Patrizio Buanne @ Georgetown

Patrizio Buanne. I knew that he is an Italian crooner with excellent vocals, but other than that, I am no fan of him. So when I came to know that he is coming to Penang, our lovely little island, I was wondering why such a famous person comes to our humble town? Right until now, I still do not know the answer but I am guessing that maybe one of the organiser is his personal friend.

He was here last Sunday for the Georgetown Ball, an event of fine dining with great music by the Italian crooner himself. Very soon, mummy ask me to attend the event with her. Did not know she is a fan of Patrizio but anyway, I treated her this as a birthday gift. We opt for the concert only tickets because the concert with dinner cost RM1,000 and above (gasp!).

It was held at a posh hotel, we get a complimentary wine with each ticket and there are lots of expatriate involved (I thought), so we dressed ourselves to the nines for this concert. It's better to be over-dressed than under-dressed, right? Plus, remember the name of the event? It's a ball, it will be grand.

When we reached there, I was not feeling very at ease because most of the ladies are dressed in evening gowns (so formal). But soon I knew that they were dressed that way because they were there for the dinner too, so I began to relax a little.

When we walking up the stairs, towards the entrance of the ballroom, I bumped into the Chief Minister of Penang. But this being a classy event and we were all dressed as Cinderella and trying to be sophisticated, I did not ask to be photographed with him. I am not crazy over him but how often do you bump into some big shots without any security pushing you away?

Once we entered the ballroom, we were directed to our balcony seat. It's a ball, so the seatings are not stadium style. There are tables downstairs for the dinner and we the concert-goers are placed at the balcony. Each balcony can only seat 10 people, so we felt very exclusive and important. Very Phantom of The Opera, I would say.

We waited quite a while before the show started. A live band complete with a grand piano accompanied Patrizio throughout the concert. Patrizio warmed us up with a fast Italian number and charmed us next with 'Fly Me To The Moon' accompanied by the grand piano only. It was amazing and he totally sweep my feet off the ground. He is not particularly handsome, I thought that he looks a bit old for his age but his vocal prowess is superb. He is a very humorous guy which makes him a great entertainer, and did I mention that I love his accent?

Then he did some fast songs, in a mixture of English and Italian which gets the audience dancing on their feet. He is a good dancer himself. Nope, not hip-hop but those charming booty shaking (male version of Shakira but in a macho way).

What he did next makes him totally deserve to be branded the Italian crooner. He went down to the audience, shook the gentlemen' hand and kissed the ladies on their hand. Then he picked one lucky lady to dance with him, a slow dance. After that, he took the stage with his guitar talent. Very soon, it was the end of the concert and everybody was very reluctant to leave but there is an end to everything, and we all went home with this amazing experience.

That night when I went home and for the next few days, his voice was stucked in my mind. He is a real charmer though not extremely handsome. I admit that I was totally swept off my feet by him and now I understand why mum is his fan (though not the screaming teenager type). Oh, and did I also mention that he waved and smiled to me? That totally made my day and my whole forthcoming week.

Georgetown Festival 2010

On 7th July 2008, Georgetown (an island on the north of Malaysia) was listed as UNESCO world heritage site. Two years down the road, the Chief Minister of Penang declare this day as a public holiday. Besides that, there are activities throughout the month of July in conjunction with this world recognition.

Many employees take this day off merely as a day off. But for me, I jump into the opportunity to participate in as many of the heritage activities as possible. Although I am not born a Penangite, but I have live long enough on the island to be considered one. If you ask me how well I know the island, well I thought I am very familiar with the island until I really tour Georgetown on 7th July 2010.

I signed up for a pre-war buildings tour and it was a fun-filled experience. After the heritage trail, I decided to tour the town by foot. There are really many heritage buildings in town and I am so glad that we manage to preserve them until today.

Heritage Buildings







































Georgetown World Heritage Inc. Did not know that this place exist. A very informative place with friendly volunteers. Their collection of heritage items are unique too....different type of bricks, tiles, roof etc.






Khoo Kongsi






Malaysia is a multi-racial country and Georgetown is no exceptional. One of the most popular mosque was open to the public on this day. As the mosque is a holy place, we need to be properly dressed to enter. I did not enter because I was in shorts and short sleeve t-shirt but I did visit the museum located beside the mosque.











Then we went to Meng Eng Soo which was quite out of the way. It used to be the secret meeting place of the Ghee Hin gang.













The official launching of this festival was in the evening and there was a line-up of cultural performances. I even had an up-close encounter with the Malaysia Minister of Tourism. Overall, the performances were quite entertaining though not spectacular.









The highlight of the night was the Beijing opera performance by two non-chinese actors. The male lead was played by Ghaffar Pourazar (born an Iranian but grow up in UK) while the female lead was played by Morimura Chie (a Japanese). Both studied the art at Beijing and they are very well-versed in mandarin. Simply respectable. Oh, did I mention that they give chinese opera a twist (some modernisation) in order to lure more youngsters to appreciate the art.






Stalls were set up along the streets and some are pretty interesting.















To make the day a totally heritage experience, we had lunch at a 'mamak' restaurant. The chef serves dishes which are out of the ordinary but very yummy ones.


Art display along the streets of Georgetown





Fuh, finally! So many photographs to upload but the connection is not really co-operative. In conclusion, it was an amazing day and I am loving Georgetown even more.