Goin Green bananas

As part of my new year resolution to consolidate my blogs, for the first post of 2008, I present here a little story of how a crazy kid went green bananas... enjoy!

Funny how life moves in cycles. About 15 years ago I started a little eco company in Singapore called Green Bananas that made a paper making kit for people to recycle their own paper at home. Green because I wanted people to know it's environmental bent but more likely because I was totally green to the cutthroat world of business and Bananas because everyone thought I was crazy to give up a good and stable job for what? An unlikely little paper making kit that may not even have a market.

We did sell about 1,000 kits during the 2 or so years the little Green Bananas was out there doing paper making demos; giving magazine, TV & paper interviews encouraging people to start recycling paper in their own homes (in those days, Singapore had no recycling system for anything.


Things have changed now though) and even holding a handmade paper art exhibition called, you guess it, Paper * People * Planet.
Back then I had quit my well-paying
job as a writer for a Interior design magazine and put all my meagre savings into designing, manufacturing and marketing a simple paper making kit that made A4 paper.


It had everything you needed to make paper (apart from the blender) and packaged, quite charmingly in a jute bag.

How I managed to wrangle my friends & family to help out in it's publicity and sales I have no idea. I just stand in grateful awe that they did. We had quite a ride with it. I am willing to bet that at least 50 friends and family still remember how to make their own paper today. And if they've forgotten and would like to teach their children, the next post will help them along their way.

And this is was the purposely unintimadating instruction leaflet that came with the kit.

And now, here I sit years later, writing a blog on the beautiful diversity of handmade & recycled paper. On how people can use this humble medium of paper to help make this planet a bit better, by art & by recycling, for those who live in it now. And also for the children who will come after.

Greening the earth seemed so possible then.

And so it still is. It must be.

Because if not now, then WHEN?

And if not me, then WHO?

This CHRISTMAS

Oh so many years ago, a good friend sent me this for Christmas.
In the intervening years, life pulled us down separate and diverging paths.
Into different countries, vocations and beliefs. Still, this anonymous poem stayed with me. Accompanying me through the dark anguish and the giddying highs.
I guess maybe the meaning that Christmas held for us when we were young still holds as we move into the second half of our lives.

This one's for Adrian and for all who look for a little meaning beneath the glitter, the commercialisation and those ghastly repeating pop carols.

A Very Merry Christmas One and All.

The Road Traveled

I had wanted to do this last year. Filled out the application forms and all. But knowing how way leads onto way, I purposely got distracted with all the other happenings in life and did not apply to participate. I decided not only not to take the road less traveled. I decided not to travel down any road at all.

But this year, this year was different. A path seemed to be leading down toward the building (rather than playing at) of an actual business revolving around making things with gorgeous fabrics. For the time being , the gorgeousness covers mostly scarves & bags.

So I applied to take part in a Christmas Craft Market. The Creative Finds Market to be exact. I had been so impressed by the organisation and marketing zip of a fab crafter called Nicci Battilana who's in charge of the Craft Market that when she asked if I'd wanted in, I said "Yes" before I had time to consult with my doubts. A good thing too. Because I sold stuff and, more importantly, I followed my sister's advice and actually had fun. And for the first time since I'd come to Vancouver, I felt more in touch with the person I'd left in Singapore. And that's a wonderful thing.

It also helps to have friends. Especially girl friends. They support you through your craziness and your joy. They let you rant your frustrations and roar your successes. And, they also accompany you when you have to man a stall for 8 hours at a Christmas Craft Fair (how else would you take a loo break?) . Thank god for girl friends. Thank god for Olian. Who not only helped bring the extension cords I forgot, but also flaunted the fact that she was one of my first happy scarf customers to my new scarf customers. That endorsement really helped sell. Besides, she knows how to dress. Which only made the scarves look better.

And I guess it's true then. This belief that the spirit or the intent behind which something is done communicates, somehow, unseen to people, strangers. And they react to it. Which is probably why, the scarves got sold, women, and some men left smiling and chuffed, and we won the stall holders prize for best display, packaging & product. Which was all the more satisfying because it was never expected.

A Little Note: I have to apologise for the incredibly blurry pics at the Craft Market. It was cold that day, snow up to your ankle (and for a girl from the tropics, that's alot especially when you have to drive in it), and I had only 4 hours of sleep the night before, worrying, preparing, worrying, planning,worrying, packing and did I mention worrying?

