#flameaura

Dear Diary,

Hi loyal readers, I need your help.

TL;DR: What song(s) should me (an alto who plays ukulele) & my friend (a mezzo who plays guitar) perform for our alma mater’s talent show on a Friday night?

I’m in a duo called “Alone Together” (nope, not the TV show; neither is it the band from LA) since 2016, consisting of me & my secondary schoolmate, whom I affectionately address as “partner-in-crime”. [Backstory: When the school announced that there’s a school talent show in March, we were elated to have the golden opportunity to perform in front of an audience -- except we didn’t want to do it alone. Thus, “AloneTGT” was formed. We passed the auditions (miraculously) and debuted with “Daylight” by Maroon 5 during an assembly. I played the ukulele and did the vocals; my friend, too, did the vocals (higher harmony) and played the guitar. Undoubtedly, it was one of the best decisions we’ve made.]

And... we’re making a comeback.

Last year, we signed ourselves up for our alma mater's talent show (which has now upgraded to some Arts Festival showcase thingy) to perform as alumni guests. It’s on 25th May. We received news from one of the teachers-in-charge that she’d like to arrange for a meet-up with us at school to hear our performance items (3 songs) & understand our logistic needs.

Ok, this is where you come in. I need song recommendations. 😭😭 Preferably smth upbeat since it’s a TGIF kinda thing; a familiar tune. We can’t rap, make dubstep noises, or sing in a different language -- let me remind you that we’re just 2 average girls that make average-sounding music -- but I could try playing the piano. We really don’t wanna mess this chance up. Please, if you would be so kind, keep ‘em suggestions rolling in! 🙏

Dear Diary,

Had 2 project ‘meetings’ today. We didn’t get a lot of work done but hey, whatever work I’ve done in the past week is nothing compared to today. xD 

The first one was in the school library in the afternoon. I liked how we naturally sidetracked and nobody tried to bring our attention back to serious discussion, but still managed to finish our work within the slated 2h. My groupmate introduced us to “Dangal”, a successful Indian film loosely based on a true story. [Synopsis: It’s about a former wrestler who secretly trained his two daughters to fulfill his old dream of becoming a wrestling champ. This movie is an impressive depiction of breaking stereotypes, gender equality, etc.] I felt inspired to watch it, but first I need a Netflix account lmao.

The second was just a Skype call at night that lasted barely an hour. Very chill, very few words were exchanged -- the first time I actually felt weirdly calm in a group Skype call.

I’m so fking drained rn; I think I just rode a roller coaster of emotions tonight. I have come to a consensus that I’m too complex of a human and I’d be ridiculous to think that I could ever find someone who could truly understand me. My humour is so specific yet odd -- there are certain things that are so fking amusing to me, and certain things that I have zero tolerance for. I (repeatedly) fail to understand why people fail to understand me -- pretty fked up, right? I feel lonely every day because I haven’t met someone who knows exactly how to bring the best out of me. My unique expectations of friends are, ironically, shaped by experiences with friends. I hide said expectations; consequently, I get irrationally upset & perplexed. Friends make or break you -- there’s no in-between.

Hmmm... to tell the unvarnished truth... I can’t fully comprehend myself either. Fts.

Dear Diary,

Ytd was D2 of Voice Ensemble day camp. There’s a flu virus going around in school, and I somehow contracted it so I’m sick af. 😕 I had to sit out for the entire camp, so my friend (who also had the flu) and I just sat at one corner of the practice room and watched the rest of the choir. I could see Beata (the prettiest girl in choir hohoho) taking this opportunity to interact with everyone, and it makes my heart fuzzy when she strikes a convo with me. Bleh, nothing much happened I guess, but one of the altos is always off-pitch and it’s annoying cos it sticks out. 🤦‍♀️ 

My nose was killing me, so I went to the doctor’s at night. It was already past 9PM when I got home. I had some trouble drifting into sleep; I even woke up in the middle of the night, thinking it was already 6.30AM when it was only 1:45AM. Ugh, second night in a row. I’ve never had problems falling asleep, but now I do (probably due to the flu?) and it sucks. My restless legs syndrome uncomfortable sensations in my legs was acting up again. I also didn’t like the sound of the fan blaring at me cos I’m too used to the quietness of an air-conditioned room. Took me a couple of hours to eventually drift back to sleep. Why are my nights miserable? 😞

I was a lil late for VE practice because there was a traffic jam. It wasn’t a car accident; some woman had climbed up an overhead bridge. Thankfully, the firemen brought her down to safety and she was arrested for attempted suicide. That’s right, it’s illegal to die in this country lmao. 🤦‍♀️ [Source] It baffles me how she managed to get up there in the first place.

