ABSOLUTE VICTORY,
ANDERSON JUNIOR COLLEGE!
The bittersweet has finally come to an end.
Alright, the following will most probably be lenghty...
Day 0
Rushed down to Changi Airport after dinner! Almost late. And in the midst of rushing down, I forgot to bring my Euros~ And so in the end, I had to exchange money at the airport. We loitered around at the airport before we board the plane. I managed to update facebook a few times as there were computers with internet access available. I also had Yakun's Kaya and Cheese Roti for supper!
On board the plane I watch one or two movies (which I can't recall). Emirates is pretty cool, there were plenty of movies and songs to entertain myself and during the flight, I managed to catch a few hours of sleep, which was great. We reached Dubai hours later and loitered at the Dubai Airport for 2 hours or so for transit to Vienna. Here's where the lesson kicks in. Kheng Hian lost his money pouch which was apparently worn beneath his shirt. He has no idea how he lost it and we were pretty shocked from the fact that despite all the caution and extra precautions, things still got lost. My group (Xuan Zhen, Kally, Teck Chuan, Yuri, Kheng Hian) and myself, we settled down at one of the bakery cum fastfood restaurant (Cosi) and sat there for 2 hours with the help of a bag of potato chips that didn't belonged to us. Quite funny.
Then I the trip down to Vienna from Dubai was pretty much the same. On the whole, I managed to get around 5-6 hours of sleep which was great work. Then from Vienna airport we took a bus down to our hotel. Along the way we saw wind turbines (which was mistaken as windmills by some intially, including myself). That's a rare sight indeed. We also saw plenty of dandelions on the road, the weather was just simply splendid as the cooling wind welcomed our arrival.
Dinner was SALTY. I suppose Europeans love to have salty food. Salt seems to be very cheap. The vase of water before us also gave us a surprise. There was potato, salad, soup and rice. Like seriously, even the rice is salty! I mistook the cheese as fermented tofu initially, which kinda understandable since they looked identical. And right after dinner, it was time for bed. We also came to realise that for Category E2: Youth choirs up to 19 years of age (SATB) we are the only choir competing in it. That makes us the Cat Champ by default and changed our goal. It became clearer that we are here to strive for 100 points! We have 1 competitor for the other Category (H2 Sacred and cleric music a capella for Categories D2, E, F, G). They are the Collegium Pro Musica Sacra who are made up of some nuns and adults. It definitely didn't deter us from winning and striving for 100 points.
Day 1
We attended the Festival Concert the next evening and before that there was lots of walking and window shopping. It sacrifised our practice time and it didn't make Mr K very happy. Our first dinner in Bratislava was at a Chinese restaurant which didn't serve us any good food. Apparently, they were not informed beforehand or whatnot, and so there was only some chicken with chilli dish for us.
After dinner we went to the Jesutical Church where we got seated for the Festival Concert. The Olomouc Singers were performing and they were nothing near our standards as usual. They were the competitor of NUS Choir in one of their categories. We didn't stayed for long as they were very good, as commented by Mr K.
This was the first time I ever stepped into a church and I am very impress by the architecture of the building. It looks darn majestic both within the church and from the exterior. It was rather beautiful.
Day 2
It was time for us to perform! We had some sectionals in the morning after breakfast and then there was an exchange with NUS Choir. We didn't fair well and it kinda made Mr K worried. Initially he had thought that Gold was definitely within our hands even if we were to tie our hands behind our eyes, but the exchange made him realised that it was not true.
We had combines after that and skipped the supposed second round of exchange with NUS Choir in the afternoon as Mr K wanted us to rest for our Concert peformance at the Jesutical Church later in the evening. The night before, I and Teck Chuan "steam iron-ed" our performance attire. We hanged our attire in the bathroom before we sleep and allowed the hot water to run from the tap into the bath tub and let the steam does it magic. And true enough, the next morning, our attire looked totally straightened and presentable.
The performance at Jesutical Church was pathetic. Utterly pathetic. It was mediocre, and it wasn't what we should have delivered. We made Mr K cried, or at least on the verge of tears. He was UTTTERLY, utterly dissapointed at us. We failed him terribly. Most of us knew we screwed up the performance right after we ended and it was apparent on Mr K's face. Mr K warned us that he have to rise up to the occasion, if not, the next day - our big day - would become probably the darkest day in AJ Choir History. The fact that we screwed up our performance that night, added on to the chance that we won't perform the next day and it proved that we are indeed a bunch of incosistent people.
Day 3
We sang our hearts out and delievered the best in us, we shone brightly! Mr K was very happy with us for the 1st Category [E2: Youth choirs up to 19 years of age (SATB)] as we shone like we should. He was satisfied with our performance and getting 100 points or not didn't matter anymore as he knows that it is subjective.
We didn't do just as well in the 2nd Category (H2 Sacred and cleric music a capella for Categories D2, E, F, G). It wasn't as flawless as the previous and we have only ourselves to blame for the split notes.
The travel agency (Fortune Travel) treated us to 2 scoops of ice cream each after the whole competition! We enjoyed ourselves perfectly on the whole. I guess the singing of No Importa (La Distancia) before the competition helped.
The release of results soon came after before lunch. We were shocked by the results some what. Not because we fell beyond what was expected but otherwise. We got 99 for the 1st category and 100 for the 2nd category! We personally thought it should have been at least the other way wrong if not a lower score for the 2nd category. I guess the judges didn't catch the split notes. But we were elated already. And there and then, we sang No Importa once again. It was a magical moment and I almost teared while singing No Importa. I am proud to be an AJ Chorister! And because of that, I would be able to lift my head up high in pride infront of the BBSS Choir, my juniors, my seniors, the school and everyone else. We had gone the distance.
TO BE CONTINUED...
