Who's Got Talent? PRISCA!

So on Saturday, 27 April, my family together with the Kaan sisters (Sophia, Serena, Samantha) decided to support our friend Prisca at her talent competition. It was the finale round. Prisca was going to play the piano.

We reached First Baptist Church, Subang, a few minutes late, but we hadn't missed any acts yet. They were playing the video for wildcard picks. I voted for two dance acts and an instrumentalist but none of them were picked. So no one agreed with me? :(

Anyway, when they announced for all the acts to come onstage, we screamed like crazy when they said 'Prisca Leong'. We were seriously the best cheerleading section ever.

Prisca was the third or fourth one to perform, (I forgot because I was too jittery) I think, and when she came up, we were once again screaming and clapping like mad. My brother was shutting his ears and cringing because we were so...uh, embarrassing. *cough*

When she came up and introduced herself and what she was going to play, I was hanging on to her every word. She was like a star!

I remember the previous week; she asked me advice on what to play for the finale. She asked if she should play an original, but I told her she shouldn't because it was too risky and no one would be able to relate to it.

When she announced that she was going to play an original, my heart dropped. THAT LITTLE REBEL (it's ok Pris I still love you :P).

But my heart was fine after that, and beating fast with adrenaline and pride, because Prisca was amazing! Her original piece was filled with nice dynamics and cool modulations and it even had hand-crossing (I kind of forgot hand-crossing even existed). I was super duper impressed. She also is a natural performer. You could see that passion on her face and her hand movements when she played. And her songwriting skills, man... *hides my face in shame because Prisca is so talented*

After her performance, she stood up to hear the judges' comments. THEY LOVED IT. One said that it was her favorite so far. And she also said that the keyboard she was using was 'too lousy for her'. I, for one, agree. SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN EVEN MORE IMPRESSIVE ON A GRAND. *ha ha ha*

Act after act went by, some good, some not-so-good, some totally AMAZING. I have to applaud Avalanche (a team of three girls who used a book as their percussion. And btw, their harmony is PERFECT) and Rejuvenate (a six-member hip-hop team who is full of energy and creativity. Managed to entertain us all and keep us awake even though they were the last act).

While the judges discussed the results, there were performances by various people. One of the judges, the one and only Juwita Suwito, performed with another judge, a violinist. It was super nice.

And we were all just there, in suspense, waiting...

AND THE RESULTS FINALLY CAME.

*I already had in mind who were to get first, second and third, and I was right ;) *

The champions were Rejuvenate, as expected. They were simply impressive.

The second was Avalanche, and they deserve every bit of that.

AND THE THIRD WAS OUR VERY OWN PRISCA LEONG, THE TALENTED SONGWRITER/MUSICIAN.

Jajajajaja.

She got RM300, which is more than any individual in the competition. Rejuvenate and Avalanche had to split up their prize money so... MWAHAHAHA. *if Rejuvenate or Avalanche reads this, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME*

So again, congratulations Prisca! YOU DESERVE IT! :D

<3

Photos;

1. Prisca and us cheerleaders ;)

2. All the finalists

3. The talent and I!

4. The judges and Prisca

jumpshots, water guns and burgers

Yesterday was filled with fun!

20th of April, 2013 - Saturday

POOL PARTY

At about 1pm, I was already feeling excited. Zhen Yi came to fetch me from Capen to Kathy's house, where we waited for Melissa and Jynwaye. Then we headed to our party venue! ;)

the pool place.

of course, every pool party needs jumpshots. 

girls.

two-thirds of Strictly For Girls.
me, kathy, jynwaye, zhen yi, melissa and keenan (who refused to jump)

and then there's the jump-into-the-pool shot.

Kathy and I.

and then Melissa and Jynwaye insisted on having a bimbo shot.
(y)

the dudes looking fabulous in Mel's pink sunglasses.

played with water guns, a tennis ball, a soccer ball and a frisbee.
The soccer ball and the frisbee kind of flew over to one of the neighbours' houses.
We managed to retrieve the soccer ball, but were too shy to ask the same neighbour for the frisbee on the second time. So Keenan willingly gave up his frisbee.

We stopped swimming at about five something, and went back to Kathy's house, where we had...

BURGERS!

our feast

crispy buns, bacon, patties, eggs, cheese, mayo and the lettuce that doesn't seem to exist in this burger.

So after that, I slept over at Kathy's house and we watched This Means War. I fell asleep at around 1 in the morning, the earliest of us all (Melissa, Jynwaye and Kathy), because I had to wake up early the next day. My parents were fetching me at 9am. 

