March 16th to March 22nd.

~Netball: Netball practise was fun. We had to play two sorts of games, one was only 2/3 of the court and the other was a full game. I played wing defense and it was quite difficult because i had to work against two very tall and experienced netball players. I think one of my problems is that i focus too much on the ball- i noticed that the other players don't run around as much as I do. What i have to focus on instead is probably my position and what I have to do which is defended the circle area and also getting the rebound.
~Pessoc: practise this week was very interesting. Initially i was the only cellist because some people were on holiday, but later another lady came and rescued me. I again enjoyed myself and we didn't have full rehearsals through the pieces, but rather went through section by section, because a lot of the players were missing.
~Chamber: This week we had two performances. The first one on monday went pretty badly because the accoustics were bad and the hall was very big, so the sound got distorted. A lot of people got lost during the piece. The second performance on tuesday however went much smoother because we were in a smaller room. We also had a better rehearsal, and also did the recording. my solo part for the recording was quite bad because my bow didn't have enough rosin, but fortunately the actual performance sounded much better.
~Reading Buddies: We didn't have to go for reading buddies this week because the year 4s were on a fieldtrip.
~Hip Hop: Due to the senior recital, i wasn't able to attend again this week.
~UES: This week Suzie began the meeting by reading out an environmental issue from a newspaper that says global warming is getting worse. I guess the article really highlights how important it is preserve the environment before many precious things are lost eternally. Our chem teacher also showed us a video before though, that disputes whether global warming really exists- some say the global warming theory was concocted by politicians to gain favour of their 'Green Campaign', but scientific findings showed that as opposed to carbon dioxide causing global temperature to rise, it is instead increased solar activity that does this. We also still have yet to vote for our new president and vice-president.
~Theory: There was no theory, as it is areca term break.
~Solfege: Solfege this week was again two dictation pieces. I did reallwell because i got almost everything correct. hurrah! my improvement now is mainly to get my rests in the right place, because i tend to get it mixed up with note values. I also have to learn to write in more correct notation, rather than just writing it so its mathematically correct, but rather writing it so that it is musically correct and easier to read.
~Piano: There was no piano as my teacher is on holiday in japan.
~Math tutoring: Christine was unable to attend as she had to go for DT again. She DID pass me a past year paper that i will mark for her.
~Mentoring: This week Niki and I didn't arrange to meet up, but i texted her instead to ask her how she was doing.

March 9th to march 15th

~Netball: Netball this week was again playing netball games. We didn't try learn any particular skills, but rather just learnt through playing the games. Friday practices have been cancelled because Ms. Denny can no longer make it on Friday.

~Pessoc: Pessoc this week was pretty good. I played with the same guy, and the conductor said it was much better than before. There was also one new piece, called the hebrides, which I've played before in the Uplands chamber orchestra, and it this made it easier for me to play it in PESSOC. i was surprisingly able to lead the section when they got lost, because of my prior knowledge of the piece.

~Chamber: Chamber practise went as per normal. We will be performing next week. The recording we did this week wasn't that good, and i came in late for my second solo because i misinterpreted the conductor's hand movement.

~Hip Hop: i was unable to attend hip hop this week.

~Reading Buddies: There was no reading buddies this week, as the year 4s had other non-reading-related activities.

~UES: This week was spent alloting duties again. I've decided to go and update the upenso blog- www.upenso.blogspot.com. Suzie also told me that she was entering my name to be a potential president of UES, and in the event that i DO become president, i hope i will do a good job and bring the society to greater heights.

~mentoring: This time i forgot to show up for the mentor meeting because i had to attend a music rehearsal for a recording. i will apologise to my mentee and set up a new meeting.

~Math Tutoring: Christine couldn't make it for math as she had DT.

~Piano: Piano this week was the same. This time instead of the adagio, i played the first movement of the Beethoven Sonata. It was quite bad, because I haven't practised that section properly for a long time, but i really enjoy the chord progressions that beethoven uses.

~Solfege:Solfege this week was moved from sat. to tues because of relay for life, and it was quite difficult. We did two music dictation pieces, and the first was easy, but the second was really hard because there were so many notes. I missed about 5 out of the 16 bars, but i think i did relatively okay, because it WAS really hard.

