Photography: 10 essentials I can't do without

The inner-photo-geek needs to blog about photography. Gotta blog about some essential software and other stuff that made work easier in the last few years. Note: I re-edited this post coz there was another item I wanted to include.

1. GretagMacbeth EyeOne Photo

I was struggling to get rid of a reddish-magenta cast for 3 years on my printer when I finally succumbed and bought a GretageMacbeth color calibration device for my monitor AND printer. This thing saved the day. When the 99.9% accurate color print rolled out of the printer, I was close to shedding tears.

2. CaptureOne Pro

Back in the good old days of 2002 with *only* Canon DPP released for RAW conversion. Using it was a big pain, even the local Canon rep was apologetic for the software. So when CaptureOne was released, we had no choice but to jump right into the software. It worked like a charm though the learning curve was a little steep. The generic 1Ds profile that came with it worked well too. Best other thing was that C1 Pro was geared towards portrait skin texture and it was speedy on a PC.

3. NoiseNinja

This cheap noise reduction software basically extended the life of the 1Ds camera with > iso200 images.

4. Renamer

Best renaming software I have tried, and it's totally FREE! I have tried to get something like this for the Mac Powerbook but they were either kludgy or not free.

5. WinACD

I am using an Apple 20inch Cinema Display with Windows XP (Yes, I use a PC) and it's only equipped with a brightness control. That's it, no other functions except for built in hub with 2x USB2.0 and 2x Firewire ports. Also, Windows XP does not recognize the hub nor the monitor. It's also easy to accidently touch the brightness button. With this nifty control panel software, I can control brightness via keyboard (like a Mac! :-) and correct the ! icon in the hardware device window.

That said, the Apple Display rocks, not only coz of color BUT the sharpening algorithm makes everything looks more natural. Not all LCDs are the same, no kidding, I have seen some with bad hardware sharpening.

6. Wacom Intuos Graphic Tablet

I got one 4 to 5 years back it's still working, tactile feel for the latest version is even better. Photoshop control with clone, healing brush is a breeze with the pen. This 4x5 pad uses absolute positioning, meaning that I'm not pushing the cursor around. Great with RTS like Warcraft and there's no carpal tunnel syndrome damage with super long usage.

7. Nero

Bestest CD-R and DVD recording software in the world. Back when I was on Toast on the Mac OS, it was coaster heaven whenever the burning process was slightly interrupted. This baby can still burn a perfect CD-R when I have CaptureOne processing, CS2 batching and Firefox browsing. I got a legit copy of Nero Express when I bought a Plextor DVD writer from Storage Studio in Sim Lim. Btw, Verbatim DVD-Rs and CD-Rs are teh r0xx0rs.

8. Photoshop - Liquify

One of the most powerful thing Adobe ever invented for Photoshop. Puffy cheeks begone!

9. Jodie Koh

Xacto sharp critiques of my images that I've been producing. Painful. Now, I still prep to cringe when she comments on my stuff. But bitter truth is better a sweet compliment.

10. Plantronics Headset with Mic

Honestly, this is not related to photography. I forgot to mention this coz it's totally comfortable for hours and I have taken it for granted. On some other more expensive headsets, I could feel the weight/discomfort after an hour or 2 but with this, I don't remember wearing it. The headset is rugged, the mic boom is rugged and clear, and it's built to last. I've had it for a year and it's still sturdy, no signs to wear and tear and the speaker-leather-sponge isn't melting unlike the Sennheiser HD457 that I used.

That's about it.

Wes

Débit 7,06 Mbit/s (903,63 ko/s)

Yep. That's about the fastest I got from the up-to-28Mbps connection at 1pm in Paris, we must be pretty far from the exchange. No complaints about that though. Can VOIP through normal phone while watching 200channel TV with PC and Mac on with wifi. Slowest tranx was 4plus Mbps. But when I BF2, the VOIP breaks up a bit on other line, upload is slower after all.

Update 18Oct: Freebox supports MIMO in the Wifi box. Checked it out on Wikipedia and it looks great. Except that my Powerbook doesn't support it. Heh.

Jo and I have settled down to watching Sky News quite a bit. Of the 2 blondes and 1 brunette, we agree that the prettiest one is on the late afternoon time slot. Superduperbabe. At the end of the day, since all the news channels have roughly the same content, it's unfortunate that it's down to getting the best looking dude (or dudess) to keep our eyes on the same channel.

We are staying lots more at home, Jo's practising her new dance steps and I am doing my processing stuff on the PC. Also, I don't have to travel 4 stations to check the internet at 1.30€/hr and Metro tix at 15€/week, we are saving a lot more money. Weather is a lot cooler now, 6°C early in the morning to 18°C. So walking is to the supermarket is great!

We are going to Merville, Normandy for a church retreat this weekend. Must thank God for the kind soul who offered to pay for us (coz our budget is super tight when we came back). Jo was so happy she cried. I wanted to attend the retreat also coz I've always wanted to visit Normandy, D-Day landings and all, especially after watching Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. Just did a check on Merville, it was the site for ze German 100mm guns, so it's quite far from the Gold, Juno and Sword landing areas. Wahj, will take some shots for you, might just turn out to be shots of a pretty ordinary looking beach. lol! Btw, my personal wish list for the next place I REALLY want to visit is Bastogne in Belgium where the 101st E Company dug against the German offensive. Maybe in winter? ;-)

Anyways, the speaker Jane Wolf will speak on "Finding your sense of value in God" at the retreat. Thought it sounded like a general retreat-ish topic until the pastor talked about it yesterday. Turns out that the topic covers the issue of identity, how we are validated by our work, boss, spouse, parents & friends. I have been asking what it means to be validated by God, I know that I am a child of God, but what else after that? And how does this connect with how I see the world? Which then leads to "How does it affect my visual interpretation in photography" question. I have been chewing on this for a while now, think this topic might be connected also my "not-rooted" state.

