Des joyeuses retrouvailles*

For not updating my blog over the past few days I feel as demented as ever. Yahoo went down on me for three consecutive nights. Oh, and not to mention two days ago - I got stranded in YMCA for thirty-five minutes just because there was a lump of glue at the back of my parking ticket, making it illegible. Oh, you should've seen the joy and relief on my face when I finally left the Y !

Today was a different story. I had Literature class in the morning with Ms Sunbeam. Adoravelle, Kimberly, Nithya and I were seated in the same row, as always. We were asked to write summaries and critical appreciation of Chapter 1 and 2 of R.K. Narayanan's novel The English Teacher - I must say it is a pleasure to read that novel, especially when almost all the events mentioned in the novel have actually taken place in Narayanan's life. The only drawback was that Chapter 1 was a bit draggy. So there I was, seated at my desk, with only a few sheets left in my test pad.

Believe it or not, except for the careless mistake I made in one sentence, I had no grammatical errors (for once !). Ms Sunbeam told me to stick to the present tense while describing any literary work, and that I did. I was quite surprised, though, because despite the fact that I have been so used to speaking in proper English, whenever I used to submit a piece of work, there'd be a few circles - indicating badly structured sentences and inconsistency in tense. I was the kind of person who, despite my good command of the language, thought that "regiment" and "regimen" were the same word...

I remembered yesterday night, I had a ping from Ms Joaan, my friend and ex-choirmistress of Ressonnant - she needed the score for the remix : I Will Follow You and Can't Take My Eyes Off You - the songs Ressonnant sang for the National Finals in 2007. She asked me to give her a copy of the score. But when she sent me that message, it was past midnight. I couldn't possibly give her a copy back there... So as not to forget, I hurriedly packed my tattered manuscript into my usual brown bag.

I was to meet her between 12:30 and 1:00, downstairs outside Public Bank. That isn't too far from college. It's just downstairs. Anyway. When the time came for me to meet her I excused myself from Ms Sunbeam's class and ran down the stairs. I saw her coming from a distance...... and the first thing I did was embrace her. I was overwhelmed. I was just so happy to see her again !

Jojo : My goodness... thanks for the score.
troisnyx* : Eh. Don't mention it. Er... Keep the manuscript. There's no need to give it back to me.
Jojo : Are you sure ? That's your score ! It's--- your hard work---
troisnyx* : Never mind. Keep it. I reproduced a copy right here (and when I said this, I beat my chest - towards the heart).
Jojo : Omigosh... THANKS ! So you'll be honoured, I'll use this rendition for Sri Cempaka - and I WILL tell them who wrote this.
troisnyx* : Heh. Thanks. By the way... Where and what is this gonna be for ?

And so she told me, the choir from Sri Cempaka is using this for the St Patrick's Day celebration on the 17th of March - it's a Tuesday. (If I could miss classes just for that one day......) The venue is currently unknown. I told her, I'd love to be part of it ! I'd love to be there ! If things go well, Ms Joaan and I will go together. Hopefully I don't have to wear green, because I don't have many green items of clothing...... I'm yet to ask dad about it.

We moved to more personal stuff - like how I've been holding up after mom's death. Well... to say the least, I didn't know. Ms Joaan had been busy with classes and she rushed to Brickfields Asia College during her lunch break, in a bid to obtain the score. Well, whatever it was - I was just so happy to see her again.

So during the lunch break, whilst Adoravelle and Kimberly were fasting and couldn't join us, Nithya and I decided to head down to Subway at KL Sentral. I told her everything about our reunion. Wait till I tell Adoravelle and Kimberly ! I'd love it if they could come with me. But first off, I must get permission to go.

And about the part where I said "I reproduced a copy right here (in my heart)" : I was earnest about it. Every part, every note, every beat, every chord is in my heart. I can't possibly part with this work even if I don't have physical presence. That medley is really dear to me as it is to every Ressonnant member, as it is to Ms Joaan herself. I'd be honoured to hear the rendition from Sri Cempaka - methinks the same parts will be used, albeit with a different piano accompaniment. We'll wait and see !

*The title "Des joyeuses retrouvailles" translates to "A happy reunion".