Marching down streets

 When I left you I didn’t have much to report about my day. I was about to head to my call back for the corporate video casting. The dress code was casual smart. This means usually jeans, a collared shirt and dress shoes. Since my one dress shirt is well useless with wine stains and liquor stains, I was down to my purple dress shirt I had brought. I wore this for the first casting so it wasn’t my prime choice.

Leaving the apartment a little early I went on a hunt for a new polo. I easily found a decent one very quickly. Grabbed the medium then strolled on my way. Big mistake, medium here way smaller. I am going to try and take it back, but doubt I will have any luck. I couldn’t get the shirt on, probably could have used an extra large. I really hope I didn’t just burn $20 bucks, rookie mistake.

So I showed up to the casting wearing the purple dress shirt, I packed it with me as a back up, glad I did. Today’s call back casting was much busier than the same one the other day. Children were there and at least another 6 models. Today didn’t involve any talking, just big smiles and a few little acting things. I had to watch a movie and enjoy a cup of coffee (  I was watching the godfather drinking a cup of my pumpkin chai tea from davids tea mmm). It took very little time for me, which is generally a good thing because they got what they were looking for right away.

After that it was about 4:30, dinner time and I was only 15 minutes away from Tjong Bahru Market, from the Layover video. Laser sights and gps guided me there. It was Sunday evening so a large amount of the hawkers were closed. I found a rice porridge place with a line up so I enjoyed that with pork and crispy fried scallions.

In my never ending curiosity I walked around the next mall I saw, Tanglin Plaza. While there I found a department store called John Little. It was much more reasonably priced than the stores on Orchard Road or Marina Bay Sands, and had name brands like Arrow and Jockey. There I picked up a couple more pairs of underwear and a collared shirt. The 3 of those cost about $40. Much better.

During my walk, curiosity continued. It rained for about 15 minutes, I was prepared this time though, umbrella in hand.  The humidty was ridiculous by this point, I stopped at a place called Mr. Bean. Turns out the 900 other Mr. Beans I had seen before I should have checked out. They sell soy and almond milk and soy ice cream. So I picked up one of those, sans cone of course. 

To kill time in the evening, I went for another walk down Orchard Road. I have a feeling I could walk down this street a hundred times and see something new everytime. For example there was this weird guy hopped up on something. I wish you could have seen the look on my face, so puzzled as to what the hell was going on. I spotted this fruit, not exactly sure what it is. Figs? 

As I hopped onto the train for the route back I received a facebook message from one of my best friends during university Jenn. I am not sure what has gone on over the past year and a half but we have really struggled to connect. So we planned to have a skype conversation. It was awesome, so much has gone on for Jenn, she is studying audiology and keeping busy. She loves snowboarding now too. Mad props for her on that J. 

And that about brings me to the end of my day. It bugs me to know that football is starting in just over an hour. And the Sunday night game will be just starting as I wake up. But that is just life. Go Vikings! Hopefully Mr. Peterson will be in shape to play. Running backs sure have taken a beating this year all around. 

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.  

Beauty within the Beast

 So far today, I napped, showered, got vaccinated, had lunch, swam and worked out. I kept myself busy enough for a Saturday, but the evening was rolling around and I needed some entertainment. So I planned to go down to Orchard road, try to redeem that $100 certificate from 7 for all mankind as well as pick up a pair of underwear. The guys weren’t up to anything tonight  so I gave Alex a shout. I think she will be a good friend while I am here very genuine and wants to make it with modeling in an honest way. 

First stop was Dhoby Ghaut station to meet up. There are so many incredible Christmas trees around town, check this one out.

The malls here are incredibly big and confusing. With limited space horizontally many malls have 5 floors above ground and 4 floors below. Its rather incredible how intricately designed these places are with stores directly below road and everything. Eventually after a significant amount of wandering we found 7 for all mankind. Browsing through the clothes I didn’t see anything that jumped out at me. I then decided to ask the staff exactly about the voucher. You knew it was coming, the catch. It has to be on Denim and only regular priced denim. $450 dollar jeans, no thanks not today. Clothes are ridiculously overpriced here. I was looking on the 7 for all mankind website and the exact same jeans are $170 USD, the SGD isn’t that weak.

Conveniently CK was next door, so I picked up a pair of boxers. This time I remembered to buy white. Model tip: Always have a variety of colours of light and dark for everything (jeans, shirts, socks, and yes even underwear). 

After finishing that we headed to the foodcourt, I was hungry and hadn’t had dinner. After a bit of scoping out I followed the line again and had Indonesian curry chicken and guess what, rice.  It was quite delicious, but as usual way to much rice.  

