Bevlyn Khoo

Dear Honeybee,

I’m really very sorry to have killed you today, perhaps in the most unimaginable and statistically-low fashion of being murdered by a human-being.

But I was singing happily with my band at Burkhill Hall, and you suddenly came around out of nowhere. When I saw you circling round my legs, I panicked because I know for sure I didn’t want to be stung. Then my bassist scared me by telling me his friend (also a bassist) got stung by one of you while playing the bass. So I did exactly what my friends told me later on NOT to do - I moved - in fact I think I was thrashing my legs to the beat of the music which cued me to start singing in 4 counts..then i looked at the lyrics and sing. By the time the chorus was done and the music interlude came in, I thought you were gone. And indeed you were, because the soundman behind told me I had murdered you …totally crushed by my stilettos. I’m REALLY SORRY!

I should have known better than to wear a flowery dress to Botanical gardens

But if I had not moved, what would you have done? Extract pollen from my dress?!

Sincerely apologetic and guilty,
Bevlyn

Gabriel Mendes 1, originally uploaded by bevlynkhoo.

Yes yes we did it again, take some photos for some publicity for the upcoming performance at Esplanade next year (yes they’re asking for photos now).

Only this time round, no more nature, but at a lovely café I discovered by chance. If there is any dream café in the world, this is one of them, right in the heart of Singapore. You MUST go there (Tea Café) and try any of the fragrant tea (my favourite has got to be the french rose tea) and the tea egg (which I believe is what we commonly call the Japanese egg). You should have seen the look on Gabriel when he ate the cuttlefish roll; after eating it, he was actually still generous enough to share a big portion of it with me.

It’s hard for me to be infront of the camera (no matter what you think). And I believe Gabriel had his share of laughter (at me) for that afternoon too.

The duet with Aiza went much better than I thought, am very thankful to the friends/DJs who were there, though I wish more new friends were there too. Aiza was super duper cool, and her musicians were fantastic. Mike, her guitarist, was amazing - he could literally slaughter people with his guitar skills. The concert also gave me a peek into the new company I’m stepping into, and it’s great to know these are very cool-headed and open-minded people to work with.

I love the excitement of not knowing what I’m going to see, but only if I know the particular direction I’m heading. I love the thrill of working things through to get to the other end. I love working hard for it. In fact, I would be so lost if I have nothing to work on and towards. Recently I was quite troubled that I actually went to sign up for the french exam; at one low point, I wondered for what?! But then, it always comes back to pourqoui pas (why not)? And I can’t find any reason.

October is great cos I ate well, played hard, worked hard too. And I kept thinking about the subject of growing old.

My personal observation is that, people grow older, and the side effects are not just physical; psychologically they become more stubborn (maybe cos they believe more in themselves after accumulating all the life experiences), lower risk-taker (why risk what he/she already has?) etc. Sometimes I catch my own mannerism more likely to be found in a teenager than an adult, and truth is, I do feel ashamed sometimes. Then, I will argue with myself: But I don’t work in the corporate world where I have to wear dark or grey office suits and put on my most mature behaviour to get people to trust me or have faith in my abilities. So why should I act as such?

I want to keep my inner child. It’s my compass when I am lost in this world; and when I am on cloud nine, I want it to be fed with curiosity and amazement at each discovery. Aren’t these the joys of living?

Yes, I have been buckling up for a new adventure, and I suppose it is finally seeing the light

If you are free this Sun 26 Oct 08 @ 4pm, do go and support this very talented singer-songwriter Aiza Seguerra. I have been invited to sing a duet with her, and it is really such an honour! If you go, you’ll know first hand why I am invited, and what song we’re gonna do together

She will sing songs from her latest album titled ‘Open Arms’, and includes hits like Smooth Operator, Time after time, Vincent, Longer, Open Arms etc. Read more about her here. Here’s a song she has written for the album, and I love how it induces the goose-pimples up my arms:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ticket details as follow:

S2S presents Aiza Seguerra Live in concert at the DBS Arts Centre on 26th October 2008 @ 4pm. Tickets are at $38 & $28.

Tickets are available from the following outlets:-
Lucky Plaza Ticket Outlets:-
# 03-19 OFW Pinoy Star Ofiice
# 03-84 Urdaneta Trading
# 04-08 Hortaliza Trading
# 04-10 CEZ Services
# 04-18 Maganda Sexy Beauty Salon

Sembawang Music Centre
#02-37 Parkway Parade
#01-18 Funan Digitallife Mall
#01-24 Novena Square

#03-02 Concept 109,Heeren Shop

Now trying desperately to recover my voice.
Hope to see you there!

Wedding shoot in Paris_Gabriel Mendes, originally uploaded by bevlynkhoo.

The sky and the intensity of the photo took my breath away - just gotta blog it before hitting bed.

Gabriel Mendes, the same guy who kindly took the cover photo (and some others) for my album, went to Paris recently to do a pre-wedding photo shoot, and ta-dah! See more breath-taking photos of Paris (and Belgium) here.

