A Great Week - Guinness, Ming Room & Vila Manja

This has been a great week!

Monday started and ended without a hitch.

Tuesday was the Guinness St. Patrick’s Day media launch so the Beer Girls were partying with the client at Pulse Ultra Club and having free flow of Guinness Draught.

Wednesday was a belated CNY dinner with the clients at Ming Room where we had yummy shrimp in mango sauce, fried soft shell crab, Monk Jump Over The Wall, cod fish, sucking pig and more.

Thursday had no plans so it was a good chill out day and night.

And today, Friday, the Company Trip Organizing Committee are only working half day so we can spend the other half at a spa! We’re going to Vila Manja for 5 ½ hours of wraps, steams, soaks, rubs and massages. We’ve booked the place for ourselves to have a Manja Indulgence Party! And the best part is that it’s paid for by the company as a reward for planning the company trip!

Next week, is going to be hell at work. But it’s been a fantastic week so I really can’t complain.

I’m off to the spa. Have a good weekend everyone!

Still on the Topic of Shoes

Barbie Doll Lola bought a book titled ‘Shoe Addicts Anonymous’ at the MPH book sale today! I’m really not the only one who’s this passionate about shoes. Japanese Pornstar April tells me that I’m more obvious about it whereas everyone else are still ‘in the closet’.

Well, Sin Cyn and I are still dreaming about a walk in shoe closet. I wonder how long and what it’ll take for us to achieve this.

MPH Sale, Bruce Lee & Shoes

The MPH sale is on!

There’s a 10% discount store wide for non-members. Members get 15% off. There’s also a Members’ Corner where selected titles are going from 30% - 40% discount. And for only 3 days (I think it’s today, tomorrow and Friday), MPH members get a further 5% discount on top of whatever discounts which they get based on the books they choose.

Sin Cyn and I were at the MPH at 1U at lunch today and we bought books. But of course … it’s hard to walk into a book shop and not walk out with any books. In my case, it was 3 books. I bought these:

- The Dragon and The Tiger

- Bruce Lee Fighting Spirit

- A Passion for Shoes

The first 2 is because I LOVE Bruce Lee! He’s really The Man. And I maintain that his death is a conspiracy. Maybe I can pick up some Jeet Kun Do tips and carry on his tradition. I love Bruce Lee! So intense. So powerful. So stylish. So full of character. So deep. Okay I’m swooning.

The other thing that makes me swoon are shoes, as it is with half of the earth’s population who don’t live in the outback. Before stepping into MPH, Sin Cyn and I were at Nine West because they too were having a sale. 50% off 30 different styles of shoes, out of which I liked about 8 of them. But anyway Sin Cyn and I made a pact. We’re not allowed to buy any more shoes till April 2008! So we stuck to the pact!

I guess buying a book about shoes is some sort of consolation. It’s a nice book though! It’s small and has gorgeous shoes in it and it explains why women go mad about shoes and why women need that many pairs. It’s a great way to justify to ourselves. Even though we know they are true, we sometimes need someone else to remind us. This is a great book for girls to buy for their boyfriends and husbands in an attempt to make them understand women’s relationship with shoes.

Books and shoes. I don’t really shop but shopping for these 2 items do make me loose track of time.

It’s not too bad ….. at I don’t have a weakness for jewelery!

Ashton The Lucky CNY Rat of 2008

I started off the CNY holidays trying to see how many people I could get to take a photo with Ashton, my rat, citing that it would bring good luck to them for the year. It is after all the year of the rat.

I targeted 20 people during the 15 days of CNY. However, it reached 20 photos even before the end of the first week of CNY! Here are some of the pics.

There are so many more but I cant be asked to load them. I’ve almost 50 pics!

Isn’t Ashton a darling?

May he and the Rat bring us good luck this year!

Happy Chap Goh Mei

It’s Chap Goh Mei, the last day of the 15 days CNY festival. According to tradition, single girls were supposed to throw mandarin oranges into the river and the men who pick them up at the other end will become their suitors.

