April Fools

As the title suggests, there have been many April fools (for all I know, they could be whole-year fools) I've met for this week. When I mean fools, I really really mean it.

For the first half of the week, I've prolonged my life for a few years by laughing so hard my voice couldn't come out. All thanks to Yean Yi and our tangled mess out of the violin performance. Yean Yi was making funny noises in her attempt to imitate Pn Norita, the teacher in charge of the whole MAC (Majlis Anugerah Cemerlang), in a squeaky voice. In English, MAC basically means the nerds go to the stage to take prizes while Tchaikovsky's Overture 1812 plays on in the background. Yes, it is very grand indeed, minus the Overture. Instead, expect monotonous lullabies from the school's principal along with her 45-minute speech. Her speeches are so empty, slow and irrelevant that even the smart people fall asleep. I've got living proof, by the way.

Right, so we're playing for a rather grand event here. Apparently, we find ourselves preparing to look like total dimwits onstage, and I plan to wear a clown's suit along to match that. Our timing was really out during our practices (except when I stamp my foot to the beats, out of frustration or mere patience, I don't really know myself). Clown's shoes would do a good job either way.

I was supposed to do my aural on the same day as violin practice. I inititally decided to kill 2 birds with one stone (or one violin, in this case). Unfortunately, due to several changes in circumstances, I ended up not being able to complete my aural.

That was pretty much Monday for you, thank you very much.

Tuesday was quite an annoying day. This day so happens to be the day when Sha Lynn turns a year older. Almost all the teachers teaching my class didn't turn up and the only serious lesson we had was English lesson. Pity Sha Lynn, who had to do a lot of donkey work albeit the day being her special day. The class really got mean when no one volunteered to "bersajak". It's reading a malay poem with a tuneful voice. So, Sha Lynn ended up really irritated and started screaming at the class.

During yet another free period, when Sha Lynn and Angeline were sleeping, the principal's right-hand lady, Pn Ruth, appeared at our door and called both of them out for a lecture on what they've done. Cassandra miraculously escaped eventhough she was sleeping right under Pn Ruth's nose, while Sha and Angeline who were strategically located in the middle of the class, had to get all the scolding.

During art period, whereby our teacher didn't turn up, the prefects intruded. They came in with shotguns along with picnic baskets and started yelling at us to freeze and make our way out of the classroom while they conduct a search for the class treasury. Having failed to detect the obvious 'X' mark on my table (not to mention other profitable devices from other students such as handphones), they left, clearly disappointed. They expected more from the wrong class. Sigh.

Wednesay. April the 1st.
What does this remind you of?
All those stupid things you do.

The evil side of me has remained dormant ever since I was 10 and I have this urgent need to start being mean to people. My last victim was my mother, who successfully fell into my trap when I told her there was a lizard in the house which needed to be exterminated. After 5 years of dormancy, I have decided.....to awaken! (I sound almost like Frankenstein).

Before my evil side had the chance to show itself, my house has already played 3 jokes on the family to usher in the new day. One clock was 1 hour slow. The plumbers who fixed our piping barely a few days ago killed our torchlight. And the 3rd......

I was busy nerdifying myself when the electricity failed.

Mind you, the torchlight was spoilt.

"SCREW YOU, TNB!!!! WHAT KIND OF APRIL FOOL'S JOKE IS THIS????"
TNB is Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the company in charge of the nation's power plants.

Luckily, I was listening to my iPod. So in the end, it was "Don't worry. I've got my iPod with me. iPod to the rescue!!!"

The house blacked out for another 2 more times after that (thanks to our computer and all the problematic USB ports, not TNB). It was just minutes to midnight. Minutes to April Fool's day.

Then, at 12.15 midnight, I started strategizing my "master plan". I informed my parents about my "joke" in case they wake up and run over to beat the "unidentified noise-maker". My mother was staying awake to see what happens and was kind enough to suggest where to stand to make the best out of my plans.

