Anticipation

Tengah nak wat posting ni, for some fishing reason, blogdrive naik psycho and I lost my entry.
So what happened? I had to rewrite again everything...malas. Too lazy to retype a tediously long entry, so setakat mana aku leh je lah ni.

Since Saturday I was plagued by a slight fever, cough, cold...the works complete with a runnynose and all (can't take the amount of phlegm!)

Anyway, ok sikit (though the phlegm is still horrible...I'm ozzing bucket loads by the minutes).
Amik ubat pun cam takde affect pun...not so much cause my body seems immune to Panadol (you have to love the Solubles...suka tengok dia dissolve)...but I think more because this was one of the spells where I just had to weather. Ye lah...kekadang sakit yang long lasting and susah nak sembuh...kekadang yang ringan-ringan saja, which is gone with a flash.

This was a bubbling one...where it was there, never got worse...but yet at the same time, never got better.

So, Monday tahan...masuk keja. Selasa da tak tahan, called in sick. Wednesday was off too, and Thursday (but masuk sebab nak masukkan column)

Dalam amik cuti sakit, Tuesday night aku kena gak haul ass to go to Azwan Ali's open house. Ye lah. orang dah jemput....

So lebih dua jam ler teperangkap in the jam from Klang to Ukays Perdana. Dengan hujan lebat and all...traffic was so fishing bad!

Dahlah aku tak tau jalan...gamble punya gamble main redah...kejap je da jumpa.
Sampai...terus tak nyesal dok lelama. Sempat ler jumpa beberapa orang yang da lama tak meet up.

First person I bumped into was Maya Karin, tapi sempat hi hi bye bye je sebab dia da nak balik. Yelah orang da dok lama kita baru nak sampai. Another person on the way back was Sarah Raisuddin. Tambah comel dia tu...

But the shrieking began masa baru nak settle down je....si Azizi, Fitri, Edlin, Zarina dan Mas muncul. Rupanya meka tengah sibuk tour rumah...baru sampai gak tuh.

So sat down ler gossiped. Sadly enough I had to rush off after a while sebab ada meeting lain...tak sempat jumpa Umie Aida yang on the way.
Sempat ler take a few pic...teringat last minute sebenarnya...

My fave pic yang first tu of si Edlin tengah suap Zarina sambil si Mas posing ngan ayam dia...lawak punya pose ler meka ni.





Moving on...I don't have really much to post. Mana taknya...dok rumah je kerja. Ingat dalam demam tu nak enjoy gi tengok wayang, talipon pun talipon...nak booking tiket ke Harry Potter asik booking penuh. Mangkuk jamban punya TGV dan GSC. Malas lak nak gi sana nak beratur...tunggu subside sikit crowd yang gi tengok... But for those of you who have been waiting...here's the deal on Nikki.

Her album will be out Isnin ni!!!

Cassettes will be RM15.90....biasa je. Tapi cita CD dia yang besh! It will be RM29.90 for a double CD!!!

Titled Maharani, Disc 1 will feature the album yang ada 12 lagu (semua baru ek!) Disc 2 lak will feature another 12 tracks, which is remixes dan minus one. Yang pentingnya....hah! Ada hidden track as a an added bonus (rugi kalao tak dengar hidden track dalam CD tu,..ada surprise!)

That makes it 25 tracks for RM29.90!

Later today ada pre-listening album tuk para media...so it'll be great to finally have the whole album unveilved before the album is available on Monday.

Aku percaya single pertama bertajuk Pinta, yang ditulis oleh Hazami dengan lirik dari Imran.

Dengar-dengar, era.fm akan memulakan exclusive play of the song before any radio station...Banyak aku korek pasal proses recording of the album and all, so for read on. Nikki ni sekarang anak didik Ning Baizura. Aku reveal more info as they inform tomorrow of the technical details.

What I do know so far is that when she was taken under Ning's wing, immediately she was ushered for vocal training.

Bukan sebarangan lak yang menjadi mentor dia. Sebagai permulaan...Siti Chairani herself handle vocal lessons. Siti being the Indonesian diva responsible for Ning, Syafinaz and Siti Hajar.

And then pastu, Nikki is now continuing vocal sessions with Ning herself as well as Hazami.

Ni gambar-gambar dari training sessions ngan Siti beberapa bulan lalu yang aku baru dapat dari handphone kawan as well as shot dari practise ngan Ning di studio.

By the way...pada sesapa yang tak pernah tengok Siti Chairani...dia yang dok kat piano tu tengah guide Nikki. Abih kena dera si Nikki ni rupanya...posture pun kena maintain betul masa nyanyi!!!

Enjoy the pics guys...aku akan upload some more kalau aku dapat amik pics later at the pre-listening session.

