27 Dec - Departure Day

After a long period of getting ready, packing equipment, grumbling, complaining, budget cutting, we were finally on our way to Doha – the destination of unknown lies ahead. Other than Biao Shu, the rest of us have yet to venture to that part of the world. If not for the Asian Games, I don’t think anyone of us would ever think of going there.

Mum was admitted into hospital for severe food poisoning the day before we left. Alvin’s dad was in and out of hospital. Add on to the reduced number of manpower we have, and not forgetting the last minutes rush for the backdrop, the signs are not looking good for Doha.

Junior and Remesh came to send us off. We joked that she is part of my hand-carry luggage. After checking-in our luggage, Wendy said her goodbyes to her family and we went over to a café for some snacks and drinks. Kiok started her “can buy or not stuff” even before we fly.

We were in the same flight as the bowlers as well as the cue sports athletes. It was a full flight. Kiok was seated some distance away, somehow or other, we managed to change her seat to just in front of us as a passenger had requested for a change of seat. She confessed that it was a good thing that we helped to swap her seat. The person sitting next to her in her original seat was emitting a strange kind of smell.

I was seated between Wendy and a fat man. Knowing that I have to sleep no matter what as a long day lays ahead, I plugged my mp3 player into my ears and dozed off soon after. Still, being the light sleeper, I was awakened by the fat uncle each time he moved. I was missing my bolster already.

When it’s almost time for the plane to land, I gave up the idea of getting some sleep and watched Lakehouse instead. It brought back a lot of memories. I watched the Korean version with BB, and shed a flood of tears back then. I wondered if she remembered.

28 Dec - Finally... Doha!

Everything was in a blur for me when we got off the plane, partly due to the lack of sleep and the uneventful flight.

After a bus ride from the plane, some Games officials spotted our Asian Games luggage tags and led us to the Asian Games terminal. Right after we cleared custom, (the stamp was coloured) we had our accreditation passes done on the spot.

Biao shu was already looking at home already, getting friendly with the locals, while some of us were struggling to stay awake as we looked for our passports and visas.

Making our way to the exit, Biao shu and Kiok were trying to locate the drivers who were supposed to pick us up. In the end, Alvin took Jusri’s advice and we headed towards the bus arranged by the Games organisers to bring us to our accommodation towers.

We arrived at Tower P07 and unloaded everything as Biao Shu has heard from someone at the airport that our accommodation has been shifted from P09 to P07. We found a cosy corner to sit while Alvin went to check with the reception. We said goodbye to Brian Richmond as he and John Burgess were staying there.

After much mayhem, it was confirmed that our accommodation remained unchanged and whoever that told us the information has made a mistake. Struggling with language problems, we somehow managed to get the bellboys to load our luggage back onto the bus and off we went to P9. More chaos continued as Biao shu constantly bugged Kiok to find our drivers. So instead of handling the checking-in for us, she went outside with Biao shu, leaving me to settle the accommodation arrangements.

Without thinking, as my mind was clouded due to the lack of sleep, I handed out all the keys. Wendy exclaimed that each of us shouldn't have our own keys as we were supposed to share rooms. After another 10 minutes of trying to explain the situation with the receptionist, Alvin made the decision for everyone to go up to our rooms first. Soon, we realised that there was a big mixed-up. Wendy and I decided to take my apartment and have one room each. While Kiok and Vivian will share an apartment.

After a quick shower and hasty breakfast, we sat around the hotel lobby, as we waitedfor our drivers to pick us up for our first visit to the IBC. It turned out to be a longer wait than expected. We soon fell asleep on the sofas at the lobby. Even Biao shu slept! As the two cars could only take four persons at the same time, the drivers had to make like two trips each, and given the traffic congestions, the 15 minutes round trip became 30 minutes.

More chaos followed at the IBC. Instead of having the equipment all set up and ready for us, our booth was in a huge mess with cables lying all over the place. The ship was delayed and the cargo arrived only at 3am that morning. So Prem, Ghandi, Dollah, and I went recce at the various games venues, and Kiok, Vivian and Wendy went back to P9 to settle our accommodation. I started to worry about having to share a bed with who as my room has a double bed.

Our first stop was to the Doha Sailing Club. The smell of the sea only hit us when we were by the seaside. Our sailors were already having fun there. The sea breeze did clear my mind for a bit. We hang around as Prem made filming arrangements .

Our next stop was the Khalifa Stadium. It was built for these games and the organisers were still getting ready for the opening ceremony. “WHOA!” is the only word that went on in my mind when we arrived. The walk towards the stadium reaffirmed that this is what I want and where I belong. This could turn out to be the twist to the wrong beginnings we had for this Games.

Back at Rm 1909, Kiok told me I would be sharing room with her. Reason being that Wendy won't have to move again, and Vivian toss and turn a lot in her sleep. Oh well, I was too tired to think and dropped to sleep while Vivian and Kiok ventured out with Alvin for dinner.

29 Nov - My first colour story

I was awakened by Kiok’s snores at 4.39am. I couldn’t get back to sleep. Once again, I had to rely on my mp3 player, even after I brought in an extra pillow from the hall. A short nap later, I was on my way to the gym downstairs. Some Japanese were already on the treadmills.

An hour of work-out later, I jumped into the shower with Kiok trying to explain to Wendy that it was me getting out of the apartment early this morning. It was definitely not some eerie things. Haha! Kiok didn't even realised that I was back in the apartment and was already in the showers.

Our view from the apartment was amazing as it faces the sea. But the utility room behind the kitchen has best view. And it was a joke between us that the maid gets the best view of the apartment.

Breakfast at P9 was quite good. A few different varieties of bread, and a small spread of continental breakfast for us to choose. With my stomach problem, I couldn’t eat much. Still, I knew I had to eat something. And Kiok had to start a debate with Wendy on the noodles she brought. Sigh…

While getting ready to go to IBC, my stomach problems were so bad that I had to lie on my stomach as I rested on the bed. I could hear Wendy and Vivian laughing away in the hall at the local dramas. Kiok then broke the news to me that Alvin's dad condition had worsen and he might have to go home. I shrugged. I will deal with it when the time comes.

