the wacky wombat weblog

I’ve lived on this wee bit island for close to 7 years now. I’ve not always loved it, especially in the beginning. But if there’s one thing I like about Singapore, it’s how ‘walkable’ it is.

It’s pedestrian friendly. Like the city streets of Tokyo and NYC, except without the pesky cyclists (Tokyo) and filthy sidewalks (NYC). It’s safe to walk around on your own, train stations are near everything, so you can just basically take the train somewhere and spend the entire afternoon walking around doing nothing — which is something that I can’t do when I’m back in KL unless I’m hoping to get mugged or leered at by weird sleazy people and pollute my lungs with exhaust fumes. yuck.

So yes, despite the stiffling weather, random walks around the city is something I enjoy doing on some weekends. Once in a while, I’ll bring my lil’ camera around and take random photos of things. Kinda like a tourist. Except I don’t do those stand-in-front-of-merlion-and-do-the-peace-sign shit. That’s for real tourists.

My favourite building is the Gateway, near Bugis. It’s just awesomely sharp. It’s like, you can cut yourself by just looking at it.

Sometimes the best views are just outside my window. Being on the 16th floor has its perks (besides being mosquito-free).

I think it’s the practice for national day or something.

For more snapshots of my random walks, just go to Photo Gallery, and look for the album “Look Up”.  Click and view!

I’m neither religious nor an atheist, but Christmas is always fun.

It’s a public holiday (auyongtc: not for me, Jesus is not that popular here ), and everything’s sparkly everywhere. That’s what I like most about Christmas. Not Santa Claus, Jesus in the manger, or turkey, but the trees and the lights. I guess I’m like a magpie that cannot resist anything that’s tinsly and shinny, especially the baubles.

Everything is prettier, and the atmosphere’s a little lighter than normal. Maybe because everyone’s looking forward to the drinking and partying, or maybe the end of the year is in sight, but it always feels a little more carefree.

Well, for whatever reason you celebrate this festive season, here’s a little wish from us:

And lets hope it’s going to be a better year ahead.

postscript: yay, will be in Tokyo on New Year’s day. But will definitely avoid the crowd going to the shrines. I prefer my shrines quiet and serene, not packed like a shopping mall.

It’s been an eventful 14 days. Let’s have a rundown on what went on…

1. FYP short film selected in an Australian film festival. Supervisor tells us to try and attend if we can (with the school’s money!)
2. Last minute National Day Sale shopping spree - bought some lovely sheets and towels from Aussino for Mei and her travels
3. Had an interview marathon, made some decisions, and got myself a job (I’m starting next Monday)
4. Bought a 4-piece pots and pan set from IKEA for only $69.90! Plus a 3-piece utensil set for 90cents!! I’ve not bought anything under a dollar for a long time.
5. Cooked my favourite spaghetti aglio olio with the above-mentioned pots and pans.
6. Went back to PJ to visit my family, and provide Mei with guidance in my capacity as Expert Luggage Packer.
7. Developed stomach indigestion as I ate too much pork over the weekend - bak kut teh, fried pork knuckles, mom’s specialty minced pork patties. *burp* It didn’t help when I came back to Singapore and overloaded myself with Ikea dinner with my friends.
8. Completely whitewashed everyone in Scrabble but got my ass kicked in Monopoly. My sisters bullied me into bad property deals. Remind me not to do *real* business with them ever.
9. Discovered that there’s a new mall opened back home in Section 14. It’s the New Jaya, opposite the old Jaya (they could have been a *little* more creative with the name, no?) Nothing there except Coffee Bean and a whole lot of empty space.
10. Signed my employment contract, and submitted my Permanent Residence application yesterday. Level of service at the immigration department here is much more efficient than Malaysia’s.

And I just called home, and found my family having the earliest dinner ever in the history of my household. 6.30pm! These days nobody ever eats till it’s 8 and I’m bugging everyone to start dinner.

