Thank you for your well-wishes and support

Hi everyone, thank you for your well-wishes and support. The concert went well.

***
The day begun when I woke up by 6 a.m. This is not my usual waking hours. I am a morning person, but I would usually wake up after 6.30 a.m. on a working day.

The reason for waking up so early is that I have scheduled for a session with one of my clients at 8 a.m. in the morning, even before the official office hours starts. It turned out not to be a good idea. I woke up in time, and I was able to reach my office by 7.30 a.m. However, my client was not feeling well and the session had to be rescheduled to another day. I suppose this is the way things are, inevitably things may not go the way we wish it to be, and things just are.

Then at 9 a.m. we had staff meeting. I have applied for half-day leave in the afternoon as well as slightly more than an hour of time-off. As such, I was due to leave by 11.30 a.m. My director knew that I have a concert to perform in and she was nice enough to allow me to excuse myself from the meeting from 11.25 a.m. Anyway, by 11.30 a.m. there was only one more item left in the agenda that had not been discussed. That item did not quite concern me. I am not a counsellor, and that item was about the registration of counsellors. Furthermore, I am a registered social worker already, even if my director had wished to use the meeting to encourage professional staffs to register with a professional association, I have already done that and I would not fall within the to-be-converted list.

So I left office at 11.40 a.m.

When I got home, I took a short nap. I was actually feeling quite tired by the afternoon. Yet I know to be able to play well for the concert, I would need mental alertness.

***
It's 3.20 p.m. in the afternoon of 27 July, I reached the University Cultural Centre. I took some time to play some passages on the double bass (yes, my boyfriend).

Rehearsal started at 4 p.m.

I got a little concern because there were a few players who had only came for a few rehearsals. I was not fully confident if everyone could finally work as a team and piece up everything together. It turns out that while the quality of the rehearsal had not been very assuring, the concert went well in general.

Maybe a miracle did happen after all?

We only ended rehearsal at about 6.40 p.m. I felt quite tired after the rehearsal. So tired that I feared that I may not be able to be mentally focused enough to play well during the concert. So I decided to minimise talking with people, and just spend time to recharge mentally. I avoided the dressing rooms and the corridors where most of rest of the orchestra members were. I chose to be at the dark corners of the backstage listening to silence and basking under the solemn darkness. It helped a bit. Though much of me was still worried that I would be too tired to play well.

Then again, too much worries won't do good to someone who wishes to give his/her best. At 7.30 p.m. plus, the concert started. It started a little later than it should. I understand that there was a long queue at the ticketing counter as many members of the audience needed to collect their tickets there.

What helped put the stop to the worries was when we started playing. When the music starts playing, part of me was urged to just enjoy playing the music anyway. That helped to revive my mind's concentration level.

Mendelssohn's Fingals Cave has very difficult double bass parts. It was a good thing that the first hundred bars were relatively manageable. As such, I was able to try to have use the first hundred bars to warm myself up for further playing. By the time that I had reached the difficult passages, I was more awake and mentally focused.

After Mendelssohn's, we played the Butterfly Lovers Concerto. I quite like today's version of the concerto. It must have been the effect of playing the work in front of an audience. It just felt different.

Then came intermission. My mind was losing focus again. It must have been the effect of a busy and tiring day. I had wanted to go to the audience's area to look for several friends who have came to support the concert. Sad to say, I realised if I were to do so, I am taking the risk of playing badly after the intermission. Tchaikovsky does require a lot of mental alertness and concentration to play well. So I am sorry that I chose to isolate myself at the dark corners of the backstage. It is as if the darkness and the silence could recharge me. They did, to some extent.

Now I just hope those friends of mine who had came to support the concert won't find me anti-social for not meeting them during intermission. Actually, I think my friends are understanding people. I just hope I have not abused their understanding hearts.

I like Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. It felt as if one is trying to struggle against the odds to triumph over one's fate. Maybe I just have a love for such kind of music? It is difficult technically, but it is manageable with lots of practices. Yeah, I am glad that we did it.

We ended with an encore Dance of the Yao. Pinkie told me this was her favourite piece in the concert. This piece reminds me of the days when I played the double bass in a Chinese orchestra. Fond memories.

Now I wonder which is the favourite piece for each person who had attended the concert. Mine is still Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. I love symphonies.

All in all, I think we did well. I am not sure if the concert would be deemed successful. But I think the double bass section has done well. Our conductor has even commented that the members of the double bass section came in together and played like an ensemble for the Butterfly Lovers Concerto. That had pleased him, I think.

I have made several mistakes during the entire concert. Thank goodness those were not very major ones. Thanks to the rest of my section mates for covering my mistakes when I made those. Thanks to Emily for being my stand partner. I could depend on her for support whenever needed. It was very assuring that I know that she would still be able to continue to play the parts on her own even if I were to made a mistake in my playing. Then I could listen to her and follow her to recover from my mistakes.

QH and Dinah are also stand-partners I enjoy working with, for different reasons. QH is very steady with her rhythms so that complements my weakness in rhythms. Dinah have great sight-reading skills which I always wish to emulate.

***
After concert, I took quite a bit of time to pack the double basses with the help of the rest of the double bass section. We had to load it up the lorry for it to be transported to our temporary rehearsal venue cum storage room about ten minutes drive away.

It took a while, because in order to load the double basses up the lorry, we have to move the timpani set and the harp (in its flight case) onto the lorry first. If we don't, it may be quite difficult to squeeze all the instruments required to be transported onto one single lorry. Good packing needs thinking and planning.

I am sorry that due to the relatively long time taken at the backstage, by the time I walked out of backstage, I had missed the chance of seeing Crazy Cat who came to support the concert. I don't expect her to wait. Nevertheless, I would like to thank her for coming. Thanks Crazy Cat and her colleagues. I hope they have enjoyed our sharing of the music.

Mistipurple and Pinkie also came to support the concert. I met them face to face for the very first time tonight. I hope I was able to conceal my shyness when they saw me. Thanks ladies, for supporting. I believe the other blog-friends might feel envious that we were able to meet one another outside blogosphere.

I saw a few other friends at the concert. Some got to know about the concert via other orchestra members. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has attended the concert. It has been a pleasure to share the music with you.

Thanks to HJ for coming to support the concert with her friends. Thanking her for the flowers. I should have remembered to request her not to get me any gifts. I actually tried to request all friends I know not to get me any gifts or things for the concert. But my goodness, I left her out unintentionally. Her attendance was the best gift to me, and I don't expect any other gift. Furthermore, pardon me, I have this problem of not knowing what to do with gifts, flowers especially.



Anyway, above is the flowers HJ got for me. I reckon this would help make the flowers last for a longer time in the blogosphere. Images could last longer than the real thing. Maybe next time, I should just request for softcopies of photographs as gifts. Just joking in the middle of the night.

Also, thanks to SH for coming to support. I greatly appreciate her support. She was very nice to pass me several of the brochures that she has gotten when she was in London about a month ago. She even gave me a list of the travel itinerary that she has came up with after hours of research. This would definitely served me well when I plan for my trip to London. Thanks SH.

One of my colleagues SD also came. I am greatful that she came even though she had to attend the concert alone tonight. Another colleague was supposed to come with her, but this other colleague could not come at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. I hope all would be well for this other colleague.

Before I end this post, I shall once again, thank you for your well-wishes and support.

***
I shall turn in now. Tomorrow I have taken slightly more than one hour of time-off in the morning, so I could wake up a little later, and only need to report to office at 10 a.m. A wise move, I hope.