Saturday, 10 August 2013

Story and photos by: Jessica Tan

PENANG: An afternoon fire tragedy razed down fourteen houses and destroys vehicles in Kampung Sungai Nibong Tengah, Bayan Baru.

The raging blaze engulfed the village and emitted billows of pungent, black smoke which rose swiftly to the sky.

Clouds of thick soot, shrouding the surrounding residential buildings, could be seen from miles away.

The tragedy was believed to be triggered at 4.30pm today.

The houses were reduced to ashes very quickly, as the flames swept rapidly due to the strong wind.

Three fire engines and four police cars were seen at the incident.

The fire was claimed to have started from a house located deep in the middle of their village.

The cause of the fire was yet to be determined, although several villagers alleged that it was due to old, leaking gas tanks in the kitchen belonging to one of the houses.

Fortunately, most of the gutted houses were empty, as owners and their families were away to celebrate Aidilfitri and some were on holiday during this Raya festive season.

A female village elder fainted at the scene.

Children and relatives of the victims were seen weeping uncontrollably.

Another victim, whose van and motorcycle was charred beyond use, was inconsolable.

A villager said that he was having an afternoon nap, and was aware of the fire only when he was awaken by the screams of his neighbours.

He rushed outside to see a huge fire and smoke billowing from the insides of a few houses, and did not hesitate to alert his family before running out to safety.

A daughter of a victim, who declined to be named, spoke to us in tears.

The only thing she managed to salvage from the house was her father’s scooter.

Although her father’s house was gutted to ashes and her family left homeless, she was thankful that they were not home when the fire occurred.

Some surrounding houses were successfully rescued in the nick of time with only a considerable amount of damage, while some others were completely consumed by the flames.

Charred remains of wooden houses, broken steel, shattered glass, perishable goods and completely seared possessions could be seen strewn all over the burnt village grounds.

Total losses in the village are yet to be estimated.

The Fire Department, with the assistance of volunteers and villagers, extinguished the flames.

The fire lasted for approximately 2 hours and was put out entirely at 6.30pm.

The exact cause of the fire is still being determined.

At time of report, there were no casualties at the scene.

Published: Saturday, 10 August 2013 MYT 18:58:54 PM

———————————————————————————————————–

Editor’s note:

I first learnt of the tragedy upon hearing the police and fire brigade sirens, before running upstairs to my bedroom window to have a look. To my utmost shock, I could see how the sky was filled with clouds of thick smoke and was even able to smell it some 100 metres away.

The view from my bedroom window

Wasting no time at all, I ran to the scene to report on the incident.

At the village, the intense heat was almost unbearable, and I was choking on the smoke and ash engulfing the entire vicinity. Yes, I was that close to the action and even got wet from the strong gush of water hosed out from the pipes of the fire brigade.

I could also smell faint traces of gas in certain spots of the village.

I was glad to see villagers cooperating so well with the fire-fighters in putting out the flames and assisting the police in controlling the crowd. Other villagers were seen bringing their children and the elderly out of the village grounds, to safety.

Thank goodness no one was hurt! Will be updating this space if there’s anything new.

You know how momma used to tell you not to play with your food nor to play with fire?

Clearly, this boy never took the advice when he set his hands on fire

Yup… my friend Abe decided to showcase his pyromaniac stunts, one Sunday night

As we didn't have any deodorant spray in the house at this very moment of time, he made do with some house fragrance spray instead. The poor guy had to set his hand in flames more than 5 times for me to be satisfied with the photo 😛

He was paranoid, but still… brave. I doubt the rest of us would attempt something like that!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2wdtX9xUoE

check out the video footage of his dangerous act

There you have it, some courageous stunts to entertain yourself with… at the expense of the skin on his hands! 😛

But above all, you know what we were REALLY entertained with?

His fail face.

We giggled so hard whenever the topic of this photo was brought up

Definitely a perfect dose of laughter for the week ahead!

Why don't you try setting your hand alight as well? 😛

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas everybody!

To those who are also celebrating, I hope you had a fantastic Christmas dinner with your family last night 🙂

I sure did!

Anyway, apart from the tradition of celebrating with TheFockers every year, imma share with you my first Christmas party of 2010!

All thanks to Guinness! 😀 😀

So yeah.. a few weeks back, I was invited for Guinness' first series of Merry Guinness christmas dinners. This was held at Malone's Irish Restaurant & Bar in Sooka Sentral, adjacent to KL Sentral, Malaysia.

I arrived on location and saw the elaborately decorated dining tables and Christmas set-up all ready for the evening

Pretty, ain't it? 🙂

Candy canes and candy red Christmas stockings!

