Cindy Wins Malaysian Dreamgirl Season 1

I just got back from 1-Utama for the Malaysian Dreamgirl Finale and I'm so tired after a long day of work but I'm going to quickly write something about the finale.

Just about almost everyone who's anyone was there... well okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little but a lot of great people were there.

Pinkpau for example.
some of my buddies from Mindshareand I even met a few people whom I think read my blog including this girl.
Heck even Ming was down from Singapore and went for it.

The Finale started with a really good opening with all 11 of the 12 finalists walking out on to the stage. Their presence was met with a loud cheer from the audience that ranged all around the stage and all the way up to the 3rd and 4th floor of 1-Utama.

I loved the way it started.. the music, the contestants gave the stage so much energy and life.

Not to mention the many many photographers there. Heck I felt so small with my compact digicam.

I mean check out this dude's camera.
It's almost as long as my...

Anyway, the event program included some fashion shows with one by one of the girls coming out to showcase the many designer outfits.

I thought Nadia looked great
and Ringo here... damn she was so hot that night if you guys could only have seen it in person.

Fast forward to the elimination which was what everyone that night was waiting for.

Here's how it went... everyone basically thought that Hanis was going to win the event because heck... she had an entire group of supporters all screaming for her every time she appeared. I'm sure both Adeline and Cindy had their fair share of supporters but perhaps they weren't as vocal as Hanis's .

Elaine Daly first decided to announce the 2nd runner up of Malaysian Dreamgirl and it turned out to be... HANIS.

I could see the number of shocked faces in the crowd and people like Mehlin over here didn't exactly have the biggest smile on her face :P
Hanis herself was shocked to bits.

She tried her very best to hide her disappointment but as she was walking back to Cindy and Adeline, her face showed.. she was disappointed and upset that she didn't win.

I took a look around and even at the group of Hanis supporters standing right beside me. They were all suddenly silent with a disappointed look on their face.
Then it came the time to decide the winner of Malaysian Dreamgirl, either Adeline or Cindy. Elaine then called out Adeline as the 1st runner up and Cindy as the winner of Malaysian Dreamgirl.

I didn't see any immediate burst of joy from Cindy, though it did come in a few minutes later. My guess was that she was if anything, surprised and as shocked as anyone could ever get.Even up to the point they gave her the big key to the Nissan Latio she had won, I didn't think the whole truth of the matter had sunk in properly to her yet.But eventually she opened up and she was filled with joy and with good reason. She was going to walk home with RM20,000, a Nissan Latio worth RM100,000, some other gifts here and there and be on the cover of Newman magazine.

Congratulations to Cindy for being the first Malaysian Dreamgirl.
Some people say that Cindy's famous father had a lot to do with her success. Well in my opinion, whether or not he helped in voting or even with all those phone conversations he had with her... that is one helluva Dad!

To the other girls, especially to my buddy Ringo... don't be disheartened, that's 12 of you who made it.. out of the 500 people who auditioned. You were all winners since the first episode.

And to the people at Capxion Media, congratulations on making such a successful online reality TV series. I'm gonna miss watching MDG every Thursday and Saturday.

A Day of Work in Singapore

Dammit I'm so glad I'm back to working in Malaysia again after two weeks in Singapore. The sad thing is that the grass is always greener on the other side so when I'm back here I miss working there just a little bit.

Let me tell you how my two weeks in Singapore was like (after I had my surgery).

In the morning, I wake up and when I open my eyes the first thing I see is this.I drag myself out of bed and head straight to my computer to check my early morning e-mails. Sometimes I get e-mails late at night from some of my colleagues who work really really hard.

Then after I'm done taking a quick look at my mail I head straight to wash up and to call a cab to take me to the hospital.

Yes when I was there after my surgery, I had to go to the hospital every morning to see the doctor.

Some days I call a cab, but some days if I'm lucky, Ming will come by and pick me up in his convertible.Let me tell you this, sitting shotgun in a convertible with a guy driving makes you feel like a chick.

I wait in this waiting room of bored people for 30-45 minutes to see my doctor.

I must say I am quite impressed. In Malaysia when I go to a private hospital here, I'm often made to wait 1 and a half to 2 hours.

In Singapore, the longest I had was 45 minutes.

That's the way it should be!!! Good time management!

After I'm done with my morning check-up I head straight to the our Singapore office to get some work done.

Now here's the thing... work for me can be quite unpredictable. Sometimes I spend the day in the office or sometimes I go to some client meetings or press conferences or launch events at Suntec City Convention Centre.
One of the days I went to an event by one of our clients which collaborated with the Singapore Government for some family day event that saw me go with Ming to board one of these amphibious vehicles for a tour around Singapore by water.

I saw things like the Singapore Flyer,


the upcoming integrated resort (casino),and the Merlion.

While the tour guide was narrating to the group of us advertising and media people, none of the Singaporeans on board seemed to be listening.

I had a phone call when the tour guide was telling us the story of the Singapore icon, the Merlion so I missed what she said.

I later asked Ming
"Eh what's the deal with the merlion ah?"

