walking in the rain

I really don’t know how to describe the life in camp these past 2 days.

On one hand, it’s been exceptionally fun, with all the shit we’ve been up to, like re-enacting the China spa lady’s facial and adding lots of rubbish contents to the story (with the pebble ‘pei tao’ (package) being the latest addition), jamming sonatas in the practice rooms with Craig and with Jaspar and I playing the left and right hand accompaniment respectively, having yummy lunches at 6th Div instead of our usual canteen (and giving everyone a treat since I won quite a bit of money on radio recently), having crazy rehearsals of pieces like Hai Shang Hua (hahaha), clearing up the stupid maggots this fat housefly was depositing from its ass onto the double bass, throwing wet tissues at Shaun while he shits in the toilet cubicle, and all the other nonsensical things we’ve been up to.

Thing is, there will always be people who decide to be assholes, and these people are recently driving me up the wall. It has happened before and it’s happening again. You see, I’m a relatively nice person, so I don’t really want to take action again these people (even though I have all authority), since I’ll have to work with them till I ORD anyway. Well, but sometimes they don’t leave you with much of a choice, so I might have to do something about it.

I’m not trying to abuse my authority, but there are times where I ensure that things go right when rules are broken. I can’t really cover up everyone’s ass all the time, can I?

Egos of such people must be smashed, and I will personally make sure it does.

Anyway, for the record, last night’s show was the worst we’ve put up in a long time. This retarded camp (it’s a really stupid camp, trust me) actually booked us to perform for some silly low-class dinner last night, which, incidentally, was the results of the Singapore Idol Grand Finals. Not only I had missed out on a great opportunity to perform with the idols, I didn’t even get a chance to watch the show.

You can imagine how pissed I am till this very moment.

I can happily give you 20 reasons why yesterday’s show was, well, to put it crudely, fucked up.

1) It’s a bloody camp show. Camp shows suck.
2) There was no air-con. Well, no surprises there. It’s a camp show remember?
3) The fans don’t work. The fan itself moves, but the blades don’t move an inch. Thanks man.
4) The stage given was so small, it was unbelievable.
5) Stupid camps abide my stupid rules. We even had to leave our 11Bs at the guardhouse.
6) There was practically no holding area.
7) No managers were around. Stage manager was supposed to be present, but she went for a recee at another location instead.
8) It was a show with technicians – you can imagine how much shit we have to help them with after the show ended.
9) One of the techs was damn bloody rude yesterday. If I hadn’t kept my cool I’d have probably shouted at him in his face yesterday. Who cares if he’s a DXO. Damn great meh? Asshole.
10) The audience was loud, noisy and unappreciative.
11) People even stood up and did a ‘yam seng’ while the Vocal Ensemble was singing.
12) It was so low-class, it was a buffet dinner, not those served restaurant style.
13) The place totally looks like a funeral at the void deck – you know, those round tables with red chairs around them?
14) We prepared for a second segment, but it was pulled out last-minute because there wasn’t a single person in sight after a while.
15) The organizer couldn’t be found after our segment. Thus, the Certificate of Acceptance couldn’t be signed.
16) The organizer’s handphone number provided was wrong. No, the phone wasn’t switched off, nor was there no signal in the area. The number’s totally invalid. Unbelievable.
17) None of the feedback forms were signed, thus, I had to return my production manager empty forms.
18) There was no disposal for those staying in the west. We were disposed at Dover instead.
19) Of all days in the week, it had to be a Monday show (we don’t usually do shows on Monday).
20) Of all days in the year, it had to be the result show of the Singapore Idol Grand Finals. Couldn’t they be less retarded than that?

For your information, I rushed home immediately after we were disposed, and yes, as you might have already expected, the results of Singapore Idol was just released. If only everything right from the start was 3 minutes earlier. Damn.

I’m very tempted to use some vulgarities on this stupid camp which happens to be pretty near my house, but I shan’t.

I’ve said this before and I will say it again – camp shows suck.

Bloody hell. Next time I’ll just take MC.

