家常便飯

On the menu:
- Fried egg with chai por
- Diced chicken marinated in sauces, stir-fried with onions, ginger and chilli
- Assam fish
- Sweet potato leaves, fried with sambal chilli and dried shrimp

I had some colleagues over for dinner (and me bro joined us too). Was a bit stressed out over cooking for all of them, but I managed to pull it off, tho the sweet potato leaves could have been more moist. Help from mother came unexpectedly in the morning, when I woke up to see all the chopping done, and the ingredients separated neatly for me so that I wouldn't get all confused. And, she left me alone after that. I'm proud of myself. :)

Gossip of the week

If you haven't heard, Glenn Ong and Jamie Yeo have split. And this is causing a huge uproar in the whole of Singapore, trust me.

I woke up at 12pm on Saturday (the latest I've ever woken up in months, Mich it's your fault...), and the first piece of news that greets me from my mum was: "You know Glenn and Jamie have split???" Ok, so my mum reads The Straits Times earlier than me (and she was also the one who announced on an earlier Saturday morning that Ben Nadarajan my good friend reporter was featured in Scholar's Special I).

Although my hair is undone and my teeth are unbrushed, my eyes actually manage to pop out and I manage a gasp. Glenn and Jamie??? The ones who go baby-this, baby-that...the super lovey-dovey lovebirds??? I am in shock. I am in utter disbelief. I actually feel a little sad.

In the next few hours and days, people around me are talking about it. Even backstage in church the next day, when the music team was done with the first worship set.

Mich, some hours earlier, even texted me something along the lines of it must be Jamie who cheated on Glenn. For someone (and that's me) who'd ordinarily go "must be the guy lah", I actually think that this time, for once, it could be the girl.

Fast forward to today, my mum is still on the topic. And that is also because a bleary-eyed me snatched a copy of this week's 8 Days from the news stand at 8.51am in the morning, when I saw the blurb on Glenn and Jamie. Hiyah, must follow up on the goss mah... even if none of them got interviewed!!! We can also read friends' and anonymous interviewees' takes on the split mah...

Mum: "You know I heard that pretty and sexy girls usually cheat on their husbands...I think it's Jamie lah..."

Me: "Actually I also think so..."

Mum: "But I think, Glenn is also very temperamental. So maybe Jamie cannot take it. From listening to his radio show, I know lah..." [Wah, my mum very on close terms with Glenn, I see...]

Me: "Is it???"

Mum: "Eh, let me read the 8 Days leh...I wanna see..."

I hand mum the 8 Days. A few minutes later...

Mum: "She was cosying up to a Caucasian colleague you know!!! Must be her lah..."

And I know in my mum's heart, it's "Poor Glenn".

And so, that's the goss of the week. Hope you enjoyed it too. No ill intentions towards the protaganists featured. We are just concerned parties.

Space

It has been a great week.

I have had space - to breathe.

Happy :)

Aye aye Captain Lu

I watched Crowd Lu Guang Zhong live at the Esplanade on Saturday. He was fab. So funny, quirky, dorky, smart and super talented. I really wonder how he processes stuff in his head. His songs are inspired by the most everyday things in his life, he says. One song (not in the album I have) was inspired by his college housemate forgetting to wake him up for class. Another song (which he says is pretty crap but that he might possibly compile in one album with all the other crap songs he has written when he first started composing) was inspired by the noodle seller forgetting to put an egg into his bowl of noodles. How cute. Quotable quotes of his that really cracked the audience up:

“吃早餐是一個很搖滾的事情！” (Eating breakfast is such a rockin' good thing!) He raised both hands up in the air with the rocker "I Love You" gesture and ROOOOAAARRED!!! Hahahahahaha. This was his introduction to one of his songs about eating breakfast. In yet another funny intro, before he sang this song that required him to hit a really high falsetto note, he said "當我唱到海豚音時，躲！” (When I reach the part where the falsetto is the highest, HIDE.) In singing jargon, we call that a whistle, the kind of really high note that Mariah Carey is famous for hitting. And you know what? He did it so excellently. But the funniest part was, he launched into this whole philosophical parallel of his singing with Life. Let me just type that in English:

"Life is like hitting that super high note. As you get higher and higher in life, you get scared that you can't hit the note. So you try your best, and before you know it, you're already there. Somehow." Yeah. I think so too. So dear all, remember to eat your breakfast and try your best in life. Somehow, you'll get there! Love you Captain Lu!