And he said
"Oh.. last time some prince or something came to Singapore and saw a lion that had a fish tail so he that's why the icon has been the merlion".
Apparently that's totally not true.

Cherie, one of our Nuffnang team in Singapore who was with us told me that the fish on the lion was supposed to symbolize the humble beginnings of a fishing village that Singapore spawned from.

Now that made more sense than a half fish half lion creature.

After whatever meetings or conferences we will have in the morning, it's time for us to go for lunch. We meet all sorts of people for lunch.

On one of the days we had lunch with Dawn Yang at Singapore Island Golf and Country Club.

Ming would bring us in the club for lunch and some very minor camwhoring ensued.


Dawn is a pretty interesting person.

Ok at the lunch we were talking about cars and I don't know how we brought up the issue of an Aston Martin.

Dawn's eyes opened wide and she said
"Ohhh I love the Aston Martin!!!"

Surprised that she said that about the Aston Martin and not about any of the other cars we were talking about I asked her
"What about a Ferrari?"


And her reply
"A Ferrari? That's flashy... what are you trying to make up for?"

Ish!

Alright after that lunch with Dawn we headed to buy some cakes on the way back to eat later on


The Apple Crumble at SIGCC is unbelievably good and cheap too!

Now on the way back to work, Ming sometimes goes to pump petrol.

On the day crude oil hit $130, Ming stopped by to pump at a petrol station only to see a sign that says the petrol prices have increased and curse
"KNN!! NA BEHHH INCREASE AGAIN !!??!? @#$@#$@%#"We head back to the office and continue work until late in the evening when we all get all tired and go home.

You know it's time to go home when the girls stop looking like this (all smiley and all)to having droopy eyes that almost close.So that's a day at work for me in Singapore.

WHO WANTS LOBSTER?!?! (UPDATED)

Friday was Ming's birthday so he had a nice get together at his home in Singapore.

There's nothing like having a small private dinner with 10-20 close friends over a BBQ stove... and if there's anything else to add fun to the party, it's how everyone with the exception of me and a few others took some effort to prepare a dish of their own.One of the cravings the birthday boy had for the day was Lobster!

So in the afternoon we drove far far away to some supermarket to get fresh lobster. Now I don't eat seafood because well... I just don't.

Therefore you can imagine how kind of disgusted I was when the supermarket staff started taking out some struggling live lobsters from a tank full of them.

That of course... wasn't as disgusting as what I witnessed a few hours later.

When we got back to Ming's house, one of Ming's friend took charge in preparing the lobsters for BBQ... and these were lobsters that were still alive mind you.

The preparation disturbed me a little.

First, the chef inserted a satay stick far into the butt of the lobster to remove its urinal thread. You basically see all the lobster's shit/piss come out from there and the lobster struggling in the palms of his hand.Another friend who was there worked in the hotel line and he told me that when people boil a lobster it normally curls up as it is boiled to death and nobody wants to eat a curled up lobster.

So what they do at the restaurants in the hotel is... stick a long satay stick from the back to the front of the lobster while the lobster is still alive.

Only then is the lobster thrown into the boiling pot and cooked alive.

Anyway back to the lobster I was watching being made.

Then the chef grabbed a big knife like this, and carefully plunged it into the head of the lobster while holding it tight.
The lobster at this point would struggle again but eventually die down when the blade has gone deep inside its head and through its brain.

The dying lobsters are then left in the sink for them to slowly die.

Now here's where it gets a little more sick.

The cook then takes the big knife and shove it down the middle of the lobster, then pulling the knife down to cut the lobster into half.

When the knife comes down, you can hear a sound that is very very similar to human bones cracking.

If the knife doesn't cut the lobster into two well enough, the chef will use a scissors to cut it into half.
Now here's the really really freaky part.

Apparently according to the chef, sometimes when he does this to the lobster, the lobster still moves.... how can a lobster that is cut into half still move or do anything resembling still being alive!!!

Here's how a split lobster looks like. The yellow part is apparently its brain.

The chef puts more of them together then seasons them.


Before wrapping them in aluminum foil to be later thrown into the fiery hot BBQ pit.
I didn't touch any of the lobster that night but apparently everyone there said it was delicious.

I'm just gonna stick to my usual stuff... like the nice sausages I have at Jarrod & Rawlings.

And NOOOooo I DO NOT want to know how sausages are made.. I bet it's disgusting too.

For those of you who want to see how the lobsters get killed one by one, I took a video.



You can hear Ming in the background providing the sound effects of
"AHHH.. AHH!!! AHH!!!"

But some of the lobsters when they were killed, they actually let out a bit of a screaming sound.

No more lobster for me!

PS: Oh yeah.. it's lobster.. not crayfish okay? Don't call it crayfish. Somebody that night said it was a crayfish and Ming shouted
"OI!!! IT'S A LOBSTER!!! I PAID SO MUCH FOR IT!!!"

Update: Okay seeing that there is a bit of debate of the many ways to kill a lobster I've decided to put up a fun poll of this on the sidebar of my blog.

Look there and do the poll, there are 3 options, boiled to death, frozen to death or stabbed to death.

