Milipede murderer

I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve it, but I seem to be getting more than my fair share of roles requiring me to be bed mates with creepy crawlies.

First, I had to lie on a wet forest floor infested with all kinds of icky insects burrowing among dead leaves.

Second time, I had to lie on a cemetry road owned by whole continents of ants. All kinds of ants. Red, black, brown, tiny ones, giant ones. (And during the times I didn’t have to lie down, the swarms of mozzies had their turn at me.)

And yesterday, I had to roll around and lie on a road covered with milipedes.

I never knew until yesterday that milipedes came in so many different colours. There were black ones, reddish-brown ones, light brown ones, black ones with yellow stripes. Long ones, short ones, baby ones, giant ones.

I only managed to take a photo of one, though. Wanted to take more, including squished ones (there were plenty of those, too) but the director called for me just after I had taken my first picture and I was put to work all the way right up until we left the place.

And then I was a milipede murderer for the rest of the day.

Actually, I can’t say for sure whether I did, or did not, murder any milipedes. But I had to skate on the road the whole morning and there were so many of them going about their merry way on the road, I could have just rolled over any number with no effort.

When I was off my skates, though, I always made sure to look on the ground and step around them carefully.

But despite the milipedes, the shoot was fun. I got to do my own stunts! Not rollerblading stunts, mind. I’m not good enough to do those without making a laughingstock of myself. But I was strapped to the outside of a moving lorry, I was knocked off the lorry, and I tumbled and rolled a few rounds on the road.

I didn’t know I had to do some stunts myself because I had a stuntman body double, so I didn’t do any warm ups. As a result, I am now aching a million places in my body. Even body combat class didn’t make me ache like that.

I also acquired two bruises.

The other bruise is at a place that can’t be shown publicly.

Fortunately, the place where I had to roll around and play comatose on was largely clear of milipedes because the lorry had already driven up and down the road a few times, creating a sizeable number of milipede deaths.

Yep, this is the leadup scene for the show in which I am comatose for five episodes.

I would have enjoyed the shoot much, much more if there hadn’t been any milipedes, and the rollerblades they gave me hadn’t been three sizes too big for me. But that’s just the story of my life.

Look ma, no hands! And no feet!

Today was another one of those days I live for.

Today, I was a fairy.

Today, I flew.

Honestly, I’ve never really thought of myself as a fairy kind of person, being a klutz and all. And, to the best of my memory, I don’t think I’ve ever played a fairy. The closest was when I played Ariel in a college production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. But I was more like a mischievous pixie than a fairy in that performance.

Nevertheless, the director cast me because he thought I look like a fairy, so I did my best to look like one.

I know. Fairies don’t clasp their hands like that. But I don’t have a lot of experience being dainty and graceful. So at that point of time, I felt a little lost.

The makeup artist said I look like a Taiwanese starlet in this picture. Hmm.

Must be the fake dolly eyelashes.

Never mind that, though. The highlight of the day was the flying. See how I am suspended in air in the first picture? I’m a little sad they didn’t get a photo of me all the way up at the ceiling. Maybe everyone was too busy looking up my dress to think about taking a photo.

Kidding! No, really. Everyone was really professional and there was nothing to look up at anyway because I was totally covered up in safety devices.

The first time I got pulled up was a little freaky. I have mild acrophobia. But I got over it really quickly, like within 10 seconds, because it was really fun. I could have done it all day.

We were filming a sequence for a short Chingay 2006 animated video clip. Yeah, it’s mostly animation but I will be making an appearance in the beginning of it.

Because it’s an animation, I will get CG wings and fairy dust! Coolness or not?!

Everyone thought I would be really tired after a few hours of “flying” but I wasn’t. After the shoot, I told the director I wanted to do it again.

I meant in the future. Like, you know, give me more action, stunt-packed roles. I will do my own stunts!