Mr Tan

Mr Tan has been a rather tough character. It's precisely because he's ordinary and familiar, that he becomes difficult to portray. He's recognised by everybody. He's a person that everyone has some kind of impression of.

I think I'm slowly doing him justice. It was tough at the beginning and it still is tough. I was confused and it showed. I thought he'd be more reserved though and I was totally wrong! I find it a bit difficult to get into character at the front but the lines at the back really shows that he's someone who's amusingly honest, which is really fun to play. I don't know if it's the Singlish, or the fact that he's probably about twice my age. It's going to take some time and a whole lot of effort, but I guess there's plenty of both still. There's still a chance to do him justice.

I enjoy rehearsal although we almost always get off to a slow start. Everyone's been very helpful and throwing me advice left, right and center. It's a bit overwhelming for a first-timer like me and there are times when I'm not in the zone. Or at least not the right one! Haha...

The performance is slightly more than a month away and the play's title is still not confirmed. Interestingly enough, it's due to the inability to capture the play's essence in a couple words. As with any title, the purpsoe is to evoke curiosity yet not give everything away. The script, on the other hand, is getting tighter and tigher. It does make one nervous that still in the works, but the fact that Hadri and Mike and probably a couple of people behind the scenes are still working on it tirelessly shows their commitment to the project. And the lines are indeed getting better.

It's my biggest project thus far, but I've still got tonnes to do this holiday, including this new job that's not as good as I thought it would be. Oh well, win some, lose some.

King Kong Jane @ Timbre

King Kong Jane kicked off their first gig for the Singapore Arts Festival at Timbre yesterday. I hadn't been to Timbre before and neither has Liqi. The both of us went a huge round before finding the place. Thank goodness for the google map though, and boo to the Singapore Land Authority for taking down the shizzle that's on streetdirectory.com.sg.



When we got in, they were already finished with their first song! It was a surprise to me because I haven't been to a single gig that started on time. If I'd knew I'd reach ten minutes earlier in stead of later.

I don't know how it's possible but they sound better every time! The songs that stood out for me this time round were Go Away, Lemonade (I managed to ooooh along at the last part of the song!) and, if you only have 5 minutes and I can only interest you in one song, If It Wasn't For You. It has officially dethroned Lollipop as my favourite KKJ song!



Liqi got this Pico-thing while I got Long Island Tea. I have a low tolerance for alcohol and like I always say, it's great because it saves money if I ever were to have an addiction problem. I got really high after my drink and combined with the great music, I don't remember being so... woah! in such a long time. Good drinks, food (ordered Louisiana fries after that), great company, amazing music. Stellar combination for an amazing time.

I love the covers as much as the originals so it was a real treat to hear Umbrella again as the encore song... I loved the fact that I was one of the few people who knew their version! Also I heard a rumour that they'd be doing Bleeding Love! If it's true, I can't wait to hear it.



We had a chat with Colin and Weetz after the performance and also saw Yeo Yann Yann of 881 fame.

If you're looking for a good time and solid music's your thing then there's no better way than to go to a King Kong Jane gig - start stalking them here.

Madonna - Give It 2 Me

It's been a long time since I've talked about music. I used to put aside a space every week, whether it's a chart or recommending 5 songs but I never seem to be able to keep to it. However I'm now inspired and will keep at talking about something which is huge in my life - music.

And what better way to kick it off than introducing everyone to the second single of Madonna's latest album Hard Candy. Give It 2 Me is insistent as its predecessor is triumphant. Holding the track together is the tireless beeping at the background which seems to have a life of its own! Producer Pharrell has really worked his magic on this track. Although it's nowhere near the lines of the sweat-drenched funk that is Slave 4 U, he tickles with the beats and remains entertainingly present in the background (to the left left right right, right?).

There's nothing very challenging about singing the melody, although I'm sure the actual challenge is in putting on a Performance. "There's one thing you can't download and that's a live performance. And I know how to put on a show," proclaimed Queen Madge in a recent interview with Vanity Fair.

