K9 Euphoria Day

Visited Che-Cheh's blog last Friday and found out about the 4th Malaysia K9 Day which was scheduled on 14th January 2007, Sunday at Bandar Utama's Central Park.

I did a bit of hustling and managed to get mom all hyped-up to go. Hence, I succeded my plot to con mom for a ride there. Tee hee hee hee. See Che-Cheh, I can be quite manipulative when I choose to *sly grin*. Hehe. Yeah, and I brought my 5-year-old son along too. What a nice mummy I am. Kopi-O, my mom's black Miniature Pinscher was there too. Poor Ol' Susu, the family dog, a white Maltese can't go as my bro wasn't free to join us.

After written a hyper-long-winded post on Monday, I have decided to be short & sweet with this one. So I am not going into a detail reporting on what took place and all or what I thought about this event etc.. etc.... Instead, this time around I am just going to let it be a feast of K9 visuals. What do you think? Loving it already?

So here goes... feast your eyes on these (take special note on the bitches will ya. They are all especially cute - all dressed up):-

Note of caution: Some of this cute poochy might be dressed up and looked every part a bitch but, I have only discovered on that day... this wasn't really the case. As I have seen some of the boy-boy pooch with cute & fancy hair clips on. Go figure. LOL.

A Tango 'Asunto Del Amor'

This is my RM40 ticket :D - worth every pennies

Wooo hoo…. This show was absolutely mind-blowing (see my previous blog on it). Whew! It was hot, hot, hot I tell you. It was and affair to remember for a lifetime. Hence, I gave this post a Spanish title, A Tango Asunto Del Amor (Asunto Del Amour means Love Affair in Spanish)

Despite having to literally wrestle our way through the horrendous traffic jam all thanks to the heavy downpour. And poor me having to tahan (bear) with my mom’s constant complains on other rude and inconsiderate ways of other fellow drivers as though it could have make things any better by gesticulating wildly while admonishing these fools harshly - in the end, it’s only me who had to suffer for other people's stupidity. Sigh…. I was like thinking loudly to myself, “Duh… could we just focus on where we are going please, we’ve made a few wrong turnings already” – I want to pengsan liao (faint).

Irregardless, me and my mom made it just on time… ok ok… we were just a wee bit late – we arrived at 8.10pm and the show is supposed to start at 8.00pm sharp and the audiences are expected to be seated by 7.45pm. Fat-chance with that downpour – and I was right! The show didn’t start till about 8.45pm, having to wait for the auditorium to fill up with wet and disgruntled audiences (Ahahahaa… that’s just my gist anyway).

As this show was also jointly organized by The Embassy of Uruguay, there were quite a number of foreigners amongst us – almost half of the auditorium. This show was a total sell-out it seems – the whole auditorium was fully packed.


The Performance

Ms. Laura Legazcue was a joy and pleasure to watch. The crowd was absolutely enthralled by her mastery in tango. She was a natural, a true born dancer. She had successfully put a charm on all of us and etched the beauty of Tango in our hearts forever.

I love all her six (6) tango dances including the soul stirring tango music – I found my heart dancing to the tunes of these mind evoking music.

Ms. Laura dances with so much passion, vigor and skill. We were simply in awe of her and her partner’s skill in synchronizing their moves to the music with perfect precision and unison. They both were like two souls entwined in one body.

I bet Ms. Laura is ‘Plastic-Woman’ in disguise cos’ she has got such a supple body especially her legs were so flexible that’s it was quite scary. It was like she has no bones in her legs. Yikes! – LOL. Sorry, I can’t help myself from injecting some humour in all this. Ahahaaaa…



Below is the programme of that night:-

PROGRAMME

Pata Ancha. (Facing with courage) – Tango by Mario De Marco (the music)
La Puñalada. (The stab wound) – Tango by Pintin Castellanos (the music)
San Telmo. – Tango by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez (the music)
Melacólico (Melancholic) – Tango by Julián Plaza (the music)
La Comparsita. – Tango by Gerardo Matos Rodríquez (the music)
Mala Junta. (Bad company) – Tango by Julio De Caro (the music)

There are also performances by SGM Galaxy Chamber Orchestra and SGM Renaissance Choir in between the Tango performances. They were all quite good actually.



