Goodbye, One-for-One

It is really a pity.

If you ask me to rate the many western food restaurants in Singapore, I would have given at least a three-and-a-half out of five for Swensen's. To me, Swensen's is always value-for-money with its wide range of selection to cater to meat, vegetable or even pasta lovers. It will always keep you coming for more with its seasonal offering. The warm and casual ambience also rather suits me as I need not dress up to the nines for an enjoyable meal. I can literally tuck in to my baked rice even in my shorts and within 15 minutes from my home. Ahh... what decadence.

Hence, the one-for-one lunchtime special is really good a good bargain dangling in front of its loyal patrons. When it was first launched, it drew huge crowd with long queues a prevalent sights in many outlets. The overwhelming response led to an extension of the offer. Even then, crowded still thronged the much-loved family restaurant.

Before I knew it, even the extended offer was coming to an end. I had only enjoyed the offer twice. There was still so many main courses up for grabs which I had been dying to lay my taste buds on. What had I done all this while?

A pity indeed. How I wished it could be a permanent promotion all-year-round.

Departures

(http://www.mysoju.com/)

I regret missing the movie when it was first shown. It has received raving review when it was first shown in Singapore. My interest was piqued especially when it was a movie about death – a taboo in many Asian cultures.

The male lead was a cellist in the orchestra. When the orchestra was disbanded, he went back to his home-town with his wife. He was attracted by a job ad in the papers recruiting people to help others in their journey. He mistook this to be a job in the tourism industry. He only found that the ‘journey’ referred to a person’s final journey after he was recruited and the job was encoffinture – preparing the dead before placing them in the coffin.

Many were repelled by his job, including himself and his wife. It was only when he saw his boss preparing one of the dead with such elegance and dignity that he understood the importance and meaning of his job. All those who initially were against his job changed their minds when they saw the meaning of his job.

I was moved. It has also changed my perception of death. My respect for those who helped the dead with their final journey grew tremendously. Death is but another phase in life, just like coming of age, marriage and birth. It is only that in this last phase in life, one remains oblivious to and has no control over the decisions being made.

Despite the heavy subject, the movie was felt with humour which lightened the solemn topic without being disrespectful or turning it into a circus. The humour was subtle, such as determining the make-up to be used for a transvestite – male or female or the scene where the girlfriends of a dead Casanova leaving kisses all over his face.

It was the first time that I learnt of the beauty of the cello. In an orchestra, a cello rarely took centre-stage among the string instruments. It often formed the bass with its pitch being lower range. In the movie, cello became the melody rather than the accompaniment. Not only was the low range pitch unboring, it was also more soothing to the ears compared to the higher pitch violin or viola.

The movie is moving in that it creates a dull ache in your heart. This ache stays long in your heart everytime you remember scenes of the movie unlike Korean dramas which leave you teary but often short-term. It also sets you thinking about death without it being too overwhelming and scary. Please watch it if you have the time. I hope you enjoy the movie as well as I do.

P.S. The Japanese name of the movie is "Okuribito".

Saved by an Angel

Having just finished the book by Paulo Coelho on The Valkyries, I could not help drawing similiarities between the book and my personal experience. In the book, it was mentioned that things happened for a reason. Sometimes, such things were the acts or words of our angels. For instance, a person might accidentally left his car keys at home and had to head back home before starting his journey. When he went home, he realised that he had not left any message for his family members about where he would be going. Hence, he then did that and his family could reach him later on. If he hadn't and if he met any trouble later on, no one in the family would know. The forgetting the keys could be an act of the angels to remind you of some important action.

I nearly made a risky investment decision under the 'heat' of the situation. I could not help but feel that my guardian angel was helping me when I forgot to bring my cheque book along.

Many times, we can be lured into a false excitement about the prospect of a certain investment especially when you are among many equally emotionally charged investors. Their irrational optimisim can create an illusion of exaggerated returns. It is during these times that we commit unnecessarily to an investment which may be beyond our risk appetite. During those moments, we ay make impulsive decisions for fear of being left behind.

