Crossover Cinema

Continuing from the last blog post, I further analyse the concept of the globalised film industry through to crossover cinema. Crossover cinema is used to illustrate an emerging form of cinema that crosses cultural borders at the stage of conceptualization and production and hence manifest hybrid cinematic grammar at the textual level, as well as crossing over on terms of its distribution and reception (Khorana, 2014). This is the incorporation of two different cultural background influencing each other to create an end product, and in this case, a movie. Attempts at cross culturally producing a movie has not been most successful, however, the Hollywood movie, “Slumdog Millionaire” based in Mumbai, India, was a successful attempt at crossover cinemas, winning 8 Oscars, even though the confidence for its success was slim.

According to Khorana S, the inter-text and the extra-text of the cross cultural films is intrinsic to a crossover film. This leads to the emergence of issues such as Bollywood’s attempt at promoting cross cultural film in hopes that one day it will make it into Hollywood and their renowned film statuses. My understanding of this is that if Bollywood’s main aim is to enhance its cross cultural elements in a film in hopes that western audiences would pick up on it and decides to watch it, their search for a Western audience may not come to fruition (Khorana 2014). There is an underlying understanding that there is a certain practice that Hollywood adopts and its secret has been a success for a long time now, other global film industries has been trying to figure out what this practice is and trying to walk in Hollywood’s footstep.

Another issue that arises is audience’s interpretation of a foreign film. Watching today’s news on Middle Eastern countries, all we see is violence and war, murder and rape. Audiences unknowingly succumb to the conception and perception that the media is broadcasting and thereby influences our opinion on Middle Eastern countries. A crossover film may harm a country’s reputation because of an opinion from non-Arabic viewers. Sensitive issues such as suicide bombing and religions in Arabic movie are reflected as “crazy” and “insane” to Hollywood viewers because of their limited understanding of the cultural meaning in a film and the realistic lifestyle of the Middle Eastern and their religion. Here’s a video on the perceptions of Arabs and Americans film:

All in all, what we must really understand is that the success of crossover film industry definitely play a role in portraying globalisation all around the world. The Slumdog Millionaire film was a huge success as it portrays Mumbai poor lifestyle in contrast to the rich lifestyle at Taj Mahal and the fated love story of the characters.

Reference:

Khorana, S 2013, ‘Crossover Cinema: A Genealogical and Conceptual Overview’, Producing a Hybrid Grammar, pp. 1-7.

Bollywood for Hollywood

 

Directing the focus now unto the Global Film Industry, it is easy to make an assumption that Hollywood is and always will be the most successful film industry on the global scale. Hollywood remains strong and posts impressive figures every year despite its dwindling economy (Source: onlinemba.com). With its head turning figures and stunning actor and actresses walking down red carpets, who would have the will to deny these forces.

However, it is important that we understand that on the other side of the globe, there is a film industry known as, Bollywood. You’d be surprise with how much they are one and the same with the Hollywood film industry. Let me explain, Bollywood, is the India’s version of Hollywood. Adopting its name from Bombay, now known as Mumbai, it is the heart and soul of every citizens in India, catching audience’s attention from its catchy Hindi songs and choreographed dance moves, colourful costumes and its dramatic storyline. According to Rosenberg M, fourteen millions Indians goes to work on a daily basis in the Bollywood film industry, which is equivalent to 1.4% of their 1 billion citizens. It is one of the main driving forces for India’s economy providing thousands of jobs every year.

The success of a Hollywood film depends heavily on culture clashes as seen in recent times with the emergence of contra-flows. It is the shifting of direction of cultural influences to the Global South and blurring ‘the boundaries between the modern and the traditional, the high and low culture, and the national and the global culture’ (Thussu, 2006: 175). Hollywood is like an octopus with tentacles extending across the globe. Through the incorporation of multi-culture influences, Hollywood has manage to attract audiences not only through domestic movie ticket purchases but also international revenues from foreign movie goers.

Let’s shine some lights on this with the movie, Slumdog Millionaire. The movie, based in Mumbai, illustrates the nitty and gritty lives of the poor with the shiny aspirations of the new India. It can be categorised as a ‘hybrid’ movie, directed by Briton Danny Boyle with the leading actor born and raised in England. It almost instantaneously stole the heart of everyone in India from the slums to Taj Mahal and even in the States. By creating this whole new market of movie goers, Hollywood was able to open up a new targeted market segment while educating and broadcasting a culture other that the western culture on the big screen was one of the most risky yet successful decision ever made.

