Wednesday, May 26, 2010

36 Rajasthani musicians

The Manganiyar were fantastic. Part of the Singapore arts festival, this was a peep show of incredible Indian musicians, the opening and closing of curtains and the rhythmic, synchronised switching on and off of dressing room light globes. All orchestrated by the greatest display of castanet playing this side of Leonardo Balanda's Concertina for Castanets and Orchestra Three Anecdotes (1977).

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Amanda's Birthday - Part 2

We were joined by around a dozen friends at a rarely found BYO restaurant in Singapore.

The night started off with Amanda and I heading to the restaurant with the alcohol. Amanda looked extremely sexy in a little black Gucci dress. And clutching a magnum of champagne which was about half as big as her. I now realise how much she must have to drink for me to become attractive!

We blasted through dinner for around 4 hours and after tiramisu cake, headed out to dance. I had booked a few tables at one of the good clubs (like I would know!) however for some reason Amanda changed her mind. She didn't want to be at a club full of 25 year olds, rather choosing to go to a club that would be full of 45 year olds. I don't know why she would want to spend her 35th birthday at a place like that.

She did enjoy it though. As soon as we walked in she hit the dance floor to the classics of yesteryear - Duran Duran, Madonna (old school) and did I hear some De La Soul? 4 hours of non-stop dancing. And I mean non-stop - there was not even a toilet break.

I even managed to dance a little (see earlier post regarding champagne in-take) but mainly amused myself by watching Eurotrash (not you Philippe), guys trying to pick up, lady-boys (not you Jason), and boys trying to pick up lady-boys.

As part of Festivus we are going to HK this weekend "for a big one." I think she has a renewed taste for dancing. Can't wait.

MMA at Resorts World - Review

Hmmm, another terribly organised event.

The seats are generally arranged in a circular manner around a centrally located cage. I had purchased the second most expensive tickets and was located in the last row, equidistant from the cage as the nearby cheapest seats.

The seating is not raked so it is hard to see over heads, particularly when the fighters go to ground.

Save yourself money - buy the cheapest tickets possible and sit in one of the many empty and better seats.

Whisky Live 2010 Singapore - review

Quite a poorly organised event that reminded me of being at a buffet in a Tier 2 Chinese city.

I won't go as far as to say that the event was over-sold as this would imply that the organisers were not fully aware of the numbers coming. The layout was woefully inadequate for the number of attendees with small tasting tables located in cramped corners.

The "special events" such as blind tasting (which was blind smelling, not blind tasting) was 5-7 glasses attended to by one woman, providing some "fun" for the couple of hundred people present.

One barman for whisky cocktails.

One barman for other cocktails.

2 staff attending each whisky tasting table and each table was typically 3 deep in waiting.

Terribly organised event from the lack of information on the website to the whisky available to the lack of staff to the overcrowded room. I will not attend again.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Birthday's & Visitors

As the dust clears from Amanda's birthday last night, I am not feeling very chatty but will do my best.

We have had The Rock family come through Singapore and loved every minute of it.

Grace was a treat as always and Jasper looks set to be the world's greatest clapper. I would mock him as a one-trick pony however his molestation by a Singapore airlines hostess and half the women in Singapore has driven me to secretly practice my clapping when Amanda is in the other room. He clearly has his mother fooled as she rather generously describes his hair colour as "copper."

The one thing about Grace that is really impressive is that even at this early age, she clearly has the elegant class of her mother when it comes to her dress sense.

And has passion for her fashion.

Amanda's birthday last night was a long and messy affair.
1985
3 bottles
1988
Magnum

Just 1 bottle
More details to come as my head clears and Amanda gets out of bed.