Apple Strawberry Pie

I sternly told all guests NOT to bring anything to dinner. No extra food, no dessert, nothing. The idea was to just come with empty stomachs.

There was this one girl who had been suspiciously quiet all day. I knew she was up to baking tricks. She always put us on a sugar high after meals!

True enough! She had so many things in her hands that she couldn't even ring the doorbell. She brought over a pie!

An apple strawberry pie!! I love apples in juices, desserts and soups. Strangely, I don't like it as a fruit. It's kinda eeky. I like apples very much in crumbles and pies.

We had so much food that we weren't sure if we could even stomach small amounts of pie. But we knew it was going to be good. So everyone requested for a tiny bit to share around.

We dug out french vanilla ice-cream to go along with it. It had to be good vanilla. I absolutely hate bad synthetic tasting vanilla.

That was the most beautiful apple strawberry pie, ever. Everyone finished their itty bits and sheepishly came back for more pie and scoops of french vanilla.

Of course, everyone discussed about how we should all quit our day jobs to run a restaurant. We were all going to contribute in our different specialized ways- food and dessert for sure, design, interior and architecture, accounts, tax and audit, legal, public relations, floor service, negotiations, etc. Haha. Yes. It's a very fun idea to think about. But when it comes down to the running of the business, I think we're all too lazy to actually turn it into something profitable.

Meanwhile, we'll continue with playing chef and hosting meals in our private kitchen. :)

Munching On Dips & Vegetables

The man combed through the cooking bible and decided on the dinner menu.

We had 3 kinds of dips- roasted red pepper, hummus and a white miso mayo. We thought that the pumpkin purée topped with yoghurt, coriander and lime could also be considered a dip. Heh.

There were baguette sliced and lightly toasted, and parboiled vegetables to go along with the dips. I hoped everyone had fun with the dipping and tasting of the different textures of food!

We had plenty of carbs on the menu. The man decided on a simple mushroom and porcini risotto and a fusilli with white asparagus and balsamic reduction. The fusilli was quite a hit. The balsamic reduction lent a world of difference to the taste when drizzled lightly over the white asparagus and fusilli.

When the plates were laid out, I giggled. The man could have been cooking for 20 people! In his defence, he was also cooking for our box lunches for the week and a couple of boxes to pack home for his bff's lovely mom.

The carnivores didn't care that tonight's menu was vegetarian. The rich flavors, crunch and varied textures were warmly welcomed by all.

Again, I present to you why I have such discerning tastebuds till I rather not eat if the food at restaurants isn't to my taste.

Lunch & Groceries

The man needed to get baguettes, endives, white asparagus and whatnots from Culina.

So we decided to just have lunch at the adjoining cafe. We were looking for brainless food, so this would do.

I wasn't at all impressed with my scampi pasta. It was too salty and so not a big deal. The fishball mee kia dry at the hawker centres would have been better. But the mushrooms, sautéed in truffle oil, were delicious. One could never go very wrong with truflle oil.

The steaks were surprising winners still. Since the inception of this cafe, somehow, the kitchen has hit on a good formula for juicy and tasty steaks.

The man's 1824 tenderloin was fabulous. The parents' wagyu beef burger and steak sandwiches were really tasty and not overly oily or chewy. Of course everyone liked the truffle salt. Put that on anything and everything would taste good.

Importantly, the man bought everything he needed to whip up dinner. So he was a happy camper.

The Man

I've no professional qualifications to critique this photo. What I can tell you, is the emotions this shot stirred within.

I love this photo of the man. The photographer (credited above) has captured him in the full expression of his passion.

It depicts the essence of the man. Aside from his many talents, this gift of music and guitars is a huge explanation of why I fell in love with him. His intellect and ardent pursuit of his passion are also major reasons why I'm still in love with him.

Remove all the (gold) trappings from the man, and at the base, he retains his talents. He is still the man who loves music with a fierce focus. I pursue my separate passions with equal determination and intensity. This shared understanding and inner fire also fan our love and commitment to each other. We are bound by something that goes deep into our souls.

And this photo has captured the quintessential nature of the man I love.

Cutlery for Tiny Tots

We were at the mall to grab a garlic press and some fancy thingamajig that the man wanted.

I pounced on this really cute water bottle and cutlery set. It'd be perfect for a certain girlfriend who has impeccable taste in clothes and stuff for both herself and her toddler.

I knew I just had to get this for her very cute son who speaks the 'th' sound so properly but can't pronounce the 'v'. But he could always pronounce my name so properly. Plus he always ask his mom to buy me ice-cream. So I'm very charmed. :)

The Cooking Bible

The girlfriend got the man a most lovely gift.

A recipe book in hard cover!

She knows him well indeed. He's definitely taking it as his cooking bible. He's been pouring over it very seriously.

He's going to put together a simple dinner for tomorrow to see how this works for him.

He's starting from the basics. So we went by the supermarket in the morning. He's eyeing a pumpkin soup in there and doing the chicken soup stock as suggested.

Dessert

On a long boring day, a yummy lunch at Au Petit Salut Bistro does make me less grouchy.

I'm usually not big on desserts. But since the set lunch came with a couple of items I don't mind, I randomly picked one.

Lunch is nicely rounded up by financiers with berry compote.

Leadership Or Not

On yet another session on leadership, there was personal sharing amongst participants on stories on good and bad leaders. That was okay. It made for interesting stories. Then there was sharing on the different models of leadership. That was terrible.

Unfortunately, only the skimpiest models of theory were touched on. There were barely any focus on inspirational leadership or sharing of real stories of leaders. The Four Framework Approach wasn't in the picture. The concept of Transformational Leadership was spoken about, but brought down to the layman terms and didn't even elaborate on the 4 elements within, especially Intellectual Stimulation and Role and Identification. There were nothing on Hershey-Blanchard Model, Tannenbum and Schmidt, Adair's cute venn diagram on action-centred leadership, situational leadership, Shell Leadership Framework or Vodafone Global. We didn't talk about limitations and applications for each model. Even Greenleaf's concept of servant leadership wasn't thoroughly talked about. ZILCH.

On humans, there wasn't even any discourse on Steve Jobs, Robert Ayling, Meg Whitman, Mark Parker, Frederick Smith, charismatic leaders in Asia etc. Nearer home, there wasn't any discussion on notable speeches, behavior or examples of political or business leaders. There weren't even stories of industry leaders. No case studies, no food for thought.

What had been said, lectured and encouraged were all very la-la-la. Too fluffy.

Instead, we spent a morning listening to personal stories of motherhood and parenting. 1 participant made it worse by sharing her own stories on that as well as asking the facilitator to continue with those stories. With all due respect, an overload of parenting stories put me to sleep. It revealed the types of parents the facilitator and said partipant were- the types that I rebel against. I don't need to be a parent to tell them certain methods won't work on teenagers. They obviously don't understand their tweens at all. Not that I didn't try to relate the issues- I did. And many were irrelevant. If I insisted on stretching it to make it relevant, I might as well quit this office job, stay at home and be the leader of the household. I didn't attend this course to be put through a parenting sharing module.

To say I'm disappointed is putting it really mildly. I was 'forced' to attend this course. I already knew it wasn't going to be of any substance. I was quite sad that I was proven right. I expected more out of a programme that took up 2 precious work days.

Too Long

In class today, I was honestly quite taken aback that we were given 1hr 15 minutes (including 15min for tea) to read a very short speech on leadership by Parker Palmer. It was only about 20 pages of an A5 sized novel. Maybe less since the font size was rather kind.

