tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86576202035775786642024-03-14T19:46:27.597+08:00Ice cream for everyoneIdeas, Communication, Entertainment, Creativity, ROI, Advertising, Marketing, TravelAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-46073819041342219692015-08-10T18:08:00.002+08:002015-08-10T18:08:52.240+08:00Ice Cream for Everyone has migrated!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPuDuW4iGpZw7HGRNY_DHfg4wx94Seg0JuKCVqAg2RJv_V7LYsZzV0wgMGAyBQs84Qh0cCDwwwFvsQgLkx5XZPFYMbRD3ieaSv4g_yofUSxRpUzPPfrrqyQ6jFy1sVWABlvux_AcUL6XY/s1600/ICFE-logo+Final+02+copy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPuDuW4iGpZw7HGRNY_DHfg4wx94Seg0JuKCVqAg2RJv_V7LYsZzV0wgMGAyBQs84Qh0cCDwwwFvsQgLkx5XZPFYMbRD3ieaSv4g_yofUSxRpUzPPfrrqyQ6jFy1sVWABlvux_AcUL6XY/s400/ICFE-logo+Final+02+copy.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
Ice Cream for Everyone has a new look and the blog has migrated to a new platform, please <a href="http://www.icecreamforeveryone.net/blog-eng/">follow it here</a>!<br />
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The Ice Cream for Everyone podcast has also started, please listen to the <a href="http://www.icecreamforeveryone.net/podcasting-eng/episode-01-heros-journey-to-podasting/">first episode</a>: The Hero's Journey to Podcasting.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-82768800806338043782015-07-28T16:06:00.002+08:002015-07-28T16:06:25.990+08:00Beers & Billboards project - test episode 0 (World Cup 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As some of you may be aware I enjoy craft beers and was also home brewing beer. The interest was shared with my good friend and previously colleague JP in Singapore. Given we had a few evenings of enjoying craft beers we thought it would be a good idea to combine two of our interests, namely beer and advertising, into a podcast or video show.<br />
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We only recorded a few test episodes that weren't particularly well prepared (to say the least), though I still think it had some potential. I decided to leave Singapore and move back to Europe shortly after, and while we recorded another test via a video conversation (that I might publish as well), the idea has mostly been taking virtual dust in a corner of my hard drive.<br />
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I talked about it with JP and thought we might as well publish it and let people be judge of the potential for some kind of show, or lack thereof. Apologies in advance for the bad video quality, it's raw and was shot with a point & shoot camera. Plus batteries ran out in the middle of recording, we didn't realise until later and we only saved the early portion of it. I'm eating almost throughout - lesson learned, it's not recommended for recording video. Enjoy.<br />
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Video advertising credits (also watchable in better quality):<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt6mVUty1a8">McDonald's World Cup "House Divided" </a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0GKtXeepws">Tiger UNCAGE: Joey Pang</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf_z_7B4Ifw">Heineken "The Odyssey" </a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6WKfhj1lE0">Kona Brewing Company "Sad Hour"</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-34045795987027732112015-07-13T22:15:00.000+08:002015-07-13T22:15:35.601+08:00Kidzania: innocent fun or capitalist wet dream?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I just spent some time in London for work, and a friend of mine who has a small child told me about this brand new theme park attraction called <a href="http://www.kidzania.com/">Kidzania</a>, which sounded fascinating and terrifying in about equal parts. Shortly after I walked by their ad campaign in the tube and took a couple of pics. I became even more curious and looked it up.<br />
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Whatever I think of them critically, I'm a bit of a sucker for theme parks. I leave my critical thinking at the door when I walk in Disneyland for example. As a game, I spent one time in Disneyland Paris queueing with small children to get all the autographs of Disney characters in a notebook. I was younger than now though still taller than most of the kids at about 20 years old. I also love tabletop role-playing games, and while I did want to be helicopter pilot when I was 6 years old, once I found out I could also be a make-believe mischievous thief or a fire-ball throwing mage in tabletop games that sounded a lot more exciting.<br />
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Kidzania, originally from Mexico, and according to their website and Wikipedia page is a chain of family entertainment centres. Each one of their worldwide 16 locations features a fully modern albeit child-sized mock city full of law abiding, hard <strike>working</strike> playing kids. As I understand it from my friend's description, parents are encouraged to part with their child along with a substantial amount of cash for a couple of hours while they go and play modern hunter gatherers at the mall.<br />
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Once the kids are in the non-magical kingdom, they have the chance to train as model citizens of an ideal capitalist society, in other words they take on jobs and earn Kidzania money for it. Each new kid in there has a dedicated bank account, and can withdraw the local Kidzos currency from any of the citys ATMs. The website doesn't specify if or what the currency exchange might be if one child travels to a different Kidzania location. So apparently you have kids role-playing and dressing up in adult jobs like firemen, dentists, journalists, business men, cooks, air host(esses), etc. Altogether over 100 different <strike>roles</strike> jobs. Once they earn and learn by role-playing their jobs, they can spend their Kidzos on entertainment and items from the Kidzania shop.<br />
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'Zupervisors' are there to help the kids in their <strike>work</strike> play time and of course major brands are there to sponsor activities relevant to their field, hoping to make loyal customers of children at an early age, given when they're 18 years old they never listen to them.<br />
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Domino's Pizza, Coca-Cola, DHL, Sony, Nestlé, Danone, Unilever, etc already have branded booths where happy children can 'play work' using their branded products and working in their companies.<br />
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While I mostly find the idea of this corporate capitalistic ideal society for children frightening, I'm also ambivalent: it is true that role-playing is natural for kids, and imitation play is as well. Play in all its forms is to be cherished, mammals all learn through play, and we humans are no exception to that. I'm also not too sure the play should be this close to the 'real world' as we know it, and it feels way too close to training kids to being obedient corporate drones to work, earn, and then spend.<br />
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Or am I being too cynical..? What do you think?</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-24205329713281971872015-07-01T18:00:00.000+08:002015-07-02T01:14:50.847+08:00Learning to drive<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first evaluation driving lesson was driving in snow!</td></tr>
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I've been thinking about this post for a little while, just as I've been learning to drive (and still don't have my license) for a little while longer than expected.<br />
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Let us start with the fact that I'm a 35, soon to be 36 year old man, and still don't have my drivers license. I know I'm not the only one, but people can still be surprised at that. For a long time I had a canned and ready answer: my parents didn't have the money when I was 16-18 years old, and about that time we moved to the centre of Versailles, and Paris shortly after, I didn't need it living in a big city, and when I started earning enough to consider learning, I thought spending elsewhere would be a lot more interesting. I spent it on holidays instead, basically.<br />
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Thinking about it, I hadn't learned to drive all this time because truth be told I'm just not very interested. I've never cared much for cars, and driving seemed to be a hassle. I love to leave my mind to wander while I'm traveling in a vehicle, and to me that seems more important and worthwhile than having to pay attention to the road.<br />
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So far learning to drive had stayed in the department of unfulfilled good intentions, though moving away from Singapore to the South of France I knew I'd need to learn, and this was also part of the reason for the move back. I don't think I'll be a full time city-dweller my whole life so until teleportation becomes available cars unfortunately seem to be the best - or currently most popular - option.<br />
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I've written a few times in this blog that I've been enjoying learning new skills and trying out new activities in the past few years, such as Thai massage, scuba-diving, or home brewing beer. This year so far is about learning to drive, and it may well sound surprising if you've mastered that a long time ago, but for me it has been pretty tedious and difficult.<br />
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Early this year, I was with my little brother Morgan's car in the countryside lanes surrounding the vineyards, to try out and learn the basics. I sat behind the wheel and it felt pretty odd.<br />
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I put my hands on the wheel and said something like: "Wow this is weird, I can't remember the last time I was behind a steering wheel..."<br />
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Morgan looked at me, raised an eyebrow and replied: "You've never actually sat behind a car's steering wheel, have you..?"<br />
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"Well now you mention it... Nope..."<br />
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And then he taught me to start the car, and given right in front was an incline, spent time starting it again and again going up a slope - which I learned later isn't necessarily easy. At least I gathered that I could do it.<br />
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I began the official process soon after with a local driving instructor. The theory test was easy, that's comfy territory: learning stuff and regurgitating has never been much of an issue for me.<br />
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When it came to the driving lessons though it became a little tougher, and recently I've been talking with friends about why that might be, which was interesting. I realised I have a thing going on that I panic if I feel overwhelmed - particularly anything to do with physical coordination.<br />
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You can ask me to learn something by heart or type on my laptop while having 5 people yelling different things at me and I'll generally be fine. Add the same people and ask me to cook under pressure and I'm almost guaranteed to hurt myself (I'm a decent cook, just not a professional one).<br />
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Last week I burned myself making coffee because I was at a friend's place and unfamiliar with their coffee machine. I messed up making a first coffee, felt embarrassed at myself (no need for the 5 people), panicked somehow, and then burned myself making the second coffee...<br />
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In the past few months I've had a bunch of driving lessons, and improved enough to take the test in late May. I thought I was relaxed and confident before starting, and then failed spectacularly. I had all the best conditions for the test, including a really cool examiner, but accumulated mistakes. I've never stalled so much in barely 20 minutes. And apparently stalling in the middle of a busy roundabout is not acceptable...<br />
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While I was looking at what had happened, it's interesting to notice that the physical skills I've learned in the past few years more or less require slowly focusing on one thing at a time. It's not that I'm desperately clumsy (not that much, anyways!), though if or when I feel there's too much pressure and too many things to coordinate at one time, I panic. And hurting myself or failing tasks then reinforces the idea that I'm awkward altogether as a truth.<br />
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I'm sure there's a part of talent, and driving is unlikely to ever be an area of expertise for me. That said at the same time it's allowing me to realise that it's mostly a question of practice - there's no particular physical reason for me to be worse than most drivers. In the end, identifying my panic reactions as they happen letting me catch myself in the act, relax when I realise it's silly, and get over it, lets me be present to what I'm doing - driving in the case of this story.<br />
