Grieve

I grieve tonight. Just came back from the X-Men 3 movie. It's totally flat, it has absolutely no character development and it has the biggest plot loophole ever. The film also doesn't have a 'glossy finished' look, at some points it looked like a indie movie. Really really am grieved... they took the characters we loved in X-Men 1 & 2 and made them into cardboard characters... whoever did this film did not love the characters... it's just tragic lah... dono how to say this but how could they just mess the thing up like that? Really messed up this one. sob.

Wes

Back in Spore

Hi all,

Back in Spore. Landed in Terminal 2 at 7am after a 12hour flight with Singapore Airlines. Experience was better than we had anticipated, the service was stellar. Inflight movies were the r0xx0rs. Watched about 4 movies in all, couldn't sleep both Jo and I. How's that for being the cheapest airline to fly back from Paris!! (tried MAS and AirFrancce but they were more ex)

We caught some sleep from 12pm to 5pm plus. My mom cooked dinner and we went to see Jo's parents after that. Her mom and dad got a shock seeing us at their house. Coz we told everybodies that we were hitting Spore on the 25th. :-)

Will not be blogging till we hit Paris in 2nd week of June. Have a good holiday all.

Wes

Rose Garden

Was a really nice day when we walked past the rose bush in the courtyard. Never seen a rose this big and pretty before. Looks like we are staying in Rose Garden II. kekekekeke. :-)

Paris Update: 18May06 - Cleared Medical Exam

We cleared the medical examination!!!!

It was nerve-wrecking coz we have been warned by our visa lady 3 times not to mention my medical history. According to her, it will only complicate matters and end up an administrative nightmare. So we decided that unless we are asked, we will not volunteer the information.

As it turns out, we went for the medical exam, took our x-rays and all. Seemed ok, nobody asked anything. Then we were called individually into little rooms where the doctors will show us our x-rays. And I was first. So I went in and the doctor was very nice, spoke to me in English. He showed me my x-ray and this was how things went:

Doc: This is your heart (does a thumbs up sign and smiles)

Jodie: Great.

Doc: and these are your lungs (does a thumbs up sign again and smiles)

Doc sits down and runs through some standard questions with me, each time happy with the answers and does the thumbs up continuously. Then,

Doc: Anyone in the family with serious health problems? Father, mother, brother, sister…

Jodie: Nope.

Doc does thumbs up again.

Doc: (while ticking off some boxes and not looking at me) And you have no major illnesses either…

And there it was. My moment of dilemma. You see, if he had asked me if I have had any major illnesses, it would be easy for me to say, yes, I have. But in this case, he ASSUMED I did not. AND he was not looking at me. So if I just kept my mouth shut and not say anything, he would skip by the segment and technically, I would not have told a lie. So while all that was running through my head, he continues…

Doc: no hospitalization, no surgery, no…

Jodie: Actually, I have a history of leukemia.

Doc: (stops talking, stops smiling) Oh.

And I thought to myself, “There! You blew it! See, he ain’t not smiling no more…great job, Jodie Koh, now you probably have to re-apply everything all over again…Bravo..”

And he asked me for more info, all the while writing all the information down in a box that seems too small to contain all the information that he was scribbling. And he looked serious. And I was nervous.

Then he asked me, “You are here for long term?”. To which I replied, “Yes.” And he asked, “You need a reference to a blood specialist here?” And I said, “No.”

And he looked at me, took a stamp and said, “It is finished and stamped it on my form and signed his name, looked at me again and said, “You are cured. No problem.”

I wanted to bend over and kiss his feet there and then.

I did my part. I kept to truth, integrity, honesty and obedience as best as I knew how. And God did His part. He performed His miracle and increased our faith in Him yet once again.

12 reasons we thank God today

Today we sat down and thought about the entire process of our moving to Paris. Of course, not matter how much people have told us it was such an exciting and fun thing to do, it was not an easy choice for us from Day One.

And our thoughts drifted to all the “compromises” we have had to make since we came. Mainly lifestyle and cultural changes. The truth is, we were very comfortable in Singapore. And coming to Paris, we had to exchange a lot of these things for an experience we were not 100% sure of, but we knew would probably never come by again.

