serialdeviant.org(y)
- watched movies — They Call Her… Cleopatra Wong (a screening at The Arts House, it was funny in a kitsch way, especially the cable car-Chinese garden scenes — check out a recent photo of Marrie Lee / Doris Young), Dynamite Johnson (well, we tried to watch it right after Cleopatra Wong, but it was too much same old same old), Fearless (the first Jet Li movie I’ve seen in the cinema, it’s a kungfu movie much like the ones I remember watching as a child, and I got to chow down on popcorn and sip Ribena), and Fun With Dick and Jane (much better than I had anticipated, and the popcorn and Ribena were just as good the second time around).
- read books — Escape from Paradise (which I now call the ‘gossip book’, as the story is about dishing the dirt on the wealthy and powerful and extolling how wonderful and special and different the protagonist is as a Singaporean woman, and here’s a little tip for the writers: please make sure an editor works on it if there is another printing in future, the appallingly poor English made it extremely difficult for me to enjoy the book), The Time Traveller’s Wife (as recommended by Kristen, a very readable, delightful story), The Little Friend (it reminded me a little of To Kill a Mockingbird, in that it’s based around the life of a young Southern girl, but nothing’s as good as Harper Lee), Blink (again, recommended by Kristen, and I enjoyed it so much that I went out and bought The Tipping Point, which I’ve not yet read), 4 Blondes (prior to going out and buying more books, I sat and read one of my mum’s “brainless” books, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected, but it wasn’t so good, either), and Cobweb (I want Neal Stephenson to have my children)
- ate at Black Angus three times — I ordered the prime rib each and every time, which was good, and Neil thought our Aberdonian server was from somewhere in Scandinavia because we could understand what he was saying
- whacked some burgers at the Spize Cafe (yes, you read that right) based on Garvin’s recommendation, although he had had food poisoning and could only whack a mutton chop (which was pretty massive and spicy on its own) and maybe steal some of his wife’s beehoon, and I also had a very nice lychee drink
- ate loads and loads of prata (garlic prata, butter prata, mushroom and cheese prata, onion prata) at The Prata Cafe and made it to Neil’s old favourite prata stall at Farrer Court for breakfast (I am a fan of the raw fish platter at the stall in the opposite row as well)
met Kristen at Father Flanagan’s on our first day back (it was her last day in Singapore on business), managed to go to Loof only once (not a place I would hang out at regularly, but it’s lovely to have the option, and the Seabreezes weren’t bad), checked out Zouk because Neil wanted to see Paul Van Dyk (I’ve been over this), and (kind of) watched a snowboarding demo (and nursed a pint of Erdinger for an hour) at Indochine — we must be getting older, as evidenced by a fading desire to party and get drunk- ate home cooked tapas (including Scottish ‘tapas’ — haggis on toast) with some of Neil’s friends
- met Evon at Art Friend (she gifted me with one of her cool amigurumi bag charms!) and went to Spotlight, both places I visited far too often these past three weeks (I have so much craft stuff I’m in ecstasy), and Evon recommended I check out Golden Dragon as well, then I found Mix and Match in the same building, then I also discovered The Knotty Shop was still open)
made two amigurumi animals for Mum’s home decor — Fidelius the zombie mouse and Crispin the 80’s duck / pigeon / some sort of avian (I had only a limited number of colours to choose from as I’ll be damned if I’ll pay more for Singapore-bought acrylic yarn than Xiamen-bought wool yarn, lucky for me Mum liked a few of the colours very much)- gave my sister a crochet penguin / bird of some sort keychain whose name is Reginald (yes, I named him, and yes, I named Crispin too, but no, I did not name Fidelius)
- made my annual pilgrimage to Shashlik — this is a Singaporean tradition, at least in our family (the fact that the place has stayed open with no change in its menu or service for at least two decades proves that it’s not just us), and it is TOTALLY WRONG of me not to order borscht and beef shashlik AND cherries jubilee at least once a year, and apologies to Mum who thinks the place is “so old-fashioned!”, but has to take me whenever I come through
- turned 30, and changed my IC because I had to, although I won’t be able to vote in any election if I continue to wander around overseas and not be a patriotic Singaporean in the armed forces, in training as sponsored by the government, or employed by an “an international organisation of which Singapore is a member, or any other organisation designated by the President under the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore” — just so you know
- ate roti john and sup kambing at Newton (Neil had murtabak)
- did I-wanna-be-a-towkay stuff
- had dinner at Siem Reap at the Asian Civilisations Museum (it’s such a treat, hiding from cigarette smoke by going indoors)
- walked for a couple of hours in the Boat Quay / Clarke Quay / River Valley Road area (and did not spot mrbrown or Mr Miyagi drinking kopi or beer)
- did more I-wanna-be-a-towkay stuff
- ate prata on Bencoolen Street (of course)
- watched Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (wahey!)
- had dinner at Coriander Leaf (where the naan is plentiful and the palak paneer is oily)
- went to baldy Matt’s new bar, color, and surprised him, Karen, and Mick (color does a nice lychee martini — it’s on Circular Road, right next to eskibar)
- had lunch at Cafe de Amigo (I must say I’m not as taken with the place as my mum, but it’s okay)
- got a haircut (where the hairdresser advised that my cut will look okay for six months if I can’t bear to try cutting it again in Xiamen)
- purchased a pair of Havaianas in size 47 for my colleague Stuart
- had dinner with Neil’s friend Raymond at the Orchard Towers food court (because Dome at Wheelock Place no longer exists — I bet Kristen and Mark would be sad about that if they still lived in Singapore)
- caught an early flight back to Xiamen
- had dinner at Le Mezina (they’re definitely being neglected in favour of the new sister restaurant, Olivia)
- skimmed through the May issue of JANE and discovered my sister’s pal Erin in the Vacation section