When I told her I was going to laugh like my Daffy-laugh, she said that the neighbours would think it was her instead of me that was making the sound, since all the neighbours see was her. They never see me because I have evolved into an invisible creature, only appearing in front of certain people. So, according to my mum, my neighbours would think: "What happened to this crazy lady? Now she's really going nuts. Eh, when did she start getting into her laughing fit......?"

The strategic place to scare people with my laughing had to be done, of all places, in my toilet. Thankfully, it was accessible to all the houses behind mine. I took a deep breath and......

"Hoo-hoo-haa-haa.........." (lasting about 10 minutes or so).

"What was that sound?" was all I heard from someone far away. Muffled.

Thinking no one else heard me, I went down again.


"Mummy, did you hear me?"
"Of course. You were very clear."
"Really?"
"Yes. You sounded like a bird, so no one would be afraid of you."

Darn.

In school, my form teacher thought it was an April Fool's joke when I turned up at the top of the class behind Melissa. She just couldn't believe it. I don't blame her. No one believes my marks anyway. Maybe I cheated during exam and managed to bribe all the teachers to shut their mouths up. No one knows for sure. (Hahahahaha).

I mean, I take the shortcuts out of things, I don't look as if I study, nor do I look like the type who really cares about memorizing stupid, arbitrary things. Such trivial matters can be laid to rest in my head, which leaves many teachers puzzling over how I managed to jump over all the other students who somehow just seem more harworking than I am. Furthermore, I've been spending a whole block of hours at the piano (screw you, piano....). [At least I made up for that crystal star]. All I do in class is provide the nonsense and laughing material. Yes, I talk a lot. My mother's explanation to every teacher who says I wasn't like that in Form One: "Oh, she wasn't used to her braces yet."

Splendid answer. It's true. I talked a lot ever since I was 6.

Anyway......

......My mean prank after all that was to glue the BPP book (to prevent truancy). My History teacher was supposed to sign the book, but being as quick as lightning, I managed to glue the pages together so that she wouldn't be able to sign it. [Credits for providing the glue goes to Zi Ying]. And Pn Noor had a hard time trying to tear open the pages. Wow. How mean of me. *Diabolical laughter* (although all I can produce is a daffy-laugh).

Unfortunately, Shafiq outdid my prank by tying all of Pn Noor's stuff together on her pencil box's ring when she wasn't looking. So, when she lifted up her pencil box, everything flew up with it. I did the same thing to Sha Lynn's pencil box and her bottle when she was busy playing Bingo. Apart from that, I also [proudly] tied Yi Cai's bag in a knot when he wasn't looking.

There was a Nostalgia meeting after school and the whole editorial board was supposed to be there. Apparently, the Datin rendered the rest of us useless as she was just talking about the Photography and Production department. What a terrible April Fool's joke that wasted my whole afternoon. The English department was redundant during the meeting. Asjndkfjbskjfb.

During Maths tuition, Shafiq was acting really blur. Melissa and I thought he was pranking Mrs Tan for the fun of it, and kept laughing like nuts (well, actually I was the nut). We found out the next day that he really meant what he was asking and that it wasn't a prank.

Thursday was quite dull. Shafiq brightened it a little by trying to get either Melissa or me to lend him our maths books. Oh, of course I agreed. As long as I get *cough* paid.

During the violin practice, Timothy made fun of the afternoon session folks when a prefect couldn't chase 2 students out of the hall. Tim suddenly stopped playing the piano, walked up to the pesky 2 people, and pointed at the door. Worst of all, he was wearing his backbone brace (scoliosis) and he was grinning the whole time, which made him look like he was about to kill them. Of course they ran out without hesitation.

On Friday, I made a new Form 1 friend, some guy named Darien Liew from 1 Cengal. The prefect who was trying to chase the 2 students on the previous day finally had the guts to talk to us while we were practicing (Oh, the nerve! Kidding....). According to what he claims, he started swearing since 4. That's......amazing. Wow. Congratulations on your feat!

Debate workshop on Saturday.

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I Complain

After weeks of endless attempts to cram useless information into our heads, memorising numerous arbitrary moral values and their arbitrary definitions and finally, coming face to face with those horrendous, blasphemous results, it's once again back to the time of the year to start guessing the smart weirdos in our class of 3 Batai 2009.