Slumdog millionaire went on to win 8 Oscars and was on the top of the list on the box office list and International movie goers played the majority roles in this. It is then easy to see why it is necessary to explore the opportunity globally instead of confining your given knowledge. You wouldn’t know if that orange is good until you’ve tasted it.

Reference:

Thussu, D.K. (2006), International Communication: Continuity and Change, 2nd edn,
New York: Oxford University Press.

International Students Horror Stories

Internationalising education in Australia is the third or fourth largest export industry, varying with the price of gold at any one time (Marginson 2012). It is seen as an evolutionary money-making sector that has grown exponentially over the years totalling to A$19 billion a year and is subsequently an educational and social experience for the international students in Australia. With that, decisions by parents to send their child over to Australia to study in the past decade has wavered because of all the media attention concentrated on the safety of these students.

Australia is a peaceful country with its significant value of mateship, fair-go and true blue experience. Once upon a time it was the dream country to study in, but with the recent cases of international student being the victim of theft, robbery and even murder, parents are starting to think twice about sending their child over to study abroad. Issues such as the universities and colleges not paying enough attention to these international students and their safety are increasingly being publicise. Some cases are forced to argue that students are not taking enough precautions to prevent these incidents from happening.

Take the Garg case for example, Nitin Garg, 21 years old studying Bachelor of Accountancy in Melbourne was murdered while he was heading to Hungry Jacks to work his night shift (Welch, D 2010). Autopsy shows he got stabbed with a knife wound across his chest and died on the way to the hospital. This was a turning point for Indian international students and the larger international communities. Presses in India was furious with the treatment their citizens were receiving.

On the one hand, arguments from another Indian student also named Nitin states that the crime has nothing to do with the victim’s ethnic background protested, “I think, mate, I think crime is bloody everywhere. Go to any country and you’ll find crime” (Welch, D 2010). And on the other hand, a young Muslim Indian named Syed suggested “The Government is not taking any action and the police also don’t care. The persons are getting attacked day by day and no action is being taken.” (Welch, D 2010). Other theories from Welch states, “Indian students are seen as a “soft targets” and “walking ATMs” because of their flexibility to work night shifts and perception of their wealthy backgrounds” (2010). Authorities from AIC emphasised that the current study does not allow for conclusions to be drawn regarding the role of racial motivation in these crimes (AIC 2011, p. 169).

International students are often perceived to be from a rich background because of their ability to study abroad even with the high currency exchange rate. Because of their living-away-from-home conditions, perpetrator of crimes usually target these students because of their vulnerability of living alone. However, facts be told, crimes happen all around the world, to prosecute Australia alone is a biased judgement, we must view these students as strong and brave because moving to a whole new country all alone is a difficult process, all with fitting in and getting accustom to a new culture, feelings of rejection and alienation are struggled throughout the process.   

Reference:

Larsen, Payne & Tomison 2011, Crimes against international students in Australia: 2005-09, Australian Institute of Crimes, Canberra, accessed 31 August 2014, http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/5/C/2/%7B5C2C2F3E-584B-498E-A694-A25FC8FC7C86%7Dcaisa.pdf

Marginson, S (2012) ‘International education as self-formation: Morphing a profit-making business into an intercultural experience’ Lecture delivered at the University of Wollongong, 21 February 2012, available online at http://focusonteaching.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@cedir/documents/doc/uow119828.pdf

Welch, D 2010, Horror Indian summer, The Sydney Morning Herald, weblog post, 9 January, viewed 31 August 2014, http://www.smh.com.au/national/horror-indian-summer-20100108-lyw0.html

Globalisation: We Are The World

(source: progressivechristiaity.org)

Globalisation, to put simply, makes up every aspect of our lives, from checking the weather forecast in the morning, making a freshly roasted cup of coffee to typing up this very blog post, it involved some sort of globalisation traits. It is an international community influenced by technological development and economic, political and military interests characterised by interdependence, interactivity, interconnectedness, and the virtually instantaneous exchange of information. (Khorana 2014)

Helen & Kean (2002) found the birth of globalisation started as far back as the thirteenth century, when Marco Polo first started trade routes in spices and Christopher Columbus in Tobacco. Then on, it grew and evolved to the mid 1800s up to the World Wars with start-ups in infrastructures, technological advancement and world trade boomed. The great depression sent countries protecting their economies and financial status and from 1945, globalisation stabilised and continues to flourish until today.

