In love

I'm in love. Utterly and completely.

2 days after the end of SingBellz Fest still found me unwilling to commit myself to any sort of serious work (other than the current day-job I have). The photography competition is officially out (NUS students should have received the email by now - please do participate in it), the backdrop of the stage needs to be designed and the accounts from the festival needs to be closed. It seriously feels as if a month of my life force is drained and I need some time to recuperate.

All I have been doing ever since Saturday is to glue my eyes to the computer screen, watching animes. Just this Sunday, I went on a 7-hour anime marathon.

After watching this particular romance-comedy anime, titled Itazura na Kiss, a sweet feeling entered my heart and is lingering till now. Coupled with that fantastic sensation of playing handbells with others, sometimes producing music that makes my hair stand, I decided that this high is the sensation of love. It makes me feel as if I'm not alone and that with it, everything will turn out fine.

Haha, and everybody was asking me who is it I'm in love with, when what would have been more appropriate.
As for who is it, well, isn't it still the same person. For reasons I don't know and don't comprehend anymore.

And after going one big round, I think I finally found myself finding back the control I once felt, although it seems a little different, if it has changed somehow. The basis of it all, however, still remains the same.

A lot of things to talk about, discuss and advertise but am recently not in the mood to do so. Work tomorrow. Good night.

End of SingBellz Fest

SingBellz Fest'08 is finally over! Oh man, am I exhausted! Just have to tie up some loose ends and I can finally concentrate on other things.

Last afternoon's concert was nice and I enjoyed watching The Embellishment Quartet perform, as usual. After watching them perform Lovers' Dance for the 3rd time, I found myself really wanting to try out that piece. It's an interesting piece written by Kevin Ko. It's more of the drama/acting they've added in while playing it that made things interesting. Nevertheless, the piece sounds nice by itself. Here's a version he played with an American lady, but I personally found last afternoon's version he played with another of his quartet's member, Isabelle, a better one.

Hope you'll enjoy it.

Random

It is 3am and I am still preparing ticketing stuff for tomorrow's concert. Double-checking and printing and now going to sort out money and tickets and envelopes (if I can find any). Argh.

And I can't believe I'm not allocated any modules for my next semester. Something is definitely wrong.

Random; Singbellz Fest (handbells concert)

Have got a ton of things to do, but still manageable. Too busy to blog, sorry about the extreme lack of entries.

HeritageFest is on at Suntec Tropics Atrium now. Will try to get some pictures there during lunch break. Ah, now you know where I work!

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Handbells concert coming up next Friday 25th July and Saturday 26th July. These 2 concerts are actually part of a bigger event called the Singbellz Fest, the first handbells festival held in Singapore, organized by the Ministry of Bellz (MOB). There are workshops for handbells also available. Email me if you're interested in knowing more.

25th July's concert is by us, the Ministry of Bellz, Singapore's first and only external Independent Handbells Ensemble. We formed only about a year or lesser ago, so we're constantly learning. Nevertheless we have performed in quite a number of shows around Singapore. This upcoming concert, I am rather confident we can present some music which you will enjoy.

26th July's concert is by The Embellishment, a handbells group from Hong Kong. I can vouch that they are really good because we've been to Hong Kong to learn from them and watch them play. This is one of those groups that will inspire you and make you want to pick up handbells.

Dates: 25th July (Fri) and 26th July (Sat)
Timing: 7pm (Fri) and 4pm (Sat)
Tickets: $10
Venue: Young Musicians' Society (YMS) auditorium

Interested, email me at ng.wan.jing@gmail.com with your details like name and school/organization. Individual puchases are also welcomed! Please also include a fax number in your email so that I can fax the order form over. Alternatively, tell me and I could email you the order form in pdf format (if you don't have a fax machine), and you can scan and email back to me or fax back to us.

Think email is relatively faster since I have access to my mail almost 24 hours a day, while the fax machine in office is not checked 24 hours a day.

