Hossan can Zumba!

Yes, Hossan Leong.  He surely can and really, really well too! He's an pretty good dancer! And comes by at my classes from time to time when his busy acting, hosting and DJ-ing schedule permits him.. and the ladies in the class love him to bits! Uber friendly and actually really shy n bashful in person! Oh and his birthday on the 6th of July just passed too! He's a cancerian like me... Confirm!! Double Confirm!! 

Filming in Hong Kong...

Yep! I was in Hong Kong for 3 days last week (from the 6th to the 8th of September 2010) to do a TVC shoot with a couple of some really great cast members. Brand and product undisclosed at this time due to confidentiality reasons but when it comes out. I'll be sure to post it here.

And yes to those curious, it was fully sponsored by client - flight, accomodation, transport *to and from shoot & airport* and meals were all covered. And no, I'm not suddenly rich *would have been great though huh* because of it, it was really very much for the experience and a GREAT experience it was!! :)

Meanwhile, some of the cast - Michael Lee, me, Evelyn Kuek and Timothy Yeo. Missing from the picture are Peter Lee, Elenor Lee Gek Luang and Ashley Koh. Picture taken the morning of shoot in front of our hotel before 8am. We were the first batch of 4 of 7 people to start the day.

Pictures I could not resist taking of course, my in-flight meals on board Cathay Pacific.

Unfortunately, it really had much to be desired. Economy class pre-packed meals, flight there saw me having "shrimp and fried rice" and as you can see, its literally 2 shrimps *at least provide a decent sized PRAWN?*.. almost classified if cooked longer as "hei bee or those tiny dried shrimp", mushy carrots & broccoli, fried egg rice and rubbery - almost can bounce steamed egg. A Bun, orange Juice, fruits and dessert was a coconut pudding. Flight back was "Chicken with couscous", a bun, a butter cake with a smidgen of mocha cream, fruits with tomato juice.

We were put up at the Empire Hotel at Tin Hau. And if it sounds like I'm so awed by everything, its because it was my first time to Hong Kong!! It seemed like everyone I knew has been to Hong Kong before and many - several times too! I'd love to be back - next time with the hubster and my girls.

In front of our hotel on Wing Hing Street, there was a Refuse Collection and Public Toilet Building. Oookay - so the location isn't exactly scenic but it was central at least? And that building did not emit any kind of foul smell at all. *phew*

My room mate was Evelyn and she was the best roomie EVER!! The whole trip was extra enjoyable not only because I got to know a new friend but we spent each evening talking and laughing over the days activities till our stomaches ached. Stuff like strange conversations, bargaining for stuff over at Mongkok and fiddling with the room's strange fittings that seemed to keep getting stuck! ie the sink that didn't want to drain? We had some sort of system that just worked where we kept things neat and that just reduced frustration over a messy place.

If you find her familiar - yes! She's was a host from Kids Central! For those who have kids, they may have seen her before on TV or at their school before. And on Octo right now, she's the voice for the Norimaki Makki Sushi Roll Maker that your kids see on TV commercials for kids.. :) I think Lauren and Eirian wants one of those...

And we both read up online about the hotel before we flew there so we knew about the magic mirror aka walls of the bathroom *suitable for the kinky couple who wants to watch each other bathe or the kid who needs to keep their parents in view during their shower in a strange new location* where it would clear up with a switch of a button. We were thoroughly amused as you can see.

The view from our window.

A sampling of a residential building right in front of our hotel - however literally all around street after street looked the same. Apartments crammed wall to wall, airconditioning units dangling precariously on ledges and a heck of alot of scaffolding.

A picture of the ticketing machine at the train station. It still emits those floppy tickets where we have to insert like our previous MRT ticketing system before we had our EZlink tap gantries. We moved around via the MTR which was quite a maze with twists and turns at strange corners. And strangely enough - at least 80% of the advertising in the train stations were either for slimming, facial or bust enhancements. Peculiar much?

It was relatively cheap, it ranged from HKD$12 to $20+ to get around. With Tickets that you can pre-buy with a refundable deposit for 1 day or 3 days unlimited travel or just individual single trip ride and go options like wht we did. We went from Tin Hau to Mong Kok to Causeway Bay via train...

