who's the boss?

image by J, boss disguise courtesy of lint from J's cardigan

It's been two and a half months since J stopped being a salaried employee and started running "ampulets" as a registered design business. Since friends have been asking how's it been, here's a summary of J/TOHA's experience so far -

Sweetest part of the deal: Being able to "control" how you spend your time, even if most of that control is technically false since you are bound to complete the job for your client (usually within tight deadlines). But more importantly, doing something you enjoy and have chosen to do. Plus there's always the satisfaction of learning and knowing you have provided more than just a solution to someone else's challenge.

Things to get used to: Not having colleagues (well, not until you think you want to hire or grow with new partners) around to banter and toss ideas with. Consequently, having to wear several hats - e.g. cleaning lady, delivery boy, consultant, account manager, business development, IT technician. If you have a spouse, share some of those duties - e.g. I am the default critic, accountant, clerk and coffee lady.

Things that keep you awake at night: Unfinished work in an office that is 2 steps and 1 coffee mug away from the bedroom.

Things that frustrate: IT problems - hardware, software (oh, intel core 2 duo processors in a mac don't work well with adobe!) you name it, the computer will have it. How much happier when things were made with hands and simpler tools!

Things to watch out for: Taking time out from the desk to meet a client face-to-face, read the papers, read a book, take a walk, visit a museum, have lunch with friends and other like-minded folks, do work which don't necessarily pay all the bills. Count all this as your legitimate work time.

There are other useful things J has gleaned from folks who have been-there-done-that and have written down their experiences in books. One of my favourite is art director of Work Theseus Chan's "always dress better than your clients". J is reading Adrian Shaughnessy's cheesily-titled How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul which, in spite of its title, provides rather down to earth, practical-sounding advice.

At the end of the day, it's knowing what you want for yourself and the people you work with. A career does not define who you are. It cannot save. It can, of course, do what it does best, feed your stomach and some of your mind. It can be conducted with integrity - but only because it is a reflection of a larger picture of a life lived.

Monday night J and I went to collect a pair of rings from argentum. We took a long bus ride and after alighting, in the cool night air, found our way to her studio in a quiet residential estate. The designer S has been putting her work out under argentum for many years now (in Singapore, she is stocked at Blackjack in Forum). In many ways J and I admire not only her work but her way of work - quietly, independently, modestly, unassumingly.

Anyway, here is a pic of our new rings. They are very different in form and tone from her initial clean white/black industrial rubber rings (like life buoys) that we got married in. But hey, we like them both and better still, we are looking forward to how, with time and wear, they will change.

Review/ Skincare: Origins - Modern Friction

Ok, got this after strong recommendation from Ling.

The lady at counter told me that this is good for sensitive skin too and taught me the method to using it.

So, being an arden fan of Origins products and since I need a scrub for my face, I bought it.

The smell of the product was refreshing. It was zesty and wasn't as bad smelling as the other Origins products.

The texture felt coarse on my palms as I scooped it out with a spatula, which made me kind of apprehensive.

But oh well, if can try something like Daily Microfoliant on my skin, I figured, I should be able to use this. At least, it wasn't sizzling due to reaction with water. Besides, I have already prepared myself for the worst.

So, I started to rub a small amount on my outer cheek whereby there was less irritation. To my surprise, it was not as harsh as I initially thought it would be.

The best part is, that small amount that I scooped out was enough for my whole face. Woah.. No wonder the price tag of SGD$75.00. One jar of that will last me a long long time.

The skin felt smoother and cleaner after the scrub and best part was, there was no irritation or inflammation after that.

This has been marked as the must buy product on my list already.

anyone listening?

Love classified - click for larger flickr view and translation

Today I was at a conference listening to all these hotshot designers, an Indian filmmaker and a "media maverick" talk about their work and worklife. There were a few others, but they were not in any way memorable.

The Indian filmmaker, having just retired and whose film titles fill 3 pages, was the only one who argued for a life of reflection as opposed to a life of consumption, amusement and pleasure. The rest were unapologetic about their celebrity and their ability to command desire. They were, of course, more amusing and quick-witted in their presentation. The Indian filmmaker, dressed in a large denim shirt, his eyeglasses perched atop his balding head, his eyes in a squint and his face in a grimace, was not amusing. In fact, the audience shifted between respect and incredulity at his departure from the vocabulary of "branding", "design" and "creativity" as he declared - "We are all just amusing ourselves to our deaths." No one really paid heed. Everyone just wanted a life of consumption, amusement and pleasure - even unto death.

been down so long it feels like up to me

"...because it's a long way down before you hit the safety net." 2 men sketched while on a train. Transporting them onto a pseudo calder mobile is J's idea, as usual.

