David Seow's Blog, page 47

London Day Six

So the last day of the fair was upon us. I went to the last of my meetings with Enrico and then we headed out for lunch before Enrico headed back home to Belgium. The three days went by in a flash or a bit of a blur or both. 

Back at the fair I watched the exhibitors start dismantling the booths. So much hard work was put into the fair by everyone and it was kind of sad to see that the fair was over so quickly.

As I took one last walk around, I saw a biography on Hugh Jackman that I had been looking for in the book stores, I asked the exhibitor where I could buy a copy since I couldn't find it in the stores. She very kindly went to the shelf, picked it up and handed it to me. Wow! It was incredibly nice of her and I thanked her profusely.



After that I headed back to the hotel with Kenneth and Celine before heading out to the newly opened Wolfson and Tay bookstore and cafe for a poetry reading. Edmund from Epigram joined us for our scenic cab ride to the venue. See if you can regonize this building, which got blown up in a recent Bond movie.



After the reading we headed for a Vietnamese restaurant that Celine recommended in Soho. I ordered the beef pho. 




We were all pretty exhausted so we then took the tube back to Earls Court for the last night at our hotel The Jade. The next morning we had arranged to stay at the Think Apartments by Tower Bride.  I finished the last of my packing and then I managed to have the first full night of sleep. The trip was almost at an end and I was finally getting over my jet lag!!

Daunt Books

So we left for Daunt Books at around 6pm for our 7pm panel discussion. Paul Tan of the National Arts Council of Singapore was moderating the panel which included poet Alvin Pang, novelist  Colin Cheong, playwright Rosaline Ting and myself, of course.

On the way there I received a message from Kenneth asking if I was on my way. You know does Tom Cruise ever show up on time for his movie premieres? I was thinking of showing up fashionably late, but since the store wanted us out of there by 8:30pm I knew that wasn't going to go down well.


Daunt Books

When I got to the Daunt's, it was cocktail hour with wine being served. I was about to grab a glass to calm my nerves when Kenneth and Shiuan snapped "No"!  I suppose it's because I get an uncontrollable fit of the giggles after a few sips. I also finally met Jonathan who I had been in touch with via email with regards to selling my books there that night. Thanks, Jonathan, now I can say I sold my books at Daunt's.

They steered me towards the podium. Gee Yung, bless his heart, was there early straight from work and my old primary one classmate who I haven't seen in decades Maninder Gill turned up as did Kelvin who writes the Singaporean in London Blog. Award-Winning Author Candy Gourlay, Anita Loughrey and Chitra Soundar also came to offer their support.


Anita, Candy and me
I entrusted Enrico to take the pictures, I don't know why because he didn't do a very good job the night before with James McAvoy, but I decided to let him have a second chance. Once again he proved why he is an illustrator and not a photographer.


Ok, wondering where I'm going to sit


Paul facilitates. And Enrico can't take a proper photo.
Paul did a great job facilitating the session. Colin was up first and after a brief intro into his writing career he read a bit of his work, before Alvin did the same. Both were witty and entertaining and I wasn't sure that I was going to measure up in any way. Next Rosaline a UK based playwright spoke at length about her writing career and read a monologue from one of her plays. Then it was my turn.




Now here's where my mind goes blank because I can't exactly remember everything I said - nerves - but I guess the audience found it entertaining enough. The evening ended with a quick Q & A before we had to high tail it out of the shop before it closed.


Old friend Maninder Gill and me.After the talk I managed to meet Tracy, an Irish author based in Denmark and her agent Jay, from Jacaranda literary agency and managed to take a snap shot with her. The photograph below is evidence of a binding contract, practically signed in blood. 

Jay and me signing our blood contract.



Gee Yung suggested going to the Italian Restaurant Carluccio's for dinner so we headed there for a post talk meal. One of the patrons from Daunt who was at the talk recognized me and asked me to sign my book-I felt like such a celeb. Later our server asked if I was on TV or had my own show. Pretty funny if you think about it.


Signing an autograph at Carluccio's
We ended the evening with desert and laughs and of course we had to have a bit of birthday cake as it was Candy's birthday that coming Friday. Then we headed back to our hotel to rest up for the last day of the fair.



Kenneth Quek, Gee Loong and Candy Gourlay

London Day Five

So I started day for by doing laundry at the laundromat that I used in the neighbourhood back when I was on a school trip back in the 1990s.
Where I stayed when I was in school


Walking back from the laundromat
With laundry done I headed back to the fair for my meetings for the day, after which I headed off with Enrico to get ready for the biggest event of the day which was my panel discussion at Daunt Books in Chelsea.