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It looks like I won't have a new space to take the driving exam until September, I'll be in touch about the results of the next test. Cross fingers for me. If you have one, please send a 'Don't Panic' towel!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-68681209030985533802015-05-31T22:43:00.001+08:002015-05-31T22:43:57.046+08:00Enjoying the new neighbourhood<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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While I was <a href="http://www.willemvdh.com/2015/05/participating-in-national-novel-writing.html">writing my novel</a> in November last year I had the chance to go on a few walks in the area where my sister lives, and given they say a picture is worth a thousand words I'll post a few here by way of explaining why I chose to settle here for a while longer.<br />
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The first two photos are from the top of a hill at the <a href="http://www.tautavel.com/articles-4/4-181-la-torre-del-far/">Torre del Far</a>, a fire and smoke signal tower dating from the 10th century, standing between the villages of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cases-de-P%C3%A8ne">Cases de Pène</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautavel">Tautavel</a>.<br />
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Dominating the Corbières, the top offers gorgeous views of several <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism">Cathar</a> castles, the Pyrénées mountains, the sea pond of Salses-Leucate, and the Mediterranean sea. The walk is only like 2-3 hours long, and highly recommended. I also walked nearby the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serrabone_Priory">Serrabone Priory</a>, another beautiful area with great views of the mountains and all the way to the sea on a nice day.<br />
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I've already mentioned my sister's vineyard, it goes without saying the region is known for its wines. The quality of wines and reputation of several small producers in the Roussillon area are steadily growing both in France and internationally. I've really enjoyed walking through the vineyards over winter last year, and hadn't seen so many beautiful rainbows in a very long time. The area tends to get a lot of wind and sunshine, (most) autumn and winter rains don't last long as rain clouds get blown away, and one can see many rainbows in the Roussillon and Fenouillèdes at that time of year.<br />
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The Eastern Pyrénées mountains are right there, barely over an hours drive away, to spend a few days there for New Year's Eve 2014 at a friend's place in a lovely little village. We spent a day hiking in snow shoes to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac_des_Bouillouses">Lac des Bouillouses</a>, pictured above.<br />
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A few days after new years eve, I realised I hadn't been to the seaside since I'd arrived in late October. I got on the train from Perpignan for 20 minutes to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collioure">Collioure</a>, a lovely town on the rocky Côte Vermeille leading to Spain. The town was known as a centre of artistic activity in the early 20th century, with several <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauvism">fauve artists</a> such as André Derain or Henri Matisse making it a regular meeting place. I just spent a few hours walking around and reading on a sunny terrace with a coffee - I had been a few times before and still enjoy it, particularly in low season.<br />
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Meanwhile, once I'd finished the <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a> writing challenge, I spent a lot of time pretty seriously thinking about what I should be doing next and where I should be living. I had a few job interviews for full time roles in Paris and London as well. One interview conversation in particular was extremely useful, challenging, and overall a great support in helping me think things over.<br />
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It took me a while (and conversations with friends and family) to realise and admit what was pretty much staring me in the face: I am in amazingly beautiful surroundings, close to my family which was one of the reasons I left Singapore, and close to busy international airports with Gerona and Barcelona next door to get anywhere in the world. <a href="http://www.willemvdh.com/2012/06/year-into-being-wandering-planner.html">I managed to make a living as a consultant while backpacking around Asia</a>, I figure I should be able to do it from here too. I have a little bit of work going already, and will be traveling to London, Paris, Barcelona, Singapore, or wherever needed on a regular basis to meet clients - and keep working on my novel on the side. We'll see how it works out.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-15616943363850322142015-05-26T17:52:00.000+08:002015-05-26T17:52:50.821+08:00Participating in the National Novel Writing Month<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The previous posts brought me to the end of October last year, when I arrived near Perpignan, at my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lesarabesques">sister's vineyard</a>. I have blogged about <a href="http://www.willemvdh.com/2014/07/word-count-training-challenge.html">getting ready</a> for <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>, and about <a href="http://www.willemvdh.com/2014/08/and-now-for-something-completely.html">leaving</a> <a href="http://www.willemvdh.com/2014/09/good-bye-singapore.html">Singapore</a>, though I hadn't specified that I've been able to do what I did since thanks to my sister and her partner who invited me to spend time at their place over the winter.<br />
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I had a few goals my family and friends have been supporting me in:<br />
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<li>Writing a novel</li>
<li>My drivers license </li>
<li>Ease my transition back to France after 10 years abroad (admin paperwork, etc)</li>
<li>Figure out what & where was next.</li>
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I'll focus on my experience with NaNoWriMo for this post, which has been a fascinating exercise. </div>
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I've had ambitions to write a novel for a long time, and had set those aside for a long time too. I checked and the most I'd written towards one novel was about 6,000 words, and that was 15 years ago. I'd never written 50,000 words of the same story, which is the NaNoWriMo challenge goal.</div>
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I was writing on a regular basis since the month of July with the intention of choosing the main theme and story for the novel I'd be writing in November. I also spent time on writing advice blogs about storytelling, novel structure, characterisation, worldbuilding, etc.</div>
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Of course by the time November 1st 2014 arrived, with months of preparation time, set up at my sister's place in the countryside ready to write a novel, I still hadn't chosen what it would be about. As you can see from the graph I didn't add words for the first few days, instead scrambling to get a storyline together from one of the ideas I was toying with. </div>
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The single most common piece of advice from professional writers is that to be a writer, you have to write. Silly yet true. I wasn't really satisfied that I'd chosen the <b>right </b>story to tell, but then I just focused everything on writing for word count. The graph above and the word count were paramount. </div>
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I quickly prepared a storyline and followed it as best I could, other than that I didn't know what I was writing about until I sat down every day and wrote it. The most difficult part was to keep writing regardless of all the considerations going through my mind. </div>
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I didn't know anything about the topic at hand; I'd keep writing. </div>
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I was appalled at how bad my writing was; I'd keep writing.</div>
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That piece of dialogue was all wrong; I'd keep writing.</div>
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This or that part of the story didn't make sense; I'd keep writing.</div>
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You get the drift.</div>
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I didn't spend time on the NaNoWriMo support forums and only read the pep talk emails from published authors - which were very encouraging and arrived in my inbox at excellent times throughout the month to keep me on track. Towards the end of November, I admit I was fed up with writing stuff I wasn't satisfied with and not going back to read and improve at all, though I would still recommend participating if you want to write a novel.</div>
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I think the main thing I learned and I proved to myself out of the exercise is that I am capable of writing a novel, or at the very least the amount of words to make up a novel. I'm proud I completed the challenge successfully and have a first draft to a novel, more than I'd ever completed before. It is definitely a very ugly duckling of a first draft, but one nonetheless. </div>
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On the downside, I took 6 months to reread what I wrote. At first I had a hard time being with how bad it was and got busy with other things. I only finished it this month. It is all wrong and pretty bad, but I'm happy there are some worthwhile ideas and passages, particularly in the second half of the book. I'm going to keep working on it now.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-87373317599089074682015-05-25T18:28:00.002+08:002015-05-25T18:28:59.039+08:00By the Atlantic Ocean in Lacanau<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Surfers on the beach in Lacanau, October 2014.</td></tr>
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I left things off in Paris in the last post, and as a reminder in October 2014 I was on my way to my sister's place in the South of France near Perpignan to spend time there, and particularly to participate in <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>, writing a novel. Before getting there I had a last stop on the way to visit my oldest friend and his family. They live close to Bordeaux, it was the school holidays and so we rented a house on the Ocean side in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacanau">Lacanau</a>, pretty famous for surfing. On that front it didn't disappoint, the waves were huge. My mate JB said he'd never seen them so high and was delighted to go surfing.<div>
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The weather was still gorgeous as you can see from this picture, and I even went in to play in the waves. I didn't spend a lot of time, frankly I thought the water was ridiculously cold, but I admit it was invigorating. </div>
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I am the godfather of their second son, and it was also their first son's birthday, so it was great to spend time with the children. It is another reason I moved back to Europe, to be closer to the friends' and family children who grow up so fast and that I'd like to see more often than I could when I lived in Singapore.</div>
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I've known JB since I was 6 years old and there aren't many people who know me as well as he does, it was great to catch up with him (as it always is) and take stock of my little European tour so far, musing about where I'd like to live next and hearing where he was at too. I was thinking I might be ready to move back to Paris, though wasn't too sure. He recommended holding my horses and going back for a second visit with work in mind rather than leisure and catching up with friends.</div>
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I had done quite a bit of considering where to work and live between London, Amsterdam, and Paris in the previous three weeks, but on the other hand not as much as planned about writing daily and preparing for NaNoWriMo and it was approaching fast - only a few days left to choose what my novel would be about. I had been writing about many random ideas since leaving Singapore, focusing on daily word count, as well as reading up advice for novel writers but still hadn't settled on a story or idea just yet. </div>
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While the Atlantic Ocean was a great spot to sort of conclude on my European tour, as I got on the train to Perpignan I was conscious of running out of time for the novel writing challenge. I opened my laptop on the train that day and determined to figure out the story I'd be writing.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-26383330605136742552015-05-22T18:31:00.001+08:002015-05-22T18:31:38.578+08:00Un passage à Paris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking around Paris, here behind l'île de la Cité and Notre Dame Cathedral.</td></tr>
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I am still updating my blog with my travels at the end of last year after moving from Singapore, next in line after Brussels and Lille I spent a week in Paris. After I arrived, I realised it had been years since I had spent a full week in Paris, at least 5 or 6 years, maybe longer. Since I'd moved to Asia I had passed through, but only for a night or two.<br />
