All in a day's work

So much for feeling sufficiently recharged after taking a break on Wednesday.

On Thursday, all hell let loose in the restaurant. A chef had her day off and the two other chefs couldn't cook fast enough, the new chef/waitress (she hasn't decided) couldn't do much to help, and we were 80% full on a normally more relaxed week night. I was alternately waiting on tables, trying to placate complaining (read: fussy, non-regular) customers who didn't know our good food is always worth waiting for (seriously! the regulars never complain about waiting), and running upstairs to get more of anything that the chefs ran out of because they were too busy to do so.

At least the new chef/waitress could help me write the bills and do some washing up, otherwise I think I might have had a very strong impulse to slap anyone who called me over to their table just to tell me they've been waiting very long for their food. Duh, I know! But what can I do?! Not like I can speed up the cooking process! I was helping with things like getting the rice ready for the donburi dishes or kare rice or set or whatever, or beating the eggs, but that was about all.

After such a busy night at the restaurant and not enough sleep last night (helping a friend with some school stuff), I had an absolutely rubbish morning. GH and I had to accompany some singers for a masterclass, and because I've been too busy to practise this piece, I was sight-reading it. So was GH, but her sight-reading skills are considerably better than mine. The professional giving the class didn't give me time to react when he told me where he was singing from; he referred to them by the text instead of the bar numbers, and by the time I've found the place he'd already started singing. I'd be trying to catch where else he'd got to by then and trying to sight-read at the same time. At one point I was really lost and didn't know where he was singing at all, the second time he started, I finally found it. And the third time, I was ready to play, but for some reason he thought I wasn't. So he came over to the piano and told me off for wasting everyone's time.

I didn't respond in any way at all (read: stone face), but GH was definitely pissed off and I could feel the vibe from the singers being more tense. After the thing ended, GH furiously bitched to me in Mandarin (so that nobody would know what we're saying hehe the benefits of Mandarin!). Yep, it is my fault that I didn't practise this piece. But even if I really did, chances are I would still screw up the first or second times because you're singing a recitative and I don't know what @%&%# speed you're singing it, and where you're going from, damn it! ARGH.

Like GH said, it's not as if we were obliged to play for them; we could have said we weren't free when asked to help play for it. It was terrible to be put down in front of all the singers attending the masterclass like that, as if my poor sight-reading wasn't enough to show them that I'm such a LOSER. It's times like this I'm glad to have been with my piano teacher in Singapore, for her harsh criticisms (some friends have actually cried because of what she said), and maybe for whatever-it-is that makes me so able to remain stone-y in times of crisis. Blessing in disguise, maybe? My piano teacher used to say I play like a block of wood (read: emotionless), but the woody-ness of me also helps me not to react to harsh remarks. I'm glad to report that I still smiled at some of the singers who made eye contact with me at the end of the masterclass (no doubt checking I was all right, no?)

GH was also saying, if the pianist had been some local brit, (and had been in my situation), it would have been likely that he/she would have ended up crying. Because the piano teachers here are so PC! Everything you play is 'good!'. That applies to my first-year teacher. At least the teacher I have this year has more constructive criticisms on top of the 'good' that he says after every piece I play. Lol. Sigh... now I am totally relieved of all my negative feelings from this morning and it doesn't keep replaying in my head. Well, at least people who've heard me play for concerts know I can do it if I practise. I am not CMI lor! *grim and determined mood*

Now it's an early (ya, 2am in the morning is REAL early man) bed time for me, and an early rise tomorrow for a fresh start to a hopefully-sunny day full of practising!

Half-relaxing Valentine's day

Gave myself an impromptu day off school today. Impromptu, because I had intended to go and practise in the morning but only woke up at 9am. So I had a good lie in before slowly crawling out of bed after 10am.

Finally got to the library in the city to return some books and II's cds (she's away in London). And the shopping spree started, though not before I went to the music shop to get some scores (hey, shopping for scores is still shopping!)

Actually, I wouldn't really call it a shopping spree because I only bought a top and a jacket, and both are from the same shop! Shopaholics will all go 'chey!' when they find out how my 'shopping spree' went. Anyway, I managed to find a top that I liked and didn't cost too much. BUT it was size 12... asked for a size 8 or 10 to try, but the sales assistant said everything in the shop was all they had left. What to do, go for affordable is like that one lor. I still decided to buy it, because I can just wear a tube inside the top, plus the sleeves weren't too loose so it should be ok. Managed to find the jacket in size 10, and it looks ok, just that the shoulder part of it does look a little loose on closer scrutiny. Tried both together, and it looked quite ok to me, but I really dunno if that was just my 'whatever la, just buy them and I can go home now!' side talking. Well, shall try them on for the housemates' approval/disapproval some day.

I treated myself to 8 Millie's cookies, 3 of which I've already gobbled down. Going to go easy on the rest of them because I'm watching my weight till this Sunday is over! Haha as if it's going to make a big difference though... well it's just the temporary way to loose a little weight I guess. Will put in some effort to permanently do that when I'm not too busy (which will be never hehe).

