Because Time Waits for No One

Friday 7 August 2009

I took out my keys to open the front gate, the corner of the wall was empty. It was an unbearable scene.

Rewind 9 years

Friday 2 March 2001

"I just bought a dog. You can have it. Yeah, from a client. No choice, a new way of entertaining client. Big business mar...heh heh"

That was from my cousin. I immediately ran to his house, which was a few blocks away from mine.

I was looking around, trying to spot a cute brown puppy. Could it a Golden Retriever? Or a Labrador? Hmmm...it could be a Terrier or a Beagle. I don't mind. I was already grinning.

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"Where? Where? Where? Where is the dog??

My cousin pointed at a steel cage. Behind the black bars was a fur ball in white...

Which looks nowhere near like a 'dog'.

I showed my cousin a sepuluh sen face. "Huh? I thought you told me it is a 'dog'?"

"Yeah. A Pekingese what. It is a dog, you dummy. Oh but it does look like a cat hor? Garfield..hahahah!"

The next thing I know is that something furry landed on my lap. It is her. She came towards my direction and cuddled up herself on my lap comfortably. She was not wary of me at all.

That was the sweetest thing I have ever seen in my life.

I looked at her in her eyes. "We'll go home together, ok?"

She wagged her furry tail. I think she answered 'yes'.

* * * *

I believe, Marley aside, she is by far the most difficult and fussy dog to keep.

She sworn by heart not to take any dog food. Pedigree premium biscuits, chewy sticks or chicken-in-can. She spat out whatever dog food that we bought.

Her peculiar eating habits will make you wonder if she reincarnated wrongly into a body of a white Pekingese. She really knows how to eat.

She likes durians. D24. No kampung. No thai.

Like owner, like dog? I don't deny that.

My stay with her didn't last too long. 2 years later when I finished my high school, I left her at home and moved to Subang Jaya to do my A-Levels. And then it was degree in Australia, followed by working in KL. Until now stationed down south.

Wherever I go, she remains the one closest to my heart.

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Until the day when my mum returned home to find her laying on the floor in her usual position, but this time round stone cold.

It hurts me everytime to think about her departure. What really happened to her while no one was around at home, and the things that I would give up just to listen to her barking at the background whenever I call home or to see a running fur ball whenever I open the front gate.

I hope you had a happy life whilst staying with us.

Rest in peace, my girl.

# 2 The Black Echoes

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Read the first part of the Tales of Saigon here.

That irritating sound won’t stop.

It just won’t stop bothering me.

258 was the number of days that I have been counting.




There it goes ... I heard the sound again, echoing in the tunnel.

I moved myself to the adjacent burrow. I can feel that it is coming towards my direction. Wait, something is not right here. From the back of my body.

......

Was I dead or did I just pass out in the dark? All I can feel is the numbness in my nerves.

I hate the sound of machine guns.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I grabbed the handle strongly, so strongly that I almost clutched myself to the seat right in front of me. The bus was rocking a hard way through the terribly uneven muddy path.

'The absorber is worn out.'

Again, my head hit high into ceiling of the bus as it runs over a huge crater on the road.

We joined a day tour to Cu Chi and Cao Dai for less than USD 7. For that price, I certainly didn't expect a long arse journey on the bus. I think my lungs, kidneys and stomachs sagged by 1.5cm after spending 5 hours travelling on the rocky road.




Our Bobby Chinn look-alike tour guide was very entertaining.

'Miss, whe du yeu kam frum?'

'Malaysia'.

'Ohhh...de land famous for robbers!'

Astounded by his reply, I found out later that he means ‘rubber’. Certainly one of the most interesting remarks in this journey.

The journey throughout Cu Chi was a remarkable one. I was particularly amazed by their perseverance and determination. Imagine a bunch of Viet Cong soldiers living in the dark, humid and claustrophobia-inducing underground. The American troop described the conditions within the tunnel as ‘black echoes’.



We did try to explore one of the sections of the tunnel that has been expanded to accommodate taller/ larger sized tourists.

It ain’t fun.

I was a fool to believe that the tunnel has been enlarged to accommodate the big size us. *imagining walking around the tunnel freely like visiting museum liddat*

Half way crawling through the tunnel (I almost laid flat on the floor and creep towards the end), I was sweating and screaming in my heart…the tunnel seems to be never ending. How did the Viet Cong soldiers manage to survive in the tunnel for 20 over years when I find the dark claustrophobic atmosphere unbearable for mere 2 seconds?

