My Final Year "Recital" (COMPETITION!)

The DAY the DAY! This is the DAY! I've been preparing and suffering through the past 8 months or so waiting just for this day. Hahahhaha .. ok i sound exaggerating but it's STILL TRUE! Let's see...

Woke up at 7am (Jakarta time) and got myself a nice hot shower , and dressed up in my GOLDEN DRESS again because this morning we're all going to compete for the Compulsary Piece (Arrangement) song one by one ; in closed door format though. After my shower, i sat down in front of the tall mirror and did my make up. This time no playing no joking, as mun wei's not here and i had to do everything all by myself ... so from the foundation to the final touch of lipstick i was done in an hour. (Horrible i don't think any beginner except me will take an hour to do make up!)

Around 8 10am i was done and the guys haven't come to ring my door bell so i thought they probably were still getting ready to go down for breakfast. I went to their room this time to give them wake up call instead , but my beloved teacher is still showering so mom and i continued waiting in our room. Several minutes later they were done so we went down together to the SAME LAGOON CAFE again for the so called buffet breakfast. Gooosshhhh...... after eating some stuffs which i just ate without even thinking if it was nice or not nice , i only ate because i had to shut my stomach up.

After breakfast , it was almost 9+am and by 9 30am it was my turn to practice the arrangement song in the Oriental room which is the actual venue for the competition later. So we entered the room and i must say it was a very nice room ... atmospheric wise.. some kind of huge room with lounge sofa at the side , and then this large platform next to the sofas where they put the stagea there and some chairs and tables just right behind for the judges to sit. The whole place were decorated with ZEN kind of interior so it was really nice ... but sadly this atmosphere doesn't suit my arrangement mood , as we're playing a cool jazz ballad which suits the jazz bars kind of atmosphere more.

I played like 2-3 times and the japanese guy once again gave some advice to C.H for the level of the sounds which we're allowed to adjust. My first time was horrible , as i was very shaky and nervous so i couldn't project out the kind of feel i was suppose to play for this song ... after calming down a bit , my 2nd attempt was much better and so i told myself i have to remain calm later for the real performance in front of the judges. We left at 9 45 am and the next contestant walked in (Kevin from Indon) so while they were preparing to do their practice , both C.H and i packed our things and walked REALLY SLOWLY to try and eves drop Kevin's arrangement ... hahahahha ... BUT to no avail , as the chaperon came and led us out soon before we could hear anything being played. So we left the room , but while you're waiting outside you can actually see the stagea / performer from outside and hear a LITTLE bit of what's going on inside .... so both of us actually heard Kevin playing NOT his arrangement , but his free selection piece (Which is to be played in the big hall at night). We said ,

"WOW... so confident ah .. don't even wanna play the arrangement!"

By then we're free until 11 15am where the real competition starts , so i went back to the room with C.H and chill a little before coming out again . Mom left to go shopping to get some bread for me to keep in C.H's BAG (hahahah again) so i could eat it throughout the whole day backstage later. After resting a little while , we left my room and went back downstairs to the Oriental at 11am and everyone else were already waiting outside the room by then... contestants , teachers, and some parents... While waiting there , i saw all my rivals and competitors and some of them were pretty nervous looking , while some of us remained pretty calm... i was one of the calm ones because i knew it was just a very short session .... somehow it must be God i had HIS peace in me. I saw some were still holding up their scores trying to memorize and have their final check before they go in to play.

Not long later, Samsudin's teacher came along and C.H and his teacher started to chat while i just stood around them waiting and calming myself down... until Yoko (Taiwan) went in to play her piece first , then followed by Thailand guy. When Thai was playing , the chaperon made me wait just outside the door so that i was standby. By then C.H was still busy chatting and he kind of didnt notice i was missing from his sight but when he noticed he gave me this smile and after a short while i left to go in and play.

