Poems

I had some kind of inspiration to write a poem about my Italy trip the other day, and never did I know that this would spring out some kind of 'trend' among my peers. Blog-hopping seems to be more of poem reading already.

I illegally copied them here. Starting with mine (ahem! =P),

~~~~~

While In Italy by Erina

While in Italy,
I stayed at the Gatti's.
Mauro Gatti was happy-go-lucky,
Papa Gatti was always jolly.
Mama Gatti was very very nice,
I stayed in Wonderland just like Alice.

While in Italy,
We were La NUS* Wind Symphony. (This was how the emcees introduced us)
The audience were indeed merry,
Like the widow we were acting.
Had a stint with Saldarini,
An honour that came knocking.

While in Italy,
I had a fun time marching.
The weather was scorching,
And my darling, oh, so heavy.
But I was still enjoying,
To see the Columbian band dancing.

While in Italy,
It was cool but sunny.
We paid money to go sight-seeing,
More was gone to pigeon-feeding.
Churches-a-plenty,
But we didn't feel stodgy.

While in Italy,
Gelato, ate too many.
Pasta, never-ending,
Wine was free-flowing.
Clothes, too expensive,
Cafétiera is for coffee.

While in Italy,
Dogs were big and small.
I fell for Wolf,
Who just couldn't woof!
An amazing experience in Besana,
For the little mind of Erina.

*'Nus' rhymes with 'moose'

~~~~~

By Daniel:

Bird men AKA Niao Ren AKA Jiao Lang

Birds in the square,
Oh! how rare, how rare
the few of us with nary a care
Took off to see the pigeons,
So plump and fair.
Little did we know
We had walked into the bird men's lair
They were coming,
you think I want meh?

The Bird men came
In retrospect
It actually was quite lame
To see us happily taking the corn
To play into their game.

The birds came,in their beaks a song
along with a group of Bird men
-One big throng!
They said " twenty Euros, you owe!"
while we looked at each other
I told you so!

Summer '07

~~~~~

By Hui Shan:

Another Poem (by Hui Shan)
In response to Erina’s Poem

I'm not Erina
But I'll try to write about Besana
To continue her stanzas
So that you will read till gaga.

The Gatti's house is small & quaint
But doors do bang & bang.
And we couldn't help but wonder
Whether we should get a door stopper.

The village was small & quiet
Until the band festival
When everybody turns enthu
Every music did they dance to.

Standing ovations made us high
Merry widow can just make us die
The rest of the bands were great too!
That makes the festival successful.

Last dinner was an event to remember
When we exchanged gifts & presents.
Now, we miss the Gattis
But Mauro is not replying!

OOPS (I think he went on a holiday :P )

~~~~~

By Nick:

A wet day it was,
for a day we saw,
at pasir ris park we were,
cycling and blading undeterred.

Barbeque was later,
and some came even later.
The food was nice and delicious,
although it was slightly too little.

Happy, satisfied, dirty and tired,
we left pasir ris park to retire.

HEHE

~~~~~

By Xin Hui (This one is chim):

Band of Brothers

The wind! The rain!
The elements whacked with glee.
Weather it is,
The niche of Munich.

Walk on! Move on!
We shuffled our feets
Whether or not
It rains a creek.

Band of Brothers
Marches on!
"Hai Sing Group!"
That’s what we’re known.

Formation formed
When the zephyrs roar
Huddled in cold
That’s not what we thought.

Fear not!
For brollies in our hands,
Weak we’re not.

"My brother is cold!"
Or so we heard.

Brollies and Brothers,
They’re far apart.
As fiercely as it is,
As Bonaparte

"SHUDDUP LA!" He cried,
His 'brother' got hard up.
Of course we laughed,
till he gave up.

'Brothers' are forever!
Or so we thought.
A 'brother' was abandoned,
A thousand miles.

Not a tinge of sadness,
For a broken 'brother'
He soon cuddled up,
With another brother

And of course,
A 'brother' they now share,
O! What a bother!

The 'gheyness' we face
That’s how we phrase.
How happy and merry,
Without a Mary

Nary a day,
Not so ghey.
Nary a guide,
Not so gay.

Sausages'aplenty,
That’s Germany for you.
A 'bent' brother
And that’s brouhahahaha for you!

~~~~~

Regarding Xin Hui's poem, it was actually what happened during our trip in Munich. We heard Cedric say 'My brother is cold!' because the weather was indeed really cold there. And he said 'It felt cold when I touched it!' and all of us scringed with disgust! I mean, why would a guy tell us openly that his 'brother' felt cold?? So gross la. And it turned out that Cedric was actually telling us his umbrella is cold, not his brother. -_-

So this sparked off another string of teasing and whatsoever, that explains the source of Xin Hui's funny poem.

Since all these are from NUSWS people, there should be an extension wing in NUSWS, where all the wannabe-poets in the band come together and write poems. Haha. This is like an addition to Cloud's suggestion about the sports challenge. Great, life is so interesting.

Poems are 'in', ok.

Aahh.

For some reason I always thought that there is a life science senior in my OG. In the end she's also a math major, and now there are confusion within my OG because I have five life science freshies in my OG! While I'm waiting for the science comm to come out with a new list for my group, and also Ming Hui's group because we're going to do the swapping with them, hopefully, I am freaking out.

Because I think it's my fault!! T_T

I don't know if it was miscommunication or anything la. I sian diao le.

And now a lot of people are waiting for my instructions, Daniel Liu, Ivan and Yi Xin who are on standby waiting to call the freshies, Samuel who has to scrape off the names of the freshies off the name tags when they're moved out of my OG and do rewrite the new names onto them. I'm afraid that the tags will become unsightly, because of ME! And Ming Hui and Mich who are waiting for my notice if the scicomm are really going to change the groupings.

And they better change!

T_T

We won't be able to help the life science freshies in my OG.

Sighhhhhhh, can faint =(

I dunno why I'm so inefficient. And I'm rather sian-ed by this already. Sigh sigh sigh. I hope nobody's cursing.

It's a small world after all

Aaron left for the WASBE Conference in Ireland earlier this month, with the International Youth Wind Orchestra.

Over there, he met a Slovenian who is a tubist too.

Over here, there is this Slovenian who reads my blog from time-to-time.

