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Like many guys, I have a thing for time pieces. Sitting in my closet are several gateway-drug sort of watches in the form of an Orange Monster, my first mechanical watch, a Citizen ProMaster Eco-Drive Nighthawk, a Casio G-Shock Riseman, and a Suunto D6 I use for diving.

So you can imagine my excitement when I was invited to the launch of 2012 Vintage WW1 Heure Sautante Material & Complication by Bell & Ross, one of my favorite luxury watch brands ever since I first set my eyes on a BR-01.

Bell & Ross Material and Complications

The event took place at Estate, the Intermark KL on 26th July, with the set up of the romantic post-war era of 1950s Shanghai. The ambiance is a throw back to the time of luxurious elegance, timeless sophistication and ethereal beauty.

Bell & Ross also featured a photo exhibition by the celebrated local photographer Vincent Paul Yong who captured a series of photos with the Vintage WW1 Heure Sautante via an exclusive collaboration with Bell & Ross.

photo exhibition by Vincent Paul Yong

Vincent Paul Yong, better known by VPYP, has been a leading photographer in Malaysia, having photographed the likes of British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, pop singer Mizz Nina, and Brazilian model Lucas Mascarini. The photos were presented at this event prior to them being available to any print media. They were of course, work of art.

Mr Tong Chee Wei (GM FJ Benjamin Luxury Timepieces), Mr SK Teh (GM Cortina Watch)

The two companies, FJ Benjamin Luxury Timepieces and Cortina Watch joined forces to celebrate Bell & Ross’ quest for creating a large complication with original display in the form of Vintage WW1 Heure Sautante.

The night was kicked off by speeches from General Manager of FJ Benjamin Luxury Timepieces, Mr. Tong Chee Wai, and the GM of Cortina Watch, Mr. SK Teh, and followed by a recorded presentation and words from President of Bell & Ross, Carlos-A Rosillo.

model with Bell & Ross BR Grand Minuteur Tourbillon

The models then brought out the watches for guests to examine.

The complications come in two forms – “digital” complication is an unusual display of the digits for hours in a large window at 12 o’clock position, with the hour hand replaced by a rotating disc that jumps instantly when the hour changes.

the new Bell & Ross Vintage WW1 Heure Sautante Pink Gold

Power reserve indicator then, is located at the 6 o’clock position. Since the mechanism triggering the “jump” in the hours requires power, it is thus important that remaining power is easily examined, to ensure a smooth function of the movement.

Bell & Ross presents Materials & Complications

The two complications are dressed in pink gold or platinum, the ultimate high quality material that brings nobility to the timepieces. This is where the “material” in material & complications come into play.

The platinum version also features a second window for the power reserve indicator with opaline grey and silvered dial in 18k gold while the pink gold version has an opaline pearl dial. Both versions are 42 mm in diameter.

Reta & KY, Cindy, Nicholas with the models

The watches showcase Bell & Ross’s expertise in watch-making, they are elegant and brilliantly combine the complexity of mechanical movement with simplicity of a new time reading system.

The WW1 Heure Sautante Collection will be very exclusive, Bell & Ross will produce only 50 pieces for pink gold and 25 pieces for platinum version. They are priced at RM 83,300 and RM 123,300 respectively.

Shanghai based jazz singer Jasmine Chen serenades to guests

We were also entertained by the Shanghai based jazz singer Jasmine Chen while being served champagne, single malt whisky, and finger foods from Estate. Making the night a memorable one.

Vintage WW1 Heure Sautance with Power Reserve

Technical Specifications:

WW1 Heure Sautante Pink Gold

• Movement: jumping hour, automatic winding movement. Blue-steel screws, circular-grained mainplate, oscilating weight and bridges decorated with “Cotes de Geneve”
• Case: 42 mm, Satin-brushed 18k pink gold. Sapphire caseback
• Functions: Hours indicator (windows at 12 o’clock), minutes (central hand) and power reserve (at 6 o’clock)
• Dial: opaline pearl
• Crystal: anti-reflective sapphire
• Water resistance: 100 meters
• Strap: alligator
• Buckle: 18k pink gold

WW1 Heure Sautante Pink Gold and Platinum

WW1 Heure Sautante Platinum

• Movement: jumping hour, automatic winding movement. Blue-steel screws, circular-grained mainplate, oscilating weight and bridges decorated with “Cotes de Geneve”
• Case: 42 mm, Satin-brushed steel. Sapphire caseback
• Functions: Hours indicator (windows at 12 o’clock), minutes (central hand) and power reserve (at 6 o’clock)
• Dial: opaline grey and silvered dial in 18k gold hand-applied guiloche decoration
• Crystal: anti-reflective sapphire
• Water resistance: 100 meters
• Strap: alligator
• Buckle: platinum

Last month it was the Vietnamese cooking demo and Vietnamese promotion at Latest Recipe, Le Meridien. Now the very same hotel runs the Taste of Italy” culinary event featuring guest Chef Fabrizio from Westin Bejing Financial Street.

Together with a bunch of bloggers & members of media, we were treated to a cooking demonstration by the good chef, and here’s one of his recipe.

