My first catwalk experience
Nov 27, 2008 Events
No, that’s not me but yes, uhuh uhuh, I did it! :P It was crazy. I was a nervous wreck (so I gulped down a glass of wine and tried to sip from everyone who was holding a bottle of baby champagne) but it went well.
It was the housearming (not launch, since they’ve been open for a few months now) of the M stores (for men and for women) at The Gardens and they invited some personalities including Ning Baizura, Elaine Daly, Chef Wan, Dzireena Mahathir, William Kee, Hansen Lee, Jonathan Putra, Camelia and er, moi!
I walked down with Elaine and I think the nervousness showed on my face. We were to walk from one end of the shiny, silver catwat (scattered with confetti) to another. After we took our first pose (well, she posed, I just took there like a freak), I slid a little bit on the confetti and had to chase Elaine down!
I just smiled like a loser the whole time, I didn’t know what to do! But it was a nice crowd though (there’s Sandra in the picture and I saw Rubin, Leong, Leon, Marina, Vivienne and many other friends there), friendly and familiar faces (I thought everyone would be at the MIFW ‘08 event but I suppose they went after) and it was good to catch up with some friends.
I don’t have pictures of myself (too shy to camwhore) but I was wearing a Just Cavalli shirt, Rock & Republic Jeans and had a Tom Ford sunnies on my head. All amounting to more than my two months salary, mind you!
Thanks to the folks at Melium - I had good fun (the drinks helped!).
7.19am Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Tags: camelia, chef wan, dzireena mahathir, Elaine Daly, m store, melium, midvalley, ning baizura, the gardens
My second date with ASIMO
Nov 14, 2008 Events
Well, not exactly. I didn’t even get to see it up close. But I thought it was the most adorable thing ever.
This is ASIMO, or Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. Honda claims it to be the first humanoid robot in the world and I will say it again, it’s the most adorable thing - ever!
I first met ASIMO in 2003 during some technology expo at the National Science Centre. I was editing TECH magazine then and went for the expo to do some research. Then, I heard a buzz about the first ever walking robot and that was when I saw ASIMO. It could barely move then.
Today, at 1-Utama, I was invited to see the new ASIMO. This time, it could walk, run, kick a ball and even serve drinks … well, kinda. In the picture below, it is dancing along with some members of the audience.
The only thing strange is that ASIMO, being a product of Honda’s dreams (how’s that for a free plug???), should be Japanese, right? Then why does it speak with an American accent? heh heh
ASIMO will be making appearances over the next couple of weeks at shopping centres. It will be at 1-Utama until Sunday (Nov 16) before heading to City Square in JB (20-23 Nov) and then Queensbay Mall in Penang (27-30 Nov).
Say hi to it for me!
p/s No, I’m not getting paid for this post so this is not an advertorial. But if Honda feels like sharing some joy, I would really love a new car please. Thanks. :P
5.03pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Terry Fox Run Kuala Lumpur 2008
Nov 3, 2008 Events
I woke up at 7ish am in a blur (read my previous post to find out why). And I would be lying if I didn’t tell myself - at least a million times - screw the run, screw the run. But then I had promised my brother-in-law Rizal I’d pick him up for it. Bah.
Anyway, I was the one who wanted to run in the first place. It was going to be my first Terry Fox run (19th year in Malaysia, 27th year since the first run in Canada) and it was for a good cause - cancer research.
We were running late but managed to get there in time to buy our T-shirts. And there were thousands of people there. I really didn’t expect it because I didn’t see much publicity before-hand but I suppose word of mouth does wonders for an event like this.
I started late - and right at the back of the pack. My official excuse is that Rizal’s brother, his wife and two kids where there too so we started last. But truth be told, I had an “emergency” - nature calls when one is out in nature I suppose - and had to run to Lake Club, and back. But managed to make it just in time. By then, though, we got caught among the really slow people and got delayed. Some people were even cheating - climbing up the slope instead of walking an additional couple of hundred metres.
I came back quite fast, and even I was surprised at myself. My timing wasn’t bad considering I walked for a good 10 minutes among the crowd before I could start running properly. That is, until I found out that I only did 3km (family route) instead of 5km (adult route). That would be my only gripe about the event - I didn’t see the sign where the route split, and I didn’t hear the person shouting out about the route split (maybe he/she was thirsty when I ran past and had to rest).
But never mind, it was still a nice morning out. I met many friends there, Frank and PuehTian (who didn’t see me when I shouted out to him as I ran past) who I ran the Nike+ Human Race in Singapore with, Effa, Nazri and Kenny among others. I also caught up with my old friend Ida, who was the ambassador or something similar for the Terry Fox Run, when she arrived at the finish line.
