Work Hard, Play Hard?!

Had a pretty eventful long weekend!

But work had been eventful too! Just found out on Thursday that we're actually working two weeks in advance! Which means.. all the deadlines of my columns were due early next week.. ! Did whatever I could finish on Thurs as I plan to take my public hol off.. and some I could only do on Mon/Tues anyway..

FRI: Bathed Jelly and then had lunch with fellow entertainment journos at Bakerzin - one of my favourite makan place now. It was nice catching up outside assignments.. browsed around Bangsar Village for a while and headed to my hair appointment at Grace Salon, BSC. My hair colour was wearing out.. white hair showing and so dry as well.. just coloured half head to save cost/time.. got my front trimmed. Quite happy with the result..

Was supposed to have BS but because the number dwindled last min.. it got cancelled. Quite disheartening. Told mom I would come back for dinner but when I reached home, she asked me to join her for a Chinese `stand-up' show by some artists from China. Thought I would keep her company since I had nothing to do.. but when I found out that the place was at Wisma MCA, I decided to pop over to MTC (formerly Matic) to support my cousin Viv. She has earlier texted me that she got into the finals for Malaysian selection of the World Championship of Performing Arts (WCOPA) 2006. I found out later that she was the only finalist for the dance category. If she got in, she would be going to Hollywood for three weeks!


Viv all made up and raring to go!

As I walked towards the auditorium, I was a little surprise to bump into Joanne, who is competing for the instruments category and would be playing what else, but her violin! With her skills and experiences, she no doubt stood a high chance to be selected. And she did!

Joanne amused that i took a pix of her


With two `stars' - a dancer and a violinist

I tapau some sandwiches from Saloma as I didn't want to miss my cousin dance as she was the first. I knew she loves dancing but had never saw her danced. And I was pretty impressed with her two contemporary/jazz numbers.

Anyway.. the standard of the finalists were not bad.. but I was really annoyed by the MC - Bob Lokman who was doing his own stand-up show and went on and on between each contestants.
So during the interval, I lef - after the dance, acting, variety show and instrument categories. There were the vocal and modelling (errr... modelling is performing art??) categories with my contestants to go.

SAT: Didn't feel too well in the morning so missed the early morning choir rehearsal.. but was kinda confident with the songs (ahem :p) Had lunch at home and then went to church for E.E. It was already our 9th lesson. But on that day, we only had half the lesson without the O.J.T. (On-the-job training) as the church had pastors ordination service and it was only right that we would be there to support.

On top of that, I was also singing in the choir.. thus I rushed from the class, changed, and had a final warm-up/briefing with them. There was some last minute `panick' as we were still out of tune for some parts but after a few times going through, we just committed the whole thing to the Lord. And praise God, at least we did fairly ok during the service.

It was a pretty long service.. but it was meaningful and a joyous and at times moving occasion. Everyone was invited for dinner.. which I also took a bit of food but could not stay long as I had an inteview for my theatre column.

My interviewee - the charismatic and inimitible diva of theatre Edwin Sumun.

We met at Secret Recipe, TTDI since he had a rehearsal nearby before that. Well, unlike the Edwin Sumun persona you see on stage or his photos on his blog, he was casually clothed and looked just like any other (tall, bald) blokes. ;)

In fact, I was very glad that he agreed to the interview in such a short notice as my deadline is Monday (thanks, Edwin!) It was fun chatting with him.. he was easy-going, outspoken and yes, he has a natural sense of humour - but he didn't think he was. Of course the conversation revolved mainly around the theatre and his upcoming projects etc.. but even after I got more than enough materials to write, we continued to chat for a while.. and when the subject came to blogs, shameless I `advertised' my blog to him and got his permission that I would blog about this interview!

Anyone interested to read about my article on Edwin Sumun, remember to get the Weekend Mail on May 27-28! (yes, we work two weeks advance now..)


Edwin posing like a hunk by my car

a shot of us taken by the clever thespian with one hand (I do this all the time, he boasts)

SUN: Mother's Day Special (separate post)