Jetting off

Yalo dears, I'd be off to Taiwan for the next 8 days, with 2 aunts and a cousin, so yeah, get ready for another smorgasbord of pics and (hopefully) juicy bits when I'm back! Can't lug home steaming bowls of oyster vermicelli or chunks of crispy fried chic cutlets, so let justice be done thru' my trusty Panasonic Lumix. =)

Just hope I wouldn't be smothered by their high-octane election frenzy while there. Pray... for no earthquakes, no sneezy birds straying into my hotel room, and no terrorists exploding in front of me. Pray... for good weather, good health, and some good "peach blossom luck"!

See ya in 8 days time my dears!! Forget me not.. Any request for taiwanese knick-knacks, just drop me a comment, I'd see if I can find some internet kiosks to raid. =)

Let's talk about...

Today, as I stepped out of MRT carriage, this sign stared back at me from directly above the tracks - "Value Life. Act Responsibily".

Must be the recent spate of intentional/unintentional death-on-tracks. People drop shoes on track and courageously going down to retrieve... People read books and unknowingly falling onto tracks... People see oncoming trains and intentionally jumping onto tracks...

Death. It's the ultimate pitt stop for us all. Intentional death by MRT? You'd leave behind a gooey mess of splattered brain and bones for the cleaning aunty to mop... And there'd surely be a jam as commuters evacuate from killer train... But then again, if I am going to say my last goodbye, I probably wouldn't have cared too much.

I am Sam

I just caught the movie "I Am Sam" on tv. It tells about how a mentally-challenged father fought for his daughter's custody.

It was an absolutely humbling 2.5hr ride. The movie showed exactly how human relationships should be. Unconditional love without pretence. Consistent and forgiving. Simple and all encompassing. There are many lessons in there that we, as 'normal people', can learn. The intellectually-challenged are so much more superior in their capacity to love and to empathise.

We doubt, we guard, we spite, we hide, we act, we plot. They cry, they hug, they scream, they clap, they forget. Life is, on many occasions, so much more real and colourful for them that it is for many of us.

Ignorance is sometimes very beautiful.

Pain can be easily forgotten in their child-like world.

Wake up... WAKE UP!

This MTV generation.. If they are my kids and I can physically whack them, I will. Cross my kind goatie heart. I'd give them one (or more) good hard pat, and pull out their toe-nails one by one. Left, right, up, down, centre... I'd shake their wimpsy brains, throttle their maggi necks and bestow them a solid high-pitched screech.

Why oh why are they so myopic... forever seeking instant gratification? so fragile... whining at the smallest obstacle? so defensive... blaming everyone but themselves? so self-centred... the only word in their vocab is "I, me and mine"? so nonchalent... ignorant about societal trends? so disrespectful... not acknowleging the seniors' existence and well-meaning advice? so... everything.

There's an article in today's papers, on how China's young gymnasts have their eye set on the 2008 Olympics. These kids would whole-heartedly train 7 hrs a day, 7 days a week. There are no computers, no malls, no junk food, no distractions. Driven by an overwhelming hunger to succeed, a focused desire to perfect those moves, their only external "motivation" in times of delusion were pep talks by trainers and huge banners encouraging them to "Bear hardship, Strive for the team, Start from less than scratch, Do the utmost to catch up!"

I am beginning to really worry for our little red dot.

May some of those real gems please stand up, please stand up.

Freako Accident

Damn... Stupid UFO..

What a terrible, inconsiderate piece of Unidentified Flying Object... to have come charging from nowhere along AYE and kiss my papa's (relatively) new nissan windscreeen... causing this ugly ~20cm crack that needs a couple of hundred bucks to repair... Lucky didn't break the screen into a million ditzy pieces, otherwise I'd have to add in vaccum costs somemore.

Someone should now come up with this "Belt up your gravel/sand/LPG cylinders/durians/chickens/eggs/newspapers/cans etc etc at back of truck" campaign. Let not a single feather fall onto the roads for it may very well be THE killer litter. Imagine that same gravel kissing a motorist's forehead instead of papa's windscreen.. woah, with that kind of force it had come flying, i think we could have observed a bloody, real-time dissection exercise on AYE..

Eh u, if u are a driver, please belt up everything that can move. Don't even try to sneakily dump things out of window as car cruises. Don't break others' windscreens if u don't want urs broken!

Here's to cleaner and safer roads!

Earth From Above

Yellowstone National Park, USA - look for those tiny human figures on the bridge.

Have you strolled down the sidewalks next to Wheelock Place recently? Saw "The Earth From Above" exhibition by this amazing photographer - Yann Arthus Bertrand? Woah... the pictures (aerial shots done from helicopters) are breathtaking. So intense, so culturally rich, so humbling... now I know why even MM Lee cannot help but feel touched.

Exhibition will be on till mid Jan'06. Bottomline msg is:
1) Earth is a beautiful place and
2) Earth will die if we don't stop destroying it soon.

