Curly Traveller: December 2011

As I wrote in my previous post I was unable to be present @NotaTourist's launch party @TAB.

So I was extra happy to find some pictures by Benny Lay (http://www.facebook.com/BennyL.Visuals) that give (me) an impression of what it was like:

Upper right corner: me;-)

Utmost right: Leone's husband, left of him Bec and left of her a number of other writers/bloggers.

Apparently there were candyjars as gifts. Would have loved one as a souvenir. Eating them is out of the question since I was recently diagnosed with diabetes:-(.

There I am again! "I am not a tourist because.....I hang out where the locals hang out with my BFF who is also a local."

My Frits .... who is not a tourist because.....he takes the bus to work every day.

On the right photographer Danny Santos II.

In the background we see Frits' poster again.

Six weeks from now I will be back in Singapore and intending to definitely NOT be missing out on events like this one @TAB!

A couple months ago I was aproached by Daphne Chui from Goodstuph. She invited me to become one of fifteen bloggers to write for a brandnew, soon to be launched website called Notatourist.sg. A website from Singtel, with content by expats for expats. Cool!

Left: Kenn Tan, Singtel, and right: Daphne Chui, GoodStuph.

I felt honoured to have been selected and excited to write for and on another "platform" and for a different audience then I did so far with my blogs Double Dutch in Singapore and Totally Wowed.
I said yes and from that moment on, there was regular contact involving all sorts of prelimenary activities preparing for the launch of the website.
An interesting process...

One of the higlights was a photoshoot by a fantastic, young, local photographer named Danny Santos II. He is one of the other writers too, by the way.
My husband Frits was also invited for a photoshoot, because NotaTourist wanted to introduce their writers by portraying their spouses as well.

It was a fun photoshoot, although Frits was much more at ease with it then me, being a natural with a constant, relaxed smile. I am not much of an open-mouth-showing-teeth type of smiler, so "having" to do that over and over again was and felt very unnatural for me. Danny had a lot of work getting me relaxed.
Here are the "behind-the-scenes"-pictures from the photoshoots of Frits and me.

Frits was to be photographed in a bus, since he takes the bus to work everyday, making him "not a tourist".

Frits and Danny seen on the back, waiting for the perfect bus (empty;-)) and the perfect light...it turned out to be a bit of a wait, but it was worth it.

The photographer and his subject photographed.

Danny takes some trial pics.

In order to be able to take each picture at eyelevel, Danny often had to stand on his toes;-)

Isnt he adorable?

Together in the bus, on our way to our next destination, restaurant Piedra Negra in Haji Lane.

The location of my shoot was around restaurant Piedra Negra in Haji Lane. Since I am "not a tourist" because I hang out there with my local BFF.
I love Piedra Negra, it's decor, and the area around it so much, that I already wrote three blogposts about it:
http://tanguerainsingapore.blogspot.com/2011/02/piedra-negra.html
http://tanguerainsingapore.blogspot.com/2011/09/5-best-areas-in-singapore-to-find.html
http://tanguerainsingapore.blogspot.com/2011/11/murals-in-singapore-part-ii.html

I'm used to smile with my mouth closed, but that was not the concept of this series, apparently...

Daphne photographed Frits photographing Danny photographing me...;-)

"I wanna see a big smile with teeth!"

Getting more tense by the minute...

And when you click here, you can see the final results from Danny's photoshoots with all of the expat-writers and their spouses. Cool! Too bad that I could not be at NotaTourist's launchparty, since I was not in Singapore at the time:-(.

The day after the photoshoot there was an event, sponsored by SingTel: rugby, music, beer and food @Timbre. Also my first opportunity to meet some of the other writers. Nor rugby nor beer are my thing, but I was looking forward to meet some of the others.

Frits and I went to Timbre and met up with writers Bec and Leone and their husbands.