After a month and a half in New York, I am finally back in the Jing. It's been a hectic week with quite a few changes but I like being busy so really, I have nothing to complain about. :)

On the first day back, I was asked if I'd like to move to Culture Express, the daily news show permanently (Daily. BJT: 2:30am, 8:30am, 2:30pm, 8:30pm GMT: 6:30pm, 0:30am, 6:30am, 12:30pm on CCTV International) and while I agreed at first, I've decided that I'm not quite ready to give up 'Travelogue' entirely. Now, I'm just waiting to see what my bosses have to say, hosting Culture Express daily and looking forward to shooting Travelogue again SOON.

Either way though, I'll still be hosting Center Stage (Saturday and Sunday. BJT: 01.30am,10:30am, 4:30pm, 10:30pm GMT: 2:30am, 8:30am, 2:30pm CCTV International). I'm putting in the showtimes just in case you guys have forgotten about me during my absence. 

Also, if by chance you'd like to let me know that you missed me, want to tell me that you hate my shows/ like my shows or if you just want to tell me about your pet dog or what you had for dinner, write me.

You can email:

centerstage@cctv.com
travelogue@126.com

or write in:

Michele Lean
CCTV International
C/O Travelogue
11 Fuxing Road
Beijing, 100859
China

Now back to New York... I had so much fun just walking around Manhattan. I don't think I've walked so much in a while but I think that's the best way to take in a city -- walking aimlessly. I can't even begin to tell you how much New York felt like home to me. The food, the people I met, the clubs, the shopping, the streets, the air... I felt as if I'd lived there my entire life -- a true New Yorker with the attitude to boot. And acting class was superb. I'll post up videos of that soon. And after classes were over, my boyfriend came down to visit for 10 days -- the perfect end to 1.5 months in New York. Hopefully, I'll be back there again soon.

P/S  I cut my hair. Love it or hate it, I think it was a genius cut. So thanks to Gabriel @ Wonderland, I now have a new do that makes me feel like a rocker. Too bad it doesn't come off as well onscreen as it does in real life. I'll try to get it perfected soon. 




Mucho love to Kristina & Nathalie. Xx



Partying it up with Tali, my housemate in New York. 



Miss you guys!!

I'm finally in New York! YAY!


Class starts tomorrow and I can't wait for an entire month of acting classes! I'm preparing to be fully immersed in a world I've wanted to be in since I was 18. Time to let go of my performance inhibitions and fears!

I'm subletting a room in Nolita from DJ Arissa Sound. She's been a total sweetie and has helped me out TONS so please visit her My Space page and show some support!

I was watching 'The Other Boleyn Girl' tonight and it made me think of my sisters. In the movie, the Boleyn girls had a close but often, maliciously competitive relationship. I couldn't ever imagine having a relationship like that with my sisters. More than just being blood related, they are my closest confidantes and I trust them without any doubt. 

I often hear stories about sibling rivalry but aside from the occasional tiff about who has ransacked whose closest, we rarely fight about anything deeper. And when we do fight, we tend to forgive one another fairly quickly. So while we all have fiery tempermants, we're also forgiving... or just have short term memory problems.


When we were younger, I banned the two of them from calling me 'jie jie' (older sister) because I didn't like the idea of a birth hierarchy and saw them both as equals. I'll admit though that I do try to assert some authority on my youngest sister, Valerie because we are far apart in age. But I trust her opinion because she has common sense and strength that I lacked when I was 17.


Audrey on the other hand behaves like MY older sister. She is straight-thinking, sharp-shooting and is my 2nd harshest critic -- I'm the first. But like all good critics, she is fair and when she says something, I don't doubt it. Well, unless we're talking about who stole whose top/dress/shoes x number of years ago. At that point, I'm always right.

We don't see each other often now but we speak constantly. In fact, I just had a Skype dinner with my family tonight and what my mum cooked, looked a lot better than my salmon quiche.


"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family" - Anthony Brandt

Xx Michele

Firstly, thank you all for your birthday wishes!  I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to thank you all earlier. My best friend is in town and I've pretty much dedicated all my time to her this week. She leaves tomorrow which sucks because I feel like she lives here now.

As for my birthday, I had a great 3-day celebration -- an interesting night out (will spare you the details), fantastic surprises and a 6-hour hike from the Jingshanling --> Simatai part of the Great Wall.

As usual, I've procrastinated a little and am now faced with a mad rush of trying to get my visa sorted before I go to the NYFA so I might not be replying to messages or blogging quite as frequently.

For now, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from my weekend.

Xx Michele

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the passing of a very special woman, Diane H, the mother of my ex, Amir. 

She moved to London from Australia at a very young age and it was there that she met her husband. And later, she moved again. This time to Malaysia for her husband and it was there that they started their family and had 3 children - Adam, Sophie and Amir.

For many years after, she battled cancer but no matter how sick she was, she was always there for her family. When we were in Melbourne, Amir and I would run about town buying her Tim Tams and Krispy Kremes before our flight back to Malaysia. And upon returning home, she would lecture Amir about how fat he was and me, about how much and what I was feeding him.    
I have never seen a more perfect family. I'd often turn up at their house and see her sitting side by side with her husband watching TV and I always wished that my family was as perfect. Some people say that there are no perfect families but I knew them for 3.5 years and I thought they were. A perfect family is one that loves, even through moments of disagreement. A perfect family is one that is always loyal. And they were. 

I admire a few women in my life, my mother, my grandmother, a family friend (Aunty CP) and Diane H. She was beautiful, even in her last moments in ICU. She was strong and had character and I never needed her approval because no matter what she thought of me, she was one of the few people I liked and respected unconditionally.

I was in Xinjiang filming when she passed on but there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of my last moments with her.

The day I was due to fly back to Beijing, I had asked the family for a few minutes alone with her. She was sedated at the point and I hadn't seen her awake since the last time I was  back in KL but I spoke to her anyway. I told her that I admired her, that I thought she was one of the best mothers in the world and that she'd done everything for her family. Then, I told her not to worry and promised to look out for Amir, no matter what happened between us and that I would see her the next time I came back to KL.

And then I saw tears falling from her eyes. She had heard me.

So even when Amir and I broke up and he pushed me away, refused to speak to me, I tossed all pride aside to make sure we were in contact. To this day, I am determined to keep my promise. We're good friends now and speak almost every day online so I know that he's ok but there is nothing that I wouldn't do to protect him and make sure he stays that way.

As much as I wish she could have overcome yet another battle, life doesn't always turn out the way we want it to. I hope she's somewhere better and I know if she is, she's no longer in pain.

I miss you Mrs. H. I think about you a lot. 

I wish I was in Melbourne today so I could be with Amir because I know he's not OK today.