BRONZE

My choir got Bronze award. The girls cried buckets. Both conductor and pianist who had lots of experience with other choirs said they did well and can expect a silver. That raised their hopes. But the judges thought otherwise and gave them bronze.
The disappointment was unbearable. Even I felt so awful and went on a binge and shopping spree that night to make myself feel better.
The girls are rather inconsolable. They were still teary the next day when the school announce their results during assembly. They were supposed to ring the victory bell, a tradition in the schol whenever we win something, but nobody was willing to do it. One even wailed " they (the school leader) want us to ring the bell.... how to ring?" and burst out crying even louder than before.
Fabian and I had to do the damage control, to psycho them into the right mood so that they will be ready for the speech day performance the next day.

Learning to Swim

Qy starts learning to swim this week. It is more of water confidence for now rather than to learn the strokes. She is wary of the coach and maintained her distance. She is fearful of holding her breathe to go underwater. She is rather hesitate to put her mouth near the water to blow bubbles too. The coach had to resort to scooping up water in his palm, put his palm in front of her mouth and ask her to blow at the water. Still no bubbles. Just small waves in the palm from all her blowing.
Progress was slow, but being the first lesson, I should be more patient At least at the end of the lesson, the coach was able to gain her trust and was able to carry her. I am already very satisfied with that.

SYF

Band won GOLD award in the SYF central judging. It's fantastic and everyone cheered for them. Choir's turn on 23 Apr. I'm worried. We had bronze 2 years back, and bronze for the last few judgings. Don't know if we can have any breakthrough this year.
Spoke to the person in charge of the band for advice and the secret to their gold. She says
(1) pamper them, spoil them, treat them like kings and queens. She brought food, flowers, snacks for them.
(2) write notes of encouragement to them, including conductor
(3) Wear red, including the intimates.
(4) Don't give the choir too much pressure. Don't say things like "if band can get gold......"

I agree with her pampering part. Shall feed the kids well these few practices, except they can't have chocolates or junk food, otherwise they voices will get affected. So that limits my choice of food quite alot. I have seen some pretty stationery at Yamaha, not too expensive. Maybe get those for the kids next week.