The boys in the back

To be completely honest, I'm not actually all that fond of the next picture from a technical quality point of view.  However, for reasons which will soon be obvious, I couldn't NOT include it.

The problem was that the orchestra was on the other side of the coliseum and the lens I had on my camera couldn't zoom in enough to get a good quality picture (obv, what you see below is cropped).  Add in the fact that this was taken in the dark and handheld - well, you can see the results for yourself.

In case you're wondering - yes, those are primary school kids.

In brief, Paula Tsui (徐小鳳) had invited the school orchestra, school choir and Chinese drum team from the school where my kids study to support during her concert.  My older son was in the drum team and my younger son was in the orchestra - and now you know why I had to post a picture of the kids above!  My only regret is that the kids were all on the opposite ends of the Coliseum so I didn't manage to get any decent pictures of them performing. :(

Still, it was a pretty amazing experience for them and something which very few people get the chance to do.  A lot of hard work in preparing for it but they both had a good time so it was all worth it in the end.

For reference, the below video (not by me) is the winning performance of the Ying Wa Primary School Symphony Orchestra earlier in the year when they went to Bratislava to take part in the 5th International Youth Music Festival.

And the below video (again, not by me) is the winning performance of the Thundermakers (Ying Wa Primary School Chinese drum team) at the 16th Hong Kong Synergy 24 Drum Competition (Primary School Section) last month.

Putting on the Ritz

One of the hallmarks of a Paula Tsui (徐小鳳) concert are the fancy gowns that she wears during the show.  In fact, some of them are so fancy that the weight of the gown is such that she has to extensively practice wearing the gown and walking with that excess weight prior to the concert.

Compared to what I've seen her wear in other concerts, she was relatively reserved in her most recent concert.  Which isn't to say that her gowns weren't impressive though!

In this first picture, she has a bunch of primary school kids waving a massive white sheet to give the effect of waves. 

More about those kids in a future post but for now, a closeup of the dress she's wearing.

Concert at the Coliseum

Paula Tsui (徐小鳳) is one of the biggest cantopop icons from yesteryear.  Well, I say yesteryear but she recently held a concert at the HK Coliseum with all 4 sides open.

A bit more context on that last sentence as most of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.  The HK Coliseum is one of the biggest indoor multipurpose venues in HK with a capacity of around 12,000 people.  It is sometimes used for big sporting events as you can have spectators sitting on all 4 sides around the center of the court.

It is also often used as a measure of how popular a local singer is.  Basically, only the biggest local stars will book the HK Coliseum and even then, not all of them will open all 4 sides if they don't think they can pack it with enough fans.

Paula Tsui, despite being 70 years old, is still popular enough to open all 4 sides.  Impressive!

Dim sum with dad

One of the nice things about travelling to the UK was that I got to visit my dad who is still over there.  Given I'm on the other side of the world (or is it that he's on the other side of the world...), it's nice to get a chance to visit and eat dim sum together.