A long and rainy night

A good friend whom I've known for a long time departed Singapore last night, uprooting his family with him to one of my favourite cities in the world where he came from.

Farewells are such horrid affairs, especially when the time draws near towards dusk and rain pelters down for hours on end. I was stuck in traffic and realised the time to departure was an hour away.

Despite the many many farewell get-togethers we had over the past 2 weeks, the many many pep talks we had, the many beers and arguments we fought over, the tinge of melancholic sadness crept in at the hour. Indeed, nothing in life prepares you except for reality when it hits.

I made a hurried call on my handsfree, and I was happy to hear a sober controlled voice at the end of the line. I reminded him not to smoke or drink in excess, to get a new phone line ( no, incoming calls are NOT free on your Spore line, stupid! ) and remember the words of wisdom rained upon him. I parted with I will miss him and will see him soon.

The drive in the rain seemed very long that day. Deep in me, I truly truly hope he and his family will be happy over in Melbourne. I truly truly hope he will work really hard to make this happen. And I know all of us here will remember to celebrate his 50th Bday in 2 years time.

Au revoir, mon ami.

Touring Singapore on Foot

8 hours 6 destinations

Tom's Palette at Shaw Tower
The ice cream flavours we had ( all large of course.. )
Salted Egg Yolk + Salted Caramel Cheesecake
Chocolate Sorbet + Brown Sugar
Chocolate stout + Chai Tea Latte

I Love TaiMei at Queen St
Good concept, strong branding. Better than Shih Lin.
Check out how they named their items on the menu. (Selina, Ella, Hebe etc )

Fried Chicken - Ella
Sweet potato sticks
Fried tofu fries
甜不辣

lots of bubble tea!

Porn's
Sexy. Thai. Food. 

Pornsak was manning the cashier. I like him. Down to earth , obliging and endearing. Looks good in pink. Hahaha.
We were lucky. Reservations run 2 weeks in advance. When we reached, we sat down on the last table available. After that was a long long long queue of diners.



Took a stroll to Sultan Gate and explored the Arab St area. Haji Lane was hip and happening. Blu Jaz is a nice haunt to soak in the atmosphere. There was also a nostalgic old world toy store that sold things from the 60s and 70s.

See the stuff from 60s-80s? Love the fridge.

Haji Lane

Barstories

We settled at this random bar.

Furniture was for sale, very nice. It felt like we were in someone's home.

Cocktails were fresh and delicious and not at all stingy with the alcohol yumyum!

I love the long wooden bar, soft lighting, quirky layout and the mural of the huge octopus on the wall.  Felt like I was in someone's home. Service was great too. Toilet was quirky, open air - clean and a little kinky. Haha, what's not to like about the place?
Love one of the chairs already. I wanna bring it home for $1400.
Pity my iphone didnt take good shots.



Artichoke
Reminiscent of a quaint little getaway. Clean, unpretentious and a lovely menu. What else to complete an outing but familiar friends like Heineken and San Miguel?

They gave us all goody bags of gummy candy when we left. Of course we ate them immediately!

We were the last customers and they were so nice.

Chomp Chomp
At midnight it was good to fill the tummies with Hokkien Mee, popiah, Kueh Pie tee, Fish soup and carrot cake. Ooohhhhh..... yummy.


It was a day of city walkabout. We parked at Shaw and did the tour on foot. It felt good to rediscover Singapore this way. Fortunately the weather held up.

From Beach Road, we went through Seah St, to Liang Seah St, Iluma, Queen st, Arab St , Haji Lane, to Middle Road and back to Beach Road. Ooh what a cute little bunch of tourists.

I must bring my camera next time.

ps// all photos taken by MissyG on her wonderful G11

Question.

有人问：我们就一定要先领悟，接受，再放手吗？ 就不能先放手，再接受吗？觉不觉悟其实在事后，可能都不重要了。朋友说我想太多，犹豫太久。 烦。

哈哈哈。。。。那就先把自己喝醉， 再想想这是什么酒， 为什么要喝。

At this thought, suddenly a lot of scenes come rushing to my mind, and I cannot stop myself from laughing. I know someone who does that exactly!

Many times if given the luxury, I'd like to think that I have thought through my decisions carefully. And I'd be at peace with the consequence of my actions or non-actions. At times I have also made rash decisions, but never unknowingly, and I am also at peace with the consequences, good or bad.

