Kings of Convenience Jakarta 2023

Kings of Convenience in Jakarta, 9 March 2023

Last Thursday was the best night of 2023 so far for me. Cause I finally caught Kings of Convenience live! My goodness I can't believe I finally saw them live after... 14 years of waiting! And it was a magical night. I've been a fan of them since 2009 and they've been one of the bands that I constantly listen to throughout these years. And of course they're one of my favourite bands ever.

As expected their voice is so magical. The harmonisation, and of course the guitar playing is just oooh "chef's kiss" haha. I really want to learn how to play the guitar now.

Anyway the concert is at Ritz Carlton ballroom at Pacific Place in SCBD. The concert started at 8:30 PM but I went in at 6:30 I think. I waited for 2 hours with 2 wonderful opening acts. But err I waited while standing up! So yeah I had to pay the price later on. My body was aching hah.

The concert was amazing. It was a wonderful 1h45m and also I think KoC should call themselves Kings of Audience Interaction haha. The way Erlend and Eirik interacted with us throughout the concert was just fun and friendly. And the (singing-loving) Indonesian fans just add everything up.

Anyway it was a fun, emotional and sentimental night all mixed up with KoC. I'm so happy that I managed to see them live. Definitely a concert bucket list ticked off! Thank you Erlend and Eirik for coming to Jakarta. Do come back and visit us again soon!

PS: I did actually see them live at Laneway Fes SG in 2013. However I only managed to see the last 10-15 minutes of their set. Which was a decision beyond my control. So I'm not sure if that can be considered as catching them live heh.

Sound of Peace

Imee Ooi and Kanho Yakushiji, Sound of Peace concert Jakarta

Right lets begin this blogtober with a very late post about a wonderful concert I went to in July!

So back on 23rd July, I finally attended the first live music concert since the pandemic. And I'm grateful that I break this "hiatus" with the beautiful Sound of Peace concert by Imee Ooi and Kanho Yakushiji, and also the JSJG group! I'd say it's a great concert to start from haha. Nice and slow pace. I was a bit apprehensive back then because back in July Indonesia was still in the BA5 wave. I was scared that the concert might get cancelled or something but nope. Everything went well!

I've been listening to Imee Ooi songs since... I don't know, my secondary school days? I think like many other Indonesian Buddhists, we are very familiar with her music especially her famous Chant of Metta. I've been wanting to catch her live! As for Kanho I discovered him back in 2018 I think. I can't remember. But I really love his rendition of the Japanese version of the heart sutra.

When I see the announcement of the show I was so ecstatic! This is such a huge concert where two powerhouses of Buddhist music join forces haha. I went to buy the ticket right away.

Full crew!

Anyway I won't go into details of the concert. It's just a beautiful concert. I feel like my ears, eyes, and heart have been blessed with their music. Especially after such a long long time. The visuals in the background were amazing, accompanying the wonderful music too. Imee's voice is so heavenly and Kanho is also an excellent performer with his band. And a new discovery is the JSJG group!

I'm thankful that I manage to go for the concert. And well, here's to more concerts in the future!

I definitely need to shake off these pandemic fatigue.

Thank you Imee Ooi, Kanho Yakushiji and JSJG for the wonderful concert! 

Hope to see you again soon here in Indonesia. 

PREP Live in Jakarta

PREP Live in Jakarta!

Hello hello! Well I just returned... Not really just returned. But yes I got back from Jakarta last night catching PREP live in Jakarta on Wednesday, and also doing some shopping errands on Thursday! Man, PREP's gig was so so awesome. Still thinking about it, and probably will take some more days to move on from it haha. They're my favourite band that I discovered in the recent years.

Anyway I went to Jakarta on Wednesday via train, cause I'll be rendezvous-ing with my worker on Thursday for the shopping errands. Love taking train rides to Bogor, and now I'm kind of familiar with the KRL (Jakarta metro) system, although I'm still pretty clueless about Jakarta itself haha. Before the show I went to catch Coldplay's documentary, A Head Full of Dreams which was co-incidentally showing for one day only on the 14th. I'll talk about that on a separate post!