Since I was making an appearance at Daunt Books I couldn't very well show up in my usual attire of t-shirt and shorts, could I? Thankfully my big brother very kindly gave me a nice new suit for the occasion, a Cerrutti 1881 one.  I managed to wrinkle it in the suit case, so while I left it the bathroom to steam out the wrinkles, Enrico and I took a quick jaunt to Harrods, where he had never been before.

Harrods

Of course we have the usual Harrods items at the Takashimaya department store in Singapore so we decided to peruse the Millionaires section of the store, lustfully gazing at items we will never, ever be able to afford in this life time or the next one. Of course, Enrico had to have an obligatory photo taken by the store just to prove that he had been there!!
Enrico at Harrods

Then it was time to  head back to the hotel to get ready for the panel discussion at Daunt. By the time we got back, my suit and steamed out nicely and thankfully I remembered how to tie a tie more or less.

Then we grabbed a cab and headed to Daunt Books. I'm not a very good public speaker so I was rather anxious...or more than rather anxious.

London Day Four, PT Two

So after the Singapore networking night, Enrico and I headed out for dinner Chinatown and we had a set dinner of crumbled duck, beef, vegetables, beef and fried rice for £10+++ per person, a pretty good deal if you ask me.



Then we headed down to the Trafalgar Studios, where James McAvoy was starring in the lead role in a post-apocalyptic version of Macbeth. Tickets were sold out months in advance and there was no way that we would be able to get tickets we were told. Disappointed I decided to go for coffee and perhaps see Mr McAvoy backstage after the performance.




We met two lovely young french ladies who had met him before and assured us that he takes time for all of his fans. Enrico chatted to them in French and we showed them our kids books we intended to give him for his son. There were only four of us standing by the stage door, but as the show ended, people began turning up and all in all about thirty people stood around in the cold, hoping to get that all important photo and autograph. Trafalgar Studios stage door

Cast members started leaving one by one, some stopped to sign autographs when they were asked but everyone was waiting for Mr McAvoy. Two young theatre students saw where we were standing and positioned themselves right in front of us of us by the stage door so they would be the first to meet him. Mr McAvoy kindly posed for pictures and signed autographs and took his time with each and every fan who was there.


Enrico and I gave him copies of Emma's Elephant and Blue Kangaroo for his young son, and he kindly signed autographs for us. I told him that I wrote the books and Enrico illustrated them. Enrico was supposed to take the photos but I now know why he is an illustrator and not a photographer...he can't take photographs!!
James McAvoy accepts our books! James McAvoy's autograph
As we left I said, "Thank you, Mr McAvoy," and he smiled and replied, "Thank you for the books." Then Enrico and I hopped into a cab, too exhausted to take the tube back to our hotel in Earl's Court. It was midnight by the time we got back to the hotel. After a hot shower, I hit the sack, but thanks to jet lag, I was back up at around 3am. Enrico, on the other hand, managed to sleep until 7am.

London Day Four

Sorry for the delay...but things got rather busy when the fair started. Celine and Kenneth spent most of Sunday making sure that the Singapore Pavilion was set up to perfection and it's needless to say it was, because let's face it it was and there's no bias here. Shiuan, Michelle from the National Arts Council of Singapore and all the publishers were there too and then it was off to the hotel to get ready for the first day of meetings!!


After a dinner of king prawn fried rice from Golden Dragon, I knocked off to sleep only to wake up again at 2am. I managed to go back to sleep a few hours later and I got up in time at 6am to get ready for my first day at the fair. I wanted to look intellectual or at least seem intellectual so I decied to don a bow tie after learning how to tie one on youtube. I ended up looking more nutty than dapper.



The first order of the day was to head for breakfast...I was starving, so I grabbed a bacon and sausage bap and a juice. I had barely scarfed it all down (it's a miracle that I didn't spill anything on myself) when my phone rang: it was Enrico, letting me know he had arrived. "Can't talk long, it's costing me lots of money I said. "look for the Singapore Pavilion.
My bacon and sausage bap

Figuring it would take Enrico some time to find me, I wandered around a bit before making my way back to the pavilion. By the time I got there Enrico was there waiting for me...I don't know why I was under the impression that he was directionally challenged but he is not.

We had time to head back to the hotel to drop off his luggage before our meetings. We arrived back at the exhibition hall with minutes to spare before our first meetings. We had a break for lunch before our next meetings so Enrico and I headed up for the less crowded cafeteria. Now I understand why they were less crowded - it's cos they were more expensive!

I have to say that it was quite exhausting walking around the halls and it was nice that the organisers arranged for masseurs to massage the sore muscles of the attendees, but the massages weren't for free- they were charging ten pounds per session.

Enrico at the Singapore Pavilion

At  the Singapore Pavilion

Shiuan, Rosaline and Michelle
The Singapore Delegation
Anyway the day ended with a networking night and I met up with some members of  SCBWI UK, including Candy Gourlay and Anita Loughrey.