Initially, I was disappointed when I forgot my cheque book, knowing that I might once again miss the boat. Strangely, my sister also commented that she remembered about the cheque book the same morning but somehow it slipped her mind to remind me. Since I forgot my cheque book, I knew that the trip was only a 'study' trip. It was only afterwards did I realise what a narrow escape I had made. If I had brought my cheque book, I would have committed an irrational decision. I could not help but feel that it was my guardian angel at work and prevent me from jumping into the wagon.

I was thankful for this because at least I did not do something that I would regret subsequently. Missing the boat is better than jumping into a sinking boat.

Nasi Briyani

For the past 2 years I have walked past the stall and been extremely tempted to try its nasi briyani for it smelled so good. For some unexplained reason, I never got to eat it despite this desire and craving.

When I finally took a mouthful, I wondered why I waited to long. The rice was grainy without being too tough. The meat had crispy skin but juicy flesh. It was so heavenly. It came in substantial portion so that it would also fill your stomach unlike some other good food where the serving was miniscule.

Yum yum. Best nasi briyani in Singapore - even better than the well-known banana leaf briyani at Northpoint foodcourt!

Forgotten Language

I nearly wanted to bury my head in the ground. Again.

While having dinner with SM and Jen at AMK, I met one of my ex-students at the deaf school. I used to be a tutor at the deaf school during my university days. To be a tutor, we have undergone crash course in sign language. We also constantly practised in class when we were interacting with our students. After lessons, we also put to practice sign language by learning how to sign a song. The song signing session was usually led by a team of people - different teams and songs each week.

7 years had passed and I truly lost touch with sign language. Even signing alphabets become an issue. Signing alphabets was the most basic way of signing as if you are unfamiliar with certain words, you can choose to spell out the words to the person you are communicating.

When I met this student, he immediately signed to me. It took a long while for me to figure out what he was trying to say. Hence, for simple chit chats on how we were getting on, it took us 15 minutes to get through. Stupid me, I forgot about my mobile phone or I could have easily typed out the message to him on my phone and he could do likewise. It would have been easier than he signing several times to say something to me and I pausing a long while to decide how to reply to him.

I felt so guilty for losing touch, not just with the students but also with the only bridge of reaching out to them. I was one of the worst signers aong the tutors then. I was sure I would still remain the worst signer today. How could I forget one of the most important language I have picked up? How could I also forget all these students whom I once had so much fun with? I felt low for concentraing the last 7 years mostly on work. Maybe it is time I become reacquainted with sign language. Maybe it is time I should do more for the deaf kids.

Gathering of 3 Single Women

It has been ages since I meet up with my closest friends from secondary school days. It has been extremely difficult to coordinate any gathering with our various commitments and schedules all over the place. Now without 6 months’ advance booking, it is almost next to impossible to gather the whole gang.

It has been so long that we are out that I almost forget about how I miss talking about the moon and the stars with them. I have forgotten how much I miss our extended discussion about the latest drama that we are catching. I have also forgotten about the laughter – mostly self-deprecating about ourselves.

We were busy catching up some of the latest developments. We were busy sharing with each other some of our past and future holiday plans. Talking about holiday was a great escapade which allows us to forget about the mundane troubles and to dream. We were also sharing some of our latest interests and career and personal development plans. Of course, we could never leave out any discussion about the latest dramas. For some strange reasons, often our chats were devoted largely to the discussion of some drama plots. This was what happened this time round with “My Queen” (the latest popular Taiwanese drama) taking centre stage. The plight of the 33-year old protagonist was very endearing. The devotion of Lucas was equally touching. Come on, which lady will not be moved by a man who is willing to lay down his life to take care of you?

The hours flew by in between our food and our drinks. Time passed by so quickly when you are in great company.

The Secret Language of Business

I never pride myself to be a perceptive person. Strangely, some think that the higher the IQ of a person, the lower will be the EQ. However, I thought was a good example to prove that this hypothesis is false, ie no correlation between IQ and EQ. I am a walking example that one can also be both low in IQ and EQ.

Being born less privileged, it only means that I need to work harder in order not to lag behind. Isn’t it Einstein who emphasized that 70% of the success is determined by hard work and only 30% is based on innate abilities? Well, do not despair, maybe there is still hope if we work hard enough?

