I'm so deprived of internet here at Pyramid Tower Hotel. Internet charges are RM 80 a day and we are barely in our room a day, so packed with activities. That's why i don't want to pay for it. So, i only had 5 mins to go online now by borrowing someone's broadband.
Waiting for my hairdo currently for a photoshoot. Voting for the Miss World Malaysia most popular award ends at 12 tonight. So keep voting! :)
I totally miss so many people now. I can't wait to be able to update properly. The gala night is on Oct 2nd at Sunway Pyramid concourse at 7pm. So, if you are free, do come k and support me k. :)
Last Thurs, we had a very insightful one hour live forum at Studio V in One U with 4 former Miss Malaysia; 2 from Miss World and 2 from Miss Universe, namely Deborah Henry and Lina Teoh for the former and Yasmin Yusoff and Elaine Daly for the latter.
They shared with us many tips from their experience and it really helps especially for first-timer like myself to further prepare for what to expect and boosting my confidence in this competition. I really enjoyed the whole session, as they reminisce their time before and after crowning and shed some heart-warming moments with us. They are all soooo pretty and witty.
It was my first time at a live recording studio and it's actually pretty fun to see how they set up the studio, the signal they give when time overrun, the cuts, what they were actually doing during commercial breaks and all the behind-the-scenes actions. At the end, we were given opportunities to asked questions but only few of us managed to put forward their questions as time was running out. I wanted to asked them a question too, but they cued for a break and when they are back from the break, it's wrap up time.
The theme was smart casual and as i took lrt to Kelana Jaya with all my make-up and hair do, it's not surprising that almost everyone in the lrt gave me stares. haha. Really, it just takes some getting use to.
Prior to that, we had a media briefing about blogging with Kuan Yew and he gave tips about blogging to all the finalists that had no clue at all about blogging.
Ready to go.
While waiting for the rest of the girls to arrived
Steph, Jesintha, me, Laura and Charlene
With the former beauty queens
Photos below are courtesy of Studio V.
Beauty queens and the host
Deborah Priya Henry, MWM 2007 (Sarah, this is especially for you!! ;) )
At least this pic did not turn out orangy under the yellow lights
3 simple words but yet make up a phrase with such in-depth meaning.
You know one of the things we do when we are in the MRT/LRT/subway/skytrain is observing ppl around us. When i was in the MRT yesterday in Singapore, an Indian woman with a toddler in her arm caught my attention. She was sitting not too far from me and the little girl is smiling sweeter than an apple pie at me so i waved back. One glance, she looked like any other little girl of 2-3 years of age. But observing further, i noticed she appeared restless and was sweaty. Soon, her mum showed a sign of drinking to ppl around and i realized she was asking for water. The little girl needs water. Having no water with me, i looked around and saw one of the most beautiful act of kindness. Another little girl about 6 years of age took out her water bottle and walked towards the toddler and handed her the water and told her to drink it. I can see the look of gratefulness on the mother's face and the look of relieveness and happiness on the toddler's face as she gulped down the water.
It was just a simple act of kindness but it was so beautiful. Beauty is not just about being physically appealing, it's the act, attitude and character, it's what exudes from you that defines beauty. Beauty therefore, truly lies in the eyes of the beholder. We don't call someone beautiful just because she have very nice and sharp features or because she has the perfect hourglass figure.
Roald Hoffman's observation about beauty and power is a useful model: "Beauty is build out of individual pleasure around an object or idea. It may be personal, but gains in strength when it is shared with others."
To family members, you are beautiful because you are part of their daily life. To the significant other, you are beautiful because you are their 'happily ever after'. To the general public, you are beautiful when you are able to touch and inspire thousands or millions lifes.
Since the media likes to focus on pretty and beautiful things, being a beautiful person will naturally have the media focus on her. A beautiful woman can then use her beauty in a positive way to continue inspiring others, raising awareness and funds for the needy. She shares her ideas with the media and let's not forget how powerful the media is in helping her to spread her causes, thus gaining more strength and power.
