Thursday, March 18, 2004
I’ve been very shy about my singing voice and do not really like to flaunt it in public. But ever since I showed some of my songs to Mr Leong, and when I was the Musical Director for the musical while it was still functioning (I was involved in coaching the cast how to sing the songs), I felt I just had to heck if my voice was bad or angelic (ahem!) and just SING. Anyway I wasn’t going for a competition, and I am not about to be spit venom at by a Simon Cowell or someone else along his calibre.
So I agree to go karaoke today. There are six of us – me, Wai Khang, Xiang Jun, Peiyee, Ying Ying and Yan Ting (Peiyee’s guy friend) – and we all go down to this nice cosy lounge on the fourth floor of Lucky Chinatown. The price there is very reasonable: $5 per person for 3 hours’ use of the facilities, excluding snacks and beverages. And they’ve got a wide range of songs: Mandarin, English, Cantonese, Hokkien, even Thai and Malay. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had selections from the musicals.
The rooms are laid out differently from the usual karaoke lounges most people would have been to. There are no sofas or tables. Instead everybody sits on the floor. There are cushions to make one comfortable. A small table supports the remote control, catalogues, ashtray, drinks, food, and yes, a cordless mouse! You pick songs from a computer database – there’s a large monitor next to the television set, of which when confirmed the computer will send the data to the player.
The wonders of technology.
Me, WK and YT dominated the microphones. Individually we chose a particular genre of songs. WK was more for Cantopop stuff; YT Taiwanese and newer Chinese hits; me the English oldies. I discovered WK’s talent in singing: he really has a beautifully strong voice. Think the way Jack Cheung sings and you’ll know how WK sounds like. The closeness is unbelievable. When he took the first song (a Jacky Cheung piece) it was thought that the taped voice had been on to full volume, but it was actually WK singing! YT sang well too; he once took part in a karaoke competition organised by this lounge – his photograph is on the poster alongside with the other contestants along the corridor. I sing in tune, but very coarsely – I don’t know how to sing with the diaphragm. It’s almost like I’m half-talking, half-singing.
* * *
After a late lunch of porridge (yes, the famous Tiong Shan porridge in Chinatown!) we head to The Heeren Shops to visit the HMV outlet there. Thank god they’re having a spring sale (although spring is nearly over). A Naxos recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 costs $9.95 – a good buy for me, considering that I am not really fussy about the ensemble that plays the work I wish to listen. I particularly like the fourth movement, with Shos’ initials screaming all over the place.
Surprisingly YT knows Weidong through Friendster; WK, XJ and I run into them while visiting the Annex.
What a small world.
YT had left at 3pm as soon as our karaoke session was over because he had to meet a friend. Never did I expect that this friend is Weidong, and that all would end up meeting one another in the same location again.
* * *
A movie is too late to watch, so we decide to bowl instead. I have to excuse myself from playing as I am wearing sandals and it would cost me extra for socks, which I would have to find some way to deal with after that as, obviously for hygiene purposes, once sold no return.
The three of them play; YY doesn’t want to play either. Halfway she goes off for a long time with the intention of buying food, but only returns after a long time, making us worried. Turns out she went to have dinner.
XJ and PY let their ball slide onto the floor and roll smoothly towards the pins. For WK, he tosses it a little, and lets it fall with a “thump” before it heads for the pins. Noisy though, I find it a better method of ball control compared to smooth-throwing. For the latter, the ball has a danger of sliding or spinning, going off-course as a result. When the ball strikes the floor before rolling, it’s almost as if it’s confirmed its path; there is some degree of friction to it. And WK’s ball never went into the drain once. However, in many rounds the ball strikes towards the right side of the ten-pin formation, causing all but three on the left to topple. It’s always the same three. After noticing the trend, he tries aiming for the exact centre.
All ten pins topple on the first strike.
It happens to the others as well. If they hit a little too off, and not too near to the centre, they will find a few pins left standing on the opposite side.
* * *
WK, XJ and I have dinner at the newly-renovated Fountain Food Terrace. The food is expensive. For a main course, the cheapest is $3 at least. We discuss about food prices. XJ comments that the food in CCHMS has gone cheaper – and the students hungrier. The Western food stall for example, now sells at around $2. But the proportions of meat have become smaller, compared to the previous stallholder, making it not worth all the while. The mixed-vegetable rice stall has improved from the previous tenant, with more varieties and larger helpings. The Muslim food stall remains crazily high, with small proportions. XJ says that one chicken drumstick costs $1.00. That’s crazy for secondary school prices. They’ve become very cautious when choosing dishes from that stall to go with their rice, or else they’ll end up being told to pay up nearly $3, which shocks them all.
Still the dessert is the bonus: $0.80 for a rice-bowl of ice kachang, but then they are generous with the helpings.
* * *
I have been given flowers to bath or wash my face with. For those who don’t know, it’s the mixture of plucked flowers and pomelo leaves that you pour into your bathtub and bathe yourself in. These flowers have been blessed by prayer at a temple, and in turn blesses the person who bathes himself in. The only problem is that it is a horrific mess to clean up after that, because the wet flowers stick almost everywhere and clog the drain.