And we thought of the house we gave up, the friends we said goodbye to, etc. And we wondered for a while if we would ever regret it.

Then we decided that given the choice, really, we would do this all over again. So we took our eyes off the life that we can see so clearly around us so that we can look at this life that we cannot see, but know will remain and grow with the both of us the rest of our days. And we will choose to thank God for this life and choice that we are living in right now. Today.

1. We have an apartment that is the size of what used to be our bedroom. Thank God that because there are no rooms (excluding the bathroom and kitchen counter) to divide us, we are forced to be totally involved in each other’s lives. And what would have previously driven us nuts, is actually becoming quite a joy.

2. We have no washing machine or dryer at home like we used to have. Thank God for providing one just across the street and now, Kar Wai does all the laundry, not Jodie! (no guesses on who gave thanks for this! Ha.)

3. Our kitchen is really tiny and there is only enough standing space for one person (with the fridge door open). Thank God that we can easily resist the temptation to buy any new gadget appliances coz there is just no space!

4. Thank God that even though this is a small apartment, we still have a bathtub! (Oh thank You, thank You!)

5. We have to travel 5 metro stations just to get to the internet café every day to check our emails coz we are still not yet able to get the phone line up at our house. Thank God that this keeps us going out every day to experience this city instead of staying in and getting bored.

6. We are not too familiar with where is the best place to get things and are still figuring our way here. Thank God for people He has placed in our paths that drop us really good hints! Thank God also that where we live, it’s like a Holland Village that has everything at our doorstep! And yesterday, we found megastores in Chinatown that sells everything we have at home, from dough fritters to Japanese curry to belachan to salted vegetables. You name it, they’ve got it!

7. We have to wait for things to happen most of the time and it usually takes really long. Thank God for this time because it has taught us much patience.

8. We have few friends here to call out for tea and to hang out with. Thank God coz time with whomever we spend now is real quality time.

9. We miss our family. Thank God for MSN with the video!

10. We do not speak or understand the language of people here well. Thank God for using this as a means of sharpening our intuition when it comes to understanding others beyond words.

11. Jo misses serving in church through dance. Thank God that He is using this to show her what it truly means to dance solely for Him.

12. With the long administrative paperwork process, Kar Wai has not been able to start work yet. Thank God because we know God is using this precious time to sharpen his mind and his eye and to most importantly show him what it truly means to be working with God.

Medical Exam, Microwave, MBTI and MI3!

After nearly 2 months, we have got a medical exam Wednesday next week. It’s one of the last few things required for the long term stay. Got xrays and all that. In hindsight, it was good that my blood pressure was brought down to normal while we were in Spore. Gotta thank the TCM doctor who gave me hardcore medication coz it took only a month to work. Do keep us in your thoughts and prayers. :-)

We have given up buying a cheap microwave. It’s too difficult. Anything in the 99€ range is sold out everywhere. Our landlord is going to order a mattress for us coz on the day we wanted to order one from Ikea, they changed everything in their website and, voilà! the mattress size we wanted disappeared.

We finally got our personal account yesterday (woohoo!). And got ourselves a VISA debit card. The debit card also has either a spending limit of 1.5k€ or 3k€ per week (so that people don’t overspend?). It’s so interesting, the guy at the bank said that most folks here don’t use credit cards. I didn’t get to tell him about the weekend credit card sales we have in Orchard Road. He would have thought we were from another planet.

Did something this week as a couple. We revisited our MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) personality profiles at http://www.personalitypage.com/ and checked out our inherent weaknesses. Apparently, my type takes everything personally and Jo is hardly in touch with her feelings. So ISTJ Jo and ENFP Wes have started re-egineering their thought and judgement processes to function as balanced human beings.

Wes

PS : We just finished MI 3 few minutes ago. Great that JJ Abrams saved the day, classic Alias. Good to see Tom Cruise finally acting.

Setting up photography stuff in France

Hi all,

Wesley here. Just an update about how I am doing with the photography stuff here if you are wondering how you can start up in France (or somewhere else in Europe):

I haven’t shot for anybody here. Really. In fact, I haven’t been taking pictures. We came here in Feb 2005 for 2 weeks, showed our stuff to some folks. Came again in July for 3 weeks and Sept for 2 months, showed our stuff to more people. This March trip is our last trip, moving lock, stock and barrel to our apartment.