Of course these days, there are no more clean rivers and any orange thrown into the river will probably melt due to the pollutants in the river. And if a strange guy approaches you by the river banks, it’s much safer to srpay pepper spray into his eyes and clobber him with your steering lock.

Anyway, just for fun several years ago, a few girl friends and I did this in the river in SS2 where Marsupial used to live. Well it was more of a monsoon drain rather than river but we didn’t know where else to go. So any flowing river source would do.

Sue Ann, Wendy and I all lobbed oranges in while yelling “Good in bed!” “Tall!” “Intelligent!” “Rich!” “Kind!” “Charismatic!”……

Call it coincidence but Sue Ann now has a 6 month year old daughter, Wendy is married and trying for a kid and I’m getting married in October!

Good luck Slutty Cheryl & Pril April!

Deciding on Wedding Venues and Wanting Jimmy Choo Shoes

And talking about shoes, guess who my mum wants to invite to my wedding? Dato Jimmy Choo! Hahaha! I don’t think he’ll come though. Isn’t he still based in London? Since my mum has move to the Middle East in the last one year plus or so ago, I don’t think they’ve been in contact much. She’s also invited a host of other designers, datuks, datins, editors and ambassadors!

And I was hoping that my wedding will be a small, quiet, low key event.

The Chinese wedding dinner will be at Flower Drum, a Tai Thong Group Restaurant. There will be 400 guests and there will be many people I don’t know but will be my family after that night. It’s a pretty high end place and is not too Chinese-y for a Chinese restaurant, thanks goodness!

So the Chinese wedding banquet is settled but I’m still trying to find a good location for my cocktail wedding.

It was stressful enough trying to find a venue which has exquisite food, impeccably service staff, in a gorgeous location, has an indoor area as weather contingency and has ample parking. Now I’ve got high profile people attending the wedding. Looks like the pressure is on and I’ve gotta up the ante in my expectation of a venue.

Courtyard Garden is extremely pretty and will need very little décor to create the ambience I’m looking for. The restaurant is surrounded by plants, has a slightly elevated wooden deck which will be a great area to place the band and there’s even a small pond with koi in them. However, the people I spoke to were passive, unhelpful, slow, uninspired and had a look like “I really can’t be bothered and I don’t want your business”.

Bijou is really pretty too. It has a white and pink theme and sweet flowers here and there. They also have a small outdoor garden for al fresco dining. But Bijou can only seat 80 guests. And I’m looking at 100 guests. And they’re slow coming back to me with the menu. The previous manager in charge, Amy, was really nice but she’s been transferred to the HQ. The guy replacing her is more gruff and merely said that they were busy and they can only provide the menu in the following week.

Jarred & Rawlin’s (Damansara Heights branch) isn’t that pretty when compared to Courtyard and Bijou. However, their staff is excellent! I’ve been talking to this manager, Kumar who talked me through what they can do for the wedding. I commented that the area isn’t very pretty and he suggested that I go over again in March when they are having 2 weddings so that I can look at the set up. Poor Kumar was ill in the last few days but he still called me to apologize that the menu was late and in the end got his chef to do it up and fax it to me on his behalf.

I’ve short listed the 3 locations above. So far I’m leaning toward J&R as their menu is excellent and so is their service. I just need to see how much more the place needs to be dressed up for it to be truly magical.

Oh and Dato Jimmy Choo, Uncle Jimmy, if you are indeed coming for my wedding, can I have 2 pairs of shoes as my ang pau? I know that you’ve sold off your retail Jimmy Choo’s but Jimmy Choo Couture Shoes would be even better! Hehehe! Thanks!

Nose - Really Bad Quality Shoes

After the crazy shoe shopping yesterday which made me so happy and excited, of course I wanted to wear at least one pair of them to work today!

I did and when I got to work, my shoes were making clackity sounds. Well, one side of it anyway. I look off the shoe, inspected the heel and as suspected, the little black rubbery bit at the bottom of the heel came off. This is one of the most common problems with shoes.

