High five to the winners and participants of this year’s blog awards for the battle was hard fought with so many quality entries contending in every every category. This year was a first for me as this blog and Explore Life Lah! both made it into the top 10 of two categories – Best Photography Blog and Best Best Travel Blog respectively. Neither of them won but a big thank you to all who supported with votes
This fifth edition of the Singapore Blog Awards saw a bumper crop of Singaporean and Malaysian blogs and bloggers compete in 10 main and 3 sub categories with the special crowning of 5 Omy.sg Blog Club’s wordsmith as Superbloggers.
Held at Singapore Flyer’s retro-concept open-air eatery, Singapore Food Trail, the awards ceremony saw an explosion of colours and creative energy to a comic superhero theme. I almost couldn’t make it to the event this year due to work but the chance to don my Superman tee and catch up with blogger friends was too good to miss!
There can’t be superheroes without vainlians, I mean, villians. Here’s me being super vain and Juliana with her deliancious interpretation of Kungfu Panda!
The ever spontaneous Christine (left) mans it up with her impression of a Mario Brother in drag while showing all the right buttons to push to become a Superblogger.
The event was packed to the brim on a hot Saturday afternoon.
Omy Blog Club’s Superbloggers (right to left) – Christine, Yong Wei, Peter, Catherine, and Eunice.
With Eunice and Catherine, the two ladies I had the privilege of going on a Royal Caribbean’s Legend of the Seas cruise with. They can use the towels to make the cloth animals we learnt onboard! LOL
Me with my superpower… guzzling alcohol!
I didn’t manage to catch up with as many friends as I would like to or take a lot of photos this time round as I arrived kinda late and the venue was crowded. There’s definitely a tinge of disappointment returning empty-handed although by not making it into the top 3 most voted in either category, I already knew there’s no chance of winning but I went to join in the fun for after all, bloggers are like an extended family. It doesn’t matter who won. Really
Attracting more than 1,000 entries and over 70,000 votes casted in support of finalists’ blogs, Singapore Blog Awards 2011 came to a conclusion 2 Saturdays ago (23 Jul 2011) at Shanghai Dolly.
Last year, Celebrate Life Lah! won Best Lifestyle Blog. This year, it didn’t even make it into the Top 10. I also entered my newly started travel blog, Explore Life Lah!, into the Best Travel Blog category and thankfully, it qualified as one of the 10 finalists. Phew! Thanks to all who have voted and supported me in SBA 2011. Those who didn’t, please smear some butter on your buttocks and prepare to be spanked! LOL
Similar to last year, there were a total of 10 main categories with some new categories replacing previous ones. This edition, 4 merchant-linked categories were also added. A BIG THANK YOU to all the sponsors for making the Blog Awards possible for the fourth year running!
This is my second year at the awards and it was especially fun this time round because unlike last year where I was a wreck and didn’t know anybody, this year’s event was a catching up with blogger friends I’ve made in the last 12 months. Plus, I got to be one of the mascots for this year’s theme (History Gets Social!) and played emperor! It was whacked-out fun. Check out the behind-the-scenes of our photoshoot here.
What if Emperor Kang Xi had Facebook and Twitter? What would the longest-reigning emperor in the history of China blog about? I could've brought back this life-size wooden standee after the awards as my 'trophy' and it'll come in handy during the Seventh Month.
That's wild and sexy blogger Estelle of loveyouwrongtime.com. She'll be receiving my medical bill very soon. I'm claiming compensation for the nosebleeds she caused in that leopard preens outfit.
Top Left : With Nabil of whywerunn.wordpress.com. Top Right : Love the thematic approach this year and of course, me taking centrestage throughout! Heh heh... Bottom Left : Finger foods, Domino's Pizza and Tiger Crystal kept everyone belly happpy. Bottom Right : All the winners of this year's blog awards. Congrats ya'all! Next year, save a spot for me okay?
A photo oppotunity with Guest-of-Honour, Major-General (NS) Chan Chun Seng, Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, and Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts. You've met leopard gurl. The hotter version of Chun Li standing next to me is Miss Singapore International 2011 Second Runner-up and Miss Body Beautiful, Cherie Lee (cherielee.sg).
With power blogger Adrian Eugene Seet of superadrianme.com (right) and my former gym buddy, Dennis (left)! Fancy bumping into him here at the awards. Haven't seen him in a long while and looks like he needs to get back to the gym. So do I! (See me sucking in my cheeks very hard to try and appear slimmer next to him?)
With one of the sweetest blogger I know, Germaine Leong of mintleong.sg and sneaking in at the back is funny guy Goh Yong Wei of iamnotfat.net.
A hard-to-come-by reunion of all 10 bloggers who went on the Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas cruise. New friends and amazing experiences are 2 of the best side effects in joining the blog awards.
Family of bloggers! I think bloggers are incredible people. We create contents despite having to juggle with our day jobs and other responsibilities. We spend countless hours to teach ourselves creative writing, graphic design, photography, photoshop, videography, editing, and blog technologies. Each blog post is a lot of hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Sometimes, it is very disheartening when our blog readership is not high, we never get into the finals of the blog awards or we never win any prizes. But that doesn't mean we are not good enough. I think so long as our blogs reach out to just one person, that's good enough. And that one person is ourself.
This takes narcissism to another level doesn't it? Well, I'm having fun with myself, this blog documents it, and I hope people will join me to Celebrate their Life no matter what Lah!
Coverage of Singapore Blog Awards 2011 in Wan Bao. Gosh... I can't get over how sleazy I look!
Report of the event by My Paper. This pic is making its rounds! Horros! Dressing up to the History Gets Social theme, my get-up is that of an Ah Beng in the 1970s, a 'historic' character of Singapore's culture. I got the retrosome shirt from Chatuchak Market in Bangkok a year ago and the bell-bottom jeans is an original piece from the 70s! It belonged to my mother! That also explained why I was trying VERY HARD to look chow bin (WTF face) in the photos to match the persona. FAIL.
