Friday, July 31, 2009

A blogathon like no other.

When I first received the email from Pat Law about the blogathon, I was undeniably skeptical about the entire thing. I wasn't really sure about it, and had a few queries. I was also unsure if I'm up for this kind of impromptu writing and what is my "standard" of blogging compared to the other contestants.

From the initial email, the incentive that made me decide to give it a try would probably be the sponsored wardrobe by Tangs.

Fast forward a month or so, we were at Intel's office and being briefed on how the entire blogathon is going to be happening. There were the people from Tangs, Intel, Lenovo, Ogilvy & even the production team, Munkysuperstar. I was awed by the scale of this blogathon as I'd thought that it was just some dodgy blogger campaign.

The session really got me hyped-up about the blogathon, thinking how I should prepare for it and garner all the support needed. Well, though from the list of the contestants, we can already predict who are the ones that are going to win!

Thankfully I was going to be paired up with Nadia, my best blogging/bitching partner and I was really looking forward in spending the 24 hours together with her!





Then a week later, we were at Tangs for the wardrobe fitting - a generous $500 sponsor! I knew I didn't have to "fight" for the clothes like the girls 'cos the two other guys are of very different dressing style as me! So it was quite a breeze!

My final outfit's from Playlab, Dapper, Superdry and FRED PERRY!!! WOOT!



We also had a one-to-one consultation with the KCRs - Kiehl's Customer Representatives and all of as received a whooping $200 worth of Kiehl's products. To be honest, I had never walked into any of their stores prior to this, though I was eyeing on the eye cream that my camp mate is using. Well, I'm totally sold just after that session! Shall blog about the Kiehl's goodness in a separate entry altogether!

The filming during the fitting was fun! Although a tad stressful during the interview 'cos I kept forgetting to paraphrase my answers!




Gillian and the very charming intern.



THEN CAME THE FINAL SHOWDOWN!
...okay, not exactly a showdown, but you get the drift.



The first hour was damn hectic! And thankfully Gracey and Mus was around to help Nadia and I to set up the place.



Really appreciated them for helping us to sort out the mess on the table and writing on the white boards to tell the people to vote for us! I remember I was panicking on what to do and Gracey said, "Don't worry, leave the rest to us! Just start blogging!"

This particular display window has got the smallest space compared to the others and there were stuff hanging at the back of our heads and the displays were already taking like half of the window.

And since there were only two chairs in it, I had to sit on the faux drawer which eventually caved in 'cos it was made of foam boards.







Streams of people kept flooding towards and trying to interact with us, so we used the TV just next to our window that was displaying the #bthon feed. Mad funny thinking back how troublesome it was to "talk" with the glass barrier.





Pat Law the barista with her Blankanvas apron! Didn't drink the coffee throughout the night 'cos I think I'm very used to late nights and didn't need the caffine to stay awake.

Oh! While we're at it, Nadia on the other hand finished a large diet coke by herself and she desperately needed to pee when it was still waaaaay before her toilet break. And I've totally gotten it all on video! Hahaha!


Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=expLurKHvZ0



Unfortunately, my lappy kept going into Window's worst nightmare - Blue Screen of Death, which left me stranded at the table with nothing to do while waiting. So I whipped out my sketchbook and started doodling!



One of the people from Tangs saw it and wanted to make it into a t-shirt or something. But I thought the doodling wasn't really depicting the entire blogathon, but rather just Nadia and I. Note that the upper part of the piece is stuff that represented her and the bottom part is about me. So it didn't happen in the end!

Well, if anyone of us were to do an illustration for this blogathon, it has to be SHERYO! Her works are AMAZING! Please check them out at illustromaniac.blogspot.com!

So anyway, I'd posted an entry "Illustrating blogathon" about the process of this doodle piece in the blogathon blog. Do take a look if you're interested.







The Kiehl's boys were one of the highlights, I guess! When they appeared, the first thing that people will do, is to tell them to strip. Nadia's persuasion did not work on the first day, so in the morning of the the second day, she worked her charm again. AND GUESS WHAT?! IT WORKED!

AND I'VE GOTTEN IT ALL ON VIDEO AGAIN!


Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92b_2g67sQE



The "victim" happened to be one of Nuffnang's bloggers too! He's Edison and blogs at shaun-owyeong.blogspot.com



During the last few hours or so, @singabeng appeared!



If you don't already know who he is, @singabeng is like Rockson the ah beng blogger who is very blatant with his language when blogging. Except, he is like the Twitter version. I'd been following him for his hilarious tweets that never fails to crack me up.

So the twitter feed started to have his tweets popping out, and before long, we knew he's somewhere around us!



He likes my hair! LOL!



We were all hunting for him and scanning through everyone in the crowd. Then Nadia made a comment about his tweets, which suddenly struck me that what she said was like so true and leading to the identity of @singabeng!

You know, it's like those crime solving scenes, whereby the detective keeps thinking about the identity of the murderer, and then, somebody make a passing remark which struck him the answer to the entire mystery! LOL

Well I shan't reveal what Nadia said and who we feel that could very well be the real identity behind @singabeng. Just because if everything is true to what we've deduced, the fun of reading his tweets will no longer be there. Let's just enjoy his anonymity and continue following him!





Thanks to all the people who'd came down to support! I LOVE YOU GUYS! Congrats to Nadia and Nicholas for the win!

P/s: The photos in this entry are from various sources: Victor, Nadia, Tangs, DK & Patlaw.