The world's first Swarovski Crystallised Merry-Go-Round in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.
The structure is decorated with three million pieces of multi-faceted illuminating crystals and accents of gold and blue, the key colour elements of Swaroscski's 2016 Holiday Collection. It weighted nearly four tonnes and nine metres in height.
The Swarovski Crystallised Merry-Go-Round is fully functional with ten horses, two sleighs and one carriage on board.
Each ride is priced at RM10 and part of the proceeds will be donated to Charity at Heart, Pavilion KL's CSR initiative. It will be available until 1 January 2017.
Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, often greeted her audiences at talks with a chimpanzee greeting.
Goodall, who is also the United Nation Messenger of Peace, thrilled her audiences in Kuala Lumpur recently with the same greeting, saying, "a sound probably never heard in this place before,".
Her sold-out talk, Finding Life's Passion, was presented by Roots & Shoots Malaysia, a youth programme founded by Goodall. This was her second visit to Malaysia.
Goodall also introduced to the audiences two soft toys that she carried in her travel - a monkey named Mr. H and a cow named Cow.
She relates how she travels more than 300 days a year to promote conservation and animal rights around the world. That's quite remarkable considering that she is 82 (and still looking good)!
For over an hour, she recalled her childhood of being curious about animals to living in Africa where her research of chimpanzee behaviour suggested similarities between the animal and human, thus changing the belief of scientific world at that time.
She credited her mother for nurturing her passion and supporting her. Goodall recalled a trip to the countryside with her family when she was a child. She hides in the henhouse for hours to see how the hens lay their eggs and was not aware that her family was looking for her. When she returned to her house later, her mother sat down to listen to her story instead of scolding her when she saw the excitement in her daughter's eyes. "A different kind of mother would have crushed that early scientific curiosity."
She decided to focus on conservation work after attending a conference in 1986 where she saw how the destruction of forest in Africa and the hunting of chimpanzee for meat and scientific research were threatening the survival of the animals. "I went to that conference as a scientist and left as an activist," she said.
At the end of her talk, she showed a video of how a chimpanzee named Wounda hugged her after being released back to the jungle. It's so touching!
Root & Shoots is a youth-led community action programme under the Jane Goodall Institute. It has expanded to 130 countries with over 150,000 members. The programme is led within the country and the project undertaken depend on the problems in the country.
A wonderful collaboration by two of my favourite musicians, Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds.
This is a fully improvised works recorded in eight hours with no overdubs and no edits.
Recorded in July 2015 in Durton Studio in Berlin, the session was initially a planned short video recording. The duo has invited Alexander Schneider to record an improvised session to promote the releases of their recent studio collaborations.
But they didn't stop after the first song. They continue to play throughout the night, improvising and creating seven songs in the end. These songs are now part of Trance Frendz. The EP is part of a 2-CD set of their collaboration works from recent years that include Loon, Stare and Life Story Love And Glory
"We felt there was something special in these songs. They arrived so quickly and so unexpectedly, and at the end of the night we had all this music that sounded unfamiliar even to us - loudly asking to be included in this collection, especially because our friendship and collaboration originally started with live improvisation on stage."
The song's titles referred to the time they are recorded. The first song started at 20.17 and the last song recorded at 03.06. In between, Nils cooked them a supper of salad and pizza (it looks yummy!), as seen in the video above. Watch the video to fully appreciate the music and the 'magic' of their improvisation.
The is not Bordeaux in France or Margaret River in Australia but Thailand!
It was a pleasant surprise to know that a tropical country like Thailand has vineyards and a wine industry. Wines produced from the country is known as New Latitude Wines for the reason that the grapes are grown in the tropics close to the equator.
Granmonte Vineyard is located in Asoke Valley, Khao Yai in the north east of Thailand, close to the Khao Yai National Park and is about two hours away from Bangkok.
It was founded by Visooth Lothitnavy and his daughter, Nikki Lothitnavy is Thailand's first woman winemaker.
The estate also has a guesthouse, a restaurant, a souvenir shop and a cafe.
This is a room with the vineyard view. It was lovely!
Common area in the Guesthouse.
VinCotto restaurant serving European and Thai's dishes.
The design of the bins inform people what they should put inside thus making it easier for people to recycle. It's a creative way to encourage recycling!
BYOB stands for Bring your Own Bottle. The store sells detergent and cleaning products based on the 3R - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Here is how it works: Customers can bring their own empty bottles to refill any detergent and pay for it minus the cost of the packaging. For those that don't have empty bottles, they will sell the detergent in filled in recycled bottles.
Since I discovered the place, I try to buy from here. The prices are cheaper and most importantly I can reduce the usage of plastic.
Here are the price list for reference. Best to call to check (Updated: June 2017):
BYOB Damansara Kim*
15, Jalan SS20/11
Damansara Kim
Petaling Jaya
* Same row as Euro Deli, KomPassion and Kitchen Table.
Teochew* Puppetry is a form of puppetry that narrates tales and legend through the use of marionette puppets.
Last Sunday, Pusaka presented a Teochew Puppetry show at Black Box, Publika by Kim Gaik Low Choon Teochew Puppet Troupe from Penang. The troupe performed the 'The Love of the Celestial Fox,' a love story about a thousand-year old celestial fox who fell in love with a mortal man.
The troupe is led by master puppeteer Ling Goh, who is a third-generation traditional Chinese opera performer and puppeteer. Her mother and other family members are also part of the troupe. They are the last remaining troupe of its kind in Penang.
The show is part of the Pusaka Evenings, a series of cultural traditional performance from Malaysia that is free and open to all. It is organised by Pusaka, a non-profit organisation which works to preserve and support traditional performing arts in Malaysia.
Check out the video below:
*Teochew people are Chinese people originated from the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province.
Happy Chinese New Year! This is the year of the Fire Monkey.
In the Chinese Lunar calendar, each year is represented by an animal in a 12-year cycle and one of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal or water.
