b u b b s

I wish everyday was as fun and exciting as this Wednesday

2011-03-25T00:59:00.006+11:00

I had one of the most wonderful Wednesdays this week and as with all my blog posts, I dedicate them to my friends and to all the beautiful people in my life because without them, there'd be no one to share my food, musical and everyday experiences with.

Woke up a lot earlier than usual to do some work. Was super excited to be meeting up with Bella in the arvo so I practiced piano and finished some a musicianship harmony and a harmonic analysis. I'm getting a lot better at doing them both and with the exam in less than 2 months, I just hope I can learn all my theory in time :(

Travelling to the city, I always like to read on the train. Recently I started reading "Like The Flowing River" by Paulo Coelho. It's a book of reflections and thoughts from his online blog, compiled into a small book. It's filled with many beautiful stories, anecdotes, experiences in his life he shares with a charming wit and beauty. I really want to share this short story, as it was one that got me thinking as I gazed out the window in the train:

A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked: ‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:

I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special. ‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’

‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’

‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’
‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.
‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’
‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’
‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action’

source: “Like the Flowing River” by Paulo Coelho

I really really love Paulo Coelho's books because of these little gems of wisdom that fill the pages of his novels. I don't know how he comes up with these - I suspect he adapts them from various sources he has - but they're just so fitting and I feel wiser myself with every story. He has loads of them - www.paulocoelhoblog.com - if you're interested :)

Moving on, I'm not a frequent traveler to the city and so when I walked to UTS to meet up with Bella, I took a major detour and ended up being quite late. She took me to Charlie Lovett for a chat and she even shouted me a drink - Freckled Ice Chocolate whilst she had the Blended Ice Chocolate. The Freckled Ice Chocolate contained very small 'freckles' of chocolate (Sexy Ecuadorian Chocolate) in it and whilst being very tasty at first, becomes annoying when all the freckles sink to the bottom and clog up the straw. The Blended Ice Chocolate was much richer in chocolate and I actually prefer it - it being cheaper by a dollar too! Nevertheless, I had a great time chatting with her :D If you read this, and I know you do sometimes, THANK YOU :D

Somehow, every time I have a conversation with someone, if we manage to talk for long enough, it always ventures towards the future and our plans for it. It's daunting because I'm still in the segway between high school and university, but so many others are beyond that, earning money on a cadetship, starting internships, going on exchanges and so much more. I don't regret my choice of music and not going to Uni yet, but I can't help but wonder what I would be doing instead if I had gone for USYD Comm/Law. Would I be happy? What would have become of me?

After she had to go home, I rung up a few people - they were still at uni and so I met up with Smel, Sandhya and a guy called Scott. It was my first time to the UTS Haymarket Campus and boy was it filled with Asians. I thought S was going to study so I brought some stuff to do until dinner with B but instead, ended up chatting for almost 3 hours! Once again, seeing people all suited up and talking about which firms they wanna work in makes life feel so real. It was so awesome to talk to Sandhya about Baulko hehe I really missed that school. It was the type of school you loved not for what it was, but for the friends, the people who made up the school and all the great times and things that happened there.

Met up with Bosco and more people from our musical group all came along to join us for dinner. Bought some food from Chinatown and had it at Market City. Got called up to pick up Kel from Town Hall station and so ran all the way to Town Hall with Smel to try and find her because apparently her phone had run out of batts :P Bumped into Joseph on the way there and it was pretty cool because he was going with us too! :D Gave up after looking for 10 minutes - we figured she was smart enough not to wait at Town Hall and miss the musical - she knew it was at Star City anyway :P

And what do you know, there she was! Met up with all 16 of the people who were interested to seeing it with us and WHAT A GREAT MUSICAL IT WAS!

I got a little annoyed when it was compared to Wicked because Dr. Zhivago is a musical in a different dimension. It's a musical not solely there to entertain. Wicked was a fantastic musical because of its visual appeal as well as its many humourous moments. Of course, the music was memorable and there were a few songs like Defying Gravity and Popular. Doctor Zhivago is different because of all the themes, emotions and events it manages to deal with. For me, the best part of it was its ability to capture your heart and make you feel everything that was happening in the moment, whether it was in the song, the dialogue or the drama. And who could forget Mr. Warlow as Dr. Zhivago. He was just as good as I thought he'd be but not as good as I imagined him to be. I wanted to hear more raw passion in his voice and instead, I heard a wonderful and clean technique, blending oh-so-well with the other principal females. I wanted to hear him take on higher notes, bigger climaxes and feel the frustration, anger and love that was the character of Dr. Zhivago.

The music was very well sung and there were a few memorable songs, especially 'Now'. That is a truly great duet which I don't mind listening to all day long. It's getting late and I'm losing concentration, but this was definitely worth all the money I paid for it. The musical dealt with a lot of issues and for some, I can understand if you thought it was rushed, but it captured the emotion and feelings of the characters and moments very well. I'd gladly go and see it again.

I leave you with this photo of us as a group :)

We bought out a whole rectangle of seats - all 16 of us - and this is our row, minus Belle and Smel on my left. Top row coming up next!

Yes, I know the photo's blurry but we look oh-so-happy here!

Gonna go to bed zzzz. Have to wake up in 5 hours for my piano lesson :(

Performing at Burwood RSL, Pigging out at Churrasco!

2011-03-23T00:32:00.008+11:00

Quick update on what I've been up to for the past week!

Thursdays and Fridays are always very hectic for me. They're the days I do the most music mainly because I have to prepare for Friday lesson and on Fridays I have a piano lesson AND a musicianship lesson. I usually sleep really late (3am) on Thursday nights to finish off my work. I don't know how I survive Fridays without getting sick or dozing off. I guess that thanks to my ability to sleep in the car on the way to lessons, I manage to get a bit of shuteye :)

Saturday was quite an interesting day for me. Back in January, our Youth Group went to a Chinese Retirement Village in Castle Hill to visit the elderly, play Bingo with them (more like play for them) and perform a few songs for them - getting them to sing along. It was loads of fun and a few of the Aunties asked us to come back to play for Senior Citizen Week in Burwood.

Unfortunately, everybody was busy that Saturday and so they asked me to do a little piano recital for them at Burwood RSL Club. I was given around 10 minutes to do whatever I wished on their 'piano'. Little did I know what piano they would give me. I was expecting an upright piano - a small grand if I was very lucky. What I got instead was well, a little surprising.

This is me playing Yamaha's fusion of a grand piano and an electric keyboard. It looks like a very very small grand piano, the keys and the pedals feel very real. But the way the sound was created was entirely electric so when I tried to play loudly, it didn't happen!! Funnily enough, nobody gave a rat's ass as long as I played something nice for them to listen to.

There was talking throughout my whole performance and well, I couldn't care less. I played a Chopin Nocturne, Debussy's Gardens in the Rain and a piece I composed myself. Well, actually - I just improvised on a melody I made up and said that I 'composed it for the senior citizens' hehe.

The event was actually quite big and I played for 200 or so people. It was an event subsidised by the government and one of the representatives V. Judge was there, along with the Mayor and his Deputy. They were all making great speeches about how happy they are to be here and teaching the old people how to vote for Labor. It was funny because they spoke to everyone like they were children - "I was the one who rallied the government for your new bus! I told them, this is WRONG, kind elderly citizens like you should not be left trapped in your homes. It's not right!". I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

There were other performances by some Chinese dancers, a few Chinese choirs - they did some old Classics like "Moon represents my heart - Teresa Teng" and the Chinese national anthem and lots more. The funny thing was, they had no shame! Some of them were close to their 90s and they just sang their heart out, singing and dancing with the music. Makes me realise how insignificant age is - because you can still have a great time, smile and be called 'handsome' even when you're old!

I met an Italian couple - the only non-Asian people there. They were such lovely people - I have a big soft spot for Italian people. They spoke Italian to each other and the husband, who spoke pretty good English and had a very contagious smile loved my music and loved to talk with me. When he asked me how old I thought he was - I said around 60? Imagine my surprise when he told me he was actually 84! :O

We talked for a very long time. The wife told me how to make tomato paste, the husband talked about Italy and drinking wine. They were quite sad to see me go after my free lunch.

SUNDAY was another crazy long day. Went to play for the 9am mass, then Youth Mass rehearsal at a totally new location. We were placed in the staff room instead and it's a smaller space so everybody was squished but we improvised and it was quite fun :D I'm really starting to get the hang of leading praise and worship. I'll probably go to Rice this year to see how they do it and learn something. There's something very special about the big Christian Worship rallies that gets you all hyped up, inspired and in love with God. It's such a wonderful feeling.

Returned home after the 11.30am mass and lunch to practice piano before heading out to my friend's 21st birthday party at Churasco Brazilian style BBQ =D

I was a little reluctant to go because I was SO tired after my morning but I wouldn't want people to bail on my birthday, so I ate a whole heap of fruit - for the sugar, and rushed out to catch the train with J to the city. The place, though expensive - $35 for all you can eat MEAT, was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. SO. MUCH. MEAT.

I had a peak at their kitchen and it's just filled with meat, skewed on a long steel rod turning round and round, glistening and cooking to perfection.

My first servings of Mid-rump steak and some other part of the cow. All very well marinated, with sauces at your table. The round green sticker-looking pieces of paper were there to notify the waitresses to give MORE or to stop giving more food to you. Of course, mine was turned to GREEN - give me more please - the whole night :D

Really good cuts of meat - tender and juicy. With the special spices they give you, it slides into your mouth and down your throat within a few juicy bites.

My first plateful ^^ of food. Seriously, once they get started, the food just KEEPS on coming. You can see the Mozarella cheese on the left, then a slide of lamb (rare and oh so tender), chicken breast on the top left hand corner, honey mustard ham on its right, with rice, creamy potatoes, sausages and rice. There was a vast variety of food available and we just kept saying YES even before they asked us if we wanted some :D

Then we got crackling pork belly, cheesy bread, scotch fillet marinated with a mustard-like sauce, small sausages and there was a particularly spicey beef steak they gave us later I forgot to capture onto my camera in my eating enthusiasm :D

My awesome friends from Church - there are a lot more but a lot of them couldn't make it. Everyone looks super happy here and very full too! :D This would be the group where cantonese and english are alternated with lightning fast speed. The stories they told me about their adventures together were hilarious and very entertaining. I had a really amazing time with these people. It takes dinners together, camps and quality time spent together to really get to know each other and I'm so glad I didn't bail on this dinner!

Had a really nice chat with J after dinner on the train back home. I hope we all go for our dreams, because those who follow their dreams and don't give up - I believe - will find true happiness. Everybody has their vocation in this lifetime and to find it, then find satisfaction in it is a lifetime goal which I think is the key to leading a life with no regrets. So all you out there who have dreams, GO. FOR. IT. It's not too late, don't let money stop you, and most importantly, don't let yourself stop you.

One of my all-time favourite quotes (one I write in front of my music scrapbook to motivate me :D)

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

— Mark Twain

So there's my week. Hope all you out there has been having an even better one. I'm going to see DOCTOR ZHIVAGO tomorrow! Super excited and really hoping it will be a fun night.

Ticket delivery!

2011-03-16T15:06:00.005+11:00

I absolutely LOVE receiving things from the mail. Whether those things are books or anything else really that's addressed to me, I love the feeling of opening up the parcel or envelope and seeing what's inside.

And so it was extra extra exciting when I opened up a yellow envelope to find THESE:

Well, there's actually four all linked together but the camera's too small to let me capture them all in one frame. We're going to see it WEDNESDAY 23 MARCH 8pm =D I can't wait. It's probably not the most outstanding musical in the world, because it's still relatively new and it's based on a more tragic and dramatic theme, but I know that it's a musical that's worth seeing! I'll be sure to type up a little review with a few pics (hopefully) afterwards. I pray and reallyyy hope that we get Anthony Warlow - so Mr Warlow, if you have the time to follow my blog LOL, please perform on that night. pretty please :)

That's all for now. More news from Japan especially about the nuclear crisis and big earthquakes that are only aftershocks - I kinda feel like I should have used the money from the tickets to donate to Japan. I love that country, I love their people, their arts, culture and technology. Stay strong!!

Praying for the World

2011-03-15T00:56:00.002+11:00

A quick post before I get some good ole shuteye.

Had a very busy day today. Woke up at 10.30 XD and realised I had barely 6 hours to practice piano. So I shot out of bed, quickly brushed my teeth, checked my mail and made my extremely filling breakfast drink. Instant oats + chocolate + walnut tea with milk. Much better than Up n Go :D

Practiced like mad for the next 2 hours till lunch and saw the death toll of Japan skyrocket to more than 10,000. Complete shock. I imagine how much I've experienced in my life and as Paulo Coehlo calls it, each life is a universe - a universe of emotions, experiences, loves, hates and efforts. 10,000 of them, just blown away. I have this tragic image in my head of 10,000 candles just blown out by a massive gale of wind. How can man say they control the universe and the world? How can we say that you can do anything as long as you have money? It's nuts when our ego makes us feel invincible and powerful - because earthquake could be the end of you. I've really learnt to appreciate life more and to really make the most of everyday.

Afterwards, talked to my dad about the situation in Libya and I like how he always gives me the alternate side of things. He asks me how I think these protestors are funded? How did they get all the machinery and artillery to protest? And he tells me the chilling story of America funding wars and violent protests in secret so the civil turmoil will eventually result in America 'saving' the country and claiming authority over it. Usually those places are places where they can benefit - oil. He asks me how terrorists are funded? Who are the enemies of the Americans? Why does America choose to back up Taiwan in its attempt to gain independence from China?

It's a sly, cruel and truly complicated world we live in.

Back to piano practice and i'm really enjoying the new piece I'm playing - the Dante Sonata by Liszt. It's based by an epic poem called The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. I'm starting to get the hang of this piece and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I do hope I can perform it for my friends some time :D

Then I went and taught for 2 and a half hours. It's rewarding I guess, when they practice and when I see the smiles on their faces, but it's so tiring. I had barely 30 minutes between two students to have a bite of dinner and pack my badminton stuff.

BADMINTON was amazingly fun. For the first time, I played a game with the adults instead of mucking around with my friends. I was caught off guard and couldn't really find my rhythm, but it was fun and I got a few good shots in. Then I mucked around with my friends and then played a singles match with my very lanky and tall friend. It was intensely fun and so exhilarating to have the court to yourself and unleash tricky drop shots, powerful smashes and crafty net shots :D

I then played a doubles match. It was mighty funny because it was two tall and lanky people versus two short people haha but we ALMOST WON, if not for me getting quite tired and losing concentration. We lost 14-15!! It was one of the few times the match went into deuce. I need to practice my tricky drop shots and find ways to not use up all my energy so quickly!!

Had a hectic day and need some shuteye!

Graduation

2011-03-14T01:22:00.005+11:00

Probably don't have time for Luxembourg today bahaha gosh I'm not very good at keeping my blog promises.

Drove with mum to UNSW today (on a Sunday), not to go to Uni - hell no! but to go to the AMEB graduation ceremony that I was invited to. In hindsight, I really don't think it's worth it. It's all classy because we are told to wear gowns and stoles according to which award you're getting (Amus or Lmus). I was going to catch the train then bus it to UNSW, but after looking out at the blistering hot weather, then looking down at my black pants, shoes and long sleeved shirt - I decided against it.

The gowns are soo annoying. There aren't any buttons or anything to keep it in place, so it kept falling off my shoulders everytime I moved around too much or sat down. The stole was another unnecessary accessory I wore. It hung from my neck and kept slipping to one side. Very annoying. I wish I could wear the hoods that people with more academic achievements were wearing. you're not meant to WEAR the hoods on your head - just meant to rest on your shoulders. I really don't understand these ceremonies. Half the examination boards looked like court jesters with their funny colours and head gear they wore onto the stage hehehe.

Think I better show you what I mean :P

That would be me in the middle with my two new friends whom I met at the ceremony. Surprisingly, they were all older than me. One's doing commerce, actuarial studies and the other comm/law haha kudos to them, hanging in there with music :D

Ceremonies like these remind me of Presentation Nights and Awards Days back in High School, though with less speeches and excellent musical entertainment - not that the entertainment by us Jazz Ensemble wasn't amazing. These performances were short and oh so sweet. I never knew the Euphonium could sound so beautiful. I also fell in love with a violinist playing a beautiful 3rd movt of a sonata fantasie by Franck.

Afterwards, I bumped into a lot of people! I saw Mr Wong, Pattypoo and Grubsy! Pat just came back from Medcamp and Grubsy was there to support his little cousin who got her Amus :P I swear she had more flowers from her parents and family than any of the performers there! And I went home empty handed. Nobody thought to hand me some flowers :(

Upon persuasion by Grubs, his parents and my mum, I reluctantly paid $115 to have my certificate put up on a plaque so I can 'show off' to my students that I have so and so award and qualification. I think I much prefer my trophies :D

Big day of practice tomorrow. Gta get some shuteye. Hopefullly get a hair cut soon...REALLY need it :( it's like a mop on my head. yarrkkk

The Way You Are

2011-03-13T01:29:00.003+11:00

Did something really silly on Thursday night. But before I go into that, just a quick update.

I am now officially going to World Youth Day Madrid this August, from August 7 to August 25. Afterwards, I'm really hoping to stay a little longer afterwards to go to Rome and maybe visit some cities in Italy. And because this isn't just a holiday - it's a pilgrimage - there are WYD formation events I have to attend in preparation (spiritually and linguistically) for Madrid.

The pilgrimage I'm going on is called Pilgrim's Way and is one of four pilgrimage packages that the Parramatta Diocese have and I'm going on this one because my parish priest Fr Fernando is leading this one and it's super exciting. Going to land in Barcelona, spend a few days there, then go up to the south of France (Lourdes) for another few days, then back to Madrid. There'll be a few bus/train rides I'm sure, but there's going to be lots of walking with a massive rucksack on my back.

As part of the WYD preparation formation events, there are nights when I have to go to a particular Parish Hall (like St. Pats or the one in Penrith St. Nicholas) to hear talks by notable speakers and organisers of the events, meet the people there, learn SPANISH :D and have discussion forums.

This month, there are two choices of formations to go to. There was a whole day one in Penrith and a two separate nights one in Parramatta. My friends and I decided to go to the two separate nights one in Parramatta. Part 1 was on Tuesday and that went really well. Bethany (one of the organisers) spoke about the sacraments in such a tender and loving way and after some discussion, we went into the chapel where Beth had put up icons and paintings of biblical scenes with candles everywhere - the whole chapel was lit up by candles. She played the music of Taize and burnt incense. She told us just to pray. And it was such a touching and tender way of seeing (icons), smelling (incense), hearing (music) and feeling God (well, in our hearts), that if I had been given more time there, I would have completely surrendered myself to God physically and emotionally.

