Wedding by the Sea

June must be a good month for weddings! Two consecutive wedding banquets in the space of two weeks. But I must say that they have been different this time.

Last week, there was an outdoor English-style buffet dinner. And then yesterday's banquet was very traditionally Chinese but held at a sea-side resort. Getting there and back was slightly inconvenient even with the shuttle buses and coaches provided.

The cocktail reception was held outdoors by the sea and I just managed to catch the sunset! The view was gorgeous! That alone made up for any inconvenience.

'Fing' and Sing

I watched Sammi's i-Concert'99 again last week. Haven't watched it for such a long time. Even though some newspaper had ever commented that Sammi didn't really know what to talk about during her first concert in Singapore in 1998, in her subsequent shows, I have always found her chatty and the way she speaks can be very interesting and funny.

Taking i-Concert for example, there was this part in the extra video when she, playing a fan of Sammi, talked about "What so nice about Sammi concert? Only get to watch her wearing a bra-top and just 'fing' (Cantonese for shake) and sing on stage!" She was obviously being 口是心非! In fact the entire video (meant to entertain the audience when she was changing costumes) was very, very funny. The Cantonese dialogue had me in stitches, especially Sammi's exchanges with Dicky Cheung! Many of the jokes will definitely be lost in translation...

During the concert, her no qualms about making fun of her famously 'flat' figure, lack of looks without makeup on and teasing a fan who shouted her name very loudly had me (and most of the audience, I'm sure) chuckling out loud. The build-up to her hand-shaking segment of the show was also hilarious.

Then there were serious moments too when she talked about her career ups and downs before singing a very emotional rendition of "幸運是我" (Lucky Me).

I can't believe six years have passed since that concert. I guess there wouldn't be realistic chances of seeing her prancing around on stage wearing skimpy bra-tops and showing off her 23-inch waist anymore. But hey, she can showcase her vocals and new singing techniques learnt from Teresa Carpio instead and I'll still be rooting for her.

I just bought her "眉飛色舞" CD today. Somehow when I first bought that album, there was one song missing and finally I made up my mind to get hold of the 12-song version. (I wonder if the 11-song version is 錯體版 - error version!) I also got my "Evolution Theory" CD by Candy Lo! Will definitely blog about it when I've listened to it thoroughly. The Pearl's Centre shop Jeh-Jeh gave me discount again, so nice of her! And the Gor-Gor recommended Pong Nam and Ivana Wong but hmmm...I don't think I like them enough to buy the CDs...

The English Wedding

I attended an outdoor buffet-style wedding banquet on Sunday. It was my first time at such a setting, which was special and different from the usual 10-course, quite noisy and very late banquets at some hotel function room.

The ambience at Raffles Hotel was great. There was a string quartet and later a jazz trio entertaining the guests. Although the dinner started slightly later than stated, we managed to kick off at around 8pm and the whole thing was over before 10pm. There wasn't the usual almost-cliche powerpoint presentation of how the bride and groom met. A few tables did the 'yum seng' which I felt rather spoilt the elegance and tranquility. I wonder what the Caucasian guests thought of all that noise! There were a few men dressed in the traditional Scottish kilt. And it was a bit too hot at times even though there were fans whirling. The tentage had to be there in case of rain so it became a bit stuffy when there was no breeze.

But overall I enjoyed it, even though I hardly knew anyone there and spoke to just a few people. I thought I would see some uni friends but surprisingly none of those that I expected turned up. (Maybe they weren't invited, hehe...)

Thank you, L & T and congrats!

Of Cakes and Kueh

Those who sent me your well wishes, thank you very much!

We were supposed to go karaoke but something cropped up...but in place of that I got a birthday cake! Mango! I'm not a big fan of cakes but this one is special hehe. Speaking of cakes I do like the Coco Exotic from Nutribake, yum yum...

Before that, my colleagues also treated me to lunch. We had an odd mixture of vegetarian and sushi followed by dessert. I don't usually eat those kueh and stuff cos I don't much like coconut. But they said I should try some of each. (There were 4-5 varieties) I found most of them still bearable but there was one yellow kueh with a weird sweet taste that I couldn't stand...eeek! Still not a fan of kueh...

16

16 號愛人

I watched Joey's "All Record" again. My impression of her is that she is a very frank person who can't hide her feelings. Happy or sad, it's all written on her face. Much of the documentary featured her talking, plus comments by her manager, mum, producers and label-mates etc.

