Wayan the Lonely.

The cat owner has left for a vacation trip to Cambodia and I offer to cat sit Wayan.

I show up at the apartment every two days to feed and play with the cat for an hour. The photos were taken during the first visit. Aww...shucks... Wayan looked so forlorn! Check out the eyes. Doesn’t she remind of you of Puss In Boots in Shrek 2?

Nice coat she has. Looks like someone held her and dip half of her into a giant inkpot.

Don't go away, my kangkong belachan

Sad times indeed, our old-time family makan places are closing.

One of them is Oasis Taiwan Porridge House which is an institution, and the other is a Joo Chiat Teochew zhi-cha house. I forgot the name. We always remember it by its location – at the junction of Joo Chiat Place & Tembling Road. The place is run-down, with greasy tables, slippery floors and wet chopsticks. The servers are all old Teochew loud talkers, and one of them didn’t even wear shoes as he hurried around to serve food. But the food is so good – home made otah, tofu-pork in deliciously light broth, fluffy omelets with anchovies…that when it all arrives, I forget to feel squeamish about the general hygiene level and dig in with gazillions of zest.

When we get to the coffee shop, we will split into two teams – one will quickly secure a table, and the other (consisting of only dad) will line up to order food. One of their specialties is some kind of fish steamed with scales on, and the fish will be split into half and eaten cold. Sweet and juicy, and we will also never ever fail to order kangkong belachan.

The place will be closed by December 16. One of the servers grumbled that everyone’s getting old… one guy’s complaining of arm aches, and another, leg pain… so they decided not to renew the rental lease and retire instead. Now every Sunday we will makan there, and desperately try to store up as many lovely memories as we can of the place.

Family members in happier times at zhi-char place at previous Joo Chiat location:


JF, the next picture is dedicated to you:

A small gathering in the west, and we didn't get lost getting there.

Woah! We finally met up over ice cream at Sunset Way. The Lychee Martini ice cream was very very good, despite the fact that my tastebuds had gone to hell from the lousy cold I had.

Our focus point was Winnie and Eric's boy.. very zen one who's unafraid of strangers. He grabbed my arm as I was standing near his pram, held my palm firmly and chewed my finger as he was teething.


The rest of us...




Photo credits: SzeSze.

My first DIY potatoe dish of the millenium.
Toss potatoe bits in dijon mustard and olive oil, put in oven, stir occasionally to make sure nothing is stuck, and serve. Turned out OK!

A is for Andy.

20 YeArs After WArhol. An Andy WArhol Exhibition.


I took a picture of a picture of Andy taking a picture.


K & L taking the same picture of the picture of Andy taking a ... you get the picture. Hahahahah!


A Bird, a Plane...


On our way out. More Lichtenstein than Warhol.

Handshaking Etiquette

I just got back from a long and leisure walk at the beach with Friend.

We bumped into Friend’s ex-colleague who was sprinting away. Very friendly and energetic chap. I knew Friend would introduce us. I was chanting silently to myself.. just wave from where you are…don’t offer the hand, offer the hand, don’t offer the hand…as he was perspiring from the crazy running. He offered, so we shook hands.

Friend later mentioned that he would definitely offer to shake hands as he’s very “corporate”. She noticed that the guy had to really stretch out his hand towards me before I took it. It wasn't as bad as I thought though.

I'm often caught food greasy-handed when introductions are forthcoming. I would then refuse to shake hands, but would try to beam an appropriate smile to make up for it, but really, under such circumstances, when your hands are not in tip top hygienic condition, what are you supposed to do?

But I do think the ultimate worse scenario is when your hand is just a little bit greasy, so the other fella can't tell, until he shakes your hand, then you'll feel bad for spreading the grease, but if you don't want to shake, you would appear anti-social. More awkward moments.

I think some etiquette book would advise NOT using hands to eat when OUT. But eating grilled chicken wings with chopsticks is just not as delicious!

Shop Eat Eat Shop Eat Eat. Go Jo!

For once, we moved our lazy butts and got out of Siglap for our Sunday meet-up. I had a woozy good time. Cold medication and leisure shopping/makan prove to be a good mix.

So we shopped 30 minutes, had tea for 2.5 hours, shopped for 20 minutes, had dinner for 2.5 hours at Dempsey Hill.

No pictures of shopping, because when we shop, we forget everything.
No major mishaps, though the mirror in the fitting room almost keeled over while the three of us were sharing a fitting room, and some other almost realised accidents but thankfully, did not materialise.


We all bought stuff from Jo's Hansel label. Go Jo! I got a stretch cotton plain creamy top with white stripe on collar, and a mini mini skirt in herringbone fabric. It's now or never, in a few years, no more legs qualified to wear short skirts.

