Day 3 + Day 4

VERSION 1.1 RELEASED

Cliffhanger! 4 days should be enough to create some suspense. Oh wait I didn't end the previous post on a cliffhanging ending. Sad =(

Not that I like bungee jumping.

Where were we? Oh yeah second night. Haha... more interesting than the first. We showered and all, and Dhruv went over to the sec 4 room to chat (and do their stuff).

Mystikal: "...gershwin dance"

Okay anyways we had an early night. 10pm, 11pm, not sure, no clock. Probably 11pm, because Eric and Si Kai weren't done with their books by the time I finished my diary writing whee! Then it was lights out for us.

Somehow I just couldn't sleep. Whirring fan or noisy next door neighbours, I was kept awake in bed while Eric and Si Kai were blissssfully dozing off. I snuck into the corner of the lockers. CORNERS YIPPEE anyway they started playing music on their mp3s/ipods (not sure which). Ocean, Institution Anthem, Centuria... awww... so touching. I fell asleep in the corner Alastair soon discovered it, and me do what mice do: scurry back.

Dhruv: "I came back at around 1am"

Day 3, by far, was the worst of the four. We went back to Putrajayyh to prepare for the big event. We started off with a super screwed up rehearsal, which I do not bother elaborating on. I believe it is more useful if I come up with a glossary:

Layman's Terms - Actual Name
Suite - Unlucky Freezer (yes I am triskaidekaphobic)
Stage - Bush Fire
Corridor - Runway
Escalator - Doesn't Work

They had 5 hours to kill. I was killed by 5 hours. Where's Ben? There. In that corner. Foetaling. Literally died at the end of it all. I'm not used to being deep-frozen!

On stage it was wayyy better. Lights were on, you could feel the heat! We played our songs one by one, demonstrating to everyone what we could do. I felt that it was quite screwed, but surprisingly many people around me said that it was quite an impressive performance.

Backed out of the timpani after our finish of Gershwin, remembered to NOT drop the crash cymbals, before heading off stage. Thrilled and excited, we headed to supper. Supper? No sleep? Okay no more "thrilled" or "excited". That is, until I met my weakness... TEA!!! Sugary tea, with milk, just the way I like it. Tea, tea. Yum.... fresh scent, armoatic, a beautiful cup of dolce tea. Floated out of the cityscape of Putrajayyh into SMSS. When we arrived at SMSS, I seemed like the only one who is conscious, in fact quite energetic, thanks to Tea. Sleep at 2am. Wake SMSS up while doing so.

Day 4: 40 sleepyheads on the coach. 1 fell down, and then there were 39~

Finale of the Finale. What I enjoyed about the Finale (of the Finale) was that we were made more dignified. Dhruv mentioned that we were being "left out" because all the booklets they gave us were in Melayu.
(It was so bad, we needed Jerald to translate for us)
Well at least we got appreciated. It was nice to recieve the goodie bags, but more importantly to talk with those from other schools.

"only the abdul razak guys were friendly" --Jerald

More or less a complete agreement of the above statement. They were very... nice! Even voluntarily took the satays for us to eat. Very very nice of them. Okay I've ran out of words :P go ask Si Kai.

Back to Singapore, back to reality. Sigh. The reality of having to pack up (not that many items to pack actually), hugging our marimba (in-tune!), and on a personal level, impacted by a devestating hit... but that's a different story.


Nothings complete without quotes?

TL^2: "I will jaga your barang barang"

Jerald: "Coffee coffee coffee"

LJW: "Let me enlighten (?) you with my speech..."

Ben: "Ichwan = I want"

Mr Oura: "You (Jerald) in your home country very happy issit"

*Mr Oura showing his body to the whole Putrajayyh xD*

*Bryan's Deadly Camera*

Mr Oura: "Toilet no toilet paper... culture shock"
Ben: "Shower room no door... culture shock"

Jerald: "Coffee + Tea + Water = Milk"


Clearly this journey of a lifetime was much of a bonding experience. Getting to know your batchmates better was certainly a plus point of this trip. Unfortunately unlike most people I didn't take advantage of the golden chance I had. Looking back (literally) I see everyone behind, chatting, playing cards: all of them, bonding and having a great time in the coach. Me? Look at the scenery, sleep, all while contemplating what to write in my diary and going through all the quotes said thus far.

The grouping of the dorms was quite an eye-opener too. Noticed how some people tend to stick together. (And how efficient the splitting of dorms went: sec 3s spent a whole lot of time dividing rooms xD). Of course the leftover group is the "main thing": Si Kai (or wassit Dhruv?) said that he opted out of his batch group. Kinda surprised that Eric was chosen to come to the leftovers as well.

