In the month of October

Ally is now in NYDC. Guggenheim, MoMa and MET, she only have time to visit 2 out of 3 museums. I recommend based on museum shop rating for buying expensive but oh-so artistic trinkets for friends. She doesn't get the hint. Lx advises based on architectural value. I mean how surface and shallow can one get, judging museums from their facades.

Anyway I missed those days when the three of us go museum crawl together. Doesn't matter if we know little about the artists or their works. With art pulsating in our blood, we alway find ways to appreciate famous pieces and their creators. Just look at these classic works of "Shazam" that Ally sent over.  "Dude has unnatural like for fruits and table linen", she says. Yah... we agree.

Dunno why Aug and Oct are such busy stressful months. Ken's antidote to high stress is good food. Try out the new 猫三王 durian milk shake... do order the extra scoop of durian, I mean if you want to sin, might as well go all the way rite?... very "gao", hard to suck...

Supper, we recommend the neighbourhood specialty ice-cream shop - lime mojito, black forest, rocher chocolate etc ice-cream on belgium waffers. Twice a week, we head down for sweet after dinner dessert.

Anyway hardly has any chance these days. Our travel schedules simply do not meet. Ken was in Athens some weeks ago for a leadership workshop and sent me photos from his balcony everyday. Then he hopped to Lyon for a lot of escargots and meetings of some kind. Was supposed to be home after 2 weeks but last heard, he is now in Ghents.

Luckily for me, while Ken is working hard in Europe, I was summoned to Cebu to taste the most succulent meat, the most crispy skin, the softest melt-in-your-mouth fats of my life - Lechon (a name I will remember for life).  Yum of a different level.

Coffee stain reminds me of a field of trees... in some far away land...

Anyway as Megan grows older, my aspiration to be a baker strengthened. Food porn flamed my desire although I have never opened my three year old brand new oven. But I am confident my cakes, muffins and cake pops will taste ok BUT look fabulous. B says I will succeed if I put my heart to it. Mr Barr says he will not invest in my business. Easy to tell who is a friend.

Got to intro this fabulous movie - Iron Sky, recommended to me and ML by Bun Bun. Its a Finnish movie about Nazi setting up base camp on the moon (after a failed world war) waiting for a good chance to get back at earth, if not for the fact that their mother-warship lack the technology to power up. After capturing a black American astronaut, turning him white and discovering that his iphone computing power outstrips their technology, they decided that returning to earth to collect more smart phones is their best bet. The then-President of United States (Sarah Palin) whose sole concern is to get re-elected made use of this alien war as a PR stunt and sidestep the UN. Nazi warfare has never been funnier... go download it!

Was in Beijing and a contractor asked me how I feel about China as an outsider watching the daily news. Well, no one told him I have stopped watching the news 5 years ago.. haha. I believed I replied in the lines of China becoming fractured with many provinces of Southern China gaining autonomy. Honestly what crap and and I slapped myself for giving uneducated answers. So the next week, in the airport (again), I bought this book "When China ruled the World" by Martin Jacques and quickly tried to understand and absorb what others think of this global power-shift. Turned out, this is a very worthwhile book to read, flipping its pages (ok, a tad too thick and heavy), I cannot help but  recall how nonsense my Master's thesis was and how logical Jacques writes... Go read it.

Three Days of my life

Was nagging Ken on why he spent so much time on Facebook instead of paying attention to me. Other people's life are interesting, he said and showed me the stuff. You mean people actually read these uneventful daily activities? Yah, Ken said and challenged me to write a typical three days of my life. Someone will find it interesting, he said. ok so here goes:

DAY 1

Woke up to the sound of the alarm, nurged ken and stumbled to the bathroom to wash up and hurried to my in law’s place. “Sweetie pie!” we shouted from behind their gate because the door bell has malfunctioned again.

Quick but chatty breakfast with constant interruptions by Megan who insisted on sitting on my lap, blocking my entire view, then guiding my hand to the spoon and directing the food to her mouth.

End of breakfast equals start of playtime with Megan with her current hot favorite building blocks and cooking set. Bursting with energy in the morning means trying to escape the house with a quick goodbye is not an option. Ken and me had to quietly filter out while she was not looking.

Real office action starts at 9.30am and sometimes I wonder why I needed a desk. “YY, can you spare a minute”, “ YY, can we discuss this..” I will be walking around everyone’s desk, pointing at their screens, checking drawings, red-penning all plans, crossing out 50% of mood boards, squatting at the library examining fabrics, trying to hear what people are talking about on their phones and telling them off for their tone or their lack of precision on what they are requesting. Then comes the project meetings which some say is good, while others say is a whole lot of lecturing, depending on how you see it.

