IM BACK IN SINGAPORE =)

only for one day and im gonna be off to malaysia tomorrow. Sorry for the lack of updates.. I've been so tired after each day in Thailand that I conk out 10 mins after I go online everyday. So that explains why I've been disappearing off MSN in the midst of a conversation. So sorry about that!

anyway.. most of the pictures are on facebook already..!

go look-see look-see =D

i'll blog more about the thailand trip after i feel sufficiently rested ( and less lazy ).

toodles!!!

Sawasdeekaa!

IM IN THAILAND =D

After a 14 hour long bus + car ride that is. Special thanks to Patcharee's boyfriend for driving us all the way to the hotel! Since I have the time now.. I'll begin updating from the point where we ( Liang Cun + Patcharee and I ) were waiting at GoldenMile Complex to board our buses.

PS: Special thanks to James for helping me lug my lugguage up the flight of stairs back at PGP ^^

Wednesday, 25th November 2009 5++pm

Shortly after leaving our passports with the tour agency, Patcharee brought us on a hunt for value-for-money-$exchange. Managed to exchange SGD105 for 2500THB. Not too bad right? Thereafter.. all of us went on another hunt for lunch coz Liang Cun was hungry. Patcharee and I have both eaten prior to that so.. we both decided to just have some Thai Iced Tea at some food place within GoldenMile Complex.

Thai Iced Tea
Tasted it and felt like killing myself. I mean.. it just tasted like the chinese herbal drink luo han guo we drink when we develope a cough. Just that this one had milk added to it. Patcharee assured me that the reat Thai Iced Tea dont tast like that. Phew... cant imagine myself living on luo han guo for the rest of my stay in Thailand! =p

Went for a walk around GoldenMile Complex after Liang Cun was done with his meal. Went into the Thai Supermarket on the 2nd floor and saw some really interesting stuffs.

Some thai dessert

which reminded me of a snack I used to eat when i was little. You know, those rounded biscuits with the colourful sugared curlly thing on top? These kinda look like the x10 size of the coloured sugar top =p



Some sea creature used for food in Thailand.

Patcharee said they ground them up and use them as some sort of paste or something like that.

Catfish

Nothing special about them. Just that they were swimming so vigourously that I thought I should snap a picture of them before they end up on the breakfast/lunch/dinner table.

Giant Beans

I was so amazed when I saw them lying in that basket. THEY WERE SO HUGE! That's Patcharee's hand by the way.


"Dont take me inside the picture!"

LOL.


Thats Patcharee and I after we boarded the bus. Surprisingly, the bus's really comfortable. Ample leg space, nice curvy chair. There wasnt really a need for the neck pillow I brought. Though Patcharee had a great time stuffing air into the neck pillow.

"Ah! See! My air powerful na-hah! Useful na-hah!"


That girl sounded like she was doing and advertisment selling PatchareeBreath. So cute la! Buay tahan haha!!



PatchareeBreath
( neck pillow )





Happy Patcharee going home

" Take picture take picture!!!! "

One of the last few shots I took before we arrived in Thailand.

The entire bus journey was a pleasant one.. just that I didnt quite enjoy having the lights of random passing cars shining into my face while Im sleeping. Closing the curtains on the bus helped though =) The ride wasnt as bad as the one I had from Hongkong-China.. partly because I dont have to deal with the cold outside or stinky toilets.

Thursday, 26th November 2009

We arrived at the Malaysian-Thailand border at approximately 4++ ( near 5 ) am in the morning. Unfortunately, the Thai customs were not open yet so a large group of us were kinda left stranded on the roads. But nevermind! I slept that 1 hour away hehe. Patcharee's boyfriend came and fetched us + Liang Cun who was on another bus by another bus company back to our hotel. Hatyai Palace Hotel. Our first meal in Thailand were some dim sum which tasted pretty different from what we have in Singapore. Loved the siew mai and lo mai kai the most =p

Liang Cun acting all grumpy with the lift

The corridor leading to our rooms

The view outside the room Patcharee and I share

Patcharee and my room!! =D=D=D

I know its messy but.. haha!