Part 2 of the two separate nights was on the 23rd of March. And guess what I, on thursday night, booked to watch on that night?! DOCTOR ZHIVAGO!

As soon as I realised (which was last night), my face distorted to pretty much D: and I checked the notice several times to see whether I was reading the right date.

So, instead of going to Part 2, I had to go to the Penrith one today. It was an all day and the only way to get there for me was to catch the train. I arrived a little late (cos the express train didn't come =__=) and I had to walk from Penrith station to the church. I was a little worried because I knew absolutely noone today, apart from a few people I met at a discussion some time ago, but there was noone I knew well. I said hello to one of the priests there and went about getting to know some teenagers my age. And guess what? We got to know each other really well - I ended up acting real silly sometimes because well, they are kids from Blacktown and they're not really that sensible. But we had soo much fun! :D Met probably my first Sudanese/African friends - who were freaking hilarious and I really enjoyed the two talks by two Fathers and the Mass in the middle.

Took almost two hours to get home from Penrith by public transport haha but all in a good's day of new experiences.

________________________________

I promised photos in my post a while ago and I haven't delivered, so here's probably part one of many of my luxembourgian trip :D

Okay. I lied and got distracted. and it's super duper late. LOL next time, I promise ;D

Couldn't think of a title either so named it after a really really nice song I'm in love with by Kina Grannis and David Choi - check it out! A beautiful song by two beautiful people, esp Kina. *big cheesy grin*

Operas and Concerts GALORE!

2011-02-02T17:42:00.002+11:00

A quick post to vent some of my immense excitement for the following Operas and Concerts which are coming to the Sydney Opera House these few months.

1. Carmen - Bizet (French Opera) - (15 Jan till 30 March) - REALLY WANNA SEE THIS, especially because I found out I missed a Free performance of it =__=

2. Madame Butterfly - Puccini - (7 Jan till 3 March) - Need to book this one soon!

3. Barber of Seville - Rossini - (4 Feb till 29 March) - Looks interesting too!

4. Ray Chen playing Brahms' Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 - ( 10 Feb till 14 Feb) REAL SOON!

5. Edo de Waart conducting Rachamaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto (played by Joyce Yang) and Rachmaninoff Symphony No.3 - THAT one's going to be EPIC! (7-11 April)

6. Tim Minchin versus the Sydney Symphony - (24-27 March) I have absolutely no idea who he is, but he has MAD reviews for being a brilliant singer, pianist and comedian.

Could probably watch most of the concerts for $32 and the Operas under $70. The seats won't be fantastic, but I'm definitely bringing those Opera Binoculars! =D

So excited. If anybody wants to go watch any of these with me, comment or give me a shout on facebook. I'm going to be poor, but hey, I think it'll be worth it!

But what if it doesn't work out?

2011-02-02T00:10:00.002+11:00

There are always moments in your life when you begin to question your dreams. At times, it comes from people who are closest to you, steering you clear from what you have always believed in. Sometimes, whatever you're working on, just isn't giving you the results you want.

Today, M came home after talking to a family friend about my GAP years and my dream to go overseas to study music in America; how even if all else failed, I would go back to Medicine and there were plenty of places which accepted mature students. The family friend tells her this case where a girl did the exact same thing as me, tried music for a while, stopped and now is finding it excruciatingly hard to get into Medicine. They're asking her to sit the HSC again. I know, right? WTFRICK? :O

It's not the story which bothered me. I knew it's a pretty ridiculous story and I'm sure with my ATAR, as long as I don't wait too long, I can get into the course I want to. It's the fact that my mum said that "All those years, just wasted. You better have a good think about what you're doing".

See, the thing is, I never really have a good think about what I'm doing. Yes, I plan it. Yes, I think about it and ask for people's advice. But I've always...just gone with the flow. My teacher suggested that, since I like music and have some talent for it, that I should consider it and see if it gets me anywhere. So far, it has! I've always felt like He's up there guiding my path, holding my hand and I have complete faith that it's what He's doing now. I've always just believed that with the right amount of hard work, some God-given luck and my charming smile, that I would be able to achieve what it is I want.

When I thought about the possibility that Colburn might not accept me, that I may just end up teaching little kids piano at home, or doing some Commerce degree and finding it hard to find a job, or having not enough money to even get a girl to marry me and start a family, I started to get real scared. I wondered if what I was doing was going to be worth it. In a way, I'm really following this path drawn up by my Him and my piano teacher.

I know it's dangerous to have doubts. But it's been my dream! I dream of being a conductor one day, doing a piano recital once in a while, playing some Chamber Music and teaching some students at Festivals and a University somewhere. It'll be hectic but I'd be living what I love. I just don't know what I would do if it all suddenly began collapsing on me. It's scary to think there's a chance this could happen. But then, I guess, that's what faith and hope's for. I gotta stay strong. I gotta hang in there and just do what I gotta do. The rest will sort itself out. I pray.

My other concern is for the Competition I have to audition for real soon. I got called two nights ago that there is to be no more changes in the repertoire. That was like a massive WOAH WH-WHAT?! I had really wanted to change my repertoire especially because there are 3 out of the 7 pieces listed that aren't prepared. I was planning on changing two of them and leave the 1 to work my ass on. That '1' is the Liszt Dante Sonata. It's a BEAST of a piece. 17 minutes of music from heaven and hell, based on the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Despite my high hopes for this piece, my teacher, though impressed with how quickly I'm learning it, said "Even if you were Ashkenazy, you wouldn't be able to learn it all and prepare it by the 10th". I knew she was right. But where's the hope?!

I'm the type of person who has hope in everything. Federer could be losing straight sets but I'd still have hope that he'd pull through. Our volleyball match could be doomed even before we even started and I'd still believe we would win. It could be raining for the whole week, but on the night before our beach outing, I'd still believe that the sun would come out. Does that make me a sucker for miracles? Well, perhaps. I believe in miracles. I believe that things do come around. I can't help it.

She's suggested that I pull out at the last minute. I'd still prepare like a crazy chicken but I'd pull out. I'm a bit reluctant to do so. So I'll see how it goes. I want to play. I want to perform. But I'll probably need a miracle.

Whew, I feel a lot better now. So many thoughts racing through my head. I was going to start expanding on some of the Luxembourg stuff, but I think I'll do that next time. I need my beauty sleep!

Old and new records

2011-01-30T23:24:00.003+11:00

It's really been quite some time since I've last blogged.

It stuck me a little while ago how fascinating it is to go back and read something you've written a while back. It could be a week, or even almost half a year ago - as with my last post. It's fascinating how much has changed, how much has happened since the last time I made an entry and I feel like I need to keep recording this down; because life is such an adventure, eventful and exciting, with unexpected twists, surprises and delights. I don't want to forget it all.

Since my last post, I've been to Germany, visiting a small town called Bad Bertrich where a piano festival run by Professor JP was held. We stayed in apartments, cooking for one another on some days, and eating out on others (we mostly got shouted those dinners out - from a German Barbeque to the most wonderful dinner MH shouted us at her hotel). Stress was quite a factor on most days. We would wake up at 8.30 every day, grab some bread from a small bakery, rush to the practice rooms, do a few hours there, then have lunch, back to practice rooms (or exploring, as I like to do), attend Masterclasses (or BE in the Masterclass *scary*), drift off into sleep at the concerts, finally have dinner and enjoy pretty much the only 'free' time we had - watching Supernatural and Modern Family!

Sometimes we would go to the German bathhouse. Their idea of a bath is pretty much like a HUGE pool (indoors and outdoors) with some heavy water sprayers here and there and much warmer too. There were hot tubs, but I won't discuss that to much detail. Those who have heard my German spa story would know what I mean :/ I actually got my right ear completely blocked by the water there when I went for a swim - yeah, you could literally do laps.

A big highlight was the wine tasting tour the Festival paid for. We woke up early to catch a bus that took us to a bigger town by the river. From there we were taken by a small ferry to a certain village along the river where the wine tasting was. Our organiser MS took us to this wine tasting house and the best part of the day arrive. LOTS and LOTS of wine! They just KEPT coming! Bottle after bottle. The winemaster would take out a few bottles, pour some into everyone's glass and tell us in German what it was - we'd taste and if we didn't like it, there was a big glass for us to pour the wine we didn't want. Later, he put some bread, cheese and ham on the table for us to eat, served with lard. Lard is very very popular in Germany and it doesn't seem to make them any fatter! A lot of the Germans had big bellies - but I honestly think that's because of the beer.

Meeting Professor JP would probably be the biggest highlight of my trip. You'd think a 75 year old would be walking slowly with a crane, maybe suffering from hearing loss and even some memory loss. This man had more energy than us, cracked jokes every five minutes, sculled beer like it was water and loved food almost as much as he loved music. But most importantly, JP, as scary as he initially appeared to be, took care of us like we were his own children. The thing that I admire most about JP is his attitude to music and teaching. It's like he is a great big ball of love. In his playing, his way of teaching, you could tell that everything he did was for the love of his art and his students. At the end of one particularly difficult masterclass for me, he said something I will never forget. He said, "Chris, I wouldn't spend so much effort and time teaching you this piece if I didn't believe you could do it." At the time, I was at the end of my wits, trying to play this to his standards, applying rubato and all the changes he wanted me to do. I loved every lesson that I was in.

And though I may put all of this experience in a fair light. There were moments where I was just completely overcome with stress and disappointment. MH is an amazing teacher and mentor, but there were moments when I felt that she was very harsh on us, especially during the festival. It was my third Masterclass with JP and I played a piece by Beethoven which I had practice so long and so hard for. I completely messed it up. I was so frustrated with myself, especially because I couldn't do correct all my rhythmic mistakes nor play the piece properly for the man I was trying to impress most. The Master class did not go very well, and to make matters worse, instead of being comforted, I got told off even more for making a mess of the piece. I was more angry at myself than anything. Why couldn't I play it well?! All that hard work for what?! I walked alone back to the practice rooms to correct my mistakes and halfway through I just couldn't hold it in any longer and everything I was feeling just rushed out of me.

So you see, it wasn't all happy fun and games. But I guess, like with all stormy nights and dark tunnels, the light's always just around the corner and for me, that was winning the Audience 1st prize at the Student Recital.

Other highlights would probably be the lush green scenery all around us. We were in the middle of a valley, surrounded by really green trees. The Germans take great care with their flowers, arranging them in bright colours on their window sills, road lamps and at the side of the street. It's amazing how much flowers and colours can do to liven up the place.

Anyway, that would be a quick summary of my first 2 weeks in Germany. I figured I'd do a bit of the past and recount a bit of the present - balance things out a bit.

Went down to North Sydney College of TAFE on Friday to apply for a Chemistry Course. I didn't do Chemistry for HSC (No sciences :P) and my mum's condition for me to take another GAP year was to do the Chemistry course. It's only for 6 months, 4 hours a week. It was to fill a pre-requisite for Monash University and hopefully, with a good UMAT and a good interview, there's a chance I could get in. Well, that's what my mum wants anyway. I'm still gunning for my music thing!

The people there were very nice and the Chemistry teacher seems like a pretty cool teacher. I kinda feel like I'm back in High school again. And it's a bit exciting to be honest.

Saturday was a complete waste of a day. I spent it watching Castle (GREAT SHOW BTW =D) and Psych (another awesome show). I think I'm really into detective and crime mysteries at the moment. I think I'm starting to like Castle more, especially for its extremely witty lines, the great connection between the cast, the nature of the murder mystery and the relationship between Castle/Beckett and Castle/Family. So fun to watch!! =D

Sunday - Youth Group (Don't forget the Lyrics/Musical Chairs game I invented turned a little too competitive) then Church and then lunch, coffee with Connie at Parra.

One thing I did find out about myself was that since my Europe trip and my huge dilemma about my career, I've grown to like talking about deeper subjects. Although games and sport (esp the tennis) still interest me, after talking to so many people overseas about their cultures, their lives and their philosophies of life, I've found that I've matured and that I love talking about culture, art, different ideas and travelling. It's hard to explain and though I try to deny that it's true, I think I've matured even more? I don't know, but I like what I see when I try to envision what I would like to be my future. I just hope I can work hard enough to achieve those things and that He will be there to give me those things that will bring me happiness.

I think it's almost time for me to go to bed. I'm trying to do a post more often. With photos and stuff soon.

Omg I really should be sleeping but...

2010-07-25T01:13:00.004+10:00

Yes. It's 1.13am by my clock and I have again submitted to the lures of my computer.

I am currently under a lot of pressure and stress. There's SOO much to be done before I leave for my trip to Germany and I fear I will not have all the time I need to prepare everything.

Things yet to be done:

- Fill out early Voting form.

- Study hard for the UMAT

- Perhaps organise something for my birthday

- Finish learning and memorising the 4th movement of my Beethoven Sonata

- Perfect everything else in my repertoire

- Enter the Galson District Piano Eisteddfod

- Extend my Travel Insurance

- Organise some day-to-day Itineraries for Vienna/Berlin

AND SO MUCH MORE >:O

Oh, and to the main reason why I am posting this. Today I received a pleasant email from my Inbox with the following Subject: Masterclasses with Professor JP (yay!)

And this is how it goes:

18. INTERNATIONALER KLAVIERSOMMER 2010

MEISTERKURS Prof. JP (USA)

Dear participants,

we look forward to have you in Bad Bertrich very soon. Once again students from around the

world have signed up:

Esther Kim, Christopher Au (IT'S ME =D why Christopher? I have no idea), Paoley Tija, Sam Dharma, ......and the list goes on..

The closest train station to Bad Bertrich is Bullay/Mosel. Arriving from Frankfurt airport

you have to switch trains at Koblenz. Trains from the airport run every hour (direction Bonn-

Cologne) and take a little over one hour to get to Koblenz. In Bullay we can pick you up by

car. There is also bus service (not very frequently) and taxis. We recommend you arrive by

either one of these trains on Sunday August 8:

Koblenz

Bullay

13.23

14:06

15.23

16:06

These are trains on the line from Cologne to Luxemburg. Arriving from Cologne you may not

need to switch trains in Koblenz.

These are not the only trains, but those are the times we will be able to pick you up in

Bullay. If possible try to let me know when you plan to arrive. If possible do not arrive after

16:07, because then the time before the opening recital of the festival (7pm) featuring Anna

Malikova (Moscow) might be too short.

The concert is in the „Kurfürstliches Schlösschen“,

also the location of the master class. Bad Bertrich is a small town, everything is within

walking distance. The concerts are free for all students. Enclosed find the festival brochure.

We kindly ask you to mail us your time of arrival. Bad Bertrich has a bakery and convenience

stores. Please have the course fee ready in cash on Monday August 9 (no checks, no credit

cards).

Please bring appropriate attire for the master class final concert. Also bring bathing suits; the

admission to the fabulous new thermal spa is free to students.(coolies:P) The master class fee is due the

first days of class in cash (Euros). Please make plans to vacate the apartments on Saturday

Aug. 21 before noon. If you have very early return flights Saturday morning you may have to

go to Frankfurt Friday night. You will get your housing assignment upon arrival. Please let

me know now if for any reason you cannot attend the master class.

Sunday August 8 I can be reached all day by dialing 0171/49 41 653. If there are any

questions, please call, write, or email.

Very sincerely,

Well, that's all I really wanted to share with you tonight.

On a very excited and jovial note - I BAKED COOKES!! Melting Moments to be precise. And they were very yummy and I wish I had made more :) More on that soon.

Gotta sleep, gonna try and wake up at 7am to do some UMAT before Church!

Hopeful

2010-07-15T12:28:00.010+10:00

Ah, time to blog again.

It's been a while, I know. Almost a month, in fact. And guess who's going to Germany in a month?? ME !!! :DD

I get so excited thinking about this in bed that I end up tossing and turning, grinning from ear to ear, imagining how much fun it's going to be. It's probably why I've gotta get into the 'work hard, play hard' attitude. I don't think my life would be complete without travel. Does it sound insane to want to hire a car from London and drive it around Europe? Or even purchase a Complete Europe Rail Pass and visit villages, enter museums, maybe take up some odd jobs to earn a few bucks, then spend it all on food. I guess for Asians, being brought up by a very sheltered environment makes you timid; afraid to take that extra step.

Only this morning, when I told my mum I had gone jogging in the morning, she would frown, saying "You shouldn't run around in the morning, the cold winter air will hurt your lungs". A more extreme situation would be her trying to dissuade me from going to the City. She had heard about drunkards and beggars mugging Asian teenagers from the Chinese newspapers - DAMN the Chinese Newspapers !

I'm worried I may never be allowed out clubbing or partying - I'd be murdered if I returned home at 2 or 3am.

But there's SO much more to this world than just staying at home, studying. I wanna get out there and experience it. The only trouble is, I don't know whether these experiences should be when I'm young, or when I'm older.

On one hand, I have this vision where I would go overseas to study - possibly Music, if I get into Colburn Music School. And I would probably have the best time in my life. I would go overseas once or twice a year, travelling to Europe for Music Festivals, Concerts and International Competitions everywhere. There would be pressure, stress, plenty of sleepless nights, but I would enjoy it in retrospect. Then I'm thinking I might do Medicine at Melbourne University or Sydney University, settling down with a good job and hopefully a wonderful family.

But by then, I'd be quite old. Is that a problem?? I'd graduate when I'm 28/29, then enter a specialty, I'd only start earning 6 digit figures when I'm at least 35.

I'm just worried I'd grow old with lots of wonderful memories and experiences of when I was young, but without much more than a penny to live out the rest of my old age.

On the other hand, if I started studying now, getting into a good course (UNSW Med), graduate at around 25, occasionally travelling to Asia, maybe to Europe on a rare occasion, then earning, saving lots of money. Ultimately, I'd retire early and live out the rest of my life (with someone :P) and THEN travel and experience the world.

I'm just not so sure which path I'm supposed to take. Any advice?

Anyway, to a more cheerier subject - what I've been up to recently!

I've been out and about a little more and boy, everyone I talk to now seems to be partying late, going out and meeting girls/guys. It must be University, and I don't think I can wait any longer for a dose of it.

I realise I've been going out on quite a few lunch 'dates'. It's actually very very fun to meet up with people and have brunch or even a cup of coffee. If there's anybody who's up for lunch/coffee, let me know ! :) Recently, I've taken a keen interest in Cafes, and I'd love to go out and try out a few more :D So who's up for lunch?

June 22

Mindy texted me one morning after my piano lesson and I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. I hadn't heard from her in AGES and knowing how busy she usually is, how I'm always at home XD, it's no wonder I hadn't had a chance to chat. SY decided she would tag along (what a loser haha) and so we met up at Epping station and walked down to Cafe Topiary.

