Here's an accidental pic which 'Good Fren' has taken on his trip.
Think it's part of a temple ground.

I thought it's a nice shot, so I cleaned it up, along with his other pics.

I drove to Changi Airport right after work this evening.
Had originally wanted to go home to do some laundry before making my way to the airport, but I couldn't make it home in time.
Instead, I took a really nasty 45-minute drive to the airport around 7pm.

Had a quick bite at Breeks Cafe, read a Vogue Mag, and stood around the Arrival Hall waiting for 'Good Fren'.
The pictures in Vogue are really different.
The products in the ads are different.
There were so many celebrities wearing different brands. In fact, the entire mag is celebrities and brands.
2 brands caught my eye.
Zac Posen & Balenciaga.
In the same page, Prada seems crass.

I think 'Good Fren' looks and feels different.
He held my hand as we were walking to the car, and said,"Wah... Like first time holding hands..."
=_=
It's only been 5 days.

We got back and had to feed Blinky his antibiotics.
I crushed the 3/4 tab and drugged his Fancy Feast, while 'Good Fren' attempted to keep Tiger out of the affair.
It was rather surreal.
We spent about 30 minutes coaxing Blinky to finish his Fancy Feast, while Tiger was crying his heart out on the other side of the glass door.

I am still tired.

Hope the weekend will bring some rest.

I had a difficult day. =_=

Brought Blinky to the vet this morning.
I think I made the journey in a trance.
Blinky cried a little in the car. I felt utterly bad about it.

As I was driving, I thought of the vaccination booklet in my bag. It's almost like Blinky's birth certificate.
Blinky will be 9 years old in Oct.
We have had a lot of time together.
Dark thoughts crept into my mind amidst the glaring morning sun.

As I was unloading him off the car, he was totally silent.
He knew something was not right.

The clinic was empty and there were 4 assistants at the counter. One passed me some indemnity form to fill up and told me that they would gimme a call once Blinky was ready to go home.
That would be in the late afternoon.
Told them I couldn't come right away. They said after 6pm was ok too.

The shitty feeling in the stomach started to build up tremendously.

Before they took Blinky away, I went very close to the carrier and said,"Blinky, Good Boy, ok? Mama loves you."
He just stared at me silently.
I almost wanted to cry.

And I walked away quickly.

Amidst an external meeting in the late afternoon, I got a call from the clinic. A calm female voice informed me that 'Blinky is ready to go.'
For a moment, my heart jumped.
'Ready to go' doesn't sound good at all.
Then I realised... Oh... Ready to go HOME!!
WOO HOOO!!!! =))))

After work, I drove excitedly towards the clinic.
The traffic was terrible and I had to make a huge 10-minute detour, and I couldn't find a parking lot in the immediate vicinity.
=_=

The clinic was empty again.
This time only 1 assistant was behind the counter.
I was barely at the counter when I asked anxiously,"Blinky?"

They removed 4 teeth from his small mouth and put them in a resealable plastic bag for me.
He lost 1 canine and 3 others.
Apparently, he will still be able to enjoy his dry Science Diet.
While examining the slightly bloody bag, I tried to imagine Blinky's boh-geh-ness. I felt guilty.

The blood test turned out ok too.
I was so relieved.

Then the assistant asked if Blinky was a friendly cat.
Because he had been rather unfriendly before and after the procedure. The assistant had this look on her face when she said it.

I could imagine Blinky throwing a fit and hissing.
And I felt really really bad.

I wished I could be there, holding him, when they took him out of the carrier and put him on the cold stainless steel table.

I wished I could be there, holding him, when they shaved his front leg and neck.

I wished I could be there, holding him, when they injected the sleepy stuff into him.

I wished I could be there, holding him, when he woke up.

I wished I could be there, instead of spending the day in absurdity.


A storm of emotions.
I feel tired.

Blinky is still groggy.

'Good Fren' will be back tomorrow night.
Finally.

I'm so tired.
..................................

Quite a few people have sms-ed me today about Blinky and all.

Appreciate your kindness and concern.
Apologise for not replying.

I just wanna be alone for a while.

