CypHer and MuseMob

Oh gosh ... i'm sitting at home at this odd hour on a Tues afternoon , doing nothing but just waiting to go to work later in the evening. Driving 1 whole freaking hour to Kajang is no joke.. and just to teach that 2 group classes (today my ind student is not coming) but i've not felt so relaxed for such a long time. Anyway... slept really late yesterday night , had a long chat with Eng until 3 30am.. =)

So yeah. Cypher and MuseMob. Most of you would've already known the results anyway ..but i still must blog this eventful day of my life. It started off with a 1 whole week curfew i put myself into .. (Except for that naughty Thurs night out for NArnia) but the whole week i made sure i was well prepared and not to screw up anything unecessary. Sleep and rest was all i need. Prayers as well of course. After Cypher was FINALIZED on Mon night in C.H's house ... i came home listened to my final recording and found some more minor adjustments needed to be done. So the following day in Kajang i did them and on Wed in Academy i was suppose to meet up with him to help me solve 1 minor problem WHICH , he couldn't meet me after all. And while i was contemplating to go to his house and practice for the last time or not on Sat night , i now had no choice but to go because he couldn't meet me on Wed afternoon.

So days passed... and Sat came. I taught , as usual .. but cancelled my last 2 ind students (5-6pm) so that i could reserve more energy for my last practice session but after 4 group successive group classes and 4 ind students from morning till 5pm without a break was already enough to drain me off . (I usually come home and take my nap after work on Sat becaus it's really tiring) .. but anyway at 5pm i left Ampang Pt to go for my dinner in Sec Recipe outside the shop lots. while waiting for Jane to finish work so that i could go back to his house and practice first.

By 6pm i left Sec Recipe and went to C.H's house and there was Jane who opened the door for me and i used his stagea ... by then i was really TIRED but i forced myself to practice after all.. then i heard some commotion outside the hall .. short while later i heard a familiar male voice outside and i knew he's back home from work. So he came in , and checked on me and for the next 2 hours we tried to solve the problem but couldn't so we decided to just bear with it ... and oh the hospitality was GREAT ! hehehe... i don't know if it's the competition thing , but i felt like a queen for once. hahhahaha..... Free practice cum free DELICIOUS strawberries cum free bottomless water cum free jokes cum free chat. hahahaha... nice deal huh. It was only then that he set the registration for MuseMob's song and it was only then i properly practiced the elec guitar solo with pitch bend. (Although sudah BOLEH but just wanna try out safer) ... And i must be thankful for a blessed teacher like him.. After 2 hours i decided to leave because was satisfied with my playing and didn't want to bother him anymore so he could have some time with Ruth who was coming shortly. (I know.. sacrifices of an EF teacher)

WEnt home was extremely tired... ate my supper and slept by 11pm. Cool eh.. although i woke up in between my sleep but generally i had enough rest to go through the next day. Woke up at 8am , received sms-es from my 2 dearest teachers .. and went to Yamaha at 9 45am. Reached together with Ron , and we hung out together.. while balloting for my number , i dropped the envelope and Ron was laughing saying i'm so probably gonna get a 1 and although i CHOSE not to pick up the dropped paper , i still got a

1

Arrrghhhh ... what's with my hands and the num 1!!?!??! From last year's EF until now.. i got a little worried because of last year's incidents .. but i know i'm not suppose to be supersticious after all. I told myself AHH dun care. Just PLAY. Anyway uncle arrived and heard me getting 1 he gasped ,

"1 ? GOOOOOOOD!!!"

