ICE-cream and the delicacy of sauteed shrimps in pepper might sound appealing to the taste buds, but they failed to tempt 50 disciplined members of the Hong Kong Children's Choir who performed in Canada and the United States this summer.
The little singers cared more about keeping their voice for top-quality performance.
They learned to handle life during the trip. Roy Lim Long-hei, 10, struck a wrong chord while playing his yang qin (a Chinese musical instrument) in front of over 3,000 people, but the Primary 5 pupil told himself to be calm. He just re-played the section.
And when Lucinda Hau Ka-yan, nine, accidentally dropped her handkerchief while turning it in her hands during a Chinese dance, she picked it up with composure and continued the act.
For long-term member Biana Wong Hiu-yee, it meant bidding farewell to the choir. The 15-year-old fourth-former of St Paul's Co-educational College has decided to continue her studies in Vancouver.
''In the past eight years, I have been to Australia, Taiwan, Eastern Europe and Korea with the choir, but I like this trip the most. I communicated with people the best this time and had really made some good friends.'' The longest tour in the choir's history, it covered seven cities in 25 days.
In Vancouver, they were invited to the renowned International Choral Music Symposium, an event attended by over 1,000 conductors and 500 musicians from 65 countries.