So many things in one week!

Sticky: My TAG is still on the page, except for some odd reason it's at the BOTTOM of the page...

Found Nikki's debut albumIt was a simple day... just joining the family for a lil buffet at JJ's (sounds something like that, formally Oliver's) at Mid Valley. After dinner decided to roam a lil, and still looking for Nikki's album which should have been out since Saturday. And I came across a new outlet of Rock Corner... it had just opened recently, so I decided to give it a try. And there it was, sitting nicely in one of the lower racks. 3 copies of MAHARANI, Nikki's debut album. It was such an odd feeling, especially after searching high and low for it. Hehe... quickly grabbed a nice-looking one and purchased it. Listened to it in the 155 on the way back and loved it! Posted a review recently at http://raptorclans.multiply.com/reviews/item/29, and I was kinda surprised when it was mentioned on Nikki's official site at http://www.nikkimusic.com.my/. It's a great album and I surely hope Farah's album can match or exceed that...



The Return of the Pontianak
Watched Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam 2, the sequel to the splendid Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam... It was really good, and definitely worth a watch. Excellent cinematography, a gem in local movie standards. You can read my review at http://raptorclans.multiply.com/reviews/item/30, Maya Karin did an awesome job in this one.



Work Work Work
Well... I admit work has pretty much taken up MOST of my time, and I'm missing stuff like family time, outings and gatherings with friends and buddies. Sigh, that's pretty much what life is about isn't it? Missed Mandy's birthday do, and deeply regretting it... although she's now expecting a meal of McD's from me... lol! Dun worry dear, I remember... hahaha... even if I forget, you'd probably remind me a million times. We have been getting a number of new staff, noticably the friendly Eliza (not to be confused with Eliza Sanjivee... now how do I differenciate two people with same names?) and Trevor. However Adam and Adrian have since left, so it's an odd situation where people are moving around... As for me, I hope to be able to carry on, and I'm trying my best, and will try to do better at each try.

PC Fair and Utusan Karya Carnival
It was another of those last-minute performances which Farah informed me... Well, glad that I was able to make it, despite having run through PC Fair to get a graphic card and a thumb drive. Met Ivy at KLCC, she belanja me lunch, was very sweet of her... then met ups with LeOn before leaving straight to Taman Tasik Permaisuri. Bear in mind we had no idea where this tasik was... it was just trial and error. And boy there sure was a HUGE crowd, parking was chaotic, with people parking by the roadside and in bushes! I managed to park in a nearby park, and we walked from there to the carnival. Met Kak Angah and Kak Zai there... as well as Detnelat. There were a number of big names performing, notably Ella, Siti Nurhaliza, Shazzy, the AF gang... but I tell you the crowd was so dead! They were so unenthusiastic, not even a single clap or cheer, even for the big names. Well, as enthusiastic Farahnatics, we sure knew what to do. When Farah performed "Kembali Lagi Di Sisimu", we screamed, yelled, clapped and cheered out as loudly as we can. The crowd turned around to look at us, but all we did was cheer even louder! Farah did well, and I felt so proud of supporting her, despite being the only one in the huge crowd wearing the Farahnatic t-shirt (the rest would have worn if they knew..). Asked her out for dinner, but she had to go home straight, so I told her maybe some other day then...



Lil Dinner with Farah
Had a lil dinner do with Farah... It was her idea to meet us up (maybe because I ajak-ed earlier?), and I sorta helped her arrange where to meet and to inform people bout the dinner. Shakey's it was, and boy Farah sure can eat! (I'm very sure I mentioned that before...) It wasn't an official gathering, so there were only a few people invited. But it was nice nevertheless... and we found out that not all is well for dear Farah. Well, typical of me, I'm concerned for her, and I'd do anything to help or support her... I won't reveal what has happened, as a sign of respect to her. But anyways, sad things aside, it's good to know she's moving on too with her career (she said she's gonna focus fully on her career now), with her planned break-off from 8-Unit in order to spread her wings, she has her own PA now, and her own team. She's now working on what type of songs to have in her album, and I sincerely hope for the best. She did a number of acapellas that nite, with Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You", Alicia Key's "If I Ain't Got You" and Neri Per Caso's "Denganmu" which she did a lil cute dance specially for me... She's so super sweet!!! Broke her shoe heel during the dance, and made me feel a lil guilty. But she laughed it off and we took a number of funny "Majalah Mangga-style" photos at the Chronicles of Narnia setting there... Farah even wanted a few photos of us lying on the carpet... so well, we did it! Hahaha... what a fun and crazy bunch we were... It was memorable, and I hope Farah feels happy. Will try my best to support her, and be a good friend.









