silver strings

Sunday, April 26, 2009

I'm staring at my computer screen as usual, drinking Berocca (it's a supplement of vitamin C and B complex, and I usually take it when I'm stressed), and thinking...

Don't you think a relationship needs some fizz in it once in a while?

Today I had in mind to do something for princess to wrap up her week, which has been none too pleasant. So I surprised her by showing up after her rehearsal with food, as she had not been eating properly all afternoon.

Here's the royal supper I delivered:

1. Grilled fish and mashed potatoes
2. Spicy Korean rice cakes
3. Some really special bubble tea
4. A six-pack of Chewy Juniors

Truly a feast fit for a queen. Of course, when it finally reached her mouth it was mostly cold, thanks to me not noticing I was holding the fish next to the bubble tea. The rice cakes had gone a bit rubbery, but she didn't mind, thankfully, because they were still suitably chewy.

On my birthday was some 5 days ago, she gave me a bar of 85% dark chocolate, as well as a beautiful handwritten graphic score:

Photo taken from her blog.

It's the little things that couples do for each other which mean so much, isn't it?

The Prof :: 10:46 AM

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Next week is exam registration. And with it comes the fun part: Lecturer Evaluation. Now, to make it really fun, this is what you should fill in for RK:

Under 'How do you think this lecturer can improve'...

1. Get her facts right. (You can choose not to write this if you are not strong in History.)

2. Manage her time better. I think she's improving, though.

3. Stay far, far away from iLearn. NAFA would ban her from it if RA happens to read the crap she puts up on the server...

4. Think before she sets questions. Oh, the overlap. Oh, the repeats. Oh, the horrible difference in standard. Oh, and I HATE LUCKY DRAW-STYLE HISTORY.

5. Do not sneak questions on the students. Does anyone really expect us to keep our eyes glued to iLearn for her next homework update? We have lives, you know, unlike someone.

6. Give homework WHEN school starts, not BEFORE. Actually the only major victim of this questionable ethic is princess, but this is related to point 5. When school starts on January 12 and you give homework on New Year's Day, what are you trying to prove? School hasn't officially started, so what's this crap? It's not holiday homework either, because it wasn't given at the start of the hols.

7. Give less homework, for Christ's sake. Does any of the Year 1s realize that History was 2 credits last academic year? They bumped it up to 3 this year, to reflect the overly heavy workload. It is NOT a cue for her to further increase it.

8. Express herself clearly. Is there anyone in NAFA who was never confused by her myriad of assignments, with instructions only half typed in? And then penalized for it?

9. Grow some brains. 'Nuff said.

Rebecca... Have you been praying?

No, you have not.

You have been cut off from the Lord... for He is trying to tell you not to oppress your fellow man, and you do not hear. Think about it... You said that pleasing God is all that matters. But is it? Jesus's message was one of love, after all. So where is your love for your students? Sneaking assignments on them via internet... Giving unclear instructions... and cryptic replies when they actually do make an effort to find out what you actually want.

Do you think this is pleasing to Him?

James 1:5

'If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.'

So ask God for some of the wisdom that you are in such great need of.

The Prof :: 12:02 PM

Friday, April 17, 2009

Here's how it went: I was sick yesterday, and slept the morning in. I went to school for Chinese quartet (gaohu, erhu, zhonghu, cello) rehearsal. Couldn't make it in time to grab a bite before we started, which meant my first meal of the day was in the region of... 6pm? I seriously don't even remember what I ate. o_o

Similarly, princess slept in that day (talk about telepathic couples) and spent the day at home. However, food proved to be a challenge, as there was no one at home to look after her, and she ended up eating almost nothing but horrible canned sardines.

I feel so bad I didn't go right to her house and bring her out for supper...

So, with the both of us having eaten poorly, I decided I wanted to pamper the little princess today, and indulge her (and myself) with tasty food. Yeah. Basically splashed out on her to compensate for a day of mistreatment of her stomach.

I also ended up eating far more than I do in a typical day.

....................

Barely made it in time for the last Theory lesson of the day, so no time for breakfast, but as I was walking along The Verge (formerly Tekka Mall), I made it a point to stop and grab-n-go...

8.55am OLD CHANG KEE

Fried sushi-on-a-stick $1.50

LTH giving us a pep talk during Theory made me bored and hungry. Perhaps princess passed the bottomless-stomach syndrome to me. Couples influence each other, after all. So I found myself joining Wee Kiat, Evelyn and Kai Xin for a real breakfast.

10.00am BURGER KING

Enormous Omelet Sandwich meal $6.75 (if I'm not wrong)
(with small hashbrowns and coffee, unsugared)

The BK omelet sandwich rocks. CT and I would definitely eat it all day if it was available. Strangely though, fast food chains don't offer any egg items outside of breakfast. I wonder why this is so? Also, I'm scared of the Breakfast King (which is what the other three ate) because the last time I ate one, I had a stomach upset the whole morning. Probably the mayonnaise.

After breakfast, I ran some endless rounds photocopying the newspaper article and then plonked myself in the lab to compose, but before I could get any work done, a call from princess sent me scurrying out of the lab and into the open. She was arriving soon.

I met her halfway along the way at The Cathay, and she was hungry, so we were definitely in for a good time for lunch.

12.45pm MAX CAFE

Roast beef with pumpkin soup, potato salad and vegetables
Poached fish with pumpkin soup, potato salad and vegetables
Apple crumble
Tiramisu $28.10

A satisfying lunch which put princess in a good mood for the afternoon. The only gripe was the Goodyear-style beef - or was it Bridgestone? Princess wisely ordered the fish, which was really well done according to her, and definitely worth it. The apple crumble lacked cinnamon, but the tiramisu was pretty good, strong stuff.

