Hailed as one of the best outdoor dance festival in Asia, it is the largest one in South East Asia and must go event for any hard core clubbing fanatic in Singapore. Despite that, I had no intention at all to go for Zoukout 2011 until the very last moments where I was swayed by friends. I’ve heard of so many horror stories of girls getting groped and molested while at Zoukout so I decided to be covered up in tee and shorts rather than strutting around in a bikini.

I headed down with Jun, Yitian, Regina, Fabian and JW. But we all met up with more friends that night such as Yan, Melvin, Kay Kay and Eric. It was a maddening crowded and it was a good thing that we camped out at the VIP Singtel teepee for most of the night so we had a fair bit of chilling space. Most of the peeps that went got pretty wasted and it was interesting to see how different personalities emerges when intoxicated. It’s a total release of inhibition which can be pretty fun! If you are wondering if I’m talking about myself, I’m sorry to disappoint as I was absolutely sober that night and even drove everyone out of the island for breakfast before sending them home.

I’m not sure if you still remember blogging about N.E.mation and how I had so much fun at a stop-motion workshop. Well, that was just the basics of stop motion. Using the same principles, there are so many creative ways of creating stop motion videos and I was at the back stage scene of the 10 finalist teams of the N.E.mation! 6 competition.

It was a total eye-opener. The area were divided into tents and each tent had a team working really hard to bring their ideas to life. The students were remarkably hard working, coming in very early in the morning to start work and staying till the wee hours. They were doing what professionals out there are doing except with a lot more passion and at a much younger age. It was a very motivational experience for me to see how hard they strive to win.

Harnessing their different talents, the used different mediums for their stop motion productions. Clay, water color, paper cut outs, drawing with gyroscopes and more! Every single movement has to be absolutely detailed! It’s honestly enough to drive some people insane!

But these students did what most adults have never been able to do in their lifetime and they did it with so much commitment and professionalism; it was simply impressive. I just walked through tent after tent with my eyes wide with wonder and my jaw dropping to the ground.

And finally I’m glad to announce that their work is complete! You can visit http://nemation.sg to view their full videos and participating in choosing the top 3 videos. It’s gonna be a tough choice to make cause I think they are all really good!

I think that their home grown talent should be appreciated and commended and I would vote even if there were no incentives. But N.E.mation! is really kind to reward voters with the chance of winning a prize as well. So here are the prizes that you might win should you vote for your top 3 videos.

Prizes to be Won

1iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 3G worth $848

10 pairsGolden Village Movie Passes

On a completely unrelated note, here’s what I wore the day I headed down to the back scenes of the stop motion process to cheer the teams on. It’s was straight after work so I was a little washed out.

The first stop is Baba Charlie. It’s a very famous nonya kueh shop ( I mean, they even have a Phua Chu Kang endorsement that says that it is the best!). The store only opens till 3pm everyday except Thursdays when they are closed.

And if you want to check the store out the next time you go to Malacca, here’s the address.

72, Jalan Tengkera Pantai 2 75200 Melaka

My mum was really excited about the nonya kueh here because she says that it’s difficult to find really good ones these days and this is about as authentic as you can get. They even use flowers to color their kuehs instead of commercial colorings! There were so many different varieties of kuehs, I didn’t know the names to most of it. I tried the Ondah-Ondah and it was really yummy with gula melaka (coconut sugar) oozing out with every bite!

The love letters were really fragrant and every one of their products is still handmade from scratch. The kitchen is an open concept next to the little food selection area and if you are lucky, you can smell the aroma of freshly made kuehs sifting through the air.

We bought tons of kuehs, and other nonya specialties. I’m sure you can tell from the pictures, the crazy amount we bought and my very happy mummy will be bugging me to bring her back to this treasure trove of nonya kueh soon.

There are tons of entries by I’m going to share with you my favorite 4 videos. (in no order of ranking)

The Team

(video can also be found on youtube here)

Home

(video can also be found on youtube here)

You can take the boy out of Singapore

(video can also be found here)

Year of Independence

(video can also be found on youtube here)

Keep up the good work and I really hope to see more of such creative video productions from our Singaporeans!

I tried the super sparkly lip tattoo that made my lips sparkling! If you are more adventurous, you could even try the violent lip tattoos in leopard print or vivid patterns. Such a cool accessories for costume and themed parties! Other than Violent Lips tattoos, we had a chance to try out  some really cool crackle nail polish by China Glaze and an extraordinary moisturizer called Dr Lippe Original Nipple Balm for the Lips. Like the name suggests, this Dr Lippe was initially designed for nursing mothers nipples but the super moisturizer soon had a cult following using it to moisturize the lips and even nail cuticles! If you have terribly dry lips and need heavy duty moisturizing, give this balm a go.

My personal favourite is definitely the Paperself Eyelashes! They are so beautifully crafted and detailed! Put one of these at the end of your lashes and everyone will take double notice of your eyes. I tried on the butterflies during the Vanity Box party but went home with one of my favourite designs, the sea horse lashes. I had first seen the sea horse lashes on a beautiful lady attending the Melbourne Cup and immediately got excited about them. Now it’s available at Watsons!

