I missed a week of posting an update, so here's a long one with pictures to compensate. Haha.
The past two weeks leading up to the big ChristmaSing finale had many "obstacles" for us to clear. "Obstacles" in the form of children's programmes, with kids from pre-school to 4th grade or higher doing Christmas performances every other day for an audience of parents. On both weekends, we've cleared both the Mandarin and Cantonese ChrismaSing performances respectively.
Some time was spent in the workshop cutting wood, painting, and helping to build a homemade device that lets curtain drop from the top of the stage quietly without the audience hearing the usual squeaky noises of drawing curtains. It worked, to a certain extent. We couldn't get it ready in time for the major performances in the hall though, hopefully they can get it up and running properly in the future. Design & Technology classes back in secondary school helped when it comes to cutting wood with the machines and handling equipment.
We've been rotating through different roles, sometimes on camera, sometimes on sound, sometimes as the vision switcher, remote camera, etc. I guess it's safe to say that we're all pretty familiar with the equipment now. A new toy came in this week too. A wireless transmitter for the Sony EX1 camera.
We took it for a spin during the Cantonese ChristmaSing performance, and it turned out really nice.
Other than that, we've been helping the staff here in converting a building into more dorm rooms, for future study groups and interns that will have the fortunate opportunity to visit this wonderful place.
We helped out in building some bunk beds and some cleaning work, a good way to work off some calories inbetween performances.
The big one is coming, and it's the English ChristmaSing performance, on such a large scale that we've got to move half the building to another building to accommodate. I may be exaggerating a little bit here.
Anyway, the big performances will be held at the Scottish Rite Auditorium. We've seen the interior and exterior photos, and looking at the list of things that we have to do, we know that this weekend is going to be the busiest and most mentally exhausting yet, with two days of setup to be done, massive rental equipment coming in.
We sat in watching the big rehearsal on Sunday, and sort of got a feel of the scale of the performances. Some performers have been practicing since July/August, as I've been told. There's some sort of... excitement building up whenever we're close to such a production, even though everyone dreads the setup and teardown period.
Personally, it's my busiest holiday season yet, and I'm sort of looking forward to it.
Where recreation is concerned, we didn't really have much time to go out and roam around, except going out in the evenings for a quick meal and get to know members of the church better.
One particular evening, we had the opportunity to visit Parkway Estate on Chestnut Avenue. Apparently, it is common practice for residents living there to decorate the front of their houses with elaborate Christmas decorations. So in a way, it's like Orchard Road during Christmas, but with much fewer people, and better atmosphere without hundred of people gawking at decorations with a hundred and one languages you don't understand.
Quiet and calm atmosphere, cool weather, nice decorations, just like how I've always wanted Christmas to be :)
I managed to send an album back to my home church too. Since I've always done Christmas photo and videography for them every year. Seems weird not to do so this time round, so I decided to maintain the tradition.
Other than that, it was much time spent on the rooftops appreciating moonrises and sunsets, editing photos back in the apartment and storage space management on my harddisks. Kenneth's moving ever closer to the screen in his gaming sessions on the Play Station 3 each passing day as well. Heh.
Okay, think I've covered everything.
Until next time...
Signing off,
Shawn Ang.
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