Apr 23, 2009

The Effects of Gaming Weekend

Scribbled by Perky | Chucked away in , , , , ,

As mentioned in my previous post, I went for a gaming weekend at Nora's, who is a very good friend of mine from my college days. Not only does she have a PS3, but she also has a Wii, 4 Nintendo DS and PSPs. Cool huh? We were joined by Big Fat Witch and Hanie (also another very good friend from the good old days).

Hanie, Nora and I made quite the trio back in college. I think we played more than we studied. They were the people who made life in college so much more fun. We would have sleepovers, watch Japanese animes all night (instead of studying for exams, lol!) and played PlayStation. However, when college ended, we went our separate ways and sadly, lost touch with each other.

Hanie went off to study in a different uni, while Nora left Malaysia to live in Japan. Thank God for Facebook for reconnecting old friends. Almost 10 years has passed since we last saw each other, but seeing them again, it was like as we never lost touch (or never grew up! We're still the same peeps that we were in college).


This is Prince, who belongs to Nora's sister. He's from Switzerland btw... and he's really huge! He's really adorable and very well-behaved.


Don't believe me? He's almost as big as Ryan (Nora's younger bro), who is 12 years old!


I haven't quite recovered from gaming weekend actually. My arms kinda gave up on me after hours & hours of playing Wii all 4 types of video game consoles. Which would explain the crappy shaky pics above...

Yes, it was that crazy.

Gearing up to play Mario Kart on the Nintendo DS. Mario Kart is a vicious, vicious game!


Anyway, having the Wii Fit tell me that my body age is 46 years old gave me a rude wake up call (my actual age is 27 in case you're wondering, thankyouverymuch). I mean, I was one of the fittest girls in school and college. I used to run 3km every day (8km on weekends), worked out in the gym (thanks to the intensive Taekwon-Do training my instructor put me through since high school as preparation for the many competitions I was sent to), go rock climbing and I had only 12% of body fat. My body was lean, compact and tight.

How the hell did I let myself go like this? Though I'm not obese, having my body spill out in places where it's not suppose to isn't very good either. Lolz!

So I've been taking the stairs instead of the lift this week. And will try to lay off the fatty fried food... *sigh*

After days of unable to lift my arms up, I finally gained almost full use of my arm muscles again. My arms don't ache anymore. Lol!

Damn you, Wii. You're evil. You tell me I'm old and you almost rendered me paralyzed.

I received a very good surprise yesterday, which I'm going to share with you guys in my next post. Anyway, I'm off to shower. Anyone wanna help me scrub my back? ;)

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Jan 6, 2009

The Australian Double Chin

Scribbled by Perky | Chucked away in , , , ,

I’m finally back to my blogging life after my long vacation. I should’ve gone back to updating my blog last week but for some "strange" reason, the internet connection in my hometown was so bad, that I abandoned the idea of going online altogether. I believe it was a sign telling me to enjoy an extended break from blogging I needed to recuperate first before going back to my old routine and eat more fatty food, since my hands were free from the keyboard.

I’ll try to keep my experience on Australia as short as possible. 11 days there definitely gave me plenty of things to do, hence more things to write about. So it’s best to sum it all up as I don’t have the will power to write lengthy posts so as to not bore my lovely readers.


We stayed at Quest on Arlington Serviced Apartments. It's expensive, but that's the price you pay for one of the best accommodations in Perth (or so I was told).


My days in Perth started as early as 8am. That’s pretty early for someone who enters the office at 10.30am. My “job” in Perth was to be driver for my mom and her friend, G. And when I’m not driving them around, I carry their shopping bags and “help” them eat. And boy, do they "need" help! By Christmas, I was already sporting a *gasp* double chin! (I better start working out soon. The fat jokes are getting old hehehe. Plus I'll be attending a couple of weddings in Feb, and God forbid if I look anything less than fabulous).

We drove to Fremantle a lot. The men spent most their days on playing on all the best golf courses (such as The Vines and Joondalup Resort), so that left us women with nothing else to do but shop. Mom and Aunt G were pretty determined to buy everything they can, while I was determined to eat all the fish-n-chips I could find (we don't get very nice fish-n-chips in Malaysia).


The Fremantle market, a place where you can find all sorts of stuff at cheap prices



Doing the whole tourist thingy by buying souvenirs for family and friends


Aunt G and my mom, who almost broke into song and dance in the picture above. Shopping has that effect on her ;)



Mom and I on the harbour



Cicerello's - they serve very good fish-n-chips here!



