So sorry to those who were expecting a blog entry yesterday. My computer suddenly reset itself and i was already too tired to type all over again. I hope it doesen't happen again later....

Today was a pretty long day as all saturdays near SYF would be. The morning started off with sectionals at 8am. The whole section was there except for ivan who was sick and had informed me earlier that he wouldn't be coming in the morning. We worked on SR. There was this part where nicholas kept telling me that my quavers were rushing.. But i really couldn't do anything abt as i was thinking that i was in time with the metronome. Maybe next time should get speakers for the metronome so as to hear it and play at the same time.

At mid-morning which was around 10.30, mr heng called for woodwind sectionals in the hall with him. So without having much time on our individual sectionals, we headed upstairs. Mr Heng had just come from temasek as Mr Glosz told him to go there to take their band for a while. He came back as he noted some part in SR and wanted to try it out with our band. It was the rall section in the adagio part near the end of the piece. The saxophones could not get it together with the clarinet bases. We took and awlfully long time before we scraped passed the problem. The hall was very very hot and mr heng would not let us turn on the fans as it would affect our sound. I don't really blame him but the school shld install air-cons in the hall. haha.. Lunch break followed on..

When we came back, it was full band in the band room with the brasses who were on their mouthpieces. We tried out the part that we worked on in the hall, took some time for it to work but at least it did. Oh yah, one more thing, after we had tuned, we had this long notes exercise where we were supposed to play every note in the cromatic scale as long as we could. The people or rather the instruments that could hold the longest most of the time was the Eb clarinet (me) and the oboe (jeremy). Once in a while, the alto clarinet would hold the longest. I was telling benjamin that people who were usinhg soft reeds for the practice would have the advantage. I was using a vandoren 3. Haha.. After that, ivan came and it was the time to move up to the hall to have a rehearsal with Mr Glosz.

When i stepped into the hall, nicholas han(sec 3 BMA) told me that Mr Glosz was already in the hall. He was half an hour early. So i went down again to hurry the members. The rehearsal once again was average, not too good not too bad. Mr Glosz told us that there should be no more sectionlas anymore till wednesday as he didn't want us to tire out. The rehearsal also ended early.

Nicholas Soh (sec 4 Qm) was begging me to go to windworks (instrument repair shop) with him as he had to send two saxophones, two clarinets and one trombone there. After much persuasion frm him, i decided to be nice. Just as we were abt to go. the flautists who had heard abt us going there wanted to tag along as they had problems with their instruments as well. So 6 people split into 2 cabs made our way to Eunos Avenue 7.

When we reached the shop, we knocked the door, no reply. Tried to turn the knob, it was locked. So i told nicholas to give sean (the tenichian) a call. Just as he picked his phone, the door open, sean was in. Thank God.

Sean was fixing an Eb clarinet. I took a glance at it, Buffet Prestige, and was wondering which sch it had come frm. Scanned the room for the case, foun it lying on the chair, saw a label. On the label was a name that was very familiar. Lian.. hahaha, it was xinling's instrument. How coincidental... Anyway, back to OUR business, sean help us repair a dent on the trombone and fixed one of the clarinets, the piccolo and the flute. The remaining instruments had to be kept there as it would take aa long time to repair. Sean was telling some stuff abt the clarinet as usual. Everytime i go to his shop i would learn something new. He knew that i was a Eb clarinet player and asked me if i wanted to test xinling's Eb. Yup, so i said ok.. But he said, that's her reed (he didn't know that i knew xinling). As always, st pats people just KNOW when to open their mouth. Haha, den he said, haha ok.. next time can form Eb duet. haha. Yup, xinling's instrument was very well mantained as all temasek instruments. Guess its a girl thing where they are very meticulous when it comes to stuff like cleaning their instruments. Anyway her Eb has a very nice and suitable resistance. Tried sean's 430 barrel which would improve the tuning througout the scales. He also taught me how to use shoe string as a ligature. The german way. Quite an educational trip. Leaving the rest of the instruments there, we thanked him and left. Nicholas was going back to the school area so he brought the trombone back to school. The rest of us namely daryl, shawn pang, nadhir and don went to Singapore Post at Paya Lebar to eat. Long John Silver. The chicken was ok at first but got worse on the subsequent bites. Went home after that.

This is a long entry eh..

Tomorrow's plan:
Go church which would be at the Singapore Indoor Stadium with ansley, corne and meilan, louis may be going as well

Meet xinling also after that and go dunno where...

Ok, i better start planning.

That's all for today..

Oh yah, must do a little advertising..
Jessica and Ansley has a blog where they upload their poems. Here's one. See whether u can figure out who its abt. Their blog can be found under twebandits at the links section. jessica + ansley. Enjoy.

Love At First Sight? Nahhhhh!

Happy-go-lucky ; cheerful is she ;

Serious and practical ; a drum major he was ;

first day SFW, she disliked him ;

He was oblivious.. to everything.

She played her clarinet ;

as the destests soon dissolved ;

when she saw his true nature ;

as an experienced clarinetist.

Rumours flew that he was quitting band ;

Not wanting those clarinet talent 2 go down the drain ;

She sms`ed him, wanting him to back out ;

He told her it's okay, and he's not gonna do it.

Day by day, their inbox grew ;

SMS became a daily necessity ;

as they talked about e clarinet ;

and everything else under the sun [ as so i think ].

she found him cute, even good-looking ;

who noes what went on in his mind [ he better think likewise] ;

it took a long time before they're finally together ;

and, obviously, a long blissful time they'll stay.

slow and steady they go, taking their own sweet time ;

seeing them together brings a smile on our faces ;

that delightful grin lighting up his face ;

that loud laugh or giggle coming from her ;

when they see each other after a long time.

A certain tall and dark guy from st pats ;

and that certain cute gurl from temasek ;

lives HAPPILY EVER AFTERR!!