Day 13: Career Discussion with Madam

Me: What do you want to become when you grow up?

Madam: Meaning?

Me: Meaning... do you want to be a teacher, doctor....

Madam: I want to be a doctor.

Me: Why?

Madam: Because I like checking people out.

Me: 'Checking people out'... I see.

Madam: No.. I want to be a car driver.

Me: Oh ... OK.

Madam: But we don't have a car. So you need to buy me a car so I can drive.

Me: Uhm... OK.

Madam (with a sudden look of having remembered something): No, I don't want to be a car driver.

Me: Why not?

Madam: Because there are many, many cars and drivers already.

Me: So?

Madam: So let them drive. I will sit in the back seat and the driver can drive the car.

OK then.

487 more to go. 

Day 12: The Yoga Week!

For all my love for yoga, I realized that I had never practiced it for 7 days in a row (except when I was away on the retreat in Rishikesh last year, but that's different). Every time something or the other comes up after the 3rd or 4th day - and that "something" can very well be a sore muscle or simply lazines - and I end up taking a break.

But as of today, I can happily say that, I have finally completed an entire week of Yoga - all the beautiful 7 days in a row!

I did a combination of videos from Lesley Fightmaster's 90 Day Yoga Fix series, videos by Brett Larkin and Yogi Nora who are my latest discoveries on YouTube (I like some of their very different flow sequences) and just rounds of Surya Namaskar when I didn't feel like following any video on a particular day.

I wonder how many days in a row this would go, but am not going to burden myself with targets of any sort. Which is really what yoga is about anyway.

So for today, I will just mentally celebrate this special milestone and my love for yoga and what it does to my body and mind! Namaste!

488 more to go. 

Day 11: The Facebook Love!

I quit Facebook about three months ago as part of my social media detox process, and  have not missed it even for a second since. That's pretty surprising because I was expecting myself to have withdrawal symptoms, given the level of my activity on it. Instead, I might even go as far as saying that I feel truly liberated and suddenly find myself with so much time on my hands, which I like to think am putting to good use.

But what has been interesting is how, over the last one week, at least 6-7 people reached out to me or to our mutual friends asking why I have left Facebook and that they actually miss my posts on it! "Miss my posts on Facebok?! Seriously?!", was my reaction to that, because not even in my wildest imagination would I have believed that all those updates that I used to post made any difference to anyone. But apparently it did to a small extent to a small group of people, all of whom I think are way too sweet and I am very grateful to their kinds words.

I am not sure whether I would get back to the social network (I deactivated my Twitter account more than a year ago, and it still remains deactivated), but for today I am just going to be happy about being missed. And I also resolve to reach out to all these folks and stay in touch with them one on one, which may just be a better way of sustaining relationships anyway.

489 more to go. 

Day 10: Vasisthasana - Check!

.... and we are back to yoga!

I was wondering how long it would take before I start filling the blog with my yoga stories.

Of course, as everyone knows, I was always interested in yoga. In fact, last year during our hectic shooting schedule in Abu Dhabi,  I even did quick 20 minute yoga sessions every day without fail, much to the amusement of my cast and crew who kept teasing me about it.

My precious exercise log tells me that I exercised an average of 4 times a week last year and at least half of it was yoga - i.e. about 2 times per week.

This year, I seem to have taken to it more than ever because now am averaging about 3x a week of yoga!

And it seems to be working well, because as I was following yet another YouTube yoga flow video, I realized that I can finally do Vasisthasana or the Side Plank Pose! Phew!

In all this time, the side plank was never within reach for me, thanks to my absolute lack of upper body strength. The other pose that is a far cry right now, due to this lack of upper body strength, is Chaturanga Dandasana or the Four Limbed Staff Pose, but let us focus on the good news here.

So yes, the good news is that I could finally do the Vasisthasana and even hold it until the lady in the video asked it to be held - I could finally stack the hips and the legs, I could stretch out the arms and I could balance. My left side Vasisthasana was a bit wobbly but I could still hold on to it. In a nutshell, it was a pretty awesome yoga practice! Totally made my day !

490 more to go.

Day 9 : The Dudu Fairy!

Yesterday Madam passed a major milestone - she finally let go off her habit of drinking from her bottle!

About a year ago, I had actually successfully weaned her off the bottle, but as soon as I left for a business trip, my helper and my hubby brought the habit back to calm her down during crying fits caused by a flu. It frustrated me to no end to see all that hard work go wasted, so I completely gave up on it after that. But now it seemed like the the right time to give it another shot, because she will be starting school in April and I wanted to get rid of the habit prior to that. 

