Off With It!!!

It was so hot in Vũng Tàu that I perspired non-stop. My clothes were soaked through. I wished I had brought 3 sets of clothes and underwear for each day to change out of! I tried to shower thrice a day.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any body scrub or deep cleansing shampoo. So the twice-a-day showers and shampoo-ing didn't seem to help very much. I still felt grimy all the time. Once home, I stood for a long time under the hot shower, scrubbing the skin and scalp. Still the scalp itched and didn't quite feel clean.

The girlfriend texted to ask if I'd like to join her for a hair-cut tonight. Yes!! I definitely needed a scalp tea-tree/mint treatment done too! She fixed up everything and drove us to the salon.

At the salon, the more I looked at my hair, the more irritated I got with its dry and split ends. When the stylist fingered my hair, I casually asked if I'd look fine in a bob. The last time I had a bob was when I was 16! That was the stupidest look ever. The stylist replied "Sure", with total conviction. So I trusted him. I meant to only trim an inch off the ends. But on impulse, I decided to do more.

The girlfriend was horrified. She went on and on about how the man was going to scold her for being a bad influence. I simply smirked. Nope, I didn't ask the man for 'permission'. I've had long hair for 3 years. I'm sick and tired of it. I'm a big girl and I shall do whatever I so please with my hair.

I'm very very pleased with my new bob. It also means I've to moisturize my neck most zealously.

We met the man for dinner. The poor boy did a double-take when he walked into the restaurant. Otherwise, he wryly admitted I didn't look too bad in this bob. And now, he vehemently denies that he is against short hair. He states, "I was never against you cutting your hair short!" Well, he thinks I look cute in the bob. Oof. On the other hand, the man's father went 'EIOOOW!' and I love it that his mommy likes it!

Cà phê sữa đá OR Cà phê sữa nóng

I love the hazelnut aroma and rich dense flavor of Vietnamese coffee. I dislike the condensed milk bit of it. At home, once in a while, I drink Vietnamese coffee hot with a dollop of fresh milk. I tell you, it taste so much better.

Aside from Monmouth Coffee, I also rave about Vietnamese coffee. Against better judgment and because I love that taste, I had a cup of cà phê sữa đá at lunch and the caffeine kept me awake till 2am. DOH.

The colleagues seemed to all love coffee. I looked on with a fair bit of amusement at the colleagues who swept the shelves clean of packets of Trung Nguyen coffee. They were buying the packs for themselves as well as gifts for the family and friends. I scrooge, didn't buy a thing!

I walked around and poked my nose into the other aisles. I'm quite amazed by the supermarkets in Vũng Tàu. Perhaps I'm ignorant. But in those non air-conditioned crowded narrow supermarkets, they carry labels alot of ingredients for gourmet cooking. There're so many imported or local labels of pâté mousse, herbs etc. I called the man in excitement to see if there was anything he wanted! Let's just say that the man will be interested in the tiny supermarkets as well, if the heat doesn't kill him first.

The colleagues also grabbed the weasel (civet cat) coffee at VND $118,000. Haizz. Isn't that a bit like kopi luwak? Didn't really want to tell them how I feel about kopi luwak, and how we shouldn't be drinking it till some measures are placed for the humane treatment of the animals in question. Colleagues already think me strange. But I guess it's a matter of different lifestyles, habits and outlook. At least among the friends, we're on the same page. That makes me feel better. I did say that I don't take kopi luwak. If only more people understand why. Kinda left the shop and waited for them elsewhere.

Aimee Mann in Singapore

In Vung Tau and on the flight back to Singapore, I was furiously playing Aimee Mann songs to familiarize myself with all of them again. Such talent and staying power.

Aimee Mann was so affable and unaffected. Along with easy conversation with the audience, she turned that intimidatingly posh concert hall into an intimate venue. Such a great voice, such an amazing gig.

She started off by taking photos of the audience! Ha. So ironic. The ushers were damn on about stopping the audience from taking photos. Whatever. So many people still sneaked plenty for their personal albums.

Backed by the versatile Jamie Edwards and Jebin Bruni (I'd thought it was Paul Bryan! Thanks to the kind soul who pointed out that it wasn't!) on the keyboards, bass and everything else, she did songs mainly from the Magnolia soundtrack and Bachelor No.2. From the former, she picked were Momentum, Build That Wall and Wise Up. From the latter, it was of course, Red Vines, Driving Sideways (encore), Deathly and one more I think is Just Like Anyone.

Her main Gibson Hummingbird displayed a beautiful mother-of-pearl inlay in the headstock that reflected the stage lights and became rather blinding. There was Freeway, Little Tornado, Amateur, Par for the Course, Nightmare Girl. She was really sporting to take song requests from the audience and gamely sang Invisible Ink, That's Just What You Are and Video. What a treat we had!

