True to my Asian upbringing, I am a ridiculously thrifty shopper. I buy high street or vintage, but just to prove that good taste cannot be based on budget, last week I got a call from Chanel to be dressed by them from a capsule collection flown from Paris, shot by a photographer from Paris. That's when I started thinking....hmmm maybe I should begin taking my "style" a little more seriously. Shortly after I created the new "style" page on my site and fashlink.com came on board as a sponsor. Check their logo out on the new homepage of this site too.

The winner of the competition will win my style which the wonderful stylists from fashlink.com have gone out to source. 

The contest starts February 19th at 12:00AM and ends February 25th at Midnight. Winners will be announced on Sunday February 26th

Win my look by going to this link http://www.fashlink.com/Competitions
3 winners, Winner A - Dress from Noosh, Winner B - Shoes from Milk & Honey , Winner C - Accessory from SEDUCE

GOOD LUCK! and feel free to Tweet or FB me your feedback on the new "style" page.

Coming soon to this site is a page for my stand-up comedy, my consultancy work and more radio tracks. At the moment you can enjoy brand new published writing samples, old TVCs and shows on the TV page and the brand new Style page currently sponsored by Fashlink.com. More on that to come.

For now, I just thought you'd like to see the pics from my meet and greet with K-Lynn lingerie and our competition winner.

You can read all about the contest here: http://www.simoneheng.com/#blogs-detail/simone-heng-wants-you-to-win-k-lynn-lingerie-and-a-meet-and-greet

It was a really fun evening and i picked up some brand new spanx, seamless briefs and learned that I have to hand-wash my spanx instead of throwing them into a delicates bag in the normal cycle. 

Sincerest thanks to Kenneth Sagar for the event photography, Tiffany from K-Lynn Lingeries for her support and their generous gifts, Sticky Ginger PR for organising it and to Lucie Christer, our winner. Enjoy the pics!

See how the winners were chosen here: http://www.simoneheng.com/#blogs-detail/simone-heng-makes-an-appearance-for-ponds

So the evening kicked off with the photocall for me and the ambassadors and then we sat down to eat an amazing 3 course meal. I've been in the position before where I have been endorsing with other women or where I have had to collaborate with a series of other hosts on a network and sometimes you just all do not get along. What's amazing about the Ponds Brand Council for the GCC is that we all actually get along. There is no competitiveness or fakeness, we all work in different sectors of the market and have a great laugh together.

The romantic evening at Cavalli Club ended with guests getting a Ponds Age Miracle goody bag crammed full of products and also the brand new product brochure. I had a little giggle when I opened this later and saw my picture inside, I scanned and sent it to my Mum as Ponds is a massive brand in Australia too. So I've put it in this blog as well!

Thanks to Unilever for keeping me in such great company on this evening and to Kenneth Sagar for the lovely shots again. I hope your Valentine's day was amazing too.

A Ponds stand was set up at different cinema locations around the UAE. In my case, conveniently at MOE. Movie goers who booked tickets to see "The Vow" starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams (a fabulous film by the way, I was crying my fake eyelashes off!) were given a special treat. Ponds red goody bags were placed under seats in the cinema. These bags were full of the entire Ponds Age Miracle range plus a red pashmina (I use the Ponds Age Miracle night cream and it's amazing, am even sending some home for my Mummy).

On top of that, couples going to see the film were told to register themselves to win The Ponds Romantic Evening Ever at Cavalli Club this coming week on Valentine's Day. The Ponds' team gave me the winners' names. I had to hide out in 6 screenings over 2 nights and when the trailers started, a slide from Ponds would come up saying "Look under you seats for a surprise." I would then get up on the mic and introduce myself and find the winner in their seats, give them a rose and after the film they would come to the Ponds' stand and we would have a picture (some of these are on the right) and then I would give them their invite for the Most Romantic Evening Ever. The couple chosen relfected the key characteristics of Ponds' Age Miracle: radiance, youthfulness and charm.

