We think recapping this year may be a bit tougher as we've not been blogging frequently, which means we haven't been jotting things down and thus may have forgotten certain things, haha. Looking at our archive, we've went from 281 posts in 2007 to a mere 113 for 2009! Anyways, on with the recap.
Alcoholic blackout (it's been ages since we'd imbibed large amounts) to start January off!
The Chief organized a suprise birthday party with amazing success! And continues to melt our heart!
Got addicted to Tetris Friends!
Started on DVD television series, one being Battlestar Galactica and the other the first two seasons of Poirot, and now we're somewhere on The Legend Of The Seeker!
Made two police reports, once when we misplaced our credit card holder and needed to report the loss of our credit cards, and once more when some bloody bas pekerja driver dinged Aidan on the back.
Sometime somewhen this year we started using the machines and free weights section of the gym than just going for cardio classes!
We went for the Skytrex Extreme Challenge!
Was around to plan and celebrate the Chief's birthday party this year! Managed to make it a surprise because the Chief suspected the party to be held on a different day!
Our GMail reached 100% capacity!
We went to swim in Kelana Jaya swimming pool for the first time and experienced a dangerous new world!
In treasure hunting this year, our Toyota treasure hunt saw a much lower placing as we were up against a less-casual crowd who were more interested in a cheap trip to Genting Highlands but more of the competitive treasure hunters, and Team Little Mermaid made its debut (Team Little Mermaid members, were we 33rd or 23rd? We think we were 23rd otherwise how to score a food hamper?)!
For our trips, we went to Camland for a quick getaway, revisited Penang, made a quick trip to Johor, went Sporeland twice for musicals Cinderella and Cats and once more for our Christmas shopping, visited Thailand's Hatyai by bus and Phuket for sun, sea and sand! Missed out on a trip with the Klangites as it clashed with our choir performance dates tho'.
In choir news, we sang for Australian Week at the KLPac, performed in the Bangsar Actor's Studio's closing and the Lot 10 Actor's Studio's opening! This followed by carolling in KLCC! Plus for our YKLS performance we had a choreographer training us to help make us limber before the actual show! As an audience we watched Handel's Messiah!
Here's to a great 2010 to come!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Blessed Christmas 2009!
Wishing a very blessed Christmas and a happy new year to come!
And as it has been for the past few years, we are still wrapping presents at the moment. Perhaps one day we will finally be super efficient and have everyone's Christmas presents wrapped up by July, but until then, we wrap in the middle of the night.
And we find nothing beats Christmas shopping stress when it comes to dieting! Just over these last three days, due to the stress of speed-shopping and wrapping presents, our stomach has shrunk significantly. What with eating only a light sandwich for breakfast, 4 small sticks of chocolate for lunch (equivalent to the length of two Pocky sticks but made of pure dark chocolate), a small kaya puff and a small potato chicken puff for dinner, and by 3.30am on Wednesday morning we were still not hungry.
Out of habit we decided to go eat, thinking of getting Indomee Goreng Double Mata Kerbau (most other places save the 24-hour fast food joints) would be closing by 3.30am, and true enough when we arrived at SS2 the mamak closed up, but we managed to order fried kuey teow from the next store before they closed up too. Halfway through our char kuey teow we felt full.
Interesting. Stress has replaced food. Now our stomach doesn't show yay!
And as it has been for the past few years, we are still wrapping presents at the moment. Perhaps one day we will finally be super efficient and have everyone's Christmas presents wrapped up by July, but until then, we wrap in the middle of the night.
And we find nothing beats Christmas shopping stress when it comes to dieting! Just over these last three days, due to the stress of speed-shopping and wrapping presents, our stomach has shrunk significantly. What with eating only a light sandwich for breakfast, 4 small sticks of chocolate for lunch (equivalent to the length of two Pocky sticks but made of pure dark chocolate), a small kaya puff and a small potato chicken puff for dinner, and by 3.30am on Wednesday morning we were still not hungry.
