of music, mice and men June 5, 2009

i knew letting my students learn ‘monsieur mouse’ on the piano and singing enthusiastically about the (french) mouse who liked to throw parties for all his friends was a bad idea.

i knew asking them to pretend a baby hamster was residing in the cupped shape of their hand on the piano would have its repercussions one day.

because last month a mouse (a rat rather!) decided to take up residence in my piano room.  i have to credit my little terror of a student (who is my most loud and hyper student) for discovering it.  as he flipped the piano lid down to close it after his lesson i saw a decidedly rodent-like face staring back at me from the piano.

i didn’t really have time to react but i did wonder if i really saw a rat looking back at me.  i had no idea how long it had been hiding there and all that time i was teaching a few feet away from it! *shudder

what would you do in such a situation?  well, the ever calm miss wong showed her student out the door. (strangely, he did not see it at all!)  after the student left i did what every self-respecting adult would do in such a situation.

“Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

the only person in my family who would normally be ‘delegated’ such an unpleasant job as catching a rodent is my Dad, but he was visiting my grandparents on that day.

when my mum called him to ask his advice, he was more than smug that we were so helpless without him in the house.  hmmmmph!

after a short brainstorming session my mum and i decided to send in Plan B.

Enter:  Cory the Hero neighbour’s cat

cats are supposed to like catching mice, right?  after locating him asleep in the car park and bringing a sleepy cat into the house, we gingerly opened the door and flung him in the music room.  (Cory is often left outside his unit, so we didn’t really bother to ask my neighbour’s permission to use his cat as a rat killing machine)  Cory, being completely clueless began meowing plaintively to be let out.  Okay, we realised he didn’t know that there was a yummy afternoon snack on the piano.  so we decided to put him on the piano so that he would see it. he jumped off even before we managed to close the door.

“MEEOOOOOOOWWWWW”

(which translates:  get me out of here!  what the heck is going on!)

fine, we decided he needed more time.  after one hour of leaving the stupid blind cat in the room he still had not caught the rat.  we flung him back outside in disgust.  we needed Plan C:  buy a rat trap.

i’ve come to really like pasaraya taman tun since that day because they stock up on cage traps.  not the horribly messy ones in the tom and jerry cartoons that squashes the poor rat with sharp metal teeth you know.  (ok, fine i was thinking of the carpet more than the rat)

we baited it with some squid (mum claims it’s very effective) and left it in the room overnight.

it worked!

now what?  we still had the problem of getting rid of the rat.  if you don’t already know i’m absolutely useless at killing things (expect mosquitoes probably) and can’t bear to even hit a cockroach.  sigh.  so in the end my dad, who was by now elevated to hero status by the helpless females in the house, did the job.  he actually freed it (somewhere far away) seeing that it was still a juvenile.

this is where the third part of the title of this post comes in.  if i ever marry it will be to someone who can take care of icky pests (besides doing the dishes and his own ironing..  yes i insist on my idealised version of reality, haha)

my Dad had to have the last word.  he suggested marrying the Rentokil boss.  errrrmmmm.

i’m still here! June 4, 2009

i’ve been thinking of blogging for the last two months but never got around to it! oops. am having so much music to learn and practice right now..

i found the cutest most charming video ever on youtube. it’s a video of a quartet comprising yo yo ma, 2 honkers and a dinger on sesame street. you know the really old sesame street that you probably grew up watching (if you’re above 20 you will have watched the same ones i did!)

i just love yo yo ma’s personality.

check it out!

it was your birthday February 12, 2009

it really was! the eighth day of Chinese New Year (which began on 26th January this year) is known as ‘everybody’s birthday’.. i don’t know enough about Chinese tradition to tell you why. maybe it’s to console those people that didn’t record down birthdays like we do now.

“don’t know when you were born? don’t worry!”

or maybe the Chinese just like to have another reason to feast…

“hey, it’s my birthday! wait a minute, it’s yours too! this calls for a celebration!”

okay, enough corny jokes. i can tell you one other thing about the eighth day of new year. it’s when we always have porridge! (don’t ask me why either)

well, this year, porridge day happened to be on a sunday when i was in church til 7pm, so i wasn’t planning on cooking anything. my parents were away, so there wasn’t any homecooked food to expect. But my sister and cousin surprised me (in the middle of the sermon) with an sms that there was delicious porridge waiting for me at home.

it was GOOD… they used century egg and chicken. and in cantonese tradition, we had lettuce to go with it. in the greedy family tradition we also had prawn crackers to go with the porridge.

doesn't it look good?

and the chefs insisted that i give them credit.

we had satisfied smiles after that dinner.

