Turning a dream into a reality

Few months back I got to know a guy from the School of Music in UCSI University. He plays the violin and he shared many things with me. He asked me not to give up my violin and motivated me to continue my violin. He even suggested me to join our university orchestra in this semester. Well, joining an orchestra is and always my dream. The chance has come to me and I would never lose this chance getting into it. I practiced day and night during my semester break few weeks back and the day has come.

The audition was set at 7pm at the recital hall and I came at around 6.45pm. I went down to the music practice room to have a quick warm up and went up to the recital hall 5 minutes before 7pm. I couldn't contact this friend of mine, and he hadn't appear yet. I started to get nervous as the hall was filling up with musicians with their instruments like horn, cello, viola and violin. I started to feel awkward being the only non music student to be in the hall. Suddenly I noticed people bringing their music stand to the hall too and I didn't bring because my friend told me it was not necessary. My mind started to blame this guy for asking me not to bring and never bother to even pick up my phone to assist me as I was so lost.

I felt like wanting to give up and I was walking alone in the corridor and suddenly the lift door opened and this guy came out.

"Thank God!" I told myself.

He was late and quickly he went into the hall asking me to follow. When I stepped back into the hall, I felt that awkward sensation again. The students were going in front of the hall sitting near the conductor as she was about to take their attendance. I felt soooo awkward and I wished I was invisible. While the conductor was taking the attendance, I quietly walked out the hall to answer a phone call from another music friend of mine. She asked me to stay calm and just go back into the hall and take a seat. I nodded to her with my mind so hair-wired and I went back into the hall.

Guess what, when I entered the hall for the third time, my friend shouted my name front the front.

 "Joe!!" And then he pointed to a seat next to him.

I noticed all the eyes were watching at me and I was so embarrassed. I had no choice but to walk down the "red carpet" to the front of the hall and sat beside him. My awkwardness + embarrass-ness had reached to the max. I didn't dare to move once my butt touched the chair. The hall was so quiet and only the conductor was speaking. She was just standing right beside me!

After she had announced the pieces that they were going to play for this semester, the orchestra players went down to have their sectional practice while around 8 of us remained in the hall for audition.

She asked us to wait outside the hall and each of us took turn to go in for audition. While waiting for my turn, I got to know these new soon-to-be orchestra players. They were all foundation first semester students and I was the only senior and also a non-music student there.

After an hour plus, it was my turn. I didn't feel nervous as I had waited so long outside and was so hungry until the butterflies died inside my stomach because it was about 9pm. She asked a bit about my background and asked me to play some scales and a piece that I had chosen, which is one of my Grade 6 exam pieces. It wasn't that awful except for the sight-reading part. It was horrible.

It was a short audition and she asked me to leave my e-mail address so that she could give me an answer on whether I could be part of the orchestra member.

I came home about 10pm and I had maggi mee for my dinner. Friends were asking about my audition but I gave them a negative respond as I thought chances of getting in for a non-music student should be low as the conductor should give priority to the music students. However, I was still keen to know the result. Suddenly I got a mail in my inbox after I refreshed my page (damn stress!)

"O.M.G!" I told myself.

I got into the orchestra! I hadn't experience such happiness for quite some time, not even getting an A+ for my exam nor getting my first pay had I been so happy. To me, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to join the orchestra. I'm really grateful I got this opportunity to meet this friend. He has changed my life, making my dream to be a reality. I owe him so much and I didn't know how should I repay him.

Thank you Brace for encouraging me not to give up my violin and given me this opportunity to join this orchestra. And thank you Rachel for encouraging me not to give up at the last minute. Finally, thank you to all my friends who had given me support all these while :D

A random day during my semester break

Yesterday I attended Shell 54th Annual General Meeting at Thistle Hotel, Port Dickon. It was quite some time ago since the last time I came to Port Dickson during my first AFSA camp- Unity Camp 1.0. I didn't realize about it until I felt the place was familiar to me.

It is a 5-star hotel and I was so amazed by how friendly they treated us, the shareholders, as if we were VIPs. At entering the hotel, there were people guiding us to our parking. Upon parking our car, they have those electric golf cars to fetch us to the lobby. At the lobby, the staffs greeted us and served us a glass of juice. In other AGM, we would have to register as shareholders/proxies before allowed to enjoy the breakfast. But here in Shell, we were asked to have our breakfast first before registering.

We got some car engine oil and some TnG cards given after registering.

After our breakfast, we still had about an hour before the meeting starts, so we decided to walk around the hotel.

