Malaysian Girls Penang Tour

Today is the beginning of a new era, the end of the Malaysian Girls pageant. :( Our beautiful journey of friendship, learning, creating something beautiful together has come to an end. We hope our audiences have enjoyed it as much as we have. So sad... I have never met a big team like this before; no drama, divas, bitching, back-stabbing or bad-mouthing. This kind of camaraderie is usually only achieved in smaller teams. So, "How ugly can it get?" Not ugly at all.... AT ALL. How rare is that?? This team is truly a gem... never will I forget this beautiful journey that I have walked with the Malaysian Girls. ♥ ♥ ♥

Our final run was in none other than my birthplace, Penang. And boy, was it a wonderful run! The 1 week of run in Penang, we had full-houses almost every night. And the audience really had no inhibition, they laughed and cried and gave us their all... and as all live performers, we feed on their responses. So, we too gave them one helluva show! We love the Penang peeps... so sincere, so appreciative. We all wanna do more shows in Penang now!! ;)

Girls Backstage

Our friends frm PCC there to support us!! Yeayy!

Will miss Pooja heaps... the sweetest person I know, so thoughtful & sincere

Bootilicious!

Our wonderful musical director & his awesome team of musicians

The man who made it all possible, Joe, our director

"Seksi bukan seksa ya girls!!" Cikgu Lex, our choreographer

Packing up after a big glam show like this is no small job... 

Kee How from Penangpac

More penangpac peeps, the "V" guy did a fantabulous job selling our program books & CDs, & even sang Sydney Belle's Aria during the intermission!!! :) We didn't get that kind of promotion in KL :p

Glorious Penang food for the Cast Parteh

Yummy in my tummy

We also took a morning out to go for a nice Heritage Walk, courtesy of my hubs... proudly showing off his hometown. We started at the Esplanade area... food first, then Fort Cornwallis.

The myth is that the Sri Rambai Cannon can improve a woman's fertility if she hands a flower around it. You know who will definitely NOT be hanging any flowers there! ;-)

England dia banyak powderful... the bungalow is around the fort???? 

like this??? =.="

We then went to the state museum, which was surprisingly... well  maintained & curated.

An old gerabak of the train up to Penang Hill / Bukit Bendera

Hubs telling people about his hometown, dengan bangganya!

Banana leaf rice!!!

Peeps with a full tummy of banana leaf rice are happy peeps!!

So happy to be sharing this journey with him, our first production together was so wonderful... we hope for more to come in the future!!! :) :)

Mervyn sorting out they payment... too much? too little?

This is what the Penangites call "kelena seow"

I will most certainly have terrible post-production withdrawal symptoms for Malaysian Girls... I will miss everyone dearly!! Sobs sobs :( :(

Learning the Ukulele

I've always ALWAYS wanted to busk in NYC. Being a pianist, erm... nak angkut piano or keyboard to NYC tu... erm, not exactly practical coz unfortunately, teleportation devices have not been successfully invented yet. My only option is just sing a-capella busking solo, erm... not exactly ideal either. My guitar skills?? Tak lah terra, guitars are big & heavy too. Carry it on a 24hr-long flight with transits in between?? No way.

So, I have decided to learn up a much more practical street busking instrument to accompany my singing... light, portable & needs no electricity source... the Ukulele!!!

The minute I decided to learn the Ukulele, I immediately bought one to get started on learning it. As luck would have it, it came in pink Hawaiian-ish floral design!! Can you imaging my joy????

I figured if Google could teach me how to make a yummy Chikuteh, Google can also teach me the Ukulele. And don't ever forget the power of Youtube!!

Tuning the Ukulele: erm, this guys's notes are kinda out. I had to use my keyboard as reference instead.

Learning how to play the basic chords

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some tuning to do... and a lot of practicing to do. La la laaaaaa ;-)

Leap of faith

I finally did it!!! I finally took the leap!!

