A not so lazy sunday stroll

Supposed to have spent a relaxing Sunday at home, to recuperate from the busy and hectic week, but somehow, it was not meant to be.

Woke up early last Sunday to go for breakfast with my church members, a pre Chinese New Year shindig. Had a mini fiesta at one of the coffee shops near Jaya. Famous for its curry mee, chee cheong fun, and other what nots, the food was highly recommended, but I decided to opt out and had the dry spicy pan mee instead. It was ok-ok only but I did get to try other dishes.

Then off I went to KLPac for its very first open day. The open day was scheduled to start at 10:00am, but I got there super early after breakfast at about 9:40am. Still, there were things to see already with the various exhibitions having been set up earlier, showcasing of a local artist's paintings, a themed disability photograph exhibition, various rock gardens transformed and "art-ified" and coincidentally, a private wedding function being held there itself. It was a garden wedding, with guests all dressed up to the nines. I felt and thought that the morning sun's heat was pretty intense, and pitied the groom standing ceremoniously in a suit, with some other guests similarly attired.

Vibrant colours depicting local scenes, and various other abstract art paintings, told of many a story. As saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words... Nearly purchased some of the cards on sale by the same artist (I forgot her name), but I was looking more for other type of scenes which may hold my interests a lot more.

Of course, it wasn't just the visual stimulant, but of the aural as well. I got there early, and managed to hear the KL Young Singers sing. I have been to their previous concert, and have seen them performing elsewhere too, and generally, they have improved. They were slated for the 10:00am slot at the lobby area and it was their chamber group (smaller choir). Not bad, they sang a couple of songs but suffered from a lack of audience. I guess it was kind of a bit early still. During the day, there were various other acts at the lobby, from a saxophone quartet, to a children's choir, to a secondary school's chinese orchestra, a young pop indie singer, and many other such acts. Of course, the performances weren't limited to the lobby area, but extended inside and beyond.

There were backroom tours of the place, a short skit, short local movies, rhyhmic dancing, stomp, dances in the park, wakaido performance, origami classes, acting workshop, gamelan ensemble jamming session, and many more activities. I can tell you that it was certainly an activity packed day, and my friends and I had to forgo certain activities just because other performances or events were happening at the same time.

Not forgetting the sights, be it still life or people watching. Some friends were camera trigger happy and enjoyed the various eye candies intermingling amongst the lesser beings so to say. There was a Japanese Koi farm situated a very short distance away, and my friends and I explored as much as possible in the almost unbearable early afternoon heat.

Of course, the highlight for me was the 2:00pm slot, whereby the acapella group I sing with joined in the merry making and good wishes. We sang about six songs, and some were better delivered than others. Certainly looked as though we had a lot of fun singing and got the crowd going. I saw a few people mouthing the words of certain songs with us as we sang. Some swayed and bounced to the music, and others simply stood transfixed. I guess many would still not have been exposed to acapella music, and hoped that by just that six songs, it showcased singing is "not just singing", and promote the potential of vocals as a powerful art form. Combine that with a group of people who seemed to be enjoying themselves (or should I say ourselves?), add little movements here and there, sing with a certain wickedness, observe the little twinkle in the eye, engage the audience with a little zest,... and what do you get? The Wicked Pitches of course! :) And here, thank you especially to my friends who braved the heat and crowd to come hear and see us do our bit. Hope they had a good time and enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

And after all that, I wanted to stay on longer, but felt mentally and physically drained. There were a lot of other events lined up which I would have liked to stay on for, but I simply couldn't keep the energy up. I guess the week just caught up with me at that point in time, and I felt like sleeping the rest of the day away...(but alas, didn't get to do so. But that's a story for another day)...