only if you have time

Vicky got a tattoo.

There are over 800 comments (and 65,000 views) to this photo on Flickr, most of them so completely clueless it's almost painful. Yet I couldn't stop reading them.

I think I want to marry the photographer, she's brilliant.

too perfect theory

When I start reading something -- a book, a magazine, an article, a cereal box -- I am compelled to read every word until the end. Which explains why I seldom read The New Yorker, even though I have it on my Bloglines, which, to sidetrack a bit, is the best thing to happen to my blog-reading habit (I read 62 blogs on a near-daily basis). The articles are simply too long and headache-inducing to wade through on screen.

But today, I got sucked in to an 11-page piece (yes, 11 whole pages with little paragraphing), The Real Work (by Adam Gopnik), about modern magicians and the meaning of life.

Towards the end, he wrote about what mindful magicians called the Too Perfect theory, which I understand to be the belief that when a trick is too perfect, it ceases to be believable.

"But the Too Perfect theory has larger meanings, too. It reminds us that, whatever the context, the empathetic interchange between minds is satisfying only when it is “dynamic,” unfinished, unresolved. Friendships, flirtations, even love affairs depend, like magic tricks, on a constant exchange of incomplete but tantalizing information. We are always reducing the claim or raising the proof. The magician teaches us that romance lies in an unstable contest of minds that leaves us knowing it’s a trick but not which one it is, and being impressed by the other person’s ability to let the trickery go on. Frauds master our minds; magicians, like poets and lovers, engage them in a permanent maze of possibilities. The trick is to renew the possibilities, to keep them from becoming schematized, to let them be imperfect, and the question between us is always “Who’s the magician?” When we say that love is magic, we are telling a truth deeper, and more ambiguous, than we know."

This appeals to the imperfectionist in me.

no lah

So there I was, striding purposefully along Central on my (n+1)th trip to Hong Kong, when an angmoh stopped me.

"Excuse me, do you know if there is a sporting goods store nearby?" he asked in an American drawl.

"Sorry, I'm not from around here," I replied. I gave a weak smile to make up for not even bothering to think if there were any around, and started to move away. H&M was waiting for me.

"You're from Singapore, aren't you?" he said, stopping me in tracks.

Is my Singlish so jialat that he could make out my nationality in fewer than 10 words? And should I be proud to be so easily identifiable as Singaporean or should I be appalled that my accent is not as neutral as I perceived?

*******

A few days later, I was at a celebrity-spotting type of gala event -- they were sequestered away from us common folks on special mezzanine floors -- and wandering around the cavernous tent looking for photo ops.

After a few half-hearted snaps -- due to suckage at night photography -- I found a spot by the bar where I could take my fashion diary photo. A guy in all black with a heavy duty camera and zoom lens ambled by, presumably a photographer. He didn't look too busy so I asked him if he could help me take a photo.

The first thing he said to me after he returned me my toy camera?

"Are you from Singapore?"

Turned out he was Singaporean too and had been working in Hong Kong for seven years. He joined our little group, and was even reunited with a long-lost friend.

A few days after I left, he very kindly sent an email with more photos of the party and tips on where to shop on future trips -- a case where Singlish comes in handy.

*******

When I related this anecdote to a friend, her face immediately lit up.

Before she could even sputter out the words in her excitement, I quickly burst her bubble: "He's gay. He moved to Hong Kong to be with his boyfriend."

In a sort of related story, a longer while ago, when my dog ran away from home -- somehow managing to open the gate, get out AND shut it behind him -- he invaded the house of my angmoh neighbour one street away.

He called me -- thank god for phone numbers on dog tags -- and assured me he would take care of the runaway canine as I was still at work.

When I finally stopped panicking, I told a colleague I had to go home and collect my dog from the kind neighbour.

She was strangely deflated when I told her that his wife was afraid of dogs: "Oh, there is a wife. I thought this would be one of those stories where you meet someone because your dog ran away."

bear hugs out, lion hugs in

I dare you to watch this and not at least tear up a little.

Going to hug my doggie now, even though he doesn't know how to reciprocate (the closest he knows to hugging is humping).

cupcakes take the cake

Had an inexplicable craving for Magnolia Bakery's diabetes-inducing cupcakes last week and made a batch on Sunday to satisfy my sweet tooth. I also had some heavenly vanilla pods -- a gift from Bali -- which I was dying to use.

I found the recipes for the vanilla cupcake and vanilla buttercream frosting easily online, but reduced the scary amounts of sugar by half for both the cupcakes and the frosting. No harm done to the final product, I feel.

What did hurt the cupcakes was refrigeration, which I discovered the next morning. The cupcakes became rather dense and damp, and the buttercream no longer light and fluffy.