I loved this activation mostly because people were so surprised. It was so clever because when the lights came up and they found gifts they were so happy to see me. Which as an MC, is not always the case, people don't like to be engaged unless they're winning something. It was a long 6 hours both Thursday and Friday but totally worth it because I really got to interact and introduce myself to the public as an endorser.

Thanks to my event photographer Kenneth Sagar for taking these images. 

On the first night I wore:

Dress: Koton

Jacket: H&M

Shoes: Athens

Earrings: Aldo

On the second night I wore:

Hat: Zara

Top: Bershka

Jeans: Pull and Bear

Shoes: Bershka

The portal will live on February 12th but the press conference was held on February 8, 2012 at the Burj Khalifa-Armani Ballroom, Downtown Dubai. Essentially you can't lose with uniqueauction.ae because even if you don't manage to place the highest unique bid you get to take the money you spent bidding to the vendor and redeem it on the item you were bidding for.

It may sound a little confusing, it's a very interesting concept. So interesting, that I haver never been to or hosted a press conference with so many people asking questions. It was unbelievable. I opened the conference with 5 warm-up questions and this got the dialogue flowing. In fact, if I was asked to host another conference, I would most certainly want to open up discussions like this again.

Some of the upcoming auctions are; Villas, and Apartments for Rent and Sale, Apple Iphone 4S, Blackberry-Porsche, great getaway and beauty packages ranging from a ceiling price of AED 10.

The event also surrounded the man behind the vision Mr Arif Mirza. Unique Auction is his concept and he is a man which fascinates the media. As you can see from the photos they are drawn to him like a moth to a flame. 

Arif Mirza is the founder of UniqueAuction.ae and UniqueAuction.com and co-founder/investor in  a number of other startups including StepByStep.com and also has interest in RealVentures a venture capital firm and FounderFuel an Accelerator Program based in – Montreal Canada. 

He is a visionary who formulates a winning path towards launching successful ventures. His ventures and its success stories have been featured on BBC, CBC, CTV, Fox News, NBC, CNBC, Washington Post, New York Times, Profit Magazine and other media outlets across the world.  

The event finished off with cutting of the cake and networking. I met some really interesting people, some who had come to the event to pick my brain about TV and radio hosting. www.uniqueauction.ae goes live on February 12th so start bidding!

I would also like to extend my sincerest thanks to Kenneth Sagar for doing this blog/event photograhy.

The industry there defined a Eurasian girl on how skinny and pretty she was, after she made it as a model then maybe she'd be allowed to open her mouth. On top of that, stylists and agents loved to tell you "You got fat leh, good for you...good to see you enjoy your life." It was these cutting "faux compliments" that wounded me. I would curse under my breath and prepare equally cutting comebacks for the next time such comments were made but wanting to get my little mug on TV so badly, I just kept quiet. At one point, I was so self conscious about  the heartlanders "Why you so short for a mix girl" and "you should get nose job" comments that I would sweat whenever I had to go to my local store or hairdresser.

Oh the joys of getting older, CONFIDENCE! Nowadays, you better watch out if you come to me with something so obviously cutting. On top of that, people in the UAE get me! The humour here, because of the British expat influence, is much more similar to mine. What is offensive and impolite to an Aussie goes for them also. However, a lot of my Western friends here still struggle with the comments from their Filipina helpers or Indian colleagues when those Singapore-style Asian comments come. Comments like: "Madame, you used to be so beautiful but now you're fat" are very normal and are not considered rude in the Asian commuity. Just spend a day with my Singaporean family on both sides!

So when Viva magazine asked me to come up with comebacks to double-ended comments or "faux compliments" or negs (if you've read "The Game") I felt like it was some sort of Oprah Winfrey full-circle moment. I was joined in the feature by my stand up comedy mentor Mina Liccione too. It's nice to know after nearly ten years working in entertainment that finally people care more about what I have to say than what I look like. Proof is in the pudding as I host a number one rating show that is all about my voice and look how small my headshot is on the page in this article.

Viva Magazine is on stands now until the end of February, so grab a copy. The PDF of this article will soon be on the "Published Writing" page of this website. Hallelujah to getting older!

