i was in my third year of secondary school at the time, and thanks to the timing of the easter holidays, i was awarded with a visit to see my father's friend shooting the latest james bond flick...it was only known as bond xx, and it was written on the cap i have somewhere...i had to catch a train early every morning from waterloo station to the location, and on the first day i was driven to a middle of a very english forest...in its heart was a makeshift bridge, patrolling soldiers and generals milling around their trailers...the rest of the crew were sipping caffeine while i waited to meet my father's friend, the first assitant director, Gerry Gavigan...i fondly remember him coming up with a smile, shaking my hand, and subsequently taking me under his wing...he showed me everything that they were shooting that day, and the scene involved bond (pierce brosnan) being exchanged at the border between the north and south koreas...











a few things hit me during those first few hours...there were other people far away trying to take a peek in, and i was fortunate enough to see all of it up close...secondly, this was the second time i had seen a movie set, the first being the set of goldeneye many years before that...thirdly, i got to be in the best position available, with one crew member telling me that if i "know Gerry, you're pretty well sorted"...i had wanted to play an extra during the filming, but Gerry suggested that if i did, i would have the whole day sitting it out because i would have to be in subsequent shots...so i declined...i was driven over to the catering area for lunch, and in the car ride i met a diamond-faced rick yune, who i thought looked very cool (and he was very polite)...i cannot recall what i had eaten for lunch :(...so after lunch, it was back to shooting, and i heard that michael madsen was on set, but i never met him in person...i met and eventually befriended a 'general' on set, who more recently played the elderly prison inmate of christian bale in batman begins...

to be fair, the first day was boring in terms of action set-pieces...the second unit were filming nearby, doing the explosive hovercraft scenes while we were stuck with bond reciting his lines..."save the words, get it over with'' etc...

we were back on set the second day...i befriended kenneth tsang, who had portayed general moon, all from his over insistence on asking where were good places to eat in london...i was about fourteen at the time, and it was funny how this hong kong actor could actually talk to this trying-to-be-cool kid! i was invited into his trailer, and that was awesome...by the end of shooting that evening, he asked me to accompany him back to london - i got a free chauffeur ride :D! afterwards, we had dinner with my family and here's a pic of the nerdy me hahahaha!



on the third day, i didn't take any pics because i was whisked away to shepperton studios and boy, was there a lot to see...i walked through most of the filmsets, watched pierce brosnan fly through a glass window, found a secret switch on the wall and ate more snacks and drank more tea than i thought possible...its amazing how much work went into the models of the large sets, as i saw a mini ice palace, as well as artists rendering the conceptual art to the last scene of the film where bond fights on a burning cargo plane...i didn't meet all the cast for those three days, but one of the biggest stars of the film i was yet to meet - the green janguar which bond's nemesis would drive...they had about three when i saw them, and, although i wasn't allowed to sit inside, it was cool nontheless...each bond car has a silver plaque stating it was used in filming, and i thought it was a nice touch...it's the little things that count...so anyway, the other two janguars had been modified drastically...one had a huge hole in the back, and i asked why - it was because the jaguar was to be launched out for the flying shots of the car...!!!

Gerry had asked my father if i wanted to enter the film industry, and that he would help me, but unfortunately my mum said i needed schooling, and so i never took that chance...weird thing is i enjoyed it so much that i am getting back into it now...

that's all i can think of right now...anyways, as always, thank you for everything Gerry ( be seeing you again soon!!!), and to all the lovely crew who may, or may not remember me...it was a great experience!

recently i learnt an important, and quite possibly 'game-changing' lesson...in my life i have always been very good at memorising, be it texts for exams, people's names or faces, or anything in the spectrum of things-to-remember...so i'd never forget an act of kindness, and i'd go out of my way to repay the person, who often did something kind rather than gave me a tangible gift...but with all things, it was a double-edged sword...with every major insult, i'd remember that person, eyes eagle-eyed and fixed on their failures, waiting for a chance to teach them a lesson...

