An Urge Came Over Me

I have this inexplicable urge in me tonight to buy another piece of art. It's not that I got a raise or a bonus or sold some shares and made a profit. It's not like I had a hard time at work and needed to reward myself. It's just something that crept over me, that I just needed it.

I am not sure what it will be, but I am leaning towards another Ling Yang Chang (the Herons & the Waterlilies on the extreme right) or a Zhu Hong (the Geylang Night Scene, which is second from the right). Or to buy a piece from an artist I have yet to own, like an Anthony Chua Say Hua. Perhaps something small, something which will be easier to find some precious wall space to hang. Or something very big as we do have that whole blank wall in the holiday room.

I am viewing that as my way of contributing to the arts, support the artists.

Your Heart Will Tell You Good Art

Credit: Lotus Series by Singapore artist, Ling Yang Chang from Cape of Good Hope Gallery

How do you tell if a piece of art is good or bad? How do you know if you should buy it? Some of my friends who are interested in art and are contemplating buying art, have asked me this question.

I think you know from your gut or perhaps, more accurately, your heart.

A good piece of art will speak to you. You walk away and come back to it again. If you still have the same buzz or ring in your heart, then this is it. A good piece of art grows on you and you will not tire of looking at it. It says something to you, sometimes you don't have to be able to verbalise what exactly about it that you like. You just do.

I remember learning at my first painting class, an epiphany of sorts that came to me - that art is both science and art. I recall my teacher being rather impressed that a novice student pointed that out to him at a first lesson. Telling if a piece of art is good or bad is a lot like that too. There are technical aspects you can consider - the science part of it. But for the art part of the evaluation, your heart will be able to tell you.

This painting from Ling Yang Chang's Lotus series was one of his first works I encountered by chance one morning of wandering around the art galleries. It definitely spoke to me. Even after 2 months, I think about it. Your heart is never wrong when it's like this.

What I Buy When I Travel

I have a long-term love affair with all things fragile and breakable when I travel. There is never one trip where I do not come home lugging back some glassware or china. Why can't I love wood or plastic? That would make life so much easier! 

I love the look of mismatched china, I love drinking out of tea cups and saucers, particularly vintage ones, I love laying out my sweets and savouries on cake platters and stands. And I like eating and drinking tea a lot. I love taking afternoon tea. I love having tea parties at my house. I guess that explains a lot!

Work In Progress

We have been in our little flat for almost 3 years now, it's a cliche but time does fly. Our renovation and upgrading works thus far were:-

a. before moving in, basic and minor renovations - we were very eager to move into our own place!
b. about 1 year + upon moving in, upgraded shower fixtures and replaced the sink in the common bathroom. We had also replaced the stove from the stainless steel one to a glass one and repainted our kitchen cabinet doors from a plain pine to a baby blue and changed the handles. Finally hung up the 2 mid-century space ship lamps purchased online from Holland.
c. very recently, hung up more artworks and created a sorta salon wall with smaller pictures in the living room (I say "sorta" because they were under threat of removal by the Boy but I think they work and he's left them alone since).

However the one area that always felt neglected to me was our bedroom. We finally put double-glazing in and wooden blinds and that improved our sleep quality. But apart from that, we hadn't done much. The space (bedroom cum office) was functional but soulless. We have a couple of nice vintage furniture in it but that still didn't do anything for the room.

So this time round, we are focusing on our bedroom cum office. We will finally:-

a. get rid of the much-hated platform parquet floor in the office area, legacy of the last owner. It was a dumb, impractical feature but we kept it because of the speed we needed to move in 3 years ago. We made it more practical by switching the sleep and work areas, so you don't fall over the platform stumbling from your bed to the en-suite loo in the middle of the night. 

b. flatten the indentation in the 2 big end walls and make them into feature walls. I am the creative director for the bedroom area while the Boy is responsible for the office. Dark, heavy drapes will divide the 2 areas. We will be laying wooden floors on the newly-leveled surface. 

c. hack the wall separating the bedroom/office from the rest of the house, opening up the space. We will however be putting in a sliding door to block off the private space from the dining/living rooms when needed.

So we are now awaiting the contractor's quotation before we give the go ahead and I am excited to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and have a bedroom which says style rather than just function.

