ISPIRATION TO BE DRUM MAJOR

I sinned.
I didn't attend band today.
I feel really bad.
Seriously.
What do I gain from sitting in front of the comp, hogging my eyes out??

SHEESH, NAD!

I hope I don't do this again. I must promise myself, but sometimes, I just can't help it lah.. Indoor bores me alot these days. It's not that I enjoy doing random drills and stuff under the hot sun all day. But its just that I MISS OUTDOOORRR!!

Heh, I'm bloody contradicting myself.
I don't like having drills session during the Indoor period. But I love drilling for the Outdoor comp.
I just watched the SYF TK BAND COMP 2006 video a few minutes back. Suddenly flashbacks just occur.
I watched the 22nd April comp video, and I remembered that a few days before that, we did a full performance for the whole school at the school field, right after their Sports Carnival Prize Presentation. I remember the teacher announcing that TK BAND was ready to perform for the school, and I remember feeling the rush of adrenalin and the blast of excitement radiating from my belly as the crowd from the assembly plaza dispersed and RAN towards the field, looking for any available spot to watch the band.

Some piled at the canteen, others the hall. Some at the Mother Tongue room while others grabbed the third storey. the whole school was watching, and they were cheering and cheering and cheering!! And I knew somewhere, my friends were watching too ;p

We performed our best (I rmb it was a Thursday) and Mr Muzammil was damn proud of us. He was clad in his army uniform for some reason, and we were all sooo happy to see him.

I remember on that day, 2F won the PING PONG thingy. Hahaha!

I remembered so many people calling out "Jit Rui!!". Jit Rui was our drum major, see.
And I remember vowing to work hard to actually be just like him, to actually put myself in his shoes in two years time.
I'm not doing a very good job at working hard, am I?

Heh, I can't believe it. I'm getting goosebumps.

Anyways, that was for our first competition.
i watched the FINALS just a few minutes ago too, and ah! The glory! Haha while watching the video, I found myself moving along to the dance steps and gimmicks.

Flashback of 1st July 2006...

I remember marching in to a crowd of over 60 000 spectators, my fists clenched and my heart soaring with pride as I heard the ever familiar "Anoneh Pakuke!!" cheer coming from who knows where. The whole school was there to support us, and each student was clad in their 50th Anniversary tee. I remember Meera was laughing and telling me Shariff brought his binoculars. Wahaha!

"And Ready to strike up is the band from Tanjong Katong Secondary School!!"

And then there was endless shrieking and shrieking and shrieking.
Jit Rui gave us that signal to jerk our instruments up, and we started off with The Incredibles theme song, marching in, doing our gimmicks... One formation after the other, I felt the adrenalin rush, hearing nothing but the music of our band. But sometimes I'd find myself hearing the people screaming, but hell.

Batman, Superman, Darth Vader, Kaleidoscopes 1 and 2, Pegasus, and who can ever forget the ever so grand Saint Basil's Cathedral from Russia?

Our performance ended with a bang bang BANG!
We marched off to one of the gates and sat there happily.

I remember while waiting for the other bands to perform, us TK BAND members were happily hugging each other and grinning like a bunch of idiots. We were that confident of winning, but inside, there was this little spark of fear that refused to go away.

Marc: (his signature scream) AAAAaaahh!! Did you see our K1?? It was so straight! Aaauugh!!
Nad: Aaaahh!! OMG yah man!!! Woohoooo!!

I was desparately looking for Tracy and Phat, but they decided to sit behind to get a gooood view of the Malaysian Band boys. Sheesh! Hahaha

I remember tugging at my beret to make sure it won't slip off were I to do any spinning later on.

So I just contentedly sat next to Marc and Nicholas, and remembered seeing this Deyi girl I think, with her friend, looking for Nicholas and asking if she could snap a shot of him, and she was giggling so happily. Hahaha and I remember Marc was pointing to Kenneth and saying "NO! You're looking for this one!"

And apparently, Nick and Kenneth are twins, so wth. Hahaha

We marched out for the final time that day for the announcing of results. I remember the crowd cheering for TK Band, cheering more for Deyi, and cheering even more for Bowen. Sheesh! Haha but it depends on who supports who lah. TK Band sorta lost her fans throughout the years of always emerging victorious. *shrugs*

When the results were announced, I remember feeling sorry for Jit Rui, but at the same time I was ultimately proud of him, because he was the one who led TK Band to victory, with him being the Drum Major and all.
I remember seeing the Deyi band supporters in dark blue jumping around and shouting and happily hugging each other when their Drum Major won the Best Drum Major award 2006.

I remember seeing the worried look on Mr Muzammil's face. On Mr Chia's, Azlan's and on all the alumni's.
And then I remember shrieking and crying, when it was announced that TK Band has won yet again. I could hear nothing but the screams all around me. Megha was next to me, crying.
I could see the TK Band supporters in front of us jumping and shrieking and hugging and screaming and laughing and huddling... It was such a joyous scene.
And I remember my sis told me that TK erupted into a mass of screaming spitfires from hell. Some of em were even crying for us. Meera and Jana and Fatin I think were standing on the benches, screaming and hugging each other.

Such an emotional moment I cannot forget. And it was all captured on film. I wasn't in it though, thank god. I must've looked kinda dumb crying like a buffoon. Well, I bet YOU would have if you were ME. Sniff! haha

We marched off for the grand finale of the whole SYF ceremony, and swayed along to the music... Singing Majulah Singapura was our final item as a whole stadium and soon the crowd started to disperse. Peggy, our band majorette and Jit Rui, our drum major, ran to us while we were swaying to the 'Reaching Beyond' song. In their hands, they held the BEST DISPLAY BAND 2006 TROPHY. They ran in between ranks and rows, grinning and shouting like mad fools, holding up the trophies so that everyone could see.

Finally, Mr Muzammil allowed us to rehatkan diri. We just stood there dumbly at first, absorbing the joy, and then hugged the very first other band member we saw, be it boy or girl. I remember crying, hugging Megha, Firza, Mardhiah, Marc, Fiany, Tracy, Phat, Michelle, Zhen, Chiung Wei... So many people..

Our friends in TK 50th Anniversary tees came down to congratulate us and hug and take pictures. I remember hugging Ashraff and he was with Sherwin. I was looking for Jana and Meera. Well, they claimed they were looking for me but gave up. Hell, I was actually there all along. There weren't many of us anyways. What 160 members? I'm not THAT difficult to find, right?
Haha but I was too euphoric to care. I LOVE TK BAND!

GODDAMMIT THIS POST IS SOOOO LONG. I DON'T EXPECT ANYONE TO READ IT FULLY UNLESS YOU WERE REALLY INTERESTED, BUT THIS IS FOR MEMORIES' SAKE. HEH, SORRY THOUGH.

Kuddos!