A Sianing Interview (2)

Went for an interview at a market research company today, and had lunch with Ah Ping. Nice Ah Ping's treat at Han's! But the food was salty. I hate Tanjong Pagar, it is so crowded. I hate seeing so many people during lunch time, and I dread shoving and squeezing with more people on public transport during peak hours. And I don't know if I am dreaming, but it seems to be perenially hazy and raining over there.

The company was small and the interviewer NEVER smiled. I felt intimidated by him, but even more by the job. I hate OT and working on weekends, but the job requires staying late to meet deadlines, though not as copious as the OT at RP. There is also a two-year bond, which upon broken before the stipulated deadline, I will be liable to pay a penalty.

Sigh. If only I can have a simple life without having to work.

Dinner at Pearl River Palace

Went with Slugs to meet Bong to pass her her long-due birthday present. BoBo (and her controversial gf) also appeared from nowhere to say hi to Slugs and me. After scouring the whole of Suntec for a place to have dinner and not being able to fancy any restaurant, we finally had the courage to go to Pearl River Palace for their Cantonese a-la-carte buffet dinner.

The restaurant interior was really clean and posh, with Chinese orchestra tunes playing softly to add a classy Chinese feel to the place. It was quiet as there were few patrons, and they were all formally-dressed working executives, so we, decked out in jeans and slippers, were feeling rather conscious. Nevertheless, we were well-served, and that included the waiter unfolding the table napkins and placing them on our laps. The captain also took our orders with duly attentiveness and patience.

Monk Jumps Over the Wall (MJOW) and Peking Duck were first served, and we realised they were not stingy with their premium ingredients. The MJOW packed a wallop, with an abundance of dried scallops, shark fins and even two whole abalones. The Peking Duck was GOOD, but we were only given two slices each. (A whole Peking Duck will be given for a minimum of six diners).

We then ordered dishes that included poached live prawns, broccoli with crab meat, steamed sea bass in Cantonese style (fresh!), fried scallops on bread, roast meat platter, oatmeal prawns, sea cucumber and fish maw in claypot, winter melon bisque with dried scallops, stir-fried ee-fu noodles, fried prawns in taro and braised duck in claypot. We wanted to order more dishes, but we realised that the heavy dishes came in HUGE portions. The winter melon bisque filled six bowls, and the ee-fu noodles looked like they were meant for five mouths. I tried my best to finish two bowls of the bisque while Slugs dealt with the remaining four bowls. We were in agony as we were already very full but we tried to finish everything on our table.

Clockwise from bottom left: roast meat platter, wintermelon bisque, ee-fu noodles, taro prawns, fried scallop on bread, and claypot sea cucumber

I had to free up some stomach space (I shall skip the details of the painful process) for dessert. There were bubor char char, chilled mango with pomelo and sago, cheng teng, red bean cakes, mango pudding, guilin gao and some others that I was not very interested in. The coconut sauce of the bubor char char was thick and fragrant!

Service was great! The food was served within 10 minutes of ordering. The servers were ever ready to pounce on our table and clear away empty plates. Slug's personal plate got changed 7 times over the whole course of dinner. It was like, if his plate was just replaced and he accidentally dropped a few prawn shells on it, it would be replaced immediately with a sparkling new plate again. Their tenacity to ensure our personal plates remain clean is commendable but scary. Pity the dishwasher.

When the bill came, my hands wavered and I blanched. Coke was $5 per glass and we were charged $3 for a plate of so-called 'pickles' (actually it was sze chuan vegetable shreds) that we never touched. We left the restaurant $90 poorer, but as suckers for Cantonese cuisine, we were satisfied to know the ingedients and cooking were well-worth the money.

Our Love Affair with Cats

I have a favourite stray cat in Jurong West. Her name is Mi Mi. She is an adorable grey cat with black stripes and white paws. She is always found lazing around at the void deck and benches. Slug and I love her to bits.

Mi Mi

This picture really does not do her justice because she looks so evil here. But anyway, it was late at night and as usual, we spotted her sleeping on the bench and so we went over to play with her. I would bear-hug her and fling her around, but she would just have this indifferent expression on her face. That is what makes her cute.

