awmiffy

im a blimp!

2008-04-14T22:38:00.000+08:00

and no im not preggers.

senor rafaw brought me to jaan to celebrate the big 3 on the 12th. i was down with a bad throat and was slightly feverish. but being up on the 70th made me forget about the irritation and pain. it was simply simply lovely.

we wanted to be inspired and popped by space. maybe the jaan effect had worn off but space looked tired. and timed out.

i decided to give design another chance and swung by style nordic. totally won over. scandy-style it shall be!

over the weekend: north of the median age and south of the median age

2008-01-21T22:46:00.000+08:00

i screamed myself hoarse when jay walked to the side of the stage to sing. i watched in adoration as he tinkled the ivories, strummed the guitar, crashed the drums and stroked the zither. i chorused happy birthday in mandarin together with 9,999 other fans. i staked out the exit hoping to catch a glimpse of him before he left the stadium.

and suzanne! utter panache. tom's diner accapella. what a beauty.

pasta-ed

2007-09-22T20:48:00.000+08:00

second night in the row at ragazzi at ghim moh kopi tiam. im pasta-ed.

i saw a moth

2007-08-15T00:16:00.000+08:00

im so glad i finally got to stroke your bald pate
it being the only expression of love i could manage
12 august 2007 0813 you left without saying good bye

good bye ah gong

we re cured.

2007-08-07T00:40:00.000+08:00

meeting a unicorn

and check these out - thanks to sadwitch.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sadwitch/TheCureInSingapore010807/photo#5094010110984799170

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sadwitch/TheCureInSingapore010807/photo#5094013078807200722

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sadwitch/TheCureInSingapore010807/photo#5094017223450641378

if she cant get it right, how are we supposed to?

2007-07-25T22:23:00.000+08:00

suzanne the newscaster just reported "... he got it pat down...". Blergh.

step back in time

2007-07-14T12:21:00.001+08:00

retro yellowish phone, flat cushioned chair that squeaks.

overhyped

2007-06-15T23:08:00.000+08:00

we are so stuffed. just returned from a three course meal at novus, the latest it restaurant located within the Singapore National Museum. i started off with scallops, my main was snow cod and i topped it off with passionfruit... something.. yup. the ambience was top dog (dpm jayakumar was seated at the table beside ours) but the food, just awwight.

colour blind

2007-06-06T14:43:00.000+08:00

went for my health check-up the other day. the eye nurse flipped open the wonderful book of coloured circles. "what number?". memories of eye check-ups done when i was primary 2, and then at 22 before i started my first job came flooding back, colouring my ability to make out the number. i wrinkled my nose a la mother-hen and shook my head. nada. cant see nothing. just blue, green and yellow (i think) circles.

slacking off

2007-06-01T16:14:00.000+08:00

the best thing about it is that it gives one an immeasurable amount of time to read. how wonderful to relax with a good book in hand - wilkie collins' the moonstone for now. i feel as though i have not read a proper fiction in 6 years. aaahhh...

sing to the dawn

2007-05-28T20:55:00.000+08:00

25th june 2007.

never knew

2007-05-25T09:05:00.000+08:00

rejecting would be this tough.
perhaps, all that glitters is not gold.
hopefully.

friday the 13th

2007-04-14T20:35:00.000+08:00

pitstop 1/canele patisserie chocolaterie at paragon//french toast///fruity raisin brioche drenched in eggy-buttery batter then sizzled till golden and crisp in yet more butter topped with apple compote cinnamon ice cream and mascarpone foam//croque madame///ham and gruyere cheese sandwich dipped in egg sauteed in butter and crowned with wobbly yolked sunnysideup
pitstop 2/il lido at sentosa//home made tagliolini with live lobster and green asparagus tips///pan-roasted atlantic cod wilted baby spinach and red wine sauce///prime beef tenderloin white asparagus anchovy & garlic sauce////molten lava dark chocolate cake white chocolate & coffee gelato
pitstop 3/foot massage at serenity cove
pitstop 4/hacienda at dempsey//champagne cocktail kir royale//stella artois
pitstop 5/oosh at dempsey//spanish garlic prawns//mini beef burger with foie gras//mushroom lover pizza
pitstop 6/riciotti at the riverwalk//six desserts
pitstop 7/bed at home

lovesong for senor rafaw

2007-04-12T15:27:00.000+08:00

teary-eyed.
and this is for you.
The Cure
Lovesong
If ever I'm alone with you, you make me feel Like I am home again If ever I'm alone with you, you make me feel like I am whole again If ever I'm alone with you, you make me feel Like I am young again If ever I'm alone with you, you make me feel like I am fun again However far away, I will always love you, However long I stay, I will always love you, Whatever words I say, I will always love you, I will always love you Whenever I'm alone with you, You make me feel like I am free again, Whenever I'm alone with you, You make me feel like I am clean again However far away, I will always love you, Whatever words I say, I will always love you, Whatever games I play, I will always love you, I will always love you, I will always love you

speechless

2007-04-06T12:01:00.000+08:00

i still cant believe the ministers want to increase their pay by a cool million and how hard they are trying to justify their actions. heres a commentary from catherine lim.

Be mindful of the affective gap
By Catherine Lim, For The Straits Times Apr 05, 2007
I HAVE followed with intense interest the current debate on increasing ministerial salaries to match those of the highest earners in the private sector. And I have noted the impassioned arguments from both sides: the Government insisting on its necessity if top talent is to be recruited to ensure good leadership, and the public expressing its reservations, doubts and unhappiness.
I would like to go beyond the emotion and the rhetoric, and see the issue in the larger context of the PAP model of governance, in particular its special brand of pragmatism in solving problems. It is a hard-boiled pragmatism which even the severest critic will concede has contributed greatly to the Singapore success story. And one which, paradoxically, even the strongest supporter will concede is liable to harden into inflexibility.
In the case of ministerial salaries, the PAP leaders' thinking seems to have gone along these lines: Singapore needs a good, strong government if it is to prosper or even survive. Hence, it needs to recruit top talent. Since there is competition for this from the private sector, it has to offer equally attractive salaries. It has to act quickly and decisively, otherwise the country will face a serious crisis of leadership, which can occur in three increasingly dangerous stages:

*Talented people will not be attracted to government service.
*Even if they are, they will soon be enticed away by the private sector.
*But even if they are not enticed away, they will resort to corruption as compensation for their inadequate salaries, and thus bring ruin to society.
Rounding up the austere dialectic is the urgent plea to doubting Singaporeans: Do you want Singapore to go the way of corrupt societies?
I would like to point out, respectfully, a basic flaw in this rationale. In keeping with the overall, hard-nosed realpolitik that has characterised PAP rule, it fails to take into account the affective factor that is present in any relationship, whether between individuals or ruler and ruled.
This factor comprises that special constellation of emotions, moods, attitudes and ideals which somehow elude being quantified and reduced to monetary terms. I first analysed its role in the relationship between the PAP Government and the people over a decade ago in a political commentary titled The Great Affective Divide, noting the emergence of a serious emotional estrangement despite the country's stability and prosperity.
Subsequently, I variously described the conflict in terms of the people's wish to see a greater role for Heart as opposed to Head, EQ as opposed to IQ, Heartware as opposed to Hardware, etc.
The policy regarding ministerial salaries illustrates this conflict. Its definition of the talent that is eagerly sought as ministerial material does not appear to take into account attributes beyond those of intellect. It assumes that what is good for the corporate world must be good for government, and that therefore there is a common target of talent out there, which both will compete fiercely for.
But in reality, the commonality of talent is only in those attributes of mind and personality such as great intelligence, far-sightedness, boldness of vision, creativity, determination of purpose, etc, that are the hallmarks of today's high achiever. Beyond this overlap, the emotional aspect comes into play.
And here, there is a dramatic parting of ways. For while the ideal political leader is imbued with nobility of purpose and altruistic instincts, the ideal CEO is impelled by the very opposite - raw ambition and ruthless drive. The first set of qualities is desirable for a life of public service; the second would be disastrous.
Indeed, a brilliant achiever without the high purpose of service to others would be the worst possible ministerial material. To see a potential prime minister as no different from a potential top lawyer, and likely to be enticed by the same stupendous salary, would be to blur the lines between two very different domains.
Next, the rationale goes against the very spirit of the social contract that it is supposed to protect. There is a compact, largely implicit, that governs the government-people relationship in every mature society in the free world, and it has as much to do with what is felt deeply in the heart as with what is worked out logically in the head.
By this compact, political leadership is less a salaried job and more a vocation, with all that this implies of selflessness and sacrifice on the part of the leaders, and trust, respect and regard on the part of the people. It is this reciprocity that defines a social compact and confers upon it a sort of sacrosanct quality. The ultimate reward for the leaders, whether or not they consciously seek it, is a revered place in the nation's history, in the hearts and minds of future generations. Hence, material reward is only secondary.
Nevertheless, no Singaporean with any practical sense of the real world would want to see a minister denied a salary commensurate with his status and dignity, or living less well than any prosperous Singaporean. If the average Singaporean still aspires to the famous '5Cs' representing the good life, he is only too happy to see a minister already well in possession of these.
But, at the same time, no Singaporean would expect a minister to feel disgruntled if he is paid less than the top CEO. If the disgruntlement actually causes him to leave his job, then he was not cut out for public office in the first place. Thus, to offer him a matching salary to enable him to stay would be to demean that office.
There is clearly a need to balance material needs and public service. The balance, in the view of many Singaporeans, has already been achieved with the existing ministerial salaries, if benchmarked against those of high-earners across a broad range of professions, and also against the salaries of ministers in countries such as Sweden and New Zealand, consistently ranked among the foremost, corruption-free democracies in the world.
The policy of increasing ministerial salaries may have the effect of upsetting this balance and, more seriously, doing away altogether with the compact of trust and respect. It will create a new affective divide, or reinforce any existing one, between the government and the people, and reduce their relationship to a purely impersonal business contract.
Even in a society often described as aggressively materialistic and coldly efficient, there are, fortunately, Singaporeans who believe idealism has a place, and that the fire, passion and commitment of the Old Guard, who saw Singapore through the difficult early years with little hope of financial reward, are still alive in some young Singaporeans.
The policy on ministerial salaries will, at the least, breed weary resignation in Singaporeans: What's the use of giving one's views at all? And, at the worst, give rise to toxic cynicism: What's the use of teaching our young such values as caring and selflessness and sacrifice if each carries a price tag?

early surprise

2007-04-06T11:57:00.000+08:00

guess what senor rafaw ordered from pedlars.co.uk!

dutch woods

2007-03-11T16:11:00.000+08:00

belated entry. the company gave the staff - all 3 of us - gifts from cologne, where they had gone to participate in the IMM. the boss passed me a single tord boontje's table stories tea light, story 1 "natures path". so so pretty. the tea lights come in a set of 6. i can't wait to get my hands on the other 5.

feelin' good

2007-02-18T23:56:00.000+08:00

the first day of cny just passed. senor rafaw sprained his ankle on saturday at the cage; discovered an extremely skilled yi shi whom we randomly picked out from the yellow pages; gunked down loads of veges from consecutive steamboats at mils; enjoyed fabulously good poo-s the past two consecutive mornings; caught notes on scandal (cate is hot!) and supped on cheesy fries (without spring onions), golden pillow pineapple tarts, roasted almond sugis, peanut sugis and far eastern spicy bak kwa chunky bites.
will be checking out the good vibrations festival much later tonight. cant wait. feelin' good.

tingles

2007-01-27T21:32:00.000+08:00

had lunch with qingy at ms clarity cafe yesterday. despite the good reviews (chubbyhubby et al) my chicken ballotine was pretty burnt and difficult to chew. qingys garlic crusty dory was pretty darn good though so i should be bringing senor rafaw down one of these days. $11 nett with soup/salad and tiny dessert. within reach.
i confided with qingy regarding my crossroads - staying on or moving off and prompted by the Spirit, she told me that she felt strongly that it was to be the latter. i wasnt sure if what i felt was relief but tears started flowing. ive been struggling. how do you keep a job you love but which you can't afford?
this morning i checked recruit and spotted an ad from a relatively unknown (at least in singapore) company - one which i had initially intended to cold call. what were the chances? tingles.

aw!

