Month: November 2006

Smarties

Recently, my former classmate Mindy sent me videos of Smarties chocolate advertisements done by her agency.

LOL. Those tubes were so scared till they shat smarties off their arse. Yes, the videos were on national tv!
I’m sure everyone here tried Smarties before. When I was younger, I used to play with it’s tube (Smarties were packed in a tube). I would turn it into a cannon by whacking the tube to force its plastic cap to fly off.
But now, Nestle has replaced the old packaging with a Hexatube packaging.
Anyway, here are some interesting facts that I gathered from wikipedia.

  • Nestlé uses cochineal, a derivative of the Cochineal beetle, to dye red Smarties, [1] and are therefore not kosher or vegetarian. (!!! Smarties uses insects???)
  • In Canada, Smarties are traditionally all the same chocolate flavour inside, although recent marketing trials have included boxes of flavoured candy. Some flavours include Sundae and Orange. Smarties in Canada are usually sold in either a plastic bag or an oblong cardboard box.
  • Blue Smarties – Replaced in 2006 with white by Nestle UK due to the removal of all artificial colours from Smarties. As there is no naturally blue food colour, they could no longer be produced under the new policy (blue Smarties continue to be manufactured by Nestle Canada however).
  • In February 2005, it was announced that the traditional cylindrical tube was to be replaced with a new six-sided “Hexatube” packaging in the summer. Nestlé have stated that the redesign is in order to keep the brand interesting and fresh to children; the new packaging is also lighter and more compact. The last 100 tubes to leave the factory in York have a certificate inside them.
    The replacement of Smarties’ packaging wasnt well received by the older crowd. This was evident from the comments @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4276553.stm. Here are some extracts of the comments.
    Quite simply the worst catastrophe to befall modern man. Don’t do it, Smarties!!
    Helen, UK
    This is a disaster. Traditional Smartie tubes are a wonderful charity fund-raising aid. We have used the Smartie-tube challenge to raise thousands of pounds in our local community. You give people a free tube of Smarties, which are theirs to eat, but ask them to return the tubes full of 20p pieces. This is an effective and easy way of raising money for charity. Shame on you Nestle Rowntree for removing this opportunity.
    David, UK
    (Interesting!)
    The best bit about the old tube with the plastic end was always when the tube was empty. You eat the Smarties with relish (the orange ones last of course!), then put the top back on the tube, rest it on a surface, and bang the edge of your hand down hard about half way along the tube, to see how far you can fire the plastic top.
    That really was always one of the best bits of Smarties, and in fact in my thirties I still do it!
    The children of the future will miss out on a great entertaining activity.
    Mrs Mayo, UK
    I’ve spent the last 32 years building a two storey house for my family entirely out of Smarties tubes, using the lids as flooring, paving stones and a driveway. I estimated to be finished by 2008, but if the hexagons come in, I’m going to have to redo the whole roof.
    Ron Johnson, UK

    • All I Want For Christmas Is …

    1. a new car
    2. a new handphone / mobile phone
    3. RM10,000,000 mysteriously appearing in my bank account (tax-free?)
    4. 999 pink roses for fun (so gay!)
    5. Godiva chocolates lasting me for half a year
    6. brunch at Jogoya with a nice date
    7. xes and frank_omatic not to bully me ever!
    8. new lingerie – lots of it!
    9. free petrol for car forever!
    10. my own blog ;P
    Edit: I changed my mind! Guestblogging is hard enough.
    Christmas is around the corner, and they say it’s a season for giving. It happens to be a season for wanting, too!
    I’ve got a long list of stuff I really want, although I know I shouldn’t be greedy. I’m sure you can top that, so try your best!
    Give me your wish list, see if I can play Santa Claus / Santarina. ;P

    Wedding Card

    As everyone is aware, when a couple gets married, they will usually send out invitation cards to guests inviting them for their wedding dinner/reception.

    This year alone, I’ve attended 3 weddings. One of them can be read here.

    My question is, Are Wedding E-cards acceptable by our society?
    To me, if I were to receive a wedding ecard, my first impression would be, “Cheapskates”. However, if we look at it on a better light, a wedding e-card has many advantages. Those that I could think of are:-
    1) Save cost/paper
    2) Save time from forwarding wedding cards to invitees
    3) People tend to keep emails after reading them. But for wedding cards, most people would dispose them off.
    4) Can be produced quickly. Behold! the xes.cx wedding card! took me only 15 minutes!


