Mundane day

Ah, today sure was mundane. Just another typical Monday at school, the day which all Victorians are sleepy from waking up at 6am after the weekend.

Without any exceptions, I rose sleepily from my bed and got ready to go to school. I followed the daily routine, taking the bus to Bedok Interchange, with my eyes half-open, and taking bus 196 or 197 to Victoria School.

As soon as I reached there, I climbed the stairs up to the 3rd floor, where the band room was, to practice for the National Anthem and Victorian Anthem, once again. Unfortunately, when I reached the gallery, I realised I had left my thermometer in my bag, which was in the band room, and I had to stand. :( After which, I proceeded to the hall for CE-TT lesson, on road safety.

At the start of the lesson/lecture, the person in charge of the presentation showed us a video on road safety, and the rules we have to abide while crossing roads. However, the majority of us showed no interest in road safety. And I guess it must have been infuriating for her, as not many of us were listening at all. Probably, as a last resort to get our attention, she told us a painful and sad story (not to mention gore) of a car accident she encountered while she was working as a road officer.

It was 2am in the morning, and she received a call to a nearby accident, which involved a 21 year old man(I think) and his child, presumably. It was quite a gore accident and the hall was filled with "eww" when the gory part was mentioned. Well, since I don't think(maybe I don't feel like) I should elaborate further, I'll just get on with life.

After the CE-TT period, lessons were continued. We had English Reading Period, and as our teacher, Mr Daryl Tan, was on reservist, a relief teacher took us. We read our books and well, practically that's it.

Next was recess, my group and I touched up on our maths project that had to be handed up today, and I guess, there's pretty much nothing to talk about.(Sure is mundane huh.) Next was Science(Biology), Mother Tongue, and Physical Education Theory lesson. Biology was as usual, people bursting in laughter as the topic had reached you-know-what, and there isn't anything much for me to elaborate, well, unless you want me to. Mother tongue was, boring as usual, copying down notes, handing up of homework, nothing much here either. Physical Education Theory lesson was practically identical to all the previous lessons, the power point slides, you know the rest.

My my, here comes the tiring part. After school, I had sectionals, which started at 2.45pm, and NOT to my expectations, it ended at 6.45! 4 hours! Ah, I was so tired after sectionals, although it felt good to be coaching my junior(Benson), even for a little while. I polished my instrument before I left at 6.45pm. Ah, its always good to see shining instruments, as though they were new.

I reached home at around 7.15pm, had my dinner and started on my homework(like this one). Ah, isn't today mundane?

[Well, no pictures cause its a no-no for hand phones to be on in school :)]

Class outing! Wee!

After two days of visiting my relatives on Monday and Tuesday, I finally had a day off on Wednesday, thanks to our principal, Mr Low, for the day off.. Or not.

Today sure was hectic. I started off the day when I woke up at 8.00am, brushed my teeth and had my breakfast - hash browns. Now you may wonder, why would I still wake up so early on a "no-school" day? Credits to the never-ending projects given by the teachers, at the start of the year!

I set off for the Regional Studies Program room in VS, which was the place to meet up with my group members for our Design and Technology project. However, much to my dismay, when I reached there at 9am( Meeting time), I found no one there! I immediately called Francis to ask why there wasn't anyone there. Rather unfortunately(for me), they had changed the location to Daniel Lock's house and did not tell me! Tomus then called me and gave me instructions as to where to wait for him while his father drives to come pick me up.

When we reached Daniel Lock's house, Francis was already there, playing Maplestory! Haha, maybe Francis does have a gaming side after all, instead of his usual geeky, nerdy side =P.( Just joking ) We waited for the last man to come( Ze Xuan ) to come while me and Francis played badminton. However, Ze Xuan told us that he would not be coming as he would be going for the class outing.( Class outing was at 2! D= ) What a disappointment.

We then started on our project and soon finished in no time. Daniel Lock and Francis played a 15 minute game of Halo 2 till 1.15pm before me and Francis set off for the class outing( Wee! Bowling!) at E! hub, located in Downtown East.

We had arranged to meet up with Zhi Hao and Ze Xuan at Pasir Ris MRT station, and unexpectedly Dev and Matthew appeared out of nowhere, so we decided to go to E! hub together.( The more the merrier, they say. )

However, getting to Orchid Bowl, was a real big challenge. As the last time I went to Downtown East was a few years back, E! hub didn't even exist! When we entered E! hub, many others joined us, people like Muzafar, Lie Wen, Dev etc. We walked as a group and I saw Dev taking a phone call, I heard him say "1st floor arh. Okay". And he walked off on his own. He turned around and gave me a signal to follow him, and I quietly followed him without being noticed. The others did not notice that we were gone and went to the other direction. Sneaky, yes I know.

