Multiple Birthday Parties!

This year's birthday was celebrated multiple times...as usual? Haha. Started off with a dinner with classmates and lecturers at Fullhouse, The Hills. It was originally a dinner to thank our lecturers for all their help after our exams. There's another classmate who shares the exact birthday, down to the year, with me so they got us a cake. My gay classmate also baked us a cake....wow. First time someone has actually baked a cake for me....

Then I had a birthday party at home with close friends...a lot of people didn't make it as they were away or had prior engagements already, but it's ok. I'm kind of past that stage where I actually care how many ppl turn up. Of course, it's best when more friends can join the celebration, but can't help it at times. It was rather stressful for the family as everyone had their own jobs to do for the dinner. I was mainly in charge of the groceries, picking up of the food and cake ordered from Mr. Ho's and just general coordinating. My father contributed a dish of crabs that he bought from Sematan. My mum was in charge of the tuna bake pasta and green salad. Brother was the head chef who dealt with the aglio olio pasta and potato salad. Grandma baked chicken too. I rank the lowest in the kitchen and was relegated to menial tasks such as slicing, prepping and etc. From Mr. Ho's, we had roast pork knuckle (which wasn't fresh and refunded), crispy pork and a moist chocolate cake (which they got from a 3rd party baker). 

Besides the usual food and chatting, when it came to time for the birthday cake, my brother made me drink a shot of Patron tequila to start off the night :P. Interestingly, my father's friend who joined us, has learned a little bartending and is interested in wines and alcohol. He showed us a few tricks and tips for bartending and mixed up a few tequila based drinks. So I kind of had imported entertainment from Johor. Haha!

First shot of the birthday

After a quick change, it was off to Backstage with the brother and Alyssa, his girlfriend in tow. Allan had organized a birthday party for me...and it was mostly just the guys this time. Seriously a year of firsts, as this is the first time someone had organized a birthday party for me...very touched. The big brothers were all there, and we had tequila and played drinking games. There was no cake but there were cake slices from Hilton :) And I even had a stripper! Haha..sort of. The guys pointed out the most buff guy among them and told them he had to take off his shirt for me and he did! Seriously good body with six-pack and buff arms....way way better than the Singapore stripper we saw in SG for Sun's hen's night. Haha and that was just the upper body!

A very loud birthday song...thanks guys... see I was so happy!

My brother was sadly the main culprit in getting me drunk though. He kept bringing over assorted drinks and insisting I drink. Then after getting tipsy, I made a request for 'Bring the cute guys over!!' And so Alyssa brought over some guys and they made me drink more. So I definitely got drunk but thankfully Alyssa took very good care of me. Aaron and Alyssa brought me home and got me into the house but I don't know how I got myself up to my room... where I promptly passed out on my bed till the next morning...still with my dress, make-up, contacts and eyelashes. Haha...terrible. 

I woke up feeling pretty horrible with a queasy stomach...basically your birthday hangover. It kinda feels worse when you remember that you have yet another birthday party that night. Managed to recover in time for another birthday dinner, this time with the whole family, plus Dad's friend from the previous night and my uncle and auntie who had come in that day to visit my Grandpa. Seems to be tradition that I have Peking duck for my birthday...I just like the skin. *sinful* 

Then rushed home and off to Backstage again where this time we had the whole gang. Plus brother and Alyssa who joined late. I told them all that I could only manage 1 birthday drink instead of the usual 2....as I was still feeling weird from the night before. So I chose the 3 birthday shots as I didn't have to drink it at a go. Technically, I should...but I just didn't want to. So they ordered me the shots and I paced them with a 15-20 minute gap. Of course, I ordered a bottle of tequila and when Allan arrived later...he brought along a bottle of Patron. That made a total of 2 bottles of tequila but when we were all fairly drunk, some of them decided to keep the half bottle of tequila I ordered with the bar instead of letting us drink more. Plus, Allan was evil/kind enough to order a Flaming Lamborghini for me just after midnight. I admit to wanting to throw up straightaway and rushed to the toilet. After which, I felt more sober and normal. CY and the others got me a fruit tart from Hilton...which coincidentally was the one she got me for last year's birthday...haha Hilton does fruit tart promo in June every year? 

