David Tao's 933FM interview (A)

As soon as I heard that David Tao was INDEED going to hold a concert in Singapore, I immediately contacted my friend, X, with something like this:

"Eh, want to go to Tao Zhe's concert? ..."

If memory serves me correct, public sale of concert tickets started in early October 2005, on a Monday morning, at 9am. Prior to that, X (yes, she's the one mentioned in earlier blog entries) had asked me what type of seats I was interested in. I replied " ... whatever you wish to get ..."

Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you would look at it), I went for the "cheapest tix" ... at S$80 a tix, they don't come that cheap either!!

If anyone is wondering about the reason as to why I did not get the most expensive tickets of S$170, a matter of reasonable investigation, known only to selected people.

Important thing is, as another friend was consoling me "nvm Cookie, tis better tat u went than u didn't go to Tao Zhe's concert! U go, girl!!"

As soon as she had booked & got the confirmed tickets, X sms me " ... got the tickets ..." Three words that have never sounded so good & ones that got me all hyped up.


The countdown to Tao Zhe/David Tao Love Can concert 2005 in Singapore had begun.


First stop: 933FM interview with THE MAN himself on 22/11/2005, at 11pm


Currently, the late-night show is being hosted by Peifen. Once the magical hour of 11pm arrived, she introduced David Tao & the interview began proper.

To me, the interview came in mainly 2 parts:

• the 1st part that focused on the Love Can concert
• non-LC stuff

I will mention some non-LC stuff & not on the Love Can part, as I've not done enough on that part to translate to my blog here.

Certain of the non-LC stuff mentioned in the interview got me smiling & laughing, whilst listening very intensively.

As a kid, David was no different from other kids. The one time that he got into trouble with his parents was the time he tripped up another young kid who did nothing wrong with riding a bicycle past David's home in USA. Like any naughty kid, Tao Zhe got punished by his parents.

One would have thought that David would have learnt his lesson but OH NO no NO, The Man himself revealed that & I do a rough short translation in English, that David uttered something like,"Huh, you got me into trouble!! You wait & see!!"

Another non-LC bit was when David Tao mentioned his "fear" on flying cockroaches. Since when do guys "fear" flying cockroaches??

At 40, he is hoping to get involved with movies, probably directing and/or producing. Which means with the current status quo, we the fans of David Tao, have about another 4 years to appreciate his music (and 1 or 2 more full-length concerts). This is before he gradually steps behind the camera, instead of in front of it. Not that he will be out of music completely but perhaps he could do a movie soundtrack.

Music-wise, he touched on a few songs, one of them being "Ai Hen Jian Dan" (I Love You), one of David Tao's trademark songs.

When he mentioned that he wrote the song somewhere in 1992 or 1993, Peifen joking said "... er ..err .. think that time I was so young ...", with David cutting in with this reply "... so how YOUNG you were? ...". Bless her, Peifen replied with "... should be about 10+ ..." & David Tao replied with "... I was also 10+ during that period ..."

Much Better - A Simple Entry

I've been thinking about my blog recently. I know that I've said it before & got even people, other than myself thinking, "What are you doing with blogging? Are you sure that it is you??"

Truth to be told is that I kinda like blogging. To me, it is like an electronic diary, only that in this case, entries in this E-diary can be read by all & sundry. I'm not exactly one to shy away if I've problems (it doesn't matter if the problems were created by me or not) but then again, I'm not one to air ALL my dirty laundry in public.

In the past, whilst still a very small little girl (OK, so I'm a female blogger, who is YOUNG-AT-HEART), in the school that I went to, all of us students, had to KEEP A DIARY!! They even had a competition (sort of like your "who's the smartest one in each class") for some years, with prizes given out for the best entries. How do they, the judges, know? Why, they read your diaries of course! ... I wonder what did they find out? ... That so-and-so in Class ABC like Tom Cruise, the movie star? That the Star Wars movie guy Indy-what's-his-name (Harrison Ford) is like that??

Did I win? NO, of course I did not. Else, I would have had bragging rights to it, man. Besides, I wasn't in the habit of writting it down in those growing-pain years. Some mundane stuff, like: "Today, I had chilli fish slices for recess", or even more tasteless stuff like "Finish my homework early & watch Garfield".

And I thought that the writtings in diaries are private? I was wrong, OH SO WRONG.

