Michael Yip | 叶志坚

The Countdown to 2008 has begun! Have you made your plans for the last party of the year? Still figuring out where to go? Let me try to help you out here. A little warning would be good right? There’ll be HUGE JAMS EVERYWHERE Make sure you bring along some wine in your car just incase you’re stuck in the traffic jams, at least you can celebrate the New Year in your car with some fine WINE. Right? Back to the topic at hand….

You have a wide choice of places to go to.

1. Countdown @ Mount Kiara from 8pm onwards at the Plaza Mont Kiara fountain courtyard. There will be live band performances, dancers, street buskers, fire eaters. For more info, log on to www.sunrisebhd.com

2. Countdown Party @ Pavilion KL at Level 3 featuring cabaret dancers, house music, freebies and promotions by GSC, Red Box Plus, La Bodega, Thai Express and others. Read today’s papers for road closures in this vicinity.

3. Concert @ Dataran Merdeka featuring local artists Mawi, Awie, M.Nasir, cultural displays, fireworks display. Best to take LRT to go for this event. Roads around this vicinity is also closed. Read today’s papers for more info. Got Drum Festival also. ***Niceeeeee…!!***

4. Street Party @ 1U from 7pm till late. There will be international and local artistes performing and fireworks.

5. Petronas Countdown 2008 Concert @ KLCC hosted by Cheryl Samad and AC Mizal, concert performances by Ella, Ning, Ramli Sarip and many more. Roads closures in this vicinity

6. Midzone Countdown at Mid Valley themed "One World. One City. One Party" featuring a lineup on international DJs from Germany, Japan, Hungary and last but not least a firework display. Need to purchase ticket to join in this countdown party. Call 78807999

7. Beach Blast @ Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach. Tickets sold at RM120 per head which includes drinks and buffet dinner. It’ll be an 8 hour party featuring local acts and international DJs. For more info, visit www.sunway.com.my

8. Just One More Party @ Laundry Bar, The Curve. Laundry Bar will be taking over the courtyard of The Curve and transforming it into 3 rooms, each playing a distinctive genre of music. For details, visit www.laundrybar.net

9. Last but not least, Street Fiesta @ Sg. Wang. Usher in New Year with performances of Daniel Lee, Gary Chow, Orange and many more from 10.30pm till 12.30am. This is an 8TV event. That stretch of road has been closed since 5pm yesterday causing a massive jam in Jln Imbi in front of BTS. Please read today’s papers on further road closures info.

There’s more than what’s listed here so, have a great New Year Eve Party For me? I’ll be at a friend’s place overlooking KL and hopefully some nice firework display…

Last night, before heading down to Salsa Havana, we decide to head over to Pizza Uno in Taipan for dinner.The restaurant was packed with the weekend crowd usual but we manage to sneak ourselves in to a nice space just at the entrance of the restaurant.

We started off with the Calamares Fritos, some how I felt the portion and the size of the Calamares served in this outlet is smaller than the one at The Centerpoint, Bandar Utama.

Calamares Fritos

And next up, we had the Marinara Sauce, the sauce was thick with huge seafood and a good portion of spaghetti.

Marinara Sauce

and to end the night, the dessert of choice is the Uno’s Dream Cake. Very Cheesy so I didn’t eat any of it. Yes, I know, sad but I can’t take cheese.

Uno’s Dream Cake

It’s been like… 2007-1993 ….. 14 years since I last meet these bunch of jokers … well except for those that I bump into at events lah…. but still… 14 long years. Finally, a decision was made and a gathering was organized.

The wonderful thing about technology these days, there were no phone calls, no letters and all that sort of things. The invite was done over… FACEBOOK! Yup… one fine day, I receive an Event Invitation over my facebook account for this very particular meet up. I was like.. WHAT THE<" alt="" border="0" />—[if —[endif]—>!.... This is the cheapest, easiest and most convenient way to get everyone to come for a gathering! Via FACEBOOK!

Anyway, fast forward to yesterday, 28th of December…. 7.30pm. Walked towards The Apartment and lo and behold, the usual party faces were there first. The organizer? LATE! Anyway, catching up, exchanging of name cards and name callings (from the good ol school days) went on for about a couple of minutes until we realized something… there’s no BEER! ... 2 jugs later and a few more people showing up later. The get-together looks more complete. Food was ordered, more catching up was made (Especially with those that came late). Quick look at the time and GOSH! It’s bloody 10.30pm, some decide to continue the meet-up elsewhere. Me? I want to go for my proper dinner.

