Chinese Magazine Launch

Ella Koon and Candy Lo (on right) were flown out from Hong Kong to sing a song each at the launch of 96st magazine. I was admiring Candy's tattoo on her back. She seemed to have quite a few tattoos. The words "faith" and "courage" were printed between her shoulder blades. They're both really strong statements. Important qualities to have, I was commenting. She then asked me why I didn't have a tattoo. I said I was afraid of the pain (hey, it's true) but to be honest, it's a really big decision.

It's not like getting a hair cut and regretting it. Even hair will grow back eventually. A tattoo should ideally hold a special meaning or significance to you that can last a lifetime. I find myself looking but not daring to get any like window shopping. Plus, my mum would freak out. For some reason, she finds them quite scary.

I once went out with an Italian guy who had at least 5 tattoos. Come to think of it, this was years ago so he may have even more now. Though Italian, he was totally into his kung fu and all things Chinese so most of his tattoos (including a rather huge fire breathing dragon on his chest) were all oriental designs. I used to joke about the fact he was like a hard boiled egg. "White" on the outside, "yellow" on the inside. Even his bedroom was full of Chinese figurines. It was like stepping into a chinese temple or Bruce Lee flick ;) This was one guy that made me wonder whether past lives existed because he was so inexplicably drawn to asian culture.

My Mum didn't realise this when she first met him (his many tatoos, I mean) because his shirt covered everything up but I wanted her to see the art work. It was so intricate. She actually shuddered saying "no, it's ok. I'd rather not, thanks" hehe. At least she was a good sport though because she didn't judge him for having tattoos but she just personally didn't like them.

There was this one time I got an airbrushed tiny tattoo on my mid riff. You know how they can spray it on and it only takes a minute? It was a Chinese character. I really loved it. It was the character for 'love' (secretly, I'm a hopeless romantic) Anyway, I showed it off to Mum, totally annoying her because she thought I'd really gotten a tattoo. It looked that real. I thought I could keep the lie going for at least a day or two but I ended up telling her right away because she looked so horrified! "But this is love, Mum. Isn't it a beautiful character?" You should've seen her face! She was NOT amused ;)

Steve Yap, myself and Johnson arriving for the launch...

The Chinese magazine is called 96st, as in 96 Street so notice how we're standing in front of a gate? They even had street signs and a London phone booth as part of the set up so that it would resemble a city street. Christian Capes looked like a formal butler standing at the entrance. All the male ushers were wearing white gloves, don't play play ;)

Part of the organisers Brandon (on left) and Rachel Ng (far right) and the lady in blue is a Chinese actress called Angela.

The models were all backstage (about 30 of them) but these were the elegant ushers out front all dressed in black. They asked me to please remember to upload the photo because they didn't have a camera on them. Girls, I hope you find this shot on my blog because I promised I'd put it up so here it is :)

Owen Yap was my co host for the night in Mandarin and I was of course hosting in English. When I was doing a rehearsal in the afternoon, I realised I wasn't sure when Owen's last sentence was on his side because I don't understand Chinese. It was pretty funny so we came up with this system that whenever he was done speaking, he would lean toward me (ever so slightly) as a cue and that solved the problem. In fact, it was so seamless that people may have thought I understood what he was saying but actually I didn't ;) We had a lot of fun at this event and during our hosting breaks, we went straight for the cakes and chocolates. They were tiny so I had quite a few of them, heavenly sigh. They were so good!