With the first day of the fair over, Enrico and I headed to Chinatown for dinner, and what Enrico did not know was that I had planned a little post dinner adventure for the both of us.

London Day Three

Kenneth and Celine spent the morning in and the whole day at work ensuring that everything will run smoothly when the fair starts on the 15th, when the work part of this trip officially starts for me. As this was my only Sunday I decided to take it easy and chill before the busyness of the week, So I took a walk in Hyde Park before meeting Gee and Chris for lunch at St John in Leicester Square. We had lunch at this very nice cafe and our very helpful and gracious server, Michael, as it turns out, is an illustrator, so I'll have to check out his portfolio online to see if we. An work on something in the future. Any way that's it for now. I'll keep you all updated from Day One of the fair tomorrow. Peace out, everyone.






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London Day Two

After only a few hours of sleep I awoke and unpacked and tidied up a bit before I decided to try to go back to sleep. Celine, Ken and I decided to head to Costa Coffee for some breakfast before they headed to the exhibition centre to check out the Singapore Pavilion and I headed to Daunt Books Chelsea to drop off 30 of my books for sale on Tuesday night, which is when I'll be apart of a panel discussing Singapore Literature.
We met up at Daunt before We set off to Leicester Square as we were going to watch Mark Haddon's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night -Time
With some time to kill - Ken and I headed to the National Portrait Gallery while Celine headed to the museums of consumer spending. Then it was time for lunch! Ken spotted a reasonably priced steak restaurant so we all ordered the same thing and choked down, it was good!!
So with our stomachs satisfied we went in search of the theatre and thank goodness no one listened to my directions otherwise might have ended up in Vauxhall or Shoreditch.
The play -quite simply like the book-is brilliant! Luke Treadaway is an amazing actor and the show will keep you spell-bound even when you are suffering third degree jet lag, This is one show you definitely have got to watch when you're in London.
My friends Gee Yung and Chris arranged to meet up after the show and we all enjoyed a nice dinner of tapas. Then they had to dash of for a show of their own but not before we arranged to meet up for Sunday brunch.
Then the three of us checked out a comic book shop before taking the tube back to Earl's Court for our second night in town. Our trip's moving along faster than I would like. In less than a week we'll be back in Singapore.

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London Day One

After months of preparation I finally headed off to London for the London Book Fair 2013.I'm a really nervous when it comes to air travel so thanks to my family and friends for their prayers for a smooth non turbulent flight to London because it was just that. I'm also grateful that I was Traveling with the unflappable Kenneth Quek and Celine Chow of the National Book Development Council of Singapore.
I even managed to sample some of the meals on the plane which I rarely do. So after 13 hours in the air we landed at Heathrow and were whisked off to our hotel, The Jade, which is a few steps from where I stayed in London during a school trip. Everything looks the same,
After freshening up, we decided to explore the neighbourhood and bought a few supplies from Marks and Sparks before the rain came down. we dashed across to Dragon Palace for a great meal at a great price.
As we finished our meal, exhaustion began to set in, so we paid our bill and headed back to rooms for our first night in London.
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Last Workshop in Hong Kong

My last workshop in Hong Kong was completely sold out. it was a wonderful surprise!! there are no other words to describe it. Thanks to the Homg Kong International Readers Festival for a wonderful time.

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Hong Kong International Young Readers Festival Day # 2

I awoke at 4am on the second morning in Hong Kong ar 4am, after approximately four hours of sleep and spent the rest of the morning going through my presentation: Head in the Clouds: My Journey in Picture Book Writing. It was a 75 minute talk and I hoped that my voice would hold up. At 8am Auntie Susanna joined me for breakfast  before we departed for the Hong Kong Central Library.

My talk was being held in the library's auditorium, and we were expecting about 82 students. There was a bit of difficulty hooking my the computer to the screen at first but thankfully that all got sorted out before the students started arriving.

Susanna helped me set up the stickers, bookmarks that I ususally hand out to students during my workshops and talks and when we were done, the students started arriving.  It is rather daunting talking to a large group of people and I can get terribly nervous- so I tend to talk to the kids like I'm one of them. As any one who knows me will say "Dave, you still haven't grown up, you're  a big kid."

Susanna once again was a tremendous help, throughout the talk, especially when my voice started to fade. I hope the kids had a good time because I definitely enjoyed their questions and their company. Thankfully I paced myself so that I did not speak to fast or rush and I ended the session by handing out bookmarks and stickers.

That night we were invited for dinner with festival chair Christine Van, her charming daughter Madeleine and Dr Pam McIntyre. It was a fantastic dinner with even better company. then we headed back to the hotel to rest up for our last workshop