A strange observation during the trip was that everyone stands on the right on escalators whilst here in Singapore, we all stand on the left in Singapore? And have those on the right side step for fast moving commuters here. But why is this so? Especially when both countries follow the right hand drive system. Overtaking should be on the right. Right?

Oh and yeah, I was busy taking the video that I lost my balance from looking up towards the top and I had to stop recording to grab something to prevent me crashing down the commuters below me. Phew!

After we had checked in our hotel earlier, we had our briefing for the shoot activities and then when that was done, we had the evening free!! Took the train to Mongkok to soak in some Hong Kong life!

And just like how you would see it in the movies, signboards galore.. people galore.. food places galore.. retail bustling like crazy..and I must say - I've never been shoved about so much before! Literally being shoved and bustled from the point I stepped off the plane to the point I came back to SG! *shakes head*

And there were several street buskers plying their talents on the roadsides in hope for more than your spare change. I wanted to take a picture with this guy with his scarves and belly dance belt but my group was already bustling along the road... *runs to catch up with the group* I could not risk getting lost as I don't speak cantonese or mandarin for that fact, and almost everything readable there were in chinese characters.

And we saw a MPV with a license plate "cow cow"- how cute cute can can? And not that its particularly interesting but their traffic buttons are so different from ours, I had to take one just to show my girls...

And over at Mongkok where I had one of the best meals during the whole trip. Down a darky dingy alley where there were a few tablews strewn about, we ordered our first meal of Wantan Mee. And it was SOOOO good. Now thats what you call Wantan!! It was dense and big like siew mai.. and not just the flappy pieces of wantan skin with noodles that we have here. And I've noted that most food portions there too are bigger! At least 1.5x bigger!

Food places such as this street stall there are called Dai Pai Dongs. Food comes fast and really tasty too!! As long you can ignore the dingy surroundings for a cheap, good quick meal.

When I whipped my camera out, the man who was serving us our food posed for me while serving but he moved about so fast and then burst out laughing and pointed at me with my camera and said.. "facebook?". Everyone burst out laughing... so cute lah!

That evening, we went back to that stall TWICE. It was THAT good. First Wantan Noodles then Stewed beef Kuay Teow with cabbage.. topped with Lychee Vinegar and chili oil. *slurps* Nothing fancy but tastes oh soo good.

And I had a couple of pieces of "chou doufu" aka Deep Fried Smelly Tofu which really wasn't smelly at all! And we asked for "more smelly please" too! And walked about with the other food stalls, purchased some curry fishballs. Above was a really huge wok of topshell which I thought the hubster would have loved to have if he were there... aye.. next time then!

And we came to one of my other favourite spots of the trip. The mango dessert stall, Hui Lau Shan where I literally had my "choice number 5" twice a day for the whole trip.

My roomie, Evelyn and me with our first cups mango heaven of the trip.. many more to come after! Image below is what you can choose from but I think we had the best of the lot already... I want more!!!

Me posing with our desserts before we wacked into them ...

Whats in it? This is our "number 5!" Chilled Mango ice-blended puree, with mango icecream, fresh mango cubes and little glutinous rice miniballs! *shiokness to high heaven!!*

And some other desserts you can get there, like the mango jelly and mixed fruits combo.. or the mango sorbet with mango pudding and sliced fresh mango combo.. :) *drools again*....

And I love overly filled bakeries where your eyes are instantly filled with all sorts of creatively made pastries, croissants, sandwiches, buns and muffins..

See the row of green buns that looks like a display of green mangoes? I walked right up to that window and stared at it for awhile before I bought one.. it was a whipped cream + red bean green tea bun - quite yummy really and the bottom row left side? The balls? Those were chocolate dusted chocolate custard filled chocolate mochi balls - choc overkill can! .. and next to it was mango custard sugar dusted mochi balls....*burps* They were gone down my tummy too fast before I remembered to take a picture of them..

