playing with mr kong is so fun!
So today's cello lesson was the first in one month. Bet Mr Kong and Mr Ma had an awesome time in Europe. I'm so jealous, just looking at SSO's photos on Facebook!
Halfway through the lesson, I went to Mr Kong and requested he play Butterfly Lovers with me. It was very thick-skinned of me because he is a master of that concerto, having recorded it years ago to rave reviews. Actually, the reason why I had the score was because his student had wanted to play with me. This student, an NPStrings alumnus, is something of a legend to my seniors. And I thought, since Mr Kong was here, why not play with him?
When he took his violin and approached the piano, the whole room fell silent. And I proceeded... to humiliate myself in front of him. Haha. I blame my nerves. I can never play well under stress. Hey, playing in front of a famous violin virtuoso is very stressful, you know!!! Luckily, Mr Kong was very understanding and despite my horrible playing he showed me his appreciation afterwards. And before leaving, he said to me, "Let's play again next time!!"
Mr Kong is so awesome!!
Of course, I didn't forget to play the cello! For today's lesson, Mr Ma let me play a grade 8 piece! In fact, he let me play 2 pieces! But as my skills were not fully developed yet, I could only play the easier parts. Maybe I should play with Celly Belly more often (he's sulking in a corner, having been neglected for weeks already. D: )
Sigh, I should be catching up on sleep now! I have to wake up at 6 on 4 days out of 5, I was late for 5 minutes yesterday despite catching the 8am bus!! Grrrr!!!
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back to skool!!
Yesterday was the first day of the new semester! I wasn't really looking forward to going back to school because of my new timetable. This sem I have to take 2 more modules, which means my timetable is packed! Lessons end at 5 most of the time, and my only half-day is Thursday! What's more, the modules I'm taking now are many times more difficult than the previous ones! I am so going to die!!
And the most worrying thing is that my lecturers are extremely boring! To date, I have slept through half of my lectures. It is fast becoming a habit! I have to do something about it before it gets out of hand.
Sian. At least there's NPStrings to look forward to!
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the ultimate time waster
I was supposed to have piano practice at 6.30 just now, but I found no one there when I arrived at 6.35. The practice room was still empty when I returned from dinner after 7, so after muttering a few choice words, I decided to go home. But I didn't want to reach home too early because I didn't want to recount the tale to my mum, and I had nothing to do at home anyway. So I took a long bus ride, on bus 74 all the way to Hougang interchange and then 165 back to Ang Mo Kio.
It was a mind-numbing journey. Half and hour into the ride and we were still stuck in Ang Mo Kio. I could've hopped off at AMK Hub but I didn't. The bus sped on towards Hougang, and as the journey dragged on I felt myself losing focus. I was in a stupor, slowly losing consciousness in the drone of the engine and the air conditioning. I was prone to motion sickness in long bus rides, so I found myself yawning every now and then to stop myself from puking. When we finally entered Hougang, the bus kept turning here and there and I swore we travelled on every street in the area. What's worse, we seemed to stop at every bus stop and this made the trip longer.
Suddenly, I realised I was the only passenger left in the bus. I snapped out of my semi-consciousness. This meant we were approaching the bus interchange! Over there, I exited the bus hurriedly, relieved to be on terra firma once again. I checked my watch: it took me an hour to get here.
I was lucky to have had a fast and reckless driver. He sped down Bukit Timah Road and Lornie Road like nobody's business. Many times I was forced to the back of my seat when the bus accelerated. I loved it. It brought to mind the best bus ride I ever had, on service 52. On that wonderful ride, the bus negotiated a curve at such a high speed its side scraped the road. All of us were experiencing a force of at least 2G and I was clinging onto the handrails for dear life. Good times. I never had a bus ride that fun anymore.
If I'd boarded a double-decker, I could've taken 2 hours to reach Hougang. Because more often than not, the 74 double-deckers that I board are one of the slowest vehicles around (that includes bicycles). They trundle along the roads with a maximum speed of just over 20km/h. Sometimes, they go so slow that I believe I run faster during my morning jog. Their slow speed is painfully evident on Lornie road, where stopping at bus stops and traffic lights are rare, so it's like an expressway. So there we are, at the extreme left of the road, doing under half the limit, while other vehicles zoom by. Another bus roars past us and seconds later, it disappears into the horizon.
To be honest, it's not only the 74 bus drivers who are under the snail's curse. In fact, the slowest bus I have ever travelled on was ironically a service 52.
Back to the story, where I just stepped off bus 74 into the bustling Hougang bus interchange. Not far from me was a pasar malam, where sticks of fishball, sausage, chicken wings and other mouth-watering fried food were sold. It took me all I had to tear myself away from the lure of those artery-cloggers and reluctantly, I took bus 165 home.
And so ends my account of my boring trip home from school, which took a grand total of 1.5 hours, more than twice the usual time. Now I understand why my senior refuses to take bus 74 home. Riding it once was tiresome enough, but doing it everyday, that's another story. Next time, I'm going to hop on bus 89 from Changi Beach to Hougang. I've seen the route, and it's long. But I guess I'm prepared.
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three decimal niner
As you will have known by now... the poly results are out!!
And yours truly got... 3.9!!
If you bother to know, I got AD for Compro (surprise surprise! Even I was shocked myself) and Engineering Mechanics, A+ for ETE and A for FAT (kinda disappointed there). I heard from my senior we could get money for getting AD's, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.
Yes, Idea Jumpstart (aka contrasting subject) is my downfall again... Got B for that damned subject. Last time it was humanities, now this... Ah what the hell, I'm going planespotting later anyway!
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