Ed Sheeran Live in Malaysia 2019

Ed Sheeran is coming to town!!! Like I mentioned in my previous post, this year is definitely a year of a concert for me. I don't know why they are all decided to come down here, making my mission to save money failed miserably! Yes, I'm broke.. well, that's old news isn't it? I like music, I'm more to a universal listener, I do not have specific artistes I like listening to all the time, if they're talented, music is good, I'm enjoying them, what more to hear/watch them live. Ed Sheeran came in 2017 and I didn't managed to buy the tickets; online and offline. So, this time I already prepared myself to battle buying online (which I'm pretty good at). Of course they have to release the tickets sale during office hour...so I excused myself in the toilets to buy.. After an hour trying and putting in the queue, I didn't succeed. In fact I already accepted my fate. But miracle does happen to those who are Sabr, indeed maybe I'm the chosen one, later that day, I managed to secure them!! These days, throughout my experience, you can no longer choose the preferred seat, the system will automatically select the next available seats for you, that's explain why my seat were on top of the stadium , far far far away from the stage. Even the screen looks like a bean from afar. After the success of Ed's last concert here, the organizer chose much bigger venue to accommodate more spectators (even that the tickets were sold out!). This time at Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil. Last time was at Axiata Arena, the indoor stadium.

Few days before the event, I received an email from the organizer saying that they are selling the pre-sale tickets for the parking, what!!!! The parking ticket costs were RM30 and RM50 respectively! Man, they really effortlessly making money! The due reason because this is a highly anticipated event, the turn up crowd going to be huge and they wanted to encourage people to come by public transport. Jeeeeeeez. So my husband and I decided to go there by Grab which also a good idea at first because we beat the parking problem although the traffic were terrible. Even the Grab driver refused to drop us in front of the stadium and we have to walk a bit from the roadside. (Well, obviously you're not getting a 5 stars from me, duh).

We arrived about 7pm-ish and this concert like a festival going on! There are so many food vendors inside the stadiums, we are spoilt for choices! A different experience from before, well maybe because this time the venue is bigger and crowd is huger, or simply because Malaysians take their food really serious. Our seat is way up high, at the top of the stadium roof (well, better than nothing lol!). The opening performance is from One Ok Rock from Japan (but their songs are in English), well I gotta say they are not bad! We pretty much enjoyed it, they're like a young Hoobastank.

Ed Sheeran came out at about 9.00pm and we were blown away with his performance. We really enjoyed ourselves. I really like the design of the stage, different and unlike from the stages I've seen before. I checked after that, it's the same set up for all his tour. He is one hell of talented guy, guysssss. He is so funny and really good interacting with his fan! As usual, the concert took 2 hours and what I adored most was, after the encore, he came back on stage wearing the team Malaysia jersey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GODDDDD, WHY IS HE SO FREAKING CUTE I CRIEDDDDDD! Turn out, after checking his Instagram page, he's wearing the jersey to every country he performed at. What a humble sweet nice kind lovable gesture.  

And ohhh by the way, like his last concert here, somebody proposed to somebody yada yada stealing the limelight, yada yada but Ed couldn't care less yada yada.. yeah yeah, we get it Ed's song is romantic and such, but... well, I lost for words here, pretty safe to say I'm such a bitter person HAHAHHA. 

So.. after the concert ended, now the real issue here is, how are we going to go back?! This time the organizer sucks big time! The only mode of transportation here is the LRT, and they are cramped, packed and jammed with people, like another concert held here to be honest. To take Grab is impossible because the traffic is also madness and they might took an hour to reach, what a waste of time and it's going to be difficult to determine the pick up point as well. The organizer should really follow like Singapore when we went to Maroon 5 concert the previous month. We took a train to airport and to fasten the process, they given us a paper pass with stamp (like a temporary ticket) without paying for it first and only to pay manually at the destination station by presenting the pass at the counter. It really help clearing the crowd and as result, everybody is happy. I truly amazed by that, a simple gesture but the consequences is difference. It is so so so much efficient. 

We waited for an hour to wait for the crowd to be clearer but it did not happen. Plus, to worsen the situation, they announced that the station going to be closed in half an hour and the last train going to arrive in 15 minutes or so! *slapping forehead*. I mean, if you insist everybody to have paid for their tickets, at least add another pop-up booth for tickets, or at least extend the operating hours when there are a big event held here. I think the organizer forgotten about this or simply did not cooperate with the LRT people. So.. we squeezed ourselves and managed to buy tickets and catch the last train at the Bandar Puteri Station. We were lucky enough that Kak Ngah (my husband's sister) offered herself to pick us up from the station. Ohh, we even bumped to my son's paed doctor at the station though. She asked about the right train schedule/direction and pretty sure we gave them a wrong one...