Today is a super sian day.
=_=

Brought Blinky to see the vet.
He needs major scaling and extraction under GA.
So extensive that the vet said Blinky might not be able to chew on dry food anymore.
=_=

The vet also said that Blinky needed a blood test. We had to make sure that the teeth problem was not a symptom of something else. E.g. kidney problems.
=_=

The last time we saw a vet was less than a year ago.
And he was fine, albeit a little on the heavy side.
Nobody said anything about smelly mouths, rotten teeth, kidney problems, nothing...
=_=

I is lousy mummy.
Why didn't I pick this up earlier?
=_= =_= =_=

Blinky was given some antibiotics.
Dr Takashi instructed for Blinky to take 3/4 tab, starting tonight.
I struggled and wasted the 1st 3/4 tab by trying to pry open Blinky's mouth with only 2 hands.
Blinky ended up hissing unhappily. Scratched me in multiple places.
I deserve it.
=_=

Undeterred, I walked out to Cold Storage, bought some Fancy Feast, mashed up the tab and mixed the powdery drug with the canned food. Blinky ate most of it.
Tiger was kpkb-ing coz I locked him in the room so that Blinky could finish the drugged Fancy Feast in peace.
=_=

I is lousy mummy.
I is lousy mummy.
I is lousy mummy.

Lousymummy will be bringing Blinky to the vet 1st thing tomorrow morning. Vet said Blinky would be able to go home in the afternoon, but I wouldn't be able to pick him up coz I would be required at work.
=_=

I is lousy mummy.
I is lousy mummy.
I is lousy mummy.

I've been reading my friend's blog.
Actually, she has like 3 blogs.

• One for herself - This is on her interest aka design.
• One for her baby - She blogs about her baby. And sometimes, blogs on behalf of her baby.
• One with her husband - This is a combined effort. It's a religious blog.

And being a 6-month old + full-time mother, she blogs a lot about baby/kiddie stuff.

Through her blog, I realise that many full-time mothers blog a lot too. And they usually blog about how to feed their offsprings, the best brand of diapers, the latest stroller etc.

So hor... Blinkymummy has decided to join these mothers.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

NAH...

Cool hammock for your favourite baby!!
WOO HOO!!!!

This one also very nice.

The colours are damn funky lor...
The sporty wheels are made for jogging with your favourite baby!!


I is mad.

Blinky's mouth's been rather smelly lately.

I was playing with him just now, when I noticed that one of his canine teeth had some greyish cloudy stuff on it.
=_=

Blinky needs to see the Vet!!

Here I am, after work, a shower, a paper bowl of instant noodles (kimchi flavour) and with a huge glass of red.
Haven't heard from 'Good Fren' for about 20 hours.
He's probably at some formal dinner right now... In a batik shirt!! HO HO HO!!

BTW, he took my digicam... So... I will not be able to take any pics these few days.
i-Weekly has emailed to ask for some pics of our home. Think they are deciding whether to feature it.
Guess I can only give them a reply after 'Good Fren' comes home.

I is too lazy to get real food. So I got my food from the gas station where I fed my car. Bought 2 bowls of instant noodles from the gas station after work.

Strangely, this solitude feels familiar.
Afterall, I did spend 2 years... pining away.
I got quite good at it.
I guess it's like learning to ride a bicycle...
It's unlikely that one will forget how to do it.

............................

Guess what?
Quietly, it has been 368 days since I decided to stop smoking on Thu, 22 Jun 06.

Wow... Time flies...

I must say again...
I smoked for 6 years.
More than 1 huge pack a day for the last 2 years.
Yet... Quitting wasn't as hard as I thought.

Yeah... I've had cravings...
Especially when shite hits the fan... And shite hits the fan very often when you care about lots of stuff.
But it's not difficult to overcome the craving.
In fact, it just takes a couple of seconds... Just think about something else.

I wouldn't pride myself with the money saved coz I'd spend it on wine anyway.
But I'd pride myself for being able to stop when I wanted to.

If you have had the slightest thought recently...
Why not just give it a shot?

