I’m happy to announce that Marina’s Bloggariffic has won 2 awards in the ping.sg most entertaining post and also Waggener-Edstrom Post of the Year 2008.

Excellent! Two trophies, a customized engraved glass by Markchoon.com, a Border’s voucher, $200 shopping voucher at Takashimaya and a dinner for two with the good people of Waggener-Edstorm. Its like an advanced birthday present!

But in all honesty, I’m really very surprised and shocked and did not expect this win considering at all! All the while, I was yaay-ing at the other winners that when my name was announced, I was dumbfounded! In fact, I felt so flabbergasted that I dont even remember what I said last Saturday during the winning speech.

Regardless, I feel very blessed that there are people who enjoyed my postings and would heartily thank everyone that voted for me. Its because of you that I have the drive to be the give out my best in blogging. Thank you so much!

Without further adieu, here is the ping lipdub project video!

Ping Lipdub Project from rinaz on Vimeo

What do you think of it?

Links to other bloggers :

• Complete list of ping.sg 2008 award winners
• Limetouch
• Mlmaestro
• Bobo
• Claudia - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
• Krisandro
• DaintyFlair
• Daryl Tay
• Sheylara
• Precious Hillary
• Brokenshardz
• Ping Blog

As a child, my family would bring me out there and we’d spend time together picnicking and just having a lovely time together. At the time, entry to the Haw Par Villa was free. It was bustling with people strolling about. I’d always have a blast in my imaginary world, believing that I was interacting with the statues there.

Then came the 90’s when the government took over and did a number of changes to the park. The attractions were developed, and they started to charge money for entry. Though the place seemed well taken cared of, the entire feeling was different and commercialised. The number of visitors dwindled.

This is possibly inspired by Antonio Ligabue

It was only several years later when Haw Par Villa became a public park again. Some of the segments being adopted by various organizations for its continued upkeep. Unfortunately, the number of visitors did not go back to its heydays. Reasons cited ranging from being unaware that Haw Par Villa was opened to lack of interest.

Regardless, I’m missing Haw Par Villa a lot. Even more so when realised how close it was by the company headquarters. A sense of yearning keeps coming back to me. The following months could possibly be the last time that I could visit it freely.

Hence, I asked a couple of blogger friends who might be interested in visiting and last Saturday, and eventually, we visited the amazing Haw Par Villa.

It was a rainy saturday morning. Fortunately, it did not last for too long and I was able to ride out and reached the Haw Par Villa Carpark safely.

After parking my scooter in the designated motorcycling parking area, just as I stepped on the entry steps, I saw Nicole, Chillycraps, Xizor and Endoh coming out of a taxi cab. Together, we walked up the hilly entrance where Mintea was already waiting.

Xizor is pointing to the disappearance of a large dragon

While passing through, it did not take too long for me to feel a deep sense of nostalgia. There were heaps of figures that I can remember from my childhood - it was as if I stepped back in time.

We stopped by the signature pool and Nicole decided to get some fish food to feed the fishes there while waiting for DK to arrive. I was amazed at how the group were intently looking at the pond animals - In the hustle and bustle of life, its been a while since I’ve seen anyone stop to admire nature’s work.

Normally seeing turtles swimming around brings me a sense of calm. But that day, it was really funny to see the turtles pushing each other to get to the food, while the fishes shyly swam underneath. And thats when we noticed something very mysterious swimming by. It was rather large and it had whiskers!

It was a catfish! I’ve never seen such a large catfish in real life before. And I was entralled when I spotted some. It was strangely captivating.

Feeding the fishes at Haw Par Villa from rinaz on Vimeo

After emptying the 2nd pack of fish food, finally DK arrived and together, we went to search for a sheltered area for picnicking. We stumbled upon a large and colourful sheltered area, and shortly after we played a couple of classic games such as Snap and this odd game called Indian Poker.

It was quite amusing for me to see the losers having to eat the lovely food from our potluck as punishment. When can it be punishment when you get to eat yummy food? Such as Mintea’s Curry Puff, Dk’s nuggets, Malique’s Cupcakes, Nicole’s Chips and my Chiffon Cake. I loved it all!

But at one point of time, poor CC had to stuff himself with the food as he lost as much as 5 times in a row! I hope he does not have a phobia of currypuffs now!

