An Evening with Mallets, Reeds and Keys
Finally! Tickets to my chamber concert, An Evening with Mallets, Reeds and Keys, with oboeist, Daniel Aw Yong Tian, and percussionist, Ng Sok Wah, go on sale TODAY! Yes!
This concert will take place on Monday, the 17th of August 2009, 7.30pm to 8.30pm, at the Esplanade Recital Studio. It'll be a concert featuring an unusual combination of bassoon, vibraphone and piano. There'll be a mixture of pairings amongst the performers, as well as, of course, a trio performance. I've written a piece for the three of us, Miniature Pieces for Bassoon, Vibraphone and Piano, as there's hardly any piece out there written for this combination. I'm really looking forward to rehearsing and performing this piece with the gang.
Sure am looking forward to this concert! :-)
http://www.sistic.com.sg/cms/events/index.html?contentCode=mallets0809
Wing Kit and Chicago
I was at school from 1pm today, to rehearse as well as to practise. My family came to pick me up at 7pm, and we went to meet the rest of my relatives for dinner at the Mount Faber SAFRA. One of my cousins, Wing Kit, will be posted to work in Chicago in the States, for three years, and he'll be leaving at the end of this month. So this dinner is like a "sending off" dinner for him and his girlfriend, who's also being posted to the States, but in Washington DC.
Anyway, I love this side of my relatives, and I'm always very happy to see them. Dinner at the Chinese restaurant there was good. The orange-flavoured prawns and Butter Crab were my favourites. The crab, especially, was so many times better than the ones at Long Beach at Dempsey Road. The crab was nicely coated with nicely fried butter, and the little crunchy butter bits were so delicious. My sis and I couldn't stop commenting on how good the crab was, haha.
Anyway, we all had a great time, and I sure am looking forward to visiting Kit in Chicago! :-)
Not fantastic Tchaikovsky pieces
Sis and I attended another Stephen Hough's SSO performance of Tchaikovsky's 3rd Piano Concerto, as well as his Concert Fantasy in G major, op. 56 tonight. Just like his 2nd Piano Concerto, these pieces were not fantastic. Now I know why his 1st Piano Concerto is so famous and so over-played. Sure am looking forward to Li Yundi's performance of the well-liked no. 1! :-)
2nd meditation class
Sis and I went for our second meditation class this evening. We were taught standing meditation, as well as walking meditation. I didn't really like the walking meditation as I find it more difficult to focus, with all that walking. But nevertheless, it was interesting to learn the different ways of meditating. I'm going to master my favourite: lotus position. :-)
June's Arts House gig
Our music arranging classmate, June, had a Living With... June Cheong gig at the Arts House tonight. The concert was sold out, but we managed to secure rather good seats.
June's whole family performed tonight: her husband, her two daughters, her brother, as well as herself. They performed mainly Korean music from popular Korean drama serials, such as Stairway To Heaven, with occasional video clips of the dramas as well. Her hubby, who has a very nice voice, could really sing. So could her two cute little daughters, who dueted a couple of Hokkien songs from the local movie, 881. Her kid brother also successfully sang some Korean songs as well. June was the main keyboardist as well as music arranger. What a musical family! As they were so enthusiastic about their performance, the gig, which was supposed to be only an hour long, stretched till about two hours and fifteen minutes. Although tired, we audience had fun. A very memorable evening indeed! :-)
A cheat waiting to be exposed
This afternoon, sis and I, together with her student (an ex-student of a certain Ted Joselssohn) and Albert, attended a piano recital by Buchan Quek and an RGS girl, En Ting. They were former and current students of American so-called pianist, Ted Joselssohn. I don't wish to elaborate more on it, but those true musicians who went, obviously know what kind of standard his teaching is like. And to shamelessly shout "Bravo!" will only give the performers false impression that they were really good, when it was so obvious that it was otherwise. And to charge exhorbitant prices for THAT kind of teaching which local teachers here can easily do the same but who charge only a FRACTION of his fees, this TJ has to be exposed. To the ignorant who go to learn under him, I pity them. To those who go to him just because he's an ang moh and so MUST BE better than local teachers, please go right ahead and pay for your stupidity and snobbery. I'm sure you'll see his true colours with time. Good luck!
