You Jump, I Jump....for Merdeka

This coming Tuesday is Malaysia's 53rd Independance Day. Here's to celebrating 53 years of independence, growth, success and harmony :) May we all be independent in our own way; be it from your fears, to materialise that dream or it can be something simple like breaking yourself free from a dirty habit.

RedRibbon Days was recently invited to appear on NTV7's 'The Breakfast Show'. We were all excited and prior to that, we had to come up with some interesting topics and experience to feature on the day, since the theme for the show was Merdeka Day and that our slt was one day beore Mederka. We were cracking our brains to think of something fun and exciting to feature, not because there's nothing interesting, but only because there's SO many unique experiences we'd like to share. Then a few days before the deadline to submit our material to the TV station, one of our suppliers emailed saying that Bungy Jumping is now available here in Malaysia! We were thrilled! We instantly thought of featuring this. We came up with a Facebook contest asking our fans to write in on why they want to Bungy Jump in lieu of Merdeka Day. We chose 3 winners who all had aweome answers. One said he wanted to face his 27 years of being afraid of heights, another said why go all the way to other countries when you can Bungy Jump here in your very own country and last but not least, the last winner said he wanted to jump for Merdeka! So thanks to their clever answers, all 3 of them had a chance to jump for the very first time in their lives.

I was there to witness them jump and to also give moral support. I must admit, I haven't gathered enough courage to Bungy Jump and I was truly amazed seeing the winners jump without the slightest hesitation; although they all admitted that they were nervous and quite afraid in the beginning.

We made each of them jump together with the Malaysian flag and it was a pretty sight watching them freefall . It was an awesome experience even just to witness the jumps. So now, I have to make a point to face my fears and to try it one day. I guess I'm not a 100% independent yet ;).

Here's a video clip of one of the winners. Awesome stuff! I'll let you know once I've gathered enough balls to do it too! hehe.

We don't have this experience on our website, but it will be up soon. I can't wait! Can you imagine receiving this awesome experience as a gift, especially for daredevils!

Btw, did you catch our interview on NTV7? :) I wonder whether television actually adds 10 more pounds? hehe

Surprise Surprise!

One of the reasons why we at RedRibbon Days love what we do is simply because we are passionate about making people happy. It gives us much satisfaction to know that we can also give that ‘power’ to the buyer of a gift - to make the recipient feel like he or she is the most special person in the world. Every now and then we have customers who come to us asking us to help arrange surprises for their loved ones for their birthdays, anniversaries, proposals or even just because. We’ve arranged many special surprises from proposal in the sky to a private picnic by a waterfall to something simple like a delivery of 20+ balloons to that someone special. It’s a really great feeling to know that we’ve made an impact in someone else’s lives and to know that what we do creates unforgettable memories.

So when we’re always behind the scenes of scheming a surprise, it truly is a pleasant surprise when you yourself become the recipient of one.

Two weeks ago I turned 21 (for the 8th time) and I really didn’t expect anything because you get pretty bored turning 21 years old 8 times, so there’s nothing really new actually. Hehe. But at RedRibbon Days, no one’s birthday will go unnoticed. The girls here will make sure that being born is an occasion that definitely needs to be celebrated. So on 13 August, Friday, I came to work as usual, and first thing I noticed when I walked in was that my room somehow looked ‘merrier’ than usual. First thing that came to mind was, ‘Err, is it Hari Raya already?’.. haha then as I came closer, I noticed the big ‘Happy Birthday!’ banners and the fancy decorations. Then everyone suddenly screamed out HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!.. it was a great way to start the morning so I was already thankful for the lovely surprise. Then suddenly everyone came up to me and passed me a ‘crown’ which says ‘Hari Jadi Ayam’ (loosely translated ‘Happy Birthday Chicken’ – I’m hoping this is because I’m born in the year of the Rooster and not anything else haha) and a sash saying the same thing. I was told to wear this the whole day. Hahahahah, ok at this point I thought, oh well, it sounds like fun and there’s no harm wearing this the whole day. So with just a pinch of hesitance, I wore the ‘chicken’ accessories and thought that I actually looked good in it. So I wore it for the rest of the day. Ahahha.