Soon, Wendy set off to the IBC with Simon. I went with Biao shu and Alvin on the second trip. At the IBC, Alvin threw the IBC colour story on my face. Luckily Prem was there to help. He told me what footage to get and promised that he would write the story after I put down the skeletal of the story. Filling up a form, I requested an interview from the Media Manager of the IBC, Reg. The interview was supposed to take place at 2pm, but Reg didn’t get back and I could not edit the story without the sound bite.

According to Rabi, the canteen that provided free flow of dinner or lunch for those with coupons will be closed at 3pm today for the Samsung party. I told Wendy to go eat before they closed. It would be easier for Kiok and I to settle our food.

Throughout the entire afternoon, I slogged away, getting the medal tally done. Then I realised I was missing one blank background graphic and had to sms Lionel to do for me. To my astonishment, he delivered within the next hour! Whow! I must really get the bottle of sand for him.

Before I knew it, I was running a temperature, having stayed too long at the panel with the equipment heating up the room. So I took a walk outside, bringing back bottles of water that is free for all. Not only was the bottled water free, they provided us with cans of coke, sprite and mini-bottles of fruit juices, in addition to the instant coffee and tea-bags at the drinks stations around the IBC.

Later in the evening, while everyone was at the Samsung party, I made a phone call back and was caught in the act by Wendy. I even nodded when she asked if I was calling my mum. Aiyoh! Guilty!!

At 8.30pm, we closed shop for the day. I accompanied Kiok to the bank in the City Centre to settle her travellers’ cheque. The rest proceed to the food court for dinner. We ended up waiting for two hours in the bank. Vivian sms Kiok if we need them to buy dinner back for us, but we said no. Those who had their dinner went back to their apartments, leaving Alvin and Ghandi to escort us. It took the bank about 30 minutes to clear one travellers’ cheque, and there were like three to four Malaysians before Kiok's turn. We turned out to be the last customer. The security started locking up. Kiok was shocked when we could not open the door to leave. Of course, the security came and unlocked the doors for us.

During the two hours in the bank, we talked about a lot of stuff. We both thought we had come a long way here and we would just have to make the best of everything.

The two of us finally can have our dinner at 10.30pm. Knowing Kiok would like to have Chinese food, I opted for the Golden Dragon Chinese Food at the food court. The mushroom chicken slice that I ordered was too large for me to finish and similarly so with Kiok and her fish set. I asked her how come our supposedly Chinese food is being cooked by an Indian chef? She laughed and then tasted my sliced chicken and commented that it tasted the same as her fish set. Hahahaha!

As Kiok has already paid for my food, I bought her tea. She drank her tea without thinking and burnt her tongue. It wasn’t till later that she realised it was tea and not milo as she had thought. She was the one who told me she wanted tea.

While walking back to P9, Ghandi, Alvin and I made fun of Kiok about her going shopping on our next trip – SEA Games in Thailand. She really couldn’t shake off her “shopping aunty” tag!

Anyway, the joke of the night wasn’t that. It was when she asked me if I want to change my handphone sim card to kill time in the bank and I told her I would rather do it on the bed. And she commented “go back slowly do on the bed”!!

30 Dec - Alvin's going home

Kiok and I were awakened by Junior’s sms at 4.30am! She has forgotten about the time difference – we are five hours behind. Kiok told me to reply her saying that “Junior, mai cha. Ah Mee teh koon!” Hahaha. I replied, but failed to go back to sleep, suffering from colic. I thought only children have that. Whining non-stop, Kiok got out of bed and handed me a bottle of medicated oil. I'm blessed with a mummy at home and a "mummy" at work. Thank God for that!

I eventually got another hour of sleep, after which I went to the gym. The two ladies who were here yesterday morning weren’t around, though the two Japanese guys were already on the treadmills.

Kiok was already up when I went upstairs. She was calling the travel agency back home. Alvin will be on the next available flight back. The next thing I know, my mobile rang. Knowing its Erquan, I just went “I know, so what you want me to do?”

Apparently he had a lot of things to hand over, which he will as soon as the flight is confirmed. He would announce the news at IBC when everyone’s around. And since it has become a fact that Alvin will be going home, we just have to double up or even triple up and prayed that all goes well for the show. We all gathered at the work benches outside the main panel just before the BIG announcement. Alvin started taking pictures around our booth. I wondered what went on in his mind right now.

Kiok and I were quite happy with the accommodation and food here. We had initially thought that food is going to cost a lot on this trip. But in the end, the food court pricing in City Centre is reasonable and we could get a free meal at IBC. That very much settled our food problem. Now, my main headache is the heat emitted by the machines at the panel. Are we getting fans?

With the IBC located so near P9, we were all starting to plan to walk to and fro the IBC daily. That would free up the two cars for the producers who are doing ENG coverage. And since Alvin is going home, I guess I won’t be going out after all. So much for asking me to cover cue sports??!!

Thinking that the culprit to my stomach problem could be eggs, I decided to take out eggs in my diet from today onwards.

Upon reaching the IBC, I continued with my graphics at Clarity. Alvin wanted medal tally to stop only when we see Singapore. God! That meant doing logo fonts for 45 flags! Trust me, it was a painful process that I hope i don't have to go through again. And with the temperature in the room heating up, I had to use “Cool-It”.

Lunch was with Alvin at the IBC, together with Prem and Kiok. Alvin was very worried about leaving us behind. We were already very short on manpower, and without the editor, I don’t know what’s going to happen. Throughout lunch, he briefed me on a lot of stuff and I think a third of what he told me couldn’t get into my head. I was already overwhelmed with information. Kiok insisted I took a picture with Gou Gou before he goes home.

