Ten minutes of fame

Me: Where's your wife?
Friend: A body at rest --- stays at rest.

Heh.

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So in the middle of post-dinner coffee (or tea, rather, since I've only had coffee once since 30 June and I intend to keep my intake low), I get the following SMS: Wah, , so famous already!

And then I panic. What on earth could I be famous for? Did I get misquoted in the media? (In my job, that is always an underlying worry.)

And then it turns out that the episode of Love, Singapore Style featuring my family aired tonight. And then I got home and the friends who were over were teasing me about my baby pictures. Apparently, the episode featured many of them.

And then I watched the actual ten minutes of fame during which my family was featured in the programme and MY GOD. Considering that I couldn't make it the night my family was interviewed, my face was like in every other shot! They trotted out all the family photos (I guess, to make up for the fact that they couldn't get footage of all four of us together): me at one month, one year, eight years, fifteen years, twenty-something years, and a bunch other than that. My graduation photo was in the background of one shot; my brother's was in the background of another. My friend who came to watch my reaction asked if my family really kept that many family photos scattered around like that.

Of course, there were tons more photos of my parents --- as it should be, since they're the ostensible focus of the segment and I don't think local television is brave enough to tackle head-on the implications and repercussions of growing up a hyphenated mixed-race 'other' in our ostensibly multi-racial society. But the programme really missed the point:

My grandparents were the original multi-racial pairing. And they got together in the 1930s. You think (from hearing my parents on the show) that it was hard being a multi-racial couple in the 1960s? Imagine what it must've been like a generation earlier, and talk to my dad and his siblings about being multi-racial in a time when race riots weren't a historical lesson but a reality of life.

So the programme missed the point. I must ask my parents if they emphasised it enough to the producers. I think they were interviewed for like two hours or something, and only ten minutes was shown (including voice-over), so I'm sure a lot got cut.

I really must scold the parentals for allowing them to film so many photos though. I was an ugly child of the '80s.

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The big news at home this week is that come December 31, 2003, we're going to be a SINK*. Possibly a SINKOC**. Wish us luck.

* SINK: Single Income No Kids
** SINKOC: Single Income No Kids One Cat