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Ok, lesser than 5 hours of sleep before I have to get up and head to the office. I'm really quite busy with the 2 jobs I curently have, handling ticketing stuff for concert and helping in the photography competition in SAVE's green carnival, but let's believe I can get through this!

Disappointed

A little... disappointed, not sure why. Maybe because... Hmm, this is a wake-up call as to how no-strings-attached the whole issue is. Silly me keeps forgetting. Occasionally I wonder if we even count as friends. Somehow I don't feel that way. Most of the times we seem less than friends, more of acquaintances, or perhaps even less than that. I don't quite know how to describe this emptiness inside.

Having somebody brush aside something you sincerely offer, is not a good feeling, regardless of how many times it has occurred before. This up-coming concert is one in a long while that I feel confident about and would really like to present to others the group of people I've been playing with and the music we are creating.

Last practice session was insanely wonderful. For the first time in a while, my ears opened up and I was hearing music as music, not merely notes. For the first time in a while, I felt the adrenaline and the emotions of playing as a group. It has been many years since the last time, a little too long, in my opinion.

Perhaps that is why this feeling of disappointment is so large - because the eagerness of wanting to share is there, because I don't know how many such sessions I would be able to experience, because I don't know how many such concerts I'd be able to play in.

Then again, maybe I'm just silly enough to just want to share with him, for reasons I no longer know, have, or understand.

Ah! I feel better now after letting it out!

Why don't you date?

I don't know. How about because I don't have any suitors?
Or how about because I don't wish to? Because I don't know how to.

I've wondered, does knowing how to date come naturally to everyone? People I know seem to fall so naturally into a relationship, knowing what to do and what not to do. Don't they fear doing something wrong? Don't they fear this is not going to turn out right? How do you know when to hold the person's hand, when to call him or what to talk to him about?

I look at couples in the trains/buses/everywhere quite fantastically, imagining if I were like them but never quite believing that I will ever be like them. I can imagine and wish to a certain extent, but I cannot believe I will ever be like them. I cannot imagine having a partner whom I am free to call, talk to, free to be myself in front of him. I simply don't know how that is like. The thought is heartwarming, cute and amusing but beyond my understanding. Don't you ever run out of topics to say? Don't you ever feel awkward? Now when I see somebody I fancy, my brain simply automatically switches into "It's not possible" mode which translates into bodily action read simply as "I'm not interested, not available, go away." I see somebody, think "he's cute, that's nice, it's not possible" then switch to "somebody's thrown a plastic bag away..."

I kind of wish I knew what it's like, having somebody with whom I have no lack of things to talk about, somebody who would hold hands with me, whom I can call when I am feeling down or happy or nervous. I kind of wish I knew what it's like, dating. I wish I knew what it's like, having that widely talked about "chemistry".

What a random post! OK! Going to prepare to head down to Esplanade to watch a Hand Bells performance by some group from U.S.A, with Pearlin and possibly Yiang Shan.

At least I know how it's like, standing on stage with a few hundred pairs of eyes staring at me!

Yesterday - Pretty Yiang Shan!

MOB performed at VivoCity yesterday afternoon on the first day of Singapore Arts Festival 2008.

After returning the items to the studio, Pearlin, Ximin, Kim Peng, Yiang Shan and I decided to head down to Marina Square just to walk around. Unfortunately, we were so exhausted from having stood a majority of the time from 9am to 6pm that all we wanted was a seat and a drink when we got there. After a short adjourn to the toilet, we headed to McDonald's where we each got a drink, sat and talked.

That was when we started taking pictures and I managed to catch this particularly nice photo of Yiang Shan.

Got cleavage somemore ok! Come, who wants to apply to be her boyfriend, please send your resume to me with your current job status, salary and photo.

The rest just kept giving very weird poses:

Ximin and Kim

Ximin, Kim and, ahem, my hand

HAHA! Ximin is a rabbit!

