Cruz

“Do you have any idea how old I am? Doing this (眉飞色舞）is so tiring. I deserve another round of applause, don’t I?”

The 38 year old Sammi Cheng was back in town this weekend with “Love Mi More”, after a sold out “Love Mi“ in April this year. She did several covers like I Will Survive, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You and 恰似你的温柔, and a Christian segment with tracks from 信者得爱. The Cantopop classics like 不拖不欠 and 亲密关系 (which deserve a show on their own, really) were consolidated into one medley, and she rounded off the night with her perennial favourites 唯独你不可取代 and a final full rendition of 终身美丽。

Who cares if the song list was 80% identical? Who cares if she cut down on the banter significantly? And who cares if she did put on a teeny weeny bit of weight? We should be glad she’s eating like a normal person!

We all love Mi, don’t we?

Sammmmiiiiiiiiiiii!

Shows to expect from Unusual Entertainment in 2011:
-Jackie Jacky Cheung!
-Wakin Chau!
-JJ Lin!
-Moses Chan, Ron Ng, Kevin Cheng and Bosco Wong!

I have no idea when the ticketing details will be out. You can either plant a spy in their offices, or stay tuned to Y.E.S. 93.3FM, Home of your Favourite Concerts.

To the people who showered compliments on my sleek look for the awards, I had a grave reply, “Continue to ogle while you can. The double chin is going to reemerge very soon.” Hahaha. It was a day out with the ex-colleagues yesterday. I use that term loosely. We’re more than just ex-colleagues.

When Mary and I first had lunch with Liyi a month ago, I was at a total loss for words. “What?! We’re going to eat at a school canteen and jostle with those disgustingly young beings for food?! Can’t we go out or something?!” My poly lecturer-friend assured me that there was more than canteen grub in Ngee Ann.

Right.

PBL is back from Taiwan for a three-week visit. Lingzhi and I bought her dinner at Liang Seah. The conversation, as usual, drifted back eons ago.

“Will you quit asking me my age?! I’m 31 ok? Yes lah, yes lah. You knew me when I was 19. Stop harping on the fact that we’re all lao kok kok now!”

Hmmm….

And I learn something every year. Lesson #1: Do not stand like a CHAO AH BENG. “I’m there to host, not to fight.” Repeat 200 times. This picture taken at the rehearsals had me slapping my forehead repeatedly.

Lesson #2: Do not oversleep on Awards Day. I got several SMSes after my first segment. My friends were wondering if I had cried along with Hebe, as we saw the encouragement video for Selina. No, I didn’t! I hadn’t realised how puffy my eyes were.

Rehearsals the night before ended at 1.30am, and I got to bed at 3am. Perhaps I should have got up at 10am or something, instead of 2pm. The ‘fully awakened look’ came after midnight, I think.

And that’s the hairstyle which didn’t make it on stage. The guys from MediaCorp MakeUp Unit and Jeric Salon were done with me by 5.30pm. Two hours later, I casually asked if “I looked ok and if there was anything else they could do to make my face smaller“. That was when Jeric, the guru himself jumped to his feet. He pulled my fringe down and gave me a different, sleeker look.

Well, I don’t exercise enough for my own good… Which explains the annual panic attack when Singapore Hit Awards approach.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have my ways.

The picture is largely untouched. I adjusted the colours a little cos I had way too much make up on my face- good enough for stage and television; too overwhelming for photos. I didn’t do anything to my chin. Not perfect, but sufficient to stop people from calling me fat.

Liberation came on 30.10.2010, a day after the awards.

J. and I had dinner at Serangoon Gardens. We stumbled across this new Thai restaurant beside Sushi Tei, which was running full house. The meal for two consisted of pineapple rice, prawn omelette, broccoli with scallops, seabass in spicy and sour sauce and tom yum soup served in a coconut.

天啊！我已经一个月没有感受到饱足感了！

And we had chocolate cake and ice cream during mahjong later.

你们不要害我！我好不容易⋯⋯ 呃⋯⋯其实也没有很难啦⋯⋯好吧，吃吧！

Two pictures uploaded on Facebook 24 hours after Singapore Hit Awards had some of my female friends shrieking in hysteria…

… which gives me a reason to repeat my medical condition.

You do remember that I fell into a lousy drain in 2007 right? I have some metal embedded in my left foot. Most of the screws aren’t visible but there’s this protruding rivet that can be seen and felt. I was given the option to remove that offending thing, but anyone who did two operations requiring general anesthesia in two months wouldn’t want go to through any more trauma lah.

That is why I must wear very comfortable sneakers or flip-flops with Y-shaped straps, and stay away from boots, slip-on leather shoes and slippers with horizontal binds. And I must prevent anyone (or myself) from stepping on my left foot.

I must have been too chor-lor, which explained why I had to take off my shoes and walk around Indoor Stadium in my socks on rehearsals night. There’s some abrasion on the surface, and a teeny weeny bit of pain.

