Yes, I’m late in blogging about this event, it’s already over and done with. It was bound to happen, after blogging so frequently in the last couple of weeks, my passion to blog totally died. Happens all the time to me, but this time it probably lasted the longest. Oh well, better late than never, right?

Earth Hour is something that started of in Sydney in 2007, when people turned their lights off for one hour to ‘Vote Earth!’. According to the website, in 2009, the goal was ‘1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote’.

I am somewhat environmentally conscious. I bring my own bag around (when I remember!), and try to recycle as much as possible. I’m not a super green person, but I would say I’m slightly better than average? I think…heheh.

Anyway, this year, T’s brother was celebrating his 17th birthday, so T’s family held a party-cum-Earth hour dinner! It was held in Armanee Terrace, at T’s cousin’s place. At the stroke of 8.30, we turned off the lights (candles were already lit prior to that). It was kinda cool, because from the balcony, we could see lights being turned off around the area.

So, there we were, with the lights turned off except…the TV! T’s auntie was watching badminton, and she insisted that only non-essential lights be turned off, whereas the TV was essential. Hahah, that was funny.

The next day, the newspapers reported that it was a big success.

From NST: The Earth Hour lights-off last Saturday saw a dip in electricity consumption nationwide that was sufficient to light up 14 million 40-watt bulbs.

That sounds cool, although I have no idea how much electricity that is. Sufficient to light that many bulbs, for how long? But it is a good sign that more Malaysians are becoming environmentally conscious.

My thoughts on this event? It’s a good idea, but don’t let your efforts towards global warming just be focused on this one event. Continue doing your best to be green for the rest of the year as well!

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Last night, I went for the opening performance of Beauty & the Beast at Plenary Hall. Normally, I wouldn’t go for opening night, I always have this idea in my head that opening night is never as good as it could be, because there would be minor glitches here and there, which they need to iron out. However, this time, my dad was buying the tickets to celebrate his 70th birthday, and he wanted to go for the opening performance. His reasoning was that since it was the opening performance, there should be something “special”. Who was I to argue, after all, it was a free ticket!

We got there in plenty of time for the beginning. My dad was astonished that for a RM250 ticket, we were seated so far at the back! Such is the pricing of musicals over here… Anyway, they started late, about 8.20pm. At one stage, people started clapping to try and get them to start. I’ve never really experienced a musical like this starting late, I’m not sure whether it was of problems, or they were trying to start a bit later because the hall was quite empty, and people were still coming in.

I feel for the performers, they did nothing wrong and they were really good, but people will have a bad impression of the musical because of the sound + disruption. My conclusion is that I will try never to go for opening night again!

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For the last one, the speaker was the Director of the Forensic Division of the Department of Chemistry Malaysia. That’s a long title he carries. Anyway, he’s someone who has given evidence in prominent cases in Malaysia, eg. Canny Ong, and Altantunya. He was going to speak about the world of forensic science and its role in the criminal justice system in Malaysia. I love watching CSI (the original one, NOT Miami, Horatio’s such a poser!), so I decided to go.

We got in just as he started speaking, he said that they do use the tools / procedures that you see on CSI, but the main difference? CSI solves cases in one hour, and never seem to fail, whereas in real life, it takes months, and not every case is solved. It was a pretty interesting talk, there were a few things that he mentioned which I never knew before. For instance, did you know that identical twins have the exact same DNA? I suppose on looking back, it does make sense. Identical twins develop when one egg splits into two, so therefore they would have the same DNA.

He was talking about how any part of your body has the exact same DNA, whether it’s your hair, your skin, your fingernails, when T got this really intense look on his face, like he was thinking of something important. He turned to me, and whispered, “Does that mean your boogers have the same DNA too?” OMG! Haha…

Unfortunately, we had to leave early, because T had his futsal game later on, so I never got to hear the last part of his speech. Or go for the Q&A session, where T could have asked his extremely ’smart’ question.