The Conclusion

I ended up with two very red and sore hands from clapping too enthusiastically – non-stop. LOL.

I was so pleased when the dancers obliged to the crowd’s mad calls for encores – the commotion was like we were in a singing concert. Aiyoh, very malu-lah (embarrassing). Please be informed that I was in no way involved in that noisy encore calls ok. But, I was grateful however *grin*.

Overall, it was a memorable experience. As I said earlier, it was my one-evening-love-affair with Tango.

Tango for Two

Horray! going for this dance performance today with my mummy dearest. Tickets sponsored by my hubby :D (yeah, we are sorta back on the right track again - kissed and make up). The show starts tonight at 8pm and here's the location map.


The lead performer, Laura Legazcue (watch the videos on her site - it's awesome. Hahaha, it's what I am going to be enjoying tonight. Yay!) is currently a choreographer, first ballerina and director of the tango ballet of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Uruguay. She has started refining her superb dancing skill at the tender age of 7 years old at the National Ballet of Uruguay with Maestro Eduardo Ramirez. She has also won numerous coveted awards throughout her dancing career - meaning she would be a pleasure to watch *grin*.

I really love watching people dancing but, unfortunately I can't dance - can't even dance in discos. Yup, that's me - I have got two left feet *blush*. One of my favorite reality TV show is on today and it's the finale also :( - Sob, sob I guess I'll have to sacrifice watching "So You Think You Can Dance" to watch some real live hot, hot, hot dancing *wink*.

All Paws on Deck!!!

13th August 2006, Sunday

Ahoy there mate! I was washed ashore the ‘Bukit Ekspo’ this morn’ with my four-legged mate ‘Kopi-O’ and ‘Susu’ together with my Momsie, Brosie and BB (my five-year-old son). It was my Brosie’s brilliant idea to set sail for the Pirateland-of-the-Four-Legged-Canines.

KOPI-O & SUSU

Yup! Your guess is right! I am babbling about this years’ Dogathon 2006 organized by the Veterinary students of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), and sponsored by Pedigree. The event is from 7am-1pm and is held at ‘Bukit Ekspo' in the spacious campus grounds of UPM, Serdang. They even have a theme for it - “Pirates: All Paws on Deck!!” DOGATHON 2006. After some Googling I found out that, last year they had a Cowboy theme. I guess this year’s theme has been pretty much influenced by the current hype-up blockbuster movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”.

I can’t believe that it was already the 10^th Dogathon Annivesary (started since 1997) and yet, I have not even been to one until now. What a shame “tsk, tsk, tsk”. I am glad that I agreed to go when my Momsie offered to slot me and my boy in this time. Frankly speaking, I was a little bit reluctant to tag along at first, as I will have to get up goddamn early - at 6.20am on a lazy Sunday too! Have to be there early to avoid the scorching sun my Momsie reasoned – it suck! But, I had to agree on this cos’ I too detest the sun’s damaging effect on my beautiful alabaster skin *cheeky grin*. At first, I was perplexed when she mentioned dogathon – I thought I heard ‘togathon’ or something *chuckle*.

Some info on the event:-

Ok, as I am currently trying not to be too long-winded when I blog – here are some photos taken at this fun event: -

Top Clockwise: The Stage of course / Just one of the many Signs with the Piratry Theme / One of the Booth / Ahoy there! Me ship has docked at the Pirateland-of-the-Four-Legged-Canines.

Top Clockwise: That Booth again (sorry for the repeated photo) / Pic 2 & 4: A booth by SPCA for Dogs Adoption – there are some cuties waiting for loving master in their cages / Other pooch-related-booths for those shopaholics out there.

Left: Babes with picnicking with their as-lovely-as-their-owner pooch.

