A new beginning at 938LIVE...

Today is my second day at 938LIVE. Although I feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of things I need to learn, I'm thankful that my new colleagues are really nice. And I have a great on-air buddy, Stanley.

It was a real eye-opener for me sit behind the "control panel". OK, I don't know what it's called, but it looks like an airplane cockpit. Here's the view from where I sit...



Can you believe I'll have to operate this contraption BY MYSELF soon? *faint* I can't even begin to explain to you what I have to do to switch from this to that to this to that.... and you know how tech-unsavvy I am!

The Living Room does about 2-3 interviews a day, so I will still get to meet all sorts of interesting people. But can you imagine the number of interviews we have to schedule? It's like 10-15 a week, almost 60 a month! :o

Stanley is really good at putting people at ease! He keeps the studio spick and span between interviews, and cares enough to make sure the interviewees have "warm" water to drink (apparently it calms them down!). He is also very patient teaching me. SIGH. I'm like learn yesterday, today forget already lor! :(

Here's a picture of the area around my desk:



My desk is the one on the right, with the packet of half-eaten Malay food on it. Yes, the people at 938LIVE also tabao from canteen and makan at their desks! :P

Sitting to my left (in white shirt) is Stanley -- look at his messy desk! He can't even eat his lunch there cos he only has one small, small space to move his computer mouse around! :o

The pretty lady in red is Casandra - she hosts Body and Soul - with the "blue blur" (in the pic) beside her, Daniel Martin. Melanie Oliveiro and Eugene Loh sit in front of me, on the other side.

It's a small cosy office. And since everyone takes turns going on air, the whole team is hardly around at the same time. But there is always friendly banter and laughter flying around. The vibes are very positive -- and that's most important to me.

I've got a nickname -- first thing in the morning already kena. :(

Because the office is so small and quiet in the mornings, everyone can hear everyone else typing on the computer keyboards. So here I was replying my email... tip-tapping away furiously... when Stanley looks up and says, "You can always tell when someone is from Publishing. They type like this lor..."

Daniel says it's like I'm killing my keyboard. And so my nickname now is Keyboard Killer. :(

As for the work........ let's just say it's a VERY STEEP learning curve for me. So many technical things I have to learn! I seriously think you need an engineering degree to be in radio. :P And that's just technical........

But I thank God for this opportunity.

There are Vanilla fans in CBC who come up to me to ask why Vanilla closed down, and how I'm coping. I tell them the truth: "I'm still grieving".

My chocolate buddy Diane sent me some Ferrero Rocher today. It arrived in the mail and when I read the note, I almost cried. It brought back a WAVE of memories of Publishing. Guys, I miss you!

But don't worry about me. I'm doing OK in radio and am enjoying the new adventure! As a dear friend would say, "All is good".

Missing you all, and wishing we can meet up again soon. Don't forget me!!!

"Is There Anything We Can Do To Reverse This Decision?"

This letter arrived in my inbox yesterday. It really touched me. Liz, I hope you received my email — hope to see you here on our blogsite.

"Dear Theresa

I read with great dismay the news that your Oct issue of Vanilla will be the final one.

I actually did not believe my eyes when I first saw the little pick tag on the top right hand corner of the magazine and hastily turned to the editorial page to confirm my worst fears.

Did I miss reading something in the previous issue that led to this?

I am sure you are/will be receiving similar letters with the same note of surprise.

It's a real shame. Is there anything we readers could do to overcome it? Is it a lack of funding or a change in corporate directives?

I will miss reading your wonderful magazine and really need some closure to the big question in my head.

Look forward to hearing from you and do let us know if there is anything we can do to reverse this decision!

Best Regards

Mrs Liz Thong"

For every $500, you gotta pay $110 more.

With this piece of news, I guess my Useful Last Page, "How To Save Your Electricity Bills" (Vanilla April'08 issue) really comes in useful now.