If you have read about my previous post on Maroon 5 concert, I've mentioned that I don't really like concerts in Malaysia because those so-called high society, rich people or even local celebrities whom befriended with organizer yada yada would get access to meet the artist (some don't even buy the concert tickets though for that matter!!) and then bragged and showing off on their social medias? It really disgust me. Well, and yet you talked about "kroni" and "kabel" getting the privileges *eyes rolling*. 

Anyhow, Ed, it was indeed a great performances, you are such a great performer!!!!!!!!!! I had a best night. Now I'm streaming Ed Sheeran on my spotify for the next 1 month definitely.

Perth Day 6

Assalammualaikum wbt,

Monday, 7th May 2018

Today is the day where we had to bid goodbye to beautiful Albany. 1 day is definitely not enough to explore this beautiful city. Definitely will come back. I don’t know why we didn’t come back again to The Gap, The Wind Farm for our second visit as to redeem ourselves the day before. But, we’re afraid the journey will take longer time like the day before and we didn’t get to catch Watertown Brands Outlet opening hours. The weather is absolutely lovely that day, bright and sunny. Beautiful Australia weather. The journey back home is smooth, and it only take about 4 hours time to reach Perth city. Probably because we took a lesser stops except for breakfast picnic. Along the way, there are not much of service centre but there are parks with bench and table. Perfect for a picnic. However, you gotta brave the cold. We ate our breakfast while shivering in the cold.. As usual, we take turns for driving and navigating because the road is quite easy, not much of turns and junctions, only straight. Well, although it is easy, it could be quite boring and could make the driver sleepy.. There are few memorial marks along the way, and that made me thinking, how can the accident occured in such straight and empty roads? Have you ever heard of microsleeping? Probably the drivers had that.. it’s dangerous guys, please if you feel tired, get a stop and rest or like my husband’s case, drink hell lot of coffee. Australia’s coffees and other drinks in that matter are all delicious that we barely drink plain water here. So much for the constipation..

We arrived at Watertown Brands Outlet about noon and without further delay, starts our shopping! Well, given the current currency exchange at AUD1 = MYR3, shopping here could be heaven! There are brands cheaper even compared to the premium outlets in Malaysia like Fossil, Oroton & Adidas. I went crazy here, if I hadn’t thought about our limited luggage, I would definitely buy them all because it’s totally a great dealllllll!! Bought myself Oroton handbag which is pretty compulsory as Oroton is Australian based brand. We bought Hanif Aiden shoes at only $30! And my husband also bought himself a Fossil backpack which is wayyyy cheaper than Malaysia. Both my parents bought a pair of watch each. The Watertown Brands Outlet isn’t as big compared to our Premium Outlets especially Perth is not really a city for shopping unlike Melbourne. Perth is more for sightseeing activities and place to relax. Indeed it is, felt so relax and calm throughout our stay. 

We had our light brunch here, eating Gozleme, a traditional Turkey snacks. It is so so good, I ordered Spinach and Cheese Gozleme. I’m not sure if we have that in Malaysia, pretty sure it does. Besides the branded stores, if we have last minute souvenirs shopping, you can do that too here although the price might be slightly expensive compared to Freemantle. We spent about 2-3 hours here, well we could do it longer.... if we have more money hahaha. 

After that, we went to Corica Pastries to buy the famous Apple Strudel. This is another must buy while you were in Perth. I’ve read the tips from the Facebook group, seriously, that group is super helpful and full of information. If you’re planning to go to Perth, please join that group and you would realized, even a month is not enough to fully exploring Perth! Hahaha. The Apple Strudel costs about $24 each and can be shared up to 4-5 people. It is seriously good, the best I ever tasted, even writing this making me salivating over it. The crisp and soft pastry against the cream and apple slices making every bite is a piece of heaven. You can actually buy them upon departing home and request for a box to be placed at Airplane’s cabin. The carrier box costed $5. It isn’t difficult to find this place in Perth really, if you have Waze, it is best enough. The only downside is that, Waze consumed so much of your phone’s battery. 

After that, we went for lunch at the famous Charcoal Chicken at Daniella Express. This is another famous restaurant outlets among Malaysians because of its Lamb Rack. True enough, almost 80% of the occupants are Malaysians! Haha. This is an Indian themed kind of restaurant/fast food chain. Besides the famous lamb rack, it also served beriyani chicken and rice, and some other condiments as well. I ordered 1 set of beriyani rice to be shared with my husband because the portion is big. And although we shared them, still not finish though. For Hanif Aiden, since he was sleeping, we take away some Mac & Cheese. Lamb Racks here are absolutely delicious guys. Totally recommended, perfectly grilled, meats are succulent, falling from its bone and the glaze, sweet tangy and spicy. If you couldn’t finish your food, worry not because you can actually purchase a food container to pack them.

