Wednesday, June 11, 2008

COMPETITION DAY SATURATED WITH ACTIVITY

OKAY I'M FINALLY DONE! before I start on "THE DAY OF THE COMPETITION", there's a few things i'd like to say

(shall edit font colours tomorrow cause they're so irritatingly difficult to read)



1) There's seriously LOADS of pictures with human faces here (I don't like the term camwhore O:) but there's gonna be MUCH MUCH less of them so don't worry :D


2) There's exactly 90 pictures in this post and i've placed them in order of the day's events, its not neverending, wont take too long to load.


3) the order of events are as follows:

a) Before competition
b) During competition
c) After competition (town centre)
d) Announcement of results and events thereafter
e) Party/"disco" sorta thing


4) the fonts are big so the post my seem long, but it actually ain't! (perhaps..)



k so lets get on with the post!





THIS IS OLOMOUC EVERYONE!



sorta the landmark


clocktowers and fleamarkets


beautiful clouds and wandering crowds



now that you've seen olomouc, here's the day's events!



BEFORE COMPETITION


We woke up early, had a healthy breakfast at the hotel consisting of ham, cereal, eggs, pastries, salad and limejuice and headed up to the 10th floor (i think) for practices with mr toh.

A pretty function room it was, with vines and plants and flowers, sliding glass doors and carpet, complete with rather good acoustics! The practice actually went quite well, and it ended with us in a circle, singing ubicaritas. After which, mr toh reminded us the its the sec fours' last practice with AHSchoir and loads of emotional stuff like that (not enough to make me tear though)

I remember playing with a rubber band then, and it suddenly flew off to somewhere 1-2 metres away from me and everybody laughed at it. At that moment something occured to me, its my last time ever, to hear everybody laughing at little things, mr toh's jokes and mr tan's actions..but well, I was really hoping we'd do as well during the competition.



No worries, we went back to our rooms to get changed, put on make up and tie our buns.


That. was. a. mess.

my bun took ages to tie (Thankyou px and qy!), my scarf was tied on last minute by anqi, my heels (not courtshoes, i didn't bother to buy one since it was my last performance) hurt my little toe. Makeup was kinda bad, not that my eyeshadow could be seen since my wonderful spectacles were covering everything up. Peixuan's room seemed as though a tornado just swept past because everybody came to get their makeup done.


But we still survived that, at the lift lobby, jemimah and cheryl went around with lotion and glitter to be put on our hands, so that our hands will LITERALLY REFLECT LIGHT when we put our palms up for illay (for the SUN SHINE effect).



So we set off for the competition venue. 20 minutes walk through the park (that actually looks like the woods) on the cobblestones in heels, diameter 1cm. Look, others had their comfy courtshoes and I had my dainty heels. it kept sticking into the spaces between the cobblestone so I had to sorta tiptoe, with dear peixuan holding onto my hand. thankyou (: June yeo was being nice and concerned so the walk was really physically taxing, but not mentally ;D

wow, nice cobblestone pathways. nice to look at, horrible to walk on. Long distance, too.






DURING COMPETITION


Got to our competition venue and got nervous while we waited.

On stage, everything seemed so quick.


Gloria sounded fine to me, just abit rushed but the echo after the last note was kinda impressive i think. Fine start, i thought.


Next up, credo. Seriously mr toh, if you ever read this, we really don't blame you. using a pitchfork is difficult and well, we still got back to our note in the end ;D Maybe it was us that wasn't following the conducting, lost focus, got nervous (all of us did).

So that wasn't too well, but we still have two other songs. I mean, I'm a really negative person so I thought it was real bad when it probably wasn't THAT bad. sure, that was the last ever credo I'll sing with the choir and I'm sure we did our best then.


Shepherdess calmed us down abit, i guess it was okay too albeit lacking in some emotions and stuff, but since we're the only singaporean choir to sing a chinese song, we still own! I really love shepherdess, so it was an enjoyable experience on stage singing my heart out.


Illay gandangan - CHOREO SONG! i bet it wow-ed the crowd with the oh-so-cool choreo and tribal sounds, though it wasn't the BEST we ever did, but we've all given it all at the moment didn't we? despite the lack of space, mr tan said our stage presence was fantastic and that's great. maybe the points came from illay, i don't know but the tune will always get stuck in my head. The rhythmic notes and all...Choreo was really fun for me. Same goes to the rest, i bet.



The competition ended with a powerful song and the MJC people cheering for us.


When we were exited the stage, many people broke down, I kept saying "we screwed up, we screwed up", others gave a straight face. To put it across clearly, nobody was in a good mood. My comments above sounded good BECAUSE i thought about it again and it probably wasn't as screwed as i thought.