I had opted for this place because having bought the Entertainment Book, I had a '25% off the bill' voucher - yes, I'm serious. I had never tried it and neither had they, so why not? :)

Here's Mindy posing with my cup of VERY strong coffee. I had decided that I would try something different and new. Little did I know that what I had picked would come in such a small size!

Luckily, I had ordered soy milk with it and that served to nullify some of the bitter quality of the Coffee.

Wow, my camera is quite amazing hehe. This is Mindy with her Mocha, I think.

The Cafe had their own website until recently, and now it's down.... I was counting on it to remember some of the Menu. And Here comes the Food !

This would be my Big Breakfast Deluxe or something. It doesn't look like a lot, but it was definitely filling. I really like what they did with the Smoked Salmon - it looks like one of those Salmon Rolls at a Sushi Train. I have to admit, I wasn't very daring with this choice, but nevertheless, very tasty :D

SY had some Chicken Parmigiana with Smoked Salmon and a generous slice of Avocado. I remember her being quite full and happy with that, so it was probably worth it :)

This was Blue Cheese and Chicken wrapped with Bacon. Oh boy, that doesn't sound very appetising - I'm certain it sounded better on the Menu. This, was also very nice.

I think I can safely say that Cafe Topiary was quite a tasty experience. The service was very friendly and though the food was slightly overpriced, it was delivered with generous portions. The place could have been decorated a bit more - I saw some cushions and bean bags still unwrapped in a corner, so they're probably still in the process of decorating the place. I think the total price of that was around $41.60 (with my voucher), so that's pretty good !

I must leave now.

Richard just called and has offered me a job accompanying this girl for her competitions - which happens to be in the same place as mine!

The songs she's singing are absolutely beautiful - short (which is good :P), quite easy to play but so pretty!

I shall leave you with this song which I have liked for..ever, really. I used to listen to Rage on ABC every morning before it was no more, along with Video Hits. This was a song which never made it to like Take 40 or those countdowns, but SUCH a good song. I love Twista's rapping and the words in this song. It has clips from Coach Carter which are also interesting.

I especially like the Chorus:

Cuz I'm hopeful, yes I am, hopeful for today,

Take this music and use it

Let it take you away,

And be hopeful (hopeful) and He'll make a way

I know it ain't easy but that's okay.

Let's be hopeful!

Enjoy !

Fierce Competition

2010-06-13T20:14:00.007+10:00

I promised myself I'd blog more.

I know that once I'm a little older and maybe wiser too, I'd return to this place of memoirs and recollections to reminisce. Yet, time and time again, TV shows like House and well, mainly House, lure me into its cage of suspense and entertainment.

I actually DO want to watch the FIFA World Cup with someone, well, some people. So if anybody's staying up for a really good match anytime between these two weeks, I'm definitely up for it. =)

So, what to blog about?

There's definitely been lots of progressions in my GAP year, which I'm generally pleased about.

As you might have read from Bosco's blog, I went to IKEA the other day with him. He was nice enough to pick me up from my humble abode in the tranquil and very lovely Denistone. Bosco's driving is pretty good - he stays within the speed limit and though he says he's horrible at parking, he managed to park in the Rhodes Carpark without much trouble.

He couldn't believe it was my first time to IKEA. It was at that time that I realised I hadn't actually gone furniture shopping, or done any renovations around my house for over 6-7 years! Course, there was this new bathroom wardrobe we bought that my dad tried to build, which came down to a thundering crash onto our shower screen when he decided to have lunch; as well as a new bunk bed we bought for our guests during WYD. But apart from that, everything was pretty much the same from the year 4-5 onwards.

Oh, and we got a big KAWAI grand piano. That counts as furniture, right?

SWEDISH FOOD: I need to be more brave. I'm a little angry at myself for staying safe. For eating Pasta and Meatballs with Chips when clearly there were some traditional Swedish food (desserts and pastry) which I could have picked up - for a lower price too!

I swear, when I'm in Germany, I'm going to try and drink a different beer each time I dine and try different sausages. Only trouble is, I'm not sure how good the food in Germany is.

People who have been tell me it's VERY salty. I went to a gathering of my Piano Teacher's ex and current students at Pepper Lunch (which was pretty good though the $13.30 Eel Pepper rice didn't fill me up) and because they had been overseas before, they gave me much of the inside goss on how to survive the masterclasses and the place itself.

Turns out they were eating a lot of the German food when they realised they were gradually getting more and more fatigued. And they couldn't figure out why!

Then a smart ex-Ruse currently Yale University music student by the name of David Fung tells them how the salt in the food they ate was probably the cause of their exhaustion.

I'm going to be careful to drink lots of water there. Drain away the salt...and possibly the alcohol too :P

What was I talking about before? Right, IKEA and Swedish food.

Lunch was quite fun, catching up and discussing what Bosco is likely to become in the future, apart from being overly annoying and possibly wealthier. I really envy his course. It seems like there's soo much hands-on work and experience he's able to get. I really liked that in the Monash Medicine Course. Too bad I didn't do Chemistry when I was in High School, otherwise I'd probably be going there next year.

Right now, I'm blogging at home, in my sister's room and bed; keeping watch on her as she prepares for her maths test for Truong. Apparently if she fails another test, she has a chance of being kicked out of her class. So, being the good brother I am, I rummage around for my Yellow Fitzpatrick book and find all the Algebra Substitution, Expansion and Factorisation questions I can and write them all out. I kinda feel like a teacher. Makes me wish I went into tutoring and advertising myself. Again, I hate myself for hesitating. I honestly thought I wouldn't be good enough. Now it might be too late.

Moving on, I definitely have some good news to tell. (yay!)

I FINALLY WON SOMETHING BIG IN A COMPETITION!! =D

How shall I narrate this tale of disappointment to success?

Well, let me start 2 weeks ago.

On the last weekend of May, specifically on Sunday, I was entered into 5 sections of the Northern Beaches Eisteddfod. I honestly had no idea where it was and when I found the address:

Montgomery Theatre,

Australian Veterans Retirement Village,

Collaroy Plateau

The last time I heard of Collaroy was, well, where we always went to for our overnight Camps.

I looked at Google Maps and found the place to be near Narrabeen (another place for camp, close to the beach and sea). I thought I'd be travelling for AGES.

Luckily for me, and for my Dad ( he doesn't drive much, he got his international licence like 20 years ago and has only started driving again recently D: a little scary, right? :P), it was only a 30 minute or so drive.

It was my first competition for a LONG time and honestly, I had no idea what to expect.

Performing is an art to perfect, master and experience. What performers find thrilling, is the fact that each and every time you perform is a different experience. There will be ups and downs to every single performance. And the most exciting part - is that it's unpredictable. Unbeknownst to the public audience, a single second loss in concentration, a minuscule memory lapse, a slip of the finger, arm, or foot or even the rude distraction of a phone call from the audience can put you totally off your equilibrium. Eventually, a good performer would regain his senses and focus, finishing his performance in a grand and conclusive style. But believe me, so much happens in your head when you're performing. So much.

To cut a very long and tiring day short, I did not return home very pleased with myself.

Not that I didn't practice long and hard for the competition. What I lacked, in retrospect that night, was performance experience. The experience to control the nerves, adrenaline rush, the mental voice that goes "Play faster. Screw playing all the right notes and controlling your hands, let yourself go!"

That voice, if you ever hear it anytime you're on stage - is the voice of Iago, tempting you and leading you astray, devilishly whispering directions you would usually never consider taking.

I was stupid enough to fall for it.

As a result, though the adjudicator noted my "Great energy in playing and emotionally uplifting. You are a virtuosic player but at present, lots of detail needs to be adhered to" she wouldn't award me anything higher than a Highly Commended.

She was an adjudicator who placed great emphasis on accuracy. She wanted all the right notes pressed and played clearly and with all the right phrases being done. Splash in a bit of dynamics and some rubato and you have a first place. It wasn't fair, I said to myself, my playing is musical, energetic, moving - I just play some wrong notes and rush a bit!

I returned home with a 3rd place and a handful of Highly Commended's. Essentially, I knew what I had to do. Play all the right notes and stay safe, secure and let in some of the adrenaline and joy of performing ONLY in short bursts.

I also knew one more thing. To master performing and all the nerves, I needed to do LOTS of it. I needed to overcome a major obstacle. To be able to perform an entire piece, fully focused and with the knowledge that I cannot make a single mistake. Only then, will I be able to play well. And win something.

Oh good Lord, I have written too much. I considered making a Part Two. Maybe I'll repost this later with some photos..just to spice things up.

Continuing on, the Monday after I finished the competition at Northern Beaches, I couldn't bear to play anymore. I didn't want to. I resented the fact that I couldn't play as well as I could. There was soo much in me but I had no means of delivering it - not without playing some wrong notes or losing control over my fingers.

Then, halfway through my third last episode of Season 1 House, the phone rang. It was my piano teacher, ringing to see how I went.

PT: Chris, you didn't ring me.

Me: Yeah, I know. I'd see you tomorrow anyway, thought I'd tell you then.

PT: How did you go then?

Me: Not so well. I couldn't control myself and made lots of slips. The adjudicator looked for the right notes and gave the prizes to boring typewriters who played all the right notes, but frankly, quite unmusically.

PT: You have what I would call, a wild tiger within you.

I laughed.

PT: I'm serious. And it's a good thing you do. It's only boring performers who don't have that within them. That energy and passion, David Fung, has that problem too.

Me: But he knows how to control it.

PT: Pretty much, yes. You need to perform more. Do you have any family friends, neighbours or anyone you can play to?

Me: Yeah.

PT: Well, play to them. Just keep playing to them until you can learn to control the adrenalin, nerves and focus on playing every little detail and note.

Me: I can ask my neighbours to come listen tomorrow. They're retired so they're quite free.

PT: Good, ask them. You'll need to play for your parents and anybody else.

Me: Hmmm, okay.

PT: Don't worry. You would have improved much more by the time Parramatta Eisteddfod comes along this coming weekend.

And I did. Much more.

The following week, I practiced like mad. Though not without a few scattered episodes of House here and there. I asked my neighbours to come watch me play my whole repertoire on Thursday Night. My mum returned from Hong Kong on Friday night, so I got her to listen to me too. And then I gave my dad a little concert on Saturday Night. I should have been paid for it.

But little did I know, that I actually was. My playing improved drastically over the 4-5 days and eventually Parramatta Eisteddfod, which was on the 5-6 June, sneaked up on me, a little like Nathan does before launching his attacks on my private areas.

Sonata Saturday

I played my first piece: a Beethoven Piano Sonata, Op.7 the 1st and 3rd Movements

Luckily, I was placed very close to the top in the playing order. It's such a relief when you get to play 1st, 2nd or 3rd. It's pretty much like English Speeches in Year 11 and 12.

The feeling of having spoken already in front of the whole class and all that was left, was waiting for your result and listening/watching the rest of your classmates suffer whilst they presented theirs is a feeling I related to. So much that as soon as I played, I left. Without knowing my result.

The middle aged ladies at the reception desk would always ask in a slightly sad tone: "Aw, leaving already?" and I would reply "Yes, to practice". My Piano Teacher would have been proud.

The Beautiful Ballade

That morning, I had two sections. An Open Section (under 8 minutes), where I could play practically anything I wanted. Just not anything I would repeat later on in the competition.

I played Chopin's Ballade No.1 and nailed it.

I focused my mind, constantly asking myself, what's next, what's next, what's next, focus and relax your forearms, pedal correctly, concentrate! Softer, louder, a little slower here. Later on, my dad would tell me that he observed everybody's reaction and facial expression whilst I was playing, and they were captured. Intent on watching every movement I made, reacting to every sound, the beautiful melodic line which occurs exactly three times in the piece, each time slightly varied in key and emotion and the dark, stormy and agitated parts scattered throughout.

But, as always, disaster strikes.

I was three-quarters my way through, almost approaching the fast Coda, appropriately namedPresto con Fuoco. Fast with fire. When all of a sudden, the perfect bubble of concentration and focus was burst by the ringing of the time bell. I had gone over 8 minutes!!

There was nothing for me to do. So I rushed. I pressed through, struggling a little at times with the Coda, it was definitely fast, lots of fire too - it was blazing hot with speed. But with slips.

I groaned in the inside. Why ruin my perfect moment?!?

Nevertheless, I picked myself up. I would not give up so easily and without pausing for a breath, regained control. I would end this well, and with dignity.

I absolutely nailed the ending. And as the final octave was struck, I heard the applause of the audience and smiled. I had finally played something I was, almost entirely, satisfied with. I was smiling when I walked off stage. =)

As I descended from the platform, I passed one of the old ladies, the Convenor, in fact, and what she said, really confirmed my view of my playing. That was beautiful, she said.

Then I left for home, to practice for the Piano Scholarship at 1pm.

Scholarship Sunday

I was more nervous for this section that any other section I was in before. With a cash prize of $2000, it was the most I'd get in a single section. The City of Sydney Eisteddfod had the highest cash prize of $500 and though they had a John Allison Scholarship worth around $10,000, I wasn't ready for that yet.

I have a confession.

Though I believe in God and I practice my faith every week, I am a little embarrassed to admit I'm a little superstitious. Not in the sense that I cannot walk into a building with an umbrella open, or that I have to avoid walking under a ladder, nor do I run away at the mere sight of a black cat.

It's more like a combination of karma and superstition. Being very hard to explain, I'll de-pause my story and continue on.

This time in the Piano Scholarship, I'm second to play. But the person who was first wasn't here. So here I was, agitated, a little shaky and slightly panicky, trying to figure out if I was going to be playing first or not. Like I said earlier, waiting is painstaking.

Within what felt like several minutes, I'm called up and I play my Prelude + Fugue in G# minor by Bach first. The problem with this piece derives from the absence of pedal and its time period. With Romantic music, the pedal easily muffles a wrong note and a few slips are hardly noticed to an untrained ear. With Baroque music, there is no use for the pedal - each wrong or correct note was clear as daylight. My complete concentration was vital.

But as always, disaster strikes.

Halfway through my Fugue, and to my utter dismay, I began to lose concentration. Forcing myself to think harder, my mind would only work in the opposite, drifting off to some other thought like whether I would win the competition, what the adjudicator thought of me. NO!!! I screamed inwardly, I can't afford to go down now !

Though I ended the P+F relatively well, I was starting to get hot and what occurred on a particular HSC Recital Night sprung out of remission.

The glare of the spotlight, along with the very passionate and fast-paced Russian dance piece that was next (Lyapunov's Lesghinka), resulted in sweat. Sweat that was very quickly trickling towards my eyes!

How was one supposed to concentrate, when there was sweat running down your face and towards your eyes, endangering your chances of seeing which keys you were placing? Moreover, my mind was tired, almost exhausted.

I had gone home for lunch, not just for lunch, but also to practice. After going over the time limit, I raced home to time my next set of pieces. And then repractice them so they would be ready for the Piano Scholarship.

My mind was just too tired. Not only from the morning practice, morning session, afternoon practice and all the nerves, but also from forcing myself to concentrate intensely. With an exam, you just have to control your pen movements and brain, but with piano, you have to control your brain, both hands and fingers, your arms, shoulders, and both feet for the pedals and still have time to concentrate on what's ahead in the music that you had memorised.

Nevertheless, I managed to nail it. phew.

But I wasn't very happy with my playing. The true concentration, focus, attention to detail and perfection wasn't there. There were slips here and there - I could have done better. I returned from the stage exhausted and panting.

I really didn't expect to win a prize - but I knew I improved lots and that was something to be happy about.

1, 2, skip a few..

By the time the adjudicator was preparing for her results, I had already almost finished this new book my dad had bought me (more on that in another blogpost, maybe XD).

and by the time she started announcing the results, I didn't close the book. I nervously closed and re-opened the book each time I heard results were announced, eager, yet anxious.

This was where my superstitions kicked in.

If I felt too confident, the chances of me getting it were nil.

If I felt more unconfident, there was a slim chance, well, that I had a chance.

I literally twitched every time I heard the sound 't' come out of the adjudicator's mouth. I dreaded the fact that I would get a Highly commended or Third, Second prize, albeit my knowing that I would eventually come to terms with it.

Third place, rolled in - went to this girl, younger than I was,

Second place - another girl younger than I was.

First place.

I sat there, whilst she commented slightly on his playing. She mentioned how she looked at the spectrum of places he was playing throughout the competition - the level of difficulty and how well I had mastered most of the difficulties. She mentioned the rhythmic drive and energy within his second piece in the Piano Scholarship and how it was powerful and...without many mistakes.

I returned to my book - that person could not have been me.

"So first place, goes to Competitor Number... 2"

No way!!

I could hardly believe it was me and the utterly incredulous look on my face hardly counted for my surprise. I became immediately very grateful, thanking the adjudicator, convenor and Patron of the Eisteddfod countlessly. The trophy felt heavy in my hands and the $2000 cash envelope I received was just as satisfying and rewarding.

I had finally won something big. Finally.

Thanks for reading so far...I felt that surely I had written too much. I really tried to make it an interesting read and perhaps, within your frequent periods of procrastination for exams, you'd have time to read through my most recent two weeks of adventure =)

It's funny how in retrospect, all sufferings, hardships and all crazy adventures you've ever had bite you in the arse, only to make you stronger, help you to learn and they eventually become to most memorable events and journeys in life.

So who's up for overseas holidays? Camping trips? Volunteering? (I got an email from Blackmores, anybody interested? :D)

I can't decide whether to lead a life of 'working hard to earn good money' or to take a more laid-back view of life - 'enjoy life, go and have fun, take risks and give everything a shot'. It's the irony of living in the laid-back Australian community though raised by strict Asian parents who strive for their children to have a high financial and social status.

Photo Time!

First up, My Trophy on top of my grand piano. The two balls in the background don't do much for the photo. Is the crystal in the middle real? Of course ! :P

And now, let me introduce to you my very own creation. From the blistering hot ovens of Denistone, a unique and irresistibly scrumptious pizza. I call it the Humpty Dumpty Supreme.

Encased with a generous amount of mushrooms, tomatoes, red AND green capsicum with a sure and solid foundation of tomato pizza sauce and salami, if only the pizza base was actually pizza base instead of Lebanese bread >___<, it would have been perfecto!

And here's me, diving into my beloved home made pizzas - everything's much better homemade.

The pizza one my left is a seafood one. Avocado, garlic prawns, mixed herbs, just to name a few of the ingredients =)

Well, something you might all be wondering, what am I going to be spending my money on? Probably to see what's inside this building...

I present to you the Vienna State Opera House. I LOVE the lights, it makes the place so much more attractive and alluring. Somehow, just being able to enter and watch a concert inside would make me feel like I'm part of Higher Society XD it's a totally different atmosphere.

Oh, and hopefully, I'll be watching a concert in here too...

