NARCISSISM IS NECESSARY

This is really an overdue post. I’ve been wanting to write about this for so long as it’s such an interesting experience for me, and a good one too!

A few months back, my right wrist was suffering from a dull nagging pain that just won’t go away. I think it was due to the awkward position I was sitting in while working on the laptop, as I was too cheap to get a proper office chair then (just started business mah :P).

You know those annoying pain from the inside that you can’t really treat except to wait for it to pass? Thing is most of the time, you really have no freakin’ idea when it’s going to pass and it’s not bad enough to pop painkillers.

I was recommended to go to Osso Bone Care by a friend. It’s located in Kuchai Entreprenuers Park, not too far from Mid Valley. I was quite apprehensive about seeking treatment from traditional medicine practitioners as frankly, the very idea just freaked me out. Anyway, my friend highly recommended it and she promised that I would be satisfied with the outcome.

I went there in the evening and was surprised to find that it’s a modern looking joint. None of those dingy nonsense you would find in town. The place was really clean and furnished with modern equipment I wouldn’t expect to find in a traditional medicine clinic.

Osso Bone Care.

Traditional medicine in modern space.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

Got myself registered and then I was ushered into a room.

Young, pretty nurse doing the registration :D

The Sinseh, who is a young chap by the name of Calvin attended to me. Although my problem was the wrist, Calvin offered to “loosen” up my spine which, as scary as it sounded, brought great relief to my stiff back.

Twist it back in place.

Manhandled.

It’s quite daunting having my vertebrates snapped but man, after it’s over I felt like I just had a 2-hour Thai massage!

After the great back work, Calvin took me to another room to treat my aching wrist.

A special room for treatment of smaller body parts :)

Examining the wrist.

Stretch….

Here’s a video of me receiving treatment. You can hear me speaking in Cantonese (I sounded so weird!).

Apparently my condition was caused by floor mopping, when I was twisting the water out of the mop. It’s quite common among women according to Calvin. He meticulously twisted my wrist and then proceeded to apply some chinese herbs to my wrist, which I had to wear for 48 hours. It smelt really weird but strangely soothing.

Chinese herbal wrap.

Calvin said that many people do not realise that their bone structures have been altered due to their adopted lifestyles. Minor things such as wearing the wrong shoes or sitting a certain way could affect your posture and health of your bones. You probably won’t realise it when you’re young but as you age, more symptoms would emerge such as aches, pains and inflammations. In my case, I had minor dislocations in my arm and wrist due to desk work and house chores. First visit to Osso Bone Care is only RM60/80 depending on which part of the body and subsequent visits are RM50/60 each, which I think are pretty reasonable.

Miraculously, after 48 hours, my wrist felt like its old self again. While I’m still a skeptic when it comes to traditional medicine but I have to say, for things like long term bone care, I would definitely seek treatment from traditional medicine pratitioners because they’re non invasive and from my experience, very effective too.

Okay, finally I’ve got time to sit down and blog about this fabulous race. I was invited as one of the medias to race. I was very happy, yay free phone!

When I found out that my teammate would be a stranger, at first I was a bit sien, why couldn’t they pair me off with Ah Suan or Ah Pau or even Ah Pop so that we could get the free phone and chill. Of course, the organiser had already anticipated this and found a way to counter that. By pairing us with people we don’t know, whom they have shortlisted from the nationwide auditions.

I felt that I owe it to my teammate to perform even harder because I didn’t have to go through all the hassles of auditioning. I heard the audition was tough! Anyway, His name is Fairuz and we clicked from the start. Pork Dickson boy, love his hometown :)

I stayed overnight at One World Hotel and I got the boo over to keep me company (read: bluff him to bring my laptop so I could pull an all-nighter researching). Woke up at 11am for the race! I was so focused my womb wasn’t even sizing up (yeah aunty visited at the same time :P).

All of us had a delicious lunch at Bakerzin, then we adjourned to the starting point where we were interviewed by the media and all. Felt damn glamourous hehehe.

We’ve got 8 teams of different colour. They are:

1. Team grey

Afiq (Harian Metro) and Sharon.

2. Team yellow

Lai Sin (Sin Chew Cyberworld) and Hooi Han.

3. Team orange
WTF WHY WE DIDN’T CAMHO ONE FAIRUZ????

4. Team pink

David and Ah Pau.

