First day back... never expected it to be any different. Just the same old boring and stifling place *yawn* Lol ok, what can I expect from clerical work anyway right. Well, at least no more chopping of oas forms. Though i think they were hoping to find pple who could still continue to work in Dec, which would be just about the right time for oas chopping again! Hahaha

Miss having lots of other temps around, it's definitely more lively and less sleepy! Now it's just me, and the other temp who's leaving soon... but we're sitting so far apart. And of cos we hardly know each other, not like we actually made any effort to talk though. But I'm sure she's a very friendly person, from the ultra cheerful smile she gave me when I walked past. Lol ok smiling is a start I guess.

The morning was so much easier to get through than after lunch. Maybe it's the weather... rainy, and the super cold air-con somemore, makes me start to hibernate. Eyelids were drooping. Shall plan to go to work earlier tomorrow, so that I'll have some time to buy food (chocolates! *spastic grin*) to keep me awake at work.

My last few free days before starting work again. Boring, nine-to-five, clerical job again. Ok, not nine-to-five, maybe i should say eight-thirty-to-five-thirty. But who am I to complain? Spent so much during the long break that I used up all the salary I earned and even more. It wouldn't have been so bad, if only I could stop myself from giving in to the temptation of CDs. Haha it may be the disadvantage of working or something, but when I have more spending power I tend to buy more too. Isn't that a good excuse not to go back to work. Lol. But I guess I'm going to have to start saving up. Good that it's a nine-to-five job actually, so that I won't go out too often. When everyone starts school they'll all be too busy to go out anyway.

I played Szymanowski today after giving it the cold shoulder for many weeks. The motivation behind it? A nightmare about the concert! Hahaha last night I dreamt that suddenly everyone couldn't make it on any other day except 'tomorrow', so we had to push forward the concert to 'tomorrow'. And it was so freaky! I hadn't touched the piece for so long, I wasn't sure I could actually even play it from memory anymore, much less play it well! Lol but fortunately that isn't the case in reality. Of course it's the opposite, since Ben is still in Vienna, and I think Bernice is going on holiday soon. And we already decided to push back the concert by another week so that we can get more people to play in it.

I found that I could play it perfectly fine from memory, though I know that's not an assurance that I wouldn't get a memory lapse on the concert day. It always happens! I don't know why. I wish there was a way to work on that, or some guarantee that any breakdowns I get won't be from memory lapses. The funny thing that baffles me is that, somehow after not practising it for such a long time I actually play it better than previously, when I was struggling to practise the irritating left hand runs. Very surprisingly, the left hand runs came out smoothly today although I remember the last time I practised Szymanowski it was still in a big mess. Which is why I stopped playing it anyway, because I was too fed up to concentrate.

I also finally stopped procrastinating about the write-up about Szymanowski, for Michele. Crapped up something, but I think it seems quite short:

Szymanowski was born in Ukraine, to a family which had a deep interest in the arts. Due to a leg injury, his early education was at home, but he nevertheless had music lessons from a relative, Gustav Neuhaus. In 1901 he went to Warsaw to continue his musical studies, taking lessons in counterpoint and composition from the composer Zygmunt Noskowski, and harmony lessons from Marek Zawirski. The four Etudes, Op.4, come from relatively early in Szymanowski’s career. They show an overt debt to Chopin and Skryabin. The third etude is possibly the best known of all, owing much of its popularity to the advocacy of the pianist Paderewski.

Not too sure about spoken introductions, since most concerts just have printed programmes. But short and sweet is better than something long and hard for the audience to concentrate on right. Still have to rack my brains to think of something to say for the 'personal reflections on the piece' part. Think the idea is quite good, though actually I can't think of what to say about Szymanowski. Something about colourful harmony maybe... that's about the only thing I can come up with.

Oh ya, anyone please enlighten me on the difference between Skryabin and Scriabin? I think they are two different composers... but I'm so ignorant, I always thought 'Skryabin' was another spelling of 'Scriabin', until I saw both names in the same CD booklet.