Right now my schedule is just ridiculous. I pretty much just get by because of my BlackBerry. It really does "empower your business" because it allows me to maximise every single minute of my day. In general, all the products I endorse are ones that I sincerely believe in, products which have changed my life and its efficiency. Efficiency to me is priceless, I think it's from living in Switzerland and being Chinese.

BlackBerry had me down at JBR walk and printed me 2,000 amazing social networking cards which have my website, Twitter and Facebook credits on it. Please see the baby drewlling all over it in the images on the right. Despite it being windy, we got a great turn out and if the the jump of 500 people in my Facebook numbers are anything to go by, I think those cards are working.

Lots of things are coming up with me and BlackBerry. They've engraved my signature on a limited number of BlackBerry Bold 9900 and we will have 5 being given away soon on my show on Virgin Radio. On top of that we have 4 to give away at my conference called How to Get Into Fashion and Media (coming soon) plus 1 to give away on Facebook and Twitter. 6 other BlackBerry devices are also being given to me to give away on Facebook and Twitter so stay tuned for that.

In the mean time do take a look at the pictures on the right taken by my amazing event photographer Kenneth Sagar. Thanks also to online store www.xfemmex.com for my leopard prind blazer and Miri NYC for my metallic panelled skirt.

You also get to bring 2 friends who will get a professional bra fitting and 25% discount.

This is how you win:

Like the K-Lynn Lingerie Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/klynn.co

and follow K-Lynn on Twitter at @KLynnLingerie

Like the Simone Heng Public Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simone-Heng/209007655822452

The winning starts now so begin "Liking" and following!

For the last few years, Fearne has been doing "Twarts" on her lunchtime show on Radio 1 in London, where she tweets progress of paintings she's doing while she's on air and listeners have to guess who she's painting. In fact, Fearne is so good at painting "likeness" she's even gotten Cheryl Cole to jump in a photo with her own Fearne Cotton portrait. I was simultaneously happy and sad about this. If Fearne was painting while on air, it means she wasn't managing her own panel. A little respect did go down.

However, when my promotions manager at Virgin asked us to contribute ideas for the live broadcast for the Kris Fade show I jumped at the chance to finally try this out. So I bought an easel and I committed myself to paint Kris Fade live. I had it all planned. I would draw him at home from the artwork planned for the broadcast and then paint him from 10am to 4pm on the day of. 

My plans were dashed! The night before as I had just finished sketching Kris and was packing up my stuff I got a call from my boss saying he needed me to babysit the ISDN line back in the studio from 12-2pm. This meant that I only had from 10am to 11:30am to paint Kris with lots o f people watching. So I got the paints back out and painted the preliminary skin tone and blocked out the colours.

On the day of the event, everything was amazing! Priti took images and posted them on the Virgin Radio Facebook of the progress. I even got to talk about what I was doing on air. I somehow miraculously managed to finish it exactly on time and looking a lot like Kris. I got Tweets all day about it and it was one of my most fun moments in 3 years with Virgin Radio Dubai where my hobbies and outside work combined with my full time job. I hope you like it too!

Thanks to my friend Marcia Von Berg who attended to support me and my event photographer Kenneth Sagar for these amazing blog pics.

I just set up a Soundcloud account. Take a listen to the audio from the day:

http://soundcloud.com/simone-heng/virgin-on-air-1-february-2012 

http://soundcloud.com/simone-heng/kris-fade-show-28-hour 

http://soundcloud.com/simone-heng/kris-fade-show-28-hour-1 

I have devoted 2012 to taking stock and doing what makes me happy. The first month of 2012 has already seen me take up both theatre and painting again (I haven't actively painted since 2002 and been on stage since 2004), with amazing effects to my psyche. I am actually excited about getting home, spending a whole weekend alone painting with a glass of wine. It's quite remarkable. I am already hatching plans of where I go next with the art and the "Simone Heng" brand (without sounding douchey).