however, over the years growing up (i'm only 22 now) i have become less interested in the 'revenge' aspect of it all, and more into the hope of bringing someone to their knees to see their own mistakes...yet, even this point of view is flawed, as we cannot change anyone until we can show absolute love for them; to allow them to grow in their own time, akin to how we watch a sapling mature and sprout in the warmth of the sun...i have finally understood the last ingredient that i have been missing in my heart: patience...now when i see the people who do us wrong, who blow up buildings, who destroy lives with adultery, who insult us and hurt us are, in fact, all need love and patience to grow into better souls...i'm not saying we stand aside to watch them commit crimes or condone their wrongdoing, but we guide them with love, instead of conceit, silent rage or hatred...my methods in helping people will not change much, if at all, but my patience will now be far greater, and i will replace contempt and anger with love, because love is the only power great enough to sustain relationships, to build skycrapers and to fuel our humanity, be it physically or metaphorically...

another thing about patience is giving that second, that third chance: we all make mistakes, and until we make that one mistake which wakes us up from our unconscious slumber, we would not know the suffering or hurt we have caused...we only experience guilt after the awakening...so i hope that anyone reading this will realise we are imperfect creatures, who unfortunately, and usually only learn through painful experiences...

i realised this week  i'm in love with monsters...monsters of all shapes, sizes and colours...when i was a young boy, i fondly remember loving dinosaurs, adding them to my toy collections...when i was growing up, i loved to watch monster movies, noteably godzilla, jurassic park and other creature-features, like predator and alien...i played monster-themed games, like pokemon, and eventually, somehow, in the midst of it all, i was always the biggest monster...i was trouble from a very young age, and on numerous occasions i have given my parents a hard time...now, looking back at all my earlier years, and the few recent years in hong kong, i am thankful i am no longer a little monster...this was in part due to the world's fair share of monsters, like hitler, terrorists and murders, who have all been responsible for living out the darker side of humanity, showing us what we should never be...in most monster movies, the monster is there not by choice, but by an unforseeable set of circumstances, and it usually wants to get out, or continue on its 'normal' life, such as the xenomorph in aliens, or the tyrannasaurus rex in jurassic park...however, we have the singular power of choice, and the destruction we sow is not out of survival, but lust and greed...so i wonder: what monster could possibly rival that of a human so determined to destroy and enslave? i'm glad i'm not a monster, yet, we should all be thankful for the select few who have, for they are our teachers, and one hitler has taught an entire planet to never tread his path...life is ironic...we have our jesuses, buddhas and ghandis, who have inspired millions upon millions, yet a few hitlers would do the exact same...in this world, both light and dark coexist and depend on each other...we need to see the bad before we understand what good is...

it's april...time goes by so fast that i understand why we are all only here for but a sprinkle of time in the grand plans of the universe...and even shorter are lives of flies and smaller animals...i wonder how long plankton live for?

it is always funny how we are never told to pursue our happiness, but to instead find a life which may not be the one we had in mind...some examples include parents forcing on their children the importance of 'security', wherein the very security is money or a so-called respected profession...ironically all these ideals are inherently flawed, as nobody will know what will happen later in the day, let alone tomorrow...yes, people say you should save up for a rainy day, but sometimes no matter how much we plan, things don't always go quite the way we expected them to...there is no real security in this world, as money will not save you from an accident, nor will being in a respected profession make you immune to disease...we are programmed to destroy the competition, never to embrace the strengths and weaknesses of one another and respect them...how can we possibly expect to find happiness with these measures in place? i remember in my school, which was highly competitive, how we were never doing good enough, and while this pushed us further in achievements, sometimes it made friends turn into enemies, as it became too extreme...so i suppose that's why i never turned out like my schoolmates, and i'm a lot happier than they are at this moment in time...i have not been forced to study a subject i did not want to satisfy my parents, nor have i been chiseled into the social sheep most of them have now become...pursue your dreams...if you believe that you can achieve everything you dreamed about with honesty, love and hardwork, without the need for backstabbing or conforming to the rules of 'killing the competition', go for it...we need to break from the shackles of the old to reform this world into one of hope again...