Voulez-vouz coucher avec moi ce soir, originally uploaded by bevlynkhoo.

When I laid eyes on this T-shirt, I knew instantly that this is the present to give for a friend who has helped me a lot in my music career. No no no, don’t misunderstand, he has just gotten married, and the T-shirt is really just a joke! I just imagine him walking around the street with the T-shirt, and to me, that’s really funny. Don’t lose your sense of humour ok

The french exam is less than 2 months away, and I am really feeling the stress. I wish there is someone I can practise french with! One of my classmates suggested we play “Taboo” in french - ok, that’s really too much. What I’ve been doing is to talk to myself in french and I think I am going crazy, because sometimes I don’t know if I said it right or wrong.

And now I gotta learn a Spanish song, so it’s totally screwing my pronunciation system.
How do I even start to memorise something I don’t understand?

Btw, the T-shirt asks “Will you sleep with me tonight”. You can hear it here:

Ok, I am not gonna take anymore performance booking for the rest of the year!

Cos, after consecutive gigs from 11th-14th Oct, I am now sick :”(

Yes, I can’t claim medical bill from any employer, so I am choking myself up with Clarinase in preparation for the coming weekend performances.

Anyway, after doing so many weddings over the past few years, not only am I familiar with the sound system and soundmen/banquet managers/sales caterers of some venues, I am also thoroughly familiar with the programme itself. And it’s weird to me. Because truth is, modern couples are trying to break out of protocols, but the venues sometimes persuade the couples otherwise. For eg., some couples want to have the cake-cutting or the speech during an atypical part of the programme, but are somehow convinced by the captains that it’s better if they do it a certain flow –> actually it’s really just for the hotel/restaurant’s workers cos they’re used to the normal flow, and hence do not need to memorise each and every couple’s weird and random programme. Our creativity for our big day is hence slaughtered for others’ conveniences –> how sad?! But wait, there’s a way around it, and I’ve seen it happen. The solution is just 2 words –> Be insistent.

Or, sometimes, all the guest have arrived at 815pm, but somehow we all have to wait until 830pm cos that’s when the kitchen timed the food to be served.

Talking about programmes, some couples are totally clueless about wedding programmes (of course it’s forgivable because it’s their first time). But there are some who are meticulous enough to plan out a 5-min interval programme for the event. 5-min interval!? For people like me, I feel like hanging myself up a noose just by reading through it. Maybe they had to use some sort of alarm clock to get the act together for the 2-hr event (or gasp, whole day event from morning’s customary wedding till after the banquet).

MY ideal wedding will be…..

..in the form of a house-warming.

Because I will elope with the man I love, somehow solemnise our marriage in Safari, come back throw a house-party and announce “Oh sorry but it nearly slipped my mind. We just got married over the weekend! Oh, no worries it’s ok, you can pass us the angbaos next time. We accept cheques and atm/internet-banking transfer.”

I am so dumb.

It must have been the coffee in the morning which made me overly nervous. arrgh!

More zoo photos, originally uploaded by bevlynkhoo.

Ça fait long temps!

It’s been 15-20 years since I’ve been to the zoo? I’m just so happy (to the point of gratitude) that Juliet agreed so readily to go to the zoo with me. People, we really need more nature, and since I can’t go Safari as yet, this is as good as it gets.

And it was GREAT –> The rhino welcomed me with his huge poop-in-action; the ostrich greeted me with his erected ‘malehood’, which disappeared within 1 min (click on above photo to see, I kid you not); the orang utans were feeding, 1 even swooshed beautifully across mid-air for my butter fingers to take a photo of.

Giraffe counts as my fav; yes it’s prob rather dumb, but it’s V-E-R-Y T-A-L-L. Certainly that counts for something.

I’ve been clearing my life. Clearing, re-organising work schedule so that I have more time for myself (to actually just laze around and watch movies/TV, play more piano/guitar, or simply stare into space like in screen-saver mode, or yes, go to the zoo). You won’t believe I actually caught 7 French movies just over 7 days for the French Film Festival (some of the movies so bad I wanted to murder the scriptwriters). Also for my friends so that they won’t misunderstand I actually do not want to see them when I kept saying I had to work (which is nothing but the truth).

I believe in the law of attraction. If I want new things in my life, something’s gotta give. So I’m clearing, deleting, throwing stuff!

Everything’s exciting now. So, I won’t be going Japan after all for now, but finally, I see where I’m heading for, at least for my career.

Another baby’s on the way!

A passionate team of Ngee Ann student film-makers are doing a short musical film for their final year project, and they’d approached me to compose 2 songs for them. So exciting! Click here to find out more (sneak instrumental preview of song 1 in the video).

I think it’s beyond words to see and hear other people use my songs to deliver their emotions through acting and singing. Can’t wait to see the complete shoot! *wails*