My USA work Trip

NYC

Yellow cabs are so cutthroat expensive that I rather walk 45mins to the office from my hotel. If I have more time, I could walk further (but these damn meetings) … New York is a city of solitude when traverse on foot.

I love New York mornings. Watching the city gets brighter, my mind alternating between images of my early morning read and the familiar yet unfamiliar pedestrian scene outside the café window… Phaedrus in the former floats like a ghost in and out of my thoughts while I stare at passerby, pretending I know how they live when it is all a dissonance spectacle. My New York mornings, more so than all other business trip mornings, defending my silence… 

Walking back from work is totally different… Evening walks is an intersection of personal memories with the city’s architecture. The quiet yet purposeful desperate search for pockets of the past – our favorite Korean BBQ restaurant, the bench I once sat (which I will always sit again every time I am back)… A performative act of self dramatization… A slice of the something I refuse to let go. Evening walks just takes so much longer.

Miami

Cute. 

For some reason, it feels natural to always be with company in Miami. Someone always have a good story to tell. There is always a gathering. Never a dull moment. 

In the flickering candle light, dinner conversation jumps from Jun’ichiro Tanizaki to Italo Calvino, from sight to scent, to the commercial exploitation of the ephemeral state of Kleenex (this is where we lost Stephan). Someone starts on colorscape theory... These guys actually read the same books as I. The company was such a joy...

Even a quiet dinner can end up with an animated owner telling us he named this restaurant based on a book he read -“ Allegro Ma Non Troppo” by Carlo M. Cipolla… “The Basic Law of Human Stupidity”… See? Another Must Read being introduced… certainly, I will...

Miami is a good juxtaposition to New York. Coffee feels out of place in Miami. Green juice is the rule of the day and cocktail is the queen of the night. No time to even self-indulge as Gym is in (ah my butt and core!!!) and avocados and proteins tag close behind.

 

Los Angelas

Last leg. And a city I have problems connecting. Maybe because work has piled. Maybe because AA lost my luggage. Started the journey a bit deadbeat.

At first glance - a dystopia of congested freeways, hyper stylized aesthetics of massive suburbs, eccentric theme park design. Streets scrubbed of history and real life, hard for me to catch a glimpse of day-to-day human depth. I actually asked Charisse on Day 2 : What am I supposed to be looking at? I am confused. Neighborhood feels scripted and I feel trapped in a sunny disillusionment. 

However, I persist in my morning walks... nothing much to see until i reach Santa Monica Pier. I do love the coastline - the raw energy of crashing waves… It feels like this huge expanse of Pacific Coast gave up pretending to have a narrative, leaving the human construct of the Carnival Park sticking out like an awkward existence. 

I feel ridiculous as well, freezing in the sharp coastal winds, carrying my laptop, realizing that it is a dumb idea to walk from hotel to beach to office. And at 7am, no cozy cafes in sight and no hustle and bustle street life to watch. 

This odd city, however, I forge new bonds with people. 

A pink cosmetic pouch in the car revealing a romantic at heart I should have guessed. A passion for red roses, taking leave to organize parties - a warmth that never reached me during all these online meetings. Restoration projects on Saturdays, only for people who share an appreciation of history and craftsmanship, technical curiosity and exceptional patience – a colleague I never knew. 

And this is precious. The layer of human harder to discover than the cityscape. The bits and pieces of blood and flesh that adds more depth to life... it is so nice to be in LA. Maybe I should have done this much earlier... I miss you people already...

Side note: many want to know how I find time to paint on a business trip. Jet lag and waking up at 2am helps. I am out exploring hours before reaching the office. The more outward attentiveness I give to meetings and social dinners, the longer the time I need to conduct my internal monologue. And painting is the physical manifestation of me making sense of this world. Plus, watercolor is a fast medium. 

An ongoing personal story woven by memories

“Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it changes.”

— Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

 

And it did… @ Mad Charcoal. And at every new experience we opened our hearts to.  

Someone told Ken that despite the ease of digital era and AI. Nothing can replace real human connection because our memories can only be constructed from real human connections and experiences. This is why we need to be present. We need to be here.

Sketch. Paint

Discovered an urban sketching community in Singapore by chance!!! They posted on social media – meet @XXXlocation@XXtime.  I literally turned up the next day and said hi to a bunch of strangers. Then we just sat together in silence and painted for 2 hours… Perfect heaven for people like me. 

Sketching with a big diverse group, it soon became apparent to me how restrictive my style is. How I am afraid to break out of my shell to try a new technique that may “destroy” my 2 hours of effort. 

My brand new full watercolor piece – “lace curtains at the window” – has been tugging my heartstrings for months. Every week, I added a few brush strokes. Some weeks it looked better, some weeks it looked worse. It is just never how I imagine it to be… Like an illegitimate child, craving but afraid to be made known because he is different and inadequate… 

Carl Jung puts it nicely… An unrealized potential feels psychological safer than a realized one. As long as greatness remains a possibility, it can never be judged. It can never disappoint. It can never reveal its limits. The moment I act, the fantasy dies and reality begins. 

Luckily I don’t care about other things in life much so those items move damn fast. Everything else cannot compare to this one flawed painting which I placed my entire  fragile artistic worth and ego on. The one thing I care about… The one thing I am so afraid of proving to myself that I am limited… 

An excuse to celebrate

Never forgo any opportunity to create memories. Life is filled with many interesting episodes.

National Day

Sonny was so excited about National Day… hence the day must be celebrated. 

Vesek Day

“YY!” I turned round and saw Lily and family at “that white temple I always go”. What a coincidence. She asked me what’s the procedure, what should she do at this temple… Like I knew any better. I was just as clueless as her. I just like coming here because of the banyan tree. (one fine day I am gonna sit here to paint this big tree in peace)

Hong Kong

In hindsight, it is strange that our number-one-must-do in HK is hiking and not shopping. This piece of memory is damn bizarre and hilarious – Eliz and me chasing after “HELP” in the forest early morning. Amazing how fast Eliz can run uphill. At this rate, I might lose my life before we managed to save another’s… wait for me!!!!! Don’t leave me behind!!!! 

ShenZhen

How girls can go from “hello” to sisters in one day. How to eat crazy good pigeons cooked in 10 ways. How to burn cash FAST in a 45mins crazy shopping spree. SZ is on another level. 

I will never forget receiving the WeChat message, “YY,你的菜“… and thinking it meant pictures of some cute guys. Too busy to open the attachments... Until the view of a delivery man carrying a shit load of fresh vegetables walk by my conference room window towards the office receptionist (who immediately looked in my direction). WAH, after one Sunday together, she literally sent me vegetables to bring back to SG because I never had this in Singapore before.  

Fast forward 11.30pm SGT. YY in kitchen plucking goji berry leaves to layer between newspapers (because condensation from flight)… zzz

Just show up

Can’t sing but I was glad I showed up. It was fun. 

Talk about unexpected karaoke. The usual cosy dinner and drinks at the home bistro went totally hyped with all 6 tables singing loudly to Spotify till early morning. Everyone encouraging and giving thunderous applause to one another, like we all share 30 years of friendship. One moment you are sharing a mic with someone who just appeared beside you, doesn’t matter you not knowing the lyrics, another moment your song will be cut off and the whole room roared with “sorry sorry” and “DOWN FIVE DOWN FIVE”… 

People leaving with announcements that they will be back here on a certain date, hoping to see this whole lot again… Chef not cooking. Chef is here enjoying. Wine is self-service from the back cellar… and tonight every single bottle Arnold pulled out is starting with a B… So much fun. 

