A Tiger is waiting in the freezer

Today was a very slow day work wise for me. Jet lag is starting to clear from its ugly path. Although I was still significantly tired this morning. I jumped out of it with a morning Skype session, followed by the pool and the gym. I need to put on about 1 inch in my chest measurement, so that means bigger chest and bigger back.  My back is getting well taken care of with swimming, because face it I don’t swim that often and I can feel it pretty much every day. So today was a day to pump my Arnold sized chest into action. I cooled off and achieved some cardio in the pool afterwards.

I set up a meeting with the wonderful ladies at the agency to pick up my allowance and chat a little bit. We talked about my cat allergy and they all suggested Zyrtec from the pharmacy, its apparently not to expensive and works like a charm. My cat allergy hasn’t been bugging me that much. But I am very cautious to close my door any time I enter or leave my room. I spend very little time in the common area as a result. Only slightly off topic. During our discussion we talked about the new Pics from Luke Elijah and how we were quite pleased with them. We also discussed about building my book by doing other test shoots. The trouble is actually find a time that works for both a photographer and me. Good news of course! My schedule will be quite busy for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The details haven’t all been confirmed yet, but I got the corporate video gig, also the condo development one and I have another fashion show for Friday. If I were a little more androgynous I would likely let or a squeal or some crazy prepubescent Justin Bieber excitement sound. Instead, I am super stoked.  The video is a 12-hour day, which is kind of crazy. I think it should be fun too. Good experience…adventure.

After leaving OMM I was somewhere between Chinatown and Little India. I went back to the hawker centre that Pat took me to last week. I went straight to the same place to get an Avocado juice. So awesome. Lunch hour was tapering off when I was there it was close to 2:30, so many places were sold out and closed. I found that kind of interesting that many signs have an opening time say 11:00am and close when they run out of food. I found a soup place, to try something different. I wanted this pork rib soup but they were sold out. So I asked the guy, what the other 10 people in line had ordered. Majority ruled and I asked for Buddha Jumped over the Wall with some rice. I swear I took a picture, but it’s not on my phone for some reason. L . Anyway this soup had everything, oyster, squid, pork, chicken, celery, carrot, some sort of root vegetable, mushrooms, probably more that I can’t remember. He also gave me this little disc with a sauce in it. I dipped my finger in the sauce and it almost knocked me over, so salty. It was hot too which I love, but I didn’t use it.  The verdict, way to much food. It was decent I would probably give a 6.5 out of 10. The roasted duck the other day was an 8. Worth the experience for sure.

I saw 4 of these police special command vehicles today. This was outside a bank.

I wanted to continue my adventure so I Crip walked my way over to Dhoby Ghaut station and searched out the printer guy to get my new pics for my book. Curious the whole way I walked into 3 or 4 malls, just to see what they had. There are stores here where you go to play your FPS video games, pretty cool, although I have better things to do. I also darted in and out of the malls, as it felt more humid today than any other day, probably because it rained most of the afternoon.  

Melissa also got back to me and introduced me to a friend closer to my age here in Singapore and also a very experienced woman in Hong Kong with modelling. 

I came home for a bit, watched an episode of Dexter. After much effort I finally found a site that streamed video here in Singapore. If anyone has suggestions they would be greatly appreciated. Then the gurgle of my stomach called me to go grab dinner. Here it is:

I stopped by fair price picked up a few snacks, nature valley bars and some more nuts. And because I haven’t in a while and I have been craving. I spotted this and thought of Dad. He calls the bums that ask for money downtown this. 

And finally I bring you the title of my post:

I titled the post this so I wouldn't forget that my beer is sitting there. This will be my first beer in Singapore.

 PS. Thanks guys I cracked a thousand hits sometime over the last day or two. 10 countries are represented. 

The Layover

After a very late night last night I had a much slower start to the day today, I woke up at 10. It’s close to 11:30 and I have only had breakfast and read my book a little bit. That will be the plan for the next little while as well. Its decent out so I will likely lay by the pool catch some sun and read my book. And just when I start to feel like its too warm, approximately an hour and a half ago when I first got up, I will jump in the pool and swim for maybe half an hour.  I will have to be careful about all the swimming though as my back can grow quite quickly and I don’t want to look like a monkey hopped up on hair gel.  

