HB

A long, personal journey worth having.

Plans for February and March

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Hello. I’ve waited here for you. Everlong.

ishinha

They say Singapore is the entertainment hub of Asia. For all intents and purposes, it is. Hey, we’ve all flew down to Singapore to catch all the awesome concerts and theater performances that never comes to Malaysia. I watched Ishinha’s When a Grey Taiwanese Cow Stretched last year, all done in Osakan street rap with English subtitles and enjoyed it tremendously.

It’s a good thing it’s not that far away so we don’t miss much. I’ve even driven down to Singapore before.

It’s very accessible, that’s for sure.

There’s several interesting events that’s coming up in Singapore – and it’s all happening in February and March! 🙂

M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2012
Date: 15-26 February
Venue: Esplanade, National Museum of Singapore, The Substation, ION Orchard

Yes, the Singapore Fringe Festival is BACK!

singapore fringe festival

It’s an annual celebration of theater, performance art, film, dance, visual arts, mixed media and music. The Singapore Fringe Festival started in 2005 and has been running every year since. There’s a different theme each year and the 2012 theme is…

Art & Faith

It goes on at various different locations and there are free and ticketed performances from local and international artists.

iraq is flying

One thing that caught my eye is Iraq is Flying – a collection of photographs by Jamal Penjweny. I love stuff like this. It’s one of the free events where you can view pictures of post-war Iraq and the lives of the people living in it taken by a renowned Iraqi photographer. It’s also one of the festival highlights.

Get more details of the listings and at the official M1 Singapore Fringe Festival site.

Mosaic Music Festival @ Esplanade
Date: 9-18 March
Venue: Esplanade

mosaic

The Mosaic Music Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. This is a music festival that knows no genres – jazz, hip-hop, soul, electro, it’s all represented here. The theme this year will be Celebrating Life – The best of the Human Spirit through the Arts and can best be described as a call for peace and harmony.

Just to give you an idea of the wonderful lineup – here’s a couple of acts that will be performing:

  • Stacey Kent
  • OMD
  • John Butler Trio
  • elbow
  • Russian Red
  • Blind Pilot

…a lot of these names will be familiar to music and theater aficionados.

Get the full performance list and details at the Mosaic Music Festival site.

elbow

There are also concerts galore during this period:

Foo Fighters Live in Singapore
Date: 2 March
Venue: The Padang

foo fighters

Yes, it’s Dave Grohl from Nirvana! Everyone said they wouldn’t make it when Kurt Cobain kicked the bucket and Dave went and started Foo Fighters. Their debut album was awesome and Everlong is still one of my favorite songs. The music video for that one is *amazing*.

They’re coming to Singapore for one concert, one night only and it’s the only destination in Asia they’re going to play. BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW!!!!!!! 😀

Charice Live in Singapore
Date: 5 March
Venue: Skallang Theatre

Yup, it’s the Filipino that appeared on Glee. Now, she’s appearing on stage in Singapore. 🙂

Duran Duran Live in Singapore
Date: 10 March
Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium

This is for all the old skool music lovers. They were really huge in the ’90s and now they’re coming back in a big way.

Olivia Newton-John Live in Singapore
Date: 27 March
Venue: Esplanade Theatre

She has over 100 million albums sold so she’s gotta be doing something right. The co-star of Grease, her music will appeal to those who likes easier listening.

Roxette Live in Singapore
Date: 6 March
Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium

Okay, I have a confession to make. I ADORED them when I was in Primary Six. I had a huge crush on Marie Fredriksson and I know most of the older songs by heart. Instead of discovering them *after* watching Pretty Woman, I *watched* Pretty Woman because one one of their tracks was featured in the movie.

I see the list of songs and it all automatically plays in my mind. That was how much I used to listen to them back when I was a kid. My favorite track? Cinnamon Street.

Just close your eyes and listen to the vocals. That was how music was when I was a kid.

…and I still love them. 😀

Evanescence Live in Singapore
Date: 27 February
Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium

Amy Lee comes to town to rock your world! I first heard of them when they did a Korn cover. I’m a huge fan of Korn. I guess you know what kind of music I listen to with my enthusiastic proclamations of bands I like.

