Hantu Gangster (movie) - A Light Take on a Dark Subject

I actually felt really moved when I listened to this song and pondered on its meaning, and thinking back of how far Namewee has come, from his student days (google up: Negarakuku) to his accomplishments today with many movies and accolades.

I know he is not popular with some sects of the society due to his vocal opinions, and I don't 100% condone his speech (can be futher filtered) but I actually feel proud our country has someone like him who dare to say, dare to do and dare to be himself.

Won't spoil the storyline for anyone but be assured the movie has a strong cast of heavyweight (famous) celebrities in Malaysia represented by the three main races in Malaysia (sorry Sabahans and my fellow Sarawakians, we are again, Dan Lain Lain - Others), for his second attempt after his first movie Nasi Lemak 2.0, Namewee has 'come of age' and I am sure he will only keep improving himself from this point on, provided he doesn't lose his focus along the way. Way to go, Namewee!

*For the record, Sarawak and Sabah are separated physically from Peninsular Malaysia by the South China Sea - Sarawak has 26 ethnicities and Sabah has 27 ethnicities, or maybe I miss one or two ethnicities there - Malaysia has more than 50 ethnicities, Peninsular Malaysia (Semenanjung) has THREE main major races. That's my only point of contention.*

Just in case you wish to view the review after the premier on Aug 9th, 2012, which included members of the public and some Malaysian celebrities:



You may be interested to check out this post on my take of 1Malaysia: http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-do-i-get-called-auntie-instead-of.html

To fellow Malaysians, do watch Hantu Gangster in the cinema, awesome movie! I admit I am BIASED. For a more neutral take on this movie, check out this review: http://poinkbox.blogspot.com/2012/08/hantu-gangster-polished-but-artificial.html

Hair Rebonding 2012

I love my hair as any woman should.

I used to have really thin straight hair as a little girl and as puberty set in, it grew thicker and instead of straight, it began to curl to waves by the time I was in my 20s.

I did my first hair rebonding in 2010, courtesy of my cousin Tyng who 'treated' me to my first hair straightening session in Nov 2010. I broke the rules for the first five days and ended up with less than satisfactory result.

WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT DO WITHIN THE FIRST FIVE DAYS (minimum THREE FULL DAYS) AFTER YOUR HAIR REBONDING SESSION:

Can I tie up my hair after rebonding?
1. DO NOT TIE UP YOUR HAIR (EVEN FOR SHOWER CAPS, I didn't tie up my hair and just let it roll up a bit but loose, into the shower cap).

Can I wash my hair after rebonding? How many days should I wait before washing or wetting my hair to let the chemicals set?
2. DO NOT WASH YOUR HAIR, no matter how oily your scalp is, DO NOT WASH IT or else the effect won't be as nice, put the confinement ladies hair powder (or any other powder) as hair powder will make the hair less oily (popular among Chinese ladies who needed to observe the no-hair-wash for one-month rule after childbirth, seriously).

3. I think these are the top two rules, cannot recall anything else, but oh, AFTER the first five days maintenance are crucial as well, but oh well, that goes to any normal hair care, like steaming/treatment/scalp treatment, etc. Hair care after rebonding realy matters for smooth silky locks.

Anyway, I digress.

For 2011, I decided to have my hair rebonded for the second time. I took advantage of a RM88 opening promotion and here is the result:

Reminds you of a female ghost with long hair or the Malay will say pontianak/kuntilanak, right? lol. I blogged about it as well in June 2011 (check out my June 2011 archives) and am very satisfied with the result, and this time around, I tried very hard not to break the two rules above.

ONE BIG RULE: You are supposed to wait AT LEAST (minimum) SIX MONTHS between rebonding before you do your next rebonding, if you don't want healthy hair, go ahead and do it at a shorter interval. For naturally curly/wavy hair, there is one exception to the rule, which is to NOT do rebonding on the entire length but only on the roots, so the damage isn't as bad. Talk to your hair dresser for what suits you best. The main concern is your hair will be so damaged, it will break/fall out.