If I said I wasn’t disappointed for not winning, my nose would grow very long. But there are always people better than ourselves and room for improvements. Winning depended on 70% by the judge’s decision and 30% by votes. I didn’t make it into the top 3 most voted blogs in my category so that’s a lot to reflect upon. Perhaps readers like travel blogs with big photos and minimal writing, somewhat of a vertical photo album with captions instead of detailed history and accounts of tourist attactions.
Then again, it could also be the preference of a sole judge overlooking the category. Fourteen judges were assigned to 14 categories, which meant each judge handles one category and not the case of all judges scoring each finalist’s blog to reach an average tabulation. As much as the contest is a test of each blogger’s abilities, it also depends on what topic shines with the judge and a test on their language proficiency as bilingualism is a highlight of the awards with bloggers posting in English, Traditional and Simplified Chinese. It’s tough being a judge! Kudos to them for agreeing to shoulder this task on a voluntary basis!
I would like to sincerely thank the Omy.sg team for creating a platform for Singaporean and Malaysian blogs to gain recognition and all the sponsors for supporting our individual voices!
Finally it is the night before the trip! Less than 12 hours to lift-off! I wonder what adventures I will have.
My luggage is all packed and sitting in a corner of my room… passport checked, wallet filled, NSman overseas trip notified, travel insurance incepted… now all there is to do is hope I can fall asleep amidst all the excitement. Our flight is departing at 8:00 am and by noon, we can blow a kiss to Hong Kong’s bay area lips!
However, one thing unsettles me. It is the weather. Looks like the island is not spared the wrath of Typhoon Chanthu.
Hopefully, good weather will be restored soon. Think I better make wet weather plans and have an alternative indoor itinerary. Instead of all that outdoor sightseeing, I should plan one that visits the museums, temples and malls just in case. The good thing with a destination like Hong Kong is that there is no lack of things to do.
Well, I better get to making plans for a rainy day and pack an umbrella into my luggage before I forget…
Wait a minute. Where’s my luggage?! It’s not at the corner where I left it?
I found it in the living room, staring longingly at the open door. Not yet, my eager friend. Not yet. We still have the night to pull through. There, there… be patient and come back to the room. (Gosh… I’m starting to talk to my luggage. I better be in Hong Kong soon before I go completely bonkers!)
Two more days to the trip and it’s time to play Ken doll. Or in my case, Chucky needs a few clothing changes while in Hong Kong.
Usually, I don’t start packing my luggage until the night before and normally, I bring only half of what I’m bringing on this trip. I brought more this time round because the Omy camera crew will be following us on some of our activities. I better make sure I don’t look shaggy and my armpits smell like a flowering valley in spring.
Well, it’s summer now in Hong Kong. It’ll probably be burning but according to the Hong Kong Observatory 7-day weather forecast, this weekend is going to be rather wet. I hope the forecast is wrong. Maybe we should get Paul the psychic octopus to predict the weather.
I really hope it will be bright sunshine on Saturday as I’m going to the Wetland Park. I’ve even prepared my nature photography outfit :
White T-shirt – To keep cool and reflect light onto the insects’ eyes to create catchlight. Catchlight is the reflective highlights in a subject’s eyes that adds life and makes the photo more interesting.
Long Pants – To protect from insect and snake bites.
Half Sleeves – To deflect UV rays and protect arms from sunburn.
Neckerchief – To keep back of neck from getting sunburnt.
Fisherman’s Hat – To protect face from sunburn and cut out sun flare.
Sounds like I’m a wuss when it comes to shooting nature. Well, I used to be all macho-dory and don’t bother with sunblock and covering up during shoots. But after getting terribly burnt from shoots each time, I finally surrendered to Mother Nature and let her dictate what I should wear.
And I pray she’ll let me have a chance to model my outfit this weekend.
THE ITINERARYThere are two kinds of travellers – the type who wants to see everything, and the kind who just want to relax and take it slow. I’m the third kind. I want to see it all and chill out to the max at the same time.
Call me greedy. I call it ‘punishing money’. Since I work so hard for it, it must work hard in return to ‘buy’ me these life experiences. My tourist dollar is hard to earn.
What about a free trip like this HKTB sponsored tour of Hong Kong? Air-ticket and accommodation are free so surely I can stop sodomising my wallet. Well, there’re still the expenses on transportation, attractions’ entrance fees and food.
So when taken in the totality of a travelling budget, I’m still paying. And I shall continue to slave drive my finances during this trip.
HKTB has some activities arranged for us and released the itinerary to us today. Apart from the Bath Tub race which Aussie Pete and I have been going on and on about, I’m scheduled for a Chinese Sauce Making class with a celebrity chef! Wow! Experiencing Hong Kong doesn’t get more exquisitely unusual than that. I’ll definitely share the recipes here. But that is provided I learnt well and didn’t turn sweet-plum sauce into sour-grape mousse.
In my itinerary, I plan to visit some of the must-see sights (aerial view of Hong Kong at The Peak, Symphony of Lights show), get into a little culture (Cultural Plaza, Nan Lian Garden), embrace nature (Wetland Park), sample the cuisine (The Bounty, Yin Yang Restaurant) and nightlife (Lan Kwai Fong), and just chill at our ultra posh hotel, The Mira Hong Kong.
When I visited the hotel’s website, the ambience, gym and swimming pool seemed almost too good to be true! Especially the pool. Well, photos have a way of distorting reality so I shall see when I get there.
I’ve kinda planned myself into a frenzy now. Uber excited about the upcoming trip. If only tomorrow is Friday. But well, three more days to go and all I have is to fine-tune my itinerary and salivate over photos of the places I’m going to visit. My itinerary contains some additional info about the places I’m going to visit and I hope they could be of use to you.
