French Fries

Since Ben is more inclined towards traditional French cuisine and knows its history – stuff like why Opera cake is called Opera, etc, I asked him why French fries are called French fries. Like you have Penang Hokkien Mee which is prawn mee, and then Singapore Hokkien Mee which is something completely different. So why don’t we have Spanish fries and American fries? What’s so special about French fries when they don’t even come from France and are probably made from US potatoes?

Ben can’t sleep for days when I ask him these weird questions. And he actually goes and gets answers for me if he doesn’t have it at his fingertips.

Like once, I asked him if British royalty have a surname. Like y’know, Queen Elizabeth, Prince William… It can’t just say “Prince Charles” in his passport right… Does he even have or need a passport? So Ben actually asked one of the English boys, and he told him “It’s Windsor”.

Really? Seriously? So it’s Elizabeth Windsor? William Windsor? Hmmm…

Now since we’re on the subject of French stuff, did you know that before I met Ben, my friends were oddly eager to introduce me to French-speaking guys? I have no idea why! First there was Shan, who asked me to meet her for dinner. Then just before she picks me up, she says, “Wear something nice” which when translated means, “I’m introducing you to a guy against your will so don’t come in your jeans, rock t-shirt, without make up and with your hair looking like crap”.


So on the way to dinner she says, “Wah… He can speak French!” So what? He could be speaking Mandarin to me and I still wouldn’t understand a word. So this dude turns out to be a really nice and very Singaporean-ised angmoh, but he was like 12 years older and the only thing that seemed truly French about him other than his name was his Zidane-ish hairline.


Then after that, Shorbs and Raena tried to pull an “oh-you-must-meet-this-guy-thing” on me. This time, it was a Chinese fellow who speaks French, has a good job, is really nice and single (oxymoron?)… It’s a good thing their little plot fell thru ‘cos the only things French I like are French onion soup and French toast, and the only French-speaking guy who’ll ever get my attention is Johnny Depp. Ooolala…

Then I worked at GC, and the boss there said, “Ooooh… my Chefs are cute and they speak French you know” Enough already! These two “cute” French-speaking chefs she was referring to were Ben and David, who can’t really speak French lah – just a bit of cursing n swearing they learnt from Chef Julien.

They probably just said something like “Le mis en place escargot café au lait dauphinoise crème brulee thierry henri champs elysees…” to 'bedek' the ladies lah.


I remember when I had to do some food shots, and Ben was describing the starters that were on display. Pointing to the ratte potato with a ‘pekat’ French accent, “This is a rrrraahh potato, best potato in the world”. He only found out later that all he had to do was speak 'Yoda-ish' to impress this girl.


So the answer to why French fries are named so? Thomas Jefferson introduced fries to the colonies in the late 1700s, and the term French fries simply evolved from Jefferson’s description, “potatoes, fried in the French manner”. However, there’s no evidence that fries originated from France, with other countries like Belgium and Spain also claiming its origin.

The Greatest Love of All

Happy Easter to All!

The toys come out to play

Back when I often stayed up from night till morning, then slept during the day, I went to the mall thinking I'd "start" my day early one morning. However, I was a little TOO early, and none of the shops were open yet, although the mall was already lit. It was really weird, walking around the empty mall, its large halls echoing the sound of my footsteps and the occasional cleaners passing by.


I passed store after store, some shut and in complete darkness, others with its window displays brightly lit. Looking at all the mannequins made me think of Amelia Jane and golliwogs or whatchamaycallems. You know, those Enid Blyton stories of the toys coming out to play at night, or if you never grew up reading Blyton, then, like how the displays came to life in Night At The Museum.


In a weird way, it may make sense if they did come to life, after all the trouble it took to deck them in the latest fashion apparel and what not, and with such a huge mall to run around in.


The "girls" could finally meet the "boys", especially 'em tall, dark and handsome'uns from Hugo Boss or Debenhams. The kid mannequins could play with anything in the toystore, and sit on the funrides for free. And the "flying man" could finally really fly, instead of being suspended from the ceiling all day :o)

The Long and Winding Road

This is one spot in Dubai that I actually like and MAY miss when we decide to finally leave this place.


