Boss Ming

Last christmas, I wrote about me and huiwen travelling down to KL for our Nuffnang year end dinner.

Time flies when you’re having fun! And man, what a blast from the past! Oh, I wish I was back to my “not so fat” self!!!!

But then again, I guess all the good “things” that have happened to me have also conspired to make me “fatter”, and I wouldnt trade those in for anything.

Anyway, I digress.

Last year’s christmas marked our company’s first christmas dinner, and I remember it fondly.

In particular, I remember the trip up (With the bus breaking down), the wonderful dinner, and movie afterwards, and the wonderful hosts the Malaysian nuffies played to myself and huiwen. I remember Nicholas, and skyler getting up in the morning to bring us out for Bat Kut Teh, and buying us J-Co donuts. I remember the “warm fuzzy feeling” as we were travelling back to Singapore, the type of feeling you feel when you’re leaving a place or people that you enjoy so much.

With those nostalgic memories in mind, I resolved to continue the tradition of having a christmas meal, and gift exchange together again.

With the Vpost-Nuffnang Christmas Party playing out on the 20th of December, the perfect opportunity to organise a company retreat, presented itself, and I got our newest additions, the SG interns, Hanaa, Charis and Kaizhi to start planning 4 days of fun for all the Nuffies. A reward for all the hard work put in during the year, to celebrate our successes, and to contemplate the future with humility.

Anyway, I’ll let the photos do the talking and keep the words to a minimum, otherwise I’ll never be able to finish this blog post! So enjoy!

The nuffies arrived on Wednesday, the 17th of Dec, from Penang and KL, in the afternoon. After grabbing a quick bite at Burger King, settling them down into their hotel, and showing them our new office, we were off to the Singapore Island Country Club for their first treat! A session of bowling! Where we had 4 lanes to ourselves, and a bit of friendly competition.

Yes, of course my team won lah (Since non nuffies no count!), so Nicholas, Yee Hou, Charis, we rock!

After bowling, we proceeded down to East Coast Park Village for dinner. I’d been here with the Nuffies in August last year, and thought it is one of the nicer food centres in Singapore. Airy, right next to the sea, inexpensive! Who could ask for more?

Basically, we had one hut entirely to ourselves.

The next morning, we headed off to the world class Singapore Zoo! I’m a big fan of our zoo, and I’ve visited many others before, so naturally I’m very proud of our own!

The famous white tigers, just weeks after they mauled a malaysian worker. Bad kitties ….

The girls and some penguins.

Yee hou up to his usual nonsense, and clara falling for it!

Next up was a game of paintballing, which I was well up for, since I’d been before in London, and enjoyed it immensely.

All geared up and ready to kick some ass!

Briefing.

Even though my team lost out in the end 3-1, due to some dodgy refereeing! We all left a happy bunch!

For the night activity, I decided to mix it up a little more, and threw a local musical into the mix!

Wild Rice Production’s, “Snow white and the seven dwarfs!”

It was as usual a colourful and well executed production, with great songs, beautiful voices, and a crazy amount of political references, some of which I found a little over the top really.

The team with our tickets.

The next day was our formal christmas lunch. Which I have made an official tradition.

The venue I chose was Flutes at the Fort, a quaint colonial bungalow in Fort Canning Park, which serves up yummy austalian food.

We had a private room all to ourselves with a square table, so we could chat with one another.

The belles of Nuffnang Singapore and Malaysia. Singular for malaysia.

All the gifts for our secret santa gift exchange. As usual I overran my budget.

I got a Chinese Seal, for Tim Teoh (AGAIN! By random hor!). It had a lion carving on it.

The team with restaurant in the background!

At night, with the help of my mum, I hosted them at home.

And cooked for them too! My dish below!

We capped the night with a late night movie, “Yes Man”, and prepared for the event the next day! Thats it folks!

For over a year now, our Singaporean office, has been housed in a temporary premises, whilst the building in which our new office unit is in was being constructed.

 A quaint, but rather shabby Shophouse at 33 Kinta Road.

 This is it, photos taken from an earlier post on Timothy’s blog.

