Peter Pan the Musical

Okay, I know it is a show for kids but I was a tad bit disappointed when it didn't stay true to the original Peter Pan. I mean Peter Pan the theater. I mean, it was a theater before it was a book. The advertisement did say it was a West End production.

Maybe it should have been labeled a "SHOW FOR KIDS" or something in that line. It would have prepared us for the way it was presented.

Don't get me wrong. It was an entertaining show for kids and except for the rain which happened at the end which made us wet and not being able to enjoy the Night Park as allowed by the organiser, it was entertaining enough. 

It would have captured the attention of any hyperactive kids. So, if you do not have any plans yet for the next one month of school holidays, other than sending them to whatever camps there are for kids nowadays, do bring them to watch Peter Pan the Musical at Sunway Amphitheater this December. It runs until 2nd of January 2011.

All this thanks to All Malaysia Bloggers Project which is part of the Star newspaper. As for the Peter Pan Musical, you can get more information here.

Some pictures on the day from where I sat with a few other bloggers/social media people.

Among the kids at the Shout! Awards 2010

I was given an opportunity again to attend the Shout! Awards, an event held by 8TV for the entertainment industry. I just had the opportunity to question Ahmad Izham Omar the CEO of 8TV a few week ago and as I know the Shout! Awards is his current baby, I had high hope for it. Especially when I know my twitter buddy, Altimet will be performing his current hit single, Kotarayaku.

The verdict? I love the award show in term of visual and performances by the artists but as everyone who followed me and retweeted my complain, the audio killed the mood. It was way off and from the answer I gained from Twitter, it was bad even on television. And as we were on top of the places where they controlled the whole event, we were wondering why 7 banks of monitors couldn't do their jobs properly. 

We did noticed an acknowledgment by @AhmadIzhamOmar himself on twitter that they were rectifying the audio in the middle of the event and it did get better after early half the awards were given out. I actually think with all the classy acts like Mizz Nina, Altimet, Hujan, Dejavoodoo Spell and Yuna, the show could have gone better.

Anyway, all in all, I enjoyed the world class performance by Malaysian artists which are getting better and better.

Some pictures from where I was :

Yes, it was far from the stage. Just the way we like it. Too many kids.

Let me see if my wife took any close up pictures. Will upload later...

Oh, thanks to Twitter friends Farah and Khir Omar for the tickets

The chicken pox conspiracy

Is he the one who did it?

 This is really a conspiracy theory. So, let me say it again. It is a theory. I am not proving or disapproving it with a test or evidence. After all, there is none and I am not qualified to prove or disprove it.

The theory is : Someone is infecting with a chicken pox strain so that someone else can take over the job of those being infected. 

I had chicken pox 2 months back. I was told it was an airborne disease and I can even infect people just by speaking to them. I had the high fever 3 days before any indication of the lesion that comes with the pox was coming out.

They look innocent but you never know what they are thinking

At the same day (same day mind you) my staff also had the pox. I was quarantined for 8 days. My partner took over. Nothing against her as she is a good partner and the level of trustworthiness we have with each other is very, very high. We have known each other for nearly 18 years since the day we start Law Matriculation together. And we have in business for nearly 11 years.

Evil cute and fluffeh cats

One month after that I recovered and I attended the Global Islamic Finance Forum who was attended by none other than our Prime Minister.I didn't shake hands or anything with him although I was only 5 meters from him at one time.

Lo and behold, 2 weeks after that, our PM was infected by chicken pox. 

My wife, upon reading the news (on Twitter) tweeted : I think my husband may have infected the PM.

That one was a joke. 

Someone did say : Nothing in life is ever a coincidence.

But, it is just a theory. And it may not even be true.

* This is a theory which does not allege anything which you might infer and any inference to anything at all is the product of your conspiratorial mind. 

Air Campur at Ais Tingkap Taufeeq

Refer to the previous post to read about how I had an enjoyable Penang trip and how this one drink I just had to have over and over again.