After waking I took Canmoreorless’s advice from beyond.ca about watching a show about Singapore. After searching high and low for a torrent and painfully waiting for it to download. I found it on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. I think this video does wonders for showing the culture of food here. It is Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover: Singapore. Enjoy! I know I did! I haven’t been to the Tijong Bahru hawker centre, but it is only a 15 minute walk from my place so may go there for breakfast tomorrow.  

Are you still upright?

As I mentioned, yesterday was a great day, I started to see some of the perks of being a model. The free hair cut, a few certificates and I also learned that clubbing is next to nothing for models (drinks, cover you name it is all covered for you). I woke up around 8 am had a quick Skype conversation with both Kelly and Brenna. I am a little homesick, so its nice to chat with friends back home. If anyone ever wants to Skype me feel free: wintonyk

After that I hit up the pool again. My body is starting to get a killer workout from swimming, I can feel it all throughout my shoulders, back, core and a little in my legs even. I am starting to get to the point of enjoying it. I have also tossed in some of the P90x exercise but in water. Man that is tough.

I strolled from there onto the Dawson Clinic for my appointment. Needle #2 of the twinrix. For those of you that have seen it, I didn't fair so well with the first. I had a Vaso-Vagal (essentially my body was like hey! What's up?!?! and decided to let me pass out). Excitement for the day right. Well this time I made sure I had eaten before going to the clinic. I had a couple buckwheat crisp crackers and some adams peanut butter. Then also an asian pear during my stroll. One last step was to pick up some Pocari Sweat, that shit is an awesome electrolyte drink, way better than gatorade. The Dr. I met with was great, we had a short conversation and I explained to him about my vasovagal in relation to low blood sugar. For the vaccine he asked me to lay on the bed and wait 5 min, then sit up wait a couple more then I was good to go. And... I WAS!!! No pass out. It's a good thing too, because I was at least 30 pounds heavier and 6 inches taller than everyone in the clinic.

Time for lunch, I rolled over to the place I tried duck yesterday and had roasted pork. It was great.

I made the entire trip without getting rained on. Well almost, the last 50m I got drenched. Apparently umbrellas don't do much good when you leave them at home. I had a great opportunity to chat with Mom, Dad and Ben on Skype when I got home too. Other than mom, this was the first time we had an opportunity to catch up.

I hit the gym for a couple hours after that, sorry I forgot to snap a pic. Just showered and now am off to see what I can score with that 100 bucks from yesterday and pick up some underwear.

TIP: You need more than 7 pairs of underwear in singapore. You sweat to much to stay comfortable in one a day.

I finally took the jump

I had a relatively early start to the day today. I had to be at the Marina Bay Shopping centre for 8:30. I arrived at precisely 8:30. The big show is tonight and they wanted us to be there before store opening for a rehearsal. The walk is very simple. 2 pauses and a strong charismatic look for the guy and big smiles for the ladies. Spotted this funny sign on the train on my way home. 

The entire rehearsal took less than an hour. After that I was on my way home to grab a little food and relax. Jet lag is still sitting on the doorstep for me and I ended up taking a half hour nap. I feel like I am coming out the end of the tunnel now, which is rather relieving. Tomorrow will be 7 days since the first twinrix vaccination. So I went to the nearest clinic to get set up with an appointment for my needle. Lesson learned last time tells me to eat right before I go, have lots of water and carry a juice. Saturday at 11:45 is my appointment. I picked up a Nature Valley Bar from 7-11 on my way home. They have less sugar and more fibre than the ones in canada and no barley malt. 