I'm sorta glad I could help. Ha!

And if next month's bill from Singapore Power is gonna bum you out (which I'm sure it's gonna be, who wouldn't, that's one heck-a-lot of an increment!!! Thank goodness I haven't had to pay any... YET), you can try watching this to cheer you up... a bit. It never fails to make me laugh although I've watched it for the umpteenth time.

One last thing, to all our Muslim friends out there: Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir Batin. Man, this Ramadan surely zipped by.

Casandra Speaks!

I joined Vanilla in Feb and initially, I had tonnes of worries like what if the team was like mean? What if I did a terrible job? Had many what-if this and that going through my mind.

Vanilla as my first-full time job, I'm just so lucky.
I don't regret a single day getting to know six amazing team members over the past 9 months.

Shaan - Like I told you before, its so much fun turning around and having those random gossips and chatter about crappy things. From the fat dude who wears the hula grass skirt to like a certain someone going back to India to get married! Well, now it's YOUR turn to get married. (I told you so!)

Adlena - Adlena Wong! Always giving Shaan and I THE FACE. Yea lah, you too cool for our lame jokes. HAHA! Hmmm, well, you're the first person I've met that eats pineapple with that grey powder! Anyway, I really really hope you can start running again! And don't worry about that certain someone you might have to sit next to. Just give her THE FACE. Hehh!

Theresa - You are the nicest and sweetest boss ever. Always helping us out and protecting us. Thanks for all your help when it came to you-know-who. I really really (x100) appreciate it. :)

Pam - I will never forget the time when you spoilt my birthday surprise! I can still remember you saying very loudly, "Shaan!? Why are you waiting for me in the TV room?"
Whenever I think back about it, it makes me smile. Pam, you make me smile! :)

Jenn - You can make me laugh and cry (its a good thing). You make me laugh at the things you say (jokes, lame stuff, normal talk) and cry automatically whenever you pray for me.

Alvin - the only guy in the team! Hearing you crack a joke or two is like, "wow! Alvin is being lame!" I wish you all the best in your new job posting!

Yummy Bakes and my Fave Food Writer...

Today I found myself thinking of a story angle for food - "reinventing Polar Cafe". 

My cousin Erlich makes the most terribly wickedest confections in the WHOLE WORLD (to fake a phrase from Lola & Charlie) and I think the Fullerton and the Ritz should either hire him or buy their pastries from him. (The photo here is of his famous Chocolate Caib, only 100,000 calories per slice)

One of his top bakes (apart from his awesome Apple Crumble and like, 50 flavours of muffins) is a perfect chocolate Swiss roll. The roll itself is like cloud fluff, and melts in the mouth, yet is firm. But the kicker is the layer of better-than-Valrhona chocolate that is rolled with the cake layer. Angels would sell their wings for a bite of this.

So it started me thinking, as I used to, about what a great column this would make. Reinventing Polar Cafe: How to do the Sugar Roll, Curry Puff and Hot Dog Roll the Vanilla way. I would be able to think these thoughts because I know if I just called or emailed our Vanilla food writer Sim Ee Waun, she would TOTALLY know what I'm talking about, and do a 200% better job than I would have imagined.

Ee Waun's got a funny food story for EVERY occasion, and I love that her solution for the world's woes is a lychee martini (hey, Ee Waun, we are very sad here, how about mixing us a pitcher, extra lychees please?).  Ee Waun is 40 and a certified Sexy Dame. Her columns are laced with mission school propriety mixed with a winky-wink cheekiness that I just love.

Ee Waun, please do continue to contribute right here - any of your weird recipes are welcome but more so your quirky food stories. Your column is one of the major things I'll miss most about Vanilla, so do keep giving me a fix okay? :)

PS I'll see if I can steal Erlich's recipe to post here. But in case I've made you hungry, you can find his stall called Opus Deli at Lau Pa Sat. His website to keep you drooling: www.opusdeli.com (he's Catholic - can you tell? :D)

They tried to make me go but I said "No, no, no!"