Simon, Jusri, Halid, Rabi, Ghandi, Dollah started to assembled at the work area after lunch. It was time for the big announcement. But the question on everyone's mind was, "Are you coming back?" Well, he wasn't sure. It all depends on his father's condition and Ah Gong's decision. Prem and Vivian will be taking over Today At the Games (TAG). I will do the Live Belt with Biao Shu. As for his share of events, it will be split among us. He will be handing his laptop, handphone that contained the SIM card from SSC and money.

Still not being able to accept the truth, I said I will only be safekeeping these stuff for him for three days. He had better come back after three days. Kiok too, mirrored my thoughts. His hands were tied, and he too, hoped that he would come back as that would mean his dad is fine.

Later at the IBC, we all had fun disturbing Biao Shu about his “too tight” t-shirt. Kiok said Biao shu is looking more and more like Aunty Gan, and I went like “yah, very soon, you will be needing bras!”

I was talking to Junior when Reg called about the interview. Cutting our conversation short, I completed the interview in the next 15 minutes. Soon, my stress level went up. I have to get this colour story out soon.

Later in the evening, Kiok and I sent Alvin off. I didn’t realise that I have become so dependent on him. He’s like the big brother who will always keep an eye on me. When the sense of helplessness hit me, added onto the stomach problems that I haven’t been able to get rid, I actually cried.

I will be doing the Opening Ceremony with Biao Shu. Not sure if he will be more stress than me or the other way round. The Games start tomorrow and we’ll be counting down for the next 15 days.

I need to seek solance from my angel.

Kiok, Vivian and I made a trip into the EP's apartment, Rm 2101. Kiok took some hangers and they both went off with a pillow each. Kiok hid the hangers in "HER" pillow. While we were in the lift, I told them I would pretend that I don't know them if anyone comes in.

1 Dec - Opening Ceremony with Biao Shu

I thought I could finally sleep through the night, but I still woke up at 5plus because of colic. I called home while Kiok was in the showers. He was busy and said to call back tonight. Oh well, so much for needing a few words of comfort.

As it’s the opening ceremony today, we girls decided to wear the Team Singapore t-shirt given by SSC. I didn’t bring mine, so Kiok lend me hers, which I could wear surprisingly.
We took the car and alighted at Gate 9, which spared Kiok the walking from Gate 1.

I took over Alvin’s place in the IBC, setup his laptop, and got down to work. Kiok kept on teasing me about being doggie. To make Kiok happier, I drank Coke and eat ice-cream just to simulate what Erquan will do. I’m morphing into doggie. Hahaha! But lo and behold! The coke actually cured my colic problem!

Sitting down with Biao Shu, we planned the lineup for tomorrow’s live belt. After a long time, I finally realised that Conty will be recording the Table Tennis Women's team Semi-finals (North Korea v Singapore) to be played back during our live belt. So, according to Biao Shu, there will NOT be a live show. Though we still do the live belt as planned as programming will find some place to play back the show.

Everybody had lunch at IBC together. I guess this could be the last time everyone can have lunch together at IBC. Prem, Rabi, Ghandi, Dollah and Biao Shu will be out doing stories. So the three cameramen grabbed this opportunity to take some photos in our booth at the IBC, as they prepared for their outing this evening – Khalifa Stadium for the Opening Ceremony.

Every broadcaster is doing their colour stories and in no time, one of them came into our booth to interview the team leader. In this case, it's our biao shu shu. I quickly signalled Kiok to whip out her camera and take photos of Biao Shu. How can let go of such good opportunity to disturb him??

Back at the IBC, we were suddenly aware of this noise. It took us a few seconds to realise that it was raining. It only rained four times a year in Doha, and this triggered a wave of photo taking session in the rain.

Biao shu and John Burgess were late for the filming of links. With Rabi and Ghandi gone with Prem to the Opening Ceremony, Dollah had to do everything himself. While Kiok double up as makeup artistes for Biao Shu and JB, I was running in and out calling for Halid to help with sound. Biao Shu had to borrow the clip mics from our Iranian neighours as Ghandi has locked up all the equipment. Due to the time constrain, we could only do the opening link as we all have to get ready for the opening ceremony.

Erquan sms and called me with so many instructions for the Opening Ceremony until I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I know what to do, but if Biao Shu refused to listen, there is nothing I can do!

True to my words, Biao Shu didn’t go for commercial breaks during the transitions for the performances. He said the people back home would want to watch the spectacular spectacular. I sms Alvin to check if Ah Gong has started swearing yet, he said we were damn lucky as ah gong is not there. His tolerance level is higher than Ah Gong. With the stress on him to roll two comercial breaks in the next half an hour, Biao shu called for two commercial breaks in 10 minutes that left Alvin fuming.

After the whole ceremony, I actually sms Alvin saying that I think I can do better than Biao Shu, and his reply was he KNOW I can do better than Biao Shu!! Hahaha! Still, nothing could spoil the fun for me as I thoroughly enjoyed the opening ceremony very much. It was unlike the usual ceremony as this was a musical.

Wendy did comment that if we worked till 3am today, what about other days? Kiok rebutted that we should be on Doha time, and it's only 11pm. We were so tired that we settled with cup noodles and cuppa soups for dinner and went to sleep. The next fourteen days await.

2 Dec - Our first medals

At long last, I woke up to the sound of my alarm. Finally Kiok and I managed to sleep through the night. I was still quite tired and Kiok told me to skip gym. As I don't want a repeat of Manila, and I don’t have money to walk off all the fats in Melbourne this time, I dragged myself out of bed and to gym. Surprisingly, I was the only one there. Perhaps the two Japanese guys were tired out by the Opening Ceremony last night. Alas! The treadmill!

The moment I stepped into the room in the apartment, Kiok said Alvin wanted me to call him. His first question for me was did we run commercial break during the Singapore Contingent last night during the Opening Ceremony and I said no. Apparently Conty ran commercial break on the Singapore Contingent during this morning’s repeat telecast. Now the whole world would think it’s us!