By the way...before I leave you guys...aku diberitahu, dia da ada website. So time to play a little game...untuk sesapa yang dapat cari url website dia (which will be launched open on Saturday tak silap aku) gets a free CD delivered to them! First to leave the answer (korang pepandai ler surf carikkan) kat Comments area wins! Tapi kena laa secepat mungkin sebelum Sabtu...so good luck and surf like you've never surfed before!

I will be posting authorised samples of the songs in the radio.blog soon...so look out for that.

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Photo day!

Seperti saya katakan, the last week has been hectic!

Mana taknya, on Monday, ada 'open house' kat office. Selasa, Rabu dan Khamis ada separuh akhir Muzik Muzik 20. Throw in beberapa function lagi where I'm required to work, today is the most free I've been the whole week.

Saya rasa purata tidur sehari I've been getting is about 3 hours a night!

Ok...time to catch up with my blogging.

Let's see - secara ringkas lah ek. Isnin wat open house, secara kecil-kecilan sebenarnya. Tapi seronok ler sebab Kaer, Idayu and Akma sudi hadir ditemani Adi dari Maestro.

To cut a long story short, let the pictures speak for themselves!







Sempat ler mini photo shoot gitu kan...tuk mereka yang rindukan mereka bertiga ni.
Habis je tu, bergegas ke Malam Karyawan di PWTC.

Pening memikirkan kena lari balik ofis tengah malam lepas tu nak wat story lak. Tapi at least terhibur kat event tu. Top five of Akademi Fantasia III hadir. Terhibur gak hati melayan gelagat masing-masing. Time camni kekadang lupa lak that you're on duty because you're actually having fun. Again...in pictures...here is what happened.









Apapun, kerana aku pernah buat koleksi tribute bagi ramai budak-budak kan...kali ni aku focus kat Felix sebab dia yang buat muka-muka paling kelakar sepanjang malam. Ada je idea dia nak pose tuk gambar! Dari pose berangan ala ala YB, sampai menguap tak cover ke pose ayu...and finally to favourite pose Beyonce...this is just some of the pics...Felix...Felix...(gealk tengok pose Beyonce...cam real je!)







Malam tu gak...sempat catch up ngan Nasha Aziz. Dah lama tak bump into her. She is such a sweet person...not too hard to get close with, though for some people, perhaps...a little hard to understand.

Apa lagi...in pictures!





The havoc really started the next day sebab separuh akhir Muzik Muzik 20 dah bermula. Selasa of course ler separuh akhir Etnik Kreatif dan Irama Malaysia. Ok ler...walaupun rasa rugi tak masuk ler Senang Tari.

Yang penting, for the genre, happy Kak Ani...and of course, kak Ana masuk. Ingat lagi zaman sekolah Rohana Jalil perform on TV...she is such a cool person!

Sebab tak penah amic pic ngan dia walaupun kerap jumpa kat many events, so took an opportunity to get a shot of us together.

Seperti mana orang lain, I have to admit, saya mempunyai pilihan yang saya rasakan patut mara ke Anugerah Juara Lagu 20, tapi petang tu, ada interview dengan para juri yang terdiri dari A. Ali, Zubir Ali, Lukhman S. (my favourite jury!), Khairil Johari Johar dan Ooi Eow Jin. It was then that after tau the specifics of the judging criteria baru sedar why they made the choices they did. And that helped me understand the next two days punya selection dimana antaranya aku rasa, shouldn't have gone on.

Malam tu...abih je separuh akhir, gegas dari Plaza Alam Sentral kat Shah Alam balik office to file the story. Then rushed to Bora Ombak in Ampang for Tanyangan Unggul's open house.
Kali pertama (not really lah) gi open house aku melantak tak ingat. Mana tak nya...dari pagi lari sana lari sini tak sempat makan. First meal of the day past 9pm!

Lepas makan, lepak kat ada couch area jadi ular sawa. Ngantuk campur sakit sakit badan. Last-last hang out sana, joined by Kak Fati...err...Fatimah Abu Bakar ler...along with her husband and her daughter (ari ni sorang je. Malam sebelum kat Karyawan dedua bak jalan tour)

Of course kak Fati's daughters are Sharifah Aleya and Sharifah Amani.

Together, cam aku bagitau kak Fati...meka ni cam Sure Heboh on their own. Family leh bak tour. Mana taknya...mom nya orang kenal from Akademi Fantasia (aku kenal kak Fati masa aku join NSTP mana dia keja dulu), along with Leya yang da familiar face everywhere and Nani who echieved fame, I think more recently on Yasmin Ahmad's Sepet.

Dok sembang ler ngan kak Fati manjang and her husband about Akademi Fantasia and what's happening. Banyak takleh ler tulis sini. P&C!

