My Hero

I found Jeff Corwin on Facebook - the fan page, that is!! Now I can stalk his whereabouts and read his updates on what he does. Muahahaha. OMG. I LOVE HIM, his shows and everything wild he stands for. Yesterday, I was reading up on his impressive bio and also found out that he was born on July 11th, just like me. How randomly cool is that?! But fan-girl madness aside, just like Steve Irwin, he's so awesome at what he does and the places he goes to, the animals he encounters and the awareness he spreads about them and conservation is totally awesome and inspirational. He's my hero.

Another one of Shu's celebrity crushes

This weekend, I start my 8-week training to be a Docent at the Singapore Zoo. It's going to be one whole weekend of getting familiar with the operations at Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park and then seven weeks of training to be a Docent or volunteer ranger based at a Discovery Station at one of the parks. If all goes well during those 8 weeks, I'll volunteer every once a month or more if I can manage it, educating and engaging the public at the station using a variety of interactive methods, which I'll be trained on. I'm very nervous about the bit on public interaction and although there won't be any animal interaction as I would have liked, I'm very psyched!

I found me...well, not just me...on YouTube. In this concert performance from 2007, the university's Indian classical orchestra plays a piece with a touch of Western influence

Also found online were two other pieces from the same concert:

"Purity" - composed by the very multi-talented violin tutor, Mr C. N. Thyagaraju. It is characteristic of his compositions in showcasing the strengths of different combinations of instruments with percussion at the beginning, followed by a slower paced centre and finally bringing out a dramatic ending to the piece.
"Laughter" - this piece was directed by the veena/vocals tutor, who was also very talented in her field. I do not know what the lyrics mean, but this piece takes me back in time to the visual of a rural Indian village revolving around rice farming and somehow, involving bullock carts and earthenware too.

Listening to old concerts during my university years always gives me a bittersweet feeling. The melodies of all the pieces I have been part of have been etched in me, thanks to many months of long hours of group practices before the actual concerts. Those moments at practices - pushing the limits of my abilities in playing the violin, losing myself in profound combinations of musical notes and finding it meaningful was the only therapeutic escape I had from life at the time.