A Thorny Issue

We set ourselves up for a feast on Friday night and it got disappointing. The two big durians had tasteless fruit. Bleh. Someone commented that 'if water wanted to be durian, it'd be this durian'. A few of us went down to the shop nearby to buy more and complain about the big bad ones, but they had run out. 1030pm on a Friday, no more durians. We even thought of going to Geylang for a sit down gorging of the good stuff but we decided against it. Not a satisfactory event. We need to get it done right. More durians this week!

Michael Jackson Should Have Had Tougher Friends

Fame. Once you got it, it clings in varying doses. More commonly, it follows a simple 1/x curve, dwindling over time until something new and exciting happens, worthy of media attention, whether warranted or not is another question. That's what happened with Michael Jackson.

We loved him when he had big songs on the charts. My favourite is still Billie Jean (why hasn't anyone set up the one step light up dance floor anywhere?). Coming in close by are Off The Wall and Smooth Criminal. Yes, early Michael, before the pointy nose and Diana Ross-ish hair. Black Michael.

When we got news about his weird ways, many labelled him a freak. More fame, the wring kind. It was easy because we don't want to understand why he'd do such things and we love to talk about famous people. From Bubbles the chimp, the oxygen chamber, Neverland Ranch, whether he and Janet were the same person, the child molestation stories, MJ and Elizabeth Taylor, Brook Shields, Macaulay Culkin and Uri Geller, the burnt hair incident, the skin disease, the two marriages, the three kids hidden behind scarves, how he's broke (How did that happen anyway?). The list could go on longer easily. It was fun to wonder what the real Michael was about. No one knew. We don't even know if he told anyone how he felt really.

I remember he hired this Malaysian chef to make nasi lemak for him, once a week, at a salary of US$10K a month. Or so we heard.

Now suddenly we are all keen, again. Playing his songs, sending them up the charts (6 MJ songs debuted on the UK charts in the week following his death, Man In The Mirror coming in at number 11), asking how and why he died. Famous again.

I stopped being as keen about MJ after the Dangerous album came about. His music got less impressive though his slower songs were becoming poignant. The stories though got more interesting.

His life seemed all topsy turvy these past 10-15 years. I think he needed friends, some stronger ones to tell him to wake up his ideas. I think he should have been less paranoid about his face and looks. He should have been more concerned about where his money was going. It seems his celebrity friends were simply dragging him along their Hollywood journies and being chums. He had all these people around him that sort of knew he wasn't doing too well and somehow had little positive effect on him. What's the point?

They say he's worth more dead than alive. What a horrible truth. There'll be people who'll want to milk this for all its worth. Getting that fame any way they can. We saw some bodyguard with info about his past being interviewed on E! entertainment. Wonder what he got out of it?

Now his kids are being fought over. I'm pissed with Debbie Rowe. She took millions to not have custody and now that MJ's will leaves them to his mum and Diana Ross, she's wants to have her day in court. Goodness, she took money to leave her kids! She, what, regrets now? I hope the kids will be fine.

Let's all remember him for all the great music he brought us. That's the way I will.

Thank you Michael Joseph Jackson.

One Wood To Another

Yes. it's been a while since I blogged.

Admittedly, I have been lazy. Also the weekends have been somewhat busy or in other cases quite the opposite. Additionally, since the move I've lost my good old broadband and now rely on an M1 USB mobile broadband thingy that isn't as quick. I have been stealing Wifi on and off from someone in my new block of residence.

Have I talked about the move? I don''t believe I have. It's kinda complicated as this is a temporary measure to placate the HDB and CPF. So for 2 more months, we'll be in another part of Woodlands. Woodlands to Woodlands. (I was actually looking forward to a new albeit temporary neighbourhood). By end August, it'll be Hougang that I'll call home.

This current abode was a hasty decision. Not many short term, whole house, HDB rentals in the market, so my sis decided to agree to the place despite it being a little dodgy and messed up. We went two weeks earlier to properly clean the place up with lots of bleach, Dettol and copiously sprayed torrents of water. The owner's looking to sell the place and I think we did him a favour.

I'm also looking for place to buy - I'm am turning the HDB approved big 3-5 this year and will be able to fork out my life savings and CPF to invest in a tiny space to call my own. We'll see.

Time to knock off work. Will blog more later :) There's many things to talk about eh. MJ for one.

How Not To Save A Life

One always hears about kids with guns shooting up other kids because of turf war. Armed robberies where the victim is unncessarily shot after the loot's been given up. Cats being tortured for fun. Suicide bombers in strange lands that kill scores of people at a time. There are so many occasions when we hear news about people hurting other people and animals in a mindless and total disregard for life. I find it very disturbing.

On TV and in video games, we see fictional scenes of violence all the time. People with guns simply taking out other guys. The glass screen is a shield - everything that happens on the other side is ok, just TV. Not real and no one gets hurt, despite all the blood and gore. It's like a routine so it becomes normal - we get desensitized.

I watched 'In The Valley of Elah' on Saturday. It's a serious film about returning soldiers from Iraq who ended up killing one of their fellow soldiers because they simply snapped after a few drinks and a tussle. (Ok I spoiled the show) That aside, it portrayed frightened young men who seriously didn't know what to expect in a foreign land and acted very badly all in the name of democratic liberation. Given the Al Ghraib prison images made public, this movie is about a reality we tend to not want to talk about - that the violence we are exposed to for entertainment may make us really bad people, especially when put into a position of authority.

The lead protagonist in the movie played by Tommy Lee Jones couldn't believe what his son has been up to (drugs and torture), how his son had changed despite what Mom and Pop had instilled in him. (In the movie, his son got stabbed by the fellow soldier, dismembered and parts burned. During the investigation, the participants in the murder all acted normal, like another day on the job.)