It's the most inspirational track on the album, with the lyrics trumpeting self-belief and well, Maddy's endurance in dance and sex. We know that you can go on and on and on girl, being 50 isn't stopping you, I get it! Geez. I prefer to concentrate on:

What are you waiting for
Nobody's gonna show you how
Why wait for someone else
To do what you can do right now

See Madonna give it live in Paris here, or listen to Paul Oakenfold remix the track on Imeem.

Food Fair

I need to stop taking the good weather for granted. I was so surprised that it rained this morning when we've been having sunny skies for almost every day for the past 7 days or so. I almost died walking to the train station in my frictionless slippers.

Liqi and I made our way to the Singapore Expo, where it was really happening, with at least 3 fairs making their presence felt. There was, the most famous of them all, the Singapore Food Fair.



I love the variety of food that we tried. We ate everything from the chicken rice to the awesome otak from Defu! We also sank our teeth into a cheese chicken wing, 10 different types of fried seafood stuff from Dodo (all for $3) and the grass jelly from Mr Bean!



We also got the opportunity to sample countless other stuff. Tomorrow's the last day so get yourself down there while it's still open. It's bound to be super crowded at night though so for those having holidays, it'll be good to get there at 11AM!



On the way we met Zhen De and also... the man we specially came to see was working his charms with the girls from 8-80 years old, my roomie, Daniel! He sure looked like he was enjoying his work despite the long hours and the endless crowd. I think it isn't much of a problem for him - his patience and earnesty certainly worked to his advantage. The chocolates he's selling are really tasty too. Liqi and I bought 2 boxes!

After that we dropped by the Popular Fair. It was like book heaven. I was tempted to grab a couple of books on photography as well as assessment books for my tuition kids - they need it anyway! I don't believe in having a totally study-free holiday after all the shit I've been through the past 13 years (6P+4S+2JC+1Uni) to get where I am!

Well, other than this holiday that is! Wooohooo!

Liqi and I grabbed 80 over dollars worth of stuff before forcing ourselves out of that place. If I could, I would go there and get some more but due to time and monetary constraints, we just had to get out of there!

Ooh, and there's a Robinson's 150th Anniversary Sale going on there too. I'm hoping to go back there before it all ends. It's horrible though, the fact that the Singapore Expo is so damn far away from everywhere else!



I'm still wondering why the Expo MRT station is so beautiful, considering people only visit the place... when they need to!



And this is all the stuff I bought from the Popular Fair! It's unbelievable! Any other ordinary day and this shit would've cost about 80 dollars, but I got it all for a mere $25! Woohoo!

Yeah, it really says something about my warped taste in music. Movie-wise... I haven't caught those two yet, but I'm a bit of a sucker for romantic-comedies lately. They are romantic-comedies... aren't they?

Stuck In A Rut

As weird as this may sound, I haven't been blogging because I have got no inspiration. I also feel that everything I've said has been said before, either by myself or others. They could probably say it better than me. And all the things that I've done, and all the photos I've taken before of outings with friends and family etc. just aren't new any more.

Sometimes I feel like I'm repeating myself.

So I ponder, "What's new?". What is there to write about, when probably almost everything - every activity, every place, every body has been written about?

This holiday's been a rather chill-out one for me, despite that the fact that I am trying out new stuff. I don't see myself changing a lot, or experiencing something reallly different. There's nothing to tell from my unique, personal voice.

Or maybe I just need to try harder.

Phuket IV

On the last day of the trip, only Jie Yu and I were left.



We went for a fishing trip, although I can't remember the cost of it now! We set out early in the morning and the weather looked fine. Apart from the two of us, a dad and son duo, and two other guys joined us on the trip.



On the table, 4 fishing rods were laid out. It turns out that the other two were only coming along for the ride. Dark clouds crept up from behind us and literally split the sky into two halves. Jie Yu and I climbed up onto the upper deck for an unparalleled view of the sea.



We got further and further from the main island of Phuket and headed to one of the smaller islands around it. On the way there, it started to drizzle a little. The rain didn't seem at all threatening. The skies however, looked as though they were ready to release their torrent of rain on us for a week! We slowed down and came to a stop as they discussed if they wanted to continue the fishing trip. Apparently the dad and son duo were skippers as well and in their professional opinion, we should turn back.