Tchaikovsky's 2nd Piano Concerto
Went for Stephen Hough's Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no. 2 with the SSO tonight. All I can say of the work is that, it's really redundant, and should be left buried for eternity.
1st meditation class
This evening, sis and I attended our very first meditation class in Bukit Batok Central. Our teacher, M. Piya Tan, was introduced to us by Rit. Sis and I were late for 15 minutes as we took the wrong route and got stuck in peak-hour jam.
There were eight students in our class, and during the two-hour class, M. Tan taught us how to meditate, what to do and what not to do, as well as asked for our feedback regarding how we felt when meditating. He looked so serene and spoke so calmly and patiently, sis and I just felt so peaceful just by looking at and listening to him ok. We love this class already. We sure are looking forward to our future classes! :-)
Reflections for Bassoon, Vibraphone and Piano
Tonight, I finally finished another piece for my Miniature Pieces for Bassoon, Vibraphone and Piano. Entitled Reflections, I first wrote this on the 9th of March 2007, for solo piano, and as I found that it fits what Daniel and Sok Wah wanted me to write, I decided to change it to a trio for the three of us. Didn't take me long to finalise it, but typing it on Sibelius took some time, so after about 4 hours of starting this, I finalised everything and converted the different parts to pdf file. Oh man, with my collection of four pieces (Waltz, Three In One, Reflections, and Against All Odds) for this Miniatiure, I really can't wait to try them out with Sok Wah and Daniel. Sure am looking forward to our rehearsals! :-)
The aftermath of our HK trip...
Will be doing self-quarantine at home for the next few days, just to play safe.
A very fruitful HK holiday
After our Kuching trip over the weekend, our next destination was Hong Kong, where we went last December. But this time, our aim is to shop and visit the Big Buddha. I'm really happy to say that we've fulfilled our aims, and this trip was even more fun than the last one. Ok, here's a summary of what we did.
Day 1, 23rd of June:
Terminal 3, Changi International Airport
Karen, sis and I met at about 12.15am to camp at Terminal 3. Snacked and chatted until check-in of our luggages at 4.30am. Then went on to shop at the duty free shops inside. Once onboard the United Airlines plane, I proceeded to sleep almost throughout the journey to HK.
A nice coach took us to our Nathan Hotel at Nathan Road. After checking into our spacious room with three single beds, we ladies began to shop.
The first destination was at a shopping centre just minutes away from our hotel, and there were so many bags and shoes and clothes shops there ok. In fact, we spend more than an hour in one of the shops, and we eventually left the shopping centre with a few bags, and a few pairs of shoes and earrings. It was only when we checked the time that we realised that it was well past lunch time, so we returned to our hotel to deposit our shopping, and headed on to the famous "Chui Wah" noodle shop just a few doors away for a late lunch. The noodle soups there were very tasty, and the price was quite ok too.
We then headed to The Peak on HK Island. We took taxi, ferry, bus, and tram before we we reached there.
Our tram approaching.
A very colourful souvenir shop.
The weather was gloomy, and there was a slight drizzle. As it was foggy too, we weren't allowed up right to the top until much later, when the fog cleared. We quickly went up to snap some photos, before heading down to an American restaurant, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner. We were really lucky. Once we were seated at our table, it poured outside.
View from the top of The Peak after the rain stopped and the fog cleared.
The food at this restaurant was good, but the price wasn't that cheap. Nevertheless, we had a good dinner, with a beautiful view outside. It was worth it.
Our restaurant and the gorgeous view outside.
Day 2, 24th of June:
We had breakfast at the Starbucks café just next door. As the weather was still gloomy and there was a slight drizzle, we decided to postphone our Big Buddha trip till tomorrow. So, the whole day, we went shopping, shopping, and more shopping. I've never done such crazy stuffs before, shopping the whole day, and actually buying one thing after another. But, thanks to all those discounts which almost every shop was having, that we were all very happy with our buys. Yes!
Day 3, 25th of June:
We had breakfast in one of the small HK cafés, and we tried their famous pineapple bun. It was not bad, with a faint taste of pineapple in it.
My breakfast of egg sandwich, a pineapple bun and milk tea.