What an occupied day. In the morning I met Kan Kan and we collected our composition portfolios, yay! Sighz... brings back all the memories of those days. We took some time to leaf through our portfolios at the study area downstairs. Haha it was weird to be sitting there not in uniform. After that we went to get a haircut in Bedok. Or should I say, I got my haircut and Kan Kan trimmed her hair. Was quite nervous to let the hairdresser cut my hair. What if it turns out horrible?! Lol I've got my fair share of horrible haircuts. But I need not have been so worried. Haha it turned out just fine, I didn't look weird.

After lunch I had to go home to drop off my portfolio before I went to Boon Lay mrt to meet Dacia. She moved to Jurong sometime this year, apparently she lives just a ten-minute walk away from NTU, it'll be so convenient for her to go to school! But not so close to the mrt station though. At first I couldn't recognise her, I thought it was just another person walking into the station! Haha the last time I saw her was when we went for dinner in Jurong Point. But before that she had training and in her sports things she still looked like Dacia. Lol but upon closer look, I realised it was Dacia walking towards me. We were chatting all the way to Bugis, to meet Anni and Li Ching. It was like being back in secondary school, when we would take a bus home instead of train cos we got so sick of taking trains. And for me, cos buses take longer to get home haha... weird and silly reason! We recalled all the funny lessons in Sec 1 and 2, Ching Chui and I always nodding away in class lol. And Father Balhetchet calling Huey Woon "the dragon" cos he couldn't remember her name but the Chinese New Year decorations on the board behind her was a dragon!

We were early but Anni and Li Ching told Dacia they'd be late... "St. Nicks people are always late, as usual"... haha but people living not too close will usually be early, cos we overestimate the time to get there. Like Dacia said, she'd probably always be late next time, cos she lives so near school. So we went strolling around looking at all the places we could possibly have dinner later, comparing prices like aunties going to the market! We were also wondering how Anni and Li Ching looked like now. I haven't seen them for ages, and other than Dacia, I don't know them very well too. When we were in the same Sec 1 and 2 class, I seldom talked to them actually... and of cos when the three of them went to 3 and 4 Hope, I seldom even saw them. Except Dacia, during MEP... she always sat with Magdelene in front of me and Joycelyn.

We met Anni first, nothing much has changed except for her hair I suppose. Or maybe I didn't know her that well so I can't tell. Li Ching didn't change at all! Maybe a little in her demeanour etc, but she didn't look any different. We were actually waiting for Huey Woon to knock off and meet us, so we sat down in MOS and chatted away. Mostly exchanging news about our Sec 1 and 2 classmates and where they'll be going. And complaining about how ugly the school looks now, after they repainted it. I haven't gone back for very long, but I've heard so much about the kindergarten-look that I want to go back and see it for myself! Haha and I miss the mian xian. When Huey Woon said she wasn't coming cos she wasn't feeling too well, we decided to move from MOS to Ajisen. Dinner was good, but very very filling!


Dinner at Ajisen

We walked around for a while after dinner, and took neoprint too. We had to do it two times cos it was the card kind. Haha Dacia and I were a little evil, we were standing together the second time, and we looked more relaxed and cheerful in it... so we wanted to keep it. But not too evil actually, Anni looked very nice the first time, so it's good that she got to keep that. We thought Li Ching looked a little out of place in the second one too, so isn't it better for her to keep the second one? Haha ok, anyway they weren't unhappy about that so it's fine. We walked around some more until Li Ching and Anni wanted to go.


The first one...


And the second one. See the diff?

But Dacia was still so hyper and wanted to stay out longer, so we went shopping across the road. At first we were attracted to the kind of clock (? or watch?) that you can hang on your bag... I liked that, cos wearing watches is just not my thing. Dacia thought it was good for when she went for training or was wearing more sporty things, cos her watch definitely wouldn't suit them. But we decided not to buy it from there cos who knows how long-lasting it'll be.

So we went watch/clock-hunting in Bugis. We met Vanessa and Suellen... haha Suellen looked so different that we were wondering whether it was her at first. They seem the same otherwise, both of them are always so sweet and nice. Erm ok, maybe not with their closer friends though. Quite happy to meet so many people again, though I didn't really have anything to say to most of them actually. Ok with Dacia we could talk about more things cos we know each other better.