I felt really down, because I always hoped we could win category champion and just then, all hopes were lost. Silver? bronze? Gold? Didn't really know then, but hey lets continue.






AFTER COMPETITION


We walked through the park, crossed the streets, grumbled about painful feet and nothing else.

The silence wasn't golden, it was kinda painful. Thankfully, some were still in high spirits to cheer me up. Getting changed was the best idea ever, because the "shopping trip" was just like a magic wand that made all the sadness disappear. Think the sorcerer's apprentice :D




All of us didn't bother to take out our buns so we look like cheena girls on the street :D


Girls without lunches are deadly, so its macs for us


look, i found a cool lonely empty fries box on a tray.

Lonely...i'm so lonely...WHAT ARE THE LYRICS TO MR. LONELY AGAIN?


next up, mr. check your smile mirror!
whoops i didn't smile, good thing the mirror did.


I ATE FASTER THAN JOYCE/ANQI/ELIZ can you believe it. Jiaye and my table owns all we eat damn fast. A macs fillet meal costs 7+ bucks, they made me pay 5 korunas for a packet of ketchup hahah. which was like less than 50 cents haha.


Jiaye Anqi Eliz Joyce and I skipped off to terranova after lunch (IN SNEAKERS WOOHOO), just to find that ALL THE SHOPS WERE ALREADY CLOSED BECAUSE IT WAS A SATURDAY. omg i know they said europeans were slack but i didn't know they don't open their shops on saturdays! Wonder where they get their business, huh?


dictionary: TERRANOVA is THE "IN" SHOP IN OLOMOUC. it sells the coolest clothes and accessories at low prices.


NO terranova makes us emo (wth i didn't even get a single thing from there, neither did jiaye/anqi), the only shop available was a pushcard selling some necklaces, bands and random accessories. Spent like 700+ korunas (how to spell) there, anqi got herself some damn act cool handcuffs and skull necklace.


A short walk around town left us all disappointed, and so the camwhoring queen chuajiaye influenced all of us to take photos too hhaha! dammit, that was fun. and retarded.



LET THE PHOTOS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.



toilets! TOITOI


cobblestones that killed me but hey, that's a pretty picture and everybody owns one of these put-your-camera-on-the-floor-and-snap-photos anyway.

but yup, it looks cool. if only i used macro to make the background blurred.



i never regretted buying the nikon p5100. my panasonic one will probably make everything seem ugly. D:


jiaye, joyce, eliz! coool, it looks like hollywood.


JUST LOOK AT THE CLOUDS!!


the ones here too!


eliz and joyce taking pictures of the lovely cobblestones (lovely for the eyes)


LOOLOO ACTING COOL YOYOYO.


jiaye doing...something spastic hahah


THIS IS THE PICTURE OF THE YEAR!

'cmon that looked so damn real haha. the black thing at my waist is the choir jacket, btw.


looloo: TOITOI PLEASE KICK MY BUTT :D "i need to DB! DB!"


btw, the WC (watercloset/toilet) was closed O:


the closed shops...


empty streets of olomouc..


cocacola sign that looked cool.


dark and glllooommmmy. DON'T WORRY OUR MOODS MADE THE SKY HAPPY AFTER THAT :D


we did'nt go in, but..the sign is nice enough ;D


oh three zilian girls


I LOOK RETARDED but thats one of the few photos we have together. the rest are in her camera haha.


THE WET FLOOR AFTER...


THE SPRAYING MACHINE WENT FEE FI FO FUM AND SPRAYED WATER EVERYWHERE! like some tornado, it swept all traces of dust away!


oh just LOOK AT IT.


dry in front and wet at the back.


ho, we're posing for the.. what is it called again? O_o


lampposts are the best (Y)


shoes! from 12 o'clock clockwise: joyce, eliz, anqi, me, jiaye!


aww, that's a really sweet heart that reminds me of a neoprint alicia and i took 2 years ago!


pretty flowers by the pasta restaurant.


something random.


this guy was filming something about olomouc i think,

so i waved at him like some mad idiot,
whipped out my camera

and asked him to pose for it hahaha!
the olomoucians (hmm) are super friendly :D


darrrkkk.


