Fat flyers

This is a bit of an interesting news:

Irish budget airline Ryanair is proposing to charge its overweight passengers a 'fat tax'. It's not the first airline to introduce such measures aimed at obese travelers. Some U.S. airlines already assess extra fees or have policies regarding obese passengers. Like if you're deemed too big by the airline, they'd make you buy an extra seat or upgrade to business class

Ryanair's 'fat tax' idea has garnered broad support on their online poll where an average of 1 in 3 passengers are in favour of the move. Apparently Ryanair claims the 'fat tax' is what its passengers want.

If it's successfully implemented, obese travelers will find themselves subject to a waist measurement check as Ryanair has proposed to assess its 'fat tax' based on one's waistline measurement.

Band of Cpoppers

Some years back I used to spend a lot of time at Cpop.co.uk forum playing forum games (they were highly addictive) with my band of cpoppers. The forum offered songs for sharing/download and attracted many forumers from around the world with a common interest: Chinese pop music.

The community of forumers were primarily based in the western hemisphere and over the few years when I was active I had befriended many like-minded friends from the US, Australia and England. A couple of them are my very cool American and Welsh Caucasian friends who adore cpop music yet neither speak nor understand a word of Chinese. Such is the power of music. It knows no language barrier. Leehom has been driving this message for years when promoting cpop to the rest of the world.

Over the years the forum got revamped and I stopped being active. I had well over 10,000 posts (!!) by the time I had 'retired' though whenever the forum admins did their housekeeping I'd lose a few hundred posts cos they'd delete the old posts. Told ya I used to be there a lot.

Final Music-Man?

Counting down 5 days to the Music-Man concert and looking forward to meeting up with my friends from Jakarta and Bangkok again. Looks like I will be busy playing tour guide this weekend ;)

I didn't know till I read Net's blog that this concert may be the last one in the tour. But Leehom hasn't staged a Music-Man concert in HK yet, though he did have the HK Philharmonic Orchestra concerts in December last year and that was part of a different thing.

In any event, this will be my final Music-Man concert.

Masa's birthday

Today is Masa's birthday!

Happy Birthday Masa!

Fish Leong live in KL

I just found out today that Fish Leong is staging a concert in KL on 13 June 2009

She announced that her special guest will be fellow homegrown star Zhang Zhi Chen (Z-Chen), who's also her cousin. I have to admit I was a little disappointed upon hearing that. It's not that I dislike Z-Chen but considering that Ashin was her special guest when she played Singapore back in December 2007, I was hoping maybe we'll get to see the same guest again.

¿sıɥʇ pɐǝɹ noʎ uɐɔ

dlǝɥ ɥɔnɯ ɟo ǝq oʇ ɯǝǝs ʇ,usǝop uʍop ǝpısdn uǝǝɹɔs ʎɯ ƃuıddılɟ puɐ sıɥʇ ƃuıpɐǝɹ ǝɥɔɐpɐǝɥ ɐ ƃuıʇʇǝƃ ɯ,ı

ɹǝsʍoɹq ɹnoʎ ɥʇıʍ ƃuoɹʍ ƃuıɥʇou sı ǝɹǝɥʇ `ƃuıɹǝpuoʍ ǝɹ,noʎ ǝsɐɔ uı

¿ʇɐǝu ʇı ʇ,uıɐ ʇnq

ʎʞɹop ʎllɐǝɹ sı sıɥʇ ʎɐʞo

Piracy and Pink Kitty Robot

Stay Real's Kitty Robot is now available in Hello Kitty's original pink colour. How sweet. I was eyeing this but came to realise that Kitty Robot lost its laser eyes in the pink version, making it look somewhat closer to the original Kitty. That kinda lost its appeal for me.

Stay Real has recently fallen victim to piracy. As we all know, piracy is a thriving industry in Asia. Some 2 years ago, counterfeit version of Ashin's MP3 MusiQ player that he had taken a year to design for BenQ started appearing on the streets of China a month after release.

Piracy is tantamount to stealing and counterfeiters are thieves. Consumers who support such counterfeit products are no better. I don't deny that Stay Real products are a little expensive, but we cannot belittle Ashin and No2Good’s time and effort. Have some respect for their intellectual property and support the original products.

Spirit Tracks

Nintendo has recently announced an upcoming sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, slated for release later in the year. The sequel is titled The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and I will be keeping an eye on this one. I just saw the trailer and I'm not quite sure I like idea of Link playing a trainman..

Another game to watch out for is Perfect Prosecutor, the spin-off from the Ace Attorney series that Edgeworth fans have been waiting for. I've been told it has been released in Japan so all we need to do is wait for the US/Europe release date

Counting down to HK trip

Today  marks the first anniversary of Mayday's final JUMP! concert at Genting. In just under one year they've completed yet another world tour. D.N.A is gonna be my fourth Mayday tour. I am looking forward to the upcoming D.N.A tour which is kicking off in HK (hence the trip) and the new catalogue of merchandise and Stay Real items. I spotted Ashin in a new Stay Real vest and mouse tee at an event last week. Wonder if it'll be on sale in HK?

