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Sunday, June 29, 2008, 04:15 p.m. #1506 |
There's a karaoke event going on downstairs right now. Somehow those people who take part in such events are usually tone-deaf and totally unaware of it - I guess they're singing so loudly that they can't even hear themselves properly.
Oh well, it has been nearly two weeks since I last blogged. Attended the best course I'd attended in my five years of teaching (Misconceptions in Physics), met up with the TCHS guys whom I'd known for decades (everyone is still as young as ever - at least in spirit, when we talked about online games like little kids), and performed for a charity event at Whampoa CC (I don't even know who are the beneficiaries though) - there were a few hiccups as we couldn't hear what we're playing very clearly but the audience had been really nice and clapped along when we played the "Grease" suite - that reminded me of those fun times in BHCO when we went on those
tan jia and festive performances...
So the new semester started. Due to staff movements, I had to take over four new classes. Didn't like the idea of that as I had to get to know hundreds of students from scratch, and it's usually difficult to win the students' hearts when they'd already gotten used to the style of their previous teacher. Thankfully, according to some of my "spies", these new classes actually like my teaching style and find my lessons enriching. In terms of non-teaching administrative work, I'm probably less burdened as compared to the last term. This time I'm in charge of the design and printing of paper bags and brochures for school publicity, and a beach-cleaning fund-raising event. Still wish I can concentrate on my teaching and not be distracted by such peripheral stuff, but I know that can never be possible.
Met up with my ex-student yesterday. He has just completed BMT and started on the medic course. As he enthusiastically told me his army stories, I felt really glad to see that he has become so much more cheerful and confident. He used to be that boy who was so full of potential but he kept a lot to himself and had too many things bothering him - I used to worry so much for him. But now I don't think I need to worry anymore - he has finally allowed himself to shine - in fact he's scored 4 A's in the A levels, and it seems he has made many good friends in his JC and the army as well. When the meeting ended, he promised to give me a treat when he receives his first pay - I really look forward to that day.
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 11:19 p.m. #1505 |
Never thought I'd dedicate one blog entry to a book of violin etudes... I've finally finished all the 30 pieces in Book 1 of Mazas' Melodious and Progressive Studies! That took me about half a year.
Seriously, study pieces have never been more melodious and enjoyable, ever. Each study sounds so musically-pleasing that each is like a short solo piece with character. Some are romantic, some are dance-like, some are bursting with speed and energy - one of them is even wittily titled, "The Gossip"! And the pieces build on various aspects of tone production and technical skills progressively (and subtly as well). Playing the pieces had truly been a great pleasure.
Maybe I'm appreciating the book so much because my previous book was Kayser's Elementary and Progressive Studies. In contrast, those 36 pieces had been a pain. Real torture. They are mechanical, passionless and boring, with lots of erratic jumps and non-musical passages - they probably train musical tolerance and sightreading for weird intervals, more than any other thing.
You can't imagine the immense joy that I felt when I completed the Kayser studies last year! It's a different kind of joy (more of relief) as compared to that for the Mazas studies. Just when I thought I'd be enjoying more of Mazas with Book 2, my teacher said we'll be moving on to scales and arpeggios. Hmm, okay, I don't mind, but I do feel a bit disappointed that I won't be experiencing more of Mazas' music any time soon. That's really how nice the pieces are. They're almost addictive.
Anyway, I think I forgot to mention that I'd passed my Grade 8 Music Theory with merit (very contented already as I thought the paper had been quite tricky), and my violin teacher just told me that she wants me to take the exam for Grade 8 Violin next year. Woohoo! Been looking forward to this, although I'm NOT confident of my violin-playing skills AT ALL. She has already chosen the exam pieces, and I have been listening to them (love them a lot now, but I hope I won't get too sick of them by next year).
I'm so looking forward to slogging on my violin! (That sounds totally dorky, but really!)
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Saturday, June 14, 2008, 12:31 a.m. #1504 |
Here's a notice found in one souvenir shop on The Peak.
Shop assistants who yearn for touching and affection? Or does it mean you can only touch the shop assistants and not "damage" them? Hmm...
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Thursday, June 12, 2008, 10:20 a.m. #1504 |
This five-day trip to Hong Kong was my first free-and-easy tour and it was also the first time I took a budget airline.
