Evil Skanival..

Hear Ye Hear Ye..

I'm updating my blog now..

ermz.. ok

firstly..

SINGAPORE IDOL SUCKS..

how did Nurul Maideen get kicked out while Joakim Gomez and Paul Twohill remained?

I had never been a Singapore Idol fan.. didnt watch the first season.. didnt watch the second till just now.. and the clips that I saw were all from youtube..

AND I SERIOUSLY THINK THAT JOAKIM GOMEZ AND PAUL TWOHILL CANT SING FOR NUTS..

even if u put a gun on their heads and force them to sing a tune.. they cant..

by having the two of them this far is seriously a joke to Singaporean talent.. it shows that we are *THAT* desperate for contestants..

how did Mathilda get kicked out anyway?

and the Idol *IS* abt vocal talents.. not about looks.. how else did Kurt "The Hobbit" Nilsen had gone from Middle Earth Idol to win the World Idol?

*sigh*

watever lah.. I'll be listening to Ska anyway..

but itz ok though.. as long as Hady Mirza wins in the end..

a random pic from last week.. at Yishun Dam..

and kids.. please.. dont try this at home..



Manazil riding hands free on a GSX 1000cc..

but of course.. the bike wasnt moving.. he didnt even have the key to it..

I just got back from Johannesburg, South Africa, abt 24 hrs ago.. but this time, not much pics were taken.. coz I didnt do much during the stay..

so for those of u who wants to see pictures of South Africa, click . here . for those taken on my previous trip there..

I had the perception before I first step to Africa years back, that itz a place full of wild animals.. and it was hot and dusty..

ermz.. itz 5 degrees low and 20 degrees at max in midday..

so itz not hot.. not at all..

and it was freezing at nite.. itz turning into Spring soon in South Africa.. with a reversed season like Australia..

and therez no wild animals, unless u head down to the Safari..

and itz not even close to being dusty..

in fact.. South Africa is so modern and so clean and so beautiful that u cant make it look bad even if u try to..

here's a snapshot of the view from my hotel room..



too bad that itz one of the most dangerous places in the world..

a world of irony..

u get beautiful cars.. beautiful houses.. surrounded by electrically-charged fences to prevent ppl from climbing into the premises..

such a waste.. beauty with so little security..

caught a preview of a car show at the mall..

Modena 360.. Porsches..



S2000.. this is a beauty..



and a Lotus Elise.. displayed right where it belongs.. at Proton..

basically thatz it abt Johannesburg.. I spent the day walking ard the mall with Faisal and watching Pirates of the Carribean at the movies..

here's the pics from the Skanival gig at GasHaus @ Bugis, on 13th August..

we didnt really confirmed on playing for the gig till the very last minute.. coz I didnt get to change my flight to get an off day for it.. so I finally managed to utilise my annual leave for a day.. just to play in that gig..

effort tau..

but not as much as Bee from Peas and Oats.. coz she came back from London just a few hours before the gig.. and she looked so stoned as if she drank a barrel of beer..

but her voice was fantastic..



Bee The Singing Stewardess with Peas and Oats..

and u know whatz the suckiest thing?

besides StillRivers, I think this is the only other good band that sounded professional.. and no one responded to them..

*sigh*

but then again.. I didnt really watch any other bands coz I was busy slacking outside the pub..

reminds me of another gig in Kolam Ayer CC several months back..

even Full Pledged Munkees had that kinda ovation..

which was none..

everyone was sitting down staring at the stage while FPM played!?

WTF?

that's as close to being a blasphemy!

the new generation of gig goers..

*sigh*

but then again.. if they can keep Gomez and Twohill in the Idol competition.. and Sylvester till the finals of the previous.. it shows the kinda sounds that Singaporeans like..

they like ppl who cant sing..

but then again.. StillRivers rocked!

We had a jamming session prior to the gig at Beat Merchant studio..

nice equipments and spacious room.. just that i'm not keen on playing the drums barefooted..

this is what happen during Mistaken Pirates jamming sessions..



ermz.. ok.. only Hamdy has this habit of doing weird things..