And hey, they're the same guy!



What a coincidence.

But he addressed me as 'Ching' (I don't know why) when he asked Aaron and the latter had no idea who that 'Ching' was. It was only when Aaron returned home and he got my blog address that the 'Ching' was me.

It's a small, small, world!

Hmpf.

I'm so bored now, so I think I'll 'publish' my poem. Muaha, my first time trying something like this, but I guess things ended up not bad.

Check the postscripts.

While In Italy by Erina

While in Italy,
I stayed at the Gatti's.
Mauro Gatti was happy-go-lucky,
Papa Gatti was always jolly.
Mama Gatti was very very nice,
I stayed in Wonderland just like Alice.

While in Italy,
We were La NUS* Wind Symphony. (This was how the emcees introduced us)
The audience were indeed merry,
Like the widow we were acting.
Had a stint with Saldarini,
An honour that came knocking.

While in Italy,
I had a fun time marching.
The weather was scorching,
And my darling, oh, so heavy.
But I was still enjoying,
To see the Columbian band dancing.

While in Italy,
It was cool but sunny.
We paid money to go sight-seeing,
More was gone to pigeon-feeding.
Churches-a-plenty,
But we didn't feel stodgy.

While in Italy,
Gelato, ate too many.
Pasta, never-ending,
Wine was free-flowing.
Clothes, too expensive,
Cafétiera is for coffee.

While in Italy,
Dogs were big and small.
I fell for Wolf,
Who just couldn't woof!
An amazing experience in Besana,
For the little mind of Erina.

*'Nus' rhymes with 'moose'

Ta-daa.

Nice right. (Giggles)

Camping

At camp now, it's dinner time.

Using Khee Nguen's laptop to say hi to all.

I can say hi again tomorrow morning actually.

Because I forgot to bring my Besana tee and I'm going back home tmr to get it. Sigh. I need it for photo-taking.

I don't like my blog. I think it's too messy, filled with too many things. No pictures to decorate, and what's left are just loads of text =(

My mood is rather unstable since yesterday. Very sian.

Was happy when I managed to churn out a poem. (Muaha)

But I couldn't sleep and only slept for an hour plus.

Hope I'll be able to sleep well tonight.

思念

思念是一种病？

为什么它对我来说好像是个无可救药的病？

我觉得好累，好累。

两年多来的病还没痊愈，你说我会累吗？

我从来没有想到的事情原来一直在发生，只是我没有发现。四个月的相处，你想的不只是我。

过了好几年的事，为什么我现在才知道？我一直都被蒙在鼓里吗？

为什么我感觉那么象一个傻瓜，一直在那里守候？

得“思念病”，好辛苦。

真的好辛苦。

Musicals

There are a two musicals/plays/shows that I feel like watching.

Singapore Lyric Opera's The Barber Of Seville (the one by Rossini) and SingaPOPera.

I can make it for the Barber but time is tight and it's coming very soon. So I think...maybe I'll give it a miss.

I feel like going to the SingaPOPera. Filled with songs from local productions!



Early bird discount is till the end of this month, so if I want to go means I have to buy tickets by then. I don't have the PAssion Card, I don't have the POSB Everyday Card, yada yada, so the only discount I'll get to enjoy is the early bird discount. Oh man.

It is on the 31st of Aug (Fri) and the 1st of Sept (Sat), so I think I'll go for the Friday one because it's held at UCC and I can just go after lessons.

There are songs from Chang & Eng, Forbidden City, Beauty World, Fried Rice Paradise etc.

Anyone on?

New plans

I don't know whatever for, but I am looking into getting a credit card. I think my spending habits are rather disciplined enough to own one. I think. I think.

There's this new Citibank Clear Card aimed at young adults. And the credit limit is $500, I got to pay $28 per year for the card, which seem okay. And the reason why I'd want to get such a card is because of the discounts. Muahaha.

But I won't do any research yet, will only do it when OCBC and DBS come up with a similar card. Then I'll do the market comparison and decide which one to get and if I should get one at all, considering the amount of liquid assets I have.

We'll talk about this another time.

~~~~~

Chatted with Yin Xuan last night.

'Can I chop you first?'

So now the plan is that I'll commit to Mus'art for World Music Contest 2009.

WMC is held in Kerkrade, the Netherlands every four years. Rather excited that I'll be going Europe again soon, thankfully another part of Europe. And nearer to Mai so maybe I'll have an excuse to tour UK - Edinburgh and say hi to Mai and make her happy. Whaha.

Because Mus'art needs three tubists, and James can't take leave for that period of time (amazing that he knows he can't take leave for something which will take place two years later!), and Yin Xuan said the other two players cannot-make-it, which I found it funny. Can't explain openly though.

Next time when I go overseas, I have to make sure I really learn my lessons from the recent Europe trip. Haha.

1. Bring more money please. No matter how you are going to get the money, but get them! It's better to bring more than to bring just enough
2. Write down a list of to-buy list so that you won't forget souvenirs for people
3. Bring much less clothes! Who cares how many times you wore that bright pink dress? I brought too many pieces of clothing that there were two tops I didn't even touch
4. Put your shoes in plastic bags instead of boxes, remove all box packaging of souvenirs before you return home to make space for more souvenirs (oh bother.)
5. Prepare more memory cards especially if you're not bringing your laptop!
   
6. There are more to learn but I can't recall as of now

Done. WMC 2009, here I come.

Doesn't sound very enthusiastic isn't it?

Could be because I'm sick of the commitment. =P Not that it's a bad thing, but the travelling to Jurong every week...argh. =( I go to Mus'art only for the music, not for the people, never for the convenience. Is there any in the first place?

Lunchtime.

Reliving Those Days (Part 1)

I have been repeating 思念是一种病 for the umpteeth time since yesterday. As long as the computer's on, I'm on.

Anyway, I'm here to talk (and I really mean talk, like a lecture) about my trip to Europe in as much detail as possible. You don't have to read, you can just look at the pictures (if any). I penned down the details during the trip, because I had no time to blog. However, after Italy I stopped writing already. =P

Attenzione: There are no pictures yet. Whahahaha. Will update again with pictures, so just give this post a miss while I happily blabber away. Pictures will take 2 weeks to a month just to collect, I predict.