My favorite piece from her tonight was 31 Today. Her encore pieces included Voices Carry! It was a long 2-hour set because she said she was feeling bad about her raspy voice for us tonight. Awwwww. :)

Come back to Singapore soon, Aimee!

Behind The Logs

For a good portion of the 3-hour ride to Ho Chi Minh from Vũng Tàu, our mini-van was trailing behind and between 3 of these beeeg trucks.

Our driver drove in the typical Vietnamese zigzag along the roads and blast-car-horn-like-mad fashion. Being not asleep, I was made very nervous by his darting in and out and around these 3 heavy trucks.

I was eyeing those logs most warily. They didn't seem all that secure to me. The drivers of the trucks bearing these logs didn't exactly go slowly. I didn't trust those logs to stay where they are. UGH. Scenes from Final Destination 1, 2, 3 and 4 flashed through my mind. You know, creatively, how people could die in the strangest manner? Death by being smashed in the head by falling logs from a truck along a dusty Vietnam road would consist of one such dramatic bloody splat worthy of a minor alternative in the movie.

I took a deep breath, plugged in the ipod, closed my eyes and decided to go to sleep.

Missing Out On Con Dao Islands

The other day, a suddenly postponed meeting meant a free morning! I left my boss to his own devices and quickly googled to see what I could do with this 5 glorious hours! Well, I could move my butt and check out Paradise Golf Club (it's a 72 par!) which the friends raved about. But I'm not that into golf. This free time could be spent on a better route. I gleefully scuttled around the city alone and saw many more sights than originally planned on this work trip. (Whale skeleton! I can't get over it!)

Vũng Tàu is still relatively quiet and peaceful despite it being a really rich province due to its possession of crude oil and the lucrative refining industry. The boulevards adjacent to the sea are beautifully paved. The city is clean. The motorbikes are plentiful but not yet a menace like in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. No touts (yet). One gets lots of local hospitality. The cafes and eateries that dot the city have free wifi easily available. There're more major resorts and developments coming up, including a little airport for them. I'm not sure if the city would be turned into those eeky seaside touristy towns like others destinations in Southeast Asia.

Too bad I've no time to visit Con Dao Islands. I want to visit the Con Dao Musuem, Trai Phu Hai Prisons that were built in 1862, and see the famous tomb of Vo Thi Sau- the national heroine and a Viet Minh revolutionary against the French. I've spent too much time in Nha Trang and forgot to explore the other parts of Vietnam. Con Dao Islands' National Park is very inviting. I'm going to make time to come back here for a vacation. There're plenty of marine protection programmes that I could gatecrash and work on, which would so make it a great vacation.

Before the natural local beauty dissolves, I hope to come back soon, to dive. :D

Bánh Khot

I was thrilled when the formal 7am meeting turned out informal over breakfast at one of Vũng Tàu's most famous bánh khot stalls- Goc Vu Sua.

We squatted on tiny stools and dipped our chopsticks into a traditional Vietnamese breakfast staple of grilled rice pancakes topped with fresh shrimp and sprinkled with shrimp powder. There's the standard fish sauce dip with sides of with slivered green papaya, carrot, and lots of fresh herbs of mint and one variety that taste like wasabi.

I'm no expert, but I love this version of bánh khot with shrimp. There is another version topped with minced pork. I dislike the pork version simply because of the taste- quite eeeky. The shrimp version taste so much lighter and easy on the stomach for breakfast. The skilled women at this stall fried it to a proper crisp.

I ate so many pieces of it because it was so tasty. (Of course I dumped the shrimp.) I ate a plate of it all by myself. That sorta settled lunch as well.

So I proclaim this as my next best meal on this trip.

Goc Vu Sua (Opens at 6am)
14 Nguyen Truong To Street
Vũng Tàu, Vietnam

Street Food!

I don't need a proper sit-down dinner in Vietnam. I can just snack and it'll suffice.

Finally, I gave in to my cravings and went out to look for certain foods at the roadside stalls. I've eaten them along the roads of HCMC and Hanoi and the tummy had no problems. Vũng Tàu's food shouldn't give me any grief either.

I couldn't resist those beautiful loaves. I finally walked over to a stall by the road and bought a bread roll (bánh mì). That bread was cold and crispy on the brown, but soft and delicious on the white! The filling could have been anything and it'd still taste great. This one had some char siew looking thingy and lots of veggies and tomatoes.

Then I went over to the stall by the drain that sold those huge steamed paus (bánh bao) and got one. This particular seller puts tiny eggs in his buns! I wasn't sure, but it could be quail eggs!

The not-so-good bit- the meats used for both were pork. Across the country, the filling used is generally pork. Some are eeeky, some are bearable. Whatever. Here, the ones I picked out had the meats cooked quite interestingly and mixed with the flour of bread and bun till it didn't quite taste like pork. So tonight, I was thrilled to eat something I actually like for dinner!