Ponds Arabia and I have teamed up to feature my artwork on something and I will reveal more nearer to Valentine's Day. I will be donating a commision on the theme of "Chocol'art" for a charity event Chocol'art at the Movies in mid March and also painting Kris Fade live on the radio (and on site at Mall of the Emirates) for the Virgin Radio 28 hour broadcast which kicks off this Wednesday, February 1st. Then there is the full exhibition in Dubai Ladies Club on March 15th. So you can see why I am staying home every weekend. 

When Zareen from Art Nation emailed me through my website to submit 2 pieces to this year's Art Nation "Art that is Street Smart" exhibition at Global Village I was stoked! Through word of mouth she'd found out that I painted and I was overjoyed! I set about doing a submission of 2 pieces I could use for my full exhibition in March. So maybe the two pieces you can see on the right don't look like they have a cohesive theme but when you see them all together with the other ten it'll be clear.

What I loved about the Art Nation exhibit was that it was so accessible. It wasn't snobby like some of the galleries in Dubai and people of all nationalities and ages were free to come and see. One thing that I learned from the exhibit was that it's really good that I have been in an art "blackout" for the last ten years, as a result I've been incubating unique ideas that aren't influenced by what other people are doing. The characters I paint all exist in my mind and my style is my own.

I loved the live art being done on site. Particulary the speed painting artist who whipped through 4 canvases in under two hours. She rocked my socks off! Unbelievable how she can see the values in the skin tone so fast and execute them just as quickly. Blending of skin tone is something I struggle with still. She was amazing!

I almost didn't even make it into my own exhibit. I wore my new Miri NYC dress (Thankyou Miri) and belted it quite short and when I got to Global Village the security guard stopped us and wouldn't allow me in. So then I just whipped my belt off and the dress came down to my knees! Lesson learnt: no "haram" wear when visiting global village, even if you're exhibiting your own art! 

A huge thankyou to my very pregnant friend Katrina who trekked through Global Village with me to support me and her amazing hubby Sam who drove us and cooked a smashing shepherds' pie after to warm us back up. Thanks also to the perpetually gorgeous David Craig who made a dapper appearance decked out in matching cardigan and shoes while hungry (Dave, like me, doesn't do "low blood sugar" well). Thanks to the loyal Sarah Samaniego who came after we left, she rocks up to almost every event I host and perform at, an amazing fan. Thanks to Kenneth Sagar for the candid shots on the right that make me look like a hardcore art critic when I am so not! Thanks to my childhood buddy and newlywed Marcia and husband Brodie, who got stuck in traffic and had one of their first post-marraige arguments over directions to get to the exhibition, they didn't make it but I feel bad they went to all that trouble.

However, you cannot live totally under a rock and in this last week we had Chinese New Year and Australia Day all at once and I was not going to miss the 1st birthday of the tallest tower in the world. Especially, since Tom Cruise just christened it! So I took my partner-in-crime, Emirati action star Omar Bin Haider (we like to think of ourselves as the "Brown and Yellow" brigade) to the event at the world's tallest restaurant.

The who's who of Dubai was there and I got to see some of my fave people, including very close friend Eve Dugdale (she's the hot red head on the right), my colleagues from Virgin, Kris Fade and Rossi, singer Clarita De Quiroz (thanking her for the pic of us top right), Capital D gurus Meredith and Ayaad Damouni and my family friend and Emaar Hospitality COO Jurgen Baumhoff.

I wore:

Dress by Whistles

Watch by Philip Stein

Shoes by Kurt Geiger

Bag by Tilly & Pinch

Chinese celebrities Andy Lau, Chiling Lin and newcomer Jingchu Zhang, along with Directors Sun Jianjun and Robert Francis Brown were recently in Dubai filming the Chinese blockbuster "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains." The action and fashion film's key scenes are being filmed at Atlantis, The Palm,The Burj Arab and the Burj Khalifa. My scene with Andy was shot on board an Emirates Airline A380 (as you can see from the pics I was Andy's personal first class flight attendant).

"Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains" is comparable to the production of "Mission Impossible 4," in terms of team, equipment and creative use of space.  It will be filmed across four countries and six cities: Dubai, Hangzhou, Fuyang, Taipei, Tokyo and Milan. With a production cost of more than RMB 100 million, and the largest investment in China, the project is the first Chinese film to be predominantly produced outside China.  The storyline is a modern legend combining duels of life vs death, between justice and evil, inspired by a rare Chinese painting from the Yuan Dynasty.

The cast features China's leading stars including Andy Lau from Hong Kong, who is known as a "King" in Asia with millions of fans. After living in Singapore for 4 years before moving to Dubai I was very familiar with Andy Lau. As I say to my non-Asian friends, he's probably second only to Jackie Chan in terms of profile. You could probably draw similarities with him and Will Smith becaue not only is he a loved and respected actor he's also a bonafide pop star. Having lunch in the same room as Andy was bizarre. I couldn't stop staring at him. He was just tiny! Tiny! In fact, it made clear to me for the first time why there is such a pressure in Asia for the actresses to be skinny, when you're leading man has similar dimensions to a 5''6 woman, on camera it makes me look like a behemoth. I know because I got to watch the rushes of my little scene with Andy back!

I won't give away too much but the movie comes out in the middle of the year. I hope my scene doesn't end up on the cutting room floor. It's kind of nice to think, even from here in Dubai, my face could be going back to Asia and watched by the 400 million people estimated to see this film. Not that I looked very good in the oversized Emirates outift and flats but I must thank Emirates. They did specify a "beautiful Chinese girl" for the role and as I am the only Chinese girl people know of in Dubai it seems, I was bound to get a call. Check out the pictures with me and the casting director Miranda at the crew party below right.

Years later, I can now understand 60-70% of conversational Mandarin after taking the language when I went back to university in 2007 and more recently was cast in a cameo and shared a scene with Andy Lau (one of China's hugest stars) in his latest Chinese blockbuster (more on that in another blog). How things have changed! I am so proud to be Chinese and "Asian". It has anchored me to the Asian community in Dubai, it has given me a sense of identity and I include it in my radio show with my new feature "Chinese Whispers with Xixi Yang" on Workforce Requests.

I took my hilarious and endearing friend Omar Bin Haider with me to the Burj's Chinese New Year event. Omar and I acted together in the "Dagger Shorts" theatre production and then we were also cast in "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" so we have a lot of similar interests and Omar is particularly great at cracking jokes at inappropriate times which proves difficult in some events but I wouldn't have it any other way.

For the duration of Chinese New Year the Burj Al Arab is set alight with a red dragon. This Chinese New Year is particularly special because the dragon is considerd the most auspicious of the 12 animals in the lunar calendar and many women try to give birth during the year of the dragon for this reason. Jumeirah put on an amazing event complete with a lion dance. The lion dance used to scare the living daylights out of me as a child and that's it's job really, to scare away the evil spiritsfor good fortune for the new year. Unlike other lion dances I've seen in Dubai I can say this one had 100% Chinese men under it.

We were served traditional Chinese teas, sesame balls, even traditional Chinese liquor (which I had never had before, it's not something Singaporeans have at New Year). We took home goody bags with gorgeous Chinese tea cups and a box full of fortune cookies. I gave them out at work the next day and Natalie's said: "Money can actually by love." That was probably the most Chinese thing I've ever read! I laughed all the way into my on air show.

I wore:

Dress: Karen Millen

Stole: Topshop

Shoes: Kurt Keiger

Clutch: Tilly & Pinch

I can barely believe that my pieces are featured, next to actual full-time artists! It's given me motivation to go further with it and do more. I would love to oneday have a homeware line with the designs on it. Please see the scans in this blog and grab a copy of A&E out now. You can check out all of my paintings here on the "Art" gallery page.

