Gigi 炎明熹 - 最動人一次 Review

 

                          

After being "freeze" from any work by her management company TVB due to contract renewal issue, Gigi finally release her latest single 最動人一次. This song is made to be the theme song of her upcoming musical special 恋上西沙. This is especially made to promote new launching of property in Sai Sha Go Park.

Composed by Harry Ng who also composed another advertisement related song of Gigi's. Also, the same lyricist Sandy Chang was engaged for this song. So, the quality of this song is ensured to be of top notch. And it really is top notch. Easy remember melody and hook with lyric that is easy to loop in your head.

Of course, Gigi's perform this song well with her calm and soothing voice. Using head voice in some of the end line and also her signature Gi-tone. In less than 16 hours the MV on YouTube already garnered more than 177K views. Proofing that her popularity is still there even though she was stopped from doing any work for more than 5 months.

If the contractual renewal issue is real (Gigi chose not to renew her contract with TVB and TMG) then 最動人一次 might be the last song of her with TMG. Fans will need to wait another 6 months or more until her contract ends before her next new single. It will be interesting to see which music label or artist management company Gigi will work with next.

Simon Listened: 5/5

Gigi 炎明熹 - 還有一艘救生艙 Review

This is the second single released by Gigi Yim in 2024. For the first time in her MV she has got a love relationship with a male actor. This song is about long-distance relationship that didn't end well. 

I think this is the first time Gigi has a typical Canto style ballad in her song list. She did very well in bringing out the emotions of this song in her singing. I teared a bit just 30 seconds into the song when I first heard it.

I love her ad lib as always. I would say this song will likely become very popular amongst the fans. Hopefully the Hong Kong radio stations will help to broadcast more of this song in the airwave.

Simon Listened: 5/5

Gigi 炎明熹 - 透光者 Review

The first single for the year 2024 for Gigi Yim. 透光者, which mean The Translucent One wants to tell a story of someone that is invisible to the one he/she likes. No matter what they do, the person they like won't take notice. 

Using a kind of mixed voice to sing this song, Gigi said that it is a new approach for her and she was not satisfied with her performance during recording. Such a perfectionist. She said that she hopes that she will do better when doing live performances of this song.

This is of a more band sound and a bit of Country influence. Gigi handled the transition of chest voice to falsetto nicely. I especially like the Bridge and the ad hoc at the end. This song might not be a song that hit you when you first hear it but after looping it a few times it will gets more and more hook on you.

Seow Listened: 9/10

Windy 詹天文 - 《大雕刻家 The Great Sculptor》

《大雕刻家 The Great Sculptor》, the second single from Windy Zhan is very different from her debut single 《沒有你的新學期》. This new song is more towards KPOP dance genre and it can be seen in the MV that Windy has a dance choreographed for this song.

This song is about when a human from being born till they grow up, many input and opinions sculpted by their parents, teachers, friends and etc. But the great sculptor should be themselves. No one can shape oneself other than themselves.

Seow Listened: 9/10

Gigi 炎明熹 - Only For Me

Only For Me, the latest single from Gigi Yim which is composed by J. Arie Lui. This is the second song after Little Magic from the same composer. This time the genre is R&B.

The MV is off the Gothic theme is something dark that Gigi have not done before. The melody of the chorus it very catchy that the tune will be looping in your head in no time. I personally love the bridge part which showcases Gigi's Legato. 

Fun fact is that this song was sang live during Gigi Yim's Gi-FORCE concert on 7th October 20233 before the song was released to digital platforms on the 9th.

Seow Listened: 9/10

Kaitlyn 林君蓮《Why Are You Always Looking At Me》

This is a second song by the talented Kaitlyn Lam which not only composed the melody but wrote the lyrics too. This time the style is more to R&B which is a totally different style from her debut single N.F.T. which is to a more funk style.

From her interview during the making of this MV, Kaitlyn said that this song came up when she sees that many strangers looking at her in the street. Besides telling about strangers looking at her, she also said that it can be lovers or friends looking at each other.

I like the arrangement done by JNY Beatz and Kaitlyn is able to carry this chill R&B style. Looking forward to more of her creations in the future.

Seow Listened: 8/10

Yumi 鍾柔美 - 《下一個暑假》Official Music Video

The latest song from Hong Kong up and coming female singer Yumi Chung. This song is a break from her three previous songs which were more on to dance track. 

This song titled "The Next Summer Vacation" is about her daily life as student and singer. It also talks about her countdown to the high school exam in Hong Kong (DSE) that she will be facing next year in 2024.

