Something worth mentioning from my trip back home during the National Day weekend...

Bonding session with Mel dear over pedicure in e-gate :) This is something that we need to do more often.. Guess who's who??

I’m packed, all set and GOOD TO GO :)

I’m just counting down the hours and the minutes until mangkuk gets here (so that he can drop me off at Sentral to catch the ERL to KLIA)…

My heart, soul and mind already left the building a LONG time ago (I would say they just left but then I’d be lying, haha!)

I can’t believe I’m taking a break to go home after so long! The last time I was back home was in May for the long Labour Day weekend.

You know… I have so many things to blog about and so little time…

Top few on my list of things to blog about:

1. Mangkuk's Bday Dinner with Zilly (but that seems to be a few weeks back so I'm not sure about the 'timeliness' of the post)

2. my phone and its issues (many issues!!)

3. my new lumix (ok.. HALF mine anyways)

4. my upcoming trip to Europe :D

5. my upcoming trip to Beijing (company trip, hence it’s without the “ :D ” smiley face, but worth a mention, nonetheless)

Anyone care to place any bets that I will be updating my blog during the upcoming long weekend??? *winks*

There's something alien about Crocs

You know, I actually set up my laptop and made a cozy corner amidst the mess that is my living room so that I can prepare some slides for work (that I have been pitifully putting off!) when I decided that I want to blog something...

That's Procrastination hard at work!

Damnit!

I'm, once again, blogging about shoes :D Muahaha... I tell you, the way to a woman's heart is thru her feet!!! (oh well, this woman, anyway) I've been wanting to blog about this since a LONG time ago but I haven't had the chance... Anyways..

In Sept, I went home to the Great Place That Is. This place is so great, it doesn't even need words to describe it :)

Yup.. That's THE GREAT PLACE THAT IS that I am talking about.. Anyways, Chin Aun and I drove back during Raya to bask in the love that is home for a week. And in that week, I made the most of my time setting up shopping dates with Mello and Bee Sung and spending the rest of my time with my family, doing things that family do.

Mello and I went to QB to check out what stores opened up there (for my sake because I haven't been there since forever) and we happened to stroll into Crocs. I wanted to show her a pair of sandals that my sis and I were planning to get for my mom.

To cut the long story short, Mel and I walked in, tried on pairs after pairs of shoes and when I found my senses again, I was clutching on to a Crocs bag and so was Mel!! I checked the time and it has been an hour and a half since we stepped into the store! Can you believe it?!?! It's amazing that this happened in broad daylight!!

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MEL AND I WERE ABDUCTED BY ALIENS!!!

TOGETHER!!!!!! FOR OVER AN HOUR!!!!!!

IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!!!

WITH THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AS WITNESSES!!

AND WE WERE GIVEN CROCS AS SOUVENIRS!!!

Isn't that totally awesome!?!??! What I wouldn't give to be abducted again *grins*

So Mel and I proceeded to discuss our miraculous abduction over a cup of coffee in Secret Recipe and checked out our gifts from our new-found-alien-buddies..

Pretty neat right?? They even gave us our shoes in our right sizes! Mine's size9 and Mel's size 7 (? - I think)..

Mary Janes - Sea Foam

Mary Janes - Lavender

And you know what? Those extraterrestials were so darned sweet too :) They gave us the shoes complete with Jibbitz!! Mine has a Pooh Bear sleeping with a Honey Pot and Mel has Marvin the Martian (I KNEW they were hinting something when I saw that!). They also gave us matching MO Jibbitz on each of our left shoe!~ That was sooooooooo sooooooooooo sweet :))) *teary eyed*

Marvin, Pooh Bear & MO

Look! A perfect fit!! :D

When I got home, I came to know that my sister also experienced the same abduction issue!! The aliens gave her a pair of blue suede shoes ;) My dad made known that he felt very left out when we were discussing our abduction adventure that we had to use our telepathic connections to communicate with these special foreign beings to come abduct my dad as well. They blessed him with a pair of boring black slippers that suited his old-man preferences well..