On GodTV, we saw Rick Warren preaching at the Hillsongs Conference in Oz. 2 points that gave some insights into a question that's been bouncing in my head for while. What does a Christian do with wealth and fame? With wealth: To give to the poor. Rick says that he started with 10% then increased by 1% everyear. He's been doing that since the 80s. Like John Wesley who 'earned as much as he could and gave as much as he could'. With fame: To speak up for the weak, those who have no voice (Psalm 72). Not complete answers for me but it's pointing somewhere right, feel it in my gut. Do bear in mind that we are not in 100% with GodTV on some of the stuff that's broadcast, so have to weigh lah.

Lastly, my brother Isaac sent me this link. Totally hilarious, comes in 3 parts and don't mind the language hor. For you, all World of Warcraft fans.

South Park and WoW

Till next week,
Wes

Aye Laddie

We went up north to Glasgow last Thursday for a some work, came back 2 nights ago. Was my 2nd visit since 2001. The city has changed quite a bit, lots of buzz, felt like a wee London. Went up to Loch Fyne with our rep and friend, Yvonne and her family for seafood and yummy stuff. Also tried some Harry Ramdens super-battered-fish and super-soggy-fries, it's extreme man, oil to the max. Jo also picked up a scottish twang from her kids. Was great fun. Have done up some pictures, they are a bit big this time round but gotta show the scale of the place. Ask Yvonne's husband about haggis and he said that he liked it, maybe I will gather the guts to try it next time.

Square in center of town.

Had some fries at BK. Not soggy.

Shopping. Looks a bit like Sydney doesn't it? Shopping was nicer than Paris for the simpler type of clothes we wear. Strange but true.

Memorial stone for the Korean War.

The Necropolis is in the back, really looks a city with the tower and all.

Bridge to the Necropolis. Jo's practising her dance steps while waiting for me.

Drive to Loch Fyne, Braveheart-class mountains in the back.

On our 2nd last day here, heard this guy playing from 100 meters away. Sounded great. Love his little purse.

Wes

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

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.

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

Copyright

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

Wes

Wedding Photography

so funny it hurts.

Wes

Learnt at few things:

- That the Eiffel Tower is only 15 minutes away on foot. Seems so silly we discovered this after more than 6 months in Paris. So once or twice a week we take a stroll to the Eiffel to walk off our dinner.

- That not only is a Tefal frying pan better than a house brand pan, the food tastes better too. I bought a Tefal pan yesterday after trying out cheap Monoprix pans for about 6 months. After Jo fried the fish on the new pan, I thought it tasted different and asked her. She said it wasn’t a psychological thing, the fish actually tasted better. Wow.

- That pancakes are called ‘blinis’ here. And they come in mini, medium and large blinis. The large are the size of MacDonald pancakes and the mini is the diameter of 2x S$1 coins.

- That Tabasco is a good substitute for chili sauce when I don’t want to travel halfway across the city to Chinatown. Better for the stomach too coz it doesn’t make my stomach go woozy like some other chili sauces.

- That mint leaves go well with fried rice and butter prawns.

- That Honey Nougat Magnum ice-cream is da bomb.

Siao liao. Jo and I are putting on weights.

Wes

Phantom Food

2 days ago at home, I was sitting down reading downloaded stuff from the internet cafe (nope, we still don't have a connection) when for no reason at all, I missed the taste of a laksa tao pok. More accurately, I miss that squirt of laksa on the first bite of the tao pok. Then I realized that memory was from eating my mom’s laksa… man, even the Katong laksas don’t have that piece of tao pok.

And just yesterday, when we were walking in the metro, I remembered the texture of mee hoon kueh. This was the mee hoon kueh from an industrial area in Marsiling Drive where I used to work as an IT guy in Woodland in ‘94. And this was the best mee hoon kueh I have ever tasted. Missed it a lot back in Spore when I left the job.

Anyways, good news! Temperature has dropped to 18 to 26°C after a huge thunderstorm about a week or 2 back. In fact it’s so cool now that it gets a bit chilly when the wind blows, like autumn’s just trying to hurry up. It’s a really huge difference from those 35-37°C days… was really scary for a while coz there were folks who died of heat related reasons.

And Jo’s doing good, she’s been busy chugging away at her powerbook with video work since our stuff arrived.

Wes

Our stuff's here finally!!

The delivery guy came early yesterday at 7am to deliver 13 boxes worth of stuff that was packed in early March when we left our Rose Garden apartment. And due to complications with French import/export companies we had it shipped out only in late June. And even so, it reached France 22Aug even though we expected it to hit our house on the week of the 17Aug. I counted it’s been nearly 4.5 months since the electronic stuff like the dvd player, external hard disks, etc have been switched on. Anyways, I fixed up the heat sink in the desktop and voila!

THE BENG PC LIVES!

(hmm-chi-hmm-chi-hmm-chi-hmm-chi-hmm-chi-hmm-chi)

I’m sooooo happy. :-)

---

Jo felt great coz her cooking books, cutlery, books, tambourine stuff and clothes were here. I feel the same coz of the pc & accessories and dvds. It felt that a bit of our life in our old apartment had been restored… Honestly, it was extremely comforting. But at the same time I couldn’t help but feel that in getting all of our stuff, this was the final cutoff from Spore.

Wes

TV's here

w00t!! :-)

Business of Photography

The subject of business in photography has been in my heart and mind for quite a while. I was doing photography as a hobby for the longest time before turning it into a business. I have also learnt some important lessons through blood, sweat and tears. And from time to time, I have had friend and acquainstances who have joined the photography profession. I have also seen the 'old birds' in the industry who are not doing photography anymore, it has been hard breaking coz I knew them as 'chien peis' from the early 90s. They are out because the market got worse a few years ago... but I digress, that's another story altogether.

