Next Stop, Melaka!

Hey guys!

So it's been a while since my last post and what have I been doing? I've been really busy preparing for the Yuan Carnival that's happening this weekend 18th & 19th June at SJK(C) Cheng, Melaka!

You know, so much work and preparation goes into planning the Yuan Carnival for one venue, and this year we're going to 7 venues all over Malaysia! Last month we had a Yuan Carnival in Batu Caves with much much success and this weekend we're all prepped to go to Melaka to bring some fun to our Melaka friends!

If you haven't already known by now, the Yuan Carnival is the equivalent of Jom Heboh but it's more for fellow Chinese Malaysians. "Yuan" in Chinese means "Round" or "Togetherness" in that sense, making it all the more meaningful as we see parents, grandparents, and children all come together to have fun and bring smiles home.

Even though we started out with having mainly Chinese Malaysians visit the Yuan Carnival, at the last venue in Batu Caves, we were pleasantly surprised by the fellow Chinese, Indian and Malay who all came to support the event! That's one thing about being Malaysian, we come together, have fun, and share moments that make us truly 1 Malaysia :)

Because it's also Father's Day this weekend, I was trying hard to figure out a way that I could have the kids celebrate with their Fathers at the Yuan Carnival, while having fun. I thought long and hard, but as how brilliant ideas are, they sometimes come not from you, but from the people around you...

I'm lucky to have really inspiring and creative people around me. An idea came from a colleague of mine where we could have the kids take photos together with their dads! So we made a frame (sort of similar to our facewalks) that looked like an envelope with a postage stamp that said "I ♥ Dad". We'll compile all these pictures and put them up on ntv7's facebook for everyone to see. Bet it's gonna be a sweet moment!

An additional bonus is that the picture with the most likes on facebook will get tickets to watch the Glitz performance in Genting for the whole family! Yes, it's only possible to join if you're coming to the Melaka Yuan Carnival, so if you're itching to celebrate with your family this Father's Day then come on down!

Going to leave for Melaka tomorrow and I just can't wait! I'll need some tips on where to eat in Melaka though, so drop me a comment and tell me where's the best satay celup okay?

Facewalk @ ntv7

Being the fun-loving and feel good peeps that we are, all of us in ntv7 decided to do a facewalk in our office.

What's a facewalk you might ask? Well if you're always on top of the social media or viral campaign news then you might've heard of Facepark--a campaign by Diesel last year.

Taking tips from the campaign, we made our own little boards and named it facewalk!

Now mind you, this was no easy feat cause there were 40 boards to be made for everyone and it was all done manually. The cutting, the border drawing, everything. But working together made the job less painful...

But what made it fun for us was everyone got really creative and decorated their boards with all kinds of cut outs from magazines, their favorite toy, and all sorts of things that they personally liked (just like facebook)

The office was abuzz with everyone asking other people from other TV stations and departments to "like" their facewalk and leave a comment. I think personally the comment box was the best addition to the facewalk cause I got a lot of very nice compliments from everyone else and it's like those "Happy Birthday" cards you get with nice words and everytime you read them, you get encouraged.

So why did we do a facewalk? Well we were going to do a presentation to our dear boss Ahmad Izham Omar and knowing how much he loved the digital media space, we wanted to surprise him. Needless to say, he called us officially nuts and took a picture of us :)

Anyone want to try their own version of facewalk?

The Man Who Made Shoes

Being the shoe lover that I am, it was like a dream come true to meet Dato' Jimmy Choo in person. Like how Charlie finally gets to meet the brains behind the chocolate factory; I was Charlie, and I finally got to meet my Willy Wonka.
The ready to wear Jimmy Choo brand is up for sale and Dato Jimmy Choo has plans to buy the brand back. Despite varied opinions over his quest, the opinion I formed after meeting him was that this man was different, inspiring if I may, for trying and not giving up at all the negativity.

He answered questions in a very polite manner, attended to every photograph request, and managed to churn out drawings of 3 different shoes in a short time--one for The Breakfast Show, one for Bella and one for me :)

Sorry had to watermark his drawing, cause Dato' Jimmy Choo did ask me if this was going to be for sale and I assured him it's not :)

It was amazing to see him sit down and draw what came to mind on the spot, amazing how his talent juices still flow and his designs are still so sought after till this day. Definitely a humbling moment to see this man do so much and give back so much to his country.

