Udders Ice-cream

After celebrating Tytus' birthday, the single girls decided that the night was still young, so we adjourned to another place to continue our girls' talk. We decided to avoid crowd and settle on an obscure corner of Novena. The best snack to go with chit chat, updates of our latest development and planning for the next outing would be ice-cream.

Udders ice-cream offered various more exotic flavours such as sour sop, durian, chempelek etc. if you prefer the more conventional flavours, green tea, mango, strawberry and chocolate would be for you. If you wished for stronger flavour, you could try their rum and raisin which had a very strong rum taste which could be slightly bitter and alcoholic for the faint hearted.

Despite it not facing the main road at Goldhill Plaza, it was still packed with people. The patrons ranged from youngsters to yuppies to even families. I never knew ice-cream outlet was such a popular hangout by Singaporeans. With its relatively more affordable price than the more upmarket Swensen's and Haagen Daz, its single scoop was at $3.20. Moreover, the friendly and young crew also made the place rather cosy and welcoming.

If you wish to have a diferent place for your next gathering or date, perhaps you could try this ice-cream outlet instead.

Deception Point

I have been waiting for this book for a long time. In case you are wondering if this is a newly launched book and I was one of those die-hard fans who will order online at the first available opportunity and cannot wait for Amazon to ship over. Sorry to disappoint you. I may be an avid reader but I am way past the age where I will break a leg to attain something. I guess age does mellow people down.

Secondly, although I am not an environmental activist, I do believe strongly in doing my part to save our ailing earth and to prevent the deterioration of global warming. As much as possible, I try not to buy any book. If I want to read something, I will just go over to the library and borrow. I have never had the habit of re-reading a book no matter how much I have enjoyed it in the first place. Maybe I am consumed by novelty and suspense. once, I know how the story will end, it kills the joy of reading immediately.

Deception Point is a Science Fiction cum Mystery fiction by the famous Dan Brown who had raised general awareness of the Musee de Lourve in its Da Vinci Code. If you are familiar with Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and perhaps even the Lost Symbol, you may be lured into the perception that he is only capable of denouncing religions. It is indeed a pleasant surprise when I read Deception Point.

There were no more churches, museums or some symbols. There was only scientists, the Arctic and a meteorite. Similarly, there are powerful figures all having a hand in one of the greatest deception. The question was who was the power house behind this mastermind. What was the purpose of engineering this deception to the whole world of a meteorite which had fossils? Was this a real meteorite? If it was not real, why was the composition different from that of normal earth rocks? If it were not real, what were the insect like fossils?

It ws hard to imagine that all the suspense, the investigation and the fight to survive the killers close to the scientists' heels occured within 48 hours. Dan Brown could often capture alot of details for a storyline that took place within a week. With the fast-paced development, our heart seemed to beat faster with each narrow escape of the protagonists. If you are concerned that science theories were too mind boggling, rest assured that the theories were explained in relatively simple terms. For just like his other books, one of the protagonists was often a non-expert. In order to help this non-expert understand the concept to be able to participate in the fight against treachery, the theories often were conveyed in layman's terms.

If you are tired of chick lit, or would like to try a different subject matter, Deception Point should not disappoint.

Tortuous Yoga Session

Due to ill health recently, I have missed a couple of my weekly yoga sessions. As many of my classmates were fast learner, this yoga class had progressed faster than other yoga classes with more and more difficult positions. These positions were not only a test of stamina, flexibility and also concentration. Mind over matter was certainly not scientific fluff. On a day where there was alot of troubles of the mind, I was likely to give up maintaining a position over prolonged period of time. Moreover, some of the positions that required balancing over an extended period of time was simple with no test of stamina nor flexibility. Yet, to achieve the positions could require a huge amount of concentration.

After a very tortuous session, my muscles ached all over. I experienced difficulty in climbing down stairs. My legs were wobbly. When I breathed abit harder, my chest and stomach seemed to be in stitches. The good thing about yoga was that it allowed stretches of muscles that you did not know exist in the first place.

Hopefully, I would recover from these bouts of pain soon.

Heart-to-Heart Talk with Mentee

My mentee had joined the company for about 3 months before I had chance to have a more informal chat with him on how he was settling into the company. With the frantic pace of working life, most of our conversations thus far was restricted to how to go about getting the work done. Being a fresh graduate with zero permanent working experience, I vaguely recalled working could be rather daunting. This was especially when you were suddenly hit with a cold harsh realisation that studies never adequately prepared you for the working life.

I always believed that such informal talks should be best carried out away from the office. When a person felt relaxed then could they be more open, both in terms of speaking their minds and listening. Given my meagre pay, it was hard for me to bring the mentee to a high class cafe for such talks. The most economical choice was Killiney Coffee Shop.

Fortunately, the mentee was relatively open about his apprehension and some of his feelings about the job. I was surprised that some of what he felt was similar to my initial concerns in my first job. Feeling inadequate when doing assignments and morale affected by close friends who resigned were common concerns. He was pretty appreciative of this gesture of having informal chats which boosted my confidence that I had done the right thing.

I could perfectly understand some of the disappointment faced during work and the insecurities surrounding a new environment and work performance. However, one had to persevere and weather the storms as it was part of personal development and character building. After the initial steep learning curve, working life could also open up one's eyes to a whole new different world.

The Why Are You Here Cafe

This book followed a queer encounter by a man who decided to go on a sabbathical. His decision to avoid a jam led him to a cafe. In the cafe, he met the owner, the helper as well as a fellow diner who shed some light on how life should be. When he flipped open the menu, he was greeted by 3 questions:

• Why are you here?
• Do you fear death?
• Are you fulfilled?

These questions seem to relate to his dining experience or it could also refer to everything in life in general.

The reason for existence led to the purpose of existence. What do people do when they find out the purpose of their existence? Most people will do all it takes to fulfil this purpose. In order to gain greater mileage from your effort, the analogy of a sea turtle was used. A sea turtle might not seem to exert alot of effort when it swam. Yet, it could swim further and longer by learning how to ride with the waves. If the sea turtle was moving away from the shore, it would paddle very hard when the wave was moving away from the shore. However, it would just float along when the wave was moving towards the shore so that it would not exert too much effort going against the flow.

The story that got me thinking for a long time was the story about a businessman going on a vacation and meeting a fisherman. The businessman was very surprised that the fisherman would only catch enough for his own feed per day. He would not fish more despite the abundant supply of fish and ample time. One day, the businessman approached the fisherman to ask if he could and would catch more fish. The businessman proposed to the fisherman to catch more fish and sell the excess to get money for an early retirement. The fisherman was curious on the purpose of the retirement. To which, the businessman replied that with early retirement, the fisherman could then do whatever he wanted, including more time with family, or to fish more leisure. Yet all these finer things in life could already be enjoyed by the fisherman if he just devoted some time a day to fish for what he needed. On the contrary, if he wanted until his retirement to be able to play with his children, his children would have grown up by then and would not want his company. Many people lost their focus and the reason for work after a while. This led to us doing things which we have already forgotten why we were doing it in the first place.

