I wanna watch — only it’s in melbourne.

Wicked The Musical - Australia

Last month we went to the inaugural Singapore Airshow at the Changi Exhibition Centre. The first four days were for trade visitors only which left the public just the weekend to see the exhibits. All the tickets were presold online and as expected a lot of people came. We chose to go on a Saturday and when we arrived at pasir ris mrt to get on the free shuttle to the event site we were told by the people manning the area that we came at the right time because earlier in the day people had to wait in line for two hours just for the shuttle. It was also a long wait from the entrance to the changi exhibition centre up to the actual entrance for the airshow, I think we waited on the bus for more than 30mins. As we were entering the area we saw tons of people who were leaving the area queuing either for the taxi (even for the premium taxis there was a looooong line) or for the shuttle buses. There was also an aerobatic flying displays by the Black Knights of the Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Roulettes of the Royal Australian Air Force which we didn’t get to see since we went in the afternoon. E enjoyed looking at all the displays and had a fun time collecting pins from some of the exhibits. By the time we were leaving the venue there was still a queue (although shorter) so we decided to hop on the paid shuttle to changi expo instead.

We celebrated E’s birthday last January in Manila. At first we thought of planning a big party (this would be the first time we would celebrate his birthday in Manila with our families) but we opted to just throw him a simple birthday dinner. Good thing my BIL’s wife has a restaurant (Tony’s Bar & Grill along Mindanao Avenue) so we just reserved the function room and ordered a buffet dinner.

One thing we had to take care of before going home to the province for the new year was to order E’s birthday cake. So off we went to Goldilocks at Trinoma. After going through the cakes album, we decided on getting him a Cars-themed cake and had E choose which design he wanted.

On the day of his birthday he was so excited to get his cake that when we loaded the cake in the car he kept peeking around the tissue cover. He had lots of fun at the party running around with his cousins and playing with his uncles. I think the most fun was when blowing out the birthday candles. He had so much fun hearing everyone sing him the birthday song and knowing that once the song was finished he would get to blow out the candles that we did it five times.

Here are some of the pics:

with ichi’s fam	with my fam
with my cute goddaughter A	e with his godsister T
singing happy birthday	blowing his cake
E was super happy with the birthday song and blowing of the candles that we did it 5 times
birthday boy	family pic
family friends	with hs friends
lim cousins
getting the cars	E with his uncles, cousins and godsister

more pics here.

We spent new years in the Philippines this year and on my mother-in-law’s side of the family the tradition is to ring in the new year at ichi’s grandfather’s province in Nueva Ecija. Growing up in the Philippines you always ring in the new year with firecrackers and fireworks and with ichi’s side it’s no different. Every year my brother-in-law (BIL) is tasked with buying the fireworks, the aunts and uncles would just give him a budget but this year they forgot that my BIL and his wife were not going back as they’re on their 8th month of pregnancy. So some of the cousins made a quick run the afternoon of December 31st to Bulacan to purchase some fireworks. E had a lot of fun watching the fireworks, he wouldn’t even let me cover his ears, telling me that it wasn’t loud at all.

Here’s a short clip of one of the fireworks.

Wishing everyone a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

credits here.

For the past 6 or 7 years as part of the mid-autumn celebrations a lantern festival is held at the chinese garden. So yesterday we brought E and checked out this year’s display. E had tons of fun looking at all the lanterns, going on the rides and catching a wooden fish. When he got his prize (a pencil case) he said he wanted to go home already to play with his prize.

more pics here.

Lantern Festival 2007 @ Chinese Gardens
Mid-Autumn Festival 2007
5 – 30 Sep 2007
9am – 12 am
Singapore
Admisssion S$12 for adults and at S$8 for children

Here are some photos from last month’s Christmas get-togethers.

Lunch with Marlon, Mike & Eden at Vila’ge, Heeren.

Christmas eve dinner at home with relatives and friends.

Dinner at Sushi Tei, Vivo City with seagull chums.

