As Suanie Sees It

Last Wednesday and Thursday, in FA’s words, we were lucky to attend the preview of Euphoria by Ministry of Sound. I didn’t even know they opened a MOS in Malaysia. That shows you how little I know, or care.

But it was fun and I’m really glad I went because it has been a while since I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself at a club. Maybe it was because of the pre-launch thingy, where there weren’t so many people and the management was trying to impress. When you are the beneficiary of such generosity, you do not voice a word of complain

On Wednesday we got there rather early, at about 9 p.m. Was worth it because after touring the entire place (upstairs and downstairs and basement) we managed to get a great table underneath the stairs, next to the DJ booth, overlooking the dance floor. It’s the most awesome spot, I tell you. So if you are someone important or glamorous or just damn lucky to get your pick of tables, take that one.

Fireangel and me at said table

Beer, cocktails and red/white wines were free-flow (until about 11 something pm) and there was plenty to munch on, so you can imagine our happiness level. Waiter was also very friendly, dumping a whole load of beer on our table. Rather good ventilation too, as you can only smoke in designated smoking areas, which resemble those available at airports. At The Deq (which is something like a lounge, more well-lit equipped with comfy sofas), there is an open deck so that’s nice.

Think this dude’s from Miami, USA and boy was he good!

If the two nights that we were there were anything to go by, you can be sure the music will be smooth, groovy, dance-able, chill-able, get you up and dancing, dazzle your imagination, etc. Okay, except for any R&B shit. Call me biased, prejudiced, judgmental, snob, in possession of little or no taste, whatever — but there is a time limit on how long one can dance to R&B without getting bored and/or looking for something else to move on to. Like, 15 minutes. See, this doesn’t happen when it comes to house/ trance! Anyone who disagrees does not deserve to party at Euphoria

Halloween came early

Being the pre-pre-launch, there was of course entertainment in form of chicks and dudes on stilts and the compulsory sexy dancers in skimpy clothing. Besides the one in the photo above, there was a dude which we dubbed ‘lobster man’ because… he looked like a lobster? There were a couple of chicks prancing about on stilts; if I wore a hat, I’d take it off to them.

A couple of chicks were almost stripper-dancing on stage. The one on my left was really good; she was slightly more voluptuous than the on my right and her timing to the music was always spot on.

Dangerous chick and dance floor. Click on the photo above for a slightly larger version

The following night, we were there again, only this time with more people. Played around with QIK (which I am getting bored with) and this is Kim and ST as we waited for people… *click here for the video*

There are a couple more videos I took at The Deq but you’ll have to go look for them. iMalas to copy paste bla bla.

This time round we hung out at The Deq instead of the main room. Got ourselves a nice corner with a sofa and pillows. Definitely more people than the night before, met Dawn Jeremiah for the first time (VERY friendly and gregarious not to mention hot) and well, it was fun.

Me with Mike Yip, Reta, FA and Kim (photo stolen from Mike Yip)

Wah, 2 nights out in a row! I must be getting younger

Btw Euphoria by MOS is next to the Sunway Lagoon Resort. I guess you can just park your car at the hotel’s basement car park. If I am not mistaken, they officially open for business tonight. Apparently you need to be 21 years old and above to enter the club, so sorry Rachel

Me and KY got invited to the Sunburst Music Festival 2008 by the lovely folks at Tuborg. It was held on the 15th March (same date as the Nuffnang birthday party, and that was why we had to rush off after the party) at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian club (same venue as the Live ‘n Loud ‘07 fest), quite a blast

The night before was a closed-door party at the Ritz Carlton. Siao Ling from Tuborg who did the inviting advised me to wear something… nice. Maybe something dressy? Well that eliminates 3/4 of my wardrobe, the remaining quarter being stuff that no longer fits. Ah well.