And then after all that.. the next day we had our shoot. Specific details for that undisclosed for confidentiality reasons. Lucky us had the morning slot and we completed our shoots in good timing - reached there at 8am+, shot our roles and our batch of 4 got transported back to our hotel in time for lunch and the rest of the day free to roam Hong Kong for another day!! We were shooting in the middle of a mall's atrium at Hin Hau so it took some time to get from our hotel at Tin Hau to the shoot location.

We were made to wait inside a baby apparel store while the crew setup and were given breakfast of macaroni soup/toast/eggs/fishfillets/hotdogs and lemon tea while waiting to be called up for prep.

Evelyn and me while waiting for the directors call. And the video below I took in the van with my ipod on the way from the hotel to the shoot location.

After our shoot, lunch was at a roast meat cafe where we had soya sauce pigeon *reminded me of duck due to its dense meat - and I HATE DUCK*, Goose *erm.. kinda like Duck so didn't like it too much* and Roast Pork *very very nice*. We also had 2 different bowls of wintermelon pork rib soup and a plate of green vegetables. No one finished their rice, it was too much!

All of us then took the MTR and headed down to Causeway Bay and went around Times Square and then adjourned to the streets to check out the roadside stores and surrounding buildings. And of course, we took the chance to get even more mango dessert!! Evelyn then went to meet an old church friend and Timothy went to get a massage. Michael and I were left to roam the roads in search for something "Hong Kong" to bring back as gifts.

While strolling around *actually we were more lost than anything*, we found ourselves right smack in the middle of a bustling wet market. It was to my surprise and horror that when they say "Fresh Seafood", they really take the fish/prawns/crabs out of the tank and throw them onto the tray displayed in front of you... even the fish wriggled when they put it into the plastic bag for you upon purchase. *shudder*

And the fish monger wacking the fish with his net to prevent them from jumping about too much.. probably enough to stun them for abit... *feels sad for fish - looks painful leh!*... but they probably taste really good that fresh.. *shrugs*

Prawns too! Prawns were jumping out of their boxes and the fish sellers left them there till they walked past again and that could be a good 15-20 minutes with prawns all over the road around the box before they were collected and thrown back in! *Thats if people haven't already stepped on them!* Strange huh!

Dinner that evening was at a eatery that sold guotie *pan fried dumplings similar to gyoza*. We had the minced pork and the beef ones. Along with a huge bowl of instant noodles - Hong Kong style...

And we also had some spinach steamed pork dumplings too.. the XO carrot cake was actually from the Mango Dessert store earlier in the day where you can also order a small assortment of Dimsum... and the carrot cake aka fried radish cake aka "wu tao gou" was really yummy too.. and not blended paste like how we have it here but you can feel the shreds of radish within the fried paste and they have little bits of dried prawn, roasted peanut and shitake mushrooms with the sauce... *drools yet again*

The next morning saw all of us preparing to head home with our bags packed and we all head down to search for a Dimsum eatery to satisfy some dimsum cravings... everyone was glad to be out of makeup and bare faced and somewhat bodily fatigued, ready to head back to Singapore.

In picture, Evelyn, Peter Lee, Me, Timothy and Ashley Koh. For the record, that particular breakfast cafe did not serve good Dimsum. So the next time I'm back in Hong Kong, I MUST go to somewhere where they serve their legendary GOOD dimsum dishes.

We still had a little time before our transport came to send us to the airport. While the rest decided to split up to roam or go back to the hotel to rest, Peter and I decided to check out the area we were in and stumbled into a Temple. Tin Hau Temple Garden to be exact.

We looked around its grounds, it was a small little enclosure amongst high rise buildings. I was intruiged by the old people sitting about and asked Peter to ask one of them if I could take a picture with her. She immediately repeatedly asked "how much you pay me to take picture?" in cantonese?

He took one picture and then I passed her a note and said my thanks. :) It wasn't much but it was enough to at least get her a decent dinner if she wanted to. She opened her hands and looked at it and exclaimed "wah!! so much!!" to a nearby old lady friend and grinned such a wide smile - it was heartwarming.. that moment was only for a couple of seconds where Peter then shushed me along quickly and said "Lets go! All the other old people there will come after you to take pictures too!" and we both ran off.