~Theory: Theory this week was really interesting. We learnt about chord scales, which is essentially finding a scale that relates to a chord. For example, any minor chord has a a dorian scale that accompanies it. we also learnt about sharp 4ths/11ths, which lend a very jazzy sound to a chord by creating dissonance. Wilson also recapped on the minor, major, 7ths, diminished, flat 5 and dominant chords. I find that this is an improvement to having to write compositions, and it helps a lot in my understanding of modes and how all the concepts fit together.
~Relay for life: relay for life is a project that has spanned for the last nine weeks or so. first of all we had to plan which activities we would like to initiated in order to begin fundraising. Our group decided on mainly baking and also craft items. We also planned to cater for valentine items like roses and cupcakes and so we made order forms that students could fill up. We then printed the forms, cut them and distributed them to the secondary classes who were interested and we made announcements in tutor period. Following this, forms were collected at the end of the week, along with any money owed. i was in charge of ordering the roses, and we ordered 100 roses at the price of 2RM, with the intent of selling them at 3ringgit. We were able to sell all the roses. We also met after school to bake things like cupcakes, write the valentine notes, and make fudge. In total we were able to fundraise 689 RM, and although we were the best group, i still think we did pretty well.

The second part of relay for life was the actual relay part. This happened on the 14th to the 15th of March at the Youth Park. we gathered at the Uplands tent at 3.30pm and changed into the relay for life shirt. After that, we had to listen to speeches and follow the programme given to us by the organisers. We started walking at around 6 O Clock and walked for 2 consecutive hours. After that i ate a quick dinner, and then then went back to walking. I walked until about 6 in the morning before sleeping for one hour and walking again. The main reason why i was able to do this was because i was continually walking WITH someone and so the company kept me going as well as keeping me awake. i also participated in one of the races where a group of 5 had to run for 15 minutes and compete by accumulating the most number of steps taken using a pedometer. it was pretty fun, even though we didn't win, and only came 3rd. One thing that really struck me was that at around 5 O clock when i was gathered with some other walkers, we were talking about how painful our legs were and someone said, 'Maybe this is how cancer patients feel every day of their life.' This made me feel really glad that i joined relay for life. Cancer is something that people have to fight against, and has become more and more common in society that nearly every person knows of someone, or is, afflicted with cancer. I really approve of the fundraising we did because i think its very wasteful to let lives be lost because of the lack of financing. This should be the last reason for death- the physical fight against cancer is already enough of a drain, nevermind having to worry about how to pay for treatment and all that. I hope that the fundraising we did was able to make a significant difference in someone's life. This event has taught me how a community must be united, especially when trying to overcome or confront an issue as big as cancer. I intend to participate in relay for life again next year.

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.

February 24th to February 29th

I have a new activity to add. I've joined a hip hop class from 7.15 to 8.15 on tuesday nights. The classes are conducted in New World Park.

~Hip hop: Classes were conducted by one teacher who was up on the stage. We were in the amphi-theatre and had to follow the steps that he did. The first thing we did was warming up, which reminded me a bit of the cheerleading warmups. After that, he asked us to walk and bounce to the music, while he watched us. Then he started us on doing a ball-step-walk, and then other one where you extend your right and left leg out in alternation. Later we combined all the moves into one continuous dance, and repeated it except starting on the opposite leg and doing all the steps in the opposite direction. The second half of the lesson was spent learning some 'Crunch'. Crunch is a very exaggerated and energetic dance form where you really have to accentuate your moves. The basic crunching involves breathing in and out so that your body moves up and down. This can then be combined with other steps. We learnt how to stomp without hurting ourselves. Again the teacher would go through different types of moves, and then combine all of them together to do a dance. We also had to cheorograph four beats of free-style moving.

~Chamber: Ms. Leong told us that we only have two weeks before our Ria performance. The dress code is again black and white. This week we went through the Kaiser Waltz twice and its sounded better. We also practised Air on G-string and worked on dynamics so as to make it more expressive.

~Math tutoring: I think christine made the right choice in doing the core paper. She got an 84% on the first paper she tried, so hopefully she'll be able to make it into the 90s when the exams come around. i think its good because it boosts her self-confidence and also helps her to understand the basics of math and the questions in general. I'm also hoping to do a timed practise test, just to make sure that she's able to work within the time limits. Another problem would be carelessness and lack of focus. I haven't thought of a way to overcome this yet, but hopefully it'll come to her with more practise.

~Piano: The teacher was sick so there was no lesson.

