Never Say Die finals!!!

Wednesday, 14th June... THE DAY OF RECKONING
Very bleah stuff in the morning, posting some final wishes in the Never Say Die thread from 9 am to 11 am... then had carbonara pasta for lunch before going to school... 2 hours of colour theory lesson, and it was the CLASS TEST (and online some more)!!! I wasnt totally prepared for it lor... in the end I got 18 out of 30. Sigh, not good enough, at least I still passed. Meiling msged me at abt 1420 hrs to let me know that she's already at the Mediacorp studio... wah so early ah. Colour Theory online test finished at 1430 hrs, but I decided to stay behind to touch up on the mood chart due to be handed in by end of the week.
Then at 3 pm I went back home to change into outdoor clothes, left the house at 1645 hrs, managed to catch Bus 25 which arrived on time (Thank God!!), had early dinner at AMK McDonald's at abt 1720 hrs, then took Bus 74 to Mediacorp Studio at 1735 hrs... and reached the place at 1750 hrs. A bit early right, but better to be early than late. I saw Meiling, Rina and Peiling there... soon after got Lee Teng, Ruihan and a few more fans. We then queued up outside the carpark (first few in line), and thats when I showed the gals the Style magazine I brought along. By 1830 hrs, all of us got into the studio, at first seated together but then we were asked to seat according to the contestant we're supporting... Peiling and Rina went to sit at Rongming's region, Meiling went to New YQ's section, and myself... at Shu Ling's section of course. Jayne, Cedric and Grace were also at the Shu Ling section. Lol I saw Louis' dad, Tim and Alex at the other side... and i was seated next to Shu Ling's primary schoolmate, a cute gal named Alicia. Managed to get Ng Hui's and Douglas Fong's (a popular host from Hongkong I think) autographs during the 1 hr wait... I told Ng Hui 'ta hen mei' and she 'forgave' me for forgetting the guy's name. I did get to chat wif Alicia before the show started, on how I got to know Shu Ling and on my experiences wif several Medaicorp artistes. The finals started at 8 pm after we watched "Rhapsody In Blue" on the big screens...
The theme for the finals was '4 Eras of Romance', descirbing the hardships of the 'butterfly lovers' (similar tattoos on their hands) in the 20s, 40s and 70s.

-Rongming and Yu Chang danced about in the 2010 era, arguing and sneering at each other, til grey-haired Zheng Geping (some Architect-like persona from the Matrix trilogy) had to stop them and present to them the tragedies they had been through in their past lives... chemistry between Rongming and Yu Chang was really good, moreover they could dnace very well. Rongming scored 24 points (out of 30), and Yu Chang scored 21.

-1920s era... Shu Ling and Louis in a Chinese restaurant, wif Carole Lin in supporting role. Very tough job for both of them, esp wif the singing part and the poisoned wine scenario. Shu Ling did ok wif 22 points, but Louis scored only 19 points for his not-so-impressive portrayal as a drunk womaniser, which is not good cos I thot that they both put in a lot of effort. Very funny part was one of Louis' friends being quite a kan cheong spider by rushing down the stairs all of a sudden and wanting to give him a bouquet of sunflowers... gave everyone a shock xiah.

-1940s era... Xue Hua and New playing a couple in wartorn Singapore. Xue Hua's performance is really really good, it's the best one to date!!! She has shown a lot of confidence lor!! And New's performance had moved me to tears once more, esp when he's being forced by the Japanese commander to kill his best friend Ah Ming (Rayson Tan)... in the end, he shot the commander in the head, and the soldiers killed him, Xuehua and Ah Ming... this is IMHO the best segment of the finals!! Both scored abt 24 points each!! :-)

