David Seow's Blog, page 21

Paris 11/13/1015

Halloween Book Club

After Adan and Felicia were done with their session at the  Writers Fest,  Amelia, Ken and I grabbed a cab over to Catherine's house for our Halloween edition of book club. No, we didn't read a horror book for the session, well in was beautiful and horrifying at the same time as it dealt with the horrifying hand that one of the characters in the book had to suffer throughout his entire life. Yes, I'm talking about Booker Shortlisted book, A Little Life. At over 700 pages, it may appear to be a daunting read at first, but once you get into it, you'll be completely hooked.
Catherine greeted each of us a gigantic monstrous hug in her monster mask, of course. Felicia and Adan brought over a Halloween Cookie baking and decorating kit for some pre-book discussion fun. 
It was only once we were all in the kitchen, that we discovered the full extent of Felicia's baking skills: she knows how to buy a box of cookie mix and that's it! Thankfully Ken was there to take charge of the situation.


Yes, Felicia, you actually have to mix the batter before
you bake it.
With the cookies ready to be baked, we adjourned to the living room, where Catherine had a box of Halloween accessories for those who had forgotten it was a dress-up edition of book club, which was fortunate as Benjamin and Emma seem to have forgotten that it was costume themed book club. But they haven't been able to come to book club for a while, so maybe they came dressed as long-lost book club members. Good to have you back again, Emma and Benjamin!
As I was starving, the prep time for dinner seemed to take forever, but by the time Dave arrived, it was ready to be served. I have to say, Catherine out did herself with a feast of salmon encroute, potatoes au gratin, steamed vegetables and fried rice. Yum!




So while we scarfed down our dinner, we got to the business at hand of discussing the book. Then our book club Cinderella, Myra had to depart before the stroke of nine and, as usual, she did not leave anything behind. :)

Can you see the ghost me?
Once the official part of the evening was over, it was time to play. Catherine got out her camera and began to take ghostly shots of each of us and they turned out pretty cool. Dave brought out some of the really cool and funky hats that he designed and Ken and Adan had a blast trying them on. When the cookies were done cooling, it was time to decorate them!
Thanks for hosting another amazing book club evening, Catherine! Can't wait to do it again. You know, we don't have to wait till next Halloween to dress up.

Singapore Writers Festival 2015

From 31st October to 8th November,  the Arts House at Old Parliament Lane was swamped attendees for the Singapore Arts Council's Singapore Writers Festival.  And who thinks Singaporeans don't really read?

Novelists, journalists, non-fiction writers, children's authors,  and poets from both Singapore and around the world have found time to  fit a trip to the festival into their busy schedules. Such notables as Jacqueline Harvey, Ovidia Yu, Shamini Flint, David Almond, Joshua Ip, Alvin Pang, John Dougherty, Gwee Li Sui, Michael Chabon, Colin Cheong, Michael Cunningham, and Paul Theroux  are amongst the literary glitterati who have graced the event in recent years.





This year Adeline, Emily, Kenneth and Denise were on panel of the 10 Books Your Family Should Read session so I showed up to offer my support for their 10:30am session. I'm not a morning person but I perked up when the discussion bounced off with a reading of my book 'If I Were A Blue Kangaroo'. It's needless to say that Ken did a great job of the reading.






With the reading done, they each discussed their individual top picks before they took questions from the floor befothe session concluded with a lucky audience member winning a set of all ten children's books. All in all I would say their session was a pretty good way to start the festival.

 

David Gandy in Singapore

GQ's most fashionable man of the year made a fleeting visit to Singapore to promote Dolce & Gabanna's Light Blue Fragrances for men and women. The writer and philanthropist is better known as the world's most sought after male model.

David Gandy ©David Seow
I picked up my bottle of Light Blue at Sephora to  gain access to the exclusive meet and greet. By the looks of things, the men attending the meet and greet were going to be outnumbered by the women.
As I got in line to make my purchase I tried to strike up a conversation with a guy there who had two bottles in hand. He rather dismissively told me that only black card members of Sephora would be able to attend the meet and greet, but when I asked the store staff, they clarified that anyone who made a purchase would be able to get up and close and personal with the fashion star. They then gave me a line pass and told me to bring it with me at the scheduled timing.

So I headed off to church and lunch and when I returned,  a staff member gave me a pre-autographed card and told me that this would admit me to the meet and greet line.


Once the line was set up, I was kindly led to the front of the queue. I was given a complimentary 75ml bottle of Light Blue and told that he would only be signing the bottle but I was later told that everyone would be allowed to get another item signed. I opted to have him sign the pencil sketch that I had attempted of him. As you can see, it was an #EPICFAIL. I definitely need to practice more.

Another staff member was assigned to take our personal photos with David and in addition they had an official photographer. Let's just say the staff member who used my camera was, for lack of a better word, a terrible photographer. One of the supervisors had to tell him to keep snapping and even then he didn't listen and didn't take a photo while David and I were posing. They really should get people who know how to use cameras!
Photo taken by the volunteer photographer!The photos below were taken by the official photographer.


