Week 5
Sarawak State Level Marching Band Competition, 21-23 May, Sibu.
Same time last week, I was staying with a bunch of high spirited and evermore hopeful kids, eagerly waiting to be rewarded of their months or perhaps years' long effort to put up a great show. I must say that I had a great time personally.
I joined the school band back in year 2002, became really active when I started taking part in the performing team for state level competition one year later. That also marked the starting of my journey to have most of my time occupied by the band activities and have my skin tanned and burned all the time. Despite that, I would say that I’ve found my second home, constituted of the legendary mother Pn Susan Soh and all my accomplices in band. Here, I grew and flourished. It was my gateway to explore the outside worlds, my getaway to calamities at home and my clandestine base to escape classes at school. We endured the most demanding and lengthy practices under the ruthless sun buy also enjoyed the greatest fun of fooling around and dreaming high in the band. This time, I went back with absolutely no idea of how much can I still contribute and how well will I be received, after one year of my absence. Still, I decided to signed up for the trip and went on Bus A at 2.30am in the morning :D.
Choosing Sibu to host the competition was the worst decision of the incompetent ministry of education after all. The committee could not even provide a proper site and fair arrangement to promote the local band scene. We ended up performing at a tarred car park with terrible acoustic settings; I bet Mr Kong Yu Zai was behind the whole thing. The hotel stay was superb tho, very comfortable room, delicious food and very considerate roommates? Haha, the youngsters didn’t give me any trouble at all.
The final result was somewhat hurtful, but not disheartening, because they knew that they had already offered their best in the 12 minutes. The champion took a gamble by playing safe while being creative. Being a fan of Sjs all these years, I must agree that I enjoyed the new concept and their ever wonderful execution on the field. However, they ought to know my honest opinion that their show was appallingly boring. The music and drill were plainly neat and tidy, I didn’t see much challenges put into their show, they just kept everything well within their safety wall. On contrary, CH was slightly flawed in execution, but everything seemed and sounded beautiful. Despite the difficulty, the music was well balanced and heartwarming. I might be bias in this but the kinds never failed to amaze me with each repeated show. At the end of the day, both teams did a good job. But I guess the judges-in-training were awed and surprised by the innovative winning show at first sight. Plus, they are football fans who are deceived by the football themed show.
To finish up, let me share a few things that I’ve learned during the trip. Charity - do ourselves a favor by knitting an immaculate plan carefully and making full preparation early on. Rest - get enough sleep to keep a cool head. Responsiblity - know our roles, be appreciative and be positive. Innocence - bad things happen for many reasons, no one should be pointed the finger at, everyone is to be blamed. Caring - crying is not a sign of weakness, but an indicator of deep concern, what’s more important is to recover and come back stronger. Angel - miracle is a blessing to the sincere ones. Persistance - always be there, the situation may be awkward, but if you don’t get on the bus, you will never get the entanglements straighten up, I’m glad we did.
Cheers to friendship and all the band
Had a wonderful day today. The car is a bit upsetting lately but it still manged to get me to the library, luckily. Picked up a good book - The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, an ex-disney imagineer, computer scientist and lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University (my dream school) who wrote this book in conjunction with his preparation for his last lecture at CMU after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had only months to live. Will do a review once I finished reading it, maybe.
Went to swim at the public swimming pool after that. Nothing changed much after 10 years, aging signs like smelly changing rooms and tainted floor of the pool were obvious tho. Joined swimming-mate's family for dinner following the exhausting swim. It was a great restaurant and the meal was very satisfying. Dishes were served within minutes in very generous portion and of course, they are delicious. A+ restaurant to be recommended to Miri folks.
Redang, of course. No doubt it is a heavenly place with my cheerful gang of INTIan buddies, lovely white beach, blue sky, crystal clear sea water, serene sceneries, fascinating coral lives, night sky radiated with stars and happening night events at some other resorts within walking distance. I would certainly recommend the island as a great local honeymoon spot. But still, nothing beats Italy's weather, atmosphere and romantic European cultural. Back to the topic, kudos to Jay for making the last trip for all of us possible, it was truly enjoyable despite my minor incident of seasick and illegal feeding to fishes hehe.
Home sweet home. Home coming is especially precious for home leavers. For me, it is probably my last stay at home until I finish my studies at the States. Treated myself with a relaxing week after 2 long years of studies in INTI. Stopped by at a basketball league in Miri, visited Bintang Plaza's new wing, watched 'Knowing' with chubby mouse and cool prince of ice, played basketball with the boss and agreed to join the treasure hunt organized by the church youth.
Competition. Fled to Sibu due to the suspicion of H1N1 presence in miri, just kidding. Again, it’s time to decide who’s the best in Sarawak. Well I missed the competition one year ago, but nonetheless, the intensity is still the same. Pulled an all nighter to touch up the band banners. Finally, enjoyed their concert night in beautiful batik uniforms before we headed off to Sibu.Writer's block on the first night? Terrible. But, I think I ought to write something, anything. Boredom is creeping into my life again, hypnotizing my cells and leeching away my energy slowly. This sinister side of holidays is excruciating.
Well it has been four days since my trip to Sibu and I'm already missing it. No doubt it was intense and tiring but that is exactly my kind of stuff and my kind of buddies. Just being with them was purely a bliss.
I seriously need to pick up something to do soon, to keep my energy level and productivity high.
That is all for tonight, I'm heading off for an early and healthy sleep. Let me just do a short recap and review of what I've done in this holidays so far tomorrow.Happy Duan Wu aka Dragon Boat Festival!
Hey! Hello to the world once again. For those who didn't know, this is my second attempt to start a blog. Well late is better than never, let me enjoy the gratification of sharing once more.
What's different this time is a cleaner and lighter template with simpler motive - to keep track of my life and encounters, to count blessings.
To my prospective readers, welcome on board.
To my friends scattered all over the world, this is where you can always find me.
To my close friends, I hope that I can finally get rid of my habit of puzzling you people hehe. There is where I'll shed light on my whereabout and activities.
To the hypocrites and foes, have it your way but think twice or thrice and more until you're not one.
To all, pardon my English as my second language. It is my intention to improve my language and communication skills as I write more.
Upcoming:
Uni and VISA
Recruiting movie goers for Angels & Demons, Terminator Salv, Transformer 2, Night @ the Museum 2
Have a nice day and cheers.© Blogger template 'Isolation' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
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