there's no turning back for us tonight,

I don't think I've felt more exhausted, more overjoyed, more depressed and more overcome in my whole life. The past three days have been a real whirlwind of emotions, this concert brought out more then each one of us could have done on our own. It symbolizes the last day in our band, this solace made out of real music and the awesome people, the sanctuary where we could be ourselves. Though we've had our tough times and have been at the edge of breaking more then once, it all comes back together in the end.

I'm so so so happy to be able to be part of you guys.



SWIRLS OF SENSATIONS 2008.



Thursday we left class after the torturous hour of SS. Counting down the seconds stretches time more than you know. Felt great when i finally stepped out of class with sharon and Nas. Shifted instruments as usual, and waited for near an hour before leaving.



Check out Rin's gargutan feet. Size eight and a half mind you, the first time i've seen a foot bigger then Sarah A's.

Marilyn's love at first sight, THE BIG YELLOW BUS!! the comfy seats are good for the bandites TUSHIES.

chewy and patti! ID-ers are the coolest people to walk the earth, really.

So had a briefing by the 'wannabe' crew before we were allowed to stagger out of the huge auditorium and into our very cool dressing room. Really went crazy over the sheer size. After sharing a cubicle-sized dressing room with forty other people in VCH, this one was really a blessing. whoots!

However, it was on the third floor, which meant alot of puff wasted whenever we left a stray stick upstairs. Not complaining tho!

First photo with room 9. We are funnnnnn shitz.

OMG shanna i can see your zits!!!

oh and that's claire in the background HAA.

ooo someone's moody.

the lightning was quite perfect, really. thank you, mr Beng!

Ahhha! Props for 'the attack of the aluminium foil coils!' very artistically sprayed, as you can see. Sorry if i make too much fun of this dance, but seriously.

Apparently, the indian dancers spent a bomb on their india-imported costumes and spent the budget away, but its worth it! sparkly sparkly.

we spent the last part rolling on the floor and laughing. Hhaaha this concert brought new friends, CRAZY PEOPLE.

Dinner at the basement. It felt nice that we had REAL food instead of single 'course' burgers or bland fried rice, very fun and crowded. Strangely, band people are always scheduled to eat last. Hurrr.



The aircon had a bad leak and natasha was hanging around trying to catch the drops. Haha. has a pretty good time taking stupid pictures with sharon nas and mary haha. the graduates! The least in all three CCAS.

The first day was quite a waste really, for us at least. We only played half a song!! ITCHY ITCHY HANDS!!!! was dying to practise dhoom, but they were marking. The whole day was spent taking pictures and running about and freezing our buts off under artic conditions in VT. AND BEING COOL WITH ROOM NINERS!!

with the exception of amanda, who is so NOT cool.

kidding haha. you are the retardest.

THAT is my custom made sign, by the way.

OMG this picture reminds me of the awkward situation MD-ers were stuck in.

AHAHAHAHAHAHHA. just makes me laugh out loud thinking about it. Me, stacey, pat, mieko and mary were seriously choking with laughter when the dancers had to cover their um, Chestal-region with the white shirts. and mr beng saying 'EH, can you all remove the white shirt?'. Of course his intent was to test the lighting against the coloured leotards, but then all of the dancers started doing the Dancer Shriek[yes, there is even a copyrighted scream for it.], while the audience laughed[that's us!]

This is why i never took up dance.

Rehearsal ended around ten plus, marilyn spent the ride home on my lap, no matter how many times I hit her on the head with my elbow. Sheesh.

Walked home with prett-ay patty.

SECOND DAY [OPENING NIGHT.]

Well well. Second day we ditched school[yay-eroons!] and left at 745 for VT instead. it seemed the entire band raided the supermarket together, with the amount of um RESOURCES we brought along. Marilyn alone bought five packs of assorted biscuits, so i didnt starve.

SALLY. never says hi to me in the morning. shish kebab.


haha love them lots.

this was around the same time we started to debate over who was stacy/stacey one or two.

this was when i pointed out to marilyn...

ME: HEY! do you realise the abbreviation for Swirls of Sensation is 'SOS'??

Marilyn: OMG. so slow.

Due to the reoccuring incidences of lost sticks, white and black sticks are the best. or something equally distinguishing.