 With CY and Christy..thanks for the present and cake!

 Big brothers Julius and Chiang

Birthday shots - B52, Tequila and Slippery Nipple (ugh..the worst one) :P

With Aaron and Alyssa.. for getting me drunk and taking care of me..LOL

 Allan.. thanks for the birthday party and er..getting me drunk 

 My fruit tart that they got...plus a cake-holder..ahha

 Feeding brother...hey..shouldn't I be the 1 getting fed? It's my birthday! Bring me a cute guy to feed me

Proof that I drank the Flaming Lamborghini

Overall, fairly tiring weekend of birthdays, but I seriously had a lot of fun with everyone. And touched with all their efforts with the presents, parties and wishes. Felt very loved by all :) So thanks to everyone.. 

With this birthday...I feel that I've become a little more accepting of who I am. That I am still work in progress and there is still room to improve. There is so much more for me to learn in this world and that I seem to be a lot happier with my life. There's of course my new masters course and career that I'm just starting but am enjoying a lot. But generally I feel that I am happier with my life. Of course, it could be better, but I am still thankful for all that I have and what/who surrounds me. Though I am not as young as before, I feel more confident in myself and my looks and body. Haha....it helps when you have friends who are equally generous with their brutal honesty and appreciation of you. I've also learned a lot from my friends, both new and old ...especially about life. I think I've become even more open-minded, patient and relaxed? I rather prefer just enjoying the simple things in life... than to get overly stressed out over minor things. I just want to have fun...haha. So here's to growing older gracefully ...learning more and....staying young at heart. *big hugs to all!*

Birthday Fortnight

26th October 2008

Continuing on with my coverage of the birthdays in the month of Oct/Nov..lol. As mentioned in my earlier post, Mike's birthday was on the 27th of Oct, which was a Monday. It was also Deepavali and a public holiday for us in Selangor. YAY! To maximise our time, he decided to have his celebration on Sunday night instead. Being Mike, he chose to do it at Neway Karaoke at 1Utama and invited about 10 of us. Representing Swinburne (bsides the bday boy) was myself, Kwang Houg, Aileen and KC who was here for the long weekend. He'd also invited quite a few of his CHMNS1 friends. Even 1 of his friends working in SG was in KL for the weekend, which was good for him. So it was nice to be able to meet some new ppl from Kch working in KL. But i can honestly say we didn't have much time to talk. Y? Bcoz the package included buffet dinner!! We were all busy stuffing ourselves, there was a lot of yummy food to choose from. So Mike was busy choosing his songs while we chose the food. Haha.

Personally, I liked the appetizers more than the mains but the good thing was, if you keep coming down (they have like 2 flrs of rooms and we were upstairs), once a dish is finished, they'd replace it with a new one, usually of a different type. So there's really a lot to choose from! There was sushi, salads, seafood like mussels, prawns, crab, clams, Japanese noodles (where u can choose the style and ingredients), diff styles of chicken, fish, beef, lamb, vegetables etc. For dessert, there were fruits, jellies, puddings, cakes, pastries and an ice-cream bar! Oh my, I could just go on and on about the food. Basically, we were all just going in and out of the room with dishes of food. If we were lazy or accident-prone, we could also get the waiters to bring up our trays for us! Talk about service, ahah. Heck, if you felt cold, you could even borrow scarves from them!

But one thing about this type of karaokes, they make it compulsory for the snacks, which tend to be extremely over-priced. At least for us, we had 2 drinks each. Anyway, on to the main activity, singing! Each one of us had our own favourite singers and styles, so it was kinda like..Battle of the Stars, ahah. Mike's obviously was Jay, mine was Xiao Zhu, KC's was Lee Hom and there were quite a few songs from JJ, Jolin, AMei and more. ANd yes I have improved, coz I can finally rap Xiao Zhu's part for his song 'Lian Ai Da Ren'. Haha, thanks to lots and lots of practice b4hand. But Mike wasnt there to see, so no judge of my improvement :P I guess the other ppl thought I'm strange..coz i sing duet songs on my own!

