When were you last part of an automobile convoy?

I was given a chance to experience the exhilaration of being in one last weekend, when Rebecca asked me to save my Saturday morning to join the fun.

You might think that Rebecca just satisfied my wet dreams of taking an F430 down the highway at breakneck speeds, but reality said that I should do something a little smaller for the time being:

‘A Day out in the All New Freed’

The all new Honda Freed is out!

Advertlets, being one of Honda’s media partner, organized a special blogger preview ‘A Day Out in the Honda Freed’ half day event, that included:

A test drive of 9 cars with 4 or 5 of us in a car from Souled Out Cafe to Putrajaya.

I know it’ doesn’t look very much like the group of red cars at the top of the post, but we were riding high and felt pretty much like it. Until we were overtaken by a convoy of BMWs on a test drive. Life is not fair at all.

Surf’s up for Leonard Chua of An Honest Mistake!

So this is what happened. The drive to and fro Souled Out (Hartamas) and Putrajaya is about 80km, so each of us got to feel 20km of the highway in the Freed.

Through our journey, I learnt the following Freed’s selling points:

(1)  Really smooth ride.

You can take it to 140 km/h on the highway and won’t hear the engine screaming for help.

Instead, there’s good stability in the passenger compartment, and and importantly, there’s minimal wind noise at these speeds. The gear shift is surprisingly smooth from ‘Neutral’ to ‘Drive’, where one will normally feel a light jerk in many other cars of this range.

(2) Automatic Dual Sliding Doors.

Just pull on the latch and the door slides out. Particularly useful for the older folk, or lazy folk like myself. Pretty surprising since this feature is present on higher range of MPVs like Toyota Alphard, and even the Alphard has only 1 Auto door, while the Freed has two. Lazy people, rejoice!

Maybe one day all cars will have Auto Front door, Auto Front passenger door, Auto Change-Tire, Auto Fill-Petrol, Auto-Everything. All we have to do is wire our brain signals to the car and we’ll reach Ipoh before we know it.

(3)  Lots of head room and open floor.

Photo courtesy of Eric Yong

I enjoyed having plenty of head room in the passenger compartment. (Rather) High cars like the Freed are not built for performance, so it doesn’t matter that ‘it’s so high..not aerodynamic etc..’. It’s just great that I don’t have to worry about hitting the ceiling each time I go over a hump. This doesn’t affect the middle row so much, but it does in the BACK seat of many other mini-MPVs, like the Avanza.

Note : the dude in the pic is Zen. He’s significantly taller than me, but it doesn’t take a tall guy to complain about car headspace. Short guys can bang ceiling too, okay?

The floor space of the Freed is flat across, which is great. This easily overlooked feature is perfect for ergonomics, especially if passengers need to move around the back seat. Some cars have a hump in the center, thanks to air-ducts / handbrake / petrol tank. Pain in the ass.

We is the Team 4!

L to R : @chualeo, Shamhardy, EVo, @botakai, @feeqsays

Extra feature in the front seat.. Made possible by Team 6..hehe.

My only real complain came when I was passenger at the back seat (3rd row). I was bouncing up and down even while we were on a straight stretch of road. I feel that Honda could have done better in the suspension department. Then again, I suppose this happens to cars of this range and price. Oh well.

In general, it was a real joy driving the Freed around, especially when we were escorted by a great deal many babes. <3

Esty, what is your right hand doing? @.@

(From L to R : Monique Low, <insert name>, Arystle, Esty, Hanie, Paul Tan, Harve Singh, Smashpop, Rames, Myjayz, Ellie.
Photo courtesy of Eric Yong

Honda very smartly ended the day in true blogger style…a photoshoot contest, using Polaroids! The best polaroids in Individual and Group categories win prizes!

A real. Polaroid. In my hand. I can’t remember if I ever played with any of these in my entire life. That’s how much digital photography has spoiled me. LOL.

And the prizes did not come in the form of vouchers, snacks or promotional items.. these guys won iPods and Garmin GPS wei. Shiok.

It’s kinda strange how the fun factor at event tends to takes your focus away from the actual product i.e. the car. It becomes an ‘item on my blog’ rather than ‘an item I would buy’. But after leaving the event and giving some thought, it does feel like a great car!

Having said that, when the day actually comes where I need to purchase a Mini-MPV, Honda Freed would quite definitely make it to the top of my list Check out the Honda site for more details.

Cheers!
EVo

 

This is gona be a very graphic post.

 

And while my posts normally include photos of places, people, objects such as food, stupid stuff or funny stuff, this post has many photos of something I don’t post very often:

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My face. Woohoo! <3

(Okay, I do post my own face quite often, but it’s usually accompanied by other faces xD This post, there’s gonna be only mine. Yes, I am a full-fledged bimbo. For ONE post only lol).

It’s for a good reason, cos I wanna share with you my journey through…the world of pimples.

