Someone asked me on formspring recently what is my ideal man? There are lots of qualities and criteria that makes up a really good man, but for entertainment sake, here is my combination of The Superficial “One”.
John Mayer + Gael Garcia Bernal + Johnny Depp + Orlando Bloom + Alex Rose + Jared Leto
What is your combo? Write it in the comments!
http://instagr.am/p/BMwQs/ # # http://instagr.am/p/BSueR/ #Ok… it’s that time again for the ‘POP’ day poll! We did this last year with about 101 votes cast.
Jie Jie’s ex-colleagues have already put in their coke bets for #2. Basically their wage is a can of coke. So if there are 9 of them, the one who guesses the right date gets 8 cans of coke.
Doctor has given the 12th February as THE day for Benjamin to be born, but it’s always + – 1 week. The poll is back and I’m going to throw in a bit of fun this year.
This pregnancy has been a bit different from the last, Jie Jie has been craving sweet stuff like ice-cream! So I’ve decided to give away 3 tubs of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream to whoever guesses the correct ‘POP’ day! I know there will be quite a few names for each date, but when that day comes, I will get my sister to pick out a winner from a bag.
Polls will close on POP day. Any votes cast after then will be not included into the draw. Contest only opened to those living in Singapore for obvious reasons.
Also check out these two Chinese New Year promotions for Ben & Jerry’s.
Where has all the time gone? I can’t seem to keep up with everything happening around me! Did I not post any F1 Grand Prix pictures?
Here’s a quick collage of the last grand prix. We got 4 pit grandstand tickets again this year, so I spent the qualifying with Mummy and Danli, and for the Finals, took Danli, Hann Sern & Prashant.
Did you know with your grand stand ticket, you get to go on the Singapore Flyer for free? It was my first time on the wheel, and I must admit, it gave a great birds-eye view of the whole circuit and of the rest of Singapore. I probably wouldn’t have gone on it if it wasn’t free though.
I did get to take a photo with Sir Richard Branson at the Avalon party.
Race was pretty exciting, same same but different. And as usual, after the race everyone goes down to the track to take photos. Did get to see Daddy for a brief moment just through the pit gates for a “hi” “bye” and “good race management daddy”. Don’t know how many more years he’s going to do this.
Anyway, just thought I’d leave some photos here for memory sake.
Thanks to everyone who voted for Baby name #2. The polls have now been officially closed.
Here are the poll results and findings. I had to re-populate the data on powerpoint to cater for the “Others” option of the poll, and some silly answers like “Julian”! *facepalm*
Also taken out of the list were:
- Too Wong
- Liamjamin (Liam+Benjamin)
- Benjared (Ben+Jared)
- Jarliver (Jared+Oliver)
Reader’s choice is Liam and second choice Oliver.
There were some really interesting names in the Others section, no guessing who voted in Keeran…. Keeran?
So there were some valid arguments against the name Liam. Too bad, that was my favourite. Maybe one day, my son can be a Liam? At the end of the day, it’s up to Kevin and Jie Jie to choose. I’m quite happy with the decision, was still within my top 10!
So the official announcement…. BABY #2′s NAME IS….
B E N J A M I N
http://instagr.am/p/BE5H5/ #
http://instagr.am/p/BGEi3/ # http://instagr.am/p/BGEoq/ # http://instagr.am/p/BGyhu/ #
So the HSBC Women’s Champions 2011 is just around the corner, in about a months time Singapore is going to be inundated with golf fans from around the region to watch the world’s best female golfers tee off at the Tanah Merah Country Club.
A few months ago, the good people at HSBC and Hill & Knowlton Singapore sent me to Shanghai to watch the HSBC Men’s Champions where I got to rub shoulders with top golfers of the world like Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson and Martin Kaymer.
It was a fantastic experience learning more about golf, but also experiencing the other fun activities off the greens and around the interactive village.
So now it’s Singapore’s turn to host the laydaaayys!
I must say its pretty cute they came up with the augmented reality iPhone game for Singapore. You can win S$10,000, LG DVD Players, vouchers from TaylorMade-adidas golf, Fairmont hotel and M1.
Best part is… no golf skills is required to play this game! Just an iPhone
There are 8 golf holes at Ngee Ann City where you just need to “sink” the balls in with the least amount of “strokes”. Just need to press and hold, swing and let go.
So if you’re in town this weekend, go give it a shot! Contest is only open from 21-23 January, so you have a pretty good chance!
Was on the leaderboard this afternoon with 14 points, but to be honest, that’s easy to beat! Come on… boot me off!
There are moments my dad can be a real big pain and a real wally, but it’s moments like these that have me beaming with pride. Just a couple of months ago, Daddy received his Public Service Star (Bar) at the National Day Awards.
