This might turn your appetite, so don’t continue reading (and looking at the pictures) if you haven’t had your lunch.

Or maybe you have a steely constitution, in which case, be my guest. I have a crazy imagination myself, so my mind tends to go to the most unappetising places.

Anyway, this was at Tiong Bahru Food Centre (or whatever you call it, the one where you have to take stairs up to).

I was having dinner with my friends. The Goonfather had ordered a plate of three png kuehs as a side dish.

(I don’t have a proper picture of it, but png kueh, which can be translated to English as rice cake, is the pink-coloured triangular-shaped kueh which you eat with sweet black sauce.)

Towards the end of our meal, as we happily ate and chatted, the Goonfather suddenly exclaimed, “EH! Why my png kueh got snail?!”

We all turned towards him. He was holding a tiny piece of rock and turning it around on his fingers suspiciously.

On closer inspection, it looked like some kind of shell.

Maybe it’s not a snail, exactly. It’s only a shell and, in any case, I think snail shells are smooth.

We just called it a baby snail at that time for convenience. But I have no idea what or whose shell it is, then. My knowledge of shell-dwelling life-forms is scant.

What I know is that it is quite a disgusting thing to suddenly find in your mouth while chewing your food.

It’s rather tiny, about the size of my index fingernail.

I think we all kind of lost our appetite after the Goonfather’s discovery. It was a good thing we were almost done with our food.

What I would like to know now is: What was it and how did it get into the png kueh?

It’s not every day one gets to grace the cover of a magazine, unless one’s name were Angelina Jolie or, closer to home, Fann Wong.

So it was with a certain amount of anticipation — fine, an insane amount of anticipation — that I walked into a random bookstore in town to suss the copy out.

I couldn’t find it. I looked really hard.

At this point of time, the Goonfather sauntered in beside me, picked up a random magazine to leaf through, and asked, “What are you looking for?”

“Gadget3,” I said.

“Thereeeeee,” he said in that drawing, knowing way people get when they wish to, in just one word, convey the message that you’re a dimwit for not having known what they’ve known all their lives.

“It was the first thing I saw, behind the magazine I just picked up,” he added helpfully.

And so it was. Sitting there. My face on the cover of a magazine.

And the Goonfather still reading the other magazine he had picked up.

(It should be mentioned at this point of time that, prior to this incident, I had told no one, not even the Goonfather, of the fact that I was going to be a magazine cover girl.)

I glared at him accusingly, “I am on the freaking cover of the magazine. You didn’t even recognise me!”

He glanced at it and, without missing a beat, which is his trademark critical finish move, said, “Of course I knew.”

Liar.

This is the cover:

To be entirely honest, I wouldn’t have recognised me if I hadn’t been at the shoot and seen what I had been wearing and holding.

It is quite, for the lack of a better word, flabbergasting.

We met up with Morte and Wang Wang shortly after.

I unceremoniously shoved the magazine in their faces.

Morte took a glance at it and said something inconsequential like, “Oh, you want to be a YouTube superstar?”

I rolled my eyes.

He continued to study the cover as if I had asked him to play “Where’s Wally”.

Before too long, his eyes lit up and he said, “Oh! Win a Samsung camera!! Er… Why would you want a Samsung camera?”

All this while, as I silently held the magazine out, at the same time trying to limit all eyeball rolling activities to within my eye sockets for health reasons, Wang Wang was peering at the magazine doubtfully.

When it seemed apparent that Morte was going to conclusively fail to locate Wally, Wang Wang piped in with a small voice, “Is this you?”

And then she frowned as if she wanted to take back the question.

A few more moments passed before she made a decision. She looked up from the magazine, straight into my eyes and asked, a little stronger this time, “Is this you??”

“Yes,” I said as I tried with heroic effort to manoeuvre my errant eyeballs back to their original positions.

“I almost couldn’t recognise you!” cried Wang Wang, looking somewhat delighted, whether over the fact that she almost couldn’t recognise me or over the fact that I have a mysterious dent on my nose, I’d never know, and would prefer to keep it that way.

There’s my first brush with magazine covergirldom.

There are more recognisable photos of me inside, and an interview, but I will only show you thumbnails of it for now because that’s the ethical thing to do. Please go buy the magazine.

Other than the fact that I’m in it, it is a rather entertaining read. Honest! The March issue features many stories that are relevant and interesting to, um, us.

I also learnt belatedly from the Gadget3 website that if you purchase your magazine at any Kinokuniya outlet, you will get a free 4GB Kingston Class 4 Micro SDHC card (while stocks last).

Why, oh why, didn’t I buy my copy at Kinokuniya?

But what’s done is done.

I hope this will not be the last magazine cover I’m getting on because it doesn’t count when even your dearest friends, who have seen you in all kinds of disgusting states over the years, including without makeup and with too much makeup, can’t recognise you.

