Friday, April 27, 2007

And so Montfort Chorale got Bronze for their SYF... Nvm... Its okay... at least they didn't deprove. Yea, definitely am sad that they weren't able to get that silver because they did really well for their Set piece! But, hey, things happen on stage and as a chorister, I should understand that. Oh well, I am glad that they got a Bronze at least and that the hard work they put in did not go to waste. Well done MC! =)

Time flies. Yesterday, I was helping Jan with his SYF set piece for JCs. How much he has changed. When he was in Montfort, he would find ways and excuses to skip choir practice and now when he is in Meridian Choir, he is so enthusiastic about it and even asked me to help him with the songs. How much he has changed. The both of us were looking at some old photos of Montfort Chorale yesterday and boy did I miss those days so much. The fun we had and the many change of conductors we had. It is definitely a very interesting experience.

I miss those days in Log branch where every day is a day of fun and laughter. Where we help each other whenever possible and stay in together. Most of the people in Log branch has left. Yea... I've got to move on. Just can't help but think of those days when School 2 Log Branch existed.

I miss my Meridian Choir days where we were given so much pressure. I still remember the time where we were practising for SYF, when Mr Kwei goes into his SYF mood. When AJC, VJC, TPJC and us come and sing to one another. Where we had to go through so so much to perfect the unperfect-able Shoga. Where we sang the set piece the best (out of the 4 choirs) but screw it up on SYF day itself.

I miss my Meridian Day. I miss Mrs Chong's cold maths jokes, Mr Lee's GP consultation and humour, Mr Sung's patient teaching, us making Mrs Quek frustrated, Ms Soh's care for us. I miss Mr Eric Chua's unending patience for training me in my pull up and his never ending encouragement for me during PE. I miss the fun times I had in class with the wanderers in J2 and with Magan, weilin, weeling and josephine in J1.

I have so so many fun times in my life which I will never forget. And I am so thankful that I am able to have so many happy memories which I can keep till the end. Yea, praise God!

Oh well, such is life, life is as such... Let's wait and see what else is installed for me in future...

By the way, please support MJChoir (if there is anyone out there reading this...)! Come for La Risonanza IV!!! Come come come! =)

Monday, April 23, 2007

Today, my family gathered at Carribean for my grandma's birthday celebration. The food was great but I guess I was too tired to even enjoy myself. Futhermore, most of my cousins are not around, so its rather quiet. Oh well... I'm really too tired to type anything so I will just post photos. Oh yea! Today's service concludes the 10 ways to maintain our healing. Its really very enlightening for me. Shall talk about it the next time I blog. Here are the photos...

The final final product with strawberries from China!





The Swimming Pool. My whole family was watching the swimming pool for a good half an hour at the Clubhouse because they were very very fascinated with an ang moh throwing their kids into the swimming pool, literally. haha...


The future bridge to dunno where...

The nice fountain...

And finally... the giant ferris wheel... I just can't help but take a photo of it... again... haha...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

I went back to Montfort today to listen to Montfort Chorale before they sing for SYF this coming Wednesday. And to be honest, I am really very very surprised when I heard them. They have improved tremendously! Its like they went through some crash course in choral singing. Their set piece was very nicely done (Not really gold standard but definitely better than the standard they produce for Sunset). They sang in one voice, they moved together as a choir, there was actually interpretation to the song, every note was correct and most importantly, they actually show some choral technique! Never in my life have I heard them sing so well ever since Mr Yong left. Seriously, I am really very impressed and proud of them man! Woots! Yagi Bushi was a stunner! The song was definitely of a high standard (comparable to their jap proverbs i guess) given that they have never sung such songs in TTBB before. And they are able to deliver it reasonably well. I admit that the song wasn't perfect as there were messy entries and sometimes they will just slow down and there are definitely some frivolous notes sung during the song but then, its really a great achievement for them. They suck when I heard them in Jan. 3 - 4 months later, they are able to produce a standard like that, its really very good. As for Ave Maria, I find that they can do more for the interpretation because they sounded so chor lor when they sing this soft mellow piece. But oh well... they managed to pull through a difficult sacred piece like that, I have nothing to say (although they went sharp in the end =X) haha... Hopefullly they will be able to get a Silver for SYF and prove to the school that they can be better than the band and most importantly, they have substance! Kudos to Mr Wilson Goh for helping them improve so much!!!! =)



Anyway, after choir pract, Ernest and I made our way to Cafe Cartel for dinner then he came over to my place to see me bake a cake for my grandma's birthday. Ernest Lim Wee Kiat actually helped me to decorate the cake. He sucked at it. So do I... haha... The both of us were practically laughing our heads off while decorating the cake, coming up with funny ideas of how we should decorate the cake and all. Its really very happening. I will have to thank Ernest for helping me out today! Thank you Ernest! Anyway, this is the end result...