We then took a MTR ride to Lan Tau Island, where we took the new Crystal Cabin Cable Car (the one with the glass floor) up to visit the Big Buddha. We were really lucky. The weather up there was cool and windy, and the sky, though cloudy, was clear. There were many tourists there, and the climb up that long flight of stairs wasn't as bad as I thought. So was the cable car ride. I thought I would freak out because of the height, but thankfully, the height in general was quite ok. We had al fresco lunch at the Zen Noodle Café, which was really good, took many photos in that area, and had a great time.
Looking through the glass floor of our Crystal Cabin.
The Big Buddha!
The main entrance.
The Big Buddha welcoming his visitors.
View of the faraway islands.
When it was nearing dinner time, we took a coach ride down to the bus and cable car terminal, where we shopped a bit before having dinner. I bought a pair of Levi's ladies jeans at the Levi Strauss shop there, and I was so happy with my buy, because the price after discount was almost a quarter of the price I saw here at Ang Mo Kio Hub. And they even gave me a cute little jeans material bag to hold my old pair of shorts. Yes, I wore my new pair of jeans on the spot as the zip of my shorts kept opening. Sigh, and this was also when I realised how fat I've become. It's really time to work up and keep in shape.
Had dinner at the food court at the shopping complex there, and we then took the MTR ride back to our hotel, where, after bathing, we started packing for our flight home the next day.
Day 4, 26th of June:
We did last-minute packing, then checked-out of our hotel. We went to Tsim Sha Tsui on HK Island to meet ex-SSO general manager, Ms Tisa Ng, for lunch. The area where we were at reminded me alot of our own Shenton Way. Lots of office buildings, and just at the next street, were what looked like the run-down version of Chinatown. Not inspired by what we saw, plus it was drizzling, we settled at Pacific Coffee for coffee and chit-chat till our lunch appointment with Tisa at 12.30pm.
Tisa and us at the restaurant.
Lunch was at a dim sum restaurant at Luk Kwok Hotel. Tisa still looked the same, still so nice and chatty. The dim sum there were really good, except for this special "burger" with pork liver and fat inside. I didn't like the pork liver at all. Otherwise, the rest of the food was really good. We had fun catching up with Tisa, and she was so nice and kind to treat us for lunch. While Tisa left to return to her office, we headed back to Nathan Road to do last-minute shopping. We weren't in the mood to buy anything, and we then returned to our hotel to pick up our luggages and wait for the coach to bring us to the airport.
This trip was, indeed, a very fruitful and fun trip. In all, I bought for myself three handbags, two pairs of shoes, a few pairs of earrings, a Givenchy blusher, and a pair of jeans. I'm really very thankful for this very pleasant trip. :-)
Packing for our HK trip
Am packing for our Hong Kong shopping trip in the early morning. We don't intend to sleep. Our flight on United Airlines is at 6.40am in the morning, and we didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night to get to the airport. What's more, we want to do something crazy and fun. So we decided to camp at the airport. We'll be meeting Karen at Terminal 3 at midnight, and we're going to spend every waking hour chatting and snacking until our check-in at 4.30am. Oh man, sure am looking forward to this trip! :-)
Family holiday to Kuching
Just returned from our Kuching trip, which took place from last Friday, the 19th of June, till today, the 22nd of June. It was the first time in a LONG, LONG time where my whole family travelled together, and this time with the addition of my sister-in-law and my two little nephews, Day Shaan (DS) and Day Gene (DG).
On the first day, a van came to pick up my whole family to the airport. On the way to the airport, we nearly got into three accidents, and I thought "What a reckless driver," only to have my sis-in-law tell us later that she noticed the driver dozing off at the wheel, which explained the near-miss accidents. Oh man, that idiot, to think that he put the lives of my whole family in danger like that... *shudder*
We flew by Malaysian Airlines, and at first DS was unwilling to enter the plane, but my brother carried him in, and thankfully, throughout the flight to Kuching, the two babies were ok.
Inside our MAS plane. I like the colourful seat covers.