How absolutely beautiful are the paintings on the wall. This is the Vienna Mozart House. They usually have concerts inside, though I'm not sure they'll be very big concerts. It'll be a good experience, hopefully good musicians will be playing! OH OH ! and if they were wearing the traditional clothing of say, the 18th century - that would totally make my day !! =D

I'm going to end my blog post here.

I've said more than enough and if you're reading this to procrastinate - you should probably get back to work now XD

I'm still having trouble deciding what I want for the future. So please pray for me, if you believe it will make my decision easier. I'll talk more about that next time.

Ciao for now =)

PS. I send all the people at Uni with exams my BEST wishes. Don't give up !

hello there again :)

2010-05-11T17:08:00.002+10:00

boy it seems like forever since the last time I've told you of my thoughts, my happenings, my days.

I do miss blogging but somehow it has always escaped my to-do list.

So what has been going on in my GAP year life?

I have so much to share.

It's not really anything exciting. I haven't been partying till 3am, knocking back couple of beers with a bunch of hot girls at my side. I haven't even been going out that much but somehow I seem to be busy every day, I still have many stories to tell.

So where do I start?

Well, for one, for those who don't know, I'll be leaving for Frankfurt on August 7, on a 20+ hour flight, not really knowing what to expect. From Frankfurt, I'll be catching a shuttle bus with my fellow piano classmates and my piano teacher to a village in the Southern regions of Germany called Bad Bertrich.

I can't wait to see what the Autobahn's like. We'll be travelling on that and I think I'll be sitting in the front, watching the driver's speedometer. Do they use kilometres over there? It's only the Americans who use miles yeah? I hope they go in the 200s XD

Bad Bertrich is a really small village and known for its scenery and HOT BATHS! I think it's kinda like Hot Springs, but maybe with a German twist to it. I'm thinking hot baths and maybe a really cold beer. Delightful =)

But besides relaxing, I'll be going to masterclasses everyday. Many people nod when I tell them of my masterclasses, do they actually know what they are? Well, Masterclasses for Dummies. :P

Imagine a hall around the size of the School Hall and in the middle are two shining black grand pianos, lined up together. I'll be playing one of them and my Professor will be sitting by the other one. I'll play my piece once and then he'll start to rip my playing apart. He'll be telling me to play this softer, louder or if I'm actually terrible, he'll leave. I hope not.

There's this story that some piano student was playing for him in a Masterclasses and halfway through his Mozart Sonata, the Professor leaves and doesn't come back until the end of the Sonata with a toilet roll. He shoves the toilet roll into the poor piano student's face and growls "Here, wipe this on your ass, cos that's what I think of your playing!" D:

I hope that doesn't happen to me !

Oh, and did I mention that there's a whole audience watching the entire one hour long lesson. Oh, the joy!

So i'll be spending around 2 weeks there, practicing, learning and getting to know piano students from all corners of the world. There'll also be professional concerts every night by well, professional pianists from around the world.

I guess the thing I'm looking forward most is to seeing what the real standard is out there. To experience what it's like to be learning from the best in the world, listening to the best and be amazed by their talent, then crawling back into my practice room to try and outdo them!

After the two intense weeks, I'll be going to Luxembourg. In a small town called Vianden, there's a music festival being held there that I'm going to attend. The only difference is that, the one before, is just a piano festival. This one is a Music Festival, so there's violinists, cellists, opera singers, flautists, you name it, they're gonna be there.

Also, I'll be told to practice a particular Chamber Music Work, which will be a Piano Trio or Piano Quartet (maybe even a Quintet) and I'll have lessons on it there and perform it with the other players. Man, I'm scaring myself just writing this up. I should be practicing !!

Well, I'm going to leave this short. I have to leave soon. Gonna do some driving, take my sister to Canley Vale to coaching. You all have to try this restaurant there called Holy Basil. The food is EXCELLENT. Quite cheap but seriously worth every cent.

I'd recommend the Ox Tongue, Thai Fried Rice with Pineapple and Cashews, their Pad Thai and if you're up for it, their salads and stir fries. Very spicy though, their salads. Almost burnt my tongue off :(

Alrighty, gotta be off!

Hope to see you guys soon.

Take care and maybe I'll see you all sometime =)

Dining In INFERNO!

2009-10-09T21:56:00.005+11:00

in-fer-no [n] : hell, a place or region that resembles hell.

complete crap.

For a jolly group of year 12 music students, Mr Wong, Miss Lee and Mr Best, Inferno Cafe, situated conveniently in Macquarie Centre, just next to the bus stops, was heavenly indeed. I had weird expectations when a buffet consisting of pizza and pasta was mentioned, until I arrived and got told otherwise.

Already quite hungry and eager to see

what Inferno Cafe had to offer, I politely asked for the menu and got a strange look from the waiter. Then an interesting conversation occurs:

(waiter arrives holding one menu)

Waiter: Here you go. Though I'm not sure whether you know what happens here at Inferno Cafe.

Me: Um...

Waiter: See we come along with pieces of woodfire pizza and you just take what you want. Kinda like Yumcha but with pizza and pasta.

=__=" jusstt cos we were asian wasn't it?

Miss Lee, Shaun, Justin and I arrive first and though we were hungry, out of cour

tesy, we wait for others to arrive. Justin gets a call from Cleo and I pick her up from the bus stop. With four on the table and an impatient-looking waiter asking us if the rest were going to turn up, we decide to start eating, thinking that there'd be more food when they arrive. How right we were!

zomg. i hate moving pictures around blogger. cut and paste doesn't seem to work atm ==" why can't i just move them pictures around like in Word?!

So, the pepperoni mushroom pizza =) or this might be the Inferno Pizza, not sure :S

Pretty sure this next one was the Morrocan Lamb, taken just as Harry takes a piece =)

Sorry it looks kinda eww :P but it was REALLY nice. this was one of the pastas we had.

INFERNO! =D

Salmon Fettucine which everybody loved :)

More pictures coming, but just a comment on the food.

I really liked how it came, like Yumcha, little bits at a time, that was, until they started giving us whole pizzas at a time. Before, it'd b just pieces and we'd all look around like meerkats whenever they come around. Then, like vultures, we would ask for everything we had, ignoring what pizza it would be and simply shouting YES WE'LL TAKE IT =) it was that good :)

The pizzas were really well made, did i mention woodfire ;) Each piece was REALLY big and though I swore I wouldn't be able to get full, by the time we'd been there for 2 hours, i was starting to see the effects of eating almost a whole woodfire pizza (much much bigger than the ones @ Pizza Hut...duh :P) and many bowls of pasta :)

soft drinks and refills were free too!

the very very yummy Teriyaki Chicken Pizza. Absolutely wonderful. The chicken wasn't too dry and it left much space for the sauce to sink in. Each bite was very cheesy, though not overwhelming.

Tandoori Chicken Pizza. Though it looked very red and even a little dry, again, it wasn't. I really want to know how to make food look yummier :P Photoshop i know, i guess i'll have to play around with it. Maybe one day someone can do a very helpful blogpost on how to make food/photos in general look pretty - for photoshop nubs like me :)

My camera was being very very naughty that night and most of the pictures I took of people were blurry and not good. Maybe I should have used flash, but I dislike it because it makes the background so dark. Somebody tell me if i'm doing it all wrong, but I like to set the ISO really high as it seems to take prettier photos.

I learnt that using Flash in the daytime also serves good purposes too! Makes everyone look really bright :P and lights up all the shadows especially @ Balmoral where there were shadows everywhere when taking photos!

Richard, Cleo, and Ringo (who ate HEAPS) :P oh, and a friendly bus stop who decided to chime the photo ;)

Our Music Chocolate Mud Cake, bought by Mr Wong. It wasn't rich at all, but by dessert time, we were well and truly TOO full. apparently year 9s and Ringo ate the rest (around half)

Thus ends the Inferno Cafe Dinner Party.

I have to say, it was one of the yummiest times I went out. and guess what the total price of it was for an individual...

$19.90. Good price eh?

So now I delve into another topic which is quite exciting for me.

HONG KONG

Yes. The lovely city I visit once a year. There, my fashion sense becomes distorted, my music taste is simplified to catchy tunes and simple ballads, and my hunger for more yummy food is satisfied - at long last!

I'm happy to let you all know that i'll be staying from

10 December to 15 January

Might come back if there is a need for me to. Say, for example, my horrible UMAT marks were wrong and I get, say, an interview D: =)

i'm also pleased to announce that I'll be working! I'll be working on my FIRST ever JOB and I'll be wearing a suit EVERY DAY to work! No wonder Belle and others were excited at the prospect of wearing a suit!

My dad organised for me to work @ a small Law Firm as an assistant to the Chief Executive...course not. I'll be doing filing, paperwork, and occasionally looking @ some past cases. I'll be paid....wait for it. $100 for my daily services for this very important law firm :P 100 HK that is, hehehe

I'm happy with it. I'm just glad I'm not going to be spending every day pigging out on 5 meals a day, shopping till my arms drop and mucking around all holiday. Sounds good I know, but it's much more rewarding to be doing some work and getting experience with it. As a result, however, I think I'll only be allowed to go out with friends on weekends and even then, I have to bear my Music GAP year in mind and practice piano a lot of the time.

I really hope to go out with you guys in the holidays and so, please invite me to stuff :)

I have to play the piano now. Hope you enjoyed this quick post =) see you all soon =D

9 minutes

2009-10-08T21:52:00.003+11:00

well. 8 minutes, is all i have before i must go back to studying.

yes. studying.

met Jason @ west ryde library today and it's so nice to be studying with someone instead of being all alone. somehow i daydream more when there's nobody there studying with me. It was nice to see some Rusians again :) i saw some of my primary school friends there too, well not really friends, since i don't talk to them :P we USED to talk and play handball together, and all. but one of them's all gangster now and smokes n all. and the other keeps looking @ me funny, like i'm supposed to go up to her and say hi. maybe i will. =D

so i decided to break my silence. it's not much of a 'breaking' but well :D

there's not much time left, and there's never enough time left.

6 minutes left. this feels stupid. blogging feels so unnatural when you haven't done it for long. so i apologise in advance if nothing makes sense, and i'm just wasting your precious study time.

thank you to all who wrote in my little book. you have no idea how much it means to me to have made such wonderful friends in my short yet eventful time @ Ruse. It's not easy to suddenly dive into a new world where everybody is soo friendly with one another already. I hope that the time you've spent with me was as fun as it was for me. =D

3 minutes left.

2 minutes. maybe i should upload a picture instead.

for those of you who missed out on eddison with his saggy boobs ;)

have fun studying =D will miss everybody. and already do.

i hope you'll still say hi, when we see each other in the future, unlike what happened with my primary school friends. and likewise, i'll be more brave and say hi if I see you all in the future =D

welps it's past 10pm.

miss you all. study hard =D see you soon :)

why the long face?

2009-09-07T18:45:00.008+10:00

Today has been such a frustrating day, with so many disagreements and conflicting perspectives hehe on so many different events and its' just been really tiring on the usually cheery Bubbles.

We don't have that much time left together. Let's just be cool, accepting of one another and like i said before, leave school with no regrets.

Cherish every moment you have with one another, because it's seriously not going to last for much longer.

I'm taking my camera to school everyday, taking snapshots of our classes and of my dearest friends. (gosh this sounds kinda corny hehe)

anyway, here are some that I took today :)

why the long face?

Alan being awesome

Kelvin: his big head didn't fit in the screen. jokes.

Believe it or not, Kelvin and I have been friends for 4 years, and we were best buddies in year 8 until he left for Ruse. It's even slightly romantic now that I've come to join him in Ruse, japanese buddies since year 11. =D

alan's infamous fingers blocking an otherwise lovely photo :(

Grubsy in mathematics :)

This is officially my favourite photo. I love him ♥ teehee

In conclusion,

I've been told High School is one of the best times of our life. I know that in hindsight we will all agree, so right now, whilst we still have time to create the best memories of our life, let's just all try and have fun. smile lots. ^_^

see you all soon =D

UPDATE:

was going to practice piano, and guess what I found on the cloth all by himself?

A praying mantis? i'm not sure but it almost looks like a Pokemon hehe. i shall call it Pantisaurus Bubbs xD i love insects and animals, just not a huge fan of birds :(

Top Of The World

2009-09-06T20:38:00.005+10:00

just a short post because i have to get back to the piano :)

VERY HAPPY.

something good has happened today.

dreading tomorrow a little, hope everything will sort itself out.

just following Nathan/Eddy's post,

we don't have much time together, really. Let's finish off our year with no regrets. :D

had a really really good time yesterday which I will blog about soon :(

i have to prepare for my music recital on Tuesday.

Do come along and support our music grade and make some of the lazier ones (like me) work harder! We all need some sort of motivation at times.

yes. very happy =)

see you all soon =D

ps. title of post dedicated to the Carpenters. Top of the World is one of the few songs I know, my dad introduced it to me on guitar and I've loved it since I was in year 5. Others include Close To You and I Won't Last A Day Without You. (how corny XD)

GEE GEE GEE GEE BABY + happy birthday Lui-Rong :)

2009-08-31T22:10:00.006+10:00

First off, a VERY happy birthday to Lui-Rong xD I hope you enjoyed our extreme birthday surprise for you. Though the idea was mine, I have to thank Eddy, Nathan, Bosco and Melinda for making it very possible, creatively adding new ideas, helping us with the choreography and being the awesome dancers you are :)

I hope everybody who watched it enjoyed it, I could not help but smile at the loud shouts of protests as girls and boys alike cringed at the sight of us in short shorts and mini skirts

(actually mine was just rolled up real high xD)

Going to upload one of our practice videos for you to watch. I have the actual one, but I'll leave it up to Ambert and plus, I'm not a real fan of the actual one - i look gross :(

uh oh. just found out the video's like 286 MBs..should have changed the video resolution and quality. if anybody knows how to do it, so it becomes like a 51 MB video, please let me know. after all , it's all for your viewing pleasure :)

So, just so you get a sneak peek of us, here are some photos of the day :)

Group picture after our performance. The silence was quite awkward there. xD

The beginning of Sorry Sorry (oh, oh, oh oh oh oh) XD

Bosco's loving it :)

The part where Melinda comes in. LOL Nathan's in his socks xD

for sexy legs, Bosco and Eddy ftw.

SPRINKLER TIME =) and bosco is adjusting his pants/belt. Apparently Bosco's shorts inside kept coming down and dangled whilst he was dancing hehe :)

my angels :)

Ruilong opening his present.

It was wrapped in a range of wrapping accessories ranging from Bamboo leaves, Glad Wrap, Nappies to Toilet Paper and of course, his Mr. Perfect Hip Briefs.

Anyway, I hope everybody enjoyed our performance, it was unbelievably awkward when Mr McFadyen (if that's how you spell his name) walked in. I think he liked it and could feel the homo aura surrounding the drama room and decided to check it out and make sure nothing was coming out of hand.

As I looked to my left, I could distinctively see many year 11s, other year 10s all peering in on our performance. oh gad, I thought, but the show must go on. The look on Ruilong's, or should I say Luirong's face was priceless, he quite liked it I think :)

After all, all our hard work had paid off, it was worth it and I believe there are many agents now looking for male crossdressing dancers for the year 12 Farewell performance. Well, hopefully next time we won't have to wear short shorts nor skirts. I don't think Ms Treskin will enjoy it. Nevertheless, we are at your service.

Will upload video after I make it smaller in size, so that those capped (Bosco) will be able to watch it :) hurray

To Ruilong, I hope you enjoyed everything we did for you today. Sorry for barring you and leaving you all alone during lunch, recess and in the mornings on Thursday and Friday, hope you weren't too lonely without us. The presents from us may not look like much, but we spent AGES getting it for you, going around ct, hungry, starving and very exhausted. We walked from USyd to Market City to Pitt Street Mall. All. For. You =D

hope you had a blast.

love,

Bubbles =)

ps. Shout to Deva too! Happy Birthday big boy ;)

i present a new brother in our family of bloggers

2009-08-30T23:41:00.004+10:00

A long time member of the Adults Club and an invaluable friend and associate of the Wontons, I present to you Ching Sha/Shaunathon.

Known for his versatile and stunning facial expressions on camera and for his appropriate placement of his hands on his drink bottles, Shaunypoop is full of funny stories.

And now, I present to you, his own, personal blog!! =D

SHAUN'S BLOG

Shaunyboy loves food. Despite his constant refusal to eat food in order to maintain his slim waist line and a weight worthy of envy from the ladies around him, S-horny cannot resist ice cream, nor alcohol :) So next time you see him and he looks famished, you know what to feed him.

Please visit his blog, his first post is already 'sensational'

ps. massive blog coming up soon to sum up our wonderful dinner @ Fujiya and the funfun times we had there

HK FUN + almond cakes

2009-08-26T20:51:00.005+10:00

it's been too long!

Been extremely busy with Trials and though I'm the kind of person to procrastinate eg. watching the newest episode of Pokemon on youtube at 2am in the morning :P , just not the extent to write up a blogpost.

so for those who are going to HK at the end of this year. I decided to elaborate on some of the funny stories/lessons that I have learnt in my past. I do go to HK quite frequently because my mum absolutely ADORES Hong Kong and I have grown to like it. Funnily enough, I hardly ever go to places that are of tourist value, which is coming to bite me back in the bumm because when people ask where in HK I should go? I can only list:

Macau

San Deng (Mountain Top)

Cheung Island ;) (Long Island)

Lam Island

Disneyland/Ocean World.

Wetlands Park

Lady Street? (Loe Yan Gai)

I remember doing an assignment for Commerce back in year 8 where we had to choose a country and practically organise a full travel itinerary for a person X and show them where to go, where to stay. I must say, that would be quite useful now.

For those who ARE organising travelling overseas in the near future. I would strongly recommend everyone, if they're not going on a Tour, to really book everything yourselves via email, or phone because the rewards are amazing. My friend got upgraded to the executive floor, just by being a little extra and promising to stay for a whole week @ the hotel just by negotiating through email and phone. I promise you, there are soo many deals out there that Flight Centre do not tell or are simply unable to confirm (because they only care that they're getting paid for the services) and if you truly want an awesome holiday, emailing, booking yourself is the best option.

Anyway, so I was ordering in HK at a place called Yoshinoya.

Sorry about the PS2 thing on top ==

anyways, so I was ordering there and I usually order in Cantonese cos that floats their boat better but one day I was ordering and the lady @ the counter was being particularly rude to me. Well, I forgave her cos I'm such a good person :) lols but as I was walking home (cos i was taking take-away) I reflected upon our conversation and it was something like this:

*in cantonese*

B (bubbs): so can I get that meal up there?