SAMBA WAS AWESOME.

it is a miracle, i played snare with marilyn! YES YES YES!!! our dream came true. So so fun. and sonya mastered the bassline, finally! after we played for half an hour outside VT for the bunch of Latino/Spanish tourists who kept pointing at us. haaah.

matching jackets, what are the odds??

i think carrie must have thought me slightly insane when i bounded past her and sorta slapped her on the back saying 'WE ARE COOL PEOPLE!'. because we're wearing the same jacket. umm yeah. well, nevermind, it doesnt matter really.

the waiting game...



PULSE SET.

GETTING ready for the full dress. this is claire's torture parlour, for french-braiding. it was quite hurried. I think claire used the excuse of 'NO TIME!' to twist my hair into weird contortions and very very painfully. anyway, she is vair vair annoying, and thus i have christened her The Annoyance, and The Annoyance she shall be.

LOVED THE MIRROR LIGHTS. i even brought an awesome prop to take pictures with. ufufuf.




AND THIS IS IT.

Opening night was very good. FANTABULOUS.

Was very doubtful at first. Kept cocking up the rolls and frills and beginnings during the prior rehearsals, which was worrying. hands were totally shaking two hours before the concert. first time playing the drumset for a major concert, so was obviously quite freaked out. Thanks to everyone who [doubtfully?] encouraged me haha.

samba was good. clare walked past and didnt even recognise me. OVERDONE MAKE UP+HAIR GEL alert.

shanna broke down within the first song and fretted over smudged mascara and such. OOH. and before that, some modern dancers fainted again. Sheesh. the smell of ammonia was distinct backstage the whole time, It became less than amusing after the first one went down. Someone should buy bananas and stock it somewhere, and feed it to the dancers at regular intervals.

i didnt screw up for dhoom, and for that i'm thankful. thank you god!! i thought we played awesome-ly, i could see emilia and gang waving frantically from the first tier. HAHA.

pulse was great, i don't see why seniors didnt like it. well, their loss, i thought it was great. mr juraimi with his aluminium foil shirt LOL. It was vair cramped on stage, almost fell and hit a dancer at the back of her head while doing the turns. Afiqah hit wrongly but its OKAYYYY HAHAH.

Impromptu valley at the end. haha. Loved it.

Thank you Emilia, gerry, nicole, sarah ee, gen, sarah g, joy for coming and giving flowers! even though the band only played three songs. ANd luki, Nick[FOR NOT LEAVING HALFWAY!!], mel, ains and leng. Donuts and flowers, thank you very very much. hoped you guys had a ball.

mary's head on lap again. some things never change.

DAY THREE

met with shanna, patty, stacey and mieko to get presents for each other, MD and PM. It was funny, MACS in the morning and the disgusting lady picking her teeth with her pinky. Wandered around and finally decided on cakes, the simplest! Saw sharon and nas at NTUC and we cabbed back.

I feel very guilty for not going for a math.

not.

but renee might have not slept the whole night because of that guilt. XD

Talked to ms kang with 4.8 people before leaving. It was fun. SHe was wearing jeans and some covered shoes[boots of some sort!] it was amusing. And she had a 'hot date'. She's one of the people i'll definitely miss when i leave SAC. A brilliant source of encouragement.

marilyn just getting into her zen mode.

crescent girls performed as our guest... they were fantabulous. ummm which kinda sucks in a way. who would like to be outperformed at their own concert? they seemed to have this arrogant air around them as they walked past us on the second floor, but perhaps i was just biased.

OOOH AND THEN SOMETHING VERY SIGNIFICANT HAPPENED. patty had her red lights, and so me and stacey went to accompany her to put on her first um, tampon. It was hilarious, but quite scary at the same time. but we were laughing outside the toilet, incoherently, almost.

pat: OMG! WHAT DO I DO?! ITS HUGE!!'

'Me: wow wee, it is.
stacey: aiyo you babies, its okay lah. make sure you put it up the right, AHEM.

Pat: alright, here i go. wish me luck.

FIVE MINUTES LATER..

THE HEROINE EMERGES!

Pat: I did it! i'm alive, i'm alive!
Me: Still, there goes your virginity.
Stacey: Ha! Ha! Ha!

We had a lot of time to mill around while crescent girls did they're markings. I lost marilyn somewhere along the Tampon escapade and trying to open up my happy capsules[not what you think.] So took pictures!

me pat noelle stacey[2] and carrie.

thank god for self-timers!! but the tying-hair thing spoilt it a lil'.
then someone brought up the subject of tickling and everyone was on my case! i'm not ticklish at all okay!!!

