The Original Juice

The day for another karaoke session at Ayah's office finally came.

It took so long cos the room was always booked, we had to wait for more than 4 weeks! But the wait was all worth while. Cos we got the bigger room this time. very spacious!

This time, invited guests were Cik Girl (my mum's youngest sister) and of course, Cousin Yayan.

Thankfully, Ayah helped to make a video of Me and Zubair singing Yang Tersayang. Zubair LOVES this song. The only malay song thus far that he likes, listens to almost everyday. But last fri was the first time he tried to sing it properly. His diction is very nice and clear except for a few confusion in pronounciation like the word DEMI becomes more like DIMI but considering that its his FIRST time singing, it was like a A Star!

We had the room from 6 - 10pm. It wasn't enough!! Bcos some of them reach very late. And then we break for prayer... dinner... So guess what? Since the night was still young, we continued the momentum at Cash Studio two NEL stops away.

Over there, we sang for another 3 hours ending at 2am. Zubair got to sing a lot of Hindi songs. But some of them we had to SKIP bcos of the disgusting home made Video. ERGH! But we had a lot of fun singing ISABELLA '98. I was Amy, Cik Girl sang Jamal, Yayan became Saleem and Long Zamani. We had to repeat it a lot of times cos we got confused about whose turn it was to sing! LOL

Let me then conclude with a summary of the pros and cons of both places

Club 7

Pros:

1. CHEAP. less than $10 per hour
2. Great cheap food Max $4.50 for a big serving of seafood spaghetti or chicken chop...
3. Clean toilets with jet spray
4. Other facilities like pool table, etc

Cons:

1. Long waiting list to book the room
2. Quite inaccessible though nearest MRT in lil India.
3. Not so good Microphone

Cash Studio

Pros:

1. More Songs and latest ones too
2. Can save favourites
3. Quite central location
4. Opens till 3 or 4am
5. Night Rider bus stop very near

Cons:

1. FREAKING EXPENSIVE!!!! Total for 3 hours for 5 pax was $80!!!! *FAINT*
2. People actually smoke in there!!!
3. TOILET IS DISGUSTING!!!! Thankfully they're gonna move to Cuppage soon but that's in ORCHARD. YUCKS
4. Most of the videos are CIPLAK (pirated) and distasteful.

If you ask me which place would i visit again, it would hafta be Club 7.

Though Z wasn't too hungry, i got him to eat at BBQ Chicken at Cineleisure which he had ever told me about before.

I had a crispy Chicken salad. Nice but a bit toooo tomato-ey $7.90

Z had Chicken wings $8

Though it was nothing special, i rejoice at having yet another Halal eatery to hit the list. They have another branch at E!Hub i heard.

10Th April 08

Ok the video is lousy but i didnt take any pictures, so this should serve as "momentos"

Ayah treated us to a Karaoke night at his office's Recreation Room. It's a new building equipped with 2 karaoke rooms, a lounge, 2 pool tables, a Games' Room (Puzzle Bubble kinda machine u find in arcades) and of course, a GYM. They also had some musical instruments stashed one side.

Very nice! We all had a fun 4 hours of singing between 7 of us: me, Z, parents, Kak Long and two cousins. so much so that even at 10pm, we didn't wanna stop and had another 1 song on queue! And to think that mostly pple finish at 9pm! LOL!

The food is fabulous and CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. A chicken chop tagged at $4??!! Even the room is cheap lah! $28 for 4 hours compared to $10 per person at KBox and the like.

Zubair sang all his favourite Hindi songs and of course he sang flawlessly. There was this one song Dil Se Re. It's a rock song and we got shocked when he suddenly shouted, "DIL SE RE!!!" and it came quite a number of times over the next 5 - 6mins.

It's nice that the rest of the family made an effort to sing along with him the Hindi songs. so that it wont seem like he's singing alone and nobody else bothered. But the funny thing is, its quite easy for us to sing-along with him cos mostly they repeat the lines a lot but quite diff for him to sing along to MALAY songs.

Overall, we had a great time. At least i did.

Pehla Nasha from one Indian movie.

An Indian classical pop piece called Khamaj.

