My Favourite Moments of 2010

I get exhausted just thinking about all the stuff that happened during the year. I mean, just when we thought 2009 had taken up all the quota on natural disasters and celebrity deaths for the rest of the century, 2010 gave us more of the same, like it or not.

But on the personal front, mostly good stuff happened for me. And here are just some of my favourite moments:


MHI Debut
Yup, it’s never too late to try something new in life. And so on 1st Jan 2010, I made my debut as a host on Malaysia Hari Ini. It was beyond nerve-wracking, to be honest. But I’ve learned a lot since then, and in total, I’ve done more than 90 shows to date. Not bad for a total amateur :)

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Launched TonTon
Got on stage as The Rock and helped to launch Malaysia’s coolest website ever, http://www.tonton.com.my/. Yup, it’s a total rush to present to some one thousand industry professionals while holding a WWE Championship Belt.

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Theme Park, Theme Park, Theme Park
Went to four of the biggest and funnest theme parks in the world this year; Movie World & Dream World in Australia, Everland in South Korea and Universal Studios in Singapore. Not much of a “rides” person, but the souvenirs are nice lah…

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.Yusuf Islam Interview
The man, the icon. I almost lost the interview when he had to initially cancel his MHI appearance due to his being ill, but the team persevered and in the end, I managed to get an exclusive with him at his hotel. An enlightening and truly memorable experience it was.

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The French Expedition
Well, sort of. It was my first time in the country, but managed to see some amazing stuff in Nice, Cannes and Paris. The credit card bills are still haunting me, though…

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Jammed As A Boy Scout
It was a costume party lah. But don’t I look cute? Hehe.

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OMG, It’s SJP!
So I was at this party in Cannes when guess who walked in? Sarah. Jessica. Parker. I mean, how many of you can actually say that? Haha. Didn’t get a personal photo with the woman, but this is good enough.
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Wet, Wet, Wet
Yup, I “showered” on national TV. Nice....

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Happy New Year, folks!

Last Day!

Um, not for me lah, but for the current MHI set. Yup, as I'm jotting this down, the set is being torn down and a slicker look will be unleashed on January 3rd. And yeah, the content will have some new twists as well. So make sure you tune in next Monday!

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My Favourite Stuff Of 2010

It's that time of the year where everyone cranks out their year-end list. Here's my first one:

Film
 Inception

The hype was easily met. And then some. Mind-bogglingly awesome, it was one of those films you simply didn’t want to end.

...Blu-Ray
Avatar

A cinematic spectacle, James Cameron’s masterpiece holds up well on Blu-Ray as well. With loads of extra stuff for the truly obsessed.

... ..Concert
Green Day in SingaporeNot only the best of the year. But the best EVER. Seeing my favourite band playing a flawless, rockin’ set was a dream come true indeed. I still have chills just thinking about it.

... .....Musical Theatre 
Amy: Satu MasaA bold attempt that really paid off for the legendary rocker. Amy rocked, serenaded and opened up to show us sides of him we never saw before. Truly memorable.
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Guilty Pleasure
Katie Perry's "California Gurls"

Hated the tune when it first came out, but now, I can't get enough of it. Everybody now... "Cah lee for nia gurls, they're unforgettable..."

......TV Show
Malaysia Hari Ini So OK, I'm biased, but it's not the number one morning show on TV for nothing, ok?

...Sporting Event 
The World Cup England flopped yet again, but South Africa did a brilliant job at hosting the tournament despite all the doubts.

Book
I'll Mature When I'm Dead by Dave Barry If you didn't know yet, Barry's my favourite writer of all time. And this one's another classic!
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Gadget 
iPad Thought I could resist jumping on the bandwagon. But Mr. Jobs really knows marketing, and of course, what makes a good product. (And we all stopped laughing at the name eventually, didn't we?)

Website

Tonton.com.my

Yup, biased again, but it's a whole new way to watch TV. Kau mampu??? Hahaha...
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App
Flipboard

A “social magazine” with all the stuff that matters to me. It doesn’t get any better than that.
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Vacation 
UK (again) Only ‘cos we went to Shakspeare’s freakin house this time around!
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Food 
Macarons

And I was lucky enough to taste the real thing. You know, the ones from France!