Bday boy with KC and Aileen

We sang till almost 12 then Mike rang down for his bday package. Hahaha, the bday boy himself had to arrange for it, so kolien. He was given a free cake and bottle of 'champagne' (sparkling juice la). We had to wait quite awhile for it, so he pretended to cry like he was sooo upset. DRama king la him. Of coz when it finally came, we sang him the bday song in a few diff languages, which is probably a 1st for him. Then it was presents time! The Swinburne group got him an Arsenal casual tee, which he immediately wore the next day. I also got him the Friends complete DVD set (pirated arr..) when I was in Vietnam a few mths ago. He got quite a few presents, you can check out his blog for more details.

Me and Kwang Houg with his present from the Swinburne group (The couple already left ma)

However, unfortunately for us, we were asked to settle the bill and go at around 12.30 coz there were ppl outside waiting to use the room. The package was from 7.30pm to 12.30am, but if there was no1 waiting, we could actually use it till closing time, around 3-4am. But since the next day was a public holiday, guess every1 had the same idea as us! And there were still 6 drinks we hadnt claimed, so we went home with at least 1 or 2 bottles of Kampai, ahah! I think I was rather disappointed that we couldnt sing till early morning, coz it would have been a 1st and hey, I'd been practicing :P Mayb next time ya...hehe. But I really had fun singing, eating and laughing. It was a good celebration, I think MIke definitely enjoyed it with all his friends joining him :D

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1st November 2008

Talk about spontaneity and last-minute. I'd actually sent out Captain's present out to Johor earlier b4 my work trip to Penang when he texted me late on Halloween nite. Then he suddenly said that I should clean my apartment so that when he arrives it's clean. I thought he was just joking as usual but then he got Chee Fui to confirm with me b4 I could finally believe him. Then it was like..all out frenzy, coz the apartment was a little dusty. And being my mum's daughter, that cannot do! Started out cleaning my bathroom, then my room. Coz it was already almost 1, i was like...cannot..must continue tomorrow. So woke up early to clean the rest of the place and waited for them to arrive. And they know how to drive to KL, but then on, no clue. Somehow they managed to arrive someplace near my office so at least i could retrieve them n lead them back to my place.

After dropping their stuff and their car at my place, it was off to Ikea! Hmm, what isit with ppl from Kch and Ikea. Honestly, I've been there like so many times everytime some1 comes to KL. Haha, oh well, part of being the tour guide. Of coz we stopped for food 1st coz it was 3pm and none of us had eaten lunch yet! And i hadnt had a proper meal in 24 hrs, coz i spent most of it sleeping! Hahah. FOllowed them around Ikea trying out all the diff furniture, showed them the Curve's weekend flea market, Cineleisure and then it was off to 1Utama for some serious clothes shopping. Honestly, they're better shoppers than me i think. Kinda fun in a sense, coz they're like girls, can shop together with me. It was dinner time so we went for Vietnam Kitchen and it was the Captain's treat. Since it was his bday hehe. Ooo the golden mango prawn roll was yummy but i think all of us burned our tongues on it coz it was just fresh out of the wok.

Went back to my place where we all freshened up and then we went back to the Curve to check out Scarlet with my bro in tow. After all, its the Captain's bday, we must have alcohol! Hahah. We were early enough to snag a table at the side, but it was starting to get quite crowded. We had Glenmorangie single-malt as per my bro's recommendation, and it was pretty nice with the mixers. A little diff from Jack Daniels and Chivas. At 1st the music was just so-so, some house/r&b that we didn't quite recognize. The good thing about Scarlet was that 1 side of it is open windows/balconies so there was more ventilation, not to mention a nice view. As the night went on, the music got more retro and mixed. From Rihanna's Umbrella, they could go to 'oldies' such as Cranberrie's Zombie, Linkin Park's In the End, Bon Jovi's It's my Life and even....YMCA. Oh my. Hahha, it really made us feel old coz we knew the songs and we teased Captain that it was coz its his bday. It was kinda fun too, coz every1 in the club was just singing along loudly.

