Notable Christmas Eve in KL 2006

Pretty tight.

That's how our schedule has been for the past week. Because they need to repair our room - when the hotel's occupancy is at 40% - we had to transfer to another room on the same floor. In fact, just about 3 doors away. We didn't need to pack because we just literally moved our stuff in it. Selena enjoyed herself helping us, too.

When we woke up in the afternoon of Christmas eve, I was rushing to finish wrapping gifts - something I had to postpone because of moving in the morning. Papa Jamal and Mama Siah dropped by to the lounge to exchange Christmas gifts with us and we had Christmas high tea too. 7PM was definitely a Christmas rush hour for us. We had to fix a usual green dress, attached a red leather belt on our chest to hold it from sliding down and put on our Christmas hats.

It's our 5th Christmas in Shangri-La KL for 5 consecutive years and Christmas eve performance this year, just like the previous ones, was one again remarkable. The lounge was FULL - again. Really packed full. The spaces between each table were so narrow that you had to walk sideways. Though I must say that 60% of the crowd were not usual regulars, but all of them really had a grea time. One regular guest opened a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne for the band. Cool! As usual, by 12 midnight, we did our grand Christmas countdown, sang some Christmas carols to everyone's delight.

I was trying to be jolly Christmassy the whole night - and tried to forget how my family in Manila wouldn't be able to celebrate on that special night. They had to mourn for my late stepfather who passed away a day before Christmas eve, and it just kicked in when Jan sang an emotionally felt "Oh Holy Night". I couldn't stop myself from crying - right there and then. But Marl definitely knew how to turn my bolts so he had me singing songs I love performing to. We finished the evening with a good remark on the people who were there on that special night.

Definitely notable.