Helen Saphiro

Uncle CK said I looked like Helen Saphiro. So I told him, I shall Google her first. And I found this ;)



Hmmmmmm.

So you think you know your Sushi etiquette?

Dos:
1. Pick up sushi using chopsticks (Hashi) or fingers. Both are correct.
2. Lightly dip the fish, not the rice, into a small amount of soy sauce.
3. Put the whole portion into your mouth, holding the sushi so the fish touches your tongue.
4. Use the blunt back end of the chopsticks when taking food from a shared place.
5. Rest the narrow rounded ends of your chopsticks on the small ceramic holder, or Hashi-Oki, when you're not using them.
6. One way to signal that you're finished is to place your chopsticks across your soy saucer (don't just rest the tips), parallel to the sushi bar.

Don'ts:
1. Rub your chopsticks together to remove splinters (it's rude; a good sushi bar would never offer chopsticks of such low quality).
2. Bite the sushi in half and put the remainder back on the plate.
3. Flop a big piece of pickled ginger onto your sushi before eating it. Eat the ginger between pieces of sushi as a palate cleanser.
4. Dunk the rice in the soy sauce.
5. Dump wasabi into your soy sauce, turning it into a soup. Wasabi should be put directly onto the sushi, if added at all.
6. Hand money to the sushi chef. The chef typically never touches money.

Last Saturday

Did you know that they have a (super) mini zoo in Subang? Well yea, I didn't know until last Saturday afternoon when I dropped by at Kompleks 3C for a friend's event (Skool of Rap). If you don't already know, Kompleks 3C (owned by MPSJ) is located somewhere near the Subang/Sunway roundabout. The building is so colourful and there is no way you can missed it. So we were taken for a tour around the place and I was surprised with the kinda stuff that they have inside; activity centres for kids, camp site, activity rooms (standard classroom size), auditoriums, libraries and even an art gallery! Oh and of course, that (super) mini zoo that I mentioned about earlier. It's just too bad that the place has not been fully utilised (I went there on a Saturday, and the place was dead). Perhaps the building could use some maintenance work and a new paint job as well just to make it more enticing to the public around that vicinity. Well, I would definitely go back for the batik painting classes though ;)

Straight after Subang, my friend and I decided to go for a road trip out from the city---I wanted to see fireflies (somewhere in Kuala Selangor) and my friend wanted to check out this place called Sekeping Serendah (somewhere in Hulu Selangor). I seriously had no idea on how to get to any of the places (just so lucky I was not driving ;p). We reached Serendah in about an hour drive from PJ (thanks to his GPS although we did missed few turns here and there). So when I saw the place, I gotta say my first impression was "this place reminded me of my dad's kampung back home, except of course for the artistic landscapes and the glass houses". It's a calm place really. It's a good place for retreats and meditation. But I'm not really sure whether I could sleep in that kinda environment (with what the see-through glass panels or what not) since I'm not really an outdoorsy person.

Just a few kilometres away before Sekeping Serendah, we found a family park---with a waterfall! A mini one that is. We could've walked up further to see more of that waterfall, but it was almost dark and I was already thinking about the fireflies.

The trip to Kuala Selangor (or Kg. Kuantan to be precised) took about an hour from Serendah. When we reached there (it was already around 9ishpm), the place was packed with tourists/foreigners/school students. Yea, the price per sampan is RM40 and it's for four persons per sampan. Maybe we're not interesting-looking enough, no one wanted to share the sampan with us. So heck, we had the sampan all to ourselves. Our boater was this nice old makcik which I was having a slight trouble in understanding her slang. But she's nice otherwise. Although the ride was only for about 10 mins (or maybe less), but the fireflies are just so beautiful. They look like thousands of glowing colourlights on Christmas trees at night ;) Sigh. Too bad I don't have a good camera with me. Oh and one of them fell into our sampan too! (at least the fireflies thought we're interesting and actually joined our boat!). It was fun. My friend told me the fireflies viewing experience in Cherating is different from this one. So I guess, that's going to be our next trip ;)

So yea, here are some of the pics taken from my last Saturday.
