But not being pretty does not mean that you are not beautiful either. As cliche as it sounds, beauty is also something that radiates from within. A woman that is able to create that aura of confidence and feel-good-feeling about herself is able to work more efficiently than those who only accentuates on their flaws. Women who dare to stand and fight for their dreams, for poverty, for the underprivileged, for a better life for others are all beautiful women as like i said, beauty radiates from within. And such women often gain respect and love from others, making them very powerful women to change and make great differences in people life.
So, remember every woman is beautiful. Accentuates your beauty as your beauty is a very powerful tool to help and change life.
Just a random pic so that the post won't be all words and too bored! :p
This is another long post of mine but definitely worth reading I will say because I will be telling you guys a secret and you’ll definitely know me better. :)
The other day at the media briefing, each girl was told to set up a blog (soon you guys will be able to see all our blog links in the MWM website in our profile page) if they don’t already have one. That’s cz through our blog, the public will be able to get to know us better. To really know who we are. And that can help you all to decide better who you want to vote for. So that you will know the person you vote for is not only a pretty face but without substance. While there are friends, family and people who gives encouragement and support, there are always people who tend to give negative comments, there are people who tend to want to bring you down, and there are people who are always dissatisfied with the contestants (and then the winner) year after year. People tend to judge base solely on pictures, on what they see superficially when they don’t even know who these girls are so that’s where blogs really helps. All of the girls are very pretty girls, intelligent and talented but if based solely on picture alone, how is anyone going to know? Just because a girl’s picture looks nice doesn’t make her necessarily the prettiest in real. Remember, some girls are just more photogenic than the others. Why do you think there’s such thing as Miss Photogenic? So, instead of starting a whole new blog about myself, I had decided to retain my old blog so that all of you will be able to get to know me better.
Throughout the years, I had certainly changed and from reading through my posts, im quite sure all you can see the changes in me. As vain as I’m, there will still be pictures of me without make up, there are going to be pictures of me from a bad angle, looking ugly and there are sad and happy times, but face it. We are all nothing but just human. And aint all humans subjected to various emotions and bad hair day and the like. This is me in my most original self. (and you always have a choice to not read my blog if you don’t like what I write, fair right?) I’m not going to go on creating another image of me that I want to portray to others just because I want to win voters or supporters in this competition. In any field, in anything you do, there are always people that will talk about you. When there are people who say nice things about you, there will also be a person who speaks bad things about you. There are bound to be people who are going to judge you all the time. Thus, throughout this pageant so far, one of the things that I had learnt is about perseverance, tolerance, grace and confidence. I’m in this pageant because I want to be here, I had my goals, my dreams and my aims and I am working towards achieving them. At least, I had started working towards them. And the road to success is never an easy one. From the moment I signed up, I knew this journey is not going to be just a breeze, but one that will give me challenges but yet totally worthwhile and good.
To many, what is really a beauty pageant? What is this Miss World all about? Why is it different from all the other beauty pageants? Is it just about choosing the most beautiful woman in the world or in the country? After all it’s a beauty contest right? I mean if a fitness contest is to look for the most fit candidate, so isn’t a beauty contest looking for the most beautiful girl? Well more than that definitely. Aside from the skin depth beauty, I think what Miss World is looking for is a holistic beauty. In other words, it means looking for a pretty girl with substance. It’s about having the ability to make big differences in other’s life. Every girl in this pageant had a dream, had a huge purpose. Winning this pageant will give that girl the opportunity to carry on with her dream and contribute to the society in the way she wants to, be it working with a charity body, foundation or even starting her own charity organization. Winning this pageant will enable the winner to be able to influenced people on a bigger scale for a well-served purpose. It also means making one little girl dream come true and enable her to have a lifetime experience that will change her life forever as she changes others life.
Like I said earlier, I’m going to tell all of you something I never told anyone. I’m letting you guys in on a secret. *wink*
I never gave stigmatized illness much thought until I attended the EAMSC in Jan this year. After all the discussions regarding HIV issues with people from different backgrounds and race from the East Asia region, we all came down to one conclusion. HIV patients all around the world are facing unfair discrimination and stereotypes from the society. Why? Very simple. It’s because HIV is classified as one of the stigmatized illness and due to the fear and lack of understanding towards the stigmatized illness on top of exaggerated fatalistic aspects by the media, people had a lot of misconception about stigmatized illness. HIV is just one of them. Leprosy, mental illness, depression and suicide are among the others. So, I wonder how I can help in decreasing this extra pain the society is putting on on the already suffering patients. I wanted to help them. I hope to be able to set up a centre of some sort, so that people can come together and understand these people, their illness and offer hope and compassion to them instead of blame and shame.