First time I had a talk of any sort with Nani...and found both she and Leya are exactly like their mom...so friendly, well mannered and intelligent. Really...upbringing does make a lot of difference!

The next day Ballada punya ketegori happening gila but I have to admit didn't meet up to my expectations dari segi persembahan artis. Dari lebih kurang tujuh lagu favourite, most of them did not perform to the standards I had hoped they would. Camna pun aku rasa Ning dan Jac je betul-betul up to mark and stood out from the rest.

Yang paling rugi Laingit Ke 7 Syarifah Zarina...wish she had made it. The song is absolutely haunting! Walaupun aku setuju Jac layak ngan Gemilang, tapi Wajah is such a crappy tune!!!

Anyway - malam tu ke event kat PWTC yang orang dok kecoh kecoh tu...malas nak ulas lebih.

Lebih suka kalau tak ada debat isu tu disini kerana kalau buka kang...kawan pun leh jadi lawan.

Lack of sleep in the few hours I had to spare, the next day was the Pop Rock semifinal lak...which is an absolute yawn kalau nak compare pada Balada punya competition. Terkejut Adam dapat cause Tak Tahu is such a kiddy ditty...personally wish Zahid had made it...but nice to see V.E. as expected, layak dengan Pop Ye Ye (kan da kata, Cham!)

Ok ler...nak gi dinner sat...

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Did you know...

Ok...aku janji ada benda surprise aku nak bagitau kan...well...this is it!

Some of you have already gotten the hint. Cita ari ni...pasai Nikki. Nikki tahun lepas penah masuk Malaysian Idol, dapat top six jer sebab undian SMS tak membenarkannya lebih jauh. Da rezeki ler katakan. Anyway - dia kini bawah pengurusan United Artists, which is run also by Ning & Associates. Kalau nak details lebih, baca Harian Metro cover story hiburan semalam pasal dia dan Ning.

Kalau pada mereka yang da baca...then I'm sure you would know by now that on Caraku, one of the songs, ada featuring Zahid!

Beshnya! Memang dari dulu da berhajat nak gandingkan my baby sister ngan my baby bro!
And on Friday night - we had the studio session for just that! Nikki had already done her vocals. Tunggu dalam just before 11pm, Zahid muncul ngan Nissan baru dia (makan ati!) with Epul.

So they then started work in the studio with Nikki and the song's producer Audi Mok (yang wat Zahid punya Wo! gak). Tanak ler bagitau lebih details pasal tu, but seriously...aku da dengar...pergh! All I can say is, you really have to take a listen...

Ni ada beberapa pics exclusively for Nikki as well as Zahid fans time meka in the studio ngan Audi Mok.

More details on Nikki's upcoming release when I can tell you guys ok!





Anyway, masa tu ngan Vernon...then Ning dropped by. Then pastu si Juan Danza dan Iqram sama ngan editor meka sampai. Rupanya, meka baru lepas lepak kat Sri Hartamas dengan Marsha selepas habis photoshoot for their next feature for URS.

It was nice to see Marsha, and especially nice dia dapat lepak sekali tuk recording process album Nikki because memang meka punya family pun memang rapat. Sabah is apparently a smaller place than we would think!

Hah...so sesapa pas ni nak doubt, these two are my baby sisters...lantak ler ko! Tanya meka sendiri!

Masa meka sampai tu, meka reach in tiga bijik keta...ala ala convoy! I was surprised...tapi tengok-tengok...lor...si Sultan Muzaffar dan elkapitan pun rupanya ada sebab lepak skali ngan mereka makan tadik.

Puas rasanya si elkapitan dapat abihkan time ngan Marsha ada! (konperm, tak tidur malam tu!!!) Lepak punya lepak until it was quite late...meka pun gerak. Puas gak ler sebab recording sempat dihabiskan malam tu gak bagi part Zahid. Kalau nak tau camna lagu...hah! Tunggu!!!

Ni baru tergerak nak update sebab nak clear stock posting nak elak skali letak, panjang lebar!!!
Tadi earlier ada buka puasa Chatterz Club @15 yang diadakan at Saloma Bistro. Memang planning nak gi dah awal-awal. Picked up Ted and we headed ke Saloma. Sampai je tengok dah penuh. Si Juan lak call kata lewat sikit sampai.

Masuk je nampak ler muka Sultan Muzaffar dan Badrul senyum cam kerang busuk! Ceh! Mentang-mentang ler sampai awal! Dahler dua-dua pakai baju melayu nampak ala ala grand gitu!

Went pass their table dok satu agik mana ada beberapa kawan press dok sebab tengok skali Marsha pun dok sana. So sat next to her sebab Marsha tarik seat sebelah dia for me.

