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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My "Sunat" Experience (Slightly 18SX)

Pretty soon you'll see why I decided to write this. I mean, it's a really personal experience and it's been close to 30 years when it happened to me, but like I said, you'll know very soon...
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Anyway, getting circumcised is a pretty big deal for every boy out there. Once done, you become a Man, and you can laugh at those still with their foreskin intact. (Sample of insult: "ha ha, mat kulup, tak malu...").

But the experience is nothing to laugh about, really. The first issue would be WHEN to do it? The belief is that the older one gets, the more "liat" it becomes (look it up). But don't do it when too young, or your thang might stop growing. Not really scientific in the reasoning, but most people hold these "principles" to be true.

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As such, it was decided that I would be circumcised when I was in standard 4. And being an only child, it was also decided that 3 of my cousins (one older, one of the same age, and one younger) would join in the fun.

It was of course done during the school holidays, so naturally, my thoughts were solely on the big day (ahem, no pun intended), after the last school bell had rang that year. I must say I was a tad scared. Hey, it's a pretty important organ to meddle with, ok?

But everyone kept assuring me it was gonna be fine. "Alah, tak rasa apa pun, 10 saat je," said one. "Macam kena gigit semut je lah," said another. What a bunch of liars. I mean, I was 10, but I wasn't stupid. "Like getting bitten by an ant?" Give me a freakin' break.

Anyway, our fathers had hired this doctor who'd done this a million times at the hospital. But for us, he agreed to come over to our family house in Kampung Melayu, JB to turn all of us into men. We didn't have the "mandi" ritual tho. And we didn't sit on a "batang pisang".

Instead, we got cut up right there on the dining table. No kidding.

Before that, the order of circumcision had to be decided. I heard both sides of the argument. Go first and the knife might just cut off everything since it's still sharp. Go last, and the doctor might run out of "ubat bius".

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I decided to go first.

I changed into a kain pelikat, and was walked to the table by my father. I gulped, then I lied down. To distract me from the impending pain, someone gave me a "Gila-Gila" magazine to read. I swear I'm not making any of this stuff up.

I tried reading it, but I had the magazine upside down. The whole thing lasted more than 10 seconds, obviously. And I felt a bit of pain. But it wasn't too bad. And when it was all done, I was led to the special "sunat" room for me to lie down.

...My kain was hoisted up just like the picture above. I remember feeling very hot and after the "bius" subsided, it felt quite painful down there.

But here come the cool parts. Two of us occupied the first room and the other two occupied the one at the back of the house. We were given special treatment. I got a Nintendo Game & Watch ("Popeye") from my father. How cool was that lah? So the next few days were spent suffering in pain WHILE playing a video game.

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The next cool part was that we had LOADS of visitors coming around. They would stop by our rooms and gave us money! Kaya, ok? The only bummer was that almost each and every one of them would also take a peek at our willies before moving on. So basically, people gave us money for showing them our willies. You make your own judgments.

But generally everything was A-OK. We had "sabut"s by our side to pound on our knees especially in the mornings to tame any unwanted, er, vertical movements, and we were up and about after about 5 days. And probably RM500 richer.

Not too shabby, really...

Singapore, JB, But Not Batam lah...

Hey peeps, just got back from a trip down south; 4 nights in Singapore for work + pleasure and another night in my beloved hometown JB for the usual business. Will write more about Singapore, but was there officially for the Asia Television Forum that ran from this past Wednesday to Friday.

Which of course meant I celebrated being one year older in the Lion City. No big do, but I did get a surprise birthday pudding during lunch with colleagues and business partners. It's been a while since a bunch of strangers ie: the rest of the restaurant patrons, sang Happy Birthday to me. Slightly awkward, but thanks for the gesture, guys! :)

Meeting Mr Olmos

So when I first got the email with the subject line: "Meeting with Edward James Olmos", I thought it was an April Fool's Day prank that came way too early. I mean, I grew up watching the man playing one of the coolest characters on TV, ie: Lieutenant Castillo on "Miami Vice". And never had I thought to myself, "hey, I think one day I'll be discussing business with this man".

But that's exactly what happened yesterday! Mr Olmos and son have their own production company and are in town to open doors for future collaborations, especially in the areas of animation and new media.
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I must say it was pretty surreal presenting the new media bits to the man and his entourage. I could see how their eyes lit up when shown what tonton.com.my was capable of.

And Mr Olmos was a true gentleman. He shakes your hand firmly and has no Hollywood superstar air about him at all. Best part: This is just the beginning of a cool professional relationship (hopefully!)...
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Food, Glorious Food!: November Edition

Oh yeah, another good makan-makan month for me this past November. So stick around and drool over the highlights...

Sushi Tei is probably my favourite Japanese place at the moment. Good ambience, good food, and you won't have to break the bank to have a satisfying experience.
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The sushi here is good, but there's loads of other stuff worth trying. Check out the salmon...

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Garlic fried rice with fish roe...

Softshell crab...
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One of the specialty sushi......
Ah, unagi...

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The next place is an an unassuming joint at IOI mall, the Assam House. The emphasis here is on keeping things simple and flavourful. I've tasted quite a number of dishes and have yet to be disappointed. My favourites include...
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The ice kacang...

Fried rice with salted fish
...Black pepper udon...
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Crispy cantonese yee mee... ..Next up, is a place we tried out for the first time last week featuring The Cone Pizza! Any good, you ask? Well, it's rather interesting. And quite filling as well. Have a look...

Nacho chips...

...Bruschetta...

www.conepizza.com.my