a dramatic weekend

what a weekend…my grandpa passed away peacefully, in his sleep, on friday. we knew he was weakening, but it was quite sudden all the same. then on saturday, my brother got bitten by a dog and hospitalised and there was a quartet performance on sunday.

i wonder though, whether it’s disrespectful to talk about the other two events together with my grandpa’s passing. however, i believe that he’s had a good long satisfying life and is now happy and at peace. i’ve always thought that i wouldn’t want to live that long–but perhaps when we do reach the age where we feel now that we would be happy to go (for me it’s around 60-70), we don’t want to go after all. the pull of life, of family may be too strong. my grandpa got to see two great-grandchildren this year, at the ripe old age of 93…maybe it’s worth living so long just for that.

*1 minute of silence*

anyway, my brother got bitten quite deeply on the hand by captain, and was yelling fit to kill in the kitchen. fortunately we were on our way out at the time so i could rush him to hospital right away. it turned out that he had to have an operation to clean the wound and stay in the hospital for 2 nights. “overkill”, was his comment. it seems that the cure was worse than the disease because his hand is still bandaged up and it hurts for him to even move his fingers. i suppose it’s better in the long run. anyway it’s all for free thanks to NS, haha. fortunately for captain, after some initial sian diao-ness, my brother is still going to try to rehabilitate his aggressiveness since he has a bit of time at home. on the other hand, i am going to stay far far away from him….he’s nice to look at from a distance. heh.

the quartet performance on sunday was lots of fun despite the bad timing. between shou ye-ing the funeral and my brother’s hospitalisation (guess who’s the one bringing him food and entertainment?) i was damn exhausted already and worrying that we hadn’t rehearsed enough. but this quartet is the most fun i’ve ever played with (even though i’m the lousiest player in it) and the people we played for were incredibly nice. they actually applauded us in between songs and later came to us just to tell us how much they enjoyed our playing. and it was lucky that they made requests for songs we just happened to have, and could play well.

it was a cocktail event, so there were waiters and waitresses walking around with trays of finger food. and the food was amazing. among the spread were prawn wonton on a spoon you could just pick up form the tray and eat in one bite, fantastic fish and chips in a little box, and the highlight of the night which i sneakily took a photo of… soba with crab meat and roe. faint!

not to mention that the host family kept offering us food…they’re that nice. and the dad insisted on offering us alcohol too. the red wine was so strong that i didn’t dare to actually drink it, my alcohol intolerance is ridiculous. i was convinced that the few sips i did take went straight to my head, to the spot between my eyes. was seriously considering pouring it into my cranberry juice so that i would look like i drank it. but it was fun anyway, haha.

the ntuso quartet! taken with timer and i couldn't get into position on time haha

balloons on the ceiling where we performed

 one of my last quartet opportunities ever…since i may be going overseas next semester, and anyway it’s time for me to grit my teeth and let the new cellists have a chance to play too. i’ve had my fun and should quit being selfish!

and only a little more than a week to the end of the semester. next week i have THREE presentations in 4 days. and 2 final papers due. ugh…less than one more month to suffer before the holidays!