GiLLie SpiLLs Da BeaNs

Words in Pixels: Paris Breast

If you had expected the post to be about well endowed Parisians from the Moulin Rouge, I am sorry to disappoint.

I did a quick check on the Internet and found out that "Paris Breast" is actually meant to be "Paris-Brest", a French dessert made from choux pastry and praline flavoured cream.

This misspelled version I found in a local hotel of an international chain has regular cream stuffed with fresh fruits. Perhaps the combination will help to ... boost certain assets?

Let's just say that I tried and there isn't a pressing need to shop for a new wardrobe. Yet.

Words in Pixels: Vintage Corn Flakes

Did you know the Kellogg's Corn Flakes cereal you're now holding in your hand was discovered by accident? Invented by Will and Dr. John Kellogg, the history of Kellogg's Corn Flakes began when these two brothers were cooking some wheat, but they left it sitting while they attended to other matters. When they returned, the cooked wheat had hardened! They proceeded to save it by pressing the wheat through the rollers, hoping it would turn into a long sheet of dough. But to their surprise, it became flakes! They decided to toast the flakes to give them a crunchy texture and on that fateful day, Will and Dr. John Kellogg invented wheat flakes which later gave them the idea to produce one of the most loved products in this world - the delicious Kellogg's Corn Flakes, which is now enjoyed by millions of people around the world! Made from real corn kernels, this cereal is packed with essential vitamins and minerals, so take home a box today!

That obviously was not a piece of sponsored content. That was written at the back of the Kellogg's cornflakes pack that I got from the supermarket today. Had to buy it simply for the vintage design on the box as well as the 4 vintage designed magnets that came with it.

Guess I'll be having morning dates with some accidental flakes of corn and cold milk for the next week.

Nom nom nom.

Words in Pixels: 'Rubber'

Good grief. Look what I found! A super old and dusty water colour box filled with cheap erasers.

These erasers were bought when I was still in primary school. The reason why I am so sure of that is because back in Primary 6 I would be playing the "Rubber" game with the girl who sat beside and 2 other classmates sitting in front of me.

It's a very silly game, really. What we had to do was flick our eraser at our opponent's eraser to push it off the edge of the table. The winner is the last eraser standing on the table top.

What was even sillier is that we would rub the eraser on the dusty ground as the sand particles lubricates the eraser to enable it to glide better on the table. The physics made sense. But dusting an eraser with dust on the cement floor?

This is what happens with free education.

Kidding.

Those were fun times. Nobody cares that you've got dirt on your hands because back in those days, kids don't need a detergent campaign telling parents that dirt is good. We play good ol' fashioned games that does not involve touch screens and the index finger.

Middle fingers does the job better.

Words in Pixels: Keep or Toss?

I reckon that I'll be posting quite a few blast from the past photos as I do more spring cleaning of my current house now that we have gotten the keys to the new place and would be gradually tossing stuff into the bin, boxing some others up and giving away others.

Although it would be quite some time before we will actually move (planning to shift circa mid 2012) but with the mountain of things that we have accumulated as a family over the past 11 years in our current home, I'm guessing that it will definitely be a mammoth of a task to move all our hoardings to our new home.

Anyhow, I digress.

What I had wanted to show is this old chocolate tin covered in wrapping paper that I used as a sewing box back when I was thirteen. That pink checkered cloth was used to make a padded cloth to hold hot pans.

I remember cheating in this assignment because I do not have a sewing machine at home and had to enlist the help of my Mom to fetch me to the nearest tailor in our neighbourhood to have it sewn for me.

So tell me, should this go in the "Keep" box or the "Toss" box?

Yes, it's because I am Addicted

"Stop doing online shopping!" screams a friend over Skype.

"Why?" I nonchalantly responded.

"Because you're addicted to online shopping!" she reasoned.

"Nopes. I am not addicted to online shopping. I only check our groupon sites."

"It's the same thing!"

"No, it means that I only buy stuff that is on discount," came my cheeky reply.

"....."

So, here's my new toy, bought online, from a groupon site, at a discounted rate. An old fashioned manual film camera, in orange! Plus it comes with an underwater casing though I would not suggest that you start taking photos of manta rays and barracudas anytime soon.

Yes people, that is a box of film that you see there. Can't get anymore old school than that.

Can't wait to take it for a ride!

Merry Orange Christmas!

This is my company Christmas gift!

I got to choose it myself because I was put in charge to buy presents for everyone. Spent almost RM20K on my credit card. Yikes!

But am so loving the luggage, and the colour, of course!

Oh, and visualization definitely works! Have been wanting to buy a hard cover luggage for the past few months but could not find out that I liked, and now I found something I love and the best of all is that I don't have to pay for it!

Awesomesauce!

Hope you're having a Merry Christmas too!

Words in Pixels: Resurrected

I have a pair of shoes that was purchased almost 10 years during my paternal grandma's funeral. Back then we were all required to wear a white buttoned shirt, starchy black pants and plain black shoes. It was prepared for us by the funeral parlour as part of the package. I remember telling my Mom back then that I look like a Shaolin kungfu student with my garb. In other words, it was not very fashionable.

