A letter to Chingy the lil piggy

Dear Chingy, pandi, mummy, dearest....


I can imagine Chan looking like this when coffee is present....=P sorry Ying Ling....VPYV...hehehe

Trying out the dress Azie??

Its been months that we've see each other. I'm happy to tell you that I'm very blessed to have another family here in UM. School work can be very depressing but its good that in the end of the day there is always some one to turn to and to laugh away the stress. There are some familiar faces in @ UM like Kit. However learning in USM was proven the best time so far in @.

Now that i'm in YV, I feel that I contribute more to society. Further more working with underprivilage kids have another personal meaning that shared a darker part of my past that not many know of. It brings great joy to be with these kids and that I would love to share my experience with you

Working on the notice board...Chia Yinn looks very glitterish....

The shelter that we have permanant interns working is the Agathians. The interns appeared in the Malay Mail a few days ago. Its a good way to promote our program and that my job in the ER department would have something to talk about while raising other shelters. There is more room for love that we can share with other Kids alike. One of the interns Yassmeen, from Egypt is so musically incline that she tries to learn a new instrument a year. She has two guitars, two violins, a saxophone, an accordian to name a few. Its very interesting to hear other @-ers that share the same passion as I am.

The shelter that we held our activities are at Assunta Children Society. Its basically a missionarry school where the underprivilaged children come to learn. They do not stay there, and they do have families. They are mostly from what I've heard are children refugees where some of them come from Myanmar and also Indonesia. They are the sweetest kids. I wish you could meet them.

Yesterday, at the shelter, we kick start the day with some square dancing. The kids and one of the nuns were dancing with us. Though many of us were fasting and jumping to "cotton eyed joe" none of us didn't really care. It was a blast having fun with the kids.

tired after dancing....

After the dance we had a Hari Raya presentation. We talked about, why we fast, what do do on Raya and so forth. After the presentation, there is a quiz where the kids get duit raya packets filled with sweets. We had also served Kueh Raya.

Happy LCP....

Happy angpow or should i say cing pow recievers....

After the presentation, we made Raya cards. It was a fun project that I find the little kids took more time then I've expected, but its ok. All the fun was in the process. I even made one for you...hehehe, for all of you who read this blog I suppose. I'm not creative but one of my group mates Helen made a lovely card that she dedicated to me and another girls, Azie and Niza. All of us were touched.


After the raya card making, I couldn't resist the smell of cakes from the kitchen. The kids make fruit cakes for sale. I was about to purchaise one till i found a bottle of brandy on the kitchen counter. Yes there is some brandy in the cakes....*sigh*...if I didn't asked I probably buy and get high on fruitcake and never know whats inside it....too bad but never mind....;)

Cakes

More cakes....

More cakes....OMG...me want sooo bad...the smell was nice....

Joline sent me to the train station where i went back home. I really enjoyed the time spent with the kids and that I'm looking forward on the next time we'll be going there. BTW, mummy....I've been demoted back to JE...*sobs* i'm stuck in TR stage for too long you know, I hope that I can go up soon. Lastly please pray that I don't get stuck for my masters, I do wanna finish in 2 years. Hope you do well in your one and only paper!!! get an A then you can enjoy deans list...hehe...

My love, hugs and kisses,

Your Anak,

Tatie

A new light

And the verdict is......*drum rolls*

Yay!! I've been accepted in the Young Visionaries (YV)department (Project management) in AIESEC UM. Still warming up though ot UM's AIESEC culture...Though i miss the intimacy that USM has shared because we were small, with only one LCP and two VP's. Anyhow, its good to change and move out of my comfort zone. Though its sucks to know that i have 4 pending presentations but its comming through...I hope...*kenot-kenot....must get through*

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So in YV i'll be in the external relations , ER department. YV runs as a mini local chapter, and we select our own interns, that is because we have our own ICX department. Main purpose is to help the shelterhomes and give a new breath of hope to the underprevilaged kids. I think I'll enjoy being in YV because its something new, and I get to do ER work as well. Should be hectic...haha, need to plan ahead and make sure get every thing done....management people....haha.