I had to cut short our conversation as I wanted to mark spot desperately. Sensing something is wrong, Alvin asked if I want to mark spot, I said YES! And I have to call him back in a bit that led to a long discussion about Biao Shu as Kiok had grabbed this opportunity to complain to Alvin.

We decided to walk to IBC despite the drizzle and it was freezing outside. There was flood everywhere. Given that it hardly rain in Doha, the locals didn’t plan their drainage properly and thus the floods.

The morning was pretty quiet and I sat there, staring at the computer screen as I tried to plan for tomorrow’s Live Belt. I asked Biao Shu what he has in mind, but he kept pushing it saying “later!” Until he went out for shoot!

With Prem and Biao Shu out on location, Ghandi is the only cameraman left at IBC for mobilisation. Our women’s table tennis team has taken the first two games against North Korea, Vivian started to ask who can go for sound bites. I wanted to, but there is no way I could make it back for the Live Belt. Looking around, there was only Kiok to deploy. So off to the Al-Arabi Indoor Hall she went, for her first experience as field reporter.

As Vivian put it, Kiok is the Woman of All Trades. She even managed to get a dustbin for us in the IBC, which the Iranians kept filling up. As to why our neighbours don’t get their own dust bin, Vivian's deduction was that they had no woman with them. Simple as that!

I was running on adrenaline our women peddlers dropped the next two games. It all boiled down to Sun Bei Bei. She had to win to keep our medal hopes alive. And what a comeback she staged, sending all of us into a state of euphoria.

Prem came back with the shooting story of our girls winning silver for the 10m Air Rifle team's event. This was our first medal, and back home, they wished for more. I was torn in between wanting them to win more and exit the competition early. More medals meant more work for us.

Biao Shu, instead of doing his own story, was watching table tennis from start to end, shouting together with JB. He was already high with Tao Li qualifying fastest in tonight's Women's 100m Butterfly Final. She had swarm for her life in the morning heats, and we thought the best she could do is a bronze medal.


When the time came for the Live Belt, it was a big mess. Instead of going according to lineup, he took whatever Vivian was recording for TAG. We were so ill-prepared that we had to refeed the opening titles. With everything recorded and playing back from EVS, we cheered as Tao Li's quest for medals started. There were high-fives all around the panel as everyone has crowded around for this moment. At this point of time, all our differences were put aside, as we basked in the glory of our second medal of this Games. This was what I really wanted. Somehow, I got the feeling that I've come home. I played a part in this legacy that the Doha Asian Games would be leaving behind.


The consequences would be unthinkable, had we gone live. We were all exhausted after today’s show. Thank God for Table Tennis. Had it not overrun into our Live Belt, God knows what will happen??!!

We ate our dinner at IBC, while Wendy sat outside with Simon. We were all fuming with Biao Shu. She kept telling us that Biao Shu can’t do this to her after Simon goes as she will be editing alone.

Wendy went on and on about it until we ended up telling her that the best for everybody, is to have her, Jusri and Halid talk to Biao Shu about it. There is no point in Vivian, Prem, Kiok or me to tell him. It will have to be the technical people.

On the way back, while we were all on the coach, Simon apologised for raising his voice. Well, I said I was very fierce too, so it’s ok. Then we all laughed about the whole Biao Shu episode. According to Kiok, after I shouted at Biao Shu, he actually came out and told Vivian and Prem to get their stories ready as early as possible and walked back in. Vivian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. How can he say such things when his stories were the last to complete??

3 Dec - Oh! Biao Shu!

After the tiring Day 1 of the Games, it was an uneventful sleep for me before I went gym. Then I realised the two-week break I took from the gym actually brought down my stamina. I went for 4.4km for 30 minutes here and I last ran 4.69km for the same amount of time three weeks ago.

After packing our laundry, Kiok and I brought our laundry down to Shaffique while Vivian and Aunty were still upstairs. After breakfast, we went out to wait for the coach as it was bright and sunny again. We met Brian Richmond on the coach and had a chat. Alighting, he went off to catch another bus to the sepak takraw. Then I actually wondered out loud why he and JB is so different? Kiok’s answer was Brian is the gentlemen, and Vivian’s comment was that’s why I liked the son because it all comes from the father. Hahah!

My morale was quite low in the morning as I knew whatever I have put down in the lineup for the Live Belt will be thrown to the wind by Biao Shu later. I was so down that I almost wanted to cry. What’s the point of doing it when all the effort will be down the drain??

Vivian too, was stressed out. Mostly because of Biao Shu. We all wanted Alvin to come back. And his three days were up tomorrow. I prayed that his father will be alright and Alvin can come back soon.

Then ah gong called, asking what is the lineup for Live Belt. I told him Biao Shu hasn’t decided yet. After a few moments of slience, he said go with gymnastics. The people back home have been asking for gymnastics.

I got ready for my first Live event - Table Tennis Mixed Doubles (Round 1). Kiok and I sat in the commentators’ booth as we got ready for Live transmission. My spirits went up after being praised by Alvin. Haha!! His sms “Good girl, nicely done!” after two commercial breaks. The handing back at the end wasn’t as swee swee as we all wanted as I was a bit gan cheong. Still, it did raise my morale for a bit.

As usual, Biao Shu wanted to change the lineup as soon as he came back from swimming. But I put my foot down and told him it’s ah gong’s decision. On the funny side, “our” swimmers (Biao Shu and Dollah) could only swim in the heats, but they are well-trained in other sports as well. They also took part in events like fencing, and karate. Not bad!

As arranged, Conty will be going LIVE for the Table Tennis Women’s Final featuring Singapore and China at 3pm. Alvin and I have been communicating via smses, and I already know what to request from Jusri. Given the experience in the morning, I knew what I had to check to Jusri, line check and etc.