I've read a few blogs, namely by 3 blokes who go by the names of Kenny Sia (I know him since my uni days back in Perth), Mr Brown (not an ang moh but Chinese guy, very famous in sunny Singapore) & Mr Miyagi (also not a Japanese but another famous Singaporean blogger who is Chinese).

Those guys ... they got me devouring their entries eagerly. Hey, I even read Mr Miyagi's reservist blog entries before he 'kanna' MINDEF advice to get clearance first before posting, for security purposes. Don't even bother to ask me what it is 'cos I've absolutely no clues whatsoever.

It could not get past me that the design for my postings was such that my entries were very "long & narrow". Unlike many others, I'm no computer geek/genius & hence, I was despairing at how to rectify the asthetic problem of my blog. Then, I thought:"Hey, it seems like a template problem ... u know different templates have different layouts. So, why don't you (meaning myself) change it??"

Have done so. This might not last very long or until I find something more stretchable, more elastic than a rubber band, whereby the entries are positioned better.

CHEERS, mate.

Fetch The Bride

Chinese weddings are quite fun, IF YOU ARE INVOLVED in it, not just as the groom & bride. I'm serious. Let me tell you my account on a recent wedding that I personally attended.

About 2 months ago (YES, yes ... I know that this posting is waaaaaay long overdue), one of my good friends (let her be known as X) got married.

Prior to her wedding, Miss X emailed a couple of us (ONE YEAR AHEAD), her female friends, that she was getting married about this time next year & requested our help on that day. Of course, I RSVP (is that the correct term to use?) that I would gladly help her out on her BIG DAY (don't ask when it is my turn).

By 7am on her wedding day, X was beautifully made up by her stylist (time it took: one hour) & was sitting there in all glory & prettiness, waiting for her darling hubby to come fetch her. Let us call the groom Y.

I don't know how the custom started but when a Chinese lady gets married, she gets some of her lady friends as "sisters", to help out on that day. Part of our duties involved being the timekeeper (to ensure that we do not miss the lucky timings for certain events), helping to carry the bride's stuff (make-up, wedding dress bag, blah blah ...)

My favourite "game" has got to be this: FETCH THE BRIDE.

I know I digressed a little but nevermind. In the high spirit of things ... it can get out of hand a wee bit.

On the groom's side, he will get a few of his buddies to be his "brothers" & their duties would involve carry a tray of things that I'm not too sure of the significance, except that I know those are the things that you would see in Chinese weddings. (for good luck, I suppose) & accompany the guy as he goes "get his wife".

Now, when the groom comes, the gate/door to the home of his bride is supposed to be locked up, to prevent the guy's party to enter. What is supposed to happen next, is that Y & his buddies have to play a few games with the wife's friends.

Here's the fun part: those games can be quite a hoot to play, as they are not your normal "scissors, paper, stone". They are usually something like: eat certain things & hand over the red packet with money inside.

The significance of the games I gather (besides the usual good luck to the bridal couple) is to let the guy know that he can't just have the bride "so easily" & must treat his wife well.

The norm would be to let him, Y, have a taste of life ahead. That is why the games are usually split into 4 categories of "Suan" (Sour), "Tian" (Sweet), "Ku" (Bitter) & "La" (Spicy).

We, on the girl's side, managed to get 3 out of the 4, leaving out the "Tian" ... on hindsight, we ought to have considered asking her husband, Y, to eat some sugar but all things turned out well that morning. For the SUAN, we got some fresh limes, we had some bittergourd cut up for the KU bit & some small chilli padi as the LA. All these were kindly brought to us by one of the sisters that morning.


How much time we get to play these hilarious games depends on 2 factors:

1) the lucky time that we all (bride, groom & all the sisters & brothers) have to step into the groom's home. We had one of the sisters be the all-important timekeeper. Thanks for the wonderful job, J.

2) what time the groom & his buddies actually arrive to "fetch the bride"


When the guy arrives in a car at the girl's house, the girl's actual younger brother (related by blood & DNA; if the girl does not have any brothers, I suppose that her younger cousin also can?) will open the car door for the guy.

Immediately, the brother has to speed up back into the house before it is locked up prior to the groom's arrival, for the start of the "Fetch The Bride" showtime.

He arrived without much fanfare. As soon as we the girls spotted Y, we screamed out "HE IS HERE!! He's here!!!!" He came with four of his buddies to the entrance of X's home. THAT heralded the start of THE GAMES.

After some hemming & hawing, we started teasing the guy, saying something like (all mostly lucky-sounding phrases), "Oy, why did you come so late?", "You made her wait & worry", "You have committed the crime (fiticious, of course) of ..."