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I really had the feeling of being back home, as much as with being in London, or possibly slightly more. I grew up not too far from Paris, in the far suburbs, and lived there for about 8 years afterwards. I started by catching up with old friends with whom I played table top and live action role-playing games back in the day, we had organised for me to prepare a session of one my favourite games, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Sea_%28role-playing_game%29">7th Sea</a> and I had spent time writing a scenario to get ready. We also had drinks at one of their hangouts, a medieval themed & tabletop gamer bar in central Paris, <a href="http://lescavesalliees.fr/">Les Caves Alliées</a>. An excellent address for any RPG geek visiting Paris, right next to the Odeon & St Germain des Prés, it was good fun to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a very long time.<br />
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And that's a lot of what I did during the week, similar to what I did in London and Amsterdam in the previous weeks: catching up with friends and walking around the city while thinking about whether I'd like to come back and live there. Of course, I also tried a few French craft beers and excellent wines from independent winemakers with a good friend who has a wine cellar shop.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Parisian institution, Bouillon Chartier - highly recommended</td></tr>
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Other highlights that week included lunch with my good friend Elo at one of the oldest and most traditional eateries in the French capital: <a href="http://www.bouillon-chartier.com/en/">Bouillon Chartier</a>. I hadn't been in a long while and it was as great as it used to be, not necessarily exceptional cuisine but all the traditional French bistrot fare at a affordable prices in a beautiful setting.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Actors' salute, Mnouchkine's production of Shakespeare's MacBeth at the Theatre du Soleil. </td></tr>
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I don't know much about stage theatre and so hadn't heard of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_Mnouchkine">Ariane Mnouchkine</a> who is very famous in France and was debuting a new production of MacBeth. The friends I was staying with happened to have an extra ticket and I thoroughly enjoyed it; it was an amazing stage production, extremely well played, and really impressive overall.<br />
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The week flew by and by the time I left I felt pretty good about the idea of potentially moving back to Paris, though I also realised the weather had been exceptionally good, as a couple of friends pointed out and suggested I go back at another time and check it out again, more on in a following post.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-77822516769663714522015-05-20T03:28:00.002+08:002015-05-20T03:28:44.456+08:00Beers in Brussels, lunch in Lille<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Moeder Lambic Fontainas, Brussels</td></tr>
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I had never been to Brussels, so I though leaving Amsterdam last year that it would be a good opportunity to try out some Belgian beers, and what the European wave of the 'craft beer revolution' looked like in a country with so much beer tradition.<br />
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A quick online search later and I was walking around the old centre of the city, resolutely headed for <a href="http://www.moederlambic.com/">Moeder Lambic</a>'s 2nd branch on Place Fontainas - apparently the best place for great beers in Brussels, both new and traditional. I was lucky the day was nice enough to sit on the terrace and start the afternoon with a <a href="http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/toccalmatto-zona-cesarini/123997/">Zona Cesarini</a>, a fantastic IPA from <a href="http://www.birratoccalmatto.com/web/?page_id=42&lang=it">Toccalmatto brewery</a> in Italy. I had heard great things about this brewery and hadn't the chance of trying one before. I thought the little sample of malt next served along the beer was a nice touch.<br />
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Looking at their menu and getting excited about the variety of beers on offer, I devised a cunning plan: stay there all afternoon with my laptop and write (while trying out some new beers)!<br />
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I tried several old and new Belgian breweries, and my favourite turned out to be <a href="http://brasseriedelasenne.be/">Brasserie de la Senne</a> - if you come across any of their beers, I highly recommend them. They are fairly recent and mix Belgian traditional brewing with other influences, including from the American 'craft beer revolution'. Being in Brussels and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gueuze">Gueuze</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic">Lambic</a> (spontaneously fermented beers, usually pretty sour) being like holy for the area, I was tempted to try one again, but my palate is definitely not getting used to the sour beers just yet.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMUiRISvTs6gg8lBHV1fwKAFzdfgBylXyMwunIuUQz46l_Dt3LKuRyJCKU6JdVBhyykxhR5vXbxUAor34dKXKj-oGYxEHN573bIF3ZlWyQiX7nh3U9WJNi4ECKoVwuAxhvrRYPiOxje7s/s1600/IMG_4626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMUiRISvTs6gg8lBHV1fwKAFzdfgBylXyMwunIuUQz46l_Dt3LKuRyJCKU6JdVBhyykxhR5vXbxUAor34dKXKj-oGYxEHN573bIF3ZlWyQiX7nh3U9WJNi4ECKoVwuAxhvrRYPiOxje7s/s640/IMG_4626.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">La Grand Place, Brussels</td></tr>
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Following a productive afternoon writing, I wandered to an institution like brasserie to have mussels and fries for dinner - stereotypical, but there are some things you just have to eat when you're a tourist! The Grand Place looked like a thing from a fairy tale at night, a nice place for a leisurely digestive walk after dinner.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">La Grand Place, Lille</td></tr>
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After the Grand Place of Brussels, I was on the Grand Place of Lille the following morning. It is only thirty minutes away on the train, and I had a few hours to kill the following day, so I stopped over for a walk. I was meeting friends in Paris that evening and it turned out to be cheaper to take two trains with a stopover of a few hours. I'd heard Lille was a nice town and it seems to be, I stopped on a terrace for coffee and wrote for a couple of hours. After hesitating for a while on the <i>right</i> place to have lunch at, I opted for a quick picnic: A piece of sharp cheese and some dry cured ham from a nice deli, a piece of bread from a good boulangerie and done. It was just time to get on the train to Paris after lunch, back home - one of them at least.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-46293796910506639102015-05-19T04:14:00.002+08:002015-05-19T04:14:39.593+08:00Looking for Dutch roots<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Statue of a funky dude eating a raw herring on Scheveningen beach, by The Hague</td></tr>
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Continuing with my little European tour, I met with friends who were on a course (I'm doing it year more on that in another post), and it was taking place in The Hague, near Scheveningen beach. I was glad the Indian summer trend continued for a few more days, and we were able to have a lovely lunch in the sun on the beach, not sure how usual that it for mid-October.<br />
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I wanted to spend a few days in Amsterdam, because I hadn't spent much time there at all and had spotted the city as a potentially nice place to live: a few excellent creative agencies have set up their European headquarters there, it has all the life and activity of a capital city without being as huge as London, for exemple. Plus my father being Dutch and me having a very Dutch name, I thought I should spend a few days and consider if I'd like to live or settle there.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Writing away with beer & bitterballen!</td></tr>
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I'm not sure about the roots, but it was lovely to spend quiet time walking around Amsterdam, sitting at various cafés to write and have bitterballen (they're addictive). I also visited the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum, both were fantastic - Van Gogh was great, though I was slightly disappointed to figure out that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night">The Starry Night</a> is in fact at the MoMA in New York. Actually now I write about it, I was also disappointed that a fire drill interrupted my visit of the Van Gogh museum and after standing 15min in chilly drizzle I opted to leave it and head to the Rijksmuseum, and I enjoyed this one more in the end. Fortunately the nice weather came back the following day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Restaurant De Kas, in Amsterdam</td></tr>
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My elder brother, who is a chef, had told me the level of fine dining in Amsterdam was excellent, so I decided to check it out. After doing some research, I had a nice walk out of the main centre of town to an old green house in a park that had been converted into <a href="http://www.restaurantdekas.nl/">Restaurant de Kas</a>. They grow fruits and vegetables on site, and also have a dedicated farm in the countryside, they cook mostly (if not entirely) with their own ingredients. It was a great and beautiful lunch, though I was disappointed to get the full flavours because I'd caught a little bit of a cold the day before, probably under the drizzle waiting by the Van Gogh museum.<br />
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I also had a few interesting conversations meeting a few people in the advertising / marketing industry to talk about the market and agency life in Amsterdam, and unexpectedly caught up one evening with an old friend I hadn't seen in ten years and randomly realised via Facebook he'd moved from Belgium to Amsterdam.<br />
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I enjoyed the few days I spent there, but aside childhood memories from visiting family and a certain familiarity with the country that I enjoy, I also felt how I'm not particularly Dutch. I didn't grow up in The Netherlands, I don't speak the language, nor do I know much about it culturally. I'd live there if an interesting job opportunity arises, but thought I probably wouldn't pursue it actively.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-22954223287779508802015-05-17T18:30:00.000+08:002015-05-17T18:30:48.373+08:00Babies, beers, and burgers in London<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I dont' know about you, but I can't resist a good alliteration when I come across one, particularly as easily accurate as this title. I wonder if it predates my working in advertising and marketing.<br />
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Stage two of update posts, I flew to London from Mumbai in early October 2014. I lived there for close to seven years and have both family and great friends there too so it's like a second home. I hadn't visited since early 2012 so it was long overdue to catch up with friends, as well as walk around and sort of catch up with the city itself.<br />
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The weather was lovely, a surprising Indian summer - and ironic in the circumstances - yet certainly welcome to ease me back into seasons after a few years near the Equator.<br />
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Starting with the babies I finally met my nephew Hunter for the first time, as well as Bella, the daughter of my dear friends Abby and Graham. I'm not sure what to add here, I don't usually write about babies at length - or at all. They're beautiful, cute, smiling babies - actually toddlers now as they've both just turned one.<br />
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I was also looking forward to checking the new and hipsterised craft beer scene in London - which barely existed when I left in 2011. Brewdog were still small, only available in a couple of bars in London and at social networking events like the first Twestival if I remember correctly. Now they have many bars of their own around London and are sold in Sainsbury's. I enjoyed checking out Maltby Street market in SE1, around the corner from where I used to live and work. There are like six or eight craft breweries under the Network Rail arches now. I loved the Kernel beers, I thought their reputation is totally deserved.<br />
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I organised catching up with a few friends at Brewdog in Camden which was an excellent evening -thanks again to those who came by, you know who you are ^^. I also managed to organise a couple of very interesting work related meetings during the week.<br />