Their cover of “Thoughtless” is quite different from Korn’s. It’s more mellow and it really highlights Amy’s melodious vocals instead of Jonathan Davis’ more raw expressions.

All my hate cannot be found. I will not be drowned by your thoughtless scheming.

It’s the reason I started listening to Evanescence.

Yup, plenty of good reasons to visit Singapore this February and March. 🙂

A policeman shouts “Stop!” at someone in an airport…

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…what happens next?

Well, usually things like these don’t turn out very well, but in this case it did.

mas flashmob

I was randomly surfing around when I saw a video of a flash mob in KLIA. Dammit, it was on the exact same day I flew back to Sibu from KL for Chinese New Year but my flight was early morning so I totally missed this.

Anyway, this dude walks in with a guitar and one of the policeman on duty runs out and hollers at him to stop.

*cue curious and confused rubberneckers

The guy breaks into song and people started dancing and I realized it was a flash mob.

flashmob mas

However the sheer scale of it surprised me. It comprised about 100 singers and dancers and had scripted events.

It was like a Hindi movie, people were recording and gawking at the performers and it suddenly segued into another song.

It had English songs, Malay songs, Tamil songs, Chinese songs and I found it highly entertaining.

(especially the Hindi movie tribute bit)

smirk

I used to listen to Ah Niu (the local Malaysian singer) – it was one of my ex girlfriends that got me into Chinese music. There was a segment where a group of Chinese tourists came out singing Lang Hua Yu Duo Duo.

mas flashmob finale

It must have taken them a lot of planning – there were MAS cabin attendants joining in at the 200 strong grand finale before everyone dispersed, going their own way.

The original one I saw was a recording a passenger took. The best flash mobs incorporates elements from where you would not expect it – I was surprised to see a bunch of unassuming old ladies waiting outside bursting into song. I finally found the official video for this one, it’s the complete version and the footage is taken from a variety of sources, including the CCTV cameras.

klia flashmob

I know what you’re thinking – flash mobs have been done to death. That’s true, but the sheer quality of this is like watching a musical production – one that incorporates the entire KLIA arrival hall as its stage, with several things happening at once so there’s always something interesting somewhere.

It’s almost like watching an episode of Glee with the Kit Kat Klub as its cast (recognized some of them from the Tapis Rouge launch).

Check it out! 😀

Running around like a headless chicken

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running around like a headless chicken

This idiom is actually quite accurate. My aunt was slaughtering chickens yesterday and I thought it was pretty interesting so I wanted to try it out myself. However, when I slit the chicken’s throat, I did it rather enthusiastically and nearly took off my own thumb with it. -_-

how to kill a chicken

Basically, you’re supposed to dump the chicken into a bucket after you kill it coz it thrashes around quite violently. I didn’t manage to coz my hands were slick with blood and I accidentally let the chicken go. I swear, I didn’t do that just to see if it would run around like a headless chicken. smirk

plucking chickens

Anyway, the chicken sorta flapped around all over the place when I *unintentionally* let it go. It was messy. I damn near decapitated the chicken with a very eager hand behind the knife but it still lived. It lives! Well, kinda. I finally caught it and dropped it into the bucket where it was soaked in hot water and plucked of its feathers.

I didn’t do much after seeing if the idiom was true though.

My mom said: Stop clucking around – if you’re not going to help and you’re just going to make a mess, go away.

I went away. action

Glenfiddich Solera Reserve 15 year old

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glenfiddich solera reserve

Glenfiddich is one of the most common single malt Scotch whisky there is out there. I believe I read somewhere that every 1 in 3 bottles of single malt sold is a Glenfiddich. However, just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it automatically isn’t good.

I *struggled* to choke that sentence out. I’m a huge Macallan fan, quite loyal to it since it was my very first single malt Scotch and I had it at a very special time.

glenfiddich 15 solera reserve gift box

Glenfiddich Solera Reserve can be had for around RM 245 – 285. There’s this promotional gift box that comes with a 700 ml bottle, a 30 ml miniature and a tumbler. The 15 year old is generally accepted to be a benchmark of sorts and has one of the best price-performance ratios. I first had it in 2006 and wrote about the Glenfiddich Solera Reserve which I got to celebrate a pay raise.

whisky durian

Oh, I nearly forgot this photo.

trollface

Proof that eating durians with alcohol won’t kill you

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spinning deck

Okay, now this is an established fact. Anyone who believes otherwise is an:

1. Idiot
2. Superstitious idiot
3. Ignorant idiot

(Sorry grandma)

Anyway, I have eaten large quantities of durian and drank prodigous amounts of alcohol at the same time to no ill effects.