I never had the chance to pen those thoughts about the business. This person Alan Briot has nicely summed up some really important points in his articles on http://www.luminous-landscape.com.
It's a series of articles in 3 parts and it's a really good read, even for non-photographers.

Wes

37°C day : 33°C night

It’s been blazing hot this week. And the temp hit super high about 2 days ago. We didn’t know this of course since our TV was down since day on the world cup final match. Jo and I have been using the bathtub for cold soaks once a day, keeps us cool for about 3 hours before feeling hot again. Have been guzzling tonnes of water, oringina and the occasional big bottle of 97cents Perrier.

Heard that it’s hot in Spore too, and coupled with high humidity, I know what it feels like, perspiration sets in 5 minutes after a shower. Over here it’s takes 10 minutes. Kekeke.

Our stuff from Spore was suppose to reach France at Le Harve on Monday but it has been delayed till Sat, so it looks like we are going to have to wait for everything to come into Paris on Friday or Sat next week. Can’t wait for my beng pc. Woohoo!

We applied for Internet on 15 June but still haven’t got it yet. Ne’emind just wait, ‘c’est la vie en France’.

So we waits… :-)

Wes

Our Apartment

Took this shot from the window position last night after coming back from the Bastille Day fireworks at the Eiffel. Thought I better shoot before the house gets messy again. :-)

The bed on the right can be flipped up in the morning to get more space. And the bright spot in the middle is the kitchen for one person.

Wes

Coupe du Monde

Sunday night, we finally went to a pub near our metro station. It was a small-ish crowd, quite fun. Cheered when a goal went in and of course we went “BARTHEZ! BARTHEZ! BARTHEZ!” during the penalty kicks.

small crowd

sianz...

Anyways, we were pretty stunned by Zidane’s head butt. Can anybody tell us why he did that? Commentary was in French and with the TV still kaput, we can’t get any info. :-(

Paris has been very quiet for the last 2 days.

Wes

Dead TV

Our TV died this morning, on the eve of the World Cup finals. It has a yellow power light instead of green. Since we moved in the microwave died and a couple of bulbs blew up. We had to change the mattress also. Dono what the landlord is going to say…

Dead TV is a sign we thinkz.

Wes

Our visas

After 16 and a half months, we finally got them!!!!!! After all that running around like mad monkeys, all that red tape, all that frustration, all that pitiful ‘parlez vous anglais?’ to irritated counter staff, we FINALLY collected them on Tues =)

Hmm…now what?

Jo

Lonely Planet by Wes & Jo

This week alone, we’ve had 4 different people, some we know, some we don’t, ask us if they could come stay with us or have us pick them up at the airport. Not that we don’t welcome people visiting Paris, of course we do! But we thought maybe it’s better if we let everyone have a clear idea of what is going on here, just so that we don’t offend anyone when we say we cannot have you come or pick you up from the airport or bring you around in Paris.

Why you can't stay with us

1. We are living in a 30m2 STUDIO (which means no rooms) apartment. That kinda means that unless you are our siblings who are used to our idiosyncrasies and nasty habits, it’s unlikely that it will be a nice living environment for you. On top of that, we only have one sofa and no pillows to offer any guest. So I guess that’s not too happening.

2. Our things are being shipped in from Singapore and will arrive second half of July. And then our lease ends second half of Sept so we dun really know if we are staying here or moving yet. So everything is in a state of flux for us, at least till end of the year.

Update 18 June 2007: Our things are here and the place is a lot more cramped. So really, no staying over coz even with the 2 of us, it's really cramped. Like, 'The Awakening' coolie squatter kinda of cramped.

But we can...

1. Recommend good hotels and budget ones if necessary for you. If you have in mind areas that you want to try, we can advise if it’s a good area or not.

2. Let you know when we get a bigger place.

Why we can't pick you up

1. The airport is not accessible like Changi airport. It is way out of Paris, beyond the suburbs. And that means that we have to take 3 metros and then purchase a train ticket to the airport (close to 2 hours) to get there. And repeat the whole process to get back into Paris centre.

But we can...

1. Tell you how you can get from the airport to wherever your hotel is.

2. Recommend reliable shuttle service. We use that every time we get into Paris.

3. Let you know when we get our license and can drive in Paris.

Why we cannot bring you around

1. We have appointments coz we are still trying to get a foot into the photography industry in Paris. So it’s tough for us to promise you we will bring you around when we dun know what opportunities will come up and we have to go meet folks here. It would not be nice for us to leave you stranded somewhere so we rather you come prepared to travel on your own so that we will not be in the position to spoil your holiday.

2. We’ve seen enough of the Eiffel and the Lourve already. Also, Paris is a place for exploration. You will be better off walking and just discovering new things round each corner.

But we can...

1. Tell you over the email where is good to visit, including some places that you can try good food and stuff.

2. Depending on the length of your stay, we can also set aside time to meet you and hang out with you when we are able to.

Love,
Wes & Jo

PS: Really pai-seh we are writing this, just want to tell the truth about our situation here.

Football

I’ve been watching a lot of football. Seriously. I’ve watched more football in the last 2 weeks than I have ever done so in my entire lifetime.

Not that I am a fan of football. No, no. I’ve always considered watching big grown men chasing after a ball a fairly mindless activity. I am not against it, just not into it.

But interestingly enough, with the World Cup on at 3pm, 5pm and 9pm every day, you just have to watch. So I started watching. And I found myself learning about life just by watching football. I won’t name teams, coz honestly, I remember the color of their shirts more than their names or the country they are from.