Right: Actually, I was trying to snap a pic of that cute lil’ old man there – A Schnauzer, I believe. Sorry, I know I didn’t do much of a good job taking this lousy pic – thing is, it kept turning its head left-right, left-right, over and over again. Sigh.

An Obstacle-Course for owners to show-off their pooch’s skill and to satisfy their own ego *grin* - no offends, just joking ok!

This was actually, quite fun - ‘Kopi-O’ enjoyed it the most (as you can see from these pics. On the other hand, ‘Susu’ wasn’t very game for this – then again, that’s expected as she is already in the Old-ladies category (she’s a 10-years-old dog). She’s grumpy most of the time nowadays – so, don’t irk her or else you’ll be at the receiving end of a bitch’s wrath. Growl!!!

‘Kopi-O’ performing with agility and grace with much courage too – for a young pooch. Sigh! And here is ‘Susu’ being forced coaxed by my Brosie to go up the ramp – poor thing, she was shaky throughout the ordeal.

This ‘Kopi-O’ is truly a ‘Cili-Padi’ (hot pepper) – she may by small and all but, she was really daring, as many other poochies were terrified of this ramp. God, it was steep. Kudos to ‘Kopi-O’!

Top Clockwise: What’s a cute lil’ thing doing on the ramp? – poor thing, did your master put you up there for his own ego? / ‘Kopi-O’ exploring the Tunnel-of-Love while old ‘Susu’ looks on. / Had to coax ‘Kopi-O’ out from the tunnel as she was intoxicated by love and lost direction *snigger* / Another poochy with it’s owner exploring the course.

Top Clockwise: This set-up was for the Master-Hunt event. We had ‘Kopi-O’ tried it out – the first time, she was puzzled as to what we want her to do. After the first run, she was brilliant – completed the hunt in seconds!

This event was called the ‘Fastest Eating Duo’ – where the owner and their pooch stuff their faces with food as-quick-as-possible to clinch the title.

Awww… ‘Susu’ made a friend - such an adorable lil’ thing too. Looks like ‘Susu’ still has her own charm albeit being an old pooch.

P/S: They were butt-sniffing each other. Euww!

Top Clockwise:

Ø BB (my son) pats a cute poochie of his choice. I don’t know what breed it was but, I sure would like one too – feels like squeezing the life out of it – its too cute (Ok, ok! please don’t call the Animal Abuse Hotline – I am just trying to describe how cute and cuddly this little pooch was)

Ø Aik!? This one looks exactly like my ‘Kopi-O’. It was sitting contently on the lap of an old lady throughout the morning.

Ø Wow, very original. A kingly pooch. Aye, yer majesty! (Next time, must convince my Momsie to dress ‘Kopi-O’ as a clown *tee hee hee* and ‘Susu’ can be a princess)

Ø Just another pooch I spotted.

Introducing the Cute-Ones – loved the two at the bottom of this pic (clockwise, pic no. 3 & 4) very much.

More cuties and some of Susu’s look-alikes (clockwise, pic no. 2 & 4).

Aha! The Majestic-Ones. My dream dogs are the two on top

(Golden Retriever/Labrador). The Afghan hound in this pic looks a little weird.

A dog with sunshades – Cool man!

Top Clockwise:

Ø Oooo… my dream dog again – the Labrador/Golden Retriever.

Ø “This old man, he plays one. He plays knick-knack on my drum…” – the Schnauzer again.

Ø A trio of Alsatian?? Or is it German Shepherd? They gave me and my boy a scare as one of them leap and barked at us for no reason at all, Shessh! (or maybe it was barking at ‘Susu’?).

Ø The Beetles - Oops! sorry, I meant the 'Beagles'. Yeah!!! – love em!

Tada!!! – the biggest of em’ all in the pack. The ‘Big-Brother’ in this event. LOL. Don’t they look magnificent?

Saint Bernard is one cool breed – I love em’ too! – at least, I wouldn’t squeeze them to death as easily as the cutes-ones.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-------0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-------0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-------0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

End of photography session!!! Hoped you enjoyed it cos’ I really did enjoyed the whole event *grinning eye-to-eye*. Came out of it with a huge urge to squeeze every warm and cuddly thing in my path.

