on my turf

on my turf

The people living in the west of Singapore are always complaining about the lack of good food. We don't have Katong Laksa, Changi Village, Bedok Bak Chor Mee, Geylang street food and Pulau Ubin Monkey Brains. We are always venturing to the far ends of Singapore, scouring the island for food, food and more food. Sometimes all we want is a nice little restaurant, tucked away from the crowd, and have a lazy weekend brunch or a romantic dinner. But the west side is a mass of HDBs with no such things! Unless you count my favourite Jurong Point. Hahaha.

Since the girls came back, we've been hanging out in our hood alot. We've discovered some real kickass hideout's, on par with Dempsey and Geylang. From all-day brunches to full-course dinners, the west side has 'em all! The touch girls will love this list because most of the restaurants are actually near Turf City - therefore my cheesy title. Hahaha. Please excuse me. And I was really kidding about the monkey brains.

Picotin - Turf Club Road.

Kais had her 21st birthday dinner here, and all of us loved the ambience. The bird cage lampshades really got me. The food was pretty good, with impeccable service. Perfect for avoiding town crowds during the holidays!

Hatched - Evans Lodge.

This cute little place serves ALL DAY BREAKFAST, EVERYDAY. I love it to death. My one pleasure living in Canada was being able to eat homemade (okay, self-made) breakfast at any hour of the day. I also fell in love with eggs, cooked various styles. You can see why Hatched is my kind of place. And the price is a real steal because there's no GST and service charge! One last thing - they have the best mash ever. It's the white lump of thing in the food photo, second from the left. Must. Eat.

Durian Place - near 6th Avenue, along the main Bt. Timah Road.

You will not miss this place when you drive along Bt. Timah Road. It's near the stretch with Ritz Apple Strudel and the Salvatore Italian restaurant. They have Mao Shan Wang and D24 and all kinds of durians and other fruits that you can imagine. And they even have hand shields for you to eat the durian with! Hahaha. The Mao Shan Wang was the price of dinner for 3 at Hatched, but totally worth the money.

Rider's Cafe - Saddler's Club, Eng Neo Avenue.

All the jokes about having to bring your passport when you travel to the West? They must be talking about all the rustic countryside charm. We felt like we were taking a mini road trip driving into Fairway Road, where Rider's Cafe is! Lovely scenery, huge portions of food. I will get up early enough one day to try their famous breakfast menu. Look out for horses sauntering right below the balcony, and the wafts of their manure that might come through in the breezes!

Whoever said there are no nice dining options in the west again?

girls are home

girls are home

I love how easily we fall together every time we meet, each time 6 months apart.

This friendship is so good, so good.

falling for you

falling for you

Why I fell for G - too much food at Marché.

I spent this Valentine's being late, setting a new record for speed-shopping for presents and ogling at Natalie Portman at Black Swan. Later in the evening, I made sure Glenn remembered this day well and good - I broke my good old sturdy swivel chair while leaning in to give him a kiss, and fell onto the floor with a loud "blop!". He broke out in fits of laughter while I tried to glare at him. Yeahyeah, a very romantic Valentine's Day to you too.

I remember Hamburg

I remember Hamburg

I remember Hamburg. And I want to write a song, or a story, so that you will remember Hamburg as I do.

The strange woman we kept running into, in her queer dress. It wasn't loud and flamboyant, nor was it anything striking to remember by. It was stark and stern, her face without a smile. We were placing our orders by a roadside cafe, smiling and gesturing to the waitress who didn't speak the same language. The strange woman was tall and alone, marching on with her eyes set on a horizon we couldn't see. I remember her roaming the streets of Hamburg. I remember my backward glance at her as she walked on. I remember Hamburg.

The blue lake with its white boats. The blue sky with its white clouds. We talked and laughed and built castles in the sky. You held my hand and I smiled in secret, dropping a coin on the pavement, making a wish by my own tradition. I close my eyes now and I can feel the German breeze in my face and hear the song of ducks splashing in the water. Small white petals floating in the air, dancing, like fairy dusts, like it was snowing in spring. I remember my fascination and endless questions. I remember you laughing. I remember Hamburg.

The dark, Gothic buildings looming on the opposite shore, beckoning. Landmarks of a strange land. It was a destination, a terminus for tourists on a pilgrimage. It was a long walk around the lake. We stopped for pictures, framing the city as we remember it. The buildings have names and stories, but I don't quite remember them. Yet I remember the pair of friends who walked by as we crossed empty streets to get to the aged cathedrals. I remember being the only ones in the quadrangle, as if Hamburg belonged to us. I remember Hamburg.

