2012 Reflections

A magnificent 2012. Again, plenty of highs.

Travels:
January Shanghai/Ningbo
June/July Amsterdam/France
Sept/October Germany/Italy

Concerts wise, Roxette was pretty much the top of the year. With Lisa Ono flopping and Sting very good.

Wines, pretty hard to match this year, with visits to Champagne, Burgundy, Piendmonte with mentions to DRC (yes...we were there!), Munier, Gaja and many more.

Italy 2012 brought many more 'ticks' in the bucket list. Going flat out on Monza F1 circuit (in a MacLaren MP4-12C), visits to Paganni, Lamboghini factories and Ferrari museums, driving a race trim F430 in a race track, eating spaghetti 'bolognase', drinking coffee in Milan and more!

Other mentions is the opening of RDP retail store in Funan, after months and months of preparation, it has finally become reality and we have a long 2013 to go!

Olympics 2012 was awesome, Bolt did the impossible-to-repeat-in-this-lifetime triple, Armstrong was stripped of his 7-time, one of the most grippling F1 seasons, as well as BPL with Man City beating Man U in the final seconds of the league. Paquaio losing finally. One FC,UFC and MMA in general throwing up plenty of great matches. Sports doesn't get more crazy in a calender year.

What's there to look forward in 2013? More hybrid cameras, more sporting clashes, more great wines, great business ventures.

*CLINK* Cheers!

Italy 2012 day 2/3: MOre wines!

Day 2, end of days, Cavalotto, one of the most breath-taking vineyards yet. Cresting a ridge along the holiest of the King of Wines - Barolo! We arrived at Cavalotto almost during sunset, a pretty difficult place to find! Attached are great introduction to the wines, big barrel fermentation, classic titanium cork-screw openers!!

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 Day 3, another day of wine!! Arrived at Elvio Cogno ON TIME, with Elizabeth of Praleum. Heritage building, fantastic views, an adorable cat (soft fur, has appetite for grass!), investment in 'sqaure' steel fermentation tanks (very expensive), creation of Elena wine--> A top tier wine in the estate named after Cogno's daughter ; her drawing is found the bottles!, blending of varietals at the time of crushing instead of after fermentation, discarding entire crop if quality is not up to part, lovely wines, lovely wine marker, dream estate!

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 The last of the visits, Bruno Rocca. Had high hopes for this as their Maria Adelaide left a good impression on me earlier. Their Rabaja wines are also pretty famous. The vineyard and cellars doesn't look as impressive as others we have been, and perhaps were also also tired out from the vineyard hopping! Bruno and Luisa were really friendly to share the philosophy in their wine making. ;)

and it was off to Levanto, a long long long winding drive into one of the rainiest terrain I've ever experienced. Reaching the location in the dark, what an experience....watch out!

Hida Beef, Oiishi ne!

What is happiness? It's usually an accumulation of satisfying one's senses. We were at Oiishi Japan 2012 exhibition at MBS. Hida beef's store was there. There was tasting a three time slots and 10 minutes before each session, there was already a 15 man queue waiting patiently for the master to start cooking the beef. Cute in squares and thinly sliced, the steak was panned cooked for a few minutes, before hosting onto serving plate and a dose of brown salt later, it was happiness sloshing around my mouth. Flavours, textures, soft but doesn't melt and disppear in your mount, just the right amount of 'bounciness' . Simple. Awesome. Mind-blowing!

Went for a second round, no regrets, happiness was spelled H-I-D-A-BEEF that day....

