Some Places We Went

I didn't post earlier these, just some places we went last year during the school holidays. 

We wouldn't miss Wild Rice pantomime "Monkey Goes West" - just amazing how the script writer came up with the story, adapted to local context and set in the modern era!  The West in the musical referred to Jurong which is west in Singapore, so the journey was made from Haw Par Villa to Jurong!

My girl and I hopped in the Alive Museum on the spur of the moment after a late show at GV Suntec, with a good discount off the admission charge with the ticket stubs.  We had to rush through the museum with only an hour from the closing, but we almost had the whole place to ourselves!   

Spent New Year's Eve bowling and catching a show, with a bit of shopping and a dinner at our favourite Japanese restaurant in Vivocity.

Just Some Events During the Nov/Dec Holidays

Let's see, what did I do in the holidays besides another overseas trip?

We went around the museums and other locations for the exhibits in the Singapore Biennale.

Cycling around Punngol Park and the Promenade. 

Braving the cold to view 30-odd pieces of ice art in Singapore in an enclosed area at -15°C. And a playground with ice slides! 

A pantomime "Jack & The Bean-Sprout!" We would not miss these year-end pantomimes!

Another musical "Lightseeker" at the Resorts World on New Year's Eve.

And another round of grand course at the Forest Adventure in Bedok Reservoir on the last weekend of the year with my sis and brother-in-law.

Aladdin

Just a few ATCs this week. I touched up a few of my previous cards for a Christmas swap,

and the following "T is for Teacup" and "U is for Umbrella" received from Sherry for the alphabet swap. It was a very busy week, stressful and tiring, and a few late nights too - preparing a tender, attending company D&D, watching a musical, sourcing for a new maid (yet again), and trying to clean up my house (some bugs overrun 2 of the rooms, thanks to my maid, and it seems to be spreading) :( Have to call in the pest control guys, they are coming on Monday, hope things will be better. On a more lightful note, we will be taking a 2-week break in China - flying off on Tueday!! It will be a cool, or rather, a very cold change (the temperature, that is) :)

The musical, a year-long wait, was W!LD RICE's pantomime - Aladdin. As usual, a well-loved fairy-tale was given a clever local twist and charmed audiences with its side-splitting comedy, heart-warming songs and snazzy dance routines. Asian Idol winner, Hady Mirza, and Singapore Idol runner-up, Sylvia Ratonel, made their theatrical debuts as Aladdin and Jasmine (in photo above). They sang well. Directed by Glen Goei, the cast also included Karen Tan as Wizard ABBA-k’adab-rah, Darius Tan as Widow Wong Kee and Juwanda Hassim as Genie of the Lamp, and some 50 young talents from the age of 4 to 14 as part of W!LD RICE’s First Stage programme. Karen and Darius brought so much laughters and delightful sqeaks!

The story and the twist - Wizard ABBA-kadab-rah wants to rule the world! He needs 3 wishes from the Genie in the Magic Lamp. But in order to get that – he needs the help of a boy who is pure of heart. In other words, he needs Aladdin! Aladdin & the Wizard go on a magical musical mash-up adventure as they sing their way to the Blue Mansion in Malacca to steal a magic ring from the fearsome bibik - Amelia of Amethyst Rise (left on the above photo). With feisty sidekick Jasmine (the not-so-little nyonya) in tow, off they go to the fabled Batu Caves. But what treachery lies in store for poor Aladdin? When the Wizard traps Aladdin in the cave & whisks Jasmine away to his harem of Single Ladies in the exotic land of Ukenastan, will it be courage, love or magic that will unite them? For local friends, you can still join Aladdin & friends (& fiends) on a GLEEful adventure that weaves pop hits and show tunes into delightful showstoppers! Aladdin is on till 17 Dec. Not an advertisement, but a recommendation for a good treat for the whole family.

The Phantom Of The Opera 25th Anniversary Musical Concert On Big Screen

Do you fancy catching a musical theatre performance on the screen of a cinema? I certainly don’t mind, especially when it is only staged in another continent. Since the very first time when Golden Village screened the Metropolitan Opera productions of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor and Mozart’s The Magic Flute in high definition digital format on the cinema screen in Aug/Sep 2007 on the 22.4m wide screen of GVmax, most of us would have hope for more to come.

