Joo Chiat

Yup, it's been a while but hey, I've been kinda busy. The Lion King is open now to good houses and doing well. We've finally moved out of the Pan Pacific and into our own brand new aprtment in Joo Chiat. It's halfway between the city and Changi and near East Coast Park. It is also one of the best areas in Singapore for great cheap food. It's so nice to be away from the city and be in the suburbs full of tropical plants, stray cats, and eclectic architecture. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking today.

This is our spunky new apartment.

Such a stupid name for an apartment complex.

Our local general store. Complete with sleeping cats out the front.

Spelling is attroucious.

Speaks for itself really.

Arty shot.

Evan and Flic at the Zoo. "Puppet up!"

Me getting back to my miner self at the Night Zoo.

Tower 3 of Marina Bay Sands outside stage door.

Our local hawker food/ drinking spot on the Esplanade after work. Brilliant stay, cheap beer and cute stray cats.

Rafiki and dancer backstage.

Ok, this is technically a bit naughty as we're not allowed to take photos but I just had to get this sneaky one in as Scar in silloutte was too good a shot not to take. It didn't work out quite as I wanted as I was trying to be discreet and he kept moving but you get the idea.





A new chapter

Now begins my life as a mech on The Lion King, Singapore. For those unfamiliar with the term it means Theatre Mechanist or sometimes known as Carpenters. They’re the people side stage pushing scenery on, and responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of all the scenery. They build stuff, fix stuff, swear at stuff and paint stuff. And now I’m one of them.

I’m Promt Side (Stage Left) and I started mid way through Tech Rehearsals and a month after everyone else so as well as never really working in theatre before (not like this, anyway), I was also behind the 8 ball with knowing the show and understanding what all my cues meant. Anyways, four days in and I’m feeling like I know the show a lot better now and mostly on top of all my cues. Act II is reasonably relaxed but Act I is pretty frantic, especially around the Wildebeest stampede. If you cast your mind back to the film, that’s where Scar and the hyenas heard the Wildebeest through the canyon to kill Simba, Mufasa turns up, rescues Simba from the branch and Mufasa tries to climb the canyon wall but Scar kills him by letting him fall to his death.

It’s an important scene in the film and one that needed to look good on the stage as well. It’s manic backstage as heavy bits of scenery are set and struck and I’m dripping in sweat afterwards. The Wilderbeests are on huge steel frames that are automated and rotate around and around giving the impression of many beasts stampeding.

Apart from the nerves on my first days of trying to learn everything, not stuff up and at least look like I know what I’m doing, I’m really enjoying it. I get paid to be a carpenter and build things in the workshop (such as a cupboard for hyena legs and the conductor’s podium) and getting through the show and making it all good feels quite rewarding. It’s a great crew who have all been really supportive without mollycoddling. The cast are all mostly super friendly and very happy to assist a new guy with when to page them on and off stage.

I think I’m going to enjoy this.

Of Grail Knights and elementary discoveries.

I must momentarily borrow my narrative from another excellent blogger, londonrobstuff.blogspot.com, a tenacious Grail knight intent on finding the best coffee and breakfasts in inner London. One hopes that like all Grail quests, it is never realised ere we find ourselves without his excellent musings on elegant espressos or the perfect porridge.

My own san graal has been the elusive western style breakfast in a country more into its kaya toast than eggs Florentine. But like most quests for hidden treasure it was right under my very nose. The cafe next to the swimming pool at Pan Pacific does an awesome breakfast with eggs any way you like it, tomato, hash brown, sausages, bacon and baked beans served with extra toast and jam. And all for $14! (pre taxes). The only bummer is a lack of good espresso coffee to go with it. I savoured this wonderful breakfast while reading one of my favourite Sherlock Holmes tales that features "Ballarat" as the main clue as to the killer's identity.

Reading the name "Ballarat" in a novel is a funny feeling and for a moment if I close my eyes, I’m sitting in the sun at L’espresso with Flic and Mokey, Heidi has just made me a second magnificent coffee, my plate is virtually clean having devoured eggs forentine with avocado, Mum and Jo have just arrived, Mahney is talking excitedly at the table next to us, the annoying guy on his pedal bike has come past and thankfully gone down to Europa, and Freya and Townes are walking towards us.

Is my grail quest complete? Have I found the secret the Templars wanted to protect with their lives? Um...no but for the moment I am content. Now, time to laze by the pool.

Shanghai, movie.

Most of the movies playing in the hotel are pretty poxy but this was a nice surprise. While it had the Weinstein brother's inevitable thumb prints, it was a good story, beautifully shot, well acted and well told.
I won't go into the plot save to say that it is set in Shanghai in the days leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbour and America joining the war. The narrative is intriguing and Shanghai is realised with wonderful set dressing and superb cinematography. It was also a welcome change to have a film score that subtly underlined the drama and the action without thumping you over the head and shouting "THIS IS THE TENSE/POIGNANT/MYTERIOUS BIT!". The ubiquitous Hans Zimmer could learn a thing or two (or just take a break from scoring every historical/ epic/ thriller/ action film out there).
Both John Cusack and Chow Yun-Fat have both been guilty of over acting in the past but with a sensitive director, they both give measured performances as do their co stars Gong Li and Ken Watanabe. I’m not a film critic so I’ll shut up now but if it’s on the DVD shelf, have a look.

Australia Day in Little India

As my fellow compatriots blacken cheap sausages and chops while getting progressively drunker the closer they get to number one on triple J's Hottest 100, I found myself in Little India where it was teeming with rain and cheap kncok off. I can't help myself, I love the colour and smells so much, it's quite intoxicating. As I write this back at the hotel, it is once again pouring with rain in that heavy, sultry way that Singapore does so well. I had thought that we were coming out of their wet season but the thunder storms last night and the rain today seem to be pushing the wet up to the end of January.