We left around 1am coz Chee Fui was falling asleep at the table (he hadnt slept for 24 hrs!!) and the rest of us had little sleep too, with husky voices due to all that singing. So I had 3 'salted fishes' sprawled out in my living room, coz KC was back in KL to get his car. KC was smarter tho, he went to sleep early and staked out a 'safe' position at the side. When my bro came in from watching football, he had to navigate his way around what little space there was with his handphone light and he nearly stepped on the Captain who was in the middle of the group. Since they were all exhausted, I let Chee Fui sleep till 12 noon b4 we woke him up to go for lunch. It was a little late for the dimsum place I had in mind, so we went straight for Mid Valley in 2 cars (so they could drive straight back after that).

Once again, on my bro's recommendation, we went for Mdm Kwan's for lunch. And dammit, he has expensive taste la! Since i promised i'd pay for dimsum breakfast, I paid for the lunch instead and ouch...it was RM100 for the 4 of us..-_- After that, we walked around, checked out the shops and showed them The Gardens, where it was just TOOO expensive for us to buy anything. We are all gadget freaks so we went from Sony to Nokia and so on to see the phones/laptops. My bro showed them the incredibly expensive jeans shop, with all the Evisu, True Religion jeans. Imagine, 1 pair is RM1k minimum! Crazy rite?

But soon, it was time for them to start the drive back to Johor and we said our goodbyes. Of coz they're welcome to come back and stay with us (with more advance notice pls!). Basically I am like the 'hotel' for my Kch friends who come to KL, ahah! But yeah, I had a good weekend too, though it was an expensive one. I think they found it more expensive though, what with their shopping. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, joking around, teasing/arguing, with the Captain getting hit a lot of coz. Chee Fui could just shake his head at how childish we were in public. But that is SOP - Standard Operating Procedure for us. Oh, no pics coz we forgot to take any, and lazy too! Heh. Till the next time then!

CNY 2008

And once again, I am updating about something that happened so many months ago. What can I say, I really tend to put things off a lot. Even in work. >.< must change this bad habit of mine, coz it makes me delay things till the last minute and then I'd have to rush, and yea, makes me late quite frequently. But i know a lot of ppl are like tat, yet this doesn't make it ok.

Anyway, back to the update on hand. This year's CNY marked the first time that I am going home for CNY. Every year, I'm already at home to celebrate it, or maybe going away some place to get away from it (against my will mostly). But this time, I have become one of the many ppl working outside of their hometown and have to take leave to go back home. Kinda strange feeling to me. Thing is, I'd only been working for about 1 mth (1 mth on 1st day of CNY to be exact), so technically I was only allowed to take 1 day's leave. So that's y I took that one day on CNY eve itself and flew back to Kch that morning. Among all of us who are working out of Kch, I was the last to arrive back. Burger was back the earliest by a few days (lucky guy!) followed by the Capt who reached just a few hours before me.

The very 1st thing i wanted to do was hunt down a bowl of yummy Sarawak LAKSA! Sadly, since it was CNY eve, they were all closed :( So i settled for my fave dumplings from Jade Pot instead. The twist was, Jade Pot was also closed for CNY, but my parents went there the day b4 and bought the uncooked ones n learned how to cook/heat them up. Not quite the same, but hey, beggars can't be choosers la, esp since I haven't had them since I left for KL. Having recharged my 'battery' (or satisfied 1 of my cravings), it was off to Eric Hair Salon! Lol i always joke about having my own hair stylist and I guess it's kinda true since I only get my hair done by Eric, who's my cousin on my dad's side. Affordable, yet with quality and friendliness :) And surprise surprise, the Captain was also getting his hair done, being the vainpot that he is. DIdn't get to talk much since we were seated on opposite sides of the salon but we did try to arrange for one of our much-missed MAHJONG sessions for the next few days. As for my hair, I just got a relaxing wash and trim, plus they set it in curls for me. *blissfully pampered*

