My Playground

I've moved!

2010-11-27T18:24:00.000-08:00

Yea I repeat, I've moved!

See ya there! ;)

Life

2010-09-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

Three major incidents happened to me and the people that I love, since my last entry in July. Okay I gotta put this in sequential order so you can get what I'm talking about;

Aug 27 - 31: First, my bf and I went to Bali to celebrate our first anniversary of dating! (Wow, we've been going out for a year now =D) I was so excited because twas my first time to Bali and I really, really wanted to go to Bali yayy!

Sept 4: Secondly, just few days after we got back from our Bali trip, I received a very, very devastating news from home, my uncle; my mom's youngest brother was admitted into the ICU. It was not longer than 24 hours after that, I got another call teling me that my uncle is gone. Gone. I didn't get to say goodbye to him. In fact, none of our family members back home did too. Everything happened too fast...

Sept 8: Thirdly, remember when I mentioned in my few posts ago about my bf joined a reality show called DiGi The Next Level? Where he had to be away for five-week shoot? Well, guess what? He won the competition! =D

There you go. Back to back of extreme joy and sadness. I didn't know what to feel at first or rather how to manage my feelings. I was exhilarated at one point but at another end, I just felt like locking up myself in the bedroom and cry my heart out because of the loss :'(

But I survived. Survived the emotional rollercoaster ride. A short yet long enough for me to learn a thing or two about life. A thing or two about life that would make me stronger to face another ride (who knows).

So what I learned is that; one needs to embrace unavoidable sorrow in order to understand (or appreciate) what true happiness means. It's the same thing with; one has to go through hardship before he/she could enjoy the harvest. Perhaps, this is the only way we can really appreciate life.

And no one ever say that life's going to be all rosy all the way. But hey, it's not going to be all gloomy all the way too. So, I believe the only thing to do is to live.

There is a common belief that growth requires suffering. One of the greatest causes of suffering is attachment. The more easily we can let go of the old and embrace the new, the more we can grow through joy rather than struggle.
- Sanaya Roman

***My uncle left us on Sept 5, 2010. Hemorrhagic dengue. RIP uncle::

Vamos Albiceleste!

2010-07-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yea as you can see the team that I've been supporting (and religiously following) for this World Cup is out from the tournament :'( Sad. Very sad. The Albiceleste lost against Germany at the quarter final last Sat. Read about this devastating story here.

Oh well. 2014 it is.

Find out more about Argentina here.

Vamos Albiceleste!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2010-06-29T02:29:00.000-07:00

OMG! OMG! OMG!

The first part of the finale will be in the cinema in November 19, 2010 while the second half will only be out on July 15, 2011. Read about it here.

The first teaser trailer:

And it's in 3D!

I can't wait!

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2010

2010-06-28T03:25:00.000-07:00

I did my second 10km run last Sunday at the KL Marathon 2010. I must say the experience was waaaay different than I had during the Borneo International Marathon in May this year. Probably because this time around there were more people AND I ran with my boyfriend for the first time! ;)

Me - Still trying to look at my best. The gun time was at 7AM!

With Mr. Runfool! ;)

With my colleague Nana and her friend! ;) They did the 21km.

Me - still trying to look all smiley despite the soreness!

While everyone was huffing and puffing to the finish line, a tragic incident happened at the 8th km around 1 hour into the race for 10km runners. A guy in his 20's had a seizure and passed away on his arrival to the hospital. Read about the story here.

May his soul rest in peace.

Since it was my first time running in the KL Marathon, I can't really comment on the organizer. However, I do feel that they should provide at least three drink stations for the 10km instead of just two (one at the 4th km and the second one was at the 7th). My time was 1:48 (unofficial).

Seriously, I need a proper training.

Next stop, Penang Bridge International Marathon? Hmmmm maybe.

FIFA World Cup 2010 fever

2010-06-10T01:37:00.001-07:00

Everyone is feeling it (unless you're from Mars).

Pic: World Cup themed cupcake from Bisou

See the complete schedule here.

Vamos Argentina! ;D

DiGi The Next Level

2010-06-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

It's a little overdue though I guess I've mentioned about it in one of my earlier blog posts; so here we go again... my boyfriend got selected for a DiGi-sponsored reality TV show called DiGi The Next Level! They just wrapped a 5-week shoot for the show which will be aired on NTV7 starting July 7, 2010 (hey it ryhmes ;p). Read more about it here.

