Levi’s recently launched the new Levi’s MARVEL collection, and it ain’t denim this time. In the form of an array of sunglasses in bold and daring colours, the MARVEL collection has 26 fun and distinctive colour combinations available.
The launch event was held at Coco Tei Tokyo Japanese Cuisine in KL, where we were treated to a fare of sushi, sashimi and various fried dishes while sitting cross-legged style (I really shouldn’t have worn a dress to this event). There was nice, warm tea being served and… wine too, but I only had a teeny tiny sip, hehe.
It was announced at the event that the special edition MARVEL collection would be available for all of us to preview, along with a curated group of savvy fashionistas, singers and actors ‘modelling’ them.
In the private rooms, a table displaying all the Levi’s MARVEL eyewear was laid out for us to try on and choose. What I love most about this collection, is the fact that the MARVEL collection comes in two sizes, big and small which makes it perfect to be worn by both men and women.
Because the designs all carry the same aviator DNA, I was worried that they may be too big for my face. Quite the contrary! Since the Levi’s designers were thoughtful in creating a smaller version, I was so glad to see that it looked really good on smaller faces (women, in general). The colour selection is amazing! They have the whole spectrum of colours; from cool gunmetal greys, polarised sunset-pink lenses to the ever-popular blue-violet lenses. Some of these options come with pristine white frames for a more futuristic look.
You would love the double-bridge designs too, which help give better support (and an edgier look) to the wearer.
You would think that being a constant traveler, i follow a special plan when it comes to using roaming on my phone for internet.
The truth is, I have no plan. I’m not the sort who will go out of their way to suss out some internet plan because i lack time, and have given up walking around looking for phone shops to buy a local roaming card.
My usual habit would be to switch on the daily roaming charges, and set my alarm to 11:50PM if i need to switch it off lest i’m flying off the next morning and don’t find paying the daily fee worth it. Sometimes, i may be out (read: socialising) at midnight and not hear the alarm thus resulting in me going, “Crap! Oh well,” when i get the notification upon paying for an extra day.
You should have seen my face when i saw my phone bill after my 6-week #KBFsummer15 trip.
It felt like i was buying a new phone. -_-
There is no denying i NEED the internet with i’m traveling. There are so many things i NEED it for!
Snapchat, IG, check emails,
download important documents that need sudden approval,
whatsapp various contacts to move along projects,
upload pictures for Andrew to edit,
research where i want to go eat next,
find the nearest taxi or train stop, get an Uber,
whatsapp pix and updates to my family and friends so they know i’m alive,
msg friends in the city i’m in that i want to meet up with,
etc!
I’m currently in Tokyo for a Uniqlo press trip, and for the first time ever I HAVE A PLAN.
Every year end, my mom has this habit of buying feng shui books and various ‘lucky objects’ to boost luck for the coming year.
“Need to have good chi in every corner of the house,” she says. #typicalasianmom
I’m not a big feng shui believer myself, but I do believe it has mystical powers to some extent. When Joyce sent me the Poh Kong invite and I saw the words feng shui in it, I was like hmmmm.. feng shui and jewellery. Interesting.
[Joyce: I’m totally a believer of feng shui!!]
At The Majestic Hotel KL, our feng shui speaker for the day was Jessie Lee from Soleil Trinity Resources. She started off by asking for three volunteers. Like shy children, everyone was intrigued but no one wanted to step forward. At last, a lady from my table volunteered. After another long wait, I decided to step up, followed by a friend of mine.
I expected her to read our fortunes or something, but she gave us all money! For real! I made 20 bucks, just for volunteering.
Jessie explained, “This is why most people blame their fortunes for all the bad luck in their life. Equal opportunity was given to everyone in the room to make some money, but it took so long for us to respond that we missed out on it.”
This wrapped up the theme behind why Poh Kong’s Auspicious Collection was created – to help remind us to take hold of opportunities in 2016, and not to let them slip away.
She gave us a brief highlight of all the luck charts for the 12 Chinese Zodiacs in the Lunar calendar. The overall conclusion of the hour-long talk? Feng shui is the art of using objects around you to harness that mentality of achieving your goals/dreams. There are charts and many other elements involved, but I’m not going to get into that because it could go on forever. Check out Soleil Trinity’s site if you are interested in knowing your 2016 forecast.
After Jessie’s talk, we got to view the 2016 collection pieces from Poh Kong.
I have never seen so much gold on a model! Intricate and artfully done, the pieces shown also include some from Poh Kong’s Happy Love collection- elaborate pieces inspired by traditional oriental weddings.
Last week, I volunteered to go for the opening party of Ben’s Independent Grocer (hereafter referred to as B.I.G) at Plaza Batai. Joyce couldn’t make it as she was doing her detox where she could only eat one bean a day for a week… KIDDING!
Anyway, since it’s an event by The BIG Group, where usually, no expense is spared… I was mighty excited (as always!) because this would be my very first BIG event (geddit?). I put on my fancy skirt for this swanky supermarket opening and I got Sandra Woo to be my date (because food is her kryptonite)!
When I got there, it rained like mad! I had a panic attack for a bit because my fancy skirt is made of suede and I just flat ironed my hair to perfection! Ahhhh… Silly Baby, it’s a BIG event, naturally there would be guys with huge umbrellas escorting you from your car to the venue. They’d got it all covered!
And as I predicted, the whole setting screamed “CLASSY!”. Guys came in suits and ladies in their best cocktail dresses and stilettos as high as their hair buns. There was a string quartet playing soothing tunes in the middle of the Plan B Roasters and B.Read (bakery area). Uniformed waiters and waitresses were serving all kinds of canapés, wines, champagne, cold-pressed juices and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were to serve water that came from the fountain of youth that night!
