…my cuppa iced coffee…

2 December 2007 was definitely the best day for me when my blog hit that magic number 100 for unique site visits. All thanks to my review on the Miss World 2007 pageant. Stumbling the post also helped as it contributed slightly more than 25% of the total hits. Here’s the statistics for that day:

Total visits: 294
Unique visitors: 100
Top referrer: Stumbleupon - 57 visits
Miss World 2007: 195 visits

The most common search engine used was Google. Some of the search terms used were:

1. Miss Angola
2. miss world 2007 review
3. top 5 contestants miss world 2007
4. miss world trinidad & tobago 2007
5. 2007 miss world evening gown
6. Miss World 2007 Talent show: Ghana
7. designer gown miss world 2007

The longest search terms would have to be “miss world trinidad and tobago dresses worn at the 2007 crowning night”.

The funniest would have to be “miss world 2007 is ugly”.

I also received a flame comment on this post. Apparently somebody didn’t like it when I said Miss Malaysia’s evening gown was ugly and uninspired.

Yesterday was my good friend’s birthday and a bunch of us organised a small get-together at the Chop & Stick, Kampung Baru. Well, the others organised it, I was only there for the cake. And a good cake it was too. Chocolate Indulgence from Secret Recipe.

So Azhar… which one was it? The 45th, right?

Oh, don’t be fooled by the number of candles on the cake. Aziz thought we might as well light all of them. So no, Azhar is not 61. Close, though. Many thanks to Zaki for the shout. By the way, my birthday is just around the corner. I’m free if you want to take me to dinner.

Who’d've thought a thorny, round and unremarkable plant can produce really nice blossoms?

My flatmate’s cactus plant shot out 2 really nice flowers last week. I didn’t realise it at first because everytime I got home after work, I could only see buds, not blooms. It was only on Thursday afternoon as I was going out of the house for netball training that I noticed one of the 2 buds was blooming. I took some shots with my mobile phone but they didn’t turn out very well. When I got home, the bloom was a bud again. That was when I realised that they only bloomed in the afternoon.

I managed to take some shots using my Olympus SP-550UZ on Saturday afternoon when both buds were blooming in full.

I would like to wish ’selamat pengantin baru’ (I wonder what’s the equivalent in English) to my friend, Amud, who was married today with the woman of his choice. May Allah bless the marriage and grant you a lot of kids. Hehehehe…

I’m pretty sure a lot of people had their eyes glued to Star World channel to watch the 57th Miss World 2007 pageant tonight. Held in Sanya, China, it was another out-of-the-world event, with huge stage, grand lighting, excellent shows and just… worthy of a Miss World event. Kudos to the organiser.

Opening show

They could’ve done better with the opening show, though. I found that it was nothing to be inspired. Just a show of dancing girls holding drums and the like. The contestants’ presentation reminds me of the movie Miss Congeniality. Some of the dance steps looked somehow familiar.

Photo courtesy of Miss World 2007

Evening gown

Out of the 106 contestants (some from countries I’ve never heard of before), the only evening gown that caught my eyes was the one worn by Miss Bosnia & Herzegovina. I’m not saying the gowns of the other contestants were not beautiful, although some of them were downright ugly, but somehow I really like Miss Bosnia & Herzegovina’s gown.

Photo courtesy of Miss World 2007

As for the gown of Miss Malaysia, I personally think it was rather ugly. Truly uninspired. Makes me wonder who the designer is. (Oh, it was Melvin Lam. Never heard of him before.) The World Designer Dress award was won by the designer from Korea. The gown, while nice, was nothing special. I’ve seen similar design somewhere before.

Semi-finalists

I’m not sure whether they have this fast-track to the semi-final in last year’s Miss World. There were 5 out-of-the-stage titles which will automatically put the winners in the semi-final.

1. Sports: Miss USA
2. Beach Beauty: Miss Dominican Republic
3. Talent: Miss Ghana
4. Top Model: Miss China
5. Beauty With A Purpose: Miss Hong Kong China & Miss Ecuador

The other semi-finalists (in the order they were announced):

1. Miss Venezuela
2. Miss Sweden
3. Miss Puerto Rico
4. Miss Mexico
5. Miss Grenada
6. Miss Austria
7. Miss Angola
8. Miss Malaysia
9. Miss Trinidad & Tobago
10. Miss Jamaica

So instead of 15, there were 16 this year because of the tie in the winners of Beauty With A Purpose title.

Photo courtesy of Miss World 2007

Top 5

It was a rather odd top 5 selection process. They announced the finalist and straight away asked her to answer a question. The same question for everyone. In 40 seconds, each has to tell the judges why she should be crowned the Miss World 2007. My only comment is that each of the supposedly intelligent Misses really did blab about unnecessary things like saying thank you in Mandarin, I’m so happy to be here, I love Sanya, blah blah blah rather than answering the question.

Anyway, the top 5 contestants were Miss Angola, Miss China, Miss Mexico, Miss Trinidad & Tobago and Miss Sweden.

Photo courtesy of Miss World 2007

The winners

I must say that the finale was rather dull. For an event as grand as a Miss World pageant, one would expect the crowning ceremony to be huge and really happening. For me, it was rather disappointing and anticlimactic.

The results: 3rd place is Miss Mexico, 2nd place is Miss Angola and the new Miss World is Miss China.

Photo courtesy of Miss World 2007

Speculation? I’m pretty sure some eyebrows were raised.

I would like to congratulate Miss Malaysia, Deborah Priya Henry for reaching the semi-finals. It was rather unfortunate that she did not get into the top 5 but we Malaysians are really proud of her. Well done! Let’s hope that future Miss Malaysia to the Miss World, and also Miss Universe, are as beautiful and articulate.