Ahchoo and Hwachoo

Have been battling with flu/cough/sore throat since I came back. Sigh. Not to be superstitious but it's not good to fall sick over CNY, cos some 'superstitious' folks believe that what happens over the 1st 15 days of CNY will be repeated over the year... *shudder*... No lah, not too superstitious, just worried because my lungs have been my weakest constitution after I had pneumonia and I had just finished a course of antibiotics for my throat/nasal infection. From experience, my immune system will be weakened after taking antibiotics and I'll be more susceptable to other virus strains. Well, I did take quite a considerable amount of time to recover this round and I hope my daily course of multivitamin can boost my body resistance and protect me from other infections. Wo bu yao sheng bing!!!!

And most unfortunately, I think I passed my germs to my mom before I left so she is ill too. Hope mummy gets better soon!

*****

I attended Hwa Chong Nite again for the first time in 5 years last Saturday. Wasn't tempted to go in the past two years because there were no old friends to go with to reminisce about old times and I guess even though the hwachong spirit is strong, there will always be something special and unique and distinctive about the year we are enrolled in. Well, for some reason I felt like attending HCN again to see what it has become of today. I wanted not only to remember my JC days but also to relive my Uni days where I was in one way or another involved in the production of earlier HCNs. This urgency to see what HCN has become now may be due in part to my subconcious reminding me that it may be my final oppurtunity to attend one in UK for a very long time to come.

Well, most of the 'kids' are from the 00 batch and beyond. Had a few 99s around then came the next big jump to two 96s (that's me and SR) followed by one senior from 90. SR and I, coming from the near-extinct 96 batch, were 'honored' by being seated at the VIP table. Had a feeling of being saboed but looking around me at the faces from the post-millennium generations I had to admit that 'sui yue bu liu ren' and believe it or not it has been 10 years since I entered JC... wah... nevermind, I'll learn to age gracefully... =)

Many precious memories came flooding back to me throughout the night. Watching the Judo/Akido performance I remembered my first HCN. I was pursuaded by an IC senior to join them in giving a wushu performance. Our numbers are small, two from IC, one from UCL but we have one very keen senior who travelled all the way from France to join us for the performance on the actual day. For this reason, we gathered at the hotel for rehearsals very early in the morning. We each had a solo piece but it was the first time everyone was present to cheorograph and practice for our combined pieces and put everything together. For our combined act, there were some weapon sparring (I left that to the guys of course) and since I was the only girl in the group I had to play the role of the hostage but at the end of the day, I was to save myself by grabbing my senior's arms (he had me arm-locked at the neck), bend over and fake a throw. I was quite shocked when he first told me of his plans because I didn't think it would be safe and was well stunned the first time we practiced the throw because all I did was to kneel and bend over and he literally flung himself over my shoulders, rolled over and got on to his feet in a blink. The second throw was not as successful cos I did not release his arm quick enough and he lost the momentum for the roll and ended up flat on his back. I felt really sorry but knew that the best apology was not to make that mistake again. After a few more throws and practices, we were ready for the night and took an hours break to grab a bite and got changed. And then, just as we rehearsed one last time an hour before the dinner started, I sprained my ankle. What a blunder for me and what panic for my seniors! They had to re-cheorograph the combined piece as they waited to see if the swelling of my ankle got better. It didn't, but I felt so disappointed if I had to let the efforts got to waste and I wanted to perform pretty badly, and so I did. I performed carefully and avoided all the dangerous low moves. That's how I got my disobedient left ankle who likes to jump out of its socket once in a while but I have no regrets. It was like participating in MAF again, complete with chinese dance, chinese drama and singing all our 'xiao yuan ge qu', having a chance to reminice my JC days again in a foreign land.

My second HCN was the most hectic. My entire household was involved, including my NJC roommate who got roped in to do photography for us while I handled the video camera. It was the first year our UK Alumni was recognised and officially set up hence preparation began way back in Singapore where we went around seeking support and donations. We were enthusiastic and ambitious. Our target was 200 people and we got 220 to attend. Proper printed glossy dinner magazines were produced back then, and to save on costs almost all the decorations were carried over from Singapore and menus were home printed with paperhouse papers. The student council was still using cameras to capture our college days back then, so the members in charge of programmes had to go back to college for several days to film the videos and make the picture montage. Closer to the night, I remembered having an emergency ticket sales meeting at my place where we frantically called practically everyone we know to push for ticket sales. On the day itself, everything from flowers to banners to disco sound systems had to be set up by ourselves. I believe from its inception, the floating balloon concept had been used for every HCN since. Initially the plan was to tie balloon around the perimeter but because the Gloucester Millennium hotel ballroom had a high ceiling, we then floated half the balloons up to the ceiling with curling silver ribbons dancing down from their ends and tied half of them to chairs to create a two tier mystic effect. And it worked beautifully. The only hiccup we had was that no one recognised the High Commissioner then and he was wondering around the hotel lobby before the reception committee found him.

Third HCN was supposed to be the 'retirement' HCN where I could sit down at a table with all my friends and enjoy a proper meal. But at the very last minute I was asked to help out with the video filming again as they were shorthanded. Perhaps I wished too hard that I could perhaps take a few bites of my food in between performances, because there was not much filming to be done that night. The hotel sunk into darkness right after the welcome speeches. It so happened that the upper stretch of edgeware road had a power cut and the hotel was right at the end of the darkened zone. Since the ballroom was four levels below street level, there were no windows and the hotel staff had to bring in lots of candles. Incredibly, the three courses were still being served promptly. We couldn't tell what we were eating in the dim candle light and wondered if that was how people lived in the days before electric lamps were invented. Without power, there were no video clips, no dance, except for a violin performance played in the dark. That was how romantic and surreal the dinner was. I wondered if the high commissioner remembered how we guided him to the cloakroom aided by emergency exit lights, only to find that all the available candles in the hotel have been mobilised for guests use and the cloakroom lady had no means of finding the comissioner's coat in the dark. So we stood there talking for ages untill a light was found. The power came on again at 11pm and the three hours disco went on without hitch, during which the dance performance and video clips of the all time favourite wildly funny orientation scenes were shown.

Last Saturday's HCN was different but fun. Gone were the MAF themes and the chinese plays. In their places were pseudo prom night beauty pageants and mass dance. The school sprit is still strong and alive and I hope that the HCI graduates can continue this tradition and let HCN be held year after year. =)