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I bought my most expensive pair of shoes EVER. I’m really not a clothes / shoes / fashion kind of person. When I see people around me going crazy over sales, I think, ‘What’s the big deal?’. In fact, I even prefer non-sale periods, when there aren’t so many people in the store and clothes are hung up nicely instead of dumped in those big square thingies, where you have to dig around to find nice clothes. Anyway, I walked into Aldo the other day because they had sales up to 70%! And I fell in love with a pair of shoes…and bought them. Don’t even ask how much it cost.

Isn’t the heel gorgeous? I just love the heels of Aldo shoes, they’re so slim and elegant! After buying it, I got the urge a few days later to check on their website how much they cost in the US. Boy, that was a mistake. Can you believe, Malaysia marks up the price by about RM200+! So, even with my shoe on 50% discount, it was almost the same as full price over there. *sigh*. And of course, they only ship within the US. So, Shu, expect a few more boxes to be delivered to you before you come back! I haven’t worn it yet, the few times I went out, it was raining, and I didn’t want to get my nice new shoes wet. Heheh…

I went for an art exhibit by Chang Fee Ming on Saturday. It was my first art exhibit ever, and I kept on thinking of that episode in Boy Meets World, where Topanga asks Cory what he thinks of an art piece. He says that he thinks it’s aliens coming to attack earth, and she looks at him in disbelief, and says that it’s God protecting the people.

Anyway, a friend of mine invited me to go, and she said that he was the most highly paid artist in Malaysia, where a painting could go for up to RM60,000. I’m always looking for new things to try, so I went. It was a really interesting experience, I felt so grown-up! He is really good, but a lot of his paintings don’t appeal to me. They’re just too bright. When you see the paintings in real life, one of the things that strike you is how textured his paintings look. There are some where the hair actually looks like it’s coming out of the painting!

Just look at this one. I can actually imagine the texture of the rough woolen gloves, and how itchy it would feel. Amazing, isn’t it? I only wish I could paint like that.

Alright, that’s enough for now. Signing off…till next time!

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We arrived when the two of them were warming up. We didn’t have seats, but we managed to get a place to stand, and the view was pretty great. It was probably even better than those people sitting way up in the second tier! I brought my camera, but from where we were standing, they looked pretty tiny. T’s cousin went down as far as he could go, but as my camera wasn’t a canggih one, you can see the net that was erected to stop the balls from flying out of the court. These were the best shots that we managed to get.

Although it was a thrill to see Sampras live, he looked very slow at times. He never was the best mover, even when he was actively playing, and now, he looks even slower. However, his serve seems to be even faster now! Apparently, he said that with the new technology, his baseline strokes are more powerful, as well as his serve. He was consistently hitting serves at about 215 – 220 kmph! He tried to do his ‘basketball’ jump a few times, but the balls that Federer sent over were generally too high and landed out of the court, so I didn’t manage to see it.

They played one exhibition match in Seoul a few days earlier, where Federer defeated Sampras with a score of 6-4, 6-3 or something like that. This round, Sampras was never broken, although Federer still won 7-6, 7-6. I just heard on the news that Sampras managed to defeat Federer in the third round of the exhibition in Macau, 7-6, 6-4. Somehow, I doubt that Federer was playing at his best. It’s probably in their contract, or something like that saying “You must not humiliate your opponent.” Otherwise, it’s speaks volumes of the quality of today’s game if a 36 yr old former number one was able to defeat the current world number one so easily.

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T and I went to the new restaurant for dinner first, The Apartment (that took over Slippery Senoritas). It’s a pretty cool concept, the whole restaurant looks like an apartment, there are sofas, bookshelves, beds, etc. I don’t think I would want to get a table where you sit on the beds, though, I observed most of the people that sat on the beds took off their shoes and had their feet all over the bedsheets.