It’s nice to know that most of my friends are all doing well in their various aspects of life. Most of them are out of National Service, having their greatest time of their lives in university. Some are abroad, studying their asses off trying to earn themselves a degree, masters, or whatever you call it.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I certainly have no interest in studies. Occasionally, I miss studying, but thinking back of the horrific times I’ve been through in my secondary school days just puts me off totally. I just hate it to the core. I feel that life can be so meaningless when one works so hard just to get that piece of paper, which, at the end of the day, doesn’t guarantee one a prospective future. In fact, it doesn’t mean that having that qualification will guarantee one a good job, although I don’t deny the fact that it increases the chance of getting one.

People all around me are searching for the best universities in the world. Some are frantically trying to apply for them, while others are busy mugging for their SATS exams like never before. The thing I’d like to know is, is this simply normal behaviour or are they just simply kiasu?

For me, I cannot be bothered applying for any university at the moment. To be honest, it doesn’t matter to me at all even if I get into one, because, like I mentioned earlier, I have absolutely no interest. I’d rather spend my time doing something I like, or work on something I love. I’m definitely not going into the music arena (music will always be a part-time thing – I don’t wish to end up like a geek knowing the birth and death dates of each and every single composer in the world), so it’s likely it’ll have something to do with media and communication, which, unfortunately, is very popular with many people.

I’m currently happy with the way I’m leading my life. I can’t believe how much time really flies though – in a couple of weeks, I’d have been in the army for a year. I’m content with whatever I have, my friends, my family, my work scope, the freedom I get, etc. Basically, there’s nothing much to complain about. Oh yes, and not forgetting my winnings too – they don’t really stop. Haha.

Anyway, on to other stuff. I bought a few things recently – a Sony digital camera which cost me $500, as well as a Bree wallet which cost $128. You can imagine how broke I am now. Well, actually, not really. I only paid $28 for the wallet as I had a (few) $100 vouchers that I had to clear. I love the new wallet though – it’s quite small but at least it doesn’t flake like the last one. No, Willie, I’m not saying I don’t like it, it just began to start flaking after a year or so. The new camera’s great, with 7.2 megapixels and pretty good features. I actually walked into the Sony Gallery just to check out the prices, but I ended up buying one before I walked out of the shop. After all, my previous camera has been with me for 5 – 6 years, and its battery has recently died, so I thought it was a pretty good idea to get one. It’s now with my sister who’s overseas.

I’ve watched a couple of great movies over the past couple of weeks, and I thought some of them were pretty awesome, like The Devil Wears Prada. It was a free movie preview which I watched with a whole bunch of friends, and I totally enjoyed it. There’s also Monster House, The Host, Ant Bully and Little Man, which was horrendously lame but funny still. And yes, I actually forked out money to watch them. I caught the movie Lovewrecked too. It was quite a stupid movie, so thankfully I didn’t have to pay for it.

I went for the Westlife concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium 2 weeks ago. Yes, I managed to win them, with a friend’s help. The concert was great, except that they didn’t sing a lot of my favourite songs, including my all-time favourite, If I Let You Go. Can’t blame them though, they could only squeeze in a certain number of songs in 90 minutes. I was glad I managed to make it for the concert because we had shows the day before and after. In fact, we were supposed to perform on the day itself, but miraculously, the show was taken out a few days before and I could make it for the concert. :)

Speaking of shows, we’ve been putting up lots of them recently. Lots of high profile ones, in fact. Our trio had to perform for the Academy of Law dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and his wife were present. There were only 2 tables, and we had to play really softly so as not to disturb Mr and Mrs Lee’s conversations with the other guests, which came from all over the world.

Then there was the recent graduation ball at Istana which we performed for about 2 weeks ago. Security was so tight, we had difficulty getting from one place to another. It was a quartet show, and as usual, our best friend Minister Teo Chee Hean was present at the dinner.

A few days later, we had the usual OCS Commissioning Parade performance we had to put up at SAFTI MI. Although there was a big cock-up as the organizer didn’t turn up, we put up a great show and the feedback from the audience was great.

Just about a week back, we put up a Healing Music show at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. It was a really unique one as we performed for the patients as well as the public. In fact, I was quite shocked to see someone having lunch at the hospital – I’m pretty sure she saw me when I walked past the food court, but I didn’t really look back. I wonder if she’ll make a comment the next time I see her, which will possibly be quite soon. Anyway, the performance turned out to be great. :)

Lastly, we performed at Grand Corpthorne Hotel last Friday, and for the first time, the dinner provided was actually the hotel buffet itself! Apparently it’s the only show of the whole year that we get to have such great food, because I think the organizers are from overseas and are able to afford it. The bill came up to over $500, which was paid by the organizers, of course. The food was so good, it’s unbelievable. Everyone was piling their plates with oysters, sushi and whatever we could get our hands on in 30 minutes, because the buffet only started at 6.30pm and we had to get ready by 7pm. I had a totally fantastic meal. A few of my friends ate too much and ended up puking in the backstage toilet before the show started. Haha.

