Looking for someone who is up to it. It’s a race definitely, but I’m in it for the experience and just for the fun of it.

Applications are now open.

Anyone game? Anyone?

Caught the musical just now. That’s right, it’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The one and only floating and flying car. And what a beauty she is too. I think I may well choose Chitty, or a similar era car over a Porsche any day. Magnificent and sleek in it’s own right.

The musical was well done too. I did catch 2 small misses, but it didn’t ruin the value of the performance in any way. It didn’t follow the movie version exactly since there were a few scenes less, a few modified ones and several songs added in to make up the time. They had to change the script anyway, in order to fit it into the confines of a stage musical. Even Chitty appeared to have shrinked a little. She still managed to fly too, although the floating scene wasn’t as exciting as the flying. I half expected the car to fly a few rows off the stage since there were no cables, but I guess there were mechanical and safety limitations to be considered.

Compared to Phantom of the Opera,Chitty Chitty Bang Bang appeared to be catered more towards the younger generation. There was a little bit of interactivity too, and quite a fair amount of humor thrown in. Quite a fair portion of the story was re-written too, so much so that you don’t need to have seen the movie to be able to enjoy the performance. Not so much to really distort it from the original, but just enough to develop the story to the next scene.

Costume wise, it was quite colourful and elaborate. Still, the variety and complicatedness cannot compare to what the Phantom of the Opera brought to the stage. Props wise was well made, especially the inventions. The Phantom had very elaborate sets also, both in the opera house and underground.

In the end, the star of this show is still Chitty Chitty Bang Bang without a shadow of a doubt. My fine four fendered friend definitely.

I’d really have to admit that sometimes, more often than not, things really do happen for a reason.

I was actually intending to try cycle-commuting to work on Thursday. Had originally intended to try it out come March, but with procrastination, and the uncertainty of the weather made me put it off countless number of times. Until yesterday, or so I thought.

It didn’t really bother me that much, since I was still unsure about the security of my bike at the underground carpark, so one day later wouldn’t hurt at all.

As it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise, the morning showers. There was a circulating e-mail about free tickets to The Crystal Mirror performance. No reason was given as to the source of the free tickets, but since they are free, who’s to complain, right? I placed myself on the reservation list straight away, and as luck would have it, I got a pair of tickets. Great!

The food was great, but like such theme / entertainment restaurants, one shouldn’t expect quantity in the servings, but more of quality, which was what we received. The performance was simply breath-taking in itself. Totally top-notch, if you ask me, considering the size of the stage they had to work with. The few acts I really enjoyed were the Caesar Twins, Tom Noddy, Jojo Weiss, Andreas Wessles and Irina Galagan. The Caesar Twins had wonderfully sculptured bodies, the kind that any normal male would almost be willing to kill for. It used to be that only very few athletes in the world could do a half pull-up and then straighten their bodies horizontally, in mid-air. Well, not any more. The Caesar Twins could do it, and very nicely too. No shivering of bodies due to the intense tensioning of the muscles. Very smooth and graceful movements. Tom Noddy was a joy to watch, simply for the amazing things he could do with soap bubbles and some creativity and ingenuity, a lot of it! I really like the caterpillar bubble he did for the first act, the volcanic eruption, the love bubble and of course, the square bubble! It really was square, and he even blew smoke into it, just to show it’s shape.

Jojo Weiss was the self-proclaimed idiot of the whole show, and he’s exceptionally great at it too! His voice is hilariously side-splitting too, just hearing the way he contorts his voice to imitate other sounds. Andreas was impressive too, with immaculate control of the soccer balls. He can probably send almost any football player off the field with his precise ball control. Well, when you can win an award for juggling in china, what more can you expect? Irina Galagan was very sensual too. Tall, slim with very seductive moves together with the hula-hoops. She just make it seem oh-so-easy and yet, you know full well that it isn’t. I really like the piece of music to which she was performing to. Soothing yet sensual music.

All I can say is that I’m in a way glad that it rained on Thursday morning. It made me leave my bicycle at home and instead, rode my motorbike to work, which in turn allowed me the opportunity to take advantage of the free pair of tickets! Wonderful!

