In Adversity Do We Find Ourselves and See Others For Who They Are

Only a year and a half since my mum's passing, my family and I have faced yet another loss.  Our bapa (dad/stepdad) has passed and we are still shocked with his demise.

My mum always said that a father isn't necessarily the person who helped conceive you.  He is the one who loves you unconditionally as his own without question.  He is the one who would go that extra mile for you without hesitation nor complaint.  He is the one who cares for you and guides you as best he can.

March 4, 2011
With his surprise birthday cake

We had just celebrated our grandmother's birthday earlier that day at an aunt's house, went back to send back the maid and off again to 1Borneo for the HomeDec expo.  We had been planning on renovating the home bathrooms and were all set to buy the tiles and other fixtures.  In fact, the works were supposed to begin 2 days later.  When we got home that night, he collapsed within minutes of entering the house.  He passed less than 2 hours later.  Almost all of us did not get a wink of sleep that night until after his burial the following morning.

It felt so surreal.  Like it was some sort of twisted nightmare.  He'd never told us kids about his health.  Probably because he didn't want us to worry and partly because he didn't think it was as serious as it was. He would from time to time say his back is painful but brushed it aside as muscle strain.

Our initial thought was that it was a heart attack but my brother pointed out that in the movies, when someone gets a heart attack, they would fall to side, hand on their chest somewhat gasping and not fall unconscious immediately.  After talking to a couple of doctors we were close with, we came to the conclusion that he may have had a stroke instead.

He was a man of few words, many smiles and a big, big heart.  Despite the busy-ness of his work, we always had time chilling and talking in front of the TV watching our favourite shows like NCIS, CSI and Criminal Minds at night.   He'd always make a point to have a few family trips to KL together during the school holidays and sometimes even send us on trips out of the country although he couldn't join us.  Every Saturday was family day.  We'd go out for lunch/high tea, shopping and/or movies.

Those who knew him would say he was always the fun guy to hang with.  He'd never complain and never try to pick a fight or argue with you.  To me, he was a superdad.  Every problem had a solution and he worked it out.  We learnt a lot from him and felt bad whenever we messed up even though he wasn't furious with us.  I don't know how he managed his time between family, work, friends and leisure but he did.

I miss our TV nights, Saturday family time, talks and more.  No words can describe how much he meant to me, my siblings and the rest of the family.  I am thankful however, for all the support from family and friends that I've received and would like to express my utmost appreciation to everyone.  I'm sure my family feels the same way too.  Thank you.

Thank you Allah for not having him in pain for long.  Al-Fatihah.

I Blingified My iPhone Case

One of the fun things to do with phones in general I think is to dress them up with different casings.  There are so many choices in the market these days -- from plain functional protective types to fashion accessories and are made from hard plastic, silicone and sometimes encrusted with rhinestones and crystals.

Elle & Blair Summer Glow Case for iPhone 4 (US$49.99)
Photo Source: Cellairis

Anyways, I saw a really pretty phone case on display recently while window shopping which had a gorgeous pink gradient of crystals on the back (they even had the matching iPad case version too!) quite similar to the one pictured above.  Apparently those were Swarovski crystals and costs a whooping RM300+!!  If you're wondering, the iPad version was RM700+.  Now that to me was way too expensive for a phone casing (at this time anyways).

So I couldn't find a cheaper version of said casing and could not bring myself to directly stick anything (except screen protector) on my phone.  This weekend I was hanging out with my baby brother at Centre Point and decided to blingify my phone myself.  All I needed was a plain case and those phone deco stickers and here's what came out of it:

OK, so it wasn't the gradient look I was originally after (mainly because the gradient stickers weren't what I had in mind) but I like how subtly blingy it is.  Haha.  I bought a case that had white plastic around it and a thin metal plate on the back (kinda brushed aluminium-esque feel) (RM19.90, marked down from RM39.90 at Speedy) and then a silver crystal-white pearl bead zebra patterned sticker (RM6.90, Palm Square kiosk) which I stuck on the back of it.  I'd only bought 1 sheet of the sticker which wasn't enough.  I had a little shy of 2cm left on the top part of the back bare so I picked up another sheet (RM5.90 at a little shop near Red City on the 2nd floor) and filled in the space.  The second part was a little bit more tricky than the first though.  I had to measure the piece, cut off the bigger crystals/pearls to fit the top and a hole for the camera and flash.  Then selecting smaller parts, I pushed around and filled in some spots to make the connected edge more seamless (I added a little more after taking the above photos and now looks like it's one whole piece).