So the NUMBER ONE RULE OF POST-REBONDING MAINTENANCE IS: REGULAR TREATMENT. Regardless of what hair treatment, having some/a few is better than nothing at all, be it home treatment/daily hair serum, regular serum after hair wash, or salon treatment (varies in types and prices), do it for the sake of good strands of hair!

Now, I followed the ONE BIG RULE and waited longer than six months for my third rebonding. I did it in Feb 2012, and I plan to make it the only rebonding session for this year for the health of my hair.

This is the result (I trimmed my hair length and dyed it black 3 months before this in Nov 2011) after the rebonding:

This time around (current rate) it costs me RM158 for rebonding plus on the spot treatment. Still cheaper than most places in Klang Valley (Selangor and Kuala Lumpur).

Compare the before (in red, hair dyed light brown),

and after (in fuchsia, hair dark brown) pix:

Call it illusion or whatever, due to the hair colour which is darker, but my hair looks thicker and shinier and definitely healthier, right?

Secret? Tonnes of hair product? Not necessarily. lol Monthly salon treatment(about RM80 per month), plus daily serum and more concentrated serum on ends after each hair wash), plus scalp treatment *inclusive in salon treatment* and also hair tonic to promote hair growth (don't really stick to a regime, so I guess the salon treatment helps a lot).

MY ADVICE after years of trial and error is:

Stick to a hairdresser, go for regular hair treatments, try to stick to a regular home regime (I do miss it a few days in a week), and voila, soft silky hair. Rebonding without regular treatment will only damage your hair further and the effect isn't nice, trust me, coarse hair which is dry and always in disarray after awhile, so the rebonding effects will come to naught, so please treat your hair nice and 'invest' in some treatment!

No prizes for guessing my fav salon/spa at the moment. :) I am a regular, so just mention Sue's name for some special rates. Just say "Saya kawan Sue" even though I don't know you personally. Haha.


The map to go to Arowana Beauty Spa is on the right.

Address:
Arowana Beauty Spa
328 (Ground Floor), Jalan Negara,
Melawati Square,
Taman Melawati,
53100 Kuala Lumpur
(Behind Bank Rakyat Taman Melawati Branch),
If you're coming from the opposite direction of Bank Rakyat, then you'll see Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN/NRD) branch office first.

Call 019-2226825 or 03-41086825 for appointment.

This is not an advertorial - I wasn't paid anything, what I have gained is good service from very friendly women staff who love what they do best - to make other women look and feel good. :-)

Pork Burger!!!

THIS IS A NON-HALAL POST. No offence to Muslim readers.



Finally, someone took the cue and introduced pork burger in Malaysia!

And they are really thoughtful too! (see the words in the image on the left that I took at their cashier counter) - "As Ninja Joe is a non halal restaurant, your kind co-operation not to bring Ninja Joe's food item to other halal premises will be highly appreciated. Ninja respect others too!"

Using the 'Ninja' theme, the shop is really creative from their ninja mascot to the copywriting (words) on display at their restaurant. My hubby pointed out that the ninja mascot resembles a burger with the bread (black top and bottom) and the middle is white which resembles the meat and the two eyes are tomatoes and salad, I guess. :-) It comes in six different flavours. I love the slogan they have: "Nom the Oink!"

The photos are of higher resolution so you may click on any photos you like and you can see them in higher quality. The whole menu is there for you to see in the "Nom the Oink" photo.













This is the sign (image on the right) that caught our attention from afar while hunting for a place to have our tea break - PORK - then a burger image and the words: "If you can't handle it, you're chicken."

We were like.. let it be true! And were attracted towards that direction like moths to the light. lol... and it was TRUE! Not many restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants dare to neglect the Muslim market, hence usually they go by the 'pork-free' concept so as not to lose a large chunk of the potential market. Kudos to Ninja Joe for being brave enough to be different!

Now where can you find Ninja Joe's Pork Burgers?

