A Rush to the Head: Winning a Man Utd Jersey

Weekend of 10th & 11th November

Shoulder to shoulder with a legend: Mr. Ian Rush.

Aaahhhhhhhh, what a weekend!!!! I think this weekend of one of my luckiest weekends this year. Why? ‘Cause I won a brand spankin’ new Man Utd jersey signed by the main man himself, Mr. Christiano Ronaldo!!!!! WOoOoO-HoOoOoO!!!!!! It came along with EPL shields on both sleeves, with Ronaldo’s name and number printed at the back, and with the signature crafted on the legendary number ‘7’. Check it out:

Tired but grateful for the jersey. Heck, the Nike tag is still on it!!!

I mean, WOW. Even without the signature, this jersey would have cost like what, RM300 plus with the printed number, name and shields? And with the signature on it, I guess to me, this jersey is absolutely priceless. EXCELLENTTTTTT!!!!!!

I didn’t even have to pay a penny ‘cause I got it from a lucky draw. See, if anyone had noticed recently, Mr. Ian Rush from the legends of Liverpool FC came down to Cheras last weekend to do some publicity thing for Y&Y group (which is currently handling the development of ‘1Shamelin’ shopping mall, an up-class shopping complex in the heart of Cheras). I was there to attend his media conference (basically I sneaked in hahaha. Here are the photos!!!). After the conference, Mr. Rush came out to greet the fans and signed autographs for the mass visitors that braved the rain. Yes, the rain. And the event was an open-air event which had limited cover. But a lil’ rain aint gonna stop me from seeing of one the most prolific and greatest strikers to grace the green grass of English football. And after a 30 minute aqua treatment for my hair and body, I finally got my signature from him. I even got him to sign my company name card just for fun. HA!!!! Check it out below:

Hhhmmmm, looks abit like Mr. Bean....

Mind you, I’m a Man Utd fan, but I’m open-minded about these things. Even if it’s Steven Gerrard or Didier Drogba coming down to KL, I’ll try to attend if I can. ‘Cause, you see, when will another opportunity pop up to see these guys in real life? Close to zilch. So, even if it’s an old hack like Ian Rush or a cocky German like Jens “I’m too good to be on the bench even I’m 37 years old” Lehmann, I’ll be there if time permits. Heck, I’m a football fan, not just a Man Utd fan, and it’s my duty to support these guys dammit!!!!

Anyway, putting my football emo aside for a minute, let me tell you how fortunate I was with the lucky draw. There were in fact other jerseys to be won such as Frank Lampard’s signed jersey, Michael Owen’s jersey and of course the C. Ronaldo jersey. Lampard’s & Owen’s was won through playing games, which I didn’t participate (‘cause, you know me, I malu lah). Ronaldo’s was won through a lucky draw, and out of a few hundred people there, I was the lucky one. VERY LUCKY ONE because to be eligible for the draw, a person needs to fill out this card and each person has unlimited entries. I saw kids and enthusiastic fans filling up card after card, so serious with sweat and discussion, I thought these guys were voting for the next President of the Inter-Galactic Universe. But I only filled up 2 cards. The first card was when I entered the event, and the second one, honestly I didn’t even bother to fill up until a sudden jolt in my consciousness that screamed: “FILL UP A SECOND CARD”. I duly obeyed the voice from my Lord of Screaming Consciousness and took a card from a lady, filled it up with an ink pen (which the name got blotched. That pen was all I got from my friend). Gave the card to an event girl that was on the way to submit the final entries, and 10 minutes later, Mr. Ian Rush took the liberty to conduct the lucky draw and BAAAAAAAAM!!!! There was total confusion. Total bedlam from the organizers because the card Mr. Rush took out had a blotched name on it. After a few tries with his Welsh tongue trying to guess the name on the card, he uttered a few words along the lines of ‘Raymond’ and instantly I knew it was me. I rushed up the stage like a striker sensing a goal, pounced on the opportunity to claim my prize and screamed that the name is indeed me, and scored when Mr. Ian Rush shook my hand with congratulations. The cameras went wild, the crowd clapped (although there was some boo-ing from some sections of the crowd. You know how they are), and I thanked my lucky stars for filling up that second card.