National Day Awards and are given to individuals who have performed outstandingly for public service and community service. The Bintang Bakti Masyarakat – BBM (Public Service Star), instituted in 1963, is awarded to any person who has rendered valuable public service to the people of Singapore, or who has distinguished themselves in the field of arts and letters, sports, the sciences, business, the professions and the labour movement. And the (Bar) may be issued for further service.
And here’s the article a few readers have asked about which appeared in the Straits Times, an interview done on “Model Citizens” on International Migrants Day. I thought the article was well written and really gave you a snapshot of his life. Just wished he gave the right occupation for his second daughter!! But I guess I was just changing jobs then so he wasn’t sure what to tell her
Ang Moh in Ang Mo Kio
Today is International Migrants Day. The Straits Times interviews Briton- turned-Singaporean Michael Gray on why he came, stayed and contributed.
By Susan Long, Enterprise Editor
British-born Michael Gray, who became a Singaporean 18 years ago. The retired accountant has been active in grassroots and charity work since the 1980s, and he was recently awarded the Public Service Star (Bar) for his many contributions to Singapore.
LONG before the likes of Standard Chartered regional chief executive Ray Ferguson became Singapore citizens, there was Mr Michael Gray.
The former Briton, who became a citizen in 1992, is a model Singaporean migrant.
Shortly after arriving in 1978 as an auditor, he plunged deep into volunteer work, devoting up to a third of his time to making life in Singapore better.
He has served on countless committees and in various capacities, from trustee of the Society for the Physically Disabled to president of the Centre for Promoting Alternatives to Violence. He is one of the longest-serving board members of both the Public Transport Council and the National Council of Social Service.
Passionate about Formula One and sailing, he was secretary of the Meeting for the Singapore Grand Prix for the past two years, in charge of the administration of all track activities minute by minute.
This year, he was awarded the Public Service Star (Bar) by the Government for his many contributions to Singapore.
The 65-year-old calls himself ‘the reverse of a banana’ – white on the outside and yellow on the inside. To learn more about the region, he even put himself through a master’s degree in South-east Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore five years ago.
And after 32 years here, he remains enamoured of the Singapore system and vehemently deflects oft-heard criticisms levelled against it.
‘Culturally and politically, whatever you say about the Singapore Government, the country is a tremendous achievement. Politically, it’s as close to perfect as you can get. People are always criticising, but tell them to live on the other side, where the grass seems greener. Some of these countries, the grass is definitely brown and you don’t realise it till you get your feet burnt.’
As for constant allegations that Singapore is boring, he retorts: ‘Culturally, there’s so much going on, you never have time to go and see it all. How often do you want to drive into the countryside anyway if you live in England?’
And he thinks claims of political repression in Singapore are overstated.
‘There are some areas that are ‘out of bounds’. I have raised many political issues through the years. While they were not always accepted by the Government, there was no repression,’ he says.
The eldest child of a tanner father and a librarian-turned-archaeologist mother, Mr Gray was born in Leeds in 1945, just after World War II. Those were times of austerity and food rationing in England. ‘Even for sweets, we could buy them only if we had a coupon from our ration book. We had no TV. Water came from a well in the garden. No central heating,’ he says.
He was never good at books, left school before his O levels, and ‘ran away to sea’ at 16. He worked as an apprentice on cargo ships and an officer on ‘Love Boat’ P&O Passenger Division cruise liners, travelling the world for nine years.
By 28, having seen it all, he hunkered down to maritime studies as a mature student at Plymouth University. There, he met six Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) scholars from Singapore, who invited him to a Chinese New Year party. It was at this party that he met his Malaysian wife-to-be, Linda, who was studying at Plymouth College of Art.
He quips: ‘I always told former NOL CEO Lua Cheng Eng that NOL was responsible for my marriage if anything goes wrong.’
They tied the knot soon after he graduated in 1973 and struggled to buy a house in London. He decided a more fitting career for a married man was accounting, which he got interested in as treasurer of the university’s students union.
He started out as an articled clerk at Coopers & Lybrand in London. Nights and weekends were spent cramming for chartered accountancy examinations for three years – till he finally qualified in 1975. Every pass was hard-won, with a young marriage and baby in tow, he remembers, and also because he was ‘not at all a natural student’.
After accompanying his wife to visit her family in Malaysia, he made several attempts to work in Singapore. He finally succeeded in June 1978 when a position for senior audit manager opened up at Coopers & Lybrand, now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
‘At that time, Singapore had only one condominium,’ he remembers. ‘Holland Road was a two-lane road, there were no traffic jams. Most of the buildings down Orchard Road were only two storeys high.’
He first got involved with the Chartered Institute of Transport, a Britain- based professional body for the transport and logistics industries. He ended up getting it reconstituted as a Singapore section, rather than a Britain-controlled branch, after reorganising it as chairman in 1983.