Cammeray

This mid-Century block is very modest, but it has a charm about it that sticks in my mind. It has been 3 years since we lived there and I had only lived in it for 8 or 9 months but somehow, I can't get it out of my mind. The clean, modernist lines, the beautiful green surroundings, the water nearby, the very genteel feel of the village...

I always loved Surry Hills for the vibe, the hipness, the cafes, the feel of the whole neighbourhood, but in the end, I think my heart keeps coming back to Cammeray. And maybe it's time my head admits it too. I think it's the first time I've said it out loud.

20th Class Reunion

My Law School class of 1992 is having our 20th anniversary class reunion next Friday. 20 years! Seems unbelievable that 20 years have flown by in a twinkling of an eye. We were just young adults in our early twenties when we finished up our 4 years in Law School, sold ice-cream in the foyer to raise money for our graduating class bash, practised hard for the traditional graduating class concert - as you can see, we did Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" and to this day, I don't know how the show went because I was one of the background dancers and didn't have the luxury of watching the performance. And I don't remember watching the taped (yes taped on video) recording afterwards. What I do remember is lots of sweat and tears in the rehearsals, where many life-long friendships were made and a couple were broken.

Those 4 years were the best ones of my life I reckon. There were lots that I learnt inside the lecture halls but even more outside the lectures. At the jam and hops bopping to the live amateur bands, canoeing for ages in the open sea to Sentosa island and camping overnight (and then realising that I had to canoe back! What? No one told me I had to take the canoe back and it wasn't a canoe there, take the bus back kinda outing), in the foyer scooping out big scoops of ice-cream, playing Pictionary, having lunch in the Arts canteen while hungry eyes stared down at you, willing you to hurry up and vacate your seats, those long tea breaks at the School of Management canteen, mugging late into the night at the Faculty, then walking back with a friend to the hostel...

Those were the good old days. And in a week's time, we will all be meeting up, with more kilos piled on, less hair, more lines on our faces but I am sure we will all still see the young ones in our early twenties beneath all that. I can't wait.

Mum's Bread Pudding

Mum used to make this bread pudding when I was little. In the old days, there weren't many eateries, bakeries, shops, hawker centres located conveniently near residences. So mum felt the need to be inventive and create some desserts for the family. This was something which was easy to make as the ingredients were things which were normally found in a household.

I remember the taste of the pudding so well, I remember helping her stir in the coconut cream to ensure that the bread was thoroughly soaked through. But it has been decades since she made her bread pudding. So I decided that I would ask her for the recipe and make it myself.

This is super easy and quite healthy (compared to other types of cakes) and I've been making several of these puddings in the last week. Even mum gave it the thumbs up and concluded that it was "not bad". I love the taste and the memories of childhood that come with this.

Home

This was our home in Surry Hills.

This was our home in Cammeray.

Now we are just waiting for our new home in Cassia Crescent. Another 5 weeks to go.

Celebrating 51 Weeks

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary exactly on the 51st week, a week in advance as I would be in Singapore by the next weekend. The first year has been a whirlwind of changes, changes and more changes. It has been a period of adjustment and learning how to handle and negotiate with each other, understand and complement each other.

And so we celebrate that milestone with a Japanese-fusion degustation dinner at Waqu. It did not disappoint. The understated Japanese ambience played with light and dark, the serving staff were generally good (apart from the 1 girl who served us a couple of times, she was a bit DUH) and I love how they all look so Japanese-designerish cool in their dark uniforms and hip, sleek hair.

The food was delicate, delicious and beautifully presented, as you would expect from a Japanese fine dining restaurant (or even non-fine dining, the Japanese are a tough act to follow in the area of presentation). I loved every single course we had.

The starter was a quartet and so unusual - there was a soft shell crab taco, a potato soup with sago pearls in a shooter glass, a bicoloured cake of some green and orange veggie which I have since forgotten and a little skewer of a duck sliver on half a cherry tomato. It was fabulous, I love every single item here and the colours were just so pretty.

The entree was cold soba noodles with crab meat and feta cheese. You had to mix it all up before you eat. It was definitely fusion-y and was quite good, kinda like an Eastern pasta I guess.

