20Apr 2018 – Marcus Aurelius

Mon: brought lunch to visit 4sis-in-law, PohKit with Ivy. PK fell again some weeks ago, now out of hospital and healing from surgery at home.

Tue: tkx Ed for meeting up for coffee and appreciations for the introduction to Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. Checked it out and will get a copy even-though I have told myself that I will not buy any books but will borrow books from the library. There are some books that I like to have and this is another one of them. Some of the others are here + too many others on the book-shelve.

Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations – the diary of a Roman emperor (121-180 A.D.), who at the end of a very busy and troublous reign, just when worries were thickest, jotted down all the serious thoughts that came to him with regard to the meaning of life and the way it should be lived.

Wed: tkx to KK for laksa lunch@CrossingsCafe, hopefully eating for a good course! and something local before heading away from local foods for 6months. Popped in to say hi@CC and could not resist this Arcteryx bag to go with the different shades of blues for the upcoming trip! Blue, not in mood, more to fly along with the flow of the blue sky and to sail along with the blue sea! Just cannot get enough of Arcteryx gears, but far within my budget, so will keep eyeing them…

Thu: nice to catch up with Magnus, (now with facial-hair!) even just for a bite (his first WuXiang), and to say hi & bye@T4. Safe journeys and all the best to this fine young man’s new business & ventures in Indonesia, Norway & SIN.

http://ieatishootipost.sg/five-spice-prawn-fritter-why…/

Ashley, Grace, Jean-Baptiste, Magnus, Natasha, Ryan & Tom – tkx for fun 2012 memories. Glad to see and know that y’all have gone such long ways, in different directions n all over the world. Appreciations for your updates and for keeping in touch. Keep moving forward…

Tkx to niece DaisyLam for drinks&dinner@Bistro1855 and good to catch up with news from her branch of the family. Do enjoy the company of younger nieces&nephews and always appreciate&touched that they make time for me, especially when their schedules are so packed.

Someone have commented and asked why have I stopped rating my eating experiences with*****What DaisyL said over dinner explains that I too agree with her. The food is not the priority when in good company. If asked what the thoughts are of these locations, will not hesitate to recommend or not.

Fri: on the other hand, here is the evidence to show our love and obsession of food. According to Philip – our buildings are manifestations of our subconscious desires. 

TGIF – time to get some thoughts together for packing and closing up the 4walls here in SIN for the next 6months.

Needed this movie Blockers to take a break – a funny entertaining comedy that works as a metaphor for the fears parents feel when their children finish school and leave home to start their adult lives.

15 Apr 2018 – Lawrence, My Eldest Brother

Wed: RIP LokLok, the only dog I know of who had better table-manners than many humans, the best behaved-dog I liked being with (HKG pix fr 2011-15). Thoughts are with Johnny, master to LokLok.

Met with Lawrence@Les’s new clinic, FarrerPk MedicalSuites (red Apple) which is next to OneFarrer Hospital&Spa (Green Apple), both inked to the FarrerPark Hospital (Connexion). Situated amidst an interesting blend of modern commercial establishments, and traditional heritage sites like Little India, one of the locations I like taking overseas visitors to.

Tkx to Hong, Lawrence, Les&Ivy & I had a delicious lunch@LaCala/DuoGalleria. Catalan dishes chosen by the chef Eduard Castellarnau prepared and presented tastefully.

Champagne, white&red wines brought by Hong&Les complimented well the foods. Coffee and T in the comforts of Parkview’s AtlasBar. Dinner@Les&Ivy but only a few bites after such a lunch.

Thu: bright and early up to buy NasiLemak take away to Lawrence for breakfast. Somehow was running late with the bus stopping at every stop and getting caught at every red-light – one of those days! Paid respects to our parents@Mandai to discover constructions in addition with the crowds, was hoping that the crowds would have died down since ChingMing 清明節 was last week.

Ivy had to be@the HeartCentre for her physiotherapy and was unable to join us. Tkx for letting us have the car&driver, saved alot of time.

Lunch@TanglinClub and dinner with Hong, Lawrence, Jo&Michael, Sue@Les&Ivy who made her famous ox-tail. Yummy foods, good champagne&wines as always and tkx to Sue for the BlackForest, Cheese&Fruit cakes, all sinfully delicious and light enough to lift your spirit without any other help of the other spirits 🙂

Nice that HS (whose family we have known since the early 1950s) can us to catch up with my siblings. His parents were close to my parents.