From the excitement, I forgot to give my camera to my friend for picture taking while I accepted the prize. So, no picture of me and Mr. Ian Rush with the Ronaldo jersey. DAMMIT!!! But there was an individual photo session later and I took a picture with him anyway, which was this blog’s top photo above.

After Mr. Rush left, there was more activities such as fire-eaters a.k.a. flame throwers a.k.a. breath so bad flame can spew out from his mouth, an exhibition of football wonder kids (10 year old kids doing perfectly timed step-overs and ball balancing skills. Amazing. What milk do their mama’s give them??!!!), a dancing performance and clowns. Well that’s all I saw because at around 10pm the rain started to fall again and I left the place feeling not just happy, but relieved.

I felt relieved because finally this year, something good and fortunate has happened to me. Let me tell you, throughout this year, some really bad and weird things occurred to me which I find not just annoying, but to the point of total ridicule. I mean, take for example in the month August. Within this one month, my PS2 stopped working for some weird reason; my hand phone short circuited from, according to the technician, “a mass intake of water into the phone board which resulted in circuitry malfunction”. I mean, WTF, since when I took my phone for a swim?? You think I miss my calls so much until I can’t let it go even when I was in the pool?? And last but not least, my car. My right-side door got slammed by a motorcyclist, my front bumper got knocked by another motorcyclist and my back bumper got hit my a guy in a car while I was paying toll. Paying toll for sweet sake, my car is not even moving and it got hit!!! AARRGGHHHH!!! Anyway, that’s another story. And all this incidents happened in the month of August. Just imagine. Sigh.

So, with this fortunate win, I felt like a big burden has been lifted from my shoulders and I felt that finally, the entire world is not against me. I guess Fortune & the Gods has not forgotten me yet…

The 988fm Concert @ Sunway Lagoon

Weekend of 7th April & 8th April

Saturday

The 988fm concert was held on this weekend & I had tickets. MANY tickets. Actually one person is entitled to only 4 tickets, but I got hold of almost 20 tickets haha. So I gave them to my friends. Each ticket also entitled a 50% discount for Sunway Lagoon water/theme parks; hence me and SL took this advantage and stripped for our swimsuits to soak yourselves in waist-deep waters overlooked by a welcoming sun. We enjoyed the sun and waters until the concert started, enjoyed some more until the concert ended.

There were loads of people already near the stage to get good views even before the gates opened. This is because those that bought the 50% discount on the theme park tickets can get into Lagoon early to enjoy the water park and stayed there without queuing outside!!! Luckily I was these smart people (*ahem*) and got good views of the entire concert. But because it was hard for us to get back our clothes from the lockers (some lockers were blocked by stage security, some lockers had to charge money to re-lock etc), a lot of people (not me though) were in their swim suits: guys were shirtless and gals were sexy!! This fits the concert so nicely as it was a BEACH CONCERT. Needless to say, the scenery, music and backdrop of Sunway Hotel was spectacular for a fantastic night of enjoyment and entertainment ~~~~

The concert was entertaining with loads of Local and Taiwan starts performing: Gary, Janice, Ah Niu, and Danny to name a few. Each artist sang 2 songs initially, and for the encore EVERY artist gave a song. So the encore part was so long until no mood already haha. But it ended nicely and everyone left happily.


Sunday

Me and SL (actually me only la) were all excited for this day as I got free F1 tickets!!! Although it cheapo tickets (RM 50) I thought it would be fun to just go there and get some pictures and leave early since it’s free. Alas, if only I can foresee the future. Everything was set perfectly: the camera fully charged, I got the hats and umbrellas in case it rains, I even got a mini mobile fan in case the heat gets unbearable! So the journey to F1 was problem-free until at a turning to Sepang, we were met with a gargantuan traffic jam that stretched like the River Nile in Egypt. I tried my patience to overcome this jam, however, after 2 hours in the jam and moving slower than a 100-year-old turtle with backside problems, I did a Michael Schumacher U-turn and drove to my pit-stop (i.e. my home).