Pirates @ Zam Zam Restaurant after the jamming session.. just before the gig..

and btw.. if u want good Briyani Dam.. try Ramiza at either Changi Village or along New Upper Changi Rd, at the new Muslim coffeeshop at Hotel 81.. just across the road from Mak's Place..

just dont go into the hotel coz all the Pakciks hanging around the coffeeshop can see u..

wear a wig if u really need to..

or go wank somewhere..

like inside the Bird Sanctuary at East Coast Park..

can u believe it that some ppl do that in public anyway?

a friend of mine, Elizabeth.. who lives in Marine Parade said that she had spotted some ppl wanking inside the Bird Sanctuary.. and they wank even harder when a girl pass by..

WTH?

Bird Sanctuaries are for REAL BIRDS. the ones with FEATHERS and WINGS.

damn..

anyway.. we screwed up thru the gig.. but ok lar.. considering the fact that we didnt gig since January.. and since then had jammed only twice till a couple of days before this gig..

but I seriously had fun..

there wasnt any crowd.. I think I have more family members than therez an audience at Skanival..

Yazid tripped over my ride cymbal several times and it fell onto the floor tom.. and it was a good thing that Ogy from Full Pledged Munkees came up on stage to put it back..

Din didnt memorise the lyrics to the songs and still Ogy FPM and the Comic Strip drummer held up the lyrics for him to read while he sang..

the not-so-many ppl in the crowd moshed and banged into Shida and Umi and into the music stand that they used to hold the horn notes..

and for us trying to tangkap the Skalariak song Solo Vivir just a day before the gig didnt help.. and Din sang differently from the verse and I totally forgot how the song went after the chorus..

so the song stopped halfway..

and we didnt even realise that it was our last song till we stopped the song..

but we sure did have fun anyway.. I enjoyed this set more than the Skafests at Paradigm..

someone mentioned that I played like I was about to break the drum kit..

I guess I really did..



Yours, Truly..



Mr Kotai



our Horny section..



Mr Din and Mr Yazid



a bird's eye view..



Mr Manazil



Mr Yazid muka step lepas langgar cymbal.



and caught red handed trying to steal a mike stand..

Ogy from Full Pledged Munkees..

nampak tu muka bersalah..

Shark Attack..

I'm back.. to blogging..

as I had said to Nurizz.. I should just start blogging once a year.. since I dont feel like blogging much..

there had not been much to say recently anyway..

and she said that I suffer from Blogger's Fatigue..

heh..

thanx Nurizz for making it sounds so scientific..

but the real reason is..

MALAS..

ok.. I had included a comments tag at the bottom of the postings.. if it doesnt work, I'll remove it..

went jamming with the Pirates just now..

yey...

after so long.. we had a fantastic session just now..

I miss the band xia..

we had fun just now.. really had fun..

yey..

Pirates will be playing in a gig on Sunday at GasHaus.. tickets selling at $10 at the door..

the other bands that'll be playing on that day would be StillRivers and Peas And Oats..

the rest of the bands I dont recognise/cant remember.

Peas and Oats vocalist is in London now.. Bee, the Singing Stewardess..

and she's gonna land in Singapore on Sunday itself.. and going to the gig after that.. I just hope that she dont fall asleep while singing..

effort sey..

ok.. anyway... I just got back from Paris two days ago..

I remembered the first time I stepped into France.. my first words to myself..

I'm in The Land Of Eric Cantona..

and yeah.. Paris.. France.. the land of Eric Cantona, Zidane, and Alizee..

of course, Alizee is the most attractive and the best of the three..

for those who doesnt know who this gorgeous girl is.. click here

it's summer time in Europe right now.. and come next month when the fasting month starts.. itz a bad idea to do flights there..

Sahur will prolly ends at 3am..

and Maghrib will prolly come at 9pm..

this is the pic that I took outside my room window at 8.30pm..



