Lost & Gain

This month, there are 3 exciting things happening. Simultaneously.

However, I can't bend and jump the time continuum. It's pretty much a lost & gain loophole for me.

Firstly, on Sept 24th 2011, there'll be the Hennessy Artistry "The Global Art of Mixing" event in Kota Kinabalu, which is going to be held at WhiteRoom, KK Times Square. Yep, it's a big fat party time.  If you're in my "blog recruits' realm, you'd remember that I blogged about its previous party (2010). I attended the same, even wrote a post-party review. For this year, I'm of course once again invited, with a guaranteed VIP passes for two. Sadly, I won't be able to make it this year as I'll be out of the country.

So, KK folks, sounds grand right?  For more info, go to H-Artistry Global Art of Mixing 2011. Have a blast, guys! :)

Secondly, there's the Asian Rugby Football Union - HSBC 7 Series & Women Asia Pacific Sevens! Yes, rugby. My favorite game, besides soccer. I'm crying a river now, seriously! This tourney is going to be held from Sept 24th - 25th 2011 at Likas Stadium, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Admission is free. Games are starting from 08.30hrs - 17.30hrs.

For more info, visit  HSBC ARFU 7 SERIES Good luck to all teams competing!

Thirdly, on Sept 22nd - 25th, I'm off to Manila, Philippines! This, I don't have to elaborate. Never been there before. But, I'm sure that it's gonna be interesting!

Party & rugby : Au revoir :(
Manila : Mabuhay & magandang araw :)

Elvinna's Journey To Womanhood..

ELVINNA. That's my younger sister's name. It was me who chose the name. I was 12 when she's born. I was with our mum when she's born. I visited her regularly in her hospital baby-crib, inside the incubator. She's so tiny, being born weeks earlier. I remembered being awed by her tiny and almost translucent skin. Her slants of chinese-like eyes. The soft, black tufts of shiny hair. Those tiny fists curled up, snaked with tubes with one going in inside her nose. So small and vulnerable. The nurses were saying: "Hey kid, here to visit your baby sister again? Don't worry, she's in a good hand. Will take good care of her. In three weeks time, you'd be able to kiss and cuddle her"  Three and a half weeks later, she went home and I was in awe. We call her Winna.

Winna - a year and a half ago..

2010..as a college freshman

a freshfaced college girl

She's now the youngest  in my family tree and the family has decided that as of now, until she's finished her school, she'll remain in my protective custody. Well, sort of..I must say that it's completely a challenge dealing with her transformation towards womanhood, teenage angst, boys trouble and peers pressures on 'how to be cooler within the cool circles'. I worried about her grades, about how she conducts herself living some kilometers away from my place (she's staying in a hostel provided by the college), on how she spends her weekly allowances, whether she studies diligently and many other questions that keeping me awake most nights.. In short, I've become some sort of a 'mother' to her.  Sometimes, I can't help it but I do nag her whenever she spends some weekends with me. I nag her about not buying too much unnecessary things like bags/shoes (she wears different shoes and carrying different slingbags every time she visits me!), roaming the malls once too often when there's no class, going to the K-Box with her classmates and  spending too much times on the internet - I could tell, because she constantly updates her Facebook status and don't the lecturers give her any assignments at all? Her cellphone rings and beeps endlessly too! She wears colored lenses and fake eyelashes too! Can you beat that?

Last Christmas: larking around..

with her classmates: towards the skinny jeans & sling bags journey

cradling our 3 months old niece in March this year..

we don't look alike, only sharing the same hair textures: straight jet-black hair

I guess, that's what have made her feels so reluctant to leave her hostel for my place every weekends! Nagging aside, I do understand her. After all, I was once a teenager. Albeit in a slightly different era (this makes me sound like ancient!) I do understand about the word freedom but in this case, she's only in her 19th years, a college student with a responsibility and like in many Asian countries, still requires protection/supervision by adults from time to time. Don't make mistake and judgment, we Asians of course not close minded.  Just treasuring and protecting our moral values from being trampled and stomped in today's moral decaying society! Well, my mum is not around to chastise her and I'm sort of like a 'deputy mom-sheriff'! 

she's 19 years old now..

I guess, this is some sort of a training to me. My sister made me believe and gave me glimpses on what kind of a future mother I'll be. Some weekends, I'll sit with her and have some sister bonding moments with her over coffees, windows/grocery shoppings, painting our toenails & go for movies. One thing for sure, I'm not going to be a pushover. I don't condone rigid and extremely strict parenting. Nowadays, I limit my nagging. I still do but not as much as before.  She's a woman now and I trusted her to make a better judgment. I have faith in her, her journey to a wonderful, successful life and ultimately be her own woman. My role is only as a back-up,  a supporting hands whenever she falls down. And..a giving and loving sister..

