we moved!

The last time I moved was 2000. Hey, that was 11 years ago. Back then it was easy. Only big thing was the TV, everything else were taken down into smaller pieces. All other appliances were brand new and delivered.

Old living room... bright and cheery

Here, a one last look at the place I vacated. Looks so much better empty than when we had stuff all over the place. I will miss it, but I am happy to know that the next owner does not intend to redo the floors and will keep the mosaic stove top… I did that!

Old kitchen. Empty.

I did take my own sweet time in renovating the apt back then. No rush and with very tight budget. Manage to get it under $10K and plus new appliances at $3k. That was a bargain! Me thought.

How different it feels again, empty old little apt. Nice, bright and airy… cosy… I am gonna miss this place. .. but the new place is huge and have lots of potential… It might just turn out to be another nice, bright, airy and SPACIOUS abode… I made the difference when I reno’ed the old place… (it didnt look half as nice when I bought it, take my word for it)..  this new apt is gonna be better than that!

Just moving in...

The early stages.. just moving our enormous amount of junk that were accumulated over 11yrs. Where is everything!? How do ya get to anything!? … wait… I cant find the picture on this one… my point exactly!

And now, we have just passed the rubble stage… Yes! Gone are the horrible looking kitchen and cabinets!

Next, into reconstruction stage. A new kitchen in the yard, a new airconned workroom, lounge and guestroom…

The truth… its not all that clear to me yet… but I sure it will all work out just right.. Always positive…

My old dig

Letting the dust settle over the selling and buying of the so called “subsidized” housing here in Singapore. Now, we are in the transaction period, which is typical 3 months. After that comes the reno and moving… for us, it will be moving and reno. sigh…

DIY stovetop and mosaic overlay.

But now is a good time to start thinking and researching about reno and styles. … I have been hard at work in this department for the last 2weeks! Still struggling over whether to hack away the current kitchen floor and wall tiles that seem to be in good condition… relay new tiles of my choice or paint over with epoxy resin paint… My problem is simply the color dun work for me, and that I will be modifying the layout quite a fair bit…  but to hack is noisy and costly and very dusty… so I dun wanna do that if I can avoid it.

This is definately not how my dig look like when I move in 10 years ago.

peach walls, cream ceiling and cream door..

Looking back at what works for me. I really like how my kitchen look right now. Very dark grey kitchen homegenous floor tile, creamy textured ceramic wall tile, glass mosaic stove top. Except the stove top is too small, which means not much space for food preparation. This would be the only thing I would change in my design for the new kitchen.

My very messy all purpose table

I am probably a very grey person… but maybe light yellow painted walls would brighten up the space… instead of the existing apple green white. Next I gotta think of how to tie the foyer color scheme to the kitchen and the bedrooms… Once, I like a different color in each room… but I am sure past that high contrast bright color stage… I think this time it may be a more light and airy earthy tone flavor. … but really… hows the peach..

Mood swings!

Am going thru a phase… I have been so in and out of moods while spending hrs deciding what to eat, when to eat and where am I going to eat! … This is just so crappy! … and the reality is, its all part of living in a city!

Typical scenario. I am at a mall, I am starting to get hungry, I start to think about what to eat, I flip flop between what I really want and what is conveniently available and priced reasonably… for like 5mins..

.. ok start walking in the direction of where I think something might be available.. and I see super crowded foodcourts, messy table of uncleared remnants, people trying to talk louder than the din! No way! I am not going in there. Start thinking again, next probable location and maybe change new set taste buds.. kinda more hungry now.. maybe a take out and eat back at home infront of TV or FB.. OhNO! I HATE that styrofoam takeout packaging! Food taste very strange after being in that box for 30mins! Noooo! What else is available for takeout? …

OK! I give up! I would rather eat my very own home cooked, super spruced up noodle! Even if I had to spend 30mins on the prep and cook, its way better than spending $5 for food that I am not sure about and eating in an environment that is crap.

Well… GET REAL! Life in a city is tough. .. I have adapted well enuf.. my new peace motto, eat when no one is eating, eat where nobody is crowding.

I dun want to remember Sendai as a diaster area

1 week ago, I was sneaking a little snooze after lunch in my chair at my desk in my little cubicle… I dun remember exactly what time it was, but I woke up with a start and I thought we were experiencing tremors… like we usually do in Indonesian earthquakes… I asked my “cube” mate if shes feeling it too, but no. I checked my little tremor marker, and it seem to be moving very slightly, maybe its nothing. ..

