The Best Guinness In The World Out Of Irelend

I’ve not been out drinking for a while especially since I’m retired from clubbing. But last Friday, Charlotte The Clown was in town and we went for dinner and drinks at The George and the Dragon. Food was okay (except for Paul’s pie which he said it’s horrid so I didn’t even try it) and the Guinness was so-so but the environment was pretty nice. Very English indeed. And we were seated outside at the balcony which added to the environment for al fresco drink and chats. I even bumped into Chetan who promised to organized drinks the following weekend since we've been saying this for the past 4 years.

And on Monday, Sue Ann and I met for lunch. We’ve not met in months so it was a catch up session for us. We wanted to eat pasta so she looked for a random Italian restaurant on the net and made a reservation for two. We both arrived in Taman Tun at the same time and were driving round looking for the place but to no avail. So we said screw it and I brought her to Sid’s bar. Good old Sid’s place. Good food, good drinks and always a friendly Sid to greet us. I had the Full English Breakfast and she had the Pacific Cod and Chips (together with mushy peas!.... which we both didn’t like the taste of but liked the concept of) which was totally yummy.

Then we went back to work which is never fun.

And at night when Paul and I were having dinner at The Curve, Sue Ann calls and said that she’s in Sid’s ….. again! She liked it so much that she brought a friend there so Paul and I joint her for a pint of Guinness.

Sid was there as usual and come over every now and then, bought us a round, told a joke, left us in hysterics (volume of laughter increases according the number of pints consumed) and walked away!

It’s a joke I’ve heard before but it’s still funny! Or maybe it’s the way Sid tells it.

Here goes.

There's a big conference of beer producers.

At the end of the day, the presidents of all beer companies decide to have a drink in a bar.

The president of Budweiser orders a Bud and the president of Coors orders a Coors.

Then the waitress asks Arthur Guinness what he wants to drink, and to everybody's amazement, Mr. Guinness orders a Coke!

"Why don't you order a Guinness?" everyone asks.

"Naah. If you guys are drinking soft drinks, so will I”

(Sid walks away and we continue to laugh and continue our conversation while drinking more Guinness).

He comes back and tells us that Guinness Anchor Berhad Malaysia won the award of the best Guinness brewed out of Ireland. And everyone started saying that Sid’s pub has the best Guinness in Malaysia.

So doesn’t that make the Guinness’ at Sid’s the best in the world out of Ireland?

I sure agree. Go try it for yourself:

SID'S PUB, 34 LORONG RAHIM KAJU 14, TAMAN TUN DR, ISMAIL, 6000 KUALA LUMPUR Tel: +603 77277437

www.sidspubs.com

Mummy's Faceook. Babies Pic

Why is it that once a person, especially females, become mothers, they seem to loose their identity? Willingly. An example is Facebook. I’ve people looking me up then adding me. And when I check their profile to see if I really do know these people or not, all I see is a pic of a kid. A kid I don’t know. I then look for alternate pics of the person and very often, there are none. Just the one pic of the kid. So how do I identify who is the person adding me if I don’t recognize the name nor the pic? On top of that, married women often change their names to take on their husband’s surnames. Not to forget many people have ‘glamour’ names too. That just adds to the confusion especially for people you’ve not met in a while.

I can understand loving your kid so much that every chance you get, you post up their pic. Some have Facebooks accounts for their babies. That’s fine too. But for your own Facebook account?

I don’t get it. But since so many mothers do it, maybe I’ll only understand when I become a mum.

In Clubbing Retirement Mode But Still In Club Lists

I really and truly am retired from clubbing. After our dinner on last Friday, Salt Boy asked me out for drinks at J&R and I said no. I rather go home and watch a movie! That’s how retired I am. The retirement started, stopped, started but it’s definitely here to stay.

When I first started my Non-Clubbing modes 1,2, 3, 4 and Final ,Zouk called me to tell me that I’m on their permanent guest list. I never needed it anyway since regulars usually just walk in. But it was just ironic that it happened after I retired.

Now that I’m truly into my retirement mode and only drink once a month and even then only if I really have to due to work or obligations to friend, Modesto’s calls me. They’re opening a new outlet in TTDI Plaza and they’re sending me an invite for a sneak peak as well as an invite to their launch. Can’t remember the details as the girl who called had a funny accent. Will just have to wait for the actual invite to arrive. Thought the era of Modesto’s was over but they must be planning a revival.