5. Team purple

Sadat and Sam (The Star).

6. Team red

Ah Pop and Szetoo.

7. Team blue

Aref (NST) and Sabrina.

8. Team green

Ah Suan and sweet Frankie boi.

At 4.30pm, the race began. We got into our Nissan Cefiro with our race marshall, Phoon and videographer, Kok Wah.

Our very nice race marshall :)

The day was still really bright. We figured that the judges wouldn’t really care about the daylight as long as the places are available till evening time.

Bad decision :( It was soul of the night afterall!

We were given 5 themes; games, live entertainment, food, shopping and nightview. It was raining really heavily when we started the race, so we decided Bukit Kiara Skatepark as our first destination since it has a roof.

Mid-air.

The daylight was really bugging me but I kept telling myself that there’s a reason why the race started at 4.30pm, the judges wouldn’t be so anal….not!

Then we went to Jalan Sayur (off Jalan Pudu) for the Wai Sek Kai. It was about 6pm by then and I read in The Star Food Guide (courtesy of boo) that the stalls would be opened by then. Unfortunately, the rain had prevented a lot of traders from operating so the sight wasn’t really something to shout about. I’m pretty sure it’s a sight to behold later in the evening.

Anticipation.

We left Jalan Sayur only to be stuck in a horrible jam. We were afterall in the middle of the city. At first we thought about going to KL Hilton for the nightview but changed decision to go to Bukit Permai, or better known as Mini Genting by Cheras folks.

How lah I know got so many people know about the place? We were toying with the idea of going to Thean Hou Temple for the view too, but in the end we went all the way to Cheras.

It still wasn’t dark enough…sigh.

When we’re about to leave, we spotted Team Yellow. ALAMAK. We were quiet all the way back to PJ on MRR2, namely due to tiredness and also tulanness of knowing another team has gotten to our location.

But Team Orange will persevere! We went into Kepong and stopped by Fun & Cheer, a wholesaler of everything from stationeries to cheongsam to binocular to party poppers. The reason why we went there was because we thought it’d be a better idea to avoid the typical shopping places like night markets and shopping malls. Besides, I really adore that place!

Find everything and anything here.

Lastly, we went to The Curve to catch a live performance. We weren’t really sure if they’re going to be there but we took a chance. It was almost 9pm by then and the race would end at 9.30pm sharp.

Live performance and Fairuz stealing the limelight.

We were there and out in less than 5 minutes. At the junction turning into 1 Utama, we spotted Team Green’s car next to ours. But our driver, Sharil was really nice, he drove like a mad man and overtook them at a different traffic light :D. We were the 5th team to arrive, I think.

Then we rushed to the laptop and started uploading all our pictures to Soul of the Night’s website. It was quite daunting! We had to upload one by one and also caption the pictures.

The other teams started arriving. Some rushed to the laptops and some looked so relaxed, obviously because they have utilised the awesomeness of N82 to upload their pictures while on the go. We didn’t upload pictures on the go because we wanted to choose our pictures carefully at base.

Me, Kok Wah (our videographer) and Fairuz.

Then it was time for announcement of winners. We were so nervous. I held onto Fairuz in a halal way for support throughout the announcements.

As you should know by now, Ah Suan and Sweet Frankie won the race. Their prize…trip for two to HK with RM1500. Congratulations you two!

Fairuz, don’t be sad!

And here’s our post-race face…still pweety right?

Ah Pau, Ah Kim & Ah Suan.

I had a really wonderful time at the race. Seriously, being born and bred in KL didn’t give me an advantage in the race. In fact, I think a KL native is more likely to be unaware of all the interesting places in KL, the outstation people are more well-informed! But I’m glad I could see so many sides of KL in one night.

Oh yes…and the phone. It’s too awesome. I’ve done grieving for my N95, hehehe.

It’s pretty addictive to watch. This is the competition I had wanted to join earlier but decided against it due to work commitments. Now I’m thanking my lucky star that I didn’t join. Cause seriously, I don’t think I’ll be able to bear with all these petty things that are going on in the house, which I suspect would lead to a profanity fest if I were there.

(Of course I’d would have gotten in lah…I’m so awesome mah *cough*)

I applaud the ladies for being able to keep their cool in spite of some downright stupid incidents…the tomato robbery for one. Hey hey Nadia…there’s really no need for such language. Cindy may have a fake accent sometimes but sending your regards to someone’s mother over some cheap-ass fruits sure tells a lot about your attitude.

