Where's Chopin?

I got to know this Chopin concert thingy through a radio advertisement, and I knew I'll be attending already, but with who? Coincidently, a friend of mine came back to KL for holiday, and yes, he is going with me, by force, because I don't really care if he likes it or not, and I didn't even tell him much details about it, and yep, he has forgotten about it when the date was near. Too bad, he has an unreasonable, inconsiderate friend like me, there ain't any way for him to excuse himself even if he has totally forgotten about it. (The evil side of me).

This event was held by KLPac (KL Performing Art Centre), from 7th - 10th July, 2o10. Initially I was thinking they are having the same program over these 4 days, my friend is flying back to Glasgow on 10th, so, 10th is out, usually he will be having gathering dinner with family a day before he flies off, so 9th is out too, then later on I thought on the 8th I might need to work late, so, final decision, I bought the ticket for the 7th.

The souvenir program

I only got the program when I was there that night, I went through the program up and down, right to left, but find "Chopin" no way except the front page title "HSBC Classic Chopin Dan Lain-Lain". So, we are in the "lain-lain" category.

I. Sardana

II. Intermezzo e danze finale - Gaspar Cassado

Latin American Dances - Fose Elizondo

Gagliarda del Principe di Venosa - Carlo Gesualdo

Gavotte - Edvard Grieg

Scherzo-Allegro - Dmitri Shostakovish, arr. Robert Sang-Ung Choi

Nothing Else Matters - Metallica, arr. Apocalyptica

Hall of the Mountain King - Edvard Crieg, arr. Apocalyptica

Fade to Black - Metallica, arr. Apocalyptica

Vocalise - Sergei Rachmaninoff, arr. Robert Sang-Ung Choi

Andaluza - Enrique Granodos, arr. Robert Sang-Ung Choi

Black Orpheus - Luiz Bonfa, arr. Robert Sang-Ung Choi

Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 I. Aria (Cantilena) - Heitor Villa-Lobos

Libertango - Astor Piazzolla, arr. Robert Sang-Ung Choi

However, look at those piece, aren't they (all) very nice pieces? And when all the cellists play, rightaway, you can feel their passion toward those pieces and the instrument they are playing with, although some tiny miskates were made, who care? It was fun!

The team was led by Robert Choi (the guy with long hair in the middle of the following image), gosh, this guy is so so so charming when he is holding his cello and drawing his bow on the strings with confidence. I'm not a good describer, in fact, music/ art need individual to feel/ touch/ listen/ see/ smell/ taste it personally, isn't it?

[image "steal" from http://fuegokoori.blogspot.com/]

Marbled Chocolate Cheese Cake

Ingredients A:
180g butter
20g cocoa powder, sifted
180 - 200g castor sugar
3 eggs
20g self-raising flour, sifted

Ingredient B:
250g cream cheese
60g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup water

Methods:

1. A: Melt butter in a saucepan, add cocoa powder and mix well. Cool slightly and beat in castor sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Lastly, mix in flour. Pour into a greased and lined 20cm square/ round tin. Bake at 170 degree Celcius for about 15 minutes (half cooked).

2. B: Mix all the ingredients together and beat well. Pour over A and swirl through with a small knife for marbled effect. Return to oven and continue to bake till golden brown. Remove and leave to cool. Slice and serve.

Note: If the cake is too cooked before pouring in B mixture, the marble effect will not be ice

Long time never bake, I'm quite impressed by how the cake turn out to be

p/s: recepi copied from one of the baking books by Agnes Chang.

心情小记

今天我在工作的时候看到了一幅很___的画面，恕小妹无法用简短的形容词来形容我看到的画面，就让我用比缠脚布还长而臭的叙述方式，尽我所能让你联想一下我看到的画面吧！

地点：某医院的某专科医生诊所外
人物：母女，母约莫80余岁，女约莫60余岁

我的工作绝大部分的时间都是花在“等”上。通常我会翻翻诊所内过期的杂志、阅读一些跟我负责的产品的临床实验报告或阅读我随身携带的故事书，看闷了，我会发呆或观察出入诊所的人、事、物。