At the entrance of Ritz Carlton stood Kevin all by his fine-looking, lonesome self. Upstairs, Siao Ling introduced us to Justin, and we pretty much hung out that way till the end of the event. So anti-social, right… heheh. Don’t know, I still feel damn shy to approach strangers and introduce myself and strike up a conversation. I know lah, it’s a matter of saying hi the first time, then launch into small talk of what do you do, o ryl sounds interesting tell me more, o ryl wow amazingness. Sometimes you just don’t feel like it lah

KY and Suanie

There were lots of interesting food being served, but we had our dinner before going to the event so had to skip on all that. There was Haagen-Dazz and Tuborg going for nothing, and performances by Najwa, Yuna and Reza Salleh, all amazingly talented performers.

Reza Salleh is rather hot. I like talented men boys

The event was rather interesting. Of course I didn’t know who the celebrities were (except for George Clinton and The Roots and the main singer of Pop Shuvit) but it was fun guessing

Tall Justin and Suanie, both from Batu Pahat, wahey!

I was scheduled to join the ‘Meet George Clinton’ session before his performance, but it was held during the afternoon and I really could not be arsed to leave the sanctuary of my home Sorry Siao Ling, heheh. Anyway me and KY reached the SMF at nearly 11.30 p.m. John Legend was singing. We met up with May who was with her two male bodyguards

Suanie, May, KY. Photo stolen from May.

Apparently they bumped Search to the end of the programme (because it was delayed due to the rain earlier, and apparently international artists couldn’t give a shit about waiting), so Incubus took to the stage after John Legend.

Incubus on stage. Since you can’t really see it, you’ll just have to believe me. Photo stolen from KY

As I was rather tired from the Nuffnang party, I excused myself to chill out at one of the big tents in the middle of the field while KY and May etc jostled with the crowd. After a few songs, Siao Ling contacted us, and brought us to one of the Tuborg beer gardens for some free beer lovin’.

Can you say w00t?

Unfortunately I was too tired for beer (yes, it happens) and just talked with Siao Ling and Chui Hoon (her boss). A while later, Justin showed up with a friend, obviously stoked from his meeting with Incubus members.

Chui Hoon, KY, Suanie, Justin and Siao Ling. Photo from Tuborg

We left soon after, snacked at the 24-hour KFC before heading for home. Damn tiring, but damn happy

Thanks for the invites and company

Last Saturday (15.03.08) was Nuffnang’s 1st birthday bash. If you’d remember, it was actually supposed to be held the Saturday before. Then Badawi felt confident enough to hold the general election that weekend, and bloggers not in KL such as 5xMom would not be able to make it. So NN had to postpone the bash lah. But tak nampak bayang Chan Lilian pun…

As I had a late night on Friday (me and KY attended a Sunburst party at the Ritz Carlton, more on that later), I woke up late and decided to consume the rest of the food that Mom had prepared for me. The freezer is a wonderful thing indeed. Then I got caught up with MTV’s top 100 tunes from the 90’s and sat through that. Unfortunately they did not go through the whole 100 tunes, so I guess I’d have to check out part 2 and maybe even 3 soon.

Because ‘Ice Ice Baby’ was so hot (and the most important part of the song was stolen from Queen/Bowie), Vanilla Ice was part of the panel of 90s tunes experts. Fucking retard made me nearly barf. Then they had a slew of comedians and artists etc offering their takes on each tune. They should really quit with the comedian bit; every time they get some screen time, they’d try to be funny with one-liners, but they should really consider another day job…

Nevertheless I was extremely happy that Marcy’s Playground’s Sex and Candy made it to the list.

Then it started raining elephants and hippopotamuses and Astro went blank. So I had to will myself to get changed, pick up KY and head for the NN party @ Borneo Baruk Club. I stood in front of the mirror for a bit, wondering if I should wear the V-neck black T-shirt or the round-neck black T-shirt, then realised that no one including myself actually gives a shit.

Picked up KY, and he told me that David Lian was emoing on whether or not he should wear the Chipster pajamas (that eventually won him a Nintendo Wii). During our journey to KL (took the SMART tunnel and all, felt very smart that we both knew the true purpose of the tunnel) David called again and KY dispensed valuable advise in form of “DON’T BE A NUB, WEAR IT!”

