Thursday, January 26, 2012

Napbas 2011

Finally I'm blogging about the Napbas like a century after everybody else!

Unfortunately I was a little overwhelmed during the event and didn't take many pictures.

I lied.

I took many pictures with people who wanted pictures with me, just not with my camera. :p

WHAT? It's the ONE time in 2 years where I am like a star at an event ok?! Want to be a bit happy about it cannot ah?!

So back to me saying I didn't take many pictures... Fortunately I have friends who did take a lot of pics so I can steal from their blogs!! Namely Qiuqiu wtf, who is actually a master at photoshop. She edited me so well that I didn't bother to liquify anything about myself from the pictures she edited, plus on top of good aesthetic sense she edits like 200 pictures within a few hours. Every single person in her pics are edited because she is that nice. -_- Well I can just retire now and let the young people take over. I cannot do this photoshop crap anymore, my neck and arm muscles are killing me. QIU YOU JUST WAIT THIS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU WHEN YOU OLD.

The Singaporean bloggers all took 2 coaches up to KL's Marriott hotel where the event was held and we were all invited to stay. It was quite a fun ride but the coach got lost so by the time we arrived it was time for hair and makeup already!


This pic Qiuqiu took (as you can see from the watermark I put *ahem*) as I was in her hotel room (she was bunking with Sophie) putting on false lashes.

Amazingly enough someone put this picture on tumblr... It has over 10,000 notes! o_O I told Mike he is famous now as a dude in the background.

Btw my hair was done by Number 76style, a hair salon in KL opened by Japanese. My hair styling was done by a Japanese girl named Hikkey. She's awesome!

That's all my real hair btw, no extensions.

My sequinned dress is from Topshop at like $280 or something. The back was really loose for me but my Momo did some magic sewing and made it fit like a glove. Mad love for her!! How the hell she can sew sequins, I'd never find out.


Cheesie came into the room to get ready with us and camwhore!


Love this picture ALL of us girls were camwhoring at the same time with our own cameras! This is from Qiu's. Mine turned out blur. -_-


Here's another blur picture I took. FFFFUUU Y U NO BLUR WHEN I UGLY MUST BLUR WHEN I CHIO?!


A picture with His Royal Handsomeness Feat. Bradley Cooper's hair


Hate the lashes I chose for the day!

In 2009's Napbas my makeup was really fug and my hairstyle didn't suit me, because I experimented with new things, namely that pouffy hair and solotica contacts which I wore for the first time.

This year I swore to stick to makeup and hair that I already know works, so I chose a pair of lashes that I tried on at home and liked.

They were droopy as hell on the awards day. ANGRY! Oh well.


Qiu tonging and tonging nonstop while Mike stares out of a window. He stared for a long time. It's a little creepy but I suppose it's better than if he joins in our makeup session or keeps staring at the room full of gorgeous girls (I AM TALKING ABOUT THE REST OF THEM! Not really, me included. LOL).


Cheesie: "Look! Look mommy I took a picture!" 

In the background is Sophie...



And here is Sophie's caption: "I don't know why these girls are fussing so much over their hair and makeup I don't need crap like that I'm Eurasian and naturally gorgeous even when I'm farting and kicking a kitten."

LOL When we were all dressed and ready Sophie was like still in casual clothes! She said getting ready doesn't require much time. ANGMOH HAO LIAN LAH!!


Cheesie photobombing me!


And me photobombing her!! 

This photo of me is so fugly and yet I appreciate that Cheesie even tried to liquify me to look better (see black space around border). LOLOL

And then we adjourned to the ballroom...


Where I take this one shitty blurry picture of a happy Qiu and Soph and Jess in the background before I'm mobbed by hundreds of photo requests. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!


Think Jess took this for me! With Ming, co-founder of Nuffnang and definitely a 贵人 in my life!



Cheesie and I went to take pictures with our nomination boards! 

Not everyday you get printed on a poster, ok?


I also helped her snap shots of her with the Best Fashion Blog background but this pic of her turned out the chioest so I shall post it even though it's with my Best Lifestyle Blog nomination.





At the table!



With Aud too!



Before we could even settle in, the first award for Best Photography Blog was being given out.

I had a shock because it was sooooooooooooo GRAND.

There was intense music and spotlights and best of all, there were five panels forming the backdrop of the stage which could display different pictures!

As the nominations were read out, the panels showed the pictures of the bloggers and a deep manly voice recited their accolades.

Like this!

It was all just... MAJESTIC. With an epic soundtrack like the Oscars. And there was a red carpet and all!!

And when the first winner was announced, his giant headshot and screenshots of his blog flashed on the panels, larger than life, announcing "WINNER" in big letters.

All I could think of when I saw it was "WOW. THAT WAS AWESOME. I WANT THAT."

Too soon they were announcing for the Best Fashion Blog... I was trembling too coz I was so nervous for Cheesie!!



AND SHE WON!!!

So happy for her!!

Even though Cheesie is not the high-end avant garde fashiony sort like most fashion bloggers are, she is definitely the most hardworking vain person ever and she takes pictures of her clothes like EVERYDAY so she totally deserves this! God know she influenced a lot of the styles I like now, like Liz Lisa etc and taught everyone all sorts of Cheat One tricks like how to tie a hair bow in 1 min. :D


Too soon it was the announcement of the Best Lifestyle Blog, which I was nominated for. I was nerve wrecked even though everyone around me was so confident I would win. In my heart I thought - this is the easy one. If I don't win this there is no way in hell I'd win Influential.

