Archive for September, 2008

I’m quite determined to look for the best laksa in Singapore. Conditions apply though: 1) The stall shouldn’t be too far away from my home, e.g. Tuas, 2) The rating is based on my preference. Hee hee :)

The laksa stall I’m blogging about today claimed to be the original Katong laksa. It has re-located to Bedok North already. I read about this stall on a local food blog and decided to give it a shot. This stall was mend by an uncle and another helper uncle (who brings you the laksa). It is situated in an old coffee shop of a HDB block which behind the Bedok Stadium and beside the SPC petrol kiosk. The stall name says ‘Marine Parade Laksa’ in English but ‘Katong laksa’ in Mandarin.

When I ordered a bowl of $3 laksa, I noticed that chopsticks were given. Hey, I though Katong laksa is well known for using only the soup spoon to eat from? Hmm, never mind. The laksa was served in the old-fashioned Chinese soup bowl with fresh laksa leaves garnishing. At first glance, the soup looked less milky and not as thick and viscous as 328 laksa. Hmm, okay. Now the taste. This soup has more complexity than 328’s. Good recipe. I continued slurping at the thick rice noodles and drinking the soup. Ah, it is homely and satisfying without the guilty notion that one is consuming too much unhealthy coconut milk. However, if you want the kick, then 328 will deliver it right to your face.

Next stop, the laksa at Roxy Square. :P

This is one of those rare weekends where my mind is in the care-free mode.

I’ve finished marking, returning and discussing my students’ work and now they are all busy with their final preparations for the examination tomorrow. In the meanwhile, they didn’t know that their teacher is having a great time :)

I called Doreen, my best friend of 20 years, to find out whether she was free to do some catching up. We managed to squeeze out a common time yesterday afternoon to do some cooking, chit-chatting and watching BBC’s Pride and Prejudice together. Since I had been keen on trying out a Ratatouille recipe taken from the Internet, and darling dearest doesn’t like eggplant, this was a perfect opportunity to cook and eat with my best friend who is adventurous in food. :)

The list of ingredients and steps for the dish looked daunting enough for me but the actual dish turned out to be surprisingly easy without a messy kitchen Yang had expected. Hee hee. *victory sign* “D The only thing about preparing this French dish is having the patience for the eggplant to release its juices during the simmering process.

We ate Ratatouille with slices of baguette and oh, it was so healthy and satisfying. We ate it warm but it was also good after it had cooled down to room temperature. :) The recipe I used had an unconventional ingredient, i.e. button mushrooms. In addition, the recipe I chose seemed to be easier to manage than others available on the Internet. :)

I found out that Doreen had been going through house-keeping training in her mission study course too! She used to take her own sweet time (me too!) to wash the dishes but yesterday changed my perception of her. Oh you should see how fast she was in helping to clean the dishes. I’m impressed. She’s definitely good for being a missionary and also a home-maker. Hee hee. :D

My book!

One of my (secret) dreams after I started teaching and lecturing 12 years ago has been to publish something. I’m not quite sure where that came from, but it was sort of at the back of my mind. Oh, I had other dreams, like singing the role of Figaro, or performing one of Mozart’s piano concertos in a concert hall. But of all these wants, this one about publishing seemed to be the least fanciful and possessing that tiny glimmer of possibility. After all, my throat croaks and my fingers are as nimble as Matt’s are he eats 6 roti pratas (!), so singing and performing are all out.

Things picked up substantially when I started the Ph.D. It’s not necessary to publish when doing a Ph.D program. In fact, a couple of fellows at my research office didn’t publish at all as they just don’t have the time for it. I did, so in a sense, my very first ‘publication’ ever was a paper for an international conference that NUS was hosting in June 2004. Never mind that I thought my paper was pretty crappy, but hey it was peer reviewed, accepted, and my name’s in a Proceedings now. But the Proceedings are only available for conference delegates who show up and pay their fees, or in online databases - and those require subscription too. So yeah it’s a publication, but not the one that I’d ultimately been hoping for.

Many papers later, and 4 years since I first had a paper in the proceedings, I’m thrilled to say here that I’ve finally published a book proper! The type that people can pay good money, buy and read my trashy writing! But seriously, it’s really my doctoral thesis published by VDM Verlag, a German-based publisher of academic literature and theses.

This isn’t a big thing by any measure in academic circles by the way, since this publisher actively solicits academics for theses and works in areas they’re interested in, so it’s not as though they invited my thesis publication because I wrote something that qualifies for a Nobel prize.

Moreover, publishing a book hasn’t been without its trauma. Specifically, given that this book is commercially available and can now be scrutinized by anyone who decides to fork out good money for it, I’ve suddenly become more than a little nervous that someone who reads it thoroughly will send me an email asking about the bloop in Chapter 7. Or the one in Chapter 2. Or the two in the References section. That’s not even considering any one of those game publishers who may decide to sue me off all my pocket money for saying all those things about their games!