Well, that was the reaction I had (minus the Amy Winehouse-esque melodrama, quietly in my head, of course) when I heard the words, "we did a review and decided to close 4 magazines... including Vanilla", coming out of our MD's mouth. That was on 16 Sep-- a day or two after the news announced Lehman Brothers had gone bust. I think I can empathise with the shock and disappointment those guys probably experienced.

Everything from start to end's still fresh in my mind though.

Just slightly over a year ago, I picked up my first copy of Vanilla outside of TCC at Paradiz Centre after a cuppa coffee (ahh, the coffee that connects us all to Vanilla) with an ex-colleague. I read it and thought, wow, would be awesome to be able to write for this mag.

The next thing I knew, I was surfing the Mediacorp job site wishing and hoping for an opening (I saw there was only Pam and Stephanie (then senior ed) on the editorial team staff list and thought, hey they need a writer... like me!). There was an opening! The job description for the magazine was like a give-away, VV :). I took a long shot and emailed my resume directly to Stephanie. The next day she replied, "Yes, Vanilla's looking for a writer. I'll forward your application to HR." I was elated.

To cut the story short, I got my dream job. Being part of Vanilla is the first step to my field of dreams in magazine journalism.

For the past 15 months, I must say that going to work at Vanilla is like... brushing my teeth: I do it willingly, automatically, zealously every morning; it's something so simple yet meaningful and it's an oh-so-good a habit to have and keep!

Plus, I'm not sure where else in a workplace I could sneak out during lunch time to swim some laps at the nearby YCK pool without getting strange stares or shocking reactions like I have not (ok, maybe sometimes from Azmin, our ex-ed assistant who sat beside me; only she knew my lunch-time indulgences. Now you do too!) at Vanilla.

I also remember how Pam and I dropped our work and drove all the way to Empress Place to take part in an (impromptu) race last year! Of course I thought, my asst ed is nuts! But as a newbie, I just went along with it... plus I love running. It's my heart and soul. That's why it's a double blow for me when Vanilla closed. I just lost my ability to run (temporarily I hope) after my bunion surgery 3 months ago and now I can't write for Vanilla. Boohoo.

From the beginning I could see myself as a Vanilla-ien for light years to come, no kidding. It could've been a platform for me to prove to myself and my friends that "youngsters these days" (I was the youngest in the team until Cas, our ed asst and designer Jenn came along) can too stick to a job like our parents stuck to their jobs for decades. But that's not to be.

Nonetheless, I (as my fellow Vanilla-iens) see this as "when a door closes, another door opens" kinda situation. It has been so far; I'll be honing beauty journalism in Style:. I think it'll be another awesome (albeit different) experience so wish me luck!

A Stroke of Insight

I studied Psychology for 6 years, and I remember being fascinated by how the human brain works -- the actual physical brain.

When my friend Adrian (he's this really smart guy doing his PhD) pointed me to this website www.TED.com, I checked it out cos to be honest, it was a boring Saturday afternoon and I had nothing better to do.

But TED is this amazing website that features inspiring speakers in various fields, sharing ideas that are... well, worth sharing!

Anyway, I chanced upon this woman psychiatrist called Jill Bolte Taylor who - at the age of 37 - suffered a stroke.

Imagine, a brain scientist who had a chance to study the phenomenon from the "inside", and recount the experience step by step. Compelling!

The best part is that Jill is very expressive, funny, and in touch with her emotions in a very "Mother Nature" sort of way. So she would re-enact the whole experience in vivid detail. I have to tell you -- she made me laugh and cry!

Why I am blogging about this?

Because at the end, it's about her discovery of what humans are capable of in creating a better world. And in my book, that's "VV". [refer to Threez's code]

So without spoiling the fun for you, here's the link: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Enjoy!