~~~~~

Hari Selasa 26 hb Jun 2007

Would be making my way to Italy the next day, bought lots of things in preparation. Things like make-up remover (which I did not even touch), toiletries, etc. Not excited about the trip yet, I don't know why. Thankful that my DBS took less than two weeks to give me my AlumNUS debit card, when the woman told me they'll take about one month to do it. Hope that it'll rescue me in times of poverty during the trip.

Hari Rabu 27 hb Jun 2007
Day 1

Of flights and windows
I needed to reach the airport in the late afternoon, so in the morning my mum and I went out to buy the necessities that I haven't got. In the end, I bought a pair of corduroy Converse shoes and a money pouch and the European adaptor. There were some other stuff that I got but I can't remember what.

Checked through everything that I was supposed to pack into my luggage, SMS-ed Daniel so my dad can give him a ride to the airport too. For some reason we waited for Daniel for an exceptionally long while. I saw him running towards the car (my dad's cab) with his jacket in hand and I was like 'SHIT' I forgot my jacket. Pleaded my dad to drive me back. Grudgingly he obliged, and it turned out that Dan forgot his jacket too. -_- That was why we waited for quite some time.

Upon reaching the airport, we went to Popeye! Since my brother and mum were there with me I need not pay whahaha. I miss Popeye's food, especially the cajun mashed potato.

There wasn't photo taking at all, apparently people were late. =( In the end we took the group photo only before going through customs, much to my dismay. Haha.

Before the trip I was already praying for a window seat. And I got none at all. (FYI: I took 7 planes altogether during this trip and I never got an assigned single window seat, how's that. So there was swapping and I got to sit by the window twice.)

Grudge: It was so hard to swap seats with people who got the window seats. People whom I asked their window seats for rejected me. In the end they swapped with others, reason being they let the couples sit together and those couples get the window seats. I was fucking pissed at that la. Couples, so what? I asked for the seats first, got rejected, and saw the seats taken up by people who were sleeping away in each other's arms. Sian diao. It seemed like it is an incentive to have a companion during the trip so that you'll get window seats. And there I sit in the plane staring into space. This really pisses me off. I mean, really, so what? So my resolution for my next trip should be: Get a boyfriend to go overseas with you. *rolls eyes* Whatever. I am sour, not because I'm single, but because I didn't get window seats. -_- OK that was rather childish, but I am childish. =P

Forgot about exchanging Thai baht in case I wanted to spend at the Subra-something airport during transit.

It was through this trip that I got to know Mr. Leonard Tan better, because he wasn't someone that I could easily approach for a chat. Now it seems to be easier, good. Actually there isn't much of a generation gap between him and the band members.

I can't remember how long the entire journey took us, it was about 2 hours from Singapore to Bangkok, then a lot more hours from Bangkok to Milan. About 10, maybe.

I got the window seat from Cedric Lee in the flight from BKK to MIL. Yeay! So nice! (Up to you to think if the 'nice' refers to Cedric or the scenery =P)

Giovedi 28 Giugno 2007
Day 2

Milan
We reached Milan's Malpensa Airport before noon, I can't remember the exact time and there was a coach which brought us to the main square in Besana. The weather was cooling yet sunny. Our guide Elena and her husband picked us up from there.

Upon reaching they sat us in a tent and we had snacks (my first try at Italian food in Italy) and we were briefed and waited for our names to be called up to meet our hosts.

My host & Via Borsi
Mauro Gatti was my host, he was a man of about 29-ish and rather stout. He drove Hui Shan, my two-time roommate-cum-pharmacist and I to his house in Via Borsi (something like Borsi Road), Montesiro, a village near Besana. When I say village it isn't the kampung and stilted houses that you may be thinking, haha. Houses, houses! Mauro brought us around the house and we met his parents and dog. His father is 71 and his mother is 69, but they don't look their age, especially his mother. They're still very healthy people. His dog, Wolf (but you pronounce it in German so it becomes Voof) is a German Shepherd. Usually German Shepherds are used as police dogs because of their wild nature, but Wolf is very very very tamed! It hardly barks, ignores strangers (like HS and I when we reached the house) and lazes around the house. You usually see it sunbathing (dogs have no clothes on anyway) or when it is hungry.

Their house is not a very big one, but it is rather big to me. Haha. They've got their own garden and many many pets! And a tiny vineyard too. Too bad the grapes weren't ripe when we were there. They've got cats (though I haven't seen any, maybe they ran away or Wolf ate them which is a low possibility), doves, a tortoise, ... ... that's about it actually. Whaha. And they've got fici trees, a vineyard, rose bush, rosemary bush, bushes with big flowers (I don't know what kind of flowers they are) and lots and lots of trees and grass and cute weeds.

There are three levels in the house, what seemed like the basement was where they parked their cars, a Fiat, a Land Rover and an Alfa Romeo. They don't have public transportation in Besana, so every family has their own car(s). And other than the cars they've got cooking and washing facilities, iron, cupboards, shelves, table tennis table etc.

Level 1 was the main level, where there are about 4 rooms, 1 hall, 2 toilets, 1 kitchen.....and HS & I have never been to Level 2. We don't even know where are the steps leading up to that level, we've never seen it before. So my guess is that the staircase is in Mauro's parent's rooms, where I haven't been into.

Jin Xun and Michelle lived nearby, at my host family's family friend's house.

Thank you is translated as Grazie in Italian. I'm still having problems pronouncing it correctly.

Ciao is hello/bye.

Lunch
Lunch was simple, pasta, bread and wine (water for me). They always have wine during their lunches and dinners. So it's somewhat like, wine twice a day, everyday for them. Woah.

And after lunch Mauro showed us how they made espresso using this utensil called cafetiera. It was new to me, and it was quite an interesting tool to make coffee. Will introduce more about this later.

We then had the espresso in the garden where we talked about geography and they had a lot of maps. After a while Mauro's dad suddenly took out a table-top globe. So cute! They seem to have all sorts of tools for map-reading and all.

Free Time - Monsa
Mauro brought us to Monsa, along with other hosts and 'hostees'. So other and HS and I there were Yong Kiat, Khee Nguen (they got the hot host, damn. Haha), Michelle, Jin Xun ... ... and many others.

