Feeling: Missing Home
Oh
My
God!
I really couldn't believe that I had actually gone and watched the Phantom of the Opera. Feels as though I had arrived here on Tuesday *sitting in Changi Airport now. Crappy connection and most prolly our flight will be delayed again...* Can rewind er?
Had been really tempted to subscribe to super expensive hotel wifi services to write about this but had resisted and watched Cartoon Network 2 days straight instead. So much for bringing my laptop for work. Hahah I did nothing but playing Phantom of the Opera soundtrack the whole time it was turned on.
Recap from the day before I left for Singapore. Had a food review.. actually more like a alcohol review. Went to Sky Bar and Luna Bar which we did a shoot on their alcohol and oh my... the shit they came up with was lethal! We had to drink it up so not to waste it... *innocent face 'What? They were gonna throw it away anyway... so why waste it?'* Ended up looking very red and talking louder than I usually do.
I swear to God, if you ever go down to Luna Bar, you have to freaking try the Frozen Space Cookies. It's damn good I wanna lick the glass clean. If you're feeling pissy, try the 'Honey, Burn me up'. Ask for Burn on the bar and call for that one. Trust me, you would wanna try it!!!
Needless to say, it was a happy shoot! Beautiful location and alcohol to numb the work. Loves it!!!
Got home after a short drink with Cin and fired up my computer to check my email for numbers of the driver that will be bringing us around in Singapore and realized that my crappy webmail is fucked so had to run back to the office to check it out. It was prolly around 12.30am and I had yet to pack. I was due to leave for the airport at about 7.30am. That means I have about 7 hours to check my email, go home, shower, pack then sleep. Looks like it's gonna be a crazy flight to Singapore.
Got to the office only to find my mailbox bombed on me. Have to sms the lady in charge to sms me the number. Should have done that earlier but smartass me didn't think about it then. So since I was in the office, decided to stay abit and check my email and delete some shit so it won't bomb again during my 3 day absence. Then at about 1.15am the blinds near my bosses' desk decided to rattle. Well, I guess that means I should leave the office!
Got only 2 hours of sleep in the end. Got to Singapore safely. I love KLIA!!! You go online for free, so while I was waiting in the boarding lounge I was chatting with Sarah N and Gem. The Changi Airport was different though, you have to pay for it. Boo!!!!
Got to Singapore and got ushered into a van that took us to the hotel. Us meaning me and 3 other journalists from various publications *one of them is Seem's friend and the other was Gem's biscuit's good friend. Small world ain't it?* First thing I noticed about Singaporeans are they all abide the rules. We came out from the airport and was going at about freaking 40kmph. Stress mo? I can run faster!!! Then I realized that most of the cars on the road were going at the same rate. Oh well... This is Singapore after all. It was clean and the roads were nice and not bumpy at all. Nice!
The Marina Mandarin was apparently an old hotel that recently got refurbished. It was a beautiful hotel, quite intimidating actually. The middle part of the hotel is the restaurant and lounges so while walking to your room (mine was at the 15th floor) you can actually hear glass clinking and people talking. Then you look down and see all the people, tiny as ants eating and chatting! Bad if you're scared of heights.
Intimidating ain't it?
Abit blurry but that's the lounge area
My room was pretty alright. Even had a little balcony which I figured is a good place to smoke. Turned out to be a bad idea cause it was so warm and muggy the few days we were there I rather close up the windows and breathe in smoky but cool air.
View from my room
Second thing I realized about Singapore was that people there don't really smoke. Not surprised because they have the goriest of all anti-smoking ads. I was happily enjoying one when this girl came on TV with what looked like pus-filled boils on her lips and she started talking about how she was a heavy smoker. Wow... I guess the shock factor worked cause I snuffed the ciggie right there!
Ekk..
Think happy thoughts now... Strawberries dipped in chocolates to spoil this tired journalist!
Strawberries with choco! Was kinna dried up when I had it so I kinda left it.
We had a press call on the day we arrived which was kinda rushed as we only had 1 hour to run into our rooms and get lunch. In the end we had McDonalds.
Back to the press call
Part of the setup in the Esplanade Hall to promote the Phantom.
I know I had whined and moaned countless times about my career in the publishing industry but one look at this made the pain all worth while. Suddenly, there was a light at the end of the tunnel!
I love my job!
And when I found out that they will be playing excerpts from the show during the press call, I nearly creamed my pants. OMG!!!!
The gargoyles on the Opera House. Specially flown in!
This was so exciting I couldn't keep my mouth closed!
They showed Music of the Night, Masquerade and Prima Donna. That already I wanted to tell them to just play the whole show. SO exciting I tell you!!! But we had to keep our pants on and wait till tomorrow.
So what do you do in Singapore I asked.
SHOPPING!!! I was told...
Well, honestly I don't see why they have this fascination with shopping here. They have most of the brands in Malaysia and the shop assistants were nothing to scream about.
Me and another journalist from a newspaper (who was coincidently Seem's friend) walked around
I love my car.
I had absolutely nothing to do for the next day so decided to go to the nearest shopping mall and look for something to eat.
That's Hot
I told myself that I HAVE to eat like the locals when I'm there but the food there was crappy and expensive (not to mention tasteless as well) so I opted for Carl's Jr. Hey, after all it was endorsed by Paris Hilton. I had to have it.
Feel the heart attack
To say that it was huge is the understatement of the year. It was humongous. Bread, chicken patty, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, cheese was the order of the day. YUM!
It was nearly the size of Bigfoot's, well... FOOT!
I have to admit that for the few days I was there, I had fast food 3 quarter of the time...
Another fantastic burger I had in McD's was the Chicken Fan-tastic. Instead of bread sandwiching the burger patty, it was a rice cake... (FAN, geddit? Bloody smart these Singaporeans)
YUM
Tasted kinda weird at first but it grows on you! I went back for seconds.
See the vege? It's so healthy. Ignore the gunks of mayo ok?
Toasted lice~
Stayed in the room the whole day watching Cartoon Network and pigging out.
BLISS!
Then it was showtime! It was the Gala Night apparently, so exciting! Got to the Esplanade Theater earlier so went check out the souvenier shop and found this pretty music box that plays 'Music of the Night' and 'All I ask of you'. It was going for 28 Sing Dollars. Of course I bought it. Impulsively though I have to say. I keep thinking it's dollar to dollar when it's not. Oh well, was pleased I bought it.
Then the show started... I went blank the moment they hauled the chandelier up and the overture started playing. I was too stunned to say anything. It was beautiful! That 3 hours were the best 3 hours of my life!
It was too soon when it ended. I wanted to rewind and watch it again. It was nothing compared to the movie; the intensity of the Phantom (Brad Little) and the helplessness of Christine (Rebecca Pitcher) was amplified. I had to use the cliched word but the atmosphere was electric.
What happened after that was boring, next day came and had to leave Singapore (finally) and get our asses back to KL. God I miss KL food!
That was all to my phan-tastic (couldn't resist) trip to Singapore...
Edit: Just realized that when I was in Hong Kong, Brad Little was playing Phantom there as well. The show only started a day or two after our departure :( but it was fate that I got to watch it in Singapore this time round!!!! :)