Cocoa pops wordings were done by yours truly! Thank you thank you! Haha... oh well... I will post more pics tomorrow. I am so so so tired now. Out since 8.30am for MJChoir Alumni pract, then rushed down to Montfort for MC pract which ended at about 5pm. Didn't have time to eat and drink man... Okay... Shall go and sleep now... Goodie night


Quote of the day: Let's see the cake of the fate...
No prizes for guessing who said that... ha!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Its home alone again for me. My parents have flown off to China for their holiday early this morning while my brother will not be back from work till like midnight (not that he is working OT or anything but he will most probably be out with his friends...) So its just me, myself and I, alone at home. And I ended up watching Night at the Museum again at home. Funny movie that is... My dumb dumb wants to speak... haha...


I'll be on off tomorrow because I'll be going back to Montfort tomorrow to see how the choir is doing. Their SYF is coming up soon and I so hope that they will do well for it this year. Hopefully they can maintain their bronze or even move up to a silver (so that the band won't laugh at them anymore since they got a bronze this year... ha!) I will have to deliver old choir uniforms to them too, to help the needy students.

Yesterday's choir pract at Meridian was nonetheless, fruitful. Despite most of the uni gals having exams and stuff, quite a number turned up for practice. woohoo! And its only when we enter our wonderfully horrible choir room (I so miss that place...) that we found out how horrible we sound. And lucky for us, Mr Yong came before our Alumni Practice end, so we asked him to work on the 3 pieces with us. And so, we've decided to start having intensive practices from next Saturday onwards, to improve on our 3 songs. diao diao...

After so many months, I finally went out with my cousins yesterday. We went to watch Meet the Robinsons and boy were we so inspired by that movie. Keep Moving Forward! yea... and Hooray! I've made a mistake which means I will get to learn! That kind of thing... Its certainly much more interesting than Mr Bean's Holiday... Oh well... After the movie, we went to New York New York to taste the most spicy chicken drumlets of all time. One piece of the drumlet caused me to down one whole glass of water. One small bite of the drumlet caused Amanda to down half a glass of water. How small is the bite you may ask.... This small....

And we had to de-skin the chicken to finish them. How sad can we get...

Before

After

We had a great time yesterday definitely. Hopefully we can go to the Austrailia trip end of this year after their exams. Woohoo!!

I banged my head against the door the other day. It gave me a pimple and a swelling. Boo... And today, I was almost late for service because complacent me thought I could make it in time by leaving home 45 mins earlier... But the bus never came... And when I was about to walk to Compass point to take a cab, bus 83 drove to the bus stop happily.. And when I reach Compass point taxi stand, there was a super long queue and no cabs were in sight. Then I began walking upwards towards the 89 bus stop to try to get a cab. But there were no cabs in sight too! da bian... and It was like 11am (15 minutes to service) and I was like so panicky... don't even know whether I can make it in time. So in the end I took bus 27 to the busstop before the expressway and I got a cab there. In the end, I reached church just in time... woot! Praise the Lord!!

Alright... Let's all Keep Moving Forward! Put the pass behind us! Let go of all unhappy worries and troubles and delight in the presence of God!

That was random... oh well... Let's see what God has installed for me this coming week..




Sunday, April 08, 2007

Happy Easter everyone!! I spent my Easter Sunday baking away at the Kitchen today. I have been waiting for today to come because I wanted to try out that White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake recipe which I've found at all recipes. It didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to be because my mother bought duo chocolate chips (white and milk chocolate together) instead of white chocolate and my raspberry sauce didn't turn out as thick as it should be. Hmmm... So the cake became brown in colour (instead of white) and I don't think the thickness of the sauce affected the cake much. Oh well... I didn't take a photo of it because I am too lazy to do so.


I'm just so so so tired because I've been sleeping late and waking up early every day for Good Friday Service, Choir practice and Sunday Service. I really don't mind waking up early for these stuff but the lack of sleep is causing me to be a little heavy in the head. And so, I messed up the kitchen in the end because I can't think clearly and I felt really disorientated and disorganised. So pooi pooi...