All grown-up now as a pretty young lady.. 19 years have passed by since I first  laid  my eyes on her..how times fly

Lordy, what the hell is she wearing?

RiRi,

I know that showbiz is a cruel and cut throat business. You have to challenge yourself constantly in the pitch to square off with others but for the love of god, what in the world are you wearing?!

 images are from dailymail.co.uk

..a denim cut off
..a tuxedo
..a sexy hold up (paired with a denim cut off?, I think Daisy Duke will cry and even Erin Brokovich will cringe!)
..ugly, chunky black patent shoes (again paired off with denim cut off/sexy hold up, uh huh, NO GOOD!)

When I look at garter belts, I'm more inclined to think of hot sex/date, slinky/gorgeous/sexy/elegant dresses and skirts, beneath wedding dresses, sexy heels but NOT denim cut off with ugly chunky shoes! Never in a million years will I ever abuse it with some dreadful combo!

Hmm, she's clearly trying too hard to be a good girl gone bad..

RiRi, is it so hard to be creative, naughty and classy?  You don't need to compete with Lady Gaga, your loyal fans won't leave you. Don't tire yourself out and don't tire people out with this good girl gone bad of yours.

Missing her Pon De Replay/Umbrella days..

100 Years Fashion/Style

We all love fashion. Who doesn't? Boho (or Hobo?), punk, sophisticated, sexy, goth, elegance, street fashion, quirky (I looooove quirky!), nerdy/geeky (love this too, sometimes!), chic and you name it! Which category are you? :)

Found this cool video on Youtube by an uploader, WestfieldStratford (through dailymail.co.uk).  It documented a dancing couple as they modeled clothes ranging from the year of 1911 to present in 100 seconds.  Take a look:

Very cool, right? I surely love to do some shopping between 1920s - 1970s! Must be a very fantabulous shopping experience! 

I especially heart this:

The quirky hat daintily perched on top of her crown, clean cut and neat tailoring skirt/blouse cinched with a brown skinny belt is oh so chic and tasteful! 

Watching this cool vid makes me want to do my own wardrobe overhaul! 

Today's picture: Rafael Nadal, the Prince of Hot!

Ayyyy, Papi! Smash it like Rafa! I'm sure the ladies are in full unison of Rafa, being the Prince of Hot *tee hee*

Hey, I too, ogle hot guys earnestly doing their modelling thingy, giving an eyeful service of choco-abs and chiseled faces.  Believe me, by admitting so, I'm so insanely normal! Just a normal red blooded woman and nothing's wrong with that :-P

I surely do envy Rafa's high slashing cheekbones! That come hither look he casts our way...

Loookeee, what have we got here, hmmm?  I've just got some early Christmas present for you..

Hmmm..is it sex on gaze? sex on choco-abs? Or shall we slowly unwrap the rest of the pressie?  

Si senoras/senoritas, this is me holding the balls in court! *some early Christmas present indeed!*

*images courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

I say, David Beckham who??? 

You want to cop-a-feel of my bottom?

Well, be my guest if you really want a taste of my spiky heels!  First of all, I am not some  ‘champione du feminisme‘  and like other red blooded women out there, I do play the flirting games although I refuse being  tagged with cockteaser  tag. I let them burlesque dancers take the title (Dita Von Tesse, anyone?) 

Actually, I decided to write about this after reading an article about a woman in UK suing her former employer after he sacked her, following an argument  or rather, a heated confrontation because of his tendencies of pinching and slapping her bottoms and other sexual innuendos thrown her way! Tired of her boss’ constant sex harassment, she finally had enough and confronted him on his behaviour.  You know what did the former boss said to her? He said that she had it coming.  That she’d been casting some signals of possible rolls between the sheets to his direction. It’s in the way she dresses, every time there’s a boardroom meeting, it’s in the way she bats her eyelids.  The fact that the woman dressed appropriately in power suits apparently escaped his notice. Tsk..tsk..tsk.. Well, the lawsuit was filed in court and she won. The former boss was sacked with his reputation in tatters. Justice is sweet, ain’t it?

Now, a few weeks later, the actor Jeremy Irons has said in a controversial interview  “any woman ‘worth her salt’ should be able to take a pat on the bottom with good humour” The 62-year-old declared that such an advance is nothing more than a man indulging in friendly ‘communication’.

