Revive, revive!

It just dawned on me that OH NO our blog has been silent for THREE MONTHS. Wake up wake up!

Anyway this week’s been eventful! 8th April 2009, we won back what we lost on our sixth SYF. Congrats to those pretty ladies for a wonderful entrance, you girls looked great! All was well, until… you girls screamed like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a girls’ war cry, we wanted our victory!

So.. CONGRATULATIONS! To our fantastic juniors, you girls have done us ALL proud! (:

Now’s to prepare for POLKA! V, we’ll see you all soooooooooon!

Our Hero

Greetings to everyone!

Firstly, I’ll like to take the chance to thank every single one of you who turned up at Mr Tan’s farewell, and more so to those who made the extra effort to turn up for the tight and limited rehearsals we had before that. Needless for me to say, we all could tell that Mr Tan was very moved by our gesture. I like to think that he was pleasantly surprised. When he asked how many from the alumni were here, I simply replied “Oh, not a lot… Just a few of them.” Thus when the doors flew open and the 50 odd of you streamed in… He stood momentarily in time. Then again, it was rather hard to tell the alumni from the main band since we were all in band t-shirts. (Side note: So it’s high time we come up with an alumni t-shirt already!)

Like you, every single moment in SMSB with Mr Tan has been a memorable one, each molding me into who I am today. His guidance brought me to places- Playing with the big guys at Philharmonic Winds, getting my first flute tutoring job in sch bands, opening me up to the local band scene, and even the “music teaching scholarship” that I now hold. Having been inspired by him, I too want to be an influential educator, touching lives and molding futures. He’s my hero, my model in life.

(Sorry, got a little carried away while typing.. *sigh* Typing this post is stirring up much more emotions than I thought.)

Well, back to the point: Mr Tan is leaving. Flight details are as follows (I don’t know if he’ll kill me for this..)

4 Jan 2009 (Sunday)
UNITED AIRLINES (UA) 896
TERMINAL THREE
Departure time: 0650 hours
He will be at the airport by: 0430 hours 

Those of you who are thinking of making your way down, do give me a call. I’ll be there.

Perhaps it’s appropriate for me to tell you this:

Mr Tan would like us to continue the alumni band, even after he leaves. In an SMS conversation, he said (Will I get killed for quoting his SMS??)

“If circumstances permit, I hope to have St. Marg’s Winds again one day…”

 With that, I leave you all to think about how we can keep this big band family going on. I’m not leaving this place, and I hope you won’t either. Let’s keep things alive! Start drawing up performance plans! Perhaps we can stage our own concert someday, or take part in POLKA!5 when it comes around. Whatever it is, please keep the passion for band, music and SMSB going.

“Never forget to thank the people who have helped you grow…”
and for that, we have SMSB and Mr Tan to thank.

But for now,I’ll leave nostalgia to overflow your mind and heart.

A part but not apart. :)

Big boys don’t cry.

Oh well, the day everyone didn’t wish to arrive did eventually. It’s inevitable, and Mr Tan broke so many girls’ hearts all at a go. I guess every could control their emotions all well until they looked at Mr Tan’s flushed up face with tears welled up in his eyes, or at least for me. ): So yes, I have got some pictures from a few people including myself and uploaded them into an album! Do contribute if you have pictures to share! (:

Contributors: Alison, Fung Yin, Kellyn, Kristen, Linda and March.

Click here to view the pictures!

Oh, and click here to check out what our lovely juniors did for Mr Tan – creating a page in Wikipedia for Mr Tan! :D

Photos & Media!

Hello ladies,

I enjoyed my practice yesterday, and I hope you girls did too! (: Anyway, I have uploaded the pictures on my camera to the alumni’s gallery, and I hope you would do your part by contributing too! Just zip the files up and email them to stmargs.winds@gmail.com! If it’s just a file or two, you can forget about zipping the file, hahaha!

Current contributors to the album: Kellyn, Kristen & Linda

P.S: On a side note, can someone please email me the name list of the new alumni that just graduated by section, so that that I can update the members page! Same method, email it! Thank you!

I’ve ripped our SYF recording in 2003 and added them to the media collection! :D If you have band songs to contribute to our collection, please feel free to email them to us! (:

Gearing Up

Well, by now, EVERYONE should know about Mr Tan and his leaving. It’s sad to know it is really happening now, as compared to the previous year/months of speculating the gossips. Current alumni still playing in bands, I bet you’ve been hearing things about this issue among your band friends.

So, fellow alumni of the polka-dotted club, I’ll like to urge you to join forces [sounds so Star Wars-like] with Hazel, Kristen and Kellyn as they plan up the activities and stuff for the farewell in late December. Do send Kristen your favourite band photos, those ‘precious moment’ photos and videos. Also include a short message to Mr Tan and we’ll add that into the video as well. I’m not sure if we’ll be playing during the farewell. If we do, it’ll prob be in a rush. Hazel will speak to the band teacher-i/c to see when we can borrow the band room for our practices.

Alumni, it’s time we come together. If not now, I don’t know when else.

He has taught and inspired us all to love music a little more than before.
It’s high time we show him how much we love him too. (:

Feel free to comment on this post, anything related to your band memories. Even events that happened in Sydney or funny incidents in the band room. Let’s all bask in the memory of our wonderful Polka-dotted band days and re-live them together yea? (:

SMSB
Together We Achieve the Best!