Zubair sings, plays the piano and accordian as well as writes/composes music. He is available for musical performance and other services. Please contact us at julissa.adam@gmail.com or 6726 2732.

Yup, We are still visiting on 9th Day. In fact, all Singaporeans are.

First Stop, my cousin Kak Lina's house at Choa Chu Kang.

What she served us.

Not in any order: Rice, Sambal Goreng, Fish in Green Chilli gravy, omelette, fish crackers.

The cookie spread. I LOVE sarang semut / Ant's house (?). Actually its just vanilla flavoured biscuits with chocolate rice on top. hehe

Kak Lina bought this 2nd Christofori's Piano at SGD 800!! What a steal! Zubair was being "Auditioned" while i admired on... hehe.. i have the video but its too big to upload from office. Afraid i'd get detected and blogger will be blocked for internet hogging.

My nieces Rashika and Erika.

Dancing to Mann song in the background.

Next stop: Mak Ngah's house at..... SIMEIIIIIIII

Syifaa's Aunty Sarina (Pronounced: Salina) is here.

We would like to express our sincerest gratitude for Mak Ngah who especially cooked a small pot of mutton steak for Zubair despite Nur and most of the rest not eating MUTTON at all. but she made a BIG pot of beef steak lah.

But by 4pm, Zubair was tired already. (We went out at 12:15pm) and even took a nap.

Third House is Cik Esah's house back in Tampines, at the same block where i used to live for the first 18yrs of my life.

Zubair was so bored.. he had to do something

On to Hanani's Place . She served us with Satay, samosa, cream puff, mee siam goreng. OMG, ALL ARE MY FAV!!!!!! I'm soooooooo soooooooooo sad we only stayed like 30min when we stayed like more than 1hr at other places! HUMPH! So not fair! Sorry Nan. really wanted to stay longer.

From left: Nan, Zan, Xubi, Jus, Ziah, Khairiah.

Alas, Azma and Fir were busy and not in picture. Sorry babe.

Next was Abg Izhar's house... AGAIN. this time with the whole family. They cooked Mee Siam, also from our stock... but i ate to show respect. PLUS the fried chicken was nice.

Next still was Nek Ngah's house at Bukit Merah / Red Hill.

She was serving Mee Rebus... i tot, NOOOOOOOO i CANT see the sight of MEE REBUS EVER AGAIN!!! She called us to the kitchen many many times but we all excused ourselves.. till when Ayah went to eat, Zubair also went to take a serving and i saw that there's udang and the gravy is a bit reddish. and i helped myself to a plate also and NO REGRETS!!!... wait maybe just regretted a bit that i didnt take MORE PRAWNS!!! Zubair loved it too, of course.

And er... i have this young uncle who's er... looking for a wife. and Ayah asked me to recommend one of my friends!!! When i suggested somebody, then he eagerly asked me what is she like and everything... God.. i was sooo puking inside... I got caught in such a "weird" and "uncomfortable" situation. Yikes!

Then Nek Ngah was trying to interview Zubair in Malay and me the interpreter. Then she said something like, "But u havent gained weight eh!?" I said, "WHAT!!! Oh yes he has!! 10 kg at that!" Nek Ngah, "Really? Can't see it. You lah who has gained weight. you got something inside?" #@%#$^%$&^%&#$%@#$@#$@

I got sooooooo freaking pissed off but i smiled at the lovely Nenek. Of course, she's not to be blamed. I know ive gained weight but the thing that irked me was she cldnt see that ZUBAIR's the one who's grown 120%!! But then many others have noticed it... so i dont feel so bad. hahah

Ok ok... the 7th and absolutely LAST house for the day: Cik Ita's house.

Thing is, Cik Ita has been such an angel as to lend us one of her CARS. Yup... she has 3 altogether, an MPV, a Chevrolet Aveo and a company car. and they weren't going out anyways and get this... she LENT IT TO US FOR FREE!!! And when we went to her house to send the car back, Cik Adi even offerred to send us home, despite it being 11.35pm! They're very generous lah. I Thank god for such good family.

Yes yes i know im getting more tembam-er / chubbier by the minute!