At most... You'll just pick up that cigarette again...
No big deal... No big loss...
You were in the negative to begin with... right?

'Good Fren' got out of town today.
=_=

It feels weird without him around.

'Good Fren' and I took a stroll down Singapore River this evening, where we found Mr Raffles standing.

Eh?? So many of him in Singapore?

We took a turn and decided to have dinner at Viet Lang.



On a Friday night, it's surprisingly quiet.
There were only 2 other tables.


Not that we minded the lack of guests. In fact, we were rather relieved, because we drove past Clarke Quay and it looked like a mad house.

'Good Fren' placed the orders.


Top Left to Right:
Salad Roll, Crabmeat with Asparagus & Oxtail Soup
Bottom Left to Right:
Prawn in Coconut, Mussels & Steamed Banana in Sago Cream

We is HAPPY!!! YUM YUM!!


Whilst I was in the loo, 'Good Fren' chatted with the Vietnamese waitress!!!
RRRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRR!!! =_=

She's apparently 'bonded' to Singapore for 3 years because she took a study loan for her Ngee Ann Polytechnic diploma.
When asked whether she would stay after the bond, she wasn't sure.

Erm... I dunno what to make of it...

I guess the 3-year trial period is rather reasonable.

'Good Fren' recently made an observation:


I remember I was surfing some online rubbish when he said it. And his words made me stop to think.

Separately, I read an article off the Economist, titled 'Home Truths About Telecoms', 9-15 Jun 07.
An anthropologist, Stefana Broadbent, with the User Adoption Lab at Swisscom (Switzerland's largest telecoms operator) found the different communication channels perform distinct functions as follows:

• Fixed lines are deemed as 'a shared medium'.
  
• Though owning a mobile makes it easier to connect with others, one spends about 80% of time communicating with 4 other people. Given call-time at much cheaper costs doesn't increase time spent on calls significantly.
  
• Mobile calls are used for last-minute planning/scheduling
• SMSes are used for 'intimacy, emotions and efficiency'.
• Email is for administration and to exchange files.
• IM and internet calls are 'continuous channels'. Always open in the background while one engages in other activties.
  

I think the sum of it all is that while people can get to know more people through the internet, it reduces the chances of engaging with one another in the flesh because of 2 major factors as follows:

(A) Convenience of Communication
As seen above, there are many ways for people to communicate. This renders meeting up in the flesh is the option which requires the most effort, i.e. least convenient.

(B) Lack of Practice
Human interaction requires practice. Interaction in the flesh requires the most practice because one feels the pressure to react immediately to a smorgasbord of signals, i.e. the other's words, body language, facial expressions etc.
It is, in fact, a more tedious exercise, when compared to interacting online, where one can pause and think before responding to an email, sms or IM.

Even phonecalls are avoided these days, because it requires almost instantaneous reaction to the person on the end of the line.
We do not like to deal with the 'awkward silence'. Not even when we do not see the other person's face.

This is most apparent in the office, where people email one another, even when they are located side-by-side.

When I first started work in Yr 2000, I used to call up my mentor in the next cube to disturb her, and we would laugh about it.
But now, such calls are no longer funny. Such calls are so common that they are normal.
It took less than 7 years for such invisible distance to build up between human beings. Try extrapolating this for a few more years.

I bet this alienation from one another will lead to exponential growth of the 'paid interaction' industry.
Today, you have the 1900 chatlines, dating agencies etc. Of course, the oldest arm of this industry, i.e. the prostitution business.
The Maid Cafes in Japan are also good examples of this phenomenon too.

Coming back to what 'Good Fren' said earlier...
We can almost easily understand why one will rather turn to the Internet for advice, rather than ask another human being.

It is because the Internet is always there for you, with its ever-increasing breadth of knowledge, waiting for you to ask your questions.

Most importantly, it will never judge you, tell on you, nor scorn you.


.............................

Singtel got anthropologists or not ah?
I find the marrying of social research and capitalism rather intriguing.

BM: Oi... Do you know that 小白 is here?!!
Colleague: No... You didn't blog about it!