For now, we're looking forward to a couple of wonderful events that are gonna take place this weekend... hehe...

PEACE and God Bless,
Aris Tee

Party, GP, Dinner, Lunch, Party...

EDIT: By the way, my TAG is still on the page, except for some odd reason it's at the BOTTOM of the page...

Haven't been posting lately again... well, I've been busy, and at times, no mood to write. Oh well...

Living Launch Party
All the rush on that day was in order to make it to the Living section's re-launch... The party was ok, although I wish there was more food. Met alot of people, including people I've gone through interview before. There was plenty of music, chat, drinks and bottomless beer... There was tarot card reading, dances and a magic show. We'd enjoy more if we didn't have to take care of the reception counter most of the time... poor Val, she sure worked hard that night. Me and Calvin were exhausted too... Joseph pulak drink until 6 glasses (or was it lebih?) Sifu Alan cabut with Tony halfway into the party... Anyways, after the party, me and Zali had to greet and thank every person who came... Jessie was pretty happy with all we have done and treated us to 3 pans of assorted fancy food. Small fancy food... lol. Malar decided to belanja us after that at a nearby mamak. It sure ended late, with us going home in the wee hours of the morning...






A1 Grand Prix at Sepang I. Circuit
It was a wonderful event... We got the most expensive tickets to the A1GP, fully sponsored by the company. Honestly it was a lotta fun watching the A1GP, due to the colorfulness of the cars, as they were all colored according to the nations. The USA had the liveliest (and funniest) color scheme, with all the stars and stripes. If only they did better... hehe. Their pit crew looked so patriotic with the half stars and half stripes outfit. Their drivers wore suits that made them look like Captain America. Our Malaysian team did really well, finishing 5th out of the 25 cars... There was so much cheer, you'd probably think we won the race. Met Eleanor there, and Calvin. Joseph and Malar were there, but in a different seating place. It was so much fun, and would have been perfect if the car didn't overheat on the way back...











Farewell, Terence... Rashvin goes to Manila
Terence finally left Malaysian Today... One of the longest serving staff (and patient writer), he decided to move on to other things. Tony decided to give a 'thank you' farewell dinner for him as well as to celebrate Rashvin's adventure to Manila to cover the SEA Games. Btw, it was the first time they did a dinner in honour of someone leaving. It was a nice dinner, at Country Kitchen PJ, a nice Chinese restaurant... There were alot of tales of experiences and so on, and also alot of photo-taking. Me and Val had fun rotating the table with the digicam on it, recording a video. Hee hee... oh ya, and we were to wear t-shirts from the A1 Grand Prix we got the day before. Me, Val, Eleanor and Calvin. El didn't come, and Calvin didn't wear... so that leaves me and Val... apala.. lol!




Living Appreciation Lunch
Jessie held an Appreciation Lunch the next week, at Madam Kwan's in Suria KLCC. It was really nice, most of the staff came, and the food was excellent. I've always tried their asam laksa and char kway teow, so I decided to try the chicken chop this time. It was seriously good! As usual, me and Val were taking pics, and this time Calvin joined in too, recording videos as well... Subra datang, despite not coming for the Launch Party *shock!* After all is said and done, it's back to work... ha..ha...





Saturday Night Chill Time!
It was a last minute thingy, but me and Val managed to join in, although Calvin couldn't. El was there, as well as Farah, Imran, Jessie, Eliza, Lee John... well, basically alot of us were there. It was Mojo (correct spelling ar?) nearby Sheraton hotel in KL. It was a meet and party sorta do, and there were loads of drinks. You woundn't believe how much some of us can drink! Not to mention half of the drinks were stuff you couldn't make out (yeah it was dark!) There were a couple of billard games and lotsa dancing. And yeah, lotsa lotsa LOUD music! Ha..ha..ha... Nice to have fun once in a while, after all the stress of work. Went home really late in the morning (would've been later if I didn't need to wake up in the morning) and I think we had a really jolly time that nite...







