Sabbatical - The Madrid Edition

Has it really been almost exactly 3 months since I've left Spain? I figured I have to finish writing about my sabbatical in Spain before more time has lapsed and more trips have passed me by.

Madrid was all about creative street art, and lots of interesting murals on the walls and shop fronts/gates/doors. I am still trying to figure out what a mannequin propped up in a balcony mean? I noticed that in at least 3 balconies in different areas. It was too much to be a coincidence. Was it code for some illicit business that takes place in that particular flat? Or just that some really cool artist lives there and nothing more nefarious?

Madrid was also about beautiful blue skies and puffy white clouds streaking across the azure. Gorgeous patterns in the dazzling brightness. I could never get enough of how beautiful and interesting the sky was every single day.

And lastly, the huge flea market and the laneways on the slopes with all the shops selling antiques and vintage ware. There we were, most aptly located in our Airbnb apartment with the biggest flea market on our doorstep. We loved checking out the little shops even if that mean trudging up and down the hills and wandering around the flea market and trying to score a bargain at the market stalls. And now back in Singapore, I wear the lovely reversible skirt I bought in Madrid, and as I finger the pretty fabric, I remember my time under the sun, under the dazzling blue sky, under the puffy white clouds.

Sabbatical - The Barcelona Edition

Barcelona was amazing for its cool cafes, great coffee (we discovered a cafe con leche was pretty much the equivalent of a flat white), yummy food (both traditional tapas and contemporary, modern Spanish cuisine) and of course, Gaudi (and other architecture).

It helped that we were in an area which was central but yet residential as we we amongst several cafes, restaurants, bars and bakeries. The residential buildings were old, several hundreds of years type of old. Many had no lifts, the twice-a-day down/up the 5th floor where our Airbnb apartment was, definitely improved my cardio-vascular strength after our 5 days there. There were several very interesting cafes just below us with tastefully curated interiors, pretty young girls and/or hipster guys with big beards (a dead giveaway) running the place. The food was fresh and delicious, the drinks just as good. For cafe lovers, we could not be in a better spot.

I had the best Galician octopus in a tapas bar/restaurant here too. This is a seemingly simple dish, the waitress told me they boil the octopus and then add paprika and olive oil. The texture was perfect, not too chewy, not hard, just so tender. A few pieces of bread was handy to sop up the leftover oil/ sauce. After this, everywhere I went, I looked to see if I could find this on the menu.


Now onto the modern cuisine scene. We were lucky to have obtained several recommendations from my colleague who works in Barcelona and even luckier that his recommendations were spot on. Getting recommendations is one thing, getting those which actually come from people who have good taste or at least taste which is not too far off from yours, is another thing. This was kinda a lucky dip as I didn't know this colleague personally but someone introduced us on email. But out of the 5 places he gave us, we went to 2 which were a stone's throw from our apartment and because they were so good, we actually repeated one of them.

And then finally, the architecture. I loved the old buildings (apart from the old we were staying in and climbing those stairs up and down) and was looking up the entire time in Barcelona. You need to look up to get the best photos! Of course then there were the Gaudi buildings. We were disappointed by the Sagrada Familia because of how the succeeding architects have "continued" with his legacy. But the Casa Batllo, we loved. This House of Bones was simply amazing and the augmented reality tour was quite inspiring. The organic and weird features were just beautiful.

So Barcelona, good bye for now. But I think I will be back.

The Sabbatical - Home Improvements Edition

It is absolutely true when they say statistics show that a large proportion of people quit after going on sabbatical. The thought of going back to work, facing the deluge of emails waiting for you is just daunting and depressing. I think however, the studies focus of people who self- reflect and feel that they can/want to do more with their lives etc. Maybe the daunting emails play a part as in "I can do more than just respond to these irritating emails."

A week and a half before I was supposed to go back to work, I wrote my boss to ask for another 3 days' off to make it a whole week out instead of returning to work on a Wednesday. As I was arranging my social calendar with friends in Singapore, from Seville where I was at that time, I was thinking I didn't have enough time to pack in all these meetings, plus do those little and not-so-little home improvement jobs I wanted to tackle.