It was a tiring weekend indeed. But we ended the day with pizzas and beers and a re-run of Flight of the Conchords! So I can't really complain ;)

Bonze

I had lunch at Uncle CK's again today (actually the name of the shop is Tasty but since my colleagues and I go there almost everyday for lunch, so we address the shop by the name of the owner-it's comfortable that way). So yea, next to Uncle CK's or probably two to three shops away, is a designers' furniture studio. And always, like always, there's this one fancy, artsy piece of furniture displayed in the shop that caught my attention. It's artistic (although one of my colleagues thinks its somewhat silly---coming from a Creative Director himself. Perhaps it's because of the price). For the past one week, I've been eyeing on that art piece.

Today, I decided to go into the shop to just get closer to that particular piece. And of course, I was also curious about the other stuff that the shop has inside. I took a sneak peek (more like a tour *grins*). So here it is...

The name is Bonze. It's by Philippe Starck. The piece that caught my eyes like over and over again. According to its artistic description, this is a face of a Buddha, a portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici, a watcher in the night, awoken double of the Sleeping Muse by Brancusi---a stool as well as a coffee table. Bonze comes in other colours as well. I'm really inspired by this piece---maybe because I have this thing with Buddha Stucco. Yea anyways, Bonze is worth RM6k+++.

Some other stuff that they have in the shop...

























I like 'em all! Hmmmmmmmppphh!

All pictures are courtesy of New Convox/Convox Furniture. Oh and btw, the name of the shop is Jia Studio.

To-Do List

"Why do you have your to-do list on your tie?". That's exactly the question I asked my colleague earlier. He joined the agency like a month ago and judging from his dressing you can never tell that he's attached to a creative advertising agency (don't get me wrong, he dresses so smartly everyday that one will think he works in a corporate banking agency or something). I guess he proved me wrong today. He walked into the office today with that "ice-breaker" (that's what he'd liked to call it) neck tie. Yea, that to-do list is actually part of the tie. My colleague told me he only wears this tie for big meetings just to tone down any tautness or tension or what not. Sweet.

The tie is by Vicki Davis.

Maybe I should wear one of these at my new workplace ;)

Lola's latest project

But then again, I might be too ambitious. Narsh. How I wish my brother is around now, so I can just copy him play (like how I used to). Anyways, this is a clip that I just got from YouTube uploaded by this dude who call himself jedimindless. I think it's quite helpful. He explains how the chords are repetitive from the verses to the chorus and to the bridge. Yea, let me just go home and try it on Lola first. Oh and by the way, this is Fallen by Lauren Wood.

It's showtime!

The MoveMint presents...

An Open House + a FREE Skool Of Rap Workshop session + an Open Mic open to everyone.













The info is as per the e-leaflet here. Proceeds from this event will go to helping Women's Aid Organization.












I'll be performing in both events ;)

My family

If you ask me the one thing in my life that I cannot live without, it would be my family.

They play the biggest part in my playground ;)

Bite me!

I am probably the last person in the universe to give my non-professional review on the Twilight Saga (since I've just finished reading the final book - Breaking Dawn) which has been quite a phenomenon in the literature as well as the movie scenes after Harry Potter. Well, I've never really been a big fan of goth, dark, blood, morbid or anything that is in line with this category, let alone the supernaturals i.e. the vampires. Hhmmmm. But I must admit that the saga authored by Stephanie Meyer is really somewhat mind-warping. If you don't already know, the Twilight Saga is a story about Bella (a human, yea like us) who falls dangerously (and deadly) in love with Edward (the alluring vampire) and fight for their love till the very end. Apart from having a forbidden love, Bella also becomes a tightly BFF with a werewolf (Jacob who we find out in the final book was actually a shape-shifter and not a proper werewolf).

However negative most of the reviews by parents on the books (talk about human-vampire/supernaturals relationship) but it does teach us (or the young teens at least-being most of the readers) about the strength of love (how it always wins-don't worry, the books are not puke-inducing that way), how friendship overcomes everything and not to mention abstinence (Edward insists on no sex till they are married). And I definitely love the way how Meyer created gripping characters that you can easily identify with (I switched sides from the vampires to the shape-shifters after New Moon).

So yea, I can't wait for New Moon to come out this year! Check out the trailer:



It's a good book. Check the URL on my bookshelf. Go on, give it a try ;)

Will you gimme a HUG?

I was browsing through my Facebook today (as usual) and I stumbled upon my friend's status on the newsfeed: Adriana Saleh: ANNOUNCEMENT: Today is hug-an-Adry-day. Have YOU hugged yours yet?