Woke up with a shock today. Quite literally jumped out of bed. Hahaha it's weird, I know, but it just happens that I always feel better if I wake up early in the morning on days when I have things going on. (i.e. days that I don't get to stay home all day long) Lol. Today is Wednesday, piano day! So of course it's my 'habit' to wake up even earlier to do last minute practising, due to my bad habit of procrastinating during the rest of the week. Argh it's a really stupid bad habit, it's actually better now that I'm out of the school system and stuff, but I'm still not entirely rid of it.

However, I didn't wake up as early as I usually would today. Maybe cos I'm quite dead after many sleepless nights being provoked by an irritating (and presumably fat) mosquito. Both my legs are spotted with mosquito bites by this single mosquito! It must have a huge appetite. Though I didn't get to prove whether it was unusually bigger than normal mosquitos, cos I squashed it when I eventually managed to kill it. Hmmph I refuse to admit that I'm cruel and ruthless. Afterall, it tortured me for so many nights, making me wake up by buzzing near my ear, or finding a new spot to sting, just when I'm about to drop off to sleep. And then I'd try to hit it but fail, and the cycle repeats itself.

Anyway, as I was saying, I woke up later than usual with a start. And I was about to rush around trying to set my day back to normal by trying to catch up on the 'lost time' by speeding up the process of washing up/bathing/breakfast etc. Lol it's actually really silly of me. It was eight o'clock in the morning, I had three hours before it would be time to leave the house and still reach my teacher's place with ample time to spare for strolling there too. But still... I can't help it!

However, I got quite a pleasant surprise when I decided to check on my phone before the big rush. That was when I read the message from my teacher asking to cancel today's lesson. Haha it's actually quite ironic, cos when I replied she said, "Thanks for being accomodating blah blah blah" I didn't reply cos I didn't know what to say to that, cos I was actually glad to cancel today's lesson and make up for it some other time since I haven't touched the piano much ever since my one-day break from music last Thursday. Today's lesson would have been quite a waste of time and money cos I'm quite sure my playing would have sounded rather similar to last weeks', maybe except for some minute changes in the phrasing of Beethoven's Sonata Op.78.

Ok, so after four paragraphs of crap, the story is, today's piano lesson was cancelled. Lol. Heh why have I suddenly become so long-winded?! And so I had the whole day free. I was quite determined not to procrastinate because I knew, deep down, I was so tempted to slack off... cos for the next two weeks Ms Ching's on holiday, which means, no piano lessons! Leaves me ample time to practise a lot before lessons resume again. But in the end I didn't get down to much practising, because, after my very unhurried breakfast, the construction workers started work on the street just outside the window. Competing with the noise probably would have been quite good training for better projection of sound, but I couldn't concentrate with all that noise going on.

Did more clearing up of my room... sigh, I don't think it'll ever be neat and tidy! Decided to clear out a small cupboard under the window, something I've been putting off for eons. It's just some weird space below the window (ask the architect why it was built like that!) which the designer decided to turn into a cupboard in an attempt to disguise the ugliness of it. Actually it works quite well too! Walking into the room, if you weren't observant, you may not even realise that without the cupboard doors that space would have looked really weird. Found an old backpack, from years ago... or actually, I don't even remember when. I suppose it's one of those someone-bought-it-but-I-never-used-it things. It's dusty and stuff, but it'll be good as new once I've washed and cleaned it up. (Haven't gotten down to doing that though!) Shall use it as my hand luggage, since my mum is dead set on me using a backpack and nothing else as a hand luggage... "Aiyoh, sling bags so dangerous! Very easy to get stolen!"... but I can't use my school bag cos it's now my bro's school bag. (And he's totally ill-treating it, it's in such a dirty and sorry state now! Hmmph!)


The cupboard tucked away under the window.

Think bringing CDs and scores over is very expensive. My mum says SingPost does it at a cheaper price cos they ship it over, but I haven't asked them about the price and how long it'll take. My bro suggested using a CD album, which is actually a good idea, except that I'd really prefer that I have the CD booklets too. Scores... actually I guess I could pack everything into a box and check them in as luggage. But it isn't a very good idea either.