And the book’s a whopping USD124 on Amazon.com! I wouldn’t buy my own book at that price. But seriously, I do get an author’s discount, so if anyone is in a mood to spend money, I’ll help you buy one with the discount.:)

All that said, it’s a milestone reached and what lies beyond is in equal parts scary and exciting. Most of all, it’s a dream that’s finally come true, and I should be allowed by 2 seconds of glory before I find myself a hiding hole and hope the wolves don’t find me haha.:)

I’m sincerely serious about this.

I was at NTUC (Hougang Mall) to buy fruits today and deliberately steered clear of China Fuji apples and China yellow pears. I bought Ipoh’s Tambun pomelo (this is sweeter than the Thailand varieties), Australia’s navel oranges and Australia’s strawberries.

I’m a happy woman! :p

Yang has acquired some of my preferences for food after we have been married for about 22 months. *victory sign* :P That means we have more things in common and can enjoy the same things together.

When we started going out, he was a tea drinker. Earl grey + sugar + milk = Yang’s favourite hot beverage. Of late, he started to take a liking for white coffee too. Probably becos’ it keeps him perked up in the early morning at office. In any case, he started making coffee for both of us to bring to work every morning. It definitely tastes better than my usual 3-in-1. I’m the benefactor :)

He was not a big fan of laksa but the thing grew on him. After the latest sampling of the famous 328 Katong Laksa, he is a believer :) It wasn’t easy to convince him to go to Katong just to have that bowl of laksa. So I have to ‘ta bao’ (take away) for him. Hee hee.

Now this one is really a winner. Yang has been asking for Old Chang Kee curry puffs as snacks. He found them good when they were still warm. He is not as objectionable about eating them as before although I must add that he still thinks tip top curry puff is the best!

Well, the above leaves us with many different food preferences still. For example, Yang dislikes the aubergines and cauliflower but I simply love them, especially brinjal in green curries. He does not eat raw tomatoes of any varieties too. As for spices, ginger is not tolerated - hence, teh halia is one teh tarik he would never order. Oh ya, one other thing too, Yang doesn’t drink and his body has low tolerance for alcohol. :)

Still, it is nice to have him on my side a bit more now. Hee hee :P

One dozen roses

One digital photo frame

One Starbucks coffee mug

One digital compact camera

One coffee table photo album with 4 years of photos taken together

My darling’s so sweet and thoughtful.:) Each present was carefully selected with me in mind. The bouquet of flowers was the biggest surprise as Yang has been telling me how impractical flowers are. But he decided to bend a bit to make me flutter with joy. :D I received it this morning at work - what a great way to start a day!

Another gift which thrilled me even more was the digital photo frame; I had been captivated by its ability to display so many photos. Ya, we can also make the PC screen do the slideshow of photos but this small little frame is just so neat. I often stood mesmerized at the device whenever we go into Challenger or Best Denki at Hougang Mall. As expected, the gift came with a selection of 150 photos installed for me. I love my darling! :D

The next 3 gifts were given to me way before my birthday due to timing issues. For the mug and camera, it was my need to use them sooner as I broke the previous mug darling bought me (sorry, my dear) and the previous digital compact camera went kaput. When it comes to my needs, Yang always pay extra attention. :)

The coffee photo album was a first in its own class. Yang spent a lot of man-hours selecting and putting together a grand collection of photos that tell little stories of our lives together since the days of our ‘patho-logy’. He even did the captions in the album. There are 160 pages in total and the softcopy was sent to USA for printing into a book. Swell, isn’t it. And guess what, this is only book 1. Yang is already compiling book 2 le.

I was excited to blog about my 5 birthday presents but was wondering too whether I would come across as boasting. Anyway, I believe that if my man has done something well, the wife should honor him :)

Thank you so much, darling dearest :D

Ling can sure say the funnest things. In view of the latest food scandal, she came into the workroom last night looking very resolute (I was browsing music compositions on eMusic):

“Darling, I’ve made a resolution. I’m going to completely ban all Made-in-China products. No more China-made things at home, ok? Must throw them all away.”

Without looking up, I reply:

“Sure dear. Let’s start by going through your wardrobe. I think you need to throw out at least half the clothes you’ve got inside there. Then have to check the shoe cabinet; I think have to throw away two thirds of your shoes.”

(Silence for a minute. I continue looking for some of Brahms’ symphonies)

Then Ling finally says

“Er… let’s start off with food first!!!”

I chuckle.:)

As for the five things she got this year for her birthday run-up and actual day, I’ll leave her to blog about them, if ever.:)

Here’s one of the most thought-provoking, if unintentionally hilarious to some readers, letter to the forum page in the last few days:

Sep 20, 2008
Baby’s birth cert reverses parental joy

THE arrival of my newborn daughter was a source of joy for my wife and myself - until I went to obtain her birth certificate from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

To my horror, she was given the number T08-XX444X. As Chinese Singaporeans are aware, the number four suggests death, and implies misfortune.

