Musical Wedding

Another wedding extraordinaire. Went to a very musical wedding. My girlfriend, Cathlyn married a musicman, the Musicman Ken. (well, actually I am a friend of both the bride and the groom as they were both my MBA coursemates, but of course I was closer to the bride. Now who says nothing good comes out of our MBA course hehehe)

Anyway, Ken is the owner of Bently Music School (well, sounds a bit of advertisement here… but no they didn’t pay me for this.. :P) so it’s no wonder that they identify the dining tables by musical instruments and Musical Band names. Mine was Musicman Stingray… with a picture of an electric guitar. Since I am not quite musically incline, I am open to comments on the interpretation of that.. :P

Needless to say, the musical entertainment for the night was of A-class. They broke the normal routine of walking down the red carpet to the tune of their favourite music. Instead, they sung “Endless Love” themselves as they waltz in graciously hand in hand. Now that was an extremely romantic scene and I am sure a few romantics nearly swoon. (Ed: And to think they initially wanted us to sing for them - I personally think singing themselves is a more original idea and more memorable and meaningful, don't you think?) The life band that they hired was superb, whereby the beautiful girl belted out number after number of superb soothing songs which were just right for the dining ambience.


I had my handsful with Bryan, as usual if I bring him to any dinner. Actually the thoughtful bride and groom provided a special section for kids where there were clowns and coloring books and prizes just for the children. I guess the children would loved it as they could have endless supply of sausages and fries at that section. However, I, being a paranoid parent, cannot bear to lose sight of Bryan, decided to keep Bryan at the “adults” section instead; much to the chagrin of one of the “chee muis” as initially Bryan had occupied her seat.. :P Have to apologize again for keeping her husband sitting at the next table until the baby chair came along which was much much later.. hahahah…



Anyway, the event was nicely planned and everything and everyone was beautiful… had a good time meeting up old friends but catching up was a little tedious for me due to Bryan’s constant craving for my attention. He keep asking me questions which I couldn’t answer, much to the amusement of everyone on my table.

For example, Ken said in his speech about something “I am very touched but I couldn’t cry….”

And then, Bryan asked, “Why he said he couldn’t cry?”

I really don’t know how to answer… ahahaha and I could hear the sniggers from my classmates at my table…. :P

After a few glasses of wine, (which was kinda good but I forgot the brand… Ken/Cathlyn, mind dropping us the name and year of the red wine served?) we were a little drunk and I completely forgot about Bryan’s Doraemon tumbler. After leaving the place, Bryan suddenly exclaimed that he forgot his tumbler and started crying for his Doraemon tumbler. Well, instead of bothering the newly weds with my phonecall (who knows what they would be doing already after the dinner right…hahaha), I sent an sms to Cathlyn and told her to keep the tumbler for me if she was still in Millenium hotel.


She brought me good news the next morning and she said she wasn’t doing much now that she has upgraded her status to an “Ah So” (auntie). Welcome to the club Cath.. hahahaha

Anyway, Congratulations Ken and Cathlyn. May your days ahead be filled with sun shiny happy tunes and your nights with romantic and soothing music and may both of you enjoy these pleasant tunes together forever….

Children Safety Awareness

SEPT 20, 2007 - Lately the rising of rape and kill rate of children are quite alarming. And it saddens me to see all these things happening to innocent young girls… There are more and more perverts out there and I really don’t feel safe anymore. Did you hear about the latest news, about a website called, MarryOurDaughter.com, which was created by a guy who wants US to do something about the minimum age for marriage and also try to encourage US to enhance their law on statutory rape and the loose law against rapist using marriage to escape from their sins. That website has lots and lots of young girls profile in there (age below 16) where the parents urge young eligible men to write in and propose to their daughters. There were a lot of response, from ppl all over US and the website had few hundred thousand hits in just 2 weeks. There were even requests from parents to add in their daughters into the site. So you see how pervertic both parents and men in the US.

