Day 352: Singapore Shots

6 November, 2010

I had a bit of shooting to do today. Mainly random shots of Singapore that would be used as the filler shots between scenes in the film.

For that purpose, the hubby and I climbed up one of the high rise buildings of Singapore and let the camera run for a while. Unfortunately, it was a very hazy day and I don't think the shots came out well at all, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the view and breeze from that height! I literally felt on top of the world!

Here's a pic that says it all.

648 more to go.

Day 351: Diwali Time!

5 November, 2010

Diwali or Deepavali as it is called in some places, is not a popular festival in my state. Am not quite sure of the reason why but while the rest of the country seems to celebrate it with great pomp and show, somehow in Kerala the importance is more for festivals like Onam and Vishu. But since the hubby is a north Indian and hence a Diwali fan, I have been paying more attention to it in the recent years.

And today was probably the most celebrated Diwali in my life!

Firstly I got myself to wear some Indian attire (nope, not a sari... that's way too much, but a salwar, which is a considerable improvement from jeans and tees of yester years).

Then we joined a group of friends to watch a movie, Action Replay. OK fine, there's nothing very Diwali-ish about watching a film, but I did enjoy it a lot... so, it was still celebratory!

Then a friend, the hubby and I came back home and spent an hour decorating the house with lamps! The boys were quite excited about the whole process and their excitement also led to candle wax dropping all over my house, much to my exasperation. Nevertheless it was quite fun!

We also streamed a devotional song from musicindiaonline.com and did a puja. Then once again the boys got super excited about the sparklers that were available and started lighting them inside the house. The initial plan was to go downstairs and do it, but who can wait!

About thirty minutes later, we had lit all the sparklers, had taken a ton of pictures, succeeded in getting one chokingly smoky house, and felt immensely satisfied. So satisfied that the immediate next step was to upload all the pictures on Facebook and gaze them with tender love ourselves.

The celebration wound up with a dinner at Clarke Quay over a brainless conversation with friends.

Thus a really nice Diwali comes to an end (and now am just 2 weeks away to completing 365 days on this blog. Phew! )

649 more to go.

Day 350: SK-II & Cards

4 November, 2010

Before I moved assignment to my current one on Head & Shoulders, I used to work on a premium skincare brand called SK-II. Now what I loved about working on it was the team! There were about 5-6 of us who were super thick and every day at work was a whole lot of fun! All of them had even come for my wedding in Kanpur three years ago!

As time passed, a couple of left the company and those who stayed on moved on the different assignments. Needless to say the interaction also dropped.

But today after a really long time, we got together and had a super fun session. It happened because one of them who left the company had come back to Singapore for a visit and initiated the gathering. And it was super duper fun!!! For better or for worse, none of us has changed even a bit and we had a 3-hour blast over some Spinelli coffee!

Post that I joined my other Indian friends to kick off Diwali celebrations with a game of cards! After winning a lot and losing a lot, I netted out at a no gain-loss stage (exactly $0 gain or loss) while the hubby made a grand $2 profit.

With that we wrapped up a really fun day!

650 more to go.

Day 349: Poetry!

3 November, 2010

A long weekend is coming up (Fri - Sun) thanks to Deepavali and I was already getting into the holiday mood today! So I got back home a bit earlier than usual and generally chilled out for a while with intermittent work. The whole idea was that I would really relax and refresh myself. After all it had been a few tough months.

However, after a couple of hours at home, I was readily bored. Bored enough to be cranky and a royal pain to the hubby who got home after a while as well. With nothing to do, now that my bit of the movie work was done, I was going out of my mind. So I thought I will do some clearing of files, emails and that sorta mindless work.

In the process I came across a lot of old emails from cast and crew on the film. Emails at the beginning of the auditions, emails post shoot, emails with ultra silly random jokes etc.

And I also came across a "poem" that the hubby had written on the film probably a month ago. I think, at that time, I had not paid much attention to it because I was neck deep in other work but today when I looked at it, I felt it so very well summarizes some of the behind-the-scene drama and fun!

