wish me luck! haha

Cello lesson

Me: For me, I practise only half hour, then i sian already.

Cello sensei: Huh! Nooo need to practise more. My student who took Grade 6 last yr practise 1 hour everyday and she got high distinction. For Grade 6, you need to practise one. I practise everyday, 1 hour for scales, 1 hour for studies and 1 hour or sometimes more for songs. So more than 3 hours a day.

Me: I practise 10 minutes for scales, 10 minutes for studies and 10 minutes for others...

Cello sensei: -_-


不一样就是不一样

LOVE STORY (Taylor Swift) meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay) - Piano Cello

From yokes blog :)
nice piece of music ;)

Artsylum Quartet performance

wow watched the videos. it was great. i think if i were there listening to it live, would have been better :)

El Tango De Roxanne


Oblivion


Libertango

The Swan or Danse Rustique

Danse Rustique



The Swan


Dunno which song to choose for one of my choices for cello exam. My cello tcher says Danse Rustique is technically easier, i.e. easier to score? Buden The Swan is like more appealing to me as the tune is nicer (more popular).

To make it more interesting, i've created a poll on the right hand side of this blog. Please vote! hahaha

** Note: I may not make a choice ultimately based on the poll. Just wanna see wat the rest of u think :)

Youtubes!

I must blog about this.

I haven been youtubing Vanilla Mood for a loooooooooooooooong time and this was what i had found last night. TOTALLY ROX CAN! HAHAHA. i luv Mariko(the cellist)!!! i think the violist is quite zai and cool too!



This was my favourite last time.



I wonder who were the hidden guitarist and drummer of Vanilla Mood. Maybe next time they should be given credit. :)

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juz had my cello lesson, my teacher told me about the Grade 6 pieces, as in telling me that i muz perfect my vibrato and blah blah to make it flawless to play these pieces. youtubed the pieces. i think all the 3 pieces are really fantastic but means, very challenging. haha. need to work hard!

From List A: J.S. Bach Suite no. 1 in G, BMV 1007: Menuet I and II



From List B: Saint-Saens The Swan
By YoYoMa (paiseh, cant embed)

From List C: Carl Davis Elegy --> cant find this on youtube.
below is the Elegy by Gabriel Faure

Picturessssss

okiez, just some random pics taken now and then.

the pelleting machine from Dosage Forn Design Lab :P

The yellow pellets look more like pop corn haha!

EmiCakes Durian Cake, beside Botak Jones after the CNY eve badminton day.
Was full after this cake but ate Botak Jones anyway :P

That time Cloud was asking what's nice at my coffeeshop but I dun have an answer. Now I know. It's this western food stall called "Roasted Chicken (Rooster head logo) Western food". It's run by 2 young lads who learnt cooking from Shatec. Look at the mushroom soup. It's THICK one lo. $1 for soup plus bread with any meal.

The Pork Chop I had. I think the Fish was better. The Pork tastes like satay type. The Fish was those nice breaded fillet kind one. AND EACH MEAL COSTS $4.50 ONLY!

You'll be so jealous if i tell you i can see sunset from my Balcony everyday (provided the weather is good). Cos the sun sets at the Chinese Garden Lake. and it's nice scenery which I've been seeing since I know wat's sunset :P (i rmb sitting at the balcony during late afternoons to pass my time when i was young)

The nicer colour.

The AH JINS cousins glamour shot at Xueting's renovated room with ORANGE wall.
I duno why my face black black here haha. My indiv shot is on Facebook. dun wan to put on blog :P

So after the orange wall shots, we were sitting on the floor toking when we realise that the lamp and the cello look classy together. Each of us had indiv shot again hahaha

NOW ADVERTISING FOR INTEMPO 2008
15March 5pm UCC hall
celebrating 40th anniversary.
There'll be exhibitions outside the hall too!
playing a 50min symphony "PLANET EARTH" by johann de meij (2nd half)
it's the only song i'm playing (to cut down practice time for my hectic yr 4 timetable)
i'm playing cello!

===============================

during lunch today, my mum was telling me about some foldable chopsticks-cum-spoon-cum-fork thingy she saw at her buddhist class. she seems interested to start a business for this environmental thingy, and wanted me to promote to my university when we're onz. haha. quite a good idea right? hehe. maybe going to drag some cousins into the business.

