Lotsa layoffs

With lots of layoff happening during the turn of year 2009, there is a dreading fear and threat of instability on everyone's current job, whatever it may be. Tens of thousands of factories are now being closed in China alone. Companies are laying off thousands of jobs. And hotels and entertainment are pretty affected by the global economy turmoil.

In our company alone, there are lots of bands being terminated from their contracts especially those who are playing in stand-alone bars. And I feel sorry for them, if only I could do something for them. It feels like deja vú, this also happened more than 10 years ago due to Asian crisis. But now that it's global, every employing company is hanging down the drain with just one hand. And worst, it's just the 1st month of the year 2009. How bad could this really be?

New photos in KL

I have uploaded some of the newest photos we've taken in KL. The vanity in me has actually lessen when 2009 came. But, I think it's coming back again, much to my subscribers' delight hopefully! LOL. Soooo, here they are!
KL Pics - Jan 2009

New lunar year after the new year

Few days or weeks ago, whenever we'd say "Happy New Year" to some Chinese friends, they'd reply "not yet". Now, it's definitely appropriate to greet everyone a "Happy New Year"!

The 1st day of the year of the ox was great. We started with a lunch in a vegetarian restaurant with my godmom and friends. We then went back to her house to chill out. At around 3PM, the Indonesian masseuse arrived. Marl had an hour massage, I had an hour and a half and Aretha had half an hour massage. You follow me? :-/

So anyway, as other people enjoyed being massaged, I'm one of those rare persons that don't enjoy massages, especially reflexology. The masseuse did an accupressure and kneading techniques. I wasn't able to relax the whole time because it was painful - the whole time! But it was relaxing AFTER the massage. :-)

We then went back to the hotel. I haven't been feeling well since Sunday and just needed a much-deserved rest...

Good night & Gong Xi Fa Cai! :-)

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Let's all welcome the year of the ox on this 1st day of the lunar year! May this year bring us all goodluck and best in everything.

As for me, I will take this throbbing headache to rest for now...

Almost like before

So we've been performing at the Lobby Lounge for a week now and we've survived without tripping on our long gowns everytime we dance a bit. It's pretty relaxing for me, considering the hard work we did in Qingdao where we played 90% bouncy and fast songs for 4 or 5 hours each night. Now it's the other way around! LOL

But last night, we tried wearing our new cocktail dresses. What's wrong with wearing something that drapes over the knees anyway? So anyway, we managed to move a lot better, to our guests' delight. Being the weekend before Chinese New Year, we had a good crowd last night. So now we can shuffle from long gowns and cocktail dresses. Yipeeeeee!

Also, they allowed us to play the usual "URB set" on our 3rd and 4th set. But the sound effect or sound setup won't allow us to play our usual songs too much because all we have are monitors speakers infront of us and the rest of the sound goes through the pipe-in speakers situated all over the high ceiling of the lobby lounge. The sound spreads out thus creating echoes and mixed up sound.

You don't get what I mean, eh? Well, come to the Lobby Lounge of the Shangri-La KL to find out. :-)

The latest hour

It's already 5AM and I'm just going to bed. It's the latest bedtime for me since we got here in KL. When we got here a week ago, 3AM would be the most groggy moment for me before passing out. But now that we already have internet access anywhere (in the hotel) at anytime, guess it's time to buy some cucumber for my eye bags...

WiFi all I can

I didn't know that the internet from our room is free of charge! Duh!
So guess what? Hooked up my wireless router so I can freely surf the
net on my Macbook and iPhone even while on the bed, in the bathtub
and even inside the closet! Amazing! :-)

Oh, since the Lobby Lounge is a free WiFi zone, too, along with other
WiFi hotspots in KL, I'm gonna be drowning in WiFi wave here!
Wooohoooo! WiFi all I can!

Activated GPRS on DiGi

Since we still don't have easy internet access from our room, I'm trying out the GPRS feature on my new DiGi number. I just had it activated few minutes ago. Asked the customer service about the charges and was told that I'll be charged RM 0.10 per 10 kilobytes. But if I would spend more than RM 149 on GPRS charges alone, my GPRS usage thereafter will be free for life! Well, until I have the same number, of course.

Why did I do this? Coz I have a lot to say and a lot to do online. Love blogging so instead of me dressing up and going down the lobby lounge to catch a WiFi signal, I can just stay in our room and blog while lying down on the bed surrounded by my fluffy pillows. Talk about convenience!

I even did a reset on my iPhone's usage so I could track how much data is received and sent. Hmm, I wonder how many bytes this blog post would be...

Congratulations, New America!

I was watching President Barack Obama's inauguration day the whole day and I feel so overwhelmed. As I have blogged about it before, I feel so proud that I feel like I'm also an American! I'm so happy and I know that this will not change or transform America only, but the whole world.

Hurray for Mr. President Barack Obama, the new hope of the United States of America.

Chinaeyes meets... ME!

In Jan.11, 2008, I was able to squeeze in a 2-hour meeting out of my very hectic schedule during my holiday back home, with a friend I have only met on Youtube, Jason Telmo a.k.a. chinaeyes22. It was fun and loved the video... See for yourself :-)

Missin' part

Sure we are thrilled and excited that we are once again - well, for the 6th time - back at the Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur. But like our regular guests, we miss performing on top of the hotel bar, 12 feet up in the air.