I started watching Miss World pageants ever since I knew how to watch a tv. Year after year, without fail, my family and I will highly anticipate this global event and watch with excitement and glee as we witnessed the world crowning the world most beautiful woman. And like every little girl, I fantasize about being on that stage one day, surrounded by so many other beautiful women and walked elegantly in that beautiful evening gown. But, soon growing up, I was never really the tallest girl and I never thought I was the prettiest girl too. So, my life went on as it is and I never really give pageants much thought.
Well, over the past few years, I had had a few opportunities to participate in a few beauty pageants; just that they are on a smaller scale compared to Miss World Malaysia but in the end I never went for the interview after being called up because back then, I was always giving excuses to myself like I had to miss class and I don’t want to, like exam was coming, like medical students should not be participating in pageants and even cz i’m not all that tall and slim. But deep down, truth is at that time, I had heard so much nasty stories about beauty pageants and the modeling world that it scared me so much to even think of getting involved. I don’t like catfights and dramas. I had a misperception that girls in this field will be all pretentious. I was just not prepared to face this cold, harsh beauty pageants and modeling world. I was just comfortable living my life as it is and being in Miss World Malaysia is just like a far- fetched dream. But so many things had happened throughout these few years that make me tougher, stronger and more mature and I realized there is actually never such a thing as a perfect timing. And the only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you. (Tom Bradley). Life is too short to consider too much, so much so that we will live our life to regret it sometime later. I had given up so many opportunities and I’m not going to give up another one anymore. Maybe it was just my misperception all along. And maybe those nasty stories are just, well stories and I will never found out unless I am in one myself.
So, along with my hope to do something really meaningful and beneficial to people with stigmatized illness, that unforgotten fantasy and to enjoy an experience unimaginable by most, I decided to take the 1st step by signing up for this pageant. And yes, despite all the money, time and energy spent so far, I’m enjoying every single bit of this refreshing and brand new experience.
I will continue next time on like the challenges I face or even how I manage my time in between my studies but that’s all for the other posts. This posts is already too long! Hehe. Before I go off, just wna wish all Muslim readers, Selamat Hari Raya. :)
From now till my check in into Sunway, i don't think i'll be involved in any more activities regarding the pageant mainly because i'm back here in JB. They are going to break us up into smaller groups and each small groups will be given different publicity opportunities. Like some of the girls will be appearing on Mix.fm, some photoshoots and some even on NTV7 breakfast show! For now, i still don't know which group i belong to but i'm sure is excited to know. Well, we are required to stay at Sunway Resort for 5 whole days prior to the grand finale so yesterday, we had received our laundry checklist which is basically the lists of stuff we are suppose to bring during our one week stay.
Other than all the personal care item and some essential clothes like t-shirts, shorts and cocktail dresses (luckily i was smart enough to bring a few down from KT! haha), this is part of the lists of stuff we have to bring. :)
The footwear list! I thought i could bring less stuff to KL from JB but it seems like it's only going to get more. The items highlighted are the items i already had and those not highlighted means more SHOPPING!! Usually, i'll be hyper excited whenever shopping is needed, but not particularly right now when i had already spent a lot on shopping last month. Sob~
Anyway, met up with some of my darlings from Convent for lunch and SY and Nor accompanied me shopping after that, mainly looking for those killer heels cz i don't have any 4 inches heels at all. And i saw this pair of gold heels that is very pretty cz of all the bling factors on it that cost RM 170!!! Actually, with all the blings on it, it is supposed to be reasonable but come to think of it, how many times will i wear that heel after this pageant. Dilemma. Anybody else know anywhere can get pretty gold and black strappy 4 inches heels??
I had wanted to changed the header and background for some time but finally had time to do it today. :) Nice?
