March 1st- March 8th

Badminton~ i wasn't able to attend badminton this week as I had a conflicting church activity.

Netball~ There was only one practise this week on monday, and we started with some drills of passing and also some chest passing. We had also to move before passing, either to the left or right. Later we played a game and i played two positions- Goal shooter and Wing Defence. As goal shooter, i was only allowed in the upper third of the field, and Valerie was marking me. I've never played this position before, and i think i played rather badly. For Wing Defence, i also didn't do very well, because Lidia was very difficult to mark, and i was outnumbered. I have to watch my football, and also remember to retain a 1m distance between the person i'm marking. I think my other issue is also running backwards, because i have a fear of hitting someone and this leads to me loosing the ball to the other team instead of obstructing it in time.

PESSOC~ This is a new activity I'm joining. Its the Penang state orchestra, and we meet on monday nights from 8-10. i play the cello and in our section that week, there were 5 people present. I found it rather difficult to play the scores but over i found the practise very enjoyable, because i like playing in an orchestra to feel the fullness and richness of sound. The pieces that we're working right now are very popular numbers and include pieces like Carmen and so on. The performance is in May, and there's one piece that begins with just the cello section, and I get to play the 5th solo, which is very nerve racking as all the cellists are better than me.

Hip hop~ The hip hop session wasn't as fun as last weeks. We began with warmups again, and Sean was leading us in simple hip hop steps rather similar to the ones we learnt last week. Then later another guy came to lead, and he did an 8 step choreagraphy. His style of dancing wasn't as carefree and easy, it was much more controlled. Personally, i prefer the first style. We spent half of the lesson learning his 8 step choreagraphy, and i think the steps were harder, and the moves were also faster, thats it they took much longer to learn. Overall, i still enjoyed hip hop!

Reading Buddies~ This week we went straight to the library for the session. I managed to read with three kids, and we have this new system whereby we fill in their booklets so as to reading their reading performance and also the number of books/pages that they're read. I find that reading to someone probably helps the children a lot and i want to be able to encourage them to read better. Most of them get more fluent and also improve their pronunciation by reading aloud, so i'm really glad to be able to help.

Math Tutoring~ There wasn't math tutoring this week as Christine was unable to make it.

Mentoring~ again we weren't able to meet up as Nikki did not show up.

Chamber~ We went through Kaiser Waltz and also When the Going gets tough. Playing in PESSOC gave me a better idea how to approach the solo part in the Kaiser Waltz, and we worked mainly on keeping the rhythm fast in true Viennien Style for the Waltz parts. Genevieve, our oboeist, is unable to play as she got braces, so ms. leong might have to rearrange the orchestral score to make up for her absence. i think she's not to blame though, and its just part of being in an orchestra that sometimes you loose important keys members, and just have to make the necessary adjustments.

Piano~ We had lesson this week, and Saori extended my lesson a bit. She said that my fingers have improved and that my tone has also improved as a result. Apparently my left hand is better than my right, and my third finger on my right hand is also very good. I'd probably attribute this to the Debussy piece and also the Czerny and Hanon practises. i've also found that my last two fingers have strengthened, as its much easier for me to play trills using these fingers than it was before.

Theory~ We'll be quitting theory class soon. I showed Wilson my fourth tone piece, but he said its not usable because its doesn't stick to a particular mode. i still don't quite understand the whole concept of modes and all that, but Wilson said its all a matter of practise.

Solfege~ Solfege this week was pretty good. I've improved a lot!! i only made one mistake for the second dictation, and three mistakes for the first dictation. The sight reading was also pretty easy.