2007-01-25T22:34:00.000+08:00

my blogpage has finally been promoted to the ranks of homepage status on senor rafaws comp! what a nice surprise. surpassed www.newsnow.co.uk/liverpool.
and james are back and i love this post :
http://www.wearejames.com/board/msg/330.php

win some, lose some

2007-01-17T17:12:00.000+08:00

ive been trying to find the perfect pair of jeans for the longest time. ok. actually i have - its the one i own heheh - so what i mean is ive been trying to find another perfect pair of jeans for the longest time. and its so darn difficult. ive tried on every piece of ok-looking pair at levis and even ventured into so cool it hurts diesel. but to no avail. and ive tried ck gas miss sixty gstar. maybe its my body shape that sucks (ok, no nodding of heads there please).
but i did find my perfect tigers. all thanks to senor rafaws eagle eyes and excellent taste. what an awesome new years day pressie! now all i need is some courage to wear them out...

drained and missing

2007-01-08T22:51:00.000+08:00

we almost lost ah ma on saturday. a 3cm gallstone had poisoned her blood and a secondary tumour had been spotted on her liver. she needed an immediate operation - with only a 30% chance of success - and it hurt so much to see her in pain. the family prayed like never before. the operation was a success and miraculously the tumour was no longer on the liver - thank God! ah ma is in icu right now but is as alert as ever. im due for "day vigil" duty this thursday.
had a yummilicious dinner with greenday aka phwoar - whos having an absolute ball in london - at ps cafe at paragon. their laksa pesto never fails to deliver. senor rafaw had to have it for dinner the day after. it was also a sending-off meal: senor rafaw went for his reservist this morning and i believe he is outfield right now. shucks. i miss him already.

archies here...reggies here and veronica too

2007-01-01T14:55:00.000+08:00

fresh macarons from gay paris! they can only be from fancy fontaine. welcome back babe!

surprises

2007-01-01T14:49:00.000+08:00

each of us got a present from my boss and i actually got a casio classic retro digital watch! you know, i actually like it very much. and it being the first present i received. my colleagues bought me a little wrist bag and a mymelody keychain. pretty good haul i must say.
company movie - watched curse of the golden flower, followed by company dinner at fig and olive - never again, rounded off with st james power station - never again. all on dutch. - surprise!
no bonus - wait that wasnt much of a surprise.

breakette

2006-12-16T19:07:00.000+08:00

a breakette is a mini break (of the holiday sort) and that's what senor rafaw treated us to over the holidays. we stayed at angsana bintan for two days, received some serious toasting refreshed with frozen fruits and lemoned ice cold water courtesy of the pool bar, tried my hands at body surfing - much easier than i thought, dined by the sea and under the stars and had lunch at treetops, one of banyan's finest. dope.

obsessed

2006-11-14T23:08:00.000+08:00

two songs are messing about in my head right now. not at the same time of course.
say something - james. digital love - daft punk. oh yeah - ash. in the morning - razorlight.
wait, thats four songs.

too many firsts, never again.

2006-11-11T23:11:00.000+08:00

getting sloshed and performing merlion-inspired stunts outside zouk, being offered a tissue pack from a boy that looked 10 years off my age, and flopping down on my bed without first getting a shower.
im really sorry. never again.

so it was a waste of time.

2006-10-13T22:46:00.000+08:00

my education, that is.
how does one react to such a pronouncement made over dinner? i fought to keep my voice down and my tears in as i explained warily that the collective experiences have pushed me ahead this far. ive finally been confirmed by my new company in this new industry.
so have you thought about what you ought to be doing in five years time? why havent you given yourself a chance to try out something in the banking sector? will your company still want you in 3 years time? have you thought about how your actions would affect other people?
you know. i dont give a f.udge.

thank you marakon london!

2006-10-08T22:55:00.000+08:00

cuz you're making the dreams of 3 people come true: the dreams of a young married dudette who will only be ready for preggerhood after she has returned to london for a day or two, the dreams of a young married dude who needs to get his miffy to london for a day or two, and the dreams of a miracle whose life is still in God's hands. hnyuck.
fancyfontaine, we'll see you September/October (depending on when the london design festival is) 2007!

Es lebe die Freiheit!

2006-08-21T23:25:00.000+08:00

watched sophie scholl: the final days last night. what are we doing here? how can we continue living like this when we know deep down in our consciences that some things are not right. that they are not fair. how is it that we do not sit down to think how an individual should act under a dictatorship? how could we sit on our hands when mrbrown was forced into a corner and stripped of his daily bread? long live freedom.
"live a life that is honest and free" - sophie's dad

why im so glad ive moved on

2006-08-05T14:53:00.000+08:00

so here i am working in Changi on a saturday
and my ex MD walks into the shop with his wife (very friendly by the way)
looks at me and says you look very familiar
we have a nice chat about what i'm doing right now
and im thinking not bad having a decent conversation with ex MD without talking ecosystems and holistic approaches
and they make their move
and we say bye
and his parting shot
see you didnt have to work on saturdays in xxx!

5 years and counting

2006-07-21T23:17:00.000+08:00

ok one year actually. so we celebrated our first year anniversary last sunday 16th july. i was touched to receive congratulatory messages from some mates - so sweet right! waitaminute... were they that surprised that we lasted a year... sheesh. we finally tried the food at glutton square, a pathetic choice of hokkien mee and char kway teow - so-so only man. more enjoyable was listening to concave scream make a comeback and rocking with electrico at baybeats! www.baybeats.com methinks electrico definitely has some great guitar riffs. but it was disturbing to be surrounded by kids 10 years off my age during the open air concert held at the esplanade - or should i say it was disturbing that i was present at this concert for kids. but hey since we missed out on coldplays twisted logic concert, anything else goes right!
had an excellent friday night out with fancyfontaine - we pigged out at miharu ramen. no rewind. we trudged from raffles place, with our laptops in tow, through expressways and over fences and finally reached miharu ramen at gallery hotel. we had to wait a tad and were rewarded when the bowl of hokkaido inspired real mccoy steaming hot ramen arrived. the ramen was al dente (i cant think of another description) and oh so excellent - but for 5 minutes. after that it tasted pretty normal and the soup became extremely salty when cooled. not too good. and the place was literally not that cool either. after settling l'addition, we rushed to canele - ironical that fancyfontaine was having french pastries... maybe even sad haha - and wolfed down this hazelnut thingy which was divine and this other ice-cream which i cant for the death of me remember what it was other than it being awesome. the night was still young so we walked to fancyfontaine's fav cafe iguana and were delighted to find out that drinks were half price (after 12). had my usual fave mango margarita. fancyfontaine tried to be cool and had the soupsop - which turned out sour and unpalatable. heheh. gosh. it was good to see her again.

what really matters

2006-07-03T21:23:00.000+08:00

to set the record straight - no im not preggers. im not sure if i wish i were. actually... (which incidentally is the name of an uberchic shop i stumbled into at seah street) im not sure if i wish i werent either. but. ill leave that for another day. bumped into balibabe at the food centre beside jubilee on sunday and apparently, my absence from uk gurly +partners groupe's gatherings had caused some to believe that i was preggers.
im actually still sick. throat feels as though it had been slit a thousand times. everytime i swallow, the imaginary (or otherwise) wounds open up and the pain is searing.
chebil and family (i.e. rfh and rlh plus new maid maricel) have moved back with us. it's big happy family time. most of the time that is :p dadandmum sacrificed many weekends to clear the two empty rooms - sacrificial unconditional love, something which im not sure if i could and can ever emulate - and helped with their moving in. ches alot happier now that she has help from dadandmum. hopefully she will put on some weight - she looked dangerously aneroxic a few months back. the babies have been adapting well. thank God.
it has been great hearing from old mates. mrheng - switched to a spanking new job in hk after 6 months!; fancyfontaine - the lazy ghit will be back this week to while away her summer, excellent dudette!; eggy - back in my ex company after his secondment stint, a fresh start and raring to blaze rebellious trails again heheh; and phwoah! aka greenday - i will reply to you very soon man. this bloke disappeared for 5 months and has finally emerged with a brand new job at a top notch ib. woohoo!!! thats really great news, considering its something that he actually wants! more importantly, good accoms when senor rafaw and i visit london next year! heheh. ok kidding. the part about visiting london. sigh fingers crossed.
senor rafaw and myself went thru a pretty tough patch the past few months. and before one jumps into conclusion - no we re still as much in love, and with each other, as before, maybe more. er. ok maybe im speaking for myself ha ha. ive been struggling with my pay cut and my change in lifestyle. not much of a lifestyle before already - my point precisely. i really never expected it to hit me so bad. all that restraint. i felt imprisoned. sure i brought it upon myself. not exactly dire straits but it definitely necessitated a cut back in spending. not to mention the possibility of not travelling beyond southeast asia for the next year or so for a holiday. thankfully, things are better now. at least the condition of my mind is more at ease with myself (horror of all horrors, that sounded vaguely new age).
new job has been challenging. extremely. had to adjust to new boss, new colleagues (smashing so far), new office and most of all, new work responsibilities. honestly i have no clue as to what marketing is. so ive been fumbling and stumbling for the past two months and finally got the pat on the back "your efficiency to get things done and to pick up fast make up for your lack of experience in marketing" (corrected for grammatical errors - ed). phew. some sort of vindication. no letting up. press on. improve. suck it up. suck it in. make things work. praypraypray.

life's great.

2006-06-23T18:16:00.000+08:00

received an email from fancyfontaine.
awesome!

hector

2006-05-16T15:26:00.000+08:00

so hector is driving me wild. crazy. mad.
im tired. sleepy. exhausted.

but it's not really hector's fault, is it.
"shi gou de ben sing" to bark.

for once

2006-05-09T16:28:00.000+08:00

i feel proud of being a singaporean.

(after spending the past hour viewing chiams and lows rallies and victory parades on sgrally.blogspot.com)

no prizes for guessing who my cross went for

2006-05-08T00:11:00.000+08:00

we screamed and shouted when low and chiam were announced winners of their constituencies. i couldnt sleep last night, angry that channelnewsasia produced a ridiculously biased and disgusting political anaylsis which only revealed how blatantly cronified and shallow gillian koh of ips was. teared this morning when i read of low's and chiam's victory speeches and how their supporters celebrated with them into the wee hours of the morning. eat your hearts out pappers. money does mean something, but it aint everything. you were merely insulting the integrity of these folks. my fav blog entry on this election so far: http://rockson.blogspot.com/2006/05/mandate-what-cheebye-mandate.html

political apathy?

2006-05-03T15:56:00.000+08:00

think again.
sunday - senor and myself headed towards hougang after an early mothers day dinner at atlantis (cereal prawns, hot plate beef, baby kailan, claypot tofu and grape juice chicken) with the digestif at yio chu kang stadium (sda). we were hoping to catch some dirt on wp and with aljunied being contested i figured i should hear what sylvia had to say.
cliche, but a picture does speak a thousand words. much credit to yawning bread (whoever you are, http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2006/yax-581.htm).

as senor rafaw put, low thia kiang was truly in his element as he charmed us with a rhetoric delivered in teochew. dirt on wp? not at all. the only dirt was the patch stuck on the sole of my slipper as we stormed the muddy field.

surreal

2006-04-29T19:35:00.000+08:00

boss, v. , p. and myself spent two hours exploring and discussing all the brochures that boss lugged back from milan. that was work. amazing.

