Not saying goodbye

Perth was incredibly hot this March. It was as if we brought the Malaysian climate to down south.

Dama did it again, bringing Malaysian Dama-Orchestra style theatre to the Perth folks. Many, many of our audience in this second Dama-at-His-Majesty's Theatre outing were Malaysians living in Perth or other parts of Australia.

I remember being on standby with Sam & Soo Suan backstage minutes before the overture starts, back in the KLPac staging, my heart was in my throat and my heart beat louder than the drums as the music started.

That Friday night in Perth at the magnificent His Majesty's Theatre, on opening night, however, I didn't have to manage as many butterflies as I did back in October last year. I was half relieved and half apprehensive about my lack of nerves. I was half relieved because I work best when I am relax on stage, half apprehensive because I fear I was losing enthusiasm in my part.

But I know I wasn't. Having gone down so many awkward to hilarious to emotional paths in the rehearsal rooms, it would be hard to let Lulu go so soon. How can I?

Lulu's earrings, my own prop, I borrowed it from my vast earring collection during early rehearsal and it became the real prop on stage. This will be my only accessory from the show that I get to keep because they're mine, in every sense of the word.

My first real kiss on stage, thank you Sam for doing most of the work, and our 'threesome' partner, Kai Loon for having the patience, and the patience with us.

My first bob wig in a Twiggy dress, thank you Dominique :)

My first real, true-to-god, heart-wrenching experience in bringing out the pain & tears from Lulu, a happy person. Thank you to all of you who helped me explore the emotions.

My first mother role on stage, what a joy to have a cutie like you Bobby :)

I have the folks who called the shot in Dama Orchestra to thank, for having the faith in me to play this role, and to tackle an incredible song like Red Face. It's them who gave me the opportunity to learn on the job to play Lulu, and thus nudging me ahead to further my studies, and training in stage craft...ok, acting.

I remember my fear for stage acting. I would refused to attend any audition if acting is an element in the show being put up. It took a few years for me to realise what a dork I was, singing and performing is never far from stage acting. They all go together, dancing, singing & acting...when you are not shy from these, only then you become a learner of the stage, and maybe, a performer.

But honestly, after a handful of musicals & theatre outings, I still have shivers just thinking about the enormous task of bringing a character on stage. What a great responsibility it is, to ask the audience to trust you in bringing them to the world of your character and live in your make believe world for two hours.

Because it's sheer magic, so I'm staying put in theatre. I would be lucky if I get one chance in a year to work in the theatre but I am grateful if I have it at all.

Till the next one.

Saw this in KLPac wall recently, that's me in the middle with two ladies of The Magic Flute, I played Second Lady in the concert of the wonderful Singspiel by Mozart in 2007. (First Lady was played by Kho Mei Ling, Third Lady by Wang DiXia, the shot below were Prince Tamino, played by Peter Ong and on the right was Papageno, played by James Long)

Viva la Diva :)

My new bookcase, HOME for my books & scores!!

I moved in on the 10th. Unpacked in 3 days, thanks to having very determined friends (in the form of Nell, Peter & Seeming n Sim) with one track-mind: help Janet unpack.

The clothes I gave up before I moved went to about three huge garbage bags, collected/bought/given/etc to several girl friends.

The packing experience started out bad, because I was extremely slow in the work, until I commissioned a troupe of very focused ladies to assist in the enormous task. The troupe made up of Nell n Zal. They worked fast, in just a few hours they helped me pack about 80% of my old flat.

Anyway, back to the present...I lost a bit of weight during my packing & moving period, leading into CNY.

Weigh myself this morning, it was 45.2kg. I happily announced to friends today at my first Yoga class that I'm going back to normal health. This evening at round midnight I stood on the weighing machine again, 44.1kg.

I was hoping that my appetite for cooking would come soon as I set up my new home/kitchen in my new pad - wrong. However I do have a much better stocked kitchen, however tiny it is, I have bread, peanut butter, cheese, eggs, pasta, sauces, soups in cans, herbs, instant noodles, chips, CNY cookies...but since my parents left for Taiping, I managed only made one proper meal - bean & eggs soup & Marmite rice.

Other meals consist of (so far) soft boiled eggs with toasts, egg sandwiches, instant noodles...peanut butter & bread, and junk food, with lots of Ribena.

Ok, I enjoy doing laundry in the extremely (obviously too huge for me) huge washing machine and hanging them to dry. So far I ran the machine by myself twice and both times an hour after I put the clothes out in the wet kitchen to dry, the stormed came, I just laughed.

Loving the new life on Mac. It's really a new life. Nuff said.

The Streamyx seems to actually work in the new location, I actually get to surf YouTube, and can view pictures on FB, blogs...etc. And I can blog with pictures!!

My parents seemed to enjoy the pad during their stay this CNY. It's big enough for everyone to have their comfort zone - my dad lounges around the hall, unsure of what to do, then he saunters to the pool downstairs to talk to strangers then to the lift lobby to look at the security guards, my mom pretty much `lounges' whole day in kitchen and about 10% of her stay here she spent in front of the TV (the only reason why we bought a TV), 5% she spent out shopping with us, my brother spends half the time in my guest room and the other half out in the city. Me? I was staying afloat during the CNY, I don't seem to function well in my own work where there's people around, must be too used to having nobody around when I work.

There was work to do during CNY, I had a number of new songs to tackle for a wedding gig during CNY. Singing with a 10-piece band is really, really, cool. I would really die for more gigs like that one.

Going out is another cool thing here, people usually frown at an address in Jalan Ipoh - a congested & noisy place to live in. I get to most places faster than my old address, with the various highways being very accessible from here.

There are of course things that I would bitch about, about this new pad...guess I'll do that in a separate post, on a later date Soon.

On the music agenda, which is also the work agenda - there are a few on-hand exciting little projects taking place.

So life is very good. Here, at Viva :)