Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Malaysia's Online Fashion Entrepreneurs Weekend 2010

I know I havent blog since a few weeks back! and I know that you must be wondering if I am abandoning my blog (AGAIN!) but rest assured that I am not abandoning my blog at all (at least for now) and that I am so busy playing a certain game on Facebook that blogging never even crossed my mind until this very moment. It was when I realized that, Oh! I do have a blog that I immediately log in and post this up. As some of you might know that the Malaysia's Online Fashion Entrepreneurs Weekend 2010 was 2 weeks ago at Midvalley. I actually managed to drop by on the last day of their event.

There were plenty of booths selling apparels and most of them are from the online boutiques community. Unfortunately, I didn't like how every booth were so close to one another and that shoppers only had very little space to walk through. I found it hard to even shop or walk. The fact that I had to squish myself through people made me agitated and in the end, I only visited Super Models Secrets (because she had ample space for me to make a tutu turn) and one more booth which name I forgot (also because there were no one in the booth).

I got myself two items which are best sellers of Super Models Secrets. Fake side fringe and a better version of Bumpit. The owner of Super Models Secrets is really friendly and she answered all my dungu questions about the fake fringe and bumpit that I was planning to get. I should do a review of them both soon. As for the other booth, I spotted a studded belt that I wanted to get for some time already and it was such a steal because it was only RM28! yay for me!..

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Overall, I really didn't enjoy myself at the event mainly because I felt that it was too commercialized. Online boutiques started off with really small bazaars in a house or a community hall so this one was lacked of warmth and comfort. In my opinion, bazaars should be small and well spaced out. Shoppers should be able to shop with ease and comfort instead of a huge ass convention centre with booths cramped among one another. It looked to me as if they put making profit the top most priority rather than placing shoppers comfort at the top of their list. Ah well, kudos to the organizers of the event because it was a successful one but it wasn't really my cup of tea. A smaller bazaar for me, anytime!

Friday, August 13, 2010

The Review of The Expendables

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I went for the premiere of The Expendables last night at Cineleisure, thanks to Nuffnang for giving me two exclusive tickets :) 40 best nuffnangers' entry were picked to catch The Expendables before it was officially released in the cinemas and I was one of em, thanks to baby genius. All we've got to do was submit our answers in reply to, "how far you would go to accomplish a military mission."

"The Expendables is an ensemble action-war film written by Dave Callaham and Sylvester Stallone, and directed by Stallone. Filming began on March 28, 2009, in Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, and the film will be released on August 13, 2010. The film pays tribute to the blockbuster action films of the 1980s and early '90s, and stars an array of action veterans from those decades, including Stallone himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, and Jet Li, as well as more recent stars such as Jason Statham, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, and Steve Austin.

A team of elite, highly-trained mercenaries known as The Expendables are sent into South America to overthrow a ruthless cold-blooded dictator. But once the mission begins, they discover a plot far more sinister than they were led to believe. With innocent lives in the balance, The Expendables are forced to take on an even more difficult challenge." - taken from Wikipedia

What I love about this movie is the humour and the non-stop action pack an action movie can give. It was really funny to watch all the A-list action movie actors in this show, including a few WWE members. The funniest part throughout the whole movie was when Stallone replied to Bruce Willis on Arnold's attitude problem. I am not going to spoil it for you, just because you have to hear it for yourself to burst out laughing.

What I didn't like about this movie is other than the whole blowing up agenda and the funny parts, there's really nothing much of an intelligence to the story. I am such a sucker for intelligent movies and usually watching guy flicks ain't my thing. However, I particularly enjoyed A-Team :) I also didn't like to see how unimportant some of the A-list actors were in the movie. I thought Jet Li could have had more role as Yang. He only had one fighting scene and I was quite disappointed. Visual effect wise, could have been better.

What to expect? Loads of destruction

Sipadan Island, Sabah

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"Sipadan is the only oceanic island in Malaysia, rising 600 metres (2,000 ft) from the seabed. It is located in the Celebes Sea east of the major town of Tawau and off the coast of Borneo, East Indonesia on the island of Borneo. It was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct volcanic cone that took thousands of years to develop. Sipadan is located at the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin, the centre of one of the richest marine habitats in the world. More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species have been classified in this ecosystem. Sipadan has been rated by many dive journals as one of the top dive destinations in the world.