I’m a techno idiot. Chimpanzees would’ve built a rocket before I could figure out where the ‘ON’ button is on an electronic devise. Especially a new one.
So I’ve delayed opening the box to my new ASUS Eee PC T101MT until today. The netbook is one of the prizes from the Singapore Blog Awards 2010 and it’s been almost 10 days since I had it.
Contrary to most who would probably tear through the packaging, eager to explore the computing power within, having a new gadget is sort of an inconvenience to me because while I’m in the matrix generation, I still don’t speak binary.
That’s needless to say that when I own a piece of teckie thingamajig, I hold on to it till the National Heritage Board knock on my doors.
Hence, you can understand my dread when I touched the netbook for the first time and it struck me straightaway how light it is. Okay, that’s a good start. Since it’s so light, it would be great to travel with and I can use it to blog about the Hong Kong trip while there.
However, the small screen does take a bit of getting used to. Other than that, it is pretty nifty and comes with an adequate ecosystem for creating and utilising web content.
For a digitally-challenged user like me, so long as it can do what my current laptop does without fussing a whole lot about settings, updates and upgrades, I’m happy. And it’s touchscreen! Woohoo!
Other than test-driving the netbook today, I thought about the other teckie gadgets I want to bring on the trip in order to get all angles covered. I was wondering whether or not to bring my tripod along coz that thing alone weighs about 2.2kg. But I’ve decided to bring it along. I’m planning to try taking some sunset and night shots. That is if I can resist the lure of shopping at the night markets. Heh.
Well, hopefully all the investment in dollar and strength will be worth it to bring home some lasting memories of Hong Kong. Just pray I don’t forget how to use those high-tech dials when I’m there!
Friends who’d travelled with me know I’m a super kiasu (‘afraid to lose’) traveller who’s also a control freak. I will always try to cover as many places as possible and plan my itinerary with a time schedule stating what time for morning call, activity allocation, and what time to sleep. Is this a holiday or some tourist bootcamp they ask me. My answer is : “Let’s work hard at relaxing!”
Although I’ve been to Hong Kong previously, I hadn’t really researched nor find out more about the place.
To me, Hong Kong is always about shopping, Ocean Park, Lantau Island, and exercising dietary indiscretion. So I was really surprised to find so many things to see and do while preparing for this upcoming trip.
The thoughtful folks at the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) assembled a very comprehensive info kit for us so it was real easy to find places of interest, what to expect, and how to get there.
I believe these brochures, flyers and maps are available at the Hong Kong airport so do pick up a copy. They are REALLY very helpful. I also supplemented my research with HKTB’s website at discoverhongkong.com.
My favourite is the blue coloured Hong Kong – A Traveller’s Guide. It acts like a quick tourist reference bible and very handy.
From the booklet, I got a quick history lesson about how Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle. Hence, the proper name to refer to the island destination is actually Hong Kong SAR.
• Pre-1842 – Hong Kong was a ‘barren rock’ with a collection of fishing villages
• 1842 – Britain claimed Hong Kong Island after the First Opium War with China under the Treaty of Nanking
• 1860 – Britain claimed Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island
• 1898 – Britain granted a 99-year lease of the New Territories and 235 outlying islands
• 1997 – Hong Kong was returned to China
So with 150 years of colonial influence embroidered into China’s 5,000 years of rich traditions, the resulting tapestry is a fabric I’m tailoring to fit my vacation whims and fancy! I’ve formed a rough idea of the places I want to visit and will be planning a full itinerary soon… with what time to wake up, play, eat, and sleep!
Meanwhile, here’s a map I find really useful as it clearly puts into geographical perspective the places to go in Hong Kong, Kowloon, Lantau Island and New Territories. I’m visiting some of these places next week. Don’t be jealous…
I read Aussie Pete’s post about his ‘secret training’ with much admiration. More than the post being hilarious, he is really taking the bathtub race seriously! So I better not slack and spend the 6 days that’s left till the race to do some training.
I don’t expect to get back in top physical form in just 7 days, but at least to start getting the body used to sweat again and don’t turn blue at the 100m finishing mark. I used to be a dragon boater and had taken part in 500m and 800m races so 100m should be sup sup sui (Cantonese. Direct translation as ‘wet wet water’, meaning no sweat!). But that’s years ago. Now I just hope I don’t lose face for my country!
The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival 2010 has 191 dragon boat teams from 12 countries and regions competing. Considering that a small boat has 10 paddlers, a drummer and coxswain (12 people) and a big boat has 20 paddlers, a drummer and coxswain (22 people), there would be a lot of people for laughing at a Singaporean buffoon.
Dragon boating has a long tradition as a celebratory folk ritual, but it is in Hong Kong that the sport has evolved into what it is today. So Hong Kong can be considered the birthplace of modern dragon boating. I wonder where is the birthplace for bathtub boating?
I took up dragon boating in 2005 but stopped in 2008 after my lasik surgery. My wooden paddle is chucked somewhere in the storeroom and I haven’t touched it in more than 2 years. It must feel like Woody in Toy Story. May be it is plotting its escape with all the other forgotten things in the store now. Should I bring it to Hong Kong for some play time?
Before I think about that, I shall try to rehash the exercise routine from my former boating days. So I’ll be practically be living in the gym for the next few days with cardio workouts, weight training, and yoga.
Yes yoga. Dragon boating is not a brute sport. It requires technique and true rowing power comes from the trunk, not arms and shoulders. Hence, flexibility and core muscle strength would be very helpful during a race and can delay the onset of lactic acid build-up and muscle fatigue. Even though this is a just-for-fun 100m bathtub race, I’ll do my best!