After the movie I met up with Wilus first before the gig. Wow man it's been almost 9 years since we both last met! We probably last met back in Tanglin while I was taking my O Level results back in 2010 haha. I remembered meeting with some of the Indon peeps on that day. Anyway glad to know she's doing well in Jakarta now! We had lots of catching up and also talking about music and gigs.

The gig was held in Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta. The venue is kinda small but I thought it was a good venue cause the show felt more intimate and fun, moving alongside with the other fans haha. I caught PREP last year at Kampoeng Jazz and it was such an awesome show. They sound really good live. And this gig is no different. They played all of their songs from the 3 EPs and they sound so good T_T

Ollie Weston killing it with the sax solo

Not gonna go into details but some of my favourite songs are Line By Line from their new EP, Don't Bring Me Down from Cold Fire, and to end everything, singing along to Cheapest Flight with the rest of the audience. Definitely one of the highlights of 2018! There isn't a single song that I don't like from them. So to see them play every song from the EP is really like bliss to me. 

Thank you PREP for signing my Futures EP booklet!

And Tom for the photo (sigh, I want to take a photo with the band!)

After the show there was a signing session and we were all queuing for the moment! The VIP ticket holders are given priorities to go in first so we patiently waited to go in. The 4 members of PREP are such a friendly and humble bunch! Had a good time talking to them, and Tom, the vocalist, actually remembered me from Kampoeng Jazz! He was like I think I remembered you, we were at that white tent signing stuff hahaha. No photo with the whole band but got a photo with Tom! 

Great to see you again, Wilus!

Thank you PREP for coming to Jakarta and for the incredible show. Well at least I don't have to take a cheapest flight, just a (second) cheapest train ticket to catch em live mwahaha. I hope to see you again one day in Indonesia! And also thank you Wilus for coming to the gig with me! What a great way to meet after such a long time of not meeting one another haha. All the best to you in Jakarta :)

Then I headed back to the hotel and went to do the shopping errand the next day.

Well, like I mentioned for WTF'18, music has always been my escape. It's great to take a break just for that one hour plus and enjoy some great music. To quote the song that started it all:

"I'll take one more sleepless night, and I'm on the cheapest flight to give my head a chance to clear"

Thank you PREP!

Concert Etiquette

Hello, been wanting to do this post... Or more of a rant actually haha. It's about concert etiquette that I've been bugged about, whenever I'm in a concert/music festival! Okay maybe I'm just someone who takes "enjoying music" too seriously but most of the time, these cases are too ridiculous.

So as you know I went to Hodgepodge superfest 3 weeks ago to catch Vancouver Sleep Clinic live. I've been wanting to see them live and I finally got to do so. But there are some pricks out there who were just really ruining the experience hmph. Some pricks who were chatting during the performance!

VSC music is a mix of electronic upbeat and also ethereal sounds. To me I always listen to their music at night when it is quiet and their music are just a good companion to contemplation. It annoyed me a lot when 2 groups of people were actually chatting during one of their quieter songs.

One group was this two people in front of me. They were just chatting about random stuff, about their friend who was supposed to come or something, and they were showing each other's phones to show some WhatsApp chat. All of this happened during VSC performance. As I mentioned the venue was too huge and so it felt a bit empty. Any sound you make can be heard. So I felt really annoyed at them talking (not even whispering) during VSC performance. Like can't you just wait after the song ends?

And I thought they were just checking VSC out (AKA not a fan) while waiting for time to go by. But nope, the guy waited to meet Tim and Aaron after the performance and they were like "Ohh I'm such a huge fan of you". Sure. A fan who talks during their favourite band's performance.

Another group was located a few metres beside me. Their situation was a bit embarrassing. So they were obviously having a good time chatting, also during VSC performance! -.- And I remembered I think it was during "In The End", when the music gets a bit softer, they actually broke into laughter! They received a few stares from the other audiences and were left in embarrassment. It was really annoying. I felt really bad for VSC to go through this to be honest. 