It is indeed damn scary to step out into the unknown. My parents are not supportive. My friends are happy but worried for me that they've helped open up so many possible paths for me. I get more confused every day as more & more opportunities unfold... am I blessed or what???? Thank you Ellyne, Chris, Chloe, Natasha, Xendra, ... I love you alls!!! :) Hhhmm... but, which opportunity should I focus on?? I doubt I can do all otherwise I may end up busier than being in employment which defeats the purpose of my resignation. I want to do more performance arts, learn to cook, do volunteer work, do more of God's work...etc. I will need time to do ALL of those. Hhmmm... hhhmm. Think Karynn, THINK! Which path will be best to fit your plan??? @.@

My husband?? Still the bestest human being on earth who supports my every pursuit and dream!! Who has total confidence in me to make it in whatever I want to do!! Muaks!! I love you!!!

My God?? Lagi supportive!! I love You Lord!!!!!
“Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?’” (Luke 12:22-26, NIV).

Here. I. Go... BOING!!!!

The Asian Christmas for the White Chick

The Malaysian Girls had a day off for Christmas Eve. And what do a bunch of singing, dancing actors do on their day off?? Partay!!

Each of us was to prepare or buy a dish that shows off our Oh-So-Asian roots to our guest star from Australia, Zoe! And Siti Farrah was gracious enough to host the party & welcomed us to her home.

She really took the time & the effort to spruce up her place to the occasion... The Asian Christmas!! Look at all the tanglungs on the tables & fence!!

The boys helped her to pack up the goodie-bags... macam factory-line workers. hehehe

The cutesies joined in the party too, Suria!! Meeoooww

And Bibi... isn't he such a cuddle wuddly teddy bear???

We kept ourselves occupied with some games. This one is Innuendo, a game that forces us to think of "clean" explanation of suggestive statements... the least otak kuning person will win. Not easy when played with a bunch of otak kuning people. ;-)

2nd game, our least favourite... Trivia. We could hardly get any of the answers... this soooo proves that our Malaysian education system is an epic failure when it comes to general knowledge, geography, history, chemistry, etc etc... and even entertainment knowledge about movies, TV shows and all. @.@

We then introduced our Asian dishes one-by-one to Zoe to let her know how what all these food are. All home made stuff by the Malaysian Girls Cast!! Terra tak??

Even Zoe made something of her own, gingerbread!!! :)

I am very proud to have made Chikuteh for the very first time in my life, successfully!! My guru?? None other than good ol' Google!!!!

Merry merry Christmas!!!!...

From the cast of Malaysian Girls and friends!!! xoxo 

A day in the life of a Malaysian Girl

My day started out pretty normal... wake up at 7am, drive through the traffic jam, get to the office, do some paperwork....*yawn* not exactly blogworthy stuff. But as mid-day approaches, I zoom-zoomed off from the office to Sunway Pyramid in time for my totally overdue mani-pedi appointment. The girl was pretty slow but hey, beauty takes time!!

Pretty nails all done!

Beauty takes time!

I was happy to finally get my nails done properly as I had to perform with my DIY ugly albeit glittery nails since Opening Night on 10th. Pretty mauve!! Unfortunately, none of my Malaysian Girls costumer were purple.

Since I had skipped lunch to do my nails, I had a nice filling tea-break instead!! Had a healthy leafy sandwich with Sydney accompanying me. We were both on leave and decided to spend some sisterly bonding time together off-work.

Latte break! Mine's the bunny 1 :)

Hanging out wt Sydney although both of us are on leave

After that, I dashed off to klpac to get my hair and make-up done.

Complete Make-Up Tools!! Pro, kan??

Fairuz and Zul were our super make-up artists who had to do 14 girls' hair and make-up everyday for our show. They were superb and really know how to glam us up rather than our regular day-today make-up or "make-up pergi pasar" as Fairuz put it. ;p

Fairuz, MUA #1

Zul, MUA #2

Work in progress

Work in progress

Voila!!! Ready for the stage

Whenever hubby or I am free, we went around papparazi-ing the girls. :)

Anrie DIY-ing her hair

Zul working his magic!