Such pompousness! Any woman ‘worth her salt’ will indulge in Jeremy Iron’s version of ‘friendly communication’ only when it involves some horizontal body positions or tango in bed and I bet you, it won’t be a mere pat on a bottom! Well, who could blame him? After all, this came from a man who freely admits that “his relationship with his wife as ‘dysfunctional’ and claimed that ‘part of our nature is to have as many partners as possible’. I say, this man doesn’t have the word ‘faithful’ in his dictionary. He’s still wrapped up in daze of the bygone eras of 60s and 70s, where alpha male believed that bottom grabbing was a testament of men’s triumph over the fairer sex!

Back in the 60s or 70s, women just gritted and bore the bottom grabbing and pinching silently.  The situation was like: You tell stories and be prepared to move office or quit the job altogether! The infuriating part was, the men got to keep their jobs! Back then, there wasn’t any specific law to protect women employees from leering male colleagues. However, the rise of feminists crusading for new bills/law/rights to protect women, especially sexual harassment, was finally paid off.  The lotharios learned to zip up their trousers, bind their wandering hands and curb their enthusiasms towards the fairer sex in workplace.  I do believe that law for sexual harassment applied to both sexes now.  Which is good and fair,  because men are also as vulnerable as women when it comes to sexual harassment!

Friendly communication is alright I guess, just don’t go around grabbing anyone’s bottom though. Unless you have some telepathic connections with the other party involved of doing the horizontal tango then by all means, go and grab each other’s bottoms! No one will give a damn if you ended up sporting blue black bottoms from all the grabbing!

Grandpa in his 20s?!

I'm not shocked, at all!

*I'm not discrediting UK and I'm sorry if this entry hurts other people's sensitivity 

Fact:
UK has the highest rates of teen pregnancies in the world, percentage of school dropouts, juvenile (hate) crimes running rampage on the streets of London, worrying surge of  unemployments and families surviving on benefits. There must be something wrong with their education systems!

Source: Daily Mail UK

The 29-year-old grandpa (center, far back) posing with his 30-year-old ex-partner (far right) with  the newborn's parents

An unemployed man, 29, has become one of Britain's youngest grandparents after his daughter gave birth at 14.

Shem Davies and his former girlfriend Kelly John, 30, were overjoyed when their daughter Tia, who was born when her parents were 15, gave birth to little Gracie earlier this month. Tia's boyfriend, Jordan Williams, is 15.

Shem said: 'It is an absolute joy to see Gracie thriving. I'm incredibly proud of Tia. She'll be a brilliant mum. At first I wasn't overly pleased that she was pregnant but I soon got over than. Now it's all about being positive.

'I've got to know Jordan and he's shaping up to be a decent young man,' Shem told The People.

However, nurses at the maternity unit were left embarrassed after they thought the young grandfather was in fact the teenage father of Gracie.

Apparently when he entered the ward they thought the 29-year-old looked so fresh-faced they asked him to prove he was over the age of 16.

But the arrival of Gracie wasn't easy as Tia was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, seven weeks before her due date.

Worried doctors decided their best option would be to deliver the tot by Caesarean section.

The condition, which often leaves expectant mothers with high blood pressure and protein in their urine, could lead to life-threatening symptoms for both mother and baby.

Tia said the contrast between the carefree fun of the school playground and then the fear of death for her and the baby was something she would never forget.

Happily after a 25 minute operation Gracie was born but only weighed 2lb and was rushed to the special care unit at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, which is close to the family home.

Little Gracie is still being kept in an incubator but has managed to put on enough weight which means she will be allowed home in a few weeks.

A week after Gracie was born Tia celebrated her 15th birthday in the ward surrounded by friends and family.

The teenager, who has been dating Jordan for 18 months and wants to be a hairdresser, said she didn't plan on celebrating her birthday in hospital but added that her baby daughter was the best present she could ask for.

Once mother and daughter have been released from hospital they will be staying with grandmother Kelly so that Tia can finish school.

Grandad Shem, who has a young son of his own, said he is keen to get stuck in and help Tia and Jordan settle into life.

Jordan, who sat his final GCSE just weeks before Gracie arrived, said he understands responsibility. 'I'm captain of the school rugby team and that's like having 14 kids.'

Despite her young age, mother Tia says that she would not be happy if newborn Gracie became pregnant at 14 but that she would do as her mum did, which is respect her choice to have a child.

She also paid tribute to her mother, who was 15 when she was born, saying that she could not have wished for a better parent and role model adding that they have a very close relationship.

Britain's high teenage pregnancy rate means that many more young people in this generation are set to become grandparents in their late twenties and early thirties.

The latest figures show in 2009 38,259 girls under 18 became pregnant, but nearly 50 per cent had a termination.

The UK still leads the way when it comes to young mothers, and our rate is five-times higher than in the Netherlands and twice that of France and Spain.

**

Grandpa on your 20s? Boy, am I glad being a Malaysian..