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While I loved the food in India, I understandably didn't eat much beef and so I was glad to go and check out this other wildly popular hipster food trend: the humble burger, turned into a fancy food stuff. Plus I'd participated in the Kickstarter organised by <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/buildbearhq/buildbearhq-our-shipping-container-diner/description">Burger Bear</a> so I wanted to try them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Burger Bear @ Stokey Bear on Stoke Newington High Street, N16 </span></td></tr>
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Over the course of a week I tried a burger in a nice café on Regent's Canal (nice burger), <a href="http://meatmission.com/">Meat Mission</a> by Hoxton Square (It was dry, wasn't too crazy about it), <a href="https://www.brewdog.com/bars/uk/camden">Brewdog bar Camden</a> (my favourite, actually), and <a href="http://www.burgerbearuk.com/">Burger Bear</a> in Stoke Newington on my last night in London (good burger but I think I was burgered out by that point).<div>
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Besides meeting babies and stuffing myself with craft beers and burgers, another idea was to think about where I wanted to live back in Europe. I left after a week thinking I loved London and wanted to be close enough to visit for work or leisure on a regular basis, yet not live there. That's how it is for now at least and that's what I thought of while walking around the city and before I flew off to the Netherlands for the next leg of my little European tour.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-9479516018976928482015-05-16T21:36:00.000+08:002015-05-16T21:36:36.607+08:00More of India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Selfie in Varkala, Kerala<br /></td></tr>
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It's definitely not new news but I'm sure you can all relate to how time flies; already 8 months since my month in India and it's about time to update my blog. I'll start with the rest of my fantastic trip to India in September 2014.<br />
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After I left my friends in Pune, I decided to limit the amount of destinations I would visit and give myself more time for writing over doing touristy stuff so I stuck to the southwest coast, starting with Goa.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking around Goa</td></tr>
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Goa was off season, which was probably better, certainly quieter. I enjoyed discovering the area, managing to get a good deal on a brand new hotel, and one of the only bars open on the beach nearby to sit and write to the sound of the waves. I gave myself a break from drinking and focused on writing - anything as long as I hit my daily word count. Developing texts from random ideas, brainstorming for the theme of the novel I'd write in November for <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>. On the other hand, I didn't like the big tourist feel, I had a tough time finding good food - aside from a couple of exceptions it was generally sub-par and overpriced touristy fare. Many of the better restaurants were closed for the off season. I moved on South to Kerala with the night train after a few days.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The famous Chinese fishing nets in Fort Kochi, Kerala</td></tr>
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I loved what little I've seen of Kerala and would definitely go back. It was touristy but the off season was a plus, and generally it's pretty laid back. The food and weather were fantastic - just the end of the rainy season, not high season yet. I found some lovely spots to spend time writing and enjoyed walking around Fort Kochi.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The backwaters of Kerala, near Alleppey</td></tr>
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The main tour I went on was a day boating in the backwaters of Kerala and it was beautiful - I would recommend this tour, a day with a traditional row boat in the little canals, over spending time in a houseboat. Those are huge, the mass tourist trade and sheer amount of them have heavily polluted the waters of the lake, and they can't go in the small canals.<br />
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My last stop in Kerala was on the cliffs of Varkala, again very tourist but it was off season - it's a beautiful area as well. Staying in touristy areas worked for my schedule, I didn't want to go too far off the main roads this time to spend more time sitting on terraces writing (with wifi access) and off season Varkala was perfect for this.<br />
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I hesitated on the next destination, and in the end chose to come back to Pune and spend more time with my friends there, whom I probably wouldn't see again for a while. We managed to organise spending the last few days in Mumbai together. Four weeks had gone by in a flash, it was time to fly back to Europe and spend a few days in London.<br />
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Many people told me beforehand that I would love or hate India - I loved it. I loved the atmosphere, the food was awesome, and the people were great. It feels like a bit of a mad-house at times and I'm not certain I'd want to live there though I definitely want to go visit again and experience more of the country.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-17950341752870224082014-10-17T02:30:00.000+08:002014-10-17T02:30:05.676+08:00Lavasa: corporate dream, ghost town, or both?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the utopian type advertising posters in Lavasa, branding <a href="http://landor.com/#!/work/case-studies/lavasa/">courtesy of Landor</a> from what I read.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;">While in India, I had an unexpected and pretty amazing opportunity to visit a city called <a href="http://www.lavasa.com/">Lavasa</a>, situated in the Western Ghats, between Mumbai and Pune, though technically closer to Pune. I was staying with friends in Pune and friends of theirs involved with the local branch of the British Business Group were visiting Lavasa in preparation for the Christmas Gala event they were organising in the city's conference centre.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;">My friends in Pune had mentioned to me a new city on the way from Mumbai airport after I’d landed but I hadn’t really understood what they meant at the time. I hadn’t done any research and didn’t have any particular expectations. I was just told it was a brand new city project, initiated by an extremely wealthy building and property company, though apparently almost devoid of inhabitants. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"> </span>We drove to the Ghats, a chain of old mountains reduced to almost hills running all along the Southwestern coast of India, several quite famous and popular British colonial hill stations are around there. The weather, quite clear in Pune, started clouding over as soon we arrived in the Ghats, and as we drove up in altitude we were quickly and completely in the clouds and mist. After a little over two hours of fast driving (double the speed most Indians drive at), nothing was around but a single quite recently built windy road. We finally arrived to a large portal or gate built over the road with a guardian in the front. It was raining and grey, I didn’t envy the guy's job on that day. We waited for some other people to meet us just beyond the gate and I took advantage of a lull in the rain to go to a panorama point, indicated as such by a handy sign though interestingly there wasn’t any parking space for a car to stop nearby.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8cGq5UOnsFacqUV4yG6_I3m8OcT0K9d9_XEU_ig01pyXED4M_VGOa-_JFMNPYvHbpchVEKkzaiOewPPgMssDcA58v0DkcM-bG_m4DRDMyI9yNJ43oBAqd6cqk5t6Nh2UYZiJz7CMc3to/s1600/IMG_3953.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8cGq5UOnsFacqUV4yG6_I3m8OcT0K9d9_XEU_ig01pyXED4M_VGOa-_JFMNPYvHbpchVEKkzaiOewPPgMssDcA58v0DkcM-bG_m4DRDMyI9yNJ43oBAqd6cqk5t6Nh2UYZiJz7CMc3to/s1600/IMG_3953.JPG" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The city view in the valley from the entrance, I thought it was a just a bad day until I was told half the year was like this.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;">I could barely see the town at the bottom of the valley for the clouds and mist, built around a lake. They had also built chalets a little higher from the lake on the hill sides. A few other buildings seemed to be still in construction. I was told people visited for the weekend like they did the other Hill Stations, though was told this was also meant to be a stand alone city and they intended to attract education institutions and then students, and then people to purchase all these properties. I asked how students who don’t typically have that much cash would travel to this empty ghost town given there wasn’t any public transport. It was definitely far from the train lines, and a bus would take hours from the nearest large city.</span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihy9kx9WMloLhL-gxQFP5YdqTppNxvBQkWBJYSYg7_tjb9CGUrpsO14X-VHc5MihAD197Eq5ro21ElY-282tjW-tNfCjPurU4tPFLFsyG3HsvluQhk8X4lPpXDlU4R6_p5lddQqi6zAx4/s1600/IMG_3954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihy9kx9WMloLhL-gxQFP5YdqTppNxvBQkWBJYSYg7_tjb9CGUrpsO14X-VHc5MihAD197Eq5ro21ElY-282tjW-tNfCjPurU4tPFLFsyG3HsvluQhk8X4lPpXDlU4R6_p5lddQqi6zAx4/s1600/IMG_3954.JPG" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mostly empty houses along the lake</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXe_XZ2T7oydVHUxnecmsEJvKYh3YAJCIUcouNy1uzt1U5nTuWrWXsHDSrYmwv-Cqe1yoIKijQhWgIlERB074jKsk2kcUpGYLlpEZCyxnpwJsBGyam9DM-F3Fmo1PKF17PFrG6_BKB90c/s1600/IMG_3965.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXe_XZ2T7oydVHUxnecmsEJvKYh3YAJCIUcouNy1uzt1U5nTuWrWXsHDSrYmwv-Cqe1yoIKijQhWgIlERB074jKsk2kcUpGYLlpEZCyxnpwJsBGyam9DM-F3Fmo1PKF17PFrG6_BKB90c/s1600/IMG_3965.JPG" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And more houses and structures being built everywhere.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">We drove down to the conference and events centre where I found out Accor Hotels was managing this whole venture, their logo was around the deserted exhibition centre, and their brands were present elsewhere, such as the Hotel Mercure we had lunch at.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;">The whole place was being drenched in downpours every few minutes while we were there. One of the employees told us this particular valley received the highest rainfall of India and it rained for 5-6 months non stop every year, often more than that. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;">The exhibition centre looked both brand new and overused. I supposed the wear and tear of the rain might be to blame for the sorry state of the chairs in the conference rooms.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;">I asked how many people actually lived in the hundreds of apartments I could see along the lake, and was told it was perhaps two hundred. I spotted less than a dozen occupied apartments from clothes drying, furniture, or curtains. I still suspect most of those are the builders who I could see working on <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/after-4-years-lavasa-files-for-ipo-again-114070100450_1.html">new structures</a> nearby. A parking lot and <a href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/lavasa-firstmover-advantage-lost/article6370411.ece">more apartments</a>, apparently.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGszQ9ypXjtot02ZGnhXjADQUlpA5CyE6imWjyxju4OwUa_sOmASEj_qWzt_2nt8HrPTJg174CPEgF7ZoJ4ZfCgTvt5M8c3J3YbIPpsOiX_AnXYVhKVSkdPaj-_f_XFxEfEFtq90xtIw/s1600/IMG_3977.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGszQ9ypXjtot02ZGnhXjADQUlpA5CyE6imWjyxju4OwUa_sOmASEj_qWzt_2nt8HrPTJg174CPEgF7ZoJ4ZfCgTvt5M8c3J3YbIPpsOiX_AnXYVhKVSkdPaj-_f_XFxEfEFtq90xtIw/s1600/IMG_3977.JPG" height="358" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up on the Lavasa International Conference Centre.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Before leaving, we went to the visitor’s centre where we admired posters touting Lavasa as the free eco city of the future. Nothing looked particularly eco or sustainable as far as I could see. They gave us a video presentation of the plans for the whole valley, we were told this was the first of seven future towns in the complex of Lavasa through a well crafted 3D animation flying over the valley, each new town would be specialised in a branch of industry, and that this was <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/india-invents-a-city/308549/">the first city in India entirely created, developed, and managed by a corporation.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;">I felt we were all listening to a talk about the beauty of the emperor’s new clothes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal;">As we left under more rain and grey, I couldn’t help but think of several blog posts I’d seen with photos of similar <a href="http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/marketplace-25/tour-chinas-ghost-towns">ghost towns in China</a>, and that in the real world, building it doesn’t mean they’ll come - at all. </span>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-29776338757550723362014-09-16T17:07:00.000+08:002014-09-16T17:07:20.633+08:00Beers & Bollywood: My first weekend in India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Independence Brewing Co. brand new 1,000L brewhouse</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt;">My first weekend