Being the meat-eater I am, I picked the beef with miso (in the cube form). The beef was excellent although the miso didn't do anything for me. G picked the fish entree which was also yummy and it came with some appetising pickles and a deep-fried tempura zucchini flower.

For the main course, once again, I went for the meat- a slow-cooked lamb which was so tender, for a while I forgot it was lamb and thought it was beef. The foam was a nice aesthetic touch but didn't have much flavour. G had the seafood main which was a fish fillet which was really tasty, a couple of clams in white wine sauce (yummy) and a baby octopus which was too small for him to give me a taste.

Dessert was heavenly. It was a trio garnished with Orchid petals which G polished off, I ate 1 only and it was crunchy. I remembered the concubine in the "Empire of the Sun" eating Orchids as they were edible so I pronounced them to be so and G promptly ate them. The panna cotta with a jelly top was to die for, the vanilla ice-cream on a bed of crushed nuts and a dollop of honey on it was of high quality (even though I was a little disappointed when the waitress told us at the beginning that the green tea gelato was unavailable and they were substituting with the vanilla ice-cream) and the last item was a foamy dollop of something yummy and brown which I have now forgotten what it actually was!

But all in, it was a lovely meal and we were glad we finally paid them a visit before we leave Sydney. More good years, more good meals.

So Long, Farewell, See You Later

The second day of 2010 was when I formally say goodbye to some dear friends I've made in the 4 years I've lived in Sydney. Some were work mates who I call friends, some were G's friends who I call my friends now, some were actually originally my friends. Whatever their source, I am glad they came, most of them across the Bridge, overcoming that huge psychological barrier (although we are 5 minutes from the city north only) to come say see ya later.

We started off at 4 pm with drinks and some nibbles at Wild Sage, a cafe/bar/restaurant at Cammeray. It was a good venue, large enough for our group of about 20 or so, air conditioned (oh so very important in the recent humidity) and child-friendly as we had 3 kids under the age of 3 and a baby. We had the indoor space practically to ourselves till around 6 pm when the dinner crowd started trickling in and we moved outside where the temperature has cooled down and the humidity gone.

At 7.30 or so, hunger pangs reminded us it was time for dinner and 6 of us decided to try to get a table at Papaya Thai, a great restaurant with some lovely Moulin Rouge-looking chandeliers and cane nest-like hanging lights. It was packed but after a short wait, we had a table.

Even though the place was packed to the rafters and the kitchen was a hive of crazy activity, they were super-efficient and we got served our lovely food quicly. It was all good and was a lovely end to a great farewell do.

Satiated in more ways than one, I bid the lovely people adieu. This is not so much a full stop, but a comma. Just a breather. Watch this space, I'm sure I'll be back!

The Rise Experience And More

We made another religious pilgrimage back to our old neighbourhood this Saturday. We had a whole day of events planned, starting first with lunch at a little Thai eatery in "Thainatown" (little Thailand next to Chinatown) where I had my tom yum noodles and G had his seafood pad thai. This just hit the spot and was just right for the wallet too, now with us on only 1 income.

Then we had a coffee at the Wall, which was quite apt since this was where we had our first date almost 2 years ago and we were going to celebrate that 2nd anniversary with a 7-course degustation dinner at Rise at Darlinghurst later that evening. I have had my eye on Rise for the longest while but my last 2 reservations were aborted for some reason or other which I no longer remember.

A wander around the monthly Surry Hills markets is always a thrill. One never knows what treasure one might chance upon. Unfortunately, I left empty-handed this time.

G had an appointment with Huw at the Light Brigade in Paddo, so we made our way up Oxford St. We realised that the once boarded-up patch of greenery which housed some old structure had been transformed and there were lots of curious sight-seers. So we joined the curious and discovered that it was formerly the Paddington Reservoir which is now disused and had been converted into a park. Some old structures had been retained while a sunken garden had been created. It was a very nice oasis for tired shoppers in upmarket Paddington.

After a few beers with Huw and SJ, with little Leo in tow, we headed off to Rise to meet up with our dinner buddies, Lou and Young. I had discussions with Lou, another foodie about Rise for more than a year, and coincidentally, we had just talked about Rise the week before when we met up for lunch. So it was apt that we finally enjoyed this degustation dinner with them.