Finally, my chance has arrived! After a good five months of waiting, having purchased the tickets way back in end October, I think. My goodness, I can’t even remember when was the ticket purchased. It was way back in secondary when I read a novel Phantom. That was the thickest of novels back then. It was from that point on, that I got drawn into the musical world of the Phantom of the Opera. I missed the first production during the 80’s, but I got the 1986 Original London Cast audio CD instead. It sure was wonderful, one of the rare CDs which I am able to play on infinite repeat. Thankfully, when the motion picture version was released, I made myself catch it – alone.

This time, I had company, namely Plain Sunset, Aud, CDMania and her friends. This would also make it the second time watching a performance at the Esplanade Theaters, with the first being the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Only difference was that this time, it was at the theater rather than the concert hall. We went in, and waited. Soon, the lights went out and the auction begun. Just as I had imagined, having listened to the soundtrack for the past few days. Having watched the movie, I had an idea of what to expect, but then again, it was in the context of a feature film production, with the luxuries of budget, space and of course, retakes. This is different. There is only one stage, and it’s amazing the amount of effort which went into the designing of the sets, and the flawless changing of the stage props during the few seconds of darkness inbetween scenes. Add to that a waiting audience, and it would take a huge effort in order to ensure that everything moves smoothly.

When it came down to Lot 666 of the auction for the chanderlier at the defunk Paris Opera House, it was the moment which I was waiting. As if on cue, the hairs on my arms stood on end when they played the Phantom theme, with the Pipe Organ and all. It was one of the most amazing scenes too, when they raised the chanderlier to the ceiling of the theater. In fact, I’d say that this image is probably as close to what I saw in the theater. The likeliness is uncanny. It’s amazing too, that while at rest the chanderlier was sitting peacefully on the stage, as it was raised to the ceiling, they had extra cables to haul it out of the stage and actually have it perched above the audience. It was mighty fine, especially so when the chanderlier came falling down during the last scene before the intermission.

It would be unfair to compare this rendition to the Original London Cast and the motion picture soundtrack. Each of them have their own merits and is unique in it’s own way; which is good too. They improvised a little, deviating slightly from the two soundtracks which I have. Still, that deviation did not have any negative impact on the overall performance. As a matter of fact, it’s like a small breath of fresh air, a slight tweaking to set it apart from the rest, and at the same time, not scrimping on all that matters most.

At the end of it, we gave the actors and actresses a very resounding applause, making them re-appear from behind the curtains for a total of three times. It sure was a very good performance, one which I enjoyed tremendously. It was well worth the SG$162 which I paid for it, no doubt it’s still much lesser than what I paid for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, they are both of different performance in nature. I would very much love to view the performance again, this time at a different seating, but maybe I’ll save it for the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang musical when it opens this November.

Anyone interested?

Now that I’m back home and blogging, a part of me thinks that perhaps I should have purchased the Phantom of the Opera T-shirt, for posterity’s sake. Well, I have until end of this month to do so!

Just finished watching the first episode as shown on Star world on cable. Very promising. Always wondered how it would be like if I were to really have special powers. Yeah, that was a very weird phase a long time ago.

Time to start downloading the episodes! Don’t want to let my internet bandwidth go to waste anyway.

It’s hard to believe that there was a period when I kept this song on single-track repeat. I still love it, even to this day.

A resurgence in the songs I used to listen. This was one of my fave songs back then.

It’s always great whenever we have a gathering, be it dinner, drinks or in this case, a chalet. It’s usually the celebration of a birthday, or a festive occasion. This time however, it’s more of a farewell get together. One less participant to our future gatherings. Soon, she’ll be off to Down Under for the pursuit of higher learnings. That’s a good thing too, as always when it comes to furthering one’s intellect. I remember another such gathering we had a handful of years back, when another one of our clique departed for studies too. I missed one when one of our clique departed for work overseas.

We decided to have a chalet this time, since we had a rather good deal for the weekend booking of Costa Sands Resort Down Town East. What a mouthful for a name. Could have been shortened down to Downtown East or something, but they wanted to make it long and impressive. It’s also liable to be confused with Costa Sands Resort, which happened to be a few minutes drive away, something which I was caught in.

