Musical Moments

Yesterday, we went to Cal State University East Bay at Hayward. It is the first time we went there and we used Nuvi to guide us. Just as we reached the address keyed into Nuvi, Bert made a wrong turn by only a few feet and the dumb Nuvi quickly did a recalculation, figured we must be wanting to go home since it had already dutifully informed us a few minutes earlier that we had already arrived at the preset destination and so proceeded to bring us back to San Ramon. So round and round the town of Hayward we went and I grumbled that a simple miss always lead us to make long detours because Nuvi NEVER recommends a U-turn. Yet despite my obvious displeasure with the gadget, it was unbelievable how obedient we were to its instructions. Until it told us to go on the ramp and take 580East. Only then did we realise what was happening! How absurd.

So I reset the dummy and off we head back to CSU, pretty much covering the same route we took just 20 minutes earlier. Oh the wasted time, miles and gas (at $3.70+ a gallon)! To make ourselves happier after the silly episode, we stopped at a little dingy little Indian restaurant at the base of the hill that leads to the campus. And don't let the look deceive you, the food was pretty good.

Feeling satisfied now that our tummies were filled, we went up the hill, reached the parking lot stated on the agenda from CalHigh and Nic went to change. And the occasion? The CMEA Band Festival. What it is is an annual competition among high school bands. CalHigh entered all 3 bands - concert, symphonic and wind ensemble - led by the teacher, Kent Johnson. Good looking gentleman, if a bit on the short side. And I must say, he conducts well, better than some of the other teachers. And the CalHigh teams were all exquisite. They were all so well dressed, the boys looking sharp in their tux like suits and the girls in their long black gowns. The best looking teams. While most of the other schools did dress in their band outfits, none of them were as formally dressed as our bunch. Mr Johnson himself was very trim and neat.

While hanging around outside the Music & Business Building for the event to start, who did we meet but Keng and Calvin coming for the same event. So we ended up spending the evening with Keng since Calvin is in the same symphonic band as Nic. This being familiar territory to him and we being newbies to the game, Keng was like a shepherd guiding us through the events for the next couple of hours.

Parents were allowed to attend the performances in the university Performance Theatre so from 7:30 pm we sat through some of the school performances and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (at least I did). They were all pretty good. All of them. Mr Johnson's selection of pieces was quite interesting and seems to be a pattern with him because the wind ensemble performances later in the evening had the same signatures. The first piece would be fairly long and difficult, the second would be really challenging and had some of the kids also singing a few stanzas and the final piece would be the rah rah kind that just has the entire band playing with no breaks in between, kind of like a rousing finale.

Then we trooped back to the Music & Business Building to see how the symphonic band would do on sight reading. I must say it was quite an experience. I had not seen Singapore school bands being put through sight reading competitions before. Mr Johnson was given a limited amount of time to go through the piece which the band was not allowed to see until they were told to open the packet. In that time, he had to quickly explain how they should all play and that was all the time they had to understand the piece. I was fascinated with how Mr Johnson went through the entire piece line by line counting the beats hitting on key areas like crecendos and the kids actually understood even at the speed he was going. After the performance, the invigilator (apparently they are called proctors in the US - this I learnt from my ITIL class on Monday and Tuesday) critiqued the band's performance, beginning with some advice about the best way to perform sight reading using an interesting car wash analogy, then pointing out where the group had not done as well as they could have and praising those areas and sections where they did well. It was impressive. That in that short amount of time, this person could hear and discern so much.

And the end result? CalHigh Symphonic Band had ratings of ESSSE (excellent, superior, superior, superior, excellent) on the 5 dimensions all bands were scored on (forgive me, I cannot recall what these criteria are, except the last E which was for sight reading). No G which is the only other rating - for good which is below E and S. One of the best scores for the symphonic bands. For pictures, please see album to the right. But here is one of Nic in her gown.

Chit Chat

I was in class studying ITIL and had to take an exam this morning. The last time I had to study was for my highway code here to get my California driving licence. Not too bad, I think I should pass. Then I would be certified on ITIL foundation. I hope I can continue and become a practitioner (which means more studying and exams). Multiple choice so much easier than essay type exams.