They have removed the stage that brought good luck to the lounge for more than 7 years. It was surely something that made Shang KL unique. Now, it's just like any other lobby lounges you can find in your area. Nothing much special about it anymore and that has shooed the regular guests away.

But, URB Band is back so let's try to liven up the place a li'l bit!

Our first 2 nights were a sure disaster for a band who has filled the lounge almost every night during our previous contracts here. They have changed the concept and had us wearing long gowns, instead of something that people have grown accustomed to.

One thing is for sure, though. We are the URB Band and we do what our job requires us to do. And great entertainment is one sure thing you'll get from us.

I'm back in KL, baby!

We've arrived KL safely and on the way from the KLIA airport, I couldn't help myself from getting too excited. Now, we're already here at the Shangri-La KL and watching the current band's last set (picture above). And hell yeah, free WiFi at the lobby, woohooo!

Waiting to board

Our flight will be one hour delayed so we'll reach the hotel at
around 11ish at night. And good thing is that there's a complimentary
WiFi hotspot here, to ease the boredom. Time to surf...

KL... here I come!!!

I'm writing this as I'm having breakfast with my princessette,
Selena. I'm having coffee and she's having her Milo drink. She's
playing Monopoly, iGotchi and Sally's Salon on my iPhone.

Today is our last day in Manila. After lunch, we will be heading to
the airport to meet with our agency's representative and catch our
Malaysia Airlines flight to KL at around 5PM. I had a great time and
fun during our vacation although we were super duper busy... Next
time 'round then...

KL... here I come!!!

At home in Manila

Yes, we've arrived home after a crazy schedule in Cebu. I didn't have much rest in Cebu as we only had two days to get everything done and see our friends and relatives.

Now we're back home. I saw my little princessette who has grown taller and, errm, longer. Saw my handsome brothers who seem to have gained weight since I last saw them. Now I have time to get online again. I also hooked my wireless router so I can go online anytime and anywhere in the house. :-)

Arrived Cebu

After a very tiring wait in Seoul for 6 hours, I'm so glad that we've reached Cebu eventhough the flight was a bit delayed. After going through the usual immigration process, we went to shop at Duty Free for some chocolate packs. I bought 3 packs while Marl bought 4 packs. We reached home at around 1:30AM and I guess it's time to ZzzZzzz away...

On Asiana Airlines

I've flown with Asiana Airlines for the 3rd time only this year and I must say that I have but only good things to say about it.

The ground staff and the flight stewardess were not only pleasant, but they're also very accommodating and hospitable. I know it's hard when you "have to do" your job, but it seems for them, it's very natural to be like that.

Also, the food is fantastic. Some people I know of would always eat at the airport because the flight because inflight meals suck. But not Asiana Airlines. They have great meals on each flight. Though, a Haagen Dazs ice cream for dessert would have made their sumptuous meals a perfect inflight meal. But, oh well...

I'm writing this at 9PM and we will have more than 2 hours to reach Cebu. So if you'll excuse me, I'll doze off now as I scratch my satisfied, bulging tummy... :-)

"No shopping" - Whaaaat?!?

As much as I would love to shop here at Incheon International Airport, I kinda refrain myself so I could save all the shopping experience for KL. Anyway, KL is the place to be when it comes to shopping. Yeah I miss Sungei Wang, Low Yat Plaza, Midvalley Mall and my fave hangout, KLCC.

All I bought here today was my fave MdDonald's cheeseburger meal. No fish fillet for Marl because unfortunately, they don't have fish fillet burger at the McD here at the airport. So poor Marl, he had to share the fries with me. LOL

Yeah, tempting to go to the electronics shop but aside from Yepp and Samsung, everything is pretty much the same with the things I saw at the Computer City in Qingdao.

Still have an hour more before boarding time and Marl is dozing away in Napland. Worse than me, he didn't have enough rest during the past few days. I can't wait to board the plane so I could take a rest, too. My eyes are really sleepy. The coffee is not working. Not working.

Annyong Haseyooo!

Greetings from Seoul!

We're at Incheon International Airport transiting from Qingdao to Cebu. Our flight to Cebu is in 6 hours time so that means, we'll reach Cebu by midnight. Arggggh! A day wasted from traveling alone! That leaves us 9 more days for our vacation.

The last few days in Qingdao have been pretty hectic yet exciting. From New Year's Eve which was a huge party success until our last night performance on the 3rd of January. After that, we got busy assisting the new band, 3rd Sense. We also needed to wait for our passports so we could terminate our DSL connection. We sent 3 more boxes via post straight to Kuala Lumpur so we wouldn't have to bring them with us on our flights to Cebu-Manila-KL.

I'm very excited about this vacation since we're going to meet our fellow PMNers in Cebu and Manila for an EB! Yeyyyyyy! Anyway, let me look for some coffee...

Tonight is our last night performance in Qingdao!

Come one, come all! I know this is already a late notice! Hahaha! Blame my iPhone, I've been having problem posting from the application Shozu! Darn!