After not hearing from the boss after 4 days, I wrote him again and asked if silence meant consent? This got me an immediate response, the good man replied that he thought he had said yes on email before and if he didn't, he said it in his head, resoundingly. Ahhh... who wouldn't love a boss like that? It makes the mountain of emails less irritating, almost.

Anyway to put work out of my head, I started tackling the home improvement jobs. I patched the few holes in the master bedroom walls left by the removal of the curtain rods which were never in use, ever. Not a great job as I did that in the semi-dark but I think better than nothing. And we finally bought a can of Nippon paint called "Charming" this afternoon. I was really impressed by the whole computerised system they use now, the computer dispenses a few drops of coloured paint in the right concentration into the can of white paint and then the can is placed into automated shaking device which shakes it up to mix it well. So no one needs to stock a bunch of coloured paints and hope that they all sell equally well. Anyway this is NOT my kitchen but what I hope the Charming colour will be close enough to. But I got a sneaky feeling it is going to end up looking exactly like the colour of my cabinets now...

Sabbatical - The Paris Edition

My long-awaited sabbatical (five years) started with Paris being the port where we landed for our Spanish sojourn.

We had an apartment in the Bastille district and our flat was near a daily fruit and vegetable market. The riot of colours and shapes was simply gorgeous. The variety, impressive, just look at the different types of tomatoes! I ate donut peaches every day as they were cheap and plentiful. And sweet.

Even better than the fruit and vegetable market was a bakery that we stumbled upon on our first morning. The baker-proprietor was a delightful Frenchman. We visited it faithfully every single day of the five days we were in Paris, some days, twice! Every thing was made on site, every baked item delicious and beautiful. The only reason I don't have a photo to capture this highlight of my Paris trip is because everything we get our hands on from that bakery, we gobble down too quickly and then realise we haven't documented anything!

We also found this deli which had nice cheeses, pates, empanadas, quiches and cold meats. Together with a crusty baguette from the bakery, we fed ourselves well in the apartment when we did not feel like going out for dinner.

The pastries were definitely the highlight of our Parisian leg. We ate our weight in pastries I am sure, but then we also walked so much, we walked off every single calorie. I can still taste the heavenly flavours...

The Scent of My Memories

Our memories which we keep tucked away deep inside, can be triggered by a picture we see, a song we hear, a perfume we smell, a food we eat.

A visual trigger is probably the most common. One thing reminds us of another and leads on to our memories, a bamboo basket like a cake tin but made of woven bamboo strips that I chanced upon in a retro shop reminds me of the steamed egg cake that my mum used to make when I was a child. I remember there weren't any bakeries near where we lived. I can see in my mind's eye how she would beat the eggy mixture by hand, and it had to be one-directional for many, many times to ensure that the cake rose. She would line the basket with tracing paper and then pour the mixture into the basket and then steam it. We would eagerly await the cake to rise, for the satay stick to be poked in, to test whether it was done, and then for the cake to cool before we could have a slice.

But to me, the most powerful trigger is the one of smell. It is more subtle than sight, and you often forget about the sense of smell and its power. I think it is more overwhelming when triggered. It brings back memories that you don't remember you have and takes you right back.

I was recently in Penang, and the first night in Georgetown, the Boy and I wandered down into the area where grandma's house used to be, looking for dinner. We ended up at this coffee shop. When this bowl of koay teow thng (rice noodle soup) was brought to my table, I could already smell it, the distinct smell brought me back to when I was perhaps 8 years old, spending my school holidays in Penang. Every night, we would go across the street from grandma's house, to the koay teow thng stall and order a bowl. My first recollection was it cost RM0.60 or RM0.80 then and by the time I last ate it, it was RM1.60, I might have been 14 or 15. And then I stopped going to Penang with my mum until the recent few years when we have been visiting again almost annually.
My tastebuds confirmed what my nose already told me, this was the same stall even though it is some 30 years down the road. The taste seems to have been imprinted in my memory despite the long lapse of time since I have last had it.

I finished the bowl of deliciousness and as I was leaving, I stopped to chat with the stallholder who looked to be in his 30s or maybe early 40s. I told him I used to eat this koay teow thng a long time ago and was it his father who had this stall about 30 years ago? Oh more than 30 years ago and the stall was at the small lane by the side of the current coffee shop, he said. I told him how the taste was still exactly the same, it hasn't changed and it was excellent. He was all smiles, even though he was busy, I think he enjoyed this brief exchange where we walked down memory lane together.