On an island obsessed with "upgrading", J and I were involved in a little "downgrading" this morning.

Specifically, this morning J and I tried to help his dad navigate the healthcare system. We learnt that if you or your relative has a long-term illness and your family members don't carry wads of cash in your pockets, it is best to be prudent and opt to stay in a subsidised ward. Even if it means doing without the air-conditioner. Because the long-term costs are what you should look out for. In the case of J's mom, it means paying $75 for a 1 hour physiotherapy session instead of $30. It means $190 to see a doctor and a speech therapist instead of $60. Not too bad until you consider that doctor visits are once a month at least, and a good structured rehab programme for Ma J would require 4 physiotherapy sessions a week.

We found out that in order to "downgrade" Ma J's healthcare status to "B2", a social worker would have to assess Pa J's financial situation and make a recommendation. This seemed fair enough.

I remember picking up a second-hand book years ago at an old bookstore called SKOOB when I was a teenager (ah, that word feels weird!). The title caught my eye - Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me by Richard Farina. Farina died 2 days in a motorbike accident - yes, a 60s child - after his book was published. I didn't like it when I first read it, and still don't. Too much studied, smarty-hip allusions and humour. Too American ;> But the title stuck.

Today, looking at Ma J's empty eyes (when she actually opened them) on her emaciated face, the head hanging low out of defeat but also rebellion and anger, Farina's book title came to mind. But there somehow seems to be a note or two of falseness in that title. It's been almost 9 months since Ma J suffered her stroke. It seems short when compared to a whole lifetime. But 9 months is the time needed for new life to come into being. And for Ma J, 9 months down just feels so long. I don't think it looks like up to her.

Review/ Skincare: Origins - Plantidote Mega-Mushroom Face Cream

Got this as a set with the 30ml serum at a real low price from a friend. Initially I only wanted the serum since it's my staple face care item. But since this was going cheap, I figured I might as well buy it together.

I didn't get the face cream from the retailer because it was really expensive compared to the serum. RRP @ $120 (If I don't remember wrongly) for 50ml.

I tried some this morning when I was going out. It had a smell as though it had gone bad. I was pretty alarmed at first but seeing that there was no discolouration, I decided that it was safe to use.

It took some time for me to get used to the smell of my current face cream -- Origins Face Comforter when I started to use it and so I thought I would give the Plantidote Face Cream a few more days.

Nothing special in my opinion. I think the serum is adequate for me. Will see how it goes and update this entry.

Btw, there's a promotion going on from 24th - 26th Nov @ Isetan Scotts (Level 2) whereby members get double chops for every $50 spent.

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Add On: Tried it for a few days and found it to be too rich for my skin. So, it landed up on my Mom's dressing table. Wahaha.. Ladies, take heed, this is really rich and unless you have very dry skin, pls dun attempt to try it.

Review/ Skincare: Dermalogica - Daily Microfoliant

Ok, got this as sample when I purchased the Sensitive Skin Kit. Since it came in the pack, figured that I should be able to use it.

My face was really feeling dirty and decided to try this thing. (Bad choice since my skin was kind of acting up.)

The thing comes in a powder form and you are supposed to rub it into a paste with really wet hands.

The moment I poured the powder onto my palms, I could hear faint sizzling sounds as the acid was reacting with the water.

As I rub my skin, I could feel heavy stinging, probably due to broken skin on my face. I rubbed till I could take it anymore and rinsed off with warm water.

The after effects was good as I felt my skin was cleaner and smoother. But this didn't last long. My skin started to react and became really red and blotchy the next day. I had to stop my heavy duty cleansing, lots of plantidote serum to curb the redness.

All in all, I feel that this product is kind of harsh on my skin although I didn't really gave a fair test since my skin was hyperacting. I shall give it another try when my skin is better and when I find 心情 to nurse my face should the same thing happen again.