Compared to the KL and Penang offices, the Singapore office was really the “poorer cousin”. And yet, many great moments were shared by the Singaporean nuffies there, and with rental so high in Singapore, and in Nuffnang Singapore’s earlier days, it did the job admirably!

Nonetheless, I was very much anticipating the move, and after having given timelines to numerous folks, I wanted to just move in!

Well, about 2 weeks ago, that time finally came!

The new office is located just across the road from the old one, at 38 Kinta Road, #02-03, Singapore 219107.

Access a keypad, take the lift to the second floor, and walaaaaa….

 Enter the world of the hardworking SG Nuffies!

This is the room from which all the perm staff work from.

The meeting room, with one more desk at the side, and also a meeting table, which doubles up as space for interns (Since most clients don’t come to our offices).

We’ve also got an outdoor deck, where the Singaporean nuffies, can sit and relax. Planning to get a table, so we can eat lunch out there, and also a outdoor deck chair, so they can chill!

To celebrate the move, I set up our pantry! Yum! Premium one ok! Ferrero Roche, Famous Amos Cookies, and Loacker wafers!

And the best part of our office block?

Well you know google has one of these on their roof top ?

Well, we’ve got one of our own too!

And a little garden to moot too!

So what do YOU think of our new office?

Oh, btw, if you want to be our neighbour, the landlord is looking for tenants on the same floor as us. With a great location, facilities, and manageable office sizes, it could be the right match for you! Drop me a comment, and I’ll hook you up!

It gives me great pleasure to present to everybody, Nuffnang Australia!

On the heels of our expansion to Philippines (which btw, is doing very well!), comes the latest addition to our family and group of companies!

Nuffnang Australia, follows the same model as in the Philippines, in that we have local, experienced partners of good standing to infuse local knowledge and expertise into our operations. Our local partners are none other than Martyn Thomas, and David Lee!

Martyn is the founder of a digital communications strategy firm, known as Frank Media, and has over 30 years of experience in the marketing world. David, is Senior Strategist at Frank Media, and has his a wealth of personal experience too, having worked at agencies like Mindshare.

So it was to be that a couple of months ago, after David’s trip to Singapore, that I made a reciprocal visit to Frank Media in Melbourne! In fact, my first EVER to australia!

 Howdee matesss!!!

The Nuffnang Australia Head office is in Melbourne. A beautiful city, that reminds me alot of london.

Together with Frank Media, we’re housed in a modern 3 story building, in Prahran, about 20 minutes away from the Melbourne CBD

Isn’t it so cosy and nice?

And just like KL, with their Nuffie corner, there is a space for the Aussie Nuffies to relax too.

Timothy had the privilege of spearheading our move into the Philippines, and he talked about the nice area our Manila office is located.

Well I’m happy to say, that our Australian office has a greaaaatt neighbourhoood too!

We’re located just off Greville Street, a hip local area, that houses independent bookstores, cafes, fashion stores, and more. Something like Haji Lane in Singapore. Real cool.

Like this great place just 2 minutes down the street called Babble Bar & Grill.

Anyway, before I babble on and on, these are our 2 local partners. I introduce to you, Martyn, and David. Left and right.

They are both wonderful people, and share our beliefs and convictions in firstly bringing income to our bloggers, and secondly forging a community downunder!

I will be blogging about the rest of my wonderful trip soon, but do support Nuffnang Australia by letting everybody know, that we’re in town!

I’m one of those people who can’t stand being late for movies.

Besides the trailers, I don’t like missing the ads either. I don’t quite notice ads as much when I’m at home watching TV, I guess I kinda “switch off” (like my TV is on right now, but on mute) when the ads come on.

Anyway, good ads can be very powerful.

They should always always in my opinion, evoke emotional responses, joy, sadness, compassion amongst these.

It takes a movie about 90 mins to get to a climatic point, so when you’ve got an ad successfully achieves this in 90 seconds, you’ve got to give it to the creative minds behind the ads.

I was recently in Australia (My first time ever!). A mate of mine, David, showed me an ad, that has since become one of my favourites. Check it out. It was directed by Baz Luhrman, who did Romeo and Juliet.