Magical Day?
Oh well, that's the 'busy' life I've been going through lately... ha..ha... there sure has been lotsa fun stuff, which is good, cos work's been getting really hectic. Oh ya, there was this Harry Potter Magical Day thingy which Farah had an appearance. She smsed me about it an hour before it started, but I just couldn't make it due to the last minute-ness. She asked to pass it around to the Farahnatics, which I did, abut I wonder how many actually went. She called me the next day when I was at work, which surprised me really *hee hee* but it was really sweet of her to do so, and we talked about the event and I also asked her to take care, drink lotsa fluids and rest whenever she can (she wasn't well, flu). By the way, Mandy's birthday came on the 29th, although I wish I could do more, all I managed to do was wish her Happy Birthday on MSN. Do take care dear, you're a big girl now. Hee hee...

Okla, I think this post's really long liao. And I've included lotsa pictures because Val said she wants more pics instead of text... lol!
Oh well, PEACE and God Bless,

Aris Tee

The Interview

And so the day came...Ooo... the day finally came, it was going to be the exclusive interview with Farah for our paper. Things started out rather bumpy, with us not sure whether we'd finish work on time... we did, but me and Eliza (who was going to conduct the interview) got stuck in a freak jam. Then we were like zipping through traffic with Eliza tailing me and not letting anyone through in between... hehe... arrived in Taman Tun on time, but we found out that Secret Recipe's lighting wasn't sufficient for our photoshoot for the interview... Smsed Farah to tell about that, and she said she was in Ikea and we could do the interview there at the Swedish restaurant, which has sufficient lighting. So off we went, I parked the Alfa in TTDI, and hopped into Eliza's car and we were off to Mutiara Damansara...

Meet-up at IKEA
When we finally met Farah, she was with Izwan, and she was all cheerful and smiles, despite having spilled ice cream on her clothes (she had it cleaned of course). The interview went on really well, and she was all smiles and had a lot of fun with us. It's good that our paper's interviews are very informal and asks funny and interesting questions, I guess it must be a break from the usual questions and interviews she faced. She did mention that she could memorize certain answers to other magazine interviews because they simply asked the same things! Ours included some fresh questions (although not all appeared) and some made her surprised and not knowing what to answer... hee hee... We had a lot of fun, learning new facts about her, as well as chit chatting... It was so nice!!! She's gotta be the MOST down-to-earth idol ever! And I'm definitely going to help her achieve her dream of being a star... In more ways than one... Btw, one of the more interesting facts was that she mentioned that she was like Dory of Finding Nemo. Apparently Myn also said that to her right after watching the movie. She also mentioned that she was rather clumsy, and Daniel called her "Little Miss Clumsy". Hee hee...






Off to McDonald's
Well, I found out that day that she was, but in a cute way of course... She was walking and slowly drifting to the part of the road that had cars, and had to be pulled back in! Later in McD, she almost toppled a table and a couple of stools on the way out... hee hee... cute la she. Yeah, that's right, we moved to McD after Ikea warned us about taking photos in their store (which Farah told them it was for Friendster... LOL). We had a few nice shots there, and Farah loved them. Unfortunately because of our policy and 'new look' rules, it couldn't be used and had to be shrunk and cropped. In McD, we took tons of pics, and with lots of poses, in case some didn't suit the layout. It was my 1st time assigned as the photographer for an interview shoot, so you bet I was nervous! But Farah was so sweet and nice, telling me that it's ok... Sometimes I wonder whether she's trying to cover up, because she's just so nice... She also mentioned it's easy to smile when I'm taking the picture. *blushes* The photos in McD were vibrant and colorful, but they too had to be cropped for the final page layout.






