This video started as a simple requirement for a series of reviews of the HTC Desire that I did for Maxis Communications.
Long after the review programme was over, the video just seemed to have taken a life of its own. First off, there was this tweet that popped out of nowhere on the 14th of July, 2010:
My curiousity piqued, I made some enquiries and found out that my video was presented “as a best practice example for working with bloggers online” (!) at a two-day conference on Media Relations in Hong Kong.
And the trail didn’t end there. Apparently, the video was also used as the sample video for a published case study. Does the video screenshot look familiar to you? ;)
To be perfectly honest, this is all mind-boggling to me, considering that the video was just something that I worked on over one weekend. I thought it was good but not that good. And I never expected it to garner so much praise…and from professionals, no less! Nevertheless, I am so thrilled and very, very grateful for the recognition that has been given to my work.
Now I sit and wait with bated breath to see where my video ends up next…
(Special thanks to @tzareen and @aprilyim. You, ladies, were a blast to work with!)
Tags: HTC Desire
It’s that time of the year again when Muslims all over the world — and all over the Malaysia – abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, and having sexual relations with their spouses from dawn ’til dusk for 29 or 30 days (depending on the moon) during the holy month of Ramadhan.
In Malaysia, despite being a predominantly Muslim country, food outlets will remain open as usual. The only difference is that you’ll only see non-Muslims and small Muslim children eating there (as their fasting parents watch over them). To travelers who are visiting Malaysia for the first time, it is more polite, of course, to refrain from eating or drinking in front of people who are fasting.
To all my Muslim readers, Ramadhan Mubarak! Wishing you a blessed Ramadhan which is much better than the previous year’s.
Tags: Ramadhan
To MyEldest,
In the blink of an eye, you have gone from this…
…to this.
Whenever I hug you and teasingly ask you “Where did my baby boy go?” and you’d tease me back by replying “Uh, grew up?”, I don’t think you realise that my heart breaks just a little bit each and every time.
Every time I restrain myself from kissing your cheek in public, I still feel that tiny twinge of pain in my chest.
How could 12 long years pass by as though in just the blink of an eye?
Happy birthday to you, my dear son! (And thanks for reminding me that we’ll have to go to Pendaftaran very soon to have your IC* done!)
Love always,
Your Mama
*IC = Malaysian identity card
Tags: MyEldest
Tired of my usual repertoire of chocolate cake, vanilla cake, and carrot cake, I decided to try making strawberry cake for a change. I looked up my favourite online recipe source, AllRecipes.com, and found this recipe:-
Strawberry Cake From Scratch
Ingredients:
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 4 eggs (room temperature)
- 2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup strawberry puree made from frozen sweetened strawberries from fresh strawberries
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour line with baking paper two 9-inch round cake pans.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and dry strawberry gelatin until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. Blend in vanilla and strawberry puree. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a small knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in their pans over a wire rack for at least 10 minutes, before tapping out to cool completely.
The cake came out soft, moist, and lovely, although it was a bit too sweet for my taste. So next time, I will probably reduce the sugar to just 1 cup instead of the original 2 cups.
I whipped up some frosting using whipping cream, cream cheese, icing sugar, and vanilla, playing it by ear with the measurements. I guess that’s why the icing ended up quite runny but the kids loved how the cake looked anyway.
I used up the extra strawberries that I had as garnishing on top, as well as filling in between the two layers. The slight tartness of the strawberries balanced out the sweetness of the cake and the frosting.
The children made short work of the cake, finishing up everything in less than an hour — a sure sign that this recipe’s a keeper. One more cake recipe to add to my files at long last!
Envelopes marked ‘Urusan Seri Paduka Baginda‘ always fill my heart with dread for some reason. That phrase, loosely translated to ‘Affairs of His Majesty’ [NB: Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy] marks envelopes containing official letters come from government agencies, like Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (Bureau of Internal Revenue) and Imigresen Malaysia (Malaysian Immigration).
So when DH handed me such an envelope early Wednesday morning last week, I hastily opened the letter, my eyes scanning the letterhead — Imigresen Malaysia — and the first line of the first paragraph to see if it contained ‘dukacita‘, i.e. regretfully, which always means bad news, or ‘sukacita‘, i.e. with pleasure, which, of course, means good news.
The letter started with sukacita but it took a few minutes to for the implications of the letter to sink into my groggy consciousness.
Permohonan Permit Masuk bagi: (Application for Entry Permit For)
<my name>
Dengan hormatnya saya merujuk kepada perkara diatas dan sukacita dimaklumkan bahawa permohonan puan diluluskan. (With respect, I refer to the above matter and, with pleasure, I wish to inform you that your application for the same has been approved.)
I did it! Fourteen years of marriage and five children later, I finally get the long-awaited approval for my application for a Malaysian PR (permanent residence)! This marks the end of countless visits to Immigration office. To give you an idea of what I had to go through, I started with a 15-day visa, then 30-day visas (3 times, I think), followed by 3-month visas (3 times?), 6-month visas (2 or 3 times?), then yearly visas (5 of them), each time going there with my long-suffering husband in order to prove that the marriage does exist and that we are still together. I was only able to apply for PR after the 5th yearly visa, which was about 2 years ago. [NB: Malaysian men: If you're thinking of getting a foreign wife, better brace yourself for all this hassle!]
Of course, I have one more visit to make to the main office of Imigresen Malaysia in Putrajaya to submit a bank draft for RM120 (~USD38), a letter of oath signed by my husband and I certifying that we are still married and still together (’perkahwinan masih kekal‘), my most recent passport-sized photographs, etc for the processing of my PR.
So what comes next? I checked with my cousin to find out. She is also married to a Malaysian and has been in Malaysia for about the same length of time as me. She told me that it took almost 2 years for her to get her red IC (Identity Card) after submission of the bank draft and documents. [NB: Malaysian citizens have blue ICs.] But — here is the big but — she told me that I will still hold a Philippine passport; the only difference is that I won’t have to go to Imigresen anymore to renew my visa every year. She added that she was told that it is possible to apply for citizenship but she’s quite unclear about the procedure.
I guess I’ll just have to take this one step at a time. It’s been a long and winding road but I am thankful to God that I am finally past the first hurdle.
Tags: Permanent Residence, PR