It's a street near our apartment that leads to Ibn Battuta Mall, and is a longer route compared to walking along the main road, as it snakes through the Gardens villas. But in the evenings, just before dusk (and only during the winter months), walking along this street makes me feel like I'm back home. Something about how green it is, with trees and shrubs lining the entire stretch, and even patches of green moss on the areas of earth not covered by turf. Imagine that, moss in a desert city.


At twilight, just as the streetlights are lit, it's cool and windy, and walking along this stretch just takes you to another place. Seriously. You no longer feel like you're in Dubai, and forget that the rest of the city is mostly grey, brown and dusty, its streets full of traffic, its skyline dotted with large construction cranes and concrete structures. So I'm enjoying my weekly walks to the mall while I can, cos once the cool months are over, walking ANYWHERE in Dubai only takes you to the nearest airconditioned environment to escape the heat and humidity.

The Parable of the Big Flood and Two Loaves

It rained on Sunday, drizzled on Monday, and on Tuesday, it rained all day from morning till night. That's really not much rainfall if compared to the cats n dogs we get back home, but by Dubai standards, 24 hours of light rain equals flooding throughout the emirate.

People in Sharjah probably had to swim to Dubai, and many roads in Dubai were accessible only by big vehicles like 'em Hummers that the locals love to drive. Ben said he saw a Ferrari stranded near our home, left to "soak" by the roadside. Imagine the earful he gets when this dude explains to his wife why he came home, sans-Ferrari. "Lah illah ha illallah... How many times have I told you, Limo on weekdays, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati on weekends, but take the H3 out on rainy days, habibi".

The weather has finally caught up with the rest of the northern hemisphere, with temperatures dipping to as low as 1 degree Celcius in places like Al Ain. I'm now thinking of nice yellow Phua Chu Kang boots to keep my feet dry, and gloves to save my fingers from icy petrification.

Along with the cold, comes colds - the dreaded winter sniffles. Luckily, unlike the usual flu, most of us just have a runny/blocked nose and slight cough, minus the fever and phlegm by the bucketloads. The best remedy is, as always, lots of liquids, and keeping warm. I've been cooking soups and stews a lot. Nothing like a warm and hearty stew or soup for dinner during winter. I even managed to find "kiamchye" (sour mustard) here, so we had the usual post-Christmas turkey bones with kiamchye soup recently.

All we did last Christmas and New Year was eat... Actually, all we do most of the time, any time of the year is eat! We baked a lot in November and December - cheesecakes, lemon pies, sugee cake, cupcakes, cookies...


And Ben says Christmas isn't complete without a lorry-load of chocolates, so we stocked up on chocolate biscuits, caramel-filled chocolates, fudge-like chocolates, mint chocolates, praline- nougat- semisweet- assorted chocolates... even chocolates shaped like Santa Claus... You get my drift.


This last Christmas however, we had something really special, brought all the way from Singapore - two loaves of Gardenia bread!


Our friend Jac had her parents over just before Christmas, so she asked Ben if he wanted anything from Singapore. "Gardenia! Gardenia!" Ben's been craving for Gardenia sandwich bread since he heard that Chee Lin and Mabel brought TEN loaves over when they moved to Dubai, cos the bread here is terribly dry... It's so dry, you could wipe your nose with it when suffering from winter sniffles.

In fact, local bread is so dry, they should line the streets with it to solve the flood problems. "Yulla, yulla, throw the roti out the window, habibi... Khalas!"

HSBC SUCKS!!!

HSBC in Dubai is the #$%*!+^!! worst bank in the world. It is ****ED UP. Ya, I'll say it again just to stress my point - HSBC UAE is ****ED UP. All banks here are ****ed up. This whole place is one big **** up. I know my timing sucks cos I just happen to be pissed off with this country on the eve of its national day, but TOO BAD!! YOU SUCK!!!

