Timothy’s Blog

I’ve travelled the world over and over again. And everytime I tell people I work in Singapore, the first thought that comes out is the chewing gum issue.

They seem to collectively think that it is still illegal to chew gum in  Singapore.

I was already in Singapore when the chewing gum legislation was revised in 2004.

It was one of the sticking points — pardon the pun — in the final phase before the ratification of the Singapore-USA Free Trade Agreement.  Apparently, a chewing gum giant in the US lobbied congress to get the gum issue in the agenda.

So after all was said and done, Singapore revised the legislation to allow the sale of  chewing gum, with medicinal value,  to be sold only by medical professionals or pharmacists.  Buyers will also need to leave their names and other details for the record.

After explaining the legalities of chewing and possession of gum in Singapore, most foreign nationals are puzzled as to why we have to register our names after purchasing gum from the pharmacy.

And I really don’t know the answer to that. Perhaps, it gives authorities the power to search thorugh their DNA database and match it with gum buyers whenever a piece of used gum is disposed of improperly.

Afterall the gum ban came about when vandals started inserting and sticking used gums into places they weren’t supposed to.

Overall I find it quite interesting and amusing to describe to people how living in Singapore is not as strict as one might think. I come from a very liberal society and I have very liberal thoughts yet I fit snuggly in Singapore.

I was in Paris recently, and France is well known for it’s inefficiency.

After a few inefficient experiences in Paris, it was easy to appreciate that in Singapore everything just works.

And to be assured no gum will stick itself under your shoes when you walk around town.

In celebration of Singapore’s 43rd year of nationhood and my seven years in Singapore here are the seven things that make me almost, but not quite, a native.

You be the judge.

1. I can now speak Singlish. I think I have mastered the use of lor, lah, meh, mah, can, cannot, though I still sound un-authentic at times.

2. I enjoy the kick of sambal and the thrill of chilli sauce everything. Thinking about it just makes my mouth water in delight!

3.I learned to love mee siam and laksa, nasi lemak and mee reebus, teh halia and teh tarik, prata and everything else in between. I also gained 8kgs in the 7 years living in Singapore.

4. And eating the above mentioned as “supper” after dinner or after work.

5. I learned to be comfortable going out of my home in nothing but flip-flops, berms and a t-shirt. Somtimes it is just to hot and humid to be wearing anything else.

6. I exchanged my loyalty to Cathay Pacific for that of Singapore Airlines. The Singapore girls and boys just know how to make their guests feel right at home. And I am booked to be away for a holiday while the fireworks light up the Singapore skies.

7. The other day at the grocery, a vegetable auntie even convinced me to exchange  the Malaysian grown romaine lettuce in my basket, for a Singaporean one “this one better” she said. So I just believed her. Are there farms in Singapore?

Am I good enough?

Ok one last thing, I even have a jacket that looks very much like the Singapore flag.

My mom called me up long-distance sometime last week to tell me I am fatter now than the time I thought I was fat.

That was when I was shooting in Orlando and being fed huge tasteless portions of what they call “food” in America. But one must eat to keep going so I had no choice. 4 days in Orlando and I gained 3 Kgs even before I reached Seattle for the second half of our trip.

When my mom said this, I took a good look at myself in the mirror, afterall, mothers are the ones who keep feeding us and making sure we eat well at all times. And when a mother says you’re fat, you take it seriously.

Thursday afternoon, a fitness instructor in the gym yelled from across the locker rooms “Tim you are fat!” as I was entering the showers. Later on, I told him yes I am gaining weight but he won’t get me to sign up for a training scheme to beef up and trim down.

The man said I am on TV therefore I must look trim!?!?!? Wait just a minute, are TV folks put on a different weighing scale than the rest of humanity?

So I reminded him that I do the news. I don’t have to take my shirt off for anything I do on tv. I don’t have to look like a beef-cake.

But here is a scary thought, some doctors actually think the combination of home and work stress is making people fat.

A recent study done in Canada found that fatigue caused by too much work contributes to Canada’s obesity problem. The study revealed that workers who are tired tend to eat more.

I’ve been in Singapore for almost 8 years.  I started eating more when I was doing Primetime Morning. It was just natural then to have an early breakfast since we would wake up earlier than most of humanity, and having dinner just before we went to bed happened almost every night.

When I was in my twenties, any weight gained was easily disposed of after an extensive gym session or two.

Now that I’m nearing the so called middle-age, burning the accumulated fat around the middle will take a month of gym sessions and a lot of dieting.

So what about making sure I eat healthy low-fat, low-carb meals?