Globalisation has many positive and negative effects, whether they cancels each other out is still a mystery yet to be solved. It is undeniable that globalisation has allowed countries to freely trade goods and services encouraging worldwide competitions and boosting the economies. Consumers and the market benefits from the increase in consumer choices and the profit margins of countries. Information are able to travel to their destination instantaneously at the click of a button, this availability of information almost immediately increases production and efficiency. Advances in technologies raises the standard of living and quality of life while increasing investments worldwide

However, where there is success, there is repercussions. The downside of globalisation shows unfair trade practices, wealthier countries have more accessed to education and information allowing them to monopolise the poorer country’s economy. Comparing a third world country to a wealthy country, small business in the third world country would never be able to expand their trading because of the domination of multinational company. Their inability to invest in technology because of their financial status lowers their productivity and efficiency. Investors in wealthier easily outsource their labour markets to these third world countries to take advantage of their cheap labour wages and skills availability.

As the saying goes, the richer gets richer and the poorer gets poorer. In order to reduce and eradicate this inequality, perspectives on globalisation should change, whereby globalisation should be harnessed for the benefit of the world’s citizen, trade liberation should be encouraged and governments are in place to provide stability for the market. Globalisation should be used for poverty reduction. Organisations such a World Vision are In place to challenge those unjust structures which prevents the poor to flourish in the worldwide economy. Our perspectives of globalisation should be that the citizens of earth strives to live in peace and harmony, helping out one another, because we are the host on earth, and it is everyone’s responsibility regardless.  

 Reference:

Khorana, S 2014, ‘BCM111: International Media and Communication’, powerpoint slides, BCM111, University of Wollongong, delivered 6 July 2014.

Ryman & Kean, H 2002, Globalisation: the poor must come first, World Vision internal paper, delivered June 2002, <http://www.worldvision.com.au/Libraries/3_3_1_Aid_Trade_and_MDGs_PDF_reports/Globalisation_The_Poor_Must_Come_First.pdf> 

Appadurai, A (1996) ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’ Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 27-47

O’Shaughnessy, M and Stadler, J (2008) ‘Globalisation Media and Society (fifth edition) Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 458-471

Time to hand the rest over to the big guys

(picture source)

Time does fly doesn’t it, yesterday I remember enrolling for classes, and today, I’m finishing up my first ever university assignment. Not going to lie, I can’t wait to get this over with and see what’s next in store for BCM110! Before I go on, I’d like to personally thank our lecturer, Professor Sue Turnbull and our tutors for being such a great help in completing this assignment. Looking back, we’ve covered various aspect of the media in our everyday life from discussing about the media effects model, semiotic readings, the importance of authoritative media controller, the public sphere to the term “moral panic”.

Before I’ve taken this subject, I’ve never wondered about significant connotations embedded in an advertisement and how cunningly marketers were able to influence our mind as consumers. I’ve taken an interest in semiotics readings on how we understand what we understand and why we understand it, how there’s always a signifier and signified in a sign and how we interpret them with our mental concept. For instance, I did a blog on semiotic readings using an advertisement from BMW selling their premium used cars, on analysing the piece, I manage to identify its denotations and connotations which brought me to my understanding of why marketers used sexualities as a technique to attract customers in buying cars. Since then, I’ve definitely gain a deeper understanding into what it means about marketing, and how semiotic readings play a huge role in creating a successful marketing campaign

Last but not the least, one of the major help I’ve gotten was from reading fellow student’s BCM110’s blog on WordPress in order to give me an idea about the topic of the week. Furthermore, these blogs are all unique in their own ways talking about the same topic but phrasing and portraying them differently, it gives me the opportunity to challenge their ideas by commenting on their post, gain more knowledge from the readings and act as a platform of support. All in all, I look forward to the rest of this session and can’t wait to get back into blogging again even after this assignment is due!

