I am a horible blogkeeper!

Hello all! I know my blog's practically dead, I am just terrible at maintaining one. But anyhoo, just a short quick entry. You may catch me and the rest of The Dreamers on The Showdown tomorrow night, Thursday 8pm on Channel 5. Do tune in if you can.

Was down at Mediacorp earlier at about 10pm for a radio interview with Justin Ang and Vernon A. on Muttons At Midnight on Perfect 10 98.7 FM. Was plenty fun and laughter throughout. Was put through The Muttons challenge and had to sing a song while being fed mouthfuls of Geylang 'Dao Huay' (Beancurd). For those of you missed it, I think my brother helped record parts of the show. Will try to upload it but keep your fingers crossed because I'll first need to find out how to work the audio on this blog. LOL. :)

I do hope everyone's doing great. I've been going through a major down in my life for the past couple of months so I guess I didn't have the mind to come here and update. Besides it'll be all gloom anyway if I did. Will make the effort to update more! Good night all and God Bless! HUGS!

Channel U's 'U Are The One', The Showdown etc...

Wow it's been such a long time since I posted anything here. A month long hiatus! But here's an update on what's been happening.

I will be guest judging for Channel U's new talent search show 'U Are The One' come Monday 31st March at 8pm. So do tune in if you can. I don't quite know what to expect but am sure as hell going to try to brush up my very rusty Mandarin within these very short few days and hopefully not look like an idiot on screen. It's time to 'jiang hua yu'. *lol*

Check it out here:
http://u.mediacorptv.sg/uaretheone/
http://u.mediacorptv.com/index.htm

Also am half way through filming for The Showdown which is an upcoming show on Channel 5. Kind of like battle of the reality stars or something like that. Shall not reveal too much. I think the air-date will be sometime in May if I am not wrong. The tv teasers and trailers are already out. So do watch out for it. Will post a couple of pictures I took on set real soon so do check back.

Have a bit of good news as well. I recently finished recording a demo for the upcoming National Day song. Yeah I know it's pretty early eh. So anyways, apparently every year a handful of songs are pitched to the ministry and they get to decide which song they'd like to use for the next NDP theme song. And I'm happy to tell that they picked the song I recorded. Apparently they were pretty happy with it and were curious to know who the voice behind the song was. I'm just glad I got to do it, you know, get to sing the Singapore song and all the feelings of patriotism that come with it. Good thing is I get to keep a copy of the recording for keepsake. They'd probably get a big name like Stephanie Sun or Kit Chan to do it though. I'm not quite anybody...yet...to be optimistic. LOL. Though I was pretty pleased and was good news enough to make my day.

So anyways, life's been alright and I'm trying real hard not to sweat it and just go with the flow. Gonna go get some shut-eye now. Goodnight, sweetest dreams and plenty plenty hugs!

'Bak kuas' and birthday cakes

Happy Chinese New Year to one and all and may you be blessed with good health and many wondrous things! It's been quite some time since my last post, which happens to be of not much substance or interest but mere song lyrics. *lol* Anyhoo, it's been an on-off busy few weeks for me. Been going for meetings, job bookings and some other stuff. Oh and Sennheiser's thinking of taking me up on a endorsement deal with their mics and music equipment. Fingers toes and eyes crossed!

So to make up for posts, here's a clip that pretty much sums up my family's eccentricities at gatherings. Decked out in full-on 'Chai Sen Yeh' gear (Wealth God) is my uncle who gate crashed the party sporting a bagful of ang baos with 4D numbers inside. Everyone received a lucky packet.

I have the coolest family la!

Also this year, my birthday fell on the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year (Feb 9th baby), so it was really great seeing my one big nutty family under one roof again. Mummy, daddy, sisters, brother, aunties, uncles, cousins, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends *lol* all under one roof. So nice. And of course there was merry-making with friends and the special people in my life over the following week. I am so blessed. Not forgetting the bonus that comes with turning a year older: Birthday presents! I ate so much over the New Year that I fell ill with fever, which seems to be a yearly affair. Oh the woes of having great cooks for aunties. Anyhoo, I'm gonna keep this one short. So nighty night all!

What hurts the most....

I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house
That don’t bother me
I can take a few tears now and then and just let them out
I’m not afraid to cry every once in a while
Even though going on with you gone still upsets me
There are days every now and again I pretend I’m ok
But that’s not what gets me

What hurts the most
Was being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could have been
And not seeing that loving you
Is what I was tryin’ to do

It’s hard to deal with the pain of losing you everywhere I go
But I’m doin’ It
It’s hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I’m alone
Still harder
Getting up, getting dressed, livin’ with this regret
But I know if I could do it over
I would trade give away all the words that I saved in my heart
That I left unspoken

What hurts the most
Is being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could have been
And not seeing that loving you
Is what I was trying to do

Totally feeling this song by Rascal Flatts right now...Somewhat reflects a chapter in my life many moons ago. I know you are resting with the angels S.L. I will always have you tucked away in the corners of my heart...