17th april 2006

2006-04-25T14:37:00.000+08:00

Dear All

Please welcome our latest addition to our "big" family, Ms. AG who will be our new Assistant Marketing Manager. Her e-mail address will be AG@xxx.net.
***
:)
and a big hullo to fancyfontaine.

day 1 - its been a long time coming

2006-04-16T17:25:00.000+08:00

hey guys,
im finally re entering the gainfully employed sector of our workforce. heh. im starting work tomorrow (17th) with xxx, a local designer furniture outfit, assisting in marketing (im not exactly sure what my position is called, actually). ill be stationed at their yyy retail shops for the next two months to spy on people who come in. thereafter (hopefully ill still be there heheh) ill be at their office near zzz.

but more importantly... thank God for great mates like you guys -
thanks for ranting (at !#@) and raving (leaving !#@) with me.
thanks for the lunch updates, tea catch-ups, wala space-outs, email reflections, skype marathons and prayers... really really appreciate all these sessions which helped me sort out my thoughts and how i want to feel when i wake up each day.

so come visit me when youre free; purchases not compulsory!

day 4 - stuffed

2006-04-13T21:40:00.000+08:00

shopped two nights ago at junc8 and managed to scour a white top, a black top, a funky green top and a pair of checkered loose capris. thanks to senor rafaw who encouraged, and paid. heh.
spent the day teaching rfh numbers and rfh was amazingly good at the laptop - she works the touchpad better than mum.
so we ve been frequenting leefannamkee for sometime now and senor rafaw and myself always put up the same orders, so much so that the head waitress recognises us. so when myself, dadandmum got there first for dinner without senor rafaw (who was still working), i waved a friendly hi to the head waitress. she looked at me blankly. nonplussed, i tried to smile at her again when she served us the chilli and spoons but she barely noticed my presence. 10 minutes later, i saw senor rafaw come in and he was warmly greeted by the head waitress. ok obvious recognition registered - i quickly bitched to mum about the prejudiced treatment. maybe the head waitress needed some time - i had a new hair cut - and i was sure she knew who i was already by then. but all confusion was cleared when senor rafaw revealed that when he walked in the head waitress had asked him "one person?". im never going there again. had a steamboat dinner with dadandmum. senor rafaw had his chicken rice. im stuffed.

day 5 - second post

2006-04-12T17:56:00.000+08:00

drove to sentosa for a sakae sushi dinner by the (noisy due to coastline redefining machinery) beach. felt like i was not quite in singapore. it was a really quiet, great feeling.

2006-04-12T17:14:00.000+08:00

day 5
cf 31st march 2006 entry titled day 17 - float like a cannonball
enjoy! cuz i did.

cannonball.amr
Powered by Castpost

day 6 - to shop or not

2006-04-11T17:26:00.000+08:00

oops just made rfh cry. haha. shes such a hamburger. tuesday already!
finally finished the sun tzu bing fa art of marketing hynuck hnyuck.
shucks. do i need to buy more arty clothes or should i make do with my office wear?

day 7 - fete du week-end

2006-04-10T12:38:00.000+08:00

fri - the day started bright and early despite us having slept late the night before. two months ago, we had stumbled upon two brilliant animations showing late on thursdays nights: american dad! at 12am, a satire on american politics, followed by father of the pride at 1230am, a family of white lions who work as performers with siegfried and roy in las vegas. i have grown to be tremendously fond of the white lions and so was understandably quite upset to find out that thursdays episode was the season finale. but i digress. friday. upon elcoos recommendation, we decided to try ski360degrees cable wakeboarding at east coast park. i was quite excited cuz it had been two years since i last wakeboarded at ponggol marina and if my memory served me right, i was pretty decent at it. and yes, do i dare say it, perhaps even better than senor rafaw... anyhow, cable wakeboarding is like wakeboarding without a boat to tug you along. the idea and contraption are really quite ingenious although it can get quite boring because all youre doing is going around in circles. that is if you can even get off the freaking bench, hold on to the already moving at a certain speed cable, balance and ride the waters. which i could not. senor rafaw counted and told me that i must have body slammed myself in the waters at least ten times. i was increasingly frustrated and became more determined to succeed but the more i tried, the worse i got and now i only have blue-black patches over my legs, an extremely sprained left neck, sore arms and thighs to account for. senor rafaw on the other hand, got off to a flying start, hardly lost his balance and completed at least 1800degrees. there was also a fit elderly couple present who were old time water skiiers but first time cable water skiiers. their analysis of my failure to launch off successfully was that this cable was moving at a constant speed and thus the first three seconds allowed no slack. this was unlike wakeboarding with a boat, where there is acceleration from zero which would allow one to adjust and hold on accordingly. senor rafaw cant wait to go back there again. i cant quite say the same, for my ego. anyhow, heres a picture of me wakeboarding, not.

we rushed back and realised it was too late for my ikukan birthday treat. so i called the restaurant and postponed it to the next day. i was given the manhattan once-over with my retro shirt, grotty shorts and slippers when we stepped into the scarlet hotel, just that this was probably the brooklyn once-over if you ask me. the place was gorgeous. www.thescarlethotel.com. our room was teeny but oh so luxurious. we couldnt wait to flop down for a nap but hunger and maxwell food centre beckoned for lunch - chicken rice (senor) and fried fish thick beehoon (yours truly, and this sounds familiar). we walked back to our hotel and explored the cosy jacuzzi area (called soda), the hot and sweaty gym (flaunt) and the alfresco day beds on the roof (breeze). when we got back to our room, i was touched to find a plate of chocky mousse on the table, pre-ordered by senor rafaw. stuffed but with room for dessert, we tucked into the mousse and huddled together to watch a dvd. the rest of the day was spent lazing by and in the jacuzzi and watching the sky turn dark. we checked by breeze for dinner but felt that we would be much more satisfied at the nearby qun zhong eating house along neil road. dinner consisted of a chives chinese pizza, xiao long bao, two bowls of hot and sour soup and vegetarian dumplings. my tummy was bloated so we took a walk along tanjong pagar and noticed that oso and buko nero were packed to the hilt. the night was cool with the breeze in our hair and my hand in senors.

sat - awakened by the sound of the rubbish truck passing by, we hauled ourselves off the bed, changed and decided to read the papers by the jacuzzi (again) before packing up and checking out. i had an awesome stay. we walked to ikukan along club street and i realised i didnt have to make a reservation at all. which was puzzling because the service, the ambience and the food was thoroughly impressive. have are some pictures to keep me mouthwatering each time i read my post.

my weekend celebrations were topped off with a complimentary eye massage along temple street and my favourite mandarin serial drama on tv back home. what a weekend treat.

jour 12

2006-04-05T15:24:00.000+08:00

need to go shopping for some basic tops and funky accessories. wish fancyfontaine were around for some crazy spree.
its such a quiet beautiful peaceful afternoon.

2006-04-04T16:30:00.000+08:00

day 13 - rainy tuesday part trois
cf day 9 - just cant get enough entry on 24th march.
con't of dedication to senor rafaw.

Powered by Castpost

2006-04-04T16:28:00.000+08:00

here it is!
cf day 9 - just cant get enough entry on 24th march.
uneXpected at walas with elcoo.
its always about, and for senor rafaw.

Powered by Castpost

day 13 - rainy tuesday

2006-04-04T16:03:00.000+08:00

here is the pix elcoo took when we were at walas (cf entry day 9 - just cant get enough on friday march 24th) of the tiny little things that almost killed us. thanks to l'elcoo for the pix and ensuing clips!

day 14 - car wash law rears its ugly head again

2006-04-04T15:53:00.000+08:00

monday - remember the brief entry on cuppa with a prospective employer (cf cannonball entry)? after refusing to reply/get back to me for two weeks, after i tell him that ive gotten a job elsewhere, he offers me one. fudge.
in otherwise heartmelting news, senor rafaw has informed me that april 12th celebrations will be brought forward to the 7th, and will be held over two days. hee.hee.hee.

day 15 - mall-ing

2006-04-04T15:40:00.000+08:00

sunday - church was now in bishan, and i was still late. also finally managed to meet up with aceh build trip roomie y.c. who helped me burn the 500 odd pictures taken on our aceh trip. the guys thomaz and mikeymouse couldnt be traced. think we would only be able to meet in the next millenium. y.c. had also quit and was planning to help out at a friends company as a receptionist - "i just want to relax man".
it rained in the afternoon and senor rafaw decided it was a good time to visit some shopping malls. i wasnt exactly sure why. first stop was kovan the heartland mall. i was chuffed to find pinle there and ordered my fav almond soya bean drink to go along with my prima deli peanut butter pancake. senor had a coconut pancake. yuks! anyhow, with our appetites destroyed, we malled for an hour before deciding to move on to hougang point. it was buzzing! with heartlanders. it even had iora, and ichiban and cartel would be opening soon. we were amazed. we walked 500m to hougang plaza, a rundown three storey building with tenants like jacks place, novena holdings and suki jap buffet restuarant. tres strange. our malling was rounded off with fish soup (yours truly), hainam boneless chicken rice (senor) and $1 milk tea with bubble(s?).

day 16 - insights

2006-04-04T14:50:00.000+08:00

sat - senor rafaw promised to shop with me at far east square so after lunch (thai, and by the way we have sniffed out an excellent thai stall at former thomson yaohan {i cant for the death of me remember what its called now}) at scotts food pinic, we ambled over, browsed at func deco (one of fancyfontaines fav stores), drooled at leftfoots asics onitsuka tigers and headed down to level one for some munchies. we found a small stall called mango lingo and excitedly ordered two mango shakes - we have been looking for mango shakes for the past week. the drinks were refreshingly thirst-quenching. still peckish, we passed chippys (of the famed fried mars bars) and we couldnt resist the curry crispy chicken (14 chunks and drizzled with cheese sauce). it smelled sinfully delicious. but what a let down! the 14 chunks were none other than chicken skin and flour chunks - we felt cheated and sick after. we swore never to touch fried chicken again for at least a week.
we hadnt seen lil nikki since chinese new year so when nikki mobiled senor rafaw and ordered him over to her house to play games, senor rafaws heart melted and couldnt resist. so after half an hour of my favourite mandarin serial drama on saturdays at my in-laws, we promptly walked over to nikkis. her fammie and my mil were headed to tokyo the next day so nikki proudly showed us her pretty dark purple polo ralph tracksuit that she would be wearing to the airport. gorgeous! we tried to play junior boggle for five minutes, but junior boggle irritated nikki. finally she brought out a game (of taiwanese brand gigo) consisting of lego-like cubes which could be built and transformed into cute random things like a pencil holder, mobile holder, reindeer and santa claus. frankly the game required a lot of patience and some skill to find the right blocks to piece together and i was very surprised to find nikkis interest in the game sustained. she was observant, patient and took pains to learn how to build. we had quite a bit of fun but it was turning late so i hugged and kissed her goodbye. senor promised to buy her another box of gigo so we could make both the reindeer and santa claus (one box of gigotes could only make one or the other).

day 16 - and so it is

2006-04-01T23:07:00.000+08:00

here is the straits times review of damien rices concert. the concert was really heart wenching angsty and emotional and i enjoyed it as much as i did of mrazs. so its a little unfair that rice received a much better written review than mraz - especially at the hands of a totally inept journalist. but enough of my ranting.