Out of habit we decided to go eat, thinking of getting Indomee Goreng Double Mata Kerbau (most other places save the 24-hour fast food joints) would be closing by 3.30am, and true enough when we arrived at SS2 the mamak closed up, but we managed to order fried kuey teow from the next store before they closed up too. Halfway through our char kuey teow we felt full.
Interesting. Stress has replaced food. Now our stomach doesn't show yay!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Tonight The Super Trouper Lights Are Going To Find Me
When we carol in the concourse area of KLCC for a gig between the Young Choral Academy Singers (called so instead of the Young KL Singers because it comprised of many different choirs) and the brass ensemble from the Malaysian Young Philharmonic Orchestra (MYPO, or was it supposed to be the MPYO, goodness cannot remember).
And we were not expecting a crowd to gather and watch actually! We wonder - considering how we would stop to watch if we were part of the audience in the first place. But to have people taking videos? The pressure is on to make sure that 1) we sing loud enough to be heard over the brass band, 2) we project our voices out so that we could be heard by people upstairs, and 3) we look out more at the audience rather than at our scores.
During the sound balance check where we sang 'Deck The Halls', it was a tad obvious that we didn't hit the required volume in (1), and after 'Deck The Halls' we happen to see Earl Grey on the first floor and sign-languaged asking if we could be heard, to which he negatived our (2), and judging from the number of times we had to snatch glances at the carol lyrics we hope people don't record us failing (3).
Still, the audience are appreciative enough to applaud after each song, and our stint was a fairly short stint that took half an hour or so that we were done by 7pm! This was in a way good for us, as we still needed to go Christmas shopping. Stress.
By the time we've breezed through KLCC and Amcorp Mall we've nailed our sis' and bro-in-law's Christmas present, bringing the list down to almost complete with only dad's present to keep looking for! And we observe that in our Christmas shopping today we spent more than we did in our entire Sporeland trip (not including the accomodation charges and cab fees, but in terms of just spending on stuff alone)!
And we were not expecting a crowd to gather and watch actually! We wonder - considering how we would stop to watch if we were part of the audience in the first place. But to have people taking videos? The pressure is on to make sure that 1) we sing loud enough to be heard over the brass band, 2) we project our voices out so that we could be heard by people upstairs, and 3) we look out more at the audience rather than at our scores.
During the sound balance check where we sang 'Deck The Halls', it was a tad obvious that we didn't hit the required volume in (1), and after 'Deck The Halls' we happen to see Earl Grey on the first floor and sign-languaged asking if we could be heard, to which he negatived our (2), and judging from the number of times we had to snatch glances at the carol lyrics we hope people don't record us failing (3).
Still, the audience are appreciative enough to applaud after each song, and our stint was a fairly short stint that took half an hour or so that we were done by 7pm! This was in a way good for us, as we still needed to go Christmas shopping. Stress.
By the time we've breezed through KLCC and Amcorp Mall we've nailed our sis' and bro-in-law's Christmas present, bringing the list down to almost complete with only dad's present to keep looking for! And we observe that in our Christmas shopping today we spent more than we did in our entire Sporeland trip (not including the accomodation charges and cab fees, but in terms of just spending on stuff alone)!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
When I'm On The Stage Tonight
Hmmm there was that one Sunday afternoon when we were on stage during World Choir Day. A very odd World Choir Day, that, as all attending choirs were Chinese, and the entire thing was conducted in Mandarin. Even the YKLS Chamber Choir members that could attend were only the Chinese!
The venue, as we were informed, was (we have to look this up again as it doesn't quite roll off the tongue) the Pusat Perkembangan Ajaran Dewi Kuan Yin Malaysia. Already with such a venue we started wondering just exactly what kind of 'World Choir Day' was this World Choir Day. But, we thought that maybe the organizers decided on the venue due to financial issues (like the Pusat Perkembangan Ajaran Dewi Kuan Yin Malaysia, pant pant, offered the use of their place or something) so we didn't comment much.
Not until we arrived at the place and saw the welcoming commitee of Chinese teens all a-smilin' and lined up on both sides of the entrance in a long line. Something about the way that they stood flanking the stairs and entrance made us want to walk around the building to the back entrance, but we decided to take the front way in the end.