Forget the seafood and everything else. Those are just things I don't mind eating or I've to eat for sustenance. Aside from the pho which I enjoy, tonight's meal of bánh mì and bánh bao is, I proclaim, my best meal in Vũng Tàu.

Cheh, Beer. UGH.

I survived the drinking 'party'!!! Felt a little cheated about it even. I expected worse! Not too many people came to toast and make us drink. Along with the itty bites, they served beer. WTF? It's like, got no kick lor. I HATE downing beer because of all that gas. It makes me queasy and bloated!

There were 160 people at the 'party'. Obviously they're not going to serve expensive alcohol when a good 80% of the humans present only wanted to get drunk.

I kinda forgot how many 50%, 100% I downed. Maybe 6 mugs. 8, tops. The alcohol content was negligible. I wouldn't be drunk, but I'd have a very unhappy stomach. That gas was rising and rising. Yucks. It wasn't too bad already because they put ice cubes into beer. I almost giggled when I saw it. Too easy! But good lah, it reduced the amount to imbibe. At some point, I needed to go puke before continuing. Just then, the party ended and we went back to the hotel which was a mere three minutes away.

Merrily, I stuck a finger down my throat and retched thrice to get all alcohol out of my system. There was immense satisfaction in seeing what I downed came right up and into embrace of the Toilet Gods. Hurrah! After that, I polished off a 500ml bottle of crisp Fiji and multi-vits. Then I hurried downstairs to meet the colleagues so that they could buy more meow-meows and I could eat a proper dinner. HUNGRY. Now, I'm kinda feeling like a good dram of Bowmore 16 y.o (port cask) to slowly savor. :)

Drinking In Vietnam

On a good day, polishing half a bottle of 18 y.o single malt isn't a problem. Slightly tipsy, yes. But not drunk and there isn't a need to puke. It's good whisky, tasty, rich and flavorful. Why the hell would I want to waste it all by puking it right out? I love my alcohol and appreciate the finer delicate flavors of the different single malts.

However, I'm not too sure how wild the drinking would be at the 'party' late afternoon. Although there isn't an official dinner scheduled, the counterparts have termed it as a Closing Party. That doesn't bode well at all. It screams alcohol like a neon sign. If my liver is going to suffer, it might as well be properly prepped for it. It's like, training for a run. Oh the oxymoron of healthy activities.

Have you seen the way the Vietnamese drink? I think they're worse than the Chinese. The Chinese (the ones we met) have eased off on the drinking at meals. I don't care about the drinking at nightclubs and lounges since I'm female and not welcomed. I can handle whisky shots easy. What I object to is the indiscriminate gulps of wine. Wine!!! They'll yell '100%!' and finish the whole glass in one breath! Wine is just NOT meant to be done in shots or half glasses. What travesty. But I'm in Vietnam and that's how they drink. DAMMIT.

This 100% drinking thing is quite juvenile. Most men (and women) are rendered stupid by alcohol. To be able to hold one's drink is one trait I require in my man. I can't have him end up as a blubbering fool on the floor. I can drink most men under the table. But even I quiver when it comes to drinking with the Vietnamese because a civilized drinking etiquette is an alien concept to the majority for now. When will they learn that alcohol is most beautiful in small doses? I wonder if they'll do this 100% thingy if it's a bottle of Black Bowmore at S$7000.

Since my doctor refused to give me any magic pill to negate the effects of alcohol, I've to stick to traditional means of hydrating thoroughly and carb loading. I'll eat oily beef rice (too bad no eeky fatty wagyu!) or something later and pop another 2 capsules of Vit B and Cs before the Closing Party. I need my body to produce enough enzymes to battle the acetaldehyde caused by alcohol so that I won't have an epic hangover the next day. At this sort of massive volume of ethyl ingested, I'll definitely stick a finger down my throat and pay homage to the Toilet Gods.

Let's see if I can decline alcohol later. For all I know, the Vietnamese I'll be meeting tonight might go easy on women. -_- After all, if I really don't want to drink after 2 token glasses of crap wine, nobody can make me.

Climbing The Stairs

The moment one enters the city of Vũng Tàu, the back of a huge statue on a hill top is visible. You can't miss it.

The 32-metre tall Christ of Vũng Tàu is perched atop Mount Nho and overlooks the sea.

See those shoulders on the statue? From the feet of the huge statue, one could climb another 133 steps inside the statue to the shoulder to get the best seaview the city offers.

Before getting to the feet, I climbed stairs up the hill. Honestly, it wasn't a difficult climb. But add factors like currently, this is the hottest season of the year and that I climbed it mid-afternoon under the blazing sun in corporate wear and without a hat, it was a crazy act. Luckily I wore birkies. I saw locals climb it barefooted or in 2-inch heels.