NO WAY, I wont give up the most basic of pleasures just to look the way some people expect us to look on TV.

So I am what some friends call “chubby-perfect” — I know they are being sweet and nasty at the same time, and I am OK with that.

No one will and can make me feel insecure by telling me I am gaining weight.

Traveling for work can be a fun adventure. And for That’s IT, it’s always a new experience.

Tuesday’s Season 9 premier of That’s IT took us to the US south-east coast, a place so far away that I don’t think any man, woman or child should even attempt to venture without at least a 24 hour stop-over or two.

My flight took me from Singapore to Hong Kong to Toronto and then to Orlando, total travelling time being 28 hours. And this I calculated based on the moment I stepped onto the plane and out at my final destination - transit lay-overs included.

But seriously, by the time you get to your hotel, you won’t even know what day it is. Still, it is not so bad. 20 years ago, such a trip would have probably taken 40 hours. come to think of it the guys travelling with me spent about that much time because they just chose a bad airline with bad connection timings and they missed a few connections.

So I arrived in Orlando at 1AM EST. Checked in, tried to unwind and unwind and unwind but I just couldn’t sleep. I was seriously tired and in need of sleep and there I was watching the news because I couldn’t sleep. And I had interviews and meetings to attend bright and early in the morning. I was like a bad PC that wouldn’t shut down.

When I finally shut down for the night — the sun was rising in the east.

I’m usually not one of those who would get jetlag so I got up at an appropriate time and got dressed for the series of meetings and interviews set up for the day. It was alright for most of the day but half way through the media dinner that night, I was falling asleep.

The hardest part for these trips is having to look good and awake for the cameras when deep inside all I really wanted to do was crawl back to bed.

When we wrapped up in Orlando after 3 days of interviews, media sessions and on-location shoots, it was time to pack up again for another journey west — to Seattle.

That trip took all of 6 hours, but on board any US carrier, it felt as though it went on forever.

We were in Seattle as guests of Microsoft for a learning tour of its mobile OS operations.

It is also where I met my “rival” Spencer, from the BBC’s IT show Click. Rivals we may be but he offered us some of his footage when he learned that our camera died a sudden and unexpected death in the middle of an interview.

We had an interesting talk about how small our teams are. He says his small team consists of 8 full time producers and reporter putting the show together.

I told him my small team consists of one semi part-time producer and me working on That’s IT. And sometimes we are lucky to get one or two more producers helping us out.

Still, we always manage to have fun putting our show out!

That’s IT’s new season begins, and it is on every Tuesday at 20:30 and 23:30 SIN/HKG/MNL

Check your TV listings for repeats throughout the week.

Politicos in the US are dissecting and examining the voting paterns state by state, county by county trying to predict what so far has been a very unpredictable US race to the White House.

From various national polls I’ve seen so far, Barack Obama is leading or is statistically tied to John McCain.

But of course all these polls wont really give an indication of who will succeed George W Bush in the oval office.

The US has a complicated election process where the candidate who wins the most number of electoral college votes from all states, wins the presidency. And this is not necessarily the same person who wins the most number of popular votes.

So the way it goes right now, Obama looks set to win the popular vote by millions, but McCain will end up sitting in the Oval Office — a repeat of the 2000 election when Al Gore won more votes than W Bush, but didn’t win the White House.

Now the same scenario may happen again in November where the Red States will remain solidly behind McCain, the Blue States behind Obama and the swing states leaning towards McCain.

Wouldn’t it be ironic then if McCain wins the White House and Obama loses it despite more people voting for him — the exact same scenario that saw Hillary Clinton bowing out of the democratic nomination race despite winning over 1 million votes against Obama?

Not so long ago, sometime in February I believe, I was reading an issue of Time magazine about Love.

A series of articles all discussing love, chemistry, romance and relationships.

And being the un-romantic sort that I am, I was intrigued and couldn’t put the copy down. Here we have articles taking the romance out of love and making us understand what it is that makes us do what we do when we think we are in love.

Sure, being in-love is great. I used to say this world will be so much better if everyone is in the state of being in-love all the time.

And then I got old and practical, and realize love is nothing like what we see in romantic comedies.

In fact, Time magazine seem to have validated what I think love is.

Jeffrey Kluger found out that for couples to survive, they have to get past the early, thrill stage of love and settle for what he calls “companionate love” where couples spend Sunday mornings reading the papers and having coffee, or playing board games on a rainy weekend etc.

There were other things said about love in the article. About how we sometimes fall in love with someone because they are extremely attractive, but more like they become extremely attractive because we have already fallen for them.