I’ve retired for about a year but apparently my name and numbers are still in the various clubs lists.

Guess clubbing for 15 years doesn’t allow for easy retirement.

I think I may go for the Modesto’s launch after all. Not that it means that I’m out of retirement.

Trendy

www.dictionary.com defines “trendy” as:

–adjective

1.	of, in, or pertaining to the latest trend or style.

2.	following the latest trends or fashions; up-to-date or chic: the trendy young generation.

3.	appealing to faddish taste: a trendy hotel.

–noun

4.	a trendy person, place, object, or idea.

While having lunch with a friend, she mentioned that she liked my ear rings very much. So I went out to buy the exact same pair and dropped it off at her office a few days later. Incidentally that day was her birthday too. So she was extra surprised and happy.

She wore them to work today and she sent me a SMS to say “Thank you! They’re really trendy”!

Trendy. We all know what trendy means but that word is hardly used to express ‘the latest trend’ anymore. When was the last time you heard someone say ‘trendy’?

Does anyone remember the shampoo ‘New & Trendy’? It was pretty big in the early 80s. The brand died but resurfaced again recently only to die yet another death.

Anyway, these days, if we wanted to say that something was trendy, we’d most likely use words like ‘cool’, ‘hot’, ‘happening’, ‘hip’, ‘funky’, ‘in’, ‘stylish’ and even ‘stylo milo’ if you were trying to be overtly Malaysian.

Trendy is no longer trendy. That’s so ironic!

Sin Chan Ramen

Lionel The Off Roader recommended a Japanese noodle restaurant in Solaris Mont Kiara. It’s called Sin Chan Ramen, near the new Cold Storage. Paul & I went there and the first thing I noticed was that the owner or the manager was seated at the best table in the house doing paper work and looking worried. That’s really odd for a mid range to high end place, I thought. But I ignored her and concentrated on the décor of the place instead which was quite nice indeed.

Paul ordered his usual katsu don and a variety of finger food. I ordered pork noodle which came with a slab of butter melting in the soup. It was absolutely delicious!

But there was a small flying insect circling my head as I ate, there was another insect crawling out the wall and there was a loud STOMP which I ignored cos I was enjoying the meal while trying to ignore the 2 insects. Then Paul said that the stomp was due to one of the kitchen crew stomping on a cockroach which crawled from near our table towards the kitchen. Ewwww! Gross and extremely hygienic.

When I see such things in a high end restaurant (it’s accepted in stalls when you’re paying a few bucks to eat while seated beside a drain), I always swear not to go back there.

And we haven’t gone back there. But recently, I’ve had cravings for the buttery soupy noodles.

Gosh. To stick to my principles and ensure I don’t get a tummy ache from that place? Or screw it, pay a lot of money and eat dirty food that tastes good?

A New Lamp

One day, the reading lamp next to my bed side table started smoking. As in, smoke literally floated out of the top of the lamp. Paul yelled that I should switch it off and said that the lamp needs to be replaced.

But how can my poor lamp come to the end of its life span so quickly? I bought it from Ikea just 8 years ago. The Ikea TV commercial where the broken lamp got put in the rain came to mind. Don’t lamps last longer than that? Apparently not, especially those from Ikea. I still felt a bit sad. That lamp served me well and was there to shine a light every night while I read before bed. I know. I know. I get too attached to inanimate objects.

So Paul & I went to look for a new lamp in Ikea. There were some pretty good deals but those under RM100 were ugly or too flimsy. So we went to all the other home & electrical stores in Ikano and the Curve but none of them sold reading lamps!

The next day, we went to the SS2 square as there are lots of light shops there. I like Galaxy. They are small but they have very competitive process but they didn’t carry reading lamps. So I went to Maruzen next door. They had reading lamps but they were incredibly ugly. So I ended up buying a table lamp but it was bright enough to function as a reading lamp too.

Until you need one, you don’t realize that it’s not that easy to buy reading lamps.

5 1/2 More Months To The Wedding

Time flies. Paul proposed in January and we had 10 whole months to plan the wedding. And before you know it, there’s only 5 ½ months left! I have most of the vendors and sponsors secured but there just seems to be a lot more to plan for among the various vendors.