Normally, rare diving scenes are frequently seen in the waters around Sipadan: schools of green and hawksbill turtles nesting and mating, schools of barracuda and big-eye trevally in tornado-like formations, pelagic species such as manta rays, eagle rays, scalloped hammerhead sharks and whale sharks.

A turtle tomb lies underneath the column of the island, formed by an underwater limestone cave with a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that contain many skeletal remains of turtles that become lost and drown before finding the surface." - taken from Wikipedia

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There are three to four resorts available for visitors to choose from. Kapalai is the only resort built in the middle of the ocean. Guests of Kapalai have the flexibility of snorkeling right in front of their chalets while others who prefer diving can charter a boat out to the open sea. Lankayan is a resort by the beach. If visitors prefer to have the beach within reach, Lankayan is the place to stay because Kapalai doesnt offer that. These two are the only accomodations visitors can find at Sipadan which is on the beach and close to the waters. However, they do not provide the luxury of a five star resort from what I can see on their website but more of just a rest and relax kind of place where guests are not encourage to spend all their time in their room but out snorkeling, diving or either kayaking.

I've not been there before, but this is a place to visit for island lovers. I hope I'll be able to, soon :)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Malaysia Tak Boleh!

So, yesterday my car's left corner got scraped by this Silver Mitsubishi Triton WQB 8380 (I had this memorized so that if I ever come across this no plate, ...) whom the driver wanted to cut in front of me as I was lining up at the Kerinchi toll. At that time I was digging for money and I felt a little push to the right. He ram the side of my car, pushing me off the line and the next thing I know, my right side mirror was folded in and the only thing I can see is the truck's right side door scraping against my car. Seriously, he did just that to move one car forward which really wont help him make a difference by a hundred kilometres front. Why he did that, I have no idea but I am guessing it is because he is an asshole.

I wished the two policemen who were right behind me did something. They were both in their Police CRV and they just sat there staring, even laughing at the whole situation. Unbelievable? Believe it because they actually did not do anything. I don't know if I can consider myself lucky to have two policemen behind me, or unlucky. I guess luck doesn't apply in this situation because the fact that policemen who are suppose to take care of incidents like this did not do anything at all yesterday.

How on earth can people still call out loud to Malaysia Boleh? I mean, these are law enforcement people! and they just sat through the whole thing. How can Malaysians put their faith into the government to lead this country to success if small matters like these, they close both eyes? Politicians and other government committees often voice out that we as the residents of this country should stand proud of where we are living in, should support and believe them to make the country a better place. How are we suppose to do that when they are the ones who are to blame?

I can honestly say that I am ashamed to be living in this country. Although, I grow up a Malaysian, if given a choice I wouldn't even want to be one. All it takes to change any law enforcement personnel's mind is bribery. They are so famous with that, that an expat actually wrote a whole article on how you can bribe the police officers if you ran the lights, or went passed the speed limit or even committed a crime. An expat, saying that about this country! Countries all around the world are already moving forward at full speed, regardless to the economy recession whatsoever. And Malaysia? Huh, I don't even think that there is the slightest chance for us to "grow".

So if you are reading this from another country and so happened to be looking for Malaysia reviews, I am here reviewing something negative about Malaysia.

My verdict : Never ever choose Malaysia as your home, if you have a choice.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Caffeinated Cappuccino Me!

Before I was working at Elken, which was … about … 4.5 years back, I totally hated coffee because I dislike anything bitter and coffee was bitter to me. Extremely.

So working at Elken, they have their own coffee called Elicafe which was the first coffee I’ve ever liked. Everyday at 3pm, the nice coffee lady who goes around pouring all the Elkenians coffee will be at the department I worked for and when she came to pour my then colleagues coffee, it smelt so damn good. So one day, I had to try.

