Meanderings of an opera obsessed mind...

Yay, LJ is finally working on my new laptop (yeah, I got a new one recently although I kinda messed it up and broke like a corner of it when the stupid strap on the laptop bag suddenly decided to break off at one end, sending my laptop hurtling towards the floor with a bang -___-;). Haha, you should have seen my mum's face when she saw the broken pieces of the laptop cover. Not good. Anyways, thankfully there was nothing wrong with the laptop on the inside and now it's nearly good as new since I used this special glue to stick back the parts.

I just hope I don't have to eat my words of optimism or I'm v.v.v. screwed. O___o

Hmm, I've recently got addicted to Stephen Fry's 'QI', a comedy quiz show...his German impersonation of a person going bonkers over his lost phone is hilarious while the voice he used to announce 'Hello and welcome to the BAFTAs' was also extremely funny (it's all on the short 'Mein Handy' clip on Youtube). I'm starting to think that he's become another favourite person of mine...he's utterly fantastic in almost everything he does...

But that doesn't mean that my interest in TA is waning...as one can see from my new avatar...it's him as Marcello in Puccini's 'La boheme' which I watched a little bit of last night. It was only an excerpt and he was only onscreen for only a few moments but my god, and I'll say this again, he can act extremely well! (I think I went a little crazy over it and even uploaded the clip on Youtube...great. XD)

Yesterday I finished this horrendously annoying history essay on the French Revolution...never has writing a 2500 word essay been so terribly difficult. I mean, the subject/topic was obviously not difficult but my god, the process of racking my brains to work was tiring. I was appalled by the fact that I couldn't remember or messed up so many words/spellings during my writing and relied on the word/spell check to rectify the situation. Geez, I even mispelled 'observation' and for the life of me, couldn't correct it properly by myself. It's insane...damn HKU...I think the local student population is starting to have an extremely adverse effect on my writing/thinking skills and it's really ANNOYING me...

Edit: WTF?! Moments after posting this, I realised I mispelled even my favourite baritone's name in the tags section. OMFG...*smashes head on desk* @______@

I can't believe I actually spent nearly 2 hours making a new TA wallpaper for me laptop (when I'm REALLY supposed to be working my arse off on uni work).

But hey, it's a special occasion (at least, special to him and perhaps me) since this year marks the 40th anniversary of his debut as Figaro at the WNO. Lol, I think everyone will recognise Figaro's signature song 'Largo al factotum' even if they don't know the opera; if you've watched Mrs Doubtfire (particularly the scene where Robin Wiliams is providing the voice of this cartoonised bird at the beginning, and heard the song that the latter is singing in its cage)...you'll definitely know it. Plus I always find it mind-boggling that 'Largo al factotum' is the most difficult, most technical aria for baritones (so basically if you've mastered this or even offered this part, you can probably manage everything else with no difficulty) and this was TA's FIRST major role.  Very talented singer indeed.

If you want to hear/watch what 'Largo al factotum' being sung:

www.youtube.com/watch

And an older version but sung in TA's prime:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysb8Z8j4ygQ

My wallpaper...still seems to be lacking something but oh well...XD

phantomphan1990.deviantart.com/art/40th-Anniversary-TA-s-debut-116939328

Okay...random post but I found a recent photo of Thomas Allen (very recent, seeing that it was taken on 8th February AND in Durham) and went absolutely bonkers over it since I haven't seen a recent picture of him in AGES as well as the fact that it's an excellent shot of his profile. I also note that he still has very good dress sense at his age plus thankfully he isn't greying/aging too quickly =)



And yes, I know...that's his usual face/expression when he's in the middle of singing...his serious expression/way of standing, etc reminds me of a choir boy or something XD

OMG...where the heck is my book?!!!!!!

Gah...I've been waiting so long and unfortunately getting worried...it was apparently shipped on 4th December and the estimated delivery time is on/before 23rd December. And it's the 23rd tomorrow!