You see... My colleague keeps up with my life via my blog.
=)))



'Good Fren' said I couldn't have any designs on 小白. Literally.
=_=

I had wanted to zhng 小白 a little.
Like... some black swirling patterns in high gloss and matte on part of its sides.
Not exactly flowery patterns. More retro funk.

But 'Good Fren' thinks it will make 小白 look guniang.
So cannot. =_=

But instead... He has been thinking of getting some dials for his dashboard.

I was like... Erm... Do the dials make the car go faster?!!
Then what's the point?!!

RRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!

HUMPH... I go zhng my lougee GETZ!
Think I'd better fix the brakes and the noisy door lock first.
=_=

Hey Look!!
My colour-changing fat cat!!

With his right claws dug into 'Good Fren's shoulder.

While you ogle at Tiger, do check out 'Good Fren's fuzzy hair... Sigh... So hor... I told I had to buy him the Grey Moving Rubber from Gatsby to tame his hair.
I is 'Good Partner'!

But then hor... He insisted that it was an act of support for Takuya Kimura. HO HO HO...



These are the latest flowers. Bought 3 different colours.
Looking at them makes me happy coz they are dumb flowers.

They just stand in the corner and stretch out with their colourful and earnest faces. Always smiling.
Hence... Dumb Flowers... =)))

Eh... Something has been bugging me about this corner.
The photo, the flowers and the huge candle make it seem like an altar hor?

CHOY CHOY CHOY!!!

This morning, while we were wondering about today's programme, we had a funny conversation:

BM: Baby... What are we doing today?
GF: They (his colleagues) are coming over today.
BM: Oh yah... What time?
GF: 4pm.
BM: *stoning... then began to giggle*
GF: What's so funny?
BM: So we will be providing Package A? You will be talking about the hidden wires in the living room, then showing them the bomb shelter and saying 'this is my walk-in wardrobe?! Hee Hee Hee!! Everytime the same... So TOOT!!
GF: =_=
BM: Then I will also prepare Package A for food and drinks.
GF: HAHAHAHAH... Package A...


So what exactly is Package A?

Actually, Package A is a misnomer, because there ain't no Package B... nor Package C...
There is only 1 package and it consists of the following:

1. 1 x Guided Tour around the super small 1 bedroom apartment. This carried out by 'Good Fren'. He starts with the living room, talks about the tv console + hidden wiring, then moves to the bomb shelter aka his walk-in wardrobe, moves into the bedroom + shows the attached balcony, then finishes with the kitchenette and yard area.
2. 1 x Food Platter. This typically contains cheese, dried fruits, fresh fruits, nuts, sushi, kimchi, chocolates, and sometimes baked fish/cake.
3. Free-flowing of Alcohol. Usually wine, but beer and iichiko are also available.
4. If guests do not appear sober, we will offer a wide selection of teas. But this is only served as a sober-up option. Not to be confused with the main course beverage aka alcohol.

The above is complemented with a few hours of chatting.

I think it's been quite enjoyable so far.
But I need to change the menu a little.
If not, repeated guests will get bored.

Any ideas to enhance Package A?
.................................

Btw, one of this afternoon's guests said a first.
He saw Blinky first, then saw Tiger separately. And he exclaimed loudly,

Got up early today involuntarily. *yawn*

Last evening, 'Good Fren' and I went to the Korean Restaurant at Amara Hotel for dinner. Food AND Service are good.
What else can you ask for, right?
Oh... Price is ok too! =)))

After dinner, we saw Ocean's 13.

The style of this movie has lost its effect on me. I think Brad Pitt needs THERMAGE (something which I is rather interested in these days. We will discuss this another day.).

Before the movie started, we saw the trailer for Transformers.

GOSH!!! They retained that Transformer Sound!!

"Tchoo Tchoo Tchoo Tchoo Tchoo... The Transformers... More than meets the Eye!"



When Optimus Prime appeared in the trailer, I sort of exclaimed,"*gasp* OPTIMUS PRIME!!"
As if it was Takuya Kimura or something.
[I think it's because I had an Optimus Prime when I was little. I chose it over a Barbie Doll set when I came in 2nd in class or something...]