Took some pictures of us while waiting for tea to commence - food and playing with iTouch.
No pictures of dinner, we had rissotto, cheese platter, salmon patties, french onion soup and wine at Gros the Joner [a.k.a Jones the Grocer]



Controlled Wilderness outside House, our view while having cakes in air-con comfort.


So anyway next week, I think we will be back at Siglap Starbucks/Coffee Club. Or not. I dont' know.

1. Trivial Info that hopefully would not turn Useful one day 2. TV is my School

There is an article in The Sunday Times today on missing persons.

When you think someone is lost, you don't have to wait a minimum time period before lodging a missing persons police report – it can be done as long as a missing person’s close ones feel that they need police assistance in finding the lost one.

Haiya...all along, I thought you need to wait 24 hours prior to making a missing persons police report. I think I got such misleading info from Hong Kong TV shows, and subconsciously think it applies to Singapore. Anyway I hope I would never ever need to file such a report, though I had in the past, filed a lot of missing bus passes, wallets and I/C reports before, and come to think of it, there was no minimum waiting period as well.

In general, I absorb a lot of facts from TV shows…such as House, blah blah and heh heh, even Miami Ink, so I hope the info from these shows was at least remotely accurate. I’m not including CSI because though the series is entertaining, the technologies they use on the show are obviously far-fetched!

Below: A very entertaining Hong Kong TVB Police-Forensics show. Forensics techniques featured were much more realistic. I'm pretty sure the 24-hour rule was mentioned in this show as well. Anyway... Long Live Channel 55!

Marni is not Armani

These Italian brands all sound alike.

I decided I better channel Marni’s style for now. I have recently put on weight and wearing clothes similar to Marni’s designs (u may be pregnant, u may be not) will allow me to hide the extra bits and momchalently pretend to World that everything’s still the same while I try to meanwhile lose them. I don’t really know how’s that going to happen, since I don’t believe in diets and exercising. Hopefully, the extra weight will just evaporate on its own. The cute little tummy is not so cute or little anymore.

Marni Spring'08:

Proportion and construction of the clothes are pretty unconventional, and the accessories look abit art deco lego, cute cute cute. And see the hortizontal slit in the front part of shoe? When you wear patent leather cover-up shoes, that's the area which will crease and make your shoes look very untidy/worn out, so the designer simply remove that part of leather, smart smart smart.

HONORARY MENTION
Meanwhile, Karen C wants an honorary mention for helping me lug 15 pounds of senior dog food from Parkway Parade to car. BIG Thank You! Next time help me again, ok?

How do we know we're getting older?

Ans: Flashers do not flash at us anymore.

We were having a discussion on random subjects, and came to realise that we were all victims of flashers when we were kids but all that stopped a while ago. We don't think Flashers had became extinct - we think they're avoiding us.

We figured, flashers, being passive aggressive bullies with major issues, would usually choose young blur girls as victims.
The logic's that, the young girls will be in total shock and probably will not report them when they pull their stunts. However, if they flash at assertive aunties like us, we will probably violently attack them, issue some self-administered justice caning, and haul them to the police station. Or worse, laugh in their faces.
So, only brainless desperate flashers would choose to flash at more mature women. One of the good things about getting older, I guess.

Sooo, if you get flashed at, look at the bright side, think of it as a compliment - you look young! Go out and celebrate, after you finish whacking him.

Mini Commercial French Movie Wave

It all began in my schooling years, when I decided to put off doing tax accounting homework at IU library, take one of the many short breaks, and watch (suddenly important and imperative to watch immediately) movies instead. Unfortunately or fortunately, the library only carried the more artsy shows. So I ended up watching French movies like La Reine Margot. One can say that my love for French movies was built on strong homework procrastination tendencies.

I intensely like French movies, they are a little off-center, and the French actors, all stylo and yummy chic, even when the hair is messy. Very aesthetically je ne sais quoi”-ly pleasing.

We caught Moliere today, a period drama, or as a friend puts it, movie with people wearing long pom pom skirts.

The bittersweet movie started slow, but the few sub-plots worked well together amidst bits of romance and comedy. We watched it at the newly renovated Picturehouse, which is really small, but clean with no odour.

Audrey Tautou - This gamine’s cornering the “French Movies That Made It Overseas and People Are Actually Catching Them” market. She’s in Amelie, Priceless, and also in Hunting & Gathering, which we’re going to catch on Wednesday.

Below: Audrey Tautou in Priceless, a great movie. Even if the dvd subtitles don’t work, you should still catch the movie to check out Tautou’s great clothes.

research and library visit

I am currently working on an Internet research project and of course the work is incomplete yet. In keeping up with the spirit of procrastination, I decided to blog. I had earlier decided to highlight my hair, which will help me waste one whole afternoon away at one go, unfortunately, my hairdresser didn’t pick up the phone as the salon was too busy.

