MelFay The Documentarian

One of my adopted sisters in KL, MelFay, has been our documentarian (thanks to Reggie Soriano for that word LOL) especially while we were there during the past contract. She would take our performance videos for her Youtube channel and photos to capture everything. And thanks to her, she was even able to capture the fun times we had during our last night performance at Shangri-La KL last July 15, 2009. Mummy Evelyn, her mom, was just in time to catch our last nigRhts in KL. And we're so happy that we were able to see her. MelFay and her 3 other siblings have been my adopted sisters since 1997, when they were used to be brought by their mom, whom I call Mum, every week when we used to perform at the Concorde Hotel in KL.

To view the fun photos (where most of the really funny fun pics are towards the end of the album), please CLICK HERE.
To view our performance videos, check out MELFAY86's YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

SARSTUDIO Shots

Here are the latest photos of Marl aka BuddyDaddy.

To view & comment to the photos, CLICK HERE.
To view Marl's other photo sets, visit HIS FLICKR SITE.

Our 1st performance in Beijing

When we arrived in the hotel on July 16th at 5PM, they all thought that we were going to perform straight away looking like sh*t. Because that's what was written on our poster - to perform starting July 16, 2009. But we said "no" and the management was understanding enough to accept that and let us rest for the night.

Our first night performance at the Cloud Nine Bar of Shangri-La Hotel Beijing was just last night (Friday), July 17. It wasn't bad at all, but since we are new here, we don't know anybody in the audience, we don't know what they like, and we don't have any idea of what musical approach we should do. But the evening went well unbelievably. The first 3 sets were easy for a crowd that's mostly local Chinese. The last set was VERY easy as there wasn't any guests left anymore except for one French guy who loves Spanish songs. LOL.

Hope we'll able to pull in crowds and regulars. But for the meantime, we'll have to concentrate on learning more Chinese songs.

Better be safe than be sorry

I was thinking twice if I should wear this mask on the flight from KL to Beijing. But while we were at the boarding gate in KLIA, we saw lots of people - mostly Asians - wearing masks. And also, the sight of some
passengers sneezing & coughing gave us a scare before the flight. So the three of us took out our masks & tried to wear it fashionably. However, I don't think it looked good on me nor I looked good in it, but I'd better be safe than be sorry later on.

Oops! Sorry!

I sometimes blog from my mail especially. And since I have a new video on Qik - my first Qik in Beijing in fact - I just tried pasting the embed code to the blog post prior to this. It's such a shame that I'm still blogging eventhough I can't access my blog. And that's the reason why I couldn't delete the earlier post which was just a bunch of garbled code.

If you wanna see what video I'm talking about, please go to http://qik.com/sarita, you can makr a comment there or you can follow me my updates on http://twitter.com/saritaonline.

Time to sleep now after being awake for 36 hours. First night in Beijing...

Update: I've already edited the Qik video posted prior to this. Thank God for proxies!

My first Qik in Beijing

Greetings from Beijing!

Hey guys! I'm already in Beijing!

It's such a dark afternoon minus the rain. We arrived at the airport at 3:15PM and was greeted by an airport official holding a big card that read "U.R.B. Band", right after hopping out of the plane. We were ushered to the quarantine desk for clearance, through the immigration, baggage claim and customs. A limousine service was already waiting for us and so, we took a ride to the hotel.

After 40 minutes of beating the Beijing traffic, we finally reached the Shangri-La Hotel. We didn't have to check-in anymore, and we were greeted in the lobby by Mr. Stefan Kapek (hotel manager who used to be our F&B director at Shangri-La Mactan) and Mr. Cedric Besler (F&B Director).

We were then accompanied to our new room and the first thing I did was to check if there was a WiFi signal. And much to my delight, I found a signal! Woooohooo!

Now, time to take a rest first...

Two more days in KL

It's been pretty hectic the past few days. I hate early packing coz it turns out to be endless packing. And now, with two more days left in KL, guess we're all set and ready.

Tuesday (14th) and Wednesday (15th) are our last performances and friends are divided into those days. We're surely gonna miss everyone here in KL.

A lucky gal... Yes, I am!

I was joking with a long-time friend just a week ago at the lobby lounge, on how computer freak I actually am. Then he continued to say that eventhough he has a Macbook Pro, he doesn't know how to use it. I joked and said, "Give it to me so I could make a good use of it instead". His friend then said, "Why you want the used one? Let him buy you a new one lah!", then we all laughed.

So today, he came to the lounge and handed me a brand new, top-of-the-line Macbook Pro with 17" anti-glare LED widescreen display. It's certainly a sight for sore eyes! It also boasts 3.06gHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 8GB RAM. It also comes with iLife '09, iWork '09 and MobileMe account (thankful coz mine has just expired). "WOW!", that was all I could say.

I must say that I'm very thankful because this is one of countless blessings that I've had lately. And one must never fail to be grateful on every little thing that comes their way, especially, if it's a Macbook Pro - for free! :-)

On Michael Jackson's Memorial

I honestly think that it was the most moving thing I've ever seen on TV that led me crying nonstop (oh well, almost nonstop) for almost 3 hours. It's such a beautiful memorial that has united the world within those hours.

Everything about it was soooo moving. I loved the speeches and the performances. Brooke Shields' story about her life with MJ was so moving. Usher's "Gone Too Soon" and Jermaine Jackson's "Smile" performances just had me pulling plies of tissue from its box. But what really got me was when his daughter, Paris Katherine, spoke how good a father he was. I felt her pain and that really just made me WAIL. And I guess, so did the whole world.

While they were escorting MJ's casket out of the Staples Center, the sight of an empty space on stage with a spotlight and microphone on its stand while the music of "Man In The Mirror" playing in the background... is just priceless.

I do believe that MJ has touched most of the lives, not only in my generation, but those young and old, rich and poor, and yes, black and white.

"I'm gonna make a change, for once in my life". And I feel I've been changed.

Thank you, MJ... Rest in peace, the only King of Pop...

Still photoshooting

It's been more than a month now since I started doing some part-time modeling. And yes, I'm loving it. I'm just in it for fun. And it's really great working with the creative people/photographers who unselfishly shared their knowledge with Marl about photography. Hope there's something like this in Beijing. :-)