You throw this at the seagulls to keep them from landing on your table. No, j/k. This is the buzzer that let's you know that your food is ready for collection.


The evil stuff that was my daily diet. This is the no. 1 contributor of the whole lotta "extra" that I brought with me all the way from Australia. hehehe ;)



Apart from the constant eating, I was also constantly boozing out. Not to say that I'm an alcoholic or what, but when it comes to drinking, I can pretty much stand on my own. I believe I’ve tried almost all types of beer available in Perth.


The Windsor - our constant hangout



This thing definitely comes in handy if you drive!


Christmas Eve was spent in our apartment unit. Try cramming 27 people in a small apartment, and you pretty much can guess the chaos. Food was plenty, everyone was having a jolly good time and the kids were happy (which was evident from the mess they left behind).




Christmas was spent at my Aunt Helen’s. She married a British man named Roy, and together they have two kids Joanna (who's got 2 very adorable kids of her own, Chloe and Ben) and Andrew.




My very warm and lovely family :)
L-R: Mom, Aunt Helen, Me, Andrew, Dad, Joanna, Yaduk (grandma) and Uncle Roy



I also got a chance to meet up with an old friend and made new friends. We went to the beach together, I tried my hand at body boarding (I think that's what it's called). It was tough considering I’m physically unfit to challenge the Australian waves but it’s definitely something I would love to do again.



Queue with his gf, Wee Leng, and their friend Billy



I've known him since we were 13 years old. But I don't think I can deal with him teasing me with a strip show!



Oh phew! He was just changing into his wetsuit. How, erm, embarassing it was for me to hope for a strip show ;)



All geared up now. The body board and wetsuit were new btw.



This is what happens when you get bitchslapped by the waves ;)



We also went to Swan Valley to do some wine tasting.





But I didn’t get the chance to see the koala bears and kangaroos as no one wanted to go with me. Not surprised, considering all they had in mind was shopping, shopping and more shopping! Oh, and eating too. Shop and eat, that’s all we ever did in Perth.

I guess this pretty much sums up my Australian adventure. I would love to go back there and not come back to Malaysia. Australia really grew on me; I love how warm and friendly the people are, love their weather, and I truly really enjoyed driving there as you don't find idiots on the road (their drivers don't run red lights and certainly don't abuse the disabled parking lots unlike a "certain" country that I know of).

Oh, Australia, I heart you!!

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Jul 26, 2008

When the Stars Align (Part 3 of 3)

Scribbled by Perky | Chucked away in , ,

You know, when I wrote Parts 1 and 2 of When the Stars Align, never in my wildest imagination that it would attract the kind of attention that it did. I didn’t even know they had alerts for this sort of thing. It was really touching for me to find out that strangers have actually placed links of my blog in a forum and asking others to check my blog out. Thank you guys! :)

I must say, expectation is riding high on this finale post on my WWRY experience. Wow, for the first time I’m actually feeling the pressure to write on my own blog. Afterall, I don’t want to get attacked by other MiG/WWRY fans out there for what may be deemed as a so-so ending.

*Note: Please bear in mind that we were not able to take any pictures inside the theatre hall. Therefore, pics in this finale post will be quite limited.


Best Seats & Surprise!

We arrived pretty early at the theatre lounge… We were already so high from meeting MiG Ayesa (saw him walking around with a hot blondie whom we’re guessing was his missus) and the WWRY band. Every time we saw Caucasians walking around with heavy makeup, we were like,”I bet they’re one of the cast members!”




Originally, only myself, Big Fat Witch and Far East was seated on the 5th row. Due to strict budget, Cikgu Garang Cat opted to get the cheaper 2,000 baht tickets (where the view isn’t as great as the ones you get from our 5th row ;) ).

Big Fat Witch knew how much she loved the show (and MiG Ayesa) that it just wouldn’t feel right to leave her out. So Big Fat Witch forked up some moolah so that Cikgu Garang Cat could sit together with us.

And we kept that a secret from her up to the moment we were about to enter the theatre.

When we finally gave her her ticket, she was more than happy and we were more than happy that she was happy. So all that happy happy happy added to our excitement :)



With our 5th row, right in the centre, tickets :)


I gotta tell you guys this, 5th row smacked in the centre was and is THE BEST SEATS in house. You don’t wanna sit too in front as that’ll restrict your view (and probably give you neck cramps). But you don’t wanna sit too far behind either as you won’t be able to see the tiny details that make this show so awesome.