Parklane Pai-kia

The older we get, the more our memories fade. First we forget little details, then moments, and eventually even huge chunks of time. When I was around 21, I started some sort of journal, something I call my “I Remember… Book” in which I listed little bits of memories from as far back as I could remember. Every now and then if I remembered something, I’d add it to the list. Most of them were memories of the antics of my brothers and I as kids, like how we’d fling my Mom’s rotan (a thin but wicked strip of bamboo that she caned us with if we misbehaved) up onto the roof of our house. Quite often you’d hear my Mom yelling, “Si gin-na! Where did you hide the cane this time?!!”

Anyway, this post isn’t about my childhood memories, as I already have most of them jotted down in that journal somewhere in Singapore. Instead, here’s something from Ben’s ‘archives’. I may not get all the facts right since this is a second-hand account, so if anyone finds something wrong or really offensive, please do let me know.

Sometimes Ben recalls something from his past, not so much from early childhood but mainly memories from his ‘strayed’ adolescence, and happily goes on a long rant about it. Give him a couple more years and I’m quite sure he’ll forget more and more of these snippets of the past that he already vaguely remembers now.

Recently he told me about how he and his friends would go to Parklane every Saturday when they were teenagers… to just lepak or act cool or make a nuisance of themselves, I suppose. A whole group of about 20 of them would ride the double-deckered number 14 SBS bus from the East side of Singapore to the city and back. They would usually take up the entire top deck and… lepak, act cool, or make a nuisance of themselves lah. Back then, most of the buses weren’t air-conditioned yet, and this served these boys well since they could have the windows open, act cool, and make a nuisance of themselves some more.

The bus route would also take them past a particular house in Katong which always seemed to be having a ‘party’ on weekends. So they’d shout, “Oi, party bo chio!” (loosely translated to “got party, never invite”) It was only much later (in life) that they discovered this was a Sai Baba house of worship.

While waiting at bus stops, they also had this “sabo-routine” where all of them would stand in a line in front of the bus stop. As a bus came by, if one of them was standing where the bus door opened, he would be forced to dance in front of the bus. As fate would have it, the bus door would open in front of Cyril almost every time.

Around this same stage in their clueless teenage years, Ben and friends also picked up a Hokkien phrase from Desmond’s Mom. Apparently, she would sometimes be heard saying “Kam kio!”, which literally translates as “suck brinjal” in Hokkien. I guess we’ll have to check with Desmond if it was to be taken literally, or if it was just a figure of speech, like “holy shit” or like how my Mom and aunts always use the meaningless term, “ua-ko” (bowl-cake). But trust Ben, Desmond and guys to make use of this ‘colourful’ new-found term to their delight.

Sometimes, they’d hail taxis for no reason at all. The taxi would stop and then they’d say they didn’t want to take it. Or they’d mention absurd locations like “Uncle, Johor?” But the favourite joke on taxi drivers would be, “Uncle, ai kam kio?” (“uncle, wanna suck brinjal?”) The taxi driver would then say, “Ang Mo Kio?” and they’d say no and ask again, “Ai kam kio?”

So for our next trip back to Singapore, we have a short list of things to do:

1. visit ‘that’ house in Katong

2. ask Desmond’s Mom the real meaning of ‘kam kio’

3. get Cyril to grace us with a dance

A bitter pill

I caught the flu bug two weeks back and did not visit a clinic or see a doctor for medication. I usually self-medicate, and only see the doctor when I need an MC, need to stock up on painkillers, or am really sick and have no idea what I’m suffering from.

Another reason why I especially don’t like to visit a doctor when I’m suffering from the flu/fever is cos I don’t take antibiotics. I have a phobia of swallowing pills, and till now, still crush my pills to a powdered pulp to mix with a bit of water and then swallow in liquid form… no matter how bitter or gross it is.