Last Sunday, I brought my 2 girls to catch the latest exclusive GV’s screening of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Cameron Mackintosh’s The Phantom of the Opera, a live recording of a fully staged, lavish production of the timeless classic romantic musical of the haunted stage of the Paris Opera based on Gaston Leroux’s gothic novel of life beneath the stage of the Paris Opera where a mysterious masked man tutored an unknown to become the leading lady and fell in love with her. Set in the sumptuous Victorian splendor of the Royal Albert Hall and directed by Laurence Connor, this is the first staged version of the musical to be screened in cinemas.

This theatrical performance, a celebration of The Phantom of the Opera’s 25th Anniversary at the London’s Royal Albert Hall on 2 Oct, starred Iranian-born Canadian actor, Ramin Karimloo as “The Phantom” and American prima donna, Sierra Boggess as “Christine”. The 201-minute screening included special guest appearances by Sarah Brightman, the original Christine, and 4 Phamtoms of previous productions. Personally, I felt that this particular segment brought the spine-tingling melodies to the highest level! Certainly well-worth the $25 ticket, but a pity my boy is not in Singapore now, he would have enjoyed it too.

First time I did something for the Halloween theme. Can you spot the ghosts in the “Halloween” inchies? The other sets are the “Fall Colours”. 1 of each set is going to Marjorie Grace-Sayers (USA).

These tatted motifs were finally sewed up to complete the hairclips. Joey doesn’t use such stuff, but Kristine will be happy to put them on her hair. Looks so lovely on her :)

Besides looking at the creativity aspect, I love making ATCs with educational value too. Learn idioms the fun way! I collected all those idioms that are related to music and songs and slipped them into a pocket in the ATCs. Hope my children and other recipients learn something from them! These were done for the Nov ATC session in Bishan Library to the theme "Music".

Kristine drew the 3 ATCs on the left below. I love her drawings, they are always so cute! Joey doddled the one on the right "Happy Treble Clef", adding confetti and yarn. Looks like it is having a goood time with a triple ice-cream treat!

I traded for 3 quilled ATCs with Au Siah Huay. Aren't they lovely? The "Cats In Love" looks so romantic! The first piece I received from Jennie Tan - "I Love My iPod" - her series of Music ATCs comprised of doddled heads and limbs with cut-out fashion.

The Lion King

I mentioned in my last post about the OWOH giveaways I won. This is the 2nd one - a set of floral stamps, complete with a piece of acrylic block handle and a stamp pad, from Gail's Card Cafe. Thanks, Gail!

This artdoll is overdue, but nevertheless, she's completed and on her way to Amelia Ruscoe (New Zealand). The theme was Goddess, but I wanted to create one closer to heart, so I found a Goddess of Mercy picture and drew on parchment paper to create these dolls. The colours of the variegated paper and the embossing done on the paper created a lovely surreal effect. Had to add a touch of my tatted flowers ;)

I was unsure if I should jump in on this Metallic swap, but I couldn't stop myself. I created, in a way, a personalized fabric ATC for everyone but all based on the same concept - embossed metal foil coloured with black Indian ink, with a hint of Spring in the background colours and the rolled fabric rose. The surface was touched up lightly with metallic crayons and the border finished off with a metallic thread.

Pauline Mackenzie (Australia) was the first to send out for the swap, but she mistakingly made a postcard instead of an ATC. Of course we won't mind the mistake, and it's certainly a well-composed one - the embellishment was done with model magic then painted, and rubbed and buffed to give the metallic look.

The 2nd piece of metallic ATC came from Kim Young (USA), she textured the metal foil and sewed over them onto handmade silk paper. Love the bright, yet at the same time, warm colours!

The last 2 ATCs came from Germany by Ann Seidel - I is for Inchies and a Valentine Heart (for the F card I sent her mistakingly). Ann's I card with all the inchies came just when I'm going to do an inchies swap, I couldn't stop smiling at the coincidence :)

S$10 million musical, The Lion King, is the inaugural theatrical event at the new Sands Theatre, which can seat 1,627 people. Stunning costumes - the giraffes and zebras are my favourites. Of course the mask of Scar and Mufasa and how they hang over like real lions (photo above) are simply fantastic. Kristine, who went to the musical with me on Friday night, felt that the all the animals look so real like. Indeed!

We didn't manage to explore the whole Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands on Friday, we went a second time today and also to the ArtScience Museum. More in the next post!

Cinderel-Lah! to wrap up the Week!

We have started packing things for shifting, and the first thing to pack was the children's old school books. There was a stack of Chinese magezines which belonged to my boy when he was in Primary 1 and 2, and that was 5-6 years ago! Before they went into the recycling bin, I salvaged some prints, and here are some of them, just fitting for the theme "School Days" and just in time for the Nov ATC-doll swap! I coloured these black-and-white prints with marker pens and applied a layer of gloss over. All the backgrounds were embossed with QuicKutz metal embossing dies.