I walked , saw a couple of cameraman , the 3 japanese judges seated at their seats , i walked up the platform and gave them a bow before i started. They smiled at me in return and i just moved on to the stagea and PLAYED. I thought "huh no one briefed us what to do and stuffs like that..they expect all of us are Professional Performers ah?" .. so anyway i took my own sweet time to play that piece and TA DA ! Job done! was really calm throughout and played my best. It was fast and really swift... job done. Bowed another time and left the room.

Spoke to C.H briefly and took my lunchbox from Leonita and left to go back to my room. I was suppose to eat my lunch before we leave to the Hall for the AEF concert , but i had no time .... because i was busy doing my make up for Cypher instead. After around 45 minutes later , it was time for us to go down and meet the rest to leave to the hall. By 12 30pm we were in the huge bus they rented for us to get to the hall.

After a short bus ride to Balai Sarbini where the AEF is being held (Located in a shopping mall called Plaza Semanggi) , all of us participants and teachers dropped off and gathered in the hall lobby area around 12 45pm. When we all reached there , my chaperon noticed that i've not eaten my lunch box yet so she told me that i could inside the hall if i could just sit as close as possible to the main stage. So we walked in and when we found ourselves seats , she came in and told me another story instead. Since we can't bring food in , i went back outside and sat down at the guestbook table and sat down next to the S'poreans and Hong Kong contestants to eat my lunchbox. Of course there were only 3 chairs , and i was the slowest of all to finish since the guys finished fast and Debbie also came and ate and finished before me! (Sorry la no appetite)

After finishing my lunch (C.H waited for me so he was chatting with Samsudin's teacher again..) both of us went back into the hall for the Stage ORientation .. which is suppose to be a short practice for us participants regarding how to walk in /out of the stage during the competition. Which started a little earlier than scheduled (Before 1 30pm) BUT thanks to the Yamaha Indon for being NOT so sure of what they wanted us to do , therefore the Orientation was a little unorganized and messed up which took longer than it would have .. and because the stage is super huge we contestants get a little confused of the directions and orders given by them. (Ok maybe i'm the ONLY blur one there .. coz i made mistakes during my REAL performance)

So anyway , we were done with the stage orientation by 2+pm and we were free to go anywhere but report back at 3pm. So I followed the guys (E.H and C.H) with Adriana to eat lunch with them. (SEE I AM EATING AGAIN!) We went to the mall that was just attached to the hall and instead of eating in the restaurants/cafes the guys decided to just look for a fastfood restaurant and after asking around in so much hurry (OK the guys were REALLY HUNGRY after waiting for us for such a long time since their lunch is not provided poor thing!) , we ended up in a stupid restaurant called POPPYE's ... which sells fried food like chickens, nuggets , fish fillets , rice set and stuffs. I looked through the menu and so i asked C.H to order the

4 piece chicken

for me which i saw in the picture looked like small pieces of nuggets .... and then when Adriana and i were sitting at the seats waiting for the guys , sudd C.H was at the counter he turned back to me and shouted
"Eh you sure you want this 4 piece chicken??"

I said
"Why not ?"

Then he moved away a little bit and pointed to this HORRID looking FREAKING FOUR BIG pieces of fried chicken (1 wing , 1 breast , 1 drum stick , 1 more dunno what part) and i freaked out screaming

"THAT'S MY 4 PIECE CHICKEN!? AHHHH!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!"

HE burst out LAUGHING with his classic laughter and we laughed crazily ... ordered and paid already anyway , so no choice i had to gobble that down. BUT again i wasted food , so i only ate the chic wing and a little bit of the drum stick skin ... after finishing my cup of drink i was about to vommit already because i only ate just to keep my tummy filled until at least 5pm.