Ah shit, 1pm, meeting at client’s office. Forget about lunch guys, lets go. Meeting, introduction, explaination, discussion, neigioation. I desperately need some water. Wrapping the meeting up at 3pm means we are already 30mins late for our teleconference back in office. Please get some lunch to eat back in office, I told my guy. Video conference with me eating and munching at 4pm is an unglamourous affair. HR knocked on the door, whispering to have a minute. “You post phoned the interviews again, YY. What day are you free?”

Back to studio. What the F are you guys doing? Presentation ready? I am leaving to the airport in 20 mins and I want to see everything NOW. Designers scrambling. Needed the loo. Sat on the WC to continue an SMS war fighting absolutely unsupportive support department for the fifth time.  

I am leaving NOW!!!! Where are my things!!!????

Luggage, laptops, folios, presentation booklets, materials all in cab. “T3 please”. Finally had a chance to read my emails on my phone, had not opened my laptop for the day nor sat at my desk. 80 emails!!! This is going to take some time. Sms Ken to say I love him and bye bye.

In flight… work or rest? Was handed a stack of documents to read. I chose rest. Exhausted and brain in overdrive. Needed a break. Slept. Landed at 11pm. Stupid airport transfer not in sight. Called hotel and they claimed no no no, we did not request for transfer. Damn, should have killed support while I can. Reached hotel at 12.30am. Showered but still boiling with anger. Start to work on emails and my long list of unfinished work. 3am, tired and hungry, ordered room service. Ate. Slept.

DAY 2

6am. Alarm rang. Met my designers in lobby at 645am. 2 hour drive to god forsaken location for 9am meeting. Bearly eyed and still not awake. Everyone chatted about the latest gossips in the car, then all fell asleep. 

9am meeting – counted a total of 34 people. Shit, another one of those huge meetings. Putted on an extra cheery mask, smiled and say hi, oh my god so nice to see you again…. Meeting started with me talking for two hours straight then answering questions for another 2 hours straight. Dying of hunger after the first round, regret not waking up at 5am to find breakfast.

Whole morning of delicated presentations mean lunch had to be a multi-tasking affair. Bonding sessions with client, operator and consultants are usually fun. But admist the laugher and jokes, you can see everyone trying to check their BB for all the calls and mails they missed. I saw three missed calls and a death threat sms from a client’s PM.

You know, clients are generally nice people but somehow they always have a spoliter of a scum PM who almost always know next to nothing about hotels or construction. Information they diepense are usually 99% wrong and all they know about is protecting their ass against the best interest of their bosses and their projects. Much of my time is spent dealing with such low life form so that my team can do the real work. Ah and this particular bottom feeder who sms-ed me loves to send me death threats. 

Ignore scums, what else on my phone?

Ten plans to approve, four too big for my 3G to load, three too crap to worth commenting, one too complex to read from tiny screen and two ok to proceed with comments. Two contracts needed to be drafted and issued… Damn need two hours… One brief to be issued by this week… Damn need two full days. Finance asking for Q2, Q3 forecast and oh need to look at aging report…

Ah a client hasn't paid and I need to squeeze in a day trip to be a debt collector!!! 

Meeting resumed and me and my designers, X and Y started to subdivide ourselves and take on multiple roles at the same time. I took on architecture and my split personality tackled operation while my alter ego try to explain to the client on the best way forward. X started re-drawing the plans in order to combine what owners and client wants while Y fend off the HVAC and structure guys and strangely being hounded by landscape. Everyone talked at the same time and consultants who are not talking are waiting in line for their chance.

Suddenly interrupted by the lawyer who wanted my 5 minutes on contractual documents. Clause 2.5.4 needs some work.. ok this sounds more than a 5 minutes discussion… Anyway glad to leave the typical war zone. Blah Blah Blah 7pm. End of meeting. Waited 30mins for a taxi in crazy chinese traffic with 20 kg of presentation materials in tow.

Exhausted and ready to die. Dinner was our only redemption with much needed alcohol to nurse my headache. Call from unknown number. Hello? A client’s representative knew we were in town and wanted to meet NOW… wat the hell. Suddenly our dinner looked further and further away. The guy talked for over an hour… round and round… so exactly what do you want? I asked, ready to end the conversation. In the end, he wanted us to bribe him…

Ultra late dinner with the team. Bitch Bitch Bitch… BITCH BITCH BITCH…. Now you know why people in my industry are so bitchy. If we do not bitch to release stress, we will explode and die.  In a calmer state, I called Ken to check out what’s happening at home and his travelling schedule for the following week.