Let me paint you a picture

Taffy and Phoebe sitting about the X'mas tree.

You see those two adorable fur balls? They own me. Anyhoo, I think the art fart bug has bitten me again. The last time it bit me I got all revved up and went shopping for art materials, paint and all that jazz. And then....nothing. What an anti-climax. Thought I'd actually get all dirty with paint all over my hands hunching over the easel fervently working a piece of art. I don't have an easel though, been meaning to get one since I last threw away my old one. I guess now it's pretty apparent, the procrastinator in me.

BUT! I did go shopping for frames. So that's a start right? I mean I was like taking note of the measurements so I can finally start working on a few ideas I have in my mind. Yes I do paint in my free time or when I feel inspired. Or, at times like this when the art bug comes abuzzing at my ear.

Among the plethora of ideas I've swept away into the corners of my mind, am thinking of doing a series of three paintings for mummy. Perhaps one of a plum blossom, duckweed and lotus flower. Since mummy loves plants, flowers, gardening and all that. Us three sisters' Mandarin names actually translate into those three plants. Me the plum blossom, Sandra the lotus flower, and Shereen the duckweed. So I thought it would be something nice for her to have. *smiles sheepishly*

Series of 3.
Mix media - Acrylic, gauche, gold pen, sequins on brown paper.

Maybe I should (one very fine day *lol*) sieve through the archive of artsy stuff I've done and put a couple up of them here. Some from many years back. Sounds like a plan. Here's one series from I think five years ago for a start. :)

The Drama Queen in me

I just have to get it out and scream...

At exactly the same day next week,
I CANNOT BELIEVE I'M GOING TO BE ONE YEAR CLOSER TO DYING !"

Not even sure if that even makes sense. I also can't believe that when I was type-screaming, I actually hit the keys on the keyboard pretty hard one by one in some sort of robotic sequence...I guess this is what screaming out loud on a blog is like.

Just being dramatic. In a dramatic mood today.

"Star light star bright, first star I see tonight"

"Wish I may, wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight."

I was putting away gifts I received throughout the festive season of Christmas. Yes I do know it is much overdue. Just that there was a pile of opened pressies sitting in the corner of my room screaming "PUT US AWAY WOMAN!" Procrastinator number one I tell you.

By the way, I received a Wishbone necklace as a gift from a dear friend of mine for Christmas. Which kind of explains the title in a way and the rest of the entry. I really love it. Here's why.

(My dear and cherished friends and loved ones reading this please do not pick a bone {no pun intended} and misconstrue my intent to speak about this particular gift. I love you all the same, gifts included, and I know they all come from the deepest cushiest crevice of your big big heart. You know how random I can be so this is just me being whimsically random..whatever that means)

My little silver reminder and lucky charm!

So yes, back. Not just because it's pretty or the fact that I've been eyeing it on RedEnvelope.com for a while now. Well, I'm not going to lie and say it's not pretty la. It is indeed. But more so because of the meaning it holds for me.

When I was younger, mummy and daddy used to buy this salt-baked chicken (yummy!), a loaf of Gardenia bread and canned drinks. Then us the Simon family used to head down to MacRitchie Reservoir occasionally for picnics, usually on Sundays because every Sunday was 'family day' back then. We'd pick a spot and begin attacking the chicken with our fingers and chowing it down. Never wash hands....Eeeyer. Yes, just like that, on some grassy knoll getting our little fingers and greedy mouths all greased up. But the highlight of tearing the delicious chicken apart and stuffing our faces, is the moment the 'wishbone' starts to peek out from beneath the mess of flesh under our watchful eyes. Since there were 3 of us sisters then (before my brother Kevin was born), and only 2 spots to have a go at the wishbone, we usually gave up our spot if we were feeling like good little children, if not then fight for it la. So as you all probably already know, two people make a wish and break apart a wishbone and the one that gets the bigger half gets their wish fulfilled.

You: "What? You mean you silly children and gazillions of silly adults out there in the world actually believe that wishing on the bigger half of some bird's fused clavicle bone resembling the letter 'Y' actually works? Rubbish..." Well we did, and to this day I still do.

Goodbye salt-baked chickens, Hello wishes in waiting.
Had us poor children only known...

I guess what I'm trying to get at, is that every time I see a wishbone, it transports me back to those days with my sisters, daddy and mummy sitting down sharing a simple meal together... That memory and the connotations the wishbone carries make it special to me. It is mostly the child in me that believes in wishes being granted and dreams becoming reality. And at this point of my almost-adult-life, after experiencing and witnessing not just my own but other's pain, helplessness, injustice, disappointments, among many other awful things, it is so important to be reminded of hope and possibility. I hope the child in me never dies.