That's the 3 of us in our alien-induced glory

Sobek in Black

Celeste Suede in Chocolate/Peacock

And since the 7th of Oct was Chin Aun's Bday.... I once again misused my mind power to tell them aliens to send him a pair as birthday present ;) Boy, was he happy with them ;)

Off Road in Army/Orange (Chin Aun actually received it in another color but I could not find a picture of that)

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I just heard from Mel that a total of RM252 was charged to her credit card for the month of October. It happened in the short span of time that we were abducted. The thing is, her credit card NEVER left her purse.... I guess we'll never really know what happened in that 90mins in Queensbay Mall on that balmy evening of the 1st of October...

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I know... I'm so full of sh*t... Ah well, but if you are reading this crap that I am writing at 11pm at night (to get out of doing my slides for presentation!) you must love me - even a little bit!. Haha...

A post for the sake of posting...

Yes, I am merely writing a post for the sake of posting. It seems that in the past month, all my will to write and every frigging ounce of creativity that I have in my head has flown out the window and into the darkness of the night...

For those who didn't know, I actually just came back from a hectic 6D4N trip to Korea.. a company incentive trip :) I initially dreaded going because it's summer there and the Sun and I don't get along too well. But as soon as I set foot there, I wished that I had more money to spare!! Hahaha... cos I had so many things to buy, yet so little cash, so little time and so little space.

Anyways, as soon as I got back into the office today and before I started clearing tons of emails that amassed in my absence, I decided to write to my two best buddies in the world to tell them how much I miss them and that I got something for them from my trip. And what did I get in return????? *shoot daggers from eyes*

2 people complaining about my dead blog... well, two people who gave it to me in black-&-white complaining about my dead blog and Zeeks complained on his sister's behalf as well *give a withering look to Zilly*. These 3 nuts are ganging up on me...

As usual, Mello being the more subtle of the 2, mentioned that she is bored and asked me to blog something. But Zeeks, being the mangkuk Mah that he is, said this in verbatim:

yalar.. soon, plz lar, even my sis also complaint ur blog. no updates. she ask me after your top 10 songs you run oout of ideas already izit???
plz have some "hot and spicy" gossips in your blog in order to revive "shooting my @ss", i mean breeze.

im expecting at least 5 entries on your trip and some drama going on... like checking out the gay bars, go for guy stripping show, how you flirt with korean guys..... etc.. etc..
sthing like dat... plz.................

*give another withering look to Zilly*

Don't you DARE take after your brother, the renowned Mangkuk Mah!

Shooting my @ss!??! Checking gay bars?!?! Guys Strip Show!?!? Flirt with Korean guys!??!?!

Let me say something to the above:

1. The only @ss I'd ever shoot would be yours if you don't tone down and apologize and make it up for your harshness by getting me a fabulous gift from Hanoi

2. Checking Gay Bars?!?! What For!??! All the females there like females and all the males there like males. I don't see a win-win situation here for me...

3. Guys Strip Show!? Considering everything costs a bomb in Korea, I'm guessing I would have to fork out at least 30,000won for the Strip Show and I'd rather buy me something more tangible :p

4. Flirt!? How?! It's worse than chicken and duck talk.. and if you've forgotten, there's someone here called Chin Aun. Want me to get skinned and hung up to dry??

The most exciting thing I did there was go on a super-rollercoaster ride with 90degree plunges and it was freaking awesome!! If the line wasn't as long as it was, I'd go on it again and again. I'll show you guys some photos once I've scaled down the size and photoshopped them (it was 6 sweltering hot days and the heat don't do wonders for my face ok???)

Meanwhile, give me a couple of minutes, I'm sitting here, freezing my bum off in my towel, waiting for my face mask to dry. Once I get cleaned up, I'll blog something good ok?? :p

Top 10 Songs...