I think it's just basic courtesy to just not talk during a performance? Like what's so hard to just enjoy the music. If you need to say something then maybe whisper? Or wait until the artist finishes their song. It's just so disrespectful for you to talk in the middle of a song, in a quiet intimate setting!

Also I want to rant about the use of electronic devices. Like urgghh why can't people stop recording everything on their phones throughout the performances! Okay if you take bits and pieces here and there I am totally fine because I do that too. For me I'll just record part of my favourite songs and snap a few photos (from the entire set, not from each song heh) and that's it. I won't put my phone up in the air to record an entire song or worst, an entire set hahaha. 

I mean... Your beloved artist is right in front of you performing. Enjoy it man, what's the use of being there but not being there. Why would you want to see the artist through the screen of your phone.

And the worst is when people actually like constantly upload stories into Instagram. Dude like do you come for a concert to enjoy the music, or to let people know real time that you're in a concert heh.

Okay that's all for my rant I guess. I'm just quite sad about how concerts have become nowadays. It has become some sort of bragging rights for other people. I'm glad that there are people who really go to concert for the music and for the band. Not to show people how "cool" their life is through the screens of their phones and through their social media. Or maybe I just take things too seriously.

Alright that's all for this random Saturday post. I'm totally failing and keeping the posts number up. Though I feel happy I have marked 10 years of my blogging milestone haha. No worries I will keep blogging. Just that lots of things happened in this month, didn't really have much time to blog!

I will see you soon.

I See You

 Thank you for coming to Jakarta! <3

Hello! Sorry for not blogging for a long time, lots of thing happened and I've been quite busy too! Also I just returned from Jakarta yesterday, after catching The xx live in Jakarta for their I See You tour! I've been wanting to see them live and I am thankful for the opportunity three nights ago :D Also I went to catch them with Chris whom I haven't met in two years weeee. Good to see you again!

Anyway I went to Jakarta on Tuesday morning. Went to the airport first to fetch my brother in law's mum who came here again to see her grandson mwahaha. I went to the airport first before parting ways with them to JIExpo Kemayoran, which is the concert venue. Met with Chris straight away there as well. It's been two years since we both last met and had a great time catching up with her over pizza at the venue, and of course spending the night at the concert! :D

 It's been two years!

Two local acts opened for them, Kimokal followed by Elephant Kind. Haven't heard of Elephant Kind before (heard of their name before tho) and they're really good! Also Kimokal is amazing live as well. There was a slight delay but man, everything was so awesome when the xx came on stage! Intro got everyone hyped up and the rest of the night was just electrifying.

Okay not gonna go in details about everything but I really love the energy during the concert. You can just feel the chemistry between the three of them on stage. Although the three of them are "separated", with Jamie at the Deck, Oliver on bass and Romy on guitar, you can just feel that the three of them share a deep intimate connection throughout the night. It's amazing!

 "I'll put on a performance, I'll put on a brave face" :(

There are a few highlights of the night! Romy's solo during Performance is just so so... Heartbreaking? Performance is one of my favourite songs from their new album and to hear Romy singing it solo is really oh so... Sad. We love you Romy! And then the crowd break into a choir during I Dare You, which I find really goosebump-inducing! Indonesian crowd won't disappoint.

The live remix of Shelter is also amazing, and everyone just had a great time dancing on the concert hall mwahaha. But for me personally, the best moment of the night was dancing to Loud Places. I'm really obsessed with this song and to hear it live is just so so incredible! Had fun dancing during the chorus with everyone else. Definitely a great moment of the year for sure.

 Loud Places

Well thank you so much Romy, Jamie and Oliver for coming to Jakarta! We've been waiting for you and we definitely had fun together with you on that wonderful Tuesday night. I hope you will come see us again. After that I sent Chris home and I went back to the hotel, before returning back home the next day via train from Bogor. It was a short but definitely amazing trip!

 Thank you!

