ADV: Happy Ogawa Playthings!

one of the things I miss most about being home is being back in the thick of the vibrant blogger community and the events that we get invited to. with all the movie screenings, dinners, theme parties, concerts and food outings that we see each other at so frequently in addition to our online palaver, it’s a wonder we’re not all sick of each other by now :P

Ogawa had a dinner party and product trial for about 40 bloggers last week at TGIFridays Pavilion. i was looking forward to the event because some of my favorite people were going to be there — it’s always nice to disturb Shaolin Tiger and Horng, gossip with Spinzer, talk about substantial matters (hehe) with Sixthseal, and of course, ogle the gorgeous Cindy!! plus if Ogawa wants to sit me down on comfy leather chairs that are going to massage away my working world woes, I’m all for it :)

dinner was buffet-style at TGIFridays, where sadly my favorite Jack Daniels steak wasn’t served, but happily the Caesar salad was! photo is courtesy of Sixthseal, because i arrived too late to take any pictures of dinner, not that anyone was very surprised –

after our appetites were satiated and much was talked about, we were then brought to go play with the big bad Ogawa toys.

this is the very cute Redmummy testing out the red Ogawa Smart Mate. the Smart Mate applies kneading, tapping and rolling motions on the main reflex points of the upper body, and combines that with light vibrations on the lower body to provide an all-around delicious body massage.

the legs are not left out either – 12 air bags are placed in the leg massager unit to gently squeeze away soreness and tire. i normally can’t stand these leg massager things cos my calves are super sensitive to pressure and i always end up in a half-screaming, half-laughing fit while struggling to break free from the confinement – but the Smart Mate was an absolutely delightful experience :) soothing but firm grips rumbling across my fatigued body = feels so good. it was a very welcome product trial especially after the long day at work.

on the other side of the room, the boys were having a lot of fun with the Ogawa Smart Aire massage chairs.

that is Sixthseal reclining on the Smart Aire. the back of the Smart Aire is S-shaped to snugly fit into the natural curvature of our back so that it covers and massages all the right fatigue zones, which is evident from the obscene ‘stim’ faces that Sixthseal is making -_-

i’ve actually never seen a massage chair that tilts backwards like the Smart Aire does. the idea is to put the user in a higher state of relaxation by reclining him/her and thus relieving the burden of gravity on the spine. pressure is taken off the back, muscle tension is reduced, and the S-curve assists in correcting spinal alignment.

the rollers on this chair also simulate human thumbs, and i really appreciate this because it’s so much like a real massage, except i don’t have to lie on my stomach — a position that often makes me feel nauseous cos of some superficial pulse points that i have in my abdomen.

an act-cute picture of Wingz before he promptly started snoozing during the product trial :P

we were all also very fascinated by the handheld massaging contraptions that Ogawa has. for instance, the Eyetune – an eye massager that can be linked to an MP3 player — that we all took to camwhoring with:

and also these very suspicious-looking handheld devices…

they vibrate! and i look perhaps a little too gleeful to be holding them.

so does Sixthseal for that matter :P

the night drew to a close when they asked us to participate in a two-phase game, one of which involved a rhyme about a waiter that had to be passed down about 10 people per group, and the group with the closest match of the rhyme could advance to the next level.

my group won!

the last two men/women left standing (literally) at the end of the second level would then win the coveted mystery prize. i was feeling pretty confident until Robb revealed that the game involved MATH. nooooooooo. did you know that in college, some of my friends call me Asian Fail cos I can’t speak Chinese well, cant play poker, and most importantly, i suck at math? but apparently i’m not that bad at math cos i ended up winning!!! muahaha. ShaolinTiger was the other winner.

we both got EyeTunes!!!

now I can camwhore to my heart’s content :D

all products mentioned in this post are currently on 50% discount at Ogawa for their Mega Raya sales. the Smart Mate is going for something like RM 4.6k from its original RM9k+ price tag O_O if i had the money, i would buy the Smart Aire for my parents… :|

TIP: the Eyetouch is a great gift for stressed-out dads and the Enviro vacuum is excellent for the moms, especially with the additional discount vouchers from the folks at Nuffnang :)

27 comments September 3rd, 2009

Point Potpourri

it’s my last week of summer break, and i have approximately 3.5 days left in KL before i go back to college and NYC. needless to say (i actually never understood why people say ‘needless to say’ and then proceed to say what was needless anyway), it’s been a frantic time of cramming as many loved ones as possible into each 24 hour pocket, while still making time for myself to laze in sleepy and literary hedonism, AND plenty of stressful buying ‘n packing within the 40 kg verge. buy here or buy there? would this be cheaper here or there? how many pairs of shoes to bring? how to pack my handbags so as to not squash them into an unfashionable mess? clearly i havent gotten very efficient at this even after a year away.

