Gone Shopping!

After years of preparation and pre-production work, 'Gone Shopping' the feature debut by local filmmaker Wee Lilin is finally out.

I was fortunate to be invited to the gala premiere at GV Vivocity yesterday and what an evening it was. Filled with lots of beautiful people, it seemed that the entire industry was out in full force for the event.

While the film was a bit slow in some parts, I really liked it overall especially the story threads involving Kym Ng and the Indian girl. It was a fantastic effort by Lilin and knowing how much hard work she put into it, I appreciated it even more.

I was also amused to see that my 2 second cameo was left intact and not on the cutting room floor. So ladies and gentlemen, 'Gone Shopping' is also the big screen debut of yours truly! Haha it's a blink and miss thingy though, so I wonder how many people will catch it. ;)

Home Sweet Home

7 flights, 6 weeks, 5 airports, 4 countries, 3 airlines, 2 continents and a lifetime of memories later, my summer holiday was finally over.

Strangely it took such a long trip for me to appreciate Singapore, I never thought there would come a day when I would actually miss home. Unfortunately a chain of events since I came back is making me have second thoughts about that.

Once I get over my laziness, I will resume posting about the the trip again...

Day 7 (11 June) - NOW We Are In Hell!

The buffet breakfast in the morning helped to make up a little for the lack of air-conditioning the previous day. It was the most sumptuous breakfast we had in France up to then. Being the Ugly Singaporeans that we are, we stole lots of fruit jams and Nutella to bring along for our trip. Luckily we were not discovered, or else it would have been humiliating!

After breakfast, we set off for our next destination - the religious town of Lourdes. On the way, we made a detour and visited Carcassone, an utterly charming medieval fortress town. It was here that Uncle Patrick broke his first chair. I stared dumbfounded as he calmly got up, assembled the broken pieces together and promptly exchanged it with another one at the next table...

Welcome to my castle!

After lunch, we continued on our way to Lourdes. It was almost nightfall by the time we hit town and appropriately enough for a religious city, we checked into the hotel from Hell!


Scary doesn't even begin to describe this place. Aunt Rita declared it the worst hotel room she stayed in her entire life! I shared a room with Dawn and JF and my bed was right beside the window which looked out to a corridor. We felt so exposed that JF woke up in the middle of the night in a panic and asked Dawn to hide all their jewels in the shoes!


Perhaps it was the effect of the hotel but I felt very unsettled the whole time I was in Lourdes. It had that kind of oppressive feeling that gave me the creeps. We witnessed the night procession which up to 10,000 pilgrims carried candles and walked round the square, following a gigantic statue of Mary.

The Nightly Procession

I don't mean to be rude but the whole procession looked like some cult thingy. Imagine deathly silence broken by occasional ghostly chantings. I love France but this was a place I could not wait to get out from...

Day 6 (10 June) - Hot As Hell

I attended my first mass ever (aside from my sister´s wedding) this morning. Although I'm a Buddhist, I do respect other religions and certainly am open to experiencing them. Unfortunately the service was in French and rather long and dreary, the church though was very beautiful.

The church in Avignon

After the service, we paid a visit to the Palace of the Popes. Between 1309 and 1377, 9 Popes stayed in Avignon as opposed to Vatican City. The Palace is a huge medieval gothic building, so big in fact that we barely had time to go through it entirely.

Inside the dungeon in the Palace of the Popes

As we were rushed for time, we left Avignon after the visit, setting off for our next stop - Aix-en-Provence. It was a relief when we arrived at our hotel to discover that it was a large, modern establishment. However the relief quickly turned to dismay when we were informed that the air-conditioning for the entire hotel was down. As we didn't want to linger in the hot confines of our rooms, we quickly dumped our stuff and proceeded to explore the city.

When we reached the city, the Sunday market was just closing up and the stall holders were packing and leaving. I couldn't find anything particularly special about Aix but like most of the French towns we have visited, it was very chic and elegant.

For some reason, the old biddies didn't want to have dinner. Instead they chose to buy some pastries from the bakery to line their stomachs. So Dawn, JF and I had our dinner in a sidewalk cafe while the 4 of them sat outside waiting for us. It was very apparent that Uncle Raymond wanted to have dinner with us but was forced by Auntie Rose to eat a chicken pie instead.

It was very weird to see the 4 of them waiting outside for us so we tried to persuade them to join us. Auntie Rita and Uncle Pat decided to go for a walk so Auntie Rose relented and agreed to join us. By then, Uncle Raymond was throwing a mini tantrum and refused to order anything. Pretty soon they went for a walk too.

Needless to say, it was very amusing to see the dynamics between the 2 Lee sisters and their husbands. If it runs in the family, I really worry for JF...

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to face a sleepless night in our hot and stuffy room. As we were situated right next to the highway, it was very noisy when we opened the window. We were certainly not happy campers that night!

Tip on budget travelling - What to do when there is limited space?

Answer - Squeeze into whatever's available!