We stayed close to the small island while the skippers prepared fruits - watermelon and pineapple - for us. They also cooked lunch, which was rice and chicken. I enjoyed eating out at sea and it facing the scary-looking, impending storm reminded me of Captain Haddock! We fed the fish from our craft and the hungry school lapped up every bit of it! Another craft hooked a line to us as it started to rain.



It got heavier and heavier and it really dampened the mood. I was looking forward to fishing as I had never tried it before. Fishing out in the ocean would've been a really cool experience. Instead all we could do was wait for the rain to subside. We headed back to the Phuket when we had the chance. It was a terribly long and almost unbearable journey as the waves battered the craft and the rain threatened to drench what little dry area we had. It was an adventure alright, but I wish I had a happier story to tell. I fell asleep listening to Jie Yu's mp3 player. When I woke up the Australian guy joked that we were in the middle of China or something!

It was a let down and the both of us went back to where we bought the fishing trip to demand a refund. We got back 500B of our 1200B if I'm not wrong.

That night was definitely the best night ever. The two of us met up with Shuming and LC. We went back to our favourite slutty street and took a walk down one of the smaller lanes that branched out of it and found ourselves a restaurant. It served decent seafood at cheap prices, in fact I think it was the cheapest dinner we've had, especially in relation to the quality it served!

After we finished it was still rather early and we made our way down to one of the pubs to drink. I'm a crap drinker and compared to the three of them, I was pathetic! We ordered a drink and I got a sweet mild alcoholic drink. After a round of drinks we went to take a look at the potential clubbing spots but they weren't open, not at least for the next hour.

We decided to chill out at McDonalds. The craziest conversation occurred there when we started talking about my role as GL in the upcoming orientations. Jie Yu and Shuming were the ultimate professionals at this kind of stuff. They're... woah. They then gave me some impormptu lessons about interaction and we recorded them down! We even took turns to be freshies and work our "charms" on each other.

It was hilarious but I really learned something from all that!

The first club we hit was...



And it really lived up to its name lar, it was fucking static. They promised us a fashion show. We stared at each other for at least 30 minutes. The music was erratic... sometimes fabulous and I almost wanted to get nasty on the empty dancefloor. At other times it was terrible. Anyway, about 10 ladies did a short and simple catwalk up on stage and they weren't wearing very fashionable stuff - torn T-Shirts, pants... Okay, so there was one that looked like Fiona Xie and maybe one or two more that were passable. I'm not going to critic their looks but they weren't the most exciting bunch. The only nice thing was that we got free T-Shirts.

Er. Ok.

We then stepped into another club that was really sleazy. There was no cover charge, and the music sucked. It basically looked like a hook up place for the angmohs and local young, frisky women.

The last club we hit was called Tiger. I liked the place and we got two free drinks with our entry. I was feeling kind of bleargh after all the alcohol and I ordered Coke, only to get it topped up with beer courtesy of my greatest friends.

Shuming and LC left earlier while Jie Yu and I danced till the AMs... After that we were tired and starved like hell and thus made our way to Subway.

And the next morning, it was back to Singapore and I finally got the freaking window seat and it was bright enough to catch the fantastic view outside!



If you haven't seen the photos of the Phuket trip, you can check out all of them here!

Acting Stint

I'm thrilled to be acting in The Minister's Wife, a play produced by Closet Pulp Theatre.

Initially I was apprehensive. I haven't been to an audition before, my holiday schedule is insanely packed, I've never acted in a play... It was madness to have done it. Thankfully with the encouragement of friends and the director, I went, got the part and completed the photo shoot the night before.

I hope everything goes smoothly and all of you should get your cash ready when I invite you to come watch it! More information about the details as it comes in... I can't wait to see the publicity photos, posters and everything else!

It's going to be one crazy, exhausting journey preparing for this, but I think it'll definitely be an unforgettable experience.

Bring it on!