I am a true brat spoiled by modernity.

After the exploration, I found something amusing. I really wanted to try that real thing. At least once. The guy recommended M16, so I bought 10 bullets (USD 17) for that.



It still ain’t fun lorrrrr.

I was a fool to believe that ear muff works. The NRR (Noise Reduction Rating) is close to ‘0’. The impact of the shot was so powerful that every shot leaves my ear drum with a numb (wee wung wung…wee wung wung…) feeling.

Special thanks to Hairy for capturing all my retarded looking moments.

Food was more or less the same throughout the 3 days. Pho, Pho & more Pho(s) which I enjoyed thoroughly.

I’m glad that I insisted on trying out Nguyen Trung’s coffee on our last day despite the fact that we were supposed to rush to the airport.



We ordered “The Legend” which was nothing like the ordinary Starbucks cappuccino. The coffee was really strong and bold, definitely one of the highlights of my trip. *Love*

Later on when we return to SG, we found out that there is actually a branch located at Liang Court, Clark Quay. *Double Love*

My fave picture of all

*
For now, I’m more than happy to return to my comfort zone, happily munching on my routine subway ham and egg, surfing dumb websites, and crossing the road without the fear of being smashed by 58 motorbikes into a slab of tomato paste in the middle of the road.

Bar none, I still love you, Saigon.

Yellow stars missing in sight ...

-The end-

Tales of the Unexpected from Saigon

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#1: Untold Secrets of the Message Room

When darkness falls, everything turns into a picture of dead silence.

I stepped on the narrow staircase leading to the underground.

'Shhh...be quiet...you don't want to wake them up...let me show you the way.'

I saw this young boy when I stumbled upon this place. In fact, I saw him everywhere. From the main door, the message room to the combat officer room... He was there, everywhere.

I lost him soon after.

'Tub...tub...tub...'

The floor is so thin that I can feel the tremble. I heard that coming from the back.

'Dooom...'

When darkness falls, everything turns into a picture of silence ... a dead silence.

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I didn't dwell myself too long in that B-grade horror flick as I walk through the underground tunnel of the Reunification Palace.

Oh by the way, I was at Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) for 3 days. Thanks to the free air tickets from the lucky dip.

The first, second, third and fourth floor didn't excite me. There were numbers of meeting rooms, conference rooms and dining rooms of different themes, a place previously resided by the presidents.

We were just wandering around the Palace and stumbled upon one eery staircase that leads to the dark underground. That really intrigued my interest.

There were secret rooms (or message rooms) with bulky and dusty switchboards, the very 60s phones and the good old typing machines.

Hairy attempted this shot ala Wong Kar Wai mode that inspired the series of dark tales.

The young boy is definitely not from our hallucination but he was really everywhere. Everywhere that we went. He loves blocking our way, interrupting at the background when we were shooting photos and looking at Hairy with a creepy smile.

'Sekali you see him in one of the black & white pictures hung on the wall' said Hairy with a blank look.

How interesting.

Obviously we didn't spot him in any of the pictures, in fact the pictures shown were depressing and disheartening. Nuclear bombs, massacre and concentration camps. I just want to get out of that place.

Back to reality, we were caught in the middle of the junction with motorbikes coming from all 4 directions and with 58 bikes honking at us at the same time, as if we were blocking their ways *sweat*

Funny mode of transport in Vietnam

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I was literally distressed, I think a bowl of piping hot noodles would be a good cure.

We dropped by Ben Thanh Market (we call it the 'Beh Tahan Market') and zoomed straight into the food section.

Tell me about pracitising food hygiene, there were a few dead cockroaches lying under my seat.

To eat or not to eat? Gulp...There goes my first bowl of pork knuckle noodles in Vietnam and L-S (diarrhea) on the very next day.

At night, we strolled along the night market street and the dai chow stalls came into sight. Born to be gluttons, we settled for another round of food.

The return of the alcoholic.

Can you believe that a bottle of Saigon beer costs only 90 cents (10,000 dong)?

But that 90 cents can only give you a taste of gassy plain water. I stopped at one bottle.

Oh well, the journey didn't end here. In fact it only started the next day - a five hours helluva extreme journey that can only be found in Vietnam.

To be continued.

Photo credit to the legendary Hairy from Black Tie White Lie.

