Latest / 987 The Shock Circuit / INTERVIEW: TAUFIK BATISAH & SHEENA AKBAL
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Solo and yours, but not solo anymore. I've replaced Joakim
- 0:06Speaker 1: with two very interesting people who are joining me right now.
- 0:09Speaker 1: In fact, Joakim is very well acquainted with at least
- 0:12Speaker 1: one of you. Yes, Tafiq Batisah and Sheena Akbal. Thank
- 0:15Speaker 1: you for joining me. Thank you for having us. This
- 0:19Speaker 1: is actually the first time that we have both of
- 0:21Speaker 1: you on our show together. If I'm not wrong.
- 0:23Speaker 1: Yeah,
- 0:24Speaker 2: you've
- 0:24Speaker 2: never been. No,
- 0:26Speaker 1: we've never.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I think the last time you were here
- 0:28Speaker 1: was probably about National Day related. That was like years
- 0:31Speaker 1: ago already. Yeah. So now it's for a very different reason.
- 0:36Speaker 1: NDP itself over, but because we're still in the spirit
- 0:39Speaker 1: of celebrating National Day, and you know, our nation, um,
- 0:43Speaker 1: really interesting.
- 0:44Speaker 1: Content coming through, especially from our friends from CNA nowadays.
- 0:46Speaker 1: I'm loving their work, to be honest. They do. Very
- 0:51Speaker 1: original as well. And um what better way to continue
- 0:55Speaker 1: season two of Meet Me There than with the two OGs.
- 0:59Speaker 1: I think you're like one of Singapore's favorite couples out there.
- 1:02Speaker 1: For real, for real, for real.
- 1:05Speaker 1: Because, you know, sometimes when we look at certain creators
- 1:08Speaker 1: or like um couples out there, you're like, you want,
- 1:10Speaker 1: you want them to be your parents, you know, you're like, oh,
- 1:12Speaker 1: mom and dad, mom and dad. Yeah, exactly. So with
- 1:18Speaker 1: this season of Meet Me there, pretty interesting, I have
- 1:20Speaker 1: to say, because the whole concept of it is picking
- 1:24Speaker 1: a place that both of you hopefully know and you're
- 1:28Speaker 1: on the same
- 1:29Speaker 1: page.
- 1:31Speaker 1: And all you get is a note that says meet
- 1:33Speaker 1: me there, right? OK, so take me through that first,
- 1:37Speaker 1: maybe that first moment or the first.
- 1:40Speaker 2: So, so, um, Sheena is the sender, right? So I'm
- 1:43Speaker 2: the target. So the sender is the one who picks
- 1:45Speaker 2: the target, right? So the sender knows exactly what's going on.
- 1:49Speaker 2: So I've never seen the first season of the show. Um,
- 1:52Speaker 2: so I'm the target. So I came to
- 1:55Speaker 2: The the location, which was uh my restaurant Chicksaw Chicken, right?
- 1:58Speaker 2: So I assume it was for a different interview. So, initially,
- 2:04Speaker 2: so we were supposed to go together.
- 2:06Speaker 2: And she, she got up late, but for, for this
- 2:11Speaker 2: time around, it was, it was on purpose, right? So
- 2:14Speaker 2: I was already pissed at home. I said I'm only
- 2:17Speaker 2: supposed to be going for the interview? I said, oh, I'm, I'm,
- 2:20Speaker 2: I woke up late, blah blah blah blah. I said, what? OK, uh,
- 2:24Speaker 2: then she said, OK, you go first. I said, what
- 2:25Speaker 2: do you mean you go first? You go first, you
- 2:27Speaker 2: do the interview, and then I'll come later. So I
- 2:29Speaker 2: was already pissed, right?
- 2:31Speaker 2: So what made it worse, um, she said, you take
- 2:34Speaker 2: the Grab. I already called the Grab for you. Yeah,
- 2:37Speaker 2: because the premise of the show, I can't drive, so
- 2:40Speaker 2: there's no point of me driving.
- 2:42Speaker 2: So I took the Grab. I was already like pissed
- 2:44Speaker 2: off in the Grab,
- 2:45Speaker 1: right?
- 2:47Speaker 1: I always drive.