The book also linked the pursuit of wealth to the prevalence of advertisements. The advertisement inculcated in our minds desire for material things to fulfil our emotional well-being, especially happiness. Hence, we worked to buy something to cheer ourselves up. After we bought, we became guilty and had to work harder. As we worked harder, we became depressed and wanted to buy more things to pamper ourselves. This itself became a vicious cycle.

The reason why we feared death was connected to the first question. We feared death when we did not know our purpose or when we knew our purpose but were not doing something. While doing things to get fulfilled, we could meet with obstacles. Passion would help fuel our determination and pave the way as passionate people influence others around them to want to help them achieve their goals. In addition, sometimes the solution can also be as easy as adapting to the situations rather than working against it.

After completing the book, I started to reflect on my life. How I was just like the author of the book wanting an escape and not knowing the purpose of my existence. Maybe I should start searching and do more to fulfil this purpose rather than cruise along each day.

Pizza Hut

I have heard about the Pizza Hut pasta for a long time with its rather aggressive marketing strategy on pasta tasting and guessing. It was hard not to take notice of the new item on Pizza Hut's menu. With a free pizza that my mum got from her insurance company, it was the perfect opportunity to try the pasta.

We were slightly overwhelmed by the Pizza Hut menu. I have not walked into any Pizza Hut restaurant for ages and was pleasantly surprised by the choices from starters to main course that it offered now. Not only was its pizza selection plentiful, its pasta and baked rice also catered to vegetarian, meat and seafood.

Finally, we decided on curry rice and pizza. The pizza was as good as before. It certainly stirred up nostalgia with its familiar aroma and cheezy flavour. The curry rice was pretty spicy. However, the taste was not as rich as the baked rice of Swensen's. Personally, I preferred the baked rice of Swensen's.

It was still a good meal but perhaps I have grown up of Pizza Hut and taste has changed. Despite its wide selection, its taste seems not to have left such as last impression as before.

The Zahir

There are many important lessons that I have picked up from The Zahir which I have extracted for remembrance.

The Concept of Favour Bank
Favour Bank is what a senior management told me to be brownies point. It basically worked on the concept that we needed to do favours for each other. When we offered favours to up-and-coming people, we would be making a deposit in the Favour Bank of others. In future, as we needed favours, we could go to these people for help. Of course, the beneficiaries of our favours could at this juncture refused to return a favour. On the other hand, most would be obliged to return the favour. If they refused the favour, word would get around and no one would offer them favours in future.

The Law of Jante
In a small town of Jante, there were ten commandments telling people how they should behave. The commandments promoted that mediocrity and anonymity were the safest choice. When you are a nobody, you have no impact on others and your work deserved to be praised. When you succeed, you defy the Law and you deserved to be punished. Hence, we are often harsher to the successful people than we are to of the average.

True Friends
Contrary to popular belief that our true friends are those who stick by us through our toughest times, the author believed that our true friends are those who are around during happy times to cheer us on. Our false friends will only surround us during sad times wearing their mourning faces when our sufferings are consolation for their miserable lives.

Best Movie
No movie adapted from book can ever be as good as the book because the best adaptation often happens in the mind. When the movie is adapted, we often feel that it is not as good as the book when the movie differs from what we have imagined it should be.

It is also a difficult book to read, not because of difficult concepts to grasp or bombastic words to mull upon. It is difficult because each paragraph is communicating a message and making us think back on our own lives. We need to pause to reflect if we too fall into some of the common fallacies that the husband or the wife was going through.

If you have the time, I would recommend that you pick up this book. It is indeed a fantastic read.

2 Books by Paulo Coelho

I have read 2 new books by Paulo Coelho recently. Paulo Coelho seemed to be my favourite author of the year. One of the books left me with many question marks on what the author was trying to convey and the other left me many question marks on life.

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept was meant to be a celebration of love - but I was puzzled by the development of the plot and the conclusion. It was one of the hardest book I have read so far. After finishing the book, I was still very baffled by what the author was tyring to emphasise. Was it simply a love story? Or was there some hidden morale that I was blind to?

The Zahir was a book where the plot was simpler to follow with a husband's search for a missing wife. As he progressed in his search, he became more aware of his own dreams, his own weaknesses and how to love. Page after page, through the encounters and character development of this husband, I was also shown to various important life maxims. Strangely, these advices were very fundamental and logical but we often never thought of them at all. Just like many of his other books, The Zahir served as a wake-up call for me to reassess my priorities in life.

Casuarina Curry

It was meant to be a belated birthday celebration for one of my colleagues. We decided to have some Indian food for a change. I never expected the Indian restaurant - well-known for its prata at its main branch along Upper Thomson, to be so crowded.

We ordered diffferent things. Masala Murtabak was a popular choice among us. We then ordered curry to share. The food was surprisingly quite big portion or perhaps the taste was too rich for us to consume too much. In the end, we could not finish the food and had to pack.

Indian food was quite a refreshing change from the normal Chinese, Japanese or Western cuisines. I never expected to enjoy the food so much given that I normally did not take food with to much spices. I would certainly come back for other Indian food in future as it was at a much more convenient location than the main branch at Upper Thomson.

Sci Fiction

It has been ages since I read any Science Fiction. Just like other things in my life, my reading interests also adopted various phases - from fantasy, to Science Fiction to Romance. I concentrated on different genre in different phases of my life. Science Fiction used to be one of my loves when I was in Secondary School - Robin Cook was my favourite author then.

Robin Cook taught me alot about medical conditions including the different types of cancer. Robin Cook stories typically included some mystery but involving some diseases or virus. It was not purely Science Fiction like perhaps Star Trek. Yet, it was the closest I have ever been to reading about Science outside the Science School Textbook. Well, Science was clearly not my favourite subject.

When I recently picked up the book Philip K Dick's Minority Report, I was struggling with the concept despite it being a rather short story. I was completely lost in the description of precogs and how data about the future was extracted from them. The Department where the Police Commisioner Anderton worked used the precog to determine if there was any potential murders to happen. These potential murderers would be detained before the murder dates to prevent the murders from happening. Hence, the town was free from murders for many years, until one day the precogs predicted that the next murderer would be Anderton himself.

Anderton refused to believe it was true and suspected it was a ploy to remove him. He started his own investigation. was predicted to kill someone in one week's time. Was it a wrong prediction by the precog which meant that it would draw public outcry to the entire system as it meant that many innocent persons might have been unduly locked up in the past? Was it a correct prediction that Anderton was to kill someone?

I would keep the plot and the ending in suspense here.

After all, where is the fun in reading a Sci Fi than to discover the ending yourself? Moreover, this is a very short story which took place in the span of less than a week.

Btw, this was adapted to a film starring Tom Cruise.

Making Pancakes

Truly inspired by Julie and Julia, I decided to try my hands on cooking. Well, I am not as ambitious as Julie who aspired to stir up a storm in the kitchen with the 542 recipes of Julia Child. I am truly aware of limits and is a staunch upholder of the concept of professionalism, ie not everyone can be good in everything. Certain things are best left in the hands of the expert.

Having set relatively low threshold as a starting point, I decided to try making pancakes from off-the-shelf premixed packet. Again, it was because I believed in the experts and also to build up confidence. If the food producers can sell those packet premixed pancakes successfully, the recipes had to be well-tested. Gaining confidence in everything we did would be a good way to start.