The announcer was talking. I was rehearsing a speech inside for when I go up the stage. Then TA DAH!!

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The winner is Jenni Epperson, from Philippines.

I sat in stunned silence.

My face was on one of the 5 panels as a finalist and it got ERASED to form the words "WINNER" next to Jenni's face and screenshots of her blog.

But that was not what I saw when I looked at the stage. What I saw was this:




And then all around the table my friends were giving me pitying "Aw, are you ok?" looks. It was so embarrassing.

I just faked a smile and soldiered on. Ok I'm kidding. I don't think I bothered to fake a smile, I just was emo and grumpy after that, spending my night thinking unsavoury thoughts about Jenni and hating her.

What? I'm sorry I've never been that sort of person who can be happy for other people when it's at my expense ok?!


And of course Jenni had to be the nicest person ever (pic taken after the awards, she's in the suit) and I felt so guilty. Actually all of the Filipino bloggers are super friendly and nice!!

So anyway as I was saying, I was being emo after that. Everyone kept telling me that I was bound to win for Influential, which wasn't announced yet.

It just made me sadder. They just didn't get it. One of the finalists, the one from Thailand, had 600,000 facebook fans!! I only had 60,000! If I can't win for Lifestyle where the finalists had a few thousand visitors a day to their site daily, how can I POSSIBLY win for Influential!?

Then Cheesie's mom called her and she said "Ma... I won..." with a voice choked with emotion and it made me wanna cry, partly out of being touched for Cheesie and partly because I thought of my own mom, anxiously waiting at home for the results. She already asked me TWICE if I won, and now I have to tell her I lost both awards.

And then I tweeted that I lost Lifestyle...

I expected gloaters but no, all I got were really sweet blog readers who told me they think I'm the best no matter what, they'd always vote for me, and whether I win or not doesn't matter because to them, I already won.

HOW TO NOT EMO YOU TELL ME?!?!

Before I knew it they were announcing the dreaded Most Influential Blog and I didn't even fucking prepare a speech but the most unimaginable thing happened:

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I WON.


I was just... WTF man... Couldn't believe it!!

(Also thanks to Aud whom I can see is sincerely happy for me lol)

And when I came down back to my seat... I thought of how awesome my blog readers are...

People always say I have hordes of sheep supporting me, but they are not, each of them are warm-blooded individuals with minds of their own... who believed in me and thought I deserved to win. They all made an effort for me; took time out of their day for me. And I'm so horrible (see unsavoury thoughts towards Jenni), I totally don't deserve this trophy at all...

And there my friends were, congratulating me, hugging me, being happy for me. My husband was beaming at me with pride. My life is so fucking smashing awesome and yet I was whining over losing a trophy and didn't see it.

Next thing I knew I was full out sobbing.




Which made Cheesie and Qiuqiu cry as well lol


Mike kept taking my crying pictures...


Now Cheesie can be happy about her award without considering my feelings! LOL



And before I even had the chance to compose myself, I heard the other co-founder of Nuffnang, Tim, on stage talking about Region's Best Blog and how carefully Nuffnang selected the winner based on points and votes.

I honestly wasn't even paying attention to him because for some reason I thought someone at Nuffnang told me that this award cannot be given to the same person twice and so I thought I was ineligible to win!

Just like everyone else in the ballroom I was excited to see who the winner would be this year.



AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS..............?


IT IS ME.






Here I am, giving my speech on stage while actually crying. I think I gave quite a nice speech but alas nobody recorded it -_-


As you can tell Tim was very bemused by the tears and kept asking me why I was crying. I can't even explain!! I was just so overwhelmed with overlapping emotions!!

Happiness, gratitude, surprise, anxiety, guilt from feeling unworthy etc. It's too much!!

I'm the Region's Best Blog among Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, China, Hongkong and Australia! HOW?!


Double winner!! 

Surprisingly enough after I won the awards (and an Olympus camera PLUS and iPhone 4S from Celcom!!) I remembered that out of the jumble of thoughts I had, the one that kept hitting me was being worried everyone's gonna fucking hate me like mad because I won 3 awards in 2009 and swept away another 2 in 2011.

This came true shortly with the Aussie parenting bloggers. But as people all told me... Fuck them! I'm the one with the awards. ;)

A HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to Nuffnang for making my life so smashing.

I know I've said this so many times but where would we bloggers without you guys? I'd possibly be doing some admin job or would be in a miserable studio somewhere photoshopping people's wedding pictures for them.

And yet here I am, earning a living doing exactly what I love to do.

Thank you for bringing respect to bloggers, thank you for building the community where I made so many awesome friends, thank you for the last 4 years of love and care, and lastly, thank you for giving us bloggers NAPBAS, one special night just for us to feel important and special.

And of course, loads and loads of hugs and kisses for every one of you who voted for me.

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!

Just look at the damn crying picture ok? That's me appreciating it loads!!!!!

You guys are the best and I'm planning a way to repay you all. I'd let you know when it comes to fruition!

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