Oh The Frustration!
Well since all my friends are too busy for me - I seem to say it as if I have so many friends when in actual fact I only have a handful of 'real' friends (for want of a better word), I shall express my boredom here.
First two days into my official attachment to Esplanade and I'm bored, tired and broke. Work was from 8am-8pm on the first day. I reached there, met some of my friends, collected our safety boots, which were stiff, painful, heavy, chunky, noisy and uncomfortable, and reported at the concert hall where people were taking down the riggings and lights from the Mosaic Festival to restore the hall to its original form. We were just to observe because that's our original purpose of coming here - to observe and ask questions. How boring is that. For the first half an hour or so, we watched them operate the genie lift, which is a platform which you can raise to do work on stage. They used that to remove lights from a gigantic un-climbable ladder that was used to rig some of the lights from the festival. The they removed the ladder itself using a very ingenious method.
Two of us were attached to the staging department and the other two in the lighting department but because there was nothing we can do to help in staging because all of it involves lifting and moving heavy props and instruments, the people let us help them with unscrewing the bolts to remove the lights and sometimes moving the lights to store them in the racks, which made us look really pathetic because all of us could barely lift them.
Oh yes, before that we were asked to remove wires from the gigantic ladder which were held in place by tapes, coil the wires, which I was surprised I could do it because I used to fail at it in school, and tape them individually to keep them from tangling.
We also helped in changing the gel (which is the film of plastic you put in front of lights to give them colour) of the fixed lights, removing them, taking them out of the frame and inserting frosted ones. We ran out of gels and we have to rush all the way to the theatre with one of the crew to take some more. We also learnt how to cut them into little square pieces from the rolls of gel to fit into the frames. Then I helped to check if the safety wires were properly tied to all the lights, while the rest adjusted the lights.
After that we met up with the rest of the people who were posted to different locations and went for lunch. When we came back at 2pm, there was nothing much to do because they were addressing the lights, troubleshooting them to make sure they worked, carrying heavy platforms for the performance from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra tomorrow, so we slacked all the way until 8pm which is - at pantry drink coffee and tea, Green Room slacking, concert hall talking or sleeping, Green Room playing cards etc etc.
For the second day, it was worse. I mean, we really didn't do anything much. At all. The only good part was that we got to watch the Singapore Symphony Orchestra rehearse, we went up to the organ loft where the $5 million pipe organ is and we went behind the control room to learn a bit of the lighting controls. That's it. We kept going around to ask if anyone needed our help, so much so that we kinda got scolded for being annoying. But there really wasn't much for us to do. When we first came and asked the people in charge they just told us that there was nothing at all to do, even for them because they've already prepared for the orchestra yesterday and they're now waiting for them to arrive. So that's what we did, slacked from 8:30am to 10pm. I almost cried from the boredom.
Lucky I've got classmates who were fun although I felt kinda lonely even then, but it's mostly because I kept to myself most of the time. These two days felt like 2 weeks. Literally. Did I say that I won't be paid for the attachment? At all? I have to pay for my own lunch and dinner, so you can see why I'm so miserable. Well, that's partly the reason.
Today is my off day and here I am, writing. Woke up at 12 noon today and I thought today was a Saturday. I was that tired. Shagged. And I still have to work on weekends - Saturday till 11:30pm (can claim taxi fare!), Sunday is Baybeats auditions, 7am-10:30pm. I'd better go prepare for my guitar lessons, practice and practice. Just maybe I'll rot form the monotony and dreariness of it all.
First two days into my official attachment to Esplanade and I'm bored, tired and broke. Work was from 8am-8pm on the first day. I reached there, met some of my friends, collected our safety boots, which were stiff, painful, heavy, chunky, noisy and uncomfortable, and reported at the concert hall where people were taking down the riggings and lights from the Mosaic Festival to restore the hall to its original form. We were just to observe because that's our original purpose of coming here - to observe and ask questions. How boring is that. For the first half an hour or so, we watched them operate the genie lift, which is a platform which you can raise to do work on stage. They used that to remove lights from a gigantic un-climbable ladder that was used to rig some of the lights from the festival. The they removed the ladder itself using a very ingenious method.
Two of us were attached to the staging department and the other two in the lighting department but because there was nothing we can do to help in staging because all of it involves lifting and moving heavy props and instruments, the people let us help them with unscrewing the bolts to remove the lights and sometimes moving the lights to store them in the racks, which made us look really pathetic because all of us could barely lift them.
Oh yes, before that we were asked to remove wires from the gigantic ladder which were held in place by tapes, coil the wires, which I was surprised I could do it because I used to fail at it in school, and tape them individually to keep them from tangling.
We also helped in changing the gel (which is the film of plastic you put in front of lights to give them colour) of the fixed lights, removing them, taking them out of the frame and inserting frosted ones. We ran out of gels and we have to rush all the way to the theatre with one of the crew to take some more. We also learnt how to cut them into little square pieces from the rolls of gel to fit into the frames. Then I helped to check if the safety wires were properly tied to all the lights, while the rest adjusted the lights.
After that we met up with the rest of the people who were posted to different locations and went for lunch. When we came back at 2pm, there was nothing much to do because they were addressing the lights, troubleshooting them to make sure they worked, carrying heavy platforms for the performance from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra tomorrow, so we slacked all the way until 8pm which is - at pantry drink coffee and tea, Green Room slacking, concert hall talking or sleeping, Green Room playing cards etc etc.
For the second day, it was worse. I mean, we really didn't do anything much. At all. The only good part was that we got to watch the Singapore Symphony Orchestra rehearse, we went up to the organ loft where the $5 million pipe organ is and we went behind the control room to learn a bit of the lighting controls. That's it. We kept going around to ask if anyone needed our help, so much so that we kinda got scolded for being annoying. But there really wasn't much for us to do. When we first came and asked the people in charge they just told us that there was nothing at all to do, even for them because they've already prepared for the orchestra yesterday and they're now waiting for them to arrive. So that's what we did, slacked from 8:30am to 10pm. I almost cried from the boredom.
Lucky I've got classmates who were fun although I felt kinda lonely even then, but it's mostly because I kept to myself most of the time. These two days felt like 2 weeks. Literally. Did I say that I won't be paid for the attachment? At all? I have to pay for my own lunch and dinner, so you can see why I'm so miserable. Well, that's partly the reason.
Today is my off day and here I am, writing. Woke up at 12 noon today and I thought today was a Saturday. I was that tired. Shagged. And I still have to work on weekends - Saturday till 11:30pm (can claim taxi fare!), Sunday is Baybeats auditions, 7am-10:30pm. I'd better go prepare for my guitar lessons, practice and practice. Just maybe I'll rot form the monotony and dreariness of it all.