After about one and a half hour of flight, we reached Kuching. The Kuching International Airport was quite nice, but very quiet. Someone from the resort which we were to stay in, Damai Beach Resort, came to pick us up, and our van trip to the resort took about 45 minutes. I initially thought that Kuching was some ulu place, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that some parts reminded me of Singapore.
Sarawak
Doesn't this look like our Katong area?
The Damai Beach Resort was tucked in a nice little corner of Sarawak, really away from civilisation, as the bus ride into town is about 30 minutes to 45 minutes away. After checking in, we were "ferried" to our Hill Top Suites, and my first reaction was a big, "WOW!" when we reached. My sis and I had our own little "hut", while my parents shared another, and my brother's family shared the third.
The Hilltop Suites
Our hut is circular, similar to those in the Smurfs cartoon. When we enter, a nice sitting area with very comfortable sofas greeted us, followed by the bedroom area which faces the South China Sea. Beautiful view ok. And on the right of the seaview came the rolling hills. In the bathroom, we even had a sauna. What more could we ask for? My sis and I fell in love with our little hut immediately. There was only one little hitch: even with the air-con on, the suite felt quite warm. In fact, at times, we could feel the warm air descending from the roof. Maybe its facing the afternoon sun had a little to do with it. Other than that, we absolutely had NO complaints. A perfect suite for couples.
The sitting area at the main entrance.
The pillars supporting the cone-shaped roof.
Our twin beds and the reading area, with the balcony on the right.
View of the sea from the balcony.
Rolling hills on the right.
The romantic sunset.
Eating there was quite a problem for us, as there wasn't much eateries at the resort, and the prices were a little steep and the quality of food was not too good. The buffet spread of the main courses there were quite pathetic. The dishes there were more like the zhi ca we have in our local coffee shops. And there's no way I'll pay 48+++ ringgit to eat what I can easily eat for a few dollars here in Singapore. The best buffet spread were for the dessert and fruits sections, but one can't survive on those for a few days in a row, can we? Think of those calories...
So, after some discussion, my sis-in-law suggested moving to town on the third day, where we could do some shopping as well as have some proper and more affordable meals. Thus, we checked out of the resort on the third morning, and went to stay in the Grand Margherita Hotel in town. The room there was a fraction of our suite, but, we weren't bothered by it.
After checking into our new hotel, we took two cabs to the Sunday Market, and it was so different from those in Paris and Vienna. The raw vegetables, seafood, cakes... were put on display on makeshift tables, some even on the ground. What grossed me out was that, some of the above mentioned foods, especially the fish, were sitting in the hot sun. How fresh could they get? After walking one round, we left the market to cross over to the shopping centre opposite, and this shopping centre reminded us of the ones in our Chinatown area. Messy, and not "glam". After one round, we returned to the hotel.
View from the overhead bridge.
Inside the shopping centre.
For lunch, we went to have their local wanton noodles. The noodles were tasty, but the wantons were really PA-THE-TIC. The wanton skin was like twice the size of our Singapore ones, but the filling was a tiny fraction of our local ones, so we were eating wanton skin most of the time. The prawns in the wantons were more like the dried shimps here in Singapore. We really have never eaten such lousy wantons.
In the night, my family had a Father's Day dinner at the Mei Shan Szechuan Restaurant in the hotel. The food there was good, and the price was surprisingly not very expensive. We were definately pleased with the restaurant, haha.
Three generations.
The wanton noodles we had for breakfast the next day was much better than those of yesterday. And the wheatgrass drink was also very cooling and good. We then returned to check out of our hotel, and it was on the way to the airport again, after four days and three nights of relaxing family time in Kuching. This is definately one trip which I'll remember with great fondness for a long, long time.
The coffee shop where we had our breakfast on the last day of our trip.
A supposedly very good chicken rice shop I never knew belonged to me, haha.
Holiday in Kuching
Finally! The day has arrived! Tomorrow, my whole family, including the babies, will be going to Kuching in East Malaysia for a short holiday. It has been a LONG time since my whole family holidayed together, so we were especially excited about this trip. I can't wait to see the babies's reactions when they board the plane, haha. Oh man, Kuching, here we come!!! :-)
Against All Odds
I completed another composition yesterday, and I'm so happy about it. I wrote this a little after 12am yesterday morning, and finished it in the afternoon. This new composition is a trio for bassoon, vibraphone and piano, and it is a movement from my Miniature Pieces for Bassoon, Vibraphone and Piano, to be performed on the 17th of August at the Esplanade Recital Studio.
