After flip-flopping over my decision, I finally convinced myself to skip lessons(for the first time) to go catch Alan Gilbert's masterclass with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra at NUS. It was a difficult decision to make after i had pondered and re-pondered over whether to attend that (probably) once in a life-time masterclass. (Do note that the occurence of conducting masterclasses in singapore follows a statistical poisson distribution with a natural rate of 1 class per year Poisson~( 1 ) )Yes, it's official. I'm officially diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. Not that it's anything obviously amiss when you see me, probably I look all normal to you. But to me, my face don't feel the same anymore - my facial muscles are no longer symmetrical during contraction,I can't smile without feeling awkward, it's blur vision in my right eye, and I feel even more dejected when I start thinking about no longer being able to play the flute.
I guess you're wondering what's Bell's Palsy,here's a short excerpt from Wikipedia:
Bell's palsy is a paralysis of cranial nerve VII (the facial nerve) resulting in inability to control facial muscles on the affected side. Several conditions can cause a facial paralysis, e.g., brain tumor, stroke, and Lyme disease. It is thought that an inflammatory condition leads to swelling of the facial nerve. The nerve travels through the skull in a narrow bone canal beneath the ear. Nerve swelling and compression in the narrow bone canal are thought to lead to nerve inhibition, damage or death. No readily identifiable cause for Bell's palsy has been found.
Prognosis: 33% full recovery, 33% partial recovery, 33% no recovery. Which one will I fall into?
I spent a day at the hospital yesterday getting my eye probed into and myriad of muscle checks by doctors and eye specialist. Menacing microscope-like apparatus that shines bright light into your pupil is something you would never want to try. But then again it's the thought of not being able to play dizi again that really makes you feel..
I need to ease my fears.
Coincidentally, while travelling on the bus home today, I saw this short clip on TV Mobile featuring Paralympic Equestrian Bronze Medallist Laurentia Tan (who had cerebral palsy and profound deafness). Her will to be speak despite being deaf and courage to stand and start walking is something really inspiring. Hmm, maybe Bell Palsy don't seem so bad after all.

The 1st Prize performance at prize winner's concert.
During our last days in London, I spent most of my time catching up on the places which I didn't manage to visit while I was having fever at the beginning of the trip. Here's some photos that I took,
From top to Bottom(left to right) : Tower Bridge, Royal Observatory at Greenwich, a Church at Temple area, Tower of London, Trafalgar Square( National Gallery in the background), Buckingham Palace, Royal Albert Hall, Big Ben, British Museum, Westminster Abbey.
Most importantly, the London Symphony Orchestra concert at the Barbican was the most memorable part of the trip. With Daniel Harding as the conductor and Frank Peter Zimmermann on the violin playing Sibelius Violin Concerto, the strong musicianship and great music of the orchestra made the concert hard to forget. I've never watched a concert better than this! Not to add, I actually paid 25 pounds(S$60) for the tickets, [that's 3 times the maximum amount I would usually spend on a concert ticket]. No wonder a normal LSO concert like this enjoy almost a full house - it was a great concert!
Yep, that's probably what's left of my brain after wearing helmets for almost 2 years. I think age is catching up with me and my grey matter is shrinking, I feel so retarded while helping Huijing with her school work during the Piano-for-tuition exchange session right now, more like a hindrance than help to people, taking ages to solve questions.In the revered notebook contains handwritten summaries of four core A level subjects, inclusive of SPA notes. (GP not included, which probably explains why I didn't get an A for GP..)
Haha, it has come with me a long way since I started schooling at VJ. Where my memory fails me, there's always this rather giam cai notebook for me to refer to. Jon's grabbing a copy too!
Not too long ago, I was talking to Te online about her journey to singapore and how she cope coming here alone. I must say she's one who's probably more mature than someone her age. wah, the kind of hardship she goes through, I don't think I'll ever get to experience any of it. On another note, I start to wonder if I'm being too greedy trying to get myself involved in everything to make everything better. or I should just not care so much about things around me and let nature takes its course, instead of wanting to squeeze every joule of energy out of me and tire myself like a workhorse. Oh well, everyone has a place in society, I think I shouldn't exceed that capacity of mine so often after all.
Anyway, I've discovered a new joy listening to western music. Seriously, I always detest listening to symphonies and concertos, especially for someone born and bred in a culture of Hua Yue (Chinese Orchestral music). Western music never fail to put me to sleep few minutes with the strings playign the theme incessantly. So did Bruckner's 4th symphony sound to me, so naggy until I started listening to it a few more times. Music's like coffee, you'll probably come to enjoy it when you spend some time getting acquainted with it. The conclusion: listen a few more times and you'll grow to love it!