We took a part of the mixture out and added water until the mixture reached a thick and even consistency. Then the mixture would be poured onto a preheat pan and fried until the surfaced turned slightly brown and the inside was cooked. We tried testing this by sticking a toothpick into the pancake to determine if there was any mixture on the toothpick as we pulled out.

We did not have a stencil to contain the outflow of the mixture on a large pan. Instead of making a few of the small pancakes, we made a big one instead. It was a concerted effort with my mum and sis. My sis and I did the mixture while my mum fried the pancake. Similarly, it was a concerted effort to eat it as well. Despite the not so good looking pancake, it still delicious. With our confidence in the pancake, we could have pancake as breakfast in future. This will be a good alternative to the defaulted choice of bread.

Jurong Point

I never stepped into Jurong Point after I graduated from NTU about 7 years ago. NTU used to be the only shopping centre that we could visit to kill our time while in between lessons. However, being relatively not a very smart person and who craved lots of sleep, most of my free time were spent catching up on my work or sleep. My favourite hangout during those break times were either on the benches outside all the tutorials and lecture theatres or inside tutorial rooms, if I was lucky to find one. My preference was of course the tutorial rooms with proper chairs and aircon and mosquitoes free.

During those times, Jurong Point had already undergone one round of expansion. This time I saw a much bigger Jurong Point with high roofs and so many more shops. At the new wing, I felt like I was transported back in time and across continent to Australia. It reminded me of Harbour Tour in Perth wiht the sun light streaming in from the transparent roof, the high ceiling and the white pillars and structures on the roof. The rather Al fresco Starbucks outlet was also a huge draw among man students.

The numerous eating places with some of the lesser known eating styles and eateries were rather attractive. There were a couple of Western restaurants offering Italian pasta (Olive & Fig and Ambush) and foodcourt style eateries with well-known local names such as Fatty Weng and Japanese restaurants like Botejyu. There were also the ubiquitous food courts such as Banquet and Kopitiam. For those who looked forward to local cafes, there were Old Town coffee and cafes offering Nyongya cuisines.

For boutiques, there were many shops selling fashion and shoes. There were also departmental stores such as NTUC Extra and John Little.

What we foresaw as a short trip became a half day trip with so many to see and walk around. The place could easily occupy us for a long time if you slowly stroll among the many shops. This was indeed a good hangout for people living in the west.

Kranji Farm

I was enticed by the publicity revolving around the Kranji farms, so visiting Kranji farms was definitely part of my agenda when I was on leave. Armed myself with a bus schedule and a list of the farms, I set off on my journey hoping to have a date with the flourishing vegetables and the charming animals. Being not truly an outdoor person, I wondered why I had thought it was a good idea.

I was slightly apprehensive when the bus was late. Then I was more worried when I was not certain where I should alight. If I alight at the wrong stop, then I would have to linger at the place for at least 1 hour before the next bus would arrive.

Looking as the bus zoomed past the many farms, we decided to just choose any farm and alight. I was under the impression that once we alight at eaach farm, there would be at least an information counter, a sales counter for selling the fresh produce and probably some activities to engage to the public. I was hugely disappointed when I alighted at a fish farm to find there no human to talk to. I was only greeted by a dog. Being private property and no visible sign that all were welcome, I retreated quickly back to the entrance in case I was chased by the dog or being prosecuted for trespassing private property. In the end, I had to wait for about half an hour for the bus to pass by again on its loop out.

There ended by farm visit. Totally misadventure and uneventful.

(The only consolation is the ability to see the landscape of Johor Bahru enroute to the farms)

Bakerzin 1-for-1

I have seen the promotion for Bakerzin 1-for-1 lunch main course promotion for some time but it was difficult finding time to go. Come on, few will be able to afford lunch at North Point or Jurong Point on weekday lunch unless you are on leave. Needless to say, the reason I am able to savour such great offers is because I am coincidentally on leave.

Initially, I thought the 1-for-1 promotion applied only to the 3 sets that were shown on their promotion board. Only when we set down did we know that it applied to a whole list of sandwich, rice and pasta main courses. With so many to choose from, we were slightly overwhelmed. It took us about 10 minutes to decide what to eat.

We were pleasantly surprised when we were told that we were also entitled to free flow of bread at their bread counter. We were slightly apprehensive about the size of the main course, so we decided to just have a piece of bread each to try before the main course was served. There was a few types of bread to choose from, including plain baguette, raisins and nuts.

When the main course was served, we were awed by the size of the servings. It was not puny like other restaurants when there was any promotion. In fact, we felt so stuffed after we wiped off our plates that we had to abandon our original plans after-meal for desserts and coffee. The curry rice consisted of a whole chicken tigh and part of the wing. The prawns on the pasta were fresh and succulent. The aglio olio was quite spicy though.

If I ever can spare the time again, I will certainly be back for more.

Quiet Time in Library

It has been a long time since I can spend half a day at the library doing nothing but browsing books and then sitting down to read the book of my choice. For those of you who have never tried this before but have a penchant for reading, I urged you to try this. Reading in the quiet library allows you to focus on nothing except for the book on hand. It is as if we suddenly are lost in the world of the books. Ahh, what a luxury!

For One More Day

Mitch Albom often conducts his moral lessons through the conversations of his main character with others - be it a mentor who is closed to death in Tuesdays with Morries or somehow you met while you are transiting from life to death in Five People You Met in Heaven. Similarly, For One More Day is the conversations that the main character has with his mother when he decided to commit suicide.

He blamed himself when his mother passed away suddenly as he was playing baseball during that day - to fulfil the dreams of his father who had left them since he was young. He did not have chance to bid farewell to his mother. He started to blame himself and lose himself in alcohol. Soon, his wife and daughter also left him. In desperation, he decided to commit suicide.

After the accident, he travelled back to his old town and met his dead mother. He began to have conversations with his mother and started to come to terms with everything.The extra day that he was given by his mother helped answered alot of the unsolved questions in his mind pertaining to his father's sudden departure, his mother's live from then on and including sides of his mother that he was never aware of.

Rather than waiting for this extra day, we should always seize the day for not everyone was as lucky as the man in For One More Day.

Jia

North Korea is closed country which we have heard about but where the rest of the world were curious especially when there were some unpleasant news associated with the country recently.

This book by Hyejin Kim narrated the life story of Jia - a North Korean girl who grew up in the mountains, escaped to the city and later became a talented dancer. However, when North Korean went through famine and more and more people died of hunger, she decided to escape to China. For her, she met a Korean decendant who had since settled in China. He saved her from prostitution and sheltered her from North Korean agents. She was nearly repatriated to North Korea when she was caught while she was roaming around trying to find friends in China.

As to how true this story was, it was difficult to assess. The culture depicted in North Korea was very different from the one that we were more familiar with in a capitalist world. Caste system determined the opportunity and job that a person in Pyongyang would get. It even determined the rations one would get when disaster struck. Marriages were often determined by whether the other party came from a clean and respected background.

People who attempted to leave the country or did not conduct themselves well risked being tortured, brainwashed and sent to the jails in mountains. These 'delinquents' would not just implicate themselves but their families and friends as well. Hence, many times to prevent implication of families and friends, people who were trying to escape would tell no one.

