Children's Mental Health Week: A message from HRH The Duchess of Cambridge

I wish there had something like this in Singapore. When I was a child, a student in schools, there was nothing like that here.  So I hope people in the UK support Place2Be. 

Book Launch for A Day with the Duchess

A week after we returned, Emma and I had back to back book launches at Books Kinokuniya. We were both very thrilled to say the least.

Erin, Sheri and Ilangoh with the help of our Kino friends promoted A Day with the Duchess via facebook and other social media, hoping to drum up some level of interest. Erin was in constant contact with me whilst I was in London, emailing ideas for activities for the children for the one hour launch.

As for goodies that the kids could take home with them, we had paper dolls of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, a paper hamster on a stick and stickers, lots and lots of stickers!

I invited William, Vicky, Mikey and Alice Adeney whom I met when we were waiting for the Duke and Duchess at the Gardens by the Bay. Incidentally, the book is dedicated to Mikey and Alice and you can see their illustrated likenesses in the book.

At two a small group of children and parents had gathered and we started the reading session of the book kaunch. As Emma has a far nicer reading voice that I do, she graciously agreed to read the story for me.  And it's needless to say that she did a fantastic job!

After the reading we played a game with the kids. They had to guess the whereabouts of  Kate the Hamster and whoever found her would win a prize.

Quick thinking Alice, found her and for her efforts, she won a Kinokuniya voucher, a bespoke sketch of the Duchess of Cambridge signed by Soefara and the opportunity to be an illustrated character in the next Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di book.

Then Soefara did a drawing demonstration and she gave away two of her sketches before it was time for us to sign some books.

With that, our book launch was over and we had half and hour to get ready for Emma's book launch. Thanks to Emma, Soefara, Sheri, Ilangoh, Richelle and Erin for making this happen. Thanks to Mum, Auntie Susanna, Tilly, Kenneth, Simon, The Adeneys, Sarah, Linda, Tracy, Evelyn,  Dave, Jason, Jim, Edmund and everyone for coming out to support us.

Watch out for my next blog post on Emma's book launch. If you missed both our launches and you would like to attend  launches at the Asian Festival of Children's Content Just Click This Link to register.

Prince George's Christening

My concept sketch/caricature of HRH  Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

In  honour of Prince George's christening, I'm posting a concept sketch, a caricature I had in mind for A Day with the Duchess which will now be published as part of the Sam, Sebbie & Di-Di-Di series with Epigram and will hopefully be released by the first quarter of 2014. The concept sketch below is by the mega talented Soefara Jafney and it is amazing. 

Teaser: William & Kate Illustration by Soefara Jafney

From the Royal Mail

The Duchess in Singapore accepting a copy of my book Blow a Kiss. 

As you know, I have been working on my  book A Day with the Duchess for some time and now I've got some great news: it will be part  of the Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di series with Epigram Books.Yay! If you've been following my blog, you may remember that my Mum gave a copy of my limited edition book Blow a Kiss to the Duchess when she was in Singapore last year. That story got picked up by Hello Magazine and the London Evening Standard among others. What a thrill!  Speaking of the Duke and Duchess I mailed them copies of my books If I Were a Blue Kangaroo, Emma's Elephant, and At the Night Safari for Prince George Alexander Louis and I received a response from the palace. Sure, it was  a standard form response but it was nice to receive it, nevertheless, and it will make a nice royal keepsake.  Considering the amount of gifts they received I hope they keep the books and read them since I shamelessly signed them for the little prince and his parents.

At the Gardens with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Princess Diana says she remembers me

It was with great excitement that I headed down to Gardens by the Bay with the hope of meeting the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I've been a huge supporter of the royal family since I was a kid, well since I saw Princess Diana driving through the gates of Buckingham Palace right before her wedding.  Through the years I was fortunate enough to have met her several times and I even curtsied to her in my excitement- that is something I will never live down. By the way she remembered me the next time I met Her because she said "I remember you. You're so sweet you gave me flowers last Tuesday."

So for this visit, I bought two bouquets of flowers, a framed photo that I shot of the late Princess when I met her and one of my children's books that I intended to give the Duchess as a souvenir.  Having conducted a reconnaissance mission of the Gardens with my Mum who said she would go along to meet the Duchess, I was fairly confident that we stood a good chance of doing so. Well OK, I did get a hint as to where to stand because I asked one of the ladies in charge of the tree planting ceremony where I should stand. I explained that my mother was old and it would be nice if she had a chance to meet the royal couple. Without hesitation,  she told me the route that the couple would be taking and told me where we should stand if we hoped to meet them.

So with information in hand I headed home and set the alarm for 6am. Didn't really need it since I was up at 4am as was my mum. Dad agreed to pick my niece up and give us a lift to the Gardens.  So with a folding chair, packets of Ribena, water, and dried apricots we headed down to the venue. Big signs were posted along the route as to where we should go to meet the couple. We got to the Super Tree Grove at around 8am only to find that scores of other fans had gotten there earlier. Thankfully we managed to find a spot along the barricades behind some nice English folk. My niece positioned herself along the barricades and my mum set up her folding chair and sat down for the long wait. We had two hours to go before William and Catherine arrived or so we thought...