I woke up super early this morning, and got ready. EVERYONE ELSE WAS STILL ASLEEP AND I FELT SO AWKWARD. 

So yeah. Since this post is already so darn long, I'll use the next post for today's (Sunday) events. 

Ciao.

P.S. kudos to Kathy for most of the photos here. 

P.P.S. kudos to God for giving us amazing weather yesterday.

Games!

I decided to reserve one post just for tomorrow's events: pool party & THX Awards!

So my week was, once again, quite uneventful.

But...

Bryan, one of my close friends, downloaded on his iPad this App Of The Day called 'Amazing Fingers'. Amount of players can go up to 4. It's kind of like Twister for your fingers, but the colors move. So your fingers need to follow the colors for a certain amount of time, then you pass the level.

Seriously, it is one of the most stressful games ever. At the end of this post is a photo of a mess of our hands playing Amazing Fingers. :D

Also, he downloaded Bumper Basher, which is a game that involves bumper cars. There are three different games in it, one of it being soccer. You have to use your car to bump the ball into the goal. Two players max on each team. It was pretty fun! Addictive, too. No photo for this though; I was too caught up in the game. :P

After these few weeks, I realized how these multiplayer games have brought us closer together. We started out in 2012 with basic games like Temple Run, Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, when we just compared our high scores.

Then the guys introduced Modern Combat 2, which is a first-person shooter game. It can be played one player, and multiplayer as well, through online games or bluetooth. We even started a Whatsapp group chat just to decide when to come online to play MC2.

The guys, of course, had FIFA 12 & 13 throughout these two years.

We were obsessed with MC2 for a long time in 2012. Snipers, machine guns, rocket-propelled launchers.

Anyway, after we got over MC2 (which is this year), we started to play Worms: Armageddon 2. That's right. The ancient PlayStation and computer game. It was downloaded on Bryan's iPad though. Soon we all had it in our devices and we played single-player campaigns, comparing the levels we cleared.

While Worms was the constant addiction, we also played other games from foddy.net like QWOP, GIRP and Get On Top. There was also Magic Piano on the iPad. These were light, entertaining and hilarious games. Did not last very long.

Soon after that, we got fascinated with Hardest Game Ever 2. This app has four different stages with ten levels each. All these mini-games were ridiculous! Steps to reach the toilet bowl, slapping people, trying not to fall asleep in your food and running, jumping off a cliff. We were all hooked, trying to clear each stage.

Then came King Of Opera. This involves fat opera singers stealing the spotlight, bumping other players off the stage in the process.
The game's hilarity is added with loud, booming, opera voices. Comes with other game modes like Phantom and Fat Lady. (The Fat Lady is extremely annoying)

Amazing Fingers and Bumper Basher are the latest ones so far. I'm so glad to see that my friends enjoy time together with these games, and not in unhealthy ways. And it's good that we're not always too stressed out even during a major exam year.

So yeah! Tomorrow's the pool party and I'm so excited!

my week so far.

Thanks to all you fantastic people who have read my blog, Prime just passed 500 blog views! It might not be a lot, but it's a big deal for me. Super grateful. :)

Anyway, today was the debate with our junior class, O2. I found the debate quite pointless; not in the sense that HAVING the debate was pointless. I just thought that during the debate, both teams were going round in circles, repeating points, and generally being very nervous.

Some of us were really good. Congratulations to Melissa who, by the judges, was called the best speaker! And also, I thought Su Wen from O2 is a good speaker in terms of clarity and eye contact. Good on you for that, Su Wen. :)

SOME of us, no names mentioned, were overly nervous: missed points, rambled, "waved their notes", and... Presented a point that supported the OTHER team. Okay, fail, but oh well. It wasn't THAT serious a debate anyway.

The judges (who were Mr Eddy, our English teacher, and Ms Katherine, our principal) decided that the winning team would be...

My class.

So yay for that! :)

But hopefully there'll be another debate that talks about a more... Interesting topic. I might just try to be one of the speakers for that one! :D

And below are photos of my week so far, which I can't put in order and caption because I'm using the Blogger app on my phone. 

Photos:

1. Highlights, the magazine I'm reading now. It was my childhood magazine! ;)

2. Carmen and I

3. Melissa the best speaker

4. The judges!

5. Pretty KL sky

P.S. I've got to say that the person who sort of 'motivates' me to blog regularly is Kathy, whose room I blogged about that day. Visit her blog! Click here.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for the Pool Party post! ;)

worship.