Not much is happening right now, it might rain tonight, I think. I was supposed to meet friends for drinks tonight (another procrastination effort), but since no one has called, the old-people party may have been cancelled.

Maybe change subject before you switch to another blog…I went to the NLB yesterday.
The National Library is really a nice building; comfortable, neutral shades used and even the toilet was nice. I was thinking of posting a photo of the toilet, but was afraid someone may think I’m a pervert for taking pictures in toilets and haul me up to security, so sorry people, no library toilet picture.

The librarian who assisted me fit the image of a librarian vampire – pale-white, bloodless looking, expressionless, and in fact even looked a bit androgynous. I lost my thoughts for a while when I approached the counter, but he sure was a helpful one. Gave very clear directions.

Anyway, I’m a little excited. I am invited to an acquaintance’s place for Hari Raya Makan this Saturday. Finally! It’s very pathetic that I have not gone Hari Raya visiting before, as I do not have close Malay or Muslim friends. I shall be nicer to my next door Malay family neighbour so maybe next year they will invite my family over. I shall start waving hello harder starting from tomorrow.
Meanwhile I should return to my research work. Haiiiyaaaaa.

The One and Only sis is back home for a teeny vacation with hubby Sam.
Snap shot of her at airport arrival.


When JF is back with Sam, it means Delifrance crossionts for breakfasts & tea breaks, they'll (the humans) have them (bread)whenever there's a chance. The family in Singapore often takes Delifrance for granted, but everytime I join Jit & Sam for yet another croissont session, I would recall how important a role this bread brand plays in our family life/bonding.

When we were (really) young and went for Yamaha music classes every Sunday, it would be followed by a session of Delifrance baguette binging. Highlight of every Sunday, in fact.
When I stopped the classes eventually and JF continued on, me and mum will wait anxiously for JF to return with the baguette to commence Sunday afternoon tea. When JF stopped classes, the baguette afternoon tea sessions stopped as well.
Now and then we'll still have baguettes for tea sessions, but not as often as before, but still, i think they taste pretty good.

Meanwhile, with more humans moving around the house, the high-anxiety cat sniffed out unfamiliar scents, and is on high alert all the time. He had been hiding/skulking around abit like a ninja. No one sees him until the still of the night. His ears are perpetually pricking. hahahaah...
Poor thing...

BBQ is fun, and truth from facebook

This week has been a hell week for me. Work and lack of sufficient sleep made me overall grouchy. However, it ended with a smashing BBQ at Bayshore. Alcohol, music, meat, clams, mushrooms, nicely grilled buttered corn, grilled bread with avocado mix homemade spread, and Otah. My dear friends who did the grocery shopping while I shamelessly napped at home also bought my favorite beer of the moment-ASAHI. Thank you.

Weird sign at BBQ pit, huh?


Of course it was harder to complete work on time with Facebook to distract.
After facebooking, I realized I really should make an effort to keep in touch with people.

A Gu Wah Zai friend obsessed with cigars had ended up in Philly. He cursed Indiana weather repeatedly when we were in school, so why he is there now is a mystery I will attempt to solve soon. Another friend who traveled all over the States with me in a van got married three months ago; and yet another is a proud father of a six-month-old cutie son!
I seriously suck as a friend at times, but I shall endeavor to be a better one.

I felt the earth move under my feet

Last Wednesday evening, around 7.15 pm in manager’s fish tank office. Feeling nauseous and stuffy as office air conditioning auto shut off by 6 pm.

Teleconference call with ana* client who went through the report point by point, line by line. I was dying slowly inside. I might not get to eat dinner that night, I thought, all the Shenton restaurants would be closed by the time the client complete his droning. He was beginning to sound foreign.

I felt giddy, damn the client, he’s going to make my head explode. I laid my head on the table. Didn’t help. Ooh the building was moving, I realized slowly…ahhh… that’s why I felt giddy. I walked out of the fish tank and noted all my coworkers looking around, dazed. Whoohoo! Legit excuse to cut off the client.

I yelled over to client who was still online, “We’ll talk tomorrow, we’re leaving the building now!” Client gave a quick ok! His building was moving too.

I grabbed my (really) cute (real) leather hand bag, and wasted a few seconds wondering if I should carry my duty free NZ wine a coworker had bought for me. Nah. Forgot my mobile too.

Laziness overcame life preservation, we took the lift down (from 11th floor), which stopped at almost e-v-e-r-y floor, I felt. Some silly office girl (from the 6th floor office) couldn’t decide if she should run back to grab her wallet, so the lift was held up for another five seconds. I seriously wanted to shove her out of the elevator. Next time, I'll take the stairs, I thought, less aggravation. We made it to the first floor eventually, and headed off for Kopi at a nearby shop house.

That night and the following morning, Singaporeans felt little shakes in their high rise flats and offices, as Indonesia was hit by a series of Richter scale 8 quakes.