And true enough, all of them started bowing as we walked past, saying "Welcome!" in cheery Mandarin much to our embarassment.
If we were going there as audience we wouldn't have batted an eyelid but we thought since we were going there to perform as part of our musical director's talk, this was a bit too much.
If that didn't confirm how things were going to be for the day, the moment the first fler came on stage and open his mouth, we knew the ching chong ching chong words were going to go through one ear and out the other.
And another thing, we were also probably the youngest choir attending. Looking at the other choir members, it may be that we would automatically call them 'aunty' or 'uncle' by default.
Ok, so we are evil. Well, that was World Choir Day for us then.
And tonight we be heading up a different stage! Although...we don't think calling the KTM Night Train down to Sporeland a stagecoach is appropriate, heh. Now to settle the paranoia of packing everything!
The venue, as we were informed, was (we have to look this up again as it doesn't quite roll off the tongue) the Pusat Perkembangan Ajaran Dewi Kuan Yin Malaysia. Already with such a venue we started wondering just exactly what kind of 'World Choir Day' was this World Choir Day. But, we thought that maybe the organizers decided on the venue due to financial issues (like the Pusat Perkembangan Ajaran Dewi Kuan Yin Malaysia, pant pant, offered the use of their place or something) so we didn't comment much.
Not until we arrived at the place and saw the welcoming commitee of Chinese teens all a-smilin' and lined up on both sides of the entrance in a long line. Something about the way that they stood flanking the stairs and entrance made us want to walk around the building to the back entrance, but we decided to take the front way in the end.
And true enough, all of them started bowing as we walked past, saying "Welcome!" in cheery Mandarin much to our embarassment.
If we were going there as audience we wouldn't have batted an eyelid but we thought since we were going there to perform as part of our musical director's talk, this was a bit too much.
If that didn't confirm how things were going to be for the day, the moment the first fler came on stage and open his mouth, we knew the ching chong ching chong words were going to go through one ear and out the other.
And another thing, we were also probably the youngest choir attending. Looking at the other choir members, it may be that we would automatically call them 'aunty' or 'uncle' by default.Ok, so we are evil. Well, that was World Choir Day for us then.
And tonight we be heading up a different stage! Although...we don't think calling the KTM Night Train down to Sporeland a stagecoach is appropriate, heh. Now to settle the paranoia of packing everything!
Monday, December 14, 2009
And It's Gonna Be So Different
Given that the December long weekends have started last week (at least, for us all in Selangor), we finally gotten Hyperion to go rent Street Fighter 4 for the PS3.
Already from what we've read of the reviews and what we've seen from YouTube, we know the gameplay won't change so much, yet there'll be new bits. Visually, SF4 is a delight although we cannot understand certain minor issues, like Cammy's costumes (we still prefer her Street Fighter Zero 3 costume, and while the purchasable alternate costume looks similar it's not the same) overall we love how the game looks, especially when performing Ultra Combos.
Oooh Ultra Combos. Took a bit of looking through the move list thankfully provided in-game to find out how to perform them, and they're a pleasure to watch especially when released on an unexpecting opponent.
Anyways gameplay wise, since some of the mechanics were new it took some getting used to playing Street Fighter again, and early in the game we were all gung-ho on playing to unlock the other characters. The best way to do this?
We started by setting the game to 'Easiest' and passing the controller between Bunny, Hyperion and us to go through the opponents. And when we reach SF4's new boss, Seth, we were all stumped, as regardless of the difficulty setting Seth flattened us each and every time after the first round.
It wasn't until Bunny went back home leaving Hyperion and us to keep trying our best that we decided to change the settings even more: 'Easiest' with 1-round matches and in 30 seconds. Then it worked! In one night we'd unlocked almost all the characters save Fei Long, Seth, Akuma and Gouken. Checking the requirements to unlock Akuma and Gouken, and the game being rented, we decided that having unlocked all characters sans Seth, Akuma and Gouken was enough.
Gameplay wise, the new Focus Attack makes things different compared to the Street Fighter Zero series Alpha Counters, as well as SF3's tech block. But it's much more fun to use as well. We certainly see boss Seth abusing the Focus Attack a lot.