Kiok and I gossiped about Li Jiawei when play was going on. But with the on-going sms with Alvin, Kiok asked how come she never get any sms from Alvin? Hahah! I texted that to Alvin and his conclusion was, Kiok is jealous. Haha! Over at Singapore, Channel U conty people were trying to be "funny' with Alvin. But there's no messing around with the Doggies' Team! Alvin told Ah gong that I have been, and will be handling these ad hoc live events. Ah gong's response was good, at least she knows what's going on. I was on cloud nine after that. Though the same couldn't be said to our Women's team in Table Tennis. They lost the gold medal to China, which was probably expected.

The live belt was once again a big mess. I decided to let him mess up the live belt as he refused to listen to any one of us. Our live belt went from swimming to gym to volleyball to gym. And he actually showed prize presentation without showing the race, which of course triggered a phone call from Alvin.

TAG was nicely done, but the live belt was still in a mess. When is doggie coming back? Kiok queried. I wished I had the answer.

We reached our apartment with the main door wide open. Vivian went downstairs to complain. I wondered what’s going to happen when tomorrow comes.

4 Dec - The Revolution

My alarm went off at 6am. I struggled out of bed, but found that there was something wrong with my right ankle. I could have pulled something yesterday. With 12 more days of the Games to go, I chose to take a break from gym and see how my ankle feels tomorrow.

I texted Alvin about our badminton girls in the semi-finals of the team event today, before I showered. The next thing I know, programming has decided to go live for that event. Luckily I had showered and changed. Charging downstairs, I took a hasty breakfast and was nearly late for the 8.15am bus. It was God’s grace that there was a volunteer there to stop the bus for me as I ran on board the bus.

Before I rushed down to IBC, Kiok called Jusri and he was still sleeping. After breaking the news to him, he arrived at the IBC soon after I reached. He powered up the machines and went to have breakfast at IBC. Apparently breakfast is free for all till 11am.

Simon arrived while I was trying to check with SOC that they had gotten the correct feed from Doha. Before I knew it, we were on-air. Kiok reached the IBC just in time to call conty for the first commercial break. Alvin wasn’t at the conty to oversee things. The table tennis experience came in handy. Moreover, badminton isn’t as fast as table tennis.

In the end, Li Li dropped her first single, Jiang Yanmei and Li Yujia lost 2-0 in the next doubles and Xing Aiying pushed to a rubber set before losing 2-1. We had to settle for bronze in the Badminton, Women's team event.

The mood in IBC has always been relaxed and joyous in the mornings. There were plenty of jokes around. Kiok mentioned that some of the volunteers thought she’s Japanese. Following that, Simon asked Kiok if she went through Japanese Occupation. Wah lau! Kiok scolded him! “Simon! You think I so OLD huh?” With Jusri around, this could go on forever as he quickly added that he would like to report Simon to the SPCA – Society of Prevention of Cruelty to the Aged!

Soon, our “swimming team” came back from the morning heats. The moment he came back, he re-do the entire live belt lineup and came up with something else. This messed up the recordings that Wendy and Simon have been doing, and once again my effort went down the drain. Getting more and more upset, I text Alvin saying that from tomorrow onwards, I would only come in at 5pm to do supers for TAG, go off for dinner and come back for TAG. I took a walk outside the IBC, debating to call home or not. But the thought of nobody answering was too much to bear, given the emotional stress I was on now, and I abandoned the idea. I’m too used to having him around.

I ended up in an emotional wreck outside, sitting on one the benches around. Trying to pick myself up, I walked for almost two hours around the whole IBC. I called mum, putting on a brave front. The news of her being up and about at home and back to her work station sort of boasted my morale. I went back to our booth and helped Vivian with TAG. It’s time for Biao shu to learn things the hard way. Tonight is the first time we will be going live. No more pre-recordings.

Kiok became the AP for live belt, and Wendy was totally stressed out from 6pm onwartds. Her fingers were trembling after we closed shop. She has been talking to herself the entire period that we were on-air. Kiok was frantically calculating the duration for Biao Shu while calling conty. Nearing the half hour of the live belt, she told Biao shu that he will underrun for 15 minutes. He was desperate and he simply slotted some event in with no proper start and ending, during which Alvin called. I replied him I have nothing to do with today’s live belt. He’s the editor, he’s in-charge and he’s the one who has been making the decisions.

The harm is done. Prem was trying to calm me down during the live belt as I paced in and out of the panel. He said we should trash out everything later. Jusri agreed to sit in. Here’s the person who usually only take care of his technical area. He doesn’t interfere much with production usually and would leave us alone to our work as long as there is no technical problem. He has been hanging around the work area outside these few days, as he’s worried.

All the arrows were aimed at Biao Shu at the meeting. I suggested asking JB to RVO from event to event during the live belt, and letting me helped him with the lining of the live belt. He had to trust others to do the job and not carry the entire workload on his shoulders. We all had a part to play in this. Since we were all in this ship together, we would not let it sink.

It was all against one. Biao shu relented. Simon and Wendy suggested recording feed on tapes and not overload the evs during the live belt. Jusri was for taking live feed as much as possible and mix it with pre-recorded events for the live belt. When biao shu finally understood about not hogging the evs so that the editors, Vivian and Prem can get TAG out on time, he was bent on overloading the recording machines as he wanted to playback stuff for the entire live belt. Sigh… When will he learn??

After work, we all became friends as we never brought work out of our booth. We chatted over dinner, making fun of the huge mountain of food on Biao Shu’s plate.

On the way back, I asked Simon how come it occurred to him that Kiok went through the Japanese Occupation. He said his mum always told him stories about that period and the last time he heard them was ten years ago and he never grew up since.

While we were all waiting for the lifts at P9 lobby, Biao shu told me to do the entire live belt tomorrow. I told the girls about it and they said, “show him how it should be done!” Ladies and gentlemen, let the show begins.

5 Dec - Me? Line-producer for Live Belt?

Kiok kept me up the whole night with her snoring. I felt bad as this was probably the result of making her work with Biao Shu on the panel for three hours yesterday. Still, I woke up feeling excited as I make my way to the gym thinking that I would be lining the live belt from today onwards. Whow!