 

I believe (based on momentary mental demographics) that most of you knew me when I looked like this:Taken in February 2009 at Boiler Room launch (with sexy Stephanie Kennedy)

 

I had patches of strange growth on both sides of my face. I don’t know what they are exactly (really!), they’re either pimples / acne / blackheads…I just knew that they made me look bad in pics. I resisted countless temptations from the Photoshop devil to reduce the ‘eww’ factor while processing my own pics.

 

 

Rewind back a few years, before most of you knew me, and this is how I used to looked like.

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I know…the headgear and glasses is not really… *ahem* (Okay, I’m giving you 5 minutes to laugh). (pic taken with @Lainegal during my convo).

 

…but my point is, I used to have enviable complexion. The type where I can roll my head around in a patch of mud, not wash it for days, and still emerge victoriously with my face as clear as a baby’s ass.

 

 

However, my baby’s-ass complexion era soon came to an end, when I started playing paintball for team Yakuza in MYNPL (here and here) last year.

 

If there’s one thing you should always, always do if you’re gona take paintball seriously, it is getting your own face mask.

 

Because if you don’t, you have to use the house masks. And that’s what happened to me. Shortly after heavy training (and LOTS of sharing house masks with a thousand other people), the little infestation party started on my face, from cheeks to under my eyes. Damn scared okay!

 

 

And it got bad…real bad.

Taken last year at PJ Carnival with Amandachoe, Josh.my.

 

Now, this post IS a product endorsement. But it also happens a product beating-up >:) Here’s what I did try to erm…’save my skin’. Heh. :

 

1. Skin Doctors

I tried 2 doctors: Ting Skin Specialist on Jln Imbi, and Ranjit Clinic in SS15, but believe me when I say that they’re just like any other doctor. They dope you with some medicine to try, then when it doesn’t work, they’ll dope you with stronger medicine. And it ain’t cheap man..RM300 within 2 months with little effect is hardly any consolation! I stopped this treatment after 4 months.

2. Home remedies.

Arhh, the unbelievable remedies that I tried. There was lemon juice..cleansers..alcoholic lotion..masks..even tiger balm, but all it did was successfully make me feel like a guinea pig. One of the things I tried, pegaga soap, did help a little, but new breakouts still happened, and there was no sign of improvement.

 

At this point, I was almost desperate. And also at that time, there were many flashing commercials..posters..about Brand X skincare. I thought my saviour had come.

 

While I would have loved to say that Brand X was my solution, it was not. Because after 2 months of usage, not only did the pimples not go away, but I had a new infestation..

 

 

 

And this time, it came in the form of whiteheads on my forehead.

 

Imagine my panic level. Damn scared x 2 okay!

 

I’ll be fair here lah. There are a few possibilities..maybe:

1. Brand X wasn’t compatible with my face.
2. I chose the wrong range of products within Brand X
3. Brand X’s marketing department’s best friend is also Adobe Photoshop. Cos their models all look so beautiful.

I don’t know. I Guess only haha.

 

I took a final gamble and risked trying something else again. Remember when I posted on Biotherm Homme’s Race to Gain in March?

 

I was tempted to try out their stuff.  I had nothing to lose. Worse worse also have pimples growing on my eyeballs or inside my nostrils or something.

 

 

So I decided to take the plunge. I grabbed a pack of the cleanser, energy splash, moisturizer and I’m telling you, Biotherm High Recharge is the shit. The results were astounding.

 

This is my face after 2-3 months of usage (as of few hours ago):

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‘ After Biotherm Homme’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My face feels light and I never get oil clogging up anymore under my skin. I used to wash my face at 5pm everyday because it got so oily, but with Biotherm, it was hardly necessary. Unless I rolled in a patch of mud again

 

There’s no way that I can fully convince readers that it’s not (photoshop) touched up, but here’s my personal guarantee : these pics of me ‘After Biotherm Homme’ were Not Touched Up. At all. Do take my word for it (cos myself, there’s nothing more I hate than a fake testimonial, really). What I can do, however, is to link you to other recent pics of me taken by other photographers, yes?

 

Here’s one by Suresh89 taken during Mad2Max competition last Saturday. (click for Tweet link)

(Again, don’t bother about the headgear…it’s only a prop. hehe.)

 

This one’s taken by @joshuachay at Sid’s Pub, about 3 weeks back. (Click for FB link)

(Once more, the beer is a prop. Heidi is the main subject The hand…hmm, I’m not so sure *ahemgaryahem*)

 

Or…. you could date me to dinner to personally see the improvements. Female dates are preferred

 

I cannot wait to see the results after using it for another 3 months! Baby’s-ass face come back to me again!

 

If you need more info, it’s here : Biotherm Homme. Check it out You’ll find deets of Biotherm range of products….but always remember, you’ve gota find the type that suits your face. My selection of High Recharge came after free over-counter consultation from Biotherm Homme beauty consultants… that should help you decide what you actually need. I won’t be held responsible if you start growing mushrooms on your face from wrong usage…keke.

 

There’s only 1 problem left now, though.

 

I’ve enough left to use for only another 4-5 days. Biotherm sponsor me my next pack please?

Cheers!
EVo