I supposed that both H1 papers are bad. Econs case study was extremely difficult. GP AQ wasn't any much better.
Immediately after our H1 papers, we had a 3 day 2 night camp in school. It was really intensive. Shan't bother to elaborate on the details on what we exactly did. But, it's mainly sectionals and combined rehearsals and our meals. Kind of boring, but we did improve a lot. Yihui and I are really proud of ourselves! hehex. We managed to solve the small part of March April May within 10 mins when sir send us out during combined. =D Turandot and In The Spring was still not our best we could play.
Approximately 3 days after the camp, off we flew to Brisbane!! It's my first time flying without my parents! And it's to a quite faraway place, unlike 6 years ago when i went to Thailand. Just a mere 1h 45mins flight. Yay! 2nd time boarding SIA plane!
Ok. I admit i'm really really excited for the trip that i couldn't sleep well the day before. I only managed to catch a 2 hours sleep and at around 4 plus in the morning i just keep sneezing non stop. I bet some ppl must be missing me so much thats why. haha. =P
After wash up and breakfast, mum was like so anxious about going airport, so afraid that i'll miss my flight. She keep hurrying me, but in the end i still have to wait for xiling at the playground before going to wait for yongdi's parents car. By the time i reach the airport, most of them were already there.
me. mum. sis.
This was taken before i check in at Terminal 3. =) And for goodness sake! Me and my sis are NOT TWINS!
I was almost like a countrypumpkin when i was on the plane. All i could rmb was i can watch movies and play games. LOL. Luckily Gabriel and Phoebe was kind and patient enough, if not the whole 7 hrs plus plane ride would be disastrous. hahax. The food on the plane was quite nice i would say. I LOVE the dessert! CHOC ICE CREAM CONE! Another one was 1 bar of Toblerone choc. Didn't managed to eat this so had to return it back cuz we are not allowed to bring in food into Aust. So sad! =(
Luckily the committee were smart enough to make us tie yellow ribbons on our luggage. Little time was wasted in collecting our luggage from the belt. And thank goodness that my 2 tenor sax was alright! We didn't bubble wrap it and it had to go into cargo!
All of us were expecting a really cold winter since we were told to break at least 1 thick jacket. In the end.... it was such a disappointment. Like seriously, i think PAC is perhaps colder than the weather there. Off we went to the 1st stayover place; Citigate King George Square Brisbane Hotel. Ok. The first look is ok. Just that i feel the toilet makes me feel kinda unsafe. As if i'm gonna being peeped at anytime. hahax. Breakfast was so so. Not very nice. Everything is like so salty. Orange juice taste so bitter. oops! Didn't meant to complain so much.
ok. Jerina is squarting there. Oh yea. Before i forget. She's my room mate for the entire trip. hahax.
smile!! =D
After breakfast, we pack everything onto the bus and went off for sightseeing. Omg. It's seriously nice up on the hill. But it was HOT! Stayed a while there for photo taking session before we move on to other location.
sax section plus adopted kid Yihui! LOL.
The 4 musketeers of sax section! hahax!
The view at the top of the hill.
More photos to come because i didn't take it using my cam.
Next is the Brisbane river. Yay! I took a pic with Damian! He is so so CUTE!!! =D But it's not using my cam but Mr Ang's! =(
The teachers with sir and DAMIAN! =D
The rest are really really boring. We just sat in the bus and they drove us around. How pathetic. And we could have use that time to visit Kangaroos!! Sigh. Went all the way to Aust without even having the chance to see Koala Bears or Kangaroos. More sad. =((
Went to put our stuff at the 2nd hotel; Terraces on Wickham Hotel. I love this hotel so much better despite it being a 3 star hotel. But the bad thing is that all the girls room only got 1 queen size bed. So 1 of them have to sleep on the foldable bed. And jerina is so nice!! She let me sleep on the big comfy bed!! =D LOVE YOU!!
Looks like a 4 start hotel right. hahax.
Sorry for the bad shot.
My piglet and jer's teddy! hehe.
Ok. Here comes the interesting part. We went straight down to the lobby with our stand, files and instrument and off we went to the park opp the hotel for band prac. How cool is that. Just as we were walking, we saw this couple, sitting there on the grass patch...... and the next moment they were kissing and all.............................. ok. you can imagine all by yourself now. yuck! very disgusting!! Just as we were starting to play i think March Or Turandot, can't rmb, it started to drizzle. And we have to pack everything back and start running for shelter back at the hotel. -.- Most of them were having sectionals at various room and i was really studying and fingering my scores and i slept for 2 hours under the air con. oops! They brought forward the time for dinner to 6p.m. By that time i was already freezing under the air con that i wore 4 layers of clothes that night for dinner. hahax!