April 1, 2006 Rice has them eating out of his hand
The Irish singer's plaintive songs on his experiences had audience members in tears
By Andrea Ong
CONCERTDAMIEN RICE LIVE IN SINGAPORESuntec TheatreThursday
Life News

GIVE Damien Rice a guitar and a microphone, and he can move an audience of 600 to tears with songs about people and experiences only he knows.
Towards the end of his sold-out concert here, the Irishman told the audience that singer-songwriters' music all revolved around themselves, 'but I'm nothing like them'.
It was said with a self-consciously ironic streak that ran through an intense, two-hour-long concert with him as its magnetic centre.
On a gothic, smoky stage filled with lit candelabras, Rice, who ambled in with a mop of woolly hair and a hobo patchwork shirt, was something of an anomaly.
As he pronounced with self-deprecating glee during the whimsical Childish, he could be a 'stormy little singer, an unstable little swinger'.
Capriciously, he sang the first few numbers with grim-faced concentration and minimal audience interaction.
The mood lightened when he took an audience request for Lonelily, parking himself at the edge of the stage and singing without a mic.
Giving rambling, expletive-filled introductions to his songs, his frequent bouts of forgetfulness also added to his eccentric charm.
But Rice's gift lay in his ability to tap on some hidden store of pain and share it with the audience in clear-eyed honesty without descending into navel-gazing angst.
If some songs like the melodramatic Cannonball appeared overblown on his album, they became transcendent live.
Without his usual backing band, Rice's songs were given a different, more intimate feel with the lone sound of his guitar, a distortion pedal and his ethereal, yet forceful, singing.
In a bleak, beautifully wintry voice, he alternated between passionate, unworldly wails and searing whispers.
It was something to behold - the way he threw himself into his music, stamping his foot to the beat so hard you could feel it from the audience.
He is not your usual gentle balladeer: in songs like Woman Like A Man and I Remember, his furious strumming of the guitar - his hand a blur of motion and his face a rictus of passion - would not have been out of place at a rock concert.
Cheers Darlin' was transformed from its sedate album version into a frenzied furor of sound as Rice swayed drunkenly, whispered angrily into the mic, mimicked the horn part and collapsed to the floor growling.
But his quieter songs like Amie and Volcano were the gems of the evening. Cold Water, in particular, was an achingly lovely piece that segued into a soaring, Jeff Buckley-esque rendition of Hallelujah.
It incited the audience into a thunderous standing ovation, which Rice obliged with a four-song encore.
His delivery of Older Chests, dedicated to a friend whose dog had just been diagnosed with cancer, was especially poignant with its meditation on the fragility of time.
Ending with the familiar Blower's Daughter, he quietly repeated the line 'I can't take my eyes off you' before wandering into the chorus of Radiohead's Creep and returning to the song.
As he deliberately lingered on the telling last line, 'til I find somebody new', it left a bittersweet aftertaste, a particular melancholic ache as unforgettable as Rice's voice.

day 17 - float like a cannonball

2006-03-31T14:58:00.000+08:00

i wonder if that feels like right now - i just received two late emails from two prospective employers, one asking to meet over cuppa and another if i were accepting his offer.
in other more uplifting news - i finally made it for mortinis last evening (fancyfontaine would be pleased). the previous time senor rafaw and myself traipsed there, the bar was closed for a private function. i was crestfallen. so this time, although i had called beforehand to check, my heart skipped a beat when i noticed how full and overflowing the bar was (doesnt everyone else has to work?!). thankfully, there was still the bar section at mortons itself. we happily climbed onto our bar stools, tucked our heels against the foot rests and swung the bar stools like contented babies. i had a cosmo and senor rafaw ordered a lycheetini. i was starving and quickly chomped on one of his lychees, i mean one of the lychees in the lycheetini. and the waiting began. steakfilletwiches... where art thou... (repeat for 15 minutes) and finally! and finally! and finally! they arrived and all, all, even fancyfontaines london weekend away, was forgiven. all these years... i had been fed lousy steak fillets from jacks place and odd western food stalls at hawker centres and had developed a dislike for beef, especially steaks... until that fateful thanksgiving of 2005, when i was given the opportunity to sample one of the best home cooked meals ever and i had a taste of juicygoodness steak. emboldened, i had proceeded to try senor rafaws order of steak at au petit salut two weeks thereafter and gosh, i never knew steak could taste this good. and i was having the time of my newsteaklife at the bar at mortons. but good things really do come to an end - at 7pm. i am also proud to say that i did not succumb to societal pressure and thanks to encouragement from senor rafaw, abstained from having more than a martini. stirred, we walked past carlsjr, ordered a portobello burger, tucked in and promptly regretted our hasty decision. the burger sucked and was totally, totally not worth the 8 bucks.
the good thing is, bad things do come to an end too. the night took another u-turn and we were treated to a joyride up the good-bad ladder when damien rice appeared.
{check out entry on 12th april 2006 for a surprise audio clip!}

day 18 (already?) - hey jealousy

2006-03-30T16:26:00.000+08:00

just received news that fancyfontaine would be in london this weekend. i cant even begin to articulate my jealousy.
damien rice, you had better help take my mind off it.
***
wed - haha lunch with egg and mrken followed by a sunrise blended treat from baby erica's mum s.. great day.

day 20 - figured it out

2006-03-28T17:26:00.000+08:00

so did u catch my previous entry on this same day?
yes its the elusive jason mraz in singapore audio clip. chem helped me upload from my mobile and ive finally found a website that could host the music clip {how come there isnt a youtube for audio} and there it is, quality-deteriorated-but-just-as-nerve-tingly. man i spent four hours doing this!
dragged my sorry ass out of bed this early morning and went for combat. new moves! delish!
weather-wise, cloudy. i.e. tan not implemented.
cant wait for extras later at 10pm.

2006-03-28T17:18:00.000+08:00

the clip!after much effort. argh.

Youandi.amr
Powered by Castpost

day six? nopers, day 22!

2006-03-27T01:26:00.000+08:00

yup, did my maths and its day 22. yahooooooooooo! im filled with excitement... and fear/doubt at the same time. what if i cant learn quickly enough, what if i dont have common sense, what if i cant prove myself within 6 months. ive got to shake all that off man.
today was lazy sunday - woke up late, lunched late, coffeeed late, dined late, caught a movie late. movies called russian dolls and its the sequel to spanish apartment. it was awright; slightly self-indulgent... or maybe cuz i stopped opening up the russian dolls a long time ago :p

jour sept - gary neville redeemed

2006-03-25T23:54:00.000+08:00

so gary totally irritated the pool fans with an obnoxious over the top celebration when rio scored the winner. and today, phil neville helped redeem his brother with a much needed own goal against a 10-men pool side before half time.
we were on our way to suntec when we heard the invitation to watch tonights merseyside derby at top of the 8 - goody bags would be given out to the first 100 at this inaugural match of the month; i simply couldnt resist. after church, we headed to junction 8, had a quick dinner at pasta mania (thumbs up to their prawn risotto) and hurried up to level 3 to chope places at top of the 8, an alfresco public area for events and schtuff. the people soon packed in and the atmosphere was buzzing, with the help of power98 djs sebastian and jeremy, fanatical pool fans themselves. what a night! we thrashed the toffees 3-1 and celebrated the victory with other pool fanatics. senor rafaw cheered and clapped till his right pinky turned blue.
and why suntec - other than for the yummylicious wanton noodles and prata, it was zapzaptummyzapzapthighzapzapbutt...

day 8 - tummyache

2006-03-24T22:33:00.000+08:00

ouch. not sure if it was the sticky rice lunch set of pad thai tom yam soup and spicy fish cake i ingested for lunch or the fries i stuffed down for dinner. my tummy hurts.
my sleep was amazingly undisturbed by hector who, usually starts barking at 6am and then intermittently every 5 minutes for the next 4 hours, did not bark till noon - thank God! that meant i could at least try to get over the hangover. it also meant that by the time i really woke up and was conscious to the world, it was dinner time. we hung out with dadandmum and rfh till seven, left them and went for a jog at bishan stadium - i still dont understand the merits of jogging - and pigged out at the bukit timah food centre near toh yi. ouch!

day 9 - just cant get enough

2006-03-24T14:30:00.000+08:00

thursday update - trotted down to takas pepperlunch for a sizzling beef set with nazzynaz. it was good catching up after 5 months (have i not been working for 5 months already - gosh it seemed just like yesterday! :p and i was glad to hear that nazzynaz was coasting a la cushy civil servant; amazed at the amount of moolla poured into modifying his car; and thrilled that he might be getting married next year! nazzynaz also passed me a huge bag of design magazines that mrsgoogle had thoughtfully selected and packed - i was super touched, although the bag was pretty unglam to be seen with at walas, but more on that later. after a coffee at mos burger (yes, no more coffee at starbucks, cutting back cutting back...), i went to get my locks snipped off by alvin from icon who i think did a fabulous job of creating a nice round shape on my otherwise runwayflat back of a head. theres something else i like about alvin too - when i didnt quite have a clue as to how else to cut my hair but to trim what he had previously cut, he said why dont we try something different i dont like to keep cutting the same hairstyle. now thats what a good hairdresser should be - confident of proposing a different but good haircut to a customer. im totally won over man. and finally! im now a proud owner of jason mrazs live recording album, thanks to goode olde gramaphone.
i was early so i sipped on earl gray at essential brew at holland village. i was quite impressed; the place was pretty interesting - we had to take off our shoes on the upper level, the place was strewn with cushions and the mood was relaxing. i managed to get a proper cosy armchair (one of the two available on the upper level) and managed to milk two glasses from my earl gray tea leaves before elcoo (was thinking of eldricko for his nick but he reminded me of his prelim grades last night - sheesh just look where those 3 letters have brought him) got there. i managed to unload my unglam bag on him and made it elcoos responsibility heh. starving, we quickly hopped off to walas for a mushroom with garlic split with seafood marinara pizza and meatballs. the pizza was fantastic but the meatballs were a tad too erm meaty for me. happy hour meant a half pint of hoegaarden and of becks (really easy to drink and thankfully did not render me slumped below the table - well thats another story). there was just too much ground to cover; too many issues to update on; too many reflections to share; too many thoughts to air, but we made it. it was great meeting up this old frend again, really. so heres to arent-you-bored-not-working? !
{see 4th april's entry "day 13"}
the unXpected came on and they rocked the house. we tried to get them to do ash and after an initial miscomm - they thought we wanted a song from the year 1977 - they apologised for not doing ash but bowled the crowd over with a rousing rendition of mrbigs be with you. if only they were half that explosive for jazon mraz opening act. and cuz i still couldnt/cant get enough, i requested for you and i both, and silently dedicated it to senor rafaw.
(hear this space - will be attempting to get the clip from elcoo for uploading)

day 10 - blink of an eye

2006-03-22T21:56:00.000+08:00

gosh, wednesday passed by so fast!
in the afternoon, chem and myself checked into our friendly neighbourhood aunty facial shoppe for some tlc for our faces. the aunty might be an aunty, but she uses sothys alrite. my face felt sparkling nick after the facial, even if no one else noticed. facial sessions at auntys were also the only time i would be listening to love97.2fm mandarin radio station - dj billy was on air. chem had some of her boulders unblocked but i think she felt more could be blasted off. anyhow, we returned to chebils place thereafter, hoping to chill by the pool to get a nice tan. but because we know laws like murphys and the carwash, after 10 minutes of chilling by the pool, it was indeed getting chilly and drops of jupiter came a-falling. we packed up and felt like fools. but we re not giving up; we re going to get down there again on friday.

day 11

2006-03-21T00:21:00.000+08:00

dadandmum decided to take a break (a holiday i mean) and within 4 days they booked their air tickets and tour package and left for shanghai. and who says the oldies arent impulsive these days tsktsk :p
so that left us with a weekend of romance, lurrrrve and lots of cleaning and washing up to do. wiped our room dust-free on friday; did the laundry on sunday whilst senor rafaw tried his hand at mopping the hall and kitchen. gosh, my body is still aching from doing the laundry - handwashed by the way. ahem.
spent time at my in-laws saturday afternoon. by the way, theres a fantastic hongkong serial drama from 430-630pm. but i digress. we decided to check out stadium cove come dinner time and i managed to cajole senor rafaw to try some buttered crayfish. so off to no signboard we went and when the waitress informed that it would cost us about 20 bucks for two crayfish(es?), we decided to order only two crayfish(es) for dinner. we watched the beautiful sun set amidst growling stomachs and it was worth the wait! the crayfish(es) were smothered with deep fried crispy honeyed butter and totally fingerlicking good. but it was not filling either. so we returned to our old haunt at geylang - it was the first place we went to after we got together, oh wait, i mean it was the first place we went to for supper after we got together - and thankfully managed to find a parking lot (whats up with that place? they should just build a huge-a** triple storey parking complex). we weaved our way through to the soyabean king shop and yumyumtumtum (copyright fancyfontaine) - we wolfed down xiao long bao and a you tiao dipped in cold soyabean milk.
sunday - senor rafaws basketball game was cancelled so we headed to great world city to buy jason mrazs tonight, not again live at eagles ballroom 2004 cd and to use the womens secret vouchers. managed to snag a super cute pyjamas set (t-shirt et boxer "clip fun") but nothing else. worse luck at that cd shop. all jason mraz cds were sold out and only the studio cds were going to come in the week after. blergh! my anger was appeased with the heartwarming good food at cedele (again!) - spinach chicken soup and a quarter of senor rafaw's beef burger with sauteed mushrooms in onion chutney. in other news, we bumped into stlin who walked from his home to great world city for gym! and he walks to work and back everyday! returned home early and caught the crowning of the first star idol (grimace). the night got better with pool beating the magpies 3-1. lovely.