There were 4 questions on the whiteboard referring to the speech. We were supposed to pick out salient points and reflect upon it. It was a good speech. It was peppered with anecdotes and sincere thoughts. It was well written and humorous.

I was done in 15 minutes. I wasn't going to sit and twiddle thumbs for the rest of the allocated time. Next to looking sullen and feeling annoyed, I could do myself and everyone else a favor by removing myself from the room. So I disappeared out of the classroom to sort out emails, draft a couple of letters and finalize some details for next week's projects and well, tweet.

When I came back very much later, I couldn't believe that the class had to sit in 2 groups, spend another hour talking to one another to pick out points in the book and share with everyone else to make a group 'view'. I'm so not the sort to sit down and reflect over it. There must have been at least 2 others who thought the same way as I did. But they were better students and sat in class throughout. Anyway, I came in at the tail end of that 'group reflection'. I sighed, looked at the group's points and still proposed 2 new points to put up.

I nearly died.

All my life in school, I was that girl who completed her exam papers in an hour out of 2 or 2 hours out of 3. The only papers I stayed throughout for were Thai papers because I couldn't read or write fast enough. I never ever stayed till the end of any paper in English. NEVER. I still got my As.

So now, I'm not going to slow down at work either. A class is different from an office. An office has a wider space and time. In a class, I expect top-notch thinking and substantial quality content. I'm not going to play nice and wait politely. People should either read faster or process thoughts at a quicker pace.

At work, we'll just have to be mindful that we can be quite screwed if we move at the pace of the slowest denominator under circumstances which don't quite allow that.

Summer Truffles

After all the effort of lugging the bottles home, the man picked one out. He's thinking of 101 ways to use the contents of this bottle. There're plenty of good recipes floating out there to use for reference.

He could sprinkle it over sautéed fillet of halibut or monkfish. He would use it on pasta for sure.

I would really really love to have him do a truffled loose omelette for a decadent breakfast during the weekend. :)

Uni (ウニ)

I usually enjoy uni. I like it wrapped in seawood because it complements the uni's briny but sweet taste. The lightly toasted seaweed offsets the rich creaminess of the gonads.

From April to September, it's uni season. At top restaurants, the edible part of the sea urchin is usually served 'fresh', halved in its shell. Well, it's just the gonads, not even the roe. I've eaten fresh uni before, without guilt.

Tonight, however, my stomach lurched a little when uni was served. It isn't alive but it feels almost cruel to scoop it out like that to eat it.

Jaunty Shoes

When one is in London, of course you've gotta buy Bally shoes.

Mary Roach On TED!!!

Mary Roach is one of my favorite writers of the decade.

As sort of a follow-up to Bonk, I love her TED clip where she tells us "10 things you didn't know about orgasm".

It was hilarious! (Thanks to Simian for alerting us to such fun stuff!)

Clip is for viewing and sharing by adults only. (",)

Talisker 57° North

The nose drew me in. It held spicy notes characteristic of Talisker.

Upon tasting, there's the usual light peat, sea salt and dryness. It isn't too spicy. It's almost sweet, rather aytpical of cask strength single malts.

The Talisker 57° North is quite a winner.

We tried it straight. I thought it went better with a dash of water. I preferred it with a chip of ice. I like my whisky cold.

Talisker, is the favorite single malt of choice of KT Tunstall. :D She has a custom guitar cut from the wood at the Talisker distillery and gifted by the owners. I like KT Tunstall's Paper Aeroplane quite a lot.

Hummus For Dinner

The man brought back a separate suitcase full of hummus, toppings, fluffy brown pita bread and all. He had gleefully checked that in and marked it fragile. Along with well-sealed tubs of hummus, mushrooms, etc, there were bottles of summer truffles, foie gras and whathaveyous.

One would think he had gone to London to do fulfil the grocery list for the month.

The man was most insistent on having the 'tapau-ed' hummus from Hummus Brothers for dinner. I thought he'd be wanting something else because he practically ate there everyday. Well, besides being one of the cheapest eats in London (apprx £6 per pax), it's also one of the healthiest. The man loves hummus. So do I. Not very surprisingly, we don't mind hummus for dinner.

This plate of hummus is out of this world. Very different from the usual. There's something in the tahini that they use. It's extremely flavorful- homemade with special ingredients. We can't put our finger on it. It taste like peanut butter. But we know they can't just put peanut butter randomly because of customers with allergies and the eatery isn't insensitive like that. Quite mind boggling. We're now thinking furiously what could those secret ingredients be.

The man opened the various exciting tubs and set about prepping dinner. Topped with chickpeas, brown field mushrooms, green salsa, sprinkled with paprika and drizzled with olive oil and the store's special lemon juice, this plate of hummus blew my mind.

I normally don't take chickpeas unless they're done correctly. In this case, I love them chickpeas! I polished off a whole piece of bread and ate chunks of hummus. Totally totally delicious.

Afternoon Tea

I got out of the heat and spent an afternoon with a cheerful toddler, a somewhat-grouchy-lack-sleep-but-cute baby and 3 lovely ladies.

The hostess not only opened up her house and made us food, the husband was also really sweet to potter around and let us make so much noise. HA.

We came from lunch, so tea was kept simple and very yummy. Each of us brought something to share. I didn't eat that much at lunch though- saving stomach space for some of the nibbles at tea!

Easy cheese and good pepper and chives crackers always get my vote. I was slicing up quite a bit of that tasty smoked cheddar and munching away.

The thoughtful hostess made radish cake (萝卜糕 ). She was so apologetic because she thought the texture could be softer. I thought it was okay. I loved it that she kept the radish cake unsalted and not oily. The full flavors came from the chinese sausages (lap cheong) and mushrooms.

I ate so much that I couldn't really eat dinner anymore!!!

Late Night Jazz

It was really quite fun hanging out with the man's parents at the jazz club.

It's like, what generation gap?! I love it that we're able to talk about anything. They've opinions and are so in-the-know about everything. Conversation topics flow very easily. They enjoy jazz, the mom especially. She's quite game to visit all the clubs that we 'youngsters' hang out at- even Home Club. Hahahah. The dad's a secret rocker at heart. He likes his Top 40s over house and R & B, so we practically have to drag him to Zouk even.

At the jazz club, instead of nagging me to drink less, they let me order so many glasses of whisky!!!! WIEEEEEEEE. There's a minimum spend (I hate this phrase) of S$25 per pax anyway. So I might as well pick out all the single malts I want to try! If all else fails, there's Bowmore 12 y.o to fall back on.

Now that smoking isn't allowed in clubs, the jazz club has evolved to become rather comfortable, serving decent food and a fairly good selection of single malts. :D

I like Jazz at Southbridge. It is only proper jazz bar we have in Singapore. The music is decent. Not as good as Village Vanguard of course. (I spent all my pocket money there then.) There just isn't any point of comparison. Our scene here is so pathetic. But at least there're guest singers coming through during Mosaic. There's Alemay (who's really got the oomph) and a couple of other thin-voiced mousy singers who can't scat for shits.

I missed quite a couple of calls and texts from the man. The music held my attention and I didn't bother checking the phone that laid snug in the clutch. The man had to call his dad to get me. The man was most amused that I was 'partying' with his hip parents instead of cute 21-yr-old boys.

Sushi For The Soul

[Kome is still Kome. But the original chefs Lawrence and Gary now have shifted to Hinoki, as of February 2011]

This work week has been gruelling because I'm so not a morning person.