A search for the Singapore Botanical gardens was on my list of adventure for the day. It is all incredible in there, so many plants I have never seen. The humidity was likely 100% while in the gardens, you could literally see the water in the air. I spotted a few geckos (can never seem to snap a pic, they are so fast), some bats and a snail. 

In my latest night yet, I walked into the apartment around 12:30. Thirsty and needing some sugar from all the walking, I decided to go back down to the courtyard vending machine and buy an A&W rootbeer. With my 1.10 I popped it into the machine and pressed the button. Just my luck, the machine didn’t register the change. Probably a good thing, letting me know that I should continue my spell away from pop. 

The names Bond, James Bond

Lets get some beats going for this. A James Bond Theme for you.

This is getting hammered out real quickly. I remembered to take the melatonin, so countdown is on till I crash. After a relatively inactive day I set out to do my first paid job since getting here. All I knew going in was “this is an affluent party and the theme is James Bond”. Fair enough, right up my alley considering I had been chatting with Brenna about James Bond and my flight was 007.

This was my first time taking the bus since getting here. It was nice and simple, tap my ezee pay card getting on and then again getting off. The bus brought my right across the street from my destination. Ugh one thing I really can’t seem to get used to when crossing the street is the direction of traffic. I always check both way, but I always look left then right. I need to change that habit to right first. It’s just one of those things, it’s the walking on the left side of the sidewalk, standing on the left side of escalator. Or when there are two escalators, the one you want is always to the left. I can’t count the number of times I have started trying to go up the down escalator. There are tons of those here by the way.

Upon my arrival I ask for Chris. Turns out the coordinator are Paul. A well-dressed small Asian guy, he looked like someone that would be watching a poker match in Casino Royale. He assistant was a beautiful Asian woman; she looked the part of someone’s eye candy. Our mission was simple. We were walking talking display pieces for some of the biggest people in the city. There were 3 ambassadors, several military, and owners of diamond mines and other various big money ventures. The merchandise. Stylistic and fashionable body armour.  I am talking polo shirts, ski jackets, sweaters, you name it. Miguel Caballero is the company that designs this stuff. Its hand made in Colombia. Here is a pic I snapped before we started. I hope to get some more from the event coordinator soon. 

There were 4 models. Myself, a Chinese guy from Hong Kong, a French guy and a girl from Romania. The three of them were from a different agency. The four of us strolled around for 3 hours letting people check out the armour. It was rather entertaining. There was one beautiful woman that said she already had one of the pieces. Crazy, I can’t imagine being in the market for that kind of stuff. Its certified 3A, which means the vest, can stop a point blank shot from an Uzi or a .44 magnum. 

I had a wonderful chat with the CEO for the Asian market and the director of marketing. Both are great people, offered me a place to stay in Hong Kong if I want to come up for a weekend. She also said she would love to have me help model this armour throughout Asia. I have her card.

I had fun tonight at the event. Unfortunately all the walking over the past few days I developed a blood blister on my heel. I have done wonders for giving it rest (wearing flip flops) and I put a band aid on it while wearing the shoes, but it swelled up quite a bit. A result of tight sock, and lots of standing. I took this pic when I got home so it came down quite a bit from that. The whole area is quite tender, likely going to take an ibuprofen too. 

On my walk to the bus I spotted a few notable cars.

 Okay I am nodding off goodnight. 

Oh and lastly here is the Jungle Gym workout area. 

Caught in the rain

I am going to bed the latest in the day yet, but I have a lot on my mind and wanted to share first. 

Credit goes of course to Luke for this awesome picture

After the quick stop at my place I had to head to a casting. This casting was for a corporate video of some sort. Upon leaving my place it was pouring cats and dogs and didn’t appear to be letting up. I ran up to my room and grabbed my jacket to drape over my bag and myself. I stopped at another point hoping the rain would let up. It didn’t! Fortunately there was this woman who offered to share her umbrella with me (note to self buy an umbrella). She was probably mid to late 20’s and commented on me being tall and handsome. Very very shy.

2 stops on the train led me to my station and a short walk to the casting. My arrival I was met by Ian the guy from yesterday and a Brazilian guy and a Russian girl. The audition is for a speaking role, and being one of the few fluent in English certainly helps my cause. I like to think of myself as being charismatic and outgoing, something that can portray confidence in front of the camera.

I spotted a STi on the way out the door from the casting

I left the casting and figured now was about time to check out Orchard road. This for you people in Halifax puts Spring Garden to shame, for those in Calgary the core has got nothing on this, and for those abroad I am not sure, but its massive.  I was impressed the other day with Marina Bay Sands Shoppes, but this is probably 2 km of 7 stories of malls.  

