My `Celebs' Had Vanished!

Argh!!! I lost all my celebrity photos!! :((

Since I uploaded some new photos onto my pc just now, I ended up (not planned) tidying up all my folders in `my pictures'. Things were going ok until when i tried to tidy up some of the celebs photos I had into the `celeb_misc' folder.. and then I didn't know what happend... the folder just disappeared!

I frantically looked for it everywhere - in case in got lost inside another folder. Then I also did a few `search'. I tried and tried.. even in the recycled bin. But couldn't find it. It wasn't there in Windows anymore. Why??!!

I'm quite distraughted and disillusioned. Among the many pix inside were photos I took with HK celebs including Aaron Kwok, Justin and Vivian Chow just to name a few... and now they are all gone!!

Can I sue Microsoft for this?

At least I managed to recover the most recent celeb shots - as the shots are still inside my camera. This afternoon, I went for the press conference of Soler - a pop band made of twin brothers Julio and Dino Acconci - of Italian and Burmese parentage.



Yep, with their Italian blood, they look pretty dashing, charming and charismatic too. And they could speak 7 languages fluently! On top of that, they write their own music - folk rock/soul genre. Pretty impressive stuff too. I had a 15-min one-one-one, nope, one-on-two interview with them. :)

My editor seemed to be quite taken by them too so I had to go back to office to do a news/showbiz story for tomorrow and later another personality feature for Buzz.

Dino (on the right in the pix below) is the younger one by 90 mins, and is very easy-going while Julio, with an uncanny resemblance to Keanu Reeve, says he is the more `serious and uptight' one. But both of them were definitely amiable and friendly enough thus no problem to snag a pix with them..



At least I have this pix safe.. but I'm still really upset that all my other pictures of/with celebs are gone.. !!

Eventful Month Around the Corner..

Another busy work week had just rolled by... can you believe we're at the end of May 2006 already??!!

Have been writing so much at work that I really have no mood to write anything else now.

Just looking ahead, June will be an eventful month with some interesting things to look forward to... Among them:

1. E.E. exam and graduation
2. A good friend's wedding (am a cheemui/helper ;))
3. Worship bootcamp/training
4. Work, work, work (don't know about looking forward to that!)
5. and of course... WORLD CUP 2006!!

Yep, although I don't claim to be a true blue football fan but World Cup is something I have been following ever since Mexico '86l! I remember watching - on my friend's little television - almost every match during Italy '90 back in university days in England. I took one month leave in 1998 (that time I had enough leave while working with Sunday Mail) just to catch the matches at those odd hours... Perhaps the four-year wait truly adds on the excitement!

Just bought a World Cup guidebook from Popular Bookstore.. gosh, there were so many different publications to choose from!

Hopefully I could find time to watch some of my favourite teams play even during this busy month.. I'm sure I'll be blogging more on World Cup later... :p

In the mean time, there are just so many things I ought to be doing.. like submitting my income tax online. I gave up after trying so many times..need to take some time early next week to go to the department itself.. shucks. :(

Ok.. need some rest now...

Hannibal Jojo Lector

No, Jojo's not a psychotic cannibal. Poor thing, his wounds wouldn't heal and in fact got worse despite having taken almost three weeks of medication. Brought him to the vet today and was told that he MUST STOP licking the wounds, which are getting cronic, or else they would never heal. Since Jojo was allergic to the e-collar (his neck got infected before), so the only solution is to put him on a muzzle.. he looks so miserable wearing it. But I try to not let him wear it all the time ie. when we are around..

A frustrated Jojo in the garden.. notice a wound on his left back leg?

from another angle..

looking so pitiful and helpless. :(

Jelly the Socialite

Jelly is such a sociable and attention-seeking dog.. When my aunt and cousins came for visit this afternoon, she really made her presence felt! Here she squeezed onto the sofa between aunt and cousin..

then made sure that my two cousin brothers were not left out, she jumped up in between them!

and finally she came back to mommy... :)

With a happy-posing Jelly in the balcony 

and with Jojo - looking happy muzzleless - in the garden  

MM re-launch!

Thought I would do a publicty-slant post for the NEW Malay Mail - officially launched last Friday (May 19, 2006) with the first issue out the following day. Afterall, it's my `bread & butter'..

Yep, the bright logo with colours resembling a well known fast-food chain is our new masthead! It's supposed to be young, bold and vibrant since the paper is now targetted to the 18-35 age group.

The trade launch, attended by some 1,300 corporate clients, advertisers and media, was held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. I didn't expect so many people.. they even had to add chairs in the ballroom! Well, the whole MM team was supposed to change into a black MM shirt with the huge masthead logo half way through the launch, as to keep the new logo a surprise..


On the way to the launch at a long corridor in KLCC (convention centre)


The stage was set for the launch - notice the huge `M'!!

The MM Editor/COO and the NSTP chairman were on stage to do a multi-media presentation of the new paper and in between, guests were entertained by a local band, a song by (MI2 runner-up) Nita, a sorta standup comedy session by Jit Murad and a fashion show - with models, representing the young, cosmopolitan women, parading with a copy of the paper, flipping through it and reading.. (it's quite amusing to see anyone would get that excited over the paper :p)



At the end, each of the guests was given a black MM bag (the one in the photo) containing a special edition of the MM and the inaugural issue of Weekend Mail, which is printed on thick white paper (like The Edge's)

The whole launch lasted not more than 1 hour and then came the highlight for many - FOOD (what else?) Some of us were surprised that the company was actually quite generous.. we had quite an extensive spread - a few buffet tables with good selections of starters, main-courses, desserts, AND even free-flowing draft beer! I caught up with some of my contacts - mostly int he entertainment industry. But I also met Michael Chong (now Datuk ofcourse) whom I had been covering for almost 3 years but haven't seen for a while since I moved to entertainment.

While mingling around, I was interjected by Channel V for an interview! I seriously don't know how I would appear on TV (the program will be out in about 2 weeks I was told) But i guess I probably will be on for about 5 seconds.


With some of the MM newsdek journalists


with fellow colleagues from Buzz


posing with the my boss/editor


Had a few beers and chatted with some bubbly friends from EMI. It was like 7pm when I left - one of the last 50 people or so left at the party. Didn't want to be stuck in the traffic jam so I went shopping at Suria KLCC! (what a good exucse) :D

It was pretty fun. At least it was a day away from work.. but I can forsee a crazy busy week(s) ahead now that the paper is up and is running on full steam! :S

p.s. Do check out the new MM - buy a copy to give a little support ;) And yeah, do give your feedback - negative ones also can! (btw, my articles would normally be out on Thurs. and in Weekend Mail and sometimes other days in news-showbiz)