- 2:49Speaker 2: I'm
- 2:50Speaker 2: useless with public. I'm so bad because I have the
- 2:53Speaker 2: privilege of driving for so long and I was riding
- 2:56Speaker 2: in my early teens
- 2:57Speaker 2: and.
- 2:59Speaker 2: So once I was there.
- 3:02Speaker 2: The, the whole crew was there and uh when they
- 3:06Speaker 2: were miking me up and then they revealed that no,
- 3:08Speaker 2: this is not actually an interview about what you think
- 3:10Speaker 2: it is.
- 3:11Speaker 2: This is a show. I give you this note and
- 3:16Speaker 2: I was just blur.
- 3:18Speaker 1: I
- 3:18Speaker 1: know, but because you have to figure it out. That's
- 3:20Speaker 1: why you felt blur. So then the pressure is on
- 3:22Speaker 1: you now to kind of like track back and dig
- 3:26Speaker 1: into the depths of your relationship.
- 3:29Speaker 2: The first pressure was, do I even do this? Because
- 3:32Speaker 2: I was so pissed. I was like, do I do
- 3:34Speaker 2: I do?
- 3:34Speaker 2: Whatever show this is,
- 3:36Speaker 1: I think the person likes to prep. He does a
- 3:39Speaker 1: lot of prep before he does something. OK. So this
- 3:42Speaker 1: is really throwing him into the deep end. I can
- 3:46Speaker 1: imagine the things going through your head.
- 3:48Speaker 2: I was on
- 3:48Speaker 2: the verge of, no, I'm not gonna do this, whatever
- 3:51Speaker 2: this is, but I saw the crew and you get it.
- 3:55Speaker 2: I can't do this. So I had to like, OK,
- 3:59Speaker 2: let's do whatever this is, but
- 4:03Speaker 2: When once I went through like, like the first few hours,
- 4:06Speaker 2: I realized, oh my goodness, this is such a dope show.
- 4:09Speaker 2: It's so good and it's, it's nice to be in
- 4:12Speaker 2: it because it just slows my world down because my
- 4:16Speaker 2: world is just going at 100% all of the time, right?
- 4:19Speaker 2: So when I get to just slow down, walk to
- 4:22Speaker 2: the bus stop, walk to the MRT, look around, process,
- 4:27Speaker 1: oh my goodness.
- 4:30Speaker 1: Everywhere he would bring his boat and skate. I can
- 4:34Speaker 1: only imagine how uncomfortable that experience was. But I feel like,
- 4:38Speaker 1: you know, when you come into maybe 2026 or any
- 4:41Speaker 1: year really, I think an interesting goal to have is
- 4:44Speaker 1: to be uncomfortable, like to, to force yourself to be uncomfortable,
- 4:48Speaker 1: and you know, I, I think that puts you in
- 4:50Speaker 1: such a different mindset. So while Tafiq was feeling this discomfort,
- 4:54Speaker 1: what were you feeling, Sheila?
- 4:58Speaker 2: You are looking at the monitor just laughing.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Eating, eating snacking. That's the life. That's the it
- 5:06Speaker 2: was
- 5:06Speaker 2: a really hot day.
- 5:10Speaker 1: They picked
- 5:10Speaker 2: the worst.
- 5:13Speaker 1: So, so digging into like, let's say your memories of
- 5:16Speaker 1: your relationship and all that, how did that translate on
- 5:20Speaker 1: screen and how did that make you feel like as
- 5:22Speaker 1: a couple? Oh,
- 5:23Speaker 2: you, she was, so Sheena was sitting in a room.
- 5:26Speaker 2: Uh, and it was really cool because whatever they recorded
- 5:30Speaker 2: and they send it to Sheena who was in the
- 5:32Speaker 2: room like life, right? That was insane. So I, I
- 5:35Speaker 2: wonder how she felt when she was seeing the video.
- 5:38Speaker 1: I was very, um, I was a bit amazed because
- 5:40Speaker 1: a lot of things from the past.
- 5:43Speaker 1: Hey, good or bad.
- 5:44Speaker 2: Hey guys remember stuff too.
- 5:48Speaker 1: Forgetful selective
- 5:49Speaker 2: memory.