Zeeks came up with an idea to do a joint-blog post for him, Melissa and myself. And the topic that he gave us for this assignment is "The Top 10 Songs On Your Ipod". He actually gave us a deadline to post it up by the 5th of June at 10:00pm. But on the 5th of June, I was too caught up with work that it totally slipped my mind so I had to persuade the two royal highnesses to postpone it to today. After a while, they agreed and so here I am~ :)

Now the thing is, when Zeeks mentioned the "Top 10 Songs On Your Ipod", he did not mention whether he meant the top 10 songs that is currently playing on my ipod or the top 10 songs that is vital that I have on my ipod...

So I'll just answer to BOTH the questions at hand... *grins*

I'll just briefly run through the current The Top 10 songs that is currently playing on my ipod right now:

David Archuleta - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me

David Cook - Dream Big / Always Be My Baby / Time of My Life

Brewing from the fever of American Idol Season 7, I've been hooked on David Cook (the new American Idol) and David Archuleta's performances. I loved Archuleta's version of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me"! It was even better than Clay Aiken's version, and about a gazillion times better than Elton John's version.

As for the other David, I am hooked on his performances in the final for "Dream Big" and "Time of My Life" (the winning song). And who could forget his cover of Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby"??

Neil McCoy - Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye

Then there's a cover version of "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" which Neil McCoy did for The Casino's classic which was used in the movie Paris Je T'aime. Zeeks actually watched the movie and he asked me to download the mp3 for him. I found the original version but Zeeks found the cover version and shared with me and Mel.... I LOVE IT!~ It's so lovey dovey melancholy!~

Marie Digby - Stupid For You

I found this song on YouTube :) and it's got a catchy-feet-tapping tune to it. Haven't found a good version of it yet.

Chris Daughtry - What About Now

Graham Colton - Best Days

I accidentally found these two songs when I was watching American Idol Season 7's Idol Gives Back and they were playing these songs when showing the top 3 finalists visit to their home town. I caught snippets of the lyrics and googled them and ta-dah!~ :)

Chris Brown - With You

And finally, there's Chris Brown's "With You" :) I love the part in front when he sings "I need you, bu"... and I also like David Archuleta's version of this song.

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And now, I'll proceed with going through The Top 10 Song that I will always have on my iPod *grins* It was hard to narrow it down to the songs that I'm about to name now but I guess I just had to think long and hard and just think what are the songs that I would HAVE to transfer to a new mp3 player with limited storage space.

Adam Sandler - I Wanna Grow Old With You

From the soundatrack of the magnificent romantic comedy "The Wedding Singer" starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. He sang that song to her when she was leaving on a plane because she thought he didn't love her. Although the song is very short and simple, the lyrics were so meaningful and romantic :)) hehehe... perfect for a sap like me...

Color Me Badd - Forever Love

This R&B group have been really successful in the early 90's and this is one of their less famous songs (as opposed to the raunchy "I Wanna Sex You Up"). They are also famous for their songs like "The Earth, The Sun and The Rain" and "All for Love".

Blessid Union of Souls - Light In Your Eyes

I heard this song long long time ago (I think that was when I was 13 or 14?? Which is like eons ago...) and I have fallen in love with it is. And there was a time when Mel and I actually drafted our own version of this song during a tuition class when we were supposed to be paying attention to add maths. I guess listening to this song makes me relive our crazy good times :) I miss those times...

Jay Chou - Lang Man Shou Ji (Romantic Cellphone) / Wo Bu Pei (I'm Not Worthy)

And on my MUST-HAVE list, there are 2 songs by Jay Chou! :) First is "Lang Man Shou Ji" from his November's Chopin album and the other one is "Wo Bu Pei" from his On the Run album (his most recent album). I guess I like them because they are so distinguished and so different...

Bon Jovi - Always

Bon Jovi's Crossroads album is their most magnificent album ever and I can be sure to say that this is their most successful album ever! Whilst "Always" is THE Bon Jovi song, they have many other hit singles as well like "Never Say Goodbye", "Livin' On A Prayer" and "I'll Be There For You" to name a few. All in all, Bon Jovi is one of the most magnificent and most awed rock bands in the history of music...