 However, I did manage give David a copy of A Day with the Duchess which he told me that he would share with his niece and nephews. Anyway it was a pleasure meeting Mr Gandy and he was really nice and personable and took his time with each and every person in the queue. This was no rushed signing and he spent well over an hour signing for everyone, from young ladies to middle-aged men.

 After one last group photo with the staff, he was off to catch his flight back home. Before he left I tweeted my thanks to Mr Gandy and his social media asst, Laura who had been so helpful and They tweeted their thanks back. What a thrill. Thank you for your time, Mr Gandy and once again it was a pleasure meeting you.

Little Treasures Kindergarten Graduation

It was a privilege to have been invited as the guest of honour to the Little Treasures Graduation Ceremony. Congratulations to the graduates, the teachers and the parents. Great Job!!

Twilight Tales - Felix Cheong

Host Ken Hickson with Felix CheongLast weekend, I attended the fourth and last Twilight Tales session with award-winning author/Poet, Felix Cheong.  Author Ken Hickson kindly hosted the event and approximately 30 connoisseurs of fine Singapore literature signed up for an evening with the Felix.
Ken, Dave and Yi Yi

To the delight of the attendees,   Felix, a former journalist and award winning author/poet, discussed his writing journey and read excerpts from his books Singapore Siu Dai and Singapore Siu Dai 2 with his wife.


This is the fourth and final session for the highly successful Twilight Tales for the year. Please stay tuned for info on next year's Twilight Tales sessions.

Book Geeks: Smaller and Smaller Circles

This weekend, the Book Geeks braved a horrid hazy Saturday to attend F.H. Batacan's appearance at Books Kinokuniya before adjourning to my place for the book discussion and dinner.
I read the first chapter and found it way too gory and stopped reading. (Gore really is not my thing at all unless it's in a TV show about snotty sorority girls getting stalked by a killer or killers *SCREAM QUEENS*  shout out.)

But kudos to Batacan who first started writing the book in her  20s and finally managed snag a coveted publishing deal in her 40s through her agency, Jacaranda. Set in the Philippines, two sleuthing catholic priests attempt to track a serial killer before he/she commits another gruesome murder.
Since I didn't finish the book, I helped out with dinner instead. Rilla told me that she wanted to learn how to make Roti Jala months ago so I convinced my mum to teach her.  Now Mum only cooks occasionally but since Rilla made the request and since I was hosting the Book Geeks,  Mum made an exception and she dusted off her antique Roti Jala maker for the occasion. 


But...at the last minute Rilla had to go for a photo shoot and she cancelled! "Please don't kill me," she implored.  At that point since it was too late for me to read the  book for some ideas, I watched an episode of 'How to get Away with Murder' instead. 

Catherine and Benjamin kindly apologised for being unable to make it. And as for Emma, well, she just plain forgot about it until I asked if I could expect her. The answer was no!
Cooking for the evening meal started right after lunch. On the menu: roti jala, chicken curry and beef rendang. Claire agreed to make her amazing corned-beef curry as well.


SNOB Family dinner. Doesn't this look like a Chinese family portrait

I didn't make it to the book event at Kinokuniya for the reading to presumably help out at home. It's needless to say I didn't do much helping in the kitchen so I just stayed out of the way.

Dave was the first to arrive with a bottle of wine in hand. Amelia, Felicia, Myra, Adan and Ken traipsed over from Kinokuniya with chocolates, chips, dips, chocolates, tiramisu, moscato and more drinks to start off the evening. Oh they brought flowers for Mum too! Claire, in the mean time, was still desperately trying to hail a cab in the haze.

I tried to usher all the women in the kitchen to finish up the cooking but they were adamant that they didn't want to play any traditional domestic roles. So we all settled at the dining table to start discussing the book.  While our family helper, Marylene, finished prepping dinner, we discussed the book for a bit.



Dinner ©Ken Quek

Then Claire, who also hadn't read the book, arrived with her really yummy corned beef curry which was really delicious as was the moscato! Over dinner, we discussed the book and how the murders and gore were just devices used to highlight other social issues such as abject poverty etc. 

Dave and Claire kept a diplomatic silence on the matter.  Like me, Amelia didn't seem to like it and kept comparing it unfavourably to The Alienist.  Truth be told,  this was the second book that Felicia picked that I did not like--the first was Terry Pratchett's 'The Colour of Magic" which I refer to as the 'magical book of boredom'. I was originally planning to propose a motion that she be banned from picking another story. Amelia was prepared to second that.

But since  Myra, Ken, and Adan loved it, I guess I'm willing to give the book another shot. For now, Felicia has a reprieve from a SNOB book selection ban.


After dinner we just sort of chilled and chatted about a host of other things.  I would tell you what we talked about but that's private! :P Thanks for a fun evening everyone. Can't wait for Catherine's book discussion on Halloween.

A Bedtime story with James McAvoy

As an author, it would be a dream to have one of my books read by one of my favourite actors, but seeing as that is unlikely to happen, here's one of my favourite actors reading a bedtime story - enjoy!

Bedtime story with James McAvoy

As an author, it would be a dream to have one of my books read by one of my favourite actors, but seeing as that is unlikely to happen, here's one of my favourite actors reading a bedtime story - enjoy!

Early Childhood Carnival

Emily and me