After lunch , we returned back to hall and took some pictures before the chaperons called us in to the backstage. C.H gave me a pat on the shoulder with a smile and said some last words to me before i left to go in. When we were led inside to the backstage , there was no such room that was as huge as the GREEN ROOM we had in KLCC , but instead only 1 small miserable room to fit ALL OF US which obviously can't fit us .... so they took out chairs and lined them up in 2 rows facing each other like how those Idol reality tv show contestants would sit waiting ... everyone seemed serious , so adriana and i talked to each other .. and i kept her pen drive for her in case anything happens ...and since everyone were so tensed up , i decided to break the ice .. and ta da! took out my CAMERA !

I started going round snapping those contestants' pictures and since i DON"T KNOW most of them .. only so far spoke to Yoko (Taiwan), smiled at Debbie (HK) , chatted a few words with Melisa (Mexico) and so i told myself that i must fulfill my target of coming over to make FRIENDS although their my rivals! So anyway when i started snapping, everyone began to be more relaxed and so we went on posing for pictures and the rest started taking out their cameras as well too. After several crazy pictures (which is how we get to know each other more) then it was time to start the official AEF event.

The chaperon who took care of us behind there told us to get ready , line up at both entrances where we're suppose to walk out for the opening , and even asked us to say our own prayers for the whole event so that it goes on smoothly. I was quite taken aback by that , didn't know Indonesian people are so religious. Anyway i didn't have time to sit down and pray , so i prayed in tongues and mumbled a little while keeping my camera and walking out to the left side of the stage to line up. While we were waiting there , all of us were so shocked to find that the air con has been BLASTED and so the stage side was FREEZING crazily and i started jumping up and down to warm myself while others were complaining and trying various ways to keep themselves warm too ...

While waiting behind the curtains , i saw the hall was FULL with crowd and was quite shocked that it was a SOLD OUT event and so wow .. playing in front of 1300 people is really an honour for me. While warming up , we joked and chatted a little behind until the last GONG was hit and the ceremony started. It started off with the Malay traditional performance by 2 rows of indonesian (It's a dikir barat performance where they sit down on the floor and recite a poem in pitch/tune) and while they were doing that , myself Debbie and Samsudin started doing stupid actions and dancing behind there following their rhythms. Haahahahha (that was the least we could do to keep ourselves WARM!)

Shortly, the emcee started talking and we were all called out one by one to acknowledge the crowd and so each of us walked out one by one to take a BOW and then proceed to stand in the center of the stage for the opening. That was when i got a little shocked at TEAM MALAYSIA's LOUDNESS of cheering for me! Surprising ... these men/women could scream so loud! THANK YOU ALL! After that we walked back in to the backstage , and the event started with the Junior Section with 8 participants altogether. First contestant who played was Aawwww.... Err Hmm's student , this 12 year old girl from Thailand.

The rest of us in the Open Age were only performing after the intermission , so we were allowed to sit at the allocated seats for us to watch the performance outside at the far left of the stage in the audience area. I brought my packet of bread/cakes and my water along with me to sit there and watched the Juniors... the Thailand girl definitely captivated me as i love her composition and her playing ... actually i love the song more than her playing and oh that is why i love her teacher most! (Teachers should get the credit to produce such a student/composition!) Anyway we moved on to the rest of the Juniors , and after Adriana's turn i quickly went back to the backstage and waited for her to come in.

She was really really calm and collected on stage and it showed her maturity in performing BUT she still has plenty of room to grow musically. It's already considered a very good exposure for her at such young age (ONLY 9 FREAKING YEARS OLD) to represent Msia in such an international event!! When she was done , i saw her and ran to give her a big hug and encouragement to her. After that she left to the other FAR END of the stage and sat to watch the rest of the event. While i ... decided to take out my piece of cake and EAT because i've already seen the last 2 Juniors who played.

After the last 2 Juniors played , it was a 20 minute intermission .... i don't know why but the time kind of flew really fast when you're at the backstage. All i did was just eat my cake , went to toilet like several times to wash my hands , pee as much as i could , and checked on my eyes if they were smudged or not ... and sat around waiting here and there. And oh .. of course chatted a little bit with some of my newly made friends back there too... it's pretty funny , each of us were really tensed actually but we were just trying our best to keep cool and calm in our own ways. You can see it so obviously ...