Goodness knows why my Mom actually kept the shoes long after the funeral was over. I suppose she thought that since we have paid for the shoes, we might as well wear it, right?

Wrong.

The shoes, to say the least, is not the most attractive looking but because I could still fit into it and I have always said I will 'do something' to make it look more fashionable, this is the only surviving pair. The other 3 pairs belonging to my parents and my brother have long gone to serve another person's feet.

So after fiddling around making hair clips and rings, I decided to make use of my buttons again and sew it onto my old dusty Made in China shoes to give it a new lease of life.

Not too shabby eh?

Me is quite the proud =)

Words in Pixels: Getting Crafty

Back in January I was in Bangkok to attend my cousin's wedding and no trip to Bangkok is complete without shopping at Chatuchak. So while I was there, for some odd reason I was attracted to this shop selling knick knacks including small and big packs of buttons of all shapes, sizes and colours. so I got myself a small pack for about RM5 with the intention of sewing it to some of my plain tees to add some jazz or ..... I don't know really. Must there always be a reason to buy something?

*grin

So anyways, those buttons has been sitting in my drawer for the past year and now that I am finally on my 2-week year end break, I decided to put those buttons to good use. I managed to find some cheap rings that I bought from a warehouse sale a few months with the intent to glue the buttons onto these rings and hopefully turn it into something with some pizzaz.

So after a few hours of fiddling and gluing and almost getting my fingers conjoined to each other for life, this is my loot:

It was only after I placed it all together that I realised everything is in the shape of a flower. Hrmmmm. Talk about creativity, eh? Well, at least I made 5 rings, a hair clip and a brooch. I like that it is all so colourful! I am still such a sucker for all things colourful and sweet.

Can't wait to wear these out!

The Calm After the Storm

I'm pretty glad that I still possess the energy of youth for I not only survived a week long of craziness and a simul-cast concert at 4 locations on Sunday, but I was also on an 8am flight to Kota Kinabalu the next day and for the icing on the cake, I was part of the organizing team for my company's annual camp.

So I was 'on duty' from KLIA onwards till all my team members safely boarded the plane at KK airport, which we nearly missed after we suddenly decided to leave the resort earlier than planned for a seafood lunch at the mainland.

Thankfully, this was what greeted me at Bunga Raya Resort -

Taken with my Blackberry Bold

For the first time in a VERY long time, I was able to ignore my Blackberry and fully concentrate on having fun and chillaxing with my colleagues while exchanging the latest gossip. We had drinks by the pool, we watched the bosses compete in some swimming competition, I went parasailing and had a blast, I went snorkeling but only saw sand and seaweed, I played Limbo Rock and was one of the finalists but bowed out because I was wearing a dress, we literally partied till 3am and oh, there are wild boars on our resorts! I'm so not shitting you! Those things were HUGE and a few colleagues joked about catching the poor animal and turning it into a curry.

That said, work still crept up on me for I received an email that my sampling truck broke down on its way up North and may need 5 days of fixing and would potentially screw up the entire schedule. But someone must be looking after me for it turned out to be a simple issue and was repaired immediately with only a minor hiccup.

Then I received a call that the Brit boy band who were supposed to return to London on the evening I was in Kota Kinabalu had missed their flight but again, the issue was solved without any major upheavals.

After 3 days of being in a heavenly place, reality kicked in with a major meeting tomorrow that everyone is not looking forward to. Such a party pooper!

But my proudest moment of all (aside from having more energy than my room mate + colleague who is 7 years younger than me) is seeing all my work shared by my HOD with everyone in the company. It's been a REALLY LONG year that robbed me of a lot of sleep and social life, but it also gave me a rewarding career experience that enriched my life (and added a few stripes) and improved it in so many ways.

Alls well ends well.

My Passion, Unleashed

The 6 blokes featured on the cover of the CD are one of the nicest artistes that I have worked with. The 5 Brit boys are a Indie rock band whilst the local talent is the winner of a talent competition several years back, and together they recorded a bi-lingual song that is my current favourite branded song (and I am not even bias just because I worked on it). Every time I hear the song (which is a LOT), my toes are always tapping the floor and my head bobs to the beat of the song. It is a SERIOUSLY good track.

Though this is my second project involving music but this has got to be the most fun yet grueling, a whole lotta learning, insanely time consuming, hugely satisfactory and definitely high strung campaign that I have ever worked on in my entire career. I have also never worked with so many people all at once before; from the creative folks to my connections planning partner, to digital specialists, on-ground event agency, media partner, music label, artiste management, legal beagles, tour and logistics management and whole bunch of other peeps.

The process was tough to say the least, with a multitude of internal stakeholders to manage but to finally have everything come together and seeing it REALLY HAPPENING instead of just staring at visuals on a Powerpoint presentation, the feeling is equally out of this world.

Tonight, 4 concerts was conducted and broadcasted live on TV simultaneously from 4 regions of Malaysia, the climax for the year long project. As I was driving home from the KL venue, I had a mixed feeling. On the one hand, there is a great feeling of relief that it is finally over and perhaps I can now regain some of my sanity, and yet, on the other hand, I wished that I could have done certain things somewhat differently ie. better.

But - I have done my best considering the circumstance, and I am proud of what I have achieved. I hope you are too.