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Play! Well, I work hard, and I play harder. Life would be ideal if one’s vocation was also one’s avocation. Wouldn’t life be a vacation then! But I’m not there (yet), so I have to set aside play-time. Well, “play” to me encompasses almost everything I do which isn’t work. |
I can often be found at the following places outside office hours:
Hanging out at a cafe with a book or my journal (current favourites are Cafe Operetta – owned by my friends Ernesto Bedmar and Justin Hill and located in a very famous redlight district in Singapore – Keong Saik Street; and Blackjack Cafe, which features a divinely baked apple pie). [Hmm…this needs to be updated. Operetta has since closed, and Blackjack is about to. Am I a jinx or what? Will the same happen to Starbucks?]
In-line skating from Fort Road to Changi Airport (probably about 20 km, if not more), especially on Sundays. I really still can’t do much more than go forward. I’m working on my sharp turns and trick stops stith my good friend Philip’s guidance (gee, now that Philip’s gone off to New York, who am I supposed to skate with?), but the going’s slow, especially since I only get out to blade on Sundays. Honestly speaking though, ever since I got my bearings upgraded to Abec 5, I’ve hardly gotten out. The new wheels and bearings just *fly* though.
Eating at anyone of literally dozens upon dozens of fabulous restaurants and eateries in Singapore. Recently, the loval city paper came out with a restaurant guide to all the good food in Singapore, and I was surprised to discover that in the year and a half I’d been back to Singapore, I had found almost all the ones which were either recommended, or highly reccomended. My parents complain that I hardly eat at home. Well, it’s just more fun (but a lot more expensive) to eat out. Current favourites are Da Paolo at Club Street for the perfectly prepared Northern Italian food, Paladino di Firenze for the heavenly melazane, Spot on the Hub for the ambience, Pearl River Palace for the best Peking Duck this side of Beijing. I could go on and on. It’s really “the Great Singapore Pastime”…hunting down the latest and the bestest restaurants. People spend whole evenings talking about this restaurant and that. Which, to me, beats talking about “them Bears”.
At my computer, working on this infernal webpage that never seems to get done.
Dancing away at the Velvet Underground. This used to be my corner of the universe on a Saturday night. I have since found more interesting things to do. SSDD (Same shit, different day). Same old crowd week in week out. Seriously, the decor is wonderful (Phillipe Starck), and the cosiness of the club endearing…but when you know all the staff by name, and half of the clientele, it’s seriously time to move on. I’m so over it now…(OK…maybe this is old news too. The next door club, Zouk, is my new ‘home’, especially since I’ve recently started a new Sunday night gay concept party called Juicy! I’m trying to bring back some classic, feelgood, high energy clubbing back to the scene, and this is it. Our parties have so far garnered rave reviews, and is the new talk of the town! Yes, yes, I’ve turned a pro party thrower…)
Throwing a party. Between September 96 and 97, I threw something like a dozen parties, which got progressively wilder and bigger. These ranged from ‘intimate’ networking dinners for 40, to an almost legendary New Year’s Eve party (much talked about because of what happened between 15 or so very uninhibited men on the top floor of the house), to a birthday party for 600. My reputation as “Party-maestro” spun so much out of control that I’d get anonymous phone calls from men asking me if I was throwing a party that weekend. Don’t ask me how they got my mobile number…it was cute at first, but then it just got annoying. I’ve kind of upped the ante a little by organising Juicy! @ Zouk (benefitting Action for AIDS), and this is one concept party that ROCKS! Partying has never been better.
Attending some artsy-fartsy event or other. Each time, I keep telling myself I am so over these openings and shows…but what else is there to do on a boring Tuesday evening? I have season tickets to one of the local theater companies – Theatreworks. They do get a little bit adventurous and not too safe, which is something I respect. Singaporeans tend to be too safe in anything they do, so I respect those who push the boundaries, even if the efforts may sometimes come off as amateurish.
(Hmm…an undated entry – I’d place it sometime between 1997 and 1998? – 5 Jan 2007)