The Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism on eBay

Hey people, you know the pretty purple Nokia phone that I blogged about a few days ago and some of you have been wanting to buy it? Well you can now! Since we are the kind of girls who want practical phones with classic, silver designs, (largely because we travel between countries a lot and Hong Kong is one of those places where phones are not attached to phone plans, unlike the UK or US,) we have decided to follow in Style Bubble's footstep and put this Prism up for auction on Ebay (UK). If you are a fun girly girl who wants this phone before it gets released, place a bid here!

Uniqlo UT Project 08

Two weeks ago, the new Uniqlo ad in Grazia (a UK glossy tabloid) featuring Chloe Sevigny really caught my eye. I'm not a fan of Chloe's style, (actually I wonder why people love her style so much,) but I really liked how the black tank top fits her here. Doesn't Chloe look very casual rock chic? And the other big attraction? The fact that the ad is by Uniqlo means that the shirt is actaully affordable!
Uniqlo's collaborations with designers to produce capsole collections are usually much talked of on the Internet. But UT Project seems much more accessible to me. UT Project is basically where Uniqlo collaborates with a bunch of artists and designers to make printed T-shirts. Depending on the designer, not only are the print designs different, but even the fitting of the t-shirts is different. You can probably tell from the few pictures of Chloe modelling them.
The most popular (and publicised) t-shirts seem to be the Basquiat t-shirts (-they're the ones Chloe is wearing in the first two pictures.) I bought the tank top on the left and I love how it's really long, and it's got a slit on one side so you can tie it together the way as shown in the ad. It's going to be one of my lazy-day shirts this summer!
I think the Osamu Tezuka t-shirts are kind of cute. Don't they look so easy to throw on? I imagine wearing them to hang out at a friend's house.
But I'm really not a fan of the surfing-looking t-shirts like the one on the right. (A bunch of people back in high school used to wear surfing t-shirts to school everyday and I think I've been scarred by them.) And I really don't know how to appreciate art because the print on the left t-shirt just looks ugly to me.
The long blue shirt on the right is one of the more special designs. And as for the shirt on the left, it didn't look so pretty to me until I saw it modelled on Uniqlo's Japanese website. Those blobs of green look just like the blobs of colours I'm trying to add to my wardrobe!
We all know celebrities and ads always make things cooler, so if you want some idea how how to dress-up these ordinary T-shirts from 'normal' people, take a look at the images on the Japanese UT website. (Speaking of which, why is the Japanese Uniqlo site so much better and complete than the US and US Uniqlo sites?) It has many girls posing in the tees, giving the tees many different styles -from hipster to cutsy to rock chick to boringly ordinary. Actually, even if you're not a fan of Uniqlo, you should take a look at how they styled the girls for inspiration!

Image Credits: http://www.uniqlo.co.uk/, http://ut.uniqlo.com/

Gracia Angela: Model Cantik Indonesia

Model Hot

Salfted Fish and Salt Fish Mongers of Sibu

When my maternal grandmother was sad and in a pensive mood, she would soop a bowl of overnight old cooked rice,cold and unheated, pour a cup of hot Chinese tea into it,scoop a spoonful of sugar over it , shred two slices of already fried salted fish on top and give it a good stir. And as she looked at her one dish meal, she would shake her head and mumble a little. She would say, "No appetite, cannot eat..." and my third aunt would quickly get all the naughty grandhcildren out of her way, away from the kitchen.

She would slowly eat this bowl of water rice and every one would be very quiet because we knew that she was feeling down.

Somethig or someone must have upset the matriarch. And having such a bowl of "overnight rice" was a huge indication of her present state of mind. So we had all to be behave. My third uncle would be his most charming self, smiling, relax but not talking. There was no time for small talk until the storm blew away.

In the evening, she would sit down on the verandah between the big house and the kitchen, fanning herself....and probably getting to talk again. We waited.

It was like waiting for a storm to pass.

Grandma was not a personwho harboured grudges and after a while, we would all be laughing again.

We have weathered the storm well. And so had she.I am glad she used this method of communicating with us her despair. And we were also very sensitive to her feelings, especially my aunt and uncle. We would all be passing a secret code,"The wind direction is not good."

This is what I remember most whenever we think about salted fish.

Salted fish was a very important part of the the Foochow diet in the early days of Sibu. The Sibu Salt Fish Market was one of the biggest in Sarawak,centralised, well organised and neat in display. It was sight a sight to absorb. One could walk down the aisles and aisles of salted fish, all displayed in their gunny sacks. The smell was tantalising. It was all at once a homely and warm feeling.

