Jackie Miao

Here’s a video update from me to you.

Jacky Cheung's Jazz Album, released on 29th January 2010

Cantonese superstar Jacky Cheung (張學友), one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Hong Kong’s vibrant entertainment industry has selected to use a song my friend and schoolmate Roger Wang wrote as part of his new jazz album entitled Private Corner (Released: 29 Jan 2010).

Roger composed ‘Love Scale’ for Double Take’s debut album, which was released in 2003 with Mia Palencia taking the vocals for the original English version. Seven years later, the track has been rendered in Cantonese to ‘十二個音’ and is finally having its moment of glory in the international scene.

It just blows my mind to think of the idolatry of Jacky Cheung in school, Roger’s lone madness with the guitar and the hundreds of times we’ve heard wannabes at karaoke bars yelp Jacky’s songs…

The fact that the ‘God of Songs’ is now singing a tune written by Roger is amazing and unbelievable! I bet Roger is pinching himself now; he shares how it happened on his blog. I’m beaming with pride for him. Congratulations Roger… you deserve it!

Check out 十二個音 (Love Scale) here:-

Sometimes it takes a clear sky and a mountain to remind us of why in spite of many inconveniences, we still choose to come back to Sabah. Here’s a photo meme of Mt. Kinabalu from yesterday and today….

Taken from Tanjung Aru

It all started on Facebook when Phyllis woke up to this view from her bedroom.

Mount Kinabalu from Jalan Tuaran

Then I looked out my bedroom window, headed downstairs and took this shot. (I was actually closer than Phyllis to Mt. Kinabalu but my camera was crappier.)

Mt Kinabalu from where Bob is. Yea, with his toy heli.

Bob flew his toy heli in front of his view and took this one. The helicopter almost looks real doesn’t it?

Cornelius took this from Pekan Nabalu from his mobile

Last but not least, here’s a shot of Mt. Kinabalu this morning from Cornelius Chua. Isn’t that just breathtaking? Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos with me.

P/S: If you would like to share your Mt. Kinabalu shot with me, email your picture to me with the time, date and location of where it was taken to jackiemiao.my(at)gmail.com. Remember to let me know how to credit you.

DAY 3: QUARRY BAY (Part 4-2)

This is Part 4 of a series of stories about my four days in Hong Kong.

Meeting Mun Yin at “Congee-Fish-Spring Onions”

If you’ve been reading my tweets or blog posts lately, you would know that I am a big fan of the spanking new website for people with itchy feet and an appetite for life, the fabulous CNNGo.com

On Friday night, the Marketing Manager of CNNGo Mun Yin and I made plans to meet. He is the guy behind their social media marketing effort and the source of some of my daily happiness!

As I was told that most taxi drivers in Hong Kong would not understand the English names of places, on our second phone convo I asked Mun Yin for some translation help for “Quarry Bay” in Cantonese. He was only too happy to help, but I couldn’t really make out what he was saying over the phone. I tried getting him to spell the words out phonetically but alas it seemed too clumsy an exercise for our supercool Mun Yin.

Luckily I recognized the sound of the first character Juk, which sounded to me like the Cantonese word for “congee.” Mun Yin was relieved to hear that and confirmed that it does sound like “congee,” and further added that the other two, Yu is for fish and Chung sounds like spring onions. So I replayed “Congee-Fish-Spring Onions” in my head and said Juk Yu Chung to the cabbie when I got on the cab. The cabbie seemed unsure at first, then nodded and off we went to Quarry Bay!

From Facebook to Quarry Bay

I was fashionably and un-impressively late for my date with Mun Yin, mostly because I underestimated the Friday evening traffic.  He was nonetheless very gentlemanly and went easy on me the tourist! We met at the Quarry Bay MTR station and headed to his usual haunt near the CNNGo Towers at Taikoo for dinner.

Mun Yin is such a delightful conversationalist and it was nice to finally meet the guy who shares some of the finest “happy and wacky” content in Asia with me. You just never know what it’s going to be like when you meet a complete stranger. Maybe you don’t get off on the right foot and want out within 10 minutes, maybe you sit through a horrific dinner punctuated with awkward silences and hope that talk about work will deflect from the fact that you just don’t care to see that person on a social basis ever again.

It wasn’t like that at all with Mun Yin. He is as cool in person as he is virtually and it was effortless from the get go, like @CNNgo! Like a true gentleman he paid for dinner and also the entrance fee for the BBC meet! Thank you Mun Yin! I’ll have to make sure you have a blast when you visit Malaysia and gladly at that!

Follow him on Twitter if you want in on the coolest happenings in Asia.

The British-Born Chinese Meet in Hong Kong

After dinner, Mun Yin took me to a BBC meet (you know this doesn’t only happen in London?!), where British-Chinese folks who live and work in Hong Kong get together for a night of networking and such. When we got to the building entrance of this apparent hide, we took a creepy red elevator that was so old and moved so slowly I began having flashes of gangster movie scenes in my head. When we got out of the lift and onto a none-identifiable door,  what we saw subsequently took us by total surprise. The Golf Hideaway is a sanctuary in Quarry Bay where you get to drink, eat shepherd’s pie, play screen golf, shoot pool, get a hair wash and even a foot massage too. What a place!