Dinner was at Queen Street Mall. Same as previous night. Ate Hungry Jack a.k.a Burger King in Singapore the 1st night. 2nd night was at some super ex restaurant. I ended up sharing the sirloin beef steak with YiHui. The portion is really huge!!
The sirloin steak that costs aust $25!
see the big bowl of fries!!
ice mocha! $4.50
And if i wasn't wrong, sir bought donuts for us from Krispy Krepe. And after bathing, i walk 2 doors down from mine and sat in in sir's room to eat the donut while they are thinking of the lines to say for the assembly the next day.
3rd day was at Grace Lutheran College. We ended up sleeping the whole bus ride there because the wake up call was really early! By the time we woke up, we have to move everything to their hall and prepare within 10 mins for our performance for their assembly. Didn't played our best except for the March April May.
We were split into groups of 3 and showed around by 1 student. I was brought to a Art Class. Initially, i didn't like the idea of going to a Art class. Because my idea of art is lit, hist, geog.... super boring. But i was wrong. Their art is really drawing. Really creative. Just with a theme, they can suggest so many things. 1 thing is that students give their answers voluntarily which is somewhat rare in Singapore. We went around taking pics of their art work. The best thing was that they get to design, make and parade their own costumes with the themes they chose!!
The painting that i LOVE the MOST!
Their art room
Art work hanging in mid air.
Art pieces done using coloured papers.
Costumes made from previous batch.
Their whole row of lockers! Looks like those in the shows!
Their uniform!
Me and Jerina with the facil.
After walking around the college, we went for lunch. Sandwich and dessert. I have no idea what is that called, but the yoghurt with the jelly is a really good combination!! YUMMY!!!
Before mix.
Half done.
Yummy!!
Ok. You might start wondering what these building blocks are. They are not any art work, but layout of the house/sch that they are going to built in Africa for their OCIP. Yes! CJCSB being so nice donated money to buy the blocks for $2 each and we got our name sign on it too! =D
Doing a good deed while enjoying our trip sounds good yea?
Their pond beside the cafeteria.
That is Damian! He is offering me sth! hahax.
Managed to take a pic of sir drinking from water cooler! hahax.
The water cooler is really special. It's like a tap with water shooting upwards! hahax.
This 2 pics (above and bottom) were taken when we were on our way to DFO. All thanks to viv cam, i was able to capture such nice sceneries. =)
My fav signboard of all! The YELLOW ONES! =D
After the sch was SHOPPING at Direct Factory Outlet a.k.a DFO. And we've only got a pathetic 1 hr to shop. So it was speed shopping! I brought 2 tops for myself. Like finally!! Jerina and I bought the same slipper from billabong shop for just $6.95! Roxy water bottle for a mere $5! How cheap is that! *smiling away*
The whole row of shops at DFO!
After shopping was band prac at the park again. By 4.30p.m, the sky starts to darken already! The day when I forgot to bring my jacket, the weather turns so cold! It got darker and darker that i had to squint my eyes to look at the scores, but still played wrong notes! =/ Then some of them said they can't see sir conduct anymore. hahax!
We always walk past this building when we were on our way for dinner at Queen Street Mall.
Day 4 was at Griffith University. The first time we saw Brisbane rain! hahax. Walk under the rain with our instruments. Really bad. Luckily it wasn't that heavy rain. We had our 2nd outdoor performance at the Suncorp Piazza. I think the performance was good. Enjoyed myself a lot!! A Song For You sounds good! When you will come back was not too bad, considering the fact that we practiced that song for like 4 times only?
We sat down to watch our band, that includes Orchid Park Wind Orchestra and Angklor From MI, both bands are from Singapore too. After Grace Lutheran College left, it's just Singapore band watching Singapore band. really very -.-
Millenia Institution.
We were let off for lunch. Ate Kebab. It's super super ex can! It cost $8~! *faint* We lost track of time and was late for the jazz performance at the cafe. We were almost scolded for that. The GIRLS tenor saxophonists are really ZAI! I must emphasised on GIRLS!! OMG. They make me feel really so lousy! I guess we were all not quite used to jazz music. We went off wandering around after the 1st item. lol. Camwhored for 1 hour using karyn's camera and later went to walk around. Ate ice cream while walking at their mini fair. Didn't manage to get anything that suit my liking.