I love that it's glam but not too overly so.  Every once in awhile it's nice to have something that is uniquely you and (hopefully) no one else has an exact same one.  Haha.  OK, I'm done here.  Til the next post!

Gold Coast: Attractions

One of the best part about travelling to Gold Coast were the attractions.  We didn't manage to go to every single one of them but we did make our way to a few.

AquaDuck

Website: http://www.aquaduck.com.au/

Photo source: buildingconservationtour.blogspot.com

The first day we were there, we went on the AquaDuck tour to get acquainted with the area.  Since this was pretty much a last minute decision, we bought out tickets at Centro and the hop on location was a short walk away.  If you've been on a Duck Tour in Singapore, I imagine it's pretty much the same concept.  The vehicle, like a duck, takes you around Surfers Paradise on land and in the water on the Nerang River.

Check out the multimillion dollar house (one of many)
with the heli at the Nerang River

Sea World

Website: http://www.seaworld.com.au/

For Seaworld, we purchased the VIP pass online from their website which allows unlimited entries to 3 of their theme parks (Sea World, Movie World and Wet N Wild).  The offers for the VIP tend to vary throughout the year so check out their website to see what kind of promotions they have at the time you plan on going.  Bring the printed email received for the tickets purchased at the entrance and make your way to their guest services to get your photo taken for your VIP pass.

To get there, we took the bus to Seaworld from the stop opposite our hotel.  The return bus' path was right next to our hotel too which was great!

We went to see the shows and performances and had a lot of fun going round the park being all tourist-y and snapping photos of the animals there.

Visit their website for more information on park attractions and things to do.

Movie World
Website: http://movieworld.myfun.com.au/

Movie World for me was the best of all the theme parks we'd gone to.  We took the TX2 bus from the stop at Appel Park which was across the road and through Circle on Cavill.  Buses with TX prefixes are the Theme Park Express buses that cater to visitors of Wet N Wild, Movie World, Australian Outback Spectacular and Dreamworld.  However, the last buses to the theme parks are scheduled before noon so if you miss them, you will need to take a different bus there.

We didn't go on most of the rides though because we were too busy snapping photos, going to the shows and performances, playing games and shopping for souvenirs.  Haha.  If you're planning on checking out the shows and performances, be sure to plan out your time and work around it.

The Stunt Driver show was definitely the best one that we've gone to and made a point to not miss it.  Amazing how those drivers maneuvered at high speed through tight spaces.  Be forewarned, it might get a bit hot. Hehe.  We practically rushed from the restaurant to the show and got there in the nick of time!  Rick's Cafe Americain (the restaurant across) was delish!!  It's an all you can eat buffet and you can come back to eat as many times during your visit for the day until 3pm (when they close).  And yes, it's certified Halal and has a nice Moroccan style decor too.

More information on park attractions is available on their website.

Dreamworld
Website: http://www.dreamworld.com.au/

Dreamworld (and WhiteWater World) tickets can be purchased online as well and that's exactly what we did.  I was honestly disappointed with the place in general though and maybe going during their "slow season" as they describe it had something to do with how drab I felt the place was.  Some of the rides were undergoing scheduled maintenance and for the most part the park didn't seem as well kept.

I did enjoy the AVPX laser tag game though despite barely hitting 200 points.  It was my first time playing laser tag and it was interesting.  We went on the V8 Driving Experience too and I don't know how my 2 brothers managed to play 3 rounds of it cos seriously, I was getting motion sickness just sitting in the car.  Haha.  Terrible suspension but the brothers had a lot of fun racing.  The park was a lot more mellow than the other 2 we had visited.  It had a sort of mini zoo (Tiger Island, The Lair, Australian Wildlife Experience) where we saw 1 tiger, a whole bunch of kangaroos, a wombat, a few koalas, a few crocs and some species of birds.

Of course there were rides that were open which I left my brothers to explore.  There was a ride called the Giant Drop which reminded me of the Solero Shot ride at Genting only a less scary version.  And then there's the Tower of Terror 2 30 second ride which looked similar to the Superman ride at 6 Flags in LA only not as high but the concept was the same.