Phuket III

I know that I haven't been very positive about Phuket but maybe it's just me. I've heard people who've had the time of their lives there. Well, everyone can get a different experience from the same place.

On the third day we went for a walk at Phuket Town. The things there are undoubtedly cheaper than those in Patong. The craziest thing was that even Mcdonalds practised price discrimination! It was about a dollar or two cheaper to have fast food there!



The streets were more crowded and there were a greater number of locals. We visited a post office that had been converted to a museum. It showcased stuff like old stamps and measuring instruments. A taxi driver then approached us and offered his services. For 40B he'd take us around to the various places of attraction.



We went to places like the cashew nut factory...



Pewter factory... and all the other various factories. We managed to see a lot more than expected but it was somewhat boring. There wasn't any one to tell us about the stuff and it was basically places set up to get tourists to part with their money for souveneirs. The driver would get a chop for every place he brought us to and in turn he'd get money.



We went shopping. The shopping was much better than it was at Patong beach. There was greater variety of stuff and it was definitely cheaper. Jie Yu and I spent a lot of time at this shop that was selling GAP apparel, but apparently they were all rejected stuff. I tried out a sweater that had uneven sleeves! It's hard to get a steal; you've really got to be willing to hunt.

After that we took a tuk tuk back and trolled the shops of Patong Beach once more in the drizzle.

No, it wasn't as romantic as it sounds.

Zha Ba Lang

What Happens In Vegas was entertaining. The story line wasn't by any means very original, but Diaz and Kutcher put on a stellar performance. I could see the effort and every little movement and expression that they injected to make everything believable and more importantly, even more hilarious than whatever could've been in the script.

I've updated the Up'N'Coming section and I'm ready to freak out. I cannot believe that I have so many commitments.

If I make it past the auditions tomorrow, that'll be one more! I want to do it though, so I can hardly complain about them all. Well, everything except ICT. I didn't sign up for that!

Meeting up with Mike and Melvin was great. I enjoyed the dinner and the conversation.

Hanging out with Daniel, Yiping, Liqi, Yu Lian and Wei Fang was fun. Wish I had heard more about HK from Wei Fang! It seems that the food there's terrific. Lately, I'm really into good food that it's scary! Played MJ and lost till my drawer was empty. Bah. I look forward to seeing them all again though.

Tuition tomorrow.

Touch My Belly

Liang Teh

XXL Chicken Chop

Carrot Cake

Hokkien Mee

Mango Ice Kacang

Famous Amos

All in one night.

Phuket II

On the second day we set out to Chalong Bay where we were to grab a ride on a speedboat to all the famous islands near Phuket.

The short trip there by minibus was quite an eyeopener. Only Patong, looks like Patong. Everywhere else the beaches are relatively quiet, for example Kata Beach. It was huge and had by far more luxurious hotels like the Hilton. We had to go up and down the hill and saw a couple of elephants along the way. It was an awesome sight. It was as though they were tame enough to keep as cows in the villager's backyards!



Plenty of speedboats set out from Chalong Bay daily. Flippers for snorkeling were rented out at 100B a pair, but we didn't feel the need to get any. Before long we were off on our speedboat! We managed to be seated right at the front where the wind was right in our faces.



I was thrilled to be on the speedboat for the first time in my life. With a slight tilt of my head upwards, I could feel the air gushing into my nostrils. It actually required effort to exhale! With the wind blasting itself at me, we had to shout to be heard.



We reached a little piece of paradise known as Maya Bay. It was where the Leonardo Dicaprio movie "The Beach" was filmed. I believe that the the movie made the place one of the must-see places out in the Phi Phi Islands.



However, the same fact drove tonnes of tourists and the place was horribly overcrowded when we arrived. It didn't really look like paradise. There was a small area for tourists to swim and at that point of time there were about 7 speedboats packed by the beach.



Still we stayed to admire the towering scenery around us. It really made one feel small in the face of such giants. It was as if they were living and breathing and looking down on us like we were nothing. They stood there timeless... although not unchanging. It was said that the place looked slightly different before the Tsunami hit.



