City walk

So this is Orchard Road at 0703 hrs. Quiet, cool, very little pedestrian traffic, though the air smells a bit smoggy. Took the free early morning SMRT ride into town to try out a new long walk route. No Tasha 'cos dogs not allowed on public transport. From Orchard station as the starting point, this route took me all the way to Temasek Boulevard, looping around Marina Bay, ending up back at Raffles City; a 9.2 km trek. 

Sad thing is, this early in the morning, there is hardly any place for a bacon and eggs breakfast open. Had to settle for a pathetic roast beef sandwich from Starbucks -- too much sandwich, not hardly enough roast beef. Sigh, if I really wanted a roast beef sandwich, I'd go for Arby's... but we don't have that here.

'C' is for cookie

The wife's been busy baking up a storm of these almond cornflake cookies. Not for us, though. They're her contributions to a charity fundraiser. Who knows, maybe it's also a hint as to a whole new career direction for her?

Leaning tower of PISA

A bit late to chime in on our national success at PISA, but the results have been impressive. Internationally ranking second in mathematics, third in science and reading, what's not to be chuffed about? Well, in terms of ambition, we're aiming way too low.

Wait. Backstory: Over the weekend, I bumped into a trio of my graduated students. We chatted at length about how everyone was getting along. All three are currently engaged in undergrad programmes and should be living the Singapore Dream for their stage in life.

But they're not happy. Everyone told them that 'life would get easier at uni', but guess what? Everyone they know is still studying their brains out 24/7, just like they were at JC. Nothing's changed except that it's even harder to socialize now that their class schedules are so diverse, it's difficult to meet anyone even for a simple meal. For the one enrolled in the University that is supposed to "Make a difference", he says that at least things are marginally better there, and that if he had gone to either of the other two more established unis, he'd go nuts.

Our three chums, like many others in their cohort, have no idea what they are studying so hard for, other than that everyone else is studying equally hard and if they don't keep up, they're bound to lose out. They want a way out before they become 'zombiefied' (their terminology, not mine) like everyone else.

See what I mean by not having ambition and not aiming high enough? For many of our kids, their only ambition is to top the subject, top the class, top the cohort and scale the increasingly leaning tower of PISA. Once they've done that -- and many of them are doing exactly that -- then what? Oh, right. Climb the corporate ladder as high as they can go... and then? Retire comfortably, fizzle out and disappear back to the nothingness they came from, I suppose. Woohoo!

I'm so proud. These three musketeers may not have been my best scorers in GP, but they learned my most valuable lesson: don't be a corporate zombie. They have seen through the empty shell of academic ranking and now they're asking about what else there might be for them.

So, lesson #2: Note that academic and career achievements are inherently selfish goals. The effort is entirely aimed at benefiting oneself and not anyone else. Instead of wasting your youth pursuing meaningless 'A' grades, go explore other areas of life and find something you really enjoy doing. How will you know what that might be? Simple: you will enjoy it so much, you will want to share it with other people. At that point, the more you share with others, the better you will get at sharing it with others. Translated into academic terms, your 'A' achievements become meaningful because the knowledge you are gaining is helping you become a better sharer of that which you enjoy most in life.

This is not to say that there is no ambition at all among Singaporeans. We've done some marvellous, even miraculous things with our little nation. We just need more people with more audacity to dream up and do more crazy things. Whether it's rocket scientists; Olympic competitors; big-name entertainers; environmental crusaders; cupcake chefs; or mad doctors looking to cure cancer, we have them, but we could always use more. After all, the kids are already doing well in school. Do we really need more academically high-scoring yet aimless corporate drones?

Pig out weekend

Hur. What's the point of taking daily walks to burn off calories when they all come back on the weekend?

Well, it WAS a special occasion (alert: pure food porn follows):

Location: Angus House, where the service dresses in French maid costume and the chefs cook in full view of the dining patronage

Ordered the rib eye steak set comprising...

a prawn roll, which is roughly equivalent to a popiah but with Thai/Vietnamese skin that has the more glutinous texture, upended so it looks like a kueh pie tee set. A nice, fresh starter that only whets the appetite for more.