Myself (Msia) - walked up and down , kept going to the toilet , warmed up my hands a little on the standby DDK/stagea to make sure i did not screw up the piano ad lib part and yea walking and walking and finally praying in tongues (only a little while wasn't as much as i did for Nat Finals)

Yoko (Taiwan) - she was just sitting down on the chair listening to her ipod (i think must be her composition piece to get herself into the mood) and looking really into herself

Debbie (HK) - she was sitting down next to Yoko , covering her hands as much as possible in between her dress to keep herself warm , and also walking up/down , and chatting here and there with Samsudin

Samsudin (S'pore) - hahaha this guy is classic. He just sat at the standby stagea chair with HAND GLOVES and chatted away with others

Kenan (Indon superstar) - HE IS THE NUTS OF ALL NUTS! Everyone looked tensed except him! He was sitting down at the COLDEST chair where we are suppose to wait before we go out on stage chatting away and laughing away and making funny strange faces enjoying other contestants' performance outside! (I was suppose to wait there but when i see him i get extra stressed and walked back inside!)

Pasatorn (Thai) - this guy .. hahaha ..... errm... no comment. He just sat on the chair waiting always with his smile. hahahaha

Kevin (Indon) - He seemed to be pretty calm as well too ... just sat around with the other guys chatting

Melisa (mexico) - She wasn't so calm , as she was seated just beside Yoko on one of those chairs looking really tensed and scared , but she remained smiley all the time. hehhehe

So after Yoko finished playing , it was the Thai guy's turn and while he was playing i had to standby already but his piece is a 20th Century Classical (not bad quite cool i loved his intro but the rest of the piece were a bit TOO LONG) , i was AGAIN busy walking around ... and by that time suddenly i could feel my legs were very tired and weak. I started panicking and prayed asking God to renew my strength because i HAVE TO SLAP BASS with my utmost strength and i cannot be weak now! So anyway i think it was just the intensity that made me that way , finally i kept thinking of the things C.H told me and that made me feel better.

The Thai fella's piece was SOO LONG that we didn't know if he ended so finally there was like a 5 seconds silence from outside and we heard the crowd's applause to know it ended. Hahhaha.. then it was my turn , the emcee called my number . I walked out , took a BOW on stage and walked down (THE WRONG DIRECTION!) to the stagea. Once again , team MALAYSIA cheered very loudly...

Prepared my registration on the stagea and while doing that they were playing my video shoot but i wasn't listening to it at all .... and i was afraid there wasn't enough time so i quickly cleaned the stagea keys with tissue and preparing the data at the same time. After i was ready , i waited for my video to finish and then the spotlight shone on me and suddenly i remembered i haven't adjusted the chair and so i quickly moved it a little and started. Ta da ta da , ta da ta da ....

My whole performance was just ....amazingly amazing. Of course it WASN"T perfect , in fact i screwed up quite a few places (which wasn't prominent at all if you are a first time listener) except 1 section BUT BUT ... the rest of my playing left myself a bit speechless. As if God was playing for me... i was a bit surprised there was NO SLIPS at all and it was clean. Job done. Took my bow , walked back in (WRONG DIRECTION AGAIN!) and when i arrived back stage , everyone back there laughed at me because of my mistake ... eeiiiisshhhh who ask your stage to be so big ... didn't bother thinking of all these actually .. ahahahha

After that , Leonita came to find me and took me to where Adriana was sitting to watch the rest of the performance which was at the far right side of the stage near the audience area... i met adriana and sat with her throughout ... and it was just directly facing the performer's front view faces. Then while watching the rest of the event , i sat down there rather disappointed actually... honestly ... i was a bit remorseful that i screwed up in that few places and thought that it was the end .. i would return home empty handed. Then again i tried consolling myself and said that IT IS OK IT"S OK and IT"S NO BIG DEAL and yet there's another side of me saying "THERE IS STILL HOPE WHY SULK SO FAST ?"

Then it was of course the performance everyone was anticipating to watch .. Kenan's one. His video was rather interesting and funny .. he has his own personality i should say and he is indeed a deserving champion. His music especially .. oh my ... the main theme kind of started off really strange with this malay traditional tune mixed with Rock beats so it became very MAT ROCK suddenly then went to build its climax slowly and finally rocking the house down with his power house crazy hands and superpower slap bass PLUS PLUS his crazy faces on the electone as well. He was just enjoying himself out there , and so were the crowd! They loved him ! And oh, i must say while watching him ... i got more and more intimidated and before he even finished i already started saying this to myself.

"OH MY GOD .. WHEN WILL HE FINISH !? CAN HE STOP PLAYING !??? ENOUGH LA!"

Coz he was too good. (DARN!)

After Superstar was done .... the crowd cheeereeed like crazy , and next was Samsudin. I finally also get to watch this hot rated winner play (He was the AEF Champion in 2006 in S'pore and he's here again!) ... this time his composition is rather different from 2 years back and i kind of enjoyed his performance as well. But i don't remember the song though .. ahahahha ... just that it's very very fusion ... something like mine but his is western mine is rather japanese. After he was done , it was Melisa..the last one ... and after that WE ARE DONE ! JOB DONE !

After that , they had another short intermission ... to prepare the stage for the Guest performance (Yamaha Boys Indonesia) so all of us were free ... E.H came in to the backstage to look for Adriana which i then bumped into him and he brought me to look for C.H and the rest of the Msian contingent .. (I desperately need to see him for assurance actually!) I found him and i sat down beside him we chatted a little but i was rather shock again that the rest of the gang (Margaret and co) encouraged me with a big smile and positive words which i was a little too heavy a heart to say "THANK YOU" because i was still disappointed inside. Mom gave me this super lame "Why you make mistake?" question which i didn't bother to answer her (a bit pissed off with her question coz that's like not what i need at that moment!!!!!) and then C.H went on to say things differently instead. hehehehehhe .... (see he is DA BEST)

That was where i met with Ron and after a short chat and some more pictures with him, i heard the 2nd gong was being hit and so i quickly left the place to go backstage and on the way there i bumped into Leonita who was furious at me for being late and started scolding me while we were running our way back. Hhahahha .... SORRY! What's the hurry!? It's not results announcement! It's just the guest performance!!! Anyway we , the Open Age contestants sat at the far left side of the stage again and watched the Yamaha Boys Indon perform. They were AWESOMELY amazingly GOOOOD EH!!! The 3 of them ... Erik , Yongki , and Andreas ... Kenan is actually 1 of them and they're all under the same TEACHER (VERA SOENG I WILL REMEMBER YOUR NAME!) .... they're only in their teens but 2 of them are already pursuing their music studies in USA while Yongki (the youngest, funniest and fattest and cutest!) is still in Indon. I can't write much about their performance here, wait till youtube post up some stuffs about them you go watch for yourself. But there's a very funny scene that happened during their performance .. check it out. =)
Yamaha Boys Indon

When the boys were almost done with their performance and said goodbye to the crowd ... the emcee i think still needed to buy time so she mingled around with the crowd a little ... before calling us the Finalists up on stage again. So while lining up waiting to go on stage again , suddenly my hands were SHAKING (literally dunno why!!!) and although my face looked normal but my heart began to beat faster .. haahhaha ... then we were all up on stage ... the Junior Section contestants received their prizes. ..

3rd PRize - Isyana Saraswati from Indon
2nd prize - Thailand
Grand Prix - Ren Zi Ming (China-he's unbeatable la... crazy chinese people..)

Then we in the Open Age exchanged places with the Juniors on stage and it was our turn. They announced the 3rd prize and it goes to .......

ME !