To be honest, my favourite contestant was Valerie. I really love her spunky personality and she came across as really genuine. I was sad when she left but I figured she’s probably better off. I mean lets face it, Valerie is no model material. She has an enviable body, yes, but she’s not a clotheshorse. I’m pretty sure she’ll make an awesome TV presenter, even an actress.

Without further ado, lets check out the other girls one by one…

1. ADELINE

Girl has to work her angles better. In this latest photo, she looks like she has thyroid problems -_-.

Why didn’t she use her long neckline? The frontal face shot obviously doesn’t flatter her and I hope she realises this. “Pau Face” to the max. She’s a pretty girl but it does not translate very well on pictures. She easily looks like an average chinese girl albeit with better makeup on.

As for her English…alamak, cannot make it. When I listened to her praising her hair spa treatment in the latest episode, “Hi I’m Adeline, thank you for the Wella System Professionals to do my hair dance (what?). And I feel relaxing, I feel good. Thank you”. Think about the wrinkles I got from all those cringing, man.

2. CINDY

Whenever her father calls, hilarity ensues. I love it that she just complains, complains and schemes with her daddy while the other girls would burst out crying upon hearing the voices of their loved ones. Now that’s a competitor!

Modelling wise, I think she’s the weakest in the group right now. She seems to have a pre-conceived perception of what modelling is and is blindly living it. She poses well but can’t hold them long enough for the photographer to capture it. I think the girl has to relax a bit. Oh yes, her chin up pose also really cannot make it, she looks like she’s got a severe case of underbite whenever she does that. It’s not sexy, Cindy!

Cindy certainly spices up the show with her crocodile tears and random fake accents. To be honest, I think the Ah Lian of the show is really Cindy. Indoo poh and malai poh…ring any bell? ROTFLOLOLOL. She’s gotten quieter though, which is a damn waste I feel. Perhaps it’s the dawn of a different biatch?

3. FIQA

Fiqa is my favourite girl! When they chopped of her hair, I thought that it’d be the end of her. Instead, she manages to outshine her asymmetrical hair. Her long elegant limbs and athletic body are to die for.

So far we have seen her do sexy, manly, flirty and futuristic and she has nailed all her pictures. In fact, she looks like a different person, a professional model, in the Wella shot. Talk about versatility.

I like her demeanour as well, soft spoken but firm. Comes across as very intelligent as well.

4. HANIS

The baby of the house and she embraces it. I’d imagine a girl of her age would probably try even harder to fit in, but yet Hanis takes everything in stride and at her own pace. Without all the princess-sy behaviour. It’s really an admirable trait.

Hanis pictures are made up of hits and misses. Probably something to do with her angular face. When she poses straight on, she looks quite bad, but with her face slightly tilted, wah she blows me away.

5. JAY

Jay is my high-school senior. I still remember competing with her and her friends in a talent show back in 1997. Two friends and I sang and danced to 911’s You Got My Body Shakin’ (omg cringe time) and she and her friends did a Spice Girls number. By the way, my group won the competition, lol. Don’t play play.

Anyway, Jay has always been a striking figure, even back in high school. I think now with all the baby fat gone, she’s looking even more stunning. I saw her on the Female magazine cover and was filled with pride that someone from my school has made it :)

In this competition though, Jay seems rather safe. Aside from the Putrajaya shot (which was damn impressive), the rest of her pictures are quite forgettable.

I like the Wella picture, but I wish her lips were closed instead of parted. Her beautiful pearlies have taken attention away from her hair.

5. NADIA

The epitome of hotness. All the guys I spoke too would want to do things with Nadia. Things too provocative to be posted here. I can’t help but agree with them. The eyes, the luscious lips and that body.

She reminds me of Tengku Azura. I think Nadia will get constant jobs in modelling but whether she will rise to become one of the it-models is a question mark.

On a side note, I heard that’s she slowly rising to be the biatch of the house though…any insider tip on this?

6. RINGO

Ringo is one of the most beautiful and striking girls on the blogosphere. But in the competition, she seems to have been overshadowed by the rest. I believe it has something to do with her petite physique and lack-lustre pictures.

