DEAR DIARY
5:13 PM
Its been a
while ><
Lets see, Carolyn, Yi Qian, Cheryl Giam, Michelle and Claire came over to my house on 28 April to have dinner and to put together Jolene's farewell gifts. It was really fun, what with Giam being high and all haha. Dinner was pretty good and although the cake was...not exactly a cake, the rest of the food was good(:
Carolyn came only for a bit because she was rushing over to another friend's house and had to pass us her note for Jo's scrapbook. Giam left after dinner because she had driving lesson in the morning and we sent off Mich at 11.40pm haha. So eventually, it was only Claire and Qian who stayed over, but it was still awesome :D
When we were about to sleep at about 1.30pm, I was facebook-ing on my phone and saw Kenneth's post about the Venezia in Musica 2011 booklet, with Robin Loh's Yagi Bushi face printed super big and a few other photos of VJCHOIR haha :p Overall it was a really good day, although I felt a bad because Jo found out I had asked the girls over to my place and she felt sad I didn't invite her, so Carolyn had to tell her it was because we were making her presents ><
After that was...mugging for SATs. Sian. I didn't really study much again, but I did put in more effort than my first attempt. I just got the results yesterday: 2100, which isn't bad given the amount of effort (of lack thereof) I put in. So I'm somewhat satisfied. Now, another 6 more days till I can totally let go.
We sent Yuan Qi off to Australia on 7 May after my SATs and it was quite sad.
Everyone is leaving, one by one. Just emphasises the fact that we're all going to be taking different paths in our life from now onwards. Sigh.
After sending Yuan Qi off, I spent the rest of my weekend on Jo's scrapbook, which, I must say, turned out pretty good ^^ Totally worth staying up till 5am on Monday to finish it(: Went to Qian's house before sending Jo off, to help her with the quilt. It was quite last minute and rushed, so it wasn't 100% satisfaction, but it still looked good(: Headed down to Changi after that to send Jo off and it was a happy occasion, because so many of her friends turned up to send her off and she received a truck load of presents, which, unfortunately, meant that she had to leave most of them behind for her cousin to take to Australia in June. But we showed her everything at the airport and she was visibly touched by all the effort her friends put in(:
Sigh. I miss her a lot and its hard to find a time to talk to her for long, with her studies and all.
Can't remember too much of the rest of the events but the most significant were:
[1] rebonding my hair with Qian on 13 May, and celebrating my sister's birthday after that
[2] NUS Science Open House on 21 May with Claire, Qian, Carolyn, Mich and Pei Wen
[3] In Song practices every Saturday
And of course SYF and SOV! I managed to sneak into SOTA and hear the last 4 choirs, which of course, included VJCHOIR. Helped to smuggle in Cheryl Ang, Wen Siu and Jia Sheng just in time to hear VJCHOIR sing. It was really nice and refreshing to hear the juniors so focused and solid. Made us remember our SYF in 2009 as well, running around the parade square early in the morning, and our anxiety and anticipation for the day ahead. Anyways, as expected, they got GWH and we went for dinner at Plaza Sing after results and judges' comments session. Headed home after that. It was a good day, expecially since my mum didn't mind me coming home later than I had intended to ^^
A few days before SOV, I went down to VJ to teach the juniors how to tie a sari haha. Ended up watching them practise their choreo for Sik Sik, which was quite amusing haha. Got to talk to some of the juniors and catch up a little(:
Went for dinner with Mich, Claire, Giam and Qian at Marina Square before heading to Esplanade for SOV 2011 on 24 May. My first time as an audience at SOV and it was truly amazing(: I enjoyed each and every song they sung. Every beautiful chord reminded me of my VJCHOIR days. I absolutely loved We Beheld. I was waiting in anticipation to hear them sing it for SOV and it was totally worth it.
I was quite eager to listen to the Year1 and Year2 choruses. The Year2s once again proved themselves and the sound was pretty solid. I could feel that they poured more emotion into the song, their last time singing together as a batch and all. The Year1s were very together in terms of their thinking and their emotions. Although, the sound wasn't as full as I had expected. Being a Sop, naturally I was paying more attention to the Sopranos and I felt they could use more training in terms of support and breath control but hey, its just my opinion. I'm no expert on this. But it was still okay. They are indeed only Year1s and they will definitely improve over time, especially during caroling in December. Overall, I feel the batch shows good promise(:
Time seemed to pass by super fast during the concert and eventually they were singing Sik Sik. The audience were delighted by their cute and amusing choreo haha and the juniors really enjoyed singing the song as well. After that they proceeded with 'Tween Dusk and Dreams which was just superb. As the song progressed, I felt myself become one with the music and just connected to every single musical detail. Towards the second half of the song I felt tears well up in my eyes and felt the magic that Mr Kwei never fails to make with VJCHOIR. Even though I couldn't make out the words, the melodies and harmonies spoke to me and it was really fantastic. It was a job well done and I could tell the juniors really put their heart and soul into the song. The music really moved the audience to tears and apparently, Mr Kwei teared at the end of the song as well.
After that, we all shouted for encore and when Bryan opened his mouth, I, like all my batchmates, thought he was giving the starting note. But we were pleasantly surprised when we heard him sing the solo line for One Voice. Oh man. Cue in the flood of memories of last year's SOV; all the hard work and effort, the tears, the laughter, the ups and downs of our VJCHOIR journey and the last practice we had on the Sunday before SOV 2010. Ahh sweet memories. What most people didn't know, was that the 13 of us, or most of us 13 anyway, were singing along with the juniors to One Voice. Yes, from our seats in the audience haha. Thats how much the song meant to us, especially since they were using it as their encore.
After that, came the most exciting moment for me: No Man. When Mr Kwei invited all VJCHOIR alumni to stand up and join the choir near the stage and sing, the 40 odd of us sitting together all stood up from our seats and the juniors were visibly surprised at the 3 full rows of us standing amidst the crowd haha. We decided to just sing from where we were standing and Mr Kwei gave us the notes and we started to sing. Oh there was a raging storm of emotions swirling within me while I hugged Giam and sang our choir anthem. It was a really good feeling to be conducted by Mr Kwei again, and it really meant a lot to me that he chose to conduct us alumni towards the end of No Man(:
It was so meaningful to be able to sing with VJCHOIR members across so many batches. It shows how much we care for VJCHOIR, for the memories of our choir days, for amazing, magical music this choir family has been making since 1985. All the experience and emotions of all past and present VJCHOIR members are bottled up into this one beautiful song that will forever ring in our hearts.
Okay, emo aside, SOV 2011 was a good one(: After the concert was over, we stayed behind to talk to the juniors and congratulated them on a job well done, after which, I headed home.
So yups, the only other major thing that happened was lunch with Gordon and Chon Kiat yesteday and Parkway haha. It was great catching up with those 2 and talking about everything. Although 80% of the time, it was all army talk -.- I guess thats the best I can get when I go out with 2 army boys. What to do? Boys will be boys.
Wow this post is longer than I intended it to be. I guess I should get back to my SAT prep again. 4 June. Can't wait till its FINALLY over!
♥nan
