How Hard Is It To Say Goodbye?

Since we made the decision to sell our house in April, I knew that this day had to come. For months I told myself, the day was far away and I had ample time to prepare myself for it.

Well that day is here now.

After spending 18 years in a place, it is not that easy to say goodbye to it especially when it holds so many memories. And of course moving from Geylang to Tampines means that I no longer stay near to town and I have to spend a longer time travelling to get where I want.

But fortunately (or unfortunately), the big pile of boxes and cartons in the living room is a reminder that I have little time to grieve...

Down To the Wire...

Months of anticipation has finally culminated in this moment. In a matter of hours, I'll be boarding on a plane to Turkey (with a suitcase of food enough to feed a class of kindergarten kids)!

Will I like Turkey? Well according to Dawn, June is Istanbul at its hottest and smelliest...

Guess I'll have to smell it for myself in 24 hours time!

Too Late For SEX?

For 10 years I have lived without SEX. I have been tempted countless times and on many occasions, I nearly caved in. But no, I held on to my beliefs and refused to do it. My best friends wondered what was wrong with me and tried their darnest to get me to indulge in the carnal pleasures of SEX. For a whole decade, I took pride in the fact that I could remain SEXless and yet go on with life.

That is until now...

All it took was a bite of the forbidden fruit and I was hooked. One bite and years of abstaining from SEX gone down the drain. Go on. Laugh at me. Mock me. Tell me 'I told it was good'. I realize now the folly of my ways. What on earth have I been doing all these years without SEX?

Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte, is it too late for me to join in?

The Cookie Wins!

So another season of Amercian Idol is over.

While I've not been entirely thrilled by this season (the shameless pimping of Archuleta being the main cause), in the end it was all good.

David Cook was never my No. 1 fave contestant this year (that honour goes to the incredible Carly Smithson) but he is a great artist and American Idol can only benefit by adding him to its stable of (mostly lackluster) winners.

So after 7 seasons, here's a tally of the winners so far.

Season 1: White Bread Girl-Next-Door (who has since evolved into an Angry Woman)
Season 2: Black Teddy Bear
Season 3: Funky Black Mama
Season 4: White Country Girl
Season 5: Spastic White Guy
Season 6: Fat Mulatto
Season 7: Cool White Rocker

Hopefully next year the producers won't attempt to shove a contestant down our throats like they did with David Archuleta this year. Sometimes it backfires, this year it certainly did and I ended up hating Archuleta all season.

IF - Nelson del Castillo

2 years ago, I was with Dominic at Bangkok's Siam Paragon when we heard this absolutely beautiful and haunting song. We went back to Siam Paragon everyday and the song was playing every single time. Neither one of us knew who it was by but we managed to note down snatches of the lyrics.

Eventually Dominic tracked down the song, it was called 'If' by Nelson Del Castillo a Filipino singer. I never managed to get a copy of the album so imagine my surprise when I found the song on Youtube recently.

Listening to the song again takes me back to the magical experience of hearing it for the first time in Bangkok. With all the travelling I've been doing and ahead of me, it amazes me that I have not found the time to visit my favourite city since Dec 2006.

I have not forgotten you Bangkok. Soon, I'll be there again I promise, soon...

All Things Paper

When you've been writing for a number of years, the novelty of seeing your work on television kinds of wear off. Especially when there is only one broadcaster in Singapore and you don't have much creative control over what you put on television.

Prior to last July, I haven't worked on any TV projects for well over a year. So imgaine my surprise when I got a call in Spain to work on a series for Channel News Asia. I had previously written only one show for CNA and it was quite a number of years ago so I was really excited at the opportunity to work on another one.

The company that called me (Very! Productions) was launching their very first TV production but Angie and Felicia, the gals behind Very! were experienced and as it turned out, very driven and creative.

From that one project, I came to work on a total of 4 series for CNA over the past year. Sure it was exhausting and many times I really wondered what I had gotten myself into when I had to juggle more than 1 series at the same time. But at the same time, it was an extremely fulfilling experience.

'All Things Paper' that very first series for Very! is ending its run on CNA this week. The last episode airs this Sunday, 11 May at 10.30pm. This episode also marks the debut of my voice on television. As 2 of our profiles spoke in Cantonese, the station needed us to do voice-overs in English using non-professionals. Despite my protests, Angie and Felicia had faith I could do it so my voice is going on TV haha!

Looking over my resume, there are not many shows that I can truly say I'm proud of and that's a testatment to the state of local TV today. But 'All Things Paper' is special to me and I'm proud of Angie and Felicia for producing such an awesome programme. Way to go gals!

How Fat Is Too Fat?

I have been putting on weight due to medication and an appetite that has somehow spiralled out of control. I keep telling myself to start losing weight... tomorrow. Now it seems tomorrow must finally come.

