Slice Of Life #147 - Competition - Tuesday, 24/12/2018 - Happened on Wednesday, 19/12/2018

    I took a deep breath as I gave my code to a person. I walked up toward the judges and handed them 3 pieces of paper full of musical notes. Next, I walked up to the piano and bowed. Everyone clapped. Then, I gently put my hands on the keyboard and gently pressed down a few notes. Not long after, all my focus drifted to the song, and I forgot about everyone watching me. All my mind could do was press down the keys and wait for the results.
    Remember, press down the pedals. I reminded myself. Now, check my hand position. Both of my hands should be moving by one octave. Okay... It's the ending. Play really soft. PLAY THE LAST 3 NOTES LOUD!
    The song ended with a bang. I got up from my seat, took a few steps forward, and then bowed. Everyone clapped, and in my opinion, the loudest clap I had heard so far.
    I was at a piano competition. It was the Malaysian Round of the Hong Kong International Youth Performing Arts Festival (HKYPAF), and I was just done playing my song - The Ballerina. I had left school 45 minutes early today just for this competition.
    I looked at my piano teacher sitting at the front row. He was smiling a massive smile that seemed like it was contagious, and I started to smile too.
    Walking back to my seat, I saw the 2 people sitting next to me giving me a thumbs-up. One of them I just met, one of them I already knew. I patted the place where my heart was, relieved that I didn't mess up. My dad turned to me, and in a loud whisper, said that I did a great job.
    Because the awards ceremony was supposed to be at 7pm, and it was already 5:30pm, we didn't have any time to go home. Unfortunately, the event was delayed by 1 hour 30 mins, as there were delays in the results coming back up.
    Before my competition, I had heard mothers with younger children ask how long the kids would have to wait to get the awards. The people had said that they would serve the younger children first, and then the older children.
    But, that wasn't what happened. Instead, they started with the oldest children first, with the ones that were playing Mozart and Haydn pieces. It was literally 45 minutes before they even got to the diploma section - that meant waiting for about 6 more sections. And that would take another 45 minutes.
    But when the time came, it was worth it. I learned that I had got the gold award and the best performance award. My smile was so big that it seemed like if it got any bigger my mouth would pop. I smiled a wide smile as I walked up the stage to collect my award.

Slice Of Life #146 - Currently (Again...) - Tuesday 18/12/2018

    Okay. Unfortunately, I have nothing to write about today. So I will do a currently post... I promise I will have something to write about next week - I have a piano competition tomorrow. I'm feeling anxious about it...

Currently...

• I just reset my password on this app I use to learn Spanish on - Duolingo. I am at crown level 13. 
• I'm starting another lesson on Duolingo called People 3. I think it's a pretty lame name - no offense...
• Yeah! I completed People 3 and this lesson on Duolingo called School 2 without getting anything wrong.
• Woah! You can study Klingon on Duolingo! For those of you that don't know, Klingon is the language in a game called Star Trek.
• I am learning Malay and Chinese in Duolingo. It's really, really, really easy - for me, at least.
• I am going to my room to get my Neeuro Senzeband. The Neeuro Senzeband is able to sense your brainwaves, and you can also use the Neeuro Senzeband to play games - you need to use your brainpower to play games (and you need a phone, too).
• I have connected my Neeuro Senzeband. I am now playing this game called Multitask Master, where you have to Multitask between two things. This game is hard. I failed.
• I am now playing a game called Junction Control, where we have to control the flow of traffic lights. I passed the level!
• Haha! When you fail, all the cars blow their horn.
• I am doing an assessment on the app right now. 
• I am done with the assessment.
• I got 97% for attention, 100% for spatial, 95% for memory, and 90% for decision flexibility.
• And... I have to eat dinner. Bye!

Slice Of Life #145 - Currently... - 11/12/2018, Tuesday

Currently...