They handed over the first red packet (or ang pow, as we call them locally). A lot of giggling from the girls in the house, as we examined the red packet. It is difficult to describe on a blog how this actually looks like but ...

Then, we would tease him further by saying, "... as punishment, you have to do this ..." We got him & his buddies to EAT UP EVERYTHING, that we had planned whilst waiting for them to arrive.

More teasing:
"You are thirsty? Here, have some LIME to drink". They had to squeeze out the juice from the lime to drink, with the lime being smaller than a golf ball.

"You haven't known bitterness? Here, eat up this bittergourd" ... To his credit, the groom actually ate up most of the bittergourd himself (with him saying later on that he kind of like eating bittergourd, so it was no problem to him). Bravo!!

"You want to spice up your life? Here, eat some chillies!!" Now, that was something that his buddies are called "buddies", since they underwent eating the small chillies, which by the way, the smaller they are, the hotter they are. The groom, Y, did not eat any chillies.

Then, in the middle of it all, through a wily trick by the guys, one of the windows was accidentally unlocked. On seeing a window of opportunity (pardon the pun), the buddies rushed the groom to actually climb the window to get into the house. As we tried to push the guys (us 4 gals vs. the 4 blokes), there was lots of screaming "AAAahahhh!!" & "Cookie, go guard the door".

It is the FIRST TIME that I have actually seen the bridegroom climbing through the living room window to get into the house. I shall not forget that funny sight, ever.

We had agreed (us 4 ladies, excluding the lovely bride herself) that for Y to claim his wife, X, Y has to play 1 VIP game & hand over the ang pow with the "symbolically CORRECT" amount of money, before he could claim the bride. We put on our thinking caps to think of what games we could play, with who in charge of doing what. We had fun analyzing the games.

I had strict instructions not to open the door to the room where the bride sat waiting, until I counted that the amount for the BIG ang pow is correct. This was to be the last part of the games before Y could claim his wife, X, from us, her sisters.

So, leaving the other 3 sisters, I rushed into the room with the bride sitting there as cool as a cucumber & locked the door, using myself as the extra lock.

I sort of had the upper deciding hand & played it as such. (We, the sisters had agreed beforehand that the guy had to sing a song by David Tao, as suggested by me & the brothers had to play backup dancers to Y!!) Trying my darnest not to scream too much, I kept saying "I can't hear you!! You better sing louder or else I don't open the door!!"

After much bargaining & no backup dancers, the five guys sang David Tao's version of "The Moon Represents My Heart", with help from an MP3 player ... Go figure ...

Next, came the all-important handing of the ang pow. As in any Chinese wedding, the guys would try to reduce the amount of money, which started off initially at a very very high price. At last, after a lot of giggling & pretence, the money was handed over to the 3 ladies standing guard outside the door (while I was inside the room, behind the door).

As the ang pow was too thick (with all that money) to be slided under the door, the girls slipped the money slowly. I had to count (and never in all my life since my Maths exams, was I so nervous with money) & shout out something like "the money's OK".

Imagine wads of S$50 & S$10 notes to count: one S$50 note, two S$50 notes, three S$50 notes ... It got me counting twice, watched on by the very calm bride, who told me not to be so nervous.

With the amount being "correct", we sisters finally allowed the groom, Y, to see his very beautiful bride, X. That represented the "SWEETness", the ultimate in this very fun "game".

I could have poked further fun at Y but decided that in the goodness of the day, to be a good girl.

my crazy BBC frequency

Remember that song by Missy Britney Spears, You Drive Me Crazy?

Well, that pretty much sums up about my sleep these 2 weeks. I've not been able to sleep much, that is for sure. Below is a summary of why I couldn't sleep & why I'm of the view that THAT SONG by Britney is best.

I love listening to the BBC (that's the British Broadcasting Service, for you all out there) on the stereo that I brought back with me from Perth eons ago. That has been my habit every night in Singapore before I snooze; must listen to the BBC for awhile first.

This portable stereo has a compartment for cassette, radio & CD. It functions pretty much ok, EXCEPT for the times that it goes on "annual vacation". Then, "all hell breaks loose". For some strange reason, I start "hearing double". Meaning, that suppose I wish to tune into BBC, there is a lot of scratchy sounds AND get another radio station at the same frequency as BBC!!

