Monday, December 20, 2010
Well, the most exciting thing happened today, but I'll save that for last. Labels: choir, church, family, friends, korea
My mum and sisters went to New Zealand, so I was the only girl left at home!
NJ Chorale had our carolling performances outside ION Orchard / Wisma Atria on the 10th, 11th and 12th of December. I couldn't go on the Saturday, on which night the altos were overpowered by number imbalance - what a pity. I was a bit disappointed in how the crowd was seemingly more interested whenever it was the choir performing or group acapella, but many walked away when it was a solo singing. Seems like they can't appreciate solo good singing. Maybe because they see solo singers all the time, but not choirs or group acapella.
I went for a sleepover at Sheryl's house with the rest of them after that weekend. I met XW and KX at Plaza Sing for lunch, and of course RO was late as usual, and then we went to the National Museum to see the Pompeii Exhibition. It was pretty cool, but KX and I were rather tired of walking so much so we took a break at the sitting area where I read one of the books, but XW and RO took so much longer than us!
We had our wonderful sukiyaki dinner at Sher's house after Eliz joined us, and it was just really nice being able to catch up with all of them and talk about lots of stuff through the night!
I had to leave the next morning to go to church for worship practice for camp. I'd intended to stay to do props for the musical, but the people in charge weren't there and nothing was being done, so I decided to go back to Sher's house. We played bridge for a while before I returned home, and then we picked up Mummy and sisters from the airport.
I also was free to go for The Briefing book club at Joanne's house, and we had a good long discussion about our article on prayer. I went home with the idea of eating lunch with sisters, but I was late. I feel I haven't seen them so much, and then they had to go off for Juniors camp so soon after.
I had a pretty busy Saturday then, with NJ carolling practice in the morning, followed by Christmas musical worship practice in the early afternoon, followed by the musical choir practice after that, and then the rehearsal for the musical in the evening, and ending with extended worship playing for the Juniors camp. An altogether tiring day!
We had our Christmas musical event in church yesterday, and I think it went much better than the rehearsals did. There were so many people that the choir had to give up our three pews at the back to sit with the kid performers in the seminar room. The little angels were all adorable!
Today I went for lunch with XW at Bugis, with the aim of buying shoes, because in my absence two pairs at home got spoilt and thrown away. We walked through practically the whole Bugis street and I managed to buy a pair, but since there was still time before I had to go for my Knowing God book club at Kovan, we decided to return to Bugis Junction for a drink and aircon.
Now, earlier on after our lunch I paused at a magazine store to look at those with Korean idols on the covers. There were about 3: 2PM, Miss A and Kim Hyunjoong. And XW said she wasn't really interested in any of them (neither am I), as opposed to if the magazine had Super Junior, for example, or Song Joong Ki even.
When we returned from the shoe buying, before we went back in to get a drink from Macs or wherever, I saw a banner at a stage with barriers and people saying "Song Joong Ki" with his picture on it. XW said she actually had known that he would be in Singapore, but thought it was over.
But we went to check it out and it said he was coming for a fansign meet at 4pm, and at that point it was 2:50pm! Imagine my excitement, considering it was totally unplanned and coincidental! Since there weren't that many fans waiting there, we decided to go in the aircon area to get a drink first.
When we went in, we saw lots of girls crowded outside a shop, and even on the balconies of other levels looking at the shop, and realised that it's the shop he endorses. But there were too many people for us to see anything, so we went back out to the fansign area and waited. Gradually more and more people came, and at 3:45 or so, this lady host came out and started talking, and the fans got pretty excited, and after a few minutes SONG JOONG KI APPEARED ON STAGE.
I was really SO EXCITED TO SEE HIM IN REAL LIFE, I TELL YOU. He looks thinner in real life, and his voice is to die for, seriously. The lady talked to him in Korean and translated his answers, about how he was thankful for the support. The best part was when she asked him to wink as was characteristic of his Goo Yong Ha character in the drama Sungkyunkwan Scandal which was his shot to fame.
They also had these little boys and a small 2-year old to present him with some flowers on behalf of the company, and it was so cute when he carried the little boy! 2 lucky representatives of his fanclub presented him with Christmas gifts of Singaporean food and a handmade personalised travel book, and he put his arm around them!
I left when they started the fansign, and ended up being late for my book club. I've learned my lesson - never take a bus when MRT is easily available, even if you have to keep changing lines.
Anyhow, it was really coincidental and cool and amazing to see him in real life!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
It's been exactly 2 weeks since I reached back home to Singapore. One one hand, it's great to be back home, where: my family and friends are, Chinese people are the majority, public transport is better, food is more diverse and cheaper, etc. Labels: choir, church, family, focus, friends
On the other hand, the weather isn't particularly great. The moment I stepped out of Changi Airport the humidity hit me like a block of water. It's been raining quite heavily the past few days, which barely lowers the temperature but increases the humidity by a lot!
I've been going to church a lot to help out with the musical preparations. I've helped to cut cloth, sew sleeves and pant-legs, and thread elastic for the costumes, cut cardboard, crush newspaper, paint eggshell trays and glue paper for props, pretended to be an Israelite singer, and subbed Yue as 3rd keyboard when she was at school.
Speaking of her, of the 14 days I was back in Singapore, I've actually only seen her for about 5 days. She got me a lovely present (which I haven't opened yet, lol) from her Taiwan trip.
We celebrated our parents birthdays together by having a great buffet lunch! But I've come to feel that buffets are bad for you. You upset your stomach cycle by starving yourself before the buffet just so you can eat enough to make the price worth it, and then feel sick after.
Yan had a brilliant idea when buying the birthday cake, and we got a small general cake, plus a slice for each of our parents catered to their individual preferences. We also surprised the Prima Deli salesperson by asking for a lot of candles. She thought we didn't realise that one large candle = 10 years!
Brother and I have joined the CS adult choir which will be performing a few carols at the Christmas musical put up by our church on 19th December, being its youngest members! I felt really surprised by how much fun these "old-er" adults have :)
Most of my friends were still having exams when I came back - in fact, some of them still ARE. Thus far I've only gone out with Sheena & Yong Jian & Jing An to watch the movie Red, with Michelle Ng & Foo, Yingxuan, Nicolette and Cheryl for our Sunday School dinner at AMK Hub, and I met Clar the other day in town.
Mummy and sisters left for New Zealand last night, and I feel rather sorry for them, because I think Yan had food poisoning and Yue gets motion sickness. If you guys are reading this, guess what: Stephanie and Adeline had food poisoning too! I suspect the prawn mee shop near church! Though the only explanation then would be that I have a stronger gastrointestinal tract than all four of them, since I ate the same thing.
I just came back from the alumni chorale carolling practice (one of three pracs before our gigs) and it was really nice singing with everyone again! Many are surprised that I don't have an accent, but I'm not talented at imitating accents, so too bad.
I regret not being able to go for my first bookclub meeting - hope it went well with the rest! But it looks like our girls bookclub will be meeting tomorrow - looking forward to seeing them!
Thanks to all the blogs i referred to (countless) for html code help :) (esp. cyn' and sixseven)
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