The site, thankfully, is a hoax, created to spread awareness among the citizens as an urge for the legislative department in the US to do something to curb the “selling” of daughters (flesh trade) and hopefully save young girls from marriage-rape, or date-rape.

Just wanna create some awareness here with this article…

Well, I know you guys must be trying to go into the site as I speak… well the site has been taken down as of yesterday when the creator took his case to CNN to report his findings and urge the US Legislative department to do something. The thing is, this site may be a hoax in the US but in other parts of the world, it’s already happening and most government is not doing anything or cant do anything about it.

I am very worried… Maybe paranoia… I am thinking if I could ever manage a daughter in such a world. I think I would be having sleepless nights everyday, worrying about her… .. :P

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

Hmmm today is mid-autumn festival.. and I don't have any mid-autumn stories to tell... Hmmm let you know a bit about traditions lar...

Usually mid-autumn festival is celebrated with mooncakes... these mooncakes were once military tools to pass messages in the war-torn days in China.

Today they are but sweet desserts use to accompany the family after the dinner reunion while they watch the children play lanterns underneath the full moon of the 15th day of the 8th Lunar Calendar month. Oh, for the reunion dinner, chicken and pork (Siew Yuk) is usually served. This morning, I had to "deliver" a piece of Siew Yuk each to myAunt and Mom together with mooncakes as a symbol of respect and giving on this auspicious day... Ummm, also a good excuse to come a little late to work ahahahah...

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all.. :)

Mandy Moore singing Umbrella

I just simply love Mandy Moore's cover version of Rihanna's umbrella. It's like an unplugged version... so romantic.. :) I am a sucker for romance... And Mandy's sentimental version made me understand what Umbrella was all about - about ALWAYS being there to protect the one you love most... And I think that's beautiful...




The original singer Rihanna and her umbrella




Umbrella Lyrics in case you wanna sing along.. :)

You have my heart
And we'll never be worlds apart
May be in magazines
But you'll still be my star
Baby cause in the dark
You can't see shiny cars
And that's when you need me there
With you I'll always share
Because

[Chorus]
When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be a friend
Took an oath I'ma stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)

These fancy things, will never come in between
You're part of my entity, here for Infinity
When the war has took it's part
When the world has dealt it's cards
If the hand is hard, together we'll mend your heart
[ Umbrella lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]
Because

[Chorus]
When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be a friend
Took an oath I'ma stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)

You can run into my arms
It's okay don't be alarmed
Come into me
There's no distance in between our love
So go on and let the rain pour
I'll be all you need and more
Because

[Chorus]
When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be a friend
Took an oath I'ma stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)

It's raining
Ooh baby it's raining
Baby come into me
Come into me
It's raining
Oh baby it's raining

Model Mom? Part 3

11 Dec 2006

Here's the first sample of the packaging product which I modeled last week.

Model Mom? Part 2

FRI. 08/12/2006.

I was reluctant at first. When a friend called me up to model for his packaging/product cover, terrifying flashback from earlier attempts at modeling flooded my memory. I was so young then 17 and fresh from school, no experience whatsoever. (Teenagers at 17 back then was very different from the 17s now who are more well-informed)。 My friend who was a part-time model says that there’s a job which requires no experience. They wanted fresh faces, they said. So I went. And no guidance was given. Just ask me to look natural at the camera and smile. It was for a Singaporean magazine and I was like totally lost when they started clicking. I didn’t even know when to start posing. So I just stood there and froze. I could smile, but I froze, I couldn’t pose because I just simply don’t know how to. The photographers were mean. They didn’t help. They didn’t let me know what they want. I think they were just annoyed that I was the only one not “working hard” unlike the other talents. So the event was very embarrassing and unpleasant. I felt stupid. I hated myself for not being able to do such a simple thing. From that day onwards I shy away from all modeling jobs or things that would expose myself to public ("Phau Tau Loh Mien" in cantonese).