I'm not sure if it was only for the sleepy season but eateries were all closed by 2pm.  I was hungry and unhappy let me tell you that.  And we ended up postponing lunch to dinner time.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
Website: http://www.ripleys.com/surfersparadise/

Ripley's was just in the building next to Centro so went to check it out one night.  I remembered when we were there those many years back I'd wanted to go but was a tad timid so we skipped on it.  That being said, it was the usual oddities and if you've been to the ones in say Genting or London, I say skip this one.  It's not as big and they have some of the same things anyways.

SkyPoint
Website: http://www.skypoint.com.au/

We weren't exactly aware of SkyPoint but when we bought our tickets online for Dreamworld, there was an offer to purchase tickets for SkyPoint as well at a discounted price.  After checking out the website, I thought it would be nice to visit.  It's sort of like the Sands Sky Park in Singapore but indoors and in only 1 building (the Singapore Sky Park spans over 3 buildings).  It gives you a nice 360 degrees view of Gold Coast with lookouts and some reading material for more background information.  There's also a restaurant where you can dine while overlooking the Coast.  Being somewhat acrophobic, my knees were trembling and legs felt weak.  Haha.  My 2 brothers were fine though.  I could only calm down when I was literally hugging one of the many trusses there.  Hahaha.  We went at night though but I felt the day time would've offered an amazing view.

Surfers Paradise Night Market


Here's something we found out from the AquaDuck tour, there's a night market by the beach on Wednesdays and Fridays (if I'm not mistaken).  We almost forgot though and would've missed it too had we not seen the tents as we left the restaurant after dinner.  If you're looking for handmade items and unique knick knacks, do drop by and walk around.

Gold Coast: Planes, Hotels & Buses

So June for me was an amazing month of travelling.  The month kick started with a trip to Gold Coast, Australia with my siblings during the school break.  Everyone was excited especially the two younger boys as it was their first time going.  Myself and my oldest younger brother had gone back when we were little (I think it was 1993 or 1994) which was an insanely long time ago.

Photo source: vroomvroomvroom.com.au

Preparations and Basic Stuff

Travelling to Australia isn't much of a hassle as far as documents were concerned.  All you need is a valid passport (at least 6 months to expiry from return date) and visa.  If you're visiting Australia for pleasure/leisure and don't intend to stay any longer than 3 months, Malaysia is one of the countries listed for an ETA visa which can be applied for online for AU$20 per person.  However, it's probably much easier to visit your friendly neighbourhood travel agent (like we did) to apply and it was cheaper too (RM20).  It doesn't take long to apply and you get almost immediate approval.  The information is automatically saved in the system.  Although it isn't necessary, I had all our ETA slips stapled in our passports just in case.

Since Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, June was somewhere end of Autumn/early Winter at the time.  The temperature was in the 14 to 20 degrees Celsius in the day time and from 7 or 9 degrees Celsius at night if I'm not mistaken.  Weather was great and we did get a couple of sunny days while the rest of the days we were there was nice and cool.

All our travel arrangements -- flights, airport transfer, hotel and park tickets -- were purchased online before the trip.

The Flight and At The Airport

We travelled via AirAsia and AirAsiaX which ultimately landed at the Coolangatta Airport (OOL).  It took approximately 8 hours from KL and the Smokey BBQ Chicken on board was pretty decent although we would've preferred a little more to eat.  Fortunately though the flight was at night so we slept through most of the flight and woke up bright and early to land.  For our return flight, we had pre-purchased the entertainment unit and that was nice.  I think it was RM30/unit and had a selection of movies, TV shows and music.  And we had Australian chicken pie on the return flight too.  Quite nice too.  As with all international flights, you will have to fill in an immigration and customs form too and it's best to do so while in the plane, before landing.

Photo source: airport-technology.com

We were all super excited to arrive and that morning was actually quite cold to the point you could see your breath as you speak and breathe.  Haha.  That was fun.  When we arrived, our path immediately brought us to the duty free store (probably the only one in the arrival area) which was strategically located right before the immigration counters.  It's unavoidable though as you have to go through the store to get to the counters.  The airport wasn't that big and right behind immigration were the baggage carousels and customs.  The officers in charge were very nice and friendly despite being thorough with their job.  The lengthiest part of the whole process was actually waiting in line.  Haha.

Flying back, I'd suggest don't wait til the last minute to proceed to the departure halls.  Customs will be scanning your bags for any excessive LAGs and they might also do a random bomb check before you enter.  After all that, we thought we were all set to go since we thought we were already at the gates (must've been for domestic flights) but apparently there was another counter to go through inside the departure area right before our actual gate too.  I think this was the immigration counters? Or was it another customs scan?  Gonna have to check with my brothers to see if they remember.