We managed to only get seats at the counter and saw the action first-hand. Lou felt that it resembled a factory assembly line and that detracted a little from the enjoyment of the food. I guess the assembly line atmosphere is due to the fact the restaurant was full with patrons taking advantage of the one-week offer of the 40% discount to celebrate the restaurant's 4th anniversary and the chef and assistants were churning out the degustation courses in military precision.

Although a finicky egg-eater who turns up her nose at almost every single type of egg except for the "well-beaten and well-cooked on both sides like a pancake" type of omelette, I actually ate (and even enjoyed) the poached quail egg that was perched on top of the salmon appetiser. This is definitely a first for me, and only goes to show how tasty and non-eggy the egg was.

The sashimi-oyster trio was yummy, the sauces were unusual and added a fusion twist to what one would normally expect. I started feeling a little full at this point and we were halfway through only.

The next trio was probably my favourite. The chawanmushi was again a fusion version with a Thai curry blending with the egg custard. It was just too good as I scraped down the sides of the little shot glass. The little fishball was again a Thai-inspired one with a lovely lemongrass fragrance. The little paper-rolls with chicken stick paled in comparison.

A little portion of green noodles in soy sauce and topped off with a steamed scallop and spring onions, was served in a pretty shell. I enjoyed the presentation and the freshness of the scallop. The chewiness of the noodles was a nice change in texture.

Now onto the main course. We had the chicken confit on greens while the fishisaurus had a king fish main. After all the seafood, I felt that the chicken was a nice change. The portion was just right. Dinner ended with a light and refreshing almond jelly on fresh fruit with amaretti jelly piled on top. Again, I was scraping down the sides of my little glass to try to get every single bit of the dessert. It was yummy.

After dinner, we parted company with our dinner companions, and G and I went to the Victoria Room for a drink as we were reluctant to leave town and go home so early especially on a Saturday night (we weren't THAT old). It was my first time there although I have heard much about the place and the old-fashioned and rather opulent decor was quaint.

Having drunk in the exciting vibes of our surroundings, we were sufficiently satiated and made our way home, happy and contented.

Another Good Weekend

Despite the rainy weather this weekend, we managed to have a good time. We got a respite from the rain for most part of our Architecture Walk on Utzon on Saturday. That is my V-D gift to G. I think it is nice to gift an activity that we can do together. It was a most informative and interesting walking tour led by architect, Eoghan (one of those names that I've now cultivated the ability to identify straight off that it's NOT pronounced the way it is spelt, but how to actually say it, I still have to refer to the internet. For anyone who's interested, it's "e-oh-in"). Highly recommended for anyone interested in the city, architecture and design.

Then for V-D dinner, G cooked what I think is his best dish - 4-mushroom risotto, or perhaps it was 3 this time round, and as a special treat, he had seared quite a few scallops and topped the risotto with those yummy suckers. It was as delicious as the first time he made it. For once, the memory of something is not better than the reality of it, when one actually experiences it again. It was so good that we scoffed down half the dish before we remembered that we forgot to take any photos. And I have next weekend to look forward to as his V-D gift to me is the play we will be watching the following weekend.

It continued to rain on Sunday with a few dry(er) window periods, 1 of which we headed out for a late lunch of salmon pide with our de rigeur weekend coffees, followed by a movie, "Ghost Town" which was largely funny with some touching moments. A generally feel-good movie. After which I finally succumbed and bought a jar of kaya which I had tonight after dinner and dessert. I really didn't need it but I just couldn't bear the feeling of hankering I know I will be harbouring all night, so I figured I might as well give in now to temptation than to give in later.

Temptation, the only thing I cannot resist...

10-01-2009

An 18-month romance which started the contemporary way befitting this time and age - on the internet. Virtual world quickly transcended into the real world.

The result: wedding held on 10 January 2009, with friends and family from New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia overwhelming us with their love, support and well wishes.

Now with the wedding out of the way, (enjoyable as it was on the actual day itself, stressful on the lead-up to it with preparations in a relatively short period of time) we can now get on with the marriage!

More Food Notes

For our 1st anniversary dinner in July, we went to Glebe Point Diner. It was so hard to get a reservation, we ended up having a belated dinner celebration in the middle of the week just to get a table. And we had to get there by 6.30 pm and leave by 8 to boot.