Surprisingly, the first sip was good. It wasn’t bitter at all and I totally loved it because it was not thick and heavy. Instead it was just nice, sweet and light and I realized that is just how I liked it. So, from then on I was very eager to have the nice coffee lady coming around my department pouring me coffee.

There was no turning back. I was hooked.

When I resigned from Elken, I used all my point claims to get boxes and boxes of Elicafe because I knew I had to stock them up as I wont be getting anymore free coffee at 3pm where ever I was going to work at but they only lasted me 3 months and I had to find a replacement. So now, my daily coffee fix would be Old Town 3 in 1 classic mix and during the weekends, I’ll treat myself to Starbucks.

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If time permits, I will usually take an hour off during the weekend to visit my usual coffee place, Starbucks. I’ve tried a number of places but Starbucks is my favorite because I needed the peacefulness of the place (Midvalley’s outlet excluded), the comfort of their sofa plus their awesome Cappuccino (hot please!). I am very particular about my coffee actually. I still do not like the bitter ones, thick ones or weird ones. I just like my coffee to be light, foamy (a bit), with milk, and sweet. So, Starbucks is still one of my favorites and I won’t be able to live without visiting them for at least an hour during the weekend. Starbucks is my Zen place.

The next best coffee outlet I would say is Dome. I’ve never tried Dome’s cappuccino before but the other day when I was at Midvalley, I made a detour to Dome as Starbucks was freaking packed! Not a nice place to chill..Seriously!

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Dome’s cappuccino is a tad bit better than Starbucks and at the same price too (RM10). However, I didn’t like the fact that the cup was smaller than Starbucks tall cup. Same price and all, but quantity much lesser. I love the place though. It’s like a place for everyone to just shut up and read newspaper. You’ll never hear them laugh out loud or hear conversations you don’t want to hear. Dome is definitely my type of Zen place but because it is at Midvalley and the cup is smaller than Starbucks, my usual Starbucks at Pearl Point won over a hundred times.

So Starbucks & Dome are yes yes to me but where are my no no places?

Two bad experiences I’ve got to share are Delicious and Austin Chase at Midvalley.

First would be Delicious. We had a bit of waiting to do before the movie starts and I needed my coffee fix so I wanted to try Delicious cappuccino and I had the most horrible coffee experience ever!

First, I would like to highlight something totally unrelated to the coffee. The manager of the place looked like some cina apek with no teeth who belonged to Petaling Street. He seriously could have passed off as a vcd seller or some old Chinese gangster. My drink came and it was nothing but foam! Everyone knows that cappuccino comes with a thin layer of foam but when my drink came, I was actually drinking foam than any coffee at all. I was scooping all the foam out, trying to look for my coffee and the fact that I was doing that, was already making me impatient, cranky and frustrated as I needed my coffee badly and a place like Delicious should very well have higher service, food & beverage standards.

So I asked the manager, what was this cup of thing they gave me and the moment he opened his mouth, I was shocked because he has no teeth! Well, if you call decayed blackish teeth, teeth, I don’t know what it was. So, he actually gave me the whole story of how cappuccino is made but I did not care because I did not go there to drink foam. What annoyed me the most was that he assumed I didn’t know what I ordered and told me that that is the standard way of making cappuccino, which was 70% foam and 30% coffee. WTF! In the end, I didn’t get my coffee because I refused to drink foam and had to rush off to cinema as we were almost late! Oh, and I had to pay for that cup of foam so I think that Delicious at Midvalley really sucks.

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Second and last (I do hope so) will be Austin Chase at Midvalley. This has nothing to do with what I experienced at Delicious. In fact the people are very friendly, the place is actually very nice and comforting. Quiet too, which is how I like my coffee place to be but, I didn’t like the cappuccino.

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It wasn’t light and sweet but thick and bitter. Their coffee is the opposite of Starbucks actually. It’s dark and heavy. No, I didn’t weigh them or look at their raw beans but by tasting their cappuccino I sort of figured that out. Although, the coffee isn’t my cup of tea (ironic) but I am very sure that genuine dark coffee lovers would love that place because of the ambience.

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Baby loved his Famous Amos crunched coffee though :)

Now, how did I end up writing such a long post about coffee? LOL