Ahem.

Correction: Start guessing the REST of the smart weirdos in class. The number one post is indisputably Melissa's territory.

Oh great. Look at me now. I'm starting to get really exam oriented. And it's because of this I'm starting to grumble.

Look at what the education system is doing to us! Doesn't anyone notice our freaky mental dysfunction? We rarely touch our books the whole year and only start hitting the books a few weeks before the exam. The smart people might start a few months early for all we know. For what? To get good grades? To get that 'A' on our report cards and to rid the minor blemishes of 'B's?


What's the point?

Let's look at it from another perspective.

Decades ago, during our parents' childhood years, have you any idea what exams were for? They were mainly to see if the students understood what they learnt. Those who really do remember what they've learnt are the true genii.

Fastforward to today and ask yourself this question. What are exams for? If you answered ".......to show how much the students know/ have learnt/ understood", think again. Exams now are mainly to boast your intelligence, to show people how good you are at memorising useless facts you don't even need to know to continue surviving. And, not to forget, to secure scholarships.

Even the top students. Don't believe?

If you talked to any of them before(or, you are one of them), notice that if something or some random fact isn't going to come out in the next exam, the smart kid won't even bother remembering it. Or, if the teacher tells the students which chapters to study for the next term, nobody bothers reading the other "irrelevant" chapters which are not coming out.

So, are they really that smart? (I'm not bursting your bubble, okay? Don't throw eggs at me!)

I'm just hoping for that one day when the principal would turn up on the first day of school and say that all the exams throughout the year are cancelled. There would be no more streaming anymore, no more positions, no more handing in our workbooks. Just observe everyone. No one would touch their books ever again.

And boom!

One day, your biology teacher walks in, noticeably happier than usual, and announces triumphantly that today would be your end-year assessment. Observe how everyone's expressions melt to a glassy stare into space, their jaws opening unconsciously, becoming a playground for flies. It wouldn't make much of a difference even if your mouth was closed anyway, you're going to die soon.

Trust me, more than half of the school would fail.

Although it sounds sadistic, I'm waiting for that to happen. Then, we all know who the true nerds are [and copying homework can be made easier].

I mean, exams have even leaked into the teachers heads and started polluting their thoughts with "must-fail-students" thoughts. What is wrong with everyone?

An archetype for this is Pn Nomi, 3 Batai's happy form teacher. Why happy? Is it because she jokes a lot or has that rare sense of humour? Or maybe she loves to talk to our class to make us feel better? Or is she some revolutionary teacher who challenges the forces that be?

Nah. What nonsense. She's the teacher who successfully "failed" all the 3 Batai students. Which teacher has ever accomplished such a feat? In the first class?? Well, that's our perception of it. "Fail" means not getting an 'A'. The highest mark was TWO marks from an 'A'. Not much difference now, is it? Only two humans got that honour [Melissa and *ahem* I]. Why am I complaining then? See, it shows I'm infected too. The 'A'-grade disease. The percentage comparison. Everyone was so disappointed as "the BM essay marks pulled down everyone's percentage by 3% and above".

But anyway, that's not my point. My point is..........back to exam-oriented thinking. As the above shows, even teachers are infected. And once the students get the results back, what else can you, as a student, do? One girl who suffered from a chronic exam-oriented infection said she was going to tell her tuition teacher about this outrage. She said this was ridiculous and she needed to complain to her tuition teacher.

Honestly, what does she expect her tuition teacher to do? Is he supposed to storm after Pn Nomi, demanding an explanation and sueing her for giving everyone in the first class inexplicably undesirable marks only the last class kids deserve? Pht*. Now that's what I call ridiculous.

*Pht is pronouced as "PFFT" and is a legal word, used to express annoyance. Found in scrabble =D

If you inspect the Malaysian policy closer, you would realise our "kiasu-ness" might even be comparable to Singapore's, only difference being we practice a more corrupted version of it. Seriously.

