The Day The Music Died

I did the most bimbotic thing ever. After another one of my adventures out to the shore during low tide yesterday, I dumped my cargo pants straight into the washing machine when I got home as I didn't wanna get sand and dirt all over the apartment. My iPod, in one of the many pockets of that darn pair of pants, DROWNED TO DEATH. Sad but true.

Please take a few moments to mourn the passing of my best friend, iPod Nano 4GB. It was a wedding gift from my brother Andrew, and will be sorely missed. Like in all good hero-sure-die movies, I shall no longer speak of the tragic and dumbass way it died, but of how it lived. It has been my constant companion, especially on those quiet and lonely pre-dawn walks on Changi Beach, the long trips out to Sungei Buloh or Kranji and back, or just when I needed music to take me to another place, another plane. My little highway star.

I guess in the end, nothing else matters. After all, who wants to live forever...

It's time to say goodbye, and go our separate ways. Worlds apart now, my Nano finds its way up the stairway to iPod heaven.

"Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
somewhere along in the bitterness
and I would have stayed up with you all night
had I known how to save a life."

It seems only apt that I should dedicate a song to commemorate the life and death of my Nano...

Hush now don't you cry
Wipe away the teardrop from your eye
You're lying safe in bed
It was all a bad dream
Spinning in your head
Your mind tricked you to feel the pain
Of someone close to you leaving the game of life
So here it is, another chance
Wide awake you face the day
Your dream is over... or has it just begun?

There's a place I like to hide
A doorway that I run through in the night
Relax child, you were there
But only didn't realize it and you were scared
It's a place where you will learn
To face your fears, retrace the years
And ride the whims of your mind
Commanding in another world
Suddenly, you hear and see
This magic new dimension

If you open your mind for me
You won't rely on open eyes to see
The walls you built within
Come tumbling down, and a new world will begin
Living twice at once you learn
You're safe from pain in the dream domain
A soul set free to fly
A round trip journey in your head
Master of illusion, can you realize
Your dream's alive, you can be the guide but...

I - will be watching over you
I - am gonna help you see it through
I - will protect you in the night
I - am smiling next to you... in silent lucidity

- Queensryche -

When is enough ENOUGH?

The newspapers in Dubai are always full of typo errors, all the time. So when I read this article “More sharks than estimated killed for fin soup” in the Khaleej Times (October 28, 2006), I wasn’t sure if they got their figures right. Firstly it states that "up to four times more sharks than previously thought are being slaughtered to fill the increasing demand for shark fin soup".

According to this article, it’s estimated that anually, between 26 MILLION – 73 MILLION SHARKS, weighing up to 2.29 MILLION TONNES, are killed for their fins.

According to the Shark Alliance, sharks are among the ocean’s most threatened animals due to overfishing, and because they grow slowly, mature late and produce few young.

There are so many causes to fight for – the environment, poverty, AIDS, pink ribbon, yellow ribbon, blue this and green that… Even if we narrow it down to just marine conservation, there are still so many areas that need our attention. So many diferrent sea creatures and organisms and the ocean itself, needing a human voice to fight their cause.

We need more voices to speak up against pollution in our waters caused by dredging, reclamation, etc. Small voices, speaking up to corporate big wigs. Hard luck, but it’s a start.

We need more volunteers to help create awareness and educate the public about conserving our environment before it’s too late. To realise that serious damage has been done, and is still being done, and we won’t have anything left to conserve if we continue being selfish, taking from nature till there’s no more.

All these little voices that cry out, all these little hands that try to make a difference… Is anyone taking notice? Well some of us think, it’s small, but it’s a start. If you can influence one person out of ten, to stop collecting seashells or to say no to shark’s fin soup, it’s a start. You’ve made a difference.

But I say, it’s not enough. There’s a Malay saying that goes, “Sedikit-sedikit, lama-lama menjadi bukit” meaning, bit by bit, day by day, it will make a difference. But it’s not enough. There’s too little good being done to counter the bad. It’s like 1% conservation versus 99% destruction. We are taking too much, too soon, giving too little, too late.

We have organisations all over Singapore, and all over the world, fighting for all sorts of rights and causes. Blue Water Volunteers, Green Volunteers Network, Shark Alliance, UNESCO, Greenpeace… It’s not enough. We need more volunteers, plus support from the government and the media, to educate the masses.

Volunteering for a good cause is not easy in Singapore. Unless you are backed by big corporations or the government, with big funds, able to carry out big charity events filled with big celebrities. This is how you reach out to the masses, not bit by bit, day by day. How many times have you seen features on TV about dialysis, breast cancer, the yellow ribbon project, or even about dengue? Out of the millions who watch TV, how many take notice and make a difference? Now compare that with the difference volunteers make without much help from the media. It’s not much. It’s not enough.

The answer lies with the people. The future of Singapore’s environment lies with Singaporeans. Singaporeans who are ignorant or just plain selfish. The government, through the media, tells the people what they want to hear, or what they think they should hear. For example, The Yellow Ribbon Project. It’s a good cause, but what makes it more important than any of the other causes that don’t get airtime? Why no public awareness campaigns about the effects of dredging in Singapore waters? Why no campaigns against the sale of shark’s fin soup in restaurants throughout Singapore?

With campaigns like The Yellow Ribbon Project, the government wants the people to believe that everyone deserves a second chance, and eventually, Singaporeans will believe that the government is one that cares for them, giving everyone equal opportunity. So the selfish or ignorant Singaporean thinks, the government is working for me. So the people voice their concerns to the government, who will indeed help them. They complain about the hike in bus fares, MRT fares, taxi fares, complain that there’s no sheltered walkway at their HDB estate, complain, complain, complain. All about how the government can better improve the standard of living in Singapore.

Who’s gonna be crazy enough to go to his MP and say, “Mister MP Sir, we don’t mind paying more for MRT fares if this means it will make Singapore a cleaner place to live and breathe in.”

Or “Mister MP Sir, Singapore should say No to the import of shark’s fin because I’d rather have my future grandchildren visit Sentosa to see real sharks than to look at pictures of extinct sharks in history books”.

Your everyday selfish and ignorant Singaporean isn’t gonna do that.

It’s not easy for small groups of volunteers to reach out to the rest of selfish Singapore or the world. So do we go to the top? Do we speak to restaurant owners and show them horrid pictures of finned sharks left to bleed to death at the bottom of the ocean? [Read about ‘finning’ below] Do we hope it tickles their conscience that they have the blood of all these dead sharks on their hands just for a few bowls of soup?

That’s not gonna work either ‘cos the selfish and ignorant Singaporean is gonna walk in to that restaurant, look at the menu, and then complain to the manager and all his friends and maybe even Mister MP that “this restaurant supposed to be high class one… but got no shark’s fin leh”.

People demand, companies supply, the industry thrives, and another plant or animal is added to the endangered or extinct list.

And this is just the Shark Fin Cause. There are still so many other marine creatures, terrestrial animals, plants, trees, the air, the land, the ocean… all asking us to think less about our own selves, and to think about humanity and Earth as a whole. Just look at Earth’s timeline, from the Pre-Cambrian period, 3800 million years ago till now.

Life on Earth began in the Ocean. Sea sponges, sea lilies and corals existed since the Pre-Cambrian and Cambrian periods, more than 500 million years ago. From 245 million to 65 million years ago, dinosaurs walked the earth. 60 million years ago, Earth was flora and fauna paradise, with all sorts of plants and flowers, creatures big and small, thriving in a beautiful world.

Then came the time of man, just 200,000 years ago. In the few years that man has walked the earth, we have managed to wipe out most of what was naturally beautiful on Earth.

We are our worst enemy with an unquenchable appetite for destruction. Even creatures as big as dinosaurs could only have been wiped out by something huge like a giant meteorite or the Ice Age. With our greedy hands, narrow minds and selfish beings, we have resided on this beautiful planet for less than a day if compared to the BILLIONS of years the Earth has survived. And yet we have managed to cause so much destruction.

Some of us are doing something. But it’s not enough. The rest of us go through life like it’s one big buffet or warehouse sale, taking as much as we can, as quickly as possible, but it’s never enough.

26 to 73 MILLION sharks are killed annually for their fins. Do we really need that much soup to satisfy our appetite?

The Shark Fin Trade
Shark fishing is condoned because sharks are an important source of protein in certain parts of the world. However, it is the high value and demand for fins that endangers sharks, when finning is practised.

‘Finning’ refers to the practice of cutting off only the shark fins, usually while the sharks are still alive. Shark meat is too low in value so the sharks are thrown back into the ocean to conserve space on a fishing vessel. The fin-less sharks then drown or bleed to death. Divers have discovered hundreds of dead finned sharks at the bottom of the ocean in massive shark graveyards.

I love soups – Asian, Western, light, creamy… and I used to enjoy shark fin soup too, till I read an article in Fins magazine and saw pictures of the shark graveyards. Shark fin only provides gelatinous bulk in shark fin soup as it is tasteless. So if it’s the taste of shark fin soup that you enjoy, it’s actually just chicken or some sort of ‘superior’ stock.

Although shark fin is considered by the Chinese as a tonic, it has little nutritional value, and may even be harmful over the long term as shark fins contain high levels of mercury.

If you’re planning a Chinese banquet dinner, like say, for a wedding, please look at the pictures and think twice before planning the menu. Relatives can bitch all they want about not getting shark fin soup, but at least you’ll know that on this beautiful day, you’ve made a difference and saved a shark or two.

The Doha-Dubai Derrama

Ben n I took a Qatar Airways flight back to Dubai from Singapore, via Doha on 12th March. We left Singapore at 6.35am (GMT +8) and arrived in Doha at 10.15am (GMT +3). We discovered that our connecting flight to Dubai was delayed, from 1.30pm to 8.00pm.

The guy at the Transfer Counter said that the delay was due to airport closure in Dubai because of a “crash landing” on the runway. Eerie images of the SQ6 wreckage flashed through my mind, but we found out later that the accident wasn’t as serious as the ground staff portrayed it to be.

I asked if Qatar Airways would divert the flight to Sharjah Airport, which is just a 30-minute drive from Dubai, ‘cos it didn’t make sense that we had to wait 10 hours for a 45 minute flight. However, the ground staff could only say “No, it’s not possible” or “I don’t know”.

I worried about all the frozen homemade kaya and sambal haybee left in cargo in some hangar or worse, the tarmac…

So Qatar Airways put the stranded passengers up in a nearby hotel, and lunch at the hotel was paid for too. We managed to get a nice afternoon nap, then took the shuttle bus back to Doha airport. The bus from the hotel to the airport was delayed for 20 minutes because one of the passengers made a call from his hotel room and didn’t have Qatari Riyal to pay for it. He needed 82 Riyal, so a few people from the bus helped to chip in to expedite his check out.

Airports in the Middle East are quite a mess with not just long queues at Immigration, but Immigration staff who take forever to clear each passenger. And bags are scanned at 3 to 4 different points, passport and boarding passes checked about 3 or 4 times too. Very ‘leceh’.

At the Immigration counter in Doha Airport, I was in the “Ladies’ Inspection” queue and noticed that a few angmoh men and an Arab man with his family were also in the queue. Because it was a shorter queue, I asked Ben to join me. However, the guy who was behind me in the line got aggressive when Ben came over.

He was like “Hey! There’s a queue here and I have a flight to catch!” and I said, “My husband and I are travelling together” and he was like, "So?!! You can bloody well move to the back then!" Ben was not in the mood to argue ‘cos he felt we were in the wrong, so I moved back behind this angmoh a**hole. Just ONE spot behind him. Duh…

Wa lau… wtf… Do you know who he was? He was the same guy that delayed the bus! He made 19 people wait 20 minutes for him, and strangers helped him pay 82 Riyal for his bloody phonecall (that’s about 80 Ringgit!). And now, just moving one place behind in a queue was a big deal? We’re all on the same flight, you bloody ungrateful moron!

I just kept silent and didn’t argue with him. “Budi baik dikenang baik. Budi jahat dibalas jahat.” What goes around, comes around.

Here’s a picture of him, rushing to join the crowd at the flight gate.


We waited another 3 hours till we finally left Doha. When we arrived in Dubai, clearance at Immigration took over an hour!

Dubai may boast that it has a huge airport, but it’s just that. Huge. Passengers have to walk for miles to get from their gates to Immigration, but the airport is chaotic at Immigration and at the departure & arrival areas.

You find you have to walk from one end of the airport to the other, only to be told that your gate has been changed, so you proceed to the new gate, rush to get in queue, for a bus that will bring you to a remote parking bay far, far away. Size doesn’t matter if you have only ONE runway and no aerobridges! Duh…

At the Immigration counters in Dubai airport, the ugliness of a few Caucasian men showed. First, there was of course the same guy who told me off. He was probably really ticked off that this little insignificant ‘oriental girl’ spoke back. And there he was in Dubai, pushing his way around, cutting queues to get ahead at Immigration.

When an Immigration officer opened up a new queue, all these lemming-like morons ran for it. Among them was another Caucasian man, who bumped into an Indian man. He started swearing at the Indian man, who let him get ahead of him. But ugly angmoh man was not happy and continued pushing and swearing, swinging his luggage at the Indian man. The Indian guy asked him to relax, and another Indian guy tried to break it up between them.

Later, in another queue, another Caucasian man started cussing the Pakistani guy in front of him. Apparently, when it was the Pakistani guy’s turn to proceed to the counter, someone from another line jumped the queue. So the Caucasian man got pissed off, “Hey! What the @#$%!! You’re just gonna let that guy get ahead? So we’re all just gonna stand here all night? Why the %$#@ are you just standing there? Aren’t you gonna move… blah blah blah”. The Pakistani dude just ignored him.

In a region where Caucasian expats are so highly paid and ‘kow-tow-ed’ and Asians are treated as lower class, you can really see how ugly class-conscious people can become. It’s more subtle in Singapore, where you sometimes see customers ordering waiters or service staff around like they owe them a living. Be nice lah. Waiters may wait on you ‘cos they need to earn a living, but they’re not inferior, and not slaves. Good manners usually begets good service… unless the waitress is having PMS or something.

Ben n I get home at around 1.00am (5.00am Singapore/KL time), more than 24 hours after checking-in for our flight the morning before. So much for hoping that our return to Dubai would be a smooth transition after such a nice break back home. But NO… The Middle East once again had to prove how different they are from the rest of the world. At least I’ve learnt a lesson or two...

1. To be civilised doesn’t depend on where you come from. You may come from the most developed or richest nation in the world, but you’re uncivilised once you think that you’re the biggest fish in the sea.

2. We all have the same fate at the end of the road, so why turn ugly just to get ahead? Life is beautiful if only we took the time to appreciate the little things that really matter.

3. And next time, we’re flying Singapore Airlines.

Long blog about our short holiday

Ben n I made a short trip back to KL and Singapore recently. The initial plan was to be home for the Chinese New Year, but Ben had to take part in Gulfood 2007’s Salon Culinaire from 18th – 22nd Feb. We had been looking forward to this trip since November, so I guess our expectations were pretty high… not to mention our extended ‘To Do’ & makan list.

We arrive in Singapore at around mid-noon on 23rd Feb. The first thing we notice as we take a cab home from Changi Airport is the speed on the roads, or lack of it. The taxi ‘uncle’ takes us on a leisurely ride, while humming to a Chinese song playing on the radio, as other cars on the road crawl by at what seems to us, snail’s pace.

Was everyone in Singapore on holiday too? Nope… we just forgot how normal traffic moved after spending 9 months in a country where people drive at around 120-140km/h, swerving recklessly while honking incessantly at other drivers who didn’t keep up.

Home, SWEET home! Singapore, land of efficient but regimented living conditions. Back to sanity!

Ben starts to feel claustrophobic as he gazes at all the buildings clustered together, not low and spacious like how they are in a vast and developing city like Dubai. But I’m delighted to see greenery again! Not the dirty olive green of half-wilted palm trees but REAL green. Roads lined with huge trees and fuchsia-coloured bougainvillea shrubs amidst a backdrop of HDB flats. Sweet…

Once we reach Pasir Ris, we dump down our bags, change into shorts, and head straight to the nearest kopitiam for what else? Kopi. Then we’re faced with our first challenge. What to eat? So many choices, so little stomach. Chicken rice, duck rice, ‘bak chor’ mee, ‘chap fun’, prata…

In the evening, we visit Desmond for a ‘surprise’ dinner. We only informed Joanna and Peng of our trip back, and Jo was supposed to plan a dinner at Desmond’s for that night without letting the rest in on our surprise. Jo however told Leong, and somewhere along the way, we’re pretty sure Desmond found out too ‘cos his feign of surprise as we show up at his doorstep is a bit too ‘drama’ to be true.

It’s really good to see everyone again – Desmond & Mei Ling, Jo & Leong, Rabind, Louis, Cyril & Michelle… And time for Ben to give out CNY angpows for the first time. We leave early as we have plans to meet Ben’s Dad and Peng. Later in the night, we even manage to squeeze in 3 hours of karaoke. Actually, I can’t say “we” since I just sit and drink coffee as Ben & Peng belt out every Jay Chou number in the system.

The next morning, Ben & I take the coach to Bangsar. First stop in PJ is A&W. After dreaming of coney dogs and waffles for the past half year, it’s a bit ‘sedih’ that only the curly fries & rootbeer float pass the BnB “taste test”. The coney dog is dry, the fried chicken yucky, and waffle salty!

At night, we enjoy our reunion dinner at home with my Mom, Dad, brothers and sis-in-law. Steamboat! Wah… damn shiok! After dinner, we visit my Tua Ee (First Aunt) and her family, and after that we make a compulsory stop at the SS2 mamak for Nescafe Ais and Burger Special.

The next morning, my family, Ben & I travel to Malacca to visit my uncles and aunt there and also to pay our respects at my late grandparents’ altar. My family’s regular satay joint closes for the New Year so my Dee Ku (2nd Uncle) actually managed to get the satay man to open his shop just to grill satay for him to pack home for us!

So we have satay for lunch, and after evening Mass at St Peter's, we savour Nonya dinner in Melaka Raya with my 4th Aunt, 1st Uncle & his wife, 2nd Uncle, and my immediate family. Chinchalok omelette, kangkung belacan, fish in really yummy lemak gravy, sambal petai, sago gula melaka, cendol and more…

The next night, back in PJ, we have another family dinner at a restaurant, for my extended family. So apart from my immediate family present, there were aunts (6 out of 9 of them) and their familes, cousins and spouses, and nieces and nephews. And more good food!

The next night, we visit my 6th Aunt at her home as she was unable to make it to dinner the night before. On Thursday night, we have dinner at home with my parents, Tua Ee, 5th Aunt and my godmother Aunty Mag. My Mom cooks up a storm of a meal, coupled with my Tua Ee’s ‘tau yu bak’, especially for Ben.

During the day from Tuesday to Thursday, Ben n I head out to Berjaya Times Square, Sungei Wang & Bukit Bintang Plaza, Lot 10, KL Plaza & Starhill, The Curve and MidValley Megamall. While we were at The Curve, it suddenly hit Ben how much he didn’t want this holiday to end.

A Cathay Cineleisure has opened at The Curve, and the interior is laid out almost similar to the one in Singapore. It was a Wednesday when we were there so it was Movies Day, with tickets costing only RM6! We wished we could do a movie marathon but with our tight schedule, we already had plans made for that night so we only managed to squeeze in one movie – Ghostrider. Stupid show… At the start of the movie when the title appears, the Malay subtitles read, “Penunggang Motorsikal Hantu”!! But for just six ringgit, who cares! In Dubai, tickets cost 35 dirhams (about S$15) per person.

At KL Plaza

We also manage to meet up with just 3 of my friends back in PJ. Went for coffee/supper with Sher Hui and Nat one night, and Sharon happened to be back on holiday with her boyfriend, so I got to meet her too. I’m sorry I didn’t manage to meet up with my other friends like Jamie, Edwin, Daniel & others… But one thing I always tell Ben when he misses home is that, it’s always nice to know that we will always have home to look forward to, a warm and welcoming home with family and friends.

Although I also say, wherever we are, we’ll make it ‘home’ as long as we’re together, but it’s also important to remember that our true home is in Singapore/Malaysia, and it will always be there to welcome us. Even the study of child development recognises that one’s native home is irreplaceable, and an individual living in a foreign land will always subconsciously, if not consciously, yearn for that special bond with his native home. So fret not! We’ll be back!

On Friday, 2nd March, my Tua Ee brings over bakuteh for lunch, ta-pau-ed from the popular bakuteh place near her home. After lunch, we bid my Mom and family goodbye and set off with four huge bags filled new purchases, homemade goodies from my Mom and other goodies from my aunts.

My Mom packs enough kaya, sambal, ikan bilis, belacan, Malacca coffee, barley & ginseng to last us till our next trip home

My 4th Aunt still remembers that Kuih Bangkit is my fav.
Unfortunately, it’s turned into “pei hoon” after reaching Dubai…

Louis picks us up when we arrive in Singapore, and we have dinner with him, Joanna, Desmond, Mei Ling and Rabind, followed by drinks at Louis’ home.

The next day, we visit Ben’s Mom and have dinner at the Zion Road foodcourt. Char kuay teow & fried carrot cake loaded with oil, washed down with sweet potato soup and sugarcane juice. Later in the night, we meet up with Peng for supper at 136 followed by another 3 hours of kara-jay-oke in Pasir Ris. I’m having a pretty nasty flu but still endure the next 3 hours as a barter to get Ben & Peng to follow me to Pulau Ubin the next day.

So on Sunday morning, we head down to Changi Village for breakfast to fuel our cycling trip on Ubin.

I lead the guys on the East route as I’ve never gone West before, and also ‘cos it’s an easier route & I didn’t want Ben to ‘pengsan’ halfway. Cycling on Ubin is one of the best things anyone can do to get away from the city. Your thoughts and worries drift away as you sweep past the lush greenery and occasional kampong house along the way. I could stay here for hours but the guys are pooped out so we return our rented bikes and are thankful just moments later as it starts to rain.

Once back on mainland, we head down to Chinatown to check out a tattoo shop, Galaxy Tattoo. The ah beng tattooist speaks to Ben about the type of tattoo he’s interested in, and that it would take about 2 months to get it done properly.

"I donch anyhow do one --- I not say I damn good --- But my frower or other people frower --- I not say my frower better one, but is good --- Even you can tahan, I also cannot tahan --- tattoo is forever, you donch anyhow say wan, then later you say want to laser, I also f*** you..." So he’s not vying for a spokesperson award, but his designs look good and the tattoo place has a nice vibe about it.

That evening, Ben n I attend Mass at OLPS. We always enjoy evening Mass here because of the choir. Incidentally, Fr Luke left Singapore around the same time Ben left for Dubai, and returned to Singapore just before we returned, so it was his first Mass since returning from Rome.

He speaks about citizenship in Heaven during his sermon and relates it to his time in Italy, and being away from home. About how much he missed home, hung the Singapore flag in his dorm on National Day, about the inefficiency in Italy and how he appreciates Singapore much more now. It’s amazing how we could relate to all the points he mentioned.

After Mass, we have dinner at G7 in Geylang with Peng, my brother Andrew and his housemate Joanne. Marmite chicken, frog leg porridge, black pepper crayfish, cereal prawns, hotplate tofu… Monday night witnessed yet another pig out session, this time at East Coast with Louis n Desmond..... Oyster omelette, spinach with sambal belacan, chilli mussels, barbecued chicken wings...

In case you haven’t noticed by now, our trip home kinda revolves around food! Meeting up with family and friends no doubt, but usually around a table… for big-time makan!

On Tuesday we get our banking stuff, etc settled in Bedok and head over to Marine Parade. I pop by Gymboree to surprise the girls and we chat for about an hour. We meet Ben’s Dad and Peng for dinner at 136 after buying drystores and durian from Bedok Interchange. That night, Ben n I feast on durian till we feel like puking!

On Wednesday we meet Ben’s Mom n Aunt at Lucky Plaza ‘cos Ben wants to eat the char siew rice there. Then we watch Letters from Iwojima with his mom and aunt at Lido. We meet up with Desmond and walk around Wisma, Takashimaya & Cineleisure, and later Raffles City.

Later I meet up with Shorbs for dinner as Ben meets Louis n Rabind at Clarke Quay. Mos Burger yakiniku rice burger & corn soup! After dinner, Shorbs and I walk to Clarke Quay to meet up with the guys at O-Bar. It’s Ladies’ Night, but Shorbs ends up paying for our drinks ‘cos the waiter didn’t bother to point that out that we had to order our free drinks from the “ladies’ bar”.

On Thursday, we go to CPF at Tampines, bump into Pauline as well as Rabind, and have coffee at Starbucks with him. I stock up on my ‘supplies’ from Popular Bookstore and get a new barbell and ‘studs’. Later we meet Chef Alan at 85 Market for dinner. Barbecued sambal stingray, sambal kangkung, hokkien mee... The ‘uncle’ must have lost his grip on the sambal bowl as he fried our kangkung cos it was bloody HOT!

After dinner we head back to Tampines Mall to watch 300 with Rabind & Louis. Superb movie! Apart from a few annoying ‘chi cha pohs’ sitting behind me " --- Eh… what’s that? --- I dunno leh --- Eh, Spartan is from where --- Aiyo, why like that one? --- ” If the movie’s artistic use of light, colour & music wasn’t enough to awe them into silence, I would have at least expected them to bite their tongues and choke on their drool upon gazing at three hundred half naked men with eight-packs.

The next day, Ben & I do our big grocery shopping at Carrefour in Suntec City, and meet up with his friends later carrying three HUGE bags of rempah, herbs, instant noodles, instant coffee, etc. We have all-you-can-eat steamboat dinner at Beach Road with Jo, Rabind, Desmond n Mei Ling, and go over to Desmond’s home later for prata and drinks. Ben enjoys prata and ayam goreng, and Jo gets Ben n I to help her design her wedding initials. Louis brings his brother-in-law Jerry over to Desmond’s too. He tells Ben n I that the best Nonya makan place in Malacca is near the Ujong Pasir post office.

Prata, ungge lekke nalade!

A very mabuk Rabind arrives at around 3am, insisting we listen to mp3s from his handphone. Live's Lightning Crashes plays. With Rabind's major operation and our return to Dubai looming, and Desmond & Louis at crossroads in their career life, perhaps it assures us that what lies ahead is not the end but a new beginning. Rebirth.

We leave Desmond’s at around 5am and order MacDonald’s breakfast once we’re home. Hotcakes, Big Breakfast, Sausage McMuffin. Ben is fast asleep by the time breakfast arrives so his Big Breakfast goes to waste.

By Saturday, Ben still wants to do more window shopping and I want to be around more nature, so we have lunch at Swensen’s with Andrew before his flight and go our separate ways. Ben heads down to town to meet up with Chef Julien and walk around Peninsula Plaza, Funan, Marina Square and Suntec City. He has a good meeting with Julien and meets up with Peng later for chicken rice dinner at Golden Mile Complex.

Yes, Pasir Ris-ians, this amazing place is just in your backyard.

I have a just as fulfilling day at Pasir Ris Park and mangrove swamp. My eyes set on macro mode again as I search for little bugs and critters, while soaking in the atmosphere of the muddy mangrove and cicadas and birds singing their hearts out. I even spot a Brahminy Kite up close, perched on a tree.

'Smelly’ bugs

I meet up with Shan at Simei after buying a couple of dresses from This Fashion. I miss This Fashion & Metro! Good ol’ ‘cheapo’ but pretty little dresses! Shan and I have dinner at Tampines Mall, before joining Ben n Peng in Marine Parade for yet another night of… drumroll…… KARAOKE! This time, four hours!

With Shan around, I finally get to see new MTVs as she sings some non-Jay Chou songs. Shan miraculously convinces me to sing a few songs. It’s funny how one might think I must have the voice of an angel the way my friends plead for me to sing. Unfortunately, Shan & the guys had to endure a few of my ‘super tak jadi’ Eagles and Journey renditions. Moral of the story: Imagine Def Leppard’s Let’s Get Rocked sung by a girl. Yup… Don’t ask a minah rock to karaoke.

After karaoke, we have supper at Simpang Bedok. Roti John, maggi goreng, nasi ayam goreng and bihun goreng, plus teh halia and Milo dinosaur.

Suitcase full of foodstuff

Sunday, our last day in Singapore. We spend the day packing, then attend evening Mass at OLPS again. Cyril sits with us in church, and Louis picks us up after that for dinner at Bedok Corner. More hokkien mee and sambal stingray, plus tahu goreng. We pop by Changi General Hospital to visit Rabind who’s having his slip disc replaced the next morning.

We also make our ‘goodbye calls’ to my parents and Ben’s Mom, so the mood this night is quite sombre. Ben n I stay up the rest of the night, watching TV and packing till it’s time to get ready for our flight back to Dubai.

It is pre-dawn on a dark Monday morning as we leave Singapore - the echo of karaoke and cicadas still ringing in our ears, the aroma of kopi and hot food still tickling our olfactory sensors, and the warmth and laughter of loved ones forever in our hearts... Goodbye Singapore/Malaysia... See you next year!

Gulfood 2007

Gulfood 2007 took place in Dubai from 18th – 22nd Feb at the Dubai World Trade Centre Convention Halls. The highlight of this five-day event was Salon Culinaire, a culinary competition featuring chefs of all levels from hotels throughout Dubai, judged by a panel of ‘internationally acclaimed’ chefs.

This exhibition is also an avenue for suppliers and others in the F&B and Hospitality industry to promote their products and services at the Food & Equipment halls. Gulfood is open only to trade visitors, and persons below 21 years are also not allowed to visit the exhibition. I managed to get visitor passes for myself as well as Jeremy & Hui Chin by applying online.

I made my way to the World Trade Centre on 19th Feb, wandered through the Food Halls cramped with stalls from all over the world, including Singapore and Malaysia. I met our friend Andrew there and we walked about looking at Salon Culinaire contestants’ creations. Apart from hot cooking, Salon Culinaire also consists of other segments such as Cold Display (5-course menu), Ice Carving, Pastry, Butchery, etc.

Finally, a wedding cake that beats ours!

We had just moved from Ewan Residence to our new apartment at Gardens a few days before, and Ben had a busy week with Valentine’s Day and other special VIP menus, plus staff appraisals to conduct, so having to take part in the competition and still work throughout really stressed him out. But he seemed cool enough as he prepared his dish within the one-hour time limit.

Japanese-influenced Trilogy of Dover Sole - shallow fried dover sole and wakame roll, slow poached dover sole with miso, and baked sole fillets with yuzu fondant. It’s a wonder how he managed to make all this in under an hour. Contestants have to present 4 portions (plates) of their creations – one for show, one for tasting, and the other two are just thrown away.

Sadly, the judges were old-fashioned, their taste buds and eyes only accustomed to traditional, boring and purely European food, clearly seen by how they awarded these "prize-winning" dishes:

This dish won a Bronze medal

This one got a Silver, and the fish was not properly cooked

The next day, I met Jeremy & Hui Chin at the airport and brought them over to Gulfood. The Security Guard stopped us as we entered the exhibition hall, and we panicked, thinking it was our bogus passes. But it turned out the idiotic guard stopped us ‘cos we looked like kids, and he kept insisting I wasn’t 21.

I showed him my passport and he didn’t believe that I was 30, and then I kept saying that my husband was taking part in Salon Culinaire and he was wasting our time, but he also wouldn’t believe that a ‘kid’ like me was married. Finally, I just brushed him off and we went in. Jeremy had a good time tasting all the food samples at the Food Hall – roast beef, icecream, nachos, meatballs, fried chicken, waffles, frappes, pralines, sushi… They were pretty excited to check out Salon Culinaire as Jeremy wanted to catch the chefs in action, thinking it would be like watching Iron Chef, live.
Ben’s Reconstructed Australian Beef with Vanilla Marrow Crust, Leek ‘Cannelloni’ and Strawberry Balsamic Sauce.

One of the judges told Ben that beef with vanilla and strawberry balsamic sauce is “just NOT right”. Ben asked him what the judging was based on. He said, "creativity, something new, something we haven’t seen before", then proceeded to tell him how good this other dish was. This dish, pictured here, like something you get at Jack’s Place or even Han’s:

The judge said, a dish like this will definitely get a medal. And it did. A Silver! Ben then said, “So this is creative and something you’ve never seen before? Do you judge based on what’s creative or what you like?”

The judged wasn’t too happy and couldn’t retort. Then Ben asked him, “So you’ve been a chef for how many years now? Must be a very, very long time”. The judge seemed ticked off so Ben rubbed it in some more by sarcastically saying, Oh, one day I want to be like you.

These are the dishes that received medals:

I noticed that sometimes there were 4 judges judging a plate, and sometimes just 3. The fourth judge, Chef Otto Weibel, was too busy attending to award presentation ceremonies and others that he was not present to judge all the plates. So I wonder how they summed up the scores whenever Chef Otto was missing. Did they judge on his behalf? Makes you wonder......

New Year, New Home

I didn’t manage to update my blog in Jan/Feb, so I’ve gotta blog in retrospect for the next few entries. While we were living at Ewan Residence, we shared the apartment with a Thai guy, after the Swedish dude moved out. Our new Thai housemate was one helluva smelly fella. Seriously!

He works in the same kitchen as Ben, as a Jr Sous Chef. But it’s gross to imagine how someone who prepares food all day can be so unhygienic. Like Ben, he works from 9am to 1am on most days, but comes home and goes right to bed. It’s like he got the “Go To Jail” card in a Monopoly game – “Go Directly To Bed. Do not pass the bathroom, do not shower, brush teeth, or wash your feet.” You can imagine how sweaty & smelly he is after a long day in the kitchen, plus he has super-power-terama toe jam… And he just goes straight to bed.

Now our bedrooms share the same aircon unit, so after a while, his ‘smell’ would seep out into our bedroom, or stink up the whole apartment if he left the bedroom door open. We tried to tahan at first ‘cos we were grateful that at least he wasn’t a backstabbing sneak like the previous two housemates. But after a month, his ‘bau’ was really too ‘kow’ so Ben would tell him to shut his door if he left it open ‘cos "It smells!"

Once, I tried to hint about his stench by asking him if there were shower facilities at work that he used before coming home. He got my drift but boldly replied that he knows he doesn’t shower after work and he doesn’t care 'cos he just stays in his bedroom and hardly comes out. I was too dumbfounded at how blasé he was about being smelly & dirty that I couldn’t tell him that we got his ‘drift’ too.

My brother Jeremy and his wife Hui Chin were coming to visit us at the end of January, so I spring-cleaned the whole apartment and washed the sofa set. Afraid that Tinnakorn (the housemate) would stink up the sofa again after all my hard work, I left a note on the main door one night, warning the guys not to sit in the living room if they were “smelly & dirty” and to “shower & wash their feet”. Very mak nenek, I know. But it was my last resort.

Tinnakorn read the note and asked Ben about it the next day, thinking it was a note from their company. Ben said, "No, worse… It’s from my wife! She’s very angry! I don’t know why. She didn’t speak to me all night… She’s very angry!” So Tinnakorn panics and says, “I think I can’t sit in the living room anymore”.