They’ll be sending sis Mei off to the airport later. She’s going off to State Uni of New York in Oswego (near Syracuse) to finish up her mass comm degree. Of course later I’ll have to stay up late tonight because she has nothing to do during her 5-hour transit at Changi and phone calls to all Singapore numbers from the airport payphones are free.

Okay, back to my list earlier — the thing I’m most glad about is that I managed to find a job within a month that I got back from Tokyo. At least soon I will be able to pay for my own living expenses here and hopefully have some extra to bring my parents out for a good meal and buy stuff for my sisters. Feel a bit bad that I’ve been living off my dad (and Au Yong - he keeps complaining about my Tokyo electricity usage) for the past few months, so yeah, a job is a good thing. And best of all, I won’t feel restless anymore ‘coz I’ll have lots of things to do and to look forward to! :p

Here’s to hoping all the best for me, and Mei in New York!

It feels great to be appreciated.

Somebody in Australia saw my FYP short film, and actually thought it was good enough.

Good enough for a competition in a freaking film festival!! w00t!

Got an e-mail a few days ago saying that my group’s film has been selected to compete for the Tadgell’s Bluebell Honor Award (best film made by adult for/about youth) at the 10th Auburn International Film Festival in Sydney. Checked out the website and found our film listed right there in a whole long page of other entries.

This is really surprising. We sent the video out for a lot of film festivals, but never really thought we’d get any response. Although the story’s theme is universal, it is embedded in a culture and language that is essentially very locally Singapore. Plus it is a very subtle film, so I am surprised, but very glad, that someone outside Asia understands and appreciates it. That is, wow.

Heh, definitely feels good to reaffirm that those 9 months of stress and hard work was not a wasted effort. (I still cannot believe that I lost weight over the course of the 1-week shoot, even with meals eaten 3 times a day — gotta promote this as the new definitive weight-loss regime.)

I’m in a limbo sort of phase right now.

Feels great to have graduated. No school, lots of time to just hang around, catch up on some regular reading (had no English books for 3 months in Japan), watch TV, go out with friends, get some exercise before the Coming of the Haze. Heck, I even had the time to spring clean my room AND my wardrobe.

But I also feel a little restless at the same time. Sucks having to wait around for a job, not knowing when your search will end - 2 weeks? 2 months? I know everyone’s always complaining about the working life doldrum, but seriously I can’t wait to start. I just wish to have the certainty of a future and wake up knowing what I’m gonna be doing for the next week, and not looking at irrelevant job matchings provided by the various jobsites and going ‘ugh’. Being paid is a bonus motivating force too - doubt I can survive too long with whatever’s left in my account and I don’t really want to dip into my savings in Malaysia just yet.

Anyways, I just attended 2 interviews yesterday, and there’s another 2 later. Yup, interview marathon it is. Tiring, having to run around one interview after another, but the good thing is, at least I will get to consider any offers given at around the same time, so I won’t have to go through the “omg I should have given up that job for this better job” mental torment.

I so despise wearing formal, not because of the look, I like that really. But it’s just too freaking hot out there. Once I get off the bus/MRT, and walk in the afternoon sun searching for the office, within 2 minutes I can feel sweat forming on my skin and my make-up ready to melt. gross.

On other job-search related matters - I do so despise misguiding reports in the papers and all about how great the job market is for graduates and etc. I think sometimes it really does give people false hopes and expectations. I’ve only been searching for 3 weeks so I have nothing to complain. But I know of people who have been searching for months and still are doing so now.

And let’s not even go to the “<insert university name> graduates earn an average of <insert ludicrous amount>” reports. Somewhere out there, some young ciku freshman is all happy of a rose-tinted future that does not exist (ok, unless the person scores uber top grades in engineering/accountancy/business). I believe the CS (Communication Studies not Counter Strike) cohort are single-handedly responsible for pulling down the ‘average pay’ statistics to a lesser and saner number (though still ludicrous - cos we’re too small a cohort to make significant statistical impact).