It is located at the lower Ground Floor of The Gardens, Mid Valley. You can NEVER miss the Red Wordings on the Black Background! Or White Wordings on Black Background!

Okay, why am I typing in sentence case? I guess I am just excited that someone actually sells 'burger babi' (Pork Burger) here!

Hubby and I ordered two burgers for our snack today (5th March, 2011). The guy at the cashier told us they were only opened on 25th February 2011!

Their service is quite fast, the price is reasonable, the more you buy, the more value for money it is! The pork, of course, is very porky. Their original flavour retains the pork aroma and taste while the oriental flavour is superb. Plan to try the other four flavours in our next visit, which should be soon!

I ordered a dessert as well and it looks very homemade, it's got the homely feel to it! Yummy as well. Below is the photo of our order right before we walloped them all. Notice the cute little ninja mascots on the burger wrapper? Simply CUTE!

Hubby's Zing soda with kiwi certainly got the 'Zing' as well, it came with fries too! The menu is kinda short as it is very specific and 'niche' but we couldn't order that many as we were only two persons, so another trip soon to try the rest of the items on the menu! Talk about specialty menu that makes you wanna return for more!

Now this is NOT an advertorial.. we simply were wowed over just by seeing the word PORK. lol... are we Malaysians non-Muslims so pork-deprived? NO. We have non-halal restaurants but a pork burger is a first to be sold in a shop (read: shopping mall) like this! Hope Ninja Joe will expand its wings or maybe have franchises all over the country and maybe the region and then internationally!

Now the food and drinks are prepared by cute guys in Japanese costumes as well and the photo I took focused on the guy in front and the back looks like he's a ninja on stealth mode, moved too fast for my camera! lol

Check them out! :-)

Follow them on twitter @porkburger if you use twitter or for the rest of us who are facebook users, just 'like' them on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/porkburger

I already did and I was their 1661th fan. :-)

I visited their Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur outlet and just found out they already have another chain outlet in Tropicana City Mall, Petaling Jaya, and also Sunway Pyramid in Bandar Sunway and they've been around since the last two years (2009). I hardly venture out of KL and that includes PJ or other parts of Klang Valley that is not KL so I just happen to know when it came to this part of Klang Valley in KL.

And they are open for franchise too! hello@ninjajoe.my for franchise enquiries. All these lifted off their fb page. :-)
Love this quote on their fb page: Pork = Awesome, Ninjas = Awesomer, Ninja Joe = Awesomest :)

A Trip Into the Past

I had a trip into the past - in the sense that I revisited the places of interest in my current city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a trip down memory lane - only this time, I played tour guide.

I met up with a Filipina girl I befriended via a facebook application I am currently addicted to - (fluff)friends and she brought along a Thai guy she befriended via facebook (not the same application or rather, not any other application) - they are studying the same field - archeology.

She recently had to fly to Indonesia in some archipelago off Yogjakarta and her flight schedule is in such a way that she has to transit in Kuala Lumpur for a night before flying off. As her flight arrived just after noon at around 3-4pm, we made plans to meet up.

With only photos I've seen of her and she of me on facebook, I welcomed her at the KL Sentral station along with that guy, of course, whom she introduced to me. So started my 3-hour fully packed role as their tour guide around the metropolitan city.

I brought them on the LRT (train) ride to Petaling Street, or Chinatown. There they feasted their eyes on unconventional products on display and cheap bargains.

On the way back to the LRT station, we dropped by Central Market (arts and crafts complex) and took a peek into the arts and crafts there.

Then it was the ultimate visit of the night - the Petronas Twin Towers. It was already 8.30pm when we reached KLCC station, the stop where you get off if you wish to visit the Twin Towers.

There are four different entrances/exits of Suria KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre - shopping complex) and I brought them to all four to snap away the night view of the towers, leaving of course, the best angle for last.

Both of them were in awe of the magnificent architecture and the lights accentuated the majestic structure. Pix for your eyes' viewing pleasure. ;-)