Besides we knew all the salted fish monger by sight. But a few would be our "family kawan fish monger", that is, these salt fish mongers were people we would always buy from and we would never get cheated. We just had to tell them who our parents were and we would be given the correct measurement, plus a little more for granmother at no charge, and we would then be so happy to run along. Sometimes we would get a pat on the back, with an additional compliment,"Very clever child." Often with a comment like that I would be walking on clouds.

These salt fish mongers worked very hard. They obtained their salted fish from else where. At night, most of them would sleep with their bags and bags of salted fish. Security was not night, they were the owners and the guards of their goods. And nothing ever happened in all those years I lived in Sibu.

These vendors, like Ah Pan and Ah Kuok's father,Mr. Tang, who was so friendly and human sold dried shrimps of different qualities,cincaro, belachan, crab sauce, shimp sauce, and fish sauce, salted fish of more than 10 types (in foochow - Pah tiak poh, ma ka, ngo yu,ma ka long,yu kan cheong, ba lik or terbok,etc).

Today, in any one place, one cannot find a whole market full of salted fish. In Miri for example, salted fish occupies a very small corner or frontage of an old grocery shop. A few bags of newly sundred and salted fish of less fish types would hange in the tamu. gone are the days when we could pick the choicest of the salted fish.

I would like to see a revival of some exotic salted fish, and have tourists come all from all over the world to look at how we process this huge barracuda, ikan tenggiri and then later feast on the different dishes created from these traditionally preserved fish.

When industries go into high gear, when machinery takes over the lives of the simple folks, tourist industry players cannot offer the exotic, authentic,original and history rich journeys which most discerning travellers yearn for.

Food or Tiffin Carriers

I have arranged all these tiffin carriers in a chronological order from antique (Raymond Kwok) to modern (source : ebay) in anti clockwise manner. They are as dear to my heart, as a Foochow or Chinese woman, as to any Asian woman in this world.

When a Chinese woman sees a tiffin carrier,like any of these, her heart would definitely miss a bit because it is one kitchen item that she cannot do without, unless she is totally unskilled in the kitchen.

Here are some stories I would like to share with you.

Once there was a young man who had sent his wife to the Lau King Howe Hospital to await their first born and then went to work. The hospital later telephoned his mother that the baby was soon to be born. His mother quickly slaughtered the best female chicken (must be female according to traditions)and boiled it in the simple Foochow style, which we call Bak Kong (Plain boil). This was very nourishing for a woman who had just given birth. She then placed the chicken soup in the bottom tray or layer of a tiffin carrier and placed some rice in another layer. she also placed two hard boiled eggs at the top layer. In this way, the chicken soup would keep the rice and the eggs warm. when it was known that the baby was just about to be born the mother sent the young husband to the hospital with specific instructions on how to "feed" the new mother with the chicken soup and the rice. He had to use a spoon and feed her. the new mother must not get up from the hospital bed.

Well, the young man arrived at the hospital and checked out his wife. When he heard her crying out in pain and still in labour, he took an about turn and cycled home with the tiffin carrier. when his mother saw him pale and distraught,she asked him what happened. He then realised that he had done the most embarrasing deed. His mother had to send the tiffin carrier to the hospital on foot herself as she did not know how to cycle and fed the daughter in law herself. She mumbled that she had a hopeless son.

But she was over the moon because she had a bouncing baby for a grandson!!

The story of the Hopeless Son spread far and wide and brought a lot of smiles to many understanding men and women.

My own stories were simple. The tiffin carriers would always remind me of how wonderful Foochow mothers were to their daughters and daughters-n-law from the moment the babies wereborn. It was such a comforting arrangement for mum to cook all the lovely confinement food and have them sent to the hospital. My mum would always carry the tiffin carrier to my hospital bed after I had been delivered . They would have the most important kampong chicken soup. This soup was a good anguish terminator. For generations they Foochows recomment this plain boiled chicken soup for the first few days of confinement.

So in a way I I had some very memorable meals out of these tiffin "trays" for my four babies who were all born in Sibu. My mum was different as she did not ask my husband to send the food to me. I often wonder if my husband might have committed some abominable acts by forgetting to send me the food or losing the tiffin carrier some where along the roads in Sibu!! Well, one never knows!!