Snowmen, Gingerbreadmen, Beermen… oops I meant mini beer bottles!

and ermm.. ballmen? 😛

But what made a better evening was the company of the warm friends and familiar faces 🙂 🙂

There was so much merriment in the haus and so much Guinness to go around… it's free-flow babeh!

Jingle bells! 😀

Walking further in, I spotted the traditional Christmas tree.

No Christmas party is complete without the evergreen coniferous tree! It's a pity we only have the artificial ones here in Malaysia 🙁

Unlike in the movies where daddy puts on his galoshes and goes to the woods

to chop down this tree and brings it back home for Christmas! 😀

After lots of mingling around over glasses and glasses of frothy ice-cold Guinness draught, the Christmas dinner was about to be officiated!

Welcoming all of us to the event 🙂

Are you ready to see what was served, guys? 😀

It was in such a dramatic manner! The black curtains fell right after he gave his short speech and revealed this sumptuous feast!

Now, that's what I call a table of gastronomic heaven!

Splendid! 😀

Especially over a pint of Guinness *clinks glass

So yup, those are the food 🙂
 In fact, that's only half of what was actually served that night!

And this is me looking all gluttony

there were macarons, stollen cakes, foie gras, beef stroganoff and so much more I don't even remember!

Try asking my stomach, she'll prolly recall better 😛

There was also an action station for turkey slicing and cranberry sauce!

Oooh the yums. Talking about it makes me miss the turkey already.

Please sir, may I have some more? 😛 Oliver Twist lolol.

While we were devouring our hearty meals, there was a live band that played for us all! 🙂

They were singing lots of Christmas songs – ranging from the traditional ones to the more modern ones

i personally loved Guinness' version of the !2 Days of Christmas

'cos it had something to do with fried chicken wings haha

And that's not all!

We were enticed to a magic show, which involved fire-eating, finger chopping, tangled knots and more

The Magician was showing Andrew how it was supposed to be done

Soon they had a Q&A session where 5 limited edition Guinness miniature bottles were given out as prizes.

It even dated all the way back to 1974! 😀 😀

Tied so neatly with a black ribbon, I wished they were mine!

So I decided to join the Q&A. Hmm…the questions I could remember were –

How many pints of Guinness are served everyday?

What is the actual color of Guinness?

What is the name of Guinness' christmas event?

Well, my question was simple. So I managed to answer it correctly!

I absolutely love the antique bottles for my stash. It fits perfectly in my collection of alco 🙂

Yuenny won herself a set of these babies too!

Adorable much?

I think she answered the color of Guinness question. The correct answer is Ruby Red! 🙂 (Yes it's not black, contrary to popular belief)

Here's a shot of my swag, courtesy of Guinness!

There's also another Guinness glass inside the paper bag,

'Who dreams of a white Christmas?' Tshirt, a Santa Hat and more!

I'll be wearing the Santa Hat for my family Christmas dinner tomorrow

Do you see that place mat which reads 'Have a Merry Guinness' above?

If you open it, it's actually a board game!! I'm SO going to bring it back home to play with thefockers tonight.

Bloggers playing the Guinness board game!

It's very much like snakes & ladders, only more exciting, Guinness draughts instead of snakes

and players require a good liver 😛 😛

We're getting shot on film!

Guinness even made a bloggers video edition of Merry Guinness wishes and the party!

My Guinness moments 😀 😀

With frosty the snowman too!!!!

Of good food, catching up with good friends, good fun and festive air 🙂

I had fun celebrating my Christmas the Guinness way. Heads up! Merry Guinness promos are held in various outlets around the Klang Valley and other parts of Malaysia as well.

This coming Monday, I will be dining at Finnegan's Pub in Changkat BB for an Irish Christmas Dinner by Guinness. Can't wait! Will be bringing along one lucky person with meeeee 🙂

Do grab a pint of Guinness and enjoy the rest of your party!

Merry Christmas again and enjoy the rest of your holiday fellas

with love ,

Jess

Gooooooood morning!!!!
 

Today's my last day in Singapore. I totally KO-ed last night after such long hours at the circuit zones!

My heart skipped 21487246839471 beats each time the drivers turn the corner. They were so close!! (except for a few who were lagging behind)
 

When Mark Webber overtook Lewis Hamilton, I was like WHOAAAA! Two drivers from Red Bull Racing in Top 3? 😀
 

Alonso at the trophy presentation ceremony

He burst the GH Mumm champagne all over everyone!
 

I was cheering along with other Ferrari fans and screaming like a mad woman when Alonso zoomed past me for the 61st consecutive time. It was clear that he was leading all the way! GOGOGO Ferrari!
 

