hello there again :)

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!

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

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 :)