And the best tune to accompany any gym time at the moment is…
Pete is thinking of wearing something outrageous for the event. I wonder what my other fellow bathtub racers – Violet, Geck Geck and Alvin would wear. Should we have a boomz team outfit with leopard preens and khaki green (including a rad bigini for the ladies)? That would be Uniquely Singapore!
To take part in the Media Bathtub Race during the Dragon Boat Carnival, we had to sign a form declaring that we can swim at least 100m with light clothing. Safety is paramount. So I guess that’s why I was asked to participate. My waist has a natural float. It is the size of a bicycle tyre now with the potential of growing into a Michelin.
And going to Hong Kong isn’t going to help since there are as many restaurants there as there are shopping districts. So I guess that sort of cancels each other out, right? You eat, and then get trim shopping. No wonder so many Hong Kongers are so slim despite their penchant for siu ngaap (roast duck), char siew (roast pork) and dim sum.
For me, chow dao fu (smelly beancurd) with a steaming hot bowl of cow’s heart and pig intestine is a must when in Hong Kong. I know they don’t sound very appetizing, and the stinky tofu smells like the sewage, but once you get past the stench, they’re really tasty.
Never judge a book by its cover. Never judge a food by its odour.
But of course, those street foods are gonna jam up the bad cholesterol level. So I’m taking the save-now-spend-later approach. I’m watching what I eat for every meal at the moment so as to calm the body before the storm.
Breakfast is a delicious and nutritious meal of oatmeal and raisins with soya milk, lunch is an appetising and mouthwatering bowl of fish soup (with no rice or noodles), and dinner… Well, it’s the last meal of the day so I spoil myself. I do housework with my tongue. I eat dust.
That, of course, is a fast diet to lose the float in a week. But who am I kidding? No matter how much I psyche myself up, when mealtime comes, my mind says eat fit food, my legs say go to the gym, while my hands pays the char kway teow hawker.
“Today is the day I’m starting and sticking to my diet.” Problem is, I say this every day. So I shall put it in words now, and the world as my witness, that for the next 8 days, I’m going to eat healthily. This morning I had the oatmeal breakfast, lunch I had seafood soup with noodles, and dinner I cooked brown rice and this…
Hong Kong-style Steamed Fish is my favouritest way of cooking fish because it is relatively fuss-free and it’s very appetizing with rice. Here’s my recipe for this simple yet looks-like-it-took-a-lot-of-effort dish.
Ingredients :
Serves 2 – 3 people
Fish – 300g (I used White Threadfin here but you can also use Garoupa or Sea Bass)
Light Soya Sauce – 2 tablespoons
Water – 6 tablespoons (3:1 ratio between soya sauce and water)
Olive Oil – 1 tablespoon
Sugar – 1 teaspoon
Chinese Cooking Wine (Hua Diao Jiu) – 3 tablespoon
Spring Onions, Chinese Parsley, Young Ginger (amounts according to preference)
Cooking Method :
1. Have the fishmonger gut the fish and ask for a ‘butterfly cut’ (slices both sides of the fish so that the flesh opens up like wings). Asked for it to be lightly scored too.
2. Wash the fish thoroughly with water, then rinse it with the Chinese Cooking Wine to coat it. The idea is not to soak or marinate it in the wine.
3. Slice ginger into fine strips and stuff them into the scores of the fish.
4. Finely slice Spring Onions and break Parsley into segments. Leave aside.
5. Heat up the wok and when the water is boiling, put the fish in to steam at high heat. A fish this size takes about 10 mins.
6. At the meantime, pour Soya Sauce, Water, Olive Oil, and Sugar and bring to boil. This is the sauce.
7. Remove the cooked fish and put it on a flat plate. Pour sauce over the fish and garnish with Spring Onions and Parsley.
Here’s a tip for steaming fish so that you get the nice butterfly form. If you just steam it on a flat plate, sometimes the fish meat gets stuck to the plate and disintegrates when you attempt to move it.
Now enjoy your Hong Kong-style Steamed Fish… while I look forward to the dinner aboard a traditional Chinese Junk in Hong Kong next week! Ha. )
Nine more days to go before the Hong Kong trip and I began thinking about where to go and what to do. So I went in search of photos of my previous trips there and I have one conclusion… some photos are better left forgotten!
My very first visit to Hong Kong was in 1988 with my family. When I was 14. When I thought it was cool to wear a cap with a stuffed tiger (I’m born in the year of the Tiger)! OMG… it’s super duper obiang! I threw the photo out after I scanned it.
The canary that looks like Lei Heong Kum (a famous veteran Hong Kong actress) is my maternal grandmother. I am very close to her as she is the one who brought me up with lots of leng tong (directly translated as ‘beautiful soup’), love, and hand-holding.
But she suffered a stroke that left her paralysed more than 10 years ago. Subsequently, she suffered another stroke of the throat and she could no longer eat. She loves to eat. But now, she gets her fill from a tube through her nose and directly to her stomach. Life has lost its taste.
Unable to care for her constantly, she now lives in a nursing home and I’m so guilty for not visiting her often enough. Maybe because it rips my heart to see her lying there, waiting for ‘that’ time to come. It must be such a terrible feeling to have all your senses, but you can’t move and just lie there and watch the world go by. Day after day. Year after year. It’s like being entombed alive.
I teared slightly when I saw the pic. It was taken atop Victoria Peak, overlooking the urban skyline of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is probably the place she loved to go most because I don’t remember any other place that she talked about. When she could still talk.
So this trip, I would like to go to Victoria Peak again. To take a photo and show it to po po (grandmother). While she could still see. I don’t know if I can identify the exact spot (and I sure won’t do that exact pose!), but I’ll bring her back images of the place she loves.