Our casts' baby getting her make-up done!

The beautiful Aliaa

Pretty Pooja even before make-up

Un-Guccified Freddy

Our soprano songbird Zoe!!

BB's turn for make-up!

After the performance, it's time for some meet-and-greet, chewah... macam stars konon tapi meeting family actually. So glad that my mom & my sis came and they enjoyed the show a lot!! A bit disappointed that dad didn't want to join them though. Some day I must do something more Chinese-ish and familiar, perhaps then he will come and support???

Family Photo!!!

It starts all over again tomorrow!! Do catch us before the end of the month... our last show in KL is on Dec 30th. Details?? Go here.

Klue, Doh!!

Last night was our last day off from Malaysian Girls rehearsals before intensive rehearsals leading to the bump-in & opening night next week. What do a bunch of entertainers do on their day-off? Be entertained of course.

Practically half our cast including my hubby & me went for the Preview Nite of Klue, Doh! at the Black Box, MAP Solaris Dutamas, Monk Kiara.

Our fellow Malaysian Girl, the beautiful Shiva was the Asst Production Manager for this show... and seeing her excitement in working for this show has got us all excited as well. It is an investigation of the murder of Datuk Jackson Mo Lest Ting who was a terrible man that everybody would love to kill. The question was, who???

It was an interesting concept... unlike other shows the audiences are split into 2 groups:

I was in the Witness group and we first had the view of the the crime scene, Datuk Jackson's Study room where his body lay face down, lifeless... played by Ui Hua. I really wonder how someone can lay face down for 2 whole hours!! But that's besides the point. We first witnessed the demure Indon-maid Gangbang Sukajolo Suprianto played by Nabihan Yaacab suspiciously cleaning up the crime scene with Datuk lying there lifeless with very obvious multiple possibilities of cause of death. She did a really awesome Indon accent I must say. Whilst she was doing all that, Datin Saras Mo, Datuk's bitter ex-wife played by Ann James was hiding right there in plain sight of us Witnesses ;-). Then a string of events happened in the Study to make us suspect practically EVERYONE in the story... the scoundrel Brother In-Law, Alagesen aka Alan Jason played by JD Menon... or even the gay wedding planner, Fleegan (not sure it that's how it's spelt) played by Jon Chew.  There were witty funny lines along the way to tickle your funny bone besides the investigation itself keeping you at the edge of your seat wondering whodunnit?? Small little clues were left for us to pick up on and watch out for. Just like in real life, many things happen all at the same time so you may miss some details while being distracted by some of the other characters on stage. I missed an important clue which my observant hubby picked up on. It ended with the investigating police, ASP Hamzah played by Iqmal Shafiq having a eureka moment about who the killer is but we still do not know who it is.

At the intermission, we swap places with the Suspects and the entire play is repeated again. Now, we had a view of the Living room. This time it just starts with Charity Ho Mun Mun, Datuk's young gold-digger fiance played by Davina Goh singing Beauty and The Beast. On this side of house, the other half of the story is revealed and we also had the chance to fill in some blanks that we could not see from the Study earlier. This side it also ended with the young Inspektor Paku played by Ley Shahrwind having his eureka moment about who the killer is. This time, we too put all the puzzle pieces together and figured out who the killer is!!!

It was genius!!! Whichever side you sit in, you will only be able to figure out who the killer is after you have watched both sides of the story all the way to the end. It is only then that all the bread-crumb trails of clues make sense and are pieced together in your mind to give you the whole picture and the truth... and it is you who get the Eureka Moment this time. Genius!! It the the same feeling I got as a kid reading Sherlock Holmes... only funnier. ;-)

If you can catch it, please go catch it!!! Details... click here!