Fast forward to 2012 and a million miles away from Perth and it's not much different, on the night before we went on stage our director (who is very talented and who had cast me) abruptly left the theatre and pulled out over similar political machinations. I was cast in the Andy Lau film in town along with one of the other cast members and we both had to pull out of Friday's performance. An amazing student called Andrea joined the cast and learned my part in an unbelievable 36 hours. On top of that Alexandra, originally cast as Diana was in a car accident. Of the final cast that went to stage, only 2 were from the original cast. Our makeup artist pulled out one day before and somehow Theresa Tui managed to build a set from 800AED and a stolen couch from the back of my villa.

Despite all these unbelievable disruptions, we went on stage and gave 4 muck-up free performances. We owe our well-rounded characters to Rayan Black our original director. What I walked away with however, was a reminder of why theatre is so enjoyable, because it's collaborative. Producing and presenting a radio show can be quite lonely but on stage you bond so quickly because you rely on eachother. I believe some of the people I have met on this play will become good friends and it's most certainly not cliquey like my Curtin experience. I am so glad I took the plunge to get back on stage...this won't be my last play.

Sincerest thanks also to Maha from Bambah for dressing me as Celia.

To win the Ponds Arabia "Love" necklace (yes, it says "love" in Arabic) just "like" my public Facebook page and my Twitter. It's that easy! I'll be drawing the winner on January 28th. The links are below.

You must live in the UAE to enter and Ponds will courier the necklace directly to you.

Good Luck!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simone-Heng/ 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/simoneheng 

It's only going to get busier though as I have to submit 12 pieces for my own personal exhibition happening at the beginning of March, I have some super exciting activations in my role as one of the Pond's Arabia brand council and am creating a new and exciting page on the website which will be coming soon. I have a photoshoot for this next week. 2012 is the Chinese year of the dragon, the MOST auspicious year in the cycle and most possibly, according to the Mayans', the end of the world. Needless to say I have NEVER been as focussed to make this year huge and you all know how crazy I am when focussed. It's game time!

On top of all of this I keep getting booked for corporate jobs and one of them was the fabulous Juicy Couture Spring 2012 collection preview at Magnolia in Al Qasr. I had never been to Magnolia at Al Qasr but it was amazing. Accessible by Abra, guests arrived and were whisked away to my confessions booth to tell me what their thoughts were on Juicy Couture's brand image. These video "confessions" would then be used to show the change in Juicy's brand image. 

A lot of guests who knew of the brand from the UK sited "WAGS," "Katie Price" and "tracksuits" as negative brand associations for the brand. Interestingly, me and those like me not raised in the UK didn't have such a perception. For me, Juicy has always been cool and although somewhat expensive their garments have amazing, long-lasting quality. I've had my grey Juicy tracksuit for 3 years and it's still in perfect shape.

I loved my role as interviewer and director of the confessions booth. I got to work again with a camera man, on deciding shot size with the  client, micing up the talent. It made me miss TV very much. After the small installation fashion show (see images on the right) I got guests back into the booth to tell me what they thought of Juicy's new direction. Many confided that "Juicy has grown up!" or "There are more fashion-forward individual pieces." The new collection is gorgeous and features a mix of colour-blocking and nautical cruise-style inspiration. My fave pieces include the mini cricket-jumper cardigan and the drill navy blue peacoat. I will be buying these for sure!

We all got to chow down on mocktails (fave was the virgin Pina Colada) and boarded our abras with bright pink goody bags laden with a Juicy pink thumbdrive, 20% VIP discount card, lookbook, makup case, body moisturiser and fragrance. A fantastic night! 

So I was delighted to get an email from Hill and Knowlton for their media dinner. I was so lucky to be on a table with some of the coolest journos in Dubai. Many of them familiar faces from other press events or we share mutual friends. I was the only radio person invited, which is usually the way. I think they just invite me so I'll tell wildly inappropriate stories. I took Ali Mak from Virgin as he was covering on breakfast and finally had an evening free.

Ali is allergic to seafood which is a damn shame as there was an entire buffet of seafood entrees which came out while we were sampling Embassy Dubai's signature cocktails on free flow. I had to work the next day so I was a good girl and didn't drink too much. I did manage to enjoy "The Palm" cocktail which was delicious, I remember there was vanilla flavoured alcohol in it of some kind but the rest escapes me. Maybe I was tipsy as my memory is normally very on point?