Monsa is like a shopping area 'near' Besana. Their kind of near is 18 km away -_- I had to ask Mauro & two other Italians he brought along where the place was because it sounded near but in fact it was rather far. Haha.

Verdict: It doesn't mean that, when there is a stereotype that the Westerners are bigger in size, they really are bigger in size. Italian women are actually not really tall nor really big, so shopping posed a problem for me, like how it is like in Singapore =( I shall remove this stereotype from Europeans and leave it to Americans only. Only Americans are big sized. Haha. I don't know, I haven't been to the U.S.

I saw a nice yellow-striped top in Zara at Monsa and I really really liked it! I can fit into size L, which is the largest size that I can find there. But the shirt was too fit for me that I felt a bit like a ba zhang. So didn't buy =( HS got a top from there though. She was the one who started the shopping. Haha.

Gelato
I didn't get to taste really good gelato here, the one we tried at Monsa was so-so. And I think I spent my first euro there.

Dinner
I can't remember what dinner was.

General rehearsal
After dinner we went to the general rehearsal of the Besana band. It was a bit boring for me. Haha. So we left shortly after.

Venerdi 29 Giugno 2007
Day 3

Breakfast
It was my first breakfast in Italy, and my, it was a bit hard to get used to. Haha. I wanted to put the teabag into a glass, but Mauro's mum said 'No' and directed the teabag into the bowl! The size of the bowl is about what the Chinese use for cooked rice during meals. So I found it pretty weird to drink tea from a bowl, when the glass is sitting there. It turned out that the glass was meant for juices and such. It was a rather confusing breakfast, because there's milk, muesli, cereal and such. But we had no bowls to put the milk and cereal into. Hahaha. I followed Hui Shan and put the muesli and cereal into the yoghurt which was a good idea.

NUSWS rehearsal
Rehearsal was at the Edelweiss Cine-teatro. In the midst of rehearsal people from the Columbian band came in and took pictures -_- and I was sitting at the outermost seat, nearest to the audience, so they were rather distracting. But rehearsal was alright.

Lunch
We walked from the theatre to a school for lunch. It was quite my first proper meal after two meals, because I felt a bit underfed at my host's. =Þ Haha not that I really mind, but it's more that I wanted to eat more since I don't feel filled but there was no food left. Ha. For lunch at the school was pasta, ham, salad and a drink. Which looked like grape juice in a packet. So I happily selected that drink and it turned out to be red wine. Read: 11% alc. ... ... It's impossible for me to even touch that, I'm not that good at heavy alcohol.

Lake Lecco
After lunch we made our way to Lecco. The view was beautiful! Mountains and seas, and a nice walk around the town with the shopping areas and all. And had another gelato today.

Lecco is actually one of the three lakes in that area, the other being Como and something else. Haha, can't remember. We went to Como towards the end of the stay in Besana.

Opening of the festival
The Besana band opened the festival with a concert. Their high-pitched instruments were stronger than the low-pitched ones, which I didn't really like. But it's their way of interpretation la.

The concert wasn't bad, it was alright, but you could see the Singaporeans falling asleep. Oh c'mon, it was only the second night we spent there and jetlag was still in the process. People were nodding to the music and we were nodding to sleep. Ah and concerts over there start at 9 p.m., instead of like 7.30 p.m. in Singapore. And 9 p.m. there means 3 a.m. in Singapore, which is the perfect sleeping time. Zzz...

Overall it was hard to pay attention to the concert. Zzz..

Sabato 30 Giugno 2007

Day 4

Breakfast
Breakfast was the same. In fact, breakfast has been about the same everyday.

Festival Ceremony (Supermarket)
Because it was held at the town hall, it had limited space and obvious couldn't accommodate everyone from the festival. Hence only the committee and Mr. Tan went for the ceremony. And free time for the rest of us heh heh heh. So we went to the nearby supermercati, Rex! In Singapore I quite like to shop in the local supermarkets, especially big ones. You can see many different items that you didn't know exist. Really, try out those big supermarkets with a lot of foreign produce.

Watermelons in Italy were huge, they were all long and oval. And big! So tempted by the watermelons but I didn't buy them =\ Too big to hog around.

I bought a Barcadi Breezer (I don't know for what) - in the end it was too 'sparkling' that I didn't really like the feeling of drinking it, Nutella snack & drink (best!), and mango flavoured tic-tac.

Lunch
After shopping at the supermarket we went to Villa Filippini for a buffet lunch. Their buffet isn't so much of food in trays and heated with a flame at the bottom, the buffet this time was mainly, if not all, cold food. There were pasta, ciabattas, salami, ham, and cold rice! I love the cold rice! It just doesn't taste bad cold. Haha. It was also rather nice sitting on the grass and eating with everyone.

And it was time for the Band of Festival practice!

And I wasn't in the BoF!

So I had free time! Hahahahaha.

And we wanted to go to this train station that we heard about and Dennis went to ask this group of Italians for directions. One of them kindly offered to bring us there! Simone (c-mo-nee) was his name and his full-time job was as a translator. Hence his English is good and it was easy to communicate with him.

We trotted to the train station as well as the music school to peek at the BoF practising. After that, was another supermarket! Haha. Ipael? I can't remember the name. I saw the cafetiera there and wanted to buy one home, but it was more expensive than the one Nick and Qi Cai bought from Lecco. So I didn't buy. Haha. I still had about a week in Italy, I had time to find.

In the evening we departed for Medolago for our first performance in Italy.

We stopped to put our belongings at a school and went for dinner beside a church at this countryside. It was really countryside, like what you saw in movies. Haha. So the air was good! Grassy and wide blue skies. There was even this pizza making oven which looked like a train at that area. We actually ate inside this shelter beside the church.

They were going to serve beef, so they asked if there were anyone who had food restrictions. I actually don't really care, but if can I'll abstain from beef due to religion (and I don't like beef!) And so I sat in a corner with Jasmine and Jama who had food restrictions too. It was the first time that I spoke to Jasmine and I didn't notice her in band at all when she performed for InTempo too =P I dunno why, I just didn't remember her. It was fun talking to Jama and Jasmine, really had fun entertaining ourselves.

Appetiser was a plate of cheese (gosh), dinner was tuna pasta, chips, bread. Very very filling. And to add to that we had their 'signature' cake. I put the apostrophe there because they said it was their signature cake but they were not a restaurant. Haha. But their food was good.

