From now on, I will be blogging at here. The old blog at http://chenghuat.diaryland.com won't be in use anymore, unless it is to trick those people into believing that I have not got a new blog. I finally got the time to switch hosts and to spend so much time using the computer because of the term break. This is the first time that I am grateful for the one week school holidays. It actually really gives me some time to spend doing some things that I like although there is homework. The best part of it is that there won't be any tests throughout the whole week and I can get back the sleep that I have been deprived of.
Today isn't a very good day. To begin with, I had to wake up at 7am so that I can reach school by 7.30am for a foot drills training session. Thankfully I have my father to fetch me to school or I'll have to wake up even earlier. Considering the wonderful weather for sleeping and that I slept only at 1.45am last night, I think that having to go to school for something extra requires a lot of determination.

There was slight drizzle when I reached school. Thankfully, the drizzle was very light and it stopped in time for us to begin our training session. I was put to be in charge of training Janice, Xin Ting and Koh Shing. The first half-hour was quite frustrating, trying to get them to execute the commands with a certain standard. How I wish that they could be more enthusiastic, only then, it would be much easier to teach. After we were done with the few most basic commands, things started to change for the better. Although it was getting more and more challenging, I think the reason why they are willing to put in their best only then is because they find it new. I believe that for every thing that you do, it is the beginning that is always the toughest. Once you get over the basics, everything will be fun and enjoyable. Well, drills were supposed to end at 10am but we ended only at 11.30am.

I had my father to drive me home after that. I think he waited more than half an hour for me. Anyway, I had my lunch at home before taking a short nap on the couch, as I was afraid that I might fall asleep during the theory exam later. I took a bath after resting for about half an hour and went to the examination centre that is at MDIS building at Changi Road.

The theory paper (grade 8) was super tough, not as in I don't know how to answer a single question but in the sense that 3 hours was not enough for me to be satisfied with what I answered. I spent around one and a half-hours on the first question alone. That question was to complete the missing parts for 2 oboes with a basso continuo. If I am not wrong, the person sitting next to me had already completed 3 questions by the time I started looking at the second question. I skipped question 2 and 3 and went on to answer question 4 and 5 first as my brain couldn't function properly after thinking and thinking of how the parts would sound like. There was one question on how the composer creates the effect of alla marcia and I wrote that the dynamics of the extract is mainly soft, the quavers are played short, and it is syncopated when alla marcia means in the style of a March, which I did not even have the slightest idea of. I did not manage to write out a good melody for question 3. It was in triple timing but I was thinking in compound time. I could not get my brain to think of triple timing and the phrasing went off. I think even a high fail is very far away.

Of all the theory papers I have sat for so far, this is the only one where I sat in for the whole duration of the paper. In fact, I spent 3 whole hours staring at my script and cracking my brains and not even satisfied with my answers. I think it partly accounts for my low sprits after that.

Once again, my father drove me home. After using the computer for not too long, we went for dinner at Pizza Hut. I wasn't really looking forward to it partly because of the theory exam and because we were going to the Bedok branch. The food was quite delicious despite the lousy ambience. I think I ate the most. 1 beef lasagne, half a plate of spaghetti, 3 slices of pizza, and quite a few side dishes. It is at least 4 hours after eating all those now and I still feel as if I have just eaten. Maybe I can skip breakfast tomorrow.
Now, I'll be doing some minor changes to this blog to make it better. Hopefully it will not take up too much of my sleeping time.

That's about all for today.