================================

So i've decided to do pre-reg after i graduate. the application for Masters is over already, and LC also decided to do pre-reg to see if she's really not keen. for me, i tink mayb it's 天意 that made me fail the Medicine and Dentistry interviews to do Pharmacy so that I dun have to study so much. Actually if i'm not so academically inclined, I would have gone into music. now i just wan to see whether I'm really good at Pharmacy type of work. if i'm good, i'll further to take PharmD (doctor of Pharmacy), maybe i'll end up teaching in NUS. If not, hang in for a while, continue my cello/band/music, den when the time comes, i'll do Locum (part-time) for Pharmacy and teach music part-time.

at least that's what i'm thinking now.

Finally got my marks sheet

Sooooooo dui2... got 125, and 5 marks to distinction and u noe why? cos i failed my SCALES!! like scales.... scales supposed to get full marks one lo...

and the comments for scales:
"Scales were moderately in your fingers at a very slow tempo for this grade, especially separated bowed exanples. Only the chromatic had flowing momentum. All known but too basic."

12/21 (passing mark is 14)

wah. if i know i'm supposed to play faster, i'll play faster and hopefully pull up the marks. haiz.

okok. dun complain liaoz.

thanks PK for accompaniment again. they were 2 best out of the 3. haha. solo cello like quite hard to score leh.

and sigh. spent 1.5h getting to the school because of jam at chinatown. everybody 逛-ing 年货. i'll take MRT next time when I'm travelling to crowded places...

FYP + Planet Earth

felt SUPER blur today.

my lab colleague asked me to lunch with her. told her i'll be done at 12nn so continue doing my things. BUT i duno i too gan cheong to not wait her wait so long or wat, made the wrong antibodies, not once but TWICE!!! argh. and since antibodies dilutions are not the same. i duno whether still can reuse anot. so kept them in the -20degC freezer.. -_- and we ended up lunching at 12.20 pm...

ask me abt my expt? i dun wan to explain. but. redid and confirmed the supposedly overexpression turned out to be underexpression.. haiz. redo everything from the 3rd stage (if u recall me saying my proj has a total of 4 stages). quite pressed for time. esp when my sup wanted me to do at least a duplicate.

===================================

i'm so chui for Planet Earth. quoting my tcher: "if u can play this by march, it'll be a miracle". she's not trying to be discouraging, but it's the truth!!!!

argh.
i hate sightreading with astigmatism!

i hate tenor and treble clefs.

i hate tremolos.

i hate playing running notes on the cello, gotta swing the bow up and down.

BUT PLANET EARTH IS SO NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! sigh.

i better practise everyday... (ahem. i'll try)


and i'm serious:

if you've cello friends, pls ask them to go band!!!!!
we need more cellists. (5 more -_- )

Bow hold

Went for lessons at Elizabeth's house today. I think I'll give up on the Curtis teacher liaoz. haha.

anyway, i've to change bow hold. need to change in order to maximise the volume i can produce on my cello. it's sth like change embrochure for brass playing. so it'll take around 2-3 months. i think.

so practices at home will be quite sian, playing repeated notes and long notes. but still quite necessary ba.

when elizabeth looked at Planet Earth, she said "you really wan to play ah?"

oops....

Mugging.... IS OVER~! for now. hehe

Some pictures of mugging some weeks back hehe.

In CFA

The cookie monster at NYDC (we actually wanted to go VIVO one but we lazy, ended up at Holland V hehe )

And today 4 Dec marks the end of my Sem 7 exams. tho LC and cheryl ended theirs on Fri.
went to eat with pharm clique at Waraku at Marina. The 正宗 one.

My normal Ice Lemon Tea in a frozen glass with ice locked in their position. think cos they store their EMPTY glasses in the freezer.

Hua and cheryl shared the paper steamboat thingy.

My cheese curry udon. not bad. the prawns are crunchy!!!

