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...