And since I'm working on the "School Days" theme, I couldn't help admiring this water-coloured print on a new magezine. I cut her out and applied the gloss over, put a brad on the shoulder, and off she goes, swinging her arm and bag :) Does anyone in Singapore recognises where she hail from ?

Margie Diamante's school girls dropped over all the way from USA. How different they look from Asian girls in uniform! Thank you, Margie!

Sherry Dreier (USA) sewed a very cute dog for the Alphabet ATC swap - see the "D" on the paw, great idea! And S is for Stars from Jennifer Morlock (USA). How I wish I could handle the sewing machine!

Meanwhile, I have also finished and mailed out my F ATCs.

More cards received from the Zodic series: Cancer from Debbi Baker (Australia) and Scorpio from Christine Faller (USA) which came in a very pretty fabric pouch! Such interesting composition!

We had a really good afternoon in Esplanade on Sunday at the W!ld Rice 10th Anniversary production of Cinderel-Lah! This was the 3rd pantomime my children and I attended, after Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs in 2008 and Beauty & the Beast in 2009. Set in an unique Singapore flavour, and with familiar cast (Emma Yong as Cindy, Sebastian Tan as Prince Char Mee, Chua Enlai and Darius Tan cross-dressed as Cindy's stepsisters), it was simply hilarious, especially Chua Enlai in his Wonder Woman outfit for the masquerade ball! Gurmit Singh brought on even more laughter in the roles of Ali and Jeya - beautiful Indian babe! Najip Ali as Fairy God Makcik added new elements of magic to everyone's delight.

In case you don't know, Christmas Pantomime is an uniquely British theatre tradition that dates back to the Middle Age. Although the original performances were mainly mime, Pantomime has evolved to include all acting styles. Slapstick comedy, satire, political incorrectness, snazzy songs, toe-dancing routines, cross-dressing, fabulous costumes and spectacular sets, audience participation and a Good versus Evil story that is strong on romance and adventure, and juveniles (children) on stage add the "Ahh!" factor. All these elements are brought together in W!ld Rice pantomimes. To sum it up, we won't miss W!ld Rice musical pantomimes even if we have to forgo all other musicals! This is not an advertisement, just our humble opinion :)

ATC Session and Fried Rice Paradise

Collage is something which I hardly do. That was the main reason why I signed up for this swap - to make myself try it. I didn't know what I want to do and spent quite a lot of time trying to find bits and pieces to put together, and finally, I managed to fix these up. This is the first time I made the dolls sliding - they slide left and right! These pair of ATC dolls went to Gayle Clancy in USA.

Well, after the first try, I feel I can handle collage better now, so I spent another few days going through the scrap pieces of junk mails, brochures, etc. and finally made up another pair of collage dolls. I see an improvement!

This month ATC session at Bishan Library, Moses showed us how to construct a 3d-looking book and box from a piece of paper. Everyone love the idea, and with Sandy's contribution of some scrapbooking papers and embellishments from KCK, everyone came up with such great ATCs within 20 min or so.

Here's mine.

my girl, Joey's (11 years old),

and Kristine's (8 years old).

The theme for this month was Birds of a Feather, so I sewed up some birds in felt, and glued on some junk mail flyers for the background.

These are the paper ATCs I received: Joey's 3D collage piece named "Fabric" (the inside of the folded card is below), Joey's pencil sketch of her toys, Kristine's Evil House in colour pencils and Moses' pen and ink bird "Immovable" - according to Moses in his blog "That look of determination silently screams: I ain't moving. "

For the leaf ATC swap, these are the first 2 pieces I received: Lisa Ahmad's Leaf on the top and Carol Jamieson's Autumn Leaf (hand-painted leaf with machine embroidery) at the bottom.

This afternoon, I brought my boy to the musical, Fried Rice Paradise, written by Dick Lee with a brand new story centring around a girl named Bee Lian, who lived in a shophouse at Jalan Calamansi, located next to a community centre, and had great plans to transform her father’s noodle coffeeshop and attract more customers by selling her mother’s famous fried rice recipe, going on a soul searching journey with her good friends Johan, Girly Danker, and Devi.