Crossing the borders to China was only the first step. When they reached a foreign land, more people plagued them. They had no money, and could only hide in the forests for fear of being caught and repatriated where a worse fate awaited them. Many women were sold as wives to the Chinese farmers and risked being ill-treated or sold to the bars and prostitution houses. Even then, they continued to live their lives in fear as they had no proper immigration documentation.

This was a poignant tale. Regardless of the level of truth in this book, it was still a good read - something different from the western fictions that we were inundated with.

Studying for Exams

Studying. I like studying until I have to sit for an exams. Exams can be both a motivation as well as a spoil sport. Sitting for an exam is just like harvesting your crops. Without passing an exams, all studies may be in vain as you may not have truly internalise the concepts. Yet, with exams, the fun of studying has been shaved off. It is like now running a sprint with the sole purpose of reaching the finishing line instead of admiring the enroute sceneries.

After 4 months of being introduced to Lean Six Sigma, the final academic assessment would be over in a week's time. Of course, when I first studied for the test, I committed remembering the theories to short term memory. Now, in preparation of the exams, it was like studying from scratch.

The temptations of taking a break, doing something fun were all around me. I felt trapped having to study when I was supposed to enjoy my 2 weeks' break. Although with my 2 test results, I would have already passed the exams even if I obtained 0 marks for the coming assessment, I thought I should still put in some effort.

Urgh, 600 pages of theories. How long would I take to complete revising them?

Twilight - the Movie

After reading the book, I was very inspired to watching the movie.

The movie was a close adaptation of the book. However, I still preferred the book to the movie. Due to time constraints, many of the interesting and funny interactions between Edward and Bella were shortened. For those who had not read the book, these interactions in the movie failed to accentuate the development of the friendship between Edward and Bella.

The book began like a mystery providing little clues here and there from Edward's behaviour, to their quarrels to the speculations of friends which led to the conclusion of Edward as a vampire. With the movie, the shortening of these details brought out the truth of Edward's identity in a rather superficial manner.

There were also less character development of Edward and Bella's families in the movie. The truth behind Alice's conversion to vampire, the relationship between Bella and her father and Bella's male school mates' attraction to her were not fully illustrated in the movie.

On the whole, I would still prefer reading the book to the movie despite the rather good looking cast.

Yakuza Moon

All memoirs seemed to be involved some tragedies relating to the author. Few of them had some happy tales to share. It seemed like they were all reminders of the other readers to cherish what they had. The experiences served as a deterrence to all on the consequences of any wrong decisions.

Yakuza referred to gangster in Japan. Shoko was the daughter of a gangster. Money was not an issue during her childhood but ostracism was due to her father's occupation. Such stigma threw her to rebellion. She quitted school young and played with drugs. She tried speed and got herself addicted. It did not help that the guys that she hang around with were either married or abusive.

When her parents passed away, that was when she decided to turn over a new leaf. She decided to pursue her dream of becoming a writer.

It was yet another coming-of-age book. Her story might prove inspirational to other delinquents who had strayed at one point in time. It was also a good book for learning a little about the Japanese culture. The abusive behaviour of her partners also served as an alarm bell to the women who at one point in time met with violent men but never had the courage to walk away. It was a simple read but it was not as gripping as I initially expected.

MacRitchie Tree Top Walk

The tree canopy was beckoning to me. Although I kept telling myself I wanted to go there and see for myself, somehow I procrastinated going there. Finding the appropriate company was one thing. Finding the time to go was another. I knew, even these sounded lame excuses to me.

Well, the two weeks break would be a good time to go. I had no reason to put it off further. Moreover, with a 2 weeks' break, I should have more than enough time to recover even if I suffered any muscle aches or any sort of injury. Not that I was being pessimistic but with some blurness, the tendency of some form of injury was not hard to imagine.

I did some research on how to get to the place and the trail. The shortest and less challenging route was via Venus Drive off Upper Thomson Road. However, as this route was not near the main entrance, I was concerned if I could even locate the trail in th first place. Hence, I decided that it might be easier for me to enter from the main entrance.

The trail from the main entrance was one of the longest where one way trip would take about 5km. A two-way journey tof 10km would take about 4 to 5 hours. I estimated that if I started at around 9am, I would finish at around 1pm, just nice for lunch. An alternative would be to enter from the main entrance and exit from Venus Drive if I could even locate it in the first place.

I never expected the trail to be so physically challenging with the up-and-down slope. The sunny weather also meant that it was very hot walking around searching rather diffidently for the Tree Top walk. Surprisingly, we took a shorter time than our estimate to reach the Tree Top Walk. We reached the Canopy in about 2 hours' time.

The Tree Top walk was slightly disappointing because it was the shortest walk among the trail with only about 250m. When we reached the Tree Top Walk, it was close to noon, so the strong sun made it difficult for us to leisurely admire the scenery. We were trying to complete the wobbly walk, both from our tired legs as well as the swaying bridge, in the shortest possible time.

(View from the top)

If you thought the adventure ended here, there was more. in fact, the greatest adventure happened when we were walking out along Venus Drive. We were surrounded by a group of monkeys which looked ferocious. Then we nearly missed our way in the narrow and rather secluded trail which got me abit worried because losing one's way in MacRitichie Nature Reserve was not unheard of. Along the endless walking, we came across a very large amphibian which nearly got us screaming. We hurried away quickly without taking a proper look if it was snake. At this time, we saw a jogger coming along and decided to follow him out of the trail.

(A small river on the way out from the Tree Top Walk to the Ranger Station)

Phew, we finally completed the trail. Despite it being slightly physically challenging, we were so proud of ourselves for completing the trail. However, it was indeed very tiring and I doubt we would want to attempt it a second time.

(A map of the trail)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I had never enjoyed such an entertainment and easy read for a long time. You might have observed from the last few book reviews, many of them were on works of Paulo Coelho or non-fiction such as memoirs. Hence, I had forgotten the thrill of reading a fast-paced, humorous novel.

For those of you who had caught the movie – Twilight would be more familiar about the story than I did. I never watched the movie nor the book until recently. I only knew that it was supposed to be a love story between a human and a vampire. Being classified as a young people’s fiction, I never knew it could be so gripping.

The character building had been vivid as well. Edward, the vampire, was brooding and deep. His swinging moods hid his personal conflict on his friendship with Bella. Bella, the girl who was curious about Edward, was a typical new girl about town. The plot was something that was not day-to-day mundane trivialities. The mystery leading to Edward’s underlying identity and their battle against the tracker were all more fantasy-like and less anticipatory. Hence, you never knew what would happen until you turned the next page.

On the whole, I enjoyed the book so much that I could not stop once I started.

I Eat I Shoot I Post

For the more observant readers, you may have already noticed a new hyperlink under favourite blogs. When you click on “ieatishootipost”, you will be brought the world of good food.

The author of the blog is a doctor who practises medicine and moonlights into food critic. He trawls through Singapore to recommend the best hawker food. This not only helps to create publicity for the hawkers who are good but also provides some options to the foodies. He believes that life is short and we should not waste our calories on non-delicious food.

If you are wondering where next to find some good stalls, this is a must-visit website.