Maybe I should find time to remove that screw once and for all. You wouldn’t mind if I take MC for a couple of days (and be away from the morning show yet again) to do this surgery, would you?

第16届金曲奖进入最后36小时倒数。今早，我们在空中播出多位入围歌手及历届得奖人的歌曲。

志勇：
我算过了。金曲奖真的要到了。我今天下午回家睡个午觉，晚上去彩排，然后再回家睡个觉⋯⋯我再睡两次，就是金曲奖了！

嘉蕙：
你听起来像是一只动物，多过像主持人⋯⋯

本届金曲奖出席艺人：张信哲、田馥甄、蔡健雅、黄小琥、苏打绿、黄鸿升、张芸京、神木与瞳、Magic Power、Olivia、方炯镔、龚芝怡、郑可为、插班生等⋯⋯

本届金曲奖的六名司仪昨天陆续到新传媒服装间报到。我的出现让所有人忙成一团。不是因为我最大牌，而是因为我⋯⋯我⋯⋯我最有“分量”。哇哈哈哈。

造型师拿了一件黑色外套给我。呃，我不是走时尚路线的，除了“美！”，“好看！”等字眼，我还真不知道该怎么形容，反正就是喜欢极了。从衣架取下外套的瞬间，我听见典礼监制低声地说：“最好穿不下⋯⋯”

原来那个日本品牌不肯赞助，要穿那件衣服上台，就要付一千大元。

我瞄了监制一眼：“真的穿不下。你开心了吧？”

热情的造型师拿出第二件外套。监制又嘀咕：“这件八百。最好也穿不下。”果然，也不合身。嗯，我替他们省了一笔。

“你们一定是故意的，对不对？拿小一号的衣服来刺激我！算了算了，没衣服穿我就不主持了。我做奖杯递送员好了！”肥佬发飙了。呵呵。

压箱宝登场。那件是量身定做的，价格不详，但应该也不低。店面在乌节路，看似简陋无比，却曾服务过David Beckham等名流。

服装搞定了，下来就靠各位摄影师与导播的倾力配合。请不要让我的大饼脸出街。拜托拜托。

Still on those pineapple tarts…

Fans were spoilt for choice on Saturday as three big scale concerts were staged in Singapore. Feng Feifei charmed the middle aged crowd at Indoor Stadium, while seven groups rocked the house at Korean Pop Night- an event beleaguered with ticketing woes right from the start but turned out to be a coup eventually.

I was at The Max Pavilion last night. There was a final round of sales at the door and all 7,000 tickets were sold by the time the legendary Wang Jie took to the stage. The organizers thought it was rather unusual (no pun intended) to have a 50-50 gender mix at the concert. Apart from the timeless repertoire that Wang Jie has amassed since his debut in 1988, his success probably has a lot to do with the rugged masculinity he exudes. The men all want to be like him, and the women go gaga over someone who isn’t a boring Mr. Nice.

Wang Jie didn’t have much to say during the first half of the concert. It seemed as if the band leader’s intent was to shut him up- some of the songs began straight after the final notes of the previous song were played. But when he did banter with the audience, he created possible headlines one after another- failed relationship with an unnamed star, and bitter memories of yet another unnamed artiste.

While no one complained that Wang Jie didn’t have a single costume change, the only regret would be that he wasn’t in top form last night. While doing the duet 你是我胸口永远的痛 with a backup vocalist, the band almost drowned him out. And Sometimes When We Touch started out so fine, until he faltered a little during the second half. The song list seemed a little peculiar, as he insisted on singing a new track 如果我老了你还爱不爱我 after his No. 1 hit 一场游戏一场梦。

Then again, if he were to do things the conventional way, he wouldn’t be Wang Jie.

金曲奖倒数一周。大家都在问：你很忙吧？嗯⋯⋯其实还好。

下周一：主持人试装／ 周三：对稿／ 周四：彩排／ 周五：Show。

这是暴风雨来临前的平静。我剪了两个月没碰的头发，翻了该翻的资料，找出只有大型节目才会用上的绿色荧光笔。差不多了⋯⋯

于是，我就去打麻将了！

小小的冷气房内，在日光灯的照耀下，他们几个很仔细地看着我的脸。

“看什么看？没有看到帅哥啊？”

哈哈哈哈！

“你的脸！好像有变小哦！真的有！大概小了0.00001％！”

翻白眼。

凌晨一点，他们几个开始饿了。

各位小朋友，打麻将果然是“恶习”。你们千万不要学。输钱是小事。首先，你会打乱自己的生理时钟。再来，你会被身边的人影响，在不该吃东西的时候，展现你的贪吃本能。

“这盒McNuggets有点怪。是因为我站着距离比较远，还是⋯⋯？”

我们赫然发现那盒九块装的McNuggets严重缩水！为什么？！

“算了啦。他们可能知道你要主持金曲奖，不能暴饮暴食，所以给你downsized nuggets⋯⋯”。