The Calling - Wherever You Will Go

Then of course, there's The Calling's "Wherever You Will Go". The Calling has many other great singles under their belt but this one is the most profound. And no matter how many great songs they have (like "Things Don't Always Turn Out That Way" and "Stigmatized"), I will never ever get sick of this one :) I'm even using it as my ringtone!


Lifehouse - Blind
Jason Wade - You Belong To Me

And finally on my Top 10 list is Lifehouse and Jason Wade (lead singer of Lifehouse) *grins* I love "Blind" but I don't know why. I also like Lifehouse's "Whatever It Takes" and "Chapter One" but this one is my favourite.

As for Jason Wade's "You Belong To Me" is from the Soundtrack of Shrek and I didn't even know it existed (because, can you imagine, I have never seen Shrek!). I accidentally found this song online and I have never gone more than 3 days without listening to it!

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Well here you go... my top 10 lists of songs :)

I know that this post is a little dry. But I'm a little tired because I'm mentally, emotionally and physically drained. But you know, after posting all that on music, it really does lift my spirits a bit.

So here you go, Mel and Zeeks's posts as well

Melissa's Top 10

Zeek's Top 10

What's in a name??

*snorts*

I'm stifling back my laughter just thinking about it...

Anyone knows what KANTHAN is? *grin*

Maybe it's sort of a personal joke... but to Mel, Zeeks and myself.. we're gonna be laughing about this for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time *grins*

ENJOY!!

2 Girls, A Guy and A Working Place


*Note to self: Don't laugh about KHANTAN too much... it's indirectly what's paying for some of my meals *grins* (well... a little less than 'some' now...)

2 idiots, an innocent and 24 hours...

For clarification purposes, when I say "2 idiots, an innocent and 24 hours...", I am not the innocent. So you guys do the math...

Anyways, last week, my lifetime best bodoh buddy came down to KL all the way from his prime location in Khantan (where????) for some training. So, he came over to my place to bunk on Friday night and was obliged to entertain me for 24 hours.

While he was there, we stayed up discussing about tattoo designs *grin* Okay... more like I was sharing with him my ideas while he keeps saying things like "Hell, I'm never gonna be able to back out of this, am I?" *chicken!! snorts* and I was so rudely greeted by a statement "The only time I ever see you so focused is when we are talking about shopping, shoes and tattoos. If only you could put in this kind of undivided attention on your studies or your work..". Sheesh... But come to think of it, during exam week when I was back in college, I would be in bed asleep by 10pm -- to have better peace of mind, konon. But I can stay up all night researching tattoos, reading, surfing the net or blogging. Looks like someone needs to learn more about priorities...

Our rendezvous started early Saturday morning when he yelled "Oi!!!! RISE & SHINE!!! *@^#%@$!!!!" to jolt me from my sweet slumber. This was followed by some mumbled not-so-sweet words from my mouth at the obscene hour of 8am. Anyhoo... I showered and got dressed for breakfast with him and Thomas :) A friend from my tortured years in Form 6. Thomas would be the "innocent" in the abovementioned title.

During breakfast in SS2, in which we were so late for because Zeeks is so bloody slow (*ahems*), the two guys bitched about work and argued over who should get the Job Classifieds section of the Saturday newspaper first while I watched in amusement only to have them look at me resentfully. Just so you know, 3 months ago, I would be right there bitching and arguing with them over the papers. But as of now, I am still in a sublime state and hope to be here for quite some time *grins* (and no... neither Chin Aun nor myself hit the lottery so I am not at the maximum state of euphoria where I do not have to work and can spend all day shopping and at the spa).

Anyways, after breakfast Zeeks accompanied (or rather, chauffered) me to Tesco Ampang where I had to do some work-related stuff. All the while, my friend here complained till my ears dropped off. And there were times where we actually visualized the next day newspapers with the headlines: "So-called Friends Stabbed Each Other To Death In Tesco Ampang" or something to that extent.