Did not participate but I dressed up and had a bunch of people put things in my hair. CONCEPT - was curling my hair but too tired/ fell asleep hence my hair looked like this the next morning. Halfway facemask + changing out of my pajamas + inhaling a puff when BOSS video conference called… This is the freeze frame look. Not bad. 

Can’t play GO but I happily agreed to a stranger’s invitation to the Japanese GO Association. Totally enjoyed my time at the club but stranger turned out to be a 怪叔叔… tsk tsk tsk… 

Life changes fast. One day I was healing a disconnected heart and the next I became too busy to think, suddenly involved in many things. All quite interesting. All these memories woven into an ongoing personal story of me and the people around. It will be a lesser life if I did not take it up and ran with it…  

June Holidays - reporting on the family front

Strawberri strawberri manis manis (not so sweet)

Strawberri strawberri sedap sedap (ok only lah)

Strawberri strawberri here we come (Raja)

Picking and makan that’s all we do (big and small 通杀)

Victor, we finally made it to Cameron Highlands!!!! Finally to the strawberries!!! Totally enjoyed the experience. 

Ate a lot a lot of ice-creams in Cameron Highlands. Dotter wanted to bring the strawberries home to make her own gelato… 

Oh yes, her wise Mudder bought an ice-cream maker for them to create their own dessert during the June holidays, so they won’t pester me for snacks all day long. Brilliant move. 

So far, Meggie’s mango passion fruit and black sesame ice-cream were par excellent. 

Other than strawberries, Cameron is also known for its tea – BOH tea. So up the winding road we go… lush hills, my fav green radiating in the warm sunshine, faint smell of tea in the cold breeze…. Nice. 

When we were not out and about, we played pool. Well done, Morgan, up on the table when you couldn’t reach… Aiyah but I forgot to tell him one foot must be on the ground… how come this pool cue so short??

After coming down from the mountains, I thought exploring Perak caves was the most natural thing to do. I liked the idea of caverns, down and further down we descend. My knowledge of caves, hmmm – very wrong… somehow and unexpectedly we ended up climbing upwards to the top of some hill again… … Steps and more steps… 

And a good thing we made it up because we found a lady fainted at the peak with low blood sugar and my pack of Himalaya salt candy bought for MIL’s funeral came in handy. MIL saved someone again! 

Night hot spring and swimming was interesting.

Shopping in Ipoh is more like walking around waiting for restaurants to open… yum yum yum… 

Basked in very cool colonial vibe with delicious food @ the oldest bar in town - Durbar. Featuring fish and chips of a different league and friendly staff who spoke better English than us. 10 mins into the meal, the waitress came up to help rearrange Morgan’s plate and cut his fish n chips into bitesize… “Have your meal, don’t worry about him, I will look after him”… …Talk about impeccable service. 

But nothing beats street food. These old kopitiam with zi char, curry noodles and freshy baked piah, curry buns… wahhhh… 

Ramly burger is the best!

Special mention the 芽菜鸡滑蛋河粉 @ Tuck Kee. This is no bean sprout chicken horfan dish. This is the smoothest horfan I have ever eaten.  鸡 is fried chicken wings!!! And look how ridiculously short and plump Ipoh beansprouts are. Bean sprouts in Ipoh - instead of growing taller, grow sideways instead WOW. Juicy!!!! Just for these bean sprouts, it is worth flying back. 

Durian season. Eat. But not to worry Bernard, no fight compared to yours. Left is what we ordered @ 30 MYR/kg, right is your reputation on the line with seeds so fine, we almost missed them. 

And who is Bernard? Long lost relative Ken picked up at Mad Charcoal… tsk tsk tsk… Found one long lost distant cousin, uncovered an entire clan of relatives and alcohol… YOLO. 

Megan had been crazy busy with studying and studying these past months. Her brother however, had his days full of all kinds of activities (except studying) – fishing, movie under the stars, dancing, play play play play… … 

Today is the last day of the June holidays. Family had fun… time to get back to school and the daily grind….