I wanna hear Ashin's lame Li Kar Shing toilet paper story again (will he be repeating the story for 3 nights?) It's hilariously funny when he delivers it in his broken Cantonese!

new Stay Real tee and vest !!

Krispy Kreme in KL

It's that time of the year again to file those blasted income tax return. Not exactly my idea to spend a weekend but thankfully I had mine completed in less than half an hour. It's not like I have that much to declare y'see.

Krispy Kreme is finally available in KL

Krispy Kreme's glazed doughnuts

Is anyone looking forward to Krispy Kreme's arrival in Malaysia on 27 April? I got a free box of a half dozen glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts yesterday for sample tasting. They tasted alright but a bit too sweet for my liking as the glazed sugar coating was rather thick and had melted by the time I got home.

D.N.A tour update

For the benefit of our fellow Mayday loving friends, here's the latest schedule for the D.N.A world tour:

(K, are you taking notes? =] Tianjin has yet to make it to the list)

● 2009/05/20、21、22 Hong Kong

Time: 8:15pm

Venue: Coliseum

● 2009/05/28 Melbourne, Australia

Time: 8:15pm

Venue: Hisense Arena

● 2009/05/29 Sydney, Australia

Time: 8:15pm

Venue: Sydney Entertainment Center

● 2009/07/03、04 Shanghai, China

Time: 7:45pm

Venue: Hongkou Football Stadium

● 2009/08/28、29 Singapore

Time: 8:00pm

Venue: Indoor Stadium

So far I'm planning to catch 5 of the 9 gigs - which is slightly over half of the current total ;)

I'm on Twitter

I finally did it.

Signed up at Twitter today, just to check what the fuss is all about. I read that Liam Gallagher is on Twitter. What a surprise, I thought Our Kid was computer illiterate LOL. I looked up his account right after signing up and funnily enough, his last current status (last updated 22 hours ago) was:

Just finished the Asian and South African tour. Going on safari with the Missus, if I don't get ate by a lion I'll see you fuckers soon
LG

Did anyone notice his grammatically incorrect sentence? That's Liam alright LMAO

Tales from the middle of nowhere

I read a Noel interview on The Oasis Newsroom today. Some really interesting stuff about Noel; he can't swim, he can't use chopsticks (little wonder why he had enough of noodles on their Asian tour) and he doesn't own a computer! OMG he has been blogging from his mobile all along. And here I was thinking he carries his lappy with him on tour. No way, he could actually type all that on his mobile?! Because he doesn't own a computer, he still goes to record stores to buy music, the good ol' fashioned way. But hang on, the man owns an iPod, so how does he get the music into his iPod?

Noel also mentioned that he does not own a car though I remember him purchasing a brown Rolls Royce about 10 years ago and he said then that he'd get his ex-missus to drive him around cos he can't drive. I guess he probably sold off the Rolls by now

And speaking about the cancelled Chinese gigs, Noel has never been to China and feels somewhat insulted that the Chinese government is not letting them play in the mainland.

Bad press again

忘詞王阿信

Mayday are still getting bad press for singing badly, this time at a recent music festival in Kenting. So Ashin sang out of tune and forgot the lyrics (again). How can he keep forgetting the words to his own songs? Words to songs written by himself that he sings almost every other night at some gig or another. Baffling indeed.

You can watch bits of Mayday's performance here though I couldn't really tell how bad his singing was cos the sound quality is awful.

Time Hollow

I spent Easter weekend holed up in my room, juggling between sleep and playing Time Hollow intensely on the DS during my waking hours. I started playing Time Hollow just before the weekend and found myself hooked instantly!

It's a really interesting game revolving around Ethan Kairos, a teenager who wakes up one day to find his parents mysteriously gone missing, or rather, "erased" from his current timeline. But to where? Ethan is left with a magical hollow pen that gives him powers to fix the past and clean up the present, and hopefully rescue his folks. Obviously I haven't gotten to that part yet. Cool stuff, it's kinda like playing God :P

It's got pretty graphics and a great story. If you're into Japanese manga, you're gonna love this one.

Rock gods in the house

It's been almost a week since the Oasis SG concert. Some of us may still be suffering from Oasis withdrawal. I still have Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story?) Morning Glory on repeat.

There was an writeup on the concert by the Straits Times here, aptly titled Rock gods in the house ;)

Today I received a message through YouTube from a bloke in the UK who asked if I had the whole SG Oasis concert on DVD and if so he'd like to buy a copy off me. Wow. It's the first time I've received such an offer, cos usually I get requests without the money offer LOL. I did get some pretty friggin' awesome videos from the concert cos we were in the front row ;)

my fav vid from that night ;)

What's in my bag?

I stumbled on this video by chance whilst browsing YouTube the other night. It features Coldplay's bassist talking about his CD purchase at a record store. But hang on, that's no Guy Berryman..! Oh it's Noel Gallagher trying to pass off as Coldplay's bassist. Haha. Seriously, Guy and Noel don't even look a bit alike. Guy doesn't have monobrow

What's interesting to note in the video is that Noel doesn't seem to buy any current CDs *ahem* almost all the CDs he purchased are psychedelic stuff from 60's and 70's! I haven't heard of any of the artists except for Pink Floyd and T-Rex (only cos Oasis did an amazing cover of their Cum On Feel the Noize) What's with that German 60's dance compilation??! WTH. And why he does he keep thinking that the CDs are shite?