Reaching the Inner Princess

Our friends Thom, Pauline & their little daughter, Georgia, were leaving Vancouver after more than 15 years living here (well not Georgia, she's only been around 2 years or so). They were driving across the breadth of Canada, to Ontario, to make a new home there. For those of you who are used to Singaporean or European distances, it's like driving from Singapore, up peninsular Malaysia, through Thailand & Cambodia, up the length of Vietnam, pass Yunnan and southern China to Beijing. Or from London to Tehran. But this is beside the point.

The point is. I didn't get to say goodbye to Georgia, not that she'd remember me, her being a wee girl and all. But I felt that I wanted to give her something to remember Vancouver by. Reaching into the depths of my own inner Princess (which I knew EVERY girl must have inside her) I dredged up long forgotten memories of what someone shorter than 3 feet would find fab & fun. Then I put together the design for 3 little girl purses. All were made of glow-in-the-dark fabrics which will give children loads to fun with after the sun sets.

Inspired by another princess from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away, Princess Neon Cheesecake came into being. She's was a twin of the one that went to Georgia. Pink, yellow with headphone-like handles resembling the clenched fists of a power puff girl. She was bought the moment I'd put her online.




Then came Princess Lime Sherbet to keep Cheesecake company.




Princess Lemon Lollipop completes the trio of royalty. Each with a colour & a character of her very own. Kinda like every little princess exploring in every girl. Or sleeping in every woman.

Bintan Bound for Batiks

The way it seems to me, my fate will always somehow be intertwined with that of Bintan & Penyengat ( a little island village off the big island of Bintan). It's been that way for over 15 years now, and it's been good. Good and very interesting.

After all, it was in Bintan that we built the Beautiful Asmara Tropical Spas. And it was there I spent those uneasy nights during the year 2000 riots; met Frankie the poser of a biawak (monitor lizard); saw girls get possessed by spirits; had magical moonlight walks on the soft white sands of the Mayang Sari bay; dealt with dukuns (shamans); ate the BEST ever lamb chops; explored the Riaus on a wooden sailboat called Windsong; went for my first rave & caught malaria.

And it is also there that I made some very dear friends.

I'm currently working with Ibu Zainab, Ella & Chup on making Batik Prada wall-hangings & runners. After leaving Asmara, the gang in Penyengat had little to no orders from the spa and this is my way to help them with some income generation.

All the items are sold on an online shop I started which can be found at www.rumahkampung.etsy.com

Here is some of what we came up with....

Home & Back again

It's been some time since the girl's been back to Singapore since moving to Canada.
And she was a bit apprehensive.

With all the news I'd read on the Channel News Asia website (one no longer reads The Straits Times Online since they started charging. As if SPH hadn't made enough dosh selling their Times House site to Condo developers. They have to wring out what's left of an overseas Singaporean's pitiful non-taxed income to subscribe to their site).
I digress. From the stories of how quickly Singapore had changed in the past two years; with Vivo city coming up, the new developments in Marina South and the like, this girl was afraid that she'd not recognise her city anymore.

So it was gratifying that some things had remained where she had left them some 2 years ago. Thank god the good people at Hair Fair remained at The Adelphi and thank god Joo Hock still gave the best hair cut. The MRT still worked with economy & efficiency. There were no workers strike to impede a persons daily life. Everything chugged along at a pretty good clip. I pace I understood.

Also it was good that the 3Fs still remained, more or less how I'd left them. The Family were safe,healthy & busily happy (despite their complaints), the Friends were mainly still in S'pore and were all grappling with their learnings, their plans & their new additions....and the final F, so dear to a S'porean's soul, the Food still tasted the same. The quality of Tiong Bahru's Kampung Chai Tow Kueh was spot on. Altho I noticed that the size of their portions had shrunk. Must be the higher rent in the swanky, new, escalatored hawker centre.


I was really impressed with what was happening with Clarke Quay tho. It's a tiny step toward the "Singapore-Under-The- Climatically-Controlled-Dome" idea which I'm sure many sweltering S'poreans have proposed over kopi at the corner coffee shop. Very Star Trek.