And then I told my buddies at work about the job. And in the midst of their jeer and tease, they actually encouraged me. (Now I understand what TAY means when she said, “Although he laughs at me, deep inside he still cares!” haha). Their advice came in various shapes and sizes:

Leonard: “Well, its an opportunity mar…There are so many girls around KL…Not so easy to get this chance leh… you’re not getting any younger.”

Kee: “Should go for it lah... no need money lah, your get exposure of different kind which is worth more.......Anyhow, they’ll just be taking your finger.”

David: “I think you are photogenic. Not to say you’re not gorgeous looking in real life, but you look even better in photos. Anyway, it’s their job to make you look nice, so no worries. Should go for it. No harm.”

LWee: “You should take it, may open up a new path way for you, in modeling, advertising etc, never too old to try cause got difference market mah, I saw there are plenty of advertising/modeling opportunity for aunties….”

Finally, I gathered enough courage to go. And boy it was great. The poses were all pre-fixed. They told me exactly what they want. And told me where my pictures would be fitted in (on a CD box cover of an SMS software they are going to market) and thus letting me know that my hands can only stretch so far. (Too wide and it’ll be off the CD size). They told me that my action and expression would be of an office girl trying to press a button and the button is actually a globe. Suppose to portray that with the product, one can be connected to the world easily with just a press of a button. All their instructions were clear and concise and we started taking pictures within minutes. I could easily produce what they want. I felt good when the photographer commented that I am easy to work with, as they didn’t need to tell me much.

Since it was an easy shot, they wanted me for another scene. Sitting down with arms open wide (not legs, mind you...) to portray an impression of "easy to get a job well done". I did that and it was over within minutes too.

Oh, and for the record, they really wanted to take my finger too as what Kee has predicted. They did a close up picture of my finger, trying press a button.

Well, I am glad I went. Everything went well, and I hate myself less for being stupid at 17. Sorta like a ego-redemption experience. And really it wasn’t the pay that counts. Not even the photo shoot itself. It’s realizing that after all these years, it’s not your fault. And realizing that you have great buddies who spur you on and pick you up when you need it the most (even though they did it mostly for laughs). Now that’s what really counts…..

Here are something to show from behind the scene. Not the actual shots but something taken with my friend’s IXUS 50 and his Dopod.

It’s pretty dark here.. wonder if it’s brighter with the Prosumer that the Lillian the photographer used. (looked brighter when I previewed on her camera’s LCD)

Opps... as I speak, another photographer wants me to help him with his pictures... excuse me... (*ahem)

Model Mom?

Thurs. 07/12/2006

Guess what,…. A friend called me up late last night and ask if I wanted to model for their packaging/product photoshot …. He was busy so he told me he’d give me the details this morning.

Come this morning, he told me that the packaging photo is for some IT or phone related product … all I had to do is to pose like a office girl pressing a button – (the button is actually the world). Something like to show that with the product, all you need is to press a button and you’re connected to the world.

I wanted to say yes… then I chickened out…. I told him I wasn’t in office wear. And I told him that I might not be able to make it on time for their shot…. I was thinking to myself, hmmm I don’t even know how to make up for a photoshoot….. In other words, I was just not ready…. He was disappointed (as he thought it’d be a win-win situation – he doesn’t have to pay high price to look for talents and I can get exposure for modeling), and so he said he’ll ask his advert personnel to search for other talents lor….

Soooo I was thinking …. Did I give up on an opportunity when it was already presented to me on a silver platter? Not that I want to launch a modeling career, too old for that luuuu…..

Bryan's first coloring contest!

I guess words fails me at the amusement that these 2 kids brought us today. It was Bryan's first coloring contest and thanks to Miao, he manage to pluck all his courage to get through with it. He was so excited that he was already talking about it the whole Saturday. When he woke up, he asked, "Are we going for the coloring contest today?" I suddenly remembered I had to sharpened his colors for him.... (later I found out that Miao was even more anxious about the contest that she sharpened and resharpened her colors and began to cry when they broke! ahahahah)

Anyway, we were at the Great Eastern Mall for the first time at around 1.15pm to register for the event. The response was so good that they ran out of application forms and receipts. Luckily, they let us participate anyway.

