No Man Is An Island

I finally brought my writings home today. Both are of considerable length, which was not surprising at all... Well let's get the ball rolling on my belated thoughts... Just copy from the paper and pasting it here... I apologise if it's too lengthy and draggy and crappy and whatever negative adjectives used to describe this...

As I sit on a dusty chair this May 17th, 1030 hrs, watching ppl entering & exiting, I can't help but reflect on the events happening 2 days back. If I had a PC with the 'Net, I would be doing more productive work... But life doesn't churn out ideal situations all the time, so a little improvisation is required... Normally I've got better things to do with my Pilot G2 and fullscap papers, but I've hit a temporary mental block... So now I'm relying on passion, on memories. I realised I missed school badly, even more so the choir (VJ & TK both)... Wonderful how your mind works in a hostile environment. You try to ease the hostility by reminiscing about the Good times in the past, not the bad... Not a bad thing if there is still 1.5 hrs to go...

So on the Tue 15th May, it's a special day! Why? 'Cos it's SOV 07... Yeah so what's the big deal you say? Well, it means singing in the 3rd SOV so far (yeah I know some of the seniors with 9 in their belts but WTH!)... But more importantly, it's my first major performance (carolling ain't count) after a horrid year (06)... First major performance as a Chorale member too. Standby...

Right back from opening doors... Where was I? Ah yes... So pressure pressure pressure... And trepidation too... With our (rather) thin ranks, the responsibility for proper sound production for each member is greater exponentially (though mostly are pro, if not all)... But with my form back to sec school level, u can bet your top dollar I was sure as hell worried... Bloody Fs... Why do they seem so high now but no kick a mere 2 years back?

But before I continue my ramblings, I finally watched Spiderman 3... Earlier, CL & me went to suntec for the show... It's just 7 bucks... Cool right? He was commenting about going on a weekday to watch all movies at 1 go since it's cheaper compared to weekends! Join the club man... I'd known that having no work on weekdays have its benefits. Too bad the show was kinda draggy... Felt like Pearl Harbour... The first half was boring... Then the action started and all was ok... Really scintillating visual effects, ok plot, but just... draggy, period! Perhaps I'd expected too much of the sequel...

After that we made our way to the Esplanade. Nothing special there. After all the times I've been there, I know the backstage inside out (well almost). Sowe had warmups on stage together with the trail run. Initially, it was kinda sucky but after a while, everything started to come together... I guess we weren't warmed up enough... Then Mr. Kwei wanted the lines for our first song repeated 2 times... I guess we're trying to drum the music into the audiences' head ( if they knew Italian in the 1st place) and of course to buy us some more air time... Other than that, I blurred for Miao Jia... Really PS, I thought we were were singing the other song (roll eyes)... Should've known the starting note was D... Shows that I have a long way for improvement... Luckily by then, hitting those bloody Fs weren't that hard (Ok we had the unflappable Gim Seng & Jian Hao for that)...

Followed by dinner... Mmm... Sucky dinner as usual... Luckily CL & me had mac before coming. Then some small talk (better word for gossip) & phototaking sessions... Wah... I didn't know chorale peeps are the most photogenic ppl I've ever seen... If there's a flash, ppl will just get into the pictures! I guess we all love our digital cams & weird/cool poses...

Finally it was our turn, so we strode out and gave it all we've got... I thought 'Amor' was good... The pitch was ok. (Cos our ending note tallied with 'All Creature's' starting note, unless the cow covered it up elaborately... I wonder...) 'All Creatures Now' was ok... Not as grand as the practice... Must be the audience then. The full house really absorbed the sound... (Though after reports said we were very loud, I dunno...)

We made a hasty exit to our rooms for... more small talk!!! Quoting a certain Mr Toh... "In VJ Choir, everytime there's free time it's either card games (bridge etc) or sectionals. In VC, it's just more gossiping..." And thus began the very "elaborate" process of allocating (or was it saboing) who to conduct what songs for In Song... After which, we went backstage (literally) to get a first hand hearing of their Hana... Very nice! But the Cow and me agreed that it just can't beat our Os Justi... There can only be one Os Justi & it will be the 04 Olympics one... Not even Hana can beat it in terms of magic. We also riled the lost chance to perform Os Justi @ the Esplanade hall back in SOV 05... So what if it was to an empty audience? We can test the acoustics what... Pity we didn't do it was most of the year 2s (at that time) went backstage already... Who knows? It could be better right?

After their chinese songs, we reappeared... And then something happened... Once the D was hummed and Mr Toh looked at me, I was suddenly back in T again rehearsing for SYF... Mr Toh was conducting, Marcus was Yoing and I was next... Then FF to SCGS PT. Same thing. So I just blasted the Yo and hoped for the best... (beats humming the starting anytime!) It is a tiring song after all... As for the 2nd song, the ending notes sound... off?...

And so we waited for the encore song... When Mr Kwei gave the starting notes, memories of the past came flashing back... The 1st time I heard 'No Man Is An Island', it was the SOV with the Halloween theme... And I was so wowed, I "die die" must join VJ choir... The 1st time I sang it in SOV 04 at the PT and of course the inaugural time it was sung in the Esplanade in 05... The missed opportunity to sing in 06 hurt too... But now here I am with VC... Scintillating stuff... It was such an apt tribute to how VJ choir had grown all these years with all the seniors singing with the choir... I'm sure some in the audience were singing too... When the song ended, I can only stand in awe at the lone person standing in front of the choir... He is to us what Jose Mourinho is to Chelsea, what Rafa Benitez is to Liverpool, what Sir Alex is to ManU... He is (as they say in football) one of the best... Truly The Special One indeed!