After my work visit, our good times officially started *GRIN* We headed over to Bangsar Village for lunch with Thomas. Went to d*lish to have a light lunch with snacks cos we heard that the desert there is not bad ;) and whaddaya know... we were greeted by the sight of cakes in all sorts, shapes, sizes and colours sitting on a pedestal (I'm exaggerating but you get my drift...). Anyways, Zeeks ordered a beef pie with a side of caeser salad, and I ordered beef lasagne (red meat lovers, the both of us). Thomas who came a little later, ordered curry puff. We shared that and got to choosing cupcakes :) (please refer to attached photo for a better visualization).

beef pie with caesar salad on the side

beef lasagne (I know it looks kinda icky but I promise I did not mush it up before taking the photo)

cupcakes mania!!~

gluttony in all its glory :p

Insanity caused by too much sugar in our blood

The adorable thomas and the incorrigible me

it's supposed to be a snapshot of the 3 of us but Zeeks apparently does not know how to use my phone's camera

After d*lish, we went shopping... to be precise, WINDOW SHOPPING *bleargh* I mean, what's the point in shopping when you can't buy anything right!??! We went to shop after shop, lusting after bags and shoes. And finally, when we ran out of energy to gaze longingly after the products displayed in shops, and out of vulgarities to verbally abuse each other, we headed back home to bum for a short while... followed by Thomas politely excusing himself to go for a colleague's wedding dinner and Zeeks saying this "Uncle Mah only comes once a year. This is it for 2007. Till we meet again in 2008!". That guy thinks he's the local version of Santa Claus...

That generally sums up our 24 hours... and Chin Aun came back the next day so I can actually sum that my weekend was an eventful one :)

PS: Oi, uncle Mah, remember to put aside RM300 for our 'project' ok?!??~

Michael Buble

People who know me well know that I absolutely adore Michael Buble. I love the way he croons, and I love his songs... It's amazing how someone can do such fabulous cover versions of so many hit love songs from long ago.

It'a also astounding how he's talented not only in jazzing up these one-hit wonders but also in writing his own hits. From the heart-warming single detailing how much he misses his loved one in "Home" and the feet and finger-tapping upbeat "Everything" expressing how much his loved one means to him and finally, to the heart-breaking-soul-wrenching "Lost" which was written to narrate a lost love (this song breaks my heart *sobs*)

So, on one peaceful morning, I was just getting out from my leisurely bath to be greeted by an AWFUL rendition of "Home" on MTV. The first thing that crossed my mind was that there was something wrong with my TV but as I stepped to take a closer look at the screen, I swear I felt my heart drop to my feet.

Because, right there on tv for public viewing, was a quadruplet of MORONS tearing Michael Buble's "Home" apart!!!!

Lo, and behold, the stinking morons:

Oh, I took the liberty to cross out their faces and changed their names to NoLife. It is of course, a much needed initiative on my part because of the injustice that they were doing to the song. The damage to the song is irreversible *sobs*

I know that you probably think that I'm being overdramatic here, but at least I know Chin Aun shares my sentiments because a minute later, he burst into my room yelling, "You won't believe what is on TV!!!". The look of disbelief and disgust on his face was priceless! And it was sooooooooo good to see that he shared my opinions because it's sometimes hard for us to be on the same page where music is concerned (e.g. Alex Band of The Calling!).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a boyband hater. I loved N'Sync even before JT spread his wings and flew or Lance came out of the closet! All these while, I had NOTHING against them. Not even when they did their rendition of Uptown Girl and actually had the gorgeous Claudia Schiffer featured in their MTV tossing aside her uptown ways to follow these downtown men (I actually cringed when I typed that). But to do a cover of "Home" is the worst insult that has ever been uttered in the music industry!

Who do they think they are, trying to fix something that is not broken?!?! Who do they think they are, even thinking that they, these meagre pieces of nothing, can actually do a better job than Michael Buble!??! Are they deluded or something?!?!?!?!

