"Photo selection day"

Ok, so yesterday went to select the pictures and they turned out AWESOME. The photographer is really as good as they say: places which looked so ordinary can be turned into classy masterpieces!

My package has:
1 big album with 20 pages
1 medium album with 20 pages
1 big picture with frame
1 small picture with frame (don't remember the sizes)
and lots of Thank You cards in 4 designs

Selecting the big picture (to hang in the main bedroom) was probably the hardest. I wanted the one in the grass, Gf wanted the one in the beach. Hehe.. end up the big one put the beach pic and the small one put the grass pic. Thank You cards are easier to choose. Any 4 in different backgrounds will do.

For the album, there were around 200 to choose from. We cut out alot of the pics; any kissing poses, duplicates (same costume, diff poses) and overly artistic ones. Still ended up with 120 pics after 4 hours there. I probably should have done a third round of photo filtering but decided to add 10 pages to the big album and 20 to the medium album. Gf even increased the size of the big picture :-S

Now I know why people have to fork out extra money on top of the package. Mine have to add another RM2k :-S So much for "No, I won't let my photo album exceed the price!" They need about 2 months to get the photos ready, so then u guys can see if it's really worth the money!

"Food fest at Super Tanker food court!"

Since Gf is here for the school holidays, we are going for food fests! Today's dinner is slightly different. She said she missed the Thai food stalls downstairs at Super Tanker food court, so we had these:



Soup with a few slices of fish maw (yu piu), some black mushroom, a piece of chicken wing and a sprinkle of parsley. (RM5)



Thai green curry.. Pretty spicy but the taste/thickness of the gravy is just awesome. But should be a tad more generous with the serving :P (RM3.80)



Still from that same shop, a fish dish fried with spices and placed into this high-powered super-spicy sauce. And I *really* mean super-spicy! My advice: although it tastes good, DON'T drink the sauce!! Oh and there's also some kerabu at the side. (RM7, depends on size)



The shop beside the Thai stall is another Thai stall (they are related), and we ordered omelette and kangkung fried with tauchu. Tastes great, especially the kangkung. Can order it with sambal, but too much spiciness would off-balance the dishes. (RM2.20, RM5)



Oh wait, not done yet.. opposite there is a fried chicken/tofu/stuff stall. Nicely fried with a hint of belacan to enchance the flavour. (RM2)

And the first 2 dishes came with white rice. Yeah, we're Asians, so rice is a must :D

It took awhile, but we finally managed to finish all the food. Sometimes, u don't really have to go to classy restaurants to get nice food. Penang is famous for hawker stalls who can cook up a storm without u having to fork out a fortune :)

"Photo day"

Just came back from the photo session.

11.45AM: Reached the studio, started putting make-up. Gf pretty much left most of the decision to the stylist, but I was concerned with how my hair would turn out... u know la, Leopard mar... :P After lots of blowing, spraying, combing and re-combing and adjusting, finally got the 'look' that I deemed to be natural enough! We started with the studio pics, then break for lunch, then continue more studio pics. When it came to the traditional costume, I was pleasantly surprised when they passed me an all-black Nehru jacket :D

Kinda lost track of time, since we're in the studio all the time, but I guess around 4PM we went for outdoors photography. First stop was the Peranakan Museum. It's pretty interesting, like Melaka one. Many shots later, we went to a .... construction site! An open field with grass and trees like that also can be a place for photography. One problem I had was when the guy ask me to carry Gf. Omg. After 2 shots, I got injured dy! Either she's too heavy (hehe) or I'm lembik (weak).

Haha.. anyways, next stop was at a seaside, even had to go into the water -_-'' The photographer was very excited coz he said he took some awesome shots. But, then it just had to happen.... RAIN :D And heavy rain some more!! All of us scrambled for shelter, though already drenched :-S A moment later, the rain subsided and we went to one last spot, a classy housing estate at Tanjung Bungah... snap in the middle of the road :P

Ok, that's a wrap, nicely ending at 6PM. This Saturday going to choose the photos and that's when have to pay the remaining balance (Salary, I'm depending on u to come out on time!). Lets see how the pics turns out! :)

"Busy week ahead..."

Photo shoot updates~~~

Gown selection date: 23/08/09
- This was yesterday, and it took about 2 hours plus. I basically had nothing to do other than sit down and say nice or not while Gf tries out the various gowns. However, there's A LOT of things which I need to get (slacks, shoes, shirts) since they only provide me the coat. Gf also upgraded the evening gown to SuperVIP so have to add RM412, but that gown looks really nice, so ok la.

And we get to choose 2 traditional outfits.. u get to be traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc. Screw it, I say don't want :P Actually there is one type of clothing in particular which I really love: the Nehru jacket!


Pic taken from here.

Cool? But didn't see that the shop have it though.

Photography date: 26/08/09
- Have applied for leave on Wednesday and Thursday, predicting it will be a tiring day. The photography session starts at 11.45AM and supposedly ends at 6-7PM. Oh, and please don't rain like it did today!

"GI Joe: Rise of Cobra figures!"

Right after watching the movie, I went to Toys R Us, and saw a new shipment of Hasbro's GI Joe figures! Searching through, I bought these four:



Scarlett, Duke, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow



Mr. Cool himself, Snake Eyes, wearing a trenchcoat. He appears like this in a few scenes, so damn cool, it reminds me of Darth Maul... small wonder since it is the same actor :D



I already have a Storm Shadow earlier, but this version is without his mask. That's the secret of Hasbro, make multiple versions of the same character!



The main hero, Duke.



And Scarlett. Originally I wanted to just collect the ninjas Snake and Shadow, but changed my mind after seeing how cool the rest of the GI Joe squad put together. Unfortunately, aside from Shadow and Baroness, I find the design for the bad guys like Destro and Cobra Commander rather poor.