Then I went to the Magnolia Bakery website and saw this fine print: Never refrigerate or freeze your Magnolia Cupcakes. Darn.

last-minute appeal

Voting closes in less than 24 hours, peeps! (See previous post on how to vote for my pitiful photo which, according to the PR girl from the company who called me, hasn't even had enough votes to make it to the Top 3.)

So I've been begging friends and colleagues to vote for me, my sis to put an appeal on her blog to garner more votes and nagging on my Facebook status updates, all in a bid to beat the "one-armed boy paddling down the raging river in a bath tub and did I mention he has only one arm" photo, which I regard as my closest competitor.

One traitorous colleague wanted to vote for it -- despite my protests -- because "he needs a helping hand".

Please remember, I am the one who needs help here, ok?

Thanks thanks!

family outing

This is a shameless appeal. I'm taking part in this photo competition and need all the votes I can get.

Please go to www.seagatememories.com/singapore, click on photos, then vote for this one.

This is my first ever attempt at a photo competition (although it seems more like a popularity contest with the online voting), so fingers crossed!

romper room

I'd always wanted a romper, but all the more so after I saw how fun and versatile -- and slimming! -- it was on Sally-Jane Vintage, where she has four looks for it. How I kicked myself for not getting it when I saw it in Urban Outfitters when I was in New York the last time.

So I decided to trawl eBay for some vintage ones. Keyword search "romper" turned up too many baby clothes, so I tried "adult romper".

This was what turned up:


Photo courtesy of Pipineni's Adult-Baby-Shop.

eBay is a strange and wonderful place where you can learn many things.

bake a cake

So, more than a month ago, after my sissy and I bought our mom an oven, I gathered the ingredients to make Sylvia Tan's flourless chocolate cake. It's a fail-proof recipe -- if you heed her warning towards the end -- I've used many times before which is 10 years old and I finally found time to bake it today.


It calls for nine eggs, separated into yolks and whites.


A bag of Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips and one-and-half blocks of butter (not pictured because they look even worse than the chocolate chips, which also look quite bad).


Whip the egg whites first into stiff peaks (again, bad photo, so that step is not shown) and set aside. Then, in a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks.


Add one and half cups of caster sugar and mix well.


Oh yes, in the meantime, melt the butter and chocolate chips in the microwave for about four minutes and let the unphotogenic mixture cool. Then add it to the egg yolks and sugar and mix well. Last step is to fold in the egg whites.


Bake in the middle of a 160 deg C oven for 50 minutes in a lined baking tin. Do not, I repeat, do not remove the confection from the oven when it goes ding, no matter how awesome the smell is. Let the cake cool completely, or you will end up with a squidgy texture inside (which is what happened to us).


See where the cake has sort of collapsed onto itself and formed some sort of muffin top? It isn't very pretty. But it sure is yummy!

(I wish I have more patience and time to style the ingredients and final product with colourful plates, flowers, placemats, etc. But we just really wanted to dig in after all that hard work.)

In non-domestic-goddess-wannabe-related news, I finally could not stand not being able to turn my head to the left (due to a stiff neck and tense shoulder) any longer, and went for tui na after putting it off for months.

Not 10 minutes into the torture, I was moaning, "Hen tong!" to the therapist and tears were streaming down my cheeks.

More than nine hours later now, my back and neck feel like a gang of gangsters had beaten me with big sticks -- instead of one unarmed Chinese woman with very strong fingers and elbows.

I've signed up for nine more torture sessions. It hurt so good.

swirl goes to work

It's a tea party -- with non-imaginary cakes! -- and you're all invited!


We're launching Swirl's latest collection of work wear.


Here's a sneak preview.


We absolutely adore the illustrations of our elf, Priscilla. And the photos by Rory and poses by Joyce are super, we love them so much.


So do drop by Swirl this Saturday, 21 June, at 2pm.


You can take a closer look at our new designs at Swirl.


Hope to see you!

default face

I believe this is my "default face". You know, sort of like when you go into screen-saver mode on the bus. It's the face you have on when you are NOT:

a. chattering overly loudly to your colleagues over lunch at Pasta de Waraku (and doing the excited seal clap when food actually arrives)
b. engrossed in Criminal Minds or Numbers or Bones or Mythbusters (yes, I'm a big geek)
c. pretending to pay attention during meetings and hoping the boss doesn't call on you (and then nattering in wide-eyed terror something like "I agree with what XXX just said")
d. riveted by some tale your date just regaled you with (Hasn't happened for a while now. Date? What date? Oh, I don't really like dried fruit)

The story behind my extremely bored face is on my twin's blog. She's also the one who captured the ennui of that night (and my red shoes) so perfectly with this photo.

how much is that doggie in the window?

I've always wanted to take this photo, but somehow it looked cuter in my head.

day 10 or year 5, depending how you look at it

A mundane photo overly processed to look arty.