Oh, the toilet was clean but it has no lights. Haha. So the moment you close the door to use the loo, it was darkness.

Performance
The performance was very sudden. Haha. All of a sudden when we were done with dinner, we ran around collecting our instruments, and falling in to march into the town. And then we marched till we reached the stage and ta-daa we left the files in the school. So we ran to the school and back. Haha. Like some kind of impromptu triathlon race. Things got very very messy!

There's this kind of rubber mats that they put on the dashboard in cars as well as at home, to increase friction and prevent things on the mats from falling over. I took a hand-sized piece from my dad and wanted to use it to prevent my tuba from slipping off my left hand, because when I march I actually hold the tuba up a bit so I could still have a nice posture. It tends to slip off when my palms sweat.

In the end I forgot to bring the mat out. I left it at the host's home.

We marched behind the Medolago band and we had to play our national anthem after theirs. The thing is, I haven't memorised! Goodness gracious. And standing on my left was a security guard and I think he could hear my notes screwed up. Hahahaha. So embarassing. I stayed up that night to memorise the national anthem haha.

It was after playing the Merry Widow that we had better reception from the audience. I think Merry Widow is the star song of our concert. I must say that Mr. Tan is an entertainer himself too. We enjoyed standing ovation from the audience, it was like almost everyone stood up for us. A rather touching sight. Haha. Oh, we had gifts from the Medolago people too. Girls had scarves and guys had ties. =)

It was a rather warm welcome to Medolago from the people.

Home! Memorised Majulah Singapura. The problem with the piece was that it was in a weird key and hence more difficult for nooby me to guess the next note correctly, so I really had to memorise note for note.

Domenica 1 Luglio 2007
Day 5

Breakfast
Because no one else was in the kitchen leaving only Hui Shan and I, I put the milk in the bowl and put cereal in and ate it like how I usually did in Singapore. Haha, we never had breakfast with them before, so we don't know if they ate cereal this way. Though I think they do. Haha.

Mass
Christianity and Catholism were the main religions of Italy, so they had mass on Sunday. I don't know why I went, I didn't know we didn't have to go. But just go see-see lo. It was quite interesting with the band and the singing and the actions we did with the songs. Actually I was rather glad that they did not preach for too long. It'll be difficult for me to tide through that boring period. =PÞpÞP No offence. Anyway, at the end the band played this song called The Prayer of St. Gregory. And because Hai Sing Catholic is a catholic (duh) mission school, I recognised the music and sang along to myself. At the same time I was trying very hard to recall the song name. Like why do I know the lyrics so well? And till I sang the part 'Make me a channel of Your peace... ...' Then I knew it! Haha. It was HSC's school hymn la. -_- We had to sing it during assembly every week. But we called it 'Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace'.

Lunch
Can't recall.

Marching Segment
Time for the marching segment! The long-awaited and please-let-it-be-over-soon item! Haha, it was pretty taxing for me to march with the tuba though I had the tuba strap.

However, it was a very big event! The entire square was filled with people, all the way to the Town Hall's pavements. Haha. Roads were closed to make way for the event. From our starting point to the square, we had to march along the streets so people came down from their homes and lined the streets, clapping along with our beats. They were really enthusiastic people. Some were looking out from their balconies.

I like Besana, it was like a vibrant little town. This biannual festival added life into the otherwise boring town. Haha. I say this because it is not a tourist area, nor there is a main shopping area. Hard to purchase things in Besana except supermarkets. There are a few shops around, but rather limited, don't you think? But Besana is unlimited in terms of culture and music. Other than the band festival they've got other festivals like a jazz festival too. It took place right after this festival, but I missed it since I had to leave earlier.

When all the bands marched into the square, turn-by-turn the bands played their national anthems. After that all the bands will play 'Hymn Of All Nations' together, conducted by the conductor of the Italian band, Maestro Armando Saldarini. I can never remember his name, I had to take out the festival programme to find.

And guess what? I forgot to bring out that car friction mat!! ARGH! Haha. I dunno why, I put it in my file on purpose so that I'd remember for today but I didn't bring my file out. I wonder what the hell I was thinking.

So the tuba was still slipping off and I had to stop to shove it higher again and again.

It was only when I got back home and bathed that I realised I was the only female tubist in the entire festival. All the other tubists in the participating bands were boys and guys and men and old men. Cool. =PÞpÞPÞpÞPÞpÞPÞpÞP Heh.

The other tubists seem to be very used to marching and playing, not taking into account the sousaphonists, they were very steady and played well without glitches. Some tubists even had a special kind of tuba holder that they can strap to themselves so the tuba won't move so much! Good right? Tsk tsk tsk. The kind of exposure that I lacked before this festival.

The Columbian band was the most entertaining la. Their marching was....more like a line dance. Their steps were not just onwards left-right-left-right, but sideways! So they played their native music which makes you wanna move and/or dance, and just watching them is nice already. They marched, and at a section where only the percussion played, they waved their hats with the beats. So cute la. Obviously they were the most entertaining among all the bands. And they took an awfully long time to enter the square. Because of their marching style, they were made to march out the last! Haha. So I was wondering why the Columbian band didn't march off when they were supposed to. But it was nice of the band to provide more spice into the event.

It was a super sunny day, and I was rather worried if I'd faint because I wasn't used to the weather. But of course I didn't! The organisation was very good, there were people who were carrying big bottles of mineral water and rows of plastic cups around so the musicians can have a drink. Actually it was a bit like rehatkan-diri when we got into our position in the square. Haha. I was moving around already, even my legs were out of position. I didn't care though. =P

When we reached the villa which was our gathering point, we took a band photo and had water from the same people. In order to compare the difference in speed between a usual marching band and the Columbian band, Mr. Tan imitated the Columbian band's steps and I was did the usual marching. It was Mr. Tan's idea! Photos were taken but I don't know where they are. I want that photo! Haha. In fact, there were many many other people who were imitating the Columbian band all around. Haha.

Dinner
I can't remember! Haha. Need to see if I took photos of them.

Concert
Though we were super tired from the marching event in the afternoon, we had to prepare for the biggest performance which was this night's concert in Besana itself. There were concerts on every night of the concert, so two bands will perform each night.

