I caught my first movie for this year, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last Monday with the band people at Marina Square. It was only then that I found out that the ticket price on weekdays had risen to $8. That's a little discouraging for me to watch another movie. The tickets are really getting quite pricey.

I shall go back to the details WMC trip now. I believe that on the second day of practice or rehearsals, Mrs Chua told us that the guest players will be there by 2pm, latest. I was already losing my patience because I had to wait till then to see and get to know the other bass clarinetist (whom I all along thought was a million times better than I am). We ran through the competition pieces and worked on some parts before breaking for lunch.

After lunch, the guest players finally arrived. I was extending my head towards the back (the door to the hall was there), excited to find out who was the one playing the bass clarinet. To my greatest dismay, out of the whole group of people there, I saw a young boy holding to a pathetic bass clarinet (and I thought that mine was already quite pathetic). So he came, sat down on the chair on my right. I smiled at him and asked him for his age. Two years younger than me. I expected him to ask for mine, but he didn't. I went on minding my own business. We ran through the 3 competition pieces, I can't remember in which order, but I think it was in the reverse competition order. When we played Impressions of Japan, to my greatest horror, I heard another bass clarinet playing along with me the solo parts, every single one of them, and every time there was a divisi, only one of the two notes could be heard. After finishing the piece, nobody made any comment on the bass clarinet parts. I kept quiet, hoping as best as I can that the person beside me will just fill in only the parts that he was required to play.

After all of that, had a short break. I went outside to take in some fresh air and also to try to forget about the traumatising experience I have had. Some of the band members were already outside talking among themselves. I was just about to relax a little until Mrs Chua came outside and asked us to interact with the guest players in a joking manner. At that point of time, I totally did not know what to do. Luckily, although some of them went in, none of them attempted to interact with the guest players who were already engaged in a happy conversation among themselves, speaking in some foreign language that none of us could comprehend. After the break, things got a little better with the guest players, but I still didn't quite like the presence of the guest player next to me. (I hope that he will never get to see this entry, and even if he sees it, I hope that he would not understand what all that was said about him mean.)

Practice ended a little earlier that day but we only left Wilderhoes at 10pm. Back at the hotel, I was totally lifeless. I did not feel like talking much after all that has happened so I went out of my room, hoping that my roommates would not bother me about who shall use the toilet first or whatever I felt about the television programme. With nowhere to go, I went upstairs into Desmond's room and sat on the 1-seater sofa next to the window and asked to listen to the recording of Impressions of Japan. After some time, I shifted to sit the window ledge, leaning against the window that opened inwards. The weather was really nice. Somehow, it spelt too clearly on my face that I was dissatisfied with something that he knew exactly what it was. I told him how I felt about everything and I was very surprised that I wasn't the only one feeling that way. After a long talk, I felt a lot better.

When I finally went back to my room, I had to coax myself to forget about the day and sleep. After all, we will be going to Maastricht the next day for shopping. I couldn't clear my mind of those thoughts and ended up sleeping with the help of Baoying's mp3 player.

I should stop here for today. My eyes are getting tired.