In 24 hours...

...I shall have arrived in Brunei.

Yeap, just in case there are still anyone reading this blog at all. I'll be catching the midnight flight out to S'pore, and the first flight out to Brunei. I'll be home on Saturday, and will stay about a week - all this to finish up the long process of obtaining my PR, and making my red (purple? pink? whatever colour it is now) IC. Apparently it has to be done ASAP, so my mom called me once she received the letter from the government. I'm thrilled to be flying home, but it's smack right in the middle of a busy period where 10%, 30% and 50% assignments and essays are dued.

I'm staying up late right now to finish up my research on my Shakespeare essay; I have my music history essay to plough through during the week I'll be back in Brunei - I have to apply for extensions on all my assignments (to be able to hand them in later than the original due date) which means I have to see my lecturer and tutor tomorrow morning.

I have to buy my plane ticket (yes, you've got that right - I don't have my ticket yet) first thing in the morning; I only received the news just now in the evening, so everything's pretty harried and I'm trying to get everything done as fast as humanly possible.

I have to find out if I need to apply for a 10-day leave from uni; I'll be missing lectures (which I really don't want to miss). I need to reschedule my piano lesson with my teacher.

I need time...!

But looking forward to home (even if not everyone's there).

This is going to be a loooong night.

Miss Saigon - the aftermath, and many more

It's been ages since I've updated! And it's been centuries since Jerry updated, for that matter. But here's a very delayed review of Miss Saigon. (I think I may have been slightly biased, since I already love it. Oh, all right - very biased.)


I couldn't help but cry at the end of it. Tears rolled down my cheeks when Kim shot herself and slumped to the floor. Silence reigned in the theatre as everyone's attention was transfixed on the tragic and poignant scene unfolding before our eyes. Chris runs to her - he embraces her and carries her in his arms as she whispers one last time, "How did in one night ... did ... we come ... so far..." The refrain of Sun and Moon swells into a crescendo and the last notes lingered in the silence - wow. The End.

Miss Saigon was - no - is awesome. There is no other word for it. After hearing and knowing about it for years now, I finally have my chance to catch it in the theatre, albeit not at the West End or at Broadway (and it's ended its runs at both locations already). However, the leading cast were absolutely splendid in their performances, especially Leo Valdez in his critically-acclaimed performance as the Engineer, who brought much comedic relief and "spunkiness" to the musical.

I love, love, love the songs. The music - oh, it's simply glorious.

Laurie Cadevida shone as Kim, and sounds almost as good as Lea Salonga, who took on the original role on the London West End. Chris was played by an Australian lead, David Harris, who put on an equally stellar performance. But Leo Valdez, in his energetic and uplifting performance, was undoubtedly the star, and pretty much stole the limelight most of the time.

We managed to get a few pictures with Chris (David Harris) and John (Juan Jackson)!!! *insert groupie squeal here* The pictures are still with my housemate, haven't gotten it from her. (Yes, I was that fanatic to have wanted pictures with them.) Kim (Cadevida) came out through the side door as well after the performance, but in the rush to pose with Chris and John, we missed her, and she went off in the other direction. ("Noooo!!") We (oh, okay - at my insistence) hung around for a bit to see if Leo Valdez would come out as well (to get his autograph and picture would have been huge pluses, since he's an internationally-renowned performer), but he didn't, so we left.


Anyway, it was a great musical, and I really would love to see it a second time (except for that one material possession we are always in dire need of - money!). Anyway, I have Phantom of the Opera to look forward to in early September.

Speaking of events, I'll be going for quite a few in the coming weeks. There's the Comedy Festival, and I just bought the tickets for the Jason Byrne stand-up which is on this coming Tuesday, and on Friday, I'll be going for A Night in Fantasia 2007 - the Symphonic Games Edition, which I'm very much looking forward to. And there's the much-anticipated world famous Cirque du Soleil - Varekai, in early May which I'll be going for as well! (Second row seats, A reserve - beat that!! =P)



Anyway, just to liven up the blog, and though it's been weeks over already, here are a few firework pictures from the Moomba Water Festival held last March.