Today is the 1st day of our one week Raya break. I'm going back to my beloved home in a few hours time. That's double yippee yeap!!
I realized I just can't resist good food. Especially when they are place right in front of me. The temptation is just way too strong. Had dinner at O'Briens in 1U yesterday evening. It was so empty the O' Briens there compared to KLCC one. We were practically the only table there. So, all the restaurants staff paid full attention to us and served to our every needs. (nah, kidding,as you all know O'Briens is self service, so they don't really need to serve us)
This is from their low calories menu. Chicken salad wrappo. I did not really like this because of too much raisins and capsicums in them that makes it a little too sour.
Chicken and turkey bacon triple decke
Sundry tomato with mozarella cheese. Stole a bit but i really like this. Cz you all know why. The cheese!! Bad bad.. but a small bite won't hurt rite? hehe
That's all for tonite. Will keep you all updated on the pageant happenings soon. We had sort-of-a-Q and A session with some previous Miss Malaysia yesterday. It was good. Really good advices. So, stay tuned and keep voting ok? (the links are already in the upper right corner of my blog) *heartfelt gratitude* Arigato, Thank You, Terima Kasih, Xie Xie, Kam Siah, Tou Cheh, Merci, Kamsahamida :)
The Sep 15th issue of Remaja is out! With me inside! haha
Well, i thought we will all get one full page each. Mana tau it's just half a page. And the pic they chose it's not my fav pic. Why magazines company always chose pictures that you don't think you look nice in? And the pictures that you look good in they don't wna choose.
Don't believe me? Go grab a copy or i can borrow you my copy and you get what i mean. :)
Although this is one big vain pic of myself, but this post is not about me being vain. It's just that it's my 1st attempt at a side braid so i had to take a pic of myself.
I know, i said i won't have time to blog but here i am updating 2 posts in one night. That's cz i wanted to really start my cwu but uhm, my notebook which had all the info i need is not with me right now, so uhm, i cant do my cwu, so better update my blog right? *wink*
I think by now, anyone who is reading my blog will know (or those who had been wondering if it's really me you saw in the papers/Youtube) that i'm in the Miss World Malaysia 2009 (or as fondly acronym by yours truly to be MWM in the past few posts). I really did wanted to keep it very low profile initially but at the same time i'm sure many of you are very curious and interested about the journey of the contestants in one of the most prestigious beauty pageant in Malaysia. I'm honoured really to be able to made it into the top 20 finalist already. And also for my personal reason, so that someday when i look back at what i wrote, i can still savour these feelings. (in case i got amnesia, dementia, memory loss lol)
So, now (if you keep reading my blog) you will have an opportunity to know the activities we had to get ourselves involved in, our doings etc etc while able to feast your eyes on so many beautiful women. Exciting isn't that? :p
Yesterday was the stART foundation official launch. The charity organization that Miss World Malaysia is working with and also the one Soo Wincci, Miss World Malaysia 2008 is affiliated to. stART was started only in April last year, so it's a very new foundation and that explains why it is very hard to search of it online. It is a foundation for underprivileged children and refugees age between 7 and 17 to express and discover themselves through art, be it music, dance, paintings or singing. stART is one of the only one in this world that offers this kind of opportunities to the underprivileged and i hope the children will be able to express their emotions and creativity here and carve up a bright future for themselves.
I was the first to reach because i was afraid of jam along Federal highway although it was a Saturday but it is KL and you can never be surprise at the amount of cars that is on the road. So, i went in and watched their rehersals.
The Myammar + local children choir group
The childrens performing percussions with water bottles
Soo Wincci, Miss World Malaysia 2008 performing her debuts
Dancing away at the end
Sometimes it's just totally unexpected of how 2 person can meet again. I first knew Wincci about 2 years ago and after her winning the title, we never met up cz she was just soooo busy. But here we met again, at a beauty pageant.
With some of the kids and contestants
This little girl is also very cute, she is like so shy when she came up to me, smiling shyly, looking at the floor, then peep a little, look down again. So shy.