Except a hangover…but that’s to be expected.

durians

I was out during the weekend with my friends and but before that I helped my dad open a couple of durians and ate some.

pan2 eddy

We started drinking and playing pool at a lounge and then moved somewhere where they have a…

…livelier live band. smirk

I started drinking this beer called Zoror Beer (RM 20 per jug, can’t beat that) in earnest and I knew I drank quite a lot because I have stupid photos in my camera.

pan2 jo

Me and Jo. These are not my glasses. They are Eddy’s – he put them on when I asked him about this chick – thing is he doesn’t need them. Thus, I put it on and went out front to see if it would make the girls look hotter or whether its the beer goggles.

mahal kita

Jo giving me a cheat sheet on Tagalog. I keep forgetting and she keeps telling me and finally she just wrote it down.

pan2 pinoy chick

As the night goes on, the memory becomes rather hazy…

BUT

I remember eating three whole durians when I got back, drunkenly stuffing myself full of the King of Fruits before I went to sleep. After all that drinking.

…and I’m still alive.

truestory

Credit card paid in full!

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credit card paid in full

I’ve written about this on my FB and thought it was eventful enough to warrant a re-post. I just paid off my entire credit card bill…in one shot.

Why did I do something like that? *smacks forehead

I need *cash* for CNY not *credit*.

However, for the first time in (recent) memory, I have paid every single red cent of my credit card outstanding balance.

Damn that hurt.

I now owe RM 0.

Damn that feels good.

It’s like S&M, it feels good and hurts and the same time.

Kuta beach in Bali

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kuta

Much has been said about Kuta beach. It’s not exactly the uncharted 3K’s of backpacking these days. Nowadays, you’re more likely to be bugged by people offering massages, hair braiding, Bintang beer and all sorts of random stuff…like a handmade “magic” cigarette dispenser that is really quite nifty, but that was at Legian.

kuta beach bali

We stayed right opposite Kuta beach so it’s literally right in front when we walked out. Come to think of it, we did a lot of walking in Kuta – and let me tell you, these flip flops are *not* made for walking. It’s really hot during the afternoon – mostly Caucasians catching a tan/recovering from hangovers go there at that hour…

kuta bali

…but it’s really nice during sunset.

kuta beach sunset

You see people start streaming in and picking a good spot around 4:30 pm or so – the beachfront vendors are mostly gone by then so you can sit unmolested, without someone asking you if you want something you don’t need and just…

kuta sunset

…chill there, watching the waves roll in, breathing in the sea salt and immersing yourself in the Zen of it all. It feels very serene, especially if you sit right in front. We stayed until 7:30 pm and I think we were the only ones there at that time. Heh.

kuta beach hb

It should be noted that if any eateries offer to add in some mushrooms into your food, they’re not really talking about ye olde regular mushrooms.

Kopi Luwak

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luwak coffee

Kopi Luwak or Luwak Coffee is the infamously extravagant coffee that comes out of a civet. Well, you know what I mean.

civet cat

Civet cats like this one eats the coffee beans, supposedly these felines have a taste so refined that they’ll only go for the good ones. They’ll crap it out and people dig the coffee beans (which isn’t digested by the civet cat) from the dung and roast it.

kopi luwak

It’s surprisingly aromatic and very smooth coffee. I liked it, although we paid quite a bit for that small cup. How much?

luwak coffee price

That’s about RM 20. We went to this place quite far from the touristy areas too, we saw it go for IDR 150,000 (RM 50) in airports. Yes, that’s the price for just one cup.

kopi luwak bali

Very expensive coffee, one sip will set you back a couple of dollars. 🙂

An awesome pork loin dinner at Kim and Gareth’s

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dinner kim

It’s a wonder to see Kim in the kitchen. She’s got everything down pat (even has a system for cleaning up dirty dishes).

kim kitchen

I was there for dinner on Friday, she had a pork loin going in the oven and I puttered around a bit in the kitchen doing nothing particularly useful until she sat me down in front of the awesome 55” TV with a beer in hand.

