Mr Jai the old man played an unexpected word game with me on Friday. He was looking for a meat mincer to make jam. (More about that later.) At first, he thought he wouldn't be able to find it from the clutter in his house and had wanted to see if he could borrow one from me, if I had.
But when I visited him, he asked me to pick up a piece of paper with torn edges from the table and this is what it read:
"I was finally able to FIND the meat mincer."
He looked me in the eyes and said: "You're a writer. Tell me, is there a better word for "find"?"
Stressed, I offered "chanced upon" and "discover", but he shook his head. Finally, he told me to turn the slip of paper over and there was the word "locate" staring back at me. What a sense of humour this guy has!
As for the jam business, well, he suddenly missed his late mum's jam and wanted to try his hand at it. It's gonna be pretty tough cos he has to peel lots of oranges (yes, orange jam), shred the peel and cook them. But it's gonna be interesting to see how he manages it :)
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Friday, February 11, 2005
Papa's house: Every Chinese New Year, when I visit my papa (husband of my former nanny), he never fails to remind me that I used to sit in this multipurpose chair when I was young. Papa is 68 this year and his wife, who's passed away, cared for me until I was four. This antique "throne" for the kids can act as a stool or leg rest too, depending on how you turn it around. Sadly, one adjoining part on its side is broken. But, papa can't bear to throw it away cos generations of kids have sat in this! First to use it was his youngest son, who's about 30 this year. Next was me, then my bro, and I think three other boys, and then papa's own grandchildren!
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Love is in the air
Well, love for those who need it :)
Two colleagues brought food for Mr Jai yesterday and today, and A LOT of food. Mr Jai said the first one brought him a "seven-course" lunch! Haha. And he was very happy and surprised to hear that it was cooked by this guy's wife. He couldn't help but exclaim: "Lovely! Lovely! Lovely!" over the phone.
Today, another colleague visited with her dad and her dad gave him an ang pow. So nice. I'm pretty happy the old man has had a pretty filling Chinese New Year.
Just some interesting tidbits about this man. He told me that, as a former doctor, he still disposes of expired medicine of his the correct way. Said you can't just throw the pills into the dustbin carelessly in case of drug abuse. Someone could pick them up and consume them. I don't know who could be so desperate anyways!
So he pours the pills into empty tins and fills them with leftover (think unsold) food from a stall that someone sends over to his house. I saw curry once in the tins. He then lets the concoction ferment before throwing the tin away. This way, the medicine gets disposed of properly.
Oh yes, he says it's a good way of clearing the junk in his house too, cos he has tins and cartons packed to the ceilings! How methodical.
Two colleagues brought food for Mr Jai yesterday and today, and A LOT of food. Mr Jai said the first one brought him a "seven-course" lunch! Haha. And he was very happy and surprised to hear that it was cooked by this guy's wife. He couldn't help but exclaim: "Lovely! Lovely! Lovely!" over the phone.
Today, another colleague visited with her dad and her dad gave him an ang pow. So nice. I'm pretty happy the old man has had a pretty filling Chinese New Year.
Just some interesting tidbits about this man. He told me that, as a former doctor, he still disposes of expired medicine of his the correct way. Said you can't just throw the pills into the dustbin carelessly in case of drug abuse. Someone could pick them up and consume them. I don't know who could be so desperate anyways!
So he pours the pills into empty tins and fills them with leftover (think unsold) food from a stall that someone sends over to his house. I saw curry once in the tins. He then lets the concoction ferment before throwing the tin away. This way, the medicine gets disposed of properly.
Oh yes, he says it's a good way of clearing the junk in his house too, cos he has tins and cartons packed to the ceilings! How methodical.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Eat, drink and be merry!
Six of us had our wonderful reunion dinner at an Italian restaurant called Menotti (next to Delifrance) at Raffles City last night. And we had great food and dessert! Haha, let me talk about the desserts first.
We shared three different bowls of gelato, with interesting combinations of flavours and toppings. Menotti has so many varieties of yummy gelato, you'd be spoilt for choice. I'll post the pictures once Marilyn my 16-year-old cousin uploads them. She went berserk shooting the pix and I helped do a bit of food styling (you know, put a wine glass here and there) though err...didn't turn out very successful. Ha!
Mavis my cousin had the Portofino - three scoops of vanilla gelato, each topped with a puffy pastry. Ooo...yum :) My favourite.
Marilyn had the Menotti - chocolate, strawberry and something else. Not bad.
I had the Sorrento - lemon, passionfruit and chocolate chip! Such interesting combi. The rich cream and milk of the chocolate chip gelato balanced the sharp sour flavours of the other two perfectly. The gelato was topped off with a fruit salad and two cookies.
