Confessions of a Drama Mama

What’s in a name? Alot, apparently, especially if your name is Adora (which is my name, in case you didn’t know).

Google the word and you’ll find that Adora is a rather popular name. It’s the name of a supplement tablet, a famous horse, a pornstar, a potato, a princess, a golf resort, a brand of chocolates, a band (KING ADORA)… and the list goes on for many more pages.

I hate first meetings when I introduce myself and people give me a look like "Here we go again, another self-named one". They’re usually kind enough to say ‘Oh that’s an unusual name’ and I am quick to reply that I have creative parents. Sometimes, when the situation calls for kuai lan-ness, I will even throw in ‘Would you like to see my birth certificate?’.

When you meet a James or a Cindy, you don’t know what kind of impression to form. But when you meet someone whose name means "to be adored" or "adorable", you tend to make a very quick judgement. If this person does something to make you doubt the meaning of her name, you feel you are entitled to shake your finger and go "ORH!!!!!!!!!!! Liar! She’s not acting like her name promised!"

Some people think they’re smart when they offer a self-deduction "Oh so it means that you’re adorable! …. Are you?". Come on, I don’t say "Wow, your name is Harry? How come you’re bald?"

I mean come on. How many Meilings have you met that were lacking in the beauty department? Do you do that to them? Feeling guilty at your own inconsistency now?

Dicks won’t like hearing jokes about them, Roses don’t want to be asked ‘where are your thorns?’ and Joys can have days that they feel down too ok?

But I love my name. I love that my parents put some thought in my name. I love that my mother exercised some control and didn’t name me Magnolia (which is a nice name for a flower but unfortunately the milk company got famous first) or Azelea (it’s the name of a flower/bonsai)

What I don’t understand is how people seem to think it’s unpronounceable. A-dor-a. How difficult is that? Adore, Adorable, Adora. You won’t believe the things people call me. I get "Adore", "AH-door-rah" (very common with suppliers and the likes), "Er-doh-lah" (very common with beauticians somehow), and just when I thought I’d heard it all, I got a call yesterday asking for "Er-doo-lah".

So just give me a break, pronounce it as "Er-Door-Er", without any special emphasis on any syllable, and don’t ask stupid name related questions and we’ll all have a nice life ok?

Aha. I know why all you chee ko peks are reading this. But it’s not what you think ok? My topic is inspired by Mr Dick Lee - singer, songwriter, playwright, you name it, he’s done it.

Dick Lee is someone from "my time". I think I even borrowed a Mad Chinaman cassette (yes, cassette, not CD, and certainly not downloaded from anywhere) from a classmate.

My impression of him was always that he was a rich boy (he’s FIFTY leh!!!) that never had to have a ‘real job’, and could just do things that he liked. I mean seriously, how many people who grew up in 3-room HDB flats actually realised their dreams of becoming musicians, stage actors, songwriters etc. I think most times the dreams ended with old-fashioned thinking parents saying "You want to study WHAT? Study music tan bo jiak one la, study Engineering/Business/Accounting/Medicine/Law better".

Maybe it’s a misconception I have but I find it to be reasonably believable.

For some popular faces, you know straight away that you like them or not. But for Mr Lee, I could never place him. He seems like a nice guy as a Singapore Idol judge but I never could really form an overall impression.

Anyhow. Something Mr Lee said to his friend Babes Condes really made me see him in a different light. She said, and I quote from today’s LIFE! section, "Dick once called me out of the blue just to tell me that, even though we don’t spend much time together, he hasn’t forgotten our friendship. He cares"

That’s nice isn’t it? That’s a really nice thing to do. We’re all busy at different stages in our lives - preparing to get married, preparing to start a family, busy at work, going for holidays… We’re always busy going somewhere, planning for something. Maybe we should just take two minutes to say hi to an old friend. It doesn’t take that long to drop an email or send an sms anyhow.

Yes he may have been lucky enough to be born into a rich family, but he still seems like a nice guy to me And we could all do with some niceness in our lives ya?

PS OK la. Just for all you chee ko peks - Mr Lee is my second favourite dick ok?