L(Lady): which one? >=(

B: sorry, the one on the top left hand corner, the extra large beef *stops cos he couldn't read a particular chinese word*

L: *lady sighs* yes yes. the extra large beef bowl set meal. okay. 32 dollars please

Okay that didn't seem so bad, but her attitude towards a nice and hungry boy like me was unacceptable. So. i came up with a plan for the next time I go to Yoshinoya

B: *in English* can I have the extra large beef bowl set meal but instead of coke can i have ice tea and I want Teriyaki Octopus Balls for the side dish thanks.

L: ... *in asian accent* hol' on the minute puh-lessu *runs quickly to the store manager, mumbling something in canto like - help me out, this one speaks English*

they come back looking slightly worried.

L: wat woo you liku sir?

*GRINS* =D

lesson: if anybody in HK picks on you. simply speak English and you'll get top notch service. they even gave me a free Calendar cos it was nearing 2009 etc. very nice =)

SECOND LESSON:

never run in the streets.

never.

I had just finished my haircut and cos I had to get home quickly so I wouldnt' miss one of the shows on TV (some drama lols) so I was running home, more like sprinting. I really missed running around cos everywhere's so packed and i longed to have some kinda exercise. anyway, so I was running towards my apartment block and the traffic light went to red JUST as I got to it. unfortunately, there was a police officer right across the road where I was and when the lights turned green again, he pointed at me and brought me over to the side!

can you imagine my embarrassement? I'm such an innocent boy, how could they possibly think i'm suspicious?!

there, he asked me why i was running so fast, what was in my bag, what was in my pockets? He saw the blue box that i hold my plates with and thought they'd find drugs lols but found it was empty == and asked me for my HK identification card. it was quite traumatising really. Then, he wrote down my address and phone number and asked me why I was running so fast.

P: so why would you run so fast, hmmm Mr Au.

B: I wanted some exercise. Needed to get home soon.

P: there's no need to run. what if you bump into some old granny.

B: ==" (i'm too ninja for that lols) um. i'm sorry. won't happen again.

P: why are you dressed like this? dont' you have to go to schoool?

B: i'm on holidays, overseas. (i should have spammed some english to him grr)

P: okay. well. i don't wanna see you again.

phew*

i hate encounters with police. they're seem like they know everything - not that that's a bad thing but they make you feel quite inferior when they barely know you, making no attempt to be nice and i was quite shocked afterwards.

i must have looked quite sus though - noone runs in HK it's like a given rule - the only running occurs in sports centres/parks, unless you're like a criminal with drugs or pirated dvds

oh. i remember the first time I bought a pirated DVD by myself which was really lame cos it turned out to be a double sided or dual layered DVD (i bought Step Up) and my DVD played couldn't play it. wth grr

but you pick the thing you want, you hang around and pay in the little tray. they will give you a slip or something and you folllow the people to a spot where they'll give you your goods hehe. very fun and a little naughty too. =D

I don't really have another lesson really.

just remember to bring your HK identification card (if you have one) with you at all times. Otherwise they'll write your name down and you'll have some trouble with policemen again.

That's it for now i guess.

Oh, Borbor, remember when I was webcamming with you ;) and I was eating something. well this is what it was. Almond Biscuits. I only wish I had made it haha then i can tell yus all about my lovely cooking adventure. =D

very very very yummy especially when they're JUST out of the oven.

not so good of a photo, i must have tilted my camera in a weird position. but yes. I gobbled them all upp =) haha i love that word gobble - gobbledygook xD

hope you guys have a WONDERFUL holiday.

stupid kiama. permission notes. and parents coming too cos it's not safe. gar. >=(

wels probably gna g @ hk earlier then PARTY TIME =D

good luck to everybody doing extension/continuers jap. hope to see you all @ the Open Day and please invite me to dinner if you see me all lonely. i promise i'll do the same if I see you without dinner buddies =D

Sorry to Disappoint

2009-07-28T21:12:00.004+10:00

I wish I could turn back time [leeanne], not because I'm underprepared for something or rather, even though UMAT is getting me a little stressed because I seem to be doing worse and worse each time. Drills are fine, doing quite well in those, but I seem to get more and more fatigued with every question; especially in Section 3. I've decided I'll probably have to wing it :) just do my best on the day, get some good night's sleep, drink some chicken essence (apparently that helps boosts energy levels :P) with Up n Go, a few bananas and Weetbix then do my best!

But I don't really want to talk that much on UMAT. Mainly about my piano competitions I talked about before. I really envy (that's too strong a word, but that's the gist) when people say they're going to do something, like pull off a concert and they do an excellent job, everybody loves them. I, on the other hand, feel quite stupid that I asked people for luck for piano competitions, and ended up relatively empty handed.

I managed a Highly Commended in an 18/u Recital Award and a Third place in a 16 and over 19th Century Section. I somehow feel I've let my parents, my teacher and my friends (those who knew about my competitions) down; I really wanted to be able to blog and tell them that I won some section and earned some money! But I guess that will have to wait. Like my teacher said when I told her how disappointed I was with myself: "How can you expect to do what everyone else does in 12 months, in just 2 weeks?! Who you think you are? Mozart?" I wish I was a genius like him.

But nevertheless, I learnt a lot this week, well last week really.

The first night, I was very very drilled on coming first and getting the 200 dollar prize. I knew in the back of my mind that I probably didn't have much of a chance, but considering how I came 2nd in the same section in year 10, certainly, I could get something this year! I got onto stage and momentarily forgot to relax, playing the piece in a rushed manner; the piano itself was very hard to manage, with its left pedal producing a very tinkly yet still muffled effect and my shirt was too tight too! so when I tried to cross my arms over to do a high note with my left hand in my Ravel piece called Ondine, I got stuck ==" Forgetting to relax was one of my biggest failures that night; playing or performing without enjoying the music, or enjoying whatever you're doing, can be really dangerous.

So I came back home quite upset, distraught that I could not do better, but my father, pulling one of his good stories of how he had gone through so many failures in the past and that, in a Chinese proverb "Failure is the mother of Success", I slowly gained my psychological strength to carry on, and the next night, I played Liszt Les Jeux D'eaux a la Villa D'Este, a piece about the playful water fountains, I took 3rd place! =) I was very happy with the way I played, because I had not needed to practice intensely and I simply relaxed, enjoyed it immensely, and finished off with a smile on my face. I was more than happy to receive 3rd place in an Open section. Still no money.

Then, after practicing for another few days for the Friday Kawai Award, I got on stage friday night and felt a massive wave of fatigue. I really wanted to stop and start off with the slower piece, but with time restrictions, I started off with Rigoletto (also by Liszt) and as a result, due to my mental tiredness, pretty much screwed up an otherwise good performance and piece. The Ondine I played afterwards was not much better; I guess I really lacked the stamina to practice 8-9 hours a day, then go through the adrenaline rushes and nervousness, then to play on stage in a good and ready mental state.

I vowed to stay fit and I guess this reflects upon my studies too. Without a good healthy body, and an enduring stamina, it'd be impossible to perform well in HSC's 3 hour exams! I read a book once and it likened piano playing to sport and pianist to athletes, who have to train their whole body for a performance as it is physically and mentally draining.

I guess this just means I have to do more exercise ==" damn! :P

Anyway, bearing all this in mind next time, I hope to perform much better next time and if I win lots of money next time, I'll be sure to shout dinner. maybe. if you're nice to me XP

see you all soon =)

Bubble Battle NYC

2009-07-16T11:55:00.002+10:00

I like to follow this blog I found when I first started blogging:

LINK

I think she lives in the UK but she seems to know soo much about everywhere else. Anyway,

if you visit her site, she has a particular post on Bubbles =D

LINK LINK

and I will quote her: "Bubbles are fun and photogenic, not matter what age you are!" hehe I am so proud of this quote haha I would give her a hug but she's kinda far away :P

Then she posted up a video...

If you look carefully, there's this guy who has Bubble Soldier written on his back.

Anyway, a short post today - mainly because of Amanda's post :P

Been going to the Australian Piano Pedigogy Conferance and it has been amazing. Absolutely amazing. Teachers teaching how to teach :P and all these recitals - the one I went to last night was stunning. He played with such a good tone and everything came out beautifully. I will be going soon, as well as Friday and maybe off to a particular sleepover too :P yay!

Then, next week I will be spending three nights @ a piano competition - wish me luck! :( The only one I have a chance with is the 18/U Recital Award and after that, it's all Open sections with more than 40 people trying out for what. 3 places? dammit.

OH! I cooked omelettes this morning - photos in my camera. It was relatively successful - yes i know Omelettes are easy, but it's my first time and I was very proud of them! =)

Stay warm, and have a good holiday everyone!

Jay Chou Concert Sydney 2009 ♥

2009-07-13T12:20:00.019+10:00

yes yes. I sound like a complete fob and this might get a bit of hate (something on the lines of a facepalm or people rolling their eyes) but Jay Chou's Sydney Concert was my FIRST ever concert and I was pretty excited. It's not every day you get a free ticket with VIP seats to Acer Arena.

My only regret is that I missed out on a funfun session of Jazz Ensemble, but apparently some people lacked committment and it ended early anyways, so I guess I didn't miss out on much =D

OH YES. For those who don't know, I GOT A NEW CAMERA! *yay* it's not a crazy DSLR or anything, but it's a pretty good camera, Canon, and it's Gold!!

it doesn't really look Gold in the picture but it's a it's quite a light Gold, with a tinge of Bronze. Either way, it took really nice photos of us @ school and Friday happened to be Mufti Day! ( 3rd of July) I shall share some of these lovely photos with you all =D:

Very funny photo this one - haha Alan the Turdface with Topher the Sofa from Casanova (that's the best I can think of hehe) not as good as Bubble Trouble on the Double i guess :P haha

So we're talking outside in the sun and suddenly, Eddison drags me in to the common room with an urgent look on his face. Turns out he wanted me to capture the moment of Tom playing Minesweeper :P haha it would have been better if it was full screen haha (hardcore nerd :P)

Krissy eating his noodles :) Nathan was blowing spitballs from a straw using newspaper and Eddison mentioned how funny it would be if one of them landed in his soup. And guess what? haha one actually does and Krissy gets mad "What's this stupid piece of paper doing in my soup? >=(" XD

Groupie: haha Shaun looks very squashed there haha props to Bosco for taking the photo :P

Eddy and I thought of this idea when Eddy was checking to see if Sy or someone was coming up the stairs and I went under him, to see and we were like: hey lets' take a photo of that haha and this is what turned out ! =D

I'm going to skip the 'after lunch' time period because this is when we all got our 4U maths mark back :( haha well at least I didn't come last again ! hehe

sigh** need to improve!! should be doing maths, not blogging! Man, I should never ask Grubsy how much work he's done, he's always done SOO much and it makes me feel like poop; shouldn't ask Eddy either. Or maybe I should just do more work instead :)

Then, after school, Shaun and I travelled to Turramurra!!! It was my first time there, and I certainly got many looks from other people. Well, I WAS wearing like a gold jacket and a bright shirt - it was to see Jay Chou in but I guess the people at Turramurra (mainly retired, Babyboomers, at most Generation X) didn't appreciate my sense of fashion. So i decided to pretend to be Shaun's exchange student from Japan or something haha and I started speaking Japanese to Shaun and that got even MORE looks, so I just took off my jacket and shut up :P

the lovely suburb/city of Turramurra, the gardens are quite pretty on one side, but on the other side , haha apprently that's not the case. It so happens that when I got off, I was facing the prety gardens so immediately I had a pretty good impression of Turramurra (except for the people who kept giving me weird looks - stupid asians haha XD)

another shot of the garden, actually is it really a garden? it's more like a mini park. i don't know. :( NEXT UP:

DINNERRRRR!!!! i convinced Shaun that i would not be full unless I ate some kinda of meat. He was going to give me vegetarian!! no way :P lamb and beef were out of the question so I had to do wtih Tandoori Chicken - which was fantastic btw. (pictures coming up)

So we waited in the gourmet pizza store and the door happened to be open and the wind happened to be blowing and we happened to sit right next to the door; so yes we were freezing our butts off - luckily it wasn't a very long wait and we got our pizzas.

I decided I was not going to be full enough, so I went to Michel's Patisserie (however you spell it) and bought a pie. Now a VERY SNEAKY serving lady awaited me. She asked me if I would like tomato sauce with that and I said yes, thinking that she was going to squeeze some on top of the pie. She asked me if I wanted anything else, and I was there thinking, well what else would I have with pies? Sugar? no. That would be enough thanks. Now the pie was 2.30 and so I got the money out and suddenly, she asks for 2.80 and I was like, huh? i didn't get the Beef Steak Pie...and turns out the tomato sauce costed 50cents! wt hell. luckily I didn't say I wanted barbeque sauce and mustard with my pie, it wasn't free. dammit. sneaky Turramurra people :P haha

Anyway, I got over it, my pie was warm and i was hungry, who cares. but our pizza was getting cold! so we hurriedly walked back to Shaun's house which luckily wasn't too far away, otherwise I'd be too tired to take shots of his house and neighbourhood :P

If you turn left at the start of the curve to the left, it's close by. It was starting to get dark, so we were lucky that his house was rather close!

oh, I forgot to mentiont that Shaun took me to a music shop in Turramurra, forgot the name but there were no PIANOS! :( haha instead, lots of guitars, amps, electronic equipment for those interested and even a recording studio! it looked all nice and all, with all the buttons and lights but it almost looked like a scene from Doctor Who's spaceship TARDIS

His house, or shouuld I say Townhouse, is somewhere inside. It looked quite nice, not like a mansion or anything, but I wouldn'd mind living in a townhouse; somewhere small and cosy before I moved to my beachhouse mansion hehe XD

OUR DINNER. forgot to take a picture of it when it was complete - too hungry haha. So this is the best I had. It was very yummy hehe Props to Shaun for giving me more pieces cos "I needed it" hahaha XD

Shaun's room. I loved his soft toys but didn't dare touch them they might all fall down and I'd have to fix it up. he spent 3 hours cleaning up his house so it'd be presentable to me - his mum told Shaun to tell chris to come over more so their house would be cleaner more often XD

SO we get ready for the concert and Shaun's dad comes home. He's a pretty cool guy, and has a voice of that guy in Jeung Moon Yan (a Canto game show) - sounds like the really short guy

the guy in red. He's one of the funniest, outspoken guy in HK TV. He's appeared in lots of films and game shows, constantly insulting people hehe but laughing it off. He's especially known for his high voice, short stature and comical appearance. Shaun's dad sounded like him :P

SO OFF WE WENT in shaun's car. We got there and it was FREEEZZING! BRRR :P it was seriously quite cold and shaun's attire was not enough to keep him warm, so.. we took some luvos :P

I'm looking quite warm - snowman and Shaun's like a quarter of the space I take up on the camera :P

Me posing in front of Acer Arena. I look quite tall in this photo =D *smug*

Then we walked in, showed them our tickets. Their ticket machines were ones that you just shove the barcode into the scanner but I kept trying to shove my whole ticket in and that caused a bit of trouble :P Moreover, they were checking our bags for food/drink and they found my water bottle. AND THEY POURED ALL MY WATER AWAY. BOOO! of course i'd buy your food/drink in acer arena but there's soo many people, and the people serving aren't enough for the people going in! how can you expect us to just stay hungry/thirsty for so long, waiting in line! geez and the prices were ridiculous. 4.50 for a bottle of lift! GARR. rip off

but my anger receded when i saw THIS!

yeah i don't know what it is either, but the photo oppurtunity made me happy again. =D

then we strolled off the buy some merchandise. I should not have brought so much money!! i spent 50 bucks ! haha on a figurine, a t-shirt and a keychain. oh and a glowstick too :P

I go a bit crazy with money sometimes :(

merchandise shop ~! there were SOO many people there waiting. this stuff is probably mostly made in china and overpriced but i was in the mood for food..but couldn't get any so I got this instead. :S

and SO we walked in the get our seats. In the doorway, there were people handing out clapsticks. The thing was, I thought they were handing out tissues cos it was all deflated and looked like a small packet of tissue (the freebie ones they usually give out) so i was wondering where EVERYONE got their clapsticks. Then shaun knowledgeably told me that I had to blow them up. Now I feel bad for stealing that guy's clapstick :(

teehee, the most flattering picture of the night - shaun blowing up his clapstick. we were supposed to use straws to blow them up, but the straws were soo small (like Alan's PEE PEE) so it was quite hard. Eventually they worked.

Me blowing up my clapstick.

Now to give everybody a look at how amazing our free seats were! Ours were considered VIP, the next up from the Mosh pit and even then the mosh pit was divided to many sections, with the most expensive being up to $1200 i think. as if you would spend that much. But jay was quite hot ;) very irresistible teehee

This was without zooming in with my camera, so, you can see it was pretty good. The stage is at the left.

eurgh, a very blurry picture of the stage...

As you can see, it's like a 'H' shape rotated clockwise 90 degrees. So there's this little path way for him to talk up loser to the front stage and to the right and left of the pathway are the most expensive 'seats'. It's like the intense mosh pit where you see everyhting up close. But the thing was, most of the time he was front stage, so all you see is really his butt. so wth. better to be in front of the frontstage imo.

yep it's abt to start soon! i can tell cos there's finally people sitting around me. we were SOO worried (well I was) that Jay would get a realy bad attendance - mainly cos Shaun said that it was organised really really badly and that not many people knew abt it and they had to give many many free tickets away. Luckily, it was very full and there were only like a few spare seats, not that many.

let me give you an idea of how packed it was

and show you some pictures of his concerttt :

It was incredibly hard to take good pictures of the stage - so hard to focus when they're moving around so much and the slow synchro flash mode on my camera was fantastic but took some time, and in that time, they had already did some crazy dance move :(

The lighting on the stage also determined how good the image quality was. Depending on the lighting, say for example, warm yellow is the best best, it takes a good picture everytime, white lighting would make it quite blurry, can't see the facial expressions and some others like Red and Purple create different effects.

(btw they were tap dancing I think - leading to some song where Jay comes in =D)

yellow = good picture. Generally quite clear, apart from the stupid clap stick that intruded the lovely picture :P. They were doing robot dance. Jay is in the middle, rapping and to his left, is like another rapper and to his left is the 'robots' that did some cool dance moves :)

My favourite girl of the show. The strippers I will show you later were absolutely disgusting. Her name is Lara, part of the Nam Quan Ma Ma band which Jay helped to form, writing some songs for them. She is half American, half Taiwanese, with quite an accent in her Mandarin (still better than my Mando probably - at least they could understand her) - she spoke English to us, with a bit of Mando here and there. And her voice, damn it was good. It completely outshined the guy she was singing with - he needs help. really. but she was awesome, and they were singing a duet called Wu Ding (Rooftop) there.