The place has really changed too. A real big and significant change, proof that I’ve not been in the area for a decade, probably. Could it have been that long? I don’t recall, but it sure appeared that long to me. The entrance to the resort shifted to another area. The relocation of the chalets would have been a major logistical nightmare, had they decided to shift it. All the chalets have an assigned BBQ pit, which is good. Something which I didn’t notice before. One of the surprises for us was the Xbox console in our chalet room. Good to have, provided you have a few games on hand, which we didn’t, (un)fortunately. Depending on the crowd, it can either be very engaging, or a complete bore. The TV is also a staple, but something which is totally detrimental to social activities – something which we apparently discovered. I suppose it can also be attributed to age, one where we decided that it’s so much simpler to just lie on the bed and stare at the glass box. It entailed minimal movement of muscles and effort, but whether it reaped maximum benefits, it’s anyone’s guess. It came to a (hilarious) point where we were all lying on the bed, with chips and water all placed beside us. Even though there wasn’t any TV remote, we managed to “hack” it by using the remote control software in the mobile phone. How’s that for ultimate laziness!

Sadly, the idea of a chalet with fun and games has somehow been lost from us due to all the hectic work and fast life we’re in. That, or perhaps we were just too tired!

The night of the BBQ itself was in a league of it’s own. No doubt there ere quite a number of attendees, both out clique and her, but I’d say that for such a short notice, we managed to pull everything together, and quite nicely done too. Surprisingly, the only one present from our side were our batch climbers. Missing were our seniors. For them, it worked much like a chain. All you need is a member to appear, and the rest will follow suit. Anyway, it was just as enjoyable with just the handful of us – a close knot group, something which I’m slowly growing to appreciate. Fortunately for us, the rain decided to take a break that night, thus allowing us the peace of mind to cook and consume our food. For all the food that we had, we were pleasently surprised that a good majority of it were finished. That included the chicken wings, which is almost always in oversupply. Well, one of the guests gracefully volunteered to bring the cooked wings back home, which was good. All the hotdogs were finished, together with the satay, crabsticks and hundreds of fishballs. Only the prawns and (as usual) fried noodles were left. I’d say that of all the BBQs that I’ve attended, the amount of food we had was a good quantity, and the leftovers and wastage were minimal, which is always a good thing. Also another first was the amount of food I consumed. While I usually consume much lesser than optimum intake and spend more time near the pit, this was a complete reverse. Our guests were hovering around the pit most of the time, while I was seated by the table most of the time. I ended up eating more than normal, and not to let the situation go to waste, I occasionally brought the raw food to our volunteer cooks. This ensured that everyone else had food to eat while at the same time, making sure that most of the food gets cooked, and eaten. Always a good thing.

By 12, everyone departed while the few of us stayed back at the chalet. Somehow, the TV took control of us yet again. Can’t be helped, I suppose. We had a relatively hectic day running around getting the logistics for the BBQ. Mental note to myself to get rid of any TVs for future gatherings at chalets!

In no time at all, the weekend chalet get together is over. It sure was great, as it always has. The flight off is scheduled for February. I’ll probably be seeing her again come middle of February, when I head over for a short tour. Depending on how the situation develops, if everything goes well and according to plan, I’d probably be seeing her again sometime during the second half of the year.

Let’s see how things progress.

No two way about it, really. I want a Wii. Please, pretty please? I’ll behave, oh, I promise.

If only decisions were this easy.

Right. The Amazing Race Asia edition has just ended. It’s hard to avoid making comparisons between the Asian edition with the original US edition. After all, it was the US edition which eventually spawned out a sister edition.

I originally intended to submit an entry for this. It would have been so much fun and entertaining, just to participate in it. How often do you get to absail down from the 8th floor of a shopping mall? Almost never, except within the context of a race, naturally.

Still, you can sense a slight rawness to the editing of this first episode of the Asian race. A little rough around the edges compared to the editing of the US versions. Hey, them Americans have 10 seasons under their belts. Of course it’s better. Allen Wu seems kind of stiff too. I think he needs to relax more; loosen up a bit. IHate to say this, but it appeared as though he wanted to smash the camera, judging by the way he talked and walked towards it, when he was explaining the requirements to complete the detour.

Anyway, this is only the first episode of the first season. I’m sure it will improve over time.

And to think that I wanted to join this. HA! I may not even have been selected for it in the first place!