Paddling furiously into the New Year

I've decided to start my new year with something new and exciting. Something I've never tried before, but have wanted to. So on Jan 1, 2006, I'm gonna go white water rafting with some friends from TJJ. I've never given in to the lure of this sport as I had another water sport on my mind always - diving - thus, white water rafting was never an option for me. Anyway, now that it's monsoon season, I can't dive unless I go overseas and that my friends is not possible. No kaching la.

It's gonna be fun. Gonna be camping overnight next to the river as well.

Will be posting pictures up here later. So watch this space.

Ho ho holiday...

I know I'm not blogging much these days... could be that I'm bored of it already or I now do not feel the need to bludgeon internet readers with my thoughts. Or it could be because I'm just too plain busy, and by the time I clock out, I'm in a too much of a vegetative state to spout sense. But for I will try again for old time's sake.

My Christmas holiday was one orgy after another. It was eating, eating, eating and drinking, drinking, drinking all the way. My Friday started with an invitation from colleagues to hang and get slosh at The Loft, Zouk, but I didn't like The Loft coz they play head-banging music and the place is populated by college kids and underpaid yuppies who can't "afford" to pay cover charge but drinks like a fish. It's all about priorities. The Loft usually play OK music right until the hands of time hit the witching hour and that's when all hell break loose with patrons already drunk and jumping energetically, jostling and stomping on the helpless beneath. Yeah, yours truly got stomped once and it was the last time I'll ever willingly set foot in that place... But then they do have cheap drinks... Tsk tsk, look how willing I am to trade alcohol for my feet. Haha. No I'm not an alcoholic. Go ahead roll yer eye... balls.

Long story short, ended up in Cynna with Aqmal, Zona and Zona's new best friend Nazrul, a chap who apparently knows the whole world, the way I hear Zona say it. Haha. We cracked a Smirnoff Berry and finished it in one sitting. And the funny thing was that, I didn't feel woozy at all after downing so much vodka... until much later.

It was just a night of hanging out with friends, old and new and talking crap, while the guys checked out the chicks. Cynna is one "classy" place. Patrons really dress up for a night of drunken falling all over each other, intentionally and non-intenti-HAH! yeah right, and a night of debauchery enough to put Mrs Elton and Britons to shame.

Anyway, LATER, we went to the "famous" mamak place with the "famous" nasi lemak for supper. It was my second time there and I still do not "taste" the attraction. Anyway, Aqmal didn't eat and he KNEW that vodka and sambal do not mix well, so he refrained from upsetting his system. Me, stoopid me, should have listened. Thought I had a some-sort of metal stomach la but after FOUR bites, I felt ready to burp and throw it all up. Ewwww! Gross! I gave my food to Naz and told myself not to THROW UP! All the way home, I held it in. When I got home, the first thing I did was drank loads of water AND THEN threw up. Eeyuch... Next morning, I woke up at 10am and went to the gym. ^_^

Saturday, cooked Christmas dinner with my mom. The children loved the dinner and the whole christmasy atmosphere as we don't really celebrate christmas. It was good food with good company and the wine helped loads. By the time the second batch of mash potatoes (my recipe), we were all well on our way to getting really merry on the wine and the honey mead. (Note to self: Go get some more mead for New Year's.)

Sunday, took a train in the morning to the ends of the earth for Zona's Christmas lunch, and hung out there until night when Zona, Nasrul and I went to see Wallace & Gromit at 1U. Funny show with lots of bad puns. If you want to know about the movie, google it. After that we went to The Orange to hang with Zona's uni friends to get sloshed. One way we tried to get slosh was to play the "I've never..." game which borders of a very well-rounded sex-ed if you're playing this the first time. The questions typically revolves around sex. The person of the moment will start with say, "I've never had a threesome" and those in the circle who has had threesomes had to take a sip of something alcoholic. And I didn't get sloshed. Enough said.