Well.. how not to? You know what they served? Cream of CHicken Soup and spaghetti and grapes and tea... OH GOd! *slaps tummy*

I made a resolution that night to GO TO THE GYM the next day.

It's a Sunday and we are going to watch Zihah perform her classical guitar number at Lee Foundation Theatre.. somewhere Bencoolen St.

It starts at 7:30pm. It being a fasting day, we had to be creative as to where we break our fast. We bought takeaway KFC for him and LJS for me. Then proceeded to find the theatre then walked 500m away to find a suitable place to sit n eat. We found one at Sunshine Plaza.



25min into our dinner and almost finishing, the Malay/Muslim security guard approached us to remind us to clean up. Thank you sir for not approaching us earlier and understanding our plight. oh and it was raining too! quite a few pple were taking shelter there.

First performance of the night. 3 songs from the Guitarissimo Ensemble piece. Ziah is the only one is tudung/scarf. The one on the right most was enjoying himself, he was hyper tapping his feet, swaying his head...

Next was violins. I really love it! It was melodious... graceful... and expressive! I love it so much i told Zubair i might just pick it up.. learn from his music sch... then we can go together *beam* ok it's a fantasy, pple!

Ok Break time: 20min interval.

That's Zihah. I noticed she was wearing some red belt over her waist and she complained about it too.

Zubair was complaining to her that the last performance was not in tune. some were going faster than the other. I told them, "Oh is it? I wldn't know any better." Ziah said, "To you it sounds nice right?" yeah man! i sooooo dont notice all these details.

Clowning around. see the backgrounder. Is it a game they play to pose in pple's picture?? Well this is what u will get back. all the time he was bragging to his friends about his knowledge / experience in music. he said for classical music, even if they go wrong, pple wont notice. and then he said NTU's band much better than SMU's. then he said the background music during interval is better than on stage. Well he was simply irritating with his loud voice!

Bored?

Nah.. was just acting. i really enjoyed it! I didnt think i would be glad to go but i am! heheh There was a sitar and tabla performance which Zubair loved best. or maybe he really liked Joel Loh's solo performance. I dont know but he seemed too confident i dont like it. pple were like boasting that he performed during National Day and all that.. so i tot his was mediocre bcos i was expecting BETTER. and he always shake his head at the end of the note like mimicking the strings springing to a stop. That's just like weird.

There was this band with pianist, violinist, 3 guitarist and drummer. That was the absolute best performance! too bad there was a lot of technical fault during the encore! It would have been great otherwise.

Just one performance i super hated:

This guitar and vocal duet. i was like getting goosebump from the shrieky voice. i glanced at Zubair he was also puking. Into the third song, i thought when are they gonna finish!! and i winced at Zubair.. then he told me he just concentrated on the guitar.. i tried it and it soothe me a little. That Anthony is quite something. i like his style.

Well the event finished somewhere 9.30pm. and then because i promised Zubair yesterday that we'll go to Little India today, so we did. we actually intended to walk to Peace Centre bus stop to take a bus but i tot, why not walk? it's just 2 stops away... save money and well...get some air and view.

I showed him the Banquet building which he might go for walk-in interview for the next day. I showed him the Selegie House (flats) which is probably available on rent but im not sure.

And then we got to Serangoon Road where Little India starts and suddenly it hit me. "OMG, It's Sunday!" A lot ,... and i mean A LOT of Banglas hang out here on weekends.. esp Sunday. I held on to Zubair's hand very tightly as we made our way to the other end of Little India to buy his favourite Paan! i was just afraid if somebody might pick up a fight of try to harass me or something. He was apologising to me and asking after me all the way. In a way, that's kinda nice. That is him protecting me AND having a guilt trip! hahahaha

All went well though. We went home promptly after he got his Paan. Oh! and the funny thing is he always asked me to stand a few metres away saying that he dont like me being near so many guys at a PAAN shop... but i tot that's just silly bcos i feel more bare and unprotected standing alone on the dark road! This time, i hang out INSIDE 7-11 but didnt buy anything! haha

Yup anyway all went well and we got home 11:15pm.

Dont say im not trying to appease your night owlish yearnings!

Now im super sleepy cos i only had 4hrs of sleep. and now its lunch time im gonna go take a nap.