I love the ending tag line, which reads, “She arrived as Ms K Mathieson, Executive VP, Sales …. She departed as Kate.”

When I first watched it, I thought it was unique. When I really started liking it, was as I was flying back to Singapore, and I looked out of my window, and I saw this view.

 I remembered the ad, a nostalgic feeling came over me and I thought to myself, “I arrived as Cheo Ming Shen, Co-Founder, Nuffnang.com ….. I departed as Ming.”

This is what marketers describe as recall, and very few ads are successful in achieving that kind of outcome.

This got me thinking, what are some of the local ads that I liked? Well, Huiwen, has heard this many many times in the nuffnang office, as at one point, I just kept playing it and laughing to myself over and over again.

A 100 percent coincidence occured months later, when in Malaysia, Nuffnang was chosen as media partners for the Whatever/Anything campaigns.

Another TVC that I really like is from the RSAF.

This one really made me feel like dropping my laptop and joining the airforce. “For I am here, for a higher purpose!”

My other all time favourites, are from M1. I reaaallly love their ads! Like their “You deserve better” series.

Lastly being such a HUGEEE Indian Takout fan, this is sooo apt.

So which ads do you guys like?

A while back, I got a call from a client.

She rang me up and started,
“How was red cliff last night? Did you enjoy the movie?”

I sat up in my chair, thoughts racing through my mind. How did she know that I had caught that movie! Was she psychic or just stalking me!

She quickly explained,
“I was sitting behind you lah! You damn farny leh! Very animated and cartoon during the show”
 referring to the imaginary kung fu I was dishing out in the course of the movie. I always like to imagine I’m the hero in the movie, giving hellfire to the bad bad people.

I was happy to continue bantering, but she got on to the real reason she was calling. She asked me,
“I’ve got something real good for you! Call you sure got something  good one!”

Like a little kid being teased on Christmas day, I was well excited. I tried to keep calm however, and asked with an edge of non-chalancy.
“Oh yeah? Sounds good. Whats up?”

She continued,
“Do you think your Nuffnangers would appreciate a chance to meet Lewis Hamilton in the flesh?”

It took a while to register, and when it did, I said,
“Hell yeah!!! Sure thing!!! Whats the deal, and do I get to meet him myself!!!”

She said
“Sureee!!! Of course! I’m looking at a total of 4 invitations for you and your community. 1 for a representative from Nuffnang, presumably you (Of course lah! Sorry SG nuffies, no fight!), 1 for an invited blogger of your choice, and 2 additional ones from the general community. This is all sponsored graciously by Nescafe and you will be part of a very small and fortunate group to meet him in the flesh.”

After putting down the phone, I called up Wendy, and asked her if she would be interested to meet Lewis Hamilton. She was understandably very enthusiastic about it, so I took that as a yes. I then had to devise a method in which to distribute the other 2 opportunities equitably, and so I came up with a simple contest mechanism, and emailed the community.

A couple of weeks and a number of blog entries after, I found the other two participants. Fairoz, and Lionel.

We were primed for the big day itself, and I went out and paid $200 for a 1/2 sized replica OFFICIAL MCCLAREN helmet I hoped he would sign .

So anyway, the day itself came, and with the secret venue revealed, the South Ballroom of the Conrad Hotel, I headed down early and met Fairoz, Lionel, and Wendy who had all made it a point to come early.

We were each given a nice Nescafe blazer to wear, and then seated to wait for the big man himself! Lewis was on a tight schedule as he had a drivers meeting at 6pm, and was running between ballrooms, meeting his sponsorhip obligations.  Even the Guest Of Honour, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, MCYS, Mr Teo Ser Luck, was early, and had to wait a while for him.

The emcee, also my client, did a good job keeping the suspense up. She came on and said, periodically, Lewis will be with us in 2 minutes, Lewis will be with us in 30 seconds, Lewis will be with us in 10 seconds! It really did help to energize the room and the suspense.

Finally the doors opened and the man himself arrived. For a moment he was texting on his blackberry, and then he looked up and smiled, went across to Mr Teo, and shaked his hand.