I know that Vincci and Nose shoes are the buy-and-throw-away type of shoes but it should last for at least more than one day! Slutty Cheryl and I were just saying that the quality of Nose shoes are slightly better than the quality of Vincci shoes!

I called them up to complain. They merely said that I can bring the shoe back and they won’t replace it but will send it to their workshop instead and it will take 2 weeks to repair! It’s a RM55 pair of shoes. Is it really worth the hassle of going to 1U, finding parking, dropping it off then taking the effort to go there again to pick it up?

I’m disappointed in Nose. Even if their shoes are not that durable, they should not break at the first wear. And even if they do, they should replace the shoe and not inconvenience the customer.

Nose. Another brand I’m not happy with.

Crazy Shoe Shopping - Slutty Cheryl's Fault

It happened again and this time it’s Slutty Cheryl’s fault!

The Beer Team girls went for lunch at 1U today to buy the Guinness and Tiger CNY packing which we designed. Because we had such a quick lunch, we decided to walk around a while before going to Giant to buy the packaging. Slutty Cheryl said she needed to go to Nose to look for a shoe so we all tagged along. And while we were waiting, we tried on a few pairs which turned to a dozen pairs. Out of which Cheryl bought 1, Sin Cyn bought 2 and I bought 3! And it’s all Slutty Cheryl’s fault!

It’s not too bad a I guess since the last time I bought shoes was in Singapore during Christmas.

And before that was at the Wondermomo sale.

So we brought our beer and shoes back to the office.

And laid the shoes out all prettily and people came to try and guess which shoe belonged to whom!

And everyone wanted to try the pretty shoes.

Michelle Who Stays On The Sea Shore trying to balance on one of Sin Cyn’s peep toe dark green high heel shoes.

And Slutty Cheryl doing her thing in her bright green high heel shoes.

Shoes. It’s such an obsession. We still blame you Slutty Cheryl. Now our ang pau money is all gone!

But lovely green shoes by the way!

Happy Birthday Lim Kit Siang!

Now that Lim Kit Siang is a ‘friend’ on my Facebook, I know that it’s his birthday! Happy birthday Uncle Lim!

And now that we’re ‘friends’, I’ve been reading his blog and he seems to have so many supporters. And they’re all really passionate and ready to give their time and money to DAP.

Among my peers, most of us have been quite blasé about Malaysian politics. That is, until lately. I’m not sure if it’s due to our age that we feel we’re adults now and should excursive or right to vote. Or because we know BN is screwing things up. Or because the ethnic minorities are feeling more discrimination than usual.

No one I know is going to vote for BN in the coming elections on 8th March 2008. The general sentiment is to vote for anyone but BN so that they do not get 2/3 majority. While they will still win due to certain things which they do, a lot of people are trying not to let them win as much as they’re used to.

BN needs to know that they have slacked and that the rakyat knows it too. Sometimes their slacking off is so apparent, it’s laughable. But unfortunately that's our country for you.

I don’t know much about Malaysian politics but I’m starting to learn more.

And it all started by me petting Lim Kit Siang’s Fluff Friend!

I petted Lim Kit Siang's Fluff Friend

The Monday morning WIP meetings have resumed after the CNY holidays much to the frustration of the account management department.

So I woke up early, went for the meeting which lasted all of 10 minutes, laughed at some of Boobster’s clubbing stories from over the weekend and then I checked my Facebook.

There was a message from one Barry (surname omitted) which is not in my list of friends and neither is he someone I know. His message was simply “You're certainly hot and lovely!”. Which is a compliment I guess but a bit scary coming from a complete stranger so I checked out his profile. He’s 47 years old, is married and is interested in men and women. That’s a bit worrying! But he’s got pics up of his wife and sons with nice comments about them. Never mind. I shall ignore this one.

Anyway I was looking at his profile and he’s got Lim Kit Siang on his friends list. Yes it’s the same Lim Kit Siang as in the politician from DAP.