Kid, David and me… photo by Rojaks

Reached BBC at about 7 p.m. Ya damn bloggers, never on time, who the heck do we think we are! Michelle of Nuffnang helped us with our registration, and we received a goodie bag containing a booklet, some flyers, a small bag of Chipster and a ‘I <3 Nuffnang' badge which I pinned to my bag. Saw Simon, Serge and Ming, and Xaviera who was at the bar with a Guinness in hand, and Budiey who was with a friend. Eyeris and FA arrived shortly after, and we ordered a Kilkenny each. That was before we found out that free beer was available. Bargh! No regrets though because Kilkenny is always awesome, and thanks Nuffnang for the free-flow of Heineken. Mwah.

Kid Chan was there with his posse Frederick and as usual, Kid was wearing his shades. Der fuck, too cool for school is it?! Ah Wingz arrived, then Liang (who’s a real good emcee IMHO, who also hosted the Kung Fu Dunk Fest) got the party started. Speeches by Tim (who is always emo) and Ming, a few thank-yous to the sponsors (Chipster, Panasonic, Tune Hotel: sekian, terima kasih), then… I forgot what happened because we went upstairs to curi makan first.

Once upstairs, I recognised Holly Jean, a Singaporean blogger. According to teh Buck, she had invited him to the party, but he could not make it, and he said to say hi to her. And so I did. She was pleasant and friendly, but I felt like a stalker. Buck owes me beer. Well, more beer than usual.

ThaiBoxinGirl, Kid and me… photo by Kid Chan Studio

Then there were games, and I think Su Ann and the organising team did a great job in implementing them games, as they force you to interact with other people whether you like it or not… if you want to win prizes lah. Me being the semi anti-social, semi crowd-shy, semi-introvert of course did not get my arse down to doing anything. So lansi right… hahaha bleh.

But we did scream out quite a bit, particularly during the video presentation. Ah Yatz is teh femes! I wanted to pull down his kain pelikat but he managed to dodge my sneaky maneuvers. Got to meet some new faces: Julian, a Ph.D candidate @ Monash who is doing research on Malaysian blogs and blogosphere. May Leng who is Nuffnang’s featured blogger of March ‘08, Povege who was rather sweet, Alwyn Tay where I was like, “I READ YOUR BLOG DUDE” and he replied, “BUT I DON’T HAVE A BLOG”… sorry mate, must be your Facebook updates then. Nicholas introduced me to his mom, and I went, “SO AUNTY, HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOUR SON LEFT A GOOD POSITION AT [insert company name here] TO JOIN A START-UP?” Heheheh, luckily she has a good sense of humour.

Who else… oh yah, Samantha whom I think is very cute, Kelz who is going to be pimped by XX soon, Esther who wore a chilli red top with matching boxer shorts, Wenqi whom I laugh at whenever I see her because she is just so adorable :D, Amy who wore a caftan, Xes looking smart, Lydia who is now officially Mrs. Wii, Lisan who couldn’t locate the free beer, Emily who was in a very hot purple outfit, Yee Hou who was manning a registration booth and… others others others. I know a lot more friends/ acquaintances/ people were there, I can’t remember everyone because I am 26 going on 60, and if we took photos together, could you send them to me, please? Because I am a lazy arse who didn’t take photos of my own. And if you send them to me, someday somehow someone will reward you for your kindness and generosity, someway. Kam siah kam siah beribu-ribu terima kasih.

So I had great fun, after which me and KY rushed off to attend the Sunburst music festival. Thanks Nuffnang for hosting the event; I am proud and honoured to be part of the vibrant and growing Nuffnang community, and I wish you many, many more birthdays to come. Just add Kilkenny to the list of free-flow next time, can? Heheh.. mwah!

ThaiBoxinGirl, me, Kid, eyeris, FA, Wingz and Samantha… photo by Kid Chan Studio

By the way, the Nuffie in the policewoman outfit was too damn hot.

It has been a while since I’ve relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed myself at an event. Not that I did not feel comfortable or happy at every other event I’d been to, but the one organised by the Text100 and Happy team (or Happy Generators as they like to call themselves) last Tuesday currently ranks as #1 on my list.