One of my friends was fairly busy with her career. One day, her husband lovingly brought a tiffin carrier to her place of work. when she opened them happily, she was embarrased to find that there was nothing in the trays!! her embarrassed husband had brought the wrong tiffin carrier to her!! Some men don't even know the weight of an empty tiffin carrier!!

An aunt of mine used to carry a fully cooked meal of four dishes in a tiffin carrier to her bed ridden mother in law for years, every day, twice, by foot, until the old lady passed away. Her husband had actually left her and her six children. How much love can a woman have for her mother in law? My aunt is indeed an examplary daughter in law.

I believe there are lots of stories around the tiffin carrier, some are bitter, some are sweet but all are home stories which should be shared.

What's yours?

Ice Ice Baby

Be a part of the big freeze in Tokyo.
Too cool for school.

Created by Improv Everywhere in New York, a group known for "scenes of chaos and joy in public places", the freeze is heading back to Tokyo.
Naturally there is a facebook group called Tokyo Freeze 2008 with some fun suggestions and thoughts for the big event.
This should be a whole load of useless, time wasting fun! I am up for it. Lady Elle and I will be out in full force! See you there.

Kingdom Hoots

Rich Wren

Take Me To Your Hoot

Dave Bryant

Shot Through The Hoot

Artist unknown

Happy.

Piggies!!!

our craft club results from today...

Katie Holmes Sexy Wallpapers

Katie Holmes Sexy Wallpapers

Katie Holmes Sexy dress

Katie Holmes Sexy pictures

Dominique Swain Hot Sexy

Dominique Swain Hot Sexy

Dominique Swain Hot bikini

Dominique Swain Sexy pics

Take Another Little Piece of My Hoot Now Baby!

Corey Miller's "as seen on LA Ink" owl

Flash: Bat Movement Study

Photos by Sasa

We were lucky to have many talented and stylish people come and hang with us at Velours on Saturday night. Sasa of lo-fi-me fame was one of the super sleek style masters that graced the dance floor with his presence. He also took some shots of my hooping and I think you will agree they are a colorful representation of his creative talents.




More pics here.

Alicia Witt Hot Photo

Alicia Witt Hot Photo

Alicia Witt Hot wallpaper

Alicia Witt sexy actress

Clip on Bangs

For a while now, I've wondered what I'd look like with straight bangs. When I found out that my friend managed to avoid the whole "awkward" growing out stage when she got tired of her straight bangs by getting extensions, I seriously considered getting them.I mean, doesn't Alexis Bledel look sooo cute and pretty with straight bangs? Of course, I know that what works for Alexis might not work for me, but I figured that since I have a long face and already have side bangs anyway, I can't go too wrong with straight bangs. I am kind of want to get a new look anyway. Alas, the the prospect of regular maintenance, the fear that it won't suit me after I've cut it and my upcoming graduation (and therefore I don't want to do anything to screw up my hair), stopped me from getting straight bangs.
The other day, flicking through my cousin's teen magazines, I saw the most interesting thing: clip on bangs. How smart! How come I didn't think of that before? So, the next time I went to get my hair done, I consulted my hairstylist, Roy, on the use of clip on bangs. He said that he sometimes used them when they are on location and don't have that much time to style hair properly and that they used it for hair product ads (I was very disappointed to find out that the long, shiny, silky locks models have in hair product ads are fake). He told us that they actually sold them a few blocks away from the salon. At that, HG and I immediately headed over there to get one each. I even brought it back to the hair salon, so Roy can give my clip on bangs a trim. He actually made me go back to return them, because the ones I got were too short. He advised me to get longer clip on bangs. That way I can clip it further back on my head, so that I can cover up the obvious line where it clips on, with my layers. For the shorter bangs, you'd need to wear a headband or something to cover it up.

Excited I immediately went home to try it on. While the concept of clipping your own fringe back, clipping on the fake fringe at the side (I've pointed out the clips with the blue arrow above) and then covering it with your layers sounds very simple, it turns out to be a very difficult task. Trust me, I've given it many many tries over the last 2 weeks and have still to master it. I am tempted to blame it on my inability to use a bobby pin, but I'm beginning to suspect that they are just impossible to put on properly. First it is very hard to clip it onto your hair, because it needs to grasp onto some hair first (difficult to explain properly, but the point is, its hard!). Then, when you DO get it clipped on, it is NOT STRAIGHT. And you cannot have straight bangs that are not straight. If you DO manage to get it half straight and your real bangs are not falling out at this point, you face the problem of color. Apparently, there are many shades of black. I thought that my hair would be fine, since I already dye it an artificial blue black and the clip on bangs were an artificial black as well. But NO. I took it out for a quick 15 minute test drive this weekend (once I FINALLY got it on half way decently) and took a picture. EWW. Not only was the color a bit off, but I totally looked like I had a MOP on my head. Maybe I just don't know how to get it on right? Anyone tried them?