So if I tell a doctor this, he gives me the same look that my Dad does, like it’s really such a crime to have a phobia. I really think it’s kinda unfair to be judged and treated like a kid just cos I take my meds like a two-year old. Some people are afraid of heights, needles, blood, rats, the supernatural, or whatever.

So I think I’m pretty gungho if compared to quite a lot of people, since nothing much scares me… except big cockroaches, pills..... and dirty old men.

Quite often the doctor just prescribes me pills anyway, even when I say I can’t swallow them. Like my Dad again, the doctor will say, “You shouldn’t have any problem swallowing it, it’s not that big… or it’s just a capsule”. In fact I can’t remember the last time a doctor has agreed to give me meds in liquid form like the gross pink or yellow goo that they force on kids.

So sometimes I don’t even bother telling the doctor that I can’t swallow pills. I just see him to get an MC and then throw away whatever meds he gives me. That’s why I never take antibiotics, cos I would definitely never finish a course.

We recently had dinner with Ben’s supplier Rohit and his wife Geetha. They’ve been living in Dubai for 16 years and told us that doctors and clinics here suck big time. So it turns out the lack of knowledge and efficiency isn’t just restricted to banks and governmental institutions. It really applies to everything in Dubai. Big and small companies, local and multinational, across all the various fields/industries.

Geetha had the flu two months back which developed into pneumonia and she just recovered about a week ago! It seems the doctors here are really, really useless. They never give you the proper medication that’s meant to cure you immediately. Instead, they’ll give you “Cocktail A” which you take for 7 – 10 days, then prescribe you with “Cocktail B” when you find that you’re not getting any better, and after almost a month of all sorts of drugs, they decide happy hour’s finally over and present you with “Cocktail C”.

And the few doctors who are supposed to be good are booked so far ahead that if you were sick today, he’d be able to see you two weeks later. So I can’t imagine why people would say he/she was a good doctor if they only visited them after making an appointment weeks before, meaning patients are either well by the time they see these “good” doctors, or close to dying, or plain psychic.

Since I’m not working now, I treated my flu with lots of rest, liquids, vitamin C, honey, lemon, Panadol Cold & Flu, and Lemsip Max. I guess doing it this way takes longer than if I ‘nuked’ it with real drugs from a doctor. The flu took about 10 days to pass from different stages of fever, body ache, headache, blocked nose, plus lots and lots of green stuff…

I stopped taking cough syrup after ten days cos apparently that’s the maximum amount of days you can take cough mixture continually, and if it’s not cured by then, it means the cough has already developed into an infection or whatever.

However, the cough that develops during the course of the flu for me always lingers on for much longer, sometimes up to two months, and I usually just wait for it to pass without any medication. This post-flu cough of mine usually ‘sounds’ really bad, like a whooping cough, where I’d have a really deep cough that sounds like an old car with a loud and rusty engine followed by wheezing and shortness of breath. This time around though, it doesn’t sound so bad but it ‘feels’ quite bad.

Since yesterday, my chest has been hurting a lot. First it hurt when I coughed, then by the end of the day, it just hurt, like I had a huge internal blue-black. It's never hurt this way before and Ben's kinda worried and wants me to see a doctor about it, but I'm still hoping it'll heal itself in due course.

Anyway, I just learned that they’ve just gone and banned 4 different flu meds and a few other cough meds, including Panadol Cold & Flu. Like how Decolgen was banned a few years back, apparently these recent additions to the list of banned drugs cause some pretty serious side effects, like heart failure or some scary shit like that.

This kinda stuff gets you thinking…. These are approved drugs - tried, tested, approved, and sold over the counter for years. Every year, hundreds of different drugs are taken off the shelf cos some ‘genius’ discovers that it has potentially dangerous side effects.

So how the hell do drugs get approved only to be later “discovered” unsafe? Well, most drugs are already known to be potentially harmful, and its side effects are usually stated in the fine print on that small piece of paper that come with meds that we don’t bother to read.

