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。