.::my story::.

scribbled @ 20031221

yoyo!! back from genting!! missed my bed....my bathroom... my home cooked food... the WATER!!!esp drinking water...missed my family... haha...

well, we had a wonderful time there.... though we onli managed to get 2 silvers for both categories(SATB and SSA), i think we had done our best and it's an achievement...coz we onli spent 1 1/2 mths learning 5 new songs that we had never heard/sung b4, and we managed to get silver, while most of the other sch choirs from s'pore re-used their SYF songs, which they had learned for more that 8 mths... this truly shows that we are a GOLD choir, despite the results of this international competition---A Voyage of Songs, 21 Century International Choral Festival. anyway, let mi try to recall wad activities we had for the past 5 daes...

Dae 1 (mondae)

woke up at 5am and reached sch at 5.45am. saw many many many luggage and bags placed in the concourse and everyone was really excited..chit-chatting away while ms soh and ms chua was head-counting... had a short briefing b4 we boarded the coaches... to my surprise, bus B(my bus) was exceptionally small, and we had to bring our bulky luggage up the bus and it doesn't haf that space above the chairs for our luggage.. and both zhaoting and i brought trolley bags...sho kinda crammed on the bus.. but glad we changed coach at the s'pore custom... *phew*..=P
basically, played dai dee, ate and slept on the bus...haha... nth much happened la....reached genting's first world hotel at 4+pm i think... zhaoting collected keys and we went up to find our room (and the whole stretch of rooms) not done...sigh...poor service...

Dae 2(tuesday, competition!!!)

after breakfast, had practice before we went back to our rooms to prepare ourselves.. it didn't go quite smoothly... rehersal in the hall was *bleah*... even the whole practice was *bleah*.. mr lai got fed-up...and kinda left us to haf sectionals(for the SSA category) ourselves... sho we headed to rui qi's room and perfected "I bought Me A Cat". then went to change into our gown and put on make-up...hmm....zhaoting, hsiao en, simin and i went to wee san & tracy's room for make-up after we haf changed...and coz MOST of us dun really noe how to put on make-up, we took a whole lot of time waiting for someone to help...in the end, we were late..haha... we sang for the SATB one 1st... everything went on smoothly... mr lai even complimented that our "Yao Lan Qu" had never been so in-tune b4..everyone was happie...kinda expected to grab a gold...hai..

anyway, had a 10 min break then rehersal for the SSA catagory.. Oh...btw, Mr lai's WIFE is our pianist...haha... the 1st time we had rehersal together with her b4 the competition, but she was really good..=) we had confidence when we entered the waiting room, though many were still confirming the notes for "I Bought Me A Cat"... and it was out turn... it went ALRIGHT... speeded for "I Bought Me A Cat" but glad that MRS lai(=P) managed to catch up with us although the song is really hard to play on the piano... kinda sad la..but everything was over juz like that... ate burger king for dinner...

Dae 3 (wednesdae, FREE DAE!!!)

wanted to go support chamber choir at 9 but couldn't wake up ontime...hehe..sorri guys.. both zhao and i woke up at 9.30am... washed up, changed and went for breakfast b4 we headed to the lobby where we are supposed to gather and haf a short briefing b4 we haf the whole dae to ourselves... BUT... coz tracy and si min was really sick, onli zhaoting, wee san(she had a bad sore throat, basically, cannot talk at all) and i went to roam around the shops there...

we ended up at the Ripley's Believe It of Not! exhibition. it's a little like an exhibition of "Guinness World Records"..with many many amazing things and pple that once lived in this world, with weird abilities...but haf way through the exhibition, i told zhaoting and wee san that i'm a little tired....as in tired of reading all those explanations beside all those exhibits, though they are quite summarized, but juz TIRED!!! and they also agreed with mi..haha... so for the rest of the exhibition, we juz looked at the exhibits, not paying much attention to the explanation at all...hehe... oH ya...we bought a combo ticket for the Ripley's Believe If or Not! exhibition which comes together with the ticket to the Haunted House...haha... we bumped into jialing they all in the exhibition and they kinda told us some of the things to expect in the haunted house... and we headed towards the entrance after the exhibition. we were given a glow stick each when we purchased the combo tickets..

coz the haunted house is located at the top level of the building, we had to take this special transportation there, dunno how to sae la.. but it's designed like a cage, with this huge fake spider on it... anyway, there's a limited num of pple that can enter the haunted house everytime, so since there's onli the 3 of us, we were grouped with 4 other kids, all younger that us... i think they are siblings la... none of we wanted to go 1st, coz the entrance is to climb through this mouth of a clown...and the inside is completely dark.. we pushed each other forward and we kinda forced the guy incharge there to walk with us...this other guy got fed-up and kinda scolded us...=S as i've said, we forced the guy to lead us into the haunted house, followed by zhaoting with 1 little boy and another girl clinched to her, followed the older sis of the 3 kids and i was last, with wee san and a girl each grabbing on to one of my hands.. the scariest part can sae is when this guy use a crow bar or sth to hit the metal bars, creating a deafening *CLANG!!!* *CLANG!!*... but when u walk pass the place he's lying, u can see him la...but the sound still makes u jump... when we walked pass this "cemetery", there was this guy hiding at a corner, but b4 he could scare us, i saw him...and i said,"BOO!! BOO!!" at him...=P...heehe....and since i was walking behind all of them, that guy scratched my back softly...haha....supposed to scare mi la..but i didn't bother to turn back to look at him... then coz jialing they all told us b4 hand that at the end of the haunted house, we'll be chased by this "monster" till we exit the place... but bocoz the guy working there walked with us, plus we already know and we were moving at the speed of a snail, he didn't chase us.. haha... a fun experience... haf to admit that i got scared once or twice la...:)