No, I wasn't brave enough to climb some more up those shoulders. I'm scared of heights and am claustrophobic! Sorry ah, my faith isn't enough to carry me through that. I was content to admire the statue from afar and at its feet. Speaking of faith, I admire the Muslim friends especially so during this month of Ramadan. They carry on with work, travel and daily activities as usual through their fast. I understand the no food part- no problem, easy. But how on earth do they do without water to sustain themselves through the day? I look at them and I'm like, wow. Respect, truly.

I felt a little bad dragging the colleague along to the climb. This wasn't her religion, but she didn't mind the exercise to take a look at the city's monument. She said it was better than staying in the hotel room to vegetate. She gamely trudged along with me.

The view up there was a fantastic reward for the perspiration. It was beautiful and tranquil. Couldn't say it was scenic. Too many oil tankers and whatnots. Eeeps. But still nice lah. We sat on the bench in the pavillion mid way and just soaked in the view. A gentle breeze stirred continuously. Lovely way to pass the time.

Blue Moon Disco

This is the disco next to the hotel that cranks up its bass till I can feel it pound in my 3rd floor bedroom. What the hell, at least play country music or something else instead of techno lah. Those thumping beats irritate the hell out of me in the nights when I'm awake and my X-mini speakers can't win 'em. As a result, I'm not able to stay up to surf net, skype and stuff unless I grit through till 1.15am when they wind down. Sigh. Another hour or so to go. I should have brought the huge-ass ear phones.

Mind you, the music doesn't keep me awake. It's simply grating. I have to crawl into bed and fall asleep in order to shut out the noise. I've no problems sleeping through the noise. Easy peasy. I can sleep through anything. It's just highly annoying to be awake and suffer through its horrible music.

I walked by in the day and took a photo of the disco. There was a menacing BIG dog (unknown breed) who ran out from inside to bark at me. Seriously!! Take photo also cannot meh? He poked his head through a hole in a wall and continued barking till I was 5 metres away from the main gate. So unfriendly! I didn't dare to go nearer to take a photo of the dog's head in the hole because the parapet was low enough for a dog of his size to jump over. I didn't want to mess with him. I was certain he could outrun me.

Pho Viet

I still can't sit down at the roadside stalls to eat. Sure, the locals look like they're enjoying the meal loads. But I don't think my stomach is able to tahan street food like it could years ago. I finally mustered up enough courage to dump Pho 24 and skipped into the perfectly respectable Pho Viet for something that's a little less tailored for tourists and expats.

A good bowl of pho is defined in its broth and how they make the noodles. I'm sure in all corners of Vietnam, lie hidden little shops that make fantastic pho. Pho Viet's steaming hot bowl of pho was freaking out-of-this-world awesome.

That bowl of pho is so memorable. Each time I'm in Vietnam and eat a bowl of pho in an eatery that is not part of a chain, it seems to be better than the last. I should really ply the stomach with charcoal pills or something, then go squat by a store along the road to slurp the pho. I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

The Meow Meow/s

I've no idea what this is supposed to be. But in our office, all things related to the cat thingy are known collectively as the 'meow-meow'. The shop is therefore unimaginatively referred to as 'the meow-meow shop'.

The meow meow has stirred all sorts of strange desires in the colleagues. The other time in Hanoi, the girls went crazy and swept the meow meow stores of its stocks. o_O For the life of me, I didn't understand why.

Office peeps wanted me to check out meow meow cushions here. Since I could squish them in my luggage and the cushions will be none the worse for wear, I said okay to buying 2 if there were nice (by my standards) ones.

Thankfully, the shops have got names and aren't too difficult to find. Imagine trying to ask someone about it. I think they'll be hard pressed to keep a straight face.

We easily found 2 in the vicinity. Okay meow meow lovers, besides the very obvious difference if you look at the website, here're the other differences between the 2 (out of 4) shops in Vũng Tàu. The one in the side street across from Palace Hotel is called 'Hikosen Cara'. It stocks the meow meow cushions with terry cloth material and a wider range of products. The prices for cushions begin at VND190,000. The other shop on the street facing the sea is The Pet Shop. This tiny shop offers a smaller range of products and its cushions are made in smooth fabric material and prices for cushions begin at VND100,000.

There were cute little sundresses for little girls. I had to get one! Heeee. The pouches were kinda cute. But nothing I'd use. So better don't waste money. Oh yes, mission's accomplished. I came away with 2 meow meow cushions.

Pho 24

Of course there would be a Pho 24 in Vũng Tàu. The chain stores are everywhere in Vietnam.

We're such suckers. We hopped into one simply because it was too hot to sit someplace with no air-conditioning at lunch.

The beef noodles were good as usual. At VND 32,000, it was great value still, but of course nowhere compared to the VND10,000 a bowl at the little shops which might just serve better soup brewed from some well-kept family recipe. Oh well.

Pho 24 offers free wireless mah. Took a bit of effort before connecting the Berry, but hey it works, ain't going to complain! Not that I was going to do major surfing or work at lunch, but at least I can read tweets on my timeline!