He then headed up on stage, and the approximately 12 lucky people including 4 of us from the Nuffnang community, were invited up, to shake his hand, chat with him, while he signed a special momento and presented it to us.

It was a surreal experience. When it got to my turn, I headed towards him, he smiled, and gave me a firm handshake. He asked, “How are you today?” and I replied, “I’m good, thank you.”, he said, “Thats great mate, hold on to this while I sign it for u please.”

He struck me in those few moments as a sincere and down to earth chap. Very much in contradiction to what mainstream media had portrayed him as. I above all recognise that you sometimes need to be arrogant and confident to compete. That does not neccessarily carry on to your personal life or character. I’ve met lots of stars, from Pele, to Michael Phelps, to Gordon Ramsay, to Steve Waugh, and none struck me as much as Lewis.

This feeling was further confirmed, when after we had completed our rounds, he was surrounded by a swarm of invited guests who had brought items for him to sign. I got wendy to go up and sign some stuff, and she came back without my helmet signed, saying he had simply said “I can’t sign this, I’m sorry.” He did not sign my helmet, but he took the time off to sign EVERYBODY elses’s items. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Despite the fact his minders and the organisers were pushing him to move on to the next event and stick to his schedule.

I was dissapointed, but happy that at least we had gotten a cool momento! So I had no complaints!

Later as he was walking out, i happened to see him and caught up with him. I pulled out the helmet and said, “Can you sign this lewis?” He looked at it, stopped in his tracks and said, “Hey I”m sorry mate, but I can’t sign official Mcclaren items. Can I sign anything else, anything at all?”, I could have said “Sign on my backkk!”, but decided against it, and said, “No worries dude, I understand, and I really appreciate the gesture. Thanks for explaining!”, he said, “No worries, mate, you take care.”

He did not owe me an explanation, and did not have to stop. I met Tony Leung once, at Fullerton hotel, and you would be surprised at his reaction, in comparison. I was impressed and converted. I used to be a Ferrari Fan in the days of Michael Shumacher, up till that day, I was undecided of who to support (As Kimi and Massa just don’t cut it for me), from that day onwards, I decided I would support Lewis all the way, and I hpe he will win the championship.

A big thank you must go out to Nescafe Singapore for this wonderful opportunity. It was a well organised event, and we tucked in to the spread prepared for us, and also went home happy with another goody bag! WOOHOO!!

Check out my momento.

And thanks Peilin! Yes lah! I always like getting phone call from you!

One thing that I always do after making a new hire in Singapore, is to bring that person up to KL. To meet and bond with the the rest of the team.

The working environment at Nuffnang is one of the best I know of anywhere! Yes, we may not have the 11 free restaurants, car wash, full sized gym, daycare services that Google have, but I dare say that we do have a genuine family environment. This is something I am immensely proud of.

A considerable part of  the day is spent on lighthearted chain emails, and if you were an outsider, you’d have a culture shock when you listen in on our conversations. We normally lunch together every single day, trying out different food together, and at least once a week, we try to have dinner together. In Singapore, we also have sports days, where we leave at 4pm on a friday to play squash or tennis or badminoton. Thats not to say of course, that no work is done. On the contrary, in the backdrop of this setting, it allows the entire team to work extremely well with one another, and get more things accomplished in less time.

Anyway, I digress!

After her initial 2 weeks in Singapore, I decided it was a good time for raine to make that trip up.

Huiwen, who has gone back to school (but will hopefully be coming on fulltime when she graduates), also joined us.

Five hours later, we reached KL, and since there was a massive jam which Tim was stuck in, we took an LRT from KL Central to our office at Heritage House.

I hadn’t seen the new office yet, even though I had seen photos on Tim’s blog.

My first impression? BIG! In fact a little too big! First of all, there is one section of the office where we are all sitting.

There is a really cool glass meeting room in the middle.

And there is another section where right now, there is not a single soullll!!!!

Timothy, when discussing the move with me, already foresaw that the office space was too big. But we agreed that it was a good opportunity, especially considering that all furnishings were included, and we did not have to pay for renovation. We decided that considering the pace of our growth, we would need the space sooner or later. Thus, it is an office with the near future in mind as well.