- 5:51Speaker 1: Yesterday, you
- 5:51Speaker 2: don't even know selective memory, did I survive? Am I
- 5:55Speaker 2: here today? I
- 5:55Speaker 1: don't need to know, true. But yeah, you remember a
- 6:00Speaker 1: lot of like things that I didn't think you would,
- 6:02Speaker 1: you would talk about such as like good memories or
- 6:05Speaker 1: like
- 6:08Speaker 2: so this is what I discovered, right, because the places
- 6:10Speaker 2: that I went to, I assume those were the memories
- 6:12Speaker 2: that we both like cherish or we had like.
- 6:15Speaker 2: The fondest memory at this location. So what I understand,
- 6:19Speaker 2: what I realized 11 memory that both people have of
- 6:24Speaker 2: a certain place, it can be a fond memory but
- 6:26Speaker 2: it may be more important to you versus what it
- 6:29Speaker 2: is to the other person,
- 6:31Speaker 1: right?
- 6:32Speaker 2: different memory actually. So I was super puzzled why the
- 6:35Speaker 2: last location where where she was at was the one
- 6:40Speaker 2: that she picked as one of the fondest memories that
- 6:42Speaker 2: we had together until I picked her brain about it.
- 6:45Speaker 2: Then I realized, oh, OK, I get it, but on
- 6:49Speaker 2: my own, I didn't get it and I was
- 6:51Speaker 2: I mean, spoiler alert, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't
- 6:55Speaker 2: have enough time to figure out the space. It was
- 6:57Speaker 2: really irritating because I
- 7:00Speaker 1: went all everywhere
- 7:01Speaker 2: on the island, guys. You gotta watch the show. If
- 7:03Speaker 2: you don't know the geographics of Singapore, I'll show you
- 7:05Speaker 2: the east, the west,
- 7:11Speaker 1: central ties in Singapore's birthday, you're on a tour of
- 7:15Speaker 1: your own country, in a sense. And these are places, OK,
- 7:18Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil too much.
- 7:19Speaker 1: Because you know, we want to watch it over the weekends.
- 7:22Speaker 1: But what did it take you to places that you
- 7:24Speaker 1: haven't been to for a very long time and places
- 7:28Speaker 1: where you even struggled to like think about or figure out? Actually, yeah,
- 7:31Speaker 1: the first location you went to, right, when, when I
- 7:33Speaker 1: saw you, when I saw the video, I was like,
- 7:35Speaker 1: this is it now. it's different. I've been there. It's
- 7:39Speaker 1: so
- 7:39Speaker 2: different because, because of course when we were younger, right,
- 7:43Speaker 2: we have more time to hang out and things like that. Oh,
- 7:46Speaker 2: by the way, if you guys are young,
- 7:48Speaker 2: Enjoy your youth guys, because when you get older, when
- 7:53Speaker 2: you have lots of responsibilities, life just zooms on by. So,
- 7:58Speaker 2: so enjoy the moments that you have with your friends,
- 8:01Speaker 2: the places that you hang out at, you know, because
- 8:03Speaker 2: these places are gonna change. Because when we went to
- 8:07Speaker 2: the first location.
- 8:08Speaker 2: I was like, where we used, of course we are
- 8:11Speaker 2: a lot older
- 8:18Speaker 2: shop
- 8:18Speaker 2: that was there was not there anymore. It's like this
- 8:21Speaker 2: huge shopping center right beside it that's new, uh, and
- 8:26Speaker 2: of course you weren't there. Yeah, yeah. So, um, yeah, what,
- 8:32Speaker 2: what I truly enjoy about the show, it really slowed.
- 8:37Speaker 2: Uh, me down or even us down, I, I would
- 8:39Speaker 2: say because our life is, it's really fast paced and
- 8:42Speaker 2: uh it
- 8:44Speaker 2: It, you know, it, it fills up your mind with, oh,
- 8:47Speaker 2: this is the journey that, yeah, yeah, journey that you,
- 8:50Speaker 2: you've had together and this was the memory that you
- 8:52Speaker 2: had of this place. This is what happened at this place.
- 8:55Speaker 2: This is why I thought that was an important place, um,
- 8:59Speaker 2: and travel across the, the island to where I grew, I,
- 9:05Speaker 2: where I think I can, I can say this, where,
- 9:06Speaker 2: where we got married, and where we moved in together,
- 9:10Speaker 2: our first house and things like that. That was.