And with that, I won't give up writing about what I love here, in hopes that one day I will be able to write something the readers out there will love!

The Perfect Gentleman 《魅力型男》

So there's been some talk over this new program we're having called The Perfect Gentleman. Cause of one reason, well there is one only--the ladies in the office get to see hunks!

I'm imagining people like Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Henney, Hyun Bin or even local celebs like Melvin Sia come out from this program. Too ambitious perhaps?

Well to be fair I think there are hunks in Malaysia, otherwise Cleo won't have their 50 most eligible bachelors every year right? Only here's the twist, these hunks not only have to look good, they have to be talented and I do mean singing / dancing / composing / writing / hosting / acting / etc. talented.

Like how 8TV had their Hot Chef, now is the time to find The Perfect Gentleman--the one guy who would open the door for a lady, hold the lift and let everyone in before hopping on, a guy who would sing to impress a girl, a guys who charms with his good looks, and so much more.

Perfect is a hard word to live up to, and most people would tell you that there are no perfect guys anyway but here we are ready to brave it all and hope for the best. *fingers crossed*

Now, hot hunk recommendations anyone?

p/s: Miss feelgoody2shoes's personal preferences for hunks are the likes of Jay Park, Taecyeon (2PM), Nickhun (2PM), Jinwoon (2AM). Yes, I do realize that they are mostly Korean :)

Commenting or Retweeting?

It's a mystery... Why would anyone want to comment on a blogpost? Pffffttttt...

I mean there's twitter and facebook comments and even the "like" button! What's with having to click on the blurp on the top right corner of the post and comment on what you feel about the blogpost you just read, right?

Oh well truthfully I'm guilty of the same thing, I read cause I like to read but commenting hmmm... Though, I'm going to be contradicting myself here--it's always nice to have a few comments, it's like words of encouragement you know?

Like how the other day I was just reading through some really touching translated tweets/comments on facebook regarding the Japan quake and how the Japanese people handled the situation, how they helped one another come through. I realized that as people speak out, it's always encouraging to read about what they feel about certain things. Makes blogging all the more real, all the more fun and well interacting.

So tell me, what are some of your reasons for not commenting on blogs? Too many comments? Too tired to think of something to say? Too confusing? Or maybe it's just easier to retweet?

Wait, I think I'm guilty of the last item I just listed...

Chinese New Year Traditions

Yee Sang - It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but since "fish (鱼)" is commonly conflated with its homophone "abundance (余)", Yúshēng (鱼生) is interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng (余升) meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.

- credits wikipedia

It has become a kind of tradition for most of us to eat yee sang or lou sang during Chinese New Year and there have been a lot of adaptations as to what the yee sang would consist of--from organic versions to Vietnamese versions.

Truth be told, I'm not a fan of yee sang, but you can't deny that most traditions we keep are cultural ones, so much so that Chinese New Year wouldn't be complete without one instance of having yee sang with colleagues or even relatives.

I finally had my one and only yee sang before the end of Chinese New Year celebrations yesterday. Even though I don't fancy the dish, it's always fun to lou (mix) the yee sang as high as you can, while muttering well wishes like "May the year be prosperous", "May we earn more money", and the list goes on.

The aftermath of a lou sang session however is always messy...

Spilling is part of it and signifies an overflow in all things good for the year you see... No wait, I made that up.

Going back to CNY traditions, who would miss out the lion dance right?

Yeap, these two were in the office yesterday, making their rounds and cuddling up to people as they danced past. They were cute, and you won't believe how manja they were!

You know how usually the lions are supposed to pluck some cabbage off a string? Well looking at how it was impossible to hang up a cabbage in the office, we had the lions Cai Qing (pluck the greens) with a pineapple and orange, which are said to also have good meaning to them.

Okay let's see, there the yee sang, the lion dance and ah, food!

I think this one's more of a Malaysian tradition--whether it's a festive occasion or not, there'll always be food that we'd never pass on.

Celebrations always grow our waist by a few inches, so seeing that today's the last of the 15 days, there's no more excuse to not get off your seat and start exercising to lose the festive weight.

Jogging anyone?