Megan's Stall

Kenneth had a mega brillant idea one day. 

Buy Megan a stall so that she can start selling her own wares and learn the concept of money... wah.. and that was before the age of two. He found the perfect wooden stall at The Better Toy Shop and it fit into Megan's room nicely. 

Comes with a chalkboard for her to price her wares and plastic wrap to keep the food fresh. What should she sell? At first, everything from mini books Stacey and me bought to sweets and trays of vegetables we can find and buy. 

Bought a wooden crate from Diaso and stocked it up with a vegetable set from Ikea. Ikea sells amazing cabbage, leek, brinjal, carrot, cucumber and mushrooms. 

They also sell a very cool banana, watermelon, oranges, apples and grapes. But there is not enough variety and their numbers are limited. Megan can't keep selling one banana and two oranges. She needs more of each to learn counting. To stock this stall up properly, we turn to the expert hands of mimi. 

Instantly she made a basketful of mangosteen. Oh they look so great, especially the ones what are peeled open. The unpeeled ones, Megan can't tell them apart from tomatos.

And every fruit and vegetable stall needs strawberries for that added touch of brilliance. Good for counting into the large numbers as well, so mimi made 25. 

Kiwis looking great so we need a handful. 

Pears not appealing to me but they are very much in season. 

Cucumbers are so damn neat and crunchy.

Soon, more and more items were added. Bought a grill set so that Megan can BBQ the food and sell them at a higher price (since this is value added service). Somehow adults are very into this grill set but Megan never bothered touching it.

Since we now have main course to serve, mimi threw in some mini burgers and ice cream cones. It was only after a few months that I noticed that the burgers are stackable. I mean you can Velcro the veg, cheese and patty and stack them in whatever order you like. What effort...How did I realise that? Because I am now missing the burger bread. 

So far, the hot favorite of Megan is still the biscuits. Numerous types of biscuits.  Day in day out, she transports them out of the room, back into the room, arrange them in different bowls and containers... "Mine, all mine" she says. Yah they are all yours, we are not fighting for them.

To me, the stall is a huge success. It is now stocked to the brim so I considered this project completed. It wasn't until yesterday when mimi asked me this... " Isn't Megan tired of selling vegetables? She can't be interested to sell the same things forever right? You need to start clearing out all these stuff and start a brand new line of products. Toys are seasonal, they need rotation! "

Huh.... 

"...what is her school teaching now? If they are teaching about ships, cars and buses, you should complement the school by stocking the shelves with vehicles so that you reinforce the learning. Start playing with cars and buses instead of making her sell vegetables all day long..."

Huh.... 

Luckily I checked, this term's theme is all about food and nutrient.... Heng! But no harm getting my mum to start working on vehicles just in case that is next term's theme. 

Finally a blog update

Gee... my last blog was like nth months ago... prove what a crazy year it has been for moi. No time for family, no time for friends, no time to even think about updating my blog for you guys who practically only realise YY is alive from my turtle updates... anyway this baby turtle is no longer baby, now a old turtle... slow and haggard... BUT its ok, I am catching up on my beauty sleep and applying a inch thick of face mask to rejuvenate. 

Ah yes stop making funny faces, Megan... I know you are trying to get my attention. "Daddy, pls get Megan to the playground while I announce to everyone I am plugged in AGAIN!!!".

Dear all, welcome back to baby turtle... as you can see, Megan has grown up. She started to go to a Pre-nursery near our place. Ken and me, as usual, did not do much research before deciding on which school to send her. Our only criteria is that it must be natural ventilated with no recycled aircon air, the rest we went on gut feel. 

School as we all know, is the supermarket of viruses. Within a week, she collected her first chop in her thick virus stamp collection booklet. Way to go my girl! Brace up for wimpy days and sleepless nights, adults!

In truth, I do not know if she enjoys the school coz she crys buckets on the way to school in the morning but comes home laughing and singing. 

We suspect one of the many reasons for her reluctance is fear of the water play sessions in school. Teacher Tina informed us that she will burst out crying when water is being splashed at her. Recently, thanks to Ni Hao Kailan, she learned to verbalise her thoughts.... "Be gentle, don't be rough!". On yah, if I haven't told you yet, Megan really behaves like a girl... wah biang.

Mimi continues knitting and coquetting dresses for sweetie pie. These dresses are to me collectibles but not exactly practical in Spore's weather, so I told mimi to channel her energy making some more toys for her grand daughter instead...

... and she started Megan's craze for balloons. Kudos for attending a balloon sculpting course, kids and balloons are a match in heaven. But uou do know your own daughter is balloon phobic right? Just as long as Megan doesn't start asking me to do all these twisting of highly combustible objects when you are not around, thank you very much...

They say imitation is a great form of learning. The "once in a blue moon" handy man Ken must be so proud to see Megan using her chopstick to tighten the screws of her own chair... 

... crosses her leg when seated ...

Now that we have committed to spending more time with Megan, we started to bring her out to beaches or parks on weekends. Have we not done these before, you asked. Err... not really, weekends were precious sleeping time for us if we were even in spore... But looking forward, we certainly need to open up her world beyond the living room and television. 

Obviously the park and bicycle stunt is not my forte, so I shall concentrate on bringing out her inner creativity by engaging her in art. Which should be easy for moi but Mimi says my approach to art is too serious for a kid, might not help in getting Megan interested or building her confidence in drawing...asked me to recalibrate these sessions to become more free, fun, expressive and dirty...  oh, oh.... the "how" is the question... 

Playing hide and seek is also a great way to pass time away from the TV. Yah anything to take her away from Dora and Ni Hao Kailan. 

On a seperate note, parents who want some "me" time and get their children to shut up should sign up for Starhub TV. The kids channels rank number one in the "money (most) well spent" chart of all times.  

Right... its 11am. I need to be discipline and move on to the next errand of the day... Moby here I come, where is lunch????!!!

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.