For naturalists out there, this is a gem of an exhibition.


White Haven Beach, Australia - u wonder if there's really such a place eh.


Uttar Pradesh, India - aren't u glad u got a tap with running water?

Worth a trip lah, but for those of you overseas, maybe here's a website you may wanna check out if interested - http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com

Love The Earth!

KopiTalk

Quiz Time!

See if you are a true blue, heartlander kopi aunty like me. I think in another few years' time, I'd be propping my one leg up as I sip my kopi and watch the sunday crowd stroll by with their screaming kids & bulging bags of marketing...

Kopi-vocab - you're either IN or OUT. Here it comes:

1) tak(4) kiu(2) =
2) ah(1) huey(1) =
3) yun(1) yang(1) =
4) dai(3) ga(1) ho(2) =
5) diao(4) yu(2) =
6) xiu(2) dai(3) =
7) ga(1) dai(3) =

Try it! Unleash ur kopi vocab prowress & provide ur guesses/answers in comments lah.

Winner of the quiz will walk away with... a chance to go kopi-slurping with moi! =)

Its ka-cha time again!!!

Aiyoh, it's like I'm back to JC Prom Nite all over again! Holy cow. =)

Yesterday's our establishment's annual D&D, this time it's at EQUINOX @ Swissotel!! Muahahahahahaha. Not bad eh, but lest you think we are splurging tax payers monies catering to own senseless whims & fancies, let me explain that we are combining our own funds for both Educators' Day and D&D into one, hence the splurge ($100/pax). But what a prom-like nite it was, all the glam dresses, beautiful makeup, walking around tables, posing, non-stop camera-clicking, and high-pitched giggling just like a bunch of pubescent teenagers, with attention barely paid to the plates of sushi maki, mediterranean chicken salads, oriental wild mushroom duck salads, smoked salmon, baked cod fish, braised beef, creamy cauliflower soup, NY cheesecake, mango mousse and yadder yadder...



It's so like Prom. It's funny that we and our kid-clients can actually be so alike. There's indeed a child in everyone of us, still.

Say cheeze. =)

Strategic Planning

You like to play chess? To rack ur brains & decide which soldier to be moved where so as to win the battle?

Hmmm... me, I'm no big expert at strategic movements. Sure, I like to make sure things work out, and work out really well (afterall I'm a huge perfectionist), but I can feel my brain cracking up like those dried up mud floors in drought-striken countries as I wonder & ponder over the fates of some...

I've fried my brains enuf. The rest, I'd leave it to the Heavens. Let the battle be nicely fought & won!

p.s. don't worry if u haven't got an inkling abt what I'm mumbling abt, it's all senseless work talk.

Lelong Kelong

I guess the best part of the trip was, AS USUAL, the eating. Mwahahahahahahaha. Food O' Glorious Food!

p.s. sorry dearest pinksmurffy & frankenfish, i don't mean to aggravate home-sickness.. skip the next few paras if cannot tahan. ;)

Dinner Menu:
- Stir-fried black pepper crabs
- Steamed flower crabs
- Boiled gong-gongs with sambal chilli
- Homemade otah with juicy fish & sotong bits
- Steamed promfet with salted veg
- Stir-fried kailan with carrots & mushrooms
- Steamboat with fresh sliced fish & huge prawns bubbling in naturally sweet broth cramped with cabbage, scallops, mushrooms, corn & chicken...
- Crates of Tiger & Carlsberg
- Mountains of chilled sliced watermelon pieces

Breakfast the morning after:
- Pandan rice
- Fried chicken wings, indonesian-styled
- Grilled hot dogs
- Fried "white-tummy" fish
- Sambal ikan bilis with peanuts
- Homemade sambal chilli
- Fresh juicy cucumbers
- Crates of Fanta Orange & Fanta Strawberry fizz
- Super sweet indon tea & kopi

Snacks:
- Boxes of kueh lapis
- Packs of spicy tapioca chips, banana chips, sotong balls, peanut cookies yadder yadder

Well, food aside, the rest of the trip wasn't as wonderful lah. Besides my uncle & aunt, the kelong owner had also invited others along, and let's just say that the frequency wasn't quite the same lah... Most are just too showy... too loud... too judgemental for me... & i find myself hiding in my crabby shell & burrowing into some quiet corner every now & then. i need to clear my head of social hypocrisy.

But the weather was great. Not a single drop of sky-water. Thank Buddha.



His kelong was huge, with modern ammenities that'd even better our own. He has his own KTV room, theatrette, billard table, table-tennis table, & (*gasp*) seminar room! and all these on top of his three speedboats and 10 guest rooms! I guess I can start to understand why his guests are almost all of a particular kind.. this is not quite the simple, brainless, tanning outing I thought it's going to be.

But well, it's still an experience. BUT next time, I'd pay my own way to a real-er kelong.