Public exams questions "leak" out weeks or even days before the actual exam. Excuse me! Aren't we all supposed to be prepared for this ourselves? It's basically such an insult to know that you've worked so hard all by yourself and the invisible "forces that be" are now leaking out questions for the lower classes. Is this an exam or what? People are announcing the questions that might come out just so that we can score higher marks for the exam????

For heaven's sake, stop it!!!! The standard for grade 'A' is already so low and you're still doing all these??? Hey, Americans!! *Waves frantically* How would you feel if I told you grade 'A' is from 70-100 marks in the public exam????? It's dumb, isn't it?! While some others might argue that Eastern countries have a tendency to be exam-oriented, I find this ridiculous. Might as well scrape off all the exams.

Think about it, my fellow compatriots. What's the whole point of memorising so many facts only to throw them away later? So what if you know that Francis Light found Penang? So what if you know how the Japanese conquered us? Who the heck cares if your brain can digest all the moral values and their arbitrary definitions when you can't even apply them? For heavens sake, some people don't even know who the first man on the moon was. Or Genghis Khan. Or Napoleon Bonaparte (some people thought he invented Neapolitan-flavoured ice-cream). Let's learn all these other useful things, rather than study things we'd forget after the exam. It's time we make our syllabus global.

Wow. Enough exam rantings. I bet I'm boring you to death.

**********************************************

Some other weird happenings this week includes:

Power transition from Abdullah Badawi to Najib. Sigh, I do not wish to say anything else. When you've got nothing nice to say, just shut up. (Even the French know it).
Najib got his "dream team", which the rakyat (citizens) portray as "nightmare team".

Mr K (extra-curricular teacher) was joking throughout his entire speech during assembly. Some parts include ".....so much disciplinary problem when you're back in school.......you get apprehended.......the good news is, Liverpool won.....". And when he was praising the sportsmen in school, he asked each one of them to stand up for their respective sport when mentioned. Very few dared to stand up for some unknown fear. "Those who stood up are brave. Very good. Those who dared not stand up.......are also very good! Modesty, a moral value, has been applied.......". It soon became "misplaced modesty" and teachers have been criticising our class for that the whole week.

I don't know why I bothered to offer myself to perform for the school's MAC. Now, I have to arrange a song in 2 days.

No more complaints. Enjoy your weekend.

Cheers,
Ryx.

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Inspiration

Greetings (from Mars), fellow readers.

The author of this blog has been Missing In Action for many days due to several distractions.

Distractions being "unfinished" homework. Sigh, the school is all out to ruin little kids' holidays (anyone under 18 is considered a kid, whether you like it or not =P). The teachers are conspiring against us students!! I mean, seriously, we have to wait for our exam results. How can we have peaceful holidays?!

You know what's the worst thing about holidays? They make you feel so small. I just realised I have less time during the holidays than during schooling days. I sleep off the hours.

Okay, so I have been feeling down during the holidays. Really, I don't want to contaminate my blog with all the moodiness or "emo-ness" in case it's contagious.

Right, the pictures below are for inspiration.









































For more pictures, please click here. [link]

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Just Kidding

TEACHER : Maria, go to the map and find North America.
MARIA : Here it is!
TEACHER : Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS : Maria!

TEACHER : Why are you late, Frank?
FRANK : Because of the sign.
TEACHER : What sign?
FRANK : The one that says, "School Ahead, Go Slow."

TEACHER : John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN : You told me to do it without using tables!

TEACHER : Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile"?
GLENN : K-R-O-K-O-D- A-I-L"
TEACHER : No, that's wrong.
GLENN : Maybe it s wrong, but you asked me how I spell it!

TEACHER : Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD : H I J K L M N O!!
TEACHER : What are you talking about?
DONALD : Yesterday you said it's H to O!

TEACHER : Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we
didn't have ten years ago.
WINNIE : Me!

TEACHER : Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I."
MILLIE : I is...
TEACHER : No, Millie..... Always say, "I am."
MILLIE : Alright... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."

TEACHER : Can anybody give an example of COINCIDENCE?
TINO : Sir, my Mother and Father got married on the same day, same time."

TEACHER : George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry
tree, but also admitted doing it. Now, Louis, do you know why his father didn't punish him?
LOUIS : Because George still had the axe in his hand.

