We thought that when we had our team assembled, training would commence. But then, our trainer, A, refused to help us because we could not provide her the Form 4 students whom she wanted. A did not think that the Form 1s would do very well and did not want to waste her time to train them. A thought that their voices would not be matured enough to bring them to the national level competition.
Yes, she was that ambitious.
Without A, P did the training. P was my colleague, and he was really very creative and talented. Watching him train the kids, I too, learned a lot!
He singled out a few boys to select a conductor among them. Then he taught them how to conduct. At the same time, he choreographed our presentation and trained the students to deliver the script. Everything had to be perfect. The tone, the expression, the movements and so on.
P was also, at the same time, training the BM choral team .... so he really had a hard time juggling both tasks. That would be where R and I came in .... When P was attending to the BM team, R and I would supervise our team's practice. We helped as much as we could .... looking into the administrative matters, while P did the creative side of the work.
Training was long and tedious .... and we went back to school every day during our holidays and stayed the whole day in the hall to perfect our lines. Finally, it was the competition week.
Day 1 - we went to the auditorium for rehearsal. Early that morning, the bus did not turn up ... Darn. It seemed that there was an overbooking at the transport company's side .... and they conveniently forgot us. We managed to get there anyway, but we were late. Despite all the setbacks, rehearsal was swell. The students charmed the crowd, inducing lots of laughter amongst the audience. We went back to school and did final touch ups on our performance.
Day 2 - competition day! The bus came early .... and we got to the auditorium on time. While waiting for our turn to compete, a boy's nose started to bleed! It stopped after a while, but the organisers were nice enough to let us defer our turn. We were team no. 2 to perform, but we switched turns with team no. 4. The students delivered our choral piece as well as they could ... and the crowd loved them! Yippee .... we stayed on to watch a few other teams before making our way back to school. My colleague P, was so confident that we stood a chance to win the competition. P was right. At 4.00 p.m., the organisers invited us back to the auditorium the next day for the closing ceremony.
Day 3 - Results day today! Unfortunately, P could not come with us to the auditorium. He had to bring his BM choral team to compete at a different venue, while R and I brought our English team back to the auditorium. We watched the final 3 teams competed .... and then results were announced. We bagged the "Best Conductor" award! Yayy! My little conductor was only 13 years old! And he beat many of those much older than he was! We were ecstatic. Finally, it was announced that we were the first runner-up. We beat 18 other teams. Phew! I am relieved. The kids were a tad disappointed, though. They had expected to win .... but competition was stiff, and we'd put up a good fight.
And you know what?? P's BM team also obtained the "Best Conductor" award, and they were announced champions of the BM choral speaking competition! Wowww!!!!!!! WE WERE REALLY, REALLY ON CLOUD NINE.
Our trophy yield for the day!
Victory was sweet. But it took a lot of sweat to achieve the sweet.
With this major competition over, I feel one burden lifted from my shoulders. I had time to cook dinner even! I made my simple noodle dish .....
Beehoon stirfry with seafood, pork, mushrooms, vegetables and egg
Homecooked, and very light flavours, and full of texture.
Yummy!
To go with my noodles, I cooked a light cucumber soup. Dinner was sumptious. The man said so. :))
Congratulations, my team almost brought up the rear in the early rounds in Miri.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly takes a lot of talent to choreograph, and a lot of perseverance to train the students. We'd screamed and shouted and scolded .... but it paid off.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations..
ReplyDeleteThe beehoon stirfry, without dark soy sauce, exactly the one I like.
ReplyDeleteyatty84 : thanks
ReplyDeletesintaicharles : beehoon is really versatile and can be cooked in many ways; sometimes I like it black ..... sometimes white. :))