Meet Teeba, the 16 year old aspiring Bollywood director. This girl is amazing i tell you. She can paint creatively and at 16, she already got 4 movie plots she wanted to direct in future.While many people are still undecisive about what they want to do at 16, she is already determine to be a Bollywood movie director.
I felt so lucky and humbled to be with these kids. They are all very very amazing talents. If you know of children who are talented but lack the opportunity to expand their talent, you can always contact stART.
Before i end my post for tonite, I just like to share with everyone the MWM 2009 selection process videos. (act can watch them all on Youtube). See if you can spot me. haha.
Someone sent me this link to this video on The Star Online. It's one of the many videos took that day at the press conference.
Got a lot a lot to blog about. Like the charity launch this evening, the kids are so cute. Redang trip. White water rafting. Bangkok. Places to eat in KL. But, i have to go back to KT already and with so lil time left b4 the Raya holis and i got delayed case write ups to do and classes to catch up, perhaps all my posts will have to wait a while. But don't worry, i will still try to update my blog as often!
But right now, i got to sleep 1st. Throat acting funny already. Toodles :)
Check out yesterday The Star paper. The article on MWM is in the paper. :)
As usual, i will copy the entire article here on my blog for easy viewing. Don't forget to vote for me then (voting have not start but will let you all know when voting starts) and vote for me at Mix fm on the coming Monday. I'm just so nervous and excited about the whole thing. So, i might remind you all again and again but bear with me ok? :)
‘Beauty is Power’ inspired
By CHOONG MEK ZHIN
PETALING JAYA: This year’s Miss World Malaysia theme “Beauty is Power” is inspired by the likes of Cleopatra and Nefertiti, queens who brought the entire empires to their knees.
And a total of 21 contestants will be vying to do just that at the finals on Oct 2 at Sunway Pyramid.
“The theme shows that a beautiful woman is a powerful woman,” said pageant organiser DDBPR managing director Chong Wei-Hsiang.
Chong added that the pageant was also a platform to raise funds for charity and other worthy causes thus teaching its contestants that responsibility goes hand in hand with power.
“This year we have chosen the stART Society to donate all our proceeds to. It is an academy that provides various types of art training for underprivileged and refugee children,” said Chong.
Crown hopefuls: Some of the contestants for the Miss World Malaysia 2009 posing for a photograph yesterday.
The public will also be able to watch what happens behind the scenes through videos that will be posted on the pageant’s official website at www.misworldmalaysia.com.my.
“Everything from the finalists’ profiles to their training sessions will be filmed and put on the website. People can also comment and vote for their favourite contestants via the website for the first time in the pageant’s history,” said Chong.
Finalist Foong Yuh Wen, 24, an equity research analyst, said that she hoped to gain more confidence through the competition.
“I look forward to the challenge of doing something new,” said Foong.
Mass communication student Stefanie Chua, 21, participated in the competition to make connections and to get more exposure of the industry.
“I hope this pageant will help me learn more about self-grooming and the ability to talk to people,” Chua said.
This year’s Miss World Malaysia will represent the country in the Miss World finals in Johannesburg, South Africa in November.
We had our press conference for MWM 2009 at Sunway Resort and Hotel. Our faces are on the website already and i just knew about Sat charity launch. Online voting is starting real soon.
Woke up really early and i realized i was the first to reached at 7.30 am! The time we were supposed to meet. So typical of Malaysians. haha.
Was pretty nervous while i sat through make up and hair do but was most nervous when the press people finally arrived! Again, the hair do people just decided to make my hair more straight. So, after ironing my hair straight, H was like 'You did your hair already? No difference?'. All the hairstylist 'kononnnya' hv the same thoughts that my hair is so beautifully straight that i shd just kp them straight which is becoming kinda boring to me.
Look out for the Star papers and Mix fm website and also Faces October issue!!
It was kind of an amazing day, meeting new people, being interviewed and a whole lot of other stuffs happen. I really like to elaborate more but i'm like super dead sleepy now and need my sleep so i'll just kp my post short and sweet and elaborate in future posts. :)
Snap, snap, snap, snapping away. The pic is took by Ian and it's kinda blur i know.
Relieved finally when the whole thing is over. My make up. Gosh, im really tan already! The whitening lotion not working!!
