Selcouth.: Happy Birthday, Auntie~

I felt the cold air filling up my lungs as I inhaled. My eyes are fixed on the totally harmless being sitting in front of me. He should be older, I thought.

No one made a sound.

We held our instruments as tight as we could.

"Shall we start from bar no. 45?" his lifted his left hand, slowly, till it was at the same position of his shoulder; his right thumb and middle finger snapped rhythmically, "3 and 4 and--"

With an abrupt heave, the whole classroom trembled slightly as music fraught the once silent vibe. The snapping of his fingers stopped and his hands moved languidly like flowing water.

Suddenly creases formed on his forehead, he moved his right hand to his front and his fingers collided to form a fist. The room was silent again.

"Thank you... may I only hear the pipas?" he turned to his left and glanced at us.

I whispered under my breath, "Great."

"From bar 45 again... 3 and 4 and--" my left hand fingers moved up and down the instrument as my right hand fingers struggled to tick every string.

I have no reason to be afraid of that man in orange box-shape patterned shirt. He's not even taller than me. Our own conductor is much more ferocious than he is (at the sound of a wrong note, he chuckles whereby our conductor roars).

But he's a nationwide renown conductor. He's been composing music and conducting concerts before I even exist.

After 3 more hours, he stood up, "Thank you for your cooperation, I'll be seeing you next week. After that I'll be very busy, our next meeting might be in Sabah. Thank you again, everyone." We clapped.

That happened during orchestra practice. Some famous conductor was so touched and moved by our previous concert, he decided to conduct one song for us on the next concert in Sabah.

Our conductor said, he's a man with a clement temper. I expected him to be around 40-50 years old, 'cause only old people have mild tempers. But he seems to be in his early 30s. He walks with this 'professional' aura surrounding him that will make you go, "Who's the dude there?"

Fine, enough about orchestra practice. It was Auntie's birthday yesterday, went to Hakka Restaurant for dinner.

36 of us, 3 tables.

Though it was Auntie's birthday, the cynosure happens to be Feris. How often do you see an Eurasian baby? Of course look at the Eurasian la...

Sorry, no picture of Feris. 'Cause he won't smile for me (yes, for ME).

It was already 8.30pm and no food has been served yet (due to 2 girls being fashionably late), so I took the chance to cam-whore around.

Me and aunt Jennifer.

Cousin Gaby and I.

You can't blame a girl for being vain.

Finally, the food was served. First dish was soup.

Not sharkfin and abalone la... just a lot of mushrooms (the Chinese ones, black black colour ones), cuttlefish, dozens of scallop and that fish thingy (in Cantonese, 'yu piu').

Too delicious and mouth-watering, Blogger don't allow me to upload. Scared you drown your computer with your saliva.

7 dishes in total.

The best thing was... the alcohol.

Have you tried red wine + Carlsberg + Sprite + 100 plus?? That was mom's creation, she calls it 'cocktail' (though I think it doesn't deserve the noun). Try la... not bad~

What must you have in a birthday party?

Cake. Chocolate Indulgence from Secret Recipe.

Then... my favourite dish.