11pm. Time to break up. Back in our hotel rooms, the guys will start drafting the meeting minutes and email the to-do list back to BKK and SIN. I will start to sketch up revisons for tomorrow’s discussion. 1am, received call from Chris who just landed in town for another meeting. The crazy guy wanted to meet to discuss a pitch stagergy despite only sleeping for 20hrs for the past one week. Met in his room at 2am, discussed till 3am. Hungry, ordered room service, ate. Slept at 3.30am

DAY 3

7am. Breakfast and checked out. Everyone too tired to even bitch.

8.30am. Meeting. Present revised scheme. Everyone happy, discussed schedule, fixed next meeting date. Called support to work out my schedule for the next two weeks. War ensured but what do I expect? Fighting support is like wrestling with a pig. You achieve nothing except to waste your life away. 

Traffic Jam on the way to the airport. Nasty flight back but at least not delayed. Reached Singapore at 5pm. Felt like vomiting and desperate to go home but somehow went back to office. Never a good move. Grabbed by a designer who wanted just 20 minutes. Turned into a tearly session and needed my mothering. I looked at my watch, its nearing 7pm. SHIT.

A typical three day is finally nearly over. On my way to see sweetie pie and Ken. Call from mum. Reminder that I haven’t seen her for over a month. Call from best friend asking if I am free for dinner. Great idea, always wanted to visit her but thought she may be too pre-occupied with her new born so maybe next week after her gal passed the one month mark. "my baby is three months old already" she replied… Oh my god. Shit...

Back home, I  chased Megan up and down the house till bedtime. I fed her and Ken read her Three Little Pigs. After Megan slept, Ken and me spent some time catching up in the living room before he started to pack for his flight tomorrow. 

So this is it, a very typical three days of my life... worth reading? 

Spain - Best Food List

Somehow our Barcelona trip moth into a food centric trip...

OK what were you expecting? I am there with fatty Ken so regardless of how culturally driven I plan for us to dive into the Gaudi and Miro arti farti world, the mightier forces of the husband and our stomachs prevail!!! We no longer plan our METRO routes based on must-sees, but a focused  reservations of key MUST-EAT venues. In between breakfast and lunch, lunch and dinner, we will, well... see how much time we have to check out what's nearby.

BEST LITE BITES

Winner - A Spoon of Tomato, NU
First thing first - Ken insisted to take over the whole food section as a guest blogger.... Raved about how he will introduced the Best Food List the entire trip until I handed over the laptop and say "OK, start typing".... Then comes all kinds of reasonable reasons to conceal the fact that he chickened out. Swear to give me quotable quotes instead. Ha Ha. Hence I quote him on his number one winner of the Best Lite Bites - (in this case, its more of a slurp than a bite) Introducing a Spoon of Tomato!!!!

Yes indeed this is a spoon of tomato and its not a cherry tomato... I dunno what it is but the waitress introduced this as tomato and it certainly tasted like one. I don't know if this is delicious as it disappeared into my throat a bit too fast and I sort of missed it (totally). I toast Ken with white wine after slurp and he say he had to keep this taste in this mouth for as long as possible, so no thank you!! "So nice meh?", I asked. He replied, quote "It's better than sex", unquote.

1st Runner Up - Olives, Can Majo
A saucer of olives is served before every meal, like how they serve peanuts in Chinese restaurants. I don't usually eat olives, I thought they are deco for Martinis but this certainly looking pretty appetising so I tried one, the two, then three. OMG, nice, better than chinese peanuts.

2nd Runner Up - Mushroom Soup with Fresh Clams, Occi
This cuppa soup amounts to approx two spoonfuls and has three clams inside. Honestly I dunno how it taste because I don't eat clams so I passed over all the clams to Ken who ended up orgasing at the other end of the table...

Special Mention - Gourmet Salt, Gi and F
Guest Food Blogger demanded me to give special mention to this selection of 5 organic salts provided on the table of Gi and F. Supposed to sprinkler some of them to the olive oil and eat with warm bread. Gi and F also gave us with a very robust olive oil which is apparently the winner of the 2012 international olive oil award and according to guest blogger- is of an intensity and purity that is very hard to achieve. Wah....

BEST STARTER

Winner - Anchovy with Fish Roe, Raspberries and Avocado + at least 4 other chopped up food, topped with Coconut Mousse, Nu
A delightful explosion of flavors... I mean a very very very delightful explosion.

First Runner Up - Hand Carved Tuna Sashimi, Gi and F
Heavenly but portion is way to big, almost a main.