From there we branch out to the seating during the Finale Finale (Day 4). Forming pairs, I obviously had no choice but to pick Si Kai.
Random Guy: "Pick Han Sheng"
Me: "You crazy?"

Well I guess that wraps up my say on our trip to Malaysia. It was certainly fun, and was a great experience. (classic)

v1.1 additions: I'd like to thank the following people...

1) Everyone who kind-heartedly willingly helped to lug the percussion instruments around everywhere we went.
2) Kinchun, for helping to tune the timpani for me for Gershwin
3) Ichwan, for taking time off to come help us.
4) Instrument providers, who gave us such great instruments to play with
5) Coach drivers for accompanying us for four days
6) Coaches for such comfy rides around
7) SMSS for their hospitality, food and beds
8) James and Ferdian for supporting us even as they are in foreign lands
9) Dunno who, for all the mineral water bottles you gave us
10) Si Kai for covering his feet at night so I won't be spooked out by his three toes
11) Eric for his pencil case, without which this blog entry would not exist.
12) Dhruv for.... being Dhruv?
13) TKC for housing us for an hour or two
14) Jerald for his fun and laughter

Day 1 + Day 2

You didn't expect me to make one big huge post about our trip did you?

okay fine maybe you did.

Anyway I'm back in one piece, and it's time to take time off to post!

6.30am: hustle, bustle, pack, prepare, stone at atrium for an hour before departing to Malaysia. Forgot to take pen from band room (oh shoot still haven't claimed it back yet!). Jerald Si Kai left sticks in wonderland. Didn't bring diary. Writing in broken English.

Yong Peng: People eat small food. I eat no food, only milo. Saw Ichwan eating chicken rice, deducing he has a big appetite. Bryan bought fries. Fries-assault ensues. No fries left.

TKC: Transit. Exchanged with 11 other percs. Ichwan sat out. Talking about RGSSB members. Jerald gets vocal.

TKC girl: "How do you find them (RGSSB)?"
Us: "Okay..."
Me: "How do you find them?"
Them: "Okay..."

Jerald: "...some of us keep in touch with them (RGS percs)"
Me: *AHEM*

SMSS arrival: Whee new home. We split into dorms, and unpack. Was left with the leftover group (too bad, no rightover group). Felt happy that I was not stuck with hansheng.

Went to have tea. Was stumped by the hospitality of the girls at SMSS. Ate little food. Was stumped by how "tea" was the anagram of "ate". For some weird reason felt something missing. Something was supposed to be there, but wasn't.

Band prac followed. We were supposed to sit out, no perc instruments. The truck came later, carrying a 4-octave horrendously flat (out of tune) marimba, a couple of a couple of timpani, and a bass drum. Had 3 people playing on one marimba. Saw Jerald with his makeshift drumset. Disappointing.

Dinnertime @ 8pm. Sat with Bryan and Ryan, and had a musical dinner with Bryan's glass-rubbing. A trend was created! Kinteresting. Supper was at 10pm, which was laksa. Dhruv complains, and doesn't eat much. I didn't eat much either. All meals since we've arrived were spicy. Me no like spicy.

Time for bed. But before bed comes shower. Toilets at top level were marked with "Singapore Raffles Institution". Those toilets had no water. Meh. Went downstairs to shower. 5 cubicles, yay! Went into one, closed the door. No door. Went back out, astonished. Had to shower in toilet cubicle with small bucket. Preserved dignity. (I remembered Malaysian Montage: as we went through one toll gate, there was this advert: "Say no to p*rn, press Alt+F4". Well sadly, not applicable this time round.)

Turned lights off at 11pm. Only 4 people (Me Dhruv Sikai Eric) in our room, very spacious. Noisy chattery batchmates next door talking non-stop. Couldn't sleep till they shut up. Relating to chem, we call them "irritants".

7.50am: wakey wakey. Heard that David (sec 3) didn't get any sleep. Hah. First unspicy meal! *release confetti*

Workshop: I thought we were the ones attending the workshop. And while we weren't of much standard, it was nice to see how Mr Oura teaches. He's funny, isn't he?

Meanwhile, me was happy. Vibes + Marimba-in-tune!!! If we're going to use that for the actual performance we'll do well!

Malls: Berjaya Times Square + KLCC. I believe we did way better in KLCC. There was no aircon, but I believe the pressure of the thousands of people gathering outside was enough to make us play well. An estimated quarter of them were wielding a dangerous weapon... the camera. *shudders* Very hectic, busy, lots of carrying, shifting, arranging. But we enjoyed it all in the end.

Free Time ad lib: Whoo~ I mean, omg. 4 people wandering about in a mall. Can't get any more boring, can it?