Tinnakorn also sings very loudly, in Thai, in a Cantonese opera kind of style. Sometimes he plays Michael Bolton’s “I don’t have the heart to hurt you” and tries to sing it in ‘Thaiglish’. I dong have the haaaarse to hursss yoo… nam mong prung chai ma dooo… His singing is so loud that you can hear him from the elevator before he reaches the apartment! Sometimes it gets to me so I retreat to the bedroom and blast a special playlist in my iTunes, made up of really loud and angry rock music.

Jeremy & Hui Chin visited, and after that Tinnakorn started sitting in the living room again, but only for a couple of times before he was told that he’d be moving to a studio apartment in Gardens. And we were moving to Gardens too. After 8 months, they finally could accommodate us in a single bedroom apartment.

A place all to ourselves. No more smelly, sneaky housemates! We had to move from Ewan to Gardens between 15th – 17th Feb, just before Chinese New Year. We were kinda sad to leave Ewan Residence ‘cos it was so spacious and quiet there.

Gardens Furnished Apartments in Jebel Ali

Ben was extremely busy that week so I had to arrange to have all our stuff moved while he was at work. I spent Valentine’s Day at the mall, stopping at countless shops to ask if they had empty carton boxes to spare. I finally managed to find a few boxes in a few of the carparks at the mall, and brought them back for packing.

On the 15th, I made two trips on the shuttle bus to Gardens to bring a load of stuff over. Our new apartment is on the 8th floor, and with a huge-ass haversack on my back and 3 other bags, it was just my luck that the lifts were not working and I had to walk all the way up. Our new apartment is huge! I found it in good condition, and not too dirty or smelly.
There are 8 blocks of furnished apartments here, and they’re all leased out to Jumeirah. So the Security and Accommodation offices here are manned by Jumeirah staff too, which is good ‘cos they’re quite efficient. There are more staff shuttle buses here too. Direct buses to Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Burj Al Arab, Madinat Jumeirah and Emirates Towers, as well as a shuttle bus on Friday mornings to the churches in Jebel Ali Village, and a twice-daily bus to Deira City Centre, Karama and Bur Dubai.

I called a mover who wanted to charge 300 Dirhams. Gardens is just a 15-min ride away from Ewan so I didn’t wanna pay that much and contacted Rana, our regular car lift instead. That night, I paid Rana 150 Dirhams, and we moved all the barang-barang together. He forgot to bring a trolley so we had to carry all the bags, boxes and suitcases from apartment to elevator to carpark to van at Ewan, then vice versa at Gardens.

It was quite a rush to get the new place cleaned and all our stuff settled by the night of CNY eve. I spent the whole of the 16th and 17th cleaning, as well as shopping for Ben’s list of compulsory CNY stuff for our new home – mandarins, pomelo, pineapple, rice, salt, oil & ‘kum chwee’ (orange crush!), last minute baking of cornflake cookies and cooking a ‘happy & prosperous’ meal for Ben n myself.

By Chinese New Year, I was completely drained, muscles sore and body aching. First day of New Year was really ‘sedih’. Ben was at work, and I was zonked out. It didn’t feel like New Year at all of course.

CNY 1st Day for me is usually in my uncle’s house in Malacca, waking up to the smell of vegetarian food, Malacca coffee and joss sticks, the sound of roosters crowing in the neighbours backyard and my Mom & aunts chatting away in the kitchen, wearing new clothes and wishing my parents and relatives, snacking on New Year goodies while waiting for more relatives to arrive or visit.

But like Ben said, “At least… new year, new home”.

Jeremy & Hui Chin’s Visit

Jeremy & Hui Chin were leaving London and moving back to KL for good. So on their extended journey home, they stopped by Dubai for 5 days (from 31st Jan – 4th Feb), followed by a 2-week trip to Cairo and Jordan. They then returned to Dubai for another 2 days before returning to KL on 22nd Feb.

They were hoping to get an inside view of the Burj Al Arab, but only hotel guests and pre-booked dining guests are allowed to enter the Hotel, so I advised them not to waste a shit-load of money on a meal at Burj Al Arab just to gain entry into this 7-star all-suite hotel.

We did however get a look of Burj Al Arab from the outside, as I brought them to the beach and Madinat Jumeirah. We had dinner at Japengo restaurant within the Madinat Jumeirah, where Chef Andrew works, followed by drinks at Bahri Bar for a nice view of Burj Al Arab by night.

They were to arrive at around 6.30am on the 31st, so I called Rana beforehand to get him to pick me up at 6.00am, then drive to the airport to pick them up. Rana however only arrived at 8.30am, while Jeremy & Hui Chin waited for at least 3 hours till we finally reached the airport. Instead of a van, Rana drove his small sedan which could only fit one suitcase in the boot, so Hui Chin & Jeremy had to squeeze in the back seats with another suitcase and bags.

Quite soon after we left the airport, a car hit into Rana’s from the back and the bumper fell off! So Rana had to hail a cab for us. Rana has proven that he’s not very dependable, but sometimes it’s nice to use a car-lift whom you know… I consider him a familiar face. He has since sold off the sedan and now has a permanent day job ‘cos being a car-lift is illegal and he’d be fined 4,000 Dirhams if caught.

We passed an Egyptian ‘skirt dancing’ performance while we were at Madinat Jumeirah

Ben managed to get 2 days off while Jeremy and Hui Chin were here, so we chose one of the days to go for a tour of the Hatta Pools in the Hajar Mountains. The guide/driver picked us up from Jumeirah Beach Hotel in the morning, and the 4 of us rode in his Ford Land Cruiser past Sharjah, into Omani territory, thereafter Hatta town. After passing sand dunes and small towns, it was great to get away from the dull sandy grey of the city and see mountains, greenery and wadis (rock pools).


The Hajar Mountains were once ocean floor millions of years ago. The rock formations here originated at the bottom of the ocean, and its dark brown and slate-coloured rocks are actually oceanic crystal rocks.

One thing they conveniently forgot to mention when advertising this tour is that the ‘Pools’ are usually dried up unless there has been significant rainfall up in the mountains. And if it’s raining, the SUV would not be able to take us up into the mountains for safety reasons.

