Ever since Claire suggested meeting up in Penang for some singing and dancing, I had been looking forward to it. Eugene was assigned the task of making all the necessary arrangements for the event but unfortunately, the response was not very encouraging. Nevertheless, as they always say, the show must go on…and it did!
Eugene and his sweet missus picked me up at my hotel that day (Saturday, 2nd April, 2011) and drove me to this beautiful colonial-style mansion (GPS coordinate: 5.4211563N,100.3236026E)…
…which actually is being used now as a karaoke club…for their happy hours from 4.00 till 8.00 p.m.
He asked me if I wanted one of those little rooms…and of course, I did not. If I had wanted that, I would just go and sing in the toilet. Muahahahaha!!!! I started the ball rolling by singing Joshua Kadison’s “Beautiful in my eyes“ and Van Morrison’s “Have I told you lately (that I love you)“…and in the meantime, Claire arrived and after that, Jessie came too…as well as Eugene’s sister and brother-in law.
Claire and I sang a duet – that Lionel Richie & Diana Ross’ favourite, “Endless Love” and I must say that we did very well…and considering that we never practised nor sang the parts together ever before, I would say that we were very good. LOL!!! I know! I know! Self-praise is no praise…but you can ask Eugene if you do not believe me. Right, Eugene? Wink! Wink!
We sang so many songs that evening including two that I had linked on Facebook not too long ago – Whitney’s “Where do broken hearts go“ and Barbara Streisand & Barry Gibb’s “What kind of fool“ and here, you can see the three of them doing Abba’s “Mamma Mia”…
Gosh! We had so much fun that we did not even notice time flying past so quickly. I think the last song I sang was “Tiada lagi” that somebody requested but nobody seemed to want to sing it. Actually I had never sung that song (in public) before and unfortunately, the video clip they had was the cover version by Amy Search…
…and I’m actually more familiar with the Mayang Sari original but what the heck! I just went ahead with it. After all, it’s karaoke! How did I do? Let’s hear the comments from the judges – Eugene, Claire and Jessie. LOL!!!
We had a photo taken together while we were there…
…and after that, we adjourned to the Red Garden Food Centre at Penang Road (GPS coordinate: 5.4211616N, 100.3341705E) where Bananaz and his friend from KL joined us for dinner/supper…
…and my good friend, Mandy, dropped by as well a little bit later.
We ordered all kinds of things to eat, most of which I had eaten before and had featured in my posts previously…for instance the or chian (oyster omelette)…
….but this time around, somebody ordered the lala chian as well which is something similar but instead of oysters, they have lala (some kind of clams or something like that) in it.
I think I saw Jessie having the yong tofu and Claire had the Cantonese-fried hor fun which she did not seem to like. Actually I had that before and I thought it was not bad. I ordered the belacan chicken for all to share…
…and also the ikan bakar – bawal hitam (black pomfret). The chicken was o.k. – I thought there should be more belacan added to give it a stronger taste but I guess that’s the thing about the belacan in the peninsula – not as strong and fragrant as ours in Sarawak. Anyhow, I liked it a lot better than the inchi cabin chicken we had at the nyonya restaurant the night before. The fish was good though and I particularly loved the sambal (dip) that came with it – so very pedas and so sedap.
I also ordered two sets of this Thai mango pulut (glutinous rice) dessert…
…and everyone enjoyed that but we did not finish all of it either because everyone was shy or we were already too full by then.
Then we called it a day…but before we dispersed, there was this exchanging of gifts. I had brought a box from home and I thought I could throw it away. In the end, I had to use it for all the things that I got and the box came all the way back to Sibu with me again. Stick around! I will blog about what goodies I received pretty soon…
I certainly had such a great time that evening and I hope that the rest did too…and Eugene, should I happen to hop over to Penang anytime in future, I would like to go croaking…I mean, karaoke-ing again. LOL!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 