the next generation

no prizes for guessing who REALLY wants a baby of her very own.

gong xi fa cai

this is a couple of days late, but a happy lunar new year to all my chinese homies.





some resolutions that my friends might want to take up in the year of the dog:
- to not play $50 dollar hands of blackjack at office gatherings
- to not drink 7 (or is it 8?) glasses of cheap house wine at zouk
- to not refuse to buy cigarettes for half a houseful of desperate smokers because it "goes against your personal beliefs"
- to not smoke (and inhale) expired cigars in an attempt to make up for the absence of cigarettes
- to not party so hard the night before that you forget you are working the next day and have me shoot your assignment for you

now that the four day holiday is over, all we have to look forward to are owners of assorted foodstalls around the island re-opening their stalls so we need not have fast food as the only option of refreshment.

begone evil p-plates!

as of today, i am finally out from my enforced membership in the orange triangle racing team.

for those not in the know, it's a singapore regulation for new drivers or riders to prominantly place fugly probation plates at the front and rear of their vehicles for one whole year from the time they get their license. think reflective 3M plastics, an orange triangle on a highlighter yellow background. they're supposed to "enhance your visibility to other road users" as well as notify them of the fact that you are a new driver/rider and thus allow them to be more courteous and forgive the little mistakes that all newbies make.

bullshit.

the bright colored plates mark you out to "seasoned road users" the same way a red cape marks a matador to a bull. it does nothing more than gurantee that people are going to take advantage of your new driver/rider status and perform feats of unimaginably horrible driving and extreme discourtesy. even worse, you just know that they take great pleasure in the fact that they've managed to outdrive a new road user. of course it doesn't matter that i've been driving for 12 years, and that i probably know the rules of the road better than them.

give yourselves a big pat on the back you wankers.

in my haste to remove the unholy objects from my bike, i completely forgot to take a picture of their now crushed forms in the bowels of a friendly office trashcan, but as they say, out of sight, out of mind.

about bloody time

after months of "i feel like setting up a blog" comments, buddy, fellow photographer and tulang (mutton on the bone stewed in a sweet-and-spicy chili-tomato sauce) connoisseur maye-e has finally bitten the bullet and joined the ranks of those who love airing any sort of laundry in public.

thus far, she's been whipping up a storm of posts. whether it's the "new broom, sweep clean" syndrome, only time will tell, but if she keeps up the postings for two weeks, then i think it would be considered safe to permanently link her.

burp

it's suprising how difficult it can be to decide on what to eat in a gastronomical paradise like singapore. suggestions are made, vetoed or postponed on the basis of price (too expensive), comfort (too hot/smoky) or just plain taste (eh, don't feel like that today)

there is however, one significant source of comfort food that is almost always sure to illicit cries of approval. a perennial favorite, the steamboat.

for the uninitiated; take one large metal bowl with the center knocked out (see picture above), place it on an open flame (in the old days, it used to be a charcoal fire, but gas burners make far more efficient heating sources), pour in soup stock (usually chicken or pork), bring it to boil, and then dump all manner of meats, seafood and vegetables in to cook. you then chow all that down with a bowl of chicken flavored rice and numerous bowls of soup (which gets better the more you cook in it). the slow pace of eating, good company, and time for conversation on top of the healthy, tasty food makes for very contented diners.

how else would you explain my only remembering to take a picture of dinner AFTER it's already been consumed?

mood: solitary

"language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. and it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.” - paul tillich (1886-1965)

he's a daddy!

isabella grace ascui - jan 18, 2006

"she's going to have three passports; chilean, australian and english. that's one more than her daddy!" enthuses new mummy sammy. congrats to my buddy luis on his beautiful new daughter. she looks like him now (poor thing) but will hopefully start looking more like her beautiful mother the older she grows.

protective

a trip to the office pantry to retrieve my diet coke from the fridge led to a laughing fit when i spotted a partially opened cheese container with a note in it. apparently my colleague jill was getting sick of cheese poachers and in a hissy fit, decided to give the next one a severe ego busting.

wonder if that tactic works. if so, it might be time to slap some warning notes on my drink bottles to prevent the soda phantoms from getting to them.

wanted: one car owner with taste

because the owner of the above pictured car sure doesn't have any.

yes the transformers are cool in a retro sort of way, and yes, putting a little decal of an autobot or decepticon logo in homage to them on your car is fine, but to have a (supremely ugly) themed vehicle like that? i hereby christen thee "fuglybot".

sigh. it's so painful to see.

ps: if only the owner could have channelled his efforts into making a homage like this, then i'd have nothing to complain about.

wet wet wet... and dry!

another week, another fireworks picture.

the main difference is the moisture in the air these past few days. that's right, the monsoon season decided to move it's sweet spot from december to january. not that this last december was a dry one; for the first time in 6 years, both chrismas eve and new year's eve parties were confined to the patio due to the wet grass (damn the afternoon rain!).

however, these past couple of days have been crazy. it pretty much rained non-stop for 24 hours yesterday, with a brief hiatus this morning of about 4 hours. now the sky is back doing it's crazy business.


look at the weather (courtesy of the national environment agency) as i am typing this entry! they say that the areas signified by green is considered "light rain", which i am sure is true if you are in a car but is a plain understatement on a bike. since i've been riding around a lot these past couple of days, and have gotten wet and dried off so many times that i've lost count. it would suffice to say that the urge to get a car has ramped up these past few weeks. and i am glad to say that the decision has been made!

and the winner is...


the 1.5 ltr suzuki swift

it's all good.

another year rolls around

a happy new year to all!
here's to making resolutions that we can actually keep, to remembering to change the 2005 to 2006 when we write down the date, to remembering the good and forgetting the bad, and for family and friends, may we always keep them close and not take them for granted.