Interesting, I thought. She's got a point there.

A hug. That's all we need today. With what's the earth being polluted day by day, crime rates increase tremendously every where, where kindness and unity in the human race are almost beyond reach, yea you know what I mean. A hug is priceless today. Not the swanky, sporty, expensive cars nor the LV bags collection in your wardrobe, just a nice, warm hug.

I came across to an article the other day, it says, "Your hug can do miracles because it has powerful bonding and healing qualities. This is because energy exchanges create an electromagnetic flow that can temporarily heal or at least bring someone into greater understanding."

And to add to that, a hug is a positive exchange of energy between two or more people and it could also make one feels warmth and safe. It provides solace and there’s a remedial feeling when you have someone hold you in their arms.

So go on, give a hug already ;)


*HUGS*

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Having a very good friend working in the media industry always gives me the opportunity to be one of the first(s) to watch box office movies; and mostly during its premier screenings ;) *grins*. So last night, I went to see Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince with that friend of mine (I didn't know Malaysia was the first few countries to screen the movie worldwide last night). When everyone asked me about my take on the movie today, I'd say "you gotta read the book for you to understand the movie". Although I must admit that there are few missing important bits from the book that were not shown in the movie but the amount of scenes being "movielized" are also not as bad ;) So, I'm not really complaining (or perhaps I don't really have any favourite bits or expectations from the book in particular). But anyways, I am very sure that a lot of people will have "movie blue balls" after watching this one --- only if you have not read the Deathly Hallows (which is the last book in the chronicles).

I say three stars out five for HP&THBP!

Lola

And that's the name of my guitar. She is a Yamaha F310P. Finally. My very own guitar. I grew up in a house full with music instruments, and an acoustic guitar is one of them. I remember watching my brother strum or pluck his acoustic guitar for at least two to three times a day. And when I was old enough to understand rhythm and melodies, I started to land my fingers on the guitar as well. Not too bad when you have others to teach you. After I think more than eight years being off guitar, the need to have one came into me again. So yea, here she is, Lola ;)

My Lola

Paintings Batch 001

Yea I do paint. But not professionally, really. My paintings are based on my mood. And since I was small, I’m never really good with colours. I always envied my older sisters since they’re very good mixing colours. But nonetheless, there’s nothing wrong from trying right? So here goes…

First Mandala (Oil pastels, crayons)

I was into Mandala in September 2008, just when I realized that I will never get back with my ex-boyfriend (someone whom I thought I was going to say “I do” to). Wholeness was all I ever wanted at the point of time. One can easily gets hooked in Mandala because of its flexibility.

Just a little definition on Mandala: Mandala represents wholeness which also can be seen as a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Complete (Acrylic)

I made this in November 2008, when that someone completed me. And so I thought.

Tyra & Me (Pencils 2B)

This one is my favourite and it is very recent as well. It was in May 2009 (yea, this year) when I eyed a black-coloured guitar in one of the music shops in Bukit Bintang. I so thought I was going to get her hence I named her Tyra straightaway. However, after getting feedbacks from my cousin and my brother, I decided to get a different model of guitar. I got myself a Yamaha F310P and she’s beige in colour, and so I named her Lola ;) Loving her to bits!

Unduk Ngadau 2004 (Acrylic)

My first painting in mid 2008. This one was really a trying-out painting, so you can see the colours are not properly mixed and blended. I actually copied the drawing from an actual photo of mine.

Unduk Ngadau is a beauty pageant held during the Harvest Festival in Sabah, Malaysia. The word comes from ‘Runduk Tadau’ which literally means ‘the girl crowned by sunlight’.

And this is the actual photo:

Just for the benefits of your doubt, yea, I won the crown ;)

Okay, more paintings to come in Paintings Batch 002!

Ladies First

Ladies First is a series initiated by The MoveMint @ Cloth & Clef in KL which features talented ladies in music in KL.

The next event will be held in Cloth & Clef on July 31, 2009. The confirmed line-ups are Prema Yin, Inch Chua, Ira and Echa (that’s me!), Kayda and Dewi Sulastri. Do check out their page on Facebook!

Re-liven my passion. Thanks to my mate Ira! ;)

Welcome to My Playground

Where my life is my playhouse.

And where the people all around me are my playmates.

Where music, arts and literature are my swingsets.