Anniversaries & Rehearsals

Two anniversaries this April. One came and went, whilst the other is coming up at the end of the month.

1st April, 11 years ago, was our first date together. D and I had watched the movie "The Professional" at GV Tiong Bahru Plaza (can't remember the name of the french actor, but he is in Steve Martin's Pink Panther) and had dinner at MacDonald's that Saturday night. We had a long chat that night, and I had my first awkward motorcycle ride back home. D had to put on the helmet for me 'cos I didn't quite know how to secure the straps and it felt odd to be on the bike cos I didn't know where to place my hands. Obviously it was too early to be putting my arms around D's waist so they decided to hold D's shoulders. It took another few more dates during the weekends: waiting for D and his bike a few bus-stops away from my block ('cos my dad would have given me hell if he knew I was on a bike during the initial months); getting home before the unearthly curfew of 10.30pm, before we decided to take this relationship to another level.

This year, D and I didn't really do much to "celebrate" this anniversary. Actually, we don't really celebrate, not even our wedding anniversary (which is coming up on the 8th Jun). We had our shore dive at Deep Water Bay that morning, and dragon boat training in the evening on that day. I guess, we have been doing so many things together all these years, that it doesn't make any difference to plan something special just to spend time together in order to celebrate this anniversary. Or maybe we have grown lazy, like old couples. I would like to think that it's 'cos we have been having such fun together that we need not create any excitement so as to spice things up. Sometimes, nothing planned can be more spontaneous.

The next anniversary is related to my work. School is going into its major "rehearsals" mode for the coming 15th Anniversary. Yeah, it's just 15 years old (which I reckon is still an achievement) and the school is staging a major musical to commemorate the event. It's a major production because every pupil will have a part to play in the 1 hr musical, lead, main or chorus parts. I can't say I am enjoying every bit of the rehearsals, but it's necessary for the production to be smooth-going. In fact, it is more tiring taking care of my Scene 1 pupils during the rehearsals than teaching.

On Monday, we had our first complete rehearsal at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (HKCC) and it was, to me, a nightmare to take the kids to the stage and back to their holding room. There was the human traffic jam to tackle since the stairway is narrow and packed with incoming and outgoing pupils from different scenes. The long waiting time and cramped holding room didn't quite make it fun either. More not-so-fun-bits-during-the-rehearsals: Staying back after school, hustling the kids to their positions, keeping them quiet, constantly thinking about how to complete my syllabus due to all these loss of curriculum time.

Can't wait for the month of May.