 

Isaiah Washington’s anatomy

(picture source)

If you are like me, a hardcore fan of Grey’s Anatomy, well then you must’ve heard of the dramatic exit of Doctor Preston Burke, played by Isaiah Washington, from the series when he was fired for insulting co-star T.R Knight with a Homophobic slur. His exit came so sudden viewers were confused and upset and up until now, this controversial issue never came to a close because all three co-star involved in this issue had different version of their own recount of what exactly happened. However, after months of suspense from producers whether or not to continue his role, Washington was ultimately fired even after “executive counselling” and his issue of statement apologizing for his “unfortunate use of words during the recent incident on-set”

The first hand recount of the story, by Washington himself, stated that he was in an argument with his co-star, Patrick Dempsey, regarding punctuality of the set, the argument started heating up and he finally said “a lot of things I’m not really proud of”, he recalled directing the line “there’s no way you’re going to treat me like the B-word, the P-word or the F-word” towards Dempsey. Knight was merely just a spectator and had no involvement whatsoever, his claim on this issue may just be a stunt for gaining more attention from the media.

Knight called Washington a “liar” and that “everyone heard it”, so here’s another side of the story that doesn’t match up to Washington’s. On top of all this turmoil of rumour, they’ve been speculation that there was a triangular love affair going on between Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington, the fight between Washington and Dempsey started because of Ellen therefore pushing Washington to his limit and saying things he regretted.

Fans of Grey’s Anatomy at first was reluctant to accept the exit of Dr. Burke however after much debate, Washington does look like the “bad guy” among this issue. The story doesn’t end here though, Washington is set to return for a cameo part in mid season 10 to serve as part of a farewell storyline for Sandra Oh’s character, Dr. Christina Yang. This is sure to create some controversial spark in the media!

Reference:

Fleeman, M 2007, Isaiah Washington Explains Why He Used Slur, People, Viewed 7th April 2014, <http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20044381,00.html>

Who says?

When I think of media, the first thing I can think of in my mind is the television. It pretty much broadcast every aspect of our life from advertisement, news and documentary to dramas, lifestyle and history. The wide array of media that are being bombarded directly in our faces daily dictates what we know and understand in our everyday life. But here’s the bigger question, who controls these media? And why does it matter?

Every time you watch a news segment, there’s always a higher authority calling the shots in the background, and on top of that another higher authority had made sure that the media that are being broadcast are credible and reliable. But can our facts and knowledge be controlled and fed by someone in the higher power? Questions such as bias judgement, left sided opinion and preferences can be factors that stirs someone toward their own personal beliefs, perspectives and understanding. Now, this is totally respectable but just because someone decided to broadcast their opinions and justifies themselves in a respectable manner, it doesn’t mean that everybody’s opinion and understanding of that particular issue are similar and agreeable. And that was how debates were originated, by people with different opinions and understanding defending their own beliefs.

(picture source)

Take this news headline that was published on day two of the Federal Election campaign in Brisbane for example, it very clearly shows Mr Murdoch, who whereby is the owner of The Daily Telegraph, egotism to publicly criticise his disagreement for Kevin Rudd’s government. As readers, this opinionated front page news was obviously focused on a biased viewpoint  of Mr Murdoch and if I were to support Kevin Rudd, this headline would be seem as offensive to the public party. Nonetheless, we live and feed on these news in order to keep us up to date on the current affairs, so an article like this, would in fact feed us bias opinions of people who are in control of the media, information like this raises ethical issues among the public.

Therefore, in my point of view, it is important to know who controls the media and how they control it because informations transfer at the speed of light and if an inaccurate rumour has been circling around the community, someone’s reputation will be tarnished in the unfair conduct of media broadcasting.

Reference:

Morrison, A 2013, News Limited Wearing Its Bias On Its Sleeve For Murdoch, The Queensland Times, viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://www.qt.com.au/news/News-Ltd-wearing-its-bias-on-its-sleeve-for-Murdoc/1973674/&gt;

Sex in advertising

We’ve all heard the famous abbreviation when it comes to the luxurious motor car manufacturer brand BMW, Be My Wife, Brings Me Women, Bought My Wife, Broke Man Walking… All these abbreviations has one thing in common, and that one thing, is women. So it didn’t come as a surprise in June 2008, when BMW released an advertisement featuring a seductive looking woman with the quote “You know you’re not the first, but do you really care?” promoting BMW premium selection of used cars.