So over the last few days I prepped her with the story of a Dudu-Fairy who collects Dudu bottles from good children and in turn give them gifts. At first Madam didn't fall for the bribe of a gift, but yesterday morning, she suggested that maybe she should collect the gift from Dudu-Fairy as soon as possible, lest it goes to some other child.  

So there was much celebration. We wrote a letter to Dudu Fairy (Madam dictated, I wrote), she 'decorated' it with colours, we put the letter and the two milk bottles in a bag and left it at the door overnight.

Of course, she had a tough time falling asleep. I went through story after story, played game after game, the hubby carried her and walked around, before she finally drifted off to sleep. 

This morning, Madam woke to find that the bottles are indeed gone and the Dudu Fairy had left a letter and a toy for her at the same spot near the door. She excitedly picked up the gift and proclaimed, "Am such a good girl! The Dudu bottles are gone! Thank you Dudu Fairy!"

And that point in time, Madam's Mummy felt rather smug. 

491 more to go. 

Day 8: Post Production Joys

Post production of my latest feature is progressing rather slowly, but good news is that it is indeed progressing. And every little progress brings a lot of joy!

Today I received a little bit more background score from my composer, which I approved.

Of all my films, this one has had the most complex soundtrack journey, mainly because the script is such that the film evolves from something that barely needs a score to something that completely hinges on a score, and both my music director and I have found it challenging to figure out the right 'sound' for it.

But I believe we are inching close to something truly special and it makes me so very excited!

492 more to go. 

Day 7: National Gallery & Saha

A few months ago, Singapore opened a National Gallery, by renovating its old Supreme Court, a heritage building. I had heard about it from quite a few people and usually the feedback had been in the lines of "There's nobody there... what a waste!", "There are a few decent food places, that's all", "So much space but nothing to see", and other such lukewarm to negative feedback. Still, I had wanted to check it out and decide for myself. I only got around to it today, and that too purely by chance.

Today being a public holiday, I wanted to go to the temple. So the hubby, my mom, Madam and I went to my favourite Toa Payoh temple after which, I had a sudden craving to eat at Saha.

Saha is a fabulous Indian restaurant I had discovered a couple of years ago but hadn't visited in the last several months. They do really good fusion cooking, with molecular gastronomy techniques and what not! They even give you a pre-dining popsicle meant to clear the palate, so that you better appreciate everything on your plate (the hubby and I were really amused the first time this was offered)!

Since our discovery of this gem of a place, I had recommended it to several friends. It is not a place one can frequent too much given the high prices, but is definitely one for special occasions and treats.

Anyway, coming back to today, I had a sudden craving for Saha and when I went to their website to reserve, I realized that they had shifted to National Gallery. Woot! Two birds with one stone!

So the four of us went to National Gallery. We had about an hour to spare before our reservation time, so we spent it in the Keppel Centre for Art Education which was like paradise for Madam.

They had various activities for children and we spent some time making a paper 'robot' (with a scarf and shawl, as per Madam's instructions, because really, even robots need to be fashion conscious) and a couple of buses of cardboard which had wings and a sail (which she called "Christmas" because it apparently looked like a christmas tree).

The Robot

The Buses 

We also spent a really long time in the "jungle room" as we termed it which Madam refused to leave!

The 'Jungle Room'

We were the only folks around which I thought was great because I loved walking through the long, large, empty aisles (I am always on the lookout for empty spaces in Singapore which are more and more hard to come by) and there was no chaos created by a bunch of kids all trying to do the same activity (even though the staff tells me that it does tend to get quite crowded during weekends and that we are just lucky). Madam could run around to her heart's content and was in great spirits throughout.

There was so much more to explore at the Gallery but we didn't have time to go anywhere else other than the Keppel Centre but I was so excited to have found a really good place for our "outings" with Madam! I promised to bring her back very soon and then we set off for Saha.

Once again, Saha didn't disappoint!

The Meen Moily (fish) with tamarind rice was my most favourite dish this time but the others - Lamb kebab platter, Prawn starter, Mini masala uthappams and the Onion-Mint Rice, were also awesome! Only the chicken curry was a bit of a disappoinment, but am willing to forgive them that. And of course, there was the popsicle at the beginning too! We topped it off with some refreshing Masala tea and I was super satisfied with the evening well spent.

I would say it was the perfect family evening and here's what I think of the feedback so far about National Gallery.

"There's nobody there... what a waste!" - There's nobody there, that's right. And I love that!
"There are a few decent food places, that's all" - There is Saha, what more could one need?
"So much space but nothing to see"- So much space, it's awesome! And so much to see, if one bothers to look!

493 more to go.