The first thing Liang Cun and I did when we got out of our respective hotel rooms was to hunt for an adaptor. The sockets in Thailand seem to be smaller than the one we use back home. So.. we walked and walked and walked and walked. Until we found a shop with a chinese lady, who spoke mandarin!! Got ourselves 1 adaptor each and went on our way. Later on, I found out that my adaptor had some problem with it. The same chinese lady refused to change it for me because the tiny bulb on the adaptor lit up when she tested it.. so she kinda insisted that I bring my laptop back to her shop to show her that it dont work just so that she will be convinced enough to change it for me. Alamak... in the first place if she was so sure that the adaptor I was holding onto was not spoilt, she could have changed it on the spot for me ma... =( Eventually, I returned back to the shop with my handphone + charger to show her that it dont work at all and got it changed.

Street View outside our hotel

Took this while Liang Cun and I were out hunting for lunch. Patcharee wasnt with us since she had some other family matters to settle.

Fishball Noodle

Fishball noodles at this place which had a chinese name : 鱼丸大王 which meant ' Fishball King ' ( direct translation ). The mifen tasted really good, while the soup was really peppery and fragrant. The fishcake and fishball.. you could actually taste the fish in them. Much unlike those you get in Singapore! Yummy! The drink on our top left hand corner's ju hua tea. That entire set up there set us back by 52 baht which worked out to be approximately SGD2. Not bad eh!

Lard..

Huge chunk of lard found in our noodles. YuMmm! I chose this picture because all those mifen dangling out of Liang Cun's mouth made him look like some ah pek. xD

These 4 'cups' are commonly found on the tables in foodplaces. All the different sauces.. Only tried the chilli power. Will try all of them soon!

Hardworking Chef

Oh.. and we went to each at this fishball place because the uncle said " li ai jia sia mi! " ( what do you want to eat? ) in hokkien. Felt so at home =x

and.. guess what we found in one of the souvenior shops??

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Merlions

Lol.. merlions in Thailand! We saw the shop owner writing country names like ' Malaysia ', ' Thailand ' etc. onto wooden keychains. Apparently everything is imported from Thailand to be sold elsewhere. Dont be surprise if your ' Malaysia ' keychain is from Thailand ah =p

Chinese Temple

Took the opportunity to visit a chinese temple too..

Street Food

Some street food which consist of fried bananas and.. flour balls? We werent too sure of what that longish thingy on the right hand side was. Liang Cun didnt wanna try that because he thought that might be some testicles -_____-......

Then then... Patcharee came back with some food!!

Some Thai Dessert

Made up of glutinous rice + mango + coconut milk. Tasted pretty good =)

Dinner at MK

MK's some steamboat restaurant in Thailand. Went there with Patcharee and her boyfriend ( so sweet!! ). The food there were really fresh.. the pork was springy and chewy, really nice! In total.. we spent about SGD 7 each inclusive of 3 desserts.

Ended today with a meeting about what we're gonna teach the kids tomorrow. Stress ah!! Alrights.. its time for me to go sleep now. Will upload those photos tomorrow on facebook.

GOODNIGHT =)

Its now 1.55am and Im kinda waiting for my laundry to be dried nicely. Gotta be up for breakfast with Clarissa and Wynne at 7am..

hmm..

so the workload has kinda been halved :

1. chords analysis ( uh.. later )
2. CAM presentation ( due: Thursday )
3. Final Project Analysis ( due: Monday )
4. Adding of NCT ( due: Monday )
5. Study for Biology Test ( on: Monday )

so yeap!
most of the stuffs are dued on Monday.. so i dont have much to worry about.. Yet.

Went to church on Sunday with Jason and Tony and it just so happen that the preacher was preaching about patience. This week, Ive really been tried to.. near.. my limits. Whatever it is, for now.. i will just keep believing and keep running Gods words through my head.

and well..

time to sleep!

GOOD NIGHT =)

im finally done with my 7th edition of my variation.
but its not over yet - still have lotsa things to do.

1. 4 part writing ( get rid of parallels )
2. CAM final presentation
3. practise playing '1'
4. get stuffs ready for major class tomorrow
5. study for biology
6. written analysis of project
7. post project stuffs up on dr hess's wiki page

and many many more stuffs.

