Portrait de ma famille sur la porte*

Ma famille, rendered as cartoon caricatures and proudly displayed on my front door. They represent traditional Chinese couplets the wife decorates our entrance with annually, welcoming blessings into our home. Each panel bears the character "fu", meaning "fortune", and each family member wears a horse hat for the Horse Year ahead. CNY is still officially a few weeks ahead, but taobao has been expeditious with its deliveries so we're celebrating early.

*The title wordplays on "port", so literally, pardon my French. Credit: Google Translate.

New job title

In the swirl of events of yesterday, I did not recognise the significance of the above email. I thought there were still one or two more steps to go, but technically I can now claim the job title of Published Author! 

Yes, my book is no longer merely conceptual -- it actually exists in the real world! It'll be a few more days before I can hold it in my hands via snail mail but it is done! The culmination of fragments of work spread over the last 5 or so years is a destination I did not anticipate when I started this personal project, yet here we are.

I still need to proof the first printed copy to ensure there are no mistakes in the printing process, and then I'll release it into the market when I'm satisfied it's all good. Hopefully, a few weeks from now. In the meantime, preview People, Peace and Power-ups on thegprebel.sg, where this whole idea started as just a thing to do on the side.

Going to sit down and take a breath now...

15 years of Headbanging

An unexpected treat showed up on YouTube! BABYMETAL dropped a remake of the iconic Headbanger MV. Headbanger features a young female protagonist celebrating her 15th birthday, so it makes sense that this remake is meant to celebrate BABYMETAL's 15th anniversary.

The location has been updated to a gaming arcade in which a crane game grabs a neckbrace to kick off the song. Out of a video game screen, the ancestral spirit, or Kami, makes his reappearance Sadako-like. SU sings lead and MOA provides the clean harmonies as always, but MOMO gets to go full ham on her backing growls, adding an even harder edge to this classic track.

The choreography is the same, but after 15 years of repetition, the movements are polished and energetic without being breathlessly frenetic. The Kami steals the show, though. He goes into a Kevin McCallister style frenzy, running around the arcade like nobody's looking (nobody is looking 'cos it's empty), but Japanese finesse still comes though as he politely gives silent thanks before tucking into his ramen. He also celebrates with a soda pop shower (you're still not allowed to celebrate with champaign at 15), but mops up his mess at the same ridiculous Red-bull fuelled pace immediately after. It's a cute comedic touch to the faux horror theme that is so BABYMETAL.

Happy 15th anniversary to BABYMETAL! I hope to continue supporting your work until you change your name to BIDDYMETAL 50+ years from now!

A tasteful Gen-z wedding

From my screwed up tastebuds a couple of days ago to this...

A tasteful Gen-z style wedding dinner at The Summerhouse. The programmme started with a rapid-fire ceremony by a JP, no exhortations needed, then straight up to dinner.

Some canapes while we wait for the official dinner programme to begin. Not sure, but the top I think was something mushroomy, the bottom was kinda' pumpkin-y, not just taste-wise but also by texture.

Appetizer was this pan-seared Hokkaido scallop. Very fresh, very bouncy texture... but my salt hyper-sensitivity is still there and it tasted like the whole ocean was in my mouth. The brown sauce is Japanese curry, the white is coconut cream. The sauce combo made me think more of Okinawa's tropical beaches than chilly Hokkaido.

Tangy, zesty tomato soup. I like the simplicity of flavour and the warm comfort I got from it. The cheese ravioli floating there provided some needed mouth-play and a surprise burst of salt (again).

The main course: I chose the salmon option over the duck. No regrets. This chunk of pink lay wantonly on a mattress of risotto. The salmon was a little more done than I like, but its flavours and oils were still intact, so no complaints.

And finally, the dessert. I'd initially misread the menu as Dark Chocolate Fondue, so I was imagining either a tiny individual chocolate fountain per person (ridiculous), or everyone sticks their skewers of fruit or candy items into the nearest fountain (like Kajang satay -- slightly gross). Turns out that it actually read 'fondant', which was this cute chocolate lava cake. That made more sense.

Overall, I liked the way this wedding programme went. It was paced well, it was light-hearted, the ambience was warm, there wasn't an overwhelm of guests, the music was quiet, subtle and really in the background. Mostly, I like the DIY feel to it.

I don't know the happy couple personally. I'm my wife's plus one here, but thanks for the invite! All the best on your journey together!

Tastes weird

 Been fighting the bug for weeks, holding it off as much as I could, but it's finally won. I have flu A.

I've heard how with COVID you lose your sense of taste, but with my experience of this flu strain, is it possible that food tastes worse?

I've had the most disgusting meals over the last two days -- on food I usually enjoy. The beef daily bowl from Stuff'd was an awful mess that I forced myself to choke down for the vitamins while the only taste sensation I was getting was the salt in the ground beef to which I've become super sensitive. Same with the fried bee hoon I got for breakfast. I get that when I need to carbo load for the day and it was equally horrid with nothing more than stewed cabbage topping -- all bland with sharp spikes of salt for variety.