The venue, an important factor was an excellent choice David had earlier asked for my take on where they could host a small gathering for bloggers, where it would be cosy and comfy, intimate yet not overwhelming. The first place I thought of was Cafe Libre in Taman Danau Desa, operated by Grant and wife, Yasmin. Paul said it was cronyism, but I’d been to the place a couple of times now, and thoroughly enjoyed the food and ambiance. So I was rather pleased that David’s colleague Libby chose Cafe Libre as the venue for the event. And even happier when David showed me the menu…

The Gallivanter had a difficult time choosing between the spicy seafood spaghetti, turkey ham + tomato + cheese toasties, jacket potato with Mexican chili, Caesar salad +roast chicken and a lovely array of cakes + brownies. So he piled on a bit of everything.

The reason for the event was to announce to a few bloggers that the Happy team are organising a happy blogging contest. In a nutshell, blog about what makes you happy, attach the HAPPY header (as shown at the top of this post) submit the entry manually, get your friends to vote you into the Top 10, and you’ll stand a chance to win the top prize, RM 5000! CASH!!!! Second prize winner will get RM 2k, and third prize winner will get RM 1k. There are two categories — blog (by blog I think they mean words + images) and video, so there will be two RM 5000 winners.

Kim and KY on the Wii

Coincidentally, I also found out a really useful function on my N95 that day. Well, it’s the camera scene mode, specifically the Sports mode (”ideal for fast moving subjects — use to capture moving objects in sharp detail”). The result is shown in the photo above of Kim and KY in Wii action (they were really moving when I snapped this photo). I had to do a bit of brightness and contrast adjustments because the flash didn’t seem to work in this mode. But eh, I am darn happy with my discovery!

Victor, Smashpop, Emelda and Su Ann doing the hula hoop thingy

There were prizes to be won. The first contest was really simple — a movie trivia contest where the questions were lifted off Facebook’s Flixster. Heheh, how noob can you be, David? Anyway almost everyone won a prize or three. I won a pair of men’s deodorant (which I gave to my bro-in-law), a RM 10 Jusco voucher (which I gave to my sister), a shaver and a St Ives body moisturiser. Was quite happy with my haul.

The second contest was a hula hoop contest, as seen in the photo above. The last time I used a hula hoop was 20 years ago and I was not about to use it ever again. Heheh, but damn funny la you all

Clockwise: 1)Su Ann won 2 GSC movie tickets with Smashpop looking on.
2) Me with Yasmin, the lovely co-proprietor. I think she rules the roost now though
3) Me with KY, David and Heather. Photo nicked from Grant
4) James, Nigel and the Gallivanter each downing a special concoction…

A few of us stayed till nearly midnight finishing up the food/ drinks, happily chatting away. I absolutely enjoyed myself, thanks for having me

Below is a group photographs taken by Louis. Why does everyone look skinnier and squished? That’s because I read Friedbeef’s Tech and he blogged about rsizr, something that I will be using quite a lot from now on. SO HAPPY!

Happiness overload

So if you want to join the Happy Moments blogging contest, head over here: http://www.happy.com.my/happymoments, take some time to read what you need to do etc. Initially I didn’t want to spread the word, because we all know that the RM5000 is mine. However sharing is caring, and knowing that I have some remaining nilai-nilai murni deep (very, very deep) inside me makes me happy. So, go, blog.

Also blogged: David, Beatrice, Kimberlycun, Gallivanter, Swifty, Erna, Victor, Grant

Rather busy today, so here’s a quick update during my lunch hour.

Last Saturday was Patrick and Steffi’s farewell house party. They have been here for a while, and Patrick is going home to Sydney, bringing Steffi with him. Sniffs and sobs all around.

It was lots of alcohol and coke (for me), snacks, mini-performances thanks to Steffi’s gym class, and an elaborate karaoke session. I know I have stated multiple times that I am not one for karaoke, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

From L-R: Mr. Tall, Adrian, Adele, Sheau Wei, Ester, me, Faeizah, Asish, Vikram, Toon

Clockwise: Me + Steffi + Ester, me with Patrick, me with Mr. Tall, me with the singing Pinoy

The same faces

Me with those who are gonna ditch us…

Bye Patrick and Steffi! Come back soon for a visit