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