I have my Secret Garden of the Fairies theme confirmed but I don’t have the colour theme yet. I originally wanted gold & red but Ivy of Ray Tan Art suggested cream & green instead as they would be a better ‘fairy’ colour.

I have the wedding gown confirmed and I was going to wear a pink and purple cocktail dress for the cocktail wedding. But Fruitcake tells me she’s seen that dress on some celebrity in either Prestige or Malaysian Tattler. That’s an issue having a dress maker to the stars as your dress maker too. No matter. I was contemplating between the pink & purple and the green & yellow anyway. So that has helped me made my choice. Besides, when I show a pic of me in both dresses, all my girl friends are wowed and all immediately point to the green & yellow gown.

I’ve also not secured a florist yet. I spoke to Ray Tan Art immediately after securing Passion Road as the venue as both places are owned by the same boss, Ray Tan. So Ray Tan Art should be familiar enough with Passion Road to dress the place up to it’s full potential, following the theme I’ve set. I’m also going to brief As You Like It and MNG and see who comes up with the best floral & décor ideas at the best prices.

I find it hard to select a florists as they can’t do up actual floral arrangements for you to see as it’s too costly. And the quote is just a bunch of numbers. A ‘hand bouquet’ can mean so many different things.

I’m so glad I have Patricia as a wedding planner. I’d had gone mad with wedding stress had I had have her to run to for advise or just to have coffee and chill out with.

For all the couples getting married and don’t want a ‘cookie cutter’ wedding (ie. one held in a Chinese restaurant or a hotel where everything is done for you but you have limited choices to pick from), I seriously recommend a good wedding planner. She (I’ve not met a male wedding planner) will be a source of comfort and reassurance to you and she’ll take away as much stress as possible. And a wedding is definitely one of the most stressful events in one’s lifetime.

I’m meeting Ivy, Patricia, DJ Beryl who’s also my MC and Fruitcake (matron of honour) at Passion Road tomorrow to discuss colour schemes and set up arrangements.

5 ½ months to the wedding! Thank goodness I’m just involved in planning one of them. Even 1 wedding with the help of a wedding planner is tough enough. If I were to plan all 3, I’d probably need 3 wedding planners and even then may still tear my hair out.

Tagged

We’re officially tagged like dogs. We used to come and go to & fro the office as we like but I guess we’ve got to be more careful now.

It all started with a few thefts in the office. A pen or a stapler would go missing. Then it was perfume bottles and ipod adaptors. The management then thought the best way was to monitor all our comings and going and they changed the pin code door system to a tag / swap card / swipe card / access. I don’t know what it’s called but we all hate it. We now have the hang the damn thing around our necks ‘cos we do move from one office to another quite a bit within one day and have to beep in and out all the time. Leaving it on our desks means we’ll walk to the door only to find we can’t exit, walk back to our desk to retrieve the card and back to the door. Sometimes we’re carrying files and other items so it’s really bothersome.

And it’s really ugly too! We weren’t given a nice sleek black lanyard which has the stylish Saatchi logo on it. Management says they are cutting costs. Instead it was just a hard piece of generic dark blue lanyard. So most of us went out and got some fun, funky and fresh lanyards. And even some cutesy item, added on to make the tag look less like a dog tag. It’s nice to look down and see something cute looking back at you rather than an ugly flat white card on ugly dark blue lanyard.

We occupy one floor but there are 2 offices separated by a lift lobby. One is where the Creative and IT sits. And the other is for Account Management and Finance. So when you come out of the lift, you can choose to either turn left or right (depending on which lift u come out at) into the Creative or Account Management office. But if u are going from one office to another, you have to beep out of Account Management, close the door behind you, walk across the lift lobby then beep into the Creative office.

I once did that as I needed to send some job requisitions over to Traffic in the Creative but when I was beeping into the system at the Creative office door, the damn card won’t work! I ran back to the Account Management door and beeped in there but rather than the high pitched ‘Biiiiiiiiiiip’, I just got a low sounding ‘pooooooth’. I then ran back to Creative and I got another ‘pooooooth’. Then back to Account Management again. Yet another ‘pooooooth’. I didn’t have my mobile with me ‘cos I was carrying the damn job requisitions. I didn’t even have cigarettes with me or I could have smoked and waited for someone to either come in or out so that I could get in to Creative.

Finally someone came out and I ran in.

