The One With The Missing Dog

Right next to each other…

Photo Credit: Mine.

The One With The Marge Special

While hunting for sofas for and with my sister and brother-in-law, we came across unlikely seats which the latter coined as “Marge’s”! We asked her if she would mind trying them out. She looks pretty comfortable, doesn’t she?

Photo Credit: Mine + http://cattyfeline.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/simpsons_tv_show.jpg

The One With The Green X-Mas Decoration

Here’s one that’ll save you money, put your creative spirit to the test, and amuse your kids (if you have any… if you don’t, you know where to get them;) ). I personally tried this activity with my nephew (3 years old) and niece (2 years old) and they had a blast!

Photo Credit: Mine.

The picture above shows you what we’re trying to achieve in this episode of “Santa’s Suprisingly Ressourceful Little Elf!”.

1. Take scrap paper that you’ve diligently kept nicely stacked in a corner of your desk/other piece of furniture in your house/office.
2. Paint the whole blank side of each sheet with one colour (so as many sheets as you want colours).
3. When dry, cut each sheet in strips along the width, about 3 cm thick.
4. Finally, use double-sided tape to hoop the strips into each other. Et voila!
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 if you want a longer string/more strings!

Alternatively, you can just take a look at the picture et figure it out yourself…

Happy Decorating!

Peace

The One With The Quicksand

It’s funny how easy it can be to shift from one state of mind to the opposite.

I spent about 3 months looking for a job, sending over a hundred applications in the process, feeling like I was wading through a pool of mud or quicksand, getting further from my goal with every effort I put in. After a first interview, a mock-project, and a second interview (all for the same position), I have finally gotten myself a first job! After hanging up on the interviewer who called to give me “some good news”, I felt a huge weight off my shoulders, literally. And that state-of-mind swing… Three months of exasperation evaporated with relief and a feeling that I had actually been lucky to find a job relatively fast. Just like that.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I am happy and satisfied enough with the situation as it is to take some distance and think about the funnier moments of the past 3 months.

For instance, I find quite amazing the ability of interviewers to call you up at the worst moments possible… I got my phone ringing while I was watching a movie at the cinema, while at the supermarket with music and people talking loudly right next to me, or while preparing dinner, hands dirty and/or wet… It’s like they want to test you even before they’ve gotten a chance to talk to you.

Anyway, I hope I can stay clear from a repeat of that experience for some time.

Peace

Photo Credit: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/23/26382919_7a1ca6bd1f.jpg?v=0

The One With Mother Oceania

I have nothing against “event songs” or whatever you want to call them. But truth is, more often than not, they are too literal and predictable and… well, boring! Sure, you want to get a message across, but that doesn’t warrant the in-your-face approach. Here are two choruses from the Beijing Olympic songs:

“Welcome to Beijing; we’ve done a lot for your visit.

Its charm in ever changing is full of life.

Welcome to Beijing; let’s breathe together in the sunshine.

Let’s establish new records here in China.

[...]

Welcome to Beijing; like moving music, our hospitality will warm your heart.

Let’s try to challenge ourselves.

Welcome to Beijing; people who have dreams are all bravo.

If only you keep the courage, miracles will happen”

Again, it is not WHAT they are saying that bothers me, but HOW. Where is the subtlety? Where is the reflection? Where is the imagery? Here are the lyrics to “Oceania”, the song Björk wrote for and performed at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004:

“One breath away
from Mother Oceania
your nimble feet make prints
in my sand

You have done
good for yourselves
since you left my wet embrace
and crawled ashore

Every boy is a snake is a lily
every pearl is a lynx is a girl

Sweet like harmony
made into flesh
you dance by my side
children sublime

You show me continents
- I see the islands
you count the centuries
- I blink my eyes

Hawks and sparrows
race in my waters
stingrays are floating
across the sky

Little ones
- my sons and my daughters
your sweat is salty – I am why
I am why
I am why

your sweat is salty – I am why
I am why
I am why”

I’d rather listen to a song and think “WTH?!” than “So what?“… Here, there’s a perspective (the ocean’s or “Mother Oceania”’s), a storyline (where we all come from and how we’ve evolved), and that intriguing last lyric “Your sweat is salty – I am why”. When I first heard the song and couldn’t really catch all the lyrics, I didn’t quite understand what she was talking about. But upon reading the lyrics, you can only think brilliant! Our sweat is the sea water that we’ve kept from our beginnings as aquatic creatures… and this lyric also closes the song as a tongue-in-cheek link to the sweat-inducing Olympic Games.

The performance of the song itself is stunning, with Björk’s Greek-goddess dress spreading in huge waves as it is pulled by the thousands of athletes huddled at the centre of the stadium, to end up as a giant map of the world. Check it out here.