Weird that the best tasting thing I've had so far was the McDonald's double fish fillet that tasted as advertised... or it could just be that my ability to taste is starting to normalize again. We'll find out tomorrow.

A day at the races

Returned exhausted from the Singapore GP F1 Night Circuit qualifying round. Not there for the cars, I was there for the music. Made the rookie mistake of paying for a grandstand seat when all I really needed was a walkabout pass which would allow me access to the food and concert areas but not a view of the track.

Made good on my seat watching all 12 laps of the Porsche Carrera Cup -- one of the warm up races before the evening's main event. Some guy called Pereira won. Congrats! Abandoned my seat after that to explore the grounds.

Arriving early was an advantage. Short queues for food and toilets. For dinner, I got a $25 hamburger sando from Arigato. Medium rare burger patty topped with a cheese slice between two thick slices of white bread. It was delicious and generally kept its integrity throughout even though I was eating standing up and holding it in one hand, while being distracted by the commentary on the Jumbotron.

Wandered over to the Downtown stage to wait for the performance I paid for. It's a smaller stage, an offshoot from the main Padang stage where the big acts were performing. More on that later. I arrived at the end of a set by The Lathums (pic above). Don't know who they are but their music I could groove to. DJ Questionmark from Taiwan took over for the next hour. I went for dinner at this time.

When I returned, the peanut gallery was full of American looking and sounding people excited to party with Tom Grennan, another act I'm not familiar with. Still, his basic rock vibe was cool and had me bopping the whole time.

Tom Grennan took most of the crowd with him. I immediately advanced to about just five rows back from the stage apron, determined to hold my ground for an hour until the final performance of the night commenced. Meanwhile, the grand Padang stage lit up and sent powerful beats right across to us who were at the old Esplanade. Someone thoughtfully put on the Jumbotron in front of us so we could watch DJ Alan Walker do his thing. Surprisingly, watching a DJ do his thing is as interesting as watching a conductor wave his baton at prerecorded classical music. No disrespect, but Mr Walker twiddled knobs and waved his free hand theatrically, and that's it. At least we had something to entertain us while we waited. No complaints.

And finally, the moment I and the One have all been waiting for: BABYMETAL! Making a stop in Singapore on their current world tour via the F1, performing on a small, intimate stage, and me even closer than when I was at Zepp KL three years ago! It was a short but intense session featuring their most fun, upbeat concert favourites that had us all jumping, chanting, and chorusing along (badly) the whole 50 minutes. Mandatory pix taken from between raised arms holding phones and serious-looking cameras follow:

Sorry I couldn't get a decent pix of SU. The corner where MOA and MOMO stood to engage the crowd was the least blocked.

I'm actually amazed that the pix came out this well. Must be the optical zoom and low-light AI magic of the Pixel 10.

And to make the post longer, the mandatory setlist follows:

1. BM Death
2. Pa Pa Ya
3. Metali
4. Ratatata
5. Gimme Chocolate
6. From Me To U
7. Karate
8. Road of Resistance to close out. How the crowd was able to actually make a decent circle pit on SU's command also amazes me.

A day at the races, indeed.

Fish and chips at Nosh

When I drove past a new banner ad for Nosh claiming it served the best fish and chips, I had to put it to the test. The location is about 10 minutes' walk from my residence, so there's a major plus point already.

The restaurant is cosy, catering to a small number of diners, light piano jazz over the speakers for ambience. The service was friendly and responsive, upfront about payment options which was important because 'credit card' was not on the list.

I ordered the mushroom soup and sourdough appetizer which you can see as the empty bowl in the background. The soup's consistency was not as thick as most other places suggesting it's made on-site with fresh ingredients and it was served scaldingly hot. The sourdough was fragrant, soft with a satisfyingly crunchy crust. It seemed like a waste to dunk it in the soup so I enjoyed it between spoons, appreciating the texture and flavour even sans butter.

The fish and chips was, in fact, the best I've had in a long while. I chose the halibut over the dory because, what the heck, man? Of course halibut! It came coated in a lightly crisp batter, the way I like. The halibut tasted fresh and went down smoothly while the brittle crunch of the batter provided a nice contrast of things going on in the mouth. The salad was rocket and a couple of halved cherry tomatoes splashed with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar -- standard fare, but still rounded out the dish well.

My one mistake was in over-using the tartar sauce provided. It made the meal feel heavier than I wanted. Next time I'll ask for a sprinkle of classic salt and white vinegar, nothing fancier.

Oh, the 'chips' turned out to be interesting slices of potato cut into loose, wide spirals which they call 'sidewinders'. Never seen anything like that before. The groove on each chip suggests a machine rather than a hand cut. I ate them without ketchup 'cos they didn't need any.

A meal of this quality isn't cheap. $41 and change. So using a portion of my CDC vouchers, I let the government pay for it. Yay! A new place to use them up before they expire.