Elmo & Chris Brown See the Signs

My little baby Becca LURVES this video. I thought I'd just share with you what has been cheering both Bec and me up... :) ENJOY!

(check out Elmo's dancing!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpxw0iCP4q4

THE VANILLA CODE

When I started working at Vanilla - 23 November 2007 to be exact - I realised that there is a particular DNA to the Vanilla woman and all she believes in -- body, mind and spirit. 

One of the most fun parts of putting each month's Vanilla together was talking about the women we were going to feature. 

Pam and I came up with a code that would help us to sort of talk about people and personalities without offending anyone (external) listening:

VV = Very Vanilla. This would apply to all our cover girls - they each embody a sense of love, integrity, selflessness that was the antithesis of the "me myself and I" spirit that women are commonly encouraged to have ("you better look out for yourself", "Marry someone who loves you more than you love him", "Of course you should divorce your husband - the other guy is a much better catch and after all, your husband is boring.") I loved that we never failed to find our VV girls -- who were never about themselves, but others.

QV = Quite Vanilla. A woman who embodies some of the key qualities of a Vanilla woman but needed more "checking out" before we could decide if we should feature her :)

NVV = Not Very Vanilla. Some women who wanted to be featured in Vanilla but lacked essential qualities. However, sometimes these women had some redeeming qualities and so we put them in our KIV basket for future consideration.

VNV = Very Not Vanilla. This is the extreme - the "devil who wears Prada" as it were. This is the woman who could not care less if orphans ate rats tails for breakfast as long as her new bikini does not make her look fat. Fortunately we did not come across many -- though there were a few who outright asked us if we wanted to put them on the cover and we politely said no.

I know it sounds a bit NVV to even have a code but I guess we just had to make decisions. Though Pam did tell me sometimes that people deserve a second chance... Well, I guess given Vanilla's short shelf-life we never had that luxury, but it would have been interesting if we could have talked about women who totally turned over a new leaf... now that would have been a great Vanilla feature...

Saying Goodbye

Someone once told me that life is cyclical - sometimes you're way up top, and other times, you find yourself right at the bottom. The bright side of being at the bottom (yes, there is a bright side) is that, as Yazz sang in the 80s, the only way is up.

I was at an all time high exactly two weeks ago to the day. I was four days into my surprise trip to France, in a tiny town which wasn't even on the map, in the Champagne region of the country - being proposed to under a million stars during a midnight stroll. The days that followed were filled with blue skies, swimming in pristine waters in St. Tropez, walking along the Seine, staying in chateaus and driving along country roads with the one person I've loved for the last six years. Three days before returning home, we got robbed of everything - passports, surprise tickets to watch madonna in paris, laptop, camera with my 600 precious photos, phones, credit cards and a substantial amount of cash. But even that couldn't bring us down for long and we got immigration papers from the embassy and bought replacement tickets to watch Madonna throw the biggest party ever at the Stade de France in Paris on our last night.

What did bring me down was the last thing I expected to discover in the first hour of my first day back at work - Vanilla's end. As Theresa mentioned in her first blog entry, I could not believe it was happening, had happened all while I was away on vacation. Over the last few days, with the support of Theresa, Pam and the team who have all had a week or so to adjust to the reality, I think i'm finally there too. I finally realize that there will be other avenues, other ways of putting our message out there, and as someone really wise told me yesterday, we each have the Vanilla DNA in us, to inject into whatever work we set out to do. It won't be easy to find something I will be as passionate about and as proud of, but I know I've come out of this with amazing lifelong friends, knowing we've made a difference and fifteen issues I'll always treasure...

Goodbye, Vanilla. Je t'aime.

Start of Something New

I'm clearing leave these 2 days. Being at home isn't too good for an energiser bunny like me. :(

I miss the sense of purpose, being on Vanilla. Each month, we brainstorm as a team. We share about things that excite us - be it amazing women we've found, or cool new spots, or travel... I'm serious, we truly love Vanilla!

