it was a blessing in disguise.
i wouldnt have been able to have such an awesome time at band fest if i were to take up H3 research or PUB's NEW programme.
like what people always say, give and take. alright.
BAND FEST DAY ONE (16/12/2009)
met nj band people at boon lay and we bus-ed to NIE.
we reached 45 minutes before the official breifing time =.= and stoned at LT4.
browsed through the programme booklet and was glad to learn that mr tan was invited to be the sectional tutor for jacob brass, which meant that i would get to see mr tan again! (yes i did but only twice.. )
soon later other participating schools started filing in and that kept me awake until the ultimate briefing cause i wanted to say hi to jewel and vivien, and to try spot my band fest sectionmates! :D
when briefing started, there was this two acjc or acsi guys behind (i think i know who you are now heheheh) who talked, or rather gossiped, non-stop. quite annoying but their conversation was surely interesting! hahaha i didn't mean to eavesdrop but you guys were speakng so loudly. jessie can vouch for me!!
briefing was soon over and we broke up into our respective bands for icebreakers.
played double whacko, elope and charades with chaperones yuyan and leeping.
as usual, i'm really good at games involving names cause my name is hard to remember! hahahahaha.
had early lunch and then combined practice.
first combined went on really well and i knew we were in for a good show on sunday.
then it was sectionals. and i was rather surprised to see mr francis tan in sectionals.
oh well, he was the brass judge for the honour band audition.
he is good. strict but gets things done really quickly.
sectionals ended and i headed back jp, then to cck with nj band people.
met my family at cck and papa drove us to farmart for my birthday dinner (in advance, it's my mum's idea again). actually, it was partly for my aunt whose birthday was on that day itself.
hais first, it was my cake. next was my birthday dinner. well, sharing is caring! lol.
BAND FEST DAY TWO (17/12/2009)
went to nj in the morning to pass H3 chem notes to Yiting and papa drove me to NIE.
reached at 9.10am and was relieved to see i was not the latest! if this were to happen for a nj band prac during the syf preparation period, i would've missed my chance to warm-up and this would mean death during sectionals then hahaha.
anyway, we had combined for the whole morning and sectionals in the afternoon.
whoa complete boredom.
went home and was too tired to do any work.
BAND FEST DAY THREE (18/12/2009)
scheduele was somewhat similar to day two. combined, section lunch then sectionals.
this sectional, being the last sectional for band fest, was much less tiring than the previous two.
hahaha cause we had our sectional tutor switched to the woodwinds' who was Dr. F!
(hahaha sounds very vulgar but that's how our conductor Dr. Fraschillo said we could call him)
Dr. F is really nice.
He gave us lots of breaks not only in between combined practice but also in between the music. hahahah trumpets need not repeat or play a few parts so our lips can rest! how nice! :) :)
sectionals ended early and while we waited for debrief, we hung out at the area outside sectional room, took photos and played games! :)
finally when it was time to head home, don't know why my throat turned sore (probably i used too much of my throat) and my head started to hurt (homeostasis? perhaps).
My journey back home was totally tortorous. the mrt and lrt aircon was so cold and i was freezing. i knew i was down with a fever.
awwww. what a horrible way to end the 16th year of my life.
BAND FEST DAY FOUR (19/12/2009)
woke up and fortunately, no more headache and fever! hurray. which means i could go for band fest practice! :DD hahaha. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!! and i didnt know my lovely nj band mates had planned sth for me.
first thing, in the morning, when i checked my phone, okay, the messages i received were happy birthday etc EXCEPT FOR ONE. JESSICA'S MESSAGE. it was very wierd. she asked if my dad would be fetching me to NIE and i replied yes. i thought she would wish me later at band and then i just forgot about this sms thing.
next, when i was walking to the honour band room, i saw darrin and he asked if i had seen the rest of the nj people. i said no and it didnt come across my mind that he was actually sent by the others to check if i had reached so they could...
i opened the band room door. xiangyi and regina were there playing happy birthday on their trumpets. AAAAAHHHHHHHH. i didnt expect that la.
soon people came to wish me.
xiangyi, regina, weiqi, dexter, prateesh, natalie, darrin, shannon, jewel and chaperone leeping!
yupp thank you so much :) :) :) :)
hahaha that really started my day on a super high note. we had combined till lunch time.
regina left for NIE band concert, weiyang and weiqi (sounds like bro and sis) joined their friends so there was only me, xiangyi, dexter and prateesh. okay. xiangyi told me we were going to have section lunch and i told jessica i would not be joining jessie and her for lunch (ahhh i felt really stupid now la). so the four of us went to the NTU canteen via the long and scenic way (yes, xiangyi, it was a good way to kill time).
it was only when i walked past the drink stall, i saw candles and i went
aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! my beloved band mates got me a cake! it was sooooooo nice of them la.