Yay! Hahhhahahh ..... when i heard my name , i broke into a BIG smile / laughter and walked out with relief to the center of the stage but realized that i should stop because the VIP would walk to me and not me walking to him. PAI SEH .. too happy until cannot wait to receive prize! hahahhaha ... so i stopped and the VIP presented the my trophy and cert to me. Next was 2nd prize ... then finally the Grand Prix ...

3rd Prize - YOO HOOO!!!!
2nd prize - Samsudin (S'pore)
Grand Prix - WHO ELSE?! Kenan (Superstar indon)

After announcing the results , it marked the end of AEF 2008 and all of us finalists stood there for photo session on stage .. for once , i felt like a celebrity .. hahhaha .... rows of photographers at the bottom of the stage with cameras flashing non stop and we had to SMILE SO STILL for like 5-10 min or so! I then saw C.H walking towards the stage and he gave me this THUMBS UP with a HUGE SMILE to me ... and i smiled back at him widely... but noticed he was just WAITING without doing anything down there , so i gave him this

"TAKE PICTURE!" hand gesture .. and he so BLURLY quickly took out his camera and took some shots. Must be tooooo happy he forgotten ... hahahaha (I told you he's classic!)

When we were all done , mom and C.H came up on stage to want to take picture with me , and so we did ... (Thanks to our professional camera man Jit!) and after that the Indonesian national TV ONE came to approach me asking me to be interviewed ... and i was kind of taken aback and so after they interviewed the crazy Kenan (semangat with Indon flag now) , Samsudin and I were being interviewed together shortly. All i did was to THANK MY LORD JESUS CHRIST and C.H and parents and friends (You both especially know who you are!). After that we took some more pictures .. and then left to our next agenda.

Farewell DINNER in Ritz Carlton Hotel Poolside Party. We traveled by bus and on the way there i made the necessary sms's and phone call back home to tell my dad. When we reached the poolside it was a nice beautiful atmosphere but the food weren't MUCH again. INDONESIAN HOTELS REALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF BUFFET ... less than 15 dishes were served..and again i was very disappointed. After such a tiring day (But with a BIG SMILE) i barely had energy to eat .. so only ate 1 round of rice and some fruits. It was already almost 9+pm by that time (INdonesian time) ... after dinner , there was some performances by the traditional indonesian dancers and some short speeches (SPEECH IN A FAREWELL DINNER gOSh...) , and some souveniors presentation by Yamaha Indonesia to the teachers and contestants as a remembrance from them .... (I got an angklung!) and also after some gift exchange which each of us contestants did going round table to table ... (Ok i admit i was VERY LAZY to walk around .. so after most of them coming over to my table i walked to the other end to finish giving away my gifts) ... but i'm sorry i didn't buy enough for everyone so .. pai seh!

By 1030pm we were all chased to go back to the hotel and so we left. When we reached the hotel, most of us continued on with photo session at the lobby area with each other .. while team Malaysia stayed on chatting and fellowshipping ... mom already went upstairs by then. I finally went back upstairs to my room almost 11+pm and took my nice warm shower ... wanted to take a nice bubble bath just to enjoy the moment , but was too lazy to ... so in the end i just lied down on my bed and just embraced the oh so beautiful satisfied moment of victory. hahahaha ....

When i lied down trying to sleep because i knew i was very tired ... i couldn't so i chatted with mom a little .. before finally dozing off ... and i think it was almost 2+am .. once again had a nice sleep. (I COULD SLEEP REALLY WELL IN JAKARTA MAN!)

There you go ... the most exciting day with the most happening throughout my trip there .. but of course that's not the end. I still had another 2 days spent there for my "holiday" so .. stay tuned!

Ahhhh ..... if you're fed up with my writing , just move on to the results paragraph ok? I"m sorry but i just felt like writing every single moment down. And gosh .. i took 3 freaking nights to finish this post!!! Next up .. Day 4 - SHOPPING SHOPPING AND SHOPPING (Window that is..)