I learnt perseverance watching teams deny defeat before time is up. And these are like teams after half time with a zero on their score and 2 on their opponents’ score. And I saw teams who gave up. Their game became meaningless.

I learnt that you gotta be ready. There were men who were constantly chasing the ball so hard you feel tired just watching them play. And I really wanted them to score. And yet there were other sluggish teams with members who were clearly caught unaware when the ball came flying their way. And you wonder why they were even playing in the field.

I learnt that even if you are the best, you cannot be conceited coz pride will cause you to make the most silly mistakes.

And finally, I learnt this from watching the Argentineans play - I learnt that like football, life is only a game. Not that it is not important. In fact, when you are out there on the field, play and give it your best and only your best. But not to score. To play.

In the match, the Argentineans played very well, by my amateur football watching standards of course. But it was a 0-0 score. Still, they won my respect by the end of the game. Coz they played hard, never slacked, were good at what they did (in fact, the way they handled the ball was like how our kids used to play cha-tek in void decks) and clearly enjoyed the game. More importantly, they did not resort to falling down and screaming foul at the slightest injury. Each time they fell, they picked themselves up and went on like, yes, this is a game, let’s continue. They played as a team. They were not proud, not rude to their opponents. They played football like it was football, not like they needed to prove to the world anything.

We spent the last 2 weeks in Paris adjusting back to a lifestyle of” being”, not “doing”. And I guess one of the key things about “being” is understanding that it’s not about the goals we set (pun un-intended) or the things we do. It’s us. It is not what we score in life that marks us. It is how we play.

Jo

some more stuff

Abby came to visit the last week and left this morning. Honestly, when she left, it felt a little like we were leaving home all over again. And so now, it’s back to the 2 of us.

The weather’s been a hot 30 deg Celsius in the shade with little or no wind most of the time. Most folks are out in their berms and tank tops, knees and shoulders showing. We bought a fan the 2nd day after we arrived coz it’s impossible to sleep in the stillness of the air.

Today is the first official day of summer. All over Paris, folks are staying indoors, not to get away from the heat, but to be part of the World Cup fever in Europe. So like in Singapore, we also get moments of loud cheering and roars of “goal!” out of the blue every couple of hours, within a span of 90 min. It’s nice, I guess, feels kinda just like home. Only thing was that the night France and Korea tied, our neighbour looked out of the window and gave Kar Wai an unfriendly glare. Hmm…I guess we got ourselves another nationality to pass off as.

More pictures

Jo insta-baked a chocolate cake for my birthday today, so I had a go at it.


Saw this at Champs Elysees yesterday, Portugal suppporters were soooo happy with the win. :-)

Wes

Steven Seagal & Thunderbox

Saw this advert in the metro and just had to post the image. I didn’t know that he could sing, really.

Wes

Romeo and Juliet

Yesterday, we met Romeo and Juliet. Really. Only that this Juliet was so pissed with Romeo, she told him off at the window.

We were having dinner in our apartment when we noticed that there was a man talking fairly loudly outside our door. We figured… hmm... maybe he was on the hand phone coz my neighbor had already returned about 10 minutes before and there was no other voice except his.

Then we started to make out bits and pieces of the conversation…bits of ‘I love you’, ‘please’, ‘I beg you’, ‘I really love you’…

Ooo… couple fight. Neighbor not opening the door. Poor guy. He actually started crying outside her door.

Then we heard him go downstairs and shout from the courtyard for her to open the door and speak to him. Of course, my curious husband poked his head out of the window and instead of telling him off, this nice guy actually said, “bonjour, Monsieur” (good day, Sir). Can you imagine! If he was a Singaporean guy, he would have said something like “What you looking at?!”

Anyway, we left to poor guy to beg and plead for another 5 minutes before we heard him knocking on something. And the funny thing was, his voice sounded nearer. So Kar Wai went to peep again and lo and behold! This guy was hanging on the windowsill of his girlfriend’s 2nd storey apartment, knocking on her window, asking her to open the door! And he did that for like 10 min before she opened the window, told him off and closed it again.

And we thought this only happens in the movies…gosh, if not for anything else, I would have opened the door just for being nice and polite even in his desperate situation.

Jo

Leaving town

Hello all,

We are leaving town tonight at about 11pm plus. Am glad it's a straight flight back to Paris. Sorry that we couldn't meet up some of you. *paiseh*

will catch up with mel and alex ok? :-)

Wes

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.

Our area, not showing the apartment coz it's not tidied up

Jodie waves from our petite apartment. Our house only has 2 windows. The rest belong to other people.

This is our street. Circled red is our building's front door. At the end where the trees are is a small park with the Metro Station.

Jo standing at the door prepping to go out.

This station is called 'Commerce', it is a 1 min run from our door.

Train platform, sometimes got urine smell, coz this station got no toilet.

Flowers are blooming.

Jo went shopping for cheap groceries at Monoprix and is now back at her doorstep. Its already 8pm and still so bright!

Landlords are Serrano and Dargnat.

Our surname is on the call button. So cool, 1 syllable only. The rest got the usual angmoh ones.

+65 9762 0429

Tasked Abby (our admin in Singapore) to send out emails informing clients and friends that the number will be cancelled soon. I have had that number for nearly 10 years, so doing it felt like doing a final ‘Good Bye’ to everybody I knew in Singapore… it’s funny how losing mobile number can make me feel poignant…

But anyways, just got confirmed that I’ll be back in late May for about 2-3 weeks for work. So Jo and I’ll probably be able to see some of you guys!!

Hobbit Dinner

Today, as with all the previous times, I was paralyzed in bed with time-of-the-month-cramps. By 9 in the evening, with no instant noodles and the cook still writhing in pain, we decided there had to be a way to feed ourselves. So, rather than to give in to circumstances and run to Macs, we decided that I would holler whatever instructions I could manage and Kar Wai would make his first attempt at a hobbit dinner.