This band called Fanfare St. Gabriel was before us, and our performance started at 10 p.m. plus. See, you start performing so late. Haha.

FYI: Because Mauro was given two tickets for the concerts, I think his parents went for the concerts every night!

I thank the guy-up-there that DVDs of the concerts were made, so that I could buy the DVD of NUSWS' concert! I wouldn't want to miss it though I performed la. Haha. I wanted to see it from an audience's point of view.

Why would I be so interested? Because the concert was fabulous! Hahaha.

I have never experienced such a warm boiling hot reception from an audience all the years of performances and concerts! Singaporean audience are so cold la. Hahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahaha. I am one myself. Pui. Haha.

Kudos to Mr. Tan. I think he made us look really good onstage as well. He's the source of our music!

I was sure we were really entertaining, and I think the audience really loved us after Merry Widow Selections. This trip is making me love that song la. I didn't even bother to know what Merry Widow was when I played it last time. Haha. I love playing Merry Widow with NUSWS also. The feeling that comes into you when you play it...piangs. 是爽的。Mr. Tan's interpretation of Merry Widow is very nice. Even tuba parts sound interesting la. Haha.

When we reached the last note of the piece, enormous cheers erupted from the audience! People were getting up from their seats, they were clapping their hands really hard, my, standing ovation! I think we had three good ones that night alone. I wasn't expecting something like this at Besana, because several bands have performed and I didn't think we'd be able to do so well. I don't know how to tell you that kind of feeling that came over me, I just kept smiling and revealing my teeth. Haha. Like I was grinning widely. I usually give a Mona-Lisa-smile in between pieces. This time I was uber happy. Hahhahaaa. 三八。

During our concert, Maestro Saldarini went up the stage to give some comments (in Italian, but people applauded enthusiastically so I assume those must be really good comments), and after the concert people told us that Maestro never comment, and this is the first time he'd done this in maybe about ten years. Means probably we were good enough for him to 'give face'. So I felt really honoured =)

He conducted us for Radetzky March, because the host told Mr. Tan to ask Maestro to come up. So the host whispered to Mr. Tan, and Mr. Tan invited Maestro through the mic. It was very impromptu for us, but we followed Maestro rather well. Haha. He said he thought we were good, and hoped that he could have a band of our standard too. Piangs, that sense of elation was overwhelming. So the entire night my heartbeat was rather fast because of the........I don't know how to say. Haha. But that kind of high feeling, yes yes, that high feeling. 让我们get high! -_-

If got chance let's sit down and watch the DVD. =Þ

I will want to show off one la. Whahahahahahhahaha. KIDDING LA. No time to do that =Þ

High night.

Ciao!

Lunedi 2 Luglio 2007
Day 6

Breakfast

None!

Hui Shan and I slept in because there were no activities for us in the morning. Haha. My first time at oversleeping in Italy =D

Lunch

I can't remember what we had, as usual.

Milan

We went to Milan for a tour, and I think it'd be better for you to understand my trip through photos. Haha. Tour ma, there wasn't much that I was really impressed with, so I have nothing much to say. =P

Oh, I bought the cafetiera from this shop I saw. 4.50 euros for the smaller one and 5.50 euros for the bigger one. The former as a souvenir, the latter for usage.

Night Life

We experienced some Milanese night life at this Mexican (-_-) restaurant in Navigli. We walked there from the shopping area we were at. The terrible part of Navigli is the mosquitoes. It hurts when they bite you, which isn't a bad thing, because you know they're biting you. But there were so many, it pisses you off! Haha.

For tours, pictures tell more than what I can tell you la. For concerts, DVDs rule. Hahahahha.

P.S. I'll continue with this blogging sometime later. I'm going to die from all the blogging. Really, I wouldn't advise you to read. But if you're looking at this now after that tumultuous journey, give yourself a pat on the back and be prepared for another week's worth of blogging. HAHA.

Busy period!

Sigh, I haven't rested enough to start school happily.

It's Monday, I haven't finished saving everything from my buang-ed laptop to CDs, since the bloody USB ports wouldn't budge. Argh. Pissed! I have to do it by daytime so my brother can help with the reformatting and all.

So means I wouldn't be able to bring my laptop to camp.

Got to come up with a write-up for the Italy trip by today, if not I won't have time to do it by Wednesday. I have two movies to complete by Saturday.

I have Science Orientation Week 2007 Prep Camp from Tuesday to Thursday, and all are overnight. No mood for it at all.

Friday I will be going out with Annie they all.

Saturday in the day go fly kite, in the evening got NUSWS BBQ.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, please let me sleep! And I need new clothes la! I haven't gone shopping. Shit so many things to do.

Wednesday till Saturday, overnight camp. Actual SOW.

Sunday, going out provided there are sneak previews to the movie 881. If not, then sleep at home!

Monday through Friday, will be involved in SOW, but no overnight I think. Saturday is Rag Day at Padang. Register for tickets!

Sunday, going out provided I missed the 881 movie the previous Sunday. If not, sleep and prepare for school!

Monday, school starts! Darn, I hate school.

Modules: MA2216, MA2108, MA2101, FNA1002X, GEK1008. Please advise if there are modules here that I shouldn't take.

Tata.

Growing Up

I'm sure many of you who are of my age will begin to realise that people around you are getting married and soon you'll be (or already have been) invited to weddings. I wonder when will I attend a friend's wedding. Soon, perhaps. Haha.

I just got to know that a senior from HSCband just got married last month! And she's only about 22?

Anyway, I saw pictures of that senior's dog! Damn cute!





It's very cute!!! I'm so tempted to own a dog. But there are restrictions la. Sigh.

This week

It was as if I haven't got enough of my NUSWS friends that we still meet up after the trip.

But it's true that I haven't really got enough of them =Þ

We first met on Wednesday for Transformers, dinner at Kopitiam, then Harry Potter - The Order Of The Phoenix. And tau huay after that. Then home.

Transformers was not bad, many loved it. I was just envious that Megan Fox is so hot that she's only a year older than me. Whahaha.

HP was okay, I just felt that the book placed more emphasis on the Order than the movie. I was a bit jumpy during the show because of the sound effects. A lot of booming etc. But I wasn't expecting the show to end (I forgot how the book ended). I thought something more would appear but the screen went black and the credits scrolled. Chey. Haha.