As one of the steps to minimize my blurness especially when dealing with another person, I hope to gain more insights through the book “The Secret Language of Business” by Kevin Hogan. It is not as academic as most books which devote a lot of the pages to quoting theorem from xx professor or yy award winning papers. Hence, it was not as yawn-inducing as other similar books fortunately. It has also cited some interesting facts that have more practical applications.

Some of these interesting facts include that most ladies tend to have their ring fingers at the same length of their index fingers. For most gentlemen, their ring fingers tend to be longer than the index fingers. For ladies who have ‘gentlemen’ fingers, they are likely to be good in Maths. For men who have ‘ladies’ fingers, they tend to suffer from depression more frequently. Another interesting example included sitting on the right of a right-handed person if you wish to calm the person down. This is because when the person look to the right, they tend to activate more of their left brain which is predictive of people feeling more at ease

Most of us know that women tend to read body language better than men. We often attributed to women’s more perceptive sixth sense. This was not without grounds. The reason why women could read body language better than men was because of maternal instincts as the only way to communicate with babies was only through body language.

For ladies who wish to tell your dates that you like your dates, you can send a strong massage by using your eyes. When breaking eye contact, avoid looking side-to-side, at other people or things, or up. When breaking eye contact, look down, defocused and then bring your eyes back up to meet the other person. If you wish to create comfort with your business partner, one way is to mirror the body language of the other person.

This book is an easy read for introduction to the world and importance of body language. However, due to the difference between Asian and Western cultures, some of the examples might not apply so intimately in an Asian context. Moreover, there was also fewer examples of various scenarios in business context as there were generally more paragraphs devoted to general concepts. Notwithstanding it is still a good introduction.

Aromatherapy

I used to dismiss aromatherapy and its effectiveness, thinking that it is one those new alternate medicine that the businessmen had developed to con consumers out of their hard-earned money. Smelling nice could perhaps create a happy mood, but to cure an illness seemed abit far-fetched.

Being a non-practioner, I was open to the different wellness therapies – from music therapy, hydrotherapy to even aromatherapy. Nevertheless, other than the feel good and relaxing factor, I was skeptical their effectiveness as a cure.

Recently, I found myself indulging in aromatherapy more and more. When I select toiletries, a good-smelling one will be preferred over one whose smell is not as appealing. When I feel low and stressed, the tension ebbs with each rub of a sweet smelling shower foam A higher quality sleep can be easily attained with the rubbing of a soothing moisturizer over my tired skin before sleep.

Do I feel I have a stronger stamina or higher immune system with the incorporation of aromatherapy into my daily rituals? Probably not directly. Certainly indirectly.

When I feel less stressed and happier with the lavish use of scent, at least I can more easily achieve inner peace. We all know that maintaining internal balance is one of the keys to longevity. Promoting good quality sleep is also necessary for a more higher productivity at work. Feeling good is the first step actual goodness – the law of attraction.

Go on, when you next feel stressed, try on aromatherapy.

Imperial Treasure Chinese Restaurant

My mum loves the food from Imperial Treasure. There are fewer branches of Imperial Treasure than Crystal Jade Kitchen. We can only satisfy our cravings for Imperial Treasure often only when we are in town. When we happened to drop by Cityhall area, we already knew where we would certainly head for our lunch.

To be frank when the food was served, we were slightly disappointed. We had only stopped patronizing the restaurant for a couple of months but the servings seemed to have shrunk.

The fried pork rib noodles (la mian) whetted our appetites with the springy noodles and the succulent pork ribs. The pork ribs were juicy and fried to golden brown without being too oily. Despite the crispy skin, the meat was still tender. The noodles was springy and soft without being mushy.

The soup dumplings – xiao long bao, were still as soupy as ever. We had to handle the dumplings with care. If we exerted too much force, the skin could break easily. Then the soup contained within the dumplings would be lost. This would then be equivalent to eating wanton noodles without the wanton. The essence of the dumplings lay in the soup.

