Merry Christmas
Christmas eve (i.e a few hours ago) saw me, bee, yichan and the bff having a sumptuous dinner at Cafe Iguana. Food is rather good; a must-go for mexican food lovers, if Faijitas/Chimichangas/Burritos/Qaesadillas/MAGUERITAS<3 are your thing... I had boring duck on mashed potatoes which was yummy, and Bee fed me some of her delicious lamb stew. And we did our secret santa thing...turns out my secret santa was none other than Mel who endearingly got me a packet of 10 coffee capsules from Coffeebean and who was really apologetic for the gift but really, I liked it. Not sure if you know it Mel but I've become quite a fan of coffee powder and teabags, comforting stuff for a long mugging day in SMU. :D I got YC a notebook which said "I'M NOT A SHOPAHOLIC; I'M JUST HELPING THE ECONOMY" which I felt described her soooo aptly... and YC got Bee a moustache necklace which was really cute too. Bee got Mel Korres Lip Balm, how sweet.
After our dinner we walked around Clarke Quay and tried desperately to feel as Christmassy as we could in the never-ending drizzle; ended up at this little pub called MOOLS and caught a live performance. Which I thought was nice because it was acoustic and my kinda thing, and they sang some of our favvies like Moves like Jagger (EARWORM TTM) and Last Christmas etc etc. But we got chased away cuz we refused to order anything after Bee had finished her ginger ale so we went to chill at Starbucks, reminiscing about the good ol' times we had in choir while trying to sing Thank you for the music in our respective parts (triggered by the song which we heard playing in the open on our way to Starbucks).
I have to say we still sound good after all these years. I guess some things never fade away with time, if they're truly meant to stay with us...our voices are our gift and despite what people say about us sounding choral, I know we're good (they aren't mutually exclusive.) Ohhh and a part of me wish we were carolling with rioHC this year. Not sure when or how we got detached and drifted away from that community of singers but I guess we never really had anything in common with those people except for our passion for singing, and I'm cool with not keeping in touch with them, but the singing I really miss :( Choir was always an integral part of my life, the core of me, even. I assumed leadership roles in choir not because I was a portfolio whore but because it was truly something I believed in, something I deeply loved, something I was good at, despite it being something only me and a bunch of other like-minded people understood. (The rest of the world who are less musically inclined probably never got our music, cuz choral singing =/= pop singing and it got technical on many levels) It was something I could call my own, something that kept me going. I always had a competition or a concert to strive towards, I always had a direction. I always felt good about singing, but wanted to be better. And above it all, I had good friends and good seniors/juniors and a wonderful, wonderful instructor who was one of the people who made a great impact in my early years, who shaped the way I saw the world, growing up.
Tomorrow we're gonna catch their carolling performance, I hope it'll be good but what am I saying? I already know it'll be good, just because it's Ms Lim and because it's the choir that I came from, the choir that I knew and still know. Some things never change...I still remember everything that made us us, and I know I can expect to relieve all these memories tomorrow again, singing along those all-too-familiar christmas carols under my breath, among the audience. Well, I guess I could always live with the notion that despite not being a part of them anymore, NYC and rioHC has not only inspired in me (and I'm sure it goes the same for Bee/YC/Mel) this deep-seated passion and appreciation for music making in ways of our own that has continued even after I have left the choir, it has also given me some of the best friends I could ever ask for in this life. ^^