Now even I think I can properly cook a meal with lobster that will do the shell fish justice. Here’s the recipe.

glorious Maine lobster in frying pan with olive oil, herbs & cherry tomato

Ingredients:

• 320 g spaghetti
• 100 g olive oil
• 300 g cherry tomato (halved)
• 30 g garlic (chopped)
• 4 pcs maine lobster
• 100 g butter
• salt & pepper to taste

For the pesto

• 25 g basil
• 25 g marjoram
• 25 g parsley
• 75 g olive oil

here’s the spaghetti with lobster

The preparation method is pretty straight forward, and let me just copy verbatim from Chef Fabrizio’s text.

Roast garlic in large pan with olive oil. Add lobster, cherry tomato and cook with some water, add seasoning. Boil pasta in a large pot with salted water until the favorite cooking. Blend herbs with the olive oil for pesto. Take“` lobster out of the sauce, clean the tongs and half the tail. Arrange halved tail in a plate. Strain spaghetti and add sauce with herb pesto and butter. Arrange spaghetti beside the lobster, add lobster meat. Decorate with some herb leaves and serve.

fresh spring herb pesto, prepared with a blender

It’s pretty simple isn’t it?

Chef Fabrizio has a bit of flair and the lack of “seriousness” when it comes to preparation of his dishes. As he proudly said “I am not a pastry chef”, and cooking should involves a sense of flexibility and creativity. I like this style.

In fact, in a short span of 1 hour or so, the good chef prepared three dishes right in front of us, including the eggplant millefeuille recipe shared by Kim.

and we were served a very good buffet spread too, Chef Fabrizio & Chef Antoine

To get a taste of Chef Fabrizio’s creations, you can head to Favola at Le Meridien KL from June 4 to June 12, 2011. Ala carte goes for RM 25++ to RM 130++. Don’t miss out especially if you’re a fan of authentic Italian cuisine.

KY with Chef Fabrizio, Jon & Ciki, Cindy & Kim & Haze, Kim & Gareth

We were also fed an awesome spread of Italian dishes after the event (and after we sampled all three dishes prepared by Chef Fabrizio). There were cold cuts, clams, pizza, bruschetta, smoked salmon, salad, and more. It was a fantastic and certainly gastronomically satisfied session.

Address:
Favola
2 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
Kuala Lumpur 50470
GPS: 3.135631,101.686476
Tel: 03-2263 7888

During the HOMEDEC weekend at KLCC Convention Center, I had the privilege of attending a workshop hosted by Nippon Paint with a bunch of usual suspects. I went with the “not another boring event!” mentality, but came out with a host of knowledge about colors and living spaces I didn’t have a clue about, it was a very pleasant surprise to say the very least.

attending the very informative presentation – Redmummy, HB, CityGirl

The workshop started out with a presentation by Ms. Gladys Goh of Nippon Paint, in an almost classroom like environment, we learned about colors.

Color to evoke emotions, one of the things I never thought about, for example:

• Yellow – Happy
• Purple – Romantic
• Light Green – Refreshing
• Light Blue – Soothing and Calm
• Maroon – Passionate
• Red – Energize

So for example, it is appropriate to paint a study room light blue, but you wouldn’t want it to be all romantic and purple. Make sense, no?

colors galore, with small tubes for painting decals too

Next we also learn about color schemes. Again, this is something that I’ve never really given any thoughts.

• Monochromatic – the simplest and least imaginative, a single color in combination with different hues that gives a cozy, relaxing, and sooth ambiance. Easy to not go wrong.
• Adjacent/Analogous – picking a few colors within 90 degree of the color wheels (colors that are close to each other.)
• Complementary – using colors that are opposite to each other in the spectrum, like blue and orange to create contrast of cool & warmth.
• Triadic – this is probably the most daring one, choosing 3 different colors that forms a triangle on the wheel, for example, green, yellow, and maroon. This can create a vibrant theme but if you’re not careful, the living room might turn out to look like a kindergarten.

look at my creation, hohoho

Other than the roles of colors and color schemes, there were other useful tips in painting. Some of these are just common sense that we often overlooked.

For example, always paint the ceiling, follow by walls, then windows and doors before proceeding to floor (yes, some people do paint their floor).

Other good habits in painting smart is to ensure that you always paint the difficult area first. Paint the edges, corners, and high spots before proceeding to the main area. Keep strokes continuously and do it in the same direction (up-down or left right), and always paint two coats or more.

Huai Bin, Cheesie, Ms. Wong Meng Lee, and Redmummy‘s husband’s creations

After the lecture we were each given our canvas to experiment on some wall arts.

Now some of you might say that wallpaper and stickers are and easier solution. To a certain extend, they are, but with our climate, wallpaper is usually not a very long term solution, same goes with stickers.

For those with a braver soul looking for a more permanent solution, using real paint for wall art is the way to go. We use a variety of different colors and the tools provided (brush, masking tapes, foams) and created our own wall art.

KY, Cindy, Cheesie, BeautifulNara, Redmummy

With some masking tapes I did some square thingy on my canvas and also experimented with drawing a tree free hand. I think the results are alright, a little more care and thought with it I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with something better. Huai Bin’s wall art was probably one of the weirdest, while Cheesie of course, stamped her canvas with pieces of cheese (then added a really fat rat).