Fun was spoilt when shanna called and said i had to go up and change. ah wells.
but then again, camwhores in room nine!


the awesome ppl.
started to haunt the MD-ers dressing rooms out of pure boredom while waiting for us to be 'called'. its kinds sad really that we're treated differently because we're just 'musicians'. So that means no practise for us, because afterall, we're just music. that was pretty much how we were treated by the 'wannabe' crew, and it felt quite horrible gah.

still, i got to take pics with stephanie and the like!


it appears shanna has a penchant for unglam shots, and then showing it to everyone within a one metre radius! but it projected more then a few laughs, i know marilyn would have done her famous BAWLING laughter if not for the prescene of a huffy steph herself.

nicolette and reneee. renee loves to take photos very much but hardly has the chance!

i wasn't supposed to be in this one, really. Carrie must be pretty pissed, im in quite alot of her photos for picture crashing XD

at around six o clock, opening dancers and us.

are the ribbons the same material as our timpani covers, or am i seeing things??
Last picture of the night before our closing night!

it was good stuff, nothing short of awesome.
the weirdest moment of the night was after dhoom when i was feeling weak-kneed from the relief, and was on the verge of collapse. and then mr juraimi kinda put his hands on my shoulders and slapped me on the back a few times and said 'Good job stacy.' WAHAHAHA. it felt nice, finally, to hear his APPROVAL. for once in my whole darned band life, some praise. Phew.

Oh pulse was even more cramped! Srsly, when i did the 'Howl' and tried to turn around, i bumped into the marimba and started to laugh like crazy. MAN! cherry was also giggling a little when she saw. don't know why i found it so funnay, was hoping no one noticed it until i saw noelle laughing behind the curtains! And natasha slapping me on the shoulder afterwards! GAH!
ROOM NINE'S PIC!!!

tried to do jumpshots but all i had was this. meehh.


shifted instruments. i was walking around with a checklist which shanna shoved into my hand, and not knowing what to do at all. i must confess that i was ticking without even looking because of the sheer sppeed of shifting instruments.

we got to school before the lorries, so had photos!!!

don't know what pat was doing, but she is retarded! really.

finally! pat me renee.
OMG look at stacey's face! don't cry!!

this is when stacey hit shanna's chest and she fell off the ledge!
HAHA. anyhoos, shifted instruments into ze conexion with a few dancers and then headed to the dry swimming pool for cake! i'll never look at a dark chocolate gateau the same way again. what started out as a simple cake sampling turned into a fight!!




RIN was the first to get hit.



rin was sad.

then she became happy.
and stupid sonya squished the cake into my mouth so i ended up looking a little like rin. Sheesh, so we smeared HER face with a hell lot more cake. WHOOPS.

amazingly, marilyn made it throuhg the entire session unscathed! wow.

what a long tongue you have, my dear.


okay what happened next was quite a blur. Renee made the stupid decision to smear some expensive mocha cake onto my face and then it started! cake in my hair! screams. all cause of renee. If it wasnt for that mantou and aunty Yati's pleas, me and noelle would have smashed the rest of the cake into renee's face. A gift for the ex-president, si?

had to stop because AHHEM wanted to leave. she's so bitter inside, just cause we didnt offer her any cake. Ah well.

supper at 85!!

So that's the end of pictures and SOS.
the memory of washing my hair three times to get chocolate bits out will be ingrained into my head forever and ever and ever. And dancers are supposed to be docile and graceful?! HA!

woke up this morning at eleven, didnt go to church. It was a well-deserved sleep, i would think.
Having major withdrawal symptoms. a single message from chewy/patti/renee was enough to make me start tearing. seriously something is wrong with me. Any more tears and i will turn into one of them hormonally-imbalanced dancers who can't seem to conctrol their tear ducts. Haha.

SOS was really ne of the best times of my life.
Will never ever ever forget it, the friendships forged and the insane times. Though this is the end of band for me, and the last concert i will ever have the fortune of seeing/playing in, i believe PFA will be soaring to new heights with the awesome people left.

i never thought i'd say this, but im missing band lots now. YELCH.




really love you guys lots, you have no idea how much.
now all i have is the O's in line. schiezer.