Bistro Soori

 Bistro Soori!! Scallops, Duck Confit, Pandan souffle, salad with blue cheese, lovely place. ;)

Lisa Ono 2012 Live at Kallang Theater

Lisa Ono, 2012. one of the famous 'Girl from Ipanema', with airy voice, great rendition of Jobim classics and other Brazilian styled Bossa Novas. This was her 3rd time here in Singapore and our first concert to Lisa Ono. Shown at the Kallang Theater, the place seemed frozen in time, we have completely forgotten how the place looked like as the last time we went was possibly during the 1990s during the Les Miserables, Cats, Miss Saigon era. The stage look really small (we're too used to Esplanade Theater?), and the acoustics were poor but sound mixing made it worse. Maybe due to our seats (quite far stage left as seen from the image), the players nearer to us, (Flautist / Saxaphonist and percussionist), were impossibly loud and Lisa's guitar was non-existant. Scenes of Brazil / beach / was shown at the big screen/ projection behind the band for certain songs and they're reminiscent of poorly done Karaoke tapes of the 90s. The biggest disappointment of all was Lisa Ono. Her pitching was way all over the place. It literally hurts to listen ...*sob*. She tried to do covers on Bengawan Solo, Rasa Sayang, Ye Lai Xiang to add on the the woes. Singing seemingly completely from scores, she might have focused on the pronunciation and completely forgotten the dynamics. The 2nd song of the encore (some chinese song!!) was much worse....we were trying to 'switch off' our ears...

I love Lisa's studio albums, but the 'live' episode couldn't have been worse. I had to get home to listen to some 'proper music' to align myself back. This adds on poor Bossa Nova (which I really love..) live concerts. Lisa Wahlandt, Ana Caram, Olivia Ong, have great studio recordings but their live sets fall mostly flat. Past greats which we'll never see again include Louis Armstrong, Shirley Horn, Ella Fitzgerald, Astrud Gilerberto and one of the favourties, Eva Cassidy!!!!

Now I'm hesitant to have high hopes for other Jazz / Bossa artists. We look forward to Stacey Kent, Diane Reeves (the very best concert we've ever been for Jazz),  Sara K, Norah Jones, Noon, Emi Fujita, Janet Seidel, Alison Krauss!!

Till the next Jazz concert, !

Italin wines: Barbarescos and Barolos!

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After a whirlwind drive,and arriving in Piedmont region in the dark. It was time for dinner. It was at l'osteria Bel Teatro amd we had, Tagliere di formaggi amongst a fabulous chicken flavoured entree (can't remember the dish for this). The pasta was heavenly, with Pio Cesare Barbera which was smooth and easy to go with food. The desert Panna Cotta  was out of this world, and the phrase 'MMmmmmmm' couldn't have been more apt!

It was rise and shine and straight to our first tasting of the trip, at Matteo Correggia! Located at the Roero region, it is not as widely known as Barbaresco and Barolo but Roero region is slowly gaining recognition.

 

Chalk beneath the house, constantly moist and at a cool temperature, the idea conditions for wine!

 

 Impressive line up as well as strong family tradition in the Correggia family with Giovanni (third from left), slowing taking over the role as wine maker!

The next stop: Gaja. Located at Barbaresco town, there is literally just one street cutting across the slopes. With just 600 inhabitants, this is one of the smallest towns in Italy (or in the world?) and Angelo Gaja is famous for all things Italian wine. Angelo is fourth generation in the line of Gajas and he has perhaps made the most significant contribution of them all by introducing cutting edge techniques in the vineyard and in the cellars. Believing that only the best will do, Gaja would conduct green harvest of 50% or more of the crop, to the disbelief of their neighbours. Gaja has also refused to vinify grapes if he thinks it's no up to his standard. Other idiosyncrasies included introduction of Red worms from USA to aid soil regeneration as well as planting crops closer than the norm to encourage them to compete. Gaja also experimented with new world varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon much to the dismay of his Dad Giovanni (but Gaja senior let Angelo experiment anyway).The famous wine is called Darmagi, which translate to 'what a shame' or 'pity', mentioned frequently by Gaja senior!

 

Italia 2012 Day 1

It was off to another grip trip of the year. Wenhui and I went around Germany after Photokina 2010 to one of the trips 'of our liftime'. This time round, it was to Italy! We were all busy and didn't have much time to plan!!