We ordered a starter called…Vin’s Portobellas, I think. That was good, mushrooms with pesto sauce, yummy! For mains, I had the English Lamb Curry and T had a sandwich, something about a Double Decker. When T’s sandwich came, it was two slices of pretty big bread. When he opened it to have a look inside, the only ingredients inside were pickled onions and cheese! It was so hilarious to see the look on his face. The description said something like ‘Generously built sandwich…Tuscan bread and cheese with pickled onions’. He assumed that because it said generously built, it meant lots of meat. That was a totally overpriced meal, it was RM20! While eating it, he said, “I eat this for breakfast every morning.” A piece of advice from me, don’t order it if you go there. My curry was not too bad, quite tasty, but a little bit too much salt for me.

I wanted to try the desserts, so we ordered a Strawberry Mint Parfait. Mainly because we saw the table next to us order it, and it looked quite unusual. It was strawberries in a glass, with sponge fingers and mint cream. It’s not my first choice for dessert, but it was quite original. For a starter, two mains and a dessert, it came up to about RM55, not too bad, I guess (if only the sandwich was better!).

After that we walked over to Laundry. There were four acts that night, first up was a band called Otam, then Mia Palencia followed by Reza Salleh, and to round it up was Hujan. When Otam started, the sound system was pretty bad. I thought that Laundry may have improved the sound system, because now they had a proper stage with TVs, but I guess the sound system wasn’t upgraded. Poor guy, since he was the lead act, it took some time to get the kinks ironed out with the sound. It was hard to tell, but I don’t think he was that great. Mia Palencia and Reza were their standard selves, pretty good.

After Reza finished, the crowd suddenly swelled, and people started flashing their cameras and screaming. I was wondering what on earth was happening, but it was apparently all for Hujan. I’ve never even heard of them before, but it looks like they were REALLY popular! It was amazing, the amount of attention that they garnered. There was a projector near the table where we were seated, people even stood up and took photos with the images from the projector! We left after the first song, their music really wasn’t to my liking. I couldn’t even understand any words from the lead singer in the whole song.

Later on, I heard that there were even stage dives after the performance, and a table got broken as well! I don’t think Hujan will be invited back to Laundry anytime soon. As for me, I don’t know whether I’m old or what, but I doubt I’ll be going back to Laundry for Moonshine anymore. It’s just too crowded, with a bad sound system. I’d rather pay a cover charge and go to somewhere like No Black Tie.

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In order to get there, I took an LRT down to KLCC, as T was working in his KLCC office on that day. Let me tell you, that’s NOT an experience I would care to repeat. I haven’t often gone on the LRT at peak hour, and boy, was it an eye-opener. My brother dropped me off at the Kelana Jaya station, and everything was smooth sailing at the beginning. I had brought a book along, of course, and I read until I was approaching the KLCC station. It was really really packed, but I stood up and began making my way to the door. The people outside were standing aside, waiting till all the people inside the LRT got out. BUT, the door closing sound came on, and suddenly everyone starting pushing and shoving to get in and out! My toe got trampled on, but I managed to get to the door. As I was exiting, the LRT door closed, and to my shock, it didn’t re-open, but just closed on my ribs! Now, that is nothing like Australia trains! So, I limped off with a stubbed toe and aching ribs.

Anyway, when we got to KLPAC, the first half had already started. There were three people performing, this guy called Jerome Kugan, Mei Chern, and another group of three people. I’m not sure if he’s not that great at live performances, but Jerome was NOT GOOD. I think his low point was when he put his guitar aside, and started singing this song called ‘Flower’ without any accompaniment. I kept on wanting to laugh, it was so bad. The other two performers were OK, I guess.

The second half was really, really great. It’s been awhile since I’ve heard such good music. It consisted of Melina William, Mia Palencia and Reza. Melina was surprisingly good, she’s also Reza’s bassist, and I had no idea she could sing so well! She was semi-rockish, Mia Palencia was her usual jazzy self, and Reza…was just Reza. It was a million times better than the first half!