I am not bumming. We have been looking at photography and art here. It is REALLY different. Jo has been great helping me analyze some other folks’ works. I feel that I am taking off Singaporean glasses and putting on a European one, not only in photography but in lifestyle too. We are generally more relaxed than Singapore. Living here, I get the feeling that there is a lot more to life than just working our butts off.

There really is a lot of paperwork to do. The paperwork is about to end soon (I hope!), we just got our 1 year visa to stay legally, set up a French subsidiary of our company in Singapore, got it registered and now, we are waiting to get our commercial visa in a month or 2. You HAVE TO get a visa specialist to do the paperwork. If you don’t have a visa specialist and you don’t speak French, you will spend more time, more money, shed tears and blood to get your visa done. We also had to get our documents, birth certs, wedding certs, company stuff, everything translated by a translator approved by the French Embassy.

Living standards here are high. For rental in Paris central, it’s about 20-30€ per square meter, not including the electricity bill (which could range from 60€ to 100€ or more). Internet is cheap, 29.90€ for 24MBPS with VOIP phone with 200 channels of HD TV. Café food is about 8-10€ for a decent meal. For McDonalds, it’s about 5€ for a normal meal. If you cook, it’s about 3€ for a meal. Don’t stay in a hotel if it’s more than a week. You might go crazy. In all, it’s about 2000€/month for 2 persons if you cook 3 meals for nearly everyday. Tax on income is 40%. Medical is free for French people. Heard the French footballers try to live out of France because of this.

Everything is in French. American movies and sitcoms on TV is dubbed into French, bus, train, metro, food labels, emergency instructions, everything is in French. However, some theatres show VO (version original) movies. Lucky us.

What is the professional photography scene like? Got this from a French art director. It’s crowded. CROWDED. More crowded than Singapore. There are bad photogs and good photogs and superduper good photogs. The superduper ones can make 10k€/day + loading. There are lots of rentable stuff, not cheap but nearly everything can be rented, lights, lightbanks, good lights, super lights, trucks to carry the lights, models, stylists, gaffer people, everything. Biggest rental studio in Europe is here, called Pinup Studio. Clients will pay for rental of equipment for fashion photography. For other types of commercial photography, you pay rental if you rent. B&W paper, developer and other stuff are still widely available.

Note: If we add tax and S$1=1€ math, 10k€ works out to be about S$6k, so the figure is not so crazy. And when we throw in 2 or 3 days of meetings and recce, 3-5 days of laision, casting and logistics with at least 1 salaried producer working on it besides the photographer, it doesn't look so glams anymore.

So how do we get work? Go this advice from a German photographer I met here - If your work is good and TRULY UNIQUE you will get picked up by good agents who will groom you, love you, take care of you, and market you in Europe and the US for about 25% of your fee. For TRULY UNIQUE work, look at http://www.artandcommerce.com. Nearly all of the photogs in the site are TRULY UNIQUE. If your work is not TRULY UNIQUE, be prepared to do the marketing, loving, grooming yourself. Btw, it can take up to a week or more to schedule a meeting with potential clients here.

How much is this going cost? S$60,000 (I debated putting the figure out but I wanted to be upfront with this thing)

Bank Account

Thank God! Our corporate bank account has been approved! Took them a week plus to verify our records, etc but we have a Memphis West Pictures SARL bank account in France now! We are so happy coz without this we can’t get the company registered and started up. Praise the Lord! Woohoo!

In other news, we have settled into the apartment, cleaned it up and are now trying to hunt down a microwave to bring back into the apartment. Spent 2 weeks looking for a microwave oven, imagine. They are either way too expensive or sold out. But we’ve located Carrefour (at the edge of Paris centre) on the Internet and will probably try looking for one there.

Had 2 friends from church visit us last week, was fun bringing them around a bit. Also settled some major work visa stuff at the Prefecture. Will get our 1-year work visa in end June, going to settle the commercial card visa soon. We started the paper work from Feb 05 (!!), am glad this adventure is going to finish soon.

The lady helping us with the visa told us that another client of hers tried forever to get a visa in France, gave up and went to UK and got his visa within 3 weeks of application. Heh.