Special Post: Bananana Launch by Media Prima

Not too long ago, in a land where humans ruled the earth, a group of friends came together to celebrate the birth of one of the cutest yellow creatures we've ever seen (no it's not the DiGi man)!

There were cakes and cookies, candies and lollies, balloons and one single Shark (from Seefood) that filled the entire room.

Every Magical creature was present; Snow White, Pocahontas, Sailormoon and even a friend of Harry's from Hogwarts dropped by.

It was such a big event that Darth Vader decided to ditch his mask and smile at the camera for once.

While Willie (Wonka) was taking photos with Little Red Riding Hood and Darth, the birthday boy walked into the room.

He was accompanied by his friends Boboiboy, Pow Pow, Ivan (Iwan) and the Bola Kampung gang, who walked around and took pictures with everyone while the music played and people were dancing.

When all the dancing had ended, Gokuzam took to the stage and asked the crowd a very serious question. It was so serious everyone was scratching their head just thinking of the answer! He asked:"Do you know what Beethovan's favourite fruit is?" The crowd was silent and then someone shouted "Bananana!" And yes, that's the story behind how Bananana got his name :)

Bananana is actually a new character for our kids programs across all the TV stations in Media Prima. We trust that you'll be seeing a lot of Bananana on TV3, TV9, ntv7, 8TV or even on Tonton in the future after this post. And when people ask you what Bananana is or how Bananana got his name, you can smile and tell them this story!

Special Post: Kina Grannis is Coming!

Ticketing Info: Ticket Hotline

I don't know if you guys remembered my previous post on the Superbowl Superstar Kina Grannis? Well if fate would have it, the day after I posted that blogpost, my colleague said to me "Erm, there's this other YouTube artist coming to KL, I don't remember her name... Oh, it's Kina Grannis"

(O_O!) <-- My face looked like that when I heard Kina was coming to KL to perform. Seriously, it was a dream come true! I mean if you read this space you'd know how much of a fan I am of various YouTube artists and I've actually been really lucky to have seen David Choi & AJ Rafael perform so far, now adding to that list of names would be Kina Grannis... I can't help but smile when I think about it.

Valentine's Special: Playing Cupid

It's Valentine's day and most people are either busy being in love or busy being single. But I had a different thought in mind...

You see, there's no need to have a valentine to celebrate love, all you need is a little creativity.

Chinese New Year Special: A Family Portrait

*Chinese text means: Happy Dragon Year

What's in a photo? They say a picture paints a thousand words and some say a photo immortalizes this one single moment, good or bad and you remember it forever. 

I was looking through some of the contest entries for the CNY photo contest last week, where we had contestants send in pictures of their happiest moments along with a caption that will describe that photo. In particular, there was a photo of a family that was submitted in, where this one contest wrote a caption that said "Even though my parents are not around anymore, being able to celebrate Chinese New Year with my brother and his family makes Chinese New Year one of the happiest moments for me." Although it wasn't selected as one of the winners, when I read the caption on the photo I was really touched.

Christmas Cookie Gifts

Ah Christmas... A time when we have jazzy music in the background playing while we eat, laugh and exchange gifts with our friends and family.

You know, I always have a hard time thinking of what Christmas gifts to get, so I thought of baking some cookies to give as gifts this time round. Besides, it's always a plus point when you tell people you made the cookies yourself!

After watching the episode where Claire from "5 Ingredients Fix" (Wednesdays, 10am on ntv7) made these tea cookies, I jumped online and found this: Earl Grey Shortbread Cookie Recipe--a simple enough recipe and pretty straightforward to do.

Within 5 minutes, I was writing down the list of items I had to buy. But being on a tight budget meant I had to forgo the Earl Grey tea leaves since I wasn't going to buy a pack of tea leaves just to bake. I made my list, checked it twice and popped over to the grocery store right after to get my necessities: butter, flour, sugar, vanilla essence and salt.

In total I took about over 2 hours to bake, but that was because I didn't have a food processor and it took a little longer than the suggested time for the dough to set in the fridge. Otherwise, this cookie is really easy to make and it'll definitely carve a smile on someone's face.

And here's a Merry Christmas to every single one of you reading this blog, I hope this post helped you if you're also cracking your head on what Christmas gifts to get. If all else fails, why not try this recipe cause it definitely worked for me :)

p/s: I wonder if anyone noticed the sous chef outfit I'm in. Anyone want to take a guess who inspired that outfit? Hint: She's a sous chef from "The Avilon".

Dear Lola...

This post is dedicated to Lola, a kitten of a colleague who was one of the cats who experienced the worst in the past weeks...

You cried out loud and there was no one there

You cried till you were tired, still no one seemed to care

All you could feel was nothingness in the air

But you stayed strong, brave beyond compare

You're safe, you're home, you're not alone

Don't fear, we're here, this is a place you own

Nothing we do can reverse the memories

But we promise to never put you through it again,

Cause we love you and you're family

Lola lost half his weight in the past 9 days and although he's in a terrible state, but he's recovering slowly and I hope he'll get well soon.

To all the other owners whose cats who went through the same traumatic experience, hopefully each and every one of your cats will recover. I also hope the owners who have missing cats will be able to find their furry little friends soon...

Rasa Raya Rasa Ceria

Hey guys, how was your Raya-Merdeka holidays? I'm sure all or if not most of you had a great time celebrating with your family and friends. If you were wondering, I had my share of celebrations too!

I was invited to the home of a friend for a simple celebration, and it was great to have home cooked rendang, ketupat, lontong, and raya cookies!

My friend has always had a nick for making really good cookies and I always go for seconds when it comes to her lontong with sayur lodeh! Oh and because I love spicy food, I was even taught to add some sambal to the lontong and sayur lodeh to give it that extra kick.

I can't rave enough about her rendang daging, rendang ayam and the other many home cooked dishes she served but here's a funny tradition... I've always looked forward to her homemade pizzas!

I know it's not conventional raya food but don't you guys have this one thing you must have when it comes to festive celebrations or when you're visiting someone's home? Like the tradition of maybe eating fast food during Chinese New Year just cause this burger only comes out during that season, or even having Japanese curry every time you visit an aunt's home during the festivities? Well you get the idea...

So what makes her pizzas so special? Is it the tomato base she uses?

Or the yummy chicken mince, carrots, mushrooms and capsicum topping?

Or the pineapples and cheese she adds on top?

Well it's all of the above AND the fact that we only get to eat it in her home during raya...

This applies to everything we have right? If there's something that's only available for a limited amount of time then it's more likely we appreciate it even more. In contrast, we tend to take things for granted if they're always there within our reach at our convenience.

So this raya, don't take things for granted! Make sure you make the best of every moment to visit friends and relatives to ask for forgiveness over the harsh words or wrongdoings you might have done unknowingly. I too would like to apologize if there's been anything wrongly said on this blog... Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir dan Batin everyone ♥