F1 Singapore Grand Prix

I can't help but be excited about the Grand Prix in Singapore even though my kind of sport involves playing at the video arcade, dancing in a club or lying by the pool (is that even physical?). It's hard not to feel the fever anyway with car models on display all over town and pictures of the competing drivers splashed all over the media. The funny thing about it being in Singapore is that speeding on the road is against the law. The rule is enforced strictly as with other rules. Remember Michael Fay or Flor Contemplacion? But here we are hosting an event that allows the fastest drivers in the world to burn our tar and occasionally even go against road markings.

Am I contradicting how I feel about the F1? No. I'm amused but I think it's really good for the country. It puts our name out there, brings in revenue for the country and lets the world see how beautiful and clean Singapore is while causing traffic congestion from all the roadblocks but still earning revenue from charging already inconvenienced commuters at ERP gantries. Okay, so there's good and bad. But if you think of it this way, it's really quite amusing no?

I was at Suntec City on the first day of the race and took pictures of the model route on display there. My friends and I also climbed to the roof (where there were trees?) and even though we couldn't see the action, we definitely heard it. Check out my first video embedded on my blog to hear the whizzing.



I rushed home and caught some more images off what was showing on television. I guess I can add race car driving to my list of favourite sport after all. Hey, I did learn something from it. If they can fix up a car in less than 5 seconds, there's no excuse for slow quick changes backstage anymore is there?

Too Many Faces

Introducing Brian d'Arcy James. Unless you are a Broadway geek like myself you probably don't know him. But you might recognise the next picture. It's Shrek! But what if I told you that's Brian as well? It's Brian as Shrek in an upcoming musical. In order for Brian to become Shrek, he has to undergo a three hour long transformation. Luckily, work is being done to shorten that timeframe. I still don't envy him though. The results are amazing but the process is tedious! Not to mention eight shows a week.

There hasn't been a transformation in Singapore theatre that has come close, but close enough to be equally impressive. Introducing Snow White, the musical pantomime (I'm the Prince with the bunny by the way). But check out the Evil Queen. She's quite gorgeous isn't she? Or should I say, isn't HE? The next picture features an upcoming Singaporean play. One of the three actors in the poster plays the Queen. Any guesses? (Click on the picture for a closer look).

Yearbookyourself.com is taking the internet by storm as profile pictures all over Facebook slowly change from colour to black and white. I visited the website and managed to produce the picture to the left - me with an afro! I'm still recognisable though. The real question is, "Can you recognise me on the right?"

If that's not confusing enough, the restaurant I had lunch at recently sure fooled me. I was thinking I'd be in for some French cuisine as I walked into "Ma Maison" at Bugis Junction. Then, as I approached, a loud resounding voice bellowed, "Konichiwa!" If I had dog ears, they would have folded instantaneously. Alas, all I could do was think to myself, "Where the heck am I?" I looked around and realised the set up was neither French nor Japanese. Luckily the food and company were great. But what I didn't get was why they wouldn't serve my ice lemon tea beverage till after my main course. It was a drink, not dessert!

All this while, I've been discussing the many faces that aren't always what they seem. To conclude, here's a face that's less misleading - the face of the moon. I caught a beautiful shot of it at Holland Village. It didn't stay unconcealed between the clouds for long, but I caught it nonetheless. The picture doesn't do the actual view justice, but unlike the other pictures, it can be taken at face value.

Candy Travels (Nothing To Do With Madonna's Tour)

I'm not one to dash to openings of new places. I have yet to visit the Southern Ridges, the 9 kilometre chain connecting four national parks in Singapore. I was also slow to visit Changi Airport's Terminal 3, but my kind secondary school friend drove me there recently. It almost felt like a new mall - clean, pretty and spacious. There was even a station where you could place paper over wooden artwork and shade the image through with a crayon. As you can see, I used more than one crayon.

I enjoyed my time there exploring shops like Candy Empire and Popeye's (first one I've seen in Singapore). I like how much more you can look into the transit area.

There were two recent McDonald's scares. One about maggots in their Curry Sauce and another about baby rats falling from the ceiling of an outlet. I thought the timing was quite uncanny because I also had my own scare with a 100 plus bottle I purchased. It's not very clear in the picture but there are black spots fused to the bottle on the inside. A series of calls led me to the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore. I didn't even know we had a division like this! Well done Singapore! (except for the fact that some people who worked there couldn't pronounce "veterinary"... tsk!)

While on the subject of food, here's introducing my Portable Show Candy Snack "Bar". It's never empty even though I share it with everyone around me when I'm in a production. And the best part is, none of the stuff in it is anything I've bought. Everything was a gift from someone else. How sweet isn't it? I feel so loved!

Joblessness Rocks!

With "The Write Stuff" being over, I'm finally having my first taste of a break in 4 months! I have slightly more than a month of a holiday and I spent the first week catching up with friends. I even had a day I proclaimed "Random Day" where I tried to do the opposite of every impulse I got. I quite enjoyed myself ending up in different places, consuming food or drink I had never tasted before and also randomly collected a group of friends along the way.

I recently rediscovered my love for the arcade. It was nice to see that some familiar favourites were still there but also great to know that I could easily pick up the new games as well. Some of these games require a lot more physical strength, like the one in the picture to the left, "Manic Panic Ghost". It's extremely fun especially when you play with a partner. With your wand in hand, you smash the screen when ghosts appear. It's a lot trickier than one would think, but after the easy-to-understand-2-minute-instructional-portion, any one can play the game. I do worry for the screen though. There's another game where you also have to hit the screen but at a distance and with balls. Up to four players can play! How fun!

My ex-school mate from New York is in town, so we've been hanging out some. We went to "Thomas and Friends Live!" because I auditioned for it once and didn't get cast and wanted to see what the actors that did get cast could do, that I couldn't. Most actors are curious this way. In any case, the actors were probably more talented than what the show demanded for. The sets were lovely! But in terms of story, I didn't find it too engaging, but perhaps it was because it was a kids' show and it does gets hard to concentrate with the kiddies running about and screaming out loud most of the time. My friend and I were mostly interested in talking to the actors to ask if they were treated well. But we didn't get to.

Then, we headed down to the launch of the Mercedes Benz CLC Sports Coupe and schmoozed with the who's who. I don't think we ended up meeting any big guns. Everyone else was just like us... poor struggling artist. We all stood around the car and could only imagine what life would be like to own it. Okay, okay, we did take it one step further. When no one was looking, we got into the car and pretended we did own it! Poor struggling artists? Who? Us?... Nah!