The MHI Special

So, it was a special episode of Malaysia Hari Ini this past Monday when we broadcasted 'live' from Masjid As-Salam in Puchong Perdana. The occassion? The mass circumcision of some 70 kids! Of course I'm not kidding, I mean, check out the sign...
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Yup, some 70 kids were getting their foreskin snipped off, and naturally we had to be there. Haha. But credit must go to everyone involved in the whole thing; from the mosque committee members, the bomba, the kids' family members, the silat dudes and of course, our own production team.

And it was pretty cool to be doing MHI from a different location.
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So what did we actually talk about for almost the entire length of the show? Well, you know, the whole "potong" process lah. (I guess you know now why I blogged about the subject recently, huh?). But it really got me thinking; while such explicit subjects are tabboo in our society, the slicing of schlongs is one of those deemed acceptable. I mean, we were basically going on and on about how the procedure is done, personal experiences, and other "funny" aspects of it. Ironic, huh?

But back to the the day's broadcast, it began with a couple of speeches and marhaban performance.
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...And then it was time for the "bersiram" ceremony, where the sunat-ees get showered (usually by the friendly neighbourhood bomba) together. The reason? To soften wherever needs to be softened, so the procedure would be less, um, painful.
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.But it was no ordinary "bersiram" ceremony on that day. Because, game enough to join them showering in public with absolutely no shame was... ME!

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Yup, it was a bit of history for me as well, as half a million people in the country watched me bermandi-manda with a bunch of kids. It slightly felt like a wet t-shirt contest for me as well...

But hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do in the name of TV ratings, so I did it. And judging by comments that I got, M.Zul in a wet baju melayu is not really a bad sight early in the morning. Haha!

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Anyway, after that, more good stuff happened, as we took the viewers right into the "operation room". Ally even interviewed one of the boys as he was being circumcised! I mean, take that, Reality TV!

Overall, it was a pretty cool TX and so glad we made so many people happy that morning. And for the record, for one reason or another, I ended up showering 5 different times on that day...

Singapore: Pre-Wikileaks...

So, as previously mentioned, was in Singapore for a good 4 days mainly to attend the Asia Television Forum. Sort of like MIPCOM, only on a smaller scale. And much quieter, as it turned out.

But of course you would expect good organisation lah. Everything was properly lined up and the people were wonderfully polite. So as expected, registration at the Suntec Convention Centre was a breeze.



Overall, ATF was a pretty quiet affair, although the meetings with the networks and content partners were pretty good. So look out for more good shows on tonton.com.my coming your way in 2011.
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Of course, some time was spent on jalan-jalan, and who could miss Orchard Road during X'Mas season right? As usual, the lights were amazing. And I couldn't help noticing how there seems to be less of the obssession with snow and reindeers down south. I mean, walk into any mall in Malaysia, and you'll be greeted by totally out-of-place imagery of X'Mas. Come on lah, mati hidup semula also you will never see snow in Malaysia lah. Be creative a bit, can or not?
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.And yes, I celebrated my bday (not 40 yet, in case you're wondering) in the Lion City. It was a simple, yet memorable occasion this time around, punctuated of course by a big dinner by Boat Quay :)
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One of the nights was also spent lepaking by the latest landmark of the city; the Marina Bay Sands.

.And finally, a trip to the Universal Studios in Sentosa was also on the agenda. I got mixed reviews before going there though, some saying that we should wait till all the attractions were opened before bother going, but hey, we were already there, so why not?

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Didn't drive there though, but instead we took a taxi to Vivo City and took the monorail straight to the park. Which is an option I would recommend anyone.

.And my verdict? A solid thumbs up! It helped that everything's still brand new, and of course, very well-maintained so far. The layout's pretty neat and no, you won't struggle to find halal food.
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My only complaint though is that it was a pretty hot day out! Ok, ok, can't do anything about the actual weather, but they should really invest in my mist-fans and air-conditioning wherever possible. But otherwise, it's a much-recommended holiday destination, especially if you have young ones, or if you're simply young-at-heart :)
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