Picture of Orchid Bowl



Soon, the others caught up and we quickly changed into our bowling shoes. Kind of weird that they only take one of our shoes and we had to leave the other shoe under our seats. However, it was surprising as many people had turned up as many of us were expecting less than 20 to turn up. ( Did I mention how pathetic last year's class outing was with only 10 people turning up? But, I do not dare to elaborate any further as I was one of those who did not turn up. Haha) And there were nearly 30 people who turned up!

After a few games, the top scorers were spotted! Lie Wen and Joejyn were doing extremely well and had scores beyond us. As this was my 1st time bowling, I was not doing very well and missed most of my shots. Also, did I mention that I had not had lunch? I ordered a cup of chicken noodles and it finished in no time.

Picture of me having cup noodles with Xun Yi and Dev.

Also, during bowling, there were many funny tricks up people's sleeves. Like for example, Darius throwing the ball backwards from between his legs, and still be able to get 9pins down! And when Chin Wei tried the same thing - twice, he got both into the gutter! It was a really funny sight to behold and it sure was exhilarating. There were also people like Bok Woon who took an extremely heavy ball, kneeled down to push the ball with all the strength he had, and still manage to hit down pins!

Just then, the people next to our lane suddenly stopped bowling. Although I had no idea wad had happened, I could tell that there was a problem with their lane as there was a huge sign on their screen which showed " The Mechanic has been called ". I looked at the lane, and saw a pin standing upright in the gutter. Bok Woon, being his mischievous self, threw a ball down the gutter and miraculously, it hit the pin that was upright and the problem was solved!



After which, Ms Shyamira, sneakily, brought in some ice cream sundae from McDonalds for all of us to eat. How? I shall not explain. Ultimately, Joejyn emerged as the top scorer with a total of 230 for 2 rounds. He won a long tube of Springles( I think ), and some other groups also managed to win a small prize each.



We then took a class photo and we were all "dismissed". We dispersed and groups of people left by their own means and ways.

It sure was a fun day today isn't it?

Well, with the exception of tuition after the class outing, it sure was.

(Credits to Francis for the pictures and him taking a picture of me, Xun Yi and Dev eating cup noodles -.- )

CNY reunion dinner

Chinese New Year reunion dinner! My favourite time of the year.

Today is the day which our relatives all gather together at our grandparent's house and have a reunion dinner.

I had my lunch at 12pm, and at around 2pm, I went over to my grandparent's house for lunch. When I reached there, some of our relatives were already there! I sure was excited to see them as I couldn't wait to gam- I mean "play" with them :)

We watched some extremely amusing TV programs first, and as soon as our relatives were done with their lunch, the Mahjong tables and "poker stations" were set up!

Mahjong is a traditional game which involves skill, strategy, and calculation, as well as a certain degree of chance. Well, since I am not going to ramble on about how Mahjong works and etc (pointless and time consuming), I might as well get on with it.

As I play Mahjong weekly with my relatives (note : Its only during the family day of the week :)) This wasn't any different. I took my seat and the game started with my grandfather, my uncle and cousin taking the other seats. I was doing quite well and won some money, but soon I got bored and I gave my seat to my mother to play instead.

Looking around, I spotted the "poker station" and I went over to check out what my relatives were playing. Ooh, they were playing blackjack, or in my family, we call it the "21 point", whereby you receive 2 cards at first, and if you get an ace and a 10, Jack, Queen or King, you hit the jackpot! You will win two times the amount you betted in return. Sweet huh? There are also special cases whereby if you get TWO ACES at the start, you will receive THREE times the amount you bet. Wicked eh! Imagine if you bet $10! $30 in return! $_$. But that's just an extremely rare case and who would bet so much as $10 anyway? I mean like, hey, we aren't running a casino here. Oh, just so you know, having 3 sevens gives you SEVEN TIMES of what you bet. You can start dreaming now :P

Soon, it was time to have our reunion dinner! Wee! (new catchphrase) We had steamboat with all sorts of delicious food. There was fish, roast duck, etc etc and we dumped the raw food into the steamboat pot! After the steamboat, we had the famous and traditional, "yu sheng"!

Heres a picture of the yu sheng we ate

(before the messing up)

Yu sheng usually consists of strips of raw fish, mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Usually, this dish is served as an appetizer to raise 'good luck' for the new year whereby everyone uses chopsticks to toss it as it is said that the higher it is tossed, the better luck you will have for the year. After tossing, we took a bowl each and scooped the yu sheng into our bowls to eat. Soon, we finished the yu sheng and went back to playing cards.

On the overall, I won quite a bit of money, and when it was late, we all went home happily :) Happy Chinese New Year to everyone who's reading this! =D

Davild Childs playing The Flight of the Bumblebee (not for assignment)

Here's a video on David Childs (euphonium virtuoso) playing The Flight of the Bumblebee.

Just so you know, that's the instrument I'm playing =). However I'm nowhere as good as him, yet.