After I guzzled like 100 oysters we were taken upstairs to dinner. The most stunning dining room in the 3-floor venue which includes bar, restaurant and club. I will definitely be taking people here again. I made Ali try the Foie Gras which I am used to eating with fig compote, this one was served with pineapple instead. I am a major Foie Gras fan and before the animal lovers amongst you get onto me about this, just a disclaimer: I am Chinese, we eat anything that walks, so don't try get me to fight my genetic instincts!

Ali was so cool and tried the Foie Gras with no complaints, he even turned to me after and said: "Simone, this is the most expensive meal I've had in 4 years in Dubai" I said:" Boy you must be kidding! I eat like this all the time, I'm one serving of Foie Gras away from getting gout." I gave him a big hug and assured him it's because he does night shift and can't enjoy this stuff. I used to do nights in Singapore and when I first moved here, I know how it feels.

Many thanks to Hill and Knowlton for inviting me and Embassy Dubai for a great spread.

My Outfit:

Turban-Zara

Dress-Vintage from London

Belt-Vintage from Milan

Shoes-H&M

Clutch- From Athens

The BlackBerry PlayBook is a tablet computer by Research In Motion.

The PlayBook is based on the BlackBerry Tablet OS, a new operating system based on QNX Neutrino, and runs apps developed usingAdobe AIR. It was later announced that the BlackBerry Tablet OS would be merged with the existing BlackBerry OS.

All you have to do to win this is "like" my Facebook and follow me on Twitter:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simone-Heng/ 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/simoneheng 

Invite all your friends and they could win too. Happy New Year! The winner will be drawn Monday January 9th 2012 and must live in the UAE.

This is the PlayBook used in this video:

My style changed drastically as well in the last year, cutting off my heavily shedding long locks in favour of a pixie crop, much to the dismay of men everywhere and to the "hoorah!" of Dubai's fashion critics. 2012 will see me try to grow it back and not look truly hideous when it's going through the "inbetween" stage. Check back here in April.

My major highlights this year inlcuded a 9-year reunion in Mykonos with my best girlfriends from Switzerland (only to be topped by our 10-year reunion in 2012 in Switzerland), having my cousin, uncle and best friend visit me here in Dubai, beginning to paint again for the first time in forever and snagging a ground-breaking Ponds skincare endorsement for the entire Gulf. 

What does 2012 hold for me? I hope...no I WILL...buy a house before I turn 28 in Australia, I will host my first full art exhibition at the Dubai Ladies Club, I will go to Cuba in the Summer with one of my best friends, Racquel, I will act in my first theatre production in 8 years and I will hopefully be speaking at one of the most lauded media summits in the world come October.

Besides these things that are in the works I really am excited by what the year holds. I remember looking down the barrel at my fifth year in Singapore and  shuddering in pain, then I opened my email one day to a message from Virgin Radio International asking me to apply for a job at their new Dubai station. A year from the day that email was sent, my world changed, I had everything I ever yearned for. 

So here's to 2012! I can't wait to meet you, Mr! A big fat kiss goes to 2011, you sure taught me a lot, buddy! Enjoy the pics on the right with some of my favourite moments this festive season: recieving a big present from Ali Mak in the Virgin Studio, attending an Aussie BBQ with the lovely Kelly, watching Racquel's Christmas choir at Crown Plaza SZR, Christmas lunch with the amazing Sacha Plumbridge and family and a girls' night in at the ski chalet given to me last week from Kempinski Hotel MOE. A huge thankyou to them too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Teens Club Culture is an innovative and credible social club for teenagers delivering cool music gigs, beach parties, cruises, sporting experiences and weekly events at Dubai & Abu Dhabi's premier destinations. All TCC events take place in secure and safe environments offering the highest quality entertainment at top venues.