Second Runner Up - Grilled Asparagus on Molten Egg and Bamboo Clam, Occi
Ken's starter (why did he always order the better starter?). To me, this is my 2nd best starter, asparagus grilled perfectly and the combination of the half boiled egg york and bamboo clam is divine. Just to eat this dish, I will consider buying a ticket back to Spain.

Second Runner Up (2) - Iberian Ham on Melon, somewhere
The ham salty enough. The melon sweet enough... enough said.

Special Mention - Fresh Oysters, Can Majo
Basically the taste of the sea, so fresh that you can find a piece of fresh seaweed in the shell. Ken finished all six.

BEST MAIN

Winner (YY) - Black Sausage Ravioli in Pumpkin Soup , Nu
I hate ravioli but this is no ordinary ravioli. The skin is so thin and soft, like wanton skin and the meat inside taste like reconstructed 粽子(Chinese rice dumpling). A bit savory, a bit sweet, a bit too little...

Winner (Ken) - Sashimi Tuna on Curried Rice with a dash of Wasabi and light soy sauce, Nu
Best Best Best tuna we have eaten, this is Ken's all time winner and my number 2 choice. I am salivating as I recall and blog. Ken actually shed a single tear when he ate this.

Second Runner Up - Lobster Paella in Valencia Rice, Can Majo
Have never eaten nice lobsters in Asia. Either Asians do not know how to cook lobsters or we simply do not have tasty lobsters. First time in our lives, we tasted lobster so sweet and I swear, we did not let any bit of meat go to waste... We left behind shells so clean they make the chef proud. Pair the paella with a bottle of 11 euro Vina Sol and you are in heaven.

Third Runner Up - Spare Ribs with Cheese Polenta, Nu
Melts in your mouth, melts in your mouth, melts in your mouth!!! Definition of perfection.

Special Mention (1) - Prawns and Clams on Turbot Fish, Gi and F
Ken's main, TAMADE why he always order all the nice dishes?

Special Mention 2 - Meat Kebab
We woke up late, skipped breakfast and head directly to La Rambas... by the time we got there I was starving so I didn't really care where we eat, I just need food! So we popped into a restaurant just outside the metro exit and ordered meat kebab... What a wonderful surprise to find such succulent kebab! If I knew mutton tasted this good, I would have give up chicken...

Special Mention 3 - Seafood Paella, Can Majo
Can Majo... Please go and eat their Paella if you visit Barcelona!!!

BEST DESSERT

Vanilla Ice-Cream on Red Wine Cherries, Occi

Light and Refreshing. Best dessert I have ever eaten.

White Chocolate Mousse with Molten Egg, topped with honey coated Pistachio Nuts and Raspberry Sauce, Occi

OK, very strange combi... We swear that stuff below the white chocolate mousse is a molten egg but hey who can be sure on such experimental food? But gosh, so much distinct flavors in one mouthful, yet they blend into each other so well. 

Barcelona - A Wonderful Holiday

Barcelona is a perfect place for a 10 day trip. The city has vibrant art and architecture scene blending the old and new(my kinda thing), great shopping (his kinda thing), beyond delicious food and wine (our kinda thing). 

I cried. Yes, I cried in the presence of Sagrada de Familia. The last time I saw this church was at least fifteen years ago. The roof was incomplete, or maybe there wasn't even a roof yet, only one big lobang. But now, fifteen years later, I was staring at a near completed church interior- a roof and columns supporting the roof!!! For a layman these must be the prettiest columns!!! For any person who bother to dig deeper, these are ingenious structures. What spectacular and powerful architecture. Then I cried. 

I was elated that Ken was properly introduced to Gaudi. I hoped he liked it. I think he liked it. Come on, how can anyone not like Gaudi!!!??? Gaudi makes me laugh. He has a good sense of humor and he dared to express himself from big gesture roofs to the tiniest door detail. This is architecture of passion, anyone can appreciate his architecture without going into the analytics. Ken loves Casa Batllo because it is a building without any right angles - very good for feng shui he says...

Ok, enough of architecture. Let's move to Ken's world of oh lay oh lay - Camp Nou, home to the legendary FC Barcelona. It is a known fact that I know nothing about the sport of a dozen people trying hard to pass a ball to one another but when they finally get the ball, they immediately kick it away. Weird. But well, Ken's passion. 

Wah Wah Wah, I also dunno what he was wah-ing about at every turn but it sounded all very exciting and got me all hyped up. Then Ken went into the technical aspects, explaining to me about the stadium lights, cameras, commentators, the trophies, the club values etc... now we are talking. WAH!!! 