a love story

2006-03-19T15:30:00.000+08:00

so we re driving and i say hey, ive decided! lets do damien rice. i mean jason mrazs concert was a blast and we didnt even know all the lyrics of his songs. senor rafaw goes yup checked the website and all tickets except the most expensive are sold out. i shout wot! then how??? senor rafaw mutters er... you want to get the most ex tickets? last i checked, second rows still available... i scream no way! so ex! senor rafaw looks at me cautiously and says but the rest are all sold out my body folds over and i think im going to die senor rafaw utters in frustration oh fine. it was meant to be a surprise but yes, ive gotten us the tickets already. thats why i woke up early that morning the ticket sales started, just to make sure we would get the tickets. fourth row from the back though. you ok with that? my heart almost stops beating and i have to hold it to prevent it from bursting and i think what did i do to deserve this bloke...

mr absolutelysmashinglybrilliant az

2006-03-18T00:08:00.000+08:00

just got back from jason mrazs concert. on a high, and not just on helium.
best line from a fan: "jason! i love you and i both!" (and only mraz fans will get it, heh).
and from his journal -
03.17.2006
Asia is the Jam.
http://www.jasonmraz.com/journal/index.php?idPassed=45
and heres to an awesome night!
(am still struggling to download the sound clip from my mobile to the laptop...watch/hear this space!)
(28th march: chem helped me upload from my mobile and ive finally found a website that could host the music clip {how come there isnt a youtube for audio} and there it is, quality-deteriorated-but-just-as-nerve-tingly found on the 28th march first blog entry)

its sunday - and im still smitten.
more of jason mraz - dug out an old clip from youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ii5kVD95Zg&eurl=

and finally, the straits times review of mrazs concert, albeit a terribly terribly written one:
March 20, 2006Cheeky livewire sizzles
By Corrie Tan
CONCERTMR A-ZJASON MRAZEsplanade Concert Hall Last Friday
IF JASON Mraz ever got tired of singing, one suspects he can go on to be a comedian, given the laughs and exuberant audience interaction he sparked off, at his first ever acoustic concert here for this year's Mosaic Music Festival.
Nudging the sell-out 1,600-strong audience to sing along right from the beginning, he quipped in a coy whisper: 'All the boys sound like girls now - we are one.'
And sing the cheeky livewire did, belting out two hours' worth of songs from his albums - Waiting For My Rocket To Come (2002) and Mr A-Z (2005) - as well as some gems from his unplugged album, Jason Mraz Live (2001).
Kicking off the night with underrated lovelorn ditty Plane, the ethereal voice ebbed and flowed, bobbing into the flawless improvised derivations of scat singing he is famous for.
Even with a spartan set-up of Mraz himself on guitar and close friend- the hulking Toca Rivera - on percussion, there was nary an awkward silence with their easy banter and spontaneous jokes.
'I don't know how he comes up with this all the time,' said Rivera at one point in the show.
They even plunged into an unrehearsed rendition of hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas' Where Is The Love, much to the surprise and delight of fans.
Yet even with the high octane performances where Mraz pranced around onstage - including a particularly spirited moment where he toppled Toca's standing cymbal - there were tinges of melancholy with Mraz's achy vocals on After An Afternoon and Please Don't Tell Her filling the hushed hall.
One must also credit homegrown four-piece band The UnXpected, helmed by guitarist-singer Shirlyn Tan's powerhouse vocals, for setting the appropriate timbre for the concert.
With their dynamic acoustic rock covers, like Dressed In Black, they filled up the opening half-hour nicely.
Certainly, they were as good value for money as Mraz who got two standing ovations and responded with three encore songs.

mid week update

2006-03-16T16:43:00.000+08:00

days fly past when youre having fun. and especially when youre having trouble waking up in the morning, heh.
had a nightmare on monday night (if u have a bad dream when you nap in the day is it called a daymare?). for some unfortunate reason i had landed up with a job at my ex-organisation and i was feeling terribly uneasy and uncomfortable. i recall shuffling around with some files and being introduced to old colleagues who bore the knowing smile. how awful!
had a great lunch at cedele (cranberry scone set) with shyster on wednesday. she had just returned from a 3 week business trip in korea and she was looking fresh. we had quite a bit to catch up on and when she heard of my dilemma, she made me realise how blessed i was to have the luxury of choice and the support of senor rafaw. that i had already taken that step out, paid for it, moved on and now that i was at the threshold of what i had been pursuing, good grief, what was holding me back? if money was indeed so important, perhaps i shouldnt have left in the first place. and even if it was, and is, and would be, i could always turn the car around and head south. but at least i would be able to say id tried, it didnt work out but it was all worth it.
thursday - senor rafaw finally had his soup at the cedele at suntec - carrot and ginger (lipsmackingly delish!); i had roasted tomato basil no cream (salty!). there had been at least 2 failed attempts to have soup at cedele (novena branch) - always! sold out. spent time in the library looking for guru books on marketing. nada. sheesh.
in other news, had my second therapy session today. have been tasked with some exercises...

weekend blast

2006-03-13T01:07:00.000+08:00

what a blast this weekend.
sat: dim sum lunch at lei garden orchard with good mates balibabe, the chews, jhen, ply, stlin and surprise guest d.. the table was booked under stlins name so predictably stlin was the earliest and he chose the dishes and predictably, the food ordered was top notch (aka no expenses spared) - lobster roll, beancurd pork rib soup (pre-ordered {a day before} by stlin - what can i say!), yam ball, carrot cake, fried shitake mushrooms, har gao, siu mai, har cheong, pork cheong, feng zhao, dao sah pao and the melt in your mouth oh so fabulous egg tart - and predictably, the bill ran up to a whoopee 28 bucks per person. it had been a long while since we all managed to get together and it was really fun catching up (with stlin stealing the headlines once again... heh). it was also balibabes farewell lunch - balibabe will be surfing up to the OC come this wed for a month and half training attachment. awesome! after stuffing ourselves, us, together with balibabe and jhen proceeded to centrepoint macs to continue catching up (i had so much to tell balibabe) - my interviews, my false bravado about my willingness to take an extremely low paying job just to get a leg into the industry, my desperation to get a leg into the industry and how things are never black or white but always grey. the low pay proposed was bad enough, but to read in the news that ntu, nus and smu grads were getting an average 2.5k starting pay made me hit the roof. it just made it all that more difficult. but thank God for mates like senor rafaw and balibabe who reminded me that this was not the be all end all; its just the beginning. i hugged balibabe goodbye cuz i wouldnt be able to send her off cuz i had to see the doc - will be looking forward to her return. senor rafaw and i rushed down to seletar springs to meet up with dadandmum to view a unit. the living room was pretty gloomy and i could see the furniture in the unit opposite. chem and fammie arrived (darling rfh!) and we proceeded to view their newly purchased unit. it was a real beauty. the family living there right now had done an excellent i-d work with an inbuilt wooden mini aquarium and cd shelves. no wonder chem fell in love with the place the moment she walked in. the tricky bit would be to try to re create the look when the family and all movables empty the apartment. mum and us had dinner with chem and fammie and i played with rfh the entire night - reading, dancing, singing, writing and feeding the animals.
sunday - was really chuffed to meet purpy in church. its been so long! we arranged to meet for lunch two weeks from now when the church moves to bishan. senor rafaw and myself went back in time to lorgans (amazing website btw) and we were blown away. beautiful furniture dating from 1930s to 1970s lovingly restored. we also visited the sister store featuring scandy retro furniture. my faves - standing lamp with two orange bulbs, an orange table with black leather chairs trimmed with yellow and a red fabric settee. senor rafaw was enamoured with a 1970s grundig radio and a blue fabric settee. yup! we will probably be going to balestier to look for cheap replicas, when our flat is ready.

cmon ref!*

2006-03-11T00:49:00.000+08:00

did i forget to add that the tickets were given to me before senor rafaw happily left and bounced off to his basketball game?
in other news, im knackered. two interviews this week. drained me enough to over-eat at dinner just now: katong laksa at not-katong-holland-v, which preceded a milky bun from provence at not-provence-holland-v, which preceded super ring(s?) and coke - consumed at the first s league match of the season between safra (2) and home united (1). i think senor rafaw and myself were pretty impressed with the turnout and quality although the key reason for our presence was to see the top referee in asia s.s. (only cuz i cant rem how to spell his name) and the assistant referees in action. and why the sudden fascination with referees one may ask? cuz senor rafaw is now officially a class 3 referee!! phweet phweet! my heart glows with pride.
*nicked from lenz googletalk tag

mr. a-w

2006-03-03T17:12:00.000+08:00

i have in my hands
a pair of jason mraz mr. a-z concert tickets for 17 march @ esplanade
which senor refaw surprised me with in the car
!!!

how small can one get

2006-02-28T15:51:00.000+08:00

"substance hi"
"hi, is this substance living?.."
"yees...."
"i have an enquiry... i would like to apply for a job in your company... who should i address it to?"
"oh! you can email d.... or actually, hold on, ill get the name for you"
...
"hi, what position would you like to apply for?"
"assistant buyer (tentatively)"
"do you have an interior design background?"
"no (confidence going pweeeet..... deflating deflating flat) but imreallyinterestedinthisindustryandihave4yearsworkingexperienceinthegovernmentservice"
"ohhhkay.... you can email it to...."
shrinking shrinking shrinking ...

good food; great company; excellent wine

2006-02-27T00:18:00.000+08:00

6 words to sum up mrsluckys hen night.
there was an excellent spread of baked veges consisting of broccoli and carrots layered on with cheese (m.y.), ribs, clam chowder and sausages (cold storage via yt), tuna handroll complete with dry seaweed wrap (s.e.), mee goreng and fried rice (tze char via soe), japanese jelly (hh), tiramisu with selfmade letterings (nydc via joy), thai salad with fresh sotong (ed) and a wide choice of soft drinks and german riesling (yours truly who thought we had to cook and cant cook for nuts). after dinner, we moved to the living room sofa and we put mrslucky through a gruelling question-and-answer session which tested her depth of knowledge of mrlucky (yt had earlier retrieved the answers from mrlucky). questions ranged from what do you like about mrlucky, how did the relationship blossom (tabloid fav), what is your ideal retirement home, to what most irks you about mrlucky (heheh). the wine helped to relax and mrslucky gave us the full deal - no holds barred answers!. more importantly, mrslucky passed with flying colours; at least 90% of the answers was correct. we were impressed. lets just say senor rafaw and i would probably have failed - in fact im sure we would have cuz we played the game when i returned home and we got most of the answers wrong. the gurls also gave mrslucky a booklet of postcards which we had individually done up (yt did a super pretty job of decorating the booklet and i must confess i thought my postcard entry was quite creative...) and we decided to play spin-the-bottle plus truth-or-truth (the gurls threatened to give me a mean question but it ended up being whats the craziest thing you have done - easypeasy!). it was a brilliant idea cuz by the time the party ended, which was close to midnight, we knew that little bit more about one another (juicy details and/or otherwise) and it was definitely a good bonding session for the dg gurls. i had fun.
the guys took the easy route and settled for seafood at long beach to celebrate mrluckys stag night.
sunday: we went to blade again and i was slightly disappointed to discover that my newly revived skills had slipped a notch. i was struggling to keep my balance even in the pit. senor rafaw finally dragged me out of the pit and i almost fell over when i bladed over a twig. sure i was blading along around bishan park, but half the time i felt as though i was not in control of my blades which was quite unsettling. thankfully the park was cool and empty cuz the safety helmet was very unglam. it was a happy ending to the ordeal - during the last ten minutes or so, senor rafaw decided to hold my hand and we bladed back to the pit, hand in hand, and it was the sweetest feeling.