*breathes*

many times during the course of the past week i felt like crying.
not because of the workload. hmm.
stuffs la..

aiyah.

am currently feeling better already though.

a good sleep always puts everything right ^^.

and like what the pastor said today.
God will give it to you, but are you prepared to receive it?

=) Patience, guanyu.

I screwed up.

Screwed up the aural component of the CAM test so badly that I felt really really stupid for not being able to answer it well. It's bad because I havent felt like that in a long while. Well, maybe the next closest thing gotta be when Im around Sab + Tong Xiang because I can hardly chip in to their conversation because my knowlege of piano repertoire and stuffs is just so limited. Looking on the bright side though, at least I know what to read up on to expand my knowlege. Theres no end to learning right =p

hmm..

and on another brighter note. 

At least there's still the final presentation which I have approximately a week to work on and perfect so that I can save myself for doing badly for CAM. ( Thankfully, its also the one with the heaviest weightage )

PS: I really love Eric Whitacre's Cloudburst. 

Listening to it kinda calms me down because the music keep drawing me into it, so much so that I stop thinking about what's bothering me for that moment ( CAM !@#!@# ). I dont know why that is affecting me so much.. but probably thats cause I know Im capable of doing much better and my lack of knowledge made me look really stupid just now. EURGH. Thats okay. Will start reading up more. As long as I keep learning that is. The fact that Whitacre got kicked out of his school band but still manage to be where he is now really keep me going. A failure is only a failure if you think of it as one. 

Alright.

so handsome =p

Stayed up till 5am+++ to complete my 7th edition of the variation yesterday morning. Barely survived the day : group rehearsal + major class + SATB writing. felt so zombiefied by 5pm.

and im barely done with the SATB writing.

thank God the holidays are approaching soon cause i really need that break. hmm.. and at least i seem to have improved. according to my teacher anyway.

in any case. its time for me to go on writing.

toodles!

i cant decide if you said that as a joke, or if you actually meant what you said.

是铁打的又怎么样？

even metals have their own melting and boiling point.

was seriously almost gonna break down today.. so many things happened these past few days. I know its probably not his/her/it's fault but sometimes he/she/it really need to learn how to be more sensitive towards what others may be feeling.

in any case,

i was so annoyed that i wish i could stuff his/her/it's head into my trumpet bell. just so that i can blast some brains into his/her/it's head.

eurgh...

nevermind.

at least im happy with what i wrote for my variation ( though i still prefer my jazzed up version )

good night.

all's well after some waffles.. =D

felt really horrible after major class today. luckily i had wynne to accompany me around the school and stone for half an hour before sitting down to work on my exerpts properly again. kinda bugged tong xiang to play some nicenice happy happy tune to cheer me up too.

oh wells.

at least i got some work done today.
the fact that its friday tomorrow kinda makes me feel happier too ^^

um..

and yeap i just had a nice chat with an old friend of mine who said something which stuck me pretty hard on the head.

" you're not working hard enough. and you know that yourself - LOOK AT YOUR FACE! and its because subconsiously you are not allowing yourself to because you dont think you are good enough "

talk about effective practise.

im so gonna think positive now when i practise.
think positive think positive!
like.. uh.. how i sacrificed one shanzha ( maw ball ) to trap all those ants and then kill them with ant poison *nyahahhaa*.

Today's been a really bad day for me - to a certain extent at least.

1. i was late for Dr. Koo's class not because i was late-late. i cant believe i actually sat outside the class thinking that the previous class hasnt ended. hmm.. though that was partly due to the fact that karen was happily munching away on something outside the class.

2. i so totally forgot about 1st year brass class. crap.

EURGH.

WHATS WRONG WITH ME.

oh wells.

that will not happen again.

oh and chuan an was really funny - the way he replied when i bumped into him along the corridors.

me: eh chuan an, what will happen if you miss one class accidently?
him: you'd get an F.
me: WHAT?!
him: nah, just kidding.

o.O.....

Its currently 2.35am..

