Archive for June, 2005
Counting Down.
Posted on June 30, 2005, by soph, under Married.
Two more days to go. I am excited indeed.
By today, I would have moved practically all my worldly belongings into the Ngian residence. We’re having our rehearsal tonight at 8.30pm and out-of-town guests have begun trickling in.
I. Can’t. Wait.
Already, we have a family of Californians in Yuchun’s house and a trio of Aussies in mine. The accents are so cute. And I believe the Singaporeans will be arriving real soon too.
Just three and half more hours to go and I’m outta here. For three weeks. I probably should get started on my vows and speech. Oh but I got a really great pedicure yesterday.
My colleague calls me, The Bahamian Traitor.
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It’s a hard-knock life
Posted on June 29, 2005, by soph, under Career.
We had a shoot for a beauty spread two days ago. The model was from some European country and could barely hold a conversation in English. That was not the problem. The shoot was a disaster. There was but a whisper of life in her, and the pictures came out looking like she was bored out of her mind, falling asleep, or stoned on drugs. Her expression and facial features didn’t help either. She didn’t look good when she smiled, she didn’t look good when she didn’t smile. We shot her from every angle we could think of, and tried everything from curls to poker straight hair to brushed-up glam to bed-hair messy. Nothing worked. We called off the shoot after 3 hours. We told her we had finished.
After her hair extensions had been removed, she asked us whether her pictures were okay. My beauty editor couldn’t bring herself to say yes, so she told her they “weren’t so good”. The model said she’d just arrived a week earlier from Poland and hadn’t been able to sleep properly all week. We later found out ours was her first job in Malaysia. And we’d sent her back to her agent, totally unsuccessful.
The hair stylist felt as if he didn’t do a good enough job. The makeup artist sat forlornly staring at the pictures. The photographer refused to give up, and kept trying and trying and trying. My beauty editor said there was no point going on when we couldn’t use any of the pictures anyway. And she was right.
Me, I just felt really, really bad for her. I hope she doesn’t get too upset. She looks anorexic as it is. Really.
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Getting Married
Posted on June 26, 2005, by soph, under Married.
I had the dinner and drinks. I had the bouquet of flowers. Then I had the stripper.It’s been a lovely chain of hen’s nights.
My high school friends told me not to drive because they said I was going to be drinking. I drove anyway and we ended up with an early night after just dinner, long overdue catch-up chats, and more conversation over a drink each. And while it was probably nothing like the way they’d planned it, I was just happy to see faces I hadn’t seen in ages, one of which I’d only ever seen attached to a light blue school pinnafore.
The dear OCFers threatened crazy antics, but Tze San got posted to Kuantan for a couple of weeks, and we decided on a relaxed dinner with way too much dessert instead. I believe the bride-to-be was the only one stuffing her face in chocolate fudge but that stuff was seriously just too good to resist. She promises to be good this coming week, especially after she (finally!) tried on her evening gown and realized it shows every single bump and curve. Oh dear.
No way were my colleagues going to let me off so easily.
A simple “We’re buying you dinner” turned out to be a surprise party at an apartment owned by one of them, complete with balloons and a ton of food. Cheese crab, sweet and sour crab, Guiness Stout pork, kai lan vegetables, Domino’s Pizza, KFC, noodles, fried rice, cocktail sausages, jellies…
Then we started on the drinks.
Somewhere around half past nine, the doorbell rings and two of us open it, only to be greeted by three men, one of whom was in tank top, jeans, and construction hat. “Oh look,” says one of us in terribly mocked surprise. “The air-con guy is here.”
In a construction hat at half past 9 on a Friday night? Right.
He was fairly good looking, terribly shy (we think it was probably his first night on the job or something), and probably freaked out by the sight of 9 girls screaming at him to “take it off”. I was so not one of them, but even I was a little surprised at his ill-fitting, slightly daggy gray briefs. Well, he did cost only RM500. Apparently, for RM600-RM700, you can get hairy, sweaty men in g-strings with the occasional ball sticking out of them. I’m so glad my colleagues were working on a budget.