Suddenly, an auntie came by and exclaimed "There you are!". Mi Mi leapt off my lap and dashed towards her. Another cat also appeared from nowhere, and the two of them were soon sniffing the auntie's legs because they knew that she was going to feed them. So while she was feeding them canned food, we struck up a conversation. Unbeknownst to us, there is actually a fraternity of cat-lovers (read: kind aunties) in the neighbourhood who will take good care of the strays. They will meet up to do a headcount on the cat population, and assign each member to be in charge of certain strays, depending on which block they live in. If one of them happens to fall in love with a kitty and decides to bring it to her house for permanent stay, she has to inform the rest so that they will not panic when kitties start to go missing in the neighbourhood. Besides feeding the strays at their own expense, the cat-lovers will maintain stringent checks on the cat headcount and health, protect them from The Bully (a large mangy black-and-white cat which intimidates unwary cats with his ambush and snarling), and even bury cats that get run over by cars. If this kind of organizational network centered around cats isn't impressive enough, kudos to one Malay auntie who feeds strays all the way from Boon Lay to Jurong East daily. Slug and I emerged from this conversation totally bewildered. Shouldn't these people be laureated for their charitable efforts!

As I wonder how middle-aged women get so fascinated over strays, let me bring the focus back to home. My mother would make a respectable member in that kind of Cat Committee with her laudable efforts in rescuing cats, feeding cats and even bringing cats for sterilisation and clinical visits. These apply to every cat in our block. Her personal favourites are Meow Meow and Mini. Both are daily visitors to my house for afternoon naps, baths, tea time, and medication time.

Meow Meow

Mini

As I wonder how even my mother gets so fascinated over strays, let me take the focus to my aunties. 4th Aunt adopted three stray cats from the neighbourhood, and now has two staying in her house. The third one is a pigeon serial killer who only comes when she feels like it. Ah Ma is always missing Mini, and thoroughly enjoys her company when watching television. 6th Aunt also cannot resist playing with Mini. Now 3rd Aunt is also gaga over the stray cat at her workplace. I start to suspect it runs in our family.

May those screwed-up beasts who hang cats and starve dogs burn in Hell for eternity.

Watching 'Helen the Baby Fox'

Went to watch 'Helen the Baby Fox' at Cineleisure with Slugs. Embarrassingly, we got freaking lost there. We bought tickets, and were playing games at the arcade when we suddenly realised that the movie was starting. We did not even know our theatre was on the 9th floor (since when was there a 9th floor?), and the lifts were a freaking long wait. So as we played around with the lifts, we missed a jolly ten minutes of the movie.

Aside from the adorable shots of the protagonist, Helen, and the scenic views of the countryside, the movie also looks into social and humanitarian issues, like the adverse effects of divorce and maternal negligence on children, and euthanasia versus the will to live. Pretty educational, I would say. Anyway, there are some really moving scenes, like Helen finally being able to call out for its owner, but in the end, Helen still died. It was sooooo sad.

So sad that when the movie ended and everyone was streaming out of the theatre, there was one lady who was bawling her heart out while her friends were trying hard to comfort her. I thought I was sappy enough to sniff at the touching scenes, but apparently she took the ending REALLY seriously.

Sigh, Slugs and I fell in love with n.y.d.c's Solid Gold, which is a plain cheesecake slice topped with a layer of chocolate fudge, accompanied by a large scoop of chocolate ice-cream sprinkled with chocolate chips and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Decadent.

Children to the zoo

Necks showed me the pictures of his darling childcare children, who all went for an excursion to the zoo last Thursday. Notice that Euan is, as usual, in his own world. He just refused to cooperate for the group photo. One of the twins was crying because he wanted to mount the plastic cow outside Ben & Jerry's. The other twin was giving his most photogenic look.

Di Di (at the most front), and a dazed Euan (sitting on the platform)

A sobbing Kor Kor (at the back, in front of the teacher in the blue shirt)

A commotion that distracted everyone

A totally distracted Euan