fishy tales... the swimming continues

it's been a five week rehearsal process. we are finally opening tomorrow...

61 shows... 18,000 tickets... sold out show...

in the dressing room, tensions are high... but we should do all right... i am so glad that i have my longtime friends on the team... who would have imagined after more than a decade that we would all end up in the same industry, in the same production...

time to grab dinner... shower and then sleep...

don't be late...

in theatre, timing is very important. early or late entries can severely affect the outcome of a scene, throw other actors off and even possibly spoil the entire production.

in life, timing is even more important. people always exclaim that it's better to be late than never but at times, being late is almost as good as being never. it's all too late...

anyway, i'm just rambling... here's another BS to reward you loyal readers: when applying eye gel/cream, use the tip of your ring fingers... reason? the ring finger is the least used of all our fingers hence there are less fine lines and wrinkles on their tips. hence the application will be smoother and more even...

Memory

fishy tales...

1) rainbow fish is so sold out that we have only 100 tickets left... 15000 tickets sold... i think this is what we call a sellout show... yippee!!! it's motivation to work even harder...

2) had our preview this morning. it went surprisingly well. nothing major to work on... so goodie... violet is very pleased with what he's done...

3) i'm just wondering if my skin will be in tiptop condition considering that my makeup goes over a layer of peel-off masque. so technically i am (a) doing a masque almost daily (b) exfoliating daily... haha... but not posting up any pictures as yet... won't want to spoil the fun!

everything is really falling into place with regards to the production. me is very happy. rainbow fish is definitely a highlight to my 2008.

fair or not?

i was walking back to jurong east mrt station last saturday when i heard a little girl ask her mother... mummy, is it fair that nice people wear ugly clothes and ugly people wear nice clothes? my initial reaction was... i hope i'm neither...

well... life is fair i guess... you can't have the best of everything... born ugly, dress well... born gorgeous but lousy fashion sense... in that sense, we will always have our strengths and weakness... spots where we just don't match up. question is, what are we going to do about it?

routine update

life for the past couple of days has been pretty routine...

wake up by 7am... do vocal warm-up while showering... be at rehearsals by 9am...

rehearse rehearse until 1 or 2pm... go off for teaching, drama classes or my workshops...

head to the nearest or most convenient fastfood place... grab dinner and head home...

check email... answer email... chat on msn... shower... sleep...

not very exciting but it's going to be like that for the coming week as well... energy is at a new low cos the rehearsal process for rainbow fish is no walk in the park... would i still do it if i could choose all over again? definitely! i must say i have been blessed to have the current team, we get along pretty well... we are not the best of friends but we work well together... that is enough for me...

united we stand...

in case you are a stalker and would like to track my movement this weekend... i'll be at united square... doing the rainbow preview on sat from 12pm - 1pm... then there's a possible hosting thing to do too... kaching!

strange how i have no qualms dealing directly with mall management... guess once you get stabbed in the back, you really throw loyalty out the window huh?

so yar... come by united square. bring along a caramel macchiato though! haha...

by the way... next off day: 8th sep! rainbow fish would have ran for a week by then...

water... here, there, everywhere...

my recent lifestyle is all about water... rainbow fish and dragonboat...

the stress of rainbow is slowly creeping up on me... i am definitely not the strongest vocalist (i cannot read scores, pitch or do anything 'musical-ish')... not a fantastic dancer... so when others pitch easily or master choreo within a snap of their fingers, i need a lot more time. AND time is not on my side... we open in two weeks! i don't want to disappoint the director, fellow cast and most definitely myself...

dragonboat is the other thing... i definitely enjoy rowing BUT the past couple of weeks, my heart is just not in it. my mind is just about rainbow and the tiong bahru launch. today i was out of sorts... during training, was constantly thinking of my songs for rainbow... coach probably would want me in the final line-up for november's competition and hinted at moving training time to suit my schedule... i'm not so sure if i am worth it...

i need to clear my mind and focus... CONCENTRATE!!!

now... off to memorise script for rainbow!

Hey Juliet - Drawn!

sent to me by my student... way cool!

其實幸福很簡單

urban escapade

iora chic, black/white, yuppie sleek, high school fun, summer splendour, 50+50+50, urban essentials, afterhours... titles for my new project...

like it? i love it... more details coming your way...

september's splash...

okay... so you've heard me rant and rave about how choreography has been very stressful... but it's all under good control now...

well rehearsals for rainbow are going pretty smoothly... blocked the entire show already... yay! so now it's down to running it from the first line till the final note... haha... probably doing that tomorrow... it's gonna be fun fun FUN!

oh for those of you who would like tickets... go to the sistic website... type in rainbow fish and book away! from what i hear... we are about 95% sold out so you'll need to grab your tickets fast fast... haha!

do you love singapore?

on national day, this is one common question we ask ourselves... do we love our nation? well, woke up this morning and went online to listen to the national day message... the usual run-of-the-mill things mentioned...

so do i love my nation? though my answer is not a loud resounding 'yes', some part of me feels for the homeland i grew up in. the faces and places are all familiar to me. but will i wear red today and wish people a happy national day? probably not...

writers and artists love their nation in a highly different way. they often speak out or more accurately, against the nation to demonstrate their nationalism. they will point out the underbelly, the unmentionables, the downtrodden... in almost all the scripts that i have written, i probably have taken potshots at the way the country functions... stuff that we all know but never dare talk about...

perhaps people need to talk more about it if we want to see change...

here are my four changes and three wishes for the nation...

