December Fever

Wow! It’s December already? And to think I haven’t exactly started doing my holiday assignments, feel so horrible yet liberated at the same time. Funny feeling. Props to WordPress for making my December here in sunny Singapore feel more christmasy by allowing us users to have falling snow on our blogs, ain’t that cool. Speaking of which, holidays always pass by too fast for me. I always try to get to the holiday mood but by the time I even get there, it’s all over. I keep saying to myself and counting down how many weeks I have left till school reopens just to scare myself into doing my assignments, but yet this does nothing to spur me to a assignment completing spree. =(

Last Reflection of drum lessons

-         9^th November 2010, Tuesday, 4pm-5pm, 25 Jalan Berseh #01-148, Mydrumschool™

It’s been an incredible journey since the start of my drum lessons; through these months, Nat and I have achieved something that we thought was initially quite impossible. Since the beginning of learning drum as a CAS activity, I was just testing the waters to see whether I would have any interest in learning it further. Now, nearly 8 months later, it’s safe to say that I’ve really come to enjoy jamming out on the drums. Perhaps, it’s because it may have become slightly easier? Or maybe we’ve learnt more stuff and practiced a bit more than the first few months of lesson. Who knows? Maybe it’s because I’ve been looking for that spark of inspiration and finally found it this ‘last’ lesson. Don’t be mistaken, I will still carry on with my drum lessons, but I won’t be reflecting on every single session anymore.

Prayers for my upcoming EOY exam week!

As most of you may know, my school is (probably the only dumb, non-A level and O-level) school that will be having our final year examinations starting next week and will last through the whole week. The only reason why we’re having it so late is because of a handful (a big handful) of  international students who inevitably disappear into thin air right after our end of year exams, despite the number of weeks of school left after that. So, to remedy this problem, my school (thinking they’re smart) decided to push back our EOY exams as far as possible, to the much disdain of the teachers and other good-behaving students like myself (yes, I’m good). As such, this post shall be dedicated to whoever is in the same position as me and would like to agree with me in the Lord for extraordinary results. =D

1st drum exam @ Mydrumschool

-         1^st November 2010, Monday, 10am-10.45am, 25 Jalan Berseh #01-148, Mydrumschool™

Finally, the day has come. Today is THE day of my very first drum exam that Nat and I have been sacrificing our Sundays to practice for. Although I’ve got to admit, it wasn’t what I had expected a music exam to be, as this is my very first drum and music exam I’ve ever done. Previously, when I was learning guitar, I had opted out of theory exams as I found them too much of a hassle to undergo something that I felt I wouldn’t really use in the future. However, today’s exam consisting of part theory and part performance was quite an important milestone ever since the first time I handled my drum sticks. It is an extremely good indicator of how much effort to practice and how much concepts I’ve understood over the last 6 months or so and I feel that this test is essential for me to assess myself as well.

Drum lesson 52 @ Mydrumschool

-         26^th October 2010, Tuesday, 4-5pm, 25 Jalan Berseh #01-148, Mydrumschool™

One week has come and went; it felt so fast yet so creepingly-slow. Even though we’re supposed to be easing in to the exam mood, everyone apparently just couldn’t or wouldn’t make that shift. Just today during recess one of my classmates was ‘practicing’ his awesome DJ-ing skills in class. It literally made the whole atmosphere change and for a moment I felt as though we had just finished our exams. Alas, it was nothing but a dream, a blissful dream nonetheless; perhaps a glimpse of what impending paradise may feel like. Hmm… Looks like I’ve been doing too many English commentaries on poems. Just today my English teacher gave us two poem commentaries to do and he used up his TOK lesson just to assign it. So far I have very little idea of what TOK really is like, how it will be tested and such.

Drum lesson 51 @ Mydrumschool

-         19^th October 2010, Tuesday, 4-5pm, 25 Jalan Berseh #01-148, Mydrumschool™

I’ve just realized that having done 51 reflections of drums would mean that I’ve more than exceeded the stipulated time for creativity hours. Even so, I still feel that I should pen down everything I’ve learnt each lesson so that I can look back and see how far I’ve progressed as well as revise what things I’ve learnt before. However, this period of time (which is around 2 more weeks or so) is set aside for revision as well as preparation for my upcoming and first ever drums examinations. Today I just found out that my examination timeslot will be on the 1^st of November, from 10am-10.30am. This means that I would have to skip the first part of my lesson in the morning to attend this important component of learning drums.

Drum lesson 50 @ Mydrumschool

-         12^th October 2010, Tuesday, 4-5pm, 25 Jalan Berseh #01-148, Mydrumschool™

Wow! Not only will this reflection mark my 50^th session at My drum school, it also means that I’ve done 50 reflections on drums up to this date. A lot of my fellow course mates have asked me the same question, “Why the heck do you have so many CAS reflections!?” All I’ll do is give the same answer, that I use each reflection as a record for the number of hours I’ve done so far. Just today in school when I wasn’t there due to my sickness, I heard from my classmates that I was called up randomly for an exit interview for CAS. I was like: “What? An exit interview so early? Shouldn’t it be next year?” Even though I was surprised, I know that my CAS journey so far has been a life enriching experience and if given the opportunities to live through them once again, I’ll gladly take them.