After a long day, finally get to relax with my dear... :)
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Bangkok Tour! (Day 3)
It's showtime! After breakfast. we arrived at the Wattana Wittaya Academy for our first concert of the day. Wattana Wittaya... try saying that quickly for 10 times! :P
The kids performance was so-so, partly due to the fact that it's their first concert of the day (which always sucks for any matinee performance by anyone), partly because our audience's not very appreciative of choral music. It's like preaching to cows. Some of the choir kids were unhappy. But hey, you win some and you lose some. Performers can't choose their audience, kids. Learn the lesson well. Besides, it's a free concert. How cultured can your audience be?
Anyway, the organizer actually gave out snacks to the kids. Good ones, too. But WHY THE HECK DID THEY DISTRIBUTE THE SNACKS WHILE THE 130 KIDS WERE STILL ON STAGE??? They were standing there like fools for at least 5-7 mins. Gee weez.....
Next concert: St Louis Hospital auditorium. Check out the photos below. Not too shabby eh? Apparently this concert was quite widely publised by The Choral Association (Thailand), judging by the illuminaries that showed up. The conductor, being his usual self, put me in charge of the concert lighting at the 11th hour. So I went up the fire escape staircase, walked across the rooftop, and entered the control room's back entrance, all because I couldn't find the hidden staircase in the auditorium. DUH!
When I met the lighting technician, I said, "English?" He said, "Little bit." My mind went, "I'm dead meat." So there I was, using simple English and hand signs to explain the rather complicating lighting sequences to the technician, thanks to the conductor's fondness in creating dramatic lighting effects. At one point, I requested a spotlight on the piano, and he explained there's no spotlight pointing towards the piano, so I said nevermind. Next thing I knew, he went to the backstage, took out a pole, and smacked a spotlight into postion to shine on the piano. I gotta give credit to this guy for his initiative. I also shook his hand before I left the control room after the concert.
What about the concert? Long story short, it's better than the daytime concert, so that's that.
Once back in hotel, me and my dear plus Shi Hua headed out to the Thai massage parlour next to the hotel. For 400 baht per hour, we voluntarily paid to be twisted, bent and *gasp* cracked. Boy, it was frightening. And boy, I felt like a lump of dough after the whole massage. Nice...
So far so good for our third day in the Land of a Thousand Smiles(tm)!
The kids performance was so-so, partly due to the fact that it's their first concert of the day (which always sucks for any matinee performance by anyone), partly because our audience's not very appreciative of choral music. It's like preaching to cows. Some of the choir kids were unhappy. But hey, you win some and you lose some. Performers can't choose their audience, kids. Learn the lesson well. Besides, it's a free concert. How cultured can your audience be?
Anyway, the organizer actually gave out snacks to the kids. Good ones, too. But WHY THE HECK DID THEY DISTRIBUTE THE SNACKS WHILE THE 130 KIDS WERE STILL ON STAGE??? They were standing there like fools for at least 5-7 mins. Gee weez.....
Next concert: St Louis Hospital auditorium. Check out the photos below. Not too shabby eh? Apparently this concert was quite widely publised by The Choral Association (Thailand), judging by the illuminaries that showed up. The conductor, being his usual self, put me in charge of the concert lighting at the 11th hour. So I went up the fire escape staircase, walked across the rooftop, and entered the control room's back entrance, all because I couldn't find the hidden staircase in the auditorium. DUH!
When I met the lighting technician, I said, "English?" He said, "Little bit." My mind went, "I'm dead meat." So there I was, using simple English and hand signs to explain the rather complicating lighting sequences to the technician, thanks to the conductor's fondness in creating dramatic lighting effects. At one point, I requested a spotlight on the piano, and he explained there's no spotlight pointing towards the piano, so I said nevermind. Next thing I knew, he went to the backstage, took out a pole, and smacked a spotlight into postion to shine on the piano. I gotta give credit to this guy for his initiative. I also shook his hand before I left the control room after the concert.
What about the concert? Long story short, it's better than the daytime concert, so that's that.
Once back in hotel, me and my dear plus Shi Hua headed out to the Thai massage parlour next to the hotel. For 400 baht per hour, we voluntarily paid to be twisted, bent and *gasp* cracked. Boy, it was frightening. And boy, I felt like a lump of dough after the whole massage. Nice...
So far so good for our third day in the Land of a Thousand Smiles(tm)!
Monday, December 05, 2005
Bangkok Tour! (Day 2)
Ok, here's something that truly defies logic. Our concerts will be on the 6th, and today is the 5th. Why oh why, then, are we going to Dream World the theme park today, where the kids could lose their voice screaming? It truly escapes me, this. Then again, read about the practice in my previous post. Apparently, "logic" and "obvious-ness" was not in the conductor's vocab. Unbelievable!
My dear scooted off with our soloist Shi Hua after breakfast to have their own programme, leaving me with the kids and no one to seek comfort in. The madness! Thank God the parents were helpful in controlling the troublesome kids, while the kids who're traveling w/o their parents weren't THAT troublesome (still got a bit).
