For most Asians, 08.08.08 is a very auspicious day as in the chinese language, 8 is pronounced as 'Fah' which coincidently sounds the same as the 发 in 发财 (prosper)!

The opening ceremony for the XXIX (29th) Olympiad was held in Beijing on this auspicious day.

We flew to Melbourne for the Opening Ceremony's celebrations hosted by 3CW Chinese Radio where mummy, on behalf of CMC Markets, was a major sponsor.

Chikky was supposed to come with us but was unwell and couldnt make it :(

Mummy booked us into Quest Serviced Apartments in Southbank for the weekend. It was conveniently located close to the city and to where the event was to take place. Rates for a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment was only approx. AUD$240! How great is that!

We cabbed down to the event hall that evening. The event hall was actually a converted boat shed! Not the small ones u'd imagine but those that actually housed and repaired numerous boats! It was HUGE! Close to the size of a warehouse!

The evening started with a VIP cocktail session where Henessy was the featured sponsor! YES! We had Henessy VSOP (I think), Moet & Chandon Champagne AND Sharks' Fin Dumplings with XO Sauce! YUP! It was yummy!

Dinner was 3 courses. It was acceptable but nothing to rave about except for the dessert. Personally, I found the Masters of Ceremony (there were like a total of 5! -_-") too long-winded. they tried to conduct the event with English AND Mandarin and dragged it out in the attempt to entertain us. -_-

The highlight of the evening was still the reason for our esteemed presence!

The Opening Ceremony of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing!

The theme this year was that of the ancient art of painting, where paintings were actually scrolls. It absolutely touched me when they not only had choreographed dancers to paint the 'outlines' but when they had every athlete walk through HUGE rainbow-coloured stamp pads and leave a mark on the painting.

Then there was the 'Lighting of the Olympic Torch' where they flew the guy up and he ran around the whole inner circumference of the stadium before he lighted up the gigantic torch, whose flames rose high above.

The fireworks for the entire event wwas absolutely spectacular and breath-taking! Hunny even commented that no other countried would be able to match that!


I re-considered posting this cos of the controversy and scandal that was uncovered.

1. The little girl who had the solo was lip-syncing. Hey, dun get me wrong! Nothing wrong with lip-syncing if its you actually singing, right? However, they substituted the original singer because she was fat and ugly!

That's not reason enuf in my book!

2. The 'spectacular' fireworks did not happen on 08.08.08 itself but was added to the telecast from a prior taping! HELLO?!!! The world's dignitaries were all present! OMG la! Sia suay in front of the world's leaders is ok but cannot lie to the rest of the world watching ar??

Why werent the fireworks displayed?!!!

TSK TSK TSK!

Labels: charities n events, just me, news n gossip