Link to product description

more is less

For the past 2 weeks at printmaking class, I've been learning what is known as the "reduction method" for lino-print (similar to woodcuts, except the cheap & soft linoleum sheet is used instead of wood). The idea is this:

(1) If you want to make an image with several colours, you start with a print of the lightest, for eg. pale yellow.
(2) Then you carve away the sections which you want to remain pale yellow. And you make a print using a darker colour (say red) on the exact same piece of paper.
(3) Them you carve away the sections you want to remain red, and you make another print using an even darker colour (say brown) on the exact same piece of paper.


reducing

As you continue to layer colours (from light to darkest) on that printed paper, the more your linoleum sheet is stripped away. I thought, what poetry! That as the image emerges on the paper, it disappears from your linoleum; and as the paper changes its form as a print, so the vessel and medium of that art reduces in substance, literally. But perhaps not metaphorically. Because between the print and the linoleum, the latter to me bears all the marks of time and effort.

It is for simple reasons like this that no matter how tired and late I am for printmaking class, it remains my favourite evening of the week.


a happy place

on the back of a turtle

all images in this long post are by J - click for flickr view

Politicians often like to refer Asia as if it had a unity of culture, economics and geography. Particularly on our small island, there is a certain rhetoric, dreamlike, of belonging to or even defining that large bountiful continent.

But whatever Asia is, it seems more like a varied and fractured place - cultural and religious practices diverge, and nations themselves are often artifically forged and hence bear the marks of recent unions or fierce disjunctures. Its physical geography seems to have pre-determined this - a continental mass, many peninsulars, and countless islands from barely visible dots to splotches along a major faultline of volcanic activity. So it is that even our small island, itself only a diamond-shaped dot, lays claim to several still tinier southern islands.

Well, if you have it, enjoy it!

So to satisfy our wanderlust, J and I decided we would leave our work and small island behind for a day and take a trip to one of these still tinier islands...Kusu, the island of turtles! Friends, if like us, you have a beer-belly-in-spandex budget (yes, tight and ugly with only 10% lycra), ampulets reckon you can still have a near-perfect day if you:

(1) make your transportation public

To get to Kusu Island, take the North-South line furthest south to the Marina Bay MRT station. Once you get out of the station (er, there's only 1 exit), it's a short walk to the bus stop where Bus 402 will take you to the new Marina South Pier.
.
(2) have at least $12 in your pocket



That will give you 1 return ferry ticket and the island admission ticket. We took the Penguin Pride, and as it chugged along for 15minutes, we said goodbye to the artificially formed coastline of Singapore. The Penguine Pride made a creamy foam and negotiated its way between large tankers, barges, cargo ships and one touristy Ching-Chong floating restaurant. Though our social studies textbooks pound home the fact that entrepot trade was the lifeblood of this island, it does not become real until you see for yourself the busy waters around us.

(3) bring out your camera and a poctketful of nostalgia





Because if you've ever been to Kusu island as a child, it has and it hasn't quite changed. Of course you can trust the tourism board to have spruced up the place, and the terrapins and tortoises that used to crowd the pond under the Chinese bridges leading to the temple are gone. Instead, the creatures are now housed within the temple in tiled enclosures, next to caged up pythons and assorted taoist deities. Outside the temple is the secular "tortoise shelter". There you can hop into the cement enclosure. But despite these changes (or perhaps owing to that hazy nature of nostalgia) us amps still had the same happy feeling of seeing these long-lost, abandoned pets from our childhood.

(4) possess some tolerance for incense smoke





Other than the taoist temple, Kusu Island also boasts kramats or shrines atop a hillock dedicated supposedly to "3 Malay saints" - or so the signboard says. The signboard also says its 152 steps up to reach the shrine (well, I counted only 124). But it is perhaps entwined with the whole story about Kusu Island, that it was formed when a turtle transformed itself into an island in order to save 2 drowning fishermen, one Chinese and the other Malay. So each built a temple or a shrine according to his faith.



Once at the top of the hill, walls painted yellow are filled with "lucky 4D numbers" scrawled in all shades. Yellow candles, yellow strips of cloth, packets of "blessed" flowers and bundles of incense are passed around for $2. The trees and plants around the kramat bear the weight of this over-abundance of unfulfilled desire and hopes. It is said that many childless couples come to this kramat. But that day, we saw more fortune-seeking couples and families, since most of them are of an age where it would definitely take a miracle for them to conceive! And as with the men who stood by the taoist altars at the foot of the hill, the men who stood by these kramats offered visitors the same greetings in Hokkien - "Prosper!", "All your wishes come true!", "Peace and safety!" - if you offered a $2 bunch of incense.