Prices were very reasonable, about $8 for my Sorrento, for example. Dinner was value for money too. I had duck leg braised in red wine, served with mash potato. It cost about $18. Not bad. And the portions were just right. Maybank and UOB cardholders get 15 per cent discount too! I have both cards. Heh.
After dinner, we adjourned to the River Hongbao. Pretty fun soaking in the festive mood there too. The God of Fortune was a towering giant, by the way. Of cos, trigger-happy Marilyn kept snapping all the way. I took pix with my mum in front of our zodiac animal - the goat. They were sort of gigantic lanterns and came in a family of four - Papa, Mama, and two kids (no pun intended!). The other animals were displayed all over a big square.
Anyways, let me do a 10 amusing things I observed last night (ala magazines' usual 10 things I never knew...):
1. My aunt (oldest one) and my mum have never been inside the Esplanade. My aunt even thought we were not allowed to step further inside the building cos she assumed you needed tickets of something. Yes, suaku, they admitted :)
2. The zodiac Dragon at River Hongbao is a bl**dy pink!!! According to Marilyn, who was utterly disappointed that HER animal was such a disgusting colour, said it looked like a COW. Haha.
3. .... oops...have run out of things I noticed. Hahahaha. FAIL! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! BE KIND TO CHICKENS THIS YEAR!!! :)
We shared three different bowls of gelato, with interesting combinations of flavours and toppings. Menotti has so many varieties of yummy gelato, you'd be spoilt for choice. I'll post the pictures once Marilyn my 16-year-old cousin uploads them. She went berserk shooting the pix and I helped do a bit of food styling (you know, put a wine glass here and there) though err...didn't turn out very successful. Ha!
Mavis my cousin had the Portofino - three scoops of vanilla gelato, each topped with a puffy pastry. Ooo...yum :) My favourite.
Marilyn had the Menotti - chocolate, strawberry and something else. Not bad.
I had the Sorrento - lemon, passionfruit and chocolate chip! Such interesting combi. The rich cream and milk of the chocolate chip gelato balanced the sharp sour flavours of the other two perfectly. The gelato was topped off with a fruit salad and two cookies.
Prices were very reasonable, about $8 for my Sorrento, for example. Dinner was value for money too. I had duck leg braised in red wine, served with mash potato. It cost about $18. Not bad. And the portions were just right. Maybank and UOB cardholders get 15 per cent discount too! I have both cards. Heh.
After dinner, we adjourned to the River Hongbao. Pretty fun soaking in the festive mood there too. The God of Fortune was a towering giant, by the way. Of cos, trigger-happy Marilyn kept snapping all the way. I took pix with my mum in front of our zodiac animal - the goat. They were sort of gigantic lanterns and came in a family of four - Papa, Mama, and two kids (no pun intended!). The other animals were displayed all over a big square.
Anyways, let me do a 10 amusing things I observed last night (ala magazines' usual 10 things I never knew...):
1. My aunt (oldest one) and my mum have never been inside the Esplanade. My aunt even thought we were not allowed to step further inside the building cos she assumed you needed tickets of something. Yes, suaku, they admitted :)
2. The zodiac Dragon at River Hongbao is a bl**dy pink!!! According to Marilyn, who was utterly disappointed that HER animal was such a disgusting colour, said it looked like a COW. Haha.
3. .... oops...have run out of things I noticed. Hahahaha. FAIL! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! BE KIND TO CHICKENS THIS YEAR!!! :)
Monday, February 07, 2005
Musical Intelligence
Visited a blog of a stranger who posted a comment here, and found this quiz that tells you what kind of intelligence you have. This is my result:
"Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes.
You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time.
You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it.
Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds.
You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer."
Hmm...I've always wondered how I could be a musician without really loving music that much. I don't really listen widely, just the occasional jazz, pop, rock... I'm not an i-POD toting girl who can't seem to get enough of her daily dose of listening. In fact, my mp3 player has only four albums stored, which have been on repeat mode for the past two months! There's Mayday's 5th album, Double Take (wonderful jazz by two m'sians), Mel Torme (he wrote The Christmas Song) and erm, some Christian music I put in cos I had to familiarise myself with them for church practice.
I'm just too lazy to add new songs! Weird huh? And I say I love music.
I do play the piano and I can improvise on the pop-type stuff. I love to sing and I can detect very subtle flat notes. I can hear if the drummer has missed a beat or is playing the wrong groove. Yet, I'm not crazy over music. Weird.
http://www.blogthings.com/intelligencequiz.html
"Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes.
You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time.
You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it.
Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds.
You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer."
Hmm...I've always wondered how I could be a musician without really loving music that much. I don't really listen widely, just the occasional jazz, pop, rock... I'm not an i-POD toting girl who can't seem to get enough of her daily dose of listening. In fact, my mp3 player has only four albums stored, which have been on repeat mode for the past two months! There's Mayday's 5th album, Double Take (wonderful jazz by two m'sians), Mel Torme (he wrote The Christmas Song) and erm, some Christian music I put in cos I had to familiarise myself with them for church practice.
