, Singaporean style “Kallang” wave and all the waving of torches were so fun! Personally, I think music will always be an essential element we cannot do without regardless of the occasion or event, and of coz National Day Parade is no exception. The accompanying music for the various events tonight was marvelous; they effectively brought out the mood of each theme and complemented the performances perfectly. My personal favourites were the live band playing for the marching parade *toom toom toom toom, 1 2 1 2*, and the music played while the fighter planes performed their tricky stunts *vroOm*..it made the whole thing very grand. ;)

My favourite songs that were newly written for the celebration this year included the one sung by Joi Cai, and “Sing Our Wishes” by a kids choir. I thought the latter was a truly unique Singaporean song, coz the 4 main languages used in the lyrics were mixed in a very fun way that gave it a lot of local flavour, and I like it a lot! More importantly, the song was specially written for the kids, and the kids singing it were so lovely! They looked so adorable in their yellow uniforms and danced the same steps while singing the melodious tune..it was a really pleasant sight to see the innocent smiles on their faces. I sure enjoyed the song as much as they did themselves! =)

My personal favourite of the celebration is definitely the finale, kickstarted by the song sung by Rui En and Taufik, followed by my all-time favourite national day songs, which I will never get tired of year after year..they just sound as good everytime I hear them! *Stand up, Stand up for Singapore!* And finally the climax of the night..fireworks!! I was already going “waah..” over the display on TV, I think I’ll be jaw-dropped throughout the whole 2 mins or so if I were watching it live at Padang..They’re sooo BEAUTIFUL! Everytime a firework opens up, it is like a new hope for our country and our people..the feeling is just indescribable. It’s simply breathtaking~ Hahaha.

National Day in the past has been just like another holiday to me, nothing special that I feel on this joyous occasion. But this year’s National day felt a little different for me. I guess it’s the “take for granted” attitude that I used to have, but as I’ve grown older, I’m learning to be thankful for a lot of things. I was actually moved to tears on a few occasions while watching the parade and celebration..I’m not sure why I got so emotional all of a sudden, but I just felt very touched and happy for all the things our country has achieved for herself through these years. It was a really memorable night to see so many smiles on all the Singaporeans’ faces, young and old, who have come together to one place to celebrate for our nation’s birthday. Those are smiles deep down from the heart that I see, priceless gifts that warm the heart.

Today, I’m glad to say that I’m . This is the place where I was born, the place where I took my first breath of air, the place that gave me my first years of education, and eventually completed my University education, the place where I kickstarted my career, and the place that gave me my family and all my friends. Without Singapore, I definitely wouldn’t be who I am today, enjoying a good life with my loved ones. This is my home, I love Singapore, and I’m glad to be a part of this important day. =D

What would be my wish for Singapore on her 40th birthday? I’ll keep it simple - I just hope our nation will continue to prosper, that its people be blessed with peace and happiness, and we can all come together every year like this on this very day to celebrate National Day, for years and years to come. Singapore, Happy Birthday!

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This is my Country
This is my Flag
This is my Future
This is my Life!
This is my Family
These are my Friends
We are Singapore, Singaporean
We are Singapore, SINGAPOREAN!!
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What Quality Life Means To Me

In one of the episodes of the 9pm drama serial on channel 8 more than a week ago, Tay Ping Hui said something that caught my attention instantaneously. The scene was showing Joanne Peh having coffee at TPH’s house and chatting away, then he casually commented that ‘quality life’ to him meant having a cup of good coffee and spending quality time with his friends, etc. (I can’t remember the exact lines he said, but it was something along that line.) It was a rather simple remark, but it struck me as something meaningful – it was one of the beliefs I held close to my heart. Frankly, it’s nice to be hearing something I believe in from another voice - and surprisingly in a TV show – to know that there is a someone else (erm in this case the scriptwriter ;P) who also believes in the same thing as I do.

I met up with Driz and Joyce for dinner yesterday, FINALLY. Yes, it’s quite hard to find a common time to meet up nowadays especially now that Driz and I are working, so it’s harder to accommodate our schedules. But I had such a great time with my two darling mei mei-s last night it was really my day. Though it was a short 3 hours, and if only it could be longer, it was undeniably quality time spent. I enjoyed every minute of the dinner and time together. After all I haven’t seen Driz for a long time, and the xiao-zaRR bohs [minus bro=( ] were in full force yesterday! Haha. ;D

All 3 of us were starving by the time we met up..it was already past 8! But it was the right choice to settle for tampines fish & co for dinner. The food was good – btw it was my first time having seafood platter for two – it’s fantastic, and black pepper stingray was yummy too! Service was excellent – the lady who served us was all smiles the whole night – which made our dinner even more enjoyable. And how can we forget good music? I totally love the disney CD they were playing..the arrangements were different from the traditional ones, something fresh and upbeat..good stuff!

And yes, I got 2 new pairs of earrings from Driz to add on to my collection! Driz is really getting better and better at it I must say, I’m so lucky to have her as my mei mei. I’m her loyal supporter! Without her, I wouldn’t have such unique earrings to complement my outfits. Love them lots! To sum everything up, nothing would be as good without such good company. :) We must meet up as often as we can, I promise!

