Goodbye Shanghai

Last month, M renovated part of her flat. Although the main bulk of the works were in the kitchen and toilets, she took the opportunity to also spring-clean some stuff out of the place. Amongst those items marked for removal was our Shanghai piano.

The piano had been with us for about 27 years now - not exactly a very long time but still, that's more than half my life as of now.

It was a gift from C2 and mainly for YP. But I was also a beneficiary in that it became the reason for my embarking on music learning. I mean, it was the 'excuse' to get a piano teacher for 'formal' music lessons when before, all the music training I had was from the primary school music teacher during our weekly music classes, recorder group and the band practices.

So, in a way, I feel a little nostalgic about the Shanghai even though right from the start, everyone knew it wasn't the best of the ivories. I would have preferred a piano with a 'lower' keyboard so that it wouldn't have been so difficult trying to race my little fingers all over the keys during those not-exactly-enjoyable piano lessons at home.

So, when M decided that this time, the piano would really go (we all thought about giving the piano away years ago, too, but always couldn't bear to do so in the end), I felt a little sad. But at the same time, I can understand M's desire not to have her room 'cluttered' with the now-white elephant anymore. But none of us has the space at our respective homes to house the piano either.

After some discussions, I suggested to donate it to WY and WF's school. The school always had a used piano at the side of the canteen and I have heard some children play it on several occasions. My thinking was that if our Shanghai were there, it would probably continue to be a useful tool for the children and even WY and WF can sometimes get to play on it if they choose to do so.

The principal was very happy to receive the donation and got the teacher to arrange for transportation etc. On the day that the Shanghai was taken away, I had to go fetch WY for an enrichment class, and so I managed to get a glimpse of it at the canteen.

It's weird how things which we keep in the house always looks so different when they are brought ('discarded') outside - somehow, the piano looked slimmer and more used that it had felt at home. But it sounded 'better' in the sense that there is a little 'echo' in this little corner of the canteen and so, it seems a little 'brighter'.

I have no idea what the school will do about the Shanghai when it moves to the holding school next year. I hope they will bring the piano along with them.