Sunday and Monday in one

I do not know if it is a good thing to have an sensitive nose cum respiratory system. For the past few weeks, I have been coughing. Firstly, with such sensitive system, I would take longer than usual time to recover from flu and coughs. Next, when I am exposed to poor air, I start to cough too. Furthermore, my coughs are generally forceful ones, and lately, my chest has been feeling the impacts of my forceful coughs. It tends to hurt when I cough.

I could only hope that the cough would get better.

Yesterday, we had orchestra rehearsal. The double bass section was made up of an all-female team yesterday. We played "Dance of the Yao". Playing it reminded me of the times when I played this work in the Chinese orchestra. The modern Chinese orchestra also uses the double bass as a lower-string instrument. It was, to the best of my knowledge, to replace the (diyin) "ge-hu" which looks similar to the "er-hu" but is much much bigger. Imagine how much area of snake skin would be needed to make the relevant part of the ge-hu. Click here for more information on the ge-hu.

The rest of the rehearsals was spent predominantly on rehearsing the Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. Anyway, I like the symphony. It suited my melancholic moods. We started with the second movement. It was moving, in my opinion. Next was the third movement. I wished that we could have played the fourth movement, but we did not.

After rehearsals, I left to have dinner at the Soup Spoon. I quite like Soup Spoon. I am a soup lover. I tried the garden salad and a soup with lots of vegetables. I am more a vegetable-lover than a meat-lover. Maybe I had better eating experiences with vegetables than with meat?

After dinner, I headed for the Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay. For Swan Lake.

I had my double bass bow and bow case with me last evening, and had to place it at the baggage counter. The rule by the Esplanade is that no bulky items would be allowed into the theatre and the concert hall.

The staff tried to show me exactly how they would place my bow case. It was fine that they left it on the top of the shelves. But when I tried to claim it after the entire performance, I saw it was left on the floor below the table. Gosh, I cannot imagine what would happen if some animal were to crawl on the floor, or someone were to kick it by mistake? I could only give the Esplanade's staff the benefit of the doubt that they had feared that my bow case would fall down from the shelves, hence the change in where the bow case was placed during the collection time.

I decided that I shall not place my bow case with the baggage counter. I shall insist that it is a valuable and that since the Esplanade does not want to be held responsible for any damage of the item, it better allow me in with my bow case. For goodness sake, the bow would cost more than $500. More than my digital camera. More importantly, it is invaluable, I have been using the bow and it now gives a nice seasoned sound when I bow it across the double bass strings. This is not something that money can easily buy.

Yes, Swan Lake is lovely. I like the dances. The female lead was spinning all on her own during one of the acts, and for about one minute. This must have been a feat. I especially like the dances where the "swans" danced in flocks. The choreography is splendid.

The best part is that there is a live orchestra accompanying the dances. I love it. The dances were scored to the music of Tchaikovsky, and my only comment is that the music is nice. Having live music sure beats having recorded music. No wonder that I enjoyed Swan Lake more than the Rite of Spring from the Stravinsky Dances. The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra had played well. It was a great treat to be able to see the dances while listening to the music. The music simply comes to life, and makes more sense than if it were to be played alone.

By the time I reached home, it was close to midnight. I only went to bed at about 1 a.m. So it seemed that Sunday and Monday have become one long day.

When I woke up this morning, I was feeling the Monday blues. I wished I had more time to rest, and I have to learnt to be realistic that I must pick myself up to face the week ahead.

I tried to clear some work but there are still more to be done. I doubt I have been inefficient, so how on earth do you get a fairly efficient person to do more work than he/ she could manage, on the pretext of increasing efficiency? I think the best way is to just believe that if one could do that, the efficient person would have been dead very soon. So I shall learn to pace myself in appropriately ways. I am happy to be productive, but I can get overwhelmed if I get too much work than I can handle. Who would empathise with me?

Most of the afternoon was spent attending a briefing. So this meant that I had less time at the office to clear my paperwork.

I am hoping to write a testimonial for someone. Would anyone like to share formats for well-written testimonials with me? You might be doing this someone a good favour.

Meantime, I just hope to recharge for the day ahead. I am trying to keep myself going.