After stuffing ourselves silly, what better way than to ease the feeling with a little dancing :D

Malique and CC being silly from rinaz on Vimeo

We then explored the area, where I re-explored monuments that I can still remember from time back.

I remember posing by this very display when I was a little girl! In the background there is a flower vase with a human hand. Mintea thought that it was creepy. But I guess I’m used to it.

DK tells me that the guy in the middle is a priest and he was caught in the middle with some spider spirits disguising themselves as women. They believed that by eating his flesh, they will become immortal.

Personally, I thought that this diorama was strange as it was entitled ‘Gambling causes you to lose a life’ since the boy died from being careless at not looking at where he was going on the road rather than his father’s gambling habits.

And before we know it, it was already nearing the closing hours at Haw Par Villa already. Time really does pass by quickly when one is having fun. We took a group picture to remember and cherish our moments in the future :)

Taking a picture for memories from rinaz on Vimeo

I really enjoyed myself at the Haw Par Villa a lot. And I do hope that it’ll still be around for more years to come.

Have you been to Haw Par Villa? When was the last time that you went there? What did you think of it?

Related links :

• More pictures in the gallery
• More information about Haw Par Villa
• How to get there via gothere.sg

Links to other blog posts :

• Mintea
• Endoh
• DK
• Chillycraps
• Xizor

Sidenote : Shaun thinks that I am down to earth and thinks I’m a winner! *flattered!*

The place

El Sheikh is situated in the beautiful and historical area of Kampung Glam. Before reaching El Sheikh, Nicole, Mintea and I had a blast of a time exploring the Malay Heritage Center, playing with the props there before reaching the place. Just as we reached there, we met up with DK who just arrived at the same time as we did.

The cafe already looks charming from the outside with the rustic two story shophouse where it was housed. Inside, it looked very cosy and rather condusive with its homely arabic styled decor all around.

The service

There were only the four of us there when we entered. We were greeted by the staff and were lead to our seats where we were given our menus. As it was my first time in having Lebanese food and I was not sure what to eat. We asked for recommendations from the staff.

Finally we made up out minds and ordered the Sheikh Mezze as an appetizer and Shawarma Plate, Mixed Kebab Grill, Riyash Ganam Lamb Chops and El Sheikh Beef.

Suddenly, a huge lively crowd of about 15 people suddenly came in. Things got a little helter skelter with the confusion of where to place them and ordering of food. When the food came, it got mixed up with the other group and they got served first. The staff looked frazzled when they realised their mistake but they remained as composed as they could.

The food

First, we had the appetizer - the Sheikh Mezze which consisted of a generous portion of a mix of most of the cold appetizers. Everything was so rich and flavourful that till now, at this point of writing, I’m still craving for it.

This is hummus, a famous dish made of blended chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and sesame paste. I like the texture of the hummus and its rustic taste.

This is Motabbel and is an instant favorite for me. Its like the Hummus but it uses baked eggplants instead of Chickpeas giving you a unique taste of sweet, rich and smooth paste. Its really delicious!

We also had Tabouli which I thought was pretty good. It had a good mix of ingredients with no one ingredient overpowering the other. Although I think it would be better if the parsley were chopped more finely.

This is the Mosaka’ah. It was mainly minced meat in tomato sauce but I liked it a lot.

We were also given a plate of Cheese Rolls which looked very much like curry puffs but had a cheese filling as well as Falafel which is smashed chickpeas shaped into a small cake.

We ate them all together with pita bread. And all in all, it was quite filling! It actually made us rather full at the end of the appetizers.

But we still had our main course to go!

This is Mintea’s Mixed Kebab Grill. It had a portion of each grilled meat so that want to have a taste of each. Nice!

This is Nicole’s Shawarma Plate which is marinated chicken which is shredded into small pieces, eaten with rice. Nicole seemed to enjoy it very much.

This is DK’s Shish Kebab which is marinated beef, cooked over charcoal. It was a strong taste without being overpowering. I saw DK really enjoying his meal.

And this is my lamb chops. I don’t usually eat lamb but this were good. It was probably marinated overnight as it did not have the overly lamby taste and it was tender. Shari Lewis would probably be angry at me :P

And it was all washed down with :

Mango Ayran - a type of yogurt

Mint tea served in a beautiful pot.