And on another note, a new Oasis song appeared online last week, recorded by a fan during their soundcheck in Taipei, sparking rumours that Noel is going solo. It's a top tune and I hope it gets released ;)

Juggling drummer

Chris Sharrock.

The name may not be familiar to most, but if you were at the SG Indoor Stadium last Sunday, it would’ve been hard for you not to have noticed him (Well the other being the keyboardist, whom Noel referred to as the 'direct descendant of Gandalf') Sharrock was formerly from Robbie Williams’ band, and is now currently on tour with Oasis.

I've been to gigs and have seen many drummers in action but this guy is by far the most impressive drummer I have ever seen. He has really amazing drumming skills, not only does he play one hell of a set on the drums at lightning speed, the man can juggle and spin his sticks while playing!!! AWESOME!!!! I have never ever seen anyone do that before LOL I was in awe just watching him playing the drums I totally forgot to catch it on vid.. DUH!

AWESOME!

Cute or Die

Over the weekend when I was in Singapore I caught up with a few friends for dinner. Shirley got me a pressie - Stay Real's Hello Kitty lanyard. Nice one. Much thanks! Not that I need anymore lanyard as I already have a collection of them which I hardly ever use. I wonder why I buy them in the first place when I don't need them? Cos I am a sucker for Stay Real

Omigosh that Cute or Die tagline reminds me of the infamous Noel or Die sign that Noel keeps blogging about! I can't figure out it means. I guess people with bad English have a way with weird phrases.. Hmm.. Ashin or Die LOL

Live Forever Oasis

We arrived at the Singapore Indoor Stadium last Sunday way ahead of the scheduled 8:00pm Oasis concert, thinking we'd be one of the few early birds. To my amazement, the security guy told us there were fans who were even more 'kiasu' than us who had arrived the night before!!

It was good to hear Oasis sing a number of their old songs from the first two albums (classic tunes like Supersonic, Cigarettes and Alcohol, Rock N' Roll Star, Slide Away, Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, Don't Look Back In Anger) I'm rather surprised that they still open their set with Fuckin' In the Bushes! Sadly Noel didn't sing 'Whatever' but he did sing 'The Masterplan' so I'm quite content, thought it would have been nice if he had sang 'Whatever'.

Liam looked as cool as ever onstage, with his trademark swagger, hunched as he sings with his hands tucked in his parka pockets (didn't he used to have his hands clasped behind his back when he sings?) In between songs he'd come up to the front of the stage to stare at the crowd. At times, he'd toy with his tambourine.. he does a pretty good balancing act with the tambourine on his head. Noel looked like he had just gotten out of bed LOL his hair looked unkempt. Obviously he's intent to keep his 'permanent bedhead' look

tonight i'm a rock n roll star!

Thankfully the concert was held at the Indoor Stadium as I cannot imagine the condition of the mosh pit had it been an outdoor event. Liam wouldn't have survived the heat and humidity singing onstage in his parka. What annoyed me the most was the girl who stood behind me at the gig. When Oasis appeared onstage, all hell broke loose in the mosh pit and cos we were right at the front, when the people at the back started pushing forward, we ended up being squashed to the barrier. And we remained squashed to the barrier ALL night! The oversized girl behind me had her body pressed against my back throughout the show (it wasn't pleasant I tell ya). That was by far the rowdiest and most uncouth crowd I have ever seen.

Talkin to the songbird yesterday..

The good thing was that we got to the front row (yay! all that early Q-ing up finally paid off) and had an amazing view of the gig with a nice spot right in front of Noel. I got Noel's guitar pick!! :))

I got Noel's guitar pick!! :)

Noel 'The Bedhead' 

*all photos by bloodbubble 2009

Oasis in SG & Mayday in Australia

I have not blogged in a week. Partly cos I had a crazy past week at work and I only just got back from a much needed getaway weekend in Singapore. It was good to see Oasis live in concert, they reminded me of when I first started listening to them in the mid 90s, which now seem like a really long time ago. For the longest time during that period I thought they were the greatest band ever. Over the past decade I expected their popularity would've somewhat declined but how wrong I was when I turned up at the Indoor Stadium and saw what appeared to be a majority of new generation of young Oasis fans, who were probably still in their diapers when Definitely Maybe was released. I will get to a separate post on the concert, which by the way rocked. Yeah they kicked ass!!!

And while I was away, Joyce, my Aussie friend from Sydney texted me to inform me of Mayday's upcoming Aussie gig, slated for 28 and 29 May in Melbourne and Sydney, making it their second stop on the upcoming D.N.A [Dance Now Ashin] world tour which will kick-off the week before the Aussie stop in HK where they'll be playing 3 nights at the Coliseum. I've already secured tickets for the HK shows and cannot wait to go :) I was hoping the Aussie leg of the tour would happen later in the year so I can make a stop down under since I've never been there and it's high time I make stop to visit Joyce as well. But looks like the timing is off :( Shucks.