On another note, yes ima Ferrari fangirl for obvious reasons. I've loved Ferrari's since I was a kid and well, it's in my favorite color too – RED! The drivers are pretty hot too 😛

So anyway, congrats on making the Top 3 fellas!

Champion!! 😀 Fernando Alonso of Scuderia Ferrari
 

Second place – Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing
 

Third place – Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing
 

Also coming in 4th place was Jensen Button of McLaren and 5th place, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP! 😀 Grats on making into Top 5 😀
 

Oh and I recall squeezing through sweaty smelly fellow photographers trying to get perfect angles and perfect shots of the speed demons racing their heads off on the circuits! Was so difficult to capture cars speeding with the speed of light especially when you're being pushed and shoved. But it was all worth it! 😀

IT'S A GOOD CHALLENGE!

All was well and nerve-wrecking throughout the entire 61 laps. But 3 VERY interesting highlights during that fateful final race night were these :
 

When a Kingfisher totally broke down in the first few minutes and had to be towed – coincidentally right in front of where I was standing! Gosh. Sucks to be him =/
 

-sorry no photo was too engrossed in the whole commotion with my jaws hung open LOL-

Lewis Hamilton kicked out of the race when he tried to overtake Mark Webber for 3rd place, crashing his McLaren race car… and his way out of the Singapore F1 Grand Prix finals 🙁 Ohnoes!
 

When a Lotus caught fire and ended up in flames by the last few minutes of the race! Lotsa officials ran there to extinguish the flames. Poor Heikki Kovalainen!
 

Wait for the upcoming posts, of Adam Lambert's GLAMNATION concert tour, Mariah Carey's concert, and me exploring the pit stop paddocks! 😀 Was a super fun learning experience! And *psst* those car engineers and mechanics from UK were smokin' hotttt too 😉

In the meantime, check out my 1st day at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix, okie?

Took lotsa piccies around and even caught Chris Daughtry LIVE in concert too – here!
 

Camwhoring by the Pit Stop Grandstand
 

Again, I'd like to thank my main sponsors Maxis and Lotus Racing for this amazing experience, making this all happen for me 🙂 Gracias

More to come right after this!! 😀
 

Wooo hoo!

Urbanscapes was just a few days ago and like my previous post about it, I mentioned that I actually spent the entire day there – to my surprise as well! 😀 Heck, it just shows that I did have great fun there with all my buddies!

So I arrived at noon sharp and walked in despite the scorching hot weather. Believe me when I say it was scorching hot, as not even sunblock, caps or sunnies could arm me from the harmful rays lor! Confirm sunburn one.

The first thing I saw was the 'Angkat Rumah' volunteers and of course, the 'Rumah' itself

Those 300+/- people did an awesome job of carrying it all the way here regardless of the obstacles they faced!

In case you were wondering why they are so silly carrying a mad-heavy wooden house for 3hours in the hot sun all the way to Urbanscapes when they could easily hire a lorry to do all the work, it's actually a tradition of the old Malay folk back in the days.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui3f63DlHHs

10 seconds of carrying the stilts!

Yes back then, people didn't have the luxury of trucks and whenever they needed to shift from one place to another, the whole family and villages would unite to literally carry the house (angkat rumah) to move.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRPRDuFqwnw

10 seconds of carrying the wooden house!

This Angkat Rumah project borrowed from the aforementioned tradition and followed suit to carry their wooden house prop all the way here. Kudos to the peeps behind it! Or rather, beneath it? 😛

Effort worth every joule of strength!

Below, Nuffies Mich, Rach and I are taking a chance to be in a picture with that iconic house 😀

Super love Mich's dress by the way!

So long and flowwwyyy

I began my voyage with one aim in mind – to scour through ALL the blogshops/facebookshops in the fashion bazaar located at the Marketplace zone and pick out anything novel that sparks my interest. Guess what! I managed to visit all the shops in 3 1/2 hours!

Here's the 1st thing that I bought, a long tank top  with newspaper motives

Bought it from Phat Culture

and spotted cute bright yellow boots gurls!

So I walked and walked and walked…. and bumped into some friends! 😀 Awesome meeting some familiar faces when you least expect it, ey?

Note : I told you it was hot!! See, they were peeps carrying umbrellas behind us! hehe.

Bumped into my awesome classmates Sha-Lene and Cyren 🙂

What's better than bumping into more friends during an event?

Lotsa pretty faces and cool dudes whom I call my friends 🙂

Nice bumping into all of youuuuu

And so I continued my way walking and walking about, caught sight of this adorable doll!

