It’s been so incredibly HOT here that i can’t wait to get to France soon. I just checked the current temperature is at 9°C in Paris, and 6°C in Bordeaux. It’ll probably dip when we’re there in a few days so i’ll be going from one extreme temperature to another. I think i prefer it being cold tho… (i say that NOW but when i’m shivering in pain, we’ll see).
So many of my friends are already on holiday, some have stopped taking in work, some have closed their businesses for the year…
Someone asked when *my* holiday starts, and i said, “It starts when i’m ON THE FLIGHT.”
I can’t wait to go and not think about work or money, and just EAT and cuddle up and drink and play in the snow and open presents and give presents and ahhhhh COME ON SATURDAY! HURRY UP!
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Random instagrams from my past week 😀
I had a Melium voucher to use cos i modelled for one of their ads for Dome cafe a couple ‘o months ago, and topped up to get the Givenchy Bambi tote that just came into KL a week ago 😀 I asked to be on the waiting list for this bag, heard that there was also a number of people who put their names down, and pleaded with Ling from Melium when i saw her at an event to push me up the list heehee. Thanks Ling!!!
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Had our annual Christmas dinner with the Formerfree girls at Cava in Bangsar. Food was so-so. Some dishes were great and some were meh. I don’t have the group shot of us so here’s one of Sarch and Didi.
Stealing Rahul’s caption for it >
deeds: yo you feel me gangsta?? sarah: i stopped paying attention ages ago
We did our Secret Santa thing and i got toys and bubbles from Sueann.
After dinner Clouds and i went to El Cuarto to join Clem, Rahul, Tercia and Leonie for drinks.
Merry Christmas!!!
Cloud and Fairy love! <3
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Oh i just HAD to put a pic of this cake from Souka which was leftover from our Lovelies Christmas dinner (will blog about that later!)
It’s thick yummy cream (i love eating cream!!!) atop compact moist chocolate with an equally compact delicious crust at the bottom. I don’t even know what it’s called cos Steph bought it. I had such a great time eating it all by myself in front of the TV… this is officially my current favourite dessert!!!
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I went by Lisa’s house to purchase some of her handmade necklaces for Christmas pressies! She sells them online too at Oxoloco.blogspot.com but they’re so much better to pick and buy in person.
Lisa is one of the sweetest and smallest people i know, and she’s crazy creative. She sources all these semi-precious stones and vintage jewellery pieces online from all over the world, and makes them into various one-off necklaces and earrings. Super nice. I am not even going to go into how much i spent at hers.
I don’t want to put up pix of what i bought cos then i’ll be giving away what i got for some ladies who haven’t opened their presents yet! I love the sea-blue one above, which i’m gonna go back for tomorrow… :p
See more pix of her creations in my previous blogpost *here*
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On Wednesday night last week, i cooked a small dinner for Rahul, Aps, Jess and Danny. I’m not doing our annual Christmas do this year cos we’ll be away… so i thought i’ll just cook a small dinner for Aps and Danny, then invited the other two too.
Rahul, and Wilson on his special chair.
It was really nice and Clem and i realised how much MORE OFTEN we should be throwing parties at home instead of going out! We’re gonna do more of that when we move into our new place. I CANNOT WAIT FOR IT TO BE READY! If i’m lucky and if renovations go smoothly, MAYBE we can move in by March. I hope! I can’t wait… i’m planning to do one bedroom up to be a TOY ROOM where we can chill and play in there, and also, to contain all my toys in one area so Clem doesn’t have to face all my toys every day. I wanna build a swing in the doorway, and put astroturf on the balcony and make it look like a garden with nice plants! I wanna have a huge kitchen with an island, and a big dining table for dinners! I want the bathroom to have black granite and rain showers… ahhh can you tell i just CAN’T WAIT?! Our first real home! Anddd Aps bought the unit below me so i can pass things down to her with a fishing line or something haha!!
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Clem and i had our annual Christmas dinner with the sotongs at Cammy and Kenny’s place this year. Each couple takes turns to host every year so next year it’ll be our turn again!
Clem wrapped Matt’s Christmas present in newspapers -_- Men. Some people commented on IG that it’s good to recycle bla bla and i AGREE but i can tell you it was not his intention! I added the ribbons so it wouldn’t look so pathetic.
Cameron in his Santa suit!!! SO CUTE. He started getting moody after awhile tho cos it was too hot, and Cammy reluctantly took it off. This is why you have children… so you can dress them up and torture them XD
Thank you for cooking Cammy!!!