TEACHER : Clyde , your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same
as your brother's. Did you copy his?
CLYDE : No, teacher, it's the same dog!

TEACHER : Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking
when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD : A teacher. (Like our happy form teacher!)

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Birthday Gifts

The 6th of March might seem like a pretty insignificant day for most people. DJians, on the other hand, will remember that day as the last day of the first term exam. For me, it marks the day I become a year older. And what better way to start it than 2 favourite subjects, namely Maths and Science.

Okay, admittedly, I'm really afraid I'd screw up my first term, as I've been spending a great block of time (3-4 hours a day), well, playing. As in, playing the piano. Actually, that doesn't sound like a very smart thing to do, since I didn't even think I was good enough for the finals. Let's get this straight : 160 people from the whole country took part in the heats/audition. Only 24 humans got into the finals alive. Only 5 humans got to the finals in my category and I'm sure they're all very "geng" (slang for "extremely good"). That is, except me. So, yeah, be afraid. Be very very afraid.

The 7th of March 2009, Saturday, was nicknamed the "Music Marathon" day. Why? We were at the the Plenary Theatre, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre for the whole day. If you must know, it is also a significant day for Sarah Brightman, who held her concert 2 floors below us at the Plenary Hall. At precisely 8.30 pm (provided the VIPs turn up early), our competition's gala, Sarah Brightman's world tour concert and Kitaro's performance would start kicking. Wait, if my story starts at 8.30, I won't have anything else to say. Ahem. Rewind!!!!

It is 9.00 in the morning. We miraculously reach KLCC. After dropping my mum and I off, my father went to play golf, but not before he wished me good luck. After we got off, we asked for directions. We made our way up to the 3rd floor, and on the way, we saw how hectic everyone was on the first floor, scrambling around like mice trying to prepare for Sarah Brightman's arrival.

The 3rd floor...

Was pretty empty.

Except for the Roland Piano Festival signs polluting the place. Time to register myself and start panicking.

We saw the Duet category rehearsal and soon after, it was our briefing (Junior and Open categories). My category (Junior) consisted of Jonathan Long, Joshua Ng, Samuel Tee, Woon Wu Chyi and I. (Wu Chyi is from Alexandria's school). Jonathan is my age, Samuel and Wu Chyi are one year my junior and Joshua is a happy 11-year old. The first 4 got to ballot and I was left with number 3. The most amusing thing was that Jonathan, who picked first, was the first player. Joshua, who balloted second got the 2nd player. Samuel was 4th and Wu Chyi was 5th. Which left me as 3rd. Well, I spoilt the sequence which could have otherwise been in alphabetical order. We went back to the theatre and continued watching the others rehearse until our turn.

I knew my rehearsal was robotic. I didn't move. At all. No expressions. Nothing. I just sat there and played suu-perrrr slooooow. Every other contestant breezed through their pieces, but nooo, I didn't want to tense up. 10 minutes of rehearsing was up after I took roughly 5 minutes to run through the piece and "clean up" some bits. My piece actually lasts for 2-3 minutes only, which, by the way, is the shortest piece in the whole competition. Which adds up to my thinking that I have no chance. By the way, every other person alive who heard me play were probably wondering how I got into the competition in the first place.

Come 1.30pm, we would gather in the Green Room for standby. The only talkative people then were Joshua, Samuel and his church friend, Paul. Paul was a finalist from the Jazz category and, just like the typical "jazzer", he was chilling out.
"Hey, why don't we go up there and greet the judges like this: "Yo, wazzup!......""
There was a lot more nonsense in there, actually, with one "experiment" sounding so cool it was informal.
After a while, I joined in and we all got to know Joshua the most, since he was the youngest, being only 11 this year, and he was the most talkative. It seems that he only took grade 3, 5 and 8 and was taking ATCL diploma this year. Samuel was grade 8 and was under Ms Phang, which explains why he looked familiar. Jonathan wasn't there yet and only came in about 2.20pm. Wu Chyi only laughed at how silly all of us were.