Peace

Photo Credit: Original at http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/08/14/mn_olympicsopenin34.jpg

The One With The Museum’s Funky Get-ups

Second week of the Singapore Night Festival. This Friday, the spotlight was on the National Museum – literally. Throughout the night, a visual installation projected a series of custom-made wallpapers onto the entire facade of the Museum. The first that I saw was a cross between a negative and a white-on-black pencil drawing. Very straightforward yet striking. Probably my favourite. Or tied with the “vegetation-taking-over”, in the spirit of Batman’s Poison Ivy.

Photo Credit: Mine. Taken with Samsung camera. Again.

(Note to self: Remember to bring a proper camera for proper photo-taking)

Next stop: Timbre @ The Substation. Around 1:30am, we (friends and I) decided that it was appropriate to order pizza – come to think of it, it is rarely inappropriate to order pizza – and so we did. And, surprise oh surprise, that “half-half pizza” we had – and we all agreed on that point – IS one of the best pizzas in Singapore. So if you find yourself at Timbre, do yourself a favor and order pizza! AND if you happen to order a Mojito, do ask for more rum and less sugar.

Peace

Photo Credit: Daily News | Food/Dining |Best New York restaurants to eat in during those holiday shopping trips | By RACHEL WHARTON | Thu 22 Nov 07

The One With The Singapore Night Festival

Despite major advertising efforts for the Singapore Night Festival and some dormant willingness to attend, I did not actually plan to make the effort to go. However, a few glasses of fine Australian and French wine (both red and white) and an inviting sms, I took flight (i.e. Bus 16) at 11:20pm and reached Stamford Road at about 11:45pm.

On the turning between SoA (School of Accountancy, now also School of Law) and Li Ka Shing Library, a group of four-meter tall rolling ladies were getting ready to perform, wearing huge, white, flowery bride’s-maid-like dresses. This nuptial ballet set an accurate mood for the rest of the evening: a display of humble, old-school circus numbers – the afore-mentioned stilts walkers, water stunts woman, aerial musical flirting, still/live-statues, fire-bearing tribal dancers – transposed into a refreshing setting, namely the open spaces of the National Museum and SMU’s Campus Green. All in the comfort of a cool evening breeze. The night was wrapped up with a short visit at the National Museum, and martini samplers at Novus Restaurant & Bar. Lychee is still the safest choice!

Peace

Photo Credit: Mine. Taken with Samsung camera.

The One With The SPE Result

And when I say SPE, I’m, of course, referring to my entry from July 1st…

It’s been over two weeks and I’m happy to say that I received a grand total of ONE spam mail. As far as I’m concerned, this is as good as zero, and it gets my Tried & Approved stamp. So all you people, go to SingPost (singpost@singpost.com) to tell them you do not wish to get any more spam mail and start receiving only the mail you really want to read… And the one you may not want to read, but have to.

Peace

Photo Credit: “The Color Purple” Soundtrack Cover

The One With The Graduation & The Grapefruit

Time.

That bitch again.

4 years have come and gone like finger-snaps. “Now, they all tell us, (even though we already know) the “real” fun begins”. As if our studies were a mere springboard to the work stage. They are. But not just. They are a lifestyle we often slammed but actually mostly loved… for when will we get to choose again our bosses, our peers, our schedules, our projects, our pastimes? I’ve always been very aware of this fact, but I am even more so these days, now that I am glued to my chair in the corporate waiting room.

As I was sitting in another room, a hall actually, listening to lengthy Graduation speeches by professors, ministers, and college mates, I flipped through the programme booklet, names catching my eye. Many, many, many names. Friends, fellow CCA-members, project mates, friends’ friends… And while I couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to speeches I knew I wouldn’t be able to recall anyway, I couldn’t help but reflect over these fours years. Five, actually. So much has happened.

I remember vividly landing in Singapore on August 6, 2003 (after typing this date, I went to check my passport, and I was spot on…), accompanied by my father like my fresh-A-level-graduate-siblings in their time, settling in a foreign land for my University studies. Only this wasn’t France. This was Singapore, a country where I had subconsciously left my hopes and dreams to hibernate for thirteen years. And when I reached my brother and his house-mates’ Holland Village HQ and put my luggage down, that was when there was no more moving, and searching, and explaining, and looking around… that was when the stillness made me realise many things at once: how lucky I was to have my parents’ unending support, how much fun this was going to be, how much work this was going to be, and, dawning on me unexpectedly, that there was more unknown than I thought. I had no idea just how much…