Transfers and Transport

Photo source: queenslandholidays.com.au

I'd made bookings for our airport transfers prior to our departure on the Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle website.  I had contemplated on a few different companies before finally deciding on GC Tourist Shuttle.  Although I've read a few bad reviews for the service, we actually had a pleasant experience.  We only booked for airport transfers for our trip but you can check out their website for other transport packages they offer including theme park transfers and an all in Gold Coast transport package.  I can't remember now how long it took but I believe it was about 30-45 minutes from the airport to our hotel.  

At the airport, we had to go to their counter with our booking confirmation email before boarding the bus/coach.  When we got to the drop off point, the bus driver was kind enough to brief us on pick up for our return airport transfer and gave us a little direction to where we were and where our hotel was (a 5 minute walk from the drop off point).  For the return trip, we just had to call in to confirm our pick up time 24 hours prior.

One of the main reasons why I didn't opt for the Freedom Pass offered by GC Tourist Shuttle was I felt it didn't give us the kind of flexibility that we would've liked.  All the theme parks we were going to were easily accessible by bus so we bought GoCards instead which you can buy at most 7Eleven stores and we had 2 near our hotel.  Hehe.  GoCards are much cheaper -- 30% -- to use than paying for a regular paper ticket.  Make sure you tap in and out properly and don't double tap your card to avoid any penalty charges deducted from your travel credit.  The cards are reloadable also at 7Eleven stores and you have the time to, you can get a AU$5 refund by returning the card.  I'm not too sure how that works because we kept all our cards as souvenirs.  Hehe.  But more info on refunds can be found here.

Before you leave for Gold Coast and if you plan on taking public transportation while there, I strongly suggest checking out the Translink Journey Planner and take note of the buses available for the routes you will be going on.  Plus, it helps give you a rough time estimate for your journey and suggest alternatives based on your travel times too.

Our Hotel

For accommodation, I made reservations through Agoda, a site recommended by my uncle for making hotel bookings.  So we stayed at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Surfers Paradise which was located right smack in the middle of the town and was literally connected to Centro (shopping mall) and Hard Rock.  There were a lot of halal food choices within walking distance from our hotel (Malaysian, Indian, seafood, Middle Eastern and more), Woolworths was right downstairs (inside Centro), Ripley's Believe It Or Not was also nearby and the beach was just a few minutes walk.  Since there was four of us, I booked the family room which was very spacious and could comfortably fit 5 people.  Our check in didn't take long and the receptionist was super friendly and helpful.  We enjoyed our stay there.

The hotel was very conveniently located.  It was a short walk to the bus stops, shopping spots, some attractions, souvenir shops, eateries and more.  After midnight, we needed to use our room key card to enter the hotel lobby which is a nice security measure in my opinion.

Our hotel marked by the red dot on the map
- Click image to enlarge -

Of course we bought some food supplies for breakfast and snacking and some plastic wears too (bowls and cutlery) at Woolworths which were inexpensive.  There are a number of clubs in the are especially down Orchid Avenue so the area around the hotel (no, the hotel wasn't all noisy or anything like that) was still quite alive even at night time which was great!  I'd prefer that to having to stay somewhere too quiet and isolated.  Haha.  Plus, Timezone (gaming arcade centre) was open til midnight downstairs and we had a lot of fun there too.

YouTube Talent... Blown Away

Haha. Sorry but this is another YouTube related post.  Told you I was obsessed with the site.

Anyways, I'm just completely blown away with the amount of talent on there that makes watching shows like Akademi Fantasia a complete joke.  Harsh much?

But seriously, check out this video I stumbled upon quite awhile back that was recorded in aid of the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan (proceeds were directed to the Japan Red Cross):

This song and video was a collaboration of 55 YouTubers (mostly the same people who sang We Are The World in support of relief efforts for Haiti here).  The song was written by J. Rice & Brett McLaughlin and composed by J. Rice.  The channel for each singer is linked in the video as well as in the description box on the YouTube page here.

Those interested can also record their cover of the song.  The free download of the instrumental score is available here.

This song is beautiful and maybe I'm just super emotional but it's just full of hope.  What do you think?