Anyway for some reason the only photos they took of me was with a few of Samsung's pre-set photo themes which includes a clown face (I almost had a cramp in my face while waiting for them to take a good photo). I don't have it with me and I'm not uploading it ok!

Kim's boyfriend and friend, Derek, came down after that. We were already match-making Ximin and Derek ages before Derek was there. By the time we decided to unglue our butts from the chairs in McDonald's (it was very relaxing just sitting there) and headed down to Makansutra beside Esplanade for food, we were shocked at how dark it was outside - 7.30pm.

Dinner was good and very affordable, except that the plastic cups used by the vendors irked me and my stomach gave me problems, I presume from the mix of orange juice, sugarcane drink and spicy food. Pearlin and YS were saying that I needed to fart and if I need to, I could just walk further away from them and fart before returning to them. I thought I was the one who's supposed to say stuff like that. I burped a few times and stomach was fine after that.

Pearlin, Yiang Shan and I walked around thinking of places open for Night Shopping, found none and after a short bout of walking, I was simply too tired to stand, not to talk about walking, anymore. Not to mention that I was worried about my hamster not having water to drink. They say I look like a hamster because I've been spending too much time with hamsters. -_-'''

Took the train home. Pearl and YS were playing "chopsticks" while seated on opposite aisles in the NEL. Speechless.

We fantasized about soaking our feet in warm water.

Despite the exhaustion, it was a fun day!

Oh yar, I came home, washed up and worked on SAVE's Green Carnival logo until 4am before going to bed. I think I'm quite crazy.

Hong Kong (Part 3)

Very, very apologetic for this very overdue post on the Hong Kong trip last YEAR. I remember Ruifang saying that she thought there would be Part 3 and 4, but I never got around to doing it. I also need to type less words and put more photos which shouldn't be a problem since I have probably forgotten a majority of the happenings.

Ministry of Bellz (MOB) Educational Trip (Part 3)

Day 2 - On the way to breakfast

Our very nice, friendly and efficient tour leader - Rainkey and Damien's foot at the left corner

me and Pearl (shucks, we really look very alike)

Roland daydreaming

His hand is not where you think it is.

Railway

Random picture of road and vehicle

At this point, the point I was trying to make with the pictures was that despite being out of Singapore, I still felt like I was in Singapore and everything was within expectation - roads, vehicles, trees. Makes me wonder how similar different countries are (oxymoron).

Random picture of a double-decker bus

Which reminds me I don't remember seeing any single-deck buses while I was there.

With only 4 - 5 hours of sleep the night before, everyone fell asleep on the ride to Tai Po for breakfast:

Kim Peng

I hope Kim doesn't reprimand me for putting this up.

Melodie

Debbie

The rest who were awake:

from back (left to right): Pearlin, Roland, Axils, Damien

Axils was yawning.

Traffic light and crossing

Our pedestrian crossings are of black tar with white outlines. They have striped roads and reflective plates:
The same, yet different.

Finally at Tai Po (again):Street scene

The attire of the old lady is really so typical it felt like I was in a TV show.

Breakfast place

How it looks like:

Pearlin, Damien, Kim in the diner

Damien and Kim

Receipt of the food we ordered and the list of dishes to choose from

If I didn't remember wrongly, we basically circled those dishes we wanted on the list on the right.

And boy, I'm telling you, were the food delicious!

I think this noodles is called 车仔面 that's in the name of the diner itself:


The porridge was very nice too, but it was this particular dish we loved:

It was our normal chee cheong fan but with these balls that I forgot were made of what. The balls are chewy and really addictive. It was drenched with some sort of curry which was not too spicy. Really fantastic. I'm drooling even thinking about it.

Day 2 - Night walk

This whole area is actually sloping upwards.

Many overhanging signs

You can never be too far from home:

Policeman

I took ages trying to take a clear shot of this policeman. Gave up in the end.

Clubs and pubs lining the sides

Policeman entering club/pub:

Wonder what happened.

