Aladdin - The Hit Broadway Musical

[Media Invite]

Finding the right musical to bring the whole family to, can be a daunting task, especially when the kiddos likes different things. While one may listen and watch attentively at what's happening on stage, another may already have wasted good money by drifting into lala land due to lack of interest or understanding. Fret not because let me tell you, Aladdin is really GOOD!

Thanks to the wonderful peeps from Base Entertainment Asia and SPRG, I was also privileged to get up close with the cast, listen to the challenges they face playing the iconic characters and also had a glimpse of what goes on backstage to make this awesome production come alive. The one thing we did not manage to look at, was the MAGIC CARPET! And yes, it deserved to be called the magic carpet once you see it live on stage!

We got to look at the set up close!

Graeme Isaako (Aladdin), Shubshri Kandiah (Jasmine) and Gareth Jacobs (Genie)

Doron Chester (Iago), Patrick R Brown (Jafar) and Darren Yap (Sultan)

Rob Mallett (Kassim), Adam Di Martino (Omar) and Troy Sussman (Babkak)

The dressing room was an eye-opener. 337 glittering costumes with over half a million Swarovski crystals!

This is where they store tons of their stuff!

By now, you would have come across lots of reviews on this musical from the others who had watched and what I am going to write next would simply be plagiarizing what they had already mentioned. But I cannot help it because it was really that good. Right from the opening act, we were transported to the mythical city of Agrabah, with Gareth Jacobs definitely bringing life to the genie  character and lot of laughter to the rest of us!

Opening act introducing all to Agrabah was brilliant!

The sets were impressive while the songs were mostly familiar and catchy, barring a few nice but newer songs written especially for the musical. Watching how the set changes seamlessly from the colorful streets of Agrabah into the desert Cave of Wonders filled with golden treasure, and then into the majestic palace of the Sultan was pretty cool. The actions just doesn't seem to stop and keep everyone young and old happily in their seats, looking forward to the next scene!

Where they fell for each other.

Around 8 minutes of non-stop singing and dancing. I really wonder how the Genie does it!

From our own experience, the musical Aladdin is definitely great for anyone from age 5 up to 105, and perfect for a date night, or with family or with anyone! I give it two thumbs up and you have my word that it would be time well-spent! Once again thank you so much Base Entertainment Asia and SPRG for the unforgettable birthday treat with my family!

Useful Information

Performance Times (now till 01 Sep 2019):

Tuesday - Friday: 7.30pm
Saturday: 2pm and 7.30pm
Sunday: 1pm and 6.30pm

Ticket Bookings:
Internet - Marina Bay Sands website or SISTIC website.
Phone - +65 6688 8826
In Person - Marina Bay Sands Box Offices (Museum, Theatres, SkyPark, Retail Mall and Hotel Tower 1 Lobby). For more information please log onto - www.MarinaBaySands.com/ticketing

Curious About KURIOS?

[Media Invite]

All I can say is that the kiddos are really really lucky and that they are really spoilt! We managed to catch all the incredible Cirque du Soleil shows when they came to town since our very first experience with Totem that happened four years back. Kooza was the last show we caught two years ago as a family and now KURIOS – Cabinet of Curiosities, which got us really curious!

Happy kiddos on the red carpet just like the stars, but only after the show.

The opening red carpet night was yet another star-studded event, where all the young and upcoming Singapore celebrities and this old uncle here also got to meet some of his idols too. It was a happening evening, where the champagne flowed and everyone was in a elevated joyous celebratory mood! Well, the kiddos were happy with their popcorns too! 

The white and grey Big Top just beside Marina Bay Sands.

Met Daddy's idol.

Met the judge of the TV show our family went on a couple of years back. 

I am honest here, we felt a little underwhelmed this time round. Maybe it was because of the superb performances of the previous two shows we watched before. Having said that, we were seated quite far behind this time round (and I am not complaining hor) and had the view from the side. I had since read a lot of wonderful reviews on the show by now, and when I looked at the photos and videos posted, I understood why I felt underwhelmed. 

This is our view, which gave a great overview of all the actions on stage but too far for me to appreciate the details of their costumes!

Just look at these official photos!



I can imagine how awesome it would be if we were able to see clearer!

