Cantemus 2009
Last Saturday's outing was a completely tiring (my toes are skinned and blistered from all the walking) and of course without questions, a fun one lah! I was supposed to visit the dentist on that particular morning but to no avail since we clearly forgot about that day being a Saturday, like duh! And so I went on to explore the new custom CIQ building which I had never used before prior to that visit earlier than expected since the dentist clinic is somewhere around the town. I got ditched at CS cos I didn't wanna take the bus all the way from Larkin, which was totally WRONG! The new CIQ may seem like one street across CS but in fact it is 4-5 uphill escalators + several pointless curvaceous flat walkways + a checkpoint + few other escalators leading to the bus terminal away followed with the infamous scenic driveway towards causeway which is also curvaceous (resembles F1 circuit in case you have no idea how redundant it is). So I finally got a taste of the new CIQ system and to be very frank, give me back the old and shabby one cos it was really much more convenient, VERY MUCH. If you didn't already know, everything back then was as straight as ruler. Well, JB won't be JB without all these megalomaniac projects to mess around the city as a mean to worsen whatever condition it was before. Yes, it's not getting any better I dare to say and now they are talking about lifting the Segget's drainage trench cover once again which indicates a waste of few million Ringgit of taxpayer's money. Had they realised earlier that by covering up the stinky river isn't gonna solve problems in long run, they would have adopted a better plan (which sadly unavailable during the time of approving this project) or stall the entire idea until they come up with a better one which is just as easy as it sounds isn't it? What was the rush then? Better yet, I'd rather they not lift a single thing and let us inhale the foul smell afterall we were so used to it already. It was nearly the symbol and pride of JB-ians. Anyways, I shan't go on whining about the entire sucky BN government project, we are owned by them for few decades consecutively, also being the all time safety zone for BN in the country. What more can I expect from all Johorians? Be more adventurous in the next election?
Digressed.
Ok, the thing is I braved the new CIQ eventually and the next thing I knew I was already in Raffles City waiting for Jessica since her alarm was left in limbo. Fortunately, we met on time and had a super quick lunch at MOS Burger whilst she passed me the entrance ticket and my pressie and left in a hurry to Victoria Concert Hall for her final rehearsal and preparation. Thanks for the pressie anyways, it was so nice of you and I know you are broke cos of that but still...million thanks haha. After she left, I was all alone with plenty of time to do practically nothing as I didn't wanna walk around too much in order to conserve some body energy for the performance later on since it was a "choir " performance afterall and you know I needed to make sure that I was supportive enough by showing no signs of sleepiness at all through out the entire show.
In the mean time, frog said she was able to meet up with me after her exam. So I called her to eat at Lau Pa Sat since I was around that area. Surprisingly (to me), I found a kway chap stall inside! Omg this heaven made local food is extinct (almost) in Malaysia already, not unless you count kway tiaw kia in but the latter is in long and thin rice noodles form like sa hor fun. Kway tiaw kia to kway chap is like heavy herbal Bak Kut Teh soup to peppery clear Bak Kut Teh soup, cousins to each other -_-. Frog was like the typical her, complained all the way about the food being too salty or bland or anything to that effect. Therefore, after our 1st lunch session in LPS, we moved to Orchard Rd. immediately for a second round to seek utmost satisfaction for our taste buds. We settled in at the Ayam Penyet Ria in Lucky Plaza once again and got myself a terrible sore throat after consuming few extra portions of its Indonesian sambal which is extremely spicy in its kind! Roamed around after that and bought some marshmallows from Muji. Then we parted as it's getting late and high amount of car started to flood the road. But before we parted, frog made a desirable and UNDOUBTLY favourable promise to me that cannot be disclosed as a matter of secrecy :p Thank you for that, frog!