There was a whole wall of projection screens where they looped all the famous winning goals by FCB throughout the years. GOAL! GOAL! GOAL! Then close up shoots of the players crying, covering their faces in their hands, dramatically kissing the air, panoramic views of whole stadium exploding in cheers. Then I cried... Aiyoh, so touching. If only soccer games only screen the GOAL!!! shots instead of making me stare for 90 minutes of running around. 

One of the happiest moments in Barcelona was actually spent in a sweet shop. From the outside, I thought we passed by a clinic, then the pink signage against the sterile white shopfront caught our attention. HAPPY PILLS it says. Turned out, this is a concept shop selling nothing but sweets! 

You choose the containers, fill them up with sweets of your choice, struggle between stickers that say "HAPPY PILLS makes you prettier than your friends" and "HAPPY PILLS instant solution to back stabbing colleagues". Pack them in boxes titled "Anti Inflammatory for Balls - Instant relief from work stress pains accumulated in the lower regions". This clinic is damn cool, stocking such happy pills already made us extremely happy.

Girona

An hour from Barcelona is Girona, a quint romantic old town with colorful houses on both sides of the river. Architecture is varied and atmospheric with myriad of occupations and invasions of many narrow streets, a castle, impressive walls and fairytale gardens.

There is something more intangible than beauty that gave Girona a special place in our hearts. "I don't mind getting a house here", said Ken. Yah I agree, as we strolled the streets in the warm sunlight. For some magical reasons, time moves at a very comfortable pace in Girona. This is not an ancient town where time halts because it died in some alleyway one hundred years ago. 

Ken concluded that everything is at peace because there are hardly any cars in this place hence no noise of traffic. One can only hear the music of life with locals gathering on the streets at night to sing and dance. The smell of dawn with the warm rays bringing out the scent of grass and dew.  Time took on another meaning. Time here is not for rushing pass life, it is used for appreciation of life. 

We stumbled upon a luxury watch shop in Girona. I was deeply impressed by a men's watch with a light leather strap in the show window. Very understated for the brand's style, totally down my alley but just quite quite pricey even with an 18% tax rebate. Unlike retailers in Singapore who has little knowledge of their watches and are preoccupied with earning their commissions, we were served by the owner's son who ended up chatting with us on the difference between Patek Philippe, Rolex and IWC.

We also stumbled upon an old world toy shop, stocked from floor to ceiling of toys from our era - aka tin mobiles, wooden puzzles, spin tops, kaleidoscope, slip comics etc... We returned to the shop at least four times to buy and buy.

I always have this romantic notion that nth years later (when Megan is much older and me no longer around) that she opens her precious tin container and retrieve some faded wooden top or paper wind mill that holds fond memories of her childhood - aka mummy and daddy bought this for me. I mean the scene looks so wrong if she opens the box to retrieve an old plastic barbie doll with disarrayed hair right? No no no... I better buy some proper toys that have lasting power. And lucky for us, this shop has plenty.

Food in Girona ranked high - very surprised that this little town play host to quite a number of Michelin star restaurants and food in their hands is a form of art... See next blog for more details.

Montserrat

Took the easy way out and booked a one day tour. Like all organised tour groups, they are overpriced, short on time and convenient. For Montserrat, it is not a bad choice of travel. Strange, wind contorted mountain peaks made great hiking environments. Guess where I am in the picture?

Yes, you can pretty much gather that Ken was the one hiking and me 'resting' at mid ridge. Certainly not as fit as before, fat tights are quite heavy to lift you know.

Sitges

Not damn excited about Sitges, a beach town. Felt that Sitges is a tourist trap. Arrived around 5pm and the sun was frying my skin crispy. Hate Hate Hate!!! Reached the lowest point in the trip. Black face!! Cannot absorb anything because my whole brain became focused on the conviction that a worst possible death is to dehydrate and bake in the sun. Hate Hate Hate.

Felt more alive the next morning and for Ken, I braved the sun, sea and sand with no swim wear and a pair of sport shoes... Wah very nice leh... The combination of cold waters, chilly wind, extremely hot sun, two beach daybeds and a huge umbrella was a great way to chill. You dozed off, you waked, you watched girls with balls playing balls, you admired multicolor sunga. You dozed, you waked, you were  treated to toned bodies doing fashion shows, you saw more colorful bikinis... what a visual feast! Thank you Ken for bringing me to this spot under the umbrella. Like. I could lie there doing nothing the entire day... 

... if not for the fact that I became hungry. I think if I set up a mobile BBQ stall there... will sell...

Shall I talk about food? Hmm, see next blog for all food related text... life is wonderful.