If you are interested to know more about this event you can log on to Dogathon 2006 the official site by UPM. Alternatively, you may also visit a fellow blogger Che-Cheh.

Voices of Joy

Note: Sorry, as this is a belated post of an event I attended on 20th July 2006.


20th July 2006, Thursday

Hurray, finally the hermit has headed out to town for the night, after long time hiding in her own shell, hibernating. Yesterday night, I went to a charity choral performance (Voices of Joy – Choral Performances by Juvenalia, Viva and Operafest Choirs) at Jalan Imbi. The concert was held at the Auditorium 3rd floor, Wisma Kebudayaan SGM, No. 243 Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur (see pic below).

A bit about The Journey

Rushed home straight from work to get ready as a friend will pick me up at 6.30pm sharp. As we are civic minded, we decided to car pool with several other acquaintances. Luckily, I am working very close to my home and it’s just a few minutes drive away - if not, I would not be able to make it in time as I can only pack my bags to go home after 5.30pm everyday. There, this is the luxury of working close to home (flaunting counting my blessing gratefully).

The journey itself was yawn inducing to the extreme, as my friend actually slotted me into a car jam-packed with Aunties. Sigh… I guess that’s the price of accepting freebies (I was only included into this outing when someone pulled-out last minutely with a paid-for ticket).

The yawn inducing conversations throughout the trip:

Aunty A to another Aunty B: Aiyah! You know this daughter of so-and-so-friend ah? She ah very good at dancing one.

Aunty B to Aunty A: Yalah! That’s why she got such a beautiful body with big boobs to boot.

Aunty C: Her body ah, is that type people called, *bee-waist and **cockroach belly lor! (Chinese idioms: *small waist like a bee. **flat tummy like a cockroach).

Aunty B: Hahaha. Too bad her skin is a tad bit on the dark side if not, then very pretty hor?

Me: -Yawns- (Eyes watering after the countless yawns produced since I came into the car)

Aunty D (the driver): Where are we now hor? Are we supposed to turn into this junction kah? You people please let me know ah! (driving very slowly and anxiously looking for the turning).

Aunty A: Aiyoh! Don’t worry lah! I know the way there one. Lagipun, so many people here in the car to help. –continues with the jabbering with the other Aunties-

Me: -Sigh- Yawwn….. zzzzzzz


And this sort of conversations carries on with a variety of other mundane topics.

The Venue

The lobby was still quite empty when we reached there an hour too early. The show only starts at 8.00pm and we can only be seated by 7.45pm. So, we just stood around at the lobby area waiting for the time to pass. -Yawn-

As I came with the Aunties, I was basically left alone by them as they continued with another round of jabbering with me trying to look not-so-lonely and out-of-place.



And most importantly, about the Choral Recitals





JUVENALIA YOUTH CHOIR

The choral recital was kicked-off by the awesome Juvenalia Youth Choir from Finland of which in my humble opinion, was the best group in this show. Pardon me for my limited knowledge on Choral Music as this was my first experience of one.

I was pleasantly surprised to note that this choral assemblage didn’t have any - or in their case, even need any instrumental accompaniment to sound so otherworldly enchanting. I was enthralled throughout their performance – mesmerized by their perfect blending of voices which filled the auditorium with beautifully pleasing vocal resonance.

Maestro Matti Järvinen’s expression of tempo, dynamics, blending and style of the repertoires was very precise and masterfully delivered.

I am happy to declare that their performance has really made it worth my while -Thumbs Up-


Bits of Intro on the Juvenalia Youth Choir:
(as plucked out straight from the Programme Sheet itself)

The JUVENALIA Youth Choir consists of 32 singers aged between 16 and 26. The choir rehearses at Juvenalia’s premises in the Sello-complex in Leppävaara, Finland. The choir’s artistic director is Matti Järvinen and Anitta Ranta acts as the choir’s voice trainer.