Soupy rice was something that we tried for the first time. It was made of rice soaked in soup. The rice was still hard and grainy unlike porridge. There was also less soup than porridge. Mixed with vegetables, eggs and chicken, each mouthful of rice would allow one to taste the freshness of the greens, the smoothness of the egg, the tenderness of the chicken and the sweetness of the rice. Ahh….a perfect concoction. It was simply my favourite as I was a lover of soup and rice. This combined the best of both worlds.

Perhaps it was due to a drought of Imperial Treasure for many months, it was truly a satisfying meal.

Thai Express

I am a great lover of Thai food. However, there are very few Thai restaurants in Singapore matching up to the standard of an average stall in a Thai foodcourt. The only ones which I found good in Singapore were only Sticky Rice in Ang Mo Kio Hub and Lemon Grass which used to be at Hereen.

I have tried Thai Express which used to have an outlet at the Esplanade many years ago when Esplanade first opened its doors. I was not particularly impressed thinking that it was slightly overpriced and the quality was mediocre. I have similarly tried Bali Thai at Novena Square once. To be frank, it was way below my expectation.

Recently, Thai Expresss opened a new outlet at the revamped Northpoint. After so many years, the menu might have changed. Hence, I decided to patronise Thai Express despite my reservations. Well, the food certainly looked tantalising from the display. What about the taste?

1) Curry Softshell Crab with Rice

This is the best among the dishes we have. The crab is crispy without being oily. The curry is a little sweet. It would be better if it were spicier.

2) Tom Yam Rice Noodle Soup

The Tom Yam is way too spicy without being sour enough. For people with lower tolerance of spicy food, this is certainly something you should avoid.

3) Pad Thai

Very few pad thai could match up to the standard of Bangkok. This is not exception. The pad thai is too sweet. The pad thai was too oily.

Generally, I will not recommend a repeat visit.

Back To Reality

After so many days of training, I am finally back to reality. Work has piled. Urghh! It is time to bite the bullet and just work.

More Training

For the past 2 weeks, I have been spending at least 2 days on training and this week is no exception. I am at the Serangoon office training for our Business Warehouse system. Training provides a good respite from work and to keep up updated but it can be disruptive if there are work to be done. Again, I have to steal time off training to catch-up on work and to answer queries from the line. Sigh!

Brida

Reading Paulo Coelho books is often a disturbing experience. It is disturbing the sense that it sets you thinking about the greater wisdom of life which we often shelf it aside to make space for more mundane decisions, such as what to eat for lunch and how to spend the weekend. From the Alchemist when one confronts the need to have a dream and to pursue the dream relentlessly to Veronika Decides to Die when we have to confront death.

Brida centres around soul mates, path to spiritual development and faith. Brida was a young girl seeking spiritual path to magic to better understand the meanings of the world and to find her soul mate. She studies from the Magus who practised the Tradition of the Sun and from Wicca who practised the Tradition of the Moon. Through her practise, she also self-discovered new knowledge and wisdom. When she found her soul mate, she would be able to see the light above the left shoulder of his soul mate.

I have extracted some of the more meaningful passages and paragraphs here to mull and ponder upon.

"...each person can take one of two attitudes: to build or to plant. The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day, they finish what they're doing. Then they find they're hemmed in by their own walls. Life loses its meaning when the building stops.

Then there are those who plant. They ensure storms and all the many vicissitudes of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But, unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener's constamt attention, it also alows life for the gardeners to be a great adventure."

Do you want to be a gardener or a builder?

" ...for us each day is a dark night. None of us knows what mught happen even in the next minute, and yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have faith."

Do you have faith?

"And when people think of reincarnation, they always come up against a very difficult question: if in the beginning, there were so few people on the face of Earth, and now there are so many, where did all those new souls comes from?
...
In certain reincarnations, we divide into two. 
...
In each life, we feel a mysterious obligation to find at least one of those soul mates.
...
By taking risks. By risking failure, disappointment, disillusion, but never ceasing in your search for your Love. As long as you keep looking, you will triumph in the end."

Do you believe in soul mates? Have you found your soul mate?