超感动!!! sang happy birthday twice (long story) and i got to wish and blow the candles twice!
THANKS FOR THE CAKE!
♥
THANKS FELLOW BAND MATES! ♥
Soon after lunch was NIE band concert at nanyang audi.
hahaha took a LONG way there (even longer than the way to SCBE) and could feel that most of our arms were breaking from carrying all our instr, stands and stuff.
concert, i thought it was great, but the one at SCH was better.
Anyway, the band had a nice rich sound but it seemed rather soft with the size of the band. perhaps it's the acoustics of the hall.
Westside story, english folksong suite and cartoon were really nice and i liked regina's solo!!
Other than that, i thought got a few wrong song choices (i understand, cause songs chosen are for international band fest, must have singapore touch) and i nearly slept through. fortunately, jessica and jessie kept me awake by commenting on some stuff which i could't stop laughing at la.
concert over. and i rushed home for piano lesson.
not to forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!
BAND FEST DAY FIVE (20/12/2009) CONCERT DAY. LAST DAY WITH SECTION D:
met up with trumpet section for lunch at marina square where we saw the clarinet section.
then... it's camwhoring session. yupp. marina square and esplanade are really beautiful places.
nice shot!
when XIANGYI got tired of taking photos, we headed to esplanade concourse, and waited for our esplanade passes to be given out. yeah! my second esplanade pass :DD oh yes, btw, thanks sarimah for your candy!
headed to dressing room, settled down, played cheat (i was ultimate loser man! D:) before it was time for soundcheck. after soundcheck, was free time. and yes more camwhoring, at esplanade!
time passed really quickly, soon, we had to have our refreshments. unfortunately, there was no more to go around and worse of all, i didnt have lunch. my stomach was growling like.. until my saviour, dove choc from chaperones came! whoa, i totally needed that and it lasted me at least until the end of concert. ms tai came too! with more food but didnt have it cause at that time, everyone was busy changing.
changed into my ang ang blazer, our prominent red nj blazer!
yes, RED SEA. FIREMEN AND FIREWOMEN. they said. hahahaha.
when it was time to watch arnold's band performance, we went into circle 3 and WHOA it's super high la. arnold band was quite okay but their songs nearly drove me to sleep. i'm sorry, jingwen and yinglan!
time was up when jacob band entered the stage, went back to do warm-up and tuning.
SOON, IT WAS SHOWTIME! yea. performance went very well and hahaha my dad got it recorded! but it doesnt sound that nice from the recording due to poor video quality.
after performance, it was time to camwhore and relax!
really enjoyed yue se's and amos' performance on the trumpets. sounded totally hilarious!!
liked trumpet section shot with dexter and prateesh spinning their trumpets! scary but cool.
when the concert ended and everybody was supposed to pack up, got this random chaperone who took a pic with me :) yupp sorry for sounding rude cause i got to leave! then everyone dispersed from the dressing room and i left for the concourse to meet my lovely junior taoyang.
THANKS TAOYANG FOR YOUR PIGLET! and i hope to see you soon!
on the way, i saw my junior aaron, talked to him for a short while and left to meet my family for dinner.
hahahaha what a looooooooooooooooooong post and i shan't rattle on
but before i end, i would like to say...
I LOVE MY SECTION!! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
THANKS DEXTER FOR YOUR HANDMADE ROSE!
AND TO EVERYONE WHO HAS MADE BAND FEST 2009 SO ENJOYABLE FOR ME:
thank you!!! and we will meet again. meanwhile, do take care and best wishes!! :)
indeed, a blessing in disguise.
moments like these. for us to create, keep and remember. ♥
