Internship Day Two (Bonus: An Elton John Concert!)

The beginning of day two saw me using the overhead bridge to get to Menara Star for the first time. It wasn’t a good start because I was paranoid about the man who followed me all the way from the petrol station to the bridge. Don’t worry, nothing happened.

We reported to Devid at Newsdesk this morning and he said our assignment for the day was to follow a senior journalist to court. As in, a real court, the Shah Alam High Court at Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah at, obviously, Shah Alam. However, the journalist was already at the court so we had to take a cab to Shah Alam.

At the court, we met Nurbaiti Hamdan, who had just come out of a court session in which the accused was given a death penalty for drug trafficking. We saw real criminals, handcuffed and led away by the police, with our own eyes. It was frightening but sort of exciting as well, because I’ve never seen a real handcuffed criminal with my own naked eyes before and I’m pretty sure most teenagers my age have never done the same, either.

There was a pretty long break session during which we hung out at the cafeteria. There, Baiti told us about her life as a journalist. She said her base was at the Shah Alam court, and she mainly handles court cases. She described situations during court sessions, how the criminals and the people there react, what the lawyers and judges do etc and it was brand new information because I’ve never known about court sessions in such detail.

She also told us that the next court session would be about a DPP charged for falsifying information on a drug offence case, and it would start at 2.30 PM. I fidgeted a little because I told Dad I was allowed to go back at 2 PM for the Elton John concert (!!!) but I also wanted to experience a real court session so it was a heated internal dilemma but in the end I chose to go to Sir Elton John’s concert because how many times do you get to watch Elton John live? (But then again, how many times do you get to watch a real court session as well but that’s not really the point because if I ask that question this parenthesized sentence will never end.)

So, Soo May picked me up at the court at 1 PM, and we got lost at Shah Alam for about an hour before managing to turn into the route leading to PJ.

We, my parents, my aunt and uncle, Soo May, Soo Ling and I, set off for Genting Highlands at 2.30 PM. It wasn’t the best day for travelling for me because I was already quite dizzy from the cab ride to Shah Alam so I treated sleep and a Panadol tablet as my only antidotes. And yet they didn’t even work. The nausea disappeared momentarily when we stepped out of the vehicle after reaching Genting because it was absolutely and terribly cold and we couldn’t see anything at all in the mist. Convinced that we were lost for numerous times, we finally found our way to Arena of Stars. However, we were only allowed to enter the arena at 6.30 PM so we spent our time at a restaurant with the word ‘Hainan’ in its name (I forgot the full name, okay). After two pieces of hot toast, two soft-boiled eggs and a huge mug of hot teh tarik, the nausea started to resurface and by 7 PM, I was prone to puking any time, but I refused adamantly because I hate vomiting with a passion.

I tried to calm myself down mentally and managed alright when we entered the arena at 7.30 PM. While waiting for the show to begin, another internal dilemma appeared in the form of two arguing parties on whether To Puke or Not Puke. In the end, Not Puke won and I gradually got better as the opening act, a two-cellist-band from Croatia called 2Cellos took the stage. Best opening act I’ve ever watched live (compared to Y2K during Paramore live), might I add. They performed Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson, With Or Without You by U2, Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N’ Roses and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana with their cellos only and they were fantastic. Please Youtube them. Please.

Please don’t expect any high quality photos of the concert. If I could actually capture high quality photos at an Elton John concert, there wouldn’t be any photos at all.

After Smells Like Teen Spirit, the ever-amazing Sir Elton John appeared and launched into a total of 26 songs on his setlist. Ever so amiable, he would stand up and address the crowd after almost every song and that would send the audience into hysterics. Don’t think pop rock concert hysterics though, because everyone was seated in chairs although most of the crowd stood up during quick-paced songs and even then, they would eventually sit down again when the next song started.

Some of the more famous songs he performed were Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, Candle In the Wind, Bennie And The Jets and Crocodile Rock. All the time I was hoping he would perform Your Song because that was my favourite Elton John song but he didn’t- right until the time when he reappeared on the stage for an encore after a consistent chant of “We want more!” by the audience (my Dad very much included). That was when he started to sing Your Song and after much persuading from my Dad’s part, despite my still-uncomfortable stomach, I got up from my seat and swayed along to the song. My favourite song was an encore! It was great.

The concert actually went on for almost three hours, because when Elton John does an encore, he does it for half an hour instead of only 10 minutes. Elton John is better than most of you.

When the concert ended, it was already 11 something but luckily Dad managed to leave his parking spot rather easily instead of facing congested traffic like most of the other cars did. The ride down the slope was a slow one though, because of the thick mist. The ride down also managed to rekindle the nausea within me so it was another unpleasant hour-ride back to PJ. I fell asleep almost immediately after showering.

Michelle’s People I’ve Watched Live List, updated:

• Paramore (19/10/2010)

• Elton John (22/11/2011)