Random Musings

This blog has been totally neglected for the last 3 months. I blame.... eBay I think. But I am now a reformed, ex-eBay addict and have time for other stuff like updating my blog (just one personal blog now, have decided to let the other one die a natural death, but also need to get round to pulling my weight on the vintage blog), reading a bunch of books that I've been faithfully borrowing from the library and getting my impacted wisdom tooth operated on and removed.

So what have these photos got to do with anything? I am not quite sure except that they are colourful, have interesting street scenes and I enjoyed walking around Chennai by myself where I took them.

I don't think I'll be going to India this year due to work budget constraints. If that is so, then it will be the first in 3 years that I don't make at least 1 trip to India. It will be a record of sorts for me as I sat back one day a few months ago and thought to myself, "Now which country have I travelled to the most in my 20 year career?" (yes - 20 years!) and the answer was "India". Not exactly what I was hoping for, but that's the truth. And in the wake of the Delhi bus gang rape, I wasn't that happy with the realisation.

But this year, there won't be that much work-related travel. We are hopeful that we are getting our acts together earlier in the year, and plan our personal travel better and get to where we say we want to. Without the hassle of work travel, travelling might become more fun and I may in fact, want to travel while I am on leave, rather than opting to sit on my couch at home which was what was my preference the last 2 years when I was getting on a plane every other week.

 All right, random musing over. Blog re-activated.

Sydney, I Miss You

Last trip to Sydney was 5 days before Christmas last year and was an in and out trip, hardly enough time to meet my friends, drink all the flat white to satisfy my caffeine cravings, visit the new cafes that have popped up in Surry Hills, buy all the vintage ceramics and glassware at the opp shops, nose around the Mitchell Road Auction House, gorge on lovely bread from Bourke Street Bakery and Central Baking Depot, walk the parks and beaches... And almost a whole year has gone by without a work trip to Sydney this year, the biggest drawback of the new role. I miss everything and everyone.

So even nursing this (new) cold which followed 2 bouts of walking pneumonia, I am determined to enjoy myself when I get there in 2 days' time. So let me get back to lying on the couch and resting my mind, body and soul. Then I will be ready for you Sydney!!

About Shanghai

  There are a few things I really like about Shanghai on our recent trip. Normally work trips to Shanghai are an in-and-out affair. But this time, we combined it with a weekend since both G and I were coincidentally there the same week for work.  

So my love for Chinese calligraphy and painting combined with a dress into wearable art. Here beautiful lotuses handpainted on a charcoal grey linen dress, the cut is simple and doesn't need much more when you have art. Oh yes and that's Snowy peeking out, he is my usual travel companion because he is small, cute and compact. He's not too pleased to be seen in a dress though...

 
 The little individual shops in Shanghai are a delight. As I always say, a mall is a mall is a mall. No matter where you go. Hence I try to avoid malls and hit the little individual shops. This was a Chinese teahouse on an old Shanghainese street. We were slghtly doubtful that it was actually a teahouse because it did appear too funky and modernised and (especially because) it had that capitvating mural of dollies in cheongsams.

 Architecture in Shanghai is an amazing affair. Taller, higher, shinier! The modern buildings are pretty awesome but the old Shanghainese buildings are as interesting if not more. I have walked down the Bund admiring the beautiful colonial buildings, and stopped to read every plaque affixed, telling its history. But this was my first time to the French Concession area which boasts also of the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings. Lovely.

 Cool little bars and cafes on this hip little street we tried so hard to find, and were almost giving up after much "discussion". Yong Kang Road is where all the white people congregate. On that street, you can almost believe you aren't in China. This little bar, with its vintage interior and very clever use of repurposed, upcycled egg cartons for papering over the ceiling for acoustics and aethestics, vintage luggages propping up the bar, definitely won us over easily.

 A slice of local life, unpretentious, every day living is always interesting to the outsider looking in, even for a brief moment. Here, residents set up little folding tables and chairs and pass time playing a game of Chinese chess. Others sit or stand around observing, as with this man probably mulling over a move. You see sights like middle-aged men with their singlets rolled up above their bellies sitting around in easy chairs on the pavement outside their houses. I think that is their strategy for keeping cool. Isn't this fun?

