Still Umich sick.
I want my room in Baits/Northwood!
And crab cheese.
Yesterday I kinda fucked up at work and rectified the situation rather late but better than never right but still its a sucky feeling coz the 'solution' is pretty obvious but i was in a daze the whole yesterday god knows what i was thinking.

Went to SBP (Sekolah Berasrama Penuh) Wind Orchestra Finale last Saturday at PICC.
Managed to book 4 seats under the OGA's quota.
And our school won for the first time ever! Yeay!
I was sooooooooo full of semangat college singing the school song with all the other tkcians in the hall when they announce second place (which was when we knew we got first la).
And met Sleh after 10 years and was surprised that he still remembered me, full name and all!
After all these years, he's still teaching in tkc.
Well, who wouldnt want to when you're surrounded by teenage girls in an all girl school who actually likes you (as a teacher of course).
I remember Sleh bribing me with a nasi pattaya from canteen (considered a luxury) after he did a prank on me and aku merajuk after that. ahahahahhaha.
Anyway, back to topic, the highest ever position we've ever gotten prior to this year is third (3 times).
One of it was during my time in 1997 (the first ever orchestra competition), and of course yours truly participated.
Being a semi hardcore band member, I would not hesitate to join every competition and shows and anything band related performances eventhough PMR or SPM is the next day!
(Semi hardcore because there are other ppl yg wayyyyy more hardcore than me).
Somehow the comp was halted in the subsequent years and resumed in 2000.
But no matter.
Looking at the progress after 10 and 12 years since I left school and the first inception of the competition, respectively, it sure has gone a long long way.
10 years ago, we were noobs with very little exposure compared to the likes of ssp, stf and sas.
12 years ago, the competition was not yet a glorified event among SBPs and cluster schools.
And now, I am very proud of the level of skills that these girls (from tkc) have attained.
On Saturday they played a Disney medley which is a Level 6 composition.
The highest I've ever played was Level 5 (Nights in White Satin) and itu pun took like a month for the band to master.
Another score I remember well is Aventura by James Swearingen which is only Level 3.
All the new instruments yg dulu takde.. and not to mention they are all berkilat and shining and bling bling.
I remember my alto-sax was dull and berkulat (ok not actually kulat but there were black spots here and there).
We did by a few new ones during my time, but they were cheap skates and low quality ones that I didn't mind letting the juniors use it (eventhough they were very very very shiny like cermin).
Now, funds for the band (we are talking hundreds of thousands here) is abundant.
Dulu, susah gila nak cari sponsor and suppport.
Got to know that recently the school orchestra got a pretty huge donation from our PM (thanks to u-know-who).
I'm happy that things has progressed for the better and the importance of musical competency and development is slowly being accepted seriously in Malaysia.
Schools like sdar and koleq have really really come a long way since the last time I've seen them perform.

sas was the first school that performed and i thought their performance was phenomenal, with their elaborate percussion set (their percussion has always been the best to me and they've managed to maintain that), their dynamics and balance has always been perfect and whole, I simply could not believe they did not get top 3 last saturday. I really thought that they set the bar quite high for the rest of the schools being the opener. this is what i feel i guess. maybe the fault was at the choice of song. size does not matter really coz their band consisted of only 60+ ppl compared to 110 ppl in tkc's orchestra. i still got goosebumps listening to them, and other bands too like ssp, koleq, sdar and smsah, albeit at different degrees lol. the number of times i get goosebumps and the duration a goosebump is sustained is the easiest way to measure how good the band is hahahaah. seriously, its natural.
u can't force goosebumps to happen, can you?

anyway, mckk and sas deserved to get top 3 at least.
but not that i care coz we got first!! after 12 years lol.
its also good to know that the band have a dedicated instructor and not share him/her with other schools like during our time.

the only thing i regret is the fact that there's no more marching band in tkc.
i kinda envy the girls now coz they have the opportunity to atttain such a high level of musical technical know hows and exposure at such a young age, compared to during my time when we were just starting out and learning the basic skills. but our time has passed and all i can do is watch and support. but looking back and looking at now, its comforting to know that our efforts 12 years ago were not in vain. im glad to be a part of history (omg i sound so freakin old).