Mattrena gave us all a holiday as our Christmas presents! Merci beaucoup! Which is so great cos then we’ll all get to spend more time together 😀 😀 😀
Kenny’s present is still on the way from the US so he was whining he had no present -_- Matt: “See, someone always cries. Every year, some kid will always cry at Christmas.” So true…
Kenny and Cammy got us this cool sign! Such a great idea! They also got me an electric pepper grinder WHICH I LOVE cos i cook so much and hate having to grind pepper continuously when i need lots! I meant to buy it for myself but got so busy i didn’t get to it and NOW i have it mwahaha!! (wow, i’ve become such an auntie that a kitchen appliance excites me so :p)
In non-aunty manner, Clem and i went to Thirst after 6 hours of Christmas merrymaking.
SOMEONE STOLE MY HULA HOOP 🙁
It was just when we arrived too! Clem and i were having our first beer and i was showing him something on my phone for 30 seconds and the hoop was resting against a platform which was just next to me, and then it was GONE. I was kinda upset for 30 minutes, and walked around the VIP area looking for it, and Uncle Callen even helped me look but to no avail.
After that i just thought to myself that i just have to let it go… it’s happened. What can i do. It sucks. It’s probably my own karma for stealing other things when i’m drunk so… but still. It’s also my birthday present from Yishyene two years ago and such a beautiful swirly colour boohoo!!! Ok ok i’m stopping. I’m letting it go, letting it go. I guess this is an excuse to buy a new hula hoop AND an LED one.
“Hi, my name is Michelle. You may also call me Mrs Obama.”
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On Sunday, I went for dinner with my brother and Matthew. We had bak kut teh at Centrepoint and i managed to pass him his Christmas and birthday present combined. I booked Clem and myself a much-wanted spa session at Energy Spa. We love the place so much we bought 2 packages and keep one at each outlet in Mont Kiara and Jalan Ampang :p Viji has these magic hands that just made me feel so much better. Magic healing hands!
After our massage, we went to 1U to watch Frozen! Before that i convinced Clem to eat at Putien cos i wanted to have the garlic cockels. Damn OD on garlic tho… i could still taste garlic in my mouth before i went to sleep that night :p
Disney’s Frozen was AWESOME!!!!!! It reminded me of the old Disney movies with MAGIC and SONG and LOVE! I wanna watch it again! I instagramed how i love it and how i went to watch it with Clem, and he said, “You know, you don’t have to say that i went to watch it with you…” Why not!? Are you ashamed you went to watch a DISNEY movie with me!? But Disney is for everyone! How can you be ashamed of Disney! And because you said that, see, now i had to go mention it on my blog.
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I had lunch at Fat Spoon with Sarah cos it’s been months since we caught up proper with each other. I totally overate that day… had the fried oysters to start, then the moo moo rice bowl, then a nangka and ice cream dessert that Chelle gave us, a hot chocolate, and two glasses of water co it was so hot that day. I could barely work after that.
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Yesterday i had lunch with Tai Yong. He took me to the BEST BEEF noodles in town (can’t believe i’ve never been). It’s called Lai Foong and the coffeeshop has been there since the 50s. Oh btw Tai Yong owns Lust in Changkat, and if you’re looking for a place to party, that’s where you should go 😉
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I’m out in Eh! magazine this month (thanks for telling me Natrah!) in an editorial shoot for the Mitsubishi Attrage.
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Kolumpo
I REALLY WANT TO WATCH THIS FILM!
It’s still showing in cinemas across the nation
No words can describe how excited I was when I heard the news that the top 5 finalists of ANTM (America’s Next Top Model) cycle 20 was coming to Malaysia!
The 2013 Pioneer Digital DJ Battle returned for its 11th year running, and the finals took place in Zouk two Fridays ago!
Undoubtedly the most anticipated music and DJ talent discovery event in Malaysia, the competition originally took off in Orlando, Florida, and was organised by a group of party-crazy and audio-savvy Pioneer ProDJ execs. Malaysia them took it upon themselves to have a national battle in 2003, before it blew into an Asian Championship in 2006.
After an opening speech by Mr. Kazutoshi Takahashi, the Managing Director of Pioneer, the emcee introduced the judges for this year’s DJ Battle – DJ Eugene, DJ Anowl, DJ E.T, Cyrix Leong, and Raymond Lee, General Manager of Pioneer Malaysia.