I'm super-excited about it; not only because of the fact that the show will put Runfool one step ahead in the game but also because of my boyfriend is going to be on TV! Yay! ;)

Run fool!

Pre-arranged. By my boyfriend of course. Each bouquet was sent to my office on every Monday afternoon (for five weeks!) when he was locked away for the shoot. Awwwww ;')

Yoga

2010-06-08T01:13:00.001-07:00

Since I stopped going to yoga classes like a month ago, I've been practicing a lot from home through online yoga videos by Esther Ekhart. I like her. She's easy to follow. You can check out her videos here.

And most importantly, her cat does yoga too! =D

Check out Spookie (that's her cat's name) doing the cat pose!

Happy yoga!

Borneo International Marathon 2010

2010-05-07T23:35:00.000-07:00

Three reasons why I decided to do it;

1. My bf's new year resolution was to make me run 5km
2. The marathon was held in my hometown, so watta heck, I used that 10k route to school everyday
3. Signed up for the run with my bf. As simple as that.

I do admit that I can be very irritating-ly optimistic-ish sometimes. But only after the run I realized how I've overestimated my decision.

Reason #1. My bf's new year resolution was to make me run 5km
But I did a 10K instead. Ambitious. It wasn't easy for a first-timer like me. Plus, with no consistent training or what not. Luck was really on my side. Phew!

Reason #2. The marathon was held in my hometown, so watta heck, I used at least half of that 10k route to school everyday
Riiiiggghhhttt. While I was running (and walking most of the time), I realized my mom DROVE me to school using that road and NOT run.

Reason #3. Signed up for the run with my bf. As simple as that.
And he got selected for the reality TV show called DiGi The Next Level a week before we're supposed to go back to KK together. So he's now locked away for seven weeks for the shoot! Hence, I had to run alone.

Lesson learned.

We can only plan, but it's up to Him above to actually manouvere the plan.

Whatever it is, completing a 10k run makes me discover the one thing about myself --- determination. I admit, I felt like stopping at every KM, but no, I told myself to keep on going. Maybe because I knew that my mom actually woke up at 4.30 in the morning just to send me to the starting line (and actually waited for me at the finishing line); and maybe because I was thinking about my nephews and niece who knew that I was going to run in a marathon (and so I thought, what would they think if their auntie didn't finish the run), or maybe because, I didn't want to let my bf down. All of those maybes. Oh well. I thought, I've started this, so might as well be done with it.

And so I did.

That's my mom in the picture ;) We're at the finishing line.

It's done. With less complain, but much much pain. Ouch.

Read this: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Arts and wine

2010-04-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

Simply divine.

This masterpiece was born during *our wine and doodle session at home.

Quoted from the bits and pieces of our conversation during the session:

"Don't let the inner child of you go away, ever. It means hope."

"Just doodle. There's no right or wrong. This is our world."

Aaahh.

Wine and arts.

Simply divine.

*My boyfriend and I

What's up!

2010-04-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

If blogs have the ability to collect dust, mine qualifies to be one of them. I've abandoned this outlet for almost two months already. As much as I hate to admit it, but yea, here goes...I've been bogged down with work :S Was busy managing the preparation for the launch of Anlene Clinically Tested Four Weeks Campaign --- for its *BTL materials as well as the Website. All is done now but. And I've actually hopped on to another new digital campaign for a different Client. So yea. Gotta get this blog running before it becomes one of those furniture in the cyberspace (if there's such thing).

So what's up?