There were just a few hours left till the family reunion dinner, so I just lazed around watching tv, sneaking some CNY tidbits and playing with the fat cat. Of coz I did try to help out, but there wasn't much I could do as well. It was kind of strange though, though I was back for CNY, my grandma and auntie had gone to spend it in KL -_-|| but she did prepare her infamous dark-sauced duck (infamous not for the taste, but for the events related), ngo hiang (meat rolls in beancurd skin), ingredients for the soup and more. The thing about the women on my mum's side, they tend to prepare food in large amounts. They're always worried about us getting hungry, hence the reason y I became chubbier once i stopped all-day school. My Uncle Jeffrey and cousin were there to help finish the food, but there were still many leftovers, which we would try to finish over the next few days. After dinner, we just sat around, catching up and playing blackjack. For once, I joined in the betting, but only RM1 per bet, which was the lowest among the rest. Hehe and I ended up winning the most, about RM20. But it was just for CNY, so yea, no long-term betting for me! My brother then took off for his REAL gambling session while I watched more TV, which wasn't much in terms of CNY entertainment this year :P till it was time for the great CNY countdown! It's pretty much tradition that all of us are back home for it, so my brother rushed back with my uncle for it. And every year my mum just tries to sleep through it -_-||

As most Kuchingites might know, though we have a firecracker/fireworks ban in Malaysia, it doesn't really seem to affect us for festive seasons. However, from what I hear, they've been harder to find this year. Of course, being ever resourceful, my family managed to source some out and though I enjoy them, I always have to comment 'WHy buy so much? You're just burning money!' But everyone else in the neighbourhood was probably as kiasu, if not more. Well, just the regular families anyway. The number of ppl doing the CNY countdown has gone down over the years. Anyway, it was still pretty much the same - loud, smoky and somewhat dangerous. You never know when a cracker will explode and send things flying over to the next house/neighbour or an empty firework shell might land in your roof gutter and keep burning and so on. This year, the alpha males of my family had finally bought some BIG fireworks, the ones that are packed like individual 'grenades' and produce only 1 big 'flower'. Each 'grenade' has to be loaded into a metal launcher with the fuse trailing out and it will then shoot up into the sky to explode. Of course, there's always the risk of it getting stuck in the launcher and blasting it to smithereens and so forth. *shrugs*

The first attempt is always the riskiest, since we all weren't very sure of the success rate. Usually 1 of them will light it and then run back to where we're all standing, quite a distance away. We watched the lighted fuse disappear into the launcher with bated breath. *POOOOFF* The grenade launched itself up and out and exploded barely over the roofs of the houses in our road. Resulting in all of us ducking and swearing simultaneously, as bits of the packaging and whatnot came raining down on us. -_-|| Our conclusion was that our area was a bit too low to get the full effect of the firework. Since I was attempting to photograph the fireworks, I resorted to crouching between a neighbour's car and his dustbin, to avoid getting hit by any exploding bits and to get the full 'flower'. This worked out pretty ok, but it was still pretty awkward. Lol. After the end of countdown, we were all smelling of smoke, slightly dusty from gunpowder and coughing slightly as usual. But yea, i wouldn't want to miss this part of CNY :) My brother of coz went back to his friends' place and I was back online and watching tv. Oh, and comforting the poor fatty who was frightened by all the noise and cowered in the corner for once. I think he actually went up to join my mum, being the manja cat he is.

The best shot I could come up with

Anyway, on the 1st day of CNY as usual, we started the visiting by visiting the houses of both sides' grandparents. At my dad's parents' house, I got to meet my new 'nephew'. My oldest cousin on that side of the family had given birth to Zyan a few months ago, and this was our first time seeing him in person. He was chubby, cute and big-eyed, awww. He reminded me of my brother when he was young, since he was kind of big for his age and fair too, with a little cheeky grin. Haha. After that, we went to a few relatives' houses, friends of my parents and so forth. Oh, and at one of my dad's friends' place, I got to have my laksa!! Yea, imagine, they serve laksa at their open house, which they made themselves. It was pretty good too, since their father used to set up a coffeeshop. YUM :)

