Sunday, December 17, 2006
After a long period of hectic practices, everything has finally come to an end. Sad? Happy? Glad? I dont know what words can describe my feelings, but without those co practices, it's just like something has been removed from my life.
On our way to tpwcc, Jeanette, Szemin and Layting started saying that they felt nervous. If they didnt mention about it, I wouldnt even think of it, cos I wasnt nervous at all. But after hearing them talk about it, I began to feel scared. I wasnt nervous, but scared that I would srew up on stage, partly becos we just changed our fingerings for the kuai ban of chun si the previous day. When we got out of the mrt station, a familiar barbeque smell attracted me. YES, it is none other than the otah's smell! The otah man was selling otahs near the mrt. I love his otahs! I still can remember myself eating 9 of his otahs at one go the other time. Apparently, I bought some. Jeanette was quite tempted becos of my influence, so she bought too.
Then we reached the cc. The 'winners' group was practising in the hall while the 'victors' group practised in our usual practice room. Upon reaching, I saw Szuan! She went China for 6 wks (if im not wrong) and she just returned a few days ago! I was elated to see her cos i've not seen her for a long time!! Hehe. After some prac, we had our lunch. Then, we went back for a few times of rehearsals cos zls wanted to listen and record. Though many people from my group said that we've improved a lot, I still felt that our mo qi wasnt good. When I heard the other group (the 'victors' grp) play, I felt that they were impressive cos I was impressed by their crescendos and decrescendos. Oh! Not only that! When they just started playing si lu tuo ling, I was attracted by a mysterious sound of bells. I tried to find who was playing it. I thought it would be Derek, the percussionist, playing it, but he wasnt holding on to anything at all. I asked Wanglong who played and he said it's Derek. When I told him that he seemed to be holding nothing, he said Derek must be probably too pro, that's why even when he plays, he seemed to be not playing anything. Lol. In the end, Sijia told me that it was Denise who was playing it. HAHAHA! And I like their xianyue too! haha! As we went to change, Sijia and I were dicussing about the results. We both have same sentiments. We knew that the 'victors' group would get first and we have lower chance of getting first, we did not wish to lose to PA. But we had a feeling that the judges might not let both ge teams to get first and second cos ppl might think it's not fair or we bribed the judges. hahaha!
After everything, we packed and headed to SCH. On the bus, we were all busy writing cards for our 'saviours'/'supporters' and b'day girl (Moses, Rozie, Uncle Peter, Mdm Tan and Marilyn). Now that I mentioned all of them, I suddenly felt that we should also write a card for the indian uncle who always opens and locks the door for us. You may think that this is a trivial matter and it's smth that a cc worker like him should do, but becos of competition, we pracced until super late, so he's always the last worker to leave the cc and he doesnt get any OT pay. Halfway on our journey, a group of 'acapella singers' started to sing weird songs that amused all the people on the bus. Well, I should clarify that it's not their wonderful voices that amused us, but their awful harmonies. As a random comment, Shijun said that if they were to sing in front of a tuner, the 'needle' will flicker from the the extreme left to the extreme right non-stop. LOL! Oh! Then we passed by the Singapore River! We saw our white balls floating on the river! Those white balls were the ones that we wrote our wishes on at esplanade!
Soon, we arrived. Time was rather packed. Right after tuning, we headed for backstage. Initially I wasnt nervous, but the wait at the backstage made me had 'butterflies' in my tummy. As usual, Wanglong gave us an inspirational talk before performing. Finally, we performed. I was super tensed up at first cos i was afraid that i would screw up the chun si kuai ban. Overall, everything went smoothly. All thanks to Wanglong's wonderful solo. (: After our performance, I ran down to put my erhu and rushed up with Mic to watch PA's performance. PA was quite strong too. Just like what Moses have said, their mo qi is the best among all of us. This is becos they practised the same song for many years alrdy. Even their actions are the same. Lol. But again, I like the 'victors' grp's performance most! Btw, I recorded the songs that both geco grps played.
