A 3rd resignation...?

It's interesting how things like that always come together...

This week was a week of farewells... 2 as per last count, maybe more to come by by the end of the week. I'll be so lost for the next few months at least - if i ever do recover frm this in the 1st place.

Thinking of the big R word again... resignation. Won't be too blatant about the matter here. Bottom line - i'm not happy with the way some pple "assume" one can take up multiple roles just because one is supposedly so much "free-er" than other pple.
If you want to shun away from being committed to something for a period of couple of years - don't expect others to readily accept it willingly. Other pple have their commitments too. If it's so simple then, why are you not doing it urself?
I'm seriously getting quite sick and tired of matters of this sort. I'm beginning to think that perhaps due to the nature of my job now, i'm beginning to hate being associated with associations - whether this has any influence on my attitude towards life or vice versa, i'm not really sure and i'm too afraid to think.

I'll think about it... I might just try to pull through one LAST time...

Light passes through water...

R told me tht our lunchtime Concert slot would be video-ed and captured on the concert series website. Immediately i thought of my previous one back in 2001.

Finally found some time today to look into the web... The concert that my batch of music mates (the light passes through water gang = 7 colours of the rainbow) put up in 2001 has been archived! Interested parties, go here http://cedmedia.ntu.edu.sg/lunchtimeconcert/2001/index.php?cat=NIEMusicEnsembles

I played:-
Berceuse - me on piano, CY on vibes
Latin Duets - both me Primo, Agnes Secondo
Syncopated Clock - Me Secondo and Agnes Primo

Enjoy! ;)

I so miss those times... ok ok... we all gotta move on... heh

Chapter closed...

2 things yesterday...

Farewell gathering with our friends from Cambodia - we wanted to head to Equinox for drinks, alas there were just too many pple and the place was noisy anyways, we headed to the crepe place @ the basement for dinner instead. We said our hellos more than a couple months back - now we say our goodbyes, they'll be flying off on the 8am flight back to Phnom Penh this Saturday. I'll miss them... Last Sunday was really a blast... but it's time to say goodbye...
(Another longer goodbye to come next week as well... sigh)

Debut of the JoRa DuO - i'm pretty amazed at how few mistakes i made. Some were inevitable. Generally, thought the audience liked the concert - thanks to Ras and his imaginative powerpoints, videos and stuff. It was good, more to come... I hope. Really need to clink glasses of coke light w lemon this fri night... haha.

Finally...

More than 2 months after the amount was due to me, it appeared in my bank account - only on the morning i decided to call finance and make a huge fuss...
Was relieved though that I didn't have to call them to make tht huge fuss
1) I don't like to complain about you to you... (i simply can't do the confrontational act)
2) More so in this case becuz I don't even know who to scold!
I'm still quite irritated though... it's simply not fair... cuz i returned quite a huge amount sometime back and that was due for an interest of like 10% or something if I didn't fork it out within the month, yet when they owe someone, they take their own bludddeeee sweet time to pay. It's not as if i wasn't working for that 7 days!

On other news...

I received my percussion results. 123 pts (merit) woo hooooo! 27/30 for Timpani study... but 22/30 for Bacchanale :( Well, didn't thinki did well enough to pass but heh, I did it... no more travelling so tht i can prac percussion!
Spent half of Sunday at the beach. After finding a cool place to settle down, we got down to playing a game of Citadels. Our Khmer friends thoroughly enjoyed the game!
This was to be the 2nd last time we're gonna mt them already. These friends will be heading back to Cambodia coming Sat. It seemed like such a short time they're here. There were fun outings and all. I'm so gonna miss them. Oh well Wed, we'll mt them for drinks @ Equinox for drinks and it'll be sayonara till we mt them in Cambodia.
On another note, I'm not sure how this LW planning team thing fits what i'm able to do. I can't see myself anywhere in that big picture that boss drew on the board. Nothing came to me... nothing... Perhaps after a couple mtgs i'll just drop out and be a normal participant instead.

What a joke!

I was on my way to laoshi's place for lesson on Tues when this happened. (wanted to put this up earlier but kinda forgot and was too tired past few nights.)

Typical Tues morning, headed to Signature Park for my first piano lesson of the day: 7.30 am. Don't ask me why, it's complicated. Just like the previous few weeks, it began pouring before i left my pupil's home. Went through the basement to exit the Condo. After crossing the road, chanced upon an angmoh guy and a local lady having a conversation. He was asking her how to get to a certain place. Turns out he had to cross the road, and as it was raining, he didn't quite wanna use the traffic lights that were much further. As a reflex, he turned around and asked,

"I wouldn't get FINED for crossing here, would I?"

