Catching On

Tell us something interesting about yourself.
I really love prawns. My grandma used to run a prawn shop in Chinatown when I was younger. During Chinese New Year, we’ll always go to my grandma’s place and when we’re there, I literally sit at the dining table with a bowl and start peeling prawns. I’ll stop after 20 prawns before eating them all. I love dry prawn noodles; the best one I’ve had is from Zion Market. Prawn noodles is my go-to thing!

If you could trade lives with somebody for a day, who would it be and why?
It’ll be my pug, Hor Fun. Seriously. He’s eight years old this year. I think he has the best life ever; all he does is eat, sleep, and enjoy. I’d really like to see what he does the whole day whenever I’m away. I wonder a lot about a day in the life of a dog.

If I had a million dollars, I would…

Travel the world, for sure. I’ll start from South America, trek Machu Picchu and then go down from there. I’d start a cat rescue shelter too. I feel that there’s a lack of nicely-built cat shelters here in Singapore. If you visit cat shelters in Australia or the United States, they’re always very beautiful. Singapore’s cat shelters are sometimes a little mangy.

When I was really young, I had 16 cats at one time.
I started the habit of bringing strays home when I was in primary school. My parents would bring me to community centres for dinners and I was always the only child at the table. I’d get bored and ask my mum for some money, telling her I’d like to buy some snacks but I’d end up buying cat food. Then I’d look for cats to feed. That’s also how I got my first cat named Cartoon. I carried Cartoon, a kitten then, underneath my skirt and thought my parents would never know that I brought her home. I kept bringing strays home and they bred so that’s how we ended up with 16 cats. #ClosetCatLady.

What’s the craziest hairstyle you’ve ever tried?
And the ugliest? It’ll be the Egg Head. I used to do hair shows for a friend, long ago. He cut my fringe to the limit of my hairline and it was curved. I was platinum blonde and he added a tint of pink to it. I looked like an egg and it was horrible. I had to live with that hairstyle for a month before my fringe grew out. I only looked decent after three months.

Samantha was last seen here.