There's a project happening this week that's under my purview. I must ensure that things don't go too wrong. If they do, the blame must be mine and no one else's because I haven't done very much for this project. Eeeps.

I've taken to eating breakfast this week because I wouldn't have time for lunch. If I do have a break, I prefer to work through lunch. Whatever is catered for lunch won't be to my taste or diet, so I rather not eat. I'm too lazy to pack lunch to work because the evenings are filled with events as well. I don't want to lug a lunch box around!

I finished doing the nails early and had a free slot for dinner. I really craved for sushi. The girlfriends who had been staying in the office till midnight so far this week also desperately needed sushi. So they ran out from office early, picked me up and went off to Kome.

I asked the chef if the chutoro came from hon maguro. It wasn't. Whew. I stopped eating hon maguro last June. I couldn't find words to describe how heavenly the omakase dinner made me feel. It was rejuvenating.

The sweet musk melon drained all the weariness of the day away. So much so that it made me feel that the week has been really fruitful (pun intended) and I wouldn't hesitate to do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Kome Japanese Dining
No. 10, Bukit Chermin Road,
The Keppel Club, Singapore 109918
T: +65 6273 0118 F: +65 6273 0868
Email: komedining [at] yahoo [dot] com

Hanging Out With Young Boys

I've said it before and I'll say it again- 21-yr-olds across the world are not the same.

The girlfriend's young American cousins are in town. She was tasked to take them out. We ditched Jazz At Southbridge for Wala Wala. Not the most ideal venue. But it was safe. We didn't know the boys' music taste. They would be either for Zouk or Butter Factory. In the meanwhile, EIC's covers at Wala would have to suffice.

I'm very impressed by the young boys. It's either their upbringing, their well-rounded college education or their earlier sojurn in Southeast Asia; they're eloquent, intelligent and generally very cosmopolitan young men. They respect their elders and they're humorous. AND they drink beer like water. Pints and pints.

Okay, I admit, I was sold when one said he loved Deathcab For Cutie. I mean, DCFC!!! I needed to let them know that DCFC was here in Singapore last August. Yea, it's kinda mainstream now. But it was a conversation starter. It gave me immediate perspectives into how the conversation could flow. I had to tell them about Mosaic. I insisted that he's got to check out Belle and Sebastian, Sondre Lerche and Red Light Company. The boys are really young and could do with so much education in music. Man, they've got access to the best in the world, whichever- indie, classical, rock, punk, funk and soul.

They've got brains too. They're well versed in social systems across Southeast Asia now. Even at a superificial level, they could point out the differences in each country for discussion. Not bad at all. We argued about NYC and London. Sometimes, age doesn't make a difference to things and issues that have historical relevance.

If you must know, the boys decided that they're more Butter Factory than Velvet. Oh, yes, the young boys are quite cute. As far as the pan-asian look goes, they're alright. :) I'm not overly enthusiastic because most of the friends look like that anyway. HEH. Why do you think I date the man and hang out with the friends??!!!! I'm shallow that way.

My girlfriend rolled her eyes very often through the evening. She must have wondered if I am really 31. Of course I am. I paid for my drinks and bought them beer too. These are what a 31 yr-old woman do. (Even at 21, I could pay for my own drinks okay!)

When all the boys have done is to hang out with a median age of 60-yr-olds to play golf, eat and eat and eat, sweet as the old folks are, I think hanging out with the 31-yr-olds is the new 'chilling out with the 21-yr-olds'. ROTFL.

Sutra

I wasn't too sure about going for the gala premiere. Sutra didn't attract me that much. I would have preferred to catch up on sleep since the show was in the middle of a terribly hectic work week.

Still, I got dragged out by the friends for it. So difficult to say no to them.

Sutra was quite a visual spectacle. But, after all that hype, I thought it underwhelming.

While the concept of Sutra is unique and the partnership unusual, I honestly didn't see inspiration in the choreography. The only good point was- it was presented to a contemporary audience who would otherwise not be able to appreciate the starkness of the Shaolin gongfu moves. The use of wooden boxes was simple and excellent. It created depth on the stage in a performance that had no dialogue, no storyline and no 'meaning' almost. You'd have to find the zen within those moves and around the boxes. It's anything you want it to be.

Too surreal for me.

It was the music that drew me in. The cadences were dark and determined all at the same time. The gloom and focus and reverberated in my mind. The friends said it gave them an adrenaline rush. I think it's more like adhering to the ancient rules of discipline and heavy rituals. Like what sutras are, Sutra, in a visual format, is bound by complex movements which are terse and spiritually symbolic.

SO YAH, since I'm an uneducated plebeian, one might say I'd describe it as a very artistic, highly structured and more sophisticated version of Ninja Warrior. So don't quote me! :p

Mid Week Cheer

The friends win. They called me at noon, chirrped that they just landed in town for the weekend's Arts Fest events and insisted on dinner tonight.

Goodness. I'd be seeing them for the shows tomorrow onwards and next weekend! Still they wanted to eat a proper meal together. We never get to eat proper meals when catching evening shows and I'm always too busy for a long lunch.

They clever lor. They got me on a day when I had no plans and could get off work at 6.30pm, replete with grass stains. I had to rush home to shower and change. Well, I needed sushi anyway. So it wasn't surprising that by unanimous vote, we ended up at Tatsuya to terrorize the chefs.

We left it to the chefs to decide our dinner. But each of us had different taste and demands. No wasabi, no prawns, no shellfish, no cooked food, no tempura, no beef, no chicken, no pork, et cetera. It was rather amazing how the chef and favorite server managed to remember all our separate requests.

This week, I've been speaking more Thai than usual. I've got Thai work visitors in town and my Thai friends just got in. I don't speak to the Thai visitors in their language. There's a formal distance that prevents me from speaking freely. My command of the language isn't strong enough to use it with strangers without knowing their preferences of culture divide and seniority. But I've been answering their questions in English even if they asked it in Thai, as long as it isn't too complicated. Usually I speak to the friends in English. But tonight, when they asked me questions, I somehow unthinkingly replied them in Thai, sending them into peals after peals of giggles.

They always laugh at my accent. Among my friends, they usually speak English over Thai. So tonight, they decided to speak ENTIRELY in FORMAL Thai, discussing H1N1, Thai politics, their suave Prime Minister, whether the shows this weekend would be crap and how the reviews would pan out, et cetera; resulting in me understanding only 70% of the conversation. My vocabulary wasn't sufficient enough to get many words, much less retort with anything witty.

NOT FUNNY.

Day Out

At least the 3 hours of standing and running around were done to an expansive view and a light soothing breeze.

It was a lovely afternoon. The sun was bright but not blazing. The trees provided shade while we went charging up the slopes.

We initially wanted to play paintball in the indoor gallery. But after a day out amongst the greens, insects and mozzies notwithstanding, most of us preferred the outdoor lasertag to having leadership training in an enclosed space.

It was awesome to see how quickly everyone got into battle mode. They sprinted, ran, hid, jumped, rolled and tumbled! Strategies aplenty were discussed and tactics quickly deployed when the situation turned.

Perspiring bucketloads once in a while is good. How often do we get to experience the great outdoors?? In Singapore, I'd say, not at all. None even. At most, it's a walk in the park. We've been too pampered by air-conditioning and cars. Limited by land scarcity and geography, we don't have the luxury of hiking up a mountain or checking out the nearest creek.

Well, I'm most gleeful that while most went away with mozzie bites, I had none. HAHAHAH. Through the years, it has been proven, that in a group of humans across all ages under jungle conditions, I'd either not get bitten by any sort of mozzie or insect, or have the least number of bites.