Oh well, enough of all that emo stuff. I’m sure po po would be happy to know that I’m getting a FREE trip to Hong Kong! From previous trips there, I’ve been to Ocean Park, cruise past the iconic Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, and in 2008, to Lantau Island to see the huge Buddha statue. If you’re there, don’t miss the trail called the Path of Wisdom by the side of the temple. It is very scenic, expecially in the late afternoon as the sun begins to set.
I wonder where I should go this time round, but wherever that could be, I sure don’t want to bump into a tai tai like this…
As one of the prizes from the Singapore Blog Awards 2010, all winners get to go on a 4D3N trip to Hong Kong. So today, the 10 of us attended a briefing by representatives from the Hong Kong Tourism Board at SPH. This is the first time all of us met but somehow, they didn’t feel like strangers to me.
I guess that’s the side effect of having a blog. We sort of know each other before we know each other. I have a feeling this is going to be a trip like no other!
We’ve yet to receive the full itinerary but sounds like there’s going to be some serious fun getting to feel a side of Hong Kong by doing what the locals do. For me, that’s taking part in the International Media Race at the HK Dragon Boat Carnival on 24 Jul 10.
Yup, I will be racing… In a bathtub! I can’t imagine what that would be like but I smell a Charlie Chaplin act coming. Hmm… Shall I bring my shampoo and sap boon along? I wonder who’s my partner in the tub. The future of Singapore’s bath culture is in our hands. Hope we will do Singapore proud!
There’re other special programmes being planned but they’re pending confirmation so I will share more once they’re confirmed. But I am starting to get quite excited because for one, I would like to see if this trip can change my perception of Hong Kong as a tourism spot.
I’ve been there 3 times in the past – as a teenager, in my 20s, and in November 2008. My first trip there, a huge misunderstanding happened between me and one of the girls. Our parents had to ‘sit down’ and talk to settle it. The visit during my 20s wasn’t amusing and my last trip there, I lost my passport and wallet and was stuck there for 2 days before I could come home.
So you know how I feel about Hong Kong right? Will this 4th visit be jinxed, or will the Fragrant Harbour henceforth leave a lingering sweetness in my memory… ?
First and foremost, a big THANK YOU for visiting this blog and if you’ve voted for it in this year’s Singapore Blog Awards, my deepest and most sincere appreciation for your support. Celebrate Life! won Best Lifestyle Blog at the awards.
I shan’t attempt to describe how I’m feeling because words would only castrate the magnitude of emotions that I felt before, during, and two days after the award ceremony. I wanted to post my thoughts and experience about the whole SAB2010 experience and wrote a colossal post. But I caught a cold from my long-windedness and decided to rewrite.
That’s the responsibility of winning. It’s an encouragement to be more critical and do better. More stress!
So after going through some dieting in vocabulary and topics, here’s Version 2. It offers a glimpse of the awards event and ceremony held at Movida last Saturday (10 Jul 10) from 4 – 6:30pm.
It is not because I won the award that I thought the event was pretty well organized, fun and definitely had a glam factor! Maybe I haven’t clocked enough mileage at such events so I’m easily impressed, but it did exceed my expectations. The organizer, Omy.sg really did a great job in my limited opinion and I’m not sucking up.
Before taking part, I’ve not heard of the Singapore Blog Awards or Omy.sg although this is the third year the contest has been held. I am very sua ku one. The news portal’s name sounds like what I would use at a coffeeshop… “Li ai lim kopi-O MAI? Teh-O MAI? Ah Oh, ai jiak siew MAI boh?”
So I thought SBA2010 would be some just some housefly trying to be a butterfly. But oh my, how very wrong I am! The polished bloggers and event left me with so much to reflect and ponder upon. It was a real eye-opener and here’s a record of some of the more candid moments for me.
DRESSED TO BE PAPARAZZI-SPOTTED
I didn’t give much thought about what to wear to the event initially. I planned to go in just a black t-shirt and black jeans. Can’t go wrong with that right?
Then I received the event’s invite and I almost blacked-out when I saw words such as ‘Oscar night’, ‘glamourous’, ‘Bling’, ‘Paparazzi’… I was screwed. I have no super-glam outfit except for a business suit. That’s a surefire paparazzi anesthesia.
“Eh, Celebrate Life! has been one of the top 3 most voted blogs leh, at least go in something with more thought than that tranquilising suit lah!” said the voice in my head.
It continued to coax me. Fine, I will go in something out of character then! A dire decision called for a desperate solution. It was time I release something I bought some time ago but don’t have the guts to wear.
With a handkerchief tied around my nose, I battled dust bunnies and mites, hunted all shelves and drawers, searched through bags of clothes, until I came face-to-face with it… the beast. Leopard-Face. Now that’s fashion with a bite! Meow…
I bought the singlet with a friend at Platinum Mall, a wholesale shopping centre in Bangkok. He wanted to buy 2 pieces but if we bought 3 pieces, each singlet cost only 150 bht (approx. S$6.00). So I ‘sacrificed’ and got this translucent singlet with a silvery print. It’s so boomz. And my nipples can be seen through it. Thankfully my nips are not the size of dinner plates. And furry.
To top off the look and hide the obscene nips, I threw on a brown suede jacket I bought 2 years ago but worn only once. I also took the advice of someone to wear red underwear for luck!
Red briefs, leopard preens and 3 crosses… that’s what I call feng-shui for your wardrobe. And it worked! Haha… Siow Har was very cooperative too. She wore a rad dress to multiply the luck factor. She’s lady luck!
And her pose is sure to be the de facto Hollywood red carpet posture to adopt at the next Oscars. I’m immensely grateful to her for attending the awards event with me and helping me photograph the happenings.
饮酒思源 (MY WOULD-BE THANK YOU SPEECH)
The awards ceremony was very fast and we did not get a chance to say a few words of thanks. So here’s what I would say if given time to have a Thank You speech… (then again, if I was really given time on stage, I would not know what to say!)
