Adebelle

It’s 1.52 pm Saturday afternoon. Here I am, still in my PJ, sitting on the same spot where I spend hours blogging and chatting with friends online. The classical music playing at the background soothes my nerves. I thought I had a minor hang-over after downing 2 glasses of Lychee Martini, few sips of Magarita and one sip of white wine at Alexis last night. Did I tell you how delicious Lychee Martini is?! The sweet lychee taste is just irresistable!

Oh by the way, I’m not really a drinker… I used to go by the line, ‘I don’t drink’ but now that has to change to ‘I drink occasionally’. He he… it’s a wonder how working life changes people. I was once the wide-eyed doll who didn’t drink a sip of alcohol. Now I’m going, ‘Excuse me, one more Lychee Martini please.’ Ha, speaking about the changes! After two glasses of yummy Lychee Martini, the whole world started to float. My feet became so light and I thought I was floating! Geez, I wonder what would happen next if I had another glass of Lychee Martini! Hmm, you know what, sometimes I am curious about the things I’d do if I ever get drunk… Would I do things  that I wouldn’t do when sober (e.g. slapping someone in the face or picking my nose in public… Eeuuw!!!)

Ahh, the classical music… now I’m feeling posh and very royalty-like. My room is my castle and the world is my osyster. Hmmm, don’t ask me why I said that… hehehe… just a random thing that come to mind, you know? I think I must still be high on alcohol… hmmm…

Okay, I need to stop talking about random things. But you see, I am not good with goodbyes and it’s sad that I had to say goodbye to a friend last night. Vicky is the toughest girl (mentally) I met in my project. We joined the project on the same day and after 1.5 years she is about to spread her wing to make her mark in another country. Thinking back the first day we met it feels just like yesterday. She was in a red turtleneck smiling at me as she approached the group. I thought she was a consultant!

We’ve come to know each other more in the course of 1.5 years. She’s definitely like a sister to me. Not trying to get all sentimental and stuff but I do think that her presence in the project will be strongly missed! I, for sure will miss her. The little chats and heart to heart talk we had… She’s always there when I needed to talk to someone. People say you should count your blessing and that is exactly what I am doing. I am trully blessed to have worked with the most wonderful people in a company where competition by right, should be really stiff. Yet, this is the last thing I feel in the project.

Last night I stubbornly backed away tears in my eyes when I knew the time had come to bid goodbye to Vicky. I thought I saw her eyes glistened… For a girl who doesn’t show much emotion… I thought I just saw the softest side of her. It could just be my imagination, it could be the Lychee Martini but nonetheless it was two friends giving each other one last hug for the year. Deep down I know it was not our last goodbye. Some day, some times, our path will cross again. I am so sure that the friendship is going to lavish and grow stronger despite the distance. I now have another strong reason to travel to Down Under.

Vicky, if you are reading this… I know you will make things happen for yourself and you don’t need me wishing you good luck. I know you will only go from strength to strength crafting your name in the future you want youself to be in. I know you will be fine and I know you and I will always be friends.

I am saying a little prayer for you. You go girl, go spread your wings and soar higher and higher now!

Now, don’t forget our Gold Coast trip! *wink* If Shearn is reading this, I am sure he will roll his eyes and start lecturing me! But until the day my little heart is claimed… I shall be on a full throttle searching for my knight in shinning armour. *GRIN*

Ermm… maybe that sounds a little too ambitious… I need hell lotta coaching in that department! hehehe…

Cheers now, to a brighter, better, banana-licious future! (ermm… I just wanted to find a third word which start with B and I couldn’t think of anything else. I know you love bananas… so there… banana-licious!!)

Au revoir mon cher ami

I am feeling pretty full of myself today, hehe… and as a result… I am diplaying my first ever picture taken after fixing the ugly metals in my mouth.

Take a deep breath now and here we go!

Ta-daaaaaaa!!!