The view at the beach

It wasn't that "grand' as what I thought a 5-star hotel should be, but it was luxury enough and cozy as well.

This is one awesome AGM I've ever attended because in other companies' AGM, after the AGM and that's the end of it. But for Shell, they invited us to visit their oil refinery somewhere in Port Dickson. Sadly our cameras and phones were 'confiscated' because no electrical devices shall be brought into the refinery, and so I have no photos to upload. I am really grateful my dad gave me this opportunity to attend this AGM. The best part being a shareholder of Shell is that while in the bus to and from the oil refinery, there were traffic polices escorting the buses to move through the traffic. I could even hear other shareholders saying "wow we are treated like Agung!" 

Back at the hotel, I received a bad news. So bad that I previously had never expected this would happen to me. I failed two of my subjects this semester. Actually just after I sat the papers, I knew I was going to fail. I had prepared myself to accept the fact but I just couldn't believe who I am now. A student that used to get flying colours all these while getting two subjects fail at the same time now. 

I just have no idea what is wrong with me nowadays. Nobody could explain that, even myself. I just love slacking in the classroom, thinking of other stuffs during lectures, procrastinate for assignments and so on. When it comes to studying, I just couldn't pay attention on the text I'm reading. Friends giving advise not to give up because there is no one that never fails in life. This is what I usually tell my other friends who couldn't do well in their studies too, and now it's the other way round. 

Today I have got back into myself. I will take it positively and a lesson to myself. I do not care how people will look at my low CGPA, I just know I am not this kind of student, it was just a mistake I did and I'm sure I can raise it back before graduating. Good luck!!!

再见吧……

已经隔了两个月没更新我的博客了。

之前刚放假想写一写自己的心情，

多么的爽快，同时也多么的悲伤。

爽快是因为又一个学期过了，

又放假了。

悲伤是因为我干哥哥快要离开大马了。

…….

若你是我衷心博客读者，

你应该猜到我将会写些什么吧。

一直以来我的博客都是感伤的，

是因为我本人比较sentimental,

情绪很不稳定，

所以写博客是为了揭开压力。

2012年4月21号，

也许是我so far人生中最难过的一天。

那天，Steven离开了大马，隔了一年多，终于要回国去了。

本来想和他们一起送飞机，

哪知他的行李箱实在是太多了，

我也上不了车，

只能照个相留个念……

手表上指着1点钟，

他们都准备好要出发了。

我站在车窗外，

虽然隔了一片玻璃，

但可看得出他眼睛湿了，

可惜太阳太晒了，

我流不出眼泪。

毕竟我们认识了10个月，

也同居过4个月……

一定会有些不舍。

车子渐渐离开了我的视线，

他……终于走了……

很快的，他已离开大马一星期了。

今天他发了一封email给我，

说HK大学已接受了他，

就如我预测的一样。

我想，今年毕业典礼后的两年应该没机会再见到他了。

虽然如此，我也做不了什么。

心里其实挺难过的，

一直期望他会在大马继续深造，

但HK大学才是他想读的大学。

为了你的前途，

为了你的梦想，

我祝福你

学业进步、

梦想成真。

无论如何，

我们都是一辈子好兄弟！

希望我们后会有期~！

My 20th Birthday

This year birthday was a very special one for me. Instead of celebrating with family, I celebrated with my friends.

My first gift was a cake from Rachaell but it was melted as she gave it to me when we were testing our games for our Unity Camp 2.0 on next month. It's such a waste that I had to throw it because I love Indulgence Chocolate. That night however, I got another cake from my friend Hon Yuen, it's New York cheese cake! And I had it for my breakfast the next day.

On my birthday eve, Steven asked me to go over to his house at night. I can sense something he was up to because he would never ask me to go to his house and I actually preferred if he helped me to celebrate on other days because I was having two exams on the following day. However, I felt touched when they bought a cake and sang birthday song to me. It's another kind of feeling celebrating with friends especially when the clock strikes at 12am! Thank you guys!!!!

On the actual day, I didn't have to spend money for my lunch and dinner as my lunch was sponsored by Crystal as well as Chin Mun for her Kokogreen milk tea (I wonder how she knew I prefer the original milk tea) and dinner by Steven at Cheras Selatan.

I was at first disappointed when Steven didn't give me his present on my birthday but 2 days later. Anyway, I was totally surprise that he bought me an earpiece as he knew my old one spoiled ! I love it so much!! Thank you!

