escapades of the elusive kat

Macau 2049

I have no idea how the whole show relates to "2049", but 2049 is going to be a touchy year for us in Macau.
Like Hong Kong, after the handover (Hong Kong 1997, Macau 1999), China promised 50 years of no change, and so for Macau 2049 would be the end of that.

My internal joke is, Macau had changed pre-1999 already, so of course after 1999 there can be no changes up to 2049. But anyway. Anyone can see the changes are ongoing, meh.

The show's mostly some sort of... technology showcase and whatnot. Dancing robots, flashing lights, impressive screen, that sort of thing.

But a lot of the installations are like, one-purpose only. As in... say these panels, these were part of the ceiling, and the panels got lowered to reflect lights for a light show.

Interspersed with the technology show was some folk music, minority culture dance/songs, and some people hanging-from-wire dancing.

A lot of these are just lip-service for the government. Say those mid-air acrobatic shows, usually the people are from overseas (Russia, Romania, etc...) but, there was one Macau person. You can see that being less skilled, but they HAVE to to have someone from Macau. Lip-service for the government, we are developing Macau people skills to take on these jobs too.

So, the show was interesting enough, but I wouldn't pay to watch it LOL. I got in on a pre-show for staff ticket, accompanying my friend who works there.

I'm not big on car race and grand prix and whatnot, but apparently there's been some history in the making today in the F3 race.

The videos don't allow an embed, so here's some links to youtube...

The Wild Last Lap, Sergio Sette Camara and Ferdinand Habsburg.... the last 20 or so meters!!!!!!!! What a pity!!!
https://youtu.be/RfWr8mP3P1Y

Crazy Last Laps.... (the last lap also in this video)
https://youtu.be/rewf-gvuWBU

I wasn't even aware a Habsburg is a racer LOL. I never liked the Grand Prix because, well, it mucks up the traffic, it's noisy, and blah blah and all. Also, hey, it's boring! You just see cars running laps. I prefer to just see the final cut clips LOL. Back in my school years, I loved it though, because my school was WITHIN the circuit, the school can never function with all that noise, so we always got holidays on these days.

An English rider also died yesterday. Daniel Hegarty. Some people do say that that curve is jinxed or something... I wouldn't be surprised if it's the ground (tarmac?)
Accident clip - https://youtu.be/mAH4wdYs0Ho
BBC article - http://www.bbc.com/sport/northern-ireland/42037086

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen


Programme

L.v. Beethoven

Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, op.43
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, op. 21

Interval

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 55 ("Eroica")

Encore 1
Encore 2

Beautiful numbers. The Encores sounded familiar but I can't place the names. While the named programe pieces were very beautifully performed, the Encores were obvious show-off pieces. Good show!

Last night, I went to see the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on their last stop of their tour. It was lovely!


The programme was as follows:


It was a lovely evening. Very surprising was, I bought 2 tickets for a friend and myself, and we were seated. The hall started to fill up and there was an empty seat to my left, but I didn't think much about it.

What are the odds that a colleague from work came and just happened to have bought that one empty seat? It was funny. When he saw me, he said, "I can't believe it, the odds!" (he's a finance/optimization  guy so his use of "the odds" was quite funny to me).

I guess Mendelssohn being a classic, did make me fall asleep for a bit there. But the Orkney Wedding was wonderful. The lead violinist actually (for show) drank a bottle of whiskey and the orchestra went haywire, nobody in sync, it was hilarious. And then the Sunrise was portrayed by the bagpipes - I've never heard bagpipes live before, and the guy in the complete attire - guy in skirt! kilt! and I have to say the bagpipes do sound wonderful. The Firebird was really, really good. Wonderful even!

They did 2 encores, I couldn't hear what the first one was, but the second one, for the New Year, was the Auld Lang Syne, with 5 (or 6? I forgot) guys on bagpipes again. And again I thought that bagpipes had a very beautiful sound.

It was a lovely evening indeed! And our Saturday night wouldn't be complete without visiting our favourite cafe-bar :D

It was a mighty tiring day yesterday, but I had fun :D

I went for dinner out wiht my friends last night, and well, long story short, it got quite late, so I didn't want to park my car in the far-off carpark, and tried my luck in my home area. Although there was no legal park-meter space, there was still legal non-parkmeter overnight spaces (you can only park from 19:30-09:30, for the rest of the day, it is no park and no stop yellow line)...

So early in the morning I already had to get up to drive my car away. I then walked with my dog out to the usual field we go to (it's further off from where my car is parked, ooooh!) so I gave a good workout to the dog.

I later on went to my friend's donuts shop's grand opening. Just when I arrived, I saw the florist bring in my basket of flowers that I ordered for the event. It's all very nice, but my comment is... formatting-wise, my name COULD be written SMALLER..................... but ohwell, what's done is done....

