I don't think I'm going to run down every detail that happened like my previous Pageant Diaries post. Partially because I can't remember them as well anymore and also because well, I'm plain lazy. That does not mean that I will stop answering your questions though. Keep them coming at sabrinaclilian@gmail.com Day 1 I arrived early at Corus Hotel which meant that I could take my time unpacking and getting myself comfortable with my 'home' for the next one week. I was put in the first room. I kept my door open so I could greet all the girls as they arrived. The room was not bad. I've stayed in better hotels but I was not complaining. Internet however, was a problem. How do you put 20 beauty queens together and only allow TWO devices to connect to the internet per room. Cannot. Cannot.
Yen Qi and my room at Corus Hotel. It was going to get messy really fast!
We were already emailed out itineraries before so I knew what to pack (even though i'm sure I over packed a ton!). Before boot camp started, I got in touch with a couple of the previous year's finalist. What a lot of them said was that I should throw away the itinerary because plans kept on changing last minute!. I was sure that the Miss World Malaysia Organization had learned from their mistakes and was hoping that this year's pageant was going to be a more organized one. Yen Qi arrived later. We both decided on toilet arrangements for the morning. She would wake up first since I only needed 30 minutes in the bathroom. Some girls came to hang out in our room, we got ready and headed down for lunch and to meet the other girls.
L-R, T-B : Tracey, Lisa, Sue Sien , Vidi and Me
Our first stop was to Empire shopping mall in Subang. We were going to meet the past year's winner, Melinder Bhullar for tea before attending the opening of the Wacoal outlet in the shopping mall. My impression on Melinder was that she was a very nice girl. Very soft spoken and would come off as shy at first. Someone that was easy to work with and did not have many demands.
L-R: Ruth, Yen Qi, Me, Melinder, Shanti, Mabel and Dhivya.
The girls were divided into many tables so I would walk from table to table to chat with the girls. You know me, I LOVE to talk! While walking to another table, I was stopped by Dato' Anna, the Miss World Malaysia pageant director.
I walked away not sure to feel hurt or offended or thankful. I was rather confused. At that time , I thought I was wearing a subsequent amount of makeup. However,looking back at the pictures, I can see that Dato' Anna was right. Compared the other girls, my makeup was definitely way less. I had my usual make up on, but I know that I should have known better. You can be the judge. See the pictures. Dato' Anna had all the right intentions for telling me off like that. I was still rather oblivious to the fact that I was competing in a beauty pageant. I was also rather silly. Even after Dato' Anna pulled me out of the crowd, I did not try to 'fix' the issue. I should have asked the girls if they had makeup to spare or went somewhere to do my touch up. I did not do any of this. Silly me. The Wacoal representatives came over to introduce themselves. They briefed us about what we were going to do. We were told that after parading around, we'll be assembled in front of a crowd and had to answer some questions. Some girls were again nervous about being put on the spot.
A group pictures of the girls and Melinder outside the new Wacoal outlet. As you can see, we haven't mastered squatting at the right angle yet. You'd notice that we'll get better at this as the days go by.
After our little catch up session with Melinder, we headed to the Wacoal Outlet for their opening. We were all given balloons and coupons. We were asked to walk in a line around the mall. Give out the balloons and coupons and to escort the VIP's from the entrance to the outlet. It was rather awkward actually. I felt no different from a sales representative. Only thing different was that I was wearing a sash. Didn't feel very beauty queen like. But that's just my two cents. We were then brought to a small stage where we took group photos. It was then the Q&;A time. I was thinking to myself "Okay, I'm at a slight disadvantage here because many of the girl look more presentable than me, but I know I can make people notice me at the Q&A round. Talking is my thing". So I was really pumped. Turns out that, we were the ones asking the questions -.- There was a bit of a miscommunication . We were suppose to ask the crowd random questions about Wacoal and Miss Malaysia World. Those who had the correct answers would walk about with gifts from Wacoal.. What a bummer. I really wanted to shine :(
Shanti and I making new friends.
Before leaving to our next location, we were given goodie bags that had 2 pairs of panties for all of us. They were really comfortable. All the girls were all "Wah the panties so soft". We were also asked to check out the Wacoal store so that the photographers could take pictures of us. We were then off to Dr Alice Wellness Center. There was an open house going on and we were there to take pictures. We then boarded the bus once more and headed to Jaya Shopping center. My legs were already killing me by then. We had been walking so much. Luckily for me, I brought my wedges along so I changed shoes in the bus. We were having a rehearsal for a fashion show that day so I knew that even though I was wearing my wedges, I would need to bring my heels down with me. However, I did not have a bag to hold them so as I left the bus, I just held my heels with my hands. Dato' Anna saw this an immediately called me out. Again. For the second time that day.
Once again, I was in the wrong. It's like when I was doing it, it didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong. I was just trying to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. But if I were to look at it in the bigger picture- as how I was portraying myself as a beauty queen, I could totally see where Dato' Anna was coming from. I felt quite stupid. Especially being singled out like that in front of the other girls. But I did not allow that to bring down my spirits. It was also partly because me and the rest of the girls were met with a big surprise when we enter Jaya Shopping Center.
Hey that's me!
The very nice people at Jaya One had printed out individual pictures and write ups of us for the public to get to know us better. I understand that these posters are still up in the mall today because I still have amazing friends who take pictures of them and Whatsapp them to me. What I felt was odd was that the other girl's pictures were the same as the officially released photos, but mine was not.
This was my officially released photo. Not the best, but in my eyes, still better than what was printed.
And this was what was printed. Um yeah. You be the judge.
I felt that the chosen poster showed a rather unflattering picture of me and I would like to think that I had way better pictures than this. A friend mentioned to me that it may have been because another contestant, Rebecca ,was doing the same one legged flamingo like pose as me as you can see below. But there were many contestants that were doing similar posses as well but they're pictures didn't get changed. I didn't dare to question why my picture was changed. I already got 2 strikes that day from Dato' Anna and didn't want to get on her bad books. However, till today I still wonder why they changed my picture. Was it a mistake? or was it part of a bigger picture of something they had planned? Either ways, I was still grateful and excited to see my picture there. We were than treated to dinner at Kenny Rogers. A free meal is always a good one in my books.
L-R: Me, Yen Qi, Shanti, Claire, Dhivya and Rebecca.
After a quick dinner, we headed for rehearsals for our fashion show that was going on the next day. We were \briefed and divided into 3 groups. Each group of girls were wearing clothes from different sponsors. We trained for about 3 hours that night. It was not too tiring. If anything, it was really fun. I got to get to know the girls a little more and we had time to be silly with one another.
L-R: Ruth, Cheryl, Cassandra, Dhivya and Me
L-R: Me,Dhivya Cassandra, Cheryl and Ruth
I had to learnt to perfect my walk again but I have to say I was no where near to perfect. I think walking might not be one of my best talents. If I think too much, I tend to look stiff, but if I don't think at all, I am all over the place like an excited puppy.
Us getting briefed by the catwalk trainer.
L'oreal, the past years 1st runner up, was there as well. It was great to see a familiar face again. She too guided us with our walk. I was paired to walk with Cheryl and Ruth. Cheryl was calmed and composed. She always looked like she knew what she was doing. Ruth on the other hand took a little longer to pick up. Cheryl and I tried our best to help her and we practiced whenever we had free time to help Ruth remember the choreography.
L-R: Ruth, Cheryl and Me.
After about 2-3 hours, we all got a little restless and tired. It had been a long day. We were learning the last bit of our routine . I don't think we were as aware and excited as we were when we first started out training. A lot of us were making silly mistakes. The catwalk coach had to give us a good sounding to 'wake us up' before we all got on our A game again.
L-R: Ruth, Cheryl, Me and Cassie.
That night our photographer ,Cyrus, who had been following us around that day told me he wanted to show me a funny picture. He showed me this.
L-R: Me, Dhivya, Sue Sien , Dato' Anna and Vidiana.
It definitely caused some giggles when I showed it to the girls. They would say "Yeah , Sabrina, your personality always stands out everywhere". But looking at that picture also reminded me how un-beauty queen like I was. I really needed to brush up if I wanted to remain competitive in the competition. When I went back to my room that night, I ran through the day to myself. I needed to wear more makeup, be more lady like in pictures and also learn to present myself in a more prim and proper manner. Thinking back, it was a lot of pressure; having to change so much of myself in a day, but it was nothing that I could not handle. Want to keep in touch? Follow my daily adventures and escapades on Instagram! Labels: events, friends, kl, malaysia, me, pageant diaries 0 lovely comments ✿ |