(5) enjoy the fisherman's view

Us amps finally could not take all that incense burning at the temple and up the hill. The smoke fills not only your nose/lungs but gets into your head. Unless you actually believe all that burning and yearning will move some god to favour your 4D number over the rest this weekend, the smoke and those hungry eyes around you will soon oppress.

So we beat a hasty retreat down the hill back to the island's edge.



There, the water is surprisingly clear and a constant breeze sways the trees and accompanies the waves. Our advice is to pack your own lunch (bring plenty of water) to Kusu, because eating by this mind-clearing openness is way better than at the over-priced food centre by the temple. And this is about the best thing about getting to Kusu. Ah, maybe it is because we were always meant to be just residents of a sleepy fishing village, not some busy trading port! or it is my hainan island genes calling out to be left alone with coconut trees in the tropical afternoon.

(6) get back

The last ferry leaves Kusu at 6.30pm. So don't be left behind with the terrapins! There are no residents at Kusu, so it could get pretty lonely if you miss the last boat. Plus nobody actually knows if the island turns back into a turtle and swims away.



We did one last walk round the island and popped by the toilets (they are clean and there are also outdoor shower facilities for swimmers and picnickers). Outside the toilets by a picnic table, a group of middle-aged aunties were playing cards when a policewoman approached them to stop the game. It seemed that while you can come to Kusu to pray for all the good fortune at the lottery, you can't try out the efficacy of your prayers by launching into a card game with your friends. The aunties packed up their game and sarcastically remarked - "aiyah, we should go swimming hor!" They sauntered off towards the pier and boarded the Penguin Empress with us back to the main island.

(7) fancy an unfancy french meal



Since you've saved by packing lunch to Kusu, amps recommed that you drop by The French Stall in Little India. You probably know this place by now - a no-frills restaurant by a supposedly 2-star Michelin chef. We are no gourmands, but I do know the duck leg with orange sauce on a bed of creamy risotto is about the best thing I've eaten for $15.80. And the folks at the other tables are fairly interesting to watch - teenagers on their first (or second date), a balding uncle with a long-haired babe in denim shorts, a french expatriate family...



To get there, take the North-east train and drop at the Farrer Park station, take the G exit and walk down Serangoon Road. The French Stall is at the corner of Serangoon and Sturdee Road.

(8) walk the talk

Since you've survived the day without a car, why not complete it by taking public transportation home? To get to the next train station (Boon Keng on the North-east line), take a leisurely walk along Sernagoon Rd towards Bendemeer. Along the way, check out the neon lights of the few remaining bars, including one below "the Singapore Institute of Science", and the glowing hearts - not of the night ladies - but of the old Kong Wai Shui hospital.


why why why?

Just before we boarded the bus home at the Boon Keng MRT station, we saw the above challenge on the window of Singapura Finance.

But friends, I hope you don't need the Sunny-Island Moneylender in order to live your dreams. Neither should you need any supposed supernatural assistance, paid off with incense, to greater prosperity, health or fertility.



==========
Other domestic tourism links here:
>> J/TOHA's flickr photoset of Kusu here
>> The library gives an overview of Kusu & all its legends
>> More Ferry Info here, including how to get to the other southern islands
>> Not keen to take a ferry? Here are 2 simple trails you can follow to contribute to domestic tourism -
Katong
Balestier & Mr Sun

check your inbox

click for flickr view

Friends, in the general mood of these long days of yearning for foreign places, daydreaming time and journeys, ampulets-supplies present our second series of greeting cards "To the End of the World and Back". Send them off to friends, family, heck - that girl/boy next door, and see what comes back.