Bryan had the worse set of tools as he only had color pencils while the rest of the contestants came well equiped with water colors, pastel colors, crayons, 4B/6B pencils, magic ink, florescent pens... you name it, they've got it. They even bought their own coloring table!!!

We were quite worried since this was a free drawing and the title was "What Merdeka means to you." It was already difficult for Bryan to even do coloring, now he has to draw pictures from scratch....My goodness, I think he's going to draw blanks litterally. And what would Merdeka means to kids... How would they know what it means as they weren't even born 50 years ago.... Goodness.... Well, no choice.. they were already sitting in the contest floor, waiting for the contest to start... Let's just see what they'll come up with .....

Surprisingly, they were quite creative. Bryan actually explained to me that those stick people he drew were Malaysians of Chinese, Indian and Melayu (in his own words which meant Malay)... Amazing... And he says that purple thingy is a house for all Malaysians to stay... The brown thingy on the left is a Rocket, hmmm... pretty creative, huh... And obviously the flag were significant of Merdeka. The birds and rainbows were for freedom (I guess Miao Miao taught him this after hearing from the Judge/Artist who gave some pointers earlier). Anyway, Miao Miao helped him a lot as Bryan didn't even know what was going on!

Well, all's well ends well and Miao Miao won 3rd runner's up for being creative in using Color Pencils. Amists all the Magic, Pastel, Oil and Water colors, the conventional Color Pencils stood out. What a great day for a 6 year old. :) The funny thing was, Bryan keep asking me, when's his turn to take a prize and I had a tough time taming him. Each time they announce a winner, he put up his hands AHHAHAHAH.. So silly!!!

Anyway, Bryan did win a consolation prize... a goodie bag with some stationeries, notepads and a bag. However, he refused to get down from the stage! He wanted his ARTWORK back! What a funny scene.. ha ha... Anyhow, he got it back after I coax the organisers to return it....


All in all it was a great day to see those kids take their first steps into experiencing things they have never done before. It was a first experience for us too to see their reaction at this "contest" experiment. Good exposure for them I must say, and well, my effort in sharpening the color pencils didn't go to waste.. hahahaha...

Bryan and Miao Miao - First Day of school

Bryan and Miao Miao on their first day of Kindergarten.

How time flies.... Sigh....




Christmas 2005

Lily and Kevin's Wedding

Attended a hilarious wedding dinner on Sunday (15 July 07). I haven’t been blogging about the wedding banquets lately as I don’t find them a satirical write. Most of the weddings have ground to similarity and routine… even through my keen eye for humour….. But this one was fresh…

Lily and Kevin’s wedding was held at Ritz-Carlton, one of the finest hotel in KL, 6-stars to be exact. So you’d be expecting a lot of no-nonsense “Penguins” (men-in-tux) and partners hanging around, mingling with each other, getting drunk on business talks and world news. This wedding was a little different however. It was more of a small family reunion, finely organized for a table of six for close friends and relatives. Lily (oh, I am a friend of the bride by the way…) has been in Australia for as long as I could remember… not sure how many years… but 5 years at least! It’s amazing that she still keep in touch with all of us ex-colleagues of Aetna days. In fact, more than 3 tables were allocated for Aetna friends. Of course, most of the old “Aetna friends” have grown in numbers due to the expansion of family members (spouse, children, grandchildren? ahahah)….

Anyway, if you think 9 years friendship (I got to know Lily since 98 when we worked for Aetna’s Y2K project) goes a long way, I happen to sit next to Kevin’s 3 close friends who flew all the way from Sydney, Australia to attend Kevin’s Malaysian wedding (they already had one in Sydney I was told). And they told me, their friendship with Kevin goes back around 30 years. I heard them saying that they’ve known each other like since 12th grade. Now that’s something that deserves some respect. I mean, I am a sucker for loyalty and comradeship and this kind of “long term friendship” (I assume it’s a “through-thick-and-thin” kind of relationship) puts a lump in my throat. And the amazing thing was they were of different professions, which meant that they got together based on their own effort and not through work contacts. One of them was a treasurer in PWC, another a fireman, and yet another is a plumber who runs his own successful business. And Kevin and Lily are in the IT industry....