Shortly before I made my way onto the strip of stores I wandered around a few little storefronts. They must have easily been 25 custom tailors. In the market for a dress shirt I kind of walked a little slower to figure out what prices would be. These shops are interesting, 2 people work in tandem. One woman is outside and a man inside. She plays to your interest or none. Then they say well why don’t you just grab our business card. Swooped in. I entertained the thought as I am in need of a white dress shirt. I packed the wrong one. Smooth I packed one from when I bartended, it has wine and liquor stains all over.  I sat down; he showed me a few books of fabric. Discussed what the different ways he could make it look.  I asked about why I should get him to make it. He had Master Tailor certificate and top entrepreneur certificate for the last 2 years. Quote was 130 for an Egyptian cotton shirt.  I shrugged it off and said I was not interested in buying right now. He pushed and said why don’t I make you one then you decide if you want more. I think many people would collapse under the additional pressure he put. I just told him politely that if I was going to buy I would. Grabbed his card and peaced.

This is where it got rather entertaining, like a pack of horny men outside of a club, those scouts from the other tailors stalked me trying to get a piece of action. What line do you think they used when I blew them off? “ Here come grab my card”

Finally I made it to Orchard Road. It was magnificently decorated. Very festive and eye catching. By this time it was close to 5:30 and hunger pangs had begin to set in. My sights aiming for another cheap meal. I have learned quickly that if you want food you go to the very top floor or the very bottom. Starting at the basement I checked things out, nothing really interested me. So up I go, up, up, up. My destination was the 7^th floor of the mall. While browsing, something caught my eye. I had to look 2 maybe 3 times.  And I found dinner. Convenient the name of the place too.

Thats right! Rice flour rolls. They were awesome. Wrapping up dinner I cruised through many malls. My goal, a good quality inexpensive beard trimmer. I know what you are thinking now, Zach? Beard? Ya right! Well with my baby face a little scruff helps me look older. Rather than suffering with a clean-shaven period. Sorry ladies, I know how much you hate whisker rubs. I found one a Panasonic one in a department store. If I can remember to next time I will take pics, Sears you can learn a thing or two.

I also stopped by the apple store. I needed an usb cable to charge my almost dead iPod. Music is a fantastic way to help fly by train rides. This is an open call for suggestions. If anyone could email me mp3 versions that would be awesome. Apple store wanted 28 bucks, so I strolled on. I found a vendor in the mall, same exact cable 10 bucks. Works fine so far.

The first of many christmas trees

I think I know who likes these

Before heading on my way I stumbled upon a grocery store. I picked up a few things I didn’t have here yet. Laundry detergent, shower puffy thing, some hand sanitizer, a hand towel, and a larger body wash (turns out travel size doesn’t last when you have 2 or 3 showers per day).

This is where things got a little interesting yet again. I walked by this awesome Christmas tree where kids were playing in foam. Turns outs when you don’t have snow, you make foam.

I continued on my way home along Orchard Road. I was expecting a bit of a walk. It ended up being close to an hour. A very enjoyable walk though. I walk by a number of embassies, I wanted to take pictures but that’s not exactly legal. The rain all day made things incredibly humid. Wearing a dress shirt and jeans didn’t help my sweating case at all. I am glad that I was wearing flip-flops. Yesterday morning I developed a bit of a blood blister on my heel. Odd coming from the shoes I have been wearing daily for the past 6 months, humidity again to blame.

Seeing the kids jumping and dancing in this can only bring an ear to ear smile

After quite a ways of just residential (mansions I must add), I spotted a yellow sign. This is a good sign to see when you are thirsty and sweaty. It means A/C and fluids. I picked up this 7-up revive. Boy does it do the trick, 90 calories of sugar (a must as your metabolic rate is higher in warm temperatures), B vitamins and of course sodium. Tasted like grapefruit with very little carbonation.

Finally I was back at home. It was 9 and the pool closes in an hour. So I jumped into my shorts and swam back and forth for half an hour. I think that is the first time in my life I have ever done that. I also discovered that there is an indoor gym facility too. So that crazy jungle gym type gym isn’t all that I have access too. Kind of a nice thing to hear. 

Whoa, this is super long. Almost done, I promise. When taking care of my laundry, I took the opportunity to have a conversation with the woman who owns the apartment Michelle. We chatted for a bit, then I discovered that she tried to get into the Mount PR program, and then ended up getting a degree from SMU instead. Small world. We both shared our love for the 5 fishermen and Digby scallops. During that conversation it was established that she is totally cool with me cooking as long as I do my dishes.

Phewf! I’m spent!