Few things happened in the past two months...
1. I joined Yoga classes. Heck, I'm turning 30 next year, so I guess it's about time to take my body seriously,
2. And took up running. I'm not so much of a runner as I grew up playing sports that involves a lot of people in a team. But yea, I'm doing it mainly to support my boyfriend's passion (and I actually signed up for the Borneo International Marathon in May with him, doing the 10KM). Madness, I know.
3. I cut my hair short-er (think Pink, the singer). Just for the fun of it. Nah, actually I was curious about how I'd look like with my hair super-short.
4. Did a bone health check at the launch of Anlene's new research study (the event that I talked about earlier). And it turned out that I scored -3.1. It simply means; I'm at risk of Osteoporosis. Gulp. Hence, the item #1 and 2 above.
5. (Succesfuly) organized a suprise birthday party for my boyfriend on April 3. Till today, he's still buzzing from that night ;)
6. Been off coffee for almost 30 days now (and counting)
7. Gradually cutting down rice and beer at the same time (not easy).
8. I haven't been painting, let alone touch my painting stuff :(
9. My boyfriend went for the audition for DiGi The Next Level. Call me a kiasu girlfriend, but I'm super-confident that he's going to get in!
10. And last but not least, booked a holiday to Bali for the coming August! ( I can't wait!) ;)

Yepp, that summed up my happenings in the past two months. I just hope I'd be able to blog more in details soon. I just don't like summarizing stuff. Simply.

Peace.

*Below the line

The tigers need our help!

2010-02-18T22:46:00.000-08:00

60 years ago, our Malayan Tiger population numbered 3, 000. Today, it's barely 500.

Don't let this year be the last year of the Tiger. Let us help save the tiger by signing up here.

Pledge your support now.

Valentine's Day

2010-02-18T02:35:00.000-08:00

It's a universal day of celebrating love and affection between lovers. And as always, I'm always super-thrilled with the celebration ;)

Now this post is not going to be about how I spent my Valentine's day with my amazing boyfriend (though yea, we did have a mighty good time on Valentine's day!), but this post is more about finding the root of why I still believe in love --- in this oh-so-cruel world that we're living in today.

An obvious truth (or finding):

This is a portrait of my mom. A picture of which she sent to my dad after they just got married...

And this is what she wrote at the back of the photo;

I.T.A.L.Y = I Trust And Love You
M.A.L.A.Y.A = May Angel Look After You Always

Aaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww!!! ;) I remember my siblings and I always had a joyful laughs everytime we see this pic --- still do, actually (thanks to my eldest sis who actually scanned and posted this photo on her Fb).

After more than 40 years of being together (of course, they've had their own roller-coaster ride throughout the years), my parents are still together now, but. They've shared their ups and downs together, I've seen. Yet, as they get older and grey, the relationship becomes closer and tighter with each other. All because of love.

Heh, twas not really that difficult to dig the root of the case ey! ;)

All you need is love!

Happy Valentine's day peeps. Wish you all the love in the world.

Chinese New Year

2010-02-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

For the first time in my working years, I had to experience the lion dancers visiting my workplace ---the office, today. After three days off work (due to the Chinese New Year hols), our office re-opened today. Hence, we welcome the Lunar year with a lion dance perfomance ;)

The lion --- entering our office

He's now placing the good luck coin on my desk --- he's so cute! ;)

Reaching for the "ang pow" and the lettuce!

The good luck coin that was placed on my desk ;)

Call me a small kid, but I can really get over-excited over this kinda thing, still ;)

Rebak Island Resort

2010-02-02T23:23:00.000-08:00

Yes! I'm a beach holiday-sucker ;) The one thing that I've begun to develop eversince I lived away from home (where the nice beaches are).

Last weekend, my colleague and I went to Rebak Island Resort, Langkawi, an exclusive resort with its own jetty and boats to the from the main land to the island and back. The distant from the airport to the jetty is about 5 minutes and it took us 15 minutes of a boat ride to the resort. It's a rather quiet resort I must say (they only have about 80+ rooms/villa). It's a perfect place for those who loves a quiet holiday --- the only water activities that they have are snorkeling and kayaking. Serious. So you can imagine the rest of your holiday would be, sun bathing, swim (if you can, cos I can't), cycling around the resort, monitar lizard watching (which was not very appealing to me because I grew up in a house where monitor lizards were crawling like nobody's business on the yard---okay maybe I was exaggerating but yea, they're nothing extraordinary to me. Unless it's komodo or something), eat, drink (I mean, like a lot of alcoholic drinks --- it's Langkawi okay!) and sleep.

