Last Singapore Post

photo by Maung Maung : Close to work

Hi all...

So much time has gone by since I last posted. As time went by, things got really busy in Singapore. What happened since I last posted ? Sooo much. Let me start.... We got engaged, Pino and Dri had a baby (little Joaquim my nephew), Gal and Edgar(in laws) came to visit, Mila started kiting for real, we are moving away from Singapore, I got the Lead FX title at work, cloneWars will start on Cartoon Network with one of our episodes on October 3rd on the US, I got to meet George Lucas... that's the short for all that happened.

Mila and I will be getting married in Salvador in 2009. We are super happy about it. We are planning to tie the knot in january 11. We got engaged a few months ago on our 3 year aniversary dinner. We had dinner on a golf Course in Sentosa and went for a walk after it with the full moon in a golf course with a sea view. I got in my knees and did the right thing. =)

We both quit our current jobs as we decided it was time to move on from Singapore. I am thinking I want to freelance for a bit before taking another full time gig. Singapore experience was SOOOO NICE. We saw so many cool places, met with new cultures and some amazing people along the way. It was a big lesson about life really. About everything from history, to work, to politics and to parnership and love. I enjoyed it so much and do not regret for a second having been here. We are planning for a trip to Europe for a couple months before going to our next stop. We shall see where the wind blows us.

A few things made us take the step to move on. Life has become very expensive here. We have seen a cost of living increase by at least double to what it was when we got here. We have been here for 2.5 years and it was past our due date for what we came here for. It's too far from home and I have been away for 10 years now. We worked a LOT here, sometimes more than what we wanted and we were both getting burnt out and needed a break bigger than what we could take while working for someone.

Lately we have been super busy as I am finishing the season for clone Wars and preparing the move (packing a LOT of boxes) and seeing a lot of details for the wedding.

photo by Maung Maung : West Coast

Now it's time to say good bye for now or see you later, somewhere else, some other time. Hopefully I have some free time now to implement a blog on my website (www.sandrodisegni.com).

Sorry for my delays posting. It was not meant to be that way. Sorry for any posts that offended anyone. At last sorry to a lot of great people that we could not commit more time to spend with you. In retrospective I see that, during the time we spent here, we grew from being 2 people to being a real couple and for that we spent a lot of time on our own. It's not you... it's me. =D

At last I would like to THANK YOU ALL that made this experience in Singapore SO BIG and SO GREAT. Thanks for the lessons, the trips, the talks, the tips and the parties. I hope we keep in touch. We will really miss you all (friends, sailors, kiters and colleagues). There are even too many names to mention here. I actually started to make a list to thank but it got too big =).

Please keep in touch through skype, im, email, facebook, etc.

Cheers and see you hopefully soon.

Trikora on Chinese New Years...

Photo by Joana Garrido ... one of our friends that went to Trikora with us. This is another pic of our weekend getaway. It was a blast to have our friends there and discover a bit more of the island with them. We went with Daniel (Russian Colombian), Gisa (spanish), Mario and Jo (Portugal) and the 2 of us.


Mila on her kiting gear... =D
She is up and going on the board already and this coming weekend is promissing... we are going again on friday to not miss any good winds early saturday morning.

Some news and Foxy Lady IV

Hi all,
I cannot believe how busy we have been... from last time I posted, we went to Brazil for new year... We spent a week in Bahia with Mi's family, had a chance to go to morro de Sao Paulo, an AMAZING place there and spend some time with her family. Then we went to Ilhabela in Sao Paulo for a week with my family and Mila came back. I spent another week there in Sao Paulo and had an eye surgery, the lasik one so not wearing glasses anymore ... UHUUU... spent some great time with the family and Maite. I will post pics of our holiday very soon ... takes a while to organize them.

Pino (my brother) and Dri are expecting... I CANNOT WAIT to have another niece/nephew... makes me really consider going back home.

GREAT NEWS is that Mila's parents are going to come visit us in May. So we started planning some trips and already requested some holidays. We will be returning to Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi in Thailand and to Cambodia as the first time for all of them. It will be great to see them and to travel to all these great places again.

This is the new boat I have been racing on, Foxy IV. It's a first generation TP52. Not as fast as the 4th gen ones but still a BLAST to sail on. Enjoy the PICS

Long time no see

I know... I have been a bit of a slacker with the Blog.
Life had been good... actually great. Missing Brazil a LOT as usual and missing all in Vancouver as well. It's been almost 2 years I have gone away from Canada and almost 10 away from Brazil.
It is INSANE how life goes by FAST.