1) change our attitude to the elderly... they have worked hard for the nation. they should be treasured and respected...

2) change the way we discipline our children... if we have to beat the daylights out of them to make them learn, so be it!

3) change our view of private schools... MANY people take courses in private schools yet they are not 'recognised' by the very people who permit their establishment. an irony isn't it?

4) change our housing policies... i like my multi-racial block of flats. but multi-national? i need to think twice. i find it ridiculous that my fellow citizens have to sleep at the pavilion, void deck or carparks when subsidised housing that should be available to them is somehow given to other nationalities.

5) i wish for a fair nation... somehow i am very unsettled by the fact that traffic police clear the roads so that officials can have a smooth passage, especially when they are civil servants.

6) i wish for the right people in the right places... may people find the job that allows them to develop their maximum potential and not turn into an office drone...

7) final wish... that we become a thinking people and not a doing people...

me is drowning...

had six hours of rehearsals today... my conclusion?

i suck at singing and remembering steps... while others hit notes and pitch perfectly, i need a lot more time to get it right and it is tiring trying to play catch up...

time to work doubly hard and get everything in place before monday...

I CAN DO IT!!!

please don't stop the music!

well, i recently got extremely bored with the six cds in my car so i did a major revamp and took out all the cds, put in new ones and even re-arranged the sequence. it used to be mandarin cds in the first three, followed by a musical cd then two cds of english pop. well, now they alternate with each other... nothing very interesting you may say...

BUT think about it, how often do we have control over our lives like the cd selection in my car? we don't like it, we change it. sometimes we fear change once we are too used to something. and the excuse we give ourselves? it's always been like this... well, my response... so what?

time for us all to dig deep into our lives and see what we don't like and effect some change...

the still-busy-to-no-end...

well, another weekend fluttered passed without me realising it...

i initially thought that sat was going to be a super lazy day for me. i was all ready to hit the gym in the morning then come home and become a couch potato... well, the gym part happened... the couch potato? nah...

had to do a meeting with boss/client (a group of us are still trying to figure out the right term)... anyway, the meeting was for the fashion show job where i'm in charge of styling for eight runway shows... FUN FUN FUN!!!

that took me till the noon, after that was doing catch-up with friends and all...

sun was dragonboat training... only one statement (actually more la)... singapura, sunny island set in the sea... the sun was out in full force. i would have appreciated being just slightly sunkissed... but me thinks me is sun-gobbled today... and once again, i have horrible tan lines...

A... B... C...

A for anderson debates... the invitationals are finally over. me is happy that there is no more adjudication duty for me. teacher-in-charge also asked me to bill them for the hours i was there... yayness! can add on to my income for august.

B for bedok view drama... well, the juniors (read: sec ones) were sent to participate in a skit competition organised by scdf. i thought of sending them just for the experience cos they were not my strongest cast. in my mind was... okay la, just go play play. anyway, results are in and they got first. my lead also won the best actor award.

message from the teacher-in-charge... Edwin oh my god! They're still so excited. E energy is amazing! Thx so much for all your hard work. You've done a great job with e kids!

message was about an hour after they left the venue. was not very hopeful about the students pulling off the show so it was definitely a pleasant surprise. special mention to the teachers as well because they have been super supportive.

C for car... where do i begin for this one? going from scdf hq to ajc, was caught in horrid traffic cos there was an accident on the pie. so had to go beyond my usual pace... yes speed... and i violated a couple of rules... I AM VERY SORRY!!!

then on the way back, i was not concentrating and knocked my side mirror against a cab who was out of his lane... not sure who is at fault but wells, there's not a slight abrasion scar to remind me of that incident.

coming back, i thought all was over but at the foot of my block. there were firemen trying to put out a smoking car... case of overheating i reckon. windscreen was shattered too... wonder what happened...

whatever it is... just glad that i'm done with work for today. off to nap before dinner with the father...

hungry ghosts' festival

much as i am a cheena beng... never really liked this particular festival for two key reasons...

one... all the burning causes my nose to give major problems...

two... mum passed away on the last day of hungry ghosts' festival... this would be year number 16... i still remember her smile, her cooking, her hair and the warmth of her embrace... i hope she's proud of her favourite son, or in cantonese, her lai zai...