I appealed to the ICA officer, also a Chinese Singaporean who understood my discomfiture. But she firmly rejected my plea because rules were rules, I was told. Subsequently, I appealed to a superior officer and waited an agonising week, making several calls in between, only to be given the same answer.

… (etc.)

Thing is, lucky and unlucky numbers are part and parcel of life in Singapore. I mean, whenever there’s an accident along an expressway here, there’ll be traffic jams caused by Singaporeans jockeying around to get the vehicle numbers so they can buy 4D.

Sadly, in this day and age of education, there’re still people who’ll believe that somehow their lives and fortunes are governed by a bunch of digits. The online responses to this fellow’s letter haven’t been all that surprising, few of them sympathetic and most of them incredulous of both the letter writer and even disbelief at The Straits Times for printing what one poster called such “trash”.

Funnily, I was asking Ling the other evening that if we ever have a daughter, could we name her “Faith”? She laughed and said our daughter would have a lot to live up to then, though it’s still better than naming her “April”. :)

It’s been several weeks since I’ve blogged about current affairs, with the last dozen entries on our blog about our Bali trip then on music. Ironically, it’s been nothing but gloomy news in the last fortnight.

What has there been? Well, there was that Serangoon Gardens uproar about their area listed as a potential site to house a foreign laborers’ dormitory, which started off as a semi-self-contained scene of dissatisfaction… until a certain Straits Times editor—really carelessly in my perception—wrote a piece accusing the residents of over-reacting out of prejudice and unfounded xenophobia. Boy, what a can of worms that opened up! For the next couple of days, we got a tornado of letters to The Straits Times forum all responding to her editorial, and few of them sympathetic.

Then big financial institutions like Lehman Brothers and AIG ran into trouble. I’ve never been able to make much sense what a subprime mortgage crisis is, but heng arh; neither of us have any sort of investment or policies related with either. It’s funny though, because when news of the AIG’s difficulties hit the front page news, Ling asked if we had any policies with AIA.

Then there’s the milk scandal and the allegations of corruption, graft are flying off yet again. Yeah; another incident in a growing list of food scandals in China. Ling just shakes her head in resignation. I’m reminded of an incident at an old work place perhaps 10 years ago now, where I was on a board meeting and this director was extolling the virtues of doing businesses with the company’s counterparts in China. I was young and brash then, and I remarked hotly that he really should be a little more circumspect about assuming that just because Singaporeans possess certain attitudes about authority, law and following regulations, others will perceive the same.

And oil prices have been going up and up again after falling to an all time low of USD92 the other week. Maybe I should just remove that little script I’ve got on the right-hand bar of our blog. Funnily I put the script in because I was getting nervous watching the repeated increases in petrol pump prices here a few months ago and wanted a bit more advanced warning LOL.

Then a bomb explodes at a Pakistani hotel. And if that’s not enough; just today a bunch of tourists in Egypt get kidnapped! No I don’t know any of them personally (they’re Europeans), and fortunately (maybe) the kidnappers seem more interested in ransom money than making some sort of political statement, as the Taliban would do. So fingers are crossed that the victims would get released safely once money exchange hands.

So, is there any good news at all? Well, we’re gonna get a few hundred moola as part of our Growth Dividends at the end of this month. Not much but hey it’s free money.  And I got more than a thousand dollars worth of software from the event organizer as a token of appreciation for judging a competition they were running at SMU over the weekend. I was absolutely floored by their generosity.

And Ling’s birthday is coming on Thursday, and she’ll hopefully like the third birthday present I’ve got her. She’d better; after all the trouble I went to to get it for her LOL.:)

Mozart wrote concertos for a large number of instruments: like his 4 concertos for Horn, 27 concertos for piano, 2 for flute, 1 for clarinet, oboe, bassoon each, 5 for violin etc.

In his list of compositions too, there are concertos for mixed instruments, two of which are called Sinfonia Concertantes; one for the Violin and Viola, and the other for Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon and French Horn. Both are coincidentally also in E Flat Major, but between the two, the first one for the two string instruments, is the more well-known one and is widely recorded and performed.

In truth though, the piece that holds special meaning for me is the second Sinfonia Concertante. How’s that? Well, it’s the piece that was performed by the very first concert I ever attended at the very first date I ever had with the very first girl I was ever interested in. Yep, that’s a long mouthful! This was in April 1988 and I was in JC1 at Anglo-Chinese Junior College. Students had concession tickets to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra concerts, and I remember paying just $3 for each ticket for the concert at Victoria Concert Hall.

Now, the rows we got were right up front like the second row from the stage. That certainly put a strain on our necks! Nor was the concert performed by famous musicians but by select members from the SSO itself. But I didn’t mind it all. Sitting so close to the stage let me have an amazing view of each musician’s artistry. And more importantly, I was awe-struck by the beauty of this composition that two decades later this Sinfonia Concertante for Wind instruments K297b remains one of my favorite pieces of music by any person.

Here’s an audio sample from the opening bars from the first movement.