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back to the boring assignments....*yawns*

We can move mountains

And so my assignment continues...ahhh, postcolonialsim. I certainly have no idea how to write but I have heard wonderfull songs from vietnam and since during the vietnam war, the french has already left...I'd say why not??? There are enough amount of resources about postcolonial vietnam music, I just cant seem to paste the puzzle toghether yet at this point.

The day before I left for johor, I went to a bangsawan performance at panggung bandaraya. It was called Tun Mamat dan Mimpi Tuanku. The story was different than the musical however no one actually really know's the real Puteri Gunung Ledang so...anything is possible. My mum was having a girls day out with her friends so I bought a book and read at Subang Parade at Manhattan's fish Market because the coffee there at 3-6pm is only 95 cents. So I left around 4.30 pm to the kommuter station and took the train all the way to Bank Negara. Little did i know that it involves a conciderable amount of walking.

After crossing the bridge you could see the dewan bandaraya complexes. There are 2 buildings. Once I approached one of them, the guards told me that the Panggung Bandaraya is actually near the court which is across the street... So I walked and found the Panggung which is actually on the other end of the court. I went in to check inside. I need to make sure that there were enough parking space, a place to have dinner and a place to pray.

So Parking?? No actuall parking. Park at your own risk and that car theft in the rempit area is quite high. Park behind the dark alley of the court...mmm, not too safe. SOGO closes at 10 and the parking fee could kill us. Food?? SOGO?? pray?? the mosque behind the court. Why do you need a surau when there is a Mosque??? So facilities whise, its not very friendly... The mosque is also not the safest place to be at night because you need to walk at the sides and the motocyclist could ram in the pedestrian. They couldn't care less about the traffic lights... Snatch thieves too is part of the risk. So in the end??? Eat at Quality hotel, park car there pray comfortably there then march to the Panggung...Good thing I had good walking shoes...Or I'll walk barefoot like after Gala Dinner at Clark Quay...

The orchestra pit performers..notice the tabla and baya??? There is a rebana and the dude there is playing the serunai?? Seruling??? I'm not too sure bout that...

The timpani is played by the conductor...I didn't know that there is a conductor in bangsawan...hehe

The performance was interesting. Rahman B the legend was there. Seats were full. There was Dato' Jalaludin Hassan. Good thing my dad wasn't around, he probably be cursing the whole performance...haha. (He thinks he's too fake) I love the extra turns. There were music and dance and comedy. The story goes that one of the Sultan's advisors Tun Mamat had plans to marry when the Sultan had a dream that he saw his beautiful fiance. When ever a Sultan likes a girl, the girl is already a property of the Sultan or a concubine. Tun Mamat explains thah he too had a dream that he saw a beautiful princess on the Ledang Mountain. Tun Mamat was lying all along. The Sultan ordered a serch to find the Princess..

Some comedy sketches in the extra turn. Extra turns are performances in between scenes...Its used to enable backdrop changes, since in the old days, stage people needed time to change the scenes from like forrest scenes to the palace scenes... It also serves as a break from the story especially if the story is very serious like Tun Fatimah. Extra turns include dance, music, comedy, circus acts and magic shows...


Dang Ayu, the former wife of Biaji being called by the Sultan to become his concubine so she has to sacrifice her love to Biaji to serve the Sultan. Tun Mamat, was being put in the same situation, and that found his way out of it...(or not...XP)

On the way up, Tun Mamat met with witches dwelling in the forrest and one of them is actually the princess. (Well sort of his dream came true, the princess could be another witch in disguise just to ease Tun Mamat's other lies to the king) The witches told him to tell the Sultan that The princess has agreed under certain conditions that is impossible to get. So the admiral Hang Tuah dissapeared in the forrests leaving Tun Mamat with Hang Tuah's Keris.

A dance number extra-turn...influenced by the movie Puteri Gunung Ledang

I think the dance routines are same in the Music Video...

The witches with very long eyelashes...in neon colours....I can't stop staring at them....

Tun Mamat meets Princess of Ledang Mountain

The Sultan singing beautiful Maria...the last extra turn

Some interesting twisting and twrling

Tun Mamat showing off his Silat martial arts scenes...

Tun Mamat explains the conditions to marry to the admiral Hang Tuah

Interesting story...I wonder who came up with the Idea...haha. It finished late and we then walked back to the hotel and the car was still safe and sound. I was thinking about our trip next day...gotta wake up early in the morning... I'm sooo not a morning person, but to know that every trip is an adventure, I was still exited.

