The Man's Likes

The IM pop-up screamed, "You don't know if he likes Bergman?"

I frowned and pursed my lips in thought. The man and I have lived together for 3 years. And I don't know if he likes Bergman. Well, the truth is, I can't remember if that ever came up in a conversation. Besides the obvious stuff that all the friends and facebook know, I'm not sure if I know anything extra about his likes or dislikes.

I've seen many sides of him for sure. I can make pretty accurate guesses of his likes and dislikes. But if you ask me to concretely verbalize his exact likes and dislikes, I can't.

Say, for now, I've no idea if he still likes vodka. But I know he's so into single malts now. I thought being the metrosexual male he claims he is, he'd like shopping, but he doesn't fancy it. It's like, he thought I'd like 'Lost' and 'Heroes'. But I don't. He thought I'd hate 'Over There' and '24'. But I love them. The only one he got it right is 'Dexter'.

I don't consciously make a list. I prefer to slowly discover where his interests lie. I suppose we don't really care if the other's interests complement our own. We have such vastly different inclinations to many areas of living, lifestyle and opinions, that nothing very much surprises us if we should discover that whatever one likes, the other doesn't.

So the friends cannot come to ask me what he might like for a birthday present. Because I won't know. I can tell you he likes food. Beyond star anise, I don't know what he won't eat. I don't know his favorite food. I know he doesn't fancy pink. But I don't know his favorite color.

I can tell you he likes guitars. I can tell you he likes a Tom Anderson Atom in the walnut finish. And I can also tell you not to get him the 1972 Fender Telecaster Deluxe because I already got that for him for his birthday.

Hardly Any Bad Aches Now

It's quite amazing actually.

From the usual twice-a-month sessions, I haven't been to the chiropractor since I resumed intensive pilates 8 months ago.

Neither have I gone for my weekly massages after I added regular swimming to the fitness menu 3 months ago. There simply isn't a need for all that kneading anymore.

I do need to crack the neck and the bones to get the aches out of the body. The fitness regime so far has either strengthened the muscles or ease the tension. Whatever needs to be cracked, I can do it quite easily on my own.

I shall maintain the exercises. I hope to remain pain-free.

Morning Sprint

I had a lovely morning sprint on the wheels along the East Coast Park. As I trundled along, wind in my face, I felt really alive. It felt so good to breathe in that fresh sea breeze.

But there were many little humans along the track who scared the shit out of me. While I could skate and run pretty well, I could not stop properly at all. I could do all kinds of stops on ice. But I haven't learnt how to brake on tarmac. So when these little humans popped up in my path, my heart dipped numerous times as I gingerly skipped and swung around them.

Ugh. A short run, my skating buddy said, not more than 10km. All right. Let me fix my skates and we shall go all the way to Changi. You know what's awesome? After the sprint, I plunged into the pool and did 15 laps to stretch out the muscles. Woots.

A Coincidence

When I saw the man's mms of his first meal in his virgin work trip to Hong Kong, I had to giggle.

He hadn't been to Hong Kong for a long time. He told me how he wandered the streets, completely fascinated by what he saw in the city. Then he made his selection of a dinner venue.

From the mms, I recognized the menu, corporate colors and the logo. The restaurant he ate at also had an outlet in Macau. On my virgin work trip to Macau, I had my first meal at an identical outlet. What are the chances?! Hehehehe.

So I told him to return sometime to try the pretty good pork and century egg porridge.

初十 :: 捞起

The big boss invited us over to his house for lo hei.

I'm not fond of yusheng. But I like the one we had at the luncheon.

His wife used salmon for the raw fish and added orange slices and lychees to the plate.

It was yummy!

An Easy Afternoon Out At Sea

Went out to sea for lunch on restaurant Il Lido's yacht. The sun was bright but not overly scorching. The crew was amazingly patient and cheerful. They catered to our many demands with a smile. Armed with minimal sunscreen and oversized sunnies, we're now all nicely toasted.

年初二 :: 拜年

Today the man and I went out visiting.

We wanted to say hi to the close friends and the peeps we hadn't had a chance to catch up with over Christmas.

We covered 6 venues between 2 - 6.30pm.

In anticipation of the ang pows that would be thrust into our hands, we lugged along mandarin oranges and 'return' gift packs of cookies, abalone and chinese tea.

We had a huge lunch of buah keluak and liver balls. We skipped dessert because we knew we wouldn't be able to resist tucking into the goodies at these 6 venues.

We were a little scared of what we might have to eat along the way.

We were treated to chilled almond tofu with longans, spicy shrimp rolls, kueh lapis.

We had Vegemite!! Muahahahhaah! Then we wolfed down a damn good chocolate mousse pie with ice-cream and, the to-die-for Pierre Marcolini chocolates.

One thing that caught the man's attention during the house visits was the PSP that everyone had. We saw it in all colors available. The man couldn't resist checking out how to zhng one's PSP.

I think he's going to go out to buy one for himself. Ha!

It was really good seeing the friends this afternoon.

年初一 :: 晚餐

Fresh lobster noodles.

年初一 :: 午餐

I woke up to a blazingly hot sunny day.

