The Most And The Best Of 2007!

Alright alright! NOW! It is the highly anticipated entry of the year 2007 when I do all the interesting summary! Its time of the year to sum everything up with some melancholic reminiscing! OH YAY!

Let us start in a new format. This year is the award presentation!

1st TuaBehGong Is Happening Awards (2007) begins now....

FIRST UP!

The Most Hilarious Mis-pronunciation: Political APATHY by Tng Ji Xiang

I wasn't really paying attention to the GP lesson this year when the incident happened. So apparently, I was like packing my bag or finishing some work from the other subjects during Ji Xiang's group's presentation when I suddenly heard a very out of the world pronunciation and I just burst out laughing! PRONOUNCE AFTER ME: Political APPE-TEE, not Political ARPAR-TEE. And he proclaimed that somebody taught him apathy is pronounced as ARPAR-TEE. HILARIOUS LAH!

The Best Job: Zi Char 煮炒 at JJC Chemistry Science Lab

YADA YADA. Because Pei Fang has been mentioning the incident so I felt it is worth mentioning! It was a windy day and I am all prepared to go into the room and get my highest yield of crystals ever in the term. With the supervision and pressure from Dr. Gan, I am quite confident that everything can go smoothly and BE THE YIELDER! LOL. BUTBUTBUT when I was approaching the last few steps in the experiment, I suddenly had a soft hand and tilted the 50ml beaker of distilled water onto the already sizzling HOT PLATE (I can fry an egg and cook meat on the plate). And so, when cool water meets sizzling hot plate, beads of the water swirled around the hot plate and gave off the sound of the job mentioned above.

And Dr. Gan Kim Suan exclaimed: WAH! Who is cooking Zi Char there? WEI HONG HUH!

*guilty look*

The Most Panicky Moment: Breaking a tray of Chemistry lab wares before SPA starts.

Seems like most bad luck happens in the Lab eh? This goes simple. We were taught from young that when we are about to have an examination or SPA in this case, it is important to set the table well and things like that. Being the natural good boy, I tried to arrange all the apparatus properly on the bench table and kick off a good start like everyone. Then, I saw the tubing for the Bunsen Burner is totally blocking the table in my way and was an eyesore, so I decided to change it because fate is controlled by my own hands isn't it? I was already aware that I might knock down the whole tray of apparatus into the sink, so I tug at the tubing gently and caringly knowing that I will hurt it if I am too rough. LOL tug tug tug TUG! The release of the tubing from the protruding metal piece is so great that my hand flew too far and hit the tray and WAH LAH. Broke almost everything in the tray and this one incident has the amount of breakage more than everyone's add together in the 2 years. Goodness gracious me. Dr. Gan was totally out of the world that day too.

She walked to me, said never mind and asked me to change a bench and I didn't have to pay a single cent for all the breakages. COOL!

The Most Disappointing Performance Watched: NDP Show Segment @ Marina

Unsuitable music, poor cameramen, same standard of performance, and the conceptualising of the entire Show Segment can be done more detailed lah. I am jus a little disappointed lor.

The Most Creative Performance Watched: Anyhow Art? By CDAA @ People's Association, Kallang

The Best Performances Watched: Singapore Youth Festival 2007 (Dance)

As usual. I find the strength and grit from the people OF ABOUT MY AGE very inspiring. They enter secondary school innocently, fall into love with dance, endure the hardship during the days practising dance, practise for SYF, get nervous for SYF, put in their everything into that 5 mins on stage, cry over the results, fall into a deeper love with dance.

The Best Backstage Work Done: Anyhow Art? By CDAA @ People's Association

What can I say? Didn't really expect myself to hand myself into such a role actually. Enjoyed the time using the walkie talkie and all. Most of all, I got to know my juniors like Benedict and Liang Yuan which is precious chance. Interesting experience lah. really.

The Most Enjoyable Examination: CSTD Sub - Elementary Ballet Exams

The pure interest in Ballet makes everything more enjoyable ba. HAHA. Although results fall short of expectation. zzz. The barre is my home, now.

The Most Neck-Breaking Movie Watched: Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End

First time in my life I got to sit in the front row in Golden Village - Plaza Singapura. I was almost at the end of my world.

The Best Snubbed Moment: Rejection By Ms Lai Peck Chai

GAHH! No Econs Relief work. Dreams dashed. DAMMIT.

The Best Hawker Cuisine: Tanglin Halt Western Food @ Clementi Hawker Centre

The Best Snack Eaten: Cream Puffs by Beard Papa


The Best Hotel Food Eaten: The Amara Sanctuary @ Sentosa

Because I have only went to one hotel/resort this year, which is Amara.

The Best Canteen Food Eaten: Western Stall @ Nan Hua High School

The Most Disgusted Moment: Molestation by Old Gays

No need for further explanation. The experience is chilling.

