Singapore Diaries: Wickedly Wicked.

Everyone knows about the Wizard of Oz. How a little girl from Kansas together with her friends, the Cowardly Lion, Tinman and Scarecrow defeated the Wicked Witch of the West to each get a special present from the Wizard. Oh how that horrible witch made life for all Ozians difficult.

***photo from deadline.com

But, like all villains, there had to be a reason she turned out that way right? And that's what Wicked is all about. The untold story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Idina Menzel, the original Elphaba.

***photo from last.fm

Oh how I wish I was able to watch Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith play Elphaba and Glinda, that would have made it even more fantastic.

I first heard about Wicked from a friend I met when I did a short stint as part of the production team for Beauty and the Beast in Manila. She shared with me the entire soundtrack of the musical and from then on I was hooked. It was on my bucket list. I. Must. Watch. Wicked. So imagine the excitement when I found out Wicked was going to be in Singapore. A mere 3 hours away from Manila. I didn't need to fly hours and hours on end just to watch Wicked. It was perfect. An amazing coincidence, God was making it happen for me. So there really wasn't any choice but to go, that and it was finally a great excuse to visit my cousin who was based there.

With Atchie Nik and Sofia at dinner before the show. :)

Before the show, Atchie Nik treated us to Mozza Pizzeria. Yay to more free meals! :D My cousins planned our meals in Manila and Mozza Pizzeria was one of those on top of the list. A restaurant made famous by the fact that it is partly owned by Mario Batali, a famous Hollywood Chef.

We initially ordered 2 pizzas, a salad and an entree to share. But because we were such a large group the server advised us to order another pizza and so we did. We're easy enough to convince like that. ;D I'd love to write more about the food but I don't think I would be able to do it justice. But if you still want to read more about it then click here, Atch wrote about it in detail.

What a wonderful night it was turning out to be. I was finally going to watch the show I've been dying to watch and I got to eat really awesome food for free. God really does love me. LOADS.

Here's a photo of excited me waiting for food at Mozza Pizzeria. :D

I must say, Wicked did not disappoint. The effects were awesome, the story was amazing and the actors who were in the play weren't bad although I think because I kept listening to the versions of Idina and Kristin my expectations were sky high. Despite that I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would recommend it to all my friends.

What I loved most about Wicked aside from the music of courseis how it managed to incorporate all the elements of the original Wizard of Oz story and make me see it from a different point of view. A story that had come full circle. So if you're on the fence about watching it, I encourage you to go for it. As I always like to say, Wicked was wicked.

***photo from passportchop.com

Wicked will be showing in the Grand Theater of Marina Bay Sands, Singapore until April 1, 2012.

Explore Singapore.

Yay for me! I made two things happen from my list of things to prioritize this year! :) I got to travel and I got to watch WICKED! But I shall write about that in another post. I just know it, this year is just bound to be awesome.

My cousin Coley lives in Singapore and she was awesome enough to let us stay at her house despite the fact that there 5 of us and 3 of them. Yup, it was a full flat but it was great! :) It was my first time in Singapore and the bu's first time in AGES so it was quite daunting for me. The roads were confusing and it was quite amusing to have to remind the bu to look the other way since they drive on the right side of the road. Lucky for us, my other cousins frequent SG so they served as our guides.

My other cousin Ady was nice enough to actually walk around with us and show us good places to shop. If you know us personally then you'll know we're not the walking type of people. :P

Although I must admit, I failed on the MUST SAVE part of the to do list. I still have 11 months to do it. So I'm not losing hope. And as my dear cousin said while trying to make me feel better, "Don't feel bad about all you spent, you just have to look at your stuff and think, WOW, I HAVE SO MANY NEW THINGS. IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT." She's so young yet so wise. Sadly I don't have photos of all the things I bought, but trust me, they were A LOT!

One of the highlights of my trip was the fact that my friends actually made time to come see us while we were there. :)

That's Clauds and Miko.

And all four of us. :) The bu's face is a little creepy cause he was trying to tell us not to move right away because he programmed the shutter to close slow but that only made him move a little. Hence the freaky "The Ring" photo. Eep.

What makes my friends even awesomer, they treated us to dinner! :)

Look at all that food, and there were only 4 of us sharing. But trust me when I say, they were all awesome and they were all gone by the time we stood up! Haha

Clauds, one of my best friends from High School asked us what we wanted to eat. I said anything that wasn't weird. So she made us try Sting Ray. I was quite hesitant at first. But yum. Sting Ray good. :)

And Miko, a close friend from a previous job treated us to yummy wings! Yum yum yum!

Aside from that we had loads more food to go around. Cereal Prawn (which I have to say tastes way better when peeled and re-cerealed), fried rice, veggies and satay. Wow, just listing that all down makes me feel bloated. :P The best part of it all, we didn't have to pay for anything. Ahahahaha, I have the awesomest friends. Weeee. But seriously, thank you guys. It was a treat enough to see you, an even better treat to be fed by you.

It's just about lunch time, and looking through all my photos of food makes me hungry. So I'm off to eat and will post about the rest of our Singapore adventure...after the break! :)

I leave you with a photo of what I had for lunch at a hawker place. :)

Yum! :)