The youth choir’s repertoire consists of medieval and renaissance songs as well as the new music, rune songs and modern music from Finland, Estonia and Hungary. The choir has also collaborated the Eero Koivistoinen, who has composed the works Kökkelö and Suomalainen Sarja specifically to the choir’s order. The choir performs a cappella, without accompaniment.

Juvenalia has successfully taken part in many choir events and competitions both in Finland and abroad, bringing home gold and silver diplomas and category wins as results. The choir has published several records, including Puer Natus in Betlehem and Discantemus.


Ahem, just in case you wondered about the visual part of the show - the members of this choir assemblage was also very much ogle-worthy *wink* (and I did stared ceaselessly to my heart’s content - especially at those cute looking choir boys – forgive me, for I am only human. Ok *grins*. Plus, they all did look like models for an Armani ad in their smart two-piece suit!). Oh! And did I mention anywhere that this was a mixed choir group? Although, it mainly consist more of female than males – there were only like about 10 or so males in this group.

Footnote
Cappella : Singing without accompaniment



VIVA YOUTH CHOIR

Okay moving on, up next was the group, Viva Youth Choir from Norway. This group’s performance was more on a joie de vi vre note. It was accompanied by the piano, two cellos and an accordion. This choral was largely made up of young junior school kids. Yet again, it was also dominated by females as I have only managed to spot up to like, two prancing little boys perhaps?? Then again, I am not so sure, as this was a large group of about 40-50 singers and I might have be a little visually distracted by all their dancing and formation routines. Yet, I guess we can still call this a mixed group, agreed?

Overall, I felt that this choral did put up a very good show - considering their age. But, I must say that it did sound and feels more like a Broadway kind of show. Alright, maybe some of the fellow spectators actually felt relieved to be entertained by a livelier group after the first choral group – which some may deem a little too rigid and unexciting as their recitals were mostly of their local classical songs (sung in their own tongue too – nope, not in English. I believed it is all in Finnish).

Footnote:
joie de vi·vre (zhwä d v vr )
n. Hearty or carefree enjoyment of life.


Bits of Intro on the Viva Youth Choir:
(as plucked out straight from the Programme Sheet itself)

VIVA is a youth choir with 45 girls and boys aged between 11 and 19 years old. Established in 1968, the choir belongs to Sandnes School of Culture, which is one of the oldest and biggest music schools in Norway. It is recognized both nationally and internationally as an outstanding choir, having won the first prize in Randers International Music Festival in Denmark and awarded the Sandness Community Achievement Award 2005 for outstanding national and international cultural achievements. Viva also won 1st prize in a national choir-competition for youth/adult choirs in Bergen this year.

The choir has performed in various key events, including the opening ceremony of the Stavanger University in the presence of King Harald of Norway, fund-raising concert for the Asian Tsunami victims with top-selling Norwegian artists and as demonstration choir in a choir conductors’ congress in Vasterås, Sweden.

Viva’s conductor, Liv Hugstmyr Særheim, was voted Youth Choir Conductor of 2005 by Norwegian Association of Child and Youth Choirs.



OPERAFEST CHILDREN’S CHOIR

Last but not least, is our home-grown award-winning choir group, Operafest Children’s Choir. This choir group was very spirited and dynamic. It was lead by Maestro Kam Sun-Yoke, the founder and artistic director of this commendable choir group.

This was the smallest group of all, as it only consist of about 20-25 young girls and boys - two of them as young as, let’s say, 5 – 6 years old? And the rest is about 9 – 13 years old. Their repertoire pieces has a mixed of international flavors – from Filipino Folk and Hungarian Dance song to the Chinese Folk songs e.g. ‘Jasmine Flower’ or ‘Muo Li Hua’ in Mandarin.

On the whole, this last group put up a very entertaining show with touches of humor in its midst - even though, it did lack the brilliance of strong vocal and tempo control as witnessed from the first group. But heck, this group did manage to grab the attention of most of the audiences and even managed to get the crowd to join in clapping and singing a few tunes towards the end of the show. All this was quite refreshing after being cooped up in the auditorium for about three long hours - trying hard to sit very still.