Good and Evil.
The Everyday Battle and the Ultimate Triumph.

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!



By the way... Are they gonna speak in the movie?

My mother informs me that, apart from her having a blog, my father has a blog too?!!
FWAH... We is Blogger Family or what?!!

I think we just like to write. Have been this way since I can remember.

Anyway... I visited my father's blog.

Erm... Having known him for the past 30+ years, I haven't really seen any of his works.
Through his blog, I realised that his Chinese is so cheem that I dunno what he's blogging about half the time.
It's like in Shakespearean Chinese or something, you know!!
And his entries are uber uber long... Scroll until go crazy.

'Good Fren' and I spend quite a bit of time reading his entry and admiring his knowledge of Chinese History and Chinese Language prowess.
文言文, you know?!!
My father is weird in his own way.
And ironically, I is proud of him for this. =_=

My mother's blog, on the other hand, is more Gen X-friendly. She blogs about her encounters in the everyday life, family and students in modern Chinese.
Particularly, I like to read her entries on my dying Grandfather. Not because of the fact that my Grandfather is dying...
But because these entries demonstrate my mother's dilemma as a daughter. A Chinese Daughter to be exact.

You know how every parent has to die someday?
And how you deal with it arises from the precedents which you have witnessed?
I am witnessing one right now. Earlier I saw the deaths of my grandmothers from both sides.
And I will continue to learn.

You know what?
I think New Media has shown me another side of my folks. This side which would have been transparent to me otherwise.

You know... I've always been rather amazed by how technologically-advanced my folks are.
They were the 1st pair of people their age to start sms-ing when it first became available. SMS-ing in Chinese somemore.

真奇怪！

I remember chionging as a poor student.
We couldn't buy too many drinks. The cover charge was almost SGD25. A jug cost about SGD60.
We got high on our youth, and drinks in the hostel before we made our way to Zouk.
It's tough to buy enough drinks to get sloshed.
I think once someone contributed this bottle called Black Cat or something... It tasted like sour plum with industrial alcohol. I'm surprised we even managed to wake up the next day.

On the average, for a group of 15 (not that we chiong in such a big number), we didn't spend SGD3,000 per night! That's like SGD200 per person per night on drinks?!! 1 bottle per student?!!
That's crazy!!
Usually... It's just SGD50. At the very very very most, SGD100 for 1 night. And it probably has to be a special occasion like a birthday, made some money modeling, or kena dumped, or the usual... to impress some new chick.

I dun claim to know much about kids today.
But I know many do take study loans for their tertiary education. Computer loan for that laptop.
It's tough enough to graduate in the red with these loans.
One shouldn't be killing oneself with credit card bills from chionging!!

Don't tell yourself it's ok because once you start working, you will be able to pay back in no time.
That's self-deception.

Ok, lemme put it to you in your face:

Assuming you make SGD3,000 (gross) upon graduation.
This is a figure I have gathered from some article on fresh uni grads in the banking sector. I dunno how many fresh grads can make this type of money, but let's just use it for our simulation purposes.

Your bring-home pay after CPF = SGD2,400.

Your estimated minimum monthly expenses are as follows:

• Transport (2.5 mrt rides per day) = 2 x SGD2.50 x 30 = SGD150
• Give parents (10% of nett income) = SGD240
• Food (1.5 meals per day) = 1.5 x SGD10 x 30 = SGD450
• Insurance = SGD200
• Mobile Phone = SGD70
• Clothes = SGD200
• Haircut + other vanity products = SGD100

For the basic necessities, you have blown a total of SGD1,410.
You have about SGD900 left.
If your school fees and computer loans come up to about SGD500 per month, it means you have about SGD400 left.

Remember, this SGD400 is meant to tide you over your lover's birthday, your occasional shopping for big items, someone's celebration in the office (demise of kin, birthday, newborn etc), class gathering(s) at Marche etc. And in the following year, you will have to pay about SGD90 for income tax (assuming no further deductions).

I almost forgot... Some donate a portion of their income to their religious organisation. Another 10%.

Even if you can make ends meet, what about saving for the long term? For that love nest (its purchase price + renovation costs? For that 'BM-thinks-it's-a-waste-of-money' wedding? Oh.. perhaps you intend to 'break-even' for your wedding? Or perhaps... make some money out of your family, friends and colleagues?

Say you manage to save SGD400 per month + all your bonuses (let's assume SGD6,000 in total), you have managed to save about SGD11,000 for that year.
Assuming you save at this rate for the next 5 years... You ought to have at least SGD60,000 in your savings account. (This is without investing your money otherwise.)

Yes... After 5 years of continual work, no expensive holidays, no chionging, very very few big items etc.

Am I being optimistic here?
I do know of people who barely have any savings after working for 5 years.

What's the downpayment for the HDB flat these days?
How about the renovation costs which ought to be in cash, unless you intend to take yet another loan?
And the down payment for the car. Oh... lemme guess... a 10-yr loan to drive away the brand-new Vios at zero down payment and a few hundred bucks for installment per month. Wait a minute.. Have you factored in the cost of petrol, road tax, insurance, ERP, parking etc??
................................

All I'm saying is that if you are starting on your own, i.e. parents can hardly help you much in terms of dollars and cents, then start to cultivate some sense, please!
This ain't no rocket science.
Common sense will do nicely.

My friend once bought a bumper sticker for me from the US, it says:


=)))

I think to help those without Common Sense, I think it's best for the tertiary institutions to put up a compulsory online e-learning module on Basic Personal Finance.
Who cares about the Human Resource Management (HRM) module when one cannot even calculate his own expenses soundly, right?!

Last time, we were brought up to think that once you made it to the University, you is set for Life.
Somewhere along the way, I think Inflation caught up with the value of the scroll(s).

Today, I think... The Life Struggle begins after you get your scroll.

So, don't start in the red, please.
It's tough enough to start on a clean slate oredi!!

'Good Fren' opened the door to take out the rubbish when, to his delight, he found our 1st hardcopy of the Sunday Times laying on our floor mat.
He was like,"BABY!!! WE HAVE NEWSPAPER!!!"

Ok... That's cool. We are re-engaged with the general Singaporean psyche.

The front page of the Sunday Times is shared by a report on Local Terrorism and A Pair of Sisters with 16,000 online friends. The latter is full colour pic of the pair with bleached hair and wide grins, and taking up 2/3 of the content space.
Win...

May I ask a simple question?


Look at the number of people I have gotten to know online. I would meet up with them before I can consider these people as 'friends'.
One of them even promoted to 'Good Fren'-status.
I digress...
Seriously... How many 'friends' can one claim to have?
If I were to install one of those blogroll widgets on my blog, it would register the readers who had visited my blog everyday.
Then shall I conclude that all readers who read my blog are 'Friends' coz they know stuff about my life, 'Good Fren', Blinky and Tiger etc?

As I have recently been told of the 'Dunbar's Number'.


Assuming the sisters 'share the load' of maintaining social relationships with all of their 16,000 friends, that would mean 8,000 per sister.
Holding the quality of relationship constant, this would make the sisters 53.333 times more sociable than the average human being since the Pleistocene epoch, i.e. at least 11,600 years from now.

Wow...
Makes me wonder whether (A) the human desire for social relationships has evolved and increased over time, or (B) that technology has made it easy so the current Dunbar's Number has been revised upwards?

I think none of the above.

I think people just like to collect and hoard things, even when they have perfectly no use for them.
It's psychosis. It's a fetish.

Some of the stuff people like to collect:

1. Anything <-- Loads of older folks engage in such behaviour. Hoarder or 'Squirrel People'. These have made it to the headlines quite a few times earlier, e.g. Neighbours Complain Old Woman stuffs HDB Flat Full of Rubbish.
   
2. Books
3. Music
   
4. Stamps
5. Stickers
   
6. Money
7. Power
8. Knowledge
9. (Sexual) Partners
10. And of... now we have... Online Friends...
    

.......................................

There are other pieces of news which got me thinking.
E.g. the meaning of 'Jail' to Paris Hilton, and the issuance of Clubbing Credit Cards to tertiary students.

Will blog about these later.

WOO HOO!!! I is gonna blog about my mindless, meaningless, never-gonna-get-a-Nobel-Prize dining experience at AKIRA, 115 Emerald Hill Road, Emerald Mansion. (Tel: 6738 6221) on Thu evening.


I've been here before... On a particularly earlier birthday with 3 other people. I wonder what they are doing now.


I got to the restaurant slightly past 7.30pm. 'Good Fren' was still in his office. =_=

Nair Mind... I order some munchies first.

8.00pm... Oh... He's still not here. Nair mind... I'll flip the super old looking jap mags just behind my seat.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
He's finally here!!

YEAH... He can help read off the menu on the walls.

This lady with a strong Chinese accent was serving us Asahi and speaking in English. I felt like I was in SF or something.
Have you tried Teapot Soup? It's very good. I think I will try to make some at home. Shouldn't be too difficult. The trick is actually the Lemon Slice.


The quality of the Buffet Dinner is ok... At SGD30++ and if you are very hungry, it's definitely a better deal than Sakae Sushi.

In any case, Akira is shifting because Emerald Mansion will be en-bloc-ing soon. To somewhere in Tiong Bahru. They will be calling 'Good Fren'.

So, if you wanna catch the last few chances of dining at Akira in its super time-freeze environment, please hurry.

Have I mentioned how much I liked the conservation shophouses along Emerald Hill Road?
I told 'Good Fren' that the time we could afford one along Emerald Hill Road, would be the time we would have a kid.
How about that?!!

HO HO HO!! =)))

'Good Fren' started a blog, and he writes it in a real weird way. It's really obvious that his only reader is me and the content is for my consumption, but he doesn't write his entries 'to' me. Instead, he makes it sound like he is talking to a 3rd person.
It's damn strange.

My mother has a blog too.
She intends to use it for her students and as a form of creative outlet.

The other day, someone made a rather public comment that the quality of blogs within the local blogosphere sucks because there were few local blogs comparable to that of Nobel Laureates.

Erm... In the first place, wtf said all, in fact any, blogs are meant to be about intellectual discourse?
People just like to blog about their partners, pets, new pedicure, friends, bags, toes, allergies... whatever.

GOSH... What bigotry.

I think I have to go scoff at all my friends', GF's, mother's and even my own blog.

TSK TSK TSK...

Such low quality blogs...
What a perfect waste of cyberspace!!

I'm not a great cook. I produce average dishes.



(A) I like to marinate stuff.

1. While the soya sauce hits the meat, I would imagine its savoury outcome.
2. My favourite 'marinater' is white wine. I have this bottle of TSANTALI - Moscato of Lemnos which I have been using to punch the land and sea meats. Actually, I bought this bottle for direct consumption, but somehow it tasted like crap. I felt that it would be wasteful to dump the entire bottle. So, I use it to punch my meats. =)))
3. The part, where the marinated meat is allowed to stand and while the marinate attacks it from all angles (make sure you mix well), is the best. It's like magic waiting to happen.

(B) I also like to make soup.

This is totally an influence from my mother's side. While they are from Jiangxi, they practise the Cantonese way of living, i.e. soup, soup, soup and more soup.
When I was staying in the NUS hostel, I would have a slow cooker in my hostel room, brewing savoury tonic soups to sweet white fungus desserts.

My friend made a passing comment about his mother and bitter gourd soup one wine evening. We agreed that soup makes one healthy.
That conversation stuck with me and I have been making bitter gourd soup as often as I can eversince.

1. 2 chicken drumsticks (remove skin and all visible fats + a cut to the bone to 'spread open' the pink flesh)
   
2. 1 bitter gourd (remove the seeds and white spongy stuff + cut up into chunks of 2cm x 1cm x 5cm)
3. 15 fish balls (cut in half)
   
4. 2 chunks of dried longans ~ 'Good Fren's suggestion. You can omit if you dun like.
   
5. 2 slices of ginger ~ When you fry stuff, use minced garlic. When you boil stuff, always drop a couple slices of ginger.
   