I'm just too lazy to add new songs! Weird huh? And I say I love music.
I do play the piano and I can improvise on the pop-type stuff. I love to sing and I can detect very subtle flat notes. I can hear if the drummer has missed a beat or is playing the wrong groove. Yet, I'm not crazy over music. Weird.
http://www.blogthings.com/intelligencequiz.html
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Size matters + National Day song
Did you know that shoe boutiques can reduce the size of shoes you've just bought from them? Well, Everbest at Plaza Singapura can. Apparently, they do this cos some people have right feet that are bigger/smaller than their left, so they offer this customisation service.
I bought a size 37 pair of formal shoes at the shop two days ago. When I tried them on, I was pleased to know that the leather felt extremely soft and the fit wasn't too tight. However, the next day, when I wore them again, they were too loose! Can't figure out why.
So I brought them back to the shop and the salesgirl placed a patch-like cloth thingy inside each shoe, at the front. She said each patch reduces the size of the shoe by half. After I tried the shoes on and confirmed they were the right size, she tore off the front part of the shoe lining that comes into contact with the soles of your feet. She then placed the miracle patch onto where the lining used to be, covered the patch with the lining, and glued it back in place with cobbler's glue (the yellow gooey type in a tin can).
Hence today, I wore size 36 and a half shoes to work. All thanks to the magic of Everbest!
On an unrelated subject: I have a singer friend who's been asked to write a National Day song for kids and teach them to sing it. He asked me to write the lyrics, though he hasn't given me any tune whatsoever. I don't know what I'm going to get out of this la, if the lyrics go through, but anyhows I need a theme. The only thing I can think of now is "friends". Anyone has any idea?
(I'm procrastinating by the way. Die. Need to give him after CNY!)
I bought a size 37 pair of formal shoes at the shop two days ago. When I tried them on, I was pleased to know that the leather felt extremely soft and the fit wasn't too tight. However, the next day, when I wore them again, they were too loose! Can't figure out why.
So I brought them back to the shop and the salesgirl placed a patch-like cloth thingy inside each shoe, at the front. She said each patch reduces the size of the shoe by half. After I tried the shoes on and confirmed they were the right size, she tore off the front part of the shoe lining that comes into contact with the soles of your feet. She then placed the miracle patch onto where the lining used to be, covered the patch with the lining, and glued it back in place with cobbler's glue (the yellow gooey type in a tin can).
Hence today, I wore size 36 and a half shoes to work. All thanks to the magic of Everbest!
On an unrelated subject: I have a singer friend who's been asked to write a National Day song for kids and teach them to sing it. He asked me to write the lyrics, though he hasn't given me any tune whatsoever. I don't know what I'm going to get out of this la, if the lyrics go through, but anyhows I need a theme. The only thing I can think of now is "friends". Anyone has any idea?
(I'm procrastinating by the way. Die. Need to give him after CNY!)
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Food for thought
A few days back, I called Mr Jai the old doctor to check on how his meal deliveries were coming along. Good for him that Touch Home Care is now sending him both lunch and dinner. Bad for him that he finishes both lunch and dinner during lunch itself! Gee. Either he has a very big appetite or they send really little.
To supplement those meals, he called up a tingkat service. You know those catering services that deliver meals in tin containers to your doorstep? I found out when I visited him one evening recently and he opened the door expecting to see the tingkat man he had made an appointment with to discuss his dietary preferences. Of cos, since I was there at that time, I bumped into the tingkat man as well. After that, I left and thought all would be well. Not so, actually.
Turns out Mr Jai wants to pile up on his protein intake cos he doesn't have enough meat and is still losing weight. He wanted the tingkat man to send only meat and veggie, which he agreed to. But he failed to honour the deal. He kept sending rice, soup and other stuff Mr Jai didn't need.
So I brought up the plan that Leo suggested: why not ask my colleagues (those who would be free in the evenings) to volunteer for a meal run. We could roster ourselves ie each one delivers on a fixed day and at a fixed time. (Old people like fixed times cos they will sit there and expect you, I've observed.) Mr Jai says he wants to pay us, and he did pay me this week when I brought food for him to sample. I'm trying out different food stalls this week to see if the food is palatable to him. Once they are, I'll officially start the meal run next week. I don't know how long it will last, but starting it is better than not at all. I don't think I can live with myself knowing that an old man I know is going hungry during dinner. I hope everything works out well.
I asked him to rank the food that he needs and this is what he said: First is beef cos it has value. Second: fish; Third: pork; Fourth: chicken. And he wants 200g of it, I think it's either 200g or 400g cos I didn't make a mental note of it because I couldn't visualise that in portions! But I think I kinda know now cos he said the first day's portion was just right. And that was a lot that I'd bought! Was thinking to myself, oh dear, he must be really hungry.