(sutzblog 2009)

This advert instantly sparked negativity and criticism from the general public because it is said to have put down women having compared them to a used car. So, what exactly caused this controversy? Women have always been at the centre of attention when it comes to using sexuality in the advertising business, because women represents sex, and sex always sells. In the case of the BMW advertisement, the denotation of the message simply states what’s wrong with driving a used car, it provides the exact same service, except that it’s pre-owned and doesn’t portray the quality of a “new” car. This message is entirely logical and the rhetorical questions used is effective in proving a point for the advert. But the connotation of the message however, compared a non-virgin woman to a used car. Marketers used the sexuality of this woman as an example to invoke the mirror thought in a man’s head, simply put, if you landed a chick as hot as the woman in the advertisement, do you really care if she’s not a virgin any more, or would you still take her for a “ride”? This message directly compared women to a used cars and the connotation in the term “used” was said to be insulting women, using them as an object of sexual innuendo causing this advert to become a controversy over sexism. But before this advert could attract any success, it was withdrawn from the public because of its copious amount of negative feedback.

Marketers have definitely done their homework on this piece given the fact that studies have shown that customers are more likely to respond to an advert if it contains any sexual content, it is their nature. They tend to focus more on capturing their audience attention rather than the informative content of the advertisement. Today, sex appeal is still advertised in all sorts of products, some of which are coffee machines, tomato sauce, beers and accessories.

reference

sutzblog, 2009, BMW used cars advertisement, image, blogspot, viewed 23 March 2014, <http://sutzblog.blogspot.com.au/2009_12_01_archive.html&gt;

Madison, J 2011, Second-hand car ad pulled after using Tom Ford’s image with tagline: ‘You know you’re not the first… but do you really care?’, dailymail, viewed 23 March 2014, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1378906/Second-hand-car-ad-pulled-using-Tom-Fords-image-tagline-You-know-youre–really-care.html&gt;

Stirling, R 2014, You know you’re not the first. But do you really care?, Propaganda for change, 20 January, viewed 23 March 2014, <http://persuasion-and-influence.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/you-know-youre-not-first-but-do-you.html&gt;

Mediterranean, 2008, Virgin imagery to sell used cars, trendhunter, viewed 23 March 2014, <http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/bmw-youre-not-the-first&gt;

Hondagrrl, 2008, BMW’s “Shameful” Greek Used Car Ad, CNN iReport, viewed 23 March 2014, <http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-50205&gt;

I’m adopted?!?!

Portal 2 is a video game famously known for its science based puzzle solving genre and is actually known to be educational. But in 2011, the game was dubbed “insensitive” by US news station WBTV for insulting orphans when one of the character in the game, Wheatly, said “Alright fatty. Adopted fatty.  Fatty, fatty no parents.”

(Sebspot 2011)

It all started when Steven Neil, father of 10 years old adopted daughter reportedly witnessed the robot character, Wheatly, abruptly blurted out that insulting line while his adopted daughter was playing the game. He had a “shock out of his life” that a game rated E10+ is actually for “everybody except for orphans” (NewsProducerJosh 2011), when asked about the 10 year old girls reaction to that line, she apparently didn’t even hear the line but Neil reinstated that she’s “not ready to talk about it” (NewsProducerJosh 2011). To be concise, the following line in the game was “and what, exactly, is wrong with being adopted?”, why wasn’t this featured in the news?

I’d like to point out here that this is one of the problems with the ‘media effects model’ whereby it treats children as ‘inadequate’. It is the assumption that children are incapable of being competence, but new studies have shown that children as young as 7 can have their own interpretation and intelligent thinking of the mass media. Therefore I’d like to think that the 10 year old adopted girl knew she was adopted given that she is of Asian origin and her parents were of White origin.

Mr. Ping making a confession to Po that he’s not his father, merely stating the obvious (Tumblr)

Let’s take “Kung Fu Panda 2” for example, in one of the scenes when Po’s father, Mr. Ping, confessed to Po that he is not his biological father, Po’s reaction was “uh… I know I’m adopted”, this scene was comical in a sense where it’s obvious that Po is not Mr. Ping’s biological son because he is a panda and Mr Ping is a goose. The fact that this scene is comical and that it’s a cartoon for children’s viewing shows that kids are not stupid, they laughed after watching this scene because, it is plain obvious. They would know if they looked different from their parents and would eventually come to the conclusion that they’re adopted. This comes back to the insensitive video game case, did the 10 year old girl seemed traumatised by that supposedly insulting statement? Or was her interpretation of it just comical? This case eventually fall off the face of the earth, the makers of this game, Valve, didn’t make any comments about it and the game carried on to become a success. I don’t know, but my pick is that kids know a joke when they see or hear one, why do we take things so seriously as we grow older?

