Sam Hui in Concert, More Scrapbooking Pages and Embroidered ATCs

This was one concert which tickets were selling 10 months before the event. Sam Hui's Live In Concert『许冠杰難忘往日情演唱會』at The MAX Pavilion@Singapore Expo was held last Saturday - the 3rd of Sam's concerts I attended since the first in Mar 2008!

A lot of similarities in the 3 concerts, it was always a family affair - both his sons, Ryan and Scott, and his elder brother, Ricky Hui, would always accompanied him in his concert tours and sang a song or two each.

A lot of photos were flashed - from his younger days till now.

His wife, Rebecca Fleming, made a surprise appearance this time, to everyone's delight, both hands in hands as Sam sang a love ballet.

He still came down stage and was mobbed by eager fans, so much so, armed security officers had to guard the front of the stage towards the later part of the night. Sam had so many songs to his credit, only some of everyone's all-time favourites were repeated in the concerts.

Paying tribute to some of his close colleagues, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui (below), Roman Tam, among a few more, Sam sang one of each of their songs. They were some of my favourite singers too, a pity they died young.

Everyone could clearly see Sam's transformation, with a noticeable belly in the 2008 concert, to a very much slimmer waistline in Feb this year, and now a well-tone body. To sum it up, as one Hong Kong fan shouted, "Sam, 你好有型 !" (translated from Cantonese "you have great style").

Here's a short clip of the start of the concert - the 2nd song in the clip is L.O.V.E and the 3rd song 《心里日记》is one of my favourites.

After the scrapbooking class, my girls finished up another 2 pages at home, Kristine when she was in Kindergarten Year 2, and photos I took with my girls.

More embroidery works. Can you imagine I have worked thousands of French knots into these ATCs so far?

I'm expecting more fabric ATCs to come in, but here's the first from Satu in Finland. I love the way she used bits of lace to form the wings, and see the small face she sculptured from clay!

River Hongbao 2010 and Sam Hui's CNY Concert

This Chinese New Year was sure an eventful and unforgettable one; first was of course, it coinciding with Valentine's Day, second was my boy went through the whole period down with fever, and then, my father won a pair of concert tickets. More about this later.

We didn't go out much because of my boy, but we did go down to the River Hong Bao 2010 at the Marina Bay Floating Platform. The usual things we expected, this being its 24th year since the event started in 1987, as Singapore’s annual signature event to usher in the Chinese New Year. This year, River Hongbao 2010 featured local performers and performers from Chengdu, China, the God-of-Fortune, 12 Chinese zodiac animals, but oh, these were what attracted me most!

What were these ? Here's the description of the exhibits. Amazing works!
Then, these were beautiful art dolls - shadow puppets:

My youngest girl, Kristine, was selected by her school to join a calligraphy competition held at the River Hongbao venue. A very tiring Friday afternoon, but exciting and rewarding. She was elated to won a consolation prize! (These were what she wrote with the Chinese brush, but the better piece was submitted.)

I mentioned a concert earlier, right? It was Sam Hui CNY Concert Live in Singapore on 19 Feb at the Singapore Indoor Stadium! I bought his Jun 2010 concert tickets in last Sep when ticketing starts, this Feb concert was rolled out later, I actually has been comtemplating whether to also buy the Feb ticketst. Decided not, then my father won this pair of tickets at a CNY dinner event at the Floating Platform! What luck!

Sam Hui, the Godfather of Cantopop, in his early 60s now, still sporting a guitar slung over his shoulder and drumming his catchy tunes about everyday people in everyday life. The lyrics poke fun at ordinary life and complain of struggles, and relieve stress and make people take themselves less seriously. The songs just sounded especially nice sung by him himself. His younger son also put up a superb performance singing “卖身契”，though this part with his 2 sons were the same as his last concert here in 2008. Again, his middle brother, Ricky Hui, made a special guest appearance at the concert. Apart from these, most of the songs by Sam were different from his last concert. He was so sporting that the concert over-stretched till 11 plus, and he came down stage thrice! Now, waiting for his next concert in Max Pavilion @ Singapore Expo on 26 June 2010!

I just received these goodies all the way from Sweden and have to show you first. More in the next post!

An Exciting Week!

This post has nothing to do with craft, but it was an exciting week, and I could not not talk about it. First, it was our company's ISO Appreciation Lunch on Thursday at Tung Lok Signatures in Vivocity. We had a scrumptious lunch, and one of the dishes was the House Specialities - Poached Crispy Rice with Fresh Crab Meat in Rich Broth, very special dish, and tasty to me. Ok, I love good food, but well, it was the 1st time they had so much budget for the appreciation lunch.

Then it was the cruise organised by the CCM Function of the company on Friday - harbour cruise on the Chinese junk, an authentic replica of an Imperial Cheng Ho Vessel from China. The journey began at the Marina South Pier. Well, the dinner was average, but we had a good view of the fireworks display by Sentosa "Songs of the Sea" for free - the pyrotechnics effects and water jets and the bursts of fire works.

And came the most exciting night yesterday at the Sam Hui Live Concert 2008 in the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Samuel Hui Koon-kit, usually known as Sam Hui, is a well known star in the Cantopop and movie industry in Hong Kong from the 1960s to 1990s. He is also acknowledged for popularising Cantopop, by incorporating the then unknown idiosyncrasies of Western popular music into the Cantopop genre. His music appealed to the masses particularly the working class with its simple lyrics and light-hearted nature which was popular in Hong Kong music in the late 1970s. He penned most of the compositions and personally wrote most of the humorous lyrics that generally encompassed current issues in Hong Kong. Well, I'm a Cantonese, I love Cantopop and I listen to his songs, among other Hong Kong singers, in my teens in the 80s and I still think the songs then are best. Attended the concert with my mother, both of us think it was a more entertaining show than the Jacky Cheung World Tour 2007 Encore on 5 Jan 08. That's the 1st live concert I attended, yesterday was the third, and now I'm hooked.

Above: Jacky Cheung in concert on 5 Jan 2008

Above & below: Fei Yu Qing in concert on 12 Jan 2008