~Reading Buddies: This week we moved from the classroom to the library on the first floor. This week i had Hey Jin, Oliver and one japanese boy whose name i can't remember. The japanese boy was rather fluent, but i'm not sure if he fully understands what he reads. he was also rather shy with his responses. Hey Jin also read very well, and chose a very short book. Oliver as usual outdid himself and read both expressively and fluently.

~Netball: Netball was cancelled this week.

~Mentoring: Nikki forgot to turn up again.

~Theory: We learnt about fourth voicing today. Wilson showed us an example from the song called Autumn leaves that makes use of intervals of fourths in the baseline. He also showed us how fourth voices is commonly used in Jazz pieces, as they sound much more dissonant and open, as opposed to consonant chords like I, V, VI. he's allowed me to work on a piece including fourth voicing rather than to do the modality thing.

~Solfege: Solfege this week focused mainly on sight-singing. It was quite easy, and the dictation and harmony were also at a relatively simple level. The only problem i had this week was with following the tenor line in the harmony exercise.

~Badminton: Badminton was again playing more games and smashing. I tried to make my opponents run this week by alternating the direction in which i hit the shuttlecock. Its very fun to do so, and i have the feeling that I've got the makings of a saddist, if i'm not already one.

February 15th to February 23rd

Although we're having midterms this week, some activities were still continued.

Cheerleading~ On the 23rd we had our last cheerleading session under this coach. We did the usual warmup routine and also tried some double dutch skipping. i could enter the skipping rope but i couldn't follow up with the jumping. When we did some stretching today, the coach tried stretching us more than usual by forcibly spiltting our legs and making us do a mountain-shape to push us down and improve our flexibility. Later on, we tried to learn the basic manuover for doing a back flip. This is done by flapping your arms very quickly on a mat, and jumping so that you land on the small of your back, not your waist. We also did some bridges, and i can now do a bridge standing up, whereas previously i could only do it from downwards to up. One important thing we learnt today was how to fall stiffly, so that you don't hurt yourself. Its also a good training for strengthening the wrist.

Piano~ Piano this week was as per normal. The same pieces were played.

Solfege~Solfege was also normal. The piece we had to do for dictation though was really hard, and it had many strings of running notes. I think i did relatively okay, and my dictation is much better than it was when i first started.

Theory~ This week was spent practising for the performance of my composition piece. The performance was on Sunday and Penang Road, and it was recorded by my teacher. One lady later came up to me and told me that she really enjoyed the piece. For me, the best thing about my performance was getting to know her through her appreciation of my music. And it was very encouraging to know that she liked my piece. Most of the local people there seemed uninterested.

Badminton~ This week i learnt to smash. The coach threw shuttlecocks for us in the air and we would just hit them down. He would then correct our mistakes. And i also asked peter about how you deflect smashes and he showed me how you shift your grip to get more control over the racket so as to be able to flick the shuttle cock. We had to run 8 rounds around the court to practise different types of footwork, and also practise a stroke that trains the wrist 100 times. I'm trying to improve my stamina by playing continuously for the whole two hours.

February 8th to February 14th

~Cheerleading- This is the penultimate session with this coach before he leaves to germany. Today we did more rope skipping drills and i finally managed to do a cartwheel. its not perfect yet, but i have to practise. I also did some air-born forward wheels and Evelyn and I and Rebecca were trying to help each other split. ryu was helping me with my handstand, but i have to learn to keep my arms straight. overall, i really enjoyed practise this week.

~Chamber Orchestra- This week we practised the songs again and got through the whole of the Kaiser Waltz. I found out that i have a cello solo, and also that there'll be a new cellist soon because Ms. leong asked someone to come in to play with me, her name's stephanie tye and she's really good! Ms. Leong's also decided to invite the choir to sing with us for 'when the going gets tough'. I think this is a really good idea.

~Reading Buddies- Reading buddies this week was very fun. i got to read with a new boy and oliver. Oliver's very talented at reading; he's reading books that i only read when i was twelve, and he's a slightly slower reader than i was, but its all very impressive when you take his age into consideration. The other boy was called Jason or Jonathan i think, and his reading was quite good too, but he skipped a lot of words and basically memorised the whole book.

~Piano- This week we went through the same pieces and played more of the Adagio. The adagio is really really beautiful, but its difficult because it contains things like triple timing against duple time and its meant to be very slow so it gets a bit complicated with timing and whatnot. Still, practise makes perfect.