I was going back to my dreams… when another colleague across the aisle exclaimed, “Japan earthquake!”. That was about 10 mins after I thought I felt the quake… My cube mate and I were like “<Shock> Really!? could it be!?” Is it possible for one to feel an earthquake in Japan from Singapore.

I guess its not really important that if I really felt the quake or not. All the same, I feel terrible for the people who are so badly affected. From a natural disaster of earthquake, followed by tsunami and finally to radioactive disaster, things are getting from bad to worse in hours.

Overnight, the unknown city of Sendai became instantly known to the world. Its not a good thing. Sendai is a city of no consequences to anybody, except for those who were fortunate to be aquainted with it… before this happend. Now, people will remember it for this incident.

I remember Sendai for the good 9 months when I was working and living there in 1998. It was my 1st experience of living through 4 seasons at 1 go, at the beautiful subburb of Izumi ward of Sendai city. I enjoyed the excellent sushi made with the most fresh sea produce from within Miyagi district, I enjoyed my walks through the flower fields, rice fields, trails… etc. I drove several times to coast at Matsushima and I love that fishing and seafood farming village. I guess thats gone now.

The survivors of that village, I am not sure they are really survivors. . For the rest of their lives, they will be mourning their lost family and friends, they will have a regret so deep in their hearts that nobody will truly be able to understand. The lost of ones’ roots! No more family house or happy family moments. Pictures and heirlooms washed out to sea, nothing to hold on to except for the memories.

Insurance may buy that car that was lost, or that house thats gone, but not the album of family gathering pictures, not the file of newspaper clippings made by proud parents of they exceptionally talented child. Aid money may buy food and help in rebuilding of lives, time will help heal the extreme pain in their hearts. … or will it? really? Dah says, its not a moment in time, its a missing moment in life that can never be recovered.

I have great respect for the Japanese. The spirit of unity in the Japanese will help the country recover from this shock. I feel bad that I cant do anymore than just writting my thoughts in my little blog, but I hope that there be others who, like me, remembers Sendai for better things.

Unbelieveable pastimes!

500pcs only... 3hrs crouching over it.. on the floor

I am still packing my place.. an hour or two every day.. slowly but surely, there are signs of progress. I notice my neighbours waits eagerly as I bring my junk to the dump corner (not the designated dumping ground.. but the usual one for people to look for salvageable items). I just barely turn my back and they are at it already. .. hmm… didnt think my junk were so precious.

Laminated jigsaw - done with clear vinyl

As more things are discarded, some things that were buried before, surfaces. .. and so a pile of un-opened jig saw puzzle boxes were uncovered… now what do I do with these.. I dun wanna throw them away.. .. but I wonder if I still have it to fix them up..

King of all jig saw puzzles!

I mean, 500 pieces is so easy… right? So I started.. on the floor.. and when its done, how do u pick it up? Well, so I laminate it and there it is, done forever! Now that box can go, and the puzzle can stay. I mean, its flat and easy to keep right?

This 500pcs took me, myself 3 hrs! … 3 good hours of my life gone! Jig saw is like the biggest con job on earth. Who wanna do jig saw!? Its a crazy concept that people like perfectly good pictures to be cut up into pieces, only to piece them up again! … and I am one of them suckers! Maybe the biggest one of them all!  BTW, the 12000 pieces is actually 3/4 completed and taken apart and put back into the box. I dunno why I did that.. but its part of my memories that I did spend years of few hours here and there doing it. I think its gonna stay unfinished, but I dun wanna throw it away either… sigh…

Spring cleaning?

5 boxes of old junk and much more still laying around the house.

Yes, me is doing me spring cleaning. … This time, I am really going thru my old stuff and hoping to dump 90% of the junk! … Hoping to have less things to shift when changing house this year, and moving off to the US next year.. Thats the plan anyway.

Memories! I like browsing thru this mall... and I did buy quite abit of stuff from them

Look, I have procastinated for like 3 weeks… thats not too bad.. isnt it..   So its time to start packing up and really try to throwaway some stuff. In these 5 boxes, are some old stuff that I havent seen in quite awhile. Lets see if theres stuff that I should dump, so that other stuff that I recently collected can fit in there… See, I am not trying to exceed this amount of collectibles. 5 boxes should be quite easy to move around.

Doug had a great idea to take pictures of them things and catalogue it in a special folder… and even on my picture diary blog. Just some of the things anyway.

What a treasure!

Look at what I found! Some things that are just priceless! Old plastic bags from the Emporium group! 20 years ago, they were quite popular at the suburbs. 10 years later, they were still around. Now…? Gone!

Remember how we use to buy music? They come in tapes.

