Trip to Singapore to receive the COMPASS Young Composer of the Year and the Wings of Excellence Award [18th May - 24th May 2007]

Photo courtesy of The Straits Times. Copyrighted material.



Papa and Mummy picked me up from Changi on Friday,
the 18th of May at 6 a.m and since it was too early
for breakfast,we went for morning mass at St. Iggies.
That was nice. I looked at the Tabernacle and felt
awed that the God that made those twinkling stars
that I'd seen from 30,000 feet up outside my plane window,
was willing to humble himself to be present in that little
golden box.

One of the highlights of the flight was just looking out
the window and seeing the stars outside....so many stars
with the cloudy milky way curving around the background;
and just to think, that He made it all, perhaps, I'd like to
think, just so I could look out the plane window that night
and enjoy the beauty of the constellations.

I had a good week in Singapore.

The COMPASS music awards was held on Sunday, the
20th of May. The soundcheck was scheduled for 1 p.m
and it went well. The piano was set up below the main stage
and the microphone they gave me was the Shure Beta 87A.

The event was scheduled to start in the evening around 7 p.m
and Papa, Mummy and I got to the venue at 6.30 p.m

We shared a table with the members of the band Electrico
and it was nice to meet up again with Desmond, Amanda,
and William. The last time I had seen them was when
I went to support their gig in Los Angeles. Marcia,
Electrico's manager was also there and it was lovely
to catch up with her too. It's such a small world.
When we met in Los Angeles, we realised that we
were both from RGS, and just a year apart in age.



Danny Yeo was hosting the event and it was great
to catch up with him too.

It was also great to see Iskandar Ismail and his wife
again and I also met with a friend I hadn't seen
in 16 years, Corey Nonis.

[Corey and I chatted and said we'd meet up
the next time I was back in Singapore.
I was shocked when I received the news just a week
after we met, that he had passed away from kidney
failure. How sudden the hand, the swift hand of death.
Now I wish I had put aside some time to meet up with
him while I was still in Singapore.
It definitely drives home the realisation that
we should not put off anything we plan to do today,
for tomorrow might not arrive in the way we expect it to.]

The rest of the evening went well, although the event
stretched to pretty late into the night.

It felt good to be affirmed by my music peers in Singapore
and it was great to receive the awards for 'Young Composer
of the Year' and the 'Wings of Excellence' award, an award
given to recognise the musical contributions of the award-recipient
to the regional music scene. I was glad that Papa and Mummy
were there to share my joy and Papa was so sweet when
he mentioned later that my awards were the best birthday
present I could have given him. *grin* (his birthday was the day
after the award ceremony)

I performed two songs as the last performer of the
evening and sang 'Journey' and 'Beautiful Seed'.
It went well and I was glad.


The rest of the week was spent catching up with friends.
I also had another appointment to do a post-ablation
check up with Dr. Teo and I did a threadmill test
to make sure my heart was back on track.

It's funny how taking a threadmill test makes
one feel like a hamster on a wheel. There was
a poster of some painting of a scenic forest image on the
wall in front of the threadmill, giving me something
to focus on as the speed of the threadmill got
faster and faster. It was funny also to see that
there were padded cushions positioned on the wall
behind the threadmill. I guess some unfortunate
soul had lost his footing and fallen off and hit
the wall behind the threadmill and so the cushions
were placed there as a precaution.

I managed to get up to 100% of my maximum heart rate
and so that was good that I passed the test
and that my heart tested out o.k.
Definitely helps with giving me a greater peace
of mind.

The next day, I had a photo-shoot and interview
with Vanilla Magazine, a new magazine for Singapore
women in their 30's and Sandy came over to the house
in the morning to help with my hair and make-up.

We then went over to Holland Village, to Bunalun
where I also met with Vivienne and her son Rowan.
They were also going to be featured in the photos.
It's hard to smile and laugh on cue. The photographer
wanted photos of Vivienne and I chatting and laughing
as we usually do when we meet up. We ended
up coming up with a word to help us smile! Everytime
the photographer got ready to snap our photo, we would
both say, "Spicy!" instead of "Cheesy", which is
probably how we felt...


But altogether, we had fun and it was lovely to
meet up with everyone and also to take photos
with Vivienne and Rowan. I can't wait to see
how the photos turn out.

I flew back to L.A on the 24th of May and
had jet-lag for about a week. Altogether
an eventful trip.