Recently I noticed that my only pair of jeans are getting a wee bit tight, same goes for my belt. But that was taken care of sucking in my stomach and pulling my jeans up, way up.

Imagine my horror when I noticed bruises on my stomach the other day. At first, I was mystified as to where the bruises came from. Then it dawned on me that GASP! my jeans and belt were finally too small for me!

So it is finally time to start losing weight...

Going To Turkey!

I'm going to Turkey! No not yet, there's nearly 3 months to go before I depart but the tickets have been booked and the seats chosen. Talk about efficiency!

This will be my first trip abroad since my summer in Europe last year. Although I'm still smarting from the loss of the Doha job, I realized I must really learn to let it go.

Hmmm... can I squeeze in another trip to somewhere nearby before Turkey?....

Stop The Damn Rain!

If this goes on any further, I swear Singapore will go down like a sinking ship!

There was a brief respite from the water yesterday morning and after consulting with the weather forecast, I decided to go cycling with the Donkey. But we never did make it to East Coast. The skies decided to unload its shit on us and we were trapped at Parkway Parade.

So we didn't get to go cycling but I did give Donkey a tour of the Katong area. Hope he liked it haha ;p

The night ended with me seeing Sherman off at the airport. Once again, I'm awed at how great our airport is. I might rave and bitch about our little island but one thing I can't deny is that Changi Airport ranks among the best in the world.

Waking Up From A Deep Sleep...

It's been a good 6 months and like any self-respecting polar bear, it's time to end my hibernation.

So where did I disappear to for the past half a year? Did I just go into hiding with nary a thing to do? Hardly.

For one, I have been busy working, working, working! For some reason I was flooded with jobs after I came back from Europe last July and so I took on 4 different series for Channel News Asia.

On the workfront, everything was going fine. I even landed an exhibition gig that required me to be in Doha from Jan to Mar. It was a glorious period of time, I was looking forward to earning big bucks and best of all, I was going to be away from Singapore for 3 whole months!

But then I got a visit from an old friend.

I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, a nerve disorder in Nov 2002. Since then I have gone through an operation, underwent radiotherapy, was put on a garden variety of medication and gained 20kg from said medication. But in the past 5 years, everything was well under control and I was finally going to be off all medication by May this year.

Then in the dying days of 2007, barely a week before I was to leave for Doha, I had a relapse.

That threw everything into disarray. I had to give up the job in Doha and for more than a month, my eyesight was severely affected. But fortunately things are coming together again, I'm back on all my medication and the condition seems to be well under control.

So in celebration of yet another new chapter of my eventful life, I decided to resurrect this blog. Hopefully I will finish detailing my trip to Europe last year but in any case, I'm already looking forward to new travels for this year.

Peace ;p

Ups And Downs

I believe that for every up, there has to be a down. Ever since I came back from Europe, I have gotten a lot of calls for jobs. That is a good thing although it means I'm working my ass off!

Unfortunately while things have been going well for me, it haven't been the case for a couple of my closest friends. I wonder if my stroke of good luck is coming at their expense? If that is the case, I rather not have it.

To the 2 friends mentioned above, hang on in there and you know that I'll be by your sides no matter what happens. I'll probably be going to Turkey in 3 weeks time. This is NOT a holiday but I'm looking forward to it with all my heart.

Happy Birthday Dawn!

Forget the smoke, forget the mosques, forget the city that brings you grief, forget the people who try to rip you off.

Why?

Because it's your birthday!

So Happy Birthday!

Ok, you can open your card and presents now (if you have received them)!
As for me I'm going to buy a cake and eat it on your behalf!

;p

My Brother's Wedding

After months of preparations, major house cleaning and headaches over money issues, my brother finally got married yesterday.

Besides helping him, i also have to juggle 2 different projects at the same time so it's been really exhausting. In fact, last night was the first time I had 8 hours of sleep in ages. Think I'm going to take today off to go into hibernation. Zzz...

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!

Day 5 (9 June) - Life´s A Fairytale

After breakfast, we decided to pack a picnic lunch and visit some of the noteworthy sights in Provence.

Our first stop was the breathtakingly beautiful Gordes. A stone village set on a mountain, Gordes was the kind of place which I thought existed only in medieval fairytales. I was wrong of course and a stroll through the village established the fact that tourists are well aware of the place and visiting it in droves.

Beautiful Gordes

Summer in Southern France is unforgiving and even for us Singaporeans who live on the Equator, it can get a little overwhelming. So we defected to the shades of the forest for our picnic and it made for a rather interesting sight. Imagine 6 Singaporeans and 1 Frenchman sitting on the ground plucking food from various plastic bags. Needless to say, the old biddies weren´t very impressed by this arrangement and were on the constant lookout for ants and other creepy-crawlies.