It’s said that the judges received an overwhelming number of submissions, which isn’t surprising seeing the Top 3 Winners would win great prizes totalling RM35,000 and more; including a range of the latest Pioneer DJ equipment models:
Champion: 2 x CDJ Player (CDJ-2000NEXUS), 1 x DJ Mixer (DJM-2000NEXUS) and RM2,000 Cash Prize 1st Runner-up: 1 x DJ Mixer (DJM-900SRT) 2nd Runner-up: 1 x Remix Station (RMX-1000 Remix Station)
I also think it’s cos more people are aware on how being a DJ can be a viable career, hence the increase in level of competition as more talent gets put up against each other.
As it is, the Pioneer DJ Digital Battle has already introduced big DJ names that you know today – like DJ Goldfish, DJ Blink, DJ Victor G, DJ Fuzz, and more.
A number of supporting brands jump in on the action every year, with this year’s sponsors being Official Magazine JUICE, Official Apparel PUMA (who dressed all 6 finalists), Official Timepiece ICE-WATCH, Official Body Care GATSBY, Official TV Station 8TV, and Official Beer Heineken.
All the judges that night were dressed by PUMA and wore timepieces from ICE-WATCH.
The contest kicked off right on time, as each finalist got 20 minutes to showcase their talents and be judged based on creativity in using Pioneer equipment, song selections, mixing & scratching skills, techniques, audience response and overall showmanship.
First finalist up was DJ Aims
Second finalist on the decks was DJ Kev Kenji.
I remember hard beats mixed with xylophone accompaniments.
In between sets, the emcee got guests to play some funny games with prizes provided by GATSBY and ICE-WATCH.
Third finalist up for the night was George Gan, whom i heard is a student of Bryan Burger. He mixed various selections of old school hip hop, dance metal, hard house, and drum & bass – all with pretty good flow.
George Gan sure had a lot of supporters that night!
A-Marq was fourth finalist on the decks, who kicked off his set with a rendition of Star Wars. (Unfortunately for my ears there were some sounds implemented into his mixing which sounded like a construction site at work, much to my disdain.)
I was watching the competition from upstairs in the VIP section where i had my own table, ample finger food and free flow of Heineken 😀
A selfie contest going on downstairs. The emcee was quite funny and everyone was laughing at his comments. I would have failed at it cos i barely take any selfies.
Fifth finalist to go up that night was Ben Cracko, the defending champion of last year’s Pioneer Digital DJ Battle!
And the final DJ to have his 20 minutes that night, was DJ Alien a.k.a. BB
Playing more games while the judges tally their scores and make their final decision
The emcee with all six finalists
Token of appreciation for the judges courtesy of GATSBY and Pioneer!
After that was the nail-biting moment for the announcement on who the top-notch DJs of the night were, and WHO would be representing Malaysia in the 2014 Pioneer Digital DJ Battle Asian Championship.
Consolation prizes went to DJ Aims, DJ Kev Kenji, and DJ Alien a.k.a. BB.
Placing for 2nd Runner Up went to…
George Gan! Congrats on winning a RMX-1000 Remix Station, PUMA voucher worth RM500, ICE-WATCH Ice-Flashy Neon watch, and GATSBY products!
The overall judges’ comment was: “His song selection is good but compared with Ben Cracko and A-MARQ, his level control and effects are overused.”
So there was only A-Marq and Ben Cracko left.
They hugged it out before the 1st Runner Up was called, awww…
Super emo! Well it’s such close placing, i always feel for those who end up 1st Runner Up!
Congrats to A-Marq who won 1st Runner Up!
A-Marq won a Pioneer DJM Mixer (DJM-900SRT) worth more than RM6,000; PUMA voucher worth RM1,000; ICE-WATCH Ice-Flashy Neon watch; and GATSBY products!
The overall judges’ comment was: “He was well-prepared for his set by playing around with the RMX-1000 and the CDJ-2000NEXUS, but in the end the title still went to Ben Cracko due to his skill which is more mature.”
CONGRATS to the CHAMPION of the 2013 Pioneer Digital DJ Battle who’s Ben Cracko yet again!
As Champion, Ben Cracko won 2x CDJ Player (CDJ-2000NEXUS), 1 x DJM Mixer (DJM-2000NEXUS) and RM2,000 cash from Pioneer; along with PUMA vouchers worth RM1,500, ICE-WATCH Ice-Flashy Neon watch and GATSBY products!
Besides his total prize valued at over RM20,000; Ben Cracko immediately qualifies to represent Malaysia for the Pioneer Digital DJ Battle Asian Championship in 2014.
POP by Jaya One is a new retail space where different vendors get to rent out spaces of different sizes for one day to a year.