But really, it was at most only SGD$3-4. Just enough to have a hawker meal here in Singapore and just enough too for that lovely warm bowl of Wantan mee like what we had at Mongkok! HKD$18 for that bowl of Wantan Mee at that roadside stall.

More info. about the Temple...

And one shot at the entrance of the Temple before we ran off...

We had lunch at the airport. I had Hot and Sour La Mian noodles which was really quite tasty but in such a large portion, I couldn't even finish it. The rest had wanton noodles again for the last time that trip.

The trip took 3.5hours from 2pm departure and it was a smooth flight home. Again, I was delighted that Evelyn and I got seats together by the window and had 3 seats to share amongst us both. (spacious is good). Together with a "Sex and the City" movie, juices and a little more inflight food as seen earlier and a little more conversation.. we hit Singapore before 6pm.

And what greeted me upon arrival was simply the best welcome ever to culminate a wonderful end to the whole 3 day trip. From the inside travellator belts while waiting for our lugguage, we spotted CJ and the girls with a HUGE self made banner outside!! *Beams proudly and happily - waves excitedly*

It was so cute and thoughtful! I was really touched and loved it to bits... and when we came out with our lugguage.. that wasn't it! They turned the board around and see what it said! See below... *Awww, tears happily*.... and they presented me with a bouquet of roses... (Awww!! Apparently the hubster ordered it from the florist at the airport the day I flew off and he collected it when I flew back in...)

And my flowers... love them! Love them very much!!!

Thank you to everyone who made those 3 days so interesting, so experiential and so weight gaining *damn! I gained 3kg in 3 days! BUT from the time I returned last week till now, I've detoxed enough to shed that 3kg and am working back down to that 20kg weightloss target there that you see on my left hand blog column*.... 14kg more to go!

I'm looking forward to seeing that TVC which is slated to be screened in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan upon its release. I hope to work with everyone again soon... Taiwan or Paris perhaps?

Acting: Tai Tai Aspirations...

Tai Tai Aspirations... thats what most of us women want perhaps?.. to be a lady of leisure.. yesterday for a non-stop 9 hours film shoot in town. I played a shopping taitai.. outfit chosen? Well out of the 9 outfits I brought and 3 pairs of shoes. *Yes, it was heavy as hell*... The director chose my pink smocked top, blue jeans and boots that went along with a "beehive" hairstyle and some really deep *blue smokey* eyeshadow makeup... and a pashmina shawl, gold diamante watch (makeup artists own) and Gucci bag. (not my bag :( but it was a nice one!)

Another acting stint that goes into my portfolio once more... this one was a corporate training video for ION Orchard... so anyone who works for ION in the future will get to see this video with all its protocols and training guides... let me know if you saw me! :)

In the meantime, it was interesting acting as a tai tai for a day with very capable "service providers" available at the mall at my beck and call during my "shopping" experience at ION. My fellow cast members were great too.. above was my "concierge aka personal shopping assistant for the day" - She was great and really funny too .... I felt the casting for this shoot was quite accurate too. Everyone fit into their roles - esthetically and skills wise right how it should be. Good job all! Till we meet again.. :)

PS: Did you know that ION Orchard had a "Private Room" thats available for VIPs to use with a state of the art toilet bowl *with alot of techy buttons to fiddle around with*, an avant garde classy single person lounge resting area and a wash area filled with Kheils products? If you ever get to use that room, you must really be someone special.... :)... Private room anyone?

Allswell TVC - Worldcup Season Airing

Yeah, I know you've seen it.. yeah thats me.. and yeah thats the hubster too.. post for this when we filmed this in January HERE. But for those who just wanna see it again because its such a cringe worthy ad *shudder*, here it is again... if you're trying to remember where you saw it? Probably either GV Cinemas before they screened your movie *OMG - talk about in your face crying....* since early June or on Channel 8 on local TV during the World Cup season..

