Post MSF Blur(not Blues)

Have been a blur sotong for the past few days(post MSF syndrome).

1. Forgot where I put my pen, forgot to charge my batteries, forgot how to write scripts & which table to extract datas from and

2. The ultimate blur-ness : (the sign on a bus' door)

BERKHEMAHLAH DI JALAN RAYA. SELAMATKAN NYAWA

Camp on the road to save lives ?

Yup! It's translated as CAMP ON THE ROAD. SAVE LIVES.

My brain captured it that way for more than 10 minutes. And just a few a seconds after I rang the bell to get off the bus, it appeared clearly as

BERHEMAHLAH DI JALAN RAYA which means, BE COURTEOUS ON THE ROAD

What difference a K makes .

Luckily I don't drive. If not, I'll have to put this sign on the car:

BEWARE! BLUR SOTONG DRIVING *_*

Malaysian Salsa Festival

Too lazy to type so many things. For now, it'll be pictures posting time only.

My first MSF(I missed last year's).

We departed from Sentral like 40 minutes after the scheduled time(talk about Malaysian Rubber Time)!!!

The interesting part is where our buses were escorted by the polices from Bidor to the hotel itself. Felt like VIP leh.

We made a smart choice for this festival(learned our lessons well from the previous SISF).

Less workshops & more rests(zZZZz) to make sure we have enough energy for the dancing later.

Not that we ended up dancing the nights away. My roomie & I ended up chatting till 4am instead.

Took a few workshops(3 per day ain't that bad): musicality-on1 & on2(basic only la), sexy movement(where the guy have to give the girl a sorta lap dance), Brazilian Samba, Turn pattern/s & spinning technique.

Shimmy Steven had a workshop of his own during dinner(where we feed ourselves & fattened those mosquitos at the same time) - mosquito bachata & mosquito shimmy(gotta clarify with him again).

CL, AL & moi even accomplished the mosquito shines. Caution, this move can only be perfected while having dinner outdoor, preferably near a lot of trees & with minimal lightings.

And managed to hop into a reggae-ton workshop by the pool too. Darn good exercise for the abd & shoulders.

Didn't take photos on the 1st day at Lumut, but took a lot(well, not as many as Uncle James - almost 2000 woh he said) on the 2nd & last day.

Credits goes to these suddenly-ter-appointed photographers: Jason, Roger, Gina, Chiow Er, DJ Othman, Chin Lai & Sean. Hope I didn't missed out anyone's name. If yes, please let me know yeah!


The triple sharing bedroom in Swiss Garden at Lumut


Roomies(left to right): Chiow Er, Hazel & moi


MSF 2007- Group photo


(Right to left) Ai Ling, Chin Lai, Chiow Er & moi(like the colour combo, no?)


Team Havana with Guru Sam(I refer him as D Boss)


SoMachoMafias with D Boss


Chiow Er & me being surrounded by the Mafias! & yet, still smiling


Stylo Mylo hugging(posing lar) with Martin(Mian Li, don't pukul me ah)


Jason and moi(I like his shirt. Eh, can pinjam ah?)


Chiow Er, TiredButStillBubblyWenNie & moi


Jason aka Mambojays: Why so hot one here? When gonna start partying ?
(psst Jason, don't marah ye, nanti lekas tua )


No salsa yet, so Mambojays went & part timed as photographer
(me photographed the photographer)


Er, let me check the camera first


Chiow Er, (he won't allow me to call him a*** woh)Uncle James aka Salsakaki & moi


Uncle James & moi

oi
Sean & me(so normal posing lor)


Please don't drop me!!
Gotta 'take 2' for this picture. The 3 of us(including the photographer) started laughing like mad & almost left our slippers & camera behind after taking this picture.


Wai Sum & me at the party


3am lor & the salsero/as are still going strong. No need to sleep ar ?

More pictures(gonna chase mi amigos for more of them photos):


With Kaytee


With Nestor


Balik kampung KL lah.


I curi ambil this picture. heheh...
Does Not Play Well With Others (how u salsa if don't play well with others?)

And wanna thank Magna too for the salsa song that she shared with moi us. I still owe her something. Shucks!!

Pre MSF

36 hours(and counting) to Lumut, the place where MSF is to be held.

I missed the 1st MSF and went for SISF instead last year.

The itinerary earlier: HE's students(or uh-hmm ex-student) who booked the MSF pass via HE is to board the bus at TTDI on the Thursday morning. 9.30am check in luggage? I gotta get out of the house like at 7.30am ?

But was later informed to rendezvous at KL Sentral around 9am yesterday. Ish!! Say bye bye to me bed so early to lepak at Sentral ar? Ok lor, had to follow instruction mah. At least, it'll be more convenient for me to go to Sentral instead of TTDI.

Have been working overtime most of the weeks up till today(and maybe tomorrow too) so that I can say adios(even if its only for 3 workdays) to my work-basket and work-station in peace. Hope it won't be over flow with cases when I start work after MSF.

Caught a glimpse of the workshops schedule yesterday and the first one would be musicality . Can't wait leh(start wishing that I'm on the way to Lumut already).

Wonder will it be windy and maybe drizzle a bit at Lumut ? Sure would love the cool breeze and rain(not the heavy kind) like what I've been experiencing for the past 2 days during and after lunch break. Such a delightful and fuzzy feeling(hard to describe lar, more or less like this: )

So many workshops and the venue being near a beach, should I or should I not bring my camera along(even if its only to capture some rain pictures)? I'll decide tomorrow lar.

A Night of So Many Dances

Went for the KLDA Dinner and Dance last Saturday.

I never did noticed the venue when I stayed in Taman Muda Cheras 2 years ago. So, I was really surprised that KLDA is just across my old apartment.

The dance floor was nice and quite big with lots of seats still empty as we arrived at the door at 7pm.

Had crash courses on slow waltz, rumba, foxtrot and jive courtesy of Hock Siew, Steven Yap(he got us into this D&D), Joseph and Calvin(I think...STML working overtime again) .

I practically need to remind myself the basic steps when dancing the slow waltz(a bit different from Viennese waltz woh): don't use the leg that you've used earlier. Must remember: right leg used already, don't use. Left leg used already, don't use.. Ish!!

Steven was so nice to ask Joseph(the DJ that night) to play a couple of salsa songs for us cause he knew that we(Brenda & I) are still beginners in the ballroom/latin dances and we're more used to doing salsa.

Dinner was just your normal snack food, ie meehoon goreng, nasi kunyit(yellow rice), fish curry, yam cake & other stuffs. Not that we're complaining cause its quite what we've expected due to the ticket is only RM25 for that particular night.

Watched a few performances: cha cha, samba, tango and waltz and I'm quite impressed with the younger couple(below 16 only leh). They did the cha cha & samba with such finesse and they can really move their body ohh!!

Did a rumba with Joseph and before we could finish, he gotta go and change the CD again . Ish!! So potong steam loh, but as he said, no choice lar, me went back to my seat to wait for another dance-able(one that I know how to dance to lar) song.

Was pleasantly surprise when a merengue & another salsa song came on the air again. Joseph played a bachata number too. That's a big surprise. Merengue I understand, but, bachata woh?!?!? Nevertheless, its fun to hear the oh so familiar bachata song.

Party ended at around 11.30pm and me went off thinking: unable to go to SH or LH, but still can salsa, some more merengue & bachata

Had a snack/drink session at Old Town Kopitiam where we chat about dancing and stuffs.

Wonder when are they going to organize the Dinner and Dance again. Hope it won't be too long a wait.

Mission(s) Accomplished

A quiet night it was in Salsa Havana last Saturday.

Was contemplating earlier that day whether to go to SH or not, but I didn't regret making the decision to get my fix of salsa(mission # 1).

Salsa-ed to 5 songs(above my expectation) in a row, since there wasn't that many a salsera in the club for the guys to dance with.

It was almost 11ish when a few more salsero/as started to appear.