I’m so proud of Reza, I’ve known him since first year at uni. Those were the days where he walked around carrying his guitar, and he would play for us when we asked him to. He’s gone so far since then. *sigh* I miss those days, especially in Australia, when the whole group of us would just lepak together. Oh, btw, he’s also recently released his single, go buy it, people! It’s good!

One thing marred the performance, though. Halfway through the second half, this guy put in the row behind me put his bare feet on the back of the chair right next to me. And they SMELLED! I was thinking of all the things I could say in my blog, like ‘A lot of Malaysians have no manners, blah blah blah’, then I turned around to look at him, and he was a Caucasian. Ah well, I guess lots of people are like that. I personally can’t imagine myself putting my feet on a chair when there’s a person right in the chair nearby!

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It was so hilarious, I think it was one of the better plays that I’ve gone for recently. Some of the actors / actresses were Douglas Lim, Glamorique Arshad, Doreen Tang, Joanne Kam Poh Poh and Cheryl Tan.

The more memorable songs were I am Seventeen Going On Eighteen, sung by Cheryl Tan. She acted as a seventeen year old girl, who was really spoilt and rich, trying to avoid NS. The Bomoh of the Bursa was sung by Doreen and another chap, while Glamorique was the bomoh. This song was soo funny, the chap was sad because his stocks weren’t going up. Someone recommended him to get in touch with the Bomoh of the Bursa. Dorren sang the super high part that Sarah Brightman sung, and she was really good!

I think the last couple of songs by Douglas Lim were the highlight of the show. He played an ah beng tourist guide, taking a group of tourists around Malaysia. He taught them a very important phrase to scold people, “Bodoh, why you so like dat one?” which was a remake of Do-Re-Mi. Here are the lyrics for you:

Boh, the tea from Camerons
Dough, the stuff to make the bread
Why, why you say I so leng chai
You, five letters back from Z
So, the tailor use on fabric
Like, like father like the son
Dat, the opposite of this
That will bring you back to one!

I wish there were more similar shows like this. I used to always go for the Gardner & Wife plays, like Nunsense, Charley’s Auntie, and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Recently, there haven’t been that many good ones. Actorlympics was funny the first time I saw it, but after awhile, it gets old (although Edwin Sumun still rocks!).

Hopefully, there will be another good one soon at the KLPac! I haven’t been there yet, it would be interesting to see what it’s like.

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So when my mum asked me whether I was interested in going, I said no, because I didn’t think the musical would compare. She managed to get free tickets and my parents were going to go this afternoon. However, my grandmother was admitted to hospital yesterday with some chest pains, and had to undergo quite a few tests today, so my mum accompanied her, leaving me to go to KLCC with my dad.

I must say that I’m very glad I went. Professor Higgins was played by this person called Clive Carter. Once of his past accomplishments was to act as a police captain in the Da Vinci code movie! He was really excellent, his singing and acting was superb, I think that he was the main stay of the whole play. Eliza Doolittle was played by Poppy Tierney, who was also good, but I kept comparing her to Audrey Hepburn. In terms of singing, Poppy was obviously better, as Audrey Hepburn didn’t do the singing in the movie, but Audrey Hepburn was a much better actress.

There were certain things that kept distracting me during the musical. For example, there’s one part where Professor Higgins throws up a book in the air, and leaves it to land on the floor. I felt so bad watching the book land, I kept thinking of all the pages that would be bent! Secondly, was this guy sitting next to my dad. Within the first few minutes of the start, he fell asleep, and started SNORING! So loudly too…what a waste of the ticket! I felt like poking him so that he would wake up, and not disturb the rest of us. His wife was another annoying woman. She kept singing together with the actors and actresses. Hello, this is a musical! We’re here to hear the singers, not you singing!

Anyway, two thumbs up for the UK cast of My Fair Lady!

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