For Remembrance's Sake: Our first Inunion
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Good evening everyone, I am Sarah and she is Jia Min and today we’ll be giving you a little peek into what’s been going on in our lives since taking that little leap of faith to join RGSSB, a community of passionate music makers, and ultimately, batch ’13, Bandemonium.
Bandemonium. Bandemonium is our batch name, derived from the word “pandemonium”. No, we are not saying that we want to bring chaos everywhere we go. Instead, “Bandemonium” is intended to reflect our batch’s wacky and bubbly personality. It expresses how we hope to bring joy, life and music wherever we go.
So as you all know, band is three times a week, totalling about 8 hours. What do we do during band? Basically, play our various instruments. And I think you should know that it is no mean feat to pick up an instrument and be able to master it to even this level as you have seen. You may think: “Simple! You blow air into a stick of wood or metal and press the right keys.” But no, it’s more than that. It took hard work to get here, where we are now.
At the beginning, most of us were timid Sec 1s, afraid to ask for help, afraid to say anything, well, you get the idea - we were afraid. On our instruments, we could only produce noise, not music. Speech between us was awkward and we were not very bonded. Yet we persevered. We started sharing our woes with each other and the bonding began. After all the time we spent together, during practices, playing wacky games and organising batch outings, we’re more coordinated and very comfortable with each other. In just 9 months, we’ve found our place in band, and band has found its place in our hearts.
Indeed, we have grown. Band was not the first choice for a few of us, and neither has it been the most exciting prospect after a long, tiring day of lessons.But whatever the case, look at us. We’re all still here. We’ve worked long and hard, with blood, sweat and tears, to get where we are now. Batch’13, be proud of ourselves. Aren’t you glad that you chose to join Band? Who would’ve thought that you’d be ever sit in a classroom singing Justin Bieber songs with your section batchmates when you were supposed to be taking a break from sectionals? But then, Never Say Never, right?
After these long months, we’re now “graduating” from our Recruit Band experience, embarking on a new journey, or perhaps a continuation of it, in Main Band. Hopefully, or perhaps definitely, we will grow closer to our batch as well as band and maintain strict self-discipline, humility and spirit of learning.
But it’s often easy to say what you will do, but hard to do what you say. Today, we promise ourselves that no matter how many more commitments, responsibilities and obstacles we face, no matter how much stress there is, no matter how much more free time is sacrificed, we will do our best and nothing less. Like Alyssa Farmer once said, obstacles are put in our way to see if we really want to reach our goals or if we just thought we did.
When band gets us down, complain not, batch mates. My dad and his friends played tic-tac-toe in the sand under a mango tree during band practice. So, we’re blessed to have a carpeted, air-conditioned room to practise in and most of all, to bond and have fun together.
Now you’ve caught a glimpse of the fun we’ve had in band thus far, it’s time to conclude this speech with a set of acknowledgements. Hence……
To Mr Goh, thank you for patiently coaching us, and bearing with our unwillingness to practise, and thank you for making us laugh. To all our seniors, thank you for patiently guiding and teaching us, for caring about us and for always being there for us. To Mrs Koh, Mr Asmizar and Miss Tan, thank you for your concern and guidance in our first year here. To our parents, thank you for supporting us through our journey in RGSSB so far, for encouraging us and even picking us up after band finishes late every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Last but not least, we would like to thank our batch mates, Bandemonium-ers! I’m sure we all mean a lot to one another. Our support, our friendship, we will all value. We’ll never forget all the fun times we’ve had, and we’ll look forward to the fun times to come.
Of course, as we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. We will strive and aim to bring RGSSB to the skies!
breaking the MUSIC.
tomorrow
Thursday, November 18, 2010
is INUNION! O:
happy inunion(:
breaking the MUSIC.
tomorrow
is INUNION! O:
happy inunion(:
breaking the MUSIC.
finally, not a post copied from my blog(:
Sunday, November 14, 2010
shall finally post on section chalet! ;D
wed:
we were supposed to meet at downtown east mc donald (the one opposite wild wild wet) at 3pm so ying qin (section leader) could bring us to coasta sands pasir ris where our chalet was. i was the only sec 1 there at 3pm ._. kylie called me and apparently she and joyce were at some other mc donald so i walked around downtown east looking for another mc donald but only found a mc cafe where i found sarah ._.
me and sarah spent some more time looking for joyce and kylie but we gave up and told joyce and kylie to take taxi to coasta sands pasir ris themselves. (we found out later that they were at the mc donald in east coast park ._.) me, sarah and the sec 3s (sec 2s not there yet) went to cheers to buy cup noodles, water and raisin bread (for breakfast) before walking to the chalet.
the chalet was smaller than i expected but quite comfy(: on the first floor there were a tv, a table, a few chairs, a fridge, a sink, a bathroom, 2 mattresses and 2 un-openable doors ._. on the second floor there was a bedroom with 2 beds and a cupboard. the sec 3s took the bedroom on the second floor and the sec 2s and 1s slept on the floor of the first level.
so we learnt to play bridge while we waited for the rest of the ppl to come. bridge is a fun game but it takes quite a while to understand what's going on (at least for me. yeah i'm slow :B)
after a while we left the chalet to go to E!hub to watch the movie MEGAMIND (2D) O: me and my sb shared a big popcorn and 2 cokes among ourselves :3 oh and our whole section took up an entire row in the cinemas O: after the movie we exited the cinemas and accidentally went the wrong way and it was very embarassing (but a bit amusing at the same time xD) coz other ppl were following us and all of us had to turn back.