Then he read in the newspapers that the Community Chest, just starting up in 1983, needed help with its budget, and signed up. He ended up organising training for its volunteers and was soon after co-opted to the Singapore Council of Social Service board.
During one afternoon meeting, then- chairman Ee Peng Liang asked him to take charge of coordinating services for the disabled.
He remembers blurting out in protest: ‘But I’ve never seen a disabled person.’
The late Mr Ee replied: ‘You’ve got three weeks to learn about it.’
So he spent the next few years working out a national blueprint plan for disability services and came up with initiatives such as Bizlink, an employment matching service for the disabled, and Sun-Dac, which put disabled day activity centres in HDB void decks.
Since he was already in knee-deep, he decided to wade in all the way – into the heart of Singapore’s grassroots. Former Member of Parliament S. Vasoo, the founder and adviser of the Ang Mo Kio Family Service Centres (FSC), implored him then: ‘We just need a treasurer, not much work to do.’
That was the ‘typical pitch’ to rope him into voluntary positions.
By now quite savvy, he countered: ‘Why should I go to Ang Mo Kio?’
Dr Vasoo replied: ‘You’re an ang moh.’
And so he went to Ang Mo Kio. That was in 1990. His role quickly escalated to vice-chairman of Ang Mo Kio FSC, then chairman, over the next 18 years.
‘The first meeting, I had no clue. I just sat around, picked it up bit by bit,’ he says. Over the years, he delved in deeper and deeper, learning all about Singapore’s dysfunctional families, its elderly who lived alone, and marital violence that was played out over generations.
He forged firm friendships with the ah peks and ah sohs at the Ulu Pandan Citizens Consultative Committee, of which he has been a member since 2002. They call him the ‘Ulu Pandan secret weapon’, he lets on proudly. ‘With a white man going onstage saying kum sia (thank you) during the Seventh Month dinners, they can collect more donations,’ he explains.
Spending most of his evenings at grassroots meetings and functions gave the now-retired PwC partner a privileged perspective on how the other half lives.
‘Business people and professionals who drive from their bungalow to their office in their Mercedes-Benz always tell me there are no poor people in Singapore. Or they think that the Government takes care of it. But no matter how well you organise society, you’re always going to have these people,’ he says.
Serving on the ground also gave him ‘a more balanced outlook’.
‘Accountancy can be dull; it was good to have something else to beef up my life. If you purely focus on work, you’re more likely to get fed up than if you have an outside interest,’ he says.
By age 46, he had become so invested in almost every aspect of life here that he decided to relinquish his British citizenship and throw in his lot with Singapore.
‘Singapore had become my home. I was never going to go back to Europe. I like the system here, the stability, security and the opportunity. There are far more opportunities here and a much wider field to create something of your own.
‘I’ll do something only if I can make it better. I’m not happy being in maintenance organisation. If I can make a difference, I’ll do it,’ he says, summing up the philosophy he lives by.
He was the first – and remains the only – person in his family to be naturalised. His wife, an art teacher, is still a Malaysian. Their daughters, who live here, are British. Georgina, a copywriter, is married to a Singaporean pilot, and Angela works in public relations.
‘It’s up to them to decide when to convert,’ he says. But personally, he says, becoming a Singaporean was ‘one of the best and easiest decisions’ he ever made.
But what peeves him is that while he found ‘the acceptance level of a white man at the grassroots was very high’, it was less so among many English-educated Singaporeans he encountered, who harboured stereotypes of non-performing foreign talent and remained suspicious of his intentions.
‘Long after I became a Singaporean, people would ask me if I was going home for Christmas. I’d say, ‘Yes I’m going home – to my home here.’ There’s still a perception problem which is very hard to get over. You can’t get as far in Singapore because of that,’ he bemoans.
That has been a source of frustration to him, he lets on, because he feels he has given his all to this country – and then some.
‘I’ve broken through a lot of the barriers. But it’s on average more difficult for a Caucasian to be seen as a Singaporean, no matter how Singaporean you are,’ he says with genuine sadness.
What would help him stick out less, he thinks, is to have more foreigners like himself sink roots here and contribute. As a result, the chairman of the Feedback Unit on Foreign Talent from 1998 to 2001 has made it his mandate to convince more ‘others’ like him to naturalise.
‘Too many people sit on the fence and if you plan to stay here long term, what do you have to lose? People have many excuses, such as ties to their home countries, but it doesn’t mean those ties stop when you become a citizen here. If you already stay here permanently, why worry about your passport from Europe or the US?’
But he rejects outright the dual-citizenship compromise, that has often been mooted, as too destabilising. ‘We’re too small a country. You know, the average Singaporean is so kiasu, he will take up another citizenship if he could, and we could have a lot of dual citizens disappearing overnight,’ he says.