But... I think its still playing even now? Oh well.. another appearance.. another ad coming up in abit.. but for now... pls enjoy my crying bc I really was crying madly for real... we shoved medicated oil INSIDE my eyes!! And I was so much chubbier then! I was just back from our trip to the Philippines where I packed on 7-8kg! Gah!!! Okay.. now go watch.. okay.. maybe not.. okay.. up to you.. *runs away*

Bupa Corporate Video 09

Remember this POST? I realised that some people had missed seeing the final product which came out some back so here's the LINK to the video or you can click on the image above.

What is it? Its a corporate video that I filmed last year for the UK Healthcare Organisation, Bupa and I was honoured to have been selected to represent their "asia" counterpart in their corporate video. If you are in the healthcare/insurance line and working with Bupa, you may have already seen this video. :)

Its a privated video which I can't embed so you have to go directly to the page, key in the password which is "brighton" and watch it from there.

Happy Watching. :)

Making the Camera LOVE you...

Last week, we were out for a 10 hour film shoot for a drink TV commercial. This shot is from the 2nd scene with my talented and fun co-stars. And yeah.. that snoring one in red is my hubster.. yeah.. the real one aka CJ - if you can't recognise him with his salivating bubbles out of his mouth.... and yeah.. I was bawling my eyes out in this scene thus the "sad" look.

Drinks blurred on purpose to keep brand confidentiality as the ad is not screened yet. Its in post production as we speak and would be ready around Chinese New Year 2010 so look out for it! Really wondering how it will turn out... *anxious*

And guess what? Its in Mandarin too! Funny because anyone who knows me knows. I. Don't. Speak. Chinese. so it was a little bit of a challenge to rehearse my mandarin script over and over. Much to the amusement and frustration of the hubster who spent time correcting my chinese intonations till it somewhat sounded more natural.

So here's a sneak peak from the 2nd ad to whats coming up on the telly this festive season.. 2 ads. In Mandarin. This shot taken with the crew of the day... the ones with the magic fingers.

And Remember THIS filming done last year? Well, the corporate video for this ad is out! Check it out HERE! The password to view this video is "brighton". Happy Viewing!

Busy busy busy...

Yes, I know..its been weeks but I've been busy..really busy but you've all still been there... thank you... :) Its been weeks filled with work.. instructing on an almost daily weekday basis.. and soon to be including Saturday too...

I was also on Sports@sg on Channel 5 last night at around 1015pm? Did you catch it? We did the filming on Wednesday at a private studio and it came out on TV 2 days later! Damn fast lah!! Anyway, it was just a minute on the "Showstopper" Segment and I realised something.. when a director asks you to come in LIGHT MAKEUP... put it on heavier bc I looked so darned pale during the shoot and well... perhaps once I recieve the video clip by post, I'll post it up for those who had missed it on TV.

I believe they would put it up HERE on the Sports@Sg site too so you can get a direct stream if I don't manage to convert the video here for viewing. :) Did I look chubby in the filming.. *sigh* unfortunately the rule about people looking at least 20% fatter than they usually are still stands true.. but whats done is done.. :)

Apparently, its also screening on TV mobile as I recieved some calls earlier this morning with people exclaiming they saw me on their bus ride.. *cough cough*.... :)

I want to give special thanks to the 4 ladies who joined me for the shoot, namely Preetha, Su, Loida and Karen... thank you for giving me your afternoon. *hugs*

I also took a day to visit my other instructor pals and my dear Diane, CEO of Fisaf Singapore last week. FISAF is a certification program that people take when they want to become a fitness instructor. So you would see different kinds of people from those who do group aerobic classes like me, to aqua aerobic instructors, personal trainers, fitball trainers and even yoga instructors...

FISAF holds training 3 times a year and Diane is now back in Singapore conducting the 2nd for this year! There is another one at the end of this year for those interested to go into this field of work/interest. You can check out www.fisaf.com.sg for more course details.

Recognise anyone here as your existing instructor? :) Other than me of course...

OMG! Pam Hospitalised?!...

So there I was. Lying in bed at Raffles Hospital earlier this month.. post surgery.. in a little pain.. and in a post operative depression... alone.. and grumpy....