But back to Little India. There's so much about this part of town that continually fascinates me. From the 19th centruy buildings painted in garish pastels to the hawker stalls to the semi organised clutter of the Mustafa Shopping Centre. I guess it's the texture of place that does it for me. The colour of the garments and food on display, the grimy walls, the smelly food courts, the clutter on the pavements from hosehold detritus to guys doing motorbike repars in the middle of the pavement.

Walking down the side streets you pass old men on bicycles, small food and drink stands and people hanging their washing on poles out of their apartment or terrace windows. To me it is stange and exotic. To the locals, it is just everyday life and they must wonder why some pale guy with his touch phone wants to keep taking photos of gutted fish. I'd certainly be bewildered if a Singaporean kept snapping myself and my friends sitting outside L'espresso.

In the lead up to today, Australia's national day, it has been interesting the last few weeks to reflect on myself as an Australian citizen and what that means to me and how I see myself in the rest of the world. To be honest I've never really been a fan of Australia Day. Yes, I love my country and it will always feel like home but chest beating and flag waving has always raised my hackles somewhat. National pride is not a bad thing but I get very uncomfortable, especially after the Cronulla riots about dickheads in board shorts with flags drapped around their necks confusing patriotism with nationism.

In my view, Australians can unfortunately be very quick to point the finger at aspects of other cultures that they find offensive or undesireable but are very slow if not openly defiant about looking truthfully at our own backyards. Our collective attitudes towards indigenous Australians and our inherent suspions of Muslims is where I think this most grossly manifests itself.

The thing that has been most interesting as an Australian to observe over here in Singapore is the cleanliness of the place and the almost 100% safety afforded by no (or extremely low) drugs and crime. I have to say that I'm really enjoying walking everywhere at any time of day or night and not really thinking about my personal safety at all. Everyone by and large, is also very respectful here. Where I'm going with this is that it stops you and makes you question whether the voracious egalitarian nature of Australian society is necessarily a good thing. Should we be harsher on those that dare to break our laws and thumb their noses at our legal system? I don't know. Is the level of respect that everyone seems to operate under here a by product of a certain level of fear of their Government and it's agencies. Is that a bad thing? Can the two be separated? These are the questions I have been asking myself as an Australian abroad expereincing a new culture and seeking to fit in with it.

I should say that Singaore's reputation for dullness/ conservatism is much like it's reputation for bargain shopping- one that was true about 20-30 years ago but has no real relevance today. It is a very lively and exciting city and there is certainly no lack of scantily clad women adorning billboards and there are distinct districts where vice and avarice await on every corner. Long hair and beards on men is quite acceptible and Singapore is now a truly multicultural melting pot of the South East where all corners of the globe fly in and out and leave their indelible mark.

Living in another country is a wonderful way to help you define what it is to belong to your home country and how that shapes you as a person. It is a constanly evolving process and one that I am relishing every day.

Pulau Ubin

Ah, nature! I found you tucked away on a little island off the eastern shore of this concrete labyrinth.

To begin this tale, it once again starts with a deliciously smooth latte at Highlander Coffee Academy near Singapore General Hospital. I once again ran into our new friend Hannah who this time was joined by two of her colleagues, one of which was Meng Shyen who offered to take me to the tiny island of Pulau Ubin with a friend of his who is visiting for the week.

We met on Friday morning and took a double decker bus to Changi village on the far east of the mainland. This was a great way to see parts of Singapore not visible on the underground MRT and a nice trip down memory lane for Gordon, Meng's old collegue who lived towards Changi over 10 years ago. There are no times for the small 12 passenger water taxis, you just have to wait for enough people to fill one, usually not long. So after a quick bite to eat (and the best carrot cake I've had so far....which incidentally is not the least bit like what we think of in the west as carrot cake) we boarded the water taxis with our noses filled with diesel fumes and chugged the 10 mins across the water to Pulua Ubin.

There we rented bikes for $5 and cycled our way around the island, giving the western section a miss as it was a foot or so underwater. It is a jungle paradise with beautuful birdlife, the odd snake and wild boars! Meng was a brilliant guide as he has been to the island several times as a student studying the ecology and ecosystems so he can spot the tiniest mudcrub and lung fish, normally invisible to my eyes, with the ease with which one spots a McDonalds store.

During the week is definately the time to go as we had the island virtually to ourselves and it gets very busy on the weekends. Cycling is such a great way to see the island, being able to breeze around at your own pace and there are some nice steep gravel roads that provide a small thrill as you fly down them with the wind in your hair. Having returned the bikes, we refreshed ourselves with the obligatory Tiger beer in the small square of what passes for the township. The island is dotted with little ramshackle huts and tin shanties that form part of the island's charm and allure. A world away from the dizzines of the glass evevator in our luxury hotel, Pulau Ubin was a welcome taste of the real world with it's amazing corals, jungle, mangoves, birdlife and slow pace of life.

A pirate lost in a corporate sea

I've been a bit miffed at the attention Flic has been getting from passer bys here in Singapore. Not because I don't like guys checking her out but because I haven't been getting the same attention from the girls (not even when I suck in my tummy!). But not in any seriousness, just a bit of light hearted competetion and interesting socialiological observation.

Asian women don't seem at all interested in swarthy, unshaven types with ripped jeans and pendants round their neck. But I discovered something interesting today.....have a shave and stick a suit on, and it's a VERY different story! Quite strange. Guess I'm not on Brunswick street anymore Toto.