And reading it really made me smile! For the memories that it brought back and for the fact that someone actually bothered to write a poem about the film (even though that someone is my husband... still I think it counts, since I never did ask him to do anything of the sort)!

It has gone up on the unofficial film blog and here is the link to it. http://bit.ly/mausams

651 more to go.

Day 348: Happy at Work

2 November, 2010

I have done some exceptional cribbing about work in the past couple of months because it was too hectic and I was under a lot of pressure. The cribbing might not have gotten through to the blog because I censor out "non-beautiful" stuff before things appear on the blog. So the frustration was probably not apparent here but it was very evident inside my head.

Now the truth is that I am not happy cribbing about work. I sincerely feel that if you are really unhappy about your work, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. There is no point spending time and effort on something that gives you no satisfaction whatsoever, no matter how much you get paid. That would be an atrocious wastage of this life that we have.

And I always used to pride myself that in spite of some really crappy downsides, I actually am quite happy at work.

Today was a classic example for that! I was working for 12 straight hours and I actually felt good! And it was not because I had less work that before but more because I really could sense some excitement about the stuff I was working on. I felt on top of all my projects, I am meeting all deadlines, all my projects are meeting their success criteria etc. It gave me a great deal of satisfaction. In fact, I actually had quite a fun 12 hours and didn't for a second feel exasperated.

Now am hoping the feeling lasts for a long time before the next downturn appears (which is sure to). But as of today, am a very happy person at work!

652 more to go.

Day 347: The Breeze, The Marriott & The Skincare

1 November, 2010

Now that the film work has been completed...at least for the time being, I am back to having free evenings with nothing much to do! How cool is that! Since work is also going on a good pace, I thought I should really celebrate this.

So the hubby, who is always up for a celebration, and I first hit the Island Cafe in Tangs and had a yummy meal of Indonesian Fried Rice.

Then we had a very interesting shopping experience. Like, Very Interesting. It was the hubby's skincare purchase. Yeah, I did say "hubby's skincare" and needless to say it was quite a sight.

So the hubby shopped for his favourite skincare product (Biotherm Aquasource) which he says is the best thing that has happened to his skin. Apparently his skin was screaming "What the hell are you doing to me??!!!" when he applied some other product when he ran out of Biotherm.

He went on and on about how awesomely rejuvenated he is going to feel from tomorrow thanks to his about-to-be-awesomely-rejuvenated skin. He was so excited about his rejuvenation prospects that he was almost pouncing on every product on their tester bar and trying to figure out what else he must add to his skincare regime. To add to all this theatrical stuff, he actually tried some eye serum that they had and stood by his imagination (oh am sorry, "fact") that his eyes have "never felt better". I gave him one of dirtiest look which readily stopped him from purchasing that one.

Then we went to the Marriott (not a usual haunt for me since it is over priced for no particular reason), where we had more than an hour long chit-chatting over a glass of wine each. And am happy to note that on top of his Aquasource and eye serum, we managed to talk about some other random topics as well.

The best part was that we were seated outside the Marriott and there was this really lovely breeze. It's been going on for a couple of days but I had not spent such a long time enjoying it. I think it is the best weather I have experienced in Singapore ever!

Over that glass of wine, with the rambling-about-skincare hubby in tow, with the wonderfully cool breeze and no film work hovering above my head, life seemed pretty.... perfect!

653 more to go.

Day 346: Film to Trek

31 October, 2010

As is obvious from my recent blogs, I have been working hard on the film's sound design, edit etc. to ensure that everything is on track to the film's completion by end of the year and more importantly, to ensure that work on edit, sound design and background score can proceed even in my absence (when am on the trek). My aim was to complete all that's needed by November 10th so that I can leave in peace on November 10th.

But as of today, I believe I have done all that I possibly had to do and could do to make sure all the above happens. The work wrapped up at about 5pm after which I felt too exhausted to do anything but chill. I could literally feel my brain unwinding. Now the ball is in court of my editor, sound designer and the music director and I just sit and wait until they come back.

Which also means that now I can completely focus on the upcoming trek! Woohoo!

654 more to go.