"Sometimes we set off down a path simply because we don't believe in it... All we have to do then is to prove that it isn't the right path for us. However, when things start to happen, and the path does reveal itself to us, we become afraid of carrying on."

Have you spent time destroing paths that were wrong rather than following the right path?

William Blake - "What is now proved was once only imagin'd"

Hence, one should never stop imagination.

"People give flowers as presents because flowers contain the true meaning of Love. Anyone who tries to possess a flower will have to watch its beauty fading. But if you simply look at a flower in the field, you will keep it forever, because the flower is part of the evening and the sunset and the smell of the damp earth adn the cloud of the horizon."

 I hope the above paragraphs and passages have invoked some thoughts and feelings in you.

Free Promotional Treat

To be frank, when we first teased a line manager whom we had worked closely with for a free treat in view of his promotion, we did not expect him to agree to it so quickly. Unlike the less generous people, not only did he agree immediately on the spot, he even set up a calendar invitation for the lunch without any reminders from us. We graciously accepted his invitation even though we were feeling slightly embarrassed and guilty for sponging off him again.

Nevertheless, we should thank KL for his lunch and for his generosity.

Chinese Imperial Women

Women living in current era have more freedom and choices than the women of previous generations. Chinese Imperial Women is a summary of the history relating to women in the various dynasties in China.

Some of the more well-known women included Wu Zetian who was the first and only female empress fro the Tang court. To achieve power, she had even killed her two sons so as to ascend the throne. When she ascended the throne, she changed the name to Zhou Dynasty. She reigned for about 15 years.

Yang Guifei was one of the four beauties in China history. Her beauty has caused the downfall of the emperor when he spent all his time with her. She was subsequently ordered to die.

The most ruthless empress was actually Empress Lu from the Han Dynasty. She was the empress of Liu Bang - first emperor of Han Dynasty. She had cut off the hands and feet and removed the eyes of Qi Ji - Liu Bang's concubine when Liu Bang died. While she wielded her power after the passing on of Liu Bang, she installed many of her relatives in important roles in the court. She drove out many of Liu Bang's relatives and descendants. When she died, her family was driven out of court.

The last empress was Empress Wanrou who was the empress to the last emperor of China - Puyi.

The book gave a quick overview of the women in Chinese history. It was an easy and entertaining read.

Pow Sing Kitchen

Pow Sing Kitchen offers one of my favourite Nyonya cuisines. The main kitchen is located in Serangoon Gardens - a few minutes from Chomp Chomp Food Centre. For those who do not lived in the north-east part of Singapore but will like a taste of Nyonya food can drop by the branch at Food Republic - Wisma Atria.

After a shopping trip with my mum and my sister at Orchard Road, we stopped by Food Republic for dinner. Since we had not been to Pow Sing Kitchen for ages, we decided to have our dinner there. From the balachan ladyfingers to the barbecued stingray and the claypot cabbage, Pow Sing had not failed us. The food was sumptuous. 

Hey, I always believe that life is short, so we should not waste our calories on unpalatable food.

Ion Orchard

We were dismissed from class early after we ended our test. On my way home, I decided to drop by the newly opened Ion Orchard to check out this mammoth shopping landmark along Orchard Road.

The concept again resembled that of Orchard Central. Gone were the days where all shopping centres had a large lobby which allowed one to view all the shops from the lobby. There were many shops and the whole complex was pretty maze-like. One could never know what to expect as one turned the corner or travelled up the escalator. Some of the escalators would also bring you to different floors. Hence, while taking escalators, beware or you would end up in a different floor from where you wanted to go.

There were many Japanese eateries at basement 4, some of which were pretty unheard of or were previously only located at one part of Singapore. For eg, one would find the famous bakery along Holland Village - Provence having another outlet here. There were also new eateries selling Hokkaido ice-cream, Japanese burger such as R burgers. The doughnut chain - Dunkin Donuts which had disappeared from Singapore market for some-time made a come-back at Ion.

With this new shopping mall, it would certainly enhance the shopping experience along Orchard Road.