Basically I needed to get my eyesight fixed, because all the performers were in such beautiful, exquisite costumes that were a sight to behold. I even thought that the midget whom performed was just a little girl as I couldn't make her out from afar. I guess we just felt a little detached from the performance due to the distance. Do not get me wrong, the performers were all splendid and still gave an exhilarating show, but you will need to get better seats to soak in the full performance!

The kiddos are always happen to meet familiar faces!



This is a great opportunity for Singaporeans to catch the world famous circus act without having to fly anywhere else and is definitely worthwhile for a family evening out especially for those who had never caught the circus before! Thank you so much for having our family at the opening Sliding Doors Entertainment! Thank you for the love!

Great catchup with friends!

Thank you for having us at the opening night!

Useful Information

Performance Times (now till 16 Aug 2019):

Tuesday - Friday: 4.30pm & 8.00pm
Saturday: 4.30pm & 8.00pm
Sunday: 1.30pm and 5.00pm

Ticket Bookings:
Get your tickets here - SISTIC website.

D-Link Covers More!

[Product Review]

I had been using D-Link cameras right from the start and had always found them to be a joy to use. In fact the ones that I am writing about now, had been in use for almost a year and we are already happy and used to them that I had forgotten about my reviews! Opps... But in any case, now that our house is more than twice the size of our previous 3-room flat, we definitely needed more coverage, in terms of CCTV cameras to capture the happenings at home, as well as WiFi!

DSC-8100LH 

So, when I first received the white DCS-8100LH, I thought it looked so familiar to the black DCS-936L that I wondering if it was just a colour variation! But nope, it was a notch above the latter for sure, with its various improvements! In fact, it boast a 180-degree wide-angle view, in 720p HD quality no less, as compared to the black DCS-936L that we reviewed much earlier.

Looks exactly like my old camera but with voice function!

Previously I when I catch my kiddos watching TV before finishing their homework, I would have to call home to give them a piece of my mind! But with the DCS-8100LH, I can eavesdrop on to their conversation and respond to them immediately too! No need to close the app just to make a phone call! In fact, I had given them quite a fright at times!

You can find the link to get the camera here.

DCS-8525LH

I sure was happy with my DCS-8100LH lah, but hor when I received the latest DCS-8525LH, I really had the sudden impulse to change all the other cameras in the house into this lor. Especially so when I am watching the live footage only to see the kiddos get out of the frame of the older models I am using and leave my wondering what is up their sleeves! The reason why, is because I can control and pan the DCS-8525LH remotely!

It is actually rather fun to control the camera! It can almost cover 360 degrees with the panning, and I can even point it upwards to catch geckos in action if I want to. Jokes aside, this is really a great feature to have, especially when you needed to cover all the angles, but yet not with multiple devices since you do not need the footages at all times also.

Up, down, left and right. Now I can rotate and pan anyway I need with this!

Find the link to purchase the camera here if you want.

Mydlink App

The mydlink app is user-friendly and highly intuitive. I had no problems setting up my cameras and accessing the live footages on my four different cameras is just 2 clicks away after opening the app. I am also be able to take still images or videos at this point should I need to.

Can see select the cameras installed easily!

You can also choose if you want the sound on or off, and select the resolution of the videos as well. With the compatible cameras such as the DCS-8100LH and DCS-8525LH I mentioned, I can also tap and hold on to the speaker to talk directly to the person in front of the cameras.

No one in the right mind would always be viewing the live footages all the time, or maybe in the beginning only. The recordings are important for sure, and one can choose to record directly onto a micro SDXC card on the device, or have subscribe to their cloud recording plans. I also subscribed to their free plan, which allows recording from up to 3 cameras to be stored for 1 day!

Now they even have videos tutorials to make learning easier!

It's messy, but just to show you the recording of my DCS-8525LH on top of our wardrobe!

Links of the app for both Apple Store and Play Store can be found here.

COVR-C1203

Now what good is a bunch of IP cameras if you do not have reliable WiFi connection at home? They are basically useless with the connection lor. And with the doubling in size of our house now, we needed twice as much coverage, but luckily we had the COVR-C1203 for mesh networking!

Of course I am no techie but having to sign onto different networks when I was using different extenders previously, having this new gadget is really useful as it provided the best signal available throughout the house without any hassle of switching the networks when I am in different rooms.