Jay Chou on the piano and mind you, it's not just an ordinary piano, it's a GLASS piano XD it doesn't look like glass from the photo, cos of the light that's going through it, but it's glass - not sure if it's an actual piano or just an electric one but wow. amazing. And what was even more amazing was, it appeared from a platform underground. So before his song, the platform moved down to Downstage haha and they l oaded up the piano, along with the man himself and then it rose up, revealing him playing the piano. What an entrance! =D

And he sang the most beautiful beautiful songs on this piano - and played well. quite okay too =)

then you have the sluts who touched Jay. I mean, seriously, no offence to them, but I'd much rather them clothed properly, and doing a proper dance with their hands to themselves. It was unnecessary - made the night worse.

what also made the night a slight drag was this:

they had a whole acoustic thing, where a line of guitarists would play a song, except they didn't sing Jay's songs, only one of them was Jay's and most of the people zoned out. Luckily, Jay realised this and then stopped it half way and got on to the rest of the show ! =D smart man, could tell bubbles wasn't interested in boring old acoustic mando pop :P

However, the worst highlight of the night:

were even more whores and disgusting Thai-looking girls doing some kinda half striptease/half latin dance routine:

The song was good, pretty good, but totally killed by these girls (in red) if you can see them, who danced quite badly imo, then went to front stage to do some dance solo, whilst Jay went off to pee or change clothes. It was quite horrifying. I covered my eyes. That's saying something. Then, one of the girls got excited by the audience in the little gaps between the "H" shape and started rolling on the ground and eurgh!

don't ask me how i know, I was supposed to be covering my eyes XP

I have to say, Jay is actually quite talented. In the concert alone, he played the drums (very well, had some drum battle with the main drummer), the Guzheng, Piano. He danced lots, can't say it was fantastic but it was alright, he played guitar. And word has it he can play Cello and the ErHu (the chinese violin) and many others :P

I'm just putting a good word for him :) hehe

Wels, that's my Jay Chou Concert Blog! I actually took almost 8 gigs worth of videos that night haha, but i cbb posting up a video. Gta get some work done!

Happy Holidays everyone!

In The Summertime

2009-07-11T15:40:00.008+10:00

Maths tutoring is like in 20 minutes - and so far i've wasted my whole morning watching Youtube (Ellen Degeneres' show is so addictive!! - watch the George Clooney vids hehe). I promised myself I'd work extremely hard these holidays so I wouldn't do so badly in maths and hopefully get a higher UAI - increasing my chances to get into Music/Med.

GARR.

read belle's blog and decided to check out Threadless myself and damn the shirts are creative. The designs are so wonderfully colourful and each one looks rather similar but at a closer look, the themes are different and just so interesting to check out the catalog.

I really like the Darth Vader making the moon, Jesus holding the Cross like a sword, the Panda one, which kinda looks like Drew's shirt, bleeding heart - seen a lot, and the "whoa, it's like I'm in a comic book" made me smile.

Damn these photos are so small :( more incentive to move to wordpress. If not, need to work out the html configurations to change the margin size blah blah - too technical >=(

Then, I stumbled on Lil' Soap, which I thought was hilarious. It made me giggle :)

woah, this one is quite big. =D reminds me of the little teeth cartoon things Belle had on her blog. Forgot what they were called ==" but you know what I mean :)

I then checked out my other t-shirts from the Threadless sight and found a whole catalog with these funny shirt messages. This one cracked me up :)

For those kitten/baby joke lovers haha it made me D: I don't get how people can make jokes like, how long does it take babies to paint a wall? Depends how hard you throw them. I think that's awful, but obviously some people find it amusing (yoonface XD)

This one absolutely cracked me up. I still smile everytime I see it haha I really would get this one. It's just soo good =D

Anyway, gotta start packing for tutoring :( he's gna kill me haha I've done like 5 pages of hw :P

Title of Blog dedicated to Thirsty Merc's In the Summertime - great song. Lyrics reflect my personal desire to finish stupid HSC and go to beach/party!! =D

Wake Me Up

2009-07-09T20:31:00.002+10:00

Today must have been one of the most tiring days this week.

If anyone finds Shaun and my Mario and Luigi Karts, please return to us, it's very very precious to us and we really want them back.

Last found: in Senior Common Room (with a few wheels missing :P)

Reward: one of the wheels xD

speaking of which, I think I left my jumper and burberry scarf in the Hall yesterday when I was taking photo for Jazz Ensemble, I really hope I haven't lost it, I tried looking for it today, but the Hall was locked :(

A shout to Richard for teaching me the piano/violin part in the introduction of I Want You Back (Jackson 5) It was indeed-idly quite tricky and my sense of rhythm is quite terrible, so thank you very much, Grubsy

So after Jap Ext, my dad has a talk with Lowcock sensei, I go outside and take a peep @ the prefects practicing, not much I could see though haha apart from Cheryl, Connie and others dancing. people were playing basketball ! D:

Anyways, I go home, watch Communitychannel's new video (quite good :P) and I limp off to bed. I hear my father call out for dinner, but I pretend to be asleep as I usually do. I hate it how whenever I try to get some sleep, it's always around dinner time or someone calls and totally disrupts my sleepiness.

So I fall asleep and I suddenly hear this hissing sound, saying the most random random thing ever: at first I could not hear what it was saying, but then I hear "50 Messages, 50 Messages" being hissed like by a snake or something! I tried to move around but I found that I couldn't, and then I think I experienced something like a coma; cos I keep telling myself to move, but nothing would happen, wake up!! but I wouldn't. Finally, something within me clicks and i finally awaken.

Scary isn't it? It made me thought of all the people in comas. Can they actually hear and sense most things, but just can't react properly with the outside world? Doctors tell the patients' visitors to talk to the patients, try to get them to wake up, they say. They say their brain is somewhat active, but their body is not connecting with it or something. Body fatigue? I'm not sure, I don't do Biology. I heard that a woman was in a coma and they started playing some of her favourite songs on a CD player and within days, she woke up!

Yes i know I promised Jay Chou blog :P but I need to practice for tomorrow's Prefect's Assembly (yay! i get a VnR XD) and I need to memorise Jap, finish Logbook for composition.

Mayb next time :P

At Death's Door

2009-07-08T16:50:00.004+10:00

I've never thought about myself dying much. As a child, I was devastated at the thought of others dying. I remember watching a movie about a just married couple, where the wife suddenly found out she had cancer and the plot was mainly about her journey to death and how she began to accept it as well as how her husband began to accept her death. That movie made such a impression on me, I was scared of the people around me dying, and I would pray that everyone in my family would have good health and not die. Then, my grandfather and my auntie died recently; surprisingly, I couldn't summon the tears to cry - maybe I'd grown up from then, maybe I just knew they were @ a better place.

Speaking of which, Michael Jackson's death hasn't really hit me yet either. I still remember during exam time, I was a bored and decided to procrastinate - by watching MJ's The Way you Make Me Feel and I was wondering to myself - what would happen if MJ did die, I never thought it would actually occur a few days later. I'm still in denial - as if he died!

However, the real point of this mini post would be regarding last night. I was terribly sick, very feverish - spluttering, coughing and blowing my nose every few seconds. My head was throbbing and I was in a generally bad condition. ( Jazz ensemble- bad condition :P). It suddenly occured to me that I could die! It sounds ludicrous but at that time, when I was in bed, I came to this realisation that maybe I could die - maybe this was my last night here.

So I quickly went to my phone and unlocked my Inbox and texted up a draft highlighting like my goodbyes to my family and friends. Of course, I've deleted it now, and my inbox is locked with a password hehe, however, that thought really got me quite hard - it seemed like an impossibility - bubbles dead ?! but anything could happen.

Anyway, since I'm still in this particular mindset, I'd like to thank all my friends and family for every every moment we have spent together - you guys have brought joy into my lives and I hope I have done so in return. (wow, that sounded pretty corny :P)

Up next:

JAY CHOU BLOG =D

Rexy and Bubbles' adventure

2009-07-06T20:49:00.008+10:00

my piano calls because I have a Senior Elective Music Night tomorrow which ALL OF YOU should be coming! well, especially those who live close :)

*EDIT* elective music night was quite good. Quite disappointed with those year 12s who didn't come especially if they weren't sick. I was terribly terribly sick and feverish before ( i even left early from school so i could rest and play that night) and I still came.

ANYWAY

i have lots to blog about. so i might as well get started. I will start with my Maths Excursion on Thursday 2nd of July

it was generally a very nice day to be out of school and not be getting more results back XD however, the funnest part of the day, apart from the intense mathematical brain energy experience @ the seminars, would be the LAST part of the day; where, as the title suggests, Rexy and Bubbles had an adventure.

It's funfun like this which makes school interesting.

Firstly, Maths excursion:

this is the opening ceremony place. we would be moved to near the middle soon afterwards. This was also the place where Sen, Mark Menzies ( i think that's his name) Stacey and Parth would get their awards for being good @ maths. I think there was somebody I left out - i'm quite sorry if I did. Just that my memory for maths isn't exactly very clear nor accurate.

Alan the Turdface and awesome Andrew. (ZOMG i hate posting up pictures on this - it's soo hard to move them around and for some reason, when i do cut and paste, the cutting's fine but when i paste, it's equivalent to 'Enter' and no picture comes out GARR)

this is @ the Russian Roulette talk which was quite interesting, due to our fun drawings of Alans' small pee on my notepad. The talk was good too, but i got confused with all the probability. to be honest, the whole day meant really nothing to me until Complex Numbers talk which I attended - and even then, I was trying hard to remember stuff back from Mrs Chan times :)

stupid Nathan made me pose for this photo. As you can see, my bag is not on my back - main reason being stupid ALAN kept unzipping my bag and making lots of mar farn for me (trouble) and it was the only way to defend myself. Moreover, when I returned, I found my pencil pencilcase inside the inner pocket of my blazer =__="

Macquarie Uni scenery, which was made funner by the cripsy autumn leaves on the ground (even though Autumn's way past already) and to the left and right are the Blocks where we had talks in. The buildings were really weirdly named 'C6C' and like 'E3B' are some examples. Very confusing indeed.

OH! forgot to mention.

i met one of my Ex-Baulko friends. His name is Iain Brew. He was in year 12 when I was in year 7 i think. (or maybe he was in year11). Anyway, he was INCREDIBLY nice to us year 7s , showing us around and talking to us. I wish I could have been more like him - but I was a nice year 7 and the kids these days just don't seem quite as approachable. I duno. maybe just me. I do wish I could have taken a picture with him though.

Okay, so we got back to Epping and Grubsy makes me and Alan wait for the bus with him. And we notice this little poster on the wall next to the Thai restaurant:

I thought that was really sweet. I wonder why the girl particularly made FRENCH in capitals. haha and what if all these random guys come to Epping @ that particular time D: but anyhows, (i'm kinda sick right now so if none of this makes sense you'll know why)

Anyhoo, whilst waiting with Grubsy, we see Rexy (kind rhymed eh hehe ;)) and I innocently asked him if he was still gna go to Jap ext - and suddenly he was like, yeah why not? and i don't remember the details, but the bus came and somehow, Rexy convinced me to go to Jap Ext - even if it was like the last 5-10 minutes.

Then we realised that we actually got on the WRONG bus :( - that the 549 didn't actually go anywhere near school. By that time, I was too happy about having an adventure to really care - we got off the bus after the traffic lights of Carlo High and we walked to school from there.

This is part of our journey from where the bus stopped. Man, i don't think I ever walked nor run that much this year - apart from Cross Country - i guess the adventure really made up for my lack of exercise hehe.

the scenery actually looks kinda nice from here haha

We were going to go through the forest that apparently Belle is scared of ;D but Rexy kinda got scared too and so we just went the normal way via the traffic lights.

This is Rexy - before he realised that the side of his Easyway had cracked and had started leaking all over. I think all the running we did had squashed the easyway in his Macquarie Uni bag.

By the time we were close to school, we realised that it was 4.20!! (10 minutes before Jap Ext ended) so we full sprinted and made it in class JUST in time for the last 5 minutes of class.

Carlingford scenery :P

Rexy and his leaking easyway :P

Got my dad to drive me home and thanks to that, I was able to rest and when I got home, I couldn't help but take photos of the clouds I saw. I have this dream of one day, most likely after HSC, where I'll just lie down on the grass of some park and just stare @ the clouds.

Everybody's so rushed for time these days and I wish I had more time to enjoy the simple things like lying on the grass or having a picnic (shaun) or going to a beach and simply relax.

SUCCESS!!

2009-06-28T23:02:00.003+10:00

yes! i have made my blog a little prettier.

i still hate how the words look so small though..

hmmm

in comparison, joseph, bosco, jero and janette's blogs look some betterr...

maybe i should change to word press. haha

even if i don't blog much - at least i'd look pretty hehe =)

ah well. bubbles' newsupdate

i currently have two possible swine flu victims in my household.

1. Cliff - my cousin from St. Joseph - yes 5 outbreaks? lols um. cases of swine flu in that school and apparently he was sitting next to one who possibly had it

2. Dad - he just came back from HK (my mum will be leaving soon again i'm afraid) and well. yes. in HK it's quite serious so i don't know what that'd b like.

what else is happening. oh yes. i'm sick AGAIN. frkn hell. >=( i have all this flem in my throat and everytime i swallow it tastes really gross - i don't know how you taste if it's in my throat -but either way it feels really gross..

has anything ever had something like:

you're in the middle of playing sport or jumping around and suddenly you cough and this kinda hard lump gets coughed up and you spit it out - sniff it and it REALLY smells it's like bad breath but much much worse. i can't figure out what it is. - i know a really really bad one came out after Cross Country and some occassionally when i'm dancing around at home >_>

but yes.

please let me know what the hel that is - and if you guys have it too.

oh yes. for those who didn't get to see my blog when I was raging after I had failed to make it look better (it still ent great - i still don't have chatbox nor blog list but it's getting there) this is a picture:

yes yes i know it looks small - i envy all those word press users whose pictures are SO BIG. far out. i mean joseph's picture of his keyboard/antnest was just a bit too big inmyopinion but hey. at least it's big - this is the max size i think - and it's tiny. gar.

Anyway, hope you all have a nice day tomorrow.

i shall prepare a nicer blog for tomorrow - i had something in mind but didn't have the time :(

BOO!!

2009-06-28T22:45:00.003+10:00

ARGH!

I tried to download a new template and make it look nicer.

and it failed (obviously as you can tell)

Not only that,

When i realised it didn't work and I put in some random template. not only does it look gay, but it MY BLOGLIST IS GONE! gotta upload all those sites all over again.

omfg. this is why i shouldn't procrastinate.

stupid 3Unit english and stupid cough.

i think Belle gave it to me in jap Continuers test. >=(

welps. i guess i'll b staying home again then. hehe

hmmm..might as well try and fix it up now that I've gone and ruined it.

HAVE FUN @ SCHOOL TOMORROW SUCKERS hehe XD

ps. belle don't do speaking tomorrow if you want me to help you ;)

oh and Mr Wong - if you read this. i'm REALLY sorry for missing out on your double period of Music. I'm gna b working on my composition and performances pieces tomorrow whilst i'm sick. (and doing3Unitenglish *cough*) hehe =)

*edit* ZOMG I LOST THE CHATBOX TOO !! GARR

stupid Alan

2009-06-03T17:26:00.007+10:00

Well, it's been a while!

I used to blog every day and always have something to talk about. Now I only blog when I have photos or I do something exciting/fun @ school. XD

Many of you might be wondering (probably not) where I was last week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) - welll apart from catching up on some sleep (not really..) I was practicing piano for the Parramatta Eisteddfod, in my fail attempt of getting the $1000/2000 scholarship up for grabs.

There's not much to talk about on those days really. I woke up @ around 8.30, ate ( very important xD) and sat down and practiced. Afterwards, I would have a piano lesson (for free - Margaret's been giving me a free one everyday - Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning). I'm really grateful for her 'free' lessons. She says I need it and I can't really say I don't. She told me to skip school because this is for my future career and it would benefit me a lot if I took some days of school off for this eisteddfod.

What I wore to play: well. The same as when I went to chatswood and to see Meet the Music. Black shirt with black stripes and a double collar. followed by a silver tie.

At the competition. EVERYONE was so good. There were occassional ones who er. weren't as good (especially in the Australian section) but the major stars of the competition were:

James Guan (he got the 2000 bucks. ='( He played very well, and his Chopin Sonata was very nice quote from adjudicator: one of the best interpretations i have heard")

Leanna Lam (came first for the Own Choice section. I only managed to beat her in the Australian section..cos she went over the time limit and thus had to be deducted points)

Camellia Wong (Mr Wong's teacher's student? i think. not sure but she was quite good)

These people are already in Uni and have much more experience @ piano than me, who basically tried to do 6months worth of practice in 2 weeks. (that's my only excuse for not getting the 2000 scholarship xD - i can blame it on laziness. Music is hard work)

I managed to get 2nd place ($40 bucks yay!) in the Australian Section playing the Carl Vine Bagatelles II, III and IV. In my opinion, I played that the worst. My Les Jeux d'eaux a la Villa D'este - I was most happy with, despite only getting 4th place for that only.

comments: "Took the listener on a variety of moods and sustained the focus of attention throughout the climax of the piece to the calm denouncement" I guess that's good?

Then on Sunday, I played in the Scholarship section with my Prelude & Fugue in C# by Bach and Ravel's Ondine from Gaspard de la nuit. Not a great performance and because of my apparent nervousness - I didn't play as well as I wanted to.

Astronaut visit

was extremely inspiring.

Basically the first thing he said to the school was one of the most inspiring things he said. Paraphrasing: "If you have a dream, just work hard at it and you'll get there" It's particularly inspiring for someone like me, who is aiming for something that not many people can get into. Music is extremely hard to do well and earn lots of money in. But then, I guess so is Rocket Science and Aeronautics.

He is my inspiration. I really wish I could have talked to him personally and asked him a few more questions.

BUS TRIP RIDE HOME ft. Alan (Goose) and Joseph

So we record for Jazz ensemble, singing our very enjoyable Bad Condition. The chem room makes the sound so amazingly good. I really enjoyed singing it and I reckon the first time we sing the 'chorus' is really good. Everyone's voice ent really that tired yet - especially tenors (really easy to testipop when your voice gets tired) and all the layers of harmony exist very harmoniously together xDD

Anyway, after that, me, Alan, Joseph join a couple (actually a lot of) others to catch the Epping bus home.

Since Josph recently informed me through his blog that he had never taken a luvo before. In my extreme surprise and astonishment, I promised him I would take one with him. His first luvo HAHA.

