MuSiC oF mY LiFe

~~Sunday, December 28, 2008~~

Different pple appreciate different festive occasions, and i for one, really fancy christmas alot. hahaha. I love the idea of giving and sharing what u have with others and all. Also, i DO count the 12 days of christmas, altho' it eats into my sch reopening (shucks) and things like tt. haha.

Went to kallang leisure park for dinner @ koufu and ice skate on xmas eve. Had creamy chicken pasta for dinner (for the western cuisine feel) and ice skate (to replace the frosty winter). haha. it was overall v fun as long as the company is enthu. haha. Nice.

Decided to save some money so decided to potluck @ my place on xmas day itself. Finally had Mac's breakkie again! And made sandwiches and salad. We all brought nice simple food and played many games, including games like eno stacko...monopoly world edition (i won twice in a row!), finger twister etc etc. haha..v v fun. Nice.

Heard the news of old clubhse tearing down some time ago, and i felt nth. Yest, I was reminded tt family concert was today and suddenly it struck me tt i wanna go down and have a last look of it. I wanna go down and watch the concert and be able to walk back a familiar path down Lt26, across the convention hall, and back to an old creaking door at level 2 of blk 72, a place where i used to hang out practically everyday in my poly days.

We 1st saw Ian at the LT greeting us, giving out phamplets. Felt abit diao-ed actually but this old scene somehow started the nite cos he was always there for my performances altho' we aren't v appreciative souls when we were under him back then. haha. Sat with like 3 rows of old nps-ians. Read thru' the song list and boy was i surprised tt i've played 9/15 songs tt they are gonna play. Scanned acrossed the room and no sign of Alex. sighz. Watched the 1st half of the performance and was disappointed as before. I promised to give NPS 2 chances to redeem themselves cos i was a nobody once and NPS accepted me and made part of who i m today and i will remb tt. it was when many fascinating things got started. It was then i realised they kept repeating our old songs cos the juniors lacked the music knowledge and skills. Thus, they kept repeating our repertoire cos no one introduced to them OTHER songs. Luckily, valerie and shah who were the emcees made up for it. Thumbs up to their slapsticks who made the atmosphere livelier.

After intermission, i saw a white pure, rounded figure and my heart pounded. Alex came. Was he prepared for the better show? Cos, the 2nd half of the performance got better. haha. However, a strange thing, he wasnt really a guest. Perhaps he wanted to be unknown. He was sitting with no one. At a corner of the LT alone. He cheered on every song. So far, we have seen nps drifting away from us and juniors who nv came to mix and blend with seniors. On the other side of the coin, things may not be so as i saw today. The ending few songs were mixed with singing and it was great. The song was simple, the singing was good, and the audience were smiling. NPS performers went on stage tgr and swayed and sang and clapped. From the corner, I saw Alex clapping on every beat happily with them. He was really enjoying. That old man, our very old man, was really enjoying every second of this song. I've heard tt he retired from many places but his heart was still here. Somehow to me, at that split second, i knew tt at least the nps spirit is still living on well. What we all wanted, was the never failing bonds btw nps members. We are a family and we shld be one. Altho' things may nt be as glorious or successful as we made it to be when we were members, it doesn't really matter to many, at least not to our v own benefactor Alex, cos he gave us the drive to start our beautiful stories which became wonderful memories, and what he wanted to see in return, apart from aspiring guitarists, was only pure good old fashioned friendships and bonds between every single nps peep. What he wanted was their pure love for music, and friends.

The only thing tt i was abit heartbroken was tt, i saw Alex sitting at the corner alone, and when the concert ended, he was v v v glad to see the enthu club members cheering still, but he slipped away ALONE. No one saw him leaving and he left the club to enjoy whilst he took his leave. Perhaps the newer batch may never understand our love for our old man, cos he was nv too close to them due to health or time committment problem, but he's significance shld nv have been erased nor blurred.

What i see now may nt be a very competitive and successful way to build a club, but the future is all in their hands. As long as the spirit nv dies, i believe things will get better, and i hope they do, regardless whether or not i m still actively updated of the club. haha...I just know i m proud to be an ex-Ngee Ann Poly Strings & Guitar Ensemble member, and always will be. I went back too with some others to take some photos be4 the clubhse's gone and to our fav. old hangout, Alameen for dinner. All this, i will treasure dearly forever. =P

5:09 PM