We stayed in a two bedroom villa --- an awesome two bedroom villa! Only a little drawback, the room was not sound-proof! Bleh. For two nights in a row we got called up by the hotel receptionist telling us that the guests below our room were complaining because they heard noise came from the room above. Yea, the first night was the sound of Channel V on TV and the second night was because they could hear my colleague and I were talking. Whatever. The good food and the friendly staffs of the resort compensated it all :)

But yea, it was a good weekend getaway overall :)

My year in status

2010-01-31T20:39:00.000-08:00

I saw this app. on Fb on a friend's wall. Thought it's cool ;)

Rock me!

2010-01-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry, I can't help it. I'm so in love with my new perfume by Anna Sui --- Rock me! Sigh. Loving the guitar-shaped bottle (and the sweet smell) to bits!

“Rock and roll is so much a part of my life that I wanted to capture its energy, independence, and playfulness in a fragrance that would let every girl be her own rock star.”- Anna Sui

As I said, I can't help it.

Beyawesome.

Note: The picture was taken by my colleague at Port Langkasuka in Langkawi, today.

Why I like It Longer?

2010-01-25T19:06:00.000-08:00

The world today is not a safe place. We hear this everywhere, everyday.

Everyone's getting meaner. Aggresive. Competitive.

Everyone wants to be a winner.

The Revolutionist Vs The Intellectual

The Serious Vs The Playful

Qwerty Vs Touchscreen

Every little thing matters; mail to mail, phone to phone, browser to browser, and thumb stroke to touch-tap.

So what's the buzz all about?

...

The world today is not a safe place.

That's why I need a reliable companion.

A companion that's not just tough but smart, wide yet sexy, rough yet classy.

A companion that is simply...longer.

Yes, size does matter. Still.

...

The LG Chocolate phone (BL40).

Some say it's super.

I call it different.

That's why I like it longer.

My birthday

2010-01-15T23:21:00.000-08:00

On the 7th of January, 1981.

And as you get older, the birthday presents that you receive will somehow be more meaningful or "connected" to you. One of the birthday presents that I got this year is an oil painting starter kit. It's from my workmates.

It's my first time to use oils as a medium and I must say the experience is way different than acrylic, crayons and watercolours;

It's still a WIP. I hope I'd be able to define the objects better to finish it.

Ipoh mali, Ipoh, Ipoh mali!

2010-01-15T06:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!! ;)

It's never too late to wish a happy new year to everyone when we're still in January, no? Not like we have four seasons to really differenciate that ;) So what's up 2010!

Anyway, visited my boyfriend's hometown in Ipoh on the second day of January. It was about three hours long drive up North from where we live. Just like any other places in Malaysia, the scenary of the road trip would mostly be oil palm plantations, kampung houses (if you go through the small roads), fruits stalls at the side of the road, and the likes. It's the second time we went up North in the past three months; again I was disturbed by the sight of the blasted limestone hills and some other massive quarrying work going around it. Yea call me a development-pooper, but I seriously could hear the hills crying for help everytime I pass them by. Sigh. Anyhoo, our first stop in Perak was Teluk Intan (was known as Teluk Anson during the British era). My boyfriend grew up in Teluk Intan and he was so excited to show me around ;) We didn't spend that long in that little nice town though, but I managed to see the famous "leaning tower of Teluk Intan". I thought it was a really cute building; a popular giant short and fat tower--- a building with attitude ;)

We headed to Ipoh after the short trip at Teluk Intan. We took the small road to Ipoh and again, we discovered another mild yet depressing somewhat like a natural disaster---we saw at least nine porcupines dead splat on the road :( They either going out from the oil palm plantations (and tried to cross the road with revving cars) or into. Not really the scene that you would want any below 10s to see. It's just so sad.

We reached my boyfriend's parents' house in Ipoh at lunch time. We were welcomed by a home cook lunch meal by my boyfriend's mom, it was delicious indeed! Since it was only a night trip, we had to leave for our next place to visit just after tea time.

Our next destination was Kellie's Castle. It's located in Batu Gajah; about 20-mins drive from Ipoh. I first learnt to know about Kellie's Castle from Harmony Silk Factory a fiction written by Tash Aw. Then I saw another review in Travel 360 magazine about 10 scariest places to visit in Asia (or something like that). Well, maybe I've set my mind that the place is freaky but I thought that the mansion is just too "cold" to be somewhat standing in the middle of nowhere. Take away the highway and the small entrance ticket counter below the castle, the building is just so... "alone".