I cried last Saturday.

It was at a meeting and it was rather unexpected.

The meeting was attended by a roomful of students from various schools.

It was held at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the purpose of the meeting was to discuss a common, uh, purpose.

We watched a video together.

And that was the culprit for my tears. I can’t show you the specific video I saw because it’s restricted access, but I can show you a similar one.

As I stood by the doorway watching the video, learning of how some families travel for two days on horseback while other families sell almost everything they own just to make the trip for the chance to give their children a normal life, I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up furiously around my eyes and rolling down my cheeks.

I try not to cry in public but sometimes it’s impossible.

We were at an Operation Smile Singapore meeting. Student volunteers from various schools had come together to learn how they can help cleft lip and palate victims from less affluent societies who may otherwise never have a chance at a normal life.

In many less developed countries, cleft victims suffer rejection and abuse for their facial deformities all their lives because they can’t afford treatment.

In Asia, 1 in 500 babies are born with cleft lips and/or palates.

Operation Smile, a global charity organisation, dispatches surgical volunteers to all parts of the world to treat these children. But even with Operation Smile missions operating on a regular basis, many more cleft babies are born every day.

Here’s another video that explains how bleak the situation can look for some victims unless more people around the world step in to help.

Operation Smile goes a long way in helping turn tears of sadness into tears of joy for many underprivileged familes around the world. But there are simply too many needing help and some families never receive the chance.

As a long-term project, the students I met last Saturday have volunteered their time and energy to work on raising awareness and raising funds for Operation Smile missions, so that more families can receive aid.

It was the first time we were meeting, so ice-breaking activities were conducted.

Afterwards, the students were split into groups to brainstorm ideas.

The Raffles Junior College contingent.

At the end of the sessions, the representatives from each contingent presented their ideas to the rest of the gathering.

Bella from Raffles Junior College.

Min Jia from Republic Polytechnic.

Ryan and Angela from Hwa Chong Junior College.

The girls from Raffles Girls School. Didn’t get a chance to speak to them so I don’t know their names.

The students are a delight! It’s so heart-warming to feel their enthusiasm and hear all their creative ideas.

Me with Angela and Bella who are, incidentally, cousins!

Me with Min Jia, who has actually already graduated from RP, therefore isn’t quite a student at this point of time.

In any case, you’ll be hearing more about Operation Smile from me in time to come. In the meantime, you can visit the Operation Smile Singapore website to learn more.

If you’re a student and want to help either as an individual or by getting your school involved, get in touch with me and I’ll help you get started. =)

Thank you for reading!

My first crush happened at a time when I didn’t even know the meaning of crush.

I was 11 and there was this boy in class who was kind of a leader among the other boys. He was half joker, half bad boy, always teasing classmates, even teachers, and walked with a cheeky swagger. There was never a dull moment with him around.

I found myself paying him a lot of attention and being deliriously happy whenever he paid attention to me, even when it involved teasing.

Continue reading…

Advertorial

Remember I spoke about the POSB Everyday Champions Award, about how I wanted to nominate the Goonfather for the award for attacking me during his sleep and inadvertently training me in unarmed self-defense combat (although he’d like to have you believe that it’s the other way round)?

Well, the winners have been revealed and I was invited to attend the award ceremony last Thursday to join in the celebrations of these champions for sport.

(The POSB Everyday Champions Award pays tribute to individuals, coaches and organisations that contribute consistently and selflessly, beyond the call of duty, to inspire others to play and grow through sports.)

I had at first pictured the event as being held in a small function room with a mock-up stage and rows of seats facing the stage, and maybe a buffet table serving snacks at the side.

I was told the event would be held at St. Regis Hotel but I knew of no such hotel in Singapore.

When I arrived at the hotel, I was startled by its majestic presence.

I was even more startled to see a row of uniformed hotel staff lining up along the driveway leading to the hotel lobby, as if they were preparing to welcome a VIP.

As I entered the lobby, there was a row of hotel staff wearing formal black suits standing at attention right in front of me. I wondered what big event was happening.

A black suit approached me and asked if he could escort me to the event.

I stared at him dumbly, wondering how he knew what event I was attending. Sensing my hesitation, he confirmed with me that I was attending the POSB Everyday Champions Award Ceremony and showed me the way to the reception lobby.

Impressive.

At the reception, I saw more black suits and dressed-to-kill ladies milling about.

It was while picking up my media pass at the registration table that I confirmed that President S R Nathan was going to be the guest-of-honour for the event. That explained everything! I also found out that St. Regis is a six-star hotel.

How fitting that these sporting heroes should be given due recognition with a grand ceremony in a prestigious six-star hotel. It made my eyes tear to see them recognised and rewarded. I mean that, totally.

