virus attack!

I never expected the cold virus to be so vicious! After giving me a wk of agony in cold and suffering, it proceeded to unleash its lethal weapon on my lips! the most fragile part of my face! It started by a little swelling on the middle part of my upper lip and although i took my medication for it last nite, it ballooned this morning! I freaked out when I saw myself as I looked like donald duck! EEEKKSSS!!!! I was devastated and now, I'm gonna head to the clinic to find out what's going on. My immunity system is really at an all time low :( This year is really a bad yr for me in terms of my health. I am still suffering from occasional stabs of pain in my back. My lower back has become so stiff that I think I need some chiropractic sessions. Well, have to see if my budget permits :(

Anyway, I went for an SSO christmas concert at VCH. I absolutely loved it, with its effective depiction of the various dances in the snow maiden suite. My silly cousin fell asleep for a few minutes in the first half as he found it a little slow. I'm gonna tell on him to my piano teacher who was performing that nite as my teacher's already v astounded that my cousin has not fully learnt to appreciate music despite possessing an honours in music in uk. Think I deserve the scholarship more than him, hehe :P Anyway, the second half was really fantastic as the mood geared towards the christmas cheer. After the intermission, almost 90% of the orchestra members turned up with goofy santa hats or strange looking headwear to give an infectious xmas mood. Before the orchestra started on tchaikovsky's nutcracker suite, Lim Yau the conductor, told the audience that they have made a jazz interpretation of the suite so we could clap in between the movements and during the movements. And yes, it was done so tastefully, the interpretation was so good though it's played using jazz rhythms and even getting individual players to stand up just like in any jazz performances, to showcase their individual parts. I loved particularly the way they changed the quick tempo of the dance of the sugar plum fairy to that of a slow but sexy tempo. It was just so amazing and it really gave me a whole new perspective of this suite.

Then, there were the other xmas pieces that they performed and finally, they made the audience sing to the tunes of jingle bell rock, have yourself a merry little christmas and hark the herald angels sing. Of course, we had the lyrics in the programme so that we could sing along and it's amazing how lovely it sounded when everyone sang. Meanwhile, santa women handed out candies to everyone to spread the xmas cheer. At the end of the entire performance, blue and silver balloons were released from the top and we kicked the balloons about and it was sheer fun! :) Of course, one joker burst a few balloons at the same time to help the evening end with a loud bang. Indeed, I was so glad I attended this performance as it did de-stress me. :)