Boy's holiday with my son (Shots for Vogue)

As we all age and mature we discover mistakes and learn from them, its all part of that circle we call life. Show me someone that has never made a mistake and I will show you a fool. Fortunately I haven’t made any mistakes that have led to a child of my own. I am however becoming older and beginning to portray the role of father much more frequently.

With the shots from Vogue being released this past week as well as a catalogue and a chat with my buddy who will be a father in the next month, I decided to take a look at what kind of father I would hope to be with the honest twists. 

I enjoy kids, although I am no daycare dream, I can do well to keep children entertained but much of the time I am baffled.  Changing diapers is a bridge I prefer to cross when it’s necessary.  Tea time? Hell yeah I have been known to join the ruckus of a teddy bear picnic. 

Communication has become something I think is on lockdown. Experiencing different cultures and people with minimal English language skills I have discovered the ability to tone down vocabulary and use gestures to describe things.  An ongoing effort to increase ability to show empathy is well on its way as well. 

Obviously there is so much more to being a parent that you couldn't even begin to get into true detail. However, those were just a few thoughts, enjoy the rest of the shots from Vogue Thailand. 

Here is my first son, oddly he isn't the oldest. 

Bring out the dogs

Time and time again I remind myself to loosen up, relax. I take great pride in my ethic and the quality of my work, although sometimes the fun factor is sacrificed.

Fun! Isn’t that why we bust ass at work, so we can have money for fun? Some of us stress the entire time while we are at work, others love every moment of their job. I have been fortunate to hold a number of jobs that I have loved and created challenge. Challenge is always the key for me, be it nutrition consulting, personal training, modeling, acting or even rickshaw running. Each job has always presented a challenge for me, each challenge unique to their industries. 

Fun for me comes from these challenges. This is what has fed my passion to learn and fed my love of exercise. The challenge of hitting the summit brings a rush. My workouts that push me to the edge create an exhilaration second to only the next workout. And that’s where this buddy comes in:

The prowler, or the sled, is an amazing piece of gym equipment I share a love hate relationship with. Panting and struggling, I feel no different than my dog Diesel when he pulled me on my rollerblades.

Here is a sample of my recent workout:

15 minute dynamic warmup

80 ft sled drags

-       Immediately followed by 80 ft hamstring drags

Repeated 2-4 times with 30 sec rests

40 ft lateral drags (repeat for other side)

-       Immediately followed by 40 ft sled pull throughs

-       Immediately followed by 40 ft alternating one arm sled row

Repeat full circuit after 60 second rest

Today my hamstrings are gassed, my thighs feel full, and my ass feels like it will fall off, but I love it. I feel like I had fun with it after all and that’s the most important thing you should choose about your method of exercise. Give it a shot, did you have fun? 

Just Hanging around

Thursday seemed to be a rather uneventful day for me.  A couple TVC castings, of which I certainly won’t get as I am not exactly a prime example of some that is good at dancing to Bollywood music.

Friday was a cluster of a day that involved the girls being late for pretty much everything they could. I am a pretty chill guy and it takes a lot to get me ticked off, but tardiness is not something I tolerate well.  I understand that there are circumstances that we all come across that prevent us from arriving precisely on time, but generally within a few minutes is no big deal. For me, the line is drawn with blatant disrespect of time, and failure to acknowledge the actions. A number of the girls have done this to us respectively this week. Some of this might be a bit of a cultural thing as it frequently is Brazilian girls that do this.  Not all of course, and it is a bit of generalization based on observed actions. Juliana did this to Irwan and I twice in Singapore, then again at a job, now here in Bangkok it has been happening frequently.

Kevin and I had a botched casting because the casting was run incredibly poor; we ditched that for a casting with Thai Airways.  This casting was much more pleasant and I feel very confident that one of us has what they are looking for.

Now onto the fun for the evening, all of the models with the agency were “booked” to attend a wedding of a very prominent professional’s son. This was hand down one of the most impressive receptions that I have ever been to. Rather than just talk about it, picture time.

More details about the TVC, I will be writing it later tonight and hopefully posting tomorrow. The TVC is going to be broadcast in France and is advertising an pool cleaning robot who is out on the town for an adventure.  I happen to be the window-cleaning guy who has the robot pass by while hanging from a skyscraper. Fortunately I was only about 30 or 40 feet up for the filming. 

For Serious!

As I mentioned in my last post I was starting to come down with something. Not like the last time where it was Air Conditioning drying out my throat, but legitimate cold, full fledged, knock you on your ass cold.  Well it’s here; it arrived full force on Friday night, calmed down during the day on Saturday, and then continued to rock me since. Those 4 years without getting sick it over. I really enjoy being healthy, but I guess a cold needs to knock you down a step or two once in a while.

Friday I had a terrible sleep, very dry heavy cough, combined with a stuffed nose. Once I finally did fall asleep as per usual fashion, there isn’t a thing that will wake me up.

Up bright and early (7:30 am is now considered early for me), I hopped on the train to head to my job. Saturday I was doing a commercial shoot for Crocs. Thankfully it wasn’t the sandals (although everyone still raves about how comfortable they are), but it was for eyewear. I find this situation quite ironic as well. It’s been just over a year since I made one of the best decisions I could ever make. LASER EYES! So after a year of avoiding glasses, I am helping advertise, my enemy. To be honest crocs has some nice glasses.

Naturally I arrive 10 minutes early, and I am the first one there. Over the next 40 minutes everyone else rolls in. First, an assistant, then a replacement model (Replacement for Cheyne, but wasn’t needed), then Cheyne, Victoria, Zianna and the rest of the crew.  What are the odds exactly, that I know quite well all 3 other models, would regard them all as friends and get a long great with them? Anyway, I had the most shots to be done so time for my stylist to get to work.

As I mentioned sleep was not the best the night before, so hiding those bags under my eyes as a good idea, along with 20 minutes spent on my hair. It was looking really cool actually, but for my first shot I needed to be wearing a toque. Well no one knew what a toque was, so I had to explain it to them. Beanie, really? This first shot was an outdoorsy one; it’s going to look super cool!

I don’t know how many of you know what its like to be on a commercial shoot, it also depends on the crew you work with. Fortunately, this crew was awesome! We worked together last month on the Johnny Walker/Smirnoff thing (sorry no pics as it was an internal thing), alongside Zianna actually too.  It is a very relaxed environment where you can laugh around and chat, when not shooting. Heck even when shooting there is no harm in cracking a few jokes. Especially if its shots where you smile, a joke or two helps. 

We did a couples shot of Victoria and I, then Cheyne and Zianna. I think I spent half the time laughing for my couples shot because they kept changing things up on us. First me sitting, then us standing, then Victoria on a 6 inch high box making her taller then me, then me on the box, then no box. It ended up being quite fun, loose one could say. 

The day wrapped up with one group shot and then an additional individual shot.  I had fun! These are the things I truly enjoy about modeling, relaxed, fun, and still productive. O yeah, while I was waiting around I found a toy to play with! 

Still feeling sick I went to find me some Buckley’s (tastes bad, but it works). They don’t have Buckley’s cough syrup in Singapore L So I had to settle for Robutussum and Fisherman’s Friend.  I feel terrible for my lack of exercise lately. Other than the walking around/ too and from MRT, bus, etc. I have not spent much time being active. This bronchial tightness is the worst of it, and general lack of energy.  But the key for everything is knowing your body and your limits. If I were to go do my 1-hour bike or a tough heavy workout, my body would likely shut down. So for the sake of recovery, I will listen and rest until I am fully recovered.