when dads away

2006-02-21T13:52:00.000+08:00

we are all too knackered to play.
so dad went on his mission trip a coupla days ago. hes coming back tomorrow. and all i have to show are a backache and numb finger joints. but at least most of the laundrys done (thrice) and the backyard, cleaned (twice).
separately, i learnt that you can teach an old dog an old trick - one that it might have forgotten or did not use to be able to accomplish. and no this is certainly not a dog year dog joke. well senor rafaw and myself rushed down on sunday afternoon to bishan park for the 1615 inline skating funstart class, cleverly named so as not to shame the big adults who would be taking the class (hey its just a funstart thingy! just for fun! its ok to sign up!). im pretty sure senor rafaw signed up to accompany me because he was definitely blading around pretty comfortably, helping me get me blades (size 7.5) and protective gear (odour drenched helmet, wrist, elbow, knee; bring your own socks). the last time i put those blades on was more than 10 years ago, and i recall huge ugly water-filled blisters developing on the non-existent archs of my feet and many days thereafter in espadrilles cuz getting my feet into school shoes was just too painful. flat feet! ug-ly! and ive avoided trying blading again the past few years due to my big toes ingrown toenail. now that has been removed (the ingrown toenail, not the toe) i was ready to wear those darned blades and learn how to blade, blisters or not. so i was pleasantly surprised when i found out that the shoe part of the blade was quite soft and comfy and my archless foot did not hurt at all in it (10 years already, they had better improve those shoes right). after 20 minutes of waiting for a group of 6 adults who arrived late to put on their gear (i was taking the opportunity to get a tan), our teacher gerald taught us how to fall without breaking our bones, stand up and not do an involuntary split, lock our blades and move forward. at the end of the hour, slowly but surely, i was moving forward with ease and i was actually enoying it. mighty pleased. hee hee. i think senor rafaw enjoyed himself too and we will probably be going back to blade some time soon.
in other news, we celebrated ahgongs birthday with 2 rolls of popiah, charsiew and taosah paos, sanchengrou and charsiew rice for ahpoh and kopi-o. chems entire family also trooped down and it was fantastic hugging rfh again. im so besotted. on saturday we gathered at mrsluckys place for their wedding briefing and i was really chuffed to see the wedding bulletin which i helped do up turn out pretty. hee hee.
in other other news, i think im a little miffed that i missed the franz ferdinand concert. hmph!

goggle-eyed

2006-02-17T17:16:00.000+08:00

maria full of grace. comme une image/look at me. crash. what a hat trick of our movie week.

end of a chapter, beginning of another

2006-02-16T15:30:00.000+08:00

chanster left for the bund this morning. four friends (and her family) waved her bye at t2, but not before we managed to spend some time having brekkie at macs. strange how us friends hardly knew one another, but brekkie was fun, conversation was flowing, and we were just laughing and making jokes about chansters potential china men and china maids. maybe it was because we all shared chansters brand of quirky humour. and that was probably what brought chanster and each of us together in the first place.
senor rafaw and myself then popped down to kk hospital to welcome the birth of baby erica! it never fails to amaze me how a baby could be inside a mothers womb for 9 months, how baby erica could be inside s.'s womb for 9 months (baby erica had to be induced cuz she was past 40 weeks, anywayz). im just so glad for s&d and im sure baby erica will grow up to be some really attractive indie music lurvin' dudette. i was kind of pensive after that - senor rafaw thought that my maternal instincts were slowly revealing themselves (finally) but i think not; i think im just having pms.

a vow made good

2006-02-15T11:05:00.000+08:00

before

and after

my eyes are closed
he holds my hands and sings

see the pyramids around the nile
watch the sun rise
from the tropic isle
just remember darling
all the while
you belong to me

see the market place
in old algiers
send me photographs and souvenirs
just remember
when a dream appears
you belong to me

and ill be so alone without you
maybe youll be lonesome too

fly the ocean
in a silver plane
see the jungle
when its wet with rain
just remember till
youre home again
you belong to me

with all my heart

2006-02-11T23:12:00.000+08:00

friday - spent more time changing my resume. thanks to fancyfontaine for some much needed help and encouragement in that department (gotta milk that b-school education right). yummilicious combat session with senor rafaw under the good direction of chipmunk! at orchard. yup, you heard me fancyfontaine, chipmunk! senor rafaw was appalled at our taste. had a predictable tasting fish wrap from ljs and then made my way down to ministry of sound for jhens birthday clubbing. it was also time to introduce my new moto jeans to the world! a., ply and myself got our drinks (the usual, vodka lemonade) and headed for pure. good news was when the female bouncer muttered an ok after giving me a once-over. a. then enlightened me that only persons 25 and over were allowed in pure. right. ok, now thats not so good news - i wasnt stopped at all. heh.
but it was worth it and it was pure bliss. no young girlies trying to dress mature; no boys trying to schmooze and chat up real women. and the music. luxurious, soulful disco house. a. and i dared each other to take on the empty dancefloor and when we did, we had such a great time. three of us, having a laugh, dancing away on the empty dancefloor. it took, maybe say 30mins before we were joined by others, but heck, it was our dancefloor, our music, our time. and on that note, there is a strange ministry of sound disease which results in the dancefloors only starting to fill near midnight. the people there are that young (go figure) or need that many drinks to get high. jhen and her frends joined us for a while more before we hip-hopped to smoove. tripping break beats and deep R&B. wicked. after the chews joined us, we tranced to the main arena and i got lost. the crowd was massive (and young) and i lost the crew. i had to sms jhen to pick me up from the toilet. manned by guest dj hed kandi, the arena was pumping but got slightly cheesy when foam bits came a-spouting. it reminded me of the car wash couple of days ago. our legs were giving way so ply and i went to get our second drink. i was dehydrated, ordered an oj, and got slighted. ridiculous and downright rude! but what was more ridiculous was spending an hour waiting in line to claim plys bag from the bag bar. whats wrong with mos. they should have two lines - one for deposit, and the other for claim. my toes were positively going to fall off when ply collected her bag. i came home and was happy to see senor rafaw still up watching the african up finals. penalty shoot out and egypt won 4-2. totally knackered.
sat - inspired by fancyfontaine and armed with her pearls of wisdom on coq au vin, i spent the afternoon chopping potatoes, carrots (very difficult), mushrooms, tomatoes and celery stalks; peeling an onion; seasoning the steak cubes (no msg), oh SHOOT! i forgot to add bay leaves!! - ok am back. added me bay leaves. sneaked a spoonful, no make it two, which senor rafaw and i slurped. oh man, not too bad ash.... hmmm heheh. - and to continue, dumped the whole lot into the crockpot. its valentines afterall.

the irony of it all

2006-02-10T15:11:00.000+08:00

so bubbs and i were emailing and we agreed that the more we worked, the more we wanted to pamper ourselves and spend, which at the end of the day, might amount to more than what we earned (although unlikely for a lawyer like bubbs, but quite possible for say a salesgirl like .. well. anyway).
something else struck me. when i was still employed, i used to really dread mondays, wish the week would fly past, look forward to fridays, totally love saturdays and dread-monday-on-sundays. how things have changed. now, i cant wait for mondays, wish the week would take its time and drag out, still look forward to fridays and saturdays and well, totally enjoy my sundays without caring about monday. sure, its obvious. and its obvious that its utter misery to be dreading life 6/7th of the time (did i get my maths right).
but enuff of my mini rant.

my eyes are hot and sore

2006-02-09T21:59:00.000+08:00

just finished watching the sea inside.

car wash law

2006-02-09T14:45:00.000+08:00

- an alternate version to murphys law: it always rains after you get your car washed.

and my new addiction is

2006-02-07T17:00:00.000+08:00

the ice blended mocha soya from mr bean. yummylicious. even senor rafaw is hooked.
mr bean should set up a cafe and fill it up with beanbags and kidney-shaped tables.

unbelievable

2006-02-07T14:09:00.000+08:00

so i woke up and got ready in time for body combat at orchard at 1030am. its a weekday. its a morning. people are or should be working. but noooooooo. body combat class was packed. whatszup man! where do these people come from. shouldnt they be working. i mean im a temp tai tai but you mean all these taitais live in singapore. ok about half looked like taitais. mid 30s, totally coiffed, fantastic bodies. but the rest! young, employable and working out at calfit orchard at 1030am on a tuesday morning. frig!

london

2006-02-06T16:03:00.000+08:00

friday night: greenday's (why greenday will become apparent later. i was about to nick him phwoar actually) last friday in singapore before he zips back to london to refresh his career after a refreshing 11-month break back in singaland. after dinner, senor rafaw dropped me off at bishan mrt and i took the mrt down to somerset. man, it was buzzing! i didnt know orchard road was celebrating a chinggay dry run and there were floats er floating around. the float i spotted had hot orient chicks singing and dancing to i love rock and roll. what can i say. i quickly smsed greenday to find out where he was - with buddy th drinking at the car park beside music underground. heheh. i joined them and was initially slightly uncomfortable - the canal was foul smelling and there were mozzies. but it was breezy and i was quickly rewarded with a can of erdingers whilst we waited for j. and k. to turn up. so.. music underground. not the place i wanna be seen at but what the heck, at this age, its not that important (i guess) (or maybe not - music underground had the chinese new year fu pasted around the club, with the paper pineapples hanging over the dancefloor and ang pow curtains at the entrance) (but nevermind). uobminivisa entitled me a 10% off which was great! until i found out that meant i wouldnt get a free first drink... which wasnt that great. i was happy to amuse myself with the munchies on the table until greenday took pity on me and paid for my bourbon coke and until tz, who wanted to slush greenday with shots, decided to order sex-on-the-beach (first for me, very good, no pun intended) shots around the table. by that time s., wife of their frend k. (who joined us later), had joined us. and we were having a nice time chilling. until the music turned bad and so we trooped off to rouge. and the first person i bumped into at rouge was ingbanke! it turned out to be her birthday, and she had broken off with her boyfrend who was having trouble fending off and managing his ex-rebound who had threatened to slit her wrists and jump off the building. woeful. greenday graciously paid for our covers (another pal turned up) AND our drinks (i had a vodka lemonade this time, quite strong) AND our food (seasoned mushrooms, calamari, fries and chicken wings). molinas second set was not quite impresso, so we decided to hang around for his third. also greenday had put in a song request for c. in london and it had yet to be played. then, third set, first song: molina goes "and this dedication (muffled, muffled)... in london, uk" and i looked at greenday and he was grinning from ear to ear and calling c. on his mobile. so john went "summer has come and passed the innocent can never last", greenday walked to somewhere quieter to talk to c. two minutes later, greenday re-appeared, his eyes shining. guess what drene.. huh? she dedicated THAT song to me. wot? she knew i was coming to rouge tonight. so she called rouge yesterday and asked if molina could play when september ends for me, first song, third set. this song was playing when c. and i really clicked, in that corner, over there. no. way. no freaking way. and my eyes were shining too. greenday has left for london and will be joining c. there. im so happy for him, for them.
sat night: we decided to give videoezy another go. senor rafaw nearly went mad in the candy store. all the movies that he had always wanted to watch but had not. we borrowed crimson tide, wedding crashers (ok my choice) and the sea inside. senor rafaw educated me on the finer moments of crimson tide, one of his fav movies. i enjoyed myself thoroughly.
sun: went for foot reflex with mum. evening, obtained senor rafaws stamp of approval. bought moto jeans. chuffed! i so love them. chanster and her two frends, both male by the way, came over and we watched the crushing defeat of pool by chelsea at stamford bridge. 2-0. it was not good. heard that a mutual friend w. has just left for london for work. chanster is leaving in 2 weeks time for shanghai.
oh. ive decided its not worth the effort using my bodum coffee drip. fauchons going home.
and oh how i miss london.

