Aichi Meiden High School Band

A very tiring day for me so I decided to take on the post of being outside the house though I wanted to watch the performance. Furthermore, I thought it was just another band performance.

Standing outside, I realised that what I thought was wrong. From the TV, I can see that the band was superb! I had the urge to go in. However, work inside the house would be more demanding. I can see how much effort they put in to make the whole story of super mario with both the skit and music. Cool!

The bright side of the things was that I got to sneak in near the end, catching the encore pieces. The band is just so cool! The audience actually was allowed to encore three times.

A pity that there was no extra programme booklets that I can take as souvenir. It was the special perforamnce after the band "competition" that was held a few days ago and the booklets were only available on that day. I saw the same emcee that I do not like. I wonder if it's from the same company again. His presentation on stage was commendable but I still do not like his attitude that all about an event is nothing else but money.

The choreography of the musicians, the dancers, everything was just so great! How I wish that I can watch them perform more pieces. According to the conductor, it was their second trip after so many years. What a pity that I missed the performance. Hope that they will be invited again soon and that I will be ready to work in-house for the event.

Media Preview of our Singapore 2010 YOG Documentary

I took leave from the supervisor and rushed to cineleisure to attend this event with Auntie Mui. As I was told that the event starts at 1pm, I have only 5 minutes to rush there after my quick lunch.

Reaching there, there was no signages to direct me. Glad that there was someone around whom I can ask. Reaching the registration table, the person at the reception looked at me blankly. I felt as though I went to the wrong place and that I am an intruder.

I finally got my tickets after introducing myself. I said something wrongly. I said "media brief" instead of "media preview", a little embarassing I would say.

Auntie Mui and I entered the cinema after getting our free popcorns and drinks. We have got a rather good seat at the back of the hall. It was quite nice of them to provide some refreshments. It was totally like a movie screening. I did not expected this to be held in a cinema. I thought it was going to be some talks given by someone in a room.

We waited for about thirty minutes till the screening begins. The show was quite alright though there were some of the things that I thought can improved on.

The documentary was basically about the journey to the games from the point of views of three athletes of different sports, judo, cycling and fencing. The only female athlete featured is in fencing. The three athletes were at the screening too. What leaves me an impresison about that girl was that she is very tall.

Seeing how the judo athlete trained, I somehow had certain thoughts. I wonder if this has brought me any motivation to push myself further in wushu. Though both may be of different sports, they are both martial arts.

The documentary also included the journey of the production of the mascots. Suana! Those people under the mascot puppets looked as if they just had a swim after they came out from their costume. They spent lots of time practising their dance movements so that the mascots will look genuine and lively. It's really tough on them!

My mystery to whether the person under the amscots were males or females was solved. The funniest part was when the person in the Merly costume said that Merly was part of him. It's kind of a good thing to know that his hard work and effort had made him grew feelings for Merly and fused with her.

I find the countdown to 99 days celebration familiar because I was there! That was the only thing I felt close to. A little disappointed that I missed out all the other events. Guess the publicity need some improvements.

From the factsheet given to me, this documentary is one of the two that is going to be broadcasted. The broadcasts of this firat documentary will be on 7th August and 14th August on channel 5. After seeing the timing of the broadcasts, I was so glad that I attended the preview as I will be away at the floating platform performing for the world!

After the screening, I had some thoughts while I rushed back to my workplace. The athletes are stars, what about the other volunteers? Though volunteers have roles that are small, they are the ones that make a very big difference. Maybe a documentary of people holding difference posts that make no matter how much contribution to this event can be made. This is one of the things that is going to make them feel like they are part of the first ever inaugural Youth Olympics Games.

Release of YOG 2010 Costumes

The long awaited costumes were finally released. After much guessing of how they are going to look like, we finally get to see the final products!

As expected, my jaws dropped. I hoped that what I saw was wrong. It was however verified on the first combined rehearsal that what I saw is true. I do not like to wear caps or hats. I feel uneasy when there is something on my head. Hairpins would of course be exceptions.

I heard that the costumes were designed by a batch of Lasalles College's students. Final year project?

