Had a bit too much stress at work and need to vent? Give one of these activities a go and watch the worries fade away.

Rage Room

For an all-out vent, the newly opened ‘rage room’, The Fragment Room, is your new favourite place. The first in Singapore and possibly Southeast Asia, the grey concrete rooms are your safe space to take any anger out on objects.

You’ll be given safety gear – overalls, full face mask and cut-proof gloves – and a room where you can take to physically smashing inanimate objects. There’s a selection of ‘plates, cups, vases, television sets, radio sets and other electronic appliances’ to smash – anyone familiar with the movie Office Space may want to re-enact the scene with the office printer.

Everything provided is recycled, which lessens the blow of all this destruction, and it certainly gives you the safest space to try something so primal. The best part is you can bring your own music, so you can play Ride Of The Valkyries – or even Taylor Swift if that kicks in the adrenaline – while wielding a baseball bat, sledgehammer or crowbar. Packages start from $38 for a single session – which includes a crate of breakables and 30 minutes – $75 for a double with a friend, and the ‘Annihilation’ package with 60 minutes with unlimited crates.

A: The Fragment Room, 3 Balestier Road, 329671

T: 9155 8897

W: thefragmentroom.com

Baseball Batting Cage

Don’t know how to play baseball? Pfft! All you need to know is how to swing a bat. Grab a helmet, head into one of these cages and let your arms do the talking. Arranged like an indoor golf driving range, there are four lanes at various speeds for players to step in – starting at the softball lane for beginners, and working its way to the 80km, 90km and 100km baseball lanes. The pitching machines, complete with a digital screen of a pitcher, spit out 15 balls per token (it’s $20 for 5 tokens, or $40 for 11). The machines are fed by pre-paid tokens at the counter. While 15 doesn’t seem like a lot at first, you’ll realise which muscles you’ve rarely used as they ache by the third token.

There’s a pitching game at the back of the room too, with nine squares for players to practice hitting targets. Ask the staff to teach you how to properly throw, or just pitch that ball with all your might.

A: Homerun Baseball, 200 Pandan Gardens , #01-01/04, 609336

T: 6635 6315

W: hrb.com.sg

Running

The freest way to sort out a muddled mind is to throw those runners on and head out the door – it’s also free. Running causes the body to produce endorphins – those feel-good hormones that produce what runners have playfully called the ‘Runner’s High’ – which increases your mood and acts as a natural painkiller.

Over time your running habits will help improve your reactions towards stressful situations. Running can also make for better sleep – and lack of sleep tends to be a big player in our moods to begin with.

The repetitive nature of running also serves as a kind of meditation. Because your body is busy making the various limbs work to keep the pace, your mind has more time to contemplate – whether it means plugging yourself into a music playlist to keep the mind busy, or just listening to our own body as it handles the exertion. Running with a friend also serves as a way to ‘talk it out’ with someone, getting a second opinion on all those thoughts running through your head.

Reach out to the ANZA Running Group if you’re new to running and wouldn’t mind joining in with like-minded folk. They’re in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Boxing

It’s an oldie, but a goodie. You don’t need to be planning on a new career inside the ring, but boxing is a sure-fire way to get the heart racing – and shake the stress off.

While the physical benefits are plentiful in terms of weight loss, muscle toning, cardio and flexibility, there’s something about the physical exertion that can really relieve built-up tension. A lot of what makes training effective as a stress reliever is taking instructions from a trainer; when you’re being told to hook, hook and 1-2-3, there’s little time for your mind to be wondering whether you should write a snarky email to a work colleague.

Places like Spartans Boxing Club (spartansboxing.com), Legends Fight Sport (legends.com.sg) and The Ring (thering.sg) are open to both men and women, with various packages. Like any sport, over time you’ll begin to notice each session giving you a clearer mind.

Darts

While it’s less of a full-body workout and more of a way to throw pointy things at a wall, darts is a great way to unwind. Grab a couple of friends and spend some time at one of the many bars around town that have a darts machine. Modern-day dartboards in Singapore are aplenty, working in the form of an arcade machine – with screens that count for you. Dart bar chain i Darts (idarts.com.sg) have spots around places like Bugis and Jurong East. Each game is a dollar, and there’s usually a bar if you want to get a drink.