Tengok-tengok si Amylea dan Kefli pun ada semeja! Later masa Juan sampai, dia dok sekali ngan aku dan Ted. Takde maknanya Sultan Muzaffar dan Badrul sentap dengan aku nak naikkan blog mereka sebab aku tak dok sekali! After all Badrul sibuk kat sana nak keep an eagle eye on anak buah dia lak dua orang tu...pasangan merpati sejoli, si Akma dan Felix. Pening tul function camni!

Bukan apa...bila ala ala free for all...kes orang gila sangat nak amik gambar and autograph sampai they forget their manners.

Masuk je time buka...abih je Mawi jadi radio tuk kita melaungkan azan (I hope that's the right term), ada yang meluru terus to all the Akademi Fantasia kids.

Bukan apa...but at least have common courtesy. Orang nak buka puasa...ni tak! Sampai about 10 minutes havoc camtu. Last-last kena wat announcement...tu pun...huh! Ada agik yang asik turun naik mencuba nasib (kesian ramai budak-budak Fantasia setakat cukup alas perut).

What was perhaps worse, dahler bebudak tu tak makan sangat torture lepas posa sehari...they had to perform after that immediately. Ada je Mawi ke Marsha ke...ramai-ramai meluru ke depan pentas. Kalau setakat nak amik gambar, I suppose that's fine. Tapi ada yang sibuk sampai buat video clip nak rakam semua (bakal pengeluar VCD haram), ada yang rasa sekeping dua gambar tak cukup (nak bebanyak pic nak buat wallpaper bilik kot) dan ada yang rasa badan mereka kicik (padahal badan tu mengakibatkan gerhana man-made!)

Cantik sangat lu punya bontot nak sombat depan muka orang yang nak tengok show! Huh!

Tapi yang besh was after the event.

Nak interview sikit...so ngan sekali beberapa kawan press dan bloggers, atas ihsan Astro (tima kasih Jolene for playing sheperd) hung out with them belakang. Ni yang betul-betul havoc mula!

Memang kalao ikutkan, perangai aku suka sangat record pics of the kids candidly...mengejut! Baru nampak au naturel gitu.

Si Amylea ni muka mengejut entah kenapa...Aidil lak pose ngan props we found backstage...ala Sarawakian warrior haper entah. Tapi yang paling rajin offer pose gila malam semalam was Ekin!

Amik ko beberapa shots...ada yang surprise candid shots ala kes naya!

Kelakar gak masa balik I managed to get this one pic of her...sibuk reading Lord knows what atas motor kapchai!

Tapi of course, pose wajib yang paling cun sekali...bila digandingkan dengan pasangan yang (kononnya) secara kebetulan berpakaian sedondon in orange!

They obligingly posed (masa tu Akma da balik - sorry Jiwang United! Tak dapat nolong)

After getting a shot of them together, amik ler pic datu si Yazer posing cam boyband member!
But one of the funniest episodes backstage was this. Si Marsha was sitting on one of the plastic chair yang flimsy tu. Lepas tu, si Amy datang ler nak dok atas riba sebab manja ngan Marsha.

Aku baru nak amik pic, si Amylea pun nak masuk sekali lah katanya dok selit kat celah dua orang tu atas kerusi. Kerusi tu aku rasa kalao leh nangis...dah melolong da!

Anyways, dari posing dua, jadi posing tiga. Last-last ditentukan 'gimik' pose meka tu berakhir bila mereka nak bangun da, ketiga-ketiga tersungkur bila kerusi tu terbalik!

Padan muka! Kerusi tuk sorang...nak main-main ek dok bertiga! Ambik ko! (gelak jahat ni)


Also in top form semalam was Felix. Abih dia pose lelebih lak. Wat lawak tak habis as usual dia tu.



The important thing is the first pic atas tu! Kalau nak tau, that pic was recorded masa dok merempit posing atas motor sapa entah yang kat luar backstage area!

That's what happens when Akma's not around to observe sikit Felix! Jadi bebudak lak...
Speaking of tak ada, semalam tak full le mereka semua tak complete.

Sekoq dah berambus memang admitted. Pastu Idayu entah mana tak hadir.

Mawi balik awal lak lepas event tanpa pengumuman, which si Reza played host.

Sebenarnya it was still one of the most lepak times I've had with the kids so far...seronok!

Alamak...si Amy tau ke aku tengah amik pic bebudak ni?

Nak gak maintain depan cermin time aku nak cepat. Anyway, tu je pics aku nak kongsi for this posting. Ngantuk tul. Esok ada lak buka puasa event bersama Marsha. Nanti aku posting agik ek...selagi cuba meng'update'kan radio blog ngan lagu Raya yang dijanjikan!

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