B.I.G @ Plaza Batai is a new shopping and dining enclave which is divided into several sections- including Botanical Produce (fruits & vegetables), Barn Butchery, Bon Gourmet, Bay Seafood, Malaya Kitchen (local ingredients), Japanese, Dairy & Frozen, Boozelt (Wine) and S.Wine Deli.
“This is what we affectionately call “Little B.I.G”, a smaller version of what we have in Publika and I hope it encapsulates what grocery shopping should be. We traded what’s the best available around the world, put it here in store for your shopping convenience. Now, five years ago, this all seemed like a fairly distant dream. The idea of being able to curate products from around the world and bring it here to Malaysia, that seemed like a far-fetched fantasy. I mean, we grew up traveling around the world and instead of visiting famous tourist places, our first stops were always supermarkets. So this store here is an accumulation of my personal fantasy of what supermarkets should be… for the last 30 years,” said Ben (founder of The BIG Group) during his heartfelt welcome speech.
B.I.G introduces the Eat.Drink.Shop concept where there are plenty of dining options to be sampled before or after you do your grocery shopping. For example, there is Ben’s General Food Store located at the opposite end of the Grocer. This neighbourhood eatery houses a wide array of brands each with their own unique cuisine and expertise from fresh salads, spit roast chicken and pizzas, to a new range of modern tapas, seafood and shuck-to-order oysters.
It doesn’t stop there, people! Beauty & the Beast will also open its doors very soon. Beast is a bar and grill which serves juicy steaks (oh.my.god!), lobsters and hearty burgers. Its partner-in-crime, Beauty, is a sophisticated bar catering to the likes of strong, tongue-in-chic women (KBF ladiiiiies, holla!) who enjoy fancy cocktails and the finer things in life (oh, don’t we all now).
As I walked in deeper into this 17,000 sq. ft. space of utmost brilliance, I found myself stopping at the seafood station where I stood there for a good few minutes stuffing my face with freshly shucked Irish oysters, prawn cocktail and ikura. T’was divine and mad satisfying.
After I was done with the seafood, I ventured towards the grill where they served EVERY SINGLE THING THAT I LOVE!
[Funny story: Before Joyce left the office that day, she told me to text the KBF group chat pictures of food from the event. I didn’t like the idea. But I said, “Suuuuuuuuure…”. So I texted the picture above and got a “Fuck off!”
I managed to make his acquaintance thanks to Suunto.
Before this summer, i didn’t even know what Suunto was. And it’s quite an interesting story about how it’s earned a place on my selectively-curated dressing table.
When i was away in Europe in July, I was asked whether i wanted to receive this Suunto watch. I glanced over the email quickly to judge whether i would actually use it, and read that it could be used to measure exercise like running, so i said yes cos i was planning to start running more.
The watch got sent to my office, i got overwhelmed with work, and then didn’t use it till i was talking to Jun, who’s into trail running. I’d never even heard about trail running before. My introduction to an inkling of its existence happened like so:
Jun: Oh i went for a run today.
Me: Oh nice, how far did you run?
Jun: 30km
I was thinking, “Isn’t that kinda far for a Sunday jog…” before promptly feeling extra lazy for just watching popcorn time all afternoon.
Then he told me about ultra races.
Me: How long is the race?
Jun: 100km
Again i’m thinking, “People do that?? Run 100km… that’s FAR!” *imagines a third of the distance between KL and Penang*
And you can’t even reach the char koay teow.
One day, i noticed his watch looked similar to my yet-unused watch.
“Oh! I think i have the same watch as you.” “A Suunto?” “Yes… i think it’s the same one.” “Which one is it? Is it the new one?” “Erm… i don’t know…” “What colour is it?” “Lime green.” “OH! It must be the new one!”
Okkkk calm down. I didn’t know this watch was such a big deal.
I even went online to search up more about its origin.
“Suunto was born in 1936 when Finnish orienteer and engineer Tuomas Vohlonen invented the mass production method for the liquid-filled compass. Since then, Suunto has been at the forefront of design and innovation for sports watches, dive computers and sports instruments used by adventurers all over the globe. From the highest mountains to the deepest oceans, Suunto physically and mentally equips outdoor adventurers to conquer new territory.
Suunto’s headquarters and manufacturing plant is in Vantaa, Finland. Employing more than 400 people worldwide, Suunto products are sold in over 100 countries.”
So this is the watch i got, the Suunto Ambit3. I finally started using it since i found someone who could set it up for me haha.
Hey, the watch is so canggih i still haven’t figured out all its features yet 0_o
So far i’ve just used it to measure my distance, time, ascent and descent on hikes. It can be used for running, swimming, cycling and multisport training.
I noticed what looked like a fancy lanyard tag inside the box and was told it was to measure my heart rate, which i didn’t see the point of at the time. Can you see how noob i am with exercise..?
THEN, when i was doing my detox at Pure Health early last week, Wendy told me that i needed to increase my low heart rate level cardio (my fave… not) which was the only way i could lower my body fat percentage which has increased by 2% in the past 6 months *thinks of all the food i stuffed myself with in Portugal*. She measured that for my height and weight, low cardio for me would be somewhere in between 115 and 150. I stared at the numbers thinking how am i gonna know what’s the right rate i’m going at?, when DING DING DING i remembered i HAVE a heart rate monitor!
Of course, Suunto wouldn’t call it a heart rate monitor.
For the watch, it’s referred to as the Smart Sensor– which records and stores heart rate (HR), and transfers the data wirelessly to my Ambit3 watch or the Suunto Movescount App that’s already set up on my laptop.
This is the first time i wore it out at Penang National Park! Took a break to make friends with a tree.
