Thursday, February 10, 2005

Day 2: Chinese New Year

My instrument has been very nice to me of late. Just a few days ago, it used to give a rattling sound. The source of this rattling sound came from the scroll, I think. Perhaps my instrument loved my company of late, it has stopped giving that rattling sound since the eve of Chinese New Year.

As such, it pleases me to say that I have been practising on my instrument this morning. If you were to ask me today, I will tell you that the best part about having a public holiday leave is that I will be free from work committments and can spend some time practising. This is provided that I do not spend the whole day out.

For the morning, I tried to work out the fingerings for the fourth movement of the Telemann's Sonata in A minor. It went fine, though I needed more practice so as to play the movement closer to the way it should be. The tempo direction on the score marked "Allegro", but I was working out the fingerings at a tempo of 50 beats per minute. More practice will help.

In the afternoon, I took a nap while waiting for my mother to return from work. She has to work today, unlike me. We were to visit one of our relatives, that is, her cousin. If you have followed my blog close enough, basically I am only required by my mother to visit two households for Chinese New Year. Given the manageable quantity of the visitation required, I shall graciously oblige. I must qualify that it is definitely not that I find my relatives unpleasant, it is actually because I do not like the idea of interacting with too many people at any one time. My relatives are pretty nice folks, though I feel quite distant from some of them at times. Oh yes, I do not like making small talks either because that is never my forte. It seems to be quite challenging to engage in meaningful conversations with people that I am not quite familiar with, no matter how nice they could be. But I handled quite fine by learning to listen, which I am usually pleased to do.

In the evening, it brought me pleasure to have the chance to catch up with one of my good friends. It has been quite a while since we last have time to catch up. She treated me to a lovely dinner. The curry for the roti prata was pretty nice, so were the salads. More importantly, the company this evening makes the difference. Perhaps one feels a sense of being connected when one has the chance to catch up with one's good friends?

Anyway, I thank my friend for the treat. I have the suspicion that she was trying to find all possible reasons to give me one. I wish I had been more assertive to act on my suspicion. Whatever it is, I looked forward to have a chance to treat her to a lovely breakfast at Conrad Centennial Singapore. And hopefully, when she achieves her desired goal end of this year, I could have another good reason to give her another treat on top of the breakfast. Cheering my friend on!

And the time of the night has come for me to volunteer to end my post. Good night. Sleep tight my readers. Last but not the least, I hope my friend whom I had dinner with will have a good night of rest. That should keep her recharged for the next day, and healthier?

1 comment:

mistipurple said...

i thank you again, my virtual friend. you are indeed a support to me. i hope you do not find me "tainting" your blogs with irrelevant remarks. i find it best to write you in your latest blog each time, so that you do not need to look too far back, and i feel rather bad and "intrusive" dropping in on your otherwise well written blogs. so, for longer "episodes", i will contain that in my own blog, if i should need to communicate more. here's wishing you a pleasant holiday and all the very best in the rooster lunar new year!