新年快樂

Every Chinese New Year, relatives from my mum's side never fail to take family pictures. On 初一, we missed one person though...my houseman cousin who had spent the last 24hrs on call at the hospital. She crashed the moment she reached home. In the words of her younger sister, cheh is in a coma now. I took a second look at this picture and suddenly it occurred to me that boys and men don't feature very much in our photos. I wonder if my bro feels left out! Anyways, I think the funniest thing about this CNY was my grandaunt telling me she tried to sell her peranakan *kam cheng (a porcelain container that holds spices and water) to the Nonya museum after seeing Jeanette Aw try to sell hers for $50,000 on the TV serial Little Nyonya. She reckoned her small kam cheng could fetch $5,000!!! Hahaha. She didn't finish her story, and it was lost in the din, but I think she wasn't very successful.

*Kam Cheng means 感情 in Mandarin. I tried to google an explanation of its symbolism, because I've forgotten what was said in the TV show. But couldn't find the explanation. Sorry about that! Anyone who knows, please say...

Life in progress

Clearing my book cabinet is somewhat like leafing through the pages of my life, again. I could have come across the same yellowing bookmark a year back, or thumbed through the same Christian literature my dad left behind, but the feelings and thoughts, though familiar, are never really the same. I know I will probably never read the Christian books my dad loved buying, but I always put them back in the same place - just in case. I know I will probably never re-read the Chinese books I'd bought back in my teen years, but I still keep them - just in case. Then there are the books that I wonder why I never just threw them out 2 years back. Because, today, when I look at them again, I don't even hesitate to dump them in the waiting plastic bag - to be given away. And then, there are the precious mementoes I have collected over the years. Lyrics of songs I'd written; beautiful handwritten letters penned to me by an old man who loved travelling the world and whom I'd interviewed during my days as a journo; and an old programme booklet of a photography exhibition held at The Substation by a dear friend, when we were all wide-eyed journalism students at university. Looking at these keepsakes, I am amazed that my nondescript brown cabinet stores items of value that can stir up such strong feelings within me. I think I am feeling restless again. I wonder what the future holds? 

A lovely cookout

Just recently, yuen lin decided to cook for me, belle and ethan mummy, at ethan mummy's place. The menu comprised (1) watermelon salad (with sprinkles of fetta cheese, yum), (2) chicken in honey-lime marinate, and (3) fried mushrooms with bacon. The most fun part of the meal was - and I never thought I'd admit it - the preparation. Because I was involved! It's a bit weird, but this year, I've kinda decided to prepare simple meals for myself, and really simple ones like tuna salad, or salad with crabstick and stuff. I would head for the supermart after work, choose my veggies and stuff, and head on home to whip up my really simple meal. I don't know, but it's somewhat like, I want to cook now. For health's sake, and fun's sake. Although yuen lin's meal wasn't exactly healthy - what with sizzling bacon - but it was still homecooked. Not by my mum, but my friend. And prepared, partly, by me. I really loved the fresh salad dressing of Chinese parsley, mint leaves and olive oil.

Happy New Year

Mich invited me to accompany her on a couple of girly songs for her New Year's Eve gig with the "kilat" band. Why "kilat"? Cos they were assembled at the very last minute - the set was only confirmed the day before the gig, and everyone had only a couple of days to really go through the songs on their own. Fantastic band lor. I felt so privileged to be able to sing with them. It's like you don't have to worry that anything will go wrong, you just sing. Coolness.

Venue: Singapore Flyer.

So we did one set at Love The World Soul Rock Bistro (where the resident band is really good), and the second set at the outdoor amphitheatre next to the flyer. Real fun. This must be one of the most memorable countdowns I've had. :)