In any case, I’m glad for my situation I suppose. At least there’s been a couple of interviews, so hopefully there will be good outcomes from them. Just gotta start somewhere and work my way through. Crossing my fingers, and hoping for the best!

When my family was here in Singapore last week, I was left with the task to feed everyone for all meals. Of course I skipped the usual hawker fare that I have, because there’re far better and far cheaper chicken rice or char kuay teow and wantan noodle without tomato/chilli sauce in Malaysia.

So for one of the dinners, I brought them to Arab Street for some ‘exotic’ Egypt/Arabian food. (Mainly also because I wanna try more items on the menu, hehehe).

Everyone was excited because they haven’t really got the chance to try Middle Eastern food before. There’re probably a few in KL or what-not, but it’s also probably not gonna be cheap. This one at Arab Street (Al-Majlis) is decently priced, dishes cost about S$8 to $12 on average.

Fantastic stuff, great flavour thanks to all the spices, and absolutely yummy.

(Top) Yein ventured to try kibbeh - a triangle of spiced minced beef and nuts, with a side serving of cucumber salad in yoghurt sauce. Looks the strangest but the taste made it one of the best dishes which we ordered that night. (Bottom) I had my usual stir-fry lamb with rice, simple but fragrant. (sadly I’ve forgotten the name of the dish).

(T) For the less adventurous, there’s good ole’ chicken chop. Pei claims the potato wedges taste much better than the ones at KFC Malaysia. (B) Also, another standard dish with a spice-filled twist — mixed grill, consisting of chicken, lamb, beef and rice.

(T) My mom ordered ba’mia, a simple tomato-based curry with okra (ladies fingers) and lamb, served with rice or bread. (half-eaten in this pix. apologies hehe) (B) Mei had harissa, a pan of lamb, no idea how it’s cooked but sure taste great, soft, with flavours that linger in your mouth. Everyone scrambled to try it (and then took extra heaps of it for second tries), so Mei had to order a second one as she had nothing left from the first serving.

We also had a dozen of grilled fresh mushrooms for appetizers. Juicy, and nicely grilled, so it was a treat for a mushroom fan like me. To go with the food, we all had iced mint tea — refreshing and not too sweet.

Great stuff. Gotta go back there again for another round. :p

This is a little overdue, but yes, I have officially graduated.

Convocation was last Wednesday in NTU’s Auditorium. Ceremony was, well, long-winded, especially when I thought it’d be quick with our cohort of only 160+, but turns out there were as many masters fellas as there were mere degree folks like us. 0_o

My whole family travelled all the way to Singapore just for this, so haha, what an honour. :p We were probably one of the largest family to attend, but thankfully plenty of extra tickets were available so I don’t feel so bad taking so many extras, and my sisters didn’t have to sit outside and drink coffee for 90 minutes.

Nice seeing everyone again after my 3-month-long holiday. Took me a few seconds to recognise some people. Must be the gowns, made us all look like some harry potter congregation hehe. Took lots of photos too, so thanks to friends, friends of friends, family of friends, who helped with the photo-taking.

My sis Tse Mei and me (with the mortarboard that gives me extra height). She’s leaving soon for her final year studies in the US, so all the best (with the snow)!

me and some of my choir friends who arrived after the ceremony for our lil’ photo-taking get-together.

After convo (and some touristy activity around Singapore with my family), I went back to PJ with them, spent the weekend there fooding around, and now I’m back in the little island, hoping someone will hear my plea for a job (and money to pay my rent). lol. On with more job sites browsing.

Just flew back from Tokyo to Singapore. First thing I noticed when I got off the plane? Travelators and escalators that don’t ’speak’. haha. *In Japan, all travelators and escalators play a recorded female voice telling you to please watch your step and don’t fall on your face, or something, over and over and over.

