Thursday, September 21, 2006
A Malaysian Affair~
So here's the other concert that I was referring to in the previous update:
A MALAYSIAN AFFAIR
Dates:
6 - 7 October '06 @ 8.30pm
8 October '06 @ 3.00pm
Ticket Price:
RM30 & RM40 (Adult) + RM2 Axcess Charge*
RM25 & RM35 (12 & below) + RM2 Axcess Charge*
Venue:
The Actors Studio,
Bangsar Shopping Center,
Jalan Maarof, Bukit Bandaraya,
59000, Kuala Lumpur
Contact:
03-2094 0400 / 1400
*Axcess is the company handling the tickets... I think.
Not only that, there's a after each show, sponsored by Berjaya Hotels & Resorts... One prize each day: Three days/Two nights holiday packages for two to Langkawi, Redang, and Tioman, worth up to RM4,000!What are you waiting for? Come support me! It's only two weeks away!Pretty please?EDIT (28 September 2006): I forgot to mention the type of music we're singing... Well, basically we're going to represent the Malaysian music industry, singing songs specially composed for us by the good people at the Malaysian Institute of Arts's Music Department, as well as evergreen hits by P. Ramlee and Sudirman. There are a couple of original songs which are very,VERY, VERY GOOD, so come, 'kay?
Zhen was here at 10:47 pm,
Monday, September 18, 2006
Two Concerts and a Stye
Thirty minutes from now, I will (should) be leaving Monash for The Actors Studio in Bangsar, for my bi-weekly practice with the rest of the Young KL Singers (henceforth referred to as 'YKLS'). To those of you who used to wonder, now you know why I always seem shagged out on Tuesday mornings (because I have to do my last-minute Accounting work on Monday nights).
Anyway, the YKLS is now the spring to quench my thirst for performance and music in Malaysia. Back when I was in Singapore and in the St. Andrew's JC Choir, I had a chat with an ex-schoolmate of mine, Benjamin Lee, and found out that he was in a choir, too. Now that I'm back home, I decided to look them up (despite the fact that Ben is currently studying in Kiwiland).
So far, it has been great. The people are really friendly, nice, and for the most part, very enthusiastic, but definitely not that young; there are members who are already approaching 40, but that just adds to the variety, I guess. Initially, I didn't really feel comfortable with joining, though, because I came in during the second half of the year (there's only one other guy who's like me), and the fact that most of them here are pretty damn good! And to imagine that we're officially known as an amateur choir...
Then again, I've seen Victoria JC performing, and that's another amateur group too...
Alright, thirty minutes are up... Will return to this later...
Three-quarters of a day later...
In any case, choirs usually spend their practices expanding their repertoire, with which they usually use as performance pieces. Last weekend, although I was supposed to participate in one such performance/concert at KLPac (Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, next to Sentul Park), I was sadly unable to make it. Reason?
Raawr!! I got a stye! It's a bacterial infection on the eyelid that's physically similar to a pimple. But imagine a pimple that appears underneath your eyelids (a slightly rarer version of the run-of-the-mill, 'on your eyelids' stye), pressing against your eyeball. I tell you, it is not funny. Even though it wasn't too painful, it itched like a freshly punched eye, and blurred my vision like nobody's business. I had to wear an eyepatch to prevent myself from rubbing and opening my eye after I've applied a dollop of medication. The only thing I could see without giving me a headache, then, was the television (less strain on them eyes)...
No, it's not just an excuse to sit on my ass and waste time while the other choir members are singing their lungs out. I didn't leave the house the entire weekend, too, but I also couldn't get any studying done either... It's the epitome an unproductive weekend!
I also apologise to the members of Monash Nature Society for being unable to aid in raiding Port Dickson beach in conjunction with the International Coastal Cleanup day...
In any case, the swelling has now subsided, but the itchiness remains. Then again, this is much more preferable than the alternative of falling sicker! It's back to assignment-ing mode, baby~!By the way, the other concert I'm referring to (as mentioned in this post's title) is an upcoming production by the YKLS. Watch this spot for more details, soon... I'm a bit too bogged down by work right now.
Zhen was here at 5:12 pm,
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Grooving Brown~!
Excessive boredom has led me to revamp the design of my blog. Fear the fury of the grooving brown (thanks to mdrocks990)! I never really cared about the design of my blog, especially since it's such a pain to find a nice skin and edit it to suit your tastes...But in the end, I did anyway.
An hour and a half later (I suck) it became passable, and you get this. I still don't like the fact that:- There is no blog title; I had to manually write it down on the sidebar
- There's so much wasted space on the right side of the screen
- It's difficult to tell what's clickable (links, etc.) with this template; I could only make them turn italicised with my limited HTML knowledge
- The Beetle shown here is a mirror-imaged Herbie...
- EDIT (18th September 2006): I don't know what happened to the comments box. Now I need to hunt down the HTML code in the old template... *Groan*
Sadly, beggars can't be choosers. I really like the colour scheme and overall design, though; if I were actually any good with HTML, it'd be so much better. I'll probably have to get Ivan to help me with this someday...
Zhen was here at 11:47 pm,
Thursday, September 14, 2006
It came to a grinding halt...
...is how best to describe the status of the aforementioned love life. Just a month and a half after we got together, we've gone from the closest, sappiest, most tak tahu malu couple I ever knew (to the extent that I surprised myself with the fact that I am actually capable of excessive public displays of affection...), to being 12,000km and 15 hours apart. Pretty sad state of events, don't you think? I had it coming, though... Well, I won't be sappy about it here, I'd rather keep that aspect of my life personal.
In any case, as a parting gift, I took time off to make her something that she could bring along. Yup, it's amateur portrait time! I didn't have time to scan it, though, so I could only manage to take several photos of the completed drawing (notice that I'm a lousier photographer than I am an artist):
Then I got it framed:
The more I look at this picture the more I feel
that it looks eerie as heck
Notice that I'm even worse at making photos look nice. There's a good reason for this; I was very deprived as a kid (and teenager). I never got to use a camera. In fact, the period of my life from age 7 to 17 was marked by a severe lack of picture taking. Even when I was in Singapore, I had to rely on others to get myself shot on film.
I soooo need a personal digital camera.
But I digress. Back to the drawing. I set it up as a surprise gift for my girlfriend (how I did it, I won't tell... at least not in this blog) with which I successfully surprised her. Score!! And yet, she didn't even take it with her to California; apparently, it was weird to have a black-and-white picture of yourself in your room... She said that she would have preferred a picture of the both of us together.
Bleargh! The reason why I didn't put myself in the picture was so that the gift could remain neutral throughout her life; even if she were 40 and happily married (to someone else) and with kids, she could still display this in her bedroom or study. My brain didn't manage to capture the 'weirdness' part...
I still love her to bits, though~
Well, that's about it for now. I'm actually swamped with a lot of work and commitments these days to the extent that I was able to get relatively interesting material to put on the blog but lacking the time to actually write them. In fact, I should be doing my assignments right now, but I got too bored of them.
Anyway, the commitments I'm involved with currently are:
- The Young KL Singers (I don't think I've actually mentioned this)
- Monash Nature Society (or this)
- Something I'm not supposed to publicise right now (this too)
- Goddamn assignments! (eh?)
Girlfriend
I just realised that I almost never blog about my personal life. Oh well. That could change in the near future. When I have the time!
Zhen was here at 9:42 am,