Haha... poor foreigner... I replied and said that I crossed over that way earlier on... so... ;)

Simply stoned...

It took me such a long time to figure this out... Dependence is not good. Over-dependence is WORSE.

Too many things happening, too many changes - I can't take it anymore. So, I shall not depend, shall not hope, shall not...
Drumroll...
Change attitude!
Change perspective!
*Thunder claps*
*Lightning flashes across the sky*

It's not as if on my part I'm gonna be any less responsible. I'm still gonna do what i'm supposed to do, I'll still do what I've promised and whatever I may or might be promising.

There's an irritating crack on my phone case - might send it in for repair when i can't take that crack anymore. In the meantime am gonna ignore it. Some things I just can't be bothered... anymore. Don't like to complain about it either. Just... take it as it comes and heck! if it dies (touchwood - it has served me pretty well so far)... I'll look for another. Read between lines if u wish... (more on livejournal)

Happening...

The past week was like... **PACKED**

A kid came over for Eng and Math tuition every morning... last minute cramming sessions. Went for the NAFA Concert on Tues night - usual supper and crapping after that. Had wanted to try to make it for NIE prac one last time before B flies off to HK... unfortunately didn't make it and the next few i'd be tied up at home. Heard from R that the performance next year is v near the WW Esplanade one A G A I N... argh... i'm not gonna do both... I don't think I can afford the time to do both considering my really really odd schedule now. Ended up watching Ghost Whisperer at home - and without waiting too late, decided to ditch the supper idea and head to bed - it was already 2320 hrs...

Watched 881 with the LW gang after WW prac. I headed, very late, for the LW gathering only to find out most of the gang wanted to catch a show. I went along too... 2340hrs show at WM. After that J and I walked home... Obviously it was already 3plus am by the time i reached home. Totally zonked out.

Not a bragging channel
Just needed to put good news here (cannot too negative)
Practical results: KZ pri 1, took gr 1 - scored 140 / 150 woohoo!
QY pri 5, took gr 2 - scored 116 / 150 woohoo! - as well as she only started putting in effort towards the last 2 weeks before the exam.
No news yet from the gr 4 one... and mine... errmmm...

Tapping Method?

I first heard of this several months back when an agent called to ask if i knew what this was and whether i could teach it... Naturally... "huh"!?!?

A parent spoke to me about it today... turns out it is "the hammering of keys"... right... and that's the way to go in a society like Singapore's? crap... Was also informed that this teacher (a foreigner from a certain place) has advocated paper-chasing so much so that exam pieces are the only repertoire this girl now knows and "hammering" is the only way of playing the piano!? - wat a freak.
Disclaimer: this girl is NOT my piano student.

I have a great number of issues after hearing what this parent had to say
1) the "so-called" tapping method is probably just yet another fanciful name (actually, i would use "fanciful" in its inverted commas) probably coined by some foreigners from the Mainland to teach piano playing... not much of a revelation there! So what is the BIG deal about it?
2) The supposed "tapping method" probably IS the only method which is used to train even and clean running notes. (My Japanese teacher intro-ed the "detached" method to me - and it seems like it's the same thing! the thing is, i won't even call it a method. More like a change in touch.) Perhaps used together with a series of other exercises and other "teaching methods" - suzuki and kodaly, to name a few, would deifinitely enhance a child's learning of music. (I don't even like the word "method" being used here) Why bother, in the first place, to come up with a name tht's so darn LC?
3) This girl - I've seen her play. She loves challenges, she can play. She's only in Primary 3 but is capable of taking Grade 5 practical in the Feb/Mar season next year. She is musical and one can see and almost feel the music oozing out of every inch of her body... unfortunately, the sound that's coming across seem restrained, contrived... a negative effect of the "tapping method"??
4) The method is used by a seemingly prestigious music school here... and supposedly, young talents DO go to this music school to pick up their skills - now if teachers there are teaching things like tht, and just advocating the paper-chase method, then my, my... the future of Singapore's Music Scene sure is bleak!

I can't say i'm against this method as presented to me - perhaps my understanding of the method, as informed by the parent is shallow and hopefully there's more to it than what i've heard. If tht's it, then not much of a method. But, if it is SO then it totally and absolutely explains why a certain group of pupils (not music majors, but foreigners) were always being heard BANGING away at the practice room pianos back in the old NIE @ Bukit Timah campus many years back... No wonder their version of Richard Clayderman's stuff all sounded slaguhtered and without feelings. No wonder... My classmates probably remember those disgusting times we had fighting with non-music majors to use the practice rooms... when we all had to squeeze into ONE room cuz all the rest were occupied by the BANGING of Richard Clayderman's music.