Bersamamu: Behind The Scene 2

I guess you guys noticed that I've been blogging more often lately and a lot more about work. That's because my 2012 resolution is to have a balance of work and personal entries in this blog, plus increasing the frequency of updates. Hooray!

Anyways, I was in Kedah recently to shoot double episodes of Bersamamu, one of which was aired last night. Here's the team fooling around at the school..


And in order to get a nice background for the headmistress' interview, this was what we had to do...


We were leaving the school and going to the respondent's house. However their bicycle chain broke and the house is about 5 km away. So you see, what you saw on TV last night was real and not a mock up. Anyways, we brought them home in the TV3 van...


We couldn't leave the broken bicycle just like that since it can still be fixed. It couldn't fit in the van either because there were so many of us. Next option..


Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Our technician, Mus (in green) and assistant producer, Mohd Rose, came to the bicycle's rescue. With nothing to hold the bicycle in place as it hitched a ride on top of our van, the 2 men held it all the way back home. Mind you the road leading to the house wasn't entirely smooth and there were branches sticking out. Nevertheless they pulled it off *applause*

We put the broken bike aside for a moment coz the kids got brand new ones! I even went for a test drive, you know, just to make sure the bikes work properly ;)

The New Kitty Cat

Coincidentally, the first episode of MagSeven was also shot in Kelantan back in December 2010 and also about an animal lover.

People call her Kittun and she is the ultimate Bengal cat lover.



She imports bengals from overseas and breed them at her house. The cats live in the ultimate cat house - made of glass and equipped with 5 horse power air-condition and CCTV!

Here I am with her latest Bengal that was flown all the way from Russia. Notice the exotic spots?



And during my recent trip to the east coast, I didn't come back alone. I brought back one white bengal kitten from her cattery!



Here's a look at the cat's trip from KB to KL..









So off to the cargo he went while I took my seat at the cabin.

As we arrived KLIA, he was brought to me personally by the airport staff.





Welcome to your new home, Sir Tommy Hedwig!



I know, I know, it's very the English. Got the name from Harry Potter :)

Tommy is the cuter version of Tom Riddle (later known as Lord Voldermont, Harry Potter's arch nemesis). Hedwig is the name of Harry's owl.



We call him Tommy for short. Added the 'Sir' at the beginning just because :P

I bet the other lot will be totally jealous with our little Tommy since he gets to hang indoors while the rest are banned from entering the house.



A little message to hot granny Paris, graceful Leia, macho Harry, mischievous Snowy:

Sorry gang, you guys are Persians. You know how paranoid my mom would be if she sees your fur flying around and sticking on the sofa etc. Don't hate Tommy too much. You guys still rock!

Sincere apologies,
Your master

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Revisiting Bersamamu Friend

While I was in Kelantan, I also visited Siti Rokiah, whose family was featured in Bersamamu July last year.

Her father is deaf and mute. Her mother has nerve problems that affected her speech and movement.

Here's Siti with her daughter and her mom..

Her 21 year old sister may look ok seating down this way..

But when she stands up, her whole body transforms. She has severe curved spine (scoliosis) that forces her body to bend backwards at possibly 45 degree angle.

Conscious of her appearance, she hardly steps out of the house. On top of that, she also relies on hearing aid to hear.

During my visit, I did some catching up with her and found out they received quite a substantial amount of donations after appearing on Bersamamu. It was timely because not long after that her mother fell sick and was hospitalized for a month.

After being discharged, she couldn't walk anymore. Luckily they have a wheelchair that was donated to them during the show.

One month later she was hospitalized again due to breathing difficulty. She's still at the hospital now..with a hole at her throat and breathing with the help of a machine.

She can only come home if she has her own machine. It costs RM40k! The hospital is still trying to find a way to funds for her.

According to Siti, although the donations received couldn't get her the machine, at least it helps cover other expenses for her mom like diapers and basic needs.

Despite it all, Siti remains cheerful and has a positive outlook on life. The world could use more people like her, kan?

Siti just delivered her second baby girl. Having 2 children in about a year while her family relies on her a lot is just another reason why she is just amazing.

It's people like her that gives inspiration to me and I believe to many more out there.

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Bersamamu: Behind The Scene 1

While shooting Bersamamu yesterday, the kind respondents served us refreshments..in style.


This behind the scene photo is one of the many photos I will share soon :)

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The Real Twitters

This bird is called Red-Whiskered Bulbul, or better known as burung candek.


Many Kelantanese, mainly the men, are crazy over them. And guess how much someone would pay for it?

RM20k!!! One can almost buy a car with this bird! And it's not any kind of investment but merely a hobby.


The reason why people pay so much for this bird is not because of its appearance, but its voice. The more it chirps, the more valuable it is because they will have a better chance of winning at the bird singing competition. You heard that right!