The one thing we mourn? The loss of air attacks!
So, all-new Street Fighter! Does it make us want to buy a new PS3 or XBOX360 or upgrade our PC? Thankfully not yet. With us not being able to keep a console permanantly connected to a telly, what more not having a telly to use until the wee hours, our priority gaming has been more towards handhelds, namely our Nintendo DS.
Although...having finished Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (the Chief is playing it now!) we're eyeing either The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks or New Super Mario Bros Wii.
Already from what we've read of the reviews and what we've seen from YouTube, we know the gameplay won't change so much, yet there'll be new bits. Visually, SF4 is a delight although we cannot understand certain minor issues, like Cammy's costumes (we still prefer her Street Fighter Zero 3 costume, and while the purchasable alternate costume looks similar it's not the same) overall we love how the game looks, especially when performing Ultra Combos.
Oooh Ultra Combos. Took a bit of looking through the move list thankfully provided in-game to find out how to perform them, and they're a pleasure to watch especially when released on an unexpecting opponent.
Anyways gameplay wise, since some of the mechanics were new it took some getting used to playing Street Fighter again, and early in the game we were all gung-ho on playing to unlock the other characters. The best way to do this?
We started by setting the game to 'Easiest' and passing the controller between Bunny, Hyperion and us to go through the opponents. And when we reach SF4's new boss, Seth, we were all stumped, as regardless of the difficulty setting Seth flattened us each and every time after the first round.
It wasn't until Bunny went back home leaving Hyperion and us to keep trying our best that we decided to change the settings even more: 'Easiest' with 1-round matches and in 30 seconds. Then it worked! In one night we'd unlocked almost all the characters save Fei Long, Seth, Akuma and Gouken. Checking the requirements to unlock Akuma and Gouken, and the game being rented, we decided that having unlocked all characters sans Seth, Akuma and Gouken was enough.
Gameplay wise, the new Focus Attack makes things different compared to the Street Fighter Zero series Alpha Counters, as well as SF3's tech block. But it's much more fun to use as well. We certainly see boss Seth abusing the Focus Attack a lot.
The one thing we mourn? The loss of air attacks!
So, all-new Street Fighter! Does it make us want to buy a new PS3 or XBOX360 or upgrade our PC? Thankfully not yet. With us not being able to keep a console permanantly connected to a telly, what more not having a telly to use until the wee hours, our priority gaming has been more towards handhelds, namely our Nintendo DS.
Although...having finished Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (the Chief is playing it now!) we're eyeing either The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks or New Super Mario Bros Wii.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
And Suddenly It's Gonna Be
...that we still have another couple of gigs or so for the choir. And after all our talks about freedom from rehearsals and all that, we're still in the choir?
So what happened was that we received an email from our choir assistant director that our choir director will be giving a talk on Malaysian choral music on World Choir Day, and we thought, "There's a World Choir Day?" Still, we ended up saying yes because it didn't look to take up too much time.
And then she sent another email regarding a carolling session, which we initially thought to decline as we would have to take leave to attend and all that, but looking at the dire straits that our finance is at the moment, we just might go for it after all in hopes of getting paid.
We know leaving the choir won't be easy. Wonder how next year will be!
So what happened was that we received an email from our choir assistant director that our choir director will be giving a talk on Malaysian choral music on World Choir Day, and we thought, "There's a World Choir Day?" Still, we ended up saying yes because it didn't look to take up too much time.
And then she sent another email regarding a carolling session, which we initially thought to decline as we would have to take leave to attend and all that, but looking at the dire straits that our finance is at the moment, we just might go for it after all in hopes of getting paid.
We know leaving the choir won't be easy. Wonder how next year will be!
Monday, December 07, 2009
Suddenly I Feel All Right
Because we've managed to finish over half our Christmas shopping! Even when the BFFs were pushing to find out who was participating in this year's Secret Santa, the fact that it was already December did not really hit us until: A) we received a text from our sis asking us what to get the parents at the same time mum asked us if we've already bought dad his present, when both mum and us were at Gardens, and B) we were shopping in Gardens and could not think of a single present idea for anyone.