Anyway, we were all separated at 2.25, 35 minutes before our competition. Or rather, I was separated. There was the Male and Female room and it was very obvious that we couldn't intrude into the other room. So, I went into the Female room and luckily found someone there. We talked a bit and I got to know that she was from the Open category. After a while, I realised I couldn't take the cold in the room anymore. Both of us went out (it was very warm outside) and that means no one was in the room. The door was electronic and that would also mean that we couldn't enter the room anymore. I found Joshua opening and closing the Male room door, clearly enjoying himself. Samuel just came back from a sneak practice from outside and was talking to Paul.
"I think you're going to win later. Everyone says you're so good."
"Of course that's what everyone says. Nobody's going to come up and say "Hey, you know you sucked just now?""

Anyway, after 5 minutes, our whole category was outside and we all looked like rebels. Samuel and Paul were sitting on the floor, Joshua and the other 2 guys were busy destroying the electric door. When they finally got bored of it, they decide to bang open the Females' room door. When that didn't help, they banged the card sensor. When Cherry found us, she was shocked to see us looking like beggars there. Of course, by then, Jonathan and Joshua had to go backstage to prepare. A few minutes later, I was called there. I only saw Jonathan's grand ending and Joshua's performance was well done. I was so cold there that one fellow in charge had to bring a towel to wrap around me. Yay.

The next few minutes were blurry. No, I didn't faint on the spot, thank goodness. I was just so absorbed in what I was doing I couldn't remember what I did. Ironic, but true. I don't even remember how my piece went except that I played F as E somewhere. I don't even remember. I just remembered enjoying my music. FINALLY. Mission accomplished. Joshua had already vanished somewhere but Jonathan and I insisted we watched Samuel's and Wu Chyi's performance. Only 2 people were allowed backstage at any one time and so we were forced to act like burglars hiding in some secret room to hear their performances.

There, Jonathan said that Chong Lim was the one who chose the finalists for this year's competition. Or rather, that was the information his teacher, Ms Lai, gave him. Yes, Ms Lai, the freaky musician producer. She was Chong Lim's teacher herself. Okay, well, then maybe Chong Lim has a funny taste for picking me into the finals. That sounds very odd. Ng Chong Lim?? Plucked me out from that bunch of piano geeks into the finals? Pro.

After everyone was done, we joined our families and I saw Rachel, my choir's Chairperson. She said I played well, but looking back at what Paul said, it might not be true. My mum and I would spend the rest of the day up 'til 6 watching the long-winded performance of those with bigger works. The duets were real interesting to watch, especially the group of friends who chose their songs from the same composer, Astor Piazzolla.

Alex came at 6.30 and met her outside the theatre. There, we talked nonsense and caught up on my irritating form teacher. At 6.45, I had to go to the Green Room (waiting room for participants) to stand by. After that, we went for a briefing by Charles in the theatre. Kong Su Mei, my violin accompanist, was the emcee for the night. Su Mei was going to announce the winner of each category and the winner had to play their winning piece.
"Ok, then I'll say the winner for this category is bla-bla-bla and will be playing bla-bla-bla."
Joshua: No-lah! The winner for this category is *TOOT*!
*Everyone bursts out laughing*
Samuel: Yeah! The winner is *TOOT* and will be playing *TOOT* by *TOOT*.
Man, it sounds so wrong. The worst thing was that Joshua was on my left and Samuel was on my right. And apparently, I transfer the ideas from both of them to each other. The good news is that Samuel said it softly, so that only the 5 of us could hear it. And we all snickered from that point onwards.

Then, Charles taught us how to line up to get our prizes and how to line up for our group photo. After that, he dismissed us.
"Now, all of you can wait in the Females' and Males' rooms. Girls, don't enter the guys room and guys, don't go inside the girls room. Or, if you're unsure whether you're a boy or a girl, just wait in the Green Room."
Apparently, everyone was unsure of their gender.

In the GR, our category had started engaging in an endless conversation of hard-core nonsense. Samuel kept disturbing Stephanie over the phone and before she could say anything, he would put down the phone. And he mentioned that Ms Phang wanted Stephanie to re-sit her violin exam until she got a distinction.