Monday, I woke up early to go to the gym and could not find my gym shoes! Decided then it was time to do some spring cleaning. Hence it was Clean-the-house Day and it was a good and productive day for me. I managed to get my shit cleaned and stored in its rightful place again and I can actually see the surface of my table for the first time in months. Installed a new shelf in the bedroom so that I can at least have my stuff in an orderly manner and not just scattered beside my bed. And I actually dismantle all the fans to cleaned it and then vacuumed the whole house, and finally gave all my cutesy toys and stuff a bath to scrub out the dust and balck stuff. They may look scruffy now but at least it's scruffy clean.

And now it's back to work... 'till next week! Planning something debauchery-like too. Hee hee.

Heineken greenspace FINALE

Heineken greenspace FINALE is next Wednesday! It's gonna be THE event of the year so don't miss it! We are booking all of Zouk except Velvet, so expect to experience the best with Deep Dish and DJ K-Switch! Come and enjoy people! Call me if you have any questions!



Heineken brings greenspace to Malaysia
Art, music and party come together for a one-of-a-kind experience

Young urban adults in Malaysia seeking more engaging experiences beyond just clubbing will be delighted to know about the upcoming Heineken greenspace. A nightlong event featuring three different themes - art, music and party - Heineken greenspace promises to be an experience that celebrates going beyond the norm.

Heineken greenspace will be held at Zouk KL on 14 December 2005. Featuring a number of international and local contributors in three separate spaces - Arttack, Musicuts and Dancevolution, each space aims to engage and expose consumers to fresh and enticing experiences. Doors open from 9 pm onwards and tickets are priced at RM35 before 11 pm, after which, prices are RM40 for ladies and RM45 for men.

Dancevolution at Zouk Mainroom
The highlight of Heineken greenspace is the 'party' theme, aptly named Dancevolution, which will be held at Zouk Mainroom. Featuring headlining act, the Grammy Award winning Deep Dish from the US and supported by DJ K-Switch who snatched top honours in Thirst Japan 2005, the Dancevolution arena will be transformed to mirror the Western and Eastern cultural elements of the countries that each act is from. More interestingly, this ambience will be created mainly using interactive and digital media designed by IF Interactive, a digital media agency, which has won many awards for their cutting-edge interactive solutions and designs.

As American leaders in the international dance music arena, Deep Dish have become one of the most revered names in the genre. Widely-regarded around the world for their explosive live DJ gigs, the Los Angeles Times has even once stated, "There may be no other live DJ act better than Deep Dish." The duo's current smash single "Flashdance" peaked this September on the U.K. music charts at #3 and made its U.S. premiere in June as the #1 top-selling dance track on Apple's iTunes.

Musicuts at the Loft
Simultaneously, the Loft at Zouk will play host to Musicuts - a space that takes music to greater heights. Musicuts will feature local acts DJ Bryan Burger, DJ RaySoo and Twilight Actiongirl.

Clubbers will be the first to enjoy a unique collaboration between DJ Bryan Burger and DJ RaySoo, a new music direction called "Hotel Scandalos", which aims to provide an intimate, alternative space within the clubbing environment. "Hotel Scandalos" would be the more experimental side of electronic music, ranging from quirky minimal house to off-centre electronica and even the odd disco gem and dub reggae record, a truly 'going beyond' experience.

Meanwhile, Twilight Actiongirl will open people's minds and ears to new and vintage classic tunes, which the general masses have overlooked with their broad music policy which covers everything from Britpop to garage rock to ska to classic soul to leftfield electro and all points in-between.

Musicuts goes one step further by combining audio and visual arts in collaboration with Clickproject, the local chapter of the Lomographic Society. The ambience in this space will be enhanced to reflect the essence of Heineken greenspace using the experimental and creative approach to photography that is inherent in lomography.

Arttack at Zouk Outdoor
Last but not least, Heineken greenspace will occupy the outdoor area of Zouk to create the Arttack space. Audiences looking for more sensory stimulating experiences beyond music will be thrilled with the graphically piquant graffiti wall created by local contributors Plastic & Co. In addition, they will also have the chance to exercise their creative muscles and try their hand at graffiti painting.

