A kid in a candy store

This is exactly how I felt today.  I had a fantastic sleep yesterday and spent my morning poolside. It was extra sunny today, not a cloud in the sky, which for Singapore is a big change.  I probably spent close to 45 minutes in the water, which has got to be some sort of record for me.

Following that I skyped with mom until I needed to shower and meet up with model friend. Exploring the mall, we searched for a bookstore. After wandering our way down to B4 (that’s right 4^th basement), we discovered that we actually needed to go to floor 3. That’s 7 flights on the escalators. Before that though she wanted to stop by this awesome DC comics store to pick up some merch for friends back home. And that’s when I spotted the Dark Knight. 

Finally making it to the bookstore (it’s Called Prologue), I spotted the fiction section. Under the advice of a very beautiful woman back from Canada (there are a lot of these women in my life J) I found my new book. Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver, it’s the latest James Bond novel. It was a little difficult due to the fact I was looking for a different cover. The one here is white, where as in NA it is black and has a big 007 on it. 

The time rolled in on dinnertime for me and under the discretion of a pointing finger and a picture I tried Beef Kway Teow? I think that’s what it was called. It was beef, peppers, green onions, been sprouts and wide rice noodles. As I was eating this I thought, wow eating out in Singapore is so much easier than in Canada. My model friend commented on how weird I am for eating all the local foods, trying a different dish every opportunity I can.

My day continued to get more exciting when model friend talked about this place that has chocolate. I bought myself a box of the Royce Japanese chocolate. Dark of course, 82% bitter and 94% extra bitter, they came in little 1/3 oz. packages inside a bigger one. Immediately I tried and the chocolate was decadent. Very rich, these chocolates will likely last me until I am done my time in Singapore. This was the candy store part, or was it.

Model friend made my day with this move and made today unforgettable. The garage! Yes the garage! This garage was far more than I could have imagined. She lives in a very wealthy building and the cars in this garage were what dreams are made from. It reminded me very much of that poster in my guidance counselors office. I think they all had one as a requirement. The reasons for higher learning or something like that poster.  

This garage was incredible. Many Rolls Royce, to many BMW, Merc, and Audi to pay attention to. The cars that caught my eye were the incredibly sexy automobiles of the Aston Martin variety.

Audi perhaps? 

Although you can never go wrong with having several Lamborghini in the picture.

Or Ferrari

And one of my all time favourite cars the 911 GT3RS 

Yippee. I was so excited. Here is a YouTube of what I was looking at. Okay here are two videos of it.

After spending at least a couple hours admiring the beauty, model friend showed me the Grocer Jason’s. They had a lot more western things; I figured this would be a good opportunity to familiarize myself with the store. I spotted these.

We all know my never-ending search for gluten free. I had a great chuckle when I saw this. It is always important to acknowledge that just because it lacks gluten, doesn’t make it any healthier than the Choco crisp or other cereals next to it. 

Seeing the cereal reminded me that I didn’t have any left at home. So I continued towards the Tanglin Market only a few blocks away. And then flash, it hit me. Brown Rice Paradise. This is kind of a community natural foods store. I spotted some of my classic favourites and some new products. A picture is worth a thousand words. I was speechless for much of the day so here you go:

And Haley, we totally get ripped off with clif bars at Costco. Blueberry crisp, cookies and crème, brownie, vanilla almond, white chocolate macadamia, not to mention Clif granola bars and many other awesome products.

For a day without work I have to say it was incredibly eventful. I was so excited with everything that happened today. Huge thanks to model friend for showing me a good time, both good company shopping and opening my eyes and dropping my jaw.

Hello, this is your 5-year-old son you have never met

 That part is kind of interesting, but I will get to that later. In the meantime, I had a shoot today for the Condo Development.  I didn’t know what to expect going into the day, other than my Geri and I were working together. We met up at the train station and went on our way to the first shooting location. My awesome sense of direction sent us the wrong way to start with, smooth, real smooth.

Upon arrival the photographer was outside having a smoke and a few people were waiting for us so we could all get started. Hair and make up for me first. I had my hair swung up and puffy, I don’t know exactly how to describe hair. Had an awesome chat with the stylists and especially the makeup artist as she had the most awesome shirt ever. For all you Mo-bros and Mo-sistas check it out. The craziest part is that no one in Singapore even knows about Movember. She was pretty stolked when I told her about the event.

Right after my styling was all done they said I look younger than my pictures. Maybe I should have some stubble. Great, I hadn’t shaved since I arrived (only trimmed) and I was asked to be clean-shaven for my arrival. I let them know that I photograph older than I look in person. I snapped a quick shot of our visual guide for the first scene. I was in a purple shirt, dark suit and white aviator type glasses. My goal was to look cool. And in the background I was to have a beautiful woman looking sexy, sophisticated and charming. That’s where Geri came in. She was awesome to work with yesterday, as she was a familiar face and someone to talk to. Today she was equally great and we managed to work well on camera together as well. I haven’t worked with a ton of women in the same shot, but she is one of the better for sure. Something between the ears, which can sometimes be missing in models.