Joshua took over when he demonstrated his thumb to us. It was so cool when we found out that his left thumb's bone could dislodge. All we had to do was push his thumb backwards and you could feel it dislodging itself. Amazingly, he could control it to go back to the normal position. Cool finger.

Other stupid things included turning off the toilet lights when Joshua was in the toilet. And drinking a lot of water. And throwing sugar packets. Joshua reminded us that the competition was just a few hours ago, as we all expressed feelings of disbelief that it all happened today. It felt like a year ago, really.

Then, we started disturbing everyone in the room, especially Samuel, who kept disturbing Martin from the Open Classical category.
"Do you know how to play Don Giovanni?"
To which Martin replied: Are you crazy?? If I could play Don Giovanni, I wouldn't be entering competitions anymore, I'd be out there making money!!!

And we found out from Martin that Wu Chyi has been playing his piece, Fantasie Impromptu, for 3 years already. Haha, wow. We all joked that maybe he plays the same thing for every competition he enters until he completely perfected it.

Suddenly, Cherry called our category out. The moment of truth. *Scary music*

Su Mei called us out one by one and we each received a fake certificate.

"..........and the runner up for this category is .....me(?!)."

HAH?!?!!? Seriously???!!!

I walked up to Mr Dennis Tan to receive my trophy. The only thoughts running through my head that time was that the trophy was so cool and that the judges have lost their minds. That includes Chong Lim as well.

The winner was pretty obvious. Wu Chyi. Come on, seriously. THREE years of practice. My piece is like 5 months old! But it surprised me why Joshua didn't get a position. Poor thing. He entered last year too and was hoping for something this year.

(Oh, I got a free birthday present!!!)





But anyway, the letdown for the other 3 didn't stop us from doing crazy things. We were all fighting with our trophies like out of a Star Wars scene. Joshua really lost it when he said, "Let's hit each other's trophies and souvenirs and see which one doesn't break. That's the true winner."
Before we started the "battles", we were called to view the winners' performances. The winners were (according to category):
Pop: Teoh Cherylyn (What's Love Got To Do With It by Graham Lyle & Terry Britten)
Jazz: Paul Khoo (Fly Me to the Moon by Bart Howard)
Junior Classical: Woon Wu Chyi (Fantasia Impromptu by Chopin)
Open Classical: Tan Hsien Chih (Ballade No.4, Op 52 by Chopin)[Man, he was good]
Duet Classical: Low Chyh Shen + Winstons (Adios Nonino by Astor Piazzolla)[very interesting piece]
Piano Concerto: Grace Alexander (Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin)[very nice but tooooooo long-winded]

During Chyh Shen and Winstons's performance, Jonathan, Joshua, Samuel and I were debating on what type of music their piece was. Maybe you could listen to it and identify it in your own way. The piece was Adios Nonino by Astor Piazzolla, if you didn't grasp it on top. (And Samuel referred to Winstons as "The Guy Who Looks Like A Korean".)

Then, during the last performance, we were called backstage. Being musicians, you would think we appreciate long performances lasting 20 minutes or so. Well, actually, we don't. We were all half dying backstage and everyone was praying for the concerto winner to end her song quickly. When they got to their last passage, Joshua was leaping around announcing happily to everyone that they're almost finished.

We took several group photos and dismissed into the Green Room. There, we were given our real certificates and went home after that.

We had supper with Alex and her family after that at the Hakka Restaurant.

What a long road it has been. Eventhough it was such a short period of time ago, memories of the competition feel far away, as if it never happened at all.

I will always look upon this day with tears of joy. Unrepeatable, spectacular, unexpected, once-in-a-lifetime and only in the living memory of my past.

Editor's note: By the way, Paul was the winner for the Jazz category. Apparently, he outshone the other contestants so much that the judges decided to give out only the first place (which went to him). That means the second place is not even up for grabs. He was seriously enjoying his music that he even tapped his feet and could be seen dancing with his own music. This proves that all genii/talented freak mutations are compulsive liars. =P

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