Fri the 13th: saw Lawrence off@T4, he is quite amazing in this ways considering that he is 84 and thankfully he is blessed with good health. A plate of HokkienMee for breakfast@the airport after seeing him thru’ immigration. Time to organize and pick up groceries for Sun’s BBQ.

Sat: appreciations to Helen, Brian and Leonard for good company and yummy lunch. Such a treat to be with these fine younger friends in their 40s now from nearly 20yrs ago who were in their 20s when we first met!

Compliments to Chef Patrick who prepared some new tasty dishes at this french bistro Atout – formally AuPetitSalut, a more upscale fine dinning then. The sky opened up and poured buckets when I got on the bus.

Sun: BBQ@ECoastPk – appreciations to all who turned up for the BBQ this afternoon. Fun time with loads of yummy food and tkx to Campers’Corner for the BBQ food. Being the lazy person, ordered a SucklingPig, RoastDuck, RoastChicken and 1kgRoastPork from YanChuanRoaster and got them delivered all inclusive for S$156.

Fun time was had by all young and old in spite of the short passing showers which were rather pleasant for cooling down.

Been there for 6+hrs when the rains finally started for real, perfect time to pack away.

To those who were unable to be there, sorry to miss y’all and see you end of the year! Thank you Yoshie for my favourtie sake, made by her uncle from their hometown’s clear mountain spring water and rice from their own paddy-field.

Hannah managed to be in time to catch us heading to the car-park, appreciate the ride from Ron and good to have managed to have a short chat with her before she heads to Germany and will not be back in SIN until 2020.

There is no need for decorations at a BBQ party – being outdoor is decoration for me – Amy

10 April 2018 – Best Ways To Enjoy & Live Life

Sat: with Ed for a simple dinner, kangkong, tofu+mushroom, baby-octopus and barley-water@Babalicious/Marine Cove. If I knew about the 20%discount after 8.30p, would have had a later dinner!

Met Ed about 6months ago on a bus to discover that he is a brilliant photographer, writer and publisher and strangely enough the week (Aug 2017) before I met Ed on the bus, was also at The Arts House at The Old Parliament to view the photographs of Lee Fook Chee Son of Singapore, Photographer of Hong Kong where Ed, a HKG-Australian is the foundation founder and publisher.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Edward-Stokes/author/

We stayed in contact online the past 6months, but due to our busy life, only managed to finally catch up before I head on to EU&USA. Looking forward to his new book with SIN settings. Pix of Ed’s books downloaded.

http://www.edwardstokes.com/

Sun: exploring around Duo buildings to discover –

The Stork@Hotel Andaz 39floor. Panorama shot by Leo.

Indian dinner@ZumZum, has been a while since my last visit there…

Galavanting around with Leo is fun as he knows many exciting and interesting places! Never knew that there are E-cars here in SIN and maybe this car would not have got into an accident if the driver used one of the E-cars.

A close shot of Jama-ath Mosque with the SIN flag blowing just at the correct angle in the background. Unusual deco inside&0utside Hotel Vagabond.

DoubleDurian@HamiltonRd for the best durian smoothie tasted, am in durian heaven! Watched with my own eyes that it is made from pure durian – I will return. Hope that this new place will stay in business and keep serving fresh quality durian done in every possible ways.

Walking thru’ some back alleys reminded me of an incident about 20yrs ago when I first returned to work in SIN. Was meeting up with Leo&Co at the bowling ally@Katong. Early as usual and saw a sign for Massage and thinking what a wonderful idea to have one! Asked them if there was an available slot for me then…

Was then told Auntie, not for you… duh! those were  the days of ignorance and naivety and this pix by Leo is a reminder to not knock on the door 🙂

No more space for these beautiful desserts@Antoinette/PenhasRd. A rose is a rose is a rose, but these are just too beautiful to eat.  Was pleasantly surprised to see such a place in this area. Tkx Leo for a very enjoyable time.

Mon: bus196 to NichollHway/opp Concourse and walking across 2over-head bridges to get to Beach Rd. Nice clear views towards the city on these bridges.

And when in the area how can I resist my favourite PrawnMee, especially when there is no line.

Quite a novelty to see your own image on your coffee before consuming it!

SelfieCoffee/HajiLane is the new thing, did not realized that the image was on the cream, thought it was the cover of the cup! Destroyed the first cup by touching it – had to reorder another cup!! S$8.50.

Did not even know that there is a museum on the 3floor@Parkview. Do miss the angel flying around to get the wine on the ground-floor, now AtlasBar which specializes in gin.

Italian Contemporary Art where I found an angel – forgot to find out the title and painter.