What rakes my feathers are decisions made beyond my control, with consequences I cannot withstand. Must I need to put up with this?  Its like 先放手， 无需接受， 无需领悟。 被强奸啦！

杯子的故事

小狗把拥有多年的一个杯子打翻。 捡起来，发现已经打烂了。我把它搁在厨房里， 已经一个星期。

那杯子并不是我最喜爱的。还记得那是在罗敏申(Robinsons) 购买的。当时是去买另一个印有蔬菜fine bone china 的杯子， 就在另一个架子上看到了这特大的杯子。与那精致的fine bone china 相比，这是个手工制造， 个子庞大的一个杯子。 其实并不是很喜欢， 但就应为它是特价，就把它买回家吧。

就这样用了好多年。它容量比普通杯子大一倍。有500ml， 也就是one pint 左右。样子不起眼， 但在大热天时，它是我最常用来喝可乐解热的杯子。

杯子坏了，本捡起来是为了拿去丢掉。但就在那一刻，我犹豫， 并没有马上把它丢掉。也许还可以有别的用途，也许可以拿去种花，也许可以摆在窗口做摆设，做纪念。。。 对这杯子的历史与回忆突然一一浮现。真是搞不通。就是搞不清楚的舍不得。

就这样它坐在厨房一星期。脏了。今天打扫时又再次看着那杯子。毫不犹豫地把它捡起，洗干净，然后丢进垃圾桶。 坏了就坏了。再多的怀念与回忆也补不回的。

原来，是时间。 需要时间领悟，时间接受， 时间放手。

是时候去Robinsons 了。

'我很累.'

'我很累.'
'这里有音乐和啤酒。'他告诉我。
哈哈哈！
就这样，我们把陈弈迅的k歌之王，背包，明年今日，绵绵，人 来人往，不如这样，给唱个不停。累了。其实太累了。
酒是永远喝不完的，人也永远玩不厌。
需要休息的时候就尽情去玩吧！
累了，记住，这里有音乐和啤酒。


Sent from my iPhone

Sweet

A friendly encounter on the streets of Penang. Lovely.

Smell

Love,

Coffee.

Yummmm.....

"I forget what i was taught. I only remember what I have learnt. "

How apt when I saw this quote fr Patrick White.

Time

Time flies too quickly when you are having fun. One week slipped past way too fast. One blink and all is over.
If I could I don't mind giving up a few years of my life just to ensure everyday is filled with meaningful fun.

Of Life and Lemonade

It is 5am in the morning and I cannot get to sleep. I must be disturbed.

They say when Life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Today I learnt that not all lemons can be made into lemonade.

A newly-wedded friend of mine who gave birth just 2 weeks ago lost her husband in an accident the early hours of this morning. The bike skidded, with no collision whatsoever. She was away from him during this time of her confinement, staying at her maiden home.

I didn't know what to say. I still don't know what to say.

I have friends and acquaintances who have lost fathers, mothers, grandparents, spouses and siblings. But to a young friend who has a 2 week old baby who lost her husband, I am at a loss for words.

Truly, Life can be unkind. It takes great courage and faith, but God has in place what He wants for you. Be brave, be strong and believe.

Brand new

A dear friend is starting a new journey today.
All the best !!

The journey of a thousand miles begin with Step One.

Roads are long, steep and  bumpy, what lies ahead?

On the other end, another friend is pacing at a crossroad.

Fret not, for all roads lead to Rome. At the end of the day, its the journey, not the destination.

Enjoyable tea time

A lovely afternoon spent enjoying tea with friends. There wasn't cake I didn't like though there was one I liked more than others.

Can you guess which one?

Everyone adjourned to 63rd floor to watch the national day parade and fireworks, I went home to clear damn emails.

Sigh. I'm glad I spent the earlier part of the day enjoying my time.

Very Precious Hours

Beijing 2010

87 hours of food fun feasting and fine wine.

Time flies too quickly when spent with loved ones, especially alcohol loving ones.

Shanghai 2010

61 hours of food fun feasting, fine wine and insomnia.

How I wish all this will not end.

Too little time too much to do.

I am glad we did everything slowly, at the pace we liked, no rush, no agenda. This is a holiday to be spent with friends. And I'm glad I did.

Uber Chic Urbn hotel - Lounge area at Downstaris with David Laris

Like spending a leisurely morning sweating it out in the hot room. Nothing beats the feeling when the 90 mins are over, esp when the experience is shared.