Reference:

Howdoyoutakeoff, Kung Fu Panda 2, image, Tumblr, viewed 22 March 2014, <https://31.media.tumblr.com/283b23212ca29828c4bbc4e55c7e0a4e/tumblr_n2t4jssh451r3kc13o1_500.jpg&gt;

Sebspot, 22 March 2011, Portal 2 insensitive scene on WBTV news, image, WordPress, viewed 22 March 2014, <http://sebspot.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/fatty.jpg&gt;

Henrik Magnusson, Will Leonard, Ryan Menezes, 2 March 2014, 5 Ridiculous Things The Media Blamed Video Games For, Cracked, 22 March 2014, <http://www.cracked.com/article_20927_5-ridiculous-things-media-blamed-video-games-for.html&gt;

Tim Ingham, 18 May 2011, Portal 2 ‘adoption controversy’: US TV news says game is offensive to orphans, CVG, 22 March 2014, <http://www.computerandvideogames.com/301918/portal-2-adoption-controversy-us-tv-news-says-game-is-offensive-to-orphans/&gt;

Sebspot, 2011, Raging Over Portal 2 Adoption “Controversy”, A Blog That’s All About Video Games….Except For When It Isn’t About Video Games, weblog post, 22 May, Viewed 22 March 2014, <http://sebspot.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/portal-2-adoption-controversy/&gt;

NewProducersJosh 2011, WBTV Portal 2 Controversy, online video, 18 May, Youtube, 22 March 2014, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdOOBoCAlgs&gt;

Gauntlett, David, 1998, Ten Things Wrong With The “effects Model”, in Approaches to Audiences – A Reader, Roger Dickinson, Ramaswami Harindranath and Olga Linne (eds) Arnold: London, article, Viewed 22 March 2014, <http://www.theory.org.uk/effects.htm&gt;

Introducing ME!

Hey all, I’m not going to lie, it took me a whole day to set up this blog and that includes setting the right theme, changing those artistic fonts you see up in the header, lets not forget those colours coordination, black on white or white on black, ended up going with blue on I don’t know what colour that is. Point is, I’m exhausted but I’m actually really stoked about this idea of blogging! I’d consider this  my first time blogging if you don’t take into account that 13 years old me, setting up a blog just to talk about how my day went, I do hope I wasn’t the only one who tried that in high school, and like all my new years resolutions, that quest ended before it even begun, I’m sure it’s rotting somewhere in this world wide web!

Okay I probably made a really bad first impression there, I swear I’m really interesting and fun so please bare with me guys! My name is Madeleine Kuan, but I’d rather just go by Maddy or Mads, I’ll be turning 20 this April (oh God no what happened to my teenage years!!) but I can assure you I look 16. I live along the Illawara coast off a friendly suburb, Allawah and I’m currently undertaking a double degree course, Bac. of Communication and Media Studies and Bac. of Commerce, in the University of Wollongong. Enough about my general introduction, here’s abit of my background history. I was born in Australia but my family migrated back to Malaysia when I was about 2 months old, so I basically grew up in Malaysia for the most of my life and after spending about 17 1/2 years of my life there, I’ve decided to further my studies back here in Australia 🙂 It’s been a roller coaster ride really since moving here, I’ve learned so much about the tradition and culture, widen my friends base internationally, met the love of my life, and at the same time, trying yo make sense of this whole experience we call life.

Enough with me bragging about my boring life, here’s a mini gallery:

milkshakes 😉

With love :’)

Bestiess 🙂

My 2 other sisters

My furrball

Me and a bowl of Cendol

In order to complement this really random introduction piece, here’s some random facts about me:

1. You can always find lip gloss and mascara in my bag, never leave the house without em’
2. I hate yellow, yuck, please, no!
3. I suspect I have short-term memory lost, I always seem to forget stuff

Thanks for reading guys, feel free to follow my blog or leave a comment, it’d be much appreciated. Cheers.