in India can be conveniently summed up into an alliteration, though fortunately
there is more to it than that. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I landed in Mumbai
on a Friday morning expecting to immediately experience the crazy India
everybody had been telling me about as soon as I walk out of customs. You know
the idea; I pictured hundreds of people waiting on other hundreds of passengers
walking out with me, being solicited by numerous taxi drivers or tourist touts,
etc. Instead, the brand new T2 International terminal opened about 6 months ago
was close to empty. My good friends Sangita and Richard came to pick me up at
the airport and we were off to Pune where they live, a fast growing business
and </span><a href="http://www.webonise.com/pune-india-the-worlds-next-great-tech-city-we-think-so-2/" style="font-size: 11pt;">tech hub</a><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> a few hours from Mumbai.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt;">On the Saturday
they asked me what I wanted to do and I quickly remembered reading up about the
craft beer revolution coming to India with a few different microbreweries and
brewpubs, one of which had recently opened in Pune, <a href="http://www.independencebrewco.com/">Independence Brewing Company</a>. I particularly remembered the photos looked amazing and they feature
Greg Koch from <a href="http://www.stonebrewing.com/">Stone Brewing</a> as a Chief Advisor and co-founder, and whether you
like Stone or not you can deny he’s a pretty big deal for beer geeks</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt;">The place looks as
stunning in real life as in on the photos, really big bar and restaurant area,
large brewery section with a gleaming new 1,000L brewhouse and 9 fermentation
tanks imported from the US, impressive material!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Now for the
interesting part: they have been open for over 6 months and haven’t brewed a
single drop of beer yet. They don’t have the license to brew alcohol yet,
they’ve apparently been stuck with administrative issues, and according to what
I’ve heard that may also mean someone is waiting for, or negotiating a baksheesh
– or as Darshan Jariwala’s character Vivek in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1647668/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Million Dollar Arm</a> says “it’s not
a bribe, we just bypass the system” (I watched it on the plane over, cute
film). From a few other conversations I’ve had, this seems to be a regular
feature for anyone trying to build a new business venture in India, and the
same reasons Adi from the late <a href="http://spiritedsingapore.com/2014/05/singapore-craft-microbrewery-jungle-beer-closes/">Jungle Beer</a> told me he opened in Singapore rather than India.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt;">We still had a
lovely evening, the food was delicious and we sampled some nice draft beer from
<a href="http://www.gatewaybrewery.com/">Gateway Brewery</a> in Mumbai. According to what the guys said at IBC, they should
be ready to start brewing at the end of September, I wish them all the best!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZb9QllYTCMdRV1GfCaUCWx2lwBYDVnkYonIavdyLcpsFR-bOFCyY1RMYN3lEuuE7x7P2Saec7ASGneOiLWKkTaBKS6xPz7P8lqDtHLLt76zFUYHD9XAuMr4-FfLQNqonSgHMDlc2XgSk/s1600/IMG_20140908_121751.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZb9QllYTCMdRV1GfCaUCWx2lwBYDVnkYonIavdyLcpsFR-bOFCyY1RMYN3lEuuE7x7P2Saec7ASGneOiLWKkTaBKS6xPz7P8lqDtHLLt76zFUYHD9XAuMr4-FfLQNqonSgHMDlc2XgSk/s1600/IMG_20140908_121751.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">On Sunday we were invited to the opening of a <a href="http://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip/priyanka-chopra-takes-a-break-from-mary-kom-promotions-launches-brothers-night-club/">new bar in Pune</a>, a new business launched by the brother of Bollywood superstar and Miss World 2000, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyanka_Chopra">Priyanka Chopra</a>. I of course had no idea who my friend Sangita was talking about and had to look Priyanka up on Wikipedia. I find it always really interesting to wake up to the fact that a country of 1.2 Billion people has a whole huge set of interests and media fascinations I barely know anything about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">At first I thought the evening wasn’t really my kind of thing, a bit too elite, and then started getting interested for the same reason, as a pretty awesome opportunity to mingle with Pune’s high and mighty – plus free drinks! I ended up having a lot of fun, danced, and joined in the crowd of raving fans taking pictures when Priyanka showed up. By the end of the evening it was getting a little decadent, bartenders putting the whole bar on fire, serving spirits poured directly from the bottles to people's mouths.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">It’s also interesting to me as I’m not a huge fan of any celebrities; I was also hoping to learn something by joining in. I participated in a game she launched to give out gifts: this white guy here jumped the highest and got a gift from Priyanka herself. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I’m not sure I understand any more the fan phenomenon after the experience, though I knew the contents of the gift were meaningless, what really mattered is I had one from Priyanka and the look on people’s faces because of it was impressive.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">I also just read <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/roads/2014/09/shahid_kapoor_gq_profile_how_an_article_on_one_of_bollywood_s_biggest_stars.html">this really interesting piece</a> about Bollywood fans turning on to a journalist, which sheds a little more light on the phenomenon. I think they’re pretty crazy; of course nothing wrong with loving a genre, an artist, a movie, whatever – but once the amount of significance invested in it becomes fanaticism, it also becomes scary.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-81726699857192680182014-09-05T07:06:00.002+08:002014-09-05T07:06:31.132+08:00Good bye Singapore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAL8qFZ3gtRFGNDGBzXPvJ8AkAcxqEjDVKq7ZzPn6qXx96kxphHfvHLfEurN8Ll3-SI4A8z6LOHmFADs8xadK-K6fjVU3jPOANWj31huVWP7GgZM9fMCxaeWgmjDcSSthn5sPLILdGAxc/s1600/Fullerton+Hotel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAL8qFZ3gtRFGNDGBzXPvJ8AkAcxqEjDVKq7ZzPn6qXx96kxphHfvHLfEurN8Ll3-SI4A8z6LOHmFADs8xadK-K6fjVU3jPOANWj31huVWP7GgZM9fMCxaeWgmjDcSSthn5sPLILdGAxc/s1600/Fullerton+Hotel.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I'm about to board my flight to India and I finally have a few minutes to write this, not sure I'll have time to properly do it justice, I may add more later on.<br />
<br />
I flew in to Singapore on the 3rd of September 2012, and started working at Saatchi & Saatchi on the 5th, exactly two years ago. Everything fell into place perfectly in my first few weeks in Singapore and it felt right; the first apartment I visited had everything I wanted in features, price, and in short walking distance from the office. I wasn't too sure how much I would like Singapore though fortunately it all turned out great. I've had a fantastic experience, made great friends, started home brewing beer, had way too much food and craft beers and regained all the weight I'd lost while traveling before landing in the Lion City.<br />
<br />
Thank you everyone who made this experience so special, my flight is boarding so it's time to look ahead to new adventures!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-52431149979429883582014-08-29T15:14:00.001+08:002014-08-29T15:14:03.365+08:00And now for something completely different<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs5NBmamRP0VHPrZsstaAYTSpCnCuITvSOmoZ6njVbepy_jC7qyG7_IL2c_ze-4pmmMlKKVER0Q4uW24gzNAhWunxxxmlCLocX0oYA87kwj_8_shMuKProKkamplwofDY48JEohp0GSx4/s1600/7137490527_79ed748c0f_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs5NBmamRP0VHPrZsstaAYTSpCnCuITvSOmoZ6njVbepy_jC7qyG7_IL2c_ze-4pmmMlKKVER0Q4uW24gzNAhWunxxxmlCLocX0oYA87kwj_8_shMuKProKkamplwofDY48JEohp0GSx4/s1600/7137490527_79ed748c0f_k.jpg" height="476" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/7137490527">Image credit</a>: Wonderlane </td></tr>
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A few changes are coming up around here, and I have been looking forward to writing about it here; today is my last day working with POSSIBLE Singapore. Unfortunately the new role is not working out for me and after much consideration and hesitation I have chosen to resign, and I am also leaving Singapore next week.<br />
<br />
I am going to be rushing next week to get everything ready and it is going even faster than I thought, I'm flying off to India for a month in a week's time. I am going to spend a month in India, first visiting friends in Pune near Mumbai and then I'll go wander somewhere I can keep writing and think about the next steps. I am most probably coming back to Europe, as much as I've enjoyed Asia and living so close to the Equator, I also miss being closer to home and my family. I'm not certain where I'm going to end up just yet but I'm definitely going to take a couple of months to focus on writing and thinking of a few different options for future work and living location, maybe back to London, maybe Amsterdam, maybe Paris, maybe somewhere else.<br />
<br />
It's a lazy excuse (but I'll stick with it for now anyways) with everything going on relating to finishing work, starting to organise moving and the handing off of my apartment, and various drinks and farewells with friends, I've been off my writing plans published in the past post. I held it for three weeks and then it all started falling apart - I'm still writing every week and tallying my word count but I've not kept up the equivalent of 500 words per day after the first three weeks, so I definitely haven't upgraded to a 1,000 words per days either... I'm finishing work today and will update my writing plans, and focusing a lot more on writing after I've left Singapore.<br />
<br />
In the meantime it is still a great exercise so far, I have been writing random musings for word count, memories of travels, descriptions of my favourite walks in Paris and London, some paragraphs of fiction from sudden ideas, and I also spend time writing in preparation for a classic tabletop role playing game session I ran with friends a few weeks ago, which was awesome fun! I'd forgotten how much time it took to prepare on one hand, and how much fun it was on another! I think everyone had a fantastic afternoon. I'm not preparing another one for when I'll catch up with some old friends in Paris in October.<br />
<br />
I still can't really believe I'm about to leave Singapore, I'll probably write a different good-bye post about that next week. I am equally excited about creating something different and a new blank page in my life, and while I'll miss my friends in Singapore I'm looking forward to seeing many friends back in Europe!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-51707715938946247952014-07-13T19:15:00.002+08:002014-07-13T19:30:37.239+08:00Word count training challenge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFC9ssJ28PhkCznzivkytStvm9NRIMzKuToeHKaIP8mEjlNkdefFJDFz39iTR2AR2m5MLIAmW_t-tOZYXaOtivRcSNClS0DMdFDC4hdoSC69VAjswF79IZpZUFu8_dIkKljK4aeUGSYlY/s1600/calvincomic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFC9ssJ28PhkCznzivkytStvm9NRIMzKuToeHKaIP8mEjlNkdefFJDFz39iTR2AR2m5MLIAmW_t-tOZYXaOtivRcSNClS0DMdFDC4hdoSC69VAjswF79IZpZUFu8_dIkKljK4aeUGSYlY/s1600/calvincomic.jpg" height="640" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Calvin & Hobbes, Bill Watterson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This is something I hadn't thought about for a little while and hadn't given much energy or intention to in years either; one of my dreams in life is write a novel. I spent a while reading some advice for writing and there seems to be a general consensus that the best way to become a writer is to actually write.<br />
<br />
I was probably hoping my novel would just be delivered at the door by Amazon, or at least that some nefarious supernatural being might show up and offer me a Faustian deal, but neither of those seem to be happening so I might just have to do the work myself.<br />
<br />
Given my slob-like tendencies, I have been lazy with my writing - how often I update my blog being a case in point (and/or I can also be too busy with other important stuff like watching TV shows or making/drinking beer), I'm putting together a training regime and making some commitments about how much I'll be writing. And I'm telling people as well as writing it in my blog so I don't laze out of it and even if I happen to slip, this way I'll have friends reminding me by asking how I'm doing with my writing projects.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6lalxgT4eMXK3vNhgvno_Q-4tcSyJvHC3rPLLQjECERf1Q_qbljKs4zMzQ7tQAT8zUBQ25q6meD_CfZ19IeD1snxWvQBMc02rapIryEgk-SegGdAr2EUTxX7YhAettviwmIYfP9rCQ9I/s1600/nano_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6lalxgT4eMXK3vNhgvno_Q-4tcSyJvHC3rPLLQjECERf1Q_qbljKs4zMzQ7tQAT8zUBQ25q6meD_CfZ19IeD1snxWvQBMc02rapIryEgk-SegGdAr2EUTxX7YhAettviwmIYfP9rCQ9I/s1600/nano_logo.jpg" height="180" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