So yes, my awesome clip on bangs idea turned out not to be such a good idea after all.

Image Source: Yahoo TV

Hoot Of Darkness

Uncle Allan.

Hootless

Marija Asanovski

Rice Fields, Pigs and A Gold Chain

"I have eaten more bitterness than anyone of you here,"exclaimed my elderly cousin, as we swapped stories of our past.

"Planting of rice, opening up rubber land, growing potatoes, hiding from thieves and others? I have done it all and more," she continued with a gentle shake of her head, with some sighs of regret but some element of achievement.

She had grown rice from the moment she could handle a changkul in China and when she came to Sarawak to marry her late husband, at the age of 16, just after the war, she had already suffered a life time of hardwork, so to speak.

In Sarawak life was not much easier compared to that in China because she had to start from scatch as her husband later proved to be quite a playboy in the old generation style. "Never stay at home, liked to sit in coffee shop, and chased after a few skirts (at that time, samfoo), but I managed to bring up a fairly good batch of children...."

She said that she was very focussed in her objectives in life and that was how she managed to keep her soul, family,property together. An illiterate young lady, with no other relatives and alone in this wide, and foreign land of Sarawak, she had no choice but to plod on.

She started with just two acres of rented padi land which she cultivated well and later bought and as her children grew, she managed single handedly to grow rice seedlings, replant them, spray pesticides and weed the fields, harvest and hull the rice. It was a struggle for her with just her changkul, motor bike and her brains.

Although illiterate, she could count very well and no shop keeper could cheat her by a cent of her money. Her late husband respected her for that and in a way trusted her to do everything for the family but unfortunately he was very tightfisted.

With the money she earned herself from her rice growing, she saved to buy hersecond piece of land, a piece of rubber land, a little inland from the river bank.

But what she remembered was how she saved money to buy herself her first gold chain. Everyone else was wearing a great gold chain and she also desired to have one then. Naturally her husband did not have any gold to give to her.

She decided to rear some pigs in her backyard. It was quite an achievement according to her that her pigs just grew to be so fat and nice. She must have raised more than a hundred pigs in a few years. She bought and sold them and to her great satisfaction she had a bit of money stashed away.

Besides, she stint, she scratched every bit of produce for sale and even to the extent of not buying herself new clothes for several Chinese New Year. Finally she got enough Malaysian dollars (at that time) to buy herself her own first gold chain at the value of 28 dollars per gram/chien. She wore her gold chain very proudly for about two years.

When she heard that her brother-in-law in China was very sick, she and her husband decided to sell the gold chain and send the money back.

It took her another twenty years to buy one more gold chain for herself because there were other priorities.

Life has been a struggle but she said that her land has given her enough. Life to her is made up of changkul, parang bengkok, a motor bike and two strong hands.

Asked if she would grow rice again, she said that if her hands and arms are strong enough, she would. But she must have her own land. Unfortunately she had sold her padi land to educate her children and to buy a small terrace house, as her husband had died not too long ago,distributed his property to their sons and had left very little to her. Typical of a chauvinistic old fashioned Foochow man.

She still has a small piece of land of her own but it is to be sold for her own final journey if her children are not filial to her at the end. Her small cash savings are just enough for her bills and a little food and the occasional angpows.

Amazing story? But she said, that was the way most Foochow women lived in the 50's and 60's or even until the 90's. She reminded the next generation/s women to save money and work hard for their old age. "Have your own money. Don't trust 100% your husband. And perhaps not even your sons.....Daughters don't count."

A Mysterious Story from Pulau Kerto

In the late fifties and early sixties,there was a lady who used to hide in the Foochow Masland Church on Island Road. I was probably in Primary Six then and realised for the first time what it was like to come face to face with a woman who had become MAD. The local gossips had many stories about her.

Here is one version.

Right after the war, the young lady was married off to a handsome man who had some means from Kerto. It was predicted that the marriage would bring about many children and the lady would be well blessed by those around her.