14 years of education in the French system… I thought (as did my parents) that there would be a challenge in starting my university in an English-speaking educational system. So, we agreed that I should start for a year, possibly two, at an American College, where I could test myself. There, I quickly realised I had more ammunitions than I thought. I spent a semester there, which, at the time, I thought was a waste of time. But had it not been for a certain on-location discussion about university studies and universities in Singapore, I would have never known of SMU’s very existence. A single visit at NUS had been enough to give me a sample of the coldness that permeates the campus and a sense of the unimportance and anonymity that befalls its students. Maybe wrong, but that was my impression at the time. So I applied for SMU while back home in Mauritius in December 2003 and received a near-instantaneous reply saying that I was accepted, granted I obtained a certain score at my SATs (I will not go into a soliloquy on the soundlessness of this test but…!). Both in Mauritius and back again in Singapore, my SATs scores fell short by 20 points. I repeat, 20 points. And so, I accepted to be part of SMU’s pioneer Bridging Programme: in short, non-native speakers get to practice their English, strengthen their statistical knowledge and debate as “proper” SMU students would. It all ends with a successful SAT paper (hopefully). Again, at the time, I felt this programme was a waste of my time (and my parents’ movey) that 20 points certainly did not justify. Looking back, I am still glad I got to enjoy the Bukit Timah Campus for five extra months. My fellow SMUggers will feel a little heart-tug (I hope) at the mention of a campus from a by-gone era…

The proximity of the Botanical Gardens and its through-the-wall greenery, the openness of the buildings, the spacious classrooms, the Accountancy tower, the lower and upper quadrangles, the cosy library, even the dreaded slope leading to the Admin building… What’s not to love about that pre-2005 campus? – Those who have been back will understand why I specify pre-2005 – Did you know the small Kopitiam building is gone?? I know…It’s been gone for a quite a while now. But that’s another place we missed even though we hated Food Heaven at the time…

And then there was the big move to the city. Where Bukit Timah had been a haven of serenity, the City Campus was a host of excitement and seemingly unstoppable energy! Though we never realise it at the time, our favourite spots and recurrent hangouts intertwine into a web of souvenirs, as do the people we meet. People are precious. I have always thought it would be disrespectful to my parents and to myself not to make the most out of my educational opportunities, but I always put people and moments well above grades and strictly academic expectations. Because there is so much more to learn from the people you meet and the things you do. People from all over the world, from different walks of like, with different perspectives, with passions and dreams, talent and determination, and always much to share. And things like Bollywood dances, plays, green forums, club presidencies, violin lessons, contests, Peace Boat meetings, a cappella concerts, rock concerts, acoustic gigs, classical and other concerts at the Esplanade… These and so many more to look back on and be grateful for.

I have graduated. I now own a Bachelor of Business Management… Some say the end is the beginning. The Smashing Pumpkins say The End Is The Beginning Is The End… So now IS a good time to be grateful. I am grateful for the friends I have made and the crazy, quiet, fun, outrageous, stressful, great times spent together, for the opportunities to indulge in my own passions whether through performances or learning, for the mistakes that I hope to have the strength of character not repeat… I am grateful for kick-ass siblings and their other (better?) halves and the cutest, funkiest nephew and niece. I am deeply grateful to my parents for being who they are and for everything they have selflessly given. It’s so ridiculous how much they’ve given, it would be ridiculous to try and put it in words. Papa, maman, merci! Je ne le dirai jamais assez…

I think it is appropriate I end by quoting Björk:

“I am grateful, grapefruit”

I think that truly sums it all up.

Peace

Photo Credit: My attempt at capturing these past four years in photos… Mine and friends’ and others publicly available

The One With The Eight-Two-Nine

The Straits Times, Singapore, 03 July 2008-07-04 – “Composer Tan Chan Boon [...] has written 829 pieces of music to date, including four symphonies”

8-2-9.

If quantity does not necessarily guarantee quality, it certainly is a proof of insatiable passion. This number doesn’t suggest, it screams F*CKING GENUINE PASSION!!

# # #

In different fields and in varying ways, we all feel strongly for, indulge in, and find comfort and satisfaction in one thing more than any other, whether as spectator or actor.

Some of us live to create or create to live or both.

What drives creative minds? What sparkles our imagination, sets our heart racing, feeds us at our most eager and motivates us to outdo ourselves? What is the last picture we see before we fall into slumber? What is first thought that greets our return to consciousness? Why stay awake deep into the night for a stroke of genius that will be discarded in the morning as utter mistake? Why repeat the same steps over and over again?

Artistes who prepare and rehearse for performances can be compared to athletes who train for competitive events. Or to gastronomists who will squeeze every last bit of energy, time, and strategy to collect or produce things like saffron, caviar or truffle oil (Oh, the beauty of truffle oil!). Or simply to your hard-working business executive with months-long client projects. There is competition and there is a responsive crowd.

But artistes who create… Who struggle during and, eventually, survive the creative process… Those earn a personal reward. An appeasement from the racket of their internal creative mechanisms…

8-2-9.

This number screams. It says (something like): “Do not give yourself the chance to look back 10, 20, 50 years down the road and think to yourself – I could have done so much more. Whatever it is that’s your thing, give it your best shot”

Peace

Photo Credit: The House Collection, Galesburg, IL, 31 May 1973