With the President of Singapore himself supporting the award and St Regis hosting the event, it illuminates just how important these champions are. Noble and selfless, our sporting heroes truly deserve the prestige of being honoured in such a grand manner.

You might be interested to know that 3,375 nominations were made over a one-month time frame, and 57 winners spanning three categories were picked to receive the award.

The ceremony was held at the John Jacob Ballroom at St. Regis Hotel. It’s a huge, magnificent ballroom. Attending were VIPs, the winners and their guests, and members of the press.

I shared a table with Ming (founder of Nuffnang), Raine (Nuffie) and Leslie (ieatishootipost).

Photos of them later!

There was a huge parade in the lobby before the event started proper, as President S R Nathan arrived and was mobbed by the press.

The other side of the mob:

I like President Nathan. He’s very personable. I had tea with him once at the Istana, together with the cast and crew of Singapore Dreaming. He made the effort to shake hands and talk to every single last person at the event (there were like 50 people, I think). How sweet!

The President’s entrance into the ballroom:

And everyone standing to receive him:

The event started off with a percussion performance, which was unexpected. That was followed by VIP speeches and then dinner.

Oh, before I talk about dinner, I want to remark on the table settings. Everyone had their own personal sauce plates.

The little spoon (about the size of my index finger) is so cute I wish I could have taken it home.

And there’s a pretty and large decoration piece in the middle of the table.

I was wondering where they’re going to put the food, and then the food came. Everyone was served individually. Question answered.

The first course was… very interesting. In fact, almost all courses were quite interesting. They were all very hard to photograph because they were like little portions scattered sparsely on huge plates.

Okay, you know what, this isn’t a food review, so I’m just going to show you a bunch of pictures to sate your curiosity and then we’ll move on.

Alright, I’ll say one thing about the food: The cod fish was sublime. It’s the first time ever I feel compelled to apply the word “creamy” to fish (with no tartar sauce in sight, mind you).

Compliments to the chef. I will have cravings for it my entire life now.

The menu:

There were only five courses but dinner was very filling, overall. I couldn’t even touch my olive and scallop fried rice at the end of it, to my horror, because it was quite delicious. Okay, yeah, I touched a bit of it.

Between courses, the award winners were called up one by one to receive their trophies and certificates from the President.

We were also shown several creative video clips starring the award winners, with the message “Let’s Play”, to promote sports to all kinds of people in all kinds of situations.

Leslie and I picked one winner each to “interview”, although I didn’t do much of an interview because a new dish had just been served at the time I got to speak to him, and I didn’t want to keep him from his dinner.

Anyway, I picked Leo Wen Yeow, a wushu coach, because I am a huge wushu fan. I love watching wushu demonstrations and I love practising it myself, just that I never got the chance to attend regular lessons (problem of got time no money, got money no time).

Raine, myself and Leo Wen Yeow

But I feel inspired to make time for it now, after attending this very sports-promoting event.

Here’s Wen Yeow’s writeup on the POSB Everyday Champions website:

To Wen Yeow, his trainees are his family members. And he certainly exemplifies this family spirit. His doors are always open, so his trainees can easily talk to him and come to him for any problems, even for family matters. On festive occasions, Wen Yeow would even organise trips to Sentosa or the zoo, just to build up their team spirit. He is also a compassionate coach, offering to buy the less well-off trainees shoes and attire. Above and beyond normal training, Wen Yeow also buys DVDs of major Wushu events including the recent Beijing Olympics and points out mistakes and the finer details so that his team will score that extra point.

He has been training since the age of five (the same age as when I started gaming!) and now owns his own wushu school. I suppose a visit is in order!

Leslie interviewed Khu Soon Hin, a hawker who plays hockey. Heheh.

Here’s a group photo of all of us!

From left: Soon Hin, Leslie, Ming, Raine, me, Wen Yeow

The event ended at around 9:45 pm, with the President being escorted out of the ballroom.

The President waved at me (or, rather, my camera) as he walked past my table.

Awww.

Well, the party may have ended and the awards awarded, but the campaign is still ongoing!

Would you like to win $1000 in cash? If you would (I know I would), please visit the POSB Everyday Champions website and look through the winners’ profiles.

Be inspired and touched by the stories they have to share!

(I stole that line from the website. Sorry, I just thought it was quite apt.)

Then choose your favourite and vote for him or her. If the champion you voted for is among the top three in his or her specific category after the voting period, you will stand a chance to win $1000! Simple as that! A total of $30,000 will be given away.

The closing date is March 15, 2009.

The POSB Everyday Champions Award is organised by the Singapore Sports Council, with POSB as the title sponsor.

Do drop by to vote and let me know if you win some cash. I want a treat! =P