Bringing Hom the Music: Lee Hom Concert @ Bukit Jalil

Weekend of 3rd & 4th March


The day has arrived for arguably the concert of the year: Wang Lee Hom’s World Tour at Bukit Jalil!!!! Many discussions were held conversing about this day, many nights were spend dreaming of this moment, & of course many cash were spent for those small pieces of paper with weird words on it called ‘concert tickets’. Yes, it is this day, and he has arrived for maestro Lee Hom to swagger his flair for entertainment and charm his way into the many fluttering hearts of love-laden girls (and some guys. *Ahem*).

Sourcing Wikipedia:

“Lee Hom is a Taiwanese American singer-songwriter, actor, and commercial model who has achieved highly recognized success in Taiwan, Mainland China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia. As of 1995, the beginning of his musical career, Lee Hom has contributed in over 25 albums, totalling to nearly 13,000,000 original sales. In addition to his album sales, he also set a new attendance record at the Taipei Arena for his Heroes of Earth 2006 Concert on March 2006 as the concert had broken over six national records. He was also the most earned celebrity endorser as of 2006, defeating other hot competants like Jolin Tsai, S.H.E, and Jay Chou, who was the top earner in the last three years. He also participated in several films, his latest role in ‘Lust, Caution’ directed by Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (which has scenes filmed in Malaysia), gaining the most attention. He has albums in Mandarin & Japanese, and had a duet with Kenny G in Malay (The One and Only).”

Needless to say, he is multi-talented, multi-lingual and a multi-award-winning artist that has over-powered the Chinese music industry with his revolutionary infusion of Chinese and Traditional music, Rap, R&B and Rock. Arguably no individual has achieved what he has achieved, and no individual has left such a landmark in the industry like Lee Hom.


"Lee Hom: Heroes of Earth" World Tour - Malaysian Stop.


After suffering 1 hour in traffic jams and scouring all terrains for a car-park (finally managed to get one near Carrefour), the concert opened just as I was about to sit down. Although me and SL were separated at first (before I went looking for car-park, SL left my car to look for good seats), no moment was missed as the concert started with immense energy and verve. This energy was maintained well into the night; his dance moves were intense and his back-up dancers were in-line with his good intentions to give the reportedly 11,000 crowd a spectacular show. Even when he was belting out his ballads of love songs, his voice and force was unrelenting. Mixing this with his ability to mesmerize his audiences by abundantly performing ‘live’ on prominent music instruments (violin, piano, violin, guitar, drums, etc), he truly is a talented individual endowed with exceptional musical abilities rare to most men and women.

Another individual capable of challenging him musically is definitely his special guest artist for this evening: JJ Lin. Originated from Singapore, JJ Lin challenged & faced up to Lee Hom on stage; JJ Lin performing Lee Hom’s ‘Ni Bu Zai’ and Lee Hom reversely performed JJ’s ‘Jiang Nan’. Both complementing the ballads on piano, the two were outstanding winners in the end as both performances complimented each other superbly. It was a unique union of talent and a rare collaboration that no doubt gave the audience the highlight of night.

As an act of unification, both Lee Hom and JJ Lin performed together, singing ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ as a celebration for their friendship and partnership, and may this collaboration continue for many years to come.

The songs, dance and fireworks rained on the audience continuously throughout the 2-hour-plus show, many landmark favorites and unique compositions of Lee Hom were presented with satisfying effort. It was a great night for Lee Hom fans, and generally a great night for music fans overall, as everyone enjoyed and celebrated the revolution and evolution that Lee Hom has crafted throughout his musical journey with satisfying aplomb.