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

Bon Appétit

Personally, the gift of 'food' is one of the best gifts ever! It's soooo simple, yet it gives sooooo much pleasure. Especially for me! I wouldn't call myself a foodie but I just LOVE to eat. :D

So you can imagine how ecstatic I was when I received this as a gift - Contemporary French Cuisine for Two.
(yes, we at RedRibbon Days get excited receiving a RedRibbon Day too! heheh). I don't go for fine dining very often so I was looking forward to this very much, especially when I got to share it with loved ones.

Ouh by the way, this was also one of the experience on my wish list so yeah, it just made the gift much more meaningful. I'm not much of a food critic but all I can say is it was AWESOME. Everything from the ambience, food, service and did I mention food? hehe. But seriously, I get lost for words when people ask me to describe food. I usually reply with 3 standard answers and ratings:
1. AWESOME!!! or It was sooooo gooodd!!!!
2. OK-lah
3. Yuck! or Tak Sedap

Hahaha ok, I'm probably despised by food critics right now.
Here's what I had and apologies for the poor photos. I'm really bad at taking photos. Sherin would know. hehe.

Crab and prawn bisque with crab quenelles, prawns poached in beurre noisette and a trail of Italian lemon oil - Yummy! One of my fav dishes for the night

Deep fried spice dusted soft shell crab with whitebouillabaisse sauce, tomato reduction, chickpea aïoli and saffron foam - Another yummy one! I love soft shell crabs

Pan seared Japanese mulloway with saffron risotto and romesco thickened bouillabaisse sauce

Crème brûlée, glacée, flambée

To sum it up, I would be so happy if I received this gift again. It's a great gift for couples to celebrate an anniversary, birthdays or even just because. You can never go wrong with the gift of food, what more when it's GREAT food and ambience.

The beauty of our website is, we've got an array of cuisines to choose from; be it Italian, Japanese, Thai, Lebanese, Korean, Croatian, Mediterranean, Western Fusion, Cuban and many more to come.

So if you're stuck on gifting ideas, just remember that although food sounds like a simple gift, it can turn out to be an experience they'll remember - because I sure as hell will never forget my Contemporary French Cuisine experience :))

2 weeks into Jan 2010

Ok i know this is wayy overdue but I'd just like to say "Hello 2010!". Time flies and we're already 2 weeks into Jan 2010. Feels like just yesterday we celebrated New Year. Anyhow, hope you had a jolly good Christmas and an awesome New Year celebration. :)

It's been a great 2009 ending for me and for RedRibbon Days, I believe. Got a few overdue posts about what's been happening but before that, I'd just like to start off saying one thing - I am now a strong believer in "mandi bunga" (as per my previous post)..hahaha! Not that I want to jinx it or anything, but a couple of days after my "mandi bunga" experience, things just turned 360 and it was one good news after the other! Call it pure coincidence or whatever you want, but I'm dead serious! It's kind of freaky in a way but whatever it is, I'm really happy about how 2009 ended and I'd like to think that the "mandi bunga" had something to do with it..hahahahha.

It also feels surreal, that RRD has grown from myself and Sherin, working at home on her dining table to a team of ladies in a REAL office. We actually had our first ever inaugural Company Dinner on 8 Jan 2010. Feels weird, but good weird and we hope to actually FILL UP the restaurant with RRD staff in the next 5 years :)). One of our staff, Shiva blogged about the night. Ladies, we hope you had fun although it was just the 5 of us, but here's to many many more so we can have more office gossips and scandals..haha.joking of course.

Anyhow, apart from the great closing to 2009 for our business, I'm really happy that I've fulfilled 3 out of 10 experiences I'd like to do for 2010. Instead of coming up with new resolutions, I've come up with a list of new EXPERIENCES I'd like to personally do for 2010. 2009 has been pretty hectic as we were all busy establishing and growing the company so this year I hope to dedicate more time to try out new things and it's great to know that only 2 weeks into the year, I've already done 3!

So here's my Top 10 to-do list for 2010. I'll talk about each experience I've completed in separate posts..hope it won't take til 2011..haha

1. Langkawi Sunset Dinner Cruise for Two DONE! 1st Jan 2010 (thanks to Sherin and Ming btw)
2. Pilot For a Day DONE! 12 Jan 2010. Scariest experience for me to date (i actually hate rollercoaster rides and this kind of felt like one), yet surreal.
3. Contemporary French Cuisine for Two. GOING TO DO TODAY! yeay

Ok the rest below is in no particular order :)

4. Design and Make Your Own Batik Art. I seriously don't think it's as boring as it sounds...
5. Learn Wakeboarding! – 4 Sessions Beginners Course. It looks cool..haha. I can tell people i 'wakeboard'. How cool is that..hahah
6. Spa Getaway for Two in Malacca – Aroma Foot Massage. A charming boutique hotel in Melaka. I've never stayed in a boutique hotel before. Am quite curious...
7. Borneo Highlands Kayaking and Orang Utan Visit for Two. I have a thing for orang Utans..nothing weird ok, i just think they're cute..hahah
8. 3D/2N Survivor Island Adventure via Kota Kinabalu for 2. I sooo wanna go to Sabah
9. Walk In The Sea . Yes, Sabah again.
10. Mandara Massage . 2 therapists massaging you at one time? sounds good.....

So what's YOUR top 10 experience list?

Will share pictures and stories about the ones I've done in my next post..and maybe will revisit the ones I've done in 2009 :)

Enjoy the weekend!

"Mandi Bunga"

I went through one of the worst unlucky streak in my life during the past couple of weeks - both personally and business wise. I'm sure everyone goes through a period where somehow everything just goes wrong and anything that you do with good intentions just hits you back, smack in the face. For me it was pretty bad and I don't want to go into details - let's just say things that happened made me want to crawl into a hole, sleep and not wake up until next month. One or two days is not so bad, but for me it just carried on for a couple of weeks! From something simple to typo in emails, sending out the wrong sms to the wrong person to running around like a madwoman around town or a quiet day of sales. It was just bad news one after the other.

That's when I thought, that's it...I gotta do something about it! This is when "mandi bunga" comes in :) Sherin and myself have this ritual of "mandi bunga" or floral bath everytime we go through a series of unfortunate events. Call us naive or trivial, but when sh*t hits the fan, you'd do anything to make all this bad luck go away.

So, last Sunday I went to buy 7 different flowers (why 7? I don't know..ask Sherin hehe) and in the evening I made myself a nice floral bath.


Ouh, by the way here's a definition of floral bath or "mandi bunga" take from this link -http://themalaysianlife.blogspot.com/2008/03/mandi-bunga-ritual.html

Quote "The mandi bunga is performed to dispel bad luck (bad vibes) - "buang sui" or "buang sial". The rationale is that once a person is void of bad luck, he's able to attract good fortune." Unquote

Based on the write-up, I was suppose to put in kaffir lime and pomelo leaves..oh well. Maybe it'll half work..hehe

I don't know whether to believe it or not, but I do feel much better since yesterday. So far, there hasn't been any drama (touch wood!) til today. For what it's worth, even if it it's all in the mind, at least I had a relaxing evening bath ;)

Next time we go through another spell of bad luck, I'm gonna share another one of our rituals - moving furniture around the office..hehehe..but let's hope that we don't have to do that anytime soon or ever! We're runnning out of furniture and space.

For those who can't be bothered to look for flowers or draw their own bath, RedRibbon Days has an experience to help you shoo away any bad luck you've been experiencing, coupled with a body massage! Check out our Flower Blossom Spa experience. Ok, the picture in our website looks more inviting than mine. Should have bought more flowers..haha