Bits of Intro on the Operafest Children’s Choir:
(as plucked out straight from the Programme Sheet itself)

The OPERAFEST Children’s Choir was formed in 1986 to promote the arts and to provide a sound education through music. Little was expected as to what it could achieve. Nonetheless, the vision to acquire artistic excellence never waned, because of the strong bond shared among the children, their parents, and the artistic director, Kam Sun-Yoke. Sun-Yoke drew inspiration from the late, world-renowned opera conductor, Dr. Jan Popper of UCLA, USA, and the then director of the Vienna Boy’s Choir, Dr. Tautschnig, who both convinced her that any project tempered with patience, love and dedication, must succeed.

In 1991, through hard work, unstinting persistence, grit and grind, The Operafest Children’s Choir became the first Malaysian Choir to have won second place in their presentation of Purcell’s ‘Sound the Trumpet’ in the famous Llangollen, International Eisteddfod, Wales, and third place in the Koorfestival of Arnheim, Holland, a choir Olympics held once in every four years.

To date, The Operafest Children’s Choir has performed in Holland, Wales, Spain, Argentina, India, Greece, Macedonia, Australia, Singapore, Indiana, New York and Montana (USA).



Discoveries - Of The Pleasant & The Unpleasant Kind

I really came into this performance not knowing what to expect and was frankly a little skeptical if I would actually enjoy it – and enjoy it I did, with much gusto too (enough to even blog about it – in a long winded way too).

Even though, I did enjoy the show very much but, sadly it was partially marred by two inconsiderate buffoons sitting in front of me who fidgets non-stop and was merrily chattering away throughout the whole show. To make the matter worst, they even have got the galls to sing along a few songs when not being prompted to - I mean it is okay if, we audience are prompted by the performer to sing-along, like in the last act by The Operafest Children’s Choir to get the audience to join in their act to work the crowd. But, singing along when other paying audiences are trying to enjoy the show, was way over the line *shakes fist*. It is just plain RUDE and UNCIVILIZED – there, I’ve said it and I feel so much better now.



Kleio muses “So, let’s let music touch your heart as it did mine, for music is the universal language of peace, love and joy”.



Some Wonderful Quotations on Music:

Nothing exists without music,
for the universe itself is said to have been framed
by a kind of harmony of sounds,
and the heaven itself revolves
under the tones of that harmony.
- Isodore of Seville

The discovery of song and the creation of musical instruments both owed their origin to a human impulse which lies much deeper than conscious intention: the need for rhythm in life... the need is a deep one, transcending thought,and disregarded at our peril.
- Richard Baker

In art, and in the higher ranges of science,
there is a feeling of harmonywhich underlies all endeavor.
There is no true greatness in art or sciencewithout that sense of harmony.
- Albert Einstein

Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.
- Confucius

Song is the pen of the soul.
- Rabbi Chaim Drizin

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
- Berthold Auerbach

The essence of all art is having pleasure giving pleasure.
- Mikhail Baryshinikov

When words leave off, music begins.
- Heinrich Heine

Music is the universal language of mankind.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Without music, life would be a mistake.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

I despise a world which does not feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

Nothing on earth is so well suited to make the sad merry, the merry sad, to give courage to the despairing, to make the proud humble, to lessen envy and hate, as music.
- Martin Luther

Music is the medicine of the mind.
- John Logan

It is music's lofty mission toshed light on the depthsof the human heart.
- Robert Schumann

A poet must write, an artistmust paint, and musiciansmust make music if they areto be at peace within themselves.What we can be, we must be.
- Howard Swan

"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings."
- Ed Gardner

I must study politics and warthat my sons may have libertyto study mathematics and philosophy...in order to give their children a rightto study painting, poetry and music
- John Adams

Music will save the world
- Pablo Casals

On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone.- Janis Joplin Music, when soft voices dieVibrates in the memory.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley