How to catch Singapore TV while overseas

We discovered a new use for Skype today.  We were Skyping in the evening when the girls ran off to watch Ninja Warrior (weekday TV is banned except for shows that Mummy and Daddy want to watch).  I decided to join them.  As we let out a collective cry whenever a contestant faltered, it really felt like I was home and sitting with KK and the girls in front the the TV. 

Will he make it?

Tok Tok Noodle Girl

It's the last place I would expect to find a bit of Singapore history but there he was, hawking his noodles just outside Kong Kong's house in Khon Kaen Thailand.  Sai Pi did the tok-toking while the Tok Tok Noodle Man busied himself whipping up our lunch.  He claims to have picked up his noodle skills in Singapore but his noodles tasted pretty Thai to me (and more importantly very yummy!).

Long Distance Nagging

"It doesn't look like you are visiting Kong Kong; it looks like you're on vacation without us!"  cried Pumpkin over Skype.

Can't it be both things?  Yes I came up to Thailand together with Sai Pi primarily to visit Kong Kong who had an operation recently but it was also a nice break from our school routine.  But one thing I didn't take a break from.... nagging!

"Did you do any reading today?  Chinese book also ah!  Don't forget to do all those things you are supposed to do.  Take this opportunity to show me that you can take care of yourself, that you don't need me there to tell you what to do [although that's exactly what I'm doing now].  Have you finished your Chinese work?  Make sure you study, your exams are coming.  Go ride your bicycle; you have not used your bicycle much since buying it.  Tai Pi you should skip 200 times to grow taller......"

As the Diana Ross song goes:

Ain’t no mountain high enough 

Ain’t no valley low enough 

Ain’t no river wild enough 

To keep me from NAGGING you

Long distance nagging courtesy of Skype

Our first short film!

The girls were watching iCarly on Nickelodeon and kept asking me if it was real i.e. is there really a web show called iCarly where you can submit your own videos to. I explained to them that iCarly is really just a regular TV show (about some friends who have their own web show) but that they get their viewers involved by inviting them to submit videos which they feature at the end of the show.

The girls seemed interested in having their own show so I said we could actually do it if we could decide on the subject matter. At the same time, I had seen a series of Heritage TV videos at yesterday.sg which is the National Heritage Board's website and thought it might be interesting to do something along those lines.

And then it all came together the Sunday before last, when we were at the National Museum for the Christian Lacroix exhibition. While we were having lunch at a cafe there, I remembered that I had read somewhere that Singapore's first public drinking fountain could be found on the grounds of the museum. I half suspected that the fountain was removed during the recent major renovation. I asked a couple of museum staff but they had never heard of the Gemmill Fountain. Even a friend of mine who was involved in the renovation of the museum was not aware of it. Nevertheless we went around the museum on a futile search for the 145-year-old drinking fountain and I recorded it using the video function of my still camera.

I was intrigued by the idea of this forgotten fountain so I did some research at the library and showed the girls the old newspaper articles I found on the Gemmill Fountain, the earliest dating 1939. We then did some more filming for our documentary. The girls were very game and improvised on the lines I gave them. Then Tai Pi wrote to the director of the museum to ask about the fountain and got a reply the next day although she didn't see the email till a couple of days later.

After we got the reply from the museum, we completed the remaining voice-overs and filming and viola, we have our first documentary! It certainly isn't my first home-made video as I have edited many a holiday video and growing-up videos, that's one of my hobbies, but this one was different from my usual and we had fun putting it together.

And now to broadcast our show. I uploaded it onto YouTube and created a blog to link the video to and also sent it to yesterday.sg which is featuring the video as today's entry. The guys at yesterday.sg said they were impressed with the work that went into the video (actually it's probably not as much work as they thought!) and want to give us a present... ooh I wonder what it could be.

Designer Handbags

Sai Pi and I attended a workshop for young children yesterday at the National Museum called "I can be a fashion designer", held in conjunction with the Christian Lacroix exhibition.  Two guys from Toy Box Edu-tainment conducted the workshop and later brought us for a short tour of the exhibition.  They were really excellent; I have never seen better children entertainers (in an interactive "show") than these two guys.In the workshop, the children were exposed to "boring" designs and "exciting" designs and later given a chance to design their own handbag by drawing on and sticking scrap materials onto a cardboard "bag".  

When the children were done, they showed their creations to one of the guys from Toy Box Edu-tainment who proceeded to give each one a glowing critique.

The workshop was followed by a short tour of the Christian Lacroix exhibition after which we were to collect the handbags from outside the art lab.  Unfortunately forgetful me left with Sai Pi without the handbag.  Sigh.

So I promised Sai Pi that we would make our own designer handbags and here they are - made from paper plates with cords from paper bags for handles and decorated with scraps and stickers: