To The Ugly Duckling

We had a fun time watching the show. Lovely!

"Best" seats we have ever had so far, among all the performances that we have been too. Mainly because I didn't realise that "The Ugly Duckling" was going to be on, and by the time I realised and spent some time gathering the kakis, we had only row EE left. For those who frequent the DBS Arts Centre or those who have had the privilege of ever being seated at that row, you could guess how much we wanted to watch this show.

The Ugly Duckling remains one of the most popular and memorable productions that The Little Company has staged. Originally presented in 2005, the production played to sold out audiences and received rave reviews from both the public as well as schools who brought their students.

This is Seo Yeon's inaugural performance attendance. I think it goes the same for Claudia too :) (Claudia and Charlene were dressed up in sweet matching outfits by their mommy. Always eye candy!). Seo Yeon happily watched the performance throughout and we had a good time enjoying the story together.

En Bi was not fussed seated away from Seo Yeon and myself. I didn't note that there was a gap in the seats that I had booked. I seated Seo Yeon and myself at the 2 seats that were separated away from the rest of the gang but near enough. If there was no aisle space between En Bi and Seo Yeon, we would actually be side by side. En Bi was seated beside Kimi and had Auntie Tona guiding her through the show. So she was doing great on her own! Good going En Bi!

I hope the kids had a great time and understood the "moral of they story". It was really an enjoyable way to understand "The Ugly Duckling" story presented by SRT's The Little Company.

This is the collage I did up for En Bi's "Show & Tell" session in school. Really kills 2 birds with 1 stone. Saves me the trouble of doing up a collage just for the "Show & Tell".

"Gan Chang"

My friend inspired me with regards to this post's title. LOL. Not because my girls are already trained to perform on the "getai", but simply because of the mall shows that we were trying to catch this fine Saturday.

I knew that I would make it to Dora and Hi-5 sometime during this school holiday season. Never did I expect it to be today! A simple message from Serene this morning and lo and behold! We were scheduled to watch 2 shows today. Intricate planning was required because we had to contend with (1) long queues at the malls for entry to watch the shows (2) navigating through traffic and looking for parking lots between 3 shopping malls (Dora @ Raffles City, Hi-5 @ Marina Square) (3) bringing the girls to their art lesson at Clay Cove in time.

So, this is where the Daddies come in handy. With PapaKim out of town, I really had to rely on the other 2 couples to help out. Boy, what teamwork! Thanks lots for standing in the queues and ferrying us between the malls! You know who you are!

With all this planning, our objective of course, was for the kids to be happy. Were they? Absolutely! I believe all 4 girls really had a ball of a time. Dora and Boots were pretty much entertaining by bringing them to the Carnival. Seo Yeon, she enjoyed herself the most at the Dora show! *big smile*

Hi-5 was definitely the bigger crowd magnet. We could easily have been the 20th in the queue, considering that Shannyce's Papa started queueing almost 2 hours before the show started! The group was on stage for about 20 minutes, a little short of the 30 minutes we were hoping for. But hey, we got passes to take photos with Hi-5! That was a very good consolation.

Shannyce was really happy to see her idol AGAIN! She practically flew into Stevie's arms! Wowee! En Bi shared the same idol but a tad bit shy. Luckily, she managed to make a u-turn after taking the photo and get a nice, big hug from Stevie dearest. Awwwww....

And we all got nice souvenirs from the show. A 6R picture and a double-sided keychain with pictures that we took with Hi-5 (one on stage and the other super-imposed). $25. Steep? You tell me.

Of course, we managed to bring the girls to Clay Cove in between the 2 shows. Phew! Hectic, hectic.

All in a day of a mommy bringing her girls to "gan chang".

The Full Monty! on Father's Day

I never thought I would have the chance to see such a wide "variety" of men stripping for me. Think "fantasy". Haha... Cat granted me this couple of months back when the tickets were available for sale. She managed to get us lovely circle seats right smack in the centre!

I was very excited to see Adrian Pang (one of the local male actors that I really admire and favour) and Hossan Leong. Cat also mentioned that Bernice's teacher, Daniel Jenkins, was acting. The actors were all wonderful on stage, giving their all for this famous movie-made-musical set in Chicago. And Cat and I agreed that Andy Hockley was also good to watch with his effortless ways of bringing out the character he was playing.

I loved the fact that the director, Tracie Pang, tried to tell the story on "how far a man would go for his family". This heartwarming story struck a chord with me. Though I am not a man, I could easily relate to this story as it reminded me of the extent that I went to for my daughters when I decided to take a break from working.

I think Pangdemonium!'s inaugural production really worked for me! Like-minded friends, please do go watch!  

So, what happened to Father's Day? Well, we already had a celebration for the Fathers in the family the day before by dining out at a newly-opened Japanese restaurant (buffet) at the Heeren. So do not worry, we did not forget the Papas!

Cat!

We had a date with a "Cat" today, but that was just one of the animals among many others that were involved in "A Day of A Cat". It goes without saying that there's a Dog, and a Mouse. There was also a Rooster, Frog, Bird, and Fish from a pond.  