So I went to check out Kit Siang’s profile. And guess what? He’s got a Fluff Friend! So cute! I can just picture an old man sitting in front of this computer petting his fluff friend. That’s totally adorable! It’s a puppog called Frontbench. I petted Frontbench. I’m going to introduce Billy to Frontbench and let them play together.

Ad Exec's RM54k Wedding Proposal

By now, everyone in Malaysia who’s picked up The Star today would know about an advertising executive’s marriage proposal to his girlfriend using a billboard on the LDP. And for those who didn’t read it, someone or other around you would have talked about it. If you’ve not read it, full story here.

The first thing many guys are feeling right now is anger. “Spoilt the market! How do I top that now with my girlfriend?!” Hahaha!

I don’t know how the girls are feeling but personally, if a guy were to propose to me that way, I’ll KICK his ASS! How can u spend RM40,000 on the billboard and only RM14,000 on the ring?!!

I’d much rather a RM54,000 diamond ring and just a sweet and simple proposal. Or a RM14,000 ring and spend RM50,000 on something less foo-foo, like a down payment on a house?

Well, in this guy’s case, his dad owns the billboard company and it’s likely he didn’t have to pay for the rental of the billboard. And possibly the diamond too? An AE doesn’t exactly earn tones of money. So guys out there, you don’t need to wonder how an advertising exec from Grey Worldwide is able to afford a RM54,000 proposal. He’s got help from daddy to kick start his marriage.

Even if the boy’s family is rich, does the couple really need the publicity especially since they’re both quite young? He’s 26 and she’s 24. I’m sure the press would now also like to cover their wedding planning, their wedding and worst of all, their marriage too, to see if the couple makes it. And isn’t publicity and paparazzi the one thing that Hollywood couples cite as being the reason for the breakdown of their marriage?

I guess I’m just practical. I feel proposals should be sweet and romantic and have a personal touch. It’s not something to be shared with the whole world. And there’s a lot a few tens of thousands can do besides communicating a few words across to your future bride and the rest of the world.

I wish the 2 of them all the best. It will be interesting to see their marriage life unfold especially since they’ll be quite famous after this and there would be enough news coverage to update us all.

CNY 8th Day Hokkien Festival

I’ve clarified with the older folks at the 8^th day of CNY festival regarding the story of why the Hokkien people have a special prayer. It seems like the Hokkiens were being persecuted in China but no one seems to be able to tell me by whom. But anyway they ran away and hid in the forest where there are a lot of sugarcanes. So that’s what they ate, drank and survived on until they were able to defeat the enemy and come out of the forest on the 8^th day of CNY.

Thus on the 8^th day of CNY, Hokkiens will pray to Theen Kong which is one of the Chinese Gods and offer prayers, food and sugar cane. And if one can afford it, there’s usually a whole roasted pig too.

One other surprising thing I found out is that the overseas Chinese (ie those who have immigrated overseas about 3 generations ago like the Malaysian Chinese) uphold the Chinese traditions more than the Chinese in China. This is because many Chinese traditions and festivals were abolished during the time where Communism was at the most extreme as it was thought off to be a waste of time and money. The people should be working hard and giving all their resources to the government instead. And due to that, the Chinese in China who do know about traditions have passed on and the younger generations do not know about it at all.

So in some way, being as banana as I am, I may be more Chinese than mainland Chinese!

Here are some pics from the ceremony last night.

I learnt about the festival and being Chinese. And anything with fire and roasted pork is bound to be a good event!

Money From the Sky

I was chilling out outdoors when I saw bits of paper falling from the sky. It was different coloured rectangle shaped paper. Then I realized it was money! So I ran onto the road and grabbed at the air. Then I crouched on the ground and gathered up all the paper which was piling up on the road. I had armfuls of RM100 notes when ….. I woke up.

Dammit. That was a nice dream. Anyway this should mean that lots of money is coming my way. Yay!