Before the show - The Mercury Phoenix Trust emblem, which was designed and drawn by Freddie, was based on the Star Signs of the members of QUEEN (yes, this is how it looks like from where we were seated ;) )



Icing on This Already Very Sweet Cake

I don’t wanna go into too much detail about the show itself as I want you all to watch it with your own eyes & listen with your own ears!

But let me tell you this, MiG sang pitch perfect. Even Sivan Raphaely (who played Scaramouche) did very well for herself (her performance in Singapore was a little bit shaky). We thought that the Killer Queen understudy in Singapore was effing great, but Annie Crummer’s performance… left me speechless. Her vocals are *mmmmuuaah* and I so dig her diva attitude!

We were so into the show – we lipsynced along, clapped along, reacted to the jokes (we went “oooh” when Scaramouche mentioned how INXS didn’t even want Galileo in their band – surprisingly no one “got it”). We were really into the show!

There were moments in the show that I swear to you, MiG was looking at us from the stage.

We were smiling throughout the show. Although Carly Graeme (who played Oz) didn’t perform as great as Kerry Ellis, I did shed a few tears when she sang “No One But You (Only the Good Die Young)” as I had my thoughts on Freddie. Yeah, I know, Brian and Roger originally wrote that song as a tribute to Princess Di but I thought it was great that they included this song for him in the musical. You can’t possibly have a QUEEN musical without paying tributes to the QUEEN ;)

At the end the cast and the band took their bows. Both Big Fat Witch and I stood up and gave the cast a standing ovation, while screaming,”You guys rock!”, “Good job!”, “Rock On!” “WoOOOOooOOOhhhhh!”





And the icing on the cake?
MiG Ayesa pointed to us, smiled and bowed to us. MiG, the man himself, acknowledged us in the crowd!

Even the four guys we met earlier pointed at us, smiled and waved. We just became hysterical (I think everyone else in the crowd thinks we’re weirdos or something).

Those acknowledgements from them meant the whole world to us. They said that they were going to make it extra special for us, and those acknowledgements was a personal touch on their end. They kept their word! We felt like we were the luckiest fans in the crowd! :D

We bumped into Ryno after the show at the cafe downstairs. We congratulated him & the cast for a job well done as well as thanked him for this wonderful experience. He asked which show was better - we told him this one was 100 times better! :)



To sum up QUEEN’s We Will Rock You musical, let me tell you this, to fully enjoy it the audience needs to move, get involved and accept the invitation to join in extended by the casts. You can’t just sit there, staying cocooned in the comfort of habit… otherwise you just won’t “get it”.

There were 2 guys seated in front of us but they hardly showed any emotion or movement throughout the show. The typical theatre goers I presume. They just sat there (blocking my view sometimes). God knows what’s wrong with them ;)

I am forever grateful to the musical creators of WWRY and everyone involved in it as they did one helluva job in keeping the flame of Freddie Mercury alive and ensuring that his and QUEEN’s musical legacy survives through this digital age. And I’m pretty sure that along the way, QUEEN’s music will reach new generations.

Brian May often performs with the London production on special occasions like anniversaries and Freddie’s birthday. So I hope that one day I’ll get the opportunity to watch that very special show.

But for now, I’ll just settle with the fact that this is the best thing I’ve ever experienced in my whole life.




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Jul 25, 2008

When the Stars Align (Part 2 of 3)

Scribbled by Perky | Chucked away in , ,

Making the Right Call

So there we were at the lift area. We were on the 4th floor. We noticed that the lift kept going to the 6th floor first before coming down to our floor. Each time the lift opened, we could see some of the WWRY cast members in it.

What ARE the chances of meeting MiG Ayesa in the elevator?

Yes, that idea did pop into our heads. But each time the lift opened and there were no sign of MiG, we thought maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Then at one point, the lift door opened and it was empty. Cikgu Garang Cat wanted to enter, but I told her no.

I could see the frustration on Big Fat Witch and Cikgu Garang Cat. I could also sense their urgency of getting to the ground floor as quickly as possible. Who knows? Maybe MiG had somehow made his way there already.

So I told them, “Ok, whatever it is, we’ll just take the next lift, ok?”

So we waited for the next lift to come.

Ting.

The lift door opened.

And on the right side of the lift was a man leaning against the wall, clad in singlet and Bermuda shorts. The first thing I noticed was how muscular his arms were.

OMG! IT’S MiG AYESA!!!!