We made a date with Cayla, Estelle, Kimi and their mommies, to watch the show. Boy, we were all very glad that Corinne and Tona was there early to stand 1st in the line for us!

We gobbled down our fast food lunch after getting the ticket to watch the performance, and before we even knew it, the show was about to start!

The children thoroughly enjoyed the performance. My personal favourite, and I believe the girls' as well, was the "Dog". His acting was fantastic, very good "doggy impersonation".

We stayed behind  after the performance to listen to the story "Cat" being told and even had the chance to touch the puppets that were used in the performance.

Verdict: Good fun!

First Korean Theatre Performance - The Dandelion's Story

When I first received the email from iTheatre about 'ace festival 2010', I was so excited because En Bi was now at a performance-going age. We'll now have a wider choice of performances to select from and watch. Of course, Seo Yeon will have to miss out on most of the fun this year. But come same time next year, no doubt we'll be enjoying performances, altogether.


The show venue was at the National Museum Theatre. Another first. We've never been to the National Museum to watch a performance, yet. Pretty interesting venue. This year, the National Museum of Singapore collaborated with I Theatre's ACE Festival to 'double the fun under one roof'. As part of the Children's Season at NMS, there were some activities for children that En Bi and Estelle were able to take part in prior to the theatre performance.

"Mum, I'm done!" (Backdrop: Wall mural by Miel)

Now, to put the art piece on the wall.

En Bi holding removeable, velcro-strapped, stuffed pieces that can be placed anywhere.

Now, off to the performance!

About the Theatre Performance: The title in English sounds nice, "The Dandelion's Story". However, in Korean, it's "강아지똥", literally meaning "Puppy's Poo". I found the message "Nothing God made is useless" very meaningful and it was an immediate draw for me to want to watch this performance, despite the 'ugly' Korean name.


En Bi enjoyed the performance tons. I believe the same went for Estelle, Kimi, and Shanyce, In fact, I enjoyed the performance though I was a little worried about the language initially. Kudos to the actors from Modl Theater for their efforts put into this English performance. We understood them well enough to get very engrossed in the performance.  And hopefully, we all continue to remember that 'nothing God made is useless'.

Long but Fun Day

Zoomed down to Thomson Plaza for a Mother's Day lunch with the extended family. Zipped back near town to La Salle College to catch 'Peter & Blue's Forest Adventures'. En Bi and I were watching this performance with Charlene, Estelle, and Shanice ( and of course, with their mommies). All the girls were pretty much inspired to dance like those performers on stage.

We had to slip into this cool cafe for '15 minutes' to refresh ourselves. The hot and humid weather was really a little too much to handle. But not something that a double fudge mocha can't help to soften and cool down.

Parents Have To Sit In

One of the reasons why I chose Mandeville Music School over Seimpi for En Bi was because it gave parents a choice to sit in or not with their children in class. Of course, if Seo Yeon could be cared by her father on every time En Bi went for this class, it would be a no-brainer to sit in with her. Then again, we know that this is not possible because PapaKim has business trips eating into the weekends ever so often. So, instead of confusing the child with me sometimes being present and sometimes not, I decided to let her attend the class alone to 'train' her to attend the class with my accompaniment. 

Last week, the school announced that students now have to be accompanied by their parents. (During the class, we found out the reason behind that sudden change in rule.) Without a doubt, there would be many counters from parents with regards to this change, especially those who had a situation similar to mine. The school had already prepared a form to officially relieve them from any responsibility if the student should, in whatever manner, be harmed before and after class timings. I am going to submit that form to the school, and just make sure that I will be there early to pick En Bi up from class.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching En Bi in class today.

Maleficent, Mickey, & The Incredibles!

Disney on Ice!! Wow, thanks to Cat's early alert for Disney on Ice, not forgetting Cat's friend who helped us book the tickets, we got quite good seats! Expecting to be seated quite high up, but found myself walking further, and further, and further down. Cool!

Good view as well as there was no exceptionally tall persons sitting in front of us. Great great great!

Ok, enough raving about the seats. Let's talk about the performance... It's actually the 1st Disney on Ice performance for the girls. En Bi was happy about watching the whole Disney gang (except for 'Maleficent'). She was especially happy about 'The Incredibles' because that was one of her favourite cartoon movie about a year ago. Seo Yeon was not as excited as I imagined her to be when she saw Mickey and gang. Maybe because she still wanted to nap? But nevertheless, she was pretty much enjoying the show and popcorn.

I liked the effects like the glow-in-the-dark one when Mickey and Minnie visited the Haunted Mansion, the mini fireworks when Buzz Lightyear appeared, and the lighted-up march-in at the show finale.

We bought 2 souvenirs from the show. With Seo Yeon passing the 18-month mark, I don't imagine myself not getting 1 item each for the 2 girls, lest they end up in their catfights again. We bought the handheld 'Incredible' spinner as well as a plastic 'Violet' that, most unfortunately, ended up in halves by the end of the ride home.

It was all pretty much good apart from the heavy downpour, the slightly chaotic booth area where people just don't queue up to buy stuff, the traffic jam while leaving the carpark and area, getting out of the wrong exit on the way home... haha... WE ENJOYED OURSELVES! Yay!