The song has a kind of a LoFi and chill vibe giving me a kind of easy listening feel. I like the strumming of the guitar in this song. Yumi's vocal is different from her previous three songs and the range is at her sweet spot which is mid-high. Unlike "Wanna be close to U" or "Y2k is right for me?" which very high. Not to say that she couldn't hit the high notes, it is just that the high note is not the best for her voice.

Seow Listened: 8/10

Roasted Pigeon (烧乳鸽) at Shui Wah Restaurant 萃華酒家, Shatin, Hong Kong

The night after my cousin sister's wedding lunch buffet, my uncle decided to treat us (my cousins and another uncle and aunt) for dinner in Shatin (沙田). Shatin is famous for roasted pigeon (烧乳鸽) and chicken porridge. This is my first time coming to Shatin.

I was going on a shopping trip with two of my cousin sisters and my aunt in Tsim Sha Tsui. Elaine, my Hong Kong cousin decided that since there were 5 of us (we later joined up with my uncle), it's more worth it to take a taxi to Shatin instead of taking the MTR . True enough, taking the taxi we saved up a lot of walking time and it only cost us about HKD$100.

There are a lot of restaurants in Shatin that also sells roasted pigeon. My uncle chose to eat in Shui Wah Restaurant. One need to trust the local for their choice, also I am not familiar with Shatin.

Each of us get one roasted pigeon. The skin is very crispy and the meat is tender. Albeit there is not much meat and that's why the marination was absorbed thoroughly making the meat very tasty.

Lotus pancake is one dish that we don't normally order in Malaysia. I think not many restaurants in Malaysia has this dish too. Lotus root cut into slices and then dip into egg white batter and fried. Crispy at the outer and soft inside.

Next dish is prawn cooked two ways. One is stir-fried with mixed vegetable and another way is deep fried. The stir-fried uses prawns that are big and succulent and very fresh too. Timing is just right and not over cooked. The restaurant provided prawn paste sauce for us to dip the prawn. It taste a bit like our belacan.

The tofu is smooth and nice to balance off the heavy tasting dishes that we had.

Of course, need to have some greens to balance the meal.

8 prosperity duck (八宝鸭), the version here is a bit different from the one I ate in Sek Yuen. For one the version here uses more expensive ingredients for the stuffing like fish maw and abalone slices.

Claypot glass noodle.

Steamed pork with prawn paste.

My aunt order a single portion of chicken porridge for us to have a taste. Smooth, sweet (from the chicken meat and bones) and tender.

Last but not least, complementary dessert of taofufa (豆腐花). Which I was informed is house made by the restaurant chef.

If you don't want to take the taxi you can opt to take the MTR Tai Wai station. Shui Wah Restaurant is just opposite the station.


Address:

Shui Wah Restaurant 萃華酒家
51 Tsuen Nam Road, Tai Wai
大圍村南道51號

Tel: +852 2606 7117

金華冰廳 Kam Wah Cafe, Hong Kong

I've been to Hong Kong quite often, I was there two years ago, this year March and more recently last month. Yet, there are still a lot of eateries that I haven't try yet like Tim Hau Wan Dim Sum, Mido Cafe, and Kam Wah Cafe. I've read some rave review about the polo bun in Kam Wah Cafe from KampungBoyCityGal and James. So, I decided that I must at least go to one of the eateries that I haven't try yet even though I have quite a busy schedule during my trip to Hong Kong last month.

I took the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mongkok station and exit through B3. Reading the direction from the Word document that I saved in my Nokia E7 is quite confusing because I don't have a compass to go Northbound. So what I do is cross over Mongkok Road using the pedestrian bridge. You'll be able to see Nathan Road just continue to walk along Nathan Road until you get to the first junction, turn right. You are now in Bute Street. Just walk straight and you'll see Kam Wah Cafe across the street. It's not hard to spot because their will be a lot of people queuing outside the eatery to buy freshly baked polo bun.

Obviously it will be packed but luckily I managed to get one seat sharing table with other customers. It's the norm in Hong Kong to share table in a "cha chan teng". Since I haven't have breakfast yet, so I ordered a daily set meal (HKD$30). Minced beef with raw egg rice which comes with pork ribs soup.

Set meal comes with a choice of hot drinks. So I ordered milk tea. The milk tea here is not too bad, their tea taste is stronger than I had in Lai Fong Yuen.