Finally, we close with a dress since we started with a dress. Shanghainese tailors are renowned for their skills. The fabric market is another wonderful place to spend many hours, wandering around, fingering beautiful fabrics, flipping through design books, talking to the shopkeepers and tailors. For the price of an off-the-rack shirt or dress at home, you can get gorgeous, tailored outfits. You just need to ensure you have enough time to try, give clear instructions, check the finished outfit, wait for revisions and then you will be the best-dressed person amongst your friends when you get home.

Shanghai - we will definitely be back for another leisurely trip.

Flavours of Seoul

When in Seoul, apart from kimchi which I do not like, the other thing to eat is ginseng chicken which I do like. We had it twice in our 4 days there.

Seoul also has great cafes. Pretty ones, rustic ones, quaint ones, American chain ones. And the coffee is half decent plus they make great green tea lattes and even a sweet potato latte which was really delicious, even if it sounds a little strange.

Apart from western-style cafes, Seoul also has many traditional tea shops which serve Korean and Chinese teas in pretty pottery together with traditional Korean sweets. And that takes me to the pottery at Insadong which one should not miss for its famous pottery and other artsy stuff.

Korean barbecue is another speciality that should not be missed. Again like the ginseng chicken, we loved it so much we had it twice. Considering we were only there 4 days and that meant that we did not have unlimited meal slots, it meant that we really loved it. The best part is the different leaves that come with the meats, and you pick a few different ones and wrap cooked meat, bean paste, pickled radish, grilled garlic slices and a lump of rice (which is served in a bamboo container with a red date, a black bean, a gingko nut and a lump of charcoal!) in the leaves and then savour the different tastes and smells.

There is a lot to Seoul and the food is just one aspect of it. But what a great aspect!

Sydney - Exhibition

Amidst all the eating and drinking, we went to an exhibition opening at the gallery which was next to our old house on Cooper St, Surry Hills.

As usual, it was crawling with art students chugging bottles of beer and plastic glasses of wine.

We did a quick run of the show and the most interesting piece to me was the real-life models in Super Hero outfits. Not quite sure what the theme was as it was a whirlwind tour of the gallery

before we headed out to our next appointment.

San Jose And Sydney - Related Through Food

My last few trips as told in photographs and captions!

San Jose: Undoubtedly the best meal in the entire week. From Left Bank, a French restaurant in Santana Row, this duck confit capped off the trip with (finally) a great meal before I took the 15 hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney.

Arrived in Sydney surprisingly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed having slept pretty decently on the flight which

was a HUGE surprise as I NEVER sleep on flights. At least not long, restful sleep that will make me feel like I've had suf

ficient rest. But I wasn't complaining as I left my bags at the hotel which wouldn't let me check in at 9 am. Then did a whole clean up in the bathroom, ditched jeans for summer wear and then met C for a lovely day out at Bondi beach. We had lunch then hit the markets where I bought this really kooky tank-top with feathers on the shoulders. I loved the black top with black feathers but bought the natural brown feathered top and subsequently regretted it. But the disappointment was made up with the Bondi to Bronte beach walk which was great as usual. A long cool drink awaited us at the end of the trek. Lovely day with blue skies and gorgeous-looking water.
Next event in this trip was the great meal at Lovedale, Hunter Valley where we had a lovely 3-course dinner. Lovedale is where they host the annual Lovedale Long Lunch and now I understand why. My main course was this yummy slow-cooked pork belly with a piece of crackling topping it off. It ended up being a communal crackling akin to a communal pipe, being passed around the table to the others who had not had the foresight to order this delicious dish so that they could get a taste.

Again, another enjoyable event in our Sydney trip was a dinner party at our friend's place in Glebe. Another amazing dinner whipped up by our talented friend, S who dazzled us with his professionalism as well as his balcony garden which supplied all the herbs and some of the vegetables.

There is much more that we enjoyed from our time in Sydney, as it was the first time G and I have been back together since we relocated to Singapore. It was a home-coming of sorts for us, as we wandered through our old neighbourhood and visited familiar restaurants and cafes and tried out new things and caught up with old friends. We missed so much of our old life but have so much of our new life to explore together.