The view here is quite something. Ah, well, its back to more banter and gossip with the nuffies! See you soon.

Nearly a year back now, in October of last year, a communications student from NTU approached me for an interview.

Now, you’d be surprised, as I still am today, but I get requests for interviews from students quite alot! From the polytechnics to the universities, I get emails and helpdesk tickets requesting interviews for projects and the like.

As much as possible, if my schedule allows, I will acede to these requests. I do so really, because I enjoy talking to younger people (Not that I’m that old lah!), and meeting new people.

So anyway, that NTU student’s name was Felda Chay, and she mentioned that she was interested in covering myself, and Nuffnang as part of her writing project. Her mentor was the editor of WEALTH magazine, and she stated there was a chance it would get published by the magazine.

 So we met one morning at Starbucks, Holland Village, and without any expectations whatsover, I answered all her questions.

To be truthful, I found it a little long, there were so many questions, and the interview dragged on for a bit. Even after that meetup, I got several email follow ups from her with more questions! I thought to myself! What a gruelling interviewer this girl is!!!

It also seemed that as time went by, her project was not going to be chosen for publication. So life went on, and I kept busy with Nuffnang.

About 2 weeks ago though, I got a message from a friend of mine, Jaclyn (Below, left).

Being a bad friend, I had not caught up with her for quite a while. And, I was not up to date at all with the going ons in her life. Basically, she told me she was now working for Yellow Pages, and had just read an Article about me on wealth magazine, which Yellow Pages had just bought over!

It really is uncanny lah, how coincidences just happen! Like that! 

For about 2 months after the interview, I tried looking out for the magazine to see if the article had been published, but after that, I basically assumed it did not get through, and went about with my stuff. A year down the road, and I get this message!

Anyway, I tried googling the magazine, to see if I could find a PDF copy! And this is what I found instead!

A website of a caricaturist, who had actually been commissioned by Wealth Magazine to draw this for the magazine!

I was intrigued and immediately drawn to the caricature, as i thought it was done very well. So I emailed the caricaturist, and found out that the original was no longer with him, but with the magazine.

I really wanted the caricature on my office wall, so emailed the magazine, and besides giving me 2 free copies of the august copy, which I was featured on, they also kindly agreed to sell me the original image.

Caricature aside, the Aug 08 WEALTH MAGAZINE article was very well written. And really, one of the most detailed writeups of Nuffnang I’ve seen so far (We’ve been blessed to have been featured quite widely). Felda, if you’re reading this, good job! And I do wish you well in your future endeavours as an aspiring writer perhaps?

p.s. At the time of interview, Nuffnang had a combined 10,000 blogs in SG & MY! Almost a year down the road, we have 51,000!!! Thats perspective for you!

This post is long overdue, but Nuffnang Singapore has a new hire!

It’s been a while coming now, but I felt the time was right now.

So anyway, I sent out an update to our facebook group, put up a paid ad on Jobscentral.com.sg, and one on mocca.com.sg, and soon I had a whoolllleee bunch of people applying.

In total, I recieved a whopping 100 applicants for the job!!!

It was probably was the rather unconventional entry requirements, which basically stated the following:
1) Basic skills in powerpoint/excel/word
2) Ability to communicate fluently in English
3) Fun and Bubbly!
4) Dynamic!
5) Enthusiastic!

I had one applicant, who started off his cover letter by saying that with “Fun and Bubbly” being a job requirement, he hadn’t been sure how to prepare his application! I found his response intruiging and called him in for an interview, although he did not get the job.

Our hiring philosophy at Nuffnang is that there is no fixed criteria. As long as it is not a technical role of course! Education or a lack of it provides little bias for us. In fact, before I was due to attend the London School of Economics for my undergraduate degree, I was seriously considering not going into university, and thrusting myself into a business immediately. My father gave me a choice. He would either give me the money for my education, which I could use for a business, or I could get my degree in London. I chose of course to get the degree.