OHMY ANQI IS TINY AND WHAT'S BEING SQUASHED


i'm tiny too O: cjy is squishing meee


yo eliz is a guniang!


we just got electrocuted HAHA.


looloo: SAI! DB CANNOT COME OUT!


me: arghhhhh


i like this picture for some weird reason!


shadows;


haha its called the actcute pose yo ;D


another one. wait, its one acting cute, one acting retarded, and one acting chio haha


JUMP?


jumping unsuccessful HAHAHA.

we took like 7 tries but all failed, by then my legs were aching and jiaye has some HILARIOUS shots in her cam, quick send them to me! coordination is damn difficult man.


and then...my magical hands took the two retards jumping! WHOOOHOO haha



after that, cjy challenged me to TAKE PICTURES OF PIGEONS AT FLIGHT. mostly failed but hey look at these two!




:D



looloo looks pretty here ^_^


what? act spastic? this is SO NOT MY POSE


MY EYES LOOK BIG FOR ONCE!! for once! hahah
and when the situation calls for it, act cute. I'm standing next to a fan of one.





ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS



alvina! ;D

and in no time, it was 4:15. The announcements of results were to be made at the centre of the town, near a fountain where large crowds could hear everything. We stood far away, our hearts thumping profusely. That's the moment we've been waiting for. Make or break? The moment is arriving...the clock is ticking...


we're all gathered in this town square,


hands linked together,


our heads bowed down, our ears straining to hear "anglican high school"


my heart skipped a beat when i thought the results were out. All the false alarms made every announcement seem less insignificant.

and then, after what seemed like hours, i heard "ANGLICAN HIGH SCHOOL!"


all around me, the girls flung their arms in the air, screaming and shouting;

I stood there with a puzzled look on my face? WHAT? what did we get? all i heard was the school name and nothing else. Turned to my right and saw people crying. turned to my left to see jiaye with the same look on her face.

what? what? what? but i couldn't care less, i just screamed anyway. Crying was out of the question; i didn't even know the results so there wasn't any overwhelming feelings.


"we GOT A GOLD!!!"

"how many points?"
"I DON"T KNOW BUT WE GOT A GOLD!!!!!"

"WE GOT 91 POINTS!"
"OMG FREAKING SERIOUS? REALLY?"
"YES 91!"
"NO!!! ITS 99! ITS WRITTEN ON THE CERTIFICATE!"
"WHAT? 99? SERIOUS?! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!"



that's all i could hear. then...

"*sob*sob*"
"HEY MS GROUP HUG!"
"AHH I WANT TISSUE!"


and then, mr toh walked towards us.


looks like a conductor indeed.


MUNDI CANTANT 2008

Anglican high school
ZLATOU MEDALI


opening the box containing the medal..


for the next 15 minutes, mr toh became a model.

not overnight fame, its overminute.


TOH AND LOOLOO :D


MR TOH AND ME! YAY!



"AHSCHOIR! GROUP PHOTO!"
after 10000 shots, we all got up on our feet to collect our stuff.


then there was a hushed whisper next to me:

"lets all sing ubi caritas in a circle around mr toh! pass it down!"
that was elissa, probably was her idea since she always has these ideas hur.



This is the most touching moment!



while mr toh was looking lost, we all linked our arms again,
this time not in anxiety, but in joy. we're jubilant.




he looked up with a o_O face, smiled abit, but had NO idea on what was happening.

while NTU choir walked away and disappeared into the background, we sang.

walked around the circle and sang ubicaritas.




it didn't sound professional cause it was in the open space,
but it felt warm
touching....



"ubi caritas et amor..."


after a few lines, we could see him controlling the tears, this head rested on his hands.

ms farah took a video of us, mrtan was waiting for the moment where his first precious tear would fall, like predator and prey.

every round in the circle activated my tear glands even more.

and then, we finally saw him cry. I don't know why, but that was the moment where my tear squeezed out from the corner of my eye too. As we continued singing, all our eyes fixed on mr toh, we knew he was happy and touched, for we seriously didn't blame him and...



ubi caritas is such a heartwarming song. It was so moving, everyone started tearing.


Not winning the category didn't matter anymore, at that moment the choir was just so bonded and together. gee, i don't know what to say.



"Deus ibi est" was how the song ended.


we RAN towards mrtoh, ran to him at full speed and gave him a group hug. perhaps he was already sobbing uncontrollably, i don't know because i wasn't at the centre of the circle.


but seriously, it was like the centre was radiating heat. serious. or maybe cause i'm always hot after crying. hot as in high body temperature. that was an "AWWWW" moment and we lingered at that place for a lonng time before leaving unwillingly.



Giving that place a last glance again.. that. was really a beautiful piece of memory.






on the way back, the guys pillared kayat and hid behind a wall waiting for their next prey - mr toh.