The event I hosted at the beach could not have been more pleasant with blue skies and a cool breeze. Check the pics. I chowed down to the best 10AED chips ever and enjoyed chatting with the listeners who won Teens Club Culture tickets on Workforce Requests.This particular event was also free and transport provided from various locations around Dubai.

We played some games and gave away 4 Rip Curl wetsuits, movie tickets and vouchers to Rip Curl for best dressed. What I loved the most was watching the teens play soccer and welcome others that had arrived alone. It was the first time in ages I've seen kids that age unite and have fun in a save environment. God I sound old! But looking back it would've been nice to have had TCC around when I was their age.

My favourite was the roast duck which was done Chinese-style with plum and hoisin sauce. My second favourite was the traditional turkey with all the trimmings. I mean chestnut stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, sprouts and baked or mash potatoes. You think I would've been smarter about what I wore, leather pants and a white blouse don't go well with a full buffet and cranberry sauce. There was a chocolate fountain for dessert with oodles of ice cream and exotic fruits.

I was really impressed by the MC aswell, a full-costumed santa who had more energy with cheesy content than I thought imaginable. On top of that, we played a quiz. Now instead of this being a bonding session with my listeners it turned into a "group cheating lesson." We all got our smart phones out and started googling the answers. Worst thing was we still lost! Let this be a lesson to everyone thinking of cheating during the festive season.

I just want to sincerely thank Virgin Radio Dubai for the promotion, a fitting end to another amazing year of top ratings and awards. Also to my listeners Shamim, Erlinda, RJ and Mitch and their plus ones for a great night. I was in tears of laughter at how badly we lost the quiz! No free trips to London for us!

This is my resolution, made easier by the fact that I'm now endorsing Ponds Arabia. I want to share that love with you! These are the products you can win in the gift pack!

• Ponds Gold Radiance Youthful Glow Day Crream with SPF 15
• Ponds Gold Radiance Boosting Cleansing Mousse 
• Ponds Gold Radiance Night Repair with Real Gold Microparticles
• Ponds Gold Radiance Youth Reviving Eye Cream with real Gold Microparticles 

To win the gift pack you just have to add yourself to my public Facebook page and Twitter account.

Here are the links:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simone-Heng/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/simoneheng 

On the 18th of December I will draw the winner of the competition from my followers!

Thankyou so much for all of your support across the year and many more opportunities to win happen soon!

A traditional German cake popular during the festive period - Stollen is simply delicious. Filled with marzipan and dried fruit Kempinski staff prepare the 480m cake a month in advance and freezed the loaves before baking them for today. Today it was the central attraction amongst a host of other fun-filled family activities held at Mall of the Emirates. Slices for AED 5 or AED 100 for a full loaf or AED 50 for a half loaf of the delicately spiced cake were sold by Kempinski staff who gave up their one day off to inject some generous festive spirit into shoppers. With all proceeds donated to the Dubai Centre for Special Needs is was so festive I wanted to just start singing carols.

From 10am this morning MOE was filled with festive cheer and the fragrant scent of freshly-baked cakespread throughout the mall. There was a visit from the kids from the centre, Brent Black from Virgin came to host before me from 12-2pm and then I took over at 2pm. They had face painting for kids and after hosting the event for a good 10 hours last year it was really nice to see people jump at the chance to buy the stollen this year. I think the radio ads placed on Virgin really helped, I didn't feel I needed to convince them to donate.With every purchase of stollen, the Kempinski staff rung bells creating a fun celebratory vibe for visitors. 

The tradition of the Annual Stollen Charity Cake was first introduced in 2006 by Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates as a way to celebrate the spirit of charity. To date, the event has successfully raised over AED 190,918 which has been donated to the Dubai Centre for Special Needs, a charitable non-profit organisation that works hard towards providing a brighter future for children with special needs.

Big thanks to Kempinski Hotel, in particular Haitham and Georgina, who I consider friends. The clutch I am holding on the left is thanks to Tilly & Pinch who delivered it to the studio this week. I wore my vintage green 1950s dress from Swizterland for a touch of Christmas cheer!