Thoroughly Modern Millie

Tonight we went to St Dominics College to watch their school production 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' as one of our favourite friends Grace was guest starring on the keyboard and percussion! OK so she wasn't on stage but that was OK, we just wanted to support her!

It was the first time I've ever been to the school so it was interesting to see what it was like! I was afraid we wouldn't get there on time as I finished work at 6pm and it started an hour later, but fortunately the motorway wasn't that clogged and we got home in under half an hour!

We managed to get a good seat near the front where we could get a clear view of the stage and also Grace.

The story goes...

"It's a comedic romp through the roaring 1920s in New York, where Millie and her flapper friends hang out in the Priscilla Hotel (a boarding house for young ladies) and unbeknownst to them, are in frequent danger of being sold into white slavery in Hong Kong by their house mother Mrs Meers! "

Because the school is all girls, the guys were played by girls as well. I have to say the girls played the guy parts very convincingly! At times I forgot they were actually girls!

Grace's friend Sophie was in the play, playing one of two Asian henchmen. They were pretty funny, speaking in Cantonese with English subtitles on the projector screen (although I'm sure I heard a little bit of Mandarin along the way!).

The singing was also quite good too! They sounded professional at such a young age!

 I'd have to say my favourite scene though was the elevator scene, when the two women jumped into the lift and two people standing on either side of the lift held signs saying

"First Floor", then
"Second Floor", then
"Third Floor" etc

as cheesy music played. It was pretty funny!

Another was the Speak Easy Dancers who did this really funny dance!

Oh and finally, I have to say the music was well done!

Overall I enjoyed the production. Well done to everyone who put it together!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2J_4XumQdA)

Our First Study Session

Tonight I met up with my pharmacy/intern friends Natalie and Kunsala at Natalie's flat for our first study session. I got there a little late as I had to catch a bus and well..fell asleep along the way!

Natalie was cooking dinner for us tonight and had attempted a courgette quiche. She put it in the oven, and as it cooked we did a bit of study and munched on some chocolate.

Quite a few times we had a look at the quiche in the oven but it was a little runny, so we left it in for a little longer as we studied. It was still a little runny after a while, so we just chucked it in the microwave before just deciding to eat it!

It actually tasted pretty good! I always knew Natalie was talented! We had some salad along with it. I have to say that was probably the healthiest dinner I've had in a while!

I soon had to leave with Kunsala but it was a good first night of study together! We might make this a regular Monday night thing right up to the exam!

Singing Birthday

 It was Shrikkanth's birthday today and he was having a 22nd birthday party to make up for not having a 21st birthday party last year. By golly he's young! Most of us have already turned 22 and he's only turning 22 now!

Anyway, I had to teach music in the morning so I couldn't make it till the afternoon. When I got there, his friends were all in the lounge playing Singstar. It's been a long time since I last went to his house. I think the last time was way back in year nine in 2002, when a group of us had to create a short film about something to do with Ancient China. I wish we still had a copy of that!

While I recognised a few people's faces, I only really knew Grainam (intermediate school friend) and Sarena (intermediate-high school friend). Apparently the other high school friends had been and gone already!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoQMiXLWqp0)

There was still some food left so I had a bit to eat while catching up with Grainam and watching the singing going on.

As it got later, people started to leave until there were just a few of us left. We went into Shrikkanth's room to watch a few funny Youtube videos before it was time for me to go too.

Happy Birthday Shrikkanth!

Teaching More

The End-of-Year Concert is only two weeks away and so today I used all my class-time to try prepare my students and finalise the programme. It's been a bit rushed this year with the concert at the end of Term 3/early October. It's usually at the beginning of December but because of the elections and renovations going on at the school it was decided that it would be brought forward. That means less preparation time!

Anyway, one of the parents approached me after class today, telling me that she had talked to some of the other parents and that they and their children all liked me. She said that recorder was sorta more of a beginner's instrument though, and was wondering if I taught any other instrument like flute etc. and that if I did, they would all follow me next year and learn from me! She had already talked to my supervisor who said she would discuss it with me.

The only problem is...the only other instruments I can play are the accordion and the string instruments, but there is already a violin teacher! I'm sure they wouldn't be interested in learning the piano accordion! 

I really don't want to lose them as students though, and it would be good to teach students at a more advanced level though. I'm going to have to think of something before its too late!

Rugby Reunion

Tonight all of us that participated in the Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony choir got back together for one last time to have a feed, perform and watch other groups perform, as well as just catch up with each other.

We arrived slightly late and so some performances had already started. Lucky we didn't miss the food though! We were all asked to bring some finger food initially, but then that got changed to bringing some 'food'!