Yup… I want to take this opportunity to point this out… This is the first time I stepped into The Apartment for food and my take on the place? The ambience is nice, the company of my ex-schoolmates was great, and the beer is… beer lah! But the food? For the price I pay, it’s not bloody worth it! I had the baked fish which …. Doesn’t even look like a proper meal… It took me less than 5minutes to finish it up and I WAS STILL FREAKING HUNGRY! I had to order another dish just to satisfy my hunger… and that 2nd dish sucked as well! I’m sorry but that’s how I feel… I won’t step into that place again if it’s just for dinner. I rather take my money go and have a proper meal at a nicer restaurant that served bigger portion.

Anyway, that’s that. Enjoyed meeting these bunch of crazy fellas again and maybe have another one sometime next year again?  

View from the Hotel Room no. 15 955 (First World Hotel)

Christmas Eve, while the world rest in slumber in preparation for the Christmas Eve party, the Salsajayers made their way up to Genting Highlands to have a bit of fun and celebration as well. One of the purpose for the trip is because of the salsa performance after the Teresa Carpio showcase as a lead-up to the final countdown to Christmas.

The Christmas Deco in front of the Genting Hotel

The Teresa Carpio concert were to start at 7pm and the Salsa performance was to start at 11pm and with that in mind. There’s a bit of time to go for dinner and to camwhore a bit. Yes, that’s what we did. The whole Salsajay entourage congragate together at Genting Hotel for dinner at 7.30 after everyone freshen up from the trip and from there. We head on over to the Bakery to while the time away. Looking at the various Christmas decoration, we just had to get it all on camera as a remembrance. Right? 

Me and Missmynx  in front of Santa

About 9ish, those of us that’s not dressed decide to go back to the room to change and for those of us that have changed, decide to head over to the Genting International Convention Center to watch The Teresa Carpio’s concert while waiting for the cue to get ready. I wrote about that concert at my previous post so please scroll down.

Rueda de Casino

The first performance was the Rueda De Casino with 6 couples performance. It was an excellent show piece.

Zhang  Zhen Hong andJeamie

Next up was the  Zhang Zhen Hong and Jeamie performing a Salsa piece that looks ever so good. Loads of tricks and spins that really got the crowd cheering.

Fahmi and partner

That performance was followed through by Fahmi and his partner performing the Wawanko. After that performance, the organizer had a change of plans and decide to cancel the last three performance which includes a Bachata number, a Merenggue number as well as Zhang Zhen Hong’s performance (accompanied by a Rhumba dance).

The Live Band

With that change of plans, the live band was ushered up to perform for the audience and we had to go and invite the audience up to the dance floor to dance. Mostly Latin dance numbers and boy, can some of those aunties and uncles dance.

The Party!

With less than a minute to midnight, the music stops and the crowd start gathering in front of the stage for the countdown. I suspect all these people are practicing for the coming New Year countdown cause they rocked the house down with the shouting.

Taking a break from all those dancing… and camwhoring

More dancing and partying continues after the countdown and around 1am, we were told to have our party cut short and was ushered out of the GICC. Our group then went off towards our Supper before more partying continues in the hotel room. What happened at the party? Can’t reveal here.

We were in Paris, wish you were here.

Anyway, bout 11ish the next morning, we were told to get ready for check out and by 12pm, we were all gathered at the lobby of the hotel deciding where to go for our brunch/lunch. The food we had? Those are another story. But if you can look here for the photos taken through the two days we were there.

The view from Room no. 15 936

This Christmas eve was spend with some friends up at Genting as Salsajay had a show to perform after the Teresa Carpio performance.

Teresa Carpio, a famous Hong Kong singer and actress was in Genting on Christmas Eve to perform a one night only "Winter Wonderland with Teresa Carpio" and the Genting International Convention Center was packed with her fans of all ages.

From the old to the very young, throughout the night, you can see all of them moving to her songs and some singing along too. As for me, I’ve seen her loads of time on TV and this is the first time I watch her perform LIVE. Was she good? YES.

Apart from herself, she also had her children and a music student of hers up on stage to perform 2 songs too which was a good touch. Doesn’t matter the fact that they still couldn’t carry a tune. It’s having the guts to get on stage to sing LIVE and not do Ad-lib that matters most.

Yes, that’s the sad fact that more and more upcoming performers and even some of the more experienced performers prefer to do ad-libbing than singing live. Or rather, some of them can’t sing LIVE.

For me, this is a nice change and a good show. She wasn’t a diva throughout the night as some fans couldn’t wait and went up stage to ask her permission to pose for photographs with her and she play along even getting the fans dance on the stage while she belt out her final number.

For more of her performance’s photographs, click here.