The beef noodles were so smooth and light. So nice. I could eat this at every lunch. It's just strange that I haven't found those Vietnamese paper rice rolls with the raw veggies and all. I keep getting fried spring rolls on the menu- which aren't what I'm looking for. Shall endeavor to get some good ones.

Seafood Dinner!

The thing to eat in Vũng Tàu is seafood. One must sit al fresco right next to the rocky beach to enjoy the sea breeze and quiet ambience.

I've been told to try 2 restaurants here. But since I would be eating with colleagues and counterparts, I left the decision of dinner venue to them. To my secret delight, they picked Ganh Hao, which was exactly one of the 2 that I wanted to check out.

The food was really really fresh. The colleagues went crazy and ordered 6 dunno-what-type crabs for 7 of us- 1 crab for each except me who couldn't appreciate crabs. There were many many dishes of food, prawns, kangkong (morning glory), fried spring rolls, etc. I especially loved the steamed sea bass and clams.

I kinda wanted those huge fresh lobsters. But didn't dare to suggest since nobody mentioned anything about lobsters. :(

Oh. Ganh Hao serves vodka. Not just any vodka; it's Belvedere. And when I saw the single malt menu, I gasped. Well, not extensive. Only 1 choice of distillery- Glenmorangie. But there were 5 selections of original, lasanta, quinta ruban and nectar d'or! WAHHH!!!! I was VERY impressed. But if you must know, I didn't order anything alcoholic. I stuck to bottled water. :p

I stared at the other tables. All, except our table had drinks proudly displayed, like alcoholic stuff. We had water, they had beer; we had watermelon juice, Coke and Sprite, they had Russian vodka and whisky. The humans at those tables seemed more interested in drinking than eating the food. At the rate they downed those shots, even I am a little wary of the way the Vietnamese drink. They are scary.

I didn't have much cash. I forgot that I wasn't going to be in a big city and cash would be the currency rather than credit cards. However, Ganh Hao has a proper website, email address and all, plus all tourists and forums mention it, I figured it would accept credit cards. Hehhh. They do, just not Amex. Visa only. I decided to buy dinner, on personal account, not the company tab. Shhhhhh. Don't tell, I fibbed that dinner was on the latter.

My heart almost skipped a beat when the server presented the bill to me. 1,263,000! Then I remembered it was in VND. Converted, it was just SGD105. It must be the cheapest seafood meal I've ever had with 6 other people.

Rain Here Rain There, Rain Everywhere!

After a super turbulent flight which saw me defy the air stewardess' instructions to sit down because I really really needed to pee, more stormy weather awaited upon arrival.

Ho Chi Minh City greeted us with thunder and torrential rain. The roads out of the airport were completely flooded ankle-deep to mid-calves.

Now in scenic Vũng Tàu, there was a brief respite from the afternoon rains. Now, it has started up again. Let's hope the rains cool down the scorching hot and humid city.

PPS Card- So What?

When the PPS Solitaire card fell out of the envelope, the giggles just hit me. They were uncontrollable.

When I parked my ass in Singapore with this full time job, it means that I haven't done many long haul flights for a while. The flight time is so short- not much point flying via business class all the time. So the airline dropped me a nice email and downgraded me to a regular PPS card. Now, they finally deign to give me 'back' my Solitaire, I'm like, whatever.

One time at the departure hall of Changi Airport's T3, I zipped straight to the internet counters because they were the nearest ones from the lifts. They were empty anyway. Plus I had checked in online and printed my boarding pass. All I needed was to drop off the luggage and endorse the boarding pass. The girl at the internet counter was horrified. I had to insist on checking in at this counter instead of being shown to the OTHER special counters reserved for this SPECIAL class of tickets. Waste of time! I was in heels and wasn't in any sort of mood to walk even 5 metres further to get to another counter when this one served my needs perfectly. I think the girl scared I complain her for dunno what thing. I can only conclude that many PPS Solitaire members might be a pain in the ass at airport counters.

Having a PPS card is very big deal meh? I don't really hang around airports very much. I've been quite fortunate not to get stuck at airports for very long. I always turn up for flights 45minutes before the stated time of departure, which leaves me just enough time to sprint from car to boarding gate. I value the PPS card for the extra baggage allowance more than anything else. Well, it does give me free wifi often and be stuck in a way shorter queue when checking in at other airports.

I remember watching this video and cringing in terrible embarrassment. I'm fairly sure she's a Singaporean. So damn bloody rude. Don't understand this PPS card member bullshit. She's such a disgrace.

Angostura Rum

We had an impromptu tasting session of 5 bottles of Angostura rum. Placed side by side, the nose, flavors and taste are easily compared in one fell swoop. We're able to discern the different layers and pick out the ones we like best.

It's quite exciting. Very different from the single malts. Not as complex, but by no means simple. Rum feels so warm in the stomach!