And you know how we have some friends or relatives who always bombard us with forwarded emails about the dangers of this and that? Like, oh, don’t microwave such and such a thing cos it will release some sorta toxin that will cause cancer, or don’t consume such and such a thing cos it contains such and such an ingredient that’s the same stuff that’s used to clean industrial machinery. Half the time these emails warn of cancer-causing materials/ingredients. Then there are the emails that highlight the qualities of certain products/ingredients and how it combats cancer or any disease/ailment known to man.

Well, I guess now I know that perhaps there’s some truth to some of these emails and as much as I’m sometimes annoyed by the bombardment of forwarded emails, I also have to remember that it’s usually sent by thoughtful relatives and friends who may seem like hypochondriacs at times but I guess the bottomline is that, they worry, and they care.

I’m not gonna turn into a hypochondriac, but I recently read an online article from The Ecologist about Lemsip Max Cold & Flu Capsules that really got my attention since I’m an over-the-counter-drug-junkie when it comes to the flu. The Ecologist has a regular “Behind The Label” article that features the potentially harmful contents found in all sorts of products. This recent article highlighted over-the-counter flu meds, especially since it’s Winter and the flu bug is going around.

According to this article, most over-the-counter remedies “have been found – through objective, scientific studies – to be useless”.

“Crucially, people who regularly purchase cold and flu remedies are usually ill when they make their purchases, and this phenomenon, known as the ‘distress factor’, is a real boon to manufacturers. Sick people don’t think, they simply want relief – immediately.”

“So, in spite of the fact that nothing you can buy will cure your cold, a huge number of us have succumbed to the hit-it-hard-and-hit-it fast remedies such as the Lemsip ‘Max’ range, which predominate on the pharmacist’s shelves and promise that you can happily continue to work long hours and enjoy a full social life, even if your body is telling you to slow down.”

The article takes Lemsip Max as an example, and lists its ingredients with descriptions and side effects. You can find the full article here.

Medical and scientific studies have shown that the best cure for the flu is rest, warmth and lots of liquids. But with our busy lifestyles, we seldom have the luxury of taking more than a day or two off work to cure a cold. So we rely on over-the-counter remedies that only offer temporary relief.

The scary thing here is not that these drugs don’t actually cure you, but that in the long run, it may be harmful to your health. Perhaps that’s why my cough is so bad. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes that if a cough is suppressed or not treated correctly, it will remain in your body and may eventually develop into something worse.

"According to TCM understanding, many conditions can have their origin in an untreated cough: asthma, diabetes, and even cancer." [Ref: article about Cough and TCM]

So now, I’m desperately waiting for an alternative cough remedy to arrive from Malaysia. My Mom has mailed me a packet of tong sum (Codonopsis root) to be cooked based on a recipe of tong sum, ginger and lean beef, stewed for half a day as a herbal broth to cure bronchitis. Let’s hope this works, cos I’d really rather not see a doctor (especially since they don’t have that “power” black cough syrup here cos most drugs here are alcohol-free).

Tai-Kor-Tai-Tor

My husband was recently promoted at work, and although he's carrying out all the duties and responsibilities of his new position, the promotion will officially take effect only in December. As head of a new restaurant, he had to oversee countless photography sessions for the press/media the past few weeks, as the company's PR department is busy publicising the restaurant's opening. These were mainly food shots, or photos of models pretending to dine at the venue. The PR department also arranged for a photographer to take a professional shot of Ben in the event that his photo is required for any press releases or articles.


Of course we all know, big title = big jobscope + big responsibilities + big headache. So Ben no longer works on a shift basis but for as many hours as needed, going in to work as early as 7am and leaving as late as past midnight. Most days he works from 8am - 11pm.

What to do... now Tai Lo already. And to prove this, he's Tai-Kor-Tai-Tor with FOUR handphones! One's his own, one is for the restaurant, and the other two are 'em walkie-talkie-type of com-phones. All hail Mighty Ben-yah-meen... Lord of the Ring-Ring.

The Ultimate Lepak Experience

Hi, our names are Benjamin and Bernadette, and we're couch potatoes.