~Math Tutoring- We cancelled this session because we had to work on our doors for respect week.

~Netball- This was my first session. What i learnt this week was mainly about my position as wing defender. I'm only allowed in the first two thirds of the court and the semi-circle. We didn't do any drills, but played games for the whole session. i tihnk it was because there were so few of us and also that the session started late. It was our fault because we were loitering around in the foyer instead of coming straight for practise, and ms.Denny yelled at us. I felt really bad about it and most of us apologised to her after. I promise never to be late for a meeting again.

~Mentoring- Nikki forgot to come again this week. I'll have to tell ms. dale about it. we've started organising things through phone this week cos i got her phone number, so i think maybe before the next session i'll give her a call to remind her properly.

~solfege, theory- Solfege this week was really hard. We did a lot of dictation, and i did pretty well for one but the other was really crap. THe other things were good though. Theory was also fine, Wilson said he'll teach us polymodality too. Next week he's preparing us to practice to perform at Penang Road.

~Badminton- badminton this week was mainly playing for fun. We didn't do drills this week, but we had to run laps around the court. i think its partially for footwork. later in teh afternoon, i went to play more badminton with a church group, and we played actually games. it was very useful to be able to play like that and apply teamwork for doubles, and attempt to do smashes that the coach taught me.

There will be a one week break from most activities as we're having half-term holidays.

1st February- 7th February

~Chamber Orchestra: went through the pieces again, this time was much better than last week. I think our main issue is because most of the senior (and also higher level) members are absent as they are busy with their exams. Hopefully some of them will return in time for the final performance.

~Math Tutoring: This week Christine told me that she made the choice to do core math. I've decided to go back to the basic and improve her mental math by doing multiplication exercises so that she can work through the questions faster. This will give her more time to check through the questions in the exam. Currently her time is about 3 minutes, and i hope you cut it down to 1.5 minutes. We went through proportion and also indices again, and i tested her by making her do some questions.

~Cheerleading: We did more body building exercises to firm quads, abs and triceps and biceps. I was aching for the whole week. we also did jump rope exercises and he taught me how to do a mini cartwheel. Hopefully i can move on to a full cartwheel soon. We also spent this session watching Ivan learn to do back flips and next week we'll try doing the basic exercises so as to build up to do the real thing. We've also learnt the shoulder sit and shoulder stand. It was really fun and invigorating.

~Relay for life: Our group of nine consists of Misato, Patty, Julie, Michelle, Genevieve, Bindiya, I Yune, Hui Ern and me. We've planned on doing fundraising activities like bake sales and so forth. THe main event that we're organising for so far would be from valentine's day. We've sent out order forms to the tutorgroups and made announcements as to what we're doing, and have collected back the forms. We also sold cupcakes, fudge and cookies and brownies on the side to make more profit. On friday, we'll be making deliveries to classes. I'm currently in charge of ordering the roses and Bindiya will then wrap them as her mom knows how to. I hope everything runs smoothly.

~UES: UES this week involved my group of 5 and I in making a plan for a tree-planting project. So far, we've scouted the school grounds in search of a suitable location but space constraints caused us to change our plans to a gardening project. I thought of the idea of aquaponics, an activity that i used to have in my old school, as it might be a suitable activity for the younger years and is a good way of getting them involved. Aquaponics is relatively cheap compared to other agricultural projects and is also very easy to maintain. Now what we have to do is write a formal letter to Mr.Smith asking for permission, and also to approach primary teachers and ask for their support.

~Piano, theory, solfege: Piano this week was again the Czerny, Bach, Hannon and Beethoven. Saori was talking about reducing ornaments to just the main melody so as to recognise the original tune. We also talked about the second movement of the Beethoven piece, Adagio, that is supposed to be played very relaxed and loosely.

Theory class was spent discussing the Fete de la Musique as well as more discussion on our album pieces. So far i've come up with a theme for my dorian piece and will have to write this down for Wilson for the next lesson. The pieces aren't meant to be that long or difficult, but should contain the elements described in the preface.

Solfege this week had harmony, dictation and sight singing. we also explored the keys of Bb major and minor, as well as B minor and D major. Rhythmic clapping and singing exercises were conducted to improve our 6/8 timing, however it was very difficult to apply this to the dictation as they were too many notes for me to write down and listen simultaneously.