It’s a disaster waiting to happen. Just imagine being locked out of both offices when you’re the only one left in the entire floor. No mobile, no car keys. I just hope that that’s not going to be me.

MPH Warehouse Sale 30 April - 5 May 08

I’ve been waiting for a book warehouse sale for ages and tomorrow is the MPH warehouse sale. It’s on from tomorrow till 5 May in Kelana Jaya. There’s an extra discount for MPH members tomorrow only but I’m away on a meeting with the clients to discuss next year’s Game Plans for the entire day in KL and will definitely not be able to go to the sale before nor after my training.

I know I have about 30 unread books at home but that’s besides the point isn’t it?

Cold Storage in Solaris Mont Kiara

The Cold Storage at Mont Kiara Solaris is really cool and doesn’t look like any super market I’ve seen in Malaysia before. In fact it reminds me of Tesco (the UK version and not the hyper market we have here). It’s big and bright when you walk in and among the first few things you see are fresh flowers followed by fresh produce. There were a lot of imported products and I even found flavoured cream cheese. That’s something I’ve been looking out for but could not find in Village Grocer or the other Cold Storages.

Paul and I went during their opening on 24^th April 2008. We spent RM100 and received a RM10 voucher. The staff were efficient, friendly and helpful.

I agree with their motto, except ‘Value’. The products were super expensive!

But it was nice to see brands like Tetley Tea and Walkers Crisps here. It is a place for a good shopping experience. If you can afford it.

L'Oreal Consumer Products Warehouse Sale 24-25 April 2008

For those who are planning to go for the L’Oreal Consumer Products warehouse sale at the Hamodal Building today, it’s the last day! But really, don’t bother. Sin Cyn, Michelle Who Stays On The Seashore and I went after lunch yesterday. We had to drive up and down the road several times to find a parking amidst massive traffic jams and in the end had to double park.

We went up, took out our wallets, mobile phone and other valuables, stuffed them into our pockets and checked our hand bag in at the counter. We walked in and there wasn’t a lot of stuff left! And this was just 4 hours after the sale started. There were no more shampoos except for the L’Oreal Elseve Multi Vitamins. And there were no more men’s products either. Guess it’s not too surprising because we saw people carrying carton boxes of purchases out when we were leaving.

So we ended up buying some lip glass, some moisturisers, some mascara and headed back to the office.

I always wondered why some companies like cosmetics have warehouse sales when their products are perfectly fine and probably just one year old from manufacture date. And since these products usually have a 2 year shelf life, they are perfectly fine and can be bought at a 30% to 50% discounts!

In Cyn tells me it’s ‘cos L’Oreal has a policy that any product not sold after a period of time is either destroyed or sold. A pretty good policy to me!

Anyway the L’Oreal sale at the second half of the year apparently is much better. Look out for the next one then!

Reasons To Leave A High Flying Job In Saatchi To Be A Barista At Starbucks

- I'll be working part time so I'll have a lot more flexibility

- I can not show up for work if I want to as long as I give them 4 hours notice

- I'll learn a new skill, making coffee professionally

- I've always liked Starbucks as a company

- I get to learn more about the company and the brand first hand

- I can have all the coffee I want to drink for free

- I get 30% off the merchandises

- I really want the apron

- Stress is minimal

- If there is stress, I can leave it behind as soon as I finish work

- I can walk to work and save on parking and petrol!

- The people there are really nice .... I've gone to talk to them about the job several times since I hang out there for coffee a lot

- I'll have time to rest up and relaxed and put back what Saatchi has taken out of me

- I'll have time to go to the spas, something I've not done in ages because I don't have time

- I"ll have time to go for facials so that I'll look nice and radiant for the wedding

- I'll have time to plan the wedding

- I'll have enough sleep

- I won't have pimples on my face

- I'll stop crying in the office due to anger and frustration.

Sounds good to me!

Broken Office Chair

I’ve tried it all. The happy shoes, the super high heels, the bright coloured dresses, going for a fish spa..... and what did I end up with? 4 huge pimples on my face and a broken office chair. The chair didn’t break due to my anger or frustration. I just pulled it out from under the table when I got into work and the back portion fell clean off the seat. I burst out laughing! Maybe it’s time to get a new chair? Or maybe it’s a sign for me to leave the company?

I’m just itching to leave aren’t I?