Julie & Julia

How did I spend my first day of freedom? Of course, I must do something which I have not done except during my school days, that is to catch a movie during off-peak hours. The movie of choice? Julie and Julia. Th verdict? It is well worth every cent.

Julie and Julia superimposed the lives of 2 women across 2 eras and their passions for food and cooking. The only link was the recipes of Julia Child in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julia Child - a woman who lived in the fifties and enrolled in the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School when her husband was posted to Paris. From being the worst student in a professional class dominated by male chefs, she excelled to surpass all her classmates in terms of speed and skills. Julie Powell was a government officer who lived in a monotonous life in the Queen's estate with her husband. Her only excitement and therapy of the day were to cook for her husband. To have something that she could do, a sort of adventure and self-challenge, she and her busband decided to use 365 days to cook 524 recipes of Julia Child. In addition, she would share her experience on a blog.

Julie Powell's blog: http://blogs.salon.com/0001399

There were many funny scenes that kept me chuckling from start to end, from Julia Child's practising on chopping onions to her failure to demonstrate successfully the making of an apple pie. Julie's battle with the lobster and her trying to debone a duck were some of the hilarious scenes. The 'picturesque' good food also inspired me to attempt cooking. Maybe I can start with the poached egg.

Julia Child's recipe: http://www.cordonbleu.edu/julieandjulia/Recipes/

For those who love food and for those who love a good laugh, this is a must-watch movie.

Bon Appetit!

Picture from www.wikipedia.com

Good Movie vs Bad Movie

I watched both a good movie and a bad movie over the weekend. One was supposed to be a blockbuster but I was nearly bored to tears despite all the CG (computer graphics). One was a local telemovie but had touched me with its heartwarming plots and detailed character development.

Bad movie - 2 Fast 2 Furious
Despite the good looking cast involving Eva Mendes, the plot was unoriginal with a team of 2 undercovers using speeding cars to help the police gather evidence for a drug syndicate. Being not a car person, the special street racing scenes failed to excite me. in fact, they appeared superfluous.

Good movie - Angels
I am not a fan of Nat Ho as I always thought he sounded funny in the Chinese dramas with his ang-moh-speaking-chinese accent. In this telemovie, he was a delinquent on the edge of going back to crime to solve money problem. He met a senile old man who through his finding of a make-belief doctor helped him steered back from illegal trades.

Despite having no expensive CG, no good looking cast (except for maybe Nat Ho), the movie was gripping and touching.

Mayim Chinese Restaurant

It is a new Chinese restaurant in Northpoint. There are queues outside the restaurant often. My typical Singaporean's mentality kicks in at this point: if there are queues, it must be good. There are so many choices in Singapore, so few will bother wasting time if the wait is not worth the while.

When I saw the menu, it did look promising with its myriad selection from staples to snacks. Feeling somewhat full, we decided to have a variety of snacks and 2 staples to share among the 3 of us.

(Shanghai fried noodles which was slightly sweet with its dark soy sauce)

(Very spicy vegetable and meat dumpling - if you have low tolerance for spicy food, take these with caution)

(The roast dick noodles was my favourite)

(The xiao long bao was considerately placed in small aluminium bowls for more convenient consumption)

My conclusion? The food is value-for-money because they are considerably cheaper than the more commonly known Imperial Treasure or Crystal Jade. However, perhaps my palate has gotten too used to these restaurants that I personally still preferred Crystal Jade or Imperial Treasure.

Reliving One of My Passions

After inspired by Dr Pausch's The Last Lecture, I decided to revisit my dreams and passion. What have I enjoyed doing in the past? What kept me happy and calmed me down when my emotional state as in any depressing phase?

Usually, during these times of emotional chaos, there were only 2 options - either I kept myself physically or mentally busy. The former could be achieve by doing something, eg spring cleaning which you might have already heard alot about in the past 3 years. The latter was to read so that I transcended time and location to be devoid of the current, should I say, situation.

Let me think further. What are some leisure activities that have kept me happy?

Sad to confess, I have been pretty much a boring person so that it took me a while to look deep in again on what I liked to do. Then, slowly it came back to me, I like to draw. Since young, I always like to draw. Maybe, this is also partly fueled by my more developed artistic skills than people of my age. I used to represent in drawing competition and it was the one area where I had ever attained some prizes.

People are blessed with forgetfulness. It is the one trait that allows us to move on and to get out of tragedy. However, it is also the same trait that causes us to forget the happier memories. It can also make us forget our skills or our training. The point is I have not drawn for so long that I was at a loss on what to do with the paper and pencil.

After an hour of copying the images in the book which taught on how to sketch, I seemed to make some headway. Please do not expect to be wowed by some artistic works. My sketches were so lacklustre that even I felt demoralised. Where is my perseverence and tenacity? How can I give up so easily? Moreover, isn't practice supposed to make perfect?

(My rather proud onion, in case you have not deciphered it, but my mum dismissed it as not being natural enough)

I continue for another hour by attempting to draw my own still life. All I can conclude was things start to go downhill from then onwards. The proportion was wrong. The drawing was stiff. The shadows appeared superimposed. This was getting harder than I thought. To transpose what you see to what you draw seemed like 2 different exercises. The image was so clearly etched in my mind including how it would look if it were on a black-and-white screen, yet as usual, the hands never quite followed what the brain wanted.

(My super disproportionate perfume bottle. This took the longest to draw because I seemed not able to get both the proportions and the shading right)

Pathetic. Utterly pathetic.

It looked like I would need to go back to fundamentals and start by drawing lines first.

Mishap Hits Home!

Just when I was basking in my start-of-holiday breeze and ready to let my muscles do some 'rock-and-roll', all I could say was things happened quicker than you could plan. WHAM! There went my adept mobility for at least 5 days.

Suddenly, my daily jogging had to be shelf. My tree top walk could only be in my imagination. My swimming in the pool to cool the heat could only be conducted during my shower. I slammed the door right into my second toe on my left foot as I was opening my door to get out of the house for a jog.

Being blurred (you should be used to it by now) and having more-than-retarded slow reflexes, needless to imagine, the impact was far greater than if it were on other persons. Even my reaction was slower than others. It took me more than a minute to realise what happened and stopped the ramping of the door against my poor toe. It took another minute for the pain to hit home. I stooped and cringed but the hurt slowly intensified. When I wanted to hold my toe to check for any broken bones, blood had already started oozing out all around my dislodged nail.

I hobbled to my room to quickly retrieve a plaster over the poor toe. I hated messy scenes especially one involving blood. By wrapping it away, at least the removal of blood from my line of sight allowed me to think more calmly. A cool mind allowed me to reorganise myself, check for any sprains or broken bones. Fortunately, other than the dislodged nail and scraped skin, it seemed that there were no bones broken and no muscles sprained. I could still bend my toe, albeit more stiffly.

What a wrong foot start to a supposedly idyllic 2-week break. Arrggh! Of all times... ...

Count Down to Vacation

It has been 3 years since I have gone on a 2-week break. I am counting down to it. Of course, I was initially hugely disappointed when my overseas vacation plan was derailed. On hindsight, disappointment may be an understatement, devastation may be more apt. I have reached the stage where I equate vacation mean breathing overseas air.