Then we went to our 4th accomodation in Perth, a homestay in Inglewood. This homestay isn’t so far from Daniella Express. Most of our homestay except Mak Long’s were made the booking through Booking.com. This homestay price is reasonable, 2 nights for $330. The house is lovely, I fell in love with the design and absolutely love the kitchen. It has complete facilities and two bathrooms but only 1 toilet. The kitchens are well equipped with ovens and microwaves, cutleries, cooking utensils, wine glass, tea cup, normal drinking glass, mugs, cellophane tape, garbage bag, scissors, yada yada. The interior is looking classic and it even have a fireplace. We rested for a while and cook dinner. Tentatively, we did not have any night activity because at first we wanted to take picture at the famous Blue Boat House earlier but were too tired from the Albany drive, so we skip that. 

So that night, we went to the city for sight seeing at Elizabeth Quay, it’s not in the initial itinerary anyway, last minute decision. In fact, for the throughout Perth itinerary, I didn’t put much of activities during night time because most stores are closed at 5pm. But, before anything else, we went to Chemist Warehouse first. This is my favourite store ever in Perth and we went there for few times. There are just so many things to buy here .. I did a last round of perfume shopping again.. and even that, I felt it still not enough haha! I shopped like I would bathe in these perfumes! 

Then we went to South Perth Foreshore to take a ferry ride to Elizabeth Quay along the Swan River. It’s only a 5 minutes ride to see the beautiful night view of Perth city. Like I mentioned earlier, Perth is not really a ‘happening’ city, thus the place aren’t so many people except at restaurants. We just took a walk around and taking pictures at the famous Elizabeth Quay ‘shell’. We cut short the visitation as it was too cold, too much to bear, we didn’t even go to the famous Perth Bell Tower although it’s quite a distance from Elizabeth Quay. 

We went home after that, to rest and gaining our energy for the next day’s activity. 

Maroon 5 Live in Singapore 2019

This is my 3rd time watching Maroon 5 liveeeeee in my life. Only this time, in Singapore because I don’t know why most of the artistes do not want to make Malaysia as their stop. Oh wait, think I know why but I better not to disclose them here, most Malaysians would understand why though. So, my second visit to Singapore would be another concert to attend to as a sole reason. And, it’s getting shorter stay, this time less than 24 hours and I didn’t booked any accommodation in fact! 

We almost didn’t make it to the concert though because Hanif Aiden were hospitalised from 2nd March and discharged on 6th March (after our persuasion with the doctor). Earlier that week, I even sold my Blue Live In Malaysia tickets at half price because of this (don’t get me wrong, I didn’t regret it though, family is always a priority). So, we took a noon flight, touched down an hour after and headed straight for lunch at Zam Zam Singapore restaurant using MRT. The tickets buying process is quite tedious I must say, we were departed from the Airport, and in my opinion, they should’ve prepared more self-service counter being it is kind of a major stations. The queue is long, but the machines weren’t working well though.

After the hearty lunch (Singapore Murtabak and Nasi Beriani, no less), we headed straight to the Singapore National Stadium, this time by Grab. The weather is super hot and I’m so lazy to find the train route or made another walk under the blazing sun. We arrived there at about 3pm and gosh, the queue is madness. We’re holding the priority standing tickets and the concert organizer brought us to the designated gate. But it’s so funny because we were brought to walk aimlessly, getting in and out malls, taking escalators up and down, before getting into the stadium gate where we were at earlier (face palm). Once the gate open, everybody were running to the designated entrance as per assigned number on the tickets. I of course, as much as I wanted to run too, I stop to buy the original merchandises first. Priority. From my previous Britney concert last time in Singapore, they don’t sell fake/imitate merchandise here. I spent about $90 for the T-shirts and lanyard. 

Then, we queued again in for another torturous hour at the front of the gate to wait for it to be opened at 6pm. This concert is the most anticipated event in Singapore, the crowd is huge. I spotted many Asians from Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia mostly. That is why the website were super lagging and even crashed during the tickets buying process months earlier. The gate opened at 6pm, and again, frantic fans were screaming and running to get the best spot possible near the stage. Even the crews reminded the people timeless times to not running. I too, were running but of course I had to make a pit stop to buy drinks while my husband went for his toilet breaks. The dilemma about this standing concert is that, you have to drink a lot to keep hydrated and at the same time you also don’t want to risk losing the spot when we went for toilet breaks. Singapore being the environment friendly country, the rules has become stricter from the last time I was here. No more water bottles allowed!! All bottled water or beer were transferred into a tall cup instead. Definitely they will be spilled even before the concert started. True enough.. the floor were wet from the spilling though..