On Thursday was the last minute supper stint at Chomp-Chomp. There's a 'Singapore Chom-Chom' - without the 'p' - in Melbourne, it was near the hotel I stayed when I went there in 2005. We didn't bother to even look at the menu that time.

Went to Band World on Friday morning and went for lunch after that (Daniel pang seh-ed). For some reason spending time with Nick and Christopher can crack me up. All those deliberate gaying...a great source of entertainment =Þ Chatted with the both of them online and things got so funny that I couldn't sleep. I think I slept at 5 a.m. plus after about two hours of rolling around. I don't know, maybe putting Nick and Chris together reminded me of the funny days I had with Felix and Hong Wei. The way how Felix would stick and gay around Hong Wei. Whaha. But it was really nice to know Nick and Chris better. =) (But then again, maybe it was just that I am rather busybody =Þ)

I went home for dinner on purpose because I was afraid my dad would have dinner alone. So I was using the computer while waiting for him to return home. When he came back he had dinner by himself without telling me -_- Therefore we both had dinner by ourselves. Sian.

Yesterday was nuaing-at-home day. Great. Today too. Haha. I rented movies again. This time I've got Bruce Almighty (bad), Mr. Bean's Holiday, Music And Lyrics and Stranger Than Fiction.

I've watched the first two, they were not-so-good. Bruce Almighty was boring. Mr. Bean's Holiday had a rather good plot but not that funny. Sometimes when you see him starting a mayhem you get rather irritated. Haha. Now I'm left with Music And Lyrics and Stranger Than Fiction. Another day.

The following week I've got SOW senior's prep camp on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Oh man, got to bring swimsuit because of pool activities. I'm sooo not looking forward to the prep camp already. Thought I escaped the swimming part in Italy already, hahaha. And I have to pay $55! T_T

Hopefully I'll be able to burn everything in my laptop to CD-Rs, because the three USB ports in my laptop won't work, I can't save them in the removable disk and my Internet browsers won't work too. So pissed! (FYI, I've got to use the touchpad of the laptop instead, which is quite a bother)

And it is even more of a bother to use the PC. 'Cos it's rather slow. =(

Sian-ed.

当你在穿山越岭的另一边 我在孤独的路上没有尽头~

Shall embark on continuing the post for the Europe trip. Zzz.

New addiction

I heard this song by 张震岳 called 《思念是一种病》 on TV.

I just like the song, dunno why. And I have been replaying it on imeem.com.



Nice lyrics too.

《思念是一种病》

当你在穿山越岭的另一边
我在孤独的路上没有尽头
一辈子有多少的来不及
发现已经失去
最重要的东西
恍然大悟早已远去
为何总是在犯错之后
才肯相信错的是自己
他们说这就是人生
试著体会试著忍住眼泪
还是躲不开应该有的情绪

我不会奢求世界停止转动
我知道逃避一点都没有用
只是这段时间里尤其在夜里
还是会想起难忘的事情
我想我的思念是一种病
久久不能痊愈

当你在穿山越岭的另一边
我在孤独的路上没有尽头
时常感觉你在耳后的呼吸
却未曾感觉你在心口的鼻息

汲汲营营
忘记身边的人需要爱和关心
藉口总是拉远了距离
不知不觉无声无息
我们总是在抱怨事与愿违
却不愿意回头看看自己
想想自己到底做了什么蠢事情

也许是上帝给我一个试炼
只是这伤口需要花点时间
只是会想念过去的一切
那些人事物会离我远去
而我们终究也会远离
变成回忆

Repeat Chorus

oh 思念是一种病
oh 思念是一种病一种病

多久没有说我爱你
多久没有拥抱你所爱的人
当这个世界不在那么美好
只有爱可以让他更好
我相信一切都来得及
别管那些纷纷扰扰
别让不开心的事停下了脚步
就怕你不说就怕你不做
别让遗憾继续一切都来得及

Chorus

~~~~~

Anyway, I've updated on my lions. 42 of them now. Oh man.

~~~~~

Some photos we took in Italy.

Of us at Villa Filippini after the marching segment

After a performance in an abby in Brugora

Chomp-chomp

I just finished bathing when I heard my laptop ringing with MSN's messaging alerts and I got rather pissed, like who has got so much to say?

In the end it was three people trying to catch my attention when the laptop was half-closed.

What I saw was a long string (eew, so algorithm) of messages Nick left behind to ask me to go for supper, and then PK and Daniel were talking in another window. It was about 2245 hrs, my dad was sleeping, my mum still working. I told my brother, 'Can you be my guardian and sign the consent form?' Uh-hur, not funny.

Anyway, I still went out and called my mother while waiting for Nick to drop by. We were going Chomp-chomp!

The food there is actually not bad, but I think the approximately 1L sugar cane juice was a bit over the top. I could've used that drink as a meal by itself (but of course I didn't, I had porridge~).

Nick also suggested to go for beer tomorrow. Read: München beer, who could resist?

Anyway, the point of today's supper wasn't really the food.

To me the main highlight was Nick stepping on a frog outside PK's house!

Eew. The frog was like flat on the ground, and Nick said he thought he stepped on shit (again) but with the pphhshhshshshsht sound. Argh, gross. So the poor frog was crushed to death there beside Nick's car, and Hallelujah.

During supper Daniel and Nick were talking about the frog. The frog must have felt lucky when the Toyota zoomed past it, like phew, what a close shave. And unfortunately Nick chose to step out of the car and pphshshshhshst there goes the poor slimy thingy. Oh why, why, why.

And you must see Nick's expression when he sees/talks about Christopher! HAHA.

Kidding la.

Gotta go sleep though I don't feel like it at all, going Band World in the morning. Hopefully Ms Sia will be around.

Anyway, nice experience at Chomp-chomp with Nick, Dan, PK, Chris and the smell of durians drifting from one of the tables.

Phone bill

OH shoot.

The bill came. To compare, I shall announce last month's phone bill, i.e., from 14 May to 13 June: $30.83.

This bill, from 14 June to 13 July (international charges were calculated till the 10th of July), was $119.64.

Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man.

Money was wasted because some phone calls ended a few seconds after a whole minute. It's not pro-rated. So I have 1 min 4 sec calls and such.