Seeing that I was in shorts and sleeveless tee, the colleague offerred insect repellent- I rejected it! I called him a wuss, so he told me he'd wait to see how badly I would be bitten. HEH. So there! ZERO battle scars.

Bak Zhang (粽子)

I kinda like bak zhang. I like the glutinous rice. But not madly in love with it.

It's terribly unhealthy. It's got pork too. I can't stand bak zhang with a heavy pork tang. I like those soaked in dark sauce till that is the main aftertaste. I definitely don't bother with the intricacies of what makes a good bak zhang.

I know the tremendous amount of effort needed to make bak zhang. I appreciate those homemade sort very much. Those are probably the only ones I eat anyway. I can't be bothered to go out to the shops and buy. They're usually oversalted.

Today, as I unwrapped the bak hang, the oil that dripped out made me gulp. Since I needed the carbs for the afternoon's programme, I didn't mind eating half.

In the end, I ate it all. Because the colleague's mother made it. And she was really sweet to come give me one. That delicious homemade flavor was unmistakable.

Splitting The Load

When we were all going off for the work event (and I, home), the colleague had a shoe mishap. The soles spilt. Luckily (and unluckily) the colleague is a male.

He didn't whine about it. He just shrugged and said he could get another pair of shoes. But he couldn't get one instantly because there weren't any shops opened then. So being a male also meant that he didn't have extra pairs of shoes lying around in the office.

I could go in his stead. I had cleared my calendar all week so that I could do late nights and early mornings this week for a major project at work. But if I go, that would mean robbing him of an opportunity to see something worthwhile. He's a silly one who doesn't quite know how to voice his ideas. I knew that he was rather interested in the evening's session, but he was worried that the split soles wouldn't be presentable. The evening's session honestly wouldn't care about split soles.

So after making sure he was okay in spite of having to (unsuccessfully) superglue the soles together, I hopped off at my stop and cheerily waved them off.

Of course I headed straight for the pool. As I swam and felt the body stretch, a tinge of guilt set in. Yes, I've done my part here and there. But there's always more I could do. Tonight, the colleagues wouldn't get off work till 11pm. And here I am, off duty already. I should be the one taking the late nights, not them.

I better do the double and make it up at tomorrow afternoon's gruelling session.

At Work

I figured the curry rice for lunch provided more than sufficient carbs to stand for 3 hours and enjoy the cool breeze. Rain was a better alternative to sunshine for this particular project.

I spent the whole afternoon watching it rain and see humans scurry around with their umbrellas. I also had alot of time to think of very random thoughts on various random matters.

A Quick Pop In

It was a very quick shopping trip with the man's Mommy. She wanted to exchange something for a smaller size. We just hopped into some shops along the way.

I thought it rather amazing that the sales people at DKNY stopped Mommy from buying some dresses last week and told her to return during the weekend because it would be on sale. They then carefully packed it away to await her return. Such a good deal! We checked out the other branch today and realized that they didn't have these pieces on sale. It was only on sale for a quick 3 days at that branch. WOOTS.

I siddled into Massimo Dutti for another quick look. The other day's 20 minutes weren't enough. But we didn't have much time to spare. I stayed in there for slightly under 10 minutes. I fell in love with a teal dress. Mommy waited for me to lop it over my clothes. She proclaimed it lovely. While I gently tugged it over the head and thought about whether to buy it, she sneakily disappeared to the cashier's and paid for it. WIN LOR. Very sweet of her to buy it for me!

At the rate I'm going, the wardrobe will be filled up with alot of pieces from Dutti's spring and summer collections. I must not step into any of its outlets next week.

Pots & Pans

The man is a supermarket slut. He pauses at every aisle and peruses every item. He always end up with more than what's on the shopping list. His excuse: "I want to try this out." But he usually doesn't care about the freebies that the supermarket hands out every now and then.

Last month or so, he strolled by the freebies' rack and stared really long at it. He pointed sweepingly to the pots and pans on display. "I want." He was really certain.

I was puzzled. Sure. Those pots and pants looked really stylish. You see, the only person who cooks at home is the man. So our cookware is slanted towards his taste which is characterized by its industrial and minimalist look. No wonder this rack of freebies attracted him. Casserole, wok, stockpot, etc. I lifted a couple. Good weight. So I also stared very hard at it, got really confused and went home to google.

It was branded as a Wedgwood everyday collection. I didn't know Wedgwood did cookware! I had the impression they specialized in china and crystal dinnerware and they had kinda cracked. Upon a closer look, I realized our local supermarket had cleverly worked with The Continuity Company (TCC) on this special retail marketing programme to organize this licensed Wedgwood cookware promotion. *Cue collective "OIC!"*

We didn't even spend extra effort. We simply continued with the weekly grocery shopping. From the bills, we'd earn 1 stamp for every S$30 spent in a single receipt. As the weeks went by, these supermarket stamps kept piling up. We just kept all the stamps and receipts to make up enough to redeem the items on display.

We managed to redeem 5 sleek pots.

I really don't know what the man is going to do with 3 stock pots and a dozen pans. We don't have an industrial sized kitchen. Let's see if this range works better than the man's preferred Calphalon and Scanpan. Maybe he'll throw out something to make more space.

Doing The Flip

The weather plus work plus many social engagements meant I missed the regular swims all of last week. I was a little grouchy because I couldn't squeeze in a swim.

After the 5.30am start this morning, I so so looked forward to laps in the afternoon. After a late lunch, I headed off straight to the pool. The weather held. The soak was brilliant. 5 usual suspects had the same idea.

The little children who usually played in the pool on the weekends were not around. There were other annoying people in the pool who were in the way by just posing in the middle of pool without doing anything much (not even floating); they obviously didn't get pool etiquette! Unfortunately for them, this estate had tons of swimmers. I felt a little bad for pushing the recreational swimmers out the pool. But they were adults, not children.

Mr Powerful Front Crawl and the other really strong guy torpedo-ed the lengths so fast that basically, every other non-swimmer gave them a wide berth. I meekly followed in their wake. They did 60 laps. No way I could do that. I was so out of breath at 30. Couldn't even do 5 more. Died-ed.

I didn't get out of the pool after. I just flounced around. I wanted to get the flip right. I rarely rarely do that flip at each turn of the lap. There isn't a need to spend all that effort. Today, motivated by the others, I spent 30 minutes trying to get the right distance and timing to the wall. Flipping wasn't the problem. I just had to stop feeling like one clumsy ox. Keeping the water out of my nose was the main concern. Eeeeeek.

By the time I was done, I stumbled out of the pool feeling quite giddy.

The Finale, Season 5, House M.D

*SPOILERS AHEAD for fans of House.*

Watching House with the friends can sometimes be very tedious. After 5 seasons, they still mull over diagnostical scenarios in real life and tend to go off into different arguments of how something which could be a medical probability become an impossibility under field conditions. Whatever. I usually shush them so that I can focus on the imperative issue of watching the show per se. It's tv, people!!!

For me, the pure enjoyment in the show lies in its simple formula of keeping each episode neat so that there're very little spillovers to the next. The characters remain rather consistent with sufficient character development. Most of all, the lines House delivers often leaves me clapping in glee.

When we watched the finale of Season 5, the friends were grimly satisfied that this was how it should end for House, for now. They declared that it was the most logical conclusion.

I, was devastated. I was almost moping. I didn't like how Season 5 had been wrapped. Where's my happy ending?!!!