Ben works about 14-16 hours a day, with just 4-6 days off in a month. So when he gets home at night or on his days off, it's extremely important that he feels as relaxed as possible to unwind and take his mind off work. Lucky for him, he met a lazy bum like me, so we're like two peas in a pod... two "ubi berisi" on a sofa.

There are women from China who sneak about the apartment blocks selling DVDs. And then there's Shams. No-Holds-Barred-Bo-Kia-Si Shams, who lugs around two huge bags of pirated DVDs openly. Shams is the man, man. He sells DVDs with 16-in-1 movies for just AED20. 16-in-1!! Super-power-terrama!!


For my birthday, Ben bought me a spanking new iPod since I drowned my Nano in the washing machine. This new baby holds 30gigs and plays videos too. That much disk space meant lots and lots of downloads.... So I went crazy and downloaded almost every single song I've known since the 70s... Plus movies, entire seasons of sitcoms....

One series that Ben n I are hooked on is Grey's Anatomy. He enjoys it so much that he wanted "scrubs" of his own too. So when I was in Singapore in June, I bought some cheap cotton from Spotlight and sewed us both a set of our very own "scrubs". It's especially comfy for lounging around in when we're semi-comatose on the sofa.


But the couch was too small for two big potatoes like us. Not that we're too fat to fit on the couch, but we wanted The Ultimate Lepak Lounge. We considered moving the TV into the bedroom, or the bed into the living room but the logistics weren't right for that almost-brilliant plan.

So Ben made his birthday wish... "I want a sofa bed! We'll go to IKEA on my birthday to get it".

We couldn't find a set that we liked cos sofa beds are either really bulky, or really "leceh" cos u have to take it apart and put it back all the time. We asked the salesperson if we could have two chaise lounge sets joined as one... like an extended two-seater sofa, or a bed with armrests. Trust the imbecile to say "yes yes of course no problem" and then screw up.


The chaise lounge sets were delivered a week later, but it didn't come with armrests and couldn't be joined together. So it's like we bought two deck-chairs or mini-beds. Apparently the armrests have to be ordered separately, or only come with the couch! Anyway, we still love it cos it's damn comfy, man.


"Budaya lepak" has arrived and evolved. Malaysia boleh? Dubai lagi boleh!

Can we be friends?

For my short stay in Singapore, I managed to squeeze in a few trips to the library. Man... I miss Singapore libraries n access to so many good books! I miss being able to lug home a huge stack of books that I'd never be able to get my hands on if I had to actually buy them!

One evening when I was at the library in Bedok, I was looking for a particular book about Natural History in the Youth section of the library when a young boy approached me. He looked about 14, and asked me for the time. Not realising that he actually had a handphone with him, I gave him the time, and continued browsing. He didn't leave, and stood there next to me, touching himself nervously. I don't mean "touching" himself like you know where, but his hands were nervously wiping his brow, neck, chest... Y'know...

So then he says to me, You boleh cakap Melayu? and I was like, Ya. Pleased, he continues, You dari Indonesia? and I say, No, Singapore. So he says, Saya juga orang Singapore. From the way his eyes dart about as he twitches nervously, I can tell he's a bit "off" up there lah. But get this. As I inch my way away from him, he approaches slowly and asks, "Can we be friends?"

It was SO WEIRD! Most people mistake me for a teacher 'cos apparently I look like one, what with my striking nerdus maximus looks n mak nenek character. I knew this boy was a bit mental, but I was so embarrassed I just replied, SAYA SUDAH KAHWIN LAH! SUDAH TUA! And then he was lagi embarrassed n backed off immediately, saying Sorry ya, Sorry ya as he disappeared behind the bookshelves, tail n goodness knows what between his legs.

Sometimes it's amusing when I get carded for certain reasons n it's a compliment that some people still think I look 17. But to be asked by a 14-year old boy if I wanted to be his friend? That's some scary shit man!