After competition, I ordered pizza for dinner. Unfortunately, there was not enough. Very sorry to people who didnt get to eat for dinner. Then, Jeanette, Sijia, Michelle and I went around to take pictures. But this time round we didnt take much pictures. Oh! When we were at the second level, we took the new programme bklet. There were pictures of the prize winners. Derek's picture amused me most. I would laugh whenever i see his picture. Lol. Dont believe? See it yourself and i bet you will laugh too! hahaha!
During the prize winners concert, all of us were very impressed by an eight-yr-old girl, hairou's performance. She's super cute okay! She won first in guzheng junior category. It's really 'never judge the book by its cover'. Next was a yangqin solo by the yangqin open category champion. He plays the yangqin effortlessly. Next was Jeremy's pipa solo. He's so 'Samuel'. Lol. Samuel is his pipa teacher. Not only that he plays like Samuel, he walks like Samuel and behaves like Samuel. Michelle and I even think that he's a photocopied copy of Samuel. Haha! NEXT UP! Wanglong's di yi er hu! Hehehehh.. I recorded it down. Other than the word 'pro', I cant think of other words to describe him. Then, it's the prize presentation ceremony! Whenever a ge member receive a prize, we would cheer and applaud very loudly for them. Finally, it's time the emcee announce the winners for ensemble category. At first, the emcee asked us to shout the names of the finalists. For us, other than the words 'jingying', we have no other names to call cos we're both named jingying! hehehe!! "Third prize goes to................................. PA!!!" When we heard this, all of us took a second to realise that that means both ge groups won the first and second prize! In other words, all of us started cheering after 1 second. hahhaha! As the usual retarded and laggy couple, both Michelle and I took 3 seconds to realise it. However, we were so happy at that moment that we gave each other a big hug. Indeed, I think it was the happiest moment in my life, becos that was the FIRST time i was SO HAPPY that my tears crowded in my eyes. I didnt cry lah. And i didnt make my tears ooze on purpose ok! I merely smiled and it oozed out by itself. haha! So impactful. After the concert, I saw all the prize winners queuing outside to receive smth. So I asked Wanglong what they're queuing for. He told me that the certificate that they received on the stage is juz a blank piece of paper, and they had to exchange for their real certificate. Then I looked into the fake cert. It was really blank! I was amazed by it! To think all of them had to carry a blank piece of paper on stage... HAHAHA! We went back to the room to pack our instruments and went up to take pictures once again.
As predicted, all of us were super high in the bus. Guess what? Zls said he's giving us a supper treat! At first, all of us couldnt decide on where to go for supper, but in the end, we decided to go to the hawker at Newton Circle cos it's very near to zls's house. There was a big group of us. Imagine such a big group of people traveling from toa payoh to newton. lol.
Over there, all of us ate a lot of food. Though I had sore throat, I decided to forsake it and eat heaty food since it's a happy occasion. Until about 12.40, my mum called and sent the 'woodlands gang' home.
I know I may sound a bit long-winded, but i would like to thank the following people.
Moses - Thank you for guiding our group. Though you always scold us, you care a lot for us. Because of us, you cancelled or postponed many of your important matters. Because of our scores problems, you stayed up late to vet over and rewrote for us. For our sake, you came for practices despite being sick. Thanks a lot for all the effort. Hopefully a second prize can be a return of our appreciation. hehe! (:
Wanglong - Thanks for leading our group! You've been a great leader. I know we've always been very naughty and talkative and not paying attention of what you say. hehe. So thanks for your patience and tolerance. You rock! (:
GECO - Thanks everybody! Geco has given me many wonderful memories! Hope we'll rock on! (:
Though the hectic practices have ended, I look forward to the next geco practice cos by then, both groups will reunite! YAY! I really miss having practices with people from another group! And I bet people from another group miss having practices with us too! haha! No matter what, geco is united and geco rocks! (:
6:24 PM
Till we meet again..