    What do you think? 😀

    Gonna Be Crushed Again

    An old friend and I got back in touch with each other recently. We tried to catch up a bit online the other day and there was a lot of “laughter”. I mean, you just have to imagine there is real laughter when there’s no webcam or Skype … you know what I mean. ;P
    So, anyway, I enjoyed our conversation so much that I didn’t want it to end. He reminded me of the time back in college when we hung out together a lot, and I had a major crush on him. Yup, I am a sucker for charming guys who have the looks, brains and athletic as well …. *sobs* “WHY DIDN’T YOU TAKE MEEEEEEE?” I was so tempted to ask!
    Heh. Sorry. Anyway, throughout the conversation, the same feelings he stirred in me resurfaced and I really wanted to ask him out, just to try my luck. Since he’s not seeing anyone at the moment. Unfortunately he’s across several oceans, so nothing doing, you know, for the time being.
    It’s a weird coincidence that some of my old crushes are within smelling distance again. A few days ago, one of my crushes from last year called me out of the blue for dinner. How could I not say yes?????
    I declined, though. Because he’s old news and I’m SO not interested at all.
    Then a guy I had a crush on a few months ago has started paying some attention on me. Woohoo, how not to be excited?? I mean, it means … I have a chance, right??
    Negativity in me often resurfaces so I KNOW he’s probably just bored and toying with me. Maybe he KNEW I had a crush on him and he enjoyed the attention tremendously. (Everyone craves attention, admit it!)
    However, just recently, I developed a crush on my friend’s boss. SCANDAL!! DRAMA!! It’s like, inviting you to BITCH SLAP me for trying to be a tramp and break somebody’s happy marriage or something. Go on, I know you want to.
    Rest assured that he’s not married. Yet. Like I said, I’m a sucker for charming guys who have almost everything (my standard isn’t that high, I think) and he’s so attentive like a gentlemen should be, woohoo. How not to like him?
    Ahh, forgive this rambling post on a Saturday evening. I hate having crushes because none of them have ever reciprocated. (I think. Let me think … Ok, I’m not very sure, but let’s go with the flow) Sniff. So yes, I’m feeling a little sorry for myself.
    Give me some chocolate. It’s better than sex, so they say.

    Recharge pres. Revelation 4 @ A’Famosa – 28.10.2006

    So this is one event that I didn’t go. Nevertheless, I’ll blog about it.
    The event was held at A’famosa Resort about 1 1/2 hours away from Kuala Lumpur. Loads of open space. Partying under the stars. And with international DJs and great local DJs like Naughty by Nature, Christian Smith, King Unique, Bass Agents & SOUL T

    All at only RM35 for pre sale and RM45 on door! Cheaper than going to any concerts in town aa!

    Then you have hardcore clubbers like this.

    Partying on a wheelchair! Picture by kinkybulufairy. Read her hilarous story here

    But..

    Everything ended at 1AM.


    Malaysia boleh!

    Stop Being So Anal!

    Anal – being characterised by a particular trait, e.g. meticulousness, ill-humour, etc.
    [9/10 readers thought it’s going to be about anal sex, right?]
    A few friends and I are prim and proper when it comes to certain …. err …. things. We’ve been considered anal that we have always had to defend ourselves. ;P
    For example, there is the pronounciation pronunciation of certain words which may be incorrect but makes sense, but we’d correct the person nevertheless. Once, someone pronounced Hermes, the brand as “erms” that we couldn’t help be laugh, before correcting the person – it is pronounced ‘er-mezz’, with a French accent.
    However, I admit that I may not be able to get that pronounciation pronunciation right. ;D
    Some deliberately slang their words in their speech that it gets irritating after a while. For example, making a word plural when there is no plural – ‘okays’, ‘anyways’, etc. If used repetitively, my ears start to twitch because I can’t stand the sound of the unnecessary ‘s’.
    “Do you have a lisp?” I’d furiously ask a friend, after a while.
    “Err, no.” my friend would answer, wondering where I’d be coming from.
    “What’s with the ‘okays‘ and ‘anyways‘? Do you speak that way in the office, to your boss?” I asked.
    “Err …” my friend fumbled.
    “OMG! I wonder what does he thinks about your English,” I snobbily said.
    For chatting online, other spelling for words are OK, I guess. E.g., “bai-bai” for bye bye, “fren” for friend, “alwiz” for always, “kiut” for cute, etc …
    Just be sure that you don’t spell that way in your work.
    My friends and I are of the opinion that we can be allowed to speak among ourselves that way occasionally, but people should refrain from speaking that way when it comes to work. After all, professionalism must be maintained. ;P
    p.s. But I do cringe at bad spelling when I’m sure the person means something else. A friend gave me some examples, grateful and greatful are 2 different meanings. So is than and then. 😉
    [Disclaimer: I’m not saying my English is spectacular, so please don’t shoot me down. Thank you! I learn from mistakes, too.]

    Spam Dot Com

    I’ve got to admit, I haven’t been receiving any problem emails lately. I guess my stint as ‘Dear Aunt Bimbobum’ has died.

    I was really bored of having no emails to read (not even forwarded joke emails *ahem endroo* *ahem karheng*), not even a marriage proposal like a blogger we all know of (you know who I’m talking about ;P), that I decided to check out the spam.

    Who the hell is Yana?!

    Continue reading Spam Dot Com