The little see thru baggie is holding onto some real valueables! Literally! The bird series Singapore dollar bills. $20, $10, $5 and $1… Only 1 boat series $1 tho… wonder why I didnt keep some other denominations..? 

Hey look! Old tapes! Do they still make players for these tapes? I was really gonna throw them away, since I am not gonna buy something to play them with… but .. just kept afew… maybe a museum will want them.. if I wait long enug

Also found plenty of other stuff… like old greeting cards from my old school chums… I totally forgotten that there was an era when people actually send cards! They are something really! They feel like the real thing, real contact and real people who made those special 1 of a kind cards just for me. It even has their handwriting on it! Especially those that were made by a group,  filled with handwritten messages from each person in the group. … E-cards are just not the same. I wonder if they still do that in school these days. .. Anyway, I forgot to make a picture documentary of the cards before putting it away deep into storage… Maybe I will do that the next time I open these boxes.. like 10 years from now…

Part of my travel collectibles. ..

Coming up next, my travel collectibles! eh hem… gifts to myself…

I travel quite abit for work. From 1995 to 2008.. Munich, TaiPei, Sendai, Penang, Manila, Bangalore, San Franscisco, Oregon, Vermont, New York… thats just the work travel list… I travel less for personal vacations .. and I dun usually spend enuf time to really see the place, so I dun have much to show for those personal travels… strange… only realize that now.

Wooden dolls from Japan.

Dolls from Japan, keyfobs from US, rocks from around the world. Almost everything I kept is special to me… hmm.. yes, sometimes I buy junk when I dunno what else to buy…

Box of travel memories

Look! My collection of driving maps. Japan, California, Oregon…. etc. And the world map! This box is gonna be my travel momentoes box. The marks of me travels. Its 1 way to know exactly where I have been and what I have done or saw. Blogging, is like a pictorial document of the new trips that I make. These maps are the legacy, marking the time before digital pictures and blogging.

Where have I been?

And the book, comics and old games box. My treasures… but I really cant bring them with me. These things go into storage… I might look at them again 30 years later… dunno, but I really wanna keep them somewhere, somehow. 

How many months did I spend on this?

And look! My collection of 1/2 done projects… yes, I have a good track record of those. .. as if that is something to be proud off… :p. .. Well, at least I got that far! … Its going into storage for now… I have no time for this project now… The crochet poncho? I am still working on that one…  

Rocks from around the world.

Did I tell you about rocks? … I am a rock collector! Much to Doug’s disbelief. .. until I pulled them out from the various places where I stored them “temporarily”. Some from over here, some from over there…

And here they congregate. Round pebbly rocks are from the Columbia river in Oregon. The 1 red stone I found in Langkawi, I think. The pink ones are clay and sorta  chalky. The whites are low quality marbles from Rebak, Langkawi. The big grey was a surprise from near Sebana. I dont remember where I got those black sharp edgy ones… hmm… ok, moving on.

Definately the time to dump all them old socks! Yellow and no more elasticity! Who keeps such things! Yucks! Cant believe I havent got rid of them sooner! And the spotty yellowy old t-shirts… they are going too! Will be keeping just afew more special ones… sigh… me the junk collector… There’s still plenty more stuff to go thru… wish me luck.

Reconstructing Ah Ma’s Sweet Pepper pork recipe

This is one of my favorite Ah Ma’s cooking, and is one that I never learned from her… sometimes I wonder.. do I miss Ah Ma or her cooking…?

1/4" slices of fresh pork. Look at that pink!

Its my 4th attempt at trying to make this Ah Ma’s special Sweet Pepper Pork… and yet again I failed. Pretty frustrated! Why I never learn how to cook this when Ah Ma was around…?

Making the marinate.

… but now, it has become a personal goal, for me to discover thru trial and errors, how Ah Ma did it. I think the process will make me learn the ways of Ah Ma.. those that I didnt learn the 1st time around.

The most important part of this cooking process, is making the marinate. How do you make it to taste just right and get the right smooth gravy like texture spread evenly over the meat?

Early in the cooking stage.

Let me see, my mistakes, starting from the beginning… 1st try, not enough sugar, not enough flour. 2nd attempt, sugar was about right, too much soy, and not enough flour. 3rd try, too much flour, killed everything. 4th try, okay I got the taste right…

Done cooking, gravy texture not quite right.

Here is what I got so far for 300g block of lean pork.

1) Slice lean pork into 1/4″ slices.

2) Make marinate with 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp flour, dissolve in 1/2 cup slightly warm water. Add 1/2 tbsp seseme oil, lots of pepper to the mixing bowl. Stir well, add pork. Spread evenly and leave for a few minutes.