Casting the blown away overseas trip aside, I guess I will use the time I have over the next 2 weeks to relax, to recharge and to find myself. It is not difficult to lose oneself in this mindless monotony of working, going home and more working and going home.

Happy vacation!

10, 9, 8, 7, 6... ...

The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

If you are a reader of this blog, you would probably have come across Dr Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” in Aug 2008 entry. Then, I have given you a peep into the last few months of his lecturer with strong fighting spirit. Now, I hope to give you a more detailed insight into the life lessons from Dr Randy Pausch.

The main life lessons can be broken down into “Achieving your childhood dreams”, “Adventures and lessons learned”, “Enabling the dreams of others” and “How to live your life”. These sections interwove the life story of Dr Randy Pausch with life lessons that he dished out to his readers. While I loved along with the misadventures of Dr Pausch, he also led us to take a more light-hearted approach to the doldrums in life.

The section that I felt most enlightened was “How to live your life”. Just like many other self-help or personal management books, some of the advices can be rather commonsensical. Yet, we are amazed that we always fail to see the obvious.

Don’t Complain, Just Work Harder

Dr Pausch commented that if we took one-tenth the energy we put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, we would be surprised by how well things could work out. I am well-aware of the negative vibes generated but complaints seem to be an everyday affair. I am guilty as charged for complaining the inclement weather, the sardine-packed trains, the inconsideration of Singaporeans and many more.

Looking for the Best in Everybody

How often do we feel frustrated with people? Dr Pausch thought that we felt frustrated because we had not given people enough time. Almost everyone had a good side as long as we kept waiting.

The $100,000 Sale and Pepper Shaker

One of the favourite places of Dr Pausch was Disney Land at Orlando. All his dreams and his happy memories were created at Disney Land. Dr Pausch and his sister once broke a salt and pepper shaker newly purchased during his first visit to Disney Land. It was meant to be a gift for his parents to show their gratitude for the Disney Land visit.

The newly bought salt and pepper shaker broke when it slipped out of Dr Pausch’s hands as he stepped out of the store. Disney Land replaced a new one for him. When his parents learned of the gesture, they constantly brought other people to Disney Land as part of their volunteer work. They had all-in-all spent $100,000 in Disney Land just because Disney Land had replaced a $10 salt and pepper shaker.

Make a Decision: Tigger or Eeyore

Do you choose to be a fun-loving Tigger or a sad-sack Eeyore?

Emotional Premiums

Emotional premiums are paid for not with money but with time. Have you paid your emotional premiums?



Sometimes being so entrenched in the nitty-gritty of life, we inadvertently spend time chasing things that no longer matter to us. We forsake the things that matter in this mindless pursuit. We often take a lot of things for granted until we start to lose them. Dr Pausch’s short but fun-loving life should be inspirational. We should really take a step back and start looking around before it is too late.

Mentoring

When I was first given the assignment to mentor, I looked forward with glee. Maybe when you measure me on technical skills on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, I think I will take the spot of about 6 to 7. If you now place me on the same scale for soft skills, such as leadership. coaching, EQ, etc, at best I will be a 3. Don't take this as me being humble, even though humility is a value that I think we should uphold. I am simply being honest and realistic.

Poor guy, being the chosen one to be my first 'tester', will probably suffer under the rather erratic and unorthodox coaching skills that I am going to apply on him. What to do? With no formal training on mentoring, my unconventional coaching skills will probably be a concoction of the various guidance that I am fortunate to be on the receiving end since the start of career (if you can epithet my job to it).

2 months into this mentoring, the poor guy seemed to have lower and lower enthusiasm and confidence. If this does not mean anything to you, all I can say is maybe you should join me in this acquisition journey of soft skills. His voice became softer. I even detected a slight hint of quivering when he spoke. Notwithstanding my rather retarded sensitivity detector, the alarm within me still went off large and clear. Beep - Bo - Beep - Bo. Have I been too harsh with him?

With the younger generation, they need a different kind of coaching than what we have been bestowed by our seniors previously. They have more fragile self-esteems. They are more idealistic about their career, their ambition and work-life balance. Between the stick and the carrot, the delicate balance is more in favour of the carrot. We are talking about the 'strawberry' generation after all.

The 'throw-into-the-deep-sea-so-that-you-learn-how-to-swim' approach is perhaps too aggressive. The 'you-should-take-initiative-if-I-remain-silent' stance is perhaps too subtle for him to pick up. Maybe the 'strawberry' generation requires more hand-holding. His crushed confidence means that I need reverse the mentoring approach. It is time to introduce more prep talk and more patience - both clearly are not my forte.

Hence, I decided on a heart-to-heart talk with him on some of my working maxims (if I may crown them that). I told him to speak with more confidence. I told him that I espoused independent learning and doing and not spoon-feeding because in work, there was never right or wrong, but different styles. Hence, what worked for me in terms of learning might not work for him. Of course, I could not help but throw in the all-encompassing statement which I was constantly reminded of in my previous job. I told him that being a person placed on fast-track program, he needed to work harder and learned faster than most people. It would be pressurising but the effort put in now would be useful as he progressed in his career. Hence, he needed to learn to prioritise and multitask more than others (one of the reasons for feeling down was because it was quarterly reporting and he had problem juggling normal reporting, shareholders' reporting, business cases and quarterly profit analysis.)

With the prep talk done, I sent him to review the business case again because he had left out some details. Hopefully, I am helping rather than doing him in. My colleagues who overheard the conversation thought I was still not being very harsh. I hope they were right.

Trump 101 – The Way to Success

Maybe you  belong to the camp that Trump is overrated especially after the popular reality TV series of The Apprentice. Maybe you belong to the camp like me who is just intrigued by what goes through the minds of a real estate mongul. What has he done that makes him so successful?

After The Apprentice, Trump has started the Trump University which is a collection of works that share his life and business acumen and practices to others. Again, some of the advice or suggestions are very logical and commonsensical that often sounds easy in theory but difficult in application.

Personally, some of my favourite sections include the section on how to fire a person, how to increase your speed of working. Relative to sectons such as doing something you feel passionately about, the more practical and specfic advice is more relevant.

The Devil and Miss Prym

Another Paulo Coelho's book review. You must be getting sick of Paulo Coelho at this juncture. I hope not. Well, when it comes to reading, I guess sometimes I also have the 'flavour of the month' when it comes to reading 'flavours'. As you may have already guessed it correctly, the 'flavour of the month' is Paulo Coelho's works.

The Devil and My Prym themed around the struggle between angels and devils. Actually, angels and devils exist within all men. Each man can be either an angel or a devil depending on what he or she is going through the moment.

One of the most impressionable stories to illustrate this point included the Da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper. When Da Vinci wanted to find a model for Jesus, he spotted a young artist with an angelic and serene face. The painting took a few years to complete. He painted Judas - the one who betrayed Jesus last. It took Leonardo ages to find the perfect model to exhibit the malicious expression of Judas in that of a beggar. When the beggar took a look at the completed works for Judas was the last to be painted, he exclaimed that he had seen the picture many years ago for he was asked to model for Jesus many years ago. Both Jesus and Judas were the same person but one epitomised the good and the other the evil solely because of the circumstances and experience of the person.