That 3 Days in an Island

Different from what the title would imply, I’m not writing a hopelessly romantic getaway post. In fact, the trip was initiated by a not so amorous reason – to clear Fishy’s annual leave for the first quarter of 2009.

Hokkaido was in the list.

Koh Samui looks not too bad either.



Infomercial break: Visit http://www.pranaresorts.com/ , a newly established boutique resort by my company in Koh Samui :D


Whatever it is, the plan was to fully utilise our passports and travel out of Singapore. Ding dong here and there, after all the cost and time factor consideration, we ended up here…



Bintan Island.

An Indonesian Island that is blardy near to Singapore and is the well-known beach holiday travelling spot for Singaporeans, something akin to Malaysian travelling to Port Dickson.

The island has become so popular among Singaporeans that all prices are denoted in Singapore dollars. And nothing is cheap here.


Lunch was in the resort beside a muddy pool.

Trying to be adventurous, I picked some funny looking fruits from the buffet spread counter, thought it would have tasted something like lychee. But yiaks…the flesh was so hard and it tasted like one semi-sweetened garlic. To date, I still have no idea what is the name of this fruit. Shit, or was it only a plastic display.

After all the funny food and fruits, our next plan was to show off our assets.

I mean the colourful bikinis that we brought.

For that 3 days we took the risk to ride on the ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) or known as the quad-bike.


The ride was a rough and tough one, across the muddy pool, sandy pathway, up the hill, down the stream, and the whole vehicle was so hard to navigate that I almost crashed myself right into a tree. .
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15 minutes on the road and we regretted. Blardy hell, we even paid for one full hour of ride that cost us SGD 80. We suffered through the whole ride with aching fingers, dirty black face, dusty eyes and cuts – I think I hurt myself when I lost control and drove passed one thorny branch.


The evening was spent on the beach attempting beachy jumps.

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Piggy did the "pray-while-you-splash-water" jump.

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I attempted the "as-if-I-did-yoga-by-the-beach" pose.

Why am I always so determined to make myself look stupid.

Oh, and we saw an island swam us by...

The holiday was not too bad after all, albeit abit commercialised as the whole island is dedicated to earn monies out of Singaporeans.

I had fun.

We had fun.

:)

Biere-ing out @ Brotzeit

A glass of wine? White or red?
No thanks. A couple pints of beer would be great.

Drinking botol would definitely agree with me on that. Just like how we always order a dozen of hoegaarden and test each other in counting backwards from 10 in French.

But why do I always get indifferent looks when I say that. Fishy said I shucks, girls don't drink beer like a pig. Especially when I go by a dozen pints and not a sip.
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At the end of this month, Hairy is turning old again.

'Don't tell me where to go for my B-day. Unless to the durian shop. I'll keeeel you...'

Great. I will make the call – this time round, bring out Paulaner's greatest creation!

Last week when I stumbled upon Brotzeit's website, the weissbiers were calling me and I have to make reservation right away. Having beer is a luxury, paying $15 / RM 36 for a pint of fermented yeast is definitely economically ineffective when times are bad like this.

I struggled a while. And I found the answer. No big deal, we can do it during Happy Hour, yay!

Weissbier 500 ml $12.50 (Happy Hour)

Don't condemn me. I denied the fact that I am turning into a hopeless shopaholic when times are bad. The thing is, when times are like this, you are encouraged to spend more.

Everywhere is having clearance sales.

Even airlines are cutting fares like doing charity.

When it comes to food, I have no reason not to splurge.

The German Pork Knuckle ($36) served is so darn generous. The side serving of the potato salad is huge and the Sauerkraut (braised white cabbage) is of unfinishable portion.

Roasted leg of the poor swine

The Sausage Platter ($32.50) looked equally intimidating to me. The platter came with 8 types of sausages: spicy chicken, smoked pork, lamb, curry, garlic ... and I lost count.

"This is meat-crazy. We have to ta-pao." I yelled.

"Excuse me. You think you are a small eater meh." Said with his signature rolled-eyes.

Fine.

A side note to that, we ordered another Bavarian Fladenbrot a.k.a German Pizza ($18.50) that came with 16-square pieces of flatbread topped with Blackforest ham and emmenthaler cheese. Picture not shown here. Arhem, I deny the fact that I am a big eater.

What's more, the meal was ended with much surprise, to him.

I pissed him off.

With a candle on the tiramisu.