Well, far from expectation that this would be a serious wedding reception, Kevin, Lily and their family made it one of the most entertaining weddings that I went to. Kevin, an Australian, attempted to make a “serious” speech in Hokkien (Chinese dialect) which had everyone practically rolling on the floor laughing…we couldn’t understand a word he said (partly because I don’t understand Hokkien anyway). Well, it was a good attempt… and you could see that they both try hard to blend both the western and eastern cultures together.

Well, the dinner went on like any Malaysian weddings complete with the cake cutting (the layers signifying the many layers that they will go through together in life and achieving higher and higher together in life), champagne fountain (signifying prosperity and basically everything overflowing in abundance), and Yum Seng (Bottom’s up) toast sessions - the first toast is to thank everyone for coming, the second for good health, wealth and prosperity and the third toast's to bless the bride and groom togetherness until their wee old age (i.e. the western till death do they part) and also to wish them speedy expansion of their family so that their offsprings can accompany them on their journey together…

And then comes Karaoke. Yes, Karaoke is very much a “staple diet” of many a weddings in Malaysia nowadays. Most of the wedding couples nowadays try to make do without one, fearing that all the “Malaysian Idol” wannabes might hog the mic for the whole night. There was a wedding I went to in Ipoh where they didn’t have Karaoke, but the guests insist on singing for the couple by doing acapella numbers. And I also remember my own wedding when an old lady went up to sing some rotten Chinese song.... neither Brandon nor I admitted that she’s our relative. Until today, we still don’t know whether she’s from Brandon’s side or mine. ha ha.

Nevertheless, I don’t blame Lily and Kevin for having a karaoke session at their wedding since their whole family have been in Australia for so long and they miss Malaysia and the karaoke much. It was such a romantic scene seeing Kevin, a virgin at Karaoke, belting out a wedding favourite, “You were always on my mind”, with his beautiful wife, Lily by his side.

And then we could also see that Lily and her 3 sisters missed karaoke so much that they belted out 5 to 6 songs in a row and having fun at that (boy you should see them dance!). It was great to see them having so much fun… errr….even though the sound system was terrible … yeah I blame the sound system for the “chagrin faces” of fellow attendees of the wedding as they belted out number after number of yesteryears favourites ….. hahahaahah Even the 3 Australian friends of Kevin, (the 3 tenors?) had a try with “Love Me Tender”. You will have to watch their wedding video to know how they sound like.. ha ha (Air Supply perhaps?)

And oh, I am sure the wedding guests wanted to show off their prowess in singing as they didn’t need much coaxing to go up to the stage… hahaha. Kudos to Loo who was so brave to invite himself onto the stage to belt out a beautiful Chinese rendition of “Will you still love me tomorrow” for the wedded couple.

Albeit all the homour, it’s great to see this kind of “east meet west” weddings where there was so much culture exchange being shared amongst the family and friends. The food was delicious, entertainment (aka Karaoke) was great (have to say this since the camera is rolling ha ha), location setting was beautiful, timing was superb… definitely what a successful marriage is made of.

To dear Kevin and Lily, Congratulations again on your marriage and May you have many, many more happy days together ahead of you….

*Oh I just remembered something funny when David, Martin and the Fireman (*sorry I forgot your name) was about to eat the fine sharks fin soup. I explained to them that if you don’t like the strong fishy smell that Sharks Fin sometimes emit, you can use the vinegar to cover the smell….. and then at that very same moment, Loo asked them to try DURIANS, the King of fruits. And I was thinking to myself, “Boy, you definitely can’t use vinegar to cover the durian’s pong…. Ha ha”….. And then David exclaimed, “Yeah, the Durian smells like GARBAGE!!... “ Hahahahahahaa…. A really apt explanation to “one’s man mean is another man’s poison.. “ hahahaha

Lost my O2 mini

It’s a horrible feeling to lose something… Especially something that you have grown accustomed to on a daily basis. Yeah, I lost my dear O2 mini XDA II phone…. Noticed that I said lost and not stolen. It’s my fault entirely… which makes it so much harder to swallow and forget the whole incident. I know I must let it go and move on.. But the thought of my own carelessness in causing the lost is too painful..