Just for thoughts, there are week points in the production. The good thing is that its free so that our actuall cost is getting there. Friday traffic congestion was part of it. Safe parking and accesibility to ther performance too needs to be improved. Remember that bangsawan performances in the old days had people selling food at the venue. If its possible have a safer passageway from the mosque to the venue would be a plus. Publicity too is a question...If Dr. Cohen didn't tell us to go for the performance I never knew that there were bangsawan performances there regularly. Yes, Prof Tan did mention that the performances done there but there is no ads in print. If there were proper advertisements probably more people would turn up. Next time they need to think a way to reach out to the bigger audience.

Bangsawan is known for its mix culture that its supposed to be appealing to all Malaysians. Here the audiences in the hall are mostly Malay. Bangsawan too should be promoted too tourists like China is promoting Chinese Opera. Altough they might not understand the words, but the'll have the experience. I still liked Bakawali in USM 2 years ago. More Effects...haha. Probably will achieve the One Malaysia concept....I think I shall get back to my postcolonialism...*sigh*

We are the betel leaves eaters

I don't know about you but, every time I've been invited to a wedding there will always have betel leaves tucked in a box in one of those lovely offerings to the families or hantaran. Its very unique in Malay culture and what i found out is its also popular in the south east Asia regions. This is what I found out during my visit to the national museum few days ago. By the way i lurrrvvvee museum and science centers. I could spend the whole day and that every time I go its a new experience....

The old malay tepak sirih

The lil modern malay one... on the far right

Betel box from Cambodia

A betel box from Philipines also known as Celepa

So there you have it something to unify our neighbours. The museum constantly changes their exhibitions so be sure to look out whats new and interesting. There is also a library where you can browse the books and buy recordings of Malaysian music. It worth a look. The entry of the museum is only RM2 and if you are not shy and if you can fit into a school uniform you could get in for free...haha.

Patients is a virtue

And I wait.......*sigh*

Mr Razif's Opus, A Malaysian Symphony

Well somewhere before all the drama Begin, we went to a performance by UM orchestra. Well the main reason to go is to listen to Mr. Razif's performance. It was a very long show, mostly jazz and pop music. Artist appearance include Roy, the head guy from Orchestra RTM and others that I couldn't remember. Here are some shots from my side....

The UM Orchestra

Roy, and leading the orchestra is Dr. Nasir

Seats were full because they were mostly reserved by institutions like schools and stuff so we had the very not so good seats. I had to change my seating positions few times before I got comfortable. This view is not so bad actually but you're facing the performers asses la... heehee. The good thing is the seating is very close to the orchestra and you can have a glimpse of the score and observe the microphone settings. Many have individual mics and some stings have clip-ons (so I assume they are the very,very good ones). This is how to amplify the brass instruments and since they had so many it wasn't hard to do so. Unlike USM Jazz band, we had like only 2 cellists, 2 flute or one flute and one piccolo, one horn I think, one trombone (eeehh, not sure now) but a number of trumpets, one clarinet...and twice number of violinist...which is a good thing. Well that's at least in my time...It should improve by now ( I hope....hehehe)


Dr. Nasir's introduction of Mr. Razif or should I say ...Assoc. Professor Razif....XP

Its was a very long program that I couldn't stay till the end and meet Mr. Razif himself...but I was glad that i was able to be in the audience in the freezing cold air con. Yeah the tiny hall was very cold, in comparison of USM's DTSP. So I hope I'll be able to see more performances by Razif and his very influential people...haha, keep the music playing and I'll be there....

Tears in Heaven

Today I accidentally woke up late and rushed to get ready to go to practice at Yamaha SS19. Upon my arrival the lady incharged was saying "the mosque is crowded, Yasmin Ahmad had passed away" I was shocked and sad that we have lost another great artist. It felt like a few months ago we went to watch Talentime at DTSP and got her picture taken. Well, now its part of history. I guess its a constant reminder that death can strike anyone, anytime and anywhere. To Yasmin who I love her movies dearly, I hope you are now safe in God's hands. We shall miss your petronas adds and movies.



Al- Fatihah....