Next up would be my living room make over with a fresh coat of paint and some wall art. I’ve actually found a designer to aid me in the wall art department since I basically accepted the fact that my designing career won’t really go anywhere.

Stay tuned!

It’s out, and I now got not one, but two units of Blackberry Curve 8520 with me from the xBerry launch party last Saturday at Republic, Sunway Pyramid.

I got the phone from the one-day only deal at RM 888 + RM 50 xpax reload + RM 8.50 for a celcom prepaid number. Total damage = RM 945.60.

brisk business at the launch party, check out the giant 8520

I got the extra unit for a colleague who didn’t want to miss out the deal but couldn’t make it to the party. There were hundreds of people at the event and within a couple hours, half of the 500 allocated units of Curve were already gone.

The phone is now RRP at RM 1188, still a pretty good deal since it’s completely unlock and you’re not tied down with any contract.

KY, Cheesie, Tzia, and Cindy at xBerry party

Now I’m just waiting for everyone to get their BB services activated so we can have BBM orgies! That’s you Cheesie and Cindy!

When I was going to college, my only mean of transportation was my old trusted Honda EX5, and I would ride to everywhere (even from KL to Penang, but that’s another story). Most journeys are boring and monotonous, but the one stretch of road I always remember is from KL to Subang via Federal Highway, next to the GAB factory. It was the sweet smell coming out of the factory, yums!

So when I received an invitation to a blogger’s meet by Heineken at GAB’s a few weeks ago, it was almost like a “yes I’ve been wanting to do this for along time” moment.

The Tavern at GAB, why was Desmond checking out Mell’s food ?

It was actually the last event Mell I attended before she left for Melbourne, and Huai Bin was nice enough to give us a lift since my car was still in the workshop getting a much needed paint job. Thanks pal!

The three of us were greeted by the good people from GAB, and immediately we were served a glass of chilled Heineken to start the evening. This is as fresh as you can get when it comes to beer.

a well stocked buffet line

We started to attack the buffet line as the other guys starting come arrive. The number of dishes prepared was well adequate and a few dishes were actually quite tasty. The lamb was succulent, and Mell particularly loved the grilled sweet potato that went so well with the cold beer.

KY & Mell, Simon, ST, Audrey, Tim, Kenny, HB, Cindy, Tock

The other usual suspects slowly arrived at the scene. Timothy and Audrey, Gareth, Robb, Carol, Kenny, Cindy, Tock, Cynthia, Simon, and a couple other Nuffies too.

We were just chilling, have a beer each and did a lot of catch ups. I mean, we usually meet over events and parties where it is mostly too loud to talk, so a change of scenery to the quiet and exclusive bar set up at the Tavern was actually very nice.

Cindy, Audrey, and Robb in beer pouring competition, Robb failed

The gang were then challenged to play bartender for a round and see if we can pour a perfect pint. I got to say, this thing looks simple enough but I ended up with about 65% beer and 35% foam, fail.

Cindy, who hailed from the kampung in Johor did the best among us (I wonder why!) and got an almost perfect pint. Audrey, despite being slightly vertically challenged, did a whole lot better than the over confident Robb. Lesson learned, never judge a beer lady by their looks.

Win a trip to Krabi! (shhh, that’s the tropical beach)

Jasmine and Evonne then introduced us to Heineken Star Final 2009.

The Star Final 2009 is a 3 day trip to Krabi, all expenses paid, to watch the UEFA Champions League final on giant screen by the beach while gulping down Heineken with people from all over the world. I am very please to say that Suan, Horng, and I have already won our tickets at previous Heineken event.

how do you like my raft?

But of course, you have a chance to join us too by playing the game on the Star Final site, and you can do it from now until 30th April.

Basically the idea is like this: create a raft (customizable to pwetty colors!) and sail to from South Africa to Thailand. The virtual trip takes 5 days, and by the end of it the one with most points gets to win 2 tickets to Star Final 2009. You can play as many times every 5 days until the end of next month. So first if you don’t succeed, try again!

the fleet I’m in has 2 rafts so far

There are certain things in the game you can do to pick up more points. Like joining a bigger fleet, answering football related questions correctly as fast as you can (only 3 questions each time though!), or by inviting more friends and subscribing to Heineken newsletter.

I must say that the game is very well designed, the graphics are top notch and it is actually pretty fun and interactive. You can see people from other part of the world, message each other (appears as a bottle floating next to your raft), view fleet, and of course, your own raft. Everything is also customizable, very neat.

I’m still playing for fun even though I’ve already won the tickets. 😀

LapSap (Blink and XU), DJ Goldfish, Bumblebeez,

Other than the that, Heineken will also be having a string of events led by the main showdown – “A Night in Rome” at Hap Seng Star Mercedes-Benz Auto Haus on Jalan Sultan Ismail on the 25th of April with LapSap and The Bumblebeez spinning.

There will be giant projectors, mock Roman architecture and Champions League paraphernalia, fashion shows, performances and all that jazz too. It should be pretty awesome! See you there!