I've finally found my Mascarpone Cheese at Cold Storage when I was out with Choon on Friday!! So I went home immediately to make my long awaited tiramisu which didn't turn out very well too... (How irritating...) I don't know if it should be creamy or cake like. But it turned out creamy in the end. Maybe I should not have used my electric mixer to mix my mascarpone cheese and egg yolk mixture because it turned out that the cheese became watery!!! I was so shocked that I began panicking (the uncertainty of whether I'm doing it correctly kills me... pooi pooi!). I wanted to throw the whole thing away but I heard a distant voice from afar (Sharon's one actually) reminding me of the countless children who are dying from hunger in Africa everyday. So, I fought the the feeling of imperfection and continued on with the journey of producing my first ever tiramisu. And so, that's how my creamy/ failed (I think...) tiramisu came about (no photos... Its too disgusting to be posted online...). It turned out that my mum's friend said that the tiramisu tasted nice... I've tried it. It was okay... But I don't find it perfect yet...


Somehow, the only thing I've baked over the pass few days which turned out well was my Apple crisp. The look is okay but it was too bloody sweet!!! pooi pooi pooi! But its really very nice (not praising myself but the recipe) if I cut down the sugar content by half. I felt diabetic after taking one small bite of that apple crisp. Comparable to the constipation and diabetes inducing brownie I produced last week... Woot!! Here's one photo of how it looked like in the oven...





Oh well, I enjoy baking because it sort of relaxes my mind. Sometimes it helps me think through stuff and sort out my thoughts. Yea, its one way to calm the irritating beast within me. People ask me to sell what I bake but I feel awkward doing it for money. I sort of want to do things as and when I like to do with no worries whether I will poison the next guy who takes a bit out of my stuff. Also, its really laborious to bake things in big quantities. I just one to bake it, savour it and clean up. haha... Its just my way of relaxing I guess...

Alright, Choir practice have been very very productive so far! We've chose our 3 songs and finished learning 2 of them. So exciting! People who wants to support MJChoir and its alumni (3 songs only...), Please please buy tickets!! Details are as follows:

Meridian Junior College Choir presents:
La Risonanza IV
Date: 24 May 07
Venue: Victoria Concert Hall
Time: 7.30pm
Tix price: $12


Lastly, I'm really really broke! Phewy... I've been spending a lot on movies and food for the past few days and I think I'm buying things on impulse. Like yesterday, while I was waiting for Ernest and Edwin at Vivo City, I went into Candy Empire and came out with 2 packets of biscuits (Buy one get one free... I'm no cheapo ok!) worth $7.90. Then on Friday, while I was buying ingredients with choon on Friday, I bought one packet of M&Ms, 2 packets of Marks and Spencer cookies, Oreo cookies and 1 packet of marshmellows just because I felt like buying it. Now my house if filled with biscuits and I have no idea when I can finish them... da bian... I'm so dead... I'm so dead... The money in my pocket is replaced with guilt (for not saving... damn it!)... Oh well... I guess I really have to start saving and learn how to control my expenses (I'm a finance clerk for goodness sake!) Alright... here are some photos taken yesterday with Ern and Edwin (Such cam whores are we!)





Through this cam whoring experience, I realised that my face is very small... Boo... Oh well... To end off, Ernest, the following is for you:

Seek ye first the kindom of God

And His righteousness

And all His things shall be given unto you

Hallelu Hallelujah

Recess over loh!!!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

And so I had my first weekend guard duty yesterday. I'm quite blessed actually because I had a lot of resting time yesterday and there was no turn out or anything. So yea, lucky lucky me. Anyway, guard duty is definitely not fun but one thing about doing it at SFT is that you get to see aeroplanes land one after another. Not that its a very interesting sight or anything (it gets boring after a while because the planes just keep on coming...) but you get to see planes from different airlines. Some are foreign but most are common (like, duh!). That is one way to past time when you are walking about, making sure that no suspicious personnel can be found lurking around the vicinity. Oh well... One month down... another 8 more months to go...

After returning home from guard duty today, I decided to bake something to relax myself. And I'm proud to announce that I've produced the ultimate constipation causing brownie. I'm not praising my own cooking but the brownie is very chocolatey itself, and its coated with chocolate icing made from cocoa powder, butter, icing sugar and honey. Woooooooh! No doubt, it will definitely cause constipation and if you're unlucky enough, diabetes mellitus... haha... Shall see the reaction of my friends tomorrow... wooohooo

Another exciting week ahead for me! Good Friday service, MJChoir Alumni Practice, MCA lunch and my grandma's birthday at my cousins' house. Woots!