If you want to check out what Vanity Box has in store for you, you can go down to the Watsons stores at Ngee Ann City, Bugis Junction, Jurong Point, IMM and Holland Village. They’ll always bring in new exciting brands so there might be even more surprises by now!

After a day of shopping, Regina, Jun, JW, Kay kay, Eric and I had dinner at Nandos and we were supposed to have gone to CHIMES to chill and have some after-dinner drinks. Somehow, plans changed so Kay Kay who had an open bottle at Neverland and suggested we go there instead. I’ve never been to a Thai disco so I decided it might be interesting to see whats all the hype these days with Thai discos.

Fabian, Yutaki and Eric’s cousin joined the rest of us there as well. We had a front table in front of the stage and were entertained the whole night by sexy Thai singers, Taiwanese dancers and even a breakdancing segment by 3 Thai boys. Customers would show their support for these entertainers by buying flower garlands which can cost anything between S$10 to S$1000 which would be then presented to the entertainer and hung around their body.

The highlight performance of the night was a pole dancing routine by one of Thailand’s finalist in a pole dancing competition. She gripped the attention of the entire club with her performance which she pole dance almost from the celling of the club to the bar counter top. It’s hard not to be awed by her tremendous strength, agility and skill. Our group’s personal favorite dancers were, Eric and Yutaki cause those boys can really dance and entertain much better then the entertainers on stage!

After leaving the club we all headed for supper at Newton Circus which made me really excited cause I was starving! Thai disco was an eye-opener but I don’t think it’s my kinda scene. I really much rather do mambo night if I have to club or chill away my night at a quirky cafe/pub with friends. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m getting old.

I actually celebrated Halloween several times in 2011. Was travelling through a couple of countries and ended up attending a few Halloween events. This post, however, is focused on the Halloween in Singapore at the Universal Studios.

I went for Halloween Nights with Jun, Yitian, Regina, JW and Fabian. It was quite a sight and the whole park was transformed into a zombie land. I had no fear of the zombies unless they crept up to me but was pretty terrified at the Peranakan haunted house. Somehow, asian ghosts and folklores have a deeper impact on me then the westernized ones. It’s the same with movies, I’m generally more terrified of Korean, Indonesian, Hong Kong, Japanese horror movies than I am of those done Hollywood style.

I expected myself to be the most easily frightened in the group but I was comparatively pretty brave! LOL. That’s probably only true because Jun and Yitian are a lot easier to scare! Yitian closes her eyes throughout the walk in the haunted house and Jun just kept screaming continuously!  There was even one section of the haunted house walk where Jun refused to walk any further and JW had to clear the way and convince her to keep moving!

While the whole park was done up really nicely with ghostly effects and great actors, I think the queues are just too long! Half the night was probably spent waiting in line. This is my 3rd time in Universal Studios Singapore and the first time I didn’t get a fast pass. I’ll probably not want to go back there again in quite awhile and if I do, I think the extra cost of a fast pass to cut the queues is a worthy investment.

The only place which is not eerie and ghostly is the restaurant. It’s kinda amusing to enjoy my spagetti with meat balls in a safe friendly environment while seeing a post-apocalypse world just beyond the main door of the restaurant.

I suppose that the celebration of Halloween is getting a lot more attention every year and almost everyone I know has attended some Halloween party or dressed up for the day. I wonder at which point would Halloween be so integrated in our Singapore culture that we would be able to send kids house to house for trick or treating.

Here’s my Halloween outfit – a floral Liz Lisa maxi pantsuit. No special costume dress up as Universal Studios do not allow their guests to costume dress for Halloween. I supposed that rule allows them to differentiate between guests and staff. It’ll be a complete chaos if no one could tell who was staff and who were patrons!

I was invited to attend the Longines Singapore Gold Cup at the Turf Club this year together with some other bloggers. Regina got selected during the online best dressed contest by the Turf Club so I was really happy to have her there as well!

His Excellency Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, Longines Vice-President and Head of International Marketing Juan-Carlos Capelli, Longines Ambassador of Elegance, Aaron Kwok were also there to grace the event. It’s a pity we didn’t manage to get the meet and greet session with Aaron Kwok because of the rain.

Despite the rain, we had our own share of fun mingling and chatting while deciding which horses to bet on. Everyone was all dressed up for the event and we participated in the Longines best dressed and the winner walked away with a Longines watch!

We had to do a little cat walk followed by a short dance performance and everyone was so game! Actress and host Rebecca Tan told me she loved my dress and voted for me which was so sweet of her! Other than Jessie, William, Nira, HP and Smith, whom I’ve met previously on similar turf club events, I made several new friends that day which is always nice.

The Singapore Gold Cup Day has traditionally been designated as an annual Charity Race Day. Since Longines took on the title sponsorship last year, Longines has continued to dedicate this event towards charity.

The highlight of the event definately goes to the Longines Gold Cup race wher Ronnie Stewart on El Dorado took home the gold! He wasn’t one of the hot favourites but he exceeded everyone’s expectaions.

I think Turf Club has been doing a great job of organising such events with glitz and glamour and I hope that one day racing and race fashion will be as happening as it is in Australia.

Here’s one last look at the outfit I put together for that day.