3) Mince 2 cloves garlic.

A complete Chinese meal with rice, stir fry veggies and sweet pepper pork

4) Medium heat, 2 tbsp spoon oil in pan, add garlic to brown. Lay out pork slices onto pan, scoop remaining liquid marinate onto the pork. After 1 min, flip over to cook the other side. 1 min on the other side and it should be done cooking.

See! That should be so simple… isnt it? … but why my gravy texture is not right? Kinda lumpy… hmm… too much flour? No, I think flour is just right.. … I dunno… but I will probably get it right on the 5th try… I hope…

The inner peace

Or “the peace within”. Whatever it is, is not easy to get… thats what I am told… To me, it’s a state of mine, that is to be treasured (if I  ever get there).. I think I have, at times been there. Some of those rare occasions are when I am sailing solo.

I come from a line of seafarers. Ah Gong was a boatboy who moved from Swatow, China to Singapore in early 1900s. The family settled down in the Catholic parish land of “Kangkar”, which is northeastern Singapore and now known as Hougang. My father was a engineer and a uncle was an officer on commercial cargo ships. Another uncle was a sea sports man, winning medals in canoeing and water skiing.

Kangkar is TeoChew for “Harbour End”, and Hougang is Mandarin for “Back Harbour”. .. so it kinda means the same thing.. Anyway, the area had a whole network of creeks and swamps, leading to the Serangoon river. .. this was my childhood playground. Growing up among fishing nets, small boats and coconut trees, all my weekends involved boating, fishing, crabbing and clamming. That was fun!

Naturally, I am a outdoor sea sports type person. Getting myself the powercraft license is as normal as driving a car.. and owning a boat is like getting a car. … I wonder why all my sisters are not like me.. they have no license and dont own cars or boats.. hmm… 

My family did only power boating… rowing was only done out of necessity (very rarely). There were no sailors … until me! Pretty sad tho, cause I wasnt exposed to sailing at a young age.. all those years that I didnt know sailing! The irony of it all is, I decided that I would be a sailor, on the day that I took and passed the powerboat license test. Then revealation hit me when I was taking the test boat out, and a Hobie cat sped across infront of me. I thot, it went so fast, so quietly, so gracefully… and look! what a pretty boat. It was so fascinating to me to see one of those sailing craft close up.. and yes, I pass the test and am a licensed powercraft operator in SG, but I wasnt feeling too elated by that fact. .. My mind was already onto something else!

1 week after passing my test, I bought myself a new Walker Bay 8 with sailing kit.. and a used 2HP Honda 4-stroke air cooled OB. .. and I borrowed the “Basic sailing” book from the library.. .. my 1st self taught sailing lesson was off the Punggol pier beach! The trip only lasted 5 mins.. as the weather conditions of that day was not conducive to beginning sailors..! I ended up on the rocky beach of Punggol, wet and pulling Sea Sparrow behind hind as I trek back to where I started from … a very humbling start to sailing.. its not as easy as I thought.. Back to the books.

…………..I got it right 2nd time. The experience was much more satifying than getting my powercraft license. It was like opening a door to a new world that is so fascinating to me. So, now that I can sail, I begin to make trip plans for me and little Sea Sparrow. I would load up with food and liquid for 1 day, shove off and sail 4 – 8hrs each time. Starting from my home beach of Punggol, making my way east, turning around at Changi Sailing Club after gawking at bigger sailboats, making it back before dark. It surprise me that, 1) I really love the solitude of sailing alone 2) that sailing the familiar waters of Punggol and Coney Island gives me the state of mind that I call “inner peace”. The feeling of returning to a old playground (alone), good ol’ memories flashing, while I am rocking gently at 2knots.. is beyond my language skills to describe.. This is what sailing solo does to me, putting me in a very relaxed mood 1st, then reflective and comtemplative… and so a day goes by and I put Sea Sparrow away for yet another adventure. I go home burnt and tired, but always high spirits.. like I am on Valium or something..

1 year later, I happen to be in the right place (Alameda Marina) and right time, where I found my 2nd boat, a Cape Dory Typhoon weekender. I rarely sail Eleanor alone. She has too many eager fans wanting to go for a ride. Those times that I did sail alone, I had been too busy about sailing that I dont quite get into the “spot”. Maybe its the speed.. Eleanor travels 4-5kns. There were some very brief moments, that I do get high on sailing Eleanor.. The calm waters of Sebana Cove, a gentle little breeze, the familiar rocky banks and same old boats.. I love sailing into the esturary among the waterfront apartments, and seeing baby palm by our workshop..