I didnt do much in Paris except for lunch in Champs Elysees and went down to The Louvre..



Jezz, Me, Joleen and my Leading Stewardess, Azarina..

Joleen and Rina are leaving the team.. after 1 1/2 yrz together.. itz quite a sad flight to do knowing that it'll be their last flight with us..



the view from INSIDE the glass pyramid..

those of u who have heard of The Louvre would know that the glass pyramid is the most prominent mark of the Museum from the outside..



the Inverted Glass Pyramid from the inside..

if u dont know the significance of this, read Dan Brown's Da Vinci's Code..



the displays inside the museum.. we didnt go to see most of the exhibits.. just visited the necessary ones this time..

anyway.. I had covered all the wings in The Louvre several years ago...



a random pic of one of the statues.. Isis.

for those that doesnt know who she is..

she's the mystical Egyptian queen.. married to her BROTHER.. King Osiris.. during the times when incests were cool..

their mother was named Nut.. so u should know why the siblings end up getting married to each other..

Osiris was said to have been possessed by a playful, evil spirit.. and the only way to save the world, and his soul, was to cut him up into lots of pieces and scatter the body..

Isis went out in the middle of the night looking for the body parts of her brother-husband and sew them back together.. and found every part, except for one..

u go figure which part that is..

and according to the depiction by Anne Rice.. Isis and Osiris were later known as Akasha and Enkil.. the first vampires.. and the failure to find *THAT* important part of Osiris/Enkil leads to the fact that the remaining vampires have no human sexual desires..

blablabla..

ok..

back to The Louvre..

the IMPORTANT and famous residents of the museum..



The Winged Victory of Samothrace..



The Aphrodite.. Venus de Milo..

Greek's Goddess of Love..



the room where the Goddess now stands in..

the THE most important resident of all..

the MOST prominent mark of The Louvre from the inside..



an ugly looking woman called Mona Lisa..

sorry lar.. if she's real, and not a feminine self potrait of Da Vinci.. she's really an ugly woman..

photography is banned in the area.. and I managed to snap this pic before I was told that I cant.. and this is the best pic that I could get of her anyway..

after walking around the Louvre.. we walked along the Paris Beach..



the beach was featured in the Straits Times recently where they mentioned abt the authorities telling the French not to tan in the nude or be topless there anymore..

we couldnt see any nude or topless girls.. damn.. coz it was raining..

I think on a perfect hot Saturday afternoon, u could still get to see it.. telling the French not to tan in the nude would be like telling Singaporeans to stop eating chicken rice.



anyway.. this is the real pic of the "beach"..

itz not a real beach.. the Mayor decided to have this place 4 yrz ago for the Parisians who cant afford a holiday..

a Politician who thinks abt his ppl.. interesting..

rare.

maybe it was an election year..

it takes them 6 days to bring in the sand and to set this place up, and 48 hrz to remove it all..

and only for a month.. during August..

so they put in the sand, palm trees in pots, big umbrellas, shower points.. just to give it a sense of the real thing, just next to the river bank that runs across Paris..

after that, we headed down to Notre Dame.. again.. coz it was Jezz's first time to Paris..

basically.. thatz it abt Paris..

I was at my cousin's place in Johore last Saturday for my niece's wedding.. (not ShaSha.. she's only 2 1/2 yrz old.. but this is my cousin's 21 yr old daughter)..

so that makes 3 weddings in a month that I attended.. and I'm having a headache..

too many relatives at that wedding and too many ppl trying to matchmake me with someone they know..

I should just declare to them that I'm gay so they can stop all these nonsense..

but I didnt.. coz dowwan to spoil my mom's waterface mah..

and for the record.. I'm straight.



the weddings held in Malaysia is different xia.. u can see the neighbours of so many different races coming together and help..

real kampung style..

gotong royong still exist there.. in Singapore.. even ur own first cousins have to have an invitation card.



the Bride and Groom..

the groom is a nice fella.. had chilled out with me quite a number of times.. and a former skinhead turned nice guy..