You may perhaps think that all this is scripted stuff but personally I feel that Joey is speaking from her heart. There was a part where she paid tribute to ah C for being her best friend in showbiz. Hocc was singled out for special mention but being non-EEG, copyright problems and all, she didn't appear in the show. Then there were rare shots showing Joey in candid moments like mimicking animals, practising her weird self-created kungfu strokes, and singing at the top of her voice in the bus and while waiting for a photo-shoot. Very funny!

I just find that there is something likeable about her.

Happy Birthday to us!

Hotman 2

I like this TV series! I used to watch many Japanese TV dramas in the past but haven't been catching any for a long time, until "Goodbye, Quill", which was a touching story about the life of a guide dog for the blind.

Now I'm watching "Hotman 2". Like most Japanese serials, it's kind of dramatic at places, but still it's a nice story. Even though I can sort of anticipate what will eventually happen, I like it anyway. The little girl playing Sorimachi's daughter is very good and natural. Sorimachi's expressions are a bit exaggerated sometimes, but he is very funny. I enjoy it very much even if it means staying up late on weekdays to catch it.

Splash!

I now have more stuff to add to my wish-list:
1. Love Joey 3 DVD by Joey Yung
2. Evolution Theory CD by Candy Lo

These should be easily available locally so I don't need to spend very much. I just splashed on clothes last week. Doing my tiny part for the Great Singapore Sale!

The last time I mentioned music shops to my mum, it was as if she could read my mind. Her immediate comment was "You already have two guitars!" Well, she does have a point and I don't have space for another one especially if it's electric with all the accessories. I shall need to do some major spring-cleaning and consider my finances carefully first!

CD Blues

Who says CDs last forever? Well, most are ok, but I have already experienced two CDs going nutty...

First to go, my Edmond Leung 1997 out-of-print compilation. The last track (an interesting collaboration between Edmond, Eason and Miriam) kept 'jumping' and could not play at all on the CD player. Managed to salvage it by ripping it and burning onto CD-R with just one or two tiny jumps.

Second to go and not so lucky, my Hacken Lee "Custom Made" 4=CD compilation. Mind you, it is only about one or two years old and I had hardly even listened to it. Recently I found that the last few tracks of disc 2 couldn't play properly so I checked the underside of the CD and noticed abnormalities. Horrified, I looked at the others and found that all 4 CDs had the same problem! So much for an original CD! Thinking it might be a storage problem, I quickly looked through all the other CDs placed together with it but luckily none of them were damaged.

Well, even though I used to listen to Hacken when I was younger, I find that I bought "Custom Made" mainly for old times' sake. Since I hardly listen to it, I don't think I'd buy a replacement.

Forty

Family gathering on Thursday nite. Yeah, exactly 40 of us turned up! We haven't had such a massive gathering for dunno how many years.

The venue was some Teochew cuisine restaurant. To be honest the food was... To make things worse the people next to us were having a super LOUD karaoke session, somemore singing Hokkien songs at the top of their voices! We had to shout to make ourselves heard. Even the waiter couldn't stand it! Gosh, I don't think we'll ever go there again...

Back to the gathering, it was initiated by my aunt who lives in Malaysia and has brought her whole family to visit. She wanted so much for us to have a get-together. My two uncles haven't been on good terms and this is the first time that I remember us all sitting together for dinner. Didn't get to talk much to everyone cos we only had a few hours plus the extra loud 'background music' was too annoying!

Anyway, it was fun to see everyone. Suddenly I realise that I have so many nephews and nieces! Well, some of them are only a few years younger than me, hohoh...

Busy Week

The past few days have been a busy time at work. We moved to a new office on Monday and even though it was just down a few storeys in the same building, it was pretty tiring! My back aches and legs are tired after numerous trips up and down. It felt good to have a new place, but on the other hand, I sort of miss the old place as well...

The moving bit isn't the most difficult part; what was more troublesome was unpacking all those boxes and arranging the stuff. So when it is finally done (hopefully by tomorrow), I can get back to the work that has started piling up.

Then today I attended court for the first time! I felt a little nervous at first, but things went ok. I think I managed to explain my points reasonably well. It was a good exerience...

Will be having a family gathering tomorrow night. Think there will be around 40 of us!