Dear Dayre,
Saturday is usually my busiest day of the week, which is why I don't usually feel that happy about TGIF though the rest of the world is rejoicing at the arrival of the weekend 😴
Usually, I start my day early on Saturday morning, with pop vocal classes (I teach them at Imagine Music), followed by four hours long rehearsal with the #SYCensembleSingers in the afternoon.
So by the time 6.30 hits, I'm super glad that the long day is done and I can go for a nice dinner.
I typically get looks of surprise and bewilderment when people find out about the amount of time I devote to music, what with already having to manage two very time-intensive jobs: running #TheVelvetDolls and blogging.
Generally, people think that running an online business is easy and blogging is even easier, but it's safe to say that it's wrong on both counts, both jobs are a real challenge to me, especially when I need to juggle advertorial deadlines amidst planning photo shoots, editing photos for both the blog and the shop, attending events (the most lay chey part is making up and dressing up seriously) and ten thousand more things that make their way into my schedule every week 😰
But anyway, before any of these actually came into existence, music and singing have already been a huge part of my life.. In fact, ever since I can remember, I've loved to sing, and my sisters and I grew up in a household that loved belting out karaoke tunes, I think I inherited the love for singing from my mum hehehe 🎤
I joined the choir since Primary School, and continued singing in a choir all the way til I graduated from Secondary School!
So when people ask me when I started singing or how I learnt to sing it's always difficult for me to give an answer.
Funnily enough,
Singing is also how I met YZ: we got to know each other at a 民歌餐厅 where he was managing part-time, and I was spending a lot of time hanging out at cos my fellow pop music classmates were taking part in some singing contest there.
Along the way, we kind of discovered that both of us could sing hahahaa and have been each other's best duet partners ever since!
A random duet we recorded a couple years ago! We even took part in a televised singing competition together too, lol. Good old days!
YZ does have a very mesmerizing voice though. You should hear him sing! 😻
I don't know why I love to sing or love music so much. I think it's got to do with emoting and the way music is a language so universal, there's so much more in a harmonic chord or dissonant melody than words could ever describe. I don't always understand what the music means, especially in choral music, but in some way, my mind and body recognizes and connects with the music on a subconscious level.
Singing is where I seek pleasure, solace, comfort and beauty, all in one.
That being said,
Every Saturday is still a struggle to get through two hours of vocal teaching and then four hours or more of physically exhausting, musically challenging, and mentally taxing singing. Especially now when we're preparing for an upcoming concert at Esplanade Concert Hall.
Thankfully I don't have to teach today, which is a relief. So it's gonna be full-on four hours of singing later! I promise to share more if I'm allowed to take videos heh.
Come and attend our concert!!
"And enjoy the beauty | All the joy and beauty | That a merry Christmas can bring to you!"
End of another rehearsal, which brings us closer and closer to the actual concert day in less than two weeks time! It's gonna be super intensive rehearsals next week on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I hope I survive 🙏🙏🙏
Something just happened to me, that I want to share about!
I picked up a $50 note on the pavement while walking home from the bus stop! 🙀
My face was like this:
Because funnily enough,
I've just donated $60 today, $50 to a donation drive through my choir for Charis (a Filipino catholic organization) that's raising funds for Typhoon Haiyan, as well as $10 to an ex-convict who approached me outside the train station.
It feels so strange, because just as I picked up the note, I was on the phone with @withlovetricia, who told me she had recommended me to a friend for a blogging opportunity coming my way, literally out of nowhere!
What a coincidence, no?
Is this an example of "Give, and it shall be given unto you"..?
I don't know, but I sure feel like a blessed child! 💫
Exactly how I look like now, lounging on my sofa and about to turn in for an early night!
Current read: Looking For Alaska (just finished re-reading The Hunger Games trilogy now I just wanna watch the movieeeeee)
Tomorrow's gonna be an interesting day… Tell y'all more tomorrow! 🙊