I'd say that he's a soft spoken ex-skinhead..



one of the kompang fellas started the silat ceremony.. I have not seen this for ages coz I dont attend weddings..

and to think that I have another 2 more weddings to attend soon.. my ex-gf's wedding.. Noreen.. who asked me to come down before 2.30 coz her future husband is damn jealous of me coz we were together for a long time and coz I used to be very close to her family..

and the other wedding is Noris'..

Congratulations Noris!

now everyone is getting married and I'm still gay.



my 12 yr old nephew Arham (another cousin's son)

and this one is damn cute..

the Imam from the surau nearby..



Bulat siak..

and at one point of time he accidentally hit his specs while silatting.. and it went halfway across his face..

but his silat was good though.. just that I dont think it will do much during a real pendekar punya fight..

but he's a nice guy anyway.. so tak baik kutuk.. ish..

ok..

Random thoughts time..

things that I recently liked..

CROCS!

yey.. I love my Crocs.. coz they are DAMNED comfortable.. I dont care that u guys think that they look ugly and big and whatever..

itz really nice xia!

after wearing crocs, I can walk and walk and walk and walk and walk and walk and walk......

I feel like a walking Superman..

ok.. somemore..

my O2 XDA II mini.. 2nd hand.. but nice.. just that I have to get a separate wireless card.. but it works well now..

ok.. somemore..

my newly found favourite local band!

7 till Dawn..

saw the Alternatives band playing at Esplanade several months back, but couldnt catch the name of the band coz we arrived halfway thru the set.. but the vocalist was damn good..

and I had been trying to find out the name of the band ever since.. their originals were fantastic too..

one of the bands that I'd spend my money buying their CDs if they come out with an album..

and turned out to be that the vox also sings for Yazeid's band whom we came to support at Scape during the Tapestry gigs..

ok.. 7 Till Dawn.. if u guys get a chance to watch this band.. go.. they are really good..

my current favourite non-local band.. Alter Bridge..

a regrouped Creed with a new vocalist.. though they denied that they are a regrouped Creed..

and my favourite hangout place now..

Riaz Relax Corner at Eunos!

yey..

this place got a BIG yellow box and they close at 4.30pm.. and got Sheesha some more.. and a variety of food.. and the coffee is good..

yey..

ok..

for the things that I hate..

PARIS HILTON SINGING STARS ARE BLIND!

Dammit..

she should steer away from ska/reggae..

yucks..

made my hair stand..

ok..

for another bigger reason to hate..

overcharging Malay Lawyers..

I already hate lawyers.. now the Malay ones made it even worse..

my brother had migrated to Melbourne several years ago.. and now it comes to a time where we have to sell his house here in singapore.. so I had to sign as Power Of Attorney..

meaning, I take the responsibility of selling the house, signing the documents and so on.. though my mom is the real person doing it lah.. I just sign only..

so last yr, we went down to his Malay lawyer friend lah.. coz friend friend can at least not overcharge u, even if they dont give discount rite?

so we were charged $360 for him preparing the official documents to appoint me in the Power Of Attorney..

so after signing last yr, we didnt get to sell the house, but the only other copy of the document was given to HDB..

so now we are trying to sell the place again, and we needed the copy from him..

and he said that he had misplaced it.. cant find it in his office..

what the hell?

we went to another Malay lawyer, who quoted $350 for a new set of documents.. $10 dollars cheaper..

so, another person recommended this Chinese lawyer..

he charged us $180..

what the heck?

sometimes u want to help the Muslim professionals also no use.. end up the Malay lawyers like to live thru their reputation of being sharks..

and not like as if we pay more we get better service mah..

He misplaced the goddammned documents a year after.. and looking at the state of his office, itz not really so much of a wonder how it could happen..

u can misplace an entire 747 plane inside his office..

so.. the moral of the story is..

relek xua.. aku mama.

I think Indians make the best lawyers..

damn u John Grisham for making lawyers look so capable.