I would like to thank all the main sponsors, sponsors, media support and event partners. Sounds like I’m paying lip service but well, it is a commercial world. If the participating merchants don’t make money, there won’t be prizes or this award.
If there are no prizes, I doubt it would be as attractive for bloggers to take part. So yeah, I seldom name brands in my blog, but my gratitude to all the contributors who made this event possible. (I typed out each of their names instead of using their logos to show sincerity hor.)
I would also like to thank Omy.sg for giving us bloggers a platform to gather and be recognized, and all the judges for shortlisting my blog as one of the finalists and deciding that it’s good enough to win. (I wonder what are the winning factor/s of this rather unfanciful and technologically primitive blog.) A special thank you too to Alvin Lim from Omy who’s been liaising with me and keeping me in the loop of things.
Next, I want to thank all my friends and family who have knowingly or unknowingly provided inspiration willingly or unwillingly. Ha. (If I’ve offended you in any way, please pardon me and be prepared to pardon me for future posts as well.)
And most importantly, I want to thank all readers. This blog was started as an outlet for me to vent but over the course of the contest, I began to write with a mindfulness of an audience. I’m still amazed that people read my blog because unless you know me personally, what’s so interesting to follow what’s happening to a stranger? So thank you for reading.
THE BLOGS, THE PEOPLE, THE EXPERIENCE
Winning was definitely the icing on the cake. Truth be told, I’ve thought all along that Bing would win the Best Lifestyle Blog category because her blog was visually appealing, she’s got a great sense of humour, a very accessible writing-style, and a way of turning mundane everyday happenings into a talking point.
Hers is the blog I followed the most because well, you have to know your competition right(?) and I can identify with some of her issues, such as giving up an addiction. And I should blame her for getting me addicted to her blog!
Meeting her in person was something I looked forward to at the awards because I wanted to grill her about blogging tips. When I finally saw her, it was like meeting an idol (plus she looks like one of my favourite local singers, 孙燕姿)!
I was also looking out to meet the other 8 finalists in the category but I failed to sight or recognize them. Lifestyle is a very broad category in terms of subject matters and I would like to thank my fellow finalists for the ideas I’ve gotten from their blogs :
I also had the privilege of meeting some of the winners from other categories such as Pete, Priscilla and Hendra. I didn’t have a chance to visit their blogs before the awards coz I was busy creating blog contents after work, but I popped by their sites to browse around after I met them in person. They’re definitely worth the mouseclicks!
The awards event was quite a blast. Some of the bloggers were invited to perform and I’m awed by the fact that these people were not only good bloggers, they can sing and dance too! So multi-talented. And my only talent that night was drinking 5 bottles of Tiger beer.
I know, I said I wanted to stop being an alcolwhore in a previous post not too far down. But it’s a happy occasion mah… To be surrounded by so many people brimming with creativity and a casual atmosphere of fun!
And I needed the drinks to calm me down. I was soooo nervous when I went on stage to get the award coz I was caught by what I call the Surprise Fallacy. This is how it works… I WANT to win but have to prepare myself emotionally if I don’t win. In order to manage emotional disappointments, I had to inflate the bubble of nonchalance and indifference to ‘failure’.
So when my name was called, it acts like a pin that punctured the bubble and the amount of time taken to go from exaggerated self-consolation (with such headtalk as “It’s ok to not win, it’s good enough to have come this far”, “You’ve done your best”, etc) to actually letting the WANT to take over, is the Surprise Fallacy. I am prepared for surprise but pretended I’m not.
And the nervousness is the vacuum that exists before the full acceptance of having won sets in. Yes, when faced with bad things, we have to stop denying that it has happened and accept the reality in order to move on. It is the same when good things happen. It takes time to accept.
I haven’t felt a nervousness of such epic proportions in a long time. I could actually feel my face twitching and jaw quivering when I received the award from Mr Teo Ser Luck (Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, and Ministry of Transport). He’s also the Mayor of the North East Community Development Council. My fingers went sore typing his titles. So many portfolios and yet he looks so young! I don’t believe he’s 42 years-old.
From the moment I received my trophy to all the media interviews afterwards, it was a blur. With all the flashes and spotlights, it scared the soul right out of my body. It felt surreal to be interviewed and I was so awkward with all the attention.
I was so busy being a wreck of nerves, my thoughts didn’t have the chance to catch up with me and I free-wheeled during the interviews. I don’t understand what I’m saying most of the time, acted silly and I was unusually fidgety. I hope the reporters and public will be forgiving towards a newbie like me.
TIME TO RELAX AND TAKE IT EASY?
After all the excitements leading up to and during the ceremony, I must say I’m relieved. I was pretty exhausted from all the late nights spent blogging after work during the voting period.
Some of the blogs were completed close to 6am in the morning but posted at a later time when I could get some rest and rethink what was being said.
Even those posts with just a photo and some thoughts about what the image says to me can take hours to find the words that I felt captured the spirit of it.
I think as far as blogging goes, I’m a pretty hardworking blogger! Ha.
So I am rather worn out. But the award changes things. It is a booster. I can foresee that there will be many more nights of overnight blogging during the weekends. This is only the beginning!
But for the time being, I will take things a little easy, chill out more, spend time with friends, go back to the lifestyle I had before, get back in shape and along the way, if something screams “Blog Me!”, I will share it with you.
To mark the new journey ahead for this blog, I’m offering a toast to you in the photo. Cheers! Next time I will toast with tea. I don’t know when that will be!
SO WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?
