Reach the sky;

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Reflections 2009

What a year it had been. I'm looking forward to 2010 because 2009 feels incredibly long. There's always a balance between happiness and sadness but for 2009, the balance tips in favor of the sadness.

Crushed hopes. Tears. Wasted time. Frustrations, lots of it. We dont always choose what happens to us, but we do choose how we react to the events of our lives. We choose to be destroyed or to grow wiser. I hope that despite everything, I've become a better person and have grown, even by just a teeny bit.

Friends had been so important this year (then again, they're always important), especially bestfriend and the clique. To all my constants, I could not have been happier and thankful for having you all in my life. Met alot of new people this year, and learnt a little something from everyone.

This is a year where I dont feel that I had done anything significant. I promise it wouldnt be so next year!

Summary,
It will be ok in the end.

Labels: beginnings-ends, constant, thoughts

“The wind assaulted my hair at 12:21 AM”

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas was okay. I hate orchard though.

Miss bestfriend! ):

Labels: life

“The wind assaulted my hair at 1:27 AM”

Friday, December 25, 2009

I just wanna say that this is my new look.

Labels: life

“The wind assaulted my hair at 1:47 AM”

Friday, December 18, 2009

This morning when I woke up, I was wondering if yesterday was a dream. Did I really watched Lea Salonga live?! It felt surreal, maybe this is the feeling you get when you witness something so beautiful. Lea Salonga's concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall was PHENOMENAL. When she speaks, her voice is light and floaty (makes me think of Luna from HP actually). When she sings, ohmygoodness.. I drowned. You know how when you love a singer's voice so much that when you finally get to see him/her perform live, the feeling is just orgasmic.

This is one of those things that I knew I HAD to go, the moment I read from my Sistic newsletter that Lea would be holding a one day concert. I couldnt find someone to accompany though. Hence I decided to go alone because it would be stupid to miss out on this for a reason as dumb as I-Cant-Find-Anyone-To-Go-With-Me.

Anyway, I bought a corner seat because going by experience, there's little space between rows and I hate trying to squeeze by people's legs while apologizing furiously (and Singaporeans actually give you the black face most of the time). Well, before the concert I was approached by the usher and a stranger asking if he could change seats with me because he may have to leave halfway through the concert and his seats are right in the center. So I agreed and then proceed to squeeze my way towards my new seat. I was actually having this irrational fear that I would topple and fall because the railings are really low and my new seat was the second from the front and it's the fourth level AND some people just wouldnt move their legs!! I ended up next to the stranger's friend who had bad breath (damn my sensitive nose).

When Lea Salonga walked on stage in a bare shoulder black & red dress with a sparkling (diamonds maybe?) waist belt, I'm quite sure my heart skipped a beat. When she started singing, I closed my eyes and experienced ecstasy. I couldnt recognise the first three songs that she sang and the third was a Filipino song which I think is "Hahanapin Ko" (after checking youtube). She dedicated that to all the Filipinos present and there was this loud cheer and clapping which totally gave me the idea of how many Filipinos there must be present.

Lea then gave this little speech about how she started singing this upcoming song when she was 17years old and now that she is 38, she had been singing this song for 21years. She said, “I sang this song as my audition piece for Miss Saigon and though I had been singing it for so many years, I never got tired of it. This song is On My Own.” Cue gasps and applause from audience. When oh so familiar piano music played and she sang the first few notes, I start tearing up. It was so, so beautiful to hear her sing that song live and I was completely overwhelmed. This is one of my favourite musical pieces because it was Eponine’s first soliloquy in Les Miserables which carries a lot of her emotions and the lyrics are heartbreaking.

Following that was a more upbeat song, “Rehab”. Lea said that she started allowing the audience to shout out songs that they would like her to sing and that helps her break out of her comfort zone to try other genres of songs. She was so cute trying to groove along with the music! I was tapping my feet because Rehab is fun! (Think: GLEE) “The next song is one that was a gift to me and my husband when we got married in...2004. Wow, is it really that I would have been married for 6years come 2010? I’m asking my husband over there (front row), has it really been 6years?” *amused laughter* “So the Esplanade actually wrote to me asking that I include two songs in my list and this happens to be one of them. I’m not sure why but I heard that it has become increasingly popular for weddings here.” It’s a nice love song but I’ve never heard of it before… EDITED: I think it's "Two Words".

“Reflections” was next. “I’ve been a Disney princess twice, Princess Jasmine and Mulan. Jasmine is my favourite because she’s really pretty. I know of adult guys who are in love with the character. If I’m a guy I would love Jasmine too. Well, Mulan wasn’t really a princess but she was ASIAN.” Lea was excited that she could put her stamp on this song and thus she was furious when she was told that Disney had to cut the song short because it wasn’t moving the story along. “So whenever I do concerts like this, I would pullllllllll out the long version. This is my little way of getting back at Mickey Mouse.” LOL! She’s hilarious isn’t she? I kind of forgot the sequence of the songs from this point onwards except for the last few. She sang an Andrew Lloyd Webber song and “Gone Too Soon”. “Gone Too Soon” is a tribute to MJ because to Lea, he is the most inspiring entertainer ever lived and she was broken when he passed away.