fauchon

2006-02-02T15:38:00.000+08:00

and so i have just made my first cup of egyptian mocha using my bodum drip. was over at ches place for an afternoon swim (absolutely lovely) and couldnt resist when i saw the tin sitting pretty on the table. its a gift from her best mate liq who just returned from a trip to paris. and yes i havent taken a sip.

im just looking, im not buying

2006-02-01T18:13:00.000+08:00

reunion lunch with mrheng and balibabe was short, but thoroughly enjoyable (for fancyfontaines record, i had sliced fish soup with thick beehoon add milk). i was excited to hear how mrheng was coping with m&a work in an ibank in hk. on average, he knocks off from 11pm-1am. he got off at 9pm (once) and it felt like a half day. he spends alot of time formatting, formatting, formatting and doing up presentation slides. he can never plan his weekends because he never knows if hes going to get called back to work (it has affected 80% of his weekends so far). hes definitely not in charge of his own time. the moneys good (he just got confirmed within 4 months and received a raise) but hes knackered. totally knackered. "one or two more years (ash: to pay off the loan which he had taken to break his bond) and im off to do real work". im rooting for him.
shopped with mum in the afternoon. had a short chat with fancyfontaine and got an earful (or rather, earlob-ful as the scolding was brief) from her because i couldnt chat longer (dad was waiting for us. now you see why). have narrowed my jeans options to 4. 1 from mango, 1 from topshop moto, and 2 from levis. all close to $100. need senor rafaws second opinion. im just looking, keeps me smiling.

chuffed to bits

2006-01-30T11:55:00.000+08:00

chinese new year turned out better than expected. and not because my expectations were so low that it was entirely possible (and easy) for them to be exceeded.
chinese new years eve: my first reunion dinner with my in-laws. admittedly, i was slightly apprehensive. based on past experiences, senor rafaw isnt exactly the most conversational when seated with his family at the table. nikki was going to be at her paternal grandparents too, which meant that conservation at the dinner table would be reduced to the humming from the tv. so, steamboat dinner was a quiet affair peppered liberally with mils "eat more! have more soup! eat more abalone! kitchen got somemore!" and my "ok mum! thanks mum! alright mum! thanks mum!" to fill in the silences. during dinner, i felt uncomfortable with the silence, burdened yet lacking the guts to say something to engage my psil, and very hot and sweaty. it was only on the way back home that i was enlightened by senor rafaw: "nobody expects you to do or say anything." and it dawned on me that everyone else (inlaws, bil and sil) was happy and comfortable with the silence and that once again, i had put unncessary pressure and responsibility on myself and essentially made myself miserable.
first day: i tried to read the papers and watch tv at the same time, which resulted in a massive giddy spell. i also wanted to puke. absolutely ridiculous! that meant we were too late for church, and i stayed in bed for half the day. thankfully, after a kinpira lunch, the spell dissolved, and i was up and raring to go. we paid a visit to ahma and were pleasantly surprised to find other cousins there. it was great catching up and sharing new year goodies. auntye had earlier bought a $16.90 love letters from bengawan solo and was terribly dismayed to find out that auntyjs, which did not taste too different from hers, cost only $2.90. auntye was bu fu qi and went on to buy 3 tins of those $2.90 love letters. my fine palate could, however, distinguish between the 16.90 and 2.90 love letters and i promptly comforted auntye that the 16.90 love letters were definitely superior to the 2.90 ones. unfortunately, i did not think that they were 5 times better. heh! afterwhich we dropped by to visit ahgong and ahpoh at the home. i was more than pleasantly surprised to find ahgong and ahpoh surrounded by many uncles, auntys and cousins (despite that meant me having to give out ang pows). unclecy had brought his usual chinese new year goodies including cashew nuts and chocky wafers to entertain the relatives. ahgong and ahpoh could not be happier when beynian arrived with her sumptuous spread of prawn fritters, hainanese chap chye, fish maw soup and braised chicken. for the first time in many years of chinese new year celebrations, there was no TV to occupy and all present had no choice but to talk to 0ne another, which was a mighty good thing. i definitely had at least two meaningful conversations i.e. those that went past hows work or hows school with my cousins. evening fell and we proceeded to my in-laws again for the "first night dinner". the steamboat expanded to include a hot plate/bbq, consisting of yi-kiao, fishballs, crabsticks, three types of veges, beef balls, chicken wings, thinly sliced beef, king prawns, abalone, pacific clams, q-bite dumplings, golden mushrooms, fish maw and sotong. senor rafaw cooked the prawns in the steamboat, de-shelled them and slathered them with magarine before putting them on the bbq - all for me. he also bbq-ed the beef for me. they tasted wonderful. although conversations increased only by a bare minimum, i was touched by my mils attempt to please her family with the food (she constantly looked out to top up the raw food and steamboat soup), and infected by her positive laidback style of not letting anything affect her happy mood. i think senor rafaw inherited those eternally-optimistic-nothings-gonna-get-me genes from mil.
second day: chebil got the afternoon off to spend some time alone (they watched memoirs of a geisha - eeks!) whilst b.ryan and rfh spent their afternoon with us. rfh delighted us with her "gongxifacai, hongbaoyigelai" jay chou free-styling. we made her repeat it several times and recorded it for posterity. unclecy arrived and we got ready to head down to t2s soup restaurant for our tuan yuan fan. i used to think how ridiculous it was to go all the way to the airport to hang out (unless ure living 10 mins from the airport) but with kids, its perfectly reasonable to see why. the airport is huge. big. lots of space. kids can run around freely without fear of bumping into another kid. i used to also think how irresponsible and inconsiderate those parents who let their kids run around freely were. heh. our dinner reservation was at 6.30pm and we arrived there at 6.40pm. we waited 5 min for a waitress to appear to notify her of our reservation. i was in for a rude shock when she said "we only give reservations a grace period of 10 min. sorry, you are very late. we have already given up your table. please line up again" (roughly translated from what i understood of her mandarin). the line snaked around the bend and i was turning red. i heard myself utter in mandarin that we were there by 6.40 and waited 5 min for her to turn up at the entrance. but she fluttered her eyelids and pointed to the end of the queue. turning quite desperate, i said please its only 5-10 min, can i see your manager to which she spat xing! not long after, a kind looking lady came out and i explained that we were late, partly because we had to feed the baby (truth was the babys mum had to express her milk ha! but hey its close) and sought her understanding. unclecy gave a frustrated, furious look at her too. it was like a make or break moment. and we made it. the kind looking lady apologised (fantastic service!) and asked us to place our order whilst she got a table ready. i was personally very impressed by soup restaurants service (with the exception of the lady at the door) (although i guess she was just doing her job) (but she didnt have to be so nasty right). soup restaurant had the yu sheng down pat and we thoroughly enjoyed the samsui chicken (chicken dipped in a flavourful ginger sauce and wrapped with fresh lettuce - diy); fried long beans with minced meat; cold dish combination of jellyfish, wanton, prawns with mayo, bak kwa and this seafood thing (i need to find out what it is); fried oyster with mushrooms and vege; sliced fish with spring onions and lotus root soup. we didnt quite enjoy the "prosperity vege casserole" - vegetarian tofu, corn, mushrooms and broccoli and the lacklustre lotus seed dessert (mums white fungus soup sitting in the fridge was way superior) (no she did not force me to say this).
third day: senor rafaw woke up with a runny nose and we spent more than an hour waiting for his turn at the doctors. yes we finally went to a dreadful gp. at least this rmg gp was the least dreadful. hes feeling much better now. we dropped by eugs place for a council gathering - after more than 1-2 years, his place still looks fresh - before visiting auntyr, who fed us with her lot of new year goodies - cashew nuts, pineapple tarts, folded love letters, almond cookies and banana chips - all from bengawan solo. ok maybe not the banana chips. i could see mum was really glad that she could spend some time with auntyr. then the family trooped to chebils place for a home-cooked dinner. directed by sous chef bil, emily whipped up pai kwok wong, vege, pacific clam and fishball soup, mushroom omlette and tomato sauce garoupa. we were suitably impressed. senor rafaw and myself topped off our wonderful evening watching arrested development.
im chuffed to bits. this chinese new year has been exceptional and not just because i dont have to work the next day (although of course i cant deny its huge positive impact heheh). i managed to meet up with many relatives and friends and i have been able to focus on the people and our conversations. as shyster put it "now now". for the past few years, my mind had been on unfinished work whilst talking to people. loser but true.
but the highlight of such a wonderful chinese new year must be the news that fowly is coming home. i cant wait.

finalement!

2006-01-25T16:54:00.000+08:00

after a two month hiatus - due to the potent mix of illness and the extraction of a sliver of my big toes ingrown toe nail, i was finally good to body combat. and man, it was good. no, make that REAL good - due in part no less to senor rafaw who was in combat beside me. my arms ache and ive never been happier.
which gives me the licence to rave about the chinese new year goodies spread out on my table in the kitchen. now that chinese new year has become pretty meaningless - no more mega-scale reunion dinners followed by dog-and-bone/zero point with the couzins, zilch new pink/red coloured frocks, nada home parties and most of all, a demotion to giving out ang pows instead of collecting - the chinese new year goodies have taken centrestage in my chinese new year celebration. past coupla days, after dinner, mum and i have been snacking - a piece of tan teck guan bak kwa (moving on from the completion of our lim chee guan pack) or fragance chicken kwa (gift from mil), followed by an exquisite pineapple golden pillow and/or (depending on the size of dinner) a roasted almond melt-in-your-mouth sugi and/or (depending on the size of dinner and lunch) a crushed-peanuts-enrobed-with-buttery-crummilicious-pastry (regardless of the size of dinner and lunch) (i need to find out what its called in hokkien) (oh, its called kueh mak mur - thanks mum for the translation). those moments have been utter bliss. honestly, the chinese new year goodies that mum buys every year are amazingly fresh and delicious. they are really the best ive tasted so far. we have not opened the love letters (from another seller) and senor rafaw is eyeing mil's cashew sugi from bengawan solo.
in other less tasty but no less meaningful news, had lunch with shyster and tea with catapult. their stories were positive and inspiring. i find myself filled with renewed hope about getting back to work.

metallic mocha

2006-01-25T15:47:00.000+08:00

why i subject myself to nescafe mocha sometimes, like today, i know. moolla. its all about the moolla. and for each day that im not working, i will have to drink metallic mocha. on that note, i analysed that if i were to be paid say 1k/month (to do something that i really like...)(yeah what are the chances heh), i would probably end up with a negative daily p&l, which is equivalent to not working at all. profound analysis annit. pity senor rafaw wasnt too appreciative.
started on another design book. the best tables, chairs and lights. courtesy of my ex-employer. heh. wonder what fancyfontaine and egg are doing with THEIR books.
thanks (or no thanks depending how one looks at it) to skype, fancyfontaine dropped me a line yesterday. all the way from fancy fontaine, fancy that! gosh. guess i do miss some of the times at my ex company. particularly the coffee breaks from 10-1130am and 330-430pm.
rfh is on the nebuliser, again. why are our kids falling ill all the time these days. mummy told me chem and i were hardly ill when we were young. so it must be the childcare air-conditioned environment where 50 kids are lumped to play, eat and sleep together. but if not dumped in childcare, where would they be deposited? with the dearth of good nannies and aging grandparents, there just aint enough quality childcare options. a stay-at-home mum is not an option because surviving on metallic coffee is not either.
i think we need to immigrate and milk government handouts.

sucks

2006-01-23T12:07:00.000+08:00

the feeling, that is. manu 1 pool 0.

