Guilty No More

OK. So I have never liked healthy foods. I can't understand why people like salads or wholemeal bread or worse, multigrain high fibre cereals. Uggghhh. I love meats and seafood. I adore white bread and I take nasi lemak or laksa for breakfast.

But every once in a while I get sucked into the whole health fad thing. Especially when my mum comes to stay. She would cook healthy food, hide all my fizzy drinks and make me take vitamins and supplements. And I'd humour her, in part because being mollycoddled like this is so rare, and in part because I feel a little guilty that I don't quite do the healthy lifestyle thing.

But now, hah! I was right all along. 

Dear Job Interviewee

Dear Job Interviewee,

Please do not offer to shake hands if you have a sweaty, clammy palm. I know you are nervous, but I don't like to get that intimate with you. You can keep your bodily excretions to yourself, okay. And speaking of sweat, if you do tend to smell, please do try and get your hands on some deodorant. Please.

But if I do offer to shake hands, please try not to crunch my bones, can? And don't make out like a limp fish either. Why can't people just do a normal firm but gentle handshake? Surely it's not rocket science.

Do try to be punctual, and please try to leave your mother at home. And that goes for boyfriends and girlfriends too. I really just want to interview you. It's not like it's going to be Buy 1, Get 1 free, right?

When I speak with you, please look back at me, and you know where my eyes are. They are not at my chest. 

That chair you are sitting on, well, it's not a rocking chair. So please, do not try to rock it. I have motion sickness just looking at you. Oh and if you have a leg that simply must shake, please try to control that too. I am sure it takes considerable talent to make your leg do 500 shakes a minute, but please, not with me.

And when your handphone rings, can you just ignore the call or keep it short? You are 4 feet away from me. Guess what. I can still hear you whispering sweet nothings. Geli. So hang up. Now.

Try to talk with some enthusiasm. You don't have to be super hyper, but can you at least try not to put me to sleep? Keep it simple and sound interesting. Can?

And you know, if you got mostly C's in your academic transcripts, please don't tell me how hard you studied and how brilliantly you did. I can't keep a straight face that long.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
A Job Interviewer

Shock Advertisements

I get it. Advertisements are meant to create an emotional connection. We want to evoke emotions to a level where there is a lot of buzz, and hope it might even go viral.

I used to like Benetton's ad campaigns. Their slogan - United Colors of Benetton had this underlying message of love across bounderies, love is colour blind.

Nice, cute, pretty.

Then they gradually got controversial and finally came out with a series of Unhate ads last week.

Really, Benetton ??

Ugghh. I must confess. I find them disturbing. I know these are photoshopped pictures but still. Can't get these images out of my head. So I guess, in that, Benetton has succeeded. My utterly conservative heart is shocked to the core.

But shock advertisements like these are nothing new. In fact, they even have a term for it. Shockvertisement.

Wikipedia has this to say :

"Shock advertising or Shockvertising is a type of advertising generally regarded as one that “deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals.” ^[1] .. Shock advertising is designed principally to break through the advertising “clutter” to capture attention and create buzz, and also to attract an audience to a certain brand or bring awareness to a certain public service issue, health issue, or cause "

Yes of course. There are just too many ads. There is a need to stand out from the clutter.

I will go with deliberately startle, yes, if that might provoke a buzz. But to deliberately offend? 

One university in Belgium tried shockvertising.

The Hilary Obama ad by the Hogeschool-Universiteit (HUB) in Brussels Belgium - why choose between a college and a university when you can combine?

Hahaha. I won't say it shocked me much. Tickled yes. Hilarious.

So. Does shock advertising actually work? I think the jury is still out on this one. But I think, as far as provoking a response, yes, of course. But is it the right response? Maybe not.

Yummy Dayak food

Tried out this really nice place. Authentic mouthwatering scrumptious Dayak food. So yums.

It's in Kuching, at the junction of Jalan Mendu and Jalan Simpang Tiga, just next to Guardian. Lunch is a buffet spread, only RM10 per person and dinner is ala carte.

I'm too lazy to write much. So fullandlazy.

Go try. Especially the tuak.

Nineteen all over again

While in Penang, I met up with my old mates from Burnside High School.