Makan-makan...
On the way back she ordered a Beef Burger to takeaway... haha... Makan while walking to the car, and I was wondering, why got McD smell, so nice... then she answered "Ni, burger.." haha... Escorted her to the car, and said bye bye, plus thanking for the interview, and for making it so much fun... Went with Eliza to Rasta Food Court in Taman Tun, and had a Mama Chops and Papa Grill meal. Hehe... When I went back, Farah was online, and she told me she makan lagi after the McD Beef Burger. hahaha... Then I told her bout our Rasta outing, then she said "tu laah...u & eliza didnt ajak me also ;-p"... Hehe... felt guilty after that. Promised to ajak her somewhere next time. hee hee... What a day it was... but it wasn't over, as the next day I had to lay it out and finish it on the same day!



The Great Rush
Ok, D-Day, and I was seriously looking forward to laying out the page. The pics (mostly) turned out really nice (of course! see who's the subject! hee hee) and I started picking out the better ones. I did 4 pages for the day, and I layed out 3 first before the last one, which was her interview page. There was a big amount of pressure, as I wanted it badly to be nice, and I had the Farahnatics and Farah's expectations behind me... To add to that, we had to finish bt 5pm because we have our Living Party to attend! OmG... it was so hard... but I tried my best, and the page had a few changes by Alan, (even made it look awfully weird before me and Val pujuk to change back) before the final result. It didn't turn out as good as I wanted (due to limitations and restrictions), but I was just hoping that Farah would like it. Contacted Farah and found out that she didn't wish for the possible producer of her album to be mentioned in the paper. Luckily it managed to be edited on time. The sad part was that on the next day, she found out of an error, which was a statement saying that her single "Kembali Lagi di Sisimu" was the 1st song written by her, when it was actually by KC Ismail. I apologized like mad, cos I felt I let her down. But she mentioned it was okay and it wasn't my fault. So I'm just praying nothing bad happens because of this. I wish it wasn't so rush, then things like this wouldn't have happened... Btw, I'd like to talk about the Living Party after the laying out, but I think it'd be better if it was on a separate post. Hee hee...

The end result...
The paper came out on Friday, and the Farahnatics were well informed, and were all out scouting for copies. Of course I kept some for them, and of course Farah. I also promised to burn a CD with her pics. As a souveneir... This issue was nice as I was in charge of fully doing the Living cover, in addition to my pages and the main cover (except the main heading and pic, that's Alan's job) that I normally do. Another bonus was my name appearing for the 1st time in the paper, as a photographer. Hee hee... If you haven't gotten it, you know what to do... it should be out till Monday (maybe a lil longer as 7-Eleven tends to keep some stock).





Oh well, that was my wonderful experience of being part of an interview with Farah, photographing her, laying out her page and seeing the end result. I told her it wasn't perfect, but if there's any chance of doing another interview or feature with her, I'd make sure I do better than what I did this time...
Hehehe... PEACE and God Bless, y'all...

Aris Tee

When a girl is too touched, she cries tears of joy...

Farah's Open House
It was a rainy Thursday... the rain was heavy, there was traffic jam. Rain as it must, but it didn't dampen our excitement for that night. To be invited to Farah's open house was definitely something to shout about... Arrived slightly after 8pm, after picking up Ostro and Ulee at the Bangsar LRT station. Her house was kinda packed, with cars lining up the streets. I managed to park at the corner, albeit nervously... There were so many people at the open house! Not only the usual suspects and Farahnatics, but there were the other idols, from both season 1 and 2, as well as some guests from Mentor and Akademi Fantasia. There was Myn and Kak Jihan, as well as Farah's mummy and daddy... it was such a warm atmosphere. Oh yeah, the food was great! And the satay too... woohoo... Then the yummy birthday cake came out! Everyone was singing Happy Birthday to Farah, who's birthday was the next day itself... she was soo happy and all smiles througout the night. Got her chin in some chocolate and when she's told about it, she replied "it's alright~" hee hee... such a sporting girl... We had so much chit chat among ourselves, Farah was busy welcoming and attending guests, so we didn't wanna bother her. Atilia and Azam joined our table, so we had some fun there... Zamil joined in on our chat about Daniel's album launch at Planet Hollywood soon... We stayed quite late, and some of us didn't wanna go back, chit chatting with Farah as well as her mummy. Then they started hinting that it was late, and it kinda made me feel guilty... poor them, working so hard to make the open house so nice. Myn was screaming "When you guys wanna balik huh?! I want to tidur!" haha... so cute la she... We all went back at 1-something in the morning, feeling all glowy...







