November 2013 – miyagi.sg

A French Kiss In Singapore

Thank you SingTheatre and George Chan for putting this wonderful showcase of singing and storytelling together. Last Thursday we watched George Chan, Hossan Leong, Linden Furnell and Robin Goh interpret and deliver some of the most iconic French contemporary songs originally written and performed by Charles Aznavour, Charles Trenet, Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg. We were blown away by the collective storytelling prowess of the quartet (as well as that of George, Hossan, Linden and Robin, who were nothing short of awesome).

For some more background on the French greats (and maybe jog your memory of some of the songs you already know):

A French Kiss in Singapore runs till 7 Dec. Book your tickets now.

Global Hub For Football Match Fixing

Jialat man. Our legit brands (apart from SIA) still struggle to make a dent internationally, and this fella stamps his authority globally simply by buying greedy football players and referees! Our Ya Kun Kayas and Crystal Jades mais well give up.

The magnitude of the unfolding match-fixing scandal is mind boggling. English football matches and World Cup qualifiers are being manipulated by a Singaporean fixer, and in such an unthinkably brazen way. The players and referees who are being controlled actually give signals like taking a yellow card at the beginning of a game to show that the match is about to be manipulated.

Neil Humphreys, the author of ‘Match Fixer‘, and who is now surely Singapore’s best selling author ever, alerted me to a Telegraph report that contained transcripts of the conversations between undercover investigators and the Singapore fixer.

“So I talk to them. Double confirm. I also tell them, I tell … this [is] what I want … Because simple, I commit myself and they commit. So you tell me how many goals … Give me at least five … either 3-2, 4-0 or zero, … for me four is enough.”

DOUBLE CONFIRM leh! As Neil put it, he might as well be waving his Singapore passport.

Give Your Loved Ones, Friends Or Colleagues Free Tigerair Flights This Festive Season

Start counting down early with Tigerair as they give away 2014 pairs of air tickets in their Friend Fly Free Contest.

It starts today and all you have to do is nominate your best friend, colleague or family member and tell them why Tigerair should fly him or her to any Tigerair destination for free!

Simply leave a comment on Tigerair’s FB posts between 29 November 2013 – 13 December 2013, tag or mention your friends/colleagues/family member and say:

“I wish <Friend> can fly to <Tigerair destination> for free because <he/she is awesome>.”

If your friend/family/colleague isn’t yet your BFF, they’d definitely be your BFF to infinity and beyond if your nomination won and they get a pair of return tickets!

Quick, think of who you know who deserves a break – like friends who’ve gotten married but haven’t gone on their honeymoon! Or your colleague who’s been so kind as to cover for your slackness! Or your boss, so that you’re in her/his good books.

They could end up lounging in Lombok or diving in the Maldives – just look up Tigerair on Facebook facebook.com/tigerair for where your friends wanna go next year!

There’ll be 134 tickets for each of the next 14 days and another 138 on 13 December 2013.

*Only one entry per person per day. Only open to nominees who have not travelled with Tigerair in the last 6 months. Vouchers are valid from 5 Jan – 30 Jun 2014, excluding taxes and surcharges. Other terms and conditions apply.

Throwback Tuesday: Once A Young Entrepreneur

I loved reservist, and I never lied about that. I looked forward to buying stuff from Beach Road, packing my gear and heading to camp for however long training took.

The other thing about in-camp training stints is that it is the best extended networking session government funds can buy. My mates from the 433rd Battalion, Singapore Armoured Regiment (2000-2008) would exchange name cards, start Yahoo! then Google groups, and unabashedly ask business favors of each other.

It was during one of these ICTs that a platoon mate who was a journalist at the now defunct Streats newspaper asked if he could do a feature on me.

He sold the idea by saying something like: “It’s a freak show column, basically, and you’ll get to promote your business. We normally feature people below 30 years old as ‘young entrepreneurs’ but we’ll make an exception this time for you. Can?”

And so this feature article was published, littered with errors and all (we didn’t attend RMIT), and the wider world that bothered to pick up a free copy of this paper at MRT stations and convenient stores learned about my business partner and myself.

No, it didn’t bring a spike in business. The venture died quietly a year later, but not before a couple of interesting business trips to China and Malaysia.

Mediacorp’s Shameful Advertising Lorry

In this day and age! Seriously, the LTA should ban Mediacorp, or more precisely, Mediacorp’s subsidiary, OOH, (another forced acronym) from owning vehicles.

I get that you can use ad space on buses, MRT trains and taxis. But to use a lorry just to carry a billboard around our already jam-packed roads during f**king peak hour traffic is unbelievably irresponsible. OOH obviously doesn’t care for the environment or people for that matter. These lorries really do nothing! They don’t carry goods! They don’t carry passengers! They should be run off the road!

Not surprisingly, the only ads I’ve seen on these lorries have been for Marina Bay Sands.

Makes you want to run them off the road.