Ben spots this tiny frog (or toad) (4-5cm), in camouflage

Luckily, the ‘Pools’ weren’t completely dried up, although it didn’t look as inviting as the deep and azure blue pools I saw on the Internet and TV. One couldn’t dive into the wadi like how the host on Discovery Channel did, but only wade about, if you wanted to. Even so, it was a pleasant trip and our guide, Anasi, was very competent.

After driving up and down the steep and rocky inclines in the mountains and making two stops at wadis to take photos, we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Hatta Fort Hotel. Back in Dubai, we got Anasi to drop us off at The One&Only Royal Mirage Hotel.

Jeremy took a nap on a deckchair while Ben, Hui Chin n I rested by the pool enjoying a drink, and much needed coffee. We took some photos on the beach as the sun set, and then headed to Hard Rock Café for dinner.

Ben enjoyed this REALLY huge burger

One of Hui Chin’s “Things to do in Dubai” was to go watch a camel race. I found out as much as I could about camel racing in Dubai before their trip, but the info on websites are very vague about it. Some say there’s racing on Tuesdays & Thursdays, some say Thursdays & Fridays, some say every morning throughout the winter months…

Most websites say Camel Racing takes place all over Dubai, but don’t pinpoint where, and some say it’s “near” Nad Al Sheba. If you call the Nad Al Sheba Racing Club, they only have info about Horse Racing, and give you another number to call, probably the camel stables or something. When you call this number, someone tells you in a not very convincing way that there “should be” a race on such and such a day and time.

We call Muhammed (a new car lift) and get him to bring us to Nad Al Sheba one afternoon. We pass the camel race track but don’t see any races going on, so I call the ‘mysterious number’ again. The guy on the line says yes, there ‘should be’ a camel race right now, but there we were, parked in front of an empty and deserted track.

The next day we find out from a hotel concierge that camel racing is temporarily banned (because of the use of kids as young as 9 or 10 as jockeys), until they introduce ‘robot jockeys’ sometime this or next year. Ben is against camel racing or any other kind of animal race ‘cos he thinks it’s cruel, so he was happy he didn’t have to watch a race.

Outside Basta Art Café, waiting for the weather to clear up

Hui Chin wants to check out the belly dancing ‘outfits’ and handicrafts in the Souks, so we plan to meet her friend Umica in Bur Dubai, hoping that Umica can help when haggling at the Souk to get the best bargain. Umica is a resident here, actually born here in Dubai.

It’s not a very good day to visit the souks as it’s raining, so we have coffee/tea and really yummy strawberry cheese cake at Basta Art Café while waiting for Umica to arrive. She gets lost as she doesn’t know where the Bastakiya is. When she finally finds her way to the Bastakiya, we follow her in her car as she parks it at a carpark near Shindaga.

We forget it’s a Friday, and Jeremy & Hui Chin are amazed at how crowded the area is. The souks, creekside and just every street and corner is packed with Indian men. Jeremy tries to spot a woman, any woman, in the crowd but it’s like trying to find ‘Wally’.

I spent my first month here studying the Dubai Explorer, Street Guide and TimeOut, so Hui Chin n the guys find it very amusing that I know the area so well whereas Umica who’s been living here her whole life is kinda lost. It’s still drizzling as we walk through the Textile Souk and the Old Souk. Ben buys some really shiok Indian deep-fried snacks, and we take the abra over to the Deira side of the creek.

We visit the Gold Souk and other fringing souks, and later find out from Umica that there are so many Indians in Dubai that Hindi is the ‘official’ language at markets and small shops instead of Arabic. Even most of the Emiratis speak Hindi.

The souks aren’t like what Hui Chin was expecting, as she thought it would be more authentic like those in Morocco or Istanbul, with local Arabs selling handicrafts and such. Instead, it was like Little India, but she and Jeremy did enjoy the experience, especially seeing so many Indians congregated in such a congested area.

We take the abra back to Bur Dubai and ask Umica to bring us some place where we can try authentic Arabic/local food. So we have dinner at a restaurant in Garhoud. Arabic cuisine is pretty similar to Lebanese food, with influences from the Mediterranean too. We enjoy stuff like grilled skewered meats (kebabs), shish tawouk, hommous, arayes and zatar bread, and local flatbread with this really yummy & creamy garlic spread.

Then Jeremy orders this really weird drink that he spotted in the Fruit Juice list, something called ‘Jalab’. He asks the waiter what it is, and he says it’s date juice with pine nuts. It tastes really gross and Hui Chin says it smells like insecticide, but Jeremy seems to enjoy until we keep seeing different waiters pass by, whisper to another waiter, then stifle a laugh.

We also try some shisha, which is pretty gross too. The waiter who gives us the disposable plastic mouthpieces for the pipe tells Jeremy that it’s called “biz” in Arabic. So Jeremy keeps saying “biz” till the restaurant manager comes up to him, telling him not to say it ‘cos it means “breast”.

Ben n I order Nescafe and the waiter brings us this:

DIY coffee

We also bring Jeremy & Hui Chin to the ‘famous’ malls, probably the only thing that Dubai proudly boasts – Mall of the Emirates and Ibn Battuta Mall. They’re not very interested and I can’t blame them. Like I said at the start, Dubai has nothing much to offer a tourist, or even a resident. Ask any Emirati what’s a good place to visit in Dubai, and he’ll say “Mall of the Emirates”.

Ben advises me not to encourage any of our family n friends to visit Dubai. Airfare to Dubai from Malaysia or Singapore cost as much as a flight to Europe, and the hassle and chaos at the airport is enough to make any visitor turn back. Although we now have a huge apartment to ourselves that can accommodate all my Ah Ees at one go, there’s nothing much to do in Dubai, unless you don’t mind parting with a lot of money at the malls and expensive restaurants.

My advice for a fulfilling getaway that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket, visit a nature spot in your home country (Pulau Ubin or Bukit Timah in Singapore, or Taman Negara, Kota Tinggi, and many more in Malaysia), or take a ‘Glutton’s Tour’, savour the smells, sounds, sights, tastes, take lots of pictures, and share it with everyone you know ☺