Yesterday night I went to an "information night for Birmingham students" thing, at the Oriental Hotel. Met Poh Ning in the lobby since her parents were going with her and of course they drove there. Later Wish (aka Shuying) sat in the same row as us, beside Poh Ning's parents. At first I merely turned my head for a glance at the new person sitting in the row, but then I realised it was Wish! Hmm, feels a little weird to be calling her Wish, since I've always associated her face with a chinese name. But I guess we'll all start calling her that because it'll be so much more convenient for non-chinese speakers too. Ok, just to side-track, Wish was from SN too, I think I never knew her name when I was there though. But we both recognised each other at the MOE scholarship interview some months ago, and started chatting while we were waiting for our turns. Oops, I forgot her name after the interview! But so did she. Wish is going to Birmingham on a MHA scholarship... sighz... zai! I think she was offered overseas scholarships by both MOE and MHA?? I really think so, or at least that's the impression I got while we were chatting last night.

The presentation was ok, actually the things they told us we've already known from their website etc. It was a little lame when the presenter asked those who have confirmed that they're going to Birmingham to raise their hands. Then she said, "Oh, you were the first to raise your hand, so we have a souvenir for you." Ermm... so lame. I was sure most of us raised our hands at almost the same time, she probably just had to anyhow pick someone or she was only looking in our direction at that time. It was a keychain, quite nice.

After some advice from the people from the Singaporean Students' Society (SingSoc), we decided to email the accommodation office and request that they put us in the same flat. Actually I doubt it may be possible, especially this late, cos Wish was told they were starting to sending out the accommodation packages when she emailed them about that some time earlier. That means they've already allocated rooms. But we still tried last night, haha by 'bombarding' them with emails... all three of us sent the same email to them, cleverly written by Wish. And cunningly titled 'Urgent - International Student Accommodation', another clever suggestion by Wish... lol Lit student, must be good with words! Yep, she says they reply to emails titled 'Urgent' more quickly, according to her experience.

Gerald told me Ms Chew says our portfolios are ready for collection... yay! Haha I want to keep it like a treasure. All that hard work! Maybe i'll go back next week, but i think that's matriculation for most people (aka Kan Kan and Emily lol who else!) so maybe this week is a better idea? But then Emily isn't back from Vienna yet.

I decided to spend today in a special way, to give myself a day off from my usual routine. (Ok, I know I'm actually very slack so I don't really deserve a whole-day break! But still... I don't care, although I'd probably regret it when I still haven't got my pieces ready for the next lesson.) It's not exactly very special, but I guess it's different enough from what I usually do. I decided not to do anything related to music today... which means no practising piano, no listening to anything classical. Haha isn't that news...

I succeeded quite well in the morning. Was actually quite tired because I kept getting jerked awake last night by irritating, inconsiderate motorcyclists vrooming past the street outside my window. So I slept in later than usual. Ok, don't be surprised... by "later than usual" I mean like, eight! Hahaha. Spent most of the morning catching up with people. Firstly, thanks to everyone for the smses! Felt a little guilty about some of them since I don't exactly know much about what's going on in their lives now, so when I msged "thanks" back I included questions about where they're going to study etc. And decided to read their blogs to find out what they're been up to.

Later I got very hungry... wonder why though. I've been getting hungry very easily nowadays, why?! Anyway, I bummed around watching TV during and after lunch to burn some time. Then suddenly I had an urge to create something... draw, paint, whatever. Maybe it comes because I haven't done my usual bouts of practising so there is a need for some creative outlet. I did a drawing of the guan yin zhu ("guan yin" bamboo??) in the living room. Haha this is my second time doing art since like dunno when. The first was some time back when I decided on the spur of the moment to do a painting.


The drawing I did today...


And the painting I did previously.

After the drawing, I enjoyed tons of quiet time reading (guess what!) Harry Potter! Actually it wasn't very quiet, since I was listening to a compiled CD of many songs in MP3 format... created in year 1 and have been played many times over and over again since. (And also especially during cramming sessions before tests and exams.) Brings back all the old memories of sec sch and jc... sighz... and some songs are also from the CD Jiehui compiled for us for valentine's day back in sec 4, brings back the good ol' band days!

Had dinner at Swensens' with my family... yesterday was my father's birthday. And mine too, according to the chinese calendar. A rare occurence! Yep, so that was my day without classical music!