• I am on my way home from school to a shopping mall. Today is a holiday in the state (Selangor) my dad works in, but not for me, as my school is in Kuala Lumpur. Last year was a holiday, but our school moved. 
• I see my friend's car on the road in front of me.
• I am eating guava and dragonfruit. 
• Ha! We overtook my friend's car!
• We are now next to each other (in terms of cars).
• He is waving at me like crazy.
• I am trying to signal to him to play this game called charge. FYI, charge is not a video or digital game.
• No! He doesn't understand!
• My friends car just overtook us again.
• I am reading a book called Rules. Its a really good book.
• I am staring at the Twin Towers (one thing I love about the new school is the fact that the view of the Twin and Petronas Towers. The view is amazing).
• We overtook my friend's car. He is waving at me like crazy again.
• We are approaching the shopping mall now.
• I am looking at my clarinet next to me. Recently, I managed to get my gold belt, which makes me a gold belt star, and I am the 3rd person to get it this year. (In band, we now get to earn "belts", and for each song we pass, we earn a belt (the belt is a ribbon). There are 11 selected songs that were selected, and after you pass all 11, you get your gold belt. After you pass another 11, you get your double gold belt, and I am now working to get my double gold belt.
• We are now getting a ticket to enter the shopping mall parking lot. My dad is trying to find a place to park, but we can't find any so far.
• I am listening to a really good song in Chinese that I am learning to play on the piano. It's 4 pages long (the notes). I am singing along to the song.
• YES! He found one!
• Now, its time to go shopping! Catch you later!

Slice Of Life #144 - A Trip To Penang - December 4th, 2018 - Happened During 1/12/2018-2/12/2018

    I lay down in the car. There were books next to me, and I looked up at the top of the car. It was night, and we were going to Penang. We just finished dinner, and were now on the highway. I heard the hushed voices of my parents, talking to each other. I closed my eyes as I fell asleep.

    "Get up," I heard the voice of my dad. "We're there."

    I got off the car. We had reached my uncle's house, but it was 2 in the morning. I walked calmly until I heard the sound of barking coming from the very house. Apparently, my uncle had bought a dog that was pretty aggressive, and had named it Jacky. Because it didn't recognize our smell, it started barking at us, and my uncle had to hold him tight.

    My uncle already had a dog that was older than me. He had been here for even longer than my whole life, and I think he knew my smell by heart, so he just looked at me as I walked into the house.

    My uncle lived in Penang, had recently renovated his house, and I could tell the difference. I don't think he did much to the front part of his house, but the toilets were way cleaner now, and there were 2 toilets (but only 1 with a toilet bowl). He didn't have a store room anymore, as I think he demolished the wall, which meant that his kitchen was way bigger now. The kitchen door was now a sliding door, and he moved his dining table into his kitchen (which is pretty big - about the size of a normal room - it's only partly a kitchen). Other than that, he now had a sofa - with not very comfy pillows.
    I then went into the room we always slept in when we lived in his house. I un-folded the fold-out bed, then put it on the floor. I then lied down, then fell asleep again.

    I woke up to lots of barking. I got up and went outside to look. The sky was starting to light up, casting a yellow glow over the ground. I looked at Jacky. He was barking at another white dog that had came in front of the house, and the dog was barking back. I then went back into the room. My parents had woke up too. They told me to go brush my teeth. I found out that my uncle was going to buy breakfast for us. After brushing my teeth, I went to take a bath.
    When I came out, my uncle had came back. I went to see what was for breakfast. Yeah! Noodles for breakfast! I thought. After eating breakfast, we packed up and left my uncle's house. My dad came here because he had to give a presentation, and he was due to talk at 11:00, which meant that we had to leave at 9:00, as the place we had to go was about 1 hour away.
    Upon reaching the destination, my dad went upstairs to make sure that his slides for the presentation was okay. At about 11:30, (there were delays to the presentation), my dad went on stage and started talking. After the talk, we went to eat lunch. I thought that the lunch tasted pretty good. After lunch, we had to go home, as it was a 4 hour drive from Penang back to Kuala Lumpur (KL - where we live).
    My dad got a few gifts for talking. One of them was a book, but we gave it back, as we already had the book. We brought home a cute little rabbit - that was made out of a handkerchief (the eyes were made out of seeds). The rabbit was in a little basket, which was made out of coffee bags (it was real flexible). They also gave us a calendar for 2019, which would be able to be made into things that were similar to office files - but I forgot the names of them, which would prove to be useful.
    We took the presents and walked back to the car, and drove home.