But if I was still 14... Is that how kids make friends these days? Is that how WE made friends back in those days? Well, my Mom used to think I went to the library as a teen to look at boys! I studied in an all-girls school by the way. But NO! I wasn't that despo. (And anyway, I had Sunday School to keep me entertained!) Some girls would wait all year for "inter-school" events just to check out the boys (or girls) from neighbouring schools. I remember if your classroom faced the school field, your teacher would have a rough time getting the girls to pay attention when there were 20 LaSalle prefects running around in their PE shorts.

Making friends, back then, and now, hasn't changed that much I guess. Back then, in primary school, we'd get friends to "sign" our autograph books. We'd write poems n phrases in these books, like "Trees are silver---Leaves are gold---Remember me---When you are old" or some corny shit like that. Now you've got these "autograph books" online, with friends leaving you messages n wishes in your Guestbook, or sending you virtual gifts n such.

Some of us wonder how real or genuine friendships are in the virtual world, like on Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, and other online "social networking" (i.o.w. dating) sites.

I lost touch with many of my friends from school, and have recently reunited with many of them online. But I got to asking, why we lost touch in the first place if we really were friends. Some of them are girls I've known since I was seven! Classmates from Standard 1 right up to Std 6, we practically grew up together, playing games like Ibu Ayam & Helang, and that darn rubberband skipping game that I never could master. We celebrated birthdays, report card days, Hari Sukan...

We went off to the same secondary school, but were divided into different classes, made new friends. These new friends soon went off to different classes too, as we were later divided into Arts and Science streams. So we made more new friends, somewhat leaving the old ones behind. I guess it was a quiet understanding, like, you go your way, I go my way... but yea, I'll remember you when I'm old.

And of course back then, we didn't have emails and online albums n kawan-ster stuff. If I was still in Malaysia, perhaps I may not have even bothered looking up old friends online. We take for granted what's right in front of us, and search for love, friendship and some form of gratification in a world made up of bits, bytes n pixels. Perhaps with careers, studies, spouses, kids, and what nots to juggle, there simply isn't enough time and space for every single friend you've made since kindergarten. Everything and everyone is just whizzing by at the speed of light. So we're only able to appreciate how "roses are red and violets are blue" when we're seated calmly in front of a computer.

I guess the hard truth is, things in the real world have become so superficial that virtual reality becomes What's Real to most of us. So whether it's online, at the library, on the MRT, at the mamak... I guess we can make friends anywhere. It's not really the "where", "when" or "how" that matters, but "Why".

Tour of Non-Duty

Planned to write something about my trip home after returning to Dubai but procrastinated till now. Well, better late than never. Before leaving for Singapore/PJ in June, I wrote a post about my "Dubai blues". Well, I made my month-long trip back, recovered, and am back in Dubai, good as new.

The first significant thing I did when back in Singapore was my trip out to the intertidal zone in Changi with Wildfilms, the second day I was home. Great way to start off my getaway. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't "getting away" from my husband. Just Dubai itself - its intolerable service standards, etc etc... the list just grows n grows.


Lots of new sights greeted me in Singapore, like the horrid "Wheel" that's almost done, the new Ikea, Giant and Courts in Tampines, Sheng Siong in Bedok, and VivoCity.


I spent about 10 days in PJ and 20 days in Singapore. My time in PJ was quality time with family and buddies. I think I've had enough Nescafe Ais to last me the rest of the year, as I was out at the mamak with Nat on most nights, sometimes joined by Sher Hui and Wye Li. Also managed to spend an afternoon in Bangsar with Jamie.

Sometimes I feel like a celebrity back home as my many "Ah Ee"s take turns to "chope" me for lunch appointments and such. It felt really nice, and of course, anything to do with makan is great!


Back in Singapore, I joined Wildfilms on a few more trips during low tide to the shore and a few islands. These were really splendid too - being close to nature again, and my conversations with like-minded individuals like Ria and Chay Hoon.