So after balloting, i didn't want to practice at all ... until soundcheck. Ruth came , and here was the order . Me first , a boy 2nd , Ron 3rd , this girl is 4th and Ruth 5th. C.H was laughing , i'm 1st then Ruth's last.. haha... anyway soundcheck didn't go so well for myself because i was rather nervous then and started making more slips than ever and kicked the expression pedal down accidently during my practice and got shaken by it. BUT the whole afternoon was all about my FAITH and how i relied on God's FAITH for me. After that horrendous soundcheck , i didn't wnt to touch the stagea ANYMORE and just decided to have fun with the girls for MuseMob's practice. I knew i needed to relax and so i must take this opportunity to relax and have fun with the girls so i could help myself for Cypher. (Come to think of it, entering the ens is a blessing in disguise after all!)

By 12pm we finished 2 rounds of crazy practice in Haydn .. and i remember screaming so much to Joanne and Pat to move so that we could really show some showmanship and not be like bunch of fake logs. (Sorry girls but i just wanted you all to know on stage they can't see much of our movement if we don't exaggerate) And anyway we had fun practising and we went into the hall for our soundcheck and while waiting we joked lamely about other groups .. and i'm sorry but there was 1 group who made me think of No Black Tie and Groove .. ahhaahah .. sorry but i just can't help it. C.H scolded me for being too critical and judging people too much in case God slaps me in return during my Cypher so i said "OK I am shutting up" .

By almost 1pm we were done with soundcheck and i went to dress up and ate lunch and Mun Wei helped me with my make up and hair. Thanks girl ! I love my eyes.. ahaahahaha... So by 2pm i was ready and mom came and we all went into the hall to get ready. Mr Phua promised he'd be coming to support me but he missed out my performance because he was stuck in the horrible Fed Highway JAM! ARRRGHHHH!!! What a jinx .. since young he always missed out on my solo performance . ARRGRHHH .. nvm , Finals he said he'll be right there for me! hehehe

Ironically , being the 1st one to play in my Open Age category wasn't so bad after all .. because there were 2 participants only in hte Junior Section before me , which means i'm the 3rd to play. But because i played so early , the MuseMob girls missed me , and some of my academy friends who came late didn't get to see me perform as well. While waiting for my turn i began to be really anxious and started having cold sweat on my palms ... and i just kept wiping my hands on my pants ... and i remember mumbling to myself NON STOP this verse from the toilet until i entered the hall.

"It is not by my power not by my strength , but by the spirit of the Lord"

After the girl before me ended , they announced my name and i just walked up confidently on stage.. took my bow and adjusted the Stagea chair because i must make sure it's comfortable for me to sit due to using both legs to play . I started but it was a bit too soft but nevermind. The song went really SMOOTH and i MUST THANK GOD i didn't feel nervous at all on stage. Things were calm and although there was 1 slip in the theme but it wasn't obvious .... but hte final section brass part was messy though . AND OH , my swing section .. koyak ah! I WAS TOO RELAXED until i sensed my fingers playing the piano solo tooo flat without accents and i was thinking to myself ,

"TAN LEI CHING ! Why you so relaxed until your fingers accents' all gone.. gosh"

All i know was i just enjoyed myself on stage la. Showed off as much as i can with confidence and although there were some parts not exactly REALLY TIGHT but i must work for it for Finals. After my playing , i took my bow and left the stage. The few minutes after that i began to be really busy with my handphone .. exchanging sms-s... and only found out Mr Phua missed my performance but he managed to catch the rest of the contestants. So after my category , they had a short 15 minutes break to tabulate the results and after the break they'll announce the winners before moving on to the Festival category.

During the break i went out to chat with mr Phua and during the announcement of results i was a little nervous and could feel my heart beating faster and faster... ahhaha.. when they announced that Ron got 3rd place i was like "OH gosh , pok's going to grab all 3 places..." And true enough .. When they were announcing the 2nd place winner , i secretly was hoping they would call Ruth's name and true enough they called her .. and when they called my name for the Grand Prix winner i was SMILING and stepped forward and felt akward for once. I never WON anything like this before ! Hahhahahaha... i guess it was a sigh of relief! The crowd cheered for me coz most of them were my friends after all .. hahaha thanks !