To be truthful, I did it mainly because I realsed that society at large recognised this achievement, and if I ever needed to rely on that society, I would need a degree. I of course got a whole bunch of other things from my university education, although I value the “outside school” experience alot more than within it.

So the point is, my belief, and I think it is shared by timothy as well, is that as long as you’ve got a steady head about you, the desire, and passion in what you do, you’re likely to do well in it.

With that said, after shortlisting the candidates and meeting some of them for interview, I made my choice. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Raine Chai, Nuffnang Singapore’s Ad Ops/Blogger relations executive!

Besides her range of skills (which included graphic design amongst others), she also showed a strong desire to join Nuffnang. This was the deciding factor.

She’s been with us for a week now, and so far, she’s been doing a good job! Most importantly she gels with the rest of the team, and I am looking forward to her meeting the malaysian team as well. And of course our philippine nuffies too, whom I personally have not met!

In view of our need to find new talent, Nuffnang, just last week launched our overdue careers page. It is still a work in progress, and applicants will soon be able to apply online via our 3 sites, in Singapore, Malaysia, and Philippines.

If ever I need reminding of how far Nuffnang has come, I just need to look at our team now, to realise our achievements. How we grew from 2, to 4, to 16 is really beyond me, but I’m sure its only the start. There are more exciting times ahead!

Yes, the title says it all.

Nuffnang Philippines is live! And when we say we’re in the philippines, we mean we’ve got a small and cosy team of Pinoy Nuffies, blazing the trail and flying the flag in Manila!

Besides our daily job scope, me and Timothy also actively seek expansion opportunities for Nuffnang.

A couple of months back, a group of cool filipinas approached us about bringing Nuffnang into the Philippines. They visited us in Singapore, and even in our first meeting with them, we were impressed by our potential partners.

For one, they demonstrated passion in the Nuffnang community and what we stood for. They wanted to replicate the successes of Nuffnang Singapore and Malaysia in Philippines, and were eager to do so as quickly as possible. They stood for the same values which we espoused.

Secondly, they came from a reputable and established company with a track record of integrity. That company is Outcomm Inc, one of Philippines’ largest outdoor media owners. One of their more prominent displays is a high tech video LED board on Guadalupe Bridge in central manila. Because of what they do, they’ve also got a healthy stable of clients from which they can hopefully tap on.

Most importantly, however, are the PEOPLE behind Outcomm. I met 2 of them. Eric (Co-Founder of Outcomm) and Jing (Pictured below with Tim) when they came down to Singapore.

Both me and timothy were enamoured by our Filipino counterparts. It must be fate too that Eric lovessss Chicken Rice (Since its my favourite dish too!).  

As we forged the Joint Venture agreement, I found the entire process a great learning experience, and it was always pleasant and professional. The spirit of our dealings thus far, I am sure will carry forward to Nuffnang Philippines Inc (As the registered company is officially known), and will put us in good stead.

It never crossed our minds when me and Tim started Nuffnang that it would have grown so much so quickly.

I vividly recall walking back to the Tube station in london one balmy late June evening, thinking to myself, a new chapter was about to begin, feeling a little daunted, but with excitement spilling over. I could not wait to start.

2 years down the road, having reached yet another milestone, I find myself pausing, feeling that strangely farmiliar feeling, and raring to move further down the road to see where it takes us!

Thanks for sharing the journey so far.

Do check out Nuffnang Philippines, and also our first featured blogger, the infectious Bryanboy!

The beijing olympics are just 3 days away now, and nooo … I’m not off to beijing!!! Unfortunately ….

Lucky catherine (below) is probably in a hotel at beijing, waiting eagerly for the opening ceremony at this point, and whilst I figure I could have angled for tickets somehow, I’ve had my share of holidays this couple of months, so no beijing for me!

With the olympics in Asia this year however, it seems that Singapore is recieving a fair bit of pre-olympic action.

For one, the brazillian football team was in town to play the Singapore football team. Tickets were priced pretty steeply at $60 and $120, and whilst I was pretty psyched up about going, I was in two minds about it.

Eventually, I got VIP tickets for free through Darren, whose family friend had sponsored the entire event!