The conductor asked if I had recovered from my flu, to which I replied I still had a bit of phlegm stuck in my throat.

“Me too. That’s what phlegms are for, right?”

I kinda died inside.

Only 7 or 8 of us showed up for practice. We’re only at half strength today, but our volume was no less than usual because we’re the most potential bunch of VE. It was the most smooth-sailing practice we’ve had thus far -- our conductor even praised us for the good improvement. Ah, my ears are blessed by the perfect harmonies that were missing from the last 2 practices.

We had VE Appreciation Day -- a mini party inviting all alumni members of VE to chill and mingle around. It was kinda awkward, but the alumni were generally friendly. We played some icebreaker games and had a good laugh. We shared snacks. We were talking about Catholic choir songs, but due to miscommunication, someone misheard that I was a Catholic. “I’m not Catholic, I’m alcoholic.”

To my surprise, one of the guys, Poh Heng, is also an alumnus of my alma mater. We chatted about the teachers in our secondary school and the situation of the choir. (I liked how he kinda assumed I was in choir lol) He requested for a performance from us, so we sang “Side By Side” -- one of the jazz songs we’re prepping for our next bi-monthly recital. One of the alumni played the piano accompaniment for us. Yo, he’s so incredibly talented... It’s his first time seeing the score but he managed to play it to near perfection. 

It was 10:30PM and I was still in school lmao. Cherie needed to transport the exam tables that were in the practice room (Block P1) back to Block E, so she got help from her dad who’s a taxi driver. The tables sat precariously in the boot of the taxi, which couldn’t be closed because the table legs were sticking out. Me, Ian, and Beata watched in horror as Cherie’s dad drove off. What an insta-worthy moment, lol.

“Oh, look how the tables have turned,” commented Ian.

Beata and I had a fruitful convo otw home. We texted each other at night until 1AM. I love listening and getting to know people. :”)

Dear Diary,

I’m just glad I don’t have to attend burdensome classes tomorrow because IT’S FINALLY TERM BREAK ASDFGHJKL.

I went to a BBQ party yesterday with a sore throat. Needless to say, every food item at a BBQ party was detrimental to my throat, so RIP me. I woke up with a flu, and my nose hasn’t stopped running since. 

In the afternoon, I was volunteering for Project Blossom (again) and ugh, someone please remind me to never ever do this again bc it’s fking exhausting lmao. One passer-by (who looked vaguely familiar) looked at us, continued walking pass us while fumbling to get his wallet out. He retraced his steps, dropped a $2 note into our donation tin, and remarked that my friend (partner-in-crime) looked familiar and asked for the name of her secondary school. Turns out, we were from the same alma mater, and that’s when it hit me -- HE’S THE POPULAR GUY IN SCHOOL WHO COULD BEATBOX LOL. (Coincidentally, he’s one of my other friends’ exes lmao)

The train ride back home was rather lonely, but I shan’t complain since today’s been better than most days already. :)

Dear Diary,

DREADFUL 8AM CLASSES. My lecturer always starts it off with a quiz on last week’s lecture. My quiz sheet was at her desk because my burden of a friend gave the quiz sheets out to everyone but me 😐, so I had to go up to my lecturer and ask for it. She always addresses my name in full; I think it’s a running joke among my other lecturers too. She noticed I was absent from last week’s quiz, but I couldn’t come up with a valid reason on the spot so I admitted that I had overslept.

“I like your honesty,” she remarked. I thanked her and at the corner of my eye, I saw my friend chuckling at me. Dickhead. 😂 Nevertheless, I still love her.

Afterwards, we had consultation period for our report that’s due this Friday, so we spent the time in the tutorial room brushing up on our report. I also watched Designated Survivor on my friend’s laptop. It’s a good show, it shouldn’t have been cancelled. o: Then, I went to look for my friend to have lunch together cos I didn’t want her eating in school alone (everyone else went outside for lunch despite the time constraint lol). During the first 5-10min of lecture, we (along with 2 other friends) kinda just sat outside at a corner like hobos lmao, but I felt bad for skipping class (especially since the class was half-empty cos everyone was late and hadn’t gotten back from lunch) so we went back in. One of my friends sat next to me, so we talked. Out of nowhere, she asked if I was bi LOL. My other friend sitting on my other side, being a parrot, asked the same question. I was stunned lmao. We spent the entire time on Buzzfeed quizzes -- it’s sooooooo fun and exciting to know each other’s results lol.

Ok fts I’m too tired to write.