baked pork loin

Fruit of the loin. The beautiful pork loin with apple sauce. It was marinated for two days!

baked carrot garlic

Baked carrots and garlic. This is awesome! The baked carrots *looks* burnt and dried but it’s actually super juicy and wonderfully sweet. The garlic bursts with flavor too. Very nice.

kim potatos

You say potato I say potatoe.

buttered peas

Peas with slabs of butter.

yorkshire pudding

Yorkshire pudding.

kim dessert

Kim also made this dessert with molasses (?) – it had a bit of a crater in the middle, which I don’t think was supposed to be there but it tasted just fine.

kim dinner

However, the pork loin with apple sauce was the piece de resistance. I really enjoyed hitting that oink. It’s a good cut, nice marbling and tender to boot. The apple sauce does wonders to it.

pork loin

It weighed in at slightly more than 2.3 kg and the six of us (ST, Kim, Lainey, Fresh, Sin Loo and me) finished the entire pork loin. That’s about the equivalent of each of us eating a 400 gram steak…not including the other dishes.

That’s how awesome it was.

Glen Grant 16yo

There was Ben and Jerry’s ice cream brought by Sin Loo and some Hokkaido cakes from Lainey and we spent (well, at least me and ST did) the night drinking Scotch and beer. I got a bottle of Glen Grant 16 year old single malt and thought it would be funny to text Kim while stuck in a jam about bringing a 16 year old but she didn’t get it until several hours after. Picture nicked from ShaolinTiger’s Twitter.

Thanks for having us over Kim and Gareth!

party

It was a fabulous dinner and I totally enjoyed talking about everything from the good ol’ days of rave music to the murder of Canny Ong (I know right, diverse range of topics). We all ended up leaving at 8 am in the morning. This could be a start of a tradition, first time that happened was at Lainey’s birthday – just chilling, drinking and talking till the break of dawn coz that’s how we roll yo. 😉

hb kim

Kim’s a *great* cook. A delicious dinner with awesome company, you just can’t beat that. I had a laughing fit twice that night, can’t remember why but I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time. Then someone said: You know you’re laughing at *yourself* right. It just made it funnier. Fantastic way to spend a Friday night even though I only woke up at 8 pm on Saturday. Totally worth it. smirk

Siri, how long do I have to wait for an iPhone4S?

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queue

Just look at the queue lining up for the iPhone4S!

steph

I’m just glad I’m on the right side of the barrier. Media pass from Steph. 😉

maxis iphone4s

I was at the launch of the iPhone4S by Maxis on the 15th December 2011. The phone is due to be released at the stroke of midnight.

buffet

There was a press conference followed by dinner at the media lounge. Good thing too, haven’t eaten anything the entire day. #storyofmylife

food

I really liked the rice with sprinkles of raisins, bits of meat, veggies and other assorted stuff on top. Oh and if you’re wondering where the smoked salmon went, I ate most of it.

There you go, your burning questions answered. 😉

entertainment

Anyway, I went back out to check on the line and noticed that Maxis had small enclosures to entertain people at various checkpoints. I thought that was an excellent idea!

popcorn

Popcorn machine. Why?

popcorn distribution

They were handing out water and popcorn to the people queuing up for the iPhone4S. Very nice touch, I really liked that. 🙂

counters

Efficient. Counters for payment and collection all set up for the horde.

aud

Aud was there too!

band

We headed to the VIP lounge where there were drinks and performances. The band that was playing was amazing. Hit after hit of cover songs. I want them to play at my wedding.

countdown

Countdown for the iPhone4S launch. I got it at the 1 second point. #champion There were the first 40 people who will be the first in Malaysia to get it and somehow…

first

…we ended up *behind* them and everyone thought we were the lucky 40. There were people cheering at me, taking photos, and giving me high fives.

me gusta

I played along.

violinist

Anyway, Maxis has some great plans for the iPhone4S – you can check it out here. It starts from RM 100 and during the press conference it was mentioned that they have enough units for everyone. Thus, the answer to the post title is – You don’t have to wait.

shin yee

Maxis also has an awesome new iValue plan with the highest combined mobile and WiFi 11 GB data plan for us power users. 😀

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