And Bavarian Beer! Yes! I drank beer! Ok fine. It was a non alcoholic type. But it was quite underwhelming as my beer tasted more like zapple than anything else :P

Regardless, all in all, I enjoyed myself heaps there! And I really cannot wait to eat there again! Want to go to El Sheikh with me?

OM NOM NOM NOM!

Related link :

• El Sheikh Restaurant

You may also be interested in :

• Eating Tulang
• Taj Samudra - Indian Buffet
• Egyptian Cooking Workshop
• Siam Kitchen
• Korean BBQ Chicken

Unfortunately, I only knew about it last minute when I saw several of my friends plurking about it. By then, it was too late for me to be an early bird registrant and I missed my chance in getting a Happy Tree Friends goodie bag! Yes, Happy Tree Friends is a violent cartoon series, but the characters are undeniably cute :)

I met fellow blogger, ChillyCraps who was my fantastic date plus one for the day. He patiently waited for me at the foyer and together we bravely swam through over the sea of humans who were already there. It was already crowded just 30 minutes after the event started.

It was really scary!

Nevertheless, it was all worth it because as soon as we entered through the doors, it was like being in another dimension altogether. Wonderful displays of toys were all over the place. CC and I instantly hyperventilated over the sheer awesomeness of it all!

The first thing that caught my eye was the Wii fit. Having already watched the viral video of the Wii fit girl, I was very curious to experience it for myself.

rinaz on the Wii Fit from chillycraps on Vimeo

Above is a short video CC took of me while I was trying out the Wii Fit. It was a very interesting experience and actually curiously fun! I was so tempted to get a set for myself, but a Wii unit with the tablet would cost about $900 altogether, is a tad bit steep, I think. Regardless, I do like seeing myself shake my bootie ;)

Someone buy me one! :D

Pretty soon, guess who I saw? It was Darth Vader roaming around the convention. And the interesting thing was that there were loads of people clamoring over him trying to get a picture session with him and his soldiers.

The picture is a little bit blur because CC and I had to be really quick before someone else pushes us away for their photo-op! I looked pretty happy looking even with Darth Vader looking like he’s about to chop my head off with his lightsabre :P

CC then stumbled upon one of his favourite characters - Ultraman! The both of us, along many others grew up on ultraman! :)

We then explored around the different toy displays.

The wierd

Like the popular but creepy Blythe dolls. With those type of eyes, its easy to imagine that they’ll come to life when you are sleeping and do bodily harm to you.

We were fortunate enough to see some of the artists at work. One of them was Mori Chack, famous for his Gloomy Bears as seen as in the pictures below.

Actually, I thought that those bears are kind of creepy with the blood stains on the mouth and claws. Its probably an acquired taste to get one of these, perhaps.

For some reason I was quite fascinated by these toys. Partly because they are gold perhaps, but also because they were sort of like transformers, but instead hide themselves as golden lighters instead of cars.

Its hard for me to imagine the cartoon series for this one.

The cute

Here are a couple of Kubrick and especially Tofu dolls that CC and I were rather crazy about. It looked simple, just a rectangular head over a plastic body, but owners are able to do their own customizations by drawing over the head - which I thought was pretty cool :)

And these are rather cute too. Tofu dolls with them holding up their noses! They are smelly Tofu! Hahaha!

And before going to the Toy Convention, I’ve never heard of Monsterism before but I love these figurines very much! They are so kitsch! I love the retro design as well. The website looked pretty spiffy :)

Woot! And I love this giant plushie by dooodolls! The plushies are easily recognized by their boogly eyes. But I like this one specifically because it is big and smooshie! It feels just like cuddling Cartcart :)

The wonderful

I quite liked this Homer Simpson action figure, spoofing Thor! The clerks must have had a sense of humor as they put Homer and Thor side by side!

There was also the very popular Tokidoki! Over here in Singapore, it has been extremely famous that it has been inspired and even copied in many designs, especially bags and purses.

Unfortunately for me, the entire counter was extremely crowded! I could not even see what was on display. The only thing that I could see were the heads of the clerks running around busily attending to their customers.

Regardless, I managed to capture these pictures. Aren’t they adorable?

There was also a booth which showcased some displays from many famous movie scenes. Can you recognize which movie these came from?