I realised today that I sometimes forget that Mr Jai is human as well. Let me explain what I mean. I tried to get food at the lowest price cos I wanted to help him save money. But today he told me, it's ok if the fish costs $3 to $4, cos after all he has to eat to survive.
He's got a bad ear infection. Oh dear, yes. He told me today that it doesn't matter if he dies in the house, he just doesn't want to be incapacitated by a handicap cos he lives alone. How true. The doctor who saw him some days ago didn't wanna take money from him, so Mr Jai decided to give him a gift - Galileo's thermometer. Erm, it's one of those weather instruments the pple of old used. It's like a big test tube with coloured balls inside that will rise and fall I think. I couldn't understand the instructions on the box and it was quite an amusing moment cos Mr Jai was staring hard at the apparatus and he suddenly asked: "If it's a thermometer, where's the scale?" Haha. And he smiled and asked rhetorically: "Is it worth giving?" Well, anyways, I wrapped it up for him with the paper I bought (and that he paid for) cos he said "wrapping is beyond me"! Haha.
He's so funny. He was against having the supplier's name shown on the box so he made me paste a piece of paper over it. Guess what he wrote on it? Something like "This will excite the minds of the young." So philosophical.
Oh and he also gave me a gift. He said I was a writer and so I should get a pencil holder. It's probably a corporate gift he got from his medical contacts in the past cos it says Bayer Cardiovascular Care Management. It also has the 2000 and 2001 calendar printed on it. Old but still looks as good as new. :)
To supplement those meals, he called up a tingkat service. You know those catering services that deliver meals in tin containers to your doorstep? I found out when I visited him one evening recently and he opened the door expecting to see the tingkat man he had made an appointment with to discuss his dietary preferences. Of cos, since I was there at that time, I bumped into the tingkat man as well. After that, I left and thought all would be well. Not so, actually.
Turns out Mr Jai wants to pile up on his protein intake cos he doesn't have enough meat and is still losing weight. He wanted the tingkat man to send only meat and veggie, which he agreed to. But he failed to honour the deal. He kept sending rice, soup and other stuff Mr Jai didn't need.
So I brought up the plan that Leo suggested: why not ask my colleagues (those who would be free in the evenings) to volunteer for a meal run. We could roster ourselves ie each one delivers on a fixed day and at a fixed time. (Old people like fixed times cos they will sit there and expect you, I've observed.) Mr Jai says he wants to pay us, and he did pay me this week when I brought food for him to sample. I'm trying out different food stalls this week to see if the food is palatable to him. Once they are, I'll officially start the meal run next week. I don't know how long it will last, but starting it is better than not at all. I don't think I can live with myself knowing that an old man I know is going hungry during dinner. I hope everything works out well.
I asked him to rank the food that he needs and this is what he said: First is beef cos it has value. Second: fish; Third: pork; Fourth: chicken. And he wants 200g of it, I think it's either 200g or 400g cos I didn't make a mental note of it because I couldn't visualise that in portions! But I think I kinda know now cos he said the first day's portion was just right. And that was a lot that I'd bought! Was thinking to myself, oh dear, he must be really hungry.
I realised today that I sometimes forget that Mr Jai is human as well. Let me explain what I mean. I tried to get food at the lowest price cos I wanted to help him save money. But today he told me, it's ok if the fish costs $3 to $4, cos after all he has to eat to survive.
He's got a bad ear infection. Oh dear, yes. He told me today that it doesn't matter if he dies in the house, he just doesn't want to be incapacitated by a handicap cos he lives alone. How true. The doctor who saw him some days ago didn't wanna take money from him, so Mr Jai decided to give him a gift - Galileo's thermometer. Erm, it's one of those weather instruments the pple of old used. It's like a big test tube with coloured balls inside that will rise and fall I think. I couldn't understand the instructions on the box and it was quite an amusing moment cos Mr Jai was staring hard at the apparatus and he suddenly asked: "If it's a thermometer, where's the scale?" Haha. And he smiled and asked rhetorically: "Is it worth giving?" Well, anyways, I wrapped it up for him with the paper I bought (and that he paid for) cos he said "wrapping is beyond me"! Haha.
He's so funny. He was against having the supplier's name shown on the box so he made me paste a piece of paper over it. Guess what he wrote on it? Something like "This will excite the minds of the young." So philosophical.
Oh and he also gave me a gift. He said I was a writer and so I should get a pencil holder. It's probably a corporate gift he got from his medical contacts in the past cos it says Bayer Cardiovascular Care Management. It also has the 2000 and 2001 calendar printed on it. Old but still looks as good as new. :)
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