A: I Darts Halo, 201 Victoria Street, Bugis+, #-03-24, 188067

T: 6634 9662

W: idarts.com.sg

Back again in Singapore for the M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, Ross McCormack talks about his latest performance, Area² as part of the Borderline show.

Ross McCormack (pictured left) talks about his latest performance to ANZA. Photo by Shaun Ho.

 
How are you feeling coming back to M1 CONTACT Festival this year with Area²?
It’s super interesting in many aspects, not just for me but also as a part of a small group, Musclemouth, from New Zealand; it’s the first time we have engaged or attempted to take our format as we understand it, and build something on another company while keeping that idea alive. It is different from a choreographic commission in that sense, but it’s our first go at something like this, so it evolves as we do it. There are expectations on both sides that have to understand or find something new, which I like.

What kinds of collaborationS are involved in Borderline?
[Lead composer/sound designer] Jason Wright (pictured, right) has the hardest job, stringing together the whole evening in a sense, building two scores while keeping an overarching view on the production in its entirety; it’s a huge task actually. We continue to push each other more and more. Obviously when we first began creating together, Jason’s work was reactionary to the choreography, but these days we almost jostle for the floor! The ideas are pushed and contested, sound and movement both come first now and the idea, in some cases, can become the result.

Contortion at the Borderline show. Photo by Shaun Ho.

 
When did you first come across movement theatre, and what drew you towards it?
It was viewing Les Ballets C de la B at the New Zealand Festival in 1999. That’s not to say dance theatre was not rich and being presented… more that the subject matter and content, the approach to movement and idea of dance as the language, it worked with me instantly. I felt their world was in fact one close to me.
Simply put, in my mind it was as if their work ‘Iets Op Bach’ was set in my town Rangiora, out the back of one of our old pubs! It was also more than that – my heart shifted with the characters in such a profound way. I was watching with no care about technique or execution for the first time; how good he or she was as a dancer gave way to their craft as a performer, actor or dancer. I personally connected more to them as artists than dancers.

What themes do your pieces tend to focus on?
The environment, but not in the obvious way of the word, or what we attach to it especially in 2017. These are not statements from a political view, or reactionary in that sense. It is more surreal in the idea of environment.
There is something very intriguing, watching performers during the process come to terms with where the work might be in terms of its world. Once we have that defined I like going even further and letting rituals and systems take over…the natural order and some deep unknown, almost as if the dancers have a secret about their world.
I love to find what the body of movement is going to really be. It seems there is always a code of sorts that prevails and fits everyone. This time it’s detail and something machinery-based. I had no idea that would be the case, but it’s not important that I completely know or understand the work – this is a bit standard now, I get that, but for me it’s important and very natural.
The difference being a complete commitment to the unknown, and the conviction from the performers that their world has been established by them. What we have made is a display, reaction, and representation of that.

Catch the Borderline show at Esplanade Theatre Studio 22-24 June.

ANZA is supporting the launch of the inspirational story, The Book of Hat, at the New Zealand High Commissioner’s Residence, Friday 30 June. Read the story behind the pages of Harriet Rowland and how one brave girl’s voice can inspire many.

The late Harriet Rowland, writer of The Book of Hat

Cancer, in any language, is like a swearword. It is said with venom or through gritted teeth or gulped back through tears. Sarcomas are a particularly brutal form – like the sort of phrase you only use when anger has the better of you and that word comes spilling forth. They originate from connective tissues, can arise anywhere in the body and frequently like to lay hidden until they can do the most damage. This prevalent type accounts for 20% of all childhood and young-adult related cancers and are the most aggressive, with 50% mortality within five years of diagnosis.

It’s not a “light at the end of the tunnel” type prognosis is it? If ever there was a time to rattle off some expletives, add in several hand gestures and generally unleash primal kicking and screaming it would be then, wouldn’t it?