I hope that my book hasn't been stolen or lost or worse...gah, so stressed out...

My mum just made my day...lol

Mum after watching Thomas Allen in MET 1985 production of 'Nozze di Figaro' as The Count:"...he's bloody handsome."

XDDDDDDDD

So happy.

I've finally gotten back to fanfic writing after such a long period away from it.

Okay, okay...I guess this return can be attributed to my obsession with TA in The Merry Widow since this new fan fic is basically a fanfic retelling of the operetta but I've been planning to write it for such a long time now so I'm glad that I've technically and finally put it from mind to paper.

My mum was annoyed at me for staying up so late (or is it early?! XD  (it's now 7.30 am)) but there's this fear with writing, you know, you never know whether the sudden urge/inspiration you're currently experiencing will return once you've woken up after dosing off for a while so that explains my resistance to sleeping at the moment. 

I just hope that I can finish this fanfic as well as others. It annoys and saddens me to see that so many of my fanfics are incomplete. D=

Just read on the net that TA is currently in London, playing Peter in Hansel and Gretel (yes, they actually made an opera of this story...) at the Royal Opera House until 29th December 2008.

*wishes that she was in London now and could perhaps randomly bump into him on the street*  Okay, BAD stalker-ish-like thoughts! @__@

*changes from former stalker-like thought to seeing him at Covent Garden instead*

Anyways, aside from BOTH non-existent opportunities which will never have a chance in hell from happening, that means that his agents/management, etc could also pass him my letter/card since they're based in London...so he might decide to grant me his autograph since he's there anyway.

Maybe. JUST MAYBE. -_____-


EDIT: And I wonder why his agents/management never ever bother to list out his schedule on his site...it's so freaking difficult to keep track of his engagements. The only reason I know where he is now is because of independent research... D=

Hmm...but maybe it's a good thing to prevent crazy fans like me from following him around all over the place XDDDDDDDD

Finally feeling better after getting two days sickleave from uni...although I do still feel drowsy and my ears still feel as if they're blocked/muffled for some weird reason. -___-

Basically was ordered to stay home by my mum on Tues/Wed and I gladly obeyed since I was feeling very, very put out, etc...but at the moment, not too happy since it means that I missed this test for Fine Arts (made more complicated by the fact that the professor has to show us these Powerpoint slides as part of the test...I don't think he'll be in a sporting mood to spend his time out of class to show me these slides just because one person such as myself missed the damn test...-_____- oh, why, oh WHY did I have to get ill now?!) I hate getting ill since it makes a right mess of the order of things...and now I think I have to make a couple copies of the my sick-leave certificate and give a copy each to each subject I missed...that means like 5 different departments? XD And I had to give in this essay on Tuesday for European Studies but couldn't?! Does that mean I have to hand it in (late) anyway to the office (and randomly attach a copy of my sickleave cert on it? It would look so random, lol)

God, it would be waaay easier if I just did History and had only that specific department to worry about. =/

But there is some good news regarding uni/career related stuff. 1: the father of one of the kids I teach has offered me a 8 month long part-time job as a student assistant to help him correct the grammar, etc with his PhD student essays (he's a professor at the HK Polytechnic), and write a few research essays for him so that gives me some research experience plus a small salary of HKD 2880 per month for 18 hours of work per week. 2: my German history professor (yeah, the rather eccentric one) has asked me to meet him tomorrow because I said I was interested in helping the history department in research or something similar to one of his grad students. So yeah, I'm guessing that it isn't too bad...providing that I can manage to balance my workload!

And seriously, listening to Thomas Allen gets you to listening to music you've never dreamt you'll listen to before...at the moment, he's got me into Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (I think everyone knows the first really dramatic piece: 'O Fortuna') and the whole thing's in Latin...Latin! I definitely thought that nothing in the world would induce me to ever listen to this...but as you can see, I was proved wrong. But on the other hand, since he's the baritone (and the baritone gets most of the songs to sing), it's not too bad (also he does sound nice singing Latin). =)