LC's cheese potato with mentai ( i tink it's salmon)

anw, this sem, I mugged with LC and Tuba section. thanks for all the support thru'out the torturous period! hehe.

and thanks to the cleaners in Sci lib. esp the old friendly looking grandma figure cleaner. quite nice having her around :P though i dun tok to her, but somehow she just reminds me of a nice granny.

thanks sci canteen for serving dinners and Megabites for opening on Saturdays. thanks to the 慈祥 uncle at noodle stall.

thanks co-op for selling Uniball Jetstream. the best exam pen. though now is abit chui already.

thanks to the library staff.

thanks to my lecturers who set the papers. though i'm quite frustrated at some questions which practically test us on MEMORY and how well we memorise the notes. this shdn't be the way to learn.. grrr. haha but it's over. bleahhh

Edited: and also thanks Rongchen for the Spinellis!!!

=================================

cello lesson got cancelled cos the teacher is on MC. and i think it's a "he". I abit sianz. i'm too used to Ivy liaoz. haha. i hope this wun be a sign for another cannot-find-cello-tcher episode.

===================================

a funny thing from sharon's blog

===================================

i'm gg to lab tmr to do Western Blot!!! oh yay! HAHAHA hiphiphurray!!!
and then after that, i'll leave for Cameron.

so it means
i'll be away from 5 Dec night to 8 Dec night.
Dun Miss Me.
i'll still be contactable cos applied for roaming.

===================================

heard some news abt some cheating thingy. puzzled why she is doing it again, ruining her future. Man (i.e. human beings) are hard to understand. (quoting from cheryl)

Finally

Dear Hui Shan,

Thank you for your confirmation.
Please bring along the books and materials that you are working on so
that our teacher could go through them.
We look forward to meeting you next Wed.
Thank you.

Sincerely
C_ _ _ _ _ Music school

=====================================

Hope this school will be somewhere for me to stay on. :)

anw mugging is quite... jialatz.. especially for pharmacotherapy. i din noe human brains can absorb so much. not say i can but we're all expected to.. -_-

bleah.

been repeating "Yoyoma and Morricone" album the whole day! i wan to play cello, i dun wan to study. haiz....

decided to edit and add in some clips abt the music of Ennio Morricone. DAMN NICE CAN.
There are some familiar scenes from ROME in the 2nd clip of the Yoyoma + Morricone one.
Music that melts ppl's hearts.

Cinema Paradiso


Yoyoma and Ennio Morricone

Farewell dinner with cello tcher Ivy at 三国演义

三国演义, a restaurant with taiwanese food in Jap style in Singapore. so tt's y 三国
Location: Robertson Walk

Xueting (cousin) + Ivy (tcher)

Rixin + me

Food!!!

Gone!!!

Actually got a group photo but i look really FAAATTT there. haha! so nv post here :P OOPS paiseh. u can view it at Facebook (if u have).

It's nice to noe Ivy better. Hope everything goes well for her from now on! :)

I had just...

arranged for my LASIK appointment! haha

it'll be at NUH with an NUS student rate.

Pre-LASIK assessment on 10 Dec ($99.95)
LASIK tentatively on 18 Dec ($2350)
3 post-op follow-ups FREE, 4th one at $61.10

Chose a senior consultant cos the package is regardless of the doctor except the 4th follow-up visit.

hehe.

lelong who wants 700 and 800 contact lenses? and who wants my 750 and 850 spectacles? HAHA

=========================================

cant exactly say I'm up or down these few days. but got some definitely up and down things going around.. like:

Down:
my cello tcher is going to leave me for good and for real this time. going to have a farewell dinner with her 1 week before she leave. need to source for another teacher.

Up:
FYP --> the correct clone is identified. i can finally move on the the next step. basically my whole project has 4 BIG steps. this means that i'm ending my 1st step and starting on my 2nd step soon. the clone identification has taken me quite a few hundreds of brain cells. and suddenly today i found a way which i should be doing, a faster and more accurate way which I dunno why nobody told me about it. haha..

Oh and Tuba section is going to have a section tee soon! I've submitted my design :P haha.

and i've run 60% of my 10km run. haha. no "komodo dragons" today :P

ABRSM Grade 5

a very rushed post b4 gg to class from lab.

cello sch called. alright passed with Merit.

hah quite expected. i haven been very diligent with practice that time and with all the change in teachers and sch issues.

quite ok la :P

special thanks to my pianist PK who sacrificed her time to practise with me, and to go down to the exam with me. hehe. and also giving me some advices :)

Shopping! + Books

last day of mid sem break should end with a happy day (since i hadn't been very happy, stuck in the lab for the past 1 week)

SHOPPING with cheryl and lee cheng!!! haha to use up y 20% birthday discount from Esprit.

my 收获:

all of us bought stuff!! haha exactly 2 items each for ourselves. haha!