6. 6-7 bowls of water ~ Use your brain instincts lah... Your bowls may be different in size from mine.
   

Dump everything into the slow cooker, aka house-warming gift from your mother, and set on HIGH for 3-4 hours.

We like the warm clear soup with a little bittersweetness.
It's like the... *puke*... Perfect Life...

Usually, I'll make a dash for it after work and dump everything into the slowcooker by 7.30pm or 8.00pm.
We will then enjoy the soup at 11pm/12pm, just before we go to bed.

The best part about cooking is the anticipation of 'Good Fren' coming home to eat the meal. I guess I cannot lend you my 'Good Fren' to complete the experience, but you could enhance your experience by playing Green Day while cooking.

We made it on CNN.com!!

WOO HOO!!!


READ MORE HERE.

'Good Fren' and I barged into 桃花岛 this afternoon.


They serve Samsui Chicken on the island!!

Heh Heh Heh...

Suntec was a crazy mess!!
Check out the crowd!


I saw at least 3 hand-towel-ready people!!
Not kidding!!


On our way into the exhibition hall, we saw a bunch of angels coming out of the toilet hand-in-hand.


'Good Fren' said:


Plus some people were asking the angels for pictures, I couldn't stop laughing!!
HO HO HO!!!

This segment of the exhibition was damn BENG!
I like!!! Check out the sound systems and blue lights!!
WOO HOOO!!!!


While we were navigating our way through the thick crowd, someone exclaimed rather loudly,


A girl, with her boyfriend in tow, was smiling at me.
I felt a little awkward.
She then looked at 'Good Fren' and said,


HO HO HO!!!
And then we melted into the crowd once again.

We didn't buy much.
'Good Fren' bought some memory and a PSP game.
I think he is very happy.

There was an indoor picnic going on outside the exhibition hall.

Some were resting, but others were deliberating and comparing prices before making up their minds.

I think the PC Show is really quite Uniquely Singapore.
I like it!! =)))

A couple of levels below, there was a book fair and a life style fair going on.

The lifestyle fair is pretty strange. It had a weird mix of products going on sale.

We ended up ordering the Straits Times (we have to order hardcopy coz we need to line the cat litter box and the subscription comes with 6 months' worth of Newsweek FOC) and buying these necklaces (SGD18 for 3).


And then, we went to Carrefour for our weekly grocery shopping. With all our stuff in the car, we spent like 30 minutes trying to get out of the Suntec/Esplanade area.
It's freaking crazy!!

I was reading Marilyn Manson's comments on how he found the short but intense relationship between Meiwes and Brandes 'very compelling in a romantic way'. He claims that his latest album, 'Eat Me, Drink Me', is inspired by M&B.

Regardless whether this is MM's marketing tactic, I can begin to understand why he thinks so.

THE SEARCH
M&B's relationship started when M put up a advertisement on the Internet. In essence, he was looking for a partner. B, with full understanding of what M was looking for, responded to the advertisement.

In a sense, this portion is such pure coincidence that it is precious. Some call this 'Fate'.

THE DEFIANT PARTNERSHIP
The 2nd 'romantic' segment of their relationship is the


This is classic.
In defiance of the world, and succumbing to each other.
This is the stuff Romeo & Juliet are made up of.

THE DEMISE
And so M started to eat B, and subsequently, killing B.

Death must get in the picture. No precious relationship ought to last forever.
...............................

If one can avoid being distracted by the act of cannibalism, and focus on 3 stages. These are the basic building blocks of a short and intense relationship between 2 parties.
Gives that tingling sensation up the spine.

The only tainted portion was that M didn't kill himself. Instead he put up more ads. To the romantic fan, that's equivalent to infidelity. It would have been romantically perfect if M had killed himself after B's death.
...............................

Through the abovementioned example, perhaps you too can realise that:

1. MM's concept of romance is not too far off the usual pink fluffy shite romance. =))
2. The concept of 'romance' need not always be about flowers, fluffy clouds, and all the soft nice smelling objects you can think of. The concept of 'romance' can actually be potentially sick and grotesque.

Form and Function.