Methode Cholley Beauty Pageant (Part II)

Welcome to Part II of my pageant story!

Before going on to the evening wear segment, I thought I would include some behind-the-scenes stuff that I took on my phone while we were waiting for our turn to appear on stage.

Me and Sandy.

With Magdalene. We all accused her of getting drunk on red wine before the pageant but she insists it is just the blusher. Hahah...whatever you say, Mag!

Elsa, ever so cute. She has a body to die for too.

Hazel should get Miss Congeniality if there was this award. She was the sweetest of us all! Then there's hot favourite, Cynthia in white. She was definitely the tallest and prettiest!

Rachel with the crazy "explosion" hairdo, as she calls it. It made her look so different that I had difficulty recognizing her at first.

Eleen in fuschia, Sharon in orange and Hazel hamming it up for us. 

You can see in the background the tumultuous pile of stuff that we've strewn around in our haste to change in and out of our clothes. Dunno if 'tumultuous' is exactly the right word here, but I was definitely in a turmoil when I had to do a quick change between segments.

Now for the evening gown segment:

Thanks to Anson for these nice shots of me. This time round, no quivering smiles for me, unlike the last pageant where I had trouble keeping a steady smile on my face. 

Looks like my skin got thicker since.

Here are some of the other contestants in their elegant gowns...

Thot I'd just mention this lady. Kudos to her for her courage in joining this pageant. She's 52 already. I guess the organizers wanted a wide age range for their products, which explains why she's in. 

Me and Elsa backstage.

 We were No. 1 & 2 so I was always mother hen calling her little chick to get ready.

Before I announce the results, here are the prizes. Ms Confidence, Ms Elegance and Best Talent....all subsidiary titles with product hamper. Then there are 3 prizes for the top 3...$3k cash + $2.5 products, $2k cash + $2k products, and $1k cash + $1k products. All come with a one-year contract as brand ambassador for Methode Cholley.

LingNa got Best Talent Award. Very deserving, I must add. She definitely put up a convincing performance of a Chinese fusion dance.

Cynthia swept both the Ms Confidence and Ms Elegance award. Well, she's 1.7m. Definitely had the height to carry off the gowns well.

And the 2nd Runner Up went to... MEeeeee

The first runner up went to CYNTHIA! 

At that point, I was wondering if Cynthia didn't win, then who would? 

I thought it might be Elsa then. Or even Sharon.

When they announced the results, we were all in disbelief. Winner is LINGNA!

Believe me, Lingna is a very nice 22 year old gal from China. We have nothing against her. 

It's just that she is quite our idea of a beauty queen.

She doesn't speak English well and did her self-intro in mandarin. 

And believe me, I am not a sore loser to criticize her. However, too many of our friends have commented that she doesn't have the physical attributes to be the winner. I am just being publicly candid here. Sorry Lingna, but it is my frank opinion.

 I would gladly lose to Cynthia or Elsa or even Sharon. Well....it seems that beauty is still in the eyes of the beholder(s) and they like them young and fair.

Here am I, meeting my young fans. These kiddos were so cute. 

They were screaming for me to win, shouting "NUMBER ONE ONE ONE ONE" when the results were being announced.

Then there's my buddy Selina, who took time off to support me.

And Angie, my secondary school classmate whom I have been hanging out a lot with these days. 

Then there's Elaine Heng, the choreographer for this event who did a specific job despite being full-term in her pregnancy. She was patient, kind and even-tempered all the time even when she was being pressured for time. Great trainer I must say!

And of course, mommy came to support me as well!

Then there's a very important person I needed to thank...my hubby! He was giving me logistics support with my keyboard, and giving his opinion about my self-intro and performance. Very integral to my win! THANK YOU!!

To reward him, I made sure I got him some products to help him stay handsome. :)

Here's the 3 of us...the new brand ambassadors for Methode Cholley.

Methode Cholley Beauty Pageant (Part I)

Life passed in a whizz these few days. No time to do anything and here's why...the Methode Cholley Beauty Pageant. Yeah, I joined another pageant. But before you go "typically", this is only the second I've joined so far. Prizes are good: $3000 + $2500 products for top winner.

Beauty Choice, the company behind Methode Cholley, a skincare brand from Europe, is the organizer for this event.

We have to compete in 3 categories, namely, Casual Wear, Talent Round, and Evening Wear.

Here's us in the opening segment. The clothes were sponsored by La Pargay, some relatively expensive brand, whose aesthetics were lost on the majority of us. None of us liked what we had to wear, especially me, so I cheated with a belt, and risked incurring the wrath of the sponsor cum judge. My dress went below my knees! Totally, desperately non-flattering!

The choreography was learned in a rush...since 10am that morning! It was stressful because I was No. 1. If I fouled up, I bet the rest would too, following their blind leader...LOL! Anyway, *pat on my back* I remembered all the steps...yayyyyy! And none of us tripped on stage. One gal slipped during rehearsal and that was scary enough to make me wear my own shoes.

This pic was taken during my self-introduction. I thought I was rather relaxed even though the DJ from FM88.3 almost cut off my carefully-rehearsed speech by thanking me before I finished. I was clutching an expensive cap ($111) in my hand because obviously wearing it would ruin my meticulously-coiffed hairdo.

Last chance to impress the judges... 

Sharon did well at her self-intro too. Very confident and well-thought out.

Below, more of the other contestants...

Round Two: Talent Show

I decided to play Heaven by Bryan Adams on keys and sing. I almost made a blooper at the bridge section of the song when I forgot my chords. Then my voice went a bit pitchy as I panicked. Haha! Other than that I must say it went ok.

Ok I admit I have a worried look on my face here. Maybe that was during the part I missed my chord. Hahaha!

See...I can prove it! In these pics I have a serene look and I remembered to smile some of the time.

Here's Elsa with her karaoke. A majority of them chose to sing. We had Rach  "Nobody but You" dancing with two backup dancers some more! Another belly danced (Elfa), and we had a Chinese dance by LingNa who hails from China.

Here are some pics of the others...

Ritey...seems that time has run out again. I shall have to do Part II some time later. Stay tuned!