December diet: part 1

The word “diet” gives the wrong impression. It’s actually about the food I’ve been eating in December — too much, especially of the kind that’s really good for my taste buds but probably nothing else.

Actually, the feasting had started in late November already.

No prize for guessing where this was!

Nov 13 and 21: One feast was to commemorate his passing; the other to mark what would have been his 104 birthday, if he were still around.

My usual sweet ending

What these two pix prove is that the person who hosts this dinner is consistent in choice of restaurant and I am consistent in the food I went for.  To underline this, check random previous posts on this recurring occasion here and here.

As for the other November event, it was held at the old mansion in Cairnhill. It was a low key but nevertheless grand dinner. Mainly for family — which includes Singapore’s first couple — and some fortunate old acquaintances like yours truly.

There were more than 10 tables and the older folks sat downstairs while the younger ones were assigned to sit on the second floor. Just as well I was included among the “older folks” because it was a buffet and I could imagine the disaster I would cause by toppling over while carrying my food from the first floor to the second

It was catered by a well known restaurant in town belonging to one of the family’s stable of companies. I found myself sitting at the same table with one of Singapore’s best known among the nation’s educational and corporate elite. Just polite chatter. Also had some polite exchange with the first couple at the buffet table: the first time I have spoken to them since their elevation !

What I ate at the old mansion

Finally, I always like to bring the head of family a little something, as a token of appreciation to be included in the commemorative event — though in all practical terms, what could I bring that would be meaningful to someone who not only has everything but also that everything is multiplied many times over!

Still, I brought a bouquet, going all the way to my sister’s Ghim Moh florist to ensure I get one that’s uniquely put together. Despite my efforts, the bouquet turned out to be really ho-hum and I might as well have grabbed it from the ready-made ones atVeronica’s in Great World City or Tanglin Mall!

Ghim Moh bouquet gracing Cairnhill

 

More food pix akan datang!

Distributing my rubbish

This afternoon at Great World City, while waiting to have lunch with LH — who’s going to head a resilience and wot-not unit — I decided to discard the dozen or so of ATM withdrawal slips I’ve accumulated over the weeks.

And instead of dumping the whole lot intact, I tore them into small bits and then put small amounts into various trash bins distributed across the shopping mall. One handful into the bin outside the UOB branch; another into the bin just inside the mall; a third and a fourth into bins beside the up and down escalators.

As I went about doing that, I felt a bit of the frisson that must have driven the Canadian psycho to scatter the body parts of his murdered victim. No one is going to be able to re-assemble the scattered pieces.

No one would certainly be bothered to re-assmble my shredded ATM slips; they are inconsequential and of no significance to anyone but kaypohs. But not so if the scattered pieces are human remains. That’s why killers are so dumb. The law would have the time and the interest.

Suckered again by TOTO

The last time I succumbed to TOTO was sometime in July 2010 when the pot was $10 million!

Well, guess a sucker never learns.

A few days ago I read on Kevin Lim’s Face Book post that there would be a $10 million pot again for TOTO on Feb 3.

And as luck would have it, I passed a Singapore Pools kiosk when I was at Great World City to do some essential grocery shopping yesterday Feb 3. And as the queue was less than half a dozen, I thought I might as well buy a ticket too.

As it’s been more than a year that I made my last TOTO venture, I had quite forgotten what was involved apart from having to plonk down some $.

I latched on to one of those filling up their forms to ask. The auntie patiently explained that I must invest a minimum of $1 and select two sets of 6 numbers.

So I did, with her help, in marking the titchy oblong boxes.

The cashier was all smiles when I presented her with $1 and the completed form. I felt lucky and thought I was on the road to a half GCB!

I had picked  2, 3, 5 12, 20 33 and 2, 3, 5, 12, 20, 44 (((

Toto Results
Feb 03, 2012 (Fri)
Numbers: 3 19 21 27 33 34
Additional: 8

Another blankety-blank one buck down the drain.

3 rude persons & moi

November is supposed to be Kindness Month but why has the following happened — to me?

Yesterday, I was at Cold Storage Great World City and was squating down to reach the lowest shelf where the spring onion was. Now when a few strands of the garnishing now cost all of $1.75, I could be excused if I did turn over a few packs to try and get something that wasn’t all limp, yellow and disintegrated.

While thus absorbed, i heard an impatient voice which said:”Excuse me, i want to check the vegetables!”

