The Grasshopper Concert

Thanks to a Secondary school pal..
The love affair with them started as early as my teenage years..
She was so crazy with 蔡一智 that she practically bought all their albums, flood me with news of 蔡一智, dragged me to the Hello! Concert when the other artistes such as Boyzone, Beyond etc came to town the same time as Grasshoppers..

Hahaha
Under her influence,
I gradually grew to like them a lot =)
Those sleek dance moves, those power vocals, their never dying enthusiasm for performing, their evident talent.
That's why when dear asked if I wanna go catch them at Singapore Indoor Stadium, I agreed without hesitation.

25 years of music together..
In some way or another, their music never seem to age.

Subway before the concert..



As we were eating,
Silly us started a silly game of spotting who are 草蜢 fans in the restaurant..
Those dragon motifs on leather pants, sequined vests, hair slapped on with thick gel..
All the repressive souls in this hip hop world..
It wasnt that difficult in fact =p

Second time in the Indoor Stadium..
We got all retarded again..



It was a good thing we did not have to sit for long..
Most of the time we were off our seats..

The stadium was almost fully packed with audience who were around their 30s and beyond..
草蜢 have been around for 25 years..
Two brothers and a childhood friend..
They are probably in their 40s now but there was absolutely no sign of aged energy.

In addition to their own songs..
They sang a total of 25 songs of other artistes in commemoration to their 25 years.

Really brought me back to the secondary school golden days..
Just like how some songs actually brought you back to that exact feel and mood you had the first time you listened to them..
Their songs did that for us.

Pictures only, too lazy to edit the videos =p



They danced and sang, jumped about the stage and off the stage, never once showed their exhaustion.



Flamboyant outfits..
This is Cantopop that we no longer see in the modern music scene anymore..
And I sImply loved the way they speak Cantonese..





Most of the songs were sung in Cantonese.
Immersed ourselves in the electrifying ambience..
Hear them croon ballads..
Sheer enjoyment.





The big screen behind them was really clear..



Two hours and a half did not feel that long to us in fact.
They were such seasoned entertainers whom the crowd just could not get enough of.
Concert on the overall..
Definitely impressive.

Their commanding stage presence, that charisma..
Only evident in the artistes of the 80s and 90s..
They said that they will continue to sing and perform for their audience till they grow old..

They ended the concert with the signature 愛不怕..
And delivered the exact version of their younger days =)

This is the spirit of the artistes of the older days =)

*****

A Finnish Guest and A Learning Process

About two months plus ago,
Don's gf came to our house for the very first time..
It started with random days of stay over, and gradually became a full stay with us.
None of my brothers has ever brought their gfs home to stay overnight prior to this.
The first overnight and a non Chinese..
Needless to say
The folks did not like the idea..
But they were pretty diplomatic about it.
Still there was a lot of internal struggle and imbalance..

A Caucasian gf
Nothing surprising from him.
She was someone whom my brother fell head over heels for..
And who can explain the reason behind falling for someone?
Just find it strange that he kept getting into relationships that drained a lot of his energy..
Totally emo-ed.

Perhaps it was Don's fault that he failed to explain many grey areas to us right at the beginning.
Perhaps he was simply defensive because he saw our subconscious and senseless objections.
Perhaps it was the weirdest circumstances to which we met her..
A brief introduction, nothing like the endearing Chinese Uncle or Auntie.
Everything was a simple "Hi" and off they shut themselves in the room.
Don did not take much effort to tell her the social norms of a Chinese family of neat freaks.
She was living alone back home, so maybe tidiness wasnt the top priority on her list.
But cleanliness and hygiene meant everything to my folks..

Questions kept ringing in our minds.
It was seemingly alright at the beginning when she first arrived..
We asked her 812748 questions and she was curious about us too.
But living together under the same roof after a while soon revealed problems..
Because of these disapprovals, these supposed taboos..
There was some sort of a growing wall between us on and off.

There was no logical rationale to our disapproval but we disapproved.
We were drifting in and out of relenting but we relented.
My bro will be joining her in Finland in four months' time to look for a job and reside there for three months.
If everything goes well with his Finnish employer, he will come back for graduation and then goes back to Finland and maybe continue to work there.
Tell me how are the folks gonna accept that..?

And so,
She had to witness the arguments we had with Don in Chinese..
Felt the bad atmosphere around us..
Endure the subtle cold shoulders from us whenever Daddy brought up his 101 ways of
"How to stop Don from going Finland before his graduation"
In fact,

Daddy placed a lot of expectations on him..

Amidst the struggle in our minds..
We gradually felt her growing on us..
Her warmth, a good listener, her poise..
Raw vegetables and more fruits..
Tomatoes seem like her daily dosage of energy..
(We have never eaten soooo much tomatoes prior to her visit)
Our yearly supply of tomatoes seems to be her monthly buy =x
It was a healthy snack though =)
We got influenced by her very healthy eating style.
Mommy often cooked more vegetables whenever she was having meals at home.

For her,
She got addicted to mommy's cooking, especially the spicy ones =)
And she has never seen such a wide array of vegetables..
Brinjal, bittergourd, lady's finger, kangkong..
And she sure has a high threshold for spicy stuff.
She loves Mommy's home made chilli paste.

We brought her to meet grandma during grandma's birthday meal..



Brought her for crab liberation session..
(This picture is like some modelling photo shoot lol)



Two days before she returned home
She passed us a Xmas card and a gift.
Mommy and I passed her two packets of soup seasoning as well =)
I opened the card, read it..
Passed the card around the family..
Opened the gift.