There are lots of flower baskets! Congratulations!
I know about certain parts of a shop's grand opening auspicious ceremony(ies), but I don't really know what the significance are, and I've never seen a complete shop opening thing. OK, granted, I didn't watch the whole thing this time, but I stayed long enough for the Lion Dance.
Have you seen the Lion Dance? Do you know what the Lion Dance is?

You are in luck!

I made videos XD
I wasn't sure of the Youtube video lengths, so to stick on the safe side, I had to cut a few times...

Video 1: The Lion Dance Team comes in with a style.

Their drums and those clang clang clangs make a huge ruckus. I think a few tourists got lucky and found out they had a chance to see an opening ceremony :D

Video 2:  Offerings to the gods

I won't be able to tell you the significance of anything that sits on the table of offerings. I only know that in the end the suckling pig gets chopped up and everyone has a bite. And burning those papers (special papers) means sending stuff to the gods... or so I understand...

Video 3: Eye-Dotting Ceremony

The Eye-Dotting Ceremony officially "brings the Lions to Life". They start dancing then.
I cut a major part out from here as it was photo time after that.

Video 4: The Lion Dance

I heard from a friend that it's not a random thing that one lion goes into the shop and the other one dances outside. I heard each of the lions (Gold and Silver) represents some historical (or fictional? or relgious?) figure. So the Gold Lion goes into the shop (I don't know for what) and the Silver one dances outside and catches the fish to eat and... whatever these actions signify.....

Video 5: Firecrackers

The last part of the dane and the firecrackers. I got blasted a bit as there was no place to hide, but at least the Lions were in front of me haha

Congratulations to my friend Marie on the opening of Meister Station! Donuts in Macau, FINALLY!

Some more random photos...
I didn't stay to watch the remainder of the event, as Jenny asked me out. We went to China. I did a bit of shopping in China, had a light tea, and also got a free gift... the manicure place was doing a Mid-Autumn Festival fun event. They ask you a stupid (IQ-challenging) question and if you score you get a free gift. I got a free gift...

Question: "On pimples/acne/zits, when are you most not worried about them?"
Answer: "When they appear/grow on somebody else"

Talking about shopping and stuff, another friend helped me to order somethin from the China-style Rakuten or eBay... I dunno... perhaps you have heard of Taobao? I got a couple of stuff... dirt cheap.... Everything you see here? Just around US$10.
And I finally got a DVD of Les Choristes. I've wanted to watch that for the longest of time.... I've got the soundtrack, but never watched the movie... yeay!

aka, Suede Live in Hong Kong 2011

So we went to Hong Kong for the Suede Live. It was great!

The song lineup was good. I think there were only 3 songs I didn't know of. I did manage to enjoy myself and dance/jump to the tunes. I'm surprised I enjoyed it, I usually dislike places packed with people.


The only thing I didn't like were the following:

- Standing Concerts. People are just sweaty. And they stink. Sorry, but yes, they stink. It's summer, they are sweaty, and they stink. Yet, they still lift up their arms. It's suffocating.
- People pushing up at me. This girl next to me kept pushing me. I stood my ground. I had to use a lot of willpower to stay put and not let her get my place. Not bad for a first standing concert, I'd say!
- The girls behind me used me as a tripod. I don't know them. They actually placed their elbows on my shoulders and then their camera hand on my head. I didn't want to cause a scene, so I shook a lot. You know, for short haired people, any little movement over your head is really itchy, so I just shook my head at any little sensation of a hand or a camera strap over my head.

I bought a Suede T-shirt! They also had a lot of Suede CDs selling quite cheap, with a free poster, but after a lot of thought, I skipped that. I think it was a wise decision too. If I brought the poster in with me, it would have been crumpled anyway... so... all I got was the T-shirt and I took a guitar-pick-flyer for the concert.


After the concert, we went back to Central in Hong Kong Island and dropped by at Lan Kwai Fong. I originally had a beautiful vision of chilling with a nice German beer... but we were dead tired by then, and Lan Kwai Fong was just PACKED with people (see above, my mass-people-phobia) so... we just went to a Kebab eatery, had some dinner and went back to our hotel.


We returned to the hotel (we stayed at the WiFi Boutique Hotel. Tiny place, but served its purpose). I think the room was haunted though. My friend saw a black shadow in the mirror, and the little flower attachments on the zipper of my Marc Jacobs Daisy mini make-up back just broke off when it was lying on the bed the entire time. It was lying on the bed, and when I took it, the flowers fell off, just like that. Those little flowers are chained onto the zipper, too. Anyway!