Given the slight pain I felt, I took it easy at the gym this morning. I was on a high throughout breakfast. I messaged Erquan that Biao Shu wanted me to line the live belt, and I told Prem that. Prem was good, haha, he said, “Go Fu Fu! Show him how it should be done!”

My initial plan was to record Badminton Men’s Singles, Round of 32, Kendrick Lee versus Sasaki Sho of Japan at 0940hr and playback later. But Wendy suggested that I used Li Li’s game instead as he lost, and she won with rubber set against Kojima Hiroyuki of Japan. The whole game lasted about an hour. Added to the live swimming events, that would buy me at least two hours. I have an hour more to fill.

Running through the Games schedule, Simon kept pestering me about putting in beach volleyball. So I thought, why not? But it would be the men’s games that we could playback in order to release machines for TAG editing. So I put down Men’s Beach Volleyball, Malaysia versus Oman. Both Simon and Wendy protested! Saying that it would be nice to see the girls play. With the promise that he would take care of women’s beach volleyball, Kazakhstan against Japan at 1700hr.

Given the relatively quiet morning, Jusri decided to play a prank on Halid. Using the light stand, he locked Halid up inside the machine room and shouted for him to come out. After being bullied for several days, Halid did not respond.

With Vivian pestering him for the highlights packaged by TVNZ, Jusri left the lightstand there and went out. Valerie Teo and Michelle Kwang have won Singapore’s first gold medal the Women’s Doubles in Bowling. They played till 2.30am and we didn’t have the manpower to keep up. Though the people back home weren’t happy that we didn’t get footage of that, they just have to accept the fact that we were all doing the best we could over here. The rest of us carried on with our work and soon forgot about Halid being locked up.

A couple of hours later, Halid banged at the door. It was then that we remembered he was still locked up inside. Wendy came out and asked what happened. Kiok related the story to her, and even said Jusri is a clever kid.

Prem came back with the news of Peter Gilchrist taking the bronze medal for the Men’s Singles in English Billiards. But according to him, he should have done better than this since he was a former world champion. This was initially my scoop story, as cuesports was assigned to me. Too bad that I have to be at base this time round. Maybe when Erquan comes back?

As the minutes ticked by, my adrenaline level increased. Then Biao Shu and Prem came back from their swimming and sailing respectively. I went through the lineup for livebelt with Biao Shu. At 1800hrs, we went live. Two swimming races later, I sort of calm down for a bit. But as the beach volleyball has yet to end, I went ahead with Li Li’s game first after three live swimming races, skipping all the medal presentations and back to live swimming with JB doing RVO from segment to segment.

It was organised chaos as the lineup was being switched around. In and out points of the recorded items were constantly being changed to accommodate the live swimming events, and with Kazakhstan and Japan going into a rubber set for beach volleyball. JB’s face was flushed red throughout. We were all running on adrenaline as I frantically calculated durations for the live belt while typing in CG for TAG.

Ghandi brought back some good news from the Bowling Centre. Our Men's Trios of Jason Yeong, Lee Yuwen and Remy Ong have bagged the silver medal. He has been at the bowling centre alone since Day 1 of this competition.

I didn’t realise that beach volleyball played till 15 points and not the usual 21 for the rubber set. It hit everyone after Simon said the duration of the last set was 13 minutes. And he actually drooled while watching. Kiok went "Si Gin Na! Kua ka lau nua!" I would under-run for 5minutes. Right now, my main concern was if TAG was ready to go. Biao Shu suggested throwing in something just for the purpose of filling up the time. But I refused. Since TAG was ready to go, I would rather under-run for a bit.

With TAG also under-running, we ended our show for the night about seven minutes before 2am. Lesson I would never forget – Beach Volleyball plays to only 15 points for rubber set. Erquan didn’t say much.

I kept telling myself to have only soup for dinner. But every time I failed to adhere to that rule. Prem and Vivian have been egging each other for ice-cream every night, with Kiok taking part. Oh well, gym tomorrow!!

6 Dec - Biting bullets

Day 6 saw me too exhausted and drained to visit the gym. Lee Jiawei and Yang Zi have made it to the semi-finals of the mixed doubles competition in table tennis. When this news reached Singapore, they wanted it to go live. This decision was made while we were all soundly asleep in Doha.

By the time I knew about it, it was after lunch time back home. Suddenly realising that although our mixed doubles pair would be playing in the TV court, TVNZ would not be carrying that particular feed. The lengthy explanation would be, there are two TV courts for every event, making a total of 37 feeds available for us in the IBC. But TVNZ would selectively slot the various events into their 6 satellite channels. And this particular table tennis semi-final is not one of them.

I begged Jusri to do something about. The trailers were out running back home. Channel 5 would be carrying this semi-final live. It would have to happen. I was under tremendous pressure from Erquan and ah gong. Biao shu was not around to handle this. I wasn’t even sure if Jusri could conjure some magic to make this happen. The only words he left behind were “Are you going to make an executive decision?” I could only nod. Not sure what he did though, John West of TVNZ came over and passed Jusri a printout of the latest feed available on TVNZ. Jusri was smirking, and not saying anything. I continued to pester him about the feed. I only have an hour left. In the end, he told me to bite the bullet and stick to my executive decision.

Soon, I could see Li Jiawei and Yang Zi warming up. The frown on my forehead was wiped away by the broad grin I gave Jusri. He had somewhat convinced John West to switch from TV Court 1 to 2. They have switched from one semi-final to another. Probably because no one was taking that game from them.

The game was over in less than half an hour. They lost four straight sets to the Korean pair and took the bronze medal for fourth. (Best of seven sets for table tennis, best of five for Badminton). Minister Teo Ser Luck was there to watch this game, and he said though Jiawei was very disappointed to lost this semi-final, she is picking herself up to prepare for her women’s singles semi-final later in the afternoon.