But there is a story behind this boring shot of a hospital waiting room.

Today, after more than five years of battling a mystery ailment known as livedoid vasculitis -- which left me almost bedridden for months, with horrendous scars and a healthy respect for pain -- my doctor finally told me I was in remission.

I don't have to see these pink chairs again until my next check-up in one year's time.

P.S. Day 10 refers to my progress in Project 365.

P.P.S. I want to spruce up my blog with a squeaky clean layout. Anyone has free templates? Or better, anyone wants to volunteer to do it for me?

heung gong again

Back in Hong Kong for work. Tried to sneak in some time to source for fabric and take photos, but actual work and continuous drizzle got in the way.


Ah Sir, what you looking at? [Even though I was at the scene, I couldn't spot any crime.]


The bare-bodied man knew I had stuck my head inside and was frantically trying to tweak my aperture to shoot him at work in that super moody lighting, but he pretended not to notice. I was too shy to continue, so only have this one semi-presentable shot. I have absolutely no knack for shooting people.


I walked past two old men, shirts half opened, sitting in a doorway playing chess. I tried to ask them in broken Cantonese if I could shoot them and got rudely shouted at. "Ying meh ying!" yelled the grumpier one nearer to me. "Mo ying ah!" Perhaps if I had pleaded with the less grumpy one, I would have got the shot. So I take photos of inanimate objects instead.


Rained every single day. The spot in the middle is a fat drop of rain I got on my precious lens after pointing it skywards. But this is my fave shot of the lot anyway.

Day 1

On a whim, my twin and I decided to shoot a photo a day -- for 365 days. Follow my progress here.

Full of eager-beaverness, I ventured up to the rooftop garden of my office. Drats, it was raining. So this is my shot of the day.

Let's hope we make it to Day 365!

happy birthday, blog

Wah, so big already ah, five years old liow. Don't seem very different from the day you were born hor? Except that all this second-hand smoke has ruined your baby soft skin. Aiyoh, you badly need a facelift. And soon.

[Thanks, everyone, for reading and leaving kind comments over the years. Muaks!]

not a crumb left

Photos by the multi-talented and ever-supportive Mr TPL.

Realised I've been totally remiss in posting about my lurve's new venture. Without further ado, I present, Crummb.

Ask me about her cakes, and I won't be able to stop drooling about how good they look and, more importantly, how good they taste. I even committed the ultimate cake fox pass, when I devoured all the fondant decoration, that's how delish her baked goods are.

Drats, it's now past 3am and I'm in need of a sugar fix.

say cheese

Grilled tomatoes with mozzarella

Sorry that this is turning into a third-rate food blog, but I've been playing with the new oven (and also the not-so-new camera). I want to master the art of food porn!

Forgot to mention in my previous post that while the mussels were dirt cheap at $1.71 for 41 (yes, I counted), the mozzarella was $8.99 for a chunk (I saw it as $2.99 and grabbed it, thinking it was good value. Duh).

So anyway, in a bid not to let the cheese go to waste, I found a recipe for grilled tomatoes with mozzarella. Again, dead easy and super yummy.

Preheat oven (grill function) to 150 deg C.

Slice four large tomatoes and place on a baking tray lined with aluminium foil. Sprinkle some salt on top.

Slice the cheese and place on top of tomatoes. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and season with coarse black pepper.


Just before popping the tray into the oven. (No self-respecting food pornographer would be seen in the oven door's reflection, but then I'm just a wannabe.)

Place under grill for 15 minutes (they look burnt in the photos, but trust me, they taste divine).

Let them cool a little before placing on a bed of salad greens. Drizzle balsamic vinegar before serving.

flexing my mussels

Thwarted in my attempt to have sambal mussels last night at No Signboard at VivoCity -- turns out the super yummy $15 dish is only available at its Geylang restaurant -- I started surfing the net for recipes to make my own.

Somehow, I got sidetracked by baked mussels with garlic, butter and cheese. How can anyone resist that deadly combination? So I modified the online recipe and made these babies instead.

It's dead easy.

Soak mussels in salt water and clean and debeard them. Throw any opened shells away.

Preheat oven -- New oven! Yay! -- to about 120 deg C. Line baking tray with aluminium foil.

Put a large pot of water to boil on the stove.

Mince garlic and mix with butter at room temperature. Cut thin slices of mozzarella cheese, one per mussel.

When water comes to a boil, throw in the mussels and cover the lid for a couple of minutes till the shells open.

Remove the mussels from the water and open them, leaving the meat on half a shell.

Put a dollop of garlic butter and top with a slice of mozzarella.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Next time, I'm going to try making the stir-fry sambal version. Hopefully it will be as yummy as this.

sleep or lack thereof