Happy Belated Birthday, Happy Valentines Day and Happy Hokkien Chinese New Year

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

And Happy Belated Birthday too! Yesterday was Yan Yat (Peole’s Day) meaning it’s everyone’s birthday. And since this is a Chinese belief, does it only apply to all the Chinese people in the world?

Most people have birthdays according to the Gregorian calendar. However, once Yan Yat comes along, an extra day gets added to that. This means I was 31 years old as of 1^st Feb but as of yesterday, I’m 32 years old. I don’t understand the concept but then again I don’t understand a lot of things Chinese.

I’m so not Chinese. I’m a typical banana but I have no issues with it. I was brought up speaking English at home. I even spoke English to my grand mother and relatives of that generation. English is the most important language for me in the world I live in, in terns of the business world as well as my social circle. I know enough Mandarin and Cantonese to order food, ask for directions as well as to tell the masseuse when to use more strength or when to ease off. So that level of Chinese language comprehension is sufficient for me.

However, I am now marrying into a family which is a bit more traditional than what I’m used to. While everyone understands English perfectly well, it’s quite normal for them to sit though and entire meal conversing in Cantonese. I may understand most of what they are talking about but engaging in conversation in Cantonese is tough for me. I’ll have to think of what I want to say, in English, naturally, then translate it to Cantonese in my head before speaking out the words. So by the time I do that, they have moved on to another topic of conversation. So I mainly sit there and smile or ask Paul what they mean by a certain phrase.

But I am trying to be more Chinese in order to understand the in-laws and their side of the family more. In fact, when I was at Borders yesterday, I picked up 3 different books about the origins of Chinese Culture and the meanings of Chinese dishes.

They are written in English and even have comics of the olden Chinese people to help narrate the story and get the Chinese morals across to the non-Chinese people aka Caucasians and bananas like me who live in a western world but would like to know more about Chinese history and culture.

I’ve probably learnt more about the Chinese culture in the last few months than in the last few years since Paul and I announced our engagement and I’ve gotten more involved in Paul’s family and extended family too.

Like I never knew there was such a thing like Yan Yat. While I knew that my Chinese age is one year older than my English age, I didn’t know that the additional year gets added on during Yan Yat.

And while I knew that the Hokkien people celebrate Chinese New Year today (the 8^th day of Chinese New Year), I’ve never experienced it for myself. But I’ll get to today because Paul’s mother’s sister’s husband is Hokkien and they do the full ceremony every 8^th day of CNY. Paul's family and extended family are quite involved in each other's lives as are most Chinese families. It will probably be an eye opener for me but more than anything else, I’m there for the whole roasted pig which is a must at this ceremony.

And it’s also Valentines Day. And as western as I am, I no longer celebrate V Day. I used to when I was much younger and feel a need to comply and do the V Day thing. But as I get older, I don’t need it anymore. Paying triple the price for flowers and a meal makes me or my partner just plan stupid and gullible. For the extra money spent, we can have 2 additional meals or go to a much nicer restaurant at any other day.

So Happy Belated Birthday, Happy Valentines Day and Happy Hokkien Chinese New Year everyone!

Crappy Food at Thai Express

Michelle Who Stays on the Sea Shore, Sin Cyn and I had about the WORST meal we could every remember at lunch today!

We went to the Curve as we each had various things to do. Sin Cyn wanted something spicy so we settled on Thai Express at the Eastern Courtyard of the Curve.

When we sat down, we noticed that the menu has changed and the price increased slightly. But we remembered that food was good the last few times we dined there albeit that was more than 6 months ago. So we ordered anyway.

Sin Cyn & I had the phad thai and Shell has tang hoon in tom yum soup. We order fish cakes to share and each had a iced lemongrass drink.

The first thing which alerted us to something being wrong was the first sip of the lemon grass drink. It was so artificial, watery and definitely from cordial. When our phad thais arrived, one plate had a lot more noodles than the other so Sin Cyn and I had to apportioned it among ourselves. Shell’s soup was watery and didn’t taste like tom yum. And after the main course arrived, the fish cakes were brought to our table which was another disappointment. It was soft and lumpy and all we tasted was flour instead of fish.