But there is another way to cope with this hand dealt; take inspiration from Harriet Rowland – or ‘Hat’ as she was known.

The talented New Zealander was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer which originated in her knee, at just 17.

Naturally going through treatment and countless hospital visits ostracised her from her friends, and so she found that loneliness – shared by many cancer sufferers – was something else to battle too. Until she read John Green’s novel, The Fault in Our Stars about a protagonist called Hazel Grace who talked honestly about living with cancer. Like her fictitious heroine, Hat discovered that there was still happiness to find in her life.

Throughout her journey, she kept a blog, My Experience of Walking the Dog, which has since been edited into a collection of her posts called The Book of Hat. Her tone of voice, which transmits through the page, shows not only her writing talent but also the attitude with which she faced her illness. She candidly talks through tough situations with humour and courage and is a pure inspirational read.

Harriet entered the Mary Potter Hospice, Wellington two days after her book launched, and died surrounded by her family and friends on Friday 7 March 2014.

The Book of Hat is being launched in Singapore on Friday 30 June at the New Zealand High Commission with all proceeds going to Kick Sarcoma, the Sarah Grace Sarcoma Foundation.

Dr Grace Moshi, herself a sarcoma survivor and founder of Kick Sarcoma, the Sarah Grace Sarcoma Foundation.

Registered in Australia, and now in Singapore, the Foundation’s mission is to advocate for increased research to find new and better therapies with which to treat Sarcoma patients. Their objectives are to raise awareness so that early diagnosis reduces the devastating impact, and to raise much-needed funds.

As sarcoma widely affects children and young-adults, complaints about aches and pains can be attributed to growth spurts or sports injuries from school – but there could be a much more sinister reason.

Treatments of sarcomas – still mainly surgical – are costly, often ineffective with extremely high morbidity and mortality. Survival rates have not progressed in the last decade. These forms of cancers are still not well-understood. Founded by Dr Grace Moshi, herself a sarcoma survivor, the charity is at the forefront of research studies. The John Curtin School of Medical Research has benefitted from the fundraising efforts and celebrated a breakthrough this year. The team in the labs there have discovered a molecule that can block sarcoma mestastases (the spread of the cancer to secondary locations) and next stages are being implemented.

By supporting Kick Sarcoma, and initiatives like this, there is hope that a voice such as Hat’s won’t have to be heard from beyond the grave. That we can finally tell cancer where to go.

Read an extract from The Book of Hat in the July edition of the ANZA Magazine.

To get involved, ANZA members can attend the launch event at the New Zealand High Commissioner’s Residence for the membership price of $100. The cheese and wine reception and poetry reading is all in support of the Kick Sarcoma charity, which is benefitting from the sales of The Book of Hat. The first 100 guests to RSVP to the event have the opportunity to receive a copy of the inspirational book. Click here to sign up.

It takes just one mid-week staycation to remember what attracts people to this neighbourhood, Gerard Ward finds.

Robertson Walk maybe familiar to some, but a staycation means looking at the area with fresh eyes.

 Every Saturday morning I pass by the same corner on my way to yoga class. There tends not to be anyone outside Beast & Butterflies in the morning – the restaurant attached to hotel M Social – but I’ve often wondered what it’d be like inside.

Recently, a chance came up to stay a night and, despite hitting mid-week, I still wanted a chance to try it out – even if it was after work.

Robertson Quay – the once-bustling strip known for its stretch of restaurants and bars along Singapore River – has quietened down a bit. This is where people used to go for a night out – much like the nearby Clarke Quay – and in a way it still functions as such for the short-term visitors. This neighbourhood provides enough of what a nomad or business traveller would be looking for – from Japanese restaurants and whisky bars, to pub grub and football on big screen TVs.

A midweek staycation is new for me and, although there’s no need to impose rules when on a staycation, it sometimes makes the ‘trip’ more enjoyable; I tell myself not to venture further than 15 minutes from the hotel to experience the neighbourhood.

Arriving at the lobby of M Social to a whiff of cool air – with marble tables, self-check-in machines and intricate statues encased in pink plastic walls – I check in to my room on the ninth floor.