I remember one day, Shaan said from out of the blue: "Vanilla is really the best magazine."

I looked up and stared at her for a moment, with raised eyebrow. "Sorry?" I said.

"Vanilla is really the best magazine," Shaan repeats. She's dead serious. "There's nothing else like it."

I had to smile. Because I felt exactly the same way.

Vanilla is a labour of love. I wouldn't be lying if I said I would work on those cover stories and cover features for free. It never feels like work.

So having to let go of this amazing product that I love and believe in is - to say the least - painful. It's so much a part of me that it feels like tearing something out fibre by fibre, nerve by nerve.

BUT we are all Vanilla women after all.

Like our Oct cover feature "Lost and Found", I learnt that yes, we may have lost something precious, but this can open a door to something unexpectedly good (I wouldn't say better). It's not the end of the world.

Isn't life all about being open to possibilities, grabbing them with both hands, giving ourselves 100% to them, and living out our purpose, wherever we are called? =)

As our Oct cover girl puts it, Carpe Diem! Sieze the day.

I believe that if the modern Singapore woman wants a Vanilla voice, something new will rise from the rubble again. And soon.

Theresa clears her cubicle

I hate packing.

I feel like I've been packing, clearing, cleaning for 4 years.

It began with my parents' HDB maisonette -- nearly 40 years of memories (and quite a few not-quite-vintage, definitely-spoilt gadgets). It took me 1 year to clear out that flat, clean it up, and finally sell it.

Then my husband and I bought a new house after selling our apartment so we can house his parents and our brood. More packing, more storage, more clearing.

And now, just as we are about to move into our new place, I'm packing at home, and I'm packing at work.

There is, suddenly, great poetry in "living out of a suitcase". I confess I'm tempted.

Thanks Jenn (sweetheart designer) for moving my (mere) 3, neatly packed boxes upstairs to our new (much, much smaller and much, much noisier) abode.

7 Days Since Vanilla Died

It has been 7 days since Vanilla magazine was put to rest.

Last Tuesday, the news was broken to our team and 3 other magazine teams. It was a business decision that had to be made - a painful one for everyone involved, because our bosses read Vanilla too. Vanilla was a much-loved title.

Shaan wasn't at the meeting -- she was in Europe with her boyfriend (now fiance) Jeremy. So the rest of us have had about  a week for the news and the shock to sink in, and to explore the various job options our company were offering us. That's the good thing about being part of MediaCorp -- it's like a big family.

I tried calling Shaan on Sunday, about 12 times yesterday, and this morning. I was beginning to get worried because I kept getting the message "The subscriber's mobile phone is not in service. Please try again later."

The same message over 48 hours seemed unlikely - I was beginning to imagine she and Jeremy had been kidnapped by the gypsies...

But when I showed up at work this morning there was my sweet Shaan. Our area looked like a hurricane had been through it - there was newspaper all over the computers and Shaan's computer was totally gone. 

Poor girl had no inkling... when I broke the news to her, she looked totally shocked and crushed. 

We love Vanilla -- always have, always will. The chance to work on such a different magazine, a publication that celebrated the every day woman, was a chance in a lifetime. We had letters every month that told us how much Vanilla had changed our readers' lives for the better - restoring marriages, reuniting daughters and moms, inspiring readers to look their best (yes you can!) no matter what body shape you are...

Shaan's forlorn, "tell me it's not true" look broke my heart...

Last night the rest of us went out for dinner because I thought Shaan was going to be back and Pam's going on leave so I thought we wouldn't have a chance later on in the week. We went to Kuishin-Bo at Suntec City, and were joined by our ex-CD Jennifer and ex-Group Ed Juleen Shaw, the "original Vanilla team". Pigged out on snow crab (yummmm) and a million other things... It was lovely to be in the company of a group of people I now call friends.

What will happen to us next? 

Stay tuned...