The girls pretended to walk as usual and when mr toh arrived at the corner, they swarmed around him and made him let them carry him..

as a nosy reporter, i whipped out my camera and took many photos. but of course, there's no time to upload everything here, so the essence of it should be fine.






YO so how did that feel :]


next, they tried to get mr tan, but who knew he could run so fast!
The gang of boys chased him down the street and they finally gave up:


BLACK SOCIETY! look at mrtan and kelvin's shades haha, or transition lens, rather,

don't they look like a bunch of gangsters? haha


the girls on the way home, snapping non-stop


mr toh alone on the lonely path, as mr tan puts it,

all musicians are not musicians without their EMO.
something like that. I guess he must have done loads of thinking ;D


girls picking dandelions;


manjing and i! :D


yeeying and i! :D


THEY'RE BOWING DOWN TO MEEE!


nah, yeeying was saying something like: "ehh please delete that photo pleaseee!"


hotel flora and its zebra crossing


koruna! the hotel did not offer money exchange from koruna to euros D:


at the hotel lobby. i look hideous but heck!


E.M.O hahahaha.



OH

and then, we found out earlier that liu hongzhe was EMO-ING in the hotel ALONE and refused to go for announcement of results so the whole choir decided to SCAM HIM.

we all pretended to be sad and the girls cried when youngyee opened the door to his room. Youngyee even typed an sms to him mum (fake one) saying "sorry, we got a bronze, 71 points".

the girls cried, the guys acted emo. that lasted for a loonggg time even at dinner.

at the lift lobby, a vs guy tried to congratulate him: "hey congrats, we only had 91 for the category". realising that our plans were about to be spoiled, kelvin entered the lift and said sth like "bloody basket, got 91 still try to suan us" and liuhz stupidly believed hahaha.

k so even the teacher worked together and BLAH its too late to write the whole process so in the end he found out and he went sth like wth or sth THAT WAS SUPER FUNNY. pays to be emo hur?




they asked if we wanted to attend a party after dinner so we all agreed except a few guys boo lol.






PARTY!


we were given 1 hour to dress up. only MS had their pretty dresses, the rest had clothes from terranova (and 10 went to the grandfinals concert)

eliz the SUPER NICE GIRL did my hair and i settled with a scarf over my "smile if you like me" shirt since xuaneee was wearing it too :] i kinda liked it IMO and omg everybody looked so pretty :D



waited for the ones at the grandfinals concert...


saw something incredible. a shooting star?


hah dresses! i didn't have one D:


DENISE THE RETARDED JUNIOR and me!


me, charmaine!


PEIXUAN/XUANEEE/XUANXUAN and i are wearing the same shirt that we bought tgt (yingjun and qy too but didn't wear them) :D

love you girl!



waited for the tram...


there was a board that had info on when the next tram would be arriving..


so here's the cool tram ticket and the scanning thing


jemimahwei and I!


in the tram


getting off the tram


THAT"S THE VENUE OF THE PARTY!


the beautiful sky!!!


couldn't capture the laser disco lights, there were very little people there and it was abit noisy so i just sat there at first, refusing to dance.

after i heard the chicken dance tune, i dragged peixuan with me and from then on, we got high.

the rest joined at macarena and whoosh, everybody danced and man, mrtoh and mrtan and the girls and guys got all crazy and had a nice hot dance hahah. the moment was indescribable k.


combined into a circle with the rest of the competitors and they dragged people to the middle of the dance floor, limying is superpro and well, the rest had fun moving to the groove yo. Nice experience indeed :]


after an hour, we had to leave to catch the last tram.

got of the tram at a cold dark deserted place and was so glad to see the hotel.




I dropped dead on my bed and woke up at 1 plus, only to find out there was a secfour meeting at 2:30.

Mr toh apologized to us during the meeting, saying how he really wanted us to have a great piece of memory because we were his first maiden batch and all. He didn't have to because everybody makes mistakes okay. I mean, he said loads of stuff that made me cry and I won't blog about them here, but when he said stuff to everysingle one of us, I was actually happy that he said I was happy and bubbly and always had a smile on my face. Cause he read my blog and yup, nothing else to be said.

Mrtoh, you were a great conductor and we've already had loads of wonderful memories with the choir so don't feel sorry anymore, if you're ever reading this.
really, i thought i was damn emo and all so hearing that made me want to cheerup.



I love ahchoir to the core, our great conductor, our fantastic TICs, esp mr tan. Though I may not be SO bonded with most in my level, this choir still means alot to me.





AHSCHOIR, THANKYOU.


and now i'll leave you guys with a piece of wonderful memory in me.

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