Specially produced in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the People’s Association, and with elements of early Singapore nostalgia (1979 to be exact), racial harmony, friendship, neighbourliness, romance, and thrilling drama with several twists, Fried Rice Paradise delivered its promises to be a true blue Singaporean musical that connected emotionally with the audience. With a cast that included the first Singapore Idol - Taufik Batisah, Sebastian Tan ("The Queen" in W!LD RICE's pantomime Snow White) and many more, the 2-and-half hours passed magically fast. I just love musicals! (Speaking of musicals, have you bought the tickets for musical pantomime, CINDEREL-LAH! , a W!LD RICE 10th Anniversary production ? I have!!!) What's more, we had SM Goh Chok Tong with us in the audience - that's the 2nd time I watched the same performance with our Senior Minister, the 1st time was Tsai Chin 2009 The New Endless Love” tour!

A Christmas Card, A Lots of Fabric ATCs and What's A Pantomime?

I almost forgot about this photo of a Christmas card I did for a Christmas card-making contest organised by Junior De Artist. Actually, the emphasis was on using the die-cuts and rubber stamps sold in the shop, but I added a tatted tree.

The fabric ATCs which I swapped had all arrived. This is the first I swapped in Oct and received from Carol - very strong colours and all blended in neatly. Impressive, and I loved them; thank you, Carol! Next are the Nov Christmas ATC swap I received from Jenna. Very different style, more subtle colours, but in no lesser charm. Thank you, Jenna, and all the fabrics, buttons and fibres you sent!

Another one Christmas fabric ATC I traded with Peggy - real Christmasy looking in my favourite bright red and green. Thank you, Peggy!

I was in the mood to hand-stitch a few more felt ATCs, especially Christmas ones.

This pensive rabbit I sewed with Joey in mind, as she's a "rabbit" who is always lost in her own thoughts!

At last Thu ATC session at Bishan Library, Moses bought lots of rulers for us to try to create geometric art with them. What do you think of everyone's effort?

These I traded from (from top left going clockwise): Moses - Someone I Know (that's me with my tatting!), Rebecca - Paper-cutting "Faith", Pei Ling - Someone I Know (the kangeroo symbolising me and Kristine who I always bring with me to the trading session!) and Joey - She drew her favourite rabbit rushing off to her favourite fried rice!

Then on Sat, me and DH visited Gardenia factory in the morning. His first visit there and who's not impressed with the big bread cooler that can hold 8000 loaves of bread. But the talk by Dr KK Tan of Mycofarm was enriching, we had a better general knowledge of mushrooms and the exotic range of mushrooms grown by Mycofarm. First time I tried all those mushrooms raw!

In the evening, I brought my whole family to W!LD RICE latest production "Beauty & The Beast" in the evening. Since I discovered W!LD RICE Pantomime last year, I found myself looking forward to the next one the whole year through. To quote, the W!LD RICE Pantomime brings together all the elements of a great family entertainment – slapstick comedy, satire, political incorrectness, snazzy songs, toe-tapping dance routines, cross-dressing, fabulous costumes and spectacular sets, audience participation and a Good versus Evil story that is strong on romance and adventure. In short, they take a well-known fairy tale, give them some local twists and with some cross-dressing that bring much laughter and with lots of great original songs to delight the audiences, young and old alike.

Directed by Hossan Leong, BEAUTY & THE BEAST is a spellbinding musical comedy, filled with laugh-out-loud jokes, fabulous song and dance routines. The merchant was Big Boss Bong and his three daughters were Brandy, Desiree and of course, Beauty. At the Beast’s mansion, Beauty encountered the fussy nanny Ah Ma Chow Chow, the excitable cook Baba Pongteh, and the sarcastic maid, Vacula Contessa. And there was this exorcist, Master Kong Tao, who vowed to purge the mansion of its ‘unnatural’ elements!

(The Beast and Beauty in their wedding outfit during the autograph session)

In last year's Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, I felt that Sebastian Tan as the Queen stole the whole limelight and the twist in the story (the Outer Limit and landfill, the rubbish and the environmental message) was definitely more memorable. This year's Beauty & The Beast, the limelight was more evenly spread, but even my DH agreed RJ Rosales as The Beast was so dashing and charming (a little pity he had to hide his handsome face under the well-crafted beastly mask most of the night). The other characters: Karen Tan as Ah Ma Chao Chao was a real darling nanny, Chua Enlai as Desiree Bong and Darius Tan as Brandy Bong (Beauty’s sisters) definitely drew the most laughters! Not forgetting all the stunning costumes and sets and singing utensils from the sewing, food and cleaning departments!

For us, it was a must-see musical of the year! And I can't wait for the next one next Nov/Dec.