Headed to VCH from Orchard to find myself reached there tad too early but luckily I secured myself a front roll seat so that I could catch better view of her performing on stage. In the end I made a mistake cos she told me to sit at the right wing of the hall in performer's perspective but I got it twisted and sat at the right wing of audience's perspective instead, and got my view of her blocked by those conductors all the way! But it's ok cos it was only few songs, the rest I could see her dancing around, showing the part of her that was unfamiliar to me such as swinging on the dance floor to some classic 70's/80's/90's (not sure about that) and High School Musical's. At this point you may ask, isn't it a "choir" that I'm talking about all this while? Why the 70's/80's/90's and High School Musical's? Yes, that was really a surprise to all the audience that unbeknownst to the flow of the entire show prior to it. Even Jessica was sealing her lips so tight as to not reveal anything to keep us anticipated. And yes, she brought home the bacon I'd say! Everyone was impressed by their performance, the NTU CAC Choir team. I personally love the first few songs they performed which were "Shinjiru" (Japanese enka) and "Diu Diu Dang Ah" (fusion of Hokkien classic, acapella, beatbox etc. lotsa elements inside that won them a gold medal in a competition held in Austria). However, songs after them during the first half were quite boring and I almost fell asleep (yes I failed, sorry Jessica!) especially during the alumni performance. I couldn't help cos all of them sounded like lullaby to me until the second half kicked in where they brought up the atmosphere into a complete new high with all the dancings and stage musical singings. I find it so cute that they actually rendered the whole second half performance a mock up radio broadcast with an emcee acting as a DJ announcing all that are gonna come in next for audience to anticipate. The next thing we heard was thunderous applause followed by lotsa confettis! Then there were people shouted for encore as well and of cos performers were more than happy to remain on stage to perform another song or two. Everything just boils down to one word, superb! It was an eye opening show to me, at least, despite the need of toothpicks to pry open my eyes in the middle of the performance due to extreme sleepiness. Sorry!
After the show around 2 hours later (rather short), mingled a bit and off I rushed back to JB fretting I'd miss the last train or bus but all my worries were unnecessary in the end. Braved through another round of CIQ clearance, touched down the land of JB at almost 11 pm. Reached home with ached body, bruised legs, skinned toes and sore throat! Have to admit that I'm too old for this kind of activity. But I'm fine by now and all ready for the next round!
On a completely irrelevant note, I have yet to make a major decision in life before this May or earlier. I'm torn between KU and SUNY Buffalo! KU is of cos a better ranking uni. compared to Buffalo but Buffalo is within the limit of NY state and being in the boundary of NY means I will have immediate guardians for shelter if there's anything emergency. Most of all my aunt in NY can cook extremely well especially on home cuisine (Asian)! They are in JB right now and I've been hearing a lot and I really feel like living near to them or even with them if I were to transfer to Stony Brook eventually. As for KU, well, living in mid-west, the living condition can more or less be predicted : university town, conservative Republicans, wild animals running around campus, plains and corn farms, campus food (shortage on Asian eateries), tornadoes...etc = BORING! Just like UNL or even IIUC in Nilai! HOW?!!!
The kway chap is quite bland and tasteless (not as tasty as it looks). It's Singaporean food that I'm talking about anyways.
The exterior design of Victoria Theatre (quite small but compact). Don't quite like all the Victorian designs.
Bronze statue of the founder of the island country, Sir Stamford Raffles.
Clock tower
The first half of the choir. Jessica is the 6th from left at the front row.
Teamed up with the alumni (those with all sorts of red accessories on black)
Alumni performance. Yawnsy but should be quite high standard for those who can appreciate.
The second half. More animated performance.
They were all so cute with the props haha, I couldn't stop laughing during this part actually. Oops.
End of the show
Jessica & myself..
.
.
.
.
.
Tadah, Skittles spray candies which is totally bullshit to max! What the fuck is this invention I wonder? What's on their minds...it's like filling a spray bottle with syrup of different flavours, spray it onto tongue and voila, a whole new concept of eating your candies! To be honest, it tastes like antiseptic or cough syrup. Quite disgusting. This thing will be put into extinction in time to come. Let's just wait until someone came up to protest. Before that, being the most intelligent consumer I am, I bought not only 1 of this bugger but....
.
.
.
.
.
.
3!!! Only to find out that they tasted horribly err.....I don't know how to describe that feeling but defintely not something everyone can accept at first "spray". Fuck my life.******************************