====================================

4 cello books with my $100 deposit, paid $4.60 extra cos the books were a total of $104.60.
wrapped the Drug Information Handbook today!!

Cheer Chen Youtubes! and some LOWS...

姿態演唱會經典畫面

嫉妒 MTV

五月天&陳綺貞~私奔到月球 MTV (new song)

孩子 (cute song! and the MTV is cute too!)

會不會

躺在你的衣櫃

i like her rocker image :) yay!!!

=========================================

anw cello lesson today. felt that it was a total waste of money and time. during the previous week i had already told her that i wanted to do aural with her today, plus some sightreading and some scales. sort of told her what i would expect, as in told her my scales juz go thru some as a test so that there'll be more time for sightreading and most importantly the aural. and since i've told her i wan to do aural, i expected her to find out wat she's supposed to know for aural.. BUT she din...

so.... she din noe wat she's supposed to do... and asked me (again) and i felt that some things she shd do but din noe what is it supposed to be like.. haha.. e.g. for the "echoing" part, she's supposed to play in TIME and she's supposed to coordinate (i tink is by breathing) the 1, 2, 3, 4 or watever timing b4 coming in... so it was quite difficult for me sometimes if the starting beat is an off beat.

and then, sometimes, it's juz quite irritating and hard to memorise the 4 bars of echo-ing if she keeps playing wrong notes and start from somewhere in between...................

interval was ok... and the part on playing the piece and asking qns... i totally gave up on her. haha. told her i'll find somebody (or mayb i play myself or Noteworthy Composer) to play for me. how do u expect me to listen to her Right hand playing and know wat period it is... or wat style...

she juz needs to be more responsible.. or watever the word. how can she expect me to empathise with her that she's new to the system or the country and let her teach me any way she likes...

invested in strings again.. haha $76 for Spirocore C and G.

==================================

FYP is quite stressed. not that i'm stressed. but everybody expects to do alot for their projects. so i'm actually quite stressed that i'm supposed to be stressed becos everybody is stressed.. ARGH.. relac leh. oh i haven started :P HAH

really hope i wun break down anytime during the sem... cos i'm supposed to be the more "relac" person haha.. and everybody will be stressed enuf.... have to learn to be more optimistic and focussed. and also independent and COOL...

the 2MC module is super irritating. cos the lecturers are... super irritating intellectually demanding... YES. REALLY. we feedbacked that we think that it is too much work (the write up and role play for the 2 cases each week). and so they modified. so each grp only need to do a write up...
BUT, 1 day b4 the role play, we'll be told which grp is supposed to role play (kind of last min). AND the role play may or may not be the case which we wrote on...

WALAUZ. win la! wat's the difference.. in the end they wanted us to research on both cases right... (but we've some collaboration, cannot say here :P HEHE)

and the lecturers themselves are quite... (some things cannot say here HAHA) oops... Pharmacy yr 4s shd noe la.. :P 有些话不用多说

anyway, "co" means compound if u're still interested :P HAHA

hmmm went into Guardian today, wanting to ask about the different glucose meter (price and different features) BUT... pharmacist is not available. it happens like 50% of the time whenever i tried to find those Guardian pharmacist...

=====================================

sent yokes off on wednesday MORNING... was there at the airport at 1plus am due to some impromptu jio-ing by nick. so some of us were there. DanK was the earliest, 12plus (i was still at home)... den me rc and mw reached. nick's car with pk and chris reached at ard 2am, due to some zzzzzzz-ing (tsk tsk.. pk... ). some of us brought laptops but NO WIRELESS AT SG. got some starhub thing, but cant connect. so ended up listening to music.

yokes arrived at 3.30am. hee... photos and talked. some touching family scenes...

YOKES, U'RE ALREADY MISSED! (din see yokes on wed and thur. and i cant say "yoke khee, i want keys" anymore.. argh...

the picture below was taken during the last MHM outing (minus nick who was too sick to join us). it was outside yokes' new house haha! somewhere in clementi... it's 2 flats joined together.

