Lived the Dream

It was a nightmare from the start. Everybody was trying to make things better for one another. I was lucky. I had Sleague to escape to every Thursday and Friday, though the downside was, I was very tired at the end of the week.

I never thought I would get emotionally involved, until the Wild Card Round. I actually voted for one of the groups to get in, and from then onwards, there was no way back. "The" contestants has become "my" contestants.

Slowly but surely, even though I hardly get to spent time with the contestants, they became friends. First it was the Sugarettes. I was at the filming of their profile VTs right from the start. Next was Olynn. Jill and I did their profiles together in one day, and we travelled from the west to the east and then to the south for the entire day. And I missed the Cage that day. Sigh!!

To our horror, both Olynn and Sugarettes were voted out on the same day. Next was Robert. Although I didn't film his profiles, Jill did. And she exclaimed "God! All the profile shoots I went, the contestants all out!" My next profile shoot was ATR. Alas! They went out next. But all the 23 people got together again during PSC 2007. And with Jill back to school, I "inherited" these 23 children of hers and together with Joseline, took care of them during these three days of rehearsals, which also marked the start of a four-week work month without break.

It was during these three days that I really get to know these 23 children of Jill, due to the time spent together between breaks. ATR is actually a nice bunch of guys as they taught those who are still in the competition the mandarin songs they were suppose to sing.

Revalina, who always disappear, can always be found at staircases practising. Cats and Victor are always smoking while By Def is always missing one member.

It was sad for me that Revalina had to leave next. They really had me when they sang the Chinese song, Hurt by Zhang Dongliang. Seriously, if you closed your eyes and listened, you would never think that it's not sang by a person whose mother tongue is not mandarin.

And just when Shauna had found her element, she had to leave. She really shone during her rendition of Coco Lee's When I Fall In Love. But still, this is a competition, and reality sucks!

Fendi eventually emerged as winner of the solo category, and By Definition, the group. We all hugged each other during the post-reception. Fendi is the first person who can lift me up in a long, long time.

It was the time spent and the experience gained that I valued and treasured, be it with the contestants or the production team. Thanks for all the lessons learnt on panel, on location. The rest as you can say, are forgettable.