Rum is one of the most versatile forms of alcohol to lend flavors to really cool cocktails. I'm not really a cocktail person. So I really like my rum dark and on the rocks. That milk chocolate taste is very easily savored.

I wonder if premium rum will receive a warm reception in Singapore the way single malts have.

Otto Ristorante

I've been having many meals at Otto Ristorante. It's my current favorite dining place. The private rooms are great for cosy catch-ups with the friends.

You know I've stopped going to Pontini because the flavors have changed. It's a positive change. But the new styles don't quite appeal to me. Since then, I've been flitting from bistro to restaurant to look for one that I'm completely comfortable with.

Yes, aside from Bontá, I do need a change now and then!

My most familiar server and chef are at Otto, that's all I need to know. I go where good food beckons. Importantly, the menu offers full vegetarian degustation. That is so rare at the restaurants here.

The man's favorite sea urchin and grey mullet bottarga pasta has only gotten tastier. This dish, because of the context and our experiences, is chockful of Asian flavors. We joked that Chef Pavanello could put chilli padi in it to make it totally Asian. But he might just smack us with the pan.

My favored lobster linguine is still SO good. I like this simple basic fare. In fact, at Otto, it tastes better than before even. Tonight, the server who knew my stomach well tried to persuade me to have a starter portion so that I could have dessert or some other stuff. I flatly rejected and stuck my guns to a full portion. Heh.

If you like Italian style suckling pig, Chef Pavanello does it superbly. We prefer his version anytime over the cheena type which has a stink about it. That distinctive stink is the main reason why among the friends, very few of us will enthusiastically order and quaff down pork in whatever form. Otto's pork doesn't even taste like any sort of Chinese pork one might be familiar with.

I love how Otto makes me feel at home. There is nothing for me to complain about. :)

The Online World

(Link to full article in The New York Times.)

The friends gamely tolerate the way I pounce on objects for a photo. Luckily I'm not into taking shots of humans, otherwise, some angry human will fling my camera out of the window.

Still resistant to facebook. It's the most annoying thing in the world. Yes, as a voyeur, it's awesome as to what those fb pages can dig up. I love it as a research tool for sure. But I certainly wouldn't want to be up there, not even with privacy settings turned on to the max. I'm not comfortable with the man posting our photos on his fb pages. Now, he doesn't post photos of me or us. Whew. Hard to control where photos end up. I've no control over those photos from the past circulating around. But for photos in the recent years, I can limit circulation. There's just too much personal information online that one can dig up. There's so little private space nowadays.

Very soon, I'll have to ban myself from tweeting at dinner or the friends are going to throw my Berry into the ice bucket. There's plenty of randoms one can tweet about. Since the explosion of all these social networking platforms, among the friends, there's a clear, communicated (for the want of a better word) policy that human photos are not to be posted online, barring private fb pages. Same rationale goes for locked blogs, pseudonyms, vague references to incidents to increase the veil of privacy.

Met A Husky On The Way Home

Luckily the man was going really slow up the slope. There was a beautiful grey-white husky in our path, standing in the middle of the road, looking forlorn.

We inched forward and the husky ran to the side. It had no leash and no owner lurking nearby. We couldn't just drive into our estate and ignore the dog. The next car coming up slope might not stop in time and could just knock it down. The man moved the car to the side away from oncoming traffic. I got down.

The husky was merrily trotting off further. I was puzzled. It must be lost. I whistled at it and the husky came running over. I've seen the owners walk this husky and 2 other darker huskies. Tonight, there wasn't anyone around. Strange. This husky must have somehow gotten out of its residence. It had the 'what do I do now' look. The husky ran around in circles a couple of times and then bade me to follow. I ran with him to try my luck.

It lingered outside a particular house and sniffed at the gates. Ah. Clever boy. That must be the house. I peeped in and saw another husky lounging. Bingo. For some reason, this silly husky didn't bark to let its owner know that it was outside. The other husky in the house couldn't be bothered either. It didn't get up once to inspect what I was doing, poking around the outside of the compound. The German Shepherd next door or another silly sweet dog I know would have barked the house down even before I stepped within 3 metres of the front gate.

Well, I could climb over the gate, with the dog and get arrested for trespassing. But naaah, I'm too old for such antics. I rang the doorbell instead. The owner didn't realize this one got out of the house and had been wandering the streets for a while. He didn't even know how this one squeezed through the gates or who let it out.

Bye bye husky. Don't be too naughty.

Access, At Last

(click for a larger image)

When I read the bulletin from the IT department, I keeled over in laughter.

So all our dissatisfaction and grumbling have wrought a little bit of hope. Somebody forwarded the article to somebody and we (in the cc list) all put in our 2 cents worth! And SOMEBODY listened. Thou shalt not complain that my mailbox limit is only 40MB. The bulletin is the best news received this morning.

