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July is the best month of them all.

Why?

Because my birthday’s on that month!

Okay, that’s not why, really, although it is my birthday month.

July is the best because it’s the month of the SHINE Youth Festival, powered by the National Youth Council and MCYS.

Yes, it’s coming once again, an entire month of nonstop celebration. July is the month for youths (18-35) to showcase their talents in all areas of artistic and creative endeavours, and for everyone to have loads of fun and laughter!

Love the cartoon Ultraman.

You can’t read the text but that’s a list of stuff happening this year for the festival. Go to www.shine.nyc.sg to find out more.

In the meantime, I will tell you the important stuff.

Are you ready?

SHINE Youth Festival opening on July 2nd

Opening day will probably be the most happening because it’s customary for all festivals to open with a huge bang.

Kicking off the celebrations will be a SHINE concert at *SCAPE showcasing local talents such as Derrick Hoh, JuzB and Tay Kewei.

Derrick Hoh

JuzB

Tay Kewei

Also making an appearance will be DJ KoFlow, Jack and Rai and Bloco Singapura.

If concerts are not your thing, then get busy with these!

Competitions: Pillow fight, eating.

Workshops: Photography, beatboxing, DJ turntablism, percussions

Others: Cosmo Youth Parade, flea market

There will be 400 cosplay costumes available for anyone to try out, so if you’ve always wanted to dress up as your favourite anime or game character, this is your chance! More info here.

Singapore Street Festival

This year, Singapore Street Festival joins hands with SHINE Youth Festival to create a bigger and better event than ever.

Get onto the streets and participate in adrenaline-pumping activities such as muay thai, bellydance and breakdance.

There will be competitions to watch and classes to attend. Find out more.

Fund-raising Fun

Youth is not only about fun. It’s also about giving back to society and engaging in worthwhile causes.

This year, students of Singapore Management University are hosting many fund-raising activities, one of which is a car foam party happening on July 16 and 17 at Holland Village Car Park.

The aim is to wash the most cars and raise the most funds within 24 hours and get into the Singapore Book Records. Read more here.

SHINE Youth Festival Facebook Game

If you’re a couch potato, you can still join in the fun by playing the SYF Facebook game, Power 2 Shine (www.power2shine.sg). (But only available from July 2 onwards, sorry.)

In the game, you’re on a journey to collect power eons to light up the SHINE logo. Overcome obstacles and kill zombie things in record speed.

The two fastest players will win an iPad 2 each!!!!!

Other prizes also available, so don’t fear the competition!

Wow. That’s a lot of stuff.

I shan’t go on anymore because I don’t want to overwhelm you. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed myself.

Bookmark the SHINE Youth Festival website to keep yourself updated on happenings and join the Facebook page.

Enough Talk, Just Do!

Yep, same slogan as last year. It’s a good slogan, though, isn’t it?

Two years ago, we saw the Goonfather drive a BMW Zap3.

(Read about it here. It’s funny!)

Now, he has upgraded from a 3 to a 4!

He won’t be drink driving this one for sure!

Okay, really, he has upgraded from a Mazda RX-8 to a BMW Z4, except that he told his boss that it’s a downgrade because he’s not paid enough.

While the Z4 is more expensive, the RX-8 drinks petrol like a perpetually thirsty man gulps water. He was spending something like $400 on petrol every month.

Also, because the RX-8 is now classed as a race car (instead of sports car like the Z4), the insurance and road tax have gone through the roof.

He drives like an uncle now, haha. That is, leisurely. He says that people who drive the Z4 are not into speed but more into looks so he has to follow suit.

The Goonfather is very much into looks these days, having almost reached his target size after about half a year of working hard at it.

In fact, he was on his way to becoming playboy material. He worked on his weight, revamped his wardrobe and, finally, to top it off, bought the BMW Z4.

The car arrived last Tuesday.

He was finally all ready to be a prime Casanova.

The very next day, he got attached.

To a girl he’s been going out with for a couple of weeks.

LOL.

He’s just no good at being a playboy.

I suppose it’s a good thing.

I was worried that he and Unker Kell were going to “hook up”, the way they’ve been doing everything together.

But everything’s great now.

I suppose congratulations are in order!

Let’s just say that I haven’t blogged for nearly a week because of severe jetlag, and leave it at that.

In a totally unrelated thread, three people I know have bought cars within a day of each other, remarkable because it’s not very often you hear of one person buying a car, let alone three.

The first is Piers, who got his on Monday. Will talk about his car in a bit.