Relaxed a bit when I got home, but I still managed to get some work done in the form of listening to the big work we've been rehearsing every Tuesday evening. Tiring stuff that I never got down to doing and now that I have, it's really fulfilling and I hope will be helpful towards my sight-reading it at rehearsals in future. Because we keyboardists don't practise stuff that are not solos, don't you know? Actually, that's not true... I've been diligently practising the pieces I play with singers and the ensemble, but I've just had too much going on to have time to practise for this piece as well.

Work at the restaurant was really busy tonight. All couples, and on top of the reservations we'd already got, many others kept coming. What really threw me into a big mess was that some customers claimed they had a reservation when they didn't. And I offered them the reserved tables only to find out later when the real customers who reserved the table came. ARGH. Fortunately it didn't turn out toooo badly... I hope. I think one customer was rather pissed to be turned away :(

The boss got roses to be given to every female customer, and there were extras in the end so we all got to take one each! And the housemates surprised me with a bunch of roses at 12 midnight (lol too late!), when they just came home from somewhere. All in all, not really a fully exhausting day and I had some time off everything to just recharge. Ready to dive into the busy swirl of activities again tomorrow!

Muscle ache

Phew, really exhausted.

Apart from the seminar presentation this afternoon, I spent the whole day practising. Having my lesson tomorrow... and no, this is not last minute practising! I practise almost every day, but I would say some days are not productive and generally it gets really productive nearer the lessons. My arms are aching quite a bit because after the seminar, I spent about three hours practising on the piano with really heavy keys. It's good to do it since it'll prepare me for playing loud enough for the assessed recital, but I don't get to do this that often because the room is always occupied.

I never get tired of practising. Mentally, I mean. I really am physically tired today, but it only happens once in a while. Love to have long practice sessons that give me enough time to go into the details. And all the effort will eventually result in a good performance, I hope. I was really happy to hear from fellow ensemble players today that they enjoyed the concert last Friday. Especially the piece with the singer. Whee... I enjoyed playing it as much as they enjoyed listening to it! :D

The presentation for the seminar went well too. Between the two of us, we sometimes had different analyses from each other, but that was good because in the end one of them would be correct. And we don't have to do a presentation for next week. The catch is that he set us four half-an-hour-on-average works to listen to before the next lesson. (Active listening, i.e. finding out its history, sourcing for other information on it, look for the score, listen to the work with the score.) Bleargh. We're still not going to get a weekend in the end huh.

Will try to do everything during the week and maybe at most finish them on Saturday. Cos Sunday's the cny dinner! Haven't bought anything to wear yet, but am planning to go shopping on Wednesday. Just hope nothing crops up between now and then :/

White Chinese New Year

It's been snowing since yesterday! And it's real snow this time, as opposed to the 'fake' snow last year, which just falls for a short while and then turns into slush quickly. This snow is still here and everything is buried under a blanket of white. It's really beautiful.













This was taken yesterday morning from one of the practice rooms.










This afternoon. Everywhere looked so magically transformed. I love how the clock tower was veiled in white.










Pretty. Looks like a scene from the countryside/forest eh? (Ignore the fence haha) It's actually just the road along which I walk to and from uni. I love to see snow on branches. And also bare branches against the sky. It's a little morbid and sad, but they are also amazingly beautiful in a way I can't describe.










By the time I reached home at about 6pm today, the snow on the ground was so thick that I couldn't see the footpath any more. It's so magical! Everything's white!

Had a good day today, basically. Apart from getting quite soaked and cold from walking in the snow, and being quite tired at the end of the week, everything else was good. The concert was good, I didn't screw up my piece except for a tiny detail at the beginning (so tiny that I think possibly only those who've heard me during the run-through will notice). I also didn't screw up while playing for a singer, other than a slight stumble somewhere when I wasn't concentrating enough. Fortunately I managed not to let it sound too obvious and regained my momentum quite quickly. Possibly good luck on a day when I've only had five hours' sleep and have had hour after hour of lessons/discussions just before the concert.

And while rushing home after a lesson ended at 5pm, I just knew I was going to be late for work at 6pm. But the snow turned into a blessing when the boss' wife sms-ed to say they've decided to close the restaurant tonight. Sweet :) I actually had time to cook myself a proper meal, finally, five weeks since the start of term! It really has been so horrible that I've resorted to eating quick-cook stuff like pasta, instant noodles, frozen pizzas, cookies and mostly sandwiches or breakfast cereals, no matter how unhealthy I think they are. I couldn't be bothered.

Ok, going to sleep early tonight. I'm letting myself off because no longer can my brain take any more analysis of the piece a classmate and I have to do for Monday's seminar. We both agree that we've got the hardest movement of the whole piece he set for the class. Sigh, got to get up early tomorrow when I really want to sleep in, especially in such cold weather. But I've got loads to do!

Oh yea, and I'm going for the Chinese New Year dinner next Sunday, but have nothing to wear. Gotta find time to go shopping, but when? This is such a hassle. But I don't want to be MIA again like last year, and anyway where's the fun in staying home by myself on Chinese New Year?

Two-hour haircut

Had my haircut today. Finally, after telling NH I wanted to cut my hair since before the Christmas holidays... but since his friend went back home during the hols, I didn't get to cut.

Before I could get my haircut, I had to sit through XG's; I had to follow him to the place because I didn't know where it was. Average cutting time for each person (most of his customers are guys) is an hour, but for me it took two. He said he hadn't cut for a girl for some time already, but his cutting seemed alright to me.