We then entered Loh Sama Bay. It didn't have a beach but it was another wonderful sight. It was like a small secret place with a short stretch of sea leading into it. Upon entering, you feel yourself almost totally surrounded by the huge rocks, with greenery bursting from them at every possible spot.



I was really happy to be able to see the wonderful sights and that the weather was really good. I think it was drizzling the day before and we were trying hard to feel optimistic that good weather would hold. We didn't stay there for long, and thinking back, I would've liked to experience that peace and noiselessness for a longer period of time. Okay so maybe I'm dreaming a bit. There were many other speedboats making their way in and out of there as well! That affected the serenity just a bit. I had to just block everything out and concentrate on the view.

The irony.



Next we visited Viking Cave. There used to be people living in there, but it has since been rather abandoned and functions as nothing more than a spot for sightseeing. There were still one or two people who maintain the place and obtain bird's nest though!



This was like an outdoor zoo! The animals were in their habitat, swinging, screeching and being excited at the attention and food that was being given to them.

After that we had lunch at Phi Phi Don where it started drizzling. Thankfully it stopped after awhile and we were out and about, strolling its streets and doing some shopping. There were some T-Shirts with Phi Phi printed proudly on them. Jie Yu bought this waterproof bag that now I wish I had bought! He was surprised that a beach boy like me didn't own something like that, but then again, I haven't been a beach boy for the longest time!

We got back on the speedboat again and this time it took us to Khai Nok Island.



It was a small, tiny island that had a startling number of deckchairs laid upon it. We went to do a bit of snorkeling. It wasn't as good as the snorkeling we did before lunch. Okay, screw that. It was quite bad as the water was freaking shallow and there were rocks all around. I got a couple of cuts on my feet that left me limping the for the remainder of the trip.



There were cosy little shops selling the usual clothes. Jie Yu got himself a shirt that was pretty much his style, except that we were worried that it might provide a bit of indecent exposure. Check out the photos of the dilemma here.



We took a few more photos as it was time to leave. I had hoped to take a lot more because there were some really cool views. The tide became low and it exposed more of this huge rock that was was coloured in many shades of grey and the shape itself was... I can't find the words to describe it.

Anyway, Jie Yu had a bit of a chat with the guy who was driving the speedboat and praised him on his skills. He told us that he was travelling at about 35 Knots. We smiled and told him that he did a great job.



When the speedboat started up again, that guy was determined to give us the ride of our lives. I think he took our comments rather seriously and he raced the marvelous machine out into the sunset! It was one bumpy ride. We could feel ourselves skidding across the water, going up and down, shifting side to side. It felt like some crazy Uncle Ringo ride set to maximum gear!

Also, in the photo above, Jie Yu would like to tell everyone that we've seen Paris Hilton and Tom Cruise canoodling with each other.

We moved on for the longest time into the horizon, further and further, until we left all of Phi Phi Islands behind.

I now understood the thirst for speed and how almost nothing comes close to being on a speedboat. Unlike cars, there are no boundaries. There are no signs, no markers, no paths. It was the thrill of stepping into the unknown and making the conscious choice of being there, faced with uncertainty but blindsided by how one is free of conventions, free of rules.

If freedom were a journey, this is what it would feel like.

Phuket I

So if you haven't already known, I went to Phuket last week. I took a 1.5 hour flight over by Tiger Airways with Jie Yu, his sister and her friend. The airfare wasn't very expensive at $196 because we were lucky enough to have bought it during the promotional period.



The streets of Phuket are very different from Singapore. There were billboards everywhere. Some of them warned motorcyclists that they would be arrested if they didn't wear helmets so what happened was that they wore their helmets, but their pillion riders didn't! Unlike Bangkok, there was a lack of metered taxis and the tuk-tuks were different.

Patong beach was hidden behind a hill. The huge main road broke out into smaller ones with hotels clustered beside them. There were a lot more ang mohs than there were locals!

We reached our hotel but the room wasn't ready for us yet, thus we went to walk the streets of Patong beach. There was the familiar 7-11, McDonalds and Subway outlets. There were also countless shops boasting of high speed internet connection.