Kellie's Castle was conceptualised and built by William Kellie Smith, a Scotsman who arrived in Malaya in 1890 and made a fortune through the mining industry (of which were booming back then). With the fortune made, he then married his wife in Scotland, and moved back to Malaya after. Only after the second child Smith intended to expand his mansion and build the castle. Smith chose only the best bricks and tiles for the castle, all imported; and he even (almost) had the first bucket lift in Malaya in his castle. So to cut long story short, the history says that the castle is never completed due to the Spanish flu outbreak from Europe to Asia killing most of the workers and the death of Smith himself due to pneumonia during his visit to Portugal in 1926. And so the grieving wife packed her bags and left the castle unfinished, for her homeland.

...

The castle stands still and strong 'till now. The feeling was just different when you're in the abandoned castle. It's almost as if you feel the presence of the past. I tried not to let silence take over any second when we were there. I tried to catch up with the other visitors (although my boyfriend was with me too) but the least I did was to walk and move at the same pace as the other visitors so we won't be left alone behind. Or will you ever be alone in the castle?

...

Oh well! Other than the limestone hills, Ipoh is also well known for its food! So the next day, we went on a food hunt around Ipoh town! We had the chicken rice and the famous Nam Heong original Ipoh white coffee. They're not only great, but they're cheap too! Dangs! Wished could extend the trip longer since I have yet to try the famous hor fun and the snow beer! But time was not on our side. Monday was approaching. Bleh.

The trip ended on a rainy Sunday evening.

Pisau Cukur

2009-11-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

Yea it was the first Malay movie I watched in the cinema after Jurassic Park 1(!). Yes, that long. Not that I don't support the local talents/industry or what not, but I guess I've fallen into the group of which stereotyping the quality of our local movies today (sad); being lame and...just having poor quality.

HOWEVER, Pisau Cukur gave me a different watching experience altogether (perhaps because I know one of the leading actors in the movie matter-of-factly). But no. Watching Pisau Cukur is like watching any of those American *chick flicks with familiar faces i.e. House Bunny, Legally Blond, Shopaholic, to name a few. Those movies are predictable yet they got you to stay back and watch 'till the end (gotta be biased here 'cos I do watch these kinda movies okay).

Here goes...

Pisau Cukur is a movie about two young girls whose typically dreams are to be married with rich (old) men i.e. Datuk, Tan Sri, etc. Unsatisfied with their mundane lives on land, they went for a holiday cruise instead; one (Bella) hoping to find that "Prince Charming" on the ship and the other one (Intan)...well, she just wanted to go for a holiday cruise (since it was a sponsored vacay). Blah, blah, blah, Bella finally met the prince charming (Datuk Hisham) on the cruise but the brief relationship was disapproved by his sister (Yasmin Yusuff), Bella got frustrated and realized that she doesn't need a rich man for a promising future of her (unborn) children; and at the same time met Faqir, an average Joe on the same ship who's like madly into her after seeing her from a TV show (or something like that). And while all these drama going on, Intan on the other hand was busy assisting a handsome private investigator (Ari) to solve a murder case of the infamous womanizer (Datuk Zakaria) who was also happened to be holiday-ing on the same ship with his family (three wives and two kids). Bleh.

Yea so that's the storyline. Simple, yet I really like the way the filming was done, the blending of the colours, the setting and the casting; for the first time I think they've done it right. Oh it's like Mamma Mia the movie. If Mamma Mia has Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth; Pisau Cukur has Dato Rahim Razali, Khatijah Tan and Eizlan Yussof.

Fun. Go and watch it. It's worth watching. Ignore the judgmental voices in you for once.

*I'm still against using this term to address girls/women

Oktoberfest @1U

2009-11-02T02:40:00.001-08:00

Yea I know.

It's been a month since my last entry. Been really tight up with work and life (guess I'm still adjusting myself to a new routine i.e. being in a relationship and all). Not that I'm complaining, but I tend to express myself more when I was single (sobs). So since I have *Buh-bubs in my life, I'm slowly shifting my attention to other things---a more like doing-things together kinda things. Bleh.