This takes us to <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>, or National Novel Writing Month, which happens in November. For those who haven't heard of it, it first started as a community initiative to encourage more people to practice creative writing and a group of people supporting each other with their writing projects. Now it is also a non profit organisation and they have several creative writing initiatives in addition to NaNoWriMo<br />
<br />
The main goal is pretty straightforward: write a 50,000 word 'novel' between the 1st to the 30th of November. I added quotes to novel given I understand the main goal to be quantity rather than quality, nobody checks what you write, it's all about the word count to practice writing in quantity. Apparently the 50k goal represents about a small novel like The Great Gatsby and is theoretically possible to achieve while also having a full time job.<br />
<br />
According to the website 341,375 people participated in 2012 from all around the globe, it has become quite popular. I first heard about NaNoWriMo at a <a href="https://twitter.com/barcamplondon">Barcamp</a> in London a few years ago, someone told us about their experience of participating and spending way too much time with the support groups, and nowhere near enough time actually writing.<br />
<br />
There are also quite a few people with <a href="http://nanowrimonomo.com/">divided opinions</a> about NaNoWriMo, but the way I see it, I need to get up to speed and force myself to train to up my word count, once I'm more comfortable with that, then I can worry about quality and re-writing something to get a finished novel. This reminded me of a story, apparently first published in a book called <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/187633.Art_and_Fear">Art & Fear</a> and I've seen <a href="http://sivers.org/qlq">several mentions</a> of since, but I haven't identified the actual source, so while I like the story I'm not totally certain it is true.<br />
<br />
In short, it is the story of a ceramics teacher who split his classroom in two as an experiment, telling one half they would all be graded on quantity: the more pots they did, the better grade they would get. He told the second half they would be judged on quality: one clay pot would be sufficient to get a top grade, as long as it was perfect.<br />
<br />
You can already imagine the results: the pots of the quantity group were if a higher quality standard than the second group because they had a lot more practice and given they didn't worry about quality, ended up learning more from their mistakes as they went. The quality group spent a lot of time pondering about the meaning of perfection but didn't get any better at pottery (Whether they got better as philosophers, the story doesn't say).<br />
<br />
I see participating in NaNoWriMo the same way, and I'm setting a training regime I'd like to share with you.<br />
<br />
Writing 50,000 words of a new novel or story in November 2014 means writing an average of 1,667 words per day. I'm nowhere near that kind of volume so I'll start with getting up to speed first.<br />
<br />
I'm setting myself a few rules:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>I'll measure my daily word count and tally weekly and monthly numbers</li>
<li>This is what can go towards my daily word count:</li>
<ul>
<li>Writing about myself, my life, my travels, in a biography or journal style - this is to warm up as it were, apparently writing about what you know is a recurring piece of advice and I imagine if I get stuck with a story, writing about myself would be easier to make my word count in the beginning</li>
<li>Writing for a novel or short story</li>
<li>Writing a blog post</li>
<li>Posts or articles I might write for other publications</li>
</ul>
<li>I can postpone word count for a day or a few, as long as I'm up to date by the end of each week (if I don't do that it's a fail and I'll work out how to catch up in the following week)</li>
</ol>
From today to the Sunday 16th August I commit to writing at least 500 words per day (3,500 / week) and up to 100% in biography style.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">From 17th August 2014 to 13th September I'll increase to 1,000 / day (7,000 words / week) and up to 50%</span> in biography style - this is so I start forcing myself to write more fiction stories.<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
<br />
From 14th September 2014 to 18th October I'll increase to 1,500 / day (10,500 words / week) and up to 50% </span>in biography style.<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
<br />
From 19th October to 31st October I commit to writing at least 1,800 / day (12,600 words per week) and up to 25% in biography style.<br />
<br />
Then on the 1st of November I will begin a new novel for NaNoWriMo, meaning I'll write an average of 1,667 words per day and an overall goal of 50,000 until 30th November.</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'll re-evaluate how things are going and wether I need any more or different rules. After November, I'll evaluate how well I've done and what the next phase should be about in the overall novel writing project.</span><br />
<br />
If you see me, or contact me, please don't hesitate asking how I'm doing with the writing challenge!<br />
<br />
PS: By my own rules, this blog post counts against my daily writing, adding 1,095 words to my daily word count!<br />
<br />
PPS: I realise after publishing that my word count for NaNoWriMo naïvely divides the 50k by goal by the number of days and that even to write a completely unfinished pile of crap it might still require more than 1,667 words written per day. I will revise this in a few weeks, seeing how the training goes.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-71242923203072533092014-06-29T13:06:00.001+08:002014-07-13T19:19:57.606+08:00Saturday Streaming #2It's a day late but in any case here are my favourite videos from the past week.<br />
<br />
At the Cannes advertising event, or rather festival of creativity as it is now called, apparently the most awarded campaign this year celebrates some of the basest greedy human behaviours in a desperate plea for attention. And apparently it worked out well for them. I don't like it. Particularly that it's about Christmas, and it's a time of year I love to spend with loved ones and sharing moments where I don't behave like a selfish spoiled brat.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ITyeI3YyYw8" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
This Lacoste video on the other hand, is gorgeous - quite the opposite and a beautiful film to boot.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bu2ht9c-FFU" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
John Oliver keeps kicking ass in his new weekly news show, and HBO publishes whole segments on Youtube which is awesome:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WA0wKeokWUU" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
13/07/2014 Update: I haven't updated this segment last week or yesterday. I think I'll drop the idea, still considering. I was thinking it might make for easy blogging, which may be true but it's also lazy blogging. I'll think about it and post another update by end of July on the topic.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-49463979540880223242014-06-21T22:54:00.001+08:002014-06-21T22:54:27.050+08:00Saturday Streaming #1Happy summer solstice everyone! I just realised I spent most of the longest day of the year working on a video edit for an upcoming podcast project I'm working on. Oh well. I diverge, anyways the point here is I'm starting a new series of simple posts, with a little alliteration for title and the videos I've enjoyed watching the most in the past week.<br />
<br />
First up, I don't exactly know how I missed this campaign when it first came out in 2012 but in any case if ever you haven't seen this fantastic ad for Southern Comfort, check it out:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ygeWsoYYMuQ" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
By far one of the best I've seen in a while, and the music excellent too. I actually have all the ads running in loops on my projector screen as I'm writing this. The others in the series are great too, you can watch them over on their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/southerncomfort/videos">Youtube channel</a>. I believe we can thank <a href="http://www.wk.com/office/newyork/client/southern_comfort">W+K</a> for those. I wonder if selling more Southern Comfort. They did keep with the campaign since 2012 so I guess it must be.<br />
<br />
Next, I was just catching up with John Oliver's new show on HBO Last Week Tonight, there are several brilliant segments available on Youtube, and amongst the ones I watched a special mention of serious laughing out loud action goes to this special letter from POM Wonderful, the makers of the pomegranate juice, which I also know for being the title sponsors of Morgan Spurlock's documentary <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znGd314eNrA">The Greatest Movie Ever Sold</a>. I still haven't tried the juice but seeing this I'm not sure I want to...<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Bml8KwCmob8" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
It is the <a href="http://www.canneslions.com/">Cannes Lions</a> international advertising festival at the moment, so I reviewed some of the advertising work from the past year the industry press is saying will probably win awards, I had seen quite a few though this one I hadn't and is really compelling. A bit offbeat and an original, inspiring way of communicating a public service announcement:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/P8KAaf45g5U" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
I'll finish with the pretty amazing new OK GO music video, mind blowing once again. This time they are playing with optical illusions in a huge warehouse:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/m86ae_e_ptU?list=PL879B2B6246EB5659" width="640"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-10613838888577446932014-06-15T16:16:00.001+08:002014-06-15T16:16:23.747+08:00Reverse engineering the Gillette Manscaping videoIn my last post, I wrote about the idea of celebrating the bottom of the ad barrel with a series of posts. Yesterday I spent some time looking for a number of ads, wondering where to find these ads and how to evaluate what would be worth writing about while struggling to keep my eyes open watching one boring ad after another. In hindsight perhaps not the best use of two hours of free weekend time...<br />
<br />
This made me think of a slightly different approach because there's no hope for any kind of objectivity in this exercise. I'll primarily try to keep note of ads I'm shown in Youtube pre-rolls that bore or irritate me, and I'll talk about them in the blog while attempting to recreate the creative brief that could have led to the creation of the ad. Of course everything I'll be writing in these kinds of posts is humorous parody (hopefully, mostly).<br />
<br />
Without further ado, let's talk about this series of Gillette videos. I was shown this one in pre-roll:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Yl2LEUOxy1o" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
I was not too happy to watch this ad again, but in the spirit and intention of benefiting the rest of humanity with marketing pseudo-science, I did anyways. I still remember being shown this ad on Youtube, of course while trying to watch another ad. They use the first five seconds before users can skip the ad effectively to capture the male users' attention, like blasting full fog lights from the speeding Gillette road train to the unsuspecting stag quietly crossing the road.<br />
<br />
<i>'Hey guys, I know there's a lot of rumours out there flying around about body-trimming'</i> - 3 seconds in.<br />
<br />
The poor target is hooked. As a naive consumer the questions immediately come to mind: Who is this guy and why does he look bare chested? Is he in a shower? Why is he talking to me like I'm his friend? Am I friends with this guy? Am I in the bathroom with him? Are there really rumours flying around about body-trimming? Should I know about them? Am I out of the loop? Why does he look so creepy?<br />
<br />
The paralysis and horror shape up for the following few seconds. I don't skip the ad, I just viscerally need to understand why this person wants to tell me about chest shaving so badly. And maybe there's something I should know about it. We're at 15 seconds in the video. My finger is ready to click the skip button on my mouse but I can't seem to. 18 seconds. Now he's caressing his chest hair. This is really weird. His goatee is weird too. He's basically just taken a whole minute pretending to teach me something but telling me I can use shaving gel and start shaving / trimming under the shower. I'm pretty sure I knew that. I stopped before the end of the long video the first time, but the memory will be there forever and I would like to share it with you.<br />
<br />
Let's analyse it a bit further, we'll go through the usual steps and imagine what the creative brief might have looked like. The creative brief is the document that usually leads to the advertising idea and execution for an ad like this one, it typically has the following elements:<br />
<br />
<b>Business context and objective:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