Before I end this post, I wanna share what Oliver said on stage. He said something like this:

"The thing about our concert is that I want you to take this chance to leave all the pain and sadness you have away at home. And come here to have fun with us"

It was just what I needed to hear. I was having quite a rough week before that and was looking forward to this concert to forget life for a little while. Music has always been my escape. It is the only thing that allows me to leave this world behind without the need of physically doing so.

So thank you very much The xx! Hope to see you again soon here in Indonesia! :)

Chvrches Live in Singapore 2014!

Blown away by Chvrches!

Hello again, yup I just got back from Singapore last night to watch Chvrches live! It was such a great night really, but I was so tired after reaching home last night that I knocked out right away. Anyway the concert was so great oh gosh, it was so awesome that I had a difficult time "moving on" haha. Severe withdrawal syndrome right here! But I'm just glad that I went for it. Even though it means I have to fly to Singapore to catch them. Totally no regrets!

Anyway I went to the concert with Brenda! I went to Sentosa straight and met her there as she had work. There was a queue already when I reached there. The wait went by pretty quickly and we went inside. The Coliseum is such a hot venue to hold a concert, not sure if the fans beside us are actually functional heh. But no complains, I just can't wait to see Chvrches! Riot !n Magenta opened the act and they are so good! You have a new fan here haha.

And then Chvrches came on stage! They opened their gig with "We Sink" and damn I am loving the energy. I can still remember when they entered the stage, my heart was beating so fast and I was smiling like a retard. Like oh my god, I'm finally catching them live. It's a dream come true! Haha. I am so happy that they play all of their songs from their first album, and also my favourite new song from them "Get Away". It was such a joy singing to "Gun" and dancing the night away to their music. Life was forgotten in that one hour plus or so. Pure adrenaline and endorphin really.

 Martin blowing us away with Under The Tide

Also... Brenda won a lucky draw contest by HMV where we got to meet them for a meet-and-greet (shortening it to M&G) session! It was a pair given out so Brenda and I went for it. I am just so thankful to her for this opportunity! Anyway we were instructed to move to the back of the venue "when the last song plays". But we don't know what's the last song, but we do know it's usually "The Mother We Share" so with a bit of heartache (since we love that song so much!) we moved to the back of the venue. And turned out, they played like 4 more songs! Including one of my favourites from the new Mockingjay movie - "Dead Air". But it's okay, I got to enjoy it still from the back :P

 Speechless, happy and star-struck

"point at Martin's arm on my shoulder"

The M&G session happened rather quickly after their concert. There were 2 more people who won another concert (by Universal Music I think) and we were waiting for the session to start. We entered a room where the trio were there and they greeted us. I shook hands with all of them and introduced myself. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW STAR-STRUCK I WAS. I just froze and stumble my speeches out but I was trying hard to keep my cool and tried my best to chat with them. They are such lovely lovely and friendly people! Anyway there's a funny moment in this session!

Brenda and I prepared some gifts for them. So when the M&G session organiser guy told us to exit the room, I asked if I can give my gift for them.

Me: Hi, I actually prepared some gifts for the band, can I pass it to them?

M&G Guy: *looking annoyed* why don't you give to their manager? *points at manager*

Me to manager: Oh okay... Hi this is some gifts for the band from me...

Martin: Hey don't give it to her, give it to me!

*walks briskly towards him*

Me: Hi oh yeah this is my gift for you guys... It's postcards from my country... You see I'm an Indonesian.. And there are some polaroids of my hometown and cats!

Martin: Oh wow cool, thank you so much! So you flew in here?

Me: Yeah I did!

*Time running out and we left the room*

IT WAS THE BEST MOMENT OF THE SESSION HAHAHA.

Brenda and I were so overwhelmed by the experience we couldn't speak after we left the room and we're just so excited about the whole moment! I just can't believe I actually talked to them... It's a memory I will never forget really! And once again thank you Brenda for this! All of this wouldn't have happened without you. Thank you so so so very much! :)

 Thank you for being such an awesome partner for this gig!

