Rebecca Clarke's Viola Sonata
Today is the second day of the lunar new year. I had a rehearsal in the early afternoon with a viola student, TYY. We'll be playing in a noon recital this coming thursday, and we'll be playing the first movement of Rebecca Clarke's Viola Sonata. This sonata is very seldom played, which is a pity, because it's really beautiful.
TYY and I are looking forward to performing this work (which was premiered by her teacher, JH, here in the 1980s) this thursday.
Long live female composers! :)
Gong Xi Fa Cai
Dear Friends,Here's wishing all of you a very Happy Lunar New Year and may the year of the dog bring tons of fortune, luck, good health and joy to everyone!Gong Xi! Gong Xi!
AnimaLover
Today, while I was clearing away some stuffs, I came across a lovely 2004 animal calendar. Most of the animals are very cute, especially these four lovely animals. They look so innocent and vulnerable that you would want to embrace them and protect them forever. They are simple adorable! They look like stuffed toys that you would want to hug to sleep.
I really can't imagine a world without them.
May you guys live a long, long, long life!
Square 1
There's something wrong with my new blog music, so I'm back to using Bach. Enjoy! :)
Fickle-Minded
I've changed the music for my blog. What you're hearing now is Rick DeAguiar's "Coming Home", taken from music.download.com. Now that I've learnt a really easy way to add music to my blog (thanks to David), do expect changes in music from time to time.
It's just too boring sticking to the same thing all the time. :)
Chicken Out
My mum told me this morning that my new neighbours gave away all their feathered friends: 2 cocks, 2 hens and 3 chicks (I only found out about the chicks today). Their immediate next door neighbour had complained about the noises from their tiny "farmhouse", so they had no choice but to give them away.
I think I will miss the crowings.
Animal Farm
My new neighbours, a father and daughter, moved in 2 days ago, and they brought with them 4 dogs. All the 4 dogs are strays which they "adopted" years ago.
When they came, their dogs, together with my 2 dogs, made a hell of a noise by barking at each other at the top of their lungs. Berry, my female dog, was barking madly and turning round and round in circles at the same time. My other neighbour's dogs also joined in the "chorus". It was a really funny sight, and what a din they created! We, humans, had a hard time making them keep quiet.
This morning, I heard a cock crow. My parents said the cock also belonged to the new neighbours. It turned out that they have 2 cocks and 2 hens, in addition to their 4 dogs. I guess they're trying to turn their new home into a mini home farm. Even now, as I write my post, the cock is crowing non-stop. For a while, it felt like I was living in a kampong.
What will they "adopt" next? Ducks?
Tao's Resto
Last night and tonight, I had dinner with friends at Tao's Restaurant. The food is so good that I didn't mind going there again. The food is not too expensive and simply DELICIOUS, and the service is very good. The people there are warm and friendly, and they really make your dining experiences very enjoyable.
I would strongly recommend it to anyone out there. It's really a "must-try"!
Blog Change
This afternoon, my student David "installed" Bach's Air On G String (my favourite classical piece) onto my blog. He also tried to help me change my blogskin. The blogskin change (taken from blogskins.com) was successful, but putting up the links onto the new skin wasn't. He tried a few times and I think it gave him quite a headache. Haha. He said that he'll try it for me at home. So sweet of him! So I'm back to using a new blogskin from blogspot.com. Maybe I'll stick to this new skin for a while, and also, I like my colourful posts.
Thanks for your help, David! :)
Archi-In-De Wanababe
Since young, I've liked building model houses. My building materials ranged from using Lego sets to hardcover story books to playing cards. I like to design the outline of a house, then plan where to put the doors and windows. I'll also decide if it will be a double-storey house or single-storey house, where to put the stairs, or will there be a second floor indoor balcony looking down into the living room etc... Then I'll decide what furniture to put in the houses and where to put them. It's really interesting to see something forming from nothing.
I also like to look at showrooms, and look at their interior designs. Many times, they are so beautiful that I can't wait to have my own place so that I could decorate it like them too.
I guess I must have been influenced by my aunt, who's an architect. If I were not doing music, I guess I might have been an architect or interior designer!
Before & After
Last night, I watched "The Swan" on television.