While Gillette are usually content with getting the male audience excited about their new products by borrowing visual tropes from high end luxury and sports car adverts, this time they would like to create a meaningful and lasting personal connection with the guys. Plus they need to sell a huge bunch of trimmers, and if more men shaved more hair in more places, they would obviously buy more blades.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Target audience:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Men, ideally of the young Millennial variety but we'll talk about 18-45 years old to be on the safe side. Most of them shave, and even bearded hipsters trim. Plus a recent survey mentioned in <a href="http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/dating-advice/men-shaving-pubic-hair">Cosmopolitan</a> states that 95% of men now '<a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Manscape">manscape</a>' so it is widely known and accepted.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Audience insight:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Given 95% of young men already manscape, the leftover 5% probably need help to figure it out. Also men really appreciate being told how to do stuff like shaving, many would like the idea of a shaving companion with them in the bathroom.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Single-minded message:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Gillette is men's friendly manscaping confidant.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Thought-starters:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
- Perhaps a series of videos, like on Youtube, there are plenty of 'how to' videos<br />
- Feature creepy guys inviting the unsuspecting watcher in their shower<br />
- These could be actually pretty useful and informative videos for those who have questions about manscaping, but we'd like to make sure we remove useful information from the video in order to amp up the personal connection opportunities. For example, some men might have legitimate questions about shaving with or against the grain; do not answer those or provide an opinion. It's a trap.<br />
- Ensure the media plan reaches people at strange times. If advertising on Youtube, no frequency cap required.<br />
<br />
<br />
I'll finish with my actual opinion about the ad and a question. Overall I think there might be a decent idea in there somewhere but it's badly executed. I started watching a few other videos in the series and didn't find them any better.<br />
<br />
I find the guys featured creepy, is it me or do others think that too?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-15161711070279921672014-06-12T12:17:00.003+08:002014-06-12T12:17:33.329+08:00Scraping the bottom of the ad barrel: a new series of posts<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/midiman/3028240496"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf5jJTIIZwjiW1C1NURejW1_s1dZv8A6pXeh5w-XguQUf7BBWQtdy38W9csPcq0MFl2Un6TDsfL9IWG5ykNhnyLSTCEjnNqI4O8bcv3b95_WQN06hiau68AsqPN_cgw8-2rg-w5QrMfbM/s1600/Sleeping+kids+Flickr+CC.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/midiman/3028240496">Image credit: midiman</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I haven't wrote about advertising for a while, and given I'd like to ramp up activity around here I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a new series of blog posts, something I could write about on a weekly basis perhaps.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It is pretty commonly accepted that 99% of ads are pretty boring, bad, run of the mill, etc. Just turn your TV on and see for yourself. Or walk outside and notice billboards, read a magazine, or pay attention to banners online. There is a lot of industry press and awards for the 1% of good work out there, so that's covered, but what about the wide majority of ads that allow admen to eat and pay bills every month? And what about the 1% at the other end of the spectrum, the very worst stuff, the boring bottom of the ad barrel? Sure the catastrophes get some press, like really stupidly offensive stuff, but how about the mind-numbingly mundane..? </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I feel not enough is written about bad ads and bad practices. Well actually, there are typically a few posts every year about the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-ads-of-2013-2013-12?IR=T&op=1">worst ads</a>. I just want to write about it, I think it could be fun. So this upcoming series of posts aims to celebrate or at least provide some online coverage for the worst and most boring ad campaigns out there. Some of my commentary might be insightful, but don't hope for too much of that.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Of course given 99% of ads are pretty bad to start with, where do you find the really boring ones? It is going to be pretty subjective. Plus I work in advertising too so I might have to be slightly careful... (Perhaps a good time to remind everyone that this blog is personal and doesn't represent the views of my employer). </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is one of the main reasons I'm starting with an opening post, if you have suggestions or ideas as to how or where to find these ads please tell me in the comments. In my experience and given I don't watch TV, Youtube pre-rolls are decent place to start - I'll pay more attention. If I keep at it properly, there could be some kind of small competition for vote for the worst ads... Maybe <a href="http://adsoftheworld.com/">Ads of the World</a> can help too? I'll be doing some more research.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
If you have more ideas, please keep in touch in the comments, or <a href="http://www.twitter.com/hippowill">Twitter</a>, or you can send me an email via <a href="http://about.me/willemvdh">about.me</a>. Thanks!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-33554443859393640592014-06-08T14:54:00.003+08:002014-06-08T14:54:42.605+08:00My Travel Bug<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/asnalhermite/7296111892"><img alt="Image Credit: 'Wandering' by Hasna Lahmini" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp_HzZy5762-4hZzZAwq28xidicZwheycokhOGpIGXCD4idn7IZH6BaIiwZ1EqID91NxfLIK93nxW2fNguZkLY83-O_r6uG7YTuuDYtBW67EiQmCsl_OI8ILfggLIseZi77KzEjDYHSTU/s1600/Travel+Bug+Flickr+CC.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/asnalhermite/7296111892">Image Credit: 'Wandering' by Hasna Lahmini</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In the past couple of weeks since a friend of mine sent me this post about what it is to have the travel bug (in French, '<a href="http://voyagerloin.com/culture/film-documentaire/virus-du-voyage/">Le virus du voyage</a>') I've been giving some thought as to why I travel, what I enjoy about it, and what this supposed bug is all about.<br />
<br />
To start with, I haven't really considered myself a great traveler until only recently. I'm not sure if it's because I always meet people who have traveled more than I have while travelling, or if I just hadn't really thought about myself in this way - I mean by that I've just been thinking that traveling the way I have is a pretty normal thing to do. Checking my <a href="https://apps.facebook.com/tripadvisor">TripAdvisor Facebook app</a>, I've traveled to 27 countries, about 17% of the world. You might know I spent 18 months traveling in Asia and over a year of that time trying out the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad">digital nomad</a> thing. I have also been on a few 1-2 month long trips before. The fact is my family and friends think of me as a great traveler. According to a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10553137/Average-Briton-has-visited-seven-countries.html">recent survey</a>, the average Briton has traveled to 7 countries. I'm not British, but I think I can agree I'm not average either, at least when it comes to travel.<br />
<br />
So there, I'm a traveler.<br />
<br />
There are several aspects of being a traveler I can write about, I'll spread that over a few different posts. I'd like to talk about the urge first, it's one way to talk about how it starts.<br />
<br />
Travel bug is an interesting term in itself, taken literally it implies the traveler is not responsible for his wanting to wander, only the victim of a greater force at play, so strong it is compared with a disease or a virus. I don't think there is such a thing as not being entirely responsible for wanting to go travel, however the analogy is pretty good. It feels like a longing, wanting to drop everything and just go, seeing with my own eyes the landscape hiding beyond the horizon even though I intellectually know that the proverbial grass isn't actually any greener over there than it is here.<br />
<br />
How did I catch this travel bug then? I'm not sure, but you could say I grew up in the right terrain: my parents left their own countries and traveled to different ones to live and work, I have too as a child, so I have an international background. I remember reading somewhere that children who grow up with an international background and travel are more likely to do the same as adults.<br />
<br />
I've always loved reading, from the moment I learned I was reading 2-3 times more than school assignments asked for. I day dream a lot, and over think almost everything. My favourite books are science-fiction, fantasy, and travel journals - stories about exploring imagined worlds or our own. I know these things are related, without necessarily providing a specific reason.<br />
<br />
I remember collecting post cards from various places as a teenager, they decorated the walls of my bedroom. I preferred them over posters of any movies or bands I liked. It may have started even earlier, though it makes me think of a story, probably the closest explanation I have right now.<br />
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When I was 15 years old, just before turning 16, I went to visit old friends of my parents in Long Island, near Oyster Bay if I remember correctly. They had two kids about my age I hadn't seen since I was 6 years old, before we moved to France. I didn't really have a good time during the trip. I was hanging out with the kids and their friends, it was ok but I don't remember really getting along with them. As a teenager, being part of the group is essential though, and I didn't really have anyone else to hang out with so I made efforts to be friendly.<br />
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Then something happened, I can't remember exactly what it was, but probably something barely interesting enough to make it in a daytime TV sitcom scenario. Something along the lines of being made the scapegoat for something that was said to someone and upset the whole group. Drama, shouting, and vague threats ensued, and basically it was made clear to me I was no longer welcome in the gang. Then on top of that I was told off be the father that night for not helping around the house (I was, or at least I thought I was) and had some weird speech about how I should be more sociable (again, I thought I was). He didn't let me call my parents after that when I asked, because it was too expensive.<br />
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Needless to say I was seriously upset. I went to my room, cried a while, I missed my friends and family back in France, and suddenly felt very far away from home. Then I thought about it all. I felt alone, and also like I was the only one I could count on to have anything else happen.<br />
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I wondered what I could do about it, what I wanted to do about it. I didn't want to be a victim of the situation.<br />
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I was only a few days away from the end of the trip, and I hadn't really seen anything of New York City, which was why I wanted to go in the first place. I had spent most of the time in Long Island so far. I looked at the train schedule, made a decision, and made a plan. I would get the hell out of that house and go visit Manhattan, I'd be solid and self-reliant, I didn't need any of those people. I didn't think exactly in those words, but thinking back they describe the way I was being pretty accurately. I spent the last few days of my trip taking an early train to Penn Station, about 90 minutes or so on the train, wander walking all around Manhattan, and taking a train back to Long Island at the end of the day.<br />
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I think that's the first time I experienced travelling on my own. It felt and still feels like a curious mix of contemplation, admiration and appreciation of my surroundings, feeling free, yet also melancholic.<br />
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These moments tend to be quite magical, and strangely they are also times my mind feels the quietest and most peaceful - particularly hours spent on a train or a bus watching the landscape go by, not thinking about much and thoroughly enjoying it. I always meet lots of great people while I travel though I'm not talking of these moments, I mean the times really spent alone.<br />
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It is also the traveler's feeling - at least mine - of being part of the world, seeing it with one's own eyes yet being somewhat separated from the societies and people traveled through, being some kind of sideline observer. It calms me, give me new perspectives, gives me new thoughts and ideas. I think <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Theroux">Paul Theroux</a> writes very well about this kind of feeling, I love his travel books. Sort of in this style <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/130514.Happy_Isles_of_Oceania?from_search=true">Happy Isles of Oceania</a> comes to mind.<br />