First of all, everyone who’s been asking me for a treat, know this… there are no cash prizes. I already very pok gai (broke) from paying bills at home so may just being happy for my triumph be your best treat! Wahahaha…
Of the prizes, I think the most interesting item amongst them would be the trophy designed by one of Singapore’s artistic treasures, Mr Tan Swie Hian. I read a book about him, ‘To Paint a Smile: Insights of One Artist’s Approach to Happiness’, and have been filled with admiration since for how meaningful messages and symbols are imbibed into his works. The colourful wall mural at the Chinatown’s MRT Station is a work of Mr Tan.
So to receive a trophy designed by him was an honour above honours! And I got to shake his hand and he gave me a personal explanation of his inspiration for the trophy!
We spoke in Mandarin so I’m not sure if I got his explanation accurately in English but here’s a gist of it :
•  It is in the shape of the ancient drinking cup used by royalties known as 鼎 and it has 3 legs. ‘鼎’ also means ‘top’ in Chinese.
•  1 of the 3 legs is in its traditional form while the other 2 are of different shapes to represent new media forms such as the internet. It represented the fusion of tradition with technology.
When I brought home all the prizes and my mum was going through the bags, she lifted the trophy and asked, “What is this? Why you bring home an incense burner?” Another *gua gua gua…* moment.
Personally, I felt Mr Tan understands bloggers very well. We spend a lot of time to spread information about things but don’t get paid. I can now use the trophy to go 化缘 (the bowl used by monks to ask for alms)! Haha.
Initially I thought the trophy was odd because it is not the usual types we’re used to. I think it is sculptured in cast iron coz it’s very heavy. I placed it on the top shelf in front of my bed and each time I see it, I have a certain sense of calm. I guess true art changes you.
The next big prizes are of course the ASUS Eee-PC Touch netbook and a 4D3N trip sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. So I’ll be joining the other category winners to Hong Kong from 23 – 26 July 10. I will also be taking part in the dragon boat festival there! Now my years of dragon boat training can come into use. Except, I’ll be rowing a bathtub in the media race.
Another ‘substantial’ prize is a 3D2N accommodation at Baramee Resortel at Phuket, Thailand. There are other small souvenirs and memorabilia given by sponsors but the free passes given by the Singapore National Heritage Board (NHB) made me rub my eyes a few times to read.
The Best Lifestyle Blog category, the category I won in, is sponsored by NHB. I got 3 museum passes – 2 passes to visit the National Museum (ONE VISIT. ADMITS 1 EACH), and 1 pass to visit the Asian Civilisations Museum (ONE VISIT. ADMITS 2.). I thought I saw wrongly that it is NOT a 1-year free entry pass for 2 to all the museums and boutique galleries in Singapore.
CELEBRATE LIFE WITH OUR TRUE COLOURS
I guess whether it is 1 visit, or unlimited visits, it’s still better than no visits. I have learnt to count every blessing and be grateful for everything big or small. For whether we want to nick pick or just not sweat over the small stuff, life goes on.
And that is the spirit behind the title of this blog – Celebrate Life!. It is a common phrase that a group of my friends use a lot in the past. Even now. Each time someone gets flustered or unhappy over something, we’ll just say, “Celebrate life… tomorrow will come with or without you.”
I like this saying because it has a dual feel to it. There is the uplifting first part (celebrate life), and the cold comfort that follows (you don’t live forever). It struck a deep chord for me so when I was thinking for a name for this blog about 5 years ago, I decided to call it Celebrate Life!. I wanted it to be a celebration that life has to offer.
The good. The bad. The beautiful. The ugly. The happiness. The sorrows. 人生的酸甜苦辣，喜怒哀乐，悲欢离合。And the exclamation mark adds a sense of urgency to celebrate now. Today. Because tomorrow may or may not come.
To win, or lose, it doesn’t matter. Winning may not be a blessing, losing may be a blessing in disguise. 欢乐无长在，悲痛需简短。
For all the 1,000 over bloggers who submitted entries for the Singapore Blog Awards 2010, and the number of us who made it into the finals but didn’t win, I may not know you, I may not have read your blogs, and I’m a nobody and in no position to encourage you, but if I may, I would like to urge you to be not discouraged.
Continue to blog and while we may put ourselves out for criticism, there is only one way to truly celebrate life… and that is to live out our true colours.
Thank you once again for reading. It is my pleasure writing for you.
In less than 15 hours, the Singapore Blog Awards 2010 ceremony will be on! I’ve been thinking about what to wear for the whole week because sad to say, I don’t have an imaginative wardrobe. The theme is ‘Oscar glamourous’ and ‘Paparazzi-worthy’. That means it is either sharp suits or drag as Lady Gaga. I don’t have the moolah or the bola to do either.
And adding weight to a drowning man, I saw some of what the bloggers are going in. The designer-sponsored clothes, the who’s who of make-up, the famous stylists… guess I’ll be paparazzi-worthy after all since I’ll be the only one in rags. Maybe I’ll inspire the next fashion trend – Darrags (Darren’s rags)!
But I really look forward to the event. I want to meet all the bloggers running for the awards to get tips on how to make my blog more attractive and to thank them for the inspiration some of their blogs have given me. I’ve always been writing my blog for an audience of one… me. It was a place for me to insure against forgetting some of the major moods and events in my life and a place of reference for some facts I want to remember.
Through the many blogs I’ve come across because of the awards, I realized it is okay to say what I really feel. In the capacity of a personal blog, this is an unsafe place to be who we are but we can’t be somebody else if we expect to be heard.
I’ve also come to observe that my blog is somewhat bi-polar. One post could be all fun and humour and the next is all emo and soul-searching. Like now. But I guess, this is my style. And I have to learn to grow comfortable with it. If I’ve learnt well from the blogs I’ve read, this is who I am. This is a window for what I’ve gone through and what I’m experiencing to soar.