Met a couple of BBCs there, but what was really funny was bumping into two guys who looked awfully familiar. When we got introduced by the organizer Chris Lam, I couldn’t resist telling them I thought they looked familiar. After a bit of prodding it occurred to them that the connecting link is my ex-housemate in London. The OMG moment with them was one of the funniest moments of my life; from Facebook to “Face look!” What a small world hey?! Doesn’t matter that I showed up from Sabah, the London link is there!

We got to try out the screen golf but didn’t stay too long as Mun Yin had to head off, and I had already made plans to meet some friends of a friend at Lan Kwai Fong. It’s too bad he couldn’t join us but I had a great time meeting him and some of his friends. I also think that our tweet-relationship has gone up a notch and that’s from random marketer to friend!

Next up, I get to meet a celebrity and more people in Hong Kong…

Part 4-3 will be published on Wednesday evening.

I’m not sure if it’s incidental or did lots and lots of things happen in the last two weeks? You decide.

1. Steve Rogers’ Running Grandpa featured on USA Today

Remember Steven the Texan, one of the Top 50 candidates I was competing against for the Best Job in the World? His 91-year-old granddad Orville Rogers was featured on USA TODAY this week to show everyone you can still run at his age. So the next time you manufacture some excuse about not exercising, think about Orville and ask yourself what’s your excuse again?! Uhuh… I thought so!

Read the USA TODAY article here…
Website: Steve’s Blog

2. Island Caretaker to Appear on Oprah

When I read that Ben was going on Oprah I was pretty excited for him. As happy as I am for Ben I couldn’t help but think how close I came to being on Oprah myself. Saying that, to now know I am only one degree away from one of my biggest sources of inspiration of all time is pretty stokin’. Maybe I’ll get to meet Oprah for other reasons one day. There’s definitely hope yet!

Websites: Best Job in the World, Oprah.com

3. Jordan on Female Magazine’s GORGEOUS 50 List

My friend Jordan stunned everybody when he appeared in the quintessential ladies magazine as a celebrated sizzling hot symbol of desire in the November 2009 issue of Female Magazine (Malaysia Edition). If I don’t appear shocked, it’s because he kind of told me about a mystery photo shoot he did before he became too hot to handle!

Read my interview with Jordan…

Website: FemaleMag.com.my

4. Mia Palencia to Launch her Second Album

One of my good friends Mia Palencia will be launching her second album Songs from the Jiwang Kingdom this Friday in Kuala Lumpur. I get goosebumps when I listen to her sing; firstly from her amazing diva voice and secondly from beaming with Sabahan pride. It’s even better watching her live, as she scats her vibes into your pores. Listen to her here and judge for yourself.

Websites: Brabons Entertainment, MiaPalencia.com

5. Pete Teo, Honey Ahmad on CNNGo’s List of People to Watch

Pete Teo, the melodic prose king from Sabah and foodie Honey Ahmad of FriedChillies.com were featured on the new and very sexylicious CNNGo.com as people to watch in Asia. I met Pete about 8 years ago at No Black Tie through Roger Wang and worked with Honey Ahmad to host the delegates from the World Gourmand Awards in Sabah in 2005. FriedChillies also supported me earlier this year when I ran my Best Job in the World campaign, so as you can imagine I couldn’t be happier to see Honey’s name sprout up on CNNGo’s Hot List!

Websites: http://www.peteteo.com, http://www.friedchillies.com

6. Mad About CNNGo

Speaking of CNNGo, When I was invited to check them out a few weeks ago I wasn’t sure how good their content was going to be. A few weeks into this I’ve now gotten slightly cozy with the guys behind the scene. CNNGo.com is hip, stylish, daring, quirky, humorous and relevant. I laugh incessantly at their stuff, so much so that I can imagine myself giggling, chuckling and just about snort in their Hong Kong office with them. Loving them so far! CNNGo.com is the most exciting website in Asia right now and if you live or spend a lot of time in the region, they’ll make sure your wanderlust never fizzles.

Website: http://www.cnngo.com

7. BFF Gives Birth to a Baby Boy

This is more of a personal phenomenon but my BFF (who in our invincible years swore she’d mother a child with or without a man by 35) just gave birth to a baby boy(at 33 years old)! Phew… Thank goodness her husband locked her down before she hit the tadpole bank. She’s in super-confinement mode at the moment but I can’t wait to meet her little treasure in a week’s time!

8. Jennifer featured on Harian Metro

Remember Jennifer Pedersen, the beauty who won the Estee Lauder Model Search? She appeared in Harian Metro on November 5th, 2009. Below are the scans from her mother.

Isn’t she lovely? I’m sure you’ll see her popping up everywhere in Malaysia and Singapore, but I thought I’d follow up since the last post I wrote about Jennifer.

9. Fakawi Banshee Proud of Team Achievements

One of the coolest bunch of people in Malaysia are the Fakawi Tribe mountain bikers. Their Banshee team riders Ausanee Pradupyard(Thailand) and Stanly Jalip JR (Malaysia) podiumed in the ACC Asian MTB Championship held in Malacca last week.  All mountain biking nerds should check out those Banshee Bikes. Last I read they cost you your left kidney, but the hefty pricetag is nothing compared to the satisfaction of riding downhill like a demon. (Small print: If you’re skillfull and daring that is!)

Websites: FakawiBikes.com, FakawiTribe.com

That about rounds up the eyebrow raisers of the fortnight. In my next post I’ll share more about what I’ve been up to, so stay tuned!