Sloping upwards (Kim and Pearl on the right)

Erm, for some reason this set of railing was crooked and leaning to the left while the slope was sloping upwards to the right:

Roland posing for me

Oh by the way, it was quite cold and we were dressed in jackets, jeans and shoes but Roland here lasted the whole day in shirt, shorts and slippers. He was probably a heat generator in his past life.

Along the uphill street was the World's longest escalator - 800m and broken into sections where roads run through:

Escalator, with slope on right and in the background various other sections of the escalator

You can see that the escalator steps are really shallow, unlike most of the escalators in Singapore simply because of distance over which the street slopes upward. I found them interesting anyway.

And we climbed up all that slope just for this:

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop

It's not available in Singapore. Frankly, that was the first time I ate a fancy doughnut from a famous store. Feel so suaku (mountain pig).

Krispy Kreme's very big plastic bag, spanning across the width of the space between 2 seats on the coach, kindly held by Pearlin

Beside the shop, flats stood:


Heading down the slope:

Melodie

Bus stop

Very familiar, isn't it? I remember at this point Pearlin was fed up with me for stopping and taking so many pictures and I was fed up at everybody because I couldn't take good pictures. =P

We went back to hotel, exhausted.

Part 1
Part 2

Schedule

Possible pointless entry ahead.

Schedule:

5.15am Wake up
6am Waits for Roland or Damien's car at bus stop. Plaster my toes to prepare them for stuffing into shoes.
6.30am Reach airport, get pass for entrance
7.30am 1st show at Terminal 1 - Santa's Village (with its Santa statue that sometimes has a missing arm)
8.15am Finish 1st show. Pack and head to Terminal 2.
9am 2nd show at Terminal 2
9.45am Finish 2nd show at Terminal 2. Pack and return pass
10.30am Roland drops us off near our place on his way home and brings the handbells home.

From then on, either

a) Deal with ticketing/programme booklet for concert on 26th December until late afternoon, after which I get to have a nap (which is VERY lucky), or just plain late at night (or rather very early in the morning 2 am) before waking up at 5am again the next day,

OR

b)
11am Concert rehearsal at studio
1pm Rehearsal ends and start dealing with ticketing stuff or packing things for show later or resting for a while somewhere (usually at home)
3.30pm Head down to Esplanade for percussion show. Always good to be early.
4.45pm Report at Stage Door of Esplanade. Prepare things for show. Inside of Esplanade is a maze. Start doing rain dance in the hope that it'll rain and outdoor show will be canceled.
5.45pm Sound Check at the The Waterfront Canopy
6.15pm 1st show at the CourtYard - the area outside of Harry's Bar and Restaurant (some name or other)
6.45pm End 1st show. Head down to The WaterFront for 2nd show. Pray it rains.
7pm Start 2nd show. Community Drum Circle. Draining but fun; fun but draining. Either way, depending on mood and the number of hours slept the night before. Pray it rains.
7.30pm End 2nd show. Prays it rains for next show.
8.15pm Start 3rd show. Community Drum Circle. Some foreign worker tried asking for my number in the midst of inviting them to join us. Wah lao, why only foreigners interested in me! Pray it rains.
8.45pm End 3rd show. Might have 4th show at 9.15pm, if not, we pack up and Damien drops us off near our homes.

Reach home. Switch on computer. Watch one anime, falls asleep at the ending song. Sit on the bed, fell asleep sitting. Takes a bath, don't fall asleep while bathing. Lie down for a while, haven't brushed teeth... &#$%$... Fell asleep until next morning 5.15am when Kim gives me a wakeup call. Thank goodness for her wake up call, if not I will never be on time.

See why I always don't have time to blog. Today had time because only had airport show in the morning and ticketing stuff in the afternoon. Ignored my cousin and went for a nap at 4pm, only to be disturbed constantly by members calling to tell me they want to reserve tickets or something (I can't remember, I was sleeping!) and by the house phone ringing for my mother. Woke up 4 hours later for dinner.

