Old friends, new friends

welcome

Welcome to the Friendliest Day of the Year!

st pats girls

I went bright and early to the St Patrick’s 2012 celebration at Changkat Bukit Bintang. It’s my third St Patrick’s Day celebration – to which I’ve rallied every single consecutive year since 2010. πŸ˜€

hie ming

…and guess who I bumped into? Hie Ming, a classmate of mine from Sibu which I haven’t seen since I went to NZ in 1996! A meeting of old friends is always a good portent of things to come.

st pat 2012

The street started filling up as the night went on…

drinking guinness

…as we enjoyed pints of Guinness on tap.

arthurs lounge

Arthur’s Lounge – I was quite excited to go in, since someone told me there will be a nice surprise inside. There was in fact, more than one.

perfect pint

I had a go at pouring the perfect pint…

workshop

…while personalized Guinness pint glasses with our names engraved on it were made.

personalized pint glass

It’s like Santa’s workshop for adults! There were heaps of people involved in the making of my very own pint glass.

personalized pint

I can bring this around to pubs and fill it up with the black stuff and it’ll never get lost coz…it has my name on it. It says β€œHuai Bin”. πŸ˜€

poloroid

There were street performers and buskers and people going around snapping Polaroid photos. It was a very merry experience indeed.

rachel

I bumped into Rachel…

harleys

…and beheld the wonder of a procession of Harleys driving into Changkat Bukit Bintang with a troupe of performers bringing up the rear.

next year

The night ended with an awesome display of fireworks and I have to say, I haven’t had this much fun since the last St Patrick’s Day. The Friendliest Day of the Year? I would say so. I met old friends and made new ones, and that’s what this year’s St Patrick’s Day is all about! (and also getting into the Guinness Book of Records)

why so serious

What about the record? Check it out for yourself!

evelyn

I raise my (currently empty) personalized pint glass in anticipation of next year’s celebrations, where I aim to bring it and fill it with drink. πŸ˜€

The Friendliest Day of the Year

March 17th

I hear it’s being touted as the Friendliest Day of the Year.

people

It’s one of the few holidays that break out from the country of origin (Ireland, in this case) to metamorphosis from obscurity to become something more…something global, something truly epic!

eat play love

It’s St. Patrick’s Day!

st pat 2010

I go every single year. Guinness has held the biggest St Patrick’s Day parties for two years running in Malaysia. I was at the 2010 celebrations in 1Utama.

st pat 2011

I also went to the 2011 street party at Changkat Bukit Bintang where they have all the awesome street performers and even awesomer (spell check just warned me about this word with the red squiggly line) launch with the jugglers and huge motorcycle parade.

I couldn’t get a good shot at the actual event with everyone jostling around but here’s what it looks like – that’s from the preview event and is almost exactly the same. πŸ˜€

dancing

It is always a day full of fun, friendship and laughter.

Fun Fact:
A popular Irish toast on St Patrick’s Day is β€œMay the roof above never fall in, and may we as friends beneath it never fall out”.

performers

This year sees a return of the celebrations to Changkat Bukit Bintang! There will be a month full of celebrations starting right about now. Remember when I said March 17th is going to be known as the Friendliest Day of the Year?

Well, there’s this obscure, little book that you might have heard of. It’s called the Guinness Book of World Records. πŸ˜‰

friendliest day of the year

This is the real thing, the authoritative tome that people refer to when a feat or record is in doubt. It’s no local wannabe, if you’re in it, you know you’ve done something worth writing down for posterity in the entire known world.

parade

Guinness is attempting to set a new Guinness World Record for the Friendliest Day of the Year by getting 1 million people to pledge online at www.facebook.com/guinnessmalaysia and www.stpatricks.com.my to get into the book. Just click on COUNT ME IN to make it happen! πŸ™‚

st pat 2012

I’m telling you, it’ll be the best fun you ever had. The crowd is always nice and there’s fun and laughter. Get ready for the pure awesomeness that is the main St Patrick’s Day street party:

Date: Saturday (17th March)
Venue: Changkat Bukit Bintang
Time: 6 pm onwards

street performers

There’s even going to be a busker dressed like a court jester. What more can you ask for? πŸ˜€

Get more information on the various other parties and promotions being held at www.facebook.com/guinnessmalaysia.

March is the new December!

harley

You know, I’ve always wanted to be a biker when I was growing up. It’s easy to imagine yourself riding down a highway with the wind blowing through your hair and the freedom of the open roads lying ahead.

I can just imagine Deep Purple’s Highway Star playing while I rev my chopper.

…and then I realized that my feet can’t reach the ground.

I’ve tried to get on a Harley and even the smallest of the big bikes isn’t built for a relatively diminutive 171 cm person with a high body to leg ratio. I nearly toppled the bike while I was on it coz it was too high and heavy.

girls

It was at an exhibition in Melbourne when I was doing my university there, and I could practically hear the muted laughter of the crowd and see the attendant trying to suppress a grin. I slinked away as best as I could and tried to look nonchalant while at it. action

I don’t think I fooled anyone.

…but never you mind! smirk

launch

March is here and let’s face it, it’s not one of the best months of the year. It’s like the reason Cyrus Jakoby gave when he killed one of his clones in The Dragon Factory – β€œIt’s a Tuesday”. Tuesdays, like March is one of the mundane moments of existence. There are no public holidays in March and you’ve just come out of the shortest month in the year (February) with a festive season to boot.

I wonder if researchers collect statistics about depression diagnoses during the month of March.

merry me

However, things are starting to look up since St Patrick’s Festival is going to be held in March this year. I went to the media launch and if this is an indication of things to come, it’s going to be an awesome March instead.

March would be the new December!

I mean, how often do you see bikers revving their choppers followed by a parade of dancers, clowns, cosplayers and buskers?

I consider myself a little jaded and cynical so for something to impress me like this, it’s gotta mean something.

musket

After the official launch of St Patrick’s Festival 2011 (complete with an old musket that shoots a spray of sparks) at The Tavern, there was entertainment and food galore.

food

You know what Guinness is about – fun, laughter, and friends.

This year, St Patrick’s Festival is going to be more like a parade than a carnival. There were mimes and performers interacting with the crowd. I like the change – it feels like Mardi Gras without the beads and that’s just indoors!

buskers

Imagine them bringing this outdoors and you’ll get an even bigger scale to the entire parade.

giggag

There’s also an app called St Patrick’s GigGag that’s hilarious to play around with. It’s a cheesy but funny customizable video where you can put images of you and your friends to make a choice of two videos.

hahaha

HAHAHA

how

Basically, what happens is that you choose four (4) friends and use the in-built tool to fix the faces to the template. You also have to set where the mouths are and that produces some unexpected but funny results. Heh!

St Patrick’s GigGag is meant as a fun application to celebrate the festivities of St Patrick’s Festival so try it out and spread the word. You can pull profile photos straight from Facebook so it’s easy to use and share!

dance

The main event will be at Changkat Bukit Bintang on the 17th of March from 6 pm – 12 am and there’s going to be celebrations throughout Malaysia – even in Sabah and Sarawak, so no one misses out on this.

Join the Guinness Malaysia Facebook page for more info on events at your place!

us

There’s going to be trivia and games in addition to the parade so it’s all going to be very engaging stuff.

performance

Combine that with food and pints of Guinness and you’ll be saying β€œMiss March much?” in April.

up

I’m looking forward to it already. Alright, I’m looking up in this photo but you know what I mean. πŸ™‚

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