Anyways we merged with the sec 2s in Burger King. They arrived there first, but spent so much time counting money that we all returned with our food before them. You could see them with their sheet of paper chock full of grandfather workings... lol. Inefficient. On the other hand, my whole group was commenting on my decision not to take fries and the amount of money saved by doing so.

And thus our troupe browsed through Kinokuniya (spelling -.-) and a VCD shop. *yawn* going up the Petronas towers would probably have been more fun. In the bookshop I picked up two books from the comic section: "Micrographica" and "I Want To Be Small" (ask Dhruv). Now if only I had enough money...

Me: "Hey look up there... it's the roof! It's you!"
Dhruv: "Hey look up there... I see nothing, it must be you!"

Return...: ...back to SMSS for a good sleep, only to get rounded up by TL^2, got a good scolding, and a card game ban. Doesn't affect me though. Wonder what pissed her off so much though.

Supper... still felt that there was something missing, just couldn't identify it.
Ryan: "Scrambled Eggs = Brains"

For the whole day, no spicy food was served. Yay ^^

Dear diary,

Benni snores alot at night, it turns out that he's really having us on with his foetal position, which by the way is taken to another level from 1.14am onwards.

Love,
Benni, son of Ni (courtesy of brain)

P.S.
Benni is in a very complicated relationship with hips.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
btw, benni er its "who can speak HUN" you didn't watch night at the museum!?!?!?!?!? *if your com had a face it'd be sticking a tongue out at you, like, right now*

MORE QUOTES!!!
Mr. Oura [Hun]: Afo Ero obae kld o we;klr ??? 2? 3 ?f? fA?e ?? c?
Mr. Oura [Hun]: Lfo pvpoer bpp lc pwer pboro sd ?!2 ? D? ??? c ??
Mr. Oura [Hun]: pr boapelr kj ooo blajspeor lad se fa se ?!?@ ??
Mr. Oura [Hun]: benni sozz cuutesSs w0rHxXx dsfapewr bpvpsoer bovfpe

1?

First last band prac before trip! So many more things to do, so little less time!

Quotes for the hungrier...
Theme of the day: Jeraldian Quotes

Jerald: "Ben is a b****"

Jerald: "Who's playing the timpani... oh it's you xD" (TMMITFM)

Mr Oura: "Who can understand Han language?"
Jerald: "Me"

TL^2: "...otherwise we're gonna taupok you" (quoted by request of Jerald)

Jerald: "Ben's trying to be elusive"
Ben: "Dang failed"

Jerald: "My scandal is so out"

---
Hmm. I don't usually make such short posts. So I shall add in this paragraph to lengthen it. Will there be computers in M'sia? I wanna blog! (And I hate diaries)

2nd last band prac before trip! So many things to do, so little time!

So today we had early concert (emergency concert as I call it). We started off with Ocean. The last time we played it was Open House (bleh). Sad to say, it sounded pretty bad. The only improvement we made is that (insert name of alumini) did a pretty good job with the bass drum: for once I actually notice it. Other than that it sucked.

Jerald's triangles today were kinda out of time (granted he's a first timer), but it still lacked the essence that Ferdian brought out. Gong was kinda screwed, with (name of alumini) whacking it so hard xD Last but not least claves! So important... I missed those times where James did his expressive crescendoes and decrescendoes. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Hehe, I miss Ferdian and James. Not that they were the best players, but they did a nice job with their parts.

It's not that (alumini) and Jerald played less well than the scholars. It's just that it was played soooo differently today. And I don't like different. Some parts, when the triangle/gong wasn't playing, when there was supposed to be a bow-on-glock part: it sounded empty; there was something missing. Something that we are used to having, now taken away from us.

I probably don't have the right to say all these, because I didn't take any extra part (triangle, claves etc.). In fact I was the only one who had to play less than for SYF, because of the loss of...



*observes 1 min of silence*
*sniff sniff*

Ocean is the "emo song" (at least the emo-est of the lot). How can we play it?

Quotes for the hungry.

David: "First things first..."
Winston: "First things are obviously first what..."

Matthew: *vulgarities*
Matthew: "Oops, sorry ma'am (TL^2)"

Dhruv: "It pays not to know paradiddles"
*Kinchun scolds Si Kai and Dhruv*
Ben: "It pays to know paradiddles"
(I'm sure Wentao will agree with me on that one)

Dhruv: "Stop playing my score!"
*Ben closes score and plays xD*

Ignatius: "Horizontal Saucer"
(No prizes for guessing which instrument he's referring to)

Kinchun: "Don't quote me"
(How classic.)

Kinchun = Daddy Long Fingers
Dhruv = Daddy Long Legs
Ferdian = ???

Mr Oura: "You play like a goldfish"