And when I was emailling Melissa, we shared the same disgust for this quadruplets of crap. And when I met Zeeks for lunch, he did not fail to make me proud because he too hates them for doing this. Just so you know, all 3 of us love Michael Buble and therefore, in conjunction with this act of blasphemy, we are holding a joint blog-post on this matter. I'll link their pages as soon as they're up.

Actually, we serve no purpose doing this, except for enjoying that fragment of satisfaction of voicing our thoughts aloud on this matter.

From this day on, I hereby declare to detest each and every single to be released by Westlife and to trash them at every opportunity possible.

.::Update::.

Melissa's Blog Post :- "Oh Darn, What Have They Done?"

Zeek's Blog Post :- "Westlife... Please DIE?!"

(Part 4) A Tribute iPod Fanatics (Zeeks)

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have an idiot of a friend called Tze Ko (or Zeeks if you must). Anyway, he went to the States for a friggin' holiday last month so I decided to save the blog post on his iPod and accessories until now that he is back in Malaysia.

Zeeks, we've been friends for more than 5 years now and he's just declared me as his Lifetime Best Buddy early this year (he asked me for a favour and I did it for him, only I've forgotten what it is by now). I provided him all information he needed to prep him on his to US and guess how he repaid me??

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HE BLOODY FORGOT MY BIRTHDAY!!!

(he thinks I should be thankful that he is emailing me on the 28th of June, one day after he touched down even though he is so jet-lagged *hmmmph*)

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Even though I'm as pissed as ever at this idiot, I shall not let my anger get in the way of appreciating something as infinitely beautiful as his iPod.

Here goes :) ....

As much as I am pissed at him, I gotta say he takes great photos!

A multi-angled view of the iPod Nano (first edition)

He's got himself the first edition of the iPod Nano with the clear crystal finishing whereas Mel's iPod Nano is the one with brushed metal finishing.

The accessories that come together with this iPod Nano

the iPod Nano with a red tune-tie :) He gave me a black tune-tie when he got his iPod and I am still religiously using it! :D

Some other coloured Tune-ties :D I was actually thinking of getting the blue one to match my iPod Mini and a pink one to accentuate my iPod but ChinAun won't let me!

And this is the final installment of my iPod Fanatics series... until someone cares to donate an iPod Shuffle *hint hint* :D

(Part 3) A Tribute iPod Fanatics (Melissa)

Finally.... the 3rd installation of my iPod tribute....

As we have seen earlier, both May Chwyn and I have iPod videos... here's to someone who's a little different... Melissa has an iPod Nano -- IN SILVER!

So sexy right??? *grin* and there are many faces to her iPod nano as well... It even has a beanie bag to lean on... from this, you can see how much Mel loves her baby. Ultimate pampering ya, Mello?? How about giving your old friend here a beanie bag too?? *winks* *grin*

iPod Nano in Jellybean Green

I believe that of all, this is Mel's favourite cover :)

iPod Nano in Sexy Black

(I seriously like this one... it really looks as though it's its second skin! so sleek!)

Anyone wants to take a wild guess what this is??

IT'S A PORTABLE SPEAKER!! :) foldable into a cube too... isn't that cute??? :)

Since we are here admiring the new iPod nano, let's take a look at iPod nano's full range. If you're into colours and tiny gadgets, then the iPod nano is for you...

If it were for me, I'd either go for the blue, pink or black one. From there, you can tell the difference in my colour preference from Mel's.


Beauty with a Good Cause :)

The red iPod nano is a special edition. $10 from every iPod Nano PRODUCT (RED) sold (4G or 8G) goes directly to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa

**for further information on the Global Fund and PRODUCT (RED), log on to http://www.joinred.com/

Since this is the month of June, it is also the Melissa's birthday month :)

Here's to you, Mello...

*HUGS*

**HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY**

Wishing you the best of 2007 and the years ahead and may your days ahead be filled with the musical beauty of your iPod nano *wink*(and hopefully, even more iPods to add to your collection) *grin*

Love you loads... *muuuuuuuuuah*