Oh and the whole time I was wearing a kid’s plastic tiara with a veil that kept falling off. My editor has a heap of pictures she threatens to post on her next editor’s note.
About 11.30pm or so, we decided to adjourn to Bangsar Baru. Or at least, they decided to. I stepped out of the apartment, still in my tiara and veil, but also with a pair of silver cone-shaped party hats for breasts, and a necklace with 13 Polo mints (or Lifesavers, whatever you call them) strung on. My mission for the night? I had to find 13 men who would bite the mints off the necklace.
The fun began before I even got out of the car. People were staring, taxi drivers were stopping in the middle of the road to openly gawk, three Caucasians approached us to ask for directions and say a word of Congratulations, and a European man came asking if he could take a picture with me (he did). We settled on a popular pub/eatery and a very loud Indian stood up to shout his admiration for my pointy silver boobs so we went upstairs to the bar to begin our search for nice, preferably very cute, Caucasian men.
Okay, so not all of the 13 were Caucasian, less than half of them were what I would term “very cute”, but they were all very nice. There was the cool waiter, the (we suspect) gay friend of a friend, a couple of random Caucasian men who shook my hand/kissed me on both cheeks and said “Congratulations” after politely picking off the Polo mint, the group of very enthusiastic men who each had their turn and advised me to put off my wedding for another 20 years, and a rather shy fellow who had his head shoved in my direction by an eager friend. Then there was the very excited dude who missed the necklace entirely and landed on my neck, and the 6′ 4” hunk who picked me up ever so effortlessly and slobbered all over the last remaining mint in the process of picking one off himself.
We had the funniest time.
Extra appreciative mention goes to the 9 colleagues who dug deep for the night of revelry, and went to a lot of trouble preparing for it. I definitely did not expect it, and am totally touched. The next person getting married is in for a lot of fun. My unmarried colleagues are henceforth a) never going to marry; b) never going to tell the rest of us if they plan to marry.
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Our First Wedding Gift
Posted on June 26, 2005, by soph, under Married.
(Picture taken from here.) My cousin in Melbourne took care to text me, “Remember to share it with Yuchun”. And there I thought it was All For Myself. I’m glad my sister picked fluorescent pink.
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Words Women Use
Posted on June 22, 2005, by soph, under Web Stuff.
More advice on the opposite sex (this one was actually printed out and distributed to the entire team)…
FINE
This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
FIVE MINUTES
If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes when you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
NOTHING
This is the calm before the storm. This means “something”, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with “Nothing” usually end in “Fine”.
GO AHEAD
This is a dare, not permission. Don’t do it.
LOUD SIGH
This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A “Loud Sigh” means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over “Nothing”.
THAT’S OKAY
This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. “That’s Okay” means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
THANKS
A woman is thanking you. Do not question or faint. Just say You’re welcome.
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Of Breaking Rules and Unattractive Leads
Posted on June 20, 2005, by soph, under It's a Girl's Life, Movies Music TV.
Did you hear about Genting’s 40th anniversary bash? They were giving away rooms at RM1 a night. Did you hear about the guy who decided to start queueing at 3am when the counters opened at 10? Not because he was kiasu - he told the press - but because he had nothing better to do. Well, maybe not in those exact words.
Anyway, Yuchun and I made a little roadie up to Genting that morning. He’d gotten complimentary tickets to Oliver! the musical, plus we’d been asked to purchase a couple of RM1 rooms for a friend. By the time we got there at 12pm, the queue was thousands strong. And we were so not going to make it in time for the 1.30pm matinee. That is, if we followed the rules.
I love a man who isn’t afraid to break the rules.
We got ourselves a couple of forms (only 1 booking per person allowed), and walked right past the security guard posted at a side entrance into this massive ballroom lined on one side with over a dozen counters. He didn’t stop us, and we obviously weren’t going to ask him why. No one stopped us in fact, not even the dozen or so Genting staff who were organising the crowd into elaborate queues - first you step through the arch, weave your way through the line, enter the ballroom, work your way through the sea of chairs, and finally pick a counter where you queue for your turn.