It’s similar to a departmental store, except that it’s catered to creative independent micro-retailers featuring a range of products from beauty and fashion, to food and services. POP takes up two whole floors in The School, and comes with dressing rooms, sales staff and a centralised payment system.
POP has been open since 1st December and is really easy to find – just walk past The Bee towards Frontera and you’ll see a new building right next to The Square.
The space isn’t fully occupied yet, but the management team mentioned that there will be more vendors coming in by the end of this month, including the setting up of a credit card payment system.
One of the cutest cashier counters I’ve seen in town! Definitely digging the neon lights. 😀
The sales staff in POP are really friendly, you can spot them easily by their POP aprons and approach them for any assistance at all!
KinkyBlueFairy has a booth there as well!
It’s right in front of the dressing room, next to the cashier. You can find lots of clothes, scarves, new/leather/vintage accessories, bags, shoes, and headbands!
There are only limited sizes in shoes left so you better check them out fast if you’re keen on them 😉
More pix of other vendors’ items for sale after the jump 🙂
The S4 Zoom combines 10x Optical Zoom, 16 Mega Pixel CMOS Sensor, OIS and Xenon Flash with the very latest Samsung GALAXY S4 technology – providing a smartphone with advanced photographic capabilities.
It has this revolutionary new feature called the Zoom Ring (pictured above) which is a digitally-controlled optical zoom, so you achieve more accuracy while composing shots or tight close-ups. Bye bye traditional buttons and dials!
Besides using it to zoom in when capturing shots, i just have to twist it (when the smartphone is unlocked) to activate the Quick Launch and Shortcut features.
It makes it a lot easier and quicker than going into the smartphone and looking for the camera button to take a pic 😉
The Zoom Ring can also be used when i’m in the middle of a phone call and i wanna share a picture. I just have to twist it to activate the In-Call Photo Share option and send the pic via MMS to whoever’s on the other line!
The S4 Zoom is currently the only smartphone that delivers a 10x Optical Zoom.
Just to show you HOW CLOSE that zoom really is, here’s an example:
And when zoomed… >
Zoomed to the max.
It’s pretty impressive!
I didn’t expect it to zoom that far in, what a great spy camera this is gonna be haha!
I like that i have to twist the front of the camera (the Zoom Ring) like a real camera instead of pressing buttons to zoom in, was never a fan of doing that.
The gadget also has a built-in Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) that’s great for people with shaky hands, cos it helps keep the camera perfectly still, reducing blur and stabilising the image while zoomed in for high-quality photos and video.
For something that can do so much, you’d think the S4 Zoom would be crazy huge but it isn’t!
I wanted to take a pic from the side so you can see how big it is.
The 4.3-inch screen is very vivid so it seems extra colourful.
I can select swiftly between My Mode (for my favourite modes that i preset), Expert (where i can change the aperture, shutter speed, white balance, etc), Smart (my favourite, cos it’s got 25 modes), and Auto.
Out of the 25 Smart Modes, i seem to be using the Rich Tone one the most right now, cos it makes colours a little bit more vibrant which i like so much.
All the Smart Modes are based on surrounding factors such as light levels, focal length, or face detection; so you don’t have to worry about settings while getting professional-quality shots.
Above are some pix taken with Rich Tone.
Took the fried oysters at Fat Spoon with the Food Shot 😉
Above are pix at Thirst taken with the Fireworks Smart Mode. Nice right!?
Other modes are Drama Shot, Beauty Face, Best Photo, Continuous Shot, Best Face, Kids Shot, Landscape, Dawn, Snow, Macro, Party/Indoor, Action freeze, Panorama, Waterfall, Animated photo, Drama, Eraser, Sound & Shot, Silhouette, Sunset, Night, and Light Trace.
Watch the vid below, it’s HAVOC, Joe Flizzow’s new song with some pix taken by the S4 Zoom 😀
There’s even a mode called Smart Mode Suggest – it’s a mode for when you can’t decide what Smart Mode you wanna use and let the S4 Zoom pick which it estimates is best! How crazy is that.
Easy navigation when adjusting the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, colour balance, exposure, etc.
There’s also a photo app called Photo Suggest, that instantly connects me to a library of pictures taken by fellow photographers that are near me. So you get to share great angles and subjects to take pics of via geo-tagging them.
I love the flip board, so nice to flip and surf when i’ve got a minute while waiting for something.
The smartphone runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.2, and includes Touchwiz so you can customize the device to make it your own.
