~ PerCusSo ~

…to everyone!! May this 2006 be a better fruitful year!!!

I didn’t celebrate the Countdown. I stayed at home all day. A good day for me to rest.. I was glad to read the book on ASL and extract some information for my sign language teaching assignments. Those activities suggested are quite interesting and I hope to share this with my seniors – Shalini, Jarn May and others.

Ha, I have many resolutions with me here. But above this, I hope to build a good music career. I will continue to look for cheaper degrees in US and perhaps, Australia. And, I will continue to source for sponsorships to support my overseas studies in music.

Besides going for my dream, I need to do something about my life. I hope to learn about personal finanical management and practise on it. I hope to do a lot of readings on Deafness (culture, history/politics, sign language), Music and perhaps Fiction/Movie. I hope to overcome solitude no matter how many friends I have/make. I hope to sleep early. I hope to eat regularly (or diet) – I must have breakfast every morning. I hope to exercise regularly.

Too many resolutions for this year.. :p
Anyway, I will take a step at one time. Slowly… I believe that I can do it! *winks*

Dated on 22 December 2005.

For Asian Tsunami victims…

At the Deaf KFC, I had been eating snake till 4PM. No mood to work since there was a few customers. Also, I was very exhausted from those performances and practices. My legs were very tired..

After my work, I went to meet my friend, Adrian. I was invited for the Christmas dinner to get to know Adrian’s other colleague, who works as a music teacher at Jurong Gardens School. She teaches mostly dancing to children with intellect disability. This was my first time to have a such dinner full of Indian dishes. Most of them was spicy and I almost “cried”!!

After that, we chatted and shared our knowledge in music. Adrian is indeed amazing! He plays er-hu. Even, he plays Indian flute.. He taught me how to play them!! And, I was asked to go over his other friend’s place to play other musical instruments. A wonderful invitation it was!! And I look forward to it on this coming Saturday.

That’s how I spent my Christmas moments…

Merry Christmas!!!

My second performance at Istana Park was over. Glad to gain more experience and my stage fright was getting less. Fewer mistakes done! And meanwhile, I hope to know more about these youths in the SPU & 2/4 bands. They are indeed wonderful!!

I got bombarded by more than 100 SMS with Christmas wishes and I was astonished. This took me more than 1 hour to clear them in my handphone. It didn’t stop till 3AM.

After the performance, I was surprised by Jim’s presence. At first, I thought there were no friends on my side to watch me performing. I asked alot of friends to come and support me but they got their own appointments (because it was Christmas time when they ate/played/prayed). I was delighted when I had his company. And, we had our dinner at Pastamania (Plaza Singapura).

Then, we went to Richmond’s place to spend the Christmas eve – to play Mahjong with Aaron & Richmond. Till 4AM plus, I became the winner. I finally went home, feeling dead tired. And I got another next long day… work, work at the deaf KFC.

Just now, today was my first public performance as a Guest Performer. Although I made a few mistakes, it was a good experience where I need time to overcome my shortcomings.

Ha, I got stage fright. My heart was pounding. My legs were shaking.. Heavy breathing.. It was because I was very stressed by the presence of Mr. Syed and others (Jurami, Lilian). Even, the filming added to my stress.

For your information, Media Development Authority (MDA) has commissioned a filming company, 360 Productions Pte Ltd, to produce a new series of half-hour, 13-episode youth program to be telecast on Channel U starting 5 January 2006.
The objective of this series is to serve as a “platform” — to document the lives of today’s Singaporean youths, for them to express their views, passions, inner longings or even the delusions that they feel. Basically it’s about how these youths connect to themselves and to those around them, such as their family, friends and society.

So, this team has decided to feature my story in the youth series entitled “Youth Decode”. That’s why the team was there to film my performance.

Thanks, Huishan, Aaron and Claudine for coming down and support me. Glad to have them being there..

The next day will be my 2nd performance as the Guest Percussionist at Istana Park.

From my day one, I automatically became the musician of the percussion ensemble. I became more committed and I had more self-practices. And, I attended the band practices. This made me recall my days at the secondary school when I attended the band practices.
During the practices, those moments were my challenges I was facing – cases of mis-communication, catching up most of the conversations. However, I enjoy being with the ensemble.

Let me introduce these two groups: Studio Percussion Unit (SPU) and 2-FOUR Percussion.
They were formed in April 2005, under the support of the Percussive Arts Studios led by Mr. Damien Lim. The SPU is a ‘fusion percussion ensemble’, performing a unique blend of modern percussion ensemble music, mixed with a fusion of Asian and world percussion instruments. It also provides band backups for vocals as well as local musical. The SPU strives to increase the awareness of Singapore’s own unique multi-racial percussion instruments and music through their performances.

The 2-FOUR Percussion team performs as the youth wing of the FOUR-4 Percussion team. It is well versed in Brazilian samba percussion as well as its own blend of innovative percussion, pots & pans percussion, and local ethnic percussion. It aims to provide a platform for young aspiring percussionists to discover and develop themselves in the field of percussion performances.

For now, I’m in the 2-FOUR Percussion Team. I’m the oldest member of all in these 2 groups. It doesn’t matter; I’m still YOUNG!!
I hope to overcome the gap between myself and the youths. I have yet to make friends with them except for Kim. Also, I hope to learn some things from them.

4 days to my show… I will be playing 2 items on xylophone. And, I’ll play another song, “Ethnic” with 3 instruments (small gong, kompang and jingle bells).
Just now, I got the practice on this “Ehtnic” and till now, I’m still blur. I need to ask again about it tomorrow. Hope this will be solved soon before the show.

Thought I’m very long forgettable after the Singapore Idol 2004. It has been more than one year…

On my way home, I was chatting with Alfred on the Bus 154. All of the sudden, a Malay guy behind me showed me his handphone message, asking if I’m Lily, the Singapore Idol. Then, he introduced himself – TAUFIK. Nah, he was not the Singapore Idol Winner. Same name, lo.. HAHA!
And, he mentioned that he wanted to make friends with me through the Friendster. He jokingly told me that he is one of my fans when he asked me if he can get the autograph. So amusing of him!

An interesting night I had! However, this made me ponder whether I’m still the unforgettable Singapore Idol…

With regards to the Percussion Fiesta, another update is that I will perform another item: 12 Days of Christmas. These 2 items I will perform are quite fast-beat and I need to practise more on my rhythm technique.
And at the same time, I’m looking forward to the (combined) percussion rehearsal on this weekend.

XTOMIC-ers, I’m truly sorry that I am unable to join you all for the BBQ gathering on next Wednesday/Thursday. I’ll be very busy with lots of self-practices and rehearsals till next Sunday. For that, I know that I’m building my career in music and performing. Hope you will understand it and there’re alot of chances for me to join you all to catch up with old times or even for games on Sequence (or mahjong). Enjoy yourselves, guys and ladies!!

Just attended this dinner at Singapore Swimming Club. It was expected that many countries (of Asia Pacific) turned up, however, there were a few representatives from South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and Kuwait. Also, it was a good gathering for deaf people to catch up with their old times anyway.

Hmmm, it was really nice to see Jarn May and other representatives using the International Sign Language. This made me recall most of its signing words that I learnt through the WFD Youth Camp at Brisbane I attended in 1999. And at my table, I was somehow able to interpret for Leon when there was no voice interpretation.

Cheers to those who organised this dinner! Most of us enjoyed it though the programme was quite short.