This totally reminds me of the days where I would dress up my barbie dolls with numerous clothes and accessories. Only this time, the accessories are all branded haha. Spot the Burberry scarf and Louis Vuitton handbag below

You can geddit at Plasterdoll

It can be a gift or as a collector's item to frame up

Also walked past a store that sold various books, novels and other reading material!

Check out these 2 book titles, pretty interesting

So, things to know about the opposite sex!

Hmmm. I wonder..

Saw some gorgeous masterpieces on display! It totally looks like paintings on canvases, right? Love the splashes of vibrant colours! I probed further on who the artist was and was told that these are all digital art! 😀

Wow. I had no idea some magic touches of Photoshop, Illustrator or whatever nifty program they use, can result in these marvelous paintings

If I ain't wrong, it goes for about 100++ onwards

Yet another labour of love here.. handmade lipbalms!

When I asked, I got to know that she made it all by herself by carefully mixing the vaseline, Vitamin E and other necessary natural ingredients.

So pretty and conveniently sized too! 😀

Find out more at Mynrose's Shop

On the topic of handmade items – you should most certainly not miss my sponsors, the accessories extraordinaire Soak Republic !

Most of their stuff are handmade, if not imported 😀

Tis' the season for badges yo! Go military or anything you want

Look the part by getting your funky badges from Soak Republic

As usual, their booth was one of the busiest around! I was there for quite a while to check out the new arrivals and to have a chat with the owners Pei Shan and Tiffany. More and more girls thronged their store and I could tell that everyone loved their pretty accessories!

Soak Republic has the most novel and unique items around! From rings bearing leopards and owls on them to handmade hairbands and blingbling trinket charms 😀 Go crayyzeeee choosing them all! 😀

You'll be spoilt for choice, trust me!

Okay no need to trust me, you can see for yourselves 😀 😀

These pretty clip on trinkets can be hung as bracelet charms or as cellphone charms too!

The ice-cream cone was among the faves!

I will show you the ones I ended up choosing yeah? 🙂

Speaking of unique stuff, lemme share another pretty thing by them! It's a real watch that tells the time, not just another piece of accessory

it's hanging around my neck now as we speak! It's like the watch belonging to the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland!

We're late!!

We're laaaate!

Okay, these are the trinkets i chose 😀

A key (to represent my 21st birthday) A camera (my passion)

A Heineken bottle cap (my affinity to alcohol) An owl (no reason, it's the owl trend now)

Love those cute hair accessories too!

And have I mentioned I am utterly and totally in love with their rings?

So are most of my friends! They have the sexiest and funkiest rings ever.

Case in point 😀  This is the pop art-ish double ring they have!

Go pop a look at www.soakrepublic.com on your own to see all their awesome stuff 😀

I managed to squeeze out amidst the thronging crowd in their store to manage a picture 🙂

Here we are, Pei Shan and Tiffany with me at the front of their booth

Love u girls! 😀 Successful and fabulous all the same

Continued my journey blogshop hopping and I stumbled upon another thing that I found rather interesting.

Super old skool right? 😀

Classics always have a place in my heart. Marilyn Monroe & Audrey Hepburn FTW!

Next up, I saw something that resembled pizza boxes all stacked up on display. Curious, I walked on to find out more.

So they were selling graphic print tees with lotsa cheeky statements and designs!

When I asked why the boxes, they told me that "packaging is important!" Hey, looks DO matter, right?

A little bit more expensive on them, but a great idea for a gift! 😀

Meet the boys from Pestle and Mortar

They gave me a 2 polaroid stickers and it's now stuck to my desk LOL 🙂

Next up, is a friend's store! I'm sure you've heard of the popular MyFavoritees right? Well yup, Jeremy's the brainchild behind it. I must say, for a guy, you have splendid taste in both guys and girls clothing And very up to date with the latest trends too!

This is my tank top which I got from them

Thanks for the fedora hat too! 😀 Uberlove.

So sad that the Germany tank top is outta stock! Blahhh. 🙁 Sad. He manages the store with his mom btw. The duo can be seen around in flea markets and fashion bazaars! Such co-operative mother-and-son relationship! 😀 awesome pawsome you two!

Hi auntie! 😀 Hope you remember me hehe

Next time, I got this transparent black lacy top from Star Very Berry

You probably can't see very clearly here but it's great to pair it with bikinis in the beaches!

They've lotsa pretty hair accessories other than apparels too

What stole my attention next was a galore of bags hanging at a nearby booth!