I almost jumped up to give way when without thinking I shot off my mouth: “Hey, I’m checking the veggies too, so do you mind waiting till I’m done?”

I thought she was going to nudge me with her trolley but she didn’t. Just a stare but I quickly turned my face away and equally quickly made my selection and moved off.

I thought: what a rude woman. She probably thought the same too — of me, that is.

Then later at the check out, I again encountered the cashier who has trouble with my Passion Card. It’s always at her termi that my efforts to “tap for more” encounter “card error”.  It was no different yesterday and tried as she might the card didn’t work and she had to call for assistance.

While this was going on, a white couple came to join my queue of one. As each of them was carrying a ladened basket and as my trolley was equally full and as the cashier was still doing finger gymnastics with my Passion Card, I, out of the goodness of my heart turned and said to the couple:

“My card is having problems. Think you’d better go to another cashier?”

They just stared at me. I repeated what i said.

More stares; they consulted each other (so they understood English perfectly!); then stared again and went off, without a smile of acknowledgement, let alone “thank you”.

I felt like kicking myself. I should have left them to queue till the cows come home while my Passion Card was being revived.

After that experience, you’d think I would refrain from any gratuitous “do gooding” for a while! But no, kaypoh moi was at it again today and again got snubbed.

I had parked my car at the Forum Galleria carpark to go for a lunch appointment with an acquaintance at the Orchard Parade Hotel.

As I was fortunate enough to get an excellent parking spot, I felt happy enough to pass that spot to the next person. And there was one such person when i was about to go to my car to leave. A lady driver in a swank car had come into the carpark and, seeing me head for my car, slowed down.

So I nodded pleasantly at her and quickly clicked on the door auto-unlock button with the corresponding flash of lights to signal that I was leaving and she could take my lot.

You could blow me down with a feather when the lady driver looked poker faced; no returning smile or nod. I felt tempted to retrace my steps into the shopping centre to leave her high and dry — but resisted. That would have been childish and served no better purpose than to make me late for my next appointment!

Still, this being Kindness Month makes me wonder whether what we really need is a Kindness Year to instill some appreciation in those at the receiving end of a stranger’s kindness.

Or am I just an idiotic needy masochist when I look for a “thank you” from the self-confident who not only believe that the world is their oyster but it also owes them plenty of favours

Double confirm lucky?

Last Sunday, when pushing my overloaded trolley of essential groceries down the travelator at Great World City, I thought myself lucky that I spotted two Caucasian kids rushing in from the car park just be4 my trolley and they were about to cross paths as I exit the travelator!

I managed to brake my trolley in time, without thinking or remembering that something nasty was going to happen to me and the people behind me.

Which was what did happen. The travelator continued travelling but because I pulled hard on the trolley, it side swiped the left barrier of the travelator be4 being forced back to the correct path and over the hump onto the flat ground.

Meanwhile I felt the full impact of three men who had seconds be4 been talking animatedly behind me as they body-slamp into me. Not all three of cos but the momentum of three persons suddenly knocking into one another and then me.

There was a bit of shouting: what happened? Why you stop suddenly? I shouted back a bit lamely: Those kids! Who meanwhile were unperturbed by the commotion as their mother (or at least a grown up Caucasian) behind them hurried them up the up travelator.

I should have been incensed by what happened. Shouted at her for not keeping her kids out of harm’s way etc.

But I did nothing like that. All I felt was gratitude that I managed to escape knocking into the kids — with messy and time consuming consequences – or losing control of my trolley and crashing into the fengshui shop at the end of the travelator, with equally messy and time consuming consequences!

Of cos on reaching home and in retrospect, I was furious with what happened and toyed with the idea of writing to Great World City management to demand that they put up signs warning people from ambling too close to exit points of travelators.

My fury was fueled by the fact that the right side of my back developed a nagging ache, no doubt the result of having the weight of three men slamming into me.

Fortunately, as the ache subsided ever so slowly, my sense of feeling lucky that I didn’t run over those kids surfaced again.

This was especially after I was given illustrations of two additional fates that could have compounded the incident.

When I told Ms Chung about it at our weekly Thursday yoga session, she said, consider the worse case scenario. Suppose the guys behind you were pushing and trolley and it ran into you? You might have gotten more than uncomfortable aches! She’s got a point there.

