Sooooooooo, Passing Out Parade (P.O.P.) has ended not long ago, last Saturday to be precise. And due to the new arrangement for the parade band (they have to march in and march out of the parade), they lack of players. So, JiaYi and I went to help them fill up the empty spaces during march in and march out. It wasn't easy playing a piece without the music sheet while marching to the beat and synchronizing with the rest of the parade band members. Well, we managed somehow, by faking through the our parts during some part of the pieces. Hehehe. Anyway, we had to stand in position for 15 minutes before the start of the parade and it was really agonizing.
- Firstly, we're wearing harness with the snare drum attached to it.
- Secondly, we have to stay still and I tried not to fidget as much as possible.
- Thirdly, the parade is in the afternoon at the parade square, thus the Sun shone happily and brightly at us, making me sweat like crazy.
- In addition, we're either in full band uniform which includes a disgusting-green coloured thick blazer or an all-black attire for the alumni players.
Well, thankfully, I'm not playing the bass drum because it's really tiring to march with that heavy and huge drum hanging onto your shoulders. I wanted to show some photos but they aren't up on the net yet.
Oh, by the way, we won the BEST SECTION AWARD! WOOHOO! :D
(The Best Section Award is the one in blueeeeeee. :D)
The other two awards are both obtained this year. The first one was given to me during Awards Day for being the section leader of the percussion section. And the second one was given to me during Band Dinner to thank all the graduating seniors for their contribution to the band. :)
To be honest, I don't think I deserve the first award. Being able to have such a wonderful section is not only my efforts alone, it's the seniors' and the current section members' efforts too. I don't think I did a lot for my section too and that title of being the section leader was given to me because I'm the only percussionist of my batch. And I sort of knew I would be the section leader since Secondary 2. I don't mean to be bashful but there's probably no one else they would rather choose. As a result, I got complacent and I took that title as granted. The reason why the section is so good now is because of the efforts my juniors put in to improve and push themselves. XueQi once wrote a letter to everyone in the section including me. In that letter, she said that she can't imagine the effort I put in to make the section where it is now. In fact, I would always have this sense of guilt in me whenever I re-read the letter and feel ashamed of myself. I wished I had done something impactful or meaningful for the section that would help them improve. Or maybe I could have been stricter when conducting sectionals so that they would be more disciplined. But I didn't.
I know saying all this is meaningless now but I still want to express it somewhere. Keeping it in is really difficult. Anyway, I'll always remind myself to take the lead and actually be the leader when the chance comes by. Being the percussion section leader has certainly taught me a lot of things, like the importance of pushing yourself beyond the limits, venture out of your comfort zone, the relations between the section members and never to be complacent. I hope I can always keep that in my mind.
Enough of depressing thoughts, let's move on to Sunday. I've work arranged on Sunday at Swissotel. It's my fourth time working and I am still really inexperienced. The manager in charge of us has arranged me and other two probably same age as me workers who are second timers at Swissotel to take care of FOUR tables. That makes three inexperienced young workers taking care of 4 tables. You must be kidding, right? How are we gonna manage?! Hence, I told them to take lots of plates, bowls, under-liners, spoons and forks just in case. We even had to take care of 3 vegetarian meals. Gosh, it was super busy and there were lots of demands too (warm water, cups of fanta orange, refill of Chinese tea and other beverages). To the people who are seated at tables 13, 14, 17 and 18 yesterday during the wedding, I'm really sorry for the poor service, please understand that we are lack in manpower and experience. After a while, a kind and friendly team leader came to help us. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
He's really experienced and he helped us a lot by portioning and picking up our food. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
And the wedding dinner came to an end by 11 plus and by the time we finished clearing our side stations and tables, it's already 11:30 which is time to sign out for work. After changing and what not, I left the hotel to walk to City Hall MRT station. Shu Zhen is overseas and I've been working alone for two times already and it's not that bad actually. Since you most probably won't to allocated to work at the same tables anyway, you won't be able to work with your friend either. I was trying to find the way to the MRT station alone after going there from Swissotel only one time. Given that I don't really have a good sense of direction, it's quite an accomplishment to me. Hahaha. My left arm muscles aches quite a lot from carrying the plates on a tray during work. I believe I should be accustomed to it sooner or later, plus, I had muscles training from carrying the percussion instruments and push-ups.
And I broke a few glasses while trying to help another person with the glasses on his tray. Whoops. I'm sorry for breaking them, I'll be more careful and not so clumsy.
And that's about it for today's post. :)