Random Japanese Inspiration

The first time I bought flowers or rather, a flower in the new house. A big, round chrysanthemum, plump and yellow sitting in a Japanese-inspired vase I got on my last trip in Sydney.

The flower, the vase, the Nouguchi table.

Origami crane - how more Japanese can one get? These little cranes were folded from washi paper that is 1.7 cm by 1.7 cm and then varnished with several layers of varnish to hold their shape. Little flower ornaments and earring hooks are then attached. Amazing work made by a artisan in Singapore.

A kokeshi doll inspired bento box which is made in Japan and sold by a French online seller living in Kyoto. This is a cutie little Maiko, an apprentice Geisha. It makes me want to start packing my lunch to work.

Oh That Paradise Feeling

Some time back, I went up to the Sky Park on the top of the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort. The view was fabulous and the pool photos here give the impression of a lovely Asian resort, a real holiday feeling. Except that if you were one of the poor tourists staying at the hotel and sunbathing by the pool, you would have to put up with hundreds of members of the public who had paid an admission fee of $20 per person to come upstairs and gawk at you enjoying your tropical paradise.

Penang - A Whirlwind Trip

G had almost exclusive possession of the camera on our recent whirlwind trip to Penang. My old camera had died on me some time back and we have been using his, while he's been talking about buying a wide-angle camera for the longest time but has yet to make that investment. So on the occasions when I had control of the camera, I snapped these pictures.

I like the rustic ambience of this little hole-in-the-wall cafe which was situated next to the Cheah clan house. We had a chat with the owners and they said they finally decided to take the plunge and open up the cafe. But having not very much money, the young couple decided to make-do and this was the results of it. Very nicely done and we wish them all the very best and hope their business survive and do well indeed.

We had gone off into the boondocks with my cousin and her husband the morning before we left for the airport. They normally like to take visitors on a round Penang island drive. But with the short amount of time we had, we had to pick and choose some spots to hit on the drive. This almost postcard-like photo was taken in front of the Eunuch Cheng Ho temple which is situated in a fishing village.

I could sum up the 3 main features that figured quite significantly on the trip - food, scenery and temples/clan houses. This was from one of the temples we had visited and the fuschia of the praying stools for devotees to kneel on, with the red lotus motifs contrasting with the green floor, just jumped out at me. We visited numerous temples, from the Kuan Yin Temple to the Snake Temple to the Kek Lok Si Temple up on the hill with the turtle pond and the giant statue of the Goddess of Mercy now and also clan houses with their amazing architecture and colours. The buildings were simply dazzling and a treat for the eyes.

Undoubtedly, there will be a repeat trip soon!

Movies - The Good Old Days

I have a new love. It is an art deco building. A cinema to be exact, the Orpheum Hayden in our neighbourhood.

The first time we set foot in it, we were suitably awed and felt like we were transported into the golden age. I particularly love the lights.

This feeling was heightened recently when I took the inlaws to the Wednesday movie luncheon to watch "Cheri" (how fabulous is Michelle Pfeiffer and the ability to age gracefully like that?). It was not just a movie, no indeed, I was disabused of that when we entered the foyer to the cinema. There was a silver-haired gent in a suit and bow tie playing the grand piano. Lovely tunes of yonder years wafted while we went in to take our seats.

Once again, I gaped at the beautiful light fixtures and the red velvet drapes that were mechanically lifted in scallops. There was a host (yes this was not just a regular movie-going experience as I've mentioned before) who went on stage and bantered with the mostly silver-haired, Caucasian crowd. 5 pairs of movie passes were given out in a movie-themed quiz, after he welcomed various OAP groups who were there as an outing of sorts. Then he introduced the organist, as he rose up from the stage in a deus ex machina. How dramatic! And then he played some swing tunes before being lowered again into the stage and the movie proper followed.

Lunch was a sandwich basket served inside the movie hall itself. We helped ourselves to coffee and tea at the foyer where the pianist was playing again. Helen, my MIL knew all the words to the songs, I was told this was how going to the movies was in the good old days.

I am pleased that some nostalgy has been preserved in this lovely building. There is such pleasure in the past, even when one has not lived in it.