 THANKS UNCLE TEO!!!

I’m a super patriotic singaporean, but in this instance, I was pretty much looking forward to a slaying. A round of entertaining, dazzling, samba football that would put our football team to shame.

 The first thing Darren asked me when I got into the car was, “Soo, uncle, what do you think the score is going to be?” I replied, “I hope something like 12-2???” Darren’s estimate was kinder at 7-0.

The stars of the show were of course, Ronaldinho of AC Milan, and Anderson of my beloved Man United! One of the most exciting young talents in football today.

The first half started relatively optimistically for the Brazillians. Diego scored a scorcher (from outside the box) in the 22nd minute of the game. Ronaldinho soon added a second in the 28th minute, although it was a pretty scrappy affair. The brazillians were on track, or so we thought.

 The first half ended 2-0.

It was in the second half that our pride in the Singapore team soon started taking root. For one, there was this indian dude in front of us, cheering the team passionately on. He was so into it, his enthusiasm kind of spilled over.

The tide started to turn, and you could see that more Singaporeans were willing our team on to score.

They say the crowd is the 12th man, and that was nowhere more evident than in this match. In quick succession, Singapore had 2 great chances to score, and were only denied by a verrryyyy sharp keeper!

It was not to be however, and Manchester City’s latest singning, Jo, added the third to make the final score 3-0.

It had been a great opportunity to see the brazillians at work, but I left rather dissapointed, at their lack of samba magic. I guess people have such high expectations that Ronaldinho will run past 10 men, and score … but well …. it was an experience nonetheless!

The second bit of pre-olympic action took place at the Singapore Island Country Club, a golf club that I’m lucky to be a member of.

The entire US olympic swimming team and before them part of the Australian Olympic swimming team were there for aclimatisation, and training. The SICC has excellent facilities for this purpose. It has a full sized olympic swimming pool, and also a 25 metre swimming pool, so it seemed like a natural choice.

Anyway, after having gone there for lunch one afternoon, I noticed a little sign that said the club would be holding a meet and greet session for members on Sat, between 8-9AM!

With that in mind, on Friday night, I headed off to borders to try to find a book on michael phelps (Which I could get the amazing swimmer to sign).

 For those who don’t know, I’m a kind of autograph afficianado. In the UK, I collected so much.I have Chrsitiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Sir Alex Ferguson, Bryan Robson, Nobby Stiles, Bill Foulkes (All Man United), Pele, Steve Waugh (Cricket), Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay (Both great chefs), and more.

 So anyway, in the end, after an extensive search, I got this book called “Sports in the 21st Century by Reuters” It is a really really good picture coffee table book, of the greatest athletes and sportsmen/women in the world. Every single photo tells a story, and I thought the picture of Phelps was amazing.

Armed with my book, me and Estee headed off to the club at 0730 in  the morning!!! I wasn’t expecting much of a crowd, since I thought firstly this was a member’s club, and also it was so early!

I was wrong! There were lotss of people!!! Most of the people there were eager parents with their kids. Eager to tell inspire olympic dreams in their young sons and daughters.

I soon learned that there were to be two sessions. One at 0830, in which members of the public could get their chance to meet the US olympians, albeit minus the top 6 swimmers.

And another at 1030, which was only for members, and would involve the Top 6 swimmers. Namely, Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Brenden Hansen, Eric Shanteau, Katie Hoff and Natalie Coughlin. These top 6 swimmers represented the cream of the crop! And the majority of gold medals of the team. They were all featured on the recent time magzine, identifying the Top 100 atheletes to watch at the Beijing 08 Olympics.

It was an amazing experience, both parts. Firstly, watching them train.

And secondly getting so many autographs …

And of course THE MAN!!!

Michael was really friendly. And when he saw that amazing photo, he commented at least three times, “Wow! That is a great photo! I’ve never seen it before”, he even went as far as showing his team mate Dara Torres the photo, and I could sense he almost wanted to take the book home!!!

It was cool chatting with him, and I left the SICC with my prize!

I will be closely watching their progress at the Olympics in Beijing!