To be honest, it took me quite a few tries to get this set up and running and it was because of a certain setting (probably cellular data) on my mobile phone that I had to turn off to enable proper installation of the device using the D-Link Wi-Fi app. But once the setup was done, it was smooth running since then!

The speed was decent enough for the kiddos to watch streaming videos anywhere in the house, which was not bad considering that my main router is tucked in a closed cabinet because I hated cables and wires. It would be great if there wasn't a need to keep all 3 nodes powered with the cables, but luckily the nodes looked pretty cool and futuristic lor!

Get your COVR-C1203 here.

Verdict

I am damn honest here. There are many brands out there that has similar products that goes for cheaper prices. This is not rocket science, just google and you can find them out for yourself. But having used D-Link cameras for almost 3 years now, I can dare vouch for their quality!

The oldest one that I am using, the DCS-960L is still going strong and recording vivid footages after all these while. All I did since then, was only adding new D-Link cameras to mydlink app and enjoying the convenience of full coverage of my house with one single app.

I am a very happy man with the performance of the cameras and the mesh router system, and would not hesitate to recommend these to anyone who wants a simple to install, idiot-proof CCTV monitoring system at home and great WiFi coverage. Many people have the fear of setup complexity, but sometimes these worries are really not necessary because hey, even I can fix it!

This post is brought to you in collaboration with D-Link Singapore! 

The Lab Singapore

[Review + Giveaway]

The talk is all about STEM educations these days, with AI and computing deemed as the future. It is no longer good enough to learn how to use apps and such, but to create them as well so as to "future-proofing" our next generation! Almost everything we use in our lives these days involved some form of computing and AI, be it your television, fridge and many other common equipments, as we continue to progress as a Smart Nation!

Steffi, Leroy and Stacci got reacquainted with coding, which they had briefly tried before at other events, as well as having go at various interesting stuff during a 3-day camp that they took part in during the June holidays at The Lab, located in Katong V. Coding always sounds as if it is solely for geeks, and that it is difficult and not meant for 'normal' people but from what I heard from the kiddos, simple basic coding was definitely made fun at the camp!

As it was a drop off camp, I didn't know exactly how the day went for them and can only find out at the end of each day on what they experienced. Leroy was especially excited to tell me at the end of the first day, that they got to go to the supermarket to choose and buy fruits with the trainers for them to set up an experiment on voltage. They even had a competition amongst the groups to see whose setup produced the highest voltage and learnt more about circuitries.

Happy kiddos going on a field trip!

They also dabbled with the Tynker, an app for the little ones to learn about coding in a fun way through puzzle-solving etc and it is definitely great to have good guidance along the way as they figure things out. It is not all about classroom work as they also went on a day trip to HP Learning Academy for a look at the state of the art, multi-million dollar venue to find out for themselves on their technological advances.

Some of the 3D printers available at the school.

There are so many things one can do with 3D printing nowadays, and the kiddos told me that they got to try some basic 3D modelling and also printed out the models they built on the program. I would love to learn about that too, so that I can print out props for their cosplaying! Now that there are even drone academies and competitive tournaments for drone races, maybe learning how to control one is not a bad thing. It is not too difficult as it involves only simple controls on a mobile app, but provided good dexterity exercise for the little fingers, as they tried to take down targets by launching missiles from the drone.

Having a go at flying a drone!

Sending the kiddos to the camp was one of the best decisions I made for the holidays as they gained more knowledge on the technologies available now. It also provided a great opportunity for them to socialize and make new friends too. Well, you need not wait for the next holiday for such learning to be available for your child as The Lab has a series of regular classes that touches on the various stuff the kiddos tried during the camp, but in much more depth of course!

Thanks to the school, we will be having a giveaway of $500 worth of classes to 2 very lucky readers who complete the following -

• Like and follow The Perfect Father on Facebook;
• Like and follow The Lab Singapore on Facebook; and
• Like, Share this Facebook post and Tag 3 friends in the comments on before 31 Jul 2019

Relaxing with the trainer after the camp!

Meanwhile, you should really check them out at https://www.thelab.sg/ to find out more about the classes they offer for children of different ages and how your child can benefit as well!