Tomorrow is another one of those crazy days. Airport show in the morning, concert rehearsal in the afternoon and handbells show at Esplanade in the evening.

I wonder why I'm blogging about my schedule when I could have gotten 1/4 of the HK trip entry out in the amount of time I've taken to write this pointless entry.

Hong Kong (Part 2)

Just a note. All hanyu pinyin will be replaced by Chinese words soon... When my computer decides to cooperate with me.

Ministry of Bellz (MOB) Educational Trip (Part 2)

Perhaps I have not got on a plane for ages, but I found the air stewardess' explanation of the use of life jackets and escape routes extremely interesting - the way they point to the card in their hands with the front facing us, showing us how to use the life jackets and fake-blowing into the mouth-piece that comes with the life-jacket.

Reached HK, first thing to do - put on jacket. Second thing to do - take picture:

Mel, Kim, me, Debbie (front)

(Mr.Udders asked who's the goondu posing at the back of the photo. That's our Music Director, the person who formed this Ministry of Bellz ensemble, the person who organized this trip and my percussion tutor in Secondary School =D)

I was amazed that their signboards had Chinese words on them

and their travellators had recordings telling us to be careful or something when we stepped on it. Paiseh, I have the tendency to be amazed about everything.

Anyway no matter how different things are and what are the different languages, there's one thing that is the same in most countries:


Since it was an educational trip, we had a coach bringing us everywhere. After a few days, I still could not remember where were the places we visited. I don't even know where our hotel is exactly at! All I know is we visited Tai Po very often (read: every day) and drove past that area where jiu shu died in some Brothers show which I don't know about.

This is some bridge there that's quite impressive, but I DON'T REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT IT. I know there are two layers of road, upper and lower, where the cars drive on different days or something.


There's the bridge in the background. Just realized something from this picture. Why does that car/van have two license plates?

On the bridge itself

Some of the places we went past, the roads we drove on, were similar to Singapore.

Kind of a random scene out of the coach window

Buses

Nothing special about them though. There are apparently a few companies providing bus services, unlike here where there are only 2, but I could not really differentiate between the different buses (because my eyes were glued on other stuff). Oh, if my memory serves me right, they also have TVs inside the buses. Did see those buses that are run by electric on rail-way like lines but did not have the chance to take a picture of them. Any idea what are the proper names for them?

We also drove past the trains, one of which links all the way into Mainland China. Our tour leader told us that the HK railway system is very efficient with a train every 5 minutes. However, the buses are still more popular than the railway because, like in Singapore and probably everywhere else, buses stop right at or closer to the passengers' desired place.

After which I saw these old, old buildings we sometimes see in HK dramas:

I was so amazed by them I took quite a few shots at other places when the buildings were spotted. There are newer flats but I'm not sure if the people staying in them are any different from the people staying in the older flats. One can often see the old and new flats standing side by side.

I suspect there are other styles of houses because we spotted one where the area that the poles are hung is separated from the apartment by a mere gate and the furthest end of the pole holder was so far from the gate that we were wondering how they manage to hang their poles there. Not to mention that there was no flooring underneath the holders where you can actually walk out to hang. It was pure empty space beneath the holder. Like the laundry holder in the picture above but the wall is a gate instead and the holder is further down at about feet level and much further out. Isn't it very dangerous then?

And watching some of the people, it was like seeing people from a HK drama serial come to life - the clothes! The vest-like sweater, long-sleeve shirts and sweat pants.

The first thing we did was to have lunch at a local restaurant. Their rice and food really a lot. I could still handle the food on the first day and we cleared a majority of the dishes.

A huge bowl of rice for everybody - the start of our first meal in HK

Do restaurants in Singapore serve rice this way? I don't remember it being so.