Mc Ds 3 Meals In A Row

I love Mc Ds but I don’t think I’ve ever eaten it 3 meals in a row before. We had a videoconference during lunch time at the client’s office yesterday so they ordered Mc D’s for us. And I finished work so late last night that most places were closed so Paul & I had lunch at Mc Ds near the house. It was there that we got 2 coupons for free Sausage Mc Muffins due to Mc Ds new campaign. So this morning I swung by to Mc Ds to get my free muffin before coming to work.

Frankly I’m feeling a bit sick now.

One of the other teams was out for research today and brought back a barrel of KFC. I usually loooove the smell of KFC but this time, I felt like puking.

Guess the movie Supersize Me Is true. Eating too much fast food really does make you sick.

But I’m working suck late hours these days. How do I eat healthily and exercise like I know I should? As soon as I’m done with work, I just want to go home and crawl into bed but as soon as I’m hiding under to covers, I can’t sleep because my mind is still at work.

I’m not having fun at work anymore. And again, the Starbucks idea is becomes even more appealing.

Vegetarian Wednesdays - Week 2

Today marks my second week of Vegetarian Wednesdays. And I must say that it’s really not that bad. To turn fully vegetarian will be too drastic and my body will be in shock. I may even kill a pig with my bare hands to get to my bacon! But being a vegetarian is a long term plan and I’m doing pretty well. So far on Vegetarian Wednesdays I still eat seafood with the other vegetables / grains / roots / mushrooms. Eventually I’ll cut out all meat on Vegetarian Wednesdays. And then I’ll add on another vegetarian day and then another day and maybe I’ll be full vegetarian in 10 years time!

Today for lunch Sin Cyn and I went to Genki Sushi and we ordered a dish neither of us had before. It was a bowl of vinegared rice, pickles, crab stick, egg, smoked salmon & salmon in some kinda pasty salmon cream thing. For Genki Sushi, it was extremely yummy and we’re definitely going back there for more. RM13.80 a bowl only. And it comes with miso soup too though that’s nothing to shout about. But still very yummy.

I’ve told my Future MIL about very Vegetarian Wednesday and she’s been very encouraging. She’s even asked me to try to get Paul to do it but I think that’ll take more than 10 years. She’s cooking dinner tonight. In fact, she’s cooking right now so I’m going to leave the office now and head home. See ya!

Bad Day Despite Good Hair Day & New Shoes

I woke up to a good hair day. And you know how good hair days make you feel on top of the world and nothing can weight you down. Nothing at all!

That is until I got to work. Work these days has been a major downer for not only me but so many of my other colleagues too. It’s just become tiresome, bothersome and loathsome. It’s harder to wake up in the morning. And when I do wake on time, I rather stay in to do household chores. I watered the plants and washed the toilets this morning. That’s now bad it is.

And when we get to work, we’re just waiting for lunch time. And when we’re back from lunch, we’re just waiting to go home. The fun and the joy is non existent. And we don’t know what happened.

To make ourselves feel better, Sin Cyn and I went shoe shopping. And how can a good hair day AND new pretty shoes equal a bad day no matter what? That’s a double dose of happiness! I bought a pair of ballet pumps with diamante skull on it. I shall wear that to the client’s place when I feel particularly hostile towards them.

I also bought a happy purple one with gold link chains. Don’t think I had a purple pair before.

We were pretty happy in Nose (yeah I went back there despite their bad quality and bad service but they have really nice designs even tho they fall apart soon enough) trying on more than a dozen pairs. When bought the shoes and came back to the office and all that negatively in the hit hit is right in the face.

I don’t understand. How can the combination of a good hair day and new shoes not help elevate our mood. Guess things in the office really have reached an all time low.

Starbuck seems like more and more of a good idea now.

Ashley Does Brazil(ian)

On Saturday, Ashley proved that he’s a man of his word (finally! Or we'll be calling him Pussy Ashley from now).

It all started much earlier in the year when Ashley made a bet with Paul. Ashley said that from the period of January to June 2008, he would not drink any alcohol as long as he’s in Klang Valley or Selangor. Since he runs a travel agency and is overseas a lot, he probably thought he could get away with it. A month and a bit into the betting period, during CNY, Ashley drank alcohol.

So after 2 months of teasing, pushing, threats and nagging on Facebook for the whole world to read, he finally agreed to fulfill his part of the deal.

Last Saturday, a few of us met at Strip Bangsar and Ashley went in for his Brazlian wax.