(suddenly i feel like Elizabeth, before she went away to Whyteleafe School — which i used to mistakenly pronounce wit-tuh-leaf until my Standard 1 English teacher corrected me.)

anyway, i’m finally finding time to blog amidst all the rumbling and tumbling because the friend i’m supposed to meet is late. yay, time bonus! briefly, in point form, lest my forgetfulness outpaces my typing ability:

1. today is actually my former dog’s birthday. i lost her when i was 13; she went out for a run on her own and never came back. i didnt remember her birthday today, and have stopped remembering for about 4 years now — but this evening, my mom texted me this: “today is 2nd sept sugar dog’s birthday but dont know how many years old already”. hahaha. it’s another one of her act cute moments. my dog’s name is Sugar, by the way, but we all called her ‘Sugar Dog’ cos Dog was her last name. when i first got Sugar and introduced her one of my aunts, she laughed and said “Sugar Dog? why not Sugar Daddy?” i asked her what sugar daddy meant and she didnt want to tell me. wtf. adults!

2. i went out to watch Vengeance tonight, which was good, albeit divergent from a typical HK triad movie. i’m really glad i wasnt late for this movie because i managed to catch a gem amongst the commercials that were showing before the movie started. it’s this one by Absolut Vodka:

it’s such a wonderful ad. somewhere in there i was slightly worried that it was going to be an ad by a bank or an insurance company, which would have ruined it all for me, but it was such a pleasant surprise to see that the ad was by Absolut. while looking it up on Youtube, i learned that the ad is actually one part of a series titled ‘In An Absolut World’. this one below is my other favorite; it’s not nearly as powerful as the first, but makes up for that immensely via its cute factor:

3. our friend Lali is going away to Mount Holyoke for college, so her family threw her a really small farewell party at home. kidding lah, it wasnt small :P it’s just that she made it sound like it was going to be a little get-together where her mom was going to cook us all dinner or something, but when we got to her house, there were all these canopies, purple tablecloths, catered food, and SO MANY PEOPLE. haha. it was a good night — we all got red-faced and played Never Have I Ever, which resulted in many a delicious shared tale. and i’ve discovered that i really like parties at indian households! there’s always such a vast array of premium alcohol, and they keep encouraging you to drink! even before you’ve eaten! or maybe Lali’s parents are just super cool.

4. OMG GMAIL IS WORKING AGAIN!

5. and while the video-sharing vibe is still in the air, check out this utterly elating and inspirational video, done by a Malaysian for Hari Merdeka:

Merdeka Day was so uneventful until i watched this video. it’s been a rather Malaysia-unloving time for me, what with recent events and an uneasy jadedness creeping up upon me, but this video rejuvenated me somewhat. isnt it so adorable? i love the parts with the eager schoolkids and the nervous security guards.

6. got this cool photocard of Andrew and i from the I <3 KL launch at Delicious yesterday!

i’m currently in a facebook relationship with Andrew, the status update of which everyone ignored until i yelled it out across the Facebook universe. what happened?? remember the good ol’ days where everyone and their mothers (literally — my dad just joined Facebook and turned up on my ex boyfriends’ suggested friends list. the best part? he’s added lots of people but he hasnt added ME. WTF.) would descend upon each relationship change status to express their congratulations / condolences / shock / clairvoyance? okay maybe it’s just that nobody cares about Andrew and me :(

EDIT: apparently this needs to be said… Andrew and i are NOT going out!!! it’s just a facebook status spoof thing! -_-

7. i’m so glad i decided to do lasik. i can see fantastically now, except for slight power fluctuation in my left eye. all those corny posters about FREEDOM! on the walls of the lasik centre are actually true — when i slept over at Lali’s, it felt so nice to not have to wake up to a colorful blur and fumbling for glasses in the morning. the only beef i have with it all is that i still cant use make-up, especially eyeliner :( in protest, i angrily decided a few days ago that i’m going to ahead and use make-up anyway, and i did, but i’ve become so used to my makeup-less face that i think i look really weird with makeup now. fuh :(

8. i’ve been spending the past week eating all the local food i love and plurk about most when i’m away at school, namely: banana leaf rice, bak kut teh, chili pan mee and HOKKIEN MEE. i’ve been having chili pan mee for lunch almost every day this week, and i finally had good bak kut teh tonight, but i still need to gorge on hokkien mee until i’m so sick of it that i wont miss it anymore when i’m back in America. BEAVER, CALL ME. ARTHUR, YOU TOO. let’s go out for hokkien mee!!!

9. i realized while i was looking through my pictures last week that i actually have not blogged about my trips to Paris, Barcelona, China and Nottingham. there’s also a lot of Hong Kong, London and New York that i’ve yet to blog about. the problem is that there’s so much to blog about, and i usually dont know where to start, so i end up never starting. to combat that, i’ve set up a little poll widget at the sidebar to collect opinions on the sort of travel material you guys like to read — so please do answer the poll, if you havent already done it over the past week! it would be most helpful to me :)

okay it’s time to sahur! byebye :)

43 comments September 2nd, 2009