Me & sis, @ TGIF The Curve

Vampire Mistress of Kepong, *ROFL*

I was invited by a friend of mine to accompany her scouting for Halloween peeps @ The Curve yesterday evening. She is a journalist for a local newspaper, and her task for the day was to interview the people who dressed up during that night, for Halloween. Of course, a Halloween lover for myself, I wanted to have the same fun as the others are having there. So I decided to dress up like a vampire, and brought my sister along, to join the fun.

I was to meet my friend at TGIF, for she is conducting a short interview with the runners of TGIF. They were dressed in various costumes and roles. Some were pirates, Big Foot, Dainty Fairy, Two-Faced, Joker, and loads more. And to say that they were scary.... Not really, except for the Joker guy. My, my, my... when he smiles... oh my God!! It's damn huge, alright... and I wouldn't want to find him under my bed scaring the shit out of me!! Reminds me of the movie 'IT', the horror clown movie.. Damn!

Later on, she went on interviewing some of the other Halloween participants who happened to be nearby. They were dressed in cute outfits. Bunnies (guy's fantasies), Angel, Devil, Murdered-With-A-Knife-Stuck-In-Her-Head, bla bla, and bla bla bla. We even saw a couple who dressed up (male) as an angel, (female) as a dead bride. Sounds so wrong right? But then again, who cares, it's Halloween, you can dress up as anything as you want.

It's an upset that Malaysians do not practise celebrating Halloween. Imagine all the fun Malaysians will have by dressing up, treats-&-trickings, and carving the Jack-O-Lanterns out. I had so much of these fun back then in school and college, it was an event I've always anticipated every year. Guess I gotta live to the fact that Halloweens are only meant to be for Guai Lo's business...

To achieve my Vampire look:-

1) 4 layers of powdered foundation to make yourself pale (not enuff pale, dang!)

2) Black eyeliner to line the entire eye and to color the outer crease line, plus the extra drawing

3) Purple eyeliner to line only the below eye line

4) Scarlett blusher to add a little spot of color to your pale cheeks

5) Devillish red lipstick to make you look blood-thirsty

6) Your own selection of vampire outfit

7) Your vampire dentures (hehehehe)

History of Halloween, like any other festival's history is inspired through traditions that have transpired through ages from one generation to another. We follow them mostly as did our dads and grandpas. And as this process goes on, much of their originality get distorted with newer additions and alterations. It happens so gradually, spanning over so many ages, that we hardly come to know about these distortions. At one point of time it leaves us puzzled, with its multicolored faces.

Digging into its history helps sieve out the facts from the fantasies which caught us unaware. Yet, doubts still lurk deep in our soul, especially when the reality differs from what has taken a deep seated root into our beliefs. The history of Halloween Day, as culled from the net, is being depicted here in this light. This is to help out those who are interested in washing off the superficial hues to reach the core and know things as they truly are.

'Trick or treat' may be an innocent fun to relish on the Halloween Day. But just think about a bunch of frightening fantasies and the scary stories featuring ghosts, witches, monsters, evils, elves and animal sacrifices associated with it. They are no more innocent. Are these stories a myth or there is a blend of some reality? Come and plunge into the halloween history to unfurl yourself the age-old veil of mysticism draped around it.

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.

Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

My Indonesian (once rich) Grandma & my pretty young mom
with Grandma's pet cat, Helmy

My Guai Lo stepdad and my mom in Chiang Mai

Me, dad, err.. stepmom (bleurk) & my sis on my
dad's 47th birthday

My notorious 18 yr old brother, Ederick

My so called innocent 15 yr old sister, Edwina

The main entrance to Shin-Nichi

The seating patterns of the restaurant

Let the feast begins

Oyster makes you horny, is that true??

The great Japanese food fans, digging into their food!!

Located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur City Centre, Japanese food lovers could feast to fresh variety of food at Shin-Nichi, the Japanese Buffet Restaurant in Kompleks Antarabangsa off Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. From Sushis to Tempuras, Sashimis to various kind of Japanese noodles served, RM48++ is the only price you need to pay for you to savour these delicious delights!

They may not emphasize on the Japanese ambience that much, but the food there is certainly served fresh, all round hot, and most of all, the service that they provide is excellent. Something that you need to ponder before you savour on a Japanese Buffet, never eat sushis as your starters, the glutinous rice would unable your stomache to devour on the other variety of food. So, always start with something light, for an instance, sashimi or cawan mushi, or perhaps kebabs.

Food Rating: 8/10
Ambience Rating: 6/10
Note: A good place to bring your whole bunch of family and friends for food and chat.

Shin-Nichi Japanese Buffet Restaurant
Lot G-01A, Ground Floor,
Kompleks Antarabangsa,
Jalan Sultan Ismail,
50250 Kuala Lumpur,

Tel: 03-2142 3318
Email: snichi@streamyx.com

My dear darling, the man whom I adore and love,
The man who is 30 but is so young at heart...
Playing with his catch of the day, a stray coconut by the beach...

A beautiful life he has given me, filled with love and affection...
A bold and a determined thinker, he never gives up his goals in life...
Just like he's determined to get that coconut back into the sea...

How far did you think that coconut flew?
I like this picture... playful yet... strong...
Don't you think so?

Just me and him in the picture...
Him... the man whom I would spend the rest of my life loving...
The man whom I would want to build glorious dreams together...

Part of our dream is to own a house by the beach...
A house build of glass that looks out to the calming sea...
In which the house is where all of our beautiful dreams would come true...