I requested for their signature tiramisu made with weissbier to be served with birthday greetings on the side beforehand. Candle was not in the request, I swear.

But I wanted to piss him off further. I wonder how he looked if the restaurant crew were to gather in a circle and sang him a birthday song in German, aloud.

And then everyone around clap their hands...ahah...now that's more like it.

Okay lucky hairy, the crew didn't sing the song. But I made him blew the candle and made a wish.

That was a good one.

Oh, and by the way, when times are bad, the birthday tiramisu is free-of-charge.

Happy 29th, Hairy.

Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant

VivoCity, 1 HarbourFront Walk,

#01-149/151

Singapore 098585

Tel: (65) 6272 8815

http://www.brotzeit1516.com/

Clumsy and her Mont Blanc Parfait

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Clumsy is the champion of the day
She was rushing like a blay
Suddenly she fell into the drain
Not again???
She yelled in dismay
And so she climbed to the bay
Prayed to God to put her ligament in place
Oh yes, and please bring the pain away

Clumsy looks no sexy
The cast was so damn heavy
Her mind is turning crazy
She needs more energy
Limping with the tongkat like an old lady
She found this new born baby!

Okay, this is a gross one. What actually happened was that I injured my knee again this year right before CNY. Read more about the the previous ligament tearing experience here.


I am a devoted believer that God creates dessert to make girls happy. Not for guys as they are too egoistic to show their affection towards those tiny petite sweet looking creatures.

Marvelous cream definitely looks marvelous, the cool black signage and the classy display case with gelatos and french parfaits almost turned me into a monkey.


I pointed at the mont blanc parfait
You are coming home with me babe!


This is the physics of the great creation of Mont Blanc :

This is the actual Mont Blanc French Parfait.

Layered with chestnut swirls, custard ice-cream and vanilla sponge, I gobbled it down with no regrets.

Now bring me the Belgium Noisette Cream !

*Pictures courtesy of Marvelous Cream and Hairy.

Location: 1 Raffles Link #B1-04 Citylink Mall (Cityhall MRT)

Neroteca - The Christmas Lunch

8:23 am

I was walking (half running) as usual to catch the train on time to work. 15 minutes of rushing across 2 streets, 3 junctions and 4 traffic lights, I get a lot of funny sights along the way.

Today was 3 aunties standing at the bus stop, one took out a new toilet brush that she just bought and this initiated a heated discussion on what brush shape does the best cleaning job. Opposite the taxi stand, a couple was arguing, pushing each other. And then there was a guy sitting on the bench with large headphones and a black tee with striking yellow wordings - "I am a bastard". Yes, you are.

What a sight - something that I don't get to see when I drive to work in KL. Should I complain for not having the freedom to drive around here or just feel contented with the fact that I get to move my lazy arse, to walk more and explore more.

They said go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.

Walk further, we found Neroteca.

Rewind 27 days t0 25 December 2008 ...

Crusty bread and balsamic vinegar, balsamic vinegar and crusty bread. I just can't resist this combination, and I ended up having two baskets of them.

The Pork Chop Milanese looked nothing more like a piece of deep fried pork chop that you can get at RM 5.90 elsewhere. Sink your teeth in it and you'll be able to tell the difference - RM36 for this piece of pork chop is well worth the hefty price tag.


The Genovese salad came in a humongous bowl, the portion came far in excess of an ordinary one as I got quite sick of the salad leaves drenched in balsamic vinegar towards the end. It is best shared among 2 - 3 as a side salad.

Tiramisu is always in the dessert list. Neroteca's version was great, with nicely soaked sponge fingers layered in between mascarpone.

The creme brulee did a good job despite its aching sweetness. Love the slightly burnt crisp crackling sugary coat on top.

It was supposed to be Christmas lunch, in fact it was the only decent meal I had on Christmas Day. Collateral purpose was to bid him farewell and *ahem* pass him the shopping list before he flies off to London for 7 days. Burberry was in the list (initially) but thanks to the crisis, I resort to something else - Just because I want to get something (at least something) out of L.O.N.D.O.N.

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"Rubbish toy", he said.

But I love it.

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Price list:
Pork Chop Milanese - RM 36

Genovese Salad - RM 29
Tiramisu - RM 16

Creme Brulee - RM 16

Location:

NEROTECA

8 Lorong Ceylon

50250 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia.

Website: http://www.neroteca.com/