Assalamualaikum, my fellow readers,..

What happened last weekend? For me, a lot has happened. I've been to an orchestra concert, staged by Petronas's Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), who brilliantly performed a collection of songs, composed by their resident composers. The concert was held at Petronas very own Philharmonic Hall KLCC, a grand hall who unfortunately on that night was plagued by sound-system error (albeit only for a little while) which has stained part of the glitters of the concert. Nonetheless, the concert, named Malaysian Rhapsody, was a success,... Every song performed that night was seriously composed with a Malaysian touch,... The inclusion of Malaysia's very own musical instrument: rebana, seruling padi, gamelan etc, not forgetting the element of multi-racial Malaysia with the incorporation of sitar, tabla, yang ching and all, has created a very soul-calming composition which has really re-defined my perspective on orchestra or big-band music. Never thought orchestra music would be so much fun, or maybe it just the little me who is too confined in my music appreciation. That being said, I shall never really enjoyed classical orchestra, because I don't understand it, but this piece of work from Petronas Performing Arts Group with collaboration from MPO, is brilliant; I will surely come back for more of their similar performance next time around. I've never been to such a concert before, and this time, thanks to Kacang and his friends MsJoely, I had been able to attend the concert, free-of-charge :p. Now I am looking forward to buy the complete composition on CD, if only they had produced one.

The next night, I had attend the Bangsawan, or Malay Classical Theater, entitled Tanggang, in MBSA Hall, Shah Alam. Again, accompanied by Kacang and GJ's friends. This is my first Bangsawan experience, and I have to say, although the show is good, the acting is justifiably OK..., but to me, the overall experience is a pain. Too many pauses in between scenes, unprofessional handling of lights and sound system, un-tolerating or should I say un-ethical manners of many of the attendees who simply couldn't put their handphone to silent mode or keep the conversation to themselves, not forgetting the upheld of perfect Malaysian Time concept by the VIP, a Datin YB and her hubby, who casually late for more than 30 minutes but then expect people to raise from the seats just to show our appreciation of them. Appreciation my ***! Because of all that, I seriously check myself out of going for any free show again, ever,... FYI this Tanggang is a free-for-all performance, where people seems forget to be considerate when it comes to free things. What a third-world mentality, pity.

The next day, GJ's convoy to PakBeruang wedding in Selandar, Melaka. Ten car in all. Me, as usual with Kacang. The convoy stopped four time for all kind of reasons, before arrived at PakBeruang's parent house at about 2pm. One thing about Melaka that day, it was very hot and dry. The wind doesn't seems to exist, and we was all sweaty and thoroughly hungry when we reach there for lunch. After the lunch, we head to Jasin for some shopping, basically looking for swimwear and slippers, because many of us had decided to head straight to KLD afterwards for a little chill-out in the lake water. So we did, out of ten cars, eight cars made it :p. On the way back to KL, it was already dark, about 9++ pm in the evening,... we stuck for a very bad traffic for more than an hour, from Seremban-Senawang exit to Seremban R&R, which only 5km long. All thanks to the very 'kepochi' drivers of Malaysia who just seems to fall-in-love with the habit of slowing down their cars to watch any car breakdown or accident. Having three occurrence of cars breakdown and two accidents along the 5km stretch (yes, I actually count it :p) had only make thing worse. Yes, there is a traffic officer on sight that evening, but all he managed to do was keep waving his hand to the slow traffic to move on, all from the comfort of his motorbike cushion, which leisurely parked at the emergency lane... My..., again, we talked about serious third-world mentality... When will Malaysian change??? Or will we ever changed at all???

Three days of holidays,... three separate events,... but with one conclusion: we Malaysian really needs an overhaul of attitude: try to be a more considerate citizens when it comes to free things, be more disciplined with time (western educated people seems to be slightly better with this, as seems at the Orchestra concert), be less egoistical and 'kepochi'... Most important of all, simply try to be a nice, considerate and people-friendly citizen. 2020 is only 15 years away, but 15 years should be long enough for Malaysian to overhaul their mind set and soul.

Till I write again, have a wonderful days ahead.