I certainly hope the essence of the show remains for House Season 6. Although I'm really curious how that will pan out if Season 6 is going to be filmed in and around a psychiatric hospital.

Bribing The Man

I rarely ask the man to buy me stuff whenever he goes away on work trips. He probably wouldn't have the time nor leisure to shop anyway.

I don't bother buying him gifts on my work trips either. Too rushed to get good things or there usually isn't anything he'd want.

But on this work trip of his, I'm eyeing a few items. So I wrote out a long long shopping list. The man said he could easily fulfil them all in between meetings, gigs and getting happily lost in Borough Market. Since I gave the man this long long shopping list, the least I should do is to buy him a nice sushi dinner before the trip.

Dinner was spectacular. I kept pestering the Chef for more sweet corn!!! He had presented us beautiful slices at first. Then he gave up and cut me the whole corn. WAHAHAHHAH. I really really really love corn.

Chef Lawrence brought out different cuts of wagyu and said he was trying out the taste, texture and flavor. Somebody had brought him those 2 boxes of Kobe wagyu. He did 2 pieces as sushi for the man to try. The man didn't like the stringy texture of both cuts. One was better than the other, but not good enough. We saw the price of the boxes which were bought from Meidi-Ya. At S$35 per box retail, it certainly wasn't good enough to slice and do it sushi aburiya. The man had bought beef at that supermarket at S$90 per box and those slices of beef, were divine. The man secretly whispered that the marbling wasn't as good as the one at you-know-where. Of course lah. That restaurant uses Matsusaka beef which is superior to Kobe. If you've tried Mishima beef sushi, you'd know that only that could ever be on par with the texture and taste of Matsusaka. The crux of the taste lies in the quality and cut of the beef.

This round, we didn't want anything steamed nor grilled. So sushi it was. We had many good cuts of fish. We thoroughly enjoyed the swordfish topped with Japanese green chilli. The chilli had a good piquancy, but it was low in capsaicin on the Scoville scale. Rather interesting flavor overall.

After the yummy biwa for dessert, the affable maître d' almost grinned when he realized I was paying the bill. "Special occasion?" He enquired. I gave him a conspiratorial smile. "Yeah, you can say that." The value of that shopping list is way higher than the dinner bill. :D

Kome Japanese Dining
No. 10, Bukit Chermin Road,
The Keppel Club Singapore 109918
T: +65 6273 0118 F: +65 6273 0868
Email: komedining [at] yahoo [dot] com

Don't Use It As A Weird Noun

When copywriters and wordsmiths gather, we can be really mean. Like laughing really hard over someone's queer usage of 'spunk' in a tagline.

Now, spunk has 3 distinct and vastly different meanings. If you ain't talking about Spunk by Sex Pistols, the record label or Wolfe's play, it's going to be rather peculiar in its other usage as a noun.

Especially if you use it to describe someone to "have bright spunk".

Schoolgirl!

Today, I had great fun dressing the part as an emcee for a work event.

I think I make a cuter student now than I ever did whilst in school. :p

Not that I was ever a good student in school. I was so terrible and gave a great deal of grief to the teachers. I definitely annoyed the hell out of the classmates with my hippie ways and arrogance. I garnered tons of A1s for the subjects I loved and an equal number of F9s for the subjects I hated.

I heartily detested school, its structured system and absolute insistence on having everyone conform to the norm- primary school through junior college. I was totally anti-social. Yucks. Thank goodness my life didn't revolve around school or classmates. Otherwise, I'd have been quite miserable.

University was bearable because I didn't give a shit and the system didn't give rats about my attitude as long I turned up for tutorials and the exams. It helped that I had really cool lecturers. I churned out As for essays. That was all that mattered.

I thought it really sporting that many attended today's event dressed to the theme. There was a group of colleagues who came in white shirts and black suspenders. The girls looked really chic. I loved it that everyone got into the spirit of the theme.

A Limerick Writer At Work

She doesn't work so well with alcohol. Or rather, she comes up with particularly hilarious lines. Haha.

A Robust Dinner

The dearest girlfriend is back for a couple of weeks. In between work (and fun) trips, we're going to find time for meals and chats!

We are sure that our dear friend wouldn't be wanting anything western. She's been having too many good pizzas, onion rings, awesome pies, pasta and Mexican. So in Singapore, the food's going to be all Asian definitely.

She says she has crappy Thai food at home. Those are TOO SWEET. The owner of that Thai restaurant near her place is a grouchy Thai food nazi. So it is Thai for tonight in Singapore at Thanying.

We always prefer the outlet at Amara Hotel because it's the one branch with extensive vegetarian options. The branch at Amara Sanctuary on Sentosa is very pretty but it has limited vegetarian selections which isn't ideal for us.

She was a good girl! She ate a fair bit- more than her usual itty bites! The spices must have had a positive effect on the tastebuds and increased her appetite!

We really liked our vegetarian tom yam clear soup. The kitchen did it so well that the ommph was there even though seafood was omitted. Well, the food can never be compared to what Thailand offers. But it is decent enough. The food isn't spicy (to me). I always forget to ask them to douse it with proper spices.

We were too full for dessert initially. Well, not the glutinous rice stuff anyway. But we had a stomach for the ice-cold red ruby. We liked how it's done at Thanying. Delicate and not overly sweet. For some reason, I don't know what it's called in Thai. I just learnt it's called 'tap tim grob' (ทับทิมกรอบ).

We totally miss having the girlfriend around. We miss her jokes, wit and insights. Her laughter is infectious! However, as much as I like Charlie The Unicorn, I do confess to wanting to strangle her everytime she puts on her Charlie The Unicorn voice. Like tonight. She's going to make me have nightmares.

Ristorante Bologna

Someone piqued our interest in Ristorante Bologna. This is another restaurant that has fallen through the cracks and off our radar.

I remember the restaurant in its older (before renovation) and more dingy days. I was so young then. I had lots of dates who brought me there for meals. The bestie and I also had a very unmemorable meal there.

I casually mentioned Ristorante Bologna to the friends and got an avalanche of comments. In short, we're all separately going to Bologna this week (some have gone and more are going tomorrow and over the weekend) for nostalgia's sake.

Importantly, we trust Chef Carlo Marengoni. Many of us attended his masterclass in homemade pasta during the last World Gourmet Summit and went away with extremely favorable impressions.

Tonight, I thoroughly enjoyed my asparagus risotto with asiago cheese. That cheese was a little strong and wonderful for cheese lovers. I totally dig it! The pappardelle pasta with crab and spinach served in lobster sauce was light and delicious.

We also had the grilled fish of the day which was seabass. It was ever so lightly grilled and served with a splash of olive oil and vegetables. That oven-baked rack of lamb with rosemary and red wine sauce served with spinach cake was beautifully done too. The clincher was its red wine sauce. That sauce was not tart and lacked the usual sour sharpness. It was well rounded with honey tones. It went beautifully with our Glenlivet 12 y.o. We eventually found out that the grape used was Barbera.

Obviously, that left us with no space whatsoever for dessert. Zilch.

This restaurant has a very extensive menu that we like. Move over, Pontini and Zambuca. Bologna is our new favorite seat in hotels. Many Italian restaurants have got individuality and flair of their own. I can't just put them in any one league. Sure, Bologna doesn't have some of the quiet elegance of DOMVS' basil spaghetti, the pizazz of Oso or the warm comfort of Bontá. But Bologna is charming. Importantly, if you're a pasta person, you'll like Bologna's extensive selections.