The surprise doesn’t end there though. Apparently, celebrating a birthday also includes having to embarrass yourself. So I had a ‘task’ – which was to parade in my new ‘outfit’ to other offices in the building and collect 10 business cards. On top of that, I forgot that we had a meeting with a vendor, so I was in a meeting complete with the outfit. One of the ladies even wanted to take a picture with me. I felt like a celebrity for a while. Hahaha. The rest of the day was as awesome. We had KFC for lunch, a yummy birthday cheesecake, an embarrassing session of me parading in other people’s offices and a lovely RedRibbon Days experience from everyone at the office – ‘Contemporary Japanese Cuisine for Two’. I personally haven’t tried it but we’ve been receiving rave reviews about this experience. All of our customers who have been there loved it so I can’t wait to enjoy it too :) If you don’t believe me, here are a few pictures to prove the day of my lovely but embarrassing yet fun Birthday at RedRibbon Days! Thanks guys, I had a really fun day!! Love you all xoxo



The next day on my actual birthday, hubby then apparently planned a surprise for dinner. I thought I was going to have a typical birthday dinner with my parents and I was told some cousins will join. At that point I found it a bit weird, because it rarely happens – cousins joining in on a family dinner. But I thought, hey maybe I’m extra special this year. Ahahah. Turns out when we arrived for dinner, hubby conspired with my close friends instead and I was greeted by birthday screams! OK, this I did not expect because my hubby never ever surprises me or even attempts to surprise me so when he managed to pull it off, I was more surprised than the actual surprise! Hehehehe. It was so sweet. Before dinner, I actually told him I wanted to hang out somewhere else when we’re done, so that’s why he gave excuse of my cousins joining. Haha. It was a lovely night and I couldn’t have asked for more. :)

Theme for this year is '21' and headgears..haha

So here's to surprises and making people happy; delighting them in ways that make them feel special !

The one with chickens, frogs and Westin KL

The months of June, July and even the first week of August have been pretty eventful. I was going through pictures in my camera as I was saving it to my laptop, and I noticed almost every weekend there was an event to attend to; be it both personal and for RedRibbon Days.

As I was going through the pictures I came across an interesting shot I took at one of our client’s event which I just HAD to share here and which I’m sure most of you would probably hate me for...hehe. I’ll tell you a bit about the event first.

We called it “A Gastronomic Experience with a 5 Star Hotel Chef”. It was a special arrangement we had with The Westin Kuala Lumpur where we arranged for winners of a contest run by our client to spend half a day with a culinary chef from the Westin Kuala Lumpur – not only to cook in their kitchen but also taken on a private ‘marketing’ tour to Pasar Pudu (one of KL’s oldest wet market) personally by the Chef, a sit-down breakfast at a local kopitiam, followed by the cooking session and lunch. I must say I was really excited to join in on this experience. Of course, it’s not often you get to witness for yourself how a 5 star hotel kitchen is run and better yet, them giving you a personal cooking lesson right in their own kitchen.

But for me, it was not only the experience of being in the kitchen with the chefs that intrigued me the most, but it was also the experience of touring Pasar Pudu. I’ve been to a few wet markets before when I was young. I remember following my grandmother to ‘Pasar Tani’ early in the morning and helping her to carry groceries. Although I didn’t enjoy it much (which 10 year old kid would enjoy waking up in the wee hours of the morning to go to a Pasar anyway?!) but as I grew older and now that my grandmother is no longer with us, I began to understand tit was not so much the trip to the Pasar, but it was more of the ‘bonding’ time with her. She loved to cook and the only reason I would enter the kitchen was to quickly grab something from the fridge, so I guess trips to the Pasar was the only way to get me to bond with her. Either that, she really needed help to carry her groceries. Haha. Well, either way, it was one of the fond memories I had about her.

Sorry I digress, but the reason why it reminded me of my grandmother, was because the Chef himself (Chef Kuan) also told us stories about how he constantly followed his mother to Pasar Pudu when he was younger. It was interesting to hear his personal stories on which stalls his mother used to patronise and some of the sellers during that time were still around and they greeted Chef Kuan personally like they knew them his whole life. It was nice to see how Chef Kuan still has a personal connection to the market even though now he’s a big time chef in a 5 star hotel and that he still enjoys returning to Pasar Pudu.


