Biker Girl

I love my spanking new Vespa!!



Thank you Godma & Godpa for the best birthday present ever!

xoxo
Ana Icha

Asian Television Awards 2008

Apparently its a big thing in Asian TV. I went last year but IFA only had 1 documentary submitted- Hyper Rescue Tokyo and that didn't win an award so the ceremony didn't leave much of an impression on me. Also because the food was crap last year and I was so hungry by the end.

This year I thought I had safely ignored the multiple invitations sent until I got a last minute call from my MD in Bangkok saying he wants to buy a table (at S$3000- waaaaaaat!!) and everyone involved in the projects should attend. "Tell everyone I'm in town honey, and I expect them there, it'll be a fun nite!", coming from the effervescent DC, I knew instantly it would be a nite of continuous boozing.

So everyone flocked to Intercontinental Hotel dressed to the nines, but me- I had back-to-back meetings with Frank Smith that Thursday and didn't get home to change or manage to stumble into Suntec to buy anything resembling 'cocktail'. Erin, Nellie, Varsh and Camille all looked stunning and Frank, DC and Jesse looked polished and well, different in their suits and black ties- too bad no one remembered to bring a camera! Duh.

And from the moment dinner was served, in spite of the red/white wine offered by the banquet staff, my dear DC was ordering champagne and whiskey and tequila shots from the bar downstairs intent on getting everyone sloshed. I declared myself a teetotallar and sat this one out.

Bumped into a couple of industry people and cornered by some Italian rats who stunk of alcohol before the night started and was asleep before the awards ceremony began. His pickup line to Camille is worth a mention here:

Rat: Hi, did it hurt when you fall?
Cam: Huh? I didn't fall.
Rat: I meant when you fell from heaven.

Bahahahahahahaha!

And for all the hard work in 2006/7, our team (minus Joe Peter who was filming a Tatler event that night) finally got to see the blood and sweat and tears 'pay off'. The only annoying thing was because these were fully-commissioned projects by Discovery Inc. and MDA/EDB, the IFA name was totally taken off the credit list and made to look like the Discovery team produced them. Grrrr...

Best Natural History or Wildlife Programme or Docu-drama
WINNER
Kingdom of Elephants
Discovery Asia Inc.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Soul of a River - Cambodia
Discovery Asia Inc.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Soul of A River - China
Discovery Asia Inc.

Best Cinematography
WINNER
Kingdom of Elephants
Discovery Asia Inc.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Soul of a River - China
Discovery Asia Inc.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Revealed Hajj
Discovery Asia Inc.

Best Direction
WINNER
Kingdom of Elephants
Discovery Asia Inc.

Frank grumpily went up with Discovery EP, Lynn Ng, to receive the awards but they were snatched out of his hands once they got to the Discovery table. He mooched back to ours at the back of the room and gladly downed the tequila shot that was lying untouched in front of me. Next time, we demand back-end revenue and co-funding!

NB: Pictures to come, if any..

..and baby makes 3

Welcome to our world Hadi Bin Hafizi..



























..in this age of multiple names, your parents have been kind enough to give you a 2-syllable name. I secretly think its because they are:

a) too lazy to think of more names,

b) want you to be able to spell your name by age 1,

c) give you a headstart in exam halls whilst other kids are struggling to fill up the name field,

d) like Hadi Mirza and want you to be a singer when you grow up,

e) want to remember all their children's names easily now that they have 3 (and counting- ha!).

























.. and this little abang is obsessed with how tiny you are, wanting to see your little hands and your little fingers and your little nails. He will have his own plaything come March. :)

Village Life

Another long weekend, another family gathering across the Causeway where everyone is kept full and happy with endless gossipping, jibing, eating and merry-making (ie mercun firing, this is after all Malaysia). I turned 31 that weekend and enough people remembered so I feel important enough- heh.

It rained so much that we had to keep the kids indoors, much to their chagrin and to ours- try controlling 5 overactive children who kept smacking each other in a 10ft by 10ft resort room with the Astro down because of bad weather. Impossible!.. so after a while we let the kids do as they will whilst we all played pakau(I've lost my skill, last time I had it was when I was in NUS playing Chua Tai Ti endlessly with Haz, Theresa and the gang).. I think Arissa learnt some survival skills that weekend having to fight for her right with the bigger cousins.

But when the rain let up, we went out in droves to the Tangkak 'city centre' to romp around before heading back for the kenduri and feasting. Ah... nothing good kampung food and a lavish Hari Raya spread can't cure.

The geletis girl who can't keep still for 1 minute on the 2h drive from Singapore to Tangkak.


















The 'must-try' Tangkak chendol


























..and the 'must-try' Mee Bandung Muar
























Homestay
























The happily-fed faces


























Dad's family is in Muar, pretty close by, and Hafidz and I think its high time we brought Arissa there to visit seeing how she enjoyed the fresh air, the roaming insects and big wide fields of Tangkak. Perhaps when the monsoon season has passed, we will take her to the village I visited all too often as a child, chasing chickens around the house and picking fruits fresh from the trees. Too bad Dad's sold his 2ha field, the pleasure of eating fresh durians is indescribable (as indescribable as the stink afterwards) :D

Separate the sheep from the goats

..I'm not referring to the sheeps or the goats that are being sacrificed for the Qurban season. Although we are expected in Tangkak over my birthday weekend for the Qurban feast. I'm excited because Arissa will have her first taste of village life and being so hooked on the Upin & Ipin series, I'm sure she will enjoy it.

www.upindanipin.com.my

Just have to bring lots of clean clothes for she will get dirty and muddy running around chasing chickens.

But I digress. What I am referring to is separating the good childcare centres from the bad ones. You know, the bad ones are those where the teachers smack the kids around or smear their faces with chilli to get them to behave. Grrr...

Being a Nov baby, I forget that soon after turning 2, Arissa will be regarded as a 3 year old in 2009. Time to take the huge leap- for Mummy and Daddy that is- into school life. I'm still uncertain I will be able to leave her with a bunch of strangers while I head off to work but the apron strings have to be loosened at some point and Mummy just has to deal with it. After all, she is striking up conversations with kids her age at department stores or lift lobbies (gibberish aside) and loves to colour and read her story books (gibberish aside too).

So I drew up a list of criteria and right on top of my wishlist lies:


1) Location- Must be near mum's (in case of any emergencies)

2) Must be muslim centre (because I went to a Christian kindergarten as a child and accidentally ate a ham sandwich there).


So with the help of a very useful link (http://www.childcarelink.gov.sg/), I got one childcare centre that fulfils the top 2 criterions- rather sad really.

I called up the centre and the teacher on the other line sounded very professional and eloquent- pretty impressive. Fees are surprisingly fair, they have a mix of Muslim and non-Malay students hence a more secular education and I needn't worry about Arissa eating pork sandwiches- ha. Their curriculum includes art & craft, alphabet tracing and music amongst others.

I've fixed an appointment for Saturday to view the facilities and talk more to the teachers. If everything pans out, Arissa would be well on the road to lifelong learning by mid 2009. And then Mummy can start thinking seriously about Baby No 2.. *faints*