Of course I also ordered their famous 菠蘿油 (polo bun with butter) HKD$7. Coming to Kam Wah Cafe and not eating their polo bun is like visiting The Tavern in GAB Brewery and not drinking their Guinness Draught.

I know why their polo bun is so popular. It's crunchy on the top and so fluffy inside. On its own the bun has a bit of sweetness already. Eating it with butter in the middle lifted up the taste even more. Oh, they also have bun there which is also quite popular. I saw in an ATV's show that one of the secret ingredient in making this polo bun is that they use pork lard imported from Holland instead of using local pork lard. Food does taste better with pork lard eh?

Even though it's usually pack here but the turnaround is quite fast, so you don't have to wait too long for a seat.

If you are looking to explore Hong Kong food culture, then polo bun is one of the snack that you must try and Kam Wah Cafe makes one of the best polo bun in Hong Kong.





Address:

Kam Wah Cafe
G/F, 47 Bute Street, Prince Edward
Tel: +852 2392 6830

Other Ppl's View:

KampungBoyCityGal
Motormouth from Ipoh

Hong Kong Ocean Park Halloween Bash 2011!

A few days after I went to Hong Kong Disneyland for their Halloween, it's time to explore Ocean Park's Halloween Bash 2011, which has been running for 11 years. So, their experience in making Halloween attractions should be better than Hong Kong Disneyland.

I was lucky that their Halloween Bash starts on the week that I was in Hong Kong. The first 3 days of the month long will have discounted price ($HKD224, after that depending on the date the price will be HKD$280 or HKD$325) of the entry pass. I bought the Night Ticket in Admiralty before I boarded the bus to Ocean Park. When I reached there, I saw that all the Privilege Ticket (HKD$460) and Privilege Dinner Combo (HKD$680) were all sold out! Details of the ticket pricing here.

My advise is if you are going on Friday, Saturday or Sunday or a public holiday, buy your Privilege Ticket or Privilege Dinner Combo online if you can spend the extra cash because with the normal ticket I have to queue up for 30-45 minutes per haunted house. There are eight haunted houses there, so with a normal ticket you'll have to plan really well to make sure you'll be able to visit all the haunted houses.

Ocean Park Hell Money to use as discount coupon on selected services and products. The face on the money is Allan Zeman, Chairman of Ocean Park.

If you can't get the Privilege Ticket then go early! Reach there before 6 p.m. and you might get yourself one Early Bird coupon. I reached there early and got the coupon. To activate the Early Bird coupon, I have to go to any of the four haunted houses up on the Summit (take the cable car or Ocean Express to go up) before 6.30pm and get a stamp on the coupon. Once the coupon has been activated, I can use it as a privilege pass for one of the 3 haunted houses in The Waterfront (except for the HTC presents Nightmare in 3D)

Since I wanted to activate my early bird coupon so I took the cable car up to the Summit and queue up for The Last Bus, which took me about 30 minutes to queue up.

Actor playing Dead Policeman suddenly appear in the queue.

Each of the haunted house will have live performance actors/actresses in there. The Last Bus is a haunted houses that will recreate those haunted roads or accidents in Hong Kong. It's actually not very long and I finished it in about 2 minutes.

Scary Rating: 2/5

After getting out from the Last Bus, the ghosts and zombies already started the flag rising ceremony for the Republic of Halloween.

Not a fan of haunted houses? No problem, you can stay at the Dark Side Show stage to watch different shows for the whole night.

Not wanting to waste time, I quickly move to another (I've already got the stamp for my Early Bird coupon from The Last Bus) haunted house, which is The Bloody Workshop.

This haunted houses display different human body parts in each area. Not for the weak hearted if you can't stand blood and gore. Of course there are live performeers inside to scare you.

Scary Rating: 3/5


Next up is the Paper Doll Paradise. As the name suggested, there will be performers dressed as Paper Doll, which is the offering to the dead in Chinese customs. In here, you are as if you are in hell, you'll see the Chinese black and white death god. The scary part about this house is that from the beginning you'll have to separate with your friends because the guard there will split you up to go into one of the two tunnels, you can't go to the same one with your friend.

Scary Rating: 3/5


The last of the haunted house that I went to in The Summit is Zombie Mayhem. It's not very scary but it's very fun because we get to have laser guns to shoot the "zombies" inside the haunted house. The zombies will also shoot at you and your gun will stalled for a few seconds and points will be deducted. Shoot as many targets to get points and in the exit you can check out your ranking.