The food though was quite good though, and there was plenty of it! The people sure are generous! There was deep-fried chicken, pizza, snack food, plenty of cake and other dessert!

After we got to the front of the line we decided to get two bowls of food, one with dinner and one with dessert just in case it took too long for us to get back to the front of the line again!

Once we got our food, the performances from different groups continued. Most of the different groups were from the various churches.

One of the church groups were really good, as they all sang quite passionately and in harmony. I can't quite remember which church they were from though!

There were a few speeches from our casting co-ordinator Desiree and Drew, one of the guys in charge of the whole opening ceremony. He made a few jokes about us not having to hear his voice in our ears again (we had to wear ear-pieces when we were out in the stadium on the night!).

For each of the choir leaders they would put on some music with the leader coming up to dance, and anyone else who wanted to could come up and dance with him. I'm not too sure if it's a traditional/cultural thing or not?

To finish off the night we all regrouped and sang our version of 'World in Union' for one last time, sounding as good as always!

It was a good way to end, and I'm sure going to miss our involvement in the Rugby World Cup!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3CptNePB8)

Closing Half the Church

Today was the last time we could use half of the church before it would be closed off for renovations. That meant we had to do a bit more of a tidy up. 

We had to pack everything up from the kindergarten and shift it to the classrooms at the back of our church that have now been converted into a make-shift kindergarten. 

We also had to clean up the kitchen and get rid of some of the food. There were some expired Grain Waves, but they still tasted good so I ate them, but all the other kids wouldn't believe me and thought it was disgusting!

Anyway, that half of the church is now empty and ready to be shut off to public! I'm not too sure how it'll affect lunch and what people do after church since we have nowhere to eat anymore.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lotw_7f1TuE)

A Little Mooncake Gift

Today after one of my classes I received a small gift from two of my students (who were sisters) - a mooncake! That was really nice of them! 

I have to say this is one of the perks of being a teacher!

Opening Night

3.46pm: Heaps of people already waiting at the Henderson train platform for the 9 minute-late train

4.06pm: Everyone is packed into the train like sardines!

4.15pm: Had to push, shove and step on toes to get off the train!

4.45pm: Going in now!

5.30pm: It's the last night and everyone's taking photos

5.45pm: Waiting in our dressing room 'VOM 2' with two hours to go!

6.50pm: Choir leader Ben gives us a pep talk before Choir 2 has to go out

7.10pm: We're lining up now, we can hear the huge crowd screaming and shouting!

7.25pm: Lining up in our Voms, 5 minutes to go!

7.30pm: Here we go! Broadcast commencing!

8.00pm:It's all over! A-Mazing! So many camera flashes and so much noise! It's a once in a lifetime experience! Now off to the city!

8.30pm: On the train to the city but a broken down train is blocking the tracks, had to get off at Newmarket!

8.50pm: Bus finally shows up. We had to persuade the bus driver to let us on for free, even showing him our RWC accreditation!

I'll type up a proper post on what actually went on a little later so stay tuned!

Going Mobile

I just discovered the official Blogger app for iOS and Android which was released just recently, so I thought I'd test it out!

This was posted via the Android app!

The Final Touch-Up

Tonight was the dress rehearsal for the Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony. I can't say anything about what happened but let's just say I think Auckland and New Zealand are almost ready to put on a show like never before!

We were each given two tickets to give to family or friends to come watch the dress rehearsal, and so our mum, dad, Hamish and Aunty Noeline went to watch.

Later that night when we got home, I asked my mum what she thought, and she replied

"I thought it would be longer..."

Knowing her (and her Chinese ways), I had to remind her this was the Rugby World Cup, not the Beijing Olympics!

Doing it for the Kids?

Today after work I made a stupid mistake...or a good deed depending on how you look at it.

I was walking towards the Central Public Library when this guy in a blue UNICEF jacket approached me and I stopped to say 'hi', which is pretty much an invitation for him to tell me all about his organisation and get me to donate money towards their cause...and that's exactly what they did.

Feeling a little bad and no longer able to use the excuse that I'm a poor uni student with no income coming in (why didn't I just lie? Why? WHY?), I ended up agreeing to sponsor for a month or two and see how it goes. My job ends in a month or two anyway, and I'll soon be the one needing sponsoring!

Anyway I guess I can feel a little better, knowing that I'm donating $20 towards (hopefully) a good cause.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers and others out there!

This morning was a special Father's Day service at our church. Only the city church joined us since our church is about to undergo renovations.

Our youth group was going to perform our Father's Day skit at the service too - the one we only started preparing for a couple days ago!