The Most Amazing Moment: 7 Person Alliance Thrashed By Wong Jian Wei in Monopoly @ Settlers' Cafe

I can't believe it.

YAYAY! IT IS THE MOST EXCITING SEGMENT!! PHOTO AWARDS!

The Best Edited Photo: Mao Ze Dong With Mr. Steven Koh

The Best Original Candid Photo: Skiving on Train Starring Goh Koon Hui aka Young Young

The Best Original Artistic Photo: Xiao Man Tou Trove

The Best Original Animal Photo: Gatsby Model Takuya KimuNUT Starring Peanut!

The Best Original Natural Photo: Troubled Biologist Starring Mdm Goh Hwee Kwan

The Best Original Close-up Photo: TAN KIM YEIN on Bus Starring Tan Kim Yein

She is so going to kill me.

The Best Deforestation Evidence: Saving Earth Starts in College!

The Most Calm Laggy Person Met: Mr. Benedict Loh Jia Da


The person involved is the guy on the left. On the right is Shana the HP!!















The Most Charismatic Guy Award: Darling Junhe Starring my brother Junhe


Yep. He wanted an award that involves him being cute and shuai. Haha! So I just can't be bothered and name the award Charismatic. LOL Same the person involved is the guy on the left too! In the end got to post 2 pics of him to make the criteria. Count yourself lucky didi!


THE END!!! If you guys got anything to remind me regarding any interesting incidents that I was present, please feel free to tag and inform me!!

AND. New Year, New Hope, New Beginning, New Chances, NEW!

ALL THE BEST EVERYONE!

CSTD Sub-elementary Exams!!

I AM BACK! but with a not so interesting entry!

I finally completed my Ballet Sub-ele Exams on the fateful 28/11/2007!! Cheer for me lah, asshole. I really want to remember the whole process leading up to the exams!

Preparing for the Exams!:

With experience from my earlier exam for Grade 6 in March 2007, i knew that I shouldn't continue to train the few days before the actual Sub-ele exam because my legs, from the toes to the arch to the ankle to the whatever muscles to the thighs, will be so exhausted! But the stupid thing is that my A level totally clashed with the preparation weeks leading to the Exam, so I have no choice but to continue to train up. I think the worst day of preparation was the day when I had Biology Paper 3 in the morning and the Exam rehearsal in the afternoon with an examiner. I was totally tired like the Tired God, whoever knows what it is. But at least from that rehearsal, we managed to see other people's standard and the difference in the syllabus being taught.

I think the only difference this year is that I didn't watch the professionals dance on Youtube to boost my morale. Because I don't have the time! WHY? The equally dumb Graduation Night is on 27/11/2007. Thats right! The day before the Exam! Who wants to go home early to prepare for an exam when almost everyone else is prepared to lose 3 years of life to thon the night. AND ME! TEO WEI HONG! Need to travel home myself to sleep for the Exam. So I better do well for the Exam to compensate for the joy lost.

Moreover, the time before the Graduation Night and during the Graduation Night itself was not really enjoyable. Because I am already starting to receive the news of the 'battlegrounds' at PA Kallang! My seniors and a junior had already completed their Exam that day and had informed me of things to be careful of and possible changes. YES. During an Exam, anything can happen. And the news I receive are all not very good! Such as people got scolded by the Examiner Mrs Betty Tilley, my seniors forgetting their stuff for Unseen work etcetc. These makes worrywarts like me super nervous!

The Day of Exam!:

Woke up and felt that my legs are not as tired as the day before, which is a good sign. Rushed to pack my stuff such as towels, attire, gel, shoes, socks, sexy undergarment LOL, rosin. To sum up, is all the barang barang. Reached PA Kallang at 8.15am and started to warmup and prepare. My male senior was already there! And he was still trying to remember the syllabus. For your information, we are the only 2 males taking the Sub-ele Exam in the whole of Singapore. There was another 2 females from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts taking part in the Exam with us and they are really brave because they have not listened to the music to train before! Then, Mrs Barbara, the CSTD Singapore and Malaysian Organiser, came in to give us our numbers and brought us to the studio. It's EXAM TIME! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!

Guess who was the first person I saw when I went into the studio? The good 'ol Mrs Betty Tilley of course, the Asian Region Director and Examiner aka my 红发美少女!

Mrs Tilley is on the extreme right! (Adapted from CSTD Website)

She began to mark the attendance and we proceeded to the barre (pronounced as bar). Barre work was smooth as in at least about the same as during our dance practices but I was the last person in the row! So went we turn to work on the left side, I feel so helpless because, I will have nobody to help me if I do something wrong! i think the Most happening thing during barre was when everyone else got the timing for the Battement Frappe timing wrong. 红发美少女 called out my name to tell me that only I did it with the timing lah! But her accent is strong until I heard she say I was wrong.