Other than taking so long (which I had also experienced from a salon owner when I went back to Singapore during the summer holidays!), we managed to understand each other quite well when discussing what I want my hair to be like. We spoke in a mixture of Chinese, Cantonese and English... lol this is so weird. When at first we conversed in Chinese, I kept lapsing into English for some unknown reason, and out of the blue he spoke Cantonese to me (because that's what he was speaking to the person before XG). After apologising though, I said I could speak Cantonese as well, so we started to communicate in that, although sometimes it was better to describe some things in more than one language :P

The hair turned out to be acceptable, except that maybe because he's not so experienced, some places are too straight for my liking. But they'll grow soon, I suppose. When I got home I had a big shock looking in the mirror because it looked much shorter than in his mirror! I dunno why... but anyway, I think it's ok. I just hope it's not going to be too messy when I wake up tomorrow morning... the day after haircuts is always panic day.













That's how the hair looked after I took a shower. Not as messy as when I first came home, because he blew dry the hair, and I mean really so dry that there were lots of frizziness. Bleargh, I'm totally against hair dryers. I think they only spoil your hair.

First time is FREE! :D

Freezing

The boiler that's akin to the heart of the heating system of my house broke down yesterday. For the last couple of days it's been producing lots of noise (lots more than usual) when turned on, but nobody suspected anything to be wrong with it.

Last evening NH and I were having fried rice for dinner (irrelevant I know), and then he suddenly noticed that the boiler was leaking. So we put one of my big mixing bowls under it (I think I will wash it ten times before using again, the water stinks) to catch the water and turned off heating. So that began our pathetic no-heating lives, smack in the middle of winter. With double-glazed windows that don't seem to work (with double-glazed windows you wouldn't have condensation droplets on either side of the window, but ours have condensation on both sides, hence the mould in my room; we suspect the landlord cut corners).

And then YR dropped by for a short visit (he was just kaypoh to know about how NH's romantic holiday went), and when he saw how pathetic the mixing bowl was (it was filling up fast) he came up with a great idea. We constructed a 'water slide' out of aluminium foil, raised it at one end with the mixing bowl and in the middle with a baking tray (mine again...) so that the water would flow into the kitchen sink.

When we called the landlord, he was in London celebrating the New Year and said he would send someone here to fix it today. And when I came home after work today, it still wasn't fixed. The guy tried but failed, so he said he would ask the agent (of the boiler's brand) to come tomorrow. Argh. British efficiency is rubbish. Why isn't there any 24-hour emergency thingy, especially in winter!!! Furthermore, the landlord's brother said he'd send someone here to loan us some portable electrical heaters but hasn't come round by now.

The whole boiler is also switched off now so that no more water will flow into it, which also means we don't even have domestic hot water. Was complaining that I would definitely not survive without bathing, and even contemplated taking a cold shower. But taking a cold shower in mid-winter is different from taking one during the good ol' days at band camps. I don't think I could survive being drenched in cold water in an already cold room.

Then, thinking back on one day last year... I recalled my 'babies' (I babysitted someone's kids). Their heating system had broken down and the only way the kids could take a bath was for the parents to boil huge pots of hot water in the kitchen, then carry them upstairs to the bathroom. Hot water was then mixed with cold so that the kids could have warm water. So I decided to do the same.

Using NH's kettle, boiled about half a pail of water and after mixing it with water from the shower... I was left wondering why the water was still so hot. And then, it hit me. I realised that the shower in the bathroom I always use, unlike the one the other housemates always use, was an electrical one. Which means I could still have warm water for showering. Dang. Even NH didn't realise it when I told him I was going to boil water. Because he and the other housemates all find 'my' bathroom too small (oh come on, it's just narrow but the shower area is about the same, why are guys more fussy than a girl??), they never use it. Or only when the other bathroom is occupied. Muahaha all the better, my own private bathroom! And I don't have to share with them! (Would rather not go into detail how disgusting their bathroom sometimes looks...)

When I told NH that my shower works he took a bath immediately hehe. And because neither of us fancied washing our hands blue from doing the dishes with no domestic hot water, we ordered pizza delivery for dinner. A little spendthrift, but whatever, take it as celebrating new year lor.

Depressing wet New Year's Eve

Sudden downpour of heavy rain at about 11pm... sian. Been trying to complete the assignment since 8pm. Actually, got woken up by my parents to webcam at 8am after only having slept for three hours. Since I was fully awake by the time we finished talking, I tried to do the assignment but after a mere thirty minutes I started nodding off in front of the computer.

In an attempt to wake myself up, I went to the kitchen for some fruits. But another half an hour later, I started dozing off again. My head snapped up periodically, and after adding a couple of notes or listening to the masterpiece shitty piece again I'll be nodding off. Somehow I just couldn't shake off the sleep.

At 2pm I joined NH for lunch in the kitchen, pooling our dwindling foodstuffs together to create a really weird meal of fish fingers sandwiches for him and a turkey ham sandwich for me (non-halal ham)... and curly fries too. Just as we were finishing lunch and I was thinking I could maybe now keep awake long enough to do some work, MH came by. And both NH and I stayed in the kitchen chatting with her, until about 5pm when MH decided to go home for a while before coming back to join XH for dinner.