I think Ringo is holding herself back in this competition, I really believe she could do better. She has tonnes of better pictures taken prior to this contest and for the life of me I can’t figure out why she can’t reproduce the same effect now.

As it’s a popularity contest, I’m pretty sure Ringo would have no trouble garnering votes. But I’d love to see Ringo performs her magic and take our breath away with her pictures again.

7. KIMBERLYCUN

Champion to the max. Far out, with her willy wonka shorts and bf’s tee shirt, Kimberlycun deserves the Nissan Latio!

Wah I was bit emo on my last post, wasn’t I? So many friend msg-ed me and asked if I were the dunzo with baby boo. Nah, not so easy. It’s funny how we could feel so bloody tragic and helpless when all it takes is just a cool, calm and collected talk with your other half to sort things out. Oh yes, and plenty of empathy too, of course.

Baby boo, tulibu dibu douchooooooooooooooo….

Secured another job for a New Zealand based health & fitness product line. Today’s last minute meeting turned out to be a formal introduction for me as the PR rep to the brand dev. manager and line’s sole distributor. Things are really looking up. Thanks man, you know who you are :)

I am so excited!!!

My meeting garb. It’s a cocoa mocha week for me! Top from Singapore, pinstripe bottom from Spade, bag from Fourskin, shoes from M&S.

As I got the notification for the meeting while rushing some press releases in the morning, I ended up completely forgotten about lunch. By the time I got back around 4pm, I had to grab a bite at Mickey D.

Porridge and Diet Coke. Tempted to have some Ayam Goreng also but voted against it.

Hrm…I also had my birdshit mobile washed. Remember the last car wash post I blogged? Yes, it’s been that long :P

Birdshit mobile in grooming session.

And lastly, some weirdass shit I found at the dumpster near where I stay.

what the flying f-ck is this?

Some creepy karma sutra shit.

Fin.

In conjunction with St. Patrick’s Day, Bossa Nova (Parkroyal Hotel), Bulldog, Sevenatenine, Delaney’s, Nikko Hotel and Jarrod & Rawlins are participating in Guinness Draught Infused Food Creation Contest, serving their very own Guinness-inspired dishes throughout the month of March. All the Guinness-inspired fare will be judged by Chef Emmanuel Stroobant of Asia Food Channel’s Chef in Black.

Thanks to the good folks from Guinness, I was able to sit down for lunch with the celebrity Chef himself, Emmanuel Stroobant at Jarrod & Rawlins. He was there to evaluate the food creation by Jarrod & Rawlins and I was just there to get starstruck, eat and be merry :)

Guinness Stout.

The chef from Jarrod & Rawlins whipped up some Guinness ribs from scratch while Chef Stroobant watched on. I’m all for open kitchen concept cause watching your food meticulously put together by a chef is a wonderful experience.

Kitchen kungfu.

Chef Stroobant shared with me his judging method for all the participating outlets. He has about a dozen categories ranging from hygiene to creativity which he would rank between 1-10, 1 being poorest and 10 being exceptional. He showed me the scores of the other participating restaurants he has ranked in his moleskin notebook.

It was very interesting….I shall not divulge who pwns who aye!

Chef Emmanuel Stroobant evaluates.

Grilling the ribs, baby.

The ribs were pretty good, the meat was juicy and very well flavoured. And I absolutely love the contrast of taste courtesy of the diced beetroot. I hope they will continue to serve the dish after March.

Hearing the little voice calling out for a perfect pint of Guinness yet? Well, then head on to Guinness St. Patrick’s Festival this Saturday, 15th March 2008 at Plaza Mont’ Kiara because starting from 5pm, the first 1000 party guests will get a free pint of Guinness!

Guinness St. Patrick’s Festival

Of course, for the weight watching ladies, there’s always the hotness that is Chef Emmanuel Stroobant as a reason to go to the carnival ;)

Chef Emmanuel Stroobant.

p/s: I’m still waiting for my picture with him. Will post it up as soon as I got it!

What’s the best thing to do on a lazy Saturday?

Have breakfast in Kanna at 3pm!

Only then I remembered that I had freshly manicured nails that I couldn’t bear to taint with Indian spices.

Eating banana leaf rice with fork & spoon takes away half the fun, okay?

Then we went to 1U like we always do when we don’t have anything interesting or fun to do on the weekends. We browsed in Reject Shop, looking for some good deals.