It rained continuously on the first day when we were in HK, so we only managed to do a bit of shopping at Causeway Bay (铜锣湾). But even that had been difficult as the malls were filled with people and the streets were filled with even more people holding umbrellas and rushing around. As I was relatively tall, I felt like one of those umbrellas was going to poke into my eyes so I was really cautious when I was moving around. Bought lots of wife cake (老婆饼) at Hang Heung (恒香老饼家) as my HK friend said that's where the best wife cakes are although they do not have fancy packaging. Also grabbed a few perfumes at Sasa. Had a very sumptuous and cheap dinner at a Korean barbecue restaurant (run by Koreans) at night.
| View from my Hotel Room, Empire Kowloon |
Initially planned to go to Disneyland on the second day, but the persistent rain had developed into a Black Storm by then. Lightnings flashed and thunders boomed nonstop with the pounding rain. The rainstorm was so bad that schools had to be suspended. Unwilling to stay in the hotel, we went to Mong Kok (旺角) to shop after a dim sum breakfast. Seriously HK shopping wasn't all that attractive to me as I didn't think the prices were significantly cheaper. But I still bought two Espirit shirts as they fitted me very well (and found out later that they're actually 25% cheaper than in Singapore). It's really a small world for I met two of my grand juniors (WX and YW) at Langham Place (朗豪坊). I didn't even get to see much of them in Singapore, yet we happened to travel to the same country, and came to the same spot at the same time. How coincidental is that?
By noon, the rain reduced to a drizzle but the sky was still very cloudy. We decided to take a gamble and headed for The Peak (太平山顶) at Central (中环). Managed to catch the daytime panoramic view on the Peak Tram but the place got really foggy by the time we reached the peak in the evening and we couldn't see the nightview. So we headed downhill and ended the day with a karaoke session near our hotel at Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀).
Finally it's bright and sunny on the third day and we went to Disneyland. The experience had been truly "magical", as advertised. Even the cabins of the MTR trains along the Disney-line are specially decorated! Took almost all the available rides and went through almost the entire map (except for a few). Drove on the highways of Autopia, soared high aboard Dumbo the Flying Elephant, took a Jungle River Cruise where there were volcanic fires in the water, watched the High School Musical performance along the streets, rode on the Cinderella Carousel, went for a spin at the Mad Hatter Tea Cups and viewed the Mickey's WaterWorks Parade. Took countless pictures with walking mascots and quaint buildings as well.
Enjoyed learning to draw Minnie Mouse at the Animation Academy (my completed work is quite well-drawn!), and my favorite place had to be "It's A Small World", where we went on a boat ride that tunneled through elaborately-decorated halls of colourful automated dolls of children of the world singing "It's a Small World" continuously in various languages. We were so impressed by the enchanting splendor that we took this ride twice. The "Disney in the Stars" fireworks display at night had also been really spectacular - almost tears-inducingly touching. Except for an inconsiderate person who had his balloon hovering far in front of us and blocked our view of the fireworks, and he kept his balloon there even when people behind were shouting at him to keep it down. When the fireworks ended, I couldn't resist scooping up many Disney merchandise as they were just so pretty.
| Taj Mahal in Window of the World |
After a nice breakfast at a tea cafe (茶餐厅) (the milk tea in HK is much more bitter), much of my fourth day was spent across the customs in Shenzhen (深圳), at the Window of the World (世界之窗)，where landmarks from all over the world were replicated in miniature.
| Pyramids of Giza in Window of the World |
Not bad actually, as some of the places looked really real (like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon), but there were certainly a few that looked very fake as well (Mount Fuji, for one). Spent the last of our renminbis at a nearby KFC - only to realise that the Chinese whipped potato tastes very different.
Came back to Tsim Sha Tsui in the evening and took a breezy stroll at the Avenue of Stars (星光大道), where various HK stars made their handprints on the tiles of the pathway. Also witnessed the Symphony of Lights (幻彩咏香江) - the world's largest permanent nightly light and sound show covering more than 40 buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbor. The HK skyline is already very vibrant and beautiful without the 15-minute display, so the light show in itself wasn't exactly memorable for me, although the effort in synchronising all that light and sound between 40 buildings had been quite amazing. Ended the night at Temple Street Night Market (庙街夜市)，which felt like any night market in Singapore anyway. Got a very elegant duplicate CK watch for only S$3, which could have been even cheaper if I'd bargained further.
| Jordan, near Temple Street Night Market |
Wanted to go to Lantau Island (大屿山) on our final day in HK but the whole place had been flooded with mud after the Black Storm and cable car services at Ngong Ping (昂坪) had been suspended. So we ended up walking along the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui and getting a full-body massage to pamper ourselves after all that walking for the past two days. When we're leaving HK, the airport bus passed by Tsing Ma Bridge (青马大桥) - the world's longest suspension bridge, and it aptly ended our tour with a memorable view of urban HK.