Soup. This one is the cream of corn. Very smooth... maybe too smooth. I like my corn soup with some kernels to chew on, but otherwise a good soup.

Salad served with an Oriental dressing, mostly soy sauce based. The combination is light and tangy while the salt of the soy sauce works to heighten the appetite for the main course to come. As far as possible, the dishes here reflect a European-Japanese fusion philosophy without going overboard with creativity.

At last, the tender, juicy rib eye arrives on a sizzling hot plate. The texture and consistency make it one of the best steaks I've ever had. On top is a pat of butter on a slice of lime -- a very simple but effective enhancement to the oddly dry-ish, yet fruity gravy you can see at the bottom of the pix.

Dessert is a mango pudding topped with vanilla ice-cream, another fusion idea that works so very well. Sweet, smooth and cold, it rounds out the meal satisfyingly.

That was dinner. Breakfast took us back to PARK @ Holland Village:

In the foreground is the main breakfast set, background is the smoked salmon crepe.

In detail. The Parma ham (between the sunny sides) is an optional extra. The pancake would have been served with syrup, but I'm on a diet. Yup.

The latte bears a portrait of Tasha, probably inspired by the fact that she's under the table -- so cute!

Ok, enough with the food. Back to losing weight in the morning.

From France with love

Didn't know what to expect from a performance celebrating French music by four male cast. The blurb promised "A musical revue about love and other accidents!", but it stymied the imagination as to how they would pull off the passion of French romance with no mademoiselle treading the boards with the monsieurs.

It turns out that French music embodies a lot of narrative; that each song (or chanson) is a theatrical piece in itself. Whether it's about a heartbreak, unrequited love, bawdy drunkenness, or an old man's longing for the glory days of yore, each song comes to life via stories retold in situational choreography mostly done in congruent cabaret style.

The focus is on four highly influential French singer-songwriters (male, of course) spanning between before WWII till the contemporary period. For the sake of the audience, most of the lyrics are English translations of the originals penned and sung by Gainsbourg, Brel, Trenet and Aznavour. In more or less chronological order, the cast introduced each artist briefly before presenting their most iconic songs.

The overall programme was a well-chosen melange of narrative themes, some heavy and regretful, others light and comedic, while a few others had hilariously lascivious overtones. Leong, Goh, Chan and Furnell look like the're having a ball telling these stories. The choreography is slick and their voices blend well together. Overall presentation: delightful.

Staging-wise, quick and simple costume changes facilitated some of the storytelling effectively. The lighting rig at SOTA Drama Theatre is to be envied. Such a variety of gobos create illusions of so many different surfaces and textures stories could be told upon. There were a couple of hiccups with sound at the performance I watched, but quickly resolved with minimal impact on the presentation.

"A French Kiss in Singapore" really is a lot of fun. An evening of song, dance, storytelling, and a brief history of French music by Sing'theatre turned out to be a lot more entertaining than I had initially expected. The Drama kids chose well for their enrichment outing this year.

AFKS runs at the SOTA Drama Theatre till 7 December 2013.

Down by the riverside

A new long walk route to try: Punggol Waterway Park. NParks has done a terrific job of prettying up the Punggol River. Although it now looks manicured and well-maintained by an army of gardeners, it still retains its authentic swampy, all natural smell.

Such a long stretch of picturesque greenery to traipse along. My route took me from the main car park all the way to the Sunrise Bridge and back along the opposite bank.

Tasha will tell you that the mad not-Englishman was at it again. It's blazing hot today, and he didn't bring enough water. Fortunately, there are public toilets at both ends of the route for a top-up of fresh tap water and a vending machine for cold drinks (the one at the Sunrise Bridge end only accepts old coins, not new). 

Tasha can't resist taking a peek at the river from this end of the Sunrise Bridge. The name suggests that perhaps the best time to walk this route is early morning. Will keep that in mind next time.

Finally back at our starting point, taking a break before crossing the Adventure Bridge back to civilization.

Yes, Tasha deserves a good lunch after all that calorie incinerating exercise.

Me too.