Then there’s the Goonfather, who got his on Tuesday. Will talk about his car after tomorrow because I’m meeting him then.

Finally, Edwin Yeo, a very good friend, who got his on Tuesday also. Won’t talk about his car because I don’t meet him very often.

*     *     *    *    *     *     *     *     *     *

The day after I got back from Singapore, Piers excitedly told me that he’d finally found one of his dream cars for sale at a very good second-hand price, in great condition, bearing a popular colour (Reflex Charcoal), and owned by a car enthusiast in Bournemouth.

He’d prepared the cash, gone and looked at it, and bought it straight away, the mad bugger.

He’d apparently been searching for years for a unit that fulfilled most or all his conditions but never found it until now because it’s quite a rare car.

It’s a TVR Tuscan Speed 6, which stopped production in 2006.

This is the one he bought (I’m using the photos from the ad):

(There’s a current upgraded version of this model but he doesn’t like it very much because the butt is ugly.)

((I imagine some of you are will now conclude that Piers is a butt man. He denies it, though.))

TVR is a British manufacturer of specialised sports car, founded in 1947. Just giving some background because I’ve never heard of TVR before now.

TVRs are pure race cars. The Tuscan’s 0-100 speed is 3.68 seconds and the top speed is 314 kmh.

When I first saw the Tuscan in photos, I thought it was quite ugly because of the funny grooves on the bonnet but Piers explained that it’s just not a photogenic car and looks a lot better in real life.

Well, I hope so.

I suppose it must be true because, apparently, the Brits really love that car. In the last few days since Piers got it, all his friends and family members have gone apeshit and made him take them out for a spin. I think two of his colleagues are thinking of buying one now.

I reckon about 10 people have taken a ride in it now, which makes me very jealous because I haven’t even gotten to see it!

Piers is totally in love with it. He says the drive is so awesome that, after just a few days of it, driving his Fiat Coupe now is like driving a bus.

(He didn’t sell his Fiat because he needs it for rainy days when it’s dangerous to drive the Tuscan.)

Actual quote from him (on speaker phone in his Fiat): “OMG, I don’t want this car to hear this, but I feel like I’m driving a bus now! It’s so awful!”

His life has been really exciting since he got the car. Apart from having to give all his friends free thrill rides, he’s also gotten stares from every single person he drives past. And when the car is parked, people would walk up to it and examine it for ages.

And there was this time, he got chased by a woman in an Audi A4 for about 20 minutes. He couldn’t shake her off because he was travelling in slow roads (on his way home) with speed limits ranging from 30 mph to 80 mph. Every time he accelerated away, she would eventually catch up with him when he had to slow down for traffic lights or speed limits.

A few times, she almost crashed into him, so intent was she in her pursuit. And all the while, whenever she was really close, he could see from his rear-view mirror that she was holding up her mobile phone towards him, as if filming him, with a crazy look in her eyes.

Piers was really freaked out. He managed to escape 20 minutes later by getting another car between them, then going into a one-lane road where she got stuck behind this other car, then manoeuvring his way into a roundabout, finally exiting out onto a fast road and speeding off.

I think he thinks he’s James Bond.

By the way, the Tuscan has no door handles, both inside and outside! Oh, I think all or most TVRs have no door handles! I didn’t even notice in the photos until he told me how some of his friends couldn’t figure how to get out of the car after taking a ride in it. Haha.

You have to push hidden buttons to open the doors. Like petrol lids, I suppose.

I had taken Makkuro (the Goonfather’s Mazda RX-8) to the petrol station once and wasn’t able to figure out how to open the petrol lid for the pump attendant. It was quite embarrassing.

Speaking of which, I am planning to name Piers’ car once I see it person so I don’t have to keep calling it “the car” or “the Tuscan”. He thinks I’m mad.

But I think men are just no good at naming things.

“What shall we call it?” I had asked.

“Tuscan,” he had replied.

No good at all!

I then suggested “Pumpkin” and he went crazy.

The reason I had suggested that was because, some time back, I had decided to call Piers Pumpkin as a term of endearment, but he had violently rejected the idea.

Every time I called him that, he would go, “PUMPKIN????!?!?!??!??!!!!!!”

When I suggested Sugarplum as an alternative, it was no better received.

“You shall not call me anything that goes into a cake!” he had spluttered.

So, I had said, “What shall I call you, then?”

“Piers,” was his reply.

NO GOOD AT ALL.

Tsk.

Anyway, I have to wait another three weeks to see the Tuscan. Can’t wait!

Oh, hang on. (For Piers’ benefit) I can’t wait to see Piers, my Pumpkin!