Queuing up to get the laser gun from the cabinet.

Scary Rating: 2/5
Fun Rating: 4/5

After conquering the four haunted houses on The Summit, I took the cable car to go down to The Waterfront. (I didn't know Ocean Park Express is in operation, damn scary riding on the cable car with strong wind blowing)

The nearest haunted house at the Waterfront after I get off from the cable car is Macabre Studio. The theme here comes from most of the popular Hong Kong haunted movies. So, if you are a haunted movie fan, you will be able to have a sense of familiarity in this haunted house.

Scary Rating: 3/5

Next up, HTC presents Nightmare in 3D. In the 3D show itself there won't be life actor/actress scaring you but while you are inside waiting to enter each 3D room there will be performers acting as asylum patients interacting with you.

As for the 3D show, it's really very 3D that it's like you can touch the items or people in the screen. Think hologram projection. This is one attraction that you can't miss.

Scary Rating: 2/5
Fun Rating: 5/5

6 haunted houses down and 2 more to go. Time to take a short rest and recharge. I used one of the Ocean Park Hell Money to get a 20% discount on the Blue Girl hotdog combo, which gets you a can of Blue Girl beer and a plain hotdog with buns for HKD$40 (Normal price HKD$50).

The queue to Fear Factory is so freaking long that it took me 45 minutes to complete the queue. Here, you are the visitor to a coffin making factory. There will be staffs inside there explaining to you. So, it's kind of interactive. At the last part you have to take the slide down so you can't go together with your friend.

Rating: 3/5
Fun Rating: 3/5


Luckily after I've done Fear Factory it was already after 10pm. This mean I can use my Early Coupon as a privilege pass for the last haunted house, Yahoo HK! presents Torture Chamber of the Dragon Empress. So, queuing time for me here is 2 minutes. The theme here is based on the torturing methods from the Qing Dynasty.

Scary Rating: 3/5

P.S. I am basically quite immune to the haunted houses, so the scary rating I put here is for those brave people, add 1 or 2 more points to the rating if you are a timid person :p

It's already 10.30 p.m. when I was done with the last haunted house. Since, there's still time, so I went up to The Summit again using Ocean Express. During the ride you'll be able to watch some scary animation on the ceiling of the tram.

By the way, it was raining the whole night that night. Lucky I bought the Ocean Park umbrella for HKD$99 -_-

It was a great experience to be able to enjoy Ocean Park Halloween Bash that happens once in a year. If you happen to be in Hong Kong in October, then this is one of the attraction you must visit. Opens from 5.30 p.m. till 12.00 a.m. Please note that the day pass and night pass is sold separately.

Hong Kong Disneyland Halloween

I visited Hong Kong Disneyland again this time when I went to Hong Kong but I only went for the night entry. From of September until 31st October Hong Kong Disneyland will be having Halloween special. Business hour extended till 11p.m. Night entry starts from 5.30 p.m. onwards.

Luckily for me, Sook Lee and Sook Yee were in Hong Kong too and were planning to go there on the same day as me. So, I joined them for Hong Kong Disneyland Halloween. This is the first time we meet each other since I started reading their blogs 3 years ago.

If you are lucky you'll get to take picture with Jack Skellington.

Halloween Special rides, attractions, parades and performance were added.

In Tomorrowland, there will be a Halloween Street Party. The host will be there to play games with the guests and also performance like the Head Falling dance.

Space Mountain ride added with a Ghost in there.


By night, Main Street, USA will be filled with "zombies". They will suddenly appear in front of you if you are not aware.

The zombies will dance when the music is on.

Who's the most timid of us all?

Most of the Halloween attractions are not scary except for Haunted Hotel, which I think could gives Ocean Park haunted houses a run for their money.

Go throught Cursed Jungle in Adventureland, you'll get to take pictures with ghosts and mythical monsters.

Of course, not to be missed is the Halloween Parade.

By the way, even if you only bought the night entry passes, some of then normal rides are still available, so it's not limited only to those Halloween rides or attractions.

Do not miss out the fireworks and lighting display.

Revenge of the Headless Horseman is another haunted house available but personally I think the haunted hotel is scarier.

Be sure to catch the Headless Horseman when he roams around Disneyland.

I took the opportunity to ride the Jungle Cruise because I didn't visit Adventureland last I came here.

Overall, Hong Kong Disneyland Halloween is not too bad. It's of course not for those looking for pure scare or thrill. At least the queue is not long during night lol.