a great year ahead!

yikes... was hoping to do a post on new year's day, but now the date to this post will show 2nd jan. i know i can always tinker with the date, but nvm lar...

ok, have not been blogging for sometime. so let's talk abt my christmas first. or rather, the few days before christmas.

the friday before christmas was to be my last working day of the year, coz i was to go on 'leave-clearing' leave from christmas to new year. but since i would be out of office for more than one week, i was not able to finish up all my job-in-hand on time. ok lar, i admit i'm inefficient lar... hehe... anyway, i stayed back in the office until 9.45pm! dang, i was the only person on my floor and it was so scary! i had to keep calling the building management to make sure they keep the lights on! actually i did not finish my work at 9.45pm, but i decided to fled when 2 security guards came up to jot down my ic number and told me all the lights will be switched off at 10pm!

staying back at work meant i had to miss wk's hen's night. i was supposed to go over to wk's house for her hen's night, then stay overnight to be her 'ji-mui' for her wedding the next morning. in the end, wk only had 5 'ji-mui' instead of 6... shucks! i was so looking forward to playing kk out!

neeways, the few of us gco players played the wedding march for kk's and wk's wedding ceremony in bk. this is the first time the song's been played live for any wedding in bk, so it's a proud moment for all of us! but i think our wedding march piece was too long, or maybe the bride and groom walked too fast. coz after only the 3rd line (abt 12 bars), they've reached the front of the hall and just stood there waiting for us to finish, so that they can sit down! kk said it's one of the most torturing moment, coz for once in his life, he can only stand in front of us and watch and can't pick up a baton to conduct us! hahaa... later, after the ceremony proper, we were supposed to present a short piece for the bride and groom. but at the mc's announcement, kk said jokingly that he wanna play also. i immediately offered my cello to him, asking him to join us. everyone else joined in to get him to play. well, he needed little persuading anyway! haha... in the end, wp gave up her cello to kk and ll offered her violin to wk. and the bride and groom played palladio with us! i think this is also the first time the bride and groom were in the performance for their own wedding ceremony! haha... needless to say, cameras were clicking away like crazy!

now this is what i call passion for music. even getting married also can't let go of ur instruments!


newliweds playing palladio with us (pls excuse the crappy sound. video was taken with a phone)


lh very excitedly competed with the gals for the bridal bouquet!


sat night was the wedding dinner... for me, i think this will be the most memorable wedding dinner yet! it's memorable not because it's at any posh hotel or restaurant, nor the food mouth-wateringly delicious, nor the whole dinner set-up super amazingly grand. it's memorable because most of the gco members were there (we had 3 tables) and everyone was so sincerely happy for the new couple. gosh, our 'yam-seng' were enough to bring down the house! and at one point of the dinner, we spontaneously decided to have all the gco members up on the stage to sing a song for the new couple. but seeing all of us going up on stage and hearing the mc announce 'ALL gco members', the newliweds also got up on the stage with us! i've never felt so touched singing 'peng-you' ('friends' by emil chow) before in my life. everyone was singing (and shouting) away, so proud to be a part of gco, the spirit of comradeship literally oozing from our every pore! i was struggling hard to keep my tears from falling!

sunday, christmas eve. at first, a few of my gco friends were thinking of planning something. but somehow, everyone was bz and also like no mood for any big plans... so in the end, we decided to just get together at some ulu western makan place (to avoid the kl jam and crowd) and that's it. then at the last minute, i found out that the housemates will not be in on christmas eve, so we got everyone to meet at my place instead. we did a pot-luck kinda thing, played some cards and mahjong, exchanged gifts, drank some wine, talked a bit, laughed a lot... all in all, it was a fun and simple christmas eve gathering, albeit some tiny problems with parking at my apartment.

then on christmas day, i decided that i simply HAD to get into office to settle some stuff. don't really like to leave my stuff for my clgs to settle... so went back to the office for abt 3 hours before rushing back again to pack my bag to go home for my long leave. so that's how i spent my christmas day... at work, and a quiet wine and kacang session with the family at night.

nothing much happened at home. lots of tv (even crap ones) and sleep... so zooooommm! fast forward.....

came back to kl on sat, 30th dec. came back early even tho' work only starts on the 3rd, coz have rehearsal for our new year gongyo performance. rehearsal went ok, followed by extra practice after dinner. then when we were packing up at the end of our practice, N suddenly asked if i wanna go out for drinks the next night. we didn't really plan to have any celebration initially... everything was just impromptu. so i asked our usual gang and bang! we have a new year's eve plan! haha...

we decided to try out a new cafe in an almost ulu place, again, to avoid the kl jam and crowd. but as it turned out, the place was quite happening when we got there. apparently, a whole big family has taken up 1/2 the place, and we only managed to get a regular round table (for 9 of us!). first, we just sat around, talked, played uno (provided by the cafe), had some drinks and finger snacks... but as it neared midnight, things started to heat up. most of the patrons (NOT including us) were already running around spraying each other with those party spray thingy.

things got really crazy after the countdown, so we decided to move to a quieter place where we can sit and eat real food and have a decent conversation ---> the mamak shop at the end of the block from the cafe. it's a good thing we made our escape fast, coz as we were walking towards the mamak, police cars began to arrive at the cafe. well, those kinda parties were not our cup of tea anyway.

at the mamak, we did some serious planning for gco. and i was so proud of N who volunteered to lead the spring cleaning of the gco room... finally, i can see she's getting more involved and making herself a part of gco!

new year's day... we only performed for the afternoon session this year, so i got to sleep in a bit. overall, i can say the performance was a victorious one. we're going to set a tradition of playing strauss's pieces for new year's day. so this year, we started with 'thunder and lightning', strauss's polka piece. i was so happy to see wy keeping her promise to join the performance. and i was also very happy and proud to see N hurrying me to faster-faster put down my cello before she went on ahead of me to kneel down to do the new year gongyo! on her own free will! without me telling her to! *beam*

too bad din take any pics of our christmas eve and new year's eve escapades... dunno y, but lately, i find myself really lazy to handle the camera. unless it's other ppl's camera lar. then i dun mind posing! haha...

so that's my christmas and new year story. no crazy party or anything special. just some quiet time (ok, maybe not exactly quiet) spent simply with a bunch of great friends... and i dunno, but i have this feeling that this year would be a great year! filled with challenges, no doubt, but great all the same!

here's a very humungous new year wish to everyone!