Confidence Makes Awesomeness

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Though I guess it is also Awesomeness that makes Confidence.

I don't claim to be a fan, neither am I an avid follower of the Chinese music scene.

Heck, I don't even though half the songs he's singing *hides* but they're definitely super memorable hits since I vaguely remember most of the chorus and melodies. 'Most' being the keyword here. Hehe. But everything I see and hear him sing, my head just go "Awesome. Awesome. Awesome." until the performance ends. I mean, look at those faces of other celebrities watching him. They read "Awesome. Awesome. Awesome." too! Hahaha.

*in a small voice*

Though I did kinda cringed at his 'corny' antics at the end of the performance. 

Hahaha. I guess he's totally 'feeling' it. =P Who cares? It's still awesome!

[L.E.P.A.K: London] Chapter 10: Off to Meet the Queen

After filling our much neglected stomachs with thick, yummy pies, we're off to meet the Queen! But first to get there... Baker's Street! Home of the famous Sherlock Holmes.

So it's no surprise that the entire tube station was filled with silhouettes of Holmes.
From rows of individual tiles in all colours...

... to well-arranged tiles that form a much larger Holmes.

Which reminds me, this is a shout-out to dearest Cubbie, an avid Holmes fan to the max! If we ever come here together in the future, we'll put this tube station as one of our destination in our itinerary and allocate a time slot for you to take pictures from every possible angle ya? =P In return, we have to put in some time for me to get to Abbey Road, too. Deal? ;-)

Oh and right outside of the tube station is of course Mr Holmes himself, standing tall and ummm... dark. My only regret? I should have stand next to him instead of being the one behind the camera but we had our destination in mind and the walking crowd was zooming by continuously. So... yeah.

That's our destination right ahead.
Only about 5 minutes walk from Baker's Street Station.

We handed over our pre-booked and printed tickets and asked about the closing time. The friendly attendant assured us that there was enough time to enjoy the entire place and then proceeded to usher us into the lift. Immediately as the lift doors opened, we were 'attacked' by flashes of light, making us feeling all celebrity-ish. Hahaha. It certainly was a nice time to visit Madame Tussauds as there was almost no crowd in the place. So we took our time with the celebrities.



First up, my friend Johnny said "Aye!".


Cik Anai got in between Justin and Mr Perry. :P

We took lots more photos with everyone but I'll save you some jealously from all our Hollywood sting and proceed right along to other more humble figures.


Like Shrek and tiny ginger bread man down there!
Didn't know Cik Anai were such buddies with them.

I met the other 'Sherlock' here as well and
I helped him figure out some cases.

Picked up my golden man while I was there and
thanked every possible Tom, Dick and Harry in my speech. *grins*

Little did I know, while I was busy receiving my award, Cik Anai was being naughty
peeking under Ms Monroe's famous blown dress.

We then reached the hall of fame and met Michael there.

There was a camera set up right in front of him with an assistant ready to take your photo and probably charge you a fee for it. However, instead of forcing us to pay to take a photo, he kindly offered to help us take a photo together with our own camera. What's more, he even offered us some props! Hahaha. So nice, right? It was the same when we 'met' the Queen. The best thing was, these people knows how to take a good photo. So you don't have to worry about out-of-focus shots. Nice right?

And then there were the Beatles.
So young and joyial but I kind wished there weren't so many things going on at the back there. Hate the backdrop. :(

Fancy meeting Mr Obama in London,
attending to a busy me nonetheless. Hehe.

Cik Anai on the other hand, went over to Downing Street
to pay the Prime Minister a visit.

Lots of things happened after that.

Threw some punches with Muhammad Ali.

Met up with genius Einstein who kept on insisting that E = mc2.

Sang some tunes with Pavarotti.

Got kidnapped by the Hulk.

Shared a picture perfect moment with Spidey himself.

And even showed my claws that rival that of Wolverine.

After that, we stepped into the scary part of Madame Tussauds where a seriously haunting Scream Room awaited us. There were literally screams coming out from that room and it didn't help that two equally spooky guards were standing in front of the door asking us whether we wanted to enter. There were no clues at all what awaited us behind the closed door. Sooooo scary wei! We chickened out in the end and took the less scary route out of the place. *relief sigh* Maybe if there were more of us, instead of two gals stepping into unknown, we might have taken the plunge. Hahaha.

Instead, we took the happy and joyful cable ride through the history of London. Sorry no pictures here as we were too preoccupied with the ride. But seriously, who would have thought there was even such a thing going on inside this little dome building? It's amazing so much is fitted into one venue!

Aside from that, there was even an auditorium inside where we sat and enjoyed a 4D Marvel Experience where superheroes were rescuing London from outside threats. The best part of this 4D experience that I have yet to experience anywhere else is the surprising stab from the backrest whenever Wolverine stabbed and slashed someone on screen. Ouch!! Did I just spoil your fun with that spoiler? *grins*

A short look-see stroll in the souvenir shop later and we were finally on our way back to our hotel to call it a night.

Our dinner?

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Yummy Shepherd's Pie from Harrods!

Next Up? Pa-Pa-Paris!

The Impromptu Holiday Series: In Which I Finally Met Bobby. Say Woot Woot!

Continuing from here and here, I was finally on my way to meet Bobby Chinn for dinner but alas, with a battery-less camera.

How sad.

Well, not really.

You see, I met a very kind food blogger by the name of Boo, who was invited for the dinner as well. She's the foodie expertie behind Masak-Masak. *click click to read her blog* She offered to take our pictures for us. See there's nice people in this world after all. Hee..