Once inside Dream World, the teachers assigned the kids traveling w/o parents to different teachers in smaller groups of 4 or 5. I got the group that wanted to go for all the rides, which was fine by me, since I was in the mood to scream incoherently anyway. We tried the Hanging Coaster and the Viking Ship before lunch. Fun! After the 2 rides, my group of girls weren't as cocky as before. Serves them right!
When they wanted to go for the wet ride, I just volunteered to guard their belongings for them, hence I couldn't go for the ride. *Hehe* When the kids emerged totally drenched after the ride, I realised that some of them needed a quick lesson on wearing proper undergarments under a wet white T-shirt, but I was not in the position to give such a lesson. Suddenly I felt dirty. Darn you kids!
After lunch, my kids had a go at feeding the animals at a "farm". Riiiiiiiiiiiiight... and my room is the freaking Grand Hyatt Hotel Suite, thank you. But then, it's nice to see them interested in animals they rarely see in S'pore. Not that we don't have cows and lambs there. It's just that the kids normally see them served on plates instead of walking in the farm.
Throughout the day, I was like the kids' chauffeur, helping them carry bags while they go for wet rides, leading them from ride to ride, hanging around while they went shopping etc. Good thing that the girls have enough conscience to treat me a cold drink. That was sweet. :)
The freakiest thing occured not in the theme park, but at the restaurant we had dinner. At first glance, it looked like those old style Chinese restaurant with a stage and red curtains. We saw the sign at the entrance saying, "No nightclub on Mondays" and felt relieved. Boy oh boy were we wrong...
Halfway through dinner, a musician started playing music on stage, then a female singer joined in singing Chinese oldies in front of the curtains. That's still Ok, but what's not OK was when the curtains opened, Michael Jackson popped out. Yessssssss, you heard me right, THAT moonwalking, crotch-grabbing, ethnicity-bending Michael Jackson. Or his evil twin, the one that knows magic tricks. Confused? Don't be. Simply put, he's a magician cum MJ-impersonator. He performed magic tricks while dancing to MJ songs. Moonwalking while pouring water into a newspaper cone. Get the picture?
The younger girls didn't know who MJ is, but the magician was keen to grab his crotch to show them what made Jacko famous. They squealed, we teachers squirmed, the parents twitched.
So far so good for our second day in the Land of a Thousand Smiles(tm)!
My dear scooted off with our soloist Shi Hua after breakfast to have their own programme, leaving me with the kids and no one to seek comfort in. The madness! Thank God the parents were helpful in controlling the troublesome kids, while the kids who're traveling w/o their parents weren't THAT troublesome (still got a bit).
Once inside Dream World, the teachers assigned the kids traveling w/o parents to different teachers in smaller groups of 4 or 5. I got the group that wanted to go for all the rides, which was fine by me, since I was in the mood to scream incoherently anyway. We tried the Hanging Coaster and the Viking Ship before lunch. Fun! After the 2 rides, my group of girls weren't as cocky as before. Serves them right!
When they wanted to go for the wet ride, I just volunteered to guard their belongings for them, hence I couldn't go for the ride. *Hehe* When the kids emerged totally drenched after the ride, I realised that some of them needed a quick lesson on wearing proper undergarments under a wet white T-shirt, but I was not in the position to give such a lesson. Suddenly I felt dirty. Darn you kids!
After lunch, my kids had a go at feeding the animals at a "farm". Riiiiiiiiiiiiight... and my room is the freaking Grand Hyatt Hotel Suite, thank you. But then, it's nice to see them interested in animals they rarely see in S'pore. Not that we don't have cows and lambs there. It's just that the kids normally see them served on plates instead of walking in the farm.
Throughout the day, I was like the kids' chauffeur, helping them carry bags while they go for wet rides, leading them from ride to ride, hanging around while they went shopping etc. Good thing that the girls have enough conscience to treat me a cold drink. That was sweet. :)
The freakiest thing occured not in the theme park, but at the restaurant we had dinner. At first glance, it looked like those old style Chinese restaurant with a stage and red curtains. We saw the sign at the entrance saying, "No nightclub on Mondays" and felt relieved. Boy oh boy were we wrong...
Halfway through dinner, a musician started playing music on stage, then a female singer joined in singing Chinese oldies in front of the curtains. That's still Ok, but what's not OK was when the curtains opened, Michael Jackson popped out. Yessssssss, you heard me right, THAT moonwalking, crotch-grabbing, ethnicity-bending Michael Jackson. Or his evil twin, the one that knows magic tricks. Confused? Don't be. Simply put, he's a magician cum MJ-impersonator. He performed magic tricks while dancing to MJ songs. Moonwalking while pouring water into a newspaper cone. Get the picture?
The younger girls didn't know who MJ is, but the magician was keen to grab his crotch to show them what made Jacko famous. They squealed, we teachers squirmed, the parents twitched.
So far so good for our second day in the Land of a Thousand Smiles(tm)!
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