It's been a long time... (filming at CHIJMES once more)

Happy Birthday to...
16th Sept- Lee Kuan Yew, Father
17th Sept- Jon Phipps, Samantha
Congrats to Yap Pin Xiu for winning Singapore's first ever Gold medal for the swimming finals in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games!! You have certainly done us proud :-)

Ok, the truth is, I didn’t go to work yesterday...


In fact, I actually took full-day leave and went for filming at CHIJMES!! And the AC adaptor for the Internet modem was spoilt last night, so I had to post all of this today instead.


Praise God from whom all blessings flow... for when the Elvin fans and Rui En fans were waiting outside the chapel, the crew actually allowed us to enter the place and be part of the filming!! So much better than waiting outside for many hours right? :-D And it wasn’t just one wedding, it was TWO (the second one being a renewing of vows). Filming lasted from 9 am to 6 plus, with a lunch break in between (from 12.30 to 1.30 pm). Being the only male Elf present for the filming, I went with a few more Elves to Raffles City for lunch, before we headed back to the chapel.

The wedding scene was for an upcoming drama titled “By My Side”, scheduled for release in late October this year. I don’t really know the full plot of the show, but I can certainly tell you which artistes star in it... Chen Hanwei, Zoe Tay, Elvin Ng, Rui En, Terence Cao, Brandon Wong, Ong Ai Leng, Zhu Houren, Doreen Choo and Tommy Wong Changli. The ones “getting hitched” are Elvin & Rui En, Hanwei & Zoe. Terence was the only cast member who was absent from the wedding.


Before filming began at 0845 hrs, I went “Obi-wan mode” and said to a very surprised Rui En, “Hello there, long time no see” in Ewan MacGregor’s Scottish accent. (I hadn't seen her for nearly 9 months liao) But my heart nearly broke the moment I saw how scrawny Rui En looked (never mind the fact that she looked as beautiful as ever)... no different from her NDP 2005 days with Taufik or her Sun Yixin character in "Ai Qing Ling Du C". Could be her metabolism rate a bit unstable...WHOOPS!!! :-X And yep, that's a real chihuahua she's cuddling. Paris Hilton, she ain't.


Hanwei spent more time filming than the others... his character reminded me a little of Daredevil (due to his onscreen blindness and foldable stick).


Oh, and I was relieved that Houren didn't "cai si" (trample on) any of us (he last played Fann Wong's schizophrenic uncle in "The Defining Moment"). "Long Tingguang" (eh, I nearly forgot that he once played Zoe's father in "The Unbeatables"!!) spent more time chatting on his cellphone, certainly not in the mood to "curse" others... not in the midst of a wedding!


And Ye Shipin was quite a clown... attempting to trip Hanwei by sticking his legs out at one point. :-p


As per Naomi's request, this is the only "good" pic I took of Ai Leng (seen here with Brandon Wong). Hmmm, Ai Leng certainly looks a bit like the Korean actress who played Soo Bin in "You Are My Destiny"...


I found it strange that I chatted with Elvin more often than with Rui En (whom I knew for about a decade)... but that’s mostly because Elvin sat with us Elves when he wasn’t required. Oh, and he gave us chocolates too, so sweet of him! I got to take picture with both Mr Ng and Miss Lu and get their autographs, way before lunch time!! “Primary mission” accomplished... Praise the Lord!! ;-)


Check out what Rui En wrote on my magazine... "Dear Tanat, thanks for attending my wedding... again!! :-) Luff, Rui En". Oh, and I told her that I am a cat lover too. :-p


Can you guess which one is Rui En, and which one is Zoe? ;-)


Some of the extras at the left side felt tired from 4 pm onwards, and started dozing off... I couldn't resist taking a picture here, heh... even the pastor himself felt rather drowsy.


Indeed the cast and crew were tired, but most of the credits should go to the little girl who played Hanwei’s and Zoe’s daughter... she had to do a lot of retakes for her scenes for more than 30 minutes because the director (who seemed a little snob) wanted the girl to show more expression. The poor xiao meimei got so stressed, she broke down in tears towards the end of her last scene, and had to be comforted by her mummy. :-( The audience gave her a standing ovation after that... I could only feel sorry for her. Maybe I should flip my coin to decide the fate of that rather chor lor director who didn’t seem to show any care towards the poor girl... she’s only about 9 years old damnit!! :-( Stay tuned for my dedicatory post for the little girl...


The “optional mission”, which is to take pic with Zoe and Hanwei, could not be done because both of them spent most of the time filming. I did take a solo pic of Zoe, not sure if Hanwei recognized me or not. I was close to hinting to him that we knew each other via Facebook... but he was already too occupied in his work, having applied a lot of tear drops to his eyes to do an emotional scene.


Still I made up for the "optional mission failure" by taking picture with Brandon, with some help from the lovely Ai Leng, at the time when all the extras were dismissed formally. Then I quickly got out of the chapel before the crew could come after me... could have taken pic with Ai Leng too if I were wise enough. Oh well.


Once outside, the Elves chatted with Elvin, whilst Rui En mixed around with the RBKD fans (including the Meaty family, grrrr). Then Elvin and Rui En stood together for a photo from various cameras, before heading back inside the chapel for one last scene. I then had dinner at good ol’ Raffles City and 'teleported' home. Hahaha no lah, I took a bus back... :-p


In spite of the fact that filming took nearly the whole day, I gotta admit that it was a GREAT SUCCESS for me and the others... :-)

I don’t even need to do the Shawn Michaels entrance motion again, because my joy is shared with many others... I am seeing this as a blessing of course. May God bless the cast and crew of the show... ;-)

P.S. if I were to choose a place for my own wedding (provided I can ever find a girl to share my life with, sniff), CHIJMES is definitely THE place!! :-p