And to top it all off, our meal cost is RM85! That’s really expensive for really crap food!

We’re writing Thai Express off our makan places from now on.

Happy 29th Birthday Marsupial

Marsupial turned 29 yesterday and we celebrated with drinks at Pulse Ultra Club. Yes I went clubbing on a Tuesday and in the city too. Clubbing till late on a working weekday night was the norm up to about a year ago before my retirement from the clubbing scene. But it’s all good, for my Marsupial and for the band. We love the band, Common Culture, whose band members are from all over the world from London to Trinidad to South Africa. They really know how to rock the crowd and for once, the people were cheering for the band to come on instead of the DJ. And they pay good R&B and Hip Hop which is what Marsupial and I love.

We may have known each other for only 6 years but it seems like we go way back. We’ve had great times together and seen each other through a few phases in life. We’ve laughed, clubbed, puked, pondered, pushed, hugged, partied, smoked, stoned, danced, shouted, challenged and drove each other. We may not see each other as we did before but I know he’s got my back and I’ve got his.

Enjoy the last year of your 20s Marsupial. But not to worry for your 30s will be your best decade yet!

The Beautiful Traffic-Free KL Roads During CNY

I love KL during long festive seasons. This was how beautiful the roads were on the first 3 days of the Chinese New Year.

And this is Ikea.

And this is Ikea at its norm.

I love KL during long festive seasons.

Pig vs Rat

The Eve of Chinese New Year Eve is upon us.

Many of us can’t wait for the Year of the Rat to end because there’s been a lot of deaths and accidents in the past few weeks. It almost feels like the Pig doesn’t want to relinquish power to the Rat and is causing as much impact as he possibly can in the last few days of his reign.

On a lighter note, I’m on a mission to collect ang paus this few days because this is the LAST year I’m going to be able to do so!

Well, I’ve been collecting ang paus for the last 31 years. Not a bad run I guess. Plus the older you get, the less money you get anyway. But it still beats giving away ang paus!

Saatchi is closed from tomorrow onwards till the weekend! So lotsa ang paus, food, yee sang and mandarin oranges are in store for me while I go visiting especially on Paul’s side as we need to ‘announce’ our engagement to everyone.

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai! May the year of the rat bring you good luck, good fortune, good health, good wealth and abundance of prosperity!

Fairy's Post & Pics from Tioman

Kinky Blue Fairy has a birthday post for me and she featured pics from almost 2 years ago, roughly about the time we met though our mutual friend W.B. Logan at a island trip to Tioman. So much has changed since then and it’s so much more apparent now, looking at the pics.

I cut off my locks though my hair is now growing long again.

I’m retired from clubbing.

I can’t drink a bottle a night anymore.

I’m a little bit mellower. Just a bit.

I’m engaged and this time next year, I’ll be married!

31st Powerpuff Birthday Party @ Mc D & Pulse Ultra Club

My 31^st birthday was certainly a different and memorably one. It was at Mc Donald’s Mutiara Damansara where we ate Mc Value Meals and a Powerpuff cake and Hamburglar even made an appearance! The garden was nicely decorated in the Powerpuff theme and most friends came in costume as per the brief. We could smoke and we even sneaked in Chivas to drink with the green tea and Coke!

Then we went off to Pulse for whiskey, champagne and Flamings (both thanks to Fruitcake!) and drunken dancing.

Thanks to Paul, Fruitcake, Ed, Mike Choo, Chris, Eilene, Marcus, Melissa, Nic, Gloria, Eliza, Pete, Sin Cyn, Michelle Who Stays on the Sea Shore, Ashley, Wendy, Ee, Misadventure Raj, Teoh, Joe Wong, Jason Moo, Win, Hooters Hean, Salt Boy, JoyBoyLuv Jeff, Cheryl, Joe Wong, Marsupial, Jas, Boobster, Nicky, Beryl and Angeline who came and celebrated with me. You guts made my night!

For more pics, go to my Facebook.