"When is it going to end? Walao..."

Considering that hardly anyone ever reads this, this would possibly be the last post that I'm ever going to publish. And unless somebody with unearthly powers of persuasion is able to convince me to do otherwise, I can safely assure everyone that they do not have to continue reading my blog, rolling their eyes in agony and swearing under their breath. Haven't done that yet? Well, you're about to, as you are about to follow me in my recollection of Saturday's events. I am not in the best of mood right now at the moment, ever since Saturday...

To RGS-ians, with all due respect, I wouldn't continue reading if I were you, as the following are fraught with dubious accounts of events related or not related to each and every RGS girl adversely affecting their future morality with which any oncoming repugness will be rendered null and thoroughly ignored if or if not already confronted with utter revulsion and plain denial.

In another words, to RGS-ians, now would be a good time to stop reading.


The Victoria School's 129th Speech Day was great. It proved an excellent way to remove my Harry-Potter-reading time. No doubt I still read the book during the Speech Day, I could read no longer than 60 pages during that 3 hours? Every laugh, every clap by the audience distracted me and even I was amazed at how slow I was reading. However, this was not important. The more important thing was the concert, particularly, by the VSCO. It was a rather feeble performance and not at all pleasant to hear. The suona's were expectedly out of tune and the percussion was exceptionally apt at playing 1 demi-semiquaver late of their usual rythmn. I was thinking, did it sound that horrible when I was playing? All in all, their item was such a good success at being a failure I didn't know how I could play alongside them. At the end of the Speech Day, we hurried to RGS.

Last chance, RGS-ians!!! What you don't know won't hurt you, trust me. Coupled with the fact that the truth hurts, it's much better that you dun see this.

When we entered the KS Chee Theatre, I was expecting at least a stage, but no, they were all already seated on classroom chairs the same level as the front row seats. The acoustics of the room was tremendously horrific and the performers entered and exited through passageways at either ends of the audience's seats.

First up: Jun4 Ma3 Ben1 Chi2. I really liked this song, actually. Their percussion were all looking lethargic and sian-ed. Obviously they were mirroring their SL, Gillian, as I didn't see her smile throughout the whole concert (and whom I almost didn't recognise because she was lacking her smile). I asked around and even Kenneth, who enjoyed taking pictures of her and Jia Yan on his handphone, could not tell me.

Hong2 Lou2 Meng4 Xi4 Qu3. I heard this song a couple of times. Clayton even hummed aloud the sheng melody at the front. I thought it was the performers singing at first but then realised it was Clayton. So anyway, I told him this was an excellent mourning song and he said, "It is." Well, I wonder why they don't play this song when they are mourning for the dead.

Jiang1 Nan2 Chun1 Se4. I heard this song before also. Played by RJCO. Erhu soloist was Wang Xuan Zhong I think, but now it was played by Tan Li Yu. I didn't pay much attention to her though, rather, I was paying attention to Rachel who so sadly was not doing anything except helping Zhao Meng flip the scores. Chairperson helping the Vice-Chairperson flip scores... Outstanding, man. I wouldn't do anything for Clayton under any circumstances.

Ye1 Ying2 Lu4 Shang4. All bangdi's and no qudi's. What could be better than a group of flautists piercing my ear drums? Their SL, Yu Ching, was not moving as much as her partner was. Weird though, considering she's their SL, but I'm certainly not complaining.

Mu4 Yang2 Qu3. Wowser. A quintet. Cool sia. I just love this kind of things.

Long2 Teng2 Hu3 Yue4. Sheng Nan was their lingzhou. I didn't dare look at her, and also because I didn't want to. I was actually looking at the timpanist because I was interested in what she was playing. I had written down the scores for the timpani, by listening to the SCO version and watching a certain video, and was now ready to confirm what I wrote down with what she was playing. Ooh, but no, she played some parts distinctly differently (and some, not at all, as if she knew what I was doing and trying to frustrate me) and now I do not know which one to follow. I have thus given up on it. However, I will still keep the paper on which I hand-wrote the notes quite untidily as they are still accurate to a certain extent. Sheng Nan also played her part differently, during the Drums Solo. Apparently, she had followed what I played during that certain day and played it for herself. Little did she know that what I was playing was rubbish for after that certain day, I copied her and did what she did as she was playing the standard and correct one. Man, I wonder what made her do that. I don't know whether she followed me too well or what, because I think she made the same mistake as me. Her paigu solo also went wrong just coming to the end. Of course, nobody in the audience noticed except me. Another thing the audience missed was that one girl playing xiao gu dropped her stick (Ok, I'm sure some people would have noticed that). She was lucky the floor wasn't hard like parquet. It hardly made any noise on the carpet and not many people saw her drop her stick. Sheng Nan, gan-ing pai1 zi3 at one point, was action-ing all over the place and unsurprisingly, at the end of the song, her hair was totally frayed and her heavy panting made her look like she just fought off a dragon and a tiger.

