A Voyage Of Songs 2005 at Shah Alam

This is quite an overdue-d entry. I was very tired for the pass few days to type out this entry proper. Sick lar.

Day 1 091205

Reached school at around 0610 hr. I was feeling hyper! We left school in a coach at almost 7 a.m. We traveled to Malaysia via the 2nd Link at Tuas. We sang songs along the way. Cass so wanted to sing Christmas carols!

To Cass: Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat! (fat!) *singing*

I kind of rotted in the bus when we left Tuas. The view throughout the journey along the highway was plantations, forested areas and hills. The plantations were mainly palm and some rubber plantations. The view became a living lesson on geography when I was in secondary school. Terrace plantations! I was very amused when I saw herds of cows twice! At certain times, there clouds shrouding the hills. I also got to see a raining area afar. Did I say there were a lot of billboards along the way? I did sleep for about an hour or so. We stopped at Yong Peng at around 1022 hr. I realized that there was a signboard that read: “Yong Peng 2km”. However, it was about 10 minutes that I saw another signboard that read: “Yong Peng 1km”. It was ridiculous. Maybe I did not understand the signboards. Somebody please enlighten me! In the bus, I took many pictures of people sleeping. Bored I guess. We stopped at Shalala café after Yong Peng. Cheap coffee there!

We reached Shah Alam at about 2 plus. We are staying in the Concorde hotel. Gerald and I shared a room. Our room was 0707. It was nice clean room and I believed that I would remain that way! During the free time before dinner, Gerald and I explored some parts of the hotel and found out that the doors leading to the staircase were locked from outside. We wanted to take the stairs down one level but we got locked in instead. We had to move all the way down to this oolu part of carpark at the first level. *grr* We watched Scooby Doo 2 on one of their channels, Vision Four. There was also MTV channel. Dinner was a buffet. The chicken was very tough, almost inedible. After dinner, we went to the Grand BlueWave Hotel for the Opening ceremony. This is the hotel where all the competitions are held. At night, we shopped at the Giant nearby. At Giant, we are supposed to deposit out bags at the lockers section where a security guard will look after our bags. We stock up on some drinks for our room. Some of the foodstuffs are similarly priced while others are super-trouperly cheap! Weslie is such an interesting boy! He is so expressive! He got so excited when he bought a new green bag! He managed to “tok” the price! When we returned to the hotel, Cass invited people to our room. We rubbished in the room – some watched TV, while Benedictus entertained others with his magic tricks. Cass, Ben, Gerald, Kev & I watched Polar Express before all of us turn in to sleep.

Day 2 101205

Started our day with choir practice after breakfast. The food was not too bad. A group of us were sitting together for lunch and we chiong-ed for bread with the fish curry served. Sam Koh was so pissed with the Yishun Sec girls who diao-ed her for taking the bread. *haha*

We went shopping at Plaza Shah Alam and Shah Alam City Complex. There were no coaches that ferried us there so we had to walk there by ourselves. The roads were very dangerous to cross as there were almost no pedestrian crossings! It was a very bad shopping experience at Plaza Shah Alam. Except for one store that sells guys’ apparels, the other stores were either closed, selling handphones, selling computer games, or are selling imitated shirts. SACC was a very “Tampines Mall” kind of shopping centre. There was a shop called F.O.S. They sell quite a wide selection of clothes. There was Abercrombie and Fitch. However I did not buy anything there. I only bought a pack of Mentos gum from Watson’s. The most irritating part was that the gum at Watson’s in a shopping centre was cheaper than that in a mini-mart in Yong Peng!! The mentos gum was selling at RM1.80 at YP but only RM1 at Watson’s; the bubble gum that I bought was selling at RM3 at YP but only RM1.85 (still have a 20% discount) at Watson’s. Weslie did not fail to entertain me, he is such a funny boy! Rui Hong was crowned the shopping king as he came back with a lot of plastic bags (he helped some of the girls carry of course).