Then we got slightly stressed out because we hadn't any idea what to buy, and our budget, and a list of whom to buy for.
Admittedly our list isn't very big in the first place. And while we may say we haven't begun Christmas shopping, we actually have already exchanged Christmas presents with our colleague. This happened when we went to the Big Bad Wolf Booksale during our lunch period, picked up a stack of books and included a few books of our colleague's interest that we decided to give her as our Christmas present to her.
She then looked through our stack of books and paid us for the hardback Illustrated Screenplay of Terry Pratchett's The Colour Of Magic, as our present instead. Ah well a happy ending for the two of us at the least.
Oh, and the Chief got us our Christmas present since October! We'd lamented about how Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story was just released and had yet to arrive onto Bolehland's shores, and since the Chief was going to Sporeland for a quick trip we asked to check the price of the game at Sporeland as a gauge.
When we went to the airport to pick the Chief up we were presented with an exclaimation, "Merry Christmas!" and the game!
So anyways, this weekend we were more productive as we've already picked up the easier-to-think-of-Christmas presents, the present whom we're Secret Santa for, and even the Chief's Christmas present (Chief does belong to the not-so-easy category, as already we have not much suggestions left to tell the Chief's Secret Santa!)!
Now we can breathe slightly easier, and focus on getting presents for the family, and then the gift-wrapping...
Then we got slightly stressed out because we hadn't any idea what to buy, and our budget, and a list of whom to buy for.
Admittedly our list isn't very big in the first place. And while we may say we haven't begun Christmas shopping, we actually have already exchanged Christmas presents with our colleague. This happened when we went to the Big Bad Wolf Booksale during our lunch period, picked up a stack of books and included a few books of our colleague's interest that we decided to give her as our Christmas present to her.
She then looked through our stack of books and paid us for the hardback Illustrated Screenplay of Terry Pratchett's The Colour Of Magic, as our present instead. Ah well a happy ending for the two of us at the least.
Oh, and the Chief got us our Christmas present since October! We'd lamented about how Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story was just released and had yet to arrive onto Bolehland's shores, and since the Chief was going to Sporeland for a quick trip we asked to check the price of the game at Sporeland as a gauge.
When we went to the airport to pick the Chief up we were presented with an exclaimation, "Merry Christmas!" and the game!
So anyways, this weekend we were more productive as we've already picked up the easier-to-think-of-Christmas presents, the present whom we're Secret Santa for, and even the Chief's Christmas present (Chief does belong to the not-so-easy category, as already we have not much suggestions left to tell the Chief's Secret Santa!)!Now we can breathe slightly easier, and focus on getting presents for the family, and then the gift-wrapping...
Friday, December 04, 2009
So Imagine I Was Glad To Hear You're Coming
To our local entrepreneur! Especially since we'd blogged about you a month ago!
And we've been preparing for your arrival by getting the first book from Terry Goodkind's 'Sword Of Truth' series from the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale to read! Truth be told we saw a fair number of books from the series while at the book sale but not knowing how good/bad the series is, and there being twelve books in all (twelve!), we weren't ready to buy as many as possible even though it costed only RM8 per book because of the usual argument (no space to keep books).
Anyways we were so glad to see you on the shelves of our local entrepreneur that we immediately picked you up and paid for you.
And now we can enjoy you in two mediums.
And certainly not roleplaying any characters as the Naughty Nyukster puts it!
And we've been preparing for your arrival by getting the first book from Terry Goodkind's 'Sword Of Truth' series from the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale to read! Truth be told we saw a fair number of books from the series while at the book sale but not knowing how good/bad the series is, and there being twelve books in all (twelve!), we weren't ready to buy as many as possible even though it costed only RM8 per book because of the usual argument (no space to keep books).
Anyways we were so glad to see you on the shelves of our local entrepreneur that we immediately picked you up and paid for you.
And now we can enjoy you in two mediums.And certainly not roleplaying any characters as the Naughty Nyukster puts it!
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