After replying some emails to ah gong and erquan, I checked the grid and found out that, TVNZ was only NOT covering that semi-final to be playback later. There was no way that Singapore could get that live, though we could.

Once again, I pressed the panic button. Ah gong was calling erquan’s mobile and I had to deal with him. Then I handed the mobile over to Jusri and let the two of them sort out the technical details. Apparently we would have to pay a HUGE sum of money to get the feed sent home via another satellite source. Jusri went through the TVNZ grid once more and saw that there was an hour slot from 1600-1700hr on one of the channels. Apparently Ah gong has decided to ask Juris to check if there was any chance that we could send the feed via TVNZ.

For the second time in the last couple of hours, I was told to bite the bullet. Jiawei has to finish in an hour’s time. If not, we are screwed! (Pardon the language). My stress level reached another high for the second time today. I started pacing around the IBC, and only took my position at the panel with Kiok half an hour before the game. Guo Yue of China took the first game. To save my skin, I was cheering on for China. Lo and behold, Jiawei came back to win the second game. Damn! I couldn’t work sitting down. I was standing as they fought for each point until Guo Yue won it at 10-12. It was half an hour before our satellite window closed for football. There was no way to extend the window as some 20 over countries were taking the football feed. GO CHINA! In the end, Jiawei lost 4-1 in 43 minutes. This was certainly some nail-biting experience.

Someone from DAGBS came over with the intention of interviewing the team leader for MediaCorp. Naturally, Biao shu was given the task as we all were or tried to appear busy. After that, Kiok said she has set up his MarComm corner for him – his EP table.

After this nightmarish ordeal, the live belt seemed easier to handle. After three live swimming races, I went straight to the Badminton Women’s Singles Round of 16 matchup between Xing Aiying’s live game and Kaori Mori of Japan. I had to take the commentry from source as JB was held up by the Sepak Takraw Final. Even Vivian had to do her own voice-over. But it was happy time at the IBC as Aiying took down her opponent with two sets.

After badminton, I chose to playback Weightlifting. It was the Women’s +100kg. Shuang Shuang of China had broken the Asian Games record in just the snatch. With not much time left, I could only go with her clean and jerk. Simon commented that I showed the beauty in one day and the beast the next. He even said Shuang Shuang looked like his friend Yao Keong and showed me his photo. They really looked alike. Wendy turned merlion when she heard this. She knew Yao Keong too.

With a punctual handover to conty, I couldn’t help but quote ah gong’s favourite words “just nice” in his funny way of saying it. Everybody laughed!

After this extremely tiring day, I was bringing in my clothes from the hall when Kiok asked was I packing up already. Of course not! It would be another ten days before we could be home and dry. Then Vivian asked why couldn’t we get to stay at P4 where there were washing machines and dryers. She said that we had to work hard at IBC and we had to continue working (laundry) even after we reached our apartment. It was very tough for us!

Remesh’s email dated 6th December, 2006 at 10.59am
Hi, just wanted to say that things are looking from Doha. Hope the food there keeps everyone happy…

Just a couple of things to note.

Always try and look out for the surprise gold medal prospects. I know bowling finishes late so we weren’t there. It would have been great to have pictures and interviews immediately. I thinking bowling will surprise use… so keep a crew there…Ghandi will be ok.

There has been a couple of requests for gymnastics especially women’s gym. Couple of paedophiles want to see young Chinese girls perform acrobatics. Sat’s schedule has rhythmic gym in the afternoon and evening. Can we record the afternoon stuff and playback at 11pm our time.

I notice Prem voicing stuff…not bad but could do with a bit more vigour. Same for John’s voice as well, seems a bit of a read rather than a sports report.

Apologies for yesterdays bowling injection for news. We did it once…but pls check with me because ABU will charge us for these 10 minutes.

Alvin will be arriving there on Fri. Hoping all is well with his dad. That should relief some of the work load. Anyway…hang in there and keep up the good work.

Vivian replied later, at 2.35pm

Hi Remesh,

Thanks, I think the food is the one bright spot in our day. Mr Baskins and Mr. Robbins calls to us every night (well, at least Prem and myself).

Since golds are expected in bowling, I’ve been sending our bowling expert Ghandi there everyday. It’s just that as you know, bowling is a darn long event – e.g. men’s doubles started at 9 and ended at ard 5.30, 6. By that time, Ghandi has to be back with the tapes, otherwise nothing on bowling gets out on the HL show that day. The women’s doubles carried on till 3.30am. But we’ll definitely keep track of it.

Gymnastics – noted. Hopefully the paedophiles will be satisfied with the young and nubile girls (who are they? The paedophiles, not the girls).

Looking forward to alvin’s arrival.

P.S. We aren’t paid enough to do this. Hint. Hint.

To which, Remesh wrote:

Good morning…nice to read cheery news thanks to Mr/Mr Baskins and Robins. Is stuff there generally expensive…like what would a regular meal cost?

Understand about the bowling. Anyway have heard that the tournament is not well organised. Maybe that’s why we won our gold..haha

Hows madam Kiok there…is she chatting up any huge Arabs?

We are going live with table tennis in the afternoon and again later in the night. Pre empting news…some people here wants to make the best of the feeds available.

Looking forward to athletics and maybe some football.

Again, as I said don’t be too clever with the highlight show. Keep the focus on local stories and fill the rest with the multi feeds.

7 Dec - Splashing to our second gold medal

I stopped using the treadmill in the gym at P9. Felt the strain on my right ankle for a couple of days and thought I should go easy on myself. Don’t want to get injured and had to stay in at the apartment.

It’s been raining for the past two days, and the rain started again while we were walking towards the IBC. Out came the hood on my jacket, the caps in Vivian’s and Wendy’s bag and finally Kiok had a chance to use her umbrella.

It was wet everywhere and Kiok had fun taking pictures in the rain. I went with her to the Qtel counter at the MMP. She has been a regular customer at the counter since she discovered that the top-up cards for our local numbers were sold here. She no longer needed to walk over to the city centre to buy top-up cards for us. On our way back to the IBC, we walked past the Al-Kass channel and I exclaimed that a horse has fallen. Kiok immediately asked where, to which I replied, “don’t have already.”