CNY Family Photo 2008

My mum with Zyan in matching outfits

Later that afternoon, I went with Captain and August to go visit Dr. Dennis at his parents' house. We talked about our jobs, what we'd done so far and etc. And I got mistaken by his grandma as their relative -_-||. Since it was a hot day, we went to McD's for ice-cream then back to my house for MAHJONG! As there were only 3 of us, my dad joined in as the 4th person. Kinda strange for me since I've never played with my dad and he also doesn't play by the rules that we follow or know the combos that we do. A lot of adjusting on all our parts, especially for those of us who like to set up big combos. All thru the day, Captain and I were bickering/bantering/discussing (as usual!) and August just shook his head since he's used to it, Dr. Dennis was bemused and i think my dad was probably thinking "hmm..wat's wrong with the 2 of them"

After dinner and more visiting, we had our OFFICIAL mahjong session, this time complete with playing for money. My dad had decided since the 3 of us were now working, we could afford to play with money, which we'd never done. So he explained the rules and said we probably won't lose more than RM50 at most. To which we all exchanged looks that said 'HA? RM50 ar?!' but since he said though we might lose a round, we still can win some money, we were like ok, just try. As the most 'kiamsiap' person at the table (probably coz i'm the only girl), I was the most worried but strangely, I ended up leading for the first few rounds. Till I made this comment "Hey, I haven't had to pay you yet" to the Captain and almost immediately, I had to. -_-|| So the superstition they say about this type of comments IS true. Anyway, after 1 full round of the 4 winds, the end result was the Captain and I winning most of the money with my dad and August losing about RM10 plus each. So yea, had some luck at gambling this year, which is mayb due to me being the only girl.

My family usually has 'open house' on the 2nd day of CNY but on a small-scale, as in no dishes like curries or what served, just cookies, tidbits and so on. There wasn't exactly a rush of ppl unlike my younger years but still quite a steady flow. In between I was of course online, refilling containers, preparing drinks and the usual. Later that afternoon, I went to visit Dr. Chua with CY and we had a good time talking about Swinburne and our jobs. His little boy Eason was so cute, helping to serve us food. And after serving us, he'd quickly cover the containers like he didn't want us to eat anymore. His mum asked him to give us one of everything, so yea a lot of eating. But sometimes he'd only serve CY instead of both of us, so it was funny. We joked to Dr. Chua, now you know what type of girl he'll go for huh? LOL.

Then, that night was MY open house as per the previous years. Most of my Swinburne friends from the E&CS ppl who were in Kch, Serena n the debaters turned up at different times. So we had mahjong, lots of catching up and gossip, just like what we used to do. Really missed it, though I'd been away for just one month. The Mecha gang of Yi Chan, Thong Wei, Stephen all turned up on the 3rd day and of course, more updates on jobs/training, gossip/reminiscing about the good old days when some of us fell down, got into love triangles and so on. Lol. CY and KC came over that night too and talked about the E&CS gang, who would be the first to get married etc etc. The usual. My summary was that everytime when u meet with ur friends that you might not have seen for awhile, the topics tend to change over the years. When you're in high school, you complain about studies, tuition, guys etc. When in uni, you still complain about studies, guys and lack of time/lousy lecturers/crazy assignment deadlines. Then once you leave uni, you talk/complain about work, supervisors, salaries, number of days for leave and so on. Basically, it just makes u feel old n you'll miss the previous stage of your life. But yea, I really enjoyed catching up with everyone.

The 1 thing that maybe annoyed/bemused me during the whole trip was that I kept having to update everyone about my job. Some ppl who totally didn't know would ask if I was still in high sch/uni and those who knew would ask about Sony. Basically I had to explain about the situation or about what I did at Philips many many times. My parents did summarize for them but when they ask in detail, that's me. Sometimes i just wished I had a big card in front that said it all, or a voice recorder, but ah well that's life. And it just means they care about what's going on with you, though they'll probably forget it and ask again next year.