Music... Boyce Avenue

The first time I heard of Boyce Avenue was when their cover of Katy Perry's hit Fireworks was played on hitz.fm some time back.  The cover featured fellow YouTube talent David Choi on violin and I fell in love with their arrangement and vocals of the song.

OK, so I didn't dig much into it until probably a month or so after while browsing David Choi's YouTube channel and saw the video for it.  Interest peaked, I had to check out other songs they've covered (and yes, they have original songs too).  My all time favourite is definitely their cover of Taylor Swift's Last Kiss with Megan and Liz:

I've never heard of the song prior but after hearing Taylor's version of it afterwards, I much prefer Boyce Avenue's rendition.  As with any singer, I don't love all the songs they sing though.  Anyhow, they've recently gone on their UK & Europe tour and are on the US leg of their tour now I believe.  They'll also be heading down under for a few shows but no sign of an Asian leg just yet.  But hey, you never know right?  David Choi made it here in the past couple of months. *smiles*

Life Talk... On YouTube

Among the things that I love about the internet is YouTube.  Hands down it is one of the best sources of information, knowledge and inspiration in my opinion.  YouTube gives everyone with a camera and computer with an internet connection the opportunity to share their thoughts, experiences and knowledge with anyone interested to know more.

Although my main reasons to frequently hog my internet bandwidth watching YouTube videos are more beauty and entertainment related than anything else, every so often I'd stumble on some inspiring videos.  The kind of videos that reminds me to be thankful and embrace life, to learn not to take myself too seriously and challenge myself.

One of my favourite YouTube personalities is actually a popular beauty guru but has a second channel where she posts some snippets of her life and share more life related videos.

Click here to check out her channel for more videos

Craft & Sewing Furniture

My current obsession is to window shop online and I just thought these pieces of furniture would be perfect for a craft and sewing corner:

IKEA LIATORP White Desk

This would have to be one of my fave desks from IKEA.  If I had the space in my room, best believe I would've gotten this and ship it back here.  It just looks so elegant and if I had a home office, this is definitely a piece of furniture that would be part of it.  It would make the perfect sewing table too.  I could plop my sewing machine and serger on there and put all the supplies in the drawer and shelf storage space on either sides.  Funny though.  It's no longer listed on the Malaysian IKEA website.

KK Twestival 2011

This is a super belated post simply because I had only gotten around to transfer the small amount of photos (coming up below) from the event.  Oopsie!  The KK Twestival 2011 was held on March 24th, 2011 at Origin Cafe & Green Olives Restaurant at Karamunsing Capital, Kota Kinabalu in support of the Sabah Society for the Blind (as voted for prior to the event).

Click above image to learn more about the event

The first Twestival Local first came to KK shores last year but I wasn't able to be a part of it then.  This year, since I had time I dragged my brother to accompany me to the event.  To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what the whole gig was about and I suppose now that I've seen it up close, I have somewhat of an understanding of the whole Twestival concept.

The KK Twestival 2011 Banner on location

Food and drinks coupon

Each ticket comes with food and drink but unfortunately by the time we arrived they were all out.  Didn't even get to find out what was served either.  Haha.  So we bought some extra coupons (in the name of charity) to buy food and drinks.  The nom nom-ing choices were rather limited but then again, I don't suppose people came for the food now did they?

My bro with a big smile on his face

The general scene of the night

There was a pretty decent crowd that night and a host of fun and games.  The auctions got everyone a little excited though.  They were auctioning off specially hand made goods, Zumba classes, gym memberships, bachelors and bachelorettes among others.

Red Velvet cupcake from Boutique Cupcakes.
Delicious but I'm loyal to Chocolate Vanilla. Haha.

Braille bookmark I got as a souvenir for my baby bro.
Slight typo but it's OK.

I met a few friends at the event and did some brief catching up.  All in all, it was an interesting experience and my bro and I simply chilled in the background soaking up the atmosphere.  I wanted to take more photos but the lighting was just too dim for my ole point and shoot to capture decent pics.  For a better feel of the whole event, check out the official KK Twestival page for HQ photos, and other info leading up to the event.

Photo thanks to Fara.

Oh hey, I won one of the lucky draw prizes too.  Haha.  A huge hamper and that was extremely unexpected since I barely win anything at lucky draws.  Something to share with the family at home.  The sound system could've been better that night though.  I could barely hear anything from where we were sitting (and we weren't that far).  Good fun though.  *smile*

Stages in a Relationship...