It's a reality program where women who aren't satisfied with their looks, are chosen to "alter" their physical appearances by means of plastic surgery. The women are not allowed to look at themselves in the mirror during the whole makeover process lasting an average of 3 months. The "before and after" of these women are really amazing. Imagine their joy when they see themselves for the first time after the makeover. It's like entering a makeover machine as an ugly duckling, and coming out as a swan. Wow! I will go beserk with joy if I'm to take part in "The Swan", and after 3 months, I'm "reborn" as Christy Cheung! I'm looking forward to that, man, but will that happen??? SIGH!!!
Today, I bought the February 2006 issue of Architectural Digest (I love to look at beautiful homes), and coincidentally, it also features the "before and after" of houses. It's like "One House, Two Looks", "Debbie Trevis' Facelift" and "The Designer Guys". You can really see the dramatic changes after renovations. Totally breathtaking. It's really amazing what makeovers can do!
I guess I enjoy looking at the "befores and afters" because I always like to believe that something beautiful can come out of something ugly. It's always good to be positive, no?
The Silent Sea
This is a poem that I wrote about twenty years ago when I was still a student:
The Silent Sea
Calm and peaceful, green and blue,
Waves appear as the soft wind blew.
Against the rocks and against the shore,
The silent sea to us implore:
"Nature brings to us two friends,
One who destroys and one who mends.
Wise must we be when choosing one,
For a bad friend is as good as none"
Travel Bug
I love travelling.
It gives me a sense of freedom and a sense of novelty.
I love planning for my trips.
I love planes and collecting my plane tickets.
I love packing my luggages (NOT when I'm packing to go home!)
I love going to the airport.
I love checking in my luggages and choosing my plane seats.
I love hanging around the departure lounges, waiting to board the planes.
I love boarding planes and looking for my seats.
I love it when the plane engines get louder to indicate that they're ready for take-off.
I love it when the planes accelerate and ascend into the sky.
I love sitting at window seats so that I could look out of the windows and see what's below.
I love it when the planes start to descend.
I love it when the planes land.
I love it when I finally arrive at a new destination.
I love visiting new countries and their cities or towns.
I love seeing new surroundings, new people, new cultures, new things.
I love checking into hotels or inns.
I love seeing things my country cannot offer.
I love beautiful natural sceneries, be it the mountains or the oceans.
I love going for hikes along stoney rivers, walking through lovely pastures or visiting beautiful natural parks.
I love having my hotel rooms face nature, especially oceans.
I love eating under the sky.
I love any good food the countries can offer.
I love attending their local festivals.
I love all the four seasons, especially spring and autumn.
I love any travel programmes and travel magazines.
In short, I want to be a travel journalist, travel host or travel photographer in my next life, so that I can satisfy my travel cravings.
A Rare and Funny Sight
This evening, on my way back from accompaniment, I drove the usual route back home. When I reached the Thomson flyover, I was caught in an apparently, massive jam. The cars were totally stationary. No one moved. As I was at the back of the jam, I couldn't see what caused it.
After waiting for a few minutes, and still no one moved, something made me look in the rear mirror, and I saw a really funny sight: the cars behind me were reversing out of the flyover, one by one. 2 cars even did a 3-point turn and drove in the opposite direction, towards oncoming traffic, just to get out of the jam. Out of sheer fun, I also reversed my car all the way so that I could take the other route instead. How often can one reverse his car out of a flyover during heavy traffic without getting honked at???
Then, another funny sight occured in front of me. Never in my life had I seen so many cars reversing together, out of a flyover before, and to see them from an audience's point of view was even funnier. The cars in front of mine were reversing slowly, some in a zig-zag manner. I couldn't help but exclaim aloud many times, "this is super funny!" To see a big group of cars reversing at the same time is a one-in-a-lifetime sight to behold! At that moment, I wished I had a video camera so that I could film the whole thing down.
In the end, when I got pass the flyover using the other route, I saw that the jam had somehow "disappeared" in a matter of seconds. It was really bizarre. One moment, tonnes of cars were stuck there, and the next, everything was smooth. I never got to find out what caused the jam. Whatever it is, I must thank those who caused it. If not for them, I would never have been able to see such a funny sight!