By utilizing this 'generous' allowance, I do not mean to get onto fb and play Farmville all day. I'm anti fb and don't have an account. Yes, it means I can tweet at will because twhirl finally works well when logged in to the work server and, msn has held steady instead of disco-dancing in and out of connectivity. But I still depend on the Berry mainly since I'm not not stuck to my cube all day.

By this increase in bandwidth, it really means I can now load New York Times and Spectator way faster, along with other research sites. Ahhhh.....lovely. I only hope people will exercise healthy departmental jurisprudence and may no idiot abuse the increase in bandwidth which will only kick us back to the Dark Ages.

O joy! Finally they see the light.

Learning About Rum

The man and I are very poorly educated where rum is concerned. We only have experience with a garden variety of bottles which are over-proof or mainly used for cooking purposes.

The other evening, we had a conversation with the knowledgeable friends about premium rums. Now that we realize there's a variety of premium rums out there, our interest is piqued.

We previously had shots of an 8 y.o Angostura 1919. That was my first taste of premium rum. It bowled me over. Full of cocoa sweetness, there wasn't a hint of anything fiery in there. A magic potion sorta, indeed! I can so imagine sipping this on a beach in the Caribbean. Ahhhhhh. This is one drink that I won't add mixers to it. Although this sort of rum will be beautiful in cocktails too, I like it on the rocks.

The lovely friends gave us a bottle of premium rum- a 12 y.o. Angostura 1824. I love the wax seal. We're keeping it sealed for a bit more. The man's off to look for recipes to cook dinner to complement the rum. Can't wait to open this bottle at dinner with the friends!

Nine Inch Nails In Singapore

I decided to sit out what the friends majorly billed as possibly the best gig that happened in Singapore in terms of production, sound, lighting, atmosphere and quality of the band, set and all- the final tour by Nine Inch Nails.

The friends laughed at me and said I could just put my legs up in the convertible at the carpark, blast the fan and 'listen' to the gig instead. Hmmmmpf. Apparently they spotted Gene Simmons (the gross one with the long tongue!) in the house too. Anyway, he would be at Arts House tomorrow with some of the Battlestar Galactica cast (unverified) for his son's comic book (Incarnate) launch thingy. We received the invites, but none of us read the email carefully. Either that or the details are sketchy like hell. So we're going to an event of which we have no idea what it's all about. So clever. Nice. But it is better than the prim and oh-so-chic invites I've been getting to boutique launches at our newest mall. Think I shall bail out again. :P

Back to Nine Inch Nails' gig. So the man and the boys came back dripping with perspiration, but chockful of adrenalin after the awesome gig. Luckily they had the brains to have cold drinks first before trudging uphill to Fort Canning 15 minutes before the gig began and didn't have to stand too long in the murky heat. They squeezed all the way to the front and stood right where they could see all the yummy guitars and Robin Fink's massive pedalboard. The band got on at 8.30pm and played a little over 2 hours. There was NO encore! Once they played Hurt, it was all over man.

Loved how the friends had all these videos and kept me totally updated about the gig. Perfect. Almost as if I had been there! NIN played March of the Pigs and Piggy! Hmmm. I liked those 2 songs. Oh well. As the man disappeared into the shower, he muttered something about too bad NIN didn't play Sin, Starfuckers Inc, With Teeth.

I kinda wanted a band tee. But the friends said the merchandise booth was EMPTY when they got there at 8.15pm. GROWL. I think they bluff me. Must be because they didn't want to carry a tee with them during the gig.

My 3 Minutes Of Feeling Patriotic

The muscles ached so bad. But it was so therapeutic to crawl laps in the pool. Bliss is to simply stretch out after with the Air, Berry, Kindle and a cold cold glass of ummm....Bowmore 15y.o. Besides tending to the comforting beeps from the gadgets, I want to do NOTHING because I was awake all of last night.

The mad girlfriends decided that we should see sunrise at the active Gunung Merapi and no matter how vehemently I protested, I got dragged along. I was like, I've been up there twice!!! Once on a school geography trip and the other was part of a full trek across East Java (which included going up Gunung Bromo) and overland to Bali. This trip, I obviously didn't pack for any sort of serious walks! I wasn't interested in ripping nicely manicured fingernails or turn toenails black. I whined very loudly. Obviously I got shushed.

It was a good long cycle/walk. I couldn't even cycle very well! But the alternative was a really long 8-hour walk. No thanks. So I grabbed a rickety bike and muttered about dying from falling off the sides of the tracks. It was a bloody difficult route to cycle okay. No one paid heed to my grumbles about being buried alive under volcanic ash.

The spectacular sunrise and that feeling of being up and above the clouds made up for everything, but the burning pain in my butt and thighs. It rained on our way down. That was absolutely cold and miserable. At that moment, I truly missed the comforts of urban living in Singapore. Sigh. Why do I always sleep so little on these trips? The girlfriends smirked, "Hey, what's the point of a holiday if it's all luxury and no pain?" Right. I hate you! Whatever. Don't really care. I'm going to be limping for the next 2 days dammit.