E and I celebrated our birthdays last week. Since my birthday fell on a holiday here, we decided to spend the day at the Jurong Bird Park. E surely had a grand time checking out all the birds. He especially had fun at the all-star bird show enjoying all the birds that were being showcased but really clapped and shouted when he saw the mascots. It was also a treat because I got selected as one of the volunteers to hold the ring where the bird will pass through. I think E wondered why I left my seat and them and what I was doing that Ichi was able to take a few pics.

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This is my third “first” in a month! This is the first time I have watched a live television show. I did not even thought of doing this back home. On the last day of August 2006, I went with my friend Paolo to Caldecott Hill, MediaCorp TV Theatre to watch….Singapore Idol!!! Actually, Paolo pleaded with me as he can’t find anybody to watch the show with him and being a good friend that I am, I just couldn’t refuse. Peace bro! We actually got the tickets from my cousin Anton. It was given to him by one of his clients who is a sponsor of the show, that was his excuse when he flashed me the tickets.

We left the office early and went directly to the studio without having dinner just to see the last 5 idol hopefuls. Our tickets were balcony seats. The first thing we noticed was the size of the stage. If Michael Jackson moonwalked there for more than 5 seconds, he would have already fallen off. It looked bigger on TV. The second thing was that it felt like we are watching the Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards! Most of the people watching were kids! 12 to 15 year olds. I mean for the first time, I really felt old. I did not even feel like taking out my glasses even if I can’t see clearly from up there. Then there was somebody on stage working the crowds. So this is what they do to make you feel like there’s a party going on out there whenever it comes on after commercials.

30 minutes before live broadcast … a studio staff asked us to go down as there were still a lot of available seats below. We hurried down to get good seats so I wouldn’t need to use my glasses anymore. When we got down, we noticed that the crowd (or the kids) were already grouped into sections according to who their favorite idol is. We went to the middle which was Hady’s section. Not bad. Fortunately, it was not Jasmine’s section as it might look uncool if ever some friend saw us on TV. It was really kid-noisy now us the MC stepped it up a notch.

15 minutes before live broadcast … somebody was signalling that there were still 5 available seats nearer to the stage. We went for them and got seats just behind the main camera. Paolo even got one of the Hady posters being distributed around.

5 minutes before live broadcast … out comes Gurmit and Daniel and they helped worked the kids more.

2 minutes to live broadcast … now the idols are out waving and signing autographs. You need to shout to talk to the person beside you.

3..2..1..the idol theme music plays to signal the start of the show. Everybody goes crazy, especially at Paul’s section. Almost every kid at that section dressed and looked like him. Unbelievable! The idols performed a number on stage…or lipsynched on stage! Man, I thought this was supposed to be an Idol show. Why aren’t they performing live?! To sound better?! It says a lot about the show’s confidence in it’s idol hopefuls. After the number, we noticed that Gurmit was sitting himself to our left with a cameraman! This might be it! Our few seconds of fame! The show went to commercial. Daniel worked the crowd as the show is coming back on. 3..2..1..Bam! There was Gurmit talking on the big screen above us about something but I was not listening anymore as just behind him were Paolo and me waving on TV! Our 15 seconds of fame with my cellphone vibrating with Michelle’s text message about seeing us on TV. Our (Michelle and myself) Amazing Race appearance 3 years ago was better but that was just for about 2 seconds, this was around 15 seconds! Cool!!!

Well, there goes my third first for the month of August. That’s certified jologs for you lah. Right or not? By the way, the Joakim guy got voted out and almost everybody in his section was like crying. That capped the night for us…icing on the cake…lah.

Yesterday marks the start of the Great Singapore Sale 2006 where for 8 weeks Singapore will be in a shopping frenzy as the discounts run up to 70% off. Malls in Orchard will alternate opening till midnight on weekends. 

This weekend there's also the Singapore Food Expo 2006 and the MPH Book Sale at the Singapore Expo. Also upcoming on June 1-4 will be the PC Show at Suntec.