My trip back came to an end all too soon for me and I was really down at the airport. My parents were there and yea, I was kinda distracted with the lighting. But once I got through the IC check and was by myself, it really hit me that I was leaving Kuching again. Leaving my family, friends and all that was familiar, and going back to 'cold', busy and dusty KL. I admit to shedding a few tears but managed to pull myself together. After all, I made the choice myself and it's for my own good. I'm strong enough to accept this new challenge, I must stick with it so I can gain more for the future! Yep, that's what I told myself, but I of course still missed everyone :P Before coming back to Kch, I made lots of plans to meet everyone, to do lots of things (eat laksa, dumplings, go to Spring, play mahjong). I'm glad to say, I managed to do everything and spent quality (not quantity, sadly) with everyone dear to me. Basically, the trip was all I'd hoped for and more. THanks to everyone who played a part. I miss u guys...and I miss those that I didn't get to see (away for holidays or overseas). Till the next time! *hugz*

Leo Ku Magic Moments Concert 2007

I know that this is a very late post, but u know how I am, procrastinator supreme and all that. Better late than never right? Anyway, I was in KL in December, around Christmas since I had a few job interviews before and after Christmas. It just happened that Leo Ku (古巨基) was in KL for his Magic Moments Concert on the 23rd of December. I'm not really a big fan of his, since I rarely listen to Cantonese songs, but I do like a few of them, especially his 'Golden Melody' (勁歌.金曲) song, since it's a compilation of many nice K-songs. Maxis was one of the major sponsors of the concert and since my uncle works there, he'd gotten 2 free tickets and asked if I wanted them.

Since I had nothing better to do, and I've never actually been to a BIG concert, I thought ok, don't waste the free tickets. Yi Chan, Chiet them were all in KL and I msged them to ask if anyone wanted the extra ticket, but apparently no1 did, so I just went alone. My relatives dropped me off at Stadium Merdeka after church and dinner and I was kinda apprehensive since I'm new to the whole thing but it was fairly easy as it was already close to the starting time. I got my bottle of water confiscated at the entrance but other than that, it was pretty easy to find my seat. Did i mention what seats they were? No? Get ready for this, they were VVIP seats! The very FIRST row and CENTER, baby! Talk about a good start for my 1st concert huh? The VVIP area was even closer to the stage than the most expensive tickets being sold at RM360. The only people closer to the stage were the press and the organizers. And I'm not even a huge fan. Lol.

But knowing that Leo Ku is known as one of the New Heavenly Kings in Hong Kong, and he's a good singer, I thought it should be a pretty entertaining and good concert. The stage was very nicely decorated as a sort of fake forest, with a sort of fantasy/fairytale theme, hence the name 'Magic Moments'. Heck, Leo Ku came out suspended under this huge mechanical bird thing for his entrance. Throughout the whole show, you could see many fantasy elements, such as dragons, sleeping princesses, clocks running around ala Alice in Wonderland and such.

See what I mean? Fancy silvery butterfly wings and all

For me, the highlight was probably when he sang 'Golden Melody' and actually walked down the stage to walk around the VVIP area, shaking hands with both the VVIP area guests and the guests in the RM360 ticket area. I got to shake his hand twice, which is pretty cool even though I'm not a huge fan. But it was a nice thing for him to do, and he could still sing the heck out of the song while walking. C'mon, its a 10 minute song, with several difficult parts, that's pretty amazing.

He also did an Aaron Kwok song, not sure of the title, but it's that fast one with the famous dance moves and he did pretty ok, though its totally not like his good boy/balladeer image. When he went down for a change of clothes, Justin (側田) came up and sang. Then, they had this beatboxer, with Justin, Leo and 2 other guys to form this sort of boyband thing which was pretty interesting and different from what I expected. All in all, it was a good concert, for my 1st one anyway, and yes, Leo Ku definitely can sing. Justin too, even though he had only 1 solo song. I was busy taking photos throughout the whole thing, so I might have missed out some happenings, but yes, definitely a good experience. Thanks Uncle A for the GREAT seats! And free too..hehe... ;)

Typical boyband pose huH?

I wonder how those guys can see anything at all

Leo Ku wasn't the only one with a fantasy theme. Most of the shopping centers were using the whole Fantasy/Fairyland theme for their Christmas decor as well. These pics are of Mid Valley, which I think had the prettiest Christmas decor for this year. They even had story telling sessions with fairy story tellers and the kids participating could dress up as fairies too. Kids nowadays really have everything huh?