For the first time I see the Jasmine Flower. I shall enquire how I can get them, for my presentation at Suntec City. ¶ 3/18/2004 01:09:00 am
So I agree to go karaoke today. There are six of us – me, Wai Khang, Xiang Jun, Peiyee, Ying Ying and Yan Ting (Peiyee’s guy friend) – and we all go down to this nice cosy lounge on the fourth floor of Lucky Chinatown. The price there is very reasonable: $5 per person for 3 hours’ use of the facilities, excluding snacks and beverages. And they’ve got a wide range of songs: Mandarin, English, Cantonese, Hokkien, even Thai and Malay. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had selections from the musicals.
The rooms are laid out differently from the usual karaoke lounges most people would have been to. There are no sofas or tables. Instead everybody sits on the floor. There are cushions to make one comfortable. A small table supports the remote control, catalogues, ashtray, drinks, food, and yes, a cordless mouse! You pick songs from a computer database – there’s a large monitor next to the television set, of which when confirmed the computer will send the data to the player.
The wonders of technology.
Me, WK and YT dominated the microphones. Individually we chose a particular genre of songs. WK was more for Cantopop stuff; YT Taiwanese and newer Chinese hits; me the English oldies. I discovered WK’s talent in singing: he really has a beautifully strong voice. Think the way Jack Cheung sings and you’ll know how WK sounds like. The closeness is unbelievable. When he took the first song (a Jacky Cheung piece) it was thought that the taped voice had been on to full volume, but it was actually WK singing! YT sang well too; he once took part in a karaoke competition organised by this lounge – his photograph is on the poster alongside with the other contestants along the corridor. I sing in tune, but very coarsely – I don’t know how to sing with the diaphragm. It’s almost like I’m half-talking, half-singing.
* * *
After a late lunch of porridge (yes, the famous Tiong Shan porridge in Chinatown!) we head to The Heeren Shops to visit the HMV outlet there. Thank god they’re having a spring sale (although spring is nearly over). A Naxos recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 costs $9.95 – a good buy for me, considering that I am not really fussy about the ensemble that plays the work I wish to listen. I particularly like the fourth movement, with Shos’ initials screaming all over the place.
Surprisingly YT knows Weidong through Friendster; WK, XJ and I run into them while visiting the Annex.
What a small world.
YT had left at 3pm as soon as our karaoke session was over because he had to meet a friend. Never did I expect that this friend is Weidong, and that all would end up meeting one another in the same location again.
* * *
A movie is too late to watch, so we decide to bowl instead. I have to excuse myself from playing as I am wearing sandals and it would cost me extra for socks, which I would have to find some way to deal with after that as, obviously for hygiene purposes, once sold no return.
The three of them play; YY doesn’t want to play either. Halfway she goes off for a long time with the intention of buying food, but only returns after a long time, making us worried. Turns out she went to have dinner.
XJ and PY let their ball slide onto the floor and roll smoothly towards the pins. For WK, he tosses it a little, and lets it fall with a “thump” before it heads for the pins. Noisy though, I find it a better method of ball control compared to smooth-throwing. For the latter, the ball has a danger of sliding or spinning, going off-course as a result. When the ball strikes the floor before rolling, it’s almost as if it’s confirmed its path; there is some degree of friction to it. And WK’s ball never went into the drain once. However, in many rounds the ball strikes towards the right side of the ten-pin formation, causing all but three on the left to topple. It’s always the same three. After noticing the trend, he tries aiming for the exact centre.
All ten pins topple on the first strike.
It happens to the others as well. If they hit a little too off, and not too near to the centre, they will find a few pins left standing on the opposite side.
* * *
WK, XJ and I have dinner at the newly-renovated Fountain Food Terrace. The food is expensive. For a main course, the cheapest is $3 at least. We discuss about food prices. XJ comments that the food in CCHMS has gone cheaper – and the students hungrier. The Western food stall for example, now sells at around $2. But the proportions of meat have become smaller, compared to the previous stallholder, making it not worth all the while. The mixed-vegetable rice stall has improved from the previous tenant, with more varieties and larger helpings. The Muslim food stall remains crazily high, with small proportions. XJ says that one chicken drumstick costs $1.00. That’s crazy for secondary school prices. They’ve become very cautious when choosing dishes from that stall to go with their rice, or else they’ll end up being told to pay up nearly $3, which shocks them all.
Still the dessert is the bonus: $0.80 for a rice-bowl of ice kachang, but then they are generous with the helpings.
* * *
I have been given flowers to bath or wash my face with. For those who don’t know, it’s the mixture of plucked flowers and pomelo leaves that you pour into your bathtub and bathe yourself in. These flowers have been blessed by prayer at a temple, and in turn blesses the person who bathes himself in. The only problem is that it is a horrific mess to clean up after that, because the wet flowers stick almost everywhere and clog the drain.
For the first time I see the Jasmine Flower. I shall enquire how I can get them, for my presentation at Suntec City. ¶ 3/18/2004 01:09:00 am