now you know one more aspect of CNY (albeit with a lot of missing explanations)!

it’s 2009 January 1, 2009

and i can’t believe it! 2008 was a year of many changes – i moved cities, started career from scratch, battled a lot of lows, learnt to appreciate my parents more, had to deal with a lot of issues (not done yet!), experienced a lot of God’s divine networking magic, got planted in an amazing church which i love, made new friends, performed at places i never thought possible, took up jazz piano (it’s hard!)..

it was an eventful year. It surely was not a year i would have envisioned, or planned for myself, if we could choose or order the events of our year. and yet, there must be a reason for the learning, growing, stretching experiences that i went through.

last year, i looked forward to 2008 with a lot of enthusiasm and expectancy. this year, i’ve lost some enthusiasm, and i am afraid of making any resolutions because i don’t want to break them.

hmmmm, why is my new year post sounding rather pessimistic?

i shall not write more at the moment. i shall reflect and come back refreshed.

i need to remember that I am loved, get back to seeking God’s face and bask in His presence, make His Word real in my life again. i need to forget the past and see the new things that God is doing.  I will rejoice in the Lord my strength, my song, my all in all.

merry christmas! December 28, 2008

yes, i know it’s past Christmas..  my Christmas this year was a quiet affair, not that that’s a bad thing.  I was in Ipoh, my hometown.  Ipoh is known for its good food, fat crunchy taugeh, limestone hills..

For Christmas, we ate a simple meal at home of salt-roasted chicken and vegetables.  it was definitely much yummier than turkey..  in my opinion!

Anyway, i decided to bake before Christmas!  here’s a picture of little packages of fruit cake which i made for friends.  (thanks woo for baking this batch, wrapping and tying the ribbons on the cakes!)

have a good holiday people!

Dotty madness December 15, 2008

i’m bored!  bored of being cooped up at home because i’m a hazard to anyone who hasn’t had chicken pox.  boo.  so far i’ve resisted the urge to name each spot.  although there’s a big one on my forehead called John.  don’t ask me why.  it was a very random w.w.w.w. moment.   (i reaslise i may be losing my readers at this moment if i’m not careful…  Please read on!  i promise to be coherent!)

i shall be good.  i will practice tomorrow!  that’s a good way to utilise my time!  i’m learning Beethoven’s sonata in E major Op. 109.  it’s beautiful..  let’s hope it will sound that way when i can play it.

my ’solo piano life manager’ will be happy to read this.  she gave me a good talking-to about my practicing (of the lack of it).   i also have a ‘general life manager’ or otherwise known as my sister.  and yes, they were self-appointed. but you gotta love these people who care about your future.  (awww..)

i’m now at a critical stage.  one wrong move and i could be scarred for life…  i’ve already accidentally scratched a few of the pox!!  oh dear.  i was smugly explaining to my sis that i had mastered the art of scrathing ‘in between’ the pox…  but alas…  oh well, it’s ok.  scars give character.  right?  haha.

i guess i should stop talking before i become this pox-ridden-obsessive-introspective-blogger.  i will try and leave John out in my next post.

thank you my dear readers, for your patience.

don’t join the dots December 11, 2008

i’m sitting here at the computer…  being careful not to rest my left wrist on the keypad…  because there’s a tiny but nasty swell on it.  i have been diserang ayam to quote my old additional maths teacher.  attacked by the chicken.  not literally.. but i’m having chicken pox.  (you can laugh now you cruel beings)

how did i realise it?  the way millions of others self-diagnose:  google.  i watched with increasing horror as an image of a single bubble-like chicken pox that horrifically matched the few i was having on my body started loading on the computer screen.    the caption:  “a classic case of early chicken pox”.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

was my initial reaction.  this can’t be hapening to me.  but it was and is…  thanks to modern medincine, i can probably be well in a week…  i don’t know…  my Christmas plans to go to Kuching to meet up with old friends and attend a wedding is hanging in the balance…  by a thread… by a pox….!  (sorry, it’s not even a joke i realise)

allow me to go back to my pity party..

You made me smile October 25, 2008

Had a long day at work..  felt kind of like a crappy teacher. didn’t start out that way.  I was reading “Teach with your strengths”, a book i recently picked up at the MPH warehouse sale and felt pretty good reading it.  I felt confident that i was in the ‘great teachers’ category. (haha..  so perasan!)

but of course something had to happen.  it wasn’t something really, but my frustration with my inability to really engage a particular student.  or two students, to be exact.  but anyway, that’s not the point.  i was just tired and feeling kind of deflated after the concert (post concert blues?  it’s a long story actually..)