It is beyond my wildest imagination that Celebrate Life! could make it as a Top 10 finalist and I’m really thankful for each and every vote that placed it in the top 3 voted blogs for the Best Lifestyle Blog category. I took part just for fun but my eyes are really opened to the possibilities that blogging presents.
The past couple of weeks had seen an unusually high number of posts from me. Many were postings I wanted to put up but couldn’t make the time previously, but as a result of running for the awards, I took extra efforts to put them up. Some of the blogs were completed at 4 or 5 am in the morning and I’m a zombie at work the next day. But it showed me how much I can actually push myself and I’m very glad that my backlog of posts has been cleared!
I hope that this blog has been more than just a guy ranting about his life and provided some information that you could use. Thank you all so very much for reading and for the comments and mails you’ve sent me. They are the fuel that keeps me going.
Even if I do not win at the awards, I’ve already gained many invaluable lessons through this journey and made some new friends along the way. Thank you for walking with me.
And later, I will be walking around the awards venue, Movida at St James Powerstation, in a suede jacket bought in Singapore (S$100), blue jeans bought in Bangkok (S$25), white singlet with silvery leopard preens from Thailand (S$6.00), brown shades from Malaysia (S$6.50), khaki duckbill cap from Hong Kong (S$7.00), and an assortment of chains to try and look cool.
Will I be fashion Frankenstein or will I successfully mimic budget couture debonair… watch this space for the outcome… )
I started this blog on 27 December 2004 and never have I imagined that 5.5 years later, it could make it into the Singapore Blog Awards! From the more than 1,000 entries, Celebrate Life! is amongst the 100 in 10 categories. What an honour!
When I received a call from the organizer, Omy in mid-May to have my blog moved from the ‘Most Insightful Blog’ to the ‘Best Lifestyle Blog’ category, I thought it was just a matter of administration by the organizer. I went on with my routine life, took a trip to Kuching and continued to procrastinate the many things I wanted to blog about.
Then someone posted on my Facebook wall to congratulate me on making it as one of the Top 10 Finalists! So I went to the awards site to verify, saw my pic there (it was risqué!) and visited blogs from other finalists. I realized how slow I was in catching the Blog Awards fever! So from late May onwards, I blogged like I’ve never blogged before with an entry almost every other day.
And by some stroke of luck, Celebrate Life! has been voted into one of the Top 3 spots of the Best Lifestyle Blog category. I’m immensely grateful to all that voted for this humble blog with none of the really cool blog technologies and design.
So now that I’ve caught the Blog Awards fever, I would like to give it a shot to run for votes. The winner is determined 30% by votes and 70% by the panel of judges. Hopefully you’ll get into the heat and vote for this blog. Here’re the steps to vote :
Step 3 : Click on ‘Categories & Nominees’ and select ‘Best Lifestyle Blog’
Step 4 : Vote for Darren Ng – Celebrate Life!
Mouseover the pink vote label. When it turns green, click on it. If you click on the photo icon, it’ll just call out the blog site. Thank you for your vote and support. You can cast one vote everyday. Thanks lots! )
Attracting more than 1,000 entries and over 70,000 votes casted in support of finalists’ blogs, Singapore Blog Awards 2011 came to a conclusion 2 Saturdays ago (23 Jul 2011) at Shanghai Dolly.
Contrary to most who would probably tear through the packaging, eager to explore the computing power within, having a new gadget is sort of an inconvenience to me because while I’m in the matrix generation, I still don’t speak binary.
Although I’ve been to Hong Kong previously, I hadn’t really researched nor find out more about the place.
)
The canary that looks like Lei Heong Kum (a famous veteran Hong Kong actress) is my maternal grandmother. I am very close to her as she is the one who brought me up with lots of leng tong (directly translated as ‘beautiful soup’), love, and hand-holding.
“Eh, Celebrate Life! has been one of the top 3 most voted blogs leh, at least go in something with more thought than that tranquilising suit lah!” said the voice in my head.
I would like to thank all the main sponsors, sponsors, media support and event partners. Sounds like I’m paying lip service but well, it is a commercial world. If the participating merchants don’t make money, there won’t be prizes or this award. 
Hers is the blog I followed the most because well, you have to know your competition right(?) and I can identify with some of her issues, such as giving up an addiction. And I should blame her for getting me addicted to her blog!
The awards event was quite a blast. Some of the bloggers were invited to perform and I’m awed by the fact that these people were not only good bloggers, they can sing and dance too! So multi-talented. And my only talent that night was drinking 5 bottles of Tiger beer.
And the nervousness is the vacuum that exists before the full acceptance of having won sets in. Yes, when faced with bad things, we have to stop denying that it has happened and accept the reality in order to move on. It is the same when good things happen. It takes time to accept.
Even those posts with just a photo and some thoughts about what the image says to me can take hours to find the words that I felt captured the spirit of it.
Initially I thought the trophy was odd because it is not the usual types we’re used to. I think it is sculptured in cast iron coz it’s very heavy. I placed it on the top shelf in front of my bed and each time I see it, I have a certain sense of calm. I guess true art changes you.
And that is the spirit behind the title of this blog – Celebrate Life!. It is a common phrase that a group of my friends use a lot in the past. Even now. Each time someone gets flustered or unhappy over something, we’ll just say, “Celebrate life… tomorrow will come with or without you.” 
And adding weight to a drowning man, I saw some of what the bloggers are going in. The designer-sponsored clothes, the who’s who of make-up, the famous stylists… guess I’ll be paparazzi-worthy after all since I’ll be the only one in rags. Maybe I’ll inspire the next fashion trend – Darrags (Darren’s rags)!
It is beyond my wildest imagination that Celebrate Life! could make it as a Top 10 finalist and I’m really thankful for each and every vote that placed it in the top 3 voted blogs for the Best Lifestyle Blog category. I took part just for fun but my eyes are really opened to the possibilities that blogging presents.