It took a while for the rest to notice it was HIM in the lift. And when they finally did, we started giggling like blushing teenagers.

I think MiG heard us giggle, so he greeted us in Thai (he probably thought we were Thai).

I was sooo happy that he greeted us, I started having verbal diarrhea.

“Hi MiG!! We caught the show in Singapore, and this will be our second time watching the show!”

MiG replied,”Oh really?”

And when he said that, he eyes just opened up and for the first time I could see what beautiful eyes he has. He’s so much better looking in person. The pictures really don’t do him justice at all.

We chatted a little bit in the elevator. And when the lift door opened, we were so dumbfounded by our good luck, we almost walked away without taking pictures with him. But luckily, Far East was there and he went up to MiG and asked if we could take pictures with him.

And so the camwhoring begins.


MiG with the Sylvester Sisters


MiG with the lucky ladies...


Group pic with MiG


Dang it! Faiz got a solo shot with MiG!



Got him to sign my program book too!





The best part was we got to personally give him our handmade gift!



And he loved it! In his own words, ”These are so awesome!”, "These photos are awesome!" and "Terima kasih".

One thing I learned from our meeting with MiG Ayesa was how down to earth he was. He didn't have a big entourage (like other big stars do), and that made him approachable and accessible to his fans. He's really a cool, super nice and warm guy.

Before we parted, we told him that we were seated 5th row from the stage. And then MiG said that he was going to make the show extra special for us. In my mind, I thought, yeah he probably says that to all his fans but was still glad that he said it anyway.





Grab Some Grub

It was time for us to look for dinner. Better not go to a rocking musical with hungry stomachs, regardless of how great the musical is. As we were walking around the Esplanade looking for a restaurant to dine in, we saw the WWRY band members: Llewellyn John (bass), Matthew Marinus (drums), Ryno Zeelie (guitar 2), Etienne Oosthuysen (percussion).

Actually, it was Big Fat Witch who spotted them first (it was Ryno’s hairdo that caught her eye). As they were still eating at that time, we decided not to trouble them.

Perhaps if we’re lucky, they’d still be there after we were done with dinner.










We must be very lucky people indeed as the band was still there. I was quite a nervous wreck because these guys are like music Gods. And again, I turned to Far East to do the “dirty work”. So he went up to them and I followed him from behind.





The guys are just so damn cool. They didn’t mind signing my program book, we took pictures together and even chatted for awhile.




The guys were more than delighted after finding out that this was the second time we were watching the show. Just like the first show, we had purposely flown to Bangkok to watch it again.


“You guys were so good that I thought the cast was singing on minus-1”


I even let it slip that we were seated 5th row from the stage. Before we parted ways, the band told us that they were going to make it extra special for us.

L-R: Llewellyn John (bass), Matthew Marinus (drums), Perky, Ryno Zeelie (guitar 2), Cikgu Garang Cat, Big Fat Witch, and Etienne Oosthuysen (percussion)


And again, I was doubtful that they meant it but was glad that they said it anyways.

Even after all this, the best part has yet to come.

(to be continued….)

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Jul 23, 2008

When the Stars Align (Part 1 of 3)

Scribbled by Perky | Chucked away in , ,

Dreams do come true. I didn’t think mine would because it seemed a bit far fetched even for someone like me. I contemplated a few days about writing this post because to do this post justice, I had to forsake something very important to me as a blogger – my anonymity.

When I started this blog, I had assumed a nickname (and even an alter ego) to protect my identity. None of my post would contain my pictures and most of the time, even those mentioned in my stories would be given nicknames. There were times I had to delete some of the comments because my friends had mentioned my real name. Such was the length I went in order stay anonymous.

But the wonderful experience I had while I was in Bangkok was too good, too great to be kept to myself. So I'll be including pictures of my trip here… don’t want you guys calling me a liar lah pulak kan? ;) And finally you all will have a face to go with the alias fabulously known as Perky.

To those who’ve been reading my blog, you guys know that I was in Bangkok last weekend together with Big Fat Witch, McChef, Far East and Cikgu Garang Cat to watch QUEEN’s We Will Rock You musical. For us girls, it was the second time watching the show. As for Far East, well, he saw how enthusiastic and excited we were from the Singapore show that he just had to see it for his own eyes.


Well you all know what a huge fan I am of QUEEN, so huge that I know the story behind their songs, their videos, their biography, the instrumentation for most of their songs, Brian May's solo parts and rifts, the way Freddie works around the notes so he can hit the higher notes later part in the song... If there was a class on QUEEN, I can bet you my scrawny arms I'll ace it. I'm that HUGE of a fan.


