Archive | March, 2011

Flirt with the Art of Wing Chun

22 Mar

Right Hand

Left Hand

Pretty isn’t it?

Got this during Wing Chun training, it’s not as painful as it looks and the training is not as brutal as it seems. I got the bruise because I was attacking my partner and she had to block my attacks with a bong sao. This shows what your opponent will get if they try to attack you and all you got to do is just one simple move. Such a fascinating art.

Why kung fu?

When one thinks of kung fu, the vision of some young lone ranger fighting with a long white  bearded man that looks like pai mei giving out an evil laugh

or the infamous Wong Fei Hung, which all of us will get all excited whenever we hear the Theme Song..

or even this lady here haha

Well, I’ve always been fascinated about kung fu and for those who knows me, will have heard me utter a million times that I want to pick up wing chun.

My grandpa is a huge fan of action movies, and I’ve spent most of my childhood days at their place watching many wong fei hung, jackie chan movies, rocky etc. It never fails to crack me up whenever I see him get so immersed with the movie, doing air round punches as if he was the one kicking the enemies’ asses. Whenever someone asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ The answer is usually something along the lines of musician, entrepreneur, and so on..but really deep down.. i want to be a SUPER HERO!

so reason behind it all.. is that, I really want to be like my childhood hero

YATTA!!

I always dreamt of being able to do the Hyakuretsu Kyaku (Hundred Tearing Kicks) and her Spinning Bird Kick ( I used to call it the helicopter kick)

Spinning Bird Kick

Hyakuretsu Kyaku (hundred tearing kicks)

Jackie Chan as Chun Li ( so wrong!)

and also my other hero. SOI FON!!

The closest I could get to being Soi Fon was during cosplay. This is my first time attending a cosplay convention and making my own weapon – Suzumebachi. Guess it’s pretty obvious both my idols are from kung fu background.

Don’t mess with my suzumebachi

My suzumebachi…made from craft foam hehe..

My interest towards wing chun heightened after the infamous Ip Man movie starring Donnie Yen. I guess most people have the misconception that kung fu is mainly for males and that the art is slowly fading away if you compare to other martial arts like karate, taekwando, etc. due to its tradition of being  very secretive about passing the art to the next generation. Often, only selected ones are chosen to be taught the traditional art form.

The movie definitely got me hyped up and I went on to research more on this art. When I found out that the wing chun martial art was created by a female, it got me even more excited. The only thing that’s holding me back from going for it is that I always have this feeling that martial art is aggressive and I’ll probably won’t be too comfortable having physical contact with 20 tough guys ready to kick my ass. (i’m a very petite creature and I still want to have a pretty face). So knowing that this art was created by a female and it’s for those with a smaller build had got me even more intrigued.

So here I am, enrolled in a Wing Chun’s Academy.

I did hesitate for awhile when I reached the place, was about to turn around when I was at the door, staring at a bunch of students doing their training. Took me a couple of  mins to finally get my courage up to go in and ask for a trial lesson. Glad I didn’t chicken out.

I know I won’t be able to do any hyakuretsu kyaku or kicking some hollows’ ass but it definitely made me feel like I’m one step closer to realizing my unrealizable dream.

Flirt with eyegasm at the LMFF L’Oreal Fashion Festival 2011

19 Mar

There are many things that I’m passionate about but the one that tops my list will always be

I’ve been to  a couple of fashion shows in Melbourne but this is my first time attending show organized by L’oreal and its absolutely fabulous.

 

As you can see, this year’s look is return to Glamour – back to the 1950s chic look where women have poise and style. Often wears a look that will leave an impression  (the infamous bold and satiny red lips). It was the period where society has evolved, being more liberated and accepting towards females’ capabilities , hence the trend in menswear for females.

Here are some themes from the past years’ shows

I managed to catch  the L’oreal Paris Runway 2 presented by Vogue Australia featuring Arnsdorf, Bassike, Dress up, ELLERY, From Britten, Laurence Pasquier, Lui Hon and Song for the Mute (who received the LMFF Designer Award). I picked this show because of Lui Hon, from Project Runway Australia and him being a Malaysian too makes it a lot more interesting.

My favourites for the night were ELLERY for its simplicity but quirky and Lui Hon for its eccentricity and its play with the fabrics. Dress Up’s fabric colour match was quite interesting too.