On Saturday, we were invited to have bbq with Nik and Keng but it rained a bit so we ended up not going out into the backyard. Keng barbequed the meat and we ate them at the dinner table. Also there were Lay Keow and Lai and another Singapore couple, Janet and Sonny who have 2 young sons about Ryan's age. So our circle of friends is enlarging gradually. Janet is a realtor. Like everyone else they have been here forever. Sonny stayed on after graduation when he got a job. But they are still holding Singapore citizenship. Kids were both born here but registered with Singapore so not sure what is going to happen when they reach NS age. Interesting dilemma. Just as for Keng's and Lai's sons. So far more boys than girls in these families. And they advised us to get green cards since it may be relatively easier for us.

I must say they can all cook well. We had Singapore style desserts - the nine-layer nonya cake and a Chinese dessert (looks like gingko nuts soup yet not). And we brought some of the nonya kuehs back too.

Today there were protesters outside our company gates because the shareholders' meeting was this morning. It is interesting how they turn up now and then when there is something happening in the campus. Peaceful gathering though. They just held up some banners - actually I think there were probably more policemen than protesters. Contra Costa county is just not a protest-friendly area. This is basically a suburbia America type neighbourhood of middle class people. albeit fairly well off. I wished I had my camera with me but then again, I don't think it is wise...

Messy and Miserable

This has been a horribilus week. Monday morning on the way to work, I hear about the VT shooting on the radio and it just shook me up, remembering what Ming said (with some sarcasm) during the time we were all together in Dec about American society. Then came the rather traumatic email exchange with someone and the onset of a bad cold because the weather has been a little freaky. It has turned from spring into a kind of winter with temperatures plummeting and rain when it was just bright and sunny just days before. I have been wheezing and blowing into a lot of tissues while trying to defend my family values and feverishly working next year's budget for my team. And fearing for the struggle of one my own to pass her exams. Aiyah, altogether a lousy week.

We have been watching the news broadcasts nightly and it is so sad how a deranged young person left untreated for years finally lost his tethers and massacred so many innocent people. I pity his poor family - how are they going to deal with the grief, the horror and the shame for the rest of their natural lives. And for the families of those slained - how are they going to come to terms with their loved ones being suddenly and senselessly snatched away? So many so young and one who actually survived the horror of holocaust so many years ago.

Why is this scene repeated so often in America? When will they tighten up gun control and when will society recognize that mental illness is not something to be ashamed of, to hide in the family closet but a real disease that should receive the same attention, care and funding as any other physical illness? That it should be easy for families with such problems to ask for and receive help.

So many people issues this week. Sigh.

Correction

So just like the Straits Times, I have to publish an official correction to my previous post :). I don't know why but I seem to have trouble with Lay Keow's name. In my mind, she keeps coming up as Lay Heok. My sincerest apology for the mistake. Must be some lingering memories of my cousin, Gek Heok. And apparently, I also got Nik's name wrong. It is spelled without a c. But this I did not know, I only guess at the name since we never formally exchanged name cards or anything like that.

This morning was supposed to be tennis at AVHS after a very long break for me but unfortunately, the Chinese association decided to have a tennis competition so all the courts were used up and we could only snatch a couple of minutes before having to give up our game. So I went walking 15 rounds instead on the school athletic track.

Man and a half are going for their golf in about an hour to make up for yesterday. I wonder how I should occupy my time. May be time to go pick up those bicycles we have been talking about and cyber window-shopping for some time now. More later...

Discourse

Last night we had nasi lemak and mee siam at our Singaporean friends' house. Lai and Heok are as warm and friendly as anyone can get. I have seldom met folks who would embrace complete strangers into their home and lives as this family has done. And all because we are Singaporeans in a far away place. They also invited Nick and Keng, another Singapore couple who have been here forever. Nic and Keng were the ones who hosted dinner on Chinese New Year and cooked the most marvellous meal with as much CNY tradition as you can expect in a non-Chinese country. All four came here to study and just stayed on, a loss to Singapore but they are happy they stayed. Heok and Lai actually went back to Singapore for 5 years, decided they could not fit and returned. So while they all retained strong links to families back home, they themselves could never go back to the land of their birth. Why you ask.

For one, life is not as rushed here. There is so much more space, one can breathe easier because people are not constantly in one's face in the MRT, buses, shopping center, food courts or even walking on the road. Yes, California houses are getting expensive but they are still cheaper than in Singapore although before the current property madness in Singapore, they were getting comparable. But for the price Ming paid for his semi-d, he could have bought a 4,000 sq ft house with a beautiful interior to die for on at least 20,000 sq ft of land and in expensive San Ramon too. Elsewhere in the US, folks would faint at California house prices so you can just imagine what you can get for that kind of money in other states.

