Ah, that's more like it

The first day of Lunar New Year looks more like the sort of reunion dinner we had at Lorong Terigu 20 years ago. Everybody is present and nobody had any excuses for being absent. The day started at 3rd Aunt's house. We had a late lunch there. 3rd Aunt's cooking is superb. I love her stir-fried celery with mushrooms, chicken and well, mushroom(other type). Then, we shifted to 1st Aunt's house, which is a block away. 

The food there was sumptuous no less. I never had so much beehoon (rice vermicelli) in a day. But I gladly gave up the rice for beehoon because I can almost guarantee the quality just because they are my aunts' cooking. But my vote goes to the red wine ferment chicken. It is a new creation since the demise of my grandmother. Nonetheless, 1st Aunt brought back memories of her with the braised sea cucumber with mushroom and other what-have-you-s.

I look forward to more good food come this weekend.

Lunar New Year

The reunion new year last night was not going at full strength. There were 4 apologies for absence from 4 aunts. Only 5th Aunt and 6th Aunt were present. 1st to 5th Uncle reported without fail. The food theme this year is Dumpling. I've ate scores of dumplings this season. Meat filling, cabbage filling, chives filling and what have you. Last years 'in' thing was the basin vegetable, which is actually, vegetable in a basin, quite literally.

2 days ago, I also ate at the Central Warehouse's reunion dinner. The food, though served by some unknown small caterer, was, by far, the best I've eaten at a banquet, including all the competitors from hotel restaurants. No sharksfin, good, but why did they take our my favourite cold dish combination? The foreign workers who are not returning to their homeland were happy to have a reunion dinner of some sorts, although I believe they rather be at home. But I think they would feel a bit of consolation with that dinner. So much so that when I sneaked some food back to my office for Baskaran, I stumbled upon one who was dead drunk on the floor. From a distant, I though the silhouette belonged to a fallen palm tree branch, but on observation of the surrounding, there was no palm tree around and I moved closer to discover a chinese man lying in his own pond of puke. I gestured to a nearby man who just exited the toilet, and he merely gestured back, suggesting, "Leave him". I went back to get a pail of water to wash away his pond of 'essence'. By the time I returned, the man sat up and some of his comrades were coming. Oh, Baskaran finished one braised trotter himself; Rose got a duck head, Apple and Daisy got some duck meat, Nini ate her NutriEdge.

Today, the first day of new year, we would be visiting 3rd Aunt at her house. I suspect we would be shifting base to 1st Aunt's house which is a block adjacent. It used to be my grandparents house we would visit, but since their departure, we have moved to visiting aunts and uncles.

Kopi-Soh

I was laughing inside when I heard Martian talking over the phone today. Her grandson was running a fever and was hospitalised. The doctor said that the baby was too tightly and heavily dressed, and hence, causing the fever. But Martian was not happy because she thinks that all she has been doing is for the good of her grandson and all her methods are the most orthodox. She called a friend and spoke to her at great length about what the doctor said and dissing the daughter-in-law for suggesting that the baby should be bathed thoroughly when Martian thought that a short shower will suffice. She then carry on to personifies herself as a doctor, saying that the baby got a fever because he caught a cold (for wearing too little, of course) and not because of overdressing. What a rhetoric!

Kopi-soh is a gem. She is the best customer service personnel any coffee shop could ask for. Yue Hua Eating House is located at Depot Road and this is where Kopi-soh works. I have, for a couple of times, experienced the excellent service of Kopi-soh. She is a big sized lady with thunderous voice and wears a waist pouch. Her modus operandi usually goes this way:

1. In a sweet voice, she would ask, "Hello, 要喝水嗎？"

2. The patron would order a drink, say 2 x Teh-C, 1 x Kopi-o, 1 x Hot Barley

3. Then here comes the show, in a thunderous voice, she would project her order, across the hall if she must, towards the drinks counter, "啊來！Teh-C sua! Kopi-O! Barley sio!"

And she would repeat for a few tables before making her way to the counter to pick up her order shouted earlier on.

In this era where almost every aspect of operation religiously takes after Taylorism - see Mos Burger - it is this personal, yet effective way of working that makes dining such a much more interesting experience.

Hairy Encounters

Two days ago, while I was looking at my guys doing some set up at a food manufacturing factory in Woodlands, I walked by this dying rat. The rat is near the last few minutes of his life. It must have been the work of the Rentokil rodent bait. I felt sad, yet I could not do anything. It may sound fake, but I have this special affinity with rodents since young. Probably due to the excessive socialisation and conditioning that has made thought that I am somewhat linked to the rodents for being born in the year of the Rat, which happens to be ending at this point I am typing. I left Mr Rat to breathe his last, for I could not bear to see him slowly waste to a lifeless carcass.

Today, I went into Truely Asia to have a haircut. As I pass by Segget's corner, I saw this ultra adorable cat. I am drawn to the coat of Ms Seggets because it's the same as Nini, Avenue3 and Ginger.

My friends at Jantzen had to slog till 6pm, Chinese New Year's eve. My heart goes out to them. And I thank Ann, Joey and Ah Lian for their services today.

Smokey Tigers

Operation Secret

Confidential

Mission

TIGERS ARE TO SPEARHEAD AN ASSAULT AT MGR PASIR RIS COSTA SANDS RESORT ON 10TH JANUARY 2009 AT 1700HRS.

Details

MGR: Pasir Ris Costa Sands Resort

D-Day: 10th January 2009 (Saturday)

H-Hour: 1700 Hrs

Confidential

Operation Secret

The operation was a success. If I remembered correctly, this has to be the highest turnout among all the gatherings. Who cares whether the chicken wings still oozed blood, or whether a vegetarian Panda was eating meat, the night was filled with memories of the yesteryears.