Anyway, I have gotten over it a little.. everything takes time to douse the impact… ease the pain… that’s why I have the courage to talk about it now… Prior to this, I just want to forget the incident and move on… Oh, how I hated it when people ask me how it happened, and I have to relive the whole ordeal again and again to each and every nice person who cared enough to enquire about the incident.

Actually I am the type of person who will get close to something after some time together. When I first got my chevy… no feeling… after a while, the more I found out about the car, the more I love it. Some goes for my O2. When I first got my phone, I felt stupid coz I spend so much (RM2588) on a phone that keeps rebooting itself, or keep hanging… and then slowly, after playing with it almost daily, I would feel quite lost even if I didn’t play with it for just 1 day. It provided me with so much entertainment and solutions, i.e. games, movies, camera functions, calendar, reminders, tasks update, calculator, maps, etc etc… sigh.. I really do miss it a lot…

Right now I am not sure what phone to get. So far, ppl tell me IPAQ and Dopod is good and cheap but I feel like getting an O2 again… Coz everywhere I look, traces of my O2 is staring at me – my charger, my download cable, the extra stylus, my colleague’s O2 mini (which we bought together) etc .. AHAHAHAHA (sounds like a break off with boyfriend eh?).. every little thing around me seems to have fond memories connected to my O2… even those Annual dinner photos have shadows of my O2… (hahaha sounds so dramatic and pathetic…) Sigh…

Anyway, just to document down how it happened for the benefit of those who care….

I went for my annual dinner last Saturday. Everything was fine and well. All dolled up and ready to go before 6. This is one of the first times I got ready before the dinner starts… hahaha … Not that I was overly excited and started dolling up early.. but it’s because I didn’t bother to doll up. And then I decided to use a small handbag which doesn’t fit my O2 mini. So I decided to hold the O2 in one hand and the handbag in another - the first wrong decision made for the night.

And then all was well during dinner; laughing, jeering at friends, taking photos and good food to top it all up. All was well until they serve substandard performances one after another. It was aqua show after aqua show. And aqua here doesn’t mean water if you get what I mean… Not that I am prejudice, but the performances like this grounds to a drone when you watch it year after year…. So I made the next wrong decision for the night by going to the washroom. And that’s how it all happened. There’s a place for you to leave your belongings on top of the toilet roll holder and I left my handphone there. To make a long story short, and spare you of other lewd details, I left the cubicle without my O2.

Went to wash my hands and was surprised to see my user, Shanti, pregnant. So I made some small talk without realizing my O2 was shouting for help. And as we were walking out, I realized my hands were quite empty, and rushed back into my cubicle. IT WAS GONE!!!! Checked with the cleaner who was changing the toilet rolls then and she said she didn’t see anything. Funny as there wasn’t anyone in the cubicle except her. I didn’t try to interrogate her but instead, complain to the Sunway Hotel Receptionist who directed me to her manager and later the security manager came in “Men in Black” style. The funny thing was, the cleaner was no where to be found when I went to complain. She didn’t follow me when I went to make the complain. Anyway, the men-in-black handed me a form to fill and ask if I want to make a police report. I told him I can’t possibly go to the police station dressed like that, but if they can retrieve my handphone and return to me, I won’t question nor pursue with the police.

They were quite professional and called me the next day to inform me that they have done all checks and surprise checks and locker checks onto the cleaners but my handphone was not found.

Well, life goes on… and I have to let it go… It’s a real pity that I lost it… it has serve me well, but I didn’t take care of it enough..

Which brings me to the lesson learnt… Must take care of Brandon well… hahahaha…