We left Sentosa to have dinner and then I went to her house as she has something to pass for me. Thank you for the gifts from Hong Kong and Turkey as well! I hope you enjoy drinking the Luwak coffee I gave you too. Which was supposedly for Chvrches but I was too excited that I forgot to pass it to them (silly me!). And then I made my way back to the hostel. And knocked out right away too.

 Thanks Chvrches for the amazing night!

Oh man it was such a wonderful night... I seriously can't believe that I actually talked and shook hands with one of my favourite bands (and favourite electronic band). The concert itself was so so good really. I love their energy, love Lauren's bubbliness and basically the chemistry of the band and the audience. I hope one day they'll come to Indonesia and I'll definitely be there again!

Okay I'm going to talk about my Saturday in Singapore on another post! Chvrches was so good! I can't seem to move on from the concert hah. Alright till then, see you soon!

Java Soundsfair 2014

Right so as promised, I'm gonna blog about my experience at the Java Soundsfair last Saturday! Okay so apparently the Java Soundsfair (I shall shorten it to TJS) is a new event that encompasses music and art in an indoor venue. And hopefully it's going to be a yearly event because I really enjoyed it! It's a new experience of music festival for me and I totally love the concept.

So the in TJS, there are 9 different stages with 30 over artists performing at different times on different stages. It's practically a "sounds-fair" because you get to choose to see which artists you wanna see at which time. It's kind of a bad thing if you have like 2 or more artists you wanna see at the same time but for me thankfully, no artists clash haha.

I got myself a daily pass for the second day only since I can only make it at that time. And also because all of my favourite artists are on the second day. Kinda sad I couldn't see Ran as they're performing on the first day. The artists I was looking forward to were: L'alphalpha, Weish, and Homogenic. Not only them, I was also eager to discover more artists :)

 Pandai Besi at Demajors stage

So L'alphalpha played at 7 PM but I arrived at 6 so I walked around the venue to familiarise myself with it, and to also see if there are any great acts. I went down to DeMajors room and Pandai Besi was playing. Sat down and well, really enjoyed like half of their set (I was late). After that I made my way up to Assembly 2 to catch one of my favourite Indonesian bands, L'alphalpha!

 L'alphalpha! So glad to see em live

I've always wanted to catch them live because watching their performances on Youtube is kinda hair-rising. I love their energy and their passion in their music. I was kind of hoping that the venue would be a stand-up one instead of a table-and-chairs one but it was alright, I was truly enjoying their music sitting down anyway. Was so happy to have caught them live, it's a dream come true that felt so surreal! I love Future Days a lot. It's my favourite single from them. Thanks for the music!

 Jiving to Sentimental Moods

My next artist was Weish but since I have an hour to go, I decided to grab something to eat first before heading out again. I was walking around the venue again and decided to visit DeMajors room again to catch Sentimental Moods! Wow I really love their energy, I was happily jiving and dancing to their lively music! So happy to have discovered them. Everyone was dancing to their music too.

 Weish at the main hall, blown away by her performance

So I went up and caught Weish at the main hall. I discovered Weish by watching her videos on Youtube, and I told myself I gotta see her live! Well I was really blown-away by her performance. I seriously think she's talented and Singapore should be proud to have her. I was a bit annoyed with the fact that she has to perform alongside loud music from other band performances below. The organiser needs to do a better job with soundproofing. Like maybe put the "loud" bands in a room instead of an open area so that we can enjoy the music better. But hats off to Weish for putting up a great set :)

Next.... I was supposed to catch Homogenic but I was waiting for the door to be opened (it's supposed to start at 10) and it didn't open until 10:25. I have a race to run the next day so I said screw it and I gave Homogenic a miss :( It was really sad but well, I can't sacrifice my sleep for my race so nevermind, another time it is then. So yup, that's how my Soundsfair ended on Saturday.

I enjoyed my night at TJS and I am definitely looking forward to next year's one! I hope the lineup gets better and more interesting, and I also hope that they'll do something about the soundproofing problem heh. And I hope that TJS won't clash with another event so that I can enjoy the fully. It is definitely an interesting concept and I salute them for coming up with this idea.