As with the first "Those Happy Days" set of cards, the cards are blank inside and are packed with an envelope and work-tag. Email us (ampulets at yahoo.com.sg) and we'll send you the luurve -

links to posts that first had these illustrations on the cards:
Going Places
To the End of the World & Back
Just me
Silent Night 1 & 2
Time to go

better late than never

It's that time of the year when the wanderlust becomes almost unbearable! And the body, realising it is still on a small island, cannot dislodge itself from sleep...so getting out of bed each morning takes longer. After a while, you start thinking that it is not quite theft to take that extra 5 minute when the alarm goes on snooze. When you make that final stretch to wake the muscles, you find a fresh cool spot on the sheets that tempts you to settle and let your skin rest on its surface instead. Then there's that glance at a darkening sky that makes 8am almost feel like 5am. Oh just give up! There is always the possibility of catching a cab to make up for the 30mins now gone by.

Tonight, stationary by my desk, I trawl the web and make do with photos of Haruki Murakami's Tokyo by Eizo Matsumura, and their travel photography book <邊境-近境>.

After tonight, I am one day closer to travel. Friday I will leave this small island!

how not to catch Monmow Disease

Monmow Disease is like a X-man type mutation disease - but unlike Wolverine or his Marvel colleague Spider Man - those who start mutating into dog-like figures don't naturally assume super powers, they die. It starts with bad headaches, a taste for raw meat before bone structures shift. The face protrudes in a snout and finally the spine curves.

Thank goodness Monmow disease is but an invention of Osamu Tezuka, he who created less horrifying things like AstroBoy, Kimba the white lion (ah, I remember watching the cartoons) and Phoenix. But Ode to Kirihito, with its crippling disease, is my favourite Tezuka work. Originally serialised in Japanese between 1970-71, it has just been translated and published by Vertical with a fantastic book design by Chip Kidd.

I'm finding it hard to not say too much about the narrative, lest I spoil your experience of being seized, frama by frame, all 822 pages of Ode to Kirihito. But it will seize and fascinate you. At times suspenseful and at times melodramatic, there are also these dark and perverse, yet strangely comic moments... such as a nympho human-tempura. Yup. No kidding.

But the creator of Astroboy is ultimately driven by a sense of humanity's fallenness - corruption, greed, selfishness, despair and bigotry. These are the diseases, not the Monmow, that make us more beast than man. But because this moral degeneration is more conveniently hidden behind power and the powerful's cowardice, we are fearful when physical manifestations of our fallenness in our bodies or community and society emerge instead. And it is this our response to the latter - i.e. disease, poverty, violence - that reveals our moral cowardice, be it a response of fear or of deliberate ignorance.

3 years ago during my first trip to Tokyo, I spent a day with a youth volunteer organisation. Together with a busload of Japanese teenagers and twenty-somethings (see pic right), we drove out to the suburbs to visit a centre for folks with intellectual disabilities. One of the volunteers (I forget his name now) described to me what he felt was particular to Japan, the sense of shame and a desire to hide away relatives who had disabilities of any kind. He said until recently, parents would hide their kids at home if they were disabled or shipped them off to a home usually located in some quiet, remote place.

I was reminded recently on a few occasions that special needs schools in Singapore do not come under the purview of the Education Ministry, but are pretty much left to volunteer organisations to manage. While education regulations in Singapore provides for compulsory primary education up to the age of 12 for all Singaporean kids, it seemed that this did not apply to kids who were not eligible for mainstream primary schools. In the same way I think the Education Act, which stipulates the proper training and qualification of principals and teachers to mainstream school, does not extend the same provisions to special needs schools. (A forum letter last week to the ST raised this again) For too long our transport companies have also gotten away with not providing wheelchair access to our train stations and buses. More than 10 years of petitioning later, our train stations and buses are now slowly being revamped for universal accessibility.

Of course, none of this compares to the extreme depictions of injustice, bigotry and prejudice in Tezuka's Ode to Kirihito. But perhaps art and fiction hold up timely mirrors, even if or especially because they distort the figures and faces we have grown so used to seeing - and believing.

laying the cards on the table

click for larger flickr view

I was chatting with monster ru on msn late last night and was thinking how strange it was our relationship with distance - geographical, metaphysical, imaginative. How we desire and loathe distance, our strategies to overcome and our strategies to impose it. We traverse and we also wander, charting and savouring.

Lest I ramble even more, ampulets-supplies will be putting up Set#2 greeting cards To the End of the World and Back next week for that end-of-the-year reflection. Watch out for them and send some love - or if love is too close for you, daydreams.

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p/s Set#1 cards Those Happy Days (image above) are still available. They are blank inside, and are packed with an envelope and individual work note ($3 ea) Details here.