Thank a bit of goodness that my dad offered to pay the bill before I flew to Europe. Whaha. He wanted me to call everyday what............. =Þ

O_O

I went to bed slightly before 4 a.m. and couldn't sleep. Heard my dad wake up at 5 a.m. and made coffee for him. 'Wa, jin3 gao3 leh', he said.

Then he left for work and I ate 3 pieces of biscuits and went to sleep. Set my alarm at 10 a.m. so that I'll be able to tire myself a bit and sleep earlier tonight.

In the end, expectedly, my mum's phone call at 4 p.m. woke me up.

And breakfast was dinner.

Shit.

Performance in Medolago

NUSWS performed at Medolago on 30 June in Italy during the trip. Someone in the audience recorded our performance of 76 Trombones.

Sniffs the air

Ah, the air around me smells and feels like Singapore. Rather wet to breathe in, warm to the skin.

I am home!

=D

Most of my pictures are in Cedric's laptop. And I can only see Cedric on I-dunno-when. So.......I won't be able to post pictures for quite a while =P

There're definitely about 2 GB of photos, hope I can get hold of everything soon.

I ate quite a lot of stuff today. Woah. Local food.

Time now in Europe is about 8 p.m., the time that I am still wide awake. So I should just go bathe now and see if I can fall asleep. If not I may be falling asleep only at 6 a.m. in the morning, local time.

I miss living at the Gattis, I miss the freedom to roam around.

However when I see the pile of junk I have in my luggage and bag, it feels ultra good to be home. And see my parents, of course. =)

Now I finally get some time to spend alone, after nearly 3 weeks of living around lovely people. I need to rest, get some quiet, and...sing Phantom of the Opera's Prima Donna. *coughs*

Home!

One thing about Stockholm is, there seem to be no sunset. -_- I just came back from roaming around with Cedric and Daniel and the sky never becomes dark. So the sky at 1 a.m. looks like the 1930 hrs sky in Singapore.

And I still think that there's no sunset nor sunrise here.

Now it's 0135 hrs, and I haven´t started packing to GO HOME TOMORROW!! Yeay, I´m finally going home after so long out of town. I look at the shit in my luggage and I´m like, home is the best, of course.

I´m left with 20 SEK which is about 4.6 SGD in my wallet. What is there to buy. Sigh. If only I brought millions of dollars so I have the money to shop here. There are sales in Germany and Stockholm but they´re still expensive to me.

In Stockholm

I´m in Stockholm now, and man, do I really hate this hostel I´m in now.

Arghhhh.

If only I could stay at the hostel in Berlin for another night. It was quite comfortable.

Over here we have 3 bunk beds squeezed together in a rather small room, that when we put all our luggages on the floor, we´ll be left with not much space to walk around. The facilities are rather poor too. A light bulb in the room was blown, the ladders of the bunk beds were either missing a step or have masking tape wrapped around a step, etc.

Sighhhh.

I´ll be back in Singapore on Sunday morning, 1115 hrs. So I have only two days to go in Stockholm, and I´ll be back home, with hor fun, wonton mee, prawn mee, laksa and everything else waiting for me. Hahaha.

Oh btw, the German currywurst, a kind of sausage that is cut up and showered with BBQ sauce and curry powder sprinkled on top, is quite nice.

See you all on Sunday.

Homesick

Truth is, it's not exactly the Singapore home that I miss that much.

It's actually my home in Besana, Italy. =(

Ahhhhh.

I miss everyone in the house, and their dog too. Though it has been rather inconvenient for me living there, but it is the feelings that were developed the past week that I miss the place a lot. SIGH.

It's not that I don't miss home in Singapore...but it is the fact that I'll be home in more than a week that I don't miss home. And there is a possibility that I may never see Mauro, his parents and Voof anymore. Arghhh. I miss hanging around the kitchen when I have the time and watch Mauro's mum cook. I miss talking to his dad because there're be a lot of question marks since he couldn't speak English properly and most of the time we don't understand him. Then he'll forget it. Haha. But sometimes when he smiles he's really damn cute! Mauro is a good crapping partner la. Sighhh. And I developed feelings for his dog already. =(

I just moved out of the house this morning, and I'm at Venice Rooms, my hostel in Venice now. I teared on the car and wept a bit at the Besana square when Mauro's dad dropped us there. Then I got sooo sian. Venice is too much shopping I think I don't have enough cash to go around for the next 8-9 days.

I miss living at the Gatti's.

Good and bad

Everything went well for me until I went to Milan today.

Sunday was terrific. Marching was exhilarating, and our concert was a big big success. Responses were very good and the DVDs of our concert was sold out! I don't know how many they make actually. But the DVDs of the earlier concerts by other bands were still around, so I guess we must had been really entertaining.

There were many many standing ovations for us, as well as the endless compliments.

People even came to speak to us and telling how much they respect us when we were in Besana on Monday.

The bad:

I was conned by bird men in Milan today, in front of this beautiful cathedral where there were a lot of pigeons.

I saw that Daniel had pigeons parked on his palms and was excited, and some guy came and put corn on my palm. I happily waited for the birds to come and took pictures. The guy actually wanted to help me take, but I said no for security reasons.

Bloody hell. After the photo taking he asked Nick and I for money. And blah blah blah, we paid 10€ each.

Argh.

That's like more than S$20!!!

T_T

My money...

Marching

I didn't think much of the marching segment of the festival. Till I experienced it just now and got to know what this festival is all about.

The entire town was involved! It was a very vibrant event I could feel all the enthusiasm of the Besana people.

Though it was quite a long march, it was pretty interesting with all the sights. We marched on the roads (it was somewhat like how roads would be blocked for Chingay) and passed by residential areas where people stood by the sides of the roads or they waved and clapped from their balconies.

Ahhhh. So shiok.

It was quite a big event that the Italian media came and reported on the event. I saw the news during dinner at my host's place just now and irritatingly they didn't show the NUSWS at all. Pissed!

Whahaha.

Will blog more about this when I come back.

I'm actually blogging from the festival's information centre. Heh.

Erina in Besana.

Ciao!

Ciao, I am blogging from my host's computer.

It has been rather fine here, I'm safe and not exactly very sound. Whhaa.

The marching segment will take place later, gotta go!

Erina in Besana.