The Journey to the Dream Begins Here

The Sunday before we left for Bangkok, I was having lunch with my sis, Big Fat Witch. I had briefly mention to her that perhaps we should make a gift for MiG Ayesa, to show him how much we love his performance (and how obsessed Big Fat Witch is with him).

I didn’t want to just buy a gift. That’s just not personal at all. I wanted a gift that was different, something that MiG can remember us by. So I told BFW,”Hey, let’s do scenes from the musical. You as Galileo (MiG’s part) and I be Scaramouche (his love interest).”

So the idea of the gift evolved from there. We decided to do a parody of the scenes instead. We wanted to make it funny. We enlisted the help of famed photographer Bibik Nyonya and creative director, Mama Diva. We got into costume and snap snap snap, our pictures were taken. Taking pictures is not my forte (something Bibik and Mama can testify to) and it takes one very good photographer to make me look nearly as good.

The gift we made – a parody of scenes from the musical with BFW as Galileo and me as Scaramouche. Sorry, can't publish its contents as that is for MiG's beautiful eyes only...


As I had to go back to Kuching on Thursday (one day before flying to Bangkok), I never even thought of how we were going to pass the gift to MiG, let alone if we'll ever get the chance to pass it to him personally.


Venturing into the Land of a Thousand Smiles

(the promo outside of Esplanade, the venue for WWRY musical)



This trip was joined by Far East, Kitty Cat and McChef (although McChef didn’t join us for the show). Being the lazy spontaneous person that I am, I never even bothered with booking us a hotel room. Just thought we’d do it backpackers style, you know.

The girls goofing around outside the hotel. (L: Big Fat Witch, R: Cikgu Garang Cat)



But Far East is just one of those guys who MUST have a proper hotel room. Yeah, he's such a girl ;) So he booked us two rooms at this hotel called Chaophya Park Hotel. It was only when we got to Bangkok that we found out that that’s THE hotel where the casts of WWRY was staying at.

Far East with Big Fat Witch posing outside the hotel



Yes, we're very fascinated with this signboard ;)



That’s the second sign of the many wonderful things to come.


The Good Samaritan

Since we were staying at the same hotel as the cast members, it did get to our heads that maybe we’ll get lucky and meet them there. So on Saturday morning, we had our “stalker” mode on and hoped and prayed that we’ll get to see the cast members.

It was pretty obvious that we were waiting for them (Big Fat Witch was like a beacon with that WWRY bag of hers). So this Thai guy, who was wearing a WRRY crew tag (probably one of the local crews), approached us,”Hey are you guys waiting for MiG? He already left. You just missed him about half an hour ago. If you’d like you can go to Esplanade at 5pm after the matinee show. The cast usually hangs around there before the next show”.

We were very fortunate to have known that piece of information, otherwise we would’ve waited and waited and wasted more time waiting and hoping to see the cast members.

That guy was our sign no. 3.


Okay, Position Yourselves Guys!

Around 5pm we were at the lounge area near the theatre, waiting to catch a glimpse of the cast members (and if we’re super lucky we get to see the main cast). So while waiting, we did a little bit of camwhoring to kill the time.


Annie Crummer as the Killer Queen. She was sooOOOOoooo GOOD!! Her vocal range is amazing, the facial expression priceless!





And then we saw that people were slowly coming down from the escalator and exiting the theatre. Oh boy oh boy oh boy, we were so damn excited!



Again we waited and waited. There was no sign of any of the cast members. Then Far East saw this lady who was wearing a WWRY jacket and looked like she was very important to the show.

So he approached her (coz we ladies didn’t have the balls to ask. Yeah, literally) and asked if the cast was coming down. She replied,”There will be no meet-and-greet the fans today”.

Oh bummer. It felt like someone took all our happiness away with a snap of the fingers.



But then she said,”But you can take that lift over there and go to the Ground Floor. Perhaps you’ll see the cast members there”.

This lady was our last sign. Some say God was pointing us to the right direction, but I’d like to think that Freddie Mercury had a little something to do with setting this whole thing up. Perhaps it was Freddie’s way of showing me how happy he was to have a fan like me, someone who has been pining her whole life to meet The Flamboyant One in person.

L-R: Big Fat Witch, Cikgu Garang Cat and Perky (Far East dubs us as dolls)


And off to the lift area we go...

(To be continued…)


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