The bright orange that decked the streets, people cheering. 11pm and the sky was still bright. It was a nation at war, eleven warriors in black against eleven others. We marveled at the roar of the city. I bought a flag, striped black, orange and yellow, an emblem of my transient loyalty. You holler with the boys, the patriots, the vagabonds and the uniformed men. I remember the old gentleman, with his white hair, black suit and brown walking stick, smiling with a gap in his teeth and wrinkles around his mouth as we gave our seat to him. I remember the Ghanaian on the subway, the loner wayfarer in a foreign land, standing by his homeland. I remember the rest of Hamburg smiling at him, a city celebrating its country's victory, embracing all who have come to Hamburg. I remember Hamburg.

I remember Hamburg. Do you?

happy CNY 兔 you!

happy CNY 兔 you!

Reunion steamboat at home. (Beginnings of overeating)

Reason for overeating. CHECK OUT THOSE CUTE RABBITS! Mommy made them by hand, from scratch!

Culinary queen at work.

The task of doing up the house falls to me every year (under Mommy's supervision of course, but let me claim whatever credit I can, please. There really isn't much. Hahaha). I really quite enjoy putting the red stuffs all around the house!

Always a time for family and friends. And angpaos! :D

Happy CNY 兔 you!

skies from my window

skies from my window

Recently, the nation seems to have picked up kite-flying. The sky outside my window is often decorated with specks of colours and flickering lights. I love it. I often spend long moments just staring at them, sometimes snapping photos with my camera on the window ledge, probably looking like a peeping tom to my neighbours. :D

Hand-held butterflies.

Urban fireflies.

Post-script: The pictures do not do the scene justice at all! ):

pompeii: italy/singapore

pompeii: italy/singapore

Entrance to the exhibit. That's a dog contorted in its final moments of death.

Glenn and I had a very intellectual date the other day - we went to the museum, again! This time, we didn't just decide to go because we've never been before; we went to see a specific exhibit - Pompeii, Life in a Roman Town 79CE. I whipped out my phone and dialed Glenn's number the moment I read about it in the papers. How could we travel a gazillion miles to Pompeii (and miss its museum) AND miss this exhibit now that the mummies travel the gazillion miles for us?? We have to go!

The prettiest hostel we stayed at, which is right beside a super scary old church with a sealed entrance. Hostelworld described the landmark as a "little red church". Imagine my shock.

We had to take a million trains and subways and more regional trains to get there. Pompeii is near the Italian city of Naples btw. And have I mentioned we missed our last train back and had to take a cranky old bus which took 2 hours on cobbled streets and then WALK back to the hostel at 1am? It was mad scary cos Naples isn't exactly the safest city in the world and the fact that the police didn't speak English didn't help. In fact, I was so scared at one point I almost screamed and wanted to pick up an empty beer bottle along the roadside for fear of the drunkard across the street rushing over to rob us or something! This is why you stick with the boy even though at some points you feel like jumping off the moving train. And I apologise for the exceptionally long caption. Hahaha. One gets carried away with travel tales.

Authentic Italian food (for tourists) to start our day (at Pompeii, if you're confused by now Haha).

So after much planning, we re-visited Pompeii some 6 months after our actual experience of the Roman city which was completely buried by the first Plinian volcanic eruption (or the first that was so named) within 24 hours. The pyroclastic flow happened so fast that the people were buried in the act of running, and forever fossilized in that manner. Okay, there were not reaaally fossilized but they left impressions in the hot lava which a clever archeologist guessed correctly and then they poured resin into it and created the statues we see today. Or something to that effect.

I think I should add an disclaimer here: historical/archeological facts are NOT accurate. This is not Wiki, and even Wiki isn't 100% foolproof as all you academics should know by now! I'm sure you guys don't read my blog for geographic/historical information ANYWAY. Right?? Hahaha. I sincerely hope you don't.

Casts of the bodies and lots of artefacts excavated. Bottom one is an exhibit here.

So anyway, the point is that the town was buried for a good 2000 years and disappeared from the map and from history until someone found it about 200 years ago! The archeologists then dug up the 6 meters of volcanic ash and whatnots, and voila! Pompeii reappears on the world map! They found that much of the architecture was intact, or as intact as it can be following a volcanic eruption, so now we can walk through a town that is 2000 years old.