Camwhoring while the boo tried on some clothes.

And then I caught someone by surprise.

That’s the best surprised face I could illustrate.

A friend has told us about Marks & Spencer’s moving away sale. So we decided to take a look. They were moving their current outlet in the old wing to the new wing. I was surprised that everything…and absolutely everything was down by 50%! OMG…..it was stim!

I got two pairs of shoes that would have cost me about RM600 for about RM180! They’re so comfortable :)~~

First, my brown suede court shoes.

With some high tech insole to ensure comfort.

Yeah I’m putting this up cause I like how my legs look

And my leather boots! Absolutely yummy..

Black leather boots ftw.

I just love the feeling of getting a good deal. It’s like a buzz. I get a buzz for the longest time whenever I score something for much less that I’m supposed to pay. Lets just say I don’t believe in paying full retail price.

But I have to say what tops the feeling of getting a good deal is seeing the stuff you’ve just bought being sold at another place for a couple of times the price! It’s happened to me before, I got a very beautiful satin dress in Armcorp Mall for RM50 and then I saw the very same dress being sold in Bangsar for RM250. All these markups are crazy.

I thought I’d kick the habit of thrift shopping once I start work, but I guess it’ll never go away. It just feels too good.

Last Friday was Saint’s 7th birthday. Yes, in spite of being happily married and having a 1 year plus old son, she’s only 7 this year. Some women have all the luck eh. I want to be young like that also -_-

So ThaiBoxingirl and I were bored out of our minds at home while counting the hours to attend the most exciting thing of the week, Saint’s birthday. While talking nonsense on MSN, the TBG suggested that we go shopping for party clothes.

And that we would stick to the budget of RM200. And that we would wear our best bag lady garb to shop. Awesome!

We met at The Curve at 12pm and then the journey began. I was pretty lucky, it didn’t take long for me to find the dress from a clearance sale right outside Metrojaya. There wasn’t even a fitting room for customers.

TBG at Sakae!

I hate to buy clothes where there’s no fitting room or when the clothes are not allowed to be tried on. I remember going to some shop in Berjaya Times Square and they won’t allow me to try the t-shirts. It’s like, good luck selling anything dumbass. Anyway…..yeah, I just put on the dress there and there….what to do. Since it fit me even an extra layer of clothes, I bought it.

And then I had my manicure and pedicure done. Watched the entire Nanny Diaries there. Scarlett Johansen is too hot for words. The manicurist was a bit of a n00b, while she was snipping off my cuticles she managed to cut my flesh -_-. I bled lah urgh. I think it’s because she talks too much. She wasn’t very bright either and it was quite a pain trying to keep up a conversation with her. You pay what you get eh?

Don’t think I’ll go back there. First she’s quite lazy, she refused to work on TBG claiming she’s the only person working. Ok fine. But when she was almost done with me right, a customer walked in and she refused to attend to her also. She told the lady that she’s got another customer to work on (ie: TBG) which was a lie. Then, she talked to the foreign helper like she’s above her or something. Wah I can just rip her face off okay.

We rested and had cupcakes. I love these cupcakes from Cupcake Chic although they’re a bit pricey but they’re heavenly!

Okay after that, we went to Padini Store at Ikano. And got major drama there, where I’ll leave TBG to tell the story because it’s her story hehehe (Oooh, she’s updated about the drama. Go read..quick quick!). After that, we got back to The Curve and I got me pair of black sequinned heels from Key Ng. One of my best buys in shoe shopping history!

Me entertaining myself at TriBeCa while TBG tried on some clothes.

Then went to Fitness First to freshen up and doll up!!! This is what your gym is for, hahaha.

Dress = RM 48. Shoes = RM39.90 (YESSS!) and mani/pedi= RM60. Total = RM147.90.

I am so proud of myself okay!

Shopped from 12pm to 9pm….then one hour to doll up and then we headed to Laundy Bar where the party was. I was already tired, LMAO.

Birthday Saint and God.

KY and Nicholas trying on Saint’s new thong.

ST

Shoe brigade: Carol’s skull shoe, KY’s selipar and my RM39.90 very comfortable sequined heels. This KY wore selipar to Laundry wtf

This 7 year old Ah Saint doing the lambo. So naughty!

Happy birthday Ah Saint!