After reading lots of wow reviews, I was full of anticipation and obviously, expectations were running a little high. I oscillated between the roast pork and the duck for my main although making the choice for entree was easier. But somehow, I managed to discard both choices and went with their special, the roast chicken. This turned out to be a royal mistake as the chicken was not cooked through and despite our speaking to the waitress about it, she attempted to explain it away as being "organic". The major part of the dish was cooked but was not bursting with the flavours I had come to expect from the reviews. The entrees saved the night though and we thoroughly enjoyed G's salmon tartare with roe and my salt and pepper squid. G's main course of fish, also was a good choice. 2 ladies seated at the next table were eyeballing our entrees so indiscreetly and when they asked if they were good, G so kindly offered them a taste! And they accepted!! This would never happen in good old Singers.

For the amount we (or rather G) had to shell out for this dinner, I don't think we will be coming back, as the disappointment with my main course was too overwhelming.

Oh and we mustn't forget our celebrity sighting at the restaurant - Leo Sayer came in halfway through our dinner with his big hair and in his trackies and addidas. He was a smallish man and was accompanied by an orange-coloured (fake tan or sunbed probably) lady. And we spent 10 minutes trying to recall what his hit song that he was famous for, was. For trivia lovers, it was "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing." For a 61 year-old, he certainly looked quite (naturally we thought) good.

A cafe that made it to our list was the "lesbian cafe" as G calls it, also in Glebe. We were tired out from wandering around Glebe that weekend following our mid-week Glebe Point Diner dinner where I decided there were several other interesting cafes that needed checking out.

This cafe served a really delicious and warming chai.

We also liked the light and shadow effect the wooden blinds created as we played with the camera whilst waiting for the pot of tea and the cannoli to arrive. I thought the photo had that sort of magazine effect.

On the home front, we decided to have a steamed fish Chinese-style that weekend and got a nice NZ cod from Paddy's Market and had it with greens and rice. It's been a while since we cooked fish any other way but grill, and it made a very pleasant change. The fish turned out very tasty although I need to get some better steaming apparatus. And since we were doing it Chinese style, obviously we had to go the whole hog and eat out of bowls, with chopsticks and Chinese spoons. What else could we do??

Food Of Love

For the first family dinner where G met everyone at the same table for the first time, we went to "Mum's Cuisine". The dishes were all good, my favourite was this assam pomfret. It's been a long time since I've had assam anything. And pomfret is not one fish that is common in Sydney either. So it was extra yummy.

Another first was G's meeting with my friends, the first one being Y. We went to Sushi Tei, which has somehow gone upmarket in the last 3 years. This version was no conveyor belt restaurant but with stylish decor and ambient lighting. I particularly enjoyed my Japanese style pasta, which had a sesame sauce base and the main highlight was a soft-shell crab. I wish they did pasta this way here, even though we do get some great Italian pasta at some of our favourite restaurants in Surry Hills.

Our foray into Little India was to search out the famous Komala Villas, the first South Indian restaurant a classmate took me to in Little India, in our first year of Law School. Looking back, that was some 20 years ago, the dhosai meal cost something ridiculous like S$0.60. Another memory that has stuck in my mind apart from the cheapness of that meal, was the cockroach leg that I found in my half-eaten dhosai, the waiter hurriedly swiping the entire plate away from me, while vehemently denying there was anything "foreign" in the dhosai. In due course, he brought me a brand-new dhosai, hot from the kitchen, while I tried hard to not think about what I might have unwittingly eaten until I came upon that solo limb.

I revisited one of my cherished childhood memories, that of going to the Islamic restaurant with dad when he was still around. I distinctly remember mum sucking off the sambal from the prawns to remove as much of the spiciness as possible before letting me eat them. The famous restaurant had moved from its original location to about 15 doors down. The decor has gone slightly more upmarket, but it still had old photographs of the restaurant in the 1920s, family portraits, old Singapore scenes on the wall. It still felt nostalgic in a way. The briyani was fantastic, we were so hungry we missed the set lunches advertised and went for the ala carte. We need to order the briyani set lunch the next time.