Chinese New Year Celebrations

Today is the day whereby we had our Chinese New Year Celebrations!

However, things were not as we had expected.

As the real Chinese New Year Eve was on Sunday, Friday was considered as a normal school day and we weren't allowed to have half day off like the previous years to go back to our primary school early. But, the worst was not over yet as I still had to go for band practice tomorrow because, as stated, the real Chinese New Year Eve was Sunday.

So, I arrived in school at 7am in the morning and continued with the routine every Friday. (Going to the band room, warming up, practice National Anthem.)

Afterwards, I proceeded to my class, only to find out that most of my classmates were leaving. As I was puzzled why they were leaving the classroom, I asked one of my classmates, "Why are you guys leaving the classroom?"

"Its geography lesson now what..go IT resource room.."

It was then I realized how stupid I was. Haha.

I then took my geography books and file and walked to the IT resource room. Geography lesson today was about low population, and just as always, people giggled whenever the lesson reached the point of the "unspeakable".

After geography, it was 9am and we went back to our classes. As there were no lessons after geography, we slacked in class till it was recess time. We proceeded to the hall for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

The celebration started with the Chinese Orchestra playing a beautiful piece. (I kind of forgot what the name of the song was) And after which, a Chinese New Year song.

Next, was the performance by our very own classmates, Joejyn, Jia Peng and Bok Woon from the 3 Buskateers! They had recently taken part in a competition named the Science Buskers and had emerged as champions! We were very proud of them and this opportunity was given to them to show us their prowess.

After that, we had our very own hip hop dancers from our school to perform for us! And a couple more dancers joined in. (I do admit that it is well, a little..gay.)

When the dance ended, our school's CLDDS actors came and performed a skit. It was about two groups of families debating on why their method of educating their children is better and that they should receive the trophy for having the best method of educating their son. The first family were strict with their child and ensured that he scored full marks for every exam. Whereas the second family chose to allow nature to take its course and allowed their child to have utmost freedom. The answer as to which family won the trophy is pretty obvious. Isn't it?

After that, some guests from the elderly home came on stage to sing for us! They sang really well and even though I do not understand dialect, I could tell that they really put in their 110% effort to sing for us. When they were done, the vice-principal dismissed us and we could all go back...

You thought I would end the post right there didn't you? Well you are absolutely wrong.

As I was saying, the vice-principal dismissed us and we could all go back, except for the band members!

All of us had to stay in school until 1.45pm before band practice started. (Yes it meant no going back to primary school) And it usually lasted until 6pm! However, thanks to the school attendants, they were going to lock up the school at 4pm as it was a "festive occasion" and we were released early.

To end off this post, I wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year. Have a great holiday!



Here's an awesome song to accompany the chinese greetings

Chinese Happy New year Song (mandarin) -

m|brosia -MMIX-

Today was a rather exciting day, which was the m|brosia -MMIX- concert. This concert was held by the Manjusri Concert Band, and Victoria School Concert Band was there as a guest band, together with Chai Chee Secondary School Military Band and Gan Eng Seng School Military Band. It was held in Singapore Conference Hall. Coincidentally, it was the venue for Singapore Youth Festival (also known as SYF). Here's a poster of the concert.

Rather unfortunately, I only managed to get an old version of the poster. This was the poster for 2007.



In the morning at 9am, I reached school and band practice was starting soon. We were practicing the pieces that we would be playing for the concert later during the evening. At about 12pm, we finished band practice and went for lunch. Soon, the bus came and we all got ready to board the bus with our instruments.

When we reached the Singapore Conference Hall, I was really surprised at the size of the building! It was a really big place and as I had never gone there before, I was really fascinated.

Soon, we had our rehearsals, for both the movement on stage, as well as the pieces we had to play. After that, we had our dinner and got dressed in our concert uniform, a red blazer with a white long sleeved shirt and long pants (those upper secondary pants).

We waited in the holding room for the cue for us to go to the tuning room, and in no time, we were done tuning and were on our way to the backstage.

In the backstage, we were all nervous and and calmed each other down. We were cued to enter the stage, I quickly walked to my seat and waited for our conductor, Mr Tan Beng Wee, to enter. As soon as we were seated, the music began. It was nerve-wrecking! I tried my best not to make any mistakes, but well, I couldn't be more nervous than my senior though, who had a solo.

After the concert, we packed our instruments and waited for the bus. We were all relieved and proud of ourselves for producing a rather, good performance. Although there were some mistakes here and there, I believe as long as we did our best, it was alright.

Here are the pieces which we played for the concert :

Symphonic Dances from "Fiddler from the Roof" - Victoria School Concert Band

Postcard from Singapore Mvt I - Victoria School Concert Band

Postcard from Singapore Mvt II & III - Victoria School Concert Band

After everything, we went back to school to keep our instruments. Shortly after, there was a de-briefing and afterwhich we all went home.

It was an exciting but tiring day after all.