I meant to stay home on Friday night and be good and blog about my week before, which in 2 days’ time will be two weeks prior. I don’t even know why i’m trying so hard. I just want to be out having fun and drinking with Clem, but no, i had to say that i wanted to come home after our date (first one in WEEKS/MONTHS) so i could… BLOG.
How loser-ish does that sound!?
So… i’m just throwing a bunch of pictures up here right now (while’s taking a crap and then going out again, but i’m gonna go too instead of staying in and being boring) SO THIS WILL BE QUICK
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On Tuesday the 3rd:
I went to have lunch with Neeraj, my ex-boss. Was supposed to be a real kinda lunch where i didn’t wanna talk about work but somehow that leaked in. It’s cool, it was nice to see him again after so long. I missed that mole on his forehead haha.
After lunch, i went to Jaya One to check on the KBF pop up store @ Jaya One. Was a bit concerned about the cement dust in there cos everything is so new but Lorraine and Fahmid (who work for Jaya One) and so freaking nice i can’t get mad at them.
Went back to office. Worked. Checked my make up and headed to Jalan Yap Kwan Seng for Vince & Marina’s wedding.
Already told V i wouldn’t really be there cos it’s the same night as Metric and i LOVE Metric, and he loves music and understands (i think) so he said it was okay. Well it must have been okay cos i didn’t have a seat or table haha so i felt no guilt as i left to go to KL Live for Metric…
Claudia took a pic while i was embracing the moment!
#CloudBomb
I promised Vince i’d return to the wedding, and around 11pm i snuck out of KL Live (while Metric was still on) and went back to the wedding where the party people were still drinking and drunking XD
After the wedding venue had to shut cos the staff wanted to go home, i went to Marini’s on 57 to join Clouds, Didi and some other peeps for a nightcap.
When we were in the bathroom (somewhere), i asked Clouds to pose…
I was like “what kinda pose is that!? Let me show you how it’s done!”
After all that, we went to Ampang with Rudy to grab supper and it was THE BEST ROTI PLANTA of my LIFE. Probably because i’d been craving it all week and haven’t had one for a year?!
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On Wed the 4th:
Chelsia passed me her new album when i met up with her for lunch at Ben’s! I’m so happy and proud of her! I love Chels cos she loves to eat and she’s such a HAPPY person i’d be stupid not to be friends with her. Go buy her album on itunes!
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In the afternoon, I shot as a co-host with Courtney for Fashion Asia TV. From what i understand (or remember wrongly), it’s a travel fashion documentary for an Australian TV channel and KL is their last stop. I took them to Thisappear (Joe Chia‘s new boutique in Telawi Bangsar) and Ril’s. Reason being is they asked me to take them to the coolest boutique and bar in town and… i figured that was IT.
OH WAIT I HAVE TO GO OUT NOW BYE!!!!
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The Fashion Asia TV team had great energy and despite my feeling prettyyy hungover from the night before, i had a LOT of fun! Check out the preview to their first episode *here*. The first episode airs on Wednesday the 18th on the Australia Network – www.australianetwork.com.
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On Thurs the 5th:
I went for TOD’s SS14 preview at Gardens. Full post with pix up soon.
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After rushing through office and blog stuff, i went to Wei Ling Contemporary in Gardens that evening for the “18@8 Mirror mirror on the wall” – an exhibition by 12 of the country’s leading contemporary artists. Each artist collaborated with Furla to create 12 exceptional bags which were all auctioned off for charity that night.
I had a shoot to do for Nine West, and went through a few locations in Bangsar like SEETHROUGH Concept Store, Bait restaurant & bar, and Thisappear again.
Thanks to Steve for being a big help that day!!
Cool shoes at SEETHROUGH that didn’t fit me *sob*! RM99.
I was pretty fricking tired by then… the whole week was starting to take its toll on me and i just wanted my bed! I blame the music for getting my vibes back up, cos despite my telling myself that i would leave at 11pm after the event, i ended up having drinks outside in Terrace Bar (i guess this was my annual appearance at Zouk haha) and went to TAG till Clem reminded me TWICE that i had a shoot the next morning so i slipped out and home at 2am.
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On Saturday the 7th:
I had a photoshoot for NUYOU mag with Claudia, Sueann, and Didi! It’s the first time (i think!?) doing a shoot with girlfriends and there was so much LOVE <3
After the shoot and interview, i went home in the afternoon and WAS SO HAPPY TO NAP AND SLEEP AND OH MY BED HOW I’VE MISSED YOU!!!
That was a pretty intense week! But i’m so proud i did so much haha!
*pats self on back and buys self lots of presents*