今天和往常一样，我看着我的故事书“TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE”，然后看到护士推着一张医院的病床进入诊所，这画面不常见，而且整张病床耶，很难不抬头看看吧！母亲躺在病床上，很辛苦的样子，我想一定太辛苦了，她眼睛没有张开，眉头深锁，女儿坐在护士停放病床旁边的一排旧铁椅，眉头也深锁，她的右手轻轻的抚摸着母亲的额头，左手放在母亲看不到的膝盖上好像有一点颤抖，口中念念有词，似乎在安慰母亲“会没事的，等一回医生就会来看你”。然后我看到50年前的她们，角色对调，母亲一只手抱着生病的女儿，另一只手就抚摸着女儿发烫的额头，希望藉这一下接着一下的抚摸，可以带走女儿的疼痛。。。深怕我的凝视会让她们感到不自在（其实在这种情况下，当事人应该管不了身边的一切，所以我的顾虑只是给自己一个转开视线的借口，其实应该是我怕我管不好自己的眼泪），然后我转开视线，但我再也没有办法继续阅读手上的故事书。

我祈求我的父母、亲人永远幸福安康。。。我真的衷心祈求。。。

My Brand New June

In months, I'll enter another decade of my life. Before that, I had made an important decision, which is to go back to sales. Please do not ask me why, I am still finding the right words to say. But I know, I'm not a person who is good in climbing corporate ladder.

There are so much I want to say... especially during this time, season of missing... I can't be able to transform my feeling to word, only good friends know how terrible I feel, each and every time of this.

Keep things short, I will only write short descriptions to each of the photos...

View from my new office pantry...

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Friends sort of celebrating my new beginning... @ Sanbanto

(click underline to view my previous post about Sanbanto)

Never visited this place more than 6 months, they have new menu and new dishes!

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one fine afternoon... watching the leaves floating/ dancing...

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water droplet on table cloth

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Flowers @ my old house garden

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Red sky...

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Dad was holding a cempedak that he "steal" from a fruit's orchard

Dad's friend brough us to a kampung (I've forgotten the name of the village) for lunch... that's not a proper restaurant, in fact, it's a house and the owners serve their kampung chicken to visitors. The cempedak was from the orchard behind their house. My dad actually wanted to pay, but the couple (owners) refuse to accept, they said it's a token of appreciation for us... what a kind and warm couple.

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I knew this day will come, but I wouldn't expected it to come so soon...

Government decided to demolish Pudu Jail for development/ road widening.

It used to be a very famous and popular landmark in KL, it was there since I'm very very young, of course I understand, to keep an abandoned building in the middle of KL is not logical, but when news came to my eyes and ears, I feel bad... it's like seeing a childhood friend leaving the country, leaving you...

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I'm lost in UMMC...

UMMC is one of the account I need to service... the first time I was there... ya, I'm lost... I was lucky because later on, I met an ex-colleague and I managed to get some very useful information from her.

Since I'm lost... and came to a canteen, so, while resting my feet... I played with my companion - camera...

My bag to work

- End of my report -

Ipoh Trip (28.05.10)

This was a trip to attend a colleague's (now already an ex) wedding in the evening, and food trip before the dinner. She used to report to me, so, I was thinking, I should made this trip although I've been hesitating for quite some time. Actually I've no regret to my choice, it's a very pleasant trip.

I was the only representative from my department (ex too), so, I'm joining the sales and marketing personnels, there were 12 of us, in 4 cars. The one who was in charge of planning is quite a junior staff, he has done a long itinerary which I think (well, most of us even to whom has only a little bit of experience in planning a day trip) the plan is beyond ideal! I think he has not consider much about our stomachs capacity and time constrain because we were travel in a big group.

Good and bad, good because he has done a fabulous homework, bad... might disappoint some who has some expectation to it, I'm one of the later, I actually quite familiar with Ipoh, and have tried most of the restaurant listed in the itinerary. The one that I'm most interested is the egg custard, but end up, we have to drop this plan... reasons? mentioned above.

Besides eating, we visted to one of a popular cave too, GEK LOK TONG...

Plant grow on the stone

Stalactites (dripstones) in the cave

The bees in work

Happy boys!!! opps, not the one on the left... Uncle Jeffrey

Street... street... street

They called this mistress street, because old time man used to keep their mistress here.

An old kopitiam with lots of good food... satay, popiah, yao yu uong choi, rojak...

This is probably the last holiday trip for me with Totalifers... Good luck folks!!!

Together or not?

在一起 vs 没有在一起

心情糟透了。。。

何谓不聚不散？如果没有“相聚”把心情带上天堂，何来“离散”把心情再度带入地狱？

是否在等你给另一对手擒获或是等我将所有思念舍割？

听太多遍“一丝不挂”了，情绪越陷越深，很难抽离。。。