Who: Pioneering humour writer Sylvia Toh Paik Choo, who declines to reveal her age and bills herself as “the oldest teenager in Singapore”.
On March 8, she will be inducted into the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations’ Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame for being the first to document Singlish, a blend of Singaporean slang and English spoken in the Lion City. The other nine inductees include Singapore sprint queen Shanti Pereira and educator, author and poet Hadijah Rahmat.
Toh published the first books on Singlish in the 1980s with Eh, Goondu! (1982) and its sequel Lagi Goondu! (1986). She has also worked for five decades in print, broadcast and online media – across magazines, newspapers, radio, television and digital platforms.
Her humour columns can be found at SilverStreak.sg.
“My perfect weekend is stargazing. Before you stifle a gaping yawn, this has nothing to do with the vastness of the universe, and yet, all to do with the positions of celestial bodies.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, I regularly attended the annual Cannes Film Festival and, in the course of two weekends, would meet all the stars that ever were. Except for actress Julia Roberts and actor Russell Crowe, the Hollywood heavies have all met me.
From actors Antonio Banderas to Billy Zane, I have seen them all, shot them all and got their signatures to boot.
On my perfect weekend, the Saturday morning would start with a screening – an art-house, blockbuster or competition film. Before the end credits roll, we would dash and grab breakfast, and then make a beeline for the front-row seats in the conference room.
The lead actors, director, producer and writer of the screened movie would lope in and the journalists’ knees would buckle at the sight of actresses Monica Bellucci and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
There would be questions like, ‘Did your time in prison or jail help you in making this film?’ for French-Polish director Roman Polanski.
‘How do you see to write the music for this movie?’ for blind American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder.
‘From your past experience, would you consider me?’ for British actor Hugh Grant, who gave the perfect answer: ‘Your room or mine?’
Lunch would be either the poor man’s baguette filled with cheese or at a show-business reception to promote some newbie. For the media, it would be the best meal of the day.
Once, en route to an interview, I saw a journalist pick food off a plate left outside a hotel room door. He was that hungry.
In the afternoon, I would sprint from celebrity to celebrity – George Clooney to Tom Hanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger to Clint Eastwood to Quentin Tarantino to Angelina Jolie to Madonna.
You just needed a couple of questions for each of their movies. And if there were cookies and coffee, we would load up. Freebies are a big thing at film festivals.
A quick stop in the press room to e-mail our reports, and then it was party time.
There is no party like a Cannes Film Festival party, The Hobbit party, Star Wars party, Austin Powers party or Shrek party.
On Sunday, I would leave Cannes and ride pillion on a 1,000cc BMW motorcycle to Monaco for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Here, any of the actors from Cannes would be second fiddle, as the drivers are the stars. Even British singer-actor Cliff Richard popped by one year.
You understand, of course, that after such a weekend, the rest of the year can only go downhill. But not this weekend.
This is my super weekend – President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will be presenting us inductees with our trophies.”