Somehow this exhibition did not talk to me and did not take the time to note the titles or the painters. Appreciations to Pauline, Eva&Ruben for a fun day, good to catch up this SpringBreak. Am impressed with these kids who enjoyed themselves with the minimum use of any screens!

Tue: waiting for bro Lawrence to arr from KCH

There is a difference between listening and waiting for your turn to speak – Simon Sinek

7 Apr 2018 – Tequila Night

Mon: Ramen Teh****a SIN/Japanese foodie movie, with an idea of a dish which would bring together Ramen&BakKutTeh, not just for the food aspect! TakumiSaito, MarkLee + all the others did a good job in their parts. Pix downloaded.

http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/comfort-food-as-an-expression-of-love

Tue: introducing Ivy to CC and showing her the HeritageMurals there. Lunched with Carmel too for a good cause@Crossings Cafe where all profits go to charity.

Interesting tree trunk dressed up in lovely crochet-wrap on Queen St.  Tkx to CH for explaining what they are about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_bombing

Am not sure what trigger off this sudden interest with the Titanic, but spent the last  2evenings watching many Youtube+0ther documentaries trying to understand objectively what really happened then. Besides being tired, now feeling more enlightened. All Titanic pix downloaded

The luxury steamship RMS Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic after sideswiping an iceberg during its maiden voyage. Of the 2,240 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 lost their lives in the disaster. Titanic has inspired countless books, articles and films, and her story has entered the public consciousness as a cautionary tale about the perils of human hubris.

https://www.history.com/topics/titanic

Wed: tkx Gel for bringing yummy PrawnMee consumed in the luxury of my AC 4-walls. Glad to be able to catch up and good luck to all her new projects.

Thu: another subject on the mind is climate change and since unable to see with my own eyes, have been catching up with documentaries to learn more about it.

Sooo much to learn about this interesting subject in this 4mins info. For the past month, have been watching with open eyes, hopefully with an objective mind about many others, longer+harder dry facts where climate changes are concerned. RobertFelix (former architect&author) and JohnCasey (former space shuttle engineer and NASA consultant) make sense to me

Did some reading&research on the solar cycles and solar activities. The sun is the primary drive to climate change, but certainly no harm to also keep our carbon footsteps to the minimum. The scientific facts&documentations are reasons to be prepared for the sun going into hibernation with the next solar cycle of global cooling+magnetic shift ahead. Of course nothing is guarantee where MotherNature is concerned, but for me this has been the most logical explanation. Pix&videos on climate change downloaded.

Fri: early dental app@NDC and all’s well – view onto Chinatown fr Level6. Tkx to Daisy for the yummy lunch@ChiewKeeNoodles.

At CC and appreciations to Estella for hosting TequilaNight+beef, chicken&pork quesadillas and to Calvin for the prawns&octopus – chips and dips by me. Tequila likes these should be taken neat. It is made from the agave plant (not related to cacti or Aloe as thought by many, including myself!)  in the state of Jalisco/Mexico. How much is too much – no menos de tres, no mas de seis = no less than 3, no more than 6 is the conventional Mexican wisdom!

Have not had such good tequila since the early 1990s days in FL/USA with the Korkowski. Was not feeling any pain when I hit the sack, considering that I have been on the go for 14hrs!

Los niños y los borrachos siempre dicen la verdad = children and drunks always tell the truth – Mexican proverb.

2 Apr 2018 – Hello April Fool

Sat: Happy 81Bday to sis Jo.

Appreciations to Sue for delicious lunch@WahLok 华乐酒家/Carlton Hotel.

Braised fish with garlic which is not what I usually use with fish, but in the case it was tasty. Sucking pig, as long as the skin is crispy this dish never fails to make me feel in a festive mood. Yummy tofu+veggie.

First time to taste Deep-fried Century Egg wrapped with Minced Shrimps – highly recommended. For a non creamy soup, the Cantonese are still the best. The dessert, colourful and pretty was too much artificial favouring for my palate. Wines from Les&Ivy need no comments as most who know me also know how I feel about their wines from his wine-cellar.

Being Easter, paid a visit into the newly restored 146yrs Saints Peter and Paul church on my way to CC. Quite impressed with the good job done.

Feeling no pain after tasting these for tea-time, tkx to Calvin@CC. Welcome Calvin&team back to SIN after a tough hike in Nepal and welcome to a Swedish brand, Klättermusen.

Sun: Happy Easter Sunday to all celebrating. Enjoy your Easter eggs which are associated with death and rebirth – for the Christians, a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus. And I am off to a wedding – of course not mine and if it is, certainly would be a good April Fool’s prank if it was mine.