Rain on our parade

Totally underestimated the circumference of Bedok Reservoir. That wouldn't have been a problem, necessarily, except for this torrential downpour... which the weather reports were warning about, but somebody evidently didn't listen. At this point, it's too late to turn back and run for the car. At the same time, it was one heck of a walk to complete the circuit in this crappy weather. In between breaks of, ahem, extreme humidity, we ran (ok, brisk walked) from cover to cover, making the 5km distance seem miserably interminable.

By 'we', I mean the dog and me. That's one wet and miserable dog taking shelter with me in the porch of a public toilet awaiting our first break in the weather. It got progressively worse from here on out. Mental note: DO trust the weather forecast next time you're planning an outdoor activity. Thanks.

Coffee, cake and dog

In our quest for more dog-friendly eating establishments, Tasha and I visited PARK at Holland Village. While the staff are very friendly with dogs, perhaps the place still isn't all that well-known to the dog owning public. No other canine friends were around for Tasha to socialize with. Anyway, there is only one table reserved indoors for diners with dog. Dogs and owners are free to sit at any of the outdoor tables. PARK is still working on a menu for pets, but for the moment, it's food for humans only.

My craving was initially for cake and coffee, but this appetizer of a portobello mushroom topped with a mound of crabmeat, Parmesan and alfalfa was too tempting to pass over.

An iced latte was refreshing in the warm, humid afternoon.

This wasn't the cake I had in mind, either; but I'm a sucker for banana pancakes. If it's on the menu, I have to try it. I like the thick stack of pancakes sandwiching slices of slightly scorched bananas, but I could have done without the caramelizing on the topmost banana slices: too sweet for my teeth. The a la mode vanilla ice cream was a nice counter as it had the full flavour of vanilla (including the little black dots of real vanilla) without being too sweet.

 And, of course, the dog who is happy to be out and about in the afternoon, sniffing new smells and sampling bits of banana from the pancake.

Tasha visits GBB

Another nice day for a walk. GBB is setting up a tropical Christmas backdrop for seasonal photo ops.

Oy! Tasha the photobomber.

GBB has quite a few of these odd, scenic touches which can only be improved by the presence of a dog.

Next time, I'll remember to carry some treats with me so that I can get her to focus on the camera and not on whatever's behind my shoulder.

Long walk: by dog

I Tasha! Erm, no, I mean, 'Anonymous'! I taking over my stupid human owner's blog to protest my mistreatment!!!

Stupid owner taking me on a loooong walk. His idea was to walk from Kent Ridge Park to the Henderson Waves. We got lost once, retraced our steps then found out that the path was right all along! Extra 2 km added to a 12 km route.

Henderson Waves at midday. No shade! Only mad Englishmen and dogs go out in the noonday sun. My owner is not an Englishman, but he is mad.

Oh, my Dog! Crossed the bridge -- for no purpose! Then crossed back. Why???

Yay! Water break!

The Forest Walk is very high. If you look down, it's so scary! But where my stupid owner walks, I must follow anyway. Stupid pink leash.

Finally! Back at the Hort Park. Five minutes to rest and drink more water at the pool. I not liking pools. Places where they have more water than I can drink is scary.

 Ah! The reward for a long walk is a fat sirloin steak, medium-rare at the Colbar which welcomes dogs like me!

Aaa...! This is my biggest complaint! My stupid owner so stingypoke! Ate the whole plateful and only left me three tiny beef cubes of lean meat. Even the gravy he cleaned off first! Haiz.

Total walking distance: 14.1 km. I have proof! I never walk so far in all my life!

And who sleeping in my comfy bed while I was out??? Ah, me, such a tough life, I having!

Occasion for cake

A bit belated, but Tasha celebrated her first birthday today with this pretty made-for-pets cheesecake May brought back from Japan. Don't ask me what it tasted like because it wasn't meant for human consumption.

Ask her.

Or him.

It was a pretty cake... while it lasted.