Shan1 Dan4 Dan4 Kai1 Hua1 Hong2 Yan4 Yan4. Hmm... Some people (or person?) really slacked in this song... Anyway, I liked this song. I heard the song on a yangqin solo in Primary School. I can still remember it was played by Delphine Oh Jia Ying (my goodness, I can remember the whole name...) from then Ngee Ann Primary. Halfway during her performance, her yangqin string snapped. But she held on to her nerve, moved the protruding string and continued playing. This time was not bad, too, except that the fact that I sat so close to the gaohu their ban4 zhou4 seemed like the melody.

Shi2 Mian4 Mai2 Fu2. Well, well, what can I say? I can only say that the composer of this song must have a warped mind. Nobody in the right state of mind can compose this kind of music! Warped, I tell you, warped.

Ya1 Zi3 Ban4 Zui4. I heard this on mp3 and I thought it was a great song. Well, I thought wrong. If I had closed my eyes and listened I would have really enjoyed it, but the fact that everybody was so hiong (and somemore the emcee said there was a shui3 cha3... Is there such thing? Water cymbal?) I was put off by their forced hiong-ness. Maybe that was why Gillian couldn't smile the whole night. I would be sulking too if I had to play this song with all the fakeness. Well, the audience laughed at their antics, and so did Sheng Nan, although she was trying to control it, but Gillian was still as aloof as ever. I can't believe I even considered getting the score for this (no matter how impossible) to give to my juniors. Well, not in my life, you won't!!

Yue4 Guang1 Bian4 Zou4 Qu3. Hmm. I never did liked Tanbo Ensemble but catchy tune though. Clayton thought it was some moonlight sonata. You wish!

Ta1 Ji1 Ke4 Feng1 Qing2. This song escaped my memory as I was still smarting after their "Squabbling Ducks".

Ling2 An1 Sui2 Xiang3. Well, well, well. I'm a huge fan of this song. It's one of my favourite songs. I would have bet that Gillian would start smiling since her silly antics were over and that she was able to blast her way through the whole song, but no, she stayed pretty much the same.

And who was the one who whispered to me, "This time don't shout encore..."?

Encore song: Jun Ma Ben Chi. This time it sounded like Bing4 Ma3. Sick horse. Wang Gui Ying (I've hated since I was P6) did not give a hoot about percussion and Gillian was left playing on a mu4 yu3 that was too low. During the song she lifted it up but didn't tighten the screw properly such that when she was playing halfway, the muyu just dropped with a "kak". Obviously sian-ed by that, she didn't play where she was supposed to. Then, she, at the extreme left of the "stage" (at the timpani), passed a message to the percussionist on her left, and that percussionist passed the message to her left and so on until the message reached Sheng Nan, who was on the extreme right. And then again, she passed on what I thought looked like a pair of drumsticks to Gillian by means of her messengers. Quite comical, really.

Several things really stood out during the concert... The fact that Gillian never broke into a smile... That everytime Clayton made a stupid noise or shouted out girls' name, Rachel would be amused while everybody was disgusted... That during the xylophone solo in Jun Ma the tempo would suddenly slow down (sorry, Qiu Ping)... That the snare drummer was as sian-ed as her SL during the snare drum-timpani part in Jun Ma... That there was a person named "Ding Dong" in the Erhu section...

The whole concert reminded me of the time when I played in the exchange programme. And somehow I was very put down after the concert. It was like my history was repeated. Repeated by them. So sian that upon the question "Why are you so quiet?" I could only muster a lame "Because I'm not noisy." And the people who asked also felt sian and left me alone.

I seriously think I have no fate with RGCO (as much as the girls there), considering I hate their conductor (sorry, long time affair, this one... since P6...). Anyway, I dun think I seem to care now.

Ciao now.

Filiae Melioris Aevi