Called 'Air Campur' or in short a cocktail or mocktail, if you want to be particular about the existence of alcohol in it. It consists of water and biji selasih and coconut and sprayed lime juice. The stall is exactly on the side of Chowrasta market. There is cucurs on offering too.

Here is a video of how it is made :

Food, food and more food in Penang

The idea is simple and the execution is simpler : Go Penang, Eat, Check-in hotel, go out back to eat, rest for 30 minutes or so, go look for another place to eat, change places to eat at another location, eat, tweet about what we eat, check out the reply to the tweets so we can try out more food.

In chronological order, here is our Penang food-trail :

1) Arrived at the Nasi Kandar place called Line Clear at 6am on Friday morning, a small between-shops which is well-known but I consider it to be overrated especially when you see the rats running around the area at that time of the day. It is closed although it is clearly stated there that it is open 24 hours. Those at the shops say that it will open at 8.30am. Decided not to wait and off we went to check-in at our apartment;

2) After our Friday prayer, we went to a place called Hameediyah at Jalan Campbell which has a history predating the founding of Penang itself. We were not that impressed as there are many food items missing. However, we consider their Mee Goreng Mamak is the best item on the menu.

3) After that meal, we scoured the nearby place which is around a place called a wet market called Chowrasta and found a few chendol places and a cucur place which serves wicked Air Campur (which consist of water and syrup and coconut pieces and biji selasih and then some air limau. I have a video of how it is made, which I will upload later in another blogpost, and like any street stall's vendor, the skill is amazing);

4) Then we took a breather before going to a place in Teluk Tempoyak, near Batu Maung, which I insisted on going to experience seafood at a different level. Fresh off the sea and grilled. We ate so many prawns either 'goreng masak cili', 'masak tepung' or those inside our mee udang. The only missing item that night was squids as the stall selling it was closed that day. I took the satisfaction of hearing them say they don't mind coming back to that place just to eat the seafood;

5) Supposed to go to a nasi kandar place called Nasi Kandar Beratur but was too tired even after we went to have some Turkish coffee and some baklava at Tarbush, a place near Batu Ferringhi. Missing there was an offering of shisha which would have made it perfect;

6) At 10am the next morning (Saturday) we went to a roti canai place at Jalan Transfer which also has telur mata on toasted bread. It was heavenly though the place is very small and it seems they are there since 1940s. It is an institution to say the least;

7) Bought some roti benggali fresh from the oven which someone (@kzamri) on Twitter who recommended it. The place was once named Ismaalia but is seemed (according to the man at the roti canai place) "Is sudah lari, tinggal Malia saja", so the named is Maalia Roti Benggali. It was heavenly to walk into the place and smell the freshly baked bread;

8) Went back to Chowrasta area and we decided to risk eating at Line Clear. Ate and still think I can get the same taste anywhere in KL. Meaning that I was not that impressed but the food is on par with the best nasi kandar in KL;

9) Went back to the area within Chowrasta and have the same thing that we had on Friday but I drank 2 glasses of the Air Campur and thanks to foursquare, got to know its name which is Ais Tingkap Taufique.

10) At 10pm, we had our next food stalls gastronomic experience at Gurney Drive, a must visit cluster of stalls which has a Chinese section and a more halal section. However, most just sit wherever one can find space within the same area. We had pasembor, otak-otak, mee goreng mamak, nearly ordered a gigantic burger and the usual teh tarik.

11) We were supposed to go to another nasi kandar place called Nasi Kandar Beratur but my wife and I surrendered early and only one person managed to taste this concoction as she was the only one brave enough to travel the distance required to reach the middle of the town at 3am.

12) On the final day, we had another nasi kandar which was not the one we had intended to go but a shop just beside it. If the one we tasted is already good, we wonder about how good is the one sold ast the shop which was closed. The name of the restaurant which was closed is Tajuddin Hussein and the one we ate at was Dawood. Ayam piru, kurma kambing and ayam goreng freshly fried. A fitting end before we made our way back.

Even reading this list has made me hungry again and this will not be our only trip as we really enjoyed the food there...