Next week, Chef Carlo is cooking up a feast of fresh homemade pastas. Think spaghetti chitarra-style with spring onions, boston lobster and cherry tomato, homemade strangozzi pasta with minced sausage, black truffles and pecorino cheese, rigatoni pasta sautéed with sweet capsicum, mussels, basil leaf and olives. By the time we finished reading that list, we were drooling and wanted to go to the kitchen to ask for all these tonight. And yes, if you desire just a simple aglio olio, Chef Carlo will do it just for you.

I'm very very interested in its 'Summer In Italy' menu from 15 - 20 June 2009. Chef Carlo has created a full menu of Italy's summer seasonal vegetables! A couple of us are really excited about it. We can't wait to taste the sautéed beet stalks stuffed with fish and seafood, grilled vegetables with goat cheese and leaves tossed with fontina cheese, croutons and white truffle-balsamic vinaigrette.

It helped tremendously that service was good, understated and considerate. It ended the evening on a nice mellow note.

In Brown

I walked into Massimo Dutti to buy a casual white shirt. Yeah, I found that shirt and also ended up with a few other items in 20 minutes. I was kinda cutting it close for dinner and had to shop really fast.

Well, I didn't 'intend' to buy a jacket. But since it just appeared on the racks in front of me, I tried it on. I know this one doesn't look very much different from my 2 other black jackets. I simply favor the cut. I like them as plain as possible and fuss free. This meets all criteria.

This one was in rich chocolate brown. It also happened to match my clothes that evening. So I had to have it.

I just love the look of edgy leather against everyday dresses.

Limericks

I should have organized a get-together for the friends for Limerick Day! It'd have been hilarious and so so fun. Limericks and anti-limericks would be thrown up galore. I know of just the right 10 people to make a party to pit wit and skills! Drunken debauchery, literally.

Dear Dawnie blew me away with her skills over msn. On-the-spot creativity. Not bawdy, but quite cute! I gave her 3 words- lollipop, rainy days, hot chocolate. Here's what she came up with in 5 seconds:

On rainy days I like my chocolate hot,
Mix it in with your lollipop.
Twirl it in with cinnamon and spice.
I guarantee you something nice.
If you don't agree, I'll doff my top. ©

I was duly impressed. I can't, for the life of me, make anything rhyme. Writing in iambic pentatmeter is no sweat. But I royally suck at writing to rhyming schemes. The second set consisted of pink, bear, whisky.

Said the bear to the whiskey, I do like your tone,
Your taste is rich, not to mention your colour alone.
To call you just merely a drink,
Would be like saying that I was pink.
But to take more than a sip, would mean tomorrow I must atone. ©

Mind you, she was rushing out for lunch with her mom. Between pulling on her clothes and pee break, she came up with limericks just like that. "Magic." I said. She gleefully announced, "It's my party trick!" and gave me a parting gift:

According to Imp, today is Limerick Day.
And far be it for me to doubt what she has to say.
So I sit here and write her a piece of fluff.
No Illiyad or Chaucer or Beowulf,
But one to briing her a laugh if it may. ©

If she had merrily spouted anymore of these saucy lines, I'd have prostrated myself in complete deference to her superior intelligence.

A Quiet Night

After that presentation where I sounded like a moron, I was relieved that I didn't get ripped to pieces. The big big boss was really enthusiastic and supportive of our ideas; so the boss just upped our budget for the year. Heeee.

It was good to sit down for sushi at Tatsuya and catch up with my not-so-little little girl. We hadn't met for a while and I missed her birthday too!

She had thoughtfully picked out gifts for me from her travels to Cairo, Cuba and Tokyo. She's also given me a bottle of Croatian wine that I'm really curious about. Through her, I relieved my wanderlust! It was with joy that I carefully kept the gifts for future use. Very practical stuff too.

I liked the early dinner. I could do plenty of stuff before bedtime. I squeezed in a quick couple of laps in that freezing pool. Then I went online. There're a couple of items I'm watching on ebay that I intend to snipe and swipe at the last minute to win the bids. :p

Comfort Food

Last night when I stepped into Bontá looking absolutely exhausted, the servers knew I only wanted 2 items.

Those would be the angel hair pasta with black truffles. (my version is without the truffle butter sauce) and coffee. Dinner was fuss-free and easy. I had a very short version of a heavenly meal.

I didn't have any appetizer, no bread, no dessert. Not that they didn't offer, but I wasn't in the mood for fancy. So it was just that, comfort pasta and coffee after. Yes. They didn't even have to ask to know that coffee had to be decaf. :) Otherwise I'd be bloody grouchy for the next 32 hours.

After dinner, the smile was back on my face.

Last Week

The last week was the busiest ever in my social calendar. It hasn't been so for a long time.

When this morning came, I had to go get coffee (decaf) to kickstart the day. All I wanted was a quiet week, especially when the next would be crazy. But no, at 4pm today, I had to stupidly manoeuvre myself into 'volunteering' for a presentation tomorrow that was of zero interest to me. I still had to do prep work so I wouldn't sound like a moron.

As much as I'm not particularly into the scene, I embraced the Audi Fashion Festival with a vengeance. Well, since the invitations had been extended and the friends called up one by one to check on my attendance, I would have to show up. Otherwise they would start wondering why I'm being insistently anti-social. Well, I really like swimming in the evenings. They swore on their lives that the fashion fest this year would be totally different from the last and there would be very cutting edge stuff that would be to my taste.

So true! I enjoyed the vibrant colors. There was this excitement in the air. Much as I detest air kisses, there were many events of interest to me and Pugh's dark edgy designs are so enthralling. Of course there were plenty of Vivenne Westwood's gorgeous displays.

Parallel to the chi chi hobnobbing, the friends specifically ordered me to turn up at the various Gilles Peterson parties, or else they would drag me out of bed or wherever. Of course those I went, merrily. I didn't drink much because they didn't serve single malts or the bars had a severely crippled selection on the menu. Ha. Anyway, I was there for the music- that, was tripping awesome.

I could barely open my eyes this morning. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. I'm so not looking forward to that presentation I'm doing because no one wants to. (Hoping someone else would volunteer. Eeeps.)

Mother's Day

We took the man's parents out for Mother's Day lunch at Yan Ting.

On the weekends, Yan Ting has this dim sum buffet that is currently, imho, the best in town. The kitchen has cut back on the oil used in the dishes and beefed up its selections on the menu.

I'll admit, we really didn't mind the choice of champagne that came along with lunch.

After the initial hiccups and strange food mix, I think the Cantonese restaurant has kinda understood the Singapore taste in Chinese food and has adjusted accordingly. I wasn't at all impressed at the start. However, my experience at Yan Ting this year has so far been pretty good.

Since I've decided to snub Shang Palace till they improve their service, Yan Ting is my current to-go place for Cantonese food. Plus they always accommodate all my naughty requests. Heh.

Today, the kitchen ran out of lobsters. The manager was very apologetic. He replaced it with abalone and spinach. It was still a tad disappointing though. I really liked those steamed lobsters. Luckily the rest of the food was superb and the service was attentive.

We eat with the parents twice a week. It gets rather challenging to take them out sometimes. Often, we run out of venues to explore, especially when the father isn't too adventurous with food. So today, we're glad that the parents enjoyed the lunch tremendously.

I like seeing the parents smile. They do spoil me so. It doesn't take too much effort to make the parents happy. So it's really easy to organize meals and outings with them.