At around 2, princess went for class while I played secret agent and sneaked Edward into school, where his girlfriend was auditioning that day. He intended to give her a surprise, but almost missed her when she made her exit really fast. Princess wanted to eat again when she knocked off from class at 3, so...

3.00pm TEACLY FOOD SHOP

Fruit plate - red dragon, persimmon, pineapple, honeydew $3.00 (she paid)

Red dragon is one of our favourite fruits, and for those who don't know what it is, it's actually a brilliant purple dragon fruit. It's becoming increasingly popular among the health-conscious because one look at it and you know it's freaking packed with antioxidants. I mean, just look at the colour!

We had the pleasure of converting the afternoon into a homework date again, and this time we walked to Esplanade. The weather was pretty hot in the mid-afternoon, and we realized that it's been a long time since we had this together:

4.00pm AZABU SABO

Rum and raisin ice cream $5.30

At Esplanade, we scrounged for printed material on the composers Schubert and Gluck. Information on the latter was notoriously hard to find (when did you last see a book dedicated to Gluck?) but surprisingly, info on Schubert was also pretty scarce. Too many people doing the Trout Quintet for homework? It's anyone's guess.

We reached Dhoby Ghaut for dinner, where I could make a quick break back to school for Chinese ensemble rehearsal at night, while she could hop on the train home.

6.10pm CAFE CARTEL

Grilled dory
Pan-fried linguine $28.15

This was princess's second serving of fish for the day, and she sure was happy. I had my favourite (though a tad expensive, we both reckoned) pan-fried linguine.

Chinese ensemble rehearsal pissed me off somewhat, due to some problems with the singers. After rehearsal, we went out for supper:

9.30pm McDONALD'S

Filet O'Fish student meal $5.95
(with fries and hot latte upgrade)

Oh my. This really took the biscuit. I think my waist size probably grew by a full inch.

The Prof :: 10:25 AM

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Yes! I did it! Managed to html my way into a new skin for this little blog. Just so you know, I do have quite the phobia of HTML, though I can usually guesswork my way by studying and imitating the code which is already written.

Theory today was boring, but PS livened the day up as Z. said we all did well and told us to go celebrate.

Platform was pretty good. Woodwinds today. Had a nice selection of repertoire this time round, and not too long, which seems to be a common problem with string/wind/brass platforms.

Composed for a while in the lab while princess took off to Bugis with Van, who later dropped by school and had the honour of being the first Crossbearer to hear NAFA's finest cello/piano duo live.

Followed princess to Sengkang for teaching in the evening, as she was attempting to lug her laptop home, and bore the load for her as usual, as a loving boyfriend should. <3

Antonio's to-do list seems quite long, so I've to wrap this up now, before tackling:
1. Laundry
2. Help princess with SAS
3. Bloody multimedia homework. There goes my sleep again.

I can't say I like this module much.

The Prof :: 10:49 AM

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

[Note: The author has adapted a certain author's style of writing for this particular blog post.]

Crazy day today. Felt and behaved a bit vindictively. However, people have been taking advantage of princess's soft heart and inability to say no, so it's up to me to ~~mark them for extermination~~ give them a piece of my mind, Antonio-style.

Someone asked her to sight-read the fourth movement of the Trout quintet because their pianist couldn't make it for performance class. I was pretty angry when she was frantically sight-reading it through lunch hour, when I wanted to eat with her - basically just to make sure she didn't neglect her meals.

When I finally managed to pull her out for a quick ~~kiss~~ lunch of noodles and dumplings at 130 (her next class was at 2), I was very angry and told her I wanted her to refuse. I had two reasons for doing so:

1. She WILL get scolded, because it's not like VH cares if she's sightreading. Of course, her sensitive soul won't be able to take it.

2. I don't want VH to have a negative impression of her which she doesn't deserve. Next time when I take her onstage, he might nitpick on her.

By and by, she asked me to ask him whether it was ok if they went on without a pianist. I called and he didn't pick up, so I smsed him:

'Later you guys are going on without a pianist. See ya.'

A tad more forceful than she'd have liked, of course. But I think she was secretly glad her prince charming saved her from impending disaster. No one deserves to waste their lunch hour frantically sight-reading and then get ripped to shreds. I told her it was God's test for her to stand up for herself, and she just failed it.

...

After performance class, princess wanted to go to Esplanade to look for information, so we converted the afternoon into a homework date, our first since... I can't remember when. I only remember we've scrapped plans for at least two dates so far. We went to Max Brenner's for chocolate before starting work. The Whipped Granite choctail (dark chocolate, $8.90) was mildly disappointing, while the Mocca (also with dark chocolate, $6.90) contained very little coffee, but just enough to give the flavour more breadth.

We edited viva voce notes and scrounged for magazine articles in the much-revamped Esplanade library, but before we knew it it was 6 plus and we headed back to school because I had Chinese ensemble rehearsal, whereupon princess plonked in a studio to practise and I spent two merry hours ~~making fun of the conductor~~ rehearsing.

After rehearsal, I went to find princess and ~~threw someone out of the room for disturbing her~~ went home together with her. I usually send her to the MRT gate, but today I ended up taking the MRT with her, then taking the LRT with her, then finally sending her to her doorstep. Shows ~~how little willpower I have~~ how much I love her.

Wrap up time. PS and Theory await.

COFFEE...

The Prof :: 10:36 AM