Let's love our bods!

I’m very into loose fluffy comfy cotton or linen tops. I hopefully think they make me look ethereal, but the truth is, ethereal bag lady is more like it.

I went to FCUK and tried on this full-of-etheral potential top that looked cute on the hanger. Wah, if I ever want to look heroin-skinny-anorexic ...this top is IT!

I’ve not had this problem for a while. I was very skinny growing up. Skinny brings a whole different set of problems.

You can’t fit into clothes 70% of the time, and when you do, you look like a crap cheapo hanger. People always joke (this is bad joke, not funny at all) about how you have to grab on to lamp posts just in case the strong gale of wind sweeps you away. You also can't stop wondering why you’re not growing fast enough and if you’re going to be SHORT for the rest of your life (no more wondering).

I now do grow, but sideways only. But the good thing is that it’s easier to wear stuff. I was very happy when I went shopping in Bangkok and realized I was considered medium-size.

What’s the point of this blog? I forgot. It’s Monday morning (2 a.m.) and I’m getting tired. I shall sum it up as we should not take our body shapes for granted – it could be much worse. We could be in the best shapes of our lives now. Love your tummy bulge and rub it lovingly now.

IT Milestone.

Oh, I have finally joined Facebook! This is my 2nd major IT achievement for the year.
The first one was starting a blog (this one). I skipped the Friendster revolution.

Facebook lessons so far:

*The girls will attach cute, or he-ow profile pictures.
The guys (or at least those I know) don’t really give a damn and look remarkably identical... like curvy question marks.

*I do feel very exposed out there.
I feel my Friends are Exposed out there too, same for Strangers. Paranoia, there are definitely potential weirdos tracking our messy spider webs of friendship. Terminate account soon.

* Long lost friends can be found.
I had located 4*100m relay teammates, a girl who used to help me skip morning assemblies without fail, someone I traveled to Paris with as a blur bank intern, a friend who gave me my very first Neil Gaiman novel.

The winner of long lost friends catergory, however, belongs to YahLeng: In 2000, I visited NYC and stayed with a friend’s friend’s sister, YahLeng. She found me on my third Facebook day. Wow!

* My friends are very mature people.
I had been throwing SO MANY sheep, cows and chickens at people, but hardly anyone threw one back at me. They don’t play. Or they didn’t want to play with me. : (

*Except for May, no one else fed me.
I had to survive solely on her virtual peppermint candy for the past three days. I did not consume the other candy given by a stranger, my parents had taught me better than that.
I must be virtually anorexic and starving to virtual death by now. I had to DIY to turn myself into a virtual vampire, no one helped. Oh! The indignity.

congrats!

I blogged a couple of weeks ago on Jia Jia, known as Regine by world, who took part in a men’s shampoo reality show competition… she won! Congrats!



Tasks she had to perform, to prove she can be a man as well, included changing air tyres (like a male mechanic), opening durian husks (like a male Geylang stall operator), kicking a football (like F Ahmad the male), catch cockroaches…so gross, she cried on national tv over this one, I would too.

Jia Jia also had to survive catty comments from the other contestants, which I attribute to real jealousy and devious ploy to get more TV coverage. She was gracious enough to smile and shrug them all off; this calm attitude must be part of previous pageant training.

But anyway, I hope Jia Jia did a 360-degree attitude turn, shoot laser glares, give a wild victory yelp, execute two backflips & a somersault, and wave the trophy and 10,000-dollar cheque in their faces after the camera was switched off. Which, will be childish but immensely satisfying.

I am Chinese female Spock.

Dupree informed me my new Rick-creation fringe makes me look like Spock from Star Trek. Haahaha!
Since many friends of mine are non-Science Space fans, this is what Spock looks like.

Best ruler in the world.

I contemplated office stationery marketing philosophy while I was at the office temple of reports.
I think there are truly difficult jobs out there, and one of them includes marketing generic products, like Rulers.

So I think, in this case, Mr. Marketer of Generic products like rulers decided to go all out.

Brand: D-Best
Product: High Class Plastic STRAIGHT ruler.

Warned: Cat story.

Anyone who knows me will know how crazy I am about the Cat.
I always tell myself that I shouldn’t blog about Mongkut because no one else really like the cat like I do, and when I tell them all the Mongkut stories, being the kind souls they are, they would make sympathetic noises but probably can’t wait to talk about something else instead.

But, I cannot resist it anymore!

I always wonder… do animals know how mirrors work? Yes they do! Mongkut was looking at me and my camera via the mirror! Wah, so intelligent!


And there’s a SPCA ad which tries to gently advise people to consider carefully before getting a pet, because the animal cannot be “shelved” away, like other things you don’t want anymore. But look! Here is Mongkut “shelving” himself. I swear I did not put him on the shelf for the photo shoot.