Oh great! This picture is a wee bit too small to detect any trace of the infamous metal! But there, my supposedly sizzling hot makeover cover girl shoot. Sorry, this is the best I can get… without the sizzles of course!

After today’s virgin makeover experience, I can loudly conclude that makeover is a total myth if not a great marketing plot to cash in more money for the cosmestic company! Well, maybe it does not apply to everyone but it does definitely apply to little missy here! Well, if you do get a chance to see my so-called makeover potrait (which was supposed to make me look like a million dollar instead of one ringgit) you will get the drift. Too bad, I don’t have a soft copy unless I scan the photo… Anyway, not that I’m too keen to show it around… So we’ll see… if it occurs to me I might just get it scanned and uploaded it here.

Thinking back, I got all psyched up just yesterday at the prospect of looking like a smoking hot supermodel (excluding the petite physique that I own) after the makeover. I know I might have imagined slightly to the point of exaggeration but hey, isnt’ makeover supposed to turn an ugly duckling into a gorgeous and elegant swan?! You can’t blame me for having that kind of perception giving the chance that we are now bombarded with makeover wonders on the tv every now and then! The point is, the not-so-beautiful-american-plain-Janes at the end of the show usually turn out to be drop dead gorgeous and manage to make their friends and families go ga-ga without fail.

So yeah, I thought makeover is supposed to do magic and perform miracles. It turned out quite the opposite, on me. Instead of looking like a million dollar, I felt that I’d been so cheaply dressed up for the photo shoot. To begin with, the dress I was wearing was no where near my normal size. I know, I know. I am small and everything but hey, they should have been more well prepared! Heaven knows Asian girls are born petite and how could they not have size 0 or XS for their petite customers like me?! Instead of donning nice and fitting dress, I was wrapped up like a mini dumpling in a loose blue dress which was supposed to look so sexy on the right body.

Yeah, blame the genes. But standing as ‘tall’ as 150 cm for the past 23 years, I’m sort of getting used breathing the air at that altitude! But I’ve been thinking to compose some friendly emails to the designers. It’s time for them to realize not all girls are born 6 ft’ 12 and not everyone has big feet! How silly of them; I bet they would make billions if they just try to make their clothing a tad smaller and shoes a few inches smaller. I can guarantee, these clothes and shoes are going to be such big hits! That’s the niche market we are talking about and why are they not seeing it?! In fact, I should probably quit my job and venture into clothes-shoes-and-everything-a-petite-girl-needs-business! Now now, I need to first find myself some investors. Anyone???

Anyway, back to my makeover story… Can your head already conjure up the image of me in that hideous dress? Think bak-chang, think jubah, think super-the-not-sexy… That’s not the worst. The worst has gotta be sharing clothes with all the girls!!! Eeeuuuw!!! I had to try very hard not to think about the sweat on that blue dress. I was beyond traumatized when the girl in charge of the clothing handed me the dress which was still warm, not from the ironing but someone else’s body!!! I took a look at the dress the sleeves were all wrinkled (I willed myself not to think about smelly, sweaty and clammy armpits) and it even had shoe marks over it. What in the world… You know what happened to me next. Yes, being wrapped up like a bak-chang…

I wasn’t enjoying it at all. How come people told me makeover is a form of self-pampering?! It looks like self-torturing more than anything else! The dressing room was like the aftermath of a hurricane. It’s madness, sheer madness. Maybe I expected a little too much but you can’t hold it against someone who hadn’t gone for any makeover before… I guessed I must have ‘coated’ the whole thing with a little too much fairy dusk! No wonder my managers always stress on managing client’s expectation and now I know why!