I just cannot imagine what life would be like with 6.5 million people squeezed onto the 600+ sq km of land. Please please do not become like Hong Kong (the place not the person) where people are so desensitized because of the lack of personal space and the incessant need to compete with one another for material things.

For another, the kids here are much less pressured so they can enjoy their growing up years. Yes, there is competition (and trust me, it can be keen), but the system as a whole is so much more humane. There are the superkids of course. Kids who take on a full load of honors or advanced placement courses (as many as they can cope like 6 AP!) and still find time to play in a symphonic band and play a sport. These kids are sought out and get courted by the Ivy Leagues of the likes of Harvard, Stanford and MIT, even before they pass out of junior years (equivalent to JC1). But not everyone is born that way and as long as a kid here is willing to put in the effort it takes, there will always be a place in a college somewhere for them whether it is at the state level or at the community level. Even those who can only make B's or C's. And it does not matter how long they take to find their way or niche. As long as they have the desire and will put in the required efforts which by the way are less demanding than in the current British-based system we have in Singapore. Mistakes one makes on the journey called life are tolerated and forgiven much more easily. Late bloomers are given time to bloom. One of my colleagues has an autistic child and the amount of medical and counseling help given to the family is heart warming - the family has only a single source of income and could not have afford the kind of help they are getting otherwise. One can argue of course that someone has to pay for it so taxes are high. Yes, but that is a choice society as a whole makes because of the values it places on the hierarchy of wants and needs of its members. Singapore is also a high tax country in many ways but not so transparently - look at car taxes, COEs, ERP, car park charges in HDB neighbourhoods, ...

You can argue this picture is too rosy and it is. It is a generalization. There are a lot of inequalities but which society does not have them? There are wide income gaps and bad neighbourhoods where one fears to go and even college campuses can be frightening places at certain hours (just as UBC near Wreck Beach can be). But the point is, there is more compassion and grace so people can have second and third or even fourth chances, maybe because there is more room to breathe.

Back to our Singapore friends here. Despite the almost nil possibility of them or their kids ever going back to Singapore, they warmly embraced us because, you guessed it, they do miss talking Singlish and being able to say, buay tahan, pengsan and alamak with someone who would know exactly what they are saying and share NS stories and talk about HDB flats and hawker foods. Ahh, the little quirks in this journey called life.

And as an aside, aren't these flowers pretty? They are blooming like crazy in the backyard. Spring is just so refreshing after the long cold winter. And the rose is the second bloom.

And the one and a half man just came back from a failed golf trip. The weather forecast was for a 70% probability of rain but the boy had a golf lesson booked and they were planning to play a game after that. Well, it started raining 15 mins ago and they are back. Hope we get a make up golf lesson next week.

Pixels Portrayals

Here are some recent photos of flowers that are blooming in our backyard and the neighbourhood. The rose plant just outside the dining room window is now full of buds. This pic is of the first rose, a second has already bloomed and there are probably another 8 buds waiting to burst upon the world.

And this is what has happened to the cherry blossom tree outside our main door. Refer to my post on UJ's birthday to see the same tree in its earlier glory.

Here are a cluster of rosemary plants - they are abundant near the little circle leading from Pine Valley Road to the Orchards where our residence is. If you rub your hands on them, you can smell the rosemary; it reminds you of Body Shop or one of the many different bath and aromatic soap shops. Nice.

And these are just different flowering plants that are just all over the neighborhood. Very pretty.

And the views of the valleys and mountains in the clear air all around our humble abode are just to die for. The weather is perfect for walks - they bring a spring to your steps (pun unintended).

And so as you can tell, hope springs anew where there was solitude and sadness.

Short Snippet

Sorry, it has been a while since I posted anything of interest. Just seemed to have lost all enthusiasm. Things are not going my way and am suffering from a bout of self-doubt and depression. Annual appraisal result and salary treatment were disappointing to say the least. So forgive. When and if I recover, I will write some more. Meantime, spring is here and the weather is warming up, there is a single beautiful red rose bloom in our tiny backyard and a small crack in Ryan's bedroom window that was there even before we moved in has crept right through so the whole pane is now criss-crossed with large cracks. Landlady has been notified and says she will research into manufacturer, warranty, etc. So adieu until sunshine starts rolling into my soul.

Recollections