I didn’t get the spot near the stage though, but lucky enough to secure a place at the end of the runaway as I tried much as I could not to stand in the middle of the crowd. Well, as a preparation to hold at something in case I’m about to faint lol! And it does help though because at least I have a room to breathe. I was a bit upset at first to be standing there because it was quite far from the stage, but little that I knew it was the best decision everrrr. Tell you in a later bit ok. So, inside the stadium, another 2 hour waiting game. We killing time by sitting, talking and myself playing candy crush. Ample space for everybody to roam. It was all relax and calm until at 7pm when the normal standing ticket holders entered the stadium. The crazier group of people. They started pushing and squeezing themselves among the earlier access spectators to get the best place for them. What a selfish act and totally totally bullshit arrangement from the organizer! If they were to charge the priority entry tickets and normal standing at $100 difference, have some decency to place a gate/divider to separate or else, there’s nothing special for the priority entry despite paying a huge differences for the tickets. Totally unfair!!! Like there’s no difference between these two ticket holders though. Might as well I bought the normal standing and pushing my way in to be near the stage or claiming the right as a standee. Jeezz. That is one thing that really pissing me off.

The concert started with opening from their DJ, Mr Mailbox at 7.30pm, until 8.00pm. And after that, the crowd were put into hiatus until 8.30pm before Maroon 5 make an appearance. People were screaming and frantic and crazy, the crowd who already packed earlier became even more packed, butt to butt situation, that you even breathe into someone else’s backhead. Like literally eating their hair. Couldn’t even move a finger, let alone to dance along or enjoying the concert!! Luckily that we’re standing next to the fence, so I could at least turned my head to gasp for air. If you asked me know, I can’t even remember what is the opening song because I am too busy figuring out to stay alive rather than focusing on the concert. That bad! Hahaha. Although I could remember their opening song from 2011 concert though.. 

Remember when I told that I was standing at the end of the runaway? It is indeed the best place to be at, or God answering my prayer or doing me a favor, but Adam mostly standing there. I swear he even made an eye contact with me!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh myyyyy!!! He literally standing right in front of me and I can even smell his sweat (or maybe the person next to me, can’t tell really). Best nighttttt ever, I can tick off the bucket list guysss. Well, we can listen to the songs on the radio/Spotify at any time, but to see Adam right in front of our eyes, it took lucks of all universe. Damn luck. Too bad, because of the frantic crowd pushing, it really annoyed hell out of me, I secretly wish the concert ended sooner though. I had the screenshot of the set list, my husband and I were counting down the song desperately Adam would sing it faster and end the concert soon lol! Too bad, my husband couldn’t take it anymore, when he’s down to another 4 last song he escaped himself moving towards the clearer area. And he said it was the best decision he made because the space is bigger, with free flowing water and you can even chill read: sitting or dancing. But I didn’t regret any of that though, because I can enjoy my private moment between me and Adam without him being the third wheel lolololo Hahahaha! 

After like hours of torture in sweat and the hugest body odour festival, the concert end though. I couldn't believe it's finally over but at the same time I'm glad because I made it through alive! First thing first is to find my husband. Now only I remember his name after Adam is out of my sight haha! When people started making move clearing the stadium, I spotted so many people were laying at the corner, a group of the fainted people! My decision to stand near the fence indeed the best. After we were reunited, little did I knew he's actually watching me from afar how I adoring (read: Adam) and enjoying the concert. At first I thought he's giving up and waited for me somewhere else but he claimed that would be a waste of expensive tickets though. Haha. After the concert, we are still indecisive where to go to, at first we wanted to enjoy the night city view of Singapore but, we have to surrender to our wobbly jelly leg. After hours of standing, we've given up. Singapore could wait for us another time. So, we decided to go straight to airport and spend the night there since our flight is the earliest one in the morning. 

I was overjoyed myself I managed to catch Maroon 5 Live again, and this time being the closest to the stage, less than a meter away from Adam, I am more than pleased and satisfied. Been a fan since 2003, watched them live twice before but this is the best one and best experience everrr!! (despite the sweat odour, yuck!). Secretly, I prefer to watch concert in Singapore though, because it's pretty straight-forward, touched down, perform and off to another destination. Unlike here, where these celebrities have to meet those so-called high-society people or local artiste, showing off other people that if you have money or connection, you can have the access duh. Till next time Maroon 5, hope to see you again soon, but maybe next time I would choose the seated area (or not!).