Hope all of you enjoyed this special day. Nites :D
The theme for Miss World Malaysia 2009 is 'Beauty is Power'.
Below is a video initiative of Miss World Malaysia done to commemorate the launch of the Miss World Malaysia 2009 pageant.
I like the video. So girl/woman power! hehe.
Guys, start protesting already?
Well, the initiative at Sunway Pyramid is not meant to degrade or belittle men, rather to demonstrate that a beautiful woman is indeed a powerful woman and that with such power comes responsibility.(quoted from the spokesperson of Miss World Malaysia 2009) source : Voize
So, what do you all think? Does beauty makes a woman a powerful woman?
See if you can tell which is Man Island and which is Woman Island.
On the way to the Marine Park in Redang, we can see both of these islands. You might need to use a wee bit of your imagination tho. :p. The rocks natural formation gave rise to their names.
This is DD's aviator i got him for his bday! hehe. Played around with it while waiting for him to feed his Rambo. But i think this size is too big for my face.
Over the long weekend last week, we went down to KL again. (cz got things to do). And since we were already there, we did the usual stuff we do in KL mainly movies, shopping (yeah, lots of it, more like lots of $$$ spent!!) and FOOD! From dim sum to Ampang yong tau foo to Connaught pan mee to japanese buffet.
I love doing crazy and adrenaline-rushing things at times. New and adventurous stuff never fails to spark interest in me. So, we head down to Titiwangsa Lake on Sunday afternoon ready for zorbing (orbing)! (rolling downhill in an orb or sphere).
This whole zorbing stuff is first time introduced here in M'sia and i heard it is only gna be here til end of the yr but who knows rite? Maybe they will end up like the Eye of M'sia and being permanently shifted to some other place in M'sia.
The whole zorbing journey is 70m and it is RM 15 per dry zorb. Cz got wet zorb also. Means they will put water into the orb. But that's RM 5 more expensive. As it was inconvenient for us to do the wet one, we only did the dry one alhough we would love to try the wet one too. And got 'hamster' rolling also. You go into the orb without being strap and you can try to walk, run, crawl, whatever in the orb and roll around like hamsters. But that one must alot alot of ppl play then only fun i think.
To find the place, you just drive around the lake until you see two big, round transparent balls (orbs). There was no one there went we arrived so no nd to wait. hehe
The two orbs you can see from a distance
Person-in-charge strapping on the harness for me. Cz me and DD will be in one orb and if we are not strapped, we will be rolling over each other and might end up with bruises.
Seriously, the 70m was soo short like 20 seconds? Although it felt longer when we were rolling down. I expected us to be really rolling downhill like downhill but it was just a slope and it was actually rolling pretty slowly so it was not scary at all. In fact, it was quite funny and quite bumpy. Now i know how those clothes felt when they were spinning in the washing machine. Or why hamsters love their hamster balls and wheels so much.
Oh yea, i love it and can't wait to actually try the original one in Kiwiland someday.
Here's a video of us zorbing. Ok, i screamed (not really cz it's scary, just for the fun of it) and i laughed at the same time and it was a little dizzy at the end of it but it is fun. :D
Yay yay yay! I'm going to Redang tomorrow. muahaha. I know half the world (ok, exaggerated figure) had been to Redang before but i had stayed here in KT for one year now and this is the first time i'm going so really looking forward to it minus coming back looking like a roasted lobster.
And the best part is class is canceled for 2moro. Just the perfect timing. haha
Stuff i'm bringing.. Excitement!
Emm.. what's this? Biscuits?
Nono.. it's a single use waterproof camera from Kodak. RM 42. But only can take 27 pics. Was considering a casing for my camera but no camera shops in KT had in stock casing. All have to pre-order.
The back of the camera supposedly with the instructions on how to use the camera
But i need to study Spanish language 1st. (assuming that's Spanish cz made in Mexico and Mexican speaks Spanish.lol)
Tried following the graphics but the camera cant seem to work. Still exploring it.
Anyway i'll be back in 3 days. Having 1 lecture on Sunday and a holiday again on Monday. Wow.. feels like on holiday now. haha. Hope the weather is good for these 3 days. :D
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