And my current GI Joe: Rise of Cobra collection. Don't u just love black uniforms?



"Hello brother!" There will be a THIRD version of Storm Shadow coming up, based on the final battle... :D

"GI Joe: Rise of Cobra"

Yesterday went for team building: this time it's movies! Just love movie as a team-building activity (although makan is still the best :P ) Anyways, we went for GI Joe: Rise of Cobra

How was it? GI Joe is an elite team of blablabla, and then Cobra is blablabla.. fight fight laugh laugh... it's not big on story or anything; it's just plain FUN! Yes, it's silly but most importantly it was a lot of fun watching it! Seeing Snake Eyes take on Storm Shadow is COOL redefined! And there's the compulsory babes to check out: Baroness and Scarlett... Baroness wins hands down, thanks to her super tight leather outfit with long hair and that super cool sunglasses... phew~~

Plus, I dropped by Toys R'Us after watching the movie and (of coz), grabbed a few key figures. Pics coming up :)

"Genesis Climber Mospeada!"

Mospeada was adapted as the 3rd arc of Robotech, but recently I'm watching the original Mospeada in Japanese... Gosh, it's like a different series altogether! Here's the original song opening... brings back memories as a kid~~ :D

and the sad end theme, perfectly capturing the mood~~



I also found out that there's an OVA (Original Video Animation) released to just cap things off. It's called Love Live Alive, showing flashbacks.. Yellow in concert... and what happens after the last episode. It still leaves that sad feeling at the end, truly classic series.

"Taylor Swift: You Belong With Me"

Just caught this on TV... so sweet................... :) :)



Taylor Swift!!!!

"VF100's VF-25F Armored Messiah Alto Custom!"

Macross Frontier is filled with memorable characters with a superb storyline and remains one of my favorite. The hero, Alto Saotome starts off as a talented pilot, but throughout the show his skills improve considerably and in 2 instances, he is issued permission to use the Armored Messiah; one to rescue Ranka and the other in the epic finale. You can bet I will add this into my collection ;)

There are 3 versions of Alto's Armored Messiah available: the 1/60, 1/72 and 1/100. I'm waiting for Ozma's 1/60 Armored Messiah.. and recall my complaint that the 1/72 model kit turns flimsy after a few transformation, so when I saw the 1/100 figure, just grab it!

Fighter





Gerwalk



Battroid




The Armored Messiah carries a ton of missiles!





The 1/100 line belongs to the VF100's series from Bandai




The VF100's line will cover all of the Macross series, as indicated by this diagram on the box



Macross Zero, Macross, Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Frontier and Macross II. Sweet!

Inside the box

The VF100's series is a part-forming figure; meaning to transform it, you have to take out certain parts and use other connectors etc. The first VF100's suffered from requiring too many part-swapping to transform. Bandai listened and this time, they made improvements: this Armored Messiah has much less part-swapping and is fun to handle!

This costs RM280 and I got it from the shop @ QB.

"Neon Genesis Evangelion"

Can't be watching Macross and Mospeada over and over again rite... so I went out to look for something new. When I do a search for recommended anime, the title Neon Genesis Evangelion consistently comes up. Curious, went to download a sample first.

"At the age of 14, Shinji Ikari is summoned by his father to the city of Neo Tokyo-3 after several years of separation. There he unwillingly accepts the task of becoming the pilot of a giant robot by the name EVA-01 and protect the world from the enigmatic invaders known as Angels. Even though he repeatedly questions why he has accepted this mission from his estranged and cold father, his doing so helps him to gradually accepts himself. However, why exactly are the Angels attacking and what are his father's true intentions are yet to be unraveled."

Interesting.

Then yesterday found this original DVD set @ Artist Gallery, comes with the soundtrack for RM59.90. Cool, just grab it (since I didn't have anything else to buy this week!)

Watched the first few episodes and so far it's pretty fun. Let see how it goes~~

"Macross Frontier: Armored Ozma!"

It's been a long time coming, but we now have pictures of the highly anticipated 1/60 Armored Ozma!








Release date is 12 Aug 09




Aaaa... can I have it now?? :P

*Pictures taken from http://tamashii.jp/

"Rain fights back Haze"

Thankfully, after a night of rain...




... we can breathe easier :D

"Haze chokes Penang"

Woke up to the sight of, yet again, HAZE.




View from my balcony this morning. Sig...

"Macross Collection Part 3!"

This is Collection Part 3 of CM's Macross figures! I wasn't too keen to get this set because of the lack of anchor characters.



The main attraction for me:



Minmei, this time from her concert in Macross:DYRL ;)

Brash, impulsive and psychotic ace pilot Isamu Dyson from Macross Plus



The "Flower Girl" who appears in every episode of Macross 7, always trying (unsuccessfully) to give flowers to Nekki Basara...



Umm.. I forgot her name... she's one of the 3 bridge bunnies in Macross.. :P

The figure I like the least: Max in Zentran uniform from Macross:DYRL. In the original TV series, Miria undergoes micronization to be with Max, but in DYRL, it's the other way round. Somehow this concept just doesn't fit.

And....



Roy Fokker in his VF-1S!

at least, just the cockpit :P Honestly I thought this would be another turkey like Max, but once I saw the real thing, I just love it! The size is bigger than expected, so they manage to put all the little details in.

So what else is left for these Macross Collection figures? I did a search in Hobby Search



Minmei special~~! Cool, this I would have no hesitation to get :D



And Collection Part 2 featuring Lisa Hayes, Sara Nome (Macross Zero), ROY FOKKER, more Minmei and NEKKI BASARA!! OMGGGG MUST GET IT!