As a TV Host/Producer, I had never done anything in the food genre until I started hosting "Chalk and Cheese" on the Asian Food Channel. Of course, I've always loved good food. Who doesn't? But to actually be on set watching a serious professional at work (my co-host, Chef Tommes, used to work in a 3-star Michelin restaurant in New York), was quite an experience.
For starters, I could barely keep up with how fast he chops everything and whenever he got me to assist him, I'm not sure whether I was more of a hindrance rather than help. I tried my best nevertheless ;) 
When we started editing 'Chalk and Cheese' at kyanite.tv, it was really challenging to edit a complete dish and keep it to less than 8 mins. In a typical half hour ep with 3 segments, you've only got about 7 minutes to tell your story (per dish) yet cameras were rolling for sometimes more than 40minutes for every creation. The analogy that it's easier to write a novel than a short story definitely applies when editing a food show. It was tough to pick what should stay and what should go. There were so many great tid-bits of information, during the cooking process that had to be edited out to keep within the right time frame.
Well, I learnt heaps being on set trying to absorb as much as I could. And people ask me if the food tasted as good as it looked. Put it this way...I've never seen such a happy film crew, me included coz we finished off everything he made, leaving no 'props' behind! ;)
A lot of our day to day stresses come about because we are constantly living in the past or worrying about the future. Yet, all we ever have, or can actually expereince is the present moment. If you find it hard to be present or to focus on being right here, right now, it's probably an idea to pay close attention to small children and your pets at home. They are amongst the world's greatest teachers in living the moment. They are always 'present' and focused on whatever they are doing! I find it fascinating watching children and animals in action because they always live in the NOW. Just look at this kid...she's really immersed in the moment without a thought for last week or next month. She was really enjoying herself and I was enjoying watching her chase these pigeons. For a beautiful moment there, I forgot whatever I was thinking about. She helped me stop to smell the roses.
Living the moment does not mean you don't plan ahead or think about the future. It would of course be good to do everything necessary to be absolutely prepared in life but once you've done everything you could, just let go. Enjoy today because tomorrow isn't here yet!
The question that mums-to-be feel too guilty to speak about - experiencing a disconnect with their baby
Before this pregnancy happened, whenever I thought about the day when I’d be carrying a little baby inside of me, I’d always imagine that glow, or immense sense of connectedness, or bond that only a mother and her unborn child could have.
And when I was pregnant in my first trimester, I ached everyday to feel baby’s first kicks… and it was all because I believed that I wanted, nay, needed that sense of connectedness. After all, that's supposed to be the biggest part of experiencing pregnancy right?
After conversations with other mums, I found out that it’s normal to feel a sense of disconnectedness from my baby. For some people, the bond is only felt in the second or third trimester, for some, even up to several months after the baby is born.
Okay, so maybe I shouldn't beat myself up so early on about not feeling the connection yet. Speaking to a particularly spiritual friend recently (she is a kundalini yoga teacher), I found out that yogis believe a baby’s soul only enters its physical body in the womb after 120 days.
That did make me feel much better. Still, I longed for that bond, and thought perhaps I would feel it after we found out baby’s gender, and could refer to her by her name.
Only that didn’t happen.
Now just entering my third trimester already armed with knowledge of her gender, we’ve zeroed in on a name, and with baby kicking to kingdom come… I still don’t feel like I’m pregnant with a baby!
Sure there’s the increasingly abundant belly, I’ve all the signs and symptoms of a woman in her third trimester, and people have long stopped asking how I’m doing and instead asking how ‘we’ are doing…. But I still don’t feel pregnant.
Thanks to Facebook, I see pregnancy pictures of friends being posted constantly. Like this one of my gorgeous yoga-teaching friend who just gave birth to a beautiful boy. You see mums holding their bellies tenderly, lovingly gazing at their bump, channeling that their pregnancy is (was?) a magical time for them. This sets the precedent that it should be like that for everyone.
But it’s all a lie. Damn you postcard perfect mummies! [/rant] No really, that's just my little green monster acting up. I really am truly, genuinely happy for you all who have this :P
Just don't judge me for admitting that I don't feel it the way some of you do, okay? And for mums who are experiencing this too, and beating themselves up over it... Don't. I found out that it's really normal. Different people experience pregnancy differently and that bond will come in time.
In the meantime, I'm still keeping up my baby-and-I scheduled breaks to lay in bed and just feel her kicks and squirms. And I'm still keeping my heart open to the day when that bond forms without me expecting it.
We’ll see what comes out when the time comes eh? I still feel like it could be anything – a bunny, a koala, a human baby girl, a facehugger, or that octopus-looking alien from Prometheus.
Or perhaps this little thing inside of me will reach out soon enough and tear open my belly to enter the world and we’ll form that mum-and-fetus bond that I so yearn for after all.