Some of the members then went to buy some pre-paid card that comes with a HK number so that they can call in and out of the country. Was surprised that my friends would call back home to assure their family of their safe arrival. I just needed to send an SMS and that was it. In fact I sent only an average of an SMS per night to tell them I am alright and going to bed, or perhaps a couple more when asking them if they want or need anything from HK.

Some of the girls chose to go shopping after that, but Kim and I decided to follow the guys for dessert at 许留山. I think it was the original one. It was fantastic!


Didn't try the famous one amongst all of the desserts in this place but it is similar to the one on the top right. The mango was seriously good. Have never thought that mango can be served in so many different ways.

Another one of the delicious desserts

Roland, one of the members, managed to dig out all of the flesh of the coconut in one go so that the entire piece was intact.

Then it was off to lesson at Asia Handbell Music Centre - Handbells Institute. The one we went to was a small studio in Tai Po Estate. It was really small but cosy enough.

Unloading from the coach

Yes, the bells were so heavy that we needed a trolley. See that guy in the beige jacket holding on to the trolley? That is Kevin, our instructor for handbells throughout the trip. He can play really well and has gone on the Chinese show Zong Yi Da ge Da. He's really young, only 27, but is already married and is darn accomplished. He is officially my new idol =D Oh, and I think he is good-looking too. Shit, will the other ringers from the group read about this. Oi, if you all read about this, pretend you never see it hor!

There were times during practice when I felt like a schoolgirl again with a stupid crush on some teacher =D Was rolling my eyes at myself throughout when my mind went "oh! The flutter of butterflies in my stomach!". See, it don't have to be men in uniform to make me hyperventilate.

First day's rehearsal was tiring. We learnt a lot of new techniques and it was only then that I realized how weak my left arm was and how clumsy I must have seemed with the bells. I could barely strike the bell properly, not to talk about any form of musicianship. It was like learning to walk all over again.

Then we had dinner at one of their erm..... is it called 茶餐厅. It's a small diner not unlike a single stall at a hawker centre with the seats outside the stall belonging to the stall, then put four walls around it, a door and a roof. Ta-dah! You have your 茶餐厅! Ok, why am I describing a diner...

Anyway I had their wanton mee! The noodles are completely different from what we have, theirs is a lot better, obviously. Which reminds me I have yet to try Malaysia's wanton mee too. Oh and their wanton mee is really only wanton and mee, no vegetables, no other sort of meat or whatever. Though it was nice, I soon got sick of eating it.

After which we headed to the Tai Po Baptist Church for a short exchange with the church handbell ringers.

Show you all how huge handbells can be. Compare the bells in the top picture to the ones in the bottom:

Damien and Roland with the bass bells

me, Debbie, Pearlin and Axils

At some point in time, Kevin told 4 of the girls, including me, to play the huge bells. I was horrified. I could barely hold it up, not to mention ring it. It was so bad we were basically plucking the clapper but holding the bell in its upright position instead of swinging it out and ringing has per normal.

Random picture of Kevin conducting =D

After which we finally checked into the Rambler Garden hotel at about 11.30pm.

Pearl, Kim and I shared a twin room. It was an extremely tiny room with an extremely tiny bathroom (which had no lock - blush). Once you enter the room, the bathroom is on the right,

wash basin and mirror (left), toilet bowl (middle), shower (right)

I could cross over from the basin to the shower in one step. And immediately in front of the bathroom is the bedroom. It was a decent room though. At least there were no cockroaches running around, for which I was extremely grateful.

I was standing in the small space between the toilet door on my right and the wall on my left with the front door at my back when taking this picture

It was a very small room with a very beautiful night view of the port:


I loved the containers and the light and the way the machines carried the containers around.

After a very exhausting day 1, we still had to sort out with the hotel people the number of towels, blankets and pillows. Then it was finally a bath and bed - at 1+ am. That's all for day 1 of the trip. Will talk about day 2 tomorrow.

If there are any wrong information about HK in here, please do correct me.

Part 1
Part 3