I actually reckon it's a very good photo and Joseph is quite photogenic imo. xD

Alan, Joseph and yours sincerely =D

Alan looking very surprised.. hehe

ME =D

hmmm. let me explain. Alan was MEANT to do the Kelvin/Mr Lowcock's surprised/wide eyed 8( look but apparently Alan didn't know or something and he didn't do it. so i'm the only one left looking stupid as i was taking the luvo =(

And I think that's Carol stretching behind us =D

Anyway, that was a very fun bus trip. Alan, I hope you enjoyed your e-fun instead of going to library with me :P

A special HI to Chris from year 11 who recently informed me he READ MY BLOG?! LOL.

I shall blog more about my cooking adventures and other funny disney stuff later on. Maybe after exams I shall attempt to be Masterchef of my household again =)

until then. Exams are coming so i doubt i'll be blogging.

STUDY HARD =D

the title of the blog is dedicated to Alan. It is a phrase I often use with Alan as he always plays tricks and pranks on me (like stealing my pencil pencil case).

EXCURSIONS GALORE

2009-05-23T17:47:00.012+10:00

NOOO! My highly anticipated week is finally over! Something interesting happened every day of this week (except for saturday) and boy, i don't think i can fit it all within 30 minutes but i shall do my best! =D *very excited*

First of all.

Monday

Having overslept by 30 minutes, (very lucky it wasn't much more. My mum woke me but i accidentally went back to sleep. Hate having to get out of the warm and cosy shelter of blankets, heated by my lovely farts XD jokes) I hurriedly did my hair, packed my camera and iPod (newly charged with Belle's music and Ashkenazy), quickly stuffed the Lor Mei Gei (lovely sticky rice with meat and vegies wrapped in leaves - it's much better than Joong which i definitely don't like as much).

Anyway, Justin shocked me by jumping out of the carriage and taking me to where Bovie and Ringo were doing Cryptic Crossword - (i have yet to work one out ;D). Skip, skip, got to Wynyard station, met Shaun who almost took us to the wrong place (stupid shaun) and went into an alleyway that led to a place called Angel Place City Recital Hall. *bubbles heightens with excitement, couldn't stand still and decided to visit Sunrise but met Mr Wong on the way and decided to annoy him abt always being fashionably late XD*

Anyway, we went in and saw many schools like the Conservatorium High School and many others which I don't know the name. Oh, i think Sydney Boys was there. skip skip,

SAW CARL VINE

I swear when I first saw his photo he looked like some mafia boss. He turned out to be a very friendly and funny guy who was quite tall. He wasn't as arrogant as I thought he would be. Was very warm and always wanted to be asked questions, imo. Initially, i thought he'd just be doing a little talk on his Piano Sonata. No. 3 but he actually did the entire Australian Music Day thing. I managed to ask TWO questions, and I found that quite amazing as I'm usually stuck for questions. Like, you wanna ask a question that proves you're not stupid, but you don't wanna be a smart ass and ask questions like "What is music?" "What is the meaning of life". And usually, by the time you think of something really intelligent to ask, it's too late and it's end of question time. =__=

Katia Skanavi played his third piano sonata and i found her delightful. I loved watching he facial expression change and her, not stance, but the way she moved whilst playing, it reflected the change in tempo and style of the piece and it was nothing like the showmanship of Lang Lang.

If you wanna watch disgusting piano playing, watch this:

The sound is quite okay, but the expression, and his face, omg. why do you need to focus on his face, mr cameraman? =___=

Some phootos of us inside:

Shauns' still asleep XD (oh yes, i have a very funny story abt Shaun which I shall elaborate on)

Angel Place featuring a strange white guy and some asian who looks a little like Matt Chan :P

and who can forget Mr Wong our favourite music teacher XD (major sucking up :P)

After that, we went to.....LINDT CAFE!!! =)

very fun time. and my first time too. Nathan and others went back in year 11 but i wasn't allowed to ct cos apparently it's dangerous, but ah wells.

i seriously could not help drooling when I went in, ALL THE CHOCOLATE and cake and everything. It was soo good.It's a shame I only had like $5 in my wallet. (thanks shaun for shouting me Lindt =D) Pictures:

Shaun (who's WIDE awake now) and Justin :D

Lindt Cafe entrance with Bovie in the front.

The impatient Mr Wong could not be bothered 'waiting here to be served' tut tut. welps. neither could I XD

CHOCOLATE CAKE =) and lots of it too. It's like 55 bucks for one. Good value? i don't know really for sure but i wouldn't mind paying this much - if i was rich..;D

I should have changed the colour adjusting for these photos, it makes the chocolate look so cold and unappetising - unlike Rex's Tiramisu cakes which he photoshops.

more photos of cakes =D

The nice lady @ the counter gave me and Shaun some free chocolate tastings. It was very nice and I should have asked to get some for my friends...>_> hehe

Mr Wong looks like such a happy kid with his Tiramisu/Chocolate cheese cake? Next to that, is Ringo's 7.50 cake (cheapo) hehe, everybody else got 12.50 ones and they were much nicer. At least they looked more appetising. ah well, you get what you pay for.

Justin and Bovie had um...Raspbery Chocolate cake? i don't remember but it looked really nice and again, much nicer than Ringos' one XD (accentuating Belle's 'Money=happiness' theory. For me, Money=Food=Happiness =DD)

*time lapse*

it is currently one week later and im' finishing off this post haha.

i'll see if i still remember details. shall keep the rest kinda short..cos my piano awaits me.

Chocolate Lava Cake and Icecream which Shaun ordered for me and him. it was..VERY NICE =) and everybody was quite envious of our little plate of goody there. As you can see, the ice cream was already melting when we got it - obviously Lindt cafe doesn't specialise in ice cream. Guylian, on the other hand, has quite good ice cream..more on Guylian later.

yes. that's shaun. very patiently waiting for me to take pictures before eating the lava cake. thanks shaun =)

=D IT'S MR WONG! haha. hope you're better now, you've been sick a lot lately. But I couldn't miss showing people this photo. this is Mr Wong's 'constipated' photo.

and this is our luvo. My awesome luvo skills with the angle and what not xD unfortunately, i cut out his 'fob finger' pose. But you can see like the tip of one of his fingers on the left hand corner. And, he looks much better in this photo.

As you can see, my fringe is kinda wonked up. I worked really hard the night before trying to cut my hair, you see. My mum bought me a pair of scissors (hair cutting ones, of course) so I would save her some money in the GFC from having hair cuts that cost 25 dollars. Mind you, it's worth it, the head massages they give you as they wash your hair is quite relaxing. The HK ones are quite good too, they even ask you whether the water temperature's just right and if there are any spots on your head where it itches!! love it =DD

OKAY.

Tuesday

Arrived @ school for a little bit of Japanese, where Lowcock sensei showed us his MASSIVE 'MAN'size box of tissues which he now keeps his keys and other accessories like whiteboard markers in. The tissues are like three times as big and very comfortable for the morning running-nose-itis. =D

Then we went to Erkensville, basu de (by bus) and Nathan stole my iPod so i had to pleasure myself with Shaun's games which wasn't very pleasurable until Tower BLOX, where I managed to reach the lowest 'high' score and i was quite happy with that =D. The highest score tower looks like frkn Howl's Moving Castle!! it's massive and really weirdly shaped.

Erkensville Theatre Hall place, is quite a hole. We could see beerbottles everywhere and the toilets, aka dunny ;) was filthy and I wish I had taken a larger breath of air before I started pissing. cos nothing sucks more than having to take a breath.....yeah. ANYWAY.

The play was quite good. Audience involvement. Audrey was a guy dressed as a girl with lopsided boobies and massive nipples which Nathan (or maybe it was me) couldn't stop staring at xD Rosalind was quite pretty and VERY good actor/actress. Anyways, I believe it was less crude than Hamlet ( after listening to many of those who discussed Hamlet's double gender and more than obvious hand gestures )

Wednesday

Skipped school to have a piano lesson. AND THIS TIME. i was given a compliment =D and feeling good, went to Epping station where I talked to Victor for a bit, then met with Belle and Alan to go Chatswood (Alan didn't want to come. wat a loser XD)

Main purpose of Chatswood: buy Ambert presents.

How long it took to buy presents: around 30 minutes.

How long we were @ chatswood: I was there for around 4 hours. =___=

BUT IT WAS FUN.

First, we headed to westfield so I could take a piss and then look for Melon, the gag shop/random cool stuff shop which was very interesting. After finding our way finally to the food court (no thanks to our "navigator"), we went into Melon and saw many interesting things...including pindick condoms, full body condoms. AND IT WASN'T EVEN A SEX SHOP.. but we found what we wanted, a small metal flask to hold alcohol (for AMbert when he takes a driving test to whip out when he's feeling 'thirsty') and a card which farts when you open it. yes. it sound immature but we loved it when we saw it.

Then, we went to Rebel Sports to buy Eddison back his balls that I lost him when playing tennis. Sorry Eddles. And then we went to Toys R Us, where we spent most of our time. Belle basically gave me a full tour of Toys R Us, talking abt past toys and how they have changed, and I don't remember much from it apart from commenting how pretty Hannah Montana was and rofled @ belle's shocked expression =D

Went to 85 degress and drooled. Finally bought two cakes from there. belle, being the glutton she was, bought two massive pineapple buns (BOR LOR BAO) and some other bun which i forgot. Then we ate.

The top one, blueberry Cheesecake was REALLY good. The one on the bottom, which, btw was called "Mango Bubble" xD was..well. a rip.

I thought it was actually a mango slice, and when i poked it and it came apart real easy. :O ,I realised it was like,, mango pudding., with like sponge cake. ANd in the middle of the cake were these little dark brown bits of ratpoo looking things. I seriously thought it looked like rat poo or something and I recalled the Coogee Beach Ice cream thing, (correct me if I'm wrong) and we kinda played with the rat poo for a while. We realised it was actually chocolate covered nuts and..well. that was more reassuring. Neverthless, it wasn't that great a cake.

ASHKENAZY IS THE BEST

we thought we were gna b late for the Meet the Music thing. Turns out Shaun read the time wrong and we were quite early. skip skip skip. Ashkenazy goes on stage to perform Kakadu, in memory of Peter Sculthorpe who turns 80 this year ! and the moment he starts conducting, I was amazed.

he was REALLY interesting to watch!! haha i mean, the music was defintiely top quality. but the way he conducted (he was of a short stature and has small hands too, like me hehe) it was like he was dancing. those who were there would know he would move his hips a little and have the most extraordinarily cool moves with the baton and in general, he was just amazing.

When I become a conductor, i'm gna be just as entertaining to watch as to listen to. Well, the music would be just as good =) haha. my hero.

Guylian cafe.

Mr wong gaming. ROFL and camera being camera shy.

I love this picture, how mr wong is concentrating so hard on Richard's phone, really looks like his playing like Game boy or something hehe

The one i'm holding is the Praline shake which is very nice, has that hazel nut (sorry Justin) flavour to it which i like. the cream was really yummy too - i love whipped cream *drools*

Mr Wong's waffles. I think he's still laughing about some Looney Tunes cartoon which has references to big butts and thus he links it to me. =___=

FRUIT PLATTERRRR

rockmelon was quite good, pineapple sucked, strawberry was okay, banana was okay. THE CHOCOLATE WAS THE BEST. haha we got ASIAN DARK. LOL how asian of us, i could just imagine the waitress shaking her head @ us.

LUVO =)

gosh mr wong has a big forehead ;D it's probably just the picture and my camera screwing up the size of everything...xD

Thursday

ambert's bday.

happy birthday.

Friday

ordinary school day. WITHOUT JAZZ WTF *glare* at those who went to Hamlet.

not so ordinary home time and jap tutoring.

Basically, shaun buys us a vodka cruiser, raspberry flavour.

Boys and girls. Alcohol is evil. It can do many things to your life which you will regret. It is NOT as much fun as people think. Drink with caution. but most importantly, drink with friends and for the best time ever,

don't drink and just watch =D

I have told this story too many times, ask Shaun if you want details.

Shaun drinks like half a cup, gets REALLY RED. like almost as red as the raspberyy drink and my mum comes back. =O

my mum asks if he's drunk and we all say nah, he's just tired from going to sleep reall late cos he's doing like 6 units of english or soemthing. He gets sent to sleep in our guest room and i have to clean up the mess. Thing is, raspberry flavoured vodka is red. Wine is also red.

so i spill some on the ground and i realise that it's highly suspicious and thus, i quickly mopped it up and poured the rest of it from the cups into my drink bottle which some of you tried the next day. scary scary, heart racing moment.

All is fine till we go to Jap tutoring. and well. please don't bag kelvin out abt this. everyone's given him enough shit abt it, it was meant to be a harmless funny story in the beginning, but everybody twisted it saying he licked my face or soemthing WTF?

so please, be nice to Kelvin when you see him and don't give him crap. Just stroke his hair XDDD

jap tutoring:

i tell Kelvin the story in jap tutoring abt shaun getting red and he decides to have some of the stuff, cos i brought it ( a huge mistake of mine, but i couldn't leave it @ home,, shaun bought it for me and him to drink..ah well)

the first cup he has, he's fine. the SECOND cup he gets, well.

you know that state of mine you enter with alcohol. Like, people sometimes drink before they go to interviews so they'd start feeling 'brave'. it's that feeling of confidence - that everything's fine, you start doing stuf like chatting up girls you usually would be too scared to. Well, Kelvin entered a really happy state of mind. he started touching my leg, and putting his leg on mine. I mean, usually he does gay stuff to me in jap anyway, but it felt a little different.

He stands up to do jap speaking with the teacher and as he's waiting he starts like stroking my hair. Well, swinging his arm from left to right whilst brushing my hair. It felt really wtf and i told him to stop. He just gave me this creepy 'really happy' smile.

Okay, i'll stop there, he does some other funny stuff too but i feel like i've said too much already. Kelvin, i'm really sorry that everybody started twisting our story into making you sound like a drunk homo. You're not, you're an awesome guy who has a funny side to you once alcohol enters your system. but on the whole, you're a good friend who i've known since year 8 =O

anyway

hope everybody has a really good week, even though it's disgusting weather we're having. DON'T CATCH THE SWINE FLU. if you do have the slightest symptoms, go to your doctor. Those who just came from overseas, you have a 7 day quarantine where you're not supposed to leave your home much., or none at all.

have a good week all

AMBIZZLE

2009-05-20T23:36:00.004+10:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY =)

thanks for being an awesomely funny friend who always makes me smile. no matter how awkward it gets, it's always lots of fun with you. =)

hope you have an awesome 18th birthday. how come you don't comment on my blog anymore, ambert !? =( just cos you dun get no daily dose of bubbles anymore :P haha

hope you do like your presents. They were chosen very carefully and with a lot of thought (around 5 minutes). I'm sorry we couldn't get you any hot barker girls, or juniors xD but i do hope you like them.

probably the most hilarious memory of you would be @ athletics carnival, you were on your second lap moving towards your third lap. chi wai and this other guy was doing their last lap and you started racing them AND YOU BEAT THEM, except of course, you decided to do another "victory lap" haha. thank you for the memories ;)

ALL OF YOU WHO READ THIS. REMEMBER TO SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AMBERT who's turning 18.

I'D LOVE TO BLOG MORE

2009-05-17T20:42:00.005+10:00

but i can't.

for me, time passes just too quickly. i can never get stuck into doing my work. Maybe i shouuld follow Liuser's example and start heading off to the library again.

anyways to sum up this week's events:

Monday:

Found out abt our UAI estimates. Congrats to the people who got the awards especially those who got both Improvement AND Excellence (99.35<) like SY, Michael Li and a few others. *very jealous glare* XD

Went to MINDFULNESS. HAHA. it's quite good. shame i can't go this week cos I GET A MUSIC EXCURSION HEHE XD but more abt that later. yes. we basically listened to a tape/cd that taught us how to meditate and concentrate on our breathing, slowly developing a method to focus on the present without mindlessly reminiscing the past or dreaming abt the future. I don't know how much that did for me, but it was a good sleep (=

AFTERNOON DETENTION - was the greatest afternoon spent @ school apart from Musical.

The school had delivered a massive hill of Mulch and as detention, we had to shovel that into wheelbarrows, then pour it out on to this patch of grass and have it spread out onto that piece of land.

Winnie + Shaun (the weaklings) and me initially xP - Raking (spreading the mulch)

Leeanne and sometimes Mr. Low - wheelbarrow (heaps of fun filling up her barrow unevenly so it'd b harder for her to balance and take it to the raking spots)

Eddison, Nathan, Justin, Eddy and yours sincerely - shovelling.

almost forgot. McKenzie was quite mean to Shaun. Asking him questions like, what event you go into? what you come in 1500 huh? i don't like that attitude of yours. I can see it in your eyes. GRR.

OH, and i got a blister. My first one on my hand, i think :P

Anyways it was much much fun. Most interesting thing was probably the extreme heat that was in the middle of the mulch (the result of bacterial degradation of the mulch or something scientific that i totally comprehend and grasp)

Then we headed off to Epping to try out this new Patisserie place that Winnie had discovered. It’s called Sweetness the Patisserie. And I must say, it’s quite droolworthy. Here are some pictures to tingle your tastebuds =)

The taste test jar, which i exploited when the nice lady @ the counter wasn't watching. bahaha.

the marshmellows were top rate! Winnie, who apparently doesn't like to eat 'low-grade' marshmellows, the type you buy in a huge pack from Woolworths, liked these. The flavours were quite colourful, ranging from Lime, to Raspberry. I highly recommend this for people with a sweet tooth. Like me =D

they have many other desserts too - but they're not as reasonably priced, in my opinion. Nevertheless, it's definitely worth a try. It's in Epping, where intuition is but you keep walking almost until you reach Arden School. (i think)

Tuesday

Grubsy came back saying his band won first place. congrats.

can't really remember what else. OH, belle finally gave me music. THANKS =) only trouble is there's so much I don't know what to listen to first. =S

and people started to get their estimates.

Can't remember much from the rest of the week. for some bad reason..

Oh yes. I got my estimate. Turns out I shoulda got an award - YAY. barely scraped in though. 99.35.

Need to improve my maths. By a lot. sigh* 100 UAI is still a dream haha

Turns out I can't take advantage of the supposedly good 'scaling' of Jap EXT or Music EXT unless i come first or second. Which is quite fustrating considering you can come 30th in Physics and it's still considered very good. there's only room for one 1st place.

I'm actually quite, depressed? i'm just not happy chappy. haha i guess. I'm very stressed. I told my mum i got 99.35. and she's wondering why i can't get 99.9 already. I tell her i can improve maths, and she's like. YES DO MORE MATHS. and i just don't know how to balance my work anymore.