搬家后的第二个星期

之前发生了好多事，
都没心情写部落格。

刚搬进来我朋友家这里，
感觉没像上次搬去宏盛家，
感觉很尴尬的，
因为这次我的东西都是我自己去放在适当的地方，
而上次是有人帮我把东西放好,
所以那时感觉很不好意识要人家帮我做事。

这个家，
一眼看就可看得出
这是一间学生宿舍。
因为这里什么都没有。
床架、沙发、烧水器、桌子、椅子都没有。
全都要自己去买。

这里和中国人的家有所不同。
家里环境很干净，
尤其厕所，
人也不在家穿拖鞋，
也很平静，
但只缺乏一个很在乎我的哥哥。

说到他，
我病之前的那件事已解决了，
那时也差点不再和对方说话，
想给对方冷静下，
但最后他肯原谅我，
所以就没事咯。
可惜我这个人呢，
却不知道自己的地位。

之前习惯了有他常常关心我，
现在搬了他少理会我了，
觉得他重色亲友，
也常常把他女友和我比起来，
觉得他的确开始不在乎我了。

上个星期，
他病倒了。
而且就在那时我和他因某些事又吵起来了。
我那时真气到想要绝交了，
以为我们的友情就到此为止了，
但我一个朋友，
开导了我，
叫我要珍惜一个这么难得的朋友。
他在大马的时间也不多了，
真的要好好珍惜他，
有什么误解，就好好和他谈吧。

我听了后，
马上想通了。
我不应该和他发脾气。
如果他想多陪他女朋友，
而牺牲我们两个好好谈判的时间，
那我也没办法，
我控制不了别人，
我不可能可以expect所有东西都依照我方法去做。

当时我和我朋友在吃麦当劳，
听了她那番话，
马上把整个汉堡包塞进嘴里，
薯条留给她吃，
拿起汽水，
很抱歉地离开了座位，
跑去宏盛的家去。

去到他家所发生的事情我不方便透入。
他承认他忽略了我，
但我们肯原谅对方，
不再讲究这件事，
就这样我们又和好了。

这周三是学校篮球比赛。
他和他的housemates都有参加。
放心吧，我上完课马上去支持你们，
为你们加油打气！
大哥，加油！

我要搬家了

明天下午三四点左右我将要搬家了。
虽然很久已经说要搬回去Angkasa,
但太多事情了，我搬不了。
现在终于可以搬了，
总觉得对这里依依不舍，
我会挂念我的housemates，
的空回来找你们吧……

最近我和一个housemate发生了不少的吵闹，
不用说也该懂我在说谁吧……
从一月份开始，
我们和对方都产生了很多意见，
但总是没时间坐下来谈，
结果越闹越糟，
再加上我患上了蚊症，
而他又遇到不幸的事，
个有个的困难，
都没时间里会对方了。

我真的不想再这样下去了，
事情再不去解决，
恐怕我们友情可能就这样...没有了。
然后我可以开始写我的故事了，
名叫《那些年，我们如何成为好兄弟》。
哈哈，开个玩笑而以啦，
我当然不想会有这样的下场。

我希望明天我回去Cheras能够好好解决这件事。
经过这次大病后，我希望能够反省起来，
从新做人，不想再伤害你了，
对不起……

Is this God's order?

There are many unexpected things that are always happening around all of us.
Last year September semester,
I thought I would be moving out from Seri Cendekia
after my final exam on October.
Unexpectedly,
the day I decided to move out,
I found a part-time job in Cheras,
and so I continued to stay for the next two months.

During that two months,
I thought I would be moving out on January
to my friend's house in Angkasa condo.
However,
he said he has to clean his house before my friend and I can move in.
So, the first week of January I'll have to continue staying here
while waiting for him to inform me when can I move in.

One day I met him and his housemates in McD.
They told me about their usual activities at home,
and I was freaked out.
I felt that I'll regret staying there.
One of the most disgusting activity that I've never heard in my life is that
one of their housemates can 'hibernate' for 3 days.
He usually sleep on Friday late midnight
and wake up on Sunday afternoon.
And they told me if he never comes out from his room for a long time,
do not inform the police if there is no rotting smell.
He is just probably sleeping...

After hearing all these,
and so happen one of my classmates' housemate is moving out next month.
So I decided to stay in my current place for another month,
and move to her house next month.

What I'm trying to say is that
when I say I'm moving out on October,
I ended up staying till December.
When I say I'm moving out on January,
I ended up staying till end of January.
Will there be more?
Is this a God's order, or I should say,
am I destined to stay with my 'long-lost brother'
and is not allowed to leave him behind?