Friday, October 05, 2007
061007
i never trusted and i never will.
intransigent.9:42 PM
Friday, June 29, 2007
SPG Australia
Hmm, I haven't updated my blog for ages.
I've just returned from my 16 days of SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) TV Australia shoot in Melbourne, Noosa and Gold Coast. I might be going to India soon for Unicef shoot, a coverage on the poverty in India. Well, I must say the days at Australia are indeed long and tiring, but yet, all 7 of us, Peter (director), Simon (cameraman), Michael (sound man), myself (PA), Anita (host), Jing and Hazel (clients) had enjoyed our stay over in Australia, especially in the Westin Melbourne and Sheraton Noosa. Yup, no doubt they are both 5 stars hotel but what impresses us most is the warmth and friendliness of the people there and not just the fabulous seafood buffet or the comfortable Westin heavenly bed.
We started off on 13th June 2007 at Melbourne with cutaways of historical buildings and architectures, which I would say is indeed well-maintained and preserved. The atmosphere over at Melbourne city is entirely different from what we have in Singapore. The vibrancy and energy of the crowd haven’t been affected by the near zero degrees weather at all. As you walk down the crowded streets, you see faces of friendly and humorous people. Although there are still people who are rather stuck up but generally the environment in the city is relaxing. Probably, due the slightly lay-back nature of the Australians, you hardly see any frowned faces around at all.
Throughout the 8 days we stayed at Melbourne, we covered lots of interesting places. The distances between the various tourist attractions are short and much time are saved in terms of traveling. Eureka Tower, Federation Square, Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Central, Royal Arcade, Captain’s Cook Cottage, Fitzroy Gardens, Princess Bridge, Ian Potter Gallery etc. are uniquely Australia I would say.
Amongst all, Eureka Tower is one of my favorites. Standing at the 88th level, the view you get is indeed impressive. The entire Melbourne just seemed to be under your control. Yup, that is the tallest building in Melbourne. The city and the suburb seem to be just neighbours of each other and everything seems totally peaceful up there. Away from the cold, away from the wind, away from the busy road, away from anything you could possibly be worried about.
Along the Princess Bridge, as you peeked down, the night scene of the busy city is totally perfect. With the Ferris wheel directly opposite the bridge, lighted up by colored lights, and buildings standing tall by the side, with a clean and serene river before you, the feeling is just relaxing.
Unfortunately, in mist of our intensive filming, we started one of our sunrises with three gunshots. A gunman shot 3 people, 2 of which who are totally innocent. One of which is a lawyer with 3 children, whom unfortunately, died at the crime scene, whereas the other two were rushed to the A&E. The gunman fled the crime scene and remained missing for 2 days before he came forward to the police. He was charged of murder if I am not wrong. From what I heard from one of our drivers though, the prisoners of Melbourne are much pretty well-fed with swimming pool and a gym within the prison. And the maximum charge for murder in Australia is life-imprisonment.
Anyway, on to Noosa! My favorite place amongst the three! It is the most ideal place you would want to spend the rest of your life with your partner and your family. Just in front of Sheraton Noosa is the beach. The waters are crystal clear with beautiful waves splashing in. The sand is white, the sea is blue, and there comes the beautiful sunset. Aww… everything is just awesome. With faces of joy and happiness around you, with such beautiful sight before you, ‘warmth’ is just the word for it.
The highlight of this trip is definitely the Fraser Island. A whole stretch of purely just sand, greens and the ocean for hundreds of kilometers, I would really not want to be stranded alone or left behind. We stopped for a shoot in midst of nowhere, pulling out our pre-prepared picnic lunch and filming equipment, we drank champagne and hot coffee on the island-of-nowhere.
Although the waves were huge and perfect for surfing and dipping, the waters were cleared of any mankind for a simple reason, sharks. But well, I didn’t see any during the entire trip. However, I saw dolphins! A whole group of them was swimming in the ocean, which was totally fascinating. I collected a couple of shells for souvenirs too!
Gold Coast was a let-down. I would not say totally, but it started and ended quite badly. We stayed in Sheraton Mirage which is built on the beach itself. 20 years of service to date, thus, the design was more towards vintage. But it still looks good. However, the service was bad, the weather was bad, and the experience was bad too.
Gold Coast was a 3 and a half day shoot. The first two days of the shoot was totally disastrous. The rain never stopped and we were supposed to film an energetic and vibrant Gold Coast which consists of a class of surfers surfing amongst the waves and not the rain. Not a good way to start a shoot, and this was further worsen for the fact that we had uncooperative associates who can’t get things done.
Well, at least we had one and a half day of sun. Tight schedule for all of us, as a three and a half day shoot had practically squashed into a one and a half day thing. But cheers, everything was fine at the end of the day!
Anyway, something interesting to note, during one of the helicopter rides that Simon, Peter and Anita was in, they actually landed in a prison instead of where the rest of the crew where. Not knowing what was happening, Simon and Peter continued filming a couple of segments with Anita at the prison itself, and it is only after a bunch of men in brown, walked out of the house, did they realized that they landed at the wrong spot.
The police came over to Sheraton Mirage later and demanded us to hand over the tapes shot over at the prison for security matters. Thus, we had to delete a couple of segments of the tapes, which is obviously a relief to us as we thought they would take the entire tape with them but luckily, they were understanding enough.
One thing very ridiculous about the hotel itself though, they actually had other customers checking into our rooms when we haven’t checked out yet, which is totally bazaar. Our flight was at 11.45pm from Brisbane back to Singapore. Thus, we are supposed to check out of our rooms at 8pm and this was initially arranged much beforehand. Yet, at 5.00pm, while we were still filming outside, our beloved associate told us that the hotel is in need of rooms and we will have to check out by 6.00pm.
Fair enough, one hour to pack up and get out of our rooms. However, when we got back, none of us was able to enter our rooms at all. All of our cards had been deactivated when all our luggage were still in our rooms. Well, we got things clarified and our cards reprogrammed but when Peter went back to his room, he found extra luggage lying around his room and someone was actually showering in his toilet!
The hotel had actually packed all Peter’s clothes into his luggage bag and stored it in the storage room without informing Peter at all! And the receptionist didn’t inform Peter that some other customers had checked into his room and gave him the card instead! What kind of service is this?
intransigent.12:02 AM
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
280307
I am starting work soon. will be working at The Moving Visuals Co. as a perm. staff. in all, i am just a happy girl now;)
intransigent.11:50 AM
Friday, November 17, 2006
181106
i just wan an end to everything.
i hate complications.
i hate to think.
i hate to frown.
intransigent.6:02 PM
Friday, November 10, 2006
111106
realised i haven't been blogging for ages. oh wells, just had a sudden urge to blog something i guess. anyway, fypj to coming to an end but we still have tons of work left undone. so, of course, that is very bad. presentation will be on the 1st of Decemeber. congrats myself.
i'll be going to Moving Visuals for attachment. it is a production house doing chinese projects for media corp and the reason for me going there is.. i speak mandarin. kind of lame to me.
to those people out there who happens to read this entry in mist of their exam period, pls do JIA YOU ks! with me;) hope we all survive!
intransigent.8:50 AM