Yesterday, JL3 and AE, both old school mates and I met up with Ms Chung and her sister over a cup of super-value-for-$ gourmet coffee at Geisha — the lovely coffee nook in Burlington Square opposite La Salle — I was made doubly aware of my lucky escape!

JE3 on hearing  about my experience recalled how one of her relatives after a game of golf on Sentosa was knocked into by a golf cart that his golf partner’s kid was fooling around with! Result: a smashed pelvis and damaged kidneys, from which injuries the said victim has yet to recover fully.

That account double confirms my luck last Sunday. It also makes me doubly certain I will not hesitate to run into anyone foolish enough to sashay across the exit of a travelator when I, pushing a loaded trolley, am about the exit!

Better someone else gets smashed for his/her carelessness than me! Right? r-i–g-h-t?

Donch say I didn’t warncha!!

Last gasp @ Ichiban Boshi

I’m practical.

With everyone already donating and/or rushing to help those affected in Japan by the earthquakes and tsunami, I decided instead to direct my night chanting to the well-being of the people in Japan. This will go on till some resolution is found for the dicey nuclear plants.

I’m practical.

Today I switched plans to lunch at Subway Great World City – promised to mum’s Picky who had asked to eat there — and instead moved the three of us up to B1 where long-time favourite Ichiban Boshi is.

I explained to Picky, that given the nuclear situation in Japan at the moment, we could be getting food scares some time soon and so better pile up on Japanese food be4 the scares become full blown and we would feel obliged to abstain, along with the herd.

memory from the menu

So, we had a good lunch as usual at Ichiban. Mum n I went for the excellent value sushi and sashimi set (left) between us plus a side order of salmon tetaki washed down with a small bottle of sake, while Picky had tempura udon and a plate of maki.

We ate everything down to the last grain of rice, the last garnishing, remembering that in Japan, too many ordinary people have suddenly found themselves short of food and water thru no fault of their own.

Afterwards, I bought a pack of salmon gills for our home and some cod for my sister plus a tub of miso for us to share, even though we already have a newly opened tub in the chiller. It’s all about stocking up!

No time to rush to my other everyday favs — Ajisen and Tanpopo — to have my fill of Japanese food. Hopefully, the radiation fears are overblown and I won’t be forced to keep away from Nippon cuisine for too long!

Not right or fair

After we finished lunch at a restaurant in Great World City which I haven’t been to for ages, not least because I don’t particularly like its food or service, the waitress handed me a pink slip.

I thought it was a lucky draw or some “return” voucher but no, it was an attempt to solicit me to give it my vote for the “SPBA Most Popular Brand Award.”

That’s OK but not what it proposed to do on my behalf.

Let me start from the beginning. (I’ve removed the offending restaurant’s name as I don’t know if it’s the only one soliciting votes this way or it’s done by all the nominees for the award. If it’s commonly practised, it doesn’t make it right but in that case I won’t want to finger just one restaurant). 

The request (in dubious English) began thus: “Thank you for your support, XYZ Restaurant is nominated for SPBA Most Popular Brand Award. Please vote for us by SMS to 77877 by typing

spba <space> XX <space> NRIC <space> your name &

spba <space> YY  <space> NRIC <space> your name

Each SMS costs 20 cents, lucky draw winners will be drawn from the pool of votes.

Voting ends: 5 December 2010 midnight

(So far so good. I was about to throw away the slip, till I saw the last bit of instruction)

Last bit of instruction read as follows:

Kindly fill in your particulars amd is our pleasure to vote on behalf for you.

Name——————————————–

NRIC S——————————————–

Thanks for your support.

We assure that your particulars are for voting purpose only.

Ha? So, the restaurant would be using my IC n name to SMS for me; saves me 20 cents and gives me a chance or even several chances  (if it chooses to SMS on my behalf several times to vote for itself) at the lucky draw.

While it’s no skin off my nose and no money out of my pocket — even with the potential of making me a lucky draw winner — I don’t think the practice is fair or right. Perhaps not even legal.

If this is common practice by all the Most Popular Brand nominees, it really makes such awards a farce.

Hey, it looks like the nominee with the deepest pocket will win.

But then again, why am I surprised?

Many, if not all, of such awards are nothing but a glorified business strategy in disguise. Good business for the awarding body! And quite meaningless for everyone else not in the game to make some fast buck from the exercise!