I felt so fulfilled by the end of the day. I have been spending my Sundays nua-ing at home, and earlier on I was still whining to myself about having to go all the way to Siglap on Sunday late afternoon for VC prac. But practice turned out well..we were learning choreo and yea we had quite a lot of fun with it. And to sum things up, I had an incredible time with Driz and Joyce. I felt deeply, that this is what quality life means to me – having a simple dinner and chat with my dear sisters is more than enough, really. My day ended with a blast, much better than I had expected it to be! =D

The Road to Career

When I found my current job 2 months back, I was totally delighted. I was very fortunate to be able to find a job in the apparently bleak job market – at least a contract one was already good enough – and in such a short time too. I quicky settled for this offer without hesitating much as I couldn’t imagine myself going through the tedious job hunting process in search for a possibly better one. Through these 2 months, some of my friends have also managed to land pretty good jobs and permanent ones too and I’m happy for them. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but question myself occasionally whether I had been too rash in accepting my current job offer then. Could I have gotten an even better offer had I been more patient and waited for other potential jobs to come my way? Looking at the people around, it seemed plausible. Then again, maybe no? Well, frankly I don’t know. It depends a lot on luck I must admit, and it is really hard to say.

This doesn’t mean I’m not good here. In fact, thinking back on my experience working here so far, I think I truly am a blessed worker. I haven’t had to stay back for OT so far; I always leave office on the dot and I can have weeknights all to myself. My work is never thrown at me in huge piles that seem neverending; my workload is absolutely manageable. My job scope is clear and I am only responsible for fulfilling those duties within my scope; I never had to “bao ka liao”, in other words cover whatever miscellaneous work that is outside of my area simply because I’m the only non-permanent staff in my team. Something interesting I’ve noticed too: superiors here do not sit in their own private corners or offices that show their authority. Instead, they sit at normal desks just like the rest of us and they are hardly intimidating.. how cool is that? Besides, lunchtime is really quality break-time here; we get to enjoy our meals leisurely and even have time to jalan jalan abit before we head back for work, there’s no rush at all..it’s always a good time to relax.

Most importantly, I get to befriend a group of amazing girls – Shio Cheng, Priscilla, Angel, Yoko, Evan and Siok Choo. They are really nice people – easy to get along with, and needless to say, a great team of colleagues to work with. There’re no politics or enmity in our team, only friendship. My “teacher”, Pris, is always patient to help me whenever I have questions, and my mistakes are tolerated. My office is a great place to work in – I never had any hard feelings about coming to work..not on Sundays, and no Monday blues as well. The people here are one important reason..because I know it is not just a place for serious work, but one where I can find friends.

The only less-than-ideal part about this job is perhaps the money. Strictly speaking my pay is fairly decent, as in it is sufficient to finance my day-in day-out expenses..”sufficient” is the word I stress here. So it is OK, I would say. But the bottomline is, “I wouldn’t mind if it is higher”.. it complements my financial status and my budget can be looser..haha ya, you get my point, talking about “ideal” as always. Moreover, I believe my market value is potentially worth more than what I’m being paid now, so if I can be paid higher, of course I’ll be happier too. Nevertheless, this isn’t a major problem for me at this stage since I just started out working. Besides, much of this deficiency has been compensated for by other satisfying monetary and non-monetary aspects of my job. So by far I am very contented with my job overall.

Well, maybe one last thing that is lacking is that it is contract-based. Obviously a permanent position is best so that I wouldn’t have to worry about whether I get to stay or have to leave the company..job security is at stake here, which is important to me. What happens next after my contract expires? I might have a choice to stay on, I might not. If I’m lucky to have a chance to – which I’d love to – then what would I want to get out of it? Perhaps it’s good time now to ponder about what I want in my career life.

I used to think back then that I would just work at any job that is pretty decent, just for the income for survival, because I knew right from the beginning that there’s going to be more to life that I want to do besides just spending my whole time on work alone..I want to spend time on things I love and enjoy doing..singing is one for sure. Up till now, this hasn’t changed at all. But it really isn’t as simple as I thought it to be. Yes, work is not going to be the most important, but who can deny that it IS essentially an important part of life? After all, we’re going to spend a large part of our time working on our career, of course I would want it to be a pleasant and fulfilling memory of my life. So naïve of me when I used to think that I wouldn’t need to worry about “career advancement” and this sorta stuff cuz I forsee I only need a basic salary to survive. Well I’m wrong I guess. I sure need to sit down now and start planning what I want in my career, meaning what is truly important to me and what level of achievement will be satisfying enough for myself to have regrets. It’s not too late to start thinking now.

I have in mind how much is considered a good enough salary for my needs, but money is not the most important part. The people and environment is of much more significance to me – it has to be a place where I have a lot of positive feelings about. I’ve learnt that there is no such thing as the best job that can be measured against any individual. Everyone has different needs and we simply cannot compare you with me, it just doesn’t work. The best job for me might not be the best one for you. And similarly, the job that doesn’t satisfy you doesn’t mean it doesn’t suit me. Eventually, it all boils down to understanding our own individual needs and to work towards fulfilling them – that is the simplest and most sensible principle to follow.