Farah's Birthday Surprise
This is where the fun begins... a pre-planned event, kept under wraps as much as we could. With the cooperation of Myn, Izwuan and the rest of the Farahnatics, we managed to plan a surprise party for Farah. It was at Friendster at Damansara Perdana. Lovely place, we all did our preparations, payment and stuff, as well as some pre-shows to warm things up. We hired the DJs, and booked the dance floor and the whole area around it. Ss-srjuna sang a wonderful version of "I Surrender"... woohoo! Then the moment came, we switched off the lights, quiten the music... and here comes the birthday girl! And we all sang Happy Birthday together~ Farah was so shocked and surprised and speechless... She was so overjoyed and touched she broke to tears... it was so touching to see her like that. She was lost for words and was thanking God and all the fans, while still in tears... She said:

"I'm not the Malaysian Idol... but I hope I'm the Idol in your hearts... I'm so lucky to have the best fans in the WORLD~ I love you guys so much!!!"

It wasn't over yet... She was then presented with a laptop, which she was to launch her official website, by fans, for fans! Woohoo! She was holding a tissue and crying still throughout the launch, and it was so touching for her... http://www.farahasyikin.net/ was officially launched (despite being online for a couple of weeks...). She gave a very short speech (still lost for words) and we all went to makan after that. The food was marvelous... delicious splendid... lol... the pasta marinara and fried rice and 2 sausage dishes... woweee... Oh ya, Val val was there too, although a bit shy... I hope she didn't feel too out of place. The Farahnatics were a really friendly bunch... The gift-giving session was rather cool, with Farah getting teddy bears, necklaces, CDs, chocolates... Me and Estravada shared a bunch of roses and presented it to her. It came out a lot bigger than I thought... and she was really surprised... After that I passed her a gift Jill (killer_jaws) sent to me all the way from Miri. She was so touched too... After that I passed her the present I bought for her, she was so surprised and went "Oh my God! Oh my God!"... I was so glad she loved it... It was a lil hint from myn, and I was wondering whether she'd like it... She gave me a lil hug after that and I was all blushing... After that, there was an intro session in which the Farahnatics, friends and relatives were to go in front of the stage and introduce themselves... Then there was a singing session, in which some of us sang and danced. It was really cool... MXV did his special dance for Farah, which according to him, is normally charged at RM1500 per performance. And it was for free! Woo hoo... we sure had a fun time... Farah sang after that, singing a number of songs, like 'Don't Let Go', 'Gemilang', 'All by Myself (which mistakenly started as 'I Surrender')', 'Kembali Lagi di Sisimu' and a few more... we even tried to get her to do a bit of Daniel's 'Mimpi'... but she was referring to the lyrics most of the time... She was so sporting, with cute self-made sound effects and inviting the fans to sing with her. Um... I was one of those people, as she noticed me lip-synching to 'Kembali Lagi di Sisimu', she came to me and asked me to continue... I did, and made the sound system die... malunya... But she said "thank you"... How sweet... Then there was the gila-gila dance session, in which there were loads of dances like the Macarena, Ketchup Dance, Crazy Frog and Numa-Numa... I admit, not having danced for quite a while sure made it fun all over again... hee hee... It was loud and fun, what a way to rock a birthday! Poor Farah didn't dance as much though, because she was in a long skirt (remember she was originally supposed to go on a bithday dinner)... but she had a lot of fun... Superb photo session after that, and last wishing of Happy Birthday. We then continued to watch priest's video for Farah, which most of us participated in. Farah was so touched and watched in full focus... We all were reluctant to go back as usual... but like all good things, it had to come to an end, said bye bye to Farah and myn and we started our way back. Ulee and Val followed back of course, and Safarina plus family joined in too. We sure had a blast of a party, and I'm glad to say, so did Farah, as she recalled:

"The best birthday I've ever had, I'll remember this for the rest of my life..."















Okla, me typing too much liao... work's coming. I'm gonna be meeting her tonight as we have an interview with her for our paper... Look forward to it,

PEACE and God Bless...
Aris Tee