Anyway, I am going to wear a guy's costume. It's kind of a discrimination that martial arts is solely for guys. Anyway, I find the Silat costume way nicer than what I am going to wear. I wonder how the wushu costume looks like. It was not posted on the web. I am guessing that they are going to be way nicer than mine. I guess the wushu costume is red, a favourite colour of mine.

I like blue too, but not in this manner. Anyway, in my opinion, I think that some of the things doesn't mean that the more sophisticated it is, the nicer it is. Sometimes, simplicity is beautiful too. I do not deny that the costumes are colourful. The combination and design can however be improved.

There is only one costume that I thought it looked alright; the one in red that was rather simple and looked like it's for a gymnast.


Photos of the costumes can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=634729208&ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=224914&id=89465677245.

Taiji For All

Dad drove me to HongWen early in the morning to meet the rest take the bus to Jurong Stadium. I never knew that HongWen is so near my house. It was just a 15-minute ride. Since I reached there early, Dad asked me to sleep in the car till the rest of them arrive. Thanks to XinFeng for giving me the information.

Reaching there, I got my shirt from WenYeow coach. We then boarded the bus after some moments of waiting. After getting a "fengshui" seat, I commenced my adventure at lalaland. I was just too tired from attachment.

Shuting and I ran to the toilet to change into the shirt given. Quite glad that we managed to make it in time. As we were the last two to join our group. We stood at the back of row 48.

I do not really like the way that the emcee talked. From what I see, this event is very "RC-styled". Listening to what he said, I encountered the first cheat of the day. It was a Singapore records instead of a World's records. I was wondering how can we be recorded in the world's records when China can do better. Now the mystery is solved.

We rehearsed under the hot sun and waitied for the arrival of the guest-of-honours. My black pants started to heat up during the wait. The guests finally arrived to launch the event. We rehearsed together with the guests once and we did once ourselves for the guests to enjoy. Here's the second cheat of the day.

After we did the thirteen moves routine that we learned, the emcee said that the twenty-four moves routine was next. Shuting and I dropped our jaws. This was the third cheat of the day. Many people have retreated into the shade to watch the rest do the twenty-four moves routine. After much pondering, Shuting and I decided to stay on and try to imitate the moves. The results that we got were not bad, we managed to follow most of the moves. I like the right “金鸡独立” as I was able to do it.

Finishing the last routine, it was the announcement of the offical records of what wehad done. There were 1995 people that took part in the event. Fouth cheat of the day. Anyway, I wondered how they made the count.

Breakfast was distributed as we left. The food was alright. Took one out of the three bags of leftovers home.

I took the bus provided back to HongWen with Shuting and XinFeng. As usual, I dozed during the ride. Some memories came back as the bus passed by YuHua. Walking together with them to Boon Keng MRT station, I bid them goodbye and went to take my sleeping bus ride home.

Metiér VIII

I guess this is the most energy draining event that I had ever worked. This is the first school event that I worked with so many students that do not behave themselves. I see that the teachers were kind of tired too.

The performance was quite good. The principal's talk was so dry and boring that I almost fell asleep. The students that wasn't behaving themselves got to restless and created lots of trouble because it was boring. The speech sounds like some propaganda too. The bright side of the situation was that there were teachers that helped to discipline them, sharing a small portion of my workload.

It was a small relief when the performance commences as it draws the students' attention and made them behave themselves for a moment.

More trouble were created during the intermission. Food and drinks. I had a thought that maybe the house rules should be told to schools that are going to rent the place and the the rules are to be told to the students beforehand. Those irritating stares from students that were informed of the house rules sure is annoying. I really dislike people who do not respect the music and the concert hall.

It was a relief when the event was finally over. One female teacher said that I did a good job. It kinds of brightens up my day. "I think you did a good job. Usually when you nag and nag they won't listen..."

There were three new ushers but there was not enough time to icebreak with each other. Only one of them talked to me. There was another one that I saw who looked quite experienced; it doesn't look like it's her first time doing this job.

It was so long since I last worked with Crystal. Heard that she has been asking for me! So sweet. I never knew that someone is looking forward to work with me. I was so happy when I heard that!

I did not attend the debrief after the event as I found out something after going to the washroom. There was some issues that I wanted to bring up but it was some same old issues as the other events that can never be solved even though it was being brought up. I dropped the idea in the end.

I then took a relaxing bus ride home after settling all the administrative stuffs.