If you've not seen them, Wong Fu Productions is an amazingly talented group of people who've been producing a lot of videos on YouTube and I have to say that their work is crazy good.  Here's their latest short and I think this pretty much relates to everyone who's been in a relationship.  I love how the message was relayed and the progression of the short in general.

Did it strike a chord with  you?  Click here for the behind the scenes and director's commentary.

Penny Auction... Real Bargains or A Gamble?

A month or two back I stumbled on an online bidding site called Penny Auction which allows you to bid on mostly gadgets and electronic items (which tend to be quite pricey) and should you win, to purchase it at least 50% below market price.

In order to bid, you are required to sign up for an account with them at no cost and you get a number of free bids (I think it's 3 bids) to kick start your bidding experience on the site.  Once you're out of bids, you will need to buy more bids in order to participate in the on going and upcoming auctions.

HOW IT WORKS

The concept is very simple.  Each bid is in an increment of RM0.01.  Each item being auctioned will have a preset duration on their timer and every time someone bids, the timer is restarted.  To win the auction, you will need to be the last bidder when the timer ends and the system confirms that no other bidder is present.  There's a 50% off market price guarantee as well so for every item in the auction that is won at a price higher than 50% retail price, the winner need only pay up to a maximum of 50% and the balance is compensated by Penny Auction.

April's Fool on Gmail

I've never been a fan of April's Fool and maybe I've done a couple of pranks in the past when I was a kid but that's about it.  I do however love to read on absurd "news" people and companies tend to put out on April 1st.  Such example being Gmail:

Seriously?  Gmail Motion?  I thought this was hilarious the moment I saw the feature box on the login page:

Click to enlarge image

They even went the extra step to make it look legit by putting it up on the top right corner of your mailbox page:

Supposedly it works by using your computer's camera to read your gestures and movements and their algorithm translates that into commands.  But would you be ape-ing around in front of your computers with these gestures?

Click to enlarge image

Click to enlarge image

On their YouTube page, a commenter who had probably thought Gmail (Google) was serious suggested it would be better if they'd recognize sign language for this new feature.  I didn't personally click on the "Try Gmail Motion" button but I assume it will tell you for real that it's a joke.

What corporate April's Fool joke did you see this year?

Another one would be that the iPad 2 will be hitting Malaysian shores on April 18th and is available for preorder now.  Since there has been no official statement from Apple sources to validate this, let's just assume this is another April's Fool joke too.  That said, the actual release in Malaysia might not be too far off either.

Taking A Break...

If you're one of my Facebook friends or my Twitter followers, you might already know that I've recently decided to resign from my job, my first job at that too.  I've been working for the company for almost 4 1/2 years and felt that I was no longer growing in tangent with the company.  During the course of my time there I'd been going through a lot of things on a more personal level that I feel needs time to sort through and find peace with.  I needed to allow myself to put myself back together so I can offer the best me that I can be for myself and the people around me.

What I will miss is definitely my team in the office who effortlessly cracks me up and made my working experience a lot more fun.  The wonderful seniors who offered me guidance and advise and to say that I've learnt so much from these wonderful people is an understatement.  My team was my second family and I'd like to thank them for always looking out for me.

Since my last day in the office 3 weeks ago (has it been that long?), I've barely gotten any rest.  LOL!! I feel like I'm probably busier and more tired than when I was working.  Even the family trip to KL during the school holidays last week was exhausting!  Fortunately though, we managed to escape KL's infamous traffic jams while we were there. Haha. After 4 days of driving in KL, coming home driving everywhere just seems closer.

On a different note, I highly recommend watching Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (English Title: The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines) if you have the chance.  Probably the best Malaysian film to date.  I was personally blown away and can't wait for more.  Seeing the english title states 'chronicles', I'm guessing there'll definitely be more.

Here I leave you with the official english trailer for the movie:

Levi's Curve ID

The beauty and fashion community in the internet has been abuzz lately by the Levi's Curve ID jeans which launched in Malaysia a few months back (although it seems that it's fairly new in the US).  I've never actually ever owned a pair of Levi's jeans since they never fit me just right.  Plus, it was uncomfortable for me to have my jeans slung that low.

With this new line of jeans, Levi's claims to have a fit for curvier girls or as they put it, embracing those womanly curves.  Anyways, I decided to give it a shot and entered my measurements on their website to see which curve I fall under.

