WARDROBE MALFUNCTIONS

First it was my shawl. Now it's my faded, jaded jacket, which once sported the colour olive green. My shawl has on several different occasions doubled up as a table cover, a backdrop for filming books, a skirt to cover the guests blue jeans, an Indian designer's (Kavita Bhartia's) gorgeous blue skirt. But my jacket has had to wait patiently.

But what a debut it made on the airwaves this morning!

For the viewer everything might see seamless (I certainly hope it does coz when I watch television all I end up doing is spot the flaws!), but there is so much going on behind the scenes to create that illusion of on-air perfection. Working in a TV station, is pretty much the equivalent of being part of a large orchestra - the only difference being no man or woman alone can be a conductor. It is team work, on a scale that rarely gets mentioned even in the best of the team building books - but that's another tale I'll save for later.

So it is that when things don't quite go according to plan, everyone chips in. That's the real beauty of this job. So it was today.

The breaks were barely two minutes long, during which one had to seat the guests, get them wired and then get them talking. Often during these two minutes, some serious colour coding flaws are spotted. Our guests are constantly told not to wear blues - coz of our bluer than blue wall, something that's invariably forgotten. When the blues appear on the screen, they appear invisible.

That's precisely what happened when Singapore Idol judge Gurmit Singh appeared on the show in a bright orange T-shirt with a blue logo to promote the show. Trouble was the logo covered the chest and that was invisible. A quick look around for jackets showed that I had the only one that would work on air - I'm sure he didn't want to be seen in pink! It sure did, sporting Gurmit carried it off to perfection.

And now together with my shawl, there is some serious conversation about the real potential of my jaded jacket. Time to run on and find that lock and key.