XH had invited me for dinner too, but once MH left I tried to start work again... only to fall asleep, like really asleep kind of asleep (what's wrong with me man!). Only woke up at 8pm and by then I was feeling really dreadful that I hadn't done much. Think someone did knock on my door while I was asleep and probably saw me sleeping when they opened it, but by the time I woke up I decided not to join them for dinner.

Work I did, though it's a very slow time-consuming process for me (I'm not like those who can just churn out lots of good stuff in an instant, too bad). I also got to enjoy some fireworks courtesy of some rich people staying somewhere up the street. Hmm but I think fireworks are not as expensive here though, because it's so popular during festive days and I always here them whenever it's some important occasion.

So far, I've only managed to hit the 2-minute mark (three-quarters of which were already completed before today), and that's out of a 6-8 minute piece I gotta write. So that boils down to what, half a minute written after three hours of work? Long way to go... although I think I'll just stay up all night and bury my head in there. If I just finish this assignment by tomorrow, I will definitely not be as stressed next week. Just gonna take a nice warm shower (no heater after midnight... brrrrr), and maybe cook something quick.

Boxing Day sales

Went to the city centre for Boxing Day sales! Was pleasantly surprised by a late-night sms from HN yesterday asking if I wanted to join him and his housemates. It's good I did, or I might have been quite put off by the crowds if I went alone. Shopping alone usually means that I walk into stores that are not too crowded, and run home as fast as I can right after I've bought whatever I wanted to buy.

And because his housemates have the Singaporean kiasu spirit (they're Malaysians), I was supposed to meet HN at 8.20am at their student accommodation. Was there only five minutes early but the girls were all not ready so I could have taken my time to walk there! We shared a cab since the trains are not running on Boxing Day.

It's quite amusing to note that the majority of early-arrivers were not British. But eventually, there was quite a crowd of British people waiting in front of River Island, even though other stores were already open. Can see that River Island is very popular here.

Got a pair of jeans from the first shop we went to, Gap, for £19.99:










That was before the large crowd in front of River Island formed. We also went to Zara, Miss Selfridges and Topshop, but I didn't buy things from there. Either not the kind of clothes I would normally wear, or really nice jeans at really nice non-discounted prices. T_T Ok lar, to be fair, there were many nice tops I could have gone crazy over, but... I dunno, just thought I'd rather not go through the hassle of trying and then in the end decide not to buy, or only buy one.

Because the girls took so long in Topshop, HN and I decided to go to River Island, which was just next door. And was probably one of the most crowded shops (didn't step into Monsoon though, and I saw quite a lot of people in there). Found a pair of shoes I liked, but also found out that the queue was hell of a long one snaking through the store. Queued for half an hour. Just to get a pair of simple-looking shoes. That wasn't exactly cheap either. Haha but better than HN by a bit, he did the same in the men's department, except that his pair of shoes costs twice of mine.

Shoes from River Island, for £24.99:










Found out when I got home that the shoes are too big! *Horrors* Before I saw this pair, I tried on another pair, and so stupidly thought that the size should be the same and decided to buy this one without trying it first. Oh well, at least the receipt says I can return it for refund or exchange, just not within 26-28 December. Hopefully they will still have my size after 28th... if not, then ok lor, refund. Not like I would wear such shoes in UK much (too pretty to spoil by walking on such muddy roads). Just that it would be nice for once to have a pair of black shoes to wear for concerts that does not also bleed my heels to death. Also, important to have comfy black shoes for my own performance assessment!

After River Island, HN and I were basically very much done with shopping. Went to Body Shop to meet up with the girls and everyone bought stuff together in order to use HN's card. And then we split up, since the girls were still not done shopping. HN and I had a good break, and a filling one too... Krispy Kremes! Getting bored of sitting and chatting, we decided to browse around again, and on our last stop at Music Junction, we got some really good steals of two-CD sets for £2.97 each. Since we couldn't decide which sets to get, we finally settled on four and each got two, and we can exchange them later.

Although I've known this for as long as I dunno, many years?, one little incident really reiterated it in my mind: HN was complaining that owning too many pairs of shoes is troublesome cos he has to decide which pair to wear everyday, and then he said he usually makes his decisions based on what he's wearing.
Me: Haha that's such a girly thing to do.
HN: Ya, I know! Maybe that's why I don't have a girlfriend.
Me: Oh, so it's the opposite for me? I don't have enough handbags and shoes so I don't have a boyfriend. (All of us were chatting while waiting for the shops to open, and it seems I have even lesser pairs of shoes than HN.)
HN: Ya! You don't even have ear holes! What happens if your boyfriend buys ear rings?
Me: ... I dunno... ???? Consider piercing? (Which boyfriend would buy ear rings when he knows the girl doesn't have ear holes?! Or maybe they would, I dunno?)
HN: Clip-ons... (haha previously when he found out I didn't have ear holes we were joking about how the mention of clip-ons just brings to mind 'old-fashioned')

Ya lar, ya lar, so I'm not very girly... nothing wrong lor. Not that I don't like to look nice, just that I prefer the not-too-dressed-up kind of nice mah. And my mother didn't bring me to pierce my ears when I was a kid, so I grew up without having the urge to wear pretty ear rings nor pierce my ears. Heck, I don't even bother wearing any accessories apart from the once-in-a-very-blue-moon necklaces. And I'm a sucker for jeans, but girls don't have to wear dresses to look nice ok. Also, one nice pair of shoes can be worn many times, so what's the point of buying so many pairs? Haiyah... but ya I know, I'm not a girly girl.