Piano lesson was surprisingly easy today. By easy I don't mean that I played very well, or that the improvements I was told to make are very easy to achieve. It just felt more relaxed than any lesson I've ever had in these three years... yep, time really flies, it's my third year learning from Ms Ching! Maybe I was more relaxed after that unexpected great leap in learning Messiaen on Monday, but somehow I felt that she was milder today.

When she usually would have been frustratedly nagging at me, today she merely said something like, "I believe I told you this before..." That was when she told me to join the top notes of the chords in Beethoven's Sonata Op.78. AHHH yet another stupidly ignored detail! It always happens that these small details become so obvious after she tells me. Argh. When I was practising I simply overlooked the top notes of those chords... of course I've had my fair share of naggings about how creating a legato melody isn't just about using the pedal to join the notes together, it's about first making the melody legato by using fingerings that don't require the lifting up of the hand before the end of the phrase etc. But I never applied this to the chords! They are full chords k, four notes in a hand! So I never gave a thought to joining the top notes. Yet after she said it, it suddenly dawned on me that I was so silly not to have seen the top notes of the chords as a melodic line as well. But it makes the Beethoven so much more challenging now. I tested out many new ways of playing those chords just now, but none of them seem to work! Even when I'm playing so slowly now, it's already sounding awkward and hesitant... it's not going to be a breeze trying to make it sound smooth when I speed up next time!

But the lesson was also one of the more productive ones I've had. When she demonstrated shaping the left-hand accompaniment of the first few bars of the sonata, it was like I'd been playing the piano with my ears tightly shut and suddenly they spring open and I finally hear what's going on in the piece. Haha that sentence sounds so dramatic and kua zhang! Lol sorry, I couldn't come up with a more subtle description of how I felt. I just suddenly realised that all the expressive melodies have to be supported by equally expressive accompaniment... I think she said something like, "it's useless for the right hand to try so hard to be expressive when the left hand is just playing the notes of the accompaniment without any effort to shape the phrase. For example, if the cello section were to be playing the left-hand line, they would definitely not play it like how you played it. They would shape the line even though it's just an accompaniment to the melody played by some other instrument, because every single section in the orchestra has to have character." It was another one of those speechless moments when I'd think, "Oh ya! I go to concerts, I enjoy listening to the orchestra etc... why on earth didn't I realise that and apply it to my piano playing?!"

Messiaen's Prelude No.8 was a little less productive. Yes, I noticed that his works have that "glass-like" quality probably stemming from his obsession with stained glass... but I haven't succeeded in make my playing sound like it's supposed to. So she just made me listen to his wife's recording of the piece. (I think her name is Yvonne L????... I'm so totally hopeless and clueless about many performers! Argh!) The recording sounded quite similar to my Angela Hewitt one... just that the older recording methods changed its quality a little. I still can't figure out how to produce that "glass-like" tone, other than accidentally succeeding in a few notes here and there.

Got so much more to work on now...

Today was quite a productive day. Too bad it's coming to an end, lucky days like this only occur once in a long time. Maybe it was the mostly breezy weather after the storm early in the morning, but I felt in the mood to sit down patiently to figure out Messiaen's Prelude No.8. I've been putting off practising this for quite a while because I just couldn't match the notes on the page to the noise I'm creating. Haha it sounded really horrible! But after some patience this morning I finally got it to sound like how it should sound, although I'm now playing it at about a hundred times slower than it should be. Maybe not a hundred times, but it's marked 'modere' and most of the bars have demisemiquavers (is it supposed to be spelt joined together??!) so it's supposed to be much faster than how I'm playing it at 'quaver = 30'. I was still glad for the improvement from stumbling around. Also sorted out some parts of Beethoven's Sonata Op.78, although it's far from ready. Too bad, I just have to cross my fingers and play it on Thursday because it's the only piece that's most ready for lesson. Maybe I'll try to rush out the Messiaen if I can. Quite a challenge, only three days left! But playing only one piece just screams, 'Slacker!' Fortunately last week was fifth week! Fifth weeks right after class lesson is good, it gives me more time to learn new pieces. =)

Was listening to the compilation of all the concertos we studied... falling for Dvorak's Cello Concerto!