Day 5 is still at Griffith Uni for some tour around their compound which is rather small. Then we got to wander around at the South Bank.
me. karyn. yi hui. jac
see! the pretty beach!
our shadows! i'm the 3rd one!
our shoes! guess which is mine! hahax.
sweets that i bought from the mini mart! =)
Day 6 was probably the most exciting day of all. It's really exciting. My alarm clock rang at 6.30a.m. Yes. i woke up but went back to the comfort of my bed thinking that i'm just lying down for a moment. In the end......... jerina suddenly screamed and said, "CHU ERN! FASTER WAKE UP! IT'S 8A.M ALREADY!!" My first reaction was to jump out of bed. That was the first time that i woke up so promptly without any hesistation. The best part was that we were supposed to board the bus at 8a.m and head to Griffith University!!! OMG! We just brushed out teeth and ran out! All thanks to edwin's call to our room. If not something more disastrous would had happened. Edwin came to get jer's tuba, so jer helped me with my tenor sax. whew~~ Luckily sir didn't give us a scolding.
Most of us had our master class between 10a.m to 12p.m. We just sat down at the foyer there and took a short nap before the master class. We didn't learn much from the master class cuz we knew most of the things that she said in the class. After which we proceeded to the conservatorium theatre to listen to the bands and some ensembles. I fell asleep in most of the items. That is 3 out of 4. I felt really really bad about it. But i think it's really not very interesting. And finally my 1st meal of the day! The portion of fries and nuggets were crazy! Luckily shern way helped me with half of the fries. But even so, i struggled to stuff myself to finish up the remaining ones. We then went to the same where we had band master class to do our last preparation. I love it the most! Turandot was played so well! I really could feel that my hair stood, and at that moment, i can feel that i'm going to cry! It's a feeling that i will never ever forget.
Performance on stage wasn't as scary as i thought. March April May was great. Turandot was nice, but it could have been better, like in the room backstage. What a pity! In the Spring was crazy. That was the most number of times that i could ever got lost in the piece! I felt really really disappointed with myself. But i did play my best for the more important part. Felt quite satisfied. And my page 13! Finally! I played it right! My hard work the previous night did paid off! =)
Yup. in the end, the so called competition turn out to be just a showcase talent. Felt a little angry and disappointed over that. I mean we practiced so hard for the competition, thinking we could at least win something for the band. In the end....... sigh. But sir was right. Music should never be measured by the medal. =)
Saxophone section had a camwhoring session immediately when we returned to hotel! hahax. It was at brandon's room.
whee!! i'm holding on to soprano sax!! =D
ok.. sth obscene is going on here. lol.
and this is worse la!!!
the altos.
the J1s!
peace! =D
oops! shern way, we're sorry! LOL.
taken at the small balcony.
and immediately after that, i was locked out of the room! stupid brandon yew!!! ARGH!
now u can conclude that they are...............
Dinner was at this restaurant near Griffith University. -.- I thought we were going to somewhere different for the first time, in the end, it's still around the area. The fish and chip was such a huge portion! After eating 1 piece of fish, i just pass the plate to brandon. hahax. Didn't want to waste food. It's sinful! hahax. Dessert was nice!
my fish and chips!
desert!
section photo with sir.
phoebe and I
Day 7, which is also the day we depart from Brisbane. Felt quite sad about it. I mean the moment you depart from Brisbane means you are going back to reality in 7 hours time. I hate it. Seriously. How i wish i could be so happy for my life, without any stress. Life in Brisbane is like stress-free. You never see people running and panicking in the morning because they are late for work or school. No traffic jams too. Life here is far too stressful and fast! Sigh.
last photo in the hotel. =(
Tell u guys a secret, we actually drank a bottle of Evian mineral water on the first not knowing that we have to pay for it!
It's $7.50! Almost equivalent to S$10!! *faint* Jer and I didn't want to pay for it, so we went to look for it and finally found a 1 litre bottle!
spot the difference! hahax. we put the one we bought in the fridge so that it's not so obvious and we managed to trick the ppl! =D
mel, brandon and I on the plane!
The fluffy clouds!! looks like candy floss!! =D
So my 1 week trip ended with many nice memories. I never regret going. Never. It will be with me forever. =)
HEY! Thanks for viewing!