A couple of the girls have run off for more torturous climbing up a cliff somewhere. Most are at the spa. I whimpered and walked really slowly out to the main pool. I'm having my butt lie horizontal all afternoon without having to move very much.

I stared at the sky for a while. Ah. There is no haze here.

Going To Check Out Shadow Puppets

I politely declined the resort's invitation to watching an open-air (original) wayang kulit show. I assumed that half grew up in Southeast Asia and would have watched plenty and therefore we don't lack for a cultural education. I doubt the rest of the girls want to watch it. They're no children- I sorta expect them to know what it's all about already.

Later, the girlfriend who didn't grow up in Asia, whispered, "Good. Don't want lah. I watched quite alot of them on youtube already." I was like, "What??! Youtube??!" The other 3 sheepishly admitted they hadn't seen a 'real' one either. Oh dear. Sometimes, youtube isn't a substitute for authenticity. Sure, one can get a picture of what wayang kulit is from the screen. But nothing beats sitting down and watching the shadow play happen in front of you, admire how the dalang controls it all and hear the music live by skilled musicians.

We're in the centre of classical Javanese culture. What better place to soak in the performing arts? Even though I'm really not keen on watching the Ramayana or the Mahabarata for the nth time, I guess I'll have to sit through it again. Well, there is always something else to do. But peer pressure rules. So it came to pass that we would all trot to watch a wayang kulit show in the rustic village square tonight.

Classic Cherries Jubilee

After an awesome appetizer of ox-tongue sandwich with horseradish, the man's father had a craving for Cherries Jubilee. So he set the man to work to get a good recipe to do the dessert.

In between, there was dinner where I ate many many portions of corn and spaghetti chilli padi aglio e olio, I offered no help to the man in whipping up dessert. I was busy stuffing my face full of crisp cold lettuce and cucumbers.

The man dug out the cognac pushed deep to the back of the liquor cabinet. So many bottles of those have been given by strange people over the festive occasions, forgetting that no one drinks brandy at home. Oh well. We put cognac to good use tonight. Just like how we opened a bottle of Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru Bouchard 2005 to use it for steak sauce and drank a glass each as an afterthought.

The man flambéed the cherries. They merrily simmered away in the pan. Then he poured them over scoops of Tillamook French Vanilla.

Cherries Jubilee were ready! Put into a bowl, the dessert looked rather pretty. It was quite delicious, except I'm not too fond of the sugary part of it. Desserts are meant to be sweet and I'm not hot about it being too sweet. I could only do 3 spoonfuls before pushing the bowl away.

The Leadership Grid and The Path-Goal Theory

I'm not certain how subjective Hofstede’s Power Distance Index is. But Singapore is placed somewhere in the middle of 53 countries who took the survey yonks ago.

We're supposedly cosmopolitan with MNCs contributing to our national GDP. With the percentage of foreign talent and high number of American/European educated Singaporeans in this country, one would expect a very liberalized management style (+ benefits) in the firms here. But no, not really. Many have experienced bureaucratic stonewalling, reactionary behavior and puzzling social norms/pressure/ideals. There is clearly, a chasm between borrowed culture and inherent value systems. That void is extrapolated and exemplified by different powerful (and or charismatic) individuals who are termed as leaders in society today.

I'm terribly relieved that the work event is over. Imho, I've seen the best and the worst of leadership styles in this room. The best left me with a more than a glimmer of hope and melting in a puddle of adoration. The worst sent cold chills down the spine, inspired utter disgust, caution and cynicism.

The bad ones lower morale, kill enthusiasm and initiatives, cause one to question his commitment to the job and generally leave a sour aftertaste. The good ones uplift dejected spirits, urge perseverance, encourage deeper dedication and stress on pluck, tenacity and cheer.

The friends and I, fortunately (or unfortunately) are not in such positions of power. Okay, SOME are. Quite a number are lah. (Don't protest- there, I said it.) Our fathers and mothers are, for sure. They belong to the generation of driven men and strong-willed women who have made much of their careers which are traditionally respected as powerhouse jobs. Our generation is, unfortunately (or fortunately), wont to wilfully achieve idiosyncratic ideals in other careers which are generally defined as fluffy alternative industries. In our parents, we see different leadership and parenting styles- sometimes inseparable, sometimes clearly demarcated. Best of all, we can always objectively see it in one another's parents, but not our own. Leaders to leaders, industry to industry, we are lucky to be able to compare varied leadership styles exhibited to us on such a personal level.

Some of us are privy to the parents' management outlook in the professional sphere. Some are not. But we certainly hope that none of our parents belong to the type of abysmal leaders who're shiningly competent and talented in their job scopes, but rule their firms mainly by fear and demand respect in an autocratic and almost childish manner.