I had the inspiration from Richard Clayderman's Blue Rondo À La Turque. I used the rhythm (I LOVE rhythmic pieces) 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 almost throughout this piece, and as it looks like 9/8 rhythm on the score, this rhythm goes against the usual grouping of three quavers in a group (3 + 3 + 3), hence, the title, Against All Odds.
Dinner @ Tao's Restaurant
For the past two days, I've been meeting up with friends for meals, and tonight was no different.
This evening, I brought Xiao Xiao to Tao's Restaurant at the newly renovated Paradiz Centre for dinner. Xiao Xiao is a very outstanding violinist at the conservatory, from which she had just graduated. She'll be persuing her Masters degree at Rice University, majoring in violin under world-reknown violinst, LIN Cho-Liang.
The food and service at Tao's has always been good, and it STILL was very good tonight. I simply love this restaurant, haha. We had fun chit-chatting and eating, to the extent that we were one of the last customers to leave. After shopping a little at the new Cold Storage next door, we returned to the already closed restaurant to ask one of the waiters who was still there, to take a photo for the two of us. After a few shots, he told us to "act cute", therefore, this photo, haha. Not sure about the cute part, but we really had a great time tonight. Really wish Xiao Xiao all the very best. I'm going to miss her man...
Seafood dinner @ Long Beach
My long-time friend from college, Sean, is back from Beijing for a short break. He's been based there since last year, to operate his new
Va Va Voom Vietnamese restaurant outlet (he has an outlet here at 36 Seah Street).
So this evening, we met up for dinner at Long Beach Seafood Restaurant at Dempsey. We had Drunken Prawns, which was really fresh and yummy, especially the soup, Deep-Fried Baby Squids, which was crunchy and sinful, haha, soupy vegetables with three kinds of eggs (can't remember the exact name), and Butter Crab. This last dish was actually good, except that we found it too oily. The butter wasn't like what I had previously. It was quite soggy, with the crab almost swimming in oil from the melted butter. Sean asked for a bowl of hot water, dipped his crab in it to wash off the oil, and we could see a thick layer of oil floating on top. Imagine having that in your body... gross man. So we asked for hot Chinese tea to wash off the oil, hopefully. Other than that, dinner in general was good. And Sean was still the same old Sean as before. Really great to be able to maintain our friendship after all these years.
All the very best to you in Beijing, Sean! :-)
7107 Flavours @ Marina Square
This afternoon, sis and I met Onishi-san and his wife, Pamela, for lunch at Philippino restaurant, 7107 Flavours, at Marina Square. The ambience there was cosy, the service and food were good. They even have fresh fruit juice such as Green Mango Juice, which was really refreshing, and Fresh Mango Juice, which was blended fresh mango. We were lucky to have the promotional set meal of a starter, main course, dessert plus fruit juice for about $25 per person. Really value for money. By the way, this promotional set meal is only until end of this month, I think. With great food and great company (we ate and chatted for three hours, but we didn't even realise it, haha), what a great way to spend a relaxing Sunday! :-)
In retrospect...
Played in a flute recital with Swedish flautist, Anders Norell, at the YMS this evening. All I can say is that, I could have done much better. Sigh...
Preparation for a flute recital
Today was the first time I rehearsed with Swedish flautist, Anders Norell. In the morning, I went to pick him up from his hotel, and we then headed to the conservatory to rehearse for tomorrow's recital, as part of the Flute Festival. Thankfully, things went better than I thought. And we had another rehearsal at YMS in the night for Bowen's Flute and Piano Sonata, and this also went better than I expected. Really hope for the best for tomorrow night's recital.
Oh yes, I also met some really nice strangers this evening. An elderly uncle saw me eating my dinner with no drinks, and he gave me two cans of tea, saying, "How can you eat without drinking anything?" So nice of him, right? And a few other strangers smiled at me and wished me a nice evening as well as "Bon appétit", haha. Oh man, kind acts like these from strangers definately made my day, haha. Am really grateful for them. :-)