big game tonight

2006-01-22T22:29:00.000+08:00

im all revved up man. pool vs manu. tonight. yeeeeaaaaaarrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
watched le grand voyage yesterday. slow moving but compelling in a documentary sort of way. i think alot of the nuances were lost on me. i did shed some tears when the old pop was found dead man. ok i realise im not a good movie critic. NEXT!
then senor rafaw brought me up to mount faber for a short walk that evening. rather, more accurately, senor rafaw, upon my constant pleading, nagging and coercing, drove me to mount faber for a 10 min stroll, roughly 400m, around the knoll top. the view was gorgeous. the setting sun peeped through the clouds, just about enough to illuminate the grassy knoll so that we could still see the different shades of green. hes a real sweetie i tell you. awwww....
we had dinner at the harbourfront food court (not bad) but felt the impending sense of doom for harbourfront when we saw how big and mighty vivocity was going to be.
was inspired by jamie olivers school menu programme.
back to sunday: started my industrial design book. yummy.
more sven-goran eriksson revelations. hes a real ass. if he has any integrity and pride left, he should just step down. eversince he has taken over the reins of the england team, he has produced disappointment after disappointment, both on and off the field. he is a disgrace; he simply does not comprehend the honour and the full responsibility that comes with being the england coach. please step down sven. spare us the blushes.
senor rafaw has delivered me some bad news. wally is, or rather was, sigh, a northen bottle-nosed whale, typically found in the deep waters in the north atlantic off norway and the barents sea, and off northern britain and ireland in the summer. the poor dudette* swum up the river thames two days ago, passed the thames barrier, under many bridges including the westminster bridge and passed the houses of parliament. wally swam close to shore and had to be encouraged to swim into deeper waters to avoid being beached (truth of the matter is wally probably wanted to commit suicide). then the poor dudette* crashed into an empty boat which caused her* to bleed slightly. wallys health took a turn for the worse near the thames estuary. wally the whale died around 7 pm (1900 GMT) just east of gravesend, kent, near the open sea. experts are guessing that wally the whale had not been able to cope with the stressful noise and chaos around her* as well as the pressure of her* own weight on her* internal organs. wallys lungs and eyes might have been damaged in the fresh water too. and heres a pix of wally and a toast to her* courage.

* thanks to senor rafaw for highlighting that wally was without a willy.

peep show

2006-01-20T22:56:00.000+08:00

dinner with raya last night reminded me that our peep show DVD is with fancyfontaine, who is in fancy fontaine. darn!! apparently peep show season ii is now showing in the uk.
had lunch with egg and mr ken at the revamped food floor located on the basement of pacific plaza. concept is a la colours on the bay or whatsitsname at marina square. the dudes settled on this jappo restaurant. not bad, for 7.90 i had a decent katsu don with green tea and a bowl of miso soup. mr ken smashed his laptop screen out of frustration the night before, his knuckles still red and sore from that mindless punch. whilst we had a hearty laugh about his outofcontrol senseless act - hes gonna gotta pay for the repairs - i was stricken with pity (for mr ken) and fear (for myself). the months that led up to my decision to leave drained the life out of me. i almost have a phobia of going to work again.
but i know i must. argh! i think its something i need to overcome.

stuffed

2006-01-19T22:58:00.000+08:00

from another hearty delicious dinner at ps cafe. we ordered a caesar salad for starters, followed by three sets of duck leg redang i kid you not and shared the ginger pudding and banana mango crumble. raya wanted to try the NEW! pear almond and cononut pie but the waiter advised that the crust was not in the best condition. thank goodness! i didnt think we could ingest another dessert. senor rafaw was suitably impressed with both the food and the setting.

babybaby

2006-01-19T11:42:00.000+08:00

wednesday - finally finished my crash course book in design. gosh. i dont rem a darn thing. sheesh.
in other more important news, had lunch with balibabe, jer and becca. jersmiffy is preggers! 14 months! apparently the first thing jersmiffy exclaimed when the indicator showed positive was "jer, its all your fault!" to which jer retorted "im going to tell our baby that" to which jersmiffy promptly spat back "dont u dare!". heheh. when asked, jer said that the baby was not planned i.e. an accident. ok ive been struggling to reconcile this we didnt plan the baby thing (outside of horrendous situations e.g. rape). i mean the fact that two married people are going to get it on without the use of contraception pretty much means that they are prepared for the consequences come what may. or they had better be in any case and dont you tell me that its an accident. but some light was shed when jer explained that the contraception employed was not exactly 99.9% safe i.e. natural contraception. but if its not 99.9% safe, why are you using it unless you are prepared for the consequences come what may. unless... unless your religion forbids articial contraception at which i surrender my case. but only because im having a mind block as memories of a certain pysduck explaining natural contraception to me come flooding back. my mind is paralysed.
beccas also trying (that was my non pc term) for a baby.
and not for the first time in my life since ive gotten married (ok fair enough, i just got hitched) i found myself joyful and excited at the prospect of being preggers and giving birth to a mini senor rafaw.

wanderlust

2006-01-19T00:34:00.000+08:00

tuesday - decked out at amk library. cafe galileos mocha is not good i tell you. diluted. but cheaper than coffeebean and starbucks. what did you think. so there were three young punks sitting beside me waxing lyrical about spain and italy. more accurately, two of them were recommending places to visit and things to try to their friend. their conversation made me sit up when the bloke (who was dishing out advice) said "you have to go to seville. it is the place to go in spain. it has culture, food and the place is like the most happening place (sic) in the south." i think we really had it bad and unfair in seville, no thanks to the drunk celtic fans lying around their puke and trash. fancyfontaine also liked seville. but italy! thats the honeymoon country chosen by S&P. im thinking of tuscany, sun shinning, cool breeze thru my hair, and the scent of freshness. i think the only reason we work to earn money is to travel.

jay wins project runway

2006-01-16T23:41:00.000+08:00

dragged myself up this morning after barely 8 hours of sleep. silly chelks won again. how i ever woke up at 7 sleeping at 1 the night before baffles me. no. how do normal working people wake up at 6 when they sleep at 1 the night before? i try very hard to quash the fear and dread of being employed again.
senor rafaw dropped me off at holland village coffeebean and i succumbed to their membership card. might as well earn beans from drinking and eating there. had a fabulous 2 hours immersed in design before taking off to serenity cove for some foot and neck relief. big relief. afternoon - spent an unbelievable 2 hours reading the papers (how people go thru the straits times in half an hour baffles me - or maybe i need to pick up speed reading).
poor b.ryan was hospitalised for urinary tract infection (ouch!) and rfh came over for dinner. shes noisy man i tell you. singing weird mandarin songs a la jaychou i.e. lots of mumbling. with lots of tall tales about her gorgor and cheche and time in hong kong. absurd. and oh how i missed her!

garibaldi

2006-01-15T18:39:00.000+08:00

and so it was. buko nero was overbooked by "many people ma'am" (i kid u not); oso by "5 tables and we can only call you on saturday to confirm"; and sebastiens bistro was "closed for a private party". whats with singaporeans and their fine-dining habits. tsk tsk. fresh warm foccacia. mozzarella di bufala - buffalo milk mozzarella with vine ripened tomatoes (after an inspired night of watching jamie oliver on tv - rich and slightly crumbly, sunkissed sweetness). fegato d'oca - pan-seared goose liver with red onion jam, dried figs and balsamico sauce (melt in your mouth amazing highness which took senor rafaws breath away). brodetto di aragosta - lobster broth with tarragon (pure lob essence). ravioli di manzo - beef ravioli with porcini mushrooms and cream (safe bet. rich and silky). bigoli al brasato d'anatra - homemade spinach noodles with braised duck (good but uninspiring, poor senor rafaw). pumpkin tortelli (unique and smooth). and they left the best for last. tiramisu (ok, tad soggy, balibabe agreed), some very yummy crepe cannolo (this being NOT a food blog, im not obsessed about detailing the dish alright) and and and... molten lava chocolate cake (the ultimate awesome highness man!!). the bill ran up to a very high. but we already quite high on the chocolate and we just needed to wax lyrical about the foie gras to justify the expense. after all garibaldi is one of the most fab italian fine dining restaurants in singapore ainnit so there.
balibabe and i tossed ideas about us being D-wannabes (DISC personality test, lest one is mistaken) despite being Ss. but maybe we are Ds, but were "reduced" to Ss and "infected" with the bad I-traits. anyhow balibabe and i decided we were going to encourage each other to overcome our negative I-traits and exhibit positive D-traits. there would be a quarterly to-do list which we would hold each other accountable to. which brought qingy to my mind and our attempts to encourage and pray for each other. some days ago we made a pact over googletalk to achieve certain tasks for the week.
elsewhere, senor rafaw treated me to estivo gelato, or to be precise peanut buttercup, banana sorbetto and kiwi sorbetto, at greenwood ave, in an attempt to sooth my testy mood. what a sweetie. heheh.
great night - caught our pool game at S&Ps. pool beat spurs with a sweet kewell volley. manu lost to man city (fowlers efforts). poor rafaw was knocked out of his football fantasy european champions cup. but the night belonged to thierry henry. hat-trick in a 7-0 thrashing of borough. im smitten with thierry and want to name our future son thierry. senor rafaw is quite appalled and predicts that our son will only be teased and bullied with chants of "teary" in future. ok maybe middle name then?

ridiculous

2006-01-12T23:27:00.000+08:00

im hungry! very hungry. but its close to midnight and it aint going to do me any fat good to eat so late at night. im hungry cuz i had a bad dinner at leban today - chicken chop with slimy pasta and burnt garlic bread. im not patronising that pasta and grill store anymore; it has run its course. im hungry cuz ive been trawling thru food/restaurant reviews the past hour. after all these years, it has finally become clear to me why fancyfontaine, when we were colleagues, would trudge up to me at 4pm most days, hugging her stomach with coarse whispers of "hungrrrry, hungrrry".
i never knew there were that many blogs in singapore dedicated to reviewing the restaurants in this teeny island. can u imagine the number of london/new york restaurant review blogs? and im trawling these blogs cuz come saturday night, ill be fine dining (hopefully) at one of these, along with senor rafaw and mate balibabe . restaurants in the running include buko nero, oso (incidentally fancyfontaines fav italian restaurant, if i recall correctly) and sebastiens bistro (cuz i wanna try the gelato at greenwood after, incidentally which fancyfontaine often raves about).
last days of freedom diary: spent the entire afternoon cosying up to a regular mocha latte at maju coffeebean, engrossed in design. as english-annie would put it, "its luffv-ly". it wasnt that lovely tho when i found out that the coffeebean pink loyalty card was no longer in use as of dec 2005. i was just two stamps short of a free drink.
ok senor rafaw has gone to take up some fruits to stuff our hungry selves.

itchyscratchy

2006-01-11T16:22:00.000+08:00

im not too sure why im actually doing up another post. this blog was meant to be a response to senor rafaws blog (which incidentally is often not updated, hence only one other entry in my blog). mebbe its cuz ive been reading too many blog entries - written by people that i know, and dont. ive been drooling of late too, whilst reading a particular mates blog, with her recently relocating to fancy fontaine. i would advise no one reads her blog - she tortures the reader with details of all things delicious in fancyfontaine topped with a mouth-watering sunrise. but back to me. might as well do a blog to count down my last days of freedom and of doing what i want to do each day.
yesterday was comfort food day, all day. we started lunch with KFC (original thigh) and cheesy fries. followed by huge slice of an awfully chocolate pisang cake. rest. followed with two daily scoops of lychee martini and brandied figs and honey. finished off with xiao long bao and a bowl of yummylicious hot and sour soup from that old peking eatery along neil street (i think) (fancyfontaine brought myself and an excolleague there before; unfortunately it was closed).
i slapped hair removing cream on my calves yesterday and it produced a nasty itch in the evening. i couldnt sleep a wink last night. saw the doc today and man it still itches like crazy. i might actually go to another doc later. which reminds me how irritated i am with gps these days - totally ineffective! argh!

aw!

2005-08-19T15:10:00.000+08:00

call me miffy