The old school

I was amazed to see Lau Fu Zhi being exhibited. Its so old school! I used to read these comic books dedicatedly during my primary school days. Most of the cartoons were wordless which made it simple to understand :)

And who doesn’t know Astroboy? The famous robot boy who has graced our television and magazines since childhood :)

The interesting

While roaming around, we stumbled upon a kiosk and I noticed loads of bread. I called out to CC. “Look! There is even a refreshment stall here. Lets take a bite!”

And I proceeded to hold one up. It looked like bread. It smelled like bread. It even felt like bread to the touch. It was only when I squeezed it repeatedly and the bread did not disintegrate was when I realised that it was not true bread.

What cool stuff! I got one for myself, for the novelty factor. Besides, I could use it as a stress ball :)

These are stickfast. One of the popular Singaporean made toys. CC mentioned that he used to collect them before. And I thought that, it was very well done as well as affordable. I wonder where Stickfasts can be bought normally, does anyone knows?

Then we explored though the other side of the convention where there were heaps of artists displaying their works.

One of them was this lady from C.D.S who is showing off her manga illustration. Looking through the portfolio, the works looked good enough to rival even commercial ones from Japan.

I also saw a digital artist doing a live demonstration of how he works, drawing on his tablet using Photoshop. This guy here was from Imaginary Friends Studios. I admired his skillful and deft touch.

Digital artist at work at the Toy & Comic convention from rinaz on Vimeo

I also saw a couple of wacom products which facinated me. Having worked on a wacom tablet myself for my artwork, they can be quite useful. But drawing in such a small tablet can be quite cumbersome and I’ve always wished that they could integrate it to the monitor instead.

And thats when I saw this :

Sweet … Drawing directly on the monitor itself … I like!

After spending about two hours in the convention, CC and I reluctantly left for our appointment. Regardless, I love the Toy Convention! Even with the amount of people there, even though the both of us hyperventillated in a claustrophobic environment. I enjoyed myself thoroughly :)

So I didn’t get a Happy Tree Friends Tshirt in the end. But I guess posing with a display works too :P

I wonder if there is a Toy Convention in Italy. Have you been to the Toy and Comic Convention? What did you think of it? :)

Links :

• Toy and Comic Convention 2008
• CC’s blog post

If you enjoyed reading this entry, you might also enjoy

• Gundam seed cosplay meetup
• Mint Museum
• Museum of Shanghai Toys

P.S. After we left the convention, we saw Darth Vader queuing up for a bowl of noodles. I guess even a fearsome evil ruler like Darth Vader needs to eat.

Even Darth Vader needs to eat from rinaz on Vimeo

Already there were a number of bloggers who have reached there when I arrived. It was a relatively packed night at Brozeit, considering that it was only a Tuesday night.

I saw a number of units around the area being covered with a purple cloth and Claudia cleverly decides to immediately sit next to one of them.

After a quick introduction by the organizers, comes the unveiling of the HP Touchsmart. My first look upfront! At first glance, I thought that the PC looked very sleek with its shiny black look. It looked really nice indeed.

This is the front of the HP TouchSmart with its large 22 inch screen. I see a webcam! Definitely useful for people (like me) who likes to do videochats via msn.

This is the left side. What is nice that there in an inbuilt tv tuner as well as a tv out. I could connect my cable tv and watch cable!

And this is the right side, there is a DVD burner along a card reader. Its great that I would not need so much external devices unlike my current settings with my current pc setup. More on the specs here

It was when Winston, one of the product manager did a quick demonstration which was really made it look quite impressive. Using his fingers, he pressed on the monitor to navigate and flip through different applications. Actually, I thought that it was really cool! It was like seeing an early version of Minority Report!

Pretty soon, it was our turn to play with the unit and boy did we have so much fun! I saw Nadnut scribbling on a notepad using her fingernails, Hisham trying to play 3D chess and I was facinated with Zen master Daniel - who looked very professional using the touch screen.

Smoothly he manouvered the navigation and even played with the applets in the tablet and made poor Peter have clock eyes like these!

Here is a quick video :

Bloggers having fun at the HP Touch from rinaz on Vimeo.

What do you think of the TouchSmart? Pretty cool right?

You have a chance win one!

Post in the comment box with what you think “What will your life be like with HP TouchSmart?” Comments with the most creative, innovative and interesting ideas has a higher chance of winning.