Main square of Pompeii town upon entering.

This is the volcano that erupted and took the town off the map.

It is pretty amazing because the streets are almost gridded, which is the system used in Manhattan today! There are eateries (the Pompeiians were very modern and loved to eat out), bath houses, stadiums, holiday chalets and even brothels! The roads were pretty well-paved, and if you look closely, you can even see two strips of dents created by the wheels of the carts (I assume).

Love these two shots and how the grey skies make for great contrast against the ancient stones.

Here's something you don't see at the exhibition - 2000yo brothels! The murals serve as some kind of karma sutra, inspiration for those who need. Hahaha.

Stadiums where gladiator fights took place. They estimated the size of the population in Pompeii by measuring the circumference and then dividing it by the average width of a person. Creative!

The exhibit in at the National Museum of Singapore did pretty well in recreating the city for us. The long murals bearing images of the city walls, the layout of a typical house, the strategically placed exhibits and the short 3D film depicting the eruption were really quite well done. Imagine the details that the curator has to pay attention to! Prior to this guided tour, I always thought curators had shit boring jobs, like wiping down the glass tops of exhibits and stuff. New found respect!

Imported mural and the ones at the actual site.

They imported this whole fountain so that we can see the details of the mosaic. Check out the shells embedded in there!

All other things that I enjoyed at the museum - the colonial architecture, the 3D film and the readily available clean toilets!! And of course, my outfit, which actually emits some form of fashion sense that completely disappeared in Europe with the constraints of a suitcase.

Anyway, the exhibit will go on for another 2 weeks, and guess what? It's OPEN HOUSE! Which means its freeeeee! I finished the last leg of my Europe tour at the exhibition, maybe you could start yours there!

Until the next!

little tots, i like!

little tots, i like!

This is what I've been doing all December: working at Mommy's childcare! Since I had no ideal internship going on, I thought I'd try my hand at taking care of little tots whom my mother has described as heart-melting. And indeed they were! I always imagined myself as being terrible with kids, but this proved otherwise! :D And I am more confident that I will NOT accidentally kill/lose my kid when I have one of my own ONE DAY in the (far) future.

(Side track: Once, while chatting with Glenn, I confidently told him that newborns can swim on their own as long as the water is clean and warm. The logic was that fetuses live in water in the womb, and therefore they can somehow breathe in water. I was totally sure that I read from a mother's blog and said it with the confidence of an expert. Glenn was completely appalled and feared for the future of mankind. Hahaha.)

So anyway, my December was a routine of "Good morning, children!", picking up the crying ones, pulling apart the fighting ones, talking to the chatty ones and replying nonstop to "Jiejie! Look, aeropraaaane!/ Jiejie! Garbage truck!/ Jiejie! Raining/ Jiejie! Cheers!/ Jiejie, where the garbage truck!/ Jiejie, Bob the builder!/ Jiejie! Blue corour, pink corour, blue corour... (I painted my nails blue/pink one day)/ Jiejie! Phone!/ Jiejie! Apple!/ Jiejieeeeeeeeeee!"

And then there were those who'd come in and cry the ENTIRE DAY, screaming at the top of their lungs to "GO HOME!!!" or "CALL MUMMY!" or "UP!! UP!! GOOOOO! GOOOOOOO NOOOOOOW!" There's this one little girl who's as small as a bird but good grief, I swear she has the lungs of a whale. (Do whales have big lungs?? They must right, since they are so, well, big. HAHA.) I think she cries so much that she mixes everyone up because all she says the entire day is "Mommy, mommy, wait. Mommy, mommy, take bus. Mommy, mommy, hug hug." (Probably because we keep telling that she has to wait for Mommy to take the bus so that Mommy can come and fetch her.)

These kids are little persons in their own right! I swear I don't remember being so sharp as a 2yo. These tiny tots know exactly what they want and they will make sure you know it too, whether they can talk or not. And as for those who have picked up the skill of talking, they talk NONSTOP. And they fight nonstop too! Over Christmas trees stacked with bottle caps, over who sits where, over who I sayang, over a million things which all seem to be of PARAMOUNT importance to these little people. I've even been threatened with Power Rangers and dinosaurs!