So hello!

The highlight of this week is probably going to be:

1. The debate with our junior O-Level class tomorrow. (good luck, guys);

2. A pool party with some of my closest friends this Saturday afternoon (expect a blog post about this!);

3. THX Awards, an award show by and for the members of my church (the said blog post will include this too); and

4. The teens' hangout at my church on Sunday.

What a great weekend to look forward to. :)

My previous week was really quite uneventful, besides the fact that I...

PLAYED IN MY CHURCH'S WORSHIP TEAM FOR THE FIRST TIME!

I was beyond excited. It'd been ages since I played the keyboard on stage, with a full band. And I thought this would be a great way to use my talents to glorify God.

Worshipping Him by playing a musical instrument really stirs the Spirit, although it doesn't require words. I let the chords and riffs reverbrate in my ears. I let the sound of a whole congregation in worship lead me toward praising my God. The Holy Spirit speaks to me when I'm up onstage; but it really feels like I'm playing music alone to honour God.

I was extremely nervous, at first. I was new, I was the youngest in the band, and everyone else was skilful. I thought I'd be judged, criticised, looked down upon.

Was I more wrong! The fellow musicians helped me, allowed me to make my mistakes and taught me to learn from them, and I had a great time playing with the talented musicians. Jokes and laughter filled the night of worship practice.

On Sunday, the worship leader bought McDonald's for all of us, for breakfast. Digging out food from two large Family Meals, we talked and laughed as I tried to calm my nerves. I almost couldn't finish my Sausage Egg McMuffin.

But then I thought, hey, this isn't a performance for the people. I don't have to impress anyone. So what if I make a mistake? God wouldn't look at these minor details if my worship was sincere. All I had to focus on was on Him, and Him only.

Sure enough, I wasn't so jittery after that. II prayed a few times and God really helped me to calm down. I even managed to finish my burger. I played not bad for a first-timer, with some mistakes here and there. And it felt great to be able to play with a band again.

just in time

As usual, Nancy keeps me in late. Her blazer still shows no sign of creasing, and every strand of her hair is glued in place. My ponytail is coming undone and my calves are aching from standing, manning the booth for the past eight hours. She has her back straight, legs still full of energy. She bounces about like a hyperactive five-year-old, shooting orders at us just before we leave our dungeon (i.e. workplace). 

Nancy is my boss. The worst boss I've ever worked under. She is a dictator; someone who gives no hoots about our personal lives. She likes making us work overtime, whether we like it or not. I, for one, am rushing to get home. I beg her with my soul and she finally lets me go.

I leap through the automatic doors, leaving the air-conditioned hall. Exhaust fumes from the usual five o'clock traffic hit my face and I give a little cough. Complaining with each step in my pumps, I run toward my car. I jump into my battered Toyota, shove the key into the ignition and rev it up. Driving home at ninety kilometers per hour, I finally reach my home-near-the-beach.

Shrugging off my blazer and kicking my pumps away, I lunge toward the window, expecting my usual scene. I rip the curtains apart, and there I see it. 

Just in time for the sunset. 

my internet-less week

I did it! So, so proud of myself.
Okay, it's not much, but I managed to go without internet access since Monday evening till yesterday evening. When I switched my Wi-Fi on (on my phone, that is), this is one of the notifications I received.

FEELIN' THE LOVE.

And here goes this week's events.

MONDAY

Suddenly had this clown doodle fetish.
Cute, innit? ;)

Took this picture, wanted to post it on Instagram, but GUESS WHAT?
No Wi-Fi for five days, and I was going to keep that. 

TUESDAY

Our Term Test started on Tuesday, 2 April. 

Had English Paper 1, which was COMPLETELY unexpected.

Also had Biology test.

First test for this Term Examination was English Paper 1.
We didn't even expect this. 

As usual after school, I followed Kathy home. FIRST ONE TO SEE HER TRANSFORMED ROOM, YAY.

There's Kathy's room with the new light pink walls, new bedsheets and from-white-to-pink study table. :D

My favourite wall in her room. Soft corkboards; iPhone covers and Instax photos. :) 

Kathy's favourite iPhone covers.
Ted Baker, studs, anchors and helium balloons are just some of Kathy's favourite stuff. :D

And then there's the bunch of Polaroid photos.
Gotta love them. 

Wednesday was uneventful except for Accounts Paper 1 but whatever. 

THURSDAY 

Special day, because it's...

MELISSA'S BIRTHDAY!