Phew! Passed Test

Phew! I have passed my test. The studying has paid back! At least I would not be a disgrace to be my bosses. Although I was not the top of the class, I was the second among my course mates. The top scorer sat beside me. I wondered if my good results was due to his intelligence rubbing off me - god results by association? Hmm... nevertheless, it was a relief to be able to pass the test.

The Illusionist

Eisenheim was a renowned illusionist who could make trees grow out of soil. He could also make images appeared in the mirror with different actions of the person being reflected. His performances were received with rave reviews. Many were intrigued by how he had managed to perform these stunts. Many sought to find the loopholes to his magic.

When his beloved - Duchess von Teschen was murdered by her fiance, Eisenheim went into despair. He disappeared from the theater for a while. When returned, he brought with him a new magical act - where he could summon spirits whether alive or dead to his stage. This performance attracted many audience who wanted him to summon the dead. During one of the performances when the Crown Prince Leopold - fiance of Duchess von Teschen, went undercover to view this performance. He summoned the spirit of the dead Duchess who pointed out that her murderer was in the audience.

To prevent complications, Crown Prince Leopold ordered the capturing of Eisenheim who disappeared as the spirits he had summoned in one of the shows. At the same time, the murdering act of Crown Prince and his evil plans to usurp the throne was discovered. Leopold shot himself before he was being captured.

The ending showed a spirited Eisenheim racing a horse to a cottage to meet the Duchess von Teschen.

This was an unexpectedly good movie.

3 Year Anniversary

Today marks the third year anniversary of my blog.

For the past 3 years, this blog serves as an outlet for me to freely express my feelings of the moments, the sights I have witnessed and the people I have encountered. It has also been a place where my thoughts become an open book to some of my friends. It registers my transition over the past 3 years.

When I first set it up, it was partly to ride on the technology wagon as well as for me to indulge in one of my favourite past-times - writing. 3 years on, I know I contribute less frequently to this blog than when I first started yet. Yet, its importance as part of my life has never diminished.

Now, when people started to move on to Twitters - a more real time and shorter blog of the thought of the minute and the experience of the hour, I still hold on rather stubbornly to blog. To me, a sentence or two about your thoughts cannot sufficiently capture everything. Given its very instant nature, it also does not provide the opportunity for one to mull through the thoughts before putting down in words. This can lead to easy misinterpretation.

I do not know how long I can keep this blog running. For all I know, this blog may soon be phased out by technology progress. For the day that I am still managing this blog, this will still be my listening ear for pouring out my crazy thoughts or angry grievances. Till the day you are still visiting this site regularly, thank you for being the listening ear in kind.

Chilli Crab - Yum Yum

Crab is something that I have a love-hate relationship with. It is one of my favourite food. Be it chilli crab, crab bee hoon or white or black pepper crab, I love them all. However, it is also one of the messier food which I need to use all my fingers and my teeth extensively in order to have a wholesome meal. For the dainty ladies and the faint-hearted, my word of advice is to avoid seeing my while I am attacking my crab. Moreover, it is also believed to be one of the food with the highest cholestrol. Given my sedentary life-style, consumption of this seafood should be restricted to the minimal.
Since I normally make a scene when I eat crab and crab is something that requires leisure consumption to be enjoyable, packing them back home and eat slowly is the best choice.

The zi char stall in the nearby coffee shop offers value-for-money dishes most of the time, but we have not tried its crab. Suddenly, we had cravings for crab. Chilli crab would go very well with the farmer's bread that we just purchased from NTUC. We packed 2 chilli crabs of a total weight of about 1 kg home for our dinner. 

The crabs did not fail our expectations with their chunky claws, succulent flesh and abundant roe. Soaked in the chilli gravy, I was practically drooling over the crabs. We wasted no time in tucking in immediately. As I savoured the sweet and spicy crab on my soft farmer's bread, I was overcome by a warm sense of bliss. Pleasure could really arise from the smallest things in life. Having a favourite food could certainly brighten my day despite the need to hit the books soon for my test preparation.

Despite it being just 1 kg in total, the 3 of us still could not finish the crabs. Again, not to waste food, we decided to keep gobbling down even when we were immensely full.