Pam, my Sister Ant

Today I am sharing an email I sent to my dear friend, Pam, in Canada:

Believe it or not, I was thinking of you the other day, during camp.....yes, we are still running our Summer Music Camps..... just wondering what you were doing and how you were.... so happy to hear from you and what great timing, too. August 5th is our 15th wedding anniversary AND the release date of my new English album!

First of all, it's great to hear you are working with passionate artists!

Congratulations!

I want to hear more about your show.

I only just figured out and told Andreas a couple days ago, that only after 40 years in this business, with all the performances and experiences, that finally, I am satisfied and happy with my new album! Isn't that crazy?

The design and colours are great, the songs are great, just little things added up and you know, it's the people around me, that have inspired me, the right people!

For the past 12 years of teaching and performing, my family, my students, my friends, with living in Missouri, Canada and returning to HK, has been an amazing journey for me.

The influences from living there and teaching the kids, my girls, meeting new friends and getting to know them, is much more precious than just being on stage.

Even though the stage is the icing on top of the cake, everything else before that moment, makes the performance so perfect!

Of course, without the support of Andreas, his neverending patience, his strong will, his persistence, his love, his great food! All this couldn't have been possible. I do believe God is on my side and I am so thankful. =)

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." ~~ Mahatma Gandhi

"Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God." ~~ Leo Buscaglia

This is exactly what we both do!!!!

How I miss you, Pam, your talent, your love and most of all your passion!!! =)

One day, a couple months ago, I gave the True Love Concert DVD to my nail artist and while having my nails done, they put in the DVD and I got to watch the show. And you know, it is a great show and made me miss our working together! You looked so gorgeous and so angelic in that BLUE cloak!! You made that look so good! =) What great times!

Yes, this little Ant on this side of the world is still working hard, climbing up that mountain and hopefully will get to meet you, my Sister Ant and have some time to reminisce, or work on a project together to get us going up higher!

Summer camps this year is going very well! Adee has worked hard the past year to bring more students in, through helping me write my column (in Chinese, of course) in a free paper, Take Me Home, getting our bus ads out, pushing Alexias and Andreas in getting the ads done =) Actually Adee is our supervisor!!! He pushes me too, in getting my music tracks done, but of course, with all the other little things that are happening at the same time, my music is the last thing on my mind...

But, with God's Grace, and my willingness to wait, it is all happening now.

Yes, during camps, I am in my room, making my music and so excited to have it released soon.

I have been performing here and there but not as much as I want to, so teaching is now really taking up most of our time.

Alexias and Serena are a great team! Gosh, can you believe it? Already 16 & 13! Aunty Flora and Keiffany both came to help and participate in the camps and doing great! Keiffany is already 11 and having a great time working and learning alongside her sisters! Flora helps with the yoga and student supervisor, and also became a first time lyricist! =)

Flora helped with our new song 'I Like My Brain' but I had to use a different melody, and the kids loved the songs!! I'm so thrilled!! =)

The Chinese version is called 'Adorable Me' =) Flora translates the English version and adds more of what the body parts do and I try to put those words into a melody. Adee and Clement helped alot too as they can tell which notes would make the words sound better. You know, the Chinese words are turned into foul words when sung in a different tone!!!! so we had to make sure!! =)

I had taught a class a month ago to the little ones on Saturdays, 3 -6 years old, and I asked them which part of their bodies did they like the most and the first girl offered a 'I LIKE MY BRAIN'!!!! She is 5 years old and the next girl, yelled ' I Like My Smelly FEET!!!!' She's 4. I gently told the little girl that I will try to think how I can incorporate smelly feet into the song..... and all the other kids chose the usual, I like my hair, my eyes, my ears..etc....Those kids are so cute!

So I wrote the first part of the song and TV (yes, she was here for 6 weeks June/July) helped me finish the song in 20 minutes!!!! TV also wrote it in Spanish, AND did another version in Spanish with a Salsa beat and dance too!!!! WOW!! I had promised to get the video uploaded and will do when the kids have their Summer Music performance Aug 19th at the Shatin Town theater, the smaller theater which seats 300.

I am staying home again today due to my bronchitis.. I couldn't believe it! I have not had bronchitis in maybe 10 years?? And I have a performance promoting my new CD TOMORROW!!! hahaha.... So I am resting at home, and diligently drinking my lemony drink which Andreas bought for me last night. I am getting better and need to sleep more.....

Andreas and the girls went off to the studio and today they will be revising the songs the kids have learned in the past 4 days, practicing their exit and entrances and finishing off their photo frames. The kids in each camp gets a photo frame, we have red, yellow, blue, green, white and sometimes black, photo frames which they decorate on their own. We provide all the materials, like little puffy balls, the folded stars, stickers, markers, feathers, etc... and a group photo is taken either on the second or third day of camp and given to the kids to put into their frames.

After each camp, which lasts for 5 days, the kids get to perform on the 6th day (Saturday) for their families. All the students get to perform together on the same songs and the little ones perform their songs which they know while the afternoon class would sit and watch. But sometimes everyone decides to join in, =) The Entertainers would perform their songs and finally, the TCI kids will perform the Salsa version of 'I Like My Brain' - Me Gusta Mi Cerebro!

The little ones - the Little Musical Stars - starts camp at 10am until noon. The afternoon camp -The Entertainers, start from 1pm -6pm.

The TCI kids, Anson, Audrey, Kelly and Vanessa, Nancy (from Vancouver, 2nd year at TCI camp and Regina, also from Vancouver, help to teach and work on other songs with me or Adee and Clement. Blossom left near the end of Nov 2008 to study in Australia but came back for one week of camp this year. We were so happy to see her again!

This is our 4th week of camps and there are kids who join the whole 4 weeks or first and last week, or just one week. We do have one more week for a performance camp, open only to kids who have joined any of our camps and personally invited by me, but not guaranteed to perform on Aug 19th. =)

Adee has a new buddy working with him. Clement Lee. He is one of my very first student from Toronto back in 1998 and he's great! Clement also teaches singing, translates my songs into ping yin in almost no time, and sings very well, too!! Last year he was our main guy performing with Liat, my God Daughter, also from Toronto. Liat & Clement, they should record together=)

Love you and miss you! Thinking of you when the kids are singing and dancing! your sister Ant Teresa =)