Clean, concrete walls, floor-to-roof windows and a comfy bed on the second floor of the mezzanine, the Loft Premier Room (starting at $290++ per night) is modern and cosy, making use of the real estate. Designed by French designer Philippe Starck, the hotel follows the recent trend of shedding some of the traditional luxuries for modern extravagance fit for Instagram-hungry Millennials.

The fifth level pool is open 24 hours a day, and is quiet when I visit. There’s a whole shelf of towels, plus a cold-hot water dispenser, which is a nice change. I actively avoid eye contact with the gym on the way out.

Sit back & relax, you’re on staycation at the M Social.

Keeping to my 15-minute rule, Brewhouse (171 Chin Swee Road), a small bar owned by Singaporean microbrewery Innocence Brewing, is a little over 10 minutes’ walk. On weekdays from 5-8pm they serve 1-for-1 craft beers, and even at the early time of 4pm they have $10 pints. I opt for the Calamity Coffee Ale – a dark ale with the burnt barley taste of a stout, and that bitterness of coffee.

Common Man Coffee Roasters (22 Martin Road), a five minute walk from the hotel, is a Melbourne-esque café with mixtures of dark wood, white tiles and bare concrete roof. Above the café is another one called Grounded, a smaller cafe owned by the same people for those going to Yoga Movement – the yoga studio owned by the group. The Common Man brand has grown incredibly in the last few years, being a well-oiled machine for the weekend morning and brunch rush.

At the time of my visit, it’s almost empty – peaceful, you could say. I order a latte ($5) and a serving of churros ($12), trying the ‘treat yourself’ mentality one would want to adopt on a staycation. Served on a small cutting board, the hot churros are star-cut with thick edges, a soft centre, and a whole lot of sugared cinnamon. Closing hour comes and I head out to Roberston Quay.

What we tend to forget is that a lot of these neighbourhoods still play a big part in first impressions. Newcomers may be blown away by the sight of Robertson Walk with the architecture of the serviced apartments, fountain centrepiece and mix of sports bars and Korean BBQs. In fact, I notice that the variety of food is incredible in Singapore. You’d be hard pressed to not only know where to find particular cuisines if someone asked, but be able to name multiple places that serve it.

I arrive back at the hotel and see a strange robot plugged into the wall in the lobby. AURA, as she is known, is a room service robot that delivers all manner of things to your room. I’m not convinced but request some bottles of water delivered to my room. I giddily rush upstairs to wait for technology to come knocking at my door. The phone rings, but I instead rush to the door to a happy chime and AURA’s head opening up to show two bottles of water. It works!

Later, I finally get to see inside the hotel’s restaurant, Beast & Butterflies; the back wall covered in iPads playing videos of various highlights around Singapore, and dining tables surrounded by unique glass and lava lamps.

Duck Crispies ($15), a row of six dumplings with a crispy fried edge, filled with a delectable mix of shredded duck and a light peppery sauce, makes for a sweet starter. The sous-vide soy salmon ($25) with aubergine confit, sautéed snow peas and soy emulsion is a delightful mix of crisp, crunch and meaty. The Assam shortribs ($35) are boneless, tender, slightly sweet with the tamarind broth, with mashed chickpea coriander and sautéed pea sprouts – a mixture of tangy, spicy and fattiness.

A delicious and beautiful plate of sous-vide soy salmon at Beast & Butterflies at the M Social hotel.

Leaving the restaurant, my girlfriend and I set off for a wander down the quay. SPRMRKT Daily (41 Robertson Quay) sits by Singapore River with a covered al fresco seating area. The selection of wines to choose from are listed as either organic, sustainable or biodynamic. We order two glasses of Bordeaux wines and watch people pass by, enjoying the red glow of the lights coming from Alkaff Bridge and soaking in what countless others before us have done.

I think to what makes this moment of reflection special to me; it’s knowing what else Singapore has in store for those who venture out further, but that there’s still a lot to enjoy around areas like Robertson Quay.

The evening view of Alkaff Bridge over the Singapore River.