clean linen

It is an EPIC accomplishment by this Easter Production team that started preparations of the script and songs almost 1.5 years ago. Matthias, Reuben, Barnabas and Isaac wrote all the songs, which were really good! I agreed to play the keyboard thinking I only needed to play 1 or 2 songs, and because Eugene was singing and acting in the production already so we could just be involved together like that. Little did I know that I had to provide background music for every scene save for 1 scene. And it was not just during every scene, but during every scene transition!!! The band started joining in rehearsals in January this year, if I remember correctly. Practices were every Tuesday night and Sunday afternoon. We then added in one more rehearsal on the Thursday night immediately before the 2 performances on 19 and 20 March.  What a tiring experience. But there was immense satisfaction from it. Thank You God for making this production a success!! It was a grrrrea...

We are in Week 10 of 2012. Out of the past 9 Saturdays, I have had to attend worship practices for 7 Saturdays. I had the first Saturday of the year off, then I had to attend worship practices for the next 4 Saturdays. Then I had 1 weekend break. And then it was another 3 Saturdays of being involved. This week and next week, I'm not on duty. So I'm having a break. On one hand, it's amazing to see how many Saturdays have been taken up by my worship ministry duties, which makes me feel a bit tired. And makes me feel rather glad that I don't have to spend this morning in the music room, listening to MP3 tracks and practicing away on the piano to prepare for worship prac in the afternoon. On the other hand, I'm glad I got to play this much. Because it makes me practice and listen to tracks even more. It forces me to keep in touch with the piano and I don't get rusty like that. I can get stressed out, especially when I'm on the 1st keyboard and I have to be...

Call me a noob but I only just discovered how fantastic a pianist, singer and performer Sara Bareilles is. I hear her play the piano and I wish with all my heart that I could play the piano like her! Just listen to the quality and fullness of her piano as she sings this song: One of my favourite Sara Bareilles songs is this one - "Many the Miles" (on the more emo side, I used to think that I identified very much with the lyrics of this song:D): Another of my favourite Sara Bareilles songs is this one - "King of Anything" - I think this music video is nicely done too: Lastly, I think she's not only a great singer and pianist, she does great at putting a new spin on song arrangements too! Just look at how she arranged the well-known song "Single Ladies", originally sung by Beyonce: I love her! I want all her albums please! I think she has released 2 albums so far:)

In one school year, there are 2 semesters, which is further split into 3 terms. I am now in the last week of the 2nd term of the 2nd semester of my 3rd year in Nottingham - how time has flown by! Anyway, before I start to update on random stuff, I've an announcement to make... I'M GOING BACK TO SINGAPORE THIS FRIDAY! WHOO!:) Initially, I thought I would keep it as low-profile as possible and not announce it to everyone I see online, but I realised that when I go to church on Sunday, everyone would see me eventually. I would also probably have to explain over and over again why I am back in Singapore for 3 weeks. So, let me put the reason here for the few LSBC people who read this blog:- I am going home because... I just want to go home. No good/valid/very important reason. My trip back will be a 'working holiday', because I want and/or need to finish both my essays when I'm back in Singapore. I also want to spend time with my family. And, I think I will be happier ...

Despite bearing another day of a stuffy nose, and having to wear spectacles every where I go (something I'm not used to now), today has been a good day. I got up at 5:45am, washed up, had a quick breakfast, then caught a lift with my band leader, Brad, to church. Played the keyboard at both services, had a quick meet up with the lady who lets us use her property as a small group meeting place after the second service, then headed over to the New Ocean City Chinese Restaurant nearby for... DIMSUM!!! Between the 10 (9 Singaporeans, 1 Malaysian - why I had to point this out, I don't know. I just wanted to, haha) of us, we ate £80.60 worth of food. I didn't eat loads of fried stuff because of this annoying flu I'm still trying to recover from, but I still ate enough to be satisfied. For dinner, hz cooked herbal chicken soup! No photo of it here because hz commented, "It's just 2 pieces of chicken in soup...", which made a lot of sense. So I didn't bother w...

On Christmas day, I skyped with my parents, brother and Carolin. They opened their many presents in the living room at home in Singapore. I opened the few presents I have here in Nottingham. I don't have a Christmas tree, but I just put all the presents and Christmas cards with my soft toys - and I say putting presents by happy-looking or cute soft toys is way better than putting them under a tree! Afterwards, Mike Giddins drove by my house to pick me up when he was on his way home from church. The Giddins family from my church had kindly invited me over to their house for lunch, and I really thank God for such a wonderful family who opened up their home for me. Anyway, we had capon (my discovery of the day: that is what you call a male chicken), with the usual British fare, which was lovely! I am very sorry to be so offensive in saying this, especially if you are a British reading this. But, erm, British food can really get quite boring and bland. BUT, because I don't eat it e...

Yesterday morning, and this morning too, I wake up, look out the window, and see a mostly-white backyard! Then when I left the house in the afternoon to go to church, this fantastic sight greeted me when I stood just outside my door: I'm now hoping, praying and wishing really badly that it will snow on Christmas day so I can say that I've had a "white Christmas"! I didn't go to church in the morning. Yesterday evening we had two carol services, one at 5, the second one at 7:30. I was originally rostered to play with the worship team at both carol services. Later, Jason from Solid Rock (think Asian Christian Union) asked if I could play the keyboard for the Solid Rock choir because they were going to perform a carol or two at the services. I agreed to help them out since I figured that I would already be at both services, so playing an extra song or two would be ok. However, Jason was informed that the programme was too packed and the Solid Rock choir would now sta...

Monday, 30 Nov I went to church at 7:45pm for a worship practice for yesterday's (i.e. Sunday) carol service. I found the practice really stressful because there were all these chords and carols thrown at me. It was a really cold day as well. I've come to the conclusion that when people want to stick to the traditional chords and style of playing for carols, I don't like playing carols! Tuesday, 1 Dec After my Trusts law tutorial, the last one for this semester, I went to the library to borrow a book before meeting John to walk home together. While waiting for hz to cook her very delicious fried bee hoon, John and I took a short walk to Sainsbury's in Beeston and returned home with southern fried chicken. While we were waiting, John also tried to put in the new string for my guitar, as the 1st E string had broken about 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, he broke the new string as he was trying to retune it! I've since bought new strings off the Amazon website and Jon Cheon...