Tweaking & fiddling the radio frequency was of no use at all, I just couldn't manage the right concoction. How I missed out on listening to my favourite BBC programmes.

Listening to BBC programmes has ONE MAJOR IRRITANT (for me at least).

For some unknown reason, every 15 minutes or so, someone at the management level has decreed that there be a news broadcast. Can you imagine that you are idly chilling out listening to BBC programmes & lulled into semi-consciousness, the radio blares out "... and now, for th latest news update ..."

I just wonder: why do you have to spoil the mood by such idiocy? As if the "half-hourly" news pipped out isn't good enough.

Despite that, I still listen. During those days (about 10 days or so) when I couldn't get my dose of BBC, I suffered from withdrawal symptoms. No other stations could compete to fill the void left in my heart with the unofficial abscence of BBC.

AT LONG LAST, on Friday night (11 November 2005), I could hear the programmes again!! Oh what joy it brought to me!! One does wonder: with all that English I listen to, did it do anything to my accent? As in the way I speak? Nope, not a slim chance.

Now, I better go get a longer antenna for my stereo. Just in case, my frequency decides to take emergency last-minute breaks & leave me in the lurch.

where lies thy BBC radio frequency?

Eh, seriously lah. I'm beginning to look like one big giant panda now, although some people I know beg to differ on the subject.

Have been fiddling with my radio these few days, trying my darnest to adjust the frequency to listen to my favourite BBC radio programmes. Alas, to no avail that I was able to concoct the correct waves. Thus, for now until I get my brand-new mini stereo with remote control, I'll have to forgo listening to it.

I can get Gold 905FM to UFM1003, no problems BUT ... BBC? That is a whole different ballgame altogether. After some useless/fruitless tweaking here & there for over an hour, I screamed silently in my heart (since it was way past midnight): WHAT THE ...

So, I've made an unofficial vow for tomorrow: go shopping for a new & not-too-expensive mini stereo, complete with remote control & a slot for cassette tape/ music CDs. Yah, I know that by saying so, I'm kinda like an old-fashion nerd but ...

Have been listening to BBC programmes for many years now & I don't speak with a British accent!! About the only major irritant is that some joker has decreed that BBC has news broadcast EVERY 15 MINUTES!!?

Will tell you more some other time, when I'm not too lazy.

Me a "TAO ZHE STALKER?"

Dear Blog,

Forgive me for having not updated since early Oct-2005. I've been busy with work & "... some other things ..." TO make up for it, I've something to report to you now.

I discovered something very odd/funny/weird today.

Was surfing my friend, KENNY SIA's blog as usual today, when I saw this heading, something like, " ... I know these people too ..." Having seen this "tao zhe stalker", since I do admit that I like listening to his music (Tao Zhe/ David Tao), so I clicked onto the link, expecting to read up on news about Tao Zhe in ENGLISH, for once ...

The closest that I ever came to "stalk" is this: one stalk .. two stalks ... three stalks of flowers .... for a bunch of flowers that I received for my birthday once, given by a wonderful bunch of friends.

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED? I came to my own blog site!! I muttered something like "holy ... ", basically unprintable words in this self-censored blog (yah yah, I hear ya).

Next, as any of my friends will tell you about my "giggles", I started giggling. From a teeny-weeny "hee hee", it spiralled into a generous laugh!!

As to WHY Mr Kenny Sia (Oh my God, they killed Kenny ... from South Park, lah!!) would link up my blog to his blog, it is way beyond my far-from-complicated analytical calculations.

I'm certainly not angry at Kenny in anyway over this. Don't think that he (Kenny) would mean any harm, right? Heheheeee ...

To me, it is simply amazing. Now, mebbie a tiny-teeny-weeny percentage of the world population might read my blog (note to self: brush up on your english/singlish). How BIG of me to assume!!!

For starters, I certainly have never asked Kenny to link it to his blog page. NEVER EVER ... Why should I do that? I mean, the reasons for creating this blog of mine are as follows:

1. To keep in touch with my friends, some of whom are located overseas; I'm based in Singapore
2. Used to have a diary when I was really really young; now, I'm just basically "young-at-heart"
3. My handwritting when I'm in a hurry, leaves much to be desired
4. I type faster (don't bet with me)
5. Kenny Sia inspired me; read his blog (still do!!) & decided to try my hand at blogging (read my 1st blog posting for further details)

HMmmm .. I see that it is time for me to do another entry on/about Tao Zhe/David Tao, come this weekend.