On top of that I got to meet violin virtuoso Dennis Lau, who is one of Malaysia's foremost up and coming musicians. There's him signing his CD for me.
It started at 11am when YB Danny Law, who was standing in for the CM who unfortunately had to be in KL, arrived to the sound of Chinese drums which greeted him, together with Henry Yip. A stage and seating area had been set up just outside the restaurant, with permission from the management.
It all looked very swish. MC Kevin was easked CEO Henry Yip to go up on stage to give his speech, which was informative but relatively short.
After than YB did his bit, followed by Dragon-i's CSR bit: they donated RM30,000 to three Penang charities: SMK Moh Ghee Pusat in Lorong Perak, the Chinese school which needs complete refurbishment as it was built in the 1950s (which if you think about it is over half a century old ... gulp); Shan Children's Home in Mount Erskine which helps to keep abandoned or needy children and give them guidance and training for a better life in the future, and the WCC (Women's Centre for Change) in Jalan Jones which helps battered and abused wives and their children. It was very good of them to donate what was effectively their first day's takings to these good causes.
Then Dennis Lau stepped up to electrify the crowd with his performance and WOW, was he incredible. He's only 25, but is the first instrumentalist to be signed under Sony Music Entertainment Msia and Singapore, fantastic musician and stage presence. His electrical violin was an amazing instrument too, specially made for him. What I liked most about him was the guy has no airs and graces, despite the fact that he hit the big time in 2006 and now performs all over Asia. Just imagine how young he was then. And good looking too.
He kindly gave me a copy of his CD "DiversiFy", and signed it as well. Look out for this guy, he's going places. One of his performances was with Jimmy Sax, Malaysia's top saxophonist, who looked uber cool with his hat and jacket. They were both fantastic, and performed very well together.
After that there was the requisite Lion Dance, very loud but of course the evil spirits had all to be scared away, and very cute too - one of the lions was sprawled out on the floor (of course the guy was busy peeling the oranges underneath) but his tail kept wagging. They pay attention to such detail. I received two oranges - consider myself lucky!
Henry, YB and Dato Douglas Cheng, one of the Board of Directors, then lined up and cup the ribbon simultaneously, after which YB signed the commemorative plaque.
Then of course we all trooped in to lunch of Dragon-i signature dishes including the Xiao Long Bao, one of my favourites. The prawns in spicy sauce were crunchy and excellent, but I was a bit disappointed we didn't get a chance to try their lamian this time. Never mind lah putting on weight!
After that Dennis kindly gave me a few minutes of his time and I was able to interview him about his favourite foods. As he's from Teluk Intan I found it quite interesting cos everyone always talks about Penang food so this made a change.
All in all, a most satisfying day!
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