What happens in the MAAD museum stays in the museum

Hey people,

Hope everyone's having a great weekend. If not, well, there's always next weekend. As for me, I'm still recovering from my late night at the museum on Friday.

Friday was the first time MAAD was held at night. So what are the new features? First of all, there were sellers outside the building. I did not do a count but there were possibly 10?  To be honest, selling outside the building is not a bad idea. It's visible and you catch the passers-by. The minus part? You need good weather and strong lighting. As for me, I much prefer indoors because I don't like to sweat and I'm terrified of my bags dropping onto the dirty ground.

The red floor where I used to sell at turned into an exhibition area. There were the giant black grapes. I wanted to say balls but I changed my mind.

And a really cool guy giving interesting haircuts. The haircuts were free on Friday but you need to be able to carry it off. My hair is still growing out from its last butchering so I passed.

The other change? We no longer get tables to display our wares. Instead we get a large suitcase on a stand. I really struggled with displaying my stuff and came totally unprepared. I saw that some of the sellers were really creative with the display. One lady used a branch to hang her goodies.

Another change? There were SO MANY sellers selling fabric bags.

Janet came! She used to sell at MAAD. Remember? A number of people who used to sell at MAAD came too.

Actually a lot of people came. The traffic was fantastic. The MAAD team did a great job. An area was set aside for drinks and music, sort of like a pub. As the night grew later, I noticed a number of flushed faces and bits of tipsiness.

My sales, however was not proportionate to the traffic. But it was pretty decent and way better than my last time at MAAD.

Two people actually came dressed in pyjamas. These two "poets" provided a free service of typing out on a typewriter a poem based on one word you provide. I provided the word "projects" and when I received my poem, it turned out to be some random gibberish typed out in no particular meaningful way. And yes folks, once upon a time, before computers were born, the typewriter was a great invention.

I did not feel as sleepy as I thought I would. I guess the surprise visit by two presidential-hopefuls took care of it.

Singapore has to vote again. This time for a President. The last time Singapore voted for a president I was still unmarried! Since then, there has been 2 walkovers. See, in order to send your name in on nomination day, you first need to apply for a Certificate of Eligibility. The criteria is quite stringent so very few people qualify for the post. This year, surprisingly out of 6 men who applied, 4 were granted the Certificate. This means it may be a 4-cornered fight. We will know for sure on Nomination Day which is 17th August.

The post of President is largely ceremonial. It has some blocking powers and the job of "guarding" the country's reserves. It is also a well-paid job. I hear the figure $4 million in the net but I don't have an official source. So let's give or take a couple of k's? To be honest, I don't think the 4 men who were cleared to run are in it for the money.

Usually, the government would endorse a candidate but this year it decided not to openly endorse anyone. Okay, it kind of told us their preferred candidate.

This is Tony Tan. He is running for President. And he came to MAAD! I was very surprised. It shook me out of my sleepiness. The MAAD team did a great job with the publicity, didn't they? Psst. Tony Tan is the ruling party's preferred president. He used to be a deputy prime minister. He is a very powerful man. I am most impressed by his hair! It is so in place and smooth. And he has incredibly good skin.

You all know I'm a politician groupie, right? See K Shanmugam and Dr Yaacob Ibrahim. Well, I sure couldn't pass up the chance of getting a pic with Tony Tan. Gosh, now looking at the pic, I can see that I'm standing waaay too close to him. And I'm crying over my bad hair day. I washed my hair before I left home and totally forgot to use any conditioner. So when it dried,  it went WHOOSH WHOOSH in every direction. Can I blame my new hairstylist? Can I? Just look at Tony's hair. I want hair like his except in chestnut brown. Mandy took this pic for me and she only took ONE shot and I had to have my mouth open saying something to her.

Here Tony is having his portait painted by a group of painters/sketchers. Yes, I followed Tony around the museum for a while with his entourage. After some time, I saw Tony leave.

Things became quiet for a while and I was thinking to myself wouldn't it be fun if the other 3 candidates showed up? Suddenly a man appeared before me with the biggest of smile. It was another presidential-hopeful Tan Jee Say! I couldn't believe it. We shook hands and I must say he has a very powerful handshake. Warm and sincere. I'm afraid to say I know very little about Tan Jee Say as he is not a public figure like Tony. I tried to look for him later in the crowd but couldn't find him as he wore checks which are too everyman look. On the other hand, you could spot Tony a mile away on account of his glossy white hair and big black glasses.

Now looking at this pic of me and Mr Tan, I notice that I'm standing waaay too close to him too! What's wrong with me? Mr Tan has such lovely skin too. And nice hair. When I look at my hair I want to cry.

When I finally found Jee Say again in the crowd, I saw that his entourage included hot babe Nicole Seah who had run and lost in the recent General Elections. Although she was popular, in my opinion, she did not stand any chance of winning contesting in a constituency anchored by a previous prime minister. But man, her hair is so gorgeous and she has fab skin. I wonder where she goes to get her hair done.

After the entourage left, I waited for the other two Presidential-hopefuls to show up but I guess they did not know about MAAD.

The last hour before packing up is always the hardest. Time crawled between 11pm to midnight. There were still lots of visitors. While packing up, I managed another sale! For some reason, when you pack up, you're bound to attract folks to your stall.

It was an interesting and fun night for me. I got a little drunk from the excitement and most importantly, I got a great taxi driver when I left. Slept all the way home.