And went into the kitchen to find curries of all sorts lurking in all corners.

Mmmm.

年夜饭 :: 团圆

新春快乐!!!

子为地支首；鼠乃生肖先。

子时岁交替；鼠节春更新。

豕去呈丰稔；鼠来报吉祥。

人欢为体健；鼠硕因年丰。

欣有鼠须笔；喜题燕尾书。

The Police In Singapore

We were so thrilled when Fiction Plane opened the set at 8pm sharp with 'Death Machine'. We were grinning at the anagram of Fiction Plane that read 'Infant Police'. How apt.

Joe Sumner rounded up the set with 'Two Sisters' to half polite applause and half wild cheers. That was the younger half in the audience who knew who he was with his individual talent. This half of the crowd loved Fiction Plane for what it meant in the alternative scene. That half also sprinted out after that set to grab their cd, band t-shirt and autographs.

Then, at 9pm, The Police commanded the stage with 'Message in A Bottle'. The crowd roared their appreciation and rose to their feet for the next 2 hours. It was unbelievable. The atmosphere was electrifying. Everyone stood up. Everyone was grooving to the music.

We were damn happy that we stayed in Singapore for the gig rather than hop over to Macau. The whole stadium rocked out. All 10,000 of us. It was an awesome gig.

Dancing To Nirvana

It was a complete leap of faith on my part to go watch Dancing To Nirvana. After 10 minutes, I realized with a measure of disappointment that this production was more of a play than a dance.

It wasn't the 'dance theatre' per se as billed in the not-so-good marketing of the production. If it were meant to be a dance, it'd have been of quite a terrible quality. I suspected many 'farang' in the audience shared my feelings.

But as a play, it was deeply reflective. So I adjusted my expectations and saw it as more of a theatre production. Settled into the out-of-place red plastic chair with the programme booklet opened to the section of the translated script.

Despite the overwhelmingly strong theme of Buddhism, the point of enlightainment vs nirvana, I didn't view Dancing To Nirvana in its religious light only. Obviously I didn't understand Pali and the selected chants. I didn't comprehend the Five Precepts of Buddhism or Pratītyasamutpāda (Dependent Origination). But I understood the facial expressions. Importantly, I understood the language spoken. The man read the translated script as the play progressed and he caught almost all the gist of it.

There was a universal theme of finding spiritual peace amidst the tangible desires of this material world. There was tremendous artistic focus. The stark colors of red, white and black were symbolic on so many different levels, bringing the philosophical themes to life in a way familiar to many Thai Buddhists.

Many portions of the play were meant to shift into different times and locations. Even though this venue was said to be smaller than their usual, I thought that the set designer needed to adapt a little more and re-design the layout to bring out these shifts even more clearly. If there were English surtitles, the 'farang' and others who didn't understand Thai and mistakenly thought it was a dance, could have been pleasantly surprised by what really was a pretty good play.

Then, the man poked me in the arm. I realized that the English script in the programme booklet stopped 10 minutes before the show. So I translated for him. But it didn't really matter. By then, he already understood the context and grasped the themes. The dramatic irony at the ending wasn't lost on either of us. We left the show rather pleased with an evening well spent.

Learn To Shut Your Mouth, Woman

We had new curtains installed at home. The woman-in-charge and her workmen came to do up the flat. I wasn't home. The man's mom was taking care of it. The curtain woman was in our room. Apparently, she had this tone of horror as she told the man's mom that our bed shouldn't be facing the window. She didn't explain why or how or what would happen. But she was convinced that it was tragic for us to do that.

I bet you that the mom felt uneasy all afternoon after hearing that. Anyway, the mom came to talk to me about it to see how I felt about that statement. I dissed it. Of course. For that one claim by the silly curtain woman, I googled and found over 25 refuting statements from international geomancy institutes and sites on ways to 'block' the whatever bad energy received from having a bed face the window.

The man's mom and I read those ways of prevention very thoroughly. We realized that in the room, we had all these suggestions done already. Unknowingly. Because yours truly here placed things in the room according to faerie instincts. The man's mom definitely felt better after that. So the bed is staying where it is.

I'm a little more than mildly annoyed with the curtain woman. I'm not happy that she made the man's mom nervous and a little scared about a thing that has never ever occurred to her.

1. Don't bring your fengshui beliefs into a household that doesn't follow it.

2. Don't make sweeping statements. And don't make stupid suggestions blindly if you don't know your fengshui.

3. It's none of your blardy business.

As a young girl, I've always been ultra sensitive to vibes in a house. I've always been sensitive to my feelings and surroundings. I've demanded hotel room changes simply because I didn't like the vibe in some.

Fengshui is just not my thing. I place the furniture in my house according to the vibes I feel in ratio to how comfortable I am. If I want my bed to face the window, I shall have it facing the window. Since we shifted in, it has brought the man and I nothing but good luck, love, harmony and riches.

I'm not shifting my blardy bed just because it doesn't adhere to some random woman's beliefs. However, should the man's mom be still worried about it, I am quite prepared to shift the bed to whatever other position necessary.

And after that, I might just go slit the curtain woman's throat.