Singapore Idol’s just round the corner. I was actually asked to play as background music for the Grand Finals, just like 2 years ago, but unfortunately, the result show on Monday, 25th September clashed with one of our MDC shows. Bloody hell. I discussed this whole issue with my manager and tried all ways and means to find my way to get myself out of it (by taking MC, applying for leave, etc), but unfortunately, all company shows take precedence and there was nothing I could do about it. Sadly, I had no choice but to turn the offer down. Damn it. It was fun playing for SI 2 years ago though, as I got to make friends with some of the idols. Then again, this round’s idols aren’t too good, so it doesn’t really matter. Anyway, in life, you can’t always have the best of both worlds, so yeah.

I’ll be extremely busy the next 2 weeks or so, due to preparations for the upcoming vetting, NIE show, as well as other activities which I can’t really talk about otherwise I might get into trouble. Haha.

See you guys around. :)

Yet another lady has decided to be an asshole, although in a totally different context from the previous one.

Man, it's the second time this week that a bitch has appeared in my life! Haha.

If only I had known.

Stupid bitch.

After so many years of dealing with online auctions, you’re bound to bump into some f***ers who will give you bad ratings for absolutely nothing. I received a bad rating from this asshole who tried to buy a CD from me, and to cut the long story short, this stupid woman actually said that she sent me a lot of emails but did not receive any reply. I mean, cmon, how stupid are you?

I couldn’t resist returning her with a bad rating, and as much as I would have loved to flame her, I didn’t want to violate the rules of Yahoo! Auctions.

My rating comment went something like this:

“For your information, I take pride in handling all my auctions on Yahoo! Auctions. What I hate most is when people like you actually make things difficult for other people. For your information, the CD has been waiting on my desk for a few weeks now, and I've been checking my email every single day, hoping that I can mail it to you as soon as possible. Till this day, I have not received a single email from you, so you might want to check with your pathetic email service provider. Not only you have made things difficult for me by not communicating via SMS (which would have been a much faster deal, since you'd probably have gotten the CD in a day or two, like other people), you couldn't even be bothered to clarify the situation by dropping me a question in the Question and Answer section. If you haven't already noticed, I am always prompt in replying all questions. Instead, you decide to give me a bad rating. I don't understand why I received a bad rating for doing absolutely nothing. I guess you deserve the same rating from me, so there, here's a taste of your own medicine. Sorry, but I'm so not going to sell the CD to you. So much for not needing the CD urgently. A whole load of crap. I believe what comes around goes around. I shall be more wary of people like you in the future.”

Bloody bitch. I really hope she does get a taste of her own medicine soon.

Today marks the day where I’m finally able to take down the P-plate when I drive on the roads.

Actually, I haven’t really been putting up the little triangle on the windscreen for a few months now, so it doesn’t really make a difference. Hahaha. It’s been one year since I last passed my driving test, and I can’t believe how time has flown. I remember that around this time last year, I was waiting to be enlisted into the army, and my test date was only 2 days before my enlistment. But I managed to get a downgrade successfully, so my enlistment date was pushed back to October. I passed my driving test anyway. :)

In other news, I seem to be bumping into a lot of people recently. The strange part is, it doesn’t happen just once, but twice. Last month alone, I met Em at Jurong Point on one evening after giving a lesson, and a few days later, I bumped into her again at the bus stop at Commonwealth MRT. I also met Ivan at Bukit Panjang Plaza on one evening, and a few days later, bumped into him again at Jurong East. Then, there was Alex. I met him at the bus stop outside my church, and just a couple of days later, I bumped into him at the bus stop along Bukit Merah. Then, 3 days ago, I was spotted by Elaine while waiting at the bus stop at Clementi after getting a hair cut, and just yesterday, I saw her again at Boon Lay bus interchange while I was on my way to my grandmother’s house.

Now how freaky is that?!