However some years into the marriage, the lady would often "return" home to her parents in Sibu, complaining that her husband had been physically abusing her and treating her more or less as a slave,physically and mentally. Her children were numerous by then and she did not want to have any more children. She was even saying that her womb was going to come out any time.

But her parents, not knowing the whole truth, comforted her and sent her back, again and again.

Then one evening, about midnight, when the moon was at its brightest, she went to look for her philandering husband. She crossed a bridge which known be haunted and there she gave out a big and wild scream. From that moment on, she was insane.

Her parents did not know what to do with her. They just let her wander around. Sometimes she would appear at a neighbour's vegetable garden and start cursing her wicked husband, sometimes even relating frightening tales of her husband's exuberance and excessive physical demands.

The neighbours had a earful.

However something strange did come about. We, at that young age, learned that she could tell people that she felt a lot of peace at the Masland Church. So sometimes she would hide herself, if and when the church was accidentally left open, under the rostrum. But of course I never saw with my own eyes how people pull her out of from the rostrum, or chase her out of the church.

I had only seen her a few times when she tried to sell vegetables to my aunts in the shops. Actually those "vegetables" were just grasses she had picked. In those incidents she looked perfectly normal to me. But according to my aunts, her type of madness was not serious. She only had bad moments of insanity and good moments of sanity. But some weeks she could be really bad. However perhaps it was divine will that she never came into the primary school to frighten the pupils.

How she could cross the Rejang River in a boat, I would never know. Probably the boat people would just let her have a free ride.

It must have been very painful for her children and her own siblings and parents to see her become like a lost mad woman looking for something that she would never find in this life.

After I left the primary school, I sort of forgot about her until recently when a friend reminded me about her. We were saying that if only at that time there was some kind of counselling centre, how helpful it would have been for her and her family.

Do you believe that a bridge can be haunted? Do you believe that a woman looking for her husband can be mysteriously stricken with madness by a ghost?

Well that is probably a ghost story from Sibu for you to read about. You do not have to believe in it at all.

But strange things do happen.

Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism

The Nokia PR machine has been sending out the new Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism to quite a few fashion bloggers lately, and we were one of the lucky few to receive one. At first it was all very mysterious: all we knew was that the phone was going to be designed by a designer with a major mobile phone manufacturer. I was very hesitant as I am now jaded by all the designer mobile phones in the market, and quite honestly, only a collaboration between Nokia (my ideal mobile phone brand) and a really prominent fashion designer, think Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga and Miu Miu (in my dreams), would pique my interest. So when it was revealed that the designer was Frederique Daubal, I was honestly a bit disappointed.Last week I received the phone. To start with, the packaging is superb -way too pretty to be a mobile phone box. It took me awhile to figure out how to open the box, although this is probably because I haven't bought a new phone in the past 6 years.I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much. Thankfully, the phone turned out way prettier than I thought it would be. Before, I had been very resistant to the idea of a bright pinkish purple phone, (I'm more of a silver or black sort of girl,) but the effect is pretty fab -the design is striking and the crystal at the center definitely adds a dose of girliness to it. The phone is thinner than anticipated (Nokia was never big on thin phones,) which is good, but I don't like how long it is.

Thinking back, I remember a few of my girl friends who were looking for new phones last summer saying how much they loved the prism design. I just realised they were cooing over the Nokia 7500, the predecessor of the 7900. It basically has the same gorgeous black keyboard. Unfortunately, as lovely as the design is, I'm just a boring girl who wants an ordinary keyboard. This is way too avant garde for me!

As for the specs, there is the good and the bad. The good is that the screen is an OLED screen so the colours are really bright and cool. The bad is that the camera is a very standard 2 megapixel one. I would have expected a higher megapixel camera for a 'fashion' phone, because really, vain, fashionable girls are all about having their photos taken!

Style Bubble blogged about this phone last week, and it wasn't until I saw her photos that I realised there was another 'level' of goods in the box -including a badanna and phone pouch-both in flashy, metallic purple. (See what I mean? I am obviously so out of touch that I can't even figure out the box has two levels!)

So if you're looking for a high-tech phone, this is probably not for you. But if you're one of the fun and girly girls who want something cute and 'designed' to hold onto, then go check it out. I certainly like the Prada phone more, but this definitely beats out some of the other fashion phones out there. *coughdvfcough* *coughannasuicough* For more actual information on the phone, see Nokia's website.

Image Credits: Nokia and the blog's