And I am:

I'll probably find some time to drop by the Levi's store here and see for myself how well these fit.  If they are as amazing as they claim to be, I might just snag me a pair since I only have a couple pairs of jeans at the moment.  And even those seem to be a bit more loved *ahem ahem*.

I recommend entering your measurements instead of taking the quiz to find your curve ID.  I feel it's a bit more accurate since it uses actual measurements to identify your specific curve instead of your personal perception of how your body looks like.  Have fun and you can share your curve ID in the comments if you like. :)

Undeleting

I'm pretty sure a lot of us have either accidentally deleted photos or data from our memory cards or hard drives and wish we could take back what we'd just done right?  Or the storage device just suddenly failed on us or gets corrupted?  I used to think all is lost whenever something like that happens until I read an article in a computer magazine some years ago.

There is such a thing as "undeleting" or rather recovering those deleted or lost data from your storage medias (i.e. hard drive, USB drives, memory cards) as long as the data has not been overwritten with new data or information.  So the key thing to keep in mind when something like this happens is to make sure you refrain from using the storage media prior to recovering your files.

If you're wondering what this magical solution is, it's actually pretty simple.  The answer (at least for me) is Data Recovery Softwares.

Subsequent to reading the computer magazine, I did a quick search for the recommended software(s) and tried out PC Inspector Smart Recovery which worked wonders!  It helped me to recover as much or the deleted photos as it could (unfortunately I'd already used the same memory card to take photos).

PC Inspector Smart Recovery

(Freeware)

A couple of years back, I was having some problems with my laptop and I ended up missing a partition.  And woe is me, that particular partition was where I had a lot of my documents, photos and other data (without back up) and for some odd reason, the OS just wasn't recognizing the partition.  I tried the software above but unfortunately, it can't search for items in a "ghost" drive.  So I ended up on another search for a software to help with my situation.  Thank goodness, I managed to find one that actually worked, DiskDigger.  It totally saved me!  It managed to recover the data from the entire hard disk (not just by partitions) and I got my data back. Yay! It is available free for personal use but you'll have to deal with some annoying pop ups which personally I didn't mind as long as it could scan and retrieve.  The license, should you choose to purchase it, is priced at $14.99.

DiskDigger

(Free for personal use)

Another nifty little piece of software is by Piriform (I love their CCleaner and Defraggler softwares) and it's aptly called Recuva.  The software can be downloaded and used for free but if you like, feel free to send a donation to the development team at Piriform without obligations.  If you click the "Download" button on the website, you'll be brought to the Download page showing another button with a price tag on it.  This is only if you want to download the software with Priority Support (which they recommend).  Otherwise, just scroll down a little and there should be links to download it free.

Recuva by Piriform

(Freeware with option to donate)

And there you have it.  Don't fret if you wiped out your memory card by accident or was hit by plain bad luck and there was a power failure while you were in the midst of cutting and pasting your files between storage medias.  Just download one of these softwares (or other similar ones) and you should be all set.  I'm not saying that these softwares will be able to retrieve every single thing for you but it will help to retrieve most of them (which is better than nothing right?).  There are still certain files that these softwares are unable to recover though.  And unfortunately, all the softwares mentioned here are for Windows OS only I believe.  Care to share ones that has worked for you (and for other platforms too)?

Hope this little bit of info helped some of you. *smiles*

Online Shopping Just Got Better

I love almost every form of shopping.  Window shopping, retail, groceries and online shopping, I love love love it.  Not everything in Malaysia is cheap and not everything is sold in or shipped to Malaysia.  So in comes the wonderful world of online shopping.

Online shopping is big in the US and looking at the country geographically, online shopping is probably one of the most convenient ways to go these days.  So how'd I get sucked in to this modern day shopping experience?  Well, it developed from looking for cheap finds on eBay and Lelong to international sites that shipped to Malaysia (like Amazon.com) to checking out sprees & blogshops and then to getting so frustrated a lot of the things I wanted to buy were sold on sites that shipped internationally but didn't include Malaysia in their list or shipped only to the US and Canada.

eBay & Lelong

Image from Lelong

This is probably one of the most popular forms of online shopping available.  There are typically 2 types of sales on these sites, auctions (highest bid wins the product) and buy now sales (direct purchases without the need to bid).  Lelong was previously also known as BuySell.com.my and is quite popular locally.  It is used by both commercial users (store owners, small business owners) as well as the regular customers (who occasionally sells second hand goods).  What I like about Lelong is that they offer an option to verify your account with them via phone and NRIC verification so sales activities feels a bit more secure.  Now, Lelong has a few other sister sites to further complement their existing services among which are Superbid.com.my (a 12 hour bidding fest held every Wednesdays) and Superbuy.com.my (an online store offering a host of different products to consumers at sometimes lower prices).