An Old Friend
Today, I came across a Taiwanese friend, Lili's contact. I, together with my sis, knew Lili when we were all harpsichord students in Paris. Lili is a very nice and sweet girl. As she's also like us, short and petite, when the 3 of us went out together, we would be mistaken as 3 little girls, and you would expect a French auntie or uncle to ask if we were lost and where our parents were. We also had lots of fun during harpsichord lessons, not to mention our teacher, Mr. Ilton WJUNISKI, who is a walking encyclopedia, always referred to us as "les petites", meaning "the little ones".
Since our return 11 years ago, we lost all contact with Lili until today, when I accidentally found her Taiwan address and phone number. I called the number and her sister picked up the phone. Lili had moved out of her parents' house and she's now staying on her own. Her sis then gave me Lili's home number. I'll call her later, as her sis said that she's working at the moment. I can't wait to catch up with Lili and hopefully, meet up with her again, after all these years.
Stuck At Home
It has been raining one whole day today. It's the best time to stay at home and sleep. I wished that it was snowing instead, then we could go out and build snowmen in the garden. Haha.
Anyway, it's a good time to stay indoors and get some work done. I've just finished an arrangement of one of my songs for demo-making, and I'm now going to try finishing one of my short pieces for string quartet. I hope to get it done latest by the end of this week.
"Inspiration! Inspiration! Come to me!"
Humor
We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up. -- Phyllis Diller
You Only Live Once
This afternoon, JS and SR came to my house to play mahjong again, and we had pizza for dinner. Before coming to my house, we went to 7-11 to buy drinks and snacks to go with our mahjong. After dinner, we continued with our game until about 1.30am, before calling it a day (or night). It was really fun! How nice if everyday was so fun and interesting, and most important of all, stress-free. Afterall, we only live life once!
"Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive. -- Elbert Hubbard"
The Necessary Preparations
Today, we had a break from last night's crazy zigsaw and mahjong sessions.
I stayed at home to practice the piano and clear up some stuffs. I'm gearing up for tomorrow because......we will be playing mahjong again! :)
Crazy, Crazy Night
Yesterday morning, my parents left for Genting Highlands, so 2 friends, JS and SR, came over to my house and together with my sis, we had 10 pieces of roti prata for dinner. After that, we proceeded to doing a 2014-piece Snoopy orchestra jigsaw puzzle, while my sis was teaching. It is the puzzle that my sis and I tried about 2 years back, which we later gave up doing, because we had a really hard time forming just the border. In the end, we gave up without finishing the border and left it under our piano, untouched, until yesterday.
JS, SR and me started at about 7pm to work on the border of the jigsaw, and by the time my sis finished teaching at 9pm, we were still working at it! It was that difficult! Most of the pieces for the border were in very dark colors, so we had to strain our eyes to figure out which piece belonged to which part. My sis joined us later, and finally, we finished building the border at about 11.30pm, with breaks in between. We taped up the joined pieces, kept them, and proceeded to mahjong.
As SR didn't know how to play mahjong, and we were way passed her usual bedtime, she didn't want to play, but the 3 of us persuaded her to stay, saying that we would teach her. She agreed and the 4 of us went into our studio for the game, as it is soundproof and we would not disturb our neighbours.
We played all the way till about 3.30am in the morning, then we called it a day, as we were really tired.
It was a crazy night, but it sure was fun! We were already thinking of having another one sometime soon!
New Year Eve Celebration
Yesterday was New Year's Eve. My mum and I went to my 3rd aunt's house in the afternoon and we had a game of mahjong with my aunt and cousin.
The rest of my family and relatives came later in the day and we had a delicious dinner including yong tau foo curry, potato salad, paper-wrapped chicken, roast duck and BBQ pork ribs. We also had ice cream for dessert.
Then the game of mahjong continued, while I watched, together with my cousins, 3 dvds at one go: "Land of The Dead", "Monster-in-law", and "Meet The Fockers". My dad and 2 other uncles were singing karaoke in another room.
Then, at the stroke of midnight, fireworks near my aunt's house symbolised the arrival of 2006. A handful of us took our places at the balcony to look at the fireworks display. It was really beautiful. After "oogling" at them till the display ended, we stayed for a while more before calling it a day.
Later today, one of my cousins will be coming to my house and we'll be having a marathon of Indiana Jones movies, all 3 of them.
Here's wishing everyone a fantastic 2006 and may all your dreams and wishes come true! :)