We walked right up to the counter. Past the weaving queue, past the people seated and waiting on rows upon rows of chairs. I still can’t believe nobody stopped us.
We were done in 20 minutes.
Oliver! was great. I loved the choreography, the big dance numbers, and the fact that the seriously unattractive boy who played the title role had such amazing stage charisma. Well, he is launching his career in theatre come September, and he’s only 11. He makes you fall in love with him despite all his superficial shortcomings, and believe me these were serious shortcomings.
There were some boring bits, and the complex storyline of Oliver meant they had to squeeze everything into slightly over 2 hours, but it was wonderful, even if you felt a bit breathless at times from the rushed plot. Oh well.
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Parked.
Posted on June 17, 2005, by soph, under Career.
After numerous rumours, plenty of doubts and more than one (unfounded) accusation on my part, the truth is finally out. As of today, I will be getting a parking bay in the new office. One that is all to myself. And for that, I shall retract my previous remarks about lying, lowlife management. I take it all back.
Whether or not I maintain my opinion about management-that-suck however, remains to be seen. But for now, let it be known, I am one happy camper.
Our new office is a marked improvement from the old one in every aspect imaginable. It is way bigger, a hundred times nicer (which isn’t hard considering we were previously housed in a Hudson sweet factory), and actually looks like a decent magazine publishing firm. No comparisons to How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days please, but if you’d seen the hole we were in before, you would understand why we are quite proud of this nook. I might even take a few pics for your appreciation.
Downsides to the new place include a marked decrease in privacy because where Marie Claire used to have their cosy corner, we are now lumped into a massive space with four other magazines. And while it is nice to actually see the rest of our colleagues for once, I type this knowing that someone could be peeking over my shoulder and reading every word.
I guess in every situation, you win some, you lose some.
Parking space remained the biggest question mark on everyone’s mind, and we finally got our peace at 5pm. While for some it brought joy, others received bad news. Yep, there isn’t enough parking space for everyone.
But I’m putting a stop to my whinging, even if it’s on another’s behalf. I think it’s going to be a good weekend.
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5.58pm
Posted on June 15, 2005, by soph, under Uncategorized.
We’re finally moving tomorrow. The office looks bare and messy at the same time - bare walls and desk, but messy with boxes and strewn bits of paper. We received a memo yesterday saying our work hours have been changed from 8.30am-6pm to 9am-5.30pm. But we are so cynical we spent over 5 minutes trying to think what the catch is. Well, that’s what happens when you call wolf, no one believes you anymore.Now we’re sitting around waiting for 6pm to come so we can go home since everything is packed up and the server will be shut down in 2 minutes.
Oh shit, that means I won’t be able to access the Internet either.
More to come, on Oliver! the musical, and how-we-missed-the-queue-for-RM1-hotel-rooms.
One more minute to go.
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Wanted for the Wedding
Posted on June 10, 2005, by soph, under Married.
You’re probably wondering how the wedding preps are going. Actually, so am I. With 3 weeks to go, here is my favourite - a list!
Wanted for the Wedding of Yuchun and Sophia:
1. Pants that match Yuchun’s suit jacket
2. A first dance song
3. Ability to dance
4. A videographer
5. RSVPs
6. Food presentation song
7. My evening gown
8. Our video presentation
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Thank God It’s Friday
Posted on June 10, 2005, by soph, under Uncategorized.
It’s been a slow, slow week. The next couple weeks however, are going to be chaotic. Lots of adjusting, packing, unpacking, setting up, wrapping up, and drama over non-existent parking space. The seeds of dissent are everywhere, but no one important enough is willing to do anything about it. Which of course, sucks.
In the meantime, I have been saved from a slow rot into boredom by lovely, unexpected MSN conversations.
It looks like it’s going to be a great day after all.