Living out of a suitcase

Sort of. The mould in my room has been back for quite some time and it's beginning to spread in a disgusting pattern on the wall. The landlord said he'll arrange for someone to dismantle the whole wall, clean and dry the plaster, before putting it back again. Not sure how that's done.

So since NH is having a romantic Christmas with his girlfriend in Phillipines, he has kindly offered me boarding space in his room. Which is so much bigger than mine but is also very messy, and with both his and my indoor clothes airers taking up quite a lot of space. And I can't use his cupboard so the only thing I can do is pile up the stuff in my suitcase. And some on one of the airers. (The other one is for drying clothes.)

I'm turning his room into some sort of laundromat as well, because when I moved my clothes out of my cupboard, I was unpleasantly surprised by mould growing in the innermost, darkest corner. It was nauseating... and even more horrific to find out that some of my clothes were contaminated with mould too. I just stood there staring at the clothes, not knowing what to do with them. Some I could throw since I've never even worn them this year, but others... well, I think I will wear them, just not so often. So lots of clothes went into the washing machine (with a generous dosage of washing powder!), and thankfully NH's room is big enough to accomodate two airers. Mine is too small and once I open up my airer, I just have about enough floor space for three persons to stand still doing nothing. And that's after they squeeze into the room so that the door can be closed.

But despite the hassle of having to move my stuff (don't get me started on moving, I hope I'm not going to find new housemates or a new house next year), I'm enjoying NH's room. Because when YR moved out, our previous internet line went with him so NH had to sign for a new line. Which, thanks to the way internet companies work here, was only activated (modem delivered on the same day) after NH left for Phillipines. And somehow we couldn't configure the router which YR is lending us until NH buys a new one on his trip back here via Singapore, not even when we asked two other computer science students to come over and try. Apparently it's different from what they do in Singapore.

Which all boils down to one thing: I can use the modem in NH's room!

It's worth it to live out of a suitcase just for the sake of having internet connection. And a nice comfy bed on which I can sleep right next to the wall, toss and turn, without having that subconscious knowledge that I'm sleeping next to mould. Yea, I did move the bed away from the wall but there's only that much I can move it due to space constraint. And I've been sleeping as far out and as close to the edge of the bed as possible... for the past few months. It's become a habit. I've never actually touched the mouldy wall and neither has my duvet moved in that direction.

I just hope the person fixes the room soon, before NH comes back on 29 December, then how? I don't want to sleep sofa leh...

Sick x_x

Was having very sore shoulders and aching back last evening but I dismissed it as muscle aches from having such a long practice session after slacking too much.

It turned out to be the kind of body aches before the onset of fever. Spent the whole night in a semi-state of wakefulness, feeling very terrible and wanting to get up to get a panadol and wet towel but never actually managing it because the next moment I'd be asleep. And the cycle keeps repeating. It was only about 6am when I finally became quite awake and was contemplating getting a panadol, but decided against it because then I wouldn't be able to wake up to webcam with my parents.

And weirdly enough, I fell asleep! Until they had to call me three times before I actually heard the handphone ringing. Needless to say, I was feeling quite awful but I tried to be normal on the webcam. Didn't want them to know I was sick because it would feel terrible knowing I was ill but not being able to do anything to help. (Yes I am quite stubborn that way.)

After that I sms-ed one of the Singaporeans to tell them I wouldn't be joining them for the christmas party tonight, took panadol, got a wet towel, and went back to sleep. And sleep was pretty much what I did for the whole day. It was such bliss to sleep without being waken up by all that aching. Most of which were gone by evening, when my mind was clear once again.

What a silent Christmas.

German chocolate loot

Woke up early for the first time during the holidays and went to uni to do some practising. I loved the feeling of satisfaction after spending a good three hours working on things. At the very least, it sort of made up a bit for the guiltiness I had been feeling for not doing any work ever since the start of holidays.

I then took a train to the city centre, because when I had visited the central library yesterday I hadn't looked up some things. And it's my only source of information right now, since I had procrastinated doing work and going to the library so much that when I finally got my lazy bum out of the house on Friday, I found out (to my very great dismay and guilt) that the music library and the resource library were closed from Friday. Serves me right for lazing my Thursday afternoon away, thinking I could always go to the library on Friday. And both libraries are only going to be open on 3 Jan, a short twelve days before my three essays are due. Also, I'll be working for the whole week starting 2 Jan, 9am-4pm, so I might not even have twelve days to do work. Argh I really hated myself so much (I still do, but not much use crying over spilt milk now).

Anyway, so I went back to the central library this afternoon and sat down with some reference books. Also found some other useful books, but in the end, I'm still going to have to wait till the music library opens because the central library just doesn't the score for the essay topic I've chosen. I'll just try to do the most I can in the mean time though.