I thought it was just going to be just the girls. But they got in touch with the boys too. And they came later, looking pretty much the same. But yeah, no more boys. Men now okay.



The boys and girls from Burnside High

Lay Hooi. We've been friends for so long. We were in the same class in kindergarten, then went on the same primary school, same secondary school and you would you believe it, same high school in NZ. From Alor Setar to Christchurch.That's 35 years of friendship. 35 years of knowing. I knew every guy she had a crush on.

Lay Hooi and I

See Wai. Bubbly, outgoing and happiest soul on earth. One of the first friends I made in Christchurch. I think she's probably friends with everyone there. You could always hear her laughter a mile away. Whilst the other three went to other universities, See Wai and I both stayed on in Christchurch and went to the University of Canterbury. But she hopped over to the dark side. Engineering! I didn't see her much then. Uggh. The engineering block stinked. Too alpha male.

See Wai and I

Cheng Woi. The brainiest of us all. I used to tease him a lot. Thank goodness he's still talking to me. He still looks the same, walks the same. We lost contact after high school. And now I know why. After high school, he was quickly offered a full scholarship to read law at Leeds. Then another full scholarship for his masters in Belgium. Jealous.

Cheng Woi and I



It was a blast. Over food and drinks at this quaint Nyonya restaurant in the Straits Quay, we giggled like school kids and gossiped about our teachers. Talk about an estrogen rush. Hah. We totally forgot that we're now middle-aged professionals.

Nope, in those giddy moments, we were nineteen all over again. We recalled every silly teenage thing we did. We giggled over our teen crushes, our teen problems and just general silliness. See, we were in this foreign land where the kiwis spoke funny and smelled funny. I mean, it took me about 3 months to decipher the accent. And most did smell of lamb, except not in a good way. (they probably thought we smelled of garlic)

We remembered  how we cycled everywhere. (In Christchurch, everyone knew how to ride the bicycle. By the end of the first year, I could manouveur my racing bike so well, I could do it hands-free!)  And we remembered how we were hopelessly addicted to fresh milk, full cream please. And giggly recall the teachers in high school and even the body measurements of a particular male economics teacher. Scandalous! As each memory resurfaced, we collapsed in hoots of laughter.

So much fun. Childhood friends are still the best friends we'll ever have. And I've always wondered why that's the case. But Lay Hooi said it right. We're friends because we clicked and for no other ulterior motive. This is life. Simple, no layers, no pretense. Cheers!

Penang trip

Penang trip 4-6 November 2011

So finally it did happen. 34 of us descended on Penang, and had a nice 3D2N. I used to live and work in Penang once. That was 1993. Straight out of university, and lived quite a different life back then.

I was shocked. Penang is actually clean. Almost as clean as Kuching. Since when? Well, according to the tour guide, since the new chenghu took over. Hats off to you then, Mr Lim Guan Eng. Because when I lived there, it was scary filthy.

So we did all the touristy stuff. Visited Fort Conwallis, walked along Gurney Drive, shopped at Gurney Plaza, Komtar, Prangin Mall, 1st Avenue Mall, went to Chong Fatt Sze mansion, Kek Lok Si temple, Penang Hill, etc etc. It was a bit of a rush though. I would have preferred my holidays to be lazy with nothing much to do except eat, play on the beach and watch the sunset. Maybe next time.

Team SEGi

We didn't stop eating either. In between meals, we stuffed ourselves with char kueh tiaw, assam laksa, rojak, mua chee, aiskacang, chee cheong fun.. yums.

This was taken at a Thai restaurant. The tomyam was really good. So was the kerabu mango. The rest I can't remember. Cos by then the chili padi had my lips and tongue swollen twice their original size.

And when we thought we could walk no more, we went back to the hotel, showered, changed and came out again.

Upper Penang Road. We didn't get there till quite late but the place was a party paradise. Young crowd, great looking cars, and really loud music. Smoking hot. Thanks to Rach for bringing us there.

But first, got to take photos with the Ferraris. 'Bout 5 in a row.

That's me trying to learn the art of sipping beer from Angie. She's such a cutie. Unlike me who just gulped it down.

We had fun that night. It was good to go out with colleagues and have some downtime together. I loved every moment laughing and eating and drinking.

Must do it again. Where to next, eh?