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The Pocky Lady and the Keyless Captain |
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008, 04:04 p.m. #1503 |
All right. Back from my short trip to Hong Kong with my sister and colleagues. Shall write more about the actual trip next time. This entry, however, is devoted to my experience on my return flight.
First, let me talk about this very memorable lady who sat beside me. The middle-aged lady was dressed like a typical "Singaporean auntie". The moment when the plane has safely taken off and the crew announced that no outside food is allowed, this lady started to unload ziploc bags from her hand-carry bag - one ziploc bag contained an assortment of cosmetics, and the other bags contained... FOOD. There were nuts, biscuits and many other snacks. I was like, hey, if you want to consume your own food, there's no need to be so blatant, ya? Sure enough, this lady began to calmly stuff bits of various kinds of snacks into one Pocky box (I believe Pocky was one of the on-sale items on the plane). I was quite amazed, that the lady came well-prepared with an empty Pocky box to hide her own food!
After she has packed her food into the Pocky box, she slowly stashed away her ziploc bags and started eating. And all this while, none of the crew members noticed her. (Either she's really lucky or she actually knew the schedule of the patrolling crew.)
Then she started on her pack of cosmetics. First the moisturiser, which she systematically applied all over her body - the face, the hand, the legs... Then a bit of lipsticks, and... okay, by then I was already quite bored with her so I wasn't paying too much attention. But the next thing she drew out from her hand-carry bag stole my attention again - a 500 ml bottle of plum juice!
I thought any container that has a capacity of 100 ml or more is not allowed, and the airport pastes this notice all over the place and the security does the checks before boarding? (I had to throw away my bottle of mineral water when I walked past the security.) How did this lady smuggle this bottle unnoticed? What if she was a terrorist carrying explosives?
Anyway this lady continued to drink from her bottle calmly, with the crew walking about without stopping her. (Did she put on an invisible cloak or something?) In any case, I don't particularly agree with the exorbitant prices of food on planes, so I was actually quite impressed by the composure of this well-prepared lady. And she has certainly given me some ideas of how I may smuggle personal food onboard.
On a totally different note, there was a small chapter that caused a bit of an alarm at the start of the flight too. After the captain had introduced himself, he ended with this statement, "I believe I have lost the ignition key, and I think I have left it on one of the passenger seats, so if anyone of you finds it at your seat, please hand it over to any of the crew members, and I'll personally give you a reward of ten dollars. Without the key, we cannot start flying." I was like, wow, this is one humorous captain - he actually said a joke (albeit a lame one)! But when I looked around, the crew really went around to translate this message to the Chinese-speaking passengers. THE CAPTAIN REALLY LOST THE IGNITION KEY?! A thousand exclamation marks ran through my head - I was flying on a plane driven by a captain who forgot where he put the ignition key! That thought just wasn't too comforting. Anyway, after a while, the key was found, and the whole journey had been smooth and safe.
And so, I'm back! To Singapore, where lots of work is waiting for me!
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Thursday, June 5, 2008, 09:49 a.m. #1502 |
Finally watched "Planet Earth". 11 episodes of beauty and awe. Was mesmorised by the gypsum crystals of the Lechuguilla Cave, intrigued by the colorful birds of paradise, and astounded by the actual existence of troglobites (I'd seen ghastly eyeless creatures like the Texas blind salamander in computer games and thought that they're merely science fiction). Was also fascinated by how every creature manages to thrive even in the worst conditions (even in natural pools of sulphuric acid), and was deeply touched by parents of various creatures that care for their newborns to the extent of risking starvation and their lives. Truly a series that deserves to be watched by everyone.
Also watched the fourth season of "Lost". This is by far the best season ever. The first three seasons felt slow, inconsequential and random, like the characters were walking props that didn't know what's going on and the producers didn't exactly know where the series was heading either - just mysteries and surprises thrown in episode after episode without any apparent explanation. It was the sheer genius of plot-twisting (especially the cliffhangers of the season finales) that kept me watching the series. But in this season, those "mysteries" start to make sense, and the direction of the series becomes clear. Every one of those 14 episodes (with a few exceptions) is brilliant - either mind-bogglingly clever or mind-blowingly action-packed. In fact the season is so brilliant that I watched the last three quarters of it in one sitting yesterday. Am really looking forward to the "shocking conclusion" as promised in the series finale of the sixth season.