Looking forward to next year (when I can run the full 5k!). This will be my last run for a while - I can’t run without my knee hurting anymore, so I’m going for an ultrasound this week to get it checked out. It will take a while to recover though. :(
12.35pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Tags: 2008, ida nerina, Kenny Sia, Kuala Lumpur, lake club, lake gardens, Run, terry fox, terry fox run
Malaysian Tatler Ball 2008
Nov 2, 2008 Events
So, in my previous post from yesterday, I mentioned that I had a fun night planned. I didn’t want to mention it then but since I had good fun, I thought I’d share a few pictures from the event.
Yes, as my post title suggest (actually, reads), I was at the Malaysian Tatler Ball 2008. For those not in the know, Malaysian Tatler is a popular magazine - it’s tagline The Spirit of High Society actually tells you everything about it.
The Ball was held at the Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur. Besides being a good excuse to dress up, the Ball was also a great place to have a great meal, and have lots of booze. :) It was a several course meal (I don’t remember for sure, I was walking around so much) - but the images below is from the very interesting starter (I forget what it’s called).
I loved the details of the table arrangements. The flowers were gorgeous, and the big candles were a nice touch. But what i liked most was how the base plates were half black, half white (cut across the diameter) and was arranged alternately in each table. Which means that if my plate had the black at the top of the plate, then the two people beside me had the white on top instead.
What’s more, they even had alternate-coloured napkins - black and white, of course - so mine was white, and those next to me had black. The same was the case for even the bread! Mine was wholemeal while the others was white bread. Such details!
I was invited to attend by a relative of mine, Vivienne Lee Iskandar who beautifully graces the cover of the November issue (I daren’t say how we are related, lest I get disowned!) alongside Rita Shum. What I didn’t know, however, was that she would be the recipient of the Quintessential Woman of The Year, one of the few awards which serve as the highlight of the night.
Later, I would find out that the table we were seated at would win two awards - Zainah Anwar, who lead Sisters In Islam for two decades, was named Activist of The Year. I sat on the table with some of Vivienne and Zainah’s friends, contemporaries and colleagues including Marina Mahathir and Women’s Aid Organisation’s Ivy Josiah.
(From left) Zainah, Ivy, Marina, me and Vivienne)
The party ended late - lots of dancing and mingling - and I only got home at almost 5am. I had to struggle to wake up for the Terry Fox Run a couple of hours later, but that is another story - and a blog post for tomorrow, with pictures as well!
11.36pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Tags: 2008, ivy josiah, Malaysian tatler, marina mahathir, sisters in islam, tatler ball, vivienne lee iskandar, wao, zainah anwar
Red Ribbon Gala 2008
Oct 26, 2008 Events
Last night was a very good night for R.AGE. Not only was the team presented with the Red Ribbon Award at the Malaysian AIDS Foundation Red Ribbon Gala 2008, but our R.AGE Debutante sparkled at the Viennese Ball 2008.
Ivy, the Youth Editor, and I attended the Red Ribbon Gala at Mandarin Oriental to receive the prize which included a beautiful trophy, a certificate and RM2,500 mock cheque (yes, we’ll be getting the real money too!). I am very happy with it, more so because we won it as a team and our names were all on the certificate - Ivy Soon, Niki Cheong, Melody L. Goh, Yam Phui Yee, Sharmila Nair and Nasa Maria Entaban.
It’s hard to imagine that it was three years ago when I was first contracted by The Star to help develop and set-up a new pullout dedicated to tertiary students and Sixth Formers which we called R.AGE. Then, it was only Phui Yee and me (with the help of many of our colleagues and contributors) manning the 8-page daily pullout. Today, we have have seven dedicated people in the team churning out 12-pages a day daily, one edition of Youth2 weekly and of course, help run the BRATs programme.
So, excuse me for gushing and being really happy - R.AGE is truly the love of my life.
Next door at the KL Convention Centre, our other colleague Ian Yee had a lot of fun dancing his feet off with his (better) half and the 10 R.AGE Debutantes at the Viennese Ball 2008. R.AGE had run a competition a couple of months ago asking readers to submit their videos to win a spot to “debut” at the Ball.
It was quite a night, out of all the debutantes, five pairs (10 people) were selected as best couple and three of those spots went to R.AGE Debutantes. Congrats to Sasha, Amir and Alicia.
Of course, Ian was beaming (amid running around getting work done!). If I was a happy daddy last night, Ian sure was a happy big brother.
Just wanted to share the good news! Oh, and congrats to Audrey Edwards from The Star too for also picking up the certificate of excellence at the Red Ribbon Gala.
1.30pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Tags: debutantes, malaysian aids foundation, R.AGE, red ribbon gala 2008, The Star, Viennese Ball