Which means i will automatically qualify for the National Finals in KLCC on the 29th June and the 2nd and 3rd place winners wil have to wait for the official confirmation from Yamaha on 11th June to see if they get to go for the Finals. After the results , i walked all the way to the back to join my other gang.. MuseMob and i found out our seats were taken so we stood behind hte hall cheering and jeering and taking pictures and chatting and even PRAYING until we walked to the front just before our turn to play.

I was quite shocked 1 of the juniors suggested we should pray and so Mun Wei was our prayer warrier for the day ... after a short prayer for me in AVL just before my turn to enter the hall to play Cypher , she led a short prayer at the back of the hall while C.H's student was playing Pirates of The Carribean OST on the stagea on stage! hahhaaha nice background music... while waiting for our turn , we were a little intimidated by the group before us because they played Sway and this small girl who SHOOK and DANCED so much with her SHIMMERING SHINING SILVER costume and most importantly with a POWER HOUSE VOICE made us want to move and go up the stage and just rock it down so that we don't lose to them. Spirit of competition huh.. that's what i call connection.

It was our turn , and although the whole song was messy but we made it through to the Finals after all. MuseMob won the Grand Prix and the juniors were so happy they were jumping for joy... For once , i did enjoy myself that day having fun with them on stage but we definitely need to buck ourselves up and be more serious this time. Finals's standard is really different and if the Penangnites were to make a comeback then i'm sorry we'd be kicked right in the face , butts and wherever possible.

After that we had our photo taking session , and i managed to have a short chat with almost everyone before i left the place with mom to go for dinner. Went to The Curve Sakae Sushi but it was eeeuuu .. although i was hungry but it wasn't satisfying . Went back home feeling in AWE (i haven't had the winning feeling before) and i sms-ed C.H on the way home saying thank you to him and all blah blah.. and he replied something pretty lame.. which made me LAUGH like siao. And i went home feeling excited wanting to watch felipe massa win the monaco GP but sadly he only managed a 3rd place wtih Lewis winning it this time round. Yuck.

While watching my race , C.H called to tell me he received a call from Min Fuei and got some feedback from the judge himself regarding our performances today. The whole conversation was pure FUNNY and i laughed like some mad dog rolling on my house living room sofa .... and anyway, i sensed that uncle was really happy on Sunday and i'm glad he did. THEN I FOUND OUT he did not watch my entire performance after all! HE could only sit in to watch my 1st half and walked out of the hall when i entered the ad lib section until i finished. He stood outside the hall to listen instead. WHAT THE HECK !??! He said he will have heart attack and he would start coughing inside and would get nervous and it's too unbearable for him to watch. I told him off yesterday during the Teachers' Symposium ... (OH THIS IS ANOTHER ENTIRE DIFFERENT LAME STORY I SHOULD WRITE ABOUT)

"You don't have faith la!"

Anyway it's over. Round 1 is over and i need to now focus on Round 2. After finishing sunday's war i felt like i just came back from a battle...although honestly i was pretty confident and well prepared but each time i watch Ruth play i get nervous. Maybe it's her showmanship and her aura that intimidates me... But people keep telling me otherswise. Hahahha so yeah i choose to have FAITH in Jesus and HANG ONTO Him. It's gonna be much tougher but i need to start brainstorming from now.. we only have 5 weeks left before 29th and yeah i want GOD to use this opportunity to bless C.H and myself ... with wisdom. So yeah , there was Round 1 of EF. One hurdle is gone , another mountain to climb on 29th. By God's grace i must continue to rely on Him. And oh , THANK you ALL for making the effort to come support me and MuseMob! Esp you , Siang ... thanks ! I appreciate it.. cancelling your classes just to come . You are my heng dai after all! hehehhe =) Thanks to those in the UK for the support and prayers as well .. and thanks to some elderly people for the prayers and most of all , THANK YOU C.H and THANK YOU JESUS!