Like watching my first movie in a cinema in 2.5 yrs.

Like spending the whole afternoon staring out of La Strada over late lunch, spilling into tea time.

Like strolling the streets simply to enjoy the tree-lined avenues, and explore art enclaves.

And posing with Vitamin Water van.

Like waking up late to have brunch at Mr Willis and Element Fresh, enjoying wine at 11am in the morning.

Like hopping into Green Massage simply cos the weather was too hot ( Green is my fav massage place, really )

So many of these moments, so enjoyable.

The best part of it all - looking forward to each meal daily, knowing full well it will be a good one, cos its shared with wonderful people.

When can I have my next holiday?

Sleepy

A very sleepy puppy in the house

Beerfest Asia 2010

I went for this year's beerfest with a bunch of beer loving friends.

Loved the chips

Loved these new friends too

Stayed away from these ones below

Discovered a new ladies drink. Tasted like lychee syrup. Liked the melon one better, though MUST be taken icy cold.

Many many friends we left behind

Skyline against the Flyer backdrop

Can't wait for Beerfest 2011!!

Memories from long long ago

I discovered a bit of history while at home the other day. 

History from a long long long time ago. 

Old Nostalgia Comfort Food

This place seems to have taken a standstill in time. See the traditional magazine stall by the roadside? These dont exist much more except perhaps for the 2 super successful ones at Holland V.

Where you can find old folks going about their activities in their trusty old bicycles

Where the roads are paved differently from other parts of the country

And what was I here for?

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Yummy yummy prawn noodles. Had it for supper the night before and had to come back the next day again. It was super yummy.

I've never been a big fan of prawn noodles, the beach rd prawn noodles, the jalan sultan prawn noodles all don't quite hit the sweet spot for me. Too much meat, or too little oomph in the soup, whichever.

But this one's different. Nothing fancy at all. In fact just fresh succulent prawns, extremely potent soup and that's about it. Just the freshness of the prawns won me over. These were definitely not frozen prawns, and the soup was super yummy. No MSG effect even after I drank up all the soup.

This place is located just opposite the old Jackson food centre at Macpherson

Open till late so it'll definitely go into one of my top places for post drinks supper

Somehow the soup tasted better at 4am in the morning than in the afternoon, maybe it's been boiled for a longer time, but hey its super early in the morning and maybe , maybe I was super drunk too.

Hot Box Bistro - A real gem in the heartland

Had dinner at HOT BOX BISTRO - way out west at Jurong West tonight.

It was a WOW experience to say the least. It felt that the idea is to serve top notch italian food catered to the masses at very very affordable prices.

I paid $8.90 for a seafood pasta - ingredients were very very fresh, nothing frozen, portions were generous, and the sauce draped around the pasta strands just the way it was meant to be. Nothing made from instant sauces. I could see and taste the tomatoes that went into making the sauce. Wow!

I can't stop raving about it cos it was just so good! This definitely is better than some italian restaurants I've been to and at such affordable prices too. No GST no service charge and the server and chef are so obliging and polite too.

My only regret is in not taking my camera with me tonight. My dining partner had the aglio olio seafood pasta and boy it was good!! The perfect taste to aglio olio. Mama mia!

Standards like this leaves Botak Jones way far behind in competition, and the rest of the italian places at Bt Timah Market eating dust too.

They've just opened in April 2010, and I really hope that they are able to sustain their food quality and/or prices. So do support if you are in the vicinity. Local businesses need all the support they can get, otherwise we consumers just have to put up with sub-standard food quality/ portions or pay an arm and a leg for a decent meal.

503 Jurong West Ave 1
HOT BOX BISTRO
Inside Kopitiam

Old Summer Palace

We visited this huge park which was razed to the grounds by the Allied Troops in the 1800s. In it were loads of empty barren lands where ornate buildings once stood, except for the marble park where nothing could be looted , for obvious reasons.

I was impressed with how modern and forward looking the Chinese were in their times. The gardens can rival that of Versailles in France and the English at Windsor. In fact it would still make a very impressive garden in any European country in this day and age.

I cannot remember if these were imported or made locally in their time. But they were beautiful.

The park was HUGE and we were COLD! See the frozen lake behind.

And the beautiful sunset we witnessed while trying to find our way out of the park. If the weather had been tropical, I'm sure it would feel like Chinese Garden in Jurong, no matter how nice the place.