- 9:12Speaker 2: That was really like a, like a moment for me,
- 9:16Speaker 2: I thought because it was like the first house that
- 9:19Speaker 2: I bought and then she moved in after we got
- 9:21Speaker 2: married.
- 9:22Speaker 1: It's
- 9:27Speaker 2: to you, to you. I'm so curious.
- 9:29Speaker 1: We we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back,
- 9:32Speaker 1: I want to find out how filming this show has
- 9:35Speaker 1: changed your relationship or the conversations that you had after that, OK?
- 9:41Speaker 1: Please stick around once again.
- 9:42Speaker 1: We're with Taoufiq and Sheena. They're in season 2 of
- 9:45Speaker 1: Meet Me There. This is actually a docu-reality series that
- 9:48Speaker 1: takes an intimate look at people, places, relationships that have
- 9:51Speaker 1: shaped Singapore, and I think they went on their own
- 9:53Speaker 1: tour of the whole country as well. We're still with
- 9:56Speaker 1: Tafik and Sheena and talking about season 2 of Meet
- 9:58Speaker 1: Me There. And we're just having a great chat on
- 10:01Speaker 1: TikTok Live. I think earlier you might have heard about
- 10:03Speaker 1: Sheena's podcast as well, Couch Conversations, and we're in the
- 10:06Speaker 1: midst of talking about topics like a million hats that
- 10:08Speaker 1: you're wearing right now.
- 10:09Speaker 1: And I think 24 hours in a day is just
- 10:11Speaker 1: not enough for you. Nope. How do you segment your
- 10:15Speaker 1: day now that you're, I mean, obviously you were such
- 10:18Speaker 1: a big name in media, you are still such a
- 10:20Speaker 1: big name, but you've branched off to do like so
- 10:22Speaker 1: many businesses. 24 hours is not enough, right? OK, I
- 10:24Speaker 1: think it's enough.
- 10:32Speaker 2: Um, how do I do it, I have my wife
- 10:32Speaker 2: to me out because she's my, she's my manager. She
- 10:34Speaker 2: works with my team, my ID team.
- 10:36Speaker 2: Ivory Cove as well, uh, she does a bit of
- 10:40Speaker 2: the writing for Chicksaw Chicken when we do our, our
- 10:42Speaker 2: promos and things like that. And then for real estate,
- 10:45Speaker 2: I have my team, um, so how many it was
- 10:50Speaker 2: her
- 10:50Speaker 1: before,
- 10:55Speaker 2: yeah, yeah. So yeah, I think it's all about.
- 10:58Speaker 2: Um, structuring your day, uh, because I've been self-employed like
- 11:02Speaker 2: all my life, so it's important for you to structure
- 11:05Speaker 2: your day. You need to have a calendar. Uh, I'm
- 11:08Speaker 2: my own boss. I have to make sure I adhere
- 11:11Speaker 2: to what I put on calendar. It's tough, it's tough,
- 11:13Speaker 2: but it's discipline, uh, like what we, we conversed about
- 11:17Speaker 2: just now, um, it's important to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
- 11:20Speaker 1: It's
- 11:21Speaker 1: very important.
- 11:27Speaker 1: Be the life motto for a long time, to just
- 11:29Speaker 1: put yourself in discomfort, right. So, um, speaking of discomfort
- 11:33Speaker 1: and earlier on you were saying how it was challenging
- 11:36Speaker 1: to figure out and like, be, be on foot even
- 11:40Speaker 1: to figure out this location because in Meet Me there,
- 11:43Speaker 1: they don't actually know, or rather Tafiq didn't know what
- 11:46Speaker 1: this location was. He had to figure it out based
- 11:48Speaker 1: on shared memories, your relationship, maybe even some stories of
- 11:52Speaker 1: Singapore that you might have shared together collectively as well.
- 11:56Speaker 1: So now I'm curious, that must have been quite an
- 11:58Speaker 1: experience filming together. How did that change your relationship dynamic
- 12:03Speaker 1: or did you figure out more about each other after
- 12:06Speaker 1: this experience? Well, I think, I think the first thing
- 12:10Speaker 1: he did when he saw me, he's like,
- 12:12Speaker 1: There's a lot of things we need to talk about.
- 12:16Speaker 1: OK, OK. It's like, wait, what's going on? Like he was,
- 12:20Speaker 1: he was, he was completely lost, right? So on the
- 12:22Speaker 1: drive back, we were talking about it and I told
- 12:24Speaker 1: him why I chose where I chose, right? The place
- 12:27Speaker 1: that I chose, and he was like, oh, OK, that
- 12:30Speaker 1: makes sense. I would have never, you know, yeah. So, um.
- 12:36Speaker 1: A lot of questions that were from the past even
- 12:39Speaker 1: came up in that I never forgot about it was
- 12:45Speaker 1: brought
- 12:45Speaker 1: up,
- 12:45Speaker 2: right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so I think that's the
- 12:47Speaker 2: beauty of, of the show as well. It kind of
- 12:51Speaker 2: like we had uh question marks about why I, I
- 12:56Speaker 2: picked certain locations and why she didn't, she didn't, uh,
- 12:59Speaker 2: pick certain locations or she wasn't at the locations that I,
- 13:02Speaker 2: I picked, right?
- 13:04Speaker 2: So, we, we discussed about it and which at the
- 13:07Speaker 2: end of the day, I realized it's really important for,
- 13:11Speaker 2: for couples or in whatever type of relationship that you have, siblings, uh,
- 13:15Speaker 2: best friends or whatever, to have conversations, to speak about things, uh,
- 13:19Speaker 2: because sometimes what the other person's perception of certain things
- 13:24Speaker 2: that you do or certain things that you say is
- 13:26Speaker 2: different than what you
- 13:28Speaker 2: You assume they
- 13:29Speaker 2: perceive
- 13:33Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Yeah, so I think in
- 13:34Speaker 2: whatever type of relationships that you have, which I think
- 13:37Speaker 2: the show does emphasize that as well, it's important to,
- 13:41Speaker 2: to have conversations, uh, to speak about it and, and
- 13:46Speaker 2: different
- 13:48Speaker 2: Parts of your life, different memories that you have, it's
- 13:51Speaker 2: different for the other person. So and sometimes it's it's
- 13:54Speaker 2: kind of cool and fun to talk about those
- 13:56Speaker 1: times.
- 14:01Speaker 2: 2120 years. So
- 14:07Speaker 1: that's the thing like you realize no matter how long
- 14:09Speaker 1: you've been with a person or you've known a person,
- 14:12Speaker 1: there's always something new.
- 14:13Speaker 1: There's always,
- 14:15Speaker 2: yeah.
- 14:16Speaker 1: Was there something, if you can say, what was the
- 14:18Speaker 1: one thing that you noticed about each other that was
- 14:21Speaker 1: a new thought through filming season two of Meet Me There?
- 14:26Speaker 1: Did you have like just one discovery? I think that
- 14:29Speaker 1: secretly Tafiq is a romantic person because we are not
- 14:32Speaker 1: affectionate at all. We are not, we're not the affectionate couple.
- 14:35Speaker 2: We are very
- 14:36Speaker 1: like.
- 14:39Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean,
- 14:40Speaker 1: yeah, yeah, but we are not like romantic. I don't
- 14:42Speaker 1: need flowers. Can you please don't waste money on flowers.
- 14:44Speaker 1: OK. That's what I think. So what makes you say
- 14:47Speaker 1: that he's secretly romantic? Because he went to all the
- 14:50Speaker 1: places that mark anniversaries of being together. Oh, I didn't
- 14:56Speaker 1: even think I didn't, I didn't, I don't even remember.
- 14:59Speaker 1: I have to admit I am remembering anniversary dates. I
- 15:01Speaker 1: don't remember, you know,
- 15:04Speaker 2: I can't remember. How does the other party feel about that? Oh,
- 15:07Speaker 1: he doesn't remember that's perfect.
- 15:09Speaker 2: That's perfect. So for us, right, uh.
- 15:13Speaker 2: I, I know, um, you still like birthdays. I still
- 15:17Speaker 2: like birthdays. You like surprises still. I don't like surprises.
- 15:21Speaker 2: I don't, I don't care for my birthday. Like I
- 15:23Speaker 2: don't care for events.
- 15:27Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah,
- 15:29Speaker 2: she's more excited about it, yeah, so, but that's, that's
- 15:32Speaker 2: the understanding that we have, that we are OK about it.
- 15:36Speaker 2: I guess it's important for couples to understand if
- 15:40Speaker 2: The both of you are OK about it, then it's fine,
- 15:42Speaker 2: but if one person, yeah, you know what I mean,
- 15:47Speaker 2: because sometimes people assume that um if if it's not
- 15:50Speaker 2: a big deal to me, shouldn't be a big deal
- 15:53Speaker 2: to you, what you should understand. But no, sometimes if
- 15:55Speaker 2: it's a big deal to the other party, for example,
- 15:57Speaker 2: for your birthdays, right, it's still something.
- 16:00Speaker 2: That you enjoy, I will, I will try to make
- 16:03Speaker 2: that effort to make it something that it's important it's
- 16:06Speaker 2: important to her.
- 16:08Speaker 1: So she's realized that about you. So what did you
- 16:11Speaker 1: realize about her? I,
- 16:13Speaker 2: I realized thoroughly that she's not romantic.
- 16:18Speaker 1: Because
- 16:18Speaker 2: the final location that she chose, I was like, why?
- 16:23Speaker 2: I like the producer, like, because my time was up, right?
- 16:26Speaker 2: The producer was like, sorry, your time is up, so
- 16:29Speaker 2: we have to reveal it, uh.
- 16:32Speaker 2: Where it is. So then we rushed down and I
- 16:33Speaker 2: was like, why did she choose this place? And then
- 16:37Speaker 2: obviously the producer doesn't know lah. So when I, the
- 16:40Speaker 2: first day I meet her, I saw her like, why?
- 16:45Speaker 2: So when she, when she explained.
- 16:47Speaker 2: Why? It makes
- 16:49Speaker 1: sense to you. It made sense to you. OK. Honestly,
- 16:52Speaker 1: this looks like such a fun journey. It feels like
- 16:54Speaker 1: a fun journey like you telling us the story, you
- 16:57Speaker 1: sharing the story. So we get to catch the full
- 17:00Speaker 1: thing this weekend um on our free to air channels
- 17:03Speaker 1: and also I think our friends at CNA on YouTube,
- 17:06Speaker 1: they will upload one. Have you seen it yet? The whole.
- 17:08Speaker 1: You have not. OK. So you together
- 17:10Speaker 1: The rest of us will be watching this journey. This
- 17:13Speaker 1: is one of Singapore's power couples, OK, yeah. Tafik, Sheena,
- 17:17Speaker 1: thank you so much for being with us. Thank you
- 17:19Speaker 1: for having us. Please come visit more often. If you
- 17:21Speaker 1: need more inspiration for your podcast topics, just come and
- 17:23Speaker 1: talk to me and Joakim, you know, we can bring
- 17:27Speaker 1: you guys in on board. And in case, um, our,
- 17:30Speaker 1: our listeners don't follow you yet, maybe you can share
- 17:32Speaker 1: your handles with them.
- 17:34Speaker 2: Follow Sheena at Sheena Aqbal. I am Sheena Agbal. I
- 17:40Speaker 2: am Sheen Aqbal. OK. I'm Sheen Aqbal on Instagram. Sorry,
- 17:45Speaker 2: I failed that miserably. And on TikTok have you changed
- 17:49Speaker 1: it back? She changed it to bits and bobs. I
- 17:52Speaker 1: wanted
- 17:52Speaker 1: to open a shop called Bits and Bob, it's a
- 17:55Speaker 1: technical difficulty but it will be changed.
- 17:58Speaker 2: But check out her podcast called Couch Conversation, Couch Combo
- 18:02Speaker 2: and uh you can follow me on Instagram, on TikTok, Taofiqia,
- 18:07Speaker 2: T A U F I K B A T I S. Wonderful.
- 18:09Speaker 1: Yeah. Alright, so if you're still live on TikTok and
- 18:12Speaker 1: you're still tuned in to us, those are handles you
- 18:14Speaker 1: got to follow. And if you're curious about season one
- 18:16Speaker 1: as well of Meet Me there, you can catch up
- 18:18Speaker 1: with it on YouTube too or me watchch perhaps.