Why was I there and what surgery you may wonder? Filming of course!! Okay.. okay.. so I was not sick.... Don't panic and start calling me before you finish reading this post.

It was a 10 hour filming day which spanned from filming at the hospital, to areas around Collyer Quay and around the Merlion.. to up around Raffles One in the CBD and finally ending at the Raffles place square before the filming was a wrap.

Who was it? A UK Healthcare & Insurance Group doing their new to-be-released internationally corporate video. Who was I? I was the sick post operative wife of a successful businessman who thankfully bought more than enough insurance to ensure I had the best medical care and peace of mind knowing that all our medical bills were fully covered.

It was such an experience filming in the hospital, interacting with real doctors, surgeons and nurses who played parts in certain scenes. Luc, my hubby for the day aka Mr. Successful Businessman, is not only my friend. He was also my core training instructor during my FISAF instructor course! It was easy filming with him because we already knew each other so the chemistry was natural and it helped show that on camera for more realism.

Started the day "sick" around 2pm and as the scenes went by... we shot the more "happy days, I'm not sick" scenes together.. a picture taken together at around 9pm at night already.. feeling quite worn out and quite ready to call it a day which we did around 11pm.

We were told that the film would be edited and the final video would be out sometime in October 09. All healthcare/insurance companies would receive it so if you see it and you're in that industry, let me know!! If I manage to get a copy of the video or it gets posted on youtube.. I'll share it here too... :) Look out for it!

It was a wonderful experience indeed and my talent agent... I'll say it again.. she's absolutely amazing. I am proud to have been part of the Organisations' video. Thank you for the opportunity!

TV Commercials & Birthday Lunches...

This post moves from the end of the week to the start of the week... it was week filled with carbs and carbs and more carbs!

My very lovely, talent agent called me up on Wednesday night to cast me for an upcoming commercial which I filmed with Michelle Chong and some of the cast yesterday. Client name undisclosed till the commercial airs - which is soon so look out for it.

The call time was at 7am. Wah lau! So early lah! I was out of the house by 610am and hit the makeup department before 7am where they fluffed so much powder on me, I was practically glowing powder.. -.-''

Then it was off to wardrobe where I was fitted with "office wear" as you can see here. It was more like a jacket than a blouse actually. You would be seeing me in 2 outfits during the commercial. Both outfits were baggy so I'm just crossing my fingers that I don't look 6 months pregnant on tv.

Then it was off to a birthday lunch treat with my best galfriend, Kay at The Rice Table Kitchen at International Building. I love the indonesian buffet there (costs about $18 for the buffet + $4 for a refillable juice drink) and since it was carb week... BWUAUAHAHAHA... rice rice rice n more rice... *burp* (Waddling out really looking 6 months pregnant)

Earlier in the week, I had another birthday treat from Serene, a really sweet friend, blog reader, face booker and dance mate at the gym. She brought me to Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Restaurant at Takashimaya for some La Mian, Xiao Long Bao dumplings and dessert! *slurps*

Carbs!!! *screams - thud*... but my noodles tasted pretty good. It would have been better if it was SPICIER though... and my red bean ice-cream dessert! Very nice! Talk about immediate AFS! AFS = After Food Syndrome where you want to fall right asleep after eating a heavy carb filled meal... *burps...damn it! I keep on burping!*

And moving further up earlier in the week last Sunday... my brother in law and mom in law decided to make a homemade Nasi Lemak combination. Fried Luncheon meat, Fried Hotdogs, Fried Sunny side up eggs, Sambal Prawns, Assam Sotong *squid*, Woh Hup sweet Sambal, Home Roasted Peanuts & Ikan Bilis and of course.. Chicken Wings!!

All these topped a huge pot of Lemak *Coconut* rice. *faints* ... so full... and to top of this sinful week of carb loading?... Tomorrow we will be making Laksa... *squeal & hop around*... from Monday.. it will be detox and low carb for the next 3 months again... unless of course, I get the chance to go to Japan on the 24th? We'll know the results of that SOYJOY challenge on Wednesday, 15th July so watch this space to find out who wins & who goes to Japan this month!