ELLERY - one of my fav from the collection

DRESS UP - going for the vintage look

LUI HON

I did smack myself in the head for not bringing my camera and my iPhone is in a rather bad shape seeing that 3/4 of the screen is cracked. Didn’t get to take any good picture during the show and the one below obviously does not do any justice. Also, I’m pretty sure I saw a celebrity as there was this really gorgeous lady sitting right opposite me and Amanda – and we can’t keep our eyes off her. She looks so familiar and I told Amanda later that night that it could be Dannii Minogue. Not sure if she’s from Melbourne but she did mentioned LMFF briefly in one of her tweets.hmmm..

The perks about this event is the Powder Room (psst..I had to steal some pics from this missy). I’ts a lil room set up on the outside where people can have their hair, lips, nails or skin care done for FREE.. and get a snap shot after that.

I always thought short hair don’t really have much choice when it comes to hair styling but what the lady did was she took small chunks of my hair and pin them up.. 20 pins altogether. I might just try doing that myself one day.

Me and Amanda had our hair done just before the fashion show. She had the croissant bun style on her, very chic.

It looks pretty crazy with this angle

looks better from here 🙂

I’m not exactly a makeup person… I love make up but I’m just too lazy to do anything about it, and most of the time, I’m just not sure exactly what I’m suppose to do. Took me years to finally remember the order of application. I have to admit I am a late bloomer on beauty products, I only discover concealer at the age of 18 and didn’t know how to handle a eyelash curler until around 22 (a gay salesguy had to teach me how to use it and recommended Givenchy mascara saying that that’s the only mascara he will every use *blinks his eyes at me*)

When I saw the Marie Claire & Loreal paris Beauty workshop, I thought to myself, maybe I should check this one out , could learn some useful tips. The makeup guru for the workshop was the flamboyant Rae Morris, she is just amazingggggg!

Rae Morris : Makeup Guru

The looks that she has created were gorgeous and the most important bit, simple and easy to follow. She’s a great presenter and highly entertaining too. She is also the make up artist for the runway shows. For the workshop, she had prepared 3 looks and the top hit was the Statement Eyes Look!


Show off your statement eyes

The trick to do the statement eyes is DUCT TAPE and decided to give it a go. Hehe.. kinda works..

 

 

Here are some of Rae’s other works in editorial and advertising.

 

The next fashion event that I went to was the Fashion Industry Forum – E-tail Detail. I was hoping to get some great insights on e-commerce for fashion as I’ll be *crosses fingers* starting my own online boutique soon sometime in April/May if all goes well. The forum was alright, I guess it’ll be useful for those who do not have any advertising or marketing background. It just felt like I was in one of many advertising lectures.. talking about porters 5 forces *rolls eyes* And the girls from Asos weren’t exactly clear about their presentation. Nice presentation slides though.

E-tail at BMW Fed Square


So fashion show is DONE, makeup DONE, business DONE, there is only one thing left to do….

 

SHOPPING!!!

I tired my luck at the Fashion Weekend Designer Sale by Shop Til You Drop… and it just exactly what it says.. I shop till I drop and had to get a cab back coz I looked like a crazy shopaholic with 6 shopping bags. Let me present you my achievements:

My new 5 pairs of Melissa Shoes: Welcome to the family

Melissa Juggler Beige

Melissa Malika Blue

Melissa Liberty Gold

I know buying 5 pairs at a time is.. slightly more than usual BUT it’s dirt cheap. Damage: $340. Seriously, any Melissa Shoes fan should soooo check out this sale but its ending tomorow and you’ll need to get a $10 ticket to get in (it’s worth it). They have more designs, like the VW Wedge, Jean Paul Gaultier Stiletto, Ashanti,  VW Flip Flop, AH Troupe Gloss,  VW Lady Dragon Stamp, which I’m so SOO tempted to buy and it wasn’t really the money issue (since its so darn cheap), was more of the space issue. I’m running out of space trying to fit my 50 pairs of shoes in this tiny apartment.

A useful tip for those who have a pair of Melissa x Viv westwood shoes and has a problem with their studs often popping up when you walk (can be very annoying), you can bring your shoes to the Melissa Australia office and they’ll fix it for you. For those who can’t make it to the Fashion Weekend Sale, Melissa Australia is having their sale online from Monday onwards.

My Melissa Shoes Collection : Now my Lady Dragon is not so lonely anymore

Well of course shoes is just one part of the shopping…say hello to Maurice & Eve and House of Harlow

Maurice and Eve Sweater Dress (looks like a straitjacket :P)

What a steal!

Some House of Harlow treasure which were 50% off!

I go by the theory  “Work Hard Play Hard”..now that I’ve shop hard…

it’s time for me to work hard…….. T_T

My lil home office