I must say, I am very proud of my man :-)

Jo

1. straining the fried potatoes

2. voila! fried spring chicken with fried potatoes with fried mushrooms. so healthy.

Got the apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We signed the contract! Will be staying the apartment that we are in now. Our landlord has been really good to us, no need for a bank guarantee of 1 year’s rent in our account. Apparently that is the norm for most folks coz French law makes it very hard for landlords to evict wayward tenants if they don’t want to pay up rent. So somebody came up with a 1 year bank guarantee thing…

Anyways, it’s about 30m2, so small and cozy it is. If you are not too sure, it’s about the space of our old living room OR Jo mom’s living room space in Chin Swee OR Wesley Methodist music room OR about 3 Honda Civics. We are going to get internet access connected to the house soon, so no more running to Montparnasse to get emails. Woohoo! We also can change bed mattress and microwave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As in the words of our visa specialist lady, our place at Rue du Commerce is like a little village. There are lots of typical Parisian shops like the bakery, butcher, cheese shop, vegetable sellers, wine shops, clothing lines, shoe shop and supermarket all at the same place. We feel kinda like hobbits, small space but otherwise extremely jolly and well fed.

Jo & Wes from the Shire

House Hunting. Final Chapter (Hopefully)

We are staying in Paris after all!! Our visa specialist lady freaked out after she called us and found out that we wanted to move to the suburbs. Apparently the set of work permit papers have be re-submitted the prefecture of the suburbs instead of Paris. Her words were ‘In fact you have no time!’. So we are likely to stay in the current apartment, we did see an apartment in Montparnasse but they wanted a year’s rent in the bank account (apparently standard for foreigners) to show that we had enough money to pay for rent. So no go for that one. We are extremely likely to stay in the current one for the next 6 months, going to see if can get papers from landlord to be signed for house.

What a roller coaster ride.

Wes

How to make a cupcake.

And now for something off topic...

Step 1: Pour a tiny bit of Herta Vanille Cake Mix into a cup

Step 2: Put in the microwave for 3 minutes

Step 3: Voila! Take out of microwave



Step 4: Put spoon in and eat.

Funny thing is that the yummy crust is in the centre of the cake!

Wes

Still looking for house

KW and I are thinking of moving to the suburbs. Ok, before you guys go “woah! That’s where the rioting is! What are you thinking?!”, we’ve checked it out with folks who do live in the suburbs. The rioting is from the north and interestingly enough, in central paris. So areas like the south, west and east of paris is safe. And that’s where we are looking.

Yeah, sure we will lose a lot of buzz, spend a little more on transport, have fewer facilities and shopping areas near our house. But hey, we get an extra room and a proper kitchen. And we get to sleep on a real bed rather than a sofabed – all for the same price or less!

So yup, we are gonna check it out these couple of days. Call some folks in the suburbs to see if we can view some houses. From what we hear, it sounds like living in AMK or Joo Chiat versus living in Tanglin or Orchard – which works for us. I really don’t know how it’s gonna work out. We will probably know when we get to see the first few houses. If we don’t have a good feel about the suburbs, we’ll probably stay put where we are.

Jo

Week Deux

Today we visited the 3rd house. I thought it was nice, big courtyard, large windows. It’s still a studio but I guess I could live with it. After we left the apartment, Kar Wai was shocked I even considered the place. So I guess it’s more house hunting ahead.

It’s been raining lots here so the streets have been very wet. But the sun comes out once in a while so that is nice. Once the weather improves, we plan to start shooting the music video to Paul’s music. As for the state of our spoken French, we’re trying to train ourselves not to look at the cashier displays at supermarket check-outs but to listen to the amount the cashiers are asking for. It’s tough, but I think we are starting to get the hang of it.

Tonight, while channel surfing, we came across a Hong Kong movie with Anita Yuen and Leslie Cheung in it – UN-DUBBED! So we stopped everything we were doing and sat down to enjoy, finally, a non-french movie. Then it was back to Space Cowboys, in French, of course. But it was a treat, nonetheless.

Jo

House Hunting

We’ve been to view 2 houses so far. One is near Alesia, south of Central Paris. When we got there, honestly, the house is nice, new and it’s got a big kitchen which is a major plus point for me. Downside is that the living room is tiny and the area is super quiet, not the peaceful kind of quiet, but the nothing-is-happening kind of quiet. I can live with it but it’s a no-no for Kar Wai.

Then the next day, we saw one at Dupleix, in the 15th arr. This one has got a more even division of space for each room and a lively area outside. For Kar Wai, it’s something he can live with. Sigh, but not for me. It’s the kind of house that is put together for whoever wants to stay - no love - just couple of pieces of furniture and appliances thrown together and viola. Take it or you can leave it for the next desperate tenant. It’s just a no-no for me.

So we are back to square one. Made a couple of calls, houses rented out already, etc. But we will continue trying. Worse case, we will continue staying in the 30 square metre studio that we are staying at (the landlord we have now is just great and easy-going). But that would mean we gotta leave 16 DHL boxes of our stuff in Singapore coz this house is just too small to take anything else! Now, that would be an interesting turn of events indeed….

Jo

PS: Spring is here! today is 21degrees, hot sia - kw

Week 1

We have been here for almost a week. Spring is coming and the days are brightening up. We had great sunshine and birds chirping outside our window when we woke up this morning…something we got everyday in Singapore but never really appreciated until we came here.

It seems easier to settle down this time round. Maybe it’s because we are back at the same apartment so familiarity is on our side. We have started house hunting, hoping to find a 2 piece (1 bedroom and 1 living room) apartment in the 14th or 15th. First house viewing scheduled this Sat at 11:15am. Wish us luck!