Completing the Heineken greenspace event experience will be the limited edition Heineken ito, a quirky yet chic aluminium beer bottle that is embellished with an avant-garde design. Inspired by Heineken and designed by Ora-ito, one of France's most progressive and unconventional product designers, the Heineken ito is the complete article - a beer that simply looks as good as it tastes and is destined to become a definite sensation with "fashionistas" and trend-setters.

This event is the culmination of Heineken's latest marketing campaign, which was unveiled early this month. Creative and thought provoking messages are displayed at locations frequented by young urbanites, including boutiques, cinemas, music stores, saloons and shopping malls all around town. Heineken brand ambassadors attired in T-shirts that carry similar stimulating copy are also placed in high-traffic areas frequented by our target group.

Work, work, work. *grin grin grin*

"U did a great job on nokia. Still on a learning curve but u have a never say die spirit. Dont lose that!"

My GM smsed me that last night. I was surprised that he noticed and even smsed me to let me know. I really appreciate superiors letting me know how I'm doing and I know myself enough that I will be working harder to do even better. Yeah, gimme a pat on the head and I'll try even harder. Just like a puppy. Pah...

Work has been crazy the past 3 weeks, what with Heineken and Nokia, both kicking off within 6 days of each other. On top of that, the Senior PR Consultant has moved on to another company Dec 1, and me being next senior in line, took over most of her stuff, and she has 8 years experience in the industry and I have 2! For the moment we are still looking for a replacement who is equal in, if not more, experience to PL. She hired me, you know. It's quite disconcerting to lose the person who hired you whilst you're still trying to find your footing in a new company. *sigh... shrug* Life goes on and so does work.

Well, my Nokia media launch has come and gone last Thursday and I'm told it was a great success, with the media giving us great feedback that it was THE best media launch they have ever been too. Wow... THE best... wow... The media had to RSVP and attendance was 100% plus as we had to turn away people who didn't RSVPed! What to do? We had limited seats and we really couldn't accomodate exrta media. *sigh* Wish we could though, hate turning away media, hope there won't be too much of a repercution... *eek*

What we basically did was create a special day for female writers from targeted publications in order to launch the new Nokia 6111 slide phone. It's really quite a feminine phone and it's slick and chic and small enought and fits well into a lady's palm and evening purse for that matter. It's a really nice phone and the audio is fantastic. We had the media launch at Nine, One Bangsar, and had silhouttes of women using the Nokia 6111 in cartoon cutouts and pasted onto the glass windows. Then we served them the cocktails and mocktails they pre-ordered a day earlier while they wait for the event to start.

We started with a musical with songs about women, relationships, career, love and men. Imported 3 very talented women to sing to a 3 piece band - flutist, pianist and drummer. After that, lunch was a fine dining affair with food prepared according to each writers and editors preference. We also asked them what their favourite flowers were and those said flowers were waiting for them on their seats in the dining area. We had sunflowers, lilies, roses, carnations, orchids and even a bunch of African daisies! We had 6 tables total with each of us hosting a table of writers and editors.

After lunch, came the chit-chat session where we asked the writers and editors certain topics. It was an interesting discussion followed by the SURPRISE! Nokia gave each writer and editor a new Nokia 6111 for their personal review! Talk about generous. Of course, all of them were happy! Not only that, we also arranged for a beauty / pampering session where our guests could get their nails done, a massage, make over with free make up, and a facial! We started the event at noon, and we wrapped up at 5pm! That was the longest media event I had ever done. Our guests didn't want to go back to the office! ^_^ A lot of them thanked me personally for inviting them, and they thanked Nokia for an event that all of them enjoyed. Said that for 5 hours, they didn't think about work! Hee hee...

Nokia loves the media and they are generous about it. Unlike some other companies whose name I cannot mention. That was the entire objective, to pamper the media and it's actually not about the phone. It wasn't IT related, it was just about what a woman wants...