I’m sitting in a circle with a dozen men and one woman and we’re talking about what it’s like to be a man in Singapore. 1,311 more words
Tags » Being An Editor
80 Ringgit for a Hainanese chicken chop? Philip Lim Chin Guan would have said: ‘You’re crazy, Alan John, I know a place off Campbell Road where it’s only 10.50.’
Visiting Kuala Lumpur last week, I checked into Hotel Majestic for a couple of nights to be near the Malayan Railways headquarters and train station. It had been a long time, and I wanted to wander around this part of my hometown. 2,618 more words
New year, new space, old friends
I’ve been wondering whether to delete this, because things changed. But I like the photos too much so I will leave this here for now. The Conversation project did not work out as I’d hoped and after waiting too long for news that we would go ahead, I decided one day to take the photos off the wall and return home. 1,557 more words
Dec 18 1995: My saddest day
There are too many sad days to count, from tragic accidents which shattered families, to aeroplane crashes, SARS and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which was unimaginable in scale and immeasurable in the depth of grief and extent of loss across so many countries. 1,350 more words
The fool in the room
If you asked me to name one thing I did more than everything else over a lifetime of doing journalism, I’d say it was copyediting, being a rewrite guy. 2,121 more words
The story of my life?
Oh man. The audacity of getting on stage and facing a roomful of people who came to listen to three authors talk about writing autobiographies. Throughout the hour at the Singapore Writers Festival on November 4, I expected someone to burst into the Blue Room at the Arts House and blow the whistle on me, screeching: “That man is a fraud, he never wrote an autobiography!” 1,621 more words