We had our lunch at a small coffee shop near the beach. The food was okay and it was great that we did not spend much. It's hard to expect stuff that was dirt cheap as it was such a popular tourist destination that people bringing big money in would hardly bat an eyelid seeing their prices. Us budget people were having a bit of a tough time!



The beach had great waters and waves, but the skies were grey and cloudy. There were jet-skis, parasailing and all sorts of sea sports but we wanted to wait till we were checked into our hotel room before we did all of it. There was lots of touting and all for the same services! I was quite bewildered when one of the ripped teenage guys came up to us and asked us to do parasailing and said jiang luo shan to us, which was parachute in Chinese!

We visited a lot more shops and all around, they were trying to use all sorts of accents and languages to persuade people to buy their products! It got really hilarious when I witnessed one guy greet an Australian with "How'd you do, mate!" and proceeded to make small talk with the guy in brilliant Aussie accent. Some of the ang mohs remained polite, while others were numb to their approach.

After a long walk we made our way back to our hotel.



And this is the room for Deevana Patong. We paid $108 for 4 nights, which works out to about 27 dollars per night. The room was decent but it kind of sucked that there was only one electric socket that was a two-pin. The hotel offered adapters but the one that we borrowed didn't work. When we went back to get a replacement, they had none left! That was a little frustrating.



We spent the afternoon lounging around the hotel pool, playing with the volleyball and swimming. It's sort of small, but there were another two in the compound. Ours was medium in size. The largest one had a bar in it, but I didn't get a chance to enjoy that!



After that we dressed up and got ready to go our for dinner. I had a chance to explore the hotel and it was really lacking in facilities. It's considered average. I mean it did say that it had a gym on its website and when I went to see it, it was the size of my hall room!



We had dinner at this roadside place that I felt was freaking expensive. Okay, so maybe it was acceptable seeing the number of seafood dishes that we ordered but it wasn't very delicious or anything. The one that made it worth the money was the stingray, which was rather big and had thin layer of green curry instead of the usual chilli! It was spicy but I didn't stop till everything was finished!

After dinner we continued walking along the streets. The various food restaurants continued touting violently as we approached. We were like walking pass a slew of shouts promising the best prices and best food - in at least 3 different languages. When I gave a smile and told one of them that we had eaten and were full, he caught me by surprise by giving my stomach a squeeze. Okay, so it was a friendly gesture and he was joking, but it was damn lucky I gek my stomach in time! It felt more like a punch and left me a bit winded. It hurt like mad at least for the next 15 minutes and that made me rather pissed.

There were countless stalls selling tour packages. Countless. Along a single street it wouldn't be rare to see about 20 stalls promoting and selling the exact same tours with the exact same brochures. Seriously. We'd find one every 3 meters!



We stopped randomly at one of them and booked a tour with this lady. She was much more knowledgeable and fluent in English than the other 2 we had approached in the morning. We decided on the Phi Phi Island tour for the next day and closed the deal at 1400B ($60).



We took a walk among the very famous Soi Bhang-La. It's easy to see what it's famous for! I have never been to Pattaya in Bangkok and I heard that it looks almost like this. I was quite amazed by how blatantly they were selling sex. This was just by the road which was closed at night for the crazy human traffic instead. There were several transvestites beckoning us to take photos with them for a tip. On top of that were the ladies on the bar tops. It never fails to get a crowd to gather and I went back there every other night... the place was a dizzying fever of dance, alcohol and sex. It was practically a zoo. We saw this huge iguana perched on this guy's shoulder as he trooped down the street freaking tourists and getting them to take photos with it.

We ended the day with a Thai massage. I enjoyed it thoroughly although it wasn't my best one. This probably ranks #2 of the 3 massages I had in Thailand. However the one that was the lousiest was probably the most memorable as a tranny did a massage for my friend and tried to turn him on by "accidentally" brushing against his crotch a couple of times, demanded that we leave a tip and spanked my ass goodbye. But that, is another story.

Check out more photos from my first day in Phuket here. I don't know why they aren't half as good as those I took in Kukup. Guess I need to sign up for some photography course or something!