Today I have two assignments following N, 9am at KL Hilton and 12pm at Bangsar. I’m stuck in a horrific please tear off my (eye)balls- jam. Plan to take the Putra because public transport no matter how notorious still is better than going into the city on a weekday morn. I barely make it to the Hilton but surprise, surprise JRs have lateness ingrained into their DNA so actual launch only starts 9.30. This is me. This is MY job. N smses – says she’ll be late cos of jam and I wonder how I’m going to get in without the press tag.
Thankfully, our society isn’t so sci-fi suspicious that the PR people give me the press release when I say my name and ”the Sun.” They inform me that Zulkifli, the photographer is here and he already has one. I look around at the group of guys with cameras and I can’t make out which one is him. 40 minutes listening to John Legend, chatting with a Japanese JR and eyeing the chef/waiter candy that passes by is relaxing.
The Lumix launch starts at 9.45 after some kickass Hilton coffee and scones outside the hall – I wanna stay! Panasonic has clearly put a lot of effort into this. Later I find out from some techie JRs that it’s the norm for Panasonic to release so many models at one time and give JRs (they love their media friends, apparently) a hell of a good time.
Soon after 9.45 N arrives. Looking at the schedule, we may have to skip the Q&A to make it in time for the Bangsar assignment – a Dell launch. Wow. N calls F with my cell and he tells her not to worry about Dell.
There’s a sketch with Alex Chong, a speech by Tony Endoh (Poor guy, why do they put him through it? He sounds cute though.) and then the presentations follow. Patricia Yaw seems more at ease and halfway I say aloud to Anne, a Click JR next to me : I want her job. Patricia as product manager gets her pick of Lumix to take with her. Agh.
The next product manager is less exciting but she tries – after all, her products (camcorders and lenses) are not the launch highlights. The Panasonic staff poke fun at each other – we seem one step away from some good booze.
But no, it’s just good food. At the Q&A, the Panasonic Msia people give time for all questions and are on very good terms with some regular JRs. It’s all laidback.
Throughout the heavenly lunch Spanks bugs me via sms about the wonderful food he’s having at the Marriott assignment with A – first roast lamb then choc and cheese cake. Little does he know over a 5-star buffet of salmon, lamb cutlets, rare beef and mussels (I subscribe to one plate only – so I tried everything non-veg or healthy), I am having a joyously good time.
Dessert was another affaire with ze attwactive French chef B asking moi if je wants anything that sounds french and expensive with moi apple crumble, cake by some weird name and tiramisu. I said yes to everything of course. If he was slightly younger, my thoughts would have gone haywire (oh yes yes yes I’ll lick ‘em off your wonderful sweaty …) ….
Pause. Over the food, N starts by telling me she’s done with her first helping, wants to take more but… I say lunch is 12-2pm, it’s a buffet and NO ONE will know. So she goes for another – and I chat with some JRs from Marie Claire and China Press at the table.
What’s Marie Claire doing here? Is the food always so good? I ask.
Oh, we cover lifestyle too and yup it’s always this good. One says.
But after a while it gets boring. When we started out younger we’d go “oh yea night event! food!” but after 2 or 3 years it’s “not a night event, I want to go home and sleep.” They laugh, start trading stories and generally titter agreement.
The first Marie Claire JR tells me to ignore them and enjoy it while I’m young.
They don’t look so old but I make pact to self to not stop being thankful for being treated like royalty. They tell N that Lumix would be glad to lend her some models for test-driving. If only I like cameras as much as Clarkson loves cars, I’d have done so immediately.
We’re back at the office close to 4pm. N offers to drop me of at Tmn Jaya where I parked so her GPS takes us a roundabout way. It’s a comical moment when it says, “Turn right into Jalan Beh-rat.” and she’s says “Such a weird accent.” She too speaks like kwai loh but grew up here so her Malay pronunciation is spot on. There’s nothing like a good meal and a long drive to make acquaintances. It helps that both of us love to talk of course. In more ways than one, she is more Malaysian than me.
We plan to pitch one general angle by N and a lifestyle angle by me. But when we get back, turns out F thought he was talking to me earlier and actually wanted N to cover the Dell thing. So the Lumix is my first solo. N took the Dell press release and made some calls for her story. When I finished about 6pm and about to head home, an email from F comes in to process a press release into an M&M.
Oh dear, homework. I rarely feel joy at homework, but apparently writing is a drug to me
Reading press releases.
Listening to Poses by Rufus Wainwright.