Stanley, Stanley, quite contrary

How to describe "The Stanley Parable"? The format is that of a first-person... not a shooter, but a walkabout while attempting to interact with... things. So although it plays like a game, it's more like an interactive story that is so totally immersive that player (you) and playable character (Stanley) are virtually indistinguishable from each other -- as long as the player accepts the narrative. The narrative is provided by the male narrator's voice who tries to tell the story, but ether the story doesn't cooperate; or the narrator breaks the fourth wall to interact directly with the player/Stanley; or you/Stanley may decide not to follow the narrative and do things your way instead. "Do things", however, is a sticky point because if you don't follow the narrative, what exactly do you do? Without a narrative, there is no objective to strive for and accomplish other than, what? Escape? Survive? Walk around until something happens?

The bizarre audio-graphical experience (I can't call it either a game or a story) is ultimately a story about itself, entirely self-referential, and a running commentary about the rules and conventions of the first-person game. It's an entirely linear path that branches with every decision (for or against the narrative) with no way to go back -- doors literally close behind you -- until you come to one end or another. Because of the number of decisions you could make along the way, there are a huge number of ends you can experience (I probably haven't experienced them all yet) but each end leads to a fresh new beginning right at the start of the narrative and the promise of a new ending at the end -- if you do something different from the previous time. Maybe.

Maybe the player's objective is to experience all the possible endings, good or bad? Or maybe the objective is to finally understand the parable and turn understanding into action? Or maybe there isn't any objective at all, whether you follow the narration or not, and just explore the frustratingly familiar but strange environment of Employee 427 like a virtual Ambrose in Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse". Around, and around, and around.

In any case, after I had my fill of the game, I took the dog for a walk, nearly started a conversation with a cute girl I met on the street about her shi-tzu but didn't invest more time beyond saying a polite "hi!", and went home to fold the laundry. Decisions, decisions...

Walk this way

Look at my gaggle of ducklings, taking a long morning stroll through the park for a good cause. For each kilometer walked, NTUC will donate a corresponding kilogram of rice to the needy per participant. In this annual Walk-for-Rice event, our planned route was 8km long (my GPS tracker counted 9.7km to be exact), so my little flock should have amassed 288kg of rice in total at least.

Personally, I've been training for this event. My asthma's been making a comeback so I figured I'd better not be unprepared. For the past week or so, I've been walking 4km twice a day around the neighbourhood. The exercise has been doing me a world of good. Since I started, I've been able to breathe again. The trade-off: a couple of awesome blisters from all that walking. Worth it, I guess.

Back in circulation

The old Samsung SIII has a new lease of life. The previous charging problems it had seems to have been resolved by replacing the original USB micro-B cable with a borrowed Blackberry one. Also borrowed are an external battery charger and a couple of extra batteries for additional support.

As for the battery drain problem, turning off most of the automatic notifications -- which involves logging out of the apps themselves -- now keeps the thing running a whole day before needing an overnight recharge.

The reason why the SIII is back in action is because the wife's iPhone crashed after installing the latest iOS 7 update and is now in permanent Recovery Mode. In the meantime, I'm learning to love the new Note 3.

Goodbye, Papa!

F-i-L checked out last Saturday morning. His demise is the closest I've ever come to the loss of an immediate family member. While not entirely involved with the legalities and procedures therein, I was mostly a witness to the proceedings, service support to the bereaved and somewhat of a participant in the sending-off rituals that lasted the past five days.

"Somewhat of a participant" is because there is a little awkwardness when two families that profess different religions are united in marriage. Both religions make it a point to honour our parents and it is on this basis that mutual respect for both parties is facilitated. As a family member, there are certain ceremonial obligations that have to be performed in a traditional Chinese funeral. It helped that our funeral director had experience in these matters and was able to advise on what was necessary and what was could be waived for a potato-eater like me.

I didn't have to participate in the evening chanting services, so I sat with the other guests to listen and watch. Although the unfamiliar ritualistic vocalizations might have scared me as a child, I learned to appreciate the subtle harmonies and the complex, yet gentle percussive rhythms that combined to create a calming and peaceful effect on the emotions, and focus reflective, prayerful thoughts towards our dear departed.

My specific duties as son-in-law was to provide this flower and fruit basket as a token of my regard and esteem towards my father-in-law:

and also to sponsor the band that played before the last rites and accompanied our procession behind the hearse as we made our way to the cremation:

Papa, who so loved to travel is now on the ultimate trip. He will be missed.