At first he tried to cheat and went there earlier than his appointment time so that we won’t hear his screams, I’m guessing. Anyway by the time we got there, he only did a bikini wax which wasn’t the deal at all! So he went back in for a full Brazilian and he even got a pattern done.

Way to go Ashley!

For the guys who are interested in a Brazilian, yes it will hurt like f*** but according to Ashley, it’s worth it and he’s feeling smooth like silk down there. Hahaha!

Bubbles the Vegetarian Wannabe.

I ate a bowl of salad last night for dinner. A BIG bowl. And I finished every leaf. The tuna and peach dressing helped it all go down.

And I plan to do it more often. So uncharacteristic of someone who doesn’t like to eat vegetables, huh?

People usually become vegetarian for 3 reasons:

1. For religious reasons
2. For health reasons
3. Because they love animals

I’m doing it for Reason Number 3. As much as I love my bacon and siew yoke, I do feel bad for the piggy who died cos I want to eat him. I’ve always felt this way but he tastes so good!

And the secondary reason why I’m doing this is for Reason Number 2. My doctor told me to cut out bacon and eat healthily right?

So now I have 2 reasons, hopefully strong enough to make me turn part vegetarian.

Okay there’s no such thing as part vegetarian but it’s a start. Vegetables are just not yummy. Nor filling!

2 hours after the large bowl of salad, I was hungry. So I ate corn flakes and low fat milk (yeah I’ve switched (or trying) to low fat milk too. It tastes yuck!).

I was then fairly full but extremely unfulfilled.

Maybe it just takes a while for the body to make the switch and crave for less meat. I’m going to try introducing Vegetarian Wednesdays into my life. One day per week of no meat can’t be that bad. Oh, animal by products and seafood will be allowed though. Can’t expect me to make such a strict and drastic switch.

Right now I’m thinking: What’s the point of being healthy but feel unsatisfied in life?

But for the last 31 years of my life, I’ve been eating extremely unhealthily. I hardly eat vegetables and can eat 500g of fried crispy bacon per seating. And a large bowl of fried lard when I eat Hokkien mee is a must.

Maybe it is time to take a more moderate stance in my diet now so that I don’t have to completely cut bacon from my diet in the future.

I love bacon. But poor pig.

Yes it’s a tough internal struggle. I’m confused. My body’s confused.

It’s not Wednesday. I’m going for lunch. And eat some meat.

Saatchi Is Making Me Ill

Saatchi is making me ill. Literally. There’s been a lot of work since work on the pitch started. And a lot of Xploring (a proprietary Saatchi research tool) are ongoing for various jobs. The latest one involved going from one coffee shop to another looking for random 35 – 45 year old Chinese men who drink Guinness and showing them some creative work to get their feedback.

The last time I did that, I finished work at 12.30am after roaming the streets for 5 hours. We didn’t have time to eat and we had to endure men who were drunk, sarcastic and / or stupid.

And I end up with a massive headache and cold sweat the next day. Paul’s mum was so sweet to make me pork and dried scallop porridge which Paul delivered to my place last night. I went to bed at 9pm and after 12 hours of sleep, I feel much better today.

Sometimes I feel so stressed in my job that I just wanna say ‘fuck it’ and throw my letter in. Maybe I’ll just quit and go work in Starbucks. I spend a lot of my time there anyway and I’ve always wanted to be a barista. That’s also the only way I can get the Starbucks apron ‘cos you can’t buy it with money. Plus, I’ll get 30% off the products.

Sure it’s not a lot of money. Full time staff get RM1,100. And part time staff get about RM800+. That’s before tax & EPF deduction. But I get those perks as mentioned above and if I work part time, I’ll have more flexible hours. The small money I earn plus my savings will just tie me over if I wanna quick Saatchi and work in Starbucks for a few months. Maybe I should do it just before the wedding so that I won’t be so stressed out and I’ll have time to go for many spa sessions too.

Hmmmm …. I was about to post this when my boss came up to me and gave me a long hug. I asked him if he was drunk (we just had a Creative Review which involves 30 mins of looking at the latest ads followed by 3 hours of drinking). To which he replied “No-No. You’re on FIRE!”

Okay. Either he really was drunk or he knows how much stress I’m in over the past few weeks.

