除夕 :: 金蛇狂舞辞旧岁，骏马奔腾迎新春

This Lunar New Year of the Horse, the Chinese animal zodiac I was born under. Do I exhibit the traits people under the zodiac sign? Please. If I believe that, then it's so easy to clone humans. Whatever. I suppose in my lifetime I'd see at least five cycles of it, provided I don't die before 60 years old.

I've a terrible impression of Shangri-la Hotel Singapore, and especially of Shang Palace. Too many forced visits there to know intimately how crap their service is. On each visit, it never fails to piss me off. From monthly visits, I now restrict my visits there to no more than thrice a year. Unfortunately, the extended family somehow likes the restaurant. I HATE IT WITH A PASSION. No amount of free beer or champagne will wipe bad experiences from memory.

Was sorely tempted to steal this wire-mesh basket from Shang Palace as my new bag. Didn't care what that action would mean for the new year. For me, the year already started a month ago when it turned 2014. This long weekend will be an appreciated break before the hectic year settles in proper and sweeps us all up in a whirlwind of mad fulfilment of responsibilities on every front. To those who celebrate, have a good one.

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.

Still Got Money, Huh!

I went up in flames when I glanced at the headlines.

When I read the article, I was very very annoyed. I was like, we've a rapidly ageing society at hand that faces a myriad of problems. Those issues could use these funds. Yet the ministry chose to sink it into 'social integration'.

Seriously. Social integration!! What.the.hell. Yes, integration into the Singapore psyche is crucial. The various races moving into Singapore because it's safe, politcally stable and peaceful need to be aware of the multi-cultural issues and society and not stay insular. In an earlier speech, our Prime Minister promised to calibrate the flow of immigrants into Singapore. I was not expecting a spin-off of activities in the form of S$10m to pump into social integration programmes.

So our government has to spoon-feed new immigrants and cajole them to join activities to make them Singaporean. It's rather laughable. Our forefathers were never made to do any sort of government-directed activities (except their definitive roles in WWII). They integrated just fine. Oh holy crap- everybody spoke dialects, Tamil and Malay regardless of race. And after all these pow wow and fiddling with our education system, what do we have now? Global citizens who might not know how to speak another language. On the flipside, is the government acknowledging that very possibly, we have no more shared and earth-shattering experiences to bind us together as a nation, a country and a people?

In other English-speaking countries, wait staff at restaurants and stores who are foreign, made all sorts of attempts to speak proper English to guests. Only in Singapore shops and restaurants, I get Mandarin thrown back into my face. I'm expected to speak Mandarin because I look Chinese and the wait staff at reputable Chinese restaurants can't speak any sort of coherent English. (Yes, that's a direct shot at Shang Palace at Shangri-la Hotel and Imperial Treasure Restaurant at Great World City.)

Sure, tell me this S$10m is also expected to create events and jobs to drive the events sector and stimulate general employment. I predict that our 'Speak Good English Movement' and 'Courtesy/Singapore Kindness Movement' will continue into the next 3 decades.

Why is there a need for purposeful social integration if we're attracting top quality foreign talents who are supposedly mobile and cosmopolitan? Isn't this sort of vibrancy the type that the government wants? I think it's obvious that we're not exactly attracting these 'ideal' people to stay. So what are we left with? Second and third-rate immigrants who have to be integrated into our society and made to understand the Singapore way of life? And have mainstream media trot them out in the run-up to National Day or significant racial celebrations and highlight how successful they've integrated as a result of using a portion of that S$10m.

I'm averse to social engineering. I see it an evil necessity. It is sad that in this age, humans still have to be taught, educated and prodded to live together as different races in harmony. Does our government really need to have a strong hand in cultivating how the Singapore society should grow or the direction it should move towards (or away from)? We're not plants who obediently line the expressways and roads in an orderly fashion. Why can't they freaking do this to Singapore in Second Life instead of manipulating us like amateurs playing The Sims?

Pruning, sifting, is it? I.am.not.a.happy.camper.

It's About Value Systems

I'm happier with Shang Palace because the food is noticeably better with this chef. But the garlic situation hasn't improved. Well, I wasn't there for the food. It's just a venue to hold a meeting that involved many parties. Although I voiced my reservations about the choice of meeting venue in a Chinese restaurant, I wasn't about to protest too loudly. I need to let it develop and see who these people really are. It speaks volumes about the value systems of these people we're meeting.

Before the bulk of the humans came in for dinner, I was sprawled unglamorously in the adjoining sitting area with a rather stiff drink. Need.to.space.out before getting bombarded with ideas, whys and hows.

This is something I do outside of work and it's a project that I value tremendously, above all else I do at work. I must be mad to concurrently juggle this and the work projects. Too bad for the timing then. Anyway, someone's making a pitch to us and we'll have to decide whether to accept it. Competency isn't a problem. Character, attitude and the heart are issues that will be the deciding factors. It boils down to how much they believe in this project. I'm not convinced they are. The friends and I are split down the middle about their pitch, which has been well presented and financially sound. However, they're strangers to us and we're strangers to them. We've done our homework. We can assume that they've done theirs.

Someone from the other side enthused, "Let's have sharks' fin! Oh, that soup boiled with shark bones is fantastic. The pork ribs too. Very nice."

Given the context of this meeting, the suggestions of food choices for the evening are highly inappropriate. It's so lame, to say the least. I guess the other side didn't do their homework. Tonight has been a test of sorts. If the other party can't see that, we needn't entrust them with this project either.