After the stop by the clinic to make the appointment, it was time to grab a bite to eat. I discovered that I don’t have to search high and low to find good cheap food. The food court in this mall was directly across from the clinic. Convenient I must say. Remember: follow the crowds. I went to the biggest line. Roast duck, with veggies, soup and plain rice ($3). Deal! The portion of meat was a little smaller, maybe 3 oz of duck. It was relatively lean which kind of surprised me. Very good food. The kiosk actually had 2 signs about its award winning food. Bonus! See what you learn by following the locals.  As I walked out the door it was raining. I was caught in the rain and only one thing to do. Buy an umbrella. I found a decent collapsible one for $15. Today I finally pulled the trigger and picked up an umbrella.

A quick stop back home and 20 minutes on skype with mom then back to Marina Bay. Its strange I think I talk to mom more now than when I was in Halifax. I arrived at the store promptly at 3. They directed me to a salon 360. I was met by 4 diffferent people, escorted to my chair, offered a drink and they cut and styled my hair. Free haircut. I haven’t cut my hair in a few months as they want it longer up top. So this was welcome. The back was trimmed and thinned out same with the sides. Next was makeup. Guys make up is easy. A few little brush strokes, and some foam pad thingy and I was done, ready to go.

After that I was left with 3 hours to kill. After walking up and down the mall a few times, I picked up some sunscreen (this is a gimme should have done this a long time ago. No burns though!) and a blister pad for my heel. My foot is still swollen. Not nearly as bad as yesterday though. I need to find different socks and  you have no idea how hard it is to find dress socks in this mall. I mean I guess I could go to Dior and buy some $50 socks, but not really in my game plan. 

I sat down and just finished eating. The menu for dinner was chicken, vermicelli and loads of vegetables. As you can see from the picture there is a red sauce. I had no idea what it was, it looked like ketchup and tasted like a furnace in hell. The bowl had some really sweet sauce so I didn’t use any.

My show starts in about an hour and a half now. So I will stroll over to Banana Republic I think I saw one, I am sure they have some socks.

Jet lag setting in

So after a long day yesterday, I realized after posting I had forgotten to take my melatonin. This was one of the reasons I had difficulty falling asleep last night. It was almost 2 when I realized this. Immediately after taking some I crashed and slept quite well.

Today was the day to have a slow start. I didn't have much on the schedule for the day. Just a simple mix and mingle James Bond themed thing. I will get to that more in another post. It wasn't until about noon when I really got rolling. Around 10 I called my agent just to see what was up. From then until lunch time I just dozed in and out of sleep. Fatigue hit me hard.

The clock struck 12 and it was time for me to scope out some of the local food. Upon my google search I found a hawker centre maybe a 15 minute walk away. During this walk, I passed a rolls royce dealer, 2 audi, one super car dealer, lotus, skoda and then way off the beaten path a chrysler dealership. I have really noticed a ton of very expensive cars on the road.

I found a little food centre, checked the prices $5. I can do better than that I thought to myself. So I kept exploring. I turned a corner and randomly saw this:

If only I could eat pizza. I would have grabbed a piece of the pie, you know, as part of my patriotic duty. Onward I moved, down a set of 20 stairs and their it was. Packed shoulder to shoulder. In any given hawker you will have 5-10 stands with the exact same thing. A little tip I figured out is simply follow the crowd. These people eat this food daily, they know what's up. I found myself some Malay Chicken Rice. This will be a trend, I know its a go to and it won't make me sick. Although I do need to venture out to other choices. I want to I should say. I also tried a different juice. I had an ABC - thats apples, beetroot and carrots. I figured I may as well get more vegetables into me. It's awesome you just choose your fruit/vegetable they throw in blender and add ice.

That expedition took about an hour and a bit. When I arrived home I had planned to Skype with mom and maybe dad if he was still awake. I just missed dad and he was sawing wood. Mom and I chatted for about 45 minutes its great to update her.

My daily exercise regimen has included swimming. So I went down to the pool swam for half an hour. That is all my body can handle right now. My shoulders and back can feel it each morning when I wake up. Thats a good thing of course. I read a bit of my book that I started 6 Months ago, "ice man, confessions of a contract killer". This guy is brutal. Entertaining none the less and involves one of my interests, mafia.

I showered, tried out my new beard trimmer and made my trek to my job.