Mad amount of retro and funky colorful bags hanging all over! 😀

 They've a shop at Rasta TTDI too btw

More interesting things I saw! I like the Thai lookin' stand-up umbrellas 🙂

Finally! I have finished the outside market place! 😀

Met up with Lionel at the entrance – thanks for the ticket! and off we went inside to grab some lunch before I explored the place further

How coincidental, we were both in fedoras

haha!

So after downing an ice cream and a packet of noodles, which costed me RM15 in total, I feel so exploited FML. But nevermind! I guess it's normal for events as big as this to have equally expensive food. heck, a bottle of mineral water costed 4bucks the last event I went anyway.

Somewhere further inside, there was this Electric Tea Party thing going on

Amazing how one can make music by just dipping in your finger in water!

I'm no physicist, but my guess is that it has gotta do with vibrations, water levels and electric current

Meet the cuties, the masterminds of this Electric tea table!

They so deftly plugged in the USBs, different leveled water tea-cups and marbles

Behold the magic of music 😀

Was sitting down chilliing by the benches with some friends and so happen to make friends with this very pretty Caucasian lady. She was very pleasant and I got to know that she was going to perform in one of the plays in the afternoon. Wanna meet her? 😛

TAAAAAA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Yes you probably can't tell she's a beautiful young lady

Disguised by an old Malay man costume LOL

We taught her some Malay words that she written down before her act began!

And she managed to say "RUMAH TERBUKA! RUMAH TERBUKA"

and lots more I don't remember

So I moved along and saw the Tongue in Chic booth. They set up a photobooth for a contest! Lota pretty clothings and accessories to doll up with 😀 Lotsa fun camwhore moments too. Bumped into editor of TiC Sue Ann susumilk too! Long time no see yo

STOP LOOK SHOP!

on the double!

And in that TiC zone, was more food and shopping! 😀

Bought something from LahLahLand too

it was a bejewelled black tank top! I have a similar one in white too

Loved it so much so I bought the black one hehe

Next up! Saw more cute stuff! Saw them at Ring Apartment and the Brollies

THE ERASERS OMG SUPER OLD SKOOL MAX!

I used to collect all the letters of the alphabet back in primary school 😀

Phew! After all those shopping, watching performances, eating I chilled at the lakeside with Joanna and the rest 🙂

Super relaxing. She left me for a short while to buy some food and I started to lie down

Almost fell asleep if she didn't come back on time!

Randomly, if someone were to push me over that ledge in my state of sub-consciousness I'll be helplessly drowning anyway LOL

But while we were chit-chatting, some activists came over and asked us to sign a petition postcard thing. They were pledging for the anti-establishment of a coal factory in East Malaysia. Hey, it's dangerous and detrimental to the environment.

Pretty postcards to be sent to the Prime Minister!

So i picked mine, donated some money and signed it too. Hey, it's for a good cause even IF he didn't actually read them one by one. He'll prolly tell his secretary to read it out for him or summarize what the entire thing is about 😛 😛 busy people!

All accessories by Soak Republic

I wore the watch necklace on the spot! 😀 Love it

It was getting kinda dark and so we went inside KLPAC to check out the indoor things there.

Among the things I saw!

Nice lightboxes! 😀

Artists at work!

Can you tell what it says? I can't 😀

So beautiful! What can the world reward these talented people with? sigh!

😀

A few of us then walked to the Lawn Stage section to catch some concerts by our local musicians. Here's Yuna! 😀 I interviewed her before for a magazine sometime back. She has gone a long way since then! Proudda you gurl!

and another local band called Kyoto Protocol. The name was adopted by an environmentalist group but no, their lyrics has nothing to do with environmental issues. 😀 they're pretty damn good though!

See the PASSION while performing? haha 😀

You can actually feel it brimming

Time for the fire-breathing performances! Seriously, those hunky men were juggling ropes on fire like nobody's business! They must've practiced for years, those pyromaniacs 😀 Fabulous performance!

They wowed the crowd like no other

Ouch! Careful not to burn yourselves boys 😀

There was a girl in the house too! 😀

Woo hoo she kicks ass

After the entire looooooooooooooong day (I'm sure you can tell by how loooooooooooooong this post is) I was exhausted and made my way out. Imagine, a whole day under the hot sun walking around non stop, buzzing in and out.  But I had fun nonetheless!

On my way out, I saw the Rumah in all its glory

Decorated and lighted up! So pretty

Thumbs up to Urbanscapes 2010! 😀

I had a marvelous time, can't wait for next year round

Phew! Uberlong blogpost 😀 Hope u liked it!

xoxo! Gonna go hit the road to Ipoh now for my 21st birthday dinner with the focker family 😀