The competition is held every Friday and Saturday in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. When I was there shooting this interesting story for MagSeven, there were almost 300 birds competing. The champion gets RM130.


OK I may have exaggerated with the RM20k bird earlier. It was just one isolated case. Not all the birds are worth that much. Usually the good ones are around RM1000-6000. The wild birds cost just RM150, which take years to train until they chirp beautifully.


Don't know about you but for a non-bird enthusiast like me, I wouldn't pay RM100 for the burung candek..unless they can talk.

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First Hotel Review

Guess what? I wrote my first review on Trip Advisor! After many years of travelling, I wonder why I didn't do it all this while.

What triggered me to write? Let's just say I went through a rather disappointing hotel stay.

Last month I was in Seberang Perai, Penang for Magseven shoot on breastfeeding. Yeah, it will be a 30 minute documentary! More about that some other time. Anyway, I was there for just 1 night and my crew and I were checked in at a brand new hotel.

I wrote all about my unpleasant experience here. My title was shocking enough: "other hotel guests walked into the room!"

Today, one day after my review was posted online, the GM of the hotel replied! You can also read it at the same link.

Here are some of the pictures i took at the hotel:








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Yummy Kelantan

One thing I like about going for assignments in Kelantan..the food. Our local representative, Abe Napi, loves to eat too. So he often brings me to different2 places to eat in between shoots.

We were gonna have breakfast at White House but it was still closed for Chinese New Year celebration. I was actually looking forward to it but what to do.

Later on, I was so jakun (or Kelantanese would say 'darat') when he brought me to warung Din Tokyo. It was like teppanyaki concept where customers sit around the kitchen. It was my first time eating at such place.

Oh yeah, the food. About 6 years ago when I was in Kelantan for MedikTV shoot, I had Nasi Tumpang for the first time. I really liked it! And then I finally get to eat it again after so long.


Ah bliss..no more mengidam :)

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2012 Design Is In!

Finally! I managed to give this blog a little facelift. Hope the design and colours this time is kind to the eyes. Locate the following new pictures on the sidebar that will grace this blog until...the next facelift? 

My First Beach Getaway

Hello aunties and uncles! I'm loving 2012! It's because it began with the most AWESOME vacation in my almost 2.5-year existence! Here I am behind the wheel on the way to our destination - Kuantan, Pahang! 

I was SO excited that I didn't sleep throughout the journey. In fact, I was on the car seat the WHOLE TIME. Mommy was so pleased. It was raining along the way, quite heavily at one point. Daddy was worried that we might not be able to enjoy the outdoors. It was monsoon season.

So we reached our hotel and guess what? The rain stopped! Yahoo! It's as if God knew we were reaching. I went straight to our room's balcony to check out the view. I liked what I saw!

We didn't waste any time. The weather was cloudy but it wasn't raining. I was brought straight down to check out the pool - or so I thought. I was surprised why we walked passed the pool. I hesitated at first but decided to just follow them to this place with tons of sand.

Little did I know, they were bringing me to the mother of all pools!  

SO MUCH WATER! SUCH VAST OPEN SPACE!!

And the water kept on teasing me. Although I stood a bit further from the water, it kept coming to me over and over again.

So that was my introduction to the beach and the sea :)

Next up, swimming! This time around mommy was confident in letting me swim without the float, for once!

Wasn't much of a swim anyway. More like walking in water and splashing around.

That was the end of the first day in Kuantan. Being new to the beach, daddy said "I will let you play at the beach as much as you want."

Woohoo!

So the next day, we went for a walk along the beach first thing after breakfast..it was rather sunny this time.

Mommy decided to dress me up in this bright hawaiian attire. Daddy thinks I looked a bit overdressed but mommy insisted. It's because she bought it 1.5 years ago and I never had the chance to wear it since I never went to the beach!

But orange really makes the pictures look nice, kan? And the blue sky...oh my!

Although it didn't rain, the weather was getting uncomfortably hot. Another round of swimming and I was back in the room.

We had lunch and I napped while waiting for the weather to cool down. Being the monsoon season in Pahang, we were lucky it didn't rain at all on that day.

I went back to the beach that evening when the weather was just nice. This time around we spend about 2 hours just playing with water. It was the most awesome experience ever!

That night, the hotel had this huge party to welcome the new year. Not interested in all that, I went down, in my cute little pajamas, simply to play some games...

I think I played for a good 1.5 hours. Totally flat out..I was already in lalaland just a few minutes before the stroke of midnight. I missed the fireworks!

The next day, before we left, daddy once again brought me to the beach. After all that fun, it's only natural that I slept all the way back home...

There you have it, aunties and uncles - first beach getaway :)