The plot of the story was a simple. A man who met with great tragedy in life. His wife and daughter were kidnapped and killed by arms dealers who wanted to extort the man to help them to get arms because the man held a high position in a weapon company. His wife and daughter were killed by the kidnappers with the weapons made from his company. He decided to prove to himself that all men were fundamentally evil, so he chose a small hunting village of Viscos as the test ground.

The villagers all knew each other very well. Most of them were elderies as the young had left for more opportunities in the city. There was only an orphaned girl - Chantal who worked in the bar. The man struck a deal with Chantal. If she could help him to talk to the villagers so that they conspired to have a villager killed within 3 days, she would get a gold bar. If the villagers killed someone, they would collectively share 10 gold bars. It was a test og greed against morale - a test of good against evil because 'Thou shalt not kill' was one of the ten commandments.

There was inner struggle within Chantal for she longed to have the money to move out of the village to pursue her dreams. There was inner struggle within the man for wanting to carry on with his test. There was inner struggle within the villagers for living wealthily with the guilt of killing someone or poorly with a clear conscience. How would they choose? Which would prevail, angels or devils?

The most important lesson was that everyone had both the good and evil within them. The good and evil struggled each day through all our actions and decisions. There was no difference between a saint and a murderer. The only difference was that the saint could control the evil better and he chose to keep evil in remission.

What is your choice?

Il Mare

Il Mare is a romantic story between 2 occupants of the same house. In 1999, when the lady occupant was moving out of the house by the sea, she decided to leave a letter for the next occupant. However, this letter was transported in time to the first occupant of the house.

From the initial disbelief that they were corresponding across time, they developed a friendship that supported each other through their doldrums. The male occupant had just lost his father to heart attack – a father whom he was estranged from but whom he still held deep respect for. The female occupant had just lost his boyfriend after he went overseas for work and she realized she still loved him deeply.

They taught each other how to be happier – from cooking to taking bus rides to the countryside and taking Viking rides. They had done the same activity but across years. They decided to make a pact to meet 3 years later, but the male occupant did not turn up. Instead, he commissioned the construction of a house he designed at the favourite beach of the female occupant. He dedicated this house to this one true love – the female occupant.
The female occupant was disappointed. When she realized her heart ache when her boyfriend announced his engagement to his girlfriend, she beseeched the male occupant to try to stop her ex-boyfriend from leaving her. However, enroute to the meeting place, the male occupant met with a fatal accident and passed away. This explained why he missed the appointment made 3 years before.

This is the second week consecutively that I watched a love story that transcended over time. Compared the mystery surrounding Secrets, Il Mare was at a slower pace with nicer sceneries. If Secrets were like a novel, then Il Mare would be like a poetry.

Which do I like better? Both, because the same theme actually resulted in different story lines and different feels.

(Picture from http://mysoju.com)

5M Population

It seems only a while ago when the Statistics Department announced that the Singapore population had reached the 4M mark. At that time, I was very concerned how the Singapore public infrastructure could take such a high population. This was especially when I felt like the Singapore trains and buses seemed to be bursting at the seams during the peak hour.

Now, apparently Singapore population has hit the 5M mark. 5M! No wonder, now even during offpeak hours, I could also feel the next person the train severely encroaching on my personal space. When I take the train daily, I feel more and more jittery each day as I take the 30 min journey to work. During the flu season, I feel like I am gambling my health on each of these 30 minute journey.

When H1N1 hit Singapore mid of this year, I thought the safer precaution would be to avoid taking the train totally. With everyone breathing down everyone's neck on the train, the probability of not getting H1N1 might be lower than winning 4D.

I wondered if the speed of the infrastructure upgrade and expansion would ever match to the population growth. In addition, will there be any stop to this population growth?

Falling Sick After One Another

Last week, it was me with my gastric pain, bloated stomach and diarrhoea. This week, it was my mum with headache and flu. Fortunately, our holiday plans were shelved or we were certainly be quarantined at home instead of being allowed to board the plane.

Snacks at Ion Orchard

Now is the lull period of our work cycle for the whole year so we can afford to take a slightly longer lunch than usual. We decided to go and eat the snacks at Ion Orchard.

We had suckling pig (a portion) and takopachi (grilled octopus balls). The suckling pig was so-so. The grilled octopus balls were fantastic. After tasting it, I wondered how I have managed to live with the ones at Taka basement for so many years. Among the 3 of us, we finished about 16 octopus balls.

I was surprised that on a week day afternoon, Ion Orchard B4 could be so crowded.

Paulo Coelho's The Fifth Mountain

Reading Paulo Coelho's books required alot of mulling and thinking. If you read his books solely to get a story, I personally feel that you only getting half of the value of the book. The other half lies in getting some enlightenment over life and philosophy. Some of these morales are not straight in your face, but rather hidden behind the lines. Hence, a thin book can take twice the time to complete. This is also the most enjoyable part of the book.

I like picking out the more meaningful statements that he has included in some paras. These quotes often spring out from the most unexpected twist in the story. Here are some of the quotes that I most relate to from The Fifth Mountain.

Fear exists until the unavoidable happens.

Every human being at some time had some tragedy enter his life. At that moment, God challenged one to confront Him. There would be man who resign himself or man who sought a meaning to existence, feeling that God had been unjust, would challenge his own destiny.

Cowards desire the changed situation to quickly return to what it was before, so that can go on living their own lives and thinking in their customary way. The brave, however, set afire that which was old and, and even at the cost of great internal suffering, abandon everything, including God, and continue onward.

Tragedy offers us a chance to rebuild our lives.

A child can always teach an adult 3 things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all might which he desires.

Bakerzin Cheesecake

I am not a fan of cheesecake. Maybe I am just weird. I am not your typical girl-next-door who simply swoons over chocolates and cheesecakes. Among the so many desserts, chocolates is possibly something that I hate most. I am always ready to swap any chocolate gift. Unfortunately, I have received so many chocolates which still stay in my fridge.

Given a choice of cheesecakes, fruit cakes and chocolate cakes, I will certainly opt for fruit cakes. Boring? Yes, but it beats the other 2.

Maybe cheesecakes are acquired taste. The more you have, the better it tastes. Or I have not tasted declicious cheesecakes before. Gradually, this dislike lessens. Now, I may not be a huge fan of cheesecakes, but I will eat cheesecakes, especially the more renowned one.

Bakerzin is having promotion for its blueberry cheesecake. Now, this is also one of the more tasty cheesecakes. The cheese is creamy but not too rich. The blueberry is sweet but without overempowering the cheese taste. The crust at the bottom is flaky despite my consuming the cake only 1 day after purchase.

Hurry up if you wish to try the cake. The promotion ends end Oct.

Balloon Galore

This is almost an exhibition of balloon sculptures. I wish I was a child and could be allowed to enter this 'underwater world'.

The Painted Veil

If you have chanced upon some of the entries pertaining to book reviews, you might have guessed that I was more of a contemporary fiction kind of reader than a fan of classical novels. Yes, I have read some of the works of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare of Jane Austen when I was younger. Sad to say, I cannot recall much of these works. Neither will I feel compelled to revisit their works.