The location was pretty cool as well. It was a café or restaurant kind of place. The venue specialized in chocolates, cookies and other delicassen (no duck lard though).  Here are a few pictures. I read all the ingredients and to no surprise all white flour and butter. I guess I could have bought a meringue. How boring though. As I began to get hungry, Geri whipped out a bag of baby carrots. They were awesome.

After finishing at the café, 4 of us hopped into a cab for our next destination, the condos. I cannot for the life of me remember where we were in the city, but the houses were built on the edge of a nature reserve. When I looked out the window of the cab, I thought I saw a stray cat. But upon second glance I realized it was a monkey, and not just one, maybe 20. I was unable to get a picture though. L . Notice the fence around the building, which is not to prevent crime, there is basically none here. Rather that fence is to keep the monkeys from stealing stuff from people. Apparently you should not walk around with groceries in that area, as monkey will mug you.

Arriving at the condo around noon, we had lunch. It was chicken rice. Notice a theme? I think chicken rice is just simple and everyone seems to enjoy it. Today was 100x better than yesterday though. Although, I could always use more chili sauce. Next shot, in “my Porsche”. 

They dressed me in a white linen polo and some khaki slacks; Geri sat in the passenger seat in a white dress, hair blowing in the wind. The Porsche unfortunately was parked and it was a silver boxster. I realized at that moment that these cars looked cheap. The interior was plain. I felt a little like the guys on Top Gear as Geri and I disregarded the cheap interior of the car. It made it rather easy though to be smiling while in the car as we laughed consistently for an hour, at that and other things. 

Thanks Aska for posting on FB while I was still writing

I had some time off until my next series of shots, so I picked up my book. Yes! I actually remembered my book. Grabbing a blanket as a pillow, I lay on the hardwood reading. I maintain that I was reading the entire time, but Geri swears she woke me up when it was my turn to shoot again.

This last shot was where things get interesting. I put on the khaki pants again and a sweater/button shirt. It was actually one piece but looked like 2. Something from Giordano here. Way to warm for this environment, but totally could see myself wearing it back in Canada.  We did a few test shots with me in a chair playing with a R/C Helicopter controller. The pictures were taken at profile. And then who shows up, my “son” and his mother. His mother was very kind and let me know he just woke up from a nap. Today marked my first day working with kids.

To start I had to earn his trust. This was a challenge to start with, so I had him teach me how to play a game on the iPad. I asked for a high 5, nothing. Eventually I managed to get him closer to position. My next task was more difficult; I had to get him to go form iPad to R/C controller. Tough luck eh? But one of the gentlemen assisting picked up the actual helicopter and held it. We powered everything up and had my son “flying the helicopter”.  Basically the guy held it and moved it up and down for us. It was great because my “son” learned how the left moves it up and down and speeds it up. He began to trust me; I managed to get both hands on the controller with him. This action really gave me an ability to steer both mine and his body movement in front of the camera to get us in a better position. Certainly no posing was going on here. I think we both started to have fun.

That helicopter adventure with my son wrapped up the day for me.  While waiting around earlier I discovered proper etiquette when receiving business cards.

TIP: You accept a business card with both hands. Upon receiving you study the card.

I met a woman who is vice president for a number of resorts in Asia, actually for 2 or 3 major ones in Bali, a destination I would like to possibly go over the holidays/ if I have a few days off. I asked her if I could exchange work (photo-shoot) for accommodations, and she had replied that she has done that before.

My day was over. On my walk to the bus, I really wanted to snap a picture of the monkeys. Unfortunately there were none to be seen. I must find my way back to that area again some other time.

I made my way to Clementi Mall via bus with plan to head to home from the MRT station there. Of course curiosity got the better of me and I checked out the mall. I want to go back there when I have more cash. After misplacing 2 t-shirts, I am running a little short on shirts. The store didn’t take credit or debit, just this NETS card I see around all the time. I stopped by the food centre and saw something new I wanted to try. I want to try a clay pot dinner. That will be another time; I had a Hotplate meal, double salmon, 30%more rice and vegetables. What makes this really awesome is that your food is served on a scalding hot iron plate. It’s sizzling. You actually stir it and let it sit a bit and mix and cook right in front of you. I have indulged a few times this week; I spent another 6 bucks on dinner. I warrant the extra money because I have had a few meals provided for me.

While at the mall I picked up some Zyrtec, no more worries of itchy eyes or anything from the cats in the apartment.

After getting home I did a workout and then a swim. I roasted my shoulders pretty good in the gym tonight though. Upon trying to swim I could hardly push the water my shoulders felt so fatigued. Great workout! O and here is where I actually pump iron. 

I have had an insatiable appetite today. I think I may have some almonds before bed here.  Adios my friends, until tomorrow.