Also, TJS really makes me feel proud of the ever growing and changing music scene of my country. It's like the faith and hope of the music industry here (or more like the indie music scene here) is restored!

Discovering so many great bands from my homeland, enjoying music in one night, TJS is definitely a great event of the year. See you next year!

Sigur Ros Live in Jakarta!

 Sigur Ros JKT

Amazing, beyond words

Once again it's 4:06 AM and why am I here? Cause I want to blog about the most awesome concert I've been in my life and that is yes, Sigur Ros Live in Jakarta last night! It was just a truly amazing concert. I've been to their last year's concert at Singapore but I really feel this concert was better than that one heh. It's just amazing! I can't stop thinking about how awesome it is. If I were to dream about it, I won't be surprised either. I wish!

Anyway yup it's my first time watching a concert here in Indonesia. I really didn't know what to expect. And best part is? I'm watching it alone! Yes since no one at home likes this kind of music, and I know no one here who does anyway hah. And it's my first time watching a huge-scale concert alone as well. It was a good experience. Wasn't bad at all, just that waiting alone can be a bit depressing (lots of delays today) but it's alright.

Best part about watching concert alone: You can do whatever you want when watching the concert without anyone-who-knows-you judging you. If you know what/how I watched the concert, you'll find me a lunatic maybe. But tralala. There's no rule to enjoy music.

But anyway yes it was such an amazing concert oh gosh. I love the setlist, and they played new songs from their soon-to-be-out album Kveikur as well. Which some I've never heard of hehe. Kveikur and Breinnstein are lovely though. Was hoping they play Isjaki but oh well no worries.

And of course the highlight (to me) to Sigur Ros concert is Hoppipolla! And this time round, it's more amazing cause seems like the whole of Istora sang along with Jonsi to the song. It sent shivers down my spine listening to it and singing along at the same time. It's so scary and so good that I cried when the "climax" of the chorus hits. It was just so amazing. Thankfully I have immortallised the (I call it) Hoppipolla moment once again.

It's so amazing. I really hope I can see them perform again one day! :')

And I even got inspired to write a puisi (poem in Indonesian)! Here it is...

Malam ini Indonesia bernyayi
Bersama Sigur Ros di malam yang sunyi
Istora berubah menjadi sebuah mimpi
Mimpi yang selalu ku ingin hidupi
Hidup  ku lupakan
Rasa takut ku ancurkan
Hari esok ku hapuskan
Malam ini Indonesia bernyayi
Bersama Sigur Ros di malam yang sunyi
Istora berubah menjadi mimpi
Mimpi yang tak ingin ku akhiri

And once again,

Here's to to me, the greatest band on earth

TAKK!

Sigur Ros Live Singapore!

 Takk Sigur Ros!

I'm cheating now. It's 12:51 AM but who cares, 23/11/2012 has gotta be one of the best days in my life. Cause I finally get to watch Sigur Ros Live with my own freaking eyes, listen to them with my own freaking ears and just right in front of me! No longer separated by a screen or a wire. So yes it was truly a wonderful and enchanting night. It felt so ethereal and everything was like a dream. It's so wonderful! Words can't describe it really.

Okay I won't go into details but well, I met Joel (thank God he can make it!) in Funan first for dinner and then we walked over to Fort Canning. I don't know why, we reached there at 7.30 and had to wait for 1.5 hours for the concert to start. Well whatever it is, when the band came on stage, goosebumps came through me. It was just an amazing feeling.

ESPECIALLY WHEN I SAW JONSI!

Oh man it was beautiful. I must say the highlight of the concert is none other than Hoppipolla. My favourite song from the band! So you can say, I've been waiting for 3 years for this moment of listening to this song live. It was just amazing... And then they played Meo Blodnasir as usual after that, and the crowded started singing the choral part! So beautiful!

And last song. Popplagio. Just effing awesome. Okay so after they played the last song (their new song which is awesome too!), it started drizzling. They played Ekki Muk (I think) for their encore and it started drizzling. Then they played Popplagio and the rain got heavier. And people started opening their umbrellas. And then well Popplagio has a progression where the drums get louder, faster and the rhythms more complex and just... Crazy.