Our appointment with the Prefecture is on the 10th of April. So we gotta find a house by then and show proof of rental contract. We will also be meeting someone next week to talk about a shoot to get things rolling. So things are looking up (Janis, we can see the light already!!!! Haha)

As for the protest, we’ve only seen a trainload of students shouting from across the platform in the metro so far. Feels more like a NUS rag-and-flag ra-ra type of protest more than anything else. Of course we haven’t been on site to where they are gathering to protest so we probably haven’t seen the true extent of things. But most people here don’t seem too bothered and the students look like they are having fun more than anything else…so life goes on. Not to worry, Paris is not under siege like how the news puts it.

Other than that, we are doing well. Eating lots and sleeping lots as usual after a mad 3 months back home in Singapore.

Jo

Flying MAS at 920pm

Hey guys,

We will be hitting the airport at 7plus with Jo's family. This will be our last post in Singapore for a long while at least. Donno when we will post again as the apartment we took doesn't have net access, it's the same one in the Sep/Oct/Nov stay. Take care all those in Singapore. The riots in Paris are ok, don't affect us. Thanks for writing Tow Yong and Lennard.

Might be back in late May for a shoot, till then see how. :-)

Update!:

We're at KLIA now. They gots Internet WIFI! W00T! We updates blog! So hip!

Anyways, this trip quite funny. I don't feel anything, not excited nor anxious. Just zero. Interesting, when the plane took off from Changi just now, only thing I did was imagining what people were going to do tomorrow; Dan's going to school, Kat going to work, my mom waking up and making breakfast... like we're leaving our lives behind and starting a new one. Always dreamt about this when we were young but never thinking that it was going to happen...

ok got to go, boarding time now.

Wes

Leaving Singapore: Part II

Hey guys,

Just came back from French Embassy, we got the Singapore permit to get the work permit in Paris! Confusing huh? And btw, we are leaving 19 March! Guy at the embassy said that if we don't leave in March to apply for the work permit in Paris, the application will become void and we will have to re-apply (5 month process). Likely we will have to pack up about 90%, go over there in March and come back for about 2weeks to a month in June-ish to get remaining 10% to bring over to Paris.

Wes

Leaving Singapore

Hey all,

We might be leaving Singapore somewhere in May or June 2006!! Long story, something to do with our work permit visa thing with the French Embassy. So we waits. Just an FYI. :-)

Wes

There and back again.

On the way to the airport we started seeing snow falling, jo got her wish and just before we left. anyhow, plane got delayed 2 hours due to heavy snowfall and we got back to singapore at 1pm plus.

On hindsight, it has been an interesting trip, we met advertising, fine art, photo school, photo exhibition people, and on the very last night before we left, we met a journalist and had a great time talking shop. In short we met people from almost the entire spectrum of photography, so it has been an interesting time.

This has been the longest we have been out of the country, next year will be longer i think, we will leave likely around feb2006. So here we will end the blog for the time being... till we are in paris again. :-)

wes

Listen to your heart

In the last few weeks that we have been here, I have noticed that people here embrace a different belief from what we have back home.

I mean, Paris is like Singapore in that we are both small cities filled with people rushing about work and home, buying groceries after work or hanging out at bars and coffee places with friends during weekends. And everyone seems so busy, so much so that with the exception of tourists, every other person has the same spaced out look in the metro/mrt.

But 2 weeks after we arrived, I saw a girl crying in the metro. And she wasn't crying and wiping her tears away like she had a bad day at work. She was crying with her eye make-up running, her face was wet with her tears like she just broke up with the man she was to marry or was told she has 2 days left to live kind of heartbreaking crying.

And no one stared at her. They glance but they don't seem to think it abnormal.

I would have thought that that was because people around did not want to further embarrass her, like how we would turn and pretend the girl did not exist, had this incident been on the mrt in Singapore. But interestingly enough, 2 days later, I saw another girl, crying... no, sobbing her heart out with a friend on the street.

And a week later, another one crying as she walked into the train. And another 2 weeks later, another running across the platform, greeting her friend in sobs and tears.

I think in this part of town, being in emotional need is accepted as a real and necessary part of life. The downs of life are also the highlights. The low points in life are also that which we want to savor. This is all part of life.

For me, at least, this is an eye-opener. I must confess that I am terrible with handling emotions. I don't remember the last time I cried in public. I must have been like 8?

But here, people listen to their hearts. And they let it come out. In the metro. On the street. Or wherever and whenever their hearts need to speak.

Jo

Winter is come

hey hey

it is getting really cold here. after last night's little walk, i have to wear my big winter coat. we have a little meteo card that measures the temperature and most of the time it reads about 4 to 8 degrees or so in the daytime. this morning it got no reading. ha!

have been reading Lord of the Rings trilogy book, solid writing, very nice, almost old english like. been on battlefield2 for last week for my alone-time, have met up some potential contacts, got turned down by some but there are some openings, will followup in Feb when we are back. jo says that this trip has defined my photography path, so if God closes a door and opens a window, i will go see how this works out.

went to a pc-shop area in montgallet near the bastille, and it is awesome, it is seriously happening, it's like sim lim square... except that the shops are spread out over a large area over a few roads and 99% of them are run by chinese folks! cool or what. and guess what, some of the stuff is cheaper than in singapore.

best
wes

Start of Week 8 and back to our regular programming

Hello all,

Kat left last night on Air France and is safely back home in Singapore. Was in Terminal 2 of the airport and it looks great. Better than the olde T1 that MAS or Thai use. Anyways, we found out that Air France only allows a STRICT 20 kg limit on check in luggage, anything more than that and they whack a surcharge. ;-p

The riots seemed to have quieted down lots due to the curfew and there are lots and lots of police guys and gals in central Paris looking really really serious. But things are ok!! Just gettting colder and colder. Winds are chilly and we need to wear more stuff.