went to the food court at downtown east for dinner :3 afterwards went back to chalet and watched movies! ^^ watched salt, wild girls and 200 pounds of beauty. thanks to june for bringing the dvds and the dvd player! :D then the sec 3s went upstairs, leaving the sec 1s and 2s to do our own stuff. we attempted to watch rob-b-hood but gave up. played a lot of card games like monopoly deal, bridge, taiti etc. chatted a bit too(:
one by one, we fell asleep. sarah first, then joyce, kylie and lycia. june and me decided to watch another movie, Beverly hills chihuahua. june lay down to watch the movie and i told her to not fall asleep. but in the end she still fell asleep ._. so i was the only one left who was not sleeping ._. then kylie woke up and we finished the movie(:
thurs:
the sec 2s woke up and we waited for the others to wake up. breakfast was raisin bread and....MILO!!! :DD we played a few more games of bridge then went to the bicycle rental shop to rent a few bicycles so we could cycle around pasir ris park.
but it started to rain so we decided to go kbox first. however, it only opened at 11am and it was 10+am then so we sat down in a circle outside and started playing games xD
went in at 11am. our allocated room had nice comfy sofas :3 and a big tv. we ordered our lunches and started singing! :D besides singing english songs we also sang korean songs, jap songs and chinese songs O: we were practically shouting (not singing) out the well-known songs O: haha and it was so funny when the f word appears and we skip over it or replace it with "toot" ROFL xDDD sarah sang really well^^ and may's and june's dancing was really good too^^
oh we were singing taylor swift's you belong with me and we saw taylor swift holding a clarinet and the whole room started cheering very loudly ;D
after kbox (and lunch) we went to rent our bikes. the sec 1 batch rented 2 single bikes and 1 double bike and we took turns riding the double bike(: the sec 3s rented another double bike and the rest had single bikes. while the sec 3s taught wei lin and jessica how to cycle, the sec 1s and sec 2s cycled to the playground to play :3
then it started to get windy and cloudy so we started cycling back to the sec 3s before it started raining. halfway through, ying qin called june and told us to cycle in the direction of where we came from to meet at a particular pavilion =.= yupp so we did and since it was still not raining we cycled in that area. then we decided to cycle to the end of the park.
and so we did!(: we then stopped at the playground. we had fun at the (i don't know how to describe this!) flying fox thingummy? there's a seat to sit on and a rope to hang on to and other people pushes you to travel to the other side :D we took pictures at a smaller playground and then went to climb the "spidery thing" (according to ying qin xD) which is like a pyramid of ropes and we have to climb to the top using the ropes. (sorry my description sucks d:)
cycled back as it started to rain and went back to the chalet. some ppl showered then but me and sarah didn't as we wanted to shower after dinner. for dinner, some people of each batch went to downtown east to da bao. the sec 1s bought subway :3
after dinner the sec 3s went to fetch the J1s (our granddirects! O:) and we juniors played blind mice! which was really fun xDD the J1s came and we played more bridge and blind mice again :D then we took pictures :D after that the J1s left and the sec 3s brought them out. the rest of us bought ice-cream to eat and chatted a bit more(:
when the sec 3s came back, we watched matilda! (which sarah brought) fell asleep at the beginning but woke up before the movie ended ^^v sarah fell asleep halfway through the movie and was the first to sleep ._. after the movie the sec 3s went upstairs and the rest of us prepared to sleep.
but june wanted to watch a horror movie so she played the least terrifying of the horror movies she had: Van Helsing. she and i stayed up to watch the movie but again, she fell asleep halfway through ._. and i was the only one not sleeping again =.= the movie ended at around 1am and i went to sleep :3
fri:
had a hard time waking up, the mattress was too comfy :B we washed up and played more card games! then we walked to downtown east mcdonald to have breakfast(: after breakfast we decided against taking neoprints and went back to chalet to play even more card games =.=
at around 11 we took the shuttle bus back to pasir ris mrt, where i walked home and the others took mrt home(:
goodbye section~
breaking the MUSIC.
Random @.@
Monday, November 1, 2010
Listening to Sagrada Familia and desperately trying to get the fingering correct XD but failing to lah. The fast part is sooooo fast AHHHHH o.0 so now I'm just trying to grasp the rhythm correctly (yes I know I very fail right XP) I feel so guai, doing homework on a holiday. Heheh. (: But it's FUN homework lah! Better than algebra. Or The Giver. Etc etc.
Was also surfing for pictures of band instrus and some ideas for our batch hoodie (I'm very excited for some random reason!) and I came across this cool thing:
Hehe. So cool right. Apparently they're old instrus. The trumpet thingum is a cornet, and the horn-like thing with two bells is the echo-horn, the the eupho-looking thing is a Double-bell euphonium (: isn't it so cool? :D (er..picture taken from http://orgs.usd.edu) I find it really really cool! xD Yes I know I've gone mad. Somewhat.
Back to Sagrada Familia-ok maybe not. I'm sick of it after two times trying the fast fast part o.0 and NO I don't wanna be a band nerd XD
xinying!
breaking the MUSIC.
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