Then, I noticed a certain salsero mambo-ing away to Martin(Reyes)'s selection of moderate salsa music. I absolutely love the way he dance with another salsera too. Not a lot of fancy moves, but mostly mambos, then a brief viejo, a turn(or two) for the lady and mambos again. I kept watching him almost the whole night, hoping to have a dance with him too.

Suddenly, there was a malay(Indonesian) salsa song being played. Interesting lyrics, with a lot of sakit hati(malay for heart aches) in the lyrics. Why is the heart aching during salsa ?? Beats me. But its a nice song to dance/listen to.

Walked straight up to Martin and asked(mission # 2) him what's the name of the song, and he showed me the CD cover(can only see the Title of the album, can't find the name of the songs on it lah... ish ish). Was told that he got the CD from a friend of his(from Indonesia I guess) and I won't be able to find it in KL.

Before leaving the club, I finally braved myself to ask(mission # 3) the salsero(mentioned earlier) for a dance as I again noticed that he's dancing alone to a nice number. Its mambos, viejo(yeah, I did the 'old man walking' too) and mambos again, but I like it.

Me = during the whole dance and on the way home too .

** 2 days only to accomplish another mission(owe someone something lar )

My Daemon (a trivia from)The Golden Compass

Disclaimer: This is not a salsa nor dance related post. I just love the graphic and decided to post it here.

The Golden Compass(to be release in December 2007) - An exciting fantasy adventure, set in an alternative world, where a person’s soul lives on the outside of their body in the form of a daemon*

a daemon*,


(*) Daemon – a person’s soul in the form of a talking animal spirit that lives outside of the person’s body and which accompanies a person through life.

Reached Little Havana at 11ish yester-night. The floor wasn't that packed, but I still prefer to walk over to the DJ console area when the music stopped and everyone is not dancing(yet).

Was sitting the whole night(2 hours ++ me think) in front of the speaker enjoying the extreme bachata and salsa songs more than dancing to it.

Another extreme bachata came on air and I asked CE, how come got extreme bachatas, but no extreme merengue/s ? And we just laugh away.

Had a few(too few lar-countable) dances, most importantly to Yamulemau . Vamanos Pa Senegal and La Cumbita(here to listen to cover version of it) are another 2 songs that I wanted and did danced to that night.

After La Cumbita finished, I asked DJLee what was the title and artist's name of the song(at that time I don't know mar) and he told me its LC. Then(~ 5 minutes later), I realised, errr... I did ask him about this familiar song long time ago when he first intro it in LH. Short Term Memory Loss kicking in again!! Ishhh!!

Found myself not following the lead properly when I danced yesterday. So, just wanna apologize to all my dear salseros whom I danced with if I didn't followed your lead yeah.

Blame it on the hot weather, the oh so syiok salsa/bachata songs(me think me syiok sendiri at that time), overhaul of dancing lessons, etc etc.. Excuses, excuses, I know . Shall try very hard to avoid all this from happening again. I promised.

Update for Friday Salsa @ Little Havana in July(courtesy of DJLee):

Salsa Nights are ON for every Friday in July at Little Havana! Mark your calendars for 6/7, 13/7, 20/7 and 27/7.

Something not salsa related

8.30pm, Friday night(still in the office).

Me: Hungry lar, you guys wanna have dinner or not?

Jeff/Dom: ok.. where to ?

Me: Anywhere will do. As long as its easy for me to go LH after that.

Jeff have to fetch his girlfriend first at Jalan Raja Laut, so he suggested to have dinner at this Cotton Club - a 2-storeys Jazzaurant in Maju Junction.

Hmm.. the plate coaster had this on it. Almost wanted to ask the waiter, can I take it home ar ?

We ordered our food and were in the midst of finishing dinner when the band starts playing..

oooOO , the lead singer(nice voice) were singing lots of my favorite songs in jazzy style leh. Yummy. Ohh.. the food's yummy too

Only after we've finished dinner and started chatting do I noticed the other music motives in the jazzaurant, like the guitar on the menu and also the design of the chair

A nice place to dine in, but not so suitable for chatting(more like shouting lar) when the live band is on.