After a fulfilling Germany 2012: *driving on Autobahn @ 220kmh in a BMW 3 series; eating my favourite black forest cake in Black Forest; visiting Porsche, Mercedes and BMW showrooms & museums; drinking 1L beer mugs at the beer festival of the world Oktoberfest; went to 'Waltz Disney's' castle; went to classic Roman spa in Baden-Baden, it was truly fulfilling , can Italy top all that? YOU BET!!

It was the first time we really used Google maps go our advantage, the only issue came when our car didn't have GPS (we were hoping it was included, as we booked a Mercedes), and the subsequent app we downloaded to the ipad didn't have the addresses we keyed painstakingly into google maps, nevertheless Google Maps was great!

We took a flight via German Wings from Cologne airport (only 10mins train from Kolnmesse --> the exhibition grounds of photokina). German Wings was pretty cheap, ~60euros per pax, for a 1.5hour flight into Milan MXP airport. The first image of this post showed snow-covered mountains of the Italian-Swiss alps, magnificent! 

Off we go to our hotel, it was B&B Monza at around 70euros without breakfast. Reaching this place was a nightmare without a good map nor GPS, driving in the night, in the rain, but we made it! Thanks to Wifi at a nearby Macdonalds! Here Formula 1 motives greet us right at the door front, together with the courtesy bear and a lady in the colours of Ferrari!

After coffee (a must every morning in coffee-land Italy), it was off shopping for pre-paid sim cards, water, and food. 'Atas' water was cheap! 0.42 euros for a 1500ml of Aqua Panna! Wifey commented it tasted good. I can't agree more, one water is better than the next? This was 'clear', 'not mineral' and 'fresh'. Do you believe all these?

Wifey at the cheese section, yes..it's mind-boggling! Good champagnes were going for 50euros where it'll cost double in Singapore!

It was off to the main event of the day, a ride in this ~600 horsepower MacLaren MP4 12C. Having missed driving around Nurburing F1 track in Germany, this was a great chance to drive around THE FASTEST F1 track ever! David Coulthard took is Maclaren to 351kmh along the main straight during the V10 3L days in early 2000s.

We took a package organised the PureSport.it, they have regular events at the several tracks around Milan area (there're a total of 5, so someone told me), and they have their regular Ferrari F430, Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari Italia 458, Lamborghibi Murcielago and more.

The Italia 458 is a real beauty.

Snooped around the paddock area and some class to be and an interview area behind it.

The Maclaren MP4 12C, mentioned by Jeremy Clarkson as a 'fax machine name',--> Mp4 12C --> wtf is Maclaren thinking? MacLaren created the Maclaren F1 to take the title of FASTEST street car EVER at 372kmh back in 1998. This record was beaten by the monster of monsters, the Bugatti Veyron (~400kmh). With the MP4 12C, it wasn't about speed records as it is virtually impossible to beat the Veyron short of putting rockets or jet engines onto a car. With the MP4 12C, it was about creating the best driving experience possible. Developed at the Top gear test track Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, United Kingdom, it become the 2nd fastest ever car to go around the circuit set by THE STIG. 

The simple yet elegant interior of the super car.

Yours truly went for a few rounds in this orange car with funny doors.

A familiarisation lap inside a BMW M3 'drift car'

Yes, it started to pour and here's a look at the most famous podium int the F1 calender, with the podium stretching over the start-finish straight, where the WHOLE stretch will be full of Tifosi- Ferrari fans during Monza F1. The most memorable was when Michael Schumacher, Ruebens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine (ex-driver of ferrari), took the top 3 positions respectively think in one of the 2002-2004 sesasons and it was really great!!

Looks like Singapore rain.

The famous Monza straight.

There was lots of Russians in the crowd waiting for a drive, including quite a few ladies!

Wifey went around the track in the BMW M3 'drift car', and yours truly is in the reflection..hehe

A marvelous day 1! The car was nimble,very responsive to steering and throttle, it's amazing how fast you can brake from going at 200+kmh into a tight corner. Many say F1 cars can brake much later, it'll be an experience to be in a F1 cockpit one day! Now back into the rented Mercedes and onwards to the wine-region of northern Italy,the Piedmont region! WROOM!