Among the classics, I so far have not read anything from W Somerset Maugham. The name rang a certain bell but I could not recall where I have seen this name. I mistook Somerset Maugham to be a Nobel Prize winner, but Google results confirmed this misimpression.(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/)

The Painted Veil was quite surprisingly an easy read as the works of a classic writer. The protagonist - Kitty was a simple minded girl who loved parties and dances. She lived in an age where the success of a lady was determined by the husband she was betrothed to. Being the prettier sister, she was pressured to marry the next person who came along when her uglier but younger sister found her suitor. Needless to say, a loveless marriage soon bored the fun-loving Kitty to tears and subject her to other temptations - extra-marrital affair with another married man.

When her bacteriologist husband discovered her affair, the tamed and boring Walter issued an ultimatum. If Kitty could get her lover to marry her immediately, Walter would divorce her. If not, Kitty had to follow Walter to the cholera-plagued China city of Man-fu-tan. Walter, being a better judge of characters than the air-headed Kitty, was very certain that the lover was a self-centred callous man. The lover would never marry Kitty and jeopardise his current family, status and career.

Kitty was certain that Walter was so infuriated by her affair that he set to kill her by bringing her to a death zone when she could not get her lover to marry her or to convince Walter for a change of mind. What started off as a misadventure soon became an opportunity to be reacquainted with her husband as well as her own character building. She was startled to discover Walter's intelligence and compassion towards the sick and destitute. At the same time, she was surprised of her ability to contribute at the home for the orphans and sick.

At this point, if you are expecting a happily-ever-after, maybe a more contemporary fiction will be more of your cup of tea.

Walter soon died of cholera which attacked his low immunity due to overwork. His death was not as accidental as it seemed. Apparently, he had injected himself with the virus. Was it for his own research purpose that he experimented on himself? Or was it a self-destruction with his unreciprocated love? Or did he view his death as a way of freeing Kitty? No one knew.

Kitty was indeed free from her love-less marriage and from a husband whom she never quite got along with. Instead of flocking to her exlover's arms, she decided to leave Hong Kong and went back England to accompany her father.  

It was a simple story. The language was not as archaic as other classical writers. If you wish to cultivate your reading pleasure in classical works, The Painted Veil may be a good starting point. Perhaps I have oversimplified the whole story moral and theme? Being one of the worst literature students ever (I have once only gotten one mark for my Literature test where the one mark was simply sympathy for my pathetic effort), I tend to read things rather literally, at face value. If you gain a different understanding, please share. This is the beauty of reading. Unlike television, you are not just shown in the face of everything that is there with no room for different imagination and interpretation.

Spagghetti - Ma Ma Mia!

For many novice cooks, the Italian pasta is often one of the first culinary experiments that we endeavour. With many of the ingredients that we can buy off-the-racks of our supermarkets, we need not fret as much as some other more complicated dishes that we do not even know the procedures or the ingredients that the recipes were dictating.

Making edible pasta may not be as difficult but making world-class standard pasta will be a different mountain to climb. Don't all chefs always proclaim that the easier the dish, the more difficult it is to make it good? Hence, there is even a show revolving one of the easiest dish - Ratatouille?

After attending a talk in her company, my sister was dying to lay her hands on some pasta to cook us some pasta. Off we went to the supermarket on a Sunday morning to get the freshest ingredients. For the pasta, we decided upon Angela's hair (I was surprised to find that my favourite Macaroni was known as Elbows in Italian pasta). For the sauce, we were getting Prego's tomato sauce. White cream sauce was often too rich for our liking. We decided on a seafood pasta with prawns, squids and mussels.

Well, good work for her first atempt.

The pasta was chewy without being tough. The seafood was delicious. The only area of improvement perhaps lied in the sauce. There was too much and too sweet for my liking.

Hmm, maybe I should try it the next time round.

Mid-Autumn

For once, mid-autumn is on a non-working day. Unlike China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Singapore does not get a public holiday on mid-autumn. It is a bit sad when I receive emails from my overseas offices saying that they will be on holidays while we continue to slog in Singapore. For once, we can also have time to drink our tea, eat our mooncakes and admire the moon.

Too bad, it was drizzling with heavy clouds. So much for admiring the moon. Sigh!

Once I was a Princess

I am not certain the accuracy of this heart-wrenching memoir by Jacqueline Pascarl. The story narrated her less-than-childhood to her abusive marriage. Unlike other novels where we expected happily-ever-after-ending, all was not well for Jacqueline. Her beloved children were kidnapped by her ex-husband and removed from her.

Jacqueline, an Australian, was married to a prince of Trengannu, Malaysia - Bahrin. This started her nightmare. Not only was Bahrin not supportive and patient with her assimilation into a foreign culture and land, he also physically and emotionally abused her. Fortunately, her friendships with some of the ladies of the royal family helped provided friendships.

When she continually been belittled and assaulted, she decided not to return to Malaysia with her kids during her visit of her grandma in Australia. Despite a fierce legal battle to secure custody of her children, she lived in constant fear that Bahrin would take revenge. Her fears were not unfounded. Bahrin took 7 years to plan the kidnap of his children.

Faced with her exhusband's social influence and status in Malaysia and Australian Government's diplomatic concerns, she was hapless in the fight to gain back her children. Till today, she still had not access to her children at all.

The memoir vividly depicted Jacqueline's dysfunctional family during her childhood, her happiness during Bahrin's courtship and her nightmare during her marriage to Bahrin. I was not certain of the degree of accuracy and truthfulness. However, it highlighted a woman's worst nightmare of an abusive husband. many had suffered in silence for many years. The same occurred for Jacqueline. She had time and again forgave her husband. It was only when she thought of her young children, that was when her maternal instinct took charge and she decided to take more drastic measures to protect them and herself.

Secrets

Yes, I am out-dated. I have not qualms confessing that I am certainly most out of touch with movies among my contemporaries. Secrets was the first movie directed by one of the most talented musicians in the Chinese pop scene - Jay Chou. It was his first foray into another area of the performing arts. When the movie was first launched, there was also rave reviews which proved that Jay Chou was not just a talented musician but rather a talented artiste.

With the proliferation of online sites which allowed one to catch up on movies that one has missed when the movies first shown, it was certainly a convenience for people like me, albeit low resolution. No longer would I regret not being able to catch a movie and constantly wondering how the movie is, I can now catch it even if I cannot make it while the movie is screening.

Secrets, on the surface, was a romance story about two young musics student - Ye Xiang Yun and Lu Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu was an enigmatic girl from 1973 who could actually travel in time by playing the song - Secrets, in an old practice room. She travelled to the future in 1999 where she encountered Xiang Yun - a nerdy but extremely talented student. They fell in love with each other, but Xiao Yu knew that it would be hard for them to be together since they were separated by 20 years.

When Xiao Yu travelled back in time, only Xiang Yun could see her. Yet Xiang Yun was not aware of this. Although he found Xiao Yu secretive, he never guessed that he was the only one who could see Xiao Yu until the day of his graduation. That was when truth revealed itself. The day of his graduation was also the day that Xiao Yu passed away from asthma twenty years ago. Can Xiang Yun travelled back in time before the old practice room was demolished to save Xiao Yu?
(http://www.mysoju.com/)

Well, that would be a secret to those who had not watched the movie. Sshh... ...