We suan-ed Cass all the way. We gave her a new name: Cassandra Mandra the Salamander. We also realized that Madonna’s Hung Up video turns Mr Yong off. *haha* We had choir practice after our soundcheck at The Grand BlueWave Hotel. During practice, Sam Koh helped emote the choir for the song Ashita wa Hare Kana Kumori Kana. Some cried, I cried, the atmosphere in the room became very solemn. After practice, I had supper in Weslie’s room. We had mini magee.

Day 3 111205 – Competition day

I woke up with a very bad sore throat. Breakfast as usual at 7 a.m. and warm up was at 8. We left for the Grand BlueWave Hotel at about 9. We competed in the Folklore category and had lunch there. The food at the Grand BlueWave was so much better than ours at the Concorde. We went back to the hotel to catch a breather. I did not sleep even though I was tempted to. We had to get ready by 1.15 p.m. for warm-up before setting off to the Grand BlueWave for our A1 category.

The main ballroom where the competition is held was very sucky! The air was too dry hence the voices are unable to travel far! *puke* However, some people noticed that Mr Kwei was smiling widely after both of our performances. That was quite a morale booster. =)

After the competition, we came back to the Concorde for dinner. There was a photo-taking frenzy in our suits and gowns. Yc, Cass and company looked for me in my room and we dined together. We went to Giant after dinner. I bought a bottle of 7up for the people to share. It was quite a career-threatening experience for Mr Yong. *lalala* I was with Yc, Cass and gang that night and learnt how to play Indian Poker. I had to do a forfeit and Charissa and Cass drew joining eyebrows for me. Mr Yong got eye shadow. I wandered off with Jeff to visit the other groups of people who are partying. While in Rach’s room, I refresh the people’s memories of how to play Baluku! It was so hilarious. I took pictures of all the groups of people.

It was a very fun night besides the fact that I am sick. I felt very uncomfortable for the whole day. I guess the sore throat had worsened to a throat infection as I was having a fever. I have to rest now. There is a shopping trip at Sunway tomorrow! *weee*

Day 4 121205 – Shopping at Sunway

I woke up feeling very sick - fever, cough and sore throat.

On our way to Sunway shopping, we were amused to see a public bus with people! The shopping centre was shaped like a pyramid. There were many shops within it and the shops were very similar to those in Singapore. The prices were similar as well. I only bought 1 tee, donuts from dunkin’ donuts and a blueberrybon from cinnabon. I still have so much money left!

Today is also the day of the results. We got Gold Cs for both categories that we took part in. We scored 84.08 for our Folklore category and 80.88 for our A1 category. It was quite a waste for our F category for we are so short of 1 mark to get a Gold B. In a positive light, I thought we did pretty well! The grand final was held at the main ballroom. The Estonia Children TV Choir won hands down. *like totally!*

After the grand final cum closing ceremony was over, we went back to the Concorde. We had a debriefing. Yc read a letter by Yu Jin. I held back my tears. I knew that this is the lastest last time I will see my friends in choir as the NS thingy is just corners away. I do not even know whether I can make it for the debriefing session by Mr Kwei when school reopens. Anyways, after the thank you-s, it was the attack of the taupok-ers.

I am sleeping early tonight. Still sick. Today was quieter than last night. I hope there will be fewer complaints tonight. =)

Day 5 131205 - back to Singapore

I woke up early today. Maybe it was because I slept early last night. We were instructed to checkout before 9 a.m. Justin Hui did not return to Singapore with us. I guess he was continuing his stay in Malaysia with his family. We left the hotel at about 9.30 a.m.

It was photo-taking frenzy in the bus. *snap snap snap* We had lunch at Mines shopping mall before continuing our journey back to Singapore. During lunch we confirmed Cass name: Cassandra Mandra Salamander Pacifier Lao Mu Ji Anne Kumar. *haha*

To Cass: No offense girl! XD

We reached the 2nd link at around 6 plus in the evening. Home sweet home.