doo bee doo bee doo
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
4:56 PM
silver
11.57pm
just back from home. today was an awfully sombre and sad day.
on this fateful day, 11th April 2007. HCIMB got a silver for syf07.
not like its their fault, they played well, maybe even better than we did 2 years ago, but the judges were helluva strict and didn't give us the gold.
tuesday 10th april 2007:
the snrs went back to visit the band to give them some pep talk and try to motivate them. we were all still going gold with honours (gwh) gwh gwh and although most of us knew tt it was an unrealistic target, its what we've always aimed for, and will be what we aim for. in the past, we worry about whether we'd get gold or gwh. this year it was between gold and silver. the line was awfully fine la. results from the first 2 days scared us lots. school bands which got gwh for syf05 ended up getting silver, only one band improved, the rest deproved. quite disheartening, but at that time we were still hoping for a miracle, praying for the best. to add to that, the band stayed over at salt center. although this might seem as a shot in our foot, the teachers in charge somehow let, no ASKED them to stay over for the night. and ya we know the results. they got abundant sleep ah.
wednesday 11th april 2007
8am:
band gets ready, boards the bus. on the bus most of them sleep. the rest talk rubbish. i mean, when you're really really nervous, you start crapping. really. on reaching singapore conference hall (SCH), us snrs leave them to warm up and stuff, and we go eat breakfast. met the nanyang bandits there too! sylvia andrea cheryl chung yan yu min ai wen and other ny seniors. went inside SCH at abt 9.20am
9.30am:
HCIMB goes on stage. played sunrise and invocation and toccata. seriously, it sounded good la. i mean, much much better than when i first heard it, and certainly somewhere between silver and gold. we had the chance. nanyang went 2 bands after us, they played safari and jericho. and it was awesome. i mean, they owned the high school side la. i actually enjoyed safari for once. the difference between samantha chong and rim rip hua was evident for all to see.
11am:
lawrence siao ( outdoor instructor and ccab guy and the announcer for today ) gives us inside info. he says "you all played well, but i'm sorry." enough said. the other bands sucked. break time.
11.45am
we packed up and started leaving. didn't want to lose face in front of others yar. we figured we had to prepare for the worst and it wasn't really nice to break down in front of others.
12pm:
reached salt center once again. by now our silver was already 90% confirmed. some started crying. chan-lam tried to give a speech, but she broke down when she reached "you all must be strong". how ironic.
1pm:
silver confirmed. our nightmares have been realised. omg omg omg. now people really started crying. over at ny, they were celebrating. they had every reason to. they were the only band today to get gold. other bands like scgs anderson fairfield all got silver. shitty really.
its something to see the leaders, the teachers even rim rip hua, cry. its even worse to see the whole band crying. all but 2. aik hwee and eugene were being asswipes and laughing for hello-what-reason. damn insensitive can. even the seniors started crying. i guess i was close to tears as well, it took lots to hold back. you know how there's this deadly silence after a hydrogen bomb drops? well now its the same, just tt it gets broken by sniffling oh-so-often la. majors made emo speeches, teachers tried to console the brokenhearted, everyone was trying their best to console one another, to no effect. it prolly added to their sorrows. after tt the teachers had to close the band room so they went to the old band room to lag instead, and when i say lag, i really mean lag.
its quite scary really, to see men (or boys?) really break down and start wailing. crying their asses off. those who haven't got hit by reality were stoning with a sort of stunned look in their eyes. everywhere there was dead silence other than the muffled sounds of sobbing. its really something to see the band so awfully quiet for once.
this experience certainly made me look at our own syf in a new light. its just 1 more month away. 1 more month to figure out what the hell the judges want of us, and fix it. 1 more month to figure out all our parts and to do whatever can be done. i think at least, some good have come out of this disaster. for one, mr lim is on his way to the graveyard. his head is on the chopping board, knfe poised and ready to strike. for two (hehehe), this has made me even more determined to get a gold for our syf. in the past i sort of took it as a given that we'd get a gold, but this hard truth has made me realise that nothing is garaunteed in life. suddenly i want the gold really badly. for the juniors who've tried so hard to get what they wanted, yet couldn't get it.
for sure, they're tried hard. the last week they stayed back almost everyday, until late at night at abt 9+ pm to finetune their pieces, but i guess it didn't work out for them.
i don't want to go through this traumatising experience again. i don't want to get a silver. if we seniors are feeling that bad abt them getting a silver, what would they feel? we can't even begin to imagine what they're feeling right now. if i'm so close to tears when they've got a silver, i can't think what i'd be like if we got a silver. i think i'd cry badly. serious. it'd be my last syf. i don't want to screw this one up. i've never gotton anything other than a gold before, and i don't want this to end. like doh.
i'm pretty confident abt the juniors getting back the gold in syf09. the sec 2s now are a dedicated and hardworking bunch, not to mention pretty talented too. so yea, they should be fine. honours again!
i want that gold so bad.
because cider is the elixir of life