I helped launch the Starbucks Malaysia official Facebook Fan Page

Yesterday, I found myself in Toys ‘R Us. I know, I know, I always claim to be a Toys ‘R Us kid (I don’t want to grow up and all that jazz) but I wasn’t reliving my second childhood, thank you very much (I’ll wait till I’m much older and lose control of my bladder for that).

I went in search of some masks, like these:

This was because I was invited to Starbucks Malaysia’s 11th Anniversary party, which had the theme “Masquerade”. If you know me well, you’d have discovered by now that I’m not really fond of costume parties. But a mask, I can do. While driving there, I kept thinking of The Phantom of the Opera. This song comes to mind:

So anyhow, I got there a little late as I was at the P1 Social Media Night in Bangsar just before – and the jam to Tropicana Mall, where the party was being held was pretty bad.

Starbucks Malaysia has a pretty good Twitter following, and they paid tribute to this with a live Twitter wall (well, they got someone to refresh the page throughout the night). Here is Jone from the Starbucks Communications and CSR team in her fancy costume.

Besides their 11th anniversary, the party was also to officially launch the Starbucks Malaysia Facebook Fan Page. I’ve previously spoken to them and they seem really keen on embracing social media, so good on them I say!

I was also very honoured to be invited by Sydney Quays (in the picture below with me – thanks to SmashpOp for the pictures!) and Jone to help them launch the page. My old friend Xandria Ooi (in the picture too, on the right) was the emcee and her introduction of me was very generous. Thanks Xan!

Sydney and I were meant to click the “Publish this page” link to activate the page but the link wouldn’t work! I’m sure he panicked and I freaked out and I was so tempted to press F5 but thought, dang, if I refresh the page and something else screwed up, then I’m fished. So I just continued clicking, hoping something will happen and Jone saved the day by refreshing the page and voila! Launched!

I had to rush off after the event, so I didn’t manage to camwhore much. I did get to meet lots of friends there though, good catching up. Among them were Suanie, Horng, SmashpOp, Bryanlyt, Ewin, Jules, Ashley (my college classmate!), David (who freaked everyone out with his mentalist tricks performances) and DustyHawk. Also met Fly.fm’s Ben for the first time, he sounds exactly like he does on radio. Freaky!

We did manage to get one shot before I left though. Jason, Ewin and Bryan and I decided to wear our hoodies, ala boyband. But why am I the only one wearing a mask? Tsk tsk.

Congratulations again to Starbucks Malaysia for your 11th anniversary, and on the launch of your FB page. Here’s to many more!

11.59am Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

Tags: anniversary party, bryanlyt, ewin ee, ewinee, horng, jason goh, jules, masquerade, myhorng, p1wimax, phantom of the opera, smashpop, starbucks, starbucks malaysia, suanie, sydney quays, tropicana mall, xandria ooi