So as I was saying, I’ve been to wet markets before but none of it compares to Pasar Pudu. I had ‘rojak’ feelings after experiencing this market. It’s difficult to explain, because I felt intrigued but at the same time it was a gruesome experience. It’s sort of like the feeling you get when you watch movies such as ‘Hostel’ or ‘Saw’. I actually enjoy watching gore movies, but of course, I still cringe at the gruesome gory scenes with blood spurting out and eyeballs popping out. Oh well, you get the idea..hehe . If you are a fan or gore movies, then maybe you’d understand ;)

So I have to warn you that this market is probably not for the faint hearted. Why I say this is because this market was sort of like a ‘live’ slaughter house. Despite being surrounded by fresh produce, smelly fish and chaotic ‘pasar’ noises, you are also surrounded by one-man slaughter machines. As soon we stepped in, there was a man at a chicken stall, casually picking up chickens, bending their necks, then swiftly slashing their necks, threw the carcass aside, and picked up another one. It only took him about 1 second to slaughter each chicken. SO you can imagine he was like to production line machine – picking up a chicken, slashing it, throwing it aside…and the cycle continues. I even tried taking a picture, but he was so swift that my camera couldn’t take a still shot of him slaughtering.

I was already a bit ‘jakun’ by the live chicken slaughter man that I kind of dumbstruck for a moment. Then I thought, erm ok, this is a pasar and I guess it’s pretty normal. Then we continued walking and passed by the fish stalls. There were plenty of ‘live’ fishes but not in fishtanks mind you, but on the fishmonger tables still squirming and flipping around. I love seafood, and there’s nothing more satisfying for seafood lovers than to see and buy fresh seafood right? Erm, not this time. To my horror, I just had to witness one of the fish mongers pick up a fish and bang it’s head on the table just to stop it from flipping around much! Geez, this not only felt like a live slaughterhouse but a real life scene from Saw or Hostel – just that it’s animals and not tortured humans…haha..

So what came next was something even a gore movie fan like me couldn’t take. There was a stall selling frogs, frog meat to be exact. But as usual, this being a slaughter house, there was of course another ‘live’ show of the poor frogs being slaughtered. Weapon of choice? A pair of scissors! The seller just picked up the frogs and squished its’ head between the pair of scissors and with just one SNAP!; the head fell on the table and the carcass was thrown back on the table only to pick up another poor frog. This time, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the man in action and it’s a good thing it’s not very clear (unless you zoom in on the picture) but maybe it’s not a good idea to look at it after you’ve had a meal.



I've probably painted you an ugly picture of Pasar Pudu, but I think this is what makes it unique, colourful, beautifully gruesome and intriguing at the same time. This represents a piece of Malaysia and since our generation is so used to air-conditioned supermarkets I bet a lot of us have not experienced such a thing. A visit to this market is truly an experience on its own which is why I chose to blog about this instead of the cooking experience in Westin KL’s awesome kitchen.

But to sum that part of the experience, I’ll let pictures do the talking. The kitchen is my dream kitchen which I’d hope to have some day. The food was magnificent (We cooked nasi dagang, prawn dumpling and beef tenderloin cantonese style) , the chefs were extremely friendly and being in the presence of the kitchen staff and chefs running around the kitchen preparing lunch for their guests on the day was awesome. I believe everyone enjoyed themselves, from the pasar trip, breakfast at the local kopitiam sharing each other’s personal stories to cooking in the kitchen until lunch – every moment was an experience on it’s own.

Hello Level 7!

We officially moved to our new office last Monday, 26 July 2010. Moving to a new place always brings about mixture of emotions. We were kind of sad as it was our home for the first 2 years that we started out. So there were a lot of bittersweet memories, kind of like the feeling you get moving out from a home where you were born in and where you spent your first few years of childhood.

But at the same time there’s this feeling of excitement and joy; as you anticipate a new beginning and what the future has in store for us. We look forward to not only a bigger office, but most importantly a bigger team of RedRibboners :)

I kept a photo diary on how our new office was born, from being stripped naked to being prepped up for a new look and how it was constructed into a gorgeous office; just like how Sherin and Ming Ne envisioned it to be.

1 July 2010

5 July 2010

13 July 2010

19 July

And here's the new completed look. *Pics courtesy of RRD FB Page Album :)

For more pictures check out our FB fan page album here

It’s already been a week and I believe we’ve all settled down and already used to the fact that we have to walk slightly further to the toilet, pantry and even to each other’s room! Hehe.

But it’s all good and everyone couldn’t be happier. So here’s to our new office and farewell old faithful office on Level 12 :)

Oh yes, and a warm welcome to Ming Ne to the blogging world. I am very honoured that she made me her first topic to blog about. I'm very touched :P