The past week had been really crazy and Im glad the week's coming to an end. Thank God for friends who kept me sane throughout the week.

Dinnered with Clarissa, Jebat, Jason, Tony and Sabina just now ( HAPPY BIRTHDAY SABINA ^^, 31st October ). Halfway through dinner.. it just started to pour really crazily. So after dinner all of us who didnt go to Dr.H's birthday party were left stranded at YIH. Ended up playing foos ball at the student lounge. Teamed up with Jason initially, and then Clarissa. It was my first time playing foos ball. Beginners luck coz the team I was on won both times. Should have seen the look on Jason's face each time I allowed the ball to go past the 'goal keeper'.

"Guam!!!!! Why must you do the same thing as me!"

HAHAHAHA okayyy.

Slacked around at Munchie Monkeys after that and Jason kinda went bonkerz when he saw bananas. He thought they look like boobs and started doing some real sleazy poses. Noticed 2 guys looking over not-so-discreetly from the other table though. Jason's gonna be really famous soon ^^

Went back to YST and tried to practise for the rest of the night. Did some pianoing and got really sleepy so Clare and I decided to make our way to the student lounge and zzz. Left the school around midnight-ish and walked back to PGP. Along the way.. a van went past and the people inside just started yelling at us. Initially ignored the yelling coz i thought those were just a bunch of banglahs trying to kachiao us. Turned out that those in the van were Jonathan Shin and Tony ( cant make out who were the others in the van ). -_-"

uh..

yeap so thats about all that happened today.

gonna have to finish up my variation and zzz for church tomorrow.

NIGHTS =)

平时。。。
多些笑容，烦恼少些。
烦恼少些，开朗多些。
多些开朗，皱纹少些。
皱纹少些，漂亮多些。
漂亮多些，开心多些。
开心多些，烦恼少些。
烦恼少些，笑容多些。

HAHAHA
ignore me okay ^^ im just really happy that i managed to find the 'type chinese' function on windows vista.

anyhows, i just came back from supper with james and clarissa at holland v. feeling so bloated right now! and hmm.. today's a really bad trumpet day for me. didnt like the sound of my playing at all. dang.. and i have to give ms yeong another phone call to cancel my piano lesson coz our group's gonna meet up for our mid sem project tomorrow. oh wells..

i'll complete my work and work doubly effective tomorrow!

toodles~!

just came back to PGP approximately 4hrs ago after supper ( my dinner ) with clarissa and james. i still think beer's smelly and stinky. james kinda stuck the beer bottle into a pail of ice and made it much colder before letting me try it again - didnt taste that bad afterall. hmm!

anyhows..

im so going back home tomorrow afternoon.. catch some practice at home.. hmm.. and then dinner ( unless mum didnt cook ) and then chiong back to YST for more practice again. SUPER STRESS CAN.

1. slow progress
2. my tong xiang who is accompanying me on the piano is really good

OH MY GOD.

and jury is in a few months time.

SO EXCITING =D

its been sucha long time since i last heard music that make me this way. its amazing.. how much emotion a performer can evoke out from the listeners as long as the heart is in the music.

i feel so fortunate to be where i am now.

work hard guanz ^^

ps: im gonna be walking onstage to perform in about.. 3.5hours time.

but before that, let me first kill off that pile of homework.

its been.. about 3 months since i first step foot into YSTCM?

how much have i improved.. ?

for now, i just feel really motivated to practise more. effectively. especially after i saw how good and how well tony's friend played.

guanz dont give up kay ^^
papa God please be with me.
amen ah..
lurb you deep deep!

Past few days had been really hectic..

but..

WE GOT TO WATCH THE NEW YORK PHIL FOR FREE =D

The concert on both nights were really good.. really really enjoyed Mahler 1 yesterday! Besides.. Clarissa, Wynne and I now have Matthew on our friends list *bwahahaha*. He was nice enough to accept our friends request.. and was even nicer to say hi after the concert just now.

WE GOT A PICTURE TOO!!!
i got one with phil smith and another one with matt muckey.



yay =D

im so gonna plaster their pictures on my wall for more motivation when i practise.

toodles!