Then it was Centrework. Port de Bras first. Kept telling myself to smile and smile and smile WITHOUT A PLASTIC FACE of course! Problems came when we reached Temps Lies exercise because she didnt give us what she wanted for our arms as it is to be set by the examiner! Stunned a bit but still had to carry on as during the rehearsal. Then now is the Adage. Couldn't balance very well for my arabesque and attitude exercise though, really a pity because its not difficult! Adage 1 and 2 itself was ok I think, because this section was when Mrs Tilley smiled back to me most. I AM SEDUCED LAH! LOL! Then is the first Unseen work for the exam, Unseen Adage exercise. The work was not extremely difficult though.

Next was the turns! First to go was the Pirouette en dehors. We got 2 sets sadly. First was from 5th and 2nd position and the 2nd set is in 4th position. Then is the Pirouette en dedans. Tried to turn by brushing the feet through first into the a la seconde position but I really couldn't balance well, so I tried to turn by brushing feet as close as possible to the 1st position. She didn't comment on anything surprisingly. The best surprise came when we were told that males do not need to do the Emboite and Pose Releves by half turns! Major plus point for me! Though the free work on Petite Jetes was a bit unexpected and I think I didn't catch the timing well!

Hearing the beginning of the Allegros was a bigbig comfort to me because this means that the Exam is ending! Didn't get the footing for Petite Allegro wrong but come to think of it, I wonder if I had pointed my foot hard enough. ZZZ. 1st Allegro was ok but problems came when it was the 2nd Allegro. Used up quite some energy to do the sissonne changes well then in the end Mrs Tilley told us to redo because my the other male senior didn't change his leg for the sissonne changes to the left side! So we got to do again! 3rd Allegro was funny because the 2 girls didn't listen to the music before and they learnt the work wrong, so Mrs Tilley asked the pianist to slow down. Then when it's our turn, he also thought that we will do wrong and the music was darn slow! Then Mrs Tilley had to ask him to hurry up and we suddenly change speed like a toy robot. LOL! I believe the Unseen Allegro Exercise was torturous for the 2 girls because they can't understand what Mrs Tilley was asking them to do. So they almost did everything they knew to try their luck. Oh man, I was darn worried for them at that time.

Now its the short but tiring Petite Batterie Exercises! I think Mrs Tilley know I am a bit tired already, so she didn't ask me to redo the exercise with my male senior when he did it wrong. The Unseen work was an Unseen Batterie exercise weirdly. And I was asked to demostrate a Full Contretemps because the rest didn't know what Mrs Tilley was refering to.

Now is the Classical Dances! The girls, without listening to the music before, did their dance but with alot of wrong timings. One of the girl even forgot her dance steps because she just learnt it the day before. Worrying eh? Anyway, while waiting for the girls to finish their dances, I managed to take a quick glance at the A5 piece of paper which Mrs Tilley writes her comments on. MINE WAS ALREADY FULL OF BLUE INK!!! Really wonder if I should be worried or happy. My Classical Dance was ok only. Perhaps its the fatigue or nervousness, I couldn't jump as high as how I do during the practices and thats a pity! Waited for the girls to finish their Pointe Exercise and we did our reverences to the pianist Martin and Mrs Tilley. I think the funniest thing that happened for this section was when the audio system sot diao for a second and Mrs Tillet went off laughing with her deep and Santa-alike laughter! It is really very cute!

AND YES, THE EXAM WAS OVER JUST LIKE THAT!

AFTER THE EXAM!:

Went back to the waiting room to get our stuff and started exchanging our feelings. I was reading a piece of paper. THEN I REALISED IT HAD THE GRADING FOR THE PREVIOUS FEW CANDIDATES! Didn't manage to see my friends' results in the end because Mrs Barbara came in in nick of time to prevent me from sinning!

We were so busy trying to reply SMSes to well-wishers, my teacher, seniors etcetc so I am really sorry if I didn't reply to your SMS!

***

I really wonder when I will get back my results for the Ballet because it will be the last before I am being enlisted into army. Of course, to me, there is a certain stress factor because I did reasonably well for my Grade 6 Exam and I want to do better or if not, equally well! And I have a junior in Nan Hua who is doing the same grade as me! HAHA! Plus I don't want to let my dance teacher be disappointed.

Now I can only wait for the certificates to arrive! WISH ME LUCK!

Movie Review: Center Stage

Got this movie from my sister long long time ago but always didn't have the time to write something about it! :(

So, the story begins with a girl, Jodie Sawyer, going for an audition for entry into American Ballet Company (ABC).

Of course, for the story to continue, she got into the compnay as Apprentice and still need to go through a round of selection where only 3 girls and guys will be chosen.

