LUST for LIFE

How was your 50th Merdeka celebration last night?

My wife and I were at the IKANO Power Centre. When we arrived at Mutiara Damansara at 8pm – with my son who later went off to join his friends – we discovered road diversions. The traffic wardens directed us to the car park at CineLeisure, where we found a parking bay on Basement 3.

Most of the eating places at CineLeisure and The Curve were enjoying ‘full house’. However, we managed to get a table for two at Thai Express. By the time we finished our meal, the IKANO street party and Merdeka Golden Celebration Concert was in full swing. It was a non-stop concert with a music mix spanning the 5 decades from 1957. On hand to entertain the humongous crowd were Zainal Abidin, Fish Leong, Juwita Suwito, Reshmonu and Vince, plus emcee Serena C (from HITZ TV) and DJs Jakeman and Skeletor. At midnight, the sky was ablazed with a spectacular fireworks display.

With the standing room environment, taking good photos was difficult. In fact, I hardly had space to change lens or battery.

What was supposed to be an entertaining night out was marred by being stuck in the basement car park for about 1.5 hours before we exited. We reached out around 2am.

(Photos taken with Canon 350D / EFS 17-85mm / ISO1600)

Zainal Abidin (as seen on a giant-size screen)

Taiwan-based singer Fish Leong (Pinyin: Liang Jing Ru)

Part of the crowd

A make-shift AV control centre

Fireworks

Making their way home