And then this: A researcher at Concordia University in Montreal found that when we are in love we “think someone made you feel good, but really it is your brain that made you feel good.”

I’ve done experiments on my own about this and try as hard as I can to control emotions or natural reactions to certain situations.

I tell myself that sometimes we react because it is what society expects from us, ie. jealousy, anger, annoyance, disappointment, rage.

Friends and colleagues often ask what keeps me so relaxed and zen amidst all the chaos and deadlines around me on a daily basis.

I always say it is all in the mind. We make our brains make us feel good. We can actually control what we feel if we put our minds in it.

I ignore things that I have no control over and I live with it.

Then I focus my energy on matters that I can do something about.

And I just laugh off the rest — and say that’s just how the world works.

Hello all, I’d like to respond to some comments made in previous entries below, however, I am still trying to figure out how to reply to each question or comment made.

It’s quite funny that a long time blogger like me is having trouble navigating this blogsite — but I’m new to this blog platform so forgive me for the delayed response.

I will reply when I kow how too. Meanwhile accept my apologies, and I just want to make sure everyone know that I’m not ignoring you.

I have waited almost forever for this news.

A new study reveals frequent coffee drinking will not lead to early death. In fact, atleast 6 cups a day may even help cut the chances of dying from heart disease.

So coffee doesnt exactly lead to cancer, it won’t increase chances of heart disease and no it will not stunt growth!

The study was led by Esther Lopez-Garcia of Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain, of course.

She followed almost 85 thousand American women from 1980 to 2004 and more than 41 thousand American men from 1986 to 2004.

So I think this study is near accurate.

People who know me, would know about my passion for coffee, any kind of coffee. From your local neighbourhood Kopi or Kopi-C in Singapore ( what’s the C for anyway?). The Barako varietal in the Phillipines, to the smoother tastes of South American beans and more exotic African and Indonesian varieties.

And I drink it in many different ways too, a cappuccino in the morning if I am not too lazy to make me one, to an afternoon espresso to perk me up before work, or a late night instant 3 in 1 in the office just before I hit the airwaves.

Yes I consume coffee morning, day and night and my father has been warning me to cut back.

And cut back I did, I average 8 cups of it in my early 20s and I am now down to 3 cups max.

I used to think since I can drink coffee and still sleep, I would be ok, but let me warn you…the caffeine might not have any effect on your sleeping pattern but it does keep your heart rate up at night and not give you a full night’s rest.

There have been plenty of studies done about coffee drinking and here are just some that I can remember:

Coffee is a great source of antioxidants.

Coffee may lead to miscarriage if a pregnant woman drinks 2 or more cups a day

Coffee may lower a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer and prostate cancer among men.

I recently came across a study published last year suggesting that binge drinking is up significantly among those aged between 18 and 29 in Singapore.

The statistics seem to also suggest that while the number of “frequent” drinking men remains stable, the number of women drinking frequently is significantly up.

For the sake of this post, let me just define Binge drinking as “drinking with the intention of becoming intoxicated.” – Which is really fine by me, what we do with our own liver and bladder is our own business.

But binge drinking associated with social disturbance is another thing altogether

The part of Singapore I call home is generally a safe zone, unless there is a drunk person irresponsibly disturbing the peace.

I don’t drink.

I don’t even let alcohol even touch my lips because I always want to be responsible for my behaviour.

And I don’t like people who make being drunk an excuse for bad behaviour.

Last Sunday, while I was flying above the Pacific enroute to Singapore, an unidentified female next door neighbour unlawfully entered my home. At dawn.

A friend was looking after my place while I was away and was woken up when the female knocked a fan over.

She later climbed out of the window onto the front porch and out of my property while uttering “I’m looking for my purse.”

At 5:20 AM you don’t just break into your neighbour’s place to look for a purse, most of us would wait for daylight and politely knock.

She was obviously drunk and I am obviously angry that to this day, there has been no apology whatsoever. Not a note under my door, or my mail box to say a simple “sorry.”

I am almost tempted to slip a note under her door to ask if she eventually found her purse.

I reported the incident to security and they hinted it may not be the first time this unidentified woman had done something like this.

So I decided to report the incident to police and let them handle it. As I found out, unknowingly trespassing property is still unlawful entry.
 
Friends say I maybe making a big deal out of an isolated incident, but I need to protect my own property and my other neighbours, especially those with kids around.

If the unidentified woman can enter my place while I was overseas, she can very well enter another home and terrify the kids while they sleep.

My question is, how did she get up my gate and into my home?

I’m going to have to speak to my friend about our own security lapse - which led to the intruder coming into my home.