A Memorable Sunday

Eversince i entered uni and had so many problems in life, i have not been in such great happiness and fun as yesterday, when i had this so called 'MPO trip' with a total of 13 friends from UTP, which consists mostly from our chi orchestra group. The 14 of us including myself came together to watch the MPO chamber concert held in Dewan Filharmonik Petronas.

The journey began when all of us coming from different places met at one place called Imbi monorail station. The reason we met there was because 3 of them from outstation was going to put up in Hotel Nova, which was situated within walking distance from Imbi station. N the rest were all coming by public transport. After checking in to Hotel Nova for them and collected the key, I waited at Imbi station for all of them to arrive. Soon, Philip and the group from klang came, and we started talking like we've not seen each other for 10 years. After that, Henry and Wei Di came, and the first thing Henry received upon arrival was a bomb from Philip saying that he is so fat! And later the others continued to bomb him as well..kesian.. ;p When all who are supposed to come have come, we headed to Hotel Nova to leave the luggages first before going to KLCC for the concert.

The initial plan was that everybody meet at 1.30pm at KLCC for lunch, but everything was delayed as i had expected and the group from imbi ended up reaching KLCC at around 2pm. Yun Chuan also reached late at around 2.45 just in time for the concert. However, Xuan Hui and Robert reached KLCC during the first half of the performance, so they could only come in during the interval and watch the second half of the performance. So, basically everyone was late except Chee Hong and Christon who reached KLCC much earlier.

As this was the first time i watched the MPO chamber concert, I found it more interesting compared to the normal MPO concert i watched previously which was the full orchestra. For those of u who don't know, the chamber concert is actually a mini group of performers where only selected instruments are played at a time depending on the repertoire. The first performance we watched was a suite for violin, clarinet, and piano, and it was quite interesting to see that the violinist and the clarinetist must actually have very deep '默契' as they both were playing the melody and the piano was their accompaniment. The second performance was a solo cello. She looked quite nervous when she came on stage, but to me her playing was very good although i don't really know what she was playing, somehow she looked angry and full of energy when she was playing certain parts, and the piece she played was kinda dull coz it doesn't sound like any lively piece. The third performance was a duet by the tuba and marimba. This was also quite fascinating coz it was the first time i'm seeing a marimba. I was quite impressed with the lady playing the marimba because instead of turning the page of the music sheets, she actually throws the sheets on the floor after each sheet is played. And if i'm not mistaken, the lady playing the marimba actually also plays the flute in the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. The last performance was another duet by the violin and the piano. I think I enjoyed this the most as it was a familiar piece that was played. It was a Sonata No.2 in D.

After the whole thing ended, we had a chat with the violinist who played in the last performance whose name was Ionut Mazareanu and he was from Romania if i'm not mistaken. He was telling us many stories about the orchestras in different countries which i've mostly forgotten. Then, we also chatted with the other musicians in MPO and found out that one of the chinese musician was the brother of the owner of a particular bicycle shop in Tronoh which we know.

After all the chit-chatting bla bla bla. we wanted to go to the Times Square area to hang around and have our dinner, and some of them wanted to go back to the hotel. In order to travel from KLCC to Times Square, we had to take the PUTRA LRT to Dang Wangi and from there take a monorail to Imbi. As Xuan Hui was totally blurr with the public transports in KL, she began to ask how do we get into the station, then i was like obviously we have to go to the counter to buy ticket la. Ok! Since she doesnt know how to buy the ticket, i went to buy it for her. Then, Yun Chuan and I went across the ticket machine first as we were using the touch n'go, so we waited for Xuan Hui on the other side. And Xuan Hui took such a long time to get across, guess why..coz she actually took the LRT card and placed it on the touch n'go sensor and waited for the 'tit' sound, but there was no sound, coz the LRT card is actually meant to be inserted into the machine, and it was Chee Hong who corrected her. Wa...how we laughed when Chee Hong told us about that.

When we got into the train, there were only 6 of us. So we counted who else we might have left on the road and started calling them up. As we were busy trying to contact them and finding out where they are, we didn't realize that we have actually reached the destination, which is Dang Wangi. The operator announced 'Dang Wangi station' and the door opened. Some of us were still talking and none of us made any move. Then i went to the other side of the door to check which station we have reached, and i saw the board saying 'Dang Wangi', and apparently i hadn't come back to my senses yet, then I thought 'Isn't Dang Wangi the station we're suppose to get down?'. At the same time, I heard Henry shouting "Dang Wangi!! Out! Out! Out!" We immediately pushed our way while the door was still open, but before all of us could get out, the door was already indicating that it was closing. I tried to hold the door of the train like i used to do in the lift but it was no used, because there was another door which was the door of the LRT station, and that door was already closed. N the best thing was, the train door was closing when Xuan Hui was on her way out, so, congratulations to Xuan Hui, she was stucked between the train doors. But fortunately she was able to pull herself back from being stucked. In the end, Xuan Hui, Yun Chuan and I who didn't manage to get out of the train were left inside behind the closed doors. So we had to get down at the next station and took the next train from the other direction back to Dang Wangi station. At the next station, Xuan Hui still asked, '我们要在这里下啊?' and Yun Chuan was like '还不下?' we laughed like mad all the way back. I could not imagine what if Yun Chuan and I managed to get out of the train at Dang Wangi and Xuan Hui was left inside the train, will she get lost in KL? Definitely.

After all the shopping around at Times Square and Low Yat, it was time for dinner. Chee Hong's parents came and they brought some of the people from the group out for dinner. The rest who were left went to have dinner in Shabu-Shabu, a japanese restaurant and had steamboat. After everything, we went separate ways back to our respective homes.

One day's journey was enough to make me dead tired by the time i reached home, but it was worth the energy, it was so enjoyable going out with this bunch of ppl and we had so much fun! I fell flat on my bed as soon as i finish settling all the plans for the next day. I even had some slight leg cramps before i sleep, probably because i had been walking with that stupid heels so much, somemore it was my first day of that stupid cycle. So my leg couldn't stand the pressure. Anyway, here i would like to thank everybody for all the fun and all of u really made my day. The day which will remain in reminiscence forever.