.. hmm.. so, as I have found, the “treasure map” to my “inner peace”… a combo of sailing in familiar waters, sights, slow speed, quiet and solitude. .. I am a journey person and I will eventually leave Singapore. I hope that wherever I go, I will have “treasures” aplenty.

Mobile Hawkers

It is interesting how seeing something triggers a whole bunch of flashbacks in my mind. As a kid growing up in the 70s in SG, I remember those early morning market trips with Ah Ma to the wet market that was just 5mins walk from our place. In those days, little 3 wheeled Suzuki vans were still quite common and some were food counters, mostly unmarked because as early as that, SG had already banned street hawking. These mobile hawkers had to be ready to run at the 1st sighting of the enforcement officers. Ah Ma have no qualms about patronizing them, and I like seeing them around too. As a result of regulations and growing prosperity where people were in demand to work the production lines, street hawkers declined in numbers and finally disappeared from the Singapore streets.

Sungai Rengit wet market, 5am - 8am only

I have forgotten about them actually. With all that proporganda about hygiene and proper food preparation, I have also come to think of street food as unhealthy and probably very contaminated. .. a typical SG hippy youngster you might say.. … but actually I still do patronize street hawkers.. alot more than I realize or care to admit..

Whats that bluewagon? Its the Sg Rengit meat man.

Since berthing our boats in Sebana, we have been making our weekly trips into our neighbouring Malaysia, driving past JB, KT and into Sebana. In the early days, we would always bring our food or ingredients from home, which we buy from the supermarkets.  We had no desire to buy streetfood or buy anything from their supermarkets… and we didnt know about their wet markets.

The meat man. Nice chap and speaks good English.

Until much later, some yachting neighbours told us about the early morning market. Urh.. do we really want to wake up at 6 and make it there by 630? And many other ugly images of dead fish, poultry and livestock came to my mind… typically young SGrean disdain..

.. but.. during 1 of our extended week stay at Sebana, we were out of fresh food and we know that the local supermarkets’ selection for anything fresh is just undescribly dissappointing.. Guess we just have to give the wet market a try.

sorry if this picture disturbs you...

Yes.. all that stinky smells hit my sleepy mind and boing! Urg! Slimy wet floors with fishscales floating around, fish guts everywhere! Groteques! .. but if you overlook that, you might find the freshess shrimps, squids and fishes around. Chicken, delivered to the market dead and featherless, are being chopped up.

Nobody sells beef around here.. and where do you buy pork? … From the man with the blue wagon! Never! … It took yet another few months and a craving for pork to make me yield to buying meat from a van… Cultural shock! and yes, we SGrean will succumb to anything for a good meal.

Honda bike with sidecar selling breakfast.

Yes, indeed. The porkmans pork were very good cuts and very fresh. Reasonably priced too. 1/3 the price from Fairprice in SG and no foam packaging that is so ungreen..

Sometimes we drive thru JB a little later.. like 0630hrs .. We get to see the morning come alive with people crawling out of their little holes to go marketing at the very popular wet market in Tebrau City. We have been there too early at 0530hrs and only afew hawker stalls were open for business and plenty of rats were scrimpering around unwashed cement flooring littered with all sorts of garbage. A really disturbing sight. Rat city, Doug calls it. But the Roti was good.. and I didnt get poisoning.. .. nah, I dont think I will go back there.

Deep fried flour that we call "You Tiao"

But there is alot at Rat City .. and I dont mind getting something from those mobile street vendors. At least they are outdoors and their stainless cooktop stalls look much cleaner.. and no rats running around their feet. In MY, street hawking is not illegal and these hawkers are possibly licensed to operate as they do, in vans, motorbikes, bicycles or makeshift cooktops. We did enjoy the cheap and good “You Tiao”… will try the carrot cake on our next visit.. ..

I am hoping to find those corn hawkers.. I have a special fondness of that old corn taste that I had as a little kid. It was a kind of corn that was more flavorful and not sweet.. more chewy .. and each kernel was a little harder… that was 1 of my favorite snack… if anyone knows where I can find that, do let me know!

Sticky.Business looking for a new home

My favorite page on the Sticky.Business website

Unfortunately, Geocities is going to close in Oct. Oh well. Thats final and so here I am, looking for a new home for my website. Would like it to be free, but willing to pay a little. Can I find a good host for $20/yr?

Just a screenshot of my favorite page, in memory of my old website . .. <sob>..

Every line of code written from html level up, by me. Oh dear, to do it again..

 .. <sob>.. time to move on ..