back for a update on the "wonderful" Easter weekend I had....

Friday was basically a boring day which I slacked the whole day away, "recovering" from the disasterous O2...

Sat morning there was CO prac and I had Easter Congress(bridge competition) in the afternoon) At the end of prac, there were a few rousing speeches by Hong Wan(ex-chairman of RJCO and ex-ex-ex Chairman of RICO), EnJun(hmm.... i dunno how to spell his name)a senior from the same batch as Hong Wan and Xunqi. They spoke of the previous SWF for RJCO, where they got Gold and went into finals against all odds. Thus, they argued that now with the odds on our side, we should have no problem being the best in sg. However, in my opinion, this argument is seriously flawed. If u are one who cannot take 2 sides to an issue, i would advice u not to read on, for reading on means that u understand that the following are just my radical ideas published openly.

The previous batch tht went for SWF with nothing to lose. They weren't expected to do well, and yeah...basically had nothing to lose. Thus, they placed their trust in the conductor, did not care about what all the other COs were doing and just concentrated on playing music.....for the love of music. CO in a way became their life, their sole purpose and so what if they came back with a COP, they had no aim in the first place. However, the conditions now are different. I sense no fire, no passion in the ppl around me.....

Recalling my previous SWF, which was when I was in sec 3, I remembered the whole thing very clearly. We had a 1 month extention due to Sars and in that 1 month, if u recall in my entry long long ago, miracles happened. Shen lao shi and Mr Lee were two prominent figures leading these miracles, if not for them, we might end up with bronze or even COP. Shen lao shi was employed by Mr Lee over the March holidays, when we were supposedly scheduled to compete in a few days time. Yet, due to Sars, tht few days were extented to close to 2 months and RICO again, against all odds, fought its way to a silver which was well deserved. At tht time in RICO, I felt a calling for service, inspired by Mr Lee and Shen lao shi, and the whole orchestra answered the calling. Yet now in RJCO, my only motivation comes from the love of music, and i wonder if it's only me, but I detect a general apathy from the ppl in RJCO.

RICO has provided me with memories that I think RJCO would have problems providing in its current state. I still remember during our commitee term where we had 5 concerts in total, 2 major ones, one in Penang, one in SCH. The difficulties we faced, switching from a collaboration with SN to a triple raffles concert... organisational problems arrising from the Penang trip, clashing of concert dates with RG band and Maksim, and even ensuring the standards of the orchestra for concert. We churned out Fei Tian in 4 months, Long Teng in 3, Jun Ma in 1 and JOTO in 2 weeks? Long Teng was extremely significant for the amount of effort the "makeshift percussion section" put in. In the first month, Shen lao shi scolded us really badly every practice, i believe his intention being trying to push us harder. After we came back from the concert in Penang, his tone completely changed and he started encouraging us, dropping compliments here and there. Zongjin and I were so motivated that in the last month and half b4 concert, we practiced every day coz Zongjin as the chairman had the key to the "toilet storeroom". We had nothing to lose... coz we worked our very best in the 3 months, coz we never thought of comparing with others. We worked not to show other ppl what we can do, but to show ourselves that a fire indeed burn within us. Perc sectionals were considered "sacred" at tht time and we had to move instruments including the pai gus, da gus, timpanis and all the keyboard instrument from our "storeroom" to below the design block which is like down a flight of steps and 2 basketball courts and a field away. When we played, teachers in the staff room could hear. Now, sectionals are held in an air-con room with all the instruments available, yet we are producing noise that are drowned out by chuiguan practising beside us.

Sometimes, ppl need to think with their heart instead of their brain, coz the heart shows the direction, whereas the brain can only lead the way. This is what I think the most crucial message RJCO must get...

haiz...spent too much time blogging, will blog on Easter congress another time, if u really wan to knoe, find me. 1 thing for sure, we got owns-ed like mad.....