This meant a lot to us.

"I hope this present lets you all know a little bit of Finland so that you know where Don is coming to see me"

We melted instantly.



*****

Just a day before she returned home..
I happened to be on leave.
She wanted Mommy to teach her how to make chilli paste..
So for the whole morning,
I was helping her to remove the seeds of the big packet of dried chilli.
We chatted for a long time for the first time.
She told me a lot about Finland..
And I told her about work and life in SG.
Inevitably cleared some misunderstandings that all of us had with her.
Just like that within a day
Our mutual respect and adoration blossomed.

Daddy and Mommy gave her a red packet..
I gave her a customised Xmas card.



Whatever is going to happen in the future..
No one knows.
But this does not mean that we cannot be nice to people around us.
We've been horribly judgmental and making loads of baseless assumptions..
This interaction session, this learning process..
I guess at every age, you never stop learning.
This sense of consciousness..
I believed mommy and daddy learned a lot too.
No two individuals are the same.
They realised they have to release the reins somehow..
It's not easy to win the folks over..
But she did =)

I learned a lot too and I'm still learning..
I do grow on people very easily..
Perhaps that's why I've always maintained my distance from others so as not to become too attached -.-
Guess I could really spare more time to warm up to her earlier..
Don grew the most I supposed.
He felt the pinch of not having his own finances to do the things he wanted.
I guessed he realised not being money minded and not being mindful of finances are totally different principles.
He revealed his immature side because of Tuuli..
He matured also because of her.

Tuuli told me she was still worried that she would not reach home in time for Xmas because of the heavy snowfall..
Xmas is a big day for them.
Signifies that reunion of a family who frequently stays apart from one another.
So I really felt it when Don told me she arrived home safely =)

It's really rare to have overseas guest residing in our place for couple of months..
Especially in the SG context,
Having guests staying for the night who are not related to us is definitely not a common phenomenon.
Not to say guests from overseas.
How many of the flats here cater for guest rooms?
Having guest rooms in the Western countries is an unquestionable norm..
I really have to admit..
The Westerners are definitely more cultural savvy than us in this aspect.

This has really really been a wonderful experience for us..

*****

Birthday 2010

Gave him a morning sms to check out the area where he kept Xbox..
Planted something there few days back for him.

Just a small one =)



After the much hype about us taking leave..
He took the whole day off while I took half the day.

*****

It was a week day and beyond lunch hours..
We thought we could give Wild Honey a try..
The lady said we were second in list..
I told her I did not want the counter seats.
But after forty minutes
We saw three empty tables and more than 5 groups of guests entered the eating area..
We began to feel the frustrations..
The lady asked if we wanted the counter seats and she would change for us if there are seats..
Big sighz..

We decided to pop over Ngee Ann City for Coffee Club..
As we were about to enter Coffee Club without a queue even though the cafe was packed,
The lady finally called me.
Forget it.
Wild Honey spoilt it for me the second time.

Funny how we were just talking about restaurants losing their business due to long queues..

How much more business they could have made if they solve the space constraint.

And honestly speaking,

The queue there wasnt even that long.

*****

Coffee Club @ Ngee Ann City

One of our frequent hang outs
Never fail to impress never let us down.
They consistently improve on their menu..



Two mains two desserts and a cup of banana butterscotch latte..
Total bill came up to $50 plus..
(Definitely a better deal to Wild Honey)

The thing about celebrating dear's birthday..
There is always this light hearted mood cos Xmas is approaching..
Feels good =)



*****

Life’s really busy for the past few weeks..

Buzzing around non stop..

Xmas is coming and it’s my favorite time of the year..

The year is ending with the anticipation of a better new year..

The mood is right, the atmosphere is light.

People give without the expectations of getting something back.

Gatherings happened not because they feel obligated to visit one another

But because people enjoy feasting together..

Very different from CNY..

2010 has been one filled with BIG decisions.

And it's good to end the year with more fulfillments I’m proud to call mine.

The mind has been running 24/7, even my weekends are not spared.

On one hand..

I know it’s sort of crazy to suddenly engage myself with so much concurrent stuff.

I’m really working myself to death..

Dead tired till I cannot sleep.

On the other hand..

The sadistic part of me actually misses this non-work related stress.

I miss studying.

I miss the stress of being back in school, being in class taking notes furiously,

I miss the attempt to fall asleep with my eyes open =)

Just that this time

The trainers are so interesting that it’s hard to fall asleep.

It’s more like attending seminars that allow you to share interesting experiences.

Probably by the end of the whole course

I can jolly well be an emcee for dinner and dance functions.

Bloody hell

The team mates practically ask me to do everything..

They gave me ideas in Chinese and asked me to translate.

They said they have never done power points

(Me too what, and it’s really not that difficult duh)

They asked me to present because they cannot speak well.

They told me no choice cos my IT and English is better than all of them -.-

Being busy is good..

Classes seminars meetings..

Stock take, migration, branding, research..

The big project coming up end next year..

And making sure never to compromise on running sessions and family time..

It’s late, but I’m trying to make up for lost time.

Really ought to kick myself for procrastinating for 6 years.

Doing things with a passion really feels different.

Really keeps you going no matter how tired you are..

Just that I need more time..

I need more quality sleep.

*****

Lace and puffed sleeves

Tiered chiffon and tulip skirt

Goodwood Park, going green

Concert and bubble sleeves

Hair session, androgynous Friday =)

*****