I had to worry about getting through children's worship first though! I led the kids in singing a few songs about obeying your parents (aaahhh Father's Day theme huh? huh?) The only thing was I didn't realise some of the kids were from the city church who have never done some of the songs before. When I led one song, the kids just stood there staring at me as I sang and danced. I had to stop the song mid-way through and teach the kids the actions! Even after that they didn't really get into it! I just thought ooh well and moved on!

After that was all done, I returned to the main service where I listened for a while. I couldn't really focus as I was quite nervous about how this Father's Day skit would turn out. I was just waiting for the time to head off to prepare!

We all went into the library and I gave people clothes I found around home to use as costumes. The guys who were acting as fathers put talcum powder in their hair to grey it up and boy did we all look older!

Waiting backstage 

It was finally time to go on stage!

Aonghas started playing the intro to our background music, the piano instrumental to A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton. The first scene with Tim and his 'wife' Stephanie giving birth started a little late as they missed their cue, but once they were out, we got going!

It went quite well with a few laughs thrown in - definitely good for 1-2 days' worth of rehearsals! All that worrying and stressing finally paid off; I'm glad I didn't cancel it in the end! I should really thank Jireh and Eva for helping me see it through to the end!

After the service we caught up with a few of the people from the Living Water Fellowship (from the city church). I feel ashamed as I couldn't quite remember some of their names, but they remembered ours! I did manage to figure out one of the girls' names -TIANA! I needed a bit of help from Andrew but I got there eventually.

Aonghas and I couldn't stay long though as we had to go off to another one of our 'music' rehearsals!

Packing Things Up

After music teaching I went to church to join in on the cleaning and packing up going on. The reason for this is our church is undergoing renovations, or more specifically re-cladding to fix up the leaks. It is all due to start in the next couple weeks and it is being done in halves.

The first half of the church building to be renovated is the gym side, so we had to pack everything up into two large containers sitting in the car park. This meant unscrewing tables, stacking and carrying chairs and moving all sorts of stuff.

When I got there everyone was having lunch outside - BBQ with sausages! I think I arrived at a good time! Afterwards it was time to get to work!

In between hard work our youth group got some time to rehearse our Father's Day skit which we will be performing tomorrow. We didn't have everyone there though so we just had to make do with what we had. There was some training thing going on in the main hall so we had to wait till 4pm to use it. Once they got out, we went in and practised for a couple of hours. I had to sort out some music with Aonghas and finally decided to settle on the piano instrumental to A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSRupPMzP6s)

I hope it works! Aonghas will just have to watch what is going on up on stage and extend parts to fit with what is going on.

To finish off the night, we all had dinner together which was made up of KFC, Pizza Hut and some takeaways!

While the adults (oh wait I'm one now too aren't I? Well the other adults!) did some more cleaning, we all decided to try this game Jenny taught us called 'Psychiatrist' in which everyone knows the rule of the game except the person/people in the middle of the circle who have to ask personal questions to those in the circle in order to figure out the rule. Let's just say we found out some interesting things about others...

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7BkCJhRpOY)

Don't Lie to the Kids...They Might Just Believe You

I returned to music teaching this morning after a week off, and my first student (who is little girl) came in and her mum followed soon after. Her mum asked me

"I heard you got married?"

I looked at her blankly...

"You got married to Princess Consuela?"

That's when I realised what I had done! The week before when I told the students I wouldn't be teaching the following week, the girl must've asked me why and I must've joked that I was getting married to Princess Consuela Bananahammock (you'll have to watch Friends to get that one!)

Fortunately the girl's mum knew it was a joke too, and I told her I'd let her know when or if I actually did get married!

Father's Day Freak-Out

So a few months ago it was agreed that it would be cool if our youth group could put on a performance for Father's Day. I suggested Jenny/Eva could be in charge of it since they did very well in putting together the Christmas play last year. The only thing was Jenny went off overseas to perform with her orchestra for a few weeks which meant she couldn't do it! 

This meant it fell back onto me to sort things out once again. Originally Jireh and I decided it'd be easier to film a short movie, but after realising Aonghas and I will be missing church a few times in the lead-up to Father's Day due to some rehearsals, it wasn't looking promising. We then came up with an idea for a short skit which wouldn't take too much time to rehearse and organise. I wrote up the script earlier this week and now all we would need to do is rehearse it tomorrow night at youth group. 

The only thing is we need people to show up or else we don't have a show! We didn't have the biggest turnout last week, so we just assigned parts to people who were there and filled the gaps with absent people. Just now though I've found out that several people won't be coming tomorrow night!

Add to that the fact that I still haven't decided which music to use for the skit, and have only sent some music I think might work to Tim (our youth group leader and piano maestro) to learn by tomorrow night...

I'm freaking out a little bit. I'm not one to give up on a project and I usually see things through, but I'm starting to think that we just might not have enough time this time. We'll have to see tonight.