Later, back at the IBC, news filtered through. A Korean equestrian athlete died instantly after his horse fell on his head. The horse slipped due to the unfavourable ground conditions after the heavy rain for the past two days. Kiok commentated that I had actually saw it on TV and the athlete really “don’t have already”.

Scary but true. Jusri got for us the footage of the accident. We decided not to show the whole incident but some wide shots of it. Alvin wanted us to telecast the accident, but I told him we were still trying to find the footage. (Well, when I replied his sms, Jusri wasn’t back yet). The mood in the Korean’s station opposite us was sombre as they went searching for the footage that showed the accident. This was the first time in history that an athlete was killed in a competition. Soon, it was announced. A minute of silence would be observed in all the venues for the departed athlete.

With Xing Aiying playing in the quarter-final of the women’s singles in badminton against Korea’s Hwang Hye Yeon at 6.40pm, I slotted it into our live belt. Oh, TV court 1 at the badminton venue was leaking. It was a nightmare for both the organisers and us to know which game was going on when and where. The locals aren't prepared for the wet weather at all!

Issue #25 of the DAGBS newsletter featured MCORP TV (SINGAPORE) in the Rights Holder Profile column. The caption for the photo said “MCORP – Laughing all the way”. The report went like this:

Ignatius Teo, Executive Producer at MediaCorp Studios, and his 13 team members are excited to take part in the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006. Ignatius, whose six years experience in sports broadcasting include coverage of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, says “These [games] are so well organised… the excellent infrastructure, nice stadiums, and good competition…it shows that the Asian Games have grown throughout the years in popularity and standards. It is nice that we in Asia have such an ideal opportunity to meet and compete with each other in sport.”

Ignatius expects around 400,000 people in Singapore to tune in to MediaCorp’s broadcasts. “The thrill of our viewers,” he says, “is watching our athletes go up against and match the athletic potential of the powerhouses like China and Japan. The Games are good for cultivating camaraderie. It is the passion attached to sports that brings the country together.

In addition to the feed supplied by DAGBS, his team will produce a daily highlights programme to send to the fans rooting in Singapore. “Table Tennis, Badminton, Bowling and Sailing, sports that we excel in, are the main focus of the programme; they are the most popular with our viewers,” says Ignatius.

The challenge of producing a daily programme on time, complete with good stories and pictures motivates the MediaCorp team to excel. “The work gives us a rush and we are confident that we can do it,” says Ignatius. “Moreover,” he continues, “we have the great food at Free Flow [the IBC restaurant], the sporting events on the monitors, and lost of laughter to keep us engaged and working as a team.”

Vivian sent the photograph back to Remesh, saying “Upholding the glory of Singapore and MediaCorp…

…heaven knows why.

Remesh,

We’ll bring back the article that accompanies this photo or email you the link when DAGBS uploads it.

Before you ask, our MIP (Most Important Person) was away answering a call. Of Nature. Thus she was not in this picture, although fu ying tried to call her. Alas, nature proved more important.

Remesh replied that he will forward the photo to the rest of the gang to prove that “you guys” are still alive…nice pix though as Viv said, VIP is missing.

After having fun reading the article, Vivian tried to print out the photo of the whole team. But for some reason or other, the printer could only print out the part that contained me and Biao shu. She pasted it on the IBC wall for all of us to see, and added the caption “Dream team for Live Belt”. Something along this line. I would make sure this printout DO NOT makes its way home.

A reporter from Al-Kass suddenly made her way into our booth and requested someone to be interviewed. This time, we all pointed our fingers at Baio shu. Even Kiok said since he was the MarCom for DAGBS, he might as well be our MarCom. She even named his “EP” table the MarCom counter. And seeing this picture, Vivian commented that this was what Remesh missed and Biao Shu didn’t.

Before I knew it, the time has come for today’s swimming finals to go on-air. After the first three event, I playback women’s doubles between Jiang Yanmei/Li Yujia and Louisa Koon/Wong Man Ching of Hong Kong in Badminton. Though our girls lost the first set 17-21, they fought back to advance into the quarter-final 21-7, 21-18.

Making it back from commercial break and just in time for us to catch Tao Li’s 50m Butterfly event. All eyes were on her as she made her way into her lane. She bagged the bronze medal in the 100m event. Would she better it?

The moment the horn sounded, we were all rooting for her, shouting out lungs out. The moment she touched the wall, we had to check the timings to confirm which medal went to who. It was gold for Tao Li! There were high-fives all over the IBC as we yelled our heads off. This was the moment that united everyone, casting aside all our difference. This was one of the moments that kept me going. The feeling of witnessing history being written, is not something one can have everyday.

Going on live next was Badminton. The quarter-final between Singapore’s Xing Aiying and Korea’s Hwang Hye Yeon. JB was to do live commentary for this. I arranged it before erquan reminded me.

Xing Aiying did well to push the Korean to a rubber set. But she buckled under pressure and was out of the competition. From the highest of high, to a low for Team Singapore. Even the emotional commentary by JB couldn't spur her on. Oh well, you can’t have it all right?

While the rubber set was going on, I was frantically trying to back-synch the Table Tennis Mixed Doubles Final between China’s Wang Nan/Ma Lin and Korea’s Lee Jung Woo/Lee Eun Hee. We eventually set it at Game 4, 9-all, Wang Nan serving for China as the Chinese pair led by two games to one. The rest of the table tennis finals were all thrown away. This was the most exciting game, and I ended the live belt on a high by playing back Tao Li’s gold medal’s presentation before we handed back to conty.

A wonderful ending to this rather relaxed day was the dinner we had at the IBC restaurant. I even took a picture of the food I ate tonight. But not a happy night for our shuttlers pair of Yanmei and Yujia as they crashed out against Korea in the quarter-finals that night.