But the best thing I love about these little monsters is their hugs. It's like no other hug in the world. When they start crying for you specifically and when you pick them up, they hug you and cling onto you with all their might, like you're their entire world. Or when you come up your arms and gesture for them to come to you, they run/tiptoe/lumber towards to you with such a bright smile that suddenly it's okay to smell of baby saliva, pee and sweat the entire day.

I will really miss these kids! Especially my jellyfish boy who likes to lick my shoulder and hide in cupboards. And my darling little girl who whispers with a slow, shy smile and sticks out her tongue whenever I teach her to say something. And the new girl who wails everytime I step out of the room. And the fidgety boy who cried for a week because I missed work for a day.

So if one day when I have no interest in the rest of the capitalist world, you know where you'll find me. :D

This is my jellyfish boy whom just melts onto you in a puddle everytime you pick him up.

And that is his sister whose hugs make you feel like you've got all the love in the world. One day I couldn't find her for a good ten minutes before discovering she's gone to hide in the cupboard. Their maids are constantly looking for them under the beds at home. Hahaha.

This is the fightclub; they ALWAYS fight at the playground.

My two favourite girls, watching Disney cartoons on my laptop with me after their afternoon nap on my last day. (And woohoo! I'm ALMOST AS FAIR AS THE KIDS!!!)

new chill spot

new chill spot

This is new my chill spot on Sundays, where I go to between tuition and an afternoon at Glenn's place. Aren't you proud of me? It's not Starbucks! And it's different in a good way. I like spending an hour or so here by myself, waiting for the boy, watching Sunday afternoons unfold and doing some work quietly. I really enjoy the retro decor and the free book collection!

2010, a special one

2010, a special one

New York, London, Paris.

The beginnings of 2010 was a blur. Long hurl plane ride by myself. Excitement. Fear. Heartache. Empty space. Freedom. Snow. Fresh air. Strangers. Jetlagged and running on pure adrenaline, I didn't even know when the year started for real. Flying across 13 hours of time difference, I teetered between 2009 and 2010 for a long while. Finally, I spent the first hours of the Canadian 2010 fast asleep in an unfamiliar bed.

That pretty much set the pace for the rest of the year. 4 months in Canada, living on my own. It wasn't easy, but slowly I grew to love the life. I burnt towels and pumped toilet bowls. I missed home and made new friends. I learnt to cook and threw dinner parties. I had a homemade cake for my 21st and puke all of it out later into the night. I drove on the other side of the road and skipped classes. I tasted fresh snow and made drunken snow angels. I travelled and played and took photos under the Statue of Liberty. Manhattan, Niagara, Ottawa - no longer faraway dreams.

Then it was to Europe for 2 months, best time of my life. Seeing the boy was like falling in love all over again. The first touch of the fingers, the shy kisses and unspoken words, the old familiarity creeping in like the warmth of the fireplace. Hope, sprouting like the first leaves of spring. And then the long, long summer evenings and the daily walks along the river. The cold nights of us falling asleep next to each other, the Atlantic Ocean no longer wide. I remember burning your pots and your big hugs from behind while I make dinner. I remember the taste of the burnt risotto and the taste of living together with someone I love. The thought of us, just us, living and building a life in another part of the world.

And then there were those days when we fall asleep in one city and wake up in another. A kiss underneath the Eiffel Tower. A fight in the empty cold hostel room. A promise at the train station at Pompeii. A wish by the seaside of Santorini. A nap on the hills of Edinburgh. A photo in front of the Colosseum. A smoke by the canals of Amsterdam. Those were the days we stood shoulder-to-shoulder on an unknown street corner, trying to read a foreign map.

Finally, we came home. To family, to friends, to familiarity. We talked endlessly about those days and saw life in a new light. But the old times were never far and they were easy to find. Friendship is the inexplicable ease with which you slip into a much frequented restaurant and spot the smiling faces, knowing they've been waiting for you all these while. Family is the smell of home cooked food every evening and the sound of the TV in the background every night.

The rest of 2010 hurtled by in a flash. School as a senior wasn't particularly fun, but at least there was the Korea trip with the Touch girls. We came back broke and I took on too many things at once. I struggled to keep my eyes open everyday and my grades up. It was a hell of a jump from the long, slow days of the first half, but there was something about chasing deadlines and rushing to places that I've seemed to have missed while away. I've had my fun, and now was the time to work hard so the rest of my life will play out like 2010. I know what I'm working for.

When I look back years later, 2010 would be the year I travelled the world and found a new dream. I am stronger and wiser; my love is bigger and surer. 2010, what a year!