And the rain got heavier as the song gets crazier too! I was like screw it, I took off my umbrella and just lost myself in the music. It was just great. Everyone was dancing, clapping our hands and dubbing outselves to the beat. Just wonderful experience. It's like getting high without alcohol or drugs. Just purely by music! So nice...

I will not forget tonight. So beautiful...

And here's to (to me) the greatest band on earth.

Thank you for making my life more beautiful

You've changed my perception of music and life

Your music has inspired me where no music has inspired me before

Thank you

Takk

I Believe in Music XXX

 Thanks for coming guys! (Y)

Good evening everyone! I just got back from SP Symphonic Band I Believe in Music (IBM) XXX concert! It was a great concert, I had a great time performing on that stage, playing my heart out, though I was feeling really damn, freaking, very nervous for Indiana Jones. Cause I have a duet part! Haha. It was shaky, but well I totally gave my best there. And I played my heart out.

It was just... Lovely :)

Anyway today was a great Sunday I guess! It started with Jurong Lake Run 2012 in the morning. Gosh, I woke up late, went to the wrong place, ran around to look for the bag deposit post, ran here and there before I even began the race. But I made it in time for the flag off and I even hit my target! And I even hit it earlier by like 39 seconds hahaha. It was great though :)

I really enjoyed the run at Chinese Garden. I've always loved running in new places. The air was fresh (Cause it was raining super early in the morning) and then the lake beside you, really good. Plus I really love the community-spirit there! Random strangers cheering you beside the road, helpers from all walks of life and ages giving you high-fives and cheering you up. Love it!

It was a funny moment though when I thought the Chinese Garden gate was the finish-point gantry hahaha. Despite of all the ordeals I went before the run, I did it, I made it, and I'm a proud finisher of Jurong Lake Run 2012 6KM race! And if you ask me why do I run for? As usual my answer will be I run to overtake myself. But this time round I have another reason.

To support Children Cancer Foundation! Since the event was in support  of CCF :D

After the run I went straight to school after taking a bath and dropping my stuff. And then it began with sound checks etc. I kinda like the fact that concert starts at 4.30 instead of the usual 6.30/7.30. Cause we ended early! Hahaha. And yup thank you everyone who has came and support SP Symphonic Band IBM concert! I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did :D

 I did it :)

Well IBM XXX was truly an enjoyable concert. It was a blast, I love the songs I played. But one song that has a special place in my heart was Howl Moving Castle, especially the Merry-do-round of life part. I love it, it's a song that tells me, reminds me, teaches me so much about life. At the same time, it's my favourite song too :) Well yep.

It's quite funny after the concert, RIGHT after the concert, I'm feeling very empty and sad. And... Lonely. As if something has left me. As I hit the last note of Up, it felt weird. Like this sense of emptiness, that something just left me and I'm there feeling alone. Not that I'm alone cause no one was with me (the band room was crazy! Haha) but just that tinge of loneliness.

I guess the concert series itself, "I Believe in Music" is something so meaningful, and attached for me. I believe in music, we all do and I believe we all should. Music is a universal language we can all connect to without even learning it. Some say it's food, some say it's love. But to me, music is definitely one. So if I ask you this question, do you believe in music, and why? What would your answer be?

Mine's simple. I believe in music for the things that it lets me do. For the things that it can do. For the things that it does to me. It lets me say what the mouth can't speak yet the heart wish to express. It can make me happy, make me sad, make me free and make me mad. It allows me to do what I can't do in real life. It allows me to be free, and show the world who I am and who I want to be.

And at the same time music is also... Something. He's a my best friend when I'm sad and no one is around. He's the only non-speaking thing that can cheer me up when I'm down. He's someone I can talk to, and though he doesn't have a mouth to talk to me, he whispers and gently caresses my heart directly. He's a non living non physical thing that I truly am proud to have as a friend.

And for all of the above reasons,

I believe in music