Let's see what's new on our world.... Maite is growing fast and we have been following it closely from far away (at least we can do that nowadays)

Mi is working quite a lot. Right now she is in Taiwan and lately she's been to Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand training managers for Fedex... SOO COOL... she makes me proud. =D

I have been working like a mad men as well... CloneWars is the most intensive FX show I have ever worked on and the onde I am doing with the smallest fx crew I was ever a part of. The show is looking great and it is quite rewarding after all the long hours spent on it. Everyone working on it and having a chance to see it thinks it's gonna be a BIG HIT. I sure hope so.

Lately I had a chance to work with some really talented people from ILM. One of the guys there, Joel came here to help and train for 6 weeks and it was a great opportunity to push the fx of the show even further. He showed to be a great professional and friend... Hope we have a chance to work together again in a close future... Maybe I will go visit sometime. :)

It would be a chance to see all in Vancouver and San Fran.

The Monsoon season is here and last weekend we had some AWESOME winds. Spent 3 days kiting in Indonesia for that weekend and got back to some old tricks I was doing before blowing my knee.

Not sure if I mentioned that I am going to start sailing on a TP52 over here... it's an awesome boat and I am looking forward to it ... A LOT.

Anyways ... enough about me for now... Hope to get some news from all of you over the world as time runs fast and we loose touch...

Cheers.
Me

Monsoon Cup Qualifiers

Last weekend I headed to Malaysia to Kuala Teranganu for my first experience match racing.

The team was formed by Iris(main), Alisson(bow/main/tactitian), James(skipper), Ross(trim/pit), and Me (trim).

Only Alisson had experience in match racing and I had no idea how intense and hard match racing is.

By the end of the first day racing I could not move anymore. My hands would cramp, belly, back and shoulders as well ... needless to say I am not on my best shape after abandoning the gym for more than a month and being sick for the last couple weeks. Next time I am going to the gym every day for at least 2 months before saying yes to an event of this caliber.

There were 4 teams representing NZ (the winners), Hong Kong, Thailand and us for Singapore.
We won 3 races from Thailand and lost 3 for them. We also lost 2 races to NZ and 4 to Hong Kong. It was a great learning experience and regatta. The people organizing and on the Umpire (sailing comittee) were world class (even including the guy that called the penalty from NZ on Alinghy on the last America's Cup) and the Kiwis are now going to compete on the Monsoon Cup as a prize for winning this event.



The Monsoon Cup is ran at the same club and it is part of the World Match Racing Circuit where a lot of BIG sailors are... check out http://www.monsooncup.com.my


Meanwhile .... Milena is in Hong Kong training managers for Fedex and heading to Australia in 2 weeks... Her birthday is coming up next weekend and we are not sure yet what we are going to do. Probably going to Trikora, our weekend getaway in Indonesia.... such internacional couple ... =)

Brazil and Amsterdam

Just came back from 3 weeks in Brazil. It was an AWESOME trip. We saw Maite and spent a lot of time with the families. It was so nice to see everyone and meet the little one.


On the way back we stopped at Amsterdam. It was a cool city to see. I will let the pictures tell the story of this vacations. Check the ALBUM




Cheers.

Taipei, Taiwan

Last Thursday I went to Taipei to work with our partner studio, CGCG. I was really impressed with the city and the people. It reminded me a lot of Rio without the bad stuff (violence, poverty, etc).

I had a great time visiting. Spent only 3 days but it's definitely worth a visit. The picture above is from Taipei 101, the talles building in the world until the day I visited it. The next day apparently a building in Dubai became the tatllest. Pretty cool to see the view from up there ... feels like you are looking at a miniature at a movie set. The elevator is the fastest in the world (60 km/h). Cool stuff !!! =)

I saw Demshui, Xiemen, the Ku Kong museum and the area close to the main MRT station. Stayed at the Grand Hyatt and from there I moved to a Hostel International on top of the K Mall... ok place to stay. Next time I think I would look for something closer to Xiemen to stay ... that part reminded me a bit of the Times Square in New York with even more outdoors and visual polution.

For those of you coming to Asia to visit, It might be woth a stop if you have the time.

CloneWars

Some images and a trailer was released from the show I have been working on for a while now.
I am guessing that I cannot put those images here but I can provide the links. Check it out:

Image:
Image from Cover of Star Wars Magazine

Trailer:
Star Wars Website Trailer

Enjoy... Let me know what your thoughts are.

Cheers.