Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Remembering old acquaintances

I am all set for the US and Canada.

I look forward to being in California again. And seeing the old friends. Maybe even manage an afternoon of mahjong with them, for old times' sake.

There are two people in the old hometown I will see again for the first time in 10 years. One is my former employer, who gave me my first job in the US. The other was the editor of our Chinese community newsletter; I was the feature writer of the newsletter for a full cycle of the Chinese horoscope (Rat year 1984 to Pig year 1995). Both women are special to me: if not for their wise counsel, I would never have grown into the person I am today.

There are many more people who have stepped into my life and made me a better person for having made their acquaintance. But I can only do so much each time, and I want to spend enough time with each one to make the reacquainting meaningful.

So, with a little more grace and patience, I will come around to seeing everybody who touched my heart and enriched my life, at least one more time...

Sunday, April 17, 2011

RTFM

I am busy finalising my travel plans.

My favourite premier carrier tells me that my scheduled return flight has been cancelled and they have rescheduled me to return one day early.


Well, I can return later, not earlier.

A trip to their service centre is necessary since a phone call will only get me through to a call centre hell in some foreign land.


I expect to have the flight change resolved within 10 minutes. I am dealing with a multi award-winning industry leader in its home country after all.


But noooo. The representative I was assigned blithely informed me (1) I could only be wait-listed on the flight that stops over at Narita, and 2) I could get on the direct flight by paying $75.00 for making the change.

In exasperation, I turned to her colleague in the next cubicle and started to whole process of presenting my case.

A few strokes on her keyboard and the change was effected. No fuss, no muss.


The first representative stared daggers at me.

I wanted to yell at her: "Hey stupid. RTFM, will you? You don't penalise your passenger traveling in any category when you cancel the flight, never mind a full-paying business class passenger."

But I looked into the stupid stubbornness in her eyes, and decided to ignore her instead.

I have many more things that require my attention before I leave in a couple of days...

Friday, April 15, 2011

All Day Dimsum

A dimsum/jiao zi store at a hawker centre is a welcome if unusual find at the hawker centre. The new kid on the block is You Peng Fresh Mian Jiao Zi Guan.

The store stands out from the usual suspects in the hawker centre: a row of orange lights hang like a fringe at the store front. Six men in uniform - smart white top over black pants - work with quiet efficiency taking orders, making the dumplings, cooking and serving up the food.

The menu is limited to jiaozi, wo tieh, xiaolongbao and la mian.

On a quiet night, when all I want is a small order of dumplings to go with a bowl of hawker-style noodles, this store will do very nicely...

You Peng Fresh Mian Jiao Zi Guan is located at
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road,

Beauty World Centre #04-23
Tel: 64635608, 92391598


Business hrs: Everyday 10:30am to 9.00pm

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A night@Shiraz with Angelina

They are new bellydance students looking for a chance to try out their newly acquired bellydance skills.

Because I really like these girls. Because I want them to stay interested and enthusiastic with the dance. Because I believe to grow in the love and learning of dance, it has to be experienced outside the confines of the dance studio.

I wanted to make it a girls' night of dinner and bellydance. I need food, drinks and a professional bellydancer.

The perfect restaurant is Shiraz - the women loved their dinner, desserts and drinks.

The perfect bellydance professional to show and lead them is Angelina Tay.
Thank you again, Angelina, for taking care of the girls and giving them so much of your time. Bringing hip scarves for all of them to get them into the mood was a particularly thoughtful gesture.

Everything went very well. The girls came away inspired and in awe of bellydance and the bellydancer :)

I know we will be back again very soon. And the group will be even bigger.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Pig-out at Eng Seng Restaurant

I have said
- I will not stand in a queue for food,

- I will not eat dinner while the sun is still high in the sky,

- I will not eat at places where they serve up attitude with the food.

Then our wonderful foodie friends say we
have to do crab dinner at Eng Seng for the best Black Pepper Crab. To organise this pig-out session, they had to
- go at 4.30 pm to pick and pay for the crabs,

- go at 5.30 pm to "chope" a big table for our party of 10.

It was still hot and sunny at 5:30pm. Every table in the house was taken. Ceiling fans with grease coated blades spun lazily, circulating hot air and cooking oil vapour.

There was a line outside, and walk-in's were being turned away because every crab was already spoken for!


Our dinner order hit the table and empty plates removed in rapid succession. Every dish was surprisingly very tasty.

Then came the
piece de resistance - Black Pepper Crab. This isn't crab fried up with cracked black peppercorns. The crab is fried in a fragrant sweetish pepper sauce that clings to every part of the crab, making it literally finger-linking good!

Everyone of us pronounced this the best Black Pepper Crab we have ever had.


Would I come back? Yes I would (forget what I said at the top of this post.) And very soon too.


Eng Seng Restaurant is located at

247/249 Joo Chiat Place
Singapore 427935
Tel: 6440 5560
Important:
Hrs: 4:30pm till when the last crab is eaten at about 9:00pm.
Closed on Wednesdays

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Still doing the CB thing.

I have not forgotten or forgiven her insensitivity and senselessness.

She sent me a text message, saying she hasn't heard from me in ages, asking for my home phone. Something about it costing peanuts on a line phone vs calling me on my mobile.

It took me only a second to text her back, telling her I'd just come back from Bali, and will be gone again for a month in late April, then again in September, with small trips in between.

Read
forget it, you CB. I no want to talk to you. I no want to hear from you in any way.

But I will hear from her again. She will never get the hint. She will blithely carry on doing her CB thing.