Monday 25 September 2006

200 Channels

WE GOT ZE INTERNET!!!

We came back from the Effiel walk, had dinner and realized we were connected when I went to inspect the freebox. 200 digital channels + HD capability, 24mpbs and VOIP. 3 months of waiting and now it's here. :-)



erm... anyone for COD or BF2?

Update: Out of the 200 channels, there's only BBC, Sky News and GodTV in English. That's it, no other English stuff besides the French MTV channel with English songs. But honestly, I am grateful even for 1 English channel.

Wes

Saturday 23 September 2006

Home again

We took a walk to the Eiffel today, spent about 1/2 hour sitting down on the grass and did nothing but chatted. This time round, we were jetlagged and pretty much groggy since we landed in Paris on Thursday morning. Almost slept the 2 days away. Feels good to be home at our apartment after 3.5 weeks of siaoness in Spore.

Btw, turns out internet is not installed yet... but it's coming... soon... almost.

Took a walk down Commerce street.

Shoes were on sale we think. Kat, this one's for you.

Sunny day at the Eiffel today.

Celebrated Jo's mom 60th at home in Spore.

Jo and her almost-one-year-old nephew.

Sunday 17 September 2006

Diaspora

Just came back from a full dress rehearsal of Diaspora at the Esplanade. It's good, dono exactly how I can classify the performance, it's not a drama thing... it's got a full chinese orchestra, indonesian musicians, multi-video projections plus some really good performers.

However this show was relevant to me,
coz after staying in Paris for the last few months, I have been thinking and reflecting about my identity as a Chinese Christian Singaporean. Parts of the show spoke volumes to me, the feeling of displacement, a sense of isolation and the need to connect to the past. It's hard for me to put it in words, but the show has given me hope, that I am not going through this phase alone.

Two nights ago, I was on the way home in the last bus from Marina, I talked to one of the actors from the show. I told her that in spite of being part of the majority race here, I felt not-rooted. She was surprised since she was in a minority group but I told her that in spite of that, I didn't really know who I am culturally. I went on to explain, I am a Cantonese and I was raised in a environment where my dad spoke only English to me. I grew up with American sitcoms and TV series in the 80s and 90s so I am more familiar with Western icons than Eastern ones. At that time, China was branded as the bad guy by the media so I don't feel linked to China as a Chinese Chinese. I told her that even now, my past is being wiped because the places where I lived and studied are gone, I can't even show my kids the classroom where I studied, or the field where I played, or the canteen where I loved the chicken wings fried by the malay uncle.

I told her that one of the most bizzare things that happened to my school was that they replaced the old clock tower with a replica. And with that, my memories were taken away. Some people might argue that memories live only in our heads, I disagree. I think that old clock tower held part of my memories and a replica cannot replicate memories. Anyways, I think that this process I am going through will take time. Dono if it's going to be useful but not everything has to be useful, does it?

On another note, we feel that something fundamental is changing in Singapore, Jo and I were discussing about it when we came back 2 weeks ago but can't still we can't put a finger to it... but it feels as if the whole island is in a new big rush to head off to somewhere.

Jo's dad had to go for a lung operation this week and she was very tied up for a while, but thank God he has cleared the op and will be heading home soon.

We are heading back to Paris on Wednesday. Got a piece of good news, the Internet connection has finally been installed in our apartment. Woohoo!! :-)

Wes

Saturday 2 September 2006

Copyright

Got this from a Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobbes) site. Just couldn't resist this one.

Wes