I rewarded myself for doing so much work coming down to the library even though I initially wanted to go home after practising due to the cold (thinking I'd probably not find anything useful anyway), by getting myself some chocolates from the Christmas market. It was the last day the market was open, so quite a number of stalls were having discounts. I got a buy-one-get-one-free bag of chocolate peanut clusters for £3, and two I-dunno-what-it's-called chocolate thingys (previously recommended by HN) for £1. I'm going to save the chocolates for when I start doing the essays.

Crazy day

I should have slept tried to sleep more rather than drag myself out of bed so early in a bid to start my day early by practising early in the morning. Because just minutes after I got into the practice block, the technicians decided to test the fire alarm. Which was fine by me, but somehow something was wrong and they had absolutely no way to reset the alarm, which was just ringing non-stop and beginning to make weird noises in my head. This went on for two hours.

Two hours! Two hours I could have lazed around spent productively by trying to read up more for the presentation next Thursday. But whatever, an early start to the day usually never fails to make me slightly more cheerful at the very least.

So I only got an hour of practice in when it could have been three. I decided to cut myself some slack as well, joining GO for lunch. What could be compared to spending just that one hour of my day catching up with a fellow Singaporean that I haven't talked to, or seen for that matter, since a few weeks after we came here for our second year?

To be fair, the day turned out to be alright. The highlight of the day was getting home after work to find all the housemates sitting around in the kitchen laughing their heads off at stupid little things, then proceeding to join in the laughter myself. They also saved me a piece a cake, bless their souls. Oh I'm so going to miss YR when he moves out. There can be nobody humourous enough to replace this house's chief harbinger of rolling-on-the-floor-tears-streaming-out-of-eyes laughter. Although NH's infectious and funny laughter comes in at a close second.

Now I'm going to catch some sleep before I start complaining about not getting any again.

Tossing and turning

This is bad... had a relatively sleepless night. It would already have been bad enough to have 4.5 hours of sleep from 1.30am to 6am, but it's now worse that I spent a large part of this time awake.

It might have been the adrenaline still running its course after I got back from work, but although it does keep me sleepless for a while most work nights, I will eventually still knock out.

Maybe a fatal combination was activated when I accepted that cup of coffee from NH when I got back? Coffee used to have no effects on me whatsoever back in secondary school and junior college days cos I drank too much of it. But after I cut down on my caffeine intake it's now effective for me again. Hmm, but I still managed to fall asleep pretty quickly the last few times I had coffee that late at night.

Maybe it is a lethal combination afterall. I shouldn't have drunk that coffee! But then if I didn't I probably wouldn't have been able to keep awake enough to have written out 5.5 pages of notes for a seminar presentation next Thursday, within 2 hours. It's quite frustrating when I realised all this time I was awake while trying to sleep could have been spent on more productive activities. But on the other hand, I didn't want to keep myself awake doing something cos the point was to let the brain and body relax enough so that I'll be able to fall asleep, right?

Hope I will survive today... more coffee, perhaps?

On hindsight, I guess I am quite glad that the classmate whom I promised to accompany for her performance today informed me on Monday that she had been ill and has decided not to sing. I was disappointed cos I spent Sunday learning the hardest piece with the speed changes, figures and bass line. And at the end of the day I was so proud of myself for doing a good job, being responsible enough to learn the music in such a tight schedule so that I won't screw up during her performance. But I guess now that I didn't have much sleep, it probably would have been quite hard to pull off a good performance if she were still doing it.

And I'm glad I took the courageous move of agreeing to accompany another singer last Wednesday, cos this sort of thing works best by reputation and word-of-mouth, so this Monday yet another singer sms-ed me to ask if I could play for her too. Great opportunities, especially since these two singers are really responsible to look for their accompanists this early. I just hope I won't be too stressed when the time comes.

Ok, enough rambling, off to get my coffee.

Not only Singaporeans complain

The Helsinki Complaints Choir. And click here to watch the amateurish Complaints Choir of Birmingham. Cringed at their out of tune moments but somehow it adds a very 'layman' feel to it.

Anyway, random daily update on work:

Feeling so shiok now sitting on my bed with my legs on the chair. Ah....

But work today wasn't too bad. The other waitress was the one who received training with me on Wednesday, and she's ok. Albeit just a little slackish sometimes. I don't really mind, as long as she doesn't slack the whole time. And I got to meet one of the students who works as a chef, but only on Saturdays, and who is a friend of a friend.

We had two big reservations - seven people (turned out to be eight) at seven, and six people (turned out to be seven) at eight. And other people who just came in. All the tables were filled.

Food outing and job woes

Glad it's 'weekend' again. I was going to work very hard practising on next Thursday's performance pieces today. In fact, the rehearsal on Tuesday went quite well. Two of the pieces were quite straightforward so they were good. I just have to work harder on the third piece, which has speed changes almost every two bars and in which I only have the figures and bass part.

But, due to lots of disturbances from my housemates last night... 'Wheres the basket?'... 'NH!'... and other variations or noises I can't remember. I can only remember being woken up by all the noise, looking at the time, feeling really pissed, then going back to sleep. Only to be woken up again. Argh. So I didn't brace myself and crawl out of my warm bed into the cold room when my alarm rang at six this morning. I slept till it was TEN. What a pig...