And today was the day that a few of us wore red, because of... certain reasons. ;) 

Sheralyn, Netanya, me and Carmen.

Also in conjunction with Mel's birthday, Kathy brought her Instax camera and we snapped some group photos! :)

My group of friends, also known as Strictly For Girls. 
Back: Keenan, Zhen Yi, Bryan.
Middle: Florence, Jynwaye, Kathy, Melissa.
Front: Carmen and me. 

There's also us, known as KFCM2J.
That's Kathy, Florence, Carmen, Melissa, Jynwaye and me. :)

Gotta love my friends! :D

and...

FRIDAY! 

Yesterday was definitely the highlight of the week. :D

Melissa did not know about this. She had only planned to watch a movie and have dinner with her sister, her sister's friends and Kathy. Little did she know that we were gonna SURPRISE HER DURING DINNER! :D

But before that, we had an add math test (oh, the horror). Jynwaye, Zhen Yi, Florence, Bryan and I, after finishing our tests, came out of class and quickly went into Jyn's dad's car, so that Mel wouldn't see us all leaving together. Jyn's dad dropped us at Florence's house where we...

PLAYED PLAYSTATION!

Florence's jurassic game console; not even PS1. It was the LEGIT PlayStation.

We played games like Metal Slug, Street Fighter, and Crash. Played like a few bazillion rounds of Crash with Zhen Yi because he kept winning and I HAD to win a few times. I'm a sore loser like that.

At around 7:30pm, we left Florence's house and headed to Grind Burger Bar, where Mel and her friends were having dinner. 

We kind of got lost along the way, because the restaurant is quite hidden. Anyway, we got there quite late, and by the time, Melissa had LOST ALL HOPE OF US SURPRISING HER. So the plan went perfectly.

Anyway, after many rounds and corners, we finally reached...

The Grind Burger Bar!

We walked in one by one and Melissa was REALLY surprised. So yay!

We were all starving so we quickly placed our orders, and after I did, I switched on my Wi-Fi, getting those 900+ Whatsapp messages. Have never seen that big a number on my phone before!

My Wild 'Shroom burger came, and it was DELICIOUS. They serve burgers on chopping boards, which is totally original. Check it out: 

My Wild 'Shroom Burger.

The burger and the fries were delicious, by the way. ARE YOU SALIVATING YET? 

The night went on, full of jokes, and laughter, and knives (don't even ask), and fist-bump & high-five jokes. Melissa's sister and her sister's best friend are hilarious, and the whole restaurant was just filled with our laughter. Our table was right in the middle some more. The manager would have kicked us out if not for our RM200+ bill! This is what happens when "two retarded groups of friends collide," Mel said.

And here it is! The photos!

The birthday girl and I! 

Our Strictly For Girls group, without Carmen. :(

Yup! So there are the highlights of my week.

Oh, and Zhen Yi just posted this on Twitter, and thought it'd be worth sharing here. :D

"Best friends :)"

NGAWWWW.

:')

P.S. Time to watch some American Idol. Yippee.

Of large church buildings, doodles and guitars.

photo by Cheryl, sister of a friend.

Just so you know, CCC stands for Calvary Convention Center, also known as the new Calvary building. It's astounding, to step into the few-thousand-seater auditorium, complete with rows of spotlights, thick theater curtains, smoke machines and cinema chairs. 

Big, big audience.

Went there today to watch their Easter musical, Heaven & Earth Rejoice! It was pretty grand, the whole presentation; large choir, groups of angelic dancers, great actors as well as soloists. The musicians were fantastic!

Calvary Church, as usual, presented the traditional Easter story, with Jewish characters and majestic angels and Roman soldiers. People clad in white flooded the stage and melodious voices bounced around the sanctuary.

Opening scene!

Crucifixion scene! 

Finale :)

Cast photo!

Group photo with my friends :)
From left: Me, Kathy, Keenan, Bryan, Zhen Yi and Melissa.
Carmen, Jynwaye and Florence aren't in this photo! Carmen and Florence were both in CCC but we didn't get to meet up with them. Jynwaye was too busy partying ;D

Went out for dinner with them except for Mel.
Chilly Pan Mee and Chatime!

YESTERDAY:

Studying induces boredom. Boredom induces drawing.
Am I even using "induce" correctly?


THURSDAY:

MIGFEST 2013.
A guitar festival.
Watched amazing international guitarists boast their talents on a Malaysian stage :D

And there's the highlights of my week. :)

Thanks for reading!

Ciao.