hmm..ok...after the haunted house, we went to buy lunch for the "sick" pple.. then played dai dee and uno with then till 5.30 when we are suppose to gather and haf another briefing b4 we are free again... and when ms chua checked on tracy and si min in the afternoon, she gave them permission to go out with us in the evening, and we went to the indoor theme park.. sat the Motion Master 1st... great animations, but sucky technology for the chair... not much movements loh...hai.... then went for the roller coaster.. wasn't as fast as it seems when u look at it from the ground...but we still screamed for the sake of having fun..haha..then zhaoting went to meet her mum, tracy and si min went to shop coz they dun wan to stay in the theme park coz they dun wanna play..so left with mi and wee san.. we met melody and gang while queueing for bumper car...and OF COZ, we cut the queue and joined them...hehe.. had a GREAT time bumping each other and screaming...=P... we sat the roller coaster again b4 heading to the tropical cafe for our meals...

while queueing to take food, the china man infront of Melody poked his fork into the fried noodle and tasted it...then he poked the SAME fork back into the noodles to get more...and coz onli melody saw, she kept telling is to "na hou mian de!! na hou mian de!!!"(take those at the back!!!)everyone was disgusted when melody told us what that man did when we were eating... then a few of us went back to the theme park and went for the fairy's wheel.. a pity that it was moving TOO fast.... after the ride we returned to the hotel, met zhaoting and tracy and zZZzzzzZZZzzz....=)

Dae 4 (thursdae, RESULTS!!!!)

we were so blur the whole dae...hai..entered the wrong hall twice!!! 1st one was at hall 6 (i think) held by this hong kong guy, whose english and mandarin sounded like alien language... and like in kindergarden...sigh...haha..then we were told that we are at the wrong workshop...sho we proceeded to another one... held by this lady, who seemed to be enjoy teaching ...but was treated like transparent and felt like attending pri sch...SIGH even more... and AGAIN, we were told to go leave quietly as we haf AGAIN, went to the wrong place... and to my relief, we were at the right place AT LAST...felt like ourselves again...haha... the workshop we're supposed to attend is held by the Mongolian Professor, who arranged the song Dorven Dalai the for seas, 1 of our SYF pieces.. the professor is really a funny guy... though he's perhaps 60++ (judging by all his white hair=P), he's still very energetic and jumpy... we sang Matona Mia Cara during the workshop and he said the song was veri peaceful...HAHAHA.....choir peepz, u shd noe y i'm laughing.... and after the workshop, the SYF peeps sang Dorven Dalai for him...and he helped us quite a lot...sho... THANKS!!!;)

after the workshop, we had FREE TIME AGAIN!! till 3.45 that is...coz at 4, the results will be out.. we all went shopping and i bought 3 tee shirts, 2 for myself and 1 for my cousin...and that's abt it... still haf lotz of RM left... then went bowling....onli managed to bowl for 1 game...then rushed to the meeting place again... and here's the result:

SATB (category D)----- 74.sth, Silver B
SSA (category B3)----- 77.sth, Silver A

when we heard the result for the SATB category, everyone was disappointed.... many pple cried(including mi la..) many pple had no expression..the whole CCHMS gang was juz ---silent---... after the revealing of the results, we gathered again and ms chua talked to us....many encouraging things that made most of us feel much better..:) then Jeth said sth... and it all ended with three cheers for choir..!!! headed back to tracy's room and played daidee till 6 plus when we gathered for the Grand Finale... 5/6 grps performed and the Novo Concertante Manila from the Philippines won the whole competition!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! they haf really polished voices...and they way they express their feelings while singing the song, i can feel it right at the back of the hall.... love them!!!:)

after the Grand Finale, wee san, tracy, zhaoting, si min and i went for the cocktail reception, as we didn't eat dinner..hehehe.... sho we took some finger food b4 we went back to the hotel to pack... managed to SQEEZED everything into my luggage..hehe... the ususal peeps came over to our room and played the usual--> dai dee and uno till 11.20.. coz the lights out time was 11.30... zZZZz quite early that night....

Dae 5 (fridae, gd bye genting!!)
woke up at 5 to 7... woke up by ms chua's call..hehe...got ready and did last min check to make sure that i've packed everything... zhaoting stayed in the room as she will be going to Ipoh with her parents instead of back to s'pore with the sch... sho the rest of us went downstairs and bought baos for breakfast as we headed to the gathering place.... waited quite long and when we decided to play dai dee and juz dealt the cards, we had to board the bus...-.-''.. but we continued the game on the bus.... slept most of the journey back to s'pore, but also played mass uno and many other games with melody and gang...hehe... reached sch at 4.45... took a lift from shimin and reached home at ard 5 plus coz her bro came quite late...

a few complains....
1. horrible food
2. horrible water
3. extremely small room and toilet and bathing area
4. journey was TOO LONG AND TIRING!!!

that's abt it.... the rest of the trip was wonderful and perfect....:)
fran

----------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------