And Then (a very necessary injunction in most Malaysian story telling)

when i reached home, i saw this huge bouquet of orchids!  AND a paper bag with a nice ribbon on it…  i perked up immediately..

they were both from my aunt – the paper bag contained had a really pretty beaded grey top!  the flowers were for my mum, but that didn’t matter – flowers never EVER fail to cheer me up.  and since my mum is away, they’re MINE!!!  somehow i also felt that it was a little secret surprise from God!  This isn’t the first time i’ve got flowers just when i needed it!  tell you about the other incident some other time.  =) my lovely aunt is such a gift-giver.. i’ve been getting gifts from her from the time i was a kid!

Aren’t they pretty?

i love orchids!

improvised a vase from this jar

what happened at the DFP October 24, 2008

i can’t believe it’s over!  the whole 2 weeks of nail-biting scariness is over!  (i didn’t actually bite my nails…)  but yeah!  I almost wish it wasn’t over!  but that’s the nostalgic side of me.  the other side of me with the exhausted arms and hands is screaming “what do you mean you wish it wasn’t over yet?!”

we had a short final rehearsal at 4:30pm and ran through the piece at this breakneck tempo..  i was struggling actually, but i think that was more because i didn’t have time to warm up at all.  after that i decided to get something to eat before the concert.. and so the hour leading up to the concert was not spent worrying my head off about the performance, but walking confusedly up and down the aisles of Cold Storage trying to locate bananas.  I like to eat bananas before playing.  don’t laugh.

so anyway, in desperation i decided to ask a saleslady standing at the weighing counter.

me: Kak, sini ada jual pisang kah?  (Miss, do you sell any bananas here?)

saleslady: (looking at me funny) ada!  situuuuu… (yes, over there, while pointing to a stack of fruit)

me: mana????  (where?)

saleslady: … (probably thinking:  “which planet is this girl from??”)

the bananas were green and they were wrapped in cling wrap on styrofoam trays.  in the end i ended up eating a chicken sandwich that had evil garlic hidden in it.  so of course i had to buy some mints to help mask the aroma.  had to queue again at my favourite supermarket.. the clock was ticking..

at 6pm, i decided that this craziness should end and that i should be quietly composing myself (pun intended) backstage for my DFP debut.  (the concert was at 6:30pm) At that moment, three people who looked very familiar walked by carrying a huge bouquet of roses.  it was Claudine, Edith and Reuben from church!  they were so sweet!  i was ecstatic, and they were trying their best to conceal the huge bouquet.  that was a really nice surprise before the concert! 

Backstage, Phil (our conductor) reminded us of the tempo again and told us to rein it in a bit coz we did gallop in the rehearsal.

showtime!  the door opened, we stepped out onto the stage.  i was so busy looking at Box B where my family sat that I almost did not bow with everyone else.  there was no tuning up before the piece.  we just launched into it! and then it was just the music and the fingers flying…  I got on some rocky ground a little past the second page, but got right back on track.  It was comforting to hear the echoing rhythms of the first piano part, played by Yin Hwa.  everything was going pretty well! before i knew it, i passed the painful but happy milestone of the last pattern (this piece is all about them repeating patterns!  for many many bars! my right arm was pretty tired by then.) and i was actually grinning at the last page.  happily, we all ended together.  (my biggest fear was that i would plink one extra note after everyone had stopped)  that was it!  it didn’t seem to have lasted 20 minutes!  there were handshakes and congratulations backstage. I was so relieved and happy!

funnily, i did not hear any whoops and yells from the audience.  no, i wasn’t expecting crazed responses from the public… but a certain crazy bunch of people who told me they would be perfecting an extremely loud and embarassing cheer were… nowhere to be seen!  my beloved lifegroup was stranded outside the hall and had to watch the performance from the monitor, i learnt later.  they looked so guilty when they ‘confessed’ that i immediately felt so bad for them… these wonderful ppl braved the traffic and rain to come.. and probably missed the start by a minute or two..  but it’s ok.  I STILL LOVE YOU ALL!

my lifegroup and reuben

My beautiful family who went through a lot…

they deserve a medal for putting up with yours truly!

I still can’t believe it all happened!  Would I do it all over again?  Yes!  Would I have said this a week ago?  NO!  Hindsight is a very nice perspective.  =)

it’s happening so soon! October 20, 2008

Tomorrow’s the big day!  today’s rehearsal went well.  for once the conductor did not have to shoot stern glances in my direction.  the piano parts went like a well-oiled machine.  How different things were today from the first rehearsal that I went to. Thank God!

I have painful fourth and fifth fingers now.  hang in there guys!  just one more day..