Best
Wes

The Riots

The TV has been reporting lots about the riots. Where we live and do stuff is safe. Central Paris is not affected. Seems to be happening in the Paris suburbs and around the country. Due to our limited french and lack of internet connection, we are not too sure about where it's happening except that it's not in central.

Wes

sisters in arms

sisters caught pigging on instant choc cake

kat rolleth her eyes

darth kat and little her red stick

Sister in law arrivez!!

Kat is here! Updated us about stuff at home (nothing much it seems, except the dengue) and generally more happy-busy, we have stopped counting the days. She brought some stuff we needed including great CD from the TBM, a non-flat pillow, my 13-year-old Lord of the Rings trilogy book that I haven't finished, Photoshop CD (that’s why we couldn’t post photos).

She gets up really early (body still on s'pore time) and gets us up and running by 9am. She and Jo bought a battery powered hair cutter thing and Jo tried her barber skills on me last night. I thought worse case I'll just end up with 6mm crew cut, so what can I lose? I'm really really happy, turns out that my head looks great after the cut. Of course it doesn't look as good done by our stylist in s'pore but it's 80% close.

Went out for ice-cream and macaroons at Laduree at Champs Elysées 2 days ago, had rose ice-cream that tasted like bandung (!!) And had the best pistachio macaroons in the world.

Went to Hotel Invalides yesterday, got loads and loads of different types of canons. Got some pix for Dan Koh and Wahj, olde french mortars! They look really cool, close enough to the ones on Last of the Mohicans if I'm not wrong. Btw, this is the place where Napoleon is buried, but we didn't see the tomb coz got to pay for tix.

Btw, about the riots near Paris, they're on the outskirts of Paris in the suburbs, so we're ok. Thanks for calling and sms-ing.

Normal Stuff

It is end of week 5 and the days are merging into a state of normalcy... like we are slowly settling into a Parisian pace and mood. We have mastered 'hello', 'thank you, good bye', 'good day', 'good evening', 'good weekend', 'see you tomorrow' and 'get out of my way' in a genuine french accent to con most folks. We learnt to avoid the 6pm to 7pm metro crush-o-rama. Also, we've established a routine of wake-eat-shower-eat-getout-before-2pm cycle to keep us going for the weekdays. Wednesdays are grocery days, church is on Sundays at 5pm, and laundry is every 2.5 to 3 weeks. We eat quite a bit at home coz 1 meal in a restaurant = 4 days of 3 meals at home. The chinese medicine from the sin-seh is doing wonders for Jo, she was very happy to do with just 1 layer in 24c yesterday.

On the work end, some of the leads are getting warmer. We'll see how that goes, might take a while to develop since meetings can take up to a week to schedule. The routine probably sounds boring but it's quite ok la, taking it one step at a time. We are generally happy.

Might cut down the writing a bit, see how first. If there's anything exciting to report, you guys will be the first to know.

Wes

Dans le Metro

Today, I saw a familiar face. This is not someone I know. This is a stranger, whom I have seen once, and for some reason, recognized this second time I see her. And she was with the same friend, at the same metro station I saw her the last time.

So there it is. The start to the end of an unfamiliar land.

Jo

Confirmation

Something curious happened. We got 2 signs about Air France. One happened 2 days ago, when we did a search on Air France service on Google. Turns out that Air France bought out airfrancesucks.com over a court case this year, hmmm...

Clincher sign was yesterday, it's long story but bear with me... We got up early at 830am (!!) to catch Corpse Bride (1030am) at a cinema next to our usual internet café. We got there at 10am, the cinema wasn't open so we thought of checking our emails but café was closed for maintenance. So, after we finished the show (was good, made us tear a bit), we got to the internet café about 12ish but all the computers in the front of the shop were occupied. So we went to use the PCs at the rear of the shop (it's a really big shop) instead. 15min later, we found a vacant PC in the front of the shop and promptly switched over coz we can't use the USB drive with the backroom PCs.

Less than 2 minutes later on the new PC, Jodie overheard one of the ladies next to her shouting 'No! No!' into her headset. This lady was REALLY upset and she kept shouting about being overcharged 2 or 3 times for her air ticket that was booked on the net... and guess what? She shouted that the tickets were from Air France!!

If that's not a sign, I don't know what is. Thank you God. We will be flying Malaysia Airlines.

Also learned new french word. We like bratwurst and were really happy to see a bratwurst-ish white-ish looking sausage at Monoprix supermarket. When we brought it back and started cooking it, Jo told me the texture was really strange. She then saw the package and asked me to check the dictionary for what 'boudin' meant. It means 'blood sausage'. We tried it and it was like blood cubes at yong tau foo stores. It was the slowest dinner we ever had... sighz, had to throw it out halfway, we not big fan of blood cubes.

As it turns out, Jo's sister will be coming over to visit us early November for about 11 days, woohoo!

Wes

Air France or Malaysia Air

Hey Guys,

Need your help. We are buying return tix *from* Paris and they are cheap. But also have heard that service not so happening. Anybody got advice? We can shave about 3 hours off Malaysia Airlines coz got no transfer. Thanks!!

Wes

End of Week 3

Really appreciate and want to thank our family (parents, siblings, siblings-in-laws, shane & qq), TBM, kat, aiks, jen, kheng hwa, kakis from church, kakis from Joo Chiat Place and fragging kakis for remembering us in prayer and support.