The contest ends at 0000hrs, 12th July so it gives you time to think for a really good comment! Apologies! Contest open for Singaporeans only *hugs*

Links :

• Official HP site on TouchSmart
• HP Touchsmart Specs

Links to other bloggers posts

Nicole | Vantan | Precious | Daintyflair | Daryl Tay | Suyuen | Bleong | Sheylara | Fabrikade | Litford | Claudia | Nadnut | Hisham | Peter

Sidenote : The ping blog awards is out. Do vote for the most deserving! :)

First of all, the website was really hard to navigate. Moreoever, I’m not Chinese. It seemed kind of a juxtapose to be in a mainly Chinese website. And looking through the list of the people that I’d be competing with, these people are really the big guns! Eastcoastlife? Sheylara? Ohmyblog! They have got like a zillion fans!

*shivers*

But after thinking for a while, I realised that I was picked out of a list of over 100 nominees. Plus, Mintea revealed that it was she was the one who nominated me. It would be disappointing if I didnt even try!

So here I am, fighting for your love! Please vote for me if you think that I am deserving :) Who knows, you might win a chance to Bangkok, Ho Chin Minh or Phuket!

Here is how to vote :

1. Click on this link

2. Fill in your particulars as below

3. And click on my icon and hit on vote

4. Done!

You can vote once everyday till the 31st of July so I do hope that you vote for me … Thank you so much :)

Sidenote : I’ve been so busy lately that I didn’t have the chance to blog as much as I wanted to. Oh gosh! So many backlogged entries to be written!

Here is a sneak peek :-)

Recently, I was privileged to meet acclaimed director, Yasmin Ahmad, the director of the Tan Hong Ming as well as various other notable videos. She was here to grace the exclusive screening for MCYS on an advertisement entitled, ‘Family’

Charming view from the rooftop of the screening room

I reached the Screening Room, rather late after a staff day out, being unfamiliar with the area, my sense of direction gone and rather traumatized by the after working hours road conditions!

Rinaz poses by a wall featuring Federico Fellini

When I finally entered the theater, they were already halfway through playing Yasmin’s other works, such as How do you spell Dinosaur and The little Indian Boy.

To call the videos emotional would be an understatement! Mintea, who was sitting beside me and I were already fighting hard not to tear up through the showcase.

Mintilicious, Yasmin Ahmad and Sexeh Rinaz

When the lights came on, I finally saw her - Yasmin Ahmad right across me, sitting like a regal queen. She started sharing her experiences on being a director. How she faced prejudices from many because of her being a Woman as well as being a Malay. I immediately related to that, being a Malay Woman myself.

I started wondering how she was able to stay strong in such adversities when Yasmin quoted a beautiful sentence “The Thicker and Deeper the Mud The More Beautiful The Lotus Grows” Which I thought was elegant and profound at the same time.

Soonafter, the screening of the new commercial started - it features a doting single dad, raising up his daughter.

Yasmin mentioned that a family unit does not always have to be perfect and complete unit and asked the bloggers on our opinion of the video.

The reaction of the bloggers were mostly positive. There was one blogger (I think it was scarlett) who said that being raised up by a single parent and is now a single parent herself, she could relate to the video.

Ian Timothy is a little shy for pictures, so here is Brian and Mintea doing their best toothpaste commercial smile :)

Personally for me, I thought that the choice for the location was a little strange as it seemed a little dated. But that was when Ian Timothy mentioned that the location was a good choice as he emphatised, growing up in the lower class family.

There was a particular blogger who mentioned that because the majority of the population has a complete family unit, they may not be able to relate to the video - to which Yasmin humorously replied, “I watched ‘Finding Nemo’ … I laughed and I cried … But I’m not a fish!”

Here is a quick video montage of the interview :

Bloggers meet with Yasmin Ahmad from rinaz on Vimeo

Doesn’t she sound so queenlike? I think I could listen to her talk all day :-)

And what do you think of the advertisement video? Do you think that its okay for being in a single parent family? Are you able to relate to this video?

Links :

• Yasmin Ahmad’s Blog
• Interesting interview I found on youtube
• Ian Timothy’s Blog Post
• Mintea’s Blog Post

Sidenote : Mum was so excited when she read an article about Yasmin Ahmad in the Malay Newspaper. She rushed to show it to me, but I was groggy and almost going to sleep.