Oh wait, I haven’t talked about the makeup and the hair. I was told that a SWEET look would suit me better by the makeup artist before she started working out her artistry on her canvas (read my face). She carefully chose the colours. Oh just great, pink and purple - the two colours I avoid using! Look, I just think they aren’t particularly flattering on me… But hey, what do I know right? The makeup artist should know better or so I thought… It turned out that my eyes looked a little puffy, thanks to the pink eyeshadow. I didn’t know how but my supposedly sweet look turned out to be pretty dramatic, yeah, thanks to the purple eyeshadow… There I was, expecting to look sweet like candy only opened my eyes to see a reflection of a sultry girl. Hmmm… maybe the makeup artists don’t always know their stuff! Grrrr…

Next stop, hair. It was perfect. To quote the hair stylist Ben, I looked sexy with the capital S. But hello, I was supposed to look sweet, remember?! What’s with the sexy look then?! My expectation obviously didn’t quite meet the work of art of Ben. Then came the biggest ‘compliment’ from Ben. ‘I don’t think you are beautiful nor cute. I think you are sexy.’  I rolled my eyes at him after hearing the comment and quipped, ‘I don’t want to be sexy. I want to be beautiful and gorgeous!’ The philosophical Ben retorted, ‘You will age and beauty will fade away with your age. But if you are sexy, it will stay that way, even in your old age. So tell me now, do you still want to be beautiful and not sexy?’ Fine, decidedly, I switched the topic before he could go on and lecture me. Apparently, he wasn’t quite done with the topic. ‘You are too skinny laaa. If you can gain a few more kilograms… your body will be so sexy!’ At this point, I wondered if I should considered myself sexually harrassed!

So yeah, the conclusion is, Ben decided to curl my hair to give the so called sexy touch. As much as I want to disagree with him, he did a great job! For that one minute when I stared into the mirror, I thought I saw a supermodel! (okay, I exaggerated again:P) My hair was nicely curled and styled to give the breeze-in-your-hair look. I gazed at the human size magazine cover and for that blink second I could almost see myself standing there tousling my new waves with the camera clicking away… Okay okay, went a little sidetrack here!

Makeup’s done, hair’s done and body badly dressed I moved to the next queue waiting to be photographed. Blimey, the photographer was so rude! I couldn’t believe he just ordered me to sit down!!! Has the universal rule changed?! I thought customer is always right and should be treated with TLC!!! I just couldn’t stand him barking down order to me like that! What a total hideous cow! Thank goodness he wasn’t my photographer. On the other hand, my photographer looked somewhat you know, your normal bloke on the street… he doesn’t really have the air of a photographer… I could only pray that I was in a professional hand! He adjusted my posture and it’s then the camera started rolling. ‘Smile’, I heard him talking to me. But, but, but… I couldn’t! Reluctantly, I spread my lips and baring two rows of metal. ‘Oh, you wear braces…’ With that he stopped demanding me to smile.

That’s exactly what went wrong with all my shots! Mum commented that I looked so fierce and my face was way too thin and that I have sunked cheeks too! Ouch! I barely smiled in all the shots. I didn’t like what I saw on the computer screen. I looked awful. The photographer did a lousy job! He should have directed me on my facial expression! There was one shot I just looked like as if I’d been possessed! Imagine eyeballs turning slightly upwards. Gooosh! It only spells h-o-r-r-e-n-d-o-u-s!!! The other shots, I looked pretty uneasy around the mouth area - tight smile or no smile at all. The braces refused to hide themselves. You can see them in almost every picture. I didn’t bother to have these shots burned into a CD. What for?! I wasn’t going to pay 70 bucks to remind myself how terribly wrong this makeover has become.

Yes, you are still following the story of makeover gone terribly wrong. Uh-ha, blame the braces. How convinient. The truth is, I should! Taking my photo in one hand and covering the mouth area with another hand, Jay Chou wannabe (the dude who developed my photo) turned to my aunt, my mum and his colleagues and said, ‘She looks like Cecilia Cheung like that. Maybe if she smiles a little bit more and err, without the braces of course.’ Geez, thanks! It did almost sound like a compliment!

At the end of the long day, my aunt concluded that I look best just the way I am. Who needs thick fake lashes and cakey foundation, anyway?!

But you see, I’ve made a pack with the guys there. I have to go back for the second makeover once I remove the braces! Yeah, a star is going to be born, on a starry April night!