We've been dreaming lots, more than when we were in Singapore. One night a week ago, I had something like 6 dreams, after telling Jo about them, she said that the dreams meant the same thing; that I was struggling with leaving comfort zones. Also have been dreaming a lot about scenarios occurring at our parents' place and our house, haven't dreamt about Paris yet. But like what Jo said, week 3 is better, Paris is beginning to sink in.

Read 2 books this week, 'Eccentrics' by David Weeks & Jamie James and 'Guys, Germs And Steel' by Jared Diamond (really really good book, answered some latent questions I had since I was a kid). Again they were found on the bookshelf in our apartment, might take up Nardac's offer of english books soon. :-)

Haven't shot anything serious. I'm re-wiring the photography mindset that I grew up with at home, both in business and visioning aspects. It's taking a bit of time and I think it's no coincidence that we are doing it here. There are 2 major factors that helps, one is that we have ample/loads/tonnes of free time, the world seems to run a little slower here; the other is that the creative air is different here, it's hard to explain it but we get the feeling that art/photography is judged *differently* here... I feel freer to be me. So I won't shoot, I want to soak in that freedom first.

Wes

Our time here

There is a Catholic church down the street where we live. Every day when we wake up, we will cross our fingers and listen to the bells chime. And its the same story every day, the bells will go off 11 or 12 times and we will be amazed at how we manage to clock 11 or 12 hours of sleep every time.

Yesterday, the bells only rang once. This is not good.

The temperature seems to be going up these couple of days. Its about 24 deg on the average in the day and its pretty comfortable. Our days are not like filled with tons to do. Rather, we seem to be doing only one thing a day. Like yesterday, was laundry day.

Its funny how each time we come back to Paris we will find ourselves readjusting. The story is the same every time. We pack, leave home and come here, arrive, rest for a day and find ourselves waiting to go go go. But we can't, coz we have limited contacts and things to do here. So we wait. And in waiting, we lose hope and get depressed. And then, we ask ourselves, just what on earth are we doing here?

And then, interestingly enough, before we give up all hope, someone from home drops an email, or an sms to say bon courage! or that they are praying for us. And we remember why we are here. And we hang on.

In hanging on, we begin to see ourselves for who we are, and realise how little we know ourselves. That's when we start to let go of the rules and habits that we have become so accustomed to. And then we open our eyes to the space that we have here. And we stop doing, but start living and being.

This week has been that turning point for us.

Jo

2 weeks

We've been here for exactly 2 weeks now. Gotten used to the pace of things, like checking email and surfing twice a week instead of twice every hour, that was tough, that was partly why we felt cut off. Bedtime's also changed, we knock off about 12am and get up chirpy about 12pm. Jo says my eye bags are much better here. The mac powerbook is finding a new life as a jukebox, Corrine May, Tim Hughes, Matt Redman and Sarah McLachlan have been keeping us company every other day. Also, I got a french mobile line so keeping the M1 sim card out of out sight, if there's anything please sms Jodie. Also thought we found a great Pho place called Pho14 (it's very famous apparently and crowded) but woke up at night with super thirsty, no wonder it's good, got lots of msg. So skipping that.

And coz we have the kitchen, we spend less, buying provisions from G20 (more ex than Monop) and Monop (meat not as fresh as G20), saving tonnes. I also read Bill Bryson's 'Notes from a small island', 'Primary Colors' by Anonymous, 'Post Mortem' by Patricia Cornwell, the landlord left them here on a sitting on a bookshelf. Jo was amused to see me reading. We also don't have cable so no english channels, it's all french, and the news is all about france, so we missed the Bali news, it's terrible.

We met our contact this week and she turned out to be a really really nice lady, will have to see how it turns out. I've also made some decisions about photography direction after thinking and mulling for a while, see if God's ok with us going in that direction.

Jo's brother and sister sent a surprise package via DHL, reached us yesterday. It's got marmite, maggie porridge, black pepper sauce mix, thai curry mix, pocky, mos chicken cubes, hi-chew candy, letter and a CD filled with mini quicktime movies. Woohoo! Thanks guys!! And Shane's laugh sequence is such a hoot! Been watching the videos to no end. Congrats to you Teck Hua and Janis, your baby son looks like a potential lady-killer.

Btw, Battlefield 2 and some of the new games cost 50something euros here, crazy. But they do have Plantronics Gamecon 1 headset for 50 euros, we don't have them back home. Plantronics has some of the better headsets in the market but we don't see them at SLS, funny.

Also btw, saw a canon 5D and it's about S$5900+ here after minus-ing VAT. So Terz or Kelvin if you are reading this...

Love,
Wes

more updates

hey all,

we are staying in the 15th arr, studio apartement next to 'commerce' station. been feeling kinda disconnected with everybody, esp no fragging. but also know that this is probably 'point of no return', like a plane with half the fuel left and can't return to base?

no choice but to fly all the way to the next destination... honestly, got a thousand brain cells screaming to go home but hey if God gives the ok, we will follow. We just have one lead now, meeting up next week to talk then see how. no shoots yet from now...

Jo gotz the flu, bit of fever but she's holding up A OK... she looks a bit sleepy now though.

wes reporting and signing out.

ps: fw! with WW in spirit and teamkilling you guys in my dreams.

Where are the internet cafes?

We are here in Paris. Actually, we got here 5 days ago but there are just no internet cafes in our arrondisement. So we have to take the metro (that means 5 stations and 1 transfer) to get to this internet cafe in an adjacent arrondisement to receive and send out our emails. Sighz...

The weather is great, just turned colder yesterday. But otherwise, things are pretty much settling for us at the moment. The apartment is nice too. We took some photos so maybe the next time, we will put it up on the blog for you guys to see.

Till then.

Leaving for Paris (encore!)

Got a couple of things to sort out on our end, leaving for Paris on 23rd Sept. Will update from that time then.