Some of you do wear such a cross of Christ, not in any ostentatious way, not in a way that might harm you at your work or recreation, but a simple indication that you value the role of Jesus Christ in the history of the world, that you are trying to live by Christ’s standards in your own daily life – Keith O’Brien. Get real, how many of those wearing the cross really live up to that standards, not so say even half way there???

Congratulations to Hannah&Heiko. Wishing these lovely young ppl the very best and a safe&happy honeymoon when they start their cycle trip from Germany to SIN!

Thank you for a beautiful&blissful reception@BlissRestaurant ChengSanCC/AMK. The sky opened up when I left and the shaded walkway to the MRT is certainly appreciated!

HighT@The Perankan so as to introduce this location to Zarina.

Like their gallery displays and the popiah presentation, newly added in the menu. Highly recommend this location, a nice&tasteful place to introduce both the Peranakan culture&cuisine to anyone, especially your overseas visitors.

https://www.theperanakan.com/our-menu-2/

Apr special dates:

2 Apr – Happy Bday Marianne HUSTAD

4 Apr – Happy Bday Richard YUNG

8 Apr – Happy Bday Torill WISTNER

12 Apr – Happy Bday Peggy TAN

15 Apr – Happy Bday Lynne ONG-MICHEALS & Aileen KOH

17 Apr – Happy Bdays Anne STENSETH, Sharon KOH & Sara LAM

22 Apr – Happy Bday Ike LAM-BOROWSKY

29 Apr – Happy Bday Stanely LAM

30 Apr – Happy Bday HansK HUSTAD and John CHENG

30 Mar 2018 – Good Morning On This Good Friday

Wed: posting from a new FB friend – Amy is the first Friend I made online, via Facebook! I was in Norway posting away and Irene Hoe tagged her. She read the posts, commented and gave great travel ideas (she lived there). So grateful I came home and asked to meet. She’s turned out to be a like-minded person… full of life adventure fun wit. Thank you for being my friend, Amy SG Lam, online and offline!!!! It’s been such a pleasure!

Nice&refreshing to meet Jeffrey and the pleasure is all mine. Tkx for breakfast@Glory and for his kind words – pix credits to him. Grateful to Irene for tagging me to someone who enjoyed my other home in the Land of the Midnight Sun. It is such a privilege to be able to exchange&share info&experiences which are sincerely appreciated.

The Food Republic@I12 is closed – what will be there next? Do wonder how this mall survives?? The banks and GV seemed to be the only ones there since it opened.

Thu: amazing how organizing&filing a few months of paper-work for 1per can take up nearly a whole day! Can’t imagine what it would be like to have to do this for more than 1per. Thank goodness for a decent wholesome meal of rice, chicken-curry, veggies, coconut-juice+the tender flesh costing less than S$6 in my hood and is less than 5mins walk away.

Even more amazing considering that I paid S$5.90 for cup of ice kopi kosong ie, plain black coffee@Merci Marcel/Tiong Bahru just a week ago!

Tkx Lucy for this share and her comment on NasiLemak 🙂 The huge difference is for the ambience n possibly b in the company of the A listers in our society, not counting yourself of course – Lucy

Certainly will not be able to get such an affordable meal and a stone-throw walk from my 4-walls when back in Norway and the US next month!

Enjoying every moment as I will be away from here for 6+months.

Bought travel insurance with CHUBB to cover world-wide for a year, quite a decent price S$288 (20%discount for PosBank). RT airfare OSL-FCO-OSL S$274 on NorwegianAir; OW from FCO-BRI EU25 S$42 on RyanAir 1hr flight. Quite familiar with both these budget airlines considering that I have lived 10+yrs in Ireland and another 10+yrs in Norway and have flown on them.

Fri: TGIF and it is Good Fri today – must have been confused with all that paper-work from yesterday, thought it was Thu. Up dark and early at the wet-market and had my porridge breakfast.

After getting all the produce washed&put away, sat down for a cuppa+a perfect punnet of strawberries (S$3.95) when I heard on the radio – Good morning on this Good Fri… duh!!

Easter week is about betrayal@The Last Supper&Garden of Gethsemane – Kiss of Judas and Last Supper, c.1500 by Flemish School, (16th century). Good Fri, Crucifixion – Francesco Granacci (Francesco di Andrea di Marco) (Italian, Villamagna 1469–1543 Florence). The most holy week for Christians leading up to Easter Sun (Resurrection) – by Triptych/ca1510. Above images downloaded. Looking forward to be in Italy to see some paintings there.

Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me – Psalm 41:9