Took United Airlines, flight was alright, not too bumpy even though weather was cloudy. Food was meh (my butter was not melted into oil this time, but the bread was stone-cold). In-flight entertainment didn’t leave me very entertained with its combination of bad movies, crappy audio and puny screen. Oh well, business as usual on UA.

Nevertheless, the view of the sunset from above the clouds was quite nice (or at least to me it is). :p Plus the seat next to mine was vacant, so, yay!

Flight landed 20 minutes early, so I thought hurray, the faster I get out of Changi, the more I can avoid cab surcharge going overboard. Unfortunately, with the uncanny luck of always ending up on the queue that is the slowest no matter what I do, I only left the airport at 1.10am no thanks to idiots who seem to not have proper travel papers in my queue and cab lines extending to the front of arrival gates.

Anyhoo, I’m back, fatter from all the food in Japan, and sneezing non-stop now after cleaning up the dust in my room. Convocation’s happening in 3 days, and my family will be coming down to Singapore for that, so lots to look forward to (besides more dusting up of my room).

p/s: time for char kuay teow tomorrow. w00t!

heehee. Yup. Gonna use my blog space to advertise a bit.

I’m so excited that we’re done with the project. And there’s gonna be a screening this coming Friday! Do come if you’re interested in checking out my hardwork for the past few months! :p

So. The details…

FILAMENT

- world premiere (haha!) of 13 short films (drama & documentary) from the final-year students of NTU Sch of Communication & Information.

• when: 27 April 2007, Friday, (and 28 Apr, Sat), 8pm onwards
• where: Theatreworks @ 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road, Singapore

My group’s short film is titled “兩塊錢，謝謝。” (Two Dollars, Thank You). It’ll be shown on the first day (ie. 27 Apr, Fri), so come check it out! Admission is free.

And a lil’ bit about what my group’s film is about:

The main theme is urban isolation. The story’s protagonist Xiaohui, lives a life of routines and disconnectedness, unaware of the isolation that she experiences in the bustling city. But one day, her daily routine is broken — the guy at the dessert shop who always serves her dessert every day has suddenly disappeared, and an isolated neighbour committed suicide. This chain of events then prompts her to re-examine her life, and her relationship with everyone around her, especially her family.

So yeah, it’s in mandarin, but there’re subtitles. :p

Wondering if I should put up our trailer & poster here, hm but might take up a lot of bandwidth, I’ll see how.

Meanwhile, (once again) come support!

This is actually kinda old news. Deadline for the video and report was last Thursday night, but I guess the event is worth a belated news update. :p

After labouring for 9 months, it’s finally done. phew! It’s the first time I actually shot anything I wrote, so yeah, it was a pretty interesting experience. The night before our shoots I’d be freaking out on the details, trying to go through storyboard in my head till I actually dreamed about the shoots. But the next day I wake up and it’s go go go! haha.

Glad it’s finally over. No more editing and watching the video a zillion times (although I still have to go back and design the dvd menus). But the work is done. Finally can take a rest, do homework, not skip classes and edit on weekends. yay! And watch more TV! And start having time to exercise!

Can’t wait to screen our short film. Still working out the schedule with organisers, so hopefully it’ll be good!

And thank goodness that the grant from Singapore Film Commission came through! Don’t think we can just rely on the school’s 200 bucks since our production cost already went into the thousands. But with the grant, at least we don’t have to empty our own pockets.

I guess producing this short film on our own has been quite an amazing experience. I mean, I really did learn a lot of stuff on the way (since they never really teach us much in school), and in the end, it does give me a little confidence in knowing that hey, we can actually manage to produce something that isn’t all too bad! Whether it’s good or not, I don’t know yet. Pray the project moderators won’t tear it to bits during our upcoming presentation lol.

Just finished my term paper for my Asian film module — last academic paper to write, ever! yay! So now it’s time for a well-deserved break. I’m going home tomorrow for a long weekend holiday!