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I think this is what my traveling is about, craving and chasing these feelings and experiences, trying to maintain a balance between satisfying the travel bug without loosing myself to it entirely.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-63568183339735966682014-05-25T21:59:00.002+08:002014-05-25T21:59:07.973+08:00What do you want to do when you grow up?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140202155534/p__/protagonist/images/0/06/70807-metalbeard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140202155534/p__/protagonist/images/0/06/70807-metalbeard.jpg" height="640" width="587" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Metal Beard from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/">The Lego Movie</a>, voiced by Nick Offerman</td></tr>
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There are a few different things that inspired this post, starting with the fact that the title is one of my favourite questions, I think about it regularly, and I had a few conversations with people I met about this recently, and with my mom while she was visiting. She reminded me I wanted to be a bus driver or a helicopter pilot when I was a kid, which I remembered about.<br />
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Growing up is a funny notion. I remember as a child thinking about it as a definite state, somewhere I and everyone else gets to be, basically grown ups. Now I'm a old enough that my younger self would consider me a grown up, I realised growing up doesn't stop. It's not definitive. Actually I think the only definite next stage is death, and given I don't believe in any kind of after life right now is really the only time I have to play with.<br />
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I also enjoy the question particularly because it's formulated like a question for children, and for me at least, it sends me back thinking of that time, what I wanted to do without any of the considerations or information that can limit thinking, it allows me to make up new plans or revisit ideas and dreams I had in the past.<br />
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I finally caught up with the LEGO Movie last week and really enjoyed it. I used to play a lot of LEGO when I was a kid and really I loved the way they weaved the way people play with the toys directly in the plot. Without spoiling the movie, think of the way you can build by following the instructions, and then create and build models from scratch. There are a some fantastic characters as well, I loved Metal Beard pictured above because of the way he's built up creatively using all sorts of seemingly random parts to make a whole that looks pretty awesome.<br />
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The question came back to me as it does, and as I was reminded of playing LEGO as a kid, though the characters in the movie and the journey they go on also made me ponder a slightly different version I don't think about as often: '<b>Who</b> do I want to <b>be</b> when I grow up?'<br />
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Thinking in the area of being rather than doing can provide a new perspective, I recommend trying it out. It's not rocket science, it just takes a bit of time and writing down the thoughts on paper or screen to get them out of your head. Neither questions are fixed, the answers evolve over time with new experiences, and there are no right answers either.<br />
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Being a traveller and a wanderer is something I've been cultivating these past few years, for example. I'm spending some time thinking of all this these days and jotting some notes down.<br />
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I don't have any more answers for now, though I did come across this ad for Kona Brewing, I enjoyed the idea, particularly the last line:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/f6WKfhj1lE0" width="640"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-5515484222215572902014-05-17T10:34:00.000+08:002014-05-17T10:34:31.055+08:00Travels with my mom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOy2EO8cO5w99XbbnIfB51f1S-Ic2NzphGkjXkcyJbfkBD4YcaDVCNeDVd0lEECr7ZNUqVAndiaxTnhaZJmEITYBGGMz9H39SXEwJ1sGkpPoovnUvqdTQRFcRGTRepPnw3sbggTfwNC0/s1600/IMG_2901.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOy2EO8cO5w99XbbnIfB51f1S-Ic2NzphGkjXkcyJbfkBD4YcaDVCNeDVd0lEECr7ZNUqVAndiaxTnhaZJmEITYBGGMz9H39SXEwJ1sGkpPoovnUvqdTQRFcRGTRepPnw3sbggTfwNC0/s1600/IMG_2901.JPG" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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My mom has been visiting Asia for the first time, it's already coming to her last couple of days here so I thought I'd write something about it. Three of her children have spent some time in Asia in the past few years, she has been dreaming of coming, we have been talking about this trip for a little while, so I invited. May seemed a good time as there was two easily workable public holidays in a row where I thought I could take some time off as well.<br />
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My brother Morgan and his wife, who have lived in Laos, apparently told her she would experience a culture shock, though I suspected otherwise. You see my mom is so accepting of just about everything and everyone that I didn't think she could easily be shocked by much.<br />
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Of course Singapore first is pretty easy, it's all super modern and organised. Mom met all my friends and we spent time sampling a bunch of local foods. We have had some amazing dinners, nice walks around town, and she has been spending time amazed at the size and number of malls, she's trying to get her head around why they are so many shopping malls with the same brand name shops. I gave up trying to understand that a while ago, it's not particularly my forte.<br />
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Next we went to Bali, and stayed a few days in Ubud. I thought she would be interested in the <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Crunchy+Granola">crunchy granola</a> way of life over there, we hung out at the Yoga Barn and she even went for the Sunday morning <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlOeAeIIkiY">Ecstatic Dance</a> session, also one of the main weekly expat social gatherings apparently. A day visiting temples, time walking around Ubud and rice paddies, touristy Balinese dance show, trying various organic and/or vegetarian cafés, we had a lovely time. We ended the trip in style spending the last night in Seminyak, with lovely sunset cocktails at the W.<br />
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After that we spent a few days in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to visit the Angkor temples. A friend highly recommended a guide and I'm glad to say he was exceptional. If ever you plan to visit the Angkor temples, a good guide is recommended and he was fantastic. He was passionate about the history of his country, the architecture and stories about the temples, he knew the ways in and around the temples that most tourists and guides don't use to avoid the crowds, and every time I thought I was getting bored of seeing temples he would surprise me and keep things fascinating; this could be with a story about Cambodia, a specific feature in a temple, a walk in the forest to arrive at our destination, etc. We also had fabulous food, and he organised a couple of experiences off the beaten tourist tracks, like a visit to a Buddhist monastery on a hill overlooking a lake for sunrise chants and a blessing.<br />
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It has been great to spend this time and share these moments with my mom, as well as sharing my love for travel and discovering new places, people, and food with her. It's very different from seeing the family over a Christmas holiday for example. At times it was a bit strange to spend so much time with my mom as an adult, though also special given we talked about stuff I often had no idea about, like stories from her youth, old friends of hers, her parents, etc. I can only recommend you do something a little bit different with one or both of your parents at some point, something that pulls you both our of your usual comfort zones, I'm sure you'll find out brand new stuff you couldn't imagine about your parents, and probably about yourself as well.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8657620203577578664.post-79777422839855707492014-04-08T10:47:00.000+08:002014-04-08T11:46:34.051+08:00New experiences: Patron of the arts<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/allnaturalarts" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPVNUyJyB_9io5B2H_5oLeB9U8lUkA5wm0ExrYScnIb73yTbAwG9CLJv5VXdOIXIPVEyQuxlcBrmy2VannLJ937vfLXaVZBrj9Y3iYd8wy-bOJ3Ex7uLNiNhFMdwkva-RvXfJ1JhrhFz8/s1600/All+natural+Arts.jpg" height="322" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/allnaturalarts">Image credit: Sue Beatrice</a></td></tr>
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I came across a few of artist Sue Beatrice's pocket watch sculptures online via an <a href="http://io9.com/enjoy-these-clever-miniature-sculptures-made-from-old-c-1555135808">article online</a> with some photos, and found them really beautiful. Susan specialises in creating Earth-friendly pieces of art exclusively made with natural or recycled elements.<br />
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As I understand it, most of her work using natural elements tends be ephemeral, such as with these sand or pumpkin sculptures:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/allnaturalarts/photos/pb.171656562884323.-2207520000.1396923375./562917197091589/?type=3&theater" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFiwnw2-xv3PtojCrvOWJyQsePxRq4lj8dNT9s8LknebW737wJTHSTAbAmRWldBktIXcU9SWYFep7j0Zw3Nla6sdQQIHABT7dXvXRTm1ugBA1FC5x5netZAUGx7Fn1SoQeKWeMQYXMmU/s1600/NY+Aquarium+sand+sculpture.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sandsculptusa.com/">Sand Sculpt USA</a> - NY Aquarium sand sculpture on Coney Island </td></tr>
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<a href="http://allnaturalarts.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/pumpkin-carving/#jp-carousel-184"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBPxDBKKM7c7yoHffqRCqkgtzp4NA1PIoBeIQ2MkosI_UEydWqmwnoMcPthf0gAc_f-D6SKMuT_QnVKiZCyAhHWSsmEqnzIRg24SeJ-NTUPhfSkMEH-NYKZPQXgHDvpeT49wBq4aSpOq0/s1600/Pumpkin+sculpure.jpg" height="460" width="640" /></a></div>
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And then there are the recycled pieces, this is from her Facebook Page, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/allnaturalarts">All Natural Arts</a>:<br />
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<i>"All Natural Arts is a celebration of nature in the form of jewelry and other fun and whimsical items. Using sea glass, stones and other natural elements as well as vintage watches, jewelry pieces, and found objects to create one of a kind treasures for you to enjoy or to give as gifts."</i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/allnaturalarts"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ_393Lm1AQTve441c5nuxG3MS-mO-cyj-jBIRwP18kxBhD89QnIfkKaI8aUxV4t-uXhwKOMlY9sxBuZlXMn4XumWqGKHlk5eIKYnQ8KsU5YokuglojgMv4bRznehxt9yCoELmNaWJ6yk/s1600/Sue+beatrice+pumpkin+patch.jpg" height="640" width="474" /></a></div>
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This kind of intricate miniature sculpture also happens to be one of my favourite forms of arts, I find them really fascinating. I think the minutiae, skill level, and intricacy involved are mind-blowing.<br />
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In this style, there are some really nice pieces in V&A Museum collection in London (miniature <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/i/ivory/">ivory sculptures</a> in particular, if memory serves), and the most incredible I've seen are all in the <a href="http://www.npm.gov.tw/">Imperial Palace Museum</a> in Taipei. Their collection is extensive, for example this insanely detailed sculpture carved into a 1 1/2 inch long olive pit:<br />
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<a href="http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/Article.aspx?sNo=04001107"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMSrD7lk7BOYesFSGIGuEm1ZKn76Q-1N5zavVDQSECOolu7_ZwgLvqGtBxJW11qlsxkXzqubD5ntfdfA8HTwe0HFVKn-33-LOWq1VbbWYY6rc5VCKovyiGXnKyAmxiDofpVNlkXGb6M4/s1600/olive-pit.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
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So in the spirit of doing either <a href="https://medium.com/thinking-every-day/2b4c472dc905">random</a> or simply trying on new things to keep life interesting, on impulse I contacted Susan to find out more about her work. After exchanging a few emails and finding out how she creates these kinds of unique pieces on commission, and thinking to myself I've never done anything like this, I commissioned a pocket watch sculpture for myself.<br />
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I'm looking forward to seeing the results and of course will share them with you once I have it!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04984500188575237413noreply@blogger.com1