At the end of the film, the father hung the US flag he got from his son's belongings upside down at his town's school - a sign of distress.

You should watch Taken as well, the Liam Neeson film about father's rescue of his daughter who gets kidnapped by pimps within hours of arriving in Paris. If you're a parent, you'd freak out at how horrible the world can turn out to be for your kids.

Just the other day at the doctors, I was skimming through a Newsweek article that mentioned a quote from a US Army higher up about men joining the military because they wanted to fight. Yikes.

Kids desensitized to the value of life become adults who think the same way. We live in scary times. I ain't a moral saint but I think we may be doing too little to prevent us going down this path.

Watch youtube videos for In The Valley of Elah

Stay Current Dude!

Apart from
- my first pager,
- my first NS payslip,
- the invitation the Army sent my family to watch me at the BMT passing out parade,
- my first Sony Discman,
- my first and fifth handphones,
- my secondary school bus passes,
- my blue Singapore-Malaysia passport,
- my university matriculation card,
- the last ever Area Licensing ticket (sold the day before ERP launched),
- LOTR 2 and LOTR 3 cinema tickets,
- a Milli Vanilli cassette tape,
- the first issue of 8 Days,
- my first POSB passbook and thousands of other things,
I had to pack up my father's old magazines. He ordered these magazines in the 60s and 70s called Mother India. He would quote from them and his views often sided with that of the magazine's editor, Baburao Patel. I think we listened for a while then started to roll our eyes as we grew older. Haha.

The cool thing about gently peeling the pages of yore was that now I am able to appreciate the language, style and content of these Mother India issues. The oldest I remember seeing dated back to 1962. The cool thing in these black and white print mags were the ads. They are now hilarious but retro cool.


This one is the best, MCP to the core. Of course I wear the damn pants, make me some tea woman!

More gems

Other classics at my Flickr

What's Been Up

I am sick again. Hate the feeling. My lymph nodes in the neck hurt. I discovered that means some bacteria got past the body's firewall, and as someone else on Twitter said, I was hacked.

So I am viral now and have got anti-biotics to make things better. Let's see. The visit to the doc was funny though. He was shooing away this nurse as I came in and my sleeve wouldn't roll up my bicep (ahem) as he wanted to take my blood pressure. Then took my temperature in both ears. Both. And the thermometer read less than 37. Sub-normal. He had a little fan on the floor and I asked him why. He went to explain that the airconditioning was crap and the ventilation sucky. The windows didn't help. I told him sunlight was disinfecting. He checked my mouth twice. I was beginning to see a pattern.

(Gone to play with nephew)

Kiki was calling unk-ka. That's me :)

Anyhoo, this ill behaviour could be result of moving house. We moved to another place in Woodlands because the HDB and CPF conspired to delay the purchase of the new old place in Hougang. So that's happening Q4. And we're renting. Not a great place, needed a lot of cleanup. Well, desperate times. It was not easy moving. I had 30 boxes of dunno wat to move. And on the night before the move, I went home after a couple or three James Squires to find my sis and mom surrounded by boxes, things and bubble wrap. I slept at 230am and woke at 6am to pack some more. The movers came and took everything in two trips and everything, though labelled, got mixed up. So now we are asking where's this and that, and which box it could be in. Aiyoh. But I am nicely settled in, all the necessities all present and accounted for.

Speaking of James Squire, I have sort of discovered a daytime cafe that wants to be a nightime bar in the building where I work. Called Black, you'll find posters that read Goof F***ing Coffee and F***ing Cheap Drinks depending on the time of day you saunter by. The furniture is old school and the guy's got a actual record player there. It's a nice place with potential.

(I went to NTUC, had dinner and watched some TV. Now to re-read the last para and start again)

Yes, go to Black. Have a couple of James Squires in the evening, 2 for $15, and they have sparkling sake. Happy hour hard stuff with a mixer is $7. Tell John you heard it from me.

I tried Quiznos - no big deal. Really, and the wait will kill you as your stomach lining fizzes almost beyond redemption in the accumulating hydrochloric acid in your lunch-starved tummy. Subway wins.

I have migrated from teh halia to teh-si halia. Not to sweet, just the same kick, 10 cents more expensive.

Now time to take an antibiotic and sleep. I'll continue sooner or later about the museum of old stuff I am going to set up.

Eat Here - Ga-Hock Seafood

The picture shows Amos and Jo partaking upon the good food at Ga-Hock Seafood. Yes, there is a hyphen. I was there for dinner once and was blown away by the great quality and low prices. This is one zhi-char that isn't gonna bust the budget yet have you ordering every meat dish on the menu.

Well, we went overboard kind of. We had 10 things to eat I think. But before I begin about dinner, you gotta go try the satay from the guy at the side. The sticks of tender meat are awesome! And the gravy, ay yai yai, comes with pineapple puree. Yums. Then ordered lime juice which came tasting like lime juice in water. Odd but suprisingly refreshing. Maybe the $1.30 set us off.

Now the food. Have the coffee pork ribs, the crabs, the oatmeal prawns, the salted vege soup, the prawn rolls and the tasty tofu (yes, that's what it's called on the menu). In fact all the food we tried was above average in my books (some found the sambal kangkong not spicy enuff but I think its unique).

In the end, all that mattered was that it all cost $192.

Oh yes, Ga-Hock Seafood is hidden behind the Hokkien Kong Huay at 794 Upper Bukit Timah Road. Oh yes, it is next to another foodie great - Karu's Curry.