After lunch, it was a short walk to our next destination, the Senanque Abbey. Almost a thousand years old, the Abbey initially housed a community of Cistercian monks until they were expelled in 1903-1926.

A small group of monks returned in 1988, growing lavender and tending honey bees for a living. Today the Abbey serves it main purpose as a tourist attraction and we were brought on a guided tour through the various parts of the Abbey with a host of other visitors. Perhaps it was because we have been visiting too many religious buildings but I was quickly bored by the whole thing.

The historical Senanque Abbey

Thus it was with relief that the tour came to an end and we were on our way again. Along the country roads, we saw so many trees bearing luscious fruits of every imagination. Needless to say, the greedy Singaporean in us reared its ugly head and we had JF stop the car for me and Dawn to jump out and pluck some fresh cherries off the trees. I´m not big on cherries but those cherries were heavenly...

Our last stop of the day was Roussillon, a small village famed for ochre deposits. In fact, most of the houses there were all in ochre. When we passed a sign stating ´Famous Villages of France´, Uncle Raymond (Dawn´s dad) insisted that the place we were visiting was a recreation of famous villages in France. No matter how much we argued, he refused to believe that we were at the real village itself. Sigh...

It might have been the hectic pace of the day, the blistering heat or the picnic lunch, but I was feeling rather sick by the time we made our way back. I went straight to bed that day without dinner, exhaustion quickly taking over me.

Day 4 (8 June) - Getting Lost Is A Bitch!

Despite having seen pictures of Lyon's morning market previously in Dawn's blog, I was astounded by the sumptuous feast of colours that exploded before me. Never before have I seen such beautiful fruits, vegetables and flowers everywhere, the markets of Lyon were certainly a far cry from the wet markets back in Singapore.

Luscious garden salad

Tiny but juicy tomatos

Cherries and strawberries galore!

Flowers to brighten up any room

After a breakfast of fresh produce from the market, we set off on a little walk through the city. The centrepiece of Lyon was undoubtedly the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere, which was perched atop a hill. As most of us weren't in the mood for the steep climb up the hill, we took a train up instead.

View of Lyon from the hilltop

The basilique was spectacular but even more breathtaking was the 180-degree view it offered of Lyon. The city was so beautiful and it was a real pity that we could spend only one day here. But leave we did and soon we were on our way to Avignon.

The town of Avignon was enclosed behind a wall and all the roads in it led in circles and winding paths. After getting into the city, it was a good hour of travelling around the tiny town before we finally arrived at our hotel. Making things worse, Uncle Pat's car got separated from us. Imagine the mayhem of 2 different cars navigating through a confusing maze looking for a hotel AND each other.

The elusive Hotel de Garlande was charming enough for us to forgive it for the wild goose chase it led us on. Dinner that night was a noisy affair as everyone recounted the panic we went through and the screaming fits we all threw. At the end of the day, we were able to laugh it off but let me tell you getting lost is not fun!

The cosy but hard-to-find Hotel de Garlande

After dinner, we went on a little stroll around the town centre and it became clear to me why France is the top tourist destination in the world. The ambience it afforded (outside of Paris anyway) was unbeatable and along with the rest of the world, I was reveling and getting drunk on it.

Day 3 (7 June) - Welcome To Wine Country

I feel guilty for saying this. After spending thousands of dollars to get here, I did not love Paris! At least not in the same way that I love Bangkok or Hong Kong. Perhaps its because we are travelling in a large group (7 of us) but I kinda miss the feeling of travelling alone. The feeling of fear, excitement and anticipation. I think I get the feel of a place better when I have to navigate it myself, guidebook in hand.

Anyway we left Paris in the morning for a roadtrip around Southern France. Our first stop was the delightful town of Beaune in Burgundy. A small quaint village, Beaune is famous for its vineyards and wines. Unfortunately our timing was a little off and we failed to see any vineyard or do any wine tasting.

The centrepiece of the village though was a 16th century hospice. Originally built to house the poor and homeless, it became so popular that many wealthy people came for its medical services too. With the influx of the rich into town, many vineyards were set up and thus Beaune became known for its wines.

Sitting on a well in the hospice

It was a bit surreal to be seeing and touching things that were more than 500 years old but it was also extremely terrifying to see the medical instruments used during those days. I, for one, would not want to have been sick during those days!

After we were done with Beaune, we continued on our journey and arrived at Lyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Words cannot even begin to describe how beautiful Lyon is. Here is exactly what Paris is missing, charm and personality.

Spectacular river view of Lyon

Roaming the streets

Our stay in Lyon started on a good note - the best meal we had so far in France! In Paris, you could smoke in the restaurants and it was extremely uncomfortable for most of us espeically the ladies. So it was a welcome change to be dining in a smoke free environment. Dawn is bringing us to the market in the morning and I am really looking forward to it!