“I was proud to be on Broadway and one of the shows I did a few years ago was Les Miserables where I was Fantine. The entire show was 3hrs long, but from the beginning to Fantine’s death was 25mins. It was a long 25mins. I call Fantine ‘The Other Dead Girl’. *cue laughter from the audience* I’ve played three dead girls now, looks like it’s becoming a trend.” I knew she was gonna sing I Dreamed A Dream. I prefer Ruthie Henshall’s version though, to me Ruthie is the best Fantine while Lea is the best Eponine. (YEAHHH LES MISERABLES 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT!)

Lea then told a short snippet of a story which I don’t quite remember. Basically her message to the audience is that you never know when you will meet your Mr Right or Miss Right. She practically shout out the first line of “Taylor, The Latte Boy” (gave me quite a shock cause it was abrupt) and this song is sooooooo awesomely cute! Especially when she sang the part where it goes “How are you?” in a deeper voice. When I came home, I consulted Lord Google (GLEE REFERENCE HA) and found out that the original singer is Kristen Chenoweth!!! I almost exploded with delight because I love Cheno as well.

After that was another Filipino song, a love song. “This is the other song that Esplanade required me to sing and it’s popular as a wedding song in Philippines. Why are the songs both wedding songs? Is someone at Esplanade getting married soon?”

The other Disney song she sang was “A Whole New World”. I think she kind of mention that she wonders if someone from the audience would like to sing this song with her, but before my brain could process what she was saying and before she could even complete her sentences, someone from my level shouted “I WOULD”. It was funny because Lea was like “Oh, that was fast. I heard someone. Where? Where?” and she had her hand to her forehead peering at the audience while that dude was shouting “UP HERE!” The dude then shouted that he would be down on stage with her in 30seconds (a huge feat considering that he was all the way up on the fourth level). Lea seems amused and she was like “He must have heard that I do this for my concerts and he was Ready!” Then there was some funny banter between the two of them.

Lea: "It looks less intimidating when the house lights are off isnt it? It's so dark that I can only see the front few rows and recognise some of them but beyond that they're all strangers."
Dude: "Yeah. Nightlights."
Lea: *laughed* "Very pretty background for the song that we're going to sing."

Lea was even more amused when the dude rejected the lyrics sheet. But, WOW, that dude can sing man! There was a roaring applause and cheers when he sang the first line. More cheers and applause as he continued. At the end, Lea gave him a big hug and you could tell that she was amazed too. She said, “I’ve toured America and this song had varied successes, depending on the varied singing caliber. But Singapore, you have yourself a winner!”

I don’t recognize her closing song, it’s something to do with believing in yourself and stuff like that. When the audience shouted Encore though, she walked back on the stage and sang “Imagine”. Ohmy. At that point in time I was feeling overwhelmed and tearing up again because Imagine has become one of my favourites since GLEE. To hear Lea Salonga sing that song is…well, I don’t even have the words to describe how I felt. Her second encore song was “Tomorrow”.

After that I followed the crowd to the foyer and waited for the autograph session. A long wait for Lea to appear but the signing was pretty damn fast. I was one of the last few and I think she was exhausted because her manager whispered to her "Only 10 more" and she muttered back something like "Great". When she was signing for me, I truly felt the meaning of being starstruck. She's so pretty! All I could do was to stare at her with a dazed smile. She didnt look up though. ):

WHAT A FANTASTIC TIME I HAD. :D

Labels: concert

“The wind assaulted my hair at 12:24 AM”

Sunday, December 06, 2009

SANTA CAME TO TOWN. I'M GLAD I MET UP WITH MY DEAR GIRLS DESPITE BEING TIRED LIKE **** BECAUSE I MISS THEM SO. :D (Oh and I bump into szeying in town today & her first words were "wtf". Well, she was as stunned as if I had apparated in front of her but that's not the way to tell a friend you miss her you know! LOL)

I'm working now but I still feel that I havent been making full use of my time. Work can be boring where I would just stone & smile at customers in the shop, but now that it's nearing Christmas, it became all about wrapping presents and more presents and more presents. AH! There are many nice and polite customers but there're also DEVILS who made me curse & swear loudly.. in my head. I think it's good exposure to witness the mean side of people and at the end of the day I try to not let it affect me because they dont matter anyway. HA!

Labels: clique, life, thoughts

“The wind assaulted my hair at 12:29 AM”

the demented

rveldds; jjvb

only asking for

constants to remain constant

alien-speak

to outer space