The following day was shopping day!!!


A friend of mine highly recommended this Nintendo DS game, Noora to Tokino kouhou (or something like that). Its like those Atelier games (I think, I never played any of them), and it's just too hard.... I'm lost... the game is progressing, yes, but I have no idea what is happening. The game also cost an arm an a leg, but I think it's a first pressing edition, as it came with that Premium set thingie.

I also bought a new pair of sneakers... the Sketchers Shape-ups! I was originally torn between a Reebok (I think it's this pair, it's black with a hint of silver patterns all over) and this pair of Sketchers... after trying them out, I went for the Sketchers and I changed the shoe-laces, I think it looks more striking with those shoelaces (my photo above).

I wore the Sketchers for the rest of my trip in Hong Kong, and then on Saturday as well and today as I sat in the car I felt a slight muscle cramp/burn in the tummy area and my back. I think... these shoes really work!


We were in the baking section of a supermarket and I saw bone-shaped cookie cutters! I was happy, as I was searching for these for 2 years or so already, so I bought them! Later that day, in a bookshop, I found that doggie snacks recipe book that came with a bone-shaped cookie cutter (damn it!). Whatever.

At HMV, I saw a couple of DVDs on sale. I'm not sure if I've watched From Hell already or not, but well, you can't go wrong with Johnny Depp XD I was tempted to get Libertine as well, but I think I've watched Libertine already. I also managed to score おくりびと Departures on a real original DVD (I got a bootleg version for China the other time), so now, I've done my repentance, I got the original. Don't sue me now. Tokyo Tower and My Girlfriend is an Otaku were bought on a whim. 

I think, as all DVDs go, I'm just going to put them on the shelf and tell myself "Now, I've got these, I could watch them any time I want" and maybe 10 years later I haven't watched them yet. Go figure, yes that's me.

I will have some more stuff to write about the next few days, so stay tuned :D

woohoo!

I got a registered mail...

I went to pick up the registered mail...



This is essentially my first "Western" band standing live. So far, I've been to Avril Lavign's concert (cheapstake), Kelly Clarkson's (great!) and now it's Suede.

I've also been to a couple of Japanese bands/artists concerts, and they were all good too!

Now that the tickets are on hand, I want to plan what I'm going to do on that day. I was thinking of going to Hong Kong in the late afternoon, head to the concert, rave for a while, and then stay a night in Hong Kong, then spend the following day (Friday) shopping in Hong Kong. After that, it's Saturday and Sunday back in Macau, if the timing is right, we'd go for a swim and just lounge around... and after that weekend, it's back to work with the boss GONE FOR THE REST OF THE MONTH. That means, I'll have a lot of free time on my hands while in the office. I'll probably read till my eyes fall out. hm...

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking, not necessarily what really will happen, haha.

So! Last night I went to Yundi Li's Piano Recital. It was a Chopin event as he did all Chopin stuff (well, no... for the encore he did a Chinese piece again. I was soooooo expecting it. ha!)

But... he wasn't too impressive. He did not falter, but we heard many, many wrong notes (ha!). And while my friend was annoyed that the guy sitting next to her was tapping his foot - with all that carpeting, he didn't make any noise, but it was annoying.

It shouldn't have bothered me, but well, he had the programme booklet on his lap, and the programme booklet is white in color, and it's dark in the auditorium/performance hall... so when he started tapping his foot, the booklet moved, along with his foot tapping, and it annoyed me. The white programme booklet was surprisingly visible in the dark (it reflected any little light there was).

The kid behind me had a blocked nose and so was sniffling every once in a while. guh. Gave me the creeps - but aside from that, he was quiet and I heard him tell his mom "He missed a key!" Good going, kid, you have a good ear!

Someone somewhere to my left fell asleep and snored. Boooo...

Last night's programme? Here, here, all Chopin's:
Five Nocturnes, opp. 9-1, 9-2, 15-2, 27-2 and 48-1
Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise brillante, op. 22
Mazurkas, op. 33
Piano Sonata N^o. 2 in B-flat minor, op. 35
Polonaise in A-flat major, op. 53 “Heroic”

I was pretty high when he played the Polonaise :D
I was ecstatic when he played the Funeral March (under the Piano Sonata section). My friend was wondering why I would be ecstatic with any type of funeral march music. I just happen to like it.

For the encores, he did the Chinese piece (something about enjoying the moon, a very mid-Autumn festival piece, I heard) and then Chopin's Revolutionary Etude in C Minor. That was pretty neat (but that was also where he missed a few keys).

I was hoping he'd do the Fantasie Impromptu somewhere somehow :D

My next show would be a Baroque Opera, 3 Acts by Henry Purcell, Dido and Aenas.