At the close of the interview, turning wistful, he lets on that his fondest wish is to see a former foreigner make it to Parliament one day, hopefully in his lifetime, to give a voice to ‘others’ like him.
suelong@sph.com.sg
________________________________________
RETIRED ACCOUNTANT MICHAEL GRAY, 65
• From Britain
• Came here in 1978. Became a citizen in 1992
The lil fella is growing up so fast, every week he surprises me with his intelligence and abnormal growth spurts. He is only 2 1/2 and he can’t fit into trousers of a 4 year old!
Here are two photos of Jie Jie and Jules taken last year at Jalan Kebaya.
Found this duckface photo in a folder within a folder within a folder within a folder. Too good not to post.
Taken at Janice’s birthday last year.
@angelaleowgray – And bumped into very tai @germaine!! http://twitpic.com/3pd0x1 # #
#In the past few years I’ve come to apreciate soundtrack music. Not so much the pop soundtracks, but the classical pieces. And the one composer I truly love is Aaron Zigman. He has created many memorable pieces for some of the most emotionally-charged movies out there.
Zigman has an amazing ability to capture on-screen emotions and translate them to beautifully written scores. He especially shines at melancholic arrangements, which is my kind of music – darker and more intense.
Below are movies he has done that I like:
John Q. (2001)
The Notebook (2004)
In the Mix (2005)
Take the Lead (2006)
Step Up (2006)
Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
Good Luck Chuck (2007)
The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (2007)
Step Up 2 the Streets (2008)
Sex and the City: The Movie (2008)
The Proposal (2009)
My Sister’s Keeper (2009)
The Ugly Truth (2009)
The Last Song (2010)
Sex and the City 2 (2010)
Here’s one of my favourites:
In the video:
application on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8, an Android phone which I’ve been trying out. Wanted to try a new platform and see how the apps were on this baby.
Was trying out the Endomo application which can be downloaded from the Android Marketplace. There’s a cycling mode which has real-time GPS tracking of time, distance, speed & calories. It works with the Polar Wearlink® + transmitter with Bluetooth®. Haven’t used all the functions but it looks cool.
Above taken from Sony Ericsson Website
Key highlights of the Phone
- Lightweight
- Very Social (i.e. Facebook, Twitter widgets)
- Touchscreen controls
- 3.2mp camera
- PlayNow™ to download music and games
- They have a similar app to soundhound but free
- including all the other bell and whistles you’d get with a normal phone
I reckon the biggest pull for this phone is the apps in the Android Market place. Keep you posted if I find anything else cool about this phone.
The email conversations between Me, Janice and Raymond.
Angela: Just to let you know, reservation has been made tonight 6:45pm at The Marmalade Pantry ION Orchard under the name Pokemon!
I’ll be sure not to rock up first! HAHAHAH
Janice: HAHAHAHA good one. Now it’s obvious we’re all going to be late.
Ray: Pokemon? …I’ll just wait for you guys to show up then we can all go in together lol
Angela: Ok I think I just got Pikachuuuuued!
#FAIL
Reunion tonight with the best-est client and favourite-est colleague during our time at ICON International Communications, who both have become dear friends.
Here’s a picture and caption for old times sake
Agency review went well…
It seems like we have organically grown a tradition in the Gray household. Breakfast on Mother’s Day! (home-cooked if possible). I know I’m A BIT late on this post, but I was going through photos last night and realised I didn’t blog about the fantastic breakfast I made this year!
2007
In 2007, we went to Rochester Park for breakfast at Graze
2008
We made a big breakfast for mummy at home. Pancakes with caramalized bananas, croissants, scrambled eggs, sausages.
http://blog.angelaleowgray.com/2008/05/19/mothers-day/
2009
Was spent with the Lies because I was in Hong Kong then, but also with a breakfast at The Press Room.
2010
And last year, home-cooked breakfast mostly by yours truly. Usually Jie Jie would help me out in the kitchen, but this time I tried to shoo her away as much as I could. Because, she qualifies as a mummy too.
Brunch became Champagne brunch when daddy popped a bottle he had hiding in the cooler.
On the menu was the usual pancakes. And just to be difficult, I decided to try eggs Benedict for the first time. Poaching eggs is hard enough, but making a hollandaise sauce AS WELL, I was seriously biting off more than I could chew.
But the challenge was set.
In the end, it turned out great! The Hollandaise sauce may have been a bit tangy (too much lemon), and I may have wasted 2 eggs trying to get the poaching method right, but everything else turned out GREAT!
At the end of the day, looks like little J got a bit inspired too!
Bucket for a bath tub, but he will very soon grow out of it. Looks like we’ve got to buy a new bucket soon!
Auntie loves you Julian. In less than a month’s time you’re going to have a 小弟弟!