Oban 1992 Distillers Edition

I've always liked the bottles from Oban. As a beginner single malt drinker, I started off with its easy 14 y.o and have remained a fan of the distillery.

The other evening at the store, I spied a new bottle of whisky they just brought in. I'm quite the sucker for packaging. It looked rather pretty. The tasting notes sounded okay. I'm usually fine with bottles from the Highlands. So I grabbed a bottle and hoped for the best.

The Oban 1992 Distillers Edition is a delightful bottle.

It is not particularly peaty. The sherry cask makes that dram very easy on the palate. It's rather sweet and full of hints of burnt nuts and heather. The finish is surprisingly rich and soft.

It's an enjoyable single malt. There're little touches of sea notes because of its geographical position and also influenced by its primary identity as a bottle from the Highlands.

An Unsatisfying Meal

For a lark, we popped by Hokkaido Sushi for dinner. We hadn't been there for months and thought we'd say hi.

Unfortunately, the entire dining experience was underwhelming, to say the least. I don't know what happened to the restaurant, but it hasn't fulfilled all its potential and promise from its opening. It could be the slowdown of the economy which leads to a decrease of diners; which leads to lower profits and therefore they don't stock premium ingredients anymore. It's a vicious cycle that doesn't bode well for the restaurant.

Chef Thomas has to stick at Tomo now. So the chefs at Hokkaido Sushi aren't exactly strong in their techniques or creativity, but passable. I think they just don't have good ingredients to work with.

Our omakase selections were frankly terrible. The sashimi and sushi weren't exactly top grade nor today's fresh. The cooked items were palatable, but not terribly delicious. The friends liked the wagyu beef steak that wasn't too marbled and properly pan fried. I glanced around the restaurant. Everyone was having the cooked items. The sashimi that went out to the floor didn't look good at all. The chef knew us. He knew my taste. He knew I would like the good stuff, yet he chose to give me this pathetic selection of food. I could only think it was because he didn't have much to work with.

When the bill was presented, I nearly keeled over. They only charged us S$100 (before the 20% à la carte card discount) per pax for the omakase dinner. Honestly, that was too cheap for anything of quality. At this price range, I rather pay slightly more for Kome which is my current casual venue of choice. If I'm to eat at a restaurant twice a week, I need to know that the quality of food remains top notch.

So Hokkaido Sushi is still alright for simple food and quiet meals. The man thinks it's still an okay venue to visit for work purposes. But on a private note, he agrees that this restaurant goes off our personal list of eating places.

At 50% Of The Price

It's gotten to the point that if I take friends out to Pontini for dinner, it can be rather embarrassing. Usual casual dinners are fine, but not if we want an evening of good food. I'm just moody because Pontini is one of the places I frequent for its location and convenience for a quick dinner before we head home. If the food is eeky, it means I'll have to travel further to look for food.

The other evening when I ordered the lobster linguine on the menu, the dish came looking tasty. But those pieces of lobster were pathetic. I'm never ordering this from Pontini again. There were no specials of the night. Luckily the various pizzas were still good.

You would need to know exactly what you want and order off the menu. I've been told that that works quite well. I hated that there was only one pasta listed on the menu. The entire menu has been pared down to the bare minimum. This is an Italian restaurant, for goodness sake. The menu will change in June. Let's see what that brings.

I asked if the chef could make me a vegetarian aglio olio. It came with lots of ingredients- zucchinni, capsicums etc. Very tasty, very satisfying. But I was turned off by the huge dollop of oil at the bottom. I wished they would be less generous with the oil, even if it's olive oil.

Over A Dog

For 5 nights, the poor dog whimpered and whined through the night. It does that from midnight till about 3 - 4am till it gets tired and finally falls asleep.

It is very obvious that the owners have gone to bed and locked him out in the back. Encased in their air-conditioned bedroom, they couldn't hear his pathetic begging to be let in or they probably just ignored it. It speaks volumes about the character of this family.

Last night, I heard the dog howl. Continuously. I got really upset. It wasn't so much of the 'noise' that irritated me. It's the fact that the neighbors can be so callous and inconsiderate to the others that pissed the hell out of me. I can hear that poor dog scratch and thud against the door.

Calling security isn't going to help. Somebody did that 2 nights ago. The whining stopped, but it resumed the following night. This family obviously don't take the words of a 'lowly' security guard to heart. So at 2am, I strode upstairs sans make-up. Yes, I was that furious. I do kinda know which unit the poor dog belongs to. Very new tenants, apparently. But I need to verify it for myself instead of depending on hearsay.

I headed up a couple of floors and listened. The dog cooperated by whining even louder. I pinpointed the unit and rang the doorbell. 2am, so what. I don't get sleep, they don't get to sleep. After I rang thrice with a decent interval of 2 minutes, nobody answered the door. So I did the furious psychotic 'ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong' for like 10 times in a row. Still, nobody came out. Maybe I look too much like a hantu.

I stomped back to the flat to type out a very nice memo to this selfish neighbor. I printed 10 copies and went back upstairs. I slipped it under said unit's door as well as the rest of the units 2 floors up and down. Selfish actions should be properly made known and acknowledged.

As I trudged around, I realized that there was no more whining. The dog had somehow been silenced. Somewhat suspicious, I went back home and listened intently for a couple of minutes more. Complete silence, except for sounds of the night.

Cowardly pricks!!! They obviously knew why I rang that doorbell and refused to answer. Good on them that at least they felt something and let that dog in. With that memo, I hope they know the consequences of every thoughtless action. Maybe they don't realize they're being mean to the dog. It is also unforgivable that they have the cheek to be inconsiderate to their neighbors.

Hummmpf. I'll be listening out again tonight, and tomorrow.

乙女士

和美甲师聊天。她问我乙女士近来好吗，怎么那么久都没来美甲。

说到乙女士，我的心就沉了许多。认识美甲师有15年了。我的指甲都靠她打理得体面。虽然不算是朋友， 但告诉她也无妨。她认识乙女士也有一段时间了。

乙女士和我是要好的知己。她时髦，美丽，时兴。一棕严重车祸后，车全全捣毁了，人幸好安然无恙。我们都说是奇迹。数日后，她却变了。她性情大变，简直般若两人。车祸前，她对新房子特别向往，也很紧张它的建筑装饰。我也负责给她的新厨房布置。车祸后，她对新房子不闻不问，几乎不记得有我这位朋友，不认得其他好友，也不要我们陪伴。一夜之间，她突然结交了莫名其妙的‘好’朋友。这群‘好’朋友的宗教信仰让人深感不安，外表披头散发，言谈举止和眼神发狂似的。

之后，她拒绝和我们交往，换了所有电话号码，邮址等。她说的话也怪怪的，语气和对事的洞察慢了很多。她对亲手创办的公司也不理会，对员工刻薄。短短的一个月内，把7年前辛辛苦苦建立起来的公司搞垮。她不紧张新房子，不记得朋友，甚至对最爱的老公也置之不理，不要婚姻了。

医生说她没事，也许是精神上受到创伤。还没有机会把她拉到心理医生做检查，她突然离家出走，办离婚手续，对老公提出的离婚条件更是不可思议。

美甲师听了也叹息。她说这是因为车祸后，灵魂被对调了。今日的乙女士已经不是往日的‘人’了。她说得像真的一样，说到我毛孔悚然。

我不信邪。什么灵魂调换，根本就是天方夜谭，迷信之言。但我深知科学已经无法给我合理的解释了。难道这一切能以精神分裂症为解释吗？

有可能吗？

Girls' Night Out

After the last meeting that ended at 6.45pm, I had to do some major reconstruction on some papers. That made me VERY late for dinner with the girlfriend. Luckily the woman was cool about it.

We ended up strolling by Zouk to take a look. My goodness. Despite the snaking queues outside, Zouk was practically empty. 9.45pm. Too EARLY. The lights were bright and members' bar was not opened yet. The club played "Always On My Mind." Wah lau. I've never been to Zouk this early.

Anyway, I wanted whisky. So we went off next door to the store to satisfy my craving first.

She's one absolutely hot mama of 3 super cute boys. She totally stays in vogue and has better dress sense than I do. I always think she looks fabulous. I love our little stretches of girl time together. And that's not because she drives me around everywhere. :P

Are You Mainstream?

At work, the organization is setting up its database for efficient contact tracing in case of a pandemic. Each department is keeping a detailed list of contact names and numbers. Everyone is required to fill them in.

There're the usual columns for name, address, etc. Then there're the columns for emergency contact #1 and #2, and all the requested details of names of the 2 emergency contacts as well as their relations to us.

I filled up mine. Then I scanned the list to kaypoh at other people's details and heaved a sigh. Everyone else listed their Emergency Contact #1 as their wife or husband. Emergency Contact #2 is listed as sister/brother/mother/father.

My Emergency Contact #1 is listed as "Partner". Emergency Contact #2 is listed as "Partner's Mother".

Very telling, don't you think?

Remember,

"MOE said its framework reflects the mainstream values of Singapore society, where the social norm consists of the married heterosexual family unit. It added that schools do not promote alternative lifestyles to students." (read more in this article on channelnewsasia.)

When people tell me to get married, I ask them why and all the answers I get are, "Because God says so", "To prove that he loves you and wants to commit", "It's the norm." I can never get a satisfactory answer that's based on logic, point and pertinence. The good friend supplied,"So that if you have children, they won't just say 'ya' when people call them 'Oi bastard!'?" Still not convincing. Works only if I want children in the first place.

When I ask them what is it that the man can provide for me in marriage that he can't already provide for me now, I'm usually met by silence. Because if one breaks it down, people usually struggle when they start listing out how the spousal benefits are great in terms of insurance, medical and housing. Well, I can afford my own- do not need supplements via marriage. I don't even want to marry for love. Marriage versus living together- there isn't an ounce of difference in my mind. What the man has done for me, is clearly more than what some husbands do for their wives.

No wonder I've always been an outcast in terms of ideas, opinions and lifestyle. Not that I mind really.

Renting DVDs

Along with movie night, the man had a craving for Ice Cream Gallery's flavors of durian, whisky prune and rum and raisin. But the tubs of ice-cream weren't enough to make him stop whining.

The man was grouchy over the selection of videos at the shop. He hated the mainstream titles. He had a ball of time when he lived in Oz. Besides knocking himself out with night after night of major concerts and pub gigs, he also had access to so many dvd stores with great selections of indie/foreign films.

I don't know anything about films. I no like Star Wars or Star Trek. But I love Serenity. I heart Firefly even more. I'm iffy about X-Files; bring on Supernatural! So yes, aye to B-grade horror movies and a number of mainstream films and tv series. My repertoire of indie films isn't fantastic. I'm only familiar with the ones I like. Unlike the man, I can't rattle off details of producers/directors/actors and all the trivia. Our tastes in movies and books are as different as chalk and cheese. Still, often, our favorite cinemas would invariably be Cinema Europa and The Picturehouse because these 2 cinemas screen indie films that would sometimes be mind-blowingly brilliant and at other times, crap.

He reminisced about the good old days about this video (tape) shop in Tanglin Shopping Centre (methinks it's called O'Dell) ran by a cranky Irish Jew who would f**k you upside down if you didn't rewind the tapes upon return. The owner also gave 10-min rants against the censors who would cut scenes from his tapes. In each tape box he'd have a description of all the cut scenes so at least one could imagine it :) But after he died, his son closed the shop.

The man gushed about how that video shop had the BEST range. "Unparalleled!" He declared. He really missed that video shop. Now that our island has phased out videotapes and moved on to dvds, the selection at the rental shops is even more pathetic.

I can't help but giggle at how riled up this film buff is over the choices of dvds on rental we have here.

Silly boy. That's why we're hooked up on cable and Apple TV.

Perception

Singapore has been built by migrants. It rose from obscurity as a fishing village into the modern city we know today. It is still being built into a world class city by lower-skilled migrants who spend most of their time here to better their lives back home. Yet Singaporeans have a love-hate relationship with them.

There are many lower-skilled foreign workers who have been accused of causing social problems. There are many Singaporeans who do not accept them in their midst. Myself included, because I keep running into the bad ones. I've socked a couple right in the face and got hauled along to police stations because I have a huge problem with how they take liberties thinking that women in Singapore are like women in their home countries- meek, easy prey. In fact, the most recent one I punched was just 3 weeks ago. He somehow made the bad call to trail me (right after free-sparring class) into dark alleys up and down even after he knew I knew.

On the other hand, if you have 800,000 lower-skilled foreign workers in Singapore, a quarter of that would turn out to be bad eggs, just like our fellow Singaporeans. The statistics actually don't present scary figures. Singaporeans find it unacceptable probably because we could possibly have lower tolerance for the former.

On the way home from office on some days, when the sky is still bright at 6.15pm, I would pass by a lush green field surrounded by ongoing construction works for buildings. Often, there are plenty of lower-skilled workers on that field playing cricket.

Yes. Cricket. In their technicians/workers' uniforms, they play. Energetically, they bat and deliver. Proper wickets have somehow been constructed along with proper bats used. That field isn't even a proper pitch by any standards. Still they play, enthusiasm shining through.

I don't know if there's an official organizer for the rather regular game of cricket. Perhaps not. But it's kinda nice to stumble upon such a random thing like that in sanitary orderly Singapore. It reminds me that the bad is bad, but there is alot of good only if I choose to see it.

That field is earmarked as state land. I'm not sure permission has been sought to use it this way. That's exactly why I smile each time I see it.

Doing A Little Work

I came up from the pool all hungry and from just outside the door, smelt pungent spices from our kitchen.

I wondered what he was doing for dinner. I thought we were just going to have the leftovers from dinner the other night. There were still plenty of that bean casserole and pasta packed away in the fridge.

The man was pounding away on the paso tumbuk rempah, making marinade for the lamb roast.

He put me to work cutting mint leaves for the chilli yoghurt dip to go with the lamb. The mint leaves smelt beautiful, more subtle and delicate than the usual. I plucked one to play around with it. "Don't waste any leaf." He said. "These are organic at S$4 a box instead of the usual S$0.75."

Wah. Okay. I plucked off what was needed and cut them very carefully. I felt quite useful.

The Man Is Nice Today

I've always liked Loewe and its lambskin range of soft, malleable bags.

When the man is in a generous mood (like today), he remembers that I've gone into the boutique many times and haven't bought anything. So he buys me a couple of items from the label.

For a man who usually doesn't quite care about women accessories, he merrily followed me around the shopping mall all afternoon. He was also rather interested in what we were going to get for his mommy. He didn't want to get her display items of crystal, glass or porcelain.

On the many bags and small items picked out, he offerred opinions on how it would fit or otherwise, but left the final decision of purchase to me. He kept urging me not to buy stuff in black. He has definitely noticed I have too many items in black.

Surprisingly, we didn't linger too long at the mall. The shopping was done in less than an hour!