=P

Piers: I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to have a beautiful-butt girlfriend.

Sheylara: Don’t be ridiculous.

Piers: I do!

Sheylara: I feel like Plurking that cos it’s so funny and stupid, but I can’t.

Piers: What!

Sheylara: Hmm, should I Plurk it or not?

Piers: Nooooooooooo!

Sheylara: Yeah, I don’t think so.

Piers: I don’t want anyone else to know you’ve got a beautiful butt!

Sheylara: I think you don’t want people to know you like me for my butt.

Piers: Your butt’s not the only thing I like about you!!

Sheylara: Oh, really.

Piers: I like your feet, too.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The conversation happened on webcam while he was having his lunch and I was having my dinner.

After eating, he lay on the sofa and fell asleep cos he didn’t sleep well last night.

So he doesn’t know I’m blogging this!

Hope I get to see his expression when he discovers this post. =P

LOL he just suddenly woke up, half opened one eye, and went “hmm? huh?” like a lost puppy, as if he couldn’t figure out where or who he was.

Then he saw me on his screen and said, “What are you doing?”

At the same moment I was answering, “Watching you,” he closed the one eye and promptly fell back asleep again.

Men are such sleepyheads. They can fall asleep anytime, anywhere, even in mid conversation.

It’s not the first time he’s fallen asleep while talking to me.

Lucky for him I find him so very cute in that lost, sleepy state.

I’m back in Singapore and suffering from jetlag.

Went to bed at 11 pm and woke up at 3 am feeling wide awake and hungry because it was dinner time (8 pm) in England.

I SMSed Piers to tell him I was awake and he was, like, “Go back to sleep! You’ve got to get over this jetlag!”

But jetlag happens when it wants to; there’s no getting over it.

Speaking of jets, I was mysteriously upgraded to Premium Economy on British Airways (costs about $800 more one way). It’s a small, private cabin with about 32 passengers or thereabouts, nestled between Business Class and Economy Class.

There was enough leg room so that I didn’t have to get up if my neighbour needed to go to the toilet but that didn’t actually matter because my neighbour slept the entire way through the 13-hour flight, waking up only for meals.

Love neighbours who just go to sleep and don’t do annoying things.

She was a middle-aged Chinese lady who couldn’t understand English very well. When our flight attendant asked her whether she wanted tea or coffee, she said, “Yes, please.”

I was sitting in the first row immediately after Business Class so that meant incredible leg room plus the chance to exit the plane really quickly after we landed. That was great. I really hate being stuck at the back, having to wait for people to unload their cabin bags.

I’m back in Singapore for only a month this time. Piers is flying me back to England on July 15 because he wants to be with me for my birthday (July 23).

How sweet is that. =)

And then I’ll be there for two months because his birthday is in September.

I feel a bit like a nomad, except a nomad has no fixed home and I have two homes. It’s a bit disorienting and hard to plan stuff. Like, do I buy Piers’ birthday present in Singapore or in England?

We’re on Gtalk video now and I just told him I’ll buy him a microwave oven for his birthday.

I don’t know how English people live without microwaves. They’re happy to spend 30 minutes cooking a handful of meatballs in the conventional oven when it can be done in two minutes in the microwave oven.

Sure, some things are better oven baked or stove cooked, but the microwave can save a lot of time for many cooking chores, like heating milk, for instance.

Anyway, to the microwave, he said, “Nooooooooooo.”

Then, “You don’t have to buy me anything. I just want you here.”

Awwwwww.

But I don’t know. Don’t people always say, “Don’t buy me anything for my birthday,” and then feel disappointed when they don’t receive anything?

So, do people mean it when they say not to get them anything?

But I’m sure Piers meant what he said. He’s visibly mortified each time I so much as spend a pound on him. (And he’s really cute when he’s mortified.)

I think he’s going to be a lot more mortified when he sees this next picture.

It’s a love note!

=D

He had sneakily left it in a pocket of my handbag when I wasn’t looking, just before we left for the airport.

Can’t show you inside; it’s private!

I didn’t even know he’d done that until I was home in Singapore and about to go to bed and he told me on the phone.

He had placed it in the pocket full of junk that I usually don’t clear out for weeks (or months).

Sigh! Makes me miss him more.

It’s now 7:30 am. Piers has just gone to bed in England (12:30 am). It’s about the right time for me to wake up. I can hear the neighbourhood starting to get busy and noisy (I live by the main road so there are always traffic sounds).

But I think shall go to bed. Jetlag can have me.

Good morning!