So not only did I get a very very nice picture taken *using a canggih-manggih camera* but OMG! I got featured in her blog as well. Masak-Masak wei! When Boo asked if it's okay to use the photo in her blog, I of course agreed because after all, I wouldn't have such a photo if it wasn't for her. However, all I was expecting was a little mention and a photo somewhere in the middle of the post. I wasn't expecting to find my face at the top of the entire post. O_O

*click on the picture to read her post*

Though, who cares about me, it's Bobby that everyone's looking at. Handsem kan? Ahahaha.. and there I was squeezed in between him and dear godma. *grins* Yes yes, the dinner invitation was for two and I so I asked if she could make it for dinner as well.

The dinner was at Al-Halabi Lounge at JW Marriott. It was my first time at a Middle Eastern restaurant and it was certainly an eye-opener for me. The deco and lighting were dark and intimate with the front part of the lounge filled with comfy sofa and lounge chairs. This is totally the 'hang-out' spot for Middle Eastern tourists where they can simply sit back, relax and enjoy a taste of home, or in this case, a puff of home with their shisha.

We were all sitted around a U-shaped table which in my opinion was not the best seating arrangement for such an event. It made the dinner a little impersonal. We ended up breaking into separate chat groups instead of interacting as a whole. Six of us on the left, which included food blogger, Kyspeaks and his fiance, Haze, were chatting among ourselves, while the other six at the other side of the U, were in their own little world. The other winner and his mom who were seated at the centre of the U were all shy and quiet throughout dinner.

Luckily Bobby's voice were loud enough to be heard by all when it came to 'story-telling' time. He shared with us his experience in the Middle East during his filming for World Cafe Asia, covering from Persian, Egyptian to Turkish and more.

Food was served after that. We got to tick our choice of starter and main course. Not bad for attentiveness I must say. Though I won't rate it in terms of taste since I have no prior knowledge regarding such cuisine. For that, you should head over to Masak-Masak or Kyspeaks. Not to mention all the food pictures they took with their canggih-manggih camera.

This post is sadly without enough pretty photos in it.

:(

After dinner, the PR team announced a mini autograph session. 'Mini' being there were only 10 of us in total excluding Bobby and the PR team themselves. Here's when it got interesting. You see, upon knowing I was heading down to meet Bobby, I tweeted...

In which he actually replied.

Say Woot Woot!!! x 1000000

Of course, it didn't end there.

And he replied again. *flail flail*

*flail somemore*

*ahem*

So... back to the dinner.

He was signing his cook book for me when the PR team mentioned that I came all the way from Penang to see him. He looked up, looked at me and said,

"Ah.. YOU!"

*blinks*

"Ah... Yes Me!"

Okay. I was silly and speechless there and then. Imagine that! A copywriter at a loss for words. How can wei?! Malu betul.

*sigh*

But who cares! I got a personalised message from Bobby!

"...all the way from one of my favourite cities for food."
- Best Wishes Always, Bobby Chinn, KL 20.10.10

*hearts hearts*

That's it! Must promo kau-kau now.

For those who love World Cafe Asia, make sure to catch Bobby's latest Middle East Special, every Monday, 10pm on TLC, Astro Channel 707. For those who have yet to catch the show at all, shame on you and please do! The show is now one hour long as oppose to the previous 30 minutes and the Middle East Special is a 4-episode special with tomorrow being the 3rd of the series. So make sure you switch on your television tomorrow and enjoy a Bobbylicious experience like me! :)

The Impromptu Holiday Series: Dinner with Bobby Chinn (Also Known as the Woot? Woot? Special)

Two Sundays ago, I came across an article on Bobby Chinn's upcoming World Cafe Asia series featuring the Middle East. At the end of the article was a simple contest which requires me to answer 2 questions and complete a slogan. Easy peasy right? And all you have to do is email your entry over. Ergo, no cost!

The Prize?
A free dinner for two with Bobby Chinn at JW Marriott.

The Catch?
Middle Eastern cuisine.

Duh. Not that I mind, I'm for one is up for anything when it comes to food. I mean, my colleagues don't call me "tamchiak girl" for nothing. That, and of course, the fact that I go hungry very fast.

Wait! Where was I?

Oh yes. So I joined the contest. Come on lah, it's dinner with Bobby Chinn! There's only one other person I might give a pass on Bobby to dine with, Anthony Bourdain. Hahaha.. but Bourdain's American charm doesn't strike my mom's fancy. So if there's really such a decision to be made, Bobby gets my mom's support, plus he kinda do hit closer to home.

Now, remember The Catch I mentioned earlier that it being Middle East cuisine? While, that's not half as bad since I appreciate food no matter how essentric they may get. The Problem however, was that the closing date for the competition was on the 15th, that's a Friday. The dinner is on the 20th. Minus the weekend and all that's left is a 3-day lead time for whatever plans you need should you win the prize.

And let's not forget the fact that I'm from Penang.

So I got a call on Monday saying that I won the competition. Freaked out a little, panicked a little and then decided "I want to going!" So I went in and see the boss.

Me: "Umm... boss, do you know who Bobby Chinn is?"

Boss: "No."

-__-

Well, that was expected. If I were to ask "Do you know there's a TLC channel on Astro?" I'll probably get a "No." as well. Totally salah channel lah.
Luckily Mrs Boss was around.

Mrs Boss: "Oh, he's that chef host is it?"

Me: "Yaya. Well, I sorta won a dinner with him this Wednesday... it's pretty last minute."

Mrs Boss: "Oh then you must go!"

Yay! Got support!

So after making sure my work schedule permits me to go MIA, I was let off for the rest of the week. And so it began. My Impromptu Holiday!