Anyway, there’s more Xploring tonight (different from the one we did at the coffee shops) and it takes place at Somo. It’s about men and masculinity. I’ve got my strategic planners from Singapore, some bosses, colleagues and friends attending. There will be a few questions asked and dozens and dozens of Guinness pints downed.

I hope I survive the night tonight.

The only consolation is that tomorrow’s Xploring involves Ashley going for a Brazilian wax due to a bet he lost to Paul. I thought that it would be an interesting idea to get my strategic planners to meet with Ashley and talk to him about his experience. Ashley is still trying to wrangle his way out of it.

Will definitely blog about it! Read more here. Till then, have a great weekend everyone!

Pics from Passion Road

Passion Road truly is gorgeous and such a perfect venue for the wedding. At least the wedding planner and friends who have been there before think so. Here’s the plan, to give you a sneak preview.

This is the main entrance.

And this is for the marriage registry and blessing ceremony.

This area is for guest registration or where the band will play.

Or maybe this is where the band will play. And the canopy area will be for the DJ console.

The dining area.

Decor on the dining table.

This is pretty lighting to set the mood. Fairy lights will be added every where to add to the theme.

And this is one of my favourite angles of the place.

Or maybe it's this view from the balcony where I'll be throwing the bouquet from.

It even has a view of KLCC!

Patricia The Wedding Planner, her partner & I briefing Josh the Passion Road Manager.

The wedding planner is sending the agenda over the weekend.

Yup, everything is falling into place indeed.

Wedding Plans Are Coming Together Finally

Paul, the wedding planner & I went to Passion Road on Saturday to recce the place and to make a deposit (I can’t let what happened at Courtyard happen again!). The place is so much more beautiful than Courtyard Garden. Plus the people are so much nicer, helpful and accommodating too.

And yes I have a wedding planner! She’s Patricia from Wedding Planners Malaysia, who came highly recommended by Melvin Kuo. And her husband does fabrication work and is now figuring out how to make wings. Fairy wings! And they’re going to be pinned onto the back of my dress instead of being looped round the arms like the kiddy wings found at Toy’s R Us. So much more magical and fairy like!

I’ve also bought the bridesmaid dresses. They are shimmery tube dresses. Baby pink for Fruitcake, the Maid of Honour and maroon for Cyn Sin and Michelle Who Stays on The Seashore the other bridesmaids. I liked the dresses so much that I bought extra. I can’t decide if I should have more bridesmaids. If at the end of the day, I don’t have enough bridesmaids to fill the dresses, I’m gonna keep the dresses for myself!

Shell and I were smoking in the stairwell one day and I was telling her that I need to audition a few bands and to hire one to play at the wedding. Then Gary, a writer from a different department who was smoking there too, just turned around and said he’s in a band and is sure that his band members would wanna play at my wedding for free. Then I discovered that I knew all of the other band members …. I just didn’t know they were in the band together! The band is called ‘Don’t Make Ian (fuckin) Cry’. I’ve yet to find out the story behind the name. And yes, one of the band members is indeed called Ian.

So all in all, the wedding plans are coming together so well. I now just need to brief the copy writers and art directors to come up with the masthead and I can’t start doing up my wedding website and send the invites out.

Stop smoking. Stop bacon. Start having kids.

Work has been really psychotic these days. I’ve not had much time to feed & pet Billy (please go pet & feed him!), blog or concentrate on wedding planning.

Besides the stress from work and lack of sleep, I’m also supposed to “Stop smoking. Stop bacon. Start having kids”. Doctor’s advice.

Paul & I went for a full medical check up and the doc tells us that our cholesterol levels are high and we should watch what we eat. He gives us a list of foods to avoid and they include: bacon (this will be the toughest of all), char kway teow, duck, egg yolks, potatoes (no more Mc D fries??!!), whole milk (but low fat milk is disgusting & diluted!), butter (margarine is fake and yucky!), potato chips (I have a few bags of Lay’s at home!) and about 80 other items.

For people like Paul & I who dislike vegetables, this is going to be tough indeed.

And no more eating excessively like so (This is the usual portion for Paul & I. Not having enough space on the table for the plates is normal for us):

And I’m 31 so I gotta start trying for a kid soon if I want one.

Sigh. I’m hungry and stressed. Going for dinner now. A fat free, non fried, limited red meat & carbo dinner. Where does that leave me? Steamed tofu? Ewwww!