BLOG ARCHIVE
Year: 2007 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003
07 December, 2006 - Here's a rather macabre tale to relate. Our associate company Singapore History Consultants (SHC) is renowned for its educational Battlefield Tours. Often a small commemoration ceremony would be conducted at the end of the tour. A school representative would lay a wreath with a heart warming message. With each year passing, more groups were keen to include the ceremony and the wreaths in their tours. For many years their auditor hardly bat an eyelid when SHC's expenses included wreaths. It was only after a few years when the number of wreaths kept increasing that the auditor could not hide her curiosity. She somberly called up to ask if many of SHC's clients were very old and dying! She was very concerned why the death rate was steadily increasing each year! And no, the wreaths were not for our clients after they have received the bill from doing our tours!
13 November, 2006 - Most of us at Journeys woke up really early on Sunday yesterday to support our associate company Changi Museum and to attend the Remembrance ceremony was held at Kranji War Ceremony. The Changi Museum offered free guided tours where they focused on the role and deeds of Australian, British, Indian, Malaysian, New Zealand and Singaporean personnel during the Malayan Campaign (1941-42). It was a pleasant morning with not a threatening cloud in the sky during the ceremony and after. We were pleased to hear that many of them who came on the tours were very touched and inspired by what was shared. If you've never been to a Remembrance Ceremony, it takes place every year on the 11th of November or the second Sunday of November.
31 October, 2006 - Happy Halloween! It may not be our local custom, but it hasn't stopped our clubs and coffeehouses decorating their premises with pumpkin-shaped lanterns and skeletons! This is an evening of trick or treating and TV marathons of horror-movies. We at Journeys headquarters experienced a spooky encounter one Tuesday morning. Our office is located in a conserved shophouse in Chinatown and this area is dubbed “Death Street” where in the past the poor and destitute came here to die in the death houses located here. It was an unusually quite morning at the office. Everyone was hunched in front of their computers typing away like mad scientists. Charmaine and Marianne were in quiet deep discussion, you could hear a pin drop. Suddenly, the front door swings open and a loud voice commands rapidly, “Charmaine and Marianne, here are the toothpicks! I've placed them on the staircase… gotta go!” Several of us jumped up in our seats! The voice belonged to none other than Helena who was doing Red Clogs Down Five Foot Way™ . She had her portable microphone switched on and her voice was amplified in our quiet office. She sounded like a voice from a higher power. Frankly speaking, all in the office were prepared to confess their sins including any they didn't commit when they heard the voice! If you wish to know why Helena was carrying toothpicks on her…why not ask her the next time you're on her tour?
27 June, 2006 - Even without the aid of beer, the last few months seemed to whiz by in the blink of an eye. Here's a quick re-cap of what we've been up to. April 25 was ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) Day. It is a time-honoured tradition of remembering those who had made the supreme sacrifice. Mr Jeyathurai represented The Changi Museum for the wreath laying ceremony.
Somehow every year the weather is always perfect on this particular day. The simple but meaningful ceremony held at Kranji War Memorial was bathed with a warm rosy glow by a gorgeous sunrise.
After the ceremony, The Changi Museum (which, as you know, is affiliated to Journeys) offered half-hour tours at the Kranji War Memorial to the public. No ANZAC Day is complete without having a gunfire breakfast i.e. having rum in your coffee. Need we say more?
May was a busy but pleasant month, with no scandalous events to share. June saw The Changi Museum participating in Changi Village Day where photo-story boards prepared by the museum were displayed. The community living in this eastern end of Singapore sure enjoyed looking at how Changi transformed from a jungle to having a world-class aviation centre.
Coincidentally, while June ushered in the World Cup Fever, many of us were hit with the actual fever! Some of us were down with a bad case of the flu and in the office sniffles, coughs and occasional delirious babblings were heard.
However, we had cause to celebrate because we got together for Savita's birthday - and we did it in style! We all headed to a Middle Eastern fusion type joint at Kampong Glam where we ate and drank in honour of Savita! Now in case you want us to reveal Savita's age, let's just say we're all grateful for recovering from flu and don't wish to end up at the doctor's again only this time for getting beaten up. So we're just going to say that Savita is forever young!
03 March, 2006 - Hello we're baaaaaack! We've been quiet the last few months as we were buried under piles of paper work and projects. But you've been on our minds all this while. It's going to be a long blog because we've so many wonderful as well as embarrassing snippets to share!
For those of you who happened to be on today's Walk ( On Forbidden Ground™ ) may have noticed that Loone's smile was extra wide! That's because he won Tourism Host of the Year, Tour Guiding 2005.
Last night we attended the Singapore Tourism Awards. We went in full force as we had our colleagues from Changi Museum too. Among us is a new addition to the Journeys family. We happily welcome our new colleague Angela J. She handles operations and marketing with Charmaine. And yes! Angela passed our beer test (if last night's drinking was any indication!)
We were all in a celebratory mood for many reasons. Dhobis, Saris & a Spot of Curry™ and Secrets of the Red Lantern™ were finalists in the category for Best Sightseeing/Leisure/Educational Programme 2005. We were and still are very honoured that both Walks were selected to be in the finals. Loone was up against some very good tour guides, so it was a great achievement to have won. And how did we make our presence felt at the event? Dressed up to the nines, looking all debonair, yet the moment we heard “The winner is Muhammad Razeen Chan Ying Loone!” all subdued behaviour was out the window as we whipped out our party favours and gave it all we got! You can imagine the noise coming from us. Last year we did it too when we won for Sultans of Spice™… hmmm wonder if that's the reason why they seated us all in the last row this time round?
All smiles are definitely genuine (although for most, the smiles were enhanced by too much wine!) excuse the blurred photo of us, we suspect either our photographer was trying to be artistic or he had trouble juggling the wine glass and camera.
It was also Marianne's birthday (according to her, she is forever 25). So after the awards, last night we headed off to… where else… a pub! There was a fantastic jazz band. Marianne was called on stage where everyone sang her a birthday song. She was asked to dance, but after a few poor attempts at trying to look co-ordinated, she opted to wave like the Queen of England instead. (A message to the youth of today – This is what happens when you consume too much beer.)
But the ultimate story was when a fortune teller doing her rounds came up to Savita and read her palm. She told Savita very seriously that she was “…sometimes smart, sometimes not so smart.” Of which the immediate responses from all of us were “What do you mean sometimes not so smart, always not so smart!” Oh Savi, you know we love you and think you're the best! You know what they say, we always tease the ones we love the most!
And on that note! We just want to add that while winning awards are great morale boosters, we've said it before and we'll say it again. We always feel like winners because we get to meet all of you on our Walks! By the way, keep checking our website as there are new tours in the pipeline. See you soon!