That aside, One Utama had its regular Oktoberfest celebration on Oct 29-31. I was a first-timer to this event although I've been hearing stuff like, "you can get beers at RM1 per mug and stuff" from friends since forever. So this year, I **went all prepared for the RM1 beers, only to found out that the promo only applicable to OneCard members. And yea true, you could get beers at RM1 (2 50 cents coin) per bottle BUT it's limited to per bottle per member per day. Bluweks. Again, I'm not complaining here because for three-days we had beers like enough to feed the whole Sabah---with or without that promo.

Yea so the whole whacking beer thing was fun BUT the most exciting thing of all is, I won a Sony Ericksson handphone from a not-beer-drinking competition! Well yea the concept is as similar as the "wet t-shirt" competition, but I didn't get wet (phew) and only my opponent did (poor girl). It was a simple game i.e. we had to choose four bottles of opened beers and if we get it right, we get to pour it onto the other player. The catch was, we were told to stand far from the table of beers---so that we couldn't really see. Guess I didn't catch that because I could sense all the opened bottles from far. I call it a beer-drinker sense ;p

So yea, I won a new handphone.

Other than a lot of (imported) beers and also my newly won handphone, there were other acts as well i.e. Prema Yin, John's Mistress, ***Superbar, etc. Oh and yea, how could I forget, those silly "German" dancers. Omg. Still trying to get over them. Horrendous.

Peace.

*My bf
**I went because my bf's band was performing for the whole three-day ;)
***Buh-bubs' band

Superbar: Join them at Facebook-Superbar

Ngaaaaaaahhh ;)

Paintings Batch 002

2009-09-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

It's Friday. And about time for me to update my playground.

Some paintings which I've done so far from the last batch...

Adam & Eve (Acrylic, oil pastels) - June/July 2009
My bedroom feature wall is just too empty and cold; and so I thought it could use a little bit of colours. Hence, Adam & Eve.

***I actually called my sister up to ask "who actually ate the apple?" LOL.

Twisted (Acrylic, oil pastels) - Aug 2009
Came up with this one just after I woke up from my usual Sunday nap some time back in early Aug (or end of July?). The colourful swirls show how my mind was twisted over things. Pleasant things that is ;) I still remember when Twisted was still a WIP, most of the peeps who came over to my place gave few comments like; are those lollipops? or the colours look alive, what did you use? or even, can I have this? ;)

Passion (Water colour, oil pastels) - Sept 2009
Inspired by my boyfriend (yes, boyfriend). He loves running---or anything that has got to do with it. He's setting up his own running portal now, fyi. Yea to that extend. Hence, Passion.

I wanted to show a little bit of movement; speed. But yea, maybe I could add more stuff in this.

***It's good to be in love***

;)))

You know you're in love when you're waaay UP there!

2009-08-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

Go and watch it. I'm not going to blog about the movie because a blog post can never justify how good the movie is ;)

But one word to summarize it; LOVED ;)

And it'll definitely going to be one of those movies that I'm going to watch again and again and again...

Love-kun

2009-08-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been a while since I made my last post (yea it's been a week or so). Well, I was quite tight up with stuff that's been happening around me i.e. family, change of workplace, etc. But yea, all is good now. Went home to visit my dad for a week, I've just started work at the new workplace---things ARE picking up---slowly but surely ;)

Anyhoo, as I was browsing through my normal stuff (horoscopes, news, entertainment, etc.) on Yahoo today, I stumbled upon this one:

His name is "Love-kun" ;) He's a three-day-old long-coated male chihuahua with a heart-shaped pattern on his coat. Love-kun was born on August 3, 2009 as a young brother of "Heart-kun" which also has same marks. This is him sleeping at Pucchin Dog's shop in Odate, northern Japan August 6, 2009. Awwwwwwwwwww! He's so adorable.

Even the pooches are telling us how important love is today!

Love 'em pooches! ;)

Helen Saphiro

2009-07-29T03:05:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-07-27T20:50:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-27T00:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-23T23:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-07-22T04:23:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-22T02:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-20T02:44:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-07-17T02:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-15T03:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-15T02:03:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-15T01:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-15T01:54:00.001-07:00

Where my life is my playhouse.

And where the people all around me are my playmates.

Where music, arts and literature are my swingsets.