When I finally dragged myself out of bed, the whole house was silent... all sleeping, of course... hahaha retribution for disturbing me last night was that both NH and YR missed their two lectures today. Hmph. I decided that since it was already so late and I have to go to work at about 4.30pm, I might as well not go to school to practice. This decision was made with lots of aid from the fact that NH and some of the Singaporeans were going for a conveyor belt sushi buffet. And it was practice, or sushi.

The types of sushi were really little, but it's still good after not eating sushi for so long. And I declare that their egg sushi passed my test! Most of the time in Singapore I wouldn't even touch any egg sushi cos most I've ever given a chance and eaten tasted disgusting. I don't know why I don't like them, I just didn't... this is coming from someone who's a I-eat-anything garbage bin.

Work was ok, but a little... I dunno... spirit dampening? Cos the really cheerful and willing-to-teach girl I was learning from the first time I worked has gone back to her country now. And the person who was teaching me and another waitress today was really... slightly unpleasantly full of herself. And to add to that, it was a really busy night although Wednesdays are supposed to be quieter. Maybe it's because the restaurant had been closed for two weeks following the chef's operation.

My major mistake was to serve a dish meant for customer a to customer b, since the dish itself was ordered by both, but for customer a it was as an addition to his main course and for customer b it was as his starter. So I wrongly assumed the dish was for customer b, and when customer a's main course was ready I was waiting for the dish to be ready so that both will be served together, but miss-experienced yelled at me to 'Serve it now!' And so I did.

It was only after I did, that it hit me. I realised that the dish I just served to customer b might have been meant by the chefs for customer a! When the realisation hit me, it was like, oh my god! But the chef wasn't too angry (luckily), although miss-experienced was really pissed. She was like, 'Why did you do that?' And even after I explained that it was my mistake and apologised, she said in an accusatory tone, 'then you'll be the one to go and explain to the customer why he will have to wait for his dish.' As if I was going to push the blame to her and make her do the apologising to the customer. Eurgh. I will apologise to everyone when I make a mistake, but I just can't stand it when someone assumes I am not going to do it.

Anyway... today's just supposed to be my 'training day'... not sure if anyone else will be there tomorrow to help/teach me or if I'll just be thrown into the deep end on my third day at work. But I think I'll manage... or hopefully I'll manage... as long as the chefs working tomorrow are the same as today's. The two other students and the boss of the shop, they are the best trio of chefs to work with man. Can handle the pressure of lots of waiting customers well. But I think I'll still have to learn more on how to pretend to slack a bit and not take the customers' orders too quickly, so that the chefs will have enough time to cook. Heard two people got fired cos they took orders too fast on a Saturday night, which is when it's the busiest and the chefs can't handle cooking everything so quickly :/ I will try my best anyway. Jobs are hard to find, I must keep this one! Gambatte!

The one thing that probably cheered me up a bit today was when another person messaged me to ask if I can play for her performance in January. I was deliberating whether to accept cos I'm real scared I will screw up. But, heck, if I don't dare to accept it and challenge myself, I'll be wasting all these excellent opportunities. And of course, the more people you play for, the more other people will ask you to play for them (assuming you don't screw up). Oh yes, I like this person already, because I replied that if she passes me the score before Christmas holidays and we get enough time to rehearse with each other, I'll do it. And she immediately replied that she'll put the scores in my pigeon hole tomorrow! Efficient, and responsible enough to find someone to play for her in advance.

Starting to feel the pressure

I finally finished my essay at nearly 10pm, despite working on it all day. And even now I'm still doubting what I actually wrote about the construction of the piece. Not a good feeling. Well, there's nothing more I can do now except keep reading it to check for any errors. I think a first class is going to be out of my league but I really hope I can at least get a IIi, though anything IIii and above will be accepted with a sigh of relief. I'll just feel a bit 不服 if this module pulls down my overall grade. Hopefully it won't...

It's just like uni to have all the deadlines and important events happening within the same time frame. Submit essay on Monday, submit assignment on Tuesday, and play for someone's performance next Thursday. It's also just like me to have been slacking all this while until everything crashes down on me. Then only do I start to panic and slog like a slave.

It comes as no surprise then, that I haven't finished the assignment due Tuesday, haven't practised for a practical lesson tomorrow, haven't practised for a rehearsal on Tuesday with the person I'm playing for, haven't practised for another practical lesson on coming Thursday, and most importantly, don't think I'm going to be ready for the actual performance next Thursday.

It's one thing to screw up for your own performance and another to screw up while playing for someone else's... the latter shows that you are 100% irresponsible for accepting a performance you're not capable of doing, and will definitely decrease your chances of playing for anyone else, especially if they heard you at the performance, by 100%. I'm wondering if I shouldn't have agreed to play... given that it was quite short notice and she only gave me the score last Thursday as well. That's two weeks before the performance! But I guess I'm in no position to complain, if I agreed I'm expected to be able to learn the pieces well and do it quick, right?

Looks like it's going to be a long week and a half ahead...

Bliss is...

having 'breakfast' at 9pm. Sausages, scrambled eggs, buttered bread and strong, black coffee straight out of the coffee maker... *contented sigh*

Was cooking my dinner when housemate NH came into the kitchen to make his Mexican coffee and offered to make me some too. Mmmm... aromatic! Although it was too sweet, it reminded me of the coffee my grandma makes. When I was young I loved to dip 'soda biscuits' into her coffee.