Image from eBay Malaysia

While Lelong is geared more towards the local scene, eBay has a much wider network of sellers and buyers.  You can purchase from sellers abroad who accept international payments and offer to ship here.  There are however a lot of scammers floating around on the site so there are some precautions to take to avoid having someone dishonor the sale.  I'll talk more about what to look out for in another post.

Bags Made With Love

A few months back my cousin started posting pictures of bags she made for her daughter, family and friends.  Her bags were clearly beautifully made and you could see she put a lot of thought into the materials used and all the other little details (like adding swivel clips for keys inside the bags).  She started out making bags with remnants of fabric from other sewing or craft projects but has now invested in various designer fabrics.

She used to sew clothes for her daughter but has now found a new love in sewing bags.  Her design method is very simple is based on what anyone would need from a bag and how the bag will be able to fulfill that need.  Since then, she has started her own little business selling these gorgeous bags and you can check them out online.

Click on the image above to view her blog

Singapore Haul: Bags & Shoes

For those who know me would most probably have known that I was away in Singapore for my birthday last month. Naturally a little shopping was inevitable. This time around I didn't buy any clothes or accessories but rather just beauty products and bags and handbags.

Here goes:

Hard Rock Cafe Sentosa Pink Ribbon T-Shirt

from Hard Rock Cafe Sentosa

Guess Shoulder Bag with long strap

from Takashimaya

A Bag Obsession

On October 10th, 2010 (I'm a little behind on jumping on the bandwagon here), Mulberry came out with a collection in collaboration with Target (huge US department store) called Mulberry for Target.  Needless to say, the bags were snapped up like hot cakes.  Typically, Mulberry bags costs in the thousands of Ringgit (typically about GBP700 and above) so it's no wonder that a lot of the fashionistas on a budget in the US were super excite to pounce on these gems for a mere fraction of the price.

At the time of this post, the collection can still be viewed on the Target site here although all of the items are currently no longer in stock online (there might still be some in selected Target stores).

The past couple of months, I've been really into bags (I haven't bought a lot of bags in a few years - since University days maybe?).  It's like there are so many bags out there that just captures my interest/attention.  Still, I try to be as frugal as I can and not go crazy.  Plus, I need to remind myself that I'm running out of storage space.  I've also inherited a ton of bags from my mum (some haven't even been used!) so I've gotta keep this obsession at bay.

Anyways, after a brief Twitter chitter chatter recently, I've decided to get something from the collection while it's still available to purchase (not from the Target website obviously) from local blogshops importing genuine branded bags.  Here's my final pick:

Images from Target.com

Can't wait for it to arrive.  You can visit the blogshop here.  I wanted to get this design initially though:

Image from Target.com

The design for the Large Velvet Satchel is more like the classic Bayswater design by Mulberry with an additional heart shaped charm.  I finally decided against it cos I've had a similar designed bag in the past (which I've since sold off) and it wasn't exactly convenient to access your items in the bag.  I just prefer zippered top closures I suppose.  Of course all that preferences are not set in stone or anything so I might still get bags with flaps like this every now and then.  Getting back to the bag, as much as it was tempting to me (I was even considering getting one of each before I talked myself out of it), I remembered I'm not such a big fan of patent leather.  It is visually very very attractive though I must admit.

Although, this bag from Charles & Keith (~RM259.00) that I saw recently seems to combine elements of Mulberry Bayswater and the Miu Miu Coffer, don't you think?

Images from the Charles & Keith website

I'm also eyeing another LV bag and of course, another classic LV design:

Image from Louis Vuitton website

The two designs I've come to love from LV are the Speedy 30 (although the Speedy 35 seems tempting too since it's bigger) and the Neverfull MM.  I much prefer the Damier Ebene Canvas to the monogram mostly because the dark handles means lower maintenance.  I just made myself look super lazy there.  Haha.  But the Monogram Canvas definitely have a bit more designs available compared to the others.

I considered creating a fashion blog or even converting MySewingProject into one but for now, I'll just bombard this blog with my fashion-related post. :)