Furthermore, today. I had a piano lesson. I practiced REALLY hard yesterday for it. 3 hours straight. haha that's the most i've practiced the whole year. and when I go to have my lesson. I'm stuffing up everything. I can't play right. Whenever I start panicking, I tense up and the sound is terrible. I can't get the notes right either. I JUST HATE how all my practice seems to have gone down to waste. WHY CAN'T I BE A GENIUS ?!?!

but my teacher's nice. in fact she's awesome. Tells me that I can't make up for 6 months practice in 3 hours. yes. i know. BUT WHY CAN'T I BE A GENIUS WHO CAN DO THAT ?!. sigh** now i have to spend MORE time which i need to be doing maths or english creative writing or jap memorising. I JUST DON't HAVE ENOUGH TIME!

i was reading Doraemon manga (raw) cos i can. heh jokes. i bought the Doraemon movie manga from Japan when I went last year and i decided to read it, see how much i could understand. Anyway, Doraemon has this awesome device where he can STOP time. i'd love to do that.

I'm very worried abt my future too. Belle, i know what you're feeling now. far out. if i go music. i need to take a GAP year so i can get enough experience, go into competitions and really just GET better. THEN, take most of another year to audition into the Colburn School of Music.

If i get in, i get free EVERYTHING, almost and plus i get an allowance and my future is almost set. All that's left is that I continue working hard, and i should be more or less fine.

BUT IF I DON't MAKE It.

i woulda wasted 2 years. I would have to redo everything agn, get into Uni, and watch all those people I know almost finishing their degrees while i still have a few years left. I don't really mind it i guess, i'd still make friends i guess, but I would avoid it if i could.

My other option, is I can do Medicine/Music which Lilian So (my hero) is doing atm. i think. @ USyd as well. It's good i guess, except that the Conversatorium is going downhill, with their new dean who ent real good. its' not too bad i guess. I like medicine. i think. it's really interesting. I think.

Is it worth the risk? should i go for my dream? or go for something more realistic?

WHAT WOULD MAKE ME HAPPIER?

I went to Youth Group today before Church and we were praying to Mary cos this month is the Holy Month of Mary and for all these years, my basic and fundamental prayer whenever I needed to say something quick, short and succinct.

I just want to be happy.

Digressing ( i have 3 minutes left) i need to finish by 9.30 so i can continue practicing piano.

My tutor from back in Year 4,5,6 had a baby. YAY! she's the most awesome person ever. If she were my age, I think i'd like to marry her. xD anyway, that's not the point, but when we saw her baby i dno. This sounds really weird. But i'd really wouldn't mind having my own family. I mean, not sounding pedo or anything but I like kids. I like having a family, people who i can trust and just say/do anything with. I mean of course, I'm not at all financially able right now. and if i do music, well, it'd b quite a long time (when i'm 50 maybe) until i can earn HOPEFULLY if i'm a conductor, around 500,000? haha if i'm lucky. A famous conductor would earn hopefully that much. I have no idea.

BUT. to do something you love. and earn that much. That's my dream.

welps. It's 9.30.

sorry for the lack of pictures. I really don't have much.

TOMORROW.

CARL VINE INTRO OF NEW PIANO SONATA NO.3 @ ANGEL'S PLACE.

shall take lots of photo and blog abt it on saturday/sunday. I need to record what i do each week, otherwise i'd seriously forget.

TUESDAY:

AS YOU LIKE IT PLAY @ Erkensville. where the hell is that haha.

APPARENTLY, people from Baulko saw it and they say it's really good. the stage is in the middle and teh audience is around the stage. it's like a wrestling/boxing stage. and the actors interact with the audience. which i always find awesome.

WEDNESDAY:

school,,

then MEET THE MUSIC @ night.

shall go to chatswood first to buy presents, which i will say later. as well. CRAP. time's over but i still have so much to say. anyways

meet the music - conducted by another hero of mine. Vladimir Ashkenazy

He earns aroudn 900,000 and probably more each year. doing the thing he LOVES. That is my dream.

But anyways

PRESENTS:

Need to get Ambert something. shall not discuss here but whoever wants to chip in for his birthday this coming THURSDAY: please text me let me know ASAP;

Kazuki. something Australian haha and awesome, like me :P

Might buy some tennis balls for Eddison cos i lost many of his whilst playing tennis. DON'T TELL HIM IT'S MEANT TO BE SECRET haha hopefully he doesn't read this.

might by my past tutor Jennifer something for her lil boy and her too. Bosco you would know her. Jennifer Kwaan, Alex Kwaan's wife. Alex is like one of your brother's friends from back @ Ruse

oo. need to get Jonathan (friend from Baulko) something too, it was his birthday end of march and i stil haven't got him anything. Was gna get Kazuki to post something over from Japan but his mum said no. ah wells.

okay. it's WAY beyond scheduled time. I haf to go.

sorry for lack of photos again. and probably another boring post.

everybody have a good week. (=

Home-made Sushi Dinner

2009-05-09T20:06:00.003+10:00

is the GREATEST. =)

The process of choosing your own ingredients then rolling it up on the bamboo mat and then eating the entire roll just gives my tummy a warm feeling. Then, having the whole roll to yourself, without people stealing the good parts (like when you have soft shell crab sushi @ a sushi place and you only get the legs), is simply the greatest.

Today, I finally managed to get the shape right, without spilling any of the food or making a hole in my sushi roll. My sister would always laugh whenever I opened the rolled up bamboo mat, revealing my wonky sushi roll, where cucumber would poke out from the seaweed.

I was going to take a photo of it, but by the time i remembered, all the food was gone and there wasn't much left to take a photo of.

Ingredients:

sliced up strips of cucumber,

nicely cut sashimi

sliced up strips of sausage

some abalone and sea snails (packaged and marinated - you can get it @ asian stores)

lobster and crab meat (jokes XD)

Japanese Mayonaisse with a bit of Condensed milk. This makes an awesome kinda sauce with your rice as it's kinda sweet and it doesn't feel right without it. Try it ! ahah it's really good

RICE, almost forgot XD with a bit of white vinegar. Make sure you don't add too much in...otherwise your seaweed will be too wet and it'll be soggy.

rice seasoning (good stuff)

that's it really. you can really do your own ingredients. If you're rich and can afford to spend 300-400 dollars on shopping like Jason - you can get like rich sashimi, prawns, lobster, crab meat, tuna, swordfish sashimi. you name it. But the above is for the average poor cheap asian family with many hungry and big stomachs =D

Last but not least, I leave you all with a funny thing I found on somebody's blog.

Apparently it was meant to be some April Fools Day joke. (much funnier than Belle's May 5th joke =__=).

This made me think back to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where they had like four course meals all in one bubble gum strip.

Oh yes, a funny story to share with everybody especially for those who have been abused or bullied by Nathan. XD You've all heard about him getting diarrhoea from eating Sushi - 5 for $4 or something at the ct. well this is better.

Setting: English in the library with Mayers and McIntosh

So Mayers comes over to our english table in the library with McIntosh and asks somebody for a USB. Shaun, being fast with his hands ;), whips his out of his pencil case and gives it to Mayers. Meanwhile, Nathan fiddles around in his wallet or something and pulls out a tiny, compact, small, and significantly more high tech USB compared to Shaun's massive MP3 player turned USB. In his enthusiasm, he shouts "Use Mine, Mine's better!" and McIntosh glances at his small USB, thinks for a second or two and says, "I can think of something really inappropriate to say right now"

2 money bags and a spring roll.

2009-05-05T17:45:00.007+10:00

hi-hi.

i don't believe i just spent 10 seconds figuring out an appropriate greeting. went from "HELLO EVERYBODY =]" which i thought was too happy a mood to create to..well. what it is now.

okay. to explain my monday absence. After the Helena's party on Sunday, I discovered to my dismay that I had not practiced piano properly (yes. i know i had all of friday and saturday; but i was catching up on maths - i don't believe I forgot how to do Volumes already! D:) So, i decided to take a day off so I could have a productive lesson and not waste my mum's money (i'm such a good boy) and consequently, I avoided Connors and McKenzie's angry lectures =D

BUBBLES WINS ^_^

on top of that, I had a chest clinic appointment @ parramatta at 2.00pm (because the Enbrel injection I'm taking apparently increases my risk of getting TB so i haf to take some MORE medicines =___= to make sure that doesn't happen.) it so happens that the doctor was very late to the clinic and by 3.14 (yes. parramatta clinic people, i was there for OVER AN HOUR) I really had to leave for my piano lesson.

so. i waste an hour reading citizen kane and half watching Brothers & Sisters which is actually quite a funny qwirky show. I like it. velly muchuu =) *giggle* AND i was late to my lesson. wtf. (was quite pee-ed off)

BUBBLES LOSES. =(

So today. Monday. oops. Tuesday ( it still feels like the first day of my week hehehe)

i'm quite bewildered by Growth and Decay. Maybe cos i missed out on a lesson on monday (yes. BUBBLES LOSES agn =__=) but it is quite overwhelming when you see ALL this working on the board.

and you don't know the question.

so you just conscientiously copy the working from the board onto your book (this brings me back to Mrs Chan's lessons when I did that a lot. Not my fault. Nathan was very distracting with his hands >_<>

Oh i do realise i've been rambling a bit. Time to spice things up with some pictures. Yes. Hurray. bubbles finally shuts up.

We were discussing naruto/bleach during Maths today (yes. sorry there's still something i need to say before your viewing pleasure is enhanced). So these are some climatical points in the recent updates of the mangas.

Firstly Bleach:

Yes, boys and girls, this is the new Kurosaki Ichigo - he's grown more horny ;) and is stronger.

Hitsugaya dies. Nah, just kidding. He just gets owned by some espada. =)

THEN we have naruto:

Naruto is ownage once again. =) i was so happy when i saw this. Such an awesome entrance.

he owns one of the Pains in one hit. and just wait, his next line is even better.

something on the lines of "go grab a cup of tea and take a breather, Granny" (haha Por por, if you read this, this is when I save you and tell you to drink your herbal medicine :P)

Last but not least, this is Naruto in SAGE mode, ahaha makes him look like he's got make up on eh? hehe but he's very strong at this level, and is much cooler than always resorting to Kage Bunshin and Rasengan.

Lastly,

to sum up today. i decided to create something LIKE community channel's "Ugly word of the day etc."

So firstly,

the "Funny yet wtf person of the day"

Mindy. A very drunk and crazy Mindy today was interviewed by yours sincerely in Japanese class. I really can't imagine her well and truly drunk. It'd be frightening haha.

the "awesome person of the day" goes to

Justin. for lending me his "The soloist" which i think i left in the Senior Common Room after reading it in my free period. If anybody finds it, please return to me. =)

okay. to piano practice. =)

i shall be in Parramatta Eisteddfod, attempting to earn some money (a potential $1000). but my teacher's student Leanna Lam (she is one of the best in the country and has been selected to attend Colburn Music School in LA for her bachelors in music. Colburn is one of the most elite music schools in the world, along with Julliard (though Julliard is more for strings now) is competing with me, along with other really good people. I don't think I can get it haha. ah well. i'll giv it my best shot.

Okay..

I shall leave you all with the "most disturbing yet hilarious picture of the day".

Nathan, Eddison, Ambert Cheryl would understand this. This was @ the Thai restaurant during helena's 17th bday party. cheryl wouldn't eat money bags after that. hehe

after temporarily retiring, i'm back =)

2009-05-01T14:26:00.004+10:00

oh gosh. after deleting and rewriting up my introduction, i discovered i well and truly forgot how to blog. all my sentences seem abrupt. awkward. and short. but here goes.

initially, this whole blog idea was meant to be a semi-diary, where i could look back on what i did before and reminisence (however you spell it). i really like reminiscing. it's just a part of me that really likes to look back to the 'happy old days' and then daydream about the future.

well. how about a holiday summary to continue on this semi-diary convention i've started.

My most productive days, in my opinion, were my first few days. especially cooking. Then, my productivity started to decline and i spent most of my holidays either going out or reading manga.

Speaking of manga, I'd like to recommend a certain mangaka (manga artist) called Adachi Mitsuru. He is amazing. in fact, beyond amazing. He is my hero.

Adachi usually writes sports manga, usually baseball (he's done swimming and boxing as well) and he always adds in comedy and romance, which forms a fundamental part of his mangas. His works include Touch, Rough, H2, Katsu!, Cross Game, Miyuki, Hiatari Ryoukou, Niji-iro Togarashi and many more.

You really just have to read it to find out how good it is. I highly recommend it. All his mangas have been readapted to anime and then to live-action movies. So, it's gta be quite good if they do that. After all, Hana kimitachi e, Hana Yori Dango and Nodame Cantabile were all mangas to begin with and look how awesome they were. And manga is ALWAYS better than the anime or drama.

I really cannot stress enough how good these mangas are. They're different from the battle manga like Bleach and Naruto (all about getting more power etc.). Ah well, if you're interested, let me know, I have 90% of his collection =D

These are some pictures:

Anyway, back to holidays.

Last week of holidays:

Monday: piano

Tuesday: EASTER SHOW (with my sister Krystal, Belle, Winnie, Sam and Cat)

Wednesday: PAINTBALL (for ally's birthday)

Thursday: Jap tutoring

Friday: maths tutoring

Saturday: piano lesson then RICHARD'S SLEEPOVER (where we had a semi movie marathon, Monster House, Charlie's Angels ;), Transformers and Charlie and the CHOCOLATE factory)

Sunday: Church, then was gna watch a movie @ Parra, but got told to go home and sleep by my dad. Ended up going to Bicenntenial Park @ Homebush. Cycled on bike, "trained" for athletics (which was basically just running beside my sister as she cycled, then gave up cos she was too slow >_> hehe). Had dinner @ Peking Restaurant. PEKING DUCK!! yay.

Monday: panicked cos i hadn't packed or cleaned up in the whole holidays, then gave up cos there was too much and read Touch and H2

Photos? hmm. still on my camera. Can't be bothered to load them yet heh.

YAY!!! Wolverine and Shawshank Redemption finished downloading.

welps. i'm done here then. hehe

Hope everybody had a really good holiday.

@THELOVEGOD or watever: i don't like discussing my feelings on love on my blog. it's not a loveblog after all.

a shout to Kazuki: it was his birthday on the 29th of April. I shall send him something maybe. I was planning to burn him a CD of good American/Western Music. Anyone got good songs? and probably another gift too.

bye for now.

COOKING WITH BUBBLES 1

2009-04-14T17:40:00.004+10:00

asdfakl;jdf

I FRKN COOKED TODAY HAHAAHAH

ehem*

i never thought cooking was to be SOO tiring. mothers make it look so easy, putting stuff in the pan, multiple pans i might add, talking away on the phone whilst preparing dinner or lunch. then having enough energy to clean up. i was completely exhaused after cooking. i barely haf enough energy left to blog. Luckily, dinner is early tonight; so naturally my energy levels will er be relinquished.

a shout to Belle who's having a hard time @ home with her sister. i'm quite fortunate to have an alright sister. Those who have met Krystal would know she ent really that bad - except now that she's in year 6, she's becoming a know-it-all, lecturing me on how to cook, and taking away the recipe when i started barring her :S

anyways,

i was planning to make:

1. prawn skewers which i saw on foodwishes.com

Chef John made some really nice orange juicey prawn skewers covered with paccano ham (salty ham) but because my dad did shopping without me this morning, i only had prawns and..that was it..

well he bought tomatos and so i decided to use a recipe from one of mum's cookbooks by Gigi Wong - it's quite good.

what i ended up making for no.1

was

Diced tomato and onion tiger prawns with ORANGE JUICE xD (secret ingredient)

and it made it very nice, a sweet flavour. =)

2. Japanese teriyaki fish rice.

My mum made this for me during exam time when i was really exhausted and very hungry, of course. It was AMAZINGLY nice and well. stuff happened.

my dad, instead of buying me like john dory type (white meat fish), he bought me rainbow trout - said that was the only fresh fish @ Woolworths (my dad and uncle still call it Woolies *rolls eyes* they sound so fob xD)

wells

so ended up making teriyaki rainbow trout. (quite nice)

3. steak. i made steak. with worcestorshire sauce and some other japanese sauce thing. Added some onions and corn in (which i defrosted =)) yes i remembered shaun xD

Now, before i load the awesome pictures,

PROBLEMS I HAD.

1. tomatoes:

they said, in the cookbook that, if you scald the tomatos with boiling water and then rinse with cold water, the skin would peel off very easily, doors plus, no fuss. BUT didn't work for me. I boiled the water, and scalded it and almost scalded myself in the process. and guess what. tHe skin stayed exactly as it was. I couldn't even peel it properly, because i have short nails (for piano and cos long nails look disgusting on me)

well, so i decided to cut them into quarters and try again.

THIS time, some skin fell out, but most of it still stuck on,

i gave up. and just went on to dice them up. (my dad says I look like Jamie Oliver or some DAI CHOO when i start cutting up stuff xD yay! master chef = bubbles ) xP

2. STEAK.

believe it or not. it takes some skill to do perfect steak.

now my dad told me that steak required a VERY hot pan. and one thing NOT to do, when you add oil to the hot pan is start using your ladle or whatever and start moving the oil around in the pan. it starts sparkling everywhere and my shirt is like an aboriginal painting now. >_<

my first steak was good. Alfred wanted it well done cos he was sick; so i made it for him and it looked beautiful, a little burnt but it's the nice type, and completely edible. added some worchestershire sauce and damn did it smell nice.

my SECOND steak, for myself. well. the pan wasn't hot enough. I ended up with some type of light light brown, sick looking. Added a bit more oil to make it look darker - i didn't even know what i was thinking. Ended up with an overcooked but still yummy of course, steak. bleh.

my THIRD steak, for my sister. I decided to REALLLY intensifiedly heat the pan. well. too much. it looked really good, but was a medium rare, which Krystal didn't like. =__= ah man.

well it was a good learning experience =)

and here are the pictures.

btw. prawns were VERY good. so was the rainbow trout. prawns were really good, just had to say it again, cos it really was quite nice. =)

a bit watery in my opinion, but the sauce was delicious. and the prawns completely soaked up the orange juice. =)

My lunch. took over 2 hours to make ahah shuddup.

OH ANOTHER PROBLEM

3. RAINBOW TROUT.

i hatechuu for having SOO MANY bones. i spent half the time picking out the bones. and trust me they are hard to pick out. Firstly, they are all lined up in a line (duh), so i cut along that line so it'd b easier to pluck them out. That was okay I guess. but sometimes, they just wouldnt' come out and GARR! very annoying.

then unscaling them was a bitch as well. luckily, my dad did most of that for me, and i only had to finish off some of the parts where there were scales left. =)

I also learnt how to devein and unshell them. Quite fun to do.

Anyway, i'm tired.

but i still love cooking. Love mixing sauces around, adding flavours and experimenting. gna wash my shirt now.