I'm glad I don't have to work this week (the chef/boss is still recovering from his operation), the time is just right for when I need to rush to meet the essay and assignment deadlines next Monday and Tuesday respectively. Right, back to work!

TGIW

My one day weekend is here! Because of my Monday- and Tuesday-heavy timetable, Wednesdays (when I don't have lessons) always feels like my weekend to me. And Thursdays are the start of a new week again, since I'm usually working on assignments and stuff throughout the real weekend although I don't have lessons from Friday onwards.

I'm usually brain-fried by the end of Tuesday, and yesterday was no different. Try practicing for two hours, then having a two-hour lecture, practice for another two hours, have another two-hour lecture, then playing in a two-hour rehearsal. Even though I really wanted to start on that essay due next week, I couldn't take it and knocked out at ten. Yet I couldn't even wake up at six thirty this morning.

I was also very disappointed when I got home from the long day in school, because I was expecting my room to be free from mould since my landlord called yesterday morning to inform me someone would come to clean my room on the day itself. I don't understand why he bothered to inform me if in the end the person wasn't going to come. Or, I don't understand why it takes whoever it is so long to come and get the job done.

Another disappointment is that one of the housemates, YR, is going to move out in January. 'I'm so devastated', as TU put it. But we all wish YR all the best with his girlfriend, or maybe wife-to-be by then. Yet this puts me in the very interesting position of having the option to move into his room, if I want to, to escape from the mould in my room (but hopefully it'll be cleared by then). And now the task of looking for a new housemate starts.

A Hard Day's Night

Whew, I've finally finished half of my third assignment for one of my modules, due in full in a week's time but due in draft form for coming Tuesday's reading session. For most of the class, it's a norm to send other classmates the assignment at least a day before so they can have time to look through it before playing during the reading sessions. And it's a must to send a copy to the assistant lecturer, who conducts the reading sessions, one day in advance as well. Hence the rush to finish by tonight.

I've just sent it to the people who'll help play my assignment but I think I'll rather send it to the assistant lecturer tomorrow morning, I don't want him to think I'm such a last-minute worker that I have to work past twelve midnight to get my work done! Although it's the lecturer who grades the assignments, you never know...

I certainly thrive under pressure. Give me an assignment like this and I'll claim to have no inspiration or ideas to start, but come one or two days before the deadline and somehow the sparks start flying due to the miraculous forces of time constraint.

Hmm... that reminds me of a major essay for another module due next week, just a wee twenty four hours before the above-mentioned assignment. And, no prizes for guessing this: I haven't started. I've borrowed a few books to help me along but haven't read them at all, other than little fragments here and there (and also a little in aid of above-mentioned assignment). I don't think I'll be able to finish reading them before writing the essay and I guess I'll just have to find my way as I go along. *fingers crossed*

It's cringe-worthy to note that a week ago, I actually promised myself that I'd start on those books. I did, but I lost track of the authors train of thought somewhere after the second page because of the sheer technicality of these books' subjects. So I gave up and just listened to the subject of the essay, twice, thought to myself oh luckily it doesn't sound too awful, and conveniently left it somewhere in the pile of papers on my desk. Maybe I somehow thought if it doesn't sound too awful I would be able to cope with taking it apart and writing about its construction process. But all these processes are quite new to me, and now I'm starting to worry.

To cheer myself up a bit on this gloomy, moody, restless and full-of-work day, I decided to cook something homely for dinner. Had some sort of herbal soup that I've never seen in Singapore but my Hong Kong friend introduced me to at a chinese supermarket here. It's bamboo with some kind of dunno-what-that-is thing, and dried carrots. Each time I cook about a quarter of the packet and it yields two bowls, so it's quite worth the money I guess. I was told that it's nice cooked with real carrots (there are only a few slices of dried carrots in each packet), so that's about the only way I know how to cook this soup. Other than occasionally adding a chicken drumstick when I buy any.

And the ultimate homely food in the picture is vermicilli, cooked with garlic and lots of chili. My mum used to (I think she probably still does) cook this with prawns in a claypot. Ever since I bought the vermicilli I've been thinking of cooking this but always put it off when I come home late on most weekdays (excuses, excuses). Not sure if this is what my mum used to do, I think it's close cos it tasted like hers except without the taste of prawn.

So I guess it's just: fry the garlic, chili padi, and sambal oeleck sauce nicked from a housemate's cupboard (he did previously tell me I could use it!), then add the already soaked-in-water vermicilli for a quick stir-fry before adding some water and soy sauce. Actually I have a feeling that the soy sauce wasn't needed, maybe it's only needed if I didn't use any chili sauce but just the chili padi. And then, just let the vermicilli soak up all the flavours (ok, one flavour, hot!), and while the water dries up the vermicilli will start to become browned and fragrant and delicious. I'm salivating thinking about it now.

Being the pig that I am, I became hungry again once I started work after dinner and I consumed three cereal bars, which were meant to be the next few days' breakfast, or lunch, depending on my mood. (Ah, and did I mention eating a family bar of cadbury's chocolate yesterday evening?) Haha the perils of doing work... my foot. Someone just told me today that I gained weight. Oh I don't think I want to get started on that. Got to get some sleep anyway, need to have an early start tomorrow, what with having left my practical skills to rot for the past week.