I'm not gonna tell you which one I'd rather go for but.. eww...

Sony Ericsson K660i

Okay here’s the funny thing.

Everyone knows that I was on my trusty Sony Ericsson K800i right?A phone that I feel was and still is one of the best phones in the market in terms of pricing, features and reliability!

Then I fell for peer pressure, and got myself a very stupid phone that everyone was so hyped up about only to realize later on that the stupid phone was not only overpriced but didn’t have the very basic features of a phone!

I was just beginning to think that I should’ve stuck with Sony Ericsson when I managed to get my hands on a new Sony Ericsson phone to toy around with two weeks ago.I spent the past few days toying around with the phone and heck it felt good to have a phone with keypads again.

You gotta love new phones. I mean, they smell good… well not as strong a smell as say a new car but still a scent nevertheless. And you gotta lovee the box new phones come in these days.You also gotta hate the first few times you drop a new phone. It feels as if somebody just kicked you in the nuts.

Anyway, having the fun novelty of a new phone I decided to do some research on this new K660i.

Now the K660i has a lot of the usual stuff. 2 MP Camera, Video Calls, Bluetooth, MMS etc etc and most importantly a record video function. Dammit you guys have no idea how important phone cameras have been in recording controversial videos.

Think sex scandals, or “Hong Kong Bus Uncle” or “Correct Correct Correct”.As much as all those features are cool, we take many of them for granted these days but the big draw for this phone is that it’s one of the most affordable phones in the market with 3G HSDPA which can bring in internet speeds of up to 3.6 megabits per second. There’ also an “always on” feature where you can constantly be online the entire time.

That’s like bringing your laptop and broadband with you everywhere you go.

So the next time I’m in a traffic jam, I’m gonna bring out my phone and BLOG. DAMMIT I’M GONNA BE IN THE MALAYSIAN BOOK OF RECORDS FOR THE FIRST MALAYSIAN TO BLOG IN A TRAFFIC JAM! (None of you had better read this then beat me to it!! It’s unethical to steal other peoples’ wind ok!!!)

To me, as a phone brand, Sony Ericsson has never disappointed me in any of its phones and it wasn’t about to start with this one.

Dammit I should learn to get my priorities right next time.

Apple for computers, Sony Ericsson for phones.

If you wanna get yourself a K660i, you can go buy one from Lowyat or you could try to win one from a contest on their website here.So if you want a K660i, there are two options.

One you could go play the surfing game on their website.

Or two… you could complete a slogan here and I just MIGHT give you the phone.

Complete this slogan.

“Cows have nipples _______________________________ “

No no I’m kidding about the slogan ok?

Haha.. don’t really go doing it.

The Yakult Burglar

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So I've been in Singapore for over a week and been hanging around with the Nuffnang team in Singapore and I kinda feel a little left out sometimes.

You know? Because everyone here seems to watch Singapore TV and I don't.For example, on the way to lunch today Ming was talking to Cherie, one of our ad sales execs in Singapore about some real-life CSI documentary produced and aired in Singapore.

Apparently the story goes that there was this group of house burglars that would go robbing house after house and they stupidly got caught in the end because one of the burglars in the group would always go straight to the fridge when he breaks into a house and grab himself a Yakult to drink.Now here's the funny part, all of them were careful not to leave any fingerprints.

So they all wore gloves but the idiot who loves Yakult always finished his Yakult and then left it in the house.

If you watch enough CSI then you probably know what happened next.Singapore's CSI or dare I call it CSI: Singapore collected all the Yakult bottles from all 3 houses they robbed, collected the DNA and found out who one of the burglars was.

Can I just say this....

WHAT A FLIPPING IDIOT!!!

First you break into a damn house... and the first thing you look for is not the SAFE where the money and jewelery are probably kept but you look for the FRIDGE for where the Yakult is!!!Then he drinks the Yakult and leaves the bottle there?

WTF?!?!? Why doesn't he leave his business card there as well while he's at it?

And don't ask me how every house he robbed seemed to have Yakult.

For all you know this guy staked out the house before he robbed them to make sure they brought home Yakult whenever they came home from Cold Storage.
As I was expressing myself on what an idiot this guy must've been, Ming took a look at me and said
"Nah!!! This guy lar!!! Sure go for Yakult if he were to break into a house".

Niaamaa.... just because I live on Yakult doesn't mean I'm gonna be soooo stupid.

Dammit if I'm gonna do that I might as well bring a polaroid camera there and take some pictures of myself robbing the damn place only to leave it there for the cops to find.
Then I'll attach a Post-It note to the Polaroid pictures that says
"Hello Police, TIMOTHY TIAH WAS HERE.. BWAHAHAHAHAA... oh and uh when I mean Timothy Tiah I mean Timothy Tiah who lives in 38 Jalan Puting, 50030 PJ.

It's the blue house with the white gate. If you hit the McDs at the end of the road then you've gone too far. U-Turn and go a few houses back and you'll see my house on the left. Any problem finding the place call me at 016-693 2811 ok? Tenkiu ar!"