-1970s era... Steven is being very mean here, flirting wif women and gambling away his money, even resorting to stealing Meow Rong's money. In the end, he caused his wife to get stabbed by Wenxiang (the Ah Long whom he owed money from), and that death scene nearly moved me to tears... and made everyone else want to kill Steven. Basically no chemistry between Meow Rong and Steven at all, but I must admit that Meow Rong really got potential and I can also see she put in a lot of effort to play the role well. Quite a pity that she didnt get enough votes to secure her into the top 3 places, as like before. As for Steven... hmmmph!! I hope this will be the very last time we'll see him on TV, we are all ware that NSD is definitely his last resort to possibly getting a full-time contract before he reaches 30 (and his birthday is in 2 months' time!!) cos after he hits the big 3-0 it will be very difficult to get such a chance anymore... hope he doesnt ever invade our TVs for eternity. Forever will Steven be a attention-seeking, publicity hungry individual. Seems like he had gotten back to his ways in the finals when he was showing signs of toning down. So while Meow Rong got 23 points, Steven got only 16.9 points, and most of the fans were cheering wif sheer approval!!!

Then there was the 30 minute intermission!! We got to watch the first half of "C.I.D.", and then Louis' army khakis rushed down to take pic wif him. Chen Hanwei and Chew Sin Huey were present at the studio but they left after the live recording... Rina and Peiling were nowhere to be seen as well, but I can guess they went to go after Hanwei and take pic wif him before he zoomed off. I managed to spot Brian Ho among the Steven Lim supporters... he looks OK for his age mah, yet i dont understand why he must keep his identity rather anonymous in Friendster. At 2140 hrs, the per-recorded results show started off wif a young guy named TANK singing some teenyboppy songs... dont really who he is (some new guy I guess), but I must say his singing was quite good to say the least. There was a slight AV failure in the midst of the announcement of the results, and the fans wasted little time in shouting various names... some of them being "MO XIAO LING NI HEN MEI!!!", "ZHONG QING NI HEN MEI!!!" and the contestants' names. Lol few fans even shouted "LI GUO HUANG!!!" (Mark Lee) and "CHEN JIAN BING!!!" (Marcus Chin). Very funny lor!!!
Best Improvement Award goes to... Huang Xue Hua!!! WOO HOO!!!

3rd position (Bronze): Huang Xue Hua!!! OH YES!!!!

2nd position (Silver): New Yi Qing!!! He really deserved it!!!

1st position (Gold): Tay Rong Ming!!! (argh, was rooting for Miao Rong)

After the results show ended, we all headed to the receptionist as usual. Alicia told me to pass to Shu Ling the flower she had bought, and I did so. After a long wait Shu Ling, Louis, Yu Chang and Meow Rong came out at abt 2240 hrs... I showed Ah Ling the boards I made for her during the performance, she was so touched she told me "Aaaaawww... you're so sweet!! Thank you!!" AND SHE HUGGED ME!!! Oh my gosh I dont believe it!!! Never thot she would initiate the hug, so I hugged her back lor (a friendly hug btw)... dont get me wrong, I only see her like a younger sister, nothing else. I also got to hug Meow Rong after telling her not to give up on her dreams and that her performance moved me to tears. Louis (wif green shirt full of testimonials from the other contestants) was being rather 'mean' by secretly changing Shu Ling's pass (which she thot she had lost) back to her IC, and the bimbo nearly wanted to wallop him... never expected her to get "punk'd"!! HAHAHA!!! Anyway Xue Hua, New and Rong Ming came out at abt 2300 hrs, after the long interviews. All the contestants posed for one last shot before leaving the studio for the coach downstairs... and Steven ah, he appeared at the very last minute, looking flustered and withdrawn. Seems like he's taken the loss rather badly (now that he got no more chance to get a full-time contract), and he didnt even talk to any of the 'Secret Seven' when he came out; he headed straight for his bike which was parked outside. Then the seven waved to us fans outside the studio from inside the bus as it zoomed off. And Steven going after the bus in his bike was hilarious, we all laughed at him!! But then its only right for him to bring along his bike and not leave it behind... wonder what he's thinking now.
It was getting so late, I decided to take a cab back home after missing a bus at the stop... and due to the sheer excitement, I couldnt sleep well at all!! Man I hope we can still keep in contact even after the finals...
SHU LING, LOUIS, YU CHANG, MEOW RONG, RONG MING, XUE HUA, NEW YQ, KYM AND PAT... THANKS FOR THE WONDEROUS MEMORIES!!! :-)