On one of our jaunts, we ended up in Ann Siang Hill quite by chance and found this charming little bar to rest our tired soles and get some respite from the humidity. I had a Pink Pussycat mocktail while G experienced paying S$12 for a beer.

As I had worked up my expectations regarding showing G a French chef who had worked in a 2-Michelin star restaurant in France and now operating a French kopitiam in Singapore, this visit to the French Stall turned out to be a little disappointing. I guess upon recollecting, the escargots were nothing to rave about, but I remember the mains and the to die-for chocolate cake were quite good, especially the chocolate cake which was really unforgettable, such that when I tasted another one in Sydney recently, it triggered off some taste memory sensors deep in the recesses of my mind and I could identify the taste with this fabulous cake. The chocolate souffle turned out to be even better than the cake and so the desserts saved the meal.

And so this trip has been filled with eating, eating and more eating. But then again, eating means meeting up with friends and family and sharing a meal or 2. Meals are not just a means of sustenance, but a time for everyone to set aside time from their busy schedules to get together, especially when we are currently based somewhere else. So the weight that we have packed on this trip, and which we are now trying hard to lose, is evidence of the love and friendship that we share with those who care for us and whom we care about in turn. Food is much more. Just like this box of konnyaku jelly that mum had specially made for us.

The Keep Fit, Eat Right Nazi Says

The Keep Fit, Eat Right Nazi (formerly known as G) laid down his imperial decree last night. In order to battle the (my) bulge and to arrest (reduce, exterminate, eliminate) the excess baggage of 5 kgs since July last year when we met, there is a strict diet plan to be followed. Since it has delivered (substantial) results for the Nazi over the last 3 months and is hence tried and tested, the diet plan is indisputable.

On the list of permissible food, and in fact the menu is a boring repetition every single day:-

1. Breakfast: Porridge (meaning oats not rice) which I hate. So as a concession, the Nazi is going to allow me to substitute it with muesli.
2. Lunch: 1 sweet potato, a cup of steamed/microwaved veggies (fresh or frozen), fish or tofu.
3. Afternoon snack: an apple - which I am not fond of because apples are hard so the Nazi is allowing me to swap that for a pear instead.
4. Dinner: Steamed/microwaved veggies and protein. Since I am a meat-eater (and the Nazi is not), I am allowed to have lean meat like turkey breast. I am thinking beef. Dessert is half a rock melon. On reflection, this photo is of a meal we had last week and it is effectively a permitted meal AND is what we normally cook on weekends anyway. I don't know whether to feel happy or sad.

I am allowed weekends off. I also negotiated for 2 out of 5 weekdays off at lunch so that I can have a sociable meal out with colleagues.

Desserts like these 2 babycakes are on the list of prohibited food. I am also not allowed rice, bread, noodles or pasta during the week, I am not sure how that will sit with my system.

I will give it a go for a bit as summer has come and gone and I haven't lost the winter weight that I was pretty certain I would lose. Being happy has a lot to answer for.

Leap, And The Net Will Appear

Today I question the concept of love. And why people make the choices they do in the face of blazing, unanimous, how-can-you-not-see-it objections from all and sundry. It is easy to fall back on the old saying that love is just between the 2 of them/us and nothing else matters. But is it? With the wisdom of age and experience, my sobering conclusion is that it is not just between the 2 of them/us. Other things DO matter. And that is why there is an interactive audience, participating in life's decisions from the sidelines, whether you want them there or not (mostly not).

As they say, there is no smoke without fire. Why is everyone holding up big placards saying "Don't do it!"? Are they green with envy and not wishing to see true love consummated? Or are they old cynics who have long given up on love? More likely, they are objective by-standers, with all the care and concern in their hearts and not wishing to see their friends and loved ones, hurt by the very glaring mistake waiting to inevitably happen.

However, with all the good intentions these by-standers may have, they will almost certainly not be appreciated. In fact, sometimes it is this knowledge of certain rejection that makes one hold one's tongue or at least moderate your original opinion to a watered-down version (that will still be rejected). After all, love is blind. And the lessons of love, very often have to be learnt and not taught. So as we let the big placards fall limply to the ground, as we drag our feet home in silent defeat and resignation, we hope that we were wrong, that they were right, that things turn out well, that things have changed. That perhaps, just perhaps - "leap, and the net will appear"...