Earlier Wildfilms footage were shot on tape, so there are a few hundred tapes that need to be digitised, and a lepak "tai-tai" like me always comes in handy for nitty-gritty jobs like these. So I lugged back "Ziggy" (our pet name for one of the small handicams), 500gigs of hard disk, and four boxes of tapes to be converted into digital format. This should keep me happily busy till 2008 too!

I've discovered though, that there's a big difference between tai-tai and housewife. A tai-tai has a maid. I am a housewife.


Another eventful "must do" in Singapore was attending Jo and Leong's wedding dinner. I was pretty zonked out that day as I had spent the early morning out on Pulau Hantu, but the wedding dinner was a really refreshing change to the dreary grey of Dubai life.


Typical Chinese/Singaporean style - lots of red and cheery colours, as pictured here. When I'm really tired, my hands get really shaky, so I didn't take any pictures but have compiled a few here, taken by Mei Ling and the wedding photographer.


I was seated with Louis, Rabind and Wayne, and some intimidating-looking guys I've never met before. Felt pretty lost especially since I was half-awake and attending this as "Ben's wife". Introductions to people were like this, Hey, you know Ben? --- Fatty Ben? or Ben the Chef? --- Yea, this is his wife, Mrs Fatty Ben.


I must say, even though this was like, what... only the second time I've met Leong, and one might ask who I am to comment, I think he looked really, really happy. I hardly got to see or speak to Jo 'cos typical in all Chinese wedding dinners, the bride always kena change baju like a Hong Kong superstar at a concert. It was a beautiful wedding, and I'm sure, the happiest day of their lives.

One thing I sure didn't miss when back in Singapore... no, two things:
1. Being made to feel fat just cos I wasn't like all 'em skinny-ass skanks around.
2. Being told that I speak "very good English for a Malaysian".

I mean, what's up with people presuming that Malaysians can't speak English. If you sat in a foodcourt in Singapore, no, not even food court... If you were seated in a nice restaurant in Singapore, you'd notice that all the chatter around you is in Mandarin. Many Singaporeans think they speak "good" English just 'cos they begin each sentence with words like "Basically..." and try to sound eloquent by saying things like "forget a-bow-rit" and "am I right or am I right?"

First of all, there's no such thing as "good English". Learn to speak proper English, get your grammar, Ps n Qs right, before you go 'round questioning another's language proficiency based on nationality.

It's bloody annoying and such an insult when people ask, You're Malaysian? Are you sure? You speak such good English, I thought you're Singaporean. You studied in Singapore or overseas is it?

I'm Malaysian, I studied in Malaysia, I don't hold a degree, and I speak proper English. Lots of Malaysians do. Wake up....

Ok, back to happy stuff. What felt really good about my trip home was the amount of "me-time" I had. Ya, I know I don't work in Dubai so I have full access to "me-time" here too. But when I was in Singapore and PJ, I was a housewife on holiday!


No need to cook! No need to jaga the big baby! No need to worry about groceries. Hungry? Just walk out to the nearby kopitiam and be spoilt for choice. I didn't even have to make my own coffee. Just 80 cents gets me a nice cup of kopi pua sio. So shiok!


I met up with friends, mother-in-law, father-in-law. Mizan works at the i-Shop in Cineleisure, so he was one of the first few people I met and he even gave me a discount on the adapter for my Powerbook. I had a late lunch and coffee with Razmi just before he went off for National Service, and konlomee with Raena and Shorbs! Dinner with Ben's friends, as well as with my ex-colleagues from Crystal Wines.


I also met up with Peng a few times for kopi or makan. I told him I planned to ta-pau half a roast duck to bring back to Dubai for Ben, and he went ahead and bought it for me. Peng also introduced me to the latest drink fad, those awful cans of "Anything" or "Whatever"! And I finally met Brownie, his chow chow puppy!


All in all, it was a marvelous trip, and it was even nicer knowing that the end of the trip would signal my return home to Ben, so leaving didn't feel so bad. The housewife, refreshed and rejuvenated, is back on duty.