Then things starts to pick up with a scene where by ABC dancers were trying hard to season their pointe shoes! Quite surprised by the different methods to season the shoes! There is:

Knocking

Using the door

Stepping

'Hammering'

'Scratching'

And after so many 'seasoning', they go on their pointe!

Proper ballet started with the barre work by instructress Juliet, a supposedly very good dancer in her younger times.

If the girl on the left is attending Yongwei's lessons, she would have been murdered. LOL Juliet then realised that she got a unperfect student in her class because she got a turnout that is deemed as not enough in the show! :'(

So she pushed herself to greater turnout but has not been used to it!

Juliet then meets another trouble student Eva! A supposedly great dancer with a lousy attitude!

And she is so good that those girls who has already been training with American Ballet Academy (ABA) gets shocked and jealous, an very ugly scene and portrayal of dancers although it remains very much a fact!

Then after some fillers in the show to attract people in the feild to watch, the show went back to how Jodie was struggling in the lessons in ABT, being corrected by several instructors.

Eve then became very pissed because she feels that the teachers were over scrutinizing Jodie in whatever she did.

But she was very hardworking so she kept training herself to be able to make the mark in the company that she yearns to enter.

And she ends up suffering from physical pain!

Then she was called in by Juliet and the company director Jonathan Reeves as they wanted to explain that she still have a chance at normal academical life instead of joining the company because they felt that she dun have the natural qualities needed in a great ballet dancer!

Then they started preapring for their Graduation showcase items that will determine if they would enter the company. Eva got into the corps in Jonathan's ballet. And she was not happy. So her attitude towards Jonathan and Juliet was extremely bad. Thus Juliet wanted her to stay back after class and talk to her. This is also my favourite part in the show as it is very inspirational, at least to me.

'Headstrong, egotistcal, unforgiving, arrogant does not help. The thing is you would be hardpressed to find any choreographer or company director who isn't like that. The unwise dancers blame him. He[a choreographer Juliet has worked for] didnt like me. He was unfair. I should have had that role. The smart ones know where to look to when things get rough. It isn't there[looking at the practice space]. It's here[tapping at the barre]. No matter what happened in class, in performance, last week, 5 minutes ago, if you come back here[hands stil at the barre], you will be home.'

That scene really touched me alot. Because what was acted out had truly reflected many things. In dance, you do meet competitions or a lousy part in a choreography. But does grumbling and not cooperating helps? No. You will be even more condemned to that role. Action speaks louder than words, much. We have to go back to our basics, our practises to prove ourselves, not by just sprouting nonsense in class. And if you are willing to put down that ego and train up yourself from the basics, you will be a greater dancer or human as a whole. You will be home.

And I am really inspired by that scene alot. Although the show also bought out alot of ugly facts about dance/ballet, which includes the unacceptance of people with undesirable qualities such as being out of shape.

The show then went on about the graduation showcase which displayed the strong technicalities of ABT dancers. No pics will be posted lo. But I think would recommend dancers to go and watch the show because many scenes are so familiar and yet lets you see things in another perspective.

Many turns in plot of the story. Keeps one's attention on the show rather well.

Enjoy!

Grade 6 Exams

WOW! I really cant believe it that I 'sat' for my CSTD Grade 6 Exams on 17/3/2007 at 4.20 pm, just after roughly 6 months of training!

It just seemed like not long ago when I stepped into Toa Payoh South CC Dance Studio LATE with Zixiang and Kaiwei for lessons under Ms Choo. It was so awkward for me to be with a group of Higher Primary or Lower Secondary girls to attend the lessons lah! And it was then when I was introduced to my best fren, Mr Barre. I date with him every Sunday then, touch and feel him thoroughly for 1.5 hrs and use it fruitfully to my satisfaction. And he will silently see all my positions, from right to wrong. He is always there for me!

It was like a super crash course, because we are learning things other people have learnt in 5 years. Beside stuff for free work, we still need to learn the Barre Work and Centre Work faithfully and wats worse is SHANA will always be in front watching my class because her class is after mine! And it definitely makes it more stressful ok! Ms Choo still got to use some of the time to reteach some terms for us.

But the ancient art buffles me! Who in his/her sane mind create a dimension of its own out of the blue??? Its creation is a big matter by itself because its technical specificity is already very amazing to many. Days before the exams I began more searching of ballet videos on Youtube and it really motivated me alot to see how they danced and make magic through ballet! Especially La Sylphide, with their light and quick footwork and it really lightened my heart alot in face of the exams. LOL

Exam experience was interesting. Because this was my first time being examined that closely by a person. Although I was really very fatigued because I didnt listen to Laoshi's advice to rest 2 days before, I still managed to went through the 50 minutes unhurt!

OK. I know I am starting to make things too complicated. LOL Most probably you might just think its only an exam. LOL let me be! Its my first Ballet exam!

:D mastering the ancient art :D