Of course I didn’t really have anything to say to her so I quickly walked in another direction when I saw her coming from afar. The thing is, I don’t understand why they always turn out to be the same person, and why it’s always just a few days apart. It’s really strange.

In other news, I’m happy to announce that my student’s violin examination is finally over. Yeah. I’ve been so busy giving extra classes over the past few days (which is a good thing since it means more money) amidst my busy schedule that I don’t really have time for a lot of other things. I took a half day off yesterday and made my way down to Bukit Merah Central, where the exam was held. I accompanied my student for his 3 pieces, and I think he did pretty alright, though it could have been better. I do hope he gets good marks. :)

In other even more interesting news, well, my manager is on leave this week, so you can imagine all the naughty things I’ve been up to. I won’t be writing about my adventures, of course, but to those who know what I’ve (or we’ve) been up to, I’m pretty sure it’s been great fun. Haha.

Camp has been equally enjoyable, although for some reason this morning my senior manager gave the ICs quite a bit of shit to do, like preparing repertoires and asking us to hand out letters of explanation to those who have been late these couple of days. Thankfully, I have recently been detached, so I get to come to work at 9.15am instead of 8.30am from now on. Many thanks go to FK for helping me with my detachment by finishing up my Sibelius scores. But hey, I actually paid him quite a bit for doing all that work for me, so don’t say I bullied him. Haha.

Anyway, moving on. These few weeks have been far from boring, really. I won’t write about every single thing that happened, but the highlights of the month included the uncountable Trickster gatherings, the Flybar performance, the Festival of Praise, the Singapore Fireworks Festival, National Day Parade, visiting our manager at his gig at one of the hotels in Singapore (hahaha), the Arts Enrichment Programme show we put up at Anglican High School, all the post-NDP dinner shows (Exco, CDF and Appreciation dinners), Stripped Acoustic Live at Balaclava, the 2am supper with my buddies at Newton Hawker Centre, the lunches with my friends (while we sneaked out of camp for a while) at Longhouse and Nam Kee, the dinner at No Signboard Seafood Restaurant at Geylang, the NUS Science Bash at Zouk, and lots more, which I can’t remember offhand.

To sum it all, August was a great month. :) I have loads of photos but unfortunately I don’t have the time at the moment to put them up. Will try to do so soon.

I watched a whole bunch of movies too, of which, most were complimentary, as usual. There was Click (it’s really nice), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (stupid but funny), Lady In The Water (absolutely disgusting – can’t believe I actually paid for it! Argh!), The Lake House (shit man - another totally horrible movie which I paid money for), Lemming, Snakes On A Plane (I thought it was pretty good), Frostbite (the BEST movie of the month – it turned out to be more of a comedy rather than a horror movie), and of course, The Devil Wears Prada (a totally awesome movie which I won a whole bunch of tickets to).

All the movies were great except for 2 of them, which, for some spastic reason, were the ONLY 2 which I paid for. Yikes. Lady In The Water was a total waste of my time and the plot for The Lake House was so stupid, I couldn’t believe it myself. As you might have guessed, yes, I’d rather stick to my free movies, and try not to fall for trailers which seem enticing anymore.

By the way, I was watching Singapore Idol earlier tonight, and hey, I feel that it’s actually quite interesting after all. Never really knew that each contestant could sing 2 songs per genre, since I’m usually busy and don’t get to watch the show at all.

You know, I was just thinking recently, why do some people often claim that they’re busy, yet they spend so much time updating their blog and writing long entries so frequently? If you’re really busy with your life you wouldn’t really have the time to update so often, would you?

Over the weekend, I was caught in 2 situations where other people started probing into my life, for absolutely no reason. Sometimes it’s just not worth asking them, or replying their SMS because a simple reply such as “thank you for your concern” can lead to the other party thinking that they really did make a difference in your life, which leads to further probing. To be honest, I think that’s a really bad idea.

I dislike people putting on masks, and I don’t wish to be mean, but I believe the cause of you having so much time in your life is because you are single. I’m not laughing at the fact that you are, but I believe you can put your time to better use. Seriously, I’ve got a lot of other better things to do in my life, and I’m pretty sure you do, too, if you try hard enough.

Bug me again, and you’ll be sure to regret it.

By the way, if you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, you're perfectly alright, don't worry. Haha.