Rose, I executed your enemy

I executed a couple of Rose's enemy today, but Rose went a step further, she tried to eat them up. I wonder why is there a saying that decrees dogs and cats to be natural enemy. Apple and Nini the cat got along so well. In fact, fate should make dogs and ticks death rivals. While Apple and Daisy are now more or less rid of ticks problem, Rose remained susceptible to them. Yesterday, I made a special effort to the office to give Rose a shot of Frontline. Perhaps I am too anxious to see the effect, but it had not taken effect yet. Therefore, I manually removed some of the visible ticks and sentenced them to death by the crusher. The crusher being my slippers.

Ugly Martian strikes again

Martian self-proclaimed to be an 'excellent customer service personnel' who loves to goreng with customers and boast of being able to handle any type of customers. I once had a debate with her that we cannot go on pleasing all the customers because ultimately, customers would not care how much discount a company gives, they will go for the cheapest one, with or without discount.

2 days ago, Martian quarrelled with Chris-CD. Pardon me for suffixing, but I recently handled 2 different Chrises and I foresee more of them in the future. Back to the quarrel. I believe that being in the service line, we have to follow certain guidelines when it comes to handling clients. Things like who, what, when, where, why and how (affectionately known as 5 wives and 1 husband) are guidelines, pricing and rates are guidelines, even, if you like, the manner in which one starts a tele-conversation, could be guided by certain scripts. But no matter the degree of conformity to guidelines, the service personnel should, under no circumstance, quarrel with the client. One may disagree with the client, one may feel p!ssed with the client, one may even detest the sound of the client, but the service personnel should just end the call amicably(whatever exits the mouth after the phone slams down remains at the respective sides).

Martian talked crudely to Chris-CD and slammed the phone down before Chris-CD even finish his part. And after which, Chris-CD called me and complained about Martian, which I managed to pacify after a few minutes. Chris-CD is not an unreasonable guy. Martian wasn't in the wrong for calling Chris-CD to inform him about us not receiving the cheque long overdue. But, in my opinion, Martian should have exercised some common sense. If the cheque had not arrived, it could be due to late posting, leading to an extra working day of delay. If she had not applied the 'Chris-CD is a con man' schema, she would have rationally foreseen this delivery lapse. On Chris-CD's part, I could understand the stress on him. Being an operation manager, he did his best to rush the accounts department to churn out our cheque, and other than that, there is not much he could do(not forgetting he still has his roadshow to run). But he had to bear with the continuous bugging from the Martian, it was only natural that he flared up.

Now, I am like Chris-CD's best friend, as far as his relationship with our business is concerned, and I am happy to provide him with any assistance that could be of help to him, just like I helped Chris-Grey at Fairy Point.

我不是不知道 我只是不想說

'華'可能是一號比'馬'更加陰險的角色。雖然我未聽到被告一方的供詞，單據受害者於在旁的有關或無關人士所說，華的確是一個公私不分，蠻不講理，個性固執的傢伙。

‘春’，‘祥’ 於 ‘劍’ 是我遇見過的‘好阿中’。

劍為人隨和，可愛，玩得起。

祥做事認真，勤勞，耿直。

春性格樂天，好玩，機靈，非常受工友喜愛。

兩天前的晚上，‘Taigoh’源的母親逝世，急需搭建帳棚。夜已深，華見這項工程有一定的難度，便指定要春勝任。‘肥’跟我說到，華每次見工程困難，便會指明要春去做，讓春感到非常不爽。而那晚便是沸騰點。春於華便開戰了。華出動‘老闆大炮’，讓春招架不住，也只好含怒上陣。

我雖不備牽連，但也為春感到不平。所以，我在隔日早上對春說了一番鼓勵的話語，讓他知道至少他的努力不是沒人看見的。

Wondering why I am posting in Mandarin? It's a tribute to all my Chinese workers.

Walked down memory lane once more

Last Sunday, I walked the pavement that I once was so familiar with - Cranwell Road. Intentionally, I took bus 19 so that I may alight at Loyang Avenue and walked from the start of Cranwell. Along the way, I saw the changes that have happened and some of which are still happening. The pedestrian walkway, that we once marched, run and walk on, is now resurfaced with an additional running track, and there are a few construction projects going on in the vicinity. What are they building? Fairbairn Sykes now has a few more shrubs as His companions and the block we once dwell in is undergoing expansion. Standby is on, evident from the tonners and the new rovers parked at the side of the square, only now closer to the Sykes than to the blocks.

I have not much time to admire the surrounding because I need to haul-ass to Chris and Melissa wedding's set up. Fairy Point 7 is a nice place and has become increasingly popular with wedding couples. The view is wonderful and best of all, it is close to home.

Reward myself on New Year

Yesterday, I went to work as usual, for it is pay day and I did not want to delay the payment of my colleagues' pay. I went off at 2:30pm and then went out again. Sea Monkey and I decided to go into Johor Bahru for a spin.

We went to a pet shop and I got a big pack of chews and a harness to walk rose, before ending up at the fish farm. It was my first time there and I am delighted to see many dogs and a couple of puppies. I agreed to Sea Monkey's request to open the pack of chews and the doggies had a wonderful time chewing on them.

Later on, it's eating time and I shall let the pictures do the talking.

Public Servant are the 'best'

I came across this poster numerous times until I decided to take a snap of it. I do not blame them for not having a design they can boast of, but at the very least, please do a spell and grammar check before putting up something that even a primary school kid can better.