===================================

congrats to the new NUSWS exco. u all look like a great team! JIAYOU~

$$ well spent

Spent money today (again) cos went to collect my cello from the Waterloo Street luthier:

New Soundpost ($120.00)
Bridge Reshape ($50.00)
Jargar A String ($27.40)
Jargar D String ($29.20)

woahhh... and my cello sounds nice now! cos the longer soundpost is making the lower notes come out nice and clean. the only thing that i regret not doing is changing my C and G strings cos the C and G now sound abit more muffled compared to the A and D strings.

I think i'll stick to my current combination of strings.. nice sound:
D & A Jargar
C & G Spirocore --> muz get soon

================================================

i hope that some of my frenz will "recover" soon from problems.
It takes time but it'll be fine (and it rhymes too!)

The cello day

I had lesson with the new cello teacher today. not satisfied with the lesson at all. firstly, she came in with her phone in her hand, messaging while listening to my scales, and even had a phone call! argh.. like so diaozzz... then we went through Aural together. she's not really a pianist, cant really fault her but... when she played the abstract for me to "clap the beat", i really catch no ball la... that segment was supposed to be the easiest part to me... OMG... (but ok, she's not a pianist) then I told her how to do the "sing the interval" part... yes, i told her what she needed to do to test me...

then i feedbacked to the administrator about the new teacher, saying that I'm not very at ease with the new teacher taking charge of my exams. den the administrator asked me whether i wan to get 1 lesson from the "school principal", buden it's the sch principal dun wan to teach me. wth. haha... den the admin asked me whether i wan to have an extra lesson with the new teacher... buden it's like "wat's the point" haha.. sianz. den i told her my bus was coming and said i confirm with her another time.. -_- (my bus was really approaching)

then met my old cello teacher to visit the luthier. wanted to change strings and do some adjustments to my cello. after the check-up, my cello needs soundpost adjustment and reshaving of bridge (around $150-200). according to him, the soundpost was making my C string muffled. however, if he was to do these adjustment, i can only collect it on thursday, and i wun be able to practise for my internal exam. so i decided to go back another time. wanted to invest money on my cello, but ended up buying 2 Jagar A strings for my student. haha

talked abit to my old cello teacher. i guess she's coping well now, but the rashes are still quite problematic, as in, it's still undiagnosed. i guess she's still angry with the management of the school, as in, i personally also feel that the sch is quite 冷血 about the whole thing. and the series of lies to cover up the truth. i guess this is the starting of my life to see the darker side of human, esp. business ppl.

then took a very long journey on 106 with her and started to feel quite sick.. tired, nauseous and having headache, din talk much on the bus. it was caffeine withdrawal symptoms.

reached clementi and bought peppermint milk tea and found out that A1 Curry Puff @ clementi no more liaoz (?). sadded. was gian-ing the whole bus journey. haha

den KO-ed when i reached home.. felt better after a nap :)

a funny video recommended to me by Yokesdokespokes:



dun really noe every philosopher in the video, only the more famous ones e.g. Karl Marx, Archimedes, Confucius. HAHA. i laffed at the part when the ball was there and nobody went to kick it, cos....they're all thinking abt things HAH! rubbishy!

NUSWS BBQ outing

had a bbq outing with nusws. haha. kind of initiated it, with the idea of a mini-DND. it turned out well. with 28 ppl attending. :)

food was ok. hmm felt abit cheated by EZB though. but, not bad la, for its convenience.

thanks danK for ordering the food and booking the pit. thanks erina for counting the money. thanks nick for helping to drive around the food and publicise/jio ppl. thanks everybody for attending YAY~~

ermz, b4 the bbq, went to cycle. i think pasir ris park is a better place to cycle on weekends than ECP due to its light traffic. BUT STILL I DUN UNDERSTAND Y THESE PLACES HAVE TO BE IN THE EAST! hmmpf!

oh and nick's new speakers are quite cool. at least our bbq was not too quiet. got nice band music as accompaniment hehe.

ok i need to:
1. change strings
2. get books for my student
3. start my report
4. read and UNDERSTAND my journal
5. upload more pictures on Friendster.

haha.. not now. hehe time to slp :)