Thursday 30 July 2015

Episodes 1 to 10 of 《信约:我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland"

《信约:我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland" debuted on MediaCorp channel 8 on 16 Jul 2015, 9 pm. This is the finale of the trilogy “The Journey”. 


Hong Minghui (played by Jeanette Aw) passed away after giving birth to a son, named Zhang Junteng. Zhang Min (played by Felicia Chin) and Hong Dangyong (played by Andie Chen) helped to look after Junteng while Zhang Jia was grieving over the death of Minghui.

Meixue (played by Rui'en), Minghui's colleague and good friend, helped Zhang Jia to find a nanny for his son after Junteng developed rashes because he was allergic to formula milk. She also helped to take care of Junteng from time to time. 

Zhang Yan (played by Romeo Tan) had escaped from prison and came back to Singapore to seek revenge. However, he was upset to find that Minghui had already passed away and blamed Zhang Jia for not taking good care of Minghui.

In last night's episode (Episode 10), Hong Dangyong was killed by Zhang Yan. Zhang Min was devastated and attempted to kill Zhang Yan. Zhang Yan was crushed by metal racks and lamps and eventually died from electric shock in the warehouse. Hong Kuan already knew of his true parentage by then and asked Zhang Min if he could pay respect to his biological father. Zhang Min told him if he dared to do so, she would disown him. Hong Kuan still went ahead because he knew his biological father loved him too. Zhang Min was so angry and threw him out of the house.

Tonight, we shall see whether Hong Kuan really leaves Zhang Min and how he survives outside.

Wednesday 29 July 2015

SG Funpack

We were finally able to collect our SG Funpack last week. We received the dragon playground design tote bag. I was pleasantly surprised that the bag came with a partition inside and a zip on the outside. It should come in useful.




Sera especially loved the Singa figurine.



I used to be able to play the capteh very well when I was in primary school. Now, I can only manage one kick. Sigh. 


Capteh
We haven't tried playing Snap yet. Maybe we will try to play during the National Day weekend. However, I don't really remember how to play this game.


Some other stuff in our SG Funpack.





Thank you to the NDP committee for giving us this SG Funpack.

Tuesday 21 July 2015

《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" (Episode 9)

《歌台星力量》("Ge Tai Challenge") is a variety show currently airing on MediaCorp Channel 8 on every Monday, from 8 pm to 9 pm. 

歌台(Ge Tai) is a unique culture and arts in Singapore. It is a boisterous live stage performance traditionally held during the Hungry Ghost Festival (lunar seventh month). MediaCorp Channel 8 presented this GeTai Challenge - a singing competition among current GeTai singers - as part of SG50 (Singapore's Golden Jubilee) celebrations this year,

The first show of《歌台星力量》("
Ge Tai Challenge") started with 10 groups of contestants who were shortlisted. All of them were Ge Tai singers whose experiences ranged from a few years to a few decades. The first episode was purely a performance to let everyone see them perform in their most relaxed state. The actual competition began in the second episode. Each of their scores would accumulate from episodes 2 to 7. 

In last night's episode (episode 9), one of the contestants皓皓 came up with the idea of having flowers and snow as props to create a very good effect which complimented his song very well. The title of the song that he sang was 《寒江雪》 ("Snow on the River")。However, the most impressive part was that he was able to sing some parts of the song in a high pitched female voice which was originally sung by a female Beijing opera star. He was truly amazing! He really put in a lot of effort in all the shows that he performed and I am truly impressed!

I also liked the song that 黄振隆 performed. It was composed by him and his band members. His band's name is called "乱乱来乐队". So cute! The title of the song was《埃菲尔的骄傲》which could be translated as "The Pride of Eiffel". It was a fast song. The lyrics were mainly about encouraging people not to give up their dreams. As long as you have the willingness to work hard and the determination, no one can stop you from succeeding. Just like the Eiffel Tower was not built in one day; it was built upon the sweat of many people. 

皓皓 got the highest score in last night's episode. Team A, which he belonged, got into the semi-final of the competition too. Other members in Team A included 陈建彬,承泽&秀萍(husband & wife group), and 李宝恩. The competition format for this round was that as long as the total scores of the whole team exceeded the total scores of the other team, the whole team would proceed on smoothly to the semi-finals. Team B lost to Team A by a very small margin in their total scores and thus team B was kicked out of the competition.

The contestants in Team B (朱莉莉,罗翊绮, 